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ppeasants · 2 months ago

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I have been dealing with some major writer's block recently while trying to write the latest chapter for my Time Hollow AU.

I've managed to write out almost the entirety of the chap by now, somehow, but now I have to edit basically the whole thing. Fun.

In the meantime, here's a WIP of a scene from the chapter! It's a flashback to about a week into their time in the Mindscape - not a lot of time at all in the grand scheme of things, so the two aren't super close yet.

Lemme know what y'all think of this! Lemme know if I captured Luz and Hunter well, their characters and their dynamics!

(scene under the cut)

“Hunter? Can we – can we please slow down?”

“No! Not yet! We can’t stop yet?”

“But we’ve been running for – for hours now! Surely we – haah – we’ve gotten far enough away by now!”

“Look, human. If you want to stop, so you can be captured by Unc-Belos, then be my guest!”

“Ay, dios mío…” Luz continues to grumble under breath as Hunter drags her along, weaving between the trees of Belos’ Mindscape, holding her arm tightly as they run, obviously never actually going to act on his threat of leaving her behind.

They’d been running for a few hours now, jumping between memories and forests, trying to escape from Belos.

It’s been about a week since Luz was teleported here alongside Hunter. About a week since they’ve been running, never taking a break for longer than necessary until they ran again. About a week since the two of them were trapped, forced to live through the torture that Belos had put The Isles – put Hunter – through. About a week since they learned that Hunter’s entire life was a lie.

About a week since Luz learned just who Emperor Belos really was. About a week since she learned what Phillip Wittebane was planning to do with the Day of Unity. About a week since she learned that she helped him. That she was complicit in genocide – it’s already been a week they need to get out of here to stop it she needs to fix hermistake itsherfaultherfault –

Luz is pulled out of her thoughts by Hunter, who jerks her arm forward again as she begins to flag, forcing her to keep pace with him. She tries to tell him to slow down once again, but is unable to actually get the words out, her own heavy breaths cutting her off, her legs like jelly as she stumbles through the forest.

She doesn’t know how much longer they’re forced to run – minutes and hours blending together – until she suddenly stops, nearly crashing into the back of Hunter, the former guard standing still as he takes a look around at the clearing, his eyes freezing between various picture frames.

“You could – you could warn me if you’re – ” Luz has to take a moment to catch her breath, unable to finish the sentences through her exhaustion – how is Hunter barely even panting? “If you’re gonna stop in the – middle of nowhere!”

“It’s not my fault you weren’t trained properly.” Hunter scoffs, tearing his eyes away from one of his memories to look down at Luz’s hunched over form, returning the glare she sends his way – the way Hunter is still holding her arm, holding her up as she recovers, clearly having stopped so she can get breath back betraying his seemingly uncaring words.

It takes a few minutes, but Luz is eventually able to bring herself out of her exhaustion, her breaths getting steady as she takes in one last deep breath before straightening out, bringing her hands off her knees to take a look around at the clearing they’ve stopped in.

Luz has been getting used to clearings like this, gray trees surrounding gray grass - darkness enveloping them becoming an unfortunately common sight for her. Wooden frames hang from various trees scattered around them – so many terrible memories built up from centuries of stolen life.

These memories seem more recent, images of the dull halls of the castle filling the background of most of the images surrounding them. Various figures stand in them – images filled with Coven Heads getting crowned their positions, with prisoners standing trial before their petrification, with Hunter kneeling before his next mission, his next scolding, his next beating, his next –

Luz forces herself to tear her eyes away from the memories, the thought of anybody being abused like that almost too much to bear, the images replaying in her head as she turns to look at Hunter, his gaze frozen once again at one of the memories of him begging for forgiveness – and only getting more wounds in return.

She wants to reach out, wants to pull his head away from whatever torture he’s putting himself through, but her hand freezes just above his arm, not knowing how best to help him, not wanting a repeat of the last time she touched him without warning – the bruise on her ribcage still healing. Instead she just looks around again, wanting to find anything else to distract him, to distract both of them, when her eyes catch onto a memory, and she squeaks in delight.

“Hunter, look! It’s a party! Or a banquet! Or ball or – or something! Whatever, just – come on!”

“Wh – hey!”

Hunter’s yelp is cut off as Luz grabs him by the arm and drags him – how does he like it? – towards the image hanging behind them, jumping into it, nearly falling flat on her face as she stumbles into the hall, the artificial light of the room nearly blinding her as she stands up again.

The banquet hall of the castle is absolutely enormous, with golden walls stretching out farther than her field of vision, never able to see both ends of the room. Ceilings just as golden raise high – higher than even the roof of the castle looks from outside it. Tall, thin windows are spaced out evenly along the walls, reaching out to the ceiling above them, the darkness outside the only reprieve from the blinding chandeliers hanging above them.

The room, as big as it is, is somehow filled with guests, as if everybody living on The Boiling Isles is gathered in this one place. Coven members and heads, teachers and students, families and soldiers – squished together as if they couldn’t be anywhere else but here. Knowing Belos, maybe that was true. Luz looks in awe anyways, taking in the sights and sounds as if this party was meant for her.

“This place is huge!”

“It is a big castle. I doubt you’ve seen every part of it.” Hunter stands up beside her, dusting himself off as he stands up next to her, trying his best to look aloof at being dragged around and falling flat on his face, but his annoyed pout betrays him. Luz just smiles back, glad her distraction worked, but her attention is taken once again by the sounds of the other guests around her.

“I wonder what this party is for?” Luz questions as she takes another look around the room, picking up various conversations around her, mutterings of parties and invitations, witches and prisoners, food and drink – when’s the last time she was able to eat something? – floating into her ears, not quite telling her what this gathering is about. “I mean, it seems pretty big, but I don’t know what it could be about. What do you think?”

“It was a celebration of a successful raid.” Hunter answers, his own eyes scanning the room, looking around for any exits should they need to escape. “Coven heads Eberwolf and Darius found and arrested one of the biggest holdings of wild witches in years. Belos wanted to hold a banquet in their honour, a day before their petrifications.” He says it so casually, like he’s reading off a report, and not speaking about the murder of dozens of innocents.

“Oh.” Luz’s voice is quiet, processing the thought of so many people coming together to celebrate the death of others. She can see the way Hunter’s face falls again, his own mind rewiring itself once again, changing what he once believed was just, mourning these witches as if he was the one who captured them, who damned them to this – before another thought crosses her mind.

“Wait, you know what this party was about? Were you here?”

“Yeah. I was.” His voice is still low, but he tilts his head to one of the room’s edges. “Stationed at the west exit.” Luz looks to where Hunter is pointing, seeing a youngest Golden Guard standing watch.

A yellow mask covers his face, the cowl over his head blocking everybody from seeing under it. The cape behind him drags along the ground, his fourteen-year-old body still too short for him to year. He stands stock still – one could almost mistake him for a statue if it wasn't for the steady rotation of his body as he scans the hall over and over again, artificial staff in one hand, a sparkling glass of something in the other.

“Looks boring.”

“It’s my job, Human. Was. My job.” Hunter exhales before he continues. “Doesn’t matter if it was boring, it’s what I had to do.” He pauses before he tilts his head to her, a teasing glint in his eyes. “Not everything can be all sunshine and painbows like your Azila books.”

“¡AY! Azura is a renowned series, and deserves to be treated as such!” Luz indignantly sputters, trying to shove him, but stumbles as he dodges out of the way, both of their smirks growing wider – wasn’t Luz supposed to be comforting him?

“Besides, there’s nothing wrong with wanting a party to be grand!” She continues, looking back up at him. “The second volume had a party, after Azura had saved the dragon from a tyrannical prince. She saw Hecate there, and they shared a dance! It was beautiful! Magical! And it! Was! Not! Boring!”

“Hey, don’t you have any good stories about parties?" Luz interrupts herself before Hunter has the chance to insult Azura again "Before you were just ‘doing your job’?” She puts that last part in quotations, and Hunter looks off to the side, seemingly lost in thought.

“There was one party I can remember going to – before I was the Golden Guard.” He responds, a slight smile on his face. “When Belos still wanted his nephew to make some public appearances. I remember meeting the Blight twins for the first time then. I thought they were so annoying.” Despite the harsh words, Luz can see the light in his eyes – Hunter never being able to hide emotions when he isn’t wearing his the mask.

“The two dragged me away from Unc – Belos’ side, asking me all sorts of questions about what it was like in the castle, what it was like being a prince – they never shut up. The only way I could get them to stop was by answering their incessant questioning.” Hunter turns to his side – the side of the room where his past self isn’t – presumably tot he spot where the twins brought him all those years ago.

“Eventually, they seemed to get bored and pulled me over to the punch bowl and put in a few drops of something.” Hunter’s expression turns mischievous as he continues. “I tried to get them to stop, but honestly the way Darius screeched as he dropped his cup and stained his shoes made me glad I didn’t.” nLuz can;t help the laugh that escapes her throat.

“Sooo you do know how to have fun.” Luz wiggles her eyebrows as Hunter sputters, shaking his head vehemently at the very insinuation that a prank could ever be fun. She giggles again, her face softening before she continues, poking his skull. “You know, I’m glad there are at least some happy memories in there.” Hunter scowls, before letting a smile appear on his own face.

“Yeah. I had fun.”

-----

Lemme know what y'all thought! Hopefully the chap will come out soon - depending on how much I can push through this block <3

#Time Hollow AU #hunter toh #luz noceda #toh #the owl house #fanfiction #wip #absolute goobers

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