kaisou | Recentering Priorities

Recentering Priorities

WHO: Luz & You
WHERE: Owlery and outside in Kaisou
WHEN: August 22
WHAT: Luz is doing various things!
WARNINGS: none

[Closed to Eda/Amity]

I. The Owlery

Between the dinosaur attacks, the fights she had with people ABOUT said dinosaurs, her injury and then people's reactions to all of that, Luz's feelings were already taking a turn. She felt the guilt of knowing people were hurt or killed because of the experimentation Varian had done taking a turn. She was frustrated that people thought Varian meant harm and was told in full ferocity how bad things had gotten. Luz had done her best to help, lost contact with people, was then injured and told after said injury that she needed to not get herself involved in dangerous situations.

And then? Amity Blight, her girlfriend, arrives, and all of that takes a backseat.

Because Amity has some stories of her own, and now? Luz knew exactly how bad things got back home. The spell Phillip casts almost kills everyone, narrowly stopped by the actual Collector, but now all of them were locked out of the Boiling Isles, stick on Earth.

Devastating to her? Certainly. But Amity, a witch who had lived her entire life on the isles? That had to be a blow she was doing her best to recover from. Right now Luz is watching her hermosa sleep, deep in thought. She barely looks up when Eda enters the room.

II. Undertown [Open to those affiliated with the paranormal]

The setback with the dinosaur and then with Fern had cemented something into her head: she had to get better. She had her full abilities now, but even still there was a chance that things that could hurt her. So Luz was now in deep reading, looking at ways to perfect her glyphs, ideas for protections with the glyphs she could use. She still couldn't used combined glyphs, she knew that well enough. But what about what she could do with the powers she had?

She was scanning books she could get her hands on right now, carefully leafing through what she could to get ideas on how she was going to give herself added protection. You could see around Luz there were scribbling of plan foliage protecting her, or pictures of her with fire surrounding her.

The time for Luz being idle was over. She had to start making plans for what happened the next time things got really bad.

III. Shopping Street

Luz may have been determined to get better at her magic and whatever spiritual craziness might happen, but she also knew something else: August was almost over. She was, against her better judgement, going to have to BE a kid: she was going to have to go to school again, and that meant preparing for all of the things that came with it. If you were a student (or teacher), she was going to say hi and probably pump you full of questions about what she can expect!

IV. Cemetery (Closed to Amity)

She hadn't told anyone about this, and she honestly wouldn't know how to anyway. Then here comes her girlfriend in tow, changing just about everything, and then comes the day she didn't expect would be creeping up on her, but here it is. So Luz leaves Amity a message, just a single one.

Be at the cemetery. Please? Need you.

And Luz is here already, with as big a bouquet of flowers she could make.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She squeezed Luz's hands in turn, shutting her eyes.

"No, you need to know," she says, swallowing her own feelings as best she can. "And we all tried, Luz. We all..."

She runs out of words, squeezing her eyes tight to keep the tears in.

"I can only show you."

Oh boy. This was going to be rough. She could tell.

But it wasn't enough to be told this kind of thing. Luz needed to see it. She needed to know.

So she gently wiped the tear from Amity's face, unaware that as she did this, it would start, but here it was.

At first, the memories were nice enough, if a little troubling: Willow, Gus, Amity, Alador and Hunter on an airship, arguing, but then pausing when the Palisman gave them food. It was a nice moment, and Luz lingered on it, smiling.

But then things immediately escalated. There were other air ships with Coven soldiers and Abomination automatons helping to try and shoot them down, and they were only temporarily stopped by Gus's illusion. Hunter did some cool flying, Willow saved him, and then things got even more troubling as the coven shot them down. Luz found herself positively gripping her hands as she saw that her friends managed OK, but then teared up when Amity reluctantly left her father to fight off the approaching abominations. The voices were muffled, as Amity didn't remember the exact words people said.

But once they were closer to the Titan's head, Luz heard voices, all right. She heard screaming all around as her friends furiously tried to see if they were too late. Luz saw Hunter hunch over Darius a moment, and then her breath caught in chest when she saw Willow and Amity handling her.

Eda. Her arm already starting to turn black, seemingly lifeless. Here Luz let out a sob, barely able to contain herself.

For Amity, there are so many pulls along the way. Realizing her mother was not going to get better, that final break - finally finding out who her father really was, her siblings in danger, her friends - new and old: Willow, Gus - Hunter - in peril. Eda suffering, a woman she admired and stood in awe of - Raine Whispers, a hero by any description...

Everyone. Everyone had done their best. Everyone had given their all. And it hadn't been enough. Belos had seen the plan coming miles away.

She squeezed Luz's hands tighter, eyes squeezed shut so tight it almost hurt. Wanting to run away but knowing she couldn't.

And as Amity felt them, Luz could feel them too: it was faint, but she felt Amity's lingering thoughts, how much prouder she was of her father, her terror at leaving him, ALL of their terror at coming to see the Day of Unity unfolding.

But this was just a piece, and the memories pressed on. While those could get hazy, once they reached the Titan's head and she saw HERSELF, things got so much clearer.

Huh, so she had a ponytail now. Neat!
Of course, so was seeing Bellos in his bestial glory, ready to attack her when her friends came swooping in. Luz inwardly breathed a sigh: she didn't think she could take on Bellos by herself.

Heck, Amity even managed to save her a little while fighting with her abomination and then all of her friends were going at Bellos at once! Gus was using some weird mirror thing that he activated at Bellos, which made him almost kill Gus! And then he changed his face to try and appeal to Hunter after he almost struck Gus.

"You liar," Luz muttered when Bellos was insisting he was only trying to help him, and she was Super glad that Hunter echoed his sentiments.

Hazy, hazy....

And then he had them cornered, and Luz was surprised to see they were all cut up, she had a scar and suddenly...

Whatcha playin'?

Here, Luz stared in shock.

"T-that's that guy. The collector!"

Oh, yes, the Collector. She'd thought Belos made her blood run cold - but the ease of the Collector's power, the simplicity with which they simply...changed things. Magic power that was unbelievable.

It made her shake a bit, just to think of it. All of it.

Luz wasn't quite prepared to see how easily Belos was dealt with by the Collector, but it happened, and as bad as it was, she breathed a small sigh of relief. He'd come so close to hurting as many people as he could in the Boiling Isles, and it looked like Eda was close to...well.

But now Kind was somehow convincing the collector to stop the Day of Unity. Whoa. Something about a game called the Owl House? She didn't get that, and apparently, neither did anyone else, but they were sure not going to say otherwise! Luz was a little happy though: the Day of Unity was stopped! Why didn't Amity mention that part?

She got her answer pretty quickly though: now it looked like the Collector was going to use his powers to start upending things, and oh BOY, it didn't look good. Willow spotted the door, and Luz heart dropped.

Oh no, it was here, wasn't it? They were scrambling to get away, and she saw herself holding back, and Luz understood WHY. She needed to know everyone was safe, not just her friends. And now the door was falling apart, and Luz had to keep it together,

Wait, was she going to stay? But Amity didn't say she did, so what happened?

And in that instant, Luz turned pale. The Collector was insisting King stay, and Luz, her future self, was starting to understand the Collector wanted King. She begged King, but he looked at her sadly, and his words rang in her head.

Not this time. I'm glad you were my older sister, Luz.

"KING!"

Luz's voice rang out, but there was no stopping this, and he let out his patented WEH scream, and she was knocked back with her friends.

Through the portal, through the door of the house. And that was that, because she saw herself trying to open the door back, and there was nothing but the sounds of rain and Gus sobbing.

Luz closed her eyes, and she was back with her girlfriend, clutching her tightly. She tried to speak, but the tears running down her face were making it difficult. Finally, she cleared her throat.

"K-king. He saved us. But how? How did he even know how to bring the Collector?"

She sighed, sagging down onto her knees. It was...a lot to relive. A lot to see Luz see. She remembered how Luz had looked before - there, in the rain. And this was that, all over again.

"I don't know," she said, "I don't know how he did it. You told me he was a Titan, but I don't know how that would apply..."

"I told, wait, WHAT!? He was a Titan?! King?! But how?"

Now Luz was shocked as well as mortified and torn up and pained. Well she asked for this, didn't she? She WANTED to see what happened, and she got her wish. It's not Amity's fault that Luz didn't like the results.

"So we probably went to mami, didn't we?" Luz's voice was small, ignoring the last question. How would Amity even know how to answer that anyway? "Where else would we go?"

"I don't know!"

It comes out of the feelings churning in her. She knows Luz knows that she doesn't, but...it's hard to feel what she's feeling and make sense of it all. She pulled back from Luz, drawing up her knees and putting her arms around them.

"That's the last thing I remember. She just opened the door and...then I was in that stupid labyrinth."

"Right, of course you don't."

Luz knew that, but saying it aloud felt hollow. There was so much she didn't know, and now that Amity was here she was going to have to get used to things she didn't know. In the end, it didn't really matter how Luz was feeling about everything.

Because now the two of them were stuck HERE, and they had to work everything out.

"Me too. That was my first memory after I tried to go back after Hunter when he found out...stuff. Uh, what exactly DID Hunter tell you? Good Hunter, I mean."

She was silent for a long moment, lost in her own thoughts. Because the worries are washing over her again. And guilt. That she hadn't done more. Maybe if she'd fought Odalia harder they could have gotten there sooner, maybe...

Maybe if she'd been a better witch, she could have done something useful against Belos. And she feels guilty that she prioritizes the people in peril she knows, over all those thousands she doesn't. Over all that suffering.

"Huh?" she finally said, blinking a few times.

Luz would have told her (and to be fair, Luz needed to be told herself) that there was probably nothing either of them would have been able to do. Belos had wanted to kill off almost all of the magical population, and had been working hard to make sure it would not only happen, but that he'd be doing a good thing instead.

They were, after all, KIDS. Luz knew that eventually, some of the traumatized adults here were going to remind Amity of this.

"I mean. What did Hunter tell you, regarding Belos?"

She shook her head.

"Nothing, it was just...suddenly that thing instead of the person we'd seen. Like he was barely inside anymore."

The rage, the power - they had been scary things.

"Well it looks like we saw it up close! How come I was there before all of you guys anyway? I heard you saying you had to go there to help me."

She would probably understand her own reason, she just didn't know what it WAS yet. What she didn't hear was Hunter telling Amity and the others what he was, the whole Grimwalker thing.

"You haven't talked to Hunter here, have you?"

"Kikimora tried to take Hunter back to Belos, to curry favour, I think? But you, of course, had other ideas. A bit of illusion, and it was you that she took instead. A Luz Special."

She groaned at the latter, shaking her head.

"A little bit. Badly. I can't get through to the Hunter we know, and I can't trust this one, because, well, he's still loyal to Belos from everything I've seen."

"That jerk!" Luz spewed out, full of venom. Of course she would do something like that! Hunter hasn't been through enough with Bellos!? Of course I'd switch places!"

Luz remembered full well what had gone down in Belos' mind, including all the times he'd made a Grimwalker to do his bidding. He tend appeared to both Luz and Hunter, and specifically tried to kill Hunter. Luz had spent a few restless nights remembering his face frozen in fear.

"Y-yeah, he hasn't had that day with me yet. The one time one of those memories leaked out, that one day on the Knee, he ignored it and rebuffed it. It wasn't just a memory though. At the time, I was in a dream world trying to retrieve something I'd lost. When I entered the nightmare realm, I saw a vision of what Belos had been attempting, but with all of you guys instead."

It had been an awful splash of water at the time, and she probably hadn't been absolutely petrified in fear because she'd been searching for her common sense at the time.

"I never told you about the memory at the Knee, did I?"

Edited 2022-08-28 17:40 (UTC)

She frowns. It all sounds...awful. And horrifying.

"No...no you didn't."

"Right. I didn't know if my future self or future Hunter talked about it at all. He probably mentioned what he found out about the Day of Unity. He likely didn't mention how we knew."

Luz's mouth was dry, so she wet her lips. She didn't love retelling this story, for good reason.

"Philips' managed to live a long time, long enough to start forming his plan about how he wanted the Day of Unity to play out. He started with preaching about the Titan and Wild Witches by showing what these supposed "wild witches" were doing. Basically, he'd have help razing the town with explosives and stuff and saying it was caused by the wild witches attempting to put down his messages. But we didn't see how it would work until...the knee.

You ever wonder why it's all abandoned, why no one lives there? Well people did once, and he was still doing his whole bait and switch, and the people there were scared, enough that they were the first to get sigils for the "good, titan" magic. Only a moment after they got it, it invaded their bodies and left them barely breathing husks, unable to do anything. They were barely alive. When Philip saw this in the memory, he said "then we still have work to do," because he didn't want them alive."

Luz was quiet. "In the nightmare realm, I saw that happen, only to you and Eda and all my friends. It was pretty bad. I couldn't sleep for a few days after."

Her hands went to her mouth, her look one of horror.

"By the Titan..." she replied, after a long moment. And oh, did that provoke such terrible thoughts. Thoughts she didn't even want to whisper, let alone speak about.

"Luz..." she said, and unfolded slowly, if only to enfold her girlfriend in a hug. "I wish you'd told me. It's too late for this, but at least I can hug you now."

The hug wasn't unexpected, but the moment it happened, Luz's felt her tears come forth, something she didn't expect to happen. It was only now that Luz was starting to understand what keeping that to herself had done to her.

"It was hard," she said softly. "When we escaped Bellos' mind that day, Hunter was freaking out, and we left in a hurry. All that stuff we saw, it was so much, and before I could tell Eda what I saw I was whisked away here."

And that was the worst thing: having all this happen and being able to tell virtually no one how bad things were. Thinking about it just made her bury her face into Amity more, not sure how to deal with how much crying she was doing right now.

That was two of them, now, tears unbound. United in loss and the terrible things they'd had to endure.

"I'm so sorry," she said. Though even her Luz hadn't shared much. She wondered why about some of that - then again, there had hardly been much time, had there?

This was not at all how Luz wanted to share time with Amity. She'd been overjoyed that she was here with her, she thought she might be willing to let all the bad things that happened to her recently go unnoticed.

But that was feelings for you. They didn't let you do whatever you felt like.

"It's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault but Bellos and whatever strange magic pulled me here. I hate that it did it to you too, but in a way? I'm so happy you're with me right now. I thought I was just going to have to keep all my feelings to myself."

But it's how it always went, wasn't it? Moments of joy linked together by grinding, awfulness, and worry.

"And you can't really talk to Eda," she says in reply, knowing that's also an issue for Luz. "You didn't have anyone else you could talk to? In the months you've been here?"

Luz was going to do her best to cherish what she had right now. Was she sure she was going to feel miserable about her friends being stuck in her world? Of course! Was she mad that technically Amity was in the same position she was with Hunter? Absolutely!

But Amity was here, and she was in this with her. So as torn as Luz was feeling, there was still a lingering happiness that refused to go out!

"I talk to Eda about things here, because this is her home," Luz said sadly. "It wouldn't be fair to keep expecting her to be someone she isn't."

At this, Luz smiled. "About specific things with the Boiling Isles? No, I had to keep that to myself. Hunter was here before me and has friends: there's no way he should know what happens with Bellos yet. But there have been some nice people here I've talked to about frustrations, and even made friends with. Despite the Spirit Vein being unpredictable, this is actually a really nice place!"

Now if only she didn't feel guilty every time she thought this...

And her, not yet understanding any of this: "Are people just...different people, or are they being changed somehow against their will? Like is it your Eda, just under a spell?"

As for the latter point with Hunter.

"Except he's the Hunter we can't trust. The one who might hurt you, or anybody, if he thinks it means getting back to someone who doesn't care about him at all."

It's fuelled by where she is, having seen what she's seen - but 'animosity' has definitely been a featuring word with Hunter, thus far.

She sighs, rubbing her face.

"I don't know what to do, or what to think. I want to have that other Hunter back. I want to have everyone back. I don't want to be here, but I'm here with you and away from danger and, gah, by the Titan nothing is going the way I'd want or that I plan."

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