#tangenting here about bj and charles now

[variousqueerthings]

I'll go x amount of time without having seen a mash episode and think "oh no, bj's not that fucked up, I've just been going a bit hard on the read" only to return and be reminded that he occasionally engages in casual convoluted non-consensual sadism against his best friend as stress-relief

[machihunnicutt]

I would like the sons and bowlers thoughts please

Under the cut bc it’s soooo long lmao

Things in sons and bowlers that make me crazy (in no particular order)

1)The idea that daniel pierce shields hawkeye from things that he thinks will hurt him psychologically and actively tries to distract him with kindness/good things i.e. making him elaborate breakfasts while his mom was dying in the hospital and downplaying the extent of her illness. I think this is so interesting bc we’ve often seen hawkeye deflect with jokes/go out of his way to help people inside and outside of OR and make sacrifices to do so/ downplay the extent of his own pain/trauma in order to avoid inconveniencing people and the idea that this is a behavior he learned as a child, way before the war is a major clue to the events in GFA

He doesn’t deal with his trauma, he minimizes it to the point of repression and convinces himself things are alright! He’s become his father! That blows my mind idk

2) hawkeye just has his dad and his dad just has him! We saw in where there’s a will that he leaves everything to his father but this really drives home how much hawkeye loves his dad. Like i think part of why this makes me crazy is that i have daddy/mommy issues but i feel like for hawkeye this is a big character beat that people overlook. He’s not like the others at the unit in that they all have families/career aspirations/grounded support systems to return to and for hawkeye all he’s got is his dad and he really finds his support system in the MASH…and yeah he’s a workaholic and a brilliant surgeon but he’s also the kind of person who thrives on human connection and cannot live without his connections to those around him. Like hawkeye is all heart AGH what happens when someone like that is removed from a place where they formed deep connections?

Also the fact that he’s like iv’e said ily but what if he doesnt know i mean it like man u really don’t expect people to listen to what u say

3) back on daniel, sorry but i love food/mealtime/cooking themes with hawkeye too and the fact that shared, homemade breakfasts were his father’s symbol of love and protection just makes the absence of good food at the MASH even more devastating. I also see hawkeye as someone who can disassociate from his body easily (the drinking, the sleeping around, the constant sniffing of food/not eating if it isn’t appetizing/ going long periods without sleep and insomnia, the manic episodes/psych problems) so the reconnection of family to food is important here too! Like i’m going to get to charles but the fact that he tells the story about feeling tested at dinner and his related food associations, i think it’s really telling that in contrast we get hawkeye and daniel talking about the good times they had eating dinner together

4) brief margaret tangent i like that this is a reversal of the early seasons trope of her sleeping with someone for some plot/ulterior motive and now when potter asks her if she’ll do that she’s like fuck off and then uses the guy for bowling tips and not sex lol i just think it’s a succient way to show her development over time and i also love when she gets to do sporty/more traditionally masculine things and not be dunked on for it

5) bj and charles scheming idk i love this in any episode i like that they bring out the evil asshole in each other i find it funny and charming they’re my faves for a reason i think dos and mike are both soooo talented

6) the contrast between charles’ home life and hawkeye’s and how thats shaped them. i ‘m really interested in the similarities between charles and hawk i think they have similar backgrounds and similar drive/talent/pressure to be surgeons and be the best at what they do/similarly desperate desire for connection with people/to art and music and theater etc. and they can be similarly overconfident/stubborn it just manifests so differently in their behaviors. I feel like this is one of the few times we see them acknowledge each other as people and put aside their differences in order to support each other idk u know i love a charles plotline im human

7) speaking of supporting people! Also crazy about bj’s progressive loss of the ability to provide hawkeye with emotional support and here he doesn’t even know hawkeye was struggling bc hawkeye’s like don’t tell anyone ! he doesn’t want to tell his best friend his problems bc bj doesn’t help him with things like that. And in fact telling bj might be something that sets bj off further like every day this man’s mental health is crumbling he’s hanging on by a thread and hawkeye knows this, more finale set up that’s so subtly done i love it

7.5) also the fact that if daniel’s surgery had gone badly this would be another hawkeye doesn’t get a real goodbye situation (.i.e his mom, trapper, henry, carlye, tommy, kyung hee, bj etc.) whyyyy do they do this

8) there’s bowling like come on are u serious i love bowling and they’re so cute bowling

[spitefulinamillionways]

headcanon requests, you say? can i get some uhhh charles going Full Dad on beej? i love that dynamic sm!

hskshdjsfb yes!!! i love that dynamic too it’s just 💞💓💕💘💖💗

just letting you know this is long as fuck because i have so many ideas for this

when beej was brought back by lydia him and charles didn’t really have much of a relationship other than ‘please don’t disturb me while i’m trying to birdwatch thanks’

lydia has tried talking to him about charles but bj usually got bored

but everything changed when the fire nation attacked when he spotted betelgeuse trying his absolute best to help lydia with some homework (let’s just say it was english or something)

so he comes into her room all ‘hey what’s going on here?’ and offers to help

lydia agrees obviously

the two are uncomfortable at first constantly interrupting eachother and doing that thing where they’re like ‘no you can go first’ ‘no you were talking first’ and then being silent for a second before talking at the same time but they eventually work it out and find how well they can work together

it all ended with lydia finally finishing her homework after a whole hour and a half even with help because they kept getting distracted and talked about stuff until one of them (never betelgeuse) were like ‘okay guys we need to do the homework’

after that charles tries his best to get closer with betelgeuse and it works

it’s actually scary how much they get along dispite being almost polar opposites but being scary as we all know is betelgeuse’s thing so don’t worry it’s ok

one day betelgeuse and lydia did a weird little art project they found online and show it to charles

lydia explains everything about it and betelgeuse ends it with ‘and i did that part!’ and he points to a couple scribbly drawings of random things

charles is all ‘that’s so good! i’m really impressed with you two!’ and beej’s hair instantly turns a bright green because he’d never had a father figure, hell even a normal parental figure, in his life

from then on beej showed everything he (and sometimes lydia) made and charles was always equally, if not more, impressed everytime

he also was glad it gave bj a hobby and something to do other than drink or wreck the house

he was surprised at how much of a pushover bj could be if you were just nice to him (i don’t know if pushover is the right word, i was thinking sweetheart but that sounded weird)

charles started inviting bj to do things with him and lydia that would usually just be, yknow, him and lydia

of course bj would accept and be overjoyed the whole time

fast forward to maybe a couple weeks and he’s gotten really used to this, both bj and charles, so after hearing lydia call charles dad so many times you can imagine what eventually happened

‘hiya, dad! h-‘ he stopped after realising what he had said, after basically everyone was staring at him

‘dad? am i a father figure to you?’

‘obviouslynotthat’sweird, it was just an accident’

‘alright, whatever you say, son’ he couldn’t help but smile at how happy betelgeuse got whenever he said things like that

betelgeuse started calling charles dad a bit more, feeling as if it was okay (which it was) but it got kinda awkward after delia mentioned it reminded her of the wedding, but that was in the past and bj had proven he wasn’t completely an asshole

lydia didn’t feel jealous while bj was getting affection, she felt happy for him and was excited that he was basically her brother now

ok i know this is a bit of a tangent and it’s not about charles and bj like you asked but betelgeuse goes full Protective Older Brother on anyone who even LOOKS at lydia in a bad way at school or anywhere. he’s said multiple times how he’s willing to kill lydias bullies but she always says the same thing about how ‘it’s wrong’ and stuff. but what a shock to her when she finds one of her worst bullies has gone missing right after they had talked some absolute sHIT and spread a rumour about her. she obviously knew who did it and was all ‘you can’t do this beej, i don’t know where they are but-‘ ‘lyds i’m just gonna be real with you i doubt they’ll ever find the body’

lydia didn’t know what the fuck to say

anyway back to charles and bj

yeah like i was saying she wasn’t jealous at all, in fact she was glad about how bj was being included more and wouldn’t just have to leave him on his own when some family gathering was happening with everyone (including the maitlands)

bj didn’t do the best on those days

after telling this to charles he felt really bad and apologised way too many times even though bj insisted it was okay and he didn’t really care anymore

bj is invited to everything now as long as he doesn’t make a mess (which he doesn’t, apart from on april fools which, oh god, was hell for everyone including himself)

of course there were times where bj couldn’t be invited as it was ‘Deetzes Only Please We Have Something Serious To Talk About Thank You Sorry’ but he would just vibe with the maitlands a bit

charles once overheard a (pretty depressing and obviously meant to be private) conversation between bj and lydia where he was talking about juno and how horrible she was, it was filled with many tears from beej and hugs from lydia

charles was really to fucking destroy a bitch!!!!!

he knocked on the door to lydias room and asked if he could come in

bj said yeah but lydia said no

he said it was okay and he’ll just ‘clean himself up a bit’ so he tried to change his hair colour on demand, something he had once learnt to do when he was with juno, but it only worked a little bit

charles asked what was wrong and bj insisted nothing and that everything was fine but charles already knew that was a lie

‘i want you to tell me everything she did to you.’

‘what?’

‘your mom. what did she do to you?’

‘ah, it’s fine, dad, really it wasn’t-‘

‘just talk about it. let it all out, okay?’

that night was uh

a lot

for all three of them

but it helped beej a lot and he was back to his normal self the next day which is good!!

i’m gonna try and wrap this up because this is extremely long and i don’t think you were expecting this much, but this is literally the first ask i’ve ever gotten in all my time on tumblr, even on my older blogs lol so i wanted to make the most of it

beej and charles have the best father to son dynamic you can’t change my mind because i am correct ok thank you my name is matylda thank you for coming to my ted talk

no but seriously thank you for being my first ask!! this was so much fun to write and i hope it’s not too bad, it’s pretty early in the uk and i’m kinda tired so if there are any mistakes i didn’t find i’ll try my best to fix them later! 🤍🖤🤍🖤

[totally-incorrect-theatre-quotes]

After the Rain (Fanfic)

Beetlejuice

In which sibling chaos ensures and Lydia comes out to Beetlejuice. 

Guys I think this might be the most angst-free fic I’ve ever written

TW: Reference to Suicide (non-descriptive), bullying mentions

_______________________________________________________________

There was something going on in the house. Things had been a little too chummy around here ever since Lydia had gone back to school. Beetlejuice was annoyed to lose his partner in crime for seven hours out of the day plus all those hours she would spend in her room yelling at her homework. He hardly got a chuckle when he offered to eat her homework so she could blame it on the demon living in her house, she just rolled her eyes at him as she curled up another sheet of what she considered wrong answers and tossed it in the trash can next to her desk. The first week everything was fine, he was lonely but when she came home she was still excited to see him and talk about her day. He didn’t tell her how extremely boring it was, but sometimes her stories would drone on and she’d get into these tangents that he didn’t quite understand. For example, she came home on a Thursday and complained about for a solid hour about her geometry class and how difficult it is to find the circumference of a circle. He thought that was pointless but she seemed worked up over it. It all just seemed like normal teenage stuff to him for the first while back to school, but the second week she stopped coming in all smiles or huffing about some stupid question she got wrong on the quiz. She would spend more time shut up in the room, not wanting to talk to anyone. 

He wasn’t good with the whole emotions thing, any time he tried to help her he usually made the mess a whole lot worse so he figured he’d just let the breathers figure out why she was mopping around so much. It was a boring waiting game though, he heard fragments of what was going on some kids were being pricks to her at school but she rejected his offer to “take care of things” because his idea of taking care of things was apparently “immoral” and “illegal”. He was walking past her bedroom one night and he heard her crying, and something was thrown against her wall. He peered in cautiously wanting to do something, even if it was just distracting her with a stupid joke but she noticed him, walked over and gently shut the door in his face. He took the message and gave her space, but he couldn’t help but to feel a little hurt when he heard her talking to her father in his bedroom about how she was feeling. She was glad though that things were getting better, she seemed happier after that conversation and though he didn’t understand what exactly was going on he was happy to have his friend back. 

“Do you ever worry you’re avoiding doing something really important?” she asked him while he was absolutely destroying her at Mario Cart

“Constantly, I was supposed to give Chuck the keys to his car back like a month ago.”

“Wait my dad let you borrow the car?”

“Borrow isn’t the word I would use, I would say I took it without permission and have been avoiding giving him his keys back to not get caught. I’m surprised he hasn’t said anything, I have no clue how he’s been getting to work all this time.”

Lydia glared at him, “He has a second set of keys? He thought he lost his at the store or something.”

“You aren’t going to tell on me are ya, Scarecrow?” 

“No, I’m not a snitch. You just owe me now.”

“The usual?” Beetlejuice lowered his voice while Lydia tried to hold back a giggle as she nodded, “Okay fine, you’re a tough customer. I’ll find a way to get you more Capri Suns but it might take me some time.”

She wrinkled her nose at him just like she did any time she thought he was funny. He liked it when she laughed, he was so used to seeing her somber and upset during those first few days he knew her, and he still shuddered when he thought about when he found her crying in the bathroom...a bottle of pills thrown in the garbage can. Thankfully unopened but his mind instantly went to the worst. Seeing her happy was the closest thing he got to feeling alive again, and it was much nicer than the rollercoaster of emotions that first time around. 

“So what are you avoiding? Telling Chuck about a bad grade or worse...telling Barbara about a bad grade? What was it in, because I’ll have you know I graduated for Julliard and I’m sure I can figure out whatever easy stuff they’re teaching you, sixth graders.”

“I’m in high school BJ, but no it’s not that. I don’t know, it was dumb of me to ask. It’s just kind of confusing and I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually but,” she was getting flustered trying to explain, “I’ll tell you another time.”

He shrugged and they went back to playing their video game. He was heavily insulted to realize that there wasn’t even a second controller to the console and that the whole time he had been using a flower pot and thinking one of the cars was his. She had let him go on like that for almost two hours before she eventually broke down laughing and told him the truth. Said flower pot was then smashed on the floor and the two had to quickly fix it before Barbara found out. 

Another week or so passed by with Lydia getting more comfortable with her new routine. Every Saturday she made time to spend with him just hanging out, doing friends things while listening to her talk about her week. He had been planning an amazing prank with Lydia to play on her father. The two struggled to figure out where he, a dead guy, and Lydia, a child would be able to purchase fireworks, but they figured they could just cross that bridge when they got to it. Friday nights though he was kind of the odd man out, that’s when she went up to the attic to hang with the Maitlands, so he usually either popped back to the Netherworld or recently he found out he had a lot more in common with Donna than he thought, he even finally figured out that he named was actually Delia. That Friday night Delia was busy though, selfishly going on a dinner date with Charles leaving Beetlejuice to his own devices, he thought about crashing the attic party but when he got to the door he heard Lydia sniffling about something and figured this was a whole lovey-dovey thing that he shouldn’t interrupt. He couldn’t help but feel left out, wishing that sometimes Lydia would come to him with this kind of stuff too but he figured the Maitlands or her parents knew better, he should just stick with being the fun one. 

Lydia woke up the next morning feeling so much lighter after having told the Maitlands what was on her mind and she was ready to unleash the master prank her and BJ had been planning for almost two weeks now. Though it took some work and possibility lying about her age on the internet they were able to secure three bottle-rockets and fourteen confetti poppers, she wasn’t exactly sure what was going to happen but she was just excited to see the look on everyone’s face if they could actually figure out how to get it to explode the colors they had picked. The two of them were out in the backyard, trying not to draw attention to themselves when she realized she hadn’t told BJ yet. He was just as much a member of her new family as everyone else was, and she felt bad for not telling him sooner. 

She didn’t know how to approach it with him though, it had been an accident with Delia, a serious conversation with her dad and the Maitlands, and none of those seemed like options for telling him. A joke seemed too casual but he wasn’t the serious conversation kind of guy. She looked over at him kicking a rock at the fence in the yard because “it was looking at him the wrong way” and she decided there was no right or wrong way to do it. 

“Hey Beej, can I tell you something?”

“Is it how to get vengeance on a rock because that fucking STONE over there is getting on my last damn nerve”

“No, it’s not that dumbass.” She rolled her eyes at him, and lead him by the hand over to the porch swing, “I want to tell you something, and it’s kinda important so don’t be weird about it, alright?”

“No promises.”

“I’m gay.”

“I’m a hazard to society.”

Lydia jerked her head back, “Wait what?” “Oh, I thought we were saying things that were obvious.” She smacked his arm roughly and he gave her a toothy grin, “What? Come on you think I didn’t know that my best friend wasn’t into dudes?”

“You literally married me!” 

“Oh my god, how many times do I have to tell you it was a green card thing! It was funny the first time you joked about being my widow. Besides, that sham of a marriage was mutually beneficial.”

“I fail to see how I benefitted from it besides it being an interesting topic to discuss with my therapist.”

He groaned as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “It was meant to serve as a message to reinforce that men are trash.”

“Aren’t you a man?” Lydia tilted her head at him

“Am I not trash?”

“And don’t you have like a massive crush on the Maitlands? I can’t say for sure but I’m pretty sure Adam is a guy.” She laughed when she was tints of crimson flush on Beetlejuice’s cheeks. They both laughed for a little bit before Lydia sighed, “I’m glad I told you, even if you’re being annoying about it.”

“That’s my job.” He ruffled her short black hair affectionately, “...I’m glad you told me too.”

[tropicalfreckles]

Friends Again CH 1

Hey guys, decided I’d post this here, too! An obvious Disclaimer beforehand, B**TLEB*BES DNI MASTER LIST found here

Now then. I started writing this about two months or so ago, had the idea in my head from the first time I watched the musical. The first two chapters didn’t have anyone beta reading it, and my writing is super rusty since I haven’t posted fanfiction online in 10 years until now. Here’s the quick summary from AO3! Rating: M (for body horror mentions. other than that the content would be T for the cursing)

Warnings: Body Horror, Blood, they talk about how Lydia impaled Beej, some violence, at some point they will brush up on Beej’s child abuse from Juno (though it won’t be detailed), Bug eating, Beej pervs on the Maitlands just a little, Lot of cursing. (i’ll add more warning tags if you guys give me a heads up about anything I missed!)

Characters: Lydia Deetz, Charles Deetz, Delia Deetz, Adam Maitland, Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & a few OCs made for the fic along with the introduction of my demon BJ oc, Antares!

Summary:  It had been months since her face off against the ghost with the most, it ending on a very mixed note for Lydia. But, the events won't leave her dreams, and she is slowly coming to terms with her suffering from trauma because of her actions. Would it lead to her confronting them, and in turn, seeing the source of it all once more?

(fic in read more)

 Eight long months had passed since Lydia finally decided to open herself up more to her father again. Along with accepting Delia as being apart of their new, weird, happier family. Lydia definitely saw the Maitlands as part of that family with how much they've done to help her, her father and her recently made step-mother. She would've been surprised with how fast those two had gotten married after the engagement if it wasn't for the whole near death experience by angry demon thing. They figured after that life was short, especially compared to the Maitlands and got married only a few months after they finally were settled in. Unfortunately for poor Lydia, the nightmares she had after her clash with her demon ex-friend still clung to her. They started about two weeks after everything happened. It was enough time for Lydia to let things sink in about what they did and even if he deserved it, how she killed a person. They happened almost every night, then every other night, and by month four had stopped. Then the month after they started up again and even though Delia tried her hardest, she just couldn't help with Lydia's mental health deteriorating again. So she began to see a family therapist. She had to leave out some details for obvious reasons and changed the story a little, but it was only helping so much. Every time she would recount the nightmare in vivid detail to her therapist.

 'Everything around her was distorted, like it was the inside of a funhouse mirror. The colors around her varied from a mix of eerie, bright and ghoulish colors to more monotone colors blending into each other. Her heart was thumping into her chest as everyone played the part that she had given them. I'm doing the right thing, he won't stop. He's a demon so it's okay! That's all she was able to think about to justify her actions. The joy of being alive after their 'green card' marriage soon came crashing down onto the dirty recently revived Beetlejuice as he went off on one of his tangents. Going on about the mixed emotions of humans that were overwhelming him all at once. He started getting a look in his eyes, going straight to murderous thoughts just as she knew he would. Her breathing picks up as she grabs onto the broken piece of rebar from the poor taste of art that her father hands to her. She fixes her footing and screams as she plunges the make-shift weapon through the back of the demon, screaming as she used all the force she could muster. Everything becomes distorted around her after that; everyone else becoming shapeless blobs. Except for the dying Beetlejuice who stares off like he's gazing at an unknown force. In typical fashion he cracks a joke with his dying breathe. The blobs were all shocked at the action until Lydia told them why she did it. They started to move in an off-putting way to get ready to be rid of him when he would rise as the recently deceased.

Before it could play out just as it did in reality everything went black around her. Terrifying mouths appeared into the view everywhere she looked. The adrenaline that spiked when she stabbed him now was replaced from anxiety to dread as blood poured out from the mouths. Their laughter echoed with twisted and distorted voices. The blood swallowed up the demon before her. She tried to wade through the blood in vain trying to reach him as fear engulfied her.

"No... NO! Beetlejuice-!"

It's not supposed to be like this; he's supposed to go back to the netherworld, he's supposed to be okay! Everyone is supposed to be okay! She reached out, crying out his name in an attempt to save him,

"Beetlejuice!" She saw his body surface in the sea of crimson. It was carrying him further and further from her as her dress became heavier with every passing second. Blood coated her face as she kept an outstretched arm to try and grab onto him.

A cackle echoes from the darkness as a giant hand pulled him out of the blood, belonging to a woman she only was briefly introduced to. It was his mother, the head demon in charge of the more bureaucratic side of the Netherworld. Juno. His body is still, lifeless now, his hair color changed to a purpleish-blue.

" BEETLEJUICE !" She screams one last time. A giant sand worm jumps out of Juno's mouth and eats both the demon she cried out for, and herself. Then she wakes up.'

 Well, at least she would partly tell the truth. She left out a lot of key details from her nightmare when talking about it, such as marrying a centuries or millennia old demon as a green card thing to bring him back to life. About ghosts in general. Lydia had to switch many things around, along with the murder. The story changed to her having a horrible fight with an old friend who she 'stabbed him in the back'. More metaphorically than in actuality being physically. Talking about her trauma to anyone outside of the family was really difficult. Which is why she didn't see the point to seeing a therapist in the first place. Thankfully most of the facts could be turned into metaphors with some hoop jumping. She finally got the story 'straight' with her family prior to opening up. What she would tell the therapist is she betrayed a friend who had mental health problems and was threatening her family. She told them she called the cops on him and made it out that his abusive mother beat the shit out of him. Then shipped him off to military school instead of him going to juvey. The therapist took the strange nightmares she would have as a vivid imagination of her guilt of betraying someone she thought as her friend before. She wasn't even that close to him, they only spent a few days together and she was more focused on seeing her mother again. Yet killing the man is something that made her stomach turn when she thought about it again. It was different than the thrill of scaring people with him from before. Sure he was 'fine' in the sense of he was just back to square one of being a ghost and a demon again. However she still took something away from him that was bigger than she thought before. Life. Even if it did make him go crazy after being alive for less than five minutes.

 He didn't seem too bothered by it when he left following his melodramatic farewells. After feeding his scary mother to a giant sandworm of course. He seemed a little happier, even. Unfortunately she never really got true closure. Sure she gave him a small hug, even though that was a little hard because he smelled so bad. It was probably his clothes since the man looked like he never washed a thing in his life. After a two months of seeing them, her therapist suggested that maybe all she wants is closure to her traumatic experience. The therapist didn't recommend actually going to visit her 'friend' in case it would be too overwhelming for her. A phone call or something was suggested if she thought she wanted to talk to him. Tell him how much of a jerk he was before and how he took things too far. Tell him how she felt bad about the way she ended things. That was going to be complicated though for a number of reasons.

One, even if she did want to go back to the Netherworld which she definitely didn't. It was just like when she had her realization it would take possibly eternity to find her mother. What luck would she have finding Beetlejuice? Two, even though she saw him comically swing his mother's torn leg around after he took her out. What's to say she still wasn't 'existing' and back running the netherworld's social services for the dead. Or whatever it was she did. She didn't want to come face to face with that horrid woman again. She wasn't even sure if demons could die still and she had to have been a demon just like Beetlejuice. Sure she got eaten but once again she could've somehow came back. Three, her family would NEVER let her go back in there. Four was the most important though; did she even want to see him again? Could she even see him again? He certainly wouldn't want to after what happened. Even if they left on neutral terms he might be feeling a bit miffed that she stabbed him in the back. He was still a demon.

 "Feelings are stupid." Lydia groaned, flopping on top of her bed dramatically as she gave a deep sigh. She had just gotten back from another appointment and curled up on the bed.

  "I can't believe I miss when Delia would be the one 'life coaching' me. I shouldn't feel guilty for what happened; he deserved it. He was going to kill dad, possibly everyone. He tricked me into almost exorcising Barbara!" Lydia wrinkled her nose, kicking at the air with her legs as she grabbed onto her pillow then tore at it a little."That big, smelly jerk."

 She sniffled a little then buried her face into the pillow. Why should she care. He only ever cared about his powers and about himself. Even if he stood up for her and saved her from his crappy mom. Who only was there because she ran into the Netherworld and abandoned everyone. In hopes of seeing her mom again. She wasn't at fault, though; it was just a big mess.

  "Lydia sweetie, are you okay?" A concerned voice came from behind her door with a gentle knock following it.

  "Is it okay if I come in?" Lydia lifted her head from the pillow then looked to the door. She gave a one shoulder shrug.

 "Only if you want to, Barbara." She shifted, rolling onto her back as she stared up at the ceiling. Barbara phased through the door deciding she would practice on her ghostly abilities some more. Even if she still felt it a bit rude to not use the door. She walked over to the bed, then sat down on the edge of it while reaching out to gently stroke Lydia's head.

  "How was your appointment honey?" She gave the sweetest, caring smile she could muster for the young girl as Lydia blew one of her bangs out of her face.

 "Was okay, I guess; I don't know why I still have to go to these.." The goth teen closed her eyes, finding it soothing in a way to feel the cold fingers of her friend comforting her. Barbra quirked a brow at her, then stopped for a moment as she gently patted Lydia's head in response.

  "Are you still having those nightmares?" Lydia inhaled deeply before sitting up as she swung her legs around.

 "...yes." She spoke softly, just barely above a whisper as her gaze cast downwards. Barbara inched closer to her then wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders.

  "Oh, Lydia. I know that man was awful. Yet, I understand if you feel bad for him. I still.. really do not like him. Although I hope he's found peace in whatever he is doing now, in the Netherworld. Even if I will never forgive him." A frown creased the lips of the ghostly woman as she knit her brows. "I'm just glad he left on his own at least. Only good thing he did while he was here. Besides saving you." She sighed then gave a shake of her head. Lydia looked up at her while playing with the ends of her lacy black dress.

 "I know.. he. I mean, he wasn't.. I don't know. He's a jerk, yeah, a real asshole. But, I think he did care about us, even if it was a little. Scaring people with him was fun, I just didn't.. want him to kill my dad. Even if I was mad at him. Upset. I know now dad acted the way he did because he was hurting as much as I was. He just masked his grief differently than I did. But, I hated the tantrum Beetlejuice made. I didn't want him to hurt you or Adam." Lydia gently moved her hand over Barbara's hand, eyes softening a bit. Barbara moved her hand away from Lydia, opting to gently grab her cheek.

  "You put too much on your shoulders, sweetie. You're a good kid. You were so brave.. we should've been the ones to protect you, though. Not the other way around. You know I don't hold anything against you for what happened. Adam and I should've not put our trust in Beetlejuice in the first place. What we should've done was shooed him away. But we were just so desperate. Losing everything in such a short amount of time." She moved her hand away, resting both of them now in her lap as she stared down at the floor. "Gosh. I wish I became more assertive sooner. At least now if anything like that happens again, we'll be better about it." She looked back to Lydia, giving her a comforting smile. Lydia nodded to her in response.

 "Well, you don't have to worry about me. I'm not gonna make any more deals with demons I barely know again." Lydia snorted. Barbara gave a small chuckle as she bumped her shoulder.

  "I hope you mean any deals ever again."

 "Eh, we'll see." Lydia snickered, Barbara giving her a small scowl of disapproval.

  "Lydia." Lydia laughed, then gave Barbara a hug.

 "Okay, okay. I really need a nap now." She let go then smiled up at Barbara. The woman took the hint, getting up after giving a small wave. She turned around then phased through the door once more. Lydia kicked her combat boots off her feet, then got up and walked over to the door. She locked it just for some privacy and moved back over to the bed, jumping on it. A nap.. another nightmare? Her expression soured as she stared out to the window of her bedroom. The sky was cloudy, dark grays and purples covering every bit of the bright blue endless sky. She shifted her gaze to the mirror that was on the other side of her room. Reason number four. It would be crazy. She shouldn't even try. How could she be so sure that she could even summon him if he was in the Netherworld. It would be safer to try that than going back into it. Wrapping her arms around herself, her mind was battling all the possibilities of things that could go wrong. A thought occurred to her as she remembered the handbook for the recently deceased. She still had the copy Beetlejuice gave her. Maybe there was a chapter about how to deal with a demon besides marrying them and killing them. Hopping off the bed, she ran to her dresser, digging around in the bottom one. Just as she left it; under her old clothes she never wore anymore. Taking it out, she sat on the ground then began sifting through the pages. A faint glow coming from each one.

 'This is crazy, what am I doing.' Lydia thought to herself after looking through a couple of chapters, sighing as she began to close the book. She couldn't endanger everyone. She didn't want to put them through.. hm. Hold on. Her eyes flickered as she noticed a color change in a page, big red letters spelling out the name of a new chapter. DEMONS, and how to handle them. Her fingers smoothed over the page as he brought the book into her lap once more.

  "You can summon special demons by chanting their name three times, without breaking the pattern. If your demon guide however is unhelpful, and causing more problems than you need. You can send them back by chanting their name once more. Three times, unbroken..."

 Her eyes widen as she bit her lip. If it was in this book, then it had to work, right? This was given to the recently deceased to help them after all. She thought back to after everything happened with Beetlejuice, remembering her dad now having crosses around the house even if that didn't really work when he used it before. However he had also acquired holy water and given Lydia some as a precaution. She thought it was silly, since back then she had no reason to believe Beetlejuice would come back. Now that she was faced with a new option, however. She slid the dresser drawer back in place, keeping the book tucked under her arm. She walked over to her bookshelf and pulled down a squirt gun that her dad had poured the holy water in. Would this actually work? If it didn't it probably would either piss Beetlejuice off or make him laugh at her. Or both. Either way she still liked the security of it. Maybe he'll be too entertained by her squirting him with holy water to hurt her or the others. Holding this in her hand meant that this was real. She was really going to do this. Walking over to her curtains, she closed them quickly. Lydia then went to her phone on the nightstand then picked it up. She turned the Bluetooth on, changing the volume of her music to the max. It wasn't uncommon for Lydia to listen to her music loudly some times. A good excuse to cover up whatever noise the demon would bring; the others wouldn't question it. Her dad wouldn't be home for a little while longer so she didn't need to worry about him. He was the only person who was ever bothered by her listening too loud.

 "Alright.. you can do this, Lydia. Just. Just one quick conversation can work for closure, right? Right. This isn't the dumbest thing you ever did at all. Besides summoning him the first time.." She tossed the book on the bed, then held up her squirt gun. It might not even work, so that would be good. Right? This is just an empty attempt. Whatever it took to reassure herself she wasn't going to get killed. Sitting down on the end of her bed, she stared out at the mirror. Okay. You can do this, Lydia Deetz.

 "Beetlejuice.." Everything seemed normal so far. Just the sound of her music, nothing eerie whatsoever. There was a chill however she felt against her neck, though she figured it was just her nerves.

 "Beetlejuice." A gust of wind started knocking hard at her window. It had to have been the oncoming storm. Just another coincidence. Or so she thought. Her music started to change songs at a frequent pace. Shit. This was really happening. Was he really going to come? She gripped her squirt gun, gritting her teeth. She couldn't show fear. Lydia refused to let him have the upper-hand.

 "Beetlejuice!"