#it's not even that luz is angry with him. she's just like. oh god this is going to keep happening. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

roxannarambles · 2 years

Text

title: second chances (chapter five)

ship: goldenlight (luz x hunter)

notes: takes place sometime after ‘reaching out’ but before ‘hollow mind.’ (set in my standard canon-divergent AU where everything’s the same except no L*mity)

other chapters: chapter one chapter two chapter three chapter four

The next day, it seemed that Hunter’s lunch break had rarely coincided with a reasonable hour for lunchtime, because Luz sent him a photo of what she was eating that day. (It appeared to be a mud grub sandwich, which she didn’t look especially thrilled about eating.) He sent back a photo of his cafeteria food. She responded with some emoji.

Luzura_Warrior:

... 🤢🤢🤢

Rulerzreachf4n:

what do those even mean

Luzura_Warrior:

whatdo you mean? theyre sick faces

Luzura_Warrior:

can't you tell? they're green

Rulerzreachf4n:

why does green mean they're sick?

Rulerzreachf4n:

the only thing I think of that turns you colors when you're sick is the rainbow fever but that's all the colors

Luzura_Warrior:

no it. it's metaphorical, not literal.although. rainbow fever sounds kinda fun ngl

Rulerzreachf4n:

it's not, trust me. you spend most of your time violently expelling fluids from both ends

Rulerzreachf4n:

the fluids are also rainbow colored

Luzura_Warrior:

okay, yeah, nevermind, I don't wanna catch that.

Rulerzreachf4n:

yeah.

Rulerzreachf4n:

what's this one mean by the way? 🥺 I see it sometimes

Luzura_Warrior:

that's supposed to be puppydog eyes, you know, when you're begging somebody for something

Luzura_Warrior:

pleeeeease hunter come visit me sometime so we can make pancakes 🥺🥺

Luzura_Warrior:

like that!

Rulerzreachf4n:

Luzura_Warrior:

I promise my real puppydog eyes are way more effective then the emoji, though

Hunter began to type a reply out, feeling unsure of what exactly to say, but another message came through before he could finish.

Luzura_Warrior:

any other emojis you want me to translate?

Ah. All right. That subject was a little easier to deal with. He scrolled through the list of little faces.

Rulerzreachf4n:

what about this? 😑

Luzura_Warrior:

uhh . . . hm. I dunno I never use that one, I guess it's like ... dead?

Luzura_Warrior:

oh wait, I think I've seen some people use it to mean annoyed. like really fed up with something.

Rulerzreachf4n:

ok. I guess that makes sense.

Rulerzreachf4n:

what about this one? 😤

Luzura_Warrior:

that one's like 'determined.' stubborn.

Luzura_Warrior:

oh but it also can mean really angry. depends on the situation.

Rulerzreachf4n:

oh, I was way off, I thought it was maybe a sneeze?

Luzura_Warrior:

lolol no this is the sneeze emoji 🤧

Rulerzreachf4n:

... 🤔

Luzura_Warrior:

that's for when you're thinking

Rulerzreachf4n:

... 🧐

Luzura_Warrior:

that's for when you're thinking but you're also FANCY

Rulerzreachf4n:

okay there are WAY too many of these

Luzura_Warrior:

lol, don't worry, you'll learn them eventually

Rulerzreachf4n:

I'm not so sure. I feel like this is an entire language.

Rulerzreachf4n:

and like what even is this one??? 🥴

Luzura_Warrior:

I...have no idea actually. I never understood that one.

Luzura_Warrior:

I guess it's . . . uhhh . . .

Luzura_Warrior:

god I don't have a clue. let's invent a new emotion for it

Rulerzreachf4n:

what

Luzura_Warrior:

hey hunter, just finished my lunch and I'm feeling so snorflimppet 🥴

Luzura_Warrior:

you know TFW you're hella gasterplastecked 🥴

Rulerzreachf4n:

no.

Rulerzreachf4n:

stop.

Luzura_Warrior:

yknow we should teach you about memes too if you're gonna be on penstagram

Rulerzreachf4n:

oh, yeah. willow and gus have shown me a few of those. I think I saved one. hold on . . .

Luzura_Warrior:

I . . .

Luzura_Warrior:

I've become a MEME??

Rulerzreachf4n:

is that . . . bad?

Rulerzreachf4n:

I thought it was a good thing

Luzura_Warrior:

it's . . .uhh well I don't know if I'd call it good or bad, really, it's just . . .

Luzura_Warrior:

hmm, honestly I'm not sure how to feel about it. guess I feel 🥴🥴

Rulerzreachf4n:

well if you don't like it, I can delete it

Luzura_Warrior:

nah, it's fine, no need

Luzura_Warrior:

tbh it's kinda neat.

Luzura_Warrior:

so the meme you have saved to your scroll was the one that had me in it . . . interesting 😏

What was that one? They hadn't discussed that emoji yet. This texting thing was stressful sometimes.

Rulerzreachf4n:

I saved it because it was about flyer derby

Rulerzreachf4n:

it just happened to have you in it

Luzura_Warrior:

mmm ok. if you say so.

Luzura_Warrior:

oh hey, before I forget, you wanna help me start a new meme on penstagram?

Rulerzreachf4n:

how?

Luzura_Warrior:

it's easy! just choose a basic format first . . .

Luzura_Warrior:

like, say, mmm, the old bait-n-switch . . .

Luzura_Warrior:

choose a video . . .

Luzura_Warrior:

and voila!

A link popped up. Hunter followed it to see it led to Luz's Penstagram page, to her newest public post.

You know, it’s not often that I’m impressed by speeches, but the statements that one of the Coven’s top officials has recently released are really worth checking out. Find it here:

It was a link that led away from Penstagram. When Hunter clicked on it, it brought him to the video of Kikimora falling flat on her face and then wriggling around to dance music. Hunter had already seen this video many, many times, but he laughed again anyway.

Rulerzreachf4n:

ok, if that’s how you make a meme, then I’m a fan

Luzura_Warrior:

great! so all you need to do is post something on your penstagram that claims you’re linking a particular thing . . . but link to this video instead

Rulerzreachf4n:

that’s honestly kind of childish

He paused on his Penstagram page, thinking about it.

Rulerzreachf4n:

…but, she acts very childish anyway, so turnabout’s fair play

Luzura_Warrior:

haha, there ya go.

Late afternoon, Hunter was in the middle of his usual patrol through Bonesborough, keeping an eye out for troublemakers or any civil unrest. It was a very slow day, though, and hardly anyone was around. He’d gone out to one of the massive demonic appendanges that existed in the town (this one was called ‘Dead Hand’ because it was unusually still compared to the other, twitchier hands). There had been a minor complaint lodged that somebody was trying to paint graffiti on the huge, scaly hand. When he got there, though, he found it was just a couple of kids that looked hardly older than toddlers, and they didn’t even know how to operate a spray paint can. He chased the kids away and then was left standing there in the silent streets of Bonesborough, sighing. Sometimes he felt like most of the duties he did for the Coven was just busywork.

Pulling out his scroll, he logged onto Penstagram and scrolled idly. Luz had ‘shared’ his Kikimora meme post and so it had a fair number of ‘likes’ and a few replies. This kept him amused for a few minutes, but eventually he grew bored.

His scroll buzzed with a new message.

Luzura_Warrior:

look at themmmmm 😍

A picture was included, and it had King curled up on the couch, with the Owl Lady’s palisman snuggled into his fur, both fast asleep.

Rulerzreachf4n:

nice

Rulerzreachf4n:

this is what I’m doing

He pointed the scroll at the Dead Hand and took a photo to send to Luz.

Luzura_Warrior:

on patrol? cool, I’ve never actually gotten that close to that thing before

Luzura_Warrior:

eda, uh, told me they grab people sometimes, so I’m a little careful

Rulerzreachf4n:

they can sometimes but only when they’re cranky. dead hand doesn’t though, it’s very docile.

Luzura_Warrior:

huh. good to know!

Luzura_Warrior:

hey, I have a question, how come you never send any selfies? I don’t think I’ve seen a single one from you yet

Luzura_Warrior:

you even changed your pfp, it used to be you and now it’s flapjack.

Luzura_Warrior:

obviously I ADORE flapjack but, well. I dunno, I guess I’m just curious if there’s a reason

Luzura_Warrior:

sorry if that’s prying too much

He thought about when he first made his Penstagram account and all the time he spent trying to get a photo to use for his profile. He probably spent over an hour doing it, only to later decide it looked awful anyway and took it down.

Rulerzreachf4n:

not sure if there’s really a reason

Rulerzreachf4n:

I just don’t feel the desire to, I guess.

Rulerzreachf4n:

I..don’t really like how I look.

Luzura_Warrior:

wait, really?

He hesitated as he read her message, but she didn’t seem to be teasing him. He decided to take a chance and tell her the truth.

Rulerzreachf4n:

yeah. that’s part of why I like my mask. better to cover it up when people would rather not see it anyway, you know?

He waited as the dots on the scroll indicated Luz was typing.

Luzura_Warrior:

okay, so, I guess it kind of makes sense you wouldn’t realize this, since you probably don’t talk to a lot of people.

He frowned, confused.

Rulerzreachf4n:

realize what?

Luzura_Warrior:

that you’re actually really cute

He froze, his heart leaping at the blunt reply. Staring at the message in shock, he tried to make sense of it. What? She really thought-- she--

Wait, no. That couldn’t be right. His skepticism returning fast, he typed,

Rulerzreachf4n:

that’s not a nice thing to joke about

At the same moment he’d entered that text, Luz entered one as well;

Luzura_Warrior:

I mean, objectively speaking. you know?

He narrowed his eyes, confused. She quickly followed up with more texts.

Luzura_Warrior:

what? I wouldn’t joke about that. I’m serious.

Luzura_Warrior:

did somebody tell you that you weren’t?

Luzura_Warrior:

because that’s wrong, you’re definitely. yknow, teenage heartthrob material.

Luzura_Warrior:

honestly I’m surprised you don’t know this? when I first met you, you were so confident, it seemed like you were all ,’i’m sexy and I know it’

Luzura_Warrior:

uh I, mean, you know. like. objectively! haha.

In an intensely short amount of time Hunter felt like his head was going to possibly explode, the phrase ‘teenage heartthrob’ on repeat in his mind. Flustered, he tried to type out a reply.

Rulerzreachf4n:

you’re really serious? I. but.

This didn’t make sense. But it really did seem like she was being sincere.

Luzura_Warrior:

ok, you gotta tell me who told you all this BS about how you look, because they’re not only a jerk, theyre apparently blind

Starting to feel a bit warm, he confessed,

Rulerzreachf4n:

nobody really told me that, I just. it’s what I’ve always kinda thought.

Luzura_Warrior:

oh.

Rulerzreachf4n:

but. now that I have your perspective, I.

He struggled to figure out how to reply.

Rulerzreachf4n:

well it’s.

Rulerzreachf4n:

good to know

Luzura_Warrior:

okay well great glad i could clarify that!

Luzura_Warrior:

annnnyway

Luzura_Warrior:

anythgig ecxiti ng ever happen onyour patrols???

Hunter glanced up as he caught motion out of the corner of his eye. It turned out to be a Coven scout, carrying a spear, also out on patrol. Not really a surprise; it seemed the only people out today were Coven members.

The scout waved as he approached.

“Hello, sir! Run into any problems today?”

Ah, it was Steve. There were a great many coven scouts in their ranks, and Hunter admittedly didn’t recognize them all by name, but he recognized Steve. He had a rather decent . . . well, “friendship” was not the word. He had a rather decent acquaintanceship with him. It mostly consisted of Steve sitting next to him sometimes during lunch and rambling about whatever random things were rattling about in his head, while Steve in turn would listen to Hunter rant about Kikimora. It hadn’t ever gone beyond that, but still, it made Hunter feel slightly more at ease to be around a semi-familiar face. Well. A semi-familiar voice. He’d never actually seen any of the scouts maskless.

“Nah. Just told a couple of kids to go home before their mothers worry about them. Truly a test of my skills and training, I know, but somehow I prevailed.”

Steve laughed. It was strangely nice to have another person actually laugh at his snarky comments.

“Hey, at least it wasn’t one of those days where we had to clear out a sligguth infestation, right? I’d relish a little boredom in comparison.”

Hunter frowned.

“I guess so.”

The coven scout leaned casually against the Dead Hand’s wrist as he began to ramble idly.

“This job’s not quite what I expected, I’ll tell you that, but it does give me a lot of time to think, you know? It’s kind of nice on these slow days when nobody’s around to bother me and I can just do my own thing.”

Hunter raised a brow, even though his face was covered by his mask.

“You mean goof off?”

Steve chuckled again.

“I know I’m not the only one, weren’t you just looking at your scroll?”

Hunter jolted a little, even though he still had the scroll in his hand and it wasn’t a surprise the scout had seen. Accepting that he’d been caught out, he lifted the scroll back up and glanced at it. He answered wryly,

“As far as you’re concerned I was just monitoring social media for any potential rabblerousers.”

The scout nodded.

“Of course, sir.”

Hunter looked at his scroll thoughtfully for a few moments, considering the human he’d just been conversing with. He was struck with a sudden impulse. It was pretty out of character for him, but there was something about the human that seemed to make him do strange things. And in the moment, he didn’t really care.

“Hey, um, Steve? You wanna help me take, uh . . . a ‘selfie’?”

He handed his scroll to Steve. The scout shrugged.

“Sure. Although I don’t think it’s technically a selfie unless you take it yourself.”

Hunter hopped on his artificial staff and quickly flew up to the top of Dead Hand.

“All right, well whatever it’s called.”

He landed on the open palm of the giant hand and set his staff down. After a moment of hesitation, he reached up and pulled his Golden Guard mask off.

From below, Steve was pointing the scroll at him, fiddling with settings.

“Hmm, why don’t you try something a little more dynamic, sir?”

Hesitantly, he asked,

“Dynamic?”

“Yeah! Pose or something.”

He thought about that a moment, his mind casting back to when he’d first met Luz on the airship. Oh. Sure, he could do that.

He got down and sprawled casually on his side, leaning his chin into a palm, propping it up with an elbow. He held his mask in his other hand loosely against his waist and fixed the scroll with a steady gaze.

“Oh, that’s perfect, sir! Hold that. Hmm, the angle is a bit weird down here. Maybe if I backed up a little. . .”

Hunter had a better idea. He grabbed his staff and sent it down to the ground.

“Here, just ride that.”

“Oh, that’s genius, sir.”

Steve seemed unperturbed about this taking a little work, and he rode the staff up around Hunter’s hight and carefully adjusted his position.

“All right, good, now smile for the camera?”

Ugh, this felt kinda weird. He really did hate pictures. But he was determined to do it.

All right, just imagine it was Luz floating there. She wanted a selfie, he’d give her one.

He quirked his brow a little and slipped into a cheeky grin, gazing intensely into the scroll as if she was right there in front of him. He heard the scroll snap a few pictures.

“Wow, you’re a natural, sir. I feel like this would make a great recruitment poster! The old one is a little plain, you know?”

Hunter stood back up and shook his head as Steve returned the scroll to him.

“Nah, this is only for friends.”

He sat down on the hand, his feet dangling off the edge as he fiddled with his scroll. Steve landed and sat down beside him, humming,

“Of course, you need to keep the mystery of the original poster. People respect and fear the mask.”

Hunter nodded.

“Exactly.”

He hesitated as he looked at his picture. Did it look stupid? Should he actually send it, or maybe retake it? Was it too weird? Too . . . much? Maybe he should–

Oh, screw it.

He sent the photo to Luz before he could question it any further and chicken out. After that was a tense wait, but it didn’t last for very long.

Luzura_Warrior:

ohmygod

Luzura_Warrior:

asafdjh;lgfju

Luzura_Warrior:

what have I done, I never should have told you the truth

It was unclear what exactly that meant, but Hunter had hoped it was positive. He answered cautiously.

Rulerzreachf4n:

you said you wanted a selfie

Luzura_Warrior:

hahaha I did, it’s true

Luzura_Warrior:

but boy, you REALLY delivered

Rulerzreachf4n:

is that a good thing?

Luzura_Warrior:

yeah uhh

Luzura_Warrior:

definitely a good thing.

Luzura_Warrior:

it’s really good, haha.

He started to type out a reply, but she followed up with more texts before he could.

Luzura_Warrior:

jeez, that look you’re giving is smokin’

Luzura_Warrior:

do you practice that in the mirror or

Luzura_Warrior:

hey wait, who took the picture?

Rulerzreachf4n:

thats not important

Luzura_Warrior:

you actually enlisted somebody’s help to take this for me?

Luzura_Warrior:

I feel so special :3 Rulerzreachf4n:

yeah, yeah, just don’t show it to anyone else alright

Luzura_Warrior:

whuh wait

Luzura_Warrior:

this really was just for me??

Luzura_Warrior:

so i really AM special :3c

Growing uncomfortable with how perceptive Luz was being, he tried to derail.

Rulerzreachf4n:

I don’t know what that emoji means

Luzura_Warrior:

oh sorry. it’s like…. a kittycat smile? there isn’t really a good official emoji for it.

Rulerzreachf4n:

a cat smile?

He wasn’t sure how a cat could smile and what the heck that would even indicate.

Luzura_Warrior:

yeah it’s like . . .

Luzura_Warrior:

hold on a sec

Luzura_Warrior:

like that!

Hunter studied the picture, which you’d think would help clarify things, but really all it did was confuse the issue even further.

Rulerzreachf4n:

what exactly is that look supposed to mean though

Luzura_Warrior:

:3c hehehehehe

Rulerzreachf4n:

luz that doesnt help

“So does your friend like the picture?”

Hunter jumped in surprise, having entirely forgotten that Steve was even sitting there.

“Uhh.”

His scroll buzzed and spammed him with indecipherable emoji.

Luzura_Warrior:

😏😏 😼😼🦦🦦😈😇

“. . . I think so? Yeah.”

The rest of patrol was just as stunningly uneventful, so Hunter spent the rest of it walking his route and talking with Steve. Honestly, it wasn’t so terrible a way to finish out the afternoon, which mostly was just letting Steve ramble on about his little brother and his newfound interest in Illusion magic. When Hunter returned to the castle, he had some very boring tasks that included taking stock of some new supplies (again, he found himself wondering if Belos just assigned him duties as mere busywork, but it wasn’t his place to question things). It took him several hours to complete and then he had a cold, unpleasant dinner at the cafeteria, but for some reason, none of it fazed him much, and he spent the whole time humming to himself, a little smile on his face.

When the evening came and he was finally free to return to his room, he gratefully collapsed onto his bed and stuck his face into the nearest book. It was a pleasant diversion for about an hour, and then his scroll buzzed. Eagerly, he grabbed it and found that it was Luz asking if he could help her with a few questions on her Beast Keeping homework. He agreed to help.

What had started out as just a few questions quickly grew into a much larger discussion.

Luzura_Warrior:

I just am having a hard time because I had no idea there were so many kinds of dragons

Luzura_Warrior:

in the human realm I only really heard of the basic ones

Luzura_Warrior:

not all these weird wingless dragons and the legless dragons and the dragons with only two legs and all that

Rulerzreachf4n:

well they’re not really dragons.

Luzura_Warrior:

what?? what do you mean.

Rulerzreachf4n:

the common ancestor species is a wyrm, which eventually evolved into lindwyrms and loongs over time. the ones living at higher elevations developed into drakes. and then potentially dragons arose from the drakes.

Rulerzreachf4n:

they’re all in the wyrm family, though, a dragon is just a kind of wyrm

Luzura_Warrior:

seriously? I thought a wyrm was just . . . a legless and wingless dragon?

Rulerzreachf4n:

no, it’s the other way around. a dragon is a wyrm with legs and wings.

Luzura_Warrior:

man, this is weird. so what exactly is a wyrm then?

Rulerzreachf4n:

well, wyrms branch off from the sea serpents because of their scales, regenerative abilities and pyrorespiration. sea serpents of course belonging to the larger family of serpents, which in turn of course branch off from the true worms

Luzura_Warrior:

hold on, slow down a little. not sure if I’m getting you because it seems like you’re saying that . . . dragons evolved from snakes and that snakes evolved from worms?

Rulerzreachf4n:

snakes are a smaller sub-family of serpents, really

Rulerzreachf4n:

but your statement is mostly correct, yeah.

Luzura_Warrior:

snakes evolved from worms??

Rulerzreachf4n:

yeah? didn’t they cover this already?

Rulerzreachf4n:

everything evolved from worms, they’re nature’s ideal form

Luzura_Warrior:

buhhuhuwhaaa?

Rulerzreachf4n:

you haven’t covered the Great Ancestral Worm yet??

Luzura_Warrior:

um, well. I kind of haven’t had one of the pre-reqs for this class. I begged the teacher to let me take it anyway . . .

Luzura_Warrior:

but please, I gotta know about anything called ‘the Great Ancestral Worm,’ because this is getting wild

Rulerzreachf4n:

okay, well.

Rulerzreachf4n:

in the beginning, when the Titan first fell, the first creature to immerge from the decomposing muck was a worm

Rulerzreachf4n:

the Great Ancestral Worm, from which all beasts sprang. the ratworms, the trash slugs, the giraffes, the sea serpents, all that

Rulerzreachf4n:

and from the beasts, branched off the bug demons and the bipedal demons

Rulerzreachf4n:

many bug demons still retaining body forms quite close to the original ancestral worms, but developing sentience alongside the bipedal demons

Rulerzreachf4n:

bipedal demons of course ended up quite distant from the ancestral design, and needed to compensate for it, develop bile sacs for their own magic

Luzura_Warrior:

okay hold on

Luzura_Warrior:

so you’re saying EVERYTHING is based off worms

Luzura_Warrior:

what about, uhh. echo mice?

Rulerzreachf4n:

they evolved from the ratworms.

Luzura_Warrior:

okay, how about the selkiedomuses.

Rulerzreachf4n:

sea serpents that developed fins and blubber.

Luzura_Warrior:

what about birds??

Rulerzreachf4n:

they came from the wyverns and feathered serpents.

Luzura_Warrior:

there’s feathered serpents too?? oh god

Luzura_Warrior:

this is getting a little overwhelming

Rulerzreachf4n:

let’s just focus on wyrms for now. you said you only needed to know the basic groups for now, right?

Luzura_Warrior:

yeah. yeah, ok.

Rulerzreachf4n:

So we have the Wyrms, and then the Lindwyrms which evolved front limbs to help a little with traction, but still move with a serpentine body motion. And next are the Loongs, with four limbs which can walk awkwardly on land but who mostly prefer to swim or fly.

Luzura_Warrior:

wait. fly? I thought Loongs don’t have wings?

Rulerzreachf4n:

that’s correct, they don’t.

Luzura_Warrior:

asdgrsrjyyj

Luzura_Warrior:

THEN HOW

Rulerzreachf4n:

they fly via magic. loong’s magic is fairly potent, they also have some control over weather and can shapeshift.

Luzura_Warrior:

oh, right, magic is a thing. haha . . .

Rulerzreachf4n:

next are the drakes

Luzura_Warrior:

those are the wingless dragons! right? they first found them at the knee

Rulerzreachf4n:

well, ‘wingless dragons’ is... not very descriptive.

Rulerzreachf4n:

but yes, the drakes evolved at higher elevations and had stockier bodies, sturdier limbs that made for good walking and climbing, and stronger fire breath.

Luzura_Warrior:

can THEY magically fly?

Rulerzreachf4n:

that’s a good question! no, the drakes lost the ability to fly, as well as their shapeshifting and weather control

Luzura_Warrior:

okay, gotcha

Rulerzreachf4n:

then we have the dragons, which fly with the help of their leathery wings. and then wyverns

Luzura_Warrior:

hold on a sec one time I heard Hooty say HE’S A WORM

Luzura_Warrior:

does that mean hooty’s a bug demon???

Rulerzreachf4n:

uh… do you mean your house demon?

Luzura_Warrior:

yeah!

Rulerzreachf4n:

yes, house demons are a type of parasitic worm.

Luzura_Warrior:

holy crap this makes so much sense now. now that I think about it, he was saying something one time about an ancestral worm

Rulerzreachf4n:

uh yeah so, anyway

Luzura_Warrior:

wait did you say PARASITIC??

Luzura_Warrior:

he’s a parasite???

Rulerzreachf4n:

yes, house demons parasitize living houses

Luzura_Warrior:

I thought hooty WAS the house!!! that’s not his body??

Rulerzreachf4n:

it’s technically not. once a house demon attaches to a house, they gain some control and nerve sensation, but it’s technically their host.

Luzura_Warrior:

oh my god. this is blowing my mind

Rulerzreachf4n:

ok, I think we’re getting a bit off track here

Luzura_Warrior:

right, sorry, sorry

Luzura_Warrior:

back to dragons. I mean, wyrms, back to wyrms and not house worms. I’m listening.

Hunter did his best to get Luz back on track and explain the basic wyrm families, as well as the two competing theories on whether drakes evolved into dragons, or ampitheres evolved into wyverns and then some wyverns developed into dragons. Although Luz was a bit distractable at times and prone to chit-chat, she was also very enthusiastic and seemed genuinely interested in the subject. She also seemed to pick up the information fairly quickly. When they’d finished, she thanked him profusely and said she was going to spend another hour studying to make sure it was solidified in her head for tomorrow’s quiz. He bid her a goodnight and returned to his reading.

He continued to read until it grew very late, at an hour when his mind was very fuzzy and his thoughts were disjointed. He browsed Pentsagram a little, very amused to find Darius had shared his Kikimora meme, and it seemed to be spreading rapidly. He giggled at that for a bit and then his thoughts started to turn slowly along the memories of his day, over the discussions he’d had with Luz. There was a very pleasant feeling that flickered through him as he pondered things, like the bright little embers that popped off a crackling fire.

When his scroll buzzed, he sleepily picked it up and checked it.

Luzura_Warrior:

hunteeerrrrrr

Luzura_Warrior:

I’m booorrreddddd

He chuckled outloud and typed a response.

Rulerzreachf4n:

thought you were studying

Luzura_Warrior:

yeah it got boring

Luzura_Warrior:

whatre you doin?

Rulerzreachf4n:

well I WAS reading peacefully

Luzura_Warrior:

awhjyyhd why are you even still up it’s like almost 2am

Rulerzreachf4n:

why are YOU still up

Luzura_Warrior:

that’s evading the question, I asked u first

Rulerzreachf4n:

im always up this late

Rulerzreachf4n:

it’s the only time to myself i really get, so. thats why.

Luzura_Warrior:

that makes sense.

Rulerzreachf4n:

k so now you

Luzura_Warrior:

well I was just cramming for the quiz

Luzura_Warrior:

I am bad at time management, I admit it

Luzura_Warrior:

but I’m in bed now like a good girl, I swear

Luzura_Warrior:

see look

A picture popped up, showing a dimmed bedroom. Hunter squinted at it. Luz seemed to be on the floor, sitting inside a strange fabric . . . cocoon?

Rulerzreachf4n:

what. the heck is that, that’s not a bed.

Luzura_Warrior:

it’s a sleeping bag.

Rulerzreachf4n:

that doesn’t seem very comfortable.

Luzura_Warrior:

no, it’s okay! it’s not so bad. not as good as a bed, I admit, but eda didn’t have any spare mattresses, so I’ve just been using this.

Rulerzreachf4n:

huh. she should get you a bed.

Luzura_Warrior:

well moneys not exactly pouring in right now

Luzura_Warrior:

I know you probably have a nice fancy bed at the castle but not everyone can be so luxurious, ya know

Hunter frowned, considering his bed and his room.

Rulerzreachf4n:

actually my bed’s really not fancy

Rulerzreachf4n:

or my room. belos gave me quarters that are the same size and furnishings as any other scout

Rulerzreachf4n:

said that i shouldn’t grow soft or complacent

Luzura_Warrior:

whoa I didn’t realize that.

Luzura_Warrior:

ok now I’m curious. whats it look like?

Luzura_Warrior:

send me a picture?? 😃

Hunter aimed his scroll, trying to get a shot, then grumbled because it didn’t look like much from his angle. He got out of bed and snapped a photo so she could actually see things.

Luzura_Warrior:

oooh okay, it’s not so bad. seems cozy. that pillowcase looks pretty ratty tho lol

Luzura_Warrior:

oh my god wait, you have a PLUSHIE?? I see that lil head poking out there!

Hunter quickly re-checked the photo, and to his horror, you could in fact see the hot pink head of his goofy little frog plushie sticking out behind a pillow.

Rulerzreachf4n:

please pretend you didnt see that

Luzura_Warrior:

no way, oh my god hunter this is adorable. I love this. you like plushies too!! I wanna get a better look, send me a pic! 😃

Rulerzreachf4n:

no way you’ll just make fun of me

Luzura_Warrior:

no I won’t!! I swear. pleeeeease??

Luzura_Warrior:

do you actually sleep with it too? aaaaa thatd be so CUTE

Hunter grunted, dropping back down onto his bed with a defeated sigh. There was no way she was gonna drop this, he knew her well enough by now for that. Gruhhh.

He reached over and pulled the plushie out from behind the pillow. Wrapping an arm around it, he hugged it tight against his chest and aimed the scroll at himself, sticking his tongue out and snapping a photo.

When he sent it, Luz nearly combusted.

Luzura_Warrior:

saftrrerghewyhrw

Luzura_Warrior:

aaaaaaa hutner!!!!

Luzura_Warrior:

SO CUTE

Luzura_Warrior:

you giant dork i LOVE it

Luzura_Warrior:

look at youuuu aaaaa!! 😍

Rulerzreachf4n:

you show that to anybody and I will hunt you down

Luzura_Warrior:

hehehehehee

Luzura_Warrior:

hunt me down. cos you’re hunter

Rulerzreachf4n:

yes. you don’t want that, trust me

Luzura_Warrior:

heeehee, but maybe I do 😉

Hunter’s thoughts halted, stalling at Luz’s text as he struggled to form a coherent response. Fortunately, Luz just continued to ramble.

Luzura_Warrior:

ughh I should get to sleep

Luzura_Warrior:

i have a really busy day tomorrow

Luzura_Warrior:

all these quizzes and exams at once, I swear the teachers do it on purpose

He had to focus to type out a reply that sounded normal.

Rulerzreachf4n:

yeah, I should sleep too

Luzura_Warrior:

ok you might not hear from me tomorrow until real late, i got a lot going on

Luzura_Warrior:

but i’ll say bye for now!

Rulerzreachf4n:

okay

Luzura_Warrior:

so gnnnighty night for now, my goldie dork boy~~ 😘

Luzura_Warrior:

talk to you later 💖💗💜

Rulerzreachf4n:

bye

Hunter stared dumbly at the scroll for a while after she’d logged off, his fuzzy sleepy thoughts rolling about in his mind like a tangled ball of yarn. Letting the scroll drop down onto his bed, he fell asleep before even bothering to get changed for the night.

#toh #the owl house #goldenlight #lunter #huntceda #goldenluz #luz x hunter #hunter x luz #goldenlight fanfic

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hurgablurg · 1 year

Text

owl house finale!

spoilers!

HOLY SHIT!!!! That knocked my socks off and really made my week!

at first i was like “aw man collector why are you willingly traumatizing people” and then its like oh, right, they’re a dumb little kid

i was SO hyped for Belos to pilot the entire island and get the shit knocked out of him on an epic scale by on reflection that would’ve killed EVERYONE, so it’s good that it didn’t happen. Props to Raine for surviving that much suckage AND breaking free AND taking the initiative to try to kill him!

I want to know King’s dad carnally. Let me talk to the agender possibly-hermaphroditic giant demon dilf. PLEASE. Wait no where’s they goin-

Luz took a LOT of aesthetic influence from her goth girlfriend for that Titan-magic form, and she is soooo valid for stealing that drip. mismagius-lookin’ ass gen z

collector learning FEELINGS and about DEATH even though the lesson about death was kind of subverted by Luz coming right back? i dunno, there was also trauma involved so maybe that will stick with him

oh and also suck it anne-clone theorists, souls are REAL. and if i had a dollar for everytime a disney show protagonist spent their body to stop an impossibly-strong threat and were later given a new meat-suit by god, i could buy a sodie-pop.

TAG-TEAM BATTLES HELLLLL YEAH LOVE ANGRY KING HE’S SO FERAL

I LOVE IT WHEN THE POWER OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP SAVES THE DAY

KILLED HIM. MELTED HIM AND STOMPED HIM AND CRUSHED HIM AND BEAT HIM AND KICKED HIM LIKE A GANG OF GAY ITALIAN TEENAGERS BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF A RANDOM GUY. GOODBYE FOREVER YOU PURITAN FUCK

GAY SHIT HELL YEAAAAH

collector literally said 🥺 and we love that for them BUT I AM SO MAD THAT HE WASN’T ADOPTED BY ANYONE C’MOOOOOOOON LET THEM PLAY HALO 3 AND EAT PIZZA BAGELS

goooooooood i love “where are they now endings”, especially when everyone is still TOGETHER.

POST-SCRIPT COLLEGE FANFIC TIME

i love the credits just pausing over the disney legal stuff and branding part of the credits like “oh. you’re still part of this. whatever.”

Fantastic fucking series, fantastic fucking episode!

hey wait aren’t the rest of the collectors still out there...?

WAIT WAS HOOTY THE TITAN’S PALISMAN

#the owl house #toh spoilers #watching and dreaming

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pipwife · 1 year

Note

1+5

Please tell me u never did this

"Would you still love me if I was a worm?"

THANK YOU SM FOR THIS PROMPT IT WAS SO FUN LMAO

beluz, aged-up / future fic! hope you enjoy :3 cw for mention of suicide in a joking/non-serious manner

it'll be up on ao3 in a jiffy~

"Would you still love me if I was a worm?"

Philip quickly lowered his newspaper to the table they both sat at, his face scrunched up like he'd smelled something foul. "What the fuck did you just say?"

Luz pouted. Philip never curses, so why now? "Oh, come on. All I said was—"

"Would I still love you if you were—?" Philip dropped the newspaper completely to steeple his fingers together and glare over them at her, his face dead serious—dangerous, almost—like she hadn't seen from him in years. "Luz Noceda, there is nothing on this godforsaken earth—and I mean that, nothing—that could stop the terrible force within me that is my love for you. No man, no God—nothing. Nothing."

"So…" Slowly, a grin spread over Luz's face, her cheeks growing warm. "Even if I was a worm?"

Philip blinked at her. Once. Twice. Then, "Yes," he said, deadpan. "Yes, even then."

Luz squealed happily. "Eep! Yay! So what would you do right now if I turned into a worm?"

His face contorted again, this time into something haughty. He looked down his crooked nose at her unamusedly. "I would turn you back." As if it was obvious.

"And before you could do that?" Luz asked expectantly. "What would you do with worm-me?"

A moment of silence passed where Luz watched as Philip, bathed in the golden light from the dim lamp above them, debated whether or not to continue this silly conversation. Something smug rose in her, bright and bratty. She knew he would fold and continue to play her game.

He always did.

Sure enough, Philip relented with a sigh. "I would put you somewhere safe with some dirt while I looked into worm care." He dropped his chin to look at her indulgently, his voice low and tired. "Luckily, I have a phone now, so it wouldn't be terribly difficult to quickly search for the information. I would just put into a search engine caring for a pet worm and there would be a Reddit thread detailing, at length, the best soil and the best produce and the best lighting to leave you in."

"True." Luz nodded, her index fingers pressed against her lips. She appreciated his attention to detail. Still, she wasn't quite done tormenting him. "If you couldn't turn me back, what then? What would you do?"

A look crossed over Philip's face, like he wanted to be angry, but then it fell and he sighed. "I would be devastated." Luz blinked widely at his honestly, her hands falling to the table. "You're the greatest joy in my life and to see all your potential fall away into what would be, essentially, the death of your human self… It would destroy me. I don't know how long worms live, Luz, but I would care for that worm for as long as it lived, hoping above hope that my little Luz was happy. If worms can even be happy."

"This got way more serious than I meant it to—"

"And when that worm would die, Luz, I would hold a proper funeral. There would be a service, one deserving of the young woman I had so loved. And I would bury you for one final time in the dirt you had so loved, perhaps even with the dirt you had created in your enclosure. Afterwards, I would kill myself."

Luz jumped in her seat. "What the fuck?!"

All at once, Philip's serious facade melted away and he erupted into laughter, his wicked cackles so loud they shook the dining room walls. "Your face! Your face!"

Feeling her face grow hot (and her chest grow light), Luz glared at him. "I hope I become a worm and you suffer with a little worm girlfriend!"

Philip's laughter quieted, but only because he was out of breath. "I already have a little worm girlfriend."

"You're the worst!" But Luz couldn't help laughing along with him, shaking her head at his wide, toothy grin.

That was Philip, she supposed. Always one step ahead.

"If you turned into a worm, I'd eat you."

"No, you would not."

"I so would. I would."

"No!"

#beluz #philuz #piplight #garden.post #garden.fic

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cosmixbun · 1 year

Text

my favorite moments from the owl house finale OBVIOUS SPOILERS DUH (timestaps + thoughts)

EVERYTHING IS IN TIMESTAMPS IN RELATION TO THE YOUTUBE VIDEO EPISODE AND NOT THE DISNEY+ EPISODE (they might be the same but it's 2:45 am (now 3:36 am as i publish this) and the disney+ ep isn't out yet lol)

4:50- i love hunter so much he's just like me and when i saw this i think my heart killed itself oh my god.

6:36- i love him, that's it i love him every time he's on screen i get so excited he's literally me, i am him

11:14- i cannot get over how much i love this design ??? i also love raine, ik that they r literally possessed rn (it's one of my favorite tropes omg i just cant they did the belos possession with my two favorite characters in this show)

15:50- i love raine SO MUCH i literally do not care that i keep saying this i just love raine. and the sterness of them saying get out to belos ??? ur literally my fav pls.

21:37- GAHHHHH THIS WHOLE SEQUENCE ???? i love seeing monster animated ESPECIALLY big ones with little details omg i wanna redraw this version of belos so bad.

21:44- MY FAVORITE SHOT ??? i live for skull shots.

22:58-die. die. die luz why would u do this and rip my heart out and step on it i cant

24:14- die. die. die. i started sobbing i hate watching other peoples reactions to emotional moments, it makes me cry more. AND CAMILA CRYING EVEN THO SHE'S STILL A PUPPET ?? death. im being buried alive actually.

24:54- THESE CLOSE UPS. KILLED. ME. the very slight detail to the lines is all it did for me, i literally wanted to rip my eyes out and watch these close up again.

25:14- KING ???? OH MY GOD ???? sorry i just love this little guy and seeing him angry is just so good i love it.

25:19- MY WIFE ????? get angry again pls omg i love u sm her losing control is also another one of my favorite tropes to exist ever.

29:59- omg dana im kissing the ground u walk on for this. i LOVE DETAILED MONSTERS OH MY GOD ???? dana u genius you.

31:40- THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND GRIEF OR DEATH :((((( so u want me to die, so u want me dead, so u want me to cry

32:15- GRAAAAHHHHH THIS ENTERANCE ???? I LOVE LUZ SM THIS IS SUCH A LUZ MOMENT.

34:13- I LOVE ANIMATION OH MY GOD I JUST ASDFJOEIAGJEORHGIERJROFJIER HG9ERAHIU. thank you animation, for existing.

37:10- STOP I LOVE THIS. ILY RAINE. AND THE LITTLE EDA AND RAINE MOMENT ??? stop i NEED them to kiss rn, rnrnrnrnrnrn.

38:02- THIS. FUCKING. FIGHT. "how anime can we get the entire scene." AND THEN BLEW IT TO 300000X MORE.

38:33- THE CALL BACK AFJAOGFJIHSAODFJSDFN i died actually, i cannot belive this. i think someone called it and im kissing their brain rn oh my god this is just so luz and then instead of LUZURA SHE SAYS LUZ, SHE GREW INTO HERSELF HERE.

38:55- MY FAVORITE LUZ MOMENT EVER OMG THIS IS SO LUZ OMG I LOVE THE ANIMATION AND THE PRESENTAION OF THE VOICE AND THEN JUST GAH I LOVE.

41:17- "bitch please." god i loved this moment. luz could literally give less of a damn. i loved belos as a villain and just this is so satisfying to luz and to the clawthore's.

44:13- HUNTER I LOVE YOU OMG PLS U CAN BE HAPPY NOW.

44:22- he's just like me fr, ik he got that pizzazz to him too, just look at him.

45:42- EDA AND RAINE NEST ?!?!?!? crying sobbing throwing up, oh my god when is it my turn to be happy.

46:08- CAMILA AND EDA MOMENT. :'( i shed a tear i loved this moment even if it was really tiny.

46:20- HOOTY AND LILY ADIFHASDIFHASIFI god i love lilith sm

46:42- OMG KILL ME AND KISS ALREADY PLS crying i love them sm

47:00- EDA AND RAINE PLS I LOVE YOU I CANT EVEN. (also didn't mention it before but raine's scars ??? <333333 def just like me) ((where is my eda pls i want to be like them))

48:03- OLDER LUZ AND THE PICTURES FSDKFSJDOFJASIF OLDER VEE ???? cried, im graduating this year and to see the graduation picture and luz going to college is so me and i just :((

48:25- AAAAA OLDER LUZ !!!! i love this design sm i see nothing wrong tbh AND THE FLAPJACK TAT OMG :((((

49:13- SOBBING WILLOW LOOKS SO CUTE OMG

49:25- MY BOY KFJAFJDFJ HE LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE CALEB I WAS SO SHOCKED FJASDFHA AND THEN THE TALISMAN BUSINESS SIGN IS FLAPJACK AND HE ALSO HAS A TATTOO AND NO MORE EYE BAGS AND I JUST :DDDDD HIS DESIGN IS SO GOOD IT SUITS HIM SO WELL AND I JUST :D. my boy is all grown up :(

49:34- stop i love the animation and them sm omg i cant (im not a huge huntlow shipper, i can see it but i like them as friends too)

50:08- OLDER LILITH OMG MY OTHER WIFE she so cute she is also just like me (she has pizzazz bc i have pizzazz and i think all characters i like have it too bc they r just like me)

50:20- i love older amity AND HER MENTOR IS LILITH WHICH IS SO CUTE :(( god i love them sm

50:27- HARPY LILITH MY BELOVED OMG I JUST CANT UR SO JFASDFHOAJO

51:10- i need these two to kiss so bad it's not even funny oh my god fanfic writers pls GET ON THIS. i love both of these guys so much

51:15- OLDER RAINE DFJAISDFIASDHF OIADJFOSADFH OASJF sorry i died their suit is so ???? gah i love them i just cant contain myself i love them.

52:10- GUSSSSSS !!!! finally a hair change babes it looks so good. and the boiling ises and the human realm exchange program !!! gah i love gus

52:16- WIFEY MOMENT OMG HIIII whoever gave the idea for a hook is getting kisses from me oh my GOD. she is so <33333

52:30- KING !!!! he's growing into himself i love it :D

52:48- sobbing they all look so good i cant even tell u how much i love them all

53:00- THIS. this kiss means so much to me it's so like authentic ??? of course the other ones are too but something about this one being so casual, like theres no threat and they just saw eachother, it's a kiss for just being there, in the moment.

53:19- crying, shaking, screaming, crying, this pan is so cute i cant even

54:46- this. is how u end a show. omg i just, wow

#owl house #the owl house #i cant handle this #i love this show #hunter is happy now #which means im happy

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the-nerd · 2 years

Text

The birds and the bees

Since we don't have anything related to any TOH news, I needed content.

We already know that When Willow is affected by her emotions her powers are also affected and she is terrified that maybe she also affects with another type of feeling but what if this were something more hormonal.

How it affects her and those who live around her, especially in a house with five teenagers who are at that time.

-------------------------------

Willow had alwais problems with her powers, most of them are because of her emotions, but... Some of them are caused for other reasons.... More... Complicated .

She thought that in the human realm she wouldn't have a lot of trouble because here magic is weaker, But it didn't take into account how powerful it is and the influence of a hormonal body.

It all started at night, when she was having a dream, of which she remember nothing, but it had an effect on her magic, when she woke up, her head and body were surrounded by roses and other flowers with a clear message: lust and love.

She was so embarrassed the next morning, but it did get worse when she found out that Amity, Luz and Vee saw them....

They were astonished, like they have seen a God.

"G... Good morning girls"- an awkward silence reinaba el ambiente-"I'm sorry you have to see this, I will tidy this up" -Willow said awkwardly meanwhile she took the flowers and run out of the bedroom, bumping in the way with Hunter who had already woken up.

Oh! G.. God morning captain- there was no response from Willow because she ran away.

Hunter stood at the girls' door a little hurt and worried, that was not normal.

Hey guys you know if willow is OK?"- there was no response, the girls were too distracted looking at Luz's phone" hey what are you doing? Did you hear me?! " he was getting a bit indignant when he didn't have an answer, so he will have to get it.

With his teleportation powers he was able to get the phone, but what he didn't though was on what they were looking at...

It was a picture of willow freshly raised, with her hair surrounded by flowers that made her look like a queen with a crown... No, not a queen... Something more,

He couldn't stop himself, he analyzed the photo over and over again, from the posture to how her lips seemed to invite him to... A, don't think about that. He was so engrossed with the photo that he couldn't hear the voices of light telling him to return his cell phone.

Come on, give me the phone already" she was trying to take the phone, but she did not remember that Hunter 6 feet tall and that with his arm stretched out it is impossible to catch anything. "w... Why do you have this photo of willow?" the question caught her a little suddenly, but what surprised her the most was the tone, he seemed indignant and angry pearl the time there was something in his voice... Something predatory.

"W well I woke up a bit early and saw willow, and then... I don't know what came to me, I just know that I've seen her wake , she had a weird glow and I couldn't help to take... The picture hehe... " the awkward silence reigned again in the room, interrupted by Amity who was trying to defend her girlfriend" we were going to delete the image, but if it is true that.. That it looked great" and the tree of them nodded.

Hunter interspersed the gaze of the mobile to them and from them to the photo in question ... It would be wrong to tell them that he didn't want them to have the image but that he wanted to keep it? But that was wrong, they had taken a picture of her without permission, so he did the right thing, deleted the photo... "wait what are you doing? Asked Luz" I'm doing the right thing, delete the picture, even if willowlooksedibleinit"

What?

WHAT!? HAHAHAHA don't mind what I said" hunter turned around and deleted the photo, but not before studying it once again so he could remember it later..

With that little incident resolved, they all went a little uncomfortable to the kitchen, where Willow was already brewing coffee, with Gus on the little table pounding his head, still asleep.

Hunter couldn't take his eyes of of her... He had the urge to go and hug her from behind and give her kisses on her neck and shoulder.

"titan control yourself, this is willow, this is the captain what are we talking about" instead he greet her the usual way, a good morning and a hug... A hug!!

his body moved on its own, as if it were already a routine, which caught Willow a little off guard.

Hu!! G.. Good morning you too!" he was hugging her, he was hugging her, she couldn't believe it, I mean... She can but not in this circumstances, this looked more intimate.

He rested his head in the hollow of her neck and couldn't help but smell her hair and skin, titan he wanted to devour her, if it weren't for the others being there, he would already have...

Coug coug!" His thoughts were interrupted by Gus who had already fully woken up and had a smirk on his face "interrupted something"

Faster he couldn't separate from Willow, jumping and their face showed how embarrassed they both were, willow for the sudden proximity and hunter because of his thoughts.

I.. I'm sorry, I don't know what it has given me, really, I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable" Hunter was so scared that this behavior would end their friendship.

"N.. Do not worry... It doesn't bother me, I mean, it hasn't bothered me, we're friends it's normal" the two laughed a little awkwardly, deciding that it was better to leave the topic and focus on breakfast.

It went as usual, but willow could tell hunter looked at her from time to time, this was normal, but today he had something in his eyes... Something that made her nervous, but not in a bad way, it looked like the eyes of a predator looking at its prey... And she, on the contrary, it didn't bother her.

#the owl house #hunter the owl house #the owl house theory #willow the owl house #huntlow #luz the owl house #gus the owl house #toh amity

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radfae · 1 year

Note

plz give us your opinions on the new toh ep queen <3

okay i apologize in advance bc i’m like almost done writing this while i add this disclaimer and i’m realizing it’s VERY ramble-y and my adhd brain keeps rapidly switching topics but i hope this makes sense HAHA

IT WAS GOOD! it wasn’t nearly as gut-wrenching as the last one but i do appreciate some good ship action (raeda and huntlow tugging on my heartstrings fr). a lot happened this episode and i feel like a big theme was character development and personal exploration, we saw that a lot with hunter, but most of all luz and willow! it makes me really happy to see luz get her palismen (palisman??) finally and string bean is so adorable! i was team snake btw so i’m happy with this outcome. a lot of people say that boscha was really annoying this ep but honestly i didn’t think so? i mean, she was a bit, but she’s clearly not a villain here; she’s just a traumatized mean girl teenager handling things badly. she’s developed some pretty bad abandonment issues from losing her grudgby team to the collector, and ended up taking those out on amity, which isn’t…great, but people are treating her worse than belos this episode lmao?? but ANYWAY i’m very happy to see hunter again <3 and i’m happy that his development is moving in a positive way. not everyone is happy about him having magic from flapjack, but i think it’s nice; it reinforces that flapjack is still with him, even if he’s not physically present, which is a nice sentiment. and like i am sorry he is going thru it or whatever but i MISSED him being an annoying angry boy,, and OH MY GOD “you mean a lot to me too” “cool, happy to help” KILL ME NOW?!?! THEY’RE SO ADORABLE.,,,, and i’m glad they focused on willow here too because it made me like her a lot more than i did previously. and ok going back to raeda the “i just like to come out and see raine” i don’t remember if that’s exactly what she says but eda literally risking being caught by the collector who still thinks she’s the owl beast just to see raine,, AND RAINE’S LOOK IN THE BEGINNING WHEN SHE GOES INTO HARPY MODE…… omg they’re in love. and i’m choosing to say raine is a lesbian bc it makes my heart happy. switching gears completely to camila,, just,,, in general,, her being a mother figure to so many of the kids and her conversation with luz to amity saying “you and luz are a lot alike”,, i love her so much i cannot believe there was a point in which she was controversial in the fandom. i’ve always been a camila defender. OKAY BUT THE ACTUAL EPISODE ANYWAY the collector is obviously being set up for a redemption arc of sorts; they’re really pushing the idea that he’s just a kid and doesn’t want to really hurt people, and it’s clear that he really did care about king (defending him from the coven head i forgot her name sorry lol, respecting his boundaries with his rabbit and not touching it, calling him his best friend, immediately not trusting belos when he said king has it out for him) and that’s why he’s taking his ‘betrayal’ so hard. i did NOT expect him to team up with belos ngl, i thought that this episode would be them defeating the collector and next ep would be belos, as like a first and final boss type of thing, but this is like. so much better lol. AND SOMEONE ON TWITTER POINTED THIS OUT BUT belos is ALWAYS looking down on people, specifically at hunter; there’s always a specific camera angle to showcase it, but in this episode, in his weakened state belos finally looks up at someone: caleb. belos has always been in a position of power in every relationship we’ve seen with him so far, EXCEPT for caleb. caleb is the only situation in which he’s been the dependent. which is really being showcased here and i liked the imagery,, and i’m curious as to why belos chose raine in particular? like obviously this is going to be used for some raeda plotline which i personally don’t mind actually but like. obvious excuse for ship angst is obvious. but i hope there’s some other reason than just “let’s make eda upset hehehehe” u know what i mean. oh and raine mullet,, pretty. if i had a nickel for every time belos possessed someone and they got a mullet i would have two nickels which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice right.

i’m excited to see how things go with the collector next episode (new noceda sibling real?) and i’m excited to see king, eda and luz’s reunion! i really need eda and camila to meet like NOW. i also really hope that hunter is the one who gets the final blow on belos, like sorry to luz or whatever i know ur the protagonist and that’s your moment but he DESERVES it. and obviously luz isn’t going to stay in the human realm indefinitely but with her mom i’m wondering how they’ll work things out; maybe there will be a more stable portal and luz and camila will be able to pass through both worlds and visit as they please? or will camila just stay in the demon realm with luz? idk!!! i can’t wait for next episode but knowing we’re officially on our final hiatus and that the cast just finished recording for the last episode is also :’D a bit miserable. sad to see it go but excited at the same time

#tumblr literally cut me off bc it said my paragraph was too long. rude #the owl house spoilers #toh spoilers

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violetjedisylveon · 2 years

Text

You Should Know Pt 2

Summary: Continuation of Pt 1, the Blue Guard is having some complicated feelings and questions after their excursions into the past.

Word count: like 7k, (I gave up trying to count that's how long, it's still good though)

Warnings: Violence, threats of violence, death threats (they're still at Philip) breathing troubles, pain, child abuse, manipulation, trauma, bottling up emotions, self depreciation (and typos).

A/N: This was written before S2E20, so I had already decide to go with the idea that the collector legitimately is a child. And I'm pretty sure S2E20 confirmed that they are a child. They are the type of child that's very pushy when they want something. Also, they tell people to call him Enzo instead of The Collector. And this was written before I started the Eda raises two gods AU, Enzo is easier to write than The Collector a bazillion times.

Links: Blue Guard AU Link here, part 1 here

Flight Practice and Race You, both art. Jayr Faun here

________________________________________________________________________________

Philip was up ahead, he was running, three people were chasing him.

"There he is!" Luz shouted.

One of the pursuers caught up and knocked him down.

"Alright fucker, where are they?" An unfamiliar voice asked.

"Who?"

"You know who, that witch and her aunt who tried to help you!" That was Nazik.

The Stone Sleeper arrived at the scene. Nazik was standing with two witches. One was her sister, the witch she'd seen earlier.

The new witch was wearing a light purple cloak with a sigil of a cardinal and fox together embroidered onto the back, she had a winged cat Palisman on her twisted staff. She turned as they approached, Argi noticed she was wearing a helmet that looked similar to Hunter's mask, the eye slits were bigger and rounder with a purple glow, and it had a beak.

"Look, they're unharmed." Philip pointed to them.

They all glared. Viviane approached them with a dirty look over her shoulder at Philip.

"Are you alright? I hope he didn't cause you any harm." She said.

"He attacked us! Why are you so calm?!" Luz exclaimed.

"Oh I'm not calm. I'm just very good at hiding it." Viviane shot another glare at Philip.

Argi took in the strange, er, Golden Guard witch? her posture and the way she held herself was similar to Viviane, they smelled similar, they must've been related, mother and daughter probably.

Luz pointed at Philip and the object he held, it was a thin disk with an eclipse or cresent moon on it. It smelled old.

"Tell me how that thing's gonna help you build a portal to the human realm!" She demanded.

Miss Nazik, Viviane and this Guard's moods all changed. A dark look covered Miss Nazik's face, saddness came from the Guard, and anger poured off Vivaine. Philip grew nervous.

"He wasn't trying to make a portal, he was going to kill you." Viviane hissed, she stalked forwards, staff in hand.

"h-How do you know that?" Lilith asked.

"Because the last time he said he was 'making a portal' he used it as an excuse to try and kill us! Because we are witches, witches are no better than wild animals." Twisted roots emerged from the ground and wrapped around Philip, restraining him as she approached, she was clearly angry with him, but she seemed wary too.

"Isn't that what you said after you killed my son?" She snarled.

"Even a half witch is still a witch." He nodded casually, "Besides, you had it coming." He added.

"You have this coming." Lilith stepped in front of Viviane and punch Philip right in the nose. Argi heard the crack, it was defenately broken.

"Ugh! You hateable sorcerers!" He shouted.

"Stay mad." Lilith growled.

"Come Luzura, we're finished here." She said. Luz made a weird hand gesture at Philip and sneered.

"Cool aunt." Luz jeered.

She followed the pair, picking up a parting threat.

"If I ever see you again, I am going to kill you, Philip." Viviane snarled.

Argi sat behind Lilith and Luz on the Stone Sleeper as it walked away, not missing the oppertunity to fling a spell in Philip's direction. It lit his ass on fire.

She turned back around to catch the end of a conversation between Lilith and Luz.

"-if some jerk like Philip can build a portal, I'm sure you can too." Lilith said.

Luz smiled weakly, "Yeah, I guess."

"He didn't make a portal, he only had a concept, a vauge idea, he hardly did any work while we built it." The Stone Sleeper stopped.

Viviane was standing in front of it, Miss Nazik and Ama behind her. She crossed her arms and looked Luz over.

"So yeah, I bet you can make a portal. Just don't let the leech get ahold of it." Viviane said.

Shame came off Luz.

"I just feel so stupid." She admitted.

"Don't feel bad, you're not the first to be fooled by him." Miss Nazik commented.

"And regretful you probably won't be the last." Ama added.

"I suppose you'll be on your way, after that I wouldn't stick around long either." Viviane guessed.

"Yes, we do need to leave soon." Lilith spoke sadly.

Argi noticed a change in Luz's expression, the human had an idea.

"Actually, there's a little time, could you do us a favor?" She asked.

The four adults shot her puzzled looks.

XXX

Argi smiled as Lilith happily and excitedly watched a craftsperson carving balusters. She shouted to Luz about how exciting it was.

"It's nothing that exciting." The craftsperson said sheepishly.

"Are you kidding? This is..." Lilith went on a tangent about how excellent and skilled the craftsperson's work was.

Argi giggled, she loved when Lilith did this, she'd go on rants and rambles that were fascinating to witness. Luz was cuddling the Stone Sleeper and watching her aunt, no, Lilith. She was watching Lilith.

Don't think like that, she's an enemy now.

She turned her attention to Miss Nazik and Miss Sinoe, her daughter was also gushing over the Stone Sleeper, having removed her helmet, she had a nose like Hunter.

From the conversations she was picking up, Amaryllis was the Golden Guard. The second Golden Guard to be exact. The first wasn't to be mentioned, Luz had tried that.

Loud shouting and screeches came from above, Argi glanced up, a pair of witches were riding a wild Griffin.

One had blond hair, dyed the same colors as Viviane and Amaryllis, it was contained to one side, opposed to Amaryllis's dirty blonde brown hair being dyed from her neck down, and one part on the other side was dyed green, yellow bright firey orange from her head all the way down.

Behind her was a witch with firery red orange hair and paler skin. She had a deep and light green helmet on, it didn't look like it was hers.

The Sinoe witch was panicking to get the Griffin under control, or not die, the witch behind her was messing with her and it all looked very chaotic. A yellow golden cardinal and platypus followed her.

"Typical Styrmir." Amaryllis said, looking amused at her sister's struggles.

"What do you mean?" Luz asked.

"Her family didn't name her one who causes storms for no reason. She's peek chaotic energy." Amaryllis explained.

"Laugh all you want Ama! Help me!" The Sinoe witch screeched at her sister.

"Just use a beast spell, isn't this supposed to be your area of expertise, oh great Wild Guard?" Ama shot back.

Styrmir whistled a beast soothing spell. The Griffin calmed down and let the witch guide it down to a landing on the near by houses. Argi noticed both of the Sinoe sisters ears were less elongated than their mother's and were rounder at the ends. The red haired witch jumped off with a cackle.

"Told you that'd be fun Ori!" She shouted, lifting the helmet off her head. Her eyes were both green and gold.

"Styrmir! We nearly died! Twice!" Ori shouted back.

"Oh c'mon, we're fine." Styrmir wrapped an arm around Ori and pulled her in to a small kiss.

Ori blushed and grabbed her helmet back. Argi didn't miss the odd resemblance between Styrmir and Lilith. The curly hair, the green of their eyes, their face shape.

"Who're the newbies?" Styrmir asked, gesturing to Lilith and Luz.

"Someone he was trying to kill." Ama said bitterly.

"Oh." Ori reached for the cardinal Palisman that had landed on her shoulder, they chirped and rubbed against her cheek.

Argi spotted Ori and Ama self consciously rubbing at scars they both had on their neck, Viviane's hands were shaking a bit. The tense mood hung over them heavily, she wasn't the only to notice.

"Hey, I've got an idea, how about you all come with Ori and I to the Harvest, some Palisde are going to be there fixing Palisman, there's gonna be food and it'll be fun, you could all use a break from the looks of it." Styrmir suggested in a way that implied she wouldn't take no for an answer.

"That sounds like a headache." Ama deadpanned.

"Your mom's the best healer ever, a headache won't stop you." Styrmir pointed out.

"You're all coming with us." Ori added.

Argi caught the awkward glance between the witches she came with, they needed to leave soon.

"Oh, if you need to go you can." Styrmir said to Lilith.

"Uh, yes, we need to go, it was a pleasure to meet you all." Lilith said respectfully.

Argi waited for them to finish saying goodbye, she spotted her grandmas and their friends walking by, they looked like they were going to something important.

It was so weird to see other Palisde. Uncle said her species was very rare, because of that some hunted them and they were in a constant state of hiding. She was lucky to have been spared from that, but she felt odd knowing so little about her species, especially after speaking to one for the first time.

She turned to follow her targets, leaving her questions behind.

XXX

Argi lagged behind her targets when they left the Time Pools. She knew where they were going, there wasn't a rush.

She looked around the beach, it was pretty in the late daylight hours.

She breathed in the scent of the Time Pools, hoping she'd be able to find and use them again one day. It smelled so funny but she kept taking it in to memorize it.

She picked up the rustling of the leaves, the sound of haphazard movement, breathing, life, behind her. She heard footsteps, they were light. As someone very good at sneaking around, she knew the sound of trying to move unnoticed.

Her tail slowly moved towards her sword, whoever was there was getting closer. Somehow they could see her.

She whirled around. An ominously cloaked figure loomed above her, a cracked mask covered part of their face, a tattered hood covered the rest. They held a large, twisted staff that looked like a root, one of their arms was covered in abomination goo, like Darius. They were surrounded by a misty haze that moved with the wind.

The single eye she could see glowed a bright purple.

"Argentiesum."

She backed away from them.

"Who are you?" She demanded.

The stranger didn't answer, instead, they made a spell circle and a small potion vile dropped into their abomination arm. The contents of the vile was split between a fizzy yellow potion and a thick, murky blue potion.

"Argentiesum. You have no idea what he truly is, don't let him near, he's going to kill him. Like he killed the others. Don't let him know that you know." They said in a hurried, hushed voice.

"What? Who are you and who are you talking abou-" They silenced her with the raising of their hand.

"Keep Hunter safe, there's only so much he can do himself."

Their abomination arm extended out and dropped the potion vile, she dropped her sword to catch it. It was warm to the touch. She eyed it suspiciously.

"That is for you, you'll know when to take it." They told her.

They drew another circle and a letter fell into their non abomination arm. They let out a sigh and held the letter out.

"This, is for Hunter. Give it to him when he finds out, it will help him."

Argi hesitantly reached to take it, but they suddenly stopped her.

"Do not open it. I am... trusting you to deliver it safely."

She nodded and they let her take it. There was stylized S in the wax stamp sealing the letter's opening. She lightly traced her tail over it.

"Thank you, young Pali." The stranger said.

"Until our paths cross again." They turned and started leaving.

"Wait! Why can't you take this yourself?!" Argi shouted.

The stranger halted and glanced over their shoulder back at her.

"I... can't go back there... he can't know, if he did, everything we've worked towards- everything we've done- would be in jeopardy... And I have many things to take care of, many more to warn, they are all so fractured it's a job and a half to get them to coordinate- I'm saying too much." They turned away from her again.

"I'll see you again, stay safe during your winging." They said.

With a flick of their hand, they were gone.

Argi glanced at the letter and the potion in her hands. She shouldn't trust it, she should toss both into the sea and leave it at that.

So, she opened her spacial pocket and placed both securely inside.

If I need them, I know where to find them.

XXX

Argi followed Lilith back to the Owl house, she was on edge once she picked up the spicy feather smell. There was a man talking with the owl lady, his Palisman looked identical to Ori's, odd. So much has been weird today. She sighed.

She was so fucking tired, everything still hurt so much. And she couldn't leave.

"I wanna be home!" She complained to Phoebe.

"Just a little longer, then I'm sure you'll be able to go." Her Palisman told her.

"Hey nerds! How was your nerd quest? You find that dead nerd?" The owl lady asked.

"Layin' it on a little thick there Eda, but yeah, we found Philip." Luz sighed.

The owl lady's smug expression dropped into shock.

"Whoa, seriously?" She asked.

"Yeah, he sucked." Luz said grumpily.

"I punched him in the face!" Lilith exclaimed cheerfully.

"Groovy auntie." Luz said, doing the weird finger gun thing at Lilith, Lilith did it back.

"Uh, you gu- you guys need to stop that." The owl lady said.

They laughed and stopped.

"I also saw something incredible while we were there! You'll never guess who I met Edalyn!" Lilith said as she reached into her bag.

She pulled out her scroll and shoved it into the owl lady's face. She winced and pulled it back, her eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh fuck, is that who I think it is?" The owl lady asked.

"Yes! That is Styrmir Claw-Thorn! Styrmir! Can you believe it?! I didn't believe it myself until they started talking about her!" Lilith practically bounced with excitement.

"Styrmir is related to you guys? And who's that with her? Her Palisman looks like your dad's Palisman?" Luz asked.

"Styrmir Claw-Thorn is our ancestor, she's our great great something grandma, she was a total badass, runs in the family." The owl lady said with a gesture towards herself.

Lilith rolled her eyes, Luz laughed.

"The witch we saw with her, they callled her Ori so I'm betting she's Oriana Sinoe! Later known as Oriana Sinoe-Claw-Thorn. She's Styrmir's wife! She looks a lot different from the painting we have. The Palisman she has is Dell's Palisman, she made them with her father when she was a child, he was a natural with Palisman carving from what I've heard, but I've never seen any images of him that aren't damaged. She passed her Palisman down to the child she knew could take her position, she was the Wild Guard, I think, but it's a title that's fallen out of use in recent years." Lilith explained.

"Whoa! That's so cool! Does it have anything to do with the Golden Guard we saw with her? Does it have something to with our Golden Guard?" Luz asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, the history of the Guards is murky, I only really know about the Wild Guard because she's in our family, I can tell you what I do know." Lilith said.

"That would be great! We can try to figure it out together!" Luz shouted excitedly.

"Alright nerds, get in the nerd house and do your nerd stuff in here." The owl lady said while rolling her eyes.

They started heading inside, Lilith and Luz excitedly chatting away. Argi felt a twinge of envy watching them. She turned away to go back home, she was done spying for the day, sticking around would only make her feel weird.

"Oh, Lils, your favorite aunt stopped by today, she left a letter for you, it's in some nerdy code in case you wanna check it out. She said she'll be stopping by again later tonight." Argi glanced back at the owl house's door closing, the owl lady shutting it.

She moved the close the open windows, Argi caught her eye and the owl lady stared at her. Argi smirked, her invisibility had slipped for a moment, she stared the owl lady down until she looked away, an oddly guilty expression on her face.

Why is it always so weird with her? It's not like she knows me.

"Ready to go home?" Phoebe prompted.

"Yeah." She started heading home, trying to ignore the odd spurr of emotions in her chest.

XXX

Argi tossed her helmet to the ground and flopped onto her bed with a heavy sigh. She was physically and mentally drained from her day's work. She wanted to sleep, but there was probably work.

She rubbed her eyes and sat up. When she opened them she saw a black and dark gray face with pale gray eyes grinning gleefully and uncomfortably close.

"Hey Sunrise!"

"Fuck!" She yelped and lurched back, slamming into the wall behind her.

Pain shot through her back. Shit. She cursed. She traced a tail lightly over the sore spots in her back.

"Gee Citrus, you sure have a polite way of greeting people." She glared at the glowing shadow kid hanging out on her wall with an extremely smug expression.

She should've known he was there by the smell, old, harsh cold, heat and the way dry dirt smelled as rain started. They had an incredibly distinct scent, she'd known it most of her life.

"And scaring someone is a polite way of greeting people?" She retorted.

"Psh, you heard me coming." They brushed it off with a smirk.

"No, you don't make sound when you move." She reminded them while sticking her tongue out.

"So, Enzo, you need something or do you want to play?" She asked.

The shit eating grin they gave her told her the answer. She groaned and rolled over on her bed, she glanced up at the ceiling and saw their smug face.

"C'mon Indigo, you haven't played with me in weeks!" He whined.

"It's not my fault Uncle's sending me out as soon as I get back." She shrugged.

"But you can play now! C'mon let's play!" They cheered.

Her ears pinned back at their loud shouting, the pain in her head increased dramatically.

"I don't feel up to playing, Enzo, I need to talk to Jayr about some problems I've been having, and I need to check my wounds with them, maybe we can play later?" She suggested.

"Aww, c'mon, you look fine to me." They argued.

"You can't see inside of me, and you aren't a healer." She pointed out.

Enzo pouted and floated in front of her door. Argi rolled her eyes, Course he's gonna be a pain.

"Moony you need to move." She told them.

"Why?" He asked with a smug smile.

Fuck, they made this into a game. Why do they always make everything into a game?!

"Because I need to go to the healer and I need to sleep for once this month. And going through you is rude." She growled.

"I think you're getting mad~ you're ears are turning red Currant." They leered, their shadowy shape twisting into a spiral shape before they materialized next to her.

She glared at him.

Her headache was getting worse, the weird feelings she'd got from seeing Lilith so happy outside of the coven, she couldn't explain it, Lilith had never been that happy in all the time she'd known her.

She hadn't spoken to the witch much since her, specialized, training began five years ago. It was mostly polite, basic conversation in passing that never had any meaning. The most interaction they'd had was a few months into her training when she hid from Uncle in Lilith's office, that was the last time she'd actually talked to Lilith.

It's been five years, of course she's forgotten about me. She has no reason to care anymore, if she ever did in the first place. Why do I feel so weird? All she did was watch me a few times. I shouldn't care that she's so much happier now that she doesn't live with an assassin! She told herself sternly.

Why do I care? She wrapped her arms around herself and glared at Enzo, still hanging there with his silly smile. She didn't have the energy to deal with this properly!

"Enzo! I don't have time to play and I don't want to right now! I've had a hell of a day and I don't need you making it worse!" She shouted accidentally.

She saw the hurt, almost scared look on their face and instantly felt guilty for shouting at her friend. Before she could even start apologizing, pain gripped her chest.

A crackling sensation coursed through her body and energy burst out from her horns, it burned. Her chest tightened as her bile sacks clenched and started expanding very quickly, putting pressure on her hearts and lungs that made it hard to breath.

Blood roared in her ears, the rushing liquid trying to funnel itself towards her most important organs, a hard task since she had a lot of organs. The sound drowned anything else out as she struggled to suck in air without it being forced back out by her expanding bile sacks.

It was so tight it was almost impossible to breath. The ground was suddenly very close to her face. She must've fallen at some point. Her shaking arms were barely keeping her up. Murky yellow clouded her vision. Shit, it stung.

She didn't even notice that Phoebe was in front of her until the phoenix gently flicked her horn to gain her attention. Through her blurred vision, she could make out the Palisman standing in front of her face, and just barely see Enzo hovering behind them, she was probably imagining it but, he looked... worried.

"Drink." Phoebe shoved a tall, thick potion bottle in her face.

She recognized the vivid pinkish purple sludge instantly. There was still part of the potion missing, her potions didn't keep well fully mixed, it was easy enough to add in the small amount needed for it to be completed, but not tonight.

"c-can't." Argi choked out, unable to point out it wasn't finished.

Phoebe squawked in worry and vanished from her sight.

The next minutes were a blur of pain and trying to breath until she felt a familiar, cold hand on her cheek.

Fucking stars! she was so hot. She must've sweat enough to fill a pool by now.

Cold fingers gently coaxed her head up, she was barely able to make out the floppy ears and horns poking out of thick, curly mocha and jade green hair. Kind eyes looked down at her. Phoebe was perched on their shoulder.

"It's okay, Sil. Nazik isn't here, your little buddy got me, I'll help." Jayr told her calmly.

They were always so calm.

She felt cool glass against her warm lips and opened her mouth when Jayr prompted. The syrupy, smooth liquid traveled down her throat and left a weird warmth coating her entire mouth.

It hit her first stomach like lead, sinking down to the bottom. Then it fizzled up as her body started moving the potion to where it was supposed to go.

When water was presented to her, she took it, slowly letting it wash the remainder of the potion down. She could feel the pressure in her chest start to loosen, the potion was working.

She sucked in a breath as soon as she felt able to, relaxing when the air filled her lungs.

"I'm going to prescribe you an anti inflammation potion, I want you to take it now. If you ever start feeling this again, take the inflammation potion, two of your regulatory potions a day really isn't good for you unless necessary." She nodded slowly and drank the second potion, it tasted very bad but worked quickly.

The tightness loosened more and she could feel her hearts beating faster to catch up.

"There you go, Sil, just breath." Jayr said in their permanently calm voice.

Argi sat and focused only on breathing for the next couple of minutes. Once her hearts calmed down, she looked to the Caprine demon sitting in front of her.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" They asked in their no nonsense doctor voice.

Argi squinted, her eyes still stung and everything was blurry, but she could make out three fingers.

"All three, minus your thumb." She answered.

"Good, eyes wide." They instructed.

She complied, trying not to blink when Jayr shined the eye check spell into her pupils.

"Your eyes look irritated, I'm going to flush out whatever's bother them and fix it for you." They said.

She nodded and waited for the process to be over with.

She blinked once it was over and found the world clear to her again. Jayr was in their usual clothes that allowed them preparedness when an emergency happened, with them being her healer and her work being very hazardous, it made sense they were always prepared. Their curly hair was tied back into their usual fluffy bun that bobbed as they moved.

"Jayr, what was that?" She asked.

"Well, given that the problem was mainly with your chest, it was probably some growth spurt preparation, you're about the age when you should be getting another growth spurt, it makes sense that your bile sacks are reacting first, since they're one of the most sensitive parts of your body." Jayr paused and leaned backwards.

"Has, anything else been bothering you lately?" They asked softly.

"I-" Argi wanted to tell them about her weird back pains and how her horns were hurting so much and the headaches and everything that was hurting but, they said it was growth spurt pains, probably all the same thing so she didn't need to waste their time with such pointless questions.

"No, nothing else, it just surprised me." She told them.

"Alright, if you say so." Jayr didn't look or sound like they believed her.

Damn it! Why is it so hard to lie to them? And uncle. I know I can lie, why not to them? She still didn't want to get into it or waste their time.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"How are you up here?" They poked her forehead gently.

"Fine, why wouldn't I be?" She asled, rubbing the spot on her head.

Jayr raised an eyebrow and said everything without opening their mouth.

"I'm alright, no reason to worry about me." She told them.

"Yeah? That's exactly why I'm worried about you Sil, you don't tell when something's wrong." Jayr leaned back.

If I said everything I think is wrong, Uncle would be so upset with me! I don't want him to be mad at me! Don't say anything! They'll tell him! She eyed the healer with slight mistrust.

Her life had been in their hands many times, she trusted their medical capabilities, but she wasn't sure if she could trust them with everything. Even if they had always been there.

"Sil, if something's bothering you, you can tell me, I've always had an ear open for you, your brother too. you don't have to keep it to yourself, you never do. I promise I won't tell anyone." They said, reaching out their four fingered hand to her.

She felt tempted to talk, but knew she'd go down the slippery slope and wind up spilling everything out and getting in trouble for it. She didn't even tell Miss Nazik everything!

A loud beep went off, coming from Jayr. They pulled out their scroll and checked it, they winced and glanced at her apologetically.

"That's Steve, it's time for his therapy appointment. I'm sorry Sil, I'm gonna have to go but, feel free to reach out to me if you want to talk, I've never be too busy for you." Jayr said as they got up.

They glanced around her room quickly, glancing at the new sputtery scorch marks on the wall from her little outburst. She saw an idea form in their eyes.

"Say, you don't have a scroll, do you?" They asked.

"No, Uncle says it would distract me since I already get distracted too much." She shook her head.

"Well then, here you go." They pulled a scroll from their pocket and tossed it to her.

"What? I can't- what if uncle-" She started.

"Don't worry, it's just for you to talk to me when you need to, and he doesn't need to know. It can be our little secret, maybe we can bring Carlyne in on it too, it'll be fine." Jayr gave her a wide smile.

Their scroll beeped again.

"Gotta go, talk later Sil!" With that, they left Argi with a contraband object in her hands.

She hesitantly opened the scroll, it opened to the contacts like it was preprogrammed. She saw Jayr's contact and Miss Nazik's contact there. A warm feeling bubbled in her chest.

"Sunset? Are you okay?" She leapt off the ground when she heard Enzo.

She glanced at him and the scroll in her hand then back, panic started racing through her body and her hearts pounded again.

Then she saw the... concerned look on their face. He looked so... worried? They didn't worry about anything.

"I- um..." She trailed off as their eyes went down to the scroll in her hand.

"What's that?" He asked, drifting closer.

"Uh, j-Jayr gave it to me, for emergencies." She explained poorly.

They seemed convinced by that, she was better off if they didn't know she wasn't supposed to have it.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you, that wasn't nice of me, I'm just not feeling great and I have a headache and I just, I don't know, I'm sorry." She apologized to them.

"It's okay, I know you didn't mean it." He swooped closer to her and gave her one of his 'shadow hugs'.

Enzo's ability to interact with the physical world was limited, but they could do this 'hug'.

She felt coldness all over her body, then warmth like someone was holding her. Sometimes she swore she could really feel their arms, and hear breathing that wasn't hers.

Admittedly, Enzo hugged a little tight, but never tight enough to be uncomfortable.

"Wanna read while I do some work?" She suggested.

Enzo nodded eagerly and cheered. Argi giggled and grabbed his favorite book, which was also one of her favorites, 'The Selki Witch, book one; Revenge', off the shelf above her carving table. She had two copies of the first and second books, so that they could read aloud together, Uncle never let her get the rest of the books so she didn't know how the rest of the story went.

She thought about grabbing her copy and reading as well when she glanced at the unfinished carving she'd been working on, it was almost done being sanded and smoothed down, then she could paint it. She could finish that.

She brushed wood chips off her chair and cast a small spell circle that would turn the book's pages for Enzo. She sat down and started sanding the still rough patches of her project.

I hope he likes it.

Behind her, Enzo cackled at a misfortune one of the side characters suffered.

"Are you making that for your brother?" Enzo asked after a long silence.

"Yep. I still have the one I made for you, I've fixed the stars and suns recently." She pointed up to the improved carving sitting on the shelf above her hanging tools.

"It's so pretty! Thanks Citrus!" Enzo squealed happily.

"Glad you like it." She smiled over her shoulder at them.

They were pushy, oddly endearing and sometimes extremely and unknowingly dark, though she'd be lying if she said she didn't enjoy their company, or the comfort that came from knowing they would always be near if she needed them.

Yeah. Enzo was her friend.

XXX

Hunter's room was empty, but he'd been there in the last hour. He must've been getting something to eat.

Argi glanced up at the ceiling where she knew her brother's Palisman had a small nest. She caught a glimpse of the little bird peeking down at her, she gave a little wave.

The Palisman curiously fluttered down and perched on her shoulder. She scratched under his chin, he cooed happily.

"Hey there, little guy. Hunter getting dinner?" She asked.

He nodded then shimmed down her arm to inspect the loosely wrapped package she was holding. She gently pushed him away.

"Sorry buddy, it's for Hunter. You'd better get back to hiding before someone sees you." She whispered to the Palisman.

She heard footsteps coming behind her, they weren't in the room yet, but it sounded like Uncle.

"Outside. Take him outside!" She instructed Phoebe.

They swooped towards the smaller bird, grabbed him in their talons then dove out the window. She breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to Hunter's desk. She found a spot that wouldn't be too obvious or too hidden to place her package.

The floorboards creaked.

"Silver? What are you doing in here?" Argi almost jumped at the voice of her uncle.

She turned around to face him, keeping the package behind her.

"Nothing." She lied, swaying around on her feet like she wasn't doing anything.

"Why is the window open?"

"Phoebe saw something she needed to chase, I think it was a spirit bat or a platypus." She shrugged

He raised his eyebrow and gave her a suspicious look.

"Silver, what are you hiding?" He wasn't asking.

She froze. She hated it when that happened, when she couldn't think or get any words out. She hated when it happened in front of Belos. He knew it happened but he didn't tolerate it. It was a weakness, she knew that.

"Say something before he gets mad." She surpressed an ear twitch towards Enzo hiding under Hunter's bed as they gave her a warning.

Why can't I think? Why won't my tongue move? I can't-

Uncle clearly wasn't in the mood for her weakness. He scowled at her and walked straight towards her. She did her best not to let any fear show, she wasn't supposed to be afraid. She was supposed to be feared.

"Argentiesum.".

She flinched, she never liked the biting coldness he said her name with or the way he grabbed her which twisted her skin a bit.

"Are you helping Hunter hide something from me?" He asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Finally, the freeze stopped and she could think, the heavy weight to her tongue vanished.

"N-no, it's something for him." She answered.

"Show me." He really wasn't asking.

She listened to see if Hunter was coming yet, he wasn't. She pulled the bird house holder out from behind her. Most of the anger left uncle's face.

"I-i made this for him, it's like a holder for pens or something and it's a critter feeder. I thought he'd like it but I wanted it to be a surprise." She explained nervously.

She dared to look up and saw the smallest bit of a smile on his face. He wasn't mad at her.

"That's a silly thing to hide from me." He told her.

"Probably." She nodded, glad his grip had become more relaxed.

"Where did you get the idea for this?" He asked.

"Miss Nazik told me about a friend she had who used to carve, she showed me one of the things he made and I wanted to try it cause it looked like fun so I did and-" she broke off, an uncomfortable, familiar feeling pulled at her mind.

She hesitantly glanced up, Uncle was upset now, he looked angry. She felt something tug her, and not physically, towards him. She felt a large tug in her head and the world was dark to her eyes.

She instantly squeezed them shut.

Please, please, please! I don't like it here! I don't want to be here! I don't want to see this! Not again, never again.

"Run. Danger." It started up whisper soft, but then it started getting louder.

She tried to severe the very much unwanted and unintentional connection before whoever said that got to her. She never liked going into minds, even when Miss Nazik showed her how other witches and demons did it.

It just felt so intrusive.

Especially when she did it by accident, when that always seeking instinctive nature of hers got the better of her and invaded minds. She didn't like seeing those. They were the hidden things she didn't wish to see.

But she didn't know how to work it or maneuver a mind to avoid inner selves and get out as fast as possible. Uncle had tried having the Oracle Coven head teach her once when it was becoming a problem. That hadn't worked since the coven head didn't know how the Palisde mind invading thing worked. Apparently it was a rare natural quirk. Lucky her.

She didn't feel alone, there was something with her. She covered her eyes and tried to make herself as small as possible.

"Silver."

Pain shot through her left shoulder.

Argi snapped back to the physical world and her eyes flew open. Uncle looked pissed. She started backing away, her shoulder was hurting, he must've done something, it wasn't hurting as bad as it usually would though.

"i-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to intrude! I didn't want too! But I was pulled in and-! i-I swear I didn't see anything or or-"

"Argentiesum!"

She flinched back like he'd hit her, or was going to, he probably already had. Instinctively, she covered her face and called out to Phoebe for help. Don't hit me! Please don't hit me! I didn't mean too! Please don't hit me!

"I'm not mad. You can't control it, and you don't use your abilities to cause any trouble, there's no reason to get so worked up." Uncle told her.

Argi didn't look up from her hands, she didn't want him to see that she'd been so worked up she'd cried. She wasn't allowed to cry. Or at least not let anyone see it.

"That was very considerate of you to make something for your brother." He said.

She peeked through her fingers, he didn't look upset anymore. His eyes flicked up and his face turned sour.

Argi flinched, she was hoping he hadn't noticed her slacking off on filing her horns down, they were hurting too much to get anything done when she had time.

"Your horns are starting to curve again." He pointed out

She nodded.

"Didn't your last discharge happen two weeks ago, they shouldn't have grown out that fast." The disappointment in his voice stung.

"I trust you'll take care of it." He said over his shoulder.

Argi hardly noticed the way Uncle startled when Phoebe flew back in and perched protectively on her shoulder.

You fucked up again Argi.

XXX

Hunter felt his nervousness grow when he saw Belos walking away from his room. Flapjack!

"Ah, Hunter." Belos stopped in front of him with a smile.

"Yes?" He asked, keeping his nerves under control.

"There's a surprise waiting for you in your room." He left.

Hunter stayed put until Belos was out of sight and earshot, then he bolted into his room, slamming the door behind him and hastily locking it.

"You're sure worried about something." He froze hearing Argi's voice.

He turned and saw her leaning against the window with Phoebe on her shoulder and Flapjack nestled in her arms.

"Flapjack!" He shouted.

The little red bird chirped happily and fluttered over to him. He tugged at his hair then settled down on his hands.

Hunter glanced over at Argi. She gave him a fanged smile and giggled.

"I like your Palisman, he's cute." She paused, "Uh, what's a flapjack?" She asked.

"Belos says it's a pancake." He answered.

"What's a pancake?"

"Don't know, didn't ask." He shrugged.

Phoebe squeaked something, Argi looked confused.

"Apparently it's some human thing from a long time ago, that's what Phoebe says." She shrugged.

"She has good snacks." Flapjack chirped in a happily satisfied voice.

Hunter glanced over at his sister. How long has she known? Why didn't she tell Uncle? He wondered. He felt no distrust towards his sister, seeing as the window was open now, she must've let their Palisman out before Belos showed up.

"How long have you known?" He asked.

"About as long as you've had him, Phoebe told me there was a 'new old bird' then I saw you two at Eclipse Lake. So, a while." She turned and grabbed something behind her then held it to him.

"I came to give you this, I made it for you. It's like a pen holder or a critter feeder, you can put food in it and, I dunno, make some friends?" She told him.

"It looks like a nice nap spot." Hunter chuckled.

"Flapjack says it looks like a nest." He translated.

"Yeah it can be that too." She nodded and sat on the edge of his bed with an eager expression.

She had questions.

He sat down across from her and looked over the woodwork she'd down. How she managed to find time for a hobby eluded him. Both Palisman settled between them and started chirping together.

"Do you know how old he is?" Argi asked.

"No, he hasn't told me, how old is Phoebe again?"

"I don't think they know anymore, she's super old, I bet they know more than uncle!" Argi said enthusiastically.

Phoebe responded to that with something that was suspiciously like a 'damn right'.

"Can he see?"

"Huh? Oh, Flapjack, I'm not sure, sometimes it's like he's half blind, sometimes not. I don't know how he got it though, he doesn't like talking about his past." Hunter admitted.

His gaze traveled to the abrupt, jagged points of red along his sister's Palisman. Almost half of their body replaced and healed. Palisman could survive so much and yet he knew they were easily breakable.

"She won't tell me about that either, I know that it's pretty recent, about fourteen years old. It makes sense neither of them don't like talking about it, it's not fun thinking about when you've gotten hurt." Argi scratched the back of Flapjack's head.

Her eyes flicked up to his face, specifically the scar on his cheek. Self consciously he turned his head away but eyed the scar on her chin and lips, the one she'd always had, the one he didn't know how she got.

The one crossing over her nose, he knew how that happened, and the one on her forehead, and the scar he knew was still on her left shoulder. He knew how those happened.

Wrong place, wrong time. Didn't understand the orders. Made a mistake.

"I know the feeling." He said.

The room grew unsettled, Argi sucked in her lip and her fangs slid out. The broken one was almost regrown.

"Hey, it's almost back." He pointed out.

She made an inquisitive squeak and felt around the tooth with her long yellow tounge. Her face lit up.

"Finally! These are a pain growing back." She said.

Argi leaned back, using her arms to keep herself from falling off his bed. He noticed she was putting considerably less weight on her left arm. A spike of worry shot through his heart.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yes." She'd hesitated, and something was obviously bothering her. She wouldn't get off that easy.

"Did you get hurt on duty? Does your healer know yet? Is it bad? I'll check it for you." He reached for her arm, she flinched away from him.

"It's fine, just a little sore, that's all." She told him.

Phoebe chirped something to Flapjack.

"Phoebe says that's a lie and it's not fine." Flapjack translated.

Hunter raised an eyebrow, skeptical of his sister.

"You know the rules, you have to get wounds checked Argi. You can't let something get infected and kill you." He told her.

She ran her hand over the injured shoulder lightly.

"It's not bleeding." She said, trying to dissuade him from looking.

"Just let me see." Hunter, lightly, grabbed her arm.

She squirmed and tried to get him to let go. He ignored the struggling and pulled her sleeve up.

The scar was still there, but there was a bright red mark next to it, already showing signs of bruising. It was a familiar shape of bruise.

He ran his gloved fingers over the bruise, instantly pulling back when she flinched.

"Argi, what happened?" He asked quietly.

She didn't look at him though her eyes gave her away as usual. It might have been five years since he'd seen it, but he knew that fear color was specific to one cause.

"Did Uncle-"

Before he could finish, he was cut off by a high pitched squeak and a bright pale yellow and gray flash of light, causing him to cover his eyes. He opened them moments later to see Argi gone from the room.

Phoebe was still sitting on the bed with Flapjack. I wish I could warp without a staff. He thought briefly.

"Do you know where she went to?" He asked the Palisman.

Phoebe chirped to Flapjack again.

"Phoebe says you'll know where she is." Flapjack looked as confused as he felt.

Oh.

She must've gone to the roof.

He made a quick check that no one would see him then he went to grab Flapjack.

Wait.

If she was on the roof then she didn't feel safe, if she didn't feel safe then she'd be on edge and more likely to attack. And if she didn't feel safe she'd panic and get claustrophobic and need somewhere that was both open and felt secure to her.

It hit him like a ton of bricks. He facepalmed at how long it took him to realise it.

The roof is her open hiding place.

"Shit, shit, shit." Hunter cursed and kicked his bed leg.

Getting up to the roof had been a pain, he hadn't inherited his staff when he needed to get up there before. Now he did but, warping or teleporting would not be smart. It would be better if she heard him coming.

He sighed and went to his window, it was dark, the vines that grow on the castle could provide a steady enough grip and keep him hidden. They'd done it plenty of times before. He was glad that his room made it a bit easier to get up there.

Hunter grabbed a sack and put a couple healing patches and the sealed cup he'd just noticed belonged to his sister in there. A quick glance revealed his suspicions, a deep teal blue liquid sat in it, there were bits of green in it too, with the consistency of a milk shake. He knew what it was and that she needed it.

"You ready for a climb, buddy?" He asked Flapjack.

Phoebe shouted and flew out the window with a taunting expression.

"They say have fun climbing." Flapjack translated again.

XXX

Argi rematerialized with a sharp gasp. She'd been caught off guard by the sudden warping. It was annoying, but it had come in handy several times.

She looked around, she was on the roof of the castle, as she assumed. She could see above the pit the castle was built in, she could see the sky bathed deep red and orange with and clouds colored light yellowy oranges by the sunset.

The urge to feel the wind on her face, to somehow be up there, flying through the clouds on her own, it suddenly became overwhelming. It felt like she should just be able to take off from right there and be fine. Oddly, the persistent pain in her back lessened with the feeling.

She sat down, listening to the sounds of the world around her, feeling the cool wind on her face.

The wind turned cold suddenly, bitterly freezing. Like the mission at the Knee.

The cold made her reflexively shiver, something was telling her her arm was wet and bleeding, she knew it wasn't, it was just a memory, she didn't flinch or shy away from blood anymore.

She was better for it.

Uncle said it was good. That she was stronger because of it.

Am I?

She let her head fall between her legs and held herself tight. She didn't feel strong. There were tears forming.

No. I'm not supposed to cry. I don't need too. Crying is for the weak, the undeserving. I don't cry. I don't cry. I don't cry. I'm not weak! And I don't cry like some new scout recruit! I do not need to cry. Crying is beneath the Blue Guard! It's beneath me! Crying is a stupid, impulsive lesser reaction that only the weak and unstable have!

She covered her head and flattened her ears back.

I can't cry! I can't cry! I don't cry!

XXX

"Beat you!" Hunter glared at the pair of Palisman looking down at him from the roof.

"Yeah, yeah, you won." He grumbled as he pulled himself over the edge.

Wind tugged at his clothes and hair. He could see the sun setting clearly. Muffled sobs came from the other side of the roof. Argi's slumped form was curled in on itself.

Hunter made sure to make lots of noise as he made his way over to his sister. She was crying, it was always bad when she cried for any reason other than physical pain. She didn't like too, Belos said crying was weakness. But he knew sometimes everything just got too much even for her and she'd break down. Hunter personally didn't remember the last time he'd really cried, he didn't know if he still could.

When stuff overwhelmed him, he'd just shove down and later shut down, but that never seemed to work for Argi, she was too expressive and sensitve in Belos's words. He personally liked that about his sister, her sensitivity and expressiveness made her different from everyone else he interacted with.

He sat down a foot away from her then tapped her arm. She shyed away and sniffled.

"I've got some healing patches for you." He set the patches between them. She'd let him know if he could get closer.

She lifted up her sleeve with a tail, he could come closer. He picked up the patches and started applying them. She trembled occasionally as he worked.

"Did... do you think Lilith ever cared about us?" Argi's voice was small.

"I think she liked us when we were tiny and not a threat to her position." He answered honestly.

All of the coven heads, except Terra, had been kinder in a way when they were kids, cause they were little kids and Argi's tail chew teething thing had been really cute and silly, even Kikimora had admitted it once. That's probably why they still call her 'Sily'.

"So she doesn't care anymore?" Argi asked.

"She's the enemy now, it'd be weird if she cared." He shrugged.

"You aren't helping her." Flapjack chirped.

"What? I'm answering her questions honestly, is lying better?" He asked rhetorically.

Flapjack sighed and flew up to sit on his hair.

"Hunter.... Uncle loves us, right?"

He stopped working. The answer was clear logically, Belos took them in, raised them, trained them to be the best, gave them a home and food. He wouldn't do that if he didn't love them. But for some reason, he couldn't say it. Maybe it was the bright bruise staring him in the face or the faded scar he could see.

"Of course he does, don't be silly." He settled on saying.

"...it doesn't feel like that sometimes...." She muttered.

Hunter turned his sister so she was facing him, she kept her head down.

"I know he makes... Mistakes, sometimes... And he doesn't always have control, but he's not really trying to hurt us, they're accidents or discipline, it's not like he likes to hurt us, you know?" He said.

She gave a small nod and scooted closer to him. He patted her back gently but stopped once she winced.

"Don't worry! It's nothing! Just pre growth spurt pain!" Her head shot up as she explained in a panic.

Oh, she had been crying. Wait...

"Why's it yellow?" He pointed to the discolored tears on her face.

"Jayr says they're part of it." She rubbed the tears away stubbornly with little success.

He could tell there was more, he gave her a quick look over while she was distracted. The yellow orange skin around her horns was pink with irritation, her horns looked more red than normal, they looked bumpier, they were thicker, and longer? They were curving, he'd never seen that before.

"Did something change about your horns? They're longer." He pointed out.

Argi stopped trying to rub her tears away and stared at him. Her eyes cascaded through ultraviolet colors at a rapid pace, it almost hurt to look at when the glow kicked in. Her eyes only started glowing with intense emotions, he was used to seeing a yellow glow when she was really happy. Those purples specifically and in that pattern meant shame, she was feeling shame and guilt at the moment.

"...ihaven'tbeenabletofilethemdownorkeepthemattherightlengthforawhilecausethey'vebeenhurtinganditreallyhurts..." She mumbled.

"Does it normally not hurt? Aren't your horns bones?" He asked.

"Well they are and aren't, they function similarly, so I do feel pain in them but only if something gets past the outer layer, they're very tough and that part doesn't usually have much feeling, but it's hurting. A lot." She trailed off and turned her head away.

".....everything's hurting right now...."

Hunter wasn't sure what to do, how was he supposed to help? What was he even supposed to do? Her healer said it was pre growth spurt pain, how could he fix that. Oh shit she's crying again! Do something idiot!

He went for the basic. Carefully, he started pulling her closer, in case she wanted physical comfort, that usually helped. The offer was accepted as she leaned into him and squeezed his arm when he held it out to her.

Normally, he was hesitant, uncomfortable and distrusting of physical contact, he knew she was as well. A few too many hits from enemies and bad experiences to make the feeling a pleasent sensation. But Argi was an exception, he never felt so exposed or threatened, she was his sister. He knew she was similar in that way too, only she would sometimes seek out contact for her own self comfort.

Her horns were radiating heat, they were very irritated, he was careful not to let her horns touch him. He gently rubbed his hand on her arm as she cried into him.

Phoebe was moving around nervously a few feet away, the large bird couldn't do much, their usual perch was between Argi's horns, clearly she felt bad being unable to help. Argi has a very caring Palisman. He thought.

Flapjack's foot tapped on his head, he glanced at the expectant face looking down at him.

"You're good too buddy." He whispered.

Argi giggled and nudged him.

"He's getting jealous." She teased with a sniffle.

"Heh, he's a rascal sometimes." Hunter said.

Flapjack pulled on his hair again.

"It's true!" He batted playfully at the bird.

Flapjack began chirping furiously at him, it hardly made any sense but it got Argi to laugh. A lot.

She was doubled over laughing, her tails wagged around and a soft yellow was creeping in around the blue. The wind picked up and tugged at his clothes, Flapjack stopped messing with him and fluttered around. The wind seemed to have gotten Argi's attention, cause she was looking up at the Palisman flying around.

"I bet you're still rusty on that real staff, wanna go for a practice flight?" She suggested.

"Are you sure you feel up to it? I don't want you to fall off or-" Hunter started.

"I have two more limbs than you do, if anyone's falling it's you." Argi pointed out with a demonstrative wave of her tails.

"Guess you're right. Sure, why not?" He agreed.

Argi jumped up excitedly and, with an extremely mischievous smirk, spread her arms out wide and stepped backwards off the roof. Hunter rolled his eyes, he trusted his sister's Palisman to keep her safe, the bird had been doing it for almost a decade at this point.

His sister was laughing as she shot up past him, holding on with her feet. Right, all of her limbs are prehensil. He reminded himself.

Flapjack came to him and tugged his hair, he gently swatted him away and he changed to his staff form. He got on and chased after his sister.

XXX

Hunter collapsed onto his bed with Argi falling next to him, they were both laughing about some joke.

"Can I stay with you tonight?" Argi asked timidly.

Hunter glanced over at her, she was less panicked than earlier but still looked unsettled.

"Sure we can have a sleepover." He nodded.

"Thanks Hunter!" She exclaimed.

She opened the door and, oh? her healer was standing there, looking like they were about to knock.

"Oh, you're here, I was coming to check if you were doing better but I didn't find you in your room." The healer explained.

They looked around his room, Hunter felt a spike of panic when their eyes landed on Flapjack. However, their gaze softened and they let out a laugh.

"I see Phoebe's still bringing wild birds inside." They said.

"Yes, wild bird." Hunter nodded rapidly, hoping they couldn't hear his racing heart.

"Don't worry, I won't tell." They whispered as a small face peeked out of their curly hair.

It was some sort of bat, it's nose wiggled around as it sniffed the room. All Hunter could do was hope the bat didn't give him away to the healer while they were talking with Argi.

"Looks like you need an extra bed." Jayr guessed.

They made a circle and spelled a mattress onto the floor with a set of sheets that looked straight out of the medical wing.

They glanced up at him, their already kind, peachy orange gaze softened further. The Caprine had always been nice to him, from his first day in the castle when they'd treated his wounds and given him his frog plushie, to now. They were still kind.

He should distrust them, if they were kind to him, they wanted something, but that didn't seem to be the case. They had gone far out of their way to help him before, such as giving him a hat and ear muffs for his mountain training that just so happened to have a heating rune embroidered into it and healing patches stuffed in them, or when they had cleaned his room knowing he'd be too exhausted to do it himself, or offering to talk with him when they ran into each other. They didn't need to do that.

It's possible that they are just being nice with no ulterior motives. They are a nice person? Could he just let himself believe that, if only for a little.

"Have a good sleepover, don't stay up all night." Jayr said with a wave as they shut the door.

Argi practically flung herself onto the spare mattress and bounced up. Hunter chuckled at her childish behavior and tossed a pillow at her.

"Hey! What was that for?" She shouted, throwing it back at him.

"Pillow fight!" Flapjack chirped.

XXX

Eda lingered by the kid's door a bit longer than usual, watching King and Luz settle in to sleep. Once they were both sleeping or close to, she shut it and made her way downstairs, trying to ignore the tightened stabbing in her wrist and how she kept thinking back to the coven parade and that kid with Raine.

Lily was still here, she was chatting with good ol' aunty Carlyne about deadwardian balusters. She sat down on the couch, facing away from her older sister.

Ask now, before you loose the nerve. She told herself.

"Lily."

"Yes Edalyn?"

She didn't turn to see the wide, lively green eyes that were undoubtedly staring at her. She heard Carlyne get up to leave them alone. Thank the Titan the old turtle knows how to read a room.

"When you were in the coven, did you ever see any Palisde there too?"

She bit her lip to brace for the answer.

"Yes actually, there was this little Palisde girl, well, I suppose she's not so little anymore, she was usually around Aunty Carlyne and, she, let's just say she handles Belos's dirty work with extreme effectiveness."

Fuck! Eda cursed.

"Why do you ask?"

"I ran into a kid at the parade. Palisde, she was protecting Raine from me, really didn't seem to like me," Eda paused, the kid hadn't looked like any scout, and she had a Palisman, "She had a blue helmet." She added.

"Yes, that's the Blue Guard, Belos's most trusted and effective assassin and a personal guard when it's needed." Lily said.

"And, her eyes?" That was the only way to know for sure.

"About fifty fifty gold and silver irises and her sclera are indigo blue."

That was it.

The nail in the coffin.

Eda wanted to scream. The same day she finally saw her father again, finally let herself move past the mistake she made, she was reminded of the other most terrible thing she'd done. It was possibly worse because now that little baby was with Belos, raised and manipulated by him, killing at his command, a weapon. All because her mothers wanted to help a friend with her pain. Can I even call myself their friend after what I did?

"Speaking of Palisde, how are Platina and Sapi doing? I haven't heard anything about or from them in almost fourteen years." Lily asked.

Eda couldn't answer that question. All she could do was stare at the wall as numbness set in. I killed the only people who stuck around me after Raine. It was not the first time she had that thought.

Her silence must've worried her sister.

"Edalyn, did... something happen to them?" Lily asked cautiously.

She gave the smallest nod.

Lily gasped.

"Does, do you think she knows?"

"I doubt it, she'd have known who I was. And Palisde don't forget, not unless someone makes them." Eda snorted through her numbness.

"Are you saying that-"

"I don't know, but he has done something to that kid's head." Eda cut her sister off.

Eda didn't speak again that night, not even when Carlyne was discussing an event at Hexside she was excited for, or when she wanted to meet the newest Clawthornes. She was too caught up in her own memories, embroiled in the chaos, fire and pain of a deadly mistake.

________________________________________________________________________________

Yay! I finally got around to posting this chapter!

For anyone who's confused, Argi is the nickname for Argentiesum, and Silver is her public name, so all names refer to the same character. I decided to switch to Argi for reasons explained in the last chapter probably.

That potion letter and stranger are going to come into play later and be important.

Argi is starting to go through something rough that will hopefully be only two or three chapters away, I have a tendency to over write incase you haven't noticed already.

And Argi and the Collector/Enzo are besties and it's not one sided, they both care about each other, even though the Collector wouldn't admit they actually care about someone, much less a Palisde. There's *some* beef between the Collector and Palisde, it's not too bad don't worry. Their relationship is a sibling one.

And what do you all think of Jayr? I personally like them a lot, maybe cause they were fun and kinda challenging to draw.(go check out the drawing please).

Alright, bye, have a nice week, see you later with stuff from my other Toh au, or some Star Wars stuff, I may or may not have a chapter of a Star Wars fic completed but haven't got it on Tumblr as a draft cause I got a lot of drafts maybe. Maybe I have multiple chapters for different stories written.... I say it a lot but I do ping pong between projects so who knows what's next? Probably Star Wars.

Anyway bye! VJS out!

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toh-infodumping · 2 years

Text

Wanna know what makes my blood boil so much in Hollow Mind? Belos laughs. Which yes, he does at the very end with the "big reveal" but he laughs at so many other times too! (Pictures for general area that you can hear the other laughter at btw)

So we all know that this fucker is the real inner Belos taking form of a child to manipulate Luz.

However when I first watched this episode, I was a lot like Luz and Hunter in the sense that I didn't catch all the other times Belos laughed. It wasn't till I rewatched it did I catch this and man does it make me angry

The first time we hear Belos laughs is after they've hopped into the first memory and he leads them to the exact spot the memory is. He laughs three times here. Three seperate times. He's so excited. So excited to show his manipulation that he's done on the witches. To show Luz and Hunter, mostly Luz with evidence at the end of the episode where he reveals he's a witch hunter and says they're the same, his plan that's been in motion for years. He can't even contain himself.

The next time he laughs is when he jumps into the memory to show off his sigils and the plan to kill everyone with them. Which oh boy this memory amiright? Imagine being giddy to show a 16 year old and a 14 year old your plans for genocide.

He laughs a lot in this memory too. Each time getting more and more giddy and louder. To finally tell someone other than the Collect about your plan? It must have been euphoric for him. All his hard work to the other human? Sure, there's your "nephew" there but this is for a whole other post.

He laughs as they leave the memory too, knowing- KNOWING- that he just showed two people his plan that

1) He knows no one will believe if (Luz) told others and even if she did, he believes she can't stop him. So it's not a threat.

2) He knows the other is super dedicated to him. But this is also a test for Hunter. (Which will be another post about how Belos set Hunter up so he would "betray" him.)

He's having fun with this.

So much fun in fact that he laughs again when Hunter tries to DEFEND HIM saying that maybe Belos is remembering wrong and going as far as saying "Who knows how Mindscapes work!" When we the audience, Luz, himself AND BELOS THAT WAS OVERHEARING since the beginning that this kid DOES know how mindscapes work.

But this leads to the chase and then the flee into the BIG memory! Belos planned this. He knows where he was leading them. He knows how this memory is about his plans for the day of Unity. And here, he laughs about the hardest besides "the big reveal." And it's all because Luz saying "HE'S GOT THE PORTAL?!"

He's ENJOYING their reactions. He's loving their looks and reactions. He knows Luz is most likely trying to make her own portal and that laugh was equal to a person who now knows they have something more. Like an child laugh when they find out they have more rare pokemon cards than you. He's finding power and joy in this.

But the last time we hear him laugh before "the big reveal" is when hes setting up the trap for all the Palismen souls. "Sounds like he wants to wipe out all life in the demon realm." Says Luz causing Belos to laugh as yes, that is his goal. But even now, they do not recognize the additional laughter.

He is a little bitch boy. And oh my god. I hate him so much.

#toh #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers #the owl house #toh belos #catch me making more posts about hollow mind #infodump #analysis #analysis post

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crimeronan · 3 months

Note

Mmmmmmm and you KNOW that even in the best case scenario where possessed!luz does the LEAST amount of damage possible and doesn’t hurt hunter At All she’d still be Freaked over Hunter not noticing anything was wrong when she snapped at him….. like OH TITAN. DO I REALLY TREAT HIM THAT HORRIBLY. ON A REGULAR ENOUGH BASIS THAT HE DOESN’T FIND IT WEIRD…….. I DESERVE NOTHING LESS THAN THE GUILLOTINE,

Like… girl please take a Nap. Ohhhh my god. And Hunter would be freaking out because he didn’t notice and now she’s spiraling because of him and he is the worst, he deserves NOTHING LESS THAN THE GULLOTI- (Sensible Adult Voice) CHILDREN PLEASE.

On the plus side if she DID snap at Hunter in front of, like, Amity or Raine or.. I dunno, Darius, they would probably clock that Something Is Wrong MUCH faster than Hunter would. Because she Would Not, in fact, Do That. (Frankly, the fact that she DOESN’T is indicative of a problem in it of itself but the fact still stands….)

Of course, this is the Best Case Scenario. Which we don’t really do here :)

WOO POSSESSION THOUGHTSSSS

i think that amity hearing luz snap at hunter and clocking that something is wrong is By Far the funniest and most compelling option, simply because. She's Heard Luz Snap At Hunter Before .

like. amity knows Exactly what luz sounds like when she's genuinely aggrieved with hunter - luz caught him terrorizing amity and was Not Happy About It. so her clocking belos wouldn't just be "huh, luz is usually too lovey-dovey about the golden guard for this..."

it's, like. it's Very Specifically "luz doesn't act like THAT when she's angry." followed by "....that's not fucking luz."

#Much To Consider.#replies #toh #princess luz au #princess luz au possession timeline #shitty idiot repression gang #horrible mindscape trauma pals #and who is that other witch

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edoro · 2 years

Text

we’re talking (non-graphically) about csa a bit under the cut

but oh my god also wow, holy groomer behavior, batman

like on one level, grooming is just bog-standard manipulation turned to a particular aim (preparing a child to accept sexual contact), and so of course Philip’s general sleazy manipulation can be read this way because that’s the foundation of grooming behavior, with or without that specific intent behind it

on the other hand, i have already long since gotten that kind of vibe from Belos in his relationship with Hunter specifically, and this only adds fuel to that particular reading of the text.

(yes, i’m going to link that post every time i bring it up)

the way he zeroed in on Luz specifically as the one to manipulate, right away? of course - she’s a child. she’s naive and vulnerable in a way Lilith isn’t. she’s compassionate and caring and clearly responds very well to even small amounts of praise and attention from an adult, and he not only gave her that, but he cleverly played hot-and-cold with her, so that when he did praise her, it felt more meaningful and sincere, like she’d broken through to him.

the relative positioning of the characters throughout the scenes is interesting too - there’s often a bit of a distance between Luz and Lilith, while she’s physically closer to Philip, talking to him and sharing things with him. the way Lilith kept sort of moving in to be closer, too, and the suspicious looks she was giving him, and the looks he was giving her...

the praise, letting her feel like she’d really shown him something new even while he was obviously insecure and irritated about it... referencing the crab maiden thing, like it’s a playful little inside joke between the two of them - Belos is very playful, actually, in a weirdly dry sort of way, and it’s one of the things i really enjoy about his character. it’s incredibly creepy.

he just so effortlessly manipulated this child to get her to care for him and go against her own instincts, ignore her own sense of something being wrong... and there’s really something about the way he lied, too.

he did it so incredibly casually and easily, without putting much thought into it at all. he barely even tried to reconcile his words and actions - putting on this whole show of false humility, of needing help, being so frail, and praising Luz and talking about how difficult it was for him to discover and learn to use glyphs, and then moments later busting out this FMA-esque gigantic complex glyph combination to pull off a very technically complex spell, for instance? that was his first real mask-slip moment, imo.

even when Luz catches him in a lie, he doesn’t get angry or defensive, he doesn’t try to deny it, he doesn’t try to justify. he just smoothly moves on and acts like, well, of course he lied, let’s not get hung up on all of that - he just barely reacts at all to it, and just moves on, and this is an incredibly destabilizing form of manipulation that produces a profound sense of confusion and dislocation in the person it’s being done to.

they know what was literally just said/done to them, but the person who did it isn’t acting like simultaneously they didn’t do/say anything and obviously they did/said that, who wouldn’t, it’s completely normal - not trying to argue that it is, simply acting as if it’s self-evidently true that it is - and so no sooner than the victim has a reaction about the action than do they begin to doubt their reaction and the reality of the action itself.

that sort of thing goes beyond bog-standard manipulation and lying. this is a man who is so deeply entitled he thinks absolutely nothing of toying with a person’s very sense of reality in order to get what he wants, and he does it with a soft voice and a warm smile and a twinkle in his eyes.

so in conclusion: boy am i glad Luz had an adult present and also someone please get Hunter away from this man stat

#get hunter away from him yesterday #let's do another time adventure and just make sure he never gets any control over hunter whatsoever in fact #the creep vibes are beyond the scope of modern measurements tbh #the beard does NOT help.#philip wittebane #toh spoilers #the owl house #meta

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jess-the-vampire · 3 years

Note

Sooooo whatya think of the new episodeee?

Oh it’s definitely my favorite episode of the series so far, i was having such a good time at every turn. I’m glad i went out of my way to avoid spoilers, cause i was glad to actually be surprised by some elements on first watch.

I think this had by far the best opening for an episode so far, we finally get back to the villians, we meet the coven heads, we get insight on belos’s plans-

and then belos gets constipated, which starts getting into the more character driven lore, which is the best part. You instantly can tell GG and Kiki have some bit of tension between them to be Belo’s favorite, though granted i wonder if hunter is the only one to know belos is cursed and actually just always insists to help belos with his fits to prevent others from seeing them.

Including kiki.

It’s honestly unclear how aware anyone is that belos is cursed, like him eating pailsmans is apparently not something he hides, but like....i feel him being cursed is something that people would know universally if it got out...so i’m left wondering if anyone knows besides hunter.

Regardless, belos turns into a goop monster with an angry side, and i guess his mask doesn’t transform with him compared to the rest of his body so he breaks it again because i guess he goes though masks like crazy.

Hunter turns away in this scene from his outburst and even though he’s masked here i can already tell he’s most likely pained in these scenes. Like he’s probably seen this happen so many times, and i can’t imagine it gets any easier for him, it’s probably awful to watch belos suffer like this for him (Regardless of the abuse)

And to be honest, it seems pretty painful for him, i think this ep seems to at least confirm whatever this thing is that takes over belos’s body.....belos never actually wanted it in the first place.

Yeah so after Hunter tells belos there’s not enough trees to medicate him anymore, we’re hit with the “UNCLE”. Which, when i first watched it i needed a second to even process the fact they confirmed their relation.

and i was like “CLOSE ENOUGH”, not his kid but uncle still works just fine for me, i’m just happy my assumption they were related actually came to ahead.

And i rewatched this episode a few times, and on second watch i realized more what happened in this scene. Hunter was talking about his interest in wild magic, and making more pailsman to help belos, and some method that could heal him and as soon as belos looked at him he instantly shut down.

He was clearly rambling about wild magic cures for belos because of his interest in it, and then suddenly remembered his uncle hates wild magic and felt super awkward.

It seems highly likely his interest in wild magic came from trying to cure belos and spending a lot of time reading up on the stuff.

And then we get hit with the whole “Our family is dead because of wild magic” line, which.....i’m curious to know what happened there. But it does at least explain why belos feels how he does, if wild magic both killed his family beside hunter AND cursed him in the first place. We’re just gonna need more info on what exactly happened.

Also while Belos is def abusive and does not treat hunter how he should, this scene actually does read off to me like belos does care about hunter to some degree. If belos is cursed and his curse works in similar ways to how Eda’s curse works, then it’s worth reminding ppl that eda mentions early this season how stress can amplify the curse even more.

And sure enough, belos goes goopy on hunter’s shoulder all of a sudden when he grasps him. Which could be considered a sign of stress and that the idea of hunter dying or being in danger actually does stress him.

You could very much also assume this is just due to his curse not being fully handled and just getting worse, or that belos only cares about hunter for selfish reasons....but i’m not taking anything off the table here.

Belos can still be a shitty uncle, and still care about hunter, these aren’t mutually exclusive traits. But we need more episodes for now on this.

But anyways he asks hunter if he can rely on him, kiki is pissed......and we move on.

So i’m glad luz’s impulsiveness is addressed a ton in this episode, they actually bring up a lot of good points. That luz has no plan, that the time she’s spending here might render moot if she goes back to earth, ect ect.

Hunter even calls her out a lot later for not thinking things through, it’s a whole deal in this episode. I’m glad it was brought up cause it’s actually worth asking a lot of these things.

the set up here works, they actually made a good reason for why a pailsman didn’t bond with her. Speaking of which the adoption thing is cute and i love it, it’s a great idea. The designs are all very cute and fun.

Bump face reveal was a lot for me to process, but i find the idea of his pailsman being a pet that can help with his disabilities a good idea.

Also like, i did find it odd that they got staffs so early because we’ve never seen kids their ages with them before, but i guess it’s a new tradition? Does everyone at hexside now have one?

Honesty not sure why batqueen left the nest there overnight, i meant i guess she assumed they were safe with that shield but in context i dunno why she didn’t take them home after the school day was over.

but whatever, luz stays there overnight hoping a pailsman will bond with her and GG just kidnapps them cause of pure luck on his part a bunch of pailsman were in a vulnerable spot tonight.

So GG continues to be charming, by whistling the theme song and then being blasted off his ship hilariously, before cockily teleporting himself right back on it seconds later. Like he and luz have great banter, he’s so extra like this it’s so funny, and god he’s so FAST with that staff it’s scary but so awesome.

Yeah so then hand dragon crashes them and i was so excited cause it meant face reveal. Poor dude looked so in pain and then we find out kiki tried to effing murder him because of course she did. But like, i think killing your boss’s nephew is the WORST way to get a promotion tbh.

(Also i got confused for a bit cause his mask has always been drawn as a mask, but now it’s a helmet in this scene for whatever reason but-)

Anyways, face reveal, Like honestly ppl weren’t too far off with their guesses, really the only thing people didn’t get was the tooth gap (That was fair tho, we couldn’t have guessed that). But it did make him even cuter.

like the banter is funny, he licks her hand, she slaps him, he looks SO pissed at her for this mess.

and i guess that outfit is his under armor apparently.

He’s lucky she didn’t run away immediately and followed him, but maybe he assumed she would since she had no where else to go.

Also his expressions in this ep are glorious, these had to be fun to draw.

Also we find out that the coven team members have never seen his face i guess? They just assume he’s a silly kid and are awful to him, so i guess he’s not only the youngest member of the coven but he never really shows his face much.

(”Call your parents”, ha ha.....whose gonna tell them who his uncle is?)

He is however, REALLY good at parkour and he’s fast even without his staff, so he’s well trained alright.

And then they reveal he’s not magical and i was SO happy cause i was so sure something was up when he wasn’t doing magic like the other witches despite his pointy ears. So they outright confirmed what i thought.

Hunter is pretty smart tho, like he can tell luz wouldn’t hurt him and wouldn’t flee so he knows he has the high ground here. Like he might be being a bit of a dick, but to be fair luz has been nothing but a dick to him throughout the whole episode (Everyone in this episode has been a dick to him tbh)

They team up and i get excited cause i love this kinda stuff and it gets more wholesome because hunter is super interested in her magic, he thinks it’s cool and you can tell how much he actually loves wild magic but then again...shuts himself down because of belos making him fear the stuff.

An then because luz asks, he tells her his backstory.

honestly with how this world treats people who aren’t magically powerful, living and growing up in a world that would find you useless sounds....awful. Hunter must be an anomaly around here, human blood or not.

Luz coming here to learn is different then growing up in a world and being the only one with no abilities and no future without them. Belos provides him with magic and a future, it’s no wonder he stays with him despite everything.

the whole “Found me” thing is weird, cause belos implies they’re blood related and hunter makes it sound like belos semi-adopted him. Which....if he did i dunno why “Uncle” and not “Adopted dad”, but ok....guess that’s for later.

Apparently hunter is important for something tho with the “Titan has big plans for me” thing, not sure what, but-

But yeah as soon as Hunter talked about wanting to make his own future and Rascal tried to land on him i knew EXACTLY where this was going, it was so cuteeeeee. The lil birb wanted to be with hunter, that’s so wholesome.

And he’s so terrified because of belos and what wild magic did to him, the poor bab.

But yeah, luz then trusts him with his staff back, because again....impulsive. But hunter does actually ask if she’s sure, so he might as well be asking if she trusts him.

The plan goes ahead, and hunter nearly betrays her.

though granted, hunter never promised her he’d stop and let her take them away, the truce was supposed to last till kiki was stopped and they were gonna fight out who got the pailsman. But it does bother luz cause she was hopeful he was better then this.

But just like he did before, she calls him out and he doesn’t betray her, because he’s ALSO too nice to do it, just like he said she was. He says his name (Which also took a moment to process), and then beats the crap out of kiki while letting luz get away and protecting her like a badass.

He might not have magic, but he’s good at fighting

like he can easily teleport to luz and take the pailsman, but he doesn’t, he lets them get away and luz knows this. Even though she also knows hunter has to go back to the emperor too and they have to separate.

It’s only slightly bitter terms, because in the end he came through for her and she knows it.

honestly, the worst part is i can’t even be mad at hunter for it, i’m sure he was terrified to fail belos. Both because he loves him and doesn’t want him to suffer....but also because of well...being punished. Really says something when his near betrayal doesn’t even make me mad at him, and i can understand why he nearly did it.

He let her go, knowing he’d be in SERIOUS trouble and that it would hurt someone he actually loves, so....ouch.

so yeah at this point i knew rascal wanted him so it was only of matter of what happened next.

Which was, luz getting the wood, which i like more anyway. Eda and King doing this offscreen and coming home like this is actually very funny, and honestly i appreciate the message of it being ok to wait.....means a lot to me.

yeah so belos is like...being an ass, like the kid tried his hardest, you don’t need to hit him with the “Is this the thanks i get?”. He’s a kid and he’s trying to cure you you dick, give him a break he doesn’t remotely have to help you like this.

Also apparently belos has not even told hunter HOW this happened, like...dude. Hunter is trying to be entirely reasonable here and belos spikes at him, which does imply some physical abuse though the only reason hunter doesn’t get a new scar is because he moves.

but how he reacts implies this has happened before, he is bracing for impact and he flinches. It’s pretty sad tbh, especially since hunter loves him and belos’s respect means something to him.

Belos is such an idiot, like c’mon dude, hunter is trying to help you and you don’t listen to him you dick. Kid shouldn’t have to say sorry for anything he did nothing wrong, he was just trying to help.

Anyways, he gloats at kiki (So at the very least she knows what he looks like under the mask), which he deserves a chance to do anyway. So i guess he didn’t rat her out for trying to kill him, personally my guess why is blackmail.....he was gonna hold it over her head to keep her from doing it again and threaten to tell belos.

But kiki quickly tells he LET the pailsman get away since he was the one to fight her (Curse his cute loose hair strand). So i guess now they have dirt on each other, so that’s fun.

His room is adorable, though the med kit by the bed is concerning.

Rascal comes for him and it;s so cute....though you can tell hunter nearly hurts him on instinct because of force of habit, but it’s so cute how he cares and how the birb loves him and is his new staff.

it was well hinted to as well, it’s so subtle, but the bird being cheery, curious, and his constant habit of escaping boundaries was perfect for hunter. He represents what hunter wants to be and why they got matched is done so well, all without explaining anything.

Hunter indirectly stated his deepest wish, to make his own choices, and rascal resonated with that.

can’t wait to see where this goes.

great ending shot, love me some conflicted shots looking out of windows like trapped birds.

also this title was a pun the whole time i can’t-

#the owl house #toh #toh spoilers #golden guard #toh golden guard #the owl house golden guard #the golden guard #the owl house luz #emperor belos #kikimora

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softspeirs · 3 years

Text

One Step Closer

Pairing: Joe Liebgott x OFC (Anna Cunningham, created by @mercurygray’s Central Casting generator! Summary: 5 times Joe Liebgott wanted to kiss her, and 1 time he finally did. Author’s Note: To @rogue-sunday for the HBO War Secret Santa exchange! CATHERINE oh my god I have wanted to be like *waves hands* IT’S ME IT’S ME for weeks!!!! You reblogged one of my fics when I was still messaging you anonymously and I didn’t say anything because I was worried somehow you’d figure it out LOL. ANYWAY. You asked me for something with Lieb, something with some yearning and w o w is there yearning. Pining. Feelings abound. I hope you enjoy it! Disclaimer: I don’t own Band of Brothers. This portrayal is based completely on the actor and no disrespect is intended to any veterans or their families.

Toccoa

The barracks are a disaster zone. All of their belongings are strewn about on their racks. Letters and clothes and personal effects are everywhere, but none are completely destroyed except for hers.

Joe and the others are used to this treatment from Sobel, and they grumble as they sort out their stuff. When the door opens with a bang and Cunningham comes in, they all freeze, watching her reaction.

She’s only been with them a few days. He’s not sure what to make of her. He thinks she’s absolutely out of her skull, that’s for damn sure. Why else would a woman want to become a sniper?

He expects embarrassment when she sees her clothes and belongings draped across her rack and several of the others next to hers, but she surprises them yet again with a loud, angry curse.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” she swears, gathering a bundle of her clothes in her arms. She shoves them into her trunk, and goes completely still when she sees what’s left on her bed.

It looks like a book. A diary, maybe. Joe snorts. Figures Sobel would want to read her deepest, darkest thoughts, the dirty bastard.

“Is this-- do you think this is funny?” She hisses, rounding on him. He didn’t realize he laughed loud enough for her to hear it.

He shrugs, straightening his shoulders. “Shouldn’t have brought a diary to basic, sweetheart.” He says with a smirk. “That’s just asking for trouble. He goes through everyone’s stuff when the whim strikes him.”

He nearly stops himself when he sees her hands are shaking.

“This-- this is my mother’s--” She stops herself, and for a moment, no one moves, no one even breathes. A single, solitary tear slides down her cheek. “This is all I have left of her, and now--”

He sees what’s making her upset. Sobel didn’t just read it. There’s pages torn out, the cover is nearly ripped off.

“Come on,” Luz is there, ever the mediator. “Let’s go outside for a second, get some air.”

She stiffens when he touches her elbow, but she levels one last glare at Joe and a few of the others who are watching her warily.

“I know you don’t want me here. I know everyone’s waiting for me to fail out. But I’m not going anywhere. So you and Sobel and everyone else better get used to it.”

There’s a fire in her eyes he’s never seen before, the ends of her hair practically crackling with energy as she runs a shaky hand through it.

For half a second, he’s transfixed. He shakes the feeling off as soon as it arrives, cursing himself for being so predictable.

She leaves with George and the rest of them go back to sorting out their own gear, Malarkey watching the door with a long, low whistle.

“Wouldn’t want to be on her bad side.”

“You already are, stupid.” Guarnere quips, and they dissolve into chuckles. It’s true - the entire platoon hasn’t been very welcoming, except for a few who were a little too eager to have a woman in their ranks.

He doesn’t really know what to think. One thing’s for sure, though, Anna Cunningham might be off her rocker, but she’s not someone you want to cross. Joe smiles to himself as he remembers her glaring at him. Somehow he thinks that won’t be the last time.

Fort Benning

“Shut up--” She hisses, crouched down next to Joe and Chuck Grant in the weeds and dirt at the base of a small tree, “If either of you keep talking, we’re never going to win.”

Chuck snorts, “Anna, we’re never going to win anyway. They’ve got Shifty on their side.”

Her eyes narrow. “And you’ve got me.”

“Yeah, Grant. Stop doubting the lady.”

She makes a frustrated noise, somewhere between a groan and a growl, and Joe can’t help the chuckle that escapes. God, but he loves winding her up.

After everything Easy’s been through so far on their way to earning their wings, she’s really opened up. The incident in the barracks with Sobel and her Mom’s diary seemed to be the last straw. She stood up for herself, and wasn’t afraid to be loud about it to anyone who tried to get the better of her.

“There,” she says, almost breathlessly, interrupting Joe’s musing. “I see it.”

“Where?” Grant leans up.

“Stay down!” She hisses. “They’re close. I can hear Bill.”

Joe smirks, “Those damn Philadelphians don’t have quiet voices.”

She grins. “Better for us. I’m going to go get the flag, and then we’re on our way to a hot meal, boys.”

Still crouched down, the three of them make their way back a few yards to where the rest of their team is waiting.

“Well?” Malarkey asks, nearly tripping over his own feet to meet them halfway.

“The flag is tied to a branch on a tree a few yards ahead. They’ll see us the minute we start for it, though.”

Lipton whispers, “You’re the fastest, Cunningham. I say you make a break for it.”

“I’ll go with her, give her a boost.” Joe says, anticipating what she does next, which is to whip around to glare at him.

“I don’t need a boost--”

“You’re five feet at best--”

“Five two when you stretch,” Skip adds, snickering.

“Shut up, both of you. We’re wasting time. I’m going alone, and I’m going to beat Shifty at capture-the-flag if it’s the last thing I do.”

She heads off with a nod from Lip, and when Joe watches her scurry up the tree and wave around the flag victoriously while Shifty and Bill shout at her from a few yards away, that feeling of never wanting to take his eyes off her washes over him again.

D-Day

A group of them are clumped together on the airfield, gathering their gear and trying to gather their nerves.

Joe won’t admit it, but he’s crawling out of his skin with anxiety. He wants to get in the plane and take off. The waiting is killing him.

He busies himself giving last minute haircuts, trying not to watch with increasing jealousy as someone else makes sure Anna is geared up, even though he knows she’s capable of taking care of herself.

Something about facing impending death is making him not give a flying fuck about decorum or anything else. If he’s going to die today, he doesn’t want to die not knowing if the spark he feels with her is just her digging her way under his skin, or something more.

After he finishes the last cut, he heads over towards her, his feet moving without his permission.

“There you go,” George says to her fondly, tugging the last strap tight where Anna can’t reach to do it herself. “Don’t look now--” he says as a warning, disappearing right when Lieb saunters over, a smirk on his face.

“You ready?”

“Want to get it over with.” Anna grumbles, trying to hide her nerves.

Joe clears his throat. “You’ll be fine.” He says, gruff. “Just--” he leans in, pressing a swift kiss to her forehead. “Be careful.”

He relishes in the surprised look on her face as he heads towards his stick.

Bastogne

She muffles a scream into his shirt as he hauls her into his foxhole, the trees above them splintering into pieces.

He can feel her hot breath mixed with tears against her neck, and he wishes, not for the first time, that he could get her out of here.

Selfishly, he wants her to be safe. But also selfishly, he wants her close. He’s so used to the ache in his chest when he looks at her, the way a smile from her lights him up from the inside out… he knows that if it weren’t for her, he might be even more reckless than he usually is.

He’s determined to live, though, and keep her alive too. He promises himself that when this war is finally over, he’s going to get his shit together and tell her how he feels.

“Joe?” She gasps out, “Joe. Let me go.”

He instinctively holds her closer for a half second before releasing her. “Stay down.”

“I have to check on Shifty--”

“You’re not going anywhere until the shelling stops.” Grinding his teeth, he forces himself to soften his tone. “Are you hurt?”

“I don’t think so.”

Something in her voice makes him shift around so he can see her face. She’s bleeding - a gash on her forehead spilling crimson down her temple.

“Shit,” he curses, digging in his jacket for a bandage. “Hold still.”

“Don’t waste that on me.”

“It’s not a waste--” He snaps, stopping himself yet again. “Anna. Let me help you. Then we’ll find Doc.”

Close enough to feel her breath on his face, he presses the bandage to the side of her face, his throat growing tight at the look on her face as she gives her trust over to him.

“Lieb.” She whispers.

Something in her voice makes him freeze, and he finds himself lost in her eyes. Her hand comes up slowly, touching the side of his face much like he’s doing to her. Later, he’ll be embarrassed about the needy noise that gets choked in his throat at her touch, but now all he can concentrate on is the softness of her skin, and how he lov--

How he’s so mad about her that he can barely stand it.

“You have to stay safe.” He says, low. “Please.”

With that, he releases her, hauling himself out of the foxhole to find Doc for her before he gives too much of himself away.

Austria

Joe enters the field hospital with trepidation. He hates it here.

It brings back memories of his own time in the hospital, before he went AWOL, when he was surrounded by the dead and dying.

He hates that she’s here.

He finds her bed easily - he’s been here more often than not, not only for his own peace of mind, but to deliver well wishes and gifts from the other men.

She doesn’t see him at first, staring out the window instead. He clears his throat when he gets to the door.

Her face lights up when she sees him, and it knocks the breath out of him.

“How are you feeling?”

She squirms, frowning. “Like I was shot.”

She’d been with Grant when it happened. He doesn’t think he’s ever been so scared in his life, even under fire himself.

She’d been so pale. So lifeless -- even the prospect of beating the shit out of the replacement who did this to her, to her and to Grant wasn’t enough to quell Liebgott’s rage. Still, he settled for being by her side nearly constantly.

He can tell she’s not up to talking today, so he settles in next to her. Writes a letter to his mother, and thumbs through the pages of a comic book he managed to get his hands on from back home.

“Lieb?”

She startles him - he thought she went back to sleep.

“Why do you keep coming here?”

He’s almost affronted by her question. Doesn’t she know? Can’t she see the way he cares for her? He feels as though his feelings for her pour out of him with every look, but maybe it’s not as obvious as he feared.

“Don’t be stupid.”

He curses himself; he doesn’t know why he’s so combative with her all the time, especially when she gets close to knocking on the door to what he’s been running away from all this time.

“Can you promise me something?” She asks, like she’s not affected at all by him snapping at her. “Can you promise me that we’ll see each other again after we get home?”

His gut reaction is to promise her that he’s never going to let her out of his sight ever again. He wants to tell her that if he had it his way, he’d never be parted from her once they get home, that he’d do exactly what he told Web he wanted to do and marry her.

He’s terrified.

He doesn’t know if she feels the same way. Sometimes she’s more friendly with Talbert and Luz than she is with him, hell, she’s even more friendly with some of the officers.

But he thinks of all the little moments, and there’s some hope that she feels the way he does.

The way he feels is… all consuming. She gets under his skin like no one else. She doesn’t put up with his shit, but she lets herself joke and laugh with him too. She trusts him. And he trusts her more than nearly anyone else.

“I promise,” he whispers. “I promise we won’t lose touch.”

When he leaves that day, he curses himself all the way back to his billet that he didn’t kiss her. He curses himself even more when he learns that they won’t be on the same ship back stateside.

+ 1

San Francisco

Pounding on the front door startles Joe awake. He rolls onto his back and squints into the darkness of the early morning, trying to figure out if he’s dreaming.

The knocking starts again, and he groans, getting to his feet unsteadily.

He pulls open the door with a snarl, ready to hurl a few curses at whoever’s on the other side, but the words die on his lips when he sees her.

“Good morning.” She says frostily. “Or should I say afternoon.” She checks her watch. “You look terrible.” She pushes her way past him, into his home.

He’s dumbstruck, has no idea what to do or say… just turns around slowly, trying to convince himself he’s not still drunk or asleep, or both.

“What the hell are you doing here?” He asks, his voice a rough rasp that even he barely recognizes. He regrets his phrasing the minute the words leave his mouth.

Her eyes are dark, hurt. “You promised me.”

“Ann-”

“You promised. I almost died and you said--”

“I know what I said,” he snarls, “I couldn’t--” He stops himself, hands on his hips, eyes screwed shut as he tries to gather himself.

He’s been dreaming of and dreading seeing her again for this exact reason. She makes him feel too much. His feelings knocked him flat on his ass when he first met her, and they’ve just gotten steadily stronger since.

Worse with the distance he intentionally put between them after he got home. He misses her like a lost limb.

If only he was brave enough to tell her that.

Jumping out of planes? No problem. Facing his feelings for one Anna Cunningham? Scares the hell out of him.

“You couldn’t what?” She’s pleading, and he can’t take it anymore.

He crosses the room in two quick strides, gripping her upper arms. “I couldn’t stand the idea of seeing you again because I wanted it too badly. People like me don’t get happy endings. Not after the shit I’ve done. I have nothing to offer you.”

“I just want you, Lieb. I think I get to make that decision for myself. You don’t get to do it for me.”

He curses under his breath even though inside, he feels like a weight has been lifted. “How did you find me?” He asks.

“Never doubt Captain Nixon when he owes someone a favor.” She says, smiling softly.

“You had him track me down?”

“I asked him to help me. I couldn’t stand the thought of another year going by without seeing you.” She corrects, and the breath leaves his lungs in a whoosh.

This time, he doesn’t stop himself or come up with a hundred reasons why it’s a bad idea - he takes her face in his hands and his lips crash against hers with a fervor that has him reeling.

It’s everything he thought it would be. His veins fill with fire and when she sighs and melts against him, he knows right then she’s it for him.

“I’m sorry,” he breathes when they break apart. “I wanted-- god, Anna, I’ve wanted you for so long I don’t even know where to begin.”

“How long?” She asks, just as hoarse.

“Probably since you helped our team kick ass at capture-the-flag.” He grins.

Her face lights up at the memory. “That long?”

His expression softens, and he leans in, brushing his lips against hers once more. “I feel like I’ve loved you forever, Anna Cunningham.”

Their hands intertwined, he kisses her in the living room of his apartment, his whole life stretching out in front of him and reminding him that he doesn’t have to hide, not from her.

He kicks himself for not having the courage to kiss her sooner, but then he wouldn’t have this. This moment with her in his arms, both of them home and safe and happy… he wouldn’t trade it for the world.

#joe liebgott x oc #joe liebgott x reader #hbo war secret santa #hbo war secret santa 2020 #band of brothers fanfiction #softspeirs band of brothers fanfiction

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