Chapter Three Of Times Arrow Is Out, A Mask Of My Own Face, Id Wear That! Please Read The Warnings Carefully.

Chapter three of Time’s Arrow is out, “A mask of my own face, I’d wear that”! Please read the warnings carefully. You’re welcome Beetlelands fans! Also sorry Beetlelands fans. As always, here are the extras!

Chapter Three:

- The lyrics for this chapter’s title is from “A Mask of My Own Face” by Lemon Demon! I feel like this one is perhaps the most self-explanatory of the chapter titles, haha.

- The songs for this chapter are “Darren” by Jack Stauber, “Ghosting” by Mother Mother, “A Mask of My Own Face” by Lemon Demon, “Parrot” by Stepdad, “Snail” by Cavetown, and ESPECIALLY “Stray Italian Greyhound” by Vienna Teng.

- The basement is partially cleared out to prepare for Lydia’s dark room in the basement! And also a special Other Thing.

- “… new rugs to replace the ones he bled all over.” - Yes, Beetlejuice managed to ruin two rugs with his blood. That sucks.

- “His right eye’s vision was still fuzzy. (Perhaps it wouldn’t ever fully come back, like his hearing.)” - Yes, unfortunately it is permanent. He’s hard of hearing on one side, visually impaired on the other. Poor buddy.

- “Thankfully, his teeth had grown back quickly. They were always one of the first parts of him to regenerate anyways. (Much quicker than his organs, that one night. Or his legs. The memory still made him shudder.)” - Yikes, I wonder what or who this is referring to!

- “.. friendly neighborhood reformed demon.” - Yeah, a silly little Spider-Man reference for brevity.

- “(He found he still had no idea how to tie a tie. Thank God/Satan whoever had washed his suit had left it tied.)” - This is sort of a callout on myself. My friend tied my Beetlejuice suit’s tie for me once, and I’ve just left it tied since I can’t tie a tie for the life of me.

- Black onyx - apparently, black onyx represents strength, and is one of the most powerful crystals! At least, according to my friend.

- Lydia dying her hair - Lyds is a natural blonde! She dyes her hair black for Reasons.

- “Can’t keep a good… not-guy down!” - This is both a reference to “Child’s Play” and another fun non-binary joke.

- Adam’s tapping - I and a handful of other neurodivergent people I know do this, gentle tapping to signal we want affection. I have been told it is endearing.

- “I’M SO NORMAL-” - This is something I like to proclaim when I am being Not Normal. Like how Beetlejuice is being Not Normal.

- “He couldn’t tell what either of them were thinking, their expressions were new. It was certainly frustrating.” - Hm! I wonder what expressions Beetlejuice has never seen before on another being.

- The Freeze, Brimstone Flu, Red Moss - these are all demon diseases/illnesses that I made up. They will probably only make minor, silly appearances.

- “(Beetlejuice had to seriously fight the urge to bite her arm.)” - Beej has the urge to out of affection, but holds back due to his sharp teeth and it generally not being socially acceptable.

- “Dial up that smile.” - This is a reference to my other current hyperfixation, “Late Night with the Devil”.

- “Beetlejuice exited the guest bedroom to find Lydia waiting for him just outside, repeatedly kissing Pluto’s forehead as the cat laid contentedly in her arms. She let out a little ‘GAH’ as the door opened, standing up straight.” - CAUGHT BEING SOFT IN 4K

- Lydia, sorting - one of her favorite activities is sorting, as you may have noticed. Sometimes she un-sorts her belongings so she can re-sort them when she is stressed out.

- Lydia, biting - she also bites out of affection/when she is excited. She does not care if it is socially acceptable when she is around Beetlejuice.

- “The teen eagerly motioned for Barbara to come closer, holding up an old, yellowed version of The Wheel of Fortune.” - I wonder if this particular card means anything?

- “Some of them are hand-painted!” - Thank you to the movie “Tarot” for informing me of hand-painted Tarot cards. Also fuck you, because they’re expensive.

- “Some of the decks are incomplete.” .. “That’s what happens when you got a lotta things for a lotta years. Some of it just… goes missin’.”- What a suspicious answer from Beetlejuice. I wonder what he did with those cards?

- “I know you didn’t mean it, but that was rude, Beetlejuice.” … “Wh-rude? It was?” - this is an experience I and a lot of other fellow autistics experience. We have to be informed when we’ve been rude because we truly did not mean to be!

- “… they sat next to each other in silence while they separately sorted through various piles of moss and rocks they’d collected on previous outings in the woods.” - one of the ways these two often hang out is parallel play. I love you parallel play…

- “Lydia forced Beetlejuice to do some strange dance in front of her phone with her. They only understood half of the words she said while explaining it, but it certainly made her happy.” - Yes, Lydia made Beetlejuice do a tiktok dance because it is funny. I don’t know any of them so I can’t give you a specific, so you can imagine the funniest one here.

- “Already, his mouth was watering at the smells of soy sauce and chives wafting out from the kitchen.” - mouth watering is not always a good thing. Sometimes it means a vom is imminent.

- The Great Gatsby - beetlejuice is not stupid (sometimes), he just takes longer to process some things! This is honestly the first time someone has recognized this within him, and he has yet to fully process that. Also I love The Great Gatsby. There are Jay and BJ parallels that only make sense to me.

- Freaky - I LOVE THIS MOVIE. I watched it with my father and it was quite amusing, so I thought it would be funny to have Lydia experience watching this film with a few of her parents.

- Adam and Barbara conspired to have Beetlejuice have his Talk with Charles, by the way. They also, obviously, conspired to cuddle up with him.

- “I’ll be right back,” … “Beetlejuice, that’s violating rule number three!” - Yeah, this is a “Scream” reference. No I am not sorry. Yes it will happen again maybe.

- “Oh no. … Oh no, not now. … Please, not now. … But, of course, some sort of ridiculous “Feeling” had to come along.” - These are pulled from one of the pivotal songs on Time’s Arrow’s playlist, “Stray Italian Greyhound” by Vienna Teng. Please listen to it during That Part of the chapter.

- “Was it love? Were they in love? They couldn’t be. They were a demon, they were unforgivable, they were rotten and broken-” - Part of this is a reference to “Good Omens”, part of this is another callback to his mother’s hurtful words from chapter 3 of Time is a Flat Circle. They really seem to stick with him, huh?

- “The ritual was much harder than Beetlejuice remembered. Perhaps it was their drained energy, but they didn’t remember it burning so much.” - That’s so weird. I wonder what this ritual entailed? Couldn’t have been good. But he got a Book out of it!

- “ “Your humans?” This seemed to pique his interest, as his silhouetted form suddenly drew in much closer. “Have you a coven now, little lamb?” ” - I wonder why Cyrus was so interested in BJ having a coven? Also say hi to my rotten bastard everyone! You will hate him.

- “little lamb” - Cyrus calls BJ this due to his sheep features! Also to demean him. (If you couldn't tell from his other nickname being “pet”.)

- “Tomorrow is another day.” - shameless FNAF 4 reference. FNAF made me who I am. It reprogrammed my brain as a child.

WAHOO, TIME IS A FLAT CIRCLE HAS COVER ART! Thank you so so SO MUCH to the incredible @splasharooni , my bestie for the restie for taking my silly Beetlejuice fanfic commission <333 (they don’t do Beetlejuice art or much human art, but if you are looking for feline / other animal art hit them up!! They are the best!!)

If you receive this, you make somebody happy! Go and send this to 10 of your followers who make you happy or somebody you think needs cheering up. If you get one back, even better🫵❤️

WHAWHADWH THANK YOU?? I will do my best!!!

OHHHH MY GOD THANK YOU!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE THE EXPRESSION AND THE EARS AND THE TAIL AND THE LITTLE CLAWS AND RAAAAAHHH

Fanart of @possum-quesadilla's Beej design :3

Chapter two of Time’s Arrow is out! I’m so tired. Please read the warnings carefully! As always, here are the fun extras!

Chapter two:

- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Mt. Washington” by Local Natives. Both literally relevant and thematically relevant! I am too tired to dive in here. I plan on maybe doing a deepdive on a bunch of the songs for LoopJuice at a later date, if anyone is interested.

- “It was only when she told him that secret phrase that he finally seemed to accept it all. During one of their many repeats of the same discussion during that year they were in the loop, Lydia had asked him for a code, for something she could say that would convince him without question.” - PRO TIP; always have a time loop code! It’ll save you a lot of trouble. Me and my coworkers have one.

- “Of all of the business majors I’ve met in my time, you have to be, by far, the least fashionable. But you’re also the cutest.” - She was a goth English major. He was a business major. Can I make it anymore obvious? /ref. My own little version for how Emily and Charles met! There may be more on it later.

- “Explaining over and over about the time loop, the Netherworld, Juno, Beetlejuice. What he was, what happened, what it all meant.” - To clarify, they did not spill all of Beetlejuice’s beans! They left quite a few things up to him to decide if he wanted to share.

- “Something tugged deep inside her in a particular direction. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she trusted it. She had to.” … “(Somehow, some way, deep down inside, a voice whispered in her ear. An invisible thread tugged in a particular direction. She would pull at that thread later. More important matters were at hand.)” - Hmmmm! I wonder if this will come back and/or be important.

- “Of course, the moment he’d woken up, he’d jumped out a window and gone God/Satan knows where.” - Like with Beetlejuice, Lydia is having her BFFF’s lingo rub off on her as well!

- “Careful when you lift your eyes, for you may just be met with the edge of the blade that swings over your head.” - TO CLARIFY: the bold is Beetlejuice’s thoughts. He’s still kinda fuzzy from his long sleep, so he’s still being weirdly poetic. He is referencing the sword of Damocles here.

- “Her suspicions were further confirmed when she could hear the demon’s absentminded humming as she drew closer. (What was it now? It had been some pop song Barbara had sung while they cooked together for months now. It was a different melody.)” - Barbara was singing “California Girls” by Katy Perry while cooking with Beetlejuice one time, and it got stuck in his head. One of his stims is repeatedly humming certain tunes to himself! It won’t be mentioned, but here he is humming “You Always Hurt The One You Love” like Ruby Lane in the “Fear Street” trilogy.

- “The demon let out a loud ‘mrrrp’” - Yes, once again, Beetlejuice makes a cat activation noise on occasion!

- “(His fingertips and ears still had that horrible dull purple-blue shading to them. Would that ever go away? She was worried it wouldn’t.)” - Yes, this piece of fanart called it! Some of the coloration from the Frost is permanent. I’m still impressed! <3

- “Oh, how horrendous it would’ve been to lose you. How much joy and light the world would’ve lost. It would’ve been a tragedy unlike any other.” - This is from both Beej and Lydia at once, since they both almost lost the other to suicide.

- “But oh, the words were so hard. Especially as they chewed their lip and stared into his confused, glowing yellow eyes. Why was it so hard?” - TALKING ABOUT FEELINGS IS HARD… Lydia is no expert and neither am I!

- “… it’s… y’know. Moss!” - Moss! Yeah, he was avoiding confronting emotions and his loved ones, but also… moss!

- “Pluto. Her name is Pluto.” …“… really? That’s a little on the nose.” - This is a bit of a callout on myself. It is a bit too on the nose.

- “Pluto’s purr is nice and smooth, like a car engine. Yours sounds like a fifty-year old lawn mower that’s fueled by sugar water as it’s driving over the wettest, muddiest lawn in the world.” - Beetlejuice’s purr is all fucked up like his voice, of course.

- “(She already had a list of name ideas. Gomez, Lisa, Wybie, Lenore, etc.)” - of course, these are all ideas from some of Lydia’s favorite stories. Gomez from “The Addams Family”, Lisa from “Lisa Frankenstein”, Wybie from “Coraline”, and Lenore from Edgar Allen Poe’s “Lenore”.

- “Idiots.” - Yeah, Lyds. That’s how we all feel, bestie.

- “(Lydia could swear she felt her arm burning under the bandages, under her sleeve.)” - I WONDER IF THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER

- “ “Teeth grow back. (Lydia caught sight of a doubtful look on Adam’s face.) …” - While, yes, human teeth does not come back, Beetlejuice’s teeth do!

- “Lydia tightened her grip on Pluto, staring at the ghost intensely in a way she hoped was encouraging.” - Autism to autism communication… I will simply stare at you and hope you feel the good vibes I am attempting to send

- “ “I’m serious. You stood up to your abuser for us, Beetlejuice. That must’ve been very hard.” The demon sat very still, aside from his eyes gently flicking between Barbara’s own. Slowly, the pink washed away to a navy blue. ” - This is the first time someone has ever acknowledged to Beetlejuice, out loud, that his mother is an abuser. It causes a lot of emotions, of course.

- “It’s real late, and I know you three are probably bushed, so I’ll just head down to-” - Beetlejuice wanted to back down to the basement to hide from all of the humans.

- “I… don’t know. I guess I… thought she might have meant well, at some point.” - this is a sentiment a lot of people abused by their parents express, me included. It’s hard to let go of all of the things they have said to you, because they must have meant well, right? They’re your parent. Unfortunately, that often isn’t true.

- “ “It doesn’t change the fact that she does and says things that hurt you, and continues to hurt you. That… discredits most things she says.” The demon bit their lip with a light nod, their eyes darting about. “Y-yeah,” they eventually mumbled. “Th-… that’s… true, I guess.” ” - I HAVE THIS REACTION TO PEOPLE ACKNOWLEDGING MY PAIN. What the heck. Why are brains so awkward?? ‘Okay i guess that’s true thanks’ is a real sentence I’ve said to my therapist so many times. Ugh.

- “Sucks to suck, buddy.” - this is a phrase I say often. I’ve had people be confused about it, so I suppose it’s not that common?

- Beetlejuice and food - this is a bit of a warning now, BJ’s relationship with food is not very healthy and it will continue to decline from here. Food aversion is an unfortunate possible side effect of burnout, stress, overstimulation, etc.

- Barbara’s explanation - If you look back, you can see how suspicious Barbara was of Beetlejuice’s plan from the moment they brought it up. She was doing some plotting of her own!

- Call of the void - this is a genuine phenomenon some people experience, although this is obviously not the only cause of Lydia’s attempt. Just a fitting name for it.

- “Lydia could tell, then, that she certainly had a heart.” - this is a reference to Penelope Scott’s “Feel Better”, which is a song that fits both Lydia and Beetlejuice imo!

- Oop the poem

- This poem is sort of… non-diegetic. Like stated before, the bold is Beetlejuice, the italics is Lydia. It is meant to reflect their thoughts in this scene and chapter in general, it is meant to be read both as a conversation and as disconnected thoughts they are separately having. Do you ever have such good emotional development that you psychically write a poem with your bestie?

- “Just for a moment, your life could be just what you wanted.” … “Just for once, just for a moment.” - this is a reference to the song “Just for Once” from “Nerdy Prudes Must Die”, because that song goes SO HARD and is very thematically relevant here.

- “You give your all, and you get so much given back.” - this is a reference to “When He Sees Me” from “Waitress”, because, again, it goes so hard and is so relevant.

- “At the end of everything, hold on to anything.” - This is a reference to “Night in the Woods”. I’ve said it before, Beetlejuice and Mae Borowski have a lot in common.

- “The things you do for love come back to you one by one.” - this is a reference to “Love Love Love” by The Mountain Goats. It is one of the gentler songs on the LoopJuice playlists, and reflects more feelings of acceptance and uneasy peace.

- “… it burns out bright and blinding like a dying star.” - Hmm. Perhaps this is foreshadowing? Nah, that’d be crazy.

- “No one is gone, the love they felt and received does not fade. It is simply held in those they loved, or redistributed once more.” - Lydia is, of course, talking about her mother. I know it’s obvious, I just wanted to make sure it is highlighted. Since this story is mostly from Beetlejuice’s POV, we don’t get to really see the other characters’ emotional developments clearly, so I try to highlight them as often as I can.

- “She.. understood? I know less about Barbara than I thought.” - Barbara lore hints! Put a pin in this.

- All the little reasons for Beetlejuice to stick around - it’s one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received. Make it to your next sunset, make it to this new movie premiere. You have to taste this new food, see this sight. Start with little things, little reasons to stick around and enjoy life.

- “(Lydia felt like perhaps she shouldn’t be seeing this.)” … “I definitely feel like I shouldn’t be here for this.” - you ever witness your ghost parents and your demon brother having a romantically charged moment? Lydia certainly wishes she didn’t.

- “Oh! Don’t forget all the skirts and dresses I wanted to go through with you in the basement!” - I PROMISE WE WILL GET SKIRT AND DRESS FITS FOR BEEJ LATER

- “… will you?” ... “Will I what?” … “Give yourself a chance. Stick around.” - this is another reference to Stephen King’s “Laurie”. I love it to bits.

- “Well, except for his tail. It was quivering. (Lydia had only seen it do that a handful of times, when Beetlejuice was really excited, like when he was waiting to leap out at an unsuspecting Mormon knocking at the door.)” - sometimes, when cats are very excited, their tails quiver like this! It happens when they’re playful, like about to chomp on the arm of a door-to-door solicitor, or when they’re very happy, like when they receive a little forehead kiss.

- “Barbara and Adam exchanged a look then. They seemed… amused, excited, and - eugh. Those three better sort that shit out soon. It’s basically torture to have to witness it.” - Lydia is with y’all. Do not worry.

- “… I’m not.. the most graceful with exits, you guys know this-” - this is another reference to the failed smoke bomb trick he does in the show!

- “Thank you, love you too, kiddo.” - Adam sounds a little dismissive here because he is concentrating, but Lydia knows that!

- “Adam is switching on the “electric blanket”, Barbara is making some sort of joke as she once more plants a kiss on his forehead. He thinks he hears the word ‘hot’.” - Beetlejuice has no idea what some things are, including electric blankets. He is so lost in the sauce he didn’t hear Barbara call him hot.

- “Who could ever really want you? You wear out your purpose eventually. You overstay your welcome. Sharp, sudden pain washes over him from the old scar in his side. Honestly, Betelgeuse, I don’t know why I’m disappointed. Everyone knows how pathetic you are.” - Callback! And more dialogue/context to this hinted scene. Maybe we will see more of it later!

- “His heart, his own personal heart is broken over and over and over again.” - yet another “Asteroid City” reference! Also reflects a bit how I feel writing at times.

- “He has been emptied out. He is so tired, so drained. His whole body aches, and his mind still thrums.” - All my burnt out besties say… eughhhhh…. Emotional conversations are super draining!

- “It isn’t the start of something. Isn’t it? It isn’t. It isn’t.” - What’s that? By god, it’s “Asteroid City” once again! The context of this scene is two characters discussing whether or not they’re at the start of a new relationship, like how Beej is arguing about the same thing with himself.

- “You are a fox being allowed to stay in the henhouse.” - in a way, he still views himself as an intruder, as something harmful. It takes a while to get rid of harmful thinking, even after coming to the realization that it’s wrong.

- “The sword still swings. The thread is thin.” - another sword of Damocles shout out!

- “The perfect visage of a reformed villain, of a tamed demon.” - He feels a pressure to be good right away, to fit the stereotype of a reformed villain. A lot of those characters are depicted in unrealistic ways! Except Zuko. Zuko is perfect.

- “Don’t be too much. Heavy is the cost.” - this is a partial reference to “Personal” by Stars!

- “Parts of you are already gone.” - This is a partial reference to “Please Eat” by Nichole Dollanganger.

- “If you are not a jester, you are The Fool. Wear the bells well.” - The Fool is capitalized because he is specifically thinking of the tarot card. Also, Fizzaroli reference! That little guy is a strong contender for favorite Alex Brightman character.

- “It’s like they said; don’t stop dancing until the curtain’s down.” - Yet another “BoJack Horseman” reference, and a very poignant one! Beej is, in his mind, a performer on a stage, and he cannot let the audience see him falter.

BARKBARKBARKBARK I AM GOING INSANE!! THANK YOU AGAIN THEY LOOK SO GOOD!!!

Look at my son…. <3333

silly warm up page before locking in on anatomy and character designs

timeloop-juice belongs to @possum-quesadilla, not me‼️‼️