“Moonlit Branch head-cannon”
Branch is obviously a recluse and tends to stay away from people and crowds….
In this AU… he has to be cause of how big and strong he is… as he age… and as he transformed into this winged being… he was equipped with talons and this hidden anger that he has over his brothers for abandoning him and so forth.
He is too big and strong that he simply cannot play around the other children his age cause of the metamorphosis he was enduring and because he was still learning to be a kid again…. But with him accidentally hurting Minute it devastated him in learning that he cannot simply be nor be near anyone. Not even his adoptive father Trollzart.
So he became this cold, stoic, and statue like persona and kept his distance from them all… only forcing himself into his studies as prince and other means of knowledge that he could obtain.
He build his weapons. He build his mountainous domain(this AU’s bunker) He build a garden within it and filled it to the brim with medical herbs and roots.. He even build his army of spider pets(kinda like the crazy cat lady if you ask me. XD) Branch/Lunar took all that he knew from surviving with the outsiders(Archer and his troop of trolls) and his time solely on his own to build safety for the kingdom he will one day take over.
With whatever gossip or intel that his smaller spider-lings caught and reported.. he took it within himself to ensure there are no slip ups… and no more harm… simply put it he drowns his sorrows, pain(he inflicts himself in injury due to his none stop training) and overall depression/anger/aggression, or trauma and he turns them into these hyper manic episodes when after a whole day of being an emotionless corpse, and playing the role as this well kept and put together prince but he is like what was written above in the dead of night or even finally when dusk settles.
Hence the nickname that follows… he still has these times where when he does have glimpses of true happiness it immedeadly replaces to a hollow look cause he truly believes that he cannot have happiness and is unworthy for it.
How can he be? If there is still so much to do. He cannot show anything but absorb everything with all his strength and might till night falls and he can truly let go of the mask and breath.