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lollytea · 1 year

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do you think everyone else in the hexsquad knows about Hunter's crush on Willow? and/or vice versa, maybe? even that there's something happening but it's a slow and tentative thing that they shouldn't push or meddle in? like Hunter is valiantly trying not to be painfully flustered and obvious around the others while Willow seems to be making some attempt to be subtle and deliberate about when she does The Flirts and i'm curious how much either of them they're succeeding

I've been thinking about it and I believe the most logical conclusion based on what we know from Thanks to Them is that they all know to some extent but their level of knowledge varies depending on the person. But one tidbit that they are all very aware of is Hunter's painfully obvious crush on Willow. They're just. Politely ignoring it.

Because like. I think if this was a thing they knew and made their business, Thanks of Them would have at least given one example of them giving him looks or making some comment alluding to it. There's none of that. Which could mean that none of them actually know. But...c'mon...

Like how the fuck is he hiding this? Realistically speaking. He goes bright red when Willow does anything. There is no way he's been doing that for months with not a single person noticing.

So I figure that while Willow's feeling might be a little more subtle and not everybody is entirely certain of them, one thing they can all agree on is Hunter.

I imagine that it's kinda similar to Willow and Gus's reaction when lumity was developing. Like they knew but they let Luz and Amity figure it out for themselves rather than get involved.

Vee would absolutely clock Hunter as a hopeless girl liker immediately. Like she's been having a pleasantly slice-of-life teenage experience these last few months while her sister has been fighting for her life. Vee hangs around with her average teen friends, she watches TV, she's sniffed around online. Vee sees like twelve stupid crushing teenage boys on her morning route to the supermarket alone. Like she knows the drill.

I also kinda like the thought that she knows about Willow's crush too. Their friendship in Thanks to Them is so cute so I really like to headcanon they often hang out when Lumity and the Menace Brothers are off doing their own thing. So they're having giggly little private talks and idk brushing each others hair or whatever. So Vee knows about Willow's feelings because Willow told her. Like she's gotta be a gushing teenage girl about Hunter to somebody and honestly I can't think of a more perfect candidate than Vee.

It would be cute if Vee was the reason Willow really started stepping up her flirting game. Like she thinks Hunter might like her but she's still not certain, and Vee offers her opinion that he most definitely does. With that certainty in mind, Willow gets a little bolder in how she approaches her interactions with him and eventually starts to pick up that Vee was right. He is absolutely reciprocating. It's simply a matter of waiting until he's ready to flirt back.

Love to think that Gus cares the least about this shit but he's also cursed to be the most perceptive of the group. Labyrinth Runners reveals that he's very good at reading even the subtler emotions of both Hunter and Willow. So neither of them told him but he's known since the day they fucking met. He actually caught on to Willow's strange shift in behavior first during the events of ASIAS and it wasn't until he became more familiar with Hunter better that he realized it was mutual.

But like. He doesn't really care. It doesn't bother him really but he's not exactly bursting with excitement over it. He figures if he just leaves them to it, they'll eventually sort out what they are to each other. That's what happened with Luz and Amity anyway.

I feel like he would never make a big deal about it. But based on "You wanna borrow my library card to visit Amity, don't you?" being his way to saying he knew that lumity had something going on, he'd definitely just drop it in casual conversation. Which scares the absolute shit out of Hunter. Like

"Hey Hunter, Camila's got groceries in the trunk. Help us bring them in."

"Oh sure, no problem."

"But please don't do that thing where you try to carry four bags at once. It never ends well."

"That was one time!"

"Yeah and Willow's already out there so there's bound to be a second time. Your crush on her makes you do stupid stuff."

"MY WHA T????"

So yeah Gus doesn't bring it up often. But whenever he does, it startles Hunter terribly. Based on the whole lumity cookbook thing, he's nice enough that he'd try to help every now and again. He's not exactly good at it. And he doesn't do much. But he helps. And Hunter is already at a complete loss on what to do so he'll just blindly follow whatever advice Gus gives him. This leads to him gifting Willow a cookie tin of dirt. (She liked it so Hunter has not disowned Gus as his wingman just yet.)

When it comes to Willow, it'd be post ASIAS-pre LR where they'd just be at school, eating lunch and Willow is glued to her scroll.

"Are you all smiley and giggly because you're texting the Golden Guard?" Gus asks boredly.

Willow looks up, surprised. Then she smirks. "And if I am?"

"I'm not gonna say anything but I'm gonna be pretty "Hmmm" about it."

Willow just laughs. "What if I said he was cute."

"Girl..."

But now that Gus and Hunter are besties, he is also equipped to help Willow along. Of course, Willow doesn't exactly need help. She's actually doing perfectly fine on her own. But yknow he'll occasionally feed her information. Like "Okay okay there's this one line from Cosmic Frontier. Write this down, it's like--I said write it down. It's like his weakness. He's quoted it a billion times today alone. If you say it, I promise you he'll swoon. Trust me on this."

Hunter did swoon so Gus has not lost Willow's wingman privileges either.

Amity is just not very observant to others' feelings a lot of the time unless they make them explicitly obvious. I feel like this is especially true with Willow who she loves but doesn't always have the best read on. Like Amity was completely oblivious to Willow's frustration with her in LR so it's safe to say she doesn't really understand her inside and out. And that's fine, she needs some time to get to know the real Willow. So yeah she wouldn't really notice that Willow has a crush on Hunter unless it is point blank explained to her.

It also never even crosses her mind that Willow could possibly be attracted to Hunter. That anybody could be attracted to Hunter. Because frankly Hunter is the most romantically unappealing creature Amity has ever beholded. And she does not mean that in a mean way. It is simply fact. So the eyes she's giving Willow during the cosplay scene is just complete bewilderment because she cannot comprehend why Willow is encouraging this.

Like girl, she wants to smooch his stupid face. Keep up.

But there is no discernable way Amity does not see herself in Hunter. He is tomatoing all over the place. Like it doesn't matter now unobservant she is. This shit is impossible to miss. But quite honestly, I think Amity understanding what he's going through would lead to her not saying a word about it. Like he's clearly still in the very emotionally muddled stage. He's figuring out what he's feeling. He's coming to terms with it. So maybe he'd like to get a better understanding of it before his friends are pressuring him into making a move/confessing. And she gets that it's a very vulnerable way to feel. Sometimes you want to feel like you have some privacy over your emotions, even when you know you're very bad at hiding them. It's not Hunter's fault he's prone to blushing and displaying his crush for the world to see. But he has a right to keep it to himself until he's ready to talk about it. Amity respects that.

When it comes to Luz, I originally saw it as her being too focused on returning to the Boiling Isles to notice that something was developing. But after Thanks to Them, I see it differently. Over these last few months, Luz and Hunter have had this secret bubble between the two of them that nobody else knows about. Obviously they know about the Philip and grimwalker stuff but I could easily imagine the two of them slipping into this relationship where they just spill the beans of all the dark ugly and confusing emotions that they don't feel comfortable telling anyone else about.

Having a crush is definitely a lot more lighthearted than the stuff they usually talk about but it's Hunter's first crush so it makes him feel very vulnerable and weird. And if he's gonna vocalize that unfamiliar feeling to anyone, it would be Luz.

And I know Luz is a hopeless romantic. I know. Buuuut. I like to think that being around Eda and Raine for a short period of time really opened her eyes to the fact that romance can be...complicated? Difficult? Messy? Basically, just not as shiny and bubbly as she used to think it was. As such, Luz does not jump at the opportunity to pair Hunter and Willow up. Season 1-season 2A Luz might have. But she is not the same girl. Her view on romantic love is a little more nuanced. Sometimes it's something you have to be careful with. So she doesn't push it. Like Amity, Luz deduces that Hunter needs a little time to process what he's feeling before he goes diving into the next stage. So she gives him space to do that. In the meantime, she's here if he wants a void to yell into about it.

All that being said, Luz would occasionally tease him about it now and again.

When it comes to Willow's feelings, I feel like Luz has tried to subtly suss them out on Hunter's behalf but it's....difficult. Not because Willow is subtle about it but because Luz and Willow's feelings for Hunter kinda overlap into something very unclear.

Willow and Luz both have that sapphic girl tendency where they are deeply fascinated with the same soggy piece of bread of a guy. They want to study him under a microscope. They want to put him in an enclosure filled with strange objects that he doesn't understand and observe his behavior through the security camera. The only difference is that Willow mostly behaves this way because she thinks he's boyfriend material, while Luz just sees him as her most beloved moth eaten stuffed animal.

But because Willow's enthusiasm and support of Hunter is so similar to her own, Luz has a hard time coming to a conclusion on if Willow's feelings have branched out into the romantic direction.

Because like Willow will say shit like "Hunter is so cute <3"

And Luz responds. "Yeah. He reminds me of one of the feral possums we kept finding in the shack."

"I want to kiss him." She'll sigh absentmindedly.

And Luz has to internally debate this for over ten minutes because she also wants to kiss Hunter. On the forehead. Because she's always wanted to kiss a feral possum on the forehead. So she is forced to concede that she has no fucking idea what Willow feels, despite the fact that Willow could not be any more obvious if she tried.

#huntlow #this isnt like a proper analysis or anything. just silly headcanons

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huesofgoldensun · 3 months

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Okay so my Huntceda/Luz and Hunter ship is canon compliant. A summary of it is: Hunter and Luz through the canon events developed mutual feelings. Luz still loved Amity ofc, and Hunter knows she's taken + Willow and him having that chemistry made him more uncertain despite the feelings being there. Luz pushes the feelings down because Amity is her first relationship + that bisexual fear of your sexuality not being taken seriously if you're with someone of a different gender. As they grow up, she's very close with hunter, and he is with her. Nobody thinks anything of it because all of the crew are pretty close. But they're both the only odd ones out so far as doing magic. Neither of them can perform magic normally. :readmore:

Amity and Luz have some common interests (the azura books, magic) but they're eachothers first loves. It's all new. We've seen the issues in their relationship throughout most of the last season, and meta-wise Amity became not much beyond supportive gf who blushes. In my huntceda set up Willow and Hunter don't date until like a few months before the finale when we see them together. It lasts about a year before they mutually break up. Luz and Amity's breakup is an attempt at a collected one but it doesn't end up being that. It's the product of a lack of trust, growing apart and Luz developing her relationships outside of Amity. All of them being just as excitable and caring from Luz's end. She also has a tendency not to really confide in Amity which makes her much more frustrated with Luz because she's supposed to be her girlfriend. Luz tends to curl in on herself in times of trouble, or figure it out on her own, but Amity assumes she'll be sought out, so is often unaware of the issues Luz is struggling with. This is where those mutual repressed feelings crop up because Hunter tends to seek out Luz when she's off on her own. And she ends up turning to him for support for those stressors. Amity and Luz both still love Alura, and grudgby. But outside of magic they tend to lack things to discuss or keep conversations going. Which isn't noticeable for a long time since they're both really into the books and analyzing them. Luz also tends to get Jealous of Amity because of how together she often seems, as well as wondering if Amity could do better. (hormones, teenage stuff). Her conflicting feelings, wishing for more support, as well as the slow diverging of their interests (especially with Vee being in the picture as her legit sibling, and likely spending more time in the human realm) I don't see them ending up together forever. Also because this show has a real 'your first love is your real forever one true love' bias and that's...... not realistic. So they have a huge blowup fight that starts as a reasonable, kind of backpedally request for a break, which then escalates on Amity's end, and then on Luz's end in response. Their friends are sure it's just a couples spat and they'll reconcile. They don't. At least not at first. (they eventually become friends again, but it blows up pt. 2 when Luz and Hunter finally address their feelings after about a year and a half.) Willow initially sided with Luz, but when that happens Willow ends up going with Amity/siding with her in the dispute. Gus is confused and acts as a messenger before getting fed up with his friends constantly dragging him into stuff. Willow is really hurt by it, Amity is hurt by it. Both Hunter and Luz feel guilty but also REALLY care about each other and both are so lost on what to do. They initially agree not to officially be anything until they can figure it out. Luz is conflicted on her feelings, Hunter is not. Willow is wonderful and pretty, and badass and cool but just not who he really had those intense feelings for. Luz DEEPLY cares for Amity still, but it's just... not how she used to feel. They became more different than they were similar. And that's normal, but she still struggles a lot with it because they're all meant to be a team. Luz and Hunter ultimately end up coming back together officially but quietly. It takes a while before everyone is talking fully again. It causes a lot of friction before Luz eventually breaks down and it brings everyone streaming in together because of the front she was putting up to try to seem together.

#lunter #huntceda #angst #bitter exes #rambling #post-canon TOH #not tagging other ships cuz i fear the shippers will take my elbows.

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sea-creature-things · 3 months

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Grimwalker things

Chapter 3: Eyes

This chapter deals with grimwalker's magenta-red eyes and it is angsty. Writing angst was very fun, I'm hoping it turned out well.

This one took a surprisingly long time to make... I struggled a little with letting everyone shine and not getting trapped in the Noceda-siblings-pitfall. This one also has a lot of flashbacks so i hope the timeline is still clear.

Next chapter will be wholesome again!

Read here below the cut or on AO3 with this link:

Gus was lying on his couch-bed in the basement, with Hunter next to him on his mattress. It was long past bedtime, but neither of them were even close to sleeping. For Hunter this was just another Tuesday, but Gus should’ve been off to dreamland by now.

He just had too many things floating around in his brain.

It had been a little over a month now. Gus thought they had acclimated quite well to the Human realm. He was proud of his new understanding and expertise.

Luz had taken them to so many exciting places! The movies, the supermarket, human picnics, an ice cream shop. That last one was a little weird for them. Ice was supposed to scream, but here it was just lying there.

Gus knew their food was different, he just never imagined how different. The flavours were so rich and there was a LOT of sugar. In everything actually, not just the ice cream. Even though the witches couldn’t digest certain things, Gus loved human food.

He especially fawned over the fastfood restaurants. It was absolute insanity to him. Restaurants in the Boiling Ilse were supposed to be fancy, they were an experience.

Gus and his dad would always go for special occasions. Those places attracted illusionists, who made the room just a little more special. Making glasses sparkle, making flowers float around or giving the room a golden glow.

He missed that so much, but he was sure they would do it again soon. They'd celebrate saving The Ilses by going to the fanciest restaurant they could find!

Not this otherworldly 'McDonald' thing. Although, he would love to show his dad some day. It was honestly amazing how the place handled food. And it was very fast indeed!

The group also returned to the mall a couple times. Gus had taken it upon himself to show his buddy around. Hunter had missed their first opportunity, and while Gus totally understood, he was still bummed.

So, he’d looked around with a guide-perspective in mind. After he got over his initial excitement of course. The mall was so unbelievable big, it felt like the shops were endless. It was a little overwhelming. The Demon realm markets had nothing on the mall. Luz was so amazing for doing all of that for him, for all of them.

Camila was just as adamant as her daughter about keeping them all happy. She took such good care of them.

Gus had never missed a mother in his life. It was always him and his dad against the world and he loved that. But Camila had become a second or third parent to all of them so quickly. It was… it was impressive honestly.

The more he missed his dad, the more he sought comfort by Camila. And she gave it to him so readily. She fed his love for human things, encouraged him about the portal and kept his hopes up.

She was a lot like Hunter in that way. They let him be scared and sad, before comforting him.

Just a few hours ago Camila offered to have a movie night! They had done that before and everyone was excited. This time though, she suggested they watch Jurassic Park, because Gus and Hunter had loved that fossil book so much.

The boys were absolutely enthralled. They loved the technology, the characters and of course all the dinosaurs. Amity and Willow didn’t care for it, but were amused all the same.

Vee proudly explained all the special effects, but still got a little quiet when the T-rex tried to break the car. Willow helped by bumping their shoulders and asking how she thought that part worked.

Gus loved hearing about the human’s version of illusion magic.

Luz had seen the movies many times before. She called it a classic, but kept interrupting with spoilers. It got to the point where Gus and Hunter would shush her whenever she opened her mouth.

When there was a tense scene with the kids and two velociraptors, Luz wanted to assure them the characters would be fine. She only got the first few syllables of her sentence out.

“Don’t worry-“

Hunter, who had been sitting next to the spoiler grinch the entire time, wrapped his arm around her shoulder and clasped his hand over her mouth. He pushed her against him to prevent her from escaping.

“Luz shut up!”

He had been too immersed in the movie to really think about his actions. If his mind wasn’t so full of dinos, he would��ve been worried about Camila sitting right there. Or Luz herself being uncomfortable. But he never had to worry either way.

Luz burst out in a muffled, uncontrollable laugh.

“I swear to Titan…” Hunter growled with as much amusement as actual annoyance. He shook her back and forth. She laughed even harder and slapped her knee.

Hunter finally let her go and she melted into the couch in a fit of giggles. Some poorly constructed sentence about their obsession with the movie somehow escaped her lips.

He hadn’t noticed it before, but everyone around him was cracking up too. Gus grabbed him from the couch so they wouldn’t miss the end of the chase scene.

Luz clearly wasn’t wrong. They had been fanboying through the entire movie and it didn’t stop after the credits rolled.

They’d kept their excitement up all the way through their bed-time routine. And had still not calmed down when they got downstairs. They recreated scenes from the movie with dramatic vigour, which wasn’t hard for an illusion witch.

Gus even made some really convincing velociraptors with his magic. Who chased the duo around while they pretended to be Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant.

They were making quite the ruckus and eventually got told off. Amity yelled from the top of the stairs to be quiet, causing Luz and Willow to shuffle her off to bed. And after laughing about that too, the boys finally settled down.

She was right of course. It was late and the girls were trying to sleep. Gus tried to do the same, not wanting to mess up his sleep schedule. But he ended up just lying there, thinking.

Hunter said it would be “one of those nights” and grabbed a book instead. Even with the fairy lights, the room was rather dark. Perfect for sleeping, just not for reading. Gus wasn’t going to question it though. That was a conversation for another day.

Or was now the perfect time?

It was late at night. They were cozy and warm. Hunter had finally gotten comfortable enough to relax with him. Gus had even seen him go to sleep earlier than him a couple times.

But not tonight. It was “one of those nights” after all. So yeah, it was a bad idea.

They had ‘deep talks’ before, but this was a difficult one to have, even on a good day. He wouldn’t want Hunter to lose his comfort, to disturb his brand new peace.

But he still couldn’t sleep! He had to talk about something.

“The human realm is pretty cool huh?”

“Absolutely.” Hunter smiled. He put the book aside to give his buddy his full undivided attention. Gus loved when he did that.

“I mean, that movie!” Gus magicked a T-rex with hearts and sparkles above his head. “So cool!”

“I know right!” Hunter was ready to go an another fanboy rant. “The part where the T-rex defeats a velociraptor?! and then the roar— and then the banner falls down!”

“Peak cinema!” Gus quoted Luz and they both laughed.

Their human friend hadn’t been talking about tonight’s movie. But she used the phrase a lot, so now Gus did as well.

"Yeah, I kinda like this place.” Hunter smiled down at his hands. But then seemed a little frazzled and quickly continued talking. “N-Not that I don’t like our own realm, or-"

"No I get it.” He interrupted him and Hunter relaxed again. Gus moved to lay on his side, looking down at his bro.

“I was worried that I wouldn't be able to enjoy the human world, with the way we got here,” Gus said. He couldn’t help the pain that seeped into his voice with that last part. Hunter’s expression softened even further, Gus didn’t think that was even possible. “but I have. I really, really have."

"Me too." Hunter bumped his fist into the witch’s shoulder, making him sway back and forth with a giggle. “And we’ll find a way back eventually.”

“Of course!” Gus wasn’t worried about that. Those feelings came and went like waves, but right now his hopes were high. “We’re gonna get that portal working.”

He felt their conversation coming to an end. He was definitely not done talking.

“You know what else is peak cinema?”

“What?”

“The actual cinema!” Gus bounced up, sitting on his knees and pumping his fists excitedly. “You remember when we went there? That movie was so funny! And that big box of popcorn was really delicious, you’re just hit with that smell when you walk in!”

“Shhhh,” his friend tried to calm him. “Amity might yell at you again.”

“She yelled at us, Hunter.” Gus made a pointed hand movement between the two of them. “She yelled at us.”

“Alright, alright.” Hunter snorted. “But you should still settle down.”

“Fffffine…” Gus laid back down on his side, hoping Hunter had not caught onto him yet. “Oh! Do you remember that picnic we had?”

“Um yes?” Hunter looked at him a little confused.

“We went to that field with the hill and we were able to use our magic because there weren’t any humans around.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Hunter deadpanned. “That was last week.”

“And then there’s the time we-“

“Gus.”

“The time we went rafting. And we-“

“Gus.”

“… Yeah?”

“Go to sleep!” Hunter snorted as he pushed his full palm into the witch’s face. Gus made an offended noise when he was pushed onto his back.

“You’re one to talk.” He crossed his arms with a huff.

“That’s…” Hunter pointed a finger in the air, but lost his gusto pretty fast. “That’s fair. How about we both try to sleep? See who gets there first.”

“You’re on!” Gus was determined to beat him. But fair was fair, he had to actually try to sleep.

Hunter couldn’t help the smirk that formed on his face. Did he really think he could win from an insomniac?

Well, he should at least try.

Soon enough, he was the one just lying there, thinking. He could hear steady breathing next to him. The younger boy had lost as predicted.

Gus had a point though, Luz had led them through all sorts of crazy activities. Hunter’s memories of the ‘rafting’ thing were both fond and extremely unpleasant.

He felt powerful while steering the boat. It was like steering an airship, one of the very few things he missed from home.

Gus, Amity and Vee were very frightened. It was stupid, but he liked being the protective one for once. He was usually the one that needed comforting, so it was a nice change of pace.

Willow was looking fierce as always, but Hunter could tell she was secretly afraid too. Or at the very least worried. Him and Luz were the only ones actually enjoying the River Rapids.

It helped that he knew it was safe. As rough as the river looked, the real speed wasn’t anything special. They had all experienced much worse back home. On top of that, Luz had assured them that Human water wasn’t boiling.

It was fully confirmed after Amity fell in the river…

They all freaked out, her girlfriend most of all. She almost dove in after her. Luckily, Amity knew how to swim. Hunter and Willow steered the boat towards a sand bar, so they could reunite with their fallen comrade.

“Omigosh Amity!” Luz ran towards her, hugging the drenched witch. “Are you okay?!”

“Yes, don’t worry Batata.” Amity smiled. “I’m fine! The water here is harmless right?”

“Yes of course!” Luz answered like it was the most obvious thing ever. She never learned what it took to make a lake or river back home safe to swim in. “I know my super awesome girlfriend is not going down by the likes of the River Rapids.”

The couple twirled each other around, laughing like the idiots-in-love that they were. Gus, Vee and Willow cooed at their overly-sweet display and voiced their own happiness over the fact that Amity was fine.

“The Blight survives another day.” Hunter congratulated her, after hoisting the boat out of the water enough for it to stay put.

“Ha-ha,” Amity punched him lightly in the stomach, “I can see you trying to come up with some dumb joke already.”

“I’m just saying…” Hunter smirked. “You can never call me a wet cat ever again!”

He gestured to her state of being. Not a single person could deny she looked like a soaking cat. If Ghost fell in the river instead, the differences would be impossible to find.

Judging by the snickers and giggles that erupted, he was right. Gus made a set of neon blue cat-ears appear on Amity’s head. Which made Willow and Vee burst out in a roaring cackle.

“Awwww~” Luz covered her mouth, trying to hide that her adoration was turning into a laugh.

Amity turned beet red. That face was a common occurrence, but it was still amazing. Ever. Single. Time. The abomination witch swatted the illusion away and turned to Hunter with a fury he hadn’t seen in a while.

She had chased him around with a purple ball of fire, while he ran with rowdy laughter.

Now that Hunter thought back, those memories were mostly fond. He felt so happy and free. He was surrounded by an incredible amount of warmth.

He almost felt like a normal kid.

But the feeling never lasted. Normal was just not in the cards for him. Everything reminded him of that.

The few books on Grimwalkers he was able to find were burned into his memory. The pages haunted him, but realisations of what they meant still snuck up. And when it inevitably did, anxiety and panic would seep into his skin.

It had been the usual reason for his insomnia the first few weeks in this house. Amongst other things. But he went from sleeping due to complete exhaustion, to sleeping because he wanted to. Well, sometimes.

Nowadays, it was mostly the nightmares that send him back into the hopeless feelings he’s grown so accustomed to.

It always started the same.

Golden masks on a dark forest floor, bleeding into the grass. Bones scattered everywhere. Fog blocking his view.

Then cracks would form, first in the masks, then in the ground itself. Hands would rise from them, decaying hands, clawing at his feet, gripping his legs.

Then he fell.

A large fissure widened right underneath him. The hands dragged him further down. Dirt and blood spilled into his mouth, filled his eyes, clogged his ears. The earth gave way and he fell. He fell right back into his hands.

Hunter woke up in a cold sweat.

He shot upright, his eyes wouldn’t open, his mouth felt dry from the mud, he still couldn’t hear anything! He desperately clawed around him, trying to find an escape. His breathing hitched, was there still earth in his throat?

He tried to cough it out, but there was no resistance. His lungs heaved and his head spun. He kept grabbing and scratching and clawing. But all he felt were soft blankets and a cold wooden floor.

His right hand slammed against something hard. His wrist send a shot of pain through his arm.

Wait.

His eyes were open. He could see fairy lights and a couch. Soft blankets and a wooden floor…

Right.

He was in the basement. No forest, no masks, no blood. No Belos. There was nothing in his throat, or his eyes, or his ears.

He was safe.

That was the couch he just hit. His head spun quickly to the witch sleeping on it. Gus was facing him. He had his duvet all the way past his head, only his face was peaking out. His eyes were closed and his breathing was slow and steady.

He was still sleeping.

Hunter thanked the Titan. Disturbing Gus right now would absolutely break him. His own breath finally found some regularity. He tried his best to focus on the four fingers technique.

With every breath, Hunter felt his stress ebb away. His head still hurt though. He decided splashing some water on his face might help.

He soundlessly ascended the stairs, he was an expert at that by now.

He wondered what time it was as he walked to the bathroom, avoiding all the creaky floorboards. He went straight for the sink and didn’t bother to turn on the light.

The cold water felt like nirvana on his skin. It slowly cooled down his skin and his headache faded away. He washed his face and hands, and his neck for good measure. He breathed steadily between every splash of icy heaven.

Eventually he felt grounded again and took his towel from the rack. They had to extend the rack to hold six towels instead of two. Hunter often felt bad that Camila had to buy so much extra inventory.

Nevertheless, he was very happy with the soft fabrics on his face. He would be forever grateful for Camila Noceda. She was so compassionate.

He dried his face and hung it back on the rack. As he moved back towards the sink, his gaze caught on his own reflection in the mirror.

His magenta eyes stared back at him.

He stopped dead in his tracks. The blend of magenta and red was glinting in the mirror. Even in the dark the colours were clear to see.

Red eyes.

It was the very mark of a Grimwalker. Their most recognisable part. He was once again reminded what exactly he was.

It had only recently turned into such an issue for him. Magenta irises just weren’t weird in the demon realm.

Sure, the masked helped, but most people didn’t know anything about Grimwalkers. Besides, other people had weird colours too. Like very bright green or yellow.

Here in the Human realm though, it was the strangest thing.

Hunter got asked ‘how he had red eyes’ by humans on the street quite often. Just earlier today he had one of those encounters.

———

The Hexsquad, as they liked to call themselves, was hard at work in their clubhouse. The bright summer sun was shining through the windows of their newly renovated place.

They had fixed the giant holes in the walls and the floor, they had hung colourful wallpaper, Camila had given them an extra rug and Luz had found an old bean bag in the attic. They had even found a tiny ‘cooler’ at a yard sale.

They tried to decorate the place as much as possible with plants and string lights. The witches had made drawings of their families and Luz had put up a poster of the portal door, as much as she remembered.

Hunter was still fixing the old chair that had been there forever. He was almost done with the stitching, but that would have to wait a little longer.

They were trying to build a portal and it was proving very difficult.

They were scattered on the floor with notepads and books. Vee had tried to organise the pens, erasers and pencils in the middle. Put the pile dispersed every few minutes.

They were all trying to brainstorm human-versions of the ingredients they needed, yelling suggestions across the room every now and then.

Hunter was also trying to remember the portal he had seen in the castle. It was different from the one Luz had made, bringing them straight to the Human realm instead of the in-between she had described.

He was sporting a similar look to Gus and Amity. Hands in hair, staring at the pages. Hunter sighed frustrated, his own pages were still so empty.

That’s of no use to her.

Willow let out a despairing groan and snapped her notebook closed. She sat up straight to stretch.

“Let’s take a break.” She said, more like a demand than a offer.

“Yes please…” Gus flopped on his stomach with similar noises of pain.

Amity and Vee joined in with their own agreement. Hunter tried to ignore them and focus on his 1/4-filled page. From the absence of a certain human’s voice, he guessed Luz was doing the same.

But you can’t just ignore a conversation that’s happening right next to you. Amity suggested to go into town and Vee seemed excited about a particular place.

So, to the objection of Luz and Hunter, the witches and demon stood up and evacuated.

“Wait guys, I have to-“ Luz tried, but her girlfriend interrupted.

“Nope.” Amity said sternly. She grabbed her arm and tugged until she stood up.“You have to take a break.”

Gus was already out the door.

“But if we just-“ Hunter started.

“No.” Willow took the notebook he was scribbling in away.

“Leaving now would only-“

“No.” Vee came to join the plant witch for a duo to behold. Hunter looked up at the girls with slight fear, hidden by stubbornness.

“But-“

“NO!” Both of them yelled and Flapjack chirped incessantly. Alright, the message was clear.

“Sorry guys, but you’ll have to sit this one out.” Amity said to the palismen.

They were cuddled up in a dog bed that Camila had given them. The magical creatures all said things along the lines of ‘fine by me’ or ‘have fun’. It was safe to say they weren’t heartbroken about being left alone.

Hunter stood up under the pointed gaze of the girls. But he made no motions towards the door, looking at his pen apprehensively.

Vee grabbed the back of his shirt and basically dragged him out of the door. Hunter let out a yelp while stumbling backwards, looking at Willow who just followed with a smirk on her face.

“Okay Vee, where did you wanna go?” Luz asked after stretching in the sun. Seemed like Amity already convinced her.

“There’s this boba place that I’ve really wanted to try.” Vee shifted to her human disguise. “I don’t know where it is exactly, but I know what it’s called.”

Apparently that was good enough for Luz’s phone, because shortly after pressing a few buttons she was leading them through town. Vee and Amity on either side of her.

Even though they no longer looked like twins, the basilisk and the human still resembled sisters. Acted like it too.

The boba shop was small, but it had a few tables and sofas. The place was decorated with a pastel colour pallete, the counter had photo’s of their products on display and the wall behind it had their menu on chalkboards.

They found a table in the corner with 6 seats and started deciding on their order. Luz and Hunter were tasked with memorising everything.

“Oh no…” Luz gasped after patting every pocket that her pants had. “I forgot my wallet!”

The table was filled with a moment of shock. Before they could despair over walking all that way for nothing, Vee fished a couple of banknotes from her pocket.

Luz’s sigh of relief as her sibling deposited two 20-dollar bills in her hands, was quickly replaced by confusion.

“Wait. How?”

“Camila gave it to me for this exact situation.” She said with a cat-like grin. Luz pouted at her.

Vee playfully hit the back of her head, messing up her hair. Luz retaliated by ruffling hers. Before they could turn it into a fight, Gus told her to order already.

“Right, we’ll be back in a minute.” Luz chirped and tugged Hunter along.

The cashier who greeted them looked to be around their age. He had a mint green apron on over a white T-shirt. Blue hair peaked out of a hat with he shop’s logo on it.

“Welcome to Boba Pop, may I take your order?” The guy practically did a double take to look at Hunter. “Wow, dude. I love your contacts! Where did you get ‘em?”

“My what?” He asked confused. He was not prepared for this question, he didn’t even know what it meant.

“Your eyes,” The cashier pointed at his face. “That red colour is awesome.”

Hunter was a little overwhelmed. This guy had never experienced social anxiety and it showed. At least now he knew what they were talking about.

“Oh this is my-“

“Favourite colour!” Luz jumped in. “It’s his favourite colour.”

She smiled weirdly at the guy and Hunter looked at her confused too. Then the realisation that he couldn’t say ’natural colour’ to a human hit him like a lightning spell.

“Oh! Yeah, I really like… con-tats.” He laughed awkwardly. The energetic cashier seemed oblivious to their weird behaviour.

“Cool! Where did you get them?”

The duo looked at each other with the same stumped expression.

“They were a gift!” Luz managed to improvise. She looked smug at her own answer. “For his birthday.”

Hunter looked away with a wobbly smile when he thought ‘yeah my very first birthday’. He quickly repressed it.

“Um yes,” He said, “and we don’t know where they got them. The friend I mean, who got them for my birthday.”

Hunter trailed off and looked to Luz for guidance. She was just smiling at the employee so he did the same.

“Aww, thats too bad.” The blue-haired boy looked genuinely dejected. Then he straightened his back and looked at them a little shocked. “Oh! I’m so sorry. May I take your order?”

“Oh no, don’t worry.” Hunter tried to assure him, waving his hands frantically. Luz offered both guys some mercy by starting with her own order.

Luz tried her best to ordered everything, but couldn’t remember some of the details. She blanked completely on Willow’s order and looked at the grimwalker next to her for help.

“Jasmine green milk tea with half ice.” Hunter said with absolute certainty. Luz smirked at him. “What?”

“Nothing~”

“Is that all?” The cashier asked, putting it into the machine. Hunter still wondered how those things worked exactly.

Luz confirmed and payed for their order. They only had to wait a little bit for the employees to make everything. When it was done, they said goodbye to the blue-haired guy and walked back to the others.

Vee was probably the happiest to get her drink, but the others were excited too. They opted to take the drinks to go instead of sitting at the table. It seemed like a waste of a six-person table to Hunter, but the rest wanted to walk around in the sun.

And so they walked around town with their cold drinks, enjoying the nice summer weather.

They walked past clothing shops, cafes, restaurants. Making plans to remember certain places for future visits. Eventually their drinks ran out and they crossed the road for a trashcan.

From there they saw a ‘cute little park’ as Amity called it, obviously they had to go there.

They walked towards the charming elm trees, but when they rounded the corner of the fence they stopped dead in their tracks.

There, on a pedestal stood two large stone statues, wearing clothes straight out of a history page.

Witch-hunter history.

Luz stopped so abruptly that Gus bumped into her. Amity was holding her hand and felt a tug when her girlfriend halted. Willow, who had been walking next to Gus, recoiled from their crash.

The three witches immediately voiced their curiosity and concern.

Hunter recognised him too. Vee only noticed because he fell silent. Just a second ago they were talking about tea, now he stared up at this thing with an unreadable expression.

She followed his gaze. The bone-chilling realisation almost made her shapeshifting unstable.

“That’s… Belos.” Luz managed to get out after her friend’s concerned murmurs.

The witches surrounding her all looked at her bewildered, then snapped their attention to the statue.

The pedestal read: Gravesfield folklore, The brothers Wittebane.

Hunter felt like his body was about to crumble. That was indisputably the face of the man he had called uncle his entire life. And that was his brother. That was Caleb.

That was his blueprint.

A disgusting feeling rose in his throat. He felt like the world was spinning around him. Light-headed and reeling, his mind was blaring alarm bells. He couldn’t hear what Luz was saying to their friends, the sounds around him were distant and distorted.

He couldn’t stop looking at him.

His lungs were threatening to give out. Irregular short breaths entered his body, while breathing out felt impossible. He was in the verge of hyperventilating.

Vee felt a little woozy and off-balance. The hold on her shapeshifting was weakening. She felt her hands turn back into claws and saw some green spots forming on her arms. A nauseating feeling tumbled in her stomach.

They had statues. Belos and his brother had statues here. Two witch-hunters had statues here.

A sharp sound to her left broke her out of her daze. Hunter was looking even more wobbly than she felt. She could see the panic in his eyes. She tracked his gaze once more and it finally clicked.

On instinct she grabbed his hand, her claws dug into his skin. He barely felt it. Hunter slowly turned to her, still feeling spaced out. Vee gently tugged on his arm and walked backwards.

He let her lead him over grass, feeling too overwhelmed and scared to pretend he was okay. She tugged her brother along, until they were out of earshot, making sure he was with his back towards the statue.

She took his other hand and squeezed them both, this time being mindful of her sharp claws. The pressure helped him focus a little, but breathing was only getting more difficult.

“Breathe Hunter.” Vee spoke clearly. He squeezed her hands back, desperately trying to ground himself.

And like a broken spell or an unlocked chain, his lungs finally worked again. His irregular gasping for air turned into irregular deep breaths.

“Just breathe.”

The basilisk carefully looked back at the group. The other witches were still inspecting the sculpture and listening to Luz talk about Philip.

It looked like they had successfully slipped away.

“Just breathe.” She said again, calm and pointed.

She coached him through his rising stress, and slowly his hyperventilating stopped. He followed her calming breaths, eventually he moved onto his familiar four-fingers technique.

Vee’s hand now floating in the air in case he needed it. In time, Hunter calmed down. He looked at her with nothing but gratitude. She had helped to prevent a full-on panic attack.

“You okay?” She asked attentively.

“Yes.” Hunter blew out a hefty breath one more time. “Thank you.”

“We’ve gotten pretty good at this, huh?” Vee let out a loaded sigh and a shaky chuckle. Hunter nodded with a tired smile. She swung the hand that still held onto his back and forth.

“And to think I wanted to murder you just a month ago!" She laughed a little odd but with obvious relief. Hunter couldn’t help the elated laugh that escaped out his mouth.

The strange feeling of humour after an almost-mental breakdown, made his sound a little weird too. She was right, their relationship was insane. The basilisk that was scared out of her mind when they first met, had called him ‘brother’ only a few days ago.

He was aware that they had a unique kind of bond with their shared experiences in the castle. But he’d never expect to be regarded as family. He wasn’t sure if he deserved it, but it made him feel so happy.

And treating Vee like a little sister made her really happy, even though he couldn’t yet get himself to call her that. She said she enjoyed hugs and hair-ruffles. Apparently teasing, bickering and joking around was also part of it.

He was still new to it all, but it just felt so right.

Luz had been calling him ‘bro’ and ‘hermano’ for a while now. Maybe he was more used to it than he-

“Whatcha doing over here?” Willow suddenly appeared to the right one him.

Saying it startled him was an understatement. Hunter yelped a loud “WAAA-“ before he doubled over and went back to his calming breaths.

Willow, having missed his panic, was looking jolly and unbothered. She cocked an eyebrow at him with an amused smile. But when she saw that Vee didn’t share her sentiment, she got worried.

“Sweet mother of Titan.” The blonde boy heaved out.

“Are you okay?” Willow asked. Looking from Hunter to Vee and back.

“We’re fine.” Vee assures her. Being infinitely more skilled in lying, she quickly fabricated a half-truth. She glared at the statue. "That... thing just makes me really uncomfortable."

“Mmmh, I get it.” Willow nodded with a soft look. Thinking about their past always made her angry. She looked back with a scowl. “I just wanna spray paint all over it.”

"That sounds like a wonderful idea!" Vee smiled creepily. Focusing on Hunter’s feelings had helped her to calm down as well, but now her mood was really improving.

“Guys,” Hunter piped up when he felt grounded once more. “Vandalism is wrong.”

He was met with two deadpan faces. The tips of his ears tinted pink when he looked at Willow. He quickly turned his eyes away.

“But I wouldn’t stop you.” He mumbled.

“Alright!” Vee jumped away, ready to throw rocks at Belos’s image. This was going to be very therapeutic for her.

Willow and Hunter watched her leave. The green-haired girl met up with Luz, said something and started doing exactly as she set out to do. Gus and Amity didn’t take long to join in.

The duo standing in the distance looked at each other, and started giggling.

“Do you wanna join them?” The plant witch asked, really wanting to do so herself.

“Maybe another time…” Hunter looked away. He felt like his legs would refuse to walk back to that thing.

Willow understood, and as much as she felt the vandalism-urge burning in her soul, she wouldn’t leave Hunter behind. She couldn’t even imagine how devastating it must have been to find a statue dedicated to you abuser. Her heart bled for him.

The blonde witch would always be ready to distract her when she needed it. She had no trouble returning the favour.

“Hey, look at this.” She crouched down next to a flower bed on the edge of the park, gently bending a purplish-blue flower towards him. “This is called the balloon flower.”

Hunter was immediately intrigued. He crouched down next to her and inspected the plant. It was a cluster of flowers on one stem, they were star-shaped and had a peculiar looking pistil.

“See how the petals are fused?” Willow ever so carefully glided her thumb over the blue petals, they were indeed stuck to each other. “We don’t have any flowers like this in the Boiling Ilse.”

“Why not?” Hunter was fully captivated.

“I dunno.” Willow shrugged. “Different evolution I guess.”

“Oh.” Hunter laughed. He had expected some profound answer, but that made sense. He touched one of the other flowers to feel the strange petals for himself. “Did you learn about these in that book?”

“Yes! The one from the library.” She was delighted that he remembered she loved that book so much. “Balloon flowers are actually very popular.”

She was also glad he accepted her attempt at distracting him with plant facts. So Willow happily listed all the different names for the different shades of blue present in this species.

They talked about the book for a bit. He was excited to learn that the human realm had flesh-eating plants too. But then Willow had to break the news to him that they were really tiny. After that, the group called them to leave. Their vandalism-therapy was done.

Hunter found himself walking at the back of the group again, this time with Gus. They had to pass that damned statue again to go home. His effort to resist wasn’t strong enough, he looked up at Caleb’s face one last time.

He felt like a freshly scabbed-over wound was splitting back open. He wouldn’t go into a panic again, but he felt sick to the stomach. And maybe a little dizzy too.

“Hey,” Gus looked at him curiously. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah!” He lied.

“Did the statue make you uncomfortable too?”

“Yeah…”

Hunter knew this was bound to happen. Gus was incredibly observant and smart. More so than anyone, he was the real mom of the group. He cared so much and they had build an amazing friendship, which was exactly why this was so uncomfortable.

Gus, on the other hand, didn’t feel very smart right now. What kind of question was that? Of course he was uncomfortable!

He just wanted to talk about it.

But Hunter clearly didn’t, so he wouldn’t press the issue. He could take a wild guess either way. He knew that Hunter wasn't even looking at Belos's statue. He was looking at his brother.

Caleb Wittebane.

———

Hunter had been staring at his reflection for what felt like an eternity. A wounded sigh eventually escaped his mouth. His shoulders slumped, breaking him out of his frozen state.

His hands moved involuntarily to his face. He rubbed the inside of his eyes. Then he squeezed them shut and opened them wide. He intently studied the colours and the fibres.

He always thought that the way the fibres of an iris weaved was so pretty. Not when he looked at his own, but someone else’s, like Willow. Like an intricate web of beautiful pigment.

He didn’t hate the colour of his eyes, he hated what it represented.

He dragged his hands down to his mouth. His chapped lips had always been a constant and Amity had desperately tried to get him to use lip balm. She was right, she was always right, that’s why she was so annoying. He just forgot.

With one finger he lifted the side of his upper lip, uncovering his fangs. He was still more inclined to call them sharp teeth. That’s what they were after all.

He used to hate those, but his friends all loved them so much. Now he wasn’t sure how to feel. Just neutral maybe?

He then moved his hands up into his hair and hung them on his neck. His hair had grown, falling just past his ears. It looked different, but he could still style it the same way.

It didn’t have to stand out, right? Nobody noticed? He couldn’t bring himself to cut it here.

He had to cut his hair religiously back in the coven. It always had to look perfect. Everything always had to be perfect. The human realm was supposed to be his peaceful escape.

No.

No, stop.

What was he even thinking? They had crashed into this realm in an apocalypse. The end of the world! This was refuge, not an escape. He had to remember the difference.

That still didn’t mean he had to cut his hair.

He moved one hand to his scar, softly pulling the skin up and down. Tracking the edge, like he’d done a million times. It was the only thing entirely his own.

His eyes, his teeth, the rapid growth of his hair. That was all Grimwalker. The colour of that hair, his bone structure, his nose, his eyebrows. That was all Caleb.

“What a shame. Out of all the Grimwalkers, you looked the most like him."

Why couldn't he reject that sentence? Even just as a bold-faced lie. He wanted to utterly deny that is was true, but when he looked at that statue...

It looked so painfully similar.

His scar was the only thing that didn’t belong to either of them. But even that little beacon of uniquely him, didn’t bring any comfort. How could it? It was a deep pink slash across his cheek. His very first scar.

He barely remembered how he got it. Well, it was Belos of course. He just didn’t recall any of the details.

It was the first of many. Every single one of them seemed so clearly malicious in retrospect. How had he ever been so naive?

It is the curse! He didn’t mean to! As if that monster could ever really love him. A lie, that’s all it was.

His arms dropped to his sides. The hundredth sigh of the night escaped his lips. He hated this so much. But he couldn’t move away from that damned mirror. Like plant magic was rooting him to this one spot in the bathroom.

When he looked in that mirror, he didn’t see anything he liked. He didn’t see himself.

He wanted to punch that mirror and-

The sounds of very familiar slithering passed in the hallway, violently ripping his attention away from the mirror. He heard the slithering in the kitchen and then a crunching noise.

Vee.

More like his guardian angel. The kitchen was very appealing, stronger even than the mirror’s pull.

That was good right? He had to escape this depressing pit he created. Joining Vee would do definitely force him away from his own mind. Or maybe misery just loved company.

He deliberately kept his head down, looking at the mirror would root him back in place. He hoped he left the sink neat enough.

Hunter entered the kitchen and saw his basilisk sister elbow-deep into a cereal box. She was looking off in the distance while munching, until she noticed him. She froze and they looked at each other for a solid 10 seconds.

“Hey.” Vee said blankly, breaking the awkward silence.

“Hey.” He returned in the same passive way.

She continued to crunch on her midnight snack and tilted the box towards him. He shuffled over and leaned on the counter, grabbing a fistful of the cereal.

Usually he’d be a bit upset about eating from the box, but he was just so tired that he didn’t care anymore. He felt a little empty right now.

“Insomnia?” Vee asked, blinking slowly and sideways.

“Nightmare.” Hunter answered between crunching. “You?”

“The other one.”

“That sucks.”

“Sure does,” She snickered. “Nightmares aren’t much better. Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine.” Now that he actually had company for his misery, he didn’t want to get into it.

Vee knew he was lying, naturally, but she was leaving it be. She didn’t really have the energy for a heart-to-heart right now either. They just kept eating their cereal in comfortable silence.

Then Luz walked in.

Both basilisk and grimwalker froze again in the middle of their munching. Their human sibling stood just past the doorway and looked at them surprised.

“Hey.” They said at the same time, in the exact same way as before.

“Hey,” Luz laughed and bounced over to grab her own helping of cereal. She hopped onto the counter and ruffled both of their hair. Calling them both ‘hermanitos’.

Vee glowed at the nickname, and Hunter smiled. A small, growing feeling of light was forming somewhere, almost within reach.

“Di’ya have a nightma’?” Vee asked through a mouth full. Hunter didn’t even have enough energy to lecture her about proper eating etiquette. Eating from a box kind of defeats the purpose anyways.

“No, I couldn’t sleep.” The human answered. “I feel like I went in and out of sleep at least 6 times already.”

“Insomnia.” Hunter hummed knowingly.

“Yeah…” Luz sighed. She was well aware of her insomnia-household. This wasn’t the first time that the three of them had gathered in the kitchen, at the most ungodly hours of the night. “So I came down here for some water, but this is way better.”

She threw a piece of cereal in the air and caught it with her mouth. Hunter moved wordlessly to the cupboard and filled three glasses with water. The girls both looked at him with shit-eating grins. Hunter rolled his eyes, he could never just do something nice without them turning it into a big deal.

“Awww you big softy.” They cooed. Hunter looked at them annoyed, then snatched the cereal box from Vee’s hands.

“Just for that, I’m eating the last of this.”

“NO!” The sisters gasped and leapt to save their snack, but he was too fast and too tall.

Hunter tipped the thing over and the last of the cereal, which was only 5 pieces at most, was gone.

“How could you!” Luz called out with a dramatic look of betrayal. Hunter and Vee both shushed her, trying to hold in their laughter.

“How could you?” Luz whispered this time, giggling along with them.

“Ya know… we have another box.” The sly basilisk suggested, showing off the inside of the pantry.

“Vee, we can’t eat two boxes of cereal in the middle of the night!” Hunter whisper-yelled, slapping their greedy hands away and closing the cabinet door. “What about the others? What about breakfast?”

“Yeah Vee, think about breakfast!” Luz teased like she hadn’t just been reaching for that box as well. Vee stuck her tongue out.

“What time is it anyway?” She asked and Luz pulled her phone from her back pocket.

The blue screen lit up the room, but she completely forgot to check the time when she noticed a sudden shine.

“Wow….” Luz marvelled at the teens standing in front of her. “Cat eyes.”

The teens in question, being completely lost, looked at her confused.

“I didn’t know you guys have that!” She was awestruck.

“Have what?” Vee felt stumped and wanted an explanation quickly.

“You know when cats are at a certain angle to a light and their eyes glow?” Luz was met with a couple of dumbfounded faces. “Because of their night vision? You guys have reflective eyes… like cats?”

“Reflective eyes?!” Hunter reacted suddenly. The realisation had snuck up on him, as if thinking about it earlier had doomed it to come true again.

“What? Nooooo hahahahaha-“ He laughed nervously, backing up until the edge of the kitchen island dug into his back. His voice trailed off and he took a deep breath. “No.”

“Hunter?” Luz’s voice was uneasy and she reached out a hand to him, but it faltered. Vee looked wary and uncertain.

His heart sank. It had barely gotten the chance to climb out and it sank all the way back down.

“No…” His voice broke.

He hugged himself tight. His arms were tired, his legs were tired, his everything was tired. He slid down against the island.

“Hunter?” Vee asked with the tinniest voice. She eyed Luz and they shared a look of extreme worry.

“Noooooo…” Hunter buried his face in his hands and groaned. “Whyyyyy?!”

Did the Titan hate him? Was he cursed? This night just kept getting worse! And just when he thought he escaped those feelings, those thoughts. Leave them in the dark bathroom and never look back. He really was naive.

Luz and Vee shared a final look and joined him on the floor. They sat down on either side of him, leaning against him as a silent show of comfort.

Hunter felt tears stream over his face and by the way his shoulders shook, his sisters could tell. Luz put a hand on his back and the older boy let out a shaky breath. He let go of his legs and slowly sat back up, dropping his arms on the ground.

Nobody said anything.

Vee wrapped her tail around his ankles and let head head fall on his shoulder. Her cheek smushed and her fuzzy hair tickled his neck. Luz hugged him tight, resting her head against his arm.

Hunter just let the tears fall.

He felt a confusing mix of distress, comfort, exhaustion, gratitude, fear and love. He really hated today, it was such a long, draining day.

But he felt so happy to have these two consider him family. They let him bawl his eyes out without question, sharing this moment of pain just to make it easier for him.

Eventually they would let each other go. Vee would spend the night watching YouTube videos. Luz would read Azura books until sunrise. And Hunter would rest his tired eyes, for once sleeping dreamless and peaceful.

But for now, they would stay like this. Together.

19 notes · View notes

kittiwittebane · 7 months

Text

BUS-

Based off @avatarmerida idea for a Huntlow prompt. [here]

“Are you guys ready to get on the bus?” Luz asked. Gus nodded, drawing a spell circle. Everybody’s ears became round.

“Human ears, check!” he smiled.

Willow giggled. “I got the snacks, like always.”

Hunter nodded, being overly self-conscious about his choice in clothing, Amity’s earlier comment still stinging.

_______

“What in the name of Titan are you wearing!?” Amity’s disgusted face was not easily mistaken. Hunter went red with embarrassment.

“I-” he started.

“Amity, stop being so rude he looks fine!” Willow jumped to his defence. Amity rolled her eyes.

“Fine, huh?” she asked. Willow went red. “Shut up, Amity.” she mumbled, crossing her arms. “It’s not like that.”

“Sure.”

_______

Hunter smiled at the memory.

“Alright then, let’s go!” Luz exclaimed.

The group waited at the bus stop and when the bus arrived, they realised it was crowded. Not a little bit, not full seats, it was full. Like a bunch of grapes. There was a small spot where there were seats but Gus sat on one, AMity and Luz sat on the other, leaving Vee, Hunter and Willow to stand. Vee had made sure she was tall enough to reach the handles just in case, and Hunter was just tall in general. Willow however? Short. Second shortest of the group. The logical thing to do was let Amity take the place of Willow, as she was taller, but before that could happen, the bus jerked forwards, Willow’s first instinct to grab the closest thing. That ‘thing’ was Hunter. She grabbed his lower torso and stabilised herself. Hunter looked downwards, his face flushing red as realisation hit him. It took her a hot minute, but Willow then also realised. Her face was painted with a red hue, the thought of what they must look like to everyone else already driving her mad. But while Hunter was focused on how close they were, Willow was secretly admiring the muscle under his shirt. She wished she wasn’t. It felt wrong. The thought felt wrong, not his muscles. Once the bus arrived they got off, and had an awkward forcefield around them for the rest of the day. This seemed to happen a lot, eventually becoming their regular routine. One time, the bus came to such an abrupt stop that Willow went face first into Hunter’s body, to which he caught her, her arms around his body, his hand to her waist. They nearly missed their stop, if Gus hadn't snapped them out of their trance. That also happened to be the time someone commented.

“Aww, you two are such a cute couple!” an old woman next to them smiled at them. While both of them went red, Willow responded.

“Thank you.” Willow smiled kindly, hoping Hunter wouldn’t object. She liked the way they were referred to as a couple. The old woman nodded at them.

“You two care so much about each other, you remind me of me and my husband and our kids too.”

Willow’s face grew progressively redder and her voice became awkward. “Mhm, thank you so much.”

Her and Hunter? Compared to a married couple? With KIDS? Just the sheer thought sent Willow’s heart and mind into overdrive. Hunter had stopped working at ‘you two’.

“GUYS THE BUS IS GONNA LEAVE!” Gus smacked Willow’s arm.

She recoiled into Hunter and playfully mocked Gus. “Ok, ok! Geez.”

_______

Hunter noticed that this time, the bus didn’t seem to be as crowded. There were clearly enough seats. The whole back row was vacant, apart from one man. He saw that they came as a group and offered that Hunter and Willow could sit where he was. They politely declined but he seemed determined to make them sit together. Eventually, they gave in and sat down. Both were seeming less enthusiastic, which Gus noticed.

Those idiots. Gus thought. He spread himself out across the seats, urging Luz and Amity, and Vee to do the same. They all did and suddenly it became quite crowded.

“Hey Hunter, can you and Willow sit a lot closer? It's getting squishy and hot up here.” Both gladly obliged, Hunter leaning into and putting his arms around her, neither going to mention how roomy it was up there.

#hunter toh #hunter deamonne #hunter noceda #hunter wittebane #huntlow #the owl house #willow park #toh #winter #dana terrace #winter toh

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sleepingdeath-light · 11 months

Text

confessing to his long time crush during a sleepover hcs ; hunter

requested by ; anonymous (12/04/23)

fandom(s) ; the owl house

fandom masterlist(s) ; main | hunter only

character(s) ; hunter wittebane

outline ; “Hi! I know this request is a bit much but your writing style is awesome and idk if i could write it myself 😅 could you do a hunter (toh) x reader where they’ve been mutually pining for AGES but they don’t really know the other likes them but everyone else around them knows and is trying to get them together. so one day (maybe when they’re in the human realm, or not!! your choice! :)) the gang (luz, willow, amity, gus, hunter etc) are having a sleepover and they trick hunter and reader into sharing the same bed. SFW and fluffy please 😅😅 maybe a bonus of what the next day would be like if they woke up holding each other ?? AHH SORRY for the big request 😭😭 i hope u have a lovely day!!!”

warning(s) ; none, just fluff!

you’d known each other since he went by the ‘golden guard’ title — back when he was someone entirely different, but even then there was definitely something between you

faint and flickering and indistinct but nonetheless there

then when he went from guard to hunter your relationship evolved from that flickering something to a distinct attraction that you spent more time dancing around than doing much else

the two of you living embodiments of burning laughter-strained cheeks and stuttering smiling lips as you talked circles around your intentions and attractions with everything you had

thinly veiled disappointment at the term ‘friend’ and unshakeable grins at every crumb of physical contact being signs that the two of you missed — yet that blared your feelings clear as crystal to your companions

and, bless them, they tried to let the two of you work it out on your own but after two months of close contact in the human realm they snapped and decided to intervene

they excused the whole thing as a sleepover (coincidentally rescheduling for them all to be over at vee’s partner’s home and camila to be over visiting a friend of hers) — so by the time the two of you were set up in the noceda family’s living room you didn’t have the chance to back out

(and luz had stolen every other spare mattress and hidden them in her locked room, the menace)

initially it was awkward but then you broke the ice by making a joke about them abandoning you and things became easier

conversations were pleasant and easy, like a cool babbling brook on a hot summer’s day

affection was casual and brief, followed by the sort of laughter that only puppy-love can bring

you put on a documentary about wolves and just laid and sat side-by-side — with your head on his shoulder and his arm around your waist

it’s quiet and domestic and perfect but neither of you say anything

and you don’t say anything until well after you’ve fallen asleep in each other’s arms: your head in his chest and his body curled around you

peaceful and warm and domestic as you drift off to the sound of a soft british accent describing the dynamics of a wolf pack

you don’t know who woke up first, but you both end up pretending to sleep for a while in order to revel in the moment but all too soon you’re forced to end your little act when your friends come home

leaping apart dramatically with awkward smiles and averted eyes

laughing in fake coughs into your fists as you pretend not to have enjoyed the night as much as you had

almost getting away with it until luz, mouth working before her mind, asks if you two finally confessed last night

earning her a playful slap upside the head from amity whilst you and hunter stutter and stammer over your words — a thousand non-answers falling from your lips until you just stop, look at each other, smile awkwardly and nod

and his hand reaches out under the cover to shyly hold yours and your squeeze it in return, the two of you smiling like the teenagers you are at your non-confession

and, all of a sudden, the something that you spent so long pretending wasn’t there is suddenly very very clear in what it is

and you couldn’t be more thankful for luz’s big mouth

#sleepingdeath #gender neutral reader #fluff #fluff hcs #toh fluff #the owl house fluff #the owl house x reader #toh x reader #toh hunter x reader #hunter toh x reader #hunter wittebane x reader

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avatarmerida · 2 years

Note

Oh my titan, more your work about the season 3 clip, im melting 🫠🫠

So the biggest headcanon that I want more than anything is Hunter going to tell Willow that he’s a grimwalker and she’s thinks he’s confessing. That’s the kind of misunderstanding I can get behind so here’s what I think/hope will go down with that. I’ve written a few different versions of this before, but given we have only 44 minutes to work with I’m trying not to get my hopes up.

———

“We don’t have much time, should we split up?” said Amity as the group made their way through the graveyard, flashlights in hand. “I know it’s safer to stay together, but we have the walkie talkies so maybe it’d be the better way to cover more ground.”

“We should stay together,” insisted Hunter.

“I don’t wanna split up either but there’s too much ground to cover,” said Luz. “We could go in groups of two, I could go with Amity and-.”

“I’ll go with Willow.” Hunter said.

“Look who’s all for splitting up all of a sudden,” teased Gus, crossing his arms.

Hunter’s face turned beet red. “I mean, uh, I can go with Willow. Er Willow would you like to go with me? Not that it matters! But I figured since-.”

“Nah bro, you’re good,” said Gus, cutting him off before he spiraled. “I’ll go with Vee, that way each group has someone with magic if we need it.”

“Good, I mean that’s exactly what I was thinking,” said Hunter.

“Hey,” whispered Gus, placing his hand on Hunter’s shoulder as he went to follow Willow. “This might be a good time to tell her.”

Hunter sighed. “Yeah, I think I’m ready.” He said softly with mild confidence. He had been able to tell everyone else about him being a grimwalker but with Willow it felt... heavier. He knew that if Gus didn’t treat him any differently then neither would Willow most likely, but Hunter valued her opinion above all others and was worried she’d be upset she was the last to know.

“So um Willow,” started Hunter, attempting to sound cool and in control. “H-How are you?”

“I’m good?” said Willow, sensing something was bothering him. “A little cold, but pretty much-.”

“Oh you’re cold? Here, hold on!” said Hunter, quickly removing his jacket. He did so in the most difficult way possible, pulling the sleeve while it was still zipped up neatly falling over to remove it but eventually he did. He timidly placed the jacket over her shoulders, and Willow smiled.

“You don’t have to-.”

“Oh, no I insist,” said Hunter, bringing her braids out from beneath the coat.

“Okay, well thank you Hunter,” she said, slipping her arms through, noticing how the jacket smelled like the body spray he had secretly asked Mrs. Noceda to buy him. “That’s very sweet of you.”

“It’s uh... no! It’s nothing, no.” He said, clearing his throat and steadying the flashlight.

“Hunter, is there something you wanna talk about?” Willow asked softly. “You seem... distracted.”

“Is it that obvious?” He blushed. “Well, to be honest there is something I’ve been wanting to tell you for awhile actaully.”

“Oh?”

“And I’m sorry I waited so long but I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about it,” continued Hunter. “Luz said I should wait until I’m ready but I don’t think I’ll ever really be ready because I don’t want it to change how you see or think about me but I want you to know because I really care about you and I trust you, but I just never knew how to say it...”

“Hunter I... I think I already know.”

“You do? How? Did one of the others tell you? I’m sorry I told them before you, but for some reason telling you seemed more important so I didn’t wanna mess it up but the longer it waited the more I thought about and I was just so worried that you wouldn’t like me after you knew-.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” said Willow, putting her hands on his shoulders. “Breathe, okay? Relax. There is nothing you could say to me that would make me like you less.”

Hunter took a deep breathe and steadied himself. “Okay,” he said softly, exhaling as Willow counted. “I’m okay, I can do this.” He inhaled and pushed on. “Willow... the thing is-.”

“Do you wanna go out with me?” Willow said as though the words were bursting to get out, needing to escape after being confined for so long.

“I- what?!”

“Oh gosh, I’m sorry,” Willow giggled as she covered her mouth, watching Hunter’s expression become gradually more confused. “I just... you can go. I just got excited.”

“You... wanna go out with me? With me?” Hunter repeated to himself as his mind tried to decide when he would wake up from what was clearly a dream. “Like... go out? Together?”

“Well yeah,” said Willow quietly, tucking her braid behind her ear. “I’ve... had a crush on you for awhile and I thought you might’ve felt the same but I didn’t wanna assume but then I noticed that you’ve been trying to tell me something so...”

“Well this is... I don’t even know what to say,” admitted Hunter, suddenly aware that Willow was staring up him with an expression he had never seen before. She was waiting for him to say something of substance and suddenly everything he had prepared seemed wrong.

“Well, you can say what you were in the middle of saying before I interrupted,” she laughed, taking his hand. “I have to admit, I never pictured this happening in a graveyard but the full moon makes it kind of romantic actually.”

“It is?” He said looking around, just seeing a dark dingy graveyard. But then his eyes went back to her, and the moonlight made itself known as it highlighted her eyes and he could hear the faint sound of wind-chimes in the distance. Any place could be made romantic by her presence. “Huh, it is.”

“So...?”

“So? Oh, uh right.”

Suddenly Hunter didn’t know what to do. In front of him was the girl he adored and admired telling him her secret, telling him she thought about him the way he thought about her and al he could think about was how he was a liar. He was no better than Belos or Caleb, whoever he was. Lying to witches to gain their trust and affection, only to deceive them in the end. Hunter had been deceiving people his whole life, whether or not he realized it, as although he wanted nothing in this world more than for Willow to look at him the way she was now forever, he couldn’t drag her down with him.

“Willow... that’s not what I needed to tell you...” Hunter said timidly. Her eyes widened in horror.

“Oh my Titan,” she said softly but Hunter could tell she wanted to scream, as she brought her hands to cover her mouth. “I... can’t believe. Oh gosh, why would I just assume that? I’m so sorry I thought-.”

Hunter realized she misunderstood his correction as rejection, and interjected accordingly.

“No! No, you’re fine! It’s not that-!”

“I should’ve let you finish, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable-.”

“-no, absolutely not! I would love to go out with you Captain! It would be an honor!”

Willow stopped and looked up at him, her mouth slightly parted as her brain tried to catch up. “Wait... I’m confused.”

“Willow,” started Hunter, taking her hands back in his. “I do like you.... like that. Like the crushing way. But...” he could hardly bring himself to look into her eyes. “But I’m not... real.”

Willow looked at him skeptically and gave his hands a squeeze. “You feel pretty real to me.”

“No, I mean I’m...” he took a deep breath. “I’m a copy of someone who... I’m a ... grimwalker.”

“I see,” said Willow calmly, not letting go of Hunter’s hands. “How does that make you not real?”

“Because I’m... a clone,” he had said the words many times already, grateful for the practice but it still do not make saying them to her any easier. “A clone of someone who hunted witches and hurt them and did... bad things. I was made to replace him. I’m not real.”

“I see,” said Willow again. “So the person you’re a grimwalker of... he played flyer derby too?”

“Um... I’m not sure? Probably not. But why-.”

“Did he spend hours researching recipes to find the human equivalent of my favorite meal to make me for my birthday?”

“Most likely not, but that’s because-.”

“And did he stay up all night sewing Gus a Space Trek costume from scratch when he couldn’t find one he liked in the store because he wanted him to have a perfect first human realm Halloween?”

“No.”

“No, that was you,” affirmed Willow. “Maybe you look like him, maybe you sound like him, but you’re more than your origins. You’re smart and sweet and dorky. You’re organized and funny and you’re too hard on yourself.”

“But I’ve been lying to you.”

“You haven’t been lying to me,” she insisted. “You’ve been figuring out who you are. Everyone struggles with it at one time or another. You’ve had a hard time adjusting to things you’ve had to learn and unlearn so much recently. But you’re kind and brave and you’re so much more than Belos can take credit for.”

“But I shouldn’t exist...”

“Well I’m glad you do,” she insisted. “Where you came from or how you got here has nothing to do with you. You had no control over it. What you can control is what you do with that existence.”

“I...” Hunter didn’t have the words. When he told the others, they had said it wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t a big deal and it didn’t change how they saw him. But when Willow said all this, it almost made it seem like she was... proud of him? “

“A grimwalker is what you are, not who you are,” said Willow. “And... I really like who you are.”

“But... you....” Hunter continued to search for the words. He didn’t know what he expected or hoped for from Willow’s reaction but he knew he didn’t think it would go this well. “You still like me even though I’m a grimwalker?”

“You’ve been a grimwalker the whole time I’ve liked you,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true...”

“Guys I am like so happy you’re having a good talk and everything but you’re supposed to looking for the portal door. Over.” came Amity’s voice from seemingly nowhere.

“What?” Hunter asked looking around for the source before finding the walkie talkie in his coat pocket.

“Blight! Were you eavesdropping?!”

“You’ve been broadcasting this whole time,” said Gus plainly. “You’re still not that great with human tech. Over.”

“So you guys heard... everything?”

“Hunter you have to say ‘over’ when you’re done talking. Over.” said Gus.

“It’s nothing that we didn’t know already. Over.” Added Amity.

“We should go on a double date! Over!” Said Luz happily.

“Shouldn’t we get back on task? Over.” offered Vee.

“Good point, there’ll be plenty of time to tease them later. Over.” Said Amity.

“Why is it so quiet all of sudden? Are you guys kissing? Over.” teased Luz.

“Not yet. Over and out.” said Willow softly, taking the walkie talkie from Hunter who looked absolutely mortified at the idea that this moment has been interrupted. She casually turned the volume down slightly before placing it in her pocket and extending her hand to Hunter who happily took it. He sighed, relieved the voices were dimmed though he could still hear them faintly frantically asking follow up questions. This had gone much better than he had expected. He looked at her fondly as she lead him through the moon soaked layout, lacing her fingers through his own like they were always meant to be like that. Under different circumstances, this would be Hunter’s idea of a perfect night.

“Hey, um, what did you mean by ‘not yet?’”

And then like I think Belos will appear and attack to ruin the moment because we can’t have anything that easy.

#huntlow #toh #winter toh #the owl house #willow park #hunter wittebane

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laldupattewali · 2 years

Text

i have so many feelings about this

vee trying to take care of them even though we know she’s fearful of strangers theyre from her world and theyre hurt

the way luz and hunter are both on the edges of a breakdown blaming themselves and neither is able to comfort the other.

luz going back to her old habits of blaming her recklessness and how it put eda and king in danger while hunter who couldn’t complete the one task darius trusted him with

amity just being so very exhausted and curled up against luz to have some sort of comfort and something that she knows in this unknown world to her.

gus just being scared and trying to curl up on himself between two people he trusts as he relies on the comfort of physical contact from hunter and willow.

and willow who just wants to escape for a bit trying to comfort gus because she doesn’t know what else to do

basically i am hurt and i want them to be happy and i hate how they look here because they deserve to be happy especially when with friends

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charizardstolemynickname · 11 months

Text

SEASON 3 EPISODE 1 REACTION PART 2!!

I am a big ranter and don't shut up so I have had to make it a second part, sorry people, anyway, LETS GO

"You're family now" WELL DAMN, Hunter is just getting adopted left right and centre! As he should be, HUNTER BABY, NO DON'T CRY, god nobody has ever shown him kindness in his like, 16 years of life huh (me neither pal, me neither)

I will never get over how cute Gus and Hunter being nerds about this sci-fi book, like damn bro. BUT CAMILA, what are you hiding?! Either she wrote this book or it was her husband's

AHHH LUZ AND AMITY COSPLAYING THEIR FAVOURITE FICTIONAL GIRLFRIENDS, I am going feral, god someone be the Luz to my Amity. ALSO Azura's green hair is iconic, I will one day dye my hair that green, just you wait

THE COMPUTER WALLPAPER?! Fuckkkkkkk, they are so goals it literally hurts my soul, I am going to cry in a minute!

The costumes are so good!! However Amity's costume (I think the character's name was Hecate?) reminds me of Rosaline but with Daisy's hair colour (Mario characters if you get me) but also some other character but I have 0 idea who, I'll think about it

BUT HEY, GREEN GOOP DON'T BE ON HUNTER'S SKIN!

Oooo Belos lore! And his brother, who is barely mentioned so i am desperate to know more

THE BROTHER'S NAME WAS CALEB! FUCKING KNEW IT, but that means a lot..... Are "Grimwalkers" just a clone of Caleb? Philip's weird attempt to keep his brother? And maybe he died because of a palisman? God I don't know, BUT WAIT, BECAUSE FLAPJACK WAS AN ABANDONED PALISMAN BECAUSE OF THE BATQUEEN HAD HIM, MAYBE HE WAS CALEB'S!

OH FUCK YEAH I WAS RIGHT, however this was probably obvious considering we immediately find it out after I guessed it, damn

"Sounds like big bro got a hot witch girlfriend and little bro got upset. But, that's just me" Masha, I fucking love you

Hunter is sweating and stressing though, bless him

YEAH HUNTER WHAT THE HECK, poor flapjack, but also I get it, still feel bad for flapjack but Hunter be going through a lot, i get him

THE CUTTING THE HAIR WITH A SWORD IS SO RELATABLE, but also these video diaries being from when she was young and everything with her dad AND HER DAD LEAVING HER THE BOOK, AH

OH GOD I JUST REMEMBERED THE FIRST SCENE OF SEASON 1 WAS LUZ'S BOOK REPORT WHERE SHE BROUGHT IN A SNAKE! OHHHH God.

WOAH, Hunter is being controlled by this green goop! I swear if he turns into the Belos creature and Hunter becomes the villain I will have to sob

WOAH IS BELOS CONTROLLING HUNTER! HELL NAH DAMN IT, WE HAVE TO WATCH HUNTER BECOME THE MAYBE VILLAIN, this is horrible

WHY ARE YOU CALLING LUZ/FLAPJACK EVELYN! WASN'T THAT THE WITCH!?! FUCK

DO NOT KILL FLAPJACK YOU PIECE OF SHIT! NOOOOOOOOOO

WAIT NO HE IS ALIVE, I swear if flapjack dies I will sue the studio

CAMILA TO THE RESCUE! Woah, cool portal, but that shouldn't be what I focus on

I am not kidding, if Flapjack and/or Hunter dies, I will go insane and nobody will see me for the next 100 days

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO DON'T TURN INTO PARTICLES FLAPJACK, YOU CAN STILL LIVE, please, i swear

"Is everyone else okay?" YES YOU SELFISH PRICK, OF COURSE BUT STOP ASKING ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE

.................................... YOU MUST BE KIDDING, they wouldn't kill off flapjack right!? He comes back, I know he does. You'll see. This isn't "delusional" or "denial" IT WILL HAPPEN

"TOOK YOUR MOTHER TO THE DEMON REALM!" Again, Camila to the rescue, fucking love her, CAN'T WAIT FOR CAMILA AND EDA TO MEET

VEE MY ICON, good luck trying to be everything sweetie, I BELIEVE IN YOU!

OKAY! Episode 1 done people! That was, scary, damn. But we survived the first episode! AND nobody died! FLAPJACK DIDN'T DIE OKAY, I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL, HE SHOWS UP LATER IN THIS SEASON, I CAN TELL

#the owl house #toh #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers #the owl house season 3 #the owl house season 3 spoilers #luz owl house #amity owl house #toh gus #the owl house gus #the owl house willow #toh willow #the owl house camila #the owl house vee #the owl house hunter #toh hunter #AHHHHHHH #1/3 done!

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smokestarrules · 1 year

Note

Like, I’m all for “Luz closing herself off and being secretive also affected Amity negatively” type angst, but in that Amity was worried about Luz and upset she couldn’t find a way to help, not that she was jealous of Hunter, good god.

And yeah, it’s true that the Luz keeping secrets thing has happened before and been dealt with before, but I think the easiest thing to show Luz is going to stop doing that, is for her to learn something that she could hide from her friends and family (a lot of people that use the secret keeping thing as a reason why Lumity is toxic often forget that she doesn’t tell Willow, Gus, Camila or Vee either(also this makes it sound like “if you keep secrets from your romantic partner, you’re a Bad Person, but hiding things from your friends and family members is totally a-okay” hint: neither of these things make you a bad person, but the double standard is weird)) Anyway, Luz learns something she could hide, but instead decides to tell everyone what’s going on and let them help.

I don’t think Luz needs “a consequence so big that it changes her flawed mindset forever” (yes, that was the exact words) but just an assurance that everyone loves and no-one will leave her, and then she can begin to let down her own walls again.

Yup! Luz doesn't need to be punished for thinking that everyone she loves will hate her (fucking hell), she needs to be shown that she's loved. That they will always forgive her, because they know she would never do that on purpose. That they will always love her even when she makes mistakes.

Luz is a kid who is terrifyingly depressed in Thanks to Them, and she deserves so much better than a lot of people want to give her.

#it's disgusting #toh #luz noceda #smokey answers #anonymous

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master-of-the-railway · 2 months

Text

Answering @septemberofgenders' ask in a new post bc I deleted the original ask on accident.

(under the cut bc I AM SO NORMAL ABT THIS AU)

The general idea is that Luz, King, Willow, and Hunter all somehow end up on Sodor. Gus, Amity, and Vee all stay in the boiling isles though. Another important note is that the "present day" events for the kids on Sodor takes place during the cgi series. Exactly when I'm not certain, but the current idea is maybe a year or two before the BWBA era would've started. I've also debated on pushing TMR to take place a little closer to the beginning of the cgi series for this au, maybe a few years prior to Hunter's arrival.

Luz and Willow both got there around the same time when they were just a few months old each. Luz ended up being adopted by Sir Topham Hatt as his daughter, and Willow became the adopted daughter of Jenny Packard. Neither of them remember anything from their birthplaces, and they actually have completely new names from their adoptive parents, I just haven't solidly decided on their new names yet. So for now I'll call them by their birth names until their new names get decided. Luz loves Sodor and couldn't imagine living anywhere else. She's fully aware that she is adopted but has no urge to seek out her birth family. Why would she need to? She's got everything she could want right here! She's grown up seeing the engines pretty much every morning, the engines' drivers and firemen think she's a good kid, and Luz considers the steam engines to be her family. She especially likes hanging out with Gordon and Thomas, they're likely her favorites out of the entire group. Willow sometimes wonders if her birth parents miss her but tries not to think about it too much. The construction crew considers her their baby sister and they love her to bits, she does have a crush on Hunter, though the two don't see each other that often due to the odd living situation he has. Luz and Willow are the BEST of friends and they go to the same school, Luz would stand up against kids who tried to bully Willow, and Willow would help Luz understand school assignments she struggled to grasp. They're always there for each other and they especially love hanging out during the summer.

Hunter ended up there at 6 years old, he hadn't become old enough for Belos to start doing major damage to him, so he was incredibly desperate to return back to the boiling isles and his "uncle". Mr. Conductor stumbled across the poor kid and when Hunter explained his situation, the kind man offered to look after him and help him find a way back to his home realm…that is until MC noticed that Hunter displayed obvious signs of having grown up in a less than fantastic household. So, MC gave up the search and convinced Hunter to come back to Shining Time with him. MC made sure he got the poor kid a licensed therapist and lots of love so that he might start to heal. Hunter now lives in his own special room at the Shining Time train station as MC’s younger brother. He remembered that he'd been training to be the Golden Guard, so he gave himself the label of the Golden Conductor as he was now training to be a magical conductor like his older brother. He has his own uniform and supply of gold dust, and he's one of the few who knows about Lady's existence. He's definitely a lot better off than canon Hunter was at his age. Hunter remembered his name just fine, so he's pretty much the only one of the crew who keeps his birth name (again, King, Willow, and Luz's new names are undecided).

King was transported there when he was just a year old. In this au, Eda had found him not long after he'd hatched, and she took him home to raise him as he'd reached out to her just as any baby witch would. Her poor heart just couldn't say no to the little guy. He was her whole world and she'd constantly brag to her friends about her adorable little "demon" son, whom she'd named King, and he made her life so much better. Which is why Eda became a shambled mess when King disappeared and she couldn't find him. She became a rough and closed off witch, doubling down on her criminal acts and hesitating less to attack coven members as she was confident they had taken King from her. Eventually she met with Raine again and the two became allied, slowly re-kindling their relationship…and then Darius crashed in and became the third member of the alliance! Raine and Darius are pretty much two of the only people that Eda trusts nowadays. She's a pretty closed off person and both of her partners (yes they are a polycule in this au, I am not immune okay-) worry about her a lot, but they do their best to help her out with the grief that she just can't seem to let go of. Eda's commonly referred to as "The Owl Witch", as the emperor didn't think "owl lady" was serious enough. She's not just a lady, she's a dangerous wild witch with a curse that turns her into a monster that only two people can control…but Belos has never seen the faces of her two assistants. They're always wearing masks to hide…

King, however, has a very happy and comfortable life on the island of Sodor. While he was a very strange and shocking surprise that Luz brought home one night, King became a welcomed addition to the Hatt family and was treated just as Luz had been: one of their own. He's much more comfortable wearing clothes as Eda had put him in onesies when she had him and the Hatt family kept it up, he's one distinguished little guy! He's pretty close with Topham's grandkids, seeing as they're closer in age than King is to his older sisters and brother, especially considering that Charles and Barbara are both adults and don't live with their parents anymore. He and Luz do know them though! They get along pretty well. *Important Note: King's horn wasn't broken in this au, he very much still has both horns with no damage to either of them.

Amity ended up being the one to find and comfort Gus back in the isles. He clung to her from then on out, and Amity became his protector against bullies. They train together and Gus is a lot less insecure about his illusion magic having Amity at his side, he's the only one that she's soft around, and she's constantly encouraging him to get better and showing him books to improve with. They're pretty inseparable, and the only reason Amity's parents don't disapprove is because Odalia had witnessed Gus' power firsthand once. The kid's got a lot of potential, it just needs to be trained.

#ttte #thomas and friends #thomas & friends #toh #the owl house #crossover #crossover au #my crossover #my au #On The Horizon (ttte x toh)#I include Topham's kids from the railway series bc why the heck not #you may wonder hm. the timeline feels a bit odd-#don't worry about it. I'm figuring it out don't worry about it #just like in my model/cgi au and technically my monster engines au. Topham is like....mmm...probably in his mid-to-late 60s as of the 1950s #-/early 1960s?#so basically the setup of the timeline is kind of....different? I have it worked out it's just a bit muddled still.#Jenny's probably in mmm her 30s? At the very most her early 40s #but probably more like mid or even early 30s.#Mr. Conductor is probably around the same age as Jenny

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lollytea · 1 year

Note

Go on about the WOWP AU. PLEASE.

Willow and Gus are seemingly normal (though kinda quirky) kids who attend Luz's school. She either befriended them before she got enrolled in the wizard competition or shortly after.

During the early "episodes" where Luz and Hunter are still getting used to each other, Hunter has tunnel vision. He's in the human world to study magic and become the most talented powerless wizard out there, not to make nice with other humans. So, he has zero interest in mingling with Luz OR Luz's weird friends.

(This changes as time goes on obviously. Because COME ON. Justin and Zeke's alien language club is so Hunter and Gus coded.)

It's eventually revealed that neither Gus or Willow are human.

Gus is a wizard and the star student of Hexside (which gets a downgrade to be more similar to Wiztech in this au.) and is so far ahead in his studies that he's taken a "gap year." So, he's living out his dream of attending a real human school and experiencing the culture and he's having a BLAST. (Tbf Luz probably should have realized earlier that Gus wasn't human since he frequently loses his shit with excitement over EVERYTHING. She just assumed he was the world's most relentless optimist.)

Willow isn't a wizard, but a forest nymph. So she can't do all kinds of magic the way Gus can but she has a dangerous amount of power over nature. She can control it fine as long as she stays calm. So it's very important that Willow Park NOT get angry or she'll turn the whole school into a jungle and blow their cover to the human world. She's a bit of a ticking time bomb.

Since we're already fucking around with wizard shit and don't have to play by the rules, I want Amity to be Juliet. Vampire!Amity supremecy. She's got the vibes down. Very pale. Feral energy. She's actually half wizard on Alador's side so she attends Hexside.

When the Noceda siblings attended Hexside for a short time, Luz and Amity met and they immediately got off on the wrong foot, and Luz eventually got banned.

They reunite like a season later when Amity's parents relocate their business to the human world for some nefarious reason and she and Luz continue their rivals to friends to lovers arc. It's not revealed she's half vampire until later on but once the truth comes out, many twilight jokes are made.

Vee's role in this story as the only Noceda sibling who wants nothing to do with all this magic shit, and is constantly embarrassed by her family's antics. She wants to go to school and hang out with her friends and have the normal human teen experience. Unfortunately the universe just won't allow this. Vee loves her family too much and Luz, Hunter and King are constantly flinging themselves ass first into mortal peril and Vee frequently has to tag along to keep their asses alive. Hunter likes to believe he is the most mature and rational of the siblings and Vee just lets him believe because it makes him feel big and she loves him.

King is simply eight years old and has been unleashed on a brand new world and now he gets to cause all the chaos he wants. This ranges anywhere from pranks to scams to attempts at world domination. The suspension of disbelief also applies here. He just throws on a hoodie and everybody who sees him is like "yeah that's a regular human child. Carry on." It's very funny.

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carpisuns · 2 years

Text

Or, five times Hunter didn’t tell his friends he’s a Grimwalker, and one time he didn’t have a choice.

A/N: this is my first toh fic pls be nice to me fjdjdk

1/6

1. Luz

The house was quiet today. Camila was still at work, and the others had gone to get ice cream. The only sound was the click-click-click of the sewing needle at Hunter’s fingertips. He passed the fabric under it carefully, just like Camila had taught him, while Flapjack nestled against his neck.

The stairs creaked, and Luz peeked her head over the railing. “Hunter? You’re still here? I thought you’d be with everyone else.” She narrowed her eyes. “You’re not lactose intolerant too, are you?”

“Um, no. I would’ve gone! I just got”—he blinked down at the wolf t-shirt on the desk—“caught up, I guess.”

“I get it. That happens to me all the time.” Luz pattered down the steps. “Sooooo … can I see?”

“Not yet. When I’m done.”

“Aw. Fine.” She plopped onto the couch. “Man, who would’ve thought that the Golden Guard would become a sewing master?”

Hunter chuckled as he pressed the pedal again. “Well, I wouldn’t say I’m a master.”

“Pffft. Come on. This? Masterpiece.” Luz held up his latest project—a sweater he pieced together from a box of old clothes Camila had given him.

He sat up a little straighter. “I did work really hard on that one.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

Luz examined it more closely, running her fingers over the embroidery patches that covered the front. He’d picked one for each one of his friends. A dinosaur for Gus. A rainbow for Luz. Pizza for Amity—her favorite human food. Mountains for Vee, because she said she hoped to see them someday. And a smiley face for Willow, because she was always smiling, and she made him smile too. (He also added a wolf, but that was just because wolves were really cool.)

“Wait … you know this is the Japanese flag, right?” Luz asked.

“Huh?”

“Nevermind.”

Luz settled back against the cushions, and for a while, neither of them spoke. But Hunter didn’t mind. He was used to quiet. Back when he was in the Emperor’s Coven, he was alone all the time, poring over thick, dusty books in his room for hours. It was nice to be quiet with someone else for a change. He never would’ve guessed it in the beginning, with how much she used to annoy him, but Luz was really good at quiet sometimes. More than once, when he had a nightmare and couldn’t get back to sleep, he’d crept outside to get some air, and she was already sitting on the porch. On those nights, they sat side by side, saying nothing, just gazing at the stars until their eyelids got heavy enough to sleep again.

“Hey,” Luz said, “did I ever tell you that I like the haircut? Willow did it, right?”

His hand slipped on the fabric, making his stitches go crooked. He tried very hard not to remember Willow’s fingers in his hair, but goosebumps still sprung up on his neck, and he felt his cheeks go warm.

Flapjack stirred on his shoulder, and Hunter knew he was giving him That Look again. He cleared his throat and kept sewing.

“Yeah,” he said, keeping his voice light. “She helped me out.”

“It looks nice,” Luz said. “But I can’t believe how shaggy it’s gotten in the back already.”

Hunter shrugged. “My hair’s always grown fast.”

“Huh. I wonder if that’s a Grimwalker thing.”

His fingers slipped again, and this time, they ended up under the needle. Hunter sucked in a breath through his teeth.

“Stop that!” he hissed.

Luz frowned. “You okay? That didn’t sound good.”

“I’m fine.” He yanked his hands back, cradling his throbbing fingers. “But why do you keep just— saying that?”

“That you’re a Grimwalker?”

“Shut up! You don’t …” He sighed. “We don’t know that.”

Luz’s eyebrows lifted. “Why would Belos lie about that?”

“Belos lies all the time!” Hunter said, voice rising. “He lied to me my whole life!”

Luz was watching him carefully now, like she was studying his expression. Trying to figure out what he was thinking. It reminded him of the way he used to watch Belos whenever he and the scouts came back with bad news. Even when Belos had his mask on, Hunter learned how to read the curve of his shoulders, the twitch of his fingers, the pauses between his words.

Or at least, he thought he did. Because even after years of watching, the one thing Hunter had never learned to recognize … was when Belos was lying.

His stomach lurched, and he bowed his head. “I guess I was just hoping this was one last lie,” he said quietly. “But I know it’s not.”

Luz shifted to face him. “Hunter, you know it’s okay, right? That you’re … different? I mean, I’m a human! I’m different too.”

“Well, now we’re in the human realm, and I’m the freak in a group of outsiders.” He slumped over the desk, burying his face in his hands.

“You’re not a freak.”

“Yes, I am. After I found out, I read every book I could find about it. I know exactly how much of a freak I am.”

“Come on. You can’t talk about yourself like that.”

His head snapped up. “I was grown in the ground! Did you know that? I’m made of palistrom wood. And selkidomus scales. My heart is a galdorstone. I have stonesleeper lungs. I was made from the bones of a dead guy to be a clone to do Belos’s will. And I did it. For years and years I clung to every one of his lies. I let him trick me and use me. I served him. I practically worshiped him. Exactly like he created me to do.” He paused, breathing hard. Then his eyes sank to the floor, voice sinking with them. “You’re wrong, Luz. I’m the worst freak of them all.”

Luz didn’t answer. He heard a rustling sound, and then a shadow fell over his desk. He looked up to see her standing beside him.

“Is that really how you think of yourself?” she asked softly.

His shoulder twitched in a sort of half-shrug. “It’s true.”

“No, it isn’t.” She perched on the edge of the desk. “Look, yeah, maybe you popped out of the ground. Whatever. The rest of us popped out of somewhere way grosser than that.”

“Ew, Luz—”

“And does it matter? Does it matter where you came from, as long as you choose where to go?”

She looked at him earnestly, hopefully. He hadn’t seen her look like that in a long time. Like a kid who still believed in fairytales. He’d thought that was naive, at first. He thought she was stupid for trusting him when they first met, when he’d been planning to betray her all along. But she was right, in the end. It was her trust that made him choose to help her. Somehow, from the very beginning, she’d believed he’d end up on her side. And now, here they were—more than just allies. More than friends, even. He’d never said it, but he was pretty sure that Luz was the closest thing he’d ever had to family.

His gaze slipped sideways. “But I’m not—I’m not like the rest of you. I’m, like … fake.”

To his surprise, Luz laughed. “Fake? Fake? There is nothing more real than your newfound passion for sewing, potato boy.”

In spite of himself, he laughed too. “Potato boy?”

“Yeah. ’Cause potatoes grow in the ground.”

“Right.”

Luz grinned. “Listen. Maybe your heart is a galdorstone, but it’s full of all the good stuff. The best stuff. The stuff that makes you Hunter—who is nothing like Belos. And nothing like Caleb Wittebane, either.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She point to the wolf pattern still pinned under the sewing machine. “There’s no way Caleb Wittebane was as cringe as you.”

Hunter frowned. “What’s cringe?”

“It’s what you are.”

“And that’s … good?”

“It is indeed, my friend. Embrace it.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Embrace the Hunter.”

Flapjack twittered, butting his head gently against Hunter’s cheek.

He smiled. “Okay.”

“Good. I’ll let you finish your project, okay? I’m gonna go embrace the Luz.” She yawned. “The Luz that could really go for a nap right now.”

She pushed off the desk and made her way back to the stairs. He stood, eyes trailing after her.

“Um, Luz?”

She paused on the bottom step. “Yeah?”

“Do you think—do you think the others would think the same thing? Like, that I’m … I don’t know—”

“The same Hunter they already know and love?” She smiled. “Of course.”

Hunter lifted Flapjack from his shoulder, cradling him in his hands. Flapjack looked back up at him, brown eyes warm and bright.

“Well, then, maybe I should tell them,” Hunter said.

“You definitely could.”

He bit his lip. “But I’m not sure I’m ready yet.”

“That’s okay,” Luz said. “You can take as much time as you need.”

He looked up at her. “And you still won’t tell anyone, right?”

“I won’t tell. Trust me—I get it.” Her expression darkened. “I have a secret too, remember?”

“That won’t make them hate you either,” Hunter said. “You know that, right?”

Her lips lifted, but the smile didn’t seem to reach her eyes. “Right. Well, good luck with your sewing thing.” She climbed back up the stairs and shut the door behind her.

Hunter sank back onto the stool, placing Flapjack gently on the desk.

“What do you think, Flap? Should I tell them?”

Flapjack chirped, tilting his head.

“Yeah, you’re right. There’s no rush. I can tell them when I’m ready.”

He eyes caught on the sweater Luz had left on the couch. The patches were bright against the dark fabric. He counted off each of them. Luz. Amity. Vee. Willow. Gus. Something tightened in his gut, warm and waiting.

“When I’m ready,” he whispered.

#the owl house #toh #toh s3 #the owl house season 3 #Hunter #luz noceda #toh fanfic #mine #my fics #toh fics

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theprinceandthewitch · 1 year

Text

Yeah so, let me preface this MOUNTAIN of text by saying this isn't a in-depth prediction covering every single character and what they might be doing in the final two episodes. To be frank, I only care about the drama between Luz, Hunter, Amity, and Belos. So, this isn't super detailed, but I do write out my reasons for why I think certain things are going to happen:

1. Hunter is pulled aside by Gus and Willow. They tell Hunter being a Grimwalker changes nothing about their friendship. Gus mentions he knew about him being a Grimwalker since their fight with Belos in Kings Tide. He was also trying to get Hunter to open up about it to him through Cosmic Frontier. Gus asks Hunter how he feels about Luz helping Belos meet the Collector and he tells both of them he isn't mad at her and in fact knew for awhile. He specifies he heard Luz's secret accidentally, because he wants to be transparent with them from now on. He now trusts them wholeheartedly.

I honestly don't think either Gus or Willow is going to ask him why he took the rebus and ran away with Luz knowing they wouldn't be able to follow them. Firstly, this is question is more meaningful coming from Amity and secondly, Gus and Willow know Luz and Hunter well enough to know neither of them did this with malicious intent. Hunter didn't take the rebus to stick it to Amity and Luz didn't do it to be a bad girlfriend to Amity.

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2. Amity asks him why he took the rebus from her knowing she wanted to surprise Luz with it. Amity will not believe him when he tells the truth because she knows how emotionally manipulative he can be when he’s pushed into a corner [example: Eclipse Lake]. And his actions in TTT don't match up with what he's telling her. It also doesn't make sense to her why Hunter AND Luz kept quiet about Belos being alive. It doesn't make sense at all for them to be so stupid as to run off to some known location knowing there's a chance they'll have to fight Belos. Hunter has Flapjack and is a "teen prodigy", but Luz is still defenseless. Nobody had any idea Luz would actually be able to use magic within a certain proximity to the Titan Blood.

So to Amity, it looks like Hunter is lying - he just wanted to take all the credit for finding the titan blood. But was unfortunate enough to run into Belos and nearly die from possession. By taking the rebus it looks like he wanted to impress Luz and steal all the credit for discovering what the rebus was.

It was Amity's idea to go around town and find someone who can help them with the rebus. She spent hours running around town with Willow, Gus, and Vee while he was doing jack all somewhere else. It was Amity, Gus, and Willow who made a guess about the rebus leading to Titan Blood. This is where Amity's competitive side starts to resurface. I honestly think it'll come back because this issue she has was never properly addressed and resolved. You can even see her competitive side resurface a little bit in the beginning of Thanks To Them during their Spanish session, where Vee is congratulated for being the top student.

I can see her straight up asking him if he has feelings for Luz, because of how suspicious his actions were in Thanks to Them. Like how he tells her he'll catch the next bus into town but never actually shows up. The next time she sees him he's walking through the door with Luz, lying about where they've been and what they've been doing. So it looks like he may have gone to the clinic to hang out with Luz and then after Luz was done at the clinic, they went somewhere else to hang out.

I want to point out that when Luz is around, Amity spends all of her time hovering around her - and vice versa. Even when they hang out with their friends they're still together. So, Hunter never showing up to join their little fieldtrip around town looks like he's being opportunistic. By that I mean he's taking advantage of the only time Amity isn't clinging to Luz do go spend some one on one time with Luz.

Then [again, this is from AMITY'S perspective] he takes the rebus from her while she's distracted by the storytellers tale on the carriage ride. And when he notices Amity hangs back with Willow and Gus to take in the story they just heard, he takes Luz and runs off to an unknown location with her. Hunter knows they won't be able to follow them, because they have never been to the location on the rebus before. They were all going to go together after Amity gave the rebus to Luz.

If Luz didn't have her phone they would have never been able to find them. But yeah, it looks like he wants to impress Luz by taking all the credit for figuring out what the rebus lead to. Even though he never joined in on Amity's, Gus', Willow's, and Vee's little field trip around town.

This is why it's not completely unrealistic for Amity to assume Hunter could have a crush on Luz. So, she can start getting competitive with him. I honestly don't think Flapjack dying would make Amity any less competitive because first of all, her hyper competitive side has never been properly addressed as a problem. The only reason why she stopped being competitive with Willow is because she switched over to the plant course. Therefore Willow was no longer perceived as a threat to Amity's top student status. Amity has never had any repercussions for being hyper competitive, so of course she's still going to have this problem.

And another thing... the way Hunter treated Amity in Eclipse Lake hasn't been brought up AT ALL. And the show doesn't even bother to give us any evidence that Hunter and Amity are on good terms during TTT. There's no photo in the photobook and there's no ending credit art to indicate Hunter and Amity are friends with each other.

Literally the only "friendly" examples we have are Amity and Hunter standing right next to each other as they're giving Luz the "food" they made for her and having both of them sit next to each other at the movie theater. But even at the movie theater - Amity is STILL sitting next to Luz.

Amity is attached to Luz at the hip - the only times she isn't is when she goes around town asking people for help with the rebus or when Luz is at school. And when Hunter and Amity made food together it was still something they were doing FOR Luz and they were cooking with Gus, Willow, and Vee. They don't have ANY one on one time together, so how can I possibly assume they're friends?

They've lived together FOR A FEW MONTHS and yet, we are never shown anything that makes us think they're FRIENDS. The only time Amity and Hunter talk directly to each other in TTT is when Amity is being dismissive of his outfit choice, which is really weird because it doesn't matter if Hunter wants to dress as his favorite character. All they're doing is going around town and asking strangers to help them figure out what the rebus is. And yet, Amity feels the need to be dismissive of his outfit choice... that doesn't scream "friendship" to me. Nobody else cares about Hunter going as his favorite character besides Amity.

Showing Hunter and Amity having one on one time would have been so easy to do btw, because AGAIN Luz is at school for a good chunk of the day. But they never bother to give us anything - not a single photo or drawing of them hanging out lmao. She won't spend time with Hunter without Luz being present despite him being the kid she can relate the most to just because of their past confrontation in Eclipse Lake. Even though Amity has a rocky relationship with Gus and Willow, she will spend time with them and LIKES to spend time with them. Like how they were learning Spanish at the beginning of TTT and how she lead their little field trip around town. She clearly wants to spend time with Gus and Willow and not Hunter... like she doesn't even bother to ask WHERE he is during the whole field trip.

So... yeah...

How can I not think she'll be mean to him in the next episode, when the only interaction Hunter and Amity have in TTT is laced with negativity and we are never given any evidence that they hang out together when Luz isn't around? And she now has reason to suspect Hunter might have a thing for her girlfriend.

Amity's hyper competitiveness is going to resurface - it literally doesn't matter that Flapjack just died - because again, this issue she has has never been addressed as a problem within the show and it's still a part of her personality [as you can see in the beginning of TTT] ... so she is not going to magically stop being hypercompetitive.

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3. Luz doesn't tell Amity Hunter knew about her helping Belos meet the Collector before she did because she doesn't want Amity to feel a certain type of way. Amity talks to her about Hunter acting weird in "Thanks to Them" and makes sure Luz knows that it was her, Willow, Gus and Vee who did all the work figuring out what the rebus was - this is when Luz has one of her internal freak-outs, because she realizes she needs to tell Amity about Hunter knowing her secret way before she did. And she also needs to tell her that it was HER who ruined Amity's surprise and not Hunter. Luz prompted him to take the rebus.

Luz will once again "tell her when she's ready" like she did in Thanks to Them. And by that I mean she will never tell Amity unless she is placed into a situation, usually one of her own creation, where it gets so out of control she is forced to tell Amity OR someone else tells her secret to Amity.

The person who is going to tell Amity is most likely Willow, because Amity has gone to Willow asking for advice on how to deal with Luz's cageyness. See, here's the thing with the whole "Hunter knew about Luz helping Belos before anyone else" secret: it's not a secret Luz can keep Hunter from telling, because it is HIS secret to tell. It wouldn't be fair of her to ask him to keep it on the down-low just because she's nervous her girlfriend might feel a certain type of way about it.

Going back to what I said in point #1: Hunter wants to be completely transparent with Willow and Gus because he trusts them wholeheartedly.

But more importantly: Hunter now knows how dangerous it is to keep secrets from his friends even if he thinks he's protecting them. Him being adamant with keeping quiet about Belos being alive nearly costed him his life AND it got Flapjack killed. If he had just told them Belos could still be alive they would have examined him and found out he was possessed. Or they would have found signs of possession if Belos left Hunter's body before they examined him. Because when Belos possesses something he literally eats away at the host, so he would have left some scarring on Hunter's body.

If Belos decided to throw hands with them it would have been an easier battle since they would have more area to fight on than they had in King's Tide. Also, because of his condition, Belos tends to not be lucid 100% of the time. In King's Tide he almost destroyed the portal door, despite needing it to return home. He calls Hunter "Caleb" in King's Tide after seeing Flapjack. And he calls Luz "Evelyn" and Hunter "Caleb" in Thanks to Them. This is why he needs to consume palismen souls, he needs them to regain mental clarity and retain his human form. But yeah, the point is is that this hypothetical fight with Belos would have been easier to deal with because they have "home advantage", more area to fight on, and Belos' mental state isn't completely lucid [even more so since he's gone a few months without consuming palismen].

I'm not counting Hunter not telling the other's Belos could still be alive as a "Belos was possessing Hunter to make him act a certain way" moment. Because there is no visual or audio indicators that Belos was possessing him when he was telling Luz "No! We have to take care of this ourselves!" like there was when "Hunter" yelled at Flapjack to get the rebus. Not telling the other's about Belos possibly being alive is 100% on Hunter.

Here's the thing: Unlike Luz, Hunter has received severe consequences for keeping secrets. So he is not going to do it again, even if Luz asks him to do it. He now trusts Gus and Willow wholeheartedly and wants to be honest with them. Luz has yet to receive any severe consequences for lying and keeping secrets, so she is going to keep doing it. This could cause conflict between them, but it's not going to be that severe. And I don't see Luz being legitimately angry with him for wanting to be honest with his friends. Because whatever repercussions Luz receives from not telling Amity about Hunter knowing her secret before anyone else did is entirely on her and not Hunter.

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4a. Amity, of course, picks up on Luz being cagey about something. Because she has always known when Luz is being cagey about something lol.

But despite her growing frustration, Amity will not force Luz to tell her what she's keeping secret, because it's not in character for Amity to do that to Luz. She has never done it before and she will not do it now. It's actually more in character for Amity to run away from Luz whenever she becomes too frustrated with Luz lying and keeping secrets from her [Reaching Out].

She talks to Willow about how Luz and Hunter are acting weird. She talks to Willow specifically because she has sought advice from Willow on how to deal with Luz's cageyness in the past [Follies at The Coven Day Parade].

Willow casually drops the truth about Hunter knowing Luz's secret before anyone else did thinking Luz already told her about it.

I want to point out the possibility Amity might not even believe what Willow told her about Hunter knowing Luz's secret before everyone else. Again, Amity is the only one who knows how emotionally manipulative Hunter can be when he's pushed into a corner. So this can be perceived as another attempt at making Amity question her relationship with Luz. Because by the time we reach this point I believe Amity will have already put two and two together about Hunter being a clone of Belos' witch-hunting brother.

Because Belos' lines "You did do something good. I thought this one was another lost cause. Because of you we can continue our work as witch-hunters. Starting with them!" This line alone makes it really obvious how exactly Hunter relates to Belos.

So, from Amity's perspective it doesn't make sense why Luz would trust the clone of Belos' witch-hunting brother over her literal girlfriend. Also, if Hunter really found out by accident, how come Luz is afraid to tell her? And why would Luz run off with only Hunter knowing there was a possibility that Belos could still be alive?

Amity is going to become increasingly frustrated trying to get the truth from Luz and Hunter - two people who have a history of lying directly to her face.

4b. Hunter attempts to confess to Willow.

He just had a near death experience and there's a chance he'll have another one. Because not only is Belos still alive, there are going to be aloooooot of angry members of The Emperors Coven who want his head for attempted genocide. So, basically he wants to tell her A.S.A.P because he doesn't want to die with any regrets. However, Willow will tell him she doesn't feel the same about him. Hunter will feel a bit dejected but he gets over it relatively quickly. This changes nothing about their friendship.

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5. Lilith and Hooty are found at this point.

Okay so, I'm just going to copy and paste what I wrote on the discord server. Where I talk about Hooty telling Luz and Hunter about Caleb and Evelyn:

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Not sure why it took me until just now to realize this. But there's a chance Hooty is going to give Luz and Hunter unbiased information about Caleb and Evelyn. Because house demons like Hooty have insanely long lifespans just like palismen have. They're also living objects like palismen. Amity's comment in KKKOHD states that house demons can get "strange" after a few thousand years. Hooty's age is never stated, so there's a possibility he could have been with the Clawthorns for generations - even predating Caleb and Evelyn.

But yeah, he's pretty much the only one who can give Hunter and Luz unbiased information about them. I think the writers are going to go this route because the MAJORITY of the audience - the people who aren't going to look through the details like we're doing - don't actually know if Caleb and Evelyn were lovers or not. The tale at the faire and the storytellers comment left it ambiguous from their perspective. We know they were lovers but the majority don't, so I think they're going to clarify it for them. Either Hooty tells Luz and Hunter or they somehow go into his mindscape. I honestly believe it's the first option because it's much less time consuming.

Hooty will be reminded of Caleb from looking at Hunter. Since he can actually get a good look at him this time around [unlike in Hollow Mind]. He takes a look at //the only Grimwalker who looks the most like Caleb// and remembers all the years he had with Caleb and Evelyn. God... maybe we'll even get a proper flashback of them. I mean, they gave us a glimpse of Caleb as a teenager [edit: In TTT during the montage where Hunter is alone in the bathroom]... so maybe they'll take it a step further and give us a proper flashback with him and Evelyn.

So I'm just thinking - Hunter knows about the Witchunters of Gravesfield. We can see him with the book in the part of the montage where he's in the bathroom by himself and in that one picture in the credits section where he's sleeping. And he knows what Caleb looks like because of the statue - he has a picture of them in the art where he's sleeping [credit section].

It is unclear whether or not Hunter asked Flapjack about him and It is unclear whether or not Flapjack even wanted to talk about Caleb with Hunter... the little guy didn't even tell Hunter he was a looking for a rebus that lead to Titan Blood - he didn't even tell him the rebus was even a rebus to begin with.

This is why I think they're going to have Hooty give the audience information about Caleb and Evelyn. It'll be more impactful that way because Flapjack can't communicate with words and only Hunter can understand him. TTT also wouldn't have been the right time to give Hunter this information. Hooty telling Hunter and Luz about Caleb and Evelyn could be the thing that let's Amity put two and two together about Hunter being a Grimwalker of Belos' brother. It's a bit contrived because Hunter could have just asked Flapjack about him - but it had to be done to make THE STORY more interesting and impactful.

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I'm going to make a correction to the above text: Hooty DID get a good look at Hunter in Hollow Mind, but didn't recall any memories of Caleb. This doesn't actually negate the possibility that Hooty could have known both of them, because it has been centuries since he's last seen Caleb.

I also need to point out: unlike in Hollow Mind, Hunter now looks MUCH more like Caleb. I also need to remind people Hunter is the only Grimwalker who looks the most like Caleb - and now he shares even more physical traits with Caleb. Hunter has the same hairstyle Caleb had in Hollow Mind [albeit Hunter's is more unkempt] and now he has brown eyes just like Caleb. AGAIN Hunter's eyes DID NOT NEED to have a color change and his hair did not need to remain long UNLESS IT WAS IMPORTANT to the story. There are no coincidences in storytelling, because all writing choices are made by living breathing people who put some kind of intention behind these choices.

Hunter's new appearance will undoubtingly cause Hooty to recall some distant memories about Caleb. I honestly do not see the writers NOT bringing up Caleb and Evelyn because they left the exact nature of their relationship ambiguous to the majority of the audience. And now that Hunter and Luz are tied to Caleb and Evelyn, by Philip literally calling them Caleb and Evelyn in Thanks to Them, they HAVE to make it clear to the audience what Caleb's and Evelyn's relationship was actually like.

I mean, the people who look at the background details already know Caleb and Evelyn were lovers. We've known since Hollow Mind, but the majority of the people - the people who are not going to go through each episode with a finely toothed comb - aren't going to know that.

They will definitely clarify it before the start of the third episode.

I also want to make a correction since i wrote the Discord text BEFORE writing this post: I believe Amity will have already put two and two together about Hunter being a clone of Belos' witch-hunting brother before she even hears the story about Caleb and Evelyn... If she even hears Hooty's story about them to begin with.

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6. Okay, I'm going back to point number 4a: Now that Hunter’s integrity is involved in Luz’s and Amity’s relationship drama Luz HAS to tell Amity the truth.

This is interesting to me because the only other person that's ever been involved in their communication issue is Hunter. All the other times it was only Luz’s integrity on the line. So, this ties back to Eclipse Lake where their communication issue is first presented and Hunter is involved in it.

But it's different this time around because Hunter isn't emotionally manipulating Amity to create an advantageous situation for himself. However, unlike in Eclipse Lake, Amity will interpret his answers as him trying to emotionally manipulate her and she won't be as nice to him this time around. Again, she has no reason to believe what he's saying is true, because if it was true then Luz shouldn't be afraid to tell her about Hunter accidentally finding out her secret.

Here's the thing: Amity's going to feel a certain type of way whether or not Luz tells her the truth. Because of how nervous Luz is acting with this information, Amity's going to assume Luz told him directly. That's why she doesn't want Amity to know. This is what Amity's going to assume because she's always been insecure with her relationship with Luz. This is why she tries really hard to prove over, and over again that she is "an awesome girlfriend". Amity will start to compare herself to Hunter to find out what she's missing - and it'll amp up her hyper competitiveness.

Also, from Amity's perspective it doesn't make sense for Luz to run off with only Hunter to an unknown location where they could run into a murderous dictator who wants all of them dead.

Hunter can defend himself with Flapjack, but Luz is completely powerless. Luz didn't know glyph magic can be used within a certain proximity to Titan Blood. So, Amity will not believe Luz would do something so dangerous and stupid just because Hunter didn't want anyone to know Belos could still be alive. It'll make no sense to her. So, not only will Luz confirm for Amity Hunter DID know before anyone else - she also prompted him to take the rebus from Amity, knowing that she wanted to surprise her with it.

Unlikely but i might as well put this here: She also tells Amity he did not show up to the clinic while she was going around town asking about the rebus.

Amity's issues around hyper-competitiveness not being addressed until now makes sense to me. Because it's needed to create conflict between Amity and Hunter - which forces Luz to tell Amity the truth about Hunter knowing her secret before she did. Because as we can see with Thanks to Them and like, literally every single episode that focuses on their relationship, Luz will not tell Amity unless she's forced to or someone else tells her her secrets.

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7. Amity breaks-up with Luz and tries distancing herself from her. She decides to head off on her own to go look for her father and siblings. Let me remind you all: the last time she saw Alador alive was when he gave her the master controller for the Abomitrons. He stays behind to disable the Abomitrons approaching the airship wreckage. The last time she sees her siblings they're being carried off by Abomitrons. And they don't show up before everyone boards the airship. So they're most likely going to be with Odalia the next time Amity sees them.

Willow and Gus go with her because they don't want to leave Amity by herself.

Okay so, I just want to point out some red flags I see in Thanks to Them which indicate to me a break up is coming:

Amity was the most excited to show everyone at home the photobook Willow made of their time in the human realm. Alot of the pictures we see are of Luz and Amity.

Amity says Luz's line from KKKOHD - the episode where they started dating. That is an odd line to bring back and put RIGHT BEFORE she tells Luz "but no more hiding okay?". Because the thing is, Luz is not going to tell Amity about Hunter knowing her secret before she did. And it's going to be Amity "The Awesome Girlfriend" who breaks it off with Luz. So this line is going to hit the audience extra hard once Amity - the "Awesome and Supportive Girlfriend" has had enough of Luz lying and keeping secrets from her. Amity is going to be the one to break it off because she is the only character who gets worried or upset when Luz hides stuff from her. It's literally shown to us in every single episode that focuses on their relationship.

Yeah, and another thing: Amity isn't "the clueless lesbian" this braindead fanbase thinks she is. She has never been oblivious to Luz lying and keeping secrets from her. She could tell Luz was lying in FATCDP, that's why she sought out Willow for advice to begin with. She notices Luz being cagey in Reaching Out because not only is she just good at noticing Luz's sudden changes in mood - she also has very fresh memories of her being cagey from FATCDP.

In Thanks to Them she can tell Luz is bothered by something that goes beyond being frustrated with not being able to build a proper doorway to the demon realm. She wakes up in the middle of the night after Luz leaves her room to go talk to her mother, but she does not actually stop Luz to talk to her. Because ya know, Luz has never talked to her about what's bothering her even though Amity has told her [in FATCDP] she can't help Luz unless she tells her what's wrong LMAO.

Another thing: I don't see Camila's: "It's our duty to make sure your friends get back to their families" as confirmation everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows up until everyone is reunited with their families. That there couldn't POSSIBLY be a sudden group break-off before the fights with TC or Belos. Especially if it's initiated by someone like Amity - who HAS run off on her own when she's been hurt by Luz's behavior. You can see this in "Reaching Out" where she takes one of Luz's invisibility spells and runs away from her.

It would also be boring storytelling-wise to have everything go smoothly for the protagonist. Good stories don't just have the protagonist hop, skip, and jump to the plot goal without some obstacles standing in their way.

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8a. This where the Hexside gang is forced into two separate groups until they meet up later to fight The Collector.

Hunter and Luz are accompanied by Camila, Lilith, and Hooty. While Amity, Willow, and Gus go off by themselves, but eventually meet up with their families.

Eda and Raine are found some time after the group split off. I see this happening rather than Eda being found right away, because it creates a sense of tension. Luz misses Eda and King the most, so by having their meet-up be delayed it makes the eventual reunion more emotional.

Luz, Camila, Lilith, Hooty, Eda and Raine protect Hunter from any attempts on his life by enraged members of The Emperors Coven. Along the way they meet Darius and I guess maybe Eberwolf. This is where Hunter and Darius will reunite. Okay... I'm only half serious about this one but maybe… since Luz and Hunter already had the “Possessed Boyfriend” and “Come back to me” tropes Darius might ask Hunter if Luz is his girlfriend when Luz is out of hearing range LOL

I’m only half serious about this one, but since Luz and Hunter already have so many romance tropes associated with them I'm expecting another one to come up at some point. And who better to say it than Darius. He was the former protégé of the previous Golden Guard and he’s the only adult on The Boiling Isles who’s expressed some care for his wellbeing. And like... he's going to be a father figure to Hunter... so it'll make sense for the "Is she your girlfriend?" trope to come from him.

Maybe it's a little too mean to have this trope come up right after a Luz and Amity break-up... But Dana is setting everybody up with the incredibly ambiguous "Hunter Noceda" bullshit and has let Sarah say contradicting information about Luz and Hunter.

Like... ya'll do realize that if Dana wanted everyone to know Luz and Hunter were siblings... Zeno AND Sarah wouldn't be so ambiguous right? Dana already spoiled King and TC becoming actual friends, so why wouldn't she tell them to be less ambiguous with Luz's and Hunter's relationship? But yeah, just because I think it's mean to have this trope come up right after a break-up, doesn't mean Dana thinks it is lol.

8b. Okay, so, I've been toiling with this point for awhile. I honestly don't think they are going to go the route where the sigils are removed, because it'll undercut the generational and cultural impact of Belos' rule. Like yeah, The Collector taught Belos the draining spell, so TC could probably remove the sigils. But the writers don't need to do it because glyph magic exists. Eda and Lilith know how glyph magic works, so they've probably been teaching it to people who are brave enough to stand up to a deity-like being. They've had plenty of time to figure out the combos for powerful spells. Because glyph magic users have access to all the spells a witch or demon without a sigil would have. They just have to write them out and figure out the combination for a spell they want.

8c. I've been wondering what "For The Future" could mean. Like, yeah, it's probably just part of a line someone says after rallying everyone together to fight The Collector and Belos, but I'm wondering WHO says it. I'm thinking it's going to be Hunter, because he's the prince of The Boiling Isles. And having him say it will contrast nicely with Amity's line: "Luz, I know things are scary and I don't know what the future holds. But it would be so cool if you were a part of that."

There's no way Hunter is going to have a nice and unbothered journey to defeat Belos with his friends. Hunter's face is known to all members of the Emperor's Coven and his voice is so distinct people can recognize him out of uniform. In "Clouds Over the Horizon" Hunter "begged" Gus and Willow to help him protect Luz because he was afraid of being recognized. Darius ordered Hunter to protect Luz, but Hunter wanted them to come along. Gus and Willow were planning on going into hiding, but it was Hunter who convinced them to help him protect Luz. Kikimora has recognized him by his "annoying voice" when he was out of uniform on two separate occasions.

Sooooo yeah, I can see them dedicating time to Hunter redeeming himself in the eyes of the Emperors Coven so they AT LEAST won't attack him. Despite what a lot of people think, Hunter isn't going to go back to the Human Realm, even if Darius gives him an out. Hunter is going to want to undo all the damage he and his brother caused, which could take years to accomplish. And there will be some things he could never undue, like removing the sigils. Yes, Hunter is a child and doesn't actually NEED to clean up the mess his ADULT BROTHER made.

But it's in character for him to be disgusted by Belos' actions. Just look at the way he reacts to Belos killing and maiming people in Hollow Mind. Hunter was indoctrinated to believe Belos is infallible and that all his actions were "for the greater good" [a.k.a the Titan's Plan]. He is going to want to try to repair the damage he and his family caused over the last few centuries. That's more true to Hunter's character than having him ditch the mess he unwittingly helped his brother create just to go live a carefree life in the human realm.

See, here's something people don't get about Hunter's desire to stay in the human realm - he was trying to distance himself from his identity as the GG. [A.k.a dodging accountability for his actions as the GG and for the actions of his family.] If it weren't for Flapjack dying, Hunter WOULD NOT have gone back to the demon realm. This is how paranoid he was about people seeking justice from him. This is WHY Flapjack had to die. Hunter needed this push to return to the demon realm and take accountability for his actions as the GG and for the actions of his family.

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9. Hunter, Luz, Camila, Lilith, Hooty, Eda, Raine, Darius and I guess maybe Eberwolf are going to be looking for King. Then we'll get a scene shift where we see King and TC's dynamic.

King has been "friends" with The Collector for months. He knows how to push TC in certain directions to keep him placated and not go completely out of control with his powers. King hasn't gone through his "growth spurt" yet - but it's any day now - maybe any hour. He'll probably have visual indicators that it's about to happen.

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10. Everyone besides Luz and Hunter will work hard to help King win his fight against The Collector.

The reason why Hunter and Luz won't be included in this fight is because Belos will isolate Hunter and Luz from the group. He's going to target them specifically because he now sees them as Caleb and Evelyn. Luz and Hunter aren't going to immediately fight Belos - but they'll be separated from their friends and trying to find a way back to them.

I've been thinking about how this fight between TC and King is going to start and Eda will most likely play a role in it, because The Owl Beast and TC are connected in some way. The Collector hunted down the Owl Beast to turn it into a "curse" for some unknown reason. So TC might want the Owl Beast back - and he might try to pry it out of Eda. Which could kill her since her curse is tied to her biology.

The Collector and King fight is going to be instigated by Belos. Since he wants to destroy everything the perfect way to do it would be to piss off the literal god-child and have him go on a destructive tantrum. I don't think he'll try possessing King because he doesn't know King is a Titan. Even if he did want to possess King and succeed in doing so, TC will literally just expel him from King's body. I don't think he'll try possessing The Collector either. TC is too risky of a target for possession, since this being can move planets with a single flick of his finger he can most likely expel him from his body. And there's a chance The Collector could sense Belos within a certain proximity, so he might not even get close enough to possess him.

The safest option for Belos is to cause a rift between King and The Collector, so that The Collector will throw a planet destroying tantrum. He's going to do it by forcing Eda and The Collector to meet.

I really don't know how this fight is going to end, but I do think Amity would play a big role in reigning in The Collector since she has been shown to be great with children. The Collector is clearly much younger than the main cast, he's around the same age - mentally and physically - as the kids Amity reads stories to in the library. I also think the writing team would give Amity this level of importance to offset her break-up with Luz.

Amity doesn't exist specifically to be "Luz's Awesome Girlfriend" - so I think they'll give her this moment as a way to keep her relevant to the story - to prevent her from getting pushed to the background since she is no longer attached to the protagonist at the hip.

So, while King will have all this godlike power at his disposal he will be at a disadvantage because he doesn't know how to use his powers properly. He also doesn't know what he's capable of. I honestly don't think he'll become the size of TBI's. In "Edge of the World", you can see the Titan skeleton in the building and the titans on the wall carvings aren't nearly as big as King's Father. Even the skulls in the shrine of the Huntsman are of various sizes - from the giant skull of the doorframe to the smallers ones littered around the shrine. So it looks like size is determined by the age of the Titan. The biggest I can see King becoming is about half the size of the skeleton in the main hall.

Another thing: King knows how to make himself invisible to The Collector. So he can teach other's how to make themselves invisible to The Collector as well. King was invisible to TC because of the symbol he carved into his collar. The symbol came from King's tower, which was carved into the tower by Kings father so that TC [and the species TC is a part of] couldn't find King. This symbol is going to be important in deciding the outcome of their fight.

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11. Vee sends Luz’s palisman to The Boiling Isles. This way Luz can have some extra firepower for her final fight with Belos. I'm thinking her palisman might be sent to her in between the time Luz and Hunter are isolated from everyone else and before they actually fight Belos.

The Collector fight and the Belos fight are going to happen at the same time, but The Collector fight will start before the Belos fight does and it will end before the fight with Belos does. But not soon enough where the others have enough time to get to Luz and Hunter before Belos mortally wounds Luz. I think the battle between King and The Collector might end around the time Luz get's stabbed by Belos. Luz is 100% going to get stabbed by Belos, because not only has he nearly stabbed her in their past confrontations there's foreshadowing of it in Thanks to Them.

This is where Hunter and Luz, the two witches without any inherent magical abilities, will be forced to fight Belos. I just want to point out that Luz using palisman/staff magic and Hunter using glyphs during this fight is a nice inversion. Because they’re using each other’s signature magic style.

I think they'll go this route rather than have the Belos fight be a group battle. Not only does it add more tension to the fight by having two characters with no inherent magical abilities fight against a villain with supernatural capabilities - it also makes sense from a narrative standpoint to have Hunter and Luz be the only ones to take out Belos.

Because Hunter and Luz represent Caleb and Evelyn - it's unambiguous as of Thanks to Them. If the Caleb and Evelyn parallels weren't important, they would have never been brought up in the show... but they have been brought up and they are tied to Luz and Hunter specifically. This entire story was started by the actions of two lovers with ties to the main villain, so it only makes sense for the story to be concluded by two characters who represent those lovers AND have meaningful history with the main villain.

But yeah, Luz is going to be mortally wounded by Belos and Hunter will use her palisman to defend her. I don’t think Hunter is going to deal the final blow - it’s going to be Luz. Hunter is going to give her an opportunity to use glyph magic to send him to his death/a fate worse than death before she loses consciousness from her injury..

As for how Hunter will bring back Luz - I honestly think the Galdorstone in his chest will play a major role in it. Hunter knows what Grimwalkers are made of. You can see him reading books about Grimwalkers in Labyrinth Runners, so I think he will use the stone in his chest + Luz's palisman to give him the power he needs to bring her back.

Grimwalkers are interesting as their "heart and power" is where the heart is supposed to be. Grimwalkers made from the bones of witches or demons most likely come with a bile sac. So to have a Galdorstone attach directly to the bile sac essentially makes the Grimwalker a force to be reckoned with. That's probably why knowledge of them faded into myth, so people wouldn't try to create superpowered witches or demons. Hunter wouldn't have that kind of magical advantage unfortunately because he's a clone of a human. He doesn't have any magic in him because in King's Tide you don't see any magic flowing out of him like you can see with all the witches and demons. The sigil was affecting him the same way it was affecting Belos.

But yeah, I can see this causing some irreversible damage to him, because the Galdorstone is his "heart and power" source. What power means is vague, but it's probably referring to Hunter's "lifeforce". The Galdorstone is most likely tied to his biology, so if he overuses it it could damage to his health. He could develop some kind of "heart" condition if he taps into it's power for too long.

[There's also the chance he wouldn't be able to heal Luz completely. She might have some lingering health issues from her wounds.]

But yeah, going back to Belos: A proper fate for him would be a similar punishment TC went through: eternal imprisonment.

You know that "mirror" TC was in? According to World's Edge, only a Titan can free him from his prison. The titan trappers were wrong with their assumption that King needed to die in order for "The Great Huntsman" to be summoned. So there's a chance Belos is going to be put in that mirror and tossed into some other dimension - where he'll never be able to meet another person ever again. That particular dimension TC was in seems to be something only Titans/people with Titan Blood have access to. But the "bubble" The Collector was in seems to be connected to the mirror. This "bubble" doesn't look like something that can just be undone so easily, because if it could be The Collector wouldn't need a titan to let him out.

But the mirror might be too risky of a punishment because a Titan can stumble across him while traveling in the "in between" dimension and release him from the prison. I honestly don't think every single Titan in existence is dead. These creatures have the ability to travel across the universe by accessing the "in-between" dimension using their blood. So while Titans might be extinct on the planet The Boiling Isles resides on, it doesn't necessarily mean there aren't more scattered across the universe.

That being said, I still think they'll use Eternal Imprisonment as a fate worse than death for him. It would be a fitting ending for him. He'll never be able to return home as the hero he always believed himself to be. The "evil" he hoped to destroy survived and will continue to persevere. He will be subjected to eternal loneliness, never to see home or his brother ever again. It's a fate he deserves and it's one I can see them giving him.

[I have been side-eyeing the way Belos put a sigil on Hunter ever since Hunting Palismen. I don't know if he did this as a weird ass "test of loyalty" kind of thing or if he did it to diminish the Gladorstones power. Hunter doesn't have magic inside him like witches and demons have. You can see this in King's Tide. When the Draining Spell is going off you can see there's no magic leaving his body like there is with the witches and demons. So, the sigil might have been placed on him to diminish the Galdorstone's power just on the off chance Hunter discovered all the glyphs. Because all the glyphs can be found in nature, with the light glyph being the hardest one to find. Belos knows all the glyphs, but he never teaches them to the GG's and he makes sure they all use artificial magic. Galdorstones enhance all magic types besides illusion magic and there's a chance these stones don't interact with artificial magic. That's why he gives the GG's artificial magic, despite every single one of them harboring a Galdorstone inside them. So if Hunter's sigil is removed, would his glyph magic be more powerful? I honestly don't think Hunter's status as a "teen prodigy" has anything to do with him having a Galdorstone inside him. I just think he's naturally good with magic - doesn't matter if it's artificial or "real" magic. Just like how intuitive Luz is with glyph magic despite not having inherent magical capabilities. It took years for Belos to figure out you can combine glyphs while it took Luz what... maybe a week or two to figure that out. I just think Hunter excelling in something that doesn't come naturally to him is more interesting than "he's a prodigy just because he has a special stone inside of him." ]

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12. For an ending, I really don't think they are going to go for a merging of worlds. Because it would cause severe ecological damage to TBI AND to whatever area on planet Earth they land on.

Humans would also not be cool with a landmass/dead body the size of Vermont being plopped randomly into the ocean or on another piece of unoccupied land. Also... once humans find out a race of demi-gods pulled up on their turf they are going to want them dead. Or they're going to find a way to control them in the same way Belos did.

If Luz can find all the glyphs, I'm sure other people can as well. If Mr. Puritan man can create artificial magic, which can hold it's own against "actual magic" then so can a bunch of scientists dedicated to studying TBI. They'd be able to do this with alot more ease because they have access to resources Belos could never dream of having. Humans aren't going to be particularly merciful to witches and demons, they will most likely wipe them out and take the Titan's Body for themselves.

Basically, witches and demons are fucked if they have to merge with planet Earth, because they are going to run into alot of people who are exactly like Belos LMAO.

I also don't see them going for a "Luz and Camila stay in the demon realm and Vee stays in the human realm forever" ending because I don't see King getting killed or being sent to a place he can't come back from. He also needs to live so he can keep TC in check and teach him how to respect less powerful beings. And... it would just be weird to leave Vee by herself like that lol.

The ending which makes the most sense to me is the one where Luz and her friends can go back and forth between worlds. I honestly don't see the realms being severed as a way to "protect" both realms because like... how would a separation guarantee that? The technology on TBI could advance to a point where they can create alternative power sources which allow them to travel between worlds... Or it could advance to a point where they can build spaceships to travel off world...

This ending just seems so unnecessary to me... why should Luz give up her happiness just because some assholes in the future might wanna fuck shit up? Luz doesn't have any control over how other people act... there's always going to be shitty people... so why should Luz give up her happiness for temporary safety between realms?

Like yeah, Luz's life in the human realm is getting better. Like how those new kids who approached her to invite her to the faire are most likely going to be future friends. But that doesn't mean Luz has to give up the family she found on TBI. This ending doesn't make a whole lotta sense to me and just seems so fucking cruel and boring lol.

#big ass essay

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