TOH Except Hunter Is A Lunatic

Blood warning!

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I see lots of fanfics that talk about the Grimwalker stories and myths as Grimwalkers being these predators that hunt witches and are these monster that feed off of flesh, but all of these are usually false and like I said just myths.

So what if that wasn’t the case? What if Grimwalkers were the flesh craving beasts everyone thinks they are. Aka me giving Hunter the Tokyo Ghoul treatment (kinda)

This image takes place during Thanks to Them, he’s hunting and consuming animals to sustain himself but they can only do so much. He keeps it a secret because he’s ashamed, scared and full of self loathing. Unfortunately you can only sneak out and wash your clothes so frequently until you get caught.

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The craving flesh started around the time Hunter started hitting his second stage of puberty, so around 12 to 13 years old. It started off as spouts of aggression, weight loss and odd carvings that he suppressed until he eventually snapped and attacked a scout. Once he consumed flesh, there was no going back.

This happened with a few Grimwalkers, typically one made around pubescent years due to this being a natural development. Grimwalkers who are made as adults don’t get this since get miss that developmental period. A reason why Belos made Grimwalkers strictly adults for hundreds of years before trying out a new experiment.

When Belos made Hunter, he was aware of this and rather than kill Hunter off or just make an adult Grimwalker, he decided he can benefit from a “monster” needing a source of food.

Hence, Hunter picking up a reputation for being “feral.” Belos supplies Hunter with blood and flesh but not enough to satisfy him, just the minimum to keep him alive. This is to keep Hunter at a state where he’s willing to do more work to earn more food but unfortunately this just results in cases of Hunter going “too far” aka mauling different beings (witches, beasts, demons, ect) during missions on the accounts he’s literally starving and being triggered in fights.

He can eat normal food but his sense of taste is bit dull and doesn’t give him the nutrition he needs. He can eat and eat and it will do nothing. He learns to satisfy himself through eating animals he hunts during missions. When he gets to the human realm he eats his food with an overwhelming amount of seasoning just to taste it.

He also has a very strong jaw and sharp teeth, like hyena type stuff.

(Imagine a scenario he pauses a mission mid way to go hunt some voles and eat them raw and the scouts just standing there like-)

After Hollow mind Hunter struggles because now he’s has little source of witch or demon flesh (he raids the healing classes for blood and kitchen for uncooked meat)

So during thanks to them he’s forced to live with three witches, a basilisk, two humans who are somewhat similar to witches and oh boy he struggles. His friends are concerned. Camila notices Hunter eats a lot but still looks like he isn’t gaining weight, Gus notices that he sneaks out, Vee smells something wrong with him, Luz sees how on edge he is, Amity catches on to his burst of aggression (caused by hunger and stress) and Willow notices he avoids them.

They all already knows something is off with him (heightened senses, unusual teeth and jaw strength, glowing eyes, unusually tight and powerful muscles despite how gaunt he is) but only Luz knows he’s a grimwalker but hasn’t quite put the peices that’s he’s a unnatural, natural predator to witches and demons. The witches, Vee and even the humans feel a slight primal fear around Hunter but they can’t quite put the reason why, he puts them on edge even if they love him but something’s off.

Despite the fact that all of them are willing to give him blood, even some flesh if they could, the boy just refuses, since he sees himself as a literal monster that needs to be locked up.

This is me giving Hunter Grimwalker trauma x100. Anywho this is my late Halloween post aka my billionth AU idea. This was inspired by Tokyo Ghoul, Ginger snaps(2000) and the fic [redacted] Hunter by ApaMonkey on ao3! Yall should read it!

I have a weakness for flesh craving characters who aren’t villains but they aren’t so common so of course I had to project that love to my own skrunkly!

I don’t like posting my WIPs much on tumblr but I might as well since making finished products is getting increasingly difficult lol, I’ll finish these eventually

Poor blorbo Hunter, lad not even one apple tall is he?

He is canonically one soda can tall, so it greatly depends on the size of the apple :) regardless he will eat them to display his superior power over them. But only after Luz cuts them into tiny pieces

Mission failed successfully, making a rendered shitpost. (Ignoring my WIPs yet again)

Staring at my 20+ serious wips while coming up with another idea for a shitpost.

Hunter head canon #3

Hunter his whole life has done something guard related. From training to be a scout which are essentially foot guards to the highest ranking guard, the golden guard. He wasn’t just trained to guard he was raised guarding. It’s something he does thats probably second nature for him.

With that being said I truly believe he will continue being a guard to everyone he cares about even if it’s no longer his job and even if he barley knows that person. (gus and luz for example in labyrinth runners and hunting palismen ) It’s ingrained in him the same way sheep dogs will heard humans because it’s what they know.

So I imagine hunter instinctively standing up in front of the hexsquad unconsciously guarding. Even if they are simply hanging out. They ask him about it and he admits he does it without even noticing.

Of course a lot of these behaviors stem from PTSD like him being hyper vigilante and being prepared to defend from any possible attack but even in moments he knows he safe he’s always watching making sure they don’t get hurt by something little like falling and making sure their all secure. He’s not even violent just defensive.

He keeps them organized even if can’t keep himself organized, he becomes aware of their mannerism in a objective way, he guides them. They basically become his herd in way.

Even if Luz could be seen being the ‘leader’, Hunter is always next to her ever so slightly in front, like a guard.

Luz is also protective but that’s a habit she developed while again for Hunter it’s ingrained.

It’s quite cute actually if you ignore his past, him being a protective friend willing to defend the people he cares about no matter what.

In short Hunter got that Doberman/collie instinct in him lol

Any who, love me a protective Hunter

A high effort shit post based off of this post I saw a while back and tagged Hunter core.

(Click image for better quality)

You said you wanted asks about the Late Redemption AU and !! yes! Wish granted! I am so incredibly curious about Luz's thought process about this scarred-up teenager who's actively hurting her friends. She seems very empathetic still in the post-finale art, but considering he seemingly succeeded in giving her friends sigils in the alternate Labyrinth Hunters art, is there ever a moment where she views him as completely unredeemable? Or is she still insistent that he's just being manipulated and can still be helped?

Thank you so much for the AU, this is such a cool idea and I love it

She definitely has her ups and downs in regards in how she feels on Hunter. In the start she didn’t like him (separate tides- hollow mind). She saw him as another Belos lackey or just a fancy scout. Bad but not evil. Once the sigil incident happened, she absolutely hated him, she was full of anger because he quite literally gave her friends stamps for slaughter(even if he didn’t know). However after King tide happens and she sees Hunter defending Belos even as the spell actively drags him down does she realize just how wrong it is, that he this loyal even when being killed.

He’s being killed by his only guardian and he doesn’t even know it

She tried to reason with him in the fight but he refused to listen, too desperate to stop them from fighting Belos and defending him even as Belos also swipes at him in blind anger. Escpically when she realizes that he’s is around her age and no child should ever be at this state.

I imagine during Thanks to them does she have some conversations with her mom since things are a bit more intense in the timeline and some conversations about abuse and abusive adults does she start making some connections but she still doesn’t quite like him.

Que for the final where Belos is finally gone, all that is left is the Golden guard in his broken, scarred state. She starts seeing the ugly picture for what it is, an abused child who just doing what he knew to make his guardian happy.

So, it’s both. She saw him as an unreadable monster to then someone who was abused and used. She wanted to help him even if she was still mad and he didn’t want it.

Of course once that wonderfully late redemption/recovery arc begins, does an actual friendship start to form.

Ok ok

So both cardinals and blue jays are very territorial birds also known for being aggressive and defensive.

Now I need to draw flapjack or waffles being lil assholes to other witches (including the hexsquad) and palismen. Them being territorial of Hunter and not letting anyone near is delightfully hilarious. Hunter needs to reassure them when others try getting near. I’m imagining a lil flapjack screeching and pecking anyone getting close including the other palismen trying to hang out. You have to give them food a compromise. Once they settle down, they’ll just give you the stink eye.

Like imagine trying to greet Hunter then his little red bird starts screaming and flying aggressively at your head, horrifying. Better if when he goes to the human realm and flapjack starts trying to fight the bird population, specifically the other cardinals. Ooooo jealous flapjack hits. I think I’ve read a fic like that.

You try visiting the palismen carver and immediately get jump scared by this angry blue bird.

But yeah here’s some rambles. Been thinking about the little guys and thought it would be funny to incorporate some actual animal behavior in them.

Hunter with a buzz cut warm up sketch

It’s not that bad tbh and i actually like it. It’s just his thanks to them cut but more short. This speaks to me.

I haven’t drawn as much as I said I would so let’s change that this new year.

Hey I think I asked you about your Detroit become human au before a bit ago but I love the idea so much! I know you’re super busy but if you can I would love to see more about it!

Sorry for asking about it again I’m just really interested in it. 😭🙏

No please don't be sorry I love to talk about it whenever I'm not creatively bankrupt!! I'm just sorry it took so long for me to actually think of new stuff to add

I had some of these doodles already prepared but never really finished them up until I came up with a cute little idea

I didn't think of where to put in Flapjack until I remembered that android animals existed, and then I had a brain blast moment where I realized that Hunter can still talk to Flapjack! They are little android buddies, they can interface and talk and be friends!! I think it would also help to make him feel a bit more comfortable with his identity as an android to be able to have his little buddy to have fun private conversations with. Camila introduces them (maybe he had gotten hurt by a previous owner and she found him and let Gus fix him up) and Hunter is a bit tentative about it at first, but Flapjack is adorable and sweet and quickly wins him over

I just now had the idea that Gus, since he's super into android stuff, would probably be a big resource for software and hardware difficulties. Oh, you fell and your arm is working kinda wonky? Call up Gus, he'll crack you open and take a look. The dude doesn't mind in the least, he freaking LOVES going down mechanical and coding rabbit holes to better understand how androids work. I like to think that if Hunter ever got hurt and chose not to accept help because of body/species dysphoria, Gus would be a really good resource for him to try and feel as normal as possible while he's getting fixed. Gus is his brother and he loves him and they're just good to each other okay? Gus would probably crack some jokes or something to get Hunter's mind off it, or infodump about android organs or something (and Hunter would be begrudgingly interested because they are nerds, and Hunter is interested in androids too underneath all the problems he has with deviancy. Like dude they're robots, what's not to love?)

Also some Gus being so over Hunter's "androids can't feel love" phase featuring Vee and Masha being very adorable and very obviously in love :) Hunter is a very silly stupid man. He will find any way to make literally everyone exempt from the terrible rules Philip fed him, except for himself

I'm trying to think of a potential situation that would parallel Hunter's possession, and I think it would probably be basically the same thing that happens in Connor's deviant path (when he deviates and joins the revolution as an ally) where Amanda (a separate AI in his programming that's basically how CyberLife keeps him in check) takes over Connor's programming last minute to try and put a stop to the revolution.

So my current thought is that Philip is basically using Hunter as a trojan horse. His main programming is to act and believe like he's a normal human but similar to Connor, he's basically a sleeper agent without knowing. I imagine that once Hunter gains access to his software (thanks to Vee and Gus), he starts finding programs and files that are labeled as pretty scary things. He shouldn't have to know the most efficient way to shut an android down or incapacitate a human.

If and when Philip finally goes looking for Hunter and sees the first android he's seen in Gravesfield besides Hunter (aka Vee), he's not going to take that well.

I haven't drawn anything for it but so far I'm thinking that he takes control of Hunter's programming, maybe through some taking advantage of his interfacing system, and locks him in his own head a la Connor and Amanda to sic him after Vee and Flapjack (assuming that Philip's main goal, similar to both canons, is to eradicate deviants). It's likely that his friends will try to apprehend him, Vee or Gus will try (and maybe fail a couple times) to delete the programming while Camila deals with Philip. The guy is old and decrepit and Camila would absolutely whoop his ass with the ease of swatting a fly.

Things will be fine; Vee is all good and they manage to delete whatever programming screwed with Hunter's control, but that kid is going to be HELLA anxious about interfacing again from then on since he's afraid of 1) losing his own control and 2) potentially passing the virus onto someone else. It could go two ways at that point: Hunter could either kill Flapjack since Flapjack is technically a deviant android and therefore a target, or we can be nice and let Flapjack live to help him heal from this brand-new trauma.

So yeah hopefully that sates some curiosity! I'm glad you're interested in it because I honestly really love to think of new stuff whenever my brain decides to work hahaha