New Chapter Of Times Arrow, Good Luck, Babe! Youd Have To Stop The World Just To Stop The Feeling Is

New chapter of Time’s Arrow, “Good luck, babe! You’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling” is up! Everyone say “thank you, concussion.” (Don’t actually. It sucks.) THIS CHAPTER IS PARTICULARLY ROUGH. PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS CAREFULLY AND PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

As always, here are the extras!

- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Good Luck, Babe!” By Chappell Roan! I think it is pretty self explanatory, haha.

- The songs for this chapter are “A Deer Mistaking Candles for Headlights” by Crywank, “Racehorse: Get Married!” By Jordaan Mason, “bad idea!” By girl in red, “Gross” by Penelope Scott, “maggot belly” by awfultune, “Lavender” by Penelope Scott, “Personal” by Stars, “Little Soldiers” by The Crane Wives, “Butch 4 Butch” by Rio Romeo, and, of course, “Good Luck, Babe!” By Chappell Roan!

- “ “Go! Class starts in…” he leaned away, squinting hard at the clock on the wall just outside the kitchen. “… some.. amount of time.” “… I need to take you to the optometrist.” The teen opened the door and went to step outside, ignoring the demon’s ‘huh?’.” - Beetlejuice’s eyesight suuuuucks. They’ve never been to an eye doctor, or even heard of one. They really need glasses. Perhaps they will get some soon!

- “The very thought of the feeling of food in his mouth, of the savory and salty tastes and mushy textures overwhelming his senses made his stomach turn. But the tug at his non-functional heart strings at the image of Barbara’s disheartened expression was stronger, more painful.” - Not the best motivation to eat, but honestly, any motivation can be good motivation when you’re having trouble getting yourself to eat!

- “Did anyone see you? You barely pass as human, and you’re a stranger in this town. Did anyone bother you? Are you alright?” “Geez, Chuck, when-” “Where have you been?! Do you know how late it is, young man?” - Get parent-ed, idiot!

- “‘Young man’? I am neither of those.” - This is a cheeky reference to a similar joke in “Good Omens”!

- “… English isn’t my best language.” “What others do you know?” “.. let’s put a pin in that convo, D-Dog. Your energy is distracting in the best way.” “Aww, thank you!” - a little peak at Beej and Delia’s friendship. I will probably expand more on it if I ever write the extra chapters!

- “Charles furrowed his brows. “Where did you get that laptop?” ” … “… where did you get that one?” - He stole them.

- “ “The what?” Charles sat up straight, brows knit in… concern? Beetlejuice wasn’t sure.” - he is not used to parental concern! Get cared about, fool!

- “… ‘Surely the average White River townie will be petrified by your demonic beauty!’” He chuckled to himself. He thought perhaps he imagined Barbara, Adam, and Delia laughing as well. “First of all, thank you, you’re too kind.” ” - A little peep at the smug, braggy little guy he used to be! And yes, they did laugh at his joke in agreement. He just doesn’t want to hear it because he can’t accept love.

- “Semi-tamed curly hair, now brown with irritating grey streaks he couldn’t get rid of. Manic honey-brown eyes instead of yellow serpentine ones, blemishes on his face instead of moss. Skin now pink, but still pale.” - yeah, basically just Alex Brightman, just with brown, curly hair. Surprise!

- “…wrist-length black driving gloves to cover his blackened fingertips.” - This, along with a line later on, is heavily inspired by the character Theo from “The Haunting of Hill House”. See if you can spot it! She similarly is very sensitive, and wears gloves to avoid direct physical contact with others.

- “They hate it. Fuck. Maybe next-day delivery holy water is still an option?” - ABSOLUTELY NOT

- “They look like a substitute teacher.” - Dewey Finn reference! I see a lot of Beetlejuice fans talking about the “School of Rock” musical. I’ve only seen the movie, and I love it. Should I give it a listen?

- “ “They look… nice.” Adam’s cheeks were flushed a dark pink. Barbara let out a delighted giggle as she rubbed her hands over his facial hair. “What a professional little man!” ” - They think he is so handsome. Barbara cannot control her cuteness aggression.

- “Lydia, pumpkin, I don’t want the people of this town thinking of me as a scoundrel. He obviously is too old to be E-.. Emily’s son.” - He’s trying his best to keep Emily relevant and talked about!! It’s just a bit hard still. Also, yeah, no one would really believe the man with greying hair was spawned from Charles and Emily.

- “He hadn’t been opposed to people thinking he was his son.” - he has never been called someone’s son in a positive way! New experience unlocked!

- “He was… happy. Light. Warm. He felt like he could rip apart a car with his teeth.” - like yours truly, Beetlejuice gets the urge to bite and rip things apart with his teeth when he is excited.

- “ “… I’ll tell folks I’m a distant Maitland relative. Maybe a cousin!” Beetlejuice grabbed Lydia’s arm, going to pull her out the door, missing the way Adam and Barbara wrinkled their noses at the word ‘cousin’.” - I wonder why they were so opposed to him being called a cousin? Hmmm.

- “Beetlejuice slides the Book across the counter and holds out a pen. “Have you heard about our Loyalty Program?” ” - what a weird, suspicious insistence he has. I wonder why that ‘Book’ is capitalized. Surely that must be an error? ;)

- “He bolts off, excusing that he needs to go find Percy and put him in ‘extreme air jail’.” - ‘Extreme air jail’ is when he floats off the ground while holding Percy up. Like regular air jail, but extreme.

- “Aftershave. Tung oil. Black tea. Tea-tree oil and nicotine.” - the smells, respectively, are from Charles, Adam, Barbara, and Delia! Delia smells like her vape pen a bit.

- “Lydia released the demon’s hands, slowly stepping behind them. “I’m behind you, alright? I’m gonna take your blindfold off.” ” - Lydia educated herself on his triggers and is careful not to come up behind him/touch his back or chest without letting him know first!

- “The walls had a familiar striped wallpaper applied to them..” - they recreated the striped walls from when Beej took over the house!

- “… pocketed figurines of various horror characters and stupid-looking colorful monsters. (Adam had called them “pokay-men”?)” - Beetlejuice stole a bunch of Pokémon funko pops without knowing anything about them, except that Adam likes them.

- Two “Lisa Frankenstein” references! The poster, as well as the name of a character later.

- “The ceiling was lined with familiar gentle string lights, the bulbs giving off a soft yellow glow.” - gentle lighting for his sensitive eyes, courtesy of Adam and Barbara! He never really turns on the overhead lights.

- “A large, fuzzy, purple rug covered most of the hard concrete floor.” - Delia picked this out for him! She knows how much he loves Floor Time.

- “… seemingly home-made black and white quilt..” - Barbara made it herself!

- “.. and a rotund black cat plush Lydia had ordered off of Amazon and claimed was for herself.” - it is a squishmallow. Beej still has no idea what they are, but Lyds got one just for him!

- “.. even a rocking chair covered in a bright green fleece blanket in the corner-” - Charles picked out that blanket after seeing how much Beetlejuice enjoyed the fleece blanket on the guest bed!

- “Like Dad said, you deserve your own space, big guy.” - ‘Dad’ is capitalized like that because Lydia considers Charles both her and Beej’s dad now.

- “They still aren’t sure what to do, way later that night, as they lie in their very own bed for the first time. They’d never had a space of their own.” - yeah, he’s never had his own bed. Or room. He mostly slept on the floor growing up, sometimes under a stove!

- “.. as he stared up at the multitude of gently glowing green stars plastered on the ceiling.” - Delia heard that his name is based on a star, so she got these and carefully plotted them out to match the real night sky/constellations!

- “ “I was only thirteen, Beetlejuice.” … “I dunno, Sexy. Arson is a pretty mild form of revenge. I was doin’ a lot worse for a lot less at that age.” ” - Beetlejuice had suggested that Adam should’ve set a bully’s backpack on fire.

- “And you don’t wanna put your weapon up against your victim’s back. Makes it real easy for them to just take it from ya.” - This is true! A little bit of self defense advice!

- “Do you get all your mugging tools at Home Depot? God/Satan, you’re butch.” And “My tit!” - These are both “Jennifer’s Body” references. I couldn’t help myself.

- “… red sleeveless sweater, frowning at the blood-stained button-up underneath. “My.. good friend gave me this stupid, tacky sweater vest…” ” - Yeah he dresses like his human disguise like Dewey Finn because of Adam.

- “It was tacky and itchy and smelled like mothballs, but it was still something one of his favorite ghosts had given him.” - Beetlejuice savors every single thing given to him, because no one really ever gave him presents before.

- “Don’t say Barbara, don’t say Barbara- “Ba-.. Bab… Babette.” What the fuck was that? Babette? “Yeah. Babette… ” ” - Of course, the town remembers Adam and Barbara, so he has to call them by other names. ‘Babette’ is what he thought of on the spot.

- Suprise! Ash is Sky the Girl Scout’s sister! Her full name is “Ashlyn Swallows”, but she only wants to go by “Ash”.

- “Fuuuuck.” … “ “.. damn. That… that, uh… poor girl..” Fuck, the Maitlands and Charles and Delia are going to be so mad when they hear about this.” - Asshole Beej, my beloved. He only cares about his own humans, and not at all how he impacts anyone outside his circle.

- “…and a fair wage from my own pocket.” - So the business doesn’t suffer from the absurd amount of money he is going to pay this kid.

- “Beetlejuice’s ear flicked at the sound of her heartbeat quickening, the jewelry clinking irritably.” - Yeah he hates the jewelry, but he had a hard time saying ‘no’ to Cyrus’ gifts.

- “… yeah. I didn’t realize she’d remember, though.” - Hmm. I wonder if anyone else remembers things that occurred during the loop?

- “… and Barbara enjoyed the occasional sniff of his glass.” - Since she can’t drink the wine, Beetlejuice is letting her smell it instead. Not the same, but it’s still nice!

- “Barbara was sat right up next to him on the couch, leaning on his side and keeping an arm loosely around his midsection.” … “They try their best not to melt at Barbara’s touch as she starts to gently scratch at their chin.” … “His ears went back at the delighted little squeak from Barbara, but he relaxed as she wrapped her arms around him and tightly squeezed. “There he is!” Beetlejuice felt his tail quivering as he wrapped one arm around her in turn. “Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m the most handsome devil you’ve ever seen.” The ghost softly huffed. “It’s true!” ” - Barbara is laying it on THICK. Too bad Beetlejuice’s skull is thicker!

- “.. the demon jumped as Delia leaned in close, scrunching up his nose at the smell of wine on her breath, the sudden increase in all of the sounds of her body functioning. Lungs expanding, blood flowing, joints creaking. It was much harder to ignore when she was that close.” - Beej is constantly overwhelmed by the noises everything makes, especially since he’s not taking care of his sensory needs.

- “The demon slowly let out a breath once Delia leaned back into her place again, his grip on Barbara tightening. Why was it so hard to allow humans to be close?” - BECAUSE HE DOESN’T PAY ATTENTION TO HIS SENSORY NEEDS. And also people suck sometimes.

- “He glanced down at the ghost, hurriedly looking away and taking a swig of his wine when he found her staring up at him with a soft, fond look in her eyes.” - Oh, he’s big stupid. Thankfully, Barbara likes her men just a wee bit stupid.

- “Beetlejuice slurred, finishing off his glass. He went to release Barbara and reach out to refill it, but she gripped onto him tighter.” … “He felt the wine glass be tugged from his grip.” - Barbara decided he had enough, and is gently cutting him off here.

- “(If anything, at least the alcohol was dulling the horrid sounds of the house settling, of the wind blowing and clouds churning, of the distant call of the cicadas. He could no longer feel how tight the stupid dress shirt was, feel his own teeth sitting in his skull. It was nice. Perhaps he should drink more often.)” - unfortunately, a staggering amount of adults with autism use alcoholism to cope with symptoms they have yet to learn how to properly cope with, and to help them better socialize.

- “Just like there’s some stupid part of me that’ll always hope my Ma will turn herself around and start carin’ about me.” - AUGH. The anguish of having abusive parents. Some stupid hard-wired part of your brain is always hopeful they’ll just decide to be good one day.

- “… kids are great like that. They’re made with this…. Hard wired love for their parents.” … “I always thought.. it would be great to take all the love I had saved up for her, all the love she never returned, and… pass it on.” - HE JUST WANTS TO LOVE AND BE LOVED SO BAD OKAY?? I’m not crying you are

- “He titled his head back a bit to look at Adam, in his pajamas, without his glasses, staring the demon down with the most sorrowful expression he’d ever seen on a human being. It hurts worse than the ritual, worse than the glass window, worse than centuries of solitude. This is all you do, Lawrence. You hurt others, and you hurt yourself. His mother’s voice is always in the back of his mind, but it’s so clear now.” - Adam is feeling sympathy and/or empathy, like a normal person, but Beej is taking it as him hurting Adam by being the way that he is.

- “ “B-but they… I could never…” The Maitlands hold him tightly. Barbara gently shushes him, running her fingers through his hair. He didn’t have to finish. She knew. They shared that pain, together. They’d had a long, tearful conversation one night, during their year in the loop. It was the closest he’d ever felt to human, even considering the times he was actually human.” - I will leave this up to interpretation within the confines of Time’s Arrow. I may expand upon it in one of the extra chapters, maybe write out the conversation they had, but for now I will allow readers to come to their own conclusions, since this breaches topics I am currently not fully equipped/educated to write about.

- “ “Maybe you can distribute that love elsewhere.” It wasn’t too bad an idea. But where?” - Delia is suggesting to turn that love inwards, and to maybe also distribute it to Lydia and the Maitlands. But Beej is daft.

- “ “Pink’s a great color on you,” Delia says, patting his cheek before she turns to head back towards the living room. He couldn’t disagree more.” - YOU DESERVE LOVE. CARE IS A GOOD LOOK ON YOU. Oh god he isn’t listening.

- “Sleep finally finds them. They aren’t sure how they made it down into their room, or how they were able to change into a cozy sweatshirt and pair of loose-fitting boxer shorts. But somehow, they did.” - Adam and Barbara carefully and very respectfully helped him change!

- “As they took a wary little sip of the old, undiluted wine,” - Greek wine from waaay back when had to be diluted. Undiluted, it is way too strong and bitter.

- “ “Beetlejuice, when was the last time you drank water?” .. “I had a Dr. Pepper last week.” .. “Who gave you a Dr. Pepper?” “Wh- I’m a grown demon! I can get myself a Dr. Pepper!” Lydia raised an eyebrow at him. He scoffed, looking down at the counter. “Fine. Ash did.” ” - this is both based on a bit from Game Grumps and also a conversation I had with a friend.

- “For that hour before the two of them had to leave, Beetlejuice instead listened. At first it was frantic, confused. Then the conversation was light and breezy. Teasing, joking, excitedly comparing interests. He knew he had to make them meet from the moment Ash mentioned cinematography. Neither of them had many friends other than him, from what he’d heard. And he was sure Ash didn’t consider him a friend regardless. I’m a genius.” - My guy thinks he is the master of meet-cutes. He needs to meet-cut it out and go to therapy. (Next chapter can’t come soon enough…)

- “Their tongue and throat burned with the remains of that horrible sticky, iron taste.” … “Energy, revitalized from this latest sacrifice, buzzed through their whole being..” - Yeah he is accepting sacrifices of human blood from Cyrus’ cult. That is how he is getting the energy and strength to resist the Seal.

- “They desperately grasp Cyrus’ hands. They fumble, head burning and spinning, as they guide his hands to their throat. The demon quirks an eyebrow at them curiously. “Hurt me,” they rasp, their words almost slurring together. “Hurt me like you did before.” ” - DRUNKEN CONSENT IS NOT REAL CONSENT!! Allowing someone to hurt you is not an adequate way to deal with your issues!!

- “As you wish, Pet.” - Sorry I twisted a line from a beloved romance story and made it fucked up. It will not happen again. (It might)

Fun tidbit for making it this far! Here are some TikToks that summarize Ash and Beej’s “friendship”! This, this, and this!

RARAGRAAGRAARARRARAAAA!!! THIS IS SO GOOD! I AM OBSESSED!! I AM GOING TO PRINT THIS AND FRAME THIS AND PUT IT ON MY WALL!!!!

I CAN TELL HOW MUCH TIME AND LOVE AND EFFORT WAS PUT INTO THIS, THE DETAILS ARE STELLAR!!! THANK YOU COZMO!!!!!! 💙

Who is your funky little guy. I must know everything about them. They are straight cookin how to next manipulate our little guy…

(Click the image if it’s blurry!!) Some art of @possum-quesadilla’s oc, Cyrus (left), and my oc, Rigel (right). They’re scheming up what they’ll do to Beetlejuice in their next chapters lmao.

Though it may not look like it, I spent a whole 4 hours on this. Most of it was spent trying to get Cyrus’ design right, lol. It’s been about two weeks since I’ve worked on anything that wasn’t a sketch, so this helped me get out of my drawing dip.

I hope you enjoy, Blue!! (Ps- the constellation I put on Cyrus’ top was very intentional)

On a scale of 1 to 10, how mind-blowing would it be to y’all to learn that I have a non-typical American accent?

Honestly you should listen to the normal album

It's very beetlejuice coded

And maybe you can get some ✨️Inspiration✨️

I swear that album made me develop a whole new oc.

OOOOUGH I will listen to it here shortly, thank you!!! I LOVE Beetlejuice coded music and music that makes you inspired to write!!!

Damn

FUCK CYRUS

YEAH… HE REALLY SUCKS HUH

Well. It happened. Two dreams where I was Beetlejuice, two nights in a row. That was phenomenal!