We got over 230 kudos, 66 bookmarks, and 101 comments in Ao3. We also got 25 reviews and 65 followers on . I'm so happy, thank you for all the support.
I made some fanmade glyphs that appear in this chapter, you can go check them up here: r/TheOwlHouse/comments/11j75nx/i_made_fanmade_glyphs/
TW: Mentions of homophobia
Also, it's been more than a year since I started publishing (missed the mark by a couple months) so happy late birthday to this fic!
The usual crap:
If you could send me a review that would be great! All feedback is appreciated! As long as you don't yell at me XD
English isn't my first language, please tell me if you spot any mistakes!.
Disclaimer: I don't own the owl house, all the characters except my OCs belong to Disney and Danna Terrace. This AU idea belongs to moringmark (Plz go read his comics, I beg you).
-Luz-
The skies above Gravesfield / Wednesday November 1st 00:30 hs
Luz flew as high as she could on owlbert, enjoying the feeling of freedom and the adrenaline rush that came out with it. The human realm was nice but she missed being able to fly and do magic whenever she wanted. Back in the boiling isles she used to take long flights to clear her head and she really had wanted to do that for a while. However her busy life didn't give her time to: Between school, homework, her shifts at Eda's shop, hanging out with friends, fighting monsters, and chasing relics she barely had time to herself.
"Ahhhhhhh!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, doing that always made her feel better. Luckily only the clouds could hear her up here.
Luz always had trouble regulating her voice tone whenever she got excited but her loud rambling could be annoying to people, so she learned to turn it down over the years. However, repressing it only made the urge bigger. So whenever her frustrations piled on she screamed as loud as she could to let it all go out, it worked wonderfully.
"Whooohoooo!" She swerved Owlbert to do some loops in the air as she cheered.
She reflected that this was the perfect night to fly. There were no planes and no helicopters that might disturb her. There were some big clouds that she could use as cover, but above them there was nothing but the starry sky. She also hadn't heard of monster attacks for the entire week! So there was nothing that could interrupt her time up here (Maybe the gryffin, but she didn't like to think about it).
As she flew, several events started playing out in her head: The detention kids bonding with her, Lilith trying to mentor her, Amity flirting, Eda suffering from her illness, the Blights at the parade, studying at Cliffside, the fight at the library, and her failed quest to find the staff. She cursed and then jumped out of her palisman, falling into the clouds.
While she fell all of her frustrations and worries were blown away by the wind hitting her face. Somehow, the sensation of falling was always liberating to her. The clouds enveloped her and she closed her eyes. After a while she resummoned her staff and resumed her flight.
"Ahh, that was amazing!" She cheered.
There were some complaining noises coming from the tip of her staff.
"Come on Owlbert! I know that you don't like it when I'm free falling, but it helps me clear my head"
More condescending hoots.
"I know that the last time I promised I wouldn't do it, but I really needed to, ok? I was really stressed.
Her palisman scoffed but otherwise remained silent. Giving her the time and quiet she needed to think about her problems as they soared the skies.
The first thing that popped in her mind were the detention kids. They were able to fit in with her group perfectly and she was glad that she met them. Gus and Marcus liked to nerd out about the same things and play that overcomplicated card game. Jerbo was interested in plants so he got along well with Willow, the two of them talked about starting a botany club. Viney and her were together most of the time due to their shared interest in animals, she wanted to be a vet and that was pretty much what Luz's mom did back in the demon realm, so she had a bit of experience in the subject.
Then there was Lilith. Honestly she had been a welcome addition to the owl house, a perfect balance to Eda's chaos and someone reliable she could count on. However, that came with an unexpected situation: Now she needed to act as a mediator between the two of them. Because the sisters were so different (Luz wondered how it was possible for them to come from the same family) they often clashed and she had to work in order to find a middle ground.
Luz still liked her. Lilith tended to act as if she was an impressionable young teen in need of guidance and Luz found it amusing, especially when she tried to 'protect her' from Eda's antics. Like the one time she tried to cover her ears to stop her from listening Eda swearing.
"Does she think I've never heard any swears? Because I have heard way worse in the isles. In fact I think Lilith would have a heart attack if she knew I'm technically a wanted criminal" And that was one of the things that were worrying her. The other day Eda pulled her aside and asked her if she wanted to tell Lilith her secret, since the two of them were close now.
Luz thought about it, but ultimately she decided against it. Lilith always had a strong sense of justice, she always had a tone of disgust when she spoke about the criminals she had to deal with in her job and it was clear that she somewhat resented Eda for her unanswered crimes. Luz wasn't sure how she would react if she told her she had been lying this whole time. Not to mention she worked for the government, she didn't know if she would tell her bosses about this.
"I'll tell her someday. Once I'm done fighting monsters and looking for the staff" she decided.
Then came her next item in her list of worries, Amity. She really could not figure out what the deal was with her! First she thought she was a bully, then a nice person, then a real jerk, then when she finally got a good read on her after the library incident, she changes again and starts flirting with her.
Luz wasn't stupid, she knew Amity was being more than friendly with her, she just didn't know how to react to it. She had several crushes in the past but she always was the one making the moves. She was always the one trying to impress the cute girls in her hometown with whatever feat that came to her mind (it never worked) and she was the one trying the rebel boys to notice her. She was used to hitting on people, not being hitted on. She knew she had to answer something to her but when she opened her mouth her brain refused to work because there was a pretty girl flirting with her.
"I just don't get it. Is she really interested or is she just messing with me?" Knowing the Blight girl, it could be both "I should tell her to stop it anyway. I promised myself that I wouldn't enter a relationship until I've found a way to go back home. Besides, it would endanger my secret"
She turned Owlbert into a different direction as she thought of her main problem: Her lack of progress with the plane-shifting star.
It's not like she wasn't trying to find it, far from that actually. She did magical scans around the city almost every week, she even went as far as the spot where Eda found her. But she never found a single trace of transporting magic in the air, and that frustrated her. A part of her felt that she should be working harder to find it by quitting school and dedicating all of her time and energy into the search. She was tempted to do it sometimes, it had been several months since she left after all, but Eda always managed to calm her down by reminding her that exhausting herself to death wouldn't help no one. Still, those words didn't manage to calm the nerve she felt for her friends in the boiling isles, they were being oppressed by a tyrant while she was having fun here. This feeling of guilt accompanied her all the time and it became worse as the time passed.
"It's okey!" She told herself to disperse the depressing thoughts in her head "There hasn't been any record of other magical beings or relics in other parts of the world, not even in neighboring states. It means that everything inside that vault was transported around gravesfield. The staff is over here, I just gotta find it! The energy inside it must be dormant, that's why I can't sense it. It would be better if a human found it and used it, that way I can track its energy"
Not to mention that now she had another reason to get back to the demon realm. It wasn't just to keep fighting the fight that her mother entrusted her, or to protect her friends from an evil dictator, now she also needed to go back in order to save a life.
Eda had another attack after the parade. After they gave her medicine, Lilith told her that these had become more frequent over the years and she was worried for her. Eda rejected every doctor she offered because she was tired of them after a lifetime of getting no results and decided to just live with her illness, but they were afraid that it wouldn't be an option for her anymore. Luz had offered to take Eda to her dimension so she could get magical treatment and she had begrudgingly agreed. So now she had the extra pressure of trying to find a way to cure her mentor.
"Hoo?" Owlbert must have sensed her distress because he started cooing at her from the tip of the staff.
"Hey I'm ok. I'm just… lost in my thoughts, is no big deal" She scratched his head to comfort him "I think this has been more than enough flying, don't you think? We better go back before Lilith grounds me again" Luz liked the woman but was too strict sometimes. She guessed that Eda telling her that she was burying evidence on her behalf didn't help the matter.
She pointed her palisman down and began her descent. As she passed through the clouds she extended her hand to touch it and giggled, she always loved going through clouds. Once she passed them and had no more cover she casted an invisibility spell on her, the last thing she needed was humans recording her and sending the people in suits after her. Finally she landed on top of a construction building and put Owlbert away so that he could rest. She grabbed her phone to check on Gus's app to see if there was a magical emergency nearby but she couldn't find anything, then she realized that she had a few missed calls from Willow so she decided to talk to her.
"Hey, Willow!" Her friend answered after the third call "How's it going?"
"Luz! I've been trying to reach you for hours! Where have you been?" Willow's voice came from the phone.
"Ahh, sorry. Eda sent me to do some chores in the city and I usually leave my phone in silence for that. Did something happen" Her friend sounded really worried.
"Gus is having his halloween themed party and he wanted both of us to be here"
"Wait, his Halloween party? But wasn't it canceled because his dad didn't let him have it in their house?" She remembered her younger friend complaining about that the whole week.
"Apparently he managed to change his mind last minute. That's why I've been calling you, do you think that you can come?"
"I don't know. I'm kinda far away and it's late already" Also she had been patrolling for hours while looking for the staff and she was tired. Luz felt bad for not being there for her friend but she wasn't in the mood for a party, not to mention that halloween wasn't her thing (she swore that if she saw another human dressed as a witch she was going to commit a crime) "How long are you guys going to be there?"
"We don't have school tomorrow, remember?" Her friend reminded her "We are going to be here for a while so feel free to drop by"
"Hmmm, who else is there?"
"Everyone! Well… everyone without something better to do. His entire dnd group came alongside Jerbo, Marcus, Viney, and even that jerk Matt came"
"Wait… Matt Tholomule? I thought Gus hated him" She had heard stories about how the two prodigy students competed against each other.
"I think Gus told him to come so he could beat him in a videogame in front of everyone. Either that or he came uninvited" Willow didn't seem to care much about the subject "Anyway, you have to come! Everyone who doesn't hate us is here! Even that weird girl Eileen is here!"
That last phrase almost made her drop her phone.
"Wow wow, slow down. Eileen is there?"
After the battle in the Library Luz had tried to contact the black haired girl to check on her, but she had been so busy recovering from the fight and doing schoolwork that she barely had time to do it. She had seen her several times in school several times but the girl always gave her the cold shoulder when she tried to approach her, she assumed she still was mad at her for what happened in the library.
"Yeah! Apparently she is the newest member of Gus' dnd group" Willow explained.
"Ok, fine. I'll try to get there" Maybe she could see how Eileen was doing now, and maybe a party with her friends was the exact thing she needed to clear her head (even if she really hated those witch decorations Gus had) "Let me just try to text Eda first. How long-"
A great sensation of pain cut her in the middle of that sentence. Luz felt how a force coming from behind her pushed her against a wall, making her shriek in pain and drop her phone. It felt like she was being punched by the wind but without any point of contact. On top of that, electricity was running through her body, giving her a permanent sensation of agony.
"Luz?" Willow's worried voice came from the phone on the ground.
Making a huge effort, she fought back against the force pinning her down against the wall. It was hard, it felt like trying to defy gravity, but she managed to turn around and opened her eyes. She was surrounded by some sort of red energy that resembled lightning, in fact that was the electrifying sensation she felt around her body. She noticed that the energy was flowing towards her like a stream so she followed it with her gaze to see where it came from, she was surprised to see a familiar-looking mask.
"G-Golden guard?" The Emperor's lackey was dressed in his usual clothing consisting of a white cloak over a golden armor and a golden mask covered by a white hood.
"Well this seems familiar, doesn't it?" The distorted voice coming from inside of the golden mask had a mocking tone "I believe this is how I caught you the first time we met" He moved a couple of feet forward.
"You got her? Nice!" A nearby female voice exclaimed. A few seconds later two more figures appeared, Luz recognized them as the two guards that were with her the day of the mission at the vault "Alright, payback bitch!"
"Luz? Who was that?" The phone call was still going and she could feel Willow's worry in her voice "Is everything ok?"
Luz used all of her strength to summon her earth glyph. The bricks on a nearby wall went forward and created another wall between her and the golden guard, interrupting the flow of energy and freeing her. She sprinted into action and blasted a couple of fireballs towards her opponents, she knew that those would not harm them but she didn't need them to, she just wanted to make more time. Some profanities and spells were thrown at her but she rolled to avoid them and stood behind her makeshift brick barrier to catch her breath. She knew that the bricks were too brittle to withstand many attacks so she decided that she needed to find a new cover. Combining the fire and ice glyphs she created a fog cloud and took the opportunity to reposition, she ran and grabbed her phone before summoning her palisman.
"Sorry, I can't talk now! Call you later!" She exclaimed as she took flight with Owlbert.
"Luz wait-" Willow started to protest but Luz had already finished the call.
"She's over there!" She heard the woman say.
"Agh! And just like the last time, she escaped thanks to you two!" The golden guard complained.
"Hey! You were the one holding the spell!" The big Warden replied.
Luz tried to get away in Owlbert but she was too slow, an array of energy missiles knocked her down. She used her wind glyph to boost herself in the air and managed to land on a different rooftop, she got up quickly and tried to make a run for it but the Warden got in her way. She used an ice glyph to try to imprison him but he just grew his arms and turned his hands into hammers to smash the ice forming around him, then he lunged at her but she just jumped high with a blast of air aimed at the ground. She attempted to mount Owlbert again but somehow the golden guard appeared from nowhere and knocked her with a swing of his staff.
"Heeey" He saluted with his arm right before punching her face.
"Ouch! Hijo de puta!" She usually didn't use her mother's native language from her hometown in the armpit, but this guy managed to irk her.
"Bitch!" She didn't see her, but she heard the woman charging at her from behind. She quickly summoned several stone pillars with her earth glyph to act as a shield from all of her attackers "Dang it!"
"Could you stop yelling before striking Abigail?!" The golden guard retreated to evade the emerging pillars and shot a red lightning at her.
Luz created a magical barrier to block the attack. The Warden turned his arms into tentacles to try to grab her but he yelped and backed off when she used her lightning glyph to zap him away. Then the woman (Abigail apparently) charged at her with the same spear she used to stab her the day she came to the human realm. She managed to block the hits with her staff and then sent her flying away with her wind glyph.
"They are coming at me one after the other, I don't even have time to breathe!"
Just as she thought that the Warden stood in front of her growling, he opened his mouth and fire started forming on it. With a flash of red light she saw the golden guard behind her, the glow in his staff told her he was preparing a spell. Luz just waited for the last second and rolled to the side when the two attacks were shot at her. The red lighting collided with the flames and it produced a huge explosion blast that hurt her two opponents.
"Ouch"
"Damn it Wrath! Pin her down!"
"I'm lucky that they aren't coordinated"
"What are you two doing?!" Abigail shot several blue beams at her. She tried to dodge them but the explosion also affected her, so she ended up getting hit a couple of times "Gotcha!"
Luz used her plant glyph to summon giant thorny roots in order to immobilize her opponents. The female witch managed to dodge those but the golden guard and Wrath were still recovering from the explosion so they couldn't move that fast. They ended up covered by plants. She used this moment to cast another fog cloud.
"Oh no you don't!" The golden guard struggled to move with his binding but he managed to aim his staff towards the part of the cloud where he thought she was and casted a spell.
Luz kept her body low in the cloud and ran. Red lightning, fire breath, and magical proyectiles passed above her head, but luckily none of them hit her. She casted an invisibility spell on herself and exited the cloud without being noticed by her enemies. She made sure to walk without making a sound and managed to get to a fire exit. Once she found some cover she released the breath she had been holding and assessed her situation. She could leave right now, no one in the emperor's coven had a palisman and those artificial staffs of theirs could not match a palismen's speed. If she started flying maybe they'd notice for sure, but there wasn't much they could do about it.
However, if she left she would never know why they were here. Did the emperor send them after her? Does that mean that they had a way of crossing between realms? Maybe that's why she couldn't find the staff. This might be the first real lead she had on a way back home in months, was she really going to pass it by running away?
"Did you two find her?" She heard Abigail ask.
"I don't know, the smoke is still there" She peeked behind her cover to see the golden guard using his staff to release himself from her vines "Give me one second, I'm going to use the relic to check"
"My mom told me I should never run away from my problems and this is maybe the only chance I can find out how to get back to the boiling isles. Screw running! I'm going to confront them!... But maybe attacking head on isn't the best idea. Oh, I know! I'll try this!"
She put her hands together and created numerous magic circles, then she put them around the roof. An illusion of her appeared from each one of them and they started positioning themselves in a circle. Before they even noticed, their enemies were surrounded by clones of her.
"What in the titan-"
"ENOUGH!" All of her illusions spoke at once, giving them an intimidating echo effect.
"You think you can scare us?" Abigail aimed her spear at one of her illusions.
"I'm not trying to!" All of them spoke again "I just want to talk"
"We don't talk with criminals!" The demon shouted back.
"Well you are doing it right now"
"What's the point of this? I'm not even in the boiling isles anymore, so I am not breaking any laws"
"You humiliated me in front of my men! I want payback!" The witch roared.
"And you stabbed me that day, so I say we are even" All of her illusions crossed their arms "What are you people doing here? Did the emperor send you to find me? Is he that desperate?"
Her words had an unexpected effect. Her three enemies stopped talking and looked at each other. She couldn't see their faces but their body language told Luz that they were concerned about something. They reunited in a circle and started talking in hushed tones, she couldn't hear anything from it but they sounded worried. After a while, the golden guard turned to face one of her illusions.
"So you think that the emperor sent us to this realm to get you"
"What other business could you possibly have here? I don't think that Belos is interested in human food" She could not believe that Belos was so petty, to think he'd send his agents to chase her to another realm!
"Bitch! YOU are the one who sent us here! We all ended up in this stupid world once you used the staff in the vault. We have been looking for you for months!"
As soon as those words reached her ears she stumbled backwards and almost lost the concentration in her spell. They had been here this whole time! She always assumed that they managed to escape before the spell completed. Both the relics and the petrified creatures couldn't move, and she wasn't in a condition to do so since she was bleeding in the ground. But the three of them should've been able to escape. She reasoned that this was a welcome development somewhat, a part of her always feared that the emperor's coven managed to keep the staff with them in the boiling isles, leaving her stranded here.
"Wait. If the Golden has the staff, then why haven't they used it to go back? In fact, what do they need me for?"
"Well. Now that we are having a civilized conversation of sorts" The golden guard continued "I was hoping you'd tell us what you know about this"
He grabbed something from his backpack. It was a thick, white, rod with the length of Luz's arm. It was broken in the top and the bottom part, so it clearly had some missing pieces.
"What is that?" She was wary of the object. If they kept something that important then it must be important.
"Don't you recognize it? It's what you used to take all of us here"
"No way…"
"The plane shifting staff!" All of her illusions reflected her anger and disbelief "What did you do to it?" She couldn't believe that they broke the only thing that could get them home!
"We? YOU are the one that did all of this!" The golden guard pointed an accusing finger at one of her illusions "I was too late to stop the spell once I grabbed the staff, and when we landed here with you it was already broken!"
"Don't play her games" Abigail pushed him aside and stepped forward "We know that you have the last two pieces, fucker. Hand them in!"
"But… I don't have them" Her illusions replied as she dealt with the piece of information she just recieved. The situation was actually worse than what she thought at first.
"Bullshit!" The woman roared at her.
"There is a way to check that" The golden guard intervened and looked at his demon teammate "Wrath, which one is the real one?"
The grey demon had been silent this whole time. He had a small object in his hand but Luz couldn't see what it was from her hiding spot.
"None. She is right there!" Wrath pointed towards the exact direction where she was hiding and breathed fire at her. Luz was surprised but reacted quickly by generating a blizzard from her ice and wind glyph combined.
"How did he know where I was?" She took advantage of the vapor that was generated by the clashing of their attacks and attempted to sneak away.
"That's more like it!" Abigail drew a magical circle and a wave of energy emerged from it. She aimed it at her illusions and all of them were whipped in one sweep.
The golden guard wasted no time and dashed towards her as he shot beams from his staff. Luz created stone pillars to defend herself, but she didn't count the material on the ground being so soft. Earth glyphs worked by changing the shape of the ground, instead of creating new matter like the construction coven spells, so whatever you created was as strong as the material you were standing on. In this case the bricks from the roof she was on were not hard enough to withstand the arcane explosions sent to her.
"Ugh!" She exclaimed as she was sent away from the blast.
"Keep pushing her!" Abigail kept shooting magical beams at her. Luckily she was able to dodge them by mounting on Owlbert.
She saw a flash of crimson light out of the corner of her eye so she knew that the Golden guard had teleported behind her to intercept her. With one swift motion she changed trajectory and managed to dodge the punch that was coming for her. It was obvious that the golden guard wasn't expecting that so he was caught off guard when she kicked him in his masked face.
"Ouch!"
"He is trying to prevent me from leaving since he is the only one who can fly. But it seems that his artificial staff cannot cast spells while he is flying so he has to use physical attacks in the air, I can work with that"
"Don't let her get away!" Abigail summoned a whip of energy and tried to hit Luz with it.
"Don't worry, I got this!" Wrath pulled something out of his pocket. She was too far away to distinguish it but he held it high and aimed it towards her.
A green light emerged from whatever object the warden was holding and it shone on her. She thought it was an attack so she braced herself for an impact, however she didn't feel anything, it was like someone pointed at her with a green flashlight.
"Do it now!" Abigail shouted.
Wrath touched the thing on his hand again and something happened to her. It was like the electrifying sensation she felt when she was trapped under the golden guard's force spell but a hundred times more intense. She tried to fly away but the pull was just too much, it was like she was chained to the floor. Luz finally fell after a bit of struggling and when she hit the ground it felt as if she fell down from a skyscraper, even if she had been less than twenty feet in the air.
"Yeah! I told you that bringing the gravity enhancer was a good idea" She heard the golden guard cheer.
"Oh, shut it already. Wrath! Keep that thing on, I'm going to approach her. Let's see if she is willing to talk now"
As a matter of fact Luz felt like she couldn't talk, she couldn't even move her fingers. An invisible force was trying to push her against the floor with great strength, like if it was trying to squish her into nothing against the ground. It hurt to breathe and she felt like every bone in her body was being grinded to dust.
"Alright you fucker" She heard Abigail approach but couldn't turn her head to face her "You better start telling us where you have the other parts of the staff unless you want to get pierced by my spear… again"
"Careful! If you step too close you might get caught in the gravity field" Wrath warned her.
"Well we can't search her like that. Maybe we should restrain her and then turn off the relic" She saw the golden guard out of the corner of her eye "Oh, hey. What do we have here?"
He extended his staff and aimed to her side. She saw how a red energy enveloped her palisman and levitated it towards him.
"Palismen are incredibly dangerous, I'll have to confiscate this" He said with a mocking tone while grabbing Owlbert "The Emperor will be glad to know that you contributed"
"No…"
She knew what happened to the palismen that were brought to the emperor. One time the C.A.T.s managed to get a spy inside the ranks of the emperor's coven and he saw from first hand what Belos did to those poor creatures. Luz would never forget his face of horror when he narrated how the emperor consumed the life force of the palisman. It was unclear why he did it (maybe he was cursed in some way, maybe he did it to gain more power, or maybe it was to prolong his lifetime) but it was the highest form of sacrilege known to witches; Palistrom wood was sacred for witches and not only because it was alive and sentient, it gave the witches the ability to create life in the form of a partner that would help them for decades. Carving a palisman was a holy tradition that had been passed for generations and generations way before Belos' regime, wild witches believed that this was how the titan created witchkind: By carving them from the ground.
Owlbert was her mom's palisman, he had watched over her since birth. Her palisman was the only connection she had to her.
"N-no! Get a-away from him" she struggled to even form a sentence. She tried to get up and actually managed to put her head up.
"Oh, shut it you" Abigail casted a lightning spell on her and she fell down again with a shriek of pain. She kept discharging electricity on her and Luz twisted in agony "I can't kill you yet so I guess I gotta settle down with this"
"Hey! Look what I found, it's her backpack!" She heard the golden guard say.
"Good, go check if she has a piece of the staff there. I'm going to keep doing this until I'm sure she won't be a problem. Then you can turn off the relic so we can interrogate her" She snapped her fingers and the intensity of the lightning doubled.
Luz cried from the pain. Was this how she was going to end? She didn't have any staff pieces on her backpack, and once they find out about that they were going to torture her for information she did not have. As soon as these witches realized that she wasn't useful for them they'd surely kill her and she wouldn't be able to fight back. The gravity spell was already crushing her internal organs by the sheer pressure of it, but now the lightning was scorching her back and igniting every pain receptor in her body, she could hardly think. Tears flooded her vision, she couldn't do anything to get out of this predicament or to save her palisman. She was going to die on this rooftop and her body was going to be found among all of these cracks in the floor.
…
Wait a minute.
Cracks
The rooftop that they were in had multiple cracks from the battle. Some parts even had craters. She wasn't an expert at human constructions but she knew that an unfinished building like this one was way weaker because it wasn't complete yet, and she was sure as heck that it wasn't built to withstand the impacts of magical attacks, so probably its structure was severely damaged. An idea started forming in her head.
"I might not be able to get up, but that doesn't mean I can't get down! Titan, I hope that there aren't many humans below us" She started creating the spell she was going to need for this.
"Hey, do you think that's enough?" The golden guard asked after a while "I believe that she needs to be able to speak if we are going to interrogate her"
"Yeah, that should be it. I don't want to tire myself" She stopped with the electric treatment and her back muscles felt an immense relief "Soooo, ready to talk?"
Luz felt weird. Even though her entire back must be scorched from the lightning and her ribs crushed by the high gravity around her, she felt thrilled. Adrenaline was flowing through her veins and preventing her from feeling any pain, the air in her lungs felt invigorating now that she wasn't screaming in pain, and the taste of blood in her mouth only made her want revenge. Her eyes were getting blurry and she was probably having a fever, but despite all of this there was only one thing in her mind: Determination.
"Yes.." She said with a weak, hoarse voice. The three witches got closer to hear her
She didn't feel weak at all, even if her whole body was screaming in pain she felt awesome. All because she could remember what a certain grumpy but wise woman told her one time.
"Luz. You gotta stop running from that jock girl. Some problems won't go away no matter how hard you try to run, trust me. Sometimes you have to turn around, face them, and tell them to-"
Luz turned around, faced her enemies, and gave them the fiercest smile she could muster in her condition before saying the next words:
"Fuck off"
She tapped the ground beneath her and the roof crumbled under their feet.
Something that the three of them probably didn't know was that it wasn't necessary to draw a magic circle to use wild magic, the early witches drew pictoglyphs on walls to cast spells. Maybe nowadays that method was obsolete but it was just what she needed: She licked the floor with her tongue in the glyph pattern, using her own blood as ink. Her enemies were expecting her to try and do something with her hands, that's why they weren't watching her mouth.
"What the-"
"Motherfucker!"
"Huh?"
With the explosion her earth glyph produced the entire roof opened and all of them fell to the floor beneath in an instant, it was so quick that the golden guard didn't even have time to hop on his staff. Wrath accidentally dropped the relic that was increasing her gravity so she was free to move again, even if her body ached every time she tried to do so, she quickly used her wind glyph to keep herself in the air and avoid falling. Once she was in a stable position she started healing herself.
Her enemies were caught unprepared and fell alongside the debris. It seemed that Luz miscalculated how weak the building's structure was, because not only the damaged part where they fought was destroyed, but also the entire top part of the building crumbled away.
It also seemed that the entire weight of two witches, one demon, and a ton of rubble was too much for the floor beneath them. The structure also gave up and the floor got destroyed as well. Her enemies ended up falling through three floors, destroying everything on their way.
Luz finished healing up quickly and went down. She wasn't fully healed yet, not even close, but she was good enough to move without breaking anything or bleeding out. She flew downwards towards something that caught her eye among all of the rubble and dust created by the destruction: Wrath's magical relic. It flew away from his arms but landed safely in a support beam.
"This could be useful. Now, where are they?"
She casted an invisibility spell on herself as a preventive measure and floated down to check for Owlbert. The place was a disaster: Most of the walls and floors have completely crumbled and the sections that hadn't were filled with cracks and holes, a massive cloud of dust covered everything and made it really hard for her to see or breathe easily, and piles of debris and rubble were everywhere. She didn't see any movement for a while, until a pile of rocks started shifting.
"Oh that's it!" She could hear Abigail's voice coming from the rubble "I'm gonna kill her!"
There was more shaking and some rocks fell from a pile. She saw a light in the middle of the dust cloud and flew towards it. Once she got closer Luz could see that the light was a force field that the witch had used to shield herself from the impact. Abigail blasted the rubble away to clear a path to herself and stepped outside of her force field.
"Ugh…" it seemed that she didn't manage to shield herself in time due to her surprise attack. She had several bruises and cuts everywhere, the side of her face was bleeding and she winced with pain each time she took a step "Where are you two?"
A sudden noise behind them startled her. She turned around to see a pillar of fire emerging from some rocks. Wrath came out of those seconds later.
*Cough* "Agh, this dust. Are you okey?" Wrath looked a little roughen up but he looked mostly fine. His demon complection must've helped him endure the fall.
"Do I look fucking ok? Where's the wild witch? And where's the kid?"
"I'm over here!" She heard the golden guards' voice and turned to see him flying with his staff "Sorry, I was just scouting to see if I could find her. So far I've got no luck"
"I bet that the bitch already left" Abigail leaned against a cracked piece of concrete that probably belonged to the upper floors and spat some blood "Ohh, that's it. Next time we are dealing with her I'm taking your staff, I don't care about your reasons"
"Two things. One: no you are not, and two: I doubt she'd leave without this" He said while he pulled something out of his cape.
When Luz saw what it was, her anger flared up. He was holding a magical cage made out of red energy, inside she could see Owlber trying to get out.
She decided she had to act now. She approached while crouching to not be detected and focused. All this time in the human realm she had been careful to not to use big spells, not even when she had to fight against giant monsters like the plant, and there were two main reasons for this: First, it would expose her identity to more people, being incognito would be extremely hard if she was leaving a wave of destruction behind herself by casting full power spells. The other reason was to avoid collateral damage, cities in the human realm were far more populated than the ones in the boiling isles and one wrong move could result in dozens of innocents hurt.
But she didn't have the time or energy to care about those things right now, her friend was in trouble and she was going to help him! She breathed in and summoned her ice glyph. Concentrating her entire being into producing her coldest attack ever. When she exhaled she also extended her hand and the most powerful blizzard that she had ever casted came forth. Everything that it collided with got immediately covered in frost and the small objects crumbled away. The three of them didn't even see it coming, Wrath barely had enough time to put himself in front of the other two before they were covered in ice. Luz knew that they could release themselves with a spell so she kept going. The ice grew and grew, destroying everything in its path until half of the construction building was covered in it.
She gasped when the spell ended and fell to the floor, she must've exhausted most of her reserves with this one. Her fingers were numb from the cold and her body was covered in frost, but she had to move so she got up and walked forward.
"Owlbert!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. She knew that he was ok because the cage that the golden guard put him in also acted as a protection barrier.
"Hoo hoo" she heard a faint sound coming from somewhere in the ice, she approached and how Owlbert was still in the energy sphere. Her suspicions were right, the cage protected him from the spell.
"Owlbert! Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" She melted the ice around him with fire and then created an earth spike to pop him out of his prison "Oh my titan, I was so worried"
The palisman just nuzzled on her for comfort and she cradled him. He looked dazed and afraid but otherwise seemed fine.
"Ok Owlbert, I know you are tired but we need to leave-" A cracking sound interrupted her.
One of the ice pillars near her bursted open, leaving tiny shards everywhere, and a large flame came out of it. Wrath, who had been trapped under the ice, jumped out of it and roared at her. However, Luz was ready for it. Once the grey demon lunged at her she pointed the same relic he used on her (which was some kind of green wand) and activated it. Immediately the gravity around him increased and he fell to the ground with a yell.
"Yeah. Hurts, doesn't it?"
"Hey!" She heard something coming from behind Wrath and ducked just in time to avoid a blue spark of energy that was coming for her head. A weak-looking Abigail was standing nearby "Let him go!"
"She doesn't even look hurt by the ice. Wrath must've jumped in to protect her"
She just jumped to dodge her attacks and mounted on Owlbert. Once she was above her she used her lighting glyph to discharge purple electricity on her, the witch was too weak to counter so she received the full blast of the attack.
"Payback!" She yelled when she screamed in agony.
Right now the two of them were subdued, but she knew it wouldn't last long, so she took her chance and started flying away. She had gained quite the altitude when she heard a blast and turned to see a red explosion that shattered most of the ice in the building.
"WILD WITCH!" She heard the golden guard scream and saw how he was coming after her at an impressive speed.
"He must have used the explosion to blast himself up. Titan, he never quits does he?"
Usually she would've been able to outmaneuver him with her staff but Owlbert was too tired to do that. Instead she tried to blast him away with fireballs but he just dodged them and crashed into her with full force.
"Ouch, let me go!" She struggled to get out of his grasp to no avail. He held her wrists with a lot of strength.
"This is the end of your journey, criminal!" He kept pushing them with his staff in mid air, so they ended up crashing in the balcony of a nearby building.
"Ouch…" Luz complained when she landed on her back. She was in a rough shape because she had put all of her effort in that last ice attack.
"This is enough!" He climbed on top of her and aimed his staff down at her. His masked face was just inches away from hers, so she could hear his jagged breath "You will tell me where you hid the staff or I'll-"
"SKREEEE" an unexpected shriek cut him off.
The two of them looked up in confusion. Right in front of them there was another balcony, and sitting on top of it there was a familiar creature. The griffon looked at them with unease, it seemed that it was as surprised as them by the situation. She had no doubt that this was the same creature that pooped over Eda's car, mainly because there were no other griffons in the human realm.
"Is this another one of your tricks?" The golden guard asked, suddenly worried.
"Oh yeah, this is all part of my plan. As if I was the one who got us crashed here. Now get off me!" She shoved him aside
"Silence! I will not take orders from you!" He aimed at her with his staff.
The griffon chose this time to roar and stand up, it clearly didn't like that they were fighting in front of it. Now that Luz could see it properly, she noticed that it was standing on top of a large pile of objects: Coins, car parts, toys, utensils, signs, all trash of different sizes. The only thing in common that those objects had was that they were shiny.
"Is this it's nest?"
"Hey calm down. It clearly doesn't like us, so. If we do any aggressive movements it will-"
"Do you think I'd fall for that? Prepare yourself!" With that he lunged at her with his staff.
The griffon obviously treated that as an attack and jumped at them, trying to pierce him with its claws. The golden guard rolled to the side and prepared a spell with his staff. However, the griffin grabbed it with its beak and tried to take it away from him.
"Hey! No, that's not a toy!" He was now having a tug-o-war with the flying creature. It was a really funny scene to watch "You! Tell your pet to let go!"
"That it's not my pet! How many times do I have to…" She stopped talking once she noticed something else.
The griffon had something in one of its paws, it was encrusted on one of the talons. She noticed it because it was a metal with a shiny surface that contrasted with the creature's grey fur. It looked like a golden dagger but something was awfully familiar to it.
"Wait a second, do you see that?" She pointed at the strange object.
"I don't have time for your games!" He finally managed to pull off his staff from the griffon's mouth "Hah! It's over, beast! Prepare to-"
"I'm serious! Look at its paw" She pointed at the object in question.
"Hmm" To his credit, the golden guard stopped threatening her and looked "Wait… Is that?"
"I think so" She nodded.
The two of them were familiar with this object, because the two of them held it before. This golden piece of metal was the bottom tip of the plane-shifting staff.
"Did the griffon have it all this time? Titan, that would be embarrassing"
"Hmph. I guess that you weren't aware of this, otherwise you wouldn't have brought it to my attention" He swung his staff, a red energy that emerged from it levitated the griffon and pinned it down against a wall.
"Don't hurt it!"
"If I were you, I'd worry more about myself" He then blasted her again.
Luz stumbled back into her feet. The truth was that the ice attack had been her last resort and now she was out of juice.
"If you really do not know where the other pieces are then you are useless to us. I'm going to bring you back to my team, Abigail will be thrilled when she finds out that she doesn't have to hold back on you anymore" He raised his staff to prepare an attack. The crimson energy at the tip started flowing and she closed her eyes "Ouch!"
"What?"
She opened her eyes again to see the golden guard getting attacked by a… bird?
"What are you- let me go!" He tried in vain to shield his head as the feathered creatures pecked his ears. It looked like a cardinal, although it was a bit bigger and it had a scar on it's left eye "Ugh, that's enough!"
He attempted to blast it away with his staff but the red bird was too fast. It dodged his attacks and chirped at him angrily afterwards, as if it was scolding him. Then it grabbed a strand of his blonde hair and started tugging hard.
"Ow, ow, ow!" He complained as the bird tugged him away. The sight reminded her of a mother pulling her son by the ear.
"This is the weirdest thing I've seen all day. But at least I can use it"
"Hey, goldie!" She got up and called to him "better pay attention.
She used her earth glyph to conjure up a medium sized rock that collided against him at great speed. The impact made him fall back and drop the staff, which released the griffon from the spell. She didn't lose any time and casted a wind glyph to blast his staff away with a strong breeze, it was blown away from the balcony and landed on the street, several floors below.
"NO!" He swatted the bird away and went to the railing of the balcony to watch where his staff landed "Do you have an idea of what you just did?"
"Yeah" she got up in Owlbert "Try to follow me now, goldie" she then flew away.
"No! Stop! I FORBID YOU TO FLEE!" She could hear his screams as she left
Luz was in a rough shape: Her back was burned, several of her bones were broken, her clothes were jarred, her magic was exhausted, and she had blood all over herself. However, she couldn't help but smile.
-Amity-
Blight manor, west gravesfield / Wednesday november 1st 19:00 hs
Amity paced nervously around her room, looking at the clock every once in a while. She could tell that she had been waiting for about fifteen minutes because of that, which didn't help her nerves.
Today was one of the rare days where her mother was off work. Usually she saved this day for herself because she barely had some free time, but she decided to make an exception today and take her to a fancy restorant to have a mother-daughter dinner. Amity wasn't dumb, she knew this was a way to monitor her, but she didn't care. This was a rare occasion, something that could give her the chance of talking with her mother alone. She was always so busy helping with the mayor's campaign and managing blight industries that she barely had a time to be alone with Amity, and she really needed to discuss this when they were alone.
Amity had finally decided to tell her mum that she was gay, which was something that she never thought she would do. Ever since she found out she was gay five years ago she decided to keep it to herself. She didn't know her opinion on the matter, but considering that she supported the mayor's anti-lgbtq campaigns she always assumed that her sexuality wouldn't be welcomed by her. But that changed when she met Eda Clawthorne last week.
Tall, proud, friendly, charming, warm, loud, she seemed to be the exact opposite of her mother. So when she found out that Luz's mentor used to be her mother's crush she was really shocked, she barely even had time to fully process Lilith's return (and that was another subject that made her uneasy) when that bomb was dropped on her. Now she was faced with the possibility that her mom might actually understand and accept her feelings, or she might even be queer as well. Of course, there was no guarantee that that would be the case. She might just tell her that it was something temporary to her and she expected her to be over this 'silly teenager phase' soon.
"Oh come on! She's never this late when she has to talk to the accionists!" She looked at the clock on the wall. Her mother had entered her office to take a call and the nerves were eating her away "I don't care if she rejects me at this point! I just want to get this over with and know if she'll accept me or if I'll have to wait two more years to get a girlfriend"
And that was the main reason why she wanted to do this: She just couldn't keep it to herself anymore. The twins knew about it and they supported her but they were far away now, her 'friends' at school wouldn't understand it, and her father wouldn't care. Usually she would solve this by writing in her diary but that wasn't working anymore, which was a scary thought; Her diary had been a place to pour all of her emotions ever since Lilith left and she was forced to cut Eileen off from her life, but ever since the library incident she didn't feel safe putting her most precious inner thoughts in a piece of paper anymore. Since her only way of venting had been profanated to such a degree she had no choice but to open up to someone about it, even if a big part of her felt this was a bad idea.
"All of this would be better if mom would let me see an actual therapist. Actually no, that would be bad. She'll probably bribe them with her money to tell her everything I tell them"
A noise startled her away from her thoughts. It was her mother, finally exiting her office.
"I'm sorry for the delay, my dear. I swear that this man does not understand the meaning of 'a day off'" She seemed really pissed off about that.
"From the way you treat your own employees, you don't either" She remembered all those times she told her workers to come to the office on their day off or get fired.
"It's fine, we are still too early anyway" She went and grabbed her coat.
"A Blight should always arrive earlier than expected dear, but you are right. Even with Grant's unoportune call we will have time to make one stop before the restorant"
"One stop? Please don't tell me it's about work"
"Actually, no. We are going to pick up your aunt on the way" Odalia said with a cheerful tone.
Amity's stomach dropped.
"A-Aunt Helena is going to come with us?" She dreaded that thought. This was supposed to be a mother-daughter dinner!
"Your aunt is going to go on a trip over europe for a few months, so this will be the last time we get to talk to her for a while. Since this is a special occasion I decided to let her join our little supper" Then she noticed her angusted face "Is that ok?"
"Oh yeah, it's… perfect" She hadn't interacted with her aunt since she scolded her for not getting the best grade and she didn't want to deal with that right now.
This made things so much worse. Her aunt was very similar to Odalia in a lot of ways, but she was more intense than her. Talking about her sexuality just became ten times harder because before she had to come out to her controlling -and maybe homophobic- mother, but now she had to add her very oppressive -and definitely homophobic- aunt into the mix.
"Well, change of plans. I'll do it right now"
"Actually, can I tell you something real quick?"
"We can talk at the restorant with your aunt. Now let's go, it's getting late" She grabbed her car keys from the table.
"I just want to talk to you about something, it won't take much time" she kept insisting.
"Can't it wait, dear? We have to-"
"NO! It can't wait!" her nerves made her speak louder than she intended to and her mother raised an eyebrow "...please?"
"Fine" She set her car keys down and looked at her properly in the eye "I'm listening"
Amity started sweating even more. She had pictured this scenario in her head several times and it always ended with her being screamed at, or locked in her room, or getting thrown out of the house, or being sent to a conversion camp. She was going to take a big risk, but she needed to do it.
"Here goes nothing"
"I-I wanted to tell you… something about myself" Her mother's inquisitive look was making this worse "well… I… uh…"
"I should probably have put you in public speech classes, if this is how you address to people" Her mother interrupted her with a sardonic smile which made it more difficult "Speak clear Amity, this is something you'll have to do when you are in command of Blight industries"
"Ok, fuck it"
"I'm gay" She just spat out.
Odalia blinked several times at her.
"I like women. And before you say anything this isn't a phase or some silly crush I have that will fade with time. I'm sure of it and have been sure for the last five years. I had several crushes and I even dated a girl a few years back without you noticing. I wanted to tell you because this is who I am and you deserve to know it, but you need to know that I won't change that part of me no matter what you say!" Once she finished her speech she closed her eyes to brace for the inevitable outburst.
"Huh…" Odalia said after a while "So that's why you wanted to have all of those 'study dates' with the hofferson's daughter"
"Huh?"
"And to think that I went to such extents to make sure you were apart from boys your age so you won't get distracted… That seems funny looking back at it"
"What?" Amity was perplexed.
"It's a pity that I won't get any grandchildren from you or Emira. Oh well, there's nothing to do about that" She picked up her car keys and smiled to her "I'm happy that you were able to tell that to me, now let's go"
"Whoa, wait what?" Her brain couldn't fully process this.
"Do you have an inquiry? Perhaps you want me to set you up with one of the daughters of our actionists? I hear they are such lovely young ladies" She added with a playful smirk.
"Wait, nononono" She didn't even want to think about what her mother just told her "You are ok with this?!"
"And why wouldn't I be? You are my daughter. I know that I have high standards for you but those are to prepare you for your future and for the wellbeing of the family. You romantic preferences don't affect either of those"
"But… You do all of those campaigns for mayor Grant against queer people…"
"Contrary to what people believe, I work for him and not with him. You don't get to pick your colleagues or your boss in life, I do not agree with his actions and I plan to rectify those once I assume charge of the office"
"But you are a CEO! Surely you can have other job offers in politics without working for that man"
"You'd think so, but that isn't the case. I'm a woman and sometimes that means that I have to bear things that men in my position wouldn't, even in this modern world we are in there are still unfairness"
"But aunt Helena is a massive homophobe…" She was running out of reasons.
"And what? Just because we were raised in the same household doesn't mean I have to agree with everything she says" Odalia looked at her in the eyes "Amity, did you think that I would be against this?"
"Yes…" She admitted with sadness.
"Why? I never gave you a reason to-"
"Well how was I supposed to know!?" She screamed at her and tears flowed through her vision "Everything you say is 'Blight this' and 'Blight that', all is about manners and appearances with you! You only appear to monitor and correct my lifestyle! So far you have been against everything that I wanted in my life! How was I supposed to know that this would be different? I don't even know you and you don't even know me, you just treat me like an asset for the company!"
She finished her rambling and started to properly cry without a care for the world. She knew that she was going to get scolded and probably grounded after receiving a long lecture about why showing emotion is a weakness. But she just didn't care.
After a few seconds she felt two hands holding her arms, she opened her eyes to see her mother staring at her with a solemn expression, she gently rubbed her shoulders as she led her to a chair so she could sit. It wasn't a caring touch or a comforting smile, it wasn't even a full embrace, but it was something. Maybe it was the maximum amount of expression her mother allowed herself to show, or maybe it was the maximum amount that she could show, but it was soothing in its own way.
"The things I do to you may seem cruel and maybe they are, but I do them for a reason. Outside there's a cruel and uncaring world filled with people that won't hesitate to take advantage of you" She explained as she sat in front of her.
"So what? Am I supposed to believe that this is all just to 'toughen me up'? Mom please, you dedicate more time to the company and your campaign than you ever did to us. Just admit that you are doing this for the money" she sobbed angrily.
"That's the big part of it, yes I won't deny it. You were born with privileges that me and your father got to you so you wouldn't understand, but I didn't have that luxury while growing up" That got her interest, Odalia rarely talked about her past before marrying her dad "I didn't have anything and I worked hard to achieve it. Don't let anyone fool you with that stupidity of 'money doesn't bring you happiness', money is everything in this world and those who don't have it suffer for it. I do what I do because I don't want to suffer anymore and I don't want you children to suffer either. All I wanted for you in exchange is to be the best, not just for the company and my benefit, but so that once the world tries to fight you, you could fight back"
"But I am the best! I excel at every activity you put me on! Robotics, Basketball, piano, french, even school! I am the best student of my course and everyone will agree with me. However, that's not enough for you! It never is! Edric and Emira were excellent students who got full college scholarships for their academic achievements, but you never stopped making them feel like they were a disappointment until they left! I dedicated everything to the things you made me do and in return you made me leave my friends! How's that fair?" She just let everything go in her words. Her anger, her frustration, everything.
"That Eileen girl…" Odalia seemed to remember.
"And Willow, don't forget about her" She grabbed a tissue to clean her nose "It was for her dads right? Grant was at that party also and he wasn't happy that a gay couple was also invited"
*sigh* "You are more perspective than I give you credit for. Yes that was the principal reason, but I also thought it was for the better. I established my power by making connections with people and I thought that girl wasn't indicated for that. That's why I put you with Boscha and Skarra, to surround you with people with influence"
"You are wrong with that" She stopped crying and looked at her with determination "You may have got in that position thanks to your connections, that is your way of doing things. My way of doing things is rising through the ranks with my skills, the ones that you helped cultivate. I'm not going to need to kiss anyone's butt or grovel to anyone's feet or to sweet talk with words, I'm going to make people listen my own way"
She expected her mother to be angry at her, but instead she just smiled.
"That was the exact reason why I raised you like that, to make sure that you wouldn't need to do what I did. It was about time you showed some backbone dear, I am glad you told me this" it took Amity a while to process this.
"If you really mean everything you just told me then you would let me be friends with whoever I want" Maybe she was pressing it too much, but she had to try this.
"Hmmm, I would prefer if you remained close with Boscha and her group. It would be a shame to lose all the years of friendship you had…"
"They aren't my friends" Amity interrupted "They never were to begin with"
"Then I suppose that's fine. You can even return to that Park girl if you wish" Odalia got up from her chair and offered her hand "I can understand if you still mad at me for everything, but you need to know I did it for your own good"
"I will need time to trust your word, and I want you to tell the same to Edric and Emira when they come back, but I guess this is good for now" She took her hand and got up as well "It's my life, I should be able to live it don't you think?"
"Fair enough. Now, how about that dinner?" She said, grabbing their coats.
"Are we going to pick up Aunt Helena on the way?" Amity didn't think she could stand it.
"No, I want to have a nice evening and it's impossible with that woman around" She then looked at her fondly "Apparently I don't know my own daughter, I would like to rectify that"
Amity felt the biggest smile blossom in her face
Idk if I made the fight with the three witches too easy for Luz. I want to make a point here: even though the Emperor's coven is considered 'the best from the best' (although that's subjective) and they are an elite among them, they are not at the level of coven leaders. Wrath mainly uses his demonic powers and close combat, while Abigail uses her spear and some magical abilities similar to what we see coven scouts use in the show. Hunter is a special case, being magicless, but his artificial staff makes him the most powerful of the three of them. However his lack of experience with using magic and the other two's martial prowess makes them more even.
At first I wanted to write that the coven witches took Owlbert from Luz but I discovered I do not like writing angst, I guess I don't have the stomach for it. But you shouldn't worry, angst lovers, there will be plenty of sad and traumatizing things in the future of this fic.
Also a reminder: Whenever Luz fights and I write "she used her glyph" I'm not saying she is using the sticky notes like the show. What I'm saying is that she creates a holographic/light version of the glyph in the air, pretty much like magic circles in the show. It's not my idea, I took it from the comic.
I hope I made that 'coming out' scene well. I never had to come out to my parents, mainly bc they do not even understand what aroace means