To need solutions to impossible questions, Part 2
To Need solutions to impossible questions
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Hunter
Hunter wrote down his theories about Stringbean and Song in his notebook. The stranger must have refilled the strength Stringbean was missing, or replaced it with something else.
He didn’t know. Luz’s palisman was the most unique one he’d ever studied, not only because of her shape-changing abilities but also because of how she had been raised.
He was thumbing away at a notebook when Amity, Song, and King burst into the Owl House. Song and King looked nervous, but Amity had a genuine smile on her face for the first time in nearly four years.
“Hunter!” She yelled, waving him over. He meandered over to them, putting his hands on his hips as he got close(a habit he got from his dad).
“What do you need?”
“Everyone!” Amity yelled, “I need everyone. Eda, Willow, Gus, Cam- no. Not Camila, but get Lilith! We need her too!” Hunter knew better than to question Amity about anything when she got this way. She had a gleam in her eye which reminded Hunter of the fire of hope. He sighed ,pulled out his scroll, and within ten minutes, everyone was there at the Owl House, and everyone, including Hunter, was very confused.
“Ames? What’s going on?” Willow asked,
“And why is King here?” Eda scolded. “He’s supposed to be on his trip!”
“Weh! Mom, listen to Amity! She has something to tell everyone,” King said as he clutched Song’s shoulder. The room went quiet at that.
“Ms. Eda, Amity does have something important to say,” Song said to the room quietly. Hunter felt like that quietness didn’t belong to her, which was weird,because he barely knew this woman! Everyone turned their attention to Amity, who looked both excited and nervous. Hunter pet Waffles, who was perched on his shoulder. He got the feeling this was going to be a busy day.
“Okay, team, please try not to freak out, okay?” Amity started, raising her voice. The others nodded.
“Get to the point!” Gus impatiently.
“Okay, okay, Amity sighed,” She pulled Song close to her and put her hand on the Half-Titan's chest.
“Everyone, this is Song,” Amity said, pushing Song forwards, “but she used to be Luz Noceda.”
To need solutions to impossible questions
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Hunter
The others were huddled around Song…or Luz (Hunter would keep calling her Song until they sorted it out), but he wasn’t convinced. The girl he’d come to know as his sister couldn’t be back! Even if she was, it was a cruel trick that she didn’t remember anything about herself.
“Wait, Amity, so you’re saying she’s only a third of Luz?” Hunter asked. She gave him nod and went back to explain to the rest of the group.
“So, we need to find her soul and her mind. Does anyone have any ideas?” Amity asked
“Kiddo, how do you know she’s supposed to be Luz?” Eda asked.
“Cause she knows things that only Luz would know, and,” Amity pulled back Song’s hair, “She’s got human bits, inside and out!”
Everyone nodded and then descended into theory-making, Amity and Eda taking charge, but unfortunately had different ways of thinking. Eda wanted to approach the problem with a more magical solution. Amity wanted to search important places in Luz’s life for the parts to see if they could locate anything that way.
Hunter couldn’t see why they wouldn’t do both, but Amity and Eda had been butting heads more and more often over the last 4 years.
Eda and Amity were so busy arguing that they didn’t know Song had slipped away from the group. Hunter didn’t blame her for leaving. He found that he got overwhelmed in situations like these,and often preferred just to hang back and add his opinion when everyone else was calmer. That was why he decided to go comfort Song as best he could. He didn’t have to imagine how it felt when someone said you where supposed to be someone else.
“Yo,” He mumbled, sliding next to her. She was looking intently at a full-body mirror nestled in the corner of the room.
“Hunter, tell me what you think about this,” she said, snapping her fingers. A big ball of purplish, yellow light popped into existence inbetween Song’s horns.
“It’s nifty, though. Why do you need it?” Hunter asked.
“Dunno, it just feels right,” She chuckled wryly, stuffing her hands in her pockets and turning around to face the group, the ball of light fading. The two of them just stood and watched the others discuss strategy for a while. Hunter enjoyed it. It was like an easier form of socializing. He was vibing it so much that he jumped a little when a sudden chill shot down his spine.
“Hey, did you ever tell them about all that Grimwalking business?” asked Song in a twinned voice. It was like two voices overlapping each other. One sounded like the stranger Hunter had met earlier today. The other sounded younger, and a lot like… well, it sounded more like Luz than Song ever had.
“Sorry if that’s a bit rude; it’s just I was wondering. She says you mentioned it earlier, so I have to assume…”
Hunter backed away again, and in a split second, he noticed over Song’s shoulder that she had two reflections.
Hunter decided to make a choice based on a gut feeling. He didn’t like making those kinds of choices, but Willow, Dell, and Darius had said that sometimes you just needed to follow those instincts. So he made his choice and called over the group.
“Song had two reflections. I just saw it.”
“What?” They all cried, rushing over to Hunter. In the commotion, Song was pushed from the mirror so that it could be inspected, but something was nagging at the back of Hunter's mind. Luz had talked to him a lot during their time in the human realm. Usually about stuff she was guilty about, but sometimes she mentioned things about wild magic. They had both shared that interest back then.
“Ms. Eda?” Hunter asked. The Owl Lady's head perked up, and she walked over to Hunter.
“Can you tell what it was like when Luz first tried making a portal?”
All eyes were on Eda as she thought about the question. “Well, it was kinda wonky, kid,” Eda started. “Didn’t really work. Luz said she could only watch from-” Eda turned to look at the mirror, “from reflections.”
It started clicking. Song was looking in a mirror when she addressed Amity as batata. Maybe-
“What if Luz’z mind stayed in the inbetween?” Hunter asked the group. It made sense to him. Song could recall Luz’z memory when she was in front of mirrors because her mind was speaking to her in front of them. Everyone started talking again, but Hunter just got frustrated. He couldn’t think when it was loud, and he saw that Song was starting to get nervous.
“Everyone!” Hunter said sternly to the room. “I need everyone to be quiet for just a second! You’re all too loud!”
“I have an idea, but I need everyone to move out of the way,” He told everyone.
“Song? Can you come over here?” Hunter asked, gesturing to the mirror.
“Do you need me to stand in front of the mirror?” She asked, quickly catching on. Hunter just nodded, and Song obliged, standing in front of the same mirror propped against the wall. Song's vision immediately went unfocused, looking like she was daydreaming. Hunter decided to wait for a second, but when nothing happened, he spoke up.
“Anything?” Hunter asked, the room filled with anticipation.
Hunter noticed that her eyes were immediately focused and alert.
“Not really, Hunter,” Song said. “Though, she’s wondering when Willow’s first flyer derby game is,” Song chuckled. “She was always better at it than grudgby-”
Song turned to look at Hunter, her golden eyes bright and fangs in a big smile. “Hey, remember when you told her about the first time you met Willow? You called yourself Caleb! And you tried to have them recruited!”
That settled it for Hunter. He felt his face get hot, but Hunter ignored it. Song suddenly recalling his terrible first meeting with Willow was all he needed to convince him that that-
“Luz’s mind is in the void,” He said to the rest of the room. He raised his arms awkwardly, offering a hug, but put them down when Song didn’t accept it
“Well, her mind must be very confused without a body to hold it or a soul to process it,” said Ms. Lilith from behind Eda. “That is most likely why it hasn’t communicated directly through Song. It’s simply going off of random recollections.”
“Well then, how do we get to the void?” Hunter asked, looking at Song. It might have been insensitive to ask, but she was the Voidwalker among them. None of them had ever even seen it, let alone been there.
Song gulped and turned away from him. Hunter was so focused on his thoughts that he didn’t notice that Song was shaking and muttering to herself. It wasn’t until Amity went over and rubbed tears out of Song’s eyes that Hunter realized how insensitive he’d been. He walked over to the half-titan and gave her another awkward hug.
“Um… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be hurtful,” He said quietly.
“I know, it’s just. You seem eager to get this Luz back, but I’m not her. You all look at me with these expectations that I don’t understand.” Song shuddered, and Amity gave Hunter an ‘I’ll kill you later look,’ but he knew she felt guilty as well.
“I think I’d like to know about Luz after we get this figured out,” Song said. “See who I’m trying to recreate,” Amity gave a nod, and Hunter understood why she’d reacted badly. She was scared. Luz got scared, but she always faced those things in the end. But this wasn’t Luz, this was Song. And Song seemed rather timid compared to Luz.
“But, we do need to know anything you know about the void,” Hunter murmured.
“Oye, there's a reason I can’t remember. It's just I… can’t remember the reason,” Song sighed, rubbing her claws together.
“What do you remember?” Amity asked.
“Cold, weightlessness, and nothing,” Song said, shuddering. Hunter sighed and turned back to the group. They had been diligently waiting while Song regained her composure.
“Anyone else know how to get there?” Hunter asked and to his utmost surprise, King raised his hand.
“I think I might,” He said, looking up at everyone.
“Well, spill the beans, dude,” Eda whispered. King nodded and walked to the Portal door that stood at the back of the Owl House, closed and quiet. King pointed at it and turned back to everyone.
“You get there by making a portal that doesn’t work.”
To need solutions to impossible questions
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Song
Song placed the door in the mechanism that King, Eda, and Lilith had built. Song was amused by the portal.. It was poorly constructed, with an exposed mechanism and a lopsided gate, but that was the idea behind it. She looked over at Hunter and Amity, who were bickering about designs.
Both of them are artists of some kind.
She supposed it was a different task, designing something that was intentionally bad. Song looked at the wonky portal door for another moment before Amity came over to her.
“Song, uhh, can I talk to you?”
“Sure, Ames, what's going on?” Song responded as they started walking.
Amity laughed a little as they walked behind the Owl House. Song noticed how Amity purposely found a spot without reflections, though she didn’t know why. She assumed that Luz was the one Amity wanted to talk to.
“Well, there’s plenty of things I wanted to say to Luz over the last four years,” She started, but Song cut her off.
“I’m not Luz.”
“I know-”
“Do you?” Song asked with a bit more spite than she meant to. Amity just looked sad.
“I wanted to talk to you about something, well, two things,” Amity said, and took a deep breath before she continued.
“First, you don’t have to go back in there. Willow and Gus volunteered, and of course, I’m going too,” She said. Song opened her mouth to protest, but realized she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to return to the void, but something told her she needed to go.
It’s not about you, Song. It’s about Luz, who you’re supposed to be.
But I’m not her.
“No Ames, I’ll go. Who better than me to guide you? I’m the ‘Voidwalker,’ according to Hunter.”
Amity raised an eyebrow, “He always did like giving things names,” She sighed.
“What’s the second thing?” Song asked.
“Oh, yeah-” Amity laughed. “There were a lot of things I wanted to say to Luz, maybe I’ll tell you about them later, But she’s not here right now! But maybe you, Song, can you take a message for me?”
Song smiled. She liked that Amity was at least trying to understand, even if she was lying a little bit.
“Sure, Ames; what is it?”
“It sounds so stupid,” She laughed, blushing. “It’s not anything profound of anything. I thought of a million profound things I could’ve said to y-her, but tell her for me that the live-action Azura movie sucked.”
“What?” Song asked, a faint burn on the back of her head and a tingle in her chest.
“I know it doesn’t mean anything to you, it’s so stupid. But when I saw it all, I wanted to talk to Luz about it!” Amity blurted out, blushing bright red.
The burn in the back of Song’s mind forced itself forward like a rocket. It felt like her brain and heart were on fire, like something- no, some things were forcing themselves into her head and chest. She wanted to throw up she wanted them to get out; it hurt so much and -
To need solutions to impossible questions
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&$*
I wanna know if-
To need solutions to impossible questions
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Song
“-they ruined Azura’s character?” Song asked in a twinned voice, the pain suddenly gone. Song wobbled a bit before she regained herself. Amity looked stunned as she looked around for reflections. Song was more focused on the fact that it didn’t feel like the mirrors but more like a mailbox. One that had been welded shut but a mailbox nonetheless. And wherever the parts of Luz Noceda were, they worked together as best they could to ask this one question.
“Yeah, they did- but how did you-” Amity started, but Song just gave her a smile.
“I think Luz heard your question,” Song said to her. Amity beamed and grabbed Song’s claw, leading them back to the group, rejoining the others as King gave Lilith a small vial of his blood. They started to work on the portal door. It was right then that Song made a small connection with Luz. She understood why Luz wanted to come back, why this girl in three pieces forced herself back together through pain and fire for only four words.
She missed the ones she loved so much.
She refused death for them, but at what cost?
But… that means I’ll have to go…
Song felt empty.
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Here's a lil art I did for this thing. Might draw some more, but yea, hope you like it.
I Might put some more stuff up on Tumblr if I feel like it. I'll link it below.
