Some Pre-Blog Werepoodle AU Art

Here's some drawings I drew on DeviantArt in relation to my AU but have yet to share here:

This one titled "Betty Boop and her Stupid Idiot Gang" with the link being right here. The description of this image has given some good slight details about my AU and some ideas I have a bit and ones I omitted and the reasons why. I wanted to just copy and paste the description here but trying to transfer DA text over here can be glitchy and frustrating so I'll just be sharing the link. The next drawings will also have links to the DA version so you can also see their own more descriptive descriptions. (Originally posted to DA on 9/22/2023)

A Turning Red parody, link is here. Simply titled "Turning Boop." Mainly inspired by how I noticed some coincidental similarities between my AU ideas and the plot and characterization of the main character in the Turning Red movie. Also found it funny how Betty can sometimes be depicted as a redhead. (Originally posted to DA on 3/24/2022)

The original/my first werepoodle drawing. So one thing, as you can see this image implicates Betty would shift her look depending on night or day, which may be a bit contradictory to how in the first of the Werepoodle Diaries (if ya haven't already read) it says that werewolves and weredogs transforming because of the influence of a moon is a misconception (within the story's world) unless it's the result or influence of a magic/supernatural moon. I had this werepoodle idea for some time now with the earliest version being some time at the start of the very decade. So many ideas would go around and change. If you wanna know the reason I changed it though, it's because I just found the whole "werewolf changing only under the moon" thing to not just be a bit of a limiting cliche but also how there isn't really any good reason for that to specifically happen. Why does it have to be under those circumstances specifically? Wolves howling at the moon is also a misconception in itself. It's just the result of some not well thought out myths and superstitions and I like it when werewolves, weredogs and other werebeasts can freely transform much better unless a story's canon gives good reason or lore why the moon has this specific impact.

Alright, so those are the pre-blog pictures that were made in mind for this AU specifically. Just felt like sharing them due to being relevant and I also wanted to make more content for this blog, but because of many things in the way preventing me from fully focusing on it, in the mean time I decided to just share some other related things to this 'verse that I haven't. I have each description, both on blog and on DA is informative enough for what I have to give out already. Hopefully I get more free time to upload some new content soon. (Originally posted to DA 1/18/22)

The Werepoodly Origins of Betty Boop

 

Sometimes She's A Human, Sometimes She's A Dog, But All The Time She's still Betty

A long time ago, two Jewish immigrants from Central Europe came to New York. At some point, they planned to have a child. After some months, the child was born but it was not the ordinary child they'd been hoping for. Despite belonging to two seemingly normal human parents, the little girl was born with the traits and features of a dog. She had a body like a human, a face similar to a human, but ears, nose and some other qualities of that of a poodle.

While the close-minded parents were not happy bringing a child with such a "defect" into the world, the father even more upset as he wanted a boy and not a girl, they would still decide on keeping her. This child would be named Betty Nan Boop Blum, but she would simply be known under the name of Betty Boop. Eventually they realized Betty was someone stricken with a rare variant of "werebeast syndrome" specifically one that made her a werepoodle. As a baby she would often switch between her more human and dog forms at random.

As the child grew, her parents forced her to try and appear fully human as much as possible. There was also added pressure of how her parents were very abusive and strict with her, mostly verbally. Little Betty struggled trying to fit in either way as humans found her head to look too weird and oddly dog-like while animal people found her features to look too human. While the mean comments would often hurt Betty, she refused to completely give in and would transform whenever she liked as much as possible. Although she had felt lonely at times.

Luckily, she had a loyal friend by the name of Bimbo the dog. The two were friends as long as they could remember. When they were at an age where they finally could fully speak, Betty would complain about how, while she is used to it, she often doesn't like the ridicule she gets by people for being perceived as "ugly" and "uncanny" looking. Bimbo would say that he thinks she looks fine and that the other people who act mean to her are just dummies. Because of this, he would often try and support her by making her feel better.

One day, Betty said that there were times she wanted to hide. Bimbo decided to give her some type of hooded hat incase Betty felt like she wanted cover her features at times. Bimbo said he'd like it if she could just show herself instead of hiding herself but if it made her feel more comfortable to wear it if she really feels like she needs it. Betty would hug Bimbo and thank him in response and grab onto this hat from time to time as it reminded her of Bimbo's niceness to her and felt like a hug.

At some point, they would eventually meet a friend by the name of Koko the Clown. Koko used to be quite silent for a while and it seemed like he either didn't know how to speak or just preferred not to speak as a child. Koko, like Betty, was a monster but of a different variety. He was some sort of slime-liquid or semi-solid clown creature. He was also accepting of and friendly towards Betty. The three became the best of friends and would often play with each other.

Sometime later on, as the three became teenagers and some things were changing. Koko could speak for a while, Bimbo's birth parents had been divorced for some time and lived with his mother and Betty would take on a human appearance more often as she could control her forms more and she was forced to comply with fitting in with the appearance of her human family. Around their early teens, Betty and Bimbo began to date. Bimbo's mother was fine with the relationship and liked Betty but Betty's parents weren't so fond of Bimbo and, aside from his mischievous and rascally behavior, were concerned if he would make her feel like she wanted to be less human and more of a dog. Betty's parents felt Bimbo was a bad influence on her and wanted him gone.

Betty said that she loves Bimbo, and Bimbo and some of the other few friends she made along the years, have been more nicer to her than her parents ever had. Her parents would often try to keep Bimbo away from their daughter but Betty would often find ways to sneak out against her parent's will.

At some point, now in her mid-teens, Betty's parents were tired of her constant rebellious behavior, noticed how she'd been going werepoodle more often than before, hanging around friends and people they didn't like as well as other things they didn't approve of. They decided to kick her out, an idea formed by her father, as Betty's father was the more cruel one of the two and resented her more. Now forced to pack up and feeling she had no place to go, Betty was sad for a bit but then realized she could always go to her Grampy's place.

Betty Boop called Bimbo to help her move and drive her there and so he did. After getting all of her belongings out Betty thanked Bimbo and Bimbo hoped she could be happy at her new home. They hugged and then waved goodbye to each other as Bimbo drove off. Betty would ring the doorbell and Grampy would instantly let her in and show her around the place. His home was both a nice home and a hideout that contained some type of laboratory with all kinds of neat gadgets and gizmos. He was a renowned genius inventor after all.

Despite one of her parents ironically being his own son, Grampy is more open-minded and accepting than either of Betty's parents combined. This is because his son, Betty's father, was first mostly raised by his cold, now deceased, ex-wife who had custody over him, even after their relationship had ended and they split, but he would later on mostly grow up in a boarding school. Betty never met her grandmother and Grampy has yet to really talk about her much with Betty.

Betty and Grampy would live a very happy life, as Betty finally was with a member of her family who was more nice to her. She also got to own a little dog called Pudgy too. She saw Pudgy as her sweet and precious little "baby" and protected the pup with her life. No one lays a hand on Pudgy without Betty knocking the daylights out of them.

After spending some time together, Grampy would tell Betty how he knows people and has many associates within the monster hunting business and feels that Betty's supernatural abilities would be useful in combatting many evil creatures and spirits that exist in the world and she could make a fortune off of it too. He has created lots of technology, many of which have been weapons, tools and machines for monster hunters who have paid good and high prices and that by joining in on the job, she could not just make bucks but help save many lives who have been harmed by the several entities that roam the world.

Betty agrees, while she isn't too concerned for the money, although it could be helpful in getting many things she wanted, she agreed to being able to openly use her powers and transform more as well as help people as it's something she likes to do. She would also call in Bimbo, who she knows enjoys getting into fights, to join in on the job. Bimbo agreed and became a sort of apprentice to Grampy and thus use many weapons and technology given to him by him. The two would be assigned missions by Grampy, hunt evil creatures together and make cash from it. They would also call in their friend Koko into the mix for additional support, while he was not concerned with the job so much as he just wanted to assist and be there with his best of friends, he still did accept whatever money was offered.

Now finally free to express herself as someone who can both be werehuman and/or werepoodle as she pleases, Betty and her friends decide to have fun and fight evil, regardless of being supernatural or not. In her free time, she may enjoy doing some acting, singing and dancing but her current main priority has been focusing on what next bounty she may get and what else she can do with the untapped potential of her latent werepoodle powers.

Betty Boop's Werepoodle Diaries No. 3

Jan 2024 Edit: There may be a weird glitch where not all of the Werepoodle Diaries may pop up normally through the usual way of looking through older posts. There has been a post made to correct that so they can all be viewed in order easier. Also, please check out the weebly version for these as I had issues setting them up on blogger but the weebly counterpart makes them look in the more preferable and less “messy” manner. The DA links also do not work anymore, reasons explained later on the blog, and only stick around simply because I do not feel like editing it.

(Copied from Deviantart literature)

(The copied text for this really glitched out for this one for some reason, so sorry if anything makes it look weird. I spent a while trying to fix it as much as I could and spent way too much time on trying to fix it than I would have preferably liked.)

Betty Boop’s Werepoodle Diaries: Ghost Huntin'

Dear Diary, Betty Boop here to say me and my pals are on another mission. Another mission you may ask? What is this? Well, while me and my friends, Bimbo and Koko are part time actors appearing in things such as obscure and cult classic films, part time musicians who love playing some sweet jazz and having different other part times of our own, we are also part time monster/baddie hunters!

Now, I gotta mention it is a known fact that being a monster hunter pays very good money in this world filled to the brim with them, but unlike some, we wanna make it known that not all monsters are bad monsters and we focus on going after bad guys of any kind too! Even those who may use and abuse monsters for their own evil gain! While Bimbo is just a dog-boy, me and Koko are both monsters of different varieties! As you know I am a werepoodle after all but Koko is like this weird but cool clown sorta goo liquid monster mixture sort of thing. I find it awesome!

Grampy, as a both renowned inventor and scientist, is often making many machines and weaponry and may send it out to people, who either ask or commission them, to make more dough. He's made quite a fortune off of many of the wacky inventions he's made but he often has to use the money to make more stuff. He has several colleagues and associates, such as those in the monster hunting business, and has trained me and Bimbo as his proteges as we both got good skill and guts to be in it. While he may at times be more focused on his clown career, Koko joins in for additional support, cause he's our good buddy and his monster abilities are pretty helpful.

Grampy gathered us all at his hideout to announce our next mission. "Alright boys and girl! Today there have been several requests to look into a certain creepy home, down at this avenue, because it's been infested with ghostly foes who keep killing a bunch of people but no one had the guts to kill 'em yet nor responded to the request. Since you fellas have what it takes, are ya willing to go on this mission?" He said while pointing at one of his super cool high tech screen thingies. "Yeah sure thing! You can count on us Grampy!" I said with confidence and Bimbo and Koko nodded in agreement.

"Good. Now remember kids, reports say these ghosts are semi-tangible. Just to be safe, Bimbo, since you're the multi-weapons guy here, I'm gonna ask you to carry the ghost capturing device. When they aren't tangible you need to grab 'em with the device but when they are, be sure to whack em." Bimbo gladly took the device. "Okay, Colonel!" He replied with his usual phrase. "Now Betty, Koko, I want you to use any monster abilities you've got to combat the supernatural influence of the ghosts. Ain't sure what types of ghosts we're dealing with, but they sure ain't pleasant." Both of us gave a thumbs up.

"Great, now the bounty on them is a total of around $5,000-" "FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS?" We all shouted. "Let me finish! Yep $5,000 but you're all gonna have to split it to hmm… lemme see here…$1666.66666667 each." "Aww." We all pouted but were still up to take the job. "Anyways now, hurry up and go take the bounty! I got some work to do and a little pet here to feed." Pudgy was rubbing against Grampy to ask him for food, he was so cute. I picked him up and kissed him on the forehead. "Bye Pudgy, mama's out on another mission. I hope you eat some good food when I get back home!" He replied with a little "ruff" and me and the gang went out.

Like a cool action scene, like really cool, Bimbo got out several of his weapons hidden under his sweater, Koko got out some clown equipment… infused with his deadly goo, and I got out my weaponized microphone. It was once just a normal microphone I use for my singing career, but Grampy upgraded it to be more cool and weaponized. I use it like a staff or naginata! "Alright fellas, let's take these ghosties down." I said and we walked off all cool and awesomely.

As we got down to the haunted place we looked around. "Heh, this whole block looks disheveled. Guess these ghosts got to people really bad or scared 'em off and left their places to rot. Well, nothing we can't handle right guys?" I said with confidence. "Ah-huh, just… one thing…” Bimbo said, rather concerned. “How the hell are we going to get up all the way there?” He said while pointing up at a door at a really really large height. “Oh…” I replied. “Don’t worry guys I’ll just stretch us up there.” Koko said as he grabbed us both and used his stretchy liquid physiology to get us up and open the door. “Thanks pal!” Me and Bimbo shouted. “You’re welcome.” Koko said as we walked in and his form became more solid.

It was a bit dark inside but we still walked in. “Haha perks of having some good ol’ night vision.” I said while stupidly closing to blink my eyes and then opening them again. “Wait now, I can’t see.” Bimbo tried to take out his flashlight but it wasn’t working and then it shattered. “Fuck.” He said angrily. “Uh guys? I think we’re about to-” Koko said as several luminescent ghosts grabbed us and shoved us down like several stories below. Of course, we all went “AAAAAAAAH!” then stopped as we got down. It was like the building was larger on the inside as the world looked more like the size of an entire street than even a large hallway. Many ghosts were flying everywhere and many dead bodies were scattered around.

“Hey look, some truly DISGUSTING looking fleshies!” One of the ghosts said while glaring at us. “Actually, and well technically, I’m not made out of what one may call flesh.” Koko said calmly, correcting the ghost. “Silence! We don’t care! You’re all gonna be dead meat when we’re done with you anyways!” We all sorta gulped but kept our composure cause we weren’t all that scared just a lil worried what would come next. The ghosts gathered a bunch of silverware such as rusty spoons and sharp knives. “First, we’re gonna cook ya! And then we’re gonna eat ya! And the non-fleshy dude’s gonna become smoothie!” They all gathered around us.

The ghosts went a bit tangible as they were going towards us. “Alright, I’ve had enough of this shit, I just wanna be done with this and get my dough.” Bimbo said frustrated as he turned on the ghost capturing device. “No wait Bimbo it’s probably too soo-! Ah too late.” I said, trying to reach out at him. As it turned on it made a bit of a loud sound and then a bunch of the ghosts started quickly angrily swarming around us and looking more angry and demonic. It was like a storm of screaming banshees. It was absolutely chaotic.

As I’m still writing this I am trying to keep my grip on my diary as well as my pen and ink. Me and the others are currently ducking while covering our heads as we’re trying to see how to get out of this one. “Betty! What the fuck this isn’t a time to be writing in your diary right now you can do that later!” Bimbo shouted at me. “I’m sorry Bimbo but this is currently so scary and entertaining I wanna write it now!” Bimbo rushed towards me. “Ah, give me that! I’m sorry but you’re gonna have to write in that later!” He tried to get my book from me. “Ah, Bimbo NooOooOoOo!” I said still writing and now with my pen scratching on my paper a bit as he was tugging at me.

…

Betty Boop here again, much much later. Luckily we’re still alive but it took me maybe about 24 hours, I dunno I can't tell how long it's been, to get back to writing this because a certain SOMEONE decided to take my book from me. “Hmph. You know I was only trying to help keep us all focused.” Bimbo said, hearing me shout as I wrote, then pouting and crossing his arms. So on one hand, it seemed the ghost capturing device actually worked and we managed to capture all the ghosts. Yay! But on the other hand, it seems we all got knocked out by a giant rock and now got abducted by and are stuck on the web of a giant spider. Not so yay. “Mwahaha, I’m going to eviscerate ALL OF YOU and feed you to my several babies hahaha.” The spider said disgustingly. “Ew.” I simply replied.

Bimbo took his knife out that he hid in his sleeve to cut himself free. He fell a long way down, as it was a big web, but luckily landed on his feet. “Shit, sorry I’ll get to you guys sooner or later!” He shouted at us. “No worries!” We yelled back. “You fool, what are you doing walking around when I have hundreds and I mean HUNDREDS of babies to feed?” The spider looked down. “What babies?” Bimbo said after stabbing a bunch of them. “Ah not the babies, they were so cute!” I said frowning. “GAAAAAAH, MY BABIES! Stupid mutt, you’re gonna get eaten first!” The spider quickly grabbed Bimbo about to chomp his head off. “Welp, here you guys catch!” He threw his knife at us and I caught it and set me and Koko free. Bimbo then got one of his guns to shoot at the spider. “Aaaaaah!” The spider shouted while dropping Bimbo as he shot one of her eyes.

“Haha! Take that stupid bitch!” Bimbo said while running with us as we were trying to find an escape. Just then another hoard of many babies kept lunging at us, but even though I didn’t want to harm them, I took out my microphone staff and kept whacking them on their little heads. “Sorry, oof, sorry. So sorry! You guys are SO cute. Vicious but cute.” Koko threw things such as juggling tools and pies at them that exploded on command as he can sort of control them remotely as he can even move his goo around when it’s not attached to his body. “Heheh, that should teach these fuckers not to mess with-“ Bimbo said confidently as we finally defeated all the babies… only to get his head chomped off. “Bimbo!” Me and Koko shouted.

Absolutely furious I was, I went into my werepoodle mode and angrily lunged at the giant spider mother claws out and all. “How dare you do what you just did! I’ll kill you!” As I was aiming for more of her eyes, her giant hands caught me. “How funny, I should say the same to you for being involved in harming my babies!” Just as she wasn’t looking, Koko was sticking a bunch of explosive equipment on her legs and detonating it, causing her to fall. “What? Woah!” As she fell she accidentally let go of me and I ended up slashing at all her eyeballs causing her to no longer be able to see. After some time, her legs were gone from all the slime. “Never wanted to taste spider, yuck.” Koko said after having to remove her legs himself, sometimes he may taste or sense things his goo may touch on accident. He still kept the slime around her to keep her from moving and being tricky.

As I kept beating the crap out of her, I finally chopped her head off after a few minutes, cause she was very big, and she finally died. “Woah, that was a lot.” I said panting. I managed to retrieve Bimbo’s detached head from her corpse. “Poor little guy, well, thank god for his curse that he has or else I’d probably have been angrier enough to kill that lady quicker.” Koko looked at me trying to retrieve all the slime. “What was his curse again specifically?” He asked. “Well, whenever Bimbo dies… he doesn’t really die. Not in the way one usually should. Each time he dies on Earth, his soul gets transported to Hell and he remains there for random amounts of time before going back up. He should either come back in a few hours if not tomorrow. Poor little guy, has to go through eternal torment.” I grabbed his head and his body and the ghost capturing device. “*sigh* At least we got our bounty. Unfortunately Bimbo won’t be able to share it with us since he’s currently, y’know. I hope we can make it up to him next time. Let’s go and find an exit.”

…

Took a break from writing again cause I was a bit too upset to write for a bit but wanted to get back to finish. After we found an exit, we went outside and it was like the entire block crumbled behind us as we went out. “Well that’s a coincidence.” I said. As we got back to my home and got our bounty, I had to explain to Grampy all of what happened. “Aww, well that’s a shame. Y'know Betty and Koko, instead of splitting it by $2,500 you can still have it be split by, $1666.66666667 and just wait for Bimbo to come back.” Me and Koko thought for a bit then a lightbulb came over our heads. “No, I think we got a better idea." I responded.

After burying the previous corpse of Bimbo… alongside his many others we could even gather, and trust me he dies a lot and it’s not even that easy to retrieve most of his dead bodies, we waited until his new body would spawn. As Grampy watched over us while waiting, me and Koko decided to play some stupid mobile game with each other. It was stupid in a fun way. Some minutes passed again and we heard footsteps finally walking up to us. “Ah shit, what the hell happened when I was dead and did we get the bounty? Don’t even ask me what happened this time I spent in Hell, it wasn’t even fucking funny. I mean it usually isn’t but you know what I mean.” We then put down our phones and all looked at and walked up to Bimbo.

I was holding something behind my back. “Well Bimbo, we kinda thought, since me and Grampy do pretty well financially, Koko’s clown job is pretty stable, and not only did you suffer the most out of us today by literally dying, but are the most poor compared to us, we decided to give all of the bounty money to you. You and your mom could surely use it, we heard she’s recently sick.” I said as I gave him all the money. He took it. “Oh geez, well thanks guys. Well you know I ain’t THAT poor, just a little low on cash, but still thanks.”

After all of that, we all went to our respective homes. Once I got back to my home I sat down and talked with my Grampy. “What you and Koko did back there was such a generous thing Betty, it’s nice that you decided to not even just split the money but give all of it to someone who needed it more and realizing the circumstances you both were in where you needed it less.” He said to me. “Thanks grandpa, well, it’s not like we recently needed all that cash anyways, besides, I hope it serves Bimbo and his mother well.” As I got a ring on my phone a message appeared. “Hey Betty, can you please come quick?” It was from Bimbo.

“Sure thing Bimbo, but why?” I replied. “Er, my stupid ol’ step-dad is coming over to try and give us more money because uh, um. Well. I used most of it to buy a new flashlight… and a bunch of cool tech and weapons I found online cause they looked so cool. That and I used up most of my mom’s remaining money and now she’s sicker and super pissed at me, but because she’s so sick she can’t even get up to beat the living crap out of me. Please uh, help Betty.” “Bimbo what the FUCK!” I sighed then I told Grampy what happened now and got my stuff to try and go help. Maybe I’ll write what happened once I get home cause I know I’m gonna have to brace myself. See you again soon.

Your’s truly, Betty Boop 

(DA Description below)

So here is the third installment of the werepoodle diaries. Finally introducing Koko the Clown into the mix and to have something focusing on the classic trio. I wanted to finally get into some more action and show what occupations I mainly had planned for the characters, one of them being monster hunting that is playing a major role here.

First of all, you already know by now Betty is a werepoodle. Bimbo is just a “normal” (by their world’s standards) anthropomorphic dog. Now with Koko, when it comes to the original version of Koko his species is… ambiguous at best according to what I know. He is clearly humanoid, but sure while some may think or question if he even is a human, it is also a common headcanon among many fans to think of him as some sort of monster. Whether that be a monster of some sort of clown species or liquid species, it seems to vary. While sure, maybe I could have left his species ambiguous or mysterious, given how much of a main character he is supposed to be and I don’t see the point in keeping it a secret, he will be a clown liquid/slime monster sort of mix and I do think the character is cooler if viewed as a full monster who just looks human and acts friendly rather than being another human or of some questionable species.

Grampy here is not a man I would call rich, let alone absolutely loaded, in fact in this version his financial status quite fluctuates, but his job(s) and those who he becomes associates with gives him a well off load of cash to work with when needed. By proxy of being his supernatural granddaughter with useful abilities and her boyfriend being a bit of an aggressive little ruffian who loves the idea of using cool weapons and fighting people, Betty Boop and Bimbo become his protégés or apprentices. In this, Betty Boop and Bimbo have the same amount of main jobs as each other, music and acting, given how the people at Fleischer Studios viewed the characters as “animated actors” and their characters are into singing and jazz and shit, but Koko has the additional job of clowning so I felt like with him having more he wouldn’t *need* to join in on monster hunting as much out of necessity but just to be with his friends. Koko also has a larger family in terms of who he lives with, and they are all a clown family with different clowning jobs and are pretty financially stable because of it. For the classic depiction of the characters, it seems that Koko has a larger “immediate family” than Betty and Bimbo and all of them are clown people which is why I made this choice here.

I may explain the whole lore on the financial differences between the characters and the reasons why in the future. For now, let’s talk about something else I brought up, Bimbo’s curse. So, Bimbo’s most famous animations are him getting tortured constantly, one of which is him being a sinner who literally goes to hell. He is known for having a quite impish and mischievous personality and if you know his actual history, he was considered the black sheep among the gang at Fleischer Studios. So I thought him being this sinner who is cursed to have cycles of constantly suffering and dying and going between Earth and Hell would be fitting for his character. It became such a running gag in my head that I thought to make sure to bring it up early on. Of course he doesn’t die all the time but he surely dies a lot.

All other potential inquiries about what I currently wrote and have in store, I may answer either through comments or in the future. For now, I wanted to get some of the obvious mentionable things I added out of the way. I certainly hope you enjoyed this story as I hoped you enjoyed the previous and hopefully the next. (Originally posted to DeviantArt on September 19 2023)

Betty Boop's Werepoodle Diaries No. 2

Jan 2024 Edit: There may be a weird glitch where not all of the Werepoodle Diaries may pop up normally through the usual way of looking through older posts. There has been a post made to correct that so they can all be viewed in order easier. Also, please check out the weebly version for these as I had issues setting them up on blogger but the weebly counterpart makes them look in the more preferable and less “messy” manner. The DA links also do not work anymore, reasons explained later on the blog, and only stick around simply because I do not feel like editing it.

(Copied from Deviantart literature)

Betty Boop’s Werepoodle Diaries: Black Storm Black Out Dear Diary, it’s Betty Boop again. Recently, there’s been a surge of huge crazy storms! But this time, they’ve gotten so harsh that it caused a black out today. It all started when it was raining like SUPER rainy. Lightning was flashing and the skies were pretty dark. Me and Pudgy were mostly relaxing and watching stuff on my phone while my Grampy was doing his experiments and inventions as usual. Then all of a sudden… “BAM!” It was like a giant bolt of lightning crashed near our home and it was so strong that the power went out. I lost my internet connection and sighed. “Aww man, we were just almost done with that video!” I then petted Pudgy a bit who was shivering from the loud sound. “Hmm, I wonder what else to do then.” Just then, I heard Grampy come up to my door and started knocking and I allowed him to open. “Aww geez Betty, as you can see our power went out. Such a shame as I was just busy inventing something. I’m gonna try and see if I can start up the back-up power generator but I also need batteries. Good enough batteries for what I am working on and to keep the power going as long as we need it. Can you help me go and search for some?” He handed me a list of what to do. “No problem Grampy!” I said confidently. “I’ll make sure to bring you the best batteries ever when I come back. In the meantime, maybe watch Pudgy for me as I think the loud sounds of the storm and thunder would scare him.” Grampy then picked up Pudgy. “Alright then! Good luck Betty, and make sure to not get sick! This storm seems like a real intense one!” I then got all dressed to be weather ready and got my umbrella and needed stuff to go outside. Me and Grampy, who was still holding Pudgy, waved bye to each other and then I walked off. “Boop-be-boop-a-doo gonna get some batteries in a few.” I started singing while walking. The sky was pretty gray and dark blue for a while. But then, as I looked up for a bit it started getting very dark and very black very suddenly. “Huh, that’s quite abrupt. Oh well.” I just shrugged it off and continued singing and skipping. Then a very loud and I mean LOUD crack of thunder with very bright lightning that flashed between white and red started and then continued. “Oh crap, that might not mean anything good, guess I gotta get to the store fast.” So I ran and I ran until I got to the store that I thought I was supposed to go to but I was very out of breath. “*panting* This must be it… Hmm… Murky Mart. Wow, maybe it’s cause of the storm but this place looks a bit dark and depressing. But hey, I can handle it.” I walked right in, humming along. The mart was kinda big, pretty dark, but filled with luminescent ghosts and some dingy monsters and demons. But I wasn’t afraid, cause I’m a cute little monster girl. : D It was something, at first all these monsters were staring at me. One big one who looked like some sort of employee shouted “HEY! No humans allowed!” I simply giggled and transformed. “Oh silly, looks like you couldn’t tell the difference between a mere normal human and a were-one if she literally walked right in front of ya!” After seeing I was a weredog he accepted me going further but laughed “Heh, alright, but I don’t think a puny little werepoodle can handle a place like this.” I looked a bit upset at him and went “Hmph! I can handle whatever, you just have poor judgment, that's all!” So I kept walking forward. Werepoodles are quite rare, even among weredogs who tend to be rarer than your average werewolves. We are seen as interesting creatures for how rare we are, but outside of that we are also seen as pathetic and not having much value. My Grampy says I am stronger than the average werepoodle though. Not to get off track, as I looked around it was hard to find what aisle or area the batteries could have been in. “Gosh darn it Grampy, you could have at least specified where it could be in this large ass place. Too bad I can’t really call you cause poor storm wi-fi.” I made a very unamused face looking at my phone and stuck out my tongue. Suddenly two tall cloaked monsters bumped into me causing me to fall. “Hey, can you please watch where you’re going?!” I shouted. They both just looked at each other and laughed. “Maybe you should watch where you are going, poodle girl.” One of them said knocking me back down as they took something from me. Worried, I went to see if they took my phone as that was what I was looking at. But it seems they instead took my umbrella. “Gah! My umbrella! Those jerks… aww it was so pretty too. At least I have plenty of others at home. My raincoat and hat should be enough for me in this weather… I think.” I then started trying to rush down the halls of this mart. “Gotta look for batteries… gotta look for batteries.” Then not looking where I was going, I fell down an escalator… a REALLY long escalator. “AAAAAH!” I said as I fell. It was looping and zig-zagging into the lower part of the store. Now the looks of the store felt more trippy, with aisles going in all sorts of curved and zig-zagged directions and many objects and shopkeepers floating or levitating. “Ah shit, this better lead me to some batteries.” I got onto a flying table that had a cloth over it as if it was like a ghost. “Guess, I’ll ride this thing across the store hopefully that would make things easier. Onward!” I moved the table around into the directions I wanted to go. “Teehee, this is sorta fun!” I said with glee. Eventually, the cloth of the table moved right off of it. “Hey! Get off of me!” It really was a ghost! And the ghost looked pretty mad at me. “Oh, sorry… I didn’t reaLIZE-” After the ghost completely flew away from the table I started falling onto the ground of the store. “Yowch!” I was really hurt and bruised and got back up. A purple monster mother and her kids started laughing at me and tried to hide it and I got a bit upset but immediately ignored them. As I looked forward I saw the two monster guys who stole my umbrella! “Hey you! Don’t think I forgot about you! I may have several more umbrellas at home but I’m not just gonna let you get away with bullying me like that!” I lunged at them, claws sharp. Right then, one of them took out their long gangly arms and smacked me right in the face. “O-ow..” I said hearing the sounds of birds chirping. But I immediately got up. “Hmm, maybe let’s not fight then. How about we just talk this out, and I get my umbrella back and no one gets hurt-” Immediately the two monsters took off their cloaks and revealed a shadowy mist coming out ready to attack me. I jumped back. “Woah! I just wanted my umbrella back… and some batteries!” They both snickered which then turned into cold laughter. The shadowy mist then consumed my umbrella. “Hey!” I shouted. Then the shadowy mist quickly chased right after me and I started running. “HEY!” Seems I pissed off some shadow people, or they just seemed amused to mess with me. Either way, their black mass started engulfing a lot of the area of the store surrounding them. Many of the other monsters just looked in amusement, excitement or annoyance as they were just walking by, only to get trapped by creepy shadows. “Excuse me! Er, sorry! Coming through!” I said rushing down the halls as the darkness came closer. I bumped into many people and accidentally crashed, dropped into and broke many things. You wouldn't stop hearing "clean up on aisle" whatever for a while because of it. I eventually picked up superspeed as I was super anxious. Luckily, after some time I eventually lost them and found another employee. This time this sort of small gremlin looking creature. “Do you know where these batteries are?” I said while panting and a bit frustrated. The little guy read the list I was given for a bit then replied. “Sorry, but it seems you’re at the wrong store and there seems to be some sort of typo.” I became more frustrated. “Huh, what?!” Then after I stopped panting I looked down and waited for their next reply. “You see, this is Murky Mart, a store for monsters and only monsters that only comes around in specific harsh cursed storms with lightning strikes of dark magic. The place you wanna go with is Mucky Mart, which should be right down the corner although it is surrounded by lots of muck and is a much smaller shop. Also the only batteries we have that aren’t magic or supernatural are double C and this seems to require quadruple C batteries.” My face turned red with anger and I felt like it started steaming up. “Ugh… thank you.” I said gritting my teeth as the little guy handed me my list back. “Want me show you the quick exit?” The tiny guy said. I nodded and then he snapped his fingers to summon a quick door that I ended up walking out on. “Oh btw, here’s a new umbrella. I’m sorry your’s got destroyed.” It wasn’t as cute or stylish as the previous one but it was okay. I took it and said thanks and walked out of the store. Finally walking out of there. As I went to this Mucky Mart I just stomped angrily in the muck and waited for the automatic doors to open. I walked and ran straight to the cashier guy who was there. “Hello, do you have quadruple C batteries?” He saw I looked a bit tense and tapping my fingers on the desk angrily, but replied calmly. “Why yes, we have them right here. How much do you want?” Glaring at him but not trying to come across as too angry I just replied “several.” He then gave me an entire box filled with them, I payed and then I walked out and back home. I then calmed down a bit. “Huh, well, that was easy. I guess I feel better now. At the very least I can bring these things to Grampy and all should be alright.” As I got home I noticed the power was on. “Hey Grampy, got the backup source on, I see? I lost one of my umbrellas, sorry long story but hey I got these batteries finally!” I was pretty relieved when I got home, removed my raincoat, put down my new other umbrella and then he walked up to me and so did Pudgy. “Hey Betty! Sorry to hear that but nice to see you’ve got a new one even though we got plenty o’ others.” “Oh btw Grampy, you said you were inventing something and needed these things for it? What were you working on?” I said in a very tired but calmed voice. “Oh, as you see, I invented a robot that can make… toast on top of toast! I found out that all this time, I actually had loads of the batteries I needed! Just had to look for them I guess. But hey, I thank you for getting some more for me I really do- Hey, why do you have that look on your face, Betty? Betty?!” I then became infuriated again realizing he made me go through all that just to “invent” a machine that can make some more toast and he even already had the right batteries for it all along. “Pudgy dearie, please don’t look at what’s about to happen next.” I then started snarling angrily again. “Betty! Please! No! No! AAAAH!” Then it was like a gust of dust and stars came about as I was beating the daylights out of Grampy. Pudgy was whimpering a bit while watching, even though I told him not to. After a while the storm went away, I went into my human form again and Grampy, after being beaten up, used his new machine to serve me all the sweet toast I ever wanted while he didn't get any first bites as punishment. “I’m sorry granddaughter, I won’t do anything like that again. Now can I have some toast please?” As he tried to grab one I moved it. “Sorry you cooky old man! But you have to learn your lesson before you put me through that totally unnecessary journey!” “Aww man.”

After all of that, it was raining again but not so bad, just very nice and calming. Grampy fell asleep and I decided to give him one piece of toast right next to his bed when he wakes up. Just one. “Night night Grampy.” I said with a smile. While I’m still a bit mad at him, I still know he’s a crazy ol’ man with his brains being a bit scrambled and he didn’t mean to make such a dumb decision. Even if he can be a bit insane at times, he’s my good ol’ Grampy and I care for him. Your’s truly, Betty Boop (DA Description below)

Here is my second installment of the Betty Boop's Werepoodle Diaries. For this one, I wanted it to be a bit shorter than the first/previous one as it's reading time apparently takes half an hour long and so I wanted this one to have less. I do feel like, I could have done more with this story just a bit more in some areas but I don't know exactly what. But as I have stated I am quite rusty and I am trying to work things out. Maybe I can learn on what I want to expand from here and see what I can do in the future. For this one, I specifically chose a story relating to a blackout or power outage, along with storms, as recently I had an issue where the wi-fi/internet connection wasn't working right as well as some storms here and there over the past few days. So I just felt inspired to make a story surrounding it. I would actually love to do stories with a similar premise in the future but I'd need to think about that more.

While I would like to get to focusing on more pre-code characters soon, I wanted to make a simple, silly and arguably cute or not cute story about Betty having to deal with the cooky decisions of her grandpa. Grampy is one of the few liked post-code characters among fans so I see no issue with making a simple story where he has a bigger role in it even if a bit short and silly. Pudgy has a smaller role here as I felt the previous story was more focused on him by comparison so he ends up staying with Grampy. Hopefully by the next story, I can get to something more adventurous and even more surreal next. Even if not, I don't mind starting out calmer and simple as long as people find the stories somewhat entertaining and currently these two do have some surrealism in them.

I'm open to some suggestions of what else to do or what to expand upon but remember please be sane. (Originally posted to DeviantArt on September 8 2023)