#Wildborn AU | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fannishcodex · 3 years ago

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So since "Any Sport in a Storm" and with each new episode I couldn't resist imagining a backstory for Darius, and his time with the previous Golden Guard, and I'm getting so fond of it I’d like to turn it into a full AU fic later, and it's now in the background of a lot of other fic AU ideas I have. Taking a page out of monkeymindscream's book and after seeing this sorta writing happen more, gonna just also do like a headcanon post on it because I want to also write it down like this, also because it includes some series meta. Also, it takes some dark themes from the show and goes darker, and also just explores a lot of the darker implications of Darius's past/story (his mentor was murdered and then cloned, and turns out he and his latest clone are two out of many murdered clones, created by a man who cloned his brother, who he also murdered and has done a lot of other terrible things too--whether Darius knows all this or not yet, and I’m inclined to think he doesn’t know it all yet and is in for another terrible shock). I have a lot of feelings and ideas about Darius below the cut, because ohman do I like his character, and he’s really sparked my imagination:

Speculative backstory au: wildborn:

-Darius was orphaned young and sent to live at a foundling house/orphanage in Bonesborough.

-Darius wasn't literally orphaned though--he was removed from the custody of his parents after they were imprisoned for committing "violent" crimes against the Boiling Isles as wild witches who refused coven sigils.

-This isn’t entirely true. Darius’s parents did refuse coven sigils, practiced multiple forms of magic/“wild” magic, and were starting to challenge Belos’s rule/the coven system more. Belos then had Darius’s parents and some of their compatriots framed for an explosive attack in the town square of their small village. There were casualties, and it further stoked fear against “wild” witches/anti-“wild” sentiment, bolstering the pro-Coven argument. Darius’s parents were framed for a severe crime that ruled out the possibility of them giving in and accepting coven brands, they would receive severe punishment instead like life in prison; Belos wrote them off as scapegoats to be sacrificed to further his goals to demonize wild magic so that his coven system could rule. It’s spinning off from events in “Hollow Mind.” It’s going from staged wild witch attacks to framing specific witches for them, especially witches who were already resisting his rule.

-Due to the particular emphasis on the relationship between Darius and his mentor the previous GG + I don't think the show's explored the element of orphans (as used quite a bit in fantasy) that much, I'm inclined to brainstorm Darius as an orphan to intensify his relationship with his mentor, who ends up being the only family he has left (and for previous GG, vice versa--Darius becomes like the one bright spot and actual family in his life while under Belos's direct control). And I started thinking of orphaning Darius in a way more specific to the show’s world, and brainstormed it as a result of the growing divide between "Wild" and "Coven" and collateral damage to Belos's machinations/wondering what if wild witches are seized and they have children, and thinking any children they had would be removed from their custody per Coven mandate.

-Darius was conceived and born while his parents were on the run, and while they remained with their previous wild compatriots and had banded together with another group of other wild witches. Darius’s earliest years were spent living on the run, which he saw as normal because it was all he knew; it was just "moving around a lot" to him. Using all types of magic was also normal to him. His parents were caring and loving; they knew the severity of the charges held against them likely meant that Darius would be taken from them if the covens caught them, and they did not want to lose their son, so they were even more inclined to stay on the run. The other wild witches Darius and his parents traveled with were their "neighbors"/like extended family.

-Darius was the only child in their wild nomadic on-the-run caravan. Again, he was born while they were already on the run; he had not been planned by his parents. The norm for the other wild witches in their group/all the other wild witches in their group were adults ranging from young to old who had made some choice to resist/been forced on the run due to a mix of circumstance and choice. Darius is born into this, to wild witch parents that want to keep him. (They had for a little while, when he was a baby, wondered if it would be better for him if they anonymously dropped him off at a foundling house—but their love for and desire to keep their son understandably won out, they couldn’t bare to give him up like that, even if it possibly would’ve been for the better.)

-Darius’s earliest practice of Abomination magic as a kid is to make little Abomination toys and playmates while moving around with his family and their neighbors. (It’s pretty much the one from “Them’s the Breaks, Kid,” but in bulk.) He does get a little lonely as the only kid with them, but he’s still generally content, and can occupy himself and even make his own playmates with Abomination magic.

-In an effort to further get Darius acclimated to what’s going on while avoiding raising alarm and still letting him feel like this is normal and that everything’s fine (for now), Darius’s parents specifically encourage hide-and-seek and other stealthy games so that Darius gets used to evading the wrong people when necessary. Also backed by times when it’s specifically not a game, they need him to be quiet during close calls while they hide, but it’s mostly normal for young Darius so he doesn’t think much of it.

-Eventually Darius, his parents, and the other wild witches in their caravan group were ambushed and captured by coven scouts in the woods. Darius was removed from the custody of his parents while they and the others were arrested and sent to prison. Again, coven scouts send Darius to a foundling house in Bonesborough after taking him from his parents.

-Thinking Terra Snapdragon led the capture because why not have her further traumatize another character from the generation preceding Luz's and make her later HECK challenge with "Coven vs. Wild" more creepy. (And she'll come up later in this.)

-While this all happens when the divide between "wild" and "coven" isn't as deep as in the present, and during a period of transition where Belos is in the process of criminalizing/stigmatizing wild witches and declaring the coven system as the only acceptable option/cementing his control and power, Belos uses Darius's parents and the wild witches they traveled with as scare tactics to further his goal of getting the Boiling Isles under control--he points to these wild witches as "violent" criminals, and reasons for why the coven system must be mandatory. It's for peace and order, it's for everyone's protection. Wild witches are a danger to all. It’s part of the process he’s been using as seen in “Hollow Mind,” and it’s a tactic he uses again. Darius’s family isn’t the only victim affected by this, he’s done it before and will do it again, framing other wild witches.

-Young Darius does not have a good time at the foundling house/orphanage. It’s not all bad all the time, but it’s generally not good and is mostly traumatic for him for obvious reasons, with getting literally ripped away from his parents and forced to stay here until he gets “adopted” by a “new family.” Even at their most well-meaning, foundling staff avoid talking about his parents and what they do say about them isn’t positive, they encourage him to forget them, that he’s still better off here away from their criminal influence and he can get a new “better” family. At their most well-meaning, they’re misguided and cruel. They refuse to give further details about Darius’s parents—like what did they actually do, Darius grows certain there was something else besides refusing coven sigils, he overheard some of the coven scouts/Terra talk as they took him away—or their whereabouts, and outright refuse his requests to at least visit them. (At their most well-meaning, foundling staff at least doesn’t want to reveal the full violent nature of his parents’ crimes.)

-When other kids at the foundling house learn about Darius’s wild witch parents, he generally gets bullied for it in various ways (small and big), although the foundling house tries to intervene. Their intervention eventually gets some results; Darius’s wild parentage somewhat hushed into an open secret and the stance that “he’ll be different he’ll get his coven sigil” is encouraged, but it still doesn’t stop all the bullying. When prospective families learn about Darius’s wild witch parents, they generally dismiss him automatically. Darius already actively tries to avoid adoption, but it still stings when he’s dismissed outright like that. As Darius gets older, hopes for adoptions fall because the odds of that just generally fall when an orphan gets older.

-Darius learns to use Abomination offensively more quickly as a way to give him Abomination guardians to deter any bullies.

-Not every fellow orphan bullies him. Some don’t care (as in they have other stuff to think/worry about), and he makes friends with some of them. But Darius ends up seeing a lot of friends get adopted and never hearing from them again. He runs into some at Hexside, but they tend to ignore him and other reminders of the foundling house they came from.

-Starting with the foundling house, Darius is pressured to conform to non-wild society. It becomes especially more pressing because he's more aware of literal imprisonment as a consequence of failing to do so, and is more intimidated to try to conform.

-Darius starts hiding things and running deception and masking and lying young.

-Darius already partly indoctrinated into coven thinking. He doesn’t want to get in major prison-worthy trouble, he wants to fit in, he doesn’t want everyone to keep treating him like he’s feral, so he wants to do what they say and fall in line. But he still has some resistance, still wants to be with his parents again even as he increasingly feels angry with them over what he’s had to deal with on his own; Darius is increasingly torn over his parents. It stings that he’s also really gradually forgetting what they were like, because he was very young when he was taken from them, and memories fade as the years pass; but their wild covenless nature still gets held against him although he can barely remember them now.

-While thinking Darius also comes to genuinely hold these traits (to some extent; he may sort of exaggerate for the sake of a cover in the interests of rebelling against Belos), brainstorm that Darius initially tries to chase apparently non-wild traits of order, class, cleanliness, elegance when he eventually and gradually starts trying to distance himself more from his wild witch parents, he tries to emulate what seems to be the opposite of wild witches.

-Young Darius feeling increasingly unwanted and abandoned as this goes on. (It partly and eventually feeds into him building an ego to compensate for this deprivation, he’ll value himself if no one else will.)

-The foundling house has an agreement with Hexside and other schools to enroll their students there, so they also send Darius to Hexside not long after he’s taken from his parents. Based on some scenes and a fan wiki, Hexside enrolls students in the equivalent of kindergarten to high school.

-Hexside (faculty and students) has similar issues over Darius’s wild parentage but is generally quieter about it, and that’s also because the knowledge is less widespread there. It’s a little easier to hide what actually happened to his parents, and Darius becomes increasingly determined to keep that information hidden. There’s still rumor and talk, but it feels a little less than the foundling house. Principal Faust is an exception, giving Darius a hard time over his wild witch parents behind doors during office visits and keeping a closer eye on him in public while generally avoiding getting explicit about his wild parentage then, per an agreement with the foundling house. Darius is pretty terrified of Faust and is further encouraged to stay in line, particularly while at Hexside. Similar to what he says about Eda, Fausts tells Darius he avoids expelling him as a form of study, this time into "wildborn." (He leaves out the part of any intervention on Darius’s behalf from the foundling house.)

-Darius becomes friends with Alador and Odalia at Hexside, and at first his wild parentage is hidden, then overlooked by them when it comes more to light. They’re close, and Darius has never had friends this close before. But gradually over several years, eventually it becomes an issue and is part of why they later break apart (though there are other issues, related and separate). Alador and Odalia are from wealthy, powerful, prominent families that don’t care for them associating with the son of wild witch criminals (even if that son tries hard to conform to the coven world, nothing he does can actually overcome his parentage in their eyes), and gradually pressure/indoctrinate their children into falling in line. Their estrangement has shades of Willow and Amity originally breaking their friendship; what Alador and Odalia did to Amity and Willow is similar to what their families did to them over Darius, and their bond never really got repaired later. (And it’s part of why Alador and Odalia are comfortable making Amity break things off with Willow—they had to do similar with Darius before.)

-When Darius is about 9 to 10 years old, he intentionally gets himself in trouble in front of a coven precinct so that they’ll take him inside and get him close to info on his parents.

-Darius knows there’s a file kept on him, he’s certain that must have info on his parents, that his parents being wild witch criminals necessitates that his file include info on them. He knows that a file does exist, he’s noticed it at the foundling house and Hexside but has never been able to peek at it or even snatch it.

-At this point, Darius is pretty desperate for any info on his parents, and has ruled out the foundling house because they’ve prepared for him trying to steal his file (he has literally tried and failed), and the school just because Faust is terrifying—they’re last results at least. He’ll try his luck with the coven precinct first even if he’s particularly still intimidated by coven scouts because of how they took him from his parents in the first place; the precinct feels more viable than the foundling house or Hexside right now.

-Also the final thing to give Darius the idea is an upcoming field trip to the Emperor’s castle, something due to happen like the next day.

-Darius has always felt further alienated from other kids because they’ve generally been led to believe that coven scouts are trustworthy, while he’s at the very least anxious about them or at most fully frightened of/intimidated by them because of how a number of them took him from his family. And prior to that, his parents and other wild witches had made sure he could identify them on sight so that he knew to stay away from them; from the start, Darius had been raised to be wary of them.

-Before he tries his scheme, Darius actually does work up the nerve to try directly asking the precinct for his file/about his parents, but they don't really listen to a kid like him and he can’t even get through the front door.

-After Darius solidified the nerve to go through with his scheme (he like steals something right in front of the precinct), he’s relieved that — as he planned/estimated — he’s taken in by another coven scout, and not the one he tried to ask. He thought there were so many coven scouts and all of them busy at the precinct that someone else would deal with him.

-The coven scouts ask Darius for contact info on his parents. Darius just gives his name, and grumbles it's not his first time here; the coven scout further takes the bait and goes to grab Darius's file to figure out what guardians to call. Darius sends a cute little Abomination scout to quietly follow him.

-Darius starts running some type of covert operation young. He starts subverting coven authority young.

-Previous Golden Guard is at the precinct at the same time, and he's pretty busy.

-Previous GG/PGG is about 20 years old, about 10 years older than Darius. He’s a little off-color for a Grimwalker of Belos’s original brother. His hair is darker, dark brown blond; his eyes are more violet. Being an older GG, he’s more tired/desensitized/cynical, and covered in even more scars.

-Unlike other GGs, he was not involved with what Belos did to Darius’s family, Belos engineering more violence to intimidate the masses into believing his larger deception (Belos has started hiding such info from GGs more and telling more outright lies to them), or coven scouts capturing Darius and his family, and then removing Darius from the custody of his parents. (Maybe in an AU of an AU, he could be for more drama and a different story direction...) Previous GG, about 14 at the time, likely was training in the castle when Darius and his parents were captured and separated.

-Previous GG will later tell Darius to call him “Jasper.”

-Previous GG/Jasper is taking a quick break, he needs a moment to breathe. Still he startles at Darius and asks another coven scout for info about a kid here, because that’s not too usual, and he’s just given vague info that he’s some petty thief foolish enough to steal right in front of the precinct. Jasper keeps an eye out, still taken with the novelty of the kid thief. Previous GG sees a coven scout return with Darius’s file. Jasper’s then the only one to notice kid Darius with his arms crossed but subtly making a spell circle. Jasper’s just...tired, it’s his break, but he’s also a little curious, and also he doesn’t really know what the kid is even doing, so he’ll just wait and see.

-Darius had sent his Abomination scout to diverge from following the coven scout back, and to instead cause a distraction on like the other side of the room. Darius basically makes his little Abomination scout explode, causing a mess and grabbing everyone’s attention, before the Abomination continues following orders and pulls himself back together again into this his small body.

-Darius grabs his file left alone on the desk in the resulting confusion, and makes a break for it. But previous GG, who’d been observing him the whole time, grabs him and takes the file.

-Previous GG/Jasper: “This is what you were after the whole time?” Indicates the file. “Did you get yourself in trouble to grab this?”

-With a protesting Darius in one hand and the file in the other, Jasper glances at the file and gets some bad news that the kid definitely isn’t ready for. Decides to shield Darius from the info by being cold. (Under Belos, he’s unfortunately been learning from the best.)

-Kid Darius: That’s my file —

-Previous GG/Jasper: — This is a compilation of information gathered by the coven. It’s their property, not yours.

-I’m just fascinated by the idea that Darius and previous GG could’ve had a rough first meeting.

-Previous GG/Jasper gives contact info for the foundling house to the coven scouts and orders that Darius be returned to there.

-Again, the precinct is busy, and prev GG/Jasper has been busy �� so another coven scout comes demanding GG’s attention with another file. Prev GG/Jasper takes the new file and follows the coven scout, but in his rush forgets he still has Darius’s file.

-The next thing demanding his attention requires prev GG/Jasper to follow the coven scout to an airship and leave the precinct. While on board, prev GG/Jasper finally realizes he still has Darius’s file, but decides he’ll update the file himself (via crowphone call back to the precinct, he gets the details—attempted petty theft, no charges pressed; Jasper adds additional notes that there was no significant harm done, suggest this even get officially stricken from the boy’s record later, etc.). Prev GG plans to return the file tomorrow.

-GG also tries looking through Darius’s file more, sees if he can cross-reference its info, maybe it’s missing something. He pulls up the individual files on Darius’s parents. He even tries talking to Belos about it...

-After Darius gets a tongue lashing back at the foundling house because of attempted theft and coven scout involvement, he’s hoping that 1) the Golden Guard is at the Emperor’s castle during the field trip tomorrow, and 2) that the GG has his file. Fortunately while the foundling house is angry with him over this latest issue, they want to keep it to themselves and relent when it comes to Hexside and let Darius still go on the field trip.

-On the field trip, kid Darius manages to find the GG. He confirms with an Abomination scout that GG even has his file on him (GG was getting ready to return the file at the end of the day after he’s gone through other more immediate tasks). Kid Darius then pretty much manipulates kid Eda into making a big distraction — he knows her prankster rep — daring her to pull of something big, so that her prank will distract while he tries to pickpocket the GG with Abomination magic.

-It actually manages to work, GG’s distracted by Eda just as Darius steals the file and makes a run for it — but Belos actually moved around the public halls of the castle a bit more back then (or maybe he still does and it hasn’t come up yet), and was on his way to see the GG when this happened. Belos silently and calmly grabs Darius by the arm and makes the boy follow him; Darius, stunned and mortified, wordlessly does. Prev GG/Jasper, now instinctively terrified for the kid, immediately gives chase. (Soon after prev GG/Jasper tells himself he had no reason to suddenly panic over Belos so immediately taking the kid...but...)

-Darius and prev GG/Jasper freaked out before Belos, after he’s taken them to a private room. Unknown to Darius, prev GG and Belos had gotten into a little tense discussion over the files on Darius and his family. So adding to prev GG’s anxiety and Belos is already in a foul mood when it comes to Darius. Belos can tell this is the boy in question by glancing at the file label and the boy’s efforts to seize said file.

-So Belos now has the file, and he just gives it to Darius to read despite prev GG’s protests. In contrast with prev GG, Belos has zero interest in shielding Darius from the file’s bad news. Belos with a lot of “if he wants it so badly, fine, let him have it; he’ll soon regret it” energy. And only known to Belos—just revealing some of the info in the file to Darius will prove more advantageous in drawing another young witch closer to the covens. Honestly, Belos hadn’t even known Darius existed before prev GG brought him up, hadn’t realized some of the wild witches he had framed actually bred while on the run, how reckless of them—but the brat’s here now, might as well cement more control over him since it’s convenient.

-Darius is just eager to grab the file and start reading it, completely missing Belos’s cruelty and prev GG’s trepidation. Darius starts reading — and then he drops the file. Because the file says —

-Belos: What did it say?

-Young Darius can’t speak. With magic, Belos summons the folder back to him, and begins to read it. Belos reads aloud how Darius’s parents were responsible for an explosion in their village’s town square that claimed the lives of several witches and caused other injuries. How they were eventually captured and imprisoned...and then eventually escaped months afterward, and haven’t been seen since.

-Belos: Now this file says that coven scouts did try to check with you, to see if your parents ever tried to contact you after their escape, but that the foundling house was adamant that was impossible. They insisted that they kept a close eye on you and would’ve noticed, they were simply adamant that the coven scouts not interview you and put further undue stress on you... But you’re a little older now, and perhaps you can tell your Emperor—did your parents ever try to reach you after they escaped?

-Darius: ...No.

-Belos: I see.

-Prev GG feeling particularly helpless and at a loss as Belos does this. He’s been raised by this man and remains under his control, and it’s a surreal thing of being used to similar treatment and knowing he’ll quell under it, but seeing it inflicted upon another and still feeling quelled by it and frozen, unable to intervene. And prev GG also torn by Belos’s logic and persuasion—it’s cruel, the boy’s too young to hear this, but it’s also the truth (as far as GG knows). GG can’t find a way to deny what Belos is saying; all he could say was that Belos shouldn’t tell a 9-10-year-old this, and he can’t even manage that now.

-Belos twists the knife further and tightens the noose of control by telling Darius that’s just how wild witches are, not only violent but so taken with doing whatever they pleased that they abandoned all ties and responsibilities, maintaining no real loyalty and abandoning anything that could weigh them down, sigils, covens, children...

-A devastated Darius finally runs off, and prev GG/Jasper immediately follows. Belos lets them go.

-The truth: Darius’s parents died not long after they were imprisoned. Their “escape” was faked to cover up that Belos actually had them taken for further sigil experiments that he was still conducting, still tweaking and refining and even just trying out new things on a whim borne from his long years making him more cruelly capricious, and his experiments killed them. What happened to the witches who received sigils in “Hollow Mind” happens to Darius’s parents, though they are confirmed dead. But their file says otherwise, containing a fake damning report that poisons their young son against them and pushes him further to the coven system that killed them.

-Prev GG tries to comfort Darius. The two talk. Prev GG actually reaches Darius a little and provides some comfort that the boy desperately clings to, even as he’s mostly devastated. Darius now feels completely abandoned, believes his parents abandoned him, never came back for him, never really wanted him. Just like no one at the foundling house really wants him (they’re frustrated that he hasn’t been adopted yet, they want him gone because they’re stretched thin as it is, and though they try to be well-meaning they also increasingly give the impression that Darius is a burden outstaying his welcome), like no prospective families really want him (if some of them did, they would overlook his attempts to avoid being adopted, they would’ve tried persuading him and made him feel like they could be family; if some of them did, they would not have immediately overlooked him when they learned of his wild parentage). Believes that his parents had killed people, that they really were violent criminals.

-Prev GG goes to Hexside field trip and makes up lie that Darius got sick, but promises to take him back to school or foundling house himself later. The two continue to bond.

-Not long after pretty disastrous field trip to Emperor’s castle, Darius gets into a big fight over his “wild criminal parents” and is again sent to Faust. Faust goes for a different approach this time—he calls and bullies some coven scouts (specifically Hexside alum still scared of him) to take Darius to the precinct as a scare tactic, bully them into agreeing to take Darius into “character-building” service for a month.

-Prev GG/Jasper only gets wind of this after Darius has already been dragged to the precinct. It’s...actually a lot for him in a different way, his coven scouts are guilty but so freaked out by Faust, Darius looks drained, GG/Jasper’s not even sure if taking him back to school after what happened there with Faust would help right now, or even the foundling house... So prev GG/Jasper makes impulsive decision to navigate this by taking Darius himself, he takes the boy with him to just help him harvest some herbs in the woods. Jasper is restocking a certain section of personal inventory for him and Belos, mostly herbs that can be used to make soothing concoctions, pain relievers. It’s a very low-stakes task that he hopes can be soothing for Darius.

-Prev GG and Darius bond more while doing this for a month. Prev GG starts giving Darius some pointers on his magic.

-Darius gradually gets over the intimidation factor of the Golden Guard, their first rough meeting, and his ties to the coven system that took him from his parents. The older witch has been very kind to him otherwise, kinder than any other adult really. Darius decides the Golden Guard himself is good, even if he’s still not entirely sure about the coven members and Emperor Belos himself. Darius is pretty intimidated by the emperor now, even terrified. He had been vaguely intimidated before/had a vague fear, one higher than other kids because of what happened to his parents, but it’s more intense now after meeting the man and his cold harshness.

-Though also Belos’s cruel words have also had the desired effect of pushing Darius closer to the coven system and making him think they could be better than his experiences have suggested, making him more open to them, pushing him further along the path started by the foundling house with their pressures to conform. But it has the better, even unintended consequence of helping him bond more with prev GG, like strongly bond with him.

-Darius does at first bitterly think/worry the previous GG is just doing this because he feels guilty; but then again Darius is pretty starved for anything like parental affection, especially after what he’s learned, and he’ll take what he can get no matter how it starts. Though sometimes previous GG feels like an older brother, especially when he sometimes teases him, which is nice too and always a welcome surprise, since prev GG is usually pretty gruff-but-kind. Darius’s never had an older brother figure before, and it’s nice; but Darius’s deep yearning for a parent is pretty overwhelming at this point, and previous GG does pick up on that and tries to fulfill that hole out of growing affection for the kid. Previous GG getting a lot of “Older Sibling Promoted to Parent” energy.

-Prev GG is respected by many of the coven scouts, he has a good reputation with them, and tries to look after them. But prev GG still keeps his distance, it’s a professional relationship, he’s not close to them. He’s not close to anyone. So Darius is like...the first person in a long time or like ever that he’s really holding any conversations with, Darius is like the first person (more than anyone else) to also more gradually come to treat and talk to him like he’s another person. Prev GG is getting very attached to the kid and protective of him. Frankly seeing the kid get emotionally shattered in front of him made it a foregone conclusion that prev GG would get protective and attached.

-Seen memes of Darius and Hunter with “but if anything happened to him,” and it’s true, but also keep thinking the same happened with prev GG and young Darius too:

Previous Golden Guard: I didn't understand why people care so much about their dumb kids until I got a dumb kid myself.

Previous Golden Guard: I've only had Darius for a day and a half, but if anything happened to him, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.

(The abridged version of what prev GG/Jasper’s pretty much feeling after Belos verbally breaks Darius down. Prev GG kinda literally has only known Darius for a day and a half by then — he meets Darius at the precinct the day before, and then during the field trip to the castle the next day.)

-My mind keeps giving young Darius and previous GG shades of MHA’s Izuku and All Might, young All Might and Nana, and Darkwing Duck and Gosalyn, and it gives me more feels.

-Darius actually dreads the month ending as it draws closer, starts thinking despite how prev GG has been acting kindly, that the older witch will be glad for the chance to finally walk away (like his parents apparently did). But to Darius’s surprise and relief, prev GG/Jasper pretty much sticks around, and actually wants Darius around. After the month’s up, previous GG continues to train Darius in magic.

-GG mentors Darius for a total of five years until Belos ruins everything.

-In that five-year period, previous GG develops an incognito identity to look after Darius in public.

-Previous GG tries to remain being masked at all times outside of Belos. But he ends up eventually taking it off with Darius in private. Especially when he starts trying to go roughly incognito, though he remains calm when he suspects that others might suspect he’s the GG, because he’s...sorta like “eh,” Darius takes priority, what’s anyone else gonna actually do with their suspicions. Like when prev GG wants to take kid Darius for a bite to eat at somewhere actually public for a change of pace, he takes to going without hood and mask because no one knows what the GG looks like without them, though he still tends to bundle up and use a lot of scarves wrapped around his face or just the lower half of it. And he also does go by Jasper because no one knows GG is called Jasper to begin with. Jasper does admit to being an off-duty coven scout and also ends up doing a side thing of potions for people, so that gets folded into his incognito cover, and he also ends up stating that Darius is his potions assistant. (Inclined to think Jasper’s the first one to give Eda a working potion for her curse.)

-A little tension between the foundling house and incognito GG/Jasper. At first they’re just happy with this Jasper taking an interest in Darius, they’re hoping for an adoption; then tense when they realize that’s not on the table. But most foundling staff agree it’s still better than nothing, and pretty quickly shoot down the argument that Jasper should stop/leave if he’s not going to take custody. Also some realize Jasper is like barely 20, and accept that might be too young to willingly become a full parent.

-Darius eventually wants to be adopted by prev GG/Jasper, but is also terrified that pushing the idea will drive Jasper away (like how his parents left...maybe he was also too much of a burden...), so he avoids bringing it up. He’s fine with his relationship with his mentor as is, he doesn’t want to risk it in any way.

-Prev GG/Jasper eventually does want to fully adopt Darius and take him in. But is almost entirely certain that he can’t as GG, and gets confirmation when eventually Belos himself knows enough to say he can’t do that. Though Belos also does some mind games, saying what would that make him, a grand-uncle to the boy, and then Jasper is spiked with instinctive alarm at the thought of putting Belos anywhere within the realm of being able to claim custody of Darius should anything happen to him... (Belos does anticipate this, also using this specific fear to intimidate Jasper against trying to adopt Darius.)

-Compared to Hunter later, Belos in a more relaxed mood/stance with prev GG/Jasper. GG/Jasper gets more leeway. On prev GG/Jasper mentoring Darius, Belos chalks it up to his GG grooming a witch as another servant for him. He does pay attention to Darius’s resourcefulness, determination, and use of magic in the precinct and at the castle while trying to get his file, and to GG/Jasper sharing the boy’s quick growth in magic, so Belos thinks GG/Jasper is preparing a useful tool. Also in a fit of a capricious mood, Belos is curious to see how prev GG/Jasper handles shaping a kid himself, how he handles/likes being on the other side of that relationship.

-Mentoring and caring for Darius does make prev GG/Jasper gradually look back on his own relationship with Belos and feel more turmoil while also making some breakthroughs. Though that’s more like, prev GG/Jasper gets as close as concluding that Belos is great at many things, but he’s not a great uncle/parental figure. That he failed at that. Like prev GG/Jasper cannot imagine treating Darius the way Belos treats him. And prev GG/Jasper finds he wants better for Darius than what he got.

-Over the five-year time period, Darius really looks up to prev GG/Jasper and wishes to be like him, wishes to work alongside him in protecting the Boiling Isles. Darius is aware of prev GG/Jasper’s dedication to make things better in the world and how that’s not blindly aligned with the Emperor’s methods/stated goals, and wishes to help his mentor make things better/enact better change/reform things. Darius doesn’t really consider theEmperor’s Coven though, he’s genuinely more drawn to Abominations, but they can go into service with GG too.

-Prev GG knows this is ideal, that he should be proud, it’s for the good of the Boiling Isles, it’s even something Belos would want for the most part (not the reform thing necessarily, but GG still believes he can reach Belos on that and convince him it’s for the best)...but he finds himself feeling a little concerned. He does teach Darius self-defense so he can protect himself because after what prev GG/Jasper’s gone through, he’s kinda paranoid about keeping Darius safe in every way. But in that regard, he kinda wanted Darius to get into something kinda a little safer. But if Darius really wants this, prev GG/Jasper wants to make sure he’s prepared—and in his mind that means more intense training, but he’s reluctant to do that too. He half-hopes Darius will change his mind when he starts being stricter in training, but Darius is actually encouraged by it and more determined, so prev GG/Jasper stays the course and ramps up training.

-Official coven scout training is not as extreme as what Hunter and Steve later describe. But out of prev GG/Jasper’s own paranoia/desire to efficiently cover all bases/acknowledgment that there actually are a lot of woods on the Boiling Isles/out of personal experience, he does take Darius wilderness training, but way more in the style of like gradual development and not shoved off a cliff like it becomes later. (This ends up helping Darius out later...)

-Prev GG/Jasper and Belos sometimes get into sorta domestic-but-actually-kinda-ominous arguments over how prev GG/Jasper trains Darius, with Belos saying that prev GG/Jasper coddles the boy. And prev GG/Jasper actually already at a point where he never even takes that point seriously, and thinks his uncle is misguided/doesn’t understand, and remains steadfast in his belief that this is better for Darius, and he wants better for him, better than what he had. Belos further criticizes GG/Jasper, Belos says Jasper has no real control over his student; Jasper retorts that he doesn’t want control over Darius, but for Darius to be prepared and ready to decide for himself.

-Though prev GG can still be strict. Like what prev GG has to compare to is awful, so sometimes what he thinks is less and what Belos thinks is coddling can still be rough. But prev GG is nearly constantly trying to strike the right balance and tries to evaluate how he trains Darius. It’s a struggle. Sorta like everything for prev GG—even him being kind and good can be a struggle, it doesn’t always come easy to him after his longer life with Belos’s abuse and indoctrination, but it actually gives more weight to his kindness and goodness because he struggles for it.

-Prev GG/Jasper deep down terrified of becoming like his uncle. With the longer time under his influence, prev GG/Jasper sometimes catches himself acting like Belos, and it’s not...pleasant. He even feels like his appearance resembles Belos more as he gets older—and they’re family, he’s his uncle, it makes sense...but still...

-During this time as Darius grows to a teen, his bitterness over his parents also grows and he strives more for the coven system, now also fueled by more anger and resentment. He would not be like them, he would be coven. It exists simultaneously with a genuine desire to be like the Golden Guard, there’s no one or the other, all motives bleed into each other.

-Darius keeps getting better at masking composure until it’s starting to become partly genuine.

-Like Darius from even earliest points in his life is gradually getting prep for when he’s a rebel later in terms of additional motives and behavior/technique due to fallout of wild background, the foundling house, being forced to assimilate, etc.

-Prejudice against Darius’s wild background comes in waves. Things can feel just normal, and then there are little things, little prejudices, little microaggressions. Gradually it becomes more a mix of a lot of microaggressions piling up and less outright mistreatment, but that does run parallel to Darius trying more to fit in, hide the identity of his wild witch parents, and assimilation/indoctrination affecting him more.

-Deep down the trauma with his wild witch parents ends up being part of his apparent distaste for the woods, for various reasons (wanting to distance himself from them, he was torn away from them in the woods, the woods are now a painful reminder of them, etc.). Though also some of his "neat freak" nature is a little rooted in his parents actually trying to keep things as sanitized as possible, with the thinking that those efforts actually had to be maintained because they were in the woods a lot; it wasn't like his parents were fighting a losing battle with cleanliness while being on the run, but rather she went against what detractors said about "wild witches in the woods" and tried to keep things sanitized as much as she could, but also was fairly comfortable with the natural grime of the woods.

-Darius’s cloak in the present is a Witch’s Wool cloak that prev GG/Jasper made for him, charming it with a lot of strong protective spells and with the ability to adjust to Darius’s height as he grows.

-Darius has some prodigy energy with Abomination magic — he manages to start changing his body to Abomination mud, a rare form of mastery usually approached by full grown witches and not teens. It’s not unheard of for teens to start reaching for this sort of Abomination magic mastery, but it’s even more rare.

-Darius still struggles with transforming into Abomination mud himself, it’s not a consistent or reliable skill yet. But the fact that he’s reached this point with Abomination magic is impressive.

-Darius’s trained instinct and later desire to hide and evade people kinda partly fueled his comparatively quicker grasp for self-transformation Abomination mastery. Though he thought it was normal, Darius had grown used to hiding and evasion while on the run with his parents; and later Darius, in the traumatic situation of being separated from his parents and sent to stay at the foundling house, often wished to hide and get away without anyone noticing. Later he learns to use such mastery for offense in addition to stealth/evasion. And Darius’s skill with Abomination magic also partly fueled with more quickly developing Abomination guardians to deter bullies at the foundling house.

-Darius is chosen to be Grom King for Grom Night when he’s 14. He’s terrified, previous GG is very worried, and all of that is justified as it’s pretty much a disaster. No one will switch with Darius. Rarely anyone ever switches with Grom King/Queen for obvious reasons.

-Thinking of the potential for a lot of trauma from Grom Night given that it’s apparently pitting teens against a creature that can literally use magic to prey on their worst fears.

-Prev GG/Jasper again questions the whole practice of Grom Night and again pushes the idea of “just let me and a squad of coven scouts take care of Grom every year.” But Grom Night is, for the coven system, an unofficial test of strength for any students chosen.

-Because it’s Darius, his student, his kid, prev GG/Jasper pushes harder and pretty much threatens Faust, until Belos himself intervenes. Now prev GG/Jasper suspects, and Belos immediately confirms it — it’s not usual, but Belos himself ordered Faust to select Darius.

-As the Golden Guard’s student/apprentice, Belos wanted to test and evaluate Darius’s progress so far. Prev GG/Jasper protests, but Belos doesn’t yield, and prev GG/Jasper is forced to back down.

-Darius is terrified, but then frustrated and embarrassed when he picks up that prev GG/Jasper isn’t just worried, but also pretty much thinks he can’t handle it. Even when prev GG/Jasper intensifies his training to prepare him for Grom, Darius gets the impression that GG/Jasper still finds him lacking. Darius is terrified, but now he wants to prove he can defeat Grom to the GG/Jasper (it’s another parallel the two have to Luz and Eda).

-And while minor, it’s a disappointing cherry on top of the whole debacle — Alador and Odalia are on a date to Grom. Darius also has an unrequited crush on Alador messing with his head (unrequited so far; Darius and Alador eventually have an on-off-again romance until a final breakup and Alador marries Odalia). He’s started crushing on his friend, but he hasn’t said anything about it, and now Alador’s on a date with Odalia to Grom, and it just...sucks. (Things have already started to get more tense between Darius and Odalia, with some romantic rivalry/jealousy, Odalia developing into a person Darius increasingly has issues with, Odalia accepting more of her family’s prejudices about Darius’s wild background, etc.)

-There’s a moment of reprieve where Darius and prev GG/Jasper actually have some fun finding the right formal wear, prev GG/Jasper helps Darius figure out a tie. For a moment, feels like things will be okay with Grom...but they’re not, not at all.

-Incognito prev GG/Jasper is at Grom chaperoning, and frankly ready to step in and help his student. In another parallel to Luz and Eda, at first Grom takes shape as prev GG/Jasper in judgment over Darius. It also takes the shape of Alador rejecting him. But then Grom turns...worse, as expected. Shapes of Odalia, Alador, other Hexside people, foundling house people, others scorning him for being “wildborn,” “feral,” etc. There are the shapes of coven scouts grabbing at him, of trees, and plants moving, and Terra Snapdragon. And then there’s...

-Headcanon that Grom’s true appearance is only visible to whoever has the fear it’s using, so no one can really determine what Darius sees (like how Luz couldn’t really see what Amity feared).

-Darius fights off Grom, it doesn’t ever leave Hexside. He performs well, he efficiently quells Grom with powerful attacks.

-But it’s completely traumatizing for Darius. His attacks were powerful but fueled by a lot of rage and hurt. Grom ended up embodying his wild witch parents like he feared.

-Darius ends up running off from Grom, and prev GG/Jasper chases him down, following him deep into the woods.

-Teen Darius breaks down, prev GG/Jasper tries to comfort him. Darius is very messed up over his parents abandoning him (or so he’s been led to believe), it’s been festering since he learned about it years ago. He’s been forgetting them more, but that just makes it worse, because even as he forgets them they’re still messing with is life. In his distressed state, Darius asks prev GG/Jasper to give him his sigil for the Abomination coven right now. He knows what coven he wants, it’s gonna happen anyway, he wants it done right now. He wants—he wants, he doesn’t know what he wants, he wants—he wants something as far from his parents as possible, right now.

-Prev GG/Jasper is reluctant to do this while Darius is in complete distress, it’s not something that can be really reversed, is he certain —

-Darius insists he’s certain and he’s begging his mentor, pleading — prev GG/Jasper relents, and reminds himself it’s going to happen eventually and that Darius has already been very focused on the Abomination coven already, as Darius himself has pointed out. And his student is begging him, maybe giving him what he’s so desperately pleading for will help...

-Prev GG/Jasper gives Darius his Abomination sigil, and Darius calms down a bit. Then he gets hysterical, because it’s not such a big deal, is it, getting a sigil, this is what his parents avoided, this is what they left him for, left him to deal with the consequences of a decision that he never got to make for himself until now, left his life turned upside down, left him to virtually take the blame for what they did and be their scapegoat or the one people can point to and say “be wary of the wildborn, his parents are criminals,” just completely left him behind —

-Prev GG/Jasper comforts Darius through the night, and lets him stay the night in the castle (he informs the foundling house, and it’s something that’s happened before, but rarely — though he just tells them he’s taking Darius for the night at his apartment). Fortunately Grom Night was on a Friday, and he doesn’t have to worry about school. (Prev GG/Jasper would’ve encouraged him to skip, Darius would’ve gone and acted like he was fine with little reprieve between Grom and school. Having a whole weekend makes it marginally better, or at least gives him a longer break.)

-A year later, when Darius is 15, prev GG/Jasper learns more about the actual dangers of the coven sigils. Learns what actually happened to Darius’s parents.

-Keep thinking, and partly inspired by a nerves-nebula comic...that prev GG/Jasper already at least knew about the Grimwalkers, and had made himself accept it. It’s part of why prev GG/Jasper gets some leeway, it’s part of why prev GG/Jasper and Belos are actually comparatively closer than Hunter and Belos. It’s part of why prev GG/Jasper grows to care so much for Darius—when he literally thought he wasn’t a person, Darius made him feel like one.

-While prev GG had told Belos he wouldn’t be like the other Grimwalkers, to Darius, he spoke of the other Golden Guards — his predecessors — with fondness, and instilled respect for them in Darius. Prev GG/Jasper harbored secret respect and care/concern for his fellow Grimwalkers. He wanted to pass on something kinder about them to someone, but he’s happy he could pass it on to Darius, his beloved student/apprentice. Prev GG/Jasper couldn’t tell Darius much because he has little info on them, but it was enough for Darius. Darius inherited his teacher’s respect for the other Golden Guard predecessors, and imagined them like his mentor, brave and kind and willing to do what was right no matter what. Darius has no idea they’re Grimwalkers at this point, and doesn’t learn until Hunter.

-But learning what Belos has done to his cherished student, and what danger prev GG/Jasper’s put him in because of what Belos taught him...

-Prev GG/Jasper snaps, and tries to kill Belos. Just. Immediately tries to kill him.

-Prev GG/Jasper’s not thinking clearly, he’s just snapped. He’s driven by a lot of fear for Darius and alarming guilt that he accidentally endangered his student by giving him the sigil; guilt over leading Darius to pursue serving Belos’s coven system; guilt over dedicating service to a man and system that has already thoroughly hurt his student and threatens to continue to do so; feeling like/realizing Belos has betrayed him and hurt him and he can’t accept it anymore/can’t take it anymore, and just general floodgates open on so much of the trauma’s Belos has already put him through, rage at what Belos did to him, to the other Grimwalkers, to the Boiling Isles, and also to Darius and Darius’s family. It’s protectiveness over Darius and the last final straw that breaks down the floodgates on a lot of GG/Jasper’s personal trauma that he can’t hold back and deny anymore—and he’s been holding back a lot, so when he finally snaps, it’s a furious mess.

-But prev GG/Jasper still also chiefly driven by sheer protective desperation, and in a snap decision he thinks that if he can just eliminate Belos, the immediate threat against Darius and the other branded witches will be gone, the sigils can’t trigger without Belos, they’ll be useless.

-Prev GG/Jasper’s efforts are thwarted, and with this failed Grimwalker, Belos decides to take the time to schedule a petrification.

-Rumors of this manage to slip out, and Darius catches wind of his mentor’s fate, and rather as impulsively as prev GG/Jasper snapped/acted, Darius immediately makes his way to Emperor’s castle to help prev GG/Jasper.

-Darius mostly uses his self-transformation Abomination magic to sneak around the castle, managing better control of it with adrenaline running high/for this emergency.

-Darius finds his mentor, but the cell he’s in is under heavy protection spells that Darius can’t lower.

-Prev GG/Jasper orders Darius to escape and run, then rushes to explain the truth of what happened to his parents and at least say the sigils are dangerous —

-Belos arrives for a visit before prev GG/Jasper can even try to tell Darius about the Grimwalkers, and Darius listens to his mentor’s last harsh order to go and his warning that Belos will notice him.

-But eventually Darius is spotted, Belos gets wind of his presence, and decides to accelerate the petrification schedule to today instead of later.

-Darius escapes capture, tries to circle back, and stumbles upon prev GG/Jasper being transported for immediate petrification, with Belos at the head of the party.

-Darius attacks, and does manage to free his mentor, but prev GG/Jasper goes straight for Belos again and orders Darius to run. Prev GG/Jasper still not thinking clearly, still desperately focused on killing Belos now to protect Darius and others from the sigil danger. Darius protests, telling his mentor they should both run, and he refuses to leave him. A chaotic battle ensues and intensifies.

-Belos calculates, and aims a serious/deadly attack for Darius. Prev GG/Jasper immediately focuses his power on disrupting the attack and protecting Darius, but it leaves him open for Belos’s real goal and final strike.

-Belos petrifies prev GG/Jasper right in front of Darius. Then out of sheer rage and malice with another traitor brother/Grimwalker, he shatters the petrified GG/Jasper right in front of Darius.

-Darius is absolutely devastated, and soon after lashes out and tries to attack — kill Belos. All his attacks are meant to kill.

-Belos fends Darius off with ease. It’s a darker parallel to Belos vs. Luz in the season 1 finale. With the darker tone and Darius trying to kill Belos for murdering prev GG/Jasper, Belos roughs Darius up far more and knocks him out.

-Belos has Darius sent to the infirmary and the remains of his last Golden Guard removed. He ponders what to do with the late Golden Guard’s student.

-Darius tried to kill him in front of enough witnesses, he must take action. He’ll silence the information of course, and Darius’s attempt on the emperor’s life gets pretty much buried later. Belos could imprison Darius while he makes a final decision, or just leave him there to rot.

-Though furious over this latest failed Grimwalker, Belos isn’t in a rush to make a new one. After living for so long, time is weird for him; what’s one year or five years or more between Grimwalkers? And he still has time before the Day of Unity, though he anticipates that the next Grimwalker will be the last one before the Day of Unity. And he might do some experimenting with the next one, maybe make it weaker, prev GG/Jasper became so feral in the end to protect his student...

-Also while he can silence a lot of info, could be just annoying to have to explain why there’s suddenly a new matching Golden Guard, so Belos tends to favor long gaps between them anyway.

-But Belos is still enraged, he still wants to make his brother pay — and he is old, and has grown capricious in his long years, can be moved by novelty.

-Darius does have potential, and he’s young still, perhaps malleable still, and the latest iteration of his brother adored him so, had been willing to betray Belos for him—what if Belos took the Golden Guard’s student away, heart and mind? Or at least some level of loyalty/dedication. Probably just minimum effort — Belos has so many things to do — at least for now; Belos could delegate this and let the system he crafted bend Darius further to his will. Belos could keep the boy; he was already an orphan, he could have a subordinate take custody of Darius, then send him to the coven scouts and see how that goes before making any additional decisions. Belos has dealt with some of the witches that made his Grimwalkers stray, but never in that way, never tried to turn them against what the GG ended up foolishly prioritizing, never tried to make them serve him instead.

-The show’s mentioned recruitment through force a couple of times but hasn’t really gone much into it, so just exploring that more here with the idea that Belos makes Darius a forced recruit after he publicly enough tried to kill Belos, and out of further spite/punishment for the last GG, and out of capricious bored arrogant old age, and capitalizing on how he made Darius an orphan. Why not do this, he has the time and there’s literally nothing anyone can do to stop him and there’s no way this could backfire on him, and even if it did he could handle it, there’s no real threat.

-Belos has Terra Snapdragon take custody of Darius because I just feel like making her “I’d be a good mom” line creepier. (And yes, Belos petrifiying+shattering/murdering prev GG/Jasper right in front of Darius takes place at some point after Eda and Raine first meet, and after Lilith curses Eda, etc.)

-Darius is sent to the coven scouts as a drafted conscript/forced recruit.

-With some details in the show, I’m now inclined to think Darius’s mentor was the last petrification 30 years ago as mentioned in the season 1 finale, and that it happened when Darius was a teen. I keep thinking it’s even more viscerally emotional if it happens right in front of teen Darius. And I keep thinking that Darius would immediately try to attack Belos with intent to kill, and he’d know enough magic to try to go for a killing blow; and that Belos would not just let him go after that but do something. Like Belos tells Luz later when she actually cracks his mask, “Try that again and things won’t end well for you.” And Darius tried repeatedly with full intent to kill, and Belos made sure it did not end well for him. Just prev GG/Jasper and Darius parallel Eda and Luz except they get the Bad Ending.

-Now coven scout training starts getting brutally intense after the murder of prev GG/Jasper, and more like what Hunter refers to in present day. With the trauma of his mentor’s death and getting no real reprieve, Darius more goes through training in half a fugue state/half pushed to use it to try to distract himself from his recent loss because that loss is just so devastating to him, he’ll take being left on a mountain as some way to escape it even for a bit. Prev GG/Jasper’s earlier and more stable wilderness training helps Darius navigate this.

-Hunter thinks the training was fine because it was all he knew; Darius as a teen is aware the training goes too far but is already too messed up by his mentor’s murder to do anything but get through it, and deep down is partly bitterly grateful for it twistedly giving him some distraction and providing anything he could sorta use as an escape. And later memories of it are an uncomfortable blur.

-Hunter so far deprived of being a teenager; Darius got like two years of it before it ended with his mentor’s murder and when that made him ready to kill a man in revenge. Darius remembers the time with fondness and bitterness, and part of why he wants Hunter to get to be a teenager is because Darius both had and lost it, and remembers enough of how nice it was before it was torn from him. The loss makes him value it more and partly fuels why he wants it for Hunter later.

-Darius prefers the training with the scouts as largely peers over training with Terra when she sometimes summons him to stay in her large enough section of the castle reserved for her as a coven head. He never calls her mom, absolutely not, no matter what she says. Darius gradually loses most of his fear of her while his hate for her grows larger.

-Darius does get fixated on gaining more power to kill Belos, and takes any training opportunity to further that goal, even with someone he loathes, who harmed him and his family. (He plans to eventually have Terra go down with her Emperor too, along with anyone else loyal to Belos.) He doesn’t care how harsh training can get, he just wants more power. Helps him eventually become a very powerful Abomination witch. (It would’ve happened either way in a less traumatic world, but that didn’t happen here.)

-Darius still trying to figure out how to counter Belos. He’s trapped; since he was captured after Belos murdered prev GG/Jasper, Belos has tightened security and made it difficult for Darius to escape, Belos trying to learn from when Darius infiltrated the castle when trying to save his mentor. He’s been thrown into hellish training that he’s trying to use to further his own goal of trying to kill Belos someday. But he’s still a teen and still fumbling in a very bad situation, and more than understandably intimidated into submitting. He has zero support now.

-When Darius gets assignments, they’re small at first, thank the Titan. But even then Darius starts trying to secretly sabotage where he can, and that only continues with more assignments, and more assignments with bigger stakes.

-Prev GG/Jasper tried direct action against Belos, his parents tried direct action against Belos...maybe Darius could try something different, more backstabbing, more deceptive, especially with the situation he’s trapped in now.

-Darius decides he’ll do anything to stop Belos. (Actually he does have moral limits as he’ll find, though still will find himself in tough situations with tough decisions.) He’ll lean into his trapped circumstances and Belos wanting to use him, and try to get close and maintain close access/get even closer access to Belos instead of trying to get to a point where he could attack from the outside.

-Darius only knows Belos killed prev GG/Jasper because it happened right in front of him. Darius doesn’t know about the Grimwalkers for a long time, not until Hunter.

-Darius in deep and visible depression for a while. He starts getting a little out of it, or get a reprieve from it, or functioning better, when Terra “adopts” another forced recruit, another teen apparently raised by direwolves before the coven took them away from them — Eberwolf.

-Darius and Eberwolf bond. Around the same age and similar crappy situation with Terra/coven, and even similarities in getting separated from their wild/“uncivilized” families which Terra also was involved with, sent to foundling houses and then coven-mandated schools, and getting in big enough trouble to be forcefully recruited into the Emperor’s ranks (Eberwolf was in a foundling house near the Knee, sent to St. Epiderm, and the trouble she got into was not as serious as Darius trying to kill the Emperor). Darius and Eberwolf are friends and technically adoptive siblings and none of them call Terra “Mom” no matter what she says. They can annoy each other, but care about each other a lot at the end of the day. The two sometimes enjoy playing it up—Darius exaggerating being annoyed and Eberwolf exaggerating how much they annoy him. Darius and Eberwolf eventually realize they also both want to secretly rebel against the Emperor and team up for a long and strong/loyal alliance.

-Deep down, Darius likes that Eberwolf embraces her direwolf background, while Darius at a point where he’s too used to pretending his wild family never existed and still has complicated feelings about it and probably always will. Darius also finds continuing that helps him maintain his cover; Belos obviously knows what he did to Darius’s family, and Darius is fairly certain that Belos will feel Darius has grown loyal to him/fully submitted to him if Darius continues to distance himself from his family. (But Darius has his doubts, and more on that later.)

-Terra has affected every member of the future Rebel Trio/RED here, and actually Darius and Eberwolf more deeply.

-There’s still a sorta academic curriculum for coven scout training or the earliest stages of it, or it depends on how old the recruits are, and it’s sorta more literally like military school, and Darius and Eberwolf also have to attend. Like Lilith goes to those classes too.

-Darius has been in new turmoil over his parents, feeling guilty for being fooled into hating them for abandoning him when they never had (it’s been happening since he was a young kid, it’s reasonable, it’s not his fault, but Darius doesn’t see it that way, and there’s not even prev GG/Jasper around to repeatedly tell him otherwise). He wants revenge for what Belos did to them too. But while Darius has been deeply affected by his family and has new guilt over them, has all this turmoil over them, as more time passes his memories of them fade more, and deep down they’re more distant and become more an old vague ache. He was very young when he lost them, when it was harder for him to maintain his memories. His feelings for avenging the prev GG are more intense, since he deeply bonded with him at a point where he could better maintain his memories of him, and also in a way his loss was more traumatic with Belos literally murdering him in front of Darius, burning the image into his mind and severely traumatizing him in a very visceral way. And comparatively, Darius’s five years with prev GG were still more than what he got with his parents—again, he was very young, like a toddler, like Darius had maybe one conscious self-aware year with his parents before he was taken from them.

-Alador has been looking for Darius. He’s been worried. The two had actually been dating a little before prev GG/Jasper was killed. Alador and Darius eventually make contact. Alador says he heard at Hexside that Darius had essentially been transferred to the Emperor’s Coven, like Lilith did before. Darius realizes this is what Belos must’ve had as an official story to explain his absence to Hexside, and reluctantly goes along with it for now, warily uncertain of what the consequences could be if he tried to tell Alador the truth. Darius is actually unwilling in general to talk about what’s happened, it still hurts (honestly it’ll always hurt, especially with Belos walking free despite how he murdered prev GG/Jasper) and he hasn’t been able to really grieve in a safe space or process anything. Alador does in fact want to know more, he can tell Darius isn’t telling him everything, but doesn’t press his boyfriend—because yes, they tentatively resume their romantic relationship.

-Eventually some control loosens for perceived good behavior and feeling like enough time has passed since being forced to join the Emperor’s forces, so that Darius can have some relatively unsupervised free time/sneak away more easily to see Alador. Eventually they become on-off-again boyfriends, their relationship eventually deteriorates, and they permanently break up. While off-duty from coven scout service, Darius boos Alador at the Bonesborough Brawl. (Darius does date other people throughout the years; they never last, but most end amicably enough. Alador was Darius’s first love and remains his worst breakup.)

-Gonna go with 18 as like age of majority in Boiling Isles — when Darius and Eberwolf turn that age, they leave Terra’s custody and try to avoid her as much as possible, which Terra kinda gradually concedes too though in terms of “seeing them leave the nest.” There’s a kinda murkiness about them choosing to stay on in service to the emperor, though it’s really more Belos testing and evaluating them, and the implication that there’s really not a choice, so Darius and Eberwolf just publicly (dubiously) choose to stay on. They’re already plotting, even if they haven’t figured out something specific beyond general secret rebellion and focusing on maintaining close access to enemies. Parallels their future rebel ally Raine saying she carefully moved up the ranks of the Bard coven after deciding to resist, as she eventually told Eda.

-And Darius and Eberwolf do move up the ranks, to coven heads of their respective magical disciplines. Darius is made a coven head first, and by usual standards, he’s one of the youngest coven heads. The previous Abomination head had died of old age, and per the system Belos established, Belos nominates/chooses the next one and has the final say. Anyone Belos chooses to be coven head can not refuse him; they’re not being requested to serve as coven head, they’re being ordered to. Personal feelings aside, Belos was looking for the candidate strongest in Abomination magic, and that was Darius. Darius has been aiming for coven head as a way to get closer to Belos’s circle for his revenge/rebel goals. Traditionally Belos allows challenges-via-duel to his nominations, though he still has the final say; Belos often uses this to solidify support for his candidate, often correctly guessing his candidate will win. Alador dueled Darius for the coven head position. As Belos expected, Darius won the duel, and was made coven head.

-Now on Belos’s personal feelings: his investment in cultivating Darius as a powerful tool was paying off. The boy had gained enough power to be a useful coven head for the Day of Unity. (Belos is again very old and very cruel—Darius will largely always be that devastated boy to him.) It just sates Belos’s thirst for punishment/revenge to know that the last Golden Guard’s precious student will be among those Belos directly uses for the Day of Unity.

-Darius has bouts of suspecting that Belos knows he’s a rebel, that he would always viscerally remember Darius trying to kill him that day, remember all the reasons Darius would have to want him dead — but Darius decides it won’t stop him. He’ll take his chances, but he won’t give up. He sometimes worries that he could cause more harm than good in the long run for Eberwolf and later Raine, for everyone really; but Darius just can’t give up, nor give up on the belief that maintaining as much close access as he can on the inside can still do some good.

-Belos sometimes suspects Darius still continues to oppose him in secret, but Belos is arrogant, capricious, even a little careless in his old age and deeply entrenched power — because if Darius has, what of it? There’s nothing he can possibly do. Belos is rather entertained by the prospect of toying with the Golden Guard’s student, letting him try and fail.

-Also out of arrogance, Belos sometimes believes he’s completely taken Darius from the last Golden Guard, that he’s completely brought him to heel. He toys with either option — either way, it’s fine, Darius can’t do anything to stop him.

-It’s part of my speculative AU that Belos has even more reason to think Darius would continue to oppose him — but then in the show there’s Belos killing Darius’s mentor/the last GG, which Belos must know would motivate Darius (if he knows, or does know); and then there’s Darius looking so sad in the first hall of Belos’s mindscape. Like that first hall is apparently largely a lie and glorified and propaganda — but then Darius looks so sad. It’s not obscured or removed, he’s permitted to look sad, in what ends up feeling like the most honest moment in the first level/facade of Belos’s mindscape. Out of everything there, Darius’s sadness actually feels like the most real thing/genuine emotion in that surface level of Belos’s mindscape. On one hand, clearly a neat way to drop this narrative/character moment in the story that actually does a lot; on the other hand, it’s interesting to think of it in-universe and speculate what it can say about Belos too. Does Darius looking so sad in Belos’s mindscape mean Belos might suspect that Darius opposes him because of what he did to the last GG/Darius’s mentor? If Belos takes notice of Darius’s sadness and preserves it in his mindscape, does he know Darius might be driven by grief and rage to rebel against him? Does Belos even take pleasure in Darius’s sadness over that Grimwalker, and keeps it in his mindscape to sate his own desire to repeatedly punish his brother and the Grimwalker versions of him? (Does Belos partly use the Blight Abomatons as backup/counter in case Darius finally rebels as the Day of Unity draws closer?)

-Because of their closeness to Darius, Belos somewhat suspects Eberwolf too. But still, similar issues of arrogance and such with Eberwolf.

-In some ways, Darius successfully unknowingly distracts Belos. Belos expects betrayal more from him than others given what he’s done to Darius and his mentor (except for the latest Grimwalker).

-Belos did not expect Darius and Hunter bonding at all.

-Darius wants revenge against Belos, but related to that or even more than that, he just wants Belos gone and removed as a danger to everyone (and to no longer walk free after murdering prev GG/Jasper), and he wants that to happen no matter what, whether by his hand or someone else’s. He just wants the Emperor gone.

So, like I suggested, I’ve been thinking about this a lot and have a lot of thoughts on this character. I can go on, but gonna stop for now.

#toh darius #previous golden guard #toh #the owl house #emperor belos #my fanfic

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