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fandomsandflyingstingrays · 9 months

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Stepping Stones: Chapter 10

“Do you ever regret teaching Luz to sew?”

Hunter walks over to join Darius at the window, following his gaze down to where Luz is making her way to the house. Despite being a good distance down the road, she’s clearly visible thanks to her neon green shirt, bearing the words GO EMERALD ENTRAILS in lopsided, brilliantly gold letters.

A grin stretches across Hunter’s face. “Not for a moment,” he replies, and Darius sighs deeply.

Luz knocks at the door a moment later, and Hunter pulls it open for her. She throws her arms around him without preamble.

“Hunter! You’re going to be amazing today, I know it!”

“Thanks.” As she pulls back, he adds, “nice shirt.”

Luz twirls. “I thought you’d like it.”

As she spins, Stringbean rises up from her shoulders, slithering through the air to nuzzle Hunter’s cheek. “She’s been so excited all day,” Luz tells him.

“That makes two of us,” Hunter replies, gathering Stringbean into his arms. Over the last three months of taking her to school, he’s come to really love her. It doesn’t make him miss Flapjack any less, and he knows she’s not really his— he doesn’t innately understand her the way he did with Flap, and she isn’t as attuned to him— but she still curls around his shoulders when he’s nervous and shifts into different animals during class to keep him entertained, and she’s flown like the wind during every practice they’ve had. It makes him happy to know she’ll be with him today.

“Are you nerv—" Luz begins, but quick as lightning, Darius sends a tendril of abomination goo to cover her mouth.

“Ah ah ah! We’ve put a ban on that question in this house.”

Raine smacks Darius’s shoulder, and he reluctantly pulls the abomination back. With an apologetic look at Luz, they explain, “it’s pretty much the only question any of us have been getting all week.”

The school administrations have been in contact with the Isles’ makeshift leadership committee, but clearly not enough, because whoever thought that scheduling the first Flyer Derby game on the same day of the election was a good idea had no idea what they were doing. Hunter has heard Raine say more than once that the house hasn’t felt this tense since it was serving as the headquarters for the rebellion, and on top of that, anyone who comes near it has to ask about it.

“The only thing worse than the waiting,” Hunter tells Luz now, “are the many people asking about how well you’re handling it.”

“Gotcha.” Luz mimes locking her lips and throws away the invisible key. “But for the record,” she adds, “I meant what I said. I really do think you’re going to win today. All of you.”

Eber folds his arms, and since Hunter has been teaching Luz what he’s been learning in Beastkeeping, both of them know what he says.

“Yes, even you, Eber,” Luz replies. “We win when our friends win!”

Eber rolls his eyes. Darius shoves him lightly.

“Speaking of winning,” Hunter says, “we’d better get going.”

Stringbean lifts out of his arms and transforms into a staff, but rather than taking her, Luz lets her fall into Hunter’s hands. Hunter gives her a smile, grateful for any extra practice time he can get, and he takes off with Luz behind him and the others following.

The field at Hexside is already packed when they arrive, but it doesn’t take Hunter long to find the Nocedas in the crowd. They’re seated in the front row, Camila blowing him kisses and Vee waving frantically with one arm, her other hand in Masha’s. Amity sits on Masha’s other side and gives Hunter two thumbs up when she sees him looking at her. In the row behind them, Wynne, Gemini, and Ivy are listening to Eda explain something, and Dell and Gwen are giving him bright smiles and reassuring waves from her other side.

Luz slides off of Stringbean and gives Hunter one last hug. “Good luck!” she says, and races off to sit beside Amity.

Raine kisses Hunter’s head. “You’re going to be great,” they promise.

Eber nods, patting Hunter’s arm and scampering after them. Darius ruffles his hair.

“Make us proud, little prince.”

For a moment, Hunter watches them go, and he feels like he’s already won.

Then he takes a deep breath and makes his way to the side of the field where the rest of the Entrails are waiting, Willow ready with his face paint. She draws the fork of green lightning down the left side of his face with careful fingers, and Hunter prays she can’t feel how his face is heating under her light touch.

She steps back and winks. “Looking good, Hunter.”

Knowing from many unfortunate past experiences not to speak, Hunter gives her a double thumbs-up. Somehow this feels worse.

“All right, team,” Willow says, and they huddle up in a practiced motion at the familiar words.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors about the Saint Epiderm Fire Bees— that they’ve been training since the beginning of the year, that their palismen are some of the fastest recorded in the history of school sports… yeah,” she says to their nods, “you’ve heard it all. But you know what they haven’t heard about us? Viney can make a shield so strong it would stop a wall of actual fire bees. Skara has won a grudgby game and a flyer derby game in the same afternoon. Gus can fly on one foot, with his eyes closed!”

“For a short amount of time,” Gus interjects.

Hunter waves this away. “It still counts.”

“And Hunter can teleport, and make turns so tight he might as well have teleported, and fly so fast that…”

“He might as well be part palisman?” Hunter gives her a tiny, wry smile.

“And,” Willow says, wrapping and arm around him, “he’s always looking out for his team.”

But Hunter can hear the tremor in her voice that she gets when she’s worried she’s said something wrong. The team has been full of nothing but praise for her— but Hunter knows all too well that years of harsh words take years to purge.

He wraps his arm around her waist. “And our captain here, in addition to being an excellent flyer and a summoner of plants I don’t even know the names of, is such an excellent judge of character that she brought together the best flyer derby team the Isles have ever seen!”

The Entrails let out a cheer at this, and Hunter glances at Willow, raising his voice until she gives in and cheers too.

The distant screech of a bell lets them know it’s time to line up, and Hunter steps apart from Willow, trying to ignore the sudden cold that sweeps across his side. He tightens his grip on Stringbean and walks over to his place— only for a movement in the stands to catch his eye. It’s Masha, waving for all they’re worth. When they and Hunter lock eyes, they point at Willow and nod in encouragement.

He could have asked Luz or Amity or Raine or Eda, all of whom have lived through the mortification of having a crush on one of their closest friends, all of whom know about Hunter’s on Willow since he is, in Luz’s words, “as subtle as Hooty trying to rip himself out of the house”. Gus and Willow are the only people he’s ever made any real effort keeping the secret for— Willow, because the idea of ruining their friendship makes him feel like he’s going to throw up, and Gus because he doesn’t want to make him keep a secret from Willow.

But somehow it felt easier to talk to Masha than someone he knows well, to ask them how they took the leap. Their words flash through his mind now as he looks at them.

“I told her because I needed to say it, and I needed her to hear it, not because I needed to hear anything back. She was so scared of herself, and I wanted her to know how deep my feelings went— and I needed to get them out, because at some point, rejection is actually easier than carrying around feelings that big all the time and not knowing what to do with them.”

And he thinks about these flashes of fear Willow still has, how she cares so deeply about other people that she forgets to ask for anything in return. He thinks about all the risks everyone is taking today— Darius and Raine leaving their futures in the hands of a million strangers, five basilisks at a sporting event filled with people who have been raised from birth to be afraid of them, Willow reaching for her dreams with a team no one would expect to pull anything off— and suddenly, he feels like taking a risk too.

He takes his place in like next to Willow but, before getting into position, leans forward and quickly kisses her cheek. She turns to him, eyes wide, and he thinks she might be blushing but he turns away too quickly to tell if that’s anything more than wishful thinking.

“Good luck, Captain,” he mumbles.

Instinctively, he glances up at Masha to find them grinning. Beside them, Amity applauds him, pointing between her and Luz and nodding emphatically. He’s not entirely sure what that means, but clearly she thinks he’s done something right, so he’ll take it.

And maybe she’s onto something, because suddenly Willow’s hand is in his, their fingers threading together as she squeezes.

“You too, Hunter.”

And then the referee blows their whistle, and they’re off.

Two of the Fire Bees streak towards Gus, clearly thinking that he’ll be the slowest. Hunter hurtles towards them, but it’s too late— a third Fire Bee is here now, behind Gus, grabbing his flag, which— disappears. The real Gus appears behind the two Fire Bees in front of his illusion, holding one of their flags in each hand.

“Better luck next time!” he calls with a wink, ducking under them and streaking for the goal. Hunter takes the opportunity to fly for the third Fire Bee while they’re distracted, but they turn just in time, flinging a wad of abomination goo into his eyes. Crying out, he lets go of Stringbean to wipe them— and topples off of her when the Fire Bee knocks into him, trying to get his flag.

Hunter kicks, screaming, and manages to summon a vine from the ground, calling it to curl around him, place him back onto Stringbean, and wipe his eyes.

Someone claps a hand on his shoulder, and he looks up to see Willow speeding past. “Nice work!” she calls.

Hunter glances behind him at the end of Luz’s staff. “They got my flag!” he calls.

Willow’s face turns grim, and she fixes her eyes on the Fire Bee streaking towards their goalpost. They’re so focused on the goal that they don’t notice as she flicks her fingers, sending a tiny vine to lightly flick their flag off of their staff. Hunter teleports beneath it, grabbing it, and makes his body as small and aerodynamic as he can as he flies like mad for the goalpost across the field.

The Fire Bee closest to it turns and lets out a piercing whistle that cuts straight through Hunter’s ears, slamming the breath from his chest as he careens backwards— and then bounces forwards again, back onto Stringbean. He glances behind him to see a shield of blue light fading to reveal Viney beneath it.

“Keep going!” she yells.

The Fire Bee lunges for her, grabbing her flag— at the same time Skara grabs his.

“Viney’s was our last one!” she cries. “We have to beat him to the goal!”

Hunter puts on a burst of speed without looking back, his heart beating double time in his chest, every one of his muscles clenched so hard they ache. Come on, come on, come on, the thinks, clutching the flag in a clammy hand.

He reaches the goal and slings the flag onto one of the posts, turning back to Skara with a grin— only to see a vine reaching for her from behind. Without thinking, he teleports between it and her, gasping as it wraps around his waist and Skara slams the last flag onto its post.

“And we have a winner!” the referee calls. “The Emerald Entrails take the day!”

Hunter opens his mouth to cheer— but his breath comes out in a sharp exhale instead as the vine tightens around his waist, yanking him off Stringbean. For the second day, he finds himself hurtling to the ground— only this time, it bursts into flowers, and he lets himself fall.

He brushes his hair out of his eyes and looks up to see Willow lowering her hands and racing towards him. Her arms are open, and Hunter instinctively raises his, intending to catch her in a hug. So he’s completely unprepared when she plants her lips on his.

Hunter kisses her back, wrapping his arms around her, and when they break apart, tears are streaking his cheeks. Willow lets go of him quickly, alarm crossing her face.

“Oh, I’m so sorry— I should have asked, I just thought—“

“No, no— Willow! You’re fine.” He wipes his eyes and beams at her. “I’m just happy.”

Willow’s expression eases into a wide smile, and she kisses the last of his tears away.

“Finally!”

Hunter looks over Willow’s shoulder to see Viney and Skara clutching each other’s hands and grinning, while Gus throws his arms up in exasperation.

“You knew?” Hunter asks.

“Obviously. And frankly, I’m kind of offended neither of you ever told me.”

“I didn’t want to put you in a difficult position,” Hunter and Willow say simultaneously, then laugh.

“What was difficult was watching you two pine after each other,” Skara says, rolling her eyes. “At least that’s over.”

“And more importantly, we won!” Viney shrieks, running for the bed of flowers and pulling Skara with her— and then all of the Entrails are together, tangled in one knot, cheering so loudly Hunter thinks they could be heard from anywhere on the Isles.

…

The victory party at the old CATTs headquarters starts off buoyant and happy. Hunter walks in holding Willow’s hand and feeling like he’s still flying, his cheeks aching from smiling. People keep clapping him on the shoulder or ruffling his hair and congratulating him— on his win or his incredible girlfriend, he can’t tell. Raine breaks out the waffle maker and makes an enormous batch of them for dinner, and people sit on the floor in little groups to eat, the room filling with overlapping conversations and laughter.

But then the evening wears on, and the laughter fades, the conversations becoming hushed. The Nocedas are the only ones who can stand to keep vigil by the crystal ball and watch the votes be tallied, all of them holding each other’s hands and sitting with tense, perfect posture. Everyone else in the room ignores the coverage completely, all finding something to distract themselves with instead. Masha paints Raine’s nails; Eda teaches Rhee how to play her mandolin; Lilith and Amity organize every book in the house alphabetically by genre; Steve and King board Steve's motorcycle and drive around as Gwen and Dell watch with mild fascination; Willow and Gemini play Hexas Hold ‘Em against Gus and Hooty; Wynne and Ivy go from group to group collecting dishes; Eberwolf shows Viney how he takes his beast form; Alador and Darius tinker with some kind of abomination. Hunter just wanders from group to group, watching one for a bit before drifting away.

When he gets to Darius and Alador, he wonders if he’ll have to break up a fight. They’ve been civil lately, but he wouldn’t put it past them to revert to the incessant bickering that was their normal right after Belos’s death under the stress of the situation.

“You’re going to win,” he hears Alador say with quiet conviction as he approaches. He raises his eyebrows, pleasantly surprised.

“If only I was capable of sharing your delusional optimism,” Darius responds dryly.

“No, I’m serious. You have to. I want to end my marriage to Odalia as soon as someone has the power to do it, and you’re the only person I can trust to do it fast enough.”

Darius looks up from their abomination so quickly Hunter’s neck throbs in sympathy. “You and Odalia are… over?”

Alador snorts. “We should have been over a long time ago. I… being with her was… the wrong choice.”

Darius’s expression softens into something Hunter’s never seen on him before, and he realizes it’s definitely time to stop watching this. He turns around— just in time to catch Luz’s eye as she stands.

“The results are in,” she says, her voice about three octaves higher than usual.

Everyone abandons the pretense of normalcy at once, scrambling to face the crystal ball. Hunter wraps one arm around Luz and feels Willow brush up against his other side, sliding her hand into his.

Being old enough to join a coven, Hunter was also deemed old enough to vote, so he knows how the process worked. All of the candidates were listed on a form, and he was told to fill out the circle next to the five he wanted to rule the Isles. The five candidates with the most votes will be chosen to serve as councilors for the next five years.

“And our first councilor,” Perry Porter says, his voice conveying all the tension currently choking everyone in the room, “is… Alexis Calian!”

Alador nods approvingly. “They quit Blight Industries a few years ago. Good person.”

“Our second councilor is… Arthur Hanover!”

Lilith snorts. “How did he get elected? She has no opinions on anything!”

“That’s probably why people like him,” Luz points out. “They can project.”

“Our third councilor is… Hettie Cutburn!”

No one can speak for a few seconds. When a voice finally cuts through the horror, it’s Masha, but even they know to whisper.

“Who’s that?”

“She was the head of the Healing Coven,” Raine replies, their voice tight.

“At least it’s not Terra?” Eda offers.

“Yet,” Raine mutters.

Darius pinches his nose. “Well, putting the former Coven Heads on trial just became a nightmare.”

“Maybe we can impeach her?” Luz offers.

“What does that mean?”

Luz’s eyes widen. Just a fraction. Then she waves her hand. “We’ll talk later.”

“Our fourth councilor is… Darius Daemonne!”

The horrified silence is shattered by a wave of outright screams. Raine is jumping up and down, Eber is running circles around the room, and Hunter lets go of Luz and Willow to throw his arms around Darius before he can question the impulse. When he pulls back, though Darius is smiling wider than Hunter’s ever seen.

“All right, all right, settle down,” he calls. “We’ve still got one councilor left.”

But as soon as the word Raine passes Perry’s mouth, settle down becomes a foreign concept. If Hunter thought all the Isles could hear the cheers after the Entrails won, well, he’s sure even the Human realm could hear the noise that erupts. Eda dips Raine into a kiss as Lilith lets out a piercing whistle, Luz and Vee and Masha grab each other's hands and jump up and down, and everyone else is hugging and dancing and screaming themselves hoarse. Hunter picks Willow up by the waist and twirls her around, laughing and laughing, and even though he knows there is more work to do and more games to play, when she leans down to kiss him, he can't stop himself from thinking that things are finally falling into place.

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yuhi-san · 2 years

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More darius head canons cause i'm on a roll

(Mosty hexside & early being mentored by previous gg)

Darius did well in school and with grades. Except in group assingments, he would often argue on end with others if they didn't agree with him. He grew out of that, thankfully, and did learn to compromise with others

He was the kind of kid and teen that would say to your face whatever he thought about you at any time. He could be very tactless without a second thought. He grew mostly out of that, too. But even now he can come off as harsh and mean even if he really does intend not to.

Darius is not a graceful loser. At all. Especially in card and board games. He did not grow out of that one.

He has s amazing pokerface but still lost in hexes hold em to eda so many times that he stopped playing entirely

He knows eda was cheating but can't prove it and it drives him nuts (eda loves to rub it in)

He and eda obviously knew each other well (being somewhat infamouse in their own right) but darius was definitelly frendlier with lilith

They would grouse to each other about eda and raines love dancing

When lilith was younger, overly worried about what her mom would think of her lack of interest in a partner and was also feeling inadequate to eda, she asked darius once to pose as her bf (so she is not the odd one out at dinner with her parents and eda & raine)

He told her flat out no and that nothing would ever get him to subject himself to something like that

Alador was the first friend darius made after moving to bonesburough, by putting one of his fires out (literally)

(If asked how alador could rope him so easily into everything darius will just give an exasperate look a la i wish i knew)

Speaking of young alador, he was always full of ingenuity but combined with the limited experience and foresight of a young teen this made him one hell of a safety hazard for the general public

Darius and odalia do a lot of damage control (but sometimes they would egg him on if they thought his idea to be fun but they would never admit to that out loud)

Darius sass initialy went over aladors head a lot (its not that he is stupid, just often too caught up in his own mind). However, he soon figured out that acting extra dense is a sure way to annoy the loving daylight out of darius

Young darius can usually tell if alador is just trolling him but can't help but get railed up anyway

He is uninterested in sports

Perry once asked asked darius to help out commenting on a grudgby game because his partner was sick. He regretted it a lot

Darius commentary was mostly roasting the players, which did not go over well

While he knows very well that logic can't really effect emotions, he gets easily frustrated with how ridiculous people with crushes can act

"If you like them, ask them out. They say yes, great. They say no, you can start getting over it" simple.

It's what he tells both raine and odalia and later hunter

Hunter thinks it's the dumbest advice he ever heard and he needs to talk to someone who actually has experience with this stuff. Darius strongly agrees with the second part

Darius is very, very resentful. Like holy crap

You might not notice him having a grudge because he can be very quiet and patient about it but it will bite you in the ass if you wrong him (or the people he cares about)

However, he also wont forget good deeds done to him and will always repay them

Darius has almost always a comeback to everything and greatly enjoys to have the last word

If he suddenly does not dignify you with another comment, that does not mean you got the better of him. It means you are treading very dangerous water

He is very vocal when making his frustration and annoyance know but when he gets quiet you really need to worry

Because i see all that tickling stuff: darius is not ticklish but trying to just get your hands all over him equals instant regret. He has very little tolerance for that

Eber getting to clamber all over him is a privilege that comes with a long and strong friendship

Also eber knows darius very well. They know what is and is not okay and can read darius mood easily

He's the wine aunt (the you are supposed to savour a good drink you heathens version)

He is a somewhat picky eater/a foodie

Darius fought gilbert park during a match at a covention, lost spectacularly & got a concussion out of it*

When his mentor sent him on a mission with eber for the firsr time, darius first thought upon seeing eber fresh out of the woods (coverd in mud and leafs) was: what tf did i do to piss my mentor off like that

While darius already understood some beast speak, he was far from fluent

Their first mission together was to hunt a stonesleeper, just a few months before his mentors death

Once darius did learn about grimwalkers he felt very, very sick about it and occasionally it still haunts him

He did pick his coven rather late compared to most. The abomination coven wanted to train him as the next coven head but he was also a great candidate for the emperors coven as the golden guards mentee. He decided upon his mentors death (based on which would be more useful)

Eberwolf would initially gift him small obscure and often downright disgusting things. Darius is very grossed out but also deep down too much of a softie to throw it out so it is all in a box now

Beast custom can be very different from witches so he actually has no idea if eber was geniun or already trolling him by then. It's too late to ask now, it would be awkward

He is so not a morning person

He has a talent for arts and crafts

Darius refused to participate in dancing at grom. He thinks its ridiculouse (mostly he is just a bad dancer)

If he has to pick between really cold and really hot, he rather takes the cold

Darius rarely gets drunken but when then he will either a) crack up about everything or b) say some super messed up stuff that is so far beyond morbid humor (but sounded very funny in his drunken mind)

He is not a fan of his drunken self. At all. He knows he is mortifying.

The first time he accidentally sees his mom and step dad make out, he tells them no need to be sorry, he will just ask odalia to burn the memory

Unless someone might die or get seriously messed up, darius is a strong believer in the 'let them slug it out' philosophy.

Alador once thought it was a good idea to get in the middle of a bitch fight between odalia and boshas mom. The outcome just supports darius in his opinion

He's petty. So petty

Once the whole dou and collector thing bloes over, alador is the one to approach darius to maybe work out some things/patch up whatever friendship they have left. He is very awkward about it

A lot of small things caused their falling out, rather than one big thing. Though a big part is that darius didn't feel it was save to confide in alador about his mentor and belos and

Darius is initially surprised, then of course aloof and somewhat sceptical, probably wondering in the back of his mind what the goal/catch is

Darius too will have to relearn some things after all these years of being a rebel and part of belos inner circle

He does pretty well with hunter considering he does not even have experience with normal teens but man darius would not know how to deal with edric and emira for more than 20 minutes

* i swear i will write this story because it is also how darius meets his mentor. I wilö write it. I want to so badly

#darius the owl house #darius deamonne #the owl house #toh #head canon #the owl house headcanon #alador blight #odalia blight #eberwolf owl house #eberwolf the huntsman #eda clawthorne #lilith clawthorne #hunter owl house #raine whispers #previous golden guard

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violetjedisylveon · 1 year

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Calm Before The Storm

Summary: The aftermath of the days events hit Luz and Argi hard when they return to their homes.

Word count: 4.4k

Warnings: regret, anxiety, implications of child abuse, swearing.

A/N: Enjoy the chapter!

Blue Guard AU link here.

________________________________________________________________________________

Willow pulled up her scroll as she received a penstagram notification. It was a dm from Hunter, she opened it uncertainly. Viney leaned over her shoulder.

"Did he just make an account?" She asked.

Willow nodded.

"Wow. He is a slow typer." She chuckled

"He's worse than my dad!" Gus commented.

"Yeah, he's pretty bad." Skara agreed.

Willow glanced up, Luz and Amity were running down the beach.

"Hey, guys." She waved.

"I am really digging those outfits. So, how was the rest of school? Did we... miss anything?" Luz asked.

"Not much, we just had our first team win as the Emerald Entrails!" Willow exclaimed.

The team struck their poses, except for Skara, whom Willow was still carrying.

"Ooh! Let me see! Let me see!" Luz squealed, bouncing up and down with excitement.

Willow showed Luz and Amity the photo on her scroll. They gasped in shock

"What?!" They both shouted.

"You played Flyer Derby with the Golden Guard?!" Amity shouted in disbelief.

"Yep." Gus confirmed with a nod.

"He looks so happy." Luz said.

"How? And why? And how? He's such a workaholic, how did you ever convince him to play with you?" Amity asked.

"I dragged him to the field, and his sister helped persuade him." Willow told them with a shrug.

Luz perked up instantly at that, excitement in her eyes.

"Sister? He's got a sister? Who is she?" She asked.

"Hunter said she's the Blue Guard, whatever that is." Skara commented.

"And she's the demon from the coven day parade that you told us about, Luz." Willow added.

"Okay, that explains why she was apparently at Eclipse Lake." Amity said.

"Aww, she was protecting him, that's sweet." Luz swooned.

"She seemed decent enough, she certainly understood the situation way more than golden boy did." Viney said.

"Situation? What situation?" Amity asked with worry on her face.

"Turns out golden boy was there for recruits, so we ended up almost getting taken to the covens, but he showed up again and crashed the ship, I'm pretty sure the blue girl was trying to help us since she let me land the ship." Viney explained.

"That's odd, what do you think made him change his mind?" Luz asked as they all started walking together.

"Beats me, I'm glad it happened though." Gus said.

"Willow, why are you holding Skara?" Amity asked, looking up at Skara being held easily on Willow's shoulder.

"Oh, my leg stopped working, it needs to be cleaned." Skara explained.

"Ah, I can help you." Amity offered.

Luz leaned over to her girlfriend and cupped a hand around her ear.

"After you do that, let's spam golden boy's account." She said with a snicker.

Amity chuckled and gave her a gentle shove.

"Just don't scare him off." Willow chided, having easily overheard Luz.

XXX

"Luz! What took you so long?! You missed dinner!" Luz was greeted by King as soon as she was within distance of the owl house.

She gave him a gentle head pat and scooped him up.

"Did you wait out for me again?" She asked, booping the demon on the nose.

"Maybe." King said cheekily.

Luz giggled and headed inside, Eda was probably worried she was so late. Eda had been so wound up, high strung and worried since the coven day parade, Luz had a hunch there was more than Raine behind her mentor's nerves.

"Eda, I'm home!" She called into the house.

A few seconds later, she heard footsteps from above heading towards the stairs.

"Dinner's in the fridge, you remember where the heating plates are, right?!" Eda said as she came down the stairs.

Luz responded that she did and went to the kitchen to get dinner. Eda followed into the kitchen and seated herself at the table with a cup of coffee. King sat down too, both waited patiently for Luz to sit down and start to pick at her meal before asking her about her day.

With a sigh, she pushed some of the meat on her plate to the edge, she didn't feel much like eating right now. She told them about the Azura author, how she and Amity spent the day chasing down the author, how it was actually just Tibbles again, she heard Eda growl at the mention of the "scamming fucker", as she put it.

Then she told them about meeting Willow's team at the beach. She stopped, debating on whether or not to share the new information she'd learned.

"Luz hun, what is it?" Eda asked, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"You remember that coven person who wasn't a scout from the parade? The one who tried to defend Raine?" She prompted, knowing very well that Eda did remember.

The Owl Lady's jaw clenched, she took in a deep breath through her nostrils and nodded.

"Well, apparently, Willow and Gus saw her today… she was with the Golden Guard… he was there and there was this flyer derby thing and recruitment, he was trying to recruit them! and I guess… Willow said he calls her his sister, and that she's the Blue Guard, whatever that is, from what Viney said, it seemed like she was helping them escape and I guess she protects Hunter?"

"I don't know how or what I'm supposed to think of her now, at first I thought she was just a new threat because of the parade and all that stuff, but now, and with the thing, I haven't been around her enough to know if she's someone to trust or if she's just a liar like him, but I think she's just been trying to protect Hunter, and he has a scroll now but I doubt I'll get any answers out of him." Luz ended her ramble with a sigh.

Eda had been silent this whole time, King was looking between them, concern on the young demon's face. Luz waited for Eda to gather her words.

"Luz, I can assure you… that kid… Blue Guard you said?" Luz nodded.

"I can assure you that she didn't choose the coven, Lily says she was raised in it, and that she's still a good kid. She's just a kid, like you, younger actually, so don't be too hard on her, or yourself. You made one bad call, it's not going to be the end of the world, okay kiddo?" Eda said.

Luz nodded slowly, a new thought had entered her head and distracted her.

"Eda, do you know who she is? What she is? Cause I've never seen a demon like that before?" She asked.

Eda scrubbed her brow with a heavy sigh like she'd been dreading that question.

"King, go get the forbidden demon book." She instructed.

King let out an excited squeal and raced off. Luz raised an eyebrow at her mentor.

"I've never let him look at that book, it's full of the really old, really weird demons, the one's Belos doesn't want people to know about any more." Eda explained.

"So the Blue Guard is one of those demons? What's she doing working for Belos?" Luz exclaimed.

Eda shrugged, "I don't know, all I know is what Lily told me about this kid she used to have to babysit, she'd babysit golden boy when he was little too." Eda smirked a bit at the end.

King came racing back in with said forbidden book in his tiny arms. It was old and thick with the smell of old books, ash and smoke. He set it on the table and Eda flipped to a marked page before turning it to Luz.

The page showed various drawings of a bipedal demon species with a pair of curving horns that came out of their head, two tails, large, distinctly shaped ears, a long tongue, maybe two? she couldn't quite tell, and they had a pair of bug-like wings on their back. They looked like the Blue Guard, what she'd seen at least, minus the wings.

"The Blue Guard is a Palisde, a young one, since she doesn't have wings yet, they get them later in life, but the species are magic masters, makes sense given they've got thousands of lifetimes to practice. They live stupid long, it's ridiculous. But they're a powerful species, very powerful. They are especially good at cloaking spells, in fact, all invisibility and cloaking spells were made by them or have their roots in a Palisde spell. They can see through any of these spells too, and any illusion." Eda paused and turned the page, showing a comprehensive look at the senses of Palisde.

"Palisde are an old species, technically they're classified as bipedal demons but they really don't fit into any category. A lot of what we now know about the past of the Boiling Isles came from them, they've got perfect memories. So they're an incredibly trustworthy historical source, as Lily says. No one knows about their origins, since they predate the death of our Titan, there's speculation that they came from other Titans, but none of that has been proven, they have a story for their origin and how they came about." Eda glanced up at Luz with a smirk.

"You want the original story or a summarized version, kid?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Original story!" Luz and King shouted together.

Eda chuckled and gave both her kids head pats.

"Palisde records say that they first came into being long before the first Titans died, back when the only life existed on the back of the Titans and small spots of land dotted around the boiling seas. They say the first of them was made by a young Titan who didn't have any friends, somewhat made in the image of itself, the young Titan poured its own blood into the being to give it life and strength. From there, the young Titan taught the others how to make this strange little being, one a perfect size for playing with infants. And so the oldest and most powerful species of our realm was born, they took it upon themselves to protect life and to care for the young Titans, they remained closely linked to the Titans, their lives are long to accompany their long lived friends. Whispers and tall tales say the Palisde still watch over the last of the Titans since their mysterious disappearing." Eda ended the story dramatically.

"With all that, you can guess they didn't take all that kindly to Belos coming in and saying he can speak to the Titan and started talking shit about their practices and magic, but their numbers are unknown, I know they took a big hit about fourteen years ago, so they probably don't have enough numbers to do anything but try to preserve their ways." Eda didn't want to end it on such a low note, but it was likely the case, and the reason why Palisde had become so fucking rare outside of the head region. It was too risky for them.

Luz looked down at her hands in her lap, remembering her adventure into the past and the visit to the head, sacred ground for Palisde.

"When we went back, he brought us to the head, Lilith said it was sacred ground for the Palisde, i-I let Philip take something from there, I helped him take something from there! I think, I'm not sure but I think there was one watching…" Luz trailed off.

"Do you think they'll be mad at me? You said they live long, so that one has to still be alive, right? They'll know it was me! They'll know I helped him! They know that I fucked up-"

"Whoa! Whoa! Luz! I need you to calm down, you're getting all worked up and cursing again kiddo." Eda pulled her down out of another spiral and into a hug.

"They'll know it was a mistake, so relax, they know you're a kid. And Philip is long dead by now, they probably got it back after you left. There's nothing to worry about." Eda comforted her.

"Yeah, they're super old and wise I bet! They've probably seen their fair share of mistakes and slip ups!" King chimed in.

"I'll tell you from personal experience, they're pretty forgiving! Eda would know too! She had some friends who used to come around all the time! Hoot! Hoot!" Hooty added in.

Luz gasped, Eda's mysterious past went even deeper than she thought!

"I thought I knew all about your secret past! And now I find you have Titan blood powered all powerful demons as your friends?! C'mon Owl Lady, why didn't you tell me?" Luz smiled at her mentor, but instead of finding amusement, she found a flash of regret and grief on Eda's face, it vanished quickly and Eda smiled.

"We aren't exactly friends anymore, the curse pushed 'em away." Eda patted her head again.

"Now go get ready for bed, you've got a special visitor at hexside tomorrow, my great great great, a bunch more greats, aunt!" Eda told her.

Luz gasped again.

"Eda-" she started.

"Nope! I'm not telling you a thing about her, you'll just have to go to school tomorrow." Eda said.

Luz frowned at Eda but relented.

"Can I borrow your scroll? I wanna bug golden boy before I go to bed."

"That's my girl." Eda smiled as she handed her scroll over to her.

"Thanks Eda!" Luz snatched the scroll up and raced to her room.

XXX

As she'd expected, Luz couldn't find sleep easily that night. Her mind was just too busy. She fiddled with Eda's scroll in her hands, she'd tried Hunter's penstagram with her account, but he must have been asleep since he wasn't listed online.

She didn't know if Hunter's sister had one, or if she could even find it. Something told her an elite soldier of a rare species wouldn't have a predictable username.

She noticed that someone had sent her a dm when she looked to the corner of the screen.

Curious, she opened it and found an unfamiliar user was typing out a message.

Caeruleum.

Just Caeruleum.

C: Hear about what we did today?

Just a simple, seemingly innocent message. Luz scowled at the screen as she started typing back a response.

You: As a matter of fact, I did. What were you doing there, Blue Guard?

Caeruleum is typing…

C: You already know, I could hear your conversation from miles away. And it's Silver to you.

You: They didn't really know why you were there. So what were you doing?

C: My job, obviously.

Luz rolled her eyes at the response.

You: which is?

C: Why don't you take a fucking guess?

You: …Guarding someone…? You were guarding Hunter?

C: Duh, course I was, why do you seem confused about it?

Luz debated on whether to reveal what she knew, but Silver apparently already knew what she and the others had talked about.

You: I heard you are his sister.

C: Yeah, tell me something I don't know.

You: Did Lilith really baby sit you two? Is that why she doesn't like Hunter?

C: oh stars yes, he'd piss her all the way off. We got left with Eberwolf once and it was never the same after that.

You: So are the coven heads just Belos's personal babysitters?

C: No, he wouldn't leave children with Miss Snapdragon, he'd just sick us on whoever was most available.

Luz frowned, Hunter clearly admired the Emperor, though he seemed to have a much more hands off approach to parenting.

You: he didn't take care of you himself?

C: He's the Emperor, he doesn't have time for that.

You: I just thought he'd make time for his kids.

C: We are not his kids. Wards? Yes, but not his kids. Belos doesn't have any.

Oh. Since hearing that the coven head referred to Hunter as a prince, she had just assumed that Hunter was his son or grandson, it made sense to her.

You: Then why did the coven head call Hunter a prince?

C: Hunter is his nephew, technically grand nephew. That's why.

Grand nephew?

You: So did you know Hunter's family?

C: no, I was at the castle before Hunter… Now why would you wanna know that, Luz?

Luz scowled at the screen, Silver was about as difficult to talk to as Hunter, she was just vague instead of constantly spouting about how great Belos was.

You: I'm just trying to understand the situation more and see if it's worth the risk to trust you!

Luz bit her lip, she shouldn't have said that. She worked for the Emperor for Titan's sake!

C: Did… something happen?

That's not what I was expecting. Luz hesitated, she hadn't even told Amity yet! Why tell a stranger?

Her judgment won't mean as much.

You: Yeah, I got tricked by some jerk, I still feel like such a fool for falling for his act.

Luz braced for Silver to chew her out.

C: The one good thing about being tricked and knowing it's a trick is that you're less likely to fall for it again. It makes you smarter in the long run. So don't worry about it.

Oh.

Silver's just full of surprises.

You: You sound like you're coming from experience.

C: oh you bet I am, people try to trick me all the time, it used to work but I've gotten much better at detecting lies, and I don't put too much trust into anyone I have reservations about.

You: You must be pretty good at it… Do you trust me?

C: I hardly even know you, so I can't say yet.

Luz giggled, then checked the time. It was really late.

You: Well, I've got school tomorrow, I have to go. Bye!

C: Bye.

Luz rolled onto her side. Silver seemed nice enough, she was definitely less scary behind the screen. She'd acted friendly.

Maybe there's a bit more to her than I thought.

XXX

Argi flopped down onto her bed, grimacing at the flare of pain in her back as her wet hair fell onto it. I swear it gets worse every fucking day! She groaned, swiping her hair off her back and letting it sit around her shoulder.

I really hope Uncle doesn't have any last minute missions for me. She sighed and rested her heavy head on her pillow. Usually, she'd be just about to change after an unearthly long day when she'd get a summon and have a new mission, it was like Uncle could just tell when the worst time to send her out was.

Her stomach grumbled, she was tempted to actually get some food, but then she saw the ration bars on her bedside table, right next to a plate of Palistorm leaf cookies on a warming plate.

Perfect!

She seized the box of rations and stuffed two bars into her mouth, hardly even swallowing since they were the soft kind that were easy to eat and swallow when she didn't feel like chewing. These were also the ones that tasted better than the standard chalky ones she was used to. She almost always had some sort of flavoring around to make them taste better.

She honestly couldn't remember the last time she actually sat down and ate an actual meal. Or ate three meals a day, normally she just munched on rations and snack packs. But she assumed she was somewhat healthy, since Jayr was never too worried about her weight, or lack thereof, just reminding her to eat something real every now and then.

It suddenly hit her that she hadn't left the rations or the plate there when she was half way through her fourth bar. They hadn't been there when she'd gotten up this morning.

Immediately suspicious, she scanned the room for any sign of a threat, sniffing for poisons or toxins snuck into the food. She found a familiar scent of herbs, flowering plants, sweat, disinfecting spells and Knee trees, with the underlying scent of caprine.

Jayr.

Jayr had left this for her.

Argi felt a comforting warmth surging through her body as she grabbed one of the still warm cookies off the plate. Munching on the cookies, she summoned her scroll and went to penstagram, she'd already figured what the human's penstagram was in the few days she'd had her scroll, but hadn't bothered to message her until now.

Holding a cookie in her mouth, she typed out a simple message in the human's dms.

You: Hear about what we did today?

Luzura is typing…

L: As a matter of fact, I did. What were you doing there, Blue Guard?

Argi smirked, the human already knew. She'd heard it herself.

You: You already know, I could hear your conversation from miles away. And it's Silver to you.

Luzura is typing…

L: They didn't really know why you were there. So what were you doing?

You: My job, obviously.

L: which is?

You: Why don't you take a fucking guess?

L: …Guarding someone…? You were guarding Hunter?

You: Duh, course I was, why do you seem confused about it?

Argi felt an inkling of satisfaction as the human took a longer time to respond this time.

L: I heard you are his sister.

You: Yeah, tell me something I don't know.

L: Did Lilith really baby sit you two? Is that why she doesn't like Hunter?

Argi almost coughed from laughter. Hunter had a skill in royally pissing people off as a child. They'd both been little shits.

You: oh stars yes, he'd piss her all the way off. We got left with Eberwolf once and it was never the same after that.

L: So are the coven heads just Belos's personal babysitters?

You: No, he wouldn't leave children with Miss Snapdragon, he'd just sick us on whoever was most available.

L: he didn't take care of you himself?

You: He's the Emperor, he doesn't have time for that.

L: I just thought he'd make time for his kids.

Argi almost choked again, this time from surprise.

You: We are not his kids. Wards? Yes, but not his kids. Belos doesn't have any.

L: Then why did the coven head call Hunter a prince?

You: Hunter is his nephew, technically grand nephew. That's why.

L: So did you know Hunter's family?

You: no, I was at the castle before Hunter… Now why would you wanna know that, Luz?

L: I'm just trying to understand the situation more and see if it's worth the risk to trust you!

Argi frowned. From what she'd gathered on the human, they were very trusting, sometimes foolishly. Perhaps it was the thing with Philip that messed her up. Oddly, though she hadn't been foolish enough to trust someone who smelled like rotting flesh and decaying wood, she felt a little concerned for the human. She had been very upset after finding out Philip had been using her. She didn't know why since Luz was supposed to be an, she wouldn't say enemy, but someone Belos wanted her keeping an eye on.

Y: Did… something happen?

Luzura is typing…

L: Yeah, I got tricked by some jerk, I still feel like such a fool for falling for his act.

That confirmed it was Philip causing Luz distress for Argi.

You: The one good thing about being tricked and knowing it's a trick is that you're less likely to fall for it again. It makes you smarter in the long run. So don't worry about it.

L: You sound like you're coming from experience.

You: oh you bet I am, people try to trick me all the time, it used to work but I've gotten much better at detecting lies, and I don't put too much trust into anyone I have reservations about.

L: You must be pretty good at it… Do you trust me?

You: I hardly even know you, so I can't say yet.

L: Well, I've got school tomorrow, I have to go. Bye!

You: Bye.

Argi turned her scroll off then just as quickly turned it back on. Looking at the messages sent between them, they were almost friendly.

"Hmp." She set her scroll aside and laid down to sleep.

However, instead of going to sleep, her mind was racing, going over the questions spawned by her conversation with the human. It brought up a question she thought long gone from her mind.

What came before Belos?

Before that moment when Belos found her and decided that she was worth saving.

Before she had her chin scar.

And so she tried to find an answer that could be hidden impossibly deep in her memory.

All she knew was the castle, the coven, Belos. She tried to think further back, tried to push the boundary of what she could recall, but everything before meeting Belos didn't make any sense, and even that memory was hazy. Anything before was just a jumbled mess in her mind with no rhyme or reason to what she could recall.

Certain smells that were burned into her brain. Bits of sayings left uncompleted. Faint, half forgotten voices without names to put them too.

She grabbed at her head as a sudden, sharp headache pain made itself known.

Whenever she thought too hard about before Belos she'd get those sorts of headaches. They didn't feel natural or normal, they were completely different from any other type of headache.

She didn't bring it up anymore, since Belos's solution was always to let Osran have a look, and she really did not want Osran poking around in her mind.

It was almost like she could, like she had the capability to remember what came before, but something was put in place to stop her.

It might have been self made, that's what Osran always said it was. Osran was always talking about her mental oddities and peculiar aura. He was always saying shit about how it was so oddly stifled in some areas, the air of great age it carried, how it was bent, warped, misshapen.

She knew the bitch was practically dying to dive in and take a look at all her peculiar, mysterious weirdness and wrongs.

I'm glad he fears me most. Argi grunted, she had spent a good deal of time enforcing that fear. It kept the creep away from her.

It's probably nothing anyway, just some Palisde weirdness I bet.

Argi sighed and grabbed her scroll.

She wouldn't sleep tonight.

Let's see who else is up.

She scrolled through the online page until she found an account with a photo of Hunter's team posted on it.

Perfect.

You: hey, wanna talk?

________________________________________________________________________________

Skara's an amputee, she's been one since she was a young child, there was an accident, she was friends with Amity before the accident and since her leg is a Blight Industries product, Amity knows how to help Skara clean the prosthetic. It was something they would do together when Boscha wasn't around.

I also like Skara so I'm going to be doing some stuff with her, make her a better person now that she's around some not super toxic people.

I decided Luz curses when she gets upset, or when she's tired.

There is absolutely something wrong with Argi, in more ways than one right now, we're getting close to something very exciting!

I hope you all have a good day, whatever that is for you!

VJS Out!

0 notes

drabbles-of-writing · 3 years

Text

You Call That Advice?

AO3

second owl fight attack! This one’s prompt was “Hunter and King helping Luz ask Amity out”

Summary: Hunter and King, upon learning that Luz had yet to have an 'official' date with Amity, decide it's now their job to help Luz ask her out, as all good brothers should. It goes about as well as one would expect.

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“Why do you guys look like you’re scheming, and will I regret it if I get involved?”

Luz looked up from her scroll, which Hunter was willing to bet they’d just found in the trash and pieced together to try and work, since her phone didn’t pair with any other scrolls, laying on her back and looking like a dejected puppy.

King, meanwhile, was laying across one of Luz’s abundance of pillows, with a handful of messy papers sprawled out before him. He only looked up for a moment before going back to writing down gibberish.

“Aren’t you supposed to be helping Lilith cleaning up the old Castle?” Luz raised a brow, allowing her woeful expression to slip for just a moment.

“I annoyed her enough to let me leave early. I got nothing in my old room worth keeping, anyway.” He shrugged, wandering in. “Everything I liked got burnt to a crisp.”

“That’s kinda sad.” Luz grimaced. “I should beat up the person who did that.”

“We established this long before Belos threw you face-first into the dirt, but thanks for the effort.”

“Hey, I won!”

Hunter kicked out his foot, rolling Luz off of her back and onto her front, face squished into the wooden floor. She grumbled as he chuckled, shaking his head.

“But, seriously, what are you two doing?”

“I’m helping Luz text Amity.” King said simply, not even looking up.

“Do you not know how to use a scroll?” Hunter snorted, sitting down on crossed legs.

“Course I do!” Luz huffed, giving him a glare before rolling onto her side and lifting her scroll, giving it such a pathetically sad look. “I’m just trying to ask her on a date, that's all.”

“You never went on a date until now?” Hunter scrunched up his face. “I would’ve thought you’d have the whole disgusting bouquet of roses with candlelight's by, like, day three."

“There was a lot going on!” Luz dropped her scroll on the floor beside her and waved her hands in the air. “Does running a rebellion and toppling a tyrannical government count as a date?” She asked, looking towards Hunter.

“They do not.” He said matter-of-factly, and Luz let out a pained groan.

“Not to worry, I’ve got it covered!” King said, raising one of the sheets of paper he was working on with pride.

Hunter took it before Luz could, reading it over for a moment before giving the demon a deadpan stare. He held it for a moment before looking down at Luz, with an expression of disappointment, but certainly not surprised.

“Are you seriously this worked up over asking her on a date? She's your girlfriend."

“It's a very reasonable anxiety!” Luz protested.

“You don’t even know where the date would be!”

“You do better, then!” Luz scoffed, sitting upright and snatching the paper out of Hunter’s hands. She peered at it for a moment before grimacing and setting it aside. “Yeah, I think that’s a little too aggressive.”

“Everyone likes an assertive partner.” King insisted before Hunter lightly shoved him over.

“At least figure out where the date would be, first. If you ask and she says yes, you’re going to start panicking because you have to think up a place last-minute.” He said.

“Oh!” Luz snapped her fingers. “The Grom tree! It’s still off by the cliff, really pretty place.”

“Going to pretend I know what you’re talking about, but sure, let’s go with that.” Hunter shrugged. “There, now you can stress for the next five hours on sending a text.”

“Like you would know how stressful this is,” Luz huffed, raising her scroll again and frowning at it. “I know for a fact you’ve never been on a date before.”

“You don’t know what my life was like before you.”

“I know it was really, really depressing.”

Hunter felt around for a moment before he found one of Luz’s pillows strewn about and whacked her in the face with it. She squawked and fell back, attempting to yank the pillow from his grasp.

“Hello? This is serious business!” King huffed, waving his little claws around and somehow managing to get the two to stop. “We gotta figure out how to ask the right way, this is a delicate process.”

“Luz could insult Amity to her face and she’d still go on a date with her.” Hunter snorted, ignoring Luz’s outcry of “I would never!” beside him. “And how come you asked for his help?” He added, gesturing towards King. “He’s, like, five.”

“I am almost nine!”

“Close enough.”

“He insisted on helping, and I was not gonna go to Eda for this, I’d never hear the end of it.” Luz grumbled. “And Raine would use their dates with Eda as reference and then it’ll just turn into a whole scene of them reminiscing and me asking a million questions.”

“Love the self-awareness,” Hunter teased, reaching for her scroll. “Here, lemme see.”

“I would rather die,” Luz hissed, kicking at his chest to fend him off.

“That can still be arranged.”

“Just tell her,” King said, ignoring their bickering as he pulled himself up onto Luz’s other knee. “That you’re gonna have a date by the Grom tree. Ooo, maybe make it a picnic!”

“It’s asking for a date, not telling her to a date.” Hunter huffed, giving up on snatching the phone from Luz. “Do something flashy." He said, waving a hand around as he spoke. "Say something like; if you, by chance, are interested, I would be delighted to take you out for a meal by the Grom tree at, like, seven. I don’t know when your bedtimes are.” He shrugged.

“We don’t have bedtimes,” King scoffed. “And now you just sound like you’re overcompensating.”

“Wow, that’s a big word for you.” Hunter grinned. “Has someone been looking at a thesaurus recently?”

King squeaked angrily and launched himself at Hunter, beginning to scurry up his shirt until Hunter managed to grab him by the tail and yank him off, holding him at arms length as he dangled in the air.

“Maybe I should just send a bunch of emojis.” Luz said thoughtfully, ignoring the fighting going on beside her.

“What the hell is an emoji?” Hunter raised a brow until King managed to wiggle upright and promptly bit his hand.

Hunter yelped and dropped the demon on his head, clutching at his hand, which wasn’t even bleeding, as he glared at King attempting to get back to his feet.

“Oh you little bi--”

“Do not swear at King!” Luz warned, pointing an accusatory finger.

“He bit me!” Hunter complained.

“And you deserved it!” King shot back, scuttling behind Luz and sticking his tongue out.

“Both of you are useless.” Luz groaned, flopping back onto her pillows, barely managing to not squish King.

“Wait, wait! Send her a text that just says to meet at the Grom tree, six o’clock, sharp.” King said, shaking her. “She’ll like a mystery.”

“That makes it sound like she’s gonna murder her.” Hunter rolled his eyes. “That girl’s a romantic if I’ve ever seen one, which suits this dork perfectly, as painful as that is for me to say.” He fake-gagged as he pushed at Luz’s knee, who gave a weak kick in response. “Make it something from a trashy novel. Like; ‘I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to be allowed to take you on an outing, of which--”

“Now who’s been reading a thesaurus?” King said, smug as Hunter cut off and glowered at him.

“I’m going to punt you through a window.” He threatened, pointing a finger. “I’m going to roll you up into a tiny ball and kick you so hard that there’s going to be a permanent indent in your body.”

“My dad could beat you up for that.”

“Guys,” Luz whined.

“Why are we even considering advice from him?” King pointed at Hunter. “Doesn’t he hate Amity?”

“First of all, it’s a mutual hatred.” Hunter said matter-of-factly. “Second of all, just because I don’t like Amity doesn’t mean I’m not going to offer assistance to Luz. This is the most fun I’ve had all day.”

“Do you even like girls?” Luz puffed, raising her head to squint at him.

“Please tell me I never gave you the impression that I did."

“See? My point exactly.” King said proudly, crossing his little arms.

“It wasn’t,” Hunter sighed, ears flicking back.

“I’m going for it.” Luz said, lifting her scroll and beginning to type.

“Wh-wait, what are you typing?” Hunter jerked around, trying to peek over as King scrambled up Luz’s back. “Is it one of my ideas? It’s gotta be one of mine.”

“It is not!” King snapped, attempting a swing that Hunter shrugged off, King almost swinging too hard and falling off.

“I really just want you two to stop talking,” Luz sighed, showing Hunter what she had said as King craned his neck to see.

You up for a picnic by the Grom tree?

Luz had only just sent it, but they could already see that Amity was beginning to type a response.

“You didn’t even tell her it was a date.” King pointed out, and Luz hurriedly began typing again as Hunter snorted at her.

As, like, a date.

“Smooth,” Hunter drawled, getting an elbow to the side for his troubles.

Barely a few moments after Luz sent her second message, the icon showing that Amity was typing vanished.

They waited for a few moments, seeing no icon pop up again. Luz lowered it to her lap and stared off at the wall with a horrified expression.

“I ruined it,” She whispered.

“Oh hush, you’re fine.” Hunter pushed at her head, almost sending her to the floor as King hopped off.

“Should’ve gone with my idea,” King tsked as Hunter peeled the scroll from Luz’s hands, who didn’t have enough time to react as he scanned over their messages.

“Is Amity’s contact seriously just a bunch of hearts?” Hunter scoffed, giving Luz a dry look.

“You don’t get to judge, you don’t even know what emojis are.” Luz muttered, weakly reaching for her scroll back.

“Yeah? These are emotes.” Hunter raised a brow, eyes squinting.

“Hunter, lo juro por Dios--”

There was a chiming ding from Luz’s scroll, and Hunter immediately held out a hand and pressed it to Luz’s face to keep her from snatching the scroll back as he read over the newest message. King climbed onto his shoulder to get a look, too.

“Don’t you dare respond for me, Hunter I will end you--”

“Relax, lovergirl. She said yes.” Hunter chuffed, handing her the scroll that she all but ripped out of his grip.

Luz read the text, then read it a few more times for good measure. It was a simple Yes! What time? and the other two thought that alone might cause Luz to crash.

“Hey, Luz,” King said as Hunter snapped in her face. “Are you still with us?”

“The time, Luz. You need to set a time.” Hunter stressed.

“Time! Right, yes! A time!” Luz jerked, blushing as she quickly began typing again. “The afternoon is a good time for a picnic, right?”

“You went in this on your own, you're leaving it on your own.” Hunter raised his hands, palms up.

“Some help you are.” Luz muttered.

“You didn’t even use my ideas! And they were great!” King whined, slumping dramatically until he ended up slipping right off Hunter’s shoulder and clunking onto the floor.

“My entertainment here is done.” Hunter said, giving a mock salute as he pushed himself upright. “Thank you for giving me a reason to be ignoring any and all calls.”

“I thought you said you annoyed Lilith into letting you leave?” King looked up from the floor, eyes narrowed.

“I mean, technically, she just told me to leave her alone.” He said, giving a shrug as he put his hands in his pockets. “She didn’t say how.”

“She’s going to actually kill you one day, you know that?” Luz spared looking up from her phone, giving him an unamused stare.

“And it’ll be my greatest accomplishment.” Hunter grinned back.

King and Luz squinted at him for a moment, sharing a quick glance with each other.

“Do you need to call your--”

“No, I do not need to call my therapist, thank you.” Hunter grumbled, ears pressing back in embarrassment as stormed towards the door. “Good luck with the date, or whatever.”

“I appreciate the support!” Luz called, already going back to typing on her scroll.

King looked over at her scroll, head resting on her shoulder as he watched what she was saying. Hunter paused in the doorway for just a moment, one ear pricked.

“What does ‘mi corazón’ mean--?”

“Nothing, stop looking!” Luz squeaked, yanking the scroll out of King’s view, face immediately flushing.

Hunter cackled loudly, one hand braced on the doorframe. He got a pillow thrown full-force at his head, but it was worth it.

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ramblingguy54 · 3 years

Text

Edalyn Clawthorne: A Loner Created Through Tragedy

Seeing what happened to Edalyn’s father in Knock Knock Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door greatly explains why she looked so saddened by Lilith talking about hanging around their dad more by Keeping Up A-Fear-Ances conclusion. She harbors a lot of guilt in scratching his face up badly from years ago. After an incident like that for someone around an age that young in their life definitely contributed to Eda’s resolve of keeping herself away from others not just solely because of her own ideals about magic and how to properly use it, but also to prevent more people from getting badly hurt because of the owl curse, too. It’s sad to look back on what Lilith said to her mother, “Mom, I heard you, but I couldn’t stop myself.”, because that’s exactly what Eda went through when she attacked her dad.

No matter what her father could’ve said it wouldn’t have reached Edalyn, due to not having much experience with controlling the curse at that time. The amount of guilt running through Edalyn’s mind after coming back to her senses must’ve been unbearable as Hell. It’s already bad enough when hurting random people under a nasty spell, but to injure someone who helped bring you into the world? Anyone would want to put a large gap between themselves after such an awful experience of this magnitude. Season 2 of The Owl House has been doing a lot of great things in its story, such as showing more of Eda’s vulnerability being the point of my post I’d like to delve more into about.

Eda’s development of opening up emotionally more in Season 1 was certainly good, however we didn’t get a real look into what makes Edalyn who she is as a whole. Season 2 has been allowing more in-depth exploration about why she guards herself as frequently as possible from others. It isn’t a matter of, “I like being a loner, who lives by their own rules about how our world operates.”, rather it centers around, “I’m a bad influence and don’t want to hurt others I care deeply about, or even possibly could grow to, because of my cursed affliction.”. Gwendolyn stating her curse was something that should be cut it out if need be certainly didn’t help in contributing to Eda’s loner nature she develop onward. These moments made her feel ashamed as if she didn’t deserve to be apart something greater like a family, having friends, or finding her own respective lover to boot.

Eda’s long amount of solitude made her into a more powerfully independent and capable person, magically speaking, but it came at a serious cost of something important, one’s own self-esteem. The curse stunted Eda’s emotional growth for a very long while in having to take up the mantle of being unable to face her fears head on. Even in spite of her lesson to Raine about not running away from your own demons, the saying of practice what you preach rang unfortunately true here. Edalyn has been a very closed off person for so many years, where the idea of having to present yourself to someone else, warts and all, scared this witch away into living in seclusion at her Owl House. Despite gaining a family eventually through Luz & King, Eda never told them about her curse until it happened, wasn’t big on showing affection, and struggled with teaching Luz consistently in a good chunk of Season 1.

Eda’s biggest challenge to overcome has been actually letting people into her life which costed her a healthy social lifestyle, became distant toward the Clawthorne family tree, and resulted in Raine calling off their romantic relationship. They were tired of Eda’s distant attitude in not being able to commit emotionally with expressing more of her compassion, vulnerability, or love either. This is something problematic Eda’s Requiem did explore too when King wanted to speak with Eda, yet she kept on either changing the subject last second, or made up a convenient excuse to hold off on discussing this matter. Edalyn was afraid of change because she had finally become used to King being around for so long. Knowing Luz would have to leave inevitably hurt already, so now finding out King possibly wanted to go find his actual father and stay there with him instead scared Eda outta her mind in facing a reality without the both of them.

Change is a word for Eda that’s a thing she never wants to hear. It’s why she makes the decisions that went on to define her serious solitude. Eda is used to being alone without having to rely on much of anyone else, but that doesn’t mean she obviously has enjoyed it, either. Edalyn only lived in seclusion because she thought it was necessary for safety reasons not outta love for a hermit lifestyle. The tragedy of Eda’s personal background is she allowed this curse to rule over her life for those three decades. Now, to be fair, Gwendolyn contributed to Eda’s baggage with viewing her curse as a disgusting attribute does indeed share the blame here in these events, but regardless Edalyn made unwise decisions she clearly regrets. The biggest ones being not letting anyone, as seen with Raine, get closer to her and avoiding changes to a status quo in Eda’s complicated life. What happened to Eda’s dad was obviously not her fault whatsoever, as it was entirely out of her control. However, Eda’s choice to live in seclusion away from many, make things impossible for a healthy honest relationship work with Raine, and running away from King’s possible separation in Requiem’s story paints a different picture on Eda’s loner nature.

Eda may try to carry herself as this loner with a sassy attitude, but it’s all just a facade to mask deeper issues of self-esteem, loneliness, and regrets. I find it so beautiful in how she didn’t want Luz running away from her feelings to Amity because she didn’t want her to make the same mistake, like what happened with Raine. Eda let her fear of commitment get to herself and it caused nothing but a mountain of regrets, so she’s correcting this flawed mindset through helping Luz & Amity’s romance. Like, real talk, the way Owl House has explored LGBTQ+ has been simply excellent in building organic romances with Luz/Amity & Eda/Raine, but still giving important development to their characters in making sure their sexuality isn’t the only defining trait they have. That’s been like a pet peeve of mine when incorporating representation for this community of people. I’m all for seeing this kind of equality in fictional entertainment, but don’t make this the only thing that defines their characterization as a whole and Owl House totally understands this about using LGBTQ+ related content.

Season 2 of Owl House has been greatly expanding upon Eda’s emotional dilemmas around her curse, which I love as it deepens this character’s motivations on bettering herself. Edalyn has become a super relatable mentor figure in these recent episodes taking time to showcase the complexities of Clawthorne’s family dynamic being shaken by Eda’s curse and how she finally comes to term with it here in Knock Knock Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door. Rather than viewing it as a monster to be afraid of, Eda is viewing this creature as another living thing deserving to be treated as an equal and not a threat thanks to the help of those elixirs she drinks on a daily basis. I thought Knock Knock Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door would be a serious comedic breather, but instead it gave us more insight on this cast of main protagonists. Edalyn’s backstory revelations were such an amazing surprise, as I didn’t think we’d be getting to see her father this soon and what caused a big rift between the two, as well.

Knock Knock Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door exceeded my expectations in more ways than one. Season 2 of The Owl House has been continuing to impress me.

#edalyn clawthorne #toh season 2 spoilers #toh season 2 #eda clawthorne #the owl house #the owl house season 2 #knock knock knockin' on hooty's door

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bigender-titan · 3 years

Text

i tripped and ended up falling for you

Summary:

"Let me finish. I tripped over a box." Raine chuckled. "And then I heard my mom shouting my name, and I panicked, so I opened the box and went in. And then... I wasn't on the Boiling Isles anymore."

"And let me guess. We're going there."

"Of course! You know me so well, Rainstorm."

Content warnings: Food, cursing

Word count: 1780

(read on ao3)

"Eda," Raine complained, a note of teasing in their voice. "This is the third time you've walked me into a tree. Are you sure I have to close my eyes?"

"Yes! Otherwise it doesn't work as a surprise! We're almost there, though, so hopefully your pretty face won't have to be threatened by any more trees." Also, if Raine's eyes were closed, they couldn't see how much Eda was blushing after xe called them pretty. Also, how much xe blushed every time xe remembered they were holding hands.

"Are you normally this- ow- clumsy?"

Yeah, I tripped and ended up falling for you. "Give me a break, I didn't have any apple blood today." Eda swatted a branch out of the way before it could hit Raine, and waved xyr arms enthusiastically. "We're here! You can look!"

"Where is here?" Raine asked, opening xyr eyes. "The middle of the woods?"

"Here's where I found the portal!"

"You found a-"

"It all started when my mom was being- well, you know my mom, she suggested some weird curse treatment as usual, and I did not want to deal with that shit. So I did what any reasonable witch would!"

"Communicate your feelings in a healthy way?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I escaped through the window and ran!"

"That's... not really that surprising."

"And while I was running, I tripped-"

"Also not surprising." Raine had the cutest smile, even when they were teasing xem. It almost made Eda want to do more stupid things, to see their smile again. Though xe was pretty sure xe would do a lot of stupid things accidentally.

"Let me finish. I tripped over a box." Raine chuckled. "And then I heard my mom shouting my name, and I panicked, so I opened the box and went in. And then... I wasn't on the Boiling Isles anymore."

"And let me guess. We're going there."

"Of course! You know me so well, Rainstorm." Xe took the portal out of xyr bag and opened it up. After putting one foot through, xe extended a hand to Raine. "You coming?"

Raine paused. "Is it... safe?"

"Well..." Eda thought about the times xe'd been in the human realm. "No one's tried to eat me, and they have weather that doesn't try to kill you, so we should be good. Close your eyes again- that'll make it more fun!"

Although they still looked slightly unconvinced, they closed their eyes and took Eda's hand in theirs. Xe grinned and tugged lightly until Raine followed xem into the portal.

"You can open your eyes again!" Eda declared when the pair reappeared. Raine obliged and looked around.

"Um, cool. An old house. There's a newspaper hung up about how... 'an annoying redhead teenager robbed a bakery.'" They gave xem a disapproving look as Eda grinned and gave a double thumbs up. "Did it at least taste good?"

"Delicious. I'll take you. We can steal some more."

"I don't condone this."

"Fine. I'll steal more and share with you, you goody two shoes."

"How about... paying?"

"They don't take snails. I tried." Well, xe'd only tried paying in snails after the owner had caught xem stealing, but Raine didn't need to know that. "Come on, stealing is fun! Be gay do crime!"

"Okay, Eda. And where exactly is this bakery? Also, where are we?"

"The human realm!" Eda exclaimed, letting out the secret that had been bouncing around inside of xem since xe'd come here the first time. Xe'd wanted to share it with someone desperately, and who better than Raine?

Raine's dark brown eyes lit up. "The human realm? Okay, that's cool."

"And they have really good- their pastries don't try to eat you!"

"Now this I have to see."

Eda laughed and threw xyr arm around Raine's shoulders, leading them out of the old house and into the little human town. As they passed things that must have been ordinary for humans- a dog that barked instead of speaking, automobiles speeding past, people walking by with their rounded ears- the pair whispered to each other and pointed it out, fascinated. Eda had been here before and it still excited xem; this was all new to Raine, and they were flapping their hands up and down in surprise and excitement.

Soon, they reached Robin's Roast Cafe. "Ready to help me rob the place?" Eda asked.

Raine sighed.

"Come on... think of pastries that are eaten willingly instead of trying to kill you... oh come on, Raine, you won't even have to do the stealing! Just distract the owner while I do it."

For a while, Raine was silent. Then: "Fine, I'll do it. Only for you, Eda Clawthorne."

"Thanks, Rainstorm! Love you!" It slipped out of Eda's mouth without xem knowing; xe blushed when xe realized what xe just said.

The pair stared at one another for an awkward beat, then Raine looked away and cleared their throat. "Ready to steal?"

"Always," Eda said, cracking xyr knuckles. Xe opened the door and held it open for Raine. No one else was inside, probably because all the humans were either at work or school. It was the middle of the day, after all, and Eda and Raine only had off because it was a holiday on the Boiling Isles.

"How can I help you?" someone asked. Eda didn't get a very good look at them, because xyr gaze was focused on the cupcakes on the counter. But then xe realized Raine wouldn't want to do the talking, so xe looked up.

Behind the counter was a brown skinned teenager, with dark hair tied in a bun and red-framed glasses. She was kind of pretty, Eda supposed, but nothing like Raine.

Eda! Owl Bitch! Stop being gay and focus on stealing cupcakes.

"Yeah, my partn- friend and I were thinking of getting cupcakes, but Raine has a lot of allergies, I can never keep track, so they'll need to know the ingredients."

The girl nodded. "We have an ingredient list in the back room. Do you mind waiting a bit while I go grab it?"

"Not at all," Raine said, likely knowing that Eda would probably give xemself away by being a little too enthusiastic about being left alone. The girl nodded again and left.

As soon as the door behind her swung closed, Eda snapped xyr fingers and two cupcake vanished from behind the glass and reappeared, one in each hand. Raine grabbed xem two napkins to wrap each one in. "I'll meet you outside," xe said softly, bumping shoulders with them. "Tell the girl you forgot your wallet and can't pay so it doesn't look suspicious that we came inside without buying anything."

"I should probably be concerned by how good you are at this thief thing, but it's fun," Raine replied, grinning. "See you soon."

Raine might have thought Eda was a good thief, but they were the one who stole xyr heart. Xe only hoped xe'd managed to steal theirs in return.

Shaking the thought away- no use pining over xyr best friend more than xe had already today- xe grabbed a table and set the cupcakes down. Soon, the door swung open and Raine joined xem at the table.

"That was terrifying," Raine sighed, grabbing their cupcake from Eda.

"And fun?"

"Yeah. And fun." They smiled and licked some of the chocolate icing off their cupcake. "Oh- oh wow. This is really good. You're sure it won't eat me?"

"Pretty sure, yeah," said Eda, taking a huge bite out of xyr cupcake.

"You aren't going to savor yours?"

"Nah," xe replied, slightly unintelligible due to xyr mouth being full.

Unsurprisingly, Eda's cupcake disappeared significantly before Raine's, but it was almost as enjoyable to watch Rainstorm eat theirs and smile. Damn, xe was really failing at this don't pine over them thing.

Finally, Raine finished their cupcake and looked up at Eda. "That was delicious. Thanks for stealing it."

"Any time, Rainstorm." Eda paused a little, studying Raine's lips. Which was a completely normal thing to do, of course. "You got a little icing..." xe trailed off. Suddenly feeling bold, xe swiped a finger along the corner of Raine's mouth.

Instantly, xe regretted it. "Sorry- sorry. I'll just crawl in a hole and-"

"I don't mind."

"Okay," Eda said, and quickly changed the subject. "You want to head back to the Boiling Isles?"

"Not- not yet, I don't think. I... really like it here. It's- I like it."

"I'm glad you do. I was really hoping you'd enjoy coming here. I'm not really the best at gestures, remember that time I got you snake oil for your birthday? But I really wanted to do something special for you, because, well, you're really special to me."

Raine was silent for a long time. Eda went back to wishing xe could crawl into a hole. "You're really special to me too," they said finally, softly.

Eda smiled and blushed. Did Raine mean it platonically? Romantically? Who knew. This was all so confusing. But it made xem a little braver.

"Raine, I don't want to sound all cheesy, because ick, but you're sweet and caring and funny and a million other things that make me want to be with you all the time, and like you said, I'd be a mess without you. I mean, I'm already a mess, but... I want to be with you anyway. Shit, now I'm rambling. Okay. Um. How do I say this... You're smoking hot and I have a teeny tiny ridiculously overwhelming crush on you!"

Raine blinked once. Twice. Eda looked around for escape routes and/or holes.

"That's- I- I think you're really date and I want to go on a great, I mean. Ack. Words. I think you're really great and I want to go on a date."

All the panic evaporated off of Eda and a wide smile spread across xyr face. "Fuck yeah! I'd love to date you! Hear that, everyone!" xe yelled loudly, drawing the attention of the one and only pedestrian on the other side of the street. "I'm dating Raine Whispers! Whooo!"

Raine laughed and kissed xem on the cheek. Eda's mouth formed a perfect O.

"-da. Eda. Eda. Earth to Eda?"

"Sorry. You kissed me and I think it broke my mind. I'm definitely still a mess."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Holding hands (holding hands!!!) they walked back to the old house and back through the portal, back to the Boiling Isles. Back to Eda's old life. Except now, it was a million times better, because xe was dating Raine Whispers.

Hear that, everyone? Xe's dating Raine Whispers! Whooo!

#the girl working at the bakery is camila btw #anyway i really like this one #they're really sweet #you're smoking hot and i have a teeny tiny ridiculously overwhelming crush on you #i like to think eda planned to be super smooth and then this happened #the owl house #raeda #toh raeda #eda clawthorne #genderqueer!eda

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stupid-stew · 3 years

Text

Boiling Rain

my finger slipped again oopsies idk if this is 100% in character but like what if eda kicked lilith out right away and ended up regretting it later

There was nothing worse than a knock on the door for Eda. Especially not in the middle of the night, during a boiling rain storm, when she was fresh out of magic, and she had a kid in the house, and there was no hooty noise to warn her beforehand. What was he up to?

Eda was still new at defending herself without her magic, but she knew her way around a bat, just ask that guy at the bar from her 20’s and his massive medical bill. Whatever she thought, laughing to herself, that jerk deserved it, no medical bill was larger than his ego. Bat in her left hand, doorknob in her right, she simultaneously swung the door open and raised the bat into a defensive position, ready to strike, that is until…

“Lily?”

What she saw before her definitely wasn’t her sister, but that was Lilith on her doorstep. Well kind of, Lilith collapsed in front of her, drenched in steaming water, clearly out of breath, nothing like the perfect prissy Lilith she knew, and what was she wearing? Where was her dress and cloak? Oh, Eda realized, that is her dress and cloak. The clothes were nearly melting off of her sister, riddled with holes. That couldn’t have made her injuries any less severe. Eda had been stuck in her fair share of boiling rain storms, even with the thick skin of the owl beast it had still taken her weeks to heal, she couldn’t even begin to fathom the state her sister was in.

“I’m sorry” came a hoarse whisper from the pile at her feet

“Lily oh my titan-” Eda dropped the bat and turned her head to yell up the stairs, hoping she was loud enough to wake her sleeping apprentice “LUZ, WAKE UP” Her head snapped back to the door frame at the movement of Lilith flinching at her loud voice. What happened to her.

Eda bent down to at least try to get an idea of the injuries her sister had suffered, but before she could get her hands on Lilith, Luz appeared at the base of the stairs. “What’s going on?” she asked, clearly still half asleep. “I need you to go up to the bathroom and grab the first aid kit, not the one in the first aid kit box, the one in the lunchbox.” Eda instructed.

Luz went to move up the stairs but suddenly snapped awake, “Is that Lilith?”

“Luz, later, first aid kit now, please” Eda responded, back turned to the now fully attentive teenager

“Got it…” Luz ran up the stairs, “...the blue or the purple one?” she shouted

Eda sighed, now that Luz was going to be here a while she should make a point to show the kid the ropes around the house “The purple one please.”

Not even a half minute later Eda had the box in her hand and was sorting through the bandages, what was she doing, she didn’t even know how badly wounded Lilith was. Eda set the supplies down and moved to touch Lilith when a pale, terribly blistered hand shot out of the mound in front of her and grabbed her wrist.

“No.”

Eda was confused and jerked her hand away “What do you mean no?”

Lilith took a couple ragged breaths before weakly responding “I don’t want your help, I don’t deserve it”

They sat there in silence for a moment before Eda remembered Luz was still behind her, “Luz, sweetie, could you go grab some blankets and maybe draw up some of those healing glyphs you’ve been working on?”

“Sure” the girl replied softly before quietly stepping back up the stairs

“Edalyn I sai-” Lilith started

“I heard you. I don’t want to hear it. You need help.”

“Not your help-” Lilith inhaled painfully “not after everything I did to you.”

“Oh for titan’s sake Lily, you think just because you made a mistake I’m going to let you lay here in pain? I haven’t even seen your face yet and I can tell you need help, mine or not.”

“No, I shouldn’t have come here, it’s all my fault, I’ll go.” Lilith moved to get up, but the burns weren’t having it and she barely got a push-up’s distance off the ground before her arms gave out.

“Are you kidding me right now? You come to my door in the middle of the night, after having gone through titan-knows-what, covered in burns, your clothes are barely intact, and you expect me to just let you leave?”

Eda wasn’t having any more of it, and reached out and grabbed Lilith’s arm, who hissed in a combination of pain and protest.

“Not on my watch sister” Eda spoke through her teeth. For someone so frail, Lilith was definitely a bit heavier than she looked, though the fact she was drenched probably didn’t help.

She managed to drag the complaining witch all the way to the couch before Luz made her way down the stairs, blankets and a stack of healing glyphs in hand.

“Kid, drop those and come help me please.”

Together they were able to get Lilith into a lying position on the couch, and for the first time see how bad of a state Lilith was in. Not an inch of the witch’s skin was spared from the rains, red blotches and boils acted like massive freckles over her whole body. While taking in the sight of her sister, Eda managed to meet the injured witch’s eyes for a split second, and what she saw scared her more than anything. Of course Lilith’s face was contorted in pain, but there was also shame and embarrassment in her eyes. If I showed up in her state I’d be embarrassed too, but did she really think I wasn’t going to help her?

“Kid can you go upstairs and grab Lilith some clothes from my dresser? Anything you think will fit her is fine, and…” Eda leaned in next to Luz’s ear and in a low whisper “could you take your time? I’d like to talk to my sister in private”

Luz looked at her with understanding “Of course, if you need anything just yell up the stairs.” She eyed Lilith one more time before retreating back up the stairs.

Eda then turned back to Lilith, who seemed unwilling to meet her eye again. “Alright. Let’s get started, you look a mess, so this might hurt a lot more than a little.”

“Edalyn why are you doing this”

Eda chuckled “Have you seen yourself, I’ve never been the best at responsibility, but I think it would make me a bad person to not help someone in your condition.”

“No Eda, I mean why after everything that I did to you, to Luz, why are you still helping me when I am the last person you should want to help, I don’t understand.”

There was a heavy silence followed by a long exhale from Eda. She didn’t respond, instead moving for the pile of glyphs that Luz had left them. “This is going to hurt a lot, and I’m not going to be able to get it all without my magic, the glyphs only do so much, but I think I can make the worst of it at least better.”

For the second time that night Eda was stopped from touching Lilith by a pale shaking hand.

“Edalyn, why?”

“Ok here’s a deal, you let me help you and I’ll tell you why in the end? Sounds fair enough?”

“You really aren’t going to budge on this are you.”

“Nope.” Eda replied, popping her lips on the last syllable.

Lilith flopped back onto her back, shutting her eyes and exclaiming at the, without a doubt, excruciating pain the impact with the couch had caused.

“Real smooth Lils”

“Oh shut it.”

Somehow the older witch’s face turned even more red through the burns and boils.

Eda managed to get through placing glyphs along Lilith’s arms and legs with minimal issue, Lilith didn’t seem to be enjoying herself very much, but even she had to admit it was starting to look better. At some point Luz had come back down with a cream colored shirt and black patchwork skirt for Lilith to change into along with some more glyphs. Eda had sent her back to bed, the kid did have school in a few hours.

“Ok, we are going to have to take off your dress so I can reach your back, looks like that’s where most of the damage is, and…” as Lilith sat up Eda caught a glimpse of her full back “there also doesn’t seem to be all that much dress left to remove. You really got caught in the rain huh?”

Lilith didn’t respond, but instead met Eda’s eyes again, which made Eda suspicious.

“Do we have to?”

“Yes Lilith we have to treat your injuries.” Eda rolled her eyes at her sister, what did she expect when she was out in the rain without protection?

Lilith didn’t look amused, instead she seemed to pale out. She pulled down the top half of her dress and rolled over onto her stomach.

Eda gasped.

Lilith’s back was covered in burns and boils sure, but what shocked Eda was the array of scratches and claw marks all over Lilith’s back, not only her back but they seemed to go up and down her whole body in varying degrees. Some of them looked healed, or on the way there, some of them fresh, some of them even seemed to be infected.

“What the hell Li-”

Was all she got out before she was interrupted

“Forest demons aren’t as nice as they seem. Ever.”

Oh. Eda snapped her mouth shut and silently applied as many glyphs as she could to Lilith’s back and upper arms as she could. Of course, Eda thought, I didn’t let her stay here, she’s got no friends outside the coven, she doesn’t look different enough to find somewhere safe from the coven guard in town, especially not with her posters lining the alleyways, she’s been sleeping in the woods. Where else would she have gone. With their mother? Any number of nights in the forest without a roof was better than one night under their mom’s.

“Thank you.” a voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Huh? Oh.” Eda had been so busy thinking that she didn’t realize she had finished. “I’ll go to the kitchen to make us some tea, you can change in here, don’t worry about hooty he seems to be asleep.”

Lilith nodded and Eda made her way to the kitchen. Once the water was on the stove, she dove back into her thoughts. All these nights? I kicked her to the curb the night of the incident, it’s been at least a week, it’s rained almost every night. Oh titan, not all of those burns were fresh, that’s probably why Lilith was able to move at all, she was used to it. How has she been eating, bathing, sleeping? She’d been weakened by the splitting of the curse, could she have even defended herself? She could have come around any time- wait. Eda realized that she had told Lilith not to come anywhere near the house… ever again. That’s why she was so convinced she wouldn’t get help at the owl house. Maybe if I had been less harsh, it I hadn-

The whistle of the water being ready pulled Eda back to reality. She quickly placed the tea bags into the mugs and filled them with water and left the kitchen. When she got back to the living room, Lilith was already sitting in her dry clothes, a dim blue light escaping through the thin fabrics from the glow of the healing glyphs. Eda handed her a mug and brought her own to her lips, taking a long sip before sitting down next to her sister.

They sat like that for a while, sipping and waiting. Eventually, much to Eda’s surprise, Lilith broke the silence.

“So why?”

“Huh?” Eda replied, still deep in thought.

“Why did you decide to help me?” Lilith asked, looking into her mug as if it held all the answers “We both know I didn’t deserve it.”

“You’re right.” Eda replied simply. “You don’t deserve my help.”

Looking up from her tea and at her sister with genuine confusion, Lilith asked “So why did you help me then?”

“Let me finish. You don’t deserve my help. You cursed me, you kept your mouth shut about it for decades, until it was far too late, and in a desperate attempt to save your own ass you captured not only me, but my apprentice. My apprentice who I might as well call my own daughter at this point. You hurt her you know?”

Lilith’s eyes reverted back to her mug in shame.

“Oh yeah, she’s got bruises that aren’t even healed yet, that’s why she got looking into the healing glyphs. Plus, she faced Belos. She had to burn her only way home, she’s stuck here now. And me? I lost my magic. The most powerful witch on the boiling isles, now without the witch part.”

To emphasize her point, Eda drew a golden spell circle in the air, only for it to crumble into a pile of dust at her feet.

“Edalyn, I-”

“But,” the younger Clawthorne interjected, “that doesn’t make you a bad person, and I refuse to let it make me a bad person. I don’t know what your reasons were for cursing me, not telling me, I don’t know what Belos promised you, but it had to be pretty big to do what you did. And it’s my fault for not knowing. I kicked you out without even hearing you out, and you got hurt for it, I never even gave you a chance to explain yourself.”

It was Eda’s turn to avoid eye contact now, staring contemplatively into her now empty cup.

“It’s my fault you got hurt. That’s why I helped you. I was so caught up in my own anger that I didn’t think about the consequences of my actions. I’m still mad at you, and you’re far from forgiven, but I think you need help. Let me help you.”

For the first time in a long time, the two sisters met eyes in a moment of understanding.

“Ok.” Lilith said after a moment of comfortable silence.

“Good because I wasn’t really giving you a choice.”

They both laughed at that.

They sat for a moment, before it was finally Eda’s turn to speak first.

“So why’d you come here if you didn’t want my help?”

Lilith picked at her fingers for a moment before responding.

“I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t have anywhere else to go. It was so dark and so hot, I could barely even think, none of the other storms had gotten me this bad.”

Ah, so I was right. Eda regretted.

“It was like my feet took me here, all I knew was I needed to get out of the rain, and before I knew it I was in front of your house on my knees. I expected you to turn me away, I wanted you to turn me away.”

Eda didn’t know how to respond to that with anything other than “Why.”

Lilith thought for a moment.

“I guess I needed you to turn me away, I thought it might feel better to know that for once you would be the one leaving me in pain after 30 years of the roles being reversed, I think after all of that I deser-”

“No.” Eda interrupted. “I might not be the best sister, neither are you, but I will not ever let you suffer in any way remotely close to the way I did. Nobody deserves that, I sure as hell didn’t but neither do you. You will always have a place to stay with me, no matter how mad I am at you.”

They sat for a while longer, both deep in thought. Eventually Eda took both mugs back to the kitchen and rinsed them before going back to the living room, sitting next to Lilith one last time to help her out with the blankets.

“I think the shed is livable, the tower might be a bit too overgrown at the moment but we can work something out. You can stay on the couch tonight, no way you’re going back out into that. We can set ground rules in the morning, just try and get some sleep before the kid wakes up. She’s very excited about the new day, every day.” Eda spoke fondly.

“You really care for her, don’t you.” Lilith asked, a sad smile tugging on her lips.

“That I do. Goodnight Lilith.” Eda responded before stretching and cracking more joints than any one witch should physically be able to. “Woof, even sitting on that couch is enough to make me sore”

“I’m sure it’s just fine, thank you Edalyn, for everything. And goodnight.” Lilith said while trying to find a comfortable position on the lumpy couch. Her injuries, while significantly better, weren’t doing anything to help the situation. It wasn’t long before the soothing warmth of the healing glyphs lulled Lilith into a deep, dreamless sleep, much better than any she’d gotten on the forest floor.

Not even a few hours later, the sun shone on the owl house, waking Luz first, and if she was any quieter than normal that morning, or if she saw a certain gray haired owl lady sleeping on the floor next to Lilith’s position on the couch on her way out the door, she never mentioned it to a soul.

#the owl house #lilith clawthorne #luz noceda #eda clawthorne #eda the owl lady

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atomicblasphemy · 3 years

Text

Eda becomes some kind of flying taxi service

Amity: So I told Malphas he needed to have a talk with Gary about our coffee break space.

Emira: Mhmm.

Amity: I mean, for one, Gary never cleans after himself. Like, I once saw him leaving his mug dirty for over a week. A WEEK. It was disgusting. It was just sitting dare on the table for days. I didn’t want to clean it, I’m not a doormate. But it was dire and I had no choice. And don’t get me started on the fridge situation. My lunch has been getting smaller by the day and I can’t seem to figure out the culprit.

Emira: That’s nice, Mittens. Isn’t it nice, Edric?

Edric: What?

Amity: Will you guys pay attention? I need some advice on...

*Windows cracking”

Edric: What the...

Hooty: AMITY FELICITY BLIGHT! IT IS I, HOOTCIFER, HARBINGER OF THY DESTINY. COME WITH ME AND I SHALL REVEAL WHAT JOYS THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR THEE.

Amity: I... What?

Hooty: DOTH THOU DARE DEFY FATE? *Swallows Amity*

Emira: ... What just happened? Wasn’t that Eda’s house demon? You know, the one we met before Grom?

Edric: I think it was. I’m not sure though, he sounded more... ominous...

SEVERAL EMOTIONAL MOMENTS LATER

Luz: It’s early... Do you really have to go already?

Amity: Yeah... I still have to finish homework, and I have work tomorrow. But I’ll come back here tomorrow... If you’re okay with it, that is...

Luz: YES! I mean... yeah, I’d love that...

Amity: Anyway... I guess I should get going, we’re not exactly neighbors after all. See you tomorrow then.

Luz: Wait, I have an idea. *Turns around* EDA!

Eda: *Not stopping her flight practice* What?

Luz: Do you think you could give Amity a lift back to her place?

Eda: Oh? Not walking your girlfriend home? Thought you’d be more chivalrous.

Luz: *Showing that Amity’s tomato like properties are infectious* EDAAA!

Eda: Sorry, sorry. But yeah, sure. *Picks up Amity and flies away at neckbreaking speeds. She soon slows down to a more reasonable pace* So... Amity, before I give you that whole “What are your intentions?” scare there’s something I’ve been itching to ask you. What made you chose to dye your hair of all colors, and how did Odd-alia react?

Amity: Luz... Me... Girlfriend...

Eda: Ugh... Don’t make me regret making harmless fun of young love, kiddo.

ONE AWKWARD TAXI EDA FLYING SESSION LATER.

Eda: *Placing Amity on the Blight Manor’s front porch and looking at the two bewildered faces watching her* Sup. *Turns to fly away* Oh right, I guess purple here is in not in the mental state to give any explanations.

Amity: Small ceremony... Human realm... Only friends and family... Boscha is not invited...

Emira: Are you... Edalyn Clawthorne?

Eda: Last I checked I was.

Emira: You look different.

Eda: Oh right... Look, it was a very eventful night so let me start with the simpler one. King, you remember him, right? Tiny, angry, looks like a cat, was the MC at the last Grom along with Goops.

Emira and Edirc: Yeah...?

Eda: He’s harnessing all the powers of yelling. I guess all children his age kinda do that but he went above and beyond and actually learned how to make things go boom with his voice alone, and that’s why both Luz and your sister are still alive. And now I’m realizing I should probably go hide all those Death Metal records I got in human realm. Can’t risk turning my son into a weapon of mass destruction. Not yet.

Edric: That’s... nice... I guess?

Emira: How about Mittens?

Eda: Right. She and Luz are an item now. It was adorable, I called her Luz’s girlfriend then I think it finally really hit her and that made her go all catatonic on me. Sorry about that.

Edric: WHAT?

Emira: Okay, okay... So came out with it? Ed and I have some scores to settle.

Eda: I... Both, I guess? I don’t know, it was sort of at the same time. But I don’t want to spoil it for when she recovers. So I guess us three are kinda family now, huh? Tangentially at least, like you’re my nephew and niece-in-law or something like that, I don’t know.

Eda: The important thing is: there’s a huge waterway under my house and I think it is actually part of my property. Now I need to figure out a way to find out how big that place actually is without letting town hall know so my taxes won’t go up. Can’t push my tax evasion skills. I mean, can you imagine it? The Owl Lady, the most successful outlaw in Boiling Isles history: arrested for fiscal crimes.

Emira: Okay... That’s... cool.

Edric: Yeah... Not to pry though, but what happened to you?

Eda: Oh... Me? I got very high. Not on purpose. Then I became a Harpy. Also not on purpose.

Emira: ... I’m sorry but I’m not following the cause and effect relation between those thing.

Eda: Neither am I. All I remember is: Hooty spiked some cookies; I revisited that time I gauged out my dad’s eye, also not on purpose; then when I push my ex away (You know, Raine Whispers, current head of the Bard Coven, lead a small revolutionary guerrilla, now under mind control. Oh, yeah, guess they’d make to sure to keep it under wraps, anyway...)

Eda: Then it got pretty weird. I got trapped by this tall hooded sun and moon figure and I’m not sure whether that was an actual memory (I did get arrested a few time after all) or if it was just a hallucinogenics induced manifestation of the subconscious trauma of being persecuted for years by the state. Anyone’s guess to which was it.

Eda: And then I became Icarus, fell into the sea, and became a piece of paper. Then I was at the beach, the piece of paper was also there, but that’s not important... I hope... Anyway, so, my curse was there too an for a moment there I thought we were gonna play some chess, but nah.

Eda: I did have an epiphany though. The sky changed colors and now I’m a Harpy. Gotta a lot of stuff to process right.

Edric: *Wide eyed and mouth agape* Mother of Titan...

Emira: *Same as her brother* Do you... need a hug or something?

Eda: Ehh... Don’t worry, I’ll get through. I mean, I’m a badass Harpy woman now, what else could I want? I appreciate the thought though. Anyway, I’ll get going, Luz has probably been stuck in the same place ever since I left. Was nice seeing you guys. *Turns around*

Edric: WAIT, EDA.

Eda: Yeah? What is it?

Edric: Can you take me flying a little bit like you did Mittens? Pretty please?

Emira: *Elbowing her brother* EDRIC!

Edric: What? There’s a tall and friendly winged lady standing in our front porch and calling us family...

Eda: Kinda family.

Edric: Kinda family. And we only went flying, on dad’s staff mind you, like twice. And I mean, look at her. That’s clearly a person with next to no regard for speed limits or any form of flying safety. *Turns to Eda* I mean that as the highest of compliments, by the way.

Eda: *Nodding and smiling* Well, I’m not one to brag... But you’re on point there.

Edric: *Turning back to Emira* See? It will be fun. *Turns back to Eda while making puppy eyes* So, pretty pretty please?

Eda: Eh... What the heck, why not? I do need to get a better hold of this flying thing after all. Fair warning though, I only had these for about an hour, I’m not taking responsibility for any loss of limb or life. *Picks Edric up and place him on one of her shoulders and turns to Emira.* You sure you don’t wanna come with? There’s plenty of room.

Emira: ... I never said I didn’t want to...

Eda: *Placing Emira on her other shoulder* Alritty then, make sure to hold on tight to my hair, just don’t fall into it. Can’t promise I’ll find you if you do. And up we go. *Takes off at neckbreaking speed*

Eda: So... I tried that to Mittens herself, but she was too lost in elation to form coherent sentences. What’s the deal with her hair color change? Why did she pick that specific shade of... pink? Lavender? Purple? Whatever, I was a tad curious about that choice coming from one of Odd-alia’s offspring. So either of you can shed some light on it for me?

Emira: Eh, what can I say? Our little Mittens is growing up, coming out of her shell. I mean, if you told me a month that she’d have a girlfriend by now I’d call it bullshit. Though I would have guessed Luz as being the most likely candidate. In any case, I’m pretty proud of the steps our baby sister is taking, not gonna lie.

Edric: Yeah... Same. But I can’t shake the feeling that it is at least in part an act of rebellion against mom. She did always have that weird fixation with Amity’s hair after all...

Eda: Hum, I see. This actually takes me to my follow up question. How did your mom react when she saw it?

Edric: *chuckling* Oh, I thought she’d have a stroke right then and there.

Emira: Yup. Never saw mom that mad. You’d think the two of us would be the ones to cause it but nope, Mittens beat us to it. Again, I’m a proud big sister.

Eda: Hehehe Sounds about right. You two are the troublemaking type then huh?

Edric: That’s a way of putting.

Emira: We like thinking of ourselves as practical entertainers however. We are in the Illusions track so it comes with the territory. Buuut...

Edric: We indulge in some prankery every now and then, and there’s no one better at it than us.

Eda: Is that so? Ever get in trouble for it?

Edric: Sometimes... When we (kind of accidentally) cause more property damage than intended because SOMEONE botched their end of the spell and caused Bump’s office to almost go up in flames.

Emira: Awww. Ed, I told you already. Don’t beat yourself over it. Accidents happen. You’ll do better next time.

Edric: HEY!

Emira: Anyway, Eda. Why were you asking about Mittens’ hair?

Eda: Oh... You guys are going to love this. I think. Anyway, did you know that me and your parents attended Hexside at the same time?

Edric: Yeah, I remember mom seeing one of your wanted posters a while back and calling you “Ewdalyn Clownthorne” or something like that.

Eda: Ah, haven’t heard that in a minute, Titan those were the day. Anyway, as you might have guessed by now me and your mother we... had a bit of a rivalry. Unfortunately, I couldn’t top the nickname she gave me, best I could do was Odd-alia. No offense, but Blight doesn’t give much to work with in terms of puns, can’t get funnier than that. Especially when thrown at her.

Emira: None taken. And yeah. I mean, it is fun when people call us stuff like “The Blights of Hexside”. But it is kinda sad to know we’ll never get a nickname as cool as Owl Lady or Lord Calamity.

Eda: Oh, my fame still precedes me huh? You know, I think the three of us will get along just fine.

Edric and Emira: Yup, we sure will.

Eda: Anyway, flattery aside... Part of the reason why I love poking your mom with a short stick was, other than how aggravated she’d get and how surprisingly good at paying in kind she was, the fact that she was in the Oracle track. You see, that made her a challenge. And given how she would actually prank me back (successfully, mind you, I have no shame in admitting that) I feel like like we actually a weird sort of friends, or at least we reached some kind of agreement that we were fair game for each other. And trust me, she was ruthless, and very good at escalating things.

Emira: Wow...

Edric: That sounds nothing like the mom we know. Other than the ruthless or the escalation part, that is still true.

Eda: Yeah, anyway. Part of our little game was keeping it hidden. Neither your dad or my sister actually ever realized what was going on until... well, I’ll get to that.

Eda: Anyway, so some lovely day I notice how weirdly obsessed with her hair Odd-alia was. This gives me some ideas, but I know I have make this the mother of pranks, so I decided to just keep a watch, to figure out what the best way to go about it would be. And I was also making those smaller pranks, something to throw her Oracle powers off-balance, you know?

Eda: Well... Back in the day your mother wasn’t monochromatic as she is nowadays. She’d circle through all colors you can think off on her accessories (which she used an ungodly amount, and no judgement it just never seems physically possible). But I noticed that there was one very specific color that she never got anywhere near her.

Edric and Emira: No way...

Eda: And as I said, she was weirdly obsessed with her hair... And as top student of the Potions track making hair dye was child’s play for me... So... do the math... And guess what very specific color was? I may be bad at color names, but I won’t ever, EVER, forget that particular shade.

Edric and Emira: No... freaking... way...

Eda: Yes... freaking... way... I mean, seriously, the first time I saw Amity’s new hair I had to do a double take. The resemblance was just too uncanny.

Emira: And what did she do?

Eda: Well... For a couple weeks there I thought I’d have to place a restriction order on her or something like that. Ultimately the two of us, along with Lilith and Alador (they were our attorneys, no they were not qualified for the role.) sitting across from each other in a very formal looking table, signing a contract. An actual freaking contract setting clear limits to our mutual pranks, like what was off limits like her hair or my then partner, how long was the maximum period a prank could last, so on. Surprisingly enough that was Al’s idea.

Eda: And let me tell you, that was probably the toughest negotiation I ever been a part of. Shame it was not long before I dropped out so never could really put it to use. You know, sometime I think this actually made Odd-alia realize she wanted to be a business woman. I mean, before that she’d go off about how she’d join the Emperor’s Coven all the damn time.

Edric: Wow...

Emira: I second that. Really, wish I had brought something I could take notes on. You completely blown anything we ever did out of the water.

Edric: No wonder she never told us that. You know what? I think I’m dying my hair that color first thing tomorrow.

Emira: Can we tell Amity this story?

Eda: Are you two actually thinking of antagonizing her? Are you crazy? First off, she’s your mother, she holds power over you. All you’d accomplish is getting grounded. Not to mention that she has decades of experience on you, even if she wasn’t your mom, she’d demolish the two of you. No offense, you’re still young, naive, you lack guidance in the ways of the pranksters.

Edric and Emira: *Dejectedly* Ohh... You’re right...

Eda: Hey... Don’t look so gloomy. I see a lot of potential in you, in both of you. *Sighs* I can’t believe I’m gonna take more kids under my wing... But.... Have you guys ever heard of the Bad Girl Coven Initiative? We annoy our foes into submission.

Edric and Emira: WE’RE LISTENING.

Eda: Heh... We’ll get along just fine indeed.

#THE OWL HOUSE #the owl house hooty #Edric Blight #Emira Blight #amity blight #luz noceda #king clawthorne #the owl house boscha #raine whispers #I lost track of what was trying to accomplish halfway though writing this. read at your own discretion.

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the-night-writer1 · 2 years

Note

Want some prompt, eh? Well... here's one: An angsty Raeda where a raging shapeshifter mental demon/spirit(?) in Raine's mind give Raine "a reason you suck speech" by showing them their greatest & biggest mistakes of their lives and tormenting them for it in the vein to Double Trouble's speech to Catra from SPOP.

Never seen she ra but I'll try)

Raine found them self cornered as they walked through the halls of their own mind. They'd been attacked by a mind demon. A creature that latched itself to the mind and drained witches of their sanity.

This was the only way to get rid of it. They really did need to get the demon out of their mind. Maybe it had caused their headaches.

As Raine walked down the long corridors past their own memories as a figure came into view. It was...it was Eda! But she was younger than when they last met.

Why Eda of all the witches on the boiling isles? Raine tried to attack but for some reason they hesitated when the young Eda spoke.

"you abandoned me rainstorm"

"you aren't Eda! I did what was best for both of us!" Raine said as they tried to use the spell again but then the younger Eda disappeared. Raine spun around to look for them to see a new figure. The girl from the coven convention. She looked upset a guitar being held in one hand.

"I thought you wanted to play together again Raine?" She said as she stepped closer to the bard,"am I not good enough to keep a promise?"

"stop it! You aren't either of them!" Raine said as they took a few steps back. Falling into a forgotten memory. Raine pushed themselves up to see where they were.

"are you alright?" Raine's own voice echoed as the bard turned around. It was at one of the bard coven's official performances. In the VIP section, the Bright's oldest daughter was with that girl. The girl was wincing in pain, why was she in pain?

Why was Raine checking on her? Raine couldn't remember but there was worry on their face. The feeling of worry or anything else that came with it. How'd they forget this fear?

Oh well Raine didn't have time to ponder, that demon needed to get out their mind! The bard left the memory into a new hallway. Wide and vast the air was heavy with regret. Raine pushed themself up and dusted themself off.

They hated this hallway of memories, it was Eda's hallway. Memories purely of her, or of both of them together. Perfect place to fuck with Raine's mind. However Raine was surprised by it's broken appearance. The walls were cracked and there were memories blocked off.

New memories at that. Were they from that gap in Raine's memory? Most likely.

"why'd you leave me Raine?" The figure asked appearing behind the Bard who jumped and turned to attack. However those eyes locked with their's and they found themself unable to attack as it continued to talk, "is it because I have kids? Is that why you've turned on me"

"what are you talking about I didn't know you had kids. I left because you didn't let me in or help! You- you only care about yourself!" Raine said before shoving the demon away. Come on Raine it's a demon you can handle this. Why couldn't they just- dammit!

They heard footsteps behind them and panicked was there two demons?!

"get out of Rainstorms mind you bitch!" The actual Eda yelled throwing a potion bottle at the demon. How'd she get here? Where was Raine's body? What the fuck.

The demon hissed stumbling backwards as it tried to escape into one of blocked memories and failing. Raine finally able to expel it from their mind with the spell thanks to well Eda.

"you alright Rainstorm?" Eda asked as she slid to a stop,"sorry I got here late but one attacked Zillah as well. I figured you wouldn't mind me focusing on her first- sweet love of the titan no wonder you've been acting strange. Your memories of the last time we played together has been blocked. Here I was thinking you were mad at me about Zillah."

"wait we played together recently?" Raine asked as Eda pulled out another potion bottle. Splashing it's contents of the blocked off memories. Seems Eda had brought some memory repair potions as well. Smart move.

"yeah it was because of something new with my curse which destroys stuff stuff when I play. You were magnifying its reach. That way we could stop the emperor." Eda said as she got another memory repair potion out to hit the other memories with.

"Eda I find that hard to believe why would I do that" Raine said as they crossed their arms.

"He has something bad planned. You say so your self. We're in your mind Raine storm you can double check." Eda said she was treating Raine's memories.

Raine decided to do that.

#toh #the owl house #the owl whispers au #toh raeda #raeda #toh au

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astriiformes · 3 years

Text

Whumptober 2021 - Day 2 - Choking

Fandom: The Owl House Word Count: 1294

Now we’re getting a little whumpier. Warnings for: Choking, panic attacks, sensory deprivation

[Ao3 Link]

Raine had never been particularly afraid of the dark. In truth, for all their anxiety, they actually weren’t afraid of most things. There was a difference between mortal peril and being judged by your peers, and for whatever reason, their brain prioritized which was the scarier of the two a little backwards. They were fine with that. It made it easier to put their life on the line for the things they cared about, and that was what really mattered.

The dark, however, had finally figured out how to make them scared.

Being fair, they didn’t think they were entirely conscious, which could make anything scary – more that they were slipping in and out of a smothering, limited awareness of their surroundings, except they were surrounded by anything. Physically, probably – they couldn’t move much, fingers and toes even barely able to wriggle in the constricting dark – but whatever was going on in the real world, they weren’t in it.

It was a nightmare, feeling squeezed and strangled by what could only be described as nothingness. Whatever stasis they were stuck in smothered even their panic, the tightness choking out their erratic breathing, leaving their racing heart feeling like it was about to explode.

Raine wasn’t scared of much. But that said: they were scared of giving speeches, and being told their playing had not been up to par after an important concert, of their fingers stuttering over their viola and missing important notes when someone was staring at them up on stage. They were scared of hecklers, and critics, and audiences.

And they were very, very scared of staying here forever.

Trying to push the asphyxiating dark from their mind, they squeezed their eyes shut, if they even really had eyes that could do that in here. It felt like they could. It felt better to have the darkness be on purpose. Normal, even. Not whatever waited, lurking, until they opened them again. They tried taking deep breaths, but the feeling of weight on their chest remained, persistently keeping them from anything to still their fear.

Count to ten, they thought. Count the breaths you would take, if you could.

They knew they were lying to themself – they could count to a hundred and it wouldn’t be the same. They knew, because they’d tried. But not trying didn’t make anything better. So they hadn’t stopped.

One

Oh, why did I even start, why did I…

Two

It won’t be any different.

Three

It’s never any different, this won’t change anything.

Four

What kind of magic did Kikimora even do? I should be out there, warning people, and instead I can’t to a thing, this is bad, this is so…

Five

I hope Eda’s okay. She must be. She got away.

Six

It isn’t fair my coven brand still hurts, too.

Seven

Titan, I don’t want to see the dark again.

Eight

Or... not see the dark again, whatever.

Nine

I want to breathe.

Ten

I want to breathe.

Screwing their eyes shut one last time, Raine made the decision to face reality again. Counting much longer was only going to stray into anxiety anyways.

They opened their eyes.

And there was a slim, slim, slim sliver of hazy light.

Raine's heartbeat quickened even faster. What did that mean? Were they going to get plunged into some new horror? Were they being freed for some reason they would regret? If they were being honest with themself, though, they didn’t care. Even a different torment would be… different. It would be something other than the smothering dark, which was all they cared about right now.

The tiny fissure of light looked jagged, like a rip in a cloak, but also like a rip, it was tearing further, growing from a crack to a proper rift, until suddenly Raine found themself blinking in what was suddenly far, far too much light. They squeezed their eyes shut again, curling in on themself as they winced in the light that was, even in its promise of freedom, suddenly just as overwhelming as the darkness.

“Woah there, come on,” a familiar voice said. “We’ve got you, okay Rainstorm?”

They stiffened a little less. “E… Eda?” they croaked. Their voice was weak, from disuse, they could tell, although, they were starting to realize there was another problem.

They still couldn’t breathe.

Panicked, attempted breaths tried their hand at escaping Raine’s throat, but got stuck somewhere between their lungs and their mouth. A bubble of fear started traveling with them, and Raine felt their mind start to grow hazy.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Eda said, her own voice clearly growing worried. “Can… can you breath for me, Raine? Deep breaths.”

Raine shook their head, fuzziness threatening to take over.

“They’ve been in stasis,” came another voice. Raine was pretty sure it was Lilith. That would make sense. “It.. it may take a second for their body to adjust.”

“How long a second are we talking here, Lily? They can’t breathe!”

Raine felt a hand go to their wrist, maybe trying to take a pulse, but it was clearly shaking a little. Eventually, it gave up, and instead their hand was getting squeezed tightly in comfort – though for who, exactly, they weren’t certain.

Okay, they thought, though the word felt blurry around the edges, like it had been written in chalk before someone had smudged it away. Let’s try this again.

One.

How did Eda and Lilith find me?

Two

Are they okay? Did they run into trouble? What’s going on?

Three

Who else is here? I think I hear other voices.

Four

Huh. This is pretty scary too, actually.

Five

Guess that’s something else I’m afraid of.

Six

Oh Titan, everything is getting really foggy.

Seven

In my head, I mean. My thoughts feel like sludge.

Eight

Heh, guess it’s good I don’t play a woodwind or something.

Nine

I don’t want Eda to see me die.

Ten.

Well, here goes nothing. Let’s try and end this fermata.

Raine tried opening their eyes again – if their lungs were going to fail, they would rather the last thing the saw be the light, not the dark. Not after the darkness they’d been in for so long. Taking a mental deep breath, they tried to take a physical one, too.

The relief when air rushed into their lungs was the sweetest feeling in the world.

Someone had dimmed the lights in the last ten seconds or so, and while the sudden adjustment to seeing was still a little too much, Raine could now at least make out the blurry shapes of a few people in the room. There was Eda, squeezing their hand, Lilith by her side, a girl and a demon that looked like they were maybe the two from Eda’s picture – her kids? And off to their side -- was that Derwin, Amber, and Katya? Oh Titan, they were glad they were okay. And sitting next to them was a teenager she didn’t recognize, with light blond hair and an Emperor’s coven uniform on, holding a bloody cloth to his face.

“Eda?” they said.

“Hey, Rainstorm.” She squeezed their hand, betraying what the crack in her voice already had.

Raine blinked again, still adjusting to the light, then smirked.

“You didn’t need to throw a whole welcome party,” they said, slowly raising a tired hand to gesture to the rest of the room.

Eda laughed – a real, deep, snorting laugh, and it was ugly and also the most beautiful thing in the world all at once – and wiped one of her eyes.

“First real thing you say and it’s that ,” she said. “At least I know we rescued the real Raine Whispers.”

Rescued.

Rescued from the dark, from the struggling. Rescued from the crushing weight of the asphyxiating black. Rescued from the being scared.

Rescued by Eda.

Raine smiled.

And they breathed.

#whumptober2021 #no.2 #choking #the owl house #warnings for:#panic attacks #sensory deprivation #weirdly enough this is also where i officially assert violist raine in fic for the first time but uh. whatever. that's weirdly on-brand #my writing #f: us weirdos have to stick together

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bleachanimefan1 · 3 years

Text

The Song of the Titan

Chapter Fourteen,

Hunter moaned and tossed and turned as sweat began to drip from his face as he was having a sleep inducing hallucination. In his dream, he saw a man and a woman sitting underneath of a tree together. Hunter saw that the man looked a lot like him, but he was a human, seeing that his ears were rounded, not pointed like a witch's. He had short blond hair, and he was wearing very strange clothes that looked like from a different time period. The man's eyes were also a different color. Instead, a pinkish red, like Hunter's, they were dark blue.

The woman sitting next to him, had long lime green hair tied in a braided pony tail, dark tan skin, she was wearing a long white robe with dark blue linings, and white witch's hat. Hunter eyes widened when he noticed that her eyes were an familiar color. They were emerald green, like Azara's. The woman was making a crown made out of flowers with plant magic. As she finished, she placed the crown on the man's head, but he didn't seem to notice it as his attention was elsewhere.

As Hunter approached, getting closer to them, he saw that the man had something in his lap as he was writing something down. Hunter looked closer and saw that it was a book. A journal perhaps? Hunter wondered as he watched the two. The woman let out a bored sigh and turned her head towards the man, who was not paying her any mind.

"When are you going to put that down?" Hunter heard the woman asked. The man didn't look at her, his eyes still glued to the book as he wrote in it.

"I have to record everything in this strange world as a guide for my brother and I, and anyone who come across this and read this." he told her. The woman pouted, puffing her cheeks out, getting annoyed. Then she decided enough was enough and reached over and plucked the book right out of his hands.

"Azura!" the man shouted as he tried to grab it back from her. Hunter's eyes widened in shock. Azura? As in the good witch Azura?! Why was he having a dream about her? And what did she have to do with this man? He watched as he saw Azura held the book away as she pushed him back, placing her hand on his chest, while he tried to grab it. "Give it back!"

"You need to take a break," Azura told him. "You've been writing in this thing day and night ever since you and your brother came here."

"I've gotten plenty of sleep, thank you very much," the man denied. He practically had dark circles underneath of his eyes from the lack of sleep.

"You liar." Azura frowned, dismissing him. "You're still not getting this back."

Suddenly, the man lunged forward, grabbing the book, and two fell backwards, as they lost their balance. Azura laid on the ground on her back, while the man hovered over her, looking down at her. The two stared at each other with shocked looks, their faces turned completely red, blushing. The man quickly got off of her and Azura sat up.

"That was unexpected," she replied. "Very bold coming from you."

"I'm sorry," The man stammered, nervously, still embarrassed. Azura laughed, making the man blush even more and let out a frustrated growl.

"How cute," Azura teased. "I didn't know that humans can turn this red."

"Well, who's fault was that!?" The man sputtered.

"Well, you wouldn't listen," Azura argued. "I had to get your attention somehow." The man said nothing and she continued. "Can you at least take a five minute breather? It wouldn't hurt you. Please, for me?" She asked. The man stared at her for a few seconds before giving in and sighed.

"Fine," He replied. "But, only for five minutes." Azura reached out and pulled him down so that he was now lying down with his head on her lap. He then began to close his eyes while Azura began to run her fingers through his hair then soon enough a fell asleep.

"You're such a weirdo." Azura smiled softly, watching him as he slept and snored.

Suddenly, Hunter stirred as he felt something brushing through his hair, softly. He groaned and slowly opened his eyes to see emerald green eyes staring back down at his.

"Welcome back," Azara said, smiling. Hunter noticed that he was lying down in her lap and blushed, his cheeks and the tips of his ears turned red. He quickly sat up only to instantly regret it when he felt a sharp pain in the middle of his back. He looked around and saw that he was lying on a bed. He noticed the portal key was sitting on a small desk next to the bed. Okay, he hadn't lost the portal key. That's good! Much to his embarrassment, Hunter also saw that he was half naked, seeing that his shirt was gone and there was a large bandage wrapped around his torso, but he still had his pants on, his boots were sitting in a corner near the door.

"Where am I?" He asked.

"The owl house," Azara answered him.

"The owl lady's house?" Hunter murmured to himself. The last thing that he remembered was getting away from Belos then he was flying with Orion. His eyes widened. Orion! Hunter quickly began to look around wildly for the little palisman until he heard a small chirp and looked down to see Lil rascal at his foot.

"Your little bird has been by your side the entire time since you were brought here." Azara explained. Hunter sighed in relief seeing that the palisman was alright and picked it up, cradling it in his hands.

"You're okay," Hunter said, happy to see the red cardinal. Lil Rascal chirped in response, it sounded a little angry.

"You scared me, passing out like that! I didn't know what to do!" Then the little bird decided to pull on Hunter's long strand of hair as revenge.

"I'm sorry," Hunter stammered before smiling sadly. "Seems like all I ever do is cause you trouble." Lil Rascal stared at Hunter for a minute before flying up to his shoulder and nuzzling against his scarred cheek.

"Wait, you can understand him?" Azara asked. Hunter nodded.

"Yes, when a witch bonds with a palisman they can talk with them and understand them," Hunter explained. Azara hummed, interested. She began to grow excited thinking about it more as she wondered if she would get a palisman of her own one day. A cute little friend to sit around, have adventures, and talk to all day. Hunter looked outside the window seeing that the sun was going down, it was in the afternoon. "How long was I out?" Hunter asked.

"A year," Azara told him.

"A year?!" Hunter exclaimed. Azara chuckled, seeing his cute reaction.

"I'm kidding!" she reassured him. "You've only been out for two days."

"What happened to you?" Hunter frowned looking down at the floor, silently.

Hunter looked down at the sheets, thinking. Two days...That's a long time that he's been away from the castle, since ever. His uncle probably had sent some scouts to retrieve and capture him. He never wanted to go back there again. For the first time, Hunter was completely lost. He didn't know what to do.

"I'm guessing that you found out the truth," Azara pointed out. "What was he going to do to you?"

"He was going to use me as a new body for himself, which is failing," Hunter told her. "He's slowly dying." Hunter sighed. "I just can't believe that he would do this to me! I dedicated my entire life to him! I know that I should be angry at him but, I can't. He's the only thing that I have that's close to family. Without him, I'm nothing."

"Hunter your not-"

"What am I going to do now?" Hunter interrupted her. Azara stared at him as he continued. "I have no where else to go. I don't even know who I am!"

"Don't be silly. You know who you are, you're Hunter," Azara answered him.

"I know that!" Hunter replied, frustrated. "But, what am I? Who am I a clone of? That's who I want to know. Why was they so important for me for Belos for to make me a clone of them? Why he did he hate them so much?"

"Well, when the time comes and when you find your answers," Azara answered him, placing her hand on top of his. "I'll help you." Lil Rascal made a chirp making Azara and Hunter look down to see the cardinal staring at them. "We'll help you." Azara smiled. "You're not alone in this."

"I'd like that." Hunter made a small smile. Suddenly, the door swung open, bashing against the wall, hard. Hunter and Azara both jumped, startled, and turned their heads to see Luz, Eda, King and John standing at the door.

"Oh, good you're up!" Luz smiled. "How are you feeling?" Eda walked over to the two, but her eyes were focused on Hunter. Hunter could feel his heart pounding with each step that she took. What was she going to do to him? Interrogate and beat him for answers? Curse him with wild magic like it did with his uncle? Hunter began to panic as he saw the owl lady was now right at his side. She placed her hand on top of Hunter's head, making him look at her, then she bent down her face leveled with his.

"Now, I can get some answers from you."

"We're you listening in on us the entire time?!" Azara shouted a little angry and annoyed. Eda ignored her still looking at Hunter.

"I don't fully trust you since you were one of the emperor's stooges," she said. "You're going to have to prove it to us that you completely left them." She stepped back, releasing Hunter, crossing her arms.

"What do I have to do?" Hunter asked. "I'll do anything!" Eda had a determined look in her eyes.

"Where's Raine?"

#the owl house #golden guard #toh hunter #emperor belos #hunter belos #The two brothers #luz noseda #eda the owl lady #king the owl house #Fanfiction #read more #lil rascal #Magic #witches

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azulirawrites · 3 years

Text

Favors of A. Blight ch. 2

Rating: T Word Count: 2689 Contains: Mentions of Child Neglect

The leather of Alador’s boots sizzled as they sunk into the muddied ground, rivers of boiling rain pooling alongside them with every step. The rain had persisted for the last several hours, pittering uselessly against the thin purple bubble that protected him as he journeyed away from Bonesborough, and it would likely last another several. His boot prints would be gone by the time anybody knew to look for him. He could afford a moment, as he came to a clearing along the cliffside.

He let himself slump against the tree, exhausted from the trek he had made so far. His shoulders sank as a heavy breath escaped him, and he couldn’t help but notice his hands were still shaking. Despite the situation, he let out a little laugh. Here was Alador Blight, a true master of abominations, and his hands were shaking. He sank down the tree further, resting on the large exposed root. The richest man on the Isles, next to the Emperor himself, and he was using some old, gnarled tree’s root as a chair.

He looked up, and was almost surprised to see the blue barrier that protected the Owl House.Almost. He supposed a part of him must have known where he was going. A part of him feared that it was Odalia’s magic, guiding him to their children, trying to get him to reclaim them. Alador shook his head, clearing the thought. Odalia wouldn’t have had the power for such a spell, even if she were alive, and it would have flirted with the line of legality… not that that really mattered, to a Blight. If he’d wanted to, he could probably have shifted off any legal ramifications from Odalia’s death. Accidents with abominations weren’t uncommon, and you can’t expect even the most powerful of oracles to be watching their own future constantly. But that’s not why he’s running, is it?

He looked to the barrier again. No, he had a number of different reasons to run. He wasn’t a parent. He only barely qualified as a father. They’d never know why, and they’d never trust him again. Not that they had in the first place. And that was ok, he told himself, it’s alright.

Alador’s heart ached, staring at the barrier. It wouldn’t prevent his entry, and neither would that “infernal house demon” that Lily had told him about, in some of their shared moments. He could march in there, and say he’d changed his mind, that his children would stay with him in their home, and Lily could as well. He could be a better father; he could be one in the first place. His children could have parents that actually cared about them as people, not as pawns.

For a treacherous moment, Alador’s mind showed him such a future. Waking up next to Lily just before the sunrise. Waking the children up with breakfast as the dawn filtered through the window, and sending them to school, everyone happy. Spending the whole day with Lily, and welcoming the children home with tight hugs, listening as they told him about their days. They’d laugh together, they’d cry together. They’d be a family. And then, at the end of the day, he’d go to bed beside the woman he loved… In the same bed he’d shared with Odalia. In the same house he’d shared with Odalia; the same house he’d known since he was a boy. The same house that was undoubtedly breaking down in the boiling rain. Of course that’s something he could never have.

“Hello!” a voice called from below him, and Alador turned to see a… bird-tube thing burrowing out of one of the dry spots near the base of the trees, “My name’s Hooty! It’s awfully late to have a visitor, but I’m super glad to have a new friend come by to hang out!” Oh Titan no…

“No,” Alador responded quickly, perhaps harshly, “I mean, I was just leaving.”

“Boy that sounds awfully suspicious,” Hooty commented, “If I didn’t know you were actually here to be my friend, I’d think you were here because of Luz’s mean friend and her siblings arriving here under an abomination! But you don’t look like them, so I doubt you’re related, which means you’re here as my friend!”

“They didn’t know the forcefield spell?” Alador commented out loud, shocked. He’d sent his children out in this with no reliable protection.

“Nope,” the house demon popped the p, “unless that’s what they’re calling really big and goopy abominations these days, but I wouldn’t know that. I don’t get out much!” After a moment of staring each other down, Hooty added, “Oh I know, I can ask Lulu! She’s smart so she’ll know!”

“Lulu?” Alador hadn’t been aware of anyone by that name at the Owl House, unless that was the human’s name? Amity had mentioned it, it was something close to that, wasn’t it?

“Yep, she’s Eda’s sister,” oh no…, “And MY best friend!”

“You’re friends with Lily?”

The owl gasped, “You call her that? She HATES when Eda calls her Lily. I’m gonna go tell her!”

“No! There’s no need for that!” Alador shouted after the bird tube as it disappeared into its hole. He cursed to himself before standing up and rushing towards the staircase along the path that headed further into the woods.

(Line Break)

Lilith’s letter sat on the coffee table in front of the sisters, Lilith blushing furiously, while Eda looked mostly amused. “So…” Eda said, after a long moment of awkward silence.

“We don’t need to talk about it,” Lilith said curtly.

“Oh yes we do,” Eda responded, “You were shacking up with Alador!”

“We weren’t ‘shacking up,’” Lilith defended, “And do we have to talk about this now?”

“Well when would you like to talk about? When we’re telling the kids you’ve got custody of them?”

“No!” Lilith exclaimed, “Ideally, they’ll never have to know. It’s not like it matters anymore.” She crossed her arms and looked away from Eda.

“Right, this is probably… a lot,” Eda placed her hand on her sister’s shoulder, “Are you ok?”

"I'm fine, Edalyn," Lilith shut down the question, "Let's get back to the actual topic at hand."

"Fine," Eda grumbled, "but next time you get drunk I'm gonna find out everything."

"Then I'm never drinking again," Lilith asserted.

"You go ahead and believe that."

"I will," she agreed. It was silent for a few moments before Lilith asked, "Do we have any thornberries?"

"No," Eda answered,"Why?"

"It's the only breakfast food I know the children agree on," with a questioning look from Eda, she answered, "Amity mentioned it while I was training her."

"Ah look at you,"Eda teased, "Remembering details about your children. It took me two weeks to remember Luz's name, and you're already worrying about them having food they like. You're a regular mother hen."

"Eda!" Lilith groaned, mostly in embarrassment, "I just thought it might help the situation."

"Right," Eda shot the idea down, "A nice, tense breakfast, until someone finally breaks it and says something about what's going on. My money's on King."

"My money's on the weird guy that's been sitting outside the house!" Hooty interrupted, "He was crying! Or it might have been the rain."

"Who'd come out here in weather like this?" Eda questioned.

"A scruffy nerd who knows Lulu! But he called her Lily!"

"Alador..." Lilith jumped up off the couch, running to the door. She slammed it open, and caught the shine of the purple bubble. The rain began to pick up, a loud rumble of thunder rolling across the sky as she called out for him, "Alador!"

He froze, and Lilith took a few steps towards him, to the edge of the barrier, before stepping outside of it, a small bubble forming over her. The rivulets of rain sizzled and threatened to burn her feet as she approached him. She had too many questions to ask, as she stopped a few feet from him. But she knew the most pressing one, "Why?"

He turned around, looking towards Lilith, and she could see the tears streaming down his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but if he did, the roll of thunder drowned it out. She could see the weight of his regrets on his shoulders as he took a step backwards. As Lilith brought her foot up to take a step forward, lightning came down between the two, and she stumbled back. When she managed to regain her sight, she saw Alador running away, his purple bubble fading away behind the tree line.

(Line break)

"You want to get it nice and tight," Luz instructed as Emira and Edric handled the blanket wrapped around Amity. They pulled it as tight as possible, with Amity giving a small groan of disapproval, before Emira tucked the corner of the blanket into the inside of the roll by Amity's feet. "Yeah, that will do!"

"It's like swaddling a warg pup!” Edric said. Emira glanced at him curiously, so he responded, “Remember? I wanted to go to the Beast Keeping track stables because I heard from Viney about the new pups!”

“I wasn’t paying attention to the lesson,” Emira replied.

“Right, you were too busy paying attention to-” Edric began.

“Wait, you guys know Viney?” Luz asked, cutting Edric off.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that,” Emira said, looking away.

“Oh?” Edric looked at Emira, grinning, “Maybe you don’t because you’re scared to talk to her, but I’ll have you know I’m like, in her top ten friends.” Emira’s face flushed, and stared intently at Edric

“She doesn’t talk about you,” Luz said.

Edric, dramatically, grasped his side, letting out a gasp of, “My pride!” before falling over. Emira rolled her eyes, before grabbing a nearby pillow and smacking Edric with it. “Hey!: he cried, “What ever happened to respecting the dead?”

Luz laughed at the twins’ antics before managing to ask, “Why would Emira be afraid of Viney anyway? She’s super cool and really easy to get along with!”

“Oh, Emira’s aware, she just refuses to finally go up and say Hi Viney, I-” Edric began, once more being cut off.

“Anyway!” Emira forcefully redirected the conversation, “You still haven't explained what a burrito is.” She gestured to the blanket-encased Amity.

“Oh, right!” Luz said, quickly moving on, “A burrito! So, in the Human Realm, there’s this place called Mexico.”

“Mexico,” Edric said slowly, like he was testing the word out.

“Right, Mexico,” Luz said, “and they have a type of bread called tortillas.”

“Tortilla,” Edric repeated, nodding.

“Yeah! So you take the tortilla, and put a whole bunch of food on top of it, and then you roll it up like we did with Amity, and that’s a burrito!”

“You’re going to eat Mittens?”Emira gasped, “I thought humans eating witches was a myth!” Amity grumbled something in response to Emira’s raised voice, before starting to roll back and forth slightly.

Luz, to Emira’s evident surprise, laughed at the charges, “No, I’m not gonna eat Amity!” She placed her hand on Amity through the blankets, causing her to stop rolling, “Amity’s awesome. She’s great! I love that I get to hang out with her and,” Luz suddenly blushed, removing her hand from Amity, “be her friend. I’ve never had a friend quite like her before.”

“Luz, do you have a crush on Mittens?” Edric asked gleefully, both twins now staring at her with an almost predatory look.

“What, no! Of course not! We’re just really good friends! Totally platonic! Nothing romantic whatsoever. Definitely didn’t spend all night awake thinking after your mom nearly killed me haha. And I mean, if I did it would totally just be about how great friends we are and how it totally didn’t give me butterflies when Amity called me ‘her Luz.’ Because that’s totally a normal reaction to your friend acknowledging your close friendship-”

“Hey,” Emira gently interrupted, “It’s alright. We’re not gonna make fun of you for having a crush on Mittens.” Edric looked at Emira and raised an eyebrow. “Alright, we’ll probably make fun of you for having a crush on Mittens. At least a little. But we won’t judge you for it.”

“I absolutely judge you for having poor taste,” Edric teased, grinning, “Besides, if we go too far, you can always tease Em for her crush on Viney.”

“EDRIC!” Emira grabbed the pillow, bringing it into a hard swing against Edric’s head, with Edric blocking in time with his arms.

“I mean, I kind of already put it together,” Luz tried to defend Edric, “That’s the only reason I can think of for you to be nervous to talk to her if you know she’s cool.”

Emira’s face flushed, and after a moment she spoke, “Well, since mine and yours are out in the open…” She smirked at Edric

“No,” he responded, watching her

“I guess it’s only fair that I tell you about…”

“Em, please don’t” Edric bowed to her, begging

“That Ed here has his own little crush.”

“Em!” Edric whined, mortified.

“It’s kind of weird to believe that you guys all have crushes that you’re scared to talk to. Like, you guys are super great. I don’t think it’s possible for you guys to be turned down.”

Edric sighed, “You’d think that…”

“But we both got stood up at Grom,” Emira finished, sulking.

“Viney turned you down? She didn’t even mention that she got asked to Grom!” Luz exclaimed.

“I didn’t ask Viney,” Emira said, “I asked a Construction track girl out. I think her little sister was one of Amity’s friends? Someone I thought Mom would approve of if she did any digging. We were at a Hex Girls concert, and she was so happy when I asked. I nearly thought she was going to crush me with that hug.” Emira smiled at the memory, before her face fell to a frown, “But she stopped answering my messages about two days befor Grom, and she showed up with some stupid guy.”

“I’m sorry,” Luz said, giving Emira a side hug, “But if it makes you feel better, I don’t think Viney would ever do that. She hates people being fake like that.”

“I’m not gonna ask out Viney,” Emira said, “If I did, Mom would find out. It would probably end with Viney in the Conformatorium.” Emira sulked further.

“I’m sorry,” Luz murmured as she squeezed the hug just a bit tighter. “What about you?” She asked Edric.

“Roughly the same story. I asked out some girl from a good family so Mom wouldn’t get on my case, but she messaged me saying she wouldn’t be going with me,” he sighed, “But I didn’t even like her so it’s alright.”

“It still sounds like you’re hurt by it,” Luz noted, before opening her arm to invite Edric into the hug.

“Maybe a little,” he said, joining the hug, “Rejection always hurts, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Luz agreed, “That’s what Grometheus showed Amity. Her crush rejecting her.” Luz was silent for a moment, before asking, “If you didn’t like her, then why did you ask her?”

“I didn’t want Mom and Dad to hurt the guy I like,” he answered, “He’s got great prospects with Abominations, so if it ended up Mom and Dad didn’t like him, well…. Dad pulls a lot of weight in the Abominations coven. Add in the fact he does Plants too and…”

“Jerbo?” Luz asked excitedly.

“Yeah,” Edric admitted quietly, and Luz began to giggle. “What?”

“Nothing,” Luz answered, “It’s just kind of funny that both of you are into your own gender and crushing on dual-track witches. It’s a pretty big coincidence.”

“Yeah,” Emira agreed, “Or it’s genetic.” She chuckled, and was joined by Edric, and then Luz. After a moment, she said, “Thanks, Luz. It feels good to be able to talk about this stuff with someone other than Ed.”\

“Hey,” Ed muttered, mildly indignant, “but yeah. It helps.”

“No problem,” Luz said, before standing up, “You guys stay here while I go get some more blankets and pillows.”

#the owl house #toh #Favors of A. Blight #alador blight #lilith clawthorne #eda clawthorne #hooty #alador x lilith #edalyn the owl lady #edric blight #emira blight #blight siblings #luz noceda #cw: child neglect #tw: child neglect

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mrsgreenworld · 3 years

Text

Ok, here it comes. The one-shot inspired by SCK episode 17 fragman #2.

I don't own any of the characters. They belong to the writers and the production company. This is only fanfiction.

Will Our Love Ever Be Enough

She saw him sitting at his desk, focused on the laptop before him. Serkan Bolat in all his workaholic glory. Only Eda knew him enough now to notice that his focus wasn't really on work. His erratic hand gestures betrayed his inner turmoil. He tried, really hard, to grasp at something familiar, something he had control over. But his body language told her about the weight on his shoulders, his eyes screamed pain. How could she not have noticed it before? So naked and out in the open - his suffering. The kind of suffering that even a control freak like him was not able to tame.

But of course she had been too consumed and blinded by her own pain. Only that initial pain was nothing compared to this. This was so much worse... However, it didn't feel worse.

When Serkan had broken up with her it had been akin to having her heart ripped out. She had physically felt that heartache. But now... Now she felt strangely numb. Maybe it's just like with physical pain when it got too much - the body went into shock, a person stopped feeling anything and eventually passed out. That's what she felt like - passed out. Or maybe that's what death was like?

Those first moments after she had finally discovered the truth, when she had learnt about her and Serkan's shared pain, it almost seemed like they had turned into her parents - two people buried under the weight of that wall. Two people who eventually surrendered to death. What was death anyway? Was it really this nothingness? When there's no more pain, no anger, no regrets, no tears, no words...

Was it the why? Why he had hidden this from her? To spare her this horrific experience of dying while actually being alive? It must have been it. And now she thought that maybe had the situation been reversed she would have wanted to shield him from this too.

But it didn't matter now. Now they were both suffocating under the ruins of that wall and it was time to set at least one of them free.

So Eda got up from her chair and moved to one of the slightly open doors to Serkan's office. She rasped her knuckles on the metal surface before entering. Serkan's head shot up as soon as he heard the knock.

"Eda?"

"Could we talk for a little bit?"

"Hm.. Yes. What is it? What do you want to talk about?"

Before answering him, Eda turned and quietly closed all the doors to the office.

"What are you doing?" Eda could almost hear the panic in his voice.

She turned to face him again and saw that he rose from his desk and stepped away from it.

"Just making sure we have some privacy. It's better if we discuss this behind the closed doors"

"Discuss this? What exactly this is?" he stubbornly insisted on playing dumb.

Eda moved closer to Serkan until she stood right in front of him, with only a step separating them. She saw it now - the thing he was so desperately trying to hide. And he was good at it. At hiding and pretending, at blocking his emotions. Had she still been unaware of the truth she might have actually bought his emotionless charade. But now it was before her, clear as day - the same feeling of death and nothingness she was carrying.

She took his face between her hands and felt him shudder.

"Serkan. There's something" she started softly.

He lifted his eyes to her face and she witnessed how they overflowed with agony.

"There's something you're not telling me"

"There's nothing, Eda. I know you think there's something more but honestly there isn't. I've told you many times. It's just me. It's the way I am. I wish I could..."

"Ok, stop!" she interrupted him with a little bit more force than she initially intended.

She closed her eyes feeling a tiny tug of frustration.

"I know" she said on an exhale and opened her eyes.

She saw panic replace the agony in his.

"Wh-what?"

Since when did Serkan Bolat stutter?

"I know everything. I know who's responsible for what happened to my parents"

"You... You know? How?"

"Does it matter? I know"

Shame and raw suffering distorted his face and he tried to get away from her but Eda didn't allow it, still holding onto his face with one hand and sliding her other hand to rest over his heart. She felt that erratically spasming muscle, ready to burst through his chest right into her palm.

"I also know that it's not your fault" she told him softly and slowly because she wanted him to soak in her every word.

"How can you say that?"

"How can I not say that? That's the only undeniable truth. And I want you to understand it. That's not your fault nor your responsibility"

"My family, my father did this to you, to your family!" he sounded almost hysterical.

"You're not your father"

He wanted to argue, wanted to move away from her again but Eda only held onto him tighter, closing the tiny space between them so that their chests were now pressed together.

"Look at me! And listen to me carefully, Serkan Bolat! You're not your father. You're not responsible for his mistakes. You had nothing to do with my parents death. Do you understand?" she told him with conviction, staring straight into his shattered soul.

"But... but I... I didn't tell you. I hid it from you. I broke your heart"

She nodded sadly.

"You did. But I know why"

"You do?"

It tore at her to see all that agony and panic in his eyes be replaced by a fragile hope.

"I do"

"Do you... hate me?"

She shook her head "no".

"Why?"

She then shared her own hidden truth:

"I could never really hate you. Because I love you"

All breath left him after this and hot tears started raining down his face burning the fingers holding it.

"You're here" she uttered softly, then reached for one of his hands and placed it over her heart.

"How can you love me?" he wondered.

"I just do. There isn't really any why when it comes to love. We don't love people for something but rather despite everything"

She saw his eyes shine with even more hope and she hated what she was about to do.

"But..."

"But?" Serkan's eyebrows drew together in confusion.

"Sometimes love is not enough"

"Wh-what are you saying? What do you mean love is not enough? Why are you saying this?"

He finally managed to break free. He almost jumped away from her and leaned on the back of his chair for support, also effectively putting it between them like some sort of a barrier.

"I am saying it because it's true. And I don't want any more secrets between us. I don't want to leave anything unsaid"

"Ok. So, you love me. But love is not enough. And where does it leave us?"

"I don't know. The only thing I know is that I need time and space to heal"

"So let me heal you"

"It's not your job to heal me. And you need healing too"

"Then we can help each other heal! Isn't it what love is about?"

"No, this is not what it's about. This way we will turn our love into a crutch and I don't want that. I think we both deserve better"

"Don't you think we deserve to be together? To be happy?"

"We do deserve to be happy together. But we won't be until we deal with this. And we cannot deal with this together. Because, despite all of it not being our fault and completely out of our control, we are on opposite sides here"

She saw defeat then morphing into resignation take over him.

"Ok, you're right. We will do what you want. I will do what you want"

"I think it's better if we don't see each other. I will talk to Efe and find a way to finish our current projects without me being here. After that I am going to resign. I will focus on my university studies for now. It will keep me busy and... keep me from you. I will also need this time to think how I am gonna tell everything to my aunt"

Serkan gave her a curt nod.

"I understand. How... how much time? How long will we be like this?"

"I don't know" was her honest response.

He just nodded again.

Suddenly lost for words she took a step back.

"Ok... So... I am glad we talked. I will... I'll go. Talk to Efe"

She hastily turned and moved to the doors when she heard him say:

"I will wait, you know?"

She turned to look at him.

"What?"

"I will wait for you. However long it takes. I am gonna wait"

"You don't have to do this. I cannot ask you to wait when I don't even know how long it will last"

"You're not asking. And I know I don't have to do this. I'm gonna do this for me. And for us. The only way I'm gonna give up on us is if you tell me there's no hope and you don't love me. Since you've already said that you love me it leaves only one question. Is there still hope for us?"

Unable to find her voice she just nodded.

"Great!" he responded with ease.

And just like that he was back to his confident business demeanor. The sudden change almost gave her a whiplash.

"I will see you around then"

She just nodded dumbly again. Then slowly turned to the doors. When she pushed one of them open she heard a quiet "Psst" and turned to see him at his desk. He opened his laptop and said, demonstratively looking at the screen:

"By the way, I love you too, Eda Yıldız"

And just like that she felt the nothingness dissolve and death surrender to life.

#sen çal kapımı fanfiction #sen çal kapımı fic #sck fanfiction #sck fic #edser fanfiction #eda ve serkan #eda x serkan #eda yıldız #eda yildiz #serkan bolat

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3laxx · 3 years

Text

Bring It Home - Chapter 9

Sighing once again, she tapped her pen on the desk and shook her head, after having rested her forehead on it again, her head rolling from side to side. This was not working. She wasn’t any good in poetry, she had never liked or understood it and she definitely regretted suggesting this to Luz back then.

Guys. Guys. I know. Please just don't judge I'm tired and I wanted this chapter over to begin with the real pain in the next. So just uh Just don't judge I know.

Ao3 / FF.net

---

So, this is what she decided to spend her free day on.

Amity grumbled as she crumbled up another sheet of paper, completely filled up with failed attempts at writing a poem.

Banging her head on the desk, she sighed, before putting her chin upon the wood and looking up to the bucket list she had once again pinned up on her wall. The poem glared down at her, even if the task beneath that was way bigger.

Keeping her head down and her eyes closed, Amity finally let go of her pen and just accepted becoming a witch pancake, slowly melting while her chair scraped back to straighten her back and let her come closer and closer to the floor. Maybe, if she could puddle on it, the Titan would graciously scrap this task from her list.

This was so unfair.

Luz had always been the artsy, literature one. She probably would’ve liked writing a poem. She had actually written a novel! She had even written some Azura fanfictions, as it had turned out when Eda had finally cleared out Luz’s room and put it all in a box to be returned to her mother.

But this wasn’t Amity’s type of thing. It wasn’t her thing to rhyme words, make them sound good, or in any way, shape, or form create something like a poem.

Groaning, she slipped further, until her hanging hands reached the floor. She didn’t care if she looked ridiculous, this was too hard.

“Having trouble?”, Gus finally asked and Amity shot up from her awkward position, tumbling to the floor because she hadn’t really been sitting on her chair anymore, staring at him with wide eyes when she scrambled to her feet.

“H-How long have you been standing there?”

Gus gave her a smug smirk, before pushing off the doorframe and approaching her, shrugging nonchalantly.

“Three groans ago. You got anything done?”, he asked and she looked away with a pout, shaking her head.

“No, it was too hard.”, frustratedly, Amity threw her arms up, taking her chair again and pulling it on her desk, making the young witch chuckle.

She rubbed over her face before eyeing him.

“This is so hard for you?”, he asked and she nodded, furrowing her eyebrows.

“First of all, it’s not something I’m good at, or have ever been good at. Second, it just feels like-… It’s been so many years, how am I even going to describe her? She was fourteen the last time I saw her, and-… I don’t even know what we spoke about the last time I saw her. It’s all so fuzzy, somehow…”, she mumbled, while Gus stared at the wall. Suddenly, he seemed less smug. Less amused. His entire posture had changed when he looked at the bucket list, she had written just a week after Luz had passed. He had seen it a thousand times at least in the seven years since it had happened, and Amity gulped when she sat down quietly.

“… Gus?”

He breathed through, before nodding.

“I might have an idea how to give you inspiration. I-… I haven’t done this, not for myself or anyone else, even if Eda wanted me to.”, he finally admitted and Amity furrowed her eyebrows, staring at him.

“What-… What do you mean, Gus?”, she asked and he gave a sad smile.

“I’m an Illusionist, Amity.”, he drew a circle and snapped a finger. With a cloud and a small sound of a clap, a carbon copy of him appeared next to him. Amity was used to this, of course, he used his copies so often she sometimes wondered if she had been speaking with an illusion Gus once in the past, “I make copies.”

Shaking her head, Amity shrugged.

“How’s that gonna help me?”, she asked as he puffed the illusion of himself away, before turning back to her.

“There’s a law, that we are not allowed to make dead people appear. It’d raise too many questions and probably drive the family and friends insane. But-… If, If you feel like you need it, I’d be more than willing to break that law.”

Her eyes widening, she shot to her feet, staring at him. She had never thought about this, probably because it was so surreal to ever see Luz again. Narrowing her eyes, she subconsciously grabbed the hem of her shirt, before sucking in her lips and breathing through.

“Are-… Are you really up for this?”, she pressed out, and Gus gave her a hard nod.

“I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been thinking about it more often than I want to admit. Not for pranks, that’d be heartless, but I’ve thought about creating her once or twice, just to help ease the pain on dark days.”, everything in Amity screamed to see Luz again, even if just for such a short time, and she was this close to begging him when he already continued, “But I’m warning you, Amity, I will not do it more than once. It’ll hurt and it won’t relieve any stress, do you understand?”

Considering, Amity finally looked away, taking a minute or two, before looking back to him.

“Let’s get Willow for this if she wants to?”

A hesitant nod and a rushed explanation later, the three of them stood in the living room downstairs, all their blinds closed and doors locked before they took each other’s hands. Gus looked over to the girls who stared back at him.

“This will not be Luz. I will be controlling her, and she will be a normal illusion. It’s not Luz, understood?”

Willow and Amity nodded before Gus breathed through and spun a circle. A cloud appeared in the middle of their living room and Amity felt Willow’s grip on her hand tightening. It’ll be like looking at a picture, she reminded herself. Just a copy.

The cloud got bigger, almost as tall as Amity herself, and she pressed her lips together in anticipation. When the cloud faded, Luz stared back at her.

Immediately, she felt her chest being compressed as she felt the air pushing out of it, and her heart squeezing at the feelings, she felt upon looking at the teenager in front of her.

Luz barely reached her chin.

She was absolutely tiny.

The young teenager stared back, and while she was just a copy, Amity felt how much Gus had poured into this reflection of their friend.

Willow had to sit down but Amity stayed on her feet, surprisingly so. A hiccup escaped her throat, before she watched Luz moving, looking around and back to her.

She had never realized how much she had grown, how much they had grown, in comparison to their early teen years. Another hiccup and Luz was looking directly looking at her. Amity took a step forward, letting go of Willow’s and Gus’ hand as she got a better look at the human before Luz did what she had always done, what had been her trademark spell to pull off. She produced a light glyph from her coat and activated it. Amity watched the little light floating in Luz’s hands and she was almost tempted to touch it when Gus ended the illusion.

A puff of smoke erupted from Luz’s body and Amity whipped around to look at her friends, Gus who had tears in his eyes, and Willow who was silently shaking. Almost tempted to ask him to bring her back, Amity approached them, but instead just pulled Gus down on the couch to hug them both, sniffling and finally allowing her tears to flow again, just as her friends joined her.

It took them a long while to calm down again after all their tears had subsided and all of them had been able to control their breathing again.

But it wasn’t long after, that Amity found herself sitting on her desk, waking up.

She hadn’t been sleeping, not at all, yet it felt like she was resurfacing back into consciousness after a long while. Her clock showed it was just after 2 am and her joints and neck kind of ached, but in front of her, on her desk, a finished poem sat.

Staring at it, she read through it again and again, not really believing what she had written until every word had been drilled into her mind and soul. If it hadn’t been for her sleep-deprived, dehydrated state, she probably would have cried more.

Luz, my light

It’s been hard, it’s been rough

Realizing your passing was tough

Yet, somehow, your light still shines

And our lives it still entwines

Never did I know this pain

Broke me down like acid rain

Never did I know this love

One I was deprived of

And yet, your light, it guides

Through the darkest of nights

Still shows in the brightest of days

Sets my heart ablaze

But the longer it’s been

The more I’ve seen

The wonderful impact you left

The hollow feeling of theft

You were part of our lives

Your memory still gives

To this day and more

What I never could’ve imagined before

The light you gave

That smile, so brave

Your warmth, around me

Making me carefree

Your jokes, your laughter

The shenanigans you were after

The dance under the stars

That was alone ours

My heart beating so fast

Not just in the past

At your unparalleled joy

That I came to enjoy

I hope you’re well

I’m still under your spell

Luz, my light

My fearless knight

With love, your Blight

---

I’m so sorry.

#toh #the owl house #fanfic #bring it home #home series #amity blight #willow park #gus porter #poem #sad

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