So I'm finally publishing another fanfic after too many years! Admittedly I began writing this in 2020, but writers block and a hand injury (along with a hefty dose of procrastination of course) delayed me finishing it till mid March. But finish it I finally did. Its not my best writing, but has some good scenes in it and the Hex Girls need more fan content so I'm happy with it regardless.
Originally the idea for this fanfic was each Hex Girl plus their manager Gus Boggs reacting to reading comments by fans about them at different time periods (so around the four designs the Hex Girls have had meaning Witch's Ghost, Legend of the Vampire/What's New Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated and Scooby Doo and Guess Who) using real comments I found online however that faded away and it ended up revolving around the style of their performance outfits changing instead. Thus all the fan comments in this chapter are real comments I found online. Also why this chapter being a bit different from the others, I should've rewrote it really but I'm so sick of this fanfic I just want it uploaded so I can be done with it.
Lastly this is unconnected to my previous fanfic It's a Hex Life in terms of canon, on the off chance anyone wonders if its connected to that.
A light autumnal breeze blew through Oakhaven, blowing dead leaves across the sidewalks. This was Thorn's favourite time of the year. The weather was pleasant, not too hot but not too cold either, and the trees turned from a uniform pattern of green to a vivid varied tapestry of reds, browns, yellows and oranges. To her this was New England at its most beautiful.
It was nice to be back in her hometown after being on tour for the past few months. Sure she enjoyed being out preforming her music and being a rockstar, but between the regular performances and moving around between different hotels and venues so much it was exhausting. It was nice to be in a constant familiar place again that wasn't the cramped confirms of their tour bus.
Thorn was then broken from her current train of thought as her destination came into view.
It was a Victorian era house built in the Queen Anne style, its spire towering up above the surrounding houses, its grandeur making them look remarkably bland by comparison. This was the home of Luna's family, had been since they bought and fixed it up several years ago before when her family had moved to Oakhaven. Before that the house had been abandoned ever since a fire that had struck Oakhaven in the 1950s and severely damaged the property along with many other buildings in the town. Until it was bought and renovated no one except the occasional urban explorer visited the property save for herself and Dusk who had used it as a hangout in the past, and whilst Thorn was a bit nostalgically sad they'd lost their old hangout she was far happier to see the house in its current grand state. Such a beautiful piece of architecture deserved better than to be left to rot. Plus as much as she'd liked how much it had looked like a haunted house it had been quite the eyesore on Oakhaven.
The house was only a few minutes' walk away now, a good thing too thought Thorn as she shivered as the wind blew against her bare midriff and exposed parts of her legs. It had been poor judgement on her part when she choose to wear her crop top and ripped black jeans today, as they certainly weren't suited for this season. But if that was the sacrifice she had to make to keep looking stylish then she was willing to make it.
After a few minutes more walking she reached the house, pushing open the wrought iron gate and heading through the neatly kept front yard up to the front door of the house. She rang the doorbell and waited as it shrill modern tone rang out, pulling her arms round herself as she shivered.
Thankfully for the Wiccan the door was swiftly opened by a large white titan of a man, Luna's father. Like his daughter he had bright orange hair, though unlike her the right side of his face was heavily scared by what looked like cuts from a knife. Thorn had never asked why, wasn't her business, but she assumed it was from the war Luna mentioned he'd been in. Though it did make it amusing how Luna's father looked so rough and hardened, yet he was a dentist.
"Sally! Come in, come in!" greeted Luna's father, his friendly nature quite the contrast to his appearance. "You must be freezing."
"Only a little bit." replied Thorn as she entered the house, grateful for the warm she now felt. "Where's Luna?"
"Straight to business." joked Luna's father with a chuckle. "She's up in her room."
"Thanks Mr. Nightingale." replied Thorn before heading up the stairs, hearing Luna's father shut the front door behind her.
Thorn took in the detail of the house as she always did as she climbed up through the house to Luna's room. Her orange haired friend's family's house was richly decorated. Adorning the walls along the stairway were many paintings of natural landscapes and animals painted in the classical style. Photographs periodically dotted the walls aswell, some again depicting landscapes and animals again but most were of people, obviously mostly members of Luna's greater family going by how Luna and her parents were in most of the pictures.
Also periodically along the walls were along mounted animal heads, mostly various antelope species. Thorn grimaced at the sight, the thought of hunting animals for sport always made her feel sick. The whole idea of it let alone the practice was cruel in her eyes, hence why she actively campaigned against it. Luna on the other hand took a different view, not seeing the issue as long as the animals hunted weren't at the time endangered and overhunting was avoided provided the hunters had paid money which could be used to fund conservation efforts.. They'd clashed over their differing views and subsequently had strong arguments over it in the past when Thorn had wanted to have concerts in support of anti-hunting charities and organisations. Despite the public perception not all the Hex Girls were fully on the same page when it came to the eco part of eco-goth.
Thorn brushed the thought from her mind as she finally reached the third floor of the house and headed down the corridor towards Luna's room. She passed one final painting, this one depicting Victoria Falls at sunset, before heading into Luna's room.
Luna's room starkly contrasted with the other rooms of the house, being painted a light purple in comparison to the greens, yellows and browns the majority of the other rooms were painted. Along one whole section of wall were several large dark wooden bookcases, each of which was filled to the brim with books both modern and old, most of their titles indicating they were about history, both human and natural, but there was a small section filled with horror titles as well. Placed on top of the bookcases were several framed photos, almost of which were of Luna with either her family or Thorn and Dusk. A single bed was tucked up against the corner of another wall, its placement rather Spartan and utilitarian. Above it tapped on the wall was a Siouxsie and the Banshees poster. Against the same wall at the end of the bed was a wardrobe, several pairs of black and purple knee-high boots were shoved next to it in the thin space left between it and the other corner. On the wall opposite it was a large window framed by a pair of maroon curtains, allowing the room to be lit by plenty of natural light whilst giving a fine view of the street below and the woodland and farmland in the distance. In front of the window was an ornate table flanked by two maroon armchairs, perfect for reading or just looking out on the view. Along the wall directly up opposite the doorway was a simple wooden desk accompanied a simple swivel desk chair. In the centre of the desk was an old bulky white computer and next to it was a neat pile of notebooks and two containers filled with pens and pencils. The whole room had an ordered air to it. Much like Luna.
The aforementioned pianist was sat at the desk, her attention absorbed by the machine in front of her. Thorn was about to call out to her friend when she stopped herself, smirking at the mischievous idea which had popped into her mind.
She began to sneak towards Luna slowly, trying her hardest to not make a sound and get noticed. Upon getting right behind her Thorn suddenly put her hands on the redhead's shoulders and yelled "Boo!"
Luna let out a startled shriek in response and Thorn immediately burst into laughter, that'd gone way better than she thought it would.
"Ugh Thorn!" exclaimed Luna upon turning and seeing who the culprit was. "What the hell was that for?"
"Payback for when you and Dusk did that to me on our last tour." answered Thorn with a smirk.
"That's so childish of you." replied Luna, a frown planted on her face.
Thorn was about to retort when she noticed their band's concentric HEX logo on the computer screen behind the redhead.
"What are you looking at on there?" asked Thorn curiously as she pointed at the screen.
"It's the official fan forum for our band, our old friend Zander made it for us." answered Luna, raising her eyebrow questioningly. "Didn't Gus tell you about it?"
"Umm no." replied Thorn after a few seconds of thought.
"Oh." replied Luna a bit surprised. "Then again you are useless with tech so that's probably why."
Thorn was about to retort when she stopped herself, knowing what her friend said was true. She just couldn't get her mind round computers, she barely managed to use her smartphone. Pen and paper was her thing, not mouse and keyboard.
"Anyway it's just interesting to read, seeing what our fans think about us." continued Luna as she turned around in her chair again to face the screen. "Nice to see some feedback outside of album and concert attendance numbers."
"So what are they saying then?" asked Thorn curiously, outside of the occasional fan they'd met who'd been in Oakhaven for the Autumns Fest she'd never really heard any of their opinions on them directly.
"Just look for yourself." replied Luna.
"Oh ok." replied Thorn as she moved around the chair, sitting down in Luna's lap as she looked at the screen. Quickly becoming overwhelmed by all the text on screen and not knowing what to do next.
"Thorn get off me!" said Luna in annoyance as she tried and failed to shove the guitarist off her.
"Nope!" replied Thorn with a teasing smile as she turned around slightly to face Luna. "What are you going to do about it?"
"This." replied Luna before jamming her hands into the exposed sides of Thorn's tummy as she began tickling her.
"Hahahahaha." laughed Thorn almost immediately, reacting strongly to being tickled. "Hahaha stahahahp haha Luhuhuhuna!"
"Only if you get off me." replied her tickler.
"Fihihihine I'll geheheht off!" said Thorn in between laughter, feeling the tickling stop as soon as she said it. True to her word Thorn got off Luna, before turning to face her redhead friend with her hands on her hips and an annoyed expression on her face. "You know if you wanted me off you that bad, you could've just shoved me off."
"Yeah but where's the fun in that?" replied Luna with a smirk, Thorn just let out an annoyed huff in response. "Just go get one of the armchairs from over by the window."
"Fine." said Thorn divaishly as she turned and went to drag one of the maroon armchairs over to sit on whilst Luna moved her swivel chair slightly to the right, allowing Thorn to drag the armchair in front of the computer. Thorn plopped down into the armchair and asked "So now how do you use this forum thing anyway?"
"I'm really going to have to teach you how to navigate a forum?" asked Luna in exasperation.
"Yep!" replied Thorn as she brushed some of her hair back into place.
"Oh fine." replied Luna semi-reluctantly. "I guess I'll help bring you into the 21st century."
A few minutes later and Thorn had mostly got a hold of navigating the forum. She found the mouse a bit hard to use, it seemed to never go where she wanted it too, and the amount of text mixed with the majority purple background irritated her eyes a bit, but those were the only main issues she was having.
"See? Wasn't that hard." said Luna.
"Yeah it wasn't." replied Thorn, feeling a bit proud of herself she'd managed to use a computer for once. "So where do I go to see what the fans are thinking of us?"
"A general discussion thread I guess?" suggested Luna. "I think there's a board just called general board or something similar."
After a few seconds of searching the screen Thorn found the board Luna had mentioned. She clicked on it and loaded in a new page full of threads, which quickly overwhelmed the Wiccan. Which should she click?
"Umm Luna? What thread should I click?" asked Thorn in confusion.
"The most recent one I guess. Ugh it doesn't really matter Thorn." answered Luna in an annoyed tone.
"Oh ok." replied Thorn as she clicked on the thread at the top of the page. Soon the thread loaded and with it people's comments, which she swiftly got to reading.
All their music is amazing! Even my Dad likes it.
They're music is surprisingly good. It's really catchy.
Hex Girl and Earth, Wind, Fire and Air are easily some of my favourite songs ever.
Were a few of the comments Thorn read about their music. Almost every comment she read was positive, which was encouraging to see. She wrote all of their band's songs herself, with the occasional bit of input from her sisters, so it was nice to see that other people appreciated the effort she put into them.
"You're right Luna, it's nice to see feedback." said Thorn. "Something more personal seeing it written down instead of coming from the white noise of the crowd."
"Yeah it definitely is. It's more focused." agreed Luna. "Cheers are nice and all, but they aren't that detailed a response other than telling us the crowd adores us." Thorn giggled at that.
"Hopefully they feel the same way about Who Do Voodoo." said Thorn. That was the first song they'd be preforming that wasn't written by her, instead Dusk had written it. It hadn't been planned at all, just one day Dusk had run up to them in their hotel room whilst excitedly yelling "Thorn! Luna! I wrote a song! I wrote a song!" Thorn liked the song, but it felt too simple compared to the songs their band already had.
"Of course they will, it's great. Simple yet catchy." replied Luna defensively. "I know its Dusk first song, but so what? Hex Girl was your first song and that's been a super hit."
"Yeah you're right." agreed Thorn, feeling a bit bad about how she was doubting Dusk. Of course the fans would like it, her sister had done a great job writing it. She shouldn't doubt her so much, Who Do Voodoo was going to be a hit like all their other songs. And with that Thorn continued reading.
I want to be like them when I grow up.
They got me into goth fashion.
They're my idols.
They're all so awesome. Especially Thorn!
They were the original inspiration for me and my friends to start our own band!
Thorn couldn't help but smile at seeing comments like that. It was rather heart-warming to know people looked up to her and were inspired by her, even though it did add on a bit of pressure to keep trying to live up to such a standard. Though was disappointing how no one seemed to be inspired by their environmentalist messages…
"I always love those types of comments." said Luna, interrupting Thorn's thought. "It's so cool to hear people look up to us."
"Yeah it's killer." agreed Thorn. "Weird to think I'm someone people look up to now though. You remember how I was before we started our band…"
"You were so adorable!" exclaimed Luna, causing Thorn to blush a bit. "You always hid behind your hair all the time and were super shy."
"I wasn't just shy, I had major social anxiety." replied Thorn, trying to push away the embarrassing memories. "Until you moved to Oakhaven Dusk was the only friend I had."
"Well it wasn't your fault, social anxiety is hard to grow out of when you were getting bullied still." reassured Luna.
Thorn frowned in response at the negative memories Luna unintentionally brought up. Thankfully it had always been verbal rather than physically bullying, but what had hurt the most back were that most comments directly towards her back then were directed towards her faith. At some point she'd let slip she was a Wiccan, and from then on she was often getting called a Satanist, cultist and other similar names. At one point she'd even waivered on her faith because of it, but after the Witch's Ghost incident she was a steadfast follower and believe in the beliefs her mother and grandmother had passed down to her. After all it was her being a Wiccan which had saved the day then!
On the brighter side, her being bullied is what led to her and Luna becoming friends. Luna had stood up for her that time when…
"Umm Earth to Thorn?" questioned Luna as she waved her hand in front of Thorn's face, snapping her from her thoughts.
"Sorry, zoned out thinking about the bullying." replied Thorn, before adding a small smile. "If not for really wanting to be in a band with you two and fulfilling our dream I still probably wouldn't have got over my anxiety. I was pretty pathetic."
"Well it doesn't bare thinking about. Since you've moved on from that." retorted Luna, a caring smile on her face. "You're now a badass eco-goth rockstar instead." Thorn couldn't help but smirk in response.
"You bet I am!" replied Thorn with a fanged smirk. "And nothing's going to change that."
After several minutes more of browsing the forum, exchanging comments with Luna in the meanwhile Thorn came across a linked video of one of their performances, clicking it out of curiosity as to what people were saying on the comments over there. Upon loading in the external video site the performance video was on Thorn quickly paused the video before she began to scroll down to the comments section. It was an odd thing, but she really didn't like watching their music videos or concerts. It always felt a bit awkward to her for some reason.
But Thorn put those thoughts aside as she began to read the comments below the video. The majority were similar to the ones she had been previously reading on their fan forum, but there were comments of another sort too.
They're all so incredibly sexy.
The vampire witch look works really well, could've ended up being cheesy but they pulled it off and made it look fucking sexy.
Thorn is literally perfection.
They're super pretty.
They're hot as hell.
Not that Thorn minded comments like that at all. Always nice to hear people think those things about you, or it was for her anyway. She liked feeling desired by others, it was quite the confidence booster. Plus showed all the effort she put into her looks was worth it.
Admittedly there were also some other comments which were a bit lewd, but given how suggestive and seductive she acted in her performance they were to be expected. There would probably be similar comments on the fan forum too if it wasn't moderated.
Besides, Thorn liked knowing she'd put a spell on so many guys.
"What is it?" asked Luna as Thorn giggled at her previous thought.
"Oh, nothing." replied Thorn, brushing the question off. "Just enjoying reading the comments."
"Oh." said Luna. She looked like she was going to continue when the two Hex Girls jumped a bit in surprise at the sound of the bedroom door being flung open into the wall behind them.
Unsurprisingly upon turning around the culprit was revealed to be Dusk.
"Hi!" greeted Dusk as she stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips and a grin on her face, excitable as usual.
"Ugh Dusk!" yelled Luna in annoyance. "How many times do I have to tell you not to kick my door open before you get the message?"
"More times than you already have obviously." answered Dusk, before sticking her tongue out at Luna and causing Thorn to giggle.
The drummer then crossed the room to them and then looked down over them at the computer screen. She asked "What are you two doing on there?"
"We're reading comments by our fans online." answered Thorn. "We were reading them on our fan forum, but ended up viewing them on a video of one of our performance on a different site."
"Cool." acknowledged Dusk as she walked around to the side of Thorn so she could see the screen better, before she turned to look at her in surprise. "Wait, you use computers? Since when?"
"Since earlier when Luna taught me how to use it." answered Thorn, a bit embarrassed at the question.
"Oh, well that's cool." replied Dusk as her attention turned back to peering at the comments on screen, as her expression turned to a frown shortly after. "Hey! How come there's no comments about me? They're either about us as a group or just Thorn!"
"Because I'm the best Hex Girl, duh." answered Thorn with a teasing smirk.
"To give a better answer, because Thorn's the lead Dusk. She's the centrepiece of our performance at the front of the stage, she's the focus of our music videos and she actively spends more time in the spotlight than we do." explained Luna, making Thorn feel a tad bad about hogging the spotlight from her bandmates. "And she is the one who is doing all the seductive movements to the crowd in our concerts, not you."
"But you'd still think they'd be at least some comments about us!" retorted Dusk. "We're hot too!"
"I literally just explained why Dusk, I'm not repeating myself again." replied Luna in annoyance.
"I'm certain there's some somewhere Dusk." said Thorn, as she grabbed the mouse and began scrolling down the screen as she searched for them.
"Eh whatever." said Dusk with disinterest as she sat on the side of the desk. "Who cares what they think anyway? We don't need their approval."
The conversation then shifted to other topics, mostly related to their now traditional concert at the upcoming Autumn Fest and their trip and tour to Australia next year, Thorn periodically looking at and scrolling through the comments as they talked. After a couple minutes of periodic scrolling she eventually came across some comments about Dusk.
"Hey Dusk, told you there'd be some comments about you." said Thorn, interrupting the current conversation about makeup brands.
"Oh! Oh! What are they saying?" said Dusk as she hopped down from the desk excitedly.
"Read them yourself." replied Thorn.
"The blonde one's cute….Yeah she's so cute when playing the drums…Yeah Dusk's the best Hex Girl, Thorn's cool and all but Dusk is just better…thinking Thorn's the best Hex Girl is basic bitch taste, Dusk is miles better…" said Dusk as she read some of the comments aloud, before turning around to smirk at Thorn. "So you're the best Hex Girl huh?"
"Dusk that's two comments saying that. I have hundreds saying the opposite." replied Thorn with a fanged smile.
Dusk looked like she was going to reply, before settling with just sticking her tongue out at Thorn instead and turning back to read more of the comments. Most were similar to the above ones, but after about a dozen more comments Dusk read aloud one which got a far different reaction from her.
"I'd fuck the drummer…Yeah she's definitely very fuckable…" read Dusk aloud, before pausing as she seemingly realised what she just read. An awkward silence descended upon the room, before Dusk broke it as swiftly as she created it.
"Hell yeah I am!" said Dusk as she fist pumped the air, an excitable smirk on her face as usual. Thorn couldn't help but laugh in response at the blonde's reaction.
"I don't get how you too enjoy reading comments like that and yourselves." commented Luna distastefully. "They're just so awkward and uncomfortable to me."
"C'mon Luna. They're just comments on the internet no one would care about but us. They're doing no harm." replied Thorn as she looked over at the redhead. "Besides it's cool to hear people think that about us…and you know it's a good thing, sex sells."
"Aka stop being such a prude." added Dusk as sat on the side of the desk again.
"I'm not being a prude." replied Luna as she crossed her arms, a bit offended.
"You kind of are, kind of aren't at the same time." said Thorn with a shrug.
"No unlike you two I just have standards." retorted Luna.
"Nuh uh! You're just jealous since there's comments like that about Thorn and me individually, but none about you." teased Dusk as she swung her legs back and forth playfully.
"Awww is that true Luna?" asked Thorn teasingly.
"It's not." replied the redhead with a huff.
"Definitely is." teased Dusk.
"Awww don't worry Luna." said Thorn as she leaned over towards Luna, fluttering her eyelashes at her teasingly. "I at least find you sexy."
"Ewww. I'd rather take those comments from internet pervs over you Thorn." replied Luna jokingly, causing each Hex Girl to burst out in laughter.
"Anyway that's enough reading comments for today." declared Thorn once their laughter had subsided.
"I agree. Why don't we…" began Luna before getting interupted.
"Let's watch movies!" interupted Dusk as she hopped down from her perch on the side of the desk.
"That works." commented Thorn, before looking over at Luna. "Cool with you Luna?"
"Fine with me." replied the redhead as she got up from her chair and headed for the door. "You two head down to the movie room and choose what to watch, I'll go get some snacks."
"Okay." said Thorn as she too stood up.
"Actually want to stay for dinner later?" asked Luna as she turned around, halfway through the door. "If so when getting the snacks I'll tell my mother so she can prepare extra food."
"Sure!" answered Dusk enthusiastically.
"Count me out Luna." answered Thorn. "Gotta be heading home before then."
"So we'll be needing one extra meal, got it." replied Luna as she began to turn to leave the room.
"Why you gotta leave before then?" asked Dusk, Luna stopping upon hearing the question.
"One because my dad's expecting me to be back then." answered Thorn. "Two a dress I ordered should be arriving today, and I want to get to work fixing it so I can get your opinions on it tomorrow."
"Fixing it?" inquired Dusk in confusion.
"Altering would've been the better word to use." explained Thorn. "Planning to cut it so it's ripped like my performance dress, thinking of using it as an alternative to that one. This one's purple instead of black."
"Oh…why?" asked Dusk again curiously.
"For variety Dusk. We can't keep preforming in the same outfits forever, people will get bored of it." answered Thorn, getting a bit annoyed at her bandmate's continuous questioning.
"Makes sense." said Luna. "And I certainly approve of the colour scheme. I've been saying for ages you'd look great in purple."
"Well we'll see if I do look as good in purple as you keep saying I would." said Thorn as she smiled at Luna.
"Oh trust me, you will." replied Luna with a wink before turning and leaving the room.
"Ok…well don't expect me to change my outfit too!" said Dusk defiantly, with an equally defiant expression as she looked up at Thorn.
"Dusk I'm not planning too." said Thorn in annoyance as she put her hands on her hips. "I'm just mixing up what I wear."
"Good." replied Dusk, satisfied with her answer.
"Regardless I won't be wearing it at our concerts for a while. I'm going to debut it on our tour to Australia next year." explained Thorn, excited at the prospect. "Since we're debuting two new songs then, why not also a new dress?"
"I guess." replied Dusk with a shrug as she headed towards the door. "But it better not overshadow my song!"
"Dusk our fans will care way more about Who Do Voodoo than they'll care about me wearing a different dress." said Thorn as she followed after her bandmate. "I swear you're having a stronger reaction than they ever would to one of us performing in a different outfit."
"No trust me, they'd have a way stronger reaction than I would." replied Dusk with a laugh as they left the room.