#like after belos dove in it looked like hunter took a deep breath of water

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

Yes yes fire imagery with belos but american witch trials never burned witches at the stake. European trials did that. American witch trials hanged them. (Except for a few fringe cases lmao i think a dude was pressed to death with stones)

Drowning was used as evidence to prove someone was a witch. People would tie you to a chair weighed down with rocks and if you drowned then you were innocent, but if you survived you would be deemed a witch and probably executed. It was a situation where youd die either way and that was kind of the point because a lot of these accusations really were just people trying to get rid of social outcasts.

Hunter almost definitely didnt know any of this but the scene where he tries to drown himself was. So thematically appropriate. Identity crisis aside, he was a witch in everything but biology. And by now he is even a wild witch, the exact kind that phillip despised the most. But phillip is no longer human. No longer a good puritan man, even if he still believes he is.

So a wild witch tries to drown himself to bring down a not-human. Both of them, in belos's eyes, an abomination of god and the natural order. hunter didnt know but given how easily belos left his body later belos could have avoided drowning at any time. But he keeps possessing hunter to hold him underwater and kill his brother (who had fallen in with the witches and was now no better than one himself) once and for all.

But hunter doesnt drown. Not because he has witch powers to save him but because camilla, his new mother figure, dives in to save him. Because unlike the "witches" of phillips time, hunter is no longer a social outcast. He has a family now. He is loved. Something that belos no longer has

[stuckonmain]

Knee Pain (Pt.17)

TOH Hunter/Golden Guard x reader

 Masks and Bets part seventeen.

The links to the other parts are now at the bottom of the page.

*******

  “(Y/N)! Wake up!” Yelled a voice that was very close to my face.

  “Huh?” I groaned, sitting up, only to smack straight into Hunter’s forehead. “Ow!”

  “Ow...” He groaned, rubbing his head. “Sorry.” 

  “What was that about?” I said, rubbing my eyes as they adjusted to not being asleep.

  “We’ve gotta get going to the knee, remember?” He said, pulling me out of bed.

  “Uhh…oh. OH. Oh right.” I mumbled, stretching as I threw on my cloak. (I had apparently fallen asleep in my outfit from yesterday, but hey, it looked okay. I could work with it.)

  “Your hair’s standing up.” He informed me as he looked over my shoulder into the mirror.

  “I just woke up.” I scowled.

   “No, no, it looks nice. I just don’t see your hair messy that often is all. It looks cool.” He said, and the matter-of-fact tone in his voice made me believe it.

  “Thanks.” I smiled, and Thursday landed on my shoulder.

  Ready to get going? She crowed.

  “Yup.” I smiled as Flapjack landed on my other shoulder.

  “Hi Flap, hi Thursday.” Hunter grinned, patting the birds on the heads. “You guys ready for a long flight?”

*******

  My cloak billowed behind me as the wind grew, and a chill raced through my bones.

  “It’s getting cold…” Hunter yelled over the wind, “I think we’re almost there!”

  “I certainly hope so!” I yelled back. We’d been flying for literal hours, and we were both tired and cold. “Hey…” I squinted, looking at a few dark spots in the snow. “Is that…Luz?”

  Hunter’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah…Yeah! Look, it’s the owl tube, he went with her!”   “And King!” I grinned, and dove towards them. “Luz, LUZ!” I yelled, beaming.

  She looked up for a split second before I crashed into her. 

  “Luz!” Yelled King, tugging me off. 

  “Thorns…” I groaned, pulling myself up. “Sorry about that.” I sighed, holding out a hand to help her up. She took it, smiling, although her eyes just looked tired.

  “Hi (Y/N).”

  “Hi Luz, hey King.” I smiled. 

  “(Y/N)!” Yelled a familiar voice.

  “Hooty!” I grinned, giving the house demon a hug.

  “Oh my titan are you okay?!” Hunter said, practically yelling as he grabbed my open hand. “ You must’ve fallen pretty hard…do you need ice? Wait no, we’re on the knee…do you need heat? Water? Bandages?!”

  “We’re okay.” I assured him, squeezing his hand lightly.

  “Hunter?!” Luz gasped, staring wide eyed. “Oh my god, are you okay?!”

  He shrugged. “I mean…I landed pretty normally-”

  “No, like after…you know…” She said softly. 

  “Belos’s mind?” He murmured, looking over to me. I squeezed his hand reassuringly, and he took a deep breath. “I wasn’t. And I probably need some more help and…probably therapy in the future. But hey…I’m here now. And I’ve got Flapjack, Willow, Gus, (Y/N), Thursday, and a whole bunch of others by my side. I’m gonna be okay.” He smiled, shrugging. “You know- if we can stop the Day of Unity, of course.”

  Luz smiled, taking his other hand. “Can…can I be on that list?”

  He smiled back, tone suddenly teasing. “Of course you’re on the list, Luz. Who else would be the annoying little sibling?”

  She laughed, grinning. “I’m gonna take that as a compliment.”

  King tugged on her jacket. “Hey, sorry to interrupt, but do you hear….talking?”

  I frowned, tilting my ears towards the sound. “Uh…maybe?

  Luz raised an eyebrow. “Yeah…yeah. I think so- up the hill a bit!”

  “Cool.” Hunter nodded, summoning his staff. Luz climbed on after him, and I let King sit in front of me on my staff. 

  “Let’s go.” I said, following the voices. 

  We landed outside a cavern in the snow, and Luz and Hooty led the way in…Only to prompt get stuck in a net.

  Hunter facepalmed. “Oh great, a trap.” He said dryly.

  “What in the Titan…” Said a familiar voice as it emerged from the shadows…

  “Hey, Lulu!” Said Hooty.

  “Mum!” I grinned, rushing forwards to give her a hug.

  “(Y/N)! You found my clue!” She laughed, squeezing me tightly. “You’re so clever!”

  “I know!” I laughed.

*******

  “It took awhile to figure out which town you're in from your map. I had to keep off the streets with all those wanted posters, but that's when we saw your Hex Mix trail and well, you know the rest!” Luz grinned, recounting her story. Our little ragtag group had gathered around the fire, wrapped in blankets. 

  Hunter sat next to me, staring at his hands and fidgeting nervously. He had kept his hood up and face down so far, and Eda was yet to recognize him.

  Aunt Edalyn scowled. “What map are you talking about?”

  “The one you left us?” I smiled.

  “Oh!” Said Eda loudly, glaring at Lilith. “The one we left them!”

  Lilith scowled back. “Well someone had to bury our bones!

  Hooty grinned, interrupting. “Lulu! I got you a shirt!” He threw up an orange t-shirt onto her lap.

  Lilith frowned, holding it up to read the text on the shirt. “I was sacrificed to the Grand Huntsman?”

  Eda raised her eyebrow. “What the-?”

  Luz smiled weakly, obviously unhappy about having to explain the prior events. “So... turns out King's letter was sent by a bunch of Titan Trappers. And they may have tried to sacrifice King to the Collector, who they worship.”

  Eda grinned sarcastically. “Oh, so you found a commune of  bloodthirsty fanatics in a place that was supposed to be empty!” She said, glaring harder at Lilith.

  Lilith rolled her eyes. “Well, they couldn't have been that scary without any Titans to trap!”

  Luz winced. “Actually…” She looked over to King, and he seemed to nod at whatever her request was.

  “King... is a Titan.” Luz sighed.

  King shrugged nervously. “Looks like I'm... due for a growth spurt soon... heh, heh.”

  Hunter’s jaw dropped, and I felt my eyes widen.

  No way. 

*******

  I sat outside, trying to get enough service on my scroll to message Darius on his plans for the Day of Unity.

  “So here Hunter, you just grab the snow and shape it a bit…” I overheard Luz saying, and I smiled softly at the two of them getting along-

  “Hey (Y/N)!” Yelled Hunter, and he chucked the snowball at me.

  I gasped as the ice slipped down my face, and shoved my scroll into my pocket. “Oh it is on, Goldie!” I yelled, grabbing a fistful of snow and throwing it at him as hard as I could.

  It splattered against his chest, and he grinned evilly. “Oh it’s on, (L/N).”

  “Heck yeah, uh…fuck.” I frowned, raking my mind…”I…you don’t have a last name, do you.”

  He took my distraction as an opportunity to throw another snowball.

  “Oof- Well I would have offered you Luz’s last name, but now I kinda don’t want to!” I laughed, hitting him in the arm with my snowball.

  “Can you even do that?” Hunter laughed, raising an eyebrow.

  “Only if you’re not the fucking name police!” I grinned, finally managing to nail him in the face with the snow. “Whoo! I’m on fire today!” I added, high-fiving myself.

  “(Y/N), your ego is showing.” Hunter said boredly, pretending not to care, but his eyes were smiling.

  “Heck yeah it is! ‘Cause I’m the best at snowball fights-hey!” I froze as the ice hit my back, eyes widening as I saw the culprit. “Luz, how could you?” I gasped.

  “You ready to challenge the master?” She grinned.

  “No, not at all, you have glyphs at your disposal!” I screeched dramatically.

  Hunter snorted. “(Y/N), you have a bilesac.”

  “Ooh right. I’m a witch. Noted.” I grinned, raising my hands. “You’re on, Noceda.”

  Luz smirked, tossing a snowball towards me.

  I smirked back, portalling it behind her.

  “Oof!” She squeaked, and threw another one before diving behind a bush.

  Hunter grinned and threw one at the bush, high-fiving me.

  “Two against one? Not fair, guys.” Luz whined, and Hunter shrugged. 

  “I know where my loyalties lie, human.”   “Awwww…” I squealed. “That’s adorable!”

  “Nuh-uh, I’m not done.” He said, throwing a snowball at me and sticking out his tongue. “My loyalties lie with me! Bwahahaha!”

  “So cruel…I taught him well.” I sighed, wiping a fake tear. “They grow up so fast!”

  “Hey, where’d Luz go?” Hunter frowned, looking behind the bush.

  “Behind ya, suckers!” She yelled. Sweating dripping down my neck, I slowly turned around…

  “Oh good titan…” I said weakly as she slammed her giant snowball onto me and Hunter.

*******

  “Oh, hey, my scroll finally got service.” I said happily as we warmed up in the cave. Luz and Eda had left to retrieve a few of their lost items, and Lilith was off doting over her ‘shiny new titan nephew’. (Scoff.)

  “Huh?” Hunter frowned. “How the heck did you manage that?”

  “Powered it with a spell.” I said simply. “A complex spell that has saved my butt a few times…actually it’s more like science than magic, but well…y’know. Segue! Darius’s messages are finally showing up, and…” I quickly read over the texts, half aware of Hunter reading over my shoulder.

Darius: Hello Hotshot, I would like to inform you of the cat club location.

Darius: Meet me at 4:00 by the library in Bonesborough

You: Cool cool!

  “What am I…looking at?” Hunter frowned.

  I grinned manically. “It’s an acronym.”

  “For…what.”

  “Covens Against the Throne. Darius’s rebel group.”

Hunter’s eyes widened. “(Y/N), do you know what this means?!”

  I grinned, fully aware. “It means we’re gonna stop the Day of Unity.”

*******

Links:

Act One:

Masks and Bets (Part 1)

Masks and Beasts (Part 2)

Masked and Beat (Part 3)

Masked (and Unmasked) On the Seas (Part 4)

Cracks in a Mask (Part 5)

Revelations (Part 6)

Bad Moon Rising (Part 7)

Act Two:

Hey Lilith (Part 8)

Way Home (Part 9)

Back to the Future (Part 10)

Lost Threads (Part 11)

Teatime (Part 12)

A Slightly Distorted Lens (Part 13)

Mindscapers (Part 14)

Act Three:

Eye of the Hurricane (Part 15)

A Team (Sort of) Reunited (Part 16)

Taglist:

@vievi

@generousdoodleforillustration

@harlanfalcon

@ronipiamka

@draarnaak

@cloud-9ine

@jinxed-jk

@not-nubno

@hunter-therapy

@scaredy-cat-anne

@bleh-stupid

@luleck