#keeping king and the collector separate… hmm maybe Philip specifically leaves him someplace no one else will find him

[villainihavedonethymotheronao3]

AU where the rage of seeing his brother with That Witch triggers his curse and Philip has a horrifying transformation that he can’t control. He does still very much try to kill Caleb but Caleb assumes it’s the curse and he and his wife and some townsfolk manage to subdue him.

Since Philip can’t figure out how to turn back yet and being a ten foot swamp monster does make it hard to carry out his wicked plans, he lets himself be soothed. Caleb explains that it’s alright, he’ll find a cure, and they’ll stay with his wife’s family in the meantime. Internally Philip is seething but he figures it’s best to play nice. He doesn’t have many other options.

It takes him decades to figure out how to temporarily reverse his transformation and in that time he gets 5 satanic nieces and nephews who are very fond of using him as a jungle gym. Caleb is constantly fussing and the Clawthornes, though wary at first, have accepted him as a sort of Family Beast. (Caleb didn’t mention the eating palismen thing.) “Yes, that’s our Philip! He’s a bit odd. Made out of grime and muck, can only communicate through deafening roars or by scratching words on the ground. Bit angry but I’d be too under the circumstances.”

The elixir he gets off of a traveling salesman works! But only for a day. And, he realizes rapidly, he can build up a tolerance to it. He needs to ration his use.

The first thing he does is go looking for the Collector, who he did his own research on while trapped with the Clawthornes (nephews are surprisingly useful for turning book pages). Caleb is distraught when he disappears, of course, he runs himself ragged looking for him. But Philip pops back up eventually (plus one mirror tucked in his mud flesh and a plan to kill all witchkind) and the Clawthornes just kind of accept that Philip disappears now.

Since he can’t overuse his new cure he instead sticks close to the Clawthornes, relying on their trust for him as cover while he enacts his plans more subtly. He gets money by murdering people on the road and then uses that to bribe agents. It takes some effort to hold a pen in his larger form but anonymous screeds and books about the purity of magic are almost as convincing as a preacher, especially when accompanied by attacks on border towns by a strange, indescribable monster. There’s a surplus of wild palisman around the Clawthornes, no one notices when a few go missing, everyone assumes that they found new people or new places to live. And when he really needs to make a scene he chugs a potion and goes to spread his message in person.

‘Belos’ is the name of a rabble rouser who won’t show his face, who keeps spreading unsettling stories about the Titan and magic itself. Philip is just a large, unfortunate, slightly sticky guy with eyes everywhere and deer horns. He’s good at lifting heavy things and has a seemingly infinite patience for small children and he sometimes goes into the woods to nap or chase rabbits or something.

Eventually Caleb dies (80, in bed, surrounded by children; it’s more than he deserves, the traitor) but Philip still stays with the Clawthornes. They make a very nice cover story and he does need one as pushback to Belos reaches its peak. Even when his message starts to win the war, when there are more adherents to his makeshift religion than nonbelievers, when his puppet monarch (he used Caleb’s bones, which he had such easy access to, to make a grimwalker and claimed the child was Titan sent) is actually crowned, he stays. The elixir really doesn’t work that often. He needs to save it.

He is, he’ll admit, passingly fond of some of the little mongrels his brother produced. Lilith, for example, is clearly willing to do what it takes to accomplish her goals. Edalyn, on the other hand, spells trouble. He can see it in her strongwilled glare, the way the Collector balks at the curse hanging over her, in that smile so like Caleb’s. Because she’s a very real threat to his rule (and because he could be closer to the castle, his latest grimwalker is getting rebellious and might need replacing) he accompanies her when she runs away from home. Cursed Clawthornes have to stick together, right?

He’s astounded when she stumbles on the portal—the actual portal! He’d thought Caleb destroyed it, guilty that they couldn’t go home. Instead it’s here and it’s whole and he steps through it with her, this little witch with his brother’s blood…

And then they go back. He’s not fit for the human realm, not yet. When all the witches are dead, when he’s cured, then he’ll let himself enjoy air that doesn’t smell like rot.

In the meantime he lives in the Owl House and waits.

#the owl house #this does presume that Philip was fully bemused as of the fratricide event #which I’m not sure is the case #but it makes a nice little story #he’s so happy when luz arrives you cannot believe #you’ve never seen a more delighted goop deer #to increase the Abuse Vibes philip pops in on hunter and the Grimwalkers in the middle of the night #to give them talking points for the next day #as far as they’re concerned god is a gooey swamp creature who talks to them at night #maybe he’s built in some sort of advanced version of Odalia’s speaking crystal too #or just stuck some of his goop in their brains for on call advice #keeping king and the collector separate… hmm maybe Philip specifically leaves him someplace no one else will find him #except hooty who’s been seeing that haunted shadow kid for years but no one believes him #having been dealing with him since childhood Eda and Lilith are both very good at interpreting Philip’s various screams #but luz doesn’t know what the different roars mean which poses some problems #goo uncle philip au