Fanfic / Witching Hour

Witching Hour is a one-shot Invader Zim fanfic by Zim'sMostLoyalServant.

In a medieval alternate universe, Gaz is the Princess of the Kingdom of Doomsvillia, daughter of King Membrane XXIII. Her royal status has always allowed her to do whatever she wanted without fear of retribution, abusing and tormenting her lessers as much as she likes. But recently, a series of bizarre incidents have been happening around the kingdom, leading the people to suspect that there is a witch among them—none other than her. Can Gaz prove the accusations false, or will they sink her like a stone?

It can be read here or here.

Unrelated to the similarly named Puella Magi Madoka Magica fanfic The Witching Hour.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• 0% Approval Rating: Pretty much everyone in the kingdom hates and fears Gaz because of her violent temper and tendency to lash out at anyone who provokes her wrath, but nobody ever dares to try and stop her because she'll have them brutally punished. When she is accused of being a witch, no one speaks up in her defense, and when she is declared guilty, everyone is more than happy to burn her at the stake.
• Adaptational Context Change: In Invader Zim, Nick is a victim of Zim's who was Kidnapped for Experimentation and had a giant probe inserted into his brain that made him constantly happy against his will. In this story, he's always happy because he was kicked in the head by a mule as a child, or so the rumors say.
• Age Lift: Canonically, characters like Gaz, Dib, and Nick are in their late adolescent years at the oldest. Here, they're all in their 20s.
• Arranged Marriage: Gaz's father betroths her to Iggins, the son of Baron Jiggins, which she's not happy about since he cheated to beat her in a hunting competition, and is in general a chauvinistic Jerkass. However, before it can go through, Iggins mysteriously collapses and dies after Gaz punches him, making it look like she killed him and lending further credence to the rumors that she is a witch.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Zim gets away with framing Gaz as a witch and gets her burned at the stake. No one ever finds out he was behind it, and it's likely no one ever will.
• Beneath Notice: Since Zim is only a lowly court jester, nobody ever noticed him sneaking around and setting up the technological devices that he used to frame Gaz for acts of witchcraft.
• Beware of Vicious Dog: Gaz owns a pack of hunting hounds that would make Ramsay Bolton green with envy, as she claims that they're trained to devour human flesh on command. However, even they're no match for Zim, who is able to effortlessly slaughter them.
• Burn the Witch!: Gaz's eventual fate is to be burned at the stake, after being caught in what looks like the middle of a demonic ritual, covered in blood and surrounded by the slaughtered body parts of cows, all planted and carefully set up by Zim specifically to get this result by playing to superstitions and inciting mob mentality.
• Childhood Brain Damage: According to rumor, Nick is always happy because he was once kicked in the head by a mule.
• Content Warning: There is a content warning before the story begins for descriptions of gore and period-appropriate sexism.
• Court Jester: This is Zim's role in King Membrane's court, with Gaz in particular enjoying making mockery of him and treating him like a slave.
• Dead Animal Warning: On one of Gaz's hunts, her entire pack of hunting hounds mysteriously disappears, and she comes across their mauled, dead bodies, along with a few dead cows as well. Zim killed them as part of his plan to frame her for being a witch.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Some sexist comments are made against Gaz as evidence that she must be a witch, such as the fact that she dresses in hunting leathers and prefers manly pursuits.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Gaz threatens to have a guardsman fed to her hunting hounds simply for suggesting that she should allow servants to deliver the killing blows to wounded animals when she hunts rather than risk her own safety.
    Gaz: Are you suggesting I'm too weak to handle a crippled animal? Think carefully before you answer, and remember that I've trained my dogs to eat human flesh on command.
  • Later, she has Nick locked in a pillory and pelted with rotten vegetables to punish him for accidentally bumping into her at Bloaty's Tavern and making her spill her drink on herself.
• The Dog Bites Back: All of the evidence that pointed to Gaz being a witch was actually set up by Zim, her favorite jester and punching bag, who is really an alien with access to highly advanced technology that let him easily fool the villagers and nobles while framing Gaz as vengeance for her treatment of him. The story ends with him gleefully watching her being burned at the stake and thinking about how the kingdom will fall apart and be left ripe for conquest by the Irken Empire.
• Doomy Dooms of Doom: As per the style of Invader Zim, the name of the kingdom this story is set in is Doomsvillia.
• Downer Ending: Gaz is burned at the stake after being successfully framed by Zim, who mentally gloats how this will leave the kingdom unstable and vulnerable to his conquest of it.
• Frame-Up: Though we don't find out until the end, Zim was the one who planted all the evidence that made Gaz look like a witch and eventually got her burned at the stake.
• Hand Gagging: When Gaz snaps at her handmaid Gretchen for almost dropping her bathing oils, the girl panics and babbles, "I'm sorry, Your Highness! Please don't give me boils, or turn me into a frog, or—" Sara, another handmaid, quickly covers Gretchen's mouth with her hand to stop her from saying more things that make it sound like she believes the accusations of Gaz being a witch. However, Gaz hears enough to hit her Berserk Button, and she throws them both out of her room.
• Historical AU: The cast of Invader Zim are moved from a 20 Minutes in the Future setting to a Medieval one.
• Hollywood Satanism: At the height of the accusations against her, Gaz falls unconscious in her personal chambers and wakes up lying in the middle of a pentagram formed by the body parts of an entire herd of slaughtered cows, complete with an inverted cross painted in blood on her forehead. When she's caught by the nearby villagers, they immediately take it as undeniable proof that she is a witch. Zim actually drugged her and planted her there, using the information he got from Nick about human superstitions to set up the area to look like what Medieval peasants would expect a Satanic ritual to look like.
• Kick the Dog: Gaz once accused a merchant of price gouging and had him flogged, just for trying to sell her something without giving her a discount for her royal status.
• King Bob the Nth: Doomsvillia is ruled by King Membrane XXIII.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Early in the story, Gaz has Nick locked in the village pillory and pelted with produce for making her spill her drink. Near the end of the story, once the villagers have what appears to be undeniable evidence that she's a witch, they do the same to her.
• Lost Food Grievance: When Nick is running around Bloaty's Tavern trying to catch a rat, he accidentally knocks into Gaz as she's drinking her ale and causes her to spill it on her face and dress. She is furious and orders him to be locked in the pillory and subjected to Produce Pelting as punishment.
• Mistaken for Murderer: Iggins suddenly has a heart attack and dies seconds after Gaz punches him and tells him to drop dead. Since rumors are currently flying around that she is a witch, everyone believes she cast a spell on him to stop his heart. Zim actually zapped him with an invisible death ray to frame Gaz as his killer.
• Mythology Gag: The kingdom being called "Doomsvillia" is a reference to the author's other fic The New Adventures of Invader Zim, where the canonically nameless city is called Doomsville.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: Everyone stops fearing Gaz and becomes eager to punish her once evidence starts to mount that points to her being a witch, their mob mentality overriding the protection she's usually deferred by her royal status.
• Old Maid: Gaz is considered one due to Deliberate Values Dissonance even though she's only 23, as they are in a time period when it is more customary for highborn girls to be betrothed and married as teenagers. She doesn't really care, though.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Despite his royal status, King Membrane is unable to save his daughter from being accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake.
• Outside-Context Problem: Technology in this universe hasn't advanced beyond a medieval level... on Earth, that is. Zim comes from a planet with more advanced alien technology than anything the Kingdom of Doomsvillia could ever conceive of. With it, he projects a hologram of Gaz riding a broom into the sky, zaps Iggins with an invisible death ray right after she hits him, and uses the robotic legs of his PAK to climb into her tower and move her into a field where he has set up what looks like a demonic ritual with slaughtered cows and blood.
• Pastimes Prove Personality: Gaz's favorite pastime is hunting and slaughtering wild animals, which is pretty fitting for her violent, sadistic nature.
• Produce Pelting:
  • When Gaz is at Bloaty's Tavern and a kitchen worker named Nick accidentally bumps into her and makes her spill her drink, she has him locked in a pillory and forces everyone to throw rocks at him.
  • Later, when Gaz is caught in the middle of what looks like a Satanic ritual surrounded by slaughtered animals, the villagers lock her in a pillory and throw rocks, rotten fruit, and vegetables at her.
• Saying Too Much: When Gaz is really stressed out about the rumors that she's a witch, she snaps at Gretchen for almost dropping her bathing oils. The girl frantically apologizes and starts begging Gaz to not give her boils or turn her into a frog, unintentionally implying that she also believes Gaz is a witch and making her even more angry.
• Slipping a Mickey: Zim drugs Gaz's drinking water to make her fall into a deep sleep and then moves her to a large open field where he's set up a fake Satanic ritual, the final step in his plan to frame her as a witch.
• Stock Punishment: Gaz makes use of the pillory in the village near her castle to lock up Nick as punishment for earning her ire. Later, she ends up in it herself when everyone becomes convinced she's a witch and turn on her.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After he was done interrogating Nick for information about the Satanic rituals that the kingdom believed in, as part of his plan to frame Gaz for being a witch, Zim murdered him and hid his remains somewhere nobody would ever find them.