You like games, don't you? Well, this isn't one of your violent little video games, this is a bit more… interactive. You're in my home. My spells have turned its interior into a maze, and filled it with boobytraps. Non-lethal ones, for the most part, but they'll still be less than pleasant for you should you trigger them. Now then, if you can find the exit without succumbing to all of my tricks, you'll be free to go — in a somewhat humiliated state by that point, no doubt, but without worry of further action by me. But fall for everything I send your way, and… well, the world won't have to worry about Gaz Membrane anymore. I can assure you of that.
— Mrs. Hecate Williams
Misery Loves Company is a one-shot Invader Zim fanfic by Zim'sMostLoyalServant, based on a prompt by Azuranaito.
Dib pays Gaz $20 to help him catch a demon at the local cemetery. Not caring much if he succeeds, Gaz turns to leave, and rudely shoves an old woman who happens to be standing in her way. She will end up regretting this, because that old woman is actually a witch and she's more than willing to use her powers to punish Gaz for not only her transgression at the cemetery, but the many other little petty, cruel acts she has committed. All Gaz has to do is escape the house she now finds herself in, but there are many traps lying in wait for her.
It can be read here
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This fanfic provides examples of:
- Bizarrchitecture: Hecate's magic makes it so that the interior of her house makes no logical sense, with Gaz at one point going from a room on the top floor to the ground-floor kitchen after walking through a single doorway. Once Hecate dispels the magic, it's implied that the house is normal.
- Clingy Costume: Thanks to the effects of Hecate's trap, Gaz is magically forced into a pink blouse, skirt, and ballet slippers. No matter how hard she tries to get the outfit off, it won't budge.
- Color-Coded Wizardry: Objects affected by Hecate's magic glow with a purple light.
- Death of Personality: Hecate wipes Gaz's memories and personality clean, turning her into a sweet, cheerful little girl who loves her new mom.
- Everyone Has Standards: Hecate admits that she wanted to punish Gaz the instant the girl shoved her, but restrained herself as, seeing as they were at a cemetery, Gaz's rage could have come from grief and Hecate didn't want to punish a grieving child. Once she sees that Gaz is always that nasty, that's when she starts her revenge plan.
- Fake Memories: One of Hecate's potions creates new memories for Gaz based on what the witch tells her is true. So when she hears Hecate call herself Gaz's "Mommy," that is what the girl believes she is.
- Fatal Flaw: Because of Gaz's short temper, she blunders headlong into all of the traps in the house...including the last one that triggers a lawn sprinkler to shoot memory-wiping water into her mouth.
- Girliness Upgrade: Hecate's traps magically change Gaz's hair and clothes, leaving her with long, blonde, braided hair adorned with pink ribbons, and wearing a pink outfit with hearts, ballet slippers, and pink nail polish. She finds it incredibly humiliating, given that she's a tomboy and a goth who hates anything girly. She doesn't hate it quite as much after a dose of amnesia that conveniently removes her prior personality.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: Hecate drugs Gaz with a combination of two potions that wipe her memory and create Fake Memories in their place, erasing a rude, violent, nasty child from the world while replacing her with a Blank Slate child she can raise as her own.
- Humiliation Conga: Gaz is forced to play a game where she has to escape Hecate's house. She stumbles into a series of traps that give her a tan, change her hair color to blonde and tie it into braids, and dress her up in a ridiculously girly outfit complete with hair ribbons and sparkly nail polish. Being a tomboy, she finds this infuriatingly embarrassing.
- Instant Costume Change: Gaz enters a walk-in closet and steps on a trap that causes all the clothes to engulf her like a tornado, changing her black dress and stockings into the pinkest, girliest outfit imaginable.
- Kick the Dog: Gaz sees a mourning old woman in her way while leaving the cemetery, shoves her out of the way, and after being rebuked, grabs her into the arm and slams her into the ground.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: The last of Hecate's traps that Gaz runs into is a sprinkler that shoots Water of Lethe into her mouth, erasing all of her memories.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: No matter how hard Hecate and her late husband tried, they couldn't conceive a child even with her magic. She gets around that problem by brainwashing Gaz to become her new child.
- Makeover Torment: Among the various traps Hecate laid out for Gaz are ones that forcefully give her a new haircut, outfit and make up, all of which are far more girly then Gaz would ever normally wear.
- Meaningful Name: Hecate is a witch who creates a maze of traps in her house for Gaz to escape. Her first name is a reference to the goddess of magic and crossroads in Classical Mythology.
- Mugging the Monster: That old lady Gaz rudely assaulted in the cemetery? She's a real witch, and she's hellbent on making sure Gaz is punished for being a nasty person, even if that means wiping her memory and adopting her as her new child.
- Pink Means Feminine: Thanks to one of Hecate's spells, Gaz ends up wearing a pink blouse, pink hair ribbons, pink skirt and pink ballet slippers, a girly outfit she absolutely hates.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Hecate's eyes glow ominously red after her unpleasant encounter with Gaz at the cemetery.
- Room Escape Game: Hecate forces Gaz to play a game in which the interior of her house has been turned into a maze, and she has to escape without setting off too many of the traps within.
- Runic Magic: Runes light up in places where Hecate's traps have been activated.
- Siren Song: After the incident at the cemetery, Gaz is lured to Hecate's house by a mysterious song that seems to come from nowhere, and which she finds herself unable to resist the urge to find the source of. She is then knocked out by a blow from Hecate's flute, allowing the witch to prepare a game of traps for her.
- Skip of Innocence: After being mentally rewritten into Hecate's new daughter, Gaz happily skips down the sidewalk to go to the store and buy some groceries for her mom.
- Smoke Out: As soon as she's done explaining the rules of the maze game to Gaz, Hecate vanishes in a cloud of black smoke.
- Unwillingly Girly Tomboy: Hecate's traps increasingly alter Gaz's appearance to make it more traditionally girly, until by the end her hair's been rendered blonde and put in braids, and she's wearing an all pink outfit.
- Widow Witch: Hecate is an old witch who still mourns for her late husband. She has various powers including potion-making, teleportation, Magic Music and spells that alter a person's appearance. The one thing that seems to be beyond her power is a cure for infertility. Which is why she wipes Gaz's memories and adopts her as her new daughter.
- Would Harm a Senior: Gaz not only shoves an old lady out of the way while leaving the cemetery, but grabs her arm and throws her to the ground after being told to apologize. One only has to read the rest of this page to figure out why that ended up being the worst decision of her life.
