#the fact that hunters into her as early as labyrinth runners but the first time we see her get flirty is TTT

[welcometogrouchland]

crying thinking about demiromantic willow park. what if she was just like me for real???

[lollytea]

When it comes to Hunter's side of huntlow, one of the most compelling aspects to me is him getting comfortable with wanting, even when he doesn't feel entitled to it.

Hunter's experience with love is very depressingly one sided, with him putting everything into his devotion to his Uncle, and receiving the bare minimum (at best) in return. He's never dared to ask Belos "Can you sit and talk with me for a while? Can you please think fondly of me? Can you be kind to me?" because he's been programmed to believe that this is far more emotional labour from Belos than he deserves to ask for and he should be grateful with what he is given.

Hunter has resigned himself to not expecting much from relationships. Any trace of kindness will have Hunter pledging undying loyalty to whoever offered it to him, because he believes that person is going above and beyond what Hunter deserves.

He's not going to stop them from being kind to him. He will do anything for it. But I wonder if he sometimes feels guilty for accepting it so wholeheartedly. For being too weak to resist the warmth because he's been starved for so long.

Anyway. This friendship with Willow, the budding romantic feelings and the (eventual) relationship.

The popular consensus around the time that Labyrinth Runners aired, was that Hunter wouldn't even be sad if Willow rejected his feelings because her friendship is enough for him. And while I agree that remaining friends with her is first and foremost Hunter's priority, I don't know if he wouldn't be sad. At least a little. Because in this hypothetical scenario, if Willow rejected Hunter, that means that he must have taken a huge leap and done something that he never thought he had any right to do. He asked for more. He revealed to her that he wanted more.

This is a tricky concept to articulate without giving some people the impression that I'm saying Hunter would believe he's entitled to Willow's romantic attention and if she rejects him, he would get all mopey about it. I'm stating quite the opposite.

Would he gracefully accept being rejected? Yes.

Would he make her feel bad about it? No.

Would he continue to treasure his platonic relationship with her because he still adores having her in his life? Of course.

But would he be sad? Even a little? Well....what I'm saying is that I think it would say a lot about his growth and his feelings of self worth if he was a little sad.

He deserves to feel sad.

I think very early on, when Hunter first cut off Belos, he thought he had everything. He had food and shelter and clean clothes and books and a sewing machine and safety and warmth and fun and love. Everyone was so nice to him. This was practically a utopia.

But as time goes on, he should eventually come to terms with the fact that he's not the luckiest boy in the world, but he simply has what everyone is entitled to. These aren't luxuries. They're rights.

And I think an interesting mental journey for him is realizing that it is not disgustingly ungrateful for him to continue wanting, even when life feels idyllic.

It's not selfish to want to kiss Willow, even when being her friend is already so wonderful.

It's normal to want. It's human nature. And he is somewhat human, isn't he?

I like the idea of Hunter taking initiative in steering his relationship with Willow in a more romantic direction (with her consent, obviously). I like what it says about him and how secure he's become in himself.

It demonstrates that even if his insecurities still linger, he is willing to seek out things that he would have once believed himself unworthy of.

Maybe this thing with Willow won't work out. And that's okay. It's just life. But he at least wants to try. He wants to pursue a relationship. He wants more.

I think it puts him in a humiliating position. But also a brave one. Empowering too.

I would like Hunter to stand in front of Willow and unapologetically ask "Will you love me please?"

[none-prob]

I write about a character per day

Day 20: Viney (Finale)

Healer. Beastkeeper. Anarchist.

How many things I can say about a character who had her fair share of 2 episodes with 4 more in the background. Oh boy let's go.

Alright getting this out of the way, and the only time I do this because it's Viney. As my favourite character of the show and 2nd favourite of all time (behind a water witch), I want to headcanon so many things for Viney. She's aroace, because everyone is aroace until proven otherwise :P. My favourite ship to Viney is Luney, in a platonic way, that I would like it even more if I didn't know about Lumity too early. She's an engineer in both biology and chemistry. She opens a veterinarian clinic for mythical pets, while also studies medicine and other methods of healing.

Okay, I gotta admit I like Luney more because of Viney being too awesome and their first interaction were pretty cool. Viney has healing and beastkeeping, two of the most underrated coven of the show. Healing potential looked quite awesome, as she even used a shield made out of the coven sigil. As a diehard fan of Steven Universe, I loved that moment so much.

(yes this is the only writing post I will put images on, screw me)

Beastkeeping may have destroyed the class and got her in detention, but who cares, Puddles is the coolest friend a veterinarian can have. And it is so nice that she chose Healing with Beastkeeping, specifically to heal all the pets she got.

I'm going on a limb and say this. Viney is the perfect successor of Eda, maybe with less rebellious intent than her last generation. The tunnel she used? Eda used it before. The Troublemakers Wall? Eda is the Queen. Viney looks up to Eda, as the pioneer of anarchism in the school. Baby Anarchist Viney is so incredible and I love it.

Viney's outfit is also torn like Eda, in fact her uniform is actually more unique than any other students. Her shirt pin points out, unlike other students, her shirt was torn in a way no one does that. And of course the hook earring. My baby anarchist is so determined to rebel.

Side note: I can take a whole day just talking about her hook earring.

The hate between Viney and Jerbo really is incredibly funny tbh. She just decided to hate him. And when Jerbo joined the other time, she just saw all hell broke loose, gave him that death stare in the eyes. That's just awesome lol.

The First Day is her debut, and also her best episodes (so much injustice for my baby). The idea of using a griffin as an assistance is cool enough, but property damage and multi-track studying got her into trouble. Oh hey, just like Luz heh. One day in and Luz already was in detention with the troublemakers.

Having to live in the shadow for a while, with not many companies on her side, she developed a lot of skepticism. Which is why she was so mad at Luz when she saw Luz's friend coming, thinking Luz is above the troublemakers, or that interaction with Jerbo. But when Luz was in need for help, she and the students that the school deemed as troublemakers have saved the school, and forced Bump to change the law for multi-track studying. Eda might be the pioneer, but Viney and co are the revolutionists.

Her next appearance is in Hunting Palisman. No comments here, I just want to appreciate this moment. Very mystical manticore for a very mystical girl.

Any Sport in a Storm is the episode with her iconic "Now I'm only scarred emotionally". Despite having more screen time, she still doesn't have that much more lines, she was outshined by Hunter and Willow. She's now a member of Emerald Entrails, she got along well with the team, and her powers got stronger. Good for her, good for her.

And of course the group selfie.

Labyrinth Runners is when we see a bit more of her. And Puddles' second battle. Not as successful as the first, but it's precious enough for me.

The last episode she had a line in was For The Future. Again, very brief moments. Although she got a new drip with the scarf. It's a scarf, alright girl. A moment when my kin (Willow) met my favourite (Viney), it's so incredibly precious.

Her finale design is so cool. She got long hair, cool outfit, but the hook earring must stay. And she was helping in erasing the sigils.

Puddles say bye.

[ispridestillasin]

So here’s a continuation of my Alador divorces Odalia early au, which involves an Adrian x Alador x Darius love triangle. It’s pretty long though, so I decided to put it under the cut for those who want to scroll without having to go through a big chuck of text. Have fun!

So Alador divorces Odalia when Amity is around 2 and Emira & Edric are around 4, which means that the Amity-Willow friend break up never happens (thank fuck). Alador ends up taking custody of the kids (I’ll probably explain this in a different post, who knows). It’s been a year and a half since then, and Alador’s tentatively decided to get back into the dating game. He’s not looking for anything serious, just testing the waters and trying to see if he’s open to a future relationship after marrying Odalia straight after Hexside (I personally think that they were arranged but that Alador decided to see where it went and genuinely fell in love with her and vice versa, though in canon we all see how that plays out). Cue Adrian Graye Vernworth.

Honestly, I’m not too sure how they meet. Maybe it’s at an official coven event or maybe it’s on the off hours for them. (For some reason I imagine them meeting when they’re at a market getting groceries??? I’m not sure about that but I’ll workshop it later). All I’m really sure of is that Adrian is the one to be flirty, being the go-getter that he is, in this interaction, though he is put off when Alador mentions his kids. Alador, being the blunt as fuck person he is, just straight up asks Adrian if he’d like to go out, though he is nervous as hell about it since this is technically his first time asking out anyone, right? (No, Alador. Odalia doesn’t count.)

Adrian and Alador agree to go on a few dates, and then a few more dates, and before they know it they’ve been officially dating for at least six months. Alador has even introduced him to Amity, Edric, and Emira by the time they’ve hit the six-month anniversary marker. The kids are pretty wary of this new person in their lives after the divorce. 

Adrian is pretty horrible at interacting with them because he has no frame of reference for interacting with children in a healthy and kind way (Ex: Labyrinth Runners). There’s also the fact that the only other child that Adrian has ever interacted with at that point for longer than the allotted half hour he does when in public is Hunter, and we all know that that kid definitely did not have a normal childhood or even normal interactions with adult figures if canon is an indication to go by.

So for the time being, the twins and Adrian have a neutral relationship, though the twins are absolutely agents of chaos even at almost 5 and make him the butt of their pranks sometimes as a way of warning him that if anything ever happens to their dad they can make his life hell. Adrian lets this go because he knows that if he tries to tell Alador about this the twins will only take their pranks up a notch. The pranks aren’t really anything malicious, they’re more embarrassing than anything, but you all know that Adrian is absolutely fuming inside. Amity likes him well enough, and he prefers her over the twins because she’s a literal toddler and requires less manipulation to get her to like him. Listen, he absolutely sucks at making nice with children on his own without a buffer to copy off of, you can’t convince me otherwise. So for the most part, he indulges her a lot since doing so means that she doesn’t cause him a lot of trouble, though he does hate the messes she makes.

In the end, Alador and Adrian’s relationship isn’t all roses and sunshine though. Alador thinks he’s finally having a healthy romantic relationship, and most of the time that’s true. Adrian doesn’t do any of the whole ‘don’t you want what's best for the family’ thing that Odalia had going on, but he isn’t all soft kisses and cuddles. Sometimes people think they’re finally getting away from a toxic relationship when in reality they’re making the same mistakes all over again, and unfortunately in Alador’s case, this is very much true. He doesn’t realize that he’s shacking up with a man who’s literally willing to harm children if it’ll get him what wants. Adrian’s done pretty well to not show that side since he’s pretty invested in their relationship at that point and he’s never done anything to Alador’s children since he knows doing so would prompt Alador to leave him in a heartbeat. 

I’m going to leave it off here since Darius enters at this point in the small outline I have for this. Part 2 of this might be up soon this week, or maybe not. Who knows? (Me. I know. I’m just bad at keeping promises.)