#it could have been a good chance to introduce some owl species native only to Asia and a good way for the Guardians to realize that there’s

[kielianleague]

Has anyone discussed the weird orientalism in the way the Middle Kingdom owls are portrayed

[halo20601]

“Willow’s New Garden” (Another Owl House Swap AU) Episode 3

(QnA)

VRM: "This honestly looks very good."

Aw, thank you.

Mr. Spinner: "This was an excellent flip of "Separate Tides". And the Cynthia coven reference was great!"

Thanks. I feel Willow would be smart enough not to fall for Adegast's schemes, and I wanted to introduce the Armorer and Enforcers as early as possible. I figured if Willow were a fantasy fan, she would like Cynthia Coven more than The Good Witch Azura. I think a Harry Potter-ish urban fantasy would fit Willow better than a Lord of the Rings-like High Fantasy Luz would enjoy.

Mr. Spinner: "Dell's intro is fittingly subtle, with his gentle warmth and his quiet disapproval at his wife's continued quest. Plus, he's a Huntlow supporter right off the bat, hehehehe!"

Dell is still a loving husband, but he can't support Gwen's obsession with finding a cure, especially since it was a factor in what ultimately drove Eda and Lilith away. And even if Gwen did find a cure, they have no idea where Eda is on the Isles, what she's been up to since they last saw her, and if she'll even want to take the cure. And yeah, I think he would recognize how Hunter looks at Willow. It was precisely how he looked at Gwen in his teens.

Mr. Spinner: "It's interesting that you would use the glyph themes as accepted "elements" of magic on the Isles. Perhaps the types of spell phlegms in the bile sac? And I can only imagine how quickly Willow learns plant magic, along with the other three."

Since I assume wands are only meant to be used by novices, they would only have access to native elemental magic like fire, ice, plant, and light. Spells that would be easy to cast. That's not to say a wand is incapable of casting advanced spells; they could match or even exceed a staff with enough skill.

Mr. Spinner: "Viney is always a great addition, and I can't help but notice a parallel between her here and Willow-to-Luz in canon. Plus, duh - ASIAS reference with Puddles! Woo!"

Yeah, I thought Viney would fit with this chapter. I think she would protest hunting endangered animals in canon if given the opportunity. She and Hunter know each other from the Detention Track and have used the secret room to study magic along with Jerbo, Barcus, and Luz.

Mr. Spinner: "The Blights being pawns of the throne draws some interesting questions about their backstory. Also, is Belos around in this? You referenced the Empress once, but Belos several other times?"

Belos saw that the Blights would do anything to gain more power, so he used their ambition to convince them to allow their children to be turned into his elite soldiers. The emperor's relationship with the siblings (especially with Amity) is far different from how he treats Hunter in canon. Let's just say that if it came down to them choosing Alador and Odalia or Belos as a better parent, they would choose the latter and join him without hesitation. "Empress" was a typo I made, but I addressed it.

VRM: "Grimwalker element still here?"

Yes, Hunter is still a Grimwalker here.

VRM: "Canon Luz struggles with friends for her weird quirks, a Lumity swap called Keeper of Secrets on AO3, which switched their homes and parents but not species, has Amity shunned for her pointed ears, and accidental magic she didn't know she had."

That sounds like a good read with an interesting premise. I'll check it out when I have the chance.

VRM: "Was this Willow bullied for anything in particular? What do you consider her previous town before Gravesfield?"

That will be answered in the chapter.

VRM: "With Belos' reign for 50 years and Eda's teenage flashbacks for 30, I would've thought that the system was in place for 20 years and Gwen would've been branded... but alright."

Well, I was under the impression that Gwen got branded from joining the Beast-Keeping Coven only after Eda got cursed. Which meant she was a wild witch for 20 years. I'm guessing that since Belos's grip wasn't as tight back then as it is in the present, there were more "wild witches" roaming the Isles.

VRM: "Heh, Waffle - nice. If Luz made a blue jay what do you think she'd call it? FrenchToast? Blueberry? XD"

She would definitely it call the blue jay one of those. I think Blueberry more because it sounds cuter.

VRM: "Canon Luz is Hispanic, I saw a Swap!Amity who's German. Is this Willow Asian and speak another language? If not, any chance could Luz have found a Spanish book and learn it with her mom?"

Yes, Willow is Asian, Korean, to be specific. She can speak the language, too; she's just not as fluent in it, like how Anne from Amphibia can speak Thai but isn't as fluent in it as her mom or dad. Also, in this AU, Luz did find a book on how to speak Spanish and learned it with her mom for fun.

VRM: "Yup there's still Tibbles and trash slugs (Luz discovers Azura, right?)"

Yup, Tibbles is still around, and Eda still does her "dumpster diving" in trash slugs, and unfortunately, Raine, King, and Hunter get dragged into helping her. And yes, Luz has discovered the Azura books and is a fan of them.

VRM: "Salty moment was nice."

Yeah, despite the name, Salty is a sweet guy.

VRM: "Yet to see how Hunter avoid Belos but glad he got a better life."

Hunter does have a better life here.

VRM: "Excited to see Luz next time! (will her dynamic with Hunter be any different?)"

That question will be answered in this chapter of the pitch. I hope you all enjoy it.

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(Here is my pitch for the third episode/chapter):

At the Clawthorne residence, Willow practices magic by growing plants in the garden that Gwen and Dell helped set up in the backyard with the same flowers Hawksley stole. Gwen woke up with back pain and is having a quiet day with Dell, and Hunter's at school, leaving Willow, whose only able to garden and exercise, very bored. Finally fed up with it, Willow asks the Clawthornes for anything that will give her a chance to leave the house and explore what lies outside. Gwen doesn't want to risk Willow's safety by sending her out alone and has Hawksley accompany her to run a few errands. Willow accepts as she grabs a hood to conceal her ears, and Hawksley perches himself on her shoulder, ever watchful. Willow and Hawksley head into Bonesborough together for the errands, with the palisman instructed to fly Willow away as fast as possible if something dangerous happens. Dell tries to assure Gwen she'll be all right, but Gwen is still worried and says a small prayer to the Titan to protect them both.

Willow makes her way to Bonesborough with Hawksley, talking to him while taking in the beauty of the forest between the town and her only living place on the Boiling Isles. While walking, she suddenly hears a conversation nearby and peeks over a bush to see two witchlings: A tall girl with tan skin and a shorter boy with dark skin. The boy complains to the girl, Luz, about Mattholomule telling members of the "Human Appreciation Society" lies about humans. Luz assures the boy, Augustus, that Matt is "full of it" and that he should trust his knowledge on the subject as the club's president. Suddenly, Luz tackles Augustus to the ground, dodging a flaming ball that would've hit both of them in the face. A group of girls led by a pink-haired tri-clops laugh at them, and Luz identifies her as Boscha, who proceeds to harass them, calling Luz a "half-a-witch" and Augustus a "failure." Willow wants to step in with her wand, but Hawksley snatches it before she can do something she may regret.

After the bullies leave, Luz comforts an upset Augustus by taking out her glyphs and using them to perform a trick in front of the boy. He compliments her, saying that while she lacks natural magic, she makes the most of her self-taught skill. Willow is amazed to see a spell being cast by something other than a wand or naturally, but the wind suddenly picks up and blows Luz's glyphs to Willow. A fire glyph activates, burning the bush, and Hawksley nearly flies away with her, but Willow calms him as Luz and Augustus finally meet the girl. Luz apologizes profusely, but Willow assures her that she wasn't harmed; Augustus gasps as he sees Willow's human ears and squeals. Luz and Augustus introduce themselves, and Willow realizes the wind blew her hood off and admits to being a human. Willow gives Augustus the nickname Gus, which makes him even more excited and makes Luz laugh. After chatting with Willow, Gus reminds Luz they're about to be late for school, which is when the witch girl suddenly gets an idea to bring Willow with them to Hexside.

Gus is immediately on board with an actual human seeing H.A.S. After talking about it with Willow, she decides to go with them to the school, if only to help them with their problem, especially the bullying problem that got under her skin. Willow assures Hawksley everything will be all right as they follow Luz and Gus to Hexside; she pulls her hood over her ears before entering and finds it… okay. Hexside doesn't appear that different from a regular school in the Human Realm but is immediately caught off guard by all the differences she sees. Willow then hears Hunter's voice call out to Luz and Gus, greeting them as friends, and he instantly recognizes Willow and Hawksley. He asks what they're doing here, then suspects Luz and Gus to have something to do with this, and they come clean. Hunter thinks their plan is terrible, but Willow convinces him she'll stay safe and shouldn't worry. Luz asks how Willow and Hunter know each other, and Willow explains where she lives, which leads to Gus saying to Hunter, "She lives with your gr—" but Hunter shushes him.

Hunter points out they'll need somewhere for Willow to hide until later, but Luz and Gus have the same idea of where she can hide. They take her to the Detention Track but run into Principal Hieronymus Bump, who is suspicious. Bump reminds them to be on their best behavior as an inspector from the Emperor's Coven will be coming today and wants to ensure Hexside gets the funds it needs. While the Detention Track teacher sleeps, Willow meets Viney again, along with Jerbo and Barcus, and Luz and Gus explain everything to them and agree to hide Willow in the secret room until lunchtime when she can be introduced to H.A.S.

They pass the time by spying on the other classes, and Viney explains how all the magical schools work on the Isles.

· Hunter is in the Potions Track, having just gotten out of the Detention Track for "good behavior."

· Luz was also Detention Track for a while but is now back in the Healing Track.

· Gus is an Illusion Track prodigy, and Willow sees his skills on display.

· Peeking into the Bard Track, Willow sees a girl playing the harp beautifully.

Willow asks why they're in detention and learns that multi-tracking is banned:

· Jerbo tried to mix plants and abomination magics.

· Barcus tried to do oracle and potion magics.

· Viney tried to combine healing and beast-keeping magics.

· Luz ended up in the Detention Track because she tried to take all the different classes at once, even breaking many of the school's rules in her plan to do it.

· Hunter ended up in the Detention Track by throwing a stink potion at Boscha because she bullied Luz to the point of tears, which is how they met.

Barcus notices Willow's "aura" felt uncomfortable at the mention of bullying and asks, with Jerbo translating, if she is all right. Feeling like she can trust them, Willow shares that she grew up in Salem, Massachusetts, and always preferred the company of plants over people. She tried to make friends once, and it seemed like she did, only to be revealed as a cruel prank to humiliate her, and everything went downhill from there on out. Her little self-esteem made her a target for bullies, the "Boscha" types, who also mocked her for her appearance, being a plus-sized girl, and it didn't help that her teachers were ignorant of this harassment.

Things got so bad that she didn't think her dads could help, and she didn't want to feel like she was burdening them. Willow has their sympathies, and they tell her that she shouldn't feel like she would burden her parents and that they love her, but Willow feels otherwise. Jerbo warns everyone that "the bells will be screaming" in five minutes and must return to the Detention Track before the teacher wakes up. The Detention Track students leave Willow with Hawksley in the secret room but will return when the teacher falls asleep again.

After lunch, the H.A.S. members gather in the club room, and Gus and Luz shock everyone by presenting Willow. Before she can disprove anything, Mattholomule confesses to fabricating human items. He wanted the club's acceptance, not having many friends after transferring from Glandus. The H.A.S. meeting concludes with everyone forgiving and giving him another chance. Willow tells them she has to leave to do the errands she was sent to do, to begin with, and get back to the Clawthornes.

On her way from exiting via the back of the school, Willow bumps into the harpist from the Bard Track, Skara, and immediately apologizes, but Skara assures her that she's okay. Before they get a chance to introduce themselves, Boscha shows up and asks Skara what she's doing, but she doesn't get a chance as Boscha turns to Willow. Willow sees first-hand how possessive Boscha is of her "friends" and how toxic she is, belittling Skara for talking to "some nobody girl." One part of Willow tells herself to get on Hawksley and leave, but another part wants to confront Boscha about her bullying of others. But just as things were about to escalate, Principal Bump arrived with the inspector, looking for Skara in particular. Skara is one of the school's top students and a prime candidate to show they're worth the funding.

Willow gets a strange feeling from the inspector but ignores it as she's about to leave Hexside, but changes her mind, and just in time, too. Willow finds she was right not to trust the inspector, as she's revealed to be a giant, serpent-like monster that proceeds to drain Principal Bump of his magic, rendering him unconscious; then does the same with Boscha before moving on to Skara. Using her wand, Willow conjures vines to seal the inspector's maw and grabs Skara, who looks sickly pale from having her magic drained out so unexpectedly. They hop onto Hawksley and fly through the school, warning teachers and students as the inspector chases them, intent on killing the human. Students flee while teachers fight back, but they ultimately get their magic drained from them, and the monster resumes her chase. Willow comes across Gus, Luz, Hunter, and the other H.A.S. members and warns them of what is happening.

The inspector arrives, and the H.A.S. members try to fight her off, only to get their magic drained. Hunter fireman carries Gus while Luz uses her glyphs to create a distraction long enough for them all to hide. Luz leads them to the secret room, where Viney asks what's happening, and a semi-conscious Skara asks where they are hiding. Willow explains everything that's happened, and Viney identifies the monster as a greater basilisk. She adds that they should be extinct by all accounts and that the Emperor's Coven ensured they were killed off some decades ago.

Willow tries to convince everyone still conscious to help, but while Luz is willing, Hunter, Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus aren't as willing to risk their lives against a natural predator to witch-kind. But after some convincing and seeing the teachers and students' peril, they eventually agree, and Skara—fading in and out—says she has a plan.

Following the bard girl's plan, the troublemakers combine their strengths to lure the basilisk into a trap, causing it to regurgitate the magic and flee from the school. The gang celebrates with the students and faculty restored, but Principal Bump reprimands them for breaking the rules. Before he can punish them, Willow defends her newly made friends, explaining that Hexside's teachings are too restrictive. Swayed by her argument, Bump reluctantly allows students to take more than one class and even offers Willow to attend Hexisde if she wants. While Willow declines the offer, Bump still gives her a pamphlet just in case she changes her mind, adding that "Hexside may benefit from a fresh perspective."

Elsewhere, the basilisk is tending to her wounds and swears vengeance upon Willow and the others, but she's suddenly captured by the Amethyst Armorer, calling her Number I. She explains that Emperor Belos has been looking for her for a long time and is eager to have one of his prized creations returned to the castle immediately. The basilisk says she would rather die than be taken back to Belos. However, the Armorer responds that they have II through V in custody and will be executed if she refuses. Fearing for the rest of her kin, Number I surrenders her freedom as the Armorer tells her she has an essential role in the Day of Unity.

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(The characters and other notes):

I don't know about you guys, but I find it funny that I gave Willow a wand in this story, only for the "Pilot" episode to show Polleena (Pilot Willow) using a wand, too.

When I mentioned Willow was bullied for her appearance, being a plus-sized girl, that wasn't the only thing she was harassed for. Jerks would also insult her heritage, calling her Chinese slurs and such (she's Korean, by the way).

What bullied Luz into tears was Boscha making fun of her dad being dead. I initially planned for Hunter to give Boscha a black eye, but I decided to humiliate her with a stink potion was a sweeter revenge.

Skara wasn't with Boscha, Amelia, and Cat when they were picking on Luz and Gus in the woods, which is why Willow didn't know her. Also, I wanted to plant some Skarlow seeds into the story, as I still plan to keep the main ship Hunter x Willow x Skara.

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So, what did you all think of the third episode/chapter? Anything I should've done differently or improved upon? Let me know your thoughts; I'll answer your questions when I upload the fourth chapter/episode. As always, if anyone is interested in making this AU a reality, please, feel free to use it.

Take care, everyone, and have a wonderful day or night.

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[wordstrings]

@worsethanpixels replied to this post:

i wanna seee garden pics tho

Ohhh, you asked, and now you shall get the spam.

Part of this whole adventure has been an educational journey as I forcibly teach myself about plant species that are native to my area. I've discovered like 96% of typical gardening just grabs whatever pretty plant from wherever on the globe, with little to no consideration for if it's actually a good idea to introduce it to the local ecosystem. A pollinator could come searching through the lush gardens in my neighborhood and only find a distressingly tiny number of plants it has spent millions of years relying on.

So I've picked up the crusade to, over time, replace all the non-native plants in my garden with native ones. Not only is this good for wildlife, those plants will require basically zero care and maintenance. They're built for the worst conditions here, and no poor soil or summer dry spell will daunt them.

But anyway! Aside from the plants themselves, my favorite feature of my landscape is this stone retaining wall along the front of my property. It's got amazing character and grows the best mossy patches.

Above one portion of that wall is my front walk. I spent a long, sweaty time the other week sorting and arranging the rocks to edge the gravel path. Eventually I want to get big flagstone slabs to pave this walkway, but for now, the reddish stones complement the brick and the stone wall nicely.

There's not a whole lot flowering here right now – the non-native daylilies are just starting, but most everything else either kicked its payload a month ago or was too small and new to get a chance to establish and bloom this year.

This part here went from one of the most hopeless corners to one of the more interesting after I added Some Garden-y Stuff instead of spending a small fortune on plants to fill it out. There's a colorful little bee house for solitary nesting bees, a bird bath with a fountain, stepping stones inherited from my mom's house, an aged concrete container that's been successfully growing sedum with zero help for at least a decade (it's been completely untouched at the back corner of the house ever since I moved in – I'm kind of afraid that I might have wrecked its perfect balance by moving it here, but we'll see what happens), a little owl statue, and a magic glowing orb (which is a glass light shade I picked up at a thrift store years ago and filled up with solar-powered fairy lights).

One other little effort I'm proud of is all the labels I made for everything. Not only does this help me remember and memorize what everything is, it just makes things look that much more neat and orderly.

This is the beebalm-and-coneflower section, tucked between the lilies that have been here for ages and will eventually be replaced. Beebalm is supposedly excellent for attracting hummingbirds, but this area isn't visible from within the house, so I don't know if any have visited yet.

More coneflowers here, plus a bright orange pop of butterfly weed, which is surprising me by turning out to be one of my favorites. I was not expecting that. But look! A bee!

Bee!!!

Seriously, honeybees have been so rare to spot here lately, so this is very exciting for me. I have half a mind to check the local regulations to see if I could host a hive on my property.

So yeah, all of that is part of the contest judging. We'll see if they give a poop about it or not!

And now, my tomatoes.

They are barely in control, and there are so many green tomatoes in here. So many. They'll probably ripen all at once and I won't be able to use them fast enough. (Pro tip: however tall you think your tomato cages need to be, get taller ones. No, taller. A little taller still.)

Thanks for asking about my little side-hobby!