#maybe THIS will be the thing that makes Darius's existence make sense

[bluberimufim]

My brain keeps telling me to rewrite "Black and White" as one of those novels that are more like a collection of documents (whatever tf it's called) and I'm like!! Bestie, writing a novel as a series of documents is exactly what made me write the second draft as third person in the first place!!!!

(ok technically it was just Darius's normal POV + Diedrich's diary for some reason, but still!!)

[kitabearuwu]

Hi Kita!

I love Benmina, and I was tempted to ask for a romantic drawing, but a lot of people hate the fanon idea of them together, so I’ll ask for something more friendly, that way everyone will be able to reblog. Here’s the prompt: Ben and Yaz rocking in the van, air guitaring and air drumming.

Bonus track: also, maybe another drawing with Ben/Brooklynn striking a death metal pose? Pretty please?

Hi hi!!

Gotta be honest, I don’t care what the fandom likes or dislikes when it comes to ships. A lot of ship discourse either starts from homophobes hating the idea of gay people existing OR people who fetishize LGBT ships and refuse to ship anything that is considered “straight” (bi people in straight passing relationships exist but we as a society apparently cannot acknowledge that), and the thing with ship discourse is: it’s all fuckin stupid. It’s a load of baloney.

As long as you’re not shipping problematic stuff, who cares what you ship!! You could romantically pair any of the camp fam members up (except Kenji and Darius..brotha eugh) and I’d say “yup, makes sense!”

I love benmina too both platonically and romantically. Such fantastically written characters. They bounce off of each other super well!!

And for the Ben/Brooklynn one, I have to be so for real…

I don’t know anything about death metal culture 😭

So I drew them serving cunt and called it a day

[polyhexian]

Okay, this one is stupid and ridiculous, but it's been in my head, so bear with me.

So like. Darius always assumes Jasper must've been pregnant, because Jasper has unfortunate phrasing and Darius knows Jasper would've been powerful enough to hide it. But other people may not come to that conclusion, because when it comes to Hunter's two presumed biological parents, one of them is an intensely physically active soldier, and the other one wears big flowy robes that obscure his figure and tends to sit around on a throne all day.

So imagine instead of grabbing Hunter and running, Jasper gets Darius involved, and after explaining the situation they take a day or two to come up with a plan. Hunter gets picked, two men and a baby disappear into the night, and now they're out of the way for the crack I'm about to unleash on the castle.

SOMEONE (political intern Kikimora?) overheard a bit of Jasper's explanation to Darius. Not all of it, but enough to get the idea that Jasper and Belos have had a child together. Then Jasper suddenly disappears, and there's no sign of the child either. Our eavesdropper realizes this is VERY RELEVANT INFORMATION, and thus sells it to the higher-up of their choice, AND THUS THE CASTLE GOSSIP MILL BEGINS TO CHURN.

Belos is nursing a headache because he just lost TWO Grimwalkers, god, when Lilith bursts into the throne room like MY LORD! WHEN JASPER BETRAYED US YOU DIDN'T MENTION HE STOLE YOUR SON AS WELL! is it a secret I can keep a secret I can be your confidant I swear--

Belos is just like. I'm sorry, what? He's not computing that Hunter = Jasper's son or that Hunter could = his own son, he doesn't see the Grimwalkers as people so it just doesn't click in his brain. He has no idea what she's talking about.

Lilith is like WE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU WERE PREGNANT AND NOW WE'VE ALREADY LOST OUR PRINCE, THIS IS HORRIBLE, I didn't even know you were preparing an heir to the empire but it makes perfect sense, excellent idea sire.

Belos is just. What?

Meanwhile Hettie Cutburn is LIVID. The Emperor was PREGNANT?? And she DIDN'T KNOW?? The Emperor sometimes insisted on handling his own health affairs and she respected his privacy but THIS IS KIND OF A BIG DEAL. WHO was the healer who oversaw the Emperor's pregnancy and ARE THEY A POLITICAL RIVAL?? They're in her coven, aren't they? There's someone in her coven that the Emperor trusted more than her and when she FINDS that midwife she is going to DESTROY them. She's interrogating her coven officials left and right. Scalpels and accusations are flying. Someone points out maybe it was someone in the Emperor's Coven with healing abilities and Hettie starts thinking through the options and the other ways someone might manage a pregnancy, who else might have information, wait a second, pre-natal potions are very important, WAS IT YOU VITIMIR??

Vitimir is rightfully terrified and immediately throws Terra under the bus. HEY HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT HOW TERRA IS ALWAYS OFFERING THE EMPEROR VARIOUS TEAS?? MAYBE TERRA KNOWS SOMETHING PLEASE GET THAT SCALPEL AWAY FROM ME.

Terra and Hettie have a massive fight that ends with the entire healing wing covered in vines. Mason is yelling about structural damage (and also wondering why no one asked him to design a royal nursery).

Belos's headache is getting worse. The entire castle now 1) Knows that Jasper is gone, 2) Knows that Hunter exists and is also gone, 3) Thinks that Belos and Jasper were a thing (what), 4) Thinks that Belos was pregnant (WHAT), and 5) Thinks that Hunter is actually important to the empire and must be recovered at any cost instead of being, y'know, a useless waste of resources that was harvested too early and needs to be disposed of.

And he can't really come clean about none of this being true or about Hunter being a Grimwalker or anything, that's not something he can admit to, and like, it'd take a massive PR campaign to get his government officials to change their minds about this narrative, AND THE PR DEPARTMENT IS ALREADY DRAFTING UP PROPAGANDA ABOUT WILD WITCHES STEALING THEIR BABY PRINCE.

Belos doesn't understand why this is his life now. He's a good person. He's doing the Lord's will. He doesn't deserve this nonsense.

And if he thinks well, at least he can order a concentrated campaign to capture his wayward Grimwalkers…no, it won't work. Because he's spent decades building up a government that purposefully rewards backstabbing. It is easier to advance in the empire by tripping your enemies than it is by actually doing good work yourself. In Runaway, the only person who knows the full story is Will, everyone else is working off of various levels of need-to-know info about catching Jasper and Hunter. In this universe, every government official is aware of the situation, and every single one of them want to get the glory of rescuing their kidnapped prince while foiling their political rivals in doing the same. False intel is spread, scouts are bribed to fumble missions, Coven Heads get into arguments about whose underlings have jurisdiction where. The entire government just becomes useless because everyone is trying to one-up and backstab everyone else.

The whole kidnapped prince thing gets out to the general public and Odalia Blight is OUTRAGED that there WASN'T AN IMPERIAL BABY SHOWER FOR HER TO BE INVITED TO. What is the POINT of having a BABY if you aren't going to have a big baby shower to wine and dine at?? Also now she has to hurry and catch up on the plotting she didn't know she was behind on, there is apparently a PRINCE out there somewhere, and sure he's missing right now but eventually he won't be and do you know what princes need? ARRANGED MARRIAGES. And she has two adorable little prospects right here! She needs to figure out how to pitch this to the Emperor.

Belos is wondering if there's any way to make an eclipse happen sooner so he can just kill everyone already. Caleb Wittebane's hallucination ghost won't stop laughing at him like OH MY GOD ASSHOLE YOU MADE THE MOST INEFFICIENT GOVERNMENT SYSTEM EVER AND IT'S BITING YOU IN THE ASS.

Meanwhile Jasper and Darius are like. Hiding out at the Owl House watching this play out while eating popcorn and changing diapers. Eda thinks this is incredible and is happy to shelter them in exchange for all this free entertainment.

Raising Hunter is kinda tricky since everyone is trying to "rescue" him but every time Lilith shows up like SISTER I'M HERE TO RESCUE MY PRINCE AND MAKE YOU JOIN A COVEN you can bet at least one other Coven Head will also show up to sabotage her and Darius just sighs and tells Hunter "Looks like we can't play outside today" while Jasper takes potshots with his staff like "WOULD YOU PEOPLE GET OFF OUR LAWN?"

Maybe they stay with Eda forever, maybe they move into a cave like in eventually, idk. Darius and Jasper probably have concealment stones for bounty hunting, and they forage for potions ingredients that Eda sells for them, and Hunter grows up well aware that if anyone ever tells them they're trying to rescue him he needs to scram immediately.

When Luz finally shows up, she ends up spending a solid day and a half believing that her MAGICAL DESTINY is to restore Hunter to the throne so he can overthrow his evil father and bring balance to the Boiling Isles or something.

Like she slams the door open holding a propaganda poster she found in town and yells "HUNTER I THINK YOU'RE THE LOST PRINCE OF THE BOILING ISLES!"

And Hunter is just reading on Eda's couch like "That's a load of bullshit, Luz."

"No, LOOK!" she says, shoving the poster into his face. "It looks just like YOU! Could this be part of your mysterious backstory?!"

"My backstory is not mysterious."

"But you haven't told me anything about it!"

"You haven't asked."

"Because you're just a normal nerdy teenager! EXCEPT IT TURNS OUT YOU'RE A PRINCE!"

"Luz the entire Lost Prince narrative is the result of a stupid misunderstanding, I wasn't meant to be an heir and if I ever do get dragged back to the castle Belos will probably poison me within a week."

"Of course! He couldn't raise you as a dutiful brainwashed son, so now you're a rival! Raised by the lover who betrayed him…"

"Oh my Titan no, they weren't lovers, my dad grew me in a planter box like a carrot."

"Hunter, we need to reclaim your throne from your evil father!"

"If you ever call Belos my father again I will punch you."

Luz goes to Hexside and she's like "Hunter why don't YOU go to magic school??" and Hunter just gestures out the window where Hooty is trying to eat Adrian Vernworth and a dozen scouts like "This is why I'm homeschooled."

At some point when the Hexsquad come over Hunter meets Amity and she eyes him for a minute before she's like "Y'know one of my siblings has a marriage contract with you" and Hunter is like "ugh" and Darius yells from the kitchen "HE BETROTHED MY SON TO A BLIGHT???" and Luz is like "huh which one?" and Amity's like "the name isn't official, Mom and the emperor decided they could just wait and see which twin Prince Hunter prefers" and Hunter is just like "DON'T CALL ME THAT."

…It is entirely possible that Darius still calls Hunter "little prince" and in this AU it actually is a term of endearment even tho Hunter and Jasper give him tired deathglares every time.

Jruejdjfj little prince as a teasing little term of endearment, like when my dad would call me monkey butt...

THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNYYYYYY OH MY GOOOODDDDD

Hunter just chilling with hooty and the owl lady and his cool dads. And then there's Belos who's have the funniest problem imaginable. And jasper DOES still think that even if Belos is a child murdering fuck he probably also IS doing it all for the greater good of keeping the Titan from dying. So like. He's not going to actively attempt to overthrow him if he doesn't have to. And Belos probably knows that fighting jasper is probably not worth it if he isn't going to cause problems. Like if jasper is keeping all his insane secrets and terrible power to himself then it probably just ISNT worth it to make a huge effort to stop it-- especially when he already knows at some point in the future the owl lady will have a niece who will go into the past and meet him. And maybe that niece is Lilith's but shit, maybe it's Jasper's...? What if he has another kid? So he's a little hesitant to pull the big trigger. so they're just in this... Extremely stupid fucking stalemate.

The poor fucking twins oh my GOD

[geode-crystal]

Random Headcanon Generator Tag Game!

Thanks again to @tildeathiwillwrite for the tag! I LOVE generators like these (my friends and I use the Incorrect Quote one for character study all the time lol) so was super excited for this one!

Rules: use this headcanon generator to make headcanons for your OCs! Then talk about how accurate they are.

Using, of course, my boys Darius and Mianu :D

Darius

Darius is not allowed to drink energy drinks.

lol I actually don't want to know WHAT would happen if he tried an energy drink. He would probably talk a LOT. No one would be able to make sense of him.

Darius cries while watching Disney movies.

It depends on the movie but yeah, absolutely. The Fox and the Hound gets him every time.

Darius knows FNAF lore.

I mean... maybe? He is the type to get way too into it once he discovers it's a Thing, but I doubt he would be into gaming enough to even know the game exists. Maybe Mianu told him about it lol.

Mianu

Mianu can't make the voices go away.

I love how this was the first one I got because it is absolutely accurate. My boy spent most of his life under a curse and now has a lot of shadow magic stuff going on. Voices are the least of his worries sometimes.

Mianu desperately needs a hug but doesn't know it and refuses to ask for one.

1000% accurate. See above lol.

Mianu likes board games, but no one else wants to play with them.

Oh he would absolutely love board games. Don't worry, Mianu, Darius will play with you! And probably a few of Darius' friends will, too! (headcanon generator why are you being so mean to him lol)

[welcometogrouchland]

based on your Raeda wedding post, I think King COULD OFFICIATE the wedding because of his status as a Titan but imagine if it's someone else like Principal Bump lol. But also, I think Darius and Lilith could VERY MUCH be the best witches, and then Luz and Amity and Willow could be the bridesmaids or the BI equivalent of it, and the ring bearer could DEFINITELY be Hunter or Gus too

BUMP WAS LITERALLY MY SECOND THOUGHT AFTER KING HSBSJDBFK. Does it make sense for their highschool principal to be officiating their wedding? No. Does it feel right though? Yes, absolutely. He'd be so tired but supportive. Finally. He can rest now

Amity, Luz and Willow are definitely in the bridal party for sure (though I wonder if marriage on the Boiling Isles would be as gendered as it is here? Since there was never an expectation for marriage to be between a man and a woman. Marriage traditions might look really different there!)

Although on the ring bearer thing- I can't find the source (90% it's the reddit ama Dana did BUT if anyone wants to correct me/link the source that'd be very appreciated) BUT APPARENTLY Dana said that the boiling isles doesn't have wedding rings? Hence why characters like the Parks or Gwen and Dell don't have them. Which- Tragically, imo- means no ring bearers at the raeda wedding😔😔😔

I'm sure Hunter and Gus would find other jobs instead- I wouldn't be surprised if Gus either ended up in the bridal party with the other girls or did some mc-ing similar to what he did at Grom. Maybe he does the whole "releasing doves at the wedding" thing but with illusions! But the doves have like. Three heads. Or he releases, like, bats. It'd be cute, he'd go so hard with it. Add a little pizazz!

Raine and Hunter friendship exists solely in my head BUT I think they'd be more than happy to have him as one of their groomsmen (I don't think they'd call themself the groom though. Tbh I'm not even sure on Eda calling herself the bride. I know ppl have passed around broom and bridegroom as a gender neutral alternative? Typing this out is making me realize how silly all these words are, including bride and groom). Darius would also insist on it if he was, in fact best witch

Anyway my only other raeda wedding thoughts are that the BATTs are in charge of music and act as the orchestra for part of the ceremony (that is their MENTOR and their MOM!!!) And when it comes time to pronounce Eda and Raine married, the officiant (either king or bump) says...

"~you may now kiss the bard~!"

[lex-n-weegie]

Okay so I just watched this Toh video about th meaning of character names in the show and it made me look up things for Laika. I didn't think I'd get anything that amazing but I actually got some good stuff and I wanna ramble about it(which is ofc under the cut)

So looking up Laika itself gave me the meaning "the barker," as Laika was the name of the first dog to ever orbited the Earth. On one hand it's silly, but on the other it makes sense. I haven't talked about it much I don't think, of Laika is half witch and half demon, and some demons definitely at the very least look animalistic sometimes, like Eberwolf. It ends up tying her to the other half of herself.

Looking up "Lai" got me the meaning "to rely on depend on," which is funny in an ironic way. When younger Laika actually was a leader, an art club leader to be exact, which fits that rely/depend on bit. The ironic part is that in adulthood she started to close herself off and even bail on others, ghosting them entirely, you can't exactly rely on someone who's never there. Lai can also mean "beauty" or "numerous", and while beauty can explain itself numerous is interesting. Laika uses both bard and illusion magic, but she's much more defensive than anything. They use their powers to confuse and disorient rather than to harm or hurt. "Numerous" can be a small nod to the fact he makes illusions of himself to both perform and to get out of things. Also their multiple magic talents but the next one really shows it.

"Ka" didn't give me much at first, but then I got something amazing out of it. It's part of an Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul or spirit, means "double" or "vital essence." Double fits perfectly with the fact he uses two different magic types consistently. "Vital essence" goes well with her personality too. They might constantly think they're nothing more than a burden, but they're blind to the fact that they actually bring joy and light to every place they're in. With Raine, they're a reason to keep going and change the world. With the other Visions & Variety members, she's the reason the two of them made up and became friends, the reason the group exists both years back and today. With Darius, well they're his love, it's a bit self explanatory. For some she's the vital essence of their lives, the reason they're doing some of the things they're doing.

Whispers actually has a few different meanings besides just the act of whispering, but something interesting is when looking up its origins shows that at one point, "to hiss" was a part of it at one point, once again relating to her half demon origins. Though two different noun definitions also fit, "a rumor" and "a faint trace or hint." The rumor goes with his wild witch life, trying to idly spread the word of wild magic actually being good. And the faint trace/hint goes with her illusion abilities and how she simply "disappears" when scouts pop up, but also how she tries to hide her true feelings and emotions so often with only small hints to how they feel.

In the video they combine the meanings together to make a neat message of their name, but I'm not too sure what Laika's would end up being. Maybe "Dependable Essence" or "Beautiful Essence", just taking from the first name. With the entire name, mayyybe "Hint of Essence" or "Numerous Rumors". I don't know haha

[noxianwilled]

19 . 37 . 12 . yeet

SHIPPING QUESTIONS

— @axewhirl

12. do you ship any rarepair?

what is a rarepair for kat? i'm not sure, i'm not very into the league fandom other than the rpc. does kat//lux count? bc i like it tbh. i like her and darius a lot, and other stuff that i shipped through rping in the past, like with sett and leona and samira. i think? that's it but honestly especially when it comes to rp i'm just open to anything that might seem interesting.

19. is there a ship you used to dislike, but now you like?

that happened in a different blog! there was a canon warcraft ship i wasn't a fan of involving a muse i wrote, and then came along someone writing the other half of the canon ship but with a take that made it make sense to me. for kat, though, none that i can think of.

37. how does your muse handle breakups?

terribly. i've talked about it before, but katarina isn't very open to love. her experiences with letting people get close almost universally ended up bad, and she tends to keep them at a distance, trying to do it even when she starts to get feels. she doesn't want to let herself be in love because she's so afraid she'll end up hurt, because people either betray her or leave.

so regardless of verse, breakups just sort of make that fear into a reality. she isn't the type to openly show she's heartbroken, though, and will do anything she can to hide and just not really deal with those feelings (she feels everything very deeply, imo, and heartbreak is no exception). so she's not the type to hide from the world and cry and mope and such. instead, she's more likely to keep herself busy in any way that'll distract her from her feelings, be it overworking or acting extra reckless bc hey it's better to be concerned about staying alive than her broken heart lmao and i think that applies regardless of verse. she'll be taking more upon herself in canon, she'll prefer the needless risk over the safer options. and in modern verse i feel that'd also apply, but on top of either working more or engaging in risky behavior, she'd likely go out a lot, hang out with friends a lot, and try to never be alone for long enough she has time to think about it.

of course that doesn't work literally all the time, but yeah she'd prefer to be out there doing things and living life instead of taking time for introspection. when she is alone, maybe she'll let herself be sad and cry about it

also 'friendly exes' doesn't exist in her vocabulary. like i said, she doesn't open up for serious things easily (she needs to have serious feelings for someone and know and trust them enough she'd give them a chance), so when she does she doesn't give up on her relationships easily, and if they fail and she ends up hurt and heartbroken, she doesn't wanna be friends with the other person. if she can't pretend they don't exist, she'll be extra mean - especially to them directly.

[alternatelydrawnmoriocs]

...man, i miss the boundlessly optimistic intern boy. which is funny because this implies that S had a positive influence on him, and that's... certainly a thing to say lol

and also like idk man, i'd really appreciate being able to just zone out on consciousness and shit just happen right about now. maybe then i'd be able to sleep. and like, i could start and essay and then konk out and oop it's done how sick-

im not saying you haven't been dealt a shit hand. i'm saying that you're being a real downer and tbh it could be worse-

like if you wanted to you could probably start a cult based on what you know and have like. a fuckton of power. idk just thoughts

also to be fair you immediately hopped onto the darius bandwagon, coulda tried doing some other shit first if you really wanted to

Technically speaking, in this timeline, he’s been in the background for a longer time. It helped when people got to him sooner.

“I- You told me I should-

How would I start a cult if no one registers that I exist-”

He holds his head in his hands.

“I’m scared, alright?! I don’t know what’s going to happen with me from now on, or if what’s about to happen is even going to help, it’s the only real option I’ve been given until now! And… And…

My head’s been getting clearer since Darius showed up, okay? Maybe it doesn’t make any sense to let this happen, but this is all I have right now, and I’m scared to go back.”

[baggedthumper]

Snippet from my book because I'm never gonna finish it

Chapter Nine, Darius. THE NAMES PLURAL OF THIS ONE SPECIFIC GOD I THINK IS KIND OF COOL.

In my father’s treasury, I recall once seeing a very ancient yet very powerful Artefact. It was labelled “The Arius Eon Fouls”. When I was eleven, I burst into my sister’s room and begged her to tell me everything she knew about it. She did, and gleefully at that.

The Arius is a large grimoire type book. In its pages it holds the story of every person who has ever lived in the history of the realms. Its golden ink, allegedly made of Lord Destiny’s ichor, its pages of his skin and its binding of his hair. It is said that if The Arius allows you, you can rewrite the story of whoever you wish in it. Given you can find the correct offerings - an ichor filled quill, I’ve heard.

My mother says that one day, Lady Alice will return. When she does, we must return to her The Arius with our eyes closed, and our hands clean. This is because The Arius isn’t supposed to exist yet. Lord Destiny, a demigod reincarnated divine, is not supposed to have been conceptualised yet. The only reason we know of him is because The Arius tells his own story first.

My heart swings back and forth between my loyalty to my fate and the call of my destiny. What is the difference between fate and destiny? Are they not exactly the same? Two words for the same horrid concept? I agonised myself with these questions for years, and only now do answers greet me.

To put it as simply as I can manage: fate is set in stone, destiny is written by its holder.

If that doesn’t make sense, Lady Alice is the goddess of fate because she creates it. People exist because she weaves them into existence. Our souls are represented to her by glowing blue strings that she herself creates. In Lady Alice’s very own section of the god realm, fate is created when Alice crosses two strings over one another (soulmates) or when she says a word whilst holding a string. Say she were to mumble “adventure” when only touching a person’s soul strand. That single word would then create the path of that soul’s entire life. Whether that means they become an adventurer, write novels about adventure, or simply love it on a whole different level.

That is fate. You can not outrun it, your path is set in stone.

Destiny is different, but I don’t understand it enough to describe it well. The idea of going against one’s fate is punishable by exile in The Temple. That is more than enough to deter me. However, The Arius is a perfect example, and that isn’t shunned by The Temple, so maybe Destiny is okay to discuss. Just not to the town. Just not to the public. Maybe.

Hallowed Goddess, know that I bathe in your sins and in your virtues. Remember that you are my eyes, skin and bones. Grand goddess, you are the one truth, the all and nothing, the eternity and oblivion. Sweet and holy thing, I tell you that I accept whatever punishment you give me for speaking out of turn.

The Arius, if honoured in the correct manner, grants his subjects the ability to create Destiny. He himself is The Lord of Destiny, he can bend fate to his will, but now he is in a form where he cannot do so without a holder. Dulcie said that in his correct time, he does have a holder. His sister. She doesn’t have a name

Destiny is going against fate. It is completely tearing oneself away from Alice and rewriting the path of your life.

[rahbid]

@toonsupe​   ...    what is the relationship between Jezebel and Barnabas like? is it strange to her to know someone created from her own DNA? does Barnabas carry any traits she does, and does she notice this?

        project barnabas was initially uncovered and acquired during the mission wherein jezebel and unit 002 went in to disband and liberate the convent. he was found to be a clone comprised of the DNA of jezebel klayton and darius cromwell, also known as silver owl, a globally renowned hero and martial artist, so chosen due to claudia young’s fascination with him. we aren’t talking about claudia today, but we will at some point. upon his adoption, barnabas chose to change his name and asked that darius choose his new one, resulting in joseph cromwell. he now acts as the dove.

        on the surface, jezebel and joey have a very sibling-like relationship. he does not live with her, but they hang out often and he will typically spend a few days out of the week with her at her apartment. let’s be clear - she loves joey. if anyone could ever even remotely compare to the love she had for artemiy, it is joey. when she was on her insane revenge quest, it was being reminded that joey needed her the way she needed artemiy that brought her home. out of all the guilt she feels for what she’d done during that time, the thing that makes her feel the worst is that she ever left him. her love for him is real and runs very deep.

        however, it does make her sick how he was created. it isn’t something she puts past the convent, claudia, even birke at all. it doesn’t shock her that they did it. it shocks her how it made her feel. the sickness in the pit of her stomach. it felt truly violating to experience this revelation. yes, this aspect disgusts her, but even in her deepest subconscious the blame has never been joey’s. in fact, sometimes it’s hard for her to remember she’s not his mother and after the initial shock and disgust, that’s the feeling that’s most difficult to grapple with. that this isn’t her son. jezebel was absolutely not ready to be a mother nor did she even think herself capable of being a mother at the time she met joey, but it still feels incredibly strange to not be his mom. 

        in a weird twisted way, she sort of subconsciously compares herself to the saint mary. a mother in some sort of metaphorical sense - meant to bring something great into the world only to lose it. it’s hard to put in words exactly how this thought process goes/sounds to her. she was young, confused, overwhelmed. all she knows is she loves joey and maybe in another time, things would’ve been different. but they aren’t and she is just going to love and care for him however she can. it’s not even necessarily a desire to be a mom to him - just the feeling of she should have been, which is really another side effect of the way he was created and referred to in his files.

       and yes, god, he does. he got her eyes, the same beauty mark under the eye. he makes a lot of the same facial expressions. his journey is similar. his time at the convent was more controlled, he didn’t do much field work because a lot of effort was going into perfecting him. he was meant to be jezebel’s replacement, after all, and they were working with genetic manipulation as opposed to augmenting an existing child. despite not seeing the same live combat and real mission she did, he had much of the same responses when coming into this new world and experiences - something she put personal effort into helping guide him through.

[drabbles-of-writing]

The Lone Mourner: Epitaph

AO3

Eulogy

Summary: Maybe Hunter wouldn’t have liked any of them. Maybe none of them would’ve liked him. Maybe it was a good thing they never met in person, because he knows all too well how disappointingly horrific family can be. Maybe all of these things were true, or maybe they weren't. They still deserved better than this. They deserved to be remembered, in some sense of the word. And if the last person who'd know they existed was a kid who had no right to be living in their place, then so be it. This was the least he could do. It was the only thing he could do.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The day the Emperor died, Hunter fell to his knees and sobbed.

He thinks everyone believed it was for the uncle he’d lost, the love he thought he had. And it was kind of that. But it was also plain old hysterics.

What are you even supposed to feel, when the only family you had, who was the entire reason for your existence, who gave you your whole purpose, who had killed everyone before you, and would have killed you, too, was dead? Relief? Sorrow? Do you mourn what you once thought he was, or do you mourn the present? Can you mourn that?

He’s still not sure what he was supposed to feel. If he’d ever know. All he knew was that he wasn’t going to die, at least not to Belos, and that was worth crying for in its own right. He knew he was going to live. And if all these people who cared about him (for reasons he’d probably never understand) had any say in that, then he’d continue to live for decades more.

He never thought he’d make it to his mid-twenties. He’s not sure why he thought that. When in the Coven, he had no reason to think he didn’t have a great future ahead of him. Maybe it was knowing how close the Day of Unity was, and some part of him thinking that once the Day came, that’d be it. Maybe he didn’t dare hope for such a possibility. Maybe it was some remembrance of dozens of others before him who never got to live as long as him.

He doesn’t remember much of the day after that. When the Emperor was dead, and word spread around, Hunter was in too much of an adrenaline rush, and shock, to process anything other than he was alive, and Belos wasn’t going to kill him or anyone else he cared about.

After he fell, it was a bit of a blur. He knows Gus was there, and he knows he could barely see anything through his tears as Gus hugged him, saying words he would never remember but knew meant so much in the moment. He knows Willow was there, at his other side and reassuring him and promising she’d repeat her words over and over until he stopped gasping for breath like a dying man. He wasn’t dying. He was going to live.

He knows Luz found them. He knows she tried to help him to his feet and they buckled underneath him. He knew her own knees were weak, so she just laughed, wet and delirious and mad as she collapsed next to them. And he knows she was crying, too.

He knew there were other people with them. He thinks it was Eda. Maybe it was Raine. Maybe it was Lilith. Maybe it was a wide assortment of people who weren’t going to hurt him or let anyone else hurt him again. But he knows there were other people around him when Darius arrived.

He knew that Darius almost died. Knew that practically everyone almost died, multiple times, but that was the first thought that hit him when Darius crouched before him, reaching out with hesitant hands.

He knows that Darius cared about him. Knows that he’d first found him at Hexside, scared, and he remembers it well because Darius had never been scared. He remembered it because Darius nearly got his head knocked in by a horde of students until Hunter showed up, and he looked so relieved he almost cried.

He was crying, now. And Hunter was the one who snagged his arms and pulled himself close and buried his face in his chest and trembled. And Darius was the one to wrap his arms around him and say more words he wouldn't recall, but would know they caused him to break into full-body sobs all over again.

He knows that he was carried out of the ruins. He’s pretty sure it was Darius, he doesn’t think he could’ve let him go if he tried. He remembers a hand in his hair, another on his shoulder, another squeezing his arms. He remembered feeling a bit embarrassed by all the comforts, but when he saw faces streaked with tears, blood and mud, eyes foggy and trying to accept the fact that they won, he realized they were doing it for themselves, too.

He understood it. It was easier to focus on other people than it was yourself. He knows that they were just as worried for everyone else. And that when they were finally on their own, they’d cry for themselves, too.

He knows he was carried somewhere safe, though he wouldn’t know exactly where. But he knew, without a doubt, for the first time in his life, that he was safe. That they could take him anywhere in the world, and he’d be safe. So he didn’t care, and he let his eyes close.

The day the Emperor died, Hunter finally started to live.

,

 A few days later, funerals were held.

Hunter didn’t go to most of them. Couldn’t, because he was still breaking down at random intervals at just about everything, and most everyone was too worried to let him outside. Wouldn’t, because nobody in all the Isles would want the former Golden Guard at their loved ones funeral. 

Even if he was deceived by Belos, even if he was just a kid, even if he held regret and guilt over every soul lost, even if he apologized over and over again, there would be people who wouldn’t want him there. Raine told him no self-respecting person would blame him for something he was tricked into believing was right, but he can’t believe that. Any self-respecting person had a right to blame him for every order he carried out.

Witches had died because of him. Not by his hands, but by his orders. By the squadrons he’d led, by the information he told, by the blind eyes he refused to turn. Witches had been petrified in secret, or killed by bloodier means, because of him. Regardless of what he thought was right, that doesn’t change it.

He remembered when he first saw a dead body. It was on the floor of Belos’s throne room. He doesn’t know how old he was, eight or nine, maybe. He remembers he’d been behind the Emperor’s throne and was told to listen to all the orders he gave out, something about having a proper understanding of the job. It was boring, but he’d done it anyway, because his uncle had asked him to.

He remembered being told there was a wild witch to be held before the Emperor. He remembered being excited, because he’d never gotten to be in the same room as a wild witch before. He’d only seen them being led away in chains, or in the news. Back then, he was first starting to think up ways how wild magic could save his uncle.

He didn’t remember what the witch said. Nor her name. But he remembered her face. Dark reddish brown, with bull-like horns curving from her skull around curly, crazy hair. He remembered her teeth being way too big and snaggly for her head, that her hands were bound behind her back, thick and clawed. He remembered thinking she was scary, spitting and snarling at Belos with the might of a thousand Titan’s.

He remembered that she broke free of the chains, and guards rushed forward as she ran straight towards his uncle, eyes wild and crazed and he saw pure hatred there, but he recalled just as clearly the resignation. She thought she was ready to die.

He remembered flinching, but still reaching out from behind the throne, terrified that his uncle was going to be hurt. He remembered her eyes seeing him, and in that second, there was shock and pure, unbridled horror, and she faltered.

And then there was a pillar through her gut.

And he saw then, in the fading light from her eyes, that she wasn’t as ready to die as she thought.

He didn’t know what they did with her body. But he remembered running to his room and refusing to leave for at least a week. He thinks his uncle came in a few times, assuring that she was a cruel and wicked beast, and he hadn’t meant to kill her, not really, but justice had to be served. How could he allow such a violent thing to be out on the streets?

He knows he believed him. Even if her face seared into his mind for years to come, until he slowly started to get used to dead bodies. From wild witches to those within his Coven, it stopped affecting him as much. That was just how life was. Filled with death.

When the funerals began, Hunter watched the updates from his scroll. Darius tried to discourage him, but he ignored him. This was the least he could do.

He recognized the pictures for some of the funerals. The witches who were being mourned. He realized that they weren’t just funerals for the witches who died thanks to the Day of Unity. They were for all the wild witches who never got a public funeral, who could never be mourned in fear of what would happen to those announcing relation to such people.

They’d uncovered the graveyard of petrified witches, many of which had been broken and shattered. The outcry was all Hunter could hear about for days afterwards.

When Darius wasn’t keeping an eye on him, Hunter slipped out. Not for long, and he left a note saying where he was going, but he’d slipped out all the same. Not even Flapjack knew he left.

He bore a dark cloak and a bandana around his face, covering up as much as he could. Nobody even looked twice at him as he hurried through the streets, keeping his head down. Today was a day of silence.

There was a mass funeral for all the wild witches who went unclaimed. For those whose families still would not be tied down to them, who were still ashamed. For those whose families were dead or long-since left. For those who had no family to begin with.

All kinds of people showed up, hoping that among one of the graves was someone they knew. After all, for many, there was no way to identify a body, save for a piece of stone and lazy paperwork. All one could do was hope. 

There were well over three-dozen graves. They had fifty years of mourning to do, after all.

Hunter didn’t go down to those graves. He stayed right where he was on the far hill, a silhouette in the distance watching the people move about. He knew that many of the people there were visitors, who either knew who they had lost or hadn’t lost at all. He wondered how strangers could mourn people they’d never met. If it was a sense of solidarity, or tragedy, that brought them here.

The weather wasn’t even appropriately moody. It was a normal day, if a bit chilly. The occasional cloud in the sky, the bright sun, and birds singing in the trees. To the Isles, there was nothing exceptional about today. Somehow, that made him feel worse.

“You here for the funeral, or what?’

Hunter jumped, head whirling around before immediately ducking it when he saw the witch standing there. Shit.

From the corner of his eye, he could see she was an older woman. Short and bluish in color with curving white horns and small glasses over long, floppy ears. He pointedly kept his eyes downcast and on her hoofed feet.

“Oh, um,” Hunter cleared his throat, trying to make it a bit deeper. He knows those who knew him recognized his voice, but he doesn’t know if a stranger would. “I-I mean, kind of?”

“Don’t feel like going down there, huh?” The witch chuckled, voice scratchy. “I get that.”

Hunter swallowed, and considered pulling his hood down further and hurrying off. He darted his eyes around, and she was really the only other one on the slope with him. There were a few other people standing at a distance, but they were out of immediate earshot, and most were either slowly approaching or leaving, not standing still like the two of them.

Instead, he said; “who…who are you here for, then?”

“My wife insisted on it.” The old lady shrugged, and he saw what looked like a cane in her hands, leaning forward on it. “She thinks one of them might be her great nephew.”

“Oh,” Hunter swallowed on a dry throat. “I’m–I’m sorry–”

“Ah, don’t bother.” The old lady waved him off. “I never met the kid. She didn’t talk to him much, either. But her niece loved him, so.” She shrugged.

“Ah,” Hunter said, though it didn’t make him feel any better. “Is…is the niece–?”

“Dead decades ago.” The lady said simply. “We already held a funeral for her.”

“I’m sorry.” He croaked again.

“Everyone’s sorry.” She huffed, almost sneering. “We’re all sorry. You start getting sick of it after a while.”

“Sorry. I mean–” He stuttered.

The old lady chuckled, and Hunter figured he was in the clear. He crossed his arms, head turned a bit to the side, staring off at the unmarked graves. After a while, the lady slowly stilled. He saw a flicker, and noticed a tail curling over her hoofs.

“So,” She said. “You here to claim anyone?”

“Huh? Oh!” Hunter straightened. “No, no, not–no. I didn’t…I never knew any of them.” He hunched his shoulders.

“Ah, here for support, then.” The lady nodded sagely. “You seem a bit young to be here on your own, though.”

“I’m nineteen.” He said hastily.

“No, you’re not.” The woman scoffed. “I’ve seen demons with half the height look older than you.”

“Bad genes?” Hunter tried, immediately cringing when he said it aloud.

“Sure it is.” The witch shook her head. “Besides, nineteen still seems a bit young. Especially to me, but that’s no competition.” She grinned. “You sure you’re not here to claim anyone?”

“There’s no one to claim.” He said, a bit curtly, and instantly felt bad about it. “I don’t…there’s no one.” He said, turning his head away.

“Ah,” The witch hummed, sounding something akin to sympathetic, but she didn’t press. “Anyone know you’re here, then? Don’t get a lot of kids coming here by themselves.” She said, gesturing with the handle of her cane down below.

And Hunter didn’t need to look to see who she was pointing out. There were a number of kids of all ages mingling about, actually quiet, for once. Most had at least one adult with them, but sometimes it was the adult leading them, or the kid leading. He swore he saw some kids being led by other kids. Some of them he recognized from Hexside.

“I felt bad for not coming to any of the funerals.” He admitted quietly. “It’s…I thought it’d be easier to come when nobody knew who was being mourned.”

“Was it?” She asked.

“...not really.” He admitted. “Now I just feel shitty.”

“Well, it is a funeral.” The lady pointed out, and he was quietly glad she didn’t mind his language. “I wouldn’t beat yourself up over it. Nobody’s gonna blame a kid like you for not wanting to come to these.” She said sympathetically.

“Well I can’t just…ignore it.” Hunter protested, gesturing with a hand down below. “Look at this! And it–this isn’t even half of the funerals for those that were named.” He said, voice beginning to come out scratchy in that way where he was getting close to crying again. 

“Did I say you were ignoring it?” The old lady snorted. “Boy, I said you didn’t have to show up. Titan knows this place would be overrun if everyone did. It’s not your job to mourn people you never knew.”

“They still deserve to be mourned.” He said weakly, swallowing before he could start hiccuping back cries. Great, he knew this was going to happen if he talked too much.

“That, they do.” She agreed with a slow, sad nod. “For the people who can’t, or won’t, remember them. But I wouldn’t worry.” She said, offering a hand. “We’ve got plenty of people who can do that here. It’s not all up to you, you know.”

He stared down at her hand for a moment. Slowly, hesitantly, he reached out his own gloved hand. She didn’t snatch it, didn’t take it until he grasped her hand first. She gave an old, crinkled smile, squeezing it with a weak grip. He realized her hand was shaking, and wondered if it was from her age, or the situation. Maybe it was both.

“Take care of yourself, kid.” She said, “In times like these, that’s really the best way we could honor them.”

With that, she retracted her hand, shifted her weight back onto her cane, and began to hobble down the slope.

He watched her go, slowly putting his hands into his pockets. He watched as she weaved through the crowds, through the graves that only had the smallest pieces of identification to them, but still no name. He watched as she came alongside a gray, four-eyed witch of similar age, fluttering between graves as though on a search.

He watched as they slowly meandered to each grave, placing a small flower at each one. He supposed that was the best you could do, when you didn’t know which one held those you loved.

In the middle of them all lay a single large grave with more flowers than the rest. He couldn’t read it from this distance, but he knew what it said.

For All Those Uncounted

May you find rest, wherever you lay. We’re sorry we couldn’t know your names.

Of all the graves that were made, of all the funerals, Hunter had done his best to keep track and write down each one. He had a list of every name, and another for each unclaimed one. He had saved all the pictures of their faces, trying to cement the one’s he didn’t recognize to memory.

Of all the pictures, none of them resembled the witch who died at his uncle’s feet. Who faltered, just for a second, when she realized he was there. Who might have, in some stroke of luck, at least landed a good hit in, if she hadn’t seen him.

Hunter swallowed back the wail in his throat, pulled his bandana higher up his nose, and went home.

 ,

 Exactly one week after the Emperor died, Hunter was piled over countless history books.

For a while, he was bouncing between houses. With Darius frequently dealing with the aftermath of the Day of Unity, being one of the few people who had some form of political experience that wasn’t trying to become another monarch, Hunter wasn’t always at his house. Sometimes he was at Raine’s, but they had the same issues as Darius. Sometimes he was at Eda’s, but she was in the midst of getting her name cleared, trying to figure out Luz’s whole situation in the human realm with her mother, and getting new stuff for her house, since she refused to crash at anyone else’s.

So, Hunter didn’t exactly have a solid place to stay for a while. He didn’t mind, but he knew that the others did. After being moved off for the fifth time in just a few days, Gus finally put his foot down and insisted that Hunter would be staying at his house until the adults got their lives sorted out.

It wasn’t all that bad. Gus’s dad was nice, if clearly out of his depth and anxious. He at first thought it was because he was, you know, the former Golden Guard, but he overheard him talking to Eda over the phone and stressing over how he’s supposed to be good enough for a kid like him. Hunter made sure to be as courteous as a saint afterwards, all the please’s and thank you’s anyone could ask for. He’s not sure if it helped.

He technically had his own room, which was really just the guest room, but he spent most nights in Gus’s. Half because they’d be talking for hours into the night, half because he couldn’t stand sitting in a dark, lonely room again. Even if he had Flapjack for company.

He thinks Perry only let them stay up so late and wake up like zombies because one night, Hunter had woken up in a screaming fit and nearly shattered a lamp in his frenzied nightmare-ridden panic. And Gus had been there in an instant, sitting next to him and squeezing his hand as he led him through those breathing exercises that should not have worked as well as they did. 

In times like these, he’s grateful that nobody but those closest to him knew he was the nephew to the late Emperor, especially Perry. Word was already getting out on what the Golden Guard’s face looked like, courtesy of Belos when he first ran off, he didn't think anyone would ever look at him again if they knew his relation. He can never thank the others enough for threatening the former Coven-members to keep their traps shut. Though he thinks there are still a select few that know, scattered throughout the Isles.

Maybe it’d come back to haunt him later. But for now, he could forget.

But this wasn’t about that. Now, it was about Hunter’s room, where there were piles upon piles of papers, lists, strings tied to thumbtacks, and enough books to form a small library. It was impossible to traverse unless you created the mess yourself, and the first time Gus stepped in, Flapjack had immediately herded him out again when he stepped on some sheets of paper.

“Doing some…late night-studying?” Gus guessed, hovering in the doorway as Hunter sifted through the papers.

“Research,” He said simply, not even looking over.

“For what?” Gus asked, leaning to the side, crossing his arms.

“It’s…” Hunter hesitated, pausing as he set a piece of paper aside, three names scribbled across it, one of them maybe being a real one. “They didn’t…find everyone.” He murmured, shoulders hunching as he looked down at the book in his hands. “At the funerals.”

Gus stayed quiet for a moment, and Hunter didn’t look over. He just flipped open the book and sat on crossed legs, searching among words and words. Flapjack lay elsewhere in the room, moving aside used-up paper and to-be-read books.

“Oh, dude,” Gus said softly, and Hunter inhaled sharply at the tone. “You don’t–you can’t search for everyone.” He said, and there was the sound of paper being shuffled aside. “You’re not going to get all of them.”

“I-I know, but,” Hunter held the book tighter. “There are...Belos killed people from before he was Emperor, too. And they didn’t get graves.”

“I’m sure they had funerals.” Gus insisted, and he saw movement in the corner of his eye.

“No, they–” Hunter shuddered, mind flashing with memories of catatonic bodies twitching across the snow. “I don't mean–” He shook his head, turning and finding Gus standing above him. “There’s…I have family.” He croaked, blinking his eyes rapidly. “He…none of them were…our family. My family.” He corrected quickly. He doesn’t think they’d have wanted to be called family with Belos. Not anymore.

Gus’s expression softened further, and he gingerly sat down next to him. Hunter hadn’t told him everything, he doesn’t think he’d ever be able to tell him. He knows he has to work on that, at least three people he knows are trying to get him a therapist, but just by the fact of being Gus, he doesn’t think he could tell him. Not the whole thing, at least.

What Gus does know is this; many of the Golden Guards before Hunter were family, in some sense of the word. Belos had killed them when they rebelled, and thus he would’ve killed Hunter, too. 

Some part of him thinks that maybe Luz would’ve told Gus more details. But the more he thinks about it, the less likely it feels. For as talkative as she can be, he doesn't think she’d share something like that.

“Can I help?” Gus asked quietly.

He thinks Gus knew enough.

“Yeah,” He cracked, hesitantly grabbing the list of names he’d previously set aside and handing it over. “It–I think one of these names was from someone in…in the first few years of Belos’s reign. I don’t know which one is right.”

“I think I can do that.” Gus said, giving a gentle smile as he took it, other hand laying across his shoulder. “Just don’t lose sleep over this, alright?”

“No promises,” He teased, empty and a bit pathetic.

“Good enough,” Is all Gus said, and then his hand slipped away, and he got back to work.

For not the first time, Hunter wondered how anyone could’ve mocked Gus for anything. How he could’ve had a single struggle in life, when he’d always been like this. And, just like every other time, he figured Gus didn’t think the Golden Guard had any struggles either, did he?

 , 

Thirty-one hours later, Hunter was clutching a small stack of papers, a pen, and stood shifting from foot-to-foot in front of the Clawthorne house.

Not the Owl House, Clawthorne.

He almost went to Eda for this. But he doubted she’d know anything of her family history, considering she didn’t seem like the type and never brought it up after the whole…vaguely uncomfortable reveal. Of all the people he could be related to, Eda certainly wasn’t the worst, but if he could redo the whole situation again, he would.

Lilith might have known, she was a nerd like that. But he’d rather live in a damp basement than be caught going to Lilith to ask about her (their. It was theirs, and he didn’t think he’d ever get used to that) family history. It was a mix of a rivalry starting far back in their Coven days, and also not wanting to listen to her go off for hours on end in awkward conversation.

So, he was at the Clawthorne home. After texting Gus saying that Flapjack was taking him to see a few palisman friends for a bit. It’s not that he wanted to lie, it’s just that Gus would start asking questions. And probably want to come with him.

Besides, sometimes, Flapjack did drag him to some of the Bat Queen’s hideouts to show him off to his palismen buddies. He’d had four hundred years or so to live with them, and many of the palismen, while certainly old, weren’t all that old. He was apparently an elder of sorts among the palismen, and thought the younger ones would’ve wanted to meet him. Something about getting used to being around witches (if he could be called that) who weren’t going to hurt them.

But that's another story. The story now was this; Hunter knocked on the front door.

And a large, heavily scarred man opened it.

Hunter had seen Dell before. Briefly. Gwen had been the one who talked to him for a few minutes while he was at Eda’s house for a bit, and Dell had been there with her. They’d made eye contact for a moment before Hunter scurried off elsewhere in the house, not keen on listening to more of Gwen’s cooing.

Even still, he was kind of hoping to see her. She, at least, was familiar. And he had hoped she was the direct descendant, not her husband.

“Oh,” Hunter said, bringing a hand up to halfway cover Flapjack on instinct. “S-sorry, sir, is Mrs. Clawthorne here?”

“Gwen’s off with Lilith.” Dell said, eye flicking over him. “You’re Hunter, yes?”

“Er, yeah.” Hunter mumbled, Flapjack trying to peer around his hand and tweet. “I don’t mean to–I’ll just come back another time, sorry to bother–”

A tiny, yellow bird poked up on Dell’s shoulder, emerging from his hair. Flapjack practically sprung upright, chittering and warbling so loud it made Hunter wince and lean away.

The yellow palisman, which was evidently also a cardinal, shot off Dell’s shoulder. Flapjack was up in the air a second later, the two slamming into each other midair.

“Flapjack!” Hunter squawked, reaching forward and nearly getting his hand nicked as the two tumbled to the ground in a heap. “Get off! You can’t–oh for the love of–”

“Easy there, boy.” Dell said, holding out a hand and giving him pause. “It’s been a while since they’ve seen each other.”

“Eh?” Hunter squinted at him, ears flicking as he looked back down to the palismen–

Flapjack was all but shoving his head into the yellow cardinal’s neck, wings doing that ruffling flapping thing he did whenever he got overly excited. The yellow cardinal was warbling a high-pitched song, tail shaking as it greeted his palisman.

“It’s been a few years since he’s visited us.” Dell said with a weary, fond smile. 

“Visited?” Hunter echoed, staring between him and the palismen.

“It’s a bit of a story.” Dell said. “Is there something we can help you with, Hunter?”

“Oh, uh,” Hunter shook his head, snapping out of it. “I mean, I don’t…I just,” He swallowed, looking down at Flapjack, who was now hopping around the yellow cardinal in circles and chattering up a storm. “I was curious,” He got out. “A-about an…ancestor of yours. If you know anything, of course, I didn’t want to–”

“Caleb?” Dell guessed, and Hunter’s mouth shut with a click.

That, of all the names, had been the one he didn’t need to search for. Belos had told him, after all. Caleb Wittebane, eldest son of the Wittebane’s, Flapjack’s original carver, trusting to a fault, and so very, painfully, human. Knowing he'd once bore that name as his own still made him sick.  

“Lilith didn’t tell me much,” Dell continued at Hunter’s silence. “But she told me something about there being a relation between us Clawthorne’s and you through him.”

“Something like that.” Hunter croaked.

“Well, in that case,” Dell said, taking a step to the side of the doorway. “You’re in luck. He’s one of the few ancestors my family keeps talking about. You can thank Pancake for that.” He said with a downwards tilt of his head.

At the name, the yellow cardinal raised its head, giving a chirp before Flapjack accidentally batted it in the face, and promptly got some annoyed little shrieks sent his way and a cuff over the head.

“Pancake?” Hunter ended up repeating, squinting.

“I’d be happy to explain more inside.” Dell offered, gesturing behind him. “Or outside, if you’d prefer.”

Hunter considered for a moment. He looked down at the two cardinals, alight with energy that fluctuated from excitement to mild annoyance. He noticed, then, that the yellow cardinal–Pancake–had a small, deep gash across the bridge of its beak.

“Inside is fine.” Hunter said, and Dell’s smile broadened, just a smidge.

“Glad to hear it. Come along,” He said with a jerk of his head, turning away and back into his home.

The palismen perked up instantly, chittering and taking off after him in a flurry of wingbeats. Some loyalty they had.

Hunter swallowed, glanced back outside, and followed. He doubled back for only a second to shut the door behind him.

“What do you know about Caleb?” Dell called, and for an old guy, he was across the room real fast, and Hunter hastened to follow.

“Uh, not much.” Hunter admitted. “I-I know he was with one of your ancestors.” He said, glancing over the pictures lining the walls. Most of them, he noted, were of Eda and Lilith at varying ages. “I know he was human. Wait, you knew that too, right?” He froze up.

“Course we do,” Dell said, turning to the left of a doorway. “For all our great-grandsomething’s who were ashamed of it, ol’ Pancake wouldn’t let the real story go unheard.”

Pancake twittered from up ahead, and Hunter turned in the same doorway to find Dell in a small, homely little kitchen. The yellow cardinal landed on one of the counters, swiveling its head to stare straight-on at him.

Familiar! Flapjack crowed, causing Hunter to jump as the bird suddenly appeared in the air next to him, practically vibrating with excitement. Pancake says friend is familiar!

“Well yeah, obviously.” He muttered to him. “You recognized me instantly.”

“I’m actually surprised,” Dell continued, and Hunter straightened when he turned, his one good eye flicking over him. “From what Pancake has told me, Flapjack used to be Caleb’s palisman.”

“He was.” Hunter agreed, the bird in question landing on his head, because of course he did. “I still don’t get why he chose me,” Hunter said, sending a look up Flapjack’s way. “I have, however, been told I look an awful lot like him. Though he insists that’s not why he picked me.” He said with no shortage of distaste.

“Pancake’s been telling me that, too.” Dell said, turning back to the cups Hunter realized he was holding. He opened the fridge, withdrawing a filtered container of water. “Is that all you know of Caleb?”

“Er, I know he…” Hunter hesitated, thought about it for a second, and plowed on. “...had a brother.”

“Ah, yes.” Dell hummed, setting the water aside. “That, he did. Pancake has some choice words for that man.”

Pancake gave an agreeing chirp, shaking its head with a glower off into the distance. Flapjack chirped in a much sadder tone, tapping his wings against the top of Hunter’s head.

“I know he killed Caleb.” Hunter added bluntly.

“He did.” Dell sighed, shoulders slumping. “Fortunately, or, unfortunately, depending on how you are, Pancake has refused to disclose his name. His brother has gone unnamed for hundreds of years in the Clawthorne line thanks to her. I think she sees it as a sort of damnation, to leave him a forgotten body in the ground.”

Hunter turned and met Pancake’s eyes. The cardinal raised her head, meeting it dead-on with a glare. He wonders if Flapjack told her anything, in that odd palisman language he’d never decipher. He probably had, or would, and Hunter found he preferred if he did. For a palisman so old and bitter, he thinks she ought to know, even if she took it with her to the end. He’d be more than happy with that.

“Good choice,” He said, unsure if he was talking broadly or right to the palisman. “He doesn’t sound like he deserves it.”

A flash of fire, and Hunter jumped back for a moment before it was gone again. Dell barely flinched, picking up the filter and pouring it into a cup.

“My, you’re a resentful one.” Dell chuckled. “Do you like tea?”

“Uh, kind of?” Hunter said, recovering after a moment. “Raine’s been trying to buy some for me.”

“I’ll give you a cup, then.” Dell said, opening a pantry. Hunter saw him withdraw some paper towels as well, having spilled some of the water in his pouring. He tried not to stare at his obviously shaking hands.

“What do…you know about Caleb?” Hunter asked after a moment of quiet.

“As much as Pancake tells me.” Dell said, back still to Hunter. “I’m surprised Flapjack hasn’t told you any.”

“Oh, no, he-he has.” Hunter nodded, jostling the bird. “But just…mundane things, really. And he insisted that I come here to ask about him. Wouldn’t answer anything else.” He tried to glare up at him. “Now that I’m here, I think he just wanted to see Pancake.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Dell said, and then he was turning back around, gesturing to two cups of tea on the counter. “Could you carry those to the living room? I’m afraid my hands aren’t as steady as they used to be.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Hunter nodded, head ducked as he slipped through the kitchen. Both cups looked identical, so he hoped there was nothing special about one of them as he followed the witch to a living-room type area. “What has Pancake told you?”

“Well, that depends,” Dell said, slowly easing down into a rather large chair. Hunter looked around for a moment before placing the cups of tea on the coffee table and taking a seat on a smaller, fluffier chair a bit to the left of being across from him. “What do you see as ‘mundane?’”

“Pardon?” Hunter frowned.

“Most things Pancake has told me aren’t any tales of grandeur, or stories of how or why Caleb and his brother came to the demon realm.” Dell said, folding his hands together. “Why, most of what she’s told me has been about her own witch, rather than Caleb. The things she has told me are troublesome anecdotes or oddities.”

“Her own witch?” Hunter repeated.

“The ancestor he loved.” Dell nodded. “She was called Belladonna Clawthorne. And, you know, it’s the oddest thing,” Dell hummed, leaning on his knees. “We never did learn what Caleb’s last name was. We have some old records, and all we got was that he would’ve been Clawthorne if they married.”

“Guess it wasn’t really important.” Hunter shrugged, looking off to the side. “I don’t have a last name, either.”

“Permanently?” Dell raised a brow.

“I don’t know,” Hunter crossed his arms, fingers tapping along his arm. “Maybe? I’m thinking about it.”

“A respectable choice,” Dell nodded sagely. “But what are you hoping to hear about Caleb?”

“I don’t know,” He repeated, a little helplessly, and that was already putting him on edge. “Just…about him, I guess? What he was like?”

“And that is not ‘mundane?’” Dell said with a faintly amused curl to his mouth.

“The last thing Flapjack told me was that Caleb couldn’t dance.” Hunter deadpanned. “And that he was often mocked for it.”

“That is something about him, is it not?” Dell chuckled. “But, yes, I’ve heard he was a clumsy sort.” He agreed, reaching out and taking his cup of tea off the table, one hand underneath it in case any spilled out from his shaking.

Two left feet. Flapjack nodded, fluttering off Hunter’s head and onto the coffee table, Pancake following. A mess. Disaster.

Pancake chittered something, and Flapjack nodded along with that, too. She said something else, and proceeded to get a quick peck to the side of the head for it.

“Well, I’m not–” Hunter waved a hand around, grumbling. “What…I don’t know, didn’t he find witches…weird?” He finally settled on. “Cause, he…he was a human in the demon realm, and, you know. Wasn’t that…off?” 

Dell’s face frowned a bit at that. Pancake bristled slightly, and Flapjack just looked defeated. Dell only sighed, taking a sip of his tea.

“I believe some writings spoke of that, too.” He nodded. “But most complaints of such things were from Pancake,” He nodded down to his palisman. “She wasn’t a fan of some of the brothers' antics, I can tell you that much.”

“Then surely Belladonna had issues, too, didn’t she?” Hunter pressed.

“Oh, most definitely. I’m told she’s had plenty of complaints about Will.” Dell said, setting his cup down and standing on creaky legs. “One moment, if you please.”

“But then why did–never mind.” Hunter muttered, watching Dell retreat into another room.

Loved him. Flapjack said, bringing Hunter’s attention back. Loved him very much.

“Why?” Hunter frowned. “How could…he was B–he was brothers with that guy.” Hunter gruffed.

Pancake chirped something, Flapjack turning to her to listen. She kept her gaze on Hunter for most of what she was saying, but occasionally darted her eyes to Flapjack. His palisman nodded as she finished, half-opening a wing in her direction.

Loved her, too. He said simply. Loved her very, very much. Changed for her. Loved her. He repeated. 

Hunter opened his mouth to speak, but he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, pausing when Dell walked back in, folder in hand.

“Not much of our family was the writing sort.” He said as he set down the folder on the table. “Will, on the other hand, was. And Bella just so happened to have saved a few.”

Hunter made an instant mad grab for the folder, freezing just before his hand touched it. His eyes darted up to Dell.

“I…are you sure?” He asked, hesitant and unsure. 

“They’re for you to read.” Dell said simply, picking up his tea again. “Besides, both of my daughters seem to like you, especially Eda. I figure that’s enough assurance.”

Hunter squinted for a second, looking him up and down suspiciously. Dell held his gaze for a second before slouching a bit and looking to the side as he lifted the cup to his mouth.

“And we have numerous copies.” He admitted with a mumble.

“Smart,” Hunter snorted, picking up and feeling the weight of dozens of papers within. “But, really…thank you.” He said earnestly, fiddling with the edge of it uneasily.

“Of course,” Dell said, giving him a warm smile, and left a whole heap of complicated feelings. “You’re more than welcome to take a few copies if you so wish. Nobody’s been interested in our ancestry since Lilith was small.” He said, a bit wistful.

“You don’t have to do that, sir.” Hunter said, hesitating before reaching for his own tea, now cooled and growing cold, but it’d be rude to let it sit for much longer. 

“Nonsense,” Dell waved him off. “You’re a Clawthorne of some sort, aren’t you?”

“I don’t really think so.” Hunter frowned, lifting the cup. “I mean, like I said, I don’t even have a last name.”

“You don’t need a last name for that.” Dell said, Pancake flying up and onto the arm of his chair. “You may choose whomever family you wish, of course, but I am more than happy to leave a backdoor open if you’d like.” He said with a teasing wink. “Just don’t tell my daughters. I’m sure they’d have some things to say.”

Hunter stared at him for a moment, cup halfway raised. He blinked, looking down at the tea as he slowly leaned back in his chair. He could almost see his reflection back in it, scarred and crooked, bags heavy and dark. He knows the others have been working on trying to make sure he gets enough sleep, but that’s kind of hard these days. He’s not what one would call a sight for sore eyes, and not exactly one would want hanging around and muddling up the scenery, let alone knowing what little worth he has to him.

And here he was, sitting across from a man with more scars than he, hands too shaky to properly pour water, letting him hold copies of his family ancestry. Their family ancestry, without a moment’s hesitation.

“I’m honored, sir.” He said quietly, setting the folder down on his lap, trying to raise his other hand to at least moderately hide his smile.

“No need, I’d do it for any kid.” Dell said kindly. “And the ‘sir’ isn’t necessary. Dell is fine.”

“I appreciate it, Mr. Clawthorne, but I don’t think I could do that.” Hunter said plainly, and Dell laughed, a quiet, cracking sound.

“Fair enough.” He said with a smile, and Hunter let his hand fall as he returned it, crooked fangs and all.

 , 

Two days later, Hunter was standing outside Darius’s office door, a new notepad and half-dried pen in hand.

Already, it was significantly worse than the hesitation at entering the Clawthorne home. At least with them, they were strangers, and it’d just be plain awkward if worse came to worst. Well, no, the worst was that they got pissed and kicked him out, but he figured that probably wouldn’t happen. Eda and Lilith would’ve gotten ticked off.

With Darius, it was different, and Hunter was tempted to turn right back around and never let his thoughts reach vocalization. It felt like crossing a line, breaching some silent agreement. Realistically, he knew that the worst Darius would do is tell him he couldn’t answer his questions and go back to work. But that didn’t stop him from thinking up far nastier scenarios.

“Are you sure you never talked to him?” Hunter pleaded with Flapjack on his shoulder.

Never seen him. Flapjack shook his head. Didn’t meet any.

“Brilliant,” He sighed, shoulders slumping. “Maybe I could just stick to looking up records? Maybe asking Raine? Raine might’ve known him.”

Flapjack gave him a judgmental, slightly disappointed look. Hunter just sighed, back tensing as he reached out a hand and knocked on the door before he could chicken himself out of it. Just rip the band aid off. Either he said no, or he didn’t. It’s not that bad.

It was that bad.

“Come in,” Darius called, and Hunter steeled himself, took a deep breath, and pushed the door open.

Darius was at his desk, going over dozens of paperwork that had Hunter impulsively trying to peer over and read as much as he could before he got caught. A part of him itched to look at them and start doing work like how he used to. Another part of him dreaded even more paperwork, and knew Darius wouldn’t let him touch it even if he’d broken both hands.

“Hunter,” Darius greeted, sounding only a little surprised as he glanced up from his work, head still held up by his hand. He was clearly dreading it as much as Hunter would have. “Do you need something?” He asked, not accusatory, just a simple question. He was still getting used to hearing those.

“Er, are you busy?” Hunter asked first, slowly toeing the door shut behind him, even if the only other people in the house were Amber and Katya (bouncing between houses like Hunter had) and Eberwolf (uninvited). 

“Not too much to talk,” Darius said, removing his hand from his cheek.

“Well, I’m just–it’s cool if you are, cause this is, it’s–” Hunter began stuttering, holding the notepad close. “It’s a whole thing that’ll probably take up a bit of time, so I didn’t want to be a bother, and I can come back at another time–”

“I’m not busy,” Darius assured again, tone still even, though he was definitely a bit amused. “Titan knows I’d take anything to put this off.” He muttered, glaring down at the papers.

“Isn’t it a bit weird taking the Titan’s name while we know a Titan?” Hunter frowned.

“Very.” His face scrunched up. “Did you want to talk about something?”

“Oh! Uh, yeah, right,” He shook his head, looking down at the empty notepad and hesitating.

He looked around for a moment and grabbed at the back of one of the chairs in the room, ones that Darius would pull up when he was having lengthy discussions with someone. He didn’t pull it out, just in case Darius said no, but the weight under his hand was grounding.

Ask, Flapjack urged gently, nudging his neck before flying off his shoulder and onto the desk. Darius spared the bird a glance before looking back to Hunter, patient. He cares.

And he knew that, he did, really, it was just…it’s one thing to know something, and another to confront it. To test it. But he had to at some point, didn’t he?

“I wanted to…” He exhaled, looked down at the ground, and grit his teeth. “Ask you about your mentor?”

It was out in a fast string of words, overlapping each other and a couple letters mispronounced. But at least it was out. And if Darius asked for clarification, then he could just brush it off, change it up, say something that sounded similar, it’s not like anyone could tell him he didn’t ask, because he did, he truly–

“Jasper?” Darius asked in such a quiet, soft voice that if Hunter wasn’t too busy focusing on the name he would’ve felt awful for making him sound like that at all.

“J–what?” Hunter jerked his head up.

“You want to ask about Jasper?” Darius frowned, something distant and recognizable in his eyes. 

“That…his name was Jasper ?” Hunter cracked, voice so very, very small.

“Yes,” Darius said, slowly straightening, mouth thinned in thought. “It was."

“I...oh." Hunter said, swallowing. He remembered, once, having a name that was not his own and would never really be treated as such. Just his luck that it had to happen to him twice. "It's--sorry, I didn't meant to...to bring up any bad--"

“It’s of no matter.” Darius shook his head, waving him over. “It surprised me a bit, is all. Why do you want to know about Jasper?”

His tone was gentler now, curious. Okay, okay, that’s good. He’s not mad. Or at least, not mad enough to show it. That’s fine, he’s fine. Remember, worst case scenario, he’s told to leave. It’ll be fine. Totally.

“He’s…he was the Golden Guard before me.” Hunter mumbled, pushing the chair up in front of his desk. “And he…he was your mentor.” He said, eyes still downcast as he sat down. “It’d be…nice to know about him. Not like I’ve got a lot of nice people to learn more about, right?” He tried to crack a smile, rubbing the back of his neck.

Darius’s face fell to a frown for a moment, but he nodded all the same, crossing his arms over his desk and staring off in thought.

Truly, Hunter thinks that Darius knows about Hunter’s whole…thing. About how he wasn’t a witch. Or a human. Or even something in-between. He said some vague words to him once, but he’s pretty sure the others told him more details after the disastrous way the truth came out to them. He’s not resentful about it, honestly he’s glad that he doesn’t have to repeat it over and over again, but that’s still not…the whole story.

They know what he is. They don’t know that there were more. 

Luz hasn’t said anything, so Hunter sure as hell isn’t going to. He’d rather not taint Darius’s memory of his mentor, thank you very much.

“What do you want to know?” Darius asked eventually, and Hunter straightened up, holding his notepad in his lap.

“Oh, uh, anything, I guess.” He mumbled. “I-I was going to ask for his name, but you…already gave me that, so–when were you apprenticed to him?” He tried.

“Younger than you.” Darius said, a small smile pulling at his mouth as he leaned back. “Fourteen or so. I’d actually met him before I was even in the Coven, somewhere in the marketplace.”

“What, buying produce?” Hunter raised a brow.

“Having a fight with Odalia.” Darius said with a shrug. “I may have summoned a bit of an…overly large abomination. Especially for my age.” He said, and though he sounded sheepish, he looked nothing of the sort. If anything, he was proud.

“Huh,” Hunter blinked. “So he stopped it?”

“More or less.” Darius nodded. “There were a few other meetings after that, but I recall when I was apprenticed to the Emperor’s Coven at a young age, a bit before Lilith. I already showed immense promise, and I remember hearing that the Golden Guard volunteered to look over my training.” He had a full smile, now, looking off. “Even then, I knew he only did so for a bit of fun.”

“And a fourteen-year-old was the best candidate for that?” Hunter frowned, though he scribbled down on his notepad.

“Looking back on it, I think he just wanted someone to talk to.” Darius admitted, his smile falling as he picked up a pencil, twirling it between his fingers. “He told me he was only seventeen, then.”

“...oh.” Hunter deflated, slowly removing his pen from the paper.

“I still thought he was the coolest person in the world.” He chuckled, shaking his head, though it sounded ironic, perhaps a bit bitter. “I practically grew up with him. Never since then have I had such a friend, dare I say a brother, even remotely close to him.” He said fondly, looking down at his hands with a soft smile that Hunter had only seen, what, twice before?

Hunter lay his pen against the page, watching Darius and swallowing past the lump in his throat threatening to rise. A part of him wanted to ask what happened, how long he lasted. But they had time, he reasoned, and who was he to stop Darius when he looked so at peace?

For not the first time, Hunter wondered if it was better to live now and resent what he never met, or never live at all.

He thinks Darius deserved a brother more than some random kid.

“You know, it is the oddest thing,” Darius said after a moment, and Hunter jerked his head up to see Darius was squinting at him. “Though I don’t have any pictures of his younger years, those were lost to time,”–he sounded a bit sad at that–”I still remember some things about him. And even from his more adult photos…” His eyes flicked over Hunter, and his shoulders fell. “You look a lot like him.”

Hunter froze.

“Oh,” He said, sparing a quick, terrified glance with Flapjack, who would probably only shrug if he could. “Really?” He asked, voice cracking.

“I recognized it when you first started showing your face around the Coven, you were much too young beforehand to see any similarities.” Darius said, as though he were discussing the weather. “I didn’t think much of it at first, I think I was still a bit too…bitter.” He winced at that, though Hunter had heard dozens of apologies by now. “But it really is uncanny,” He continued, the pencil no longer moving between his fingers. “even your hair is similar.”

“Weird,” Hunter cleared his throat when it came out high-pitched and broken. “Funny, huh? What are the odds? The-the Isles is a big place, you know. Any kind of…of genes could happen.” He said with a fearful, shaky smile forced onto his face.

Darius watched him for a moment longer. A distant piece of Hunter would’ve called it a test, but he doesn’t think it was that. Darius didn’t test with silences, waiting to see if he’d crack and say what he wanted to hear. Nobody did anymore. If they were silent, then either they knew, or they were thinking.

He’s not sure what Darius was.

“Yes,” Darius said evenly, nodding to himself. “Fate works in mysterious ways, doesn’t it?” He asked, one ear flicking up as he gave an easy smile.

If he knew, it’d have to have known before now, he realized. Because Darius was smiling as though it were the simplest thing in the world, with a sort of hesitant acceptance that was only a little tense around the eyes. And he wasn’t stupid, far from it. If he’d noticed a similarity before now, and he’d heard what Hunter was–

“Would you like to hear about the time he charged into a ratworm den?” Darius asked suddenly, snapping Hunter out of his thoughts. “He swore I made it up, but a baby almost bit his nose off.” He grinned, all teeth. “And, well, he’s not here to dispute it now, is he?”

Hunter stared for a second, allowing a shaky, soon-to-grow smile. Darius returned it, and he felt a little better.

So maybe he knew, maybe he would learn, or maybe he never would. He doesn’t think it matters much, does it? Jasper was always going to be Jasper. This, he’s sure of.

“Yeah,” Hunter said, letting his shoulders finally relax. “I’d love to.”

He hoped whoever Darius needed to get those papers to wasn't in a rush. He figured it didn't really matter, they could suck it up and wait for eternity for all he cared. They had much more important things to talk about.

[jess-the-vampire]

If I may ask, what are your honest thoughts on the ship Alador X Darius?

ok so i surprisingly have quite a bit of thoughts on this ship despite their relationship being more implied and not as delved into.

i think for one, it's def a ship with some potential to actually go somewhere, def not without a timeskip involved for the series itself, but still.

They sorta have this fun dynamic where they clearly had some tension in the past, ending their friendship, but it's become this fun rivarly between them and despite everything they still seem to care about the other and you can def imply a lot of their small implied reactions are a bit flirty if you choose there.

it's kinda funny how these two have not really talked onscreen towards the other, at least not as adults, and you can kinda pick up a lot about their dynamic.

since they used to be a trio with odalia it does make you wonder....it's not confirmed obviously, but with how they wrote odalia and how it seems almost implied alador became more of a prop to her over time it does make you wonder if darius and alador's relationship being severed had anything to do with her.

it's not something out of character for her, she was adment on amity and willow's own friendship being severed because of her own goals, so the idea she may of pulled something as a kid to kick darius out is not completely out of the question.

the show sorta implies in COTH almost like, even if maybe at one point they did love each other, at this point alador is more of a pawn in constructing her perfect life then anything and i don't see the likelihood of them repairing this so easily unless she goes through MASSIVE growth offscreen....which is probably not likely.

so if he did find someone else....darius makes the most sense given everything we know at this point, and hey look, if they set it up well i don't mind. Some people think the show put too much on odalia and not enough on alador and tbh i think they were fair in mostly how they addressed alador tho i agree there were probably some rewrites involved somewhere because we couldn't get more episodes with them. They were clearly trying to imply alador was emotionally manipulated into doing things her way and he was guilty of following along but that it wasn't always what he wanted to do either, and i can't say too much goes against that idea.

Even EE, looking back on that episode now gives more of a light to his behavior knowing things now.

Not a perfect person but he's not meant to be.

Point being i don't really see it as breaking up one ship for another personally, i wish we had more time for the blight parents but i think to an extent we were always meant to pick up on the idea that odalia wasn't exactly great towards alador either....it was just way more noticeable in COT.

we'll see how things go.

on some other points, i see the criticism a lot about hunter having a thing for willow because people just REALLY wanted gay rep, and i assume willow's dads's weren't on the table because they wanted it to be with a more mainstream character.

But i never personally understood why it had to be HUNTER, every time this complaint gets brought up about no primary m/m rep it's always about hunter, even though he was ALWAYS the most unlikely male character to ever get that. It's a female dominated show, he was introduced in s2, so any romance he had was gonna be developed later, and the only way it's gonna be a guy is if you dig someone up and force them into the main cast...which....is gonna feel weird if their only purpose of being in the main cast is JUST to date hunter/ or are only established just for that purpose.

(Like gus is a main male character and his relationship with matty was set up in s1, why don't more people care about that, why does it gotta be hunter when this exists- ?)

Whether people like it or not, willow has been around since s1, she already has an arc outside of hunter, and because she's a main character that gives her ample reason to be around hunter frequently to set something up or develop it, she was always the best option for them to do this with. Like sometimes you have to think about about this from a technical perspective and there was no way in heck you'd be able to set him up with a guy without the character either feeling like he existed just to date hunter and nothing else, or being dragged into the main character group oddly....just to date hunter.

but that's something nice about alador and darius, because they already have an established history you can get right into, and are both characters with larger roles and lots of great set up and characterization. If they started building something it would not feel out of left field at all, or like either character was there just to date, they have their own drama and issues, but they also happen to have a history and a LOT of implications between them.

And i also like seeing adult queer characters have this kinda thing, like it's great seeing it with kids but it's always just as important to see it with adults. It's not like the gay parents who are in episodes but don't usually have bigger roles either, like these two may be supporting characters but they actually are in frequent episodes and are given quite a bit of development and attention.

i think they have real potential and i'm glad to see a potential "gay dads" ship but we'd actually see the dads more individually first as people and see them come together, i find that nice.

like i like willow's dad's fine enough, but i can't deny we don't know them much as people, we met them together and there isn't too much i can say about either of them tho there is a lot of fun details in the bgs of episodes that imply some stuff.

The idea of hunter and the blight siblings being his new step siblings is....also kinda funny , i mean it'll make all the ship fanart of him with the blight twins REALLY awkward, but it would be funny to rewatch the show knowing that might actually happen.

like can you imagine watching amity and hunter in EL knowing they'd end up as siblings?

i kinda like the potential of this ship i gotta be honest, i'm kinda intrigued by their mysterious drama and there's ample reason to assume it's possibly being set up.

[polyhexian]

God, WorstTimeline! Darius finding Jasper's freshly killed body makes me so feral. Legitimately drives me up the wall how good it is.

He feels like he shouldn't mourn this man- he hurt Hunter countless times!!! His SON!

And he's not the same Jasper who used to smile and squeak whenever he saw a baby. It's not the same Jasper he used to be friends with, and he knows that. But at the same time... his heart hurts. Because even if he hasn't been the same in 16 years, it's still Jasper. He's dead now and even though Darius hates him for what he's done, he still had so many memories with him. He still loves the part of him that's long since gone away.

And between the mound of corpses, torn-up Golden Guard capes, and masks around Jasper, plus all the Grimwalker-related stuff that happened leading up to that, I have a feeling he'd start to piece some very important things together.

Maybe he wonders if Jasper knew about the graveyard, maybe he wonders how bad things truly were for Jasper in the castle for him to change so dramatically so quickly. He wonders whether the tears on his face are from his injuries or from something else.

But he never knows anything for sure because Jasper is gone.

I'm screaming.

I'm OBSESSED with it personally.

He stumbles on this still warm body of a man he once loved and he's just gone. It's too late to ever know what happened or why. But he knows a few things now.

He knows what Luz told everyone. He knows Belos was a 400 year old human witch hunter. He knows he's been working on the draining spell for lifetimes to try and kill everyone. He knows that jasper had served Belos for decades. He knows that they are surrounded by bodies, they are surrounded by masks, so many that it doesn't make sense for four hundred years. He knows that jasper was a Grimwalker. He knows that hunter is a Grimwalker. He knows that jasper changed the same night that hunter was born. He knows that jasper was unbelievably cruel to hunter and yet the last time he saw him alive jasper told him that unless he got Hunter back, hunter was going to die. He knows that jasper knew the draining spell was going to kill everyone because HE knew the draining spell was going to kill everyone. He knows that jasper could have killed him a few days prior at the school, and didn't. He knows that there's no record of jasper existing before the previous golden guard died. He knows that jasper used to adore kids and suddenly he's beating this kid regularly, and yet when he fights Darius at the school he says that Hunter is the only thing he cares about, and he won't let anything, even Darius, get in the way of saving him.

And he knows he's dead.

And despite knowing ALL of that... He still doesn't know anything. He can make guesses. He can fill in blanks. He can make assumptions. But he can't ever know. Jaspers here and he's dead and he's still warm.

And of course when hunter gets back and tells Darius after jaspers dying words to him, his half lucid "my baby" touching his face, saying that he's proud of him... That he heel turned the second he realized Belos had no intention or even way to save Hunter from the draining spell, that he attacked Belos on the spot and then jumped over the side after him when Belos blasted Hunter off the side. That he died to save his life and then used the last of his strength to teleport hunter back up to his friends before he laid there and died alone in the dark.

What could he POSSIBLY fucking think at that point. He has all these pieces and none of them quite fit together. Jaspers dead and he's gone and Darius is never going to be able to ask him whys

[roninreverie]

I Worry about Raine...

My dudes, I am about to make a LEAP and I really hope I'm just overthinking things again.

So Raine Whispers is a double agent, a rebel working within the covens, and we all love them and want only good things for them.

We feared for their safety after "Eda's Requiem", but it turns out they were fine.

We feared for their memories/ freewill after "Follies at the Coven Day Parade", but again, they turned out to be fine.

We've got some speculations circulating that there was a mole in the CATTs, either willingly or unknowingly, but surely it cannot be Raine because they're just nervous about Eda, and it's all one big red herring for us, the audience, right?

Again, they’re probably going to be fine...

But there are parts of Raine's story that don't all add up. Their peril is always diverted so simply. Too simply.

Raine was "briefly" introduced via the old scrapbook photo in "Wing it Like Witches". Even Darius and the Blights were given cameos during the season 1 finale, and yet we don't meet any of them until we're well into season 2. Regardless, these characters all already existed in the story by Season 1, even if we didn’t know it yet.

Where was Raine for the coven tryouts Owl Beast flashback? 

Where was Raine during Eda's publicized petrification ceremony?

Do you really think Raine "I love my owl wife" Whispers would've just sat back and watched his childhood best friend and ex-lover be petrified LIVE on their crystal ball? NO!

I think Raine's troubles go back even further than we were led to believe. I think Raine did go to try and help Eda, but was caught beforehand... (possibly by Terra Snapdragon.)

This friendly-faced troublemaker who was already working their way up the ranks could be the perfect patsy to manipulate into the Emperor's plots, especially when they thought they were working against it all from the start. Everything they did, they thought would be to stop this evil system, when really they were playing right into the Emperor’s hands.

People liked Raine, trusted Raine, and this bard had a way of drawing in allies (AKA people who Belos would need removed or to keep an eye on). The Covens needed this kind of wholesome PR, so to speak, on their side.

Thus the former head bard CONVIENTLY "retires", Raine is put into the position of power they've been working towards, and they are left free to finally cause what little mischief missions with the BATTs they so please.

Little does Raine know, Terra has been pulling puppet strings ever since Eda's near-petrification. The seeds planted off-screen all the way back in S1 (if not waaay before that).

Their capture? A ruse on Darius and Eber's parts, true... but also a carefully planned act for Terra/ Belos. Now Raine has even more reason to rebel, plot, and gather allies. They have even more reason not to trust her and to keep secrets and make desperate plans.

Their treachery doesn’t even warrant a petrification because it will be too hard to replace them. Well “Clouds On the Horizon” confirmed they all have replacement bodies for the Day of Unity itself, but for Raine in that moment, they meant Raine was more valuable to them alive and plotting than petrified and silenced.

And the tea? That's not even anything nefarious. Terra just wants Raine to think it is, to lull them into a false sense of security in thinking they got the best of her. Two steps ahead, they allow Raine to gather all the loose ends for them, while all they have to do is sit back and watch.

Raine is either already under her control or something went down, memories were actually altered, or it’s all just mind games, but Terra already has Raine right where she wants them like a little chess piece. Maybe all Raine has to do is be themself and the rest just happens to work out for Belos?

Maybe they wanted this outcome for the Day of Unity? Maybe the CATT's plan actually works in the bad guy's favor instead of the rebels'? Maybe this is a joint effort between Terra and Belos years in the making. Maybe I'm giving the old plant lady too much credit??? I don’t want to undersell how much time these wicked, old people have had to think this all through.

And I don't think Raine is a traitor, but I do think we're missing something... Raine is missing something... and nobody is going to realize the gaps until it's too late.

Did this make any sense at all? It is very late, and probably all super wrong, but all I know is I have FEARS for this finale. 😨😅

Feel free to speculate off of this though!

[edoro]

Also when do they get teleported out of belos' mind cause I assumed that it was when babybel was summoning the palisman souls, when Luz grabbed him she just didn't let go so she and Hunter scream for Eda to take them out and luckily she could but Luz didn't let go of babybel when grabbing Hunter so now Hunter knows the truth (probably still going to have his panic attack sadly :( ), but Luz realizes that she also brought the 'kid' with her. Now to think about it wouldn't babybel kinda be out of it for a while, since the form came from the dream realm so his body is literally trying to exist.

this is one of the questions i am trying to answer for myself! because when they get taken out really changes some things - well, mostly it changes what i think Hunter's attitude towards Babybel and the whole situation is.

so i'm considering it in terms of those three memories - the staged 'wild witch' attack, the first attempt at coven sigils, and the Collector conversation post-Eclipse Lake.

they should definitely, i think, see at least the first one. i want Hunter's perception of Belos to be shaken for sure, and for him to be confused and uneasy about the previous Golden Guard(s). he knows he isn't the first, but they didn't just have the same rank - they sounded exactly like him! and he clearly noticed.

the more i think about it, the more i feel like my sweet spot here is after the coven sigil attempt memory?

it gives Luz enough info that Owl Team more or less knows what Belos is planning (genocide) although she doesn't have the context of why (witch hunter), and it's something that Hunter can't actually excuse - he was trying, but in the end the best he could do was 'well maybe i'm completely wrong about everything i know to be true', which is not solid grounds for long-term denial.

so Luz has her confirmation of Belos's plans that she can tell Eda and Lilith, while still leaving room for her to realize/find out that Babybel is a human and therefore Philip in the way i outlined in this post

and Hunter also has all of these doubts and fears - suddenly Belos isn't the harsh-but-fair benevolent Emperor who is leading the Boiling Isles into a utopia, but a liar and a manipulator who's been hurting and killing people for a very long time and is clearly trying to do it on a mass scale.

Hunter can say he was 'just perfecting sigil magic' (he's not even wrong!) but they both heard Belos say those witches still being alive meant he had more work to do. and there was that Guard - same voice, slightly different clothes, but we don't know how much time passed between those memories, so it could still be the same guy under the mask.

but there's that seed of doubt there too, that little nagging sense of existential horror. who is that? is that his uncle's brother - his own father? a son he never knew Belos had? is that the same Guard who was Darius's mentor? how many of them have there been? what happened to them? who were they?

so i think cutting it off there, between that one and the scene with the Collector, puts Hunter in an interesting place. his faith in Belos has been badly bruised and his sense of self and purpose suddenly taken away. he can't deny that whatever Belos is planning, it's bad, or that he's been complicit in it. he can't deny that Belos has been lying to everyone, including him, for a very long time. and he doesn't know what's up with those other Golden Guards, but there isn't a non-horrifying answer, really.

however, his perception of Belos hasn't been completely shattered, nor has it been revealed to him that he's just the latest in a long line of murdered clones. he doesn't know that the 'Titan's plans' for him are just a lie Belos uses to make him easier to manipulate.

he knows he's seen things he wasn't supposed to see, but he's still loyal. he doesn't know that previous Golden Guards have been killed for 'betraying' Belos. he doesn't know that he's just a replaceable object to Belos. he's hurt and betrayed and scared and confused, he isn't sure what his place is anymore, he isn't sure if he can or wants to go back to the castle, he doesn't want to help Belos bring about the Day of Unity anymore, and the residents of the Owl House definitely aren't going to let him take Babybel back

but i think that because those crucial revelations have been withheld from him, it means that he might fall back on his position as his uncle's caretaker when he's faced with Babybel. with almost everything he thought he knew turned on its head, he might cling onto what feels familiar.

his relationship with his uncle has been forever changed, but by taking care of Babybel the way he used to take care of Emperor Belos, he can still have some vestige of a relationship - a simpler one, even, where he doesn't have to fear being hurt, where he can care for and love this man who he's spent his life serving without suffering for it.

which also sets him up for Babybel to be able to try to manipulate him into helping him back to the castle and into his adult body. normally he would get rid of Hunter after what Hunter saw and just make another one, but he really doesn't have time, and right now he can't give up such a powerful ally

(of course, he'll have to play his cards right - Hunter doesn't trust the real him anymore, and similarly to Luz, sees his child self as kind of a do-over. he can't just reveal it right away, but he's going to have to manage Hunter's wounded expectations and sense of betrayal from being strung along and lied to when he does, so he's going to need to have Hunter wrapped very firmly back around his nasty little fingers, or else find some way of convincing Hunter to take him back to the castle without actually revealing that he's For Real Belos)

it seems like Hunter really wants to find a way to be loyal, so who is Belos to deny him that? at the very least, he can try to play on Hunter's loyalty and love for him to get back to the castle so he can continue with his plan, and then figure out what to do with Hunter from there. maybe this one is salvageable. maybe this one will finally turn out right. maybe this one is the version of Caleb who loves him more than anything else.

[sairenharia]

The Titan’s Body

Some thoughts on Glyphs, the Titan’s Body, and Hunter.

I don’t have a full theory, but I know some people have already pointed out while Glyphs don’t FULLY work in the human world, they do work enough to at least make the paper they’re on crumble.

The thing is, at the time, there was a tiny bit of the Titan’s Body in the human world at the time: Lilith’s Palismen. (Mike Socks, I believe?)

Palismen are made of the trees of the Titan. Their magic is strong enough to make a full creature out of the wishes of a person. The Will of a person Commands part of the Titan and Creates A Life from him. Much like the Glyphs work by responding to what a person wants to happen instead of just solely making the drawing.

The thing is, Luz has seen a teleportation glyph, and while complicated, she knows how to go to try and make it. But where would the power come from? Even if everyone had their Palismen...

Well, they have a lot more then just Palismen.

Hunter.

Hunter has the Palismen wood, but more then that, he has a galderstone as his heart.

And here’s the thing, Hunter was affected by the Draining Spell, but notably, he wasn’t hit as hard as many others. While it could be argued the Heads were being drained faster, Kikimora wasn’t. Kiki was in a far, far worse way then Hunter was. Which says one of two things.

Hunter’s inability to use magic protected him.

Or, and honestly makes more sense, he had so much more magic to drain before it hit hard. Can’t be low in the tank if the tank is super big compared to most.

Not that I’m saying Hunter is secretly super magically powerful. His magic is just tied up in, you know, his existence and making it a copy of someone who existed and also making him not be wood some of the time. A Grimwalker is meant to seem like a person, so it has to put in more magic to make him appear right.

He can’t cast spells. Just like Palismen don’t cast spells, they just act as a conduit for their witch’s spells. But they have their own magic still, so its possible if Hunter tried to do magic in a DIFFERENT way, he could do them. Heck, maybe that’s why Darius’ mentor was a powerful witch. HE figured out the way to cast magic, it was just wild and Belos wasn’t for that.

But mostly it seems very interesting that Glyph’s need the Titan’s body to work, Hunter has a chunk of very powerful Titan related items, and how it’ll probably result in Hunter doing some very stupid things in his efforts to help his friends they’ll have to shake him about later.