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downwiththeficness · 4 months

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Shadow and Veil-Chapter Thirty Five

Summary: Eva Moore’s life was a carefully constructed fiction. Every day, she did exactly what her mother in law, her husband, and his best friend expected of her. No mistakes. And, that was going pretty well for Eva right up until a huge complication literally tried to run her over. Now, she’s faced with trying to keep the pieces of her life from falling apart while attempting (and failing) to keep her feelings for her husband’s new business partner at bay.

A/N: This fic is a sister-fic to A Need So Great and A Need Unleashed. You do not need to have read ANSG or ANU to read this fic, but there are Easter eggs from those fics in Shadow and Veil for readers with keen eyes. This fic is explicit for canon-compliant blood, gore, violence, and sex. As such, it is intended for an adult audience, only. A/B/O dynamics come with their own warning. Anyone under the age of 18 should not interact with this work. I do not consent to reposting this work to other platforms. Reblog only to Tumblr.

Word Count: ~2,200

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Masterlist Read on AO3

Eva stood in the kitchen, waiting for a fresh pot of coffee to brew. It was almost lunchtime and she’d already taken her normal route around the neighborhood. There were no new job openings to inquire about, so she bought a piece of fruit from the vendor and wandered around until she got tired. Then, aware of the time, she headed home and turned on the next episode of Sergio and Maria’s story.

Luz had no idea that Sergio was struggling with the question of whether or not he would go through with marrying her. She spent most of the episode filling out invitations and looking for dresses. Maria, on the other hand, was drowning her sorrows in tequila with her best friend who was encouraging her to seek out her long lost love. All in all, Eva found it very entertaining.

The ring of the phone startled her during a commercial break. Eva picked it up with a tentative ‘hello?’

Horacio’s voice came through, “Eva, did I leave my lunch on the kitchen counter?”

Leaning around the doorway, she looked for it, “Yes, you did.”

“Would you mind bringing it to me?” He asked, “I would normally just get something here, but I was looking forward to the leftovers.”

Eva sympathized with him. If she hadn’t eaten every scrap of food on her plate, she would be looking forward to the leftovers, too. “I can do that,” she replied, already reaching for the phone book to call a cab. “You’re at your office today?”

“Sí,” then, “Gracias, Amorcita.”

Eva smiled wide even though he couldn’t see her, “You’re welcome. I’ll come right over.”

After hanging up with Horacio, Eva dialed a cab company and very carefully asked for a ride from her home to Horacio’s office. The person on the other side of the line didn’t seem bothered by her stilted speech and gave her a wait time of twenty minutes. It was plenty for Eva to get cleaned up and make herself presentable.

She knew that there was little that she could do about the fact that she stuck out in a crowd. Eva was a foreigner and too new to the country to effectively hide how American she was. She just had to try her best to make a good impression wherever she went, especially if she was going to Horacio’s office. As long as she was polished and polite to his coworkers, it probably wouldn’t matter too much that she was from an entirely different hemisphere.

She selected her outfit with care. Her sartorial choices were limited, but she had enough accessories to add a little flash here and there. After stepping into her heels, she put some money in a handbag and went to the kitchen to grab Horacio’s lunchbox.

The cab pulled into the driveway and Eva gave the address to the driver. Along the way, she attempted to memorize the route. It was further away than she’d been, aside from the first trip from the airport. The neat houses gave way to a highway flanked by trees until the car reached the outskirts of the city, proper.

Most of the buildings were uniform concrete with official looking signs. Eva made note of a medical center about half a block from where the cab eventually pulled to a stop. There was also a post office and general store. In the distance, Eva spotted a small park with children running through it.

She paid the driver and got out, smoothing her skirt nervously before climbing the steps to the front door. While she walked, Eva practiced the translation for ‘hello, I’m looking for my husband, Captain Carrillo’ in her head. The closer she got to the doors, the more nervous she became. When she cleared the stairs, Eva made herself stop and take a deep breath. She was just a wife dropping off lunch to her husband. No big deal.

Another fortifying breath and Eva breezed into the lobby as if she belonged there. She found a secretary who patiently listened to her inquiry. A moment later and she was standing in an elevator staring as a sticky note with short directions written on it. The doors opened and she stepped out, looking both ways to find an office number.

At the end of the hall, Eva dropped down a short set of stairs to an open floor littered with desks. The sound of people talking was muffled by the click of typewriters and the loud scratch of a fax machine printing in the corner. Eva paused at the base of the stairs so that she could scan the room for Horacio. It didn’t take her long to spot him.

Moving quickly through the spacious room, Horacio’s purposeful steps carried him alongside another officer. He was speaking to them in words she couldn’t hear, but the tone was clear: This is what I want, and this is how I want it. It was a tone that she knew intimately and just hearing it made her skin prickle.

Other officers noted Horacio’s approach long before he got there. Eva watched their bodies stiffen and move out of the way to let him through. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen him part a crowd just by walking towards it and Eva had always assumed that it was a Diego thing. That the danger Diego represented was telegraphed so acutely that anyone could sense it.

Evidently, it was a Horacio thing.

Eva quickly calculated where he might be going and easily found her entry point when a group of officers scurried off down another hallway. She put herself in Horacio’s path and waited for him to spot her.

She waited about seven seconds.

Horacio locked eyes with her and the ambient sounds of the room dimmed. His mouth pulled up into a smile and he seemed to completely forget that he was speaking to someone. The even stride shortened and quickened as he made his way towards her. When he got close, both hands reached out to grasp her hips.

He kissed her cheek lightly, “You brought lunch?”

Eva held up his lunchbox, “I brought lunch.”

The officer he had been talking to stood off to the side, watching their interaction with interest. If the expression on his face was anything to go on, Eva thought seeing Horacio kiss someone in public was a rare event that would later result in gentle ribbing between them.

Horacio took the lunchbox from her and stepped to the side, “Eva, this is Officer Trujillo. Trujillo, this is my wife.”

Like the last time he introduced her, Eva’s heart fluttered at the way he said ‘my wife’. No hesitation. No stumbling over the word. No derision or sarcasm in his tone. Just a simple statement of unequivocal fact.

“Mrs. Carrillo,” the officer greeted, “its nice to finally meet you.”

Eva smiled, “Its nice to meet you, too. And, thank you for finding the house for us. We’re very grateful.”

Trujillo dipped his head in acknowledgment, “You’re welcome. Besides, what else was I supposed to do when I heard the Major went to America and got married without telling anyone.”

“Major?”

Horacio shifted on his feet, “Ah. I got promoted this morning. I was going to tell you when I got home.”

“That’s wonderful!” she gasped.

Trujillo stepped forward and slapped Horacio on the shoulder, “I’m looking forward to hearing how you managed to bring down that American doctor. We could use some new strategies.”

Eva felt her smile freeze in place.

Horacio, bless him, noticed, “I’ll let you know when I’ve scheduled the training. Right now, I’m going to have lunch.”

Trujillo waved him off with a grin and Horacio guided Eva away with a hand on the small of her back. They walked to an office that was in disarray. Boxes and filing cabinets were half opened. The desk was covered in accordion files that were bursting at the seams. On the far wall was a couch that had even more boxes stacked on top of it.

Horacio closed the door behind them, “Sorry about…”

Eva shook her head, “He doesn’t know. Its fine. Just caught me off guard.”

He looked at her a moment more before he seemed to accept her answer. Eva watched him walk around his desk and kneel down. The sound of rustling preceded the distinct chime of a microwave starting.

“So, new promotion and a new office?”

Head lifting so that he looked at her from just above the edge of his desk, Horacio replied, “Something like that. I’m supposed to head a task force to hunt down drug dealers.”

She huffed an amused laugh, “I’d say you have a head start on the job.”

He stood, “Yes. I think so.” A tilt of his head, “I doubt it will be nearly as exciting as playing a drug dealer. But, I’ll manage.”

Sauntering over to him, Eva said, “I wouldn’t toss Diego aside so quickly. You might need him back someday.”

There was something in his expression that flinched, but he covered it smoothly by pulling his mouth into a very Diego-like smirk, “I’m sure Diego would be thrilled to hear you think so highly of him.”

Eva turned her shoulders coyly and scrunched her face, “Have to say: When I first met him? Total asshole. But, he grew on me.”

Horacio took her hand and held it loosely, “You’re right. He was an asshole. But, he was efficient. And, I never would have met you without him.”

He was right. If Diego hadn’t stormed into her life, Eva would still be living in that stupid fucking house surrounded by pretty things and slowly dying inside.

“I’m glad I met him,” she murmured.

“Me, too.”

The microwave dinged. Horacio knelt down and carefully pulled the Tupperware from it and cleared off a space on his desk. He sat in a rolling chair and gestured for her to take on of the two chairs opposite.

“We’ll share,” he announced, picking up the fork.

Eva sat and leaned her elbows on the desk, “That’s very gracious of you.”

With a bright hum, Horacio passed her the fork so that she could take a bite, “I’m glad you liked the restaurant. We should go back soon.”

“We should,” she agreed, “We have a promotion to celebrate.”

“Its not a big deal.”

Eva pointed the fork at him, “It is a big deal. You said it, yourself. The whole point of going to Louisiana was so that you could get this promotion. And, look, here it is. You did it.”

Horacio took the fork from her, “I had help. Your help, actually.”

She rolled her eyes, “Yeah, I was a big help while I had a complete mental breakdown and cried for, like, six months.”

“It wasn’t an easy situation.”

He had a point, but Eva refused to allow it, “And, I didn’t make it any easier.”

Horacio chewed thoughtfully, “I don’t need the promotion to be happy with what happened. I got something better.”

How was she supposed to argue with him when he was saying such sweet things? Eva shook her head ruefully, but let him have the win. He forked another bite into his mouth instead of gloating.

Eva’s gaze shifted to the mountain of files on his desk, “Are these your first cases, Major?”

Before he could answer, her eyes caught the familiar Ardent logo. She laid a hand on the file and looked at him in question.

“I,” he began in a long, drawn out syllable, “got an update faxed in from Javier. Its about the trial.”

Her chest clenched, “Oh?”

“The evidence we gathered was very, very good and the DA was suggesting a minimum sentence of twenty years.”

“That’s good, right?”

He nodded, “But, a few days ago, he fled. They’re not sure where he went—he covered his tracks pretty well.”

Eva couldn’t speak around the fear that began to bubble up from her stomach and into her throat. The food in her mouth suddenly felt like lead.

Horacio caught her attention, “He won’t get close to you. I’ve already flagged him at every airport in the country. That’s if he figures out that you’re here, which he won’t.”

She remembered the extra measures he took while they made their way to Colombia. Meticulously, Eva walked through them, looking for weaknesses that Josh might be able to exploit. They were few and far between, but they were there.

The best plan would be for the authorities to catch up with Josh and put him behind bars. But, where…?

“I know where he is,” she said.

Horacio’s brows rose, “You do?”

Eva nodded, “He’s in Mexico. Before everything went to shit, he said that he wanted to move the operation.”

Picking up a pen and notepad, Horacio began to write, “Did he say where in Mexico?”

She shook her head, “No, but I would look for manufacturing towns—places where he could create a new company and start over. Somewhere that he could export the product back into the US.”

He wrote down her words with bullet points and set down the pen, “What was that about not helping, again?”

#Shadow and Veil #Narcos #Horacio carrillo #carrillo #maurice compte #au #A/B/O dynamics

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mdhwrites · 1 year

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Idk if you talked about this before but what's your thoughts on the Blight parents' relationship? Asking this mainly because I saw a long post saying all of Alador's actions were forced by Odalia (even the scene of telling Amity to drop Willow) and the only reason he neglected the kids was because he worked to protect them hence he wasn't abusive. Imo he and Odalia got along fine in their debut so when the "odalia abused alador" reveal dropped it was surprising for me. Since they were also hexside friends, I wonder if the show would've explored that aspect of their relationship before it went downhill (it would've been cool as Odalia as a character feels wasted)

I absolutely have talked about this before, in part because between S1 and 2, the Blight Family was actually one of the most interesting parts about the show for me. They were literally the first blog I wrote about TOH because I thought people treated them unfairly, especially Odalia, because High Society Characters are different from ones we normally sympathize with. If you want to see that version of the Blights, where they're both neglectful and making mistakes but also genuinely meaning well by their kids, I have a story called The Power of Love that explores a LOT of TOH's post S1 potential but especially Amity and her family alongside with making Boscha a real character. I've also just talked about them being shit in the past but I really want to focus on this in this blog: They're both terrible people. Everyone likes to focus on the fact that Odalia is a greedy capitalist but an honest story would recognize that Alador is a mad scientist. That Odalia would sell her children to get ahead while Alador would experiment on them if allowed or if he saw it as useful to his research. He makes robots though, so that's never in question. Amity ONLY gets Alador's attention... By besting his own creation. He watches that whole fight in Escaping Expulsion like he's studying it and liking the results. So yeah, he notices Amity is strong and is able to use that against Odalia to make her not be the dumbest form of villain, so they can claim to have some sort of principles... But how much do you really think that matters to him?

His statement when Luz tries to end the fight by saying the investors get it is that she has a point. Not that they are maybe going too far or that the abomiton's job of destruction is bad but just that the point has been made. Because that's what matters to him. After all, they specifically know that this creature is going to kill Luz. This isn't an interesting experiment for Alador. He doesn't care. He'd rather get this over with so he can go back to his lab.

Even Clouds on the Horizon actually reinforces this. Yes, he complains about not having a weekend off in five years... But that's FIVE. FUCKING. YEARS. There's a point where you know... Maybe he should have complained about this? Questioned anything. But that raises the question of: Before this... What the fuck else was he doing with his time? Both Escaping Expulsion and Reaching Out have him entirely in mad scientist mode where you might distract him for a moment but he will just keep working and ignore everything around him. That's part of WHY he likes Odalia. Odalia loves to talk. Loves to be social. Loves to remove the part he doesn't care about and easily gets distracted during. Even in Clouds on the Horizon, he doesn't explicitly state that his complaint is a lack of time with his kids. He's finally feeling it now because, if we're generous, Amity opened his eyes but... That implies he's a good person. That he just needed a reminder of who he was deep down, just like his daughter did (because Amity frankly has similar issues to this). But... if he were a good person, jokes like 'Immediate execution" would be done instead by having imply that the punishment is very light, revealing that his true nature, when he's not thinking, is kind. But it's not. It's more extreme than expulsion and goes all the way to murder. And why shouldn't it? He still had to have had this talk with Odalia. Agreed with the outcome. Learned the lines. If he was mad about it, he doesn't need to be at that meeting. He could be home working. This was instead important enough to him to get him out of the house. Same goes with dismissing Willow. He took time out of his day for that and didn't keep on script. Him cutting Amity off is not his job there unless he wants it to be. He defers power to Odalia though because she is better than him at this stuff. She is comfortable interacting with other people in ways he is not and their relationship is pretty much divided by those lines. It's very businesslike but neither person actually gives a fuck about people so why shouldn't it be more about collaborating strengths than it is anything emotional? And here's the thing: I'm just going by what the show shows us. Because if we claim Odalia made Alador do everything he does in the show... Who is Alador? We never get a real glimpse of that. If we even say the abomatons aren't something he wants, then he isn't an inventor. The best we have is he'd like to be a layabout and that doesn't technically include his kids. He could just be lazy then and do whatever he wants because that's what he already did... But at least he was making something.

The closest we have to anything else is Amity claiming that he used to spend time with his kids. We have literally no evidence of this, his personality doesn't support the claim, he didn't give a shit about Amity's well being until she challenged his creations as he was entirely on board with destroying social life, twice, so why should we think he was some paragon? Why should we believe Amity who doesn't even go on to ask about his fate once they're back in the Isles and she sees her siblings? Who seemed to care MUCH about her mother's opinion for Reaching Out rather than literally ever bringing up her dad?

It's revisionist in a way that tries to rewrite their dynamic into something more complex than it was. To try and make there be a point to Alador when him having control of the Abomatons doesn't even go anywhere because they still get shot down and still have to leave Alador behind to fight the damn things while they go rescue Luz. Cut out literally the entirety of Clouds on the Horizon and make it the Hexide kids rushing to the Day of Unity instead and you have a different force that can hold back the abomatons while Amity and co go off to help Luz. Worse yet, replace abomatons with "Elite EC Coven Scouts" and you effectively get the same result making Alador and Odalia even more pointless besides a very minor road bump on Amity's character arc all things said and done with how easy her rebellion against them is. They have no point in the story so people are going to scramble for some deeper meaning. Some reason they should exist by having them tackle something as provocative as domestic abuse or the like. But it doesn't. Instead, it's just inconsistent, wasteful writing that has no point to exist when the main character it should be affecting, Amity, is barely a part of any of it. She has some of the least screentime of any character in Escaping Expulsion. She isn't a part of her dad's transformation in Clouds except in an abstract way where Alador just wanting to spend more time video gaming would have been as meaningful with how shit their relationship is at the end of Reaching Out because they wouldn't even let us have a hug in that episode between the two because TOH refuses to just let a plotline end simply even when it involves extremely minor characters. And Reaching Out is the closest we come. An episode where Alador still rigs an entire abomaton to make sure Amity goes to the tryouts without knowing it's Odalia's dream not hers. And if Odalia really was the reason he did EVERYTHING... Shouldn't he know her better than that? Almost like maybe he sees the EC as a good future for Amity too because that's success and he clearly cares about success to some extent. Otherwise, he wouldn't have married a woman as greedy as Odalia. And even if in real life, I've watched a relationship turn toxic the minute they got married, nothing about either character, from their Hexide days, to a decade ago, to now, seems all that different from each other. They just now have kids they neglect or use as free labor. And yes, it's really that simple, no matter how much that fucking blows. And a final note actually: This is my interpretation. We get such little time with Alador and Odalia that statements like "This is why he likes her" are going to be somewhat subjective by how you interpret their relationship. If you think it's as shallow as Alador just found her hot and married her because of that and has been trapped for 16+ years... Well, A: why are you trying to paint him as sympathetic when you seem to not like him? but B: why hasn't her mistreatment been even longer? More over the top? We're just missing basic answers to these characters because they're so bog standard (even if Odalia feels like she comes from the 80s or 90s cartoons more than literally anything I grew up with) that I have to stretch and use literally every scrap of screentime we get with these characters because not only do they get so little of it, their family/kids reflect such little about themselves because none of the elements cohere into something whole. They're bad and really only stand out for that fact versus other one off villains because, well, they're related to Amity. But they're also dealt with just as easily as any villain of the week the show does so they have this weird contrast between Amity's importance and the importance the show actually gives them. Which again: Sucks.

#Odalia Blight #Alador Blight #the owl house criticism #toh critical

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choices-binglebonkus · 1 year

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Top Ten Annoying Children in Choices

There are many children encountered throughout the Choices universe, some more palatable than others. Though they’re all arguably some degree of annoying, this list ranks the top ten of the most annoying children. At least, in my opinion, anyway. So sit back, relax, and read as a 21 year-old grad school student with real life responsibilities tears fictional children to shreds.

10. The Heir.

The Heir is unique in that she’s the only directly customizable child on this list with six different sprites you can choose for her regardless of your own appearance. Throughout TRH and TRF, I can truthfully say I didn’t find anything endearing about her. Like, at all. It certainly didn’t help that PB wrote her like they write animals. But her personality did get slightly better as she aged as the books went on. The same cannot be said about her appearance, however. In fact, I’d say her appearance got worse as the books went on. The Heir as a baby looks perfectly fine. The Heir as a toddler looks like she’d infect me with COVID-19 by spitting a half-chewed chicken nugget into my coffee. And The Heir as a four year-old looks like she’d beat me unconscious with a cane and call me “whippersnapper”.

9. Daughter (MOTY).

Our daughter in MOTY is actually the only child on this list with a genuinely good design. She looks genuinely cute, and that is high praise from someone who doesn’t think kids are cute. I was also sympathetic to her plight as she didn’t fit in well at school and found herself perpetually bullied. However, PB wrote her in such an obnoxious way that I just couldn’t help but be annoyed by her. She’s a gifted and incredibly smart child, but PB could’ve written her so, so much better. To me, she just came across as a slightly less obnoxious Brainy Smurf because of how badly her dialogue and writing were done.

8. Taari.

Taari was a Nothing Character, plain and simple. He didn’t add anything to Endless Summer, and he didn’t appear much at all, which is why he’s not very high on the list. But my god. This kid had practically no sense of self-preservation and Seraxa constantly had to bail his ass out of danger and scold him for getting himself into it in the first place. Kinda like another kid who’s much, much higher on the list, but more on that later.

7. Camellia.

Camellia didn’t appear much at all, but when she did, GOD was she annoying. She mostly appeared in RoE where she and Jiro were constant obstacles during Jess’s job as a tour guide, though she was much less of a brat than Jiro was.

6. Bartie.

You knew going into this list that Bartie would appear here. You knew. Let me summarize it. Annoying family, hideous design as a baby, whiny as fuck, named after Barthelemy. Though interestingly enough, I’d say he and Bianca are the least detestable of the Walker family, which really says a lot.

5. Lula Jacobs.

Kids have no place in horror stories unless they’re integral to the plot, as is the case with ILITW and THoBM. Lula serves absolutely no purpose in Bloodbound and isn’t even remotely endearing. In addition to her character adding nothing of substance to the story, our character is forced to care for her just because. Also? She’s fucking creepy, man.

4. Jiro.

We’re reaching the really annoying ones now. Jiro, like Camellia, mainly appears in RoE as an obstacle during Jess’s job as a tour guide. Unlike Camellia, though, he is almost always the one who causes trouble. He whines, he tries to throw spitballs, he splashes Camellia on the boat ride, and is generally a nuisance during any of his appearances.

3. Augustus Blackwood.

Augustus “August” Blackwood is Vanessa Blackwood’s insufferable, classist little shit of a son. He bullies the main character’s daughter and doesn’t have a pleasant bone in his body. As someone who was bullied myself, I wanted nothing more than for Luz Mendez to punt this little asshole into the sun. He would have been number #1 on this list if he’d appeared more and had a bigger role because I know my annoyance would’ve gone up if he had.

2. Isaac & Lyra Achilles.

Yes. These are two kids. However, due to them being twins, ALWAYS appearing together, and having the exact same personalities, I’m ranking them as one entity. Anyway, these kids are spoiled rotten, uncouth, uncontrollable, arrogant, and remorseless. They are ungrateful little leeches and I was so happy to get rid of them. I cannot stand spoiled children. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them.

1. May.

But Binglebonkus, why is May your number one over these spoiled, entitled little brats? Well, hypothetical person, I’m so glad you asked. While May’s personality is at least pleasant, she has ZERO self-preservation and the most insane plot armor out of anyone in Choices when there’s no reason for her to even have any in the first place. She regularly gets herself into grave danger, forcing others to risk their lives to help her. Feather lost his status as an Elder saving her life, so you’d think she’d be at least a little more careful, right?

Apparently not. We have to save her several times throughout the book and even spend a sizable chunk of one chapter during a battle trying to chase after her and get her to safety. But that’s not even the end of it. Remember how I said children have no place in horror stories unless they’re integral to the plot? May adds nothing to the story like Lula Jacobs, and also like Lula, our character is forced to care for her WAAAAAY more than they really should. The only things that endear her to the player are that she’s super young and presumably orphaned.

With all that being said, PB constantly pushes May-centric diamond scenes on us. Gather plants with May. Buy May this plushie. Tell May a story. Build flower beds with May. PB seems to have wanted May to be like Clementine from The Walking Dead and have us care for her and want to protect her, so they tried to achieve that by pushing diamond scenes with her.

Unlike Clementine, though, May is an incredible liability. Yes, she apparently knows about plants and gardening, but she constantly endangers herself and others, making her unquestionably more of a liability than an asset.

To recap: while her personality is pleasant, I loathe May because she adds nothing to the story whilst being an unrealistic character in that she constantly endangers herself and others while somehow surviving every encounter no matter how severe (like being the only person the Queen didn’t eat, which I call bullshit on) and receives nothing more than a metaphorical slap on the wrist from anyone who has to haul her ass out of trouble. And of course, everyone still unquestionably adores her even after she nearly gets them killed trying to save her for the umpteenth time.

Basically, May is a veritable waste of manpower and resources and could have been a good character, but she was a garbage one instead.

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echonk3 · 8 months

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999 Week 2023 - Akane

hi hello my body wants to die on me but i got this written. from the view of a crash keys employee bc i thought it'd be kinda funny considering we don't really get the employee side of the place explored

The funny thing is, you’ve never met one of your bosses. You’ve met Aoi Kurashiki who warned you that you were getting into some weird and sorta shady shit, but you needed a job, this paid well and you made use of your degree. And turns out it is a pretty decent job. High amount of collaboration with others, but most are good people. Plus the company gives you decent offtime and chips in for the good coffee supplies. Yet you’ve never met Akane Kurashiki

Aoi’s brash, a bit awkward and very much determined when a goal is set. After that interview with him, you sometimes see him around the place, whether it be putting some obviously homemade vases and mugs around to “liven the place up”. You guys may be an… odd company, setting up a death game to apparently keep his sister, the other boss, alive in a convoluted way but again, it’s a decent job and even if the boss may be a bit insane, it’s fine. Though, after the Mars Test Mission, things did seem to change. While a success on all your parts, you were given a much weirder mission that you’ve all been working towards, and so do the new additions to the office. People you recognize from the last few major missions and the newly-collaborated-with SOIS, all with different opinions on the other boss.

Phi from the Mars Mission says she’s manipulative, Junpei from the Nonary Game and the Mars Mission agrees but loves her nonetheless, Carlos from the Mars Missions just laughs and calls her hardworking and dedicated to the people she’s cares about, and Ms. Kashiwabara just says she reminds her a bit of her daughters who you see around sometimes. Heather from the department that makes sure Crash Keys stays largely hidden from the public says that she’s pretty nice, a bit odd and awkward but then again you could probably describe the whole company as that.

On the monthly company-wide meeting (it isn’t the largest company after all, even if part of the staff are there over screens), at the front, is the lady you’ve only seen photos of wearing casual business attire, standing side-by-side with the boss. Both bosses.

You and Luz, who’s in your department, share a look. Your department hasn’t really seen her outside of a few. So this out of nowhere? On the company meeting that happens every month?!

You take a seat. So do the others. You watch as others join. And then everybody’s in and it starts.

“Welcome everyone!” she says with a smile. You know some of the things she had done. You know that smile is likely hiding something. “Sorry if some things are a bit less smooth today, I’m trying my hand at this for the first time.”

She lets out a little laugh that the others reciprocate. Aoi has a small smile watching his sister that continues to stay as she continues with the slideshow she has up, with little fumble actually. It goes oddly well, as if Aoi was the one doing this as usual. She’s serious, her smile gone and a steel in her eyes, especially as the mission about the religious fanatic comes up. Her nails dig into her palm as she starts to describe the plans for the future, and the possibilities if they, if we fail. She talks about your family, your friends, just the innocent people you meet on the street and how they’ll die if you don’t reach the goal.

And then she brings in Sigma to talk more about the future and then minutes later it’s Phi. Akane is looking away from them, avoiding their faces until it’s her turn to talk again. And back is the smile and more casual tone, empathetic instead of full of anger and determination.

You’re reminded of what you were told about her. She’s manipulative, nice and something in-between with varying personality accounts.

“And that should be all for today! Thank you for dealing with me!”

#zero escape #akane kurashiki #999 week

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roxannarambles · 2 years

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This post is a discussion of recent TOH episodes from the point of view of a Goldenlight/Lunter shipper. I am occasionally a little critical of a few popular ships but I do not seek to openly bash them, nor do I hate them.

Keep in mind though, I don’t give a crap about ship wars or fandom discourse and if you wanna pick a fight with me or be rude, you’ll just be blocked. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

With that out of the way, let’s talk about Hunter and Luz’s story arc. And yes, I mean ‘story arc’ as in singular, because their stories are inextricably intertwined. (Major spoilers ahead, obviously.)

Throughout Hunter’s portion of the story arc, we’ve seen different people reach out to him and try to show him that there is a different path then the one he’s currently on. It started with Luz, the first one to actually reach out to him and to try to truly get to know him as a person. Hunter rejected her offer of friendship and remained loyal to Belos, but it clearly hurt him to do so. The pain in his eyes when Luz told him that he wasn’t her friend was absolutely raw. In later episodes, Amity reached out to him, and then Gus and Willow and Darius, each in turn slowly offering positive interactions for Hunter and showing him there is a different way, a different life he could be leading. (Read this excellent analysis about why it was so important for people to reach out to him multiple times.) And, of course, Hunter has the constant support of Flapjack, who is helping Hunter see this new path as well. This whole arc began with Hunting Palisman and strecthed through to Any Sport in a Storm. Slowly, Hunter was gaining frienimies and friends, positive experiences, and rebelling against the Emperor’s Coven in small ways, tiny increments.

Then, finally, in Hollow Mind, we see his situation reach a breaking point. Because despite everything that’s happened, Hunter still had undying devotion and loyalty to Belos, still desperately needed to believe Belos was good and cared for him. And that belief was finally shattered in this episode, because Luz was there to help Hunter finally face up to the truth. It was an unbelievably painful and horrible truth to face, but a truth he needed to face nevertheless. And when Hunter’s world shattered to pieces, he had two choices. Continue staying loyal to Belos, or choose to stand up against him, choose to assert his own “humanity” as it were, assert his own will and his own agency in his own life. Choose to be his own person.

And he did. When the moment came, he stood up against Belos directly to save Luz.

After they escaped the mindscape, Hunter had a massive emotional meltdown and panic attack because (a) his whole world as he knew it had been shattered, (b) existential crisis about being a Grimwalker, (c) Belos knew what happened and was GOING TO HUNT HIM DOWN. Not even the Owl House was a safe haven for him because Belos knew where the Owl House was, and knew he would go there. So Hunter fled.

Here’s the part where the writers messed stuff up big time. Luz, King and Eda just . . . let Hunter go. Luz made a brief half-hearted attempt to chase after him and then just stopped. I argue this is wildly, wildly out of character. There’s no way Eda and Luz would watch a traumatized kid literally have the biggest panic attack of his life in their living room and then just let him run out alone into the woods and do nothing about it. No way in hell. Not only did he need emotional support and a place to stay, but Belos was literally going to hunt him down. Arguably, Hunter was in more emotional distress and in more immediate danger from Belos then even Luz was. You will never in a million years convince me this choice made by the writers made sense and was in-character for Luz and Eda. It just wasn’t.

If you dig a little deeper, you’ll see a storyboard artist mentions a deleted scene in Hollow Mind where Luz offers Hunter some emotional support. They mention about this deleted scene that they were “really glad we delayed those realizations, it wouldn’t have made sense to have it there,” implying the reason this scene was cut was because of storyflow reasons. In other words, they needed Hunter’s huge revelation of Belos’ true, horrible nature to come a bit later in the episode-- probably because that’s what led to him finally standing up against Belos and then fleeing in a panic. For storyflow reasons, that makes sense.

The problem is, it leaves the episode without Luz really getting a chance to offer Hunter any support after his meltdown. And that feels rather silly, because Luz is the best person for the job. Luz was the one who literally took Hunter by the hand and supported him when he was facing his darkest, most horrible truths. She was there experiencing the trauma with him, and she too was a victim of Belos’ emotional manipulation and abuse as well. She understands Hunter and knew exactly what he went through. They understand each other. And they care deeply about each other, as was so clear throughout Hollow Mind.

But, no. The writers chose instead a very convoluted and contrived situation that forced them apart and continued to force them apart. They chose to not even mention Hunter in the following episode, Edge of the World. This is perhaps the most painful failure of the writers out of everything. They could have solved this with literally one or two lines of dialogue. Just have Luz mention she tried to find Hunter in the woods but failed to find him. Have her say she’s really worried about him. And then, that’s it. That’s all we needed, and they could have then gone ahead with their story for that episode. But they didn’t even do that. And I’m sorry, but I’m not buying that for a second. Luz cares so deeply about Hunter as we saw repeatedly throughout Hollow Mind. She wouldn’t just go ‘lol whatever, let’s go find King’s family’ and forget about it. Even as upset as Luz was with her own trauma, she still would have cared about Hunter’s wellbeing too.

There is rumor that earlier versions of Hollow Mind did have Luz chase after Hunter in the woods, as reported by Cissy Jones. This makes sense. And it begs the question why they would change such a pivotal detail that is actually congruent with Luz’s character.

Sadly, this detail is not the only one the writers scuffed, in my opinion. Because in Labyrinth Runners, they really go off the rails for Hunter’s arc.

Let me be clear-- I love Gus and Willow. I think Gus getting his own episode focus was sorely, sorely needed, especially after the last episode that was supposed to be about Gus (Through the Looking Glass Ruins) had a B plot that overshadowed his story so much, which is a massive shame and Gus did not deserve that. Also, Willow and Amity finally addressing unresolved issues between them was also massively overdue and needed. So I was glad they at least were attempting to address that. I don’t think they actually did a good job of it, mind you, because it was too rushed and Amity and Willow did not actually have a proper conversation about stuff (nor did Amity ever properly apologize for her years of tormenting Willow), but. Eh. I acknowledge at least an attempt was made, I guess?

But I’m not here to talk about those parts of Labyrinth Runners. I’m here to talk about Hunter’s parts. Look, I’m sorry folks but it just didn’t make much sense. Even with Belos knowing about the Owl House, Hunter could have sought help with Luz and Eda about another place he could hide out in. Or, the writers could have had Darius, Raine and Eberwolf find Hunter, considering they were right there out in the woods Hunter fled to and Darius was actively distressed and worried about Hunter and was probably looking for him.

Instead, they had Hunter flee to . . . Hexside? For some reason? And then Gus was the one to help him through his panic attacks and tramautic flashbacks? Gus? Gus is lovely, I love Gus, but Hunter and Gus are not that close. And I got news, Hunter and Willow are not that close either. They had some positive interactions and a promising start at a possible friendship in ASIAS, but that’s it. It’s just a weird and awkward choice. I get that Gus had experience with crippling self-doubt and anxiety and they wanted to draw parallels, but . . . it still was an odd choice. An odd choice when Luz was standing right there, with parallels that were far, far stronger with Hunter and with a connection that was far deeper with Hunter.

And then, well, to top it all off, there’s the possibility the episode was trying to tease that Huntl*w could be a thing. They had Hunter recognize the Willow illusion instead of Gus, for starters. This made zero sense. I don’t care if Gus was feeling out of it; he was Willow’s best friend for years and years. It’s quite frankly incredibly insulting to suggest he wouldn’t recognize the obvious Willow deception. It’s almost equally insulting to suggest Hunter would recognize the Willow fake, when he barely knows this girl. Hunter is sharp and observent, so it’s possible, sure. And Gus was pretty out of it, so I suppose it’s possible. But when you put it together with other parts of this episode, the show is suggesting a connection with Hunter and Willow that just hasn’t been established yet. It simply does not exist at this point. They had a game together; Hunter kidnapped the students, then recognzied what he did was a crappy thing to do and stood up for them. Then they exchanged some Penstagram texts. That’s it, though. I just don’t think that’s enough to establish a very deep bond. It’s a very good start of a friendship, sure, of course! But that’s all it is. He still called her Captain. He still held himself at a distance from her and the others. His interactions with her were limited and the depth of those interactions were limited. I just don’t see it, you know?

The episode continued to possibly push Huntl*w by having Willow be the only one to stand up for him in another scene, and then the group Willow/Gus hug potentially teasing Huntl*w (with the blush; although of course, blushing could mean any number of things). This episode was meant to have Hunter learn to open up to other people and to continue standing up against Belos. And yet when he did this, almost every character on the show was present except for the one character who should have been there the most: Luz. The person who started this journey with him. The person who helped him face up against the harshest truths. The person who spurred him to finally made the vital choice to stand against Belos and assert his own personhood. The person he clearly cared about deeply and had so many parallels with.

It’s almost as if . . . the writers were bending over backwards to ensure that Luz and Hunter didn’t actually complete the story arc they so clearly had together. As if . . . the writers were afraid of doing so. Part of me suspects the writers were genuinely worried about having these two characters interact this much, because the audience might possibly perceive a threat to the show’s primary romance. Or, maybe not a threat per se, but the audience might feel annoyed that Luz’s time is not spent primarily with her romantic partner. What kind of message would that be sending, if Luz went through such a vital story arc with somebody who wasn’t Amity? Maybe they were worried that this would send the message that they don’t value Luz and Amity’s relationship enough.

Let me be clear: I am not sitting here and saying “It’s the fault of angry L*mity shippers!” I don’t mean to imply that at all. I don’t think the writers are influenced by the behavior or the whims of the fandom. I’ve been in a lot of fandoms over the years, my friends, and let me tell you, this fandom is not unique. Every single fandom, no matter the size or subject, has its share of toxicity. And most show creators are not swayed by that crap. They just make the show they want to make. Not to mention the episodes are already written, produced and done long before there’s any audience reaction to begin with.

But that does not mean the writers are not influenced by how they want their show to be percieved. And I suspect the creators were concerned about Luz having too much of a storyline with a character who wasn’t her romantic partner. In short, I think they realized how good Luz and Hunter were together, how compelling their parallels and chemistry were, how large their plotline was becoming, and it started being a little too good, a little too much . . . so they needed to put some distance between them.

It’s fine if you wanna tell me that’s a ridiculous, super-biased opinion for me to express. I honestly don’t care. Yes, I’m very biased. And so are you, dear reader, if you’ve bothered to read this far. We’re all very biased. So who knows who’s actually “right?” It doesn’t really matter in the end, anyway, because (a) it’s just a show and (b) ultimately this plot discussion all boils down to personal opinion, and nothing more.

The alternative explanation I can think of is just that the writers REALLY wanted to fit another Gus episode into this season (a reasonable want), plus some Willow/Amity interactions, and so they forced Hunter into the same episode because time was limited and that was what they had to work with! Which is a shame, if that’s true, because the results obviously were not ideal.

In any case, just for the record, I don’t hate Huntl*w. I just don’t see any basis for it at the moment. To me, having it potentially hinted at in Labyrinth Runners came out of nowhere and had no reasoning behind it. I also personally don’t think their characters are all that compelling or interesting together. Obviously I prefer Huntceda. But I don’t think you’re an awful person if you prefer Huntl*w! (Honestly, it has the potential to be a cute ship if it had the time and room to develop organically. Unfortunately, I just don’t think there’s enough space left in S2B for that to happen; if it does happen in canon, it’s inevitably going to feel very rushed. But hey, if you wanna expand upon it in fanon, that’s cool!)

I also don’t hate L*mity. I used to be a huge L*mity shipper in the first season. I grew bored with it and was very disappointed with how they got together in Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door. That’s all. I don’t think it’s horrid, it’s a perfectly fine ship. So if you like those ships, more power to you! Enjoy.

I’ll just be sitting over here in my own corner, enjoying my Goldenlight.

-Roxy

#goldenlight #huntceda #lunter #luz x hunter #goldenluz #hunter x luz #episode discussions #<3 to anyone who reads to the end or who even reads any portion at all #I do love to ramble XD

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just-a-jellyfish · 2 years

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A “Thanks To Them” Lumity theory

Ok so before I get into my theory I just want to say that I have seen the two clips that have been posted to YouTube but I haven’t seen the full first 6 minutes of the episode although from what I’ve heard there is a timeskip at the end of it and even by then Luz and Hunter haven’t shared the full extent of what they’ve seen in Belos’ mind yet.

Now that’s out of the way I have some thoughts regarding what I think may happen with Lumity in this special. So in the second clip Gus says that Belos used to be a human meaning the gang might know that Phillip and Belos are the same person although I’m not sure on the likelihood of this as it could just be an easier way for him to explain what happened instead of saying he was a witch who turned into a monster. Anyway even if they do know this, the thing is that they don’t know that Luz “helped” him in the 1600s, the thing that she’s feeling a lot of guilt about.

This leads me to believe that by this point the gang (minus Hunter of course) don’t know too much about Phillip as of yet. A fact I think that Phillip himself might have figured out and may use against Luz in their fight later on in the episode (as well as the Hunter grimwalker thing) in order to split everyone apart. I don’t think this will work and everyone’ll still be able to work together to stop him but what happens after might not be so good.

If it really has been months and Luz hasn’t told the others, especially Amity, anything, there could be a problem. I think Amity might not have a great reaction to this not because Luz accidentally helped Phillip- that wasn’t her fault at all- but because she didn’t tell her about it.

I get why Luz might not say anything, she’s worried that she might be blamed for what Belos did even though we know that no one would really hold it against her. The idea that you helped someone hurt the people you care about and you didn’t even know what it was you were doing at the time must be terrifying and she must be so worried about her friends thinking that she’s like Belos because she helped him find the Collector. Feeling so anxious constantly can mess up your thoughts quite a bit.

Still, a big thing that Amity has stressed is that Luz can tell her anything, something which has been an issue already a couple of times. Firstly, when Luz didn’t tell her about what her mom said in Yesterday’s Lie at the beginning of FatCDP, only confessing later on after the fight with Kikimora. Amity said that she can only help if Luz tells her what’s going on and she agrees to be more open with her girlfriend.

Secondly was during Reaching Out when Luz only tells Amity about her dad after trying to hide it and distract herself all day, only talking about it once she realises she can’t do that. Again, Amity is really understanding and they both end up picking flowers and it was a really wholesome way to end the episode. (Seriously though Reaching Out is so good, one day I might make a post about why I love it so much but back to the topic here.)

Both times you can understand why Luz kept things a secret; the first time because she was worried about Camilla not letting her stay in the BI, the second time because she didn’t even want to think about her feelings. And again I think that Luz doesn’t even really want to think about how she feels about this whole thing because at that point it might be too much for her to deal with on her own, especially with her found family in another world. And what does Luz do when she feels bad about something that happened and can’t fix it?

She tries to distract herself.

Having issues with her mom? Help Kikimora with her work life balance. Sad about her dad’s anniversary? Help Amity with her own problems with Alador. There is a pattern of this especially in s2B so in this case I could imagine Luz putting all her efforts into building a portal, again trying to help her friends, so she doesn’t have to think about her own feelings. (I just want to say here that it’s great that Luz wants to help people, selflessness is a good character trait, the problem is that she helps people to the point where she neglects her own mental health.)

At this point I think Amity’ll catch onto it, even if she’s not sure of what to do about it. Again, what she said about how she can only help if she knows what the problem is. Still, I think that she wouldn’t be happy about the fact that she’s been kind of shut out again, even if Luz has good reasons, because she also wants to be there for her girlfriend. Luz has helped her to vent with her problems with her dad and to break out of her house when Odalia grounds imprisons her and I think Amity wants to reciprocate it but can’t if Luz doesn’t open up to her.

I think they’ll get through it though, I can’t see them breaking up, especially over something like this but I think they’ll both learn from it. Luz finally learning she can open up to Amity and that she isn’t a bad person for being manipulated by Belos and Amity learning why Luz may have not told her everything to begin with, hopefully making their relationship even stronger than it already is (if that’s possible).

Anyway ik it’s been a pretty long post and a bit rambly at points but it was fun to get another theory out after like 4 and a half months. I love lumity so it was fun to finally talk about them. Again ik this could age like milk but I still enjoyed making another TOH (sort of) prediction!

#the owl house #the owl house theory #TOH #thanks to them #thanks to them theory #lumity #luz noceda #amity blight #toh luz #toh amity

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drabbles-of-writing · 2 years

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A Little Kindness: Chapter 10

AO3

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11

Summary: In which Raine is finally awake, Hunter is scared at all times, and about three different miscommunications are had. None of which are for the better.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

All was still for a moment.

Then Raine was up like a shot, and about half the people in the room rushed forward while the other half scrambled back, Hunter included, all in an uproar of noise.

Raine was, evidently, some kind of overwhelmed or spooked, because the first thing they did was flinch back against the couch and throw out a fist.

Eda was, unfortunately, the closest and easiest target. Raine’s fist connected with her side, and Eda let out a wheeze as she stumbled back, clutching at the mark. Those who had been converging on Raine, most of which had been the BATs, immediately halted in their assault.

“Geez you can still swing.” Eda grunted, face pinched.

Raine lay pressed back against the couch for a moment longer, breathing fast and eyes wild. Their gaze darted around the room at rapid fire, gaze cloudy and unfocused. They honestly looked ready to bolt at any more sudden movements. Understandable.

Hunter, who was crouched at the head of the couch again, waved his hand in Willow and Luz’s direction, who were the second closest and also still on the ground. Luz caught his eye first and nudged Willow, who was looking a little worse for wear, easing her away from the couch. He couldn’t find where King had gone off to.

“Raine?” Amber asked, ears pinned back and droopy, her own eyes wide and worried. Raine’s gaze darted to her. “Is–are you okay?”

Raine stared at her for a moment, and then they blinked, and the cloudiness started to fade from their eyes. They swallowed, breathing evening out as they took another survey of the room. Expectedly, they were still first drawn to the closest person to them.

“Eda?” Raine murmured, voice hoarse and scratchy. “What are you doing here?”

“This is my house, Rainstorm.” Eda said, softer now, a small smile on her face as she removed her hand from her side. “You back with us?”

Raine blinked up at her for a moment, brows furrowed, confused. Slowly, they sat up a little straighter, clearly struggling with the effort if their shaking arm very close to Hunter’s head was any indication. They paused, did another take around the room, then frowned at Eda.

“What happened?” They asked, voice croaking halfway through, and they raised a hand to their throat in confusion.

“A lot,” Eda breathed, reaching forward again, and this time Raine didn’t flinch back. “But you’re okay, right?” She asked, hesitating for a second before gently grabbing their hand by their neck. “Nothing overly wrong?”

“Well, aside from all of this,” Raine looked around. “No, no. I-I think I’m alright. Close to, at least.”

“Thank Titan, Eda breathed, and then she was grabbing Raine in a hug.

That broke whatever kind of spell everyone else was under, and the BATs all hastily rushed to the couch, talking over each other, though not as loud and wild as before, and Raine looked the definition of perplexed as they were both hugging Eda and being bombarded by the others.

Luz and Willow were quick to hurry out of the way, also confused, but at least happy nobody was wracked with worry.

Hunter noticed something fuzzy sticking out from under the couch, sticking his hand underneath and hearing a squeak as he grabbed it. He wound up pulling King free of the couch by his tail, beforely promptly dropping him on the ground.

“Really?” He whispered, though he surely wouldn’t have been heard over everyone else's chatter.

“I panicked!” King huffed.

“Alright, alright!” Raine suddenly spoke, holding up their hands in a placating gesture, and Hunter looked back up. “This is all a bit–much. Titan,” They sighed, running a hand over their face. “You,” they pointed to Eda, squinting, and Eda froze up. “You were…” They squinted, frowning. “By the…no, in the forest.” They said, nodding to themself. “And you three,” They turned to the BATs. “Were…weren’t you captured?” They said, sounding a bit alarmed as they did.

“Oh, we were.” Katya agreed breezily. “But the others rescued us.”

“We swung back for you right after.” Eda added, hand on Raine’s arm, and Raine accepted it as easily as if it’d always been there. “What do you remember, Raine?”

“Not a lot.” They admitted, a bit wearily. “I know Darius and Eberwolf tried to talk to me about…something. And then…” They squinted. “Kikimora,” They said slowly. “Was there, I think. After that, it’s a blur. I think I was at the castle?” They shook their head. “But goodness, I think this is the worst state I’ve woken up in.” They murmured, rubbing at their wrist. “I haven’t felt this–”

They stared at their wrist. More specifically, at the little red lines protruding from it. They raised their hand, slowly turning it over and inspecting the pale, white lichtenberg-like scars. Nobody had cleaned off the few specks of blood yet. Hunter had confidence that they’d fade to something less prominent with time, but for now, it was like they were covered in bright spiderwebs.

“We have a lot to explain.” Eda said softly, squeezing their arm. “You up for hearing it?”

“Well,” Raine said, looking to Eda with something very complicated, then to the BATs with something far less so, then back to Eda. “Unless one of you knows where my glasses went,” They said, feeling a hand around their face in emphasis. “I don’t have much else to do, I suppose.”

“Ah,” Derwin winced. “Yeah, we–we kinda lost those?”

“Can I introduce myself now?” Luz piped up, leaning around Willow and raising her hand.

“One at a time.” Eda instructed, sitting down on the couch next to Raine, hand remaining on their shoulder.

“Fantastic!” Luz nudged Willow’s side, and upon a small nod, popped over without a moment's hesitation. “The name’s Luz!” She greeted, holding out a hand.

“Oh, um, hello.” Raine said, hesitantly taking it. “Have I…” They squinted. “Seen you somewhere before?”

“Sorta,” Eda coughed into her fist, and Luz gave her a perplexed look. “King, c’mere.”

“Hi, person I know nothing about.” King waved from his place on the floor, and Hunter jerked his hand back when he realized it was in-sight. “I’m King.”

“Where have I seen them before?” Raine frowned at Eda.

“Later,” Eda waved her hand, looking away. “This is Willow,” She said, holding out a hand in Willow’s direction, who was just as confused as most everyone else. “You can thank her for getting you out of that state you were in.”

“It was nothing.” Willow said quickly, offering a small wave, clearly still a bit dizzy. “I’m just glad you’re awake. It’s all Luz has been talking to us about.”

“Oh, well, I’m not sure what you did, but thank you.” Raine blinked.

“No problem. What time is it, by the way?” Willow asked Luz, drawing her attention.

“And,” Eda continued, “the object of about two-thirds of our questions these last few days,” Eda gestured with her other hand, Raine confusedly mouthing the word days as their eyes were drawn to Hunter’s hiding place. “The golden kid.”

Hunter cringed back out of sight, eyes wide and giving King a panicked look. King looked just plain confused to see him still there, and Hunter covered his mouth with his hand.

Now, he was thrilled to see Raine awake and not in immediate peril. Truly, he was, but he’s also painfully aware of the fact that he doesn’t know how well Raine knows him.

Had they seen his face before? Did they know his name? Neither of these things had been revealed openly to the Coven until right around the time they were revealed as a traitor. He has no idea if the information reached them yet. Or even what information reached them.

And, though he’d never admit it aloud, and especially hated admitting it to himself, Amber had a point, didn’t she? What was he supposed to do if Raine didn’t even know who he was? They might not even know he was sixteen. They may have thought he was a similar-aged coworker, possibly a decade younger, maybe two, not three.

When faced with it, he’s not sure if he wants Raine to know these things. Which was one of the more ridiculous things his dumb head liked to think, because it’s not like there was ever an opportunity for this not to happen.

“Are you gonna move, or what?” Katya asked, who was the closest, and standing, well, almost right next to him. “You look like a feral cat down there.”

“Fuck off,” Hunter hissed, and Katya just raised a brow, mildly amused. Odd thing to do, since he’s sure she was on Amber’s side.

“Up and at ‘em,” Katya said, reaching for him, and Hunter cringed back, batting her hand away as he forced himself up to his feet.

He saw Raine startle, clearly not expecting someone to be so close and yet out of sight. Hunter crossed his arms and swallowed, head turned to the side so he was only seeing Raine out of the corner of his eye. His cardinal stayed down at his feet, silent for once.

“Hey, uh, Raine.” Hunter cleared his throat.

“Oh,” Raine said, and Hunter waited for it, the oncoming gasp, the shock, the demanding, the–“Hello, there. Who might you be?”

The silence was deafening.

Hunter’s throat felt a bit dry, and he would’ve felt relieved if he trusted these people for even a second to not tell. Because if Raine doesn’t know, it works even better. He doesn't think he wants to know just what they thought they were getting from the Golden Guard when they know he’s, well…this.

Or maybe he’s just a coward.

“Hunter,” He said in a quiet voice, coughing and then speaking again; “I-I’m Hunter.”

“Huh. Nice to meet you.” Raine smiled, still confused and uneasy but taking it all in stride. “Not sure what you did, either, but thank you for the help.” They said, offering a hand.

Hunter stared at the hand for a few moments. A part of him wanted to ignore it and go right for the front door. Raine was awake, and nobody was going to get anything important done with everyone talking over each other and trying to explain the last few days to them.

But he’d probably regret it if he did. For a little while, Raine wouldn’t see him as anything other than some random kid, and not the one they’d been sneaking snacks and notes to with no prior understanding of who he was.

Hunter hesitantly reached out his hand and grabbed theirs.

It wasn’t often he wished he wasn’t wearing his gloves. He wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of how messed up his hands looked, and honestly, textures were weird. But at that moment, he’d take any excuse to toss them off and feel anything other than the weight of Raine’s hand shaking his.

“Yeah,” He mumbled, not meeting their eyes. “Nice to meet you, too.”

“Well, then, is that everyone?” Raine asked, retracting their hand first and looking around before pausing. “Er…something wrong?”

Hunter made a point to not look at anyone as he drew his cloak further around himself and stepped back, feeling oddly hollow and relieved at the same time.

“Alright, cool, don’t know what’s happening here,” He heard Willow say. “But it’s–like, really late, and my dads are gonna be worried if I’m not back soon so…Luz, er, text me what–?”

“I should leave.” He said stiltedly, for really everyone else’s benefit, crouching and hastily shoving his cardinal into his cloak, hearing him squawk in protest. “I have work.” Which technically wasn’t a lie.

“Hunter, hey–”

He ducked around Luz’s arm reaching out, making a beeline for the door he could see Willow opening. His cardinal struggled in his grasp, head poking free and chirping up a storm before Hunter tugged him close again.

“Wait–” He heard Raine start, and then voices were rising in an onslaught of sit down’s and hey wait a second. “Was that–?”

Hunter was out the door half a second after Willow, who had hesitated in the doorway when clamor started up, and all but knocked into her side as he yanked it shut behind him.

“Hoot! Hey, I was listening to that!” Hooty complained, stretching out his neck.

“Then use a window,” Hunter growled, and it sounded distant to him, fuzzy. Ah, shit. That’s not good.

“Uh, so–?”

Something landed on his shoulder and he jolted, trying to jerk away. The weight remained, but lessened up, and he pinned his ears back with a hiss as he whirled to–

Oh, yeah, Willow. He dropped his curling lips immediately. Not a good thing to be a pissy dickhead to the one who made your life a whole lot easier. Kind of. It’s complicated.

“What?” He muttered, shaking her off and digging his staff out of his cloak, his cardinal likely swearing at him, considering how loud he was. The others would be out and trying to grab him, soon.

“Are…” Willow paused, frowned, then sighed. “Yeah, you probably already heard that. Do you, like, need a minute? Because I could probably cover for–”

“I’m leaving, not taking in air.” Hunter hissed anyway, extending his staff and digging out his mask. “I meant it. I have work to do.”

“Right,” Willow said, disbelieving as her hand fell away, and he all but shoved the mask on his face, squishing uncomfortably against his nose. “Well, it was…interesting to meet you. Luz talks about you nonstop.”

If he looked closely, he almost swore he could see an eye-roll. He scoffed, ignoring his cardinal sulking on his shoulder. He could hear voices getting louder in the house behind him.

“She talks about everyone nonstop.” He muttered, laying his staff sideways and sliding sideways onto it. “But, I guess…” He sighed, shoulders slumping as if it was a great burden. It wasn’t, he was just tired. She looked tired, too. “Thanks. For-for helping Raine.”

Because even with his hearing going echoing and full of cotton, he could at least be polite. She deserved some kind of thanks for all this.

“Hey, what good are friends if they don’t make trips at night to break a Head Witch out of mind control?” Willow shrugged with a grin. “I owe Luz a crazy scheme or two.”

“You’re weird.” He said matter-of-factly, and Willow’s grin only widened.

“Yeah, but so are the rest of us.” She said simply.

“Yeah,” He said, ear twitching before turning away. “Fair enough.”

The door didn’t open as he teleported into the sky, nor was there anyone shouting after him. Maybe that had happened, and maybe it didn’t. Not like it mattered much, anyway.

Even if he heard it, he probably wouldn’t have turned back.

The next few hours were downright awful.

Which was his own fault, really. Because what was entirely expected to happen, did happen. Amber was probably gloating, boasting about how she was right, Raine had no idea who he was, and had thought he was just some random guy.

There were demons and witches of all shapes, sizes, and voices. He’d met one that was barely as big as his foot and was a hundred years old, and one who’s horns brushed the roof that had only been around for two decades. They had no reason to think he was actually a kid. Hell, nobody had, because a prodigy is expected to be someone who excelled as a kid and was, like, a young adult who was doing good.

And he was not moping, he was doing work. He was giving everyone time to settle down. Someone had absolutely told Raine who he was, and he was not particularly looking forward to seeing what their first expression would be when they connected the dots. Just give everyone time to calm down and then…pop back in, he guesses.

It really wasn’t that bad. The hard part was over. Raine was going to be okay. That thought alone was enough to get him to not look like a total zombie. But since the hard part was over, then he just had to make sure it didn’t fall back to the hard part. Because Titan knows what everyone at that house is going to have Raine do. They’re clearly more than a little frazzled from the whole thing, so forgive him for not trusting nobody’s going to do anything stupid.

His cardinal was pissed at him, though, so that was fun.

“Would a bag of seeds make you feel better?” Hunter sighed, sliding the bag across the desk.

His cardinal glared at him. But he did snatch up the bag and bury his head in the contents. He still got the impression he was not being forgiven.

“Look, I know it makes sense why they don’t know me. I never saw them as Bat, they only saw me as the Golden Guard.” Hunter said, resting his cheek on his hand. “I’m fine with that. I am. I’m cool with it. I’m only…it’s Raine.” He stressed, placing his hands together, glaring down. “It’s Raine, and I don’t know them. And they don’t know me. So, theoretically, it should be fine. I’m just–meeting a coworker. Except it’s not, because they also know me as some loser they gave some snacks and notes like–like I needed those–”

A harsh peck at his arm. Hunter looked down to see his palisman standing in front of him, all ruffled and warning. He pecked at his arm again. Hunter grunted and moved it away, rubbing at the spot.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here.” He sighed. “Still mad at me?”

His palisman puffed, and promptly turned right around and sat down. He supposed that’s all he deserved. He still offered a light petting over his back, and his cardinal relaxed a bit at that. Small victories.

He supposed it wouldn’t be all bad. Raine and Bat were, in some sense of the word, one in the same. Bat wasn’t looking to get anything out of him, that, he’s sure of. And, really, he’s of the opinion that doing something without rewards is a true show of character.

He looked up to the cracked mirror at his desk. His face was a bit distorted, but he raised his other hand and rubbed at the scar across his face. The rough feeling of the glove grazed over his skin in an odd sensation.

Bat had been there for that. Really, he thinks anyone who stuck around after that humiliation can’t be so important.

Well, not there, there, but they’d found out. It wasn’t hard, practically everyone had heard about the horrible reprimanding the Golden Guard had received after pushing the Emperor too far.

He’d been asking about wild magic again. He was frustrated that his uncle wouldn’t accept any kind of help, even if it was in the form of learning more about wild magic. To cure something, you had to understand it, and that was what fourteen-year-old Hunter insisted he could do. He didn’t want his uncle to be suffering and terrifying anymore.

He’d pushed too far. It was his fault, he should have known how angry his uncle was getting, how much he was wheezing and gasping. It was always a gamble when he was in the throne room alone with him. He was rarely a beast of horrific proportions around anyone else but him, and punishments would vary wildly depending on his mood for the day.

Usually, they were harsher when he was alone. It wouldn’t do good for the guards to start doubting the Golden Guard’s capabilities.

This time, he’d been alone.

Claws had dug into his arms, a maw of goo, fangs, and horror. Hunter had tried to fight back, for some stupid reason, and it had gone…poorly.

He didn’t remember the moment it struck him. Honestly, he didn’t remember much, most of the shitty situation being shoved out of his memory.

But he thinks he screamed, because guards were rushing in, all running past him and towards Belos, a hunched over, gasping form on the ground reaching blindly for something to cure his plight.

He remembered blood streaming down his cheek and onto his clothes, soaking in. Everything had been too loud, too hot, and it was blurring together into static and yet still he swore he could feel every piece of cloth on his body and every scrape and bruise and it hurt.

Someone had grabbed his arm, and he remembered thrashing out and trying to get away, the touch sending electricity down his spine like he was being burned. He had whirled around in a frenzied panic to see a scout crouching there.

The scout had probably said something, but it had gone in one ear and out the other. Somehow, he only managed to cringe away and keep his gaze glued to the floor, where he could still hear his uncle gasping and heaving as someone fetched him a palisman.

He’d slid his mask to the top of his head for the talk. Belos preferred to see his face, less of a chance to hide. What a sad sight he must have been. He remembers being worried about someone seeing and knowing, then, because Belos didn’t want them to know.

He wasn’t sure when he was standing, but he knew the scout was there, holding onto his arm and hesitating for a brief second. Then, wordlessly, they’d slid the mask back down over his face while everyone else was distracted.

The scout had ushered him outside, still tightly clinging to his arm and probably the only reason he didn’t fall over on his own two feet. The mask was suffocating, too close, and a comfort all the same as guards rushed by in a panic to see what had happened.

He remembers at some point yanking out of the scouts grasp when one of the guards knocked into them, shaking and frenzied and dashing off down the hallways the second he was free. He doesn’t think the scout followed.

The rest of the day had been a blur he made a choice not to remember, spent hiding in his room like a little kid and desperately trying to get the blood flow to stop. He didn’t need stitches, he couldn’t go to the healers for this. Everyone would know within the day how royally he’d screwed up and the blood didn’t stop.

A knock on his door.

“Go away!” He barked immediately. “I’m–the Emperor needs–”

A slip of paper sliding under the gap in the door.

After two years, he knew enough and had instantly put down the healing patch he was trying to work out. They were so needlessly complicated.

He walked to the door on careful steps, hesitantly picking up the note.

Are you okay?

There was no bat drawing to accompany it this time. Hastily scribbled and barely on the page before being delivered.

There was no light shining through the crack in the door. He didn’t hear footsteps leave.

He’d pressed the old gauze back to the wound on his face, digging around in his drawers before withdrawing a tiny pencil. Hesitantly, and some part of him would note the pain didn’t feel that bad when he wasn’t focused on it, he wrote out a simple; I’m alive.

He slid it back underneath the door and waited.

And waited.

It slid back.

That’s not what I was asking. But it’s still good to hear. What do you need?

No bat drawing this time, either. But Hunter wasn’t really focused on that, because his hands were shaking and he was staring at the shadow underneath the door as though a slitherbeast stood on the other side. That might’ve been better.

Bat was right there. They were there, and they knew he was there, and all he had to do was open the door–

Medical supplies, he wrote back, desperate and trying not to heave. lots of it. It bleeds every time I move. He paused, hesitated, then added, at the bottom; Snacks would be nice.

He slowly, gingerly, slid it underneath the door. He lingered for a second, fingers itching to reach out and cross the barrier that was a simple goddamn door.

He considered, waited, and retracted his hand.

There was shuffling, paper moving, and a second of silence. Then, a soft, gentle knock on the door. A confirmation.

Hunter knocked back, softer and quieter and barely there.

They heard it anyway. And he heard them tuck the paper away, and the sound of footsteps rushing away, farther down the hallway.

Bat would be back, he knew. And they’d probably stay right there, and slip him notes under the door, and Hunter would be focusing on anything but his face and his permanently stained clothes and cloak because they were right there. And all he had to do was open the door, and he doesn’t even think Bat would mind all that much, because if they cared, they wouldn’t be sitting there in the first place, no matter how trusting they were.

A part of him had wanted to open the door when they returned. They’d given him one of the heavy-duty med kits, practically every snack the vending machine had to offer, and had all but begged him to give them something else to do. All he could bring himself to ask for was to write, and so they did. He thinks that they wanted to open the door, too.

But they didn’t. And he didn’t. And he realized that for every different kind of anger, there were twice as many different kinds of fear. And that was somehow thicker than any door.

But today, here and now, he realizes this is a lot like that. And what a dumb thing to be afraid of, knowing Raine. What, was he expecting that they were going to suddenly hate him? That knowing him would mean they stopped wanting to be nice to him? Be his friend, or whatever?

Hunter paused, frowning and glaring at the desk. Well, shit, he wasn’t far off that time, was he?

“This is bullshit.” He muttered, and his palisman barely reacted.

At four in the morning, Hunter curled up in a bed that felt less like his own by every passing day, and prayed he wouldn’t have to wake up again.

Just after dawn, the Emperor called a meeting with every Head Witch.

And just like every time, Hunter was there before anyone else, as is expected of the Golden Guard. He held his staff in one hand, opened the door, and offered a low, respectful dip of his head.

“Ah, Hunter.” Belos greeted coolly. He still doesn’t think he was forgiven for being absent during Raine’s escape, or the failure at Latissa, so he didn’t give a verbal greeting like he normally would. “Good, I was hoping to speak with you.”

Hunter didn’t swallow, didn’t even shift away. Such nervousness was discovered quickly and culled doubly so. He did, however, stand straighter.

It was then he noticed Kikimora, standing very smugly at the Emperor’s side. He would’ve rolled his eyes at that if the second thing he noticed wasn’t how much of an absolute train wreck she was.

He hadn’t seen her often in the days spent trying to help Raine, so the difference was…startling. There were bags heavier than his own under her eyes, paler skin, grayed and cracked claws, and even the weird hand on her head was shriveled and looked ready to fall off. She looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks, got every disease known to the Isles, and was chucked around for good measure. He supposed she kind of had been, Eda had thrown her hard.

“Sir?” He said cautiously, holding his staff tighter as he stepped in.

“Kikimora here was just being given an assignment, seeing as she was released from her previous position.” The Emperor said smoothly, not even glancing at the demon. Hunter could tell he was just a bit ticked off.

“I,” Kikimora said, and Hunter almost winced, because wow she sounded like she’d gargled sharp rocks all day. “have been assigned to the Titan’s veins. It’s a very important mission,” She said, and Hunter would have been bothered if he wasn’t busy trying to not show visible cringing at her general awfulness. “gifted to me by our most generous Emperor.”

“Have we redoubled the efforts for Titan’s blood?” Hunter asked evenly, head tilted.

“That is classified,” Kikimora sniffed. “And only for those who are actually going to the veins. I’m sure you understand, Golden Guard.”

He wanted to punt her. Fine, whatever, if she was being sent to the veins, it was probably something serious, he knew his uncle had been having trouble with the portal. He likely also just wanted to be rid of her for a while. She was already deranged enough as it was. He’d probably be getting his own mission later.

“You’re to leave at once, Kikimora.” Belos said, still not looking at her, head turned fully towards Hunter. “We mustn’t waste time for such matters.”

“Of course, my liege!” Kikimora gave a sharp nod, one that nearly sent her toppling to the ground from how unsteady she was. “Rest assured, we will have your Titan’s blood before we return.” She said, giving a salute.

“Good,” The Emperor said, cold. “I would not accept anything less.”

There was a threat lined in there. And even in Kikimora’s stupor, he’s sure she noticed it. You learn to recognize these things around every bend after a while.

Kikimora gave a bow, stumbling back out of the room. She gave him a cocky look as she passed, and if Belos wasn’t watching him, he would’ve flipped her off. Either she knows something he doesn’t, or she’s just being a little shit after catching him in the escape and thinks this is a victory on her part. He’s willing to bet it’s the latter.

The door shut with a click, and Hunter dipped his head again, keeping it there. Belos was less predictable when alone, after all.

“Come now, Hunter.” Belos said, a click of metal on metal. “Is that any way to greet your uncle?”

He hesitantly raised his head, finding Belos removing the mask from his face. He hastily threw his hood back and removed his own, because it wasn’t often Belos would remove his mask in his presence, usually he just finds him without it. This was personal.

“Apologies,” He said, giving a small smile, and his teeth felt a bit too big for his head. “Old habits. Did you need me for something?”

“Just to talk,” Belos said, stepping forward and curling a gloved, armored hand. He stayed perfectly still as his uncle cupped his face, lightly turning it to the side in an inspection. “I’m glad to see you like this.” He murmured.

“So am I,” Hunter admitted, and very gently leaned his head into the touch, however cold it was. No frown of disconcertment or retreat when he did so, so he silently cheered that he’d gone unnoticed.

“As I’m sure you’ve noticed,” Belos said, eyes still looking him over with something that resembled remembrance. He’d call it longing if he didn’t know any better. “that Whispers has broken free of their spell.”

“Is that what the meeting is for?” He asked, ear twitching.

“Indeed,” Belos said, moving his hand down to the junction of his shoulder and neck, right over his newest scar. He sometimes did that, after receiving an injury. He thinks, or maybe just hopes, that's his form of apology. “And with so many dreadful rumors, and two failures so close together…” Belos sighed, disappointingly, and Hunter felt his heart sink.

“I-I can do better, sir.” Hunter insisted, ears pressed down. “I know I made some mistakes, but–but Latissa was just a fluke, and I promise you I had rushed over as soon as I could when I heard the commotion of Whispers–”

“Hunter,” Belos said, almost chiding, and he snapped his mouth shut. The hand moved away from his shoulder, down to his upper arm, a squeeze. Normally, such things were a warning. But what he’d be warned about this time, he wasn’t sure. “I know you can fix such mistakes, you’re far too good to let these things define you.” He soothed, and Hunter mutely nodded. “Please, my dear nephew, know that you are precious to me, despite these flaws.”

“I’ll make it up to you.” He promised, and perhaps his head raised a bit proudly, jaw set.

“Now, there’s no need for that just yet.” Belos said, and his hand fell away, and Hunter missed it immediately. It crossed across his chest, though his uncle’s soft smile didn’t fall. It was odd on his face, the scar turning and shifting with his features. “That is why, for the time being, you are to remain within the palace.”

“I–uncle?” Hunter blinked.

“The Titan has plans for you, my boy.” Belos said, as sure as he breathed. “And with the Day of Unity so close, and so many complications, I want nothing more than to keep you safe.” He said soothingly.

“But–I can help!” Hunter insisted, and a guilty part of him said if he was kept in the castle, then he couldn’t check on Raine, or the others, even if he was decidedly not going to do that anytime soon.

“And you will,” Belos said. “By staying safe, right here.” He said, bringing his thumb and forefinger to Hunter’s chin, forcing it upright. And suddenly, in that moment, he was in a hallway again, facing someone entirely different, and he tried not to let it show on his face. “Can you do that for me, Hunter?”

It wasn’t a question.

Hunter tried to speak, he did, but he knew his words were going to come out shaky. The fingers were digging uncomfortably into his face, and he’s glad his uncle wasn’t wearing the sharp ones, because they’d surely be cutting into his skin. Blue eyes looked purple, and the green scar wasn’t doing him any favors.

Knock, knock.

“Ah, they’re here for the meeting.” Belos said, dropping his chin and leaving Hunter stumbling, pitching forward for a second when he realized he hadn’t been holding up his head in the slightest. “We’ll discuss this another time.” He said with a glance over his shoulder, his other hand, which had been holding his mask, pushing it back up onto his face, striding towards the doors.

Hunter took in a deep, quiet breath. It shook on the way in, wheezed a bit, so he shut his mouth in case Belos heard.

Titan, he needed to get a grip.

With unsteady hands, he pushed his mask back onto his face, relaxing a margin at his hidden features. He flipped his hood back up over his head, clutched his staff with both hands, and rolled his shoulders.

He could do this.

The meeting, as predicted, droned on for a solid half hour before Emperor Belos got to the point.

He was used to these things, dragging it out to make everyone squirm and wonder what the actual problem was. Belos had done it to him, too, to see if he could get him to crack and admit his faults before they had to be humiliatingly spelled out before him. This time, he just tuned it out.

“Whispers is free of their imprisonment.” The Emperor said at last, after a good few moments of silence.

“Eh?” Adrian raised a brow. “I thought you had it under control?”

“Kikimora informed me of its withdrawal from her last night.” The Emperor said, and Hunter narrowed his eyes at that, though he stayed perfectly still at his side. Had she informed him immediately, or waited a while to see if it could be fixed? He thinks if it’d been immediate, a meeting would’ve been called much earlier.

“How is that possible?” One of them gruffed, and he thought it was the guy in charge of the Construction Coven, but he always forgot his name. Some weird amalgamation of words. “I thought you had a foolproof spell?”

“It was,” Snapdragon hissed, and Hunter did not flinch at her annoyed tone, though the hand crossed behind his back tensed. “But this was no fool.” She continued, tone leveling out, eyes flashing. “Personally, I’d love to meet the witch responsible. They could be quite the asset, if it turns out they aren’t trying to be traitorous, however unlikely that is.” She muttered.

Darius, by way of almost being on the opposite side of the table, was easy to see shifts in. And now, Hunter saw him sharing a glance with Eberwolf beside him. Hunter’s eyes narrowed behind his mask.

“Be as it may,” Emperor Belos continued, and all chatter died instantly. “Raine Whispers is now at large. It’s unlikely that they will be forgoing their traitorous ways after such a disaster, and thus we must be prepared. Any information Whispers has learned is now at risk of being revealed to the public. For the sake of our scouts keeping their heads, and keeping the residents of the Isles from throwing riults over a few troublemakers, anything that Whispers may use to make their voice heard is to be either destroyed or heavily monitored, am I understood?”

Sharp nods, shifty eyes. Hunter’s not so sure he’d call an almost-murderer a troublemaker, but he supposed it made them panic less.

“Sir, if I may,” spoke the head of the Healing Coven, almost as rare as Eberwolf deciding to sign anything. “What are we supposed to do in the immediate future, if Whispers lays low?”

“Dismantle and send scouts to every known hideout of the BATs.” Emperor Belos said, fingertips pressed together. “I want Whispers house under strict surveillance and anyone, or anything, that goes in or out is to be pursued and reported immediately. So long Whispers has only one place to go, then we need not worry about them until they’re necessary.”

Shit, shit. Okay, this is fine. Like herding cattle into a pen to be picked for the slaughter. That’s–fine. The BATs had more than one hideout in the Isles, though most resided in Bonesborough. That still wasn’t impossible to work around.

That still left room to make other hideouts, or just get Raine off to the countryside. Even better, get them away from the Isles itself. He knew of a few trade ships that left the archipelago, though they always dwindled and were under monitoring both on and off the ships to limit access to foreign influence. But he’s sure they could be bribed into smuggling with enough snails. And if they snitched, Raine would already be long gone. Brilliant. That can work, that’s–

“Send a scout or two to the Owl House residence.” The Emperor added, almost as an afterthought. “See if they can find anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. It’s always good to double-check these things, you know.”

Eberwolf perked his head up, snorting and chuffing. Hunter caught Adrian scoffing and sending the beast an eye-roll, the Head Witch of the Potions Track warily eyeing them. Darius, for his part, only sighed and shoved them back down into their seat.

“Nobody’s fighting anyone, yet.” Darius muttered, and Eberwolf shot him a glare.

“And one more thing,” Emperor Belos said, a hand raising and bringing attention back. Hunter’s grip on his staff tightened. Easy words never followed that sentence. “I want everyone to remain vigilant of any unusual activities.” He said smoothly, as though dread weren’t opening in Hunter’s stomach. “There’s already been a few recruits running off into the wild, and now we have a rogue witch to deal with. I would like to be sure that no…lingering loyalties may remain.” He said, and Hunter only barely caught Darius and Eberwolf shooting each other looks again. “So, please,” He said, spreading out his hands. “Feel free to speak up, for even the smallest of things. We cannot be lax on these matters.”

“Yes, Emperor Belos.” The witches coursed, and Hunter duly followed suit.

Triple shit. His life just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?

He made a point to not even peek in Snapdragon’s direction. Even if it made no difference, she wouldn’t know if he was looking at her. It was the principal of the matter.

And, to be honest, he doesn’t trust that woman with even half the length of her stupid-ass hair.

Darius and Eberwolf, though, were shifting in their seats, subtly sitting closer together. At one point, Darius looked right at him, unknowingly meeting his eyes. Hunter showed no reaction, and Darius’s gaze continued on.

Even still, his fingers curled tightly around his staff.

The downside to being the Golden Guard was that when meetings were over, he had to linger just in case, and be one of the last to leave. It was tedious, and he knows Snapdragon was annoyed with it, too, having to stay behind and discuss her spell.

His skin was crawling with her so close.

Really, the far more interesting ‘culprits’ weren’t sitting across from them, faces just a little too impassive, a little too thoughtful to be passed off as the same as the others.

But when he was dismissed at last, and he gave a single bow as goodbye, he pointedly went in the opposite direction that Snapdragon was taking. He could feel her eyes boring into his back until he turned down a corner, one that most Coven Heads took to take them elsewhere in the castle.

He poked his head down every hallway, steps quiet and precise as he kept his ears pricked. Really, they couldn’t have gone far, Darius never liked to rush anywhere, and Eberwolf was as loud as a–

“You will be caught by the scouts.” Came a hiss. There they are.

Some snarfing, a gruff and a foot stomping against the ground. Hunter heard a sigh, watching the guards pass by him before ducking across the hallway and pressing against the wall, peeking down the dimly-lit one. This hallway, he knew, only led to the records. And hardly anybody went there.

“No, I don’t care how good of a hider you are, it will be noticed. It’s not worth the effort.” Darius huffed, glaring down at the bundle of feral energy at his feet.

Hunter held his staff out next to him, fingers silently drumming along the handle. Eberwolf growled, lightly kicking at Darius’s foot and jerking their head one way.

“Whispers is not going anywhere, you impatient mutt.” Darius hissed, and Hunter paused. “They’ll still be there for you to harass when there aren’t scouts making our lives more difficult.”

Eberwolf grunted, standing up a bit straighter and signing something quick with their hands. Hunter thinks he picked up a find and now in there somewhere.

“You just–” Darius pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine, fine. Whatever, but don’t throw me under the bus when you get caught doing something stupid. Just–if you find them, and you get them, call me. And not with your messenger birds, those things hate me.”

Hunter swung out and into the pathway of the hall before he could even process what the hell that whole shitstorm entailed. Holy Titan, today sucked.

“Head Witches,” He called, Darius and Eberwolf tensing and whirling back around. He thinks he caught Darius shooting the beast a glare. “What brings you here?”

He was proud of how his voice didn’t waver, despite the turmoil raging through it.

“I feel as though we’ve had this conversation already.” Darius drawled, standing up notably straighter, tenser. “What, do you have nothing better to do than follow us like a creep?”

There was a more loaded question laced between that. Hunter could see it a mile away, and really, for a Head Witch, Darius had to be better at phrasing these sorts of things. And Eberwolf had to be better at trying to act like they weren’t eyeing an escape route.

“I noticed you during the meeting.” He says instead, smoothly and casually, how his uncle would get people to slip. “And, well, I saw you two moving elsewhere, despite being, as far as I’m aware, not entirely fond of each other. You’ve been a bit strange recently.”

“We’re not,” Darius gritted his teeth. “Move it along, Guard,” and he spat that word as though it insulted his bloodline. “What do you want?”

“Whispers is none of your concern.” He said bluntly, and they both stiffened. “And if you want to keep your positions, you will heed the warnings, and they will remain none of your concern. The Emperor has his plans for them, and he doesn’t need you wannabe-heroes muddling it up.” He hissed.

They both stared at him, eyes wide as saucers. Honestly, what did they expect would happen? It’s not like the Golden Guard, in general, would want them to mess everything up by storming the Owl House and recapturing Raine if Belos doesn’t want to yet. Although, he supposed that if they were recaptured, Belos wouldn’t complain–

“You’re one to talk,” Darius growled, low and dark and oh they were suddenly a lot more hostile than they’d been a second ago. “A Golden Guard without even a sigil. If anyone here is a wannabe,” He spat, and Hunter gripped his staff with both hands, seeing a fighting stance forming anywhere. “You may want to grab a mirror or two.”

“I am earning my sigil.” He growled, widening his stance as his eyes flicked from Darius to Eberwolf, who was starting to huff and growl like a mini heat engine. “Head Witches, I will say it once more, because I’d like to avoid giving the Emperor more of a mess to clean up,” He said slowly, the end of his staff beginning to glow. “Whispers is under the watch of the Coven, and so are you. Keep your heads down, and I may let this grievance slide.” He wouldn’t. But a false sense of security was still good to have.

“Eber,” Darius said, eyes never leaving Hunter. “Move.”

A moment of silence.

And then Eberwolf was gone, bolting down the opposite hallway.

Hunter teleported half a second after tendrils of abomination goo rose from the cracks in the floor, right where his ankles had been. He appeared over Darius’s head, and the Head Witch jerked his head up in time to get a staff slammed down on him like a bat.

Darius cursed, an abomination gauntlet raising almost on instinct and hitting Hunter in the side, sending him rolling and hitting the opposite wall of the stupidly thin hallway.

“Brat!” Darius spat, Hunter teleporting before a wall of goo crushed him against the wall.

“Count yourself lucky if the Emperor treats you with the same kindness as Whispers!” Hunter shot back, appearing at Darius’s back and promptly firing a shot of pure, red magic at him.

Darius whirled around, a wave of abomination goo rising up to absorb the attack. And Hunter, who was fairly confident that any scouts investigating the damage would be on the Coven Head’s side rather than a Head Witch’s, did not want to stick around and find out.

Eberwolf was still loose.

Hunter teleported to the opposite end of the hallway, where he saw Eberwolf vanish off to. He caught Darius throwing the shield down, eyes wide when he saw where Hunter had gone–

And then he was swinging onto his staff and off.

He wasn’t going to find Eberwolf, that, he knew for certain. Little bugger was a living cockroach, and could squeeze into nearly every nook and cranny in the castle, even more than Hunter had when he was younger. He had no idea what kind of path Eberwolf was taking right now.

He did, however, know where the end of the road was. And Eberwolf couldn’t fly there.

“Scouts!” He barked, forcibly halting his staff, even if he knew it was heavily discouraged to fly in the castle hallways. “I’m off to survey patrols. Do not warn them beforehand.”

It wasn’t uncommon for captains or higher-ups to secretly watch patrols to make sure they were doing their jobs right. It dwindled in the later years, but it still popped up from time to time. Normally, he hated such jobs. And after what Belos had told him–

Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission. There’s no way he could slip out in broad daylight.

“Oh! Er, yes, yes sir!” The two scouts quickly saluted. “Of-of course, but–we’re not–”

“Just don’t warn the scouts. Feel free to inform the captains all you want.” Hunter growled, and without further preamble, he was off again.

Darting out through the massive front doors, probably startling the guards out front, Hunter had plenty of time to lose his shit on the flight over.

Okay, okay, Darius and Eberwolf were on their way. Eberwolf he was confident in, but Darius still might hang back despite the tussle. It’s possible he could tell the others that the Golden Guard had attacked him, and he’s sure some people would believe him, but he’d have to come up with a damn good reason. If he denounces the Golden Guard as a traitor, then Hunter can fight dirty and call him one right back, he can twist the story around that he and Eberwolf were off to secretly converse with Whispers instead of dragging them back. Besides, Coven Heads betray each other all the time.

The–his uncle wouldn’t believe them anyway, surely? Even, well, even if the evidence looked…a little high, if they went down the traitor route, his uncle trusted him. It…it was a deeply unfounded trust, as seen by the last few days, but–it was one maybe-betrayal thing, and he could still bring Raine back for the Day of Unity! Maybe even just grab a quick new replacement, the second best, maybe the third best. It’s fine, he-he can fix it.

Titan-fucking-damnit why did he have to go and attack Darius? Nerves? Annoyance? Fear? Even with Darius throwing the first ‘hit,’ so to speak, it may have just been some form of restraints to stop him as they re-captured Raine. It was still a stupid thing for Darius to do, but now if he told the truth, the Emperor would surely say he was being overdramatic again because why would he stop someone from trying to capture Raine, it’s not like those idiots ever left their home base–

They had to leave the house. If Eberwolf wanted in, they’d get in. Somehow, at least. Hooty was a force to be reckoned with, but from his time there, Hunter saw, what, five different places of easy-entry? It was ridiculous, the place couldn’t be less fortified if they tried.

His feet brushed against the tops of the trees, jerking him out of whatever it was he was thinking. Hastily, he darted down beneath them and used one hand to tear off his mask and shove it into a pocket. Fear wasn’t a good reason to not be careful of nobody catching him, and he’d already messed up enough.

Get everyone out of the house first, then handle the repercussions. He can do that, just–compartmentalize it.

Weaving through the trees and trying to keep an eye out for scouts was a little tricky, especially since he was going a bit faster than he normally would when flying in such close quarters, but he didn’t practice flying for five years just to slam head-first into a tree.

It also meant that when he did reach the clearing, it was all too fast and much too soon and still felt too late. Even if he didn’t see anyone around just yet.

“House demon!” He snapped, all but throwing himself off his staff and stumbling on shaky legs, which was fun, he loved when that happened.

“Oh, hello! Hoot!” Hooty’s head popped out of the door as Hunter struggled to get a good grip on his staff and not use it as a crutch, he is fine. “We were wondering if you’d come back!”

“Eberwolf is coming.” He said gravely, setting his jaw. “They’re coming, and–and I don’t know if they’re going to be working with some scouts, but–do whatever you house demons do best and do not let anyone in.”

“Aye, aye, sir!” Hooty saluted, which was really by smacking a piece of his neck to his forehead? How does that thing even–? “That’s what I’m here for!”

“Then do your job. As fiercely as every other time you do.” He muttered, grabbing the door handle and throwing it open with a; “Move out!”

Katya and Derwin were on the couch when he entered, staring dead-eyed at a scroll and reading a book respectively. Both of them sprung up when he entered like the house was on fire, wearing contrasting expressions of confusion and–relief. For some reason.

“Hunter!” Derwin greeted, setting his book down next to him and standing. “You’re back! How are–”

“Eberwolf is on their way.” He growled, and Derwin instantly stopped “They’re coming for Raine, and-and I don’t know if they’re bringing scouts, or Darius, but–” He shook his head. “Just–where’s Raine?” He demanded, storming past and glaring around the room. “Or the Owl Lady? We need to grab everyone and we need to leave–”

“Why is there shouting?” Someone who sounded very unfamiliar called from the kitchen.

Hunter poked his head in through the doorway, spotting what looked like a massacre of food, and a bunch of DVDs. And off by the kitchen table were–Willow and some short kid. Wonderful. At least Willow seemed better, if a bit winded.

“Don’t know who you are, don’t care. Get everyone out of the house.” Hunter gruffed, turning away again.

“Uh, I don’t know how well that’s gonna work?” Katya said sheepishly, popping up next to him. “Eda, King, and Amity are gone–”

“Who the hell is Amity–?”

“–and Luz is kind of down with the common mold.” She continued. “Her human body is, uh…not taking it well.”

“She thinks her hands are snakes.” Derwin added with a nod.

“Can she walk?” Hunter growled.

“Maybe? With help?” Derwin shrugged.

“Good enough. Now where is Raine?” He hissed.

“They’re not doing too hot either, bud!” Katya said quickly as Derwin pointed up to the ceiling. “They’re still pretty weak, and there’s been a few small side effects–”

“Side effects?” Hunter straightened, and before they could even respond to that, he was making a beeline for the stairs.

“It’s not as bad as–Katya why did you–”

“He was asking!”

“Hey, uh–”

Hunter caught the short new kid poking his head out of the doorway, a frown on his face and a question he was probably asking, but Hunter was decidedly not paying attention, taking the steps two at a time.

He caught Amber stepping out of Luz’s room, looking a little worn, but not like anyone was dying. She startled when Hunter stormed past, throwing doors open and scanning the inside before moving to the next one.

“When did you–?”

“Which room is Raine in?” He demanded, looking over his shoulder.

“Uh, Eda’s. What–?”

“Eberwolf.” Hunter gritted out, storming down to the end of the hallway and grabbing the handle.

It didn’t hit him that he might want to be a bit more uneasy when opening the door Raine Whispers was behind until it was already done and he was staring at a dark, desolate room.

“Amber,” A scratchy voice muttered, and he saw what were actually legs, not big branches, shifting over the edge of Eda’s weird giant nest, a head rising “I’m fine, really, I have enough–”

Hunter did not freeze up, because this was nowhere near as threatening as Eberwolf coming to the Owl House, but he did…go a little stiller. Falter in his movements. Pause in the doorway for a few, brief, seconds.

They, however, did freeze.

They stared at each other for a few moments, and Hunter thinks that it’s not bravery that makes people confront their fears with only a tiny bit of hesitation when the time comes for it. It’s just adrenaline. And oh boy is his starting to fade.

A soft, hesitant smile pulled at their face, full of such recognition and guilt that Hunter’s hand gripped the door handle tighter, and he knew (he wondered why he could think, he knew) that they’d been afraid, too.

That somehow made it worse.

“Oh,” Raine said quietly, as though he’d spook and run. He almost wanted to. “You’re back.”

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monstergoblin · 1 year

Text

The Owl Pirates

Posted First On A03 Here It’ll be updated there first and might take me a bit to get to updating it here as I always seem to forget about my tumblr. <3��

Summary:

Eda and Lilith were helping Willow back on board as she was the one who jumped in to save the person. The boy with blonde hair wasn’t anyone Luz knew, and she hadn’t spotted anything nearby of a shipwreck or an island. Was the boy even alive?

Luz darted towards Willow quickly offering a hand, even though Eda and Lilith had had it.

“Who is he?” Luz asked dumbly as she stared at the unconscious boy. She knew no one should know the answer, but someone did.

“He’s with the navy.” Lilith pointed out as she backed off from the boy now that WIllow and Luz were carrying him.

“Aw he’s just a little scamp though.” Eda shrugged. “I’m sure we can bring him around.”

“He may be missing his badge, Edalyn.” Lilith's voice was quiet and calm. “But this is Belos nephew.”

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An owl house pirate au because that's my favorite type of trope.

Trigger warnings Always read safe: Depression, Suicidal thoughts, Pushing down feelings, Overworking self to ignore feelings, Child Abuse (Belos is a bitch okay), Gaslighting, Self Gaslighting, Manipulation, Injuries

Notes: I’ll try my best to updated the trigger warnings as this goes on. Once again its more up to date on A03, Also Tumblr killed my formatting so there might be differences in that or mistakes.

Disclaimer: There's a high probability of plot holes. Some characters may be ooc as 1 im not the best writer, 2 Im not editing 3 In my head in this au lots of different events have happened so characters are meeting at different points in their arcs. I also don’t know shit about boats man I only know one or two things from reading other pirate fics but im going off small google searches.

One more thing most of this is written when I am very sleep deprived enjoy the typos!

Chapter 1: It's bad luck to find a navy boy in the water

She was almost to the top, where she could perch and no one would notice her unless they looked straight up. If she pushed forward she’d make it.

She climbed higher up the ships ropes - daring to see if she could make it to the very top. She had many times before but doing so without being caught was the trick. Sure, the crows nest was a perfect place to see everything but where was the fun in that. Luz wanted to chase this exciting feeling everytime she climbed. Just to see above it all.

“Man overboard!” one of the crewmates' voices hollered from below causing Luz to forget her little adventure entirely.

Someone overboard was much more exciting. She slid her way down the ropes and swung until she landed down close enough to see what was happening or if she was needed. She was so ready to see who fell off the ship and how, but it wasn’t quite what she thought it would be.

Wind rushed around Luzs head making her short hair fluff up in the most comforting - yet messy way. From up here the ocean waves blocked out the noises of the crew. Not that Luz didn’t love her crewmates- it was just nice to have a place so out of reach to escape to.

Was the boy even alive?

Luz darted towards Willow quickly offering a hand, even though Eda and Lilith had had it.

“Who is he?” Luz asked dumbly as she stared at the unconscious boy. She knew no one should know the answer, but someone did.

“He’s with the navy.” Lilith pointed out as she backed off from the boy now that WIllow and Luz were carrying him.

“Aw he’s just a little scamp though.” Eda shrugged. “I’m sure we can bring him around.”

“He may be missing his badge, Edalyn.” Lilith's voice was quiet and calm. “But this is Belos nephew.”

-------------------------------------------------

Overtime one learns to accept defeat.

Knowing death is coming for you and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

His limbs were tired, his chest hurt and he just couldn’t will his body to obey.

Though even if he could move, he probably wouldn’t.

It was a cruel joke that fate would not even allow him death.

Someone was carrying him, or holding him? His senses weren’t working right but something was wrong he just knew. He wasn’t where he was supposed to be, he was supposed to be dead.

“He’s got scars on his face.” A loud voice remarked, he could almost make out the feeling of someone holding his chin, moving his head. Though that could just be the swaying of the world.

“He was the youngest navy officer, of course he’s going to have scars.” Another voice responded, this one older, female, more mature. Somehow it was familiar but Hunter couldn’t place where.

“He looks kinda funny.” A young male voice chirped but then let out a little squeak of surprise.

“Be a little nicer.” This voice is an older male, friendly, soft. “Lay him on the bed girls.”

There was a response from the loud one, but he couldn’t make it out as the voices all started to collide with each other. Then it was silent.

It was too hot. The heaviness of whatever thing was on him was too hot. Despite his body's protests Hunter tried to force the heavy thing off of him, but it wouldn’t budge. The heat of it was going to kill him, he needed to breathe.

A large hand found his arm and Hunter froze. The soft male voice said something but Hunter couldn’t make it out. The arm was holding him but it wasn’t in a hard cruel way so he must not have done something wrong.

“Ha-ha-hot” His mouth wasn’t working properly neither were his eyes. He didn’t know when he’d open them but everything was so dark, and wobbly.

“You need to keep it on.” The voice responded and Hunter knew better than to disobey. Knew that he was entirely too tired to fight back anyway. So he nodded his head which came out as more of his head was just turning slightly.

“Shouldn’t he feel cold?” The chirping young voice asked.

The soft voice explained to the younger one something, but Hunter had closed his eyes, and they were too heavy to open now.

His body was heavier than ever. He just wanted to stay in the soft blanket that engulfed him, and sleep forever. Even if he wanted that his morning routine wouldn’t allow it. As he was about to wake his eyes to open, the events of the last few days replayed in his head.

He didn’t have morning duties to attend to anymore.

Hunter sat up pushing the blanket off of him with ease and took in the sight of his surroundings. The cabin had a set of bunks, a table covered in supplies and cabinets. It was a poor excuse for a medical cabin. From the lack of navy banners in the room, Hunter could guess this would not be a navy ship.

A navy ship would’ve left him to die after all. Like he should’ve.

The door of the cabin swung open and a short boy wearing a yellow bandana around his head came stumbling in carrying far too many towels and bottles in his arms. The boy didn’t notice Hunter sitting up as he came in. He was too busy putting the items down on the desk to even turn his direction. He was muttering something about a stupid Gus under his breath as he sorted out the towels from the bottles.

Only then did he seem to notice Hunter's presence. He stared wildly at the other boy for a few moments before darting out in a panic.

“Steve!” He screamed as he pounded away.

Hunter didn’t know why he stayed in the bed. He should get up, he should walk out the open cabin door, he should fight for his life and escape. So why didn’t he want to.

It wasn’t very long before the scrawny boy returned with a man. The man was a lot less distressed by Hunters awakening than the boy. He closed the door and gently approached the bed taking a seat.

“Are you feeling better?” He asked simply, holding his hand up to Hunters head.

Hunter reflexively flinched back from the hand, but the man didn’t comment, only gave a soft smile.

“When you feel like talking Ill bring Eda in.” The man explained. “Just let me know.”

Why wait? Why not bring her in now?

Get his death over with.

“Shouldn’t we tell Eda now?” The boy asked.

Well technically yes,” The man shrugged and patted the boy's head. “But with near death experiences, his mental state might need that few extra minutes.”

“She’ll be mad if we don’t tell her.” The boy argued.

“We’ll still tell her, just in a few minutes.” The man smiled. “She doesn’t need to know we took our time.” he got off the bed giving Hunter some space and took a chair near the desk instead.

“You know Luz probably heard me already.” The boy turned to the door, which had been closed before but was now open with just a crack. As if the door knew it was being stared at the crack closed.

The man clicked his tongue. “Okay so you wont be getting those few extra minutes then. Matt, can you buy him some time at least.”

“What do I get out of it?” The boy held his head high with a smirk.

The man sighed. “We can figure that out later, just stall her please.”

“I’m holding this favor over your head!” Matt sang as he darted out the door.

Silence overcame the room as the boy ran out. Hunter simply watched it happen.

Buying him time? That seemed stupid. He didn’t need time. He was already far out of time. Why wasn’t he dead? Why didn’t they just leave him?

The burning feeling of being watched made Hunter stop staring at the door. Blue eyes were staring at him, not in the harsh judgemental way, but in a soft curious way. What was he supposed to do? With Judgemental eyes he at least knew how to act. This kindness was unusual for a stranger.

The man didn’t say anything, only watched. He had fluffy hair that was tied up into a ponytail. His cream shirt was barely visible underneath the black coat and many bottles and pouches across he wore, with black pants and boots. It was obvious what this man was, a pirate.

So why did he look vaguely familiar? As if Hunter should know who he’s looking at.

“Do you remember what happened?” The man asked after a long while of staring.

That’s when Hunter looked away, instead choosing to stare back at the door.

“Eda’s gonna demand answers.” The man sighed out. “Just be ready for some yelling.”

Hunter kept his gaze on the door. When he was younger the thought of being stuck on a pirate ship was terrifying. Now he didn’t really feel anything waiting for his impending doom.

“I won’t let her do anything stupid, so don’t be scared.” The man was attempting to comfort but Hunter didn’t need that. “You’re not in danger here.”

Not in danger? That’s a silly thought. Hunter spent his whole life in danger. Empty words weren’t going to change that.

“You’re not gonna talk to me are ya.” The man leaned back in his chair. “Good luck kiddo.”

Good luck?

Hunter never had good luck.

He didn’t want luck.

The silence wasn’t unbearable, just long. Time was passing dreadfully slow and the man didn’t seem to be in a talking mood anymore.

Or maybe just gave up on talking to Hunter.

The door opened with a loud thud and an older woman stormed in. She stopped in front of the bed and stared down at Hunter. Edalyn Clawthorn the owl lady. Captain of the Talon.

The pirate who haunted Hunters dreams not but a week ago. Who if Hunter had met before, he would’ve trembled.

Instead he could only stare at her. Couldn’t bring his mouth to move to form the words that were caught in his throat.

She looked just like her posters, dressed head to toe in red. Boots decorated in golden buttons, long overcoat embroidered an owl design, her hat sitting upon her mess of gray hair. With yellow eyes glaring down at him.

“I know who you are, Hunter.” She started with a bite to her voice. “You’re Belos’ dog, and you were assigned the IvyThorn under the captain Terra.”

None of that mattered anymore. Just get it over with.

“There was a prisoner aboard that ship.” Eda snapped. “Raine Whispers, heading to their execution. Where are they?”

Hunter couldn’t bring himself to care about any of that anymore.

Eda grabbed Hunters shirt collar and pulled him up off the bed. It should’ve hurt, it should’ve been scary.

“Where is Raine?” Eda demanded, but when Hunter only met her angry eyes instead of responding she tossed him back down on the bed pulling her blade from her belt. “You better talk boy! Unless you want me to kill you here and now!”

“Eda-” The man at the desk started- like he promised he would.

“Just do it.” Hunter interrupted, his voice sounding much weaker than he intended.

That caused Eda to pause, her temper fading for a moment as she looked down at Hunter. He did not meet her gaze, only stared at a wall.

“You want me to kill you?” Eda repeated in a quiet disbelief.

“Yes,” Hunters voice broke and his gaze started to get hazy. “Kill me.” His eyes meet Edas now, “I should be dead already, so just kill me.”

“You want to die?”

---------------------------------------------

It was heartbreaking to hear such a small thing say something like that. To long for death over talking to a pirate. It wasn’t an honorable death as the navy had taught them, it wasn’t right.

Though as Eda stared down at the child facing her with such a broken expression asking for death. She could tell this wasn't what the child thought dying was. He didn’t view it as an honor. If he did he wouldn’t be crying.

This kid was so young, just like most of her crew. He was older than most of her kids but still, he was just a child. A broken child, who should be grateful his life was saved, but instead claimed he should be dead.

He wasn’t in an accident. Someone tossed him overboard.

Eda put her blade away with a sigh. This is why everyone started calling her soft. She’d be wrong to deny it at this point. At least she wasn’t a cold blooded monster.

“Look kid.” She put her hands on her hips looking down at the boy who was still silently crying. She didn’t like the miserable nature of him. “What happened?”

The boy only stared up at her waiting. As if his mind was elsewhere. Eda put a hand on his shoulder and he winced.

This was not the arrogant spoiled brat Lilith had thought it was. She had to have been mistaken. Though Lilith was rarely wrong as much as Eda hated to admit. It was annoying at times but he did have too many identifiable features for Lilith to mistake. Scars practically covered him, his face having one on his cheek and on across his nose, his neck had plenty too but the rest was hidden by his clothes.

A child shouldn’t have this many scars.

“Alright.” Eda sighed out. “I need you to talk.”

Hunter didn’t respond, as Eda expected. She picked him back up from the ground and placed him on the bed, and he just let her. Only winced or flinched when she went to grab him, but other than that allowed it.

“Steve.” Eda turned to the ‘doctor’ of the ship. “Has he said anything to you?”

“Not before you entered.” Steve stood now with his hands in his coat pockets.

“Keep an eye on him.” Eda ordered marching out of the room.

“Course captain.”

-------------------------------------------

Eda had told her not to talk to the newcomer. Camila had told her to listen to Eda. It wasn’t a hard thing to do. One easy little job to avoid the newcomer. Yet Luz wasn’t told not to spy on him. She had done that when Matt went screaming for Steve earlier. She saw them talking to the boy, but he never said anything back. She was the one who told Eda he woke up.

She knew better than to spy on Eda when she’s mad, if Luz got caught when Eda was in a bad mood, well it wasn’t fun. Though Eda would never hurt any of them, she was too nice for that. It was just Eda was very stressed sometimes, everyone was. Eda wanted to find Raine again, hopefully the ship Hunter was on didn’t sink. Raine would’ve been a prisoner and Luz doubted the navy would’ve allowed Raine to not have their hands bound.

“What is she gonna do with him?” Luz asked allowed as she leaned against the railing of the ship.

“Probably kill him.” Gus shrugged as he sat on the wooden deck of this ship.

“Then Steve would’ve wasted all that time fixing him.” Matt argued sitting on top of a barrel. “He’s been working so hard to help this guy for days, If Eda just kills him it's pointless.”

“Come on guys, this is Eda.” Luz laughed. “She may seem all big and scary but we all know she’s a sweetheart.”

Said sweetheart marched past the trio and towards Lilith. Not acknowledging anyone else as she passed. She didn’t seem angry from what Luz could tell- and Luz was getting pretty good at reading her. She was just trying to figure out what she was going to do.

Which meant it wouldn’t be a big deal if Luz broke the rules right now.

“Let’s go check on him.” Luz jumped from the railing and darted towards the medbay before the others could come up with a reasonable argument not to.

“Luz.” Matt whined but followed Gus- who did not protest- and Luz anyway. “Edas gonna be mad.” he whispered out.

“I wont tell her if you don’t” Gus chuckled.

The door was one of the few that didn’t squeak open- yet- on the ship. Those doors were always the best for listening in on conversations she wasn’t meant to be a part of. Through the crack Luz could make out the blonde boy- Hunter- sitting on the bed. He was crossing his arms, not in a casual way, but in a stiff way. He starred ahead blankley as tears were streaming down his cheeks.

Did Eda yell at him?

“Actually, let’s give him privacy.” Gus whispered, being the first to back away. Luz nodded in agreement. This had seemed a lot more fun if the newcomer had been rude or snarky.

He didn’t seem like a navy boy.

“I told you it was a bad idea.” Matt whined as the three made their way back to the main part of the deck. “No one listens to Matt.”

“Matt, if we listened to you, we wouldn’t have fun.” Gus argued with a smile.

“I am plenty of fun!” Matt defended.

“Yeah?” Gus questioned. “prove-”

“Luz!” Edas voice interrupted their conversation. She was standing near the door of the captains quarters crossing her arms waiting. There wasn’t any way Eda actually saw them sneaking over to the medbay. Right?

“Yeah?” Luz hopped her way over to Eda trying her best to look innocent.

“Come in, I have an idea.” Eda held the door open for Luz.

---------------------------------------------

They wanted information. Information Hunter did not have. Either way they would kill him, they’re pirates. If he gave them information they’d kill him after, or if he didn’t they’d do it as punishment. It’s what the navy told him.

So why weren’t they killing him now?

Hunter hadn’t stopped crying since he started. He tried but his tears didn’t like to listen. He wasn’t even upset, he’d cried enough already why was he still crying? That man just kept looking over at him too. As if concerned.

As if pirates could be concerned.

He didn’t dare move, or more- he didn’t want to move. He only sat on the bed holding himself, waiting and crying. He wished the owl captain would get back soon so she could end him and the haunting memories would just stop.

The door swung open as if fate was finally hearing his cries.

In the doorway walked a young girl. She wore a purple bandana around her head that covered most of her hair, but little brown fluffs escaped. She had a cream shirt underneath a purple vest and brown pants that flooded around the top of her boots. She had a bright smile on her face.

Behind her walked Eda with a smirk on her face as well.

“Hunter, you aren’t going to die by my hand.” Eda declared- as if it were some amazing announcement. He didn’t care how he died, just knew it was coming. “Instead you’re going to be helping us out, little owl.”

He looked over to Eda now. Unsure what to think about her decision.

“This is Luz.” Eda introduced the little girl. “I'm placing you under her watch, in case you get any ideas. Do you understand Hunter?”

He didn’t know why he nodded.

“Now, If you have any information regarding Raine, I would appreciate it, but I doubt you do.” Eda added. “Luz, remember what we talked about.”

Luz gave a quick nod, smiling all too brightly.

Edalyn Clawthorn was forcing a navy boy to join her ship? What help would that be? What kind of captain instantly turns an enemy into a crewmember? How had she not been betrayed yet?

As Eda left the room Luz came closer to the bed.

“Hi, I’m Luz Noceda.” She held out her hand, but when Hunter did not take it she put it back down with an awkward little shuffle. “Well, I guess that's not your style. Would you like a tour of the ship?”

Hunter chose a random wall to stare at, between Steve-who was still watching Hunter- and Luz. As to keep them in his sight but not actually have to look at them. He was too tired to look at them.

“Well that’s okay, it’s been a long week for you.” Luz took a seat next to Hunter, she was too close. “I’m just glad to see you’re not crying anymore.”

He hadn’t realized he’d stopped.

2ND Chapter Tumblr Link

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darkmatter-nebula · 2 years

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Get ready for a freshly baked "Lost But Now Found" AU One-Shot, my dear fellas.

It takes place around a week after Colli was saved by King and Luz. His first meeting with Willow and Gus. Here I go!

One-Shot: Colli's New Friends

It was a quiet day on the Boiling Isles. Willow and Gus were on their way to the Owl House. Luz wanted to introduce them to someone. "Guys, before I let you in, I should tell you that he is still very shy around people he doesn't know!" Hooty explained. "Got it!" Gus spoke up.

Upon stepping into the house, Willow and Gus were greeted by Luz. "Willow, Gus, I want you two to meet my new little brother. It's ok, you can come in!" As soon as Luz said that, a very adorable little boy with a multi-colored face, fluffy lavender hair and unusual yet pretty eyes floated into the living room.

He seemed shy, scared even. "H-hello." The child greeted Willow and Gus timidly. "Hello there, little guy!" Willow said softly. "My name Gus, and this is Willow! What's your name?" Gus asked just as softly. "M-my name is Colli." The celestial boy answered and took a seat next to Luz.

She immediately wrapped her arms around him. Colli returned his big sister's embrace and cuddled close to her. "Awww!" Willow was cooing. Luz already mentioned to Willow and Gus that Colli had gone through a lot. Apparently, Belos had hurt him for a very long time.

Colli, who sensed that Willow and Gus were good people, gave both a small smile. He wanted to be their friend. "Can we be friends?" The starboy asked innocently. "We would love to!" Willow said and reached carefully out to touch gently his freckled cheek. To Willow's delight, Colli leaned into her soft touch.

As soon as Gus showed Colli a little illusion, his eyes began to sparkle. "Illusions are so cool! Unfortunately, very underrated!" Upon hearing that, Gus swore to protect his new friend, even though he was curious about something. "Colli, can I ask you something personal? What exactly did Belos do to you?"

Colli took a deep breath and proceeded to tell Willow and Gus everything. From his imprisonment in the In-between, to Belos who pretended to be his friend as he released him and last but not least, his time on the Draining Chair and the abuse he had to endure under Belos.

To say that Gus and Willow were horrified would be a massive understatement! "Oh, Colli!" Willow said sympathetically. Luz, who had heard her little brother's story a second time, teared up and cuddled him even closer. Gus had the strong urge to kick Belos' ass, same for Willow!

The End

#lost but now found au #the collector #king clawthorne #eda clawthorne #luz noceda #willow park #gus porter #hooty #fanfic

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edoro · 2 years

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Ship bingo: Lumiter

i really like Lumiter! i like Huntlow a lot too but honestly Lunter/Lumiter was my first love and i still have a huge soft spot for it.

let's break this down a bit by the dynamics here...

Lumity of course needs no introduction. absolutely classic. i love the way it was built up and how well they work together, how they try so hard to communicate and work through problems, how they've both had conflict and issues and are slowly learning to grow and be better people together, and just how much they like each other.

Amity's gradual crush on Luz is really cute, and tbh i can understand people who say they feel like Luz's side of it was a bit rushed, but i also think that Luz's like, just long-standing determination to Be Friends With Amity even after their first introduction was so horrible can easily be interpreted as her having a huge crush on this cool cute witch girl and just not even realizing her feelings were romantic for the longest time.

Lunter is a classic. oddly controversial for a protag/main antag ship, and while i'm sympathetic to people who feel threatened because they value Lumity so much, i must say that pretty much every vocal Lunter-disliker i've ever seen has been moderately to extremely biphobic about it, and uh i think we can definitely dislike a ship without implying or outright stating that lesbians are More Queer than bi people.

i really love their dynamic though! especially considering all the development we got of it in the back half of s2, but i mean, s2e1 and s2e6 were fucking classic. beautiful sequence of meetuglies. he threatened to boil her alive, she slapped him and called him a bad person, he licked her hand, she embarrassed him in front of the scouts, ten minutes later he's telling her his tragic backstory and visibly barely restraining himself from infodumping about wild magic to her because this is literally the first time in his life anyone has acted even vaguely interested in anything he has to say. What's Better Than This.

they have so much in common - being bisexual, being transgender in every possible direction at once, being incredibly neurodivergent (bi4bi t4t autistic4adhd) - they also both tend to minimize and repress their own feelings and devote themselves to others, seeing themselves as leaders of a sort who are responsible for everyone else.

plus they're also both absolute nerds but like, extremely chaotic about it. there definitely needs to be a strong element of rivalry or competition to their relationship. they're Best Frenemies. they're kismeses. they annoy the absolute shit out of each other but they also understand each other and have been through some serious stuff together and both really value and care about each other.

Luz has seen Hunter at his worst in a variety of ways and has still been there for him and offered him companionship and kept reaching out to him, and i think that's really good for him - he's spent so much of his life being told that he only has a limited number of chances, and like, nobody's patience is inexhaustible, everyone has limits, but for someone to just keep holding out that hand for him no matter how much he screws up? someone who believes so strongly in giving people the benefit of the doubt? just really good and meaningful, even if i think he also isn't sure how to engage with her because of the low points she's seen him at.

and for Luz, like, i think Hunter is someone who can act as both a restraining influence on her more out-there ideas and also logistical support - he can both tell her when she's being ridiculous AND help her turn her ideas into actual plans. he respects her abilities but wouldn't let her blindly rush off into or lead him into something dangerous.

one thing i also really like about Luz and Hunter is the potential for like, exposing her to his trauma. Luz has trauma of her own (another way she and Hunter can relate is their tendency to totally downplay the bad things that have happened to them), but i just don't see her as someone who's dealt with or is very familiar with the kind of intense, chronic familial abuse that Hunter grew up with.

she's a really optimistic person, and naive in some ways. she's surprisingly socially astute for her character archetype, good at figuring out how people feel and responding to that, really nuanced in her approach to even really shitty people who've hurt her personally - not in a way where she ignores the bad, but where she assumes people have good qualities too and just need the opportunity to display them. but that can also turn into not realizing when someone doesn't want to change, or won't change, or it's not worth it for her to try to change them or give them that opportunity.

and i think like, seeing Hunter and how he's been treated and what he's been through can sort of demonstrate that to her. just in general he's sort of her foil - he's living the fantasy chosen one life she wanted, and he's miserable, because it sucks actually. in some ways he functions as a reality check for her, or just like, shows her the downside of a lot of things that she thought she wanted. knowing him introduces another type of nuance, about the worst sides of people.

also, they are hilarious and extremely chaotic together. like they just manage to get into the weirdest situations. throw them into 1000 bizarre circumstances, i want to see it all.

and now for Hunter and Amity... i really love the two of them interacting. their relationship is very fascinating to me. they have so much in common, specifically wrt their trauma and the abuse they've gone through.

i think that it would be so valuable for the two of them to be able to talk to each other about that. it's something they've both been through that no one else can really 'get' the way each of them can, and especially when it comes to like, having complicated or positive feelings about their abusers, or even having complicated feelings about the abuse and the effects that it's had on them - those are just really difficult aspects of having been abused and they're things it's really hard to discuss with people who haven't been through abuse themselves, no matter how open-minded or non-judgmental or understanding they are.

they're also both just really serious, self-sacrificing, overachieving, perfectionist types - also perfect rivals in a way. i think that they'd make a great matched set of intimidating bodyguards for Luz. they know she can take care of herself, but they want to make it so she doesn't have to take care of herself!

i also think that they could be a really powerful source of support for each other about their issues and trauma, but there's also a lot of fascinating possibility for them to like, kind of encourage each other's worse traits - to reinforce each other's beliefs in existing as a tool for someone else, to egg each other on in driving themselves too hard, that sort of thing. Luz offers a very stabilizing influence here.

personally, i don't mind considering the two of them being sexually or maybe even romantically involved in a poly situation. i don't see the two of them ever being involved on their own*, but with Luz in the middle bringing them together, i can see it in a variety of ways.

i'm not an identity purist and i think that sexuality is fluid and complex and i'm more interested in exploring that than i am interested in writing about Amity Blight, Gold Star Lesbian.

maybe she's not attracted to him at all and refuses to even be in the same room while he and Luz mess around. maybe she has certain strict limits on how physically intimate she's willing to get with him in a threesome situation. maybe she's willing to do sexual stuff to/with him during a threesome situation, but pretty much only for Luz's entertainment. maybe having sex with him + Luz means that she feels horny for him under that precise specific circumstance, because he's there and she's there and she's horny and she doesn't mind directing it towards him when he's there along with Luz. maybe she's curious but ultimately not into him. maybe she doesn't like boys but she's attracted to his body. maybe he is just literally her One Exception. maybe she's a lesbian because her attraction to men is vague and theoretical and mostly based on fictional characters + her attraction to women is very real, visceral, immediate, and intense, but as she gets to know him she gets more attached and finds herself more and more attracted to him, but it's a very specific circumstance that isn't reflective of the broader trends and so she still considers herself a lesbian.

maybe she's not attracted to him but they've messed around for whatever reasons - curiosity, boredom, Luz wanted them to, they were both horny but Luz wasn't there, wanting comfort/intimacy, whatever.

maybe Hunter is transfem or fem-leaning nb and therefore is either a girl or girl-adjacent in a way that Amity is attracted to.

the point being, there's a lot of ways they could engage with each other sexually while also having a meaningful emotional relationship with each other, and i don't necessarily think that any of those 'erase' Amity's lesbian-ness at all - if someone wants to imagine her as like, a Kinsey scale 6 who would never even look at a nude man if she could help it, then that's certainly their prerogative and i don't think they're wrong to do so at all, but i think there's tons of room to investigate them being involved in a sexual + emotional capacity and for Amity to still be a lesbian, and just personally i find 'exploring the fluidity and complexities of sexuality and gender' way more interesting than setting up rigid boundaries.

(plus those boundaries inevitably like, declassify Real Actual Living People Some Of Whom Are My Personal Friends from their own sexualities, and i think that's pretty shitty.)

#lunter #lumiter #hunter toh #amity blight #luz noceda #the owl house #asks

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puppyeared · 2 years

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I'm so sorry, Hunter

(dont tag as ship)

#hi this episode broke me #these kids need therapy omg #belos mind is fucked UP #ik i usually make a joke piece or smth cute after an owl house but damn. d a m n #i think they should hug #as in a 'wow that was really fucked up haha anyway can you please hold me for the next hour or so' kind of way #i really wanna know what happens to hunter now. i think its a nice sentiment ppl are thinking he'll go to willow #bc it sort of makes sense hes friends with her and he panicked and ran from the owl house #or darius!! darius is not immune to adopting traumatized children #maybe he does end up at the owl house tho? id really like to see that. like luz is going thru it too after all that #and luz is the first person who reached out to him even though they were still enemies at the time. made him take a hard look at #how far hes willing to go for belos. and yeah i want to see them have a sibling relationship i might as well add #the owl house #toh #the owl house season 2 #toh 2b #the owl house spoilers #toh spoilers #toh luz #luz noceda #toh hunter #hunter #hollow mind #hollow mind spoilers #my art #myart #fanart #toh fanart #the owl house fanart #DO NOT TAG AS SHIP THEYRE SIBLINGS IN MY BOOK

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mdhwrites · 1 year

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Now that owl house is over ive noticed an uptick of people kind of retconning the show? like pretending Boscha was the one who ruined Willows life and that Amity NEVER bullied her (they have fully just deleted her entire first appearance of spending 3 minutes harrassing Willow for fun),

or generally just ignoring writing flaws like luzs selfish behaviour, alador being made to one eighty, or smaller things like Skara being including in 'misunderstood' by Willow and rewriting them.

I dont really get it, why not just admit Amity could have been written better, or note how when put in context luz seems very selfish and this should have been better thought out or at least considered in her arc? you can point out these issues and still enjoy the show.

I mean... That's happening for the same reason why I can still write Lumity/Lumischa in a loving, sweet relationship instead of having to acknowledge that Luz gives such little of a shit about Amity as to let her go die alone without warning. Fan content doesn't need to even reflect the analytical beliefs or truths of the show. In fact, it doesn't really need to reflect the show AT ALL sometimes. But this is only true for fan CONTENT. If people are talking about analysis with the show, that gets a lot murkier. I'm not going to be an ass and be like "Oh, they're trying to change the facts!" Not at all. Here's the thing: My blogs tend to be as long as they are when it comes to analysis because of the aggregate actions of the show and characters and what that says about them. For most the words matter WAY more. And The Owl House likes to state what it wants the truth to be rather than backing it up with actions. This is why it goes SO HARD on backstory elements that aren't meant to inform us of character motivations but are supposed to imply that the person they are now is who they've always been so you just forget about they used to be. You forget that Eda was honestly not good to King for like half of S1 if not just the majority of S1. You forget that King acts, talks and others act and talk to him like he's a young adult who's just lazy as shit rather than an eight year old who was adopted by Eda. You forget that Amity was a CUNT for much of her life because look at how much she cares about her teammates or how awful her parents were! It's not good storytelling and it rarely recontextualizes motivations as much as it tries to scapegoat them. We were never going to get a character like Zuko with this writing style because part of Zuko is how much he has INTERNALIZED those trauma we see in S1 and so those never go away entirely. They are still a part of his character. There is no version of Zuko that is pure smiles and laughter like there is for Amity or Hunter. BUT it is to some extent effective, especially since a lot more focus is put on big moments rather than the small ones. I hate Reaching Out for all the small things in it. For all the moments where a small change in dialogue or action would have Luz not seem so entirely callous about Amity's safety while death looms on her mind. What do most remember from that episode? Luz spinning Amity around, Amity not being able to handle Luz's dramatic entrance into the ring and the final conversation where Luz spills out her heart and Amity proves just how amazing a girlfriend she is. Any of the small details that paint Luz poorly, they dismiss entirely because "Look how much pain Luz is in! I'm going to focus on her pain rather than how she is acting because of that pain." Without like, you know... The fact that those going through hard times are STILL responsible for their actions.

I'm not even asking for Luz to have been perfect in that episode but a lot of the time, people will say that hard times prove who you are. I don't like the fact that I can tell I still have a lot of anger in me because I can get more aggressive when I'm tired or just sad than I like to be to others. I apologize and try to keep myself in check though. If this is Luz on a bad day... Then Luz at her core doesn't give a fuck about other people. If her core was that she cared too much, her trauma response should be to focus on those she cares about the most but she doesn't give a SINGLE fuck about Amity that ENTIRE EPISODE. Even down to her saying to join the brawl. She admits it's not because she thinks it's the right choice for Amity or for the situation but that she will always choose chaos. That's not taking into account the person. But that takes ignoring the fact that the text of the episode is trying its hardest to make sure that you are on Luz's side entirely. That by the time Lumity get to the Grom tree, you're not looking for Luz to apologize for breaking her promise at the end Falls and Follies or for ANY of her actions, but instead you're wanting Amity to make Luz feel better.

Luz's choice to stay in the human realm is the same way. The text of the show, the words as stated by characters, is that this is a sacrifice. That it is a noble martyrdom of any happiness Luz could ever have but that she's doing it because she is certain that if she goes, she could only fuck things up. As such, Camila going to the Isles isn't her making Luz do the right thing and actually fix her fuck up but instead Camila being the best mom ever because even though this world scares her, she will do everything in her power to make her daughter happy and give her chances at happiness. This is why I don't blame anyone for liking the show. The show understands good concepts. It thinks that it is doing everything right. And so I have to pull in so much else about the show, all it builds up, contradicts, etc. like that in order to point out why I feel the way I do. The way people might who can't figure out the words because something in the back of your mind is going "Wait, Luz hasn't told any of them the truth and Amity is talking about the future but Luz isn't saying anything but the show says that this makes Luz a good person, not a bad one and that feels wrong for some reason but I can't figure out why." And that is a rough place for most fan analysts. Like they don't do this super often. They aren't ready to pull up an episode list and truly interrogate the thesis in their mind. It's going to be motivated as much by emotion as it is logic. And that's not even a bad thing as most of them are going to do it based on an aspect they love or hate but they're not going to let go of other beliefs they have for the show.

This is part of why I do read every comment that comes across my blogs or my asks. To listen to the other side. Someone yesterday in fact tried to defend Luz becoming a witch at the end because the theme of the show isn't reality vs. fantasy, it's purely about finding a place where you belong. And for a second I was like "You know, that is actually a compelling argument. There is something there." Then I remembered that Yesterday's Lie explicitly pointed out that Luz could have been happy in the Human Realm, that her life was good, and that maybe she needed to question what she was doing. Almost like, I don't know, the question of fantasy vs. reality, of the grand adventure you want versus the fact that life is complicated and messy wherever you go, is a major theme of the show and Luz specifically, right down to King's crown turning out to be nothing but a toy.

But I did my due diligence and did interrogate the question properly and won't say that it has zero merit. Amity finds happiness with Luz. Willow finds happiness with plant magic instead of abominations. Hunter finds happiness out of the EC. There is definitely an aspect of it to the show but it doesn't feel like a main thrust of it. Honestly, I think even if it were, it's made weaker by how much these characters have to change themselves for their happiness. Willow and Luz are the only two who survive contact with a space that will make them happier as Lilith, Eda, Amity and Hunter all effectively have their characters replaced at some point away from their core to a new narrative function that usually either turns them into a joke or something incredibly bland and generic rather than unique and personal.

Analysis is COMPLICATED. Good analysis is HARD. I mean, someone tried to refute me on Titan Luz being a deux ex machina probably in part because they like the spectacle it brought them and while I still debated that my original points stood and that their arguments actually made it clearer how it was a deux ex machina... That doesn't make it a bad thing. But to most fandom analysts, the very term means the story is beyond redemption if it uses that. Meanwhile, I'd argue the deux ex machina appears to be the best part of that episode because it allows such a joyous spectacle for the fans to enjoy, including the angst spectacle of Luz dying. ALL of this is also what led to me final statement for my tierlist: TOH is worse than the sum of its parts. In order to articulate why though, you have to be able to examine all of those parts and TOH is such an ambitious show that there are a LOT of parts with a lot of movement to them to examine. That's a lot harder than questioning if one part is worse than you'd like but keeping a firm belief that the rest is just as good as you always believed, or vice versa. I mean, when I did the Found Family blog, I literally had a moment where I went "I genuinely expected Eda and Luz to have spent time enough to justify the finale because I do believe in their relationship as mentor and student but the two spend almost no time together in the second half and WHAT THE HELL!?" I was caught off guard by finding out that a part of S1 I was firm was good and functional was a lot shakier than I'd expected. But I did my diligence in double checking and then exploring the answer I got.

And I could get into the excuses people give for the show like the shortening but... I mean, I still agree with someone on my Discord that if an analyst excuses something as due to the shortening, they better have a DAMN good reason for it. I will actually listen to an argument for Hunter's character arc being worse because of the shortening due to S2A likely still being mostly produced without that knowledge. I won't forgive that it already had signs of being bad and as bad as most arcs in the show though because even with Eclipse Lake he's being treated as a joke and only truly as an enemy by Amity for a little bit and his OWN COVEN. Eda and King treat him as a joke and so does the episode so while his arc could have been better with more time, it's hard to say it would have been good. Because an excuse actually has to correlate with what is presented. And The Collector exists so... Really, there's no way of using the shortening as an excuse. Not when I've literally made a compelling argument for why a full S3 would have at best been good because the show clearly wanted more time than was EVER reasonable without a firm guarantee from Disney and Disney hasn't given a show more than 3 seasons in a WHILE. (I would link the blog but I couldn't find it quickly)

But again: A lot of these people are just wanting to talk about a show they love and you know what: More power to them. I talk about this show so much because I want to talk about a show I used to live and my brain is rigged to overthink EVERYTHING. A decade ago and I would have been way worse at these blogs than I am now, especially since back then my point was to prove I was right and smart while nowadays it's much more about wanting to teach about writing and discuss aspects of it. And there's a lot I can teach with The Owl House but if I half ass my analysis, you're not going to learn and so I try to be a bit more thorough than maybe I even have to be. If this blog doesn't prove that in spades. Edit: Part of me wonders if part of this is a misinterpretation/abuse of Dana saying that whatever she's stated is as valid as anyone else's headcanons and that only what explicitly happened is canon for the show. Which, as always, for many, meant rip Aro/Ace Lilith and Lesbian Amity. -_- ===========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#TOH Critical #The Owl House Criticism

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