#odalia just strikes me as the type of person to name a daughter after herself

[yardsards]

mostly joking toh theory: amity and emira are both trans girls, and the fact that they got to choose their names themselves is the only reason why neither of them ended up getting named "odalia jr."

#eliot posts #toh #the owl house #amity blight #emira blight #odalia just strikes me as the type of person to name a daughter after herself #i have a couple relatives who named their kids after themselves and it's always seemed so fucking weird to me??? #like i cannot imagine being like. hi i'm eliot and this is my son eliot. #honestly thinking about it there's a good chance my dad would've tried to name me after himself if i were amab #my mother wanted to name me axl but i think my dad could've won her over #and either named me after himself #(either his legal name or his nickname‚ which was after an uncle of his bc he was apparently the spitting image of) #or named me after his own father. which would make me the third of my cousin group to bear that name #(though ironically only one of said cousins was named after our grandpa. the other was named after his dad who married in to the family) #also apparently even as an afab baby i was apparently the spitting image of one of those cousins #to the point where my mother told me her first thought upon seeing me after i was born was just ''oh god she looks just like [cousin]'' #for an extra layer of Bullshit: vincent cat's name at the shelter was the same as my dad's nickname so i had to change it #bc having a cat with sorta the same name as my dad whom i have a Complicated and Bad relationship with would feel Weird #this is all irrelevant but i just need you to know how batshit the name situation on my dad's side of the family is #my mother's side is mostly uncomplicated except for the surname situation going on #like i have no clue who my mother's maiden name came from and at this point i'm too afraid to ask #but yea since i was afab my given first name was just a random name that my mother thought was pretty #my given middle name tho WAS after a family member #specifically my rich childless aunt on my dad's side #the original plan was just a second random name my mother liked but then i popped out prematurely on that aunt's birthday #so my dad's OTHER sister (who had barged in uninvited to the delivery room) told my mother #''hey it's [childless aunt's] birthday today. she's rich and has no kids. name your child after her and she might help pay for college'' #but my chosen name and middle name are unrelated to anyone. just two names i really liked and thought fit me + my gender.

[atomicblasphemy]

Chamomile {Part II}

Eda and Amity share a cup of tea

“Wh-what you mean how long?”

“Okay, first of all, calm down. Come on, after me, take a deep breath. Let it out. Slower. Good. No need for you to be this nervous, I wont tattle on you, or try to get it out in the way.  This is no trial. Whatever Luz decides, I won’t interfere. You feeling better now?”

Eda sounded comforting, the content of her words still a bit loose in Amity’s mind. The girl just nodded as she follow her senior’s instructions. To the girl’s surprise those proved rather efficient.

“Good.  What I meant was how long have you been having those feelings for my daughter – well, surrogate but still - and how long until you decide to actually do something about it?”

“I… Am I seriously this easy to read?”

“Yup.”

“I…” Her secret out, Amity opted to preserve her dignity. Worst case scenario was Eda outright denying Amity any hope. But she seemed sincere enough in her promises not to interfere, Amity decided to take a leap of faith and indulge the woman. “Since grom, I think. I mean, that’s when I really couldn’t call it anything else. As for the last part… I don’t really know.”  A question still burned inside the girl’s skull, however. “But if you said you don’t plan on getting in the way, why are you asking?”

“You know, Amity? I was actually meaning to have this chat with you for sometime now, probably ever since I noticed you and Luz were getting closer. If you don’t want to today, that’s fine. But I really think we need to do this. You don’t need to answer me anything you don’t want to, okay? The thing is, I knew your parents well enough, I know what they can be like, what they are capable of. And I know someone who becomes, at least, friends with Luz can’t be as bad as them. You are a part of the life of some I deeply care for, a part of her life she deeply cares for. I just want to get to know you better.”

“A part she… cares for?”

“Yup”

“Wow...”

“Titan, you’re that far deep? Look, Amity, you better not expect me to give you any kind of insider information or anything along those lines, you’d be very disappointed. That being said, I can tell you this: she cares about you, as her friend, like she cares about, I don’t know, Willow, or Gus. And I can also tell you my personal opinion, but that I’ll do later.”

“Yeah… That’s what she told me that night, before we fought Grom. ‘That’s what friends do’, or something like that.”

“Eh, cheer up. Friend is halfway to the title you really want. Girlfriend, I’d imagine, right? So hey, better than nothing.”

Amity, to her surprise, chuckled. The strand of green that stubbornly made its way back to obscure her vision remaining in place.

“I guess. And thanks. But… I still don’t get it. I mean, I don’t get why I’m here.”

“I just asked out of curiosity. Honest.”

“I mean, I don’t get your curiosity, but that’s not what I mean. I don’t get why she’d see me like that. I’m just, I don’t know… surprised, I guess. Surprised she’d see me like that, invite me to a sleepover, make plans with me instead of just keeping me away. It makes no sense. I’m happy for it, but it still makes no sense to me.”

“Why wouldn’t she?”

“I mean, you were there was the day she first snuck into Hexside and pretty much botched my abomination presentation, then there was the covention, that night at the library. I wasn’t friendly with her back then. And you remember what happened that day, with Willow, with her best friend. I made enough to her and to her friends to make anyone want to stay away. I just don’t get why she won’t, why she pulls me in to her side.”

“Kid, you were her protege and by what she told me you two didn’t part ways in the best fashion possible, so you’ll probably not be too happy to hear this… But you really remind me of my sister, Lilith. Actually, you also remind me a bit of your mother. And your father. And, I don’t know, even a bit of myself a little, I guess… You strike me as a confused kid, that’s what I’m trying to say. And going by our interaction today, and all those other times, the covention, the knee, grom night, going by what Luz tells me about you, and what I know about your parents as people, I just don’t think you are getting any help with that, and that stuff can be tough to deal with on your own. I mean, each and every single one of those days left me with a different impression of you. You’ll probably become a more frequent part of Luz’s life from now on, whatever the nature of the relationship between the two of you become. I might as well adopt yet another dumb kid then, I kind of feel obligated to at this point. Put you under my wing, offer you the help you may or may not be needing. So, let me ask you again, what’s stopping you from asking her out?”

“I… No one ever told me anything like this… Thank you… Really. But, honestly, I don’t know how to answer that. Do I really remind you of Lilith? And of mother and father?”

Surprisingly, with the cat out of the bag, Amity felt calm enough to form somewhat coherent sentences again.  She couldn’t tell if it was thanks to Eda’s breathing technique, or her unexpected motherliness, or even the tea, despite it being a little more bitter than what she was accustomed to. Eda continued, ignoring Amity’s questions.

“Let’s try it this way then, what happened when you met Grometheus?”

“You were there, weren’t you? You saw it. And I thought Luz would have told you.”

“I was, I saw, she did. But I want to hear it from you. Trust me, Amity, this is important.”

“Okay… He… Destroyed the note asking out my intended date for grom, the one I failed miserably at delivering.”

“Was it...”

“Yes, it was  for Luz. In fact, he even took the vague shape of her. I can’t believe she didn’t catch up to that, honestly.”

“She had a lot on her mind that day, trust me. That was a long night for her too, that thing showed her a lot. I’ll let she be the one to tell you about it though. Besides, she always talks about how she hardly had any friends back in the human realm. She’s an intelligent girl, but let’s just say social intelligence is not her strongest suit. Your secret is safe until you decide otherwise on that front too. Anyway, you didn’t want to hear her saying no to you, is that it?”

Leaning backwards, looking aimlessly at the window, Amity searched for the answer. There was little to see there, which didn’t help her articulating her thoughts. Then again, she had been trying to answer this particular question since that day. The image of Luz’s form ripping the pink paper apart haunted her still. But this cowering pile of nerves was not who Amity Bligh was, was it? She had her poise, she knew how to carry herself, she could conceal all her deepest weaknesses and flaws. Of the possible tragedies she could be subjected too, rejection by a crush seemed of the more mundane ones.

The echoes of the many times she repeated these arguments to herself, unconvincingly, ran amok in her skull, rising, reaching her scalp, overflowing. She takes a deep breath, tucking a loose strand of green hair behind her ear, and attempts at an answer. Eda looked as though she took meticulous notice of the girl’s gesture, it hadn’t been the first time she done it that night, after all.

“That’s close, but not it. Not really. I don’t know how to put it, its just that…”

“Your hair bothering you?”

“What?”

“You heard me. Your hair, is it bothering you? You have a tic of sorts with it, you keep on tucking it it when I ask some tougher question. Like now. Did you even realize you were doing it?”

“No, not really. I normally keep it tied up.”

“Well, you do. So, Odalia dyes it for you, doesn’t she? Do you like it?”

She couldn’t help but repeat the gesture Eda just described, eliciting a knowing look from the woman. Unlike the previous question, however, the answer was clear.

“No… I really don’t. I know I don’t look bad like this. But I don’t think I really look good either, you know?”

“Yeah, I do. Not with looks though, I always had no doubts I look absolutely fantastic. Anyway, why does she do it then?”

“Color coordination. The Blight motif is green, so I should be green to, apparently. But… I don’t know if I am.”

“Amity, do you wanna hear a little story? About when me and Lily studied with your parents? I think I know why you are so afraid of Luz… Or of what she represents to you at least.”

Hearing her name, she looks up. Unlike the other times her mother and father had been brought up there was now no semblance of mean spirited humor in Eda’s voice, let alone her eyes. They were soft, understanding, sorrowful even. The woman that should the conversation continued on this lane it would become stagnant. They would be chasing their own tails, this was not what she wanted for the night. Taking the exchange as a yes, Eda proceeded.

“Believe it or not, back when we were kids me, my sister, your parents, we were kind of friends for a while. Well, maybe friends is a strong word, especially when it comes to me and Odalia, but there was no overt animosity between us, that’s what I’m trying to say. That doesn’t sound right either but lets go with that for now. Me and Al, we had a weird relationship. In one hand we were sort of each other’s confidants. No, there was nothing like that there, he never was my type, to be honest. And I seriously doubt I ever was his, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, we wouldn’t hang out so often, normally just in school really. Back then the abomination and potions tracks had a lot of classes together, so we normally shared the desk, exchanging notes and all that. One of the few people who actually laughed when I’d prank him. He had a good sense of humor. Oh… By the look on your face… That changed, hasn’t it? Pity… But no surprise, not really. Anyway, we would talk about everything really, but with time he started telling me some deep personal stuff, all unprompted. I won’t get into any details, its not my place to do that, but he wasn’t… all that well… back then. And I tried to hang out with him outside school, just to have some fun, get his mind of what was going on. But his answers always were no, and they sounded a bit off. As if it wasn’t so much that he didn’t want us to be friends, but more like there was something stopping him from letting that happen, or that it felt wrong to him for whatever reason. I never really got that. But then again, despite his… underwhelming genius… he still had his tall ambitions. Come to think of it, kinda reminds me of your relationship with Willow, judging by what I heard from Luz, and plant girl herself.”

Hearing a name she had barely thought of that night, Amity’s frame shrunk, her voice timid in her answer.

“Yeah, I guess it does… The sins of the father, huh?”

“Aren’t you a little too young to be using such morbid expressions? Well… I don’t want to get into details here, but what he would tell me… Let’s just say Al was a bit of a push over, a bit too weak willed. Don’t get me wrong, at the end of the day all he ever did he did by choice, so if you’re thinking I’m trying to defend him, know that that’s not the case. Honestly, I’m not even all that sure what my point here is, but I just feel like I should tell you all this.” Letting out her longest sigh that night, looking at a distance past Amity, Eda proceeded. “When he and Odalia started getting closer, that got me worried. Now, you see. Your mother and my sister were close, real close. Like besties. To be completely honest, I’m 90% sure Lily had a bit of a crush on her, but she never admitted to it. And yes, I did try to blackmail her once because she just wouldn’t  confirm it. No, I am not proud of it. Anyway, I don’t know much about it, but they were pretty close. It was right before Lily cursed me, and I can’t help but feel like your mother had something to do with it. But I digress. Focus, Eda. So… Odalia, she was a special case. Like a shark in a fish tank, you know. Not a particularly strong shark, but she’d sink her teeth in if you weren’t paying attention, strong enough, and way smarter than any of the fish. She had her own way of being a menace and that terrified me. Me and her, we were cordial to one another, I was already showing that I had more than a bit above average magical power. And, again you can ask Bump about it, I was very much not afraid of getting into a few brawls if necessary. I had raw strength on my side, but I had the gut feeling that if I were to ever get into a fight with her I wouldn’t exactly lose, but I definitely would not win. We were both put a bit off by each other, and… You know, I have been reading on human history since Luz came to our realm, I have a few books I collected from my excursions there over the years. They had something called a cold war. Two nations that absolutely hated each other, two worldviews that canceled each other out, two powers that could obliterate each other if they were ever to go to war, possibly even end life itself. A standstill by definition. I think me and Odalia were something like that, if in our own scale. I’m not saying she was a sociopath or anything like that, nor that that’s the case with me, I’m just… very much not ruling that possibility out, with her, I mean. I’m pretty sure I’m not that. Seriously, I swear, she can be more intimidating than Bellos. And I think I’ve only seen him really angry once, but so can Al, if you push the right buttons, that is. But I’m getting there. So yeah, I never really liked your mother all that much and I know for a fact - Al told me, Lily told me, other people told me - the feeling was mutual. And then, those two started dating.”

Although what Eda told her about her father was news, she was by no means surprised by her recounting of her mother. If anything, Amity saw them as equals in almost every sense. Eda’s eyes never met Amity’s at any point during the story.

“I never heard about any of this. I don’t think Ed and Em ever heard any of this either, they’d probably tell me about it if they did. I… I didn’t know.”

“That’s okay, kiddo. Honestly, I figured you wouldn’t have. Anyway, after they started dating Al changed. It was like night and day, really. Al stopped sitting next to me at class, stopped greeting me in the hallways, he avoided me at all costs. Funny enough, that’s when I had the most interactions with Odalia, I think. They were not pleasant. On either side. She kept pushing and pushing me, testing me. Then one day... Tell me, like half an inch above her right eyebrow, does she still have a scar there?”

Amity’s eyes grew wide.

“Wait, that was you?”

Eda smile and laughed. Their eyes still not meeting.

“Nice… And yeah, I take full credit for that. I can’t even remember what made us throw hands that day. But the fight itself, that’s something I’ll never forget. Anyway, suffice to say, I was convinced she had Alador wrapped around her fingers. That she used some freaky forbidden oracle spell she had found at back of Hexside’s library and hypnotized  him or something like that. So I went to confront him after I had given her the aforementioned ass whooping. And boy, must that have been painful to watch. I just short of begged him to leave her. You see, I always thought of Alador as an inherently good natured guy. Not perfect by any means, but a good guy. On second thought, yeah, I can’t deny I saw him as a friend, maybe even my closest one other than Lily. But yeah, it was after class. Do you remember that gargantuan abomination you summoned during your little duel with Luz at the covention, with the construction coven power glyph? Yeah, that thing was a dwarf. I don’t know how he did that, but he did. And I looked into his eyes, right before I started running for my life. That was one  of the worst things I’ve ever seen, even after all this time. All I saw was him, those were still his eyes, he wasn’t Al anymore, I couldn’t think of him like that anymore, but he was still the same person. A person that made a choice. And as I ran, he scream, I’ll never forget those words… I’m a Blight, we only...”

“… we only associate with a select few. There are… many… variations, but that’s the gist of it. I’ve said it myself a few times.”

Neither could look in the other’s direction.

“I stopped attending school after that. Not because of it though, not exactly. Don’t get me wrong, those two made sure to make hell out of Hexside for me, but that wasn’t it. The Emperor’s coven try-outs were around the corner, I just decided to focus on that and so I did. It didn’t feel right though. Specially on that last day before the try-outs, when I had learned I’d need to duel against my own sister for that position… Well, I felt more than a little bit of doubt about it. It was Lilith’s biggest chance, I knew how much she wanted it, how much she trained for it. I also knew that if I were to actually, actually, duel her she wouldn’t stand a chance. And working at the coven I’d probably just have to deal with the same kind of people as in Hexside. That turned my doubt into certainty, but I still wanted to make my decision to withdraw my chance at the coven as theatrical as possible however. And then… Well, it’s common knowledge isn’t it, how I got hit by a serious case of the curse? So I roamed for days as the beast. When I came back to Bonesborough I quickly realized I was still the talk of the town. I tried attending a few classes, but when the third rock hit the back of my head I gave up on that idea. I would walk around town, people would change sidewalks, shoot fearful or even disgusted glances at me, a few particularly bold risktakers would yell ‘freak’ at me. Lily wouldn’t look me in the eyes anymore. She had other reasons though… In any case, I had been rejected by the world I had always known. So… I traveled to the other side of the island, living here and there for some good fifteen years. I found the portal, basically my source of income ever since. When I finally came back to Bonesborough your parents had been married for over ten years, Lily was soaring through the coven’s ranks, and hardly anyone remembered who I was. Little did I know Lilith mothered that beast, that demon, in me. And that was that.”

They sat in silence for a long moment. The tea had warmed down enough for it to be drinkable. More than that, in fact. Following Eda’s motions, Amity lifted her teacup, the handle between her fingers in a practiced manner. After swallowing a small sip that could be described as timid, the girl continues.

“Eda… I appreciate it, but I don’t get it. Why did you tell me all this?”

The Clawthorne rested both her elbows on the table, the cup off to her right, her chin resting on her now intertwined fingers. She spoke.

“My point is. I know who the Blight is, I had a glimpse of her at the covention. The girl that dueled Luz that day, she is Odalia’s daughter, Alador’s daughter. As I said, all know what those two are capable of  and I hope I just convinced you of that. That green haired girl was a Blight if I ever seen one.”

Amity feared for but an instant that the woman’s image of her had reverted back to that terrible first impression she surely gave. Not even Eda’s customary sardonic grin remained. Whether it was the woman intention or not, Amity couldn’t help but feel intimidated.

“But, I’m not talking to the Blight tonight, am I? There’s someone else there. There has to be someone else there. Someone who would stand in the line of fire for my daughter, someone who stood in the line of fire for my daughter. Twice, as far as I know. I see a lot of me in you, kid. I see a lot of Lily in you. I see a lot of your parents. None of that tells me the whole story. I want to hear this from you. This is, I promise, the single most important question I will ever ask you. I know who the Blight is. What I want to know now is: Who is Amity?”

#sho #THE OWL HOUSE #edalyn clawthorne #amity blight #luz noceda