Tobias becoming Willow from the owl house.
The first thing that Tobias Grey noticed that seemed slightly wrong was his hair. Now, the pine marten teen took great pride in how he styled it. For years, he’d been experimenting with different gels and dyes to make sure it was at 100% each and every day, and he would be the first to notice that something was amiss within it. …Did it look darker than it usually did? Yeah, upon closer inspection, the light nougat he was accustomed to was instead this odd, murky, color, ever so slightly off but just wrong enough to bug the crap out of him. He took some spare dye he had in case something like this happened, and it seemed to work fine enough, but that didn’t fix the second problem afflicting him. …Was his fur getting shorter? Similarly to his hair, he took a certain amount of pride in styling it, breaking it down to an exact science with different shampoos and conditioners. And if there was one thing he knew for sure, it was that hair doesn’t just…anti-grow! He pictured what it would be like if he were to be bald on all sides of his body and shuddered. He’d be only half a pine marten without his fur! He tried to shut out the incoming anxieties coming his way and tried to pass himself off as normal, like he was still the same old pine marten at Westfield High. Yeah, nothing was wrong…he just hoped people wouldn’t notice…
For the next few days, things were somewhat normal (at least there was nothing that couldn’t be hidden away from few), but the next thing Tobi noticed was even more concerning. One moment at school, he was just giving a presentation on the nature and history of eldritch abominations in writing during literature class, then he idly peeked at the floor for a minute and all these weird green things were emerging from the ground! He could even make out some faint-looking circle where they were all contained, too. These were all too small or faint to really decipher what they even were, but they certainly were noticeable enough so that he could know that something was seriously wrong. Speeding through his presentation as fast as he could, Tobi was quick to ask the teacher if he could go to the bathroom, and even before the teacher could reply with an “I don’t know, can you?” Tobi was out of the class and into the bathroom—the only bastion of privacy he could have during school hours. Even as he was rushing in, the little green stubs weren’t going away, rising out of the ground for every step he took. As he sat on a toilet, waiting for all of this to just go away, it eventually did, but he had the feeling this wasn’t the last time he was going to encounter this kind of stuff.
At lunch, Tobi was quick to discuss this with some of his friends, convinced it didn’t go unnoticed.
“You guys saw those green things, right?! It wasn’t just me?”
“Well, I didn’t seem to notice anything wrong,” his friend Elizabeth said.
“Yeah, and even if there was, what are some little green things gonna do to you, anyway?” another friend of his, Felicity, responded.
“Huh? Was something happening?” his third friend George murmured, his face clearly not being awake.
“I guess you’re right…” Tobi looked at himself. Even though he was feeling less and less like himself (said problems from a few days back had only exacerbated themselves), such reassurance from his friends made him feel a little better.
Odd clothes shifting at home, plants only getting larger, beginning to have control over vines
…Until a few more days later, that was. It was another fine day of getting up for school, when they couldn’t help notice…what was going on with their clothes? It was like some weird intermediate stage between what they could remember them being like and…something else entirely. Their beloved jacket had become decidedly more dull in color, the yellow stripes had reduced themselves a fair bit. The nice dark green that complimented them had become a more natural brown, and the white shirt that had been a staple of their wardrobe had tinged itself in a new, light nougat color with what looked to be a light blue leaf in the middle.
As for that whole green thing fiasco from a few days back, it’d only gotten more pressing. A certain feeling of what they could only describe as magic coursed through them whenever these little things popped up, and while they still didn’t have a full grasp on how they appeared or even when they appeared, it made them feel good nonetheless. These vines (to which they could finally pin a name to) were even beginning to tie their shoes for them! Said shoes were beginning to look like a miasma of different clashing colors all at once, but again, they hoped no one would notice for now. All they could seemingly do was wait.
And wait they did. With each passing day, it became a lot easier to just go with the flow, to see where things went. Any time that concern was brushed up with anyone from their friends Liz, Amicity, or Geos, to literally any authority figure they could ask, the most they ever got was a simple shrug. Thus, the learned response to…Wibi (the more they even thought of their own name, the fuzzier it got, but this would suffice for now) was to just pass it off as well. None of it was hurting, after all. Their fur receding fully into soft, smooth skin? They were over it. Their tail becoming nothing but a remnant of what it once was? They would hardly miss that appendage. How they suddenly needed glasses? Not important in the slightest! Their hair lowering itself to be a set of two, shoulder-length, dark blue pigtails? They’d go as far as to say that they looked cuter like this! But why focus on those when they were getting more adept with the vines? Every day, it seemed like they had more and more control over them. Practicing in the forest, they could make them grow at such a fast rate, they even needed to learn spells to water them! They were so excited for the upcoming days as Weastside so that they could really get some use out of these. Everything all seemed like pieces of a puzzle that were slowly coming together…
…Until one day unlike any other they’d experienced before. All of a sudden, it seemed like everything clicked. A montage of memories seemed to flood their…her mind all at once. She could remember being a simple witch-in-training at Hexside, being called the nickname "Half-a-Witch Willow" for her subpar job in the abomination track, how much that utterly struck her at her very core. How she became friends with Luz, Amity, Gus, and all the rest—even if she could’ve sworn she’d never heard those names be associated with her before, they felt so…right to her. More and more events started to rush in, everything from getting a palisman to the Collector’s unleashing to being stranded in the Human Realm, until a clear picture of who she was came to her.
She was Willow Park. And she would protect anyone she loved, even if it cost her everything
A few days later, Willow was staring into the mirror intently. Just when was this black spot on her nose going away? She always thought of herself as someone who avoided blemishes like this, was she breaking out already? She was trying all manner of different creams and processes to get all that stuff out, but nothing was working! In a fit of desperation, she looked to her signature vines to help find a solution, rubbing at that stubborn part of her face as much as she could. At worst, she could call it a bruise, she figured. Yet, within only a few seconds, it was gone! Completely clear, she saw. Now that that whole ordeal was over, Willow felt so…cute! Doing a little twirl in front of her mirror’s reflection, she couldn’t help but reflect on herself. She had to fight and claw through so many monsters, malevolent entities and internal trauma to get where she was today, but all those bitter moments made the sweet times all the sweeter.
She saw her palisman Clover fly over to her; Willow couldn’t help but chime away at her beloved pet.
“Today’s gonna be great, hehe! Can’t wait to see all my friends again. Especially Amity. But especially Luz. Aren’t you excited?”