Deep in the woods a man of bone white skin and coloured hair lurks in the shadow. He is the elusive writer, artist, and digital musician. A regular of YouTube and Tumblr. He is a lover of cats, food, and fashion. Started sewing at a young age, and is new to knitting. But he won’t let pain get in the way of a handcrafted garment. You can catch Jay working on multiple projects at once, and lets hope he’ll finish one eventually.
Something I keep thinking about is how a lot of people consider it a good thing that children cannot by themselves consent (or refuse consent) to medical treatments. Some people do kinda get it that maybe it might be a problem with stuff like kids not being able to access trans healthcare, or kids being refused vaccination by antivaxx parents. But in general I see that most people are actually okay with this idea for the most part.
And like... you do get that that is kinda insane, right?
Because this is something that so often leads to suffering. And I am saying this as someone disabled, who had so many issues due to this in his childhood.
Just three examples: when I was 7, I was supposed to get checked for autism. My mother did not want an autistic child. Since she just could have a "neurotypical" child by refusing diagnosis, she did just that.
When I was 12, my mother had decided I needed a certain plastic surgery (one that had a minor health benefit, but still was largely a beauty thing). I did not want it. I really, really did not want it. We still went through almost the entire process until thankfully there was a doctor who went: "Wait, this is elective. I am refusing to do this on a child that does not want it."
And when I was 14 my mother refused to get me to the hospital when I had severe food poisoning. She refused me hospital treatment for almost two weeks. By the time I got actually taken to the hospital I was almost dead.
And here is the thing: all of this should just not happen. The doctor when I was 12 was cool, but... he refused to do the surgery because he had the right to make a conscience call. Legally my mother was in the right to force me into that elective surgery. And that just should not be the case.
A lot of children die and suffer due to their legal inability to consent - or refuse consent - to medical treatments. And I wish y'all would understand that.
Whenever this is brought up, people will go: "Oh, but parents will decide what is best for the child." And here is the thing: No, they are not. There is so much stuff out there showing that indeed, a lot of parents suck at this. Some out of malice, some because they are religious nuts, and some because they literally treat their kids like some sort of doll or some shit.
(headdresses used to be a part of the school uniform at hexside, but basically no one wore them because, if youve ever met a kid who has to wear a school uniform, they like to wear as little of the uniform as possible. raine wore theirs because they theorized that the more nerdy and prudish they looked, the more they could get away with. this remains both their strategy in political espionage and seducing their wife)
pretty similar to in the show!! i just added some BI-specific fashion norms (theyre pretty dated in terms of dress and VERY elaborate bc most ppl only have one set of clothes, that set is just multi layered) and some character specific culture changes
for example, Willow and Viney are both from (separate) barbarian clans! before Belos showed up, the only real threat BI residents were under was from clans of roving barbarians who would pillage and murder wherever they went (one of the reasons belos was successful in convincing witches that wild magic was evil was bc of these clans) Barbarians have genetic traits that lead to them being insanely powerful and built like brick shithouses, but that's not really advantageous during the reign of Belos, so barbarian children like Willow and Viney are purposefully stifled during their magical education to prevent barbarian typical beserking.
Viney's family are now currently scavengers, a bit like Eda, except they have an actual storefront. There are rumors that they secretly harvest bile sacs and sell them, not helped by Viney's back-alley doctor vibe. she cares not for hygeine and will pierce any piece of skin you give her, for the low low price of some raw meat for Puddles.
I havent considered her and emira, but i support it!! yuri wins.
here’s a niche question… what kind of person do you think evelyn was? her personality, motives, etc. and what was your main inspiration for her design? she’s the perfect vessel for headcanons so i’d like to hear ur thoughts
Evelyn was a weirdo. Even for a witch in the demon realm, her fascination with the Titan, deep curses, and other worlds was strange. she left home at a very young age after being separated from her family and lived alone in the woods for years, for so long she started hearing things she thought were the titan speaking to her (turns out it was just a bunch of shades, but the good news was the shades were right in front of a titans blood vein). she made many trips to conneticut over the years, stealing their food and eating their bugs (they tasted better than demon realm bugs) and managed to spy on the town of gravesfield for years without getting noticed, her favorites to spy on being people her age. she hadnt originally thought much of caleb until one day he and Phillip had gotten lost in the woods and, because she was so lonely shed started talking to a rock she drew a face on, she introduced herself, and it was love ever since. Evelyn was an escapist and a madwoman, whod hex anything that looked at her funny, but she was also funny and clever and only ever wanted to be loved.
hello! inquiring minds want to know about your thoughts on gus. in particular the mask w the third eye + the third eye you drew him with a couple times. i've always been a little disappointed with how little the show expanded on the stuff we saw in e.g. labyrinth runners and you always have interesting things to say (or make up on the spot :P) about your designs ^^
i love gus!! hes so charming and basically every episode with a gus subplot is good. the stuff about the illusionists graveyard and gus protecting it is really cool and gets me thinking about how much gus knows about magical artifacts (he should be a historian not a teacher when hes older imo) and labyrinth runners is one of my favorite episodes. i think the specific way hunter and gus connect is really well written and i wish wed seen them interact more after that (but i just generally very much enjoy their friendship). I think people often talk about gus as if it was hunter specifically that 'stole' his screentime but like, are we forgetting gus and willow were barely used in favor of episodes trying to teach a 5 year old child concepts hes too young for lol. season one was so poorly paced in comparison to s2 that yeah, i dont think it was hunter that took from gus specifically. you could say the same thing about amity
I do however think willow's very shoehorned 'arc' in s3 would have fit way better with gus, who has 1. forced himself to keep up a peppy attitude and uplift everyone else even though hes terrified for his dad and also is like. 12. 2. has been known to have intense involuntary magic outbursts that can sometimes induce flashbacks of your worst moments ever, and 3. you can still do the thing where hunter talks them down bc like. theyve done this before. like i feel like honestly willow had completed her arc in season 2 and after that most willow stuff was her trying to convince everyone else she was better now. I have a lot of issues with how huntlow kind of erased willow and gus's friendship too, which i always though was rlly cute, but again i digress
back to my gus design, the 'third eye' is facepaint like willow or amity's markings, but while hes using his powers it can appear to move around. hes not pictured with the mask here but he has a set of comedy and tradgedy masks (the blight twins have this insignia too but i havent drawn them casually yet) Gus has satyr blood (his grandparent was one of the last satyrs to interact with witches before they left to live in the forest after their lifestyle was no longer supported. God damn it belos) so his ears are bigger than other witches and hes very short.
anyway. i like gus a normal amount. thanks for asking!
(the last drawing is referencing the myth of hermaphroditus and trauma allegories thereof, read more under the cut, tw for rape and abuse discussions)
So i was thinking about Belos's possesion of hunter and how he almost died from it and was left physically changed (large highly visible scars, his hair grows faster now, he has flapjack's powers) and that got me thinking about identity and depersonalization via abuse. Hunter doesn't have much of a sense of self before he starts forming connections, which is why he acts so childish and emotional and feels his feelings so outwardly, hes never been allowed to feel them. He barely has the sense of the baseline facts about himself. Hunter barely references his gender or age or anything, like he isnt in connection to it at all, and I began thinking about the myth of Hermaphroditus. Hermaphroditus was the son of Aphrodite and Hermes. tl;dr, he was assaulted by a female naiad one day when he was walking, and as he struggled to get away from her she prayed to be with him always, no matter how much he hated her. the gods answered her, and fused the two into one. In mythology Hermaphroditus is more of a symbol of marriage and the intersection of sex, but the thing that always lingered with me about him was that when you are hurt like that, so deeply that it's like someone is trying to make sure you remember them, you lose everything about yourself, even the baseline fact of your 'you'. You live in a constant intersection between being hurt and being you, and it will never really leave you. I think Belos, while confident, didnt know if he would win in the end, so he wanted to make sure he was with Hunter forever if he did fail.
some lore on the boiling isles's lost nomadic people, now referred to as the barbarians.
transcript of the text under the cut!
Before the Belosian era, witches did not have central governments like the Emperor, instead congregating in resource heavy areas and forming societies built on barter and mutual aid with no true leaders. While settlements like these were the most predominant way of life, tribes of barbarians and scavengers still existed, and are also believed to be the \ earliest known specialists, usually forming tribes around mutual skills and occupations, such as merchants, tradesmen, warriors, and scavengers, and travelling to towns across the Isles to trade and hunt.
Unlike modern Belosian propaganda suggests, opinions on these nomads varied, but unless actively hostile, they were welcomed into the towns they passed along their journey and often helped locals by using their specialized skills.
Barbarians had their own culture and a distinct way about them, with many barbarians possessing determined and adaptive personalities worthy of nomads, and competition and sport as a big part of their lifestyle.
Barbarians also had very distinctive appearances; some say the adoption of face painting on the Isles in the early eras of witch civilization originated from barbarians sharing their practices of highly symbolic face painting to the masses. Piercings, tattoos, and animal remains also clearly marked a barbarian; it was seen as a sign of maturity and worldliness to depict your life and conquests on your own body through modification and clothing.
Many descendants of barbarians still exist on the Isles in the modern day amd preserve their culture, however many live in abject poverty after their family trades were locked away by coven systems and they were forced to adapt, or are stifled in the schooling system, since a barbarian’s propensity to do better in specialized fields makes them extremely powerful in a system designed to repress witches by forcing them into niches. Barbarian children are put in unfitting tracks or are deemed ‘dangerous’ as an excuse to refuse them schooling.
Still, the barbarian instinct to adapt means many still press on and fight against the structures that suffocate them.
Next to Matt:
Dark paint around the top half of the face usually signifies mourning; not just death of loved ones but absences as well.
Next to Steve:
Witches with Demon blood are 65% more likely to have barbarian heritage as well, as most nomads married demons they met along their journeys instead of other witches.
Next to Willow:
A white circle painted on the face symbolizes a birth on the full moon. Barbarians believed the light of the moon made children born under it more powerful.
