#isle of faust

[owl-house-facts-i-just-made-up]

Any facts on Bump's wardrobe in general?

Whew. Bump fanbase came out in full swing lately. Splendid!

OWL HOUSE FACT #59: Bump hates ironing and often either uses a spell to iron his clothes for him or - when he’s rarely feeling especially lazy - he’ll use a concealment stone to look presentable. The last time he probably ironed something with his two hands was when he had his interview with Faust because he was afraid Faust could tell.

[demonic-ninja-cat]

Am i the only one who thinks that it doesn't make sense that the whole modern Boiling Isles society(with the Emperor and the Coven System and such) was only established 50 years prior to the events of the show?

Like, a societal change as massive as that should need more time to be as set up as it is, especially with the schools and such. And it's not even like they had to account for the human lifespan, because Belos was born in like the 1700s and did some fucked-up magic on himself to keep from dying, so there was time for it too. And yes i know that he canonically spent a long time subtly framing Wild Magic as dangerous in order to get people to eventually accept his new Empire, but it never went into detail with that and I still think that only 50 years ago is too recent for the Empire's founding.

Did schools like Hexide and St Epiderm and Glandus still exist pre-Coven System, just without the tracks/covens? And the types of magic studied in the Tracks/Covens? Did it exist too or did they not separate magic in that way until the Coven System?

And another, slightly-related but not the same issue: if it really was all just changed 50 years ago, then how come no-one knew that Belos was lying about how bad the 'Savage Ages' were? If it was only set up 50 years ago, then everyone from the generation right before Eda and the other Parents'(like Eda & Lilith's parents, Principal Faust, etc.) should know what life pre-Coven System was like(and thus that Belos is a lying piece-of-shit), right? And what about the Demons, some of whom are immortal/long-lived? Surely they'd know that Belos was lying about the 'Savage Ages', wouldn't they? Then how come everyone just believed him before it was revealed?

[catboymoments]

Some Niko hcs:

They are Azura's main bully,they will insult her at least twice a day

They are an equal opportunity bully. Age,race,species they bully everyone

They don't ever get physical with Hycanith or Azura because their bones still make noise,from the last, they try to hit the daughter of the saviors of the isles or the son of the most powerful plant witch

The reason Niko hates Azura so much is because Faust passed a grudge against the clawthrone family

I think Azura should punch Niko in the face

[ideasarestuckinmyhead]

7/11 late night run.

Humming to themselves, Star wonder if a slushie sounded good right now. Sure it's like what 10 pm but who gives a shit their an adult. Grabbing their keys and wallet Star texted Faust quickly.

'Wanna do a snack run w me to the 7/11 down the street?'

Grabbing a hoodie and shoes Star smiled hearing a ping from their phone. Checking the notification it showed Faust saying yes and that he's walking there right now. Giggling excitedly Star rushed out the house and looked around for Faust.

"Boo!" A voice rang out behind the streamer, causing them to jump. Turning they saw their boyfriend giggling to himself at their reaction.

"Woooowww....Your so funny." Sarcastically saying Star smiled as they hugged him. The bluenette snorted and reciprocated it, then linked arms beginning to walk to the 7/11.

"I knooww riiigghht? But anyways, what made you wanna get snacks?" Asking, Faust looked ahead and was glad the moon lit the sidewalk. It was surprisingly bright outside for it being night time.

"Wanted a slushie. Also why not? Not my first fuck it we ball moments." Joking Star hummed seeing how well lot the night was. "I love nights like these."

Their whisper made Faust nod in agreement. The two than began talking about a new game coming out. It was a multi-player one and Star asked Faust if he wanted to play with them.

"If there's gambling let me tell you Ima spend so much money on it." Laughing at Faust, Star then noticed that the 7/11 was close. Wiping a tear they turn to Faust.

"What do you wanna get? I might get a snack as well." Thinking of what snack to get along with he slushie. Star dragged Faust into the convenience store, he shrugged before going down the candy isle with his lover.

"Hhmm, kinda want hubba bubba. Hehe the name is so fucking silly." Giggling to himself Faust grabbed the gum. Then also grabbed a bag of live saver gummies, Star nodded before grabbing their snack.

"Want a slushie too or are you gonna get a drink from the fridges?" Asking Star was glad that the store was mostly empty besides the streamers and the cashier.

"I'm gonna get a snapple. Maybe a bag of chips too. Need my red 40 intake." Mumbling Faust went to the fridges. Star got the idea of getting chips too so om the way to the slushie machines they grabbed a bag as well.

Getting a combo of their favorite flavors Star got the biggest cup and smiled triumphantly. This was a good 7/11 run so far.

"Hey Star you want those calypso drinks? I remember you wanted to try one." Asking loudly, Faust grabbed the flavor they wanted to try. Snorting Star thought how funny it was that the blue haired man just yelled.

"Yeah fuck it why not. Wanna eat and drink these in the parking lot?" Questioning back, Star heard Faust humming.

"Sure why not?" The streamer walked to the cashier, who looked so tired. Quickly putting his things and Star doing the same, paying then leaving a tip in the tip jar. Hopefully that would make the cashier feel a bit better about their night shift.

"Would you wanna be able to fly oorrr....teleport?" Speaking out loud, Star began eating their snacks. Faust paused gaining into deep thought about the question.

"Hhmm...Honestly teleport. I kinda hate heights." Mumbling as he chewed on his gummies. Star nodded before telling him which on they'd get. Which somehow sparked a debate on which super power sucked.

"It's obviously super strength. What if you hurt someone on accident?" Huffing out, Faust sipped on his drink. Star nodded wiping their mouth from their slushie.

"I see your argument, but counter. It being invisibility. Literally what can you do? Your basically just a normal person but you can just disappear." Throwing their arms up, showing how dumb they thought the power was. Faust snorted seeing how into the debate they were.

"I love this." Whispering, Faust ate some chips before looking at Star. This was a nice putting together, maybe both can consider this a date.

"Yeah me too. Now back to the discussion because I just though of like fire powers being a bad power-" Beginning another ramble, Star told how it was bad. Faust nodded along as he finished his drink, smiling softly.

God, Star was such a dork. The blue haired man couldn't help but think how lucky he was. The fact this cool person thought he was nice enough to get to know and then date? Yeah he won big time.

[thisbelongsto-nohbodys]

It’d be funny if after the Boiling Isles is back to normal (as normal as the isles can be), Principal sees the statue the surviving Hexolios made of him and he decides to keep it.

He worked so hard to be a Principal that students can look up to, especially after Faust and Bump’s brief tenure with Eda after he was made principal before Eda left. And so now he knows that the kids do like him as a principal (despite certain strict rules and the Detention Pit).

[docgold13]

The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

More Wonder Woman 

Diana’s decision to act as Wonder Woman and fight for justice in the world man was in direct opposition of the wishes of her mother, Queen Hippolyta.  Diana’s relationship with her mother became even more strained when she and the Justice League had saved all of Themyscira from the machinations of Felix Faust.  In so doing, Diana had allowed human men to set foot on Themyscira and for this Diana was banished from the isle.

Diana and her mother reconciled after Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl had saved Hippolyta from the rogue Amazonian, Aresia; yet their relationship remained somewhat strained and Diana spent nearly all of her time in the world of man fighting alongside the League.  

Many years later, Diana was summoned back to Themyscira to defeat Faust after the villain had succeeded in overthrowing Hades as the ruler of Tartarus.  Once more aided by Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman succeeded in the mission.  Herein, she discovered that Hades was in effect her father; that it was his magic that allowed Hippolyta to breath life into the infant form of Diana that she had sculpted from clay.  Having defeated Faust and restored order in Tartarus, Hippolyta decreed that her daughter was no longer exiled from Themyscira.

Actress Susan Eisenberg provided the voice for Wonder Woman with the Amazonian heroine first appearing in the second episode of the first season of Justice League, ‘Secret Origins Part II.’  

[pizzaboat]

Raine and Eda had a whole semester or maybe 2 semesters of pure chaos. Eda was good to pull whatever bart simpson/bill cipher shit she wanted

For Eda:

Turn the school inside out again? Going inside Fausts mind to get blackmail? Painting all over the walls? Replacing all the 2 ply toilet paper with 1 ply toilet paper in the staff bathrooms? Having watermellons follow poor Bump around until he needs to book in with a psychiatrist?

For Raine:

Using that blackmail Eda got to get better instruments for the music room. Replacing all classical sheet music with the Boiling Isles version of soft rock, pop, and emo music (they are 15)... turning all fountain water into their favourite flavour of juice.

Hexing all the trumpets, clarinets, recorders, etc, so that whoever uses them is stuck with a helium voice for a day. Adding sound effects to Fausts feet so it sounds like he's farting each time he takes a step. He is. Furious.

Raine's ideas are a welcome inclusion to Eda's daily life. They've spent so long behaving and thinking about all the things they'd do that now they have the chance to do this stuff with no repercussion they're as bad as Eda and equally creative

[dazeddoodles]

Bump being 10 years older than raeda is just a headcanon! I imagined he was like, fresh out of college kind of guy when he was Vice Principal (like 26 years old in 1991) and the hags were around 16-18 years old back then!

I have an entire owl house timeline I’m working on so I got a lot of birthdays and dates down that are “educated guesses” abt the stuff we get in canon

Also Bump was born 4 years before Belos officially took over the Boiling Isles

I am completely normal abt this show/sar

- @darizu

Oh okay. Actually, that would make sense because I always wondered why Bump just has no grey hair at all. I assumed he, Terra, Faust, Gwen, and Dell were all roughly the same age.

[beastkeeper91]

🔥Helluva House AU🔥

(Owl House x Hazbin Verse)

[Plot]

Instead of Luz stumbling upon The Boiling Isles, she ends up in Vivziepop's version of Hell.

[Background Info]

•Luz is the only human within this AU while the others are Demons.

•Known Sinners:

Eda Clawthorne

Age: 17.

Species: Owl Demon.

Died: 1990s.

Cause of Death: Poisoned.

Sins: Gluttony.

Story: Eda was the most rebellious, yet troublesome teenager in all of Oregon from random pranks to Arson, though despite her delinquency she was a child prodigy getting A+ in all of her classes, but sadly all of that ended when she died during a soccer match due to cyanide poisoning. *cough* Lilith.

Lilith Clawthorne

Age: 18.

Species: Raven Demon.

Died: 1990s

Cause of Death: Suicide.

Sins: Envy.

Story: Lilith is the oldest sister of Eda Clawthorne who was always trying to get attention or praise from her peers and parents, but yet she never did due to her younger sister being "better than her" and so one day she slipped poison into Eda's water bottle and instantly regretted after Eda told her that she was the best sister in the world. After Eda's death, Lilith had suffered a great ammount of guilt and despair to the point where she ended her own life.

Philip "Belos" Whitebane

Age: 50.

Species: Deer Demon.

Died: 1600s.

Cause of Death: Hanged.

Sins: Pride.

Story: Belos, one of the most powerful and fearful overlord hell has ever witnessed. In his life he was known as a Witch Hunter General during the witch trials similar to Salem, but what the pilgrims didn't know, until later on, that he was actually an Occultist and was later hanged for his crimes.

Raine Whispers.

Age: 17.

Species: Bat Demon.

Died: 1967.

Cause of Death: Shot during Flower Power.

Sins: Hersey *Witchcraft*.

Story: Raine was born and raised by pagans in a commune so throughout their whole life they were homeschooled by their parents, learning herbology along with other pagan traditions. During their high school years they would participate in protests and the last one they attended was Flower Power".

•Other Sinners:

Adegast.

Adrian Graye Vernworth.

Yiyi The Bat Queen.

Darius Deamonne.

Eberwolf.

Flora D'splora.

Hettie Cutburn.

Osran.

Piniet.

Terra Snapdragon.

Tibbles.

Vitimir.

Mason.

Scooter Crane.

•Known Hellhounds:

Barcus.

King.

•Known Imps:

Amity Blight.

Edric Blight.

Emira Blight.

Alador Blight.

Odalia Blight.

Willow Park.

Gilbert and Harvey Park.

Gus Porter.

Perry Porter.

Hunter.

Angmar.

Bo.

Derwin.

Eileen.

Roselle and Dottie.

Gavin.

Jerbo.

Kikimora.

Masha.

Matt Tholomule.

Steve Tholomule.

Hieronymus Bump.

Usurper.

Viney.

Moon girl.

•Known Succubi:

Amber.

Amelia.

Boscha (Hybrid).

Bria.

Cat.

Katya.

Skara.

•Other Known Hellborns:

Bill (Baphomet).

Warden Wrath (Greed Shark).

Braxus (Greed Shark).

Morton (Baphomet).

Salty (Greed Shark).

Vee (Possessor).

Hooty (Unknown).

•Known Ars Goetia:

Malphas.

Grometheus.

Faust.

•Blight Industries along with The Blight Family themselves are mostly within the Greed Ring along with Blight Manor. Like in canon, the company provides itself with accessories with home security and weaponry along with some robotics. Blight Industries is considered to be one of the most popular companies in hell. Supplying not just for Sinners and Hellborns, but also the Overlords and Demonic Loyalty of Hell.

•King is a Hellhound, Eda and Raine found him in a cardboard box in an alley when he was only a pup and they both decided upon themselves to take him ate their place and raise him. Basically the same way in "Echoes of the Past" but different.

•Perry Porter, Gus's dad, is still a field reporter in this and he works for 666 News. Though the only work associate he has is Tom, because Katie Killjoy is a total bitch to him due to being an Imp.

•In this AU Amity and Willow are still friends, but after confronting her bitch of a mother Amity decided to runaway to the Pride Ring with Willow, also Gilbert and Harvey fostered Amity.

•All the palisman in this AU are Hell-Fauna, which are Demonic versions of animals.

•The Collector in this AU is renamed Collie Morningstar and they are the youngest child of Lucifer and Lilith Morningstar along with the baby sibling of Charlie Morningstar and the archivists who are also in this AU as the children of Morningstar, but unlike the archivists Charlie is the only sibling that cares for Collie. *Also since the archivists didn't have any names in "Fort the Future" or "Watching and Dreaming" so the names I gave them are Salem, Basil, Aaren, Draco.

•The Nine Coven Leaders in this AU are Overlords.

•When humans, like Luz, are stuck in Hell for long periods of time that they begin to turn into a demon.

•After Lilith died she bumped into Eda and tried to apologize for what she did to her which of course didn't end well. For about several years Lilith has been jumping from job to job until she met Flora D'splora, also a Sinner, who hired Lilith as her assistant at the Museum of History of Demonic.

•Hunter is one of the many Imps Belos took in (for bad reasons of course, Because it's belos after all).

•Originally Willow and her dad's were from the Wrath Ring, then they moved to Greed due to Harvey having a job at Blight Industries which lasted for a little while until Odalia fired him after due to Amity not cutting ties with Willow which made them move to Pride.

•This AU mostly takes place in the Pride Ring, within a town called Malum which is just outside of Pentagram City just a few minutes away.

•Belo's true demonic form would be his kaiju form from "Watching and Dreaming" and his normal form would be a mix between his regular emperor self and his cursed self.

•Eda has trouble controlling her true demonic form every now and then just like how she had trouble controlling her curse in canon. Her true demonic form is the same as her Owl Beast form.

•Hooty is still hooty. (🦉 Hooty Hoot 🦉)

•Hexisde is also in this AU, but it's renamed "Hexside School District." Which is surprisingly one of the best schools in hell for Hellborns, better than Glandus and St Epidermis.

•Even though there's no coven system, each character has their own set of different demonic abilities and powers.

•Luz's Demon form is that same as her titan form, but instead of her witch outfit she's in her default clothes which are a bit torn due to her transformation.

•Eda and Raine own a store called "The Owl Nest" that sells trinkets, crystals, charms, herbs *including cannabis*, and other types of goods.

Art by AnnDevil88, though the last one with Sinner!Eda is unknown but still amazing.

[mlp410nightcore]

Hi Everyone!! Here is another next gen for my Blossom Love AU. Opal's parents are Rarity and King Dice. After Cuphead and Mugman destroy all of the soul contracts, King Dice was able to finally have an independent life again. He apologized for all of his wrong doing and tried to reinvent himself afterwards. Cuphead and Mugman were able to convince Elder Kettle to let King Dice stay in their home intill he found a new place to call home. Once King Dice got back on his feet, he realized that he abandoned two passions that he used to care so dearly about, his passion for fashion and music. King Dice is musically gifted and enjoys singing and playing the piano. He's also very gifted in sewing and enjoys making new designs to the latest fashion trends. He started playing shows and making his own clothing line until he caught the attention of the famous fashion designer in Manhattan, Sassy Saddles. She asked King Dice to be her apprentice and to have him work alongside her most successful fashion designer, Rarity, which King Dice accepted the offer and moved from Inkwell Isle to Manehattan. After King Dice and Rarity met, they imminently hit it off and became instant friends. That friendship did turn into romance later on and on the anniversary of Cuphead and Mugman's success, King Dice asked Rarity to be his girlfriend and of course, Rarity said yes. After 3 and a half years of dating, King Dice moved in with Rarity in her Carousel Boutique and proposed to her a month later, of course, Rarity said yes. After being married for 2 years, Rarity and King Dice had their daughter, Opal. Opal is very polite, super agile and quite the sophisticated lady. She prides herself in the art of being polite and being fancy, but not to the point of being snobby and self-centered. She's very selfless and loves creating charity drives to help others. She's also very skilled in playing the piano and doing card tricks. Opal wants to be a musical artist and has even written and performed her very own songs, which were massive hits in Ponyville. Although she doesn't want to be in the family business, Opal does love to practice her sewing from time to time. Credit goes to Selenaede for the base I used and to Chad, Jared Moldenhauer, Studio MDHR, Lauren Faust and Hasbro for creating Cuphead and My Little Pony:Friendship Is Magic as well as creating the characters, King Dice, Cuphead, Mugman, Elder Kettle, Rarity and Sassy Saddles and for creating the locations, Inkwell Isle, Manehattan, Carousel Boutique and Ponyville as well. I only take credit for my next gens, art, ships, stories and the Blossom Love AU. I hope you guys like her!!!

[owl-house-facts-i-just-made-up]

Any facts on (former) Principal Faust?

FAUST! What a character.

OWL HOUSE FACTS #51: Faust has to enter every normal doorway sideways thanks to his horns.

A young Eda and Raine (with a very reluctant Lilith) once spied on him to see what he did outside of the school day and discovered he was the bass in a Boiling Isles choir. Despite the juiciness of this secret, the trio decided to keep this under wraps (read: Faust threatened them).

[banbrotsu]

Thinking about how sorcerers work in the west, specifically the USA, and I think I'd probably use Hellboy, the BPRD and the Bureau of Control from the Remedy Studios games as a rough template. For one thing they're probably not called sorcerers but instead exorcists and vessels like Yuji would be called "sin eaters" going off an old tradition from the British Isles, mainly Wales, where a cake/biscuit would be made and placed upon the dead to soak up their sins and then a poor person was paid to eat the soul cake and absorb the dead person's sins so they can go to heaven. So the consumption of cursed objects is seen as an extension of that old tradition and vessels are treated both kinda like pariahs and also like they're doing a very selfless service to society.

The sorcerer community in America is probably one of the most diverse and disjointed since the country is so heavily populated by immigrants with no real incentive to seek each other out or tbh knowledge the others are even there half the time. But the two most organized factions would be the government's Department of Paranormal Investigation (name likely to change) and ofc, the Catholic Fucking Church. overall the Catholic Church has likely been the largest and most well organized group that employs sorcerers outside of Japan for like, centuries given their real world historical reach and power.

The set up in the USA doesn't really have anything like Jujutsu High and instead exorcists are usually just brought right under the wing of the government and removed from society to live at HQ/branch facilities or are being trained, managed and monitored by handlers as they live semi-normal lives. Generally whether they live on base or out in the world is decided by how inhuman they look (ex. panda or abe sapien ass lookin' guys) and how difficult they are to control (read: they were too strong to muscle into compliance so we had to let them stay in their own home). The Dept and Church have a fairly strained alliance since they have common goals but also a lot of differences and conflicting ones as well. This can get Very Interesting.

Financial compensation of exorcists is also very uh, iffy lol. The gov has very little interest in compensating exorcists, preferring to give them a small stipend and then cover their basic needs like room and board which makes the exorcists very dependent on them and unlikely to quit/defect. The dept is also very interested in experimentation. While the USA is pulling from many millennia old sorcerer traditions the Dept itself is actually very new and is thus very interested expanding their knowledge base and trying to increase the weaponization of cursed energy and curses. They've 100% tried to make like, cursed spirit super soldiers or whatever or like, cursed energy guns lol. These experiments have mixed success and have at times made things that will make life objectively worse for like, the whole world in the long run lol.

I'm still deciding on like, who are the "names to run away from" like Sukuna in the western sorcerer canon but I know one of them is definitely Faust who, while he was never known to be as powerful a fighter as Sukuna, was is regarded as one of the most knowledgeable jujutsu scholars to have ever lived, having made a deal with a cursed spirit and via this learned all kinds of mystical secrets. People will go to war to get their hands on the cursed artifacts he made but are even more covetous of his various tomes of arcane knowledge.

The Dept was only formally founded during WW2, mainly to combat Nazi use of the occult and curses but was a very scrappy and disorganized thing until they came into contact with the jujutsu sorcerers of Japan during the US occupation of the country after the war. A very tentative alliance was made between the two, mainly because Tengen was like "these guys are batshit and not in a good way" and wanted to keep an eye on them (this turned out to be a Very Wise Move later on).

In the same generation as Gojo and Co. the US gets their own special grade exorcist either like Ever or in Ages and are keen to try and make them stronger than Gojo because like... ofc that's how the US would handle this shit. Ofc they make it into an arms race lol. I'll get more into this when I write about that OC but this goes about as well as you'd think and hilariously eventually ends with that exorcist defecting to live in Japan.

RE: This shit and the whole thing to kidnap sorcerers in the manga — the reality is that even in real life the president is not 100% aware of all covert ops and what they do. The Dept is highly secretive and runs on a skeleton budget so they tend not to raise any alarms. They also likely gave up a few presidents ago about trying to get them to believe the whole "demons are real" thing and instead just pretend to be boring government agency #35348546583 to get all their shit thru. People like the president literally didn't know about curses until Kenjaku cropped up and the Dept didn't learn about Kenjaku's scheme until it was already getting underway. Bureaucracy at its finest.

[sergeantsporks]

Writing Request: I know I'm probably opening the angst floodgates here, but maybe a flashback drabble with Darius and his mentor/previous Golden Guard.

(This is not Phoenix, btw)

“Stand, golden guard, protector of the throne, soldier of the Boiling Isles!”

Darius watched the new guard stand up straight. His cloak looked too big on him, and his staff was too long. It was built for someone bigger. For someone else.

You’ll never grow into it, you didn’t put in the work.

Xxx

Darius Deamonne, please report to Vice Principal Bump’s office.

Darius stretched and all but rolled out of his seat, giving his teacher a small salute. “Later.”

“Good riddance.”

Darius loped through the hallway to Bump’s “office.” The word was highly generous. He barely had a broom closet. There was enough room for his desk, and then one seat in front of it, and that was it.

“Ah, Darius. Good to see you. Not getting into any trouble, eh?”

Darius eyed the vice principal. Bump was usually nice enough, but he wasn’t exactly standing up to Faust every time the principal sent him to detention for “having fun in a place of learning.”

“No. Unless you know something else.”

“You’re not in trouble.”

“Always a good, non-worrying opening.”

“No, no, Darius, you’ve been selected as part of a special program! It’s a good thing!”

Darius frowned. “I didn’t sign up for anything.”

“You didn’t have to. It was left up to me to select which student represented our school, and I chose you. Now, you’re essentially going to partake in a ride-along, sort of a test run for a mentorship—”

“A what?!”

“A mentorship.”

“I didn’t…” Darius sat down in the extra chair. “Look, I’m very busy, and I—”

“You’re not in any extracurriculars, are you?”

“No, but—”

“It’ll take the place of a school day.”

Darius’ next protest died in his throat. “Oh?”

“Yes. You’ll be excused from school to spend time with a representative of the emperor’s coven.”

“The emperor’s coven?”

Bump nodded. “They’re… scouting out talent. It’s a new program.”

“Huh. And you nominated… me.”

“I did. Today will just be a trial run, a day with the representative. If it goes well, and he thinks you have what it takes, you’ll be excused from school once a week to continue working with him. I’m trusting you to represent our school well, Darius.”

“Yeah, alright. I can do that. When do we start?”

“Now,” a gruff voice grumbled, and a man stepped out of the shadows behind Bump’s desk. His face was pitted with scars that didn’t quite match the pristine, orderly uniform he wore.

Darius looked from Bump, to the man, to the door, to the small area behind Bump’s desk that he could have sworn was not enough room to accommodate this hulking witch. He gestured to the door behind him. “How did you… have you been here the whole time?”

“No.”

Without another word, the representative swept out of the room, cloak fluttering behind him. Darius looked at Bump, who shrugged.

“Ooookay. Guess we’re going.”

Darius chased after the representatives’ short, bobbing blonde ponytail. “Hey! Wait up!”

“Keep up.”

“Sooo… like, what are we doing? Busting a den of wild witches? Fighting a wild demon?”

The witch pulled a mask out of his cloak, slipping it on. “No.”

“Is that a…” Darius dropped back to peer at the man’s cloak. A bird inside of a dome. He ran back up, skidding in front of his possible mentor. “You’re the golden guard?!”

“Yes.”

“What are you—I mean, cool to meet you, awesome, great, but what are you doing…” Darius waved a hand. “…here?”

“Do you mean in this place, or with you. Specifically.”

“Both?”

“Well, I’m not with you of my own free will, and I’m in Bonesborough for a stakeout.”

The golden guard reached out, clamped a heavy hand on the back of Darius’ uniform, and lifted him up off the ground. Darius yelped, feet kicking at the pavement, but the golden guard just moved him back and set him down. “We’re here.”

Darius looked up. “An inn?”

“Yep.”

The golden guard turned and went inside without another word, and Darius sighed, putting his hands behind his head.

“Don’t say much, do you?” he grumbled, walking in after his ‘mentor.’ The guard was already headed up the stairs, and Darius took them two at a time after him.

“So, what do we do on a stakeout?”

The golden guard unlocked a room. “We sit. And we wait. And we watch.” He dropped into a chair next to a window, staring at a small shop across the road.

Darius looked out the window at the shop. “Aaaaaaaand you don’t think maybe whoever we’re watching saw the great big golden mask as you went into the inn across the street?”

“I’ve done surveillance for the past two weeks out of uniform. They won’t arrive for another hour.”

“So we are busting a den of wild witches. And you didn’t arrest them in those two weeks?”

“I have to be in uniform. I also have to actually wait for them to engage in an illegal act. They haven’t done any public wild magic in the time I’ve watched.”

“But you know that they’re a wild witch?”

“Yep.”

“So just arrest them.”

“That’s not how it works. Mostly. I can’t just drag off people at random. Unfortunately.”

Darius flopped back on the room’s bed. “Why not? You’re the golden guard, if you say they’re a wild witch, who’s not going to believe you? Why are you wasting your time sitting up in a room all day?!”

The golden guard heaved a sigh. “Because this is how we do things properly. It requires patience and hard work.”

Darius groaned. “You sound like Bump. Hard work and patience and doing things properly, yeah, where did that get him? A tiny, cramped office at a school, and not even in charge. No thanks. As soon as I’m allowed, I’m leaving Hexside, and I’m joining the abomination coven.”

“And then what? You cruise through on talent? Live the easy life?”

“Yeah, pretty much. I don’t need the teachers at Hexside, I can outclass any of them in abominations. Alador’s the only one who comes close to my level, and he’d rather… I don’t know what it is he’s doing, actually.”

“Do you even know why you’re here?”

Darius propped himself up on his elbows. “It’s a pilot program. The emperor’s coven is trying out a new scouting process.”

The golden guard laughed.

Darius sat all the way up. “Ha, ha?”

The golden guard kept laughing, finally taking off his mask to wipe a tear away. “That’s what Bump told you, huh?”

“Yyyyyessss? I’m guessing that’s… not the case.”

The golden guard got up, looming over him. “You’re here because you are a waste of potential. You’re here because you goof off and mess around all day at school, and your grades are failing. You’re here as one step short of the ‘scared straight’ program we tried at Epiderm and discontinued after I sent twelve kids home crying.”

The guard glared down at him, and Darius gulped.

“You are here,” the golden guard spat, “because despite that, for some reason, your vice principal believes that you’re worth the effort. Because for some reason, he’s not willing to give up on you and let you fall into your bleak future as a waste of space with a poorly paying job that you hate and only tolerate so that you won’t starve.” The golden guard turned around, stalking back to his seat. “So maybe, before you dismiss him, you should consider that between he and I, he is the one that believes in you. And that perhaps the reason he works the job you respect so little is because he cares, truly cares.”

Darius didn’t say anything. His voice was somewhere deep in his chest, curled into a ball and quite possibly dead. Instead he just got up and moved to the window. He watched the store—no movement yet—then sighed. “If you don’t think I’m worth it, then why are you here?”

The golden guard grumbled something under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Because after the Epiderm… incident… the other coven heads told me that I need to…” his lip curled, and his fingers curled into quotation marks. “‘be more personable.’ The whole mentoring thing was their idea.” He stood up abruptly, gesturing to himself. “I’m perfectly personable! Right? You’re not scared of me, are you?”

Darius looked him up and down. “Who could be scared of you?” he squeaked.

The guard swept his arm out, and Darius ducked to avoid getting clocked in the head. “Exactly! Well. I’m terrifying if you’re a wild witch. But I was supposed to scare those kids! I did my job! And I did it well!” He dropped back into the seat, fuming, and crossed his arms. “But they insisted.”

How… old is this guy?

Looking past the scars, and the size, and the uniform, the golden guard looked… young. Granted, it wasn’t easy to look past those things, but he couldn’t be past than his mid-twenties.

“Aren’t you the head of the emperor’s coven? Why are they telling you what to do? You’re in charge.”

The golden guard shook his head with a wry smile. “You’d think that, but a big enough group of coven heads can push around even me, if they try.” He waved a hand. “Sometimes you have to give ground in one area to gain ground in another. I’ll live, I don’t think you’ll be the one to kill me.”

“Hey—look!” Darius jabbed a finger at the shop. The person inside was brewing a potion while ingredients grew instantaneously in their pots. “Look!”

The guard opened the window with a jerk, slamming his mask onto his face. “Here we go!”

“What are you-?”

“It’s a ridealong, kid!” He grabbed Darius hand and leapt out of the window, dragging Darius after him. Darius yelped, but the guard whipped out a staff, swinging one leg on and swooping down towards the ground. Darius dangled below him, clinging tightly.

“Don’t let go!”

“I’m letting go!”

The ground was only inches away now, and the guard dropped Darius, swooping to a halt himself in the doorway. “Hello, criminal! What’s about to happen next should be relatively painless, if you do what I say.”

Darius ran when he hit the ground, stumbling forward into the doorframe next to the guard. “Ow.”

The wild witch glanced from Darius to the guard, then back to Darius. “Bye!”

They hopped out the window, bolting for the street.

“Hey!” Darius sent an abomination after them, but they just blasted it to pieces and kept running.

The guard sighed. “I’ve got it.” In a flash of red, he was gone, and then he was right above the wild witch. He landed on top of them. “Painful way it is!”

The witch twisted and squirmed in his grasp, getting a hand free. “Die,” they hissed, drawing a circle. An ice spike shot out, but not at the guard.

Darius watched it hurtle towards him, frozen.

The golden guard disappeared. “OUT OF THE WAY,” his voice howled, and then something slammed into Darius, sending him sprawling.

The guard fell, clutching his side, and Darius scrambled towards him. “You’re—”

“The mission,” the guard hissed, “The mission is more important than the individual. Get them.”

Darius bounced to his feet, bolting after the wild witch, who’d taken off again. “HEY! STOP!”

How did he do it?!

Darius focused on the wild witch, calling for his magic.

Slide out of view.

Out of sight.

A puddle of abomination appeared under Darius’ feet, and he fell into it, tumbling in a circle, head over heels before coming feet first out of a bubble, right above the witch. He slammed into them, knocking them to the ground. “Nice try.” Darius drew a circle, and abomination tendrils rose out of the ground, lashing the witch down. “That should hold you.”

He ran back to the guard, who was waving off the help of the people on the street. Darius knelt next to him.

“Guess… maybe… you will be the one to kill me, huh?”

“You need a healer!”

“No!” The guard hissed. “Ah—no. Just get me back up to our room.”

Darius started to pull him up, then took a deep breath. “I can do this,” he murmured. He reached for his magic again, this time gathering it up and around. When his abomination bubble went back down, they were back in the inn’s room. “Haha!”

“Titan alive,” the golden guard muttered, slipping his mask off, “How’d you do that?!”

“Why won’t you see a healer?!”

The guard wrapped his cloak around himself, pressing one hand to his side. “Ahhhhhh… I can’t. I’m not allowed.”

“Not a—you’re the golden guard!”

The guard took a deep breath, hissing out through his teeth and closing his eyes. “I have a… health condition. And if word gets out, it could put me in danger. It could put the emperor in danger. So I can’t see a healer.” He opened one eye, glaring balefully at Darius. “And if you tell any of your little friends that, they will be finding the pieces of you for years.”

Darius gulped. “Right. Lips sealed. But—”

“I’ll be fine. Hardly the worst injury I’ve had.”

Darius fidgeted with the edge of his tunic. “If the mission is more important than the individual, then why did you save me?”

“Heh. Well.” The golden guard groaned. “Ow—you were my primary mission for the day. If I let some kid get hurt, I don’t think that would make me very personable, now would it. Just my luck that something actually happened today of all days. Now what was that thing you did?”

“What? I just did what you did.”

“You just did what…” The golden guard chuckled, then laughed, then broke off. “Ow. Ow. Ow. Alright. Alright, maybe, maybe Bump was right about you, and there’s something in there worth pulling up.” He snorted. “Geeze. Prodigies.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, yeah. Maybe you’ve got something, and maybe one day, you’ll be able to do something with it. But it’s gonna take hard work and patience. Are you willing to put that work in?”

Darius eyed him. “Will it still take me out of school?”

“Are you really asking me if you can do one kind of work to avoid another kind of work?”

“Maybe?”

“Titan’s mossy armpits, I cannot believe… yes. You will miss school.” He snorted again. “Slacker.”

“Maybe that’s what the coven needs.”

The golden guard eyed him, but his gaze held a little less venom, and his eyes were starting to close. “It is not. It is most definitely not.” He sighed. “But we can give it a shot.”

Darius grinned. “Pleasure to work with you.”

Xxx

“Coven head Darius!”

Darius gave the new golden guard a curt smile. Just enough politeness to avoid hostility, but not enough to be mistaken for friendliness. “Golden Guard. Congratulations on your promotion.”

“There’s a lot of talk about you. I’m hoping all the things I’ve heard are true.”

“Hm. Well, I certainly hope I live up to all your expectations and don’t disappoint.”

Darius started to walk away, and the new golden guard had to run to keep up with him, trotting along at his side. “I just—thought—we could—work—together—sometime.”

“I’m sure we will.”

Not like I’ll get much of a choice.

“Yes, of course. Uh. It was nice to meet you?”

Darius stopped, his curt smile slowly but surely turning to a sneer. “Of course. Pleasure to work with you, golden guard.”

[mask131]

A fantasy read-list: B-1

Part B: The First Classical Fantasy

1) On one side, the British Isles... 

We looked at the most ancient roots of the fantasy genre, which are... well, literaly antique roots - the texts of the Antiquity, the myths and mythologies of the world, the legends of the so-called “pagans” and the tales of long-gone societies, cultures and civilizations. Plus the true, literal “medieval fantasy” and some Arthuriana sprinkled at the top. Now I want to explore the Renaissance fantasy - or rather the first wave and apparition in literature of true “proto-fantasy”. These classical works that are still heavy influences and inspirations on modern fantasy pieces, but are younger than all the mythological and medieval stuff. 

Given this huge read-list promises to be very big, very long and span over several years, I will try to restrain myself here to two nation-tied phenomenon. And in this specific post I will look at a given wave of “classical proto-fantasy” in the British Isles... Beginning with none other than...

# Shakespeare. William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avalon, the greatest playwright of England and a man whose work shaped our common imagination and popular culture today. Of course, since this list is focused about the wide genre of fantasy, I must start by listing his more openly supernatural and fantastical plays. On one side you have a lighter, more colorful and whimsical world of wonders and magic, in the shape of supernatural comedies, be it A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with its now world-known depiction of the fairy court as the Titania-Oberon-Puck triangle, or The Tempest, which implanted archetypal figures such as Prospero the wizard, Ariel the aerial spirit or the monstrous Caliban. On the darker side of fantasy, you have the grim and nightmarish tragedies that are Hamlet, one of the most famous cases of royal hauntings and madness in the history of theater, or Macbeth, which changed forever the way people view witches throught its iconic trio of Weird Sisters. 

But the beautiful thing with Shakespeare is that even in his more “mundane” and “realistic” works, the magic never truly goes away. Thanks to his poetic writing and his love of symbolism and mysticism, Shakespeare maintains throughout his work a fantastical ambiance, an ambiguous tone that opens the door for many oniric sequences or supernatural readings. The description of Mab, queen of fairies, in Romeo and Juliet was just as influential on fairy folklore as A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The abnormal storm and pagan madness of King Lear leaves one wondering about the true cosmic powers at work here. And even in historical works witchcraft is never far away - such as with Richard III, where devilish forces and hellish characters are at play in an well-recorded historical event... 

# But beyond Shakespeare, or rather all around him, there was a constellation of other poets and playwrights who helped conceive, flesh out and develop this “wonder-wave” that swept across Elizabethan England. Take Shakespeare’s most famous rival for example, Christopher Marlowe, who wrote The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, the first ever adaptation of the Faust legend for the stage. You have Edmund Spenser and his mystical fay epic, The Faerie Queene, which influenced not just Shakespeare but many more authors of knight adventures and fairy works. I can also mention Michael Drayton’s Nimphidia, The Court of Fairy (or Nymphidia depending on how you write it), a poem drawing from Shakespeare’s fairy characters to depict all the affairs, treacheries and secrets at the otherworld’s court ; or the various Elizabethan retellings of Ovid’s Metamorphosis written by John Lily (Endymion, Midas, Galathea...). 

# And of course, I have to point out here that beyond specific authors, Shakespeare’s fantastical works drew from a lot of various sources, all representing different fragments or aspects of the way people approached the supernatural, folklore and legends in their time. For example, the more Jacobean play The Witch by Thomas Middleton, which had elements reused for Macbeth ; or the Daemonologie of King James, which also influenced Shakespeare’s writing of demons and witches. I can also drop here names going from quite obscure today, such as The Spanish Tragedy of Thomas Kyd, to behemoths of culture, like Dante’s Divine Comedy. 

# Speaking of a man of the Isles who explored and influenced the fairy literature... I have to mention Robert Kirk, and his treatise on fairies and ghost known as The Secret Commonwealth. To this day, Kirk is still considered one of the greatest folklorists and collector of supernatural tale and fairy/ghost/witch beliefs of the 17th century, and The Secret Commonwealth stays one of the major “fairy books”. 

# Leaving a bit the topic of fairies, I will conclude this post with one name... Ossian. During the 18th century, James Macpherson discovered and translated ancient Gaelic texts of Scotland - a series of epic poems attributed to a legendary bard by the name of Ossian. He started by translating Fingal, An Epic Poem in Six Books, and then worked on Temora, An Ancient Epic Poem, before collecting it all as The Works of Ossian. This discovery and translated was a HUGE phenomenon, and a revolution in the world of culture. Up until that point, people had praised the Homeric epics and thought the “Homeric phenomenon” was a one-time thing that couldn’t have happened anywhere else but Ancient Greece... And yet here were these great, glorious, excellently done, epic poems of mythical heroes and ancient witchcraft and gods, attributed to a mythical god-inspired bard and poet, part of another form of Antiquity than the Greco-Roman one. People jubilated upon discovering the “Celtic Homer”, and praised these grea poems proving that the Greek epics could be challenged by Gaelic sagas... 

... But the thing is that James Macpherson probably never translated those works, and that maybe Ossian was a purely fictional invention. You see, James Macpherson was a poet himself with not much success before “discovering” the works of Ossian, and he was deeply passionate about ancient Scottish poetry and Celtic texts and the like, collecting them and imitating them. Despite their enormous importance and influence for literary movements, and painters across Europe, and poets for centuries to come, the poems of Ossian are clearly artificial in nature, written by Macpherson alone without any “translation” required. The poet purposefully created a “Celtic Homer”, as a way to sell his work - and selling it did! Mind you, the Ossian poems stay true to the texts and essence of ancient Celtic legends and myths. Macpherson knew his sources, as I said was passionate about ancient Gaelic poetry, and he took inspiration and influence from works such as the Ulster cycle, the Fenian cycle, the Book of the Dun Cow, the Book of Lismore or The Yellow Book of Lecan... The very fictional character of Ossian was actually shaped after the mythological character of Oisin. But Ossian and his poems stay an artificial creation of an 18th century poet, even though they fit perfectly alongside antique Celtic texts. It is similar to how nowadays Titania is an integral part of fairy folklore, and yet she was a literary inventon of Shakespeare for one of his plays. 

[artinclined-jointheartside]

How did Terra and Faust react to learning they're gonna be/are grandparents in the Gramma AU?

I actually got a question like this earlier and hadn't answered it yet, so I hope this is a repeat of the same question from the same person. If not, I hope that anon sees this answer. >.> (sorry about that TvT)

Gonna be honest, they didn't react well at first.

Their kneejerk reaction was actually angry. Because Maehnall (Manny) was a bit too young to be a father.

See he'd stumbled up on a way into the Human Realm when he was a wee lad and despite Terra and Faust's precautions, he was pretty good at just sneaking off and doing his own thing. As he hit his teen years, they were a bit more lax but basically said as long as he was careful and didn't do anything stupid they wouldn't consider more drastic measures like house arrest or something. (basically grounding, but for a fire demon/witch half-blood you have to be a little more strict and creative with your methods, lol)

Well, he met this girl he really liked. She really liked him too. Aaaaand things happened! She thought he was older than he was, he thought she was younger than she was, and well now they were in a bit of a pickle.

So Maehnall goes to his parents, because despite being reckless he wasn't totally irresponsible. And of course, they were angry because he shouldn't have been participating in that kind of activity, first of all with a human and secondly without protection. But, too late now.

So they insist on meeting this human he's become so attached to and while she's stunned at first to learn his age, his realm of origin, and that he didn't even look the way she thought he did, she gradually gets used to this weird set of circumstances she's fallen into because he's trying to take responsibility and his parents are actually quite nice and supportive! Despite his father being literal nightmare fuel and his mother a terrifying figure all her own.

In other words, after everything is hashed out and settled, Terra and Faust are actually quite happy to know they're going to be grandparents and are rather pleased with this human and how well she's handling the situation, impressed even, because she's actually very interested to learn about the Isles and the witches and demons that inhabit them.

And so, what ended up an unfortunate accident turned into a happy accident that turned into an adorable little family that Terra and Faust are fiercely protective of.

[the-s1lly-corner]

When Bump first started as VP/If he has had any other jobs?

Bumps career hcs!

(I ran out of bump gifs)

I like to think that he always generslly wanted to go into teaching, one way or another

But there was a period where he considered going pro with flyer derby; but due to some unfortunate circumstance or accident, that dream was stamped out

Now I don't think he IMMEDIATELY became a vice principal; and I may be really dumb because admittedly idk how this stuff works irl, but I don't even think it's a thing to be. Fresh out of college with your devress and be a principal without any experience

Correct me if im wrong though because i /gen dont know

Call it chance or a bias for hexside, but he does eventually find his way back to hexside after he gets his teaching degree or some shit

Are there even colleges and universities in the demon realm?

Personally I like to think so; just like how I like to think there's more than 3 schools (which, granted, arent as big as hexside/glandus/saint epiderm), and different isles with their own ways of living. But hey, thats just me

Anyways

He starts off as an abominations professor, and does that for a few years

Let's him get a handle of being a teacher, which admittedly, does take some time getting used to since he's always been the student before

"Were we really this... rowdy..?" He thinks to himself while sitting at his desk, grading worksheets. A student had dared another student to throw a desk. That was that days incident

Oh and he's still as awkward as he is as a VP; just more so, since he has even LESS experience than he did before and is still trying to find his footing

Neither a strict nor laid back teacher

He won't tell on you to Faust if you're doing something harmless, but he will lightly scold you if it's causing a disruption

He... doesn't like sending kids to Faust.. if he can help it; he knows how harsh Faust can be

Falls for the "I'm gonna get my teacher to tell a story so we can get out of work today" thing, a lot

Hands out stickers

Doesn't really know how to treat students yet

Basing this off my own experience with a new teacher but imagine Bump is passing out stickers to a almost empty class, almost everyone skipped because of some event (eg. Field trip or senior skip day) and he's giving stickers to those who still turned up for class. Doesnt matter what color star you choose, he's gonna ask if its your favorite color and also say its his favorite color as well in literally the most awkward yet robotic voice

He just like me frfr

But I think he'd also like playing and making games with his students, especially studying games. Makes studying fun and helps the kids engage and remember the material; sometimes he'll even throw in a prize if the game had winners. Something small, like candy

One of the few times in his early career where he's not awkward, gwts very into the game and just flows with it

Of course everyone had to keep it down because I don't think Faust would approve

"Learning isn't supposed to be fun!!" -the snake history teacher from that one episode

When he's promoted to VP after a few years, he's still carrying his awkwardness on his sleeves. Sort of a transitional stage between the hcs above and what we have in TTBK, he's slowly mellowing out...

Sorta....

Also I feel like in the beginning, as a teacher, he'd try too hard to relate and appeal to the students

Mopes and ask for advice from the more experienced staff members in the teachers lounge

Do not he fooled, that gloomy mood stated above does not last long; Hieronymus is no quitter!