like, holly was almost a pre-adolescent when grendel met her, but lily? he was there for when lily was Born. and from day 1 she was always just ... fucking ... strange.
even holly and maple -- the girlsâ mother, who was equally as weird as lily -- didnât always understand lilyâs antics. gren never tried to understand, though. if lily wanted to go out to the countryside and chase rabbits while maple was training holly up to overtake the business in her absence, then goddammit, gren was taking lily out to the countryside -- on horseback, in those days. he didnât have to Get It in order to let her Have It, and thatâs why he was closer to being a parent, in lilyâs mind, than maple was.
lily couldnât care less about the old world, the troll ways that holly and sometimes maple still clung onto despite having come to america to escape that society. lily was detached from her culture. her and grendelâs bond comes from the fact that grendel raised her, that they built their own culture and language together in a way that holly and grendel -- despite being as close as they are, these days -- just ... didnât.
holly and grendelâs disconnect, and holly and lilyâs disconnect, stems from this. after maple died, holly started feeling like a third wheel to her own remaining family. gren was more of a father to lily than to her, which is why it wasnât so strange for holly to grow motherly towards gren. in retrospect, this is what forced holly to grow up way too fast. Â
the moment maple died overseas, holly suddenly had ... two little siblings: her oddball little sister and the man that stepped in for her father but ended up being very childish, himself. the man that enabled her sisterâs oddness. both of whom had a tendency to be impulsive / make terrible choices for themselves. holly was always cool and level-headed; she felt separate from them. lily and gren were so close, though, that people actually Did mistake them for being blood relatives. A Lot.
( i could talk for ages about how holly being a trans woman is part of what made her and her very flawed, very supportive, very well-meaning mother so dedicated to preserving the culture of The Female Troll And Her Role(s) In Society even though thatâs ... literally why they left their stronghold in the Himalayas ... but iâd be here all day and thatâs an entirely different, more painful meta than this. )
