Can you imagine Tell in marlet heart. Caitlyn and Tell barely escaped long ago and they raised their daughter together. Hopefully she was able to live a relatively normal life as long as she kept the origins of her parents a secret. Far away and Isolated word of Belos’s death at the hands of the golden guard takes a long time to reach them. Their tormentor is dead. It’s finally safe for them to return to their home they fled. Maybe they worry it’s some kind of trick to get them out of hiding.

Cautiously they find the home of both Caitlyn’s niece and the last golden guard who can only be described as Tell’s very younger brother. Everyone would probably be shocked but they would ultimately be welcomed in and assured they were finally safe. Jasper would lose it as he assumed that no grimwalker had ever escaped Belos before. He didn’t think it was even possible without killing him. Tell would be very happy to hear that not only was Belos killed but by Tell’s own kin. Jasper previously thought he didn’t have any older family but takes comfort in Tell’s presence. He gives Jasper hope that he will be a good dad to Hunter. If Tell can do it so can he. Plus Hunter gets a new aunt, uncle, and cousin. It’s good to know he’s not alone in figuring out how to live free from Belos and raise a kid at the same time. Tell wasn’t too happy with virtue as his replacement and I wonder how he would feel about Jasper’s attitude towards Hunter as his replacement; as Virtue and Hunter were only supposed to exist as the result of their predecessors death. Although they were ultimately innocent parties. I’m not sure if Tell knew about the grimwalker graveyard but Jasper would allow Tell time to pay his respects. Tell would be Jasper’s big brother figure and would’ve had plenty of time to develop coping skills and insight on how Belos treated them both.

Eda would be so happy to see her rebel of an aunt and Caitlyn would be happy to meet her niece. I wonder if Caitlyn would even know of her existence. Dell would probably be the only remaining family to have previously met Caitlyn and they would finally be reunited. Dell probably wouldn’t care about the grimwalker thing(although he may be confused how it would be biologically possible for them to have a kid) but I wonder how he would react to his sister running off to live her life with the golden guard considering what Jasper did to his apprentice. Darius would probably ask for advice on how to deal with your Belos traumatized ex slave partner.

Ultimately the pair would be able to live out their remaining days in relative peace and safety.

Ahhhhhhh MH timeline....

Enoch is born in 1973 and so exactly 20 years older than jasper, but. I've been working under the assumption that jasper was born physically 18, so that means jasper and Enoch are.... Essentially ... The same age. She's also only like three years older than Eda and Darius and co. That's WILD to me lol. I wonder what her name would be in a timeline where Belos didn't name her LOL

God.... Tell would be old enough to be jaspers dad.

God imagine tell and Caitlyn having a completely normal evening washing dishes and watching feral hearts when there's a breaking news report like THE GOLDEN GUARD JUST KILLED THE FUCKING EMPEROR and it's like jasper standing on top of the destroyed castle with one arm and a broken staff, tattered cloak flapping in the wind and soaked in blood. I cannot imagine them like. HELLO

And then him and Darius and lilith all go missing for months and tell and Caitlyn are like HEELLLLOOOOOOO and the next time they hear about it it's like THE GOLDEN GUARD KILLED FUCKING LAZULAS, HAS A SON, AND FUCKING VANISHED AND IS MIA and are just like HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Okay so revewing your pre-canon Grimwalkers and events, I think I'm seeing the path Belos's mindset is taking that eventually leads to Hunter.

A lot of the Grimwalkers are aware that they're Grimwalkers. It's a little different every time, but this is clearly a model that has been working for Belos, so he uses it a lot. Currently I think the only Grimwalkers who DON'T know they're Grimwalkers are Temperance and Hunter.

I get the feeling that Belos is usually pretty cool with the Grimwalkers knowing what they are. Probably easier for him that way too, since he doesn't have to keep up a whole song and dance. But I think he kinda started experimenting a bit with Temperance, if not earlier, probably due to what went down with Tell and the aftermath of that. So I think over time the thought process is…

Tell-no-lies - Knows he's a Grimwalker, is good at his job, also manages to have a secret lover that leads to his betrayal. Crap.

Virtue - Knows he's a Grimwalker, is decent at his job, I'll humor his plan but actually it's kinda stupid and he likes the palismen so nevermind we're done here.

Enoch - Tell-no-lies's daughter, not a Grimwalker but it's cruelly cathartic playing house like she's my niece, it's a shame I was never able to control Evelyn and her whelp like this, this whole situation is very amusing--oh gdi she tried to kill me.

Temperance - Maybe it's the Grimwalker thing that's causing problems, maybe telling them they aren't real people is what makes them so determined to act like real people. I'll let this one think he's a real person. With amnesia. And no one knows who he is or where he comes from so that takes care of the backstory. Now he can focus on his job - oh okay he'd rather look for answers instead. Shoot.

Jasper - YOU KNOW WHAT, BACK TO THE KNOWING-YOU'RE-A-GRIMWALKER MODEL, BUT MORE INTENSE THIS TIME. NO PERSONHOOD FOR YOU. NO EMOTIONS FOR YOU. ANY FEELINGS YOU FEEL ARE FAKE, DON'T WORRY ABOUT THEM. Just focus on your job. Oh. Oh, wow, that worked. That worked really well. I can even rip his spine out and he just thinks that normal. And he is VERY good at his job, not that I'll tell him that. Wow, he's even lasted 12 years! Incredible! I'm looking forward to killing him but this one's had a good run! Clearly I just need to make them repress all their emotions and thoughts and feelings forever and that'll make them efficient and--why is he stealing the baby. How can your mental health be in shambles when you don't have a mental to health? Ugh, die.

Hunter - So I COULD just kill this kid and start over, but. Jasper DID posit an intriguing idea. This COULD actually be a Grimwalker-who-doesn't-know-he's-a-Grimwalker that works. It didn't work with Temperance cuz he couldn't just accept that he'd never ever learn his backstory. But Hunter here could literally just grow up in his backstory. He'd never question it. It's perfect. It's annoying that he's gonna be a useless baby for so long but I can deal. I've missed having a nibling to torment. Sure, Enoch tried to kill me, but she had a mother to give her other perspectives on life; this kid has NO ONE. I can DEFINITELY do better molding this one into what I want him to be! It's perfect!

And thus why he tells the Collector, a minute after Jasper's death, that raising Hunter will be an interesting experiment. It's a set of variables he's never had a chance to work with before, building on the methods he's already tried in the past.

I really do like the fact that Jasper's deathbed bargaining gives a good reason for Hunter, specifically, to grow up from infancy, while most (all?) other Grimwalkers in your headcanon were older when they got picked. Canon implies that there've been so many Grimwalkers that they really can't have had a regular lifespan, so most of them being picked as adults makes sense, and then Jasper's story makes Hunter's lifespan also make sense.

Also, I think I feel the worst for Temperance, in terms of his understanding. He never knew the truth, and he barely got a lie. Hunter at least thought he knew who he was, even if Belos lied the entire time; Temperance never even got that much. What a sad existence. :(

YESSSS YOU CAN SEE THE THROUGH LINE!

He is ALWAYS playing a game with them. He literally does not need the Grimwalkers. They exist only because he wants something to hurt, some way to keep punishing his brother again and again and again. Every time he tries something different because it is FUN to him. A way to pass the time, even. He wants to make something perfect. A perfect soldier, servant, brother, father, son, wife, friend. Something he can hurt as much as he wants. Something that will never betray him no matter what. Something good at its job but also without it's own life beyond him. And jasper was almost there. He was almost perfect. He lasts a very long time because of it.

But Hunter is presenting him specifically with the opportunity to redo a unique situation he'd already tried and failed, and now with some new ideas on how to do better. AND the opportunity to continue to punish a dead man- the same way he's punishing tell now.

And honestly the only reason he DID fail with hunter is he stopped playing the game. Luz showed up and he was SO much more interested in her he basically stopped managing hunter which meant he got so much more leeway to exist beyond his brainwashing. If Belos had been on the ball hunter would probably never have left. As usual, Belos is the one fucking himself over with his own cruelty.

Hunter, Enoch, and Miles need to start a Kids Who Had To Deal With Being Raised By Belos club/support group, god.

Is will allowed to come?

ALRIGHT BABY

Y'ALL LIKES TELL-NO-LIES? GET READY

Hello, hopefully there is an audience for this

A quick drawing of Pilot Hunter + Luz and a silly comic ^^ 

put in all the hi def clips into my timeline. ugh. theres still artifacting and it makes me insane because its not on my end, its youtubes compression and im going to scrm about it. anyway a couple new shots but not many, its mostly just cleaner exports of shots

le wip

two frames, as a treat

so I just finished the owl house and it was very cool

(edit: wow tf this exploded out of nowhere… i made ONE SHITPOST and now all of the boiling isles knows im here….)

Chromedome in palette 60 and pose 4H

I think some people thought that since Hunter wouldn't be useful for Belos for years if he was made that young, Belos wouldn't bother to make him that young.

It's reasonable lore, but I think canon overrides it imho

Sooooooo now that we've all been introduced to and cried over Tell-no-lies and Caitlyn, they're fair game for AUs, right?

Okay, tbh I don't have many ideas for them at the moment, cuz their story was short and happened so far back in the timeline that there isn't much information to work with and it's hard to gauge what the ripple effects would be by the time we get to the canon era.

HOWEVER. It's really easy to imagine them in the Pregnant Belos AU. The inherent crackiness excuses their impossible survival and lack of ripple effects caused by it, so canon can remain unchanged until they just…pop up.

Like, imagine they escaped and disappeared and now they're, like, an old couple living incognito on the farthest toe. They never joined up with any other rebel movements, partially because of the baby, partially because Tell was right and resistence is futile, partially because there just AREN'T any movements to join. But there's other ways to rebel, like teaching wild magic to the next generation and making sure your community is so inconvenient to reach that the coven system never takes hold, so Caitlyn contents herself with that.

So like, they're old. They have at least one adult kid. They have multiple grandkids. They've lived decent lives and have regrets and don't like the current political situation but they're making do with what they've got.

And then all of a sudden the news cycle and social media are all buzzing about THE GOLDEN GUARD CHEATED ON THE EMPEROR AND RAN AWAY WITH THEIR BABY.

Caitlyn side-eyes Tell while he's staring at a news article, because she knows he's been low-key keeping an eye on every new Golden Guard who's cropped up. "Well," he says, chewing on this VERY UNFORESEEN turn of events, "that's…new." Though he's probably also like, okay, well, if they're a COUPLE that explains how this one lasted 12 freaking years when some of the others between him and Tell only lasted one or two. OKAY THEN. DIDN'T KNOW THAT WAS A POSSIBILITY.

He is also highly entertained by how uncomfortable Belos obviously is with this entire media circus. He is definitely enjoying this schadenfreude.

But then a few years later some gossip rag publishes a photo with the headline FINALLY, OUR FIRST LOOK AT PRINCE HUNTER (an attempt was made to crop the photo so viewers wouldn't be subjected to the image of Hooty, barrelling straight towards the photographer with an open maw of teeth lining far down his throat, but it wasn't very successful).

Tell stares at the picture of this adorably confused little 4-year-old and says, "Caitlyn, the lost prince is another Grimwalker."

Caitlyn looks at the owl monstrosity coiled around the child and says, "That's Hooty."

A week later, Eda hears Hooty shrieking with uncontainable joy, and she opens her door to find a pair of very familiar-looking strangers on the other side.

"Hi," says Caitlyn, "I'm your long-lost aunt, and this is my husband, who we think might be related to some of your housemates…?"

At which point Jasper comes onto the scene like "Yeah no I don't have any family, so you can take your livestreamer asses and--oh my FUCKING TITAN."

And then they're just like. Eda and Jasper/Hunter's extended family who pop up for a visit whenever it's hilarious. Dell is both extremely happy to have his sister back and extremely uncomfortable with her choice of partner. At some point the paparazzi get a photo of the Grimwalkers and Caitlyn eating ice cream and the gossip rags are like OMG ARE THOSE THE GOLDEN GUARD'S PARENTS?? Prince Hunter certainly takes after that side of the family! Now it makes sense why the Golden Guard moved in with the Owl Lady, he's clearly of Clawthorne descent!

Somewhere in the castle Belos is screaming, crying, and throwing up. Lilith is also possibly having a crisis when she puts it together that the mystery Clawthorne woman is her aunt and therefore Jasper might be her COUSIN. WHAT? WHAT??

The gang probably does nothing to dispel these assumptions, cuz like. It's another layer of protection against anyone figuring out the Grimwalker thing. But idk if Hunter would grow up calling Caitlyn and Tell his grandparents, like Dell and Gwen, or if they'd be his great-aunt and -uncle instead. Omg but he TOTALLY calls Tell and Dell the same name for like, a solid year, until he gets the difference between T and D down.

Eda would get along GREAT with Caitlyn, obviously. Darius and Caitlyn could be good friends too, I feel like they'd bond over the whole "loving an escaped Golden Guard and raising a child together" thing. Idk about Jasper and Tell? On the one hand it's like, Tell escaped but didn't help any other Grimwalkers out. In the eventually au Jasper is pissed at Lilith for ignoring the obvious child soldier, but in Runaway he very much ran off and didn't care about Will. I guess Jasper and Tell would've been in nearly the same situation here, running off to protect their family, so maybe they'd bond over the commonality.

Except for, y'know, the very obvious differences.

"Y'know," Tell says, perusing the VERY long list of blocked keywords and websites in Jasper's scroll settings, "when Caitlyn and I were on the run looking for a safe place to raise a family, it never once occurred to me to be grateful that no one was making podcasts and fanfiction about us. Never even crossed my mind. I'm going to be actively grateful for that from here on out."

"Yeah," Jasper nods, "if ONE MORE PERSON mistags their stupid AMV 'for reach', I'm going to vaporize their house."

GOD THATS SO FUNNY THOUGH. Dell like YOURE ALIVE??? YOU MARRIED A GRIMWALKER???????? jasper like sick, my survivors guilt just got a little less bad. Hunter getting a new cousin/sibling/whatever even like WOO MY COLLECTION

New interest unlocked

Absolutely insane about hits:228 and comments:56 I would die for all of you