Aspen

The Raven!Jeremy au is taking two fucked up individuals. Fucking them up TOGETHER, giving them HORRIBLE codependency issues ALONG with all the other problems baked into being in the Nest, and THEN saying 'Here, go heal' and that's why I love it. I love them. I've been fixated on this au for months now

I think that if Louis was still alive he'd have lowkey cult leader vibes. Like I do think he'd be a genuinely good person. I think that he genuinely cares about people, and that Oakhurst ends up a place for people to stay, relax, and recover from whatever ails them in the moment. I also think that people... don't leave Oakhurst. And if someone does? You don't talk about them ever again. But that doesn't happen because no one does.

I think Louis would have the right kind of charisma and vibes to be a cult leader, and I think some of the people have a cult like mentality, I do not think it was intentional. I do not think think Louis has a cult. But I think he could. If he really wanted to. Owen would be right by his side as an executioner for Louis if he asked. But Louis is good, so he doesn't ask.

I think Owen still kills people who piss off Louis too much. And then they just don't bring it up.

Pyro haunts the crypts/castle of Oakhurst, and Moonrot are the first to notice. He's super angry and hell bent on revenge at first, which is why his soul lingered. They convince him (through multiple tea parties) to let go of hatred and he just becomes this really silly ghost guy. After a few decades pass eventually Moonrot bring the New Yorkers (Scott, Drift, Shelby, and Abolish) to a tea party with Pyro and after some much needed conversations end up amicable. They go visit him every time they visit Avid's grave and Cleo/Pearl will help Pyro write letters back and forth with said New Yorkers.

Because Pyro isn't attached to either heaven or hell and rather the earth, but he's still dead, he can flit between the two. He tends to pester Owen and Legs, and keeps track of the time they have between fights. Every time they last more than a day he reports it back to whoever comes to visit him.

He also becomes really good friends with Louis, much to Owens chagrin. Like him and Louis become besties, and Pyro definitely uses that to ragebait owen in the worst ways. But because Pyro's soul isn't in hell Owen can't do anything about it.

"Y'know what Louis told me?" "What?" "Should have been a better person, then you'd know."

First and foremost, V!Owen got the ending that he narratively deserved and earned. He got his cheap death, running away from his problems only to learn that his sins follow him no matter where he goes. And Louis was there, so he Had a chance at redemption, he didn't Have to be the monster he made himself. He made his grave though and he must lie in it.

And please note that these are my initial thoughts having only watched Owen and Abolish's final episodes. These are also rushed thoughts because I have a volunteer gig I have to go to soon.

Narratively V!Owen got what he deserved. As a fan I would have loved to see him redeem himself and travel the world and work with Abolish rest assured I will be eating up EVERY au fic that comes out.

We had Abolish and Owen as a duo for like 20 minutes, and I'm already obsessed. I think the only reason Owen was more willing to talk to Abolish than he was Legs is because he had no previous relationship with Abolish. Like Legs and Owen had some weird shit going on, and yeah it's probably doomed Yaoi mostly but to ignore how important the other was to their Oakhurst narrative is dismissive. Because Owen was supposed to be Legs' salvation, Owen was a pity project that Legs wanted to use to atone for the sins he had committed. On the other had Legs was supposed to be Owen's community, the one person he could turn to for comfort and and shoulder to lean on. They built each other up into pedestals, idealizing what could be and never lingering on what was -- the reality and truth of the situation, that they're both awful people who didn't want to be awful anymore. I think in a perfect world, they would have realized that that's what drew them to each other. But it's not a perfect world, it's a really messy world.

Abolish was nobody. Like for 6 episodes he wasn't 'important' and I say that as a VAbolish fan. He was the shadows, always lurking. He made no friends, he made no enemies. There was nothing for Owen to project onto him. He was not cruel. He was not kind. So when Abolish spoke, Owen couldn't twist his words. Owen couldn't see something that wasn't there, because there was nothing else there. When Abolish mirrored the words that Legs had said, Owen couldn't take it for anything other than Abolish's truth.

And I do want to briefly add that I don't think that the conversations with Abolish and Owen would have went down the same if Ren had not killed Owen. If Owen had been a level 3 vampire, the finale would have been very different for him. I don't doubt that Owen would have still died and been dragged down to pay for the horrors he enacted, but I don't think it wouldn't have been as peaceful of an end. He wouldn't have gotten the choice that he so desperately needed (V!Owen so totally has PDA autism btw, different long post for a different time)

If Abolish and Owen had been closer in the first place, I genuinely think that Owen could have been redeemed and he would have let himself be cured. because here's the thing. Owen was so hell bent on his own misery, he could not truly see the people reaching out to him. he held onto grudges, and projected feelings onto others that they were not experiencing to validate his own suffering. But like I said earlier, there's nothing about Abolish that you can twist. There's nothing that you can distort. Cleo went "You cobwebbed shelby. You stuck down a silver block. you killed her." And you know what Abolish said? "Yes. yes. yes. I did do that. Sorry habit." And like, how can you twist that to be malicious? How can you say that's anything more than a soldiers instincts.

Abolish is the person who could have helped Owen. No one else. There's not a single soul on that server, who had the right personality to properly shut down all of Owen's incessant victim complex bitching. Abolish didn't feed into it. He didn't stoke the flames, but he also didn't smother the embers. He understood Owen was hurting. He understood what it was like to have everything taken from you. He understood what it was like to be given a single chance, a boon. Abolish gave Owen a choice. He made sure that Owen left knowing that there was good out there.

He refuses to actually let himself be happy.

He kills Avid and has a moment of bonding with Pyro, and yet from his perspective he's still holding grudges. "I want to kill you so bad." Like dude! You could have had everything you wanted. You could have had a place to belong.

The humans got their shit together, and I think that's mostly because Abolish decided to lock in and actually take action rather than confining himself to the shadows. No one expected him, because he allowed himself to lie low and present as not a threat. Each episode I flip flop between which faction I think is going to win, and this episode it definitely seemed as though the humans would.

Why?

The vampires are fs heading towards a coven civil war, they're breaking into factions and that's way obvious when they're all gather around the table. Cleo and Drift, Scott and Shelby, Owen and Pyro. The problem is that the vampires are all too proud and too stubborn. While their emotions are heightened they cannot put aside grudges, they cannot put aside differences, they cannot accept any slight made against them. Owen and Pyro killed someone Scott saw as his own, and that will be paid back in turn (despite Scott's insistence that it was just a bad move strategically. And while he's not wrong, Avid was definitely a drain on limited resources considering when they're all full strength they can't breed animals for a reliable food source. It honestly wasn't good but it wasn't terrible). Scott vowed to kill everyone. The only way the vampires win atp is if they all as individual factions turn the remaining humans.

And that's not happening.

Why is that no happening?

The indomitable human spirit or whatever.

The humans are willing to put their differences aside. They're willing to ignore differences in ideology and method. It doesn't matter if you want to cure the vampires, or if you want to kill the vampires. They have to work together, and they have to work as one. They know they have to operate as a single unit, or else they're doomed. Desperation, and the willingness to put their own pride aside, is what's going to bring them to victory.

When they work together they are efficient. They overtook what was it 3? 4? beacons during the episode. If the vampires don't get over themselves they're doomed.