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justanotherfanwriter · 2 years

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Research Buddies

"Oh?" Willow's eyebrows furrowed, "Where's Luz and Amity? You're all by yourself."

Hunter looked up briefly from the book he was pouring over to acknowledge her entrance before going back to his notes, "Out. They wanted to go back to the lake. I told them it was a waste of time, so I decided to stay here--" He gestured to the pile of books and notes that made up their research "--and actually be productive."

"They didn't tell me or Gus they were going," Willow frowned, "did you three, uh, figure something out or--?"

"No," He shook his head with the curt reply, "no, we haven't, and it's really starting to pi--" he paused mid-word and cleared his throat, "--make me mad."

Willow snorted, sitting down at the kitchen table opposite him, "You know, Ms. Camila isn't here right now. You can cuss if you want." She leaned in with a smile, "I promise I won't tell on you."

A ghost of a smile pulled at the corner of his mouth, "Noted, Captain."

She laughed, propping her head up with one of her fists in thought, "Gosh, I miss Flyer Derby. It'll be nice when we get to play it again."

Her smile fell when a dark look passed over Hunter's face, and he pulled another book from the pile next to him. The only way she knew he wasn't flat out ignoring her was the half-assed 'm'hm' as he scribbled out some notes on a separate piece of paper.

"Wellll," She drawled, reaching for a book, "I don't have work today, so why don't I give you a hand! What're we looking for?"

His hand shot out to stop her, "No, you don't have to. You should go keep Gus company."

Willow pressed her lips into a thin line, searching his face. He looked no less tired and guilty than when they first entered the human world, but she supposed Luz and Amity didn't either. The three of them were keeping her and Gus at arm's length. When they did allow them to help, they sent her and Gus on pointless errands that Gus deemed "busy work to keep them away." Willow tried staying optimistic about it, but the more time stretched on, the more obvious it became.

And it was frustrating. Willow didn't understand why the three of them wouldn't let them help, but they just weren't. She and Gus were left in the dark most of the time, grasping at straws, trying to be useful but always falling flat.

It made her miserable.

She was a good witch. Gus was even better. She knew they could help, but anytime they offered, another distraction was thrown their way.

The only person Willow felt she was helping--if only slightly--was Ms. Camila. Fifteen-year-olds were allowed to work where Luz lived in the human world, and when Willow found out, she immediately sought out a job. If Gus or her (or even Vee) wanted something, Willow had the petty cash to buy it without bothering Luz's mother. Ms. Camila swore Willow didn't need to, but it made Willow feel better about taking up space in her home.

She worked part-time at a gardening center within walking distance of the Noceda residence. The grumpy owner hadn't been too keen on hiring "a rotten teenager," but Willow had quickly proved her green thumb around the place.

While her boss didn't know she was a plant witch, it certainly helped her get the job, though not by much. It was like magic in the human realm was muted in a way. Not entirely gone, but not entirely there. She could feel the magic like a quiet hum running through the root systems of this world. If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost hear it sing. But she still wasn't strong enough to access it fully. So for now, she conquered little things, like coaxing an out-of-season flower into full bloom.

When she had asked the others if they felt it, only Gus had explained he sometimes felt a little "pull" but heard no hum and certainly no singing. They theorized it was because she specialized in plant magic, and there were plenty of plants in the human realm. No abomination goo, though, so Amity was out of luck.

Hunter had encouraged her to keep meditating on the feeling.

"It could come in handy," he explained before shooing her and Gus away from the trio.

"They're like the A-team," Gus had complained later that day as she tried enchanting a weed for Vee to feed off of, "and they're treating us like the lame B-team!"

She had tried her best to ignore Gus then, asking to borrow his magnifier to see if that would help, but now, watching Hunter, it was all she could think about.

"Gus is with Vee and her friends," Willow sighed, dropping her hand away from the books, "he's been down, so Vee decided to take him to an appliance shop to look at the microwaves."

"He's been down?" Hunter echoed, and his gaze dropped back down to his book. Something steeled in his expression as he reached for his pen.

"Of course," She replied, watching him work, "he's worried about his dad and doesn't feel like he's been much help to anyone."

"He shouldn't worry about helping," Hunter sniffed, pressing his pen hard onto the paper as he wrote, "he's fine. He just needs to stay safe."

She crossed her arms over her chest, accusation in her tone, "why shouldn't he worry about that? It's not like we can even read a dumb book without someone turning us away. It's demeaning."

His hand stilled for a moment, and he observed her from underneath his eyelashes. It struck her again how peculiar the color of his eyes was. His eyes made her wonder about the obtuse things Gus had murmured to her after their run-in with the Illusion Coven Head. But unfortunately, they hadn't had time to revisit the rushed conversation.

All she knew was Hunter was more than he claimed to be. For the most part, though, she forgot the conversation with Gus had even happened until she caught Hunter staring at her long enough for her to think about his eye color.

"It's not your mistake to fix, Willow," He said with a grave voice.

"Ah, I see." Willow deadpanned, nodding her head, "And I'm assuming it's yours then?"

He nodded, "And Luz's."

"And Amity's?" She tacked on, quirking an eyebrow at him. He scowled, returning to his work.

"No, it's not hers, but those two," He rolled his eyes, "it's like they share a brain. Two halves of one whole idiot."

"Never listen to me," He grumbled under his breath as he flipped rather aggressively to the next page of his book.

She tsked, realizing that this was Hunter's signal that he had moved on from the conversation. Sometimes it was very easy talking to him; sometimes, it was like pulling teeth. He had been through a lot, she understood that, but at this point, she didn't know if he'd ever trust her enough to tell her what was actually wrong.

Frustrated, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She didn't know everything that led up to and went down during the Day of Unity; that was evident. And she didn't think anyone would tell her the truth until the worst possible moment, which she now recognized as the pattern. But Willow wanted to be helpful. She wanted to share Luz, Amity, and Hunter's burdens. She didn't want them to feel so alone, and she was sick and tired of waiting for their permission to help.

So, when she opened her eyes, she reached for another book.

"Willow," Hunter warned, not even looking up from his work, "don't."

She ignored him with a hmph and snatched up a book before he could stop her.

"Willow!" he hissed, lunging across the table.

She whacked his hand away from her, tilting her chair onto its back legs so she could lean further away from his grasp.

"Excuse me," She snapped, and he glared at her, "this book has nothing to do with your research. It's for my own."

"Yeah, and what are you researching, huh?" He scowled.

She turned her nose up at him, "I don't know why I have to tell you if you won't bother to tell me what you're reading about, but because I'm nice and like to include my friends in my interest, I'll be researching native fauna."

"Oh! Very helpful," He snorted, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

"It is," She sniffed, trying to cover up her pout. She knew it wasn't very intimidating. She opened the book, flipping through the pages until she landed on Snapdragons. "See these flowers here? They're perennials common in both the Human realm and the Boiling Isle. They're easy for me to conjure here, while plants native to the Human realm and only the Human realm are not."

"You three," she continued, "are always going on about some lake. I'm assuming from the little you all tell us, there's something about them that act like portals--" She looked up at Hunter for confirmation, but his face stayed annoyingly blank, "--if that's true, and those lakes share some kind of connection to home, they must also share some sort of plant life."

"And what?" Hunter asked with a tired sigh, "Are you going to conjure up some seaweed and make a portal that way?"

"No," She glared, "Conjuring these kinds of similar plants isn't the only thing that's easier. I can also hear them in a way, and if I figure out what water plants the human world has in common with the Boiling Isle--"

"--you can find the right lake." Hunter finished with a breathless laugh, "That's genius!"

She puffed up a little with the praise, happy to be the cause of his smile, "I'm glad you think so."

"Of course," Hunter shook his head, sorting through his books, "it was right under our noses the whole time. I have a few maps of the town. The ones online match up pretty well with those from the seventeenth century, but some lakes are manmade now and probably won't work. If I can pin down which lakes we should be looking at, Luz and Amity can pin down the rest of what we need. This..." he trailed off, looking down at his chaotic stack of books, "...this could actually be something."

Hoped swelled in her chest, and she held tighter onto the little gardening book like it was a lifeline.

"You mean we can track down the correct lake," She corrected him, "this isn't just yours and Luz's problem. It's mine and Gus's too."

"Will--"

"I want to help, Hunter, and this--" she cracked the book back open, "--is how I can do it."

It took all of her concentration to keep her eyes on the page instead of on him. The more invested she looked in the pages of the book, the harder she hoped it would be for him to make her leave.

A moment later, she heard him sit back down, opening up one of his maps, which would have brought her some relief if she didn't still feel his eyes on her.

"Stare at me like that all you want, but I'm not leaving this spot."

She looked up just long enough from her book to see the color bloom on his face to the tips of his ears, embarrassed--or maybe mad, she didn't know--that his "staring" plan had been thwarted. She wanted to tell him that she was used to it by now. He had a tendency to stare, and it had never once been intimidating, but she kept the thought to herself.

For whatever reason, she didn't mind his staring.

"I wasn't staring," He huffed, his attention snapping back to his book, "I was just uh...looking at the wall behind you, duh, obviously."

"Obviously," She mocked, a smile spreading across her face as she turned to the next page.

#huntlow #toh huntlow #uh-oh tfw the grl u have a crush on catches you staring for the 100th time that week and you think about flinging yourself into the sun #meanwhile your crush is just like wtf is his problem???#ik the wiki says willow is 14 but I've seen fanon argue she's 15 #and for the sake of the plot i needed her to be #im literally vibrating i cant wait to find out how they get backkkkk #my writing #drabble #unedited #i couldnt be bothered with editing today lmao #double hypen -- is now an em dash okay?

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kindofsortofmaybe · 1 year

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Gustholomule with 002 for the ask game!!

hi anon i'm so sorry i meant to answer this ages ago but i was swamped with finals all week! finally free though :)

when i started shipping it: pretty early in my watch through! i remember watching something ventured, someone framed and thinking hmmm... these bitches gay ?? and then once i got into the fandom and saw there was a following for it i really started shipping it! actually my first toh fanart was gustho haha

my thoughts: i don't think dana & co ever meant for us to ship them tbh, so even though i was disappointed that they didn't interact in the finale, i wasn't super surprised. but i think they have such an interesting dynamic!! gus is so cool and matt is not but also theyre both SO lame in the best way and they both have trust issues and also theyre like 12 and like... they are just so special to me

what makes me happy about them: how goofy they are. while i do think there's so much potential for their dynamic, i also think they're just two silly guys who hang out and i like the simplicity of that

what makes me sad about them: their lack of screen time :( (together and separately)

things done in fanfic that annoy me: hmmm tbh i've only read gustho fanfics that i've really enjoyed... i've never really had a negative experience with a gustho fic! all our writers are so talented! but i guess something that sometimes bothers me in fanon is when the hexsquad is rude to matt/don't give him a chance. i see why they might be wary, but Luz is the king of Befriending Everyone, willow is naturally very compassionate, and hunter/amity have both had their fair share of second chances! so even if they wouldn't get along right off the bat, i'm not a fan of scenarios where they just never warm up to him/consistently dislike him

things i look for in fanfic: i love when gustho fics have them just hanging out being teenagers. thats the vibe i think fits them best!

who i'd be comfortable them ending up with if not each other: hmmm i don't really have other ships for either of them! there's no one that comes to mind but i think if either of them were implied in the finale to be in a relationship with a hexside student we've met, i'd be like 🤷‍♀️ sure ig

my happily ever after for them: they continue to get close and become besties throughout high school, move in together after grad, and are so close that eventually they realize they've basically been dating for years and just kinda shrug like kay guess we're a couple and then theyre in love forever <33

who is the big spoon/little spoon: i think it depends! the both fill both roles at different times. though i do think that depending on when they get together, matty would totally be like "I'M the big spoon cause i'm MANLY" and gus is like "okay manly man" and makes him the little spoon anyway and he actually loves it

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: i'll bfr they're sex-neutral aces to me anyway so <3 (i don't really think about their feelings about sex since they're like 12 for most of the show, i just love to project my identity onto blorbos) so ANYWAY to actually answer the question, i headcanon that they LOVE to game together. video games and board games both - they just both get so competitive and have a lot of fun with it. their game nights are VERY loud and high-energy

thank you sm for the ask! i love thinking about these losers :)

#answered #anon #maybetalkstoomuch #gustholomule #toh headcanons

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sepublic · 1 year

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Congratulations on the Boscha validation. This episode was a treat in so many ways.

Pal lemme tell you. Back in Season 1B I was a BIG Boscha fan, in part because she had just enough to work with, but also enough empty space for me to speculate freely as I wanted. So I write what was originally my longest TOH fic at the time (and would be for two and a half years, until I finished Understanding Luz last week), and I’m really happy with it. Sure it was released like the day before Agony of a Witch, which I KNEW would probably distract. But honestly I just couldn’t think of a better time so I did it anyway.

That said, I wasn’t getting my hopes up. I had a feeling and wouldn’t have been surprised if the show would move on from Boscha, who’d serve her purpose. If it had more grandiose storylines to pursue than a Grudgby bully’s, so when Season 2 aired in its entirety and she faded into background obscurity, I accepted it! It is how it is, Hexside wasn’t even meant to be as prominent until executive meddling, and even then Boscha wasn’t THAT prominent there anyhow. When she didn’t even appear in Labyrinth Runners, I shrugged because that was that.

But literally the day For the Future aired, I was waiting in anticipation for the release that night and I skimmed through my old Boscha fic for the first time in forever. Reminisced thoughtfully, nostalgically, and ultimately was like Yeah I don’t expect her to show up at this point beyond a cameo, but it was fun imagining and hoping for this type of arc for her back in the days of Season 1B. I’d noticed Amelia and Cat’s presence as puppets in a previous official trailer, thought it was cool because of my Boscha fic and all, but didn’t think it’d GO anywhere, right?

And then I began watching For the Future. I see Boscha, Amelia, and Cat in Skara’s story. I’m already hyped for the cameo of seeing them trying to defend Hexside and failing of course, because we’d already seen Cat and Amelia as puppets earlier the episode. But then Boscha manages to avoid being turned into a puppet, is even saved with the sacrifice of her friends! And then she gets away when the adults charge in as backup! And I’m like okay, so she’s still at Hexside!

AND THEN THE REVELATION THAT BOSCHA IS IN CHARGE. And her whole subplot with Kikimora, her obvious apprehension over losing Cat and Amelia, especially after Amity and then Skara. AND THEN HER TALK WITH WILLOW, the parallels, the callout, because the writers are still interested in that history! And not just Boscha’s history with Willow but with AMITY, as Boscha becomes a bit of an antagonist...

And then she kneels. And suddenly my speculation/fanon of Boscha having this deeply unrequited crush on Amity, this unhealthy admiration and hero worship upon a pedestal. It was canon. The unhealthy co-dependency of it all, Boscha didn’t even want to be the one in charge in their friendship, as long as Amity was by her side! She was fine with being the lackey to Amity, just like Jasper and Lapis from Steven Universe, who I def pulled inspiration from in writing I thought we were Friends.

The way Amity still has this obvious power and growth over Boscha, who isn’t exactly a threat to her, but definitely an obstacle. The gentle yet firm way she reminds Boscha that yeah, they do have a messed up history and she can see the issues that Boscha struggles with, she was a bully herself! But ultimately Boscha is her own person and Amity implores her to take responsibility and mature as she did... AND SHE DOES!!! She helps our kids hold back Kikimora, just enough for them to barely teleport to the skull in time!

Then the end credits, THAT image of Boscha, lonely, scared, isolated. Being ‘consoled’ by Kikimora, unable to participate in the antics of these losers around her because she’s still so insistent on being strong and without vulnerability. The implication that she gave into Kiki’s advice, because despite her general disdain for authority, deep down I read this as being due to authority’s failure to take care of her.

But Boscha still wanted and needed a benevolent authority in the absence of actual parental love, which was why she latched onto Amity so hard. And then accepts Kikimora, because her hyper-aggression and independence is all just a coping mechanism over the sense of loneliness and parentification that Boscha’s suffered through. How her past forced Boscha to grow up fast to take care of herself, but she craves someone who can take care of her, guide her, because she’s so tired of doing that for others when she’s never been on the receiving end!

She’s just a deeply troubled kid. There was more to her than just mean high school bully, not that she wasn’t that either, but. Everything in For the Future, her storyline and resolution with Amity, the scenes with Willow. It felt like the PERFECT redemption and recovery ending that I thought we were Friends didn’t have, but could’ve, left open-ended due to the possibilities of canon. And canon delivered...!

Considering the writers put Boscha to the side for a whole season, with a very limited Season 3 to work with, I never imagined her getting a redemption arc of her own, an acknowledgement of her pain, a canonization of her codependency and twisted worship of Amity, and deep-down need for someone to rely on herself. Boscha’s not important enough, there’s not enough time, they wouldn’t prioritize her anyway. But they did and I’m ELATED for it, I wonder if part of the Doylist reasoning was gratitude towards Eden Riegel (Boscha’s VA) and her work in directing the entire voice cast of TOH. And/or if this was always planned...

Either way, with Eden being our only source of Boscha breadcrumbs throughout Season 2 during her appearances in Cissy’s Post-Hoots, and... This really is a dream come true for me, as was Edric’s storyline in Reaching Out. The minor characters I projected a lot of fanon and characterization and backstory onto, ultimately my fanfics for them DID pay off! The reading and speculation was confirmed! And it is SUCH a treat as someone who’s been engaging with and analyzing this show since it was first announced in 2018, you cannot believe how rewarding it feels.

Season 3′s titles spell out Thanks For Watching, and it honestly does feel as if this Boscha arc was a bone thrown out to her fans and those long-time viewers who engaged with the show that deeply, as thanks for sticking it through the whole way and treating TOH with so much love. And I have to say, THANK YOU to the crew members who made the show to begin with...!

#the owl house #the owl house boscha #ask #reply

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edalynn · 1 year

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i gotta admit that i have this habit of checking on ur blog every week or so just to read you+other anons expressing frustration w huntl0w. in a weird way it's like an outlet for me whenever i get annoyed by the constant ship content in the fandom. like vicarious venting. if that makes sense

i honestly don't mind it as a crack ship tbh. like if that was all it was, that would be fine, it's like ppl shipping camila/eda, or gus/mattholomule, or vee/masha, etc... like huntl0w, those are all totally normal pairings that (with the exception of camila/eda) have all gotten VERY brief moments that might *possibly* hint to it being a thing in the future. but that's the point, is that huntl0w falls into that category, but the sheer quantity of content that is/has been produced VASTLY outpaces all the other crack ships.

and that's what gets me about it i think . is that the fanon has elevated it to the point where if all you knew about TOH was what you saw in fandom spaces, any outsider would make the reasonable assumption that huntl0w is integral to the plot and has had several episodes worth of development in regards to their relationship

but it hasn't? ,... meaning there's this weird mismatch between universally accepted fanon-as-canon and what actually occurs in the show. and..... it's really, really weird, and i think the question should be asked: why huntl0w? why is this crack ship specifically getting this strange treatment, and having more attention placed on it than fuckin lumity, or raeda?

and let's be real. it's probably cuz it's straight.

there are prob other factors too, like hunter is the stereotypical attractive bad boy who switches sides, or in luz's words, 'i pretend i don't care but i secretly do' kinda guy. think zuko ,and the amount of ppl that simp for him lmao. so it's possible willow is being used as a sort of quasi-self insert (recall how in a lot of their ship art, the focus is always always always on hunter and his issues, with willow just sort of Being There to fluster him/make him happy). and obviously using willow like that is really weird! like seriously i've got no problem if ppl wanna do an oc x canon situation with hunter. that's fine. but actually use some brain power to make a self insert oc instead of using willow lol

anyway i hope that wasnt too much rambling for an ask i just had some Thoughts about huntl0w lol

YEAH, if it had stayed a crackship I could've just like. ignored it and let it be. I definitely still mocked it personally with my partner irl when we would see it because it just seemed so ridiculous to us, but I wouldn't be as vocally angry or have the trauma response it causes now. The content in the fandom for h/l vs. lumity and raeda combined is depressing to say the least. And yes, you're right. It's because it's straight or straight passing at the very least. It's really telling and really upsetting for a queer-based show's most popular ship to be a m/f ship that's not even canon and doesn't even affect the plot. Honestly, I'd go as far as saying it's disgusting and those artists that I see that ONLY draw hunt/low shouldn't even be watching toh in the first place because this piece of media is clearly not what you need.

And it's amazing actually, what you pointed out. It has literally the amount of implication that any other crackship in the show has aside from camila/eda. Like, I knew that but I'd never really thought too extensively on that point. There is seriously no supporting evidence more than for gustholomule that hunt//low will ever end up canon aside from a few blushes from only one side of the ship in the first place. In any other show it would be taken as just that, a little nod at a potential crackship. I don't know why hunt/low shippers are so aggressively convinced that it's already canon when it's barely past crackship level.

And it's definitely all those reasons you mentioned that it's far more popular even than canon queer ships- it being m/f, hunter being the typical attractive bad boy-secretly good character, and Willow being easy to morph into a type of self-insert made to coddle said bad-boy character because that's the type of relationship and validation they want. 🙄 But for real,, if that's the reason you think you like hunt//low,, you don't actually like hunt//low or even Willow's character specifically- you just want a pretty bad boy to like you and you're using hunter as your outlet lmao. Seriously, just make an OC at that point. It does less of a disservice to Willow's character and can be molded into canon however you'd like. I'd prefer to see everyone's canon insert OCs than constant out of character hunt//low in the tags constantly.

#taako talks #asks #anons #toh #the owl house #huntl0w negative #or be like me and have a full past life with hunter #i say as if it was a choice #fox one day in college 5 yrs ago: yea after you died i remember eating breakfast in the cabin kitchen with a white haired boy like you #fox: i think he was a hunter ot had something to do with hunters #us 4 1/2 yrs later: oh. huh. well would you look at that

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