#so is

Jane lived in the house next door to the Woods family for her entire life, long before they moved in. Her mother was a journalist for the town paper, and her father was a weather presenter, they met on the job. She's an only child but her parents fostered when she was little.

When the Woods family moved in, she didn't think much of it. The mom seemed overenthusiastic and made them have dinner when they arrived, but aside from that they seemed pretty average. From what she could tell, Jeff had an older brother, but she never really met him, and his parents just kept talking about how their 'daughter had been led astray'... Assholes.

She knew Jeff in passing, mostly in the halls at school. Jane was about a year and a half older than him, so they didn't share classes, but she figured he seemed like an alright guy... Even if his dress sense was... questionable on occasion.

Jane was a decent student, solid Bs and Cs in everything important, but As in English. She loved English class, and she was planning on joining theatre (mostly because her crush was playing one of the leads and it was the perfect excuse to finally talk to her up close.)

When Jeff got taken to juvie, she didn't have much of a reaction. (To clarify, because Liu is older in my AU, he wasn't there for the bus stop incident, and instead Jeff was just taken to juvie for a little while. He probably should've stayed there tbh.) To be exact, she thought 'Huh, that's crazy. Hope he gets the help he needs' and then continued on with her day.

But when he came back and was set on fire, she paid a little more attention. Mostly because she was one of the ones helping to put out said fire. It gave her second degree burns to her hands, but she thought it was worth it to help an almost-friend. Jeff was actually pretty nice for the week before the party, they went to the skate park together once. Jane never thought she'd regret helping someone.

She woke up to smoke. Her parents were already dead when she went to wake them, they'd suffocated in their sleep. Terrified and in a state of shock, Jane climbed out of the nearest window and ran to the Woods house for help.

She was met by Jeff at the door, covered in blood and sporting a brand new look. In the ensuing fight, she was stabbed several times, nand her knee was broken so severely that even years after her recovery, she still walks with a limp. She was left to burn to death in the kitchen of the Woods house while Jeff ran off into the forest.

The only reason she survived was because her other neighbours called the emergency services upon seeing her house go up in flames.

She was in hospital for three years, and still has to go to regular physiotherapy and regular therapy sessions. Throughout those years, she was bounced through foster families, each one never lasted more than a month because they didn't want to shoulder the 'burden' of a physically and emotionally scarred teenager. So, Jane learnt to be her own support system. She ran on a cocktail of rage, grief, vengeance, and a deep rooted desperation to understand why.

That's why she began interviewing people, in hopes of understanding why Jeff did what he did, and how she can find him before he kills again. She hasn't been successful so far, but she's sure she's getting closer. Over time, it morphed from depressed interest to an addiction. She needs to find him before the cops do. She needs to kill him before they lock him up out of her reach.

Her need has taken her to many places, to many people. Drug dens, black markets, back alley meetings with killers, hitmen, and crazies. She's done it all while somehow managing to lie in her wife's face, to tell Mary that she's just going to work, that she's just going for a night out, that she's okay. And she knows that, even if she loses everything she's got, it'll be worth it.

One day she'll find him, and she'll watch the light fade out of his eyes just like he did to her.

zote, aka grey prince zote, is the carnivorus plant/possible parasite/possible VOID of greyroot and paleking, born in bilewater and raised in shellwood by nyleth, before eventually leaving to hallownest. first - greyroot. the title of grey prince is where this first began, as well as him mentioning his blade made of shellwood (the same name as where greyroot resides). he mentions that mothers are not to be trusted, and will always betray you

greyroot proceeds to betray hornet within silksong in the rite of birth ritual. second - pale king, possible void. zote is referred to as the grey PRINCE, a title given to the son of a king. now this one doesnt have as much original evidence, but rather evidence from another blog explaining zote may be of void a simular black body, simular shell. and being an "odd vessel" would very well explain he may be the pale kings son he also mentions beware of jealous fathers, explaining almost exactly the pale king.

third - the plant thing, and the nyleth thing. greyroot is heavily hinted at being a plant, from appearance, to location, to roots. this would already be enough to explain zote possibly being a plant, but he also mentions being weary of fire (which.. is obvious but.. plants are infamously weak to fire so?) as for the nyleth thing, this is more of a stretch/hc but.. he mentions respecting surperiours, not mothers or fathers, but those wiser/stronger

its very possible here he speaks of nyleth. if he was raised in ancient shellwood, it would explain why hes not so good at fighting- the plants of that era are not well known for being super deadly. and it could also back up his "prince title" he also says not to forigve brothers, which the splinters of current shellwood call eachother, possibly hinting he resents them for the current state of his once home.