#was scooby doo at its PEAK

[nefarious-wallflower]

I listen to this unironically

[vaniloqu3nce]

I know everyone hates Velma show for obvious and valid reasons but you have to give credit where credit is due! While the writers clearly don’t care about the original source material at all, you have to admit the animators put in a lot of work and heart for such a shit show. Some of those scenes are animated so well done and smooth. Animations is incredibly difficult, I can hardly draw stick figures.

Can you imagine working so hard on something knowing the internet is going to hate it? Like I hope they’re getting paid enough for this 😭

I think Alex Meyers made some amazing points about the animations in his video that I whole heartedly agree with and wish people talked more about! I know the show shits on EVERYTHING we adore about Scooby Doo, but I feel bad for the animators man. Some of this stuff is just downright beautiful and this talent is being literally wasted by people who do not care. It’s gotta suck.

Alex shows a scene of the show that look genuinely visually amazing in his video covering it. Can you imagine if these animators were given good material? Missed opportunity for sure, we NEED more good animated shows with the way streaming services are treating our poor animators.

[cobragardens]

Aziraphale's Ascot: An Analysis

What's most interesting to me about the ascot Aziraphale is wearing when he turns up in Crowley's car in 1967 is that it's very fashionable.

An ascot (American), or day cravat (British), is a band of material meant to be worn inside the shirt collar, terminated on each end with a long wide tongue of that same fabric.

The band goes around the back of the neck, and the tongues are tied in the front and tucked into the open neck of a collared shirt. An ascot displays a wide sweep of color just below the wearer's face to flatter their complexion and show their personality.

And the late 1960s was the ascot's peak of popularity. The Duke of Windsor wore them; the mods wore them; British Invasion bands wore them. Fred wears an ascot in the Scooby-Doo cartoons. Lance Corporal Shadwell wears one. They were a huge trend.

On the surface this doesn't seem like Aziraphale at all. His previous appearances indicate his stylishness in ancient Rome is merely serendipitous overlap of Roman fashion with his personal preferences for white robes, blond hair in a Brutus cut, and gold wing-themed jewellery. In 1601, 1793, 1941, and all contemporary scenes, his style is decades to more than a century off the fashion of its time. We know he's into bow ties by 1941, and he's hardly one to adopt a style merely because it's popular; so why the ascot in 1967?

One possible explanation is that Aziraphale misses the clothing of the Victorian period and leaps at the chance to wear something that harks back to a time when he felt at home, sartorially speaking.

I don't think that's it, though, at least not in Show Omens. For one thing, traditional ascot ties (what a British person would call an ascot or an ascot tie, rather than a day cravat) are not at all the same accessory as the ascots of the 1960s: they're formal rather than semi-casual daywear; they're made of thicker silk, often with a woven rather than printed pattern; and they're worn outside the shirt and collar. More importantly, we've got two scenes of Aziraphale in the Victorian period, and he's not wearing an ascot tie in either of them: he's wearing a long cravat tied in a wide bow, a precursor to his bow ties.

I therefore propose a different explanation for the ascot of 1967.

As Aziraphale has clearly never been anywhere near a polyester fibre in the whole of his celestial existence, and as he always affects an appearance of idle hereditary wealth, we must presume that this--

--is silk. (In fact in the 1960s, a silk ascot in light colors was a signal of upper-class status.)

And we know Aziraphale likes silk, because by 2023 he's been wearing a silk velvet waistcoat for 200 years.

I again advance the argument that, despite himself, Aziraphale is a voluptuary by nature: a person who directs their energies toward the pursuit and enjoyment of pleasure, especially (but not solely) sensual pleasure.

He can control his appearance at will, and yet he has a barber; that means he enjoys the pleasure of a haircut and maybe a hot shave. (I have similar suspicions about his manicured hands.) The barber has recommended new cologne, which means Aziraphale has an old cologne, which means he likes to smell beautiful scents. He eats for sensual pleasure. He drinks for sensual pleasure (much more so than Crowley, who drinks for the pleasure and escape of inebriation). He listens to music for sensual pleasure. He attends the theater for pleasure. Reading is as much a sensual pleasure inside your own head as it is intellectual self-stimulation (which is its own kind of pleasure in turn); and believe me, collecting books is as much a sensual pleasure as a logistical and a philosophical one.

Aziraphale even agrees to an Arrangement with a demon to give himself more spare time for his pursuit of human pleasures. And then he and the demon become friends, because what could be a greater pleasure than indulging yourself in the good company of someone clever and kind and beautiful, who flirts with you and tells wicked jokes you mustn't laugh at--except perhaps for the pleasure of making that person smile in return?

Fun fact: The silk of which casual ascots are made is finer than the silk of either traditional ascot ties or neckties, because ascots/day cravats are made to be worn inside rather than outside the collar.

In 1967, instead of his usual crisp bow tie around his usual tightly buttoned collar, Aziraphale wears an open collar and a day cravat because the fashion of the 1960s lets him keep silk against his skin.

And there's one other thing, too. Compare Aziraphale's ascot to Lance-Corporal Shadwell's, or to the standard ascot knot:

The edge of Azirapale's ascot sits below the edge of his shirt collar where it should sit above, and the cascade spills almost an inch in front of his Adam's apple instead of flush against his neck. Aziraphale has tied his ascot low and loose.

It allows him to bare more of his throat to Crowley than has been sanctioned by custom for 2,000 years.

How long after Aziraphale reverted to bow ties did Crowley think about that?

[iguinn]

honestly if u made a Scooby doo concept reboot where theyre all old but dont include Scooby because hes a dog and dogs dont live forever, fuck u. make him a ghost or something cause wouldnt it be funny if they spent so many years ghost hunting but never found any actual ghosts and then they do find one and its the dog. peak comedy!

[nyktomorphia]

Previously in the Night Land bestiary: Night Hounds, Giants, Silent Ones, 14-Legged Beast, Doorways in the Night, Slug.

Brute-men are one of the many abhuman variants, predictably combining human and [rand_animal] features into a grotesque appearance, and I'm really only separating them until I inevitably run out of things to say about them. The brute-men stand out, however, because the Night Land is not their only appearance in William Hope Hodgson's bibliography. (I know I've made several jokes at the expense of The Night Land's writing style, but the rest of his work is much more readable.)

First, there's Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Hodgson's occult detective series and an early prototype of the subgenre that includes everything from Twin Peaks to Scooby-Doo. While J. S. Le Fanu's Dr. Martin Hesselius came first (by several decades), Thomas Carnacki is notable for the fact that he doesn't know whether a case is preternatural or mundane until he puzzles it out along with the reader. One of Carnacki's later adventures begins with a client reporting nightmares of squealing pigs, whom Carnacki is concerned to find is acting increasingly porcine himself. Carnacki's sleep experiments turn unexpectedly perilous when they reveal his client's dreams are being pushed ajar by the Hog, a primordial Outer Monstrosity using them to crawl its way back into the world.

Closer to The Night Land is The House on the Borderland, another novel framed as a found document. The narrator is an aged recluse, who lives with his sister in an old haunted house on a cliff, which begins giving him visions... transported across unfathomable depths of space, he finds his house again, jade-green and colossal in a dim red landscape but otherwise identical. Surrounding it is an arena or crater surrounded by a circle of mountains. Among these mountains are the ancient shapes of human and alien gods, immobile and immortal. Beyond the mountains is an endless plain of silence. In the sky above is a sun as black as the night sky, illuminating this place with a corona of dim red flames. And outside the house are pig-faced beast-men, peering inside and probing the locks and hunting him when they become aware of his presence. They are still outside his house when his vision ends.

Remembering that the Night Land is also a vast dark landscape, where the Last Redoubt is surrounded by mountains and the titanic Watchers which creep glacially towards it... among its other features is a place called the House of Silence, an ornate mansion that glows from within. (Its doors are unlocked, and its windows open, and no movement is ever seen inside. No one has ever emerged.) Although the Borderland is at the end of space and the Night Land at the end of time, their parallels are obvious, but their significance uncertain. And the swine-things haunt them both.

[feyariel]

Fey's Cartoon RueViews: Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated

It only took forever, but I've finally completed all of my work and can now RueView Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated!

The short of it: I kinda get why Tumblr recommends this, but I do not. It's bad. It takes too much commitment to get to the good parts and is otherwise quite bad (especially when it comes to the characters). It wants to be both Scooby Doo! and a combination of Twin Peaks, H.P. Lovecraft, and other supernatural horror, but in trying to do both it fails. If you want Twin Peaks, watch Twin Peaks; if you want Scooby Doo!, watch a different Scooby Doo! series.

Spoilers ahead.

Mystery Incorporated tries to give itself a "myth arc"/overarching mystery. It's...odd.

We start with an idea that there is a cursed treasure buried under Crystal Cove, the show's setting. This has something to do with the conquistadors who founded the town.

As the show progresses, we learn that there is an artifact called the Planispheric Disc, which was created by the Spaniards as a sort of mystical map leading to the location of the cursed treasure. The disc has been broken up into six pieces; the plot gradually starts focusing on them as they are discovered. It turns out much later that it first must show the location of four elemental keys, which can then be used to open portals that kinda-sorta lead to the elemental planes (I say "kinda-sorta" because Water and Earth seem to belong to the same plane), with the cursed treasure being the Elemental Plane of Fire.

The so-called "cursed treasure" is, in fact, the Evil Entity -- an Anunnaki (as in ancient astronauts) who is bent on destroying and devouring everything (so Tharizdun/Rovagug/etc.). In this continuity, the Anunnaki are incorporeal beings from another dimension who can interact with Earth while the planets (including Nibiru) align once every few thousand years; even then, they "must" possess animals to do so,* resulting in some of Earth's ancient gods. They are responsible for two things: sealing the Evil Entity away in a crystal sarcophagus (like you do) and being the ancestors of all talking animals in the series.

Yeah.

The Evil Entity's actions are shown to be entirely in the Americas, specifically the Yucatan and southern California, even though the sarcophagus is clearly Egyptian. For some reason, though it should have been sealed away on the Elemental Plane of Fire millennia prior, all four elemental keys are conquistador artifacts (a sailcloth, a piece of flint in a flintlock pistol, a bowl, and a helmet).

Anyway, the Evil Entity is responsible for:

The majority of the mystery and evil going on in Crystal Cove thanks to greed relating to the (nonexistent) cursed treasure.

From that, specifically driving a bunch of conquistadors (specifically the ones who founded Crystal Cove) to do absolutely abominable things.

The formation of one mystery solving group after another -- always in groups of five with one animal and four humans° -- to free it from its prison (whether they want to or not).

#2 results in the conquistadors feeling great guilt and so doing everything they can to hide the cursed treasure (etc.) away. Thanks to the Evil Entity's manipulations, the animal member of the then-current group is also responsible for sinking the original Crystal Cove under the sea. (No, it doesn't make sense one way or another: the submerged Crystal Cove is in the midnight zone [3000-13,000 ft. below sea level and in the open ocean] and was sunk via several set charges of gunpowder [remember, this is before dynamite existed] triggering an earthquake; since there were not supposed to be any survivors, it doesn't make sense that the modern Crystal Cove would claim to have been the successor to that town, let alone have an English name.)

Almost all of this is season two.

Season one alludes to other goings on, but only barely. It is half about a monster of the week (as is season two) and half about...shipping.

I want to posit that Scooby Doo! as a franchise can only have the following three options for the relationship dynamics of Mystery, Inc., with the obvious caveat that Scooby and Shaggy are inseparable:

The group is purely platonic.

Daphne is Fred's girlfriend and this is the primary (possibly only) reason she tags along. Note that this doesn't explain the series in which she appears but Fred and Daphne do not.

The group is a polycule, but may as well be platonic because the most sexuality you'll get out of them is subtext.

This, I think, is for good reason: while the Internet in general and Tumblr specifically loves shipping, it can and frequently does get in the way of more pressing (or just good) writing.

Like having a show from the '60s and '70s treat men and women as equals: Fred is the group leader and organizer who helps somewhat with finding clues, while Velma is hands down the one who does most of the mystery solving; Daphne and Shaggy are equally useless -- Daphne usually finds secret passages and such inadvertently (by stumbling into them) and Shaggy is just a duplicate of Scooby.

To the extent that the characters had personalities before this show, they're ruined here -- especially by the shipping:

Fred is obsessed with traps first and mystery-solving in general. It's almost a hyperfocus for him.

Daphne is obsessed with Fred. Season one makes her crush semi-unrequited and never requited to her tastes (leading to standard non-jokes about the sexes) until Fred breaks off their engagement at the end of the season finale. Fred spends some time trying to win her back during season 2, which starts with her refusing and moves to her being reticent. It's development, but not in a way that matters.

Shaggy is as cowardly as ever, which leads to major drama.

Velma is toxic. The show begins with her and Shaggy in a clandestine relationship; Shaggy doesn't want Scooby to know. Velma is, of course, jealous, so eventually demands that Shaggy choose between her and the dog. This serves no real purpose: we know he's going to pick Scooby and anyone can tell you that you shouldn't date someone who makes you choose between them and a pet or your best friend. But it gets worse: not only does Velma do this and hold a grudge about it for the rest of the series, but she tries to change everything about Shaggy (eating habits, mode of dress, speech, etc.) before he breaks it off. He even lets her down gently. In the meantime, Velma is vain, condescending, and sarcastic in ways that aren't funny. She eventually starts showing hints that she's a lesbian (as was apparently the intention), but by this point she's become the worst character on the show.

Scooby tries to take a level in badass. It doesn't work.

The characterization is just one of the many ways the show tries not to be Scooby Doo!, but still wants to be it. Every episode has chase sequences, but only one has the classic Scooby Doo! chase sequence (in one door, out another in a random order); even with these chase sequences, the characters don't move in ways that convey their different body styles and personalities until a single shot in the series finale. Whenever they unmask someone, they're all surprised (usually) by who it is and it is the villain of the week who reveals the details of what went down, rather than Velma and Fred establishing how it all happened; Velma or Fred may or may not relate what led to figuring out who the villain was, but it will lack most of the mystery genre clue-gathering and interviewing that the rest of the franchise does. (The most consistent thing is having someone deliver the "you meddling kids" line.) Allusions to previous series are frequently negative (like Shaggy and Scooby hating vegetarian food; Casey Kasem, the OG voice of Shaggy [consistent until this series, in which he cameos as Shaggy's dad], was a vegan and had a major blow up about Shaggy advertising for Burger King in the '90s, leading to an eight-year hiatus voicing him). Scooby Snacks are barely mentioned, rather than being a once-an-episode bribe.

Like, Scooby Doo! is half comedy, half mystery. It does this well by having minimal characterization of the main cast. The amount of time this show spends on other stuff leads to the basics falling to the wayside. The show's jokes are for the most part poor, but it still tries to be a comedy.

In short, Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated wants to be too many things, fails at integrating them into a cohesive whole, and ends up ruining its characters in the process.

*The one we see at present does possess a dog. Others in the past include the furry-esque Egyptian deities, a dragon, and a fully humanoid deity of unknown extraction.

°Up until the reveal of a group of Spanish monks being a predecessor group, it's established that every group has two men, two women, and an animal mascot. Indeed, apart from the monks, only one other group deviates from this pattern -- the cowboy-themed Mystery Gang, which is made up of four women and Tiny the bull. The show never explains why the Evil Entity does this, nor does it connect the mystery solving group members to the other obvious set of four things (the elements).

[twofrontteethstillcrooked]

Suptober 30 Oct.: Fingers

Cas peaked around the laptop screen. "Oh, you found the fingers."

deancas, established relationship au; 3 scenes from Halloweentime (one of them lemon flavored, ahem)

i.

"Cas?" Dean threw his arm across the mattress and encountered no resistance. He opened his eyes with great reluctance. "Cas?" he called out more loudly.

"I'm in the kitchen," Cas called back.

Dean found this to be less than ideal, but rolled over, sat up, and swung his feet onto the ice cold floor. Yipped and grimaced. Leaned over to feel around for his Scooby Doo slipper socks. Put them on and stood up awkwardly. Stretched up up up and felt his skeleton crackle and pop in multiple places like a bowl of rice krispies. 

At the little round table in their little yellow kitchen, Cas was typing something furiously at the laptop Sam had refurbished for him. He looked up and smiled as Dean wandered past towards the coffee pot. 

"I forgot to send Jack the recipe for the spooky eyeball casserole," Cas explained.

Dean took a long sip of scorching hot coffee and started to wake up some. "Put a note in there about how using both black and green olives for the irises on the meatballs provides more visual interest." He read a lot of cooking blogs and they were always saying shit like that.

Cas nodded and kept typing. 

A single ray of sunlight escaped a bank of clouds and illuminated the plastic jack o'lantern sitting on the windowsill, made the orange plastic glow with beckoning malevolence. Dean, after making sure Cas wasn't watching, went over and plunged his hand into the candy within the pumpkin. What was breakfast without a few bites of pure medicinal grade sugar?

His fingers closed around something with a texture so revoltingly squishy he flinched and yanked out his hand. The pumpkin tipped off the window sill and barfed its contents all over the countertop. Dean gawked in horror at the offerings: miniature Snickers, small boxes of grape Nerds, chocolate coins with bats embossed on foil wrappers, and at least a half dozen pale middle and index fingers, fleshily lying there like stunned slugs.

Cas peaked around the laptop screen. "Oh, you found the fingers."

Dean gaped at him in horror. "What the hell are those?"

"They're fake, Dean." Cas closed the laptop. "Claire and I bought them at the novelty store the other day."

"Why?" Dean had not consumed enough caffeine for this.

Cas shrugged. "Claire said tricks are an essential part of trick or treat." 

"But I'm the only one eating candy out of this pumpkin." 

Dean heard his own affronted voice and blinked a couple of times. Was his life now truly so pedestrian, so boringly peaceful, that jokey toys were upsetting? A smile began to form on his mouth before he could prevent it from happening. He sighed in defeat.

Cas kissed his cheek as he reached around him for the coffee pot. 

"Yeah, yeah," Dean muttered, and kissed Cas's temple in return.

ii.

"So we have chicken fingers, fish fingers, zucchini fingers, mozzarella fingers, dill pickle fingers, and, ha ha, lady fingers." Sam gestured at the long folding table theatrically, which suited his black satin cape and weird little fangs. "I think this is the most coherent potluck gathering we've achieved thus far."

"Jack's bringing Claire and they'll add a couple more things, plus the monster toes are still baking," Dean informed him while pouring potato chips into a bowl shaped like a Frankenstein head. 

"What are monster toes?" Sam asked.

"Hot dog nibblets wrapped in crescent roll dough." Dean grinned at Sam's grimace. "You dip them in toe jam."

"Great." Sam, still seeming pained, looked across the living room, now crowded with friends, at the smaller table near the kitchen door. "Are there any non deep fried vegetables in this room right now?"

"Yo," Donna said, waving. She was dressed like an ear of corn. "Although technically I'm also a grain and a fruit." She saluted him with her bottle of beer and went back to talking to Garth, who was wearing an old timey prison uniform like a knockoff Hamburglar. 

Sam waved back weakly.

Dean took pity on him. "There's a veggie tray in the kitchen. And maybe some apples?" He patted Sam on the shoulder. "Knock yourself out."

Sam wandered away. Cas came over with a small crockpot liner full of queso and plonked it down on the table between a bowl of alien-green marshmallow salad (the only salad worth Dean's time) and a basket of freshly baked rolls. A blurp of melted cheese had gotten onto the pad of Cas's thumb and he chose to lick it clean right in front of Dean. 

He caught Dean staring and blushed. This made Dean stare much more.

Cas awkwardly wiped off his thumb with a purple napkin. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Dean said in a low, lecherous tone, leaning nearer. 

The brims of their respective cowboy hats collided before any other part of them could make contact. 

Embarrassing.

iii.

With Eileen and Sam crashing on the pull-out living room couch bed, and Jack asleep in the bedroom right next door, Dean and Cas were having to be quiet. Dean realized how difficult that was, and how unused he was anymore to having to account for thin walls and other folks in close proximity, around the time he bit down on Cas's throat.

He put his hand softly over Cas's mouth too, which did muffle some of the moans Cas couldn't or wouldn't stifle completely on his own. Something about pinning Cas down – no more than Dean actually was pinning him down, since he harbored no delusions about Cas's ability to throw him off if he chose to – carved a line of ecstasy through Dean straight from his head to his feet. Dean left the hand on Cas's mouth for only a moment, long enough perhaps for Cas to have proven he'd behave, and removed it to curl his fingers around Cas's hard cock.

"Hush," Dean said against Cas's mouth as Cas whimpered into the touch. "Let me."

Cas laid back and allowed Dean to find a perfect, punishing rhythm, exactly the one Cas preferred to use on himself – and oh, Dean thought, I need to see that again soon.

"I can't," Cas whispered, tossing his head on the pillow and sounding uncertain about what he couldn't do.

Dean rose up just enough to kiss his mouth again and again, their tongues slipping against one another as his fist stayed tight and as Cas's cock felt heavy and silky and terribly sweet in his grip. "Do you need me to use some lube?" he whispered.

Cas bucked up into Dean's fist and shook his head, eyes on Dean until the tipping point of pleasure forced them close, his throat bared and Dean gentling him down off the orgasm's white-hot edge. Dean dragged his fingers up through the spill of come on Cas's stomach and sucked them into his mouth while Cas watched, eyes glittering and hungry in the dim light. After a moment Dean wiped his hand off on a discardable blanket and Cas descended on him in another split-second; their kiss was dirty and deliciously bitter, and left Dean gasping as Cas raked his hand into Dean's pajamas.

"On or off?" Cas asked, hand tight around the base of Dean's aching cock. 

"On," Dean said, grinning. "I gotta do laundry tomorrow anyway."

But he'd forgotten how rarely Cas obeyed and was soon divested of the pjs. The bedroom's cool air proved a useful contrast to the furnace of Cas's mouth. When Dean came later into that welcoming wet heat, he flailed for Cas's hand, tangled their fingers together. Afterwards, Cas sprawled on Dean's chest; they breathed together for a long time, Cas falling asleep as Dean traced imaginary protections onto his skin with his fingertips.

[thescoobyscholar]

Like, Wow! The Results (Study)

Followup post to "The History of Zoinks." Includes methods, results, discussion. Page break after the first section.

Methods

This exploratory study will examine how accurately the catchphrases in Scooby-Doo reflect the language of the time. Based on their historical usage, we hypothesize that “jinkies” will be the most commonly occurring phrase, followed by “jeepers,” then “zoinks.”

We sampled the first 25 episodes of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! These episodes aired from September 13, 1969, to October 31, 1970 and make up the first two seasons of the show. The third and final season would not air until 1978 and had different writers, so it was omitted. Qualitative analysis was conducted in NVivo from episode transcripts obtained online. 

Results

The most used catchphrase was “zoinks,” at 87 occurrences across 25 episodes, averaging 3.48 “zoinks” per episode. Some episodes had no “zoinks”, with a notable 3-episode consecutive gap mid-season 1. Overall, “zoinks” usage trended positive; season 1 averaged 3.12 “zoinks” per episode while season 2 averaged 4.25. “Jeepers” was used once and there were no “jinkies”.

In context, Shaggy used “zoinks” as either an expression of shock on its own or paired with a frightful observation (e.g., “Zoinks! It’s the snow ghost!”). Once, in a witch’s hut, it was used as an adjective: “What zoinky labels… ear of a newt?” The first “jeepers” came from Velma, used more as surprise than fear: “Jeepers! Someone’s going into that old mansion” (season 1, episode 6, “What the Hex Going On?”).

Figure 1. Zoinks Frequency in "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?"

Discussion

Results not only contradicted the hypothesis, but all expectations founded by the literature. Despite their cultural relevance, we observed only one count of “jeepers” (not counting the season 2 episode 4 title, “Jeepers, It’s the Creeper”) and no “jinkies." The slow climb of “jeepers” may be attributed to the aforementioned “cultural time capsule” concept. It is an unwritten law of media that it must wait to capture popular culture until a few years too late. Usage of “jeepers” skyrocketed between DeBeck’s comic in 1928 and Donahue’s musical rendition in 1939, peaking in 1946 (Harper, “Etymology of jeepers”). However, despite Scooby-Doo’s monumental ratings, “jeepers” did not jump again until the movie Jeepers Creepers came out in 2001. Although “jinkies” did not appear in these two seasons, we know it would experience a great jump in The New Scooby-Doo Movies whenever Velma loses her glasses, growing to become her exclusive catchphrase in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo when she cooks up a clue. In the sampled episodes, Velma seemed to be struggling to find a catchphrase that stuck, floating between “gosh,” “golly,” and similar expressions. Why it took until three years into Scooby’s run for “jinkies” to first appear is uncertain, as both it and “zoinks” share similar histories as interjections of fright (and flight).  One potential explanation could be the face value of the characters on first airing. Shaggy boasted the voice of radio celebrity Casey Kasem. The writers seemed to enjoy letting him show off his odd audio skills, as in Shaggy’s “ventriloquism act” in the episode “What a Night for a Knight” and every variation of the “disguise as barbers to fool the monster into getting a haircut” scene that warranted a funny voice. Kasem was the first to say “zoinks” (and “zoink,” in one instance), but certainly not the last. In these first two seasons, Shaggy had a clear monopoly on catchphrases; the first “jeepers” even came from him.  The catchphrases in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? do not reflect the vernacular of the time. Rather, they reflect what pumps the lifeblood of Hanna-Barbera cartoons: money (i.e., ratings). To keep the audience hooked, the writers had to put out only the best voicework. Casey Kasem as Shaggy was a bridge between audiences of children enjoying funny voices and adults enjoying a familiar radio personality (and modern folks enjoying a 60’s caricature). He and Scooby embody the spirit of the franchise strongly enough that they have survived through every series that tried to cut out other members of the gang (Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo) or otherwise split them up (Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!). Despite “zoinks” having no direct predecessors in popular culture, Shaggy quickly spread it with his image as irreplaceable icons of the series across 250 episodes and 45 films. Like with Barney Google’s “heebie-jeebies” and Fred Flintstone’s “Yabba-dabba-doo,” it’s not about the linguistic sense of the catchphrase. It’s about the character who delivers it.

*Excluding Velma (2023) on HBO Max, which featured all of the gang but Scooby-Doo. Shaggy endures.

References

Harper, Douglas. “Etymology of jeepers.” Online Etymology Dictionary, 28 Sept. 2017, www.etymonline.com/word/jeepers.

[alphashley14]

One Of Us

A Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated/Mystery Skulls Crossover

Chapter Three

In My Dreams

A few days after the incident at the Haunted Museum, The Mystery Skulls had just left Lewis’ Manor and were on their way to the Burlington Library. Through their investigations through the records of Crystal Cove (and what they already knew from what their source had told them), they’d discovered a reference to another Mystery Incorporated group: The Benevolent Lodge of Mystery. They knew that other groups like theirs had existed in Crystal Cove throughout the town’s history, but this was the third actual concrete example they’d found, the first being the Mystery Fellowship (aka: the Darrow family) and the second being The Fraternitas Mysterium (but their source had already told them enough about them that they didn’t need to do any further investigating). They were hoping to learn more about the Benevolent Lodge of Mystery, and maybe even to find clues about other groups as well. 

“I’m gonna ask you again, Arthur. Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t look right. And the library is still gonna be there tomorrow.” 

“Nah, I’m fine, Vivi. Just… I dunno. I’m just feeling kinda sleepy today.” 

And indeed, it was visible to all of Arthur’s friends that the bags under his eyes were back. But Arthur, who all too often hid his pain from his friends, was vastly underexplaining how he was feeling. The fact of the matter was, he’d felt increasingly over the past couple days as if he was becoming disconnected from his own body, and it had reached its peak this morning. Arthur felt as if he could fall over at any moment ever since he’d gotten out of bed. Not to mention that his whole left side was throbbing - he really needed his meds adjusted, they weren’t working as well as they should.

But he didn’t want to trouble his friends with his issues, and he knew how important this investigation was. And above that, he was afraid of being a burden. Which led him to where he was now, sitting in the back of the van trying not to doze off. 

Unaware of the true nature of their friend’s condition, Lewis was driving and Vivi and Mystery sat in the front with him. “Do you think he’s okay?” Lewis asked quietly. 

“I don’t think he’s as okay as he wants us to think. You know how Arthur is.” Vivi replied in a hushed tone. 

“Maybe it’s his meds?” Mystery suggested. 

“Possibly.” 

“Whatever’s going on with him, the Burlington Library is also a historic home.” Lewis said. “We were planning to spend the night anyway. Maybe when we get there they’ll let him turn in early? Lie down somewhere while we look for clues?” 

“Lewis! LOOK OUT!” Vivi shouted. 

“Oh, SHIT! ” Lewis slammed down on the brakes and the van came to a screeching halt just a foot shy of hitting a rather unusually dressed fellow standing in the middle of the road. His motorcycle sat parked not far off.

Lewis stuck his head out the window. “Hey, what they hell, man? Are you trying to get yourself killed?!” 

“Stand and deliver! I’m the Dandy Highwayman! And this is a robbery.” The man said, pointing his guns at the windshield. 

Lewis, Vivi, and Mystery were not impressed. 

“What’s going on guys, why did we stop?” Arthur asked sleepily, poking his head over the backseat. 

“Apparently we’re about to be victims of a ‘robbery’ .” Vivi explained dryly. 

“Looks like another one of Crystal Cove’s fake monsters.” Said Mystery. 

“What do you guys think? Shall I whip out the bat?” Vivi asked.

“Nah, stay here. I think I’ve got this one.” Lewis said, getting out. 

“Lew, please don’t kill him.” 

“So, what’re you supposed to be? The ghost of the Dread Pirate Roberts?” Lewis asked. 

To be fair, the Highwayman was very smooth in recovering from the initial surprise of failing to intimidate Lewis. He pointed the barrel of one of his weapons directly at Lewis and said, “I believe you fail to understand, my dear fellow. I am the Dandy Highwayman, and this is a robbery. I’ll be taking all of your valuables in this bag, if you don’t mind.”

“Uh-huh. So like… what are you though? A ghost?” 

“My dear lady!” The Highwayman said, walking past Lewis like he was trying to pretend he wasn’t there. He walked up to Vivi’s window. “What a captivating woman. I see an intelligence in those eyes that could only belong to someone worth listening to for hours and hours on end.” 

“Oh, really ?” Vivi asked, playing along. 

Lewis was shaking with anger. His eyes turned black, his irises glowing a malevolent pink.

The Highwayman, bless him, was oblivious to the fact that he was enraging one of the single most powerful spirits in North America. “Yes, really. I ask, would you like to accompany me? I would be absolutely thrilled to hear all about your life, your hopes, your dreams, and your aspirations.” 

“Honey,” Vivi said dryly, “if I told you about half of my life, you wouldn’t believe a word of it. Seriously though, Lew-Lew has me curious. What exactly are you supposed to be? A ghost?” 

The highwayman didn’t say anything. 

“Yeah, I didn’t think so. See, around these parts we know a ghost when we see one. Do you know how?” 

The Highwayman looked at her confused, so Vivi pointed in the direction of the increasingly bright pink glow. 

“Please don’t kill him, Lew.”

When the Highwayman turned, he came face-to face with an absolutely furious spirit. Lewis had gone full ghost - his head a floating skull above his broad shoulders, flames engulfing his cranium and shoulders where his hair should be. And his body was covered by his frightening black and white skeleton suit, the familiar golden heart throbbing with emotion. The Highwayman was so terrified when he saw Lewis that he screamed and ran, nearly knocking his bike over in his efforts to get on it, and nearly running it off the cliff when he tried to race away.

No sooner were the sounds of his engines fading into the distance, Vivi was laughing herself to tears and Lewis was begrudgingly resuming his human illusion and getting back in the car. Mystery was trying (and failing) not to giggle too, and though Arthur was smiling, he was too tired to laugh. 

“It’s not funny.” Lewis grumbled. 

“Oh come on, Lew.” Vivi giggled, taking off her glasses to wipe the tears out of her eyes, “It was a little funny. I almost feel sorry for the guy, he was so scared! ” Then she burst out into laughter again. 

“Do you guys think we should maybe-” Arthur yawned - “call Mystery Incorporated? That seemed like it’d be right up their alley, don’t you think?” 

“I don’t think we ever got their phone numbers.” Mystery said. 

“No, I don’t think we did. We ought to next time we see them.” 

“Oh! I got Mrs. Dinkley’s phone number. I insisted after that mishap at the Haunted Museum, just in case she did need our help with anything after all.” Arthur said, getting out his phone. 

He dialed, and the phone rang for a few moments before Mrs. Dinkley picked up. “Hello, Mrs. Dinkley. It’s Arthur, from the Mystery Skulls. We just had a run-in with something… weird, and we wanted to get word to Velma and her friends about it. Would you mind giving us her number? Or just passing the word along?” 

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

Back at the Crystal Cove Library, Scooby Doo had fallen asleep while looking for clues about the Highway Dandyman with the gang. This should have come as no surprise - the great dane hadn’t been sleeping well lately, plagued by terrible and vivid nightmares. Shaggy had been really drowsy the past couple days, too. This time however, Scooby’s dream was more than just a dream. 

Within the world of slumber, Scooby lifted his head off of the tome on which it rested to find his friends had left their seats, the pile of books they’d been using back on their shelves. At the familiar sound of a bell, Scooby turned to see Nova standing by the doorway. Without a word, she turned and left. Curious and confused, not fully aware he was asleep, Scooby hopped off the chair he’d been sitting on and followed. When Scooby walked through the doorway after her, he found himself in an unfamiliar corridor. The walls were covered by crimson curtains, and the floors were a strange, smooth black and white zigzag pattern.

“Nova?” Scooby called. 

He looked in the direction it looked she’d gone and there at the end of the hall by a marble statue was another doorway. Scooby walked down the corridor and through the doorway, and found himself in a room. 

The walls and floor were the same as they had been in the hall, but the middle of the room was tastefully furnished with black chairs and tables and silver lamps in a very simplistic and modern style. A very nervous and very familiar looking teen wearing a yellow and white striped t-shirt was sitting in one of the chairs, and over in an empty space of floor, a strange, very short man in a red suit was dancing to a jazzy tune. Scooby couldn’t help but tilt his head and cock his eyebrow with confusion.

The little man finished his dance and gave a bow, and then said in a voice that echoed throughout the entire space, “Welcome, to the sitting room, Scooby Doo.”

It frightened Scooby so much that he awoke, his head shooting off of the book he’d been sleeping on with a frightened yell. The sudden movement moved the pages and revealed a piece of old parchment that had been hidden between them.

The gang had paused their research, and Velma was on the phone with (Scooby realized after a few seconds of listening) Arthur Kingsmen, one of the Mystery Skulls. Whatever they were talking about must have been good, because she let out an excited “Jinkies!” near the end of the call.

When Velma got off the phone, she reported to the gang that Arthur had called to let her know that the Mystery Skulls had just had a run-in with The Highway Dandyman, but he’d failed to rob them or to get Vivi to go with him, but it was just weird enough that they figured they’d let Mystery Inc. know. 

Fred was actually relieved that they hadn’t caught him, because he was eager to get to trapping again after his opportunity to trap had been thwarted two mysteries in a row, now. 

After that, the gang returned to their books, and not a minute later Velma found their first clue. All of the books on “dashing rogues” and “devinaire thieves” were checked out by the women who had been abducted. Fred found their second one not long after: a members list for a book club with all the ladies’ names on it, including Daphne’s Mom. Which was odd, because Nan Blake hated reading (unless it was a shopping catalog). 

That was when Velma noticed the piece of parchment. 

“Where did this come from?” She asked, picking it up. “Cuarto Llave!” She read off of it. 

“It’s the fourth key!” Daphne cried. 

“But like, we haven’t found the third. I thought we were like, finding these in order.” Shaggy said, rubbing his eyes from where he was resting with his head in his arms on the table. 

“Guys, I don’t think it was any accident that we found this. But why here? And how does it tie into the Dandy Highwayman?” Velma asked.

“All I know is we have to come up with some answers fast, or I might never see my mother again!” 

“I’ve got it! I’ve got the perfect plan to trap this Dandy Highwayman!” Fred declared giddily. 

And like that, it was trapping time. 

Unfortunately for Fred, when the time came, he would eat his words about being glad the Mystery Skulls hadn’t caught the Highwayman, when the next girl he took was Daphne.

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

Daphne and the other women, lucky for the gang, were under no kind of “spell”, as the men of Crystal Cove seemed to think. Rather, being the clever meddling kid she was, she’d gone along with the Dandy Highwayman on purpose to get on the inside and make sure the other women were alright. One act of deception by Daphne and a trap involving some nets and a shed full of TNT later, the Highwayman was unmasked (as the librarian - who would have thought?) and all was well in Crystal Cove once again (at least as “well” as it ever was in Crystal Cove at any given relatively peaceful moment).

… That is, until Scooby fell asleep in the Mystery Machine on the way home. 

Shaggy and Scooby were both really tired. Shaggy had been getting increasingly “out of it” the past few days, and he seemed really sleepy - Velma and Scooby were convinced he was getting sick, but he insisted he was still well enough to solve mysteries with the rest of the gang for now. And Scooby of course hadn’t been sleeping well, Kriekstaffebots and “Nibiru is Coming” Nova haunting his nightmares (but that was just too many donuts before bed, right?). 

One of the Mystery Skulls’ songs was playing on the radio (Velma had started listening to their music as part of her research about them. Suspicious or not, they were really good.) Shaggy and Scooby weren’t contributing to the conversation much, opting to enjoy Lewis’ voice playing softly from the radio instead. Both of them were looking forward to being back at the Rogers’ residence where they could eat three dinners and then go straight to bed for some well-earned rest. 

"When I see you in my dreams,

You can fly so high it seems.

Took me to another level,

Of your love."

And the next thing Scooby knew, he was back in the sitting room. 

The dog trembled in fright as that same little man in the red suit walked out from behind one of the red curtains. “Scooby Doo. The time has come. She is… here.” He said in that same echoing voice. The curtains opened once again, and Nova stepped into the room. 

“Nova?” Scooby said hopefully. 

“I am not Nova.” The cocker spaniel said. “I have only borrowed her body so that I may bring you an urgent message.” 

Scooby got down from the chair in which he sat and the two dogs sat across from each other to talk. 

“Scooby Doo, your life is in danger. All of your lives are in danger.” 

“Huh?” 

“I am of the Anunnaki: inter-dimensional beings that visit the planet Earth every few thousand years. We arrive at a time called Nibiru , when the barriers between our worlds grow weak.” Not-Nova explained. “The Annunaki have a long history of helping humans, but we have no physical form and must inhabit animals. This is why some animals - our descendants, like you and Professor Pericles - can talk, and others cannot. This is also why populations of fantastical animal-like creatures exist across the world. They belong to bloodlines that are much closer relatives of ours, and given such they have retained many of our powers.

“But not all Annunaki are kind and good.” Nova said. “There are evil ones, and the most evil of all is imprisoned beneath Crystal Cove, and must not be set free.” 

Scooby gulped, and began to tremble in fear. 

“But you will not be alone in this endeavor.” Not-Nova said. “When you awaken tomorrow morning, you will find a gift I have prepared for you. Its true value may be unclear at first, but stopping Professor Pericles from freeing his master and destroying the evil entity will be nearly impossible without it. And it will make Pericles’ efforts even more difficult. With the help of my gift, you must undo it, Scooby Doo. Save yourself. Save your friends! Save the world!” 

Scooby was so terrified he was awake and on his feet in an instant. 

“The cursed treasure is evil! Evil! We have to destroy it!” 

As his friends looked on in horror at Scooby’s sudden declaration, the Mystery Skulls continued to play in the background.

And I’m back in my waking life,

Wished you could teach me how to fly.

You make me wish that I was sleeping.

But you keep fighting to survive.

Somehow you’re only in my dreams. 

Cause’ as real as this may seem, 

I used to think that this was real, 

Til’ you came down and you rescued me.

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

If being around Professor Pericles was like walking on eggshells before Ricky ended up with mutated cobra larvae in his spine, it was absolutely hellish after.

Destroido’s main building was big , and Ricky had to keep making his rounds to keep up appearances. So avoiding Pericles, Brad, and Judy was easy. It took all of one day for Ricky to become a professional at it. 

It came at his poor employees’ expense of course, but he told himself that if he somehow survived until their next paycheck, they’d find a fat bonus that served as his apology. He was a lot more thorough than usual in his inspections and duties, hid in the breakroom for hours on end, took all his meals in the upstairs cafeteria rather than in the one downstairs near the labs or in his private rooms (much to the confusion and horror of his staff), and took an extra break in the bathroom to get his shit together when the urge to scream became too much. 

(He was fine. Really. He was totally fine.)

Unfortunately though, he couldn’t hide from Pericles, Brad, and Judy forever. All he wanted to do when that happened was disappear - and sooner rather than later, he usually got his wish. When the others weren’t either snapping at Ricky or rubbing his weakness in his face, they treated him like he was just a fly on the wall. After all, he wasn’t a teammate worth listening to anymore, he was a tool. 

An idiot human mascot for Pericles to perch upon.

It wasn’t that Ricky didn’t try to give input - the scheme Pericles was concocting to build a fake post-apocalyptic Crystal Cove and give Brad and Judy plastic surgery to trick Fred and the kids into giving away where they’d hidden the planispheric disk was an utterly insane long shot that he doubted would work even if it wasn’t unnecessarily expensive and complicated madness . 

He supposed he could have phrased it better, but he still got tortured with the remote again just for arguing. 

Still, at the end of the day, when Ricky crawled back into his rooms, laid on his bed and stared at the wall trying to sleep (fuck you, insomnia) and wishing he could cry his emotions out, a voice in the back of his mind reminded him that he deserved this. 

It was his actions that had put Professor Pericles in the favorable position he was in now, and it was his actions that had led him here.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

He’d been a fool to think he meant a thing to his old friends. He’d acted like the leader of the group ever since their alliance began (and why wouldn’t he, considering it was his roof over their heads and his resources they were spending to solve their mystery? Pericles had proven he couldn’t be trusted with leadership, and Brad and Judy were a couple of empty-headed followers), and now they were making him pay for his hubris. 

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid .  

To make matters worse, starting the day after Ricky’s failed rebellion, he noticed he was starting to feel… disconnected. As the days passed, he felt himself becoming increasingly lightheaded, unfocused, and sleepy (though he didn’t get much sleep no matter how hard he tried - again, fuck you, insomnia). There were even moments when it seemed as if he was watching his own body move on autopilot from the outside looking in. 

Ricky could think of only two possible explanations: either it was a side effect of the poison he was being tortured with (because God only knew what the after effects of mutated cobra venom were), or his depression was coming back. 

As ridiculous as it sounded, he honestly hoped it was the former, because now was not the time for his own bullshit to cause even more problems for him. 

Still, it was most certainly a possibility. He’d been off his meds for over a year now, trying not to be dependent on them for his entire life. And it had worked - his depression hadn’t come back after he stopped (sending helpful hints to a certain gang of meddling kids had helped with that too). But given recent events, it would make sense if his mental state had changed. 

Assuming it was the latter (he couldn’t exactly do anything about the former), Ricky started taking his pills again and did what he’d done in the past to chase his demons off: he poured himself into working. 

Ricky refused to let himself fall into the state he’d ended up in in the past. Especially now, when he was vulnerable enough already. So, to keep himself from getting to that point, he forced himself to do basic daily tasks like cleaning and personal hygiene in the mornings. Then once the day actually got started, he put even more vigor into his rounds, looked for non-existent things to fix on the Enigma Machine (he was allowed near the car, but he wasn’t allowed to drive it unless Brad, Judy, or Pericles was with him), and when he wasn’t doing that he was looking for Cassidy. 

He had been worried before. He was really worried, now. There hadn’t been a trace of her in weeks - ever since Pericles had said she’d been taken care of. Ricky had been a fool to twist those words for the sake of his own comfort. 

She’s not dead. She’s not dead. She can’t be dead.

Still, it wasn’t easy. 

Firstly, Pericles wasn’t giving him access to the internet. He was only allowed access to things within Destroido’s own systems, save their communications. To top it off, Brad and Judy kept barging in at random moments any time he was online just to “check in”. 

Bullshit . It was another tactic to remind him of his place, and nothing more. 

Secondly, no matter how hard he worked or how busy he kept himself, his symptoms persisted. Were the meds not working? Or did he need his dosage adjusted? Perhaps it really was because of the venom. Or maybe it was unrelated, and he was just getting sick? 

Whatever. He didn’t care what happened to him. All he cared about anymore was knowing that Cassidy was alright. One evening, Mr. E was using the company’s systems, searching for any trace of Cassidy, when he became aware of a certain pair of back-stabbing leeches entering the room behind him. 

Ignore them, and maybe they’ll go away.  

“You’ve been on the computer more and more.” Brad observed.

Fuck.

“He sure has, Brad!” Judy piped in, “You’re not allowed on the internet, so what do you do in here for hours on end?” 

“There’s been no sign of her for weeks!” Ricky blurted out, turning around to face them. 

“Who are you looking for?” Judy asked. 

“Cassidy.” Ricky replied, failing to conceal the concern in his voice. 

“Maybe she finally gave up.” Brad suggested smugly. 

“No! She would never give up!” Ricky said firmly, standing up. “She’s gone.”

“Of course she’s gone.” Professor Pericles said, flying into the room and landing on a monitor above Ricky’s head. “Anyone who crosses me gets… eliminated.” 

Ricky’s heart sank to his feet, hammering like a drum the whole way down. Horror twisted his guts into knots. “N-no. You didn’t.” Ricky stammered. The last bit came out higher pitched than intended, his throat was closing in on itself and his vision was blurring around the edges. It took a second for him to realize it was because tears were welling in his eyes.

She’s not dead. She’s not dead. She can’t be dead.

“You were informed she had been taken care of.” The bird said, fluffing his feathers dismissively. Ricky’s legs gave out under him and he sank to his knees. It was suddenly getting very hard to breathe. 

You agreed with him that something needed to be done about her. What did you think he was going to do?! Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

And of course, seeing it getting to Ricky, Pericles had to take the opportunity to twist the knife. “Would you like to know how she died?” The parrot asked, fluttering down from the top of the monitor to the edge of the desk. 

The only one of us left that was worth saving, the only person left on Earth who might have given a shit about you, and he killed her. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. It’s all your fault. You killed her. You killed her! You killed her!

“If it is any consolation, my sweet Ricky, she likely did not suffer.” Pericles said. “They say that drowning is one of the most peaceful ways to die. If the explosion didn’t kill her instantly.” 

“Fuck you.” Ricky wheezed. 

“What?”  

“FUCK YOU! You bastard!” Ricky roared. “You were always jealous of her! All because you wanted me all to yourself, you just couldn’t let me have anyone else that I loved! And look at what you’ve done to us!” Ricky wasn’t afraid anymore. He didn’t care anymore. He felt as if he was watching from the outside as just a tiny splash of the years of repressed anguish spilled out of him. “Brad and Judy threw away their own son like garbage for that stupid treasure! Anyone with eyes can see what I’ve become! Cassidy was the only one of us who was strong enough to stay good in spite of that stupid curse - in spite of you! And YOU KILLED HER!” 

Ricky didn’t even mind the punishment he received for his outburst. Even when his throat was hoarse from his silent screams and his spine felt as if it was being ripped out, the pain was a welcome distraction from his grief and his crushing guilt. Those hurt a thousand times more than anything Pericles could ever do to him.

You deserve this. She’s gone. She’s dead. You killed her. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

When it was over and Ricky came back to his senses, he was alone. Pericles, Brad, and Judy had just left him there on the floor to get ahold of himself. He didn’t know how long he laid there, waiting for the aftershocks to subside, but when he got up he was feeling oddly numb. He took a look around the room one more time before he shut off his monitors, turned out the lights, and left to return to his rooms. 

Once in the privacy of his own chambers, he went to the kitchen first, where he retrieved a bottle of wine. Something stronger tempted him, but he didn’t want to completely silence his pain with alcohol. Cassidy deserved better than that. Then he went into his room and shut and locked the door behind him. 

Ricky uncorked the wine and took a long swig straight from the bottle, before he set it on his bedside table, walked into his bathroom, stood before the sink, and took a long look at himself. 

Fuck , he hated himself. He didn’t realize it was possible, but he hated the man that scowled back at him in the mirror even more than he hated Professor Pericles. Disgustingly fat, hair that had grown past his shoulders simply because he didn’t give enough of a shit about himself to cut it, dark bags under his eyes that carried the burden of his existence. 

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

His own self-loathing stabbed through the cloud of numbness that had been shielding him, and without even thinking about it, Ricky screamed and punched the mirror as hard as he could. 

It didn’t shatter. Rather, it left a crater-like crack where his fist hit the glass, and he wasn’t sure if that said more about the mirror or about what a damn weakling he was. Either way, his hand was bleeding. 

Ricky was tempted to leave it as it was, but he begrudgingly disinfected and then bandaged his bloodied knuckles before walking back into his bedroom, that familiar numbness returning. Then he sat down on the edge of his bed and took another few gulps of that wine, ignoring the throbbing pain in his hand, and he… existed. He honestly wasn’t sure how long he just sat there, numb to the universe, occasionally taking another drink, before he turned his head and his eyes fell upon the framed photo of Cassidy, his beautiful Angel, on his dresser. 

Just the sight of her broke the spell. Ricky’s throat closed again, he choked back a sob, and he wiped his tears away with his sleeve. Then he set the bottle down on his bedside table, reached down under his bed, and pulled out a box he didn’t touch very often anymore - it was custom made, made of dark mahogany with a certain logo in the shape of a magnifying glass on the lid. He unlatched it, opened it, and took out a large photo album before closing the box and sliding it back under from whence it came.  

With a level of carefulness he didn’t use with many other things, Ricky opened the book to his favorite pages - the ones that were about her . 

Angel Dynamite. 

When they had first reunited when Cassidy first returned to Crystal Cove, he’d never said anything about the fact that she used his old nickname for her as her new alias. But damn , did she rock the DJ look. In spite of everything, she’d managed to move on from the trauma of their youth, something he had never been able to do. Cassidy had continued to grow and change in a way he hadn’t, and she’d made something of herself. “Angel Dynamite the DJ” wasn’t quite as grandiose as “Mr. E the wealthy and powerful CEO and founder of Destroido Industries”, but unlike him the person she’d become was good , and she had found and kept her happiness where she could. 

He’d never told her, but he had always admired her for that. Why had he never told her that ?

Cassidy Williams, their first day of their freshman year at Crystal Cove High. She looked so dorky and cute in her pigtails, those square glasses, and that pretty green dress. 

Angel Dynamite standing by her radio station for K-Ghoul’s grand opening. 

Cassidy eating with a younger him at Skipper Sheldon’s. 

Angel Dynamite DJ-ing an event in Crystal Cove. 

Cassidy standing with him in her parents’ foyer just before he took her to prom. 

Cassidy sitting with him on the hood of the Enigma Machine. 

Cassidy Williams, with her Mystery Incorporated pin proudly pinned to her dress in the photo they took of her for the club’s page in the yearbook.

‘Thinking of Cassidy again,’ him-of-the-past had written next to this photo. ‘Remembering when we first met. Professor Pericles was there and I could tell he was jealous. He didn’t want to share me with anyone.’

Meeting me was the worst thing that ever happened to you.

Ricky cried that night in a way he hadn’t cried in twenty years. I’m so sorry, Cassidy. How could you ever forgive me? My Angel Dynamite. 

Insomnia be damned, his exhaustion finally took over and he eventually cried himself into a fitful slumber. 

Fitful that is, until the dream. 

Ricky opened his eyes to find that instead of on his purple bedspread, he was for some reason laying on the floor. But it was most certainly not his floor or his room. He was in a corridor. The floor had the strangest black and white zigzag pattern, and the walls were covered by crimson curtains. 

Ricky sat up, rubbing the wetness from his eyes. He swallowed nervously and stood. There was a doorway at the end of the corridor, and standing next to it was… him . The younger, thinner, healthier version of himself. Back when he was seventeen, the last time he had ever been happy. Solving mysteries, in love, and still thought he was surrounded by loyal friends. The version of himself he’d wanted nothing more than to go back to for the past twenty years. 

God, you must think I’m such a piece of shit. 

But, the other him wasn’t looking at him with disgust. There was something warm yet sad in his expression. He walked through the doorway. Ricky followed. 

The room he found himself in was a circular intersection between the corridor he’d just come from and two other hallways. At the center of it sat a small, vaguely familiar cocker spaniel. And right as Ricky entered, two other figures walked through the other two doors with just as much trepidation. But Ricky wasn’t paying attention to them. The doorway to his left… for some reason he felt compelled to go there. Was that where the other him had gone? 

Curious, he walked into the room, past the cocker spaniel, and stepped into the dark corridor from which one of the other two figures had come. 

As Ricky continued onward, it was so dark he couldn’t see a thing. The doorway behind him had disappeared, and its light along with it. He wasn’t exactly sure when he fell asleep. But the second he opened his eyes, he was suddenly wide awake. 

Coming face-to-face with the bared teeth of an angry great dane will do that to you. 

Fun, angsty bit of trivia for you all because not enough people caught this in the show: ‘Thinking of Cassidy again,’ him-of-the-past had written next to this photo. ‘Remembering when we first met. Professor Pericles was there and I could tell he was jealous. He didn’t want to share me with anyone.’ I didn't make that up for this story. That's canon. In Season 2, episode 24: 'The Gates of Gloom', in the scene where Ricky is shown to be looking for Cassidy and he first learns she's been killed (part of that dialogue was used in their conversation but I made his reaction more devastating for ✨spice✨) If you zoom in on the book of photographs he's looking through, you can see the captions of one of them reads: "Thinking of Cassidy again. Remembering when we first met. Professor Pericles was there and I could tell he was jealous. He didn't want to share me with anyone." I don't know if Professor Pericles ever loved Ricky, but one thing's for sure: he was obsessed and extremely possessive of him. That's not love, but it's toxic and dangerous as hell. It's a small detail that's easy to miss but for those who notice it, it says a LOT about their relationship.

And yes - I know. I'm warped. But there can be no comfort without hurt! And come on - how much did I reeeally change Ricky's suffering from the canon material?

Chapters 1 through 10 of One of Us are currently posted on Archive of Our Own.

[simptasia]

May I request buffy for the dashboard osmosis if you haven't seen it? Or if you have then steven universe

i'll do buffy

isabel, i like and respect you. but i hear about buffy a lot on tvtropes (in fact tvtropes started as a buffy fansite??) and almost everything i hear sounds... bad. it sounds like a cringe show. i'm sorry

i haven't seen it at all so thats not fair of me. but. yeah

or maybe the show isn't cringe but the fandom is. or both. hmm

buffy the vampire slayer was a 90s supernatural show made by joss whedon at his peak LOOK IM A FEMINIST fuckery

it stars sarah michelle gellar (who i know primarily as daphne in the live action scooby doo movies, and that bitch from cruel intentions) as buffy summers. and she's The Slayer. slayers are like chosen ones, and its a title thats passed on for i dunno hundreds of years

slayers... slay vampires, i presume

she talks in a specific manner hence the trope Buffy Speak. it's basically like a weird simple talky thingy (that was buffy speak)

one of the characters is willow rosenberg played by allison hannigan. and as a bi activist engrossed with fiction, i have certainly heard of this character. basically, she's the poster child for The 90s Being Weird About Bisexuality. as she was into dudes and then she's into a girl and the show is weird about it and she's Suddenly Lesbian. and like, yes, lesbians discovering themselves after dating dudes is totally a thing but thats not the logic being used here, it's just awkward biphobia. oh yes. i've heard much about willow and tara

tho, willow/tara is a case of Fair For It's Day

seth green played oz, a sardonic werewolf of little words. he was the dude willow was into before her bisexuality activated

david borealis and james marsters are angel and spike, they're two vampires that buffy is super into and i get the vibe that their love triangle is like a Big Thing in this show and/or the fandom. angel is the "good" one, spike is the bad one. i read that buffy and spike raped each other (with the buffy raping spike being played for laughs because life is a fucking nightmare). so that's fucked

angel got his own spin off called angel and one time angel became a muppet in it. i approve

angel is one of those brooding "i can never be good, theres no hope for me" types of vampires. the kinda guy tailored for certain women to be like "ohhh i can fix him" or whatever. it's kinda funny. on the flipside i assume spike is for the "mmm i don't wanna fix him" types

this is before this type of thing was subject to parody

there's some blando guy named xander, i think he's a nerd and meant to be an audience self insert. i've seen ppl say he has nice guy syndrome but i dunno how true that is. dunno who plays him

anthony head plays rupert giles, he's the exposition and mentor dude. makes dry remarks and spouts encouragement, i think

charmed, a show i love, apparently stole buffy's vibes a lot

buffy is the first show where somebody used google as a verb. as in "googled"

theres a musical episode wherein dancer and singer hilton battle Absolutely Fucks. oh and everybody has musical numbers, including one that ends with tara levitating from cunnilingus. this was noteworthy because sapphic characters being sexual was actually rare in mainstream media in the 90s. again, fair for it's day

oh, this is a monster of the week show where some overarching story each season. doug jones made a few appearances

i get the impression that buffy is one of those shows that has good actors and concepts but fucky writing. it happens, i feel you

is buffy a cheerleader or did i imagine that. i might be thinking of heroes (which also suffered from great acting, fucky writing)

anyways thank you for your time

[thescoobydooby]

🏡🎃🎶💀

Thank you tooba!! Can I just say you post a lot of interesting Scooby stuff and I really appreciate your contributions to the fandom! :D

🏡 - Coolsville or Crystal Cove? I am gonna have to go with Coolsville all the way! I MISS COOLSVILLE! But I do like that Crystal Cove exists as a kind of alternative canon if you know what I mean? it's kind of like a scooby canon but from a different dimension. But yeah I miss coolsville i miss fred shaggy and scooby living in their weird little house from wnsd, I miss daphne and velma and their little pink science crib.

🎃 - favorite holiday special/episode/movie? I really like A Scooby Doo Valentine since it kind of shows the gang off the road. We finally kind of get to see how they live when they're not van people. I also like scooby doo and the spooky scarecrow. It just has an amazing atmosphere and is definitely one of my favorites from the DTV series. And idk if birthdays count? But I LOVE Happy Birthday Scooby Doo! Everything about it. How the gang gets together again. Daphne, Shaggy and Scrappy planning Scooby's birthday. Velma and Fred finally getting back with the gang. And Scooby is soooo happy to see them like he is literally doing zooomies and I find that so adorable. peak dog behavior i love him.

🎶 - favorite song? Ok so from the chase scenes in the original SDWAY my favorite is daydreamin'. The snack track had no reason to be that damn good. I tell you hwat.

From the hex girls It's a mystery. I'ts kind of different and more slow than i'm a hex girl and earth,wind, fire and air. And I guess this would be my ultimate favorite song from Scooby Doo? ngl scooby snacks is a banger too. we got packs n packs we got packs n packs

💀 - scariest villain? Ummmm ok so I've prob said this before but when I was a kid I used to have very vivid nightmares about the green ghosts from A night of fright is no delight. In my dream I'm running away from the ghost and the safe space is the living room but right before I'm about to enter the living room I lose all my strength and can't even move. And then the ghost sucks a strawberry out of my ear?! very weird end and it's not even that scary BUT I WAS A KID AND I WAS TERRIFIED. and i didnt even find them that scary irl 🤨 like i would watch the episode just fine

Scooby doesn't really have villains who are that scary. And in the older shows I think it was the backgrounds and atmosphere that would give that creepy and eerie feeling more so than the villains themselves. And it makes sense it's supposed to be goofy.

I would also nominate the banshee from Camp Scare (i guess its the effect of the jumpscare more than her design) and the Phantom from gourmet ghost. I think they did a really good job at making them look scary. Probably one of the scariest villains imo. Also Aphrodite from SDMI.

[ionicthievery]

I know I'm probably screaming into the void and not even saying anything new but i like Scooby-doo a lot and im pretty sure people in my real life probably dont want to hear me talk about Scooby-Doo for like an hour so im talking here! The new Velma show makes me so sad. Scooby Doo wasn't originally a series with characters is was a cast of roughly defined character traits. There wasnt a plot or an over arching story a lot like sunday comics. That can kinda get on my nerves but is sweet and a good concept.

(When i was younger i couldn't stand old Scooby Doo but that was because i would get stressed out about old shows and couldn't handle laugh tracks.)

The newer stuff was my favorite and looking back it was really more because they were brighter colored and had better pacing but i think both are great!

My absolute favorite moments are when the characters work like a ernest team. They have history with eachother and live in a van so of course the bicker and fight and thats okay but those moments of real wholesome mystery solving shenanigans are where its at! Where they come to this problem and are all jazzed about funding out whodunit and scared that it might be a real ghost!

I know a million people have said this but Mystery.Inc is a great place to start if you want peak Scooby Doo. Theyre a team, they love eachother but theres drama (it get a little weird but 🤷🏻)

What it sounds like to me is the Velma show is deeply uninterested in making a Scooby-Doo show and just wanna make something people can hate watch or something? Im not entirely sure i understand the point. Scooby-Doo can be witty, sarcastic and sometimes a little mean but it always has come from a love for the original concept. I dont see any of that in Velma and thats what makes me sad. The next series might follow the tradition of taking a little bit from each show and its disheartening because i know Velma a show with what read as malicious hate towards its past iterations will have a some sway in how the gang is characterized! Which would be the distilled toxic traits of every character.

Velma is mean, doesn't believe in ghosts and smarter then everyone and hates them for it

Daphne is vain, vapid always the damsel

Fred is stupid and rich

Shaggy is cowardly, lazy and doesn't know what's going on

I hate that either make them well rounded like able characters, dont make the show or make them the classic cardboard cutouts they were originally meant to be! Augh

[scorpio-marionette]

31 Nights of Head Canons - Night 31

Night 30

~

A/N: HAPPY HALLOWEEN GUYS!!!!

I know I never continued posting for this, but I thought I'd at least drop night 31 for you guys. I will be posting the 17 DAYS I didn't put out in a 31 Nights master list if you want to read them. Expect them soon.

~

All Hallow's Eve

How do you celebrate Halloween?

~

Dio

If not buried in the heat whichever girl he managed to charm into his bed, he's probably going to be drunk.

~

Omar

Sadly, Omar usually ends up in the lonely corner of a Halloween party with no desire to be there. (Cue "Michael in the Bathroom" from the musical Be More Chill)

~

Zach

Zach is going to be hold up at home with a bowl of candy, watching Scooby-Doo

~

Oberyn

Halloween obviously isn't in Game of Thrones, but I think harvest season is a time to find comfort in each other. To come together and be one giant family. I think he would agree.

~

Marcus Pike

If he's still in DC and not on a case, Marcus is going to probably do one for two things: 1.) Hang out with some friends, maybe drink a little. 2.) Universal Studios Monster Movie Marathon

~

Max Phillips

Vampirism, as an all consuming curse, grows stronger on nights like Halloween. The beast within paces impatiently as it awaits the opening of it's cage and the removal of its tether.

~

Pero Tovar

All Hallow's Eve is just another night to Pero. If he and William are traveling, what they do depends on where they are. At a campsite, William will probably share ghost stories. In town, they might don festive masks and find a brothel.

~

Javier Peña

Knowing Javi's dad, he'll probably get roped into building a haunted house on the ranch for the local kids and teens. He'll be reluctant at first, but once he sees the fun everyone is having he'll losen up.

~

Jack

Assuming he isn't on a mission, Jack is shaking up in a bar with a glass of his namesake. It's hard to be at home giving out candy to kids when he should've been out with his own to gather some.

~

Ezra

After learning of the holiday and all of its varying traditions, Ezra tries to impliment a little of each into his home every cycle. He's even peaked his neighbors' interest in the day.

~

Dave

Dave is taking his daughters trick or treating the amazing costumes Carol designed for them. He'll be the best dad! Letting the girls go up to the doors, but being close enough to protect them. Checking the candy to make sure it's safe. Keeping tabs on all of his neighbors just in case something happens to his girls.

~

Frankie

Frankie would have you believe that he's going to be stuck at home with his baby. Santi and the guys would gladly remind you that they are more than willing to bust the man's door down, stick a bowl of candy on the porch, and put a scary movie on.

~

Max Lord

Max is doing whatever Alistair wants. Trick or treating, movie marathon, a party for him and his friends. Doesn't matter really. Just as long as he's happy.

~

Marcus Moreno

Marcus is probably torn between a Heroics office party and taking Missy trick or treating. What he doesn't realize is that Missy organized the party with the other super kids... and that they all have about 10 pounds of candy stashed in a secret location already.

~

Din

I'm more than positive that Halloween isn't a thing in Star Wars, but I'd like to think that Din and Grogu would find a nice little village that has a harvest tradition. Grogu would become hyper focused on the flickering fire in the carved gourds, prompting Din to take a small vacation

~

Nico

Remember that fireplace he wanted to install so he could make love in front of it? Yeah, he finally got that put in.

~

Dieter

We all know what this man is going to be doing. He'll be forced by his manager to attend some stupid party, but he'll go off and get high to deal with the shallow people.

~

Javi Gutierrez

Javi loves Halloween! So you know he's dressing up. The compound has already been decorated. There is candy and baked goods galore! He's ready to celebrate!!!

~

Joel

On a rare chance to really celebrate, Joel is helping to set Jackson up for some festivities. There will be a nice dinner made. All the houses will decorated. Costumes have been made for those who want one, and Joel is dressing up like a real cowboy!

[scoobysnacked]

cinema peaked with scooby doo (2002) and its sequel

[lord-radish]

Okay so I could be wrong, but I think Harley Quinn was the first one of these big adult animated shows based on what is ostensibly an "all-ages" franchise. Like Batman can be dark and edgy and broody, but he's also a comic book character beloved by children the world over y'know. Batman is equal parts The Brave and the Bold and groundbreaking Alan Moore graphic novel.

Harley Quinn turns that into something where everyone says fuck and there are jokes about blowjobs and fucking and shit, and we got that fiasco about Batman not being allowed to talk about giving head to Catwoman. It was pretty well-received, and it did the whole "adult cartoon" thing without the trappings you might expect from Family Guy or something.

So with that established, imitators followed. Marvel tried the same format with a MODOK show (which they cancelled, possibly to make room for the CGI human head balloon in Quantumania). There was apparently a Deadpool show in the works that would tread similar ground, but it got cancelled. Masters of the Universe got a grittier sequel/reboot series called Revolution that upped the violence and the stakes of the conflict for an adult audience.

More adult spins on all-ages/kid-focused franchises have been coming out ever since Harley Quinn hit it big, and while quality is mixed (people fucking HATED MotU:R, though granted there was a bunch of dumb alt-right horseshit in the backlash, while MODOK was apparently pretty okay), there's been a fairly consistent niche of these sorts of shows since 2019.

So then Velma comes out to universal disdain, being a show that's irreverent to a fault - it throws characterisation out the window for the sake of being snarky. It feels less like a Velma show and more like a show that banks on Velma calling people skanks and incels as the source of its humor, in its reception if not the actual content of the show. From what I've seen, it's considered the nadir of this "adult animated retool" trend compared to Harley Quinn's peak.

Scooby-Doo is a franchise that's owned by Warner Bros.

Batman is also a franchise that's owned by Warner Bros.

How in the flying fuck did the same company get the same trend so right, and then proceed to get it so wrong?

[multi-lefaiye]

For the bingo card: The Gays™️ of Scoob n Shag: Bugs/Scoob and Swiper/Courage

i love that these are factually correct statements about this webcomic

ANYWAY!

Swiper/Courage:

(genuinely like??? i really enjoy the way these two were built up and i am saying relationship goals b/c i think peak romance is piloting around a mech that is also your boyfriend.)

Bugs/Scoob:

(as an explanation: the fact that I can just fucking say "Bugs Bunny and Scooby Doo are divorced in Scoob and Shag" and not even be wrong is something that brings me joy. anyway i think it'd be interesting to see their relationship rekindle but i'm significantly more interested in it in its current state. love me the DRAMA of it all)

also both of them get the crackship square filled because there is no other context where these ships would occur to anyone i think