#it was so important that it was Hunter catching Willow

[sapphosclown]

Thinking ab Hunter catching Willow in for the future. Willows whole arc in this episode was realizing she can be powerful and reliable and strong and also allow herself to be vulnerable and rely on others like they rely on her. The fact that it was Hunter to be the one to snap her out of her trance and then being the one to catch her when she falls during the fight perfectly sets up their Moment at the end of the episode. He proves to her twice in a row that he is there for her and he would do anything for her and that’s a refreshing change of pace for Willow. It was a great way to show that she deserves and has people who will catch her when she falls.

[changingplumbob]

Consider this your intro to Silver. It recaps events written by @cawthorntales from Grayson's point of view here, as well as details given in Silver's visit to Grayson. Once again all the lore of this world comes from his imagination, I'm just riffing off of it.

Willow Creek was an odd place. While Windenburg, Britechester and Henford-on-Bagley focused their architecture on stone, most of Willow Creek was wooden. It was as if the settlers had decided to show off just how many trees they could cut down. The first time Silver had visited here it looked rather different. The trees had stretched down to the river and the houses were few and far between. Foundry Cove had been a clean sweep from the canal to the railroad, now there were houses.

Silver gazed in to the fire and tried to calm down. Seeing Grayson had been the right thing, he was certain. Even if it was hard for him it was best for Grayson. He loved his brother, he had been his favourite person before everything happened. It was right to have put him first.

Silver remembered one night in Moonwood when there had been a fierce storm. Their father had always told them they needed to be strong, infallible, but the thunder sounded like hunters and he was terrified. His whimpering woke up his older brother who came and hopped in his bed. Silver tried to protest, dad would get so mad, but Grayson promised him he wouldn't fall asleep. Grayson watched over him so he could rest, and swore he'd be back in his own bed before dad could catch them. He was true to his word.

Grayson had always had his back, but when the time came Silver didn't have his. The hunters had gotten bolder, and more violent, wiping out packs and leaving a trail of bodies far bigger than any the werewolves were responsible for. They had caught his dad and four other pack members, forcing his older brother into the role of alpha at sixteen.

Their dad had always pushed the importance of maintaining the pack. To Grayson that meant mounting an attack on the hunters compound. Silver begged to go with him but Grayson insisted he go with their mother and most of the pack into hiding. When he hugged Grayson goodbye and joined the group howl sending off their alpha and their twenty fiercest members, he felt sure he'd see him in less than a day. He was wrong.

Silver had waited with the lookouts at the edge of the emergency hiding zone, waiting. The lookouts slept in shifts but Silver was determined to stay awake, for his brother and his father, he could be a stubborn fourteen year old. When they appeared on the horizon it was clear the group was smaller. Much, much smaller. Neither his brother or father were in it. When they got close enough to talk Silver asked Francine if they had survived the hunters.

Francine: They're alive but... your dad is talking to Grayson. He'll be back soon

Relieved and exhausted Silver went back to his mom and fell asleep. He had thought Francine meant Grayson would be back soon. She didn't.

He remembered waking up to yelling, his mom and dad were fierce when they got going, dealing verbal blows to each other.

Mom: How could you? He will die out there on his own. He's just a boy, he can't survive the hunters

Dad: He was sentimental and selfish. He should have left me but instead his recklessness cost us sixteen pack members, an alpha cannot put self interest before the pack. He's no son of mine

Mom: Tell me you didn't say that. Francine said he was hurt, he needs to be with us

Dad: I'm the alpha and what I say is law. He is not to set foot here again

Mom: I'll find him, I will

Dad: You bring him back and I swear I will rip his heart out myself

That's when Silver's training started. Grayson had always been meant to be the alpha and had received the bulk of their dad's attention. Silver was happy to simply tag along and mimic the training Grayson was getting, a smaller shadow. But with Grayson gone their dad honed in on him like a missile. Early mornings, late nights, relentless exercise and lectures on how his brother had failed them. His dad passed on his skills sure, but he also passed on his rage.

Silver's heart had truly broken when his mom had been killed. On a search for Grayson she had been captured by hunters, the wife of an alpha was a trophy prize. The nature of the pack changed then. What had once been caring and supportive became strained and distrustful, his dad telling anyone in hearing how Grayson was to blame.

Eventually his dad got careless and the hunters got him to. It should have been up to Silver to keep the pack intact, strong, but he'd felt there was nothing left to save. It fell apart, and he carried on alone. The more he thought about it over the years the more he began to think that his dad had been wrong, Grayson hadn't been to blame. If Silver had been the older one he would have done the same thing.

So he went through life, moving from place to place, feeling the weight of guilt grow heavy. Guilt for believing his brother, his best friend, could have ever acted against the interest of the pack. Guilt that he hadn't been with his mom when she was captured, he would have been a better prize for the hunters and she would be alive. Then, more than a century later, he was sat in a bar when he saw his brother on TV. He was alive! And more than that he was looking for love.

At first Silver couldn't stop himself crying with joy, the barkeep threw him out assuming he'd had too much. He had set out for Henford, determined to make things right. The closer he got, the more his guilt whispered in his ears. Sure that Grayson wouldn't forgive him he camped out near the house, just far enough to not be detected, and caught up on the show in one of the more run down pubs. He thought Glenn was rather cute and hoped he would get far, even if a little voice inside him dreaded Glenn winning, he liked seeing him. Clive though, he was always putting his brother first, Silver was grateful for that. Grayson was different from what he remembered, and Silver had to stop himself howling in anguish when his scar was revealed. Mom had been right, he was injured. When Grayson chose Clive Silver knew it was time to stop hiding, he had to go face his brother.

It went better than he expected. Grayson forgave him! But he had to tell him what happened to the pack and their parents. That's the thing about grief, you think you've got it handled then you have to tell someone a soul is gone and all the feelings rise to the surface again. He had to get out of there. He loved Grayson, but his brother was rebuilding his life, growing his own family and Silver couldn't bear to destroy it with his his own issues. So he'd done what he'd made a habit of doing, he ran away. The woods in Willow Creek may be smaller but he had some good memories here, hopefully the air would help him stabilise. Normally he camped out in the park but when he passed it this time he felt a strange aversion, like it would be wrong or dangerous to go there. He was sure it was just in his mind, soon he would go there and push through the discomfort. The view of the river there had always soothed his soul.

Previous ... Next

[lollytea]

(Part 4 of La La Land Machine exposition posts!! I know I've made way more than 4 but this is the part that's going in chronological order. Like I've talked about Hunter and hunlow in this au before but this is his formal introduction, like Willow got in part 1. I also got quite a lot more followers since I last rambled about this AU so linking the other parts if they wanna catch up. And if they want, they can look through the tag for all the additional info.

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

Anyway, I lied. We are only BEGINNING to talk about the hunlow slow burn. It's taken me long enough to set up Hunter and everything he's got going on. It sets up hunlow but they're not really close yet. But it won't even take that long to get the next post out because I am so excited to talk about them more)

Hunter Wittebane has lived his whole life wearing masks. He's been an actor before he developed object permanence. He was memorizing scripts by ear before he could fully read by himself.

Job after job, set after set, role after role. His environment is not only cutthroat competitive, but it's always in motion. Things never sit still. The biggest stability in his life was his Uncle Philip, whom Hunter loved intensely. Even if it felt like the only way he could express it was by bleeding.

But Hunter was only allowed to bleed in private. And if he wanted his Uncle to stroke his hair back and keep telling him he was special, he needed to prove it. He needed to be the second chance that he was born to be.

Hunter struggles to really understand who he is. Because he is seldom himself. If he's not playing a character, he's only known as the legacy of the Hollywood gem, Caleb Wittebane, Hunter's late father.

Hunter was quite sheltered as a child. Other than being out and about for business reasons, he didn't really get to experience much of the world. If he wasn't working, he was usually confined to his Uncle's house. Or hotel rooms. The only outings he goes on that are considered "personal" are to church.

He loves to read and he'll devour whatever book he gets his hands on. Unfortunately his options are limited to what his Uncle believes is appropriate. Philip views the world as a depraved and lecherous place, as are the people that inhabit it. If it weren't for this world and its poison, his brother would still be alive.

And then he wouldn't need to waste his time replicating his brother's likeness in some aimless weak willed child who can barely comprehend how important his performance is in all of this.

Philip refuses to allow outside forces to contaminate his nephew. If Caleb's soul is going to live on in the way it should have, they can't make a repeat of last time. Caleb's replacement has to remain on the right path, or his legacy goes up in flames.

The Bible is one of Hunter's top comfort reads. It's the only book that his Uncle seems pleased to know he's interested in. And he's pored over the pages so many times that the familiarity is soothing. It also puts the fear of God in him. As do Philip's frequent lessons. He's shaping up to be a very faithful little Christian.

Hunter also watches a lot of (Uncle approved) television. He's a tiny chatterbox but is pretty starved of socialization. If his Uncle isn't around, he's stuck with the family assistant Kiki, who usually ignores him. TV and books are mostly responsible for Hunter's expansive vocabulary.

As a shy but precocious little boy, his best friends are sweet, comforting preschool cartoon characters.

Even though Philip's life seemed to orbit around Hunter and he worked day and night for the sake of his nephew's success, a lot of the time he just....wasn't around. Sometimes Hunter went weeks without hearing from him and was left in the "care" of Kiki.

Hunter was always left wanting. On those lonely nights when Philip was away, he would beg Kiki to call him so Hunter could at least say goodnight. All for the sake of holding the phone tight against his ear and hearing his Uncle's soft spoken "Sleep well, Hunter," so his world felt a little less cold.

If Philip even answered.

But when Uncle was home, Hunter found himself with some very guilty feelings and ungrateful thoughts.

The details are not important. By that, I mean Hunter is quite uncomfortable recounting the things that used to happen in the Wittebane house when his Uncle was home.

He said them aloud once. At the age of sixteen, when his breathing was in sync with the girl he had fallen in love with and her fingers were tracing gentle paths down his bare back. He felt like he had melted into a world where he could say anything.

It didn't stop his voice from wavering nor his throat from threatening to close up. It was like he was having a full body rejection of the admission. These were secrets meant to remain locked up in his chest until his heart went still.

But he said them. And after that, they couldn't go back to being unsaid.

He didn't say them again for many years. It wasn't until he was a grown man. He wrote them down and he told the whole world.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

The point is that when Philip was away, Hunter got lonely and wanted his Uncle back. When Philip was home and focused all of his attention on his nephew, Hunter wanted nothing more than for him to be gone again. He knew that was an awful thing to want and the guilt ate him alive.

Did he not love his Uncle? Of course he did! He loved him more than anything.

That's why it hurt so much.

Sometimes, his Uncle was a comfort to Hunter's anxious heart. He held him in his arms and hushed him when Hunter had nightmares. He was safety.

And other times, he was the reason for those nightmares and Hunter didn't feel like he could be safe until that man was out of the house again.

Maybe, no matter what happened, he'd never be truly happy with any situation he was put in. Maybe the state of "being happy" just wasn't real, but a thing TV made up. There was just something inherently empty and scary about being alive.

At least that's the conclusion the small boy came to. This remained his mindset as he navigated the big loud upsetting world around him, which only got bigger and louder and more upsetting as Hunter got older and his career grew.

The most glaring problem Philip encountered grooming Hunter in Caleb's image was that there's a drastic difference between a man who achieved the most undiluted burst of stardom in his twenties and a toddler. Hunter can not immediately slide into the dignified shadow his father left behind, because he's too young for the kind of dramatic roles that Caleb had dazzled the world with.

There was nothing available to little Hunter that Philip felt lived up to the standards of Caleb in his prime. Which was understandable but disappointing. So, with a heavy exhale, which made Hunter worry the hem of this shirt ("Am I doing something wrong, Uncle?") Philip relented. Hunter would need a lengthy portfolio by the time he was older, so it was now time to start building this budding actor from the ground up.

Commercials, TV appearances, small film roles. Though it pained him to do so, Philip abandoned all the initial integrity he attached to his brother's legacy, and focused primarily on simply getting Hunter's face on a screen, any screen, whatever it took to get him entrenched in the industry.

Hunter was a lot more sensitive than other children. When he was very little, he had a bad tendency to get distressed over things like bright lights and unfamiliar places and weird textures. This led to a lot of on-set tantrums and he was deemed a difficult and entitled brat.

His "brattiness" never quite went away as he aged. But Philip did manage to curb those tendencies to be far less frequent. It involved brief private conversations in the nearest dressing room. When Hunter emerged, he was quieter and a lot more willing to co-operate with what the adults needed from him.

Hunter learned that misbehaving had consequences. He learned to swallow whatever obscure distress he was feeling and just do his job.

This didn't make his tantrums stop. They just shifted from regular occurances to big nasty explosions that build up over a period of weeks to months.

He eventually gave up trying to suppress them. It doesn't work. So, he just allows his emotions to burst out of him in the most humiliating public display a human being can put on, and then takes his punishment.

Uncle keeps telling him that people are going to think there's something wrong with him if he keeps doing this.

Hunter begs him to believe that there's not. There's not something wrong with him.

While it was happening, Philip would consider the 90s as a rocky beginning to his nephew's career. He didn't care much for any of the films or television series' Hunter appeared in, likely because he didn't care much for any production that included small children. So he was uninterested by default in any of the roles Hunter managed to book.

Regardless, this didn't make Philip any less demanding. Even if it was all tripe, and by God, he was very vocal about it all being tripe, he was still strict about Hunter's work ethic. The boy was expected to pour everything into his performance, and through there were very irritating child labor laws, Philip turned a blind eye to directors pushing the limits every now and again.

After long work days, Hunter would listen to his Uncle tear his current acting job to shreds. The stupid demeaning script that Caleb would be appalled at, but Hunter had no choice but to take, because he simply doesn't have the privilege to be picky.

Hunter felt a deep humiliation by his own career before he was even ten years of age. There was nothing that Philip held to Caleb standard, which left Hunter a paranoid wreck most of the time, fearing that he was always doing something wrong but never knowing how to fix it.

When he thinks back on being a little kid, he has a lot of memories of tearfully begging his Uncle to stop thinking of him a certain way or looking at him the way he does. He remembers his throat hurting. Things must have gotten loud.

An older Hunter would wince as he makes that connection. He remembers his throat hurting but not the consequences of raising his voice.

Every so often, a more prestigious opportunity presented itself to him (like the role of the protagonist's son in a film adaption of an American classic), and Hunter got so overwhelmed by the pressure of finally having something that could possibly hold a candle to Caleb Wittebane that he completely flubbed the audition and failed to book the role.

He knows that were dire consequences for not getting it. Although, once again, he doesn't remember the details of the punishment. But he remembers how tightly Uncle gripped his wrist as they walked out of the building. He remembers sitting perfectly still in the car, scared to make a sound by wriggling in his seat. Scared to breathe.

That was the 90s. That was Hunter's experience as a young child actor.

By the year 2000, he was ten and that's when Philip quietly realized something.

Hunter currently resembled Caleb Wittebane in miniature. He had his strong nose, his ashy hair, his dark eyes. Philip had always anticipated that there may be a bit of her in his nephew's appearance, but there wasn't a trace. It was beyond ideal.

This is when things should have gotten easier. This is when dignified job opportunities should have begun rolling in. This is when the world should have taken notice that Caleb Wittebane was not dead.

But this was not the case.

What Philip did not anticipate was that the industry had changed significantly since the 80s. It was the year 2000 and a young Caleb Wittebane was not what the industry wanted the future of film to look like.

He realized this in his study late one night as he obsessed over old video tapes. And once the truth had sunk in, he called Hunter into the room.

Hunter remembers wearing red pajamas patterned with beagle puppies. He has a memory of liking those pajamas a lot but can't recall the disappointment of growing out of them and throwing them away. It makes him suspect that at some point he just stopped wearing them.

On that night, a part of Philip gave up completely. He decided that this attempt of reviving his late brother's career was a failure before it had even started.

However, Philip was a deeply complex man. A remarkably stubborn man. So even when a part of him died, another part flared with life. It was the part of him that wanted to dig his heels in and say he wasn't done yet. Maybe they didn't want Caleb now, but this world was fickle. Who knows what they'd want in five years? In ten?

Hunter would continue making a name for himself, Philip would make sure of that.

Hunter would be something special if it damn near kills him.

And if he fails, Philip would kill the boy himself.

So, Hunter continues working diligently, attempting to find his footing in the rapidly changing environment. The early 2000s seem to be working overtime to distance itself from the 90s and it certainly takes some getting used to.

When Hunter is around eleven, he is told for the first time that he is not very nice to look at. According to various make up artists and hair stylists who he is left in the custody of when Kiki is god knows where, it's very easy to be cute as a small child. Baby fat n' all. But at a certain age, you start outgrowing it and that's when it becomes apparent whether you're going to be a handsome young man or not.

They gently break the news that there are not a lot of promising signs for Hunter. As one of the women, maybe in her late twenties, cups his face in her hands and tilts it towards the light (he really hates when strangers touch him), she sucks through her teeth and winces, as though she's trying to dig something out with her eyes but is coming up short. Nothing about his features reads as a future leading man. He can still have a steady acting career of course. But it's important he not get his hopes up too high. He's doesn't look like the typical Hollywood star.

Hunter argues with her. He riles himself up until his face flushes with rage. He looks just like his father, who was one of the most famous leading men of all time.

"Who's your Dad?" The woman asks.

Hunter frowns. He's never said the word "Dad" in his life. But the full name is familiar on his tongue when he answers the question.

"Oh, yeah," She says vaguely. "I think my parents used to watch his movies. I guess he was what they considered handsome in the 80s but..."

He doesn't like the way she trails off. He doesn't like all the new information being presented to him. He doesn't like her saying Caleb Wittebane wasn't handsome. In the world Hunter lives in, the man is picture perfect in every discernable way. He's never heard a bad word spoken of his father before, not even of the shallow variety. Uncle only lets him speak to people with nice things to say about Caleb. It's so jarring that it makes him feel nauseous. This isn't the way things are supposed to be.

And what's even worse, does looking like Caleb Wittebane not even matter?

Does this legacy he's supposed to carry on not matter?

That's always been one of his biggest fears, but he can not think about it for too long or the meltdown gets bad. But this new realization about his apparently mediocre looks catch him so off guard that he can't help it this time.

Hunter proceeds to hyperventilate in a supply closet for the next twenty minutes. He had never thought about what he looked like before. He had never really cared. He didn't know his appearance could hinder his career. He didn't know everything could fall apart just by having the face he does.

This is when a deep seated insecurity centered around his body image began spiraling out of control. It was also around the time that Hunter's dietary restrictions were being implemented, as were the intensity of his ballet lessons. This certainly did not help his already deteriorating self confidence.

From that point, Hunter is far more conscious of his own ambitions as an actor. He believes he is more than just a little boy who performs because it's what his Uncle tells him to do. He's a young man who wants to become a success like his father before him. He wants recognition. He wants acclaim. He wants...he wants....he wants something that he does not currently have.

As an adult, Hunter can only drag his fingers through his hair and sigh sympathetically at the thought of his young self believing that his determination to be a successful was ever for himself. It was for Uncle. It was for Caleb Wittebane. It was for everybody but himself. He was just a stupid kid who thought he wanted this because he knew nothing else.

The 2000s are a time when Hunter simultaneously starts slipping out of his iron confines, while getting reeled back tighter than ever. As he grows older, his curiosity becomes more and more insatiable and current pop culture is not as easy to shield him from. Especially when it's such a huge part of his life as an actor.

By the age of twelve, he's such a boring obedient self sufficient little robot that Kiki doesn't even bother monitoring him as severely as she once had. What's he gonna do, really?

And though Hunter is adamant that he never breaks his Uncle's rules, he finds himself shattering them to smithereens on a regular basis.

"I like authority. And rules," He says, ignoring the fact that there are piles of teen magazines tucked away under his mattress. Ignoring the hour of TV he sneaked in that Philip would have shattered the television screen over.

And no matter how many times Hunter wrinkles his nose in disapproval at how rowdy and frivolous today's youth are, he's still reading those trashy articles, desperate to find some connection. His small bubble of worldliness is beginning to grow.

It is slowly occuring to Hunter that he is much different than other kids. But that's a good thing....right? He's on a cleaner path than they are. None of them are being led by Philip Wittebane.

This is a good thing, he tells himself. This is a good thing, this is a good thing, this is a good thing--

However, Philip does crack down on an aspect of Hunter's autonomy that has been mostly ignored until now.

Though he tries not to think about it, as it gives him the most splitting headache, Philip must internally acknowledge those rumors from an age ago. The word of mouth telephone that crackled with the events of that one ridiculous party. Caleb Wittebane, age 17(!!!!) with his tongue down some filthy girl's throat.

The news hadn't been as scandalous as Philip viewed it as, and the world forgot about it remarkably fast. But he never forgot. And he never would. It was a pesky stain on the otherwise clean image that Philip was trying to preserve.

It hadn't been Caleb. It wasn't like him at all to behave in such an indecent way. It was her influence. It always was. Sometimes his blood boiled when he remembered how deeply interwoven she had become in his brother's life. How the child wouldn't even exist without her. It was vile. Eternally contaminating a narrative she had no business being a part of.

Obviously, he never told Hunter about all this. About the party. About the tongue. About the girl. He never mentioned the girl. She was a footnote at best.

Anyway, Hunter was almost thirteen. He was tumbling into adolescence. And no matter how singleminded and sensible he tried to act, there would be challenges to this physical and mental development. And Philip knew from personal experience that there was nothing more damaging to a clean Christian boy than fizzling teenage hormones.

There would not be a repeat of last time.

On Hunter's thirteenth birthday, his Uncle gifted him a chastity ring, like many of the other young people that attended their church.

Hunter was so floored by the gift he forgot how to speak. And when his Uncle put his hand on his shoulder and murmured "I know you won't let me down," Hunter had nodded solemnly, suddenly feeling so much older than he had been a moment before.

He now had a responsibility to refrain from things he hardly understood.

Philip felt this would be an effective precaution. It made Hunter feel important and Hunter loved to feel important.

All that concerned Philip was that the boy stick to his morals.

Keeping his stupid tongue in his stupid mouth was only the tip of the iceberg of what the rules of the chastity ring entailed, but Philip stressed the importance of it nonetheless.

And if the boy failed to do this one simple thing, Philip was going to gouge his eyes out.

A few months later, Hunter was hired to appear in an advertisement produced by his family's church. He, and several other actors in his age range, promoted the rings they wore to the children watching at home.

Hunter was very proud to be a part of it. He rarely got to do anything educational.

When Hunter was fourteen, he surprisingly booked a role as Sir William in some medieval fantasy film for swoony teen girls.

He rolled his eyes over it, but this was the point when Philip made it apparent to Hunter that swoony teen girls was a huge chunk of the target demographic of any actor his age so he best begin pandering. He was no Edric Blight (Hunter fucking hated Edric Blight) but he'd probably appeal to some.

The means of obtaining the role was not Hunter's talent alone, but it was because of a perfectionist director who wanted raw, emotionally gripping action scenes, and was disappointed that all the hazardous exploits in the script would require stunt doubles. No parent in their right mind would allow their child to be put in such dangerous conditions.

Enter Philip Wittebane and his nephew Hunter.

The film's shooting schedule had a rough history. And after a few months, production had to stop altogether when an on-set accident resulted in Hunter being sent to the hospital.

He remembers the hospital, specifically the very uncomfortable bed. He remembers rarely sleeping through the night unless he was drugged, as he kept waking up with panic attacks about all the money he was causing the studio to lose by not healing faster.

By the time the film released, Hunter was fifteen and already moving forward with his next project.

The Golden Guard was a TV adaption of a well loved comic book series that was currently in the development stages. Hunter has never read the comic (he's never read most comics, other than newspaper funny pages) but he's been informed that he is the spitting image of the titular character.

Initially he was skeptical. Who wants a famous superhero on their screen who looks like him? Certainly not current networks who have a very limited view of what leading men should look like, regardless of the comic it's being adapted from.

Apparently, a lot of negotiations have been taking place with the Golden Guard's creator, in order to obtain rights to the series. After months of arguing, they wore him down, as they always manage to wear creators down, and he agreed to hand over his baby.

The one condition that he managed to secure was that the boy cast for the screen resembled the boy on the page.

Hunter was fully aware that if it weren't for that old man's stubbornness, there was no way he would have been eligible for the role. He remembered seeing him appear once during a screen test and had wanted to thank him. The speech that fell out of him was flustered and clumsy, but it made the man smile.

"There are going to massacre the Golden Guard," He said with a bitter smile. "But I think you'll do well."

He never saw him again after that. And though Hunter did not have the frame of reference to have an opinion, the girl he would inevitably fall in love with happened to be a huge comic book nerd, being especially infatuated with the Golden Guard. And her opinions were strong.

"He was right, y'know," She would inform Hunter. "Your show is a steaming pile of shit." She would then kiss the tip of his nose. "But you're the best part of it."

Speaking of girls,

Hunter met Emira Blight a year prior when she and her twin brother also showed up for the chastity ring promotional ad. The two of them would have gotten fired for vandalizing the set and pranking the director if they weren't the most well known stars associated with the project.

Someone had tried to contact their mother to come get her children under control but she had failed to pick up the phone.

"Our precious little Mittens has an audition today," Emira explained, hands placed angelically behind her back.

"Until further notice, Mom has forgotten she has two other kids," Added Edric.

Emira smiled. "Like the next time she notices her stretch marks <33"

The two of them burst into giggles. They were left to be "disciplined" by members of the crew, who hadn't the faintest idea how to handle either of them.

Hunter had tried to avoid them while on set. He never had any personal encounters with them but he was well aware of their existence. They had been starring in twin centric comedies for the last decade or so, and were beloved talk show guests for being chatty, mischievous and overall "adorable."

Hunter found them obnoxious.

Edric more so than Emira. Especially lately, as the two were finally branching out into their own separate careers, rather than remaining a double act. Meaning Edric could be found sniffing around in the same auditions rooms as Hunter, going for the same roles.

Edric had a perfectly structured face, devoid of blemishes. He had the most photoshopped nose Hunter had ever seen, except he looked like that in real life apparently. He looked perfect and he was already a star to begin with. The roles were his the moment he stepped into the room.

But this wasn't about Edric. Edric was off somewhere else, performing the leading role in some teen musical movie that was going to become a worldwide phenomenon the moment it hit television screens.

This was about Emira, who had just been cast as Ruby Green, the Golden Guard's love interest.

Emira Blight was one of the most beautiful teenage girls in the entire world. Hunter knew this because he read it in a magazine once. More specifically, she placed 4th on the list, but that was still a pretty impressive accomplishment.

Hunter always had a difficult time deciphering the exact definition of beautiful. It was apparently a far different thing than what you would initially imagine.

From what he had gathered, it had nothing to do with being particularly interesting to look at, but having a nice and tidy face with all its features being a specific size and shape. He couldn't understand how one girl on that list could be in 8th place, while another could be in 3rd, as they all looked so startlingly similar.

That was what beautiful meant, he supposed.

There were definitely people that Hunter saw as beautiful in their own peculiar way. In the way that wasn't correct. Sometimes he saw them in movies from the 80s-90s. Sometimes he saw them in audition rooms, but they rarely booked the role.

Sometimes he even saw them on the street as the car drove past, people who made him sit up and want to look at them a little longer--

Girls. Girls on the street. Just girls. Only girls. It was only girls that he looked at on the street. It was only girls that he looked at ever.

Emira Blight had Edric's perfectly structured face, which made her beautiful in a celebrity kind of way, but also made Hunter want to look at her less. She had Rapunzel hair and a rail thin frame and, much to Hunter's dismay, she was taller than him.

The wardrobe department were given notes to add an extra few inches to the Golden Guard's boots.

"Little Prince indeed," The head stylist had murmured under his breath, just loud enough for Hunter to hear. An furious flush set his face aflame.

There were no screen test to determine Hunter and Emira's chemistry before the latter was cast, which resulted in hours of reshoots where they were chastised for the lack of romantic tension that they were putting into their performance.

To be perfectly honest, Hunter disliked Emira quite a bit and she disliked him too.

She carried her troublemaking tendencies from the promotional ad to the Golden Guard set, frequently wreaking havoc on the cast and crew.

Hunter had blown a gasket and berated her for it several times, but all she had done was smile her insufferable smile, roll her eyes and sing songingly tease him for being so uptight.

She made him mad. So uncomfortably mad. If he pulled the kind of stunts she pulled, without caring about the consequences, he would probably be dead by now.

Emira rarely got angry. Everything she did had this air of impish joy, but based on the way she spoke to Hunter, her opinion of him wasn't exactly glowing.

She called him arrogant, bossy, egotistical, to which he practically exploded in response. And then she made fun of how red in the face he got.

The only time Hunter ever saw Emira as anything less than her usual bombastic self was early in the morning, during hair and makeup.

"Are you washing your face, honey?"

"Yes," Answered Emira, looking smaller than ever in the makeup chair.

"Drinking plenty of water? Eating healthy? Staying away from junk food? Getting plenty of exercise?"

"Yes, yes, yes and yes," Emira's voice was quiet and automatic.

After a pause, she continued "It's not my fault."

The makeup artist hummed, unconvinced, which made Emira grip the seat so hard her fingers shook.

But the woman didn't push the matter any more and got to work on painting Emira's face into the porcelain masterpiece that made its way on to magazines.

Hunter watched in fascination as a few minutes of work with sponges and brushes wiped her skin clear of acne. And then she was what everyone around here would call beautiful once again.

When Emira noticed him looking, she said, in her usual playfully indifferent voice "I think Hunter's eyebags are getting worse."

"We know," The woman replied, exasperated.

The comment wasn't much, but it successfully corralled Hunter into his default mood. Not being enough. Any thoughts about Emira flew out the window, and he was back to fretting about his own inadequacy.

"And he's more sickly looking than usual," Emira decided to add.

"Well, maybe if he laid off the coffee. It's got him looking like a half-dead ghoul. No wonder it takes so long to make him look presentable."

It was a bad time for Hunter to be taking a sip of his takeaway cup. He frowned. "I've been awake since 4:30am."

"You should go to bed earlier then,"

"But I--"

"And kids shouldn't be drinking coffee at all."

"I'm not a kid!"

"Hush up. We've got work to do on this face and the last thing I need is to listen to you bitching again,"

Hunter glowered at her.

"You're gonna have wrinkles before you're 18 if you keep pouting like that."

He was so preoccupied with not throwing a temper tantrum that he didn't notice Emira leave the room.

The worst thing she ever did was while they were filming episode 3 and she had decided that Hunter's uptight behaviour deserved a humbling punishment. He didn't know how but she had somehow managed to break into his trailer and scavenged the place for something embarrassing.

This resulted in his stuffed frog Sprig being paraded around the set in Emira's arms as she declared the toy's owner to everyone who would listen in a high pitched trill. Everybody. She told everybody. Everybody knew about his toy. And now nobody was going to treat him seriously.

And when Hunter finally processed what was happening, all he had wanted to do was cry.

But he couldn't cry. Because fifteen year old boys don't cry. But he wanted to cry so badly that his usual screaming rage was nonexistent. He was just completely deflated.

He silently took the frog from Emira's possession and walked away. She had seemed confused, not understanding why he was not turning his funny red colour and yelling his head off.

She didn't bait him as much after that. She rarely spoke to him at all, outside of filming.

At one point she had randomly burst into his trailer, brandishing a magazine full of women in bikinis.

"For you!" She announced proudly. "A gift."

Hunter was a little slow on the uptake because a bikini magazine being within ten feet of his person was so incriminating that immediately thinking of the consequences nearly made him black out.

When he could speak again, he exploded "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?? GET THIS OUT OF HERE!!"

"No, no, listen," Emira insisted. "I know your Uncle is like. Super Christian--"

"So am I!"

"And I know you're never gonna get your hands on this stuff by yourself. So, I'm helping,"

"Why do you even have this?" Hunter demanded, disgusted.

Emira took more than half a second to answer. "It's Ed's."

As if anything on earth could have made Hunter want to touch the thing less.

"Why..." He began, lost. "Why would you ever think I would want this?"

Emira cocked her head at him, puzzled. "You're a boy."

"Get out."

At the time, Hunter had presumed this to be another means of humiliating him, because he had quickly written Emira off as inexplicably cruel. But in hindsight, she had probably just been trying, in her own emotionally stunted way, to apologize to him. She had known next to nothing about boys and she knew even less about herself, other than she was a thing boys were meant to be obsessed with.

They were both just stupid kids who couldn't communicate properly to save their lives, because they had never learned how.

As a child, Emira ranged from a mild bully to an indifferent co-star, to an acquaintance of Hunter's. As an adult, she was the close friend in his Instagram comments section who kept hitting on his wife.

She still never figured out boys, but she figured out herself.

But again, getting ahead of ourselves.

Despite being the only two teenagers on set, Hunter and Emira did not spend much time together unless they were working. Once she settled down and stopped causing problems, Emira spent a lot of her time across the studio to visit her little sister, who was filming some preteen comedy show.

Hexside it was called. Some some vapid sugary husk of a television production that had magic and witches, yet not an ounce of dignity. Hunter had become quite a ruthless critic when it came to TV and film, mostly because he had spent his whole life in the company of a man with sky high standards.

It also helped him feel better about his own work as an actor. The glass half full method. Maybe the Golden Guard was not going to be the most brilliant show of all time, but at least he wasn't working on Hexside.

He had caught glimpses of Emira's sister a few times around the studio, mostly because her hair had been dyed a bright garish teal, so she was impossible to miss.

There were other cast members scattered about, you could usually tell from the explosion of layers and clashing patterns they were dressed in. Chunky belts, brightly coloured converse, weird pointy hats, jangly jewelry. They were a visual overload.

On one occasion, Hunter was waiting in line at the canteen. He was feeling lightheaded again, like if he didn't eat something in the next hour he would probably pass out while shooting. The last time that happened, it was really embarrassing.

He was a little zoned out, so he didn't pay them much attention at first. But then the poofy tutu-like skirt and zebra print leggings caught his eye, if only for him to wonder how in the Lord's name these young actors ever signed up for this ridiculous show.

It was a girl and a boy and their conversation entailed some familiar words and names that Hunter hadn't heard said in months.

Ah. The movie. The swoony teen girl movie. That had just released in theaters, hadn't it?

That's when the girl brazenly stated "I wanna sink my teeth into Sir William," successfully knocking Hunter straight out of the realm of sensibility.

What. In the name of all that is holy. Is that supposed to mean???

And also.....he's Sir William.

"You want to BITE ME??" Hunter finds himself blurting out, completely flummoxed. Was that a threat of violence? Did she not like his performance? Did she find his voice annoying like those other film critics? He used to get a lot of death threats for that when he was younger but...

It didn't really sound like a death threat. It was was just....absurd. How was he supposed to take this?

The girl whipped around, flashing Hunter with a very bright pair of green eyes. They were blown wide in panic, and she looked at him like he was the one about to bite her.

(He wasn't about to bite her.)

The girl wasn't tall, but she was big. Broad shoulders and a thick chubby build. Her face was rounder than he usually saw in young actresses, and her nose was wide and flat.

All he could really think as he was digesting these all details at once was....she was interesting to look at.

Hunter watched as a fluorescent shade of pink burned across her lightly freckled cheeks and the girl scurried away, flanked by the younger boy, calling after her.

For some reason, Hunter turned around to watch her leave until she was completely out of sight.

He was left more confused than ever.

What did he do that deserved biting? He never found out.

(Well, he found out eventually but....)

He continued to see that girl around the studio sometimes, as well as the young boy that accompanied her, and Emira's little sister.

The bigger girl usually tried to hide whenever she saw him, though Hexside's flamboyant wardrobe department made that nearly impossible. Hunter presumed she was embarrassed by what she said, though he really wasn't all that offended. He had heard way worse. The thing that drew his attention to her was actually the lengths she would go to to make herself invisible. He watched her dive under a table once.

Hunter usually just stared, not remembering until an hour later that embarrassed people don't like being stared at.

Eventually, Hunter and Emira started spending occasional school hours with the Hexside cast's tutor, which resulted in them all being lumped in a room together.

Her name was Willow Park, he learned. And with a little exposure therapy, she stopped blushing every time he was within ten feet of her. Though they still never really talked, she seemed to become a little more comfortable with his existence.

She didn't look at him much though. Or anybody for that matter. She seemed to be very guarded and closed off whenever they were in the school room. Hunter had also noticed that the tutor had to spend more time with her than anyone else.

But Willow Park was not currently where Hunter's head was at the moment. He had other things to deal with.

The recent Golden Guard script had been delivered to Hunter and did not really like what it had to say.

Apparently several episodes of the romantic tension that Hunter and Emira were famously bad at was finally coming to fruition in this big grand dramatic kiss scene.

Hunter did not think about kissing much because it made him feel very weird and squirmy, but he was always well aware that if he was ever kissing a girl anytime soon, it would probably be circumstances like this.

His opinion on romance in general is that he wasn't quite sure if it was something that could really happen in real life or if it was just a concept made up for TV.

First kisses were considered a milestone in the shows and magazines Hunter had secretly devoured. Something sacred and significant. It can't be with just anyone.

Admittedly, it had Hunter second guessing himself a little bit. Is his first kiss important? Or is that just a bunch of silly TV fluff with no grounds in reality?

It doesn't matter if it's Emira, does it? He's read books where first kisses are supposed to feel like you've been electrocuted. But in a good way. He can't imagine being electrocuted in a good way.

He gets his answer on the day of shooting when the kiss is ordered of him.

He should be grateful that they've been directed to keep it chaste. They both wear rings after all, and this is a family show.

Hunter squeezed his eyes shut, because eyes are always shut when people kiss in movies. And his mouth pricks Emira's mouth. And that's it. That's his first kiss over and done with.

And when he opens his eyes, a little underwhelmed and vaguely wondering why everything feels the exact same, Emira looks disappointed too.

That's when he realizes that the significance of first kisses is all lights and cameras. It's made up for TV. None of it is real.

But what he can't understand in the moment is why he feels a bit sad. There's no reason to feel sad.

But it's an annoyingly heavy emotion that sticks with him for the rest of the day.

They do a million shoots. Or what feels like a million. Hunter kisses Emira what feels like a million times. He had gone from having never kissed before to having kissed far too many times in one day.

And not a single kiss felt like anything but the usual emptiness that Hunter was used to.

During shooting breaks, he thought a little too much about how everything was just going to be like this. Forever. All of his experiences. Scripted. Made up. Not real.

Nothing was ever going to be real.

He didn't usually think about things like that. But now he was finding it hard to think about anything else.

Hunter couldn't sleep that night. You would think he'd sleep soundly when he had to get up before the crack of dawn, but he continued to struggle. Too much caffeine, too much brain bees that never shut up.

Tonight it was that one single thought of an entirely artificial lifetime.

Hunter was never going to be real.

After hours of restless tossing and turning, he left his bed and went downstairs, his footsteps expertly navigating across the creaky floorboards. He would watch something terrible on TV and he'd get so distracted by hating it that he'd forget his own problems.

After pushing a button, the first thing that appeared on Hunter's screen was a familiar girl's rounder than average face and bright green eyes.

Apparently, the Hexside Pilot had premiered recently. Hunter scoffed, making himself comfortable and deliberately tuning into whatever brain rotting stuff he was about to experience.

Unsurprisingly, he hated it. It was terrible. Cheap jokes. Flimsy plots. An obnoxious laugh track. He had never seen a worse show in his life.

Nothing is real, I'm not real, I'm not real, Nothing is real, I'm not real....

The costumes looked just as ridiculous on screen as they did in the studio.

Nothing is real....

The sets were cheap.

I'm not real....

Hunter abruptly paused mid laugh track, and stared at Willow Park's interesting face for an additional moment.

He knew absolutely nothing about this girl. Absolutely nothing.

The character she played was borderline illiterate, and Hunter genuinely could not say how much of her he was seeing was a script and how much was her.

But she was very lookable.

Are you real?

[lopsicle]

Writing is hard when your so full of tired sleepy

I got creative with the prompt and I’m not sure if this qualifies as a chase but oh well, I really like this one anyway

Flyer Derby

Tickletober Day 6: Chase

Fandom: The Owl House

Characters: Lee! Hunter, Ler! Emerald Entrails

Summary: Willow makes a bet with Hunter to see if he could beat the rest of his team. Shenanigans and hijinks ensue. (I love those words :3)

Warnings: Tickle Fic, light restraints at the end, not proofread.

——

It was becoming increasingly rare that the Emerald Entrails would have the chance to ever practice or play together, which was surprising. Their teammate, Hunter was literally living in the school now but most of them seemed nervous, like they were in the calm before the storm. The Day of Unity hung over them all, their worries about it only becoming worse as Hunter revealed it’s true nature to the rest of Hexside.

That was exactly why it was so important for them to just let loose even if it was just for a little while. Just one evening where everything would be okay, so they could actually experience the calm they’d been so desperate to receive.

This game would be a little different then all their other causal matches of Flyer Derby however. Willow had made a bet with Hunter, the reason unknown to him, maybe she just wanted to see how good of a player he was or just wanted to see him get tickled silly. The idea was Hunter would play against all four of his teammates, the catch being they were only allowed to touch him by tickling him so it was a little more fair, or unfair depending on how you view it.

Hunter, terribly flustered by the idea since he knew his own sensitivity, still accepted for whatever reason. Maybe he wanted to get tickled by Willow, or maybe he just wanted to show up his team in anyway he could. He was probably just too flustered to reject the idea entirely, barely able to word his agreement to her.

And now here he was, standing on the opposite side of the lengthy, trap filled pitch to all his friends, seeming pretty eager to wreck the poor blonde. Anticipation was threatening to plunge deep into his heart as he readied himself, not able to shake that light nervous feeling that buzzed in his mind. The Grimwalker had a tight grip on his staff, his cardinal Palisman sat motionless at the end. It was a bit reassuring to know at least one of his friends was on his side for this game.

‘Don’t you lot have a plan for this?’ Viney asked, leaning back on Puddles as she stroked the Griffin’s neck. ‘That guy is..well was the Golden Guard, do you really think we can just swoop it and steal a victory from him?’ She fretted, but wasn’t met with much worry.

‘Well, maybe we wouldn’t win against any other Golden Guard, but our one happens to be real ticklish, there’s no way he’ll be able to resist this!’ Willow smiled at Viney, placing a hand on her shoulder casually.

‘Oh, and go for his ribs, that’s a killer spot!’ Gus said loudly, making sure Hunter heard, making his cheeks already to a dark shade of red. He squeaked a little under his breath, already thrown off guard and just anticipated would what happen next. Flyer Derby was nerve wracking enough but mixing it with something as silly as tickling…he was just glad he didn’t have an audience, something he’d been fairly insistent on since he wasn’t fond of being tickled out in the open.

Gus then cast an illusion of himself, to act as a makeshift announcer to the centre of the field as the two teams stepped forward closer to the centre of the pitch.

‘The rules for this one are a little switched up to how we usually do it, folks,’ Gus’ illusion smiled widely, keeping his hands behind his back. ‘Hunter will be trying to steal our teams flags, and if he manages that, he wins the bet! Our team, the better team, can only interact with him by tickling him until he surrenders, which is when Willow will win the bet.’

‘If,’ Hunter said, ‘If Willow wins!’ He smirked, trying to alleviate some of his tension by getting competitive.

‘Good luck with that, blondie!’ Skara shouted from across the field, not wanting the opposing team to get the last word in. Hunter just made a ‘hmp’ sound, readying his staff to his side, while his eyes narrowed on the prizes in front of him. Four flags dangling on his friend’s staffs, all he had to do was grab them quickly and he’d be spared from the merciless tickling he was sure to be forced through in this game. I mean, he could handle that, right?

‘Three,’ Hunter hopped on his staff.

‘Two,’ He watched the other side do the same.

‘One!’ In a split second, all four of his friends had managed to split up in other directions, with Gus summoning a cloud of smoke just to make it even harder for him to keep track on who was who. Hunter gritted his teeth a little, feeling a little better now that the game had actually started, but still had the ever looming threat of tickling hanging over him.

The boy quickly took up in the air, his eyes were first set on Skara who seemed like the easiest to take out. Hunter quickly found himself following behind d the bard student, gaining on her at high speed. The girl squeaked as she realised she was a target, sourly regretting trying to get in the last word now.

Hunter waited until just the right moment, keeping all his focus on the flag in front of him, before blipping through the air with the help of his Palisman, grabbing Skara’s flag before she could even process what happened. Once she did though, she immediately plunged towards Hunter, not to regain her stolen item, no, she decided to be petty and tickle him for the Hell of it.

Skara’s nails scratched down from the back of Hunter’s knees down to his calves, making the poor blonde squeal as he kept his legs as still as possible, not wanting to let go of his staff. He sped up, just causing her nails to trail further down his leg, ending up at the top of his left boot which she managed to pry out, letting it fall to the ground.

Hunter huffed as he managed to get away, looking a little flustered now that he was more exposed but at least he was far away enough from Skara now. All he had to do was find the others and-

‘Gotcha!’ Viney yelled triumphantly, wrapping one arm around Hunter’s waist securely. The boy fell back on his staff a bit, having to lean against Viney’s side for support; a parasitic way of pinning someone.

‘Viney, no fair!’ Hunter whined, still trying to wriggle about in her grip but he was quickly shut up by a couple fingers scribbling against his tummy.

‘Oh hush, Hunter, we both know your loving this, you wouldn’t of agreed otherwise!’ The brunette smirked, snaking her hand around his back to squeeze at his sides, forcing him to crash into her even more.

‘N-nahahahaah, I dihihihhidn’t!!’ Hunter tried to protest but it was hard to take him seriously through all his cackling and the fact that his face was just getting redder and redder. Getting teased really threw Hunter off his game, it was like he couldn’t fit clearly when being tickled.

‘Coochie coochie coo, gigglebug!’

Unluckily for him, Viney caught onto this pretty quickly. The babyish teasing was almost too much for Hunter to bear as he felt his ears start to heaten from all the teasing. He curled his arms to his sides and wriggled about in her grip as much as he could but he just couldn’t get away from her.

‘Eheheheheheheh!’

Gasping, Hunter reached out to his Palisman, Flapjack, and let him return to his normal form, causing his staff to disintegrate right from under him. Hunter swiftly grabbed Viney’s flag as he began free falling, sticking his tongue out at her as Flapjack flew right back down to him, turning back into a staff as Hunter caught him.

‘Ha! I had no idea that would work!’ He smiled, repositioning himself on his staff as he quickly got back into flying around, not wanting Skara or Viney to catch up to him.

Now came the part he was dreading the most. Willow and Gus. Gus’ illusions could cause a real problem for him, he had to be checking just to make sure the flags he had caught so far were real and he was sure the boy was planning something. And Willow…was Willow. The boy had a crush on her for crying out loud, he’d shut down if she even got the chance to tickle him.

Luckily he wouldn’t have to find her, as Willow would find him first.

‘Oh, Hunter! Behind you!’ The girl sang, causing Hunter’s blush to immediately return as he shot around, though he saw Willow just standing there. Standing on her staff.

‘You should be more careful with your illusions, Gus.’ Hunter pointed out casually, immediately darting for ‘Willow’, feeling more confident now that he knew it was just a disguise. But, as he drew near, he failed to realise how well his friend’s mirages has developed as he had not only created an illusion of Willow to throw Hunter off but was concealed just a couple feet to the left of it. And when Hunter drew near, he pounced on him.

The boy jumped from his own staff to Hunter’s, letting his chameleon Palisman nestle up on his shoulders. With a crash landing, he immediately clung onto Hunter, a little scared he would fall.

‘Oh, come on, you totally stole my- mahahahahave!’ Hunter barked with laughter as his friend began squeezing his hips, making him yelp and jump all about. He did consider doing his staff disappearing trick that he used with Viney, but he didn’t want to hurt Gus, probably something the boy planned by jumping onto his staff. The only thing Hunter could really do was sit there and take it.

‘Come on man, just give in, you know you can’t beat me and Willow!’ Gus cooed from behind him, finally beginning to prod at those sensitive ribs of his, making Hunter Damm near shriek and madly thrash about on his staff.

‘EEEK!! WAIHAHAAHT, NAHAHAHA GUHAHAHAHAAHS!!’ Hunter nearly screamed in laughter, barely able to keep a hold of his staff. Gus gripped onto him a little tighter, not wanting either of them to get tipped off. Gus would keep at it, scribbling and scraping at Hunter’s ribs with no mercy and just when the blonde thought things couldn’t get worse, it did.

‘Your really doing a number on him, aren’t you, Gus?’ Willow giggled, flying down next to the sight of the two boys. She casually reached over and took back Hunter’s stolen flags.

‘NAHAHAHA FAIHAHAHAR!!’ Hunter bellowed with laughter, leaning hunched over on his staff to try and get his ribs away from his friend. In return, Willow wriggled her nails against the back of his neck, making him arch right back upwards.

‘Poor boy, I almost forgot you were THIS ticklish,’ Willow chuckled, prodding along one set of his ribs while Gus scratched at the other. Hunter, who had just lost all his progress and was now having his worst spot tagged team by two skilled lers, caved in almost immediately.

‘I SUHAHAHAHRRENDER!!’

With that, Gus hopped back on his own staff while Willow gently helped Hunter back down to the ground, it being a bit hard for the tickled out boy to fly.

‘You know, you handled all that really well! I mean, you managed to best two of our team members and looked good doing it! I’m proud of what you did today, Hunter!’

She smiled at him as the boy blushed more, his smile practically beaming.

‘T-thsnk you, Captain, that, uh, means a lot!’ Hunter cooed as he hopped off his staff, Willow next to him as the rest of the Emerald Entrails stood around them.

Though almost immediately as Hunter stood on the ground, two vines wrapped around his wrists and pulled them behind his back, beneath his shoulder blades. A couple more gently pulled him down onto his knees, all while Willow smirked at his confusion.

‘Don’t tell me you forgot our bet? I’m pretty sure we agreed that if you lost, I get to tickle you for ten minutes!’

Hunter’s whole face went beet red as Willow kneeled down across from him, his eyes wide with anticipation.

‘CAHAHAHPTAIN, NAHAHAHAHAHA!!’

—-

I am so shleepy

[avatarmerida]

Chapter 4: A Bowl of Spiders

It’s the Emerald Entrails first game! And maybe some other firsts too…

Read on AO3 or under the cut

“…but what if there was a reason Willow never got the note?” Hunter said defeated as he finished catching up Luz with his latest attempt.

“The reason is Boscha who never wants Willow to be happy so her taking the note means it would make Willow happy!” Said Luz. “If anything Willow not getting the notes means she was definitely supposed to get the note!”

“What?” said Hunter, confused.

“You’re too much in your head, hermano,” said Luz simply, patting his back. “The only people who should have a say in whether or not you and Willow get together are you and Willow. And also me.”

Hunter playfully rolled his eyes as Stringbean slunk her way onto his shoulder and nuzzled his cheek as though to say it will all be okay, stop worrying, silly.

“I know it’s important to you but maybe you just need to take a break and stop overthinking it,” offered Luz as Hunter scratched the top of Stringbean’s head. “I know we said try something simple, but maybe just stop… trying?”

“You mean give up?”

“No! I would never tell someone to give up on love!” Luz said dramatically before shifting to a gentler tone. “I mean, just stop overthinking. I know you care about Willow and you’d do anything for her but you’re putting too much pressure on yourself.”

“You’re right, I need to focus on the game.”

“That’s not exactlywhat I meant but I do like being right,” decided Luz. “And if it makes you feel better, I can hand deliver the next note myself and make sure she reads it.”

Hunter smiled. “Thanks Luz,” he took a deep breath to calm himself as he spotted Willow and Gus ahead of him, happily chatting. Was it weird that the best way to get Willow off his mind was to spend time with Willow? He didn’t have time to agonize over his missed chances, he needed to help her rally the troops. He needed to be there for her, so the anxiety attacks he wanted to have at how stunning she looked with her hair pulled back would have to wait. “And uh thanks for lending me Stringbean.”

“Are you kidding? She’s been having the time of her life,” said Luz as she went to scratch her palisman beneath her chin. “Haven’t you Stringy? Are you gonna help uncle Hunter impress his girlfriend? Yes you are! Yes you are!”

“Shh! Not so loud! She might hear you!” Shushed Hunter, though Luz of course knew Willow would not object to being referred to as his girlfriend. Because that was how she referred to herself. “Now go find a seat, I have to go warm up.”

Willow’s face brightened at the sight of him. “Hunter! Perfect! Just in time!” She ran over and leapt into his arm and he quickly spun her around as the paliman flew happily around them. “Are you ready to kick some butt?”

“Affirmative captain,” said Hunter as Stringbean returned to sit atop his head. They both laughed as Clover flew over to join her new friend, snuggling in Hunter’s hair as though it was a grassy meadow.

”Hey now, don’t get too comfortable,” laughed Willow. “We have a game to win, there will be plenty of time to cuddle with Hunter afterwards.”

Hunter laughed nervously, not fully understanding why, as Willow reached up to retrieve her palisman and gave the him a little wink. He once again did not understand exactly why.

“Hey Willow! Guess what!” Viney's voice came from behind them. They turned around and saw Viney and Skara rising over on Puddles, each of them holding a large box in their laps. “They came! Just in time!”

“They’re so cute!” squealed Skara, kicking her legs in excitement as they landed.

“Oh my Titan! The uniforms are in!” exclaimed Willow, shaking Hunter’s arm as she jumped up and down in excitement as the girls began handing them out. The team murmured in joy and awe as they donned the garments, complementing each other as they were elated to look the way they felt.

“Hunter, here put yours on! I wanna get a group photo before the game so we can remember what they looked like before they get covered in mud and blood,” laughed Willow. She tossed the shirt to Hunter as she put on hers over her tank top, twirling like it was a ballgown so excited to have tangible proof that her team was real. “This is so amazing! Hunter, do you-?”

But when she looked up to see how Hunter looked in his uniform, she saw he was still holding it, examining it with wide, confused eyes like he couldn’t believe it was real.

“You… used my drawing?” Hunter said in a faint voice, running his fingers over the green letters.

“Of course,” laughed Willow. “It’s the perfect logo! Bump said we had to incorporate at least one of the school colors, but your design was the perfect way to display the team name. Oh, just wait until the jackets come in! Which reminds me we need to decide what we want the back to say so we should ask everyone what they-” She looked closer and saw unshed tears staining his eyes. “Hunter, what’s wrong?”

“It was just a silly doodle…” Hunter said faintly, holding his shirt tighter.

Willow’s eyes grew wide. “Oh no,” she said, stepping closer. “I’m so sorry! I-I should’ve asked you first. I just thought that was why you did it! I thought it looked really nice and I thought it was appropriate since you named the team and you’re one of the reasons the Entrails is even-.”

“You thought it was good enough to be the symbol for the team?” Hunter said in wonder and Willow saw his tears were not from disappointment but disbelief. She offered him a soft smile as she put her hands on his arms.

“Of course,” she said. “What could be more perfect than something you made?”

Hunter sniffled and gave the jersey one final look of adoration before slipping it over his head. It fit perfectly.

“Well?” asked Willow. “Does it feel as good as it looks?”

Hunter’s words were currently not with him so all he could do was nod. Willow beamed as she reached out to link her arm with his. “Well come on then lieutenant, let’s go get our games faces on.”

The pair ran over to where the rest of the team was doing each other's face paint. Hunter happily followed suit as Willow swung him around and sat him on the bleachers. She grabbed a container of face paint and went to work, having thought up the perfect design for Hunter to commemorate the season's first game.

She balanced her knee on the seat beside him to get closer and Hunter held his breath as he watched Willow focus on bringing her vision to life. She stuck her tongue to the side as she outlined the shape on his face, standing so close that Hunter could feel her breath on his face. Willow either didn’t seem to notice or mind the proximity but Hunter knew his face was a dead giveaway as to how he felt about it. He knew he was a display of green and red that Willow might mistake him for a Christmas ornament.

“Hmmm,” Willow muttered to herself as she sat back from a moment and looked at her progress so far.

“W-what’s wrong?” Hunter asked.

“Nothing’s wrong,” said Willow, stroking her chin. “Your hair is just getting long again so it keeps getting in the way. I need something to push it back… ah! Here!” Willow reached up and took out her signature hair clip and placed it in Hunter’s hair. Satisfied, she went back to finishing her design as Hunter sat in front of her paralyzed. He may not have known much about romance, but he knew the significance of wearing someone else’s jewelry on the Isles. Did a hairclip count? He knew it was one of Willow’s prized possessions and she had just allowed him to wear it without a second thought.

“H-how does it look?” he asked timidly as Willow placed one hand on his jaw to steady his head as the other finished the last detail just under his eye.

“It looks nice. Your hair looks really cute pushed back,” Willow said with a wink as she ran her finger along the edge of his hairline.

“R-really?” he squeaked.

“Mhm-hm,” she smiled, continuing to play with his hair. “Gus, will you please tell Hunter that his hair looks cute pushed back?”

“Don’t involve me in this,” Gus said bluntly as he went back to describing his Cosmic Frontier design to Skara who was doing her best to capture his detailed vision in only green.

Willow laughed as she finished ruffling Hunter’s hair and pulled out her scroll so he could take a look at her work. Hunter was blown away by what he saw as his hand hovered over the carefully curved lines that swept across his face. The silhouette was too familiar.

“Is… is it…?”

“Flapjack,” confirmed Willow. “Well, it’s supposed to be. I tried to base it off one of your doodles but you’re a much better artist than I am. I thought it would be a nice way to have him be a part of today. Do you… like it?”

For the second time that day he looked at her with wide, tearfilled eyes as he tried to comprehend how the girl before him managed to be the most wonderful person he had ever met. “I love it.” he said, careful to keep the tears in his eyes so as to not smudge the paint. “Thank you, Willow.”

“Yeah, of course,” said Willow, it was her turn now to be the timid one as Hunter's loving gaze surrounded her like a long, comfortable cape. She tucked her hair behind her ear and Hunter thought for a moment maybe he should return her hair clip to her but before he could offer she smiled and handed him the paint. “Think you can make mine match?”

----

The match was intense from the very beginning. All the drills and late night practices were really paying off as even the newest players were holding their own. But the other team were last year’s champions for a reason and soon it was down to their star player and Willow for the victory.

“She’s got it, she’s got it,” said Hunter, watching Willow dodge and weave the other team’s attempts to grab her flag. But she was focused and flew with a speed the Entrails had never seen before. The score was tied with one flag left on each side to deliver and everyone in the crowd was on the edge of their seat. But the Entrails had no doubt. “She’s got this. She’s got this.”Hunter repeated as he shook Gus’ shoulder, unable to take his eyes off his captain.

She twisted and floated, sending vine after vine as the other player as the two danced around each other until finally one vine made contact and delivered the flag to her hand. Willow wasted no time and bolted to place it. The crowd cheered as Willow’s competitor did not give up and attempted to knock her off her staff, sending a collection of abomination goo her way.

She quickly leaned back, turning to grab her staff as she turned and flew high up vertically before turning back suddenly to jump back to Clover, kneeling down to better her balance as she became untouchable. Clover delivered her to the pole and placed the flag on the final spike, securing the victory.

“She did it!” Exclaimed Gus as the stands burst into cheers. “Hunter, do you- Hunter?” When he turned to share his excitement with the older boy, he was surprised to see he was gone. It didn’t take much for Gus to figure out where he went, a golden streak of lighting leading to Willow provided his answer.

As Willow descended to the ground and hopped off Clover she looked around for her team but before she could look too far, she was swept up into the arms of a collection of gold that swiftly spun her around as it sung her praises.

“You did it! Willow, you did it! Captain, you were amazing!

She buried her face in the nape of his neck and hugged him back, laughing hysterically as he darted them around just above the ground. Hunter was unable to contain his joy as every compliment seemed to transport them. Eventually he brought them back to the ground as they both delivered words of excitement, overlapping and increasing and seemingly unaware of the crowd surrounding them.

“I couldn’t have done it without that move you showed me!” she gushed, moving her head so she could absorb the sight of him, his face paint smudged and his hair a mess but her hair clip somehow still safe and secure. Her glasses were askew, a new bruise was forming on her cheek and her hair was a collection of flyaways but the utter joy in her voice made Hunter feel like she had never looked more beautiful. He brought up one hand to cup her cheek, totally mesmerized by everything she was. This was everything she wanted, everything she deserved, everything she worked for. Seeing her in her moment, she had never shined so bright and he couldn’t help but be drawn to her light.

“You are just so…” Before he knew what he was doing, Hunter lunged forward and collided his lips with hers.

Willow was surprised but not the least bit disappointed as she instinctively closed her eyes as she melted into the contact, moving her hands from his shoulders to around his neck pull him closer to her. His lips against hers sent a freezing bolt of lighting down her spine and the smile she felt them form sent a wave of lava over her chest, generating the perfect storm. She felt like they were back in the air. The stars were aligning. Their first official win. Their first official kiss. It was a celebration! It was fireworks! It was absolutely breathtaking.

It was all a blur to Hunter. His adrenaline caused him to dash too fast for his filter to catch him and just seemed to keep moving until suddenly the world was in slow motion as the elements likewise consumed him. Everything was soft, even the air was soft somehow. It was as though he was inside a dandelion basking in the sun. How could something so new be so familiar? But just as the warmth surrounded his body to the point where he was certain his heart was an ember rather than a galderstone, the reality of the moment caught up with him.

He pulled away, he saw Willow’s eyes open slowly as she tried to process it all. Hunter didn’t dare to imagine what must be going through her mind. He had kissed her with such intensity that her glasses were nearly off her head and she had been seized so quickly she was losing her balance and one foot was popped in the air. He could not believe the months of planning he had just undone in mere seconds. He tried to find an explanation and apology in one as he stumbled over his sentiments waiting for Willow to cut him off with words of disappointment.

But Willow just stared at him in stunned silence. He had to assume she was too disappointed to speak. Grom was one thing, but a sports match was hardly the time or place for such a display. She must've felt so disrespected! So undermined! So betrayed! He had taken her moment and made it about him and his feelings for her and how in awe he was of her. How had he let this happen?

And then there was the curse! The team was in jeopardy! What must she think? That he believed they were only capable and deserving of one victory? That one kiss was worth more than her efforts to bring the team together?

But Willow’s mind was blank. All she could focus on was how the setting sun shone behind his head and framed him in a sea of pink and gold like he was the center of a chrysanthemum. He was so bright and gentle and warm she forgot everything else, where she was, how to speak, how to exist outside this moment. The tiny chrysanthemums that collected in her hair and and by her feet tried to speak for her. But Hunter could only hear his own voice screaming in his head.

Hunter carefully removed her from his grasp, mumbling fragments of an apology as he disappeared into the approaching crowd as the rest of the team ran over to offer their own congratulations. Willow’s eyes followed him until there was nothing left, stuck in the trance as her soul rejoined her body back on the ground.

---

“She didn’t say she was upset but did she seem upset?” Hunter asked as he laid on Gus’ floor, his legs resting on the edge of Gus’ bed as he held Willow’s to his chest as though it was some kind of calming crystal. “Like that time those kids trampled her garden looking for their ball and they felt bad so she told them it was okay but you could tell she was hurt.”

“Dude, she just won the first match of the season against last year’s undefeated team. I don't think there’s anything that could bring her down,” said Gus, spinning in his chair. “I think the only thing she was maybe upset about was not seeing you at her house after. We all went over to celebrate and she kept asking where you were. Why didn’t you come?”

“What am I supposed to say to her?” asked Hunter. “I’m her lieutenant, she trusts me to do what’s best for the team and then I just betray her trust because I can’t control myself when she does something cool?”

“I think I can promise you that she did not view it as a betrayal,” said Gus with a smirk, but Hunter did not seem convinced. Gus thought about telling Hunter that Willow had changed into the green dress that Hunter once told her reminded him of O’Bailey’s love interest, Ivy. Gus knew that Hunter became an idiot when Willow wore that dress and so did she, which is precisely why she picked it for the party. The lip gloss she kept reapplying suggested she intended to repeat Hunter’s so-called ‘mistake’ the moment she was given the chance. But instead Gus watched her watch the front door all night, convincing herself that every time it opened he would be standing there.

But Hunter could not bring himself to face her.

“But what about the curse?” Hunter groaned sorrowfully.

“What are you talking about?”

“The curse? On teams at Hexside?” said Hunter as though it was so obvious. “When two players start dating the team is doomed to fail! My big mistake could get the Entrails suspended or disqualified or jeopardize her scholarship or-.”

“Okay, first of all; that curse isn’t real,” said Gus. “That’s about couples who have a bad breakup and let it affect the team and make them take sides so playing together is impossible, and you guys would never let that happen.”

“That’s true,” sighed Hunter as he fiddled with Willow’s hair clip, carefully tracing the flower’s outline. “You’re right, we’ve been through harder things. I don’t know why I’m so worried. I know she cares about me, I mean after Grom she said she still wanted to go out together so even if we were to-.”

“Wait,” said Gus, jumping up from the bed to look down at Hunter. “Wait wait wait. Hold the phone, now give the phone to me. Willow said you should what ?”

“Oh well after Grom she asked if I wanted us to go out together so I said-“

“Willow asked you out? At Grom?”

“Did I not tell you that?”

“No! You did not tell me that!” Said Gus harshly. “You spent 20 minutes telling me about how she took a sip from your glass of punch and how that was a ‘major milestone’ but you failed to mention that you two started going out!”

“We didn’t start ‘going out’,” corrected Hunter. “We’ve gone out plenty of times. You were there sometimes, like when we went to the grocery store and found out what bananas were, remember?”

Gus took a deep breath. “Hunter, dude, I’m pretty sure Willow was not talking about bananas.”

“Well, I guess there are plenty of other-.”

“She was asking you out like asking you to go out,” Gus specified. “With her. Together. Romantically.”

“What? No way,” said Hunter nervously. “She just meant ‘out’ like running errands together like we did in the human realm.”

“Did she say ‘out like running errands together’ or did she just say ‘go out together?’”

“She… she said…” Hunter’s eyes widened as Willow’s words replayed in his ears. The setting, her tone, as he looked at from the outside it didn’t make sense for her to be talking about errands then. But something inside him wouldn’t let him believe it. “I mean, it was probably like a ‘would you’ not a ‘will you’ type question.”

“Dude what are you talking about?”

“Well it’s like a hypothetical, right?” Hunter offered, starting to sweat. “Like if I asked you ‘would you eat a bowl of spiders?’ I’m asking you if a situation presented itself where you were able to, would you want to. It doesn’t mean I currently have a bowl of spiders for you. So, when Willow suggested we go out she was asking if that is something I’d do, not like she was offering or… ya know…” He looked to Gus for reassurance but all he found was a look of skepticism.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Gus exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.“Why can’t you just accept the fact that Willow likes you and wants to go out with you?”

“Because that doesn’t make any sense!” Hunter exclaimed in a panic. He quickly covered his mouth, regretting what he said and how loud he said it as Gus moved to sit on the ground beside him. He took a deep breath and tried to explain himself. “It’s just… I mean I just started liking who I am and having Willow as a friend is one thing but the idea that she might like me the way I like her… I just don’t get it.”

Hunter stared at the ceiling, holding Willow’s hair clip even tighter and Gus couldn’t help but smile. “Ya know, you and Willow have a lot in common,” said Gus. “For a long time, you both let other people tell you what you were worth but you always went out of your way to help people. And you two are always lifting each other up, literally and metaphorically.” Hunter couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “I’ve never seen Willow look at someone the way she looks at you and she’s looked at you the same way practically since the day you met. She’s always known there’s something special about you, even if you didn’t. And I see you do the same thing for her. She’s my best friend, so believe me when I say I wouldn’t encourage you to go for it if I didn’t think you were good enough for her.”

Hunter knew Gus was right, Willow knew him well enough to know he would never purposely do anything to jeopardize her or the team. And an approval from Gus should put any doubts to rest. Even so, he still owed her an explanation.

“Now, so you wanna lay on my bedroom floor mopping or do you wanna answer one of Willow’s hundreds of messages?”

Hunter looked at his scroll at the messages Willow had sent him throughout the night. She started asking him if he was and if he was coming and then when he neglected to respond she sent him small updates and assurances that he could come whenever, no pressure. Even while playing hostess, she wanted to make sure he knew he was welcome. Even after what happened, she wouldn't stop including him.

“I think I need to answer her in person.”

---

When Hunter arrived at the Park residence, he realized he had arrived without a plan. He stood at the edge of the walkway, looking up at Willow’s window. The light was still on, that was probably a good sign. She had said he could come over whenever, though he was pretty sure she didn’t mean after the party had already ended. He had too much he wanted to say, he didn’t know where to start. He should’ve written it down, he should’ve rehearsed something. But when had that helped him before? He reached into his pocket and felt her hair clip, maybe if all else failed he could use returning it to her as a way to justify his presence.

He summoned his courage and the next thing he knew he was on Willow’s small balcony. He missed the mark by a few inches and had landed on the outside and clung to the railing. He was here. He was ready as he’d ever be. He just didn’t… know what was next.

Did he knock? Message her? Should he have thrown a rock?

“How did you come all the way here without a plan?” He whispered frantically to himself, beginning to sweat as he clung to the railing. He could feel Flapjack tugging and fluttering against his rib cage trying to bring him forward. “Shush! I have to think of what to say!”

Unbeknownst to Hunter, Willow was watching him through the window able to recognize his panicked whispering anywhere. She peaked at him from the side of the curtain, waiting for him to knock or call, finding the sight of him hyping himself up to be the cutest thing she had ever seen.

“Oh, I should’ve brought flowers,” Hunter cursed himself in a whisper. “Why didn’t I bring flowers? Who shows up without flowers? Maybe I should just-.”

Willow took that as a sign to make herself known as she quickly fluffed her hair and went to slowly open the curtain, hoping to make a graceful and romantic entrance. But she accidentally pulled too hard on the curtain’s string and instead sent it flying up, making a loud noise that startled Hunter and caused him to lose his balance and nearly fall.

“Oh my Titan! Sorry! Sorry!” She whispered, rushing forward to grab his hands to help pull him up and regain his footing.

“Oh no, it’s fine!” Hunter said as he managed to pull himself up. “I’m not even supposed to be-.” He brought his face up to look at her as he went to apologize and saw how close they were as she came to his rescue. “-here.”

He audibly gulped as Willow stood close enough to see subtle remains of green face paint below his eyebrow and on his cheek. She couldn’t help but smile at the flustered look on his face as his eyes shot to the ground, knowing this meeting hadn’t gone according to plan for either of them but she couldn’t argue with the results.

“Hi,” said Willow softly, an airy giggle swirling within her voice.

“Hi,” he said back equally as softly, struggling to summon his breath as he felt her hands steady his own, making sure he was secure on the ledge. His eyes focused on their hands as the words quickly poured out of him. “Uh, s-sorry, I should've messaged or called or used your front door. I just didn’t realize how late it was until I was already here and I didn’t know if your dads would mind but I needed to see you and then I thought you might be sleeping but I saw the light was on and luckily you look beautiful.”

Eventually, he managed to bring his eyes up to properly see her and when he did he saw she was still dressed up and looked absolutely radiant. She was wearing the green long sleeved dress that reminded Hunter of the botanist from Cosmic Frontier and made Willow’s eyes pop. She looked so effortlessly stunning and he was still in his derby uniform. He realized his thoughts about her had interrupted his sentence and he quickly tried to correct himself. “I mean, awake! Awake! Luckily you’re awake!”

“Hmm, lucky me,” she said in a warm, dreamy tone that Hunter couldn’t name but made him feel like a vine had coiled around his lungs. She brought one hand up to rest her cheek on as the other delicately brushed his knuckles. “We missed you tonight, by the way. All of us, after the game.”

But especially me, her eyes seemed to say. This was definitely not the vibe Hunter was expecting to be greeted with but he could hardly complain.

“Oh, yeah,” said Hunter. “I uh, was just kind of tired I guess.”

“I figured,” she said sweetly. “But is there something else going on? You left without saying goodbye so I wanted to make sure you weren’t-.”

“Willow, I’m so sorry!” Hunter just couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“‘Sorry?’” she repeated, genuinely perplexed. “Hunter, it's okay if you were tired. You played a great game and I know you were up late so-.”

“No, I mean…after the game when I… kissed you,” he whispered the last part as though it was taboo. Willow tried to hide her budding smile at the fresh and already frequently revisited memory of Hunter sweeping her up in his arms, looking at her with adoration, and pulling her close to him in the heat of the moment… what was there to apologize for?

“Hunter, you really don’t need to-.”

“Even if the curse isn’t real, it's still unprofessional and it could have embarrassed you and I guess I just…” Hunter struggled to find the words. “I mean, of course I was excited but it’s more than that. Willow, I…” He looked directly into her eyes, the light of the moon making them even bigger and pulling the rest of the words out of him. “I have certain feelings… for you. But I shouldn’t allow them to make me act in such a way.”

But Willow just smiled. Of course he would be concerned about balancing things. She had seen him act the same way when he felt guilty reading for pleasure when there was research to do or when he would stay up late messaging her when he should be preparing for patrol. Hunter still had a hard time letting himself enjoy things and categorizing them helped him ease into it. It made sense that he’d want to set a boundary for himself.

“Okay, so we don’t kiss on the flyer derby field anymore,” she said with a shrug, happy to compromise as a twinge of mischief twinkled in her eyes. “Buuut we’re not on the field right now so…”

She bit her lip, also grateful she had freshly applied her lip gloss when she spotted him standing on the balcony. She leaned forward a small bit and eagerly waited for him to fill in the blanks.

“Oh… oh!” Hunter hit his forehead like it was so obvious. “I’m sorry! I should’ve done this earlier. I know it’s late and I shouldn’t have just assumed you want to talk about flyer derby. I should’ve responded to your messages to make sure you were free, I can come back at a better time if you-.”

“No no, Hunter it’s fine,” she assured him. “I’m always happy to see you. If there’s something you wanna talk about, my dads saved you a plate from tonight. Maybe we could go up on the roof and…”

She tried one more time to let him figure out the rest, but there seemed to be something on his mind that prevented him from thinking about sharing a fairy pie with her as they gazed at the stars.

“No, no thank you but no I… need to say this before something else happens,” Hunter took a deep breath as he adjusted his grip on the railing, squeezing his eyes shut as he allowed the words to pour out of him once more. “Willow… the feelings I have for you… they’re r-romantic feelings. I’ve had them for awhile and I wanted to be sure of them before I told you but they just keep getting stronger and I felt you had a right to know because I don’t want there to be secrets between us because you’re important to me and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t make you uncomfortable because I think you’re really amazing.”

He took a deep inhale, forgetting how to breath as he finally managed to communicate everything that had been weighing him down.

“Awh Hunter, are you saying you have a crush on me?” Willow teased, but Hunter did not pick up on the playful nature of her tone.

“Yes,” he said sternly but softly. “I know this may come as a surprise but I’ve been trying to figure out the right time to tell you and I guess… this is it.”

She chuckled, waiting for one of his signature smirks to show he was joking or flirting but he didn’t say anything else. He didn’t wink or laugh or do anything he usually did when he was joking. He had a unique sense of humor but this seemed off brand for him. Why did he look so guilty about kissing his girlfriend after a month-

Her face dropped. This was the first time he was telling her. He had no idea how she felt about him and he genuinely thought that she had no clue how he felt about her. Had Grom been a misunderstanding? Something separate? And if they hadn’t confirmed their feelings at Grom then that meant….

“Oh. Oh.” Willow whispered, realizing what had been going on. Or rather, what hadn’t been going on? She had just thought Hunter was shy, that he was taking things slow. But she had been so lost in the lavender haze that she didn’t realize she had been so far ahead of him.

He was waiting for her to say something more, and under different circumstances she would pull him over the balcony and kiss him silly and let him know that of course she felt the same way.

But she thought she had already done that.

Her mind was spinning. Was he telling her just as an explanation for his actions or because he wanted something to come from them? She waited for him to finish, to say he wanted to be official, for there to be no misunderstanding about what they were to each other.

But they were both waiting.

“Um, Hunter I…” Willow started but a vine came and wrapped around her wrist and ventured over to his, hoping to keep him there. But Willow knew how it looked and she didn’t want Hunter to see it and assume it meant something else. Because she wasn’t entirely sure what this feeling was. She quickly shook it off and hid her hands behind her back. “… I should get back inside. I-it’s kinda late.”

“Oh, yeah of course,” he said. “I uh, yeah I’ll see you… tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” said softly, backing towards the window. She wasn’t upset. She wasn’t sure what she was. She wasn’t sure what they were.

“Soooo? How did it go? Did he like the dress?” said Amity, flipping through a magazine as she laid on Willow’s bed having promised to cover for her if her dads came upstairs. When she looked up to her friend, she was not wearing the starstruck smile Amity had been expecting. She looked perplexed. “What’s wrong?”

“Um, what do you do when your boyfriend, who you've been dating for almost a month, tells you that he has a crush on you? I'm asking for a friend.”

[crimeronan]

I am desperate to know more about the Darius’ OC found family that all die tragically and horribly, even just the spark notes on his relations to them would be so cool to see.

HOO BOY.

okay i can give you the sparknotes of what i'd developed for the prequel. maybe someday i'll write all this in full. but in the meantime, these are the basics. (if anyone here is a fan of wwaitsoatl and wants Extended Darius Backstory.... come get ya juice)

i still need to flesh out more of the ensemble cast but the three most plot-relevant OCs are talia, daphne, and cayden. haven't figured out last names, none have any direct relation to canon toh cast members bc i do Not want to weave a bunch of confusing family trees.

the shape of the arc is what's described in chapter 9 of wwaitsoatl. darius's mentor -- whose name was hunter, but i'll call him GG here for the sake of clarity -- was involved with wild magic and wild witches.

this started out as a way for him to channel his own power without being dependent upon belos & the empire's technology. it turned into a much more involved double life rebelling against the coven system and trying to get belos to relax the empire's grip on the isles.

knowing what you do about belos, the natural response to this is. uh-oh!!

darius wanders into all of this by accident when he catches GG and cayden tattooing n enchanting Very Clearly Fake coven sigils on a couple 'new recruits.'

cayden is a witch about GG's age, maybe a little older, who Supposedly belongs to the bard coven but..... doesn't, really. he's been working on making passable fake sigils for a while.

GG swears darius to secrecy, darius wants to find out more, darius ends up meeting other witches who are important to GG.

uh oh this is getting long. meet daphne and talia under the cut.

cayden is one of GG's lovers/partners, daphne is the other, because i'm polyamorys georg and i do what i want. daphne is a wild witch who's never joined a coven.

at this point in the empire, joining the coven system is Strongly Encouraged but has not yet been fascistly enforced. most younger people have joined one, but not all. there's definite messaging about how your magic is Incomplete without a coven and you're betraying your peers and denying your selfhood by not joining one.

daphne's main talents lie in plant and oracle magic. she's been working on restoring and protecting groves of palistrom wood -- even at that point, the environmentally-conscious witches can tell that Something's going wrong with the trees.

i'd say that she has some similarities to willow, at least in terms of What She Cares About. but she's also much more ready to brawl at any given moment, much less nice, and much worse at putting on a brave face under pressure.

(cayden, on the other hand, is excellent at remaining calm and keeping the peace. both in the triad and in high-pressure political situations. everything about social camouflage that darius didn't learn from GG himself, he learned from cayden.)

the worst interpersonal conflict in the story happens between daphne and GG, around the middle of the story. eventually GG's stalling and diversion tactics stop working & belos orders him to requisition daphne's groves for the empire.

this is not an order that GG can say no to.

he's never told daphne exactly what belos does with the palismen. but she has oracle and plant magic and she's been hyperfocused on the palistrom trees for years. She Knows.

daphne is not going to let belos have this magic.

she sets fire to every single one of her trees.

which. is. fucking devastating.

the ensuing fight between her and GG in the ashes is so vicious that it probably could've ended with one of them dead,

if not for talia.

talia is an older witch, in her late fifties. keep in mind that the empire has only existed for 20 years at this point. talia was well into middle age when the empire fully unified the isles, and she'd been fighting it tooth and nail prior to that. she remembers pre-empire life and she believes it's achievable again.

if daphne parallels willow, then talia most closely parallels eda. except that she's actually much more relaxed and LESS likely to brawl and has a much healthier social life. talia believes that individual resistance isn't nearly as strong as a network of people all sharing their resources together.

she's the closest thing to a mother that GG has. she's the one who helped darius learn complex sewing skills (he could at least patch things up on his own, prior). she is Determined not to let the empire take any of these kids from her, directly or indirectly. so she intervenes in daphne and GG's fight before either of them can get hurt.

darius spends some time working with talia and cayden on strengthening his own magic. largely behind GG's back, bc GG does not want darius taking on any unnecessary risks. talia and cayden aren't exactly malicious, but they Do let darius push himself further than he really should.

eventually talia is arrested -- the exact mechanics don't matter. what matters is that belos knows that she's close to GG, even though she isn't saying a word. so he calls GG and darius into the throne room, shuts the doors, and tells GG to carry out her sentence of petrification.

it is Very Clear that this is a test. it is Very Clear that any protest or argument will be taken as treason.

GG does what he's told. darius watches.

after it's over, belos asks to speak with darius alone. i've actually written this scene in full. GG very nearly blows his cover, darius convinces him to keep his shit together. belos does not hurt darius, just playacts the oh-so-concerned uncle. extremely threatening about it. you'd tell me if he was in trouble, wouldn't you??

darius leaves the chamber with GG, who immediately goes out looking for cayden.

cayden is gone. his door's been kicked in. the house is a mess.

GG has a panic attack. 'he knows, he knows we were in here.' horrible echoes of that scene in hollow mind. darius hugs him through it. GG asks him if he's been practicing all the dangerous magic bullshit that GG told him not to. then begs darius to use said dangerous magic bullshit to go warn daphne and the others in their network.

GG promises that he's going to finish all of this, one way or the other. he says he should have finished it back before petrifying talia. or hell, back when everything happened with the palistrom groves. it is very clear that he intends to kill belos.

daphne and the rest of the ensemble cast are already gone by the time darius reaches their usual hideouts.

GG is already gone by the time darius gets back to the palace.

belos announces that his nephew was murdered by wild witches. and that he has the traitors in custody.

cayden and daphne and the others in the ensemble are petrified for GG's murder.

darius is the only one left who knows the truth about what happened. darius is the only one who knows that this is all a political sham being stirred up to make coven conscription mandatory, stamp out all remaining wild witchery, and enact a slew of new fascist laws.

and darius is the only one left who knows exactly how cayden faked coven sigils. the only one who can pass on that knowledge. and the only one who can secure a position in which fake coven sigils won't come under too much scrutiny.

there's only so much he can do to honor the others' memories. if he stands against the empire alone, he'll be killed. belos is already SO suspicious of him.

he does what he can very, very quietly instead.

[sergeantsporks]

Aroace Hunter Week Day 5: Heart of (Galder)Stone

“Come on, guys, it’s starting in like. Five minutes.” Hunter bounced on the balls of his feet, watching as Gus and Willow slowly, agonizingly slowly, wrote their names on a sign in sheet. “C’mon, c’mon.”

“We’re coming, we’re coming,” Willow laughed, “I haven’t seen you this excited since Camila told you about Cosmicon.”

“Grimwalker. Researcher. Grimwalker. Lecture. Answers.”

“I thought we solved all of the identity crises? I mean, if you haven’t, we are totally going to help you through it, I was just—”

Hunter shook his head. “Oh—no, this isn’t about what I am and what that means, nothing like that. It’s just that there aren’t a lot of books about grimwalkers, and, you know… if there are different life expectancies, or weird diseases I can catch, or abilities I have, I want to know. You know?”

“Oh, totally,” Gus agreed, “Personally, I am still holding out hope for stone skin.”

“I told you, stonesleepers only turn to stone when they sleep.”

“Stone skin,” Gus whispered, waving his hands and walking backwards into the lecture hall.

Hunter shook his head, following him inside and plopping down in an open seat. “You think she’ll sign something if I ask?”

Willow sat down next to him. “Probably. Authors love signing stuff.”

The lights flicked out, and a single spotlight flicked onto the middle of the stage, empty.

“Grimwalkers,” a rich voice echoed, “Myths and Legends? Or are rumors true, and they walk in our midst still, hiding as witches to avoid a scrutinizing eye?”

Gus and Willow both nudged Hunter with a giggle.

“Shhhh,” he hissed.

A young witch with bright red hair and brown eyes walked into the spotlight. “Hi, all. I’m Dr. Trap, and today we’ll be going over basic grimwalker build, how to recognize them, how to care for a grimwalker should you find one—”

Gus held his hand out for a fist bump. “Dude. I promise I will follow all of the care tips for my grimwalker.”

Hunter fistbumped him as Dr. Trap continued.

“—and, of course, points of weakness.”

Hunter coughed. “What?!” he whispered.

“Pflbt, I already know your weaknesses. Your feet are ticklish.”

“Gus.”

“Now, Grimwalkers are created using a variety of ingredients. Selkidomus scales, palistrom wood, the lungs of a stonesleeper, a bone fragment from the creature you’re trying to recreate and, of course, a galderstone to function in place of a heart. They can appear in almost any form, but you can recognize them by their magenta eyes.”

Hunter’s hand went to touch just under his own eyes, now brown.

“Grimwalkers are not the only creature with this eye color, though, so it’s important to note other characteristics. One, of course, is immunity to boiling water, stemming from the selkidomus scales that make up their skin.”

Gus raised a hand. “How about stone skin?! Do they have stone skin?!”

Dr. Trap laughed. “Ah, no. Besides their immunity to boiling water, grimwalkers are otherwise rather soft-skinned, or at least as soft-skinned as their ortet species. Excellent question, though. Stone sleeper lungs do not give grimwalkers any advantages or disadvantages as far as we are aware, but to capture a live grimwalker is pretty much unheard of in this day and age, and the resources to make them are scarce, so research is limited. Now, if you’re reluctant to throw boiling water on a creature you are unsure of, there is one last tell. Grimwalkers historically have displayed little to no love for their parent species, thought to be due to their galderstone heart. When approached by other members of their parent species, they are standoffish, cold, and brush them off, unless driven to do otherwise by an underlying motive. While they can imitate the affections and relationships of their parent speices, Grimwalkers do not truly love or care about anything other than themselves.”

Hunter’s gut dropped, and his chest seemed to constrict.

“I—” he gasped, looking frantically between Willow and Gus, “No, I—I wouldn’t—I don’t—”

Gus’ jaw clenched, and he stood up, taking Hunter’s arm. Willow got up on his other side.

“Come on,” she whispered firmly, “I don’t think Dr. Trap actually knows very much about grimwalkers.”

They started moving towards the exit, but Dr. Trap’s eyes seemed to follow them up.

“Now, as for grimwalker weaknesses, that varies based on their parent species, but we can learn a lot from the only known natural predator of grimwalkers.”

The doors slammed shut, and Dr. Trap’s skin started to roil and shift, flipping around until her bones sat on the outside of her skin, covered in tiny mouths. Her hair cascaded down her back, solidifying and turning into a spine of spikes, extending into a tail.

“Me.”

“Oooooooooooooooooooooookay, time to go!” Hunter yelped. He grabbed Willow and Gus’ hands, teleporting towards the door.

“Ohhhhhh, Dr. Trap,” Gus groaned, “I get it now!”

Dr. Trap—whatever she was—leapt forward, landing between Hunter in the door. Before Hunter could flashstep again, her tail lashed out, slamming into his chest and sending him crashing back into the seats. He plowed through three rows before coming to a stop, wheezing for air.

“Hunter!” Willow yelled, drawing a circle. Plants cracked through the ground, but Dr. Trap leapt up to the ceiling, drooling from her thousands of mouths. Where her spit landed, plants sizzled and melted.

Gus hurried to Hunter’s side, hauling him up to his feet. “C’mon, man, let’s go!”

Hunter pushed Gus away. “Look out!”

Dr. Trap landed between them, lashing at Gus with one claw to keep him back while her tail snaked around Hunter, squeezing him tightly. Hunter teleported out, only for thick, wet droplets to splatter against his leg. He stumbled and fell with a howl as the acid burned, eating at his skin and muscles. Spots blinked across his vision, and he hauled himself forward on his elbows, pulling away from Dr. Trap. Her tail crashed down on his back, pinning him to the ground.

“You’re a miserable, heartless creature,” she hissed, “And they’d be better off on their own than with a monster like you.”

“GET! OFF!”

A whole tree erupted from the floor, throwing Dr. Trap upwards. It grew around her, sealing her in with a howl.

Willow scooped Hunter up, carrying him out of the auditorium. “I’ve got you.”

“You’re gonna be okay,” Gus promised, “We’ll find a healer.”

Hunter closed his eyes, focusing on just breathing and not throwing up on Willow. “Mhm,” he squeaked.

One healer, two hours, and three different ointments and potions later, Hunter limped out of the healing clinic with a prescribed painkiller potion and his leg swathed in bandages.

Miserable, heartless creature.

“Hey—Hunter!”

Gus and Willow caught up with him easily, walking slowly to stay in step with him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m…” Hunter buried his head in the crook of his elbow to hide the tears blooming in his eyes. “I’m fine.”

Gus grabbed him in a hug, and Willow wrapped her arms around both of them, squeezing tightly.

“That thing didn’t know what she was talking about,” Willow said fiercely.

“Yeah,” Gus agreed, “You’re our friend.”

“That’s the thing, I can’t… I still don’t know how to do… all this. She was right, I’m just… I’m just pretending to be your friend because I don’t want you guys to leave, I want you to stay, and I don’t know how this works, how any of this works, and I don’t know how to—to actually be someone’s friend, and I’m sorry. I’m sorry I don’t know how to love and how to—to be a friend. I’m sorry that I’ve been lying to you. I just… didn’t want you to go. You guys are… you mean the world to me, and I mean that, and I—I don’t want to lose you. I want you to be happy, so I try to make you happy so you don’t leave and… I’m sorry for being selfish.”

“Um…” Gus wiggled out of the hug. “Hunter, uh… I’m pretty sure that’s what friendship is. Like, really.”

Willow nodded, letting go. “Yeah, Hunter, I mean…” She twisted her hands. “I get being scared of being abandoned. But you’re our friend. For real. And that isn’t going to change.”

Gus lightly punched his arm. “None of us know how friendship ‘works,’ we’re all just… making it up as we go.”

“But what about…” Hunter clutched at his chest. “… you know…”

“Doctor,” Gus said urgently, “The patient! Does he have a pulse?!”

Willow snatched up Hunter’s wrist. “It’s there, nurse! He lives!” She snorted, dropping his arm. “Hearts are just muscles in our chest, Hunter. What yours is made of or what it feels doesn’t change anything. You’re still our friend.”

Gus opened and closed his hands. “She wanted to eat you. Everything she said back there was just to hurt you. Take it from a vegetarian completely uninterested in making you into soup, you’re a pretty good friend. Stone heart or not.”

[childlikegoblinqueen]

Chapter 88 Writing Notes.

I REALLY hope I didn't lose you all with the last chapter structure!

I like to play with formats to tell the story outside of Hunter's POV and feed the reader clues as to what has been building.

88 Chapters of emotional build up, political intrigue, peppered with lore has been A LOT to keep a handle on.

I also can't help but mess with the audience sometimes -- I just hope this wasn't TOO weird for you all... I like to torture myself too.

Thanks to @unniebeans who gave me a heads up as to how to use the weird text in Ao3.

A few more notes for spoilers below but I am working on an in universe One Shot from Vee's POV based on one of @yayay0827's ridiculously angsty comics.

And next chapter we will finally (mostly) see an appearance of someone who has been teased throughout the story.

So the In-Between Realm is REALLY intriguing!

I am a big mythology buff and am DYING to play with some of that lore, but maybe in another fic (or a follow up I might do?)

Either way, when Luz made her deal with Papa Titan she was MOSTLY DEAD, and she had traveled there before when visiting her mother.

But how do the rules work there, and are there other ways to open that gate?

This is the third time (I believe) that Hunter has had a brush with the In-Between Realm -- and the first where he seemed immersed in it.

There's a common link between the times it's happened which I am not going to spoil -- but it does tie into everything.

Any theories on who the voices were that Hunter heard as he lost his ability to exercise free will?

The importance of music is a running theme in SCOM and this felt like the right time to bring back the initial riff of "Sweet Child O' Mine."

As I think the TOH community universally agrees that Hunter is prone to dissociation, I wanted to bring Raine's use of music therapy into the story.

Hunter is no longer a child, but the kind of trauma he'd lived through casts a long shadow. Healthy coping skills are key here.

Raine teaches him to use music to pull himself out of a dissociative episode, so Hunter uses these tools here.

There's also several callbacks to in story events from previous chapters -- but one of the locations that Hunter visits in the vision is a TOH canon location.

Did anyone catch it?

Anyway, Hunter appears to be losing his grip on reality.

His bond with Willow and their child is intensifying as she enters the last trimester.

There's an "unauthorized biography" of his life on the horizon with a movie tie in.

He's being stalked by the False GG who has finally maimed one of his loved ones.

A major political candidate is calling for an opening of the market on resources such as galdorstones and palistrom wood.

He's going to have to face Kiki, Adrian, and Terra to avoid a new Inner Circle Trial -- who are claiming he's a liar.

And he's NOT. But he did massage the truth in order to keep Vee safe.

And he's also supposed to appear for a big interview and do something he's never managed to do in public -- seem SANE.

So, yeah, throwing him into a trippy interlude between realms was totally cool!

SorryNotSorry.

[mdhwrites]

You know they are often described as the same character, but why was Amity more interesting than Hunter if they both follow the same pattern (which is just the redemption arc)

I was seeing endless possibilities for Amity's character to go anywhere after S1 there was just too much on the plate that was catching your eye but not all of it, so to keep your interest going.

Hunter just feels too set in stone for some reason. Nothing outside the golden guard or Caleb would have had the same charm.

If Amity was set to become a teacher you would wonder why and how. If Hunter was doing the same you may be like "ok, cool"...

I think that did happen in the final episode too, many questioned why Amity chose to be.. some abomination engineer?

Not many batted an eye on why Hunter chose palismen carving, it just happened and they accepted it.

This ask is rather "why did this thing work for that one but not for this one as well?"

So this has to come down with something that TOH did eventually stop understanding but was strong in the first season: The difference between internal and external motivation.

Now, of course, Amity's motivations will become entirely external and this will be what effectively murders her character but to begin with, she is extremely internally motivated. It takes until Understanding Willow to hear about her parents whatsoever. Hell, before then, we get the twins being sent to meet up with Amity with a packed lunch made by their mom that she forgot, implying a potentially good, normal home life early on. Her external influences in general seem to be fairly low except for setting what the end goal is: Head of the EC.

But that's just an extension of the internal motivation of "Be the best." Be the best student. Be the best witch. Be the best Blight. Be the best EVERYTHING. She early on seems to have a genuine problem of obsessing over every failure and as a 'gifted' student back in high school, I relate with that EXTREMELY HARD. She is ready to attack herself for every failure, see every setback as the worst thing to happen to her and be ruthless with those who get in the way of her goals. This extreme mindset is unhealthy but it lets you know her priorities so even a more balanced Amity is still going to care about studying, about the future and get upset at herself when she can't solve something. She just, you know, won't murder someone over it.

These internal influences tell us a lot about her. We get a very vivid base for a character to work from because we understand what underpins her own desires. This makes it so that even if you swap the setting, you know how Amity will behave dependent on these core principles. If she's suddenly Spider-woman, she's going to work herself to death and be traumatized the first time she fails and loses someone. Not someone close to her: ANYONE. Make her a big sister in Rapture and you can bet your ass that she drains a hundred times the splicer corpses than an average little sister does in a day and she will NEVER stop tracking her prey if the order is given to kill. The context of where she is or what she's doing is reinforced by those internal desires that are mutable across different elements.

This also makes expanding and complicating those internal desires interesting! After all, getting an explanation for why she considers perfection so important can genuinely highlight where she might have mistepped so as to become so extreme. For an example from my own work: Azu is inspired by Amity but is genuine nobility. Her words carry consequences and one slip of the tongue can unmake a person or trap her with favors she didn't mean to imply. She lives in such constant fear of this though, influenced by the disinheriting of her sister and brother as well as just a well meaning but too strict mother as a well as a king who will likely kill her if she exhibits too much personal pride, that if she has no need to talk to you... she doesn't. She is silent to most and careful with the words she says otherwise. Always on edge because she hasn't had anyone teach her that you can relax, not that she ever entirely would because her base character cares about success too much, and so those external elements become exciting because they feed into the internal and help deepen and expand on the character as a whole.

This is also why the scapegoating form of redemption in TOH is so... boring. And usually extremely flawed, even when at its best. By saying everything a character has done or believed was because of someone else, you lose those base character traits and TOH never replaces them. If we believe Odalia is the ONLY reason she cares about success, and only really see her striving for perfection again with being Luz's girlfriend, but otherwise discarding her future, studying, etc. like that, her strive for being the best is no longer really a part of her. She cares about Luz's perfect girlfriend because of the external influence of fear that Luz might leave her otherwise but what internal mechanism in her makes her fear that so much? Why is she willing to abandon so much for one person? Why is it that Amity's entire life besides Luz is so easily abandoned by her?

This is what makes her transform into a generic love interest. Even Eclipse Lake, which is a natural progression for her, in the long run feels like a trope. After all, it's common for someone who has a crush to have an episode where a misunderstanding causes them to break down and question if the one they love even likes them, let alone reciprocates their feelings. The only difference is that Amity and Luz are already together. After this, she'll never show that same fervor again and not care about being the best at anything for herself but only ever for someone else. She does NOTHING without it being to impress her father, basic survival, or because Luz approves of it and that's when a character stops feeling like they have an internal life and their own person hood and starts just becoming a doll on the screen that you can feel the writer manipulating.

This is the position Hunter STARTS in. Frankly, it's also the position Willow starts in to some extent. Both of them will change how they act and behave for the sake of an episode with minor characteristics that make recognizably them, kind of, but otherwise they don't seem to have internal cares. The closest Hunter ever comes to having something is that he actually is a people pleaser, unlike Luz. Except... Also not because he constantly breaks Belos' laws, his orders, etc. like that. A real people pleaser would kill Flapjack and turn him in. We never actually get a reason as to why Hunter keeps Flapjack besides the fact that he's actually Caleb and if your reasoning is purely because they're not actually their own character, that is a fucking problem.

But seriously: How do we ever know how Hunter will react to something? Everything Hunter does is influenced externally. Looking into wild magic? Only because it will make a cure for my uncle. Have my own palisman? Well, if I kill it, Luz will be pissed at me and I guess I care about that for some reason. Go recruit for the EC? Only because that's how Darius says I'll get my cape back. Free the people I just recruited? Only because it made Willow sad. Break free of the EC and my uncle? Only because otherwise I would straight up die, not because my own personal beliefs clash with my uncle's.

It's why I don't find Hunter compelling, even trying to strip him down to brass tacks or use the most interesting sides of him because I'm not sure there any sides of him. This also infects most of the cast as they become just generally good people because their actions are so... basic. There's no flavor to them because very few of these characters have a core as the series goes on. A way to summarize them and pitch them to others besides "Good person who does X magic." The most personality they have is their toolkit and while Batman's utility belt is neat, it's BATMAN and his personality and how he personally tackles issues, personal and otherwise, that bring us to the story.

And TOH over and over again seems to think losing your personality is the only way to have character growth as it repeats the loop over and over again. First Amity, then Hunter, and then the Collector even, shown off by his immediate recoiling into not knowing what FUCKING DEATH IS just so he can be a little guy.

A basic, good person with no personal desires, cares, motivations, ethos, etc. except to do whatever will make Luz everyone happy. Real deep and compelling characters in the end that way, aren't they?

=========

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

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

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[lotusthewriter]

And they were all yellow

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: G

Relationships: Romantic Hunter/Luz

Characters: Hunter, Luz Noceda; MENTIONED - Flapjack

Summary: “What is this?”

They’re like a spectacle, a celebration. Multiple light spells illuminate the somber archives, brighter than any light glyphs they could ever make. Brighter than the actual stars in the sky above. Beautiful in every way.

His chest sinks.

That can only mean one thing.

Word count: 984

AO3

A/N: I had this idea early this morning, so here you go!

SPOILERS FOR "WATCHING AND DREAMING".

TRIGGER WARNINGS - canonical (and temporary) character death, past animal death, and grief/mourning

Luz and Hunter are not canonically siblings. Hate will be deleted and blocked.

P/ROSHIPS DNI.

--

“What is this?”

They’re like a spectacle, a celebration. Multiple light spells illuminate the somber archives, brighter than any light glyphs they could ever make. Brighter than the actual stars in the sky above. Beautiful in every way.

His chest sinks.

That can only mean one thing.

He doesn’t want it to be true.

“Hunter?” Someone calls him. “What’s wrong?”

The boy’s trembling hand fists his wolf t-shirt, right where his heart beats, where Flapjack lives on, grieving.

Hunter only has one name in his head.

“... Luz.”

He can tell everyone grows tense and that they probably don’t need any more details to understand what happened.

Because they all saw it before.

Hunter is half aware Gus is trying to comfort him, rubbing his back, while Amity and Willow rely on each other, the two of them openly crying. Only then does Hunter realize that tears also roll down his scarred face, albeit quietly.

But the worst part of all of this is that Luz is not even here.

She’s not here like Flapjack is.

Luz is gone.

Gone.

He lost someone important again.

He couldn’t tell her…

…

One of the many bright spells flies close to him, so much that Hunter is able to take it in his hands. He can feel the warm magic within it, such a reassuring approach that it’s almost like someone is calming him down after a nightmare.

“What do you do when you’re having a bad dream?”

Like she’s telling him the same thing.

The light fades all too quickly.

Hunter only cries more, of course.

They take quite some time mourning, as they should, until the light spells are gone for good. Hunter breathes in deeply, comforted by Flapjack’s love, which is also fed by Luz’s love.

And there’s only one thing Hunter can do to retribute.

“There’s no more time. We have to fight back,” he reminds everyone. “For Flapjack… and for Luz.”

His friends are certainly not recovered from the harsh blow, and Hunter even less, but they all regain composure to complete their duty of freeing everyone else. They need to save as many people as they can.

No, nothing is hopeless just yet.

Because Luz would never give up.

And none of them will.

So, they do their best.

She believes in them, and she believes in him.

And he trusts her more than anything.

That’s the least he can do.

--

The Owl House is a mess, but it’s home.

Eda and Raine - and King - share the former’s old nest, somehow more comforting than all the beds Luz has ever slept on. She smiles in absolute relief, sighing deeply in exhaustion. She can’t help wondering how her mother and her friends are doing now…

Right on time, The Collector arrives with Lilith, followed by Mom, Gus, Willow, Amity, and Hunter. They all rush to hug her in said order, until it becomes a tearful and laughing group hug. Besides Eda and King, they also helped her realize her worth.

That is, when Luz notices someone is missing.

Someone still stands in the door, brown eyes growing deep, like they bear the knowledge of the Titan.

Luz’s smile fades, and the others seem to catch on since they let her go.

“Hunter, are you okay?” She asks, approaching tentatively.

He’s clutching his t-shirt, a place where Luz already knows. She doesn’t understand why he’s looking at her like that. When Hunter frowns, she shivers because she remembers that bad dream, when the older teen was angry at her for losing everything in order to help her. No, it wasn’t real, but it’s certainly not a pleasant memory.

When Hunter stumbles forward, Luz doesn’t know what to expect.

Thus, she freezes as thicker arms wrap around her the tightest anyone has ever hugged her, her face buried in his shoulder. She’s nearly on tiptoe given their height difference, and it’s so odd.

To make her even more speechless, Hunter sniffs.

“I thought I’d lost you too,” he whispers, voice breaking just like when Flapjack was gone.

Luz’s eyes refill with tears, finally realizing why Hunter is so distraught. She remembers her body transforming into magic, her fading away into the dark, doomed Boiling Isles. That was how she got to meet the Titan, after all.

Of course Hunter would know. Of course he would be terrified and sad to find out she was dead. Still, some part of her can’t help fearing that he would be angry with her, even after everything they’ve been through together.

Luz clings to him in return, feeling… protected. Yes, she defeated a god-like Belos - with her family’s help, of course -, but in the end she’s only a teenage girl who has been haunted by her mistakes for months, years even. And Hunter was one of the few people that she knew for sure that wouldn’t abandon her.

She wasn’t… scared when she died. However, Luz still can’t believe it really happened, and that’s why she’s crying and why they hold each other as if the world outside doesn’t exist, and it’s only Luz, Hunter, and Flapjack’s own little home.

“I’m sorry,” Luz mumbles, not specifying.

“No, no…” Hunter sniffs again, louder, and pulls back a little. “I just… I gotta make sure you’re safe too, you know?” He blushes and smiles. “You’re family.”

Luz laughs wetly. “Y-Yeah. Yeah…”

Even though everyone is watching them with knowing looks - especially Eda and her teasing smirk -, Luz and Hunter share messy tears, like when they did in their abandoned house. As she cleans his tears, she also feels his scars in her fingertips, which causes his cheeks and pointy ears to flush red. Luz smirks, only for Hunter to return the gesture by acknowledging the very small scar above her left eye, one that’s barely perceived.

Besides the opposite experiences, they feel… complete, together.

“Yeah…” Luz repeats, sighing. “We’re family.

[amethyst-halo]

guild cultures in four stones

(none of this was based on real beliefs or cultures i made it all up in my head i am hoping so much nothing in here is offensive if it is please lmk!!!)

notes of new jobs i added rq:

archive: cat who notes down and keeps track of major events within their guild merchant: cat who trades resources and goods with the other guilds guard: cat who guards the guild’s camp from intruders

ok here!!!

willow guild:

willow guild cats believe the water was meant for them. they can hold their breath beneath the water for a very long time because they spend so much time in it

willow cats are rumored by other guilds to be able to breathe underwater, but they can’t

the willow guild also holds respect for summer, which is “their” season

they hold value in shells; they use them for decoration, paint, medicine, cups for water, and currency

they trade their shells with other guilds for paint and medicine in return for the other guilds’ currency of choice

between one another, they also will trade small fish for things

fish are their main source of food. they thank the waters they catch them from, well aware of the fact that their food is more abundant than the other guilds

they are also known to hunt water birds such as herons and ducks, but they are less common and considered a sort of delicacy

they don’t hold the rivers and ocean up as a god per se, but they do believe they are alive and they respect them highly for granting them food and safety

they hold willow trees to a similar height

willow cats speak with warmth and friendliness. they treat each other as friends regardless of how well they know each other. terms of endearment are common

willow guild cats love song and stories. when possible, some may sing to themselves near constantly. telling stories and singing songs are their favorite group bonding activities

cats born in willow tend to be smaller in stature and rounder in size on average compared to other cats

willow guild cats don’t often push authority over each other. they consider everyone family, and family treats family equally. if a willow cat enforces their rank, you know you fucked up

willow guild cats have the standard jobs; hunter(also called fishermen), ranger, caretaker, cleric, messenger, builder, archive, merchant, and guard, along with pod and channeler

pods are cats that track fish populations and habits over the seasons

channelers watch the rivers and reroute them as needed throughout the seasons

pine guild:

pine guild cats value stealth over all else. if a cat isn’t stealthy, they are typically looked down upon

rumor has it that they can melt into shadows, and are the subject of many a scary kit tale

they consider the cold mountainous territory as meant for them, and they are the fiercest in protecting their land

they have respect for the snow and wintertime, and it is considered “their” season, when they are strongest

they value mushrooms, using them to trade with the other guilds as well as make paint and decorations. some even wear them

they also commonly trade feathers with one another

they are able to hunt anything from squirrels and birds to small deer and elk. they are put into special teams in order to take on bigger prey.

they see wolves, coyotes, and foxes as deities. they keep their distance and cats will look at them in respect

wolves are the highest deities, as they are the biggest. wolves never hunt cats, and storytellers will say that they are too important to hunt for their own food, though they can. it is thought that coyotes, the most common predator, hunts for the wolves

they hold pine trees to a similar height, often claiming to be spoken to by them

pine cats are quiet and cold in mannerisms. they don’t like to talk much, and are thought of as stiff and to the point in their words.

pine cats do not like music outside of celebrations. singing for fun is considered asking for trouble from predators, or scaring away prey willingly

they do, however, greatly enjoy stories. storytellers are often the most popular

cats born in pine are big and thick-furred. they easily tower over most other guilds’ cats, and are scary to face in battle

pine cats highly value rank. everyone has their place, and they will enforce it as much as they need to

pine guild cats have the standard jobs; hunter, ranger, caretaker, cleric, messenger, builder, archive, merchant, and guard, along with wolfwalker and tracker

wolfwalkers track and keep tabs on the wolves and coyotes in their territory

trackers watch over the herds of deer and elk, and work with hunters to know when and where to perform a catch

maple guild:

maple guild cats highly value the ability to climb and be high in trees. being scared of heights there is a nightmare

the forest is theirs in their minds. most are willing to protect their territory fiercely

one tactic that has worked surprisingly well is spreading rumors about themselves. their biggest rumor is that their territory is haunted by spirits of cats who trespassed

“their” season is fall, when the maples are considered to be at their prime. they value the changing leaves highly and will decorate their camp and dens with them, some even choosing to wear them

they value seeds of trees, mostly maple seeds, and use them as currency. their currency is considered worth the least. they trade them with the other guilds for various things, and are used in medicines and paint

they trade leaves between themselves often as well, considered the prettiest thing to decorate nests with

their prey almost entirely consists of small woodland animals like squirrels, birds, and mice 

they view deer as a deity of sorts, the guide to the afterlife. they keep their distance from them as a sign of respect

maple cats are the most spiritual of the guilds, highly valuing the afterlife and spirits of cats. they are not necessarily religious, as they don’t have rules to follow to get to their afterlife. they are the most at peace with death, generally

they also view maple trees highly, often believing they are the most in tune to spirits and that they repel evil spirits

maple cats are rather subdued in nature. they aren’t the most talkative sort, but they speak miles more than pine cats. they’re polite and formal unless they’re talking with close friends and family

maple cats love music, preferring slower softer hymns. they love to sing to the trees, believing that it helps them keep up their strength and power to keep away evil spirits. stories are reserved for mostly only kits, considered a childish thing by older cats. they often tell their stories in songs instead

cats in maple are on the smaller side, but are typically pretty average in size for cats. they’re often rather sturdy in build, with toned shoulders

maple cats are rather lax in their ranks, but it is still loosely followed in their day to day tasks

maple guild cats have the standard jobs; hunter, ranger, caretaker, cleric, messenger, builder, archive, merchant, and guard, along with pathmaker and medium

pathmakers create and maintain paths through the territory

mediums are spiritually attuned cats that help guide spirits to a place called the deer’s hollow, where they believe a deer deity will take them to the afterlife

beech guild:

beech guild cats value speed very highly, and it isn’t uncommon for them to race each other to settle disputes

they value the fields and hills, and like to believe it was made for them

beech guild cats are the best at identifying gemstones and certain minerals. they use the more common kinds as currency and make them into paint when applicable

they are rumored to be fast enough to not be seen, but they aren’t quite that fast. they are decently faster than any other cats, though

they like to call spring “their” season, as the grasses grow again and flowers dot their hills

they use chips of gemstones as currency, trading them with other guilds. beech cats are considered the best at getting and making paint as they have a lot of rocks to use in it

they hunt fieldmice and rabbits mostly, with the occasional other prey from the neighboring lands

beech cats believe that stones have healing and spiritual powers. they use various crystals to protect their health and keep them strong. meanwhile, they don’t really believe in an afterlife; they believe that a cat who dies’ spirit goes into a crystal to aid living cats, hence the source of the powers. their dead are buried with part of the crystal they went into, as a source

they view beech trees highly, as they are the most common in their territory. they believe that the trees ward evil away, preventing evil from disrupting the cycle of becoming a crystal’s source. the source tree is the large one in the center of their camp

beech cats are very chatty, often being compared to birds. they are a little blunt, though they try not to be; they value honesty highly, and would rather be told the truth upfront

singing is common in the beech guild, with the belief that it helps spirits within the crystals. songs are shared often, and they love to sing loudly

beech cats are the most creative in their stories as well, often painting visuals to go along. their camp walls are covered in paintings

beech cats aren’t all that strong, but they are tall and lean. they have long legs and tails commonly

cats don’t lean very hard on the ranks of each cat, but it is enforced if someone is wildly out of line

beech guild cats have the standard jobs; hunter, ranger, caretaker, cleric, messenger, builder, archive, merchant, and guard, along with miner and secretary

miners are cats tasked with finding and collecting crystals and minerals

the secretary is the cat that tracks all the tasks for a day and keeps everyone on schedule

[lampmanliveblogs]

New glyph combo acquired! I watched a few more seconds and saw that it stops falling objects. I also managed to actually get a few decent enough glimpses of it to make out what the entire thing looks like.

It’s one light glyph, surrounded by one ice glyph and one fire glyph. Hmm… not sure if I see any connection there to negating or lessening gravity. I guess light is, well, light.

On a more important note, Luz did that thing I do every other week where I decided that Today Is The Day I’m fInally Going To Get My Life Together and then just never do. Her To Do list for the day includes constructing a fully-functioning portal door, something that took Philip at least ten years, figure out every possible glyph combination which would probably require a lifetime or more (which is not really an option for Luz, unless… you know) and figure out Belos’ evil plan and defeat him. And even I’m not sure what Belos’ plan actually is, much less how they’d go about defeating him.

Suffice it to say, Luz is taking on maybe a little too much.

This made me burst out laughing. Is Belos evil? Do you think!??

Also, wasn’t Ruler’s Reach the name of that book King & Luz wrote in that one episode in season one?

It got better.

The real question is, who was he trying to send that picture of Little Rascal to? Probably one of the Emerald Entrails. My money’s on Willow.

(that profile picture, it’s… it sure is something)

I wasn’t too far off with what I said about Luz making that reminder months ahead. She and Camila apparently have some tradition that they do every year and this being the first time in years that they’re apart for this occasion… it’s got Luz catching the sad. And so she tries to distract herself with working on a hundred things at once, and as a result, accomplishing very little.

On another note, that is Eda’s old grudgby jacket she wore back in Wing It Like Witches*. It looks good on you Luz. Maybe you should try it on. See if its fits. Who knows, maybe what you need to get out of your funk is a new wardrobe.

I’ve seen art of Luz wearing that jacket, is what I’m trying to say.

(*i went back to rewatch a scene from that episode and I spotted Raine in a photograph in Eda’s photo album)

So Amity has her own problems that can distract Luz. 

So today is the day of the Bonesbrorough Brawl which sounds like some kind of wrestling thing, but I assume magic is involved too. Or maybe it’s not at all like wrestling and just straight up duels or some such. That doesn’t exactly look like a wrestling outfit Alador’s wearing there (I’ll talk more about the photo in a sec).

But today is also the tryouts for the Emperor’s Coven. Odalia has already signed Amity up for it and Alador assigned an Abomaton to, ah… escort her there. Now, I don’t know when witches are considered adults on the Boiling Isles, but Amity is what? Fourteen? Maybe fifteen? Isn’t that a little to young to be joining the army? I know Hunter was probably younger, but he’s a special case… then again, he was serious about the Emerald Entrails joining and they were around Amity’s age, soooo…

Amity, of course, doesn’t want to join the Emperor’s Coven. In fact, she doesn’t want to join ANY coven anymore. She just wants to go to the brawl, compete and hopefully win, like her dad once upon a time.

It is not lost on me that this is something Amity wants to do with her dad, you know, something they can share and have in common… and meanwhile, Luz had something she wanted to do and share with her mom. So much for a distraction.

Let’s talk about the photo  for a sec. Obviously, we have Alador as the central figure. He’s obviously much younger, his eyes are brighter and doesn’t have the bags they do in the present. His hair looks a bit more well-kept although his hands are still stained (thought that could be from the fight). He had the goggles already. He’s also wearing some kind of tank on his back, probably for his abomination goop.

If we look in the lower right corner we can see Odalia. It’s kinda hard to tell, but I think she might be blushing? If we look a bit above Odalia, on one of the large skulls in the background, we can see Eda and Raine watching the spectacle from above. On the lower left we find Darius booing. Already Alador’s rival back then, huh? Also, the person with the fangs next to Darius kinda looks like a vampire, which we know exists on the Boiling Isles.

[lollytea]

I love your idea of super pda huntlow bc it goes nicely with the idea of “very behind the doors, make sure no one is watching, send the palismen to play, if someone catches us it’s all over” kind of kisses I think they had in the human realm. Of course, it’s not a shame from each other but the guilt of like “hey this isn’t the time for this, we need to focus and be the strong ones bc if we fall apart then everyone else does too” but also “we’re teens and titan help me bc you’re literally the cutest person I’ve ever been attracted to and a quick peck won’t hurt if no one finds out”.

Hahaaaaa how I so badly love that trope that's like

"We shouldn't"

"I know....but I'd like to..."

"....okay."

Love to put it in a fic at some point. Maybe soon.

I don't imagine a lot of romantic intimacy happened between them while they were in the Human Realm. At least not outside of flirting. Nothing physical is what I'm saying. Mostly because of the body language of the pinky scene. Its such a tentative, scared, inexperienced offer of affection that it leads me to believe that they never would have done anything more than that before.

HOWEVER I still see your visions. I love entertaining visions. And this is a very fun vision to entertain.

I think the two of them are dealing with their situation in very different ways. It's shown in TTT that Hunter seems to take a bit of guilt in focusing on anything that's not relevant to getting them back home, and worse, actually enjoying it. How can he have fun at a time like this, know? That's his mindset.

Meanwhile Willow seems to be focusing very heavily on her own distractions so she doesn't fall apart, and also keeping the calm, fun, goofy optimistic atmosphere so her friends don't fall into the depths of despair.

Hunter is a nice distraction. He's very sweet and very pretty. And when she's feeling rattled from nightmares of her Dads' dead bodies, she likes to sit with Hunter and listen to him talk about whatever silly shit he's obsessed with this week. It's a lot healthier than sneaking some of Camila's wine.

Hunter is picking up on some signals from Willow but he's too scared to ask her upfront if she's doing what he thinks she's doing. It would be mortifying if she said no. And since they live in the same house, he wouldn't be able to hide.

But he's pretty sure she wants to kiss him. And he's pretty sure he wants to kiss her too. But if he did, his focus on their current mission would be in shambles.

But also he's like...very weak willed when it comes to Willow. It doesn't take much prodding. The moment she asks ("Can I kiss you? Sorry...that came out of nowhere. You just look very kissable right now") all of his walls crumble and he's silently nodding.

Just a little kiss. That's all it is. It's not like it's all that important.

Even tho they can NOT let anybody else know.

I like thoughts about the two oldest characters who do everything in their power to be safe, comforting figures to the others, just having a moment to be young and scared together.

[the-lil-exorcist]

I See Dead People || Cassius & Lil

Timing: About a Week ago Location: Eluria Cemetery Feat: @singdreamchild, @the-lil-exorcist Warnings: Missing Family, generally none!

Summary: Lil again follows a lead from Jude's book that leads to a cemetery. Cassius unfortunately has to catch up with his old student.

Lil hadn’t meant to do an exorcism in the cemetery tonight following a lead that she was pretty sure was another dead end. Still, when she had stumbled across a ghost that was clearly tethered to her tombstone - Lil couldn’t help but pause. She had looked sad sitting on top of the crumbling structure her arms folded under chin staring longingly at the tree that was probably just out of her reach. Although Lil couldn’t hear her, she could almost feel the sigh the ghost had. She must have been there a long time, the tombstone barely readable as one the name in the stone looking something like Allison - or maybe Alyssa Lil wasn’t sure. 

So - despite the important things Lil did have to do - she had gone over to the ghost and asked softly if she wanted to be exorcized so she didn’t have to stay tethered here. After all, Lil couldn’t send her any other way. Whoever tethered a soul like this bound them in a way that only an exorcism could free them. That she just had to nod to Lil, and she’d do so - although Lil warned that her soul would be destroyed. The ghost had nodded and stood on top of the grave stone looking excitedly at Lil - a hope she wasn’t sure was necessarily deserved. Still, Lil had carefully started the ritual under the watchful eyes of the other who was happily watching. Lil could see a smile on her face as she suddenly disappeared as the ritual was done, her eyes looking off to a place that Lil couldn’t see.. 

“Good by then, Al- I think your name was Alyssa now that I’m looking at it,” Lil said with a sigh leaning down on the tombstone for a moment, tired from the ritual. Normally something simple like this wouldn’t make her tired - but she was exhausted as of late. “I hope you don’t mind me taking a moment here. I’ll go get you one of those apples off the tree in a minute. Must have looked good from where you were.” She continued softly looking around the graveyard. While she never had the same attachment to ghosts her twin did - well she never hated them either. While she’d never know the other’s story she could still feel sorry. 

Tonight, Cassius had decided to stay in. Usually he tried to stay out as late as he could, mostly to avoid going to what he called home, nothing more than an empty crypt. After moving for what felt like the fiftieth time, he stopped caring about living in a house or apartment. What was the point in spending money on something that he barely used, anyway? What was a living space to one that was no longer living? Since he had a habit of moving around so much, he lost sense of why he should have a home to call his own when home was always moving around. He hadn’t intended to stay in Wicked’s Rest for as long as he had, but something was keeping him there, whether it be because he was waiting for someone he knew was long gone or because he just felt drawn to such a strange place, he wasn’t sure.

So tonight, he decided he would take a walk among the gravestones, learn about who was laid to rest around him. He had long found cemeteries peaceful, a good place to relax and read his poetry against a willow tree. As soon as he exited the crypt, the door closing with a loud thud, Cassius froze. Sitting amongst the headstones was a girl, a girl who was terribly close to where he just exited from. Could he get away with saying he was just visiting? But who goes inside of crypts? His mind raced a mile a minute as he grappled with the fact that he might just be caught from one move. The last thing he needed was someone like a hunter on his tail, waiting for him to leave just to strike at him.

Cassius took a few steps in the other direction of the girl, praying that she didn’t notice him. But of course how could she not? The stone door was the only thing that made noise in this silent resting place. He waited for the inevitable as he continued walking, hands balled into fists as he waited for her to speak to him.

Lil had been pretty sure she was alone in this section of the cemetery as she sat in the still for a moment, liking the quiet. Sure, there were people around - she’d be naive to think that there weren’t supernatural folks in a graveyard- but they generally left her alone. She wasn’t sure what it was about Mediums, but she guessed it was the fact that she was often looking or speaking at ghosts while she was there. Unlike other humans that interacted with supernatural folks, that seemed to be enough to keep exorcists out of the worst conflicts slipping within the cracks of each society. 

Maybe, Lil thought idly, that was why so many of them were so lonely. Sure, she was very rarely seen as a threat but she was hardly seen as a friend either. Still, as she heard a shutter of a door closing Lil wasn’t super concerned looking up mostly at the noise. After all, whoever had been tailing her earlier wasn’t particularly careful and must have not liked the job. It might have been arrogance on her part, but she was pretty sure she’d left them somewhere around where the mime restaurant was. 

Squinting and sitting up, Lil saw the man, and for a moment was just going to let him go, noticing it wasn’t the dark haired person in a hoodie. There was something in the walk that reminded Lil of someone - and for a moment she thought about it and then connected the memory. Scrambling up Alyssa’s stone Lil called out to the man that she was pretty sure taught her history, “Hey - Teach? Is that you? Mr. Hawthorne? Hey wait up.”  

Cassius inwardly cursed as he heard his name called out, great. It was worse than he thought, it was a student of his, former or current, it didn’t matter. He had been caught. Maybe she’d think he was visiting someone? That’s all he could hope for, at least. He wracked his brain for what student of his she could be, he’d had so many over the years, it was easy to forget the former classes after the new class took their place. Was she in his world history class? AP Euro? Both? He couldn’t be sure. All he knew for certain was that she was calling out to him. 

Finally, the vampire turned around with raised brows and a polite smile upon his features. “Ah, yes. Caught me.” He spoke, his tone as if he were servicing someone as opposed to making small talk. Getting a good look at the girl, it finally clicked. She had been his student, though the name escaped him. Cassius clapped his hands together, that same polite smile on his features. “I see we’ve both found ourselves in the cemetery at a late hour, hm?” He said, as if stating the obvious would help his cause.

Lil caught up with the man, thinking that something was odd when she did, but she wasn’t exactly sure what. . Out of Lil’s teachers he had been one that she hadn’t minded as much, most likely because she hadn’t been as tired when she had taken his class. It wasn’t that Lil disliked school, but when exorcism training became more important she fell behind. After all, she wasn’t going to go to college anyway - she wouldn’t have gotten the chance too with how busy the family business was. Still, she had fond memories of history class even if her grades were too poor to get into the later AP one. 

“Oh is it late?” Lil said looking at her phone to see that it was later than she thought. She must have been sitting at Alyssa’s grave longer than she thought she had. “I guess so. I got sidetracked. Were you visiting someone? I don’t see many visitors over here, but I haven’t been back in town that long” She said, hoping that he wasn’t trying to find the ghost she just released. 

Looking back at her former teacher - something seemed to click as she thought how odd it was he didn’t seem to have changed much. Lil didn’t make it a habit of following around people from her past - but she had to admit he looked like he did ten years ago. 

“Ah I bet you don’t remember me now that I’m thinking about it. I’m Lil Ballard - Jonas’s Twin? I probably look different then you last saw me.”  She didn’t make a comment about how he didn’t. 

He checked his watch at his wrist, half past nine at night, dark. Dark enough for Cassius to go venturing outside without getting burned up, dark enough for it to be strange wandering around a graveyard this late, but he was the last person to be suspicious, considering how he lived there. 

Cassius paused for a long time as he tried to decide who he was visiting. “I, uh.” He paused, pointing to the crypt he had walked out of, luckily everything he owned that was in there before he left was now in the book bag he had slung across his shoulder. “I was more admiring than I was visiting.” He settled on. After all, a goth in a graveyard wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. 

The name finally clicked, he had remembered her. She wasn’t a remarkable student, but she had passed, and that’s all Cassius could hope for at the end of the day. “Ah, yes! I remember you. Good to see that you’re doing well.” He gave a polite smile, clapping his hands together in front of him. “You certainly don’t look fourteen anymore, which I would hope for in a former student.” He tilted his head from side to side, looking around for a moment. “Were you visiting someone, then?” He then asked in turn, wondering what had her out so late.

Lil’s eyebrow lifted slightly at the idea that a highschool teacher was just admiring the cemetery at night in this town especially. It didn’t seem like a particularly safe thing to do - although in his defense it wasn’t like she should be here either. “Ah. I see. Any particular thing you wanted to see? I hear there’s a lot of different crypts around here. Haven’t been around here for a long while, so I can’t say I remember a lot of it.” 

Lil could see that the other hadn’t quite connected the dots, but that was to be expected. If he hadn’t looked the same, Lil probably wouldn’t have realized he was her history teacher after all. “Not bad at all.” At the comment she couldn’t help but laugh and say, “Yes - I would hope I wouldn’t look fourteen anymore. How are you?” 

At the question about visiting someone Lil wondered what to say that wouldn’t freak the other out. “I - am working actually but you can say I was trying to find someone,” She said lightly trying to be vague as she found other shimmering ghosts who were now coming closer - probably because of Lil herself. It really wasn’t their fault - mediums were fairly rare and Lil imagined they just wanted someone to acknowledge them. Still, she had meant to just look and see if she could find the Ghost Jude talked about - which now was probably ruined since she wouldn’t be able to ask them anything and they weren’t around their own tombstones. It was about to be a pain in the ass to find the ghost. 

 Although maybe there was another way to deal with this as  Lil’s eyes wandered slightly behind her hold teacher looking at a ghost for a moment before going back to him, trying to gauge what the ghost wanted and hoped they wouldn’t come closer. “Teach, do you come to the cemetery often? If so, do you know the tombstone of Jerimiah Pemberly,” She said slightly loudly hoping that if one of the ghosts had that name that they would turn to look at her. 

Cassius froze as Lil asked what he found himself out in the cemetery for. He was never very good with coming up with lies, for all the time he had been out there, he’d never actually been caught before. He spent maybe too long trying to think of an explanation. “I, ah.” He paused, letting out a sigh. “I find myself drawn to cemeteries. I like to read and hang around.” He gestured to his clothing, a long black trench coat with a black frilly collared dress shirt, black pants and doc martens. “I kinda fit all the goth stereotypes, don’t I?” He decided to brush it off as if he were embarrassed, mostly because he was embarrassed. “I fell asleep in there, lost track of time,” he lied easily as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

He always found it strange running into his students so many years later. How they had matured from being teenagers into full-blown adults. “Certainly not fourteen, no.” He agreed with a soft smile. “I’ve been good. Still teaching the same thing I’ve been teaching, no changes there.” He tilted his head from side to side, thinking for a moment. 

Cassius narrowed his eyes as she asked about a random name, unsure what the specificity was for. Then again, if she were working on something… whatever that something was. “Is that who you’re looking for?” He asked, frowning. He had to admit, the name wasn’t all that familiar. “I haven’t heard that name before,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. For as long as he had been in the cemetery, he had only really looked around at tombstones that were close to the crypt he stayed in. “Not to say it’s not here, I just don’t know it.” He decided to clarify, clasping his hands behind his back. “What is it you do for work?” He decided to ask, seeing as how her job involved cemeteries and looking for people. He couldn’t help but be curious.

Lil’s eyebrow crooked up at her former teacher's explanation, thinking that it was at least a funny one. Lil didn’t exactly look like a prep either - her style was slightly malleable depending but she wasn’t far off of a punk style herself. “Fair enough. Although you probably should be careful about falling asleep in cemeteries.” 

Lil’s eyes looked back at Cassius to not be particularly suspicious as she had just called out a dead man’s name, and nodded. “You don’t seem to look very much different though. That’s gotta be nice.” Lil didn’t stay on the statement for long, mostly because she didn’t care a whole lot about why her former history teacher looked like he could have been a peer and not an adult while she was still a teen. She figured that it wasn’t something he particularly wanted to talk about, but it was fun to think that she might have been right that he wasn’t human. 

Jane would have owed her 10 bucks. Lil’s eyes went back and she saw a ghost turn his head quickly towards her and away as if he didn’t want her to know. Bingo. At the question she gave an easy smile and said, “Yes. I’ve been spending most of the afternoon trying to find it. Bigger cemetery then you would think it would be. I just had a rest with Alyssa over there -” She nodded back at the tombstone, “ but that’s who I wanted to see.” 

Lil had a suspicion she now knew where the ghost was - and the rest of the ghosts were still creeping towards them. Mostly, Lil didn’t think that they would be a bother. She tended to leave ghosts who didn’t need help alone, but she really didn’t want to be surrounded by them either. They didn’t affect her like they did Jonas - she couldn’t hear their murmurings and that seemed to be what kept Jonas up - but it wasn’t exactly pleasant either. At the question Lil said, “Oh. I’m an exorcist .” She said it easily, knowing that the ghost could hear her, and as she expected they stopped coming so close now a bit weary of the Medium. “Although I’m not here to do that right now. I’m just hoping to talk to him.” 

There was a moment where Cassius seriously considered darting away to avoid the comment Lil had made about looking very good for his age. “I, uh. Thank you, I blame genetics.” He offered as a lame response, knowing it was the only explanation he possibly had other than outright admitting to her that he was a vampire, and therefore lived in the cemetery. No, that wasn’t an option. The more people that knew meant the more people could be a possible threat for him. He never knew who had a hunter in their back pocket. 

As she explained that she was an exorcist, everything started to make more sense for Cassius. It explained why she was in the cemetery, looking for someone specific, as well as why she was out so late at night, probably doing a ritual for this Alyssa that she had mentioned. “Ah, I must admit I’ve never heard of that before.” He admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. If he could be a vampire, than certainly there could be exorcists out there. “This Jerimiah person, what is it you need to speak for him for?” He asked, genuinely curious. 

Lil nodded at the idea, thinking that the other should probably keep his secrets. After all, it really wasn’t her business other than she thought it was a little funny. Exorcists were pretty neutral in things all things considered. While she might work with hunters, it was usually for a specific reasons and not a general endorsement of well anything. She worked just as well with supernatural folks after all, and at the end of the day possessions happened to anyone and needed to be resolved by an exorcist. 

“Not surprising. There aren’t a lot of us out in the wild and I’m particularly stupid to give  out the information for free,” Lil said simply looking at the ghost for a moment glad that they weren’t coming closer now but talking amongst themselves. She couldn’t hear what they were saying - although to be fair to her they were farther away she didn’t think most people could have heard them. “Most people think of uh Catholic Priests I think. Or I think there’s a medium show people like on tv.” 

It used to annoy her, as it meant a lot of people who had a real problem went to fakes that couldn’t help them but she had accepted the landscape. At the question Lil thought it was a wonderful help, as the ghosts were still clearly listening to her and it maybe it would help. “My sibling has his name down as someone who needed help with something and I wanted to see what he knew - if anything. I’m assuming they were trying to bring someone to help him pass on without an exorcism.” After all, Lil destroyed souls when she exorcized them and if the ghost wasn’t doing anything wrong it was overkill to say the least. If she was right, she’d bring Jonas with her and help the soul, and if the soul was dangerous instead she’d exorcize him. 

_________

Cassius listened with a thoughtful gaze as she spoke, he found it fascinating that there were exorcists that weren’t what he pictured. He supposed it made sense, if he could exist as he was, then ghosts certainly could. “I imagine it’s a lot of hard work as well,” he spoke in earnest. He found himself deep in thought for a moment. If she found it in her to tell him the truth about what she was, then maybe she would understand that he wasn’t all he appeared to be either. Could he trust her with such a revelation? Maybe it was rather obvious. He frowned, putting a painted finger to his lip as he continued to think on it. 

“Well, you might be exorcising things, while I’m over here pretending that I age.” He gave an awkward smile, scratching at the back of his neck. “I… actually live here,” he spoke, deciding to tell the girl the truth. “I’m, uh. Kind of a walking stereotype of a vampire,” he admitted with a small, sheepish smile. “I’ve seen some weird things in this cemetery, but I’m happy to say I’ve never seen ghosts.” He frowned, looking around for a moment. “I don’t think I’d be very happy living here if I did. I can imagine this place can be quite loud.” He turned to her, trying to gauge a reaction from her.

“I suppose I tell you this about me because you’ve told me this about you.” He frowned, narrowing his gaze. “And I trust you to not tell anyone untoward either.” He then added, just in case there was something nefarious about her he needed to worry about. Still, he had always liked her as a student, even if she hadn’t done the best. Looking back, now it made a little bit of sense. She was attentive, just no in the things that other people would typically decide to be studious in.

___________

Lil shrugged a little at the observation. “I guess,” Lil said, her eyes still flickering behind her old teacher to see the ghosts who were now going about their undead lives again. She wanted to say it wasn’t hard, but that wasn’t true. It left her exhausted and battered at the best of the time. Maybe it was more so that she had grown up with it - and with that was used to it all. Still, that wasn’t exactly something she wanted to talk about now. 

Lil’s head tilted slightly when he started talking again - realizing that he was trying to tell her what he was. “Ah - I mean. That would explain why you look the same,” Lil said with a bit of a smile to be at least a bit reassuring and not at all shocked. While she wouldn’t have exactly guessed, Lil had spent more time around supernatural folks than most. After the seventh or eighth supernatural person she’d helped out - well she stopped keeping track of most of them, deciding that it wasn’t really worth it.  Sure, she always kept tabs on who didn’t like who - for example she’d never bring a hunter with her if she was dealing with a possessed zombie- or what some species were allergic to that might mean she needed to change a ritual, but other than that she didn’t really care. 

“I mean - it’s not the worst stereotype. I doubt you're the only one living around here. I’m not sure what’s common, but I’m used to running into all sorts in cemeteries like this,” Lil said kindly, trying to make him feel a little bit better. At his not seeing ghost she laughed a little and said, “I’m sure they are just respecting your house - most of them aren’t trying to bother anyone. The cemetery  has a good amount of spirits though. Most of them don’t stay here for long .” She didn’t want to point out that he probably had seen ghosts and didn’t realize it, mostly because she wasn’t sure if vampires did see ghosts. She had thought they did, but maybe that was just zombies. She never really kept track of stuff like that. “If they are bothering you though, just let me know and I’ll talk to them.” Well, more likely she’d ask Jonas to talk to them, she wasn’t good at talking with them. 

At the almost threat Lil raised her eyebrow slightly, but couldn’t help but break the expression quickly. “Don’t worry about it, Teach. I’m not in the business of exposing anyone and I wouldn’t start here. Promise.” After all, while she was perfectly happy talking about ghosts and the like to most people, she was pretty tight lipped on anything else. Simply, it wasn’t her intention to get anyone hurt, and ghosts were much different than any other type of supernatural.  “I appreciate you telling me. I also don’t mind if anyone around you is dealing with a possession or something if you give them my name.” 

Cassius breathed an inward sigh of relief as she shrugged off what he had just told her with ease. He wasn’t sure why he told her in the first place. Part of him was just hoping for a little excitement after spending nearly two centuries hiding and waiting for something bad to happen. Still, he was relieved that she took in stride. “Yeah, I’m starting to feel I’m reaching my limit with this place, still looking as young as I was ten years ago.” He admitted, scratching at the back of his neck. 

He thought to richard who was undoubtedly lurking somewhere nearby. “There’s undoubtedly more, you’re right.” He responded as he took in his surroundings, just on the off chance that the elder vampire was indeed lurking around nearby. “I’ve seen ghosts before, but you might be right about them respecting my space.” He had never come into contact with one around here, probably because they were all patiently waiting to move on, which he could respect. Cassius respected the dead just as they respected him, they lived in harmony here.

“If I ever run into a problem, you’ll be the first person I reach out to.” He promised her with a nod of his head and a soft smile. “As well as if anyone I know comes into contact with anything paranormal as well.” He touched a hand to his satchel. “I should probably get going.” Cassius spoke, not wanting to be out in the open in the cemetery for too long, lest someone find him that he didn’t want to find him. Ever since Sofie had been attacked in the cemetery, he’d been on edge. “I’ll see you around, I’m sure. After all, I do live in a cemetery.” He chuckled before turning around to go on his way into the night. It was nice to meet more people that knew and accepted supernatural and had a quirk of their own. After spending so much time in the dark away from everyone else, it was nice to know that the community of supernatural wasn’t as small as he thought.

[crimeronan]

I’m new here and seeing a lot of your princess Luz AU, but idk what it’s about really or what’s going on. Is there a master post somewhere?

oh hi!!

i don't have a tumblr master post but i do have an ao3 series, four complete fics so far (56k words total). i'm talking about that universe. keep in mind that the fics are horror-based and much more serious than a lot of the shitposts here.

but this is a good time to put all the important bits of AU canon in one place! so consider this a quick exposition masterpost.

the premise:

luz wandered into the isles when she was four or five years old. she was subsequently caught and taken to belos, who decided to raise her as his heir bc, yknow. god must have brought this human to him. eyeroll emoji

a variety of horrific events unfold, which eventually lead to luz killing belos & taking the throne herself when she's nearly 17. with the intention of eventually dismantling the empire. all of this is pretty awful and traumatic for her, it's.... not a fun time. i CAN write a summary of the horrors if you want but it would have to be a whole separate post

other characters' roles:

hunter - hunter has the biggest role storywise besides luz and belos themselves. he's the captain of luz's guard and has been tasked with protecting her by belos. his relationship with belos is dark in ways that luz does not know about for a long time; he's intensely neurotic about keeping her from knowing anything. also he and luz are like Holy Shit codependent and it is Messyyy.

amity - amity is the youngest member of the emperor's coven and being mentored by lilith with the expectation that eventually she'll lead the coven herself. she and hunter have an intense, vicious, and occasionally violent rivalry (based in various jealousy issues & them both being neurotic). amity is very afraid of catching luz's attention bc of the power imbalance between them. but she also knows that luz killed belos.

lilith - largely unchanged from early canon lilith. she's the head of the emperor's -- now empress's -- coven, and intends to ask luz for help with healing eda's curse.

raine - raine is luz's music teacher, the head of the bard coven, and a secret rebel. they care Very Very Very Much about luz. after trespassing in her mind (fic #4 on ao3), they have a much better understanding of why luz has become so much more closed-off and cold and anxious. they've taken on a kind of protective parental role for luz that parallels eda's in canon.

darius - darius is also his secret rebel self, canon backstory intact. he has however gotten along with hunter for much longer in this AU than in the canon, for reasons such as: hunter is less focused on being a cop, hunter so transparently cares about luz that it's hard Not to care about him, n hunter is A Mess. so darius is constantly worried for hunter's wellbeing. similarly he's mentoring amity as a fuck-you to alador, he's pretty much the only adult she trusts besides lilith.

other characters - there are other characters that have yet to show up in any of the ao3 fics. willow as terra snapdragon's apprentice; gus as a wild witch who's still managed to make adrian hate him; vee having escaped to the human world and quickly blown her cover by turning into a toddler-aged luz; camila, after meeting vee and finding out the truth, trying to get to the isles to find the daughter who vanished well over a decade ago. these are all concepts that deserve their own stories, i just haven't written 'em yet.

[sergeantsporks]

Writing Request: The culture shock that the witches are going through by being in the human realm. Particularly dealing with the fact that the Boiling Isles being free of homophobia and transphobia while the human realm isn't like that. Maybe Luz trying to figure out the best way to explain that horrible aspect of the human realm to her friends so that they stay careful. Or she started by explaining the bi flag in the house that Camila got to support her when she came out before going to the demon realm.

Combo attack. @bee-bee-loves-things, one of them is yours :D

Warning beforehand about. The most mildest of suggestiveness. I probably don't even actually need a warning. Anyway.

Luz paced back and forth across the room. “Guys, I need to come out to my mom in the coolest, most creative, and rad way possible. Any ideas?”

Amity raised a hand. “What’s ‘coming out’?”

“Coming out of what?” Gus asked, “Your skin? Oh my titan, are you molting?”

“Do humans molt?” Willow asked him. He shrugged.

“No! Come out! As in, tell her I’m bi?”

Hunter raised a hand.

“Yes! Hunter! Idea?”

“What’s ‘bi’? Is… are you sick or something? Are you dying? Is that why you haven’t told her yet? You should tell your family if there’s something wrong, she can help you!”

Amity grabbed her girlfriend’s face in her hands. “You don’t feel feverish. Is it interna bleeding? Are your organs bursting?! Ohhhhh I KNEW catching the common mold might have been really bad for humans!”

“No, no, I’m okay, Amity. I’m not sick. Hunter, bi is short for bisexual.”

“Which is…?”

“You know,” Gus interrupted, “she can reproduce in two different ways!” He squinted at Luz. “What’s the second way?”

“No. Gus, just… no. Bisexual. I’m attracted to multiple genders? You know, like some people are attracted to guys, and other people are attracted to girls, and then I’m attracted to both.”

There was a collective “ohhhhhhh” from her friends.

Right. Sure. Probably the boiling isles had different words or something. “Sooooo… any ideas for the most spectacular coming out of all time?”

Amity clasped her hands together, pressing her index fingers to lips. “Riiiiiiight, there’s that. So, that’s like… telling your mom that we’re dating?”

Luz gave her a thumbs up. Finally, some progress. “Yeah, that’s part of it! But also just letting her know that I like both in general.”

“…Why? I mean, why’s it such a big deal? We’re dating. We tell her we’re dating, right? Why’s it matter if you’re… bi-sechs-ual?”

Luz hissed in. Thing had been so much more relaxed in the demon realm, she’d forgotten until now that it wasn’t always so simple. “Welllllllllll… it’s… not a huge deal in the demon realm, but here, in the human realm… people can get really weird about you liking the same gender as yourself. Or about you expressing your gender in different ways.”

“What?!” Gus yelped, “Why?!”

“Lots of reasons. Religion. It’s how they were raised. Someone in power told them to. I don’t know how it all started, but… that’s how things are here. So telling people who you are, who you like, it can… well, it can be dangerous. A lot of people have to hide who they are from the people around him. And ‘coming out,’ or telling people about it, can kind of be a big deal!”

Luz shrugged. “My mom’s not one of those people who would be weird about it, at least I don’t think so, but… this is really important to me, and I want to do something amazing about it so that my mom will know just how much it means to me.”

“I can help with some illusions!” Gus suggested, “What’s some stuff about being bisexual? I can make them appear!”

Luz opened her computer. “I’ve got a couple of pictures of Amity and I on my phone. I could do a little presentation. Then Gus’ illusions… maybe I could get her an ally pin? But what if she doesn’t want to wear it?”

“Let’s just stick with the presentation and the illusions for now,” Amity suggested, “Afterwards, maybe the pin?”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay.” Luz pulled up a picture of a pink, purple, and blue flag. “Okay, Gus, listen super close, here’s what I think we should do…”

Xxx

“Luz?”

Luz twisted her new bi pin around on her hat with a small smile. “Hm?”

Hunter tapped his index fingers together. “Do you think… you could explain it again?”

“Explain what?”

“Being bi.”

Luz blinked. Weird request. Maybe it was different, but it was hardly the strangest thing she’d ever had to explain. Had she been unclear about something earlier? Maybe she’d been too vague? “Uhhhh okay, so, I’m attracted to more than one gender, right? Guys, gals, nonbinary pals—”

“Right, right, what does that mean?”

“What?”

“Being attracted to someone? Like, literally? You’re being pulled towards them?”

“Oh.” Luz hummed. “In a way, I guess? But not literally. More emotionally.”

“So… like how people were drawn towards Belos?”

Luz’s spine straightened. “No! Well, maybe, I don’t know what went on in anyone’s heads, but no, not like that, it’s… mmmm… okay, well, it’s like… you like them. Like a LOT. And you want to spend a lot of time with them, and be near them all the time.”

Hunter frowned. “So, more like how I want to hang out with you and Gus?”

“Uhhh I doubt it.” Luz let out a short hiss. “Wow. Okay. You know what, romantic attraction is weird to explain, let’s do something easier. Hunter, do you, uhhhhhh… do you know how babies get made? Not, like, however grimwalkers get made, the normalish way?”

He flushed bright red. “Of course I do. I’ve taken anatomy lessons.”

“Okay, well… attraction is… wanting to do that with someone.”

Hunter frowned. “Attraction is… wanting a baby with someone? That’s… weird.”

“No? I mean, yes, but you don’t have to… actually have a baby.”

“Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy would you do that if you didn’t want to make a kid? What would be the point?”

Luz’s cheeks burned, and she yanked her beanie down over her face. “Uuuuuuughhhhhh forget I said anything. Just… mmmmmmmmmm… yeah, forget it.”

“Wait—no—Luz—sorry, I’m sorry, I just…” Hunter took a deep breath. “I don’t think I understand it? And… I’m just… I don’t know if it’s just one of those things that I never got exposed to in the coven, like having friends, or if it’s… you said it yourself, grimwalkers don’t get made the same way, so maybe… maybe that’s why?” Hunter tugged her hat up, looking her in the eye. “Basically, is this something I’m going to figure out eventually? Or is it something I’ll have to pretend I feel so that they don’t realize I’m a grimwalker?”

Luz perked up. “Oh! Well, actually, good news on that, I don’t think it’s a grimwalker thing. Hang on.” She grabbed her computer, typing “asexual” into the search engine and clicking on the wiki. She handed the computer to Hunter. “Here.”

Hunter scanned the page, his eyes widening. He looked at the page, then back at Luz. “You want to make babies with Amity all the time? And that’s normal?!”

Luz choked, coughing and flushing red. She dropped down into her desk chair, burying her head in her arms. “Not all the time,” she whispered hoarsely.

“Does Amity know that? Have you told her?”

Luz clutched at her beanie, thumping her head against the desk. “Hunter! You can’t ask people that! Quit talking about me, talk about you. Obviously you don’t want to…”

“Nope. Not even a little. Gross, Luz.”

“It is not,” she protested.

“Very gross.”

“Hunter, that’s how 99% of people are!”

“99% of people are very gross,” Hunter insisted.

“Okay, okay. Whatever.” Luz spun around in her chair. “You want to make a powerpoint?”

“What? No, I don’t think it matters that much.” Hunter pointed at the computer screen. “I like this. I’m keeping the word. You know, technically, grimwalkers do reproduce asexually! So I’m asexual in all respects, yeah?”

Luz burst out laughing, gasping for air. “Yeah,” she wheezed, “Guess so.”

Hunter marched down to the basement with the computer, and Luz followed. Hunter plunked the computer down on an old card table and cleared his throat. Willow and Gus looked up from the earth book on plants they were looking at, and Hunter pointed at the computer screen.

“This is me,” he announced, “It is a totally normal thing for humans—and presumably witches as well—to be. There are no strange or hidden reasons for me to be this way.”

He beamed and gave Luz a thumbs-up over Willow and Gus’ heads as they examined the computer screen. Luz put her face in her hands.

Very smooth, Hunter. Not suspicious at all.

“Aw, cool!” Willow cheered, “Hey, maybe we could get you a pin like Luz’s! But with this flag instead!”

Gus drew a circle, and an illusion pin appeared on Hunter’s shirt. “It suits you.”

Hunter pulled his shirt out, going cross-eyed as he looked at the illusion. “You think so?”

“Yeah,” Willow agreed, “That looks good!”

“Yeah,” Hunter said softly, smiling at the fake pin, “Yeah, I like it.” He looked back up at Luz, a big grin splitting his face. “I like it a lot.”