childhood-friends-au - Tumblr blog

[childhood-friends-au]

Messaging people for the first time is so hard. What am I supposed to say? Like, "You seem really odd and your blog intrigues me. Do you want to have philosophical conversations or perhaps talk about fictional characters?" What! Whatever. I will just follow you back and stare at your blog with my big beautiful brown eyes.

[childhood-friends-au]

Finally, I am posting something for this AU! First part of it, there was very little proof-reading for this, I apologise for the mistakes.

.

Philip Wittebane is a strange child. He rarely speaks, mostly stares, often with a blank expression on his face; that is, when his face is not obscured by the strange mask he often wears. It’s a wooden mask, with two holes for the eyes, and antlers. He says his brother made it for him, for when he’s a Witch Hunter. For now, he likes playing pretend with his big brother.

Another thing little Philip likes is exploring the woods surrounding his village. He prefers to do it with his brother, but he doesn’t mind doing it alone. He is better alone.

That day, the boy had left the village earlier in the afternoon and wandered off in the forest, like he often does.

He likes to stop and look at the nature around, to jump across streams and chase imaginary witches with his wooden sword. He scares little animals with his mask and stabs the few weird bugs he meets with sticks, and sometimes dissect them for fun. Exploring the forest gives him a little bit of freedom that he never got in the village.

As he walks through the forest he knows so well, something shiny suddenly catches his eye. He walks towards it, intrigued, and finds a strange, round, and flat object. The moon and a couple of stars are painted on it. It looks quite pretty, he thinks.

After a few seconds of hesitation, he carefully picks it up, wincing at the weight of it.

He sits down, placing it on his folded legs, and traces the drawing with the tip of his fingers.

“What is that?” He asks out loud, tapping the moon symbol with his fingers. He lifts the object, turns it around, shakes it.

Suddenly, the object lights up, blinding him for a second, and he drops it with a little scream. He blinks a few time to chase the white spots clouding his vision.

“Hey!” A childish voice rings around him. “It’s rude to shake people like that!”

A shadow comes out of the object, appearing on a tree in front of the little boy. Its body is black and grey, separated in two sides by a white line, which makes a moon shape on its face. Stars decorate its body on each side of the line.

The shadow pouts while looking at the kid sitting on the ground.

“Can’t you people just leave me alone? First they wake me up, then they say they don’t wanna play, and THEN they toss me around! That’s annoying!”

Philip can’t answer, only stare, confused and a bit scared. He barely manages to mutter the question that pops in his head.

“A-Are you a… a demon?”

“What?! No silly, I’m not a demon! Don’t you know what demons look like?”

Philip shakes his head to say no, and the shadow gasps, splitting in two to appear on the ground around Philip.

“Your ears are so funny! They’re all round, just like mine! What kind of witch are you?!”

“I’m not a witch!” Philip squeaks, offended. “I’m a human.”

It’s his turn to frown at the weird entity. Is it a witch? Should he go tell the village he found a witch? He clenches his mask and his wooden sword, very afraid. He knows he should jump on his feet and run home to safety, but he’s frozen in place. Witches and demons from his games are less scary than whatever is standing in front of him.

The thing laughs, and the sound booms around them in the forest.

“You’re funny when you’re mad! I like you! But really, it’s nice that you’re not a witch! Witches are mean to me usually.” The shadow says, its face showing an exaggerated frown.

“Why are they mean to you?”

“I don’t know! I just want to play, but they don’t like playing with me! The last one I met asked me for something, but they didn’t want to play! They’re soooooo boring! Almost as boring as the Titan that trapped me in this thing!”

Philip looks at the object, then at the… child. Because the more he listens to them, the more they seem to be just a kid, like him.

He shakes his head and frowns again.

Of course, this thing isn’t a child! It’s probably trying to trick him by making him believe they’re alike, and hurt him, or steal his soul -he remembers the sermons he hears when he goes to church with his parents.

But something the creature just said strikes his attention.

“Why were you trapped?” He inquires.

“Ughhhh you ask so many questions! I don’t like questions!” It says, sliding back to the tree. “I wanna play with someone!”

They fold their legs and “sit”, pouting again. Philip thinks for a little bit, then decides he wants to know more about this thing. At least, he must know if they pose a threat to his village.

As he thinks about it, a wicked smile grows on his lips. Maybe he can not only, learn about them, but also find a way to get rid of them! If he manages to kill a real demon, then the people of the village will see that he’s not cursed, or useless! A plan stems in his mind, and he figures indulging in some “games” won’t hurt if it means uncovering what kind of evil creature this shadow is.

“Hey, I’ll play with you.”

“Really?!” Their face lights up quite literally since shadow stars appear on the wood around them.

“Yes, but you have to tell me why you were trapped first.”

The shadow ponders something, tapping on their chin.

“Mmmm… OK! I was trapped because the Titans thought that I was "destroying lands” and “hurting innocent people”. But it’s not my fault the people were just bad at games! They’re just big meanies! Now, I can’t play with anyone anymore!“

"What is a "Titan”?“

"Heyyyyy you said you would play if I told you! You can’t ask more questions! That’s not fair!”

“Right, sorry. What do you want to play?”

“Do you know how to play hide and seek?! You hide and I seek first!”

.

“Found ya!”

“Nooo you saw me hide! You cheated!”

“Liar! You’re just bad at hiding!”

The Collector sticks out his tongue, and Philip does the same, before the two laugh loudly.

“It’s sooooooo fun!! I hadn’t played like that in ages!!” The Collector exclaims, wrapping himself around a big trunk.

“It was nice.” Philip agrees, falling on the ground, out of breath.

He doesn’t know what to think about this… thing. “The Collector”, as he told him a few hours ago. They seemed… dangerous, and magic, and admitted to knowing about witches, so he knows they’re bad… but Philip also feels good. He did have fun, laughing and running around. He rarely feels so happy, maybe only when he plays with Caleb. His emotions are confused right now, and he doesn’t know how to understand them.

“Do you wanna play again?” The Collector asks.

“Yes, su-”

“Philip? Philip, where are you?!”

The voice of his brother looking for him pulls him back to reality, and he notices that the forest has become dark, and the sky above the trees is turning orange.

“Oh no! I forgot the time, I’m going to be in trouble! I’m so sorry, I must go back home!”

“Awwww, you’re gonna leave me alone? I don’t want to be alone!”

Philip looks at the shadow, before quickly grabbing the mirror trapping him. He hides the object in a hollow tree, covering it with a few leaves and branches.

“Philip? Phiiiilip!” Caleb calls again.

The voice is closer now, and more worried.

“I really, really have to go right now, but I will come back tomorrow to play. I promise!”

“Wait! You have to pinky swear, so I’m sure you won’t lie!”

The Collector extends his pinky finger. Philip looks at it, dumfounded. Are they asking him to… make a deal? He doesn’t want to make a deal with a creature like that! He doesn’t want to lose his soul!

But the look on the Collector’s face breaks his heart a little. He looks desperate and sad, like him. Philip shivers, remembering that they said they used to destroy lands. Would he destroy the village and kill everyone if Philip refuses to play?

Looking at their finger, Philip figures that if he crosses his fingers, the deal doesn’t really count… right? That’s what Caleb told him, and he trusts his brother’s words. He carefully lays his own pinky on the shadow’s.

“I… promise I’ll be back tomorrow?” He hesitates, crossing his fingers behind his back.

“Yay!! Thanks! You can go now, don’t get grounded!!”

The kid nods and runs off, waving at the Collector. Soon, he finds his brother, who looks both relieved and upset upon seeing him.

“There you are! Where did you go?! The night is about to fall, and you’re late for dinner! Mother and Father are furious!”

Philip hesitates. He should probably tell him about his discovery but… he knows Caleb might not react well when he learns that Philip played with one of the Devil’s friends and -sort of- made a deal with them. And another, selfish part of him wants to keep the credit of finding such a dangerous creature for himself. So, he resorts to tell him something that’s not exactly a lie.

“Sorry… I was playing in the deeper part of the forest, and I forgot the time.”

Philip pulls his “sorry face”, the one he knows always makes his brother cave and forgive him. It works again this time because Caleb sighs and ruffles his hair.

“It’s alright, you little rascal. Just please, don’t wander so far. I was worried!”

“I know. I won’t do it again, I swear!”

“We don’t swear Philip!” Caleb shushes him worriedly. “Now come on, let’s run home before Father gets even angrier.”

The little boy nods and grabs his brother hand, looking over his shoulder one last time before leaving the forest.

[childhood-friends-au]

Finally, I am posting something for this AU! First part of it, there was very little proof-reading for this, I apologise for the mistakes.

.

Philip Wittebane is a strange child. He rarely speaks, mostly stares, often with a blank expression on his face; that is, when his face is not obscured by the strange mask he often wears. It’s a wooden mask, with two holes for the eyes, and antlers. He says his brother made it for him, for when he’s a Witch Hunter. For now, he likes playing pretend with his big brother.

Another thing little Philip likes is exploring the woods surrounding his village. He prefers to do it with his brother, but he doesn’t mind doing it alone. He is better alone.

That day, the boy had left the village earlier in the afternoon and wandered off in the forest, like he often does.

He likes to stop and look at the nature around, to jump across streams and chase imaginary witches with his wooden sword. He scares little animals with his mask and stabs the few weird bugs he meets with sticks, and sometimes dissect them for fun. Exploring the forest gives him a little bit of freedom that he never got in the village.

As he walks through the forest he knows so well, something shiny suddenly catches his eye. He walks towards it, intrigued, and finds a strange, round, and flat object. The moon and a couple of stars are painted on it. It looks quite pretty, he thinks.

After a few seconds of hesitation, he carefully picks it up, wincing at the weight of it.

He sits down, placing it on his folded legs, and traces the drawing with the tip of his fingers.

"What is that?" He asks out loud, tapping the moon symbol with his fingers. He lifts the object, turns it around, shakes it.

Suddenly, the object lights up, blinding him for a second, and he drops it with a little scream. He blinks a few time to chase the white spots clouding his vision.

"Hey!" A childish voice rings around him. "It's rude to shake people like that!"

A shadow comes out of the object, appearing on a tree in front of the little boy. Its body is black and grey, separated in two sides by a white line, which makes a moon shape on its face. Stars decorate its body on each side of the line.

The shadow pouts while looking at the kid sitting on the ground.

"Can't you people just leave me alone? First they wake me up, then they say they don’t wanna play, and THEN they toss me around! That’s annoying!"

Philip can't answer, only stare, confused and a bit scared. He barely manages to mutter the question that pops in his head.

"A-Are you a... a demon?"

"What?! No silly, I'm not a demon! Don't you know what demons look like?"

Philip shakes his head to say no, and the shadow gasps, splitting in two to appear on the ground around Philip.

"Your ears are so funny! They're all round, just like mine! What kind of witch are you?!"

"I'm not a witch!" Philip squeaks, offended. "I'm a human."

It's his turn to frown at the weird entity. Is it a witch? Should he go tell the village he found a witch? He clenches his mask and his wooden sword, very afraid. He knows he should jump on his feet and run home to safety, but he’s frozen in place. Witches and demons from his games are less scary than whatever is standing in front of him.

The thing laughs, and the sound booms around them in the forest.

"You're funny when you're mad! I like you! But really, it's nice that you're not a witch! Witches are mean to me usually." The shadow says, its face showing an exaggerated frown.

"Why are they mean to you?"

"I don't know! I just want to play, but they don't like playing with me! The last one I met asked me for something, but they didn't want to play! They're soooooo boring! Almost as boring as the Titan that trapped me in this thing!"

Philip looks at the object, then at the... child. Because the more he listens to them, the more they seem to be just a kid, like him.

He shakes his head and frowns again.

Of course, this thing isn’t a child! It’s probably trying to trick him by making him believe they’re alike, and hurt him, or steal his soul -he remembers the sermons he hears when he goes to church with his parents.

But something the creature just said strikes his attention.

"Why were you trapped?" He inquires.

"Ughhhh you ask so many questions! I don’t like questions!" It says, sliding back to the tree. "I wanna play with someone!"

They fold their legs and "sit", pouting again. Philip thinks for a little bit, then decides he wants to know more about this thing. At least, he must know if they pose a threat to his village.

As he thinks about it, a wicked smile grows on his lips. Maybe he can not only, learn about them, but also find a way to get rid of them! If he manages to kill a real demon, then the people of the village will see that he’s not cursed, or useless! A plan stems in his mind, and he figures indulging in some “games” won’t hurt if it means uncovering what kind of evil creature this shadow is.

"Hey, I'll play with you."

"Really?!" Their face lights up quite literally since shadow stars appear on the wood around them.

"Yes, but you have to tell me why you were trapped first."

The shadow ponders something, tapping on their chin.

"Mmmm... OK! I was trapped because the Titans thought that I was "destroying lands" and "hurting innocent people". But it's not my fault the people were just bad at games! They're just big meanies! Now, I can't play with anyone anymore!"

"What is a "Titan"?"

"Heyyyyy you said you would play if I told you! You can't ask more questions! That's not fair!"

"Right, sorry. What do you want to play?"

"Do you know how to play hide and seek?! You hide and I seek first!"

.

"Found ya!"

"Nooo you saw me hide! You cheated!"

"Liar! You're just bad at hiding!"

The Collector sticks out his tongue, and Philip does the same, before the two laugh loudly.

"It's sooooooo fun!! I hadn't played like that in ages!!" The Collector exclaims, wrapping himself around a big trunk.

"It was nice." Philip agrees, falling on the ground, out of breath.

He doesn't know what to think about this... thing. "The Collector", as he told him a few hours ago. They seemed... dangerous, and magic, and admitted to knowing about witches, so he knows they’re bad... but Philip also feels good. He did have fun, laughing and running around. He rarely feels so happy, maybe only when he plays with Caleb. His emotions are confused right now, and he doesn't know how to understand them.

"Do you wanna play again?" The Collector asks.

"Yes, su-"

"Philip? Philip, where are you?!"

The voice of his brother looking for him pulls him back to reality, and he notices that the forest has become dark, and the sky above the trees is turning orange.

"Oh no! I forgot the time, I'm going to be in trouble! I'm so sorry, I must go back home!"

"Awwww, you're gonna leave me alone? I don't want to be alone!"

Philip looks at the shadow, before quickly grabbing the mirror trapping him. He hides the object in a hollow tree, covering it with a few leaves and branches.

"Philip? Phiiiilip!" Caleb calls again.

The voice is closer now, and more worried.

"I really, really have to go right now, but I will come back tomorrow to play. I promise!"

"Wait! You have to pinky swear, so I'm sure you won't lie!"

The Collector extends his pinky finger. Philip looks at it, dumfounded. Are they asking him to… make a deal? He doesn’t want to make a deal with a creature like that! He doesn’t want to lose his soul!

But the look on the Collector’s face breaks his heart a little. He looks desperate and sad, like him. Philip shivers, remembering that they said they used to destroy lands. Would he destroy the village and kill everyone if Philip refuses to play?

Looking at their finger, Philip figures that if he crosses his fingers, the deal doesn’t really count… right? That’s what Caleb told him, and he trusts his brother’s words. He carefully lays his own pinky on the shadow’s.

"I... promise I'll be back tomorrow?" He hesitates, crossing his fingers behind his back.

"Yay!! Thanks! You can go now, don't get grounded!!"

The kid nods and runs off, waving at the Collector. Soon, he finds his brother, who looks both relieved and upset upon seeing him.

"There you are! Where did you go?! The night is about to fall, and you’re late for dinner! Mother and Father are furious!"

Philip hesitates. He should probably tell him about his discovery but… he knows Caleb might not react well when he learns that Philip played with one of the Devil’s friends and -sort of- made a deal with them. And another, selfish part of him wants to keep the credit of finding such a dangerous creature for himself. So, he resorts to tell him something that’s not exactly a lie.

"Sorry... I was playing in the deeper part of the forest, and I forgot the time."

Philip pulls his "sorry face", the one he knows always makes his brother cave and forgive him. It works again this time because Caleb sighs and ruffles his hair.

"It's alright, you little rascal. Just please, don't wander so far. I was worried!"

"I know. I won't do it again, I swear!"

"We don't swear Philip!” Caleb shushes him worriedly. “Now come on, let's run home before Father gets even angrier.”

The little boy nods and grabs his brother hand, looking over his shoulder one last time before leaving the forest.

[childhood-friends-au]

AU time but this time I'm talking about Caleb. I don't talk about Caleb enough.

Once Caleb discovers the Collector and Philip are friends, he's definitely going to be wary of them, because in his head this thing obviously works for the Devil (to be fair, these were Philip's first thoughts as well AND Caleb hasn't grown from the things he's been taught yet). Plus he's going to be worried about Philip, because if someone discovers that his already strange and "cursed" little brother dances around with a Creature Of The Devil? This will not end well. And he also doesn't want Philip's soul to be damned or whatever.

But also, Philip is obviously happy with the Collector and very good at swaying his brother to his side, so he (very reluctantly) accepts to let Philip see his new "friend". In reality, he says what Philip wants to hear, and his real intention is to keep Philip from seeing the Collector as much as possible, but his brother is a stubborn sneaky child and doesn't listen.

So Caleb has mixed feelings about the Collector, mostly negative one. And it is possible that these feelings will get more negative after a certain event. That i shall not talk about here because it is technically spoilers.

[childhood-friends-au]

Ok to the like, 3 people interested in my silly little AU. Philip is interested in magic in this AU. He even enjoys learning about it, with or without the Collector's help! So I suppose he would find out about the glyphs faster, maybe by communicating with witches (with a genuine interest in magic this time) or by finding them in nature.

Because if he manages to find them fast (especially the light glyph, since it's the hardest one to find), it will fuel his "I deserve to have godlike powers" mindset. Instead of "the Titan himself hid the glyphs from me", it's "the Titan gave me the glyphs". (Yes, he is just as delusional in this AU). And what better way to harness that power than carve it into his skin? And boom, that's how he gets the curse in the AU, because of his hubris.

He does feel a bit of guilt that he has to eat palismen, but whatever it takes to become God, right? It's all worth it in the end, don't worry guys! (I was also considering giving him a palisman, as a little bit of self-indulgence + angst potential)

[childhood-friends-au]

So for the past week I’ve had this AU where Philip meets the Collector as a kid and they become friends because they’re both weird kids who are Lonely. 

At first Philip is, of course, wary of this creature and wants to ensure he doesn’t pose a threat to his people BUT then he does end up liking them and being genuine friends.

And hum, maybe along the way, Philip promises to release the Collector (he does mean it this time) and the Collector, being an irresponsible child who doesn’t realise the consequences of his actions, promises to lend Philip some of their powers/tell him how to get powers so they “can have fun forever and ever”. Obviously Philip’s motivations change into “get powers to Become God” as he grows up, but he is still friends with the Collector. He just has a god complex now.

I still don’t know how canon would change exactly, i’m just focused on fucking up Philip in a different way

[childhood-friends-au]

Hello hi this is a blog for my Childhood Friends TOH AU! Where I will put my insane ramblings and writing about Philip and the Collector being pals.

Have fun!