#is technically there

tw sa talk asoguhggf abuse in general

today's the last day of SA awareness month. it's also denim day. And while it was really hard for me to create a piece from the heart earlier this month, i wanted to finish it off by drawing a character that i ADORED during the time period that i was being harrassed, abused, and recovering from older traumatic experiences.

I personally HC that his um, possession experience, is an sa allegory. yk? I relate to him a lot, and I especially did when I was a little younger. the loss of autonomy, not being in control of your body, but also probably feeling him everywhere. Hunter was, LITERALLY, being rotted from the inside. They demonstrated what the possession does to other beings like deer. It was literally killing him on the inside. He was rotting.

Being abused by your parental figure in both mental and physical, lashing out in anger or acting like a dickhead because you believe that it's normal, only for other adult figures in your life to stand by and deem you as a problem child or a brat. Knowing full well that even though they try to do better by you now, there's no way they couldn't have seen the signs growing up that you were being abused. Because as MUCH as I love Darius and Hunter's dynamic, we need to be real with ourselves and admit that that is, essentially, to their bare bones what they are. The addition of losing the abuser as well, knowing you loved them, knowing you were raised by them, and you thought they loved you, and maybe they did in some weird, twisted way, but one moment you blinked and the next they were gone.

Plus the experiences of interacting with normal kids for the first time and having them look at you in that specific way. I used to sit with a group of girls and their catchphrase eventually was just, "TMI, Jay" because I did not clock what was normal and what wasn't. And the groups, the people you view as your friends (in Hunter's case, the coven) secretly hating you. Goading you into fights, goading you into lashing out, trying to find every little mistake to make your life worse, to make fun of you both in front of you and behind your back. It's horrible. He's a tragic character. I'm glad they gave him a happy ending, and with the time they had proper development to him (although it was rushed like the others, im happy for something other than nothing given it wasn't Dana's fault it got cancelled last minute).

SO YEAH. i thought drawing him for the last day was fitting. idk. I'm glad he got a happy ending, again. SA victims (at least in my headcanon i suppose) deserve a happy ending. they deserve recovery. and they deserve to be happy.