#typical philip wittebane abuse actions

[edoro]

Do you have any more Thoughts about Phillip making a grimwalker of himself? And maybe what that grimwalkers relationship with Hunter would be like?

oh i DO have more thoughts! thank you for asking!

this might be a little unorganized because i'm just kind of dumping my character ideas and what vague concept of a plot/life trajectory i have here, bear with me

so, first of all, i think this grimwalker predates Hunter by a lot. the idea of Hunter and a Philip grimwalker being raised together and interacting is a lot of fun, but the au with Wik/William has that covered imo so i went in a different direction

so my idea is that the two grimwalkers are the ones who Philip has when he first ascends to power as Belos. he makes them the same age, approximately 5 or 6, and what he tells them is that they had to live elsewhere in secret while he took power so no one could use them to hurt him, but now he has this big castle and a secure foothold and they can come live with him, and he tells them he's their father and raises them as twins.

the Caleb grimwalker is named Artemis. per my transfem Caleb headcanon, she's one of Philip's more successful unethical gender experiments - he more or less force femmed her and just raised her as a girl from the start, and while this has historically resulted in some Very Weird Dysphoria and been a contributing factor to the betrayal of several early attempts, it actually works out okay with her because she is in fact a girl, although sadly not really the sturdy farmbutch that Philip wants her to be.

(she's more of a reserved femme type - presentatio-wise, very good Puritan girl fashion, long full skirts and high-necked, long-sleeved blouses in sturdy knits and basic colors, enormous long hair that she usually keeps either up for running around or loose when she's attending meetings etc - not a lot of jewelry or ornamentation, but she has some fancier clothes for Special Occasions

personality-wise she's dutiful, serious, thoughtful but very headstrong and stubborn. she takes her role as princess seriously and genuinely believes that one day she will inherit the throne, so she sees herself as having a duty of care to the people of the Isles - kind of the 'best possible outcome' of a belief in monarchy here, where she sees herself as a superior kind of person and believes this gives her a responsibility to care for and guide those below her and do what's best for them.

as she grows older she learns to temper her impulses, and thinks her decisions through very carefully. after all, she's been taught her whole life that Her Actions Have Consequences, so, if she's going to do or say something, then she needs to be aware of and okay with the potential consequences. this means she's thoughtful but also means that once she's made up her mind, it's almost impossible to change it, because she's already considered every angle and decided she's okay with whatever she can imagine happening as a result.)

the Philip grimwalker is named Mortification-Of-The-Flesh, because Philip is not a subtle man. they call him Morty for short. he's the whipping boy, of course, so his life sucks so incredibly bad because he's the one designated to Suffer For Artemis's Sake.

(and also more than a little for Philip's sake too.)

Morty is a twitchy haunted mess of a recluse with absolutely apocalyptic amounts of rage simmering just beneath the surface at all times. he treats Philip with terrified obedience and respect bordering on worship, is wholeheartedly devoted to Artemis (who is, after all, the entire purpose for his own existence), and is a rude, sarcastic, nasty little shit to absolutely everyone else if he ever interacts with them.

his needs are provided for the same as Artemis's, but of course he's dressed in a much plainer, more ascetic style - lots of black and grey, you know. Philip keeps his head shaved to encourage humility. he's not given a staff or taught how to use magic or how to defend himself at all - that's Artemis's responsibility.

(she's not quite raised as a soldier the way, say, Hunter is later, but she is shown how to use an artificial staff and given combat training, and does eventually get given the position of Golden Guard, i think. in her case it's a lot more "personal bodyguard/caretaker/assistant to the Emperor" rather than the all-around gopher position we see Hunter have.)

he's punished frequently and harshly for any misstep on his sister's part, and he never really gets used to it or quite figures out how to disengage from himself while it's happening. really, his suffering is the point, so if you look at it that way, it would be wrong of him to, right? Artemis watches his punishments and is responsible for patching him up afterwards, to really drive home the lesson that this is her responsibility.

they are... very codependent. they both sort of see Morty as, basically, part of her. not even quite like they're both one person or conjoined in some way, but like he's one of her limbs, something that has no independent will of its own and could not function or exist separately from her, and which ultimately exists only to be controlled and used by her. totally healthy normal sibling relationship here!

Morty's very angry a lot of the time. he has an interesting status - barely even a person in his own family, but he exists to be punished for them, not for anyone else. since he isn't really an independent person and he doesn't really have any autonomy and he exists as the living embodiment of Philip and Artemis's penance, then he can't really get in trouble for anything he does to anyone else, right?

so he's just kind of an asshole and a terror to most other people. the castle staff and coven heads stay out of his way. this is easy because he likes to keep to himself anyway.

he lives a very aimless sort of life, just drifting around the castle or trailing after Artemis. he picks up a lot of gossip, i imagine, and shares it with her, and he's her errand boy whenever she wants to get something done without being seen to have done it herself.

i think these two make it into their early to mid 20s.

at some point, something happens, i'm not exactly sure what, but it's a bit of a lightbulb moment for Artemis. she realizes that Morty is, in fact, An Entire Separate Person, and furthermore that this whole whipping boy arrangement is extremely fucked up, and mulls that over for a bit and comes to the conclusion that it should stop, but when she tries to present this idea to their father, well, it does not go very well to say the least.

this earns Morty a ferocious punishment, and to really drive the point home, Philip makes Artemis be the one to inflict it. she does learn a lesson here, but not the one he wanted: she learns that perhaps her father is wrong and is not as reasonable as he likes to act, and decides that she and Morty need to get out of there. (and maybe she can go spend some time living amongst the common people, learning how they see things, etc etc...)

so that's a whole thing, she does the like Mulan plot-relevant haircut, dresses them both up all incognito and takes some money and goes. they end up wandering for a bit and then finally settle in a city a ways away from the castle, and get taken in by some good samaritan who recognizes they need help and offers them a room to rent and work at their business.

they have, oh, maybe a year or two of freedom, but of course eventually Philip catches them. :o) he kills both of them, burns down the shop/apartment, and has the person who housed them captured to publicly execute and Make An Example Out Of - see what this vicious wild witch did to his poor dear children?

he made sure to keep a bit more distance between himself and the next couple of grimwalkers, and he never made one of himself again.