#someone ask about skara next i've spent so much time developing them

[hyperfixated-writer]

So someone asked me a question about my characterisation of Viney (I swear I exist just to answer this question). Unfortunately, the answer was WAY too freaking long, so to avoid completely clogging up the comments section I'm putting it here instead

(Someone in the comments of Grasping for Safety Chapter 15 asked where the inspiration for Viney being so angry came from when that doesn't seem to be particularly canon. Also, why is she so attached to Hunter when in canon she seemed more distrustful/meh on him? And why does she seem like she disliked Amity even before the fic started?)

Yessss let me ramble about Viney >:3 I have so many thoughts about her it's not even funny-

TL;DR: she isn't normally Like This, there are some particular aspects of this situation that are bringing a lot of anger out for her. I relent that I wasn't able to really establish how my version of Viney NORMALLY acts before Chapter 2 happened, but oh well

(Some parts of the answer are spoilers for the rest of the fic so this is nonexhaustive)

As for Viney headcanons--(obligatory disclaimer that all of this is just kind of taking some stuff from canon and fully running with it in my own direction)--I think she doesn't trust people generally (based on how hostile she was to Luz at first in The First Day) but once she decides she likes someone she goes All In and would trust them with her life (based on how quickly she decided to adopt Luz into their friend group and tell her all their secrets). We know she dislikes the rules about tracks and magic use, and when she gets in trouble for disobeying them she just turns around and does it in secret, so I think she has a lot of anger and distrust about the education and Coven systems, and just authority figures generally. But also, whenever she's faced directly with an authority's displeasure (including the Labyrinth Runners scene where Hunter looks to her and Skara for back up!) we see her back down in favour of staying quiet and just taking whatever is thrown at her/her friends. That combined with how surprisingly quickly she warmed up to Luz after Luz defended her from the detention teacher's scolding in First Day makes me think she's got a lot of issues with authority but doesn't really feel like she can do anything about it. But she wants to, and she hates her and her friends being treated unfairly, so anyone who steps in on their behalf is immediately her bestie. Also, given how she refuses to stop mixing magic in the detention track and worships Lord Calamity (the Ultimate Troublemaker™), BUT won't talk back to any teachers or Bump, I think she wishes she could stand up to those systems/the people enforcing them but feels like she can't. So, anyone who does tell them off immediately earns her respect (and on the flip side, anyone who kisses up to them is her enemy).

Relatedly, I headcanon she decided to join Willow's Flyer Derby team because Willow mentioned the abomination teacher had it out for her and Viney was immediately like "yes, I will help you stick it to an unfair teacher!" especially since getting her club approved is more of an indirect way to go against them than telling them off to their face. Like, I think she was interested in the team already but that sealed the deal. And then, Viney sees the Flyer Derby team as all on the same side, working against this power-tripping teacher, so all her teammates got adopted as her friends in her mind.

Basically, she's kind of got this very black-and-white, us-versus-them way of thinking, which is great if you're on "her side" because she will do anything for you (except stand up to an authority figure haha) but if she decides you're on the "other side" then she just kind of hates you, even if you didn't actually do anything wrong. (And I think her first impression of Amity was more in-passing back when Amity was the Queen Bee of the school, top student, teacher's pet, etc.; so yeah, Viney definitely disliked her before this fic started, and isn't aware/doesn't care that Amity's had any character development since then. And when Amity didn't actively stand up for Hunter in the healing homeroom, Viney just decided she was unequivocally on Bump's side and had it out for Hunter, because she sees the worst in people she dislikes.)

Also related to the us-versus-them thing, I think it's really interesting how she turns on Luz and Jerbo so fast; she seems pretty loyal to her friends but then immediately goes off on them based on so little. In First Day she literally spills all the trio's secrets to Luz, then hears an out-of-context remark from Gus and immediately goes "you think you're too good for us??? GET OUT" Viney doesn't even give her a chance to explain, just kicks her out. And in Any Sport, Jerbo is literally just on the teacher's team, with seemingly no context to the match and just trying to have fun, and she is immediately pissed with him, actively targetting him in the game and being passive aggressive afterward. And he didn't seem surprised, he's preemptively just like "Oh no..." so I think her getting mad over stuff like that is just a normal thing for her. (And it never really came up but she's still a little bit upset over that in this fic, and LOT bit mad with both him and Barcus for not immediately jumping on the helping Hunter train, even though she didn't even invite them to.) Point is, she seems to have got this very strong "you're either with me or you're against me" mentality that she refuses to be swayed on, and she has difficulty hearing or seeing things from other people's perspectives because she just feels like everything is a personal attack, especially in the heat of the moment.

That said, this level of anger issues (and how she's standing up to authority figures) aren't really my Viney's normal. She's usually just standoffish with strangers and chill with her friends, with a healthy dash of anti-authority sentiments baked in, but this situation is... unique and has pressed a lot of buttons for her. Said situation pushed her to go directly against Bump's orders in Chapter 2 in favour of going after Hunter, giving her a taste of disrespecting authority figures (and getting away with it), and now she's hooked. The fact that she went from standing up to Bump for the first time ever and then a few chapters later went right for attacking a Coven Head is so iconic, she's really speedrunning her way from Quiet Delinquent to Full On Criminal and I love that for her. Eda would be so proud <3

And THEN there's her opinion on Hunter~ I think they're SUPER interesting and I have so many thoughts and I'm SOOOO normal about them (lying), and THERE WILL BE MORE VINEY AND HUNTER CONTENT IN THE FUTURE :D But some of it has been hinted at, especially in Chapter 5 and I wanna ramble some more so I will >:3

So like, Hunter was on the Flyer Derby team standing up to a teacher, so he was on "Viney's side" which made her immediately like him. They played one game together and now they're besties, working against the system, sorry I don't make the rules. And then he literally kidnaps her, gives her over to the Emperor's Coven, which is basically the teacher's pet of Covens, completely against her will. And if you haven't noticed, a lot of her issues have to do with not having control of her own life and her own choices. Like, that's a pretty traumatising thing to happen in general but it really pushed that specific pressure point for her.

So yeah, as she so eloquently put it in Chapter 5, "she might have wanted to bash his face in just a little bit at the time." But THEN he literally threw himself in between her and a Coven Head to protect her. So, once she calmed down a bit from that whole Event and could see things more rationally, she looked back and recontextualised all their interactions with this new information (including the fact that the highest ranking EC member is literally school-aged), and ended up coming to the conclusion that he seemed more naïve than malicious, and is probably just indoctrinated. So she kind of feels like they're kindred spirits in the whole victim-of-the-system department, he just doesn't know it yet. He's not her friend or anything, but she does feel for him and would like to help him embrace his inner rebel, but has absolutely no idea how to do that so they just end up not really talking.

Then the Emperor's Coven attacks Hexside, and all those issues with the Coven system and not having control over her life and magic and the trauma of being kidnapped that one time are dragged back up, yayyyy~! And THEN she sees Hunter and Gus are being dragged around, Hunter unconscious, by some Coven scouts and Graye himself- and she just snaps and drags Skara into recklessly trying to save both of them. Because she is NOT about to let the EC abuse their aurthority and treat people she happens to care about like that. Then Willow and Bump show up, the scouts get away with Gus, and Willow convinces Bump to let them bring Hunter back to the homeroom.

This is where we veer away from canon but a lot of it still applies to my canon thoughts about her. So, again, Viney really wants to help him (she heals him and tries to be comforting through the whole scene) but still doesn't feel capable of standing up to Bump and the illusion teacher, and honestly feels like she's a bad friend for it. Especially since not only does she kind of feel like she owes him for standing up to a literal Coven Head, but also he was literally just getting kidnapped by the EC and she knows how THAT feels. She does believe everything he says though; she had assumed he left the Coven and then they kidnapped him to get him back, and him working with Gus makes sense to her since they were both being dragged around. She still has some mixed feelings about him but she doesn't think he's lying; she tends to give her friends the benefit of every doubt and assume the worst of everyone else, so.

Of course, Bump and the illusion teacher are immediately hostile to him, and she can tell it's really freaking him out. While most everyone else interprets that as him being nervous because he's lying, she gives him the benefit of the doubt and assumes it's because he's just traumatised and is now being bullied by random teachers threatening to send him back (what a revolutionary thought /s). And it's infuriating to watch someone get interrogated before they can even fully stand about how they must be evil and lying and dangerous, and she thinks they're just being unfair because they decided they're not going to trust him. Which is what authority figures do to her, because she's been labelled a "troublemaker."

SO, she goes full-on projection, throws those mixed feelings right out the window, and gets REALLY invested in helping him, because she doesn't want him to feel like he's completely alone with everyone out to get him. That mixed with her black-and-white, us-versus-them thinking makes her very defensive of him because anyone saying anything slightly critical of him must mean they also want to bully him just like the teachers! There is no other explanation! (He's her bestie now and that means she'd die for him, sorry not sorry.)

That's also part of why comfort is always her first go-to; she reassures him, she tries to talk him down, she heals him before getting him out of the airship, etc. because her first priority is that he feels like he has someone there for him and he's not alone. She's pretty loyal to her friends anyway but seeing so many authority figures push him around when he's clearly already in a vulnerable place gets her blood boiling and she is beyond ready to make that everyone else's problem. (In canon she wasn't pushed to the point of standing up to Bump nor did she end up projecting onto Hunter quite so much, but I think after canon Labyrinth Runners she spent a lot of time checking in on him, loudly defending him to any wary students, and just being very friendly. I don't think he knew how to take that haha)

IN CONCLUSION I think about Viney too much tysm for asking <33