Fanfic / Boscha Noceda

Cover art for the fanfic

Boscha Noceda is a The Owl House fanfic co-written by Mr. Hardcor3 and Garth2the2ndpower. The story takes the usual Fandom-Specific Plot of one of the Boiling Isles kids ending up on Earth as a child, but instead of any of the usual suspects, explores how things would have played out if it was Hexside's resident Jerk Jock.

One day in Gravesfield, Connecticut, Manny and Camila Noceda hear a crying child in the woods. Heading over to the abandoned cabin near their home, they enter it to find an injured four year old with pink skin, pointed ears, three eyes, and no memory of who she is. Unwilling to abandon the young girl, they decide to take her in until they can find her parents, but it soon becomes clear that rather than a temporary guest, they've brought home a second daughter who is determined to become the best big sister she can possibly be to Luz. A protective instinct that grows all the stronger when, years later, the duo are teenagers and find themselves stumbling through a portal into Boscha's original homeland, the Boiling Isles.

In addition to Archive of Our Own, the fic is cross-posted on Fanfiction.net and Wattpad.

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Boscha Noceda contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Odalia, as per canon, who has Professor Hermonculus spy on Amity so that she can call her up and berate her at a moment's notice if she doesn't do well at school, and responds to any defiance by forcing Amity to partake in Blight Industries weapons demonstrations, regardless of physical harm.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Manny's death left a big impact on Boscha, who never had to deal with the loss of a loved one in canon.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • The core concept of this story is Boscha growing up alongside Luz, therefore being introduced long before she would be in canon.
  • Odalia shows up via Oracle magic to berate Amity for the events of "I Was A Teenage Abomination", which is well before her first vocal cameo in "Understanding Willow" and first full appearance in "Escaping Expulsion".
• Adaptational Explanation: In canon, the cause of Manny’s death was never specified. Here, it’s stated to be stage three heart cancer.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Eda seems to be even more of a Troll than she usually is in canon, being all too fond of turning people into balls with a spell whenever she feels like it, with Boscha being the most common target. Granted, she and Boscha did not exactly get off on a friendly start when she wrecked her stand, and constantly mouths off to her.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: While still rude and now having a tendency to pepper every sentence with a swear or two, Boscha is considerably nicer in this fic.
• Adaptational Protagonist: Boscha takes the lead role in this fic, where she was only a recurring character in canon.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • Boscha becomes Luz’s adoptive sister in this fic, as opposed to being a bully at Hexside with whom she has no relation with.
  • Amity and Willow never stopped being friends in this universe like they did in canon, as they only pretend that the former is bullying the latter so that Odalia won't interfere with their relationship or harm them.
  • Eda and Camila only met each other after the final battle and showed no signs of attraction to each other. Here, they meet right after Luz and Boscha enter the Demon Realm, and Eda shows signs of attraction to Camila.
• Adaptational Wimp: Played with. Because she was never taught how to use magic, only using a fire spell once or twice back on Earth, Boscha is far from the strong witch she was in canon. However, Eda casually notes that she has a lot of raw power and could probably burn the entire isle to a crisp by pure accident.
• Amnesiac Hero: An unknown incident caused Boscha to lose her memories when she entered the Human Realm as a child.
• Amnesiac Resonance: One of the signs Boscha is from the Demon Realm is her fascination with the Goosebumps books. Later on, after being bullied by some older kids, she instinctively uses fire magic to fight back.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Willow and Amity's acting whenever they pretend that Amity is bullying Willow, full of a lot of melodramatics and Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable.
• Big Sister Instinct: Boscha is incredibly protective of her little sister Luz, to the point of constantly getting in trouble because she insists on beating up and picking fights with anyone who so much as looks at her sister funny.
• Brick Joke: At the start of Chapter 14, a groggy King mentions that Eda has a cure for hangovers and asks if she's taught it to them yet. After Boscha gets a Heroic RRoD fighting Adegast, Eda says that she needs to sleep it off like a bad hangover, then remembers the cure and runs off to get it.
• Bully Hunter: Boscha has a habit of getting into fights with bullies who pick on Luz. As she gets older, she tries to limit this to just yelling at them to lay off, but her frustration over this approach not working eventually culminates in an actual fight that gets her suspended a week before the school year ends.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: It’s because of this that Manny and Camila found Boscha in the first place.
  Manny: Someone is crying. We should go make sure they’re okay.
  Camila: What if it’s a trap?
  Manny: Then I die doing the right thing. That’s the only way I want to go.
• Cool Big Sis: Boscha is determined to live up to this, wanting to be a perfect big sister even before promising such to Manny on his deathbed, and Luz in turn absolutely views her as such and deeply appreciates how much Boscha tries to look out for her.
• Cuteness Proximity: Even Boscha cannot help but 'Aw' when King does cute things.
• Driving Question: Who was the one sent Boscha to the Human Realm, and where in the Boiling Isles are her birth parents? Granted, the only one of those Boscha herself remotely cares about is the first.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Eda does this with Camila when they first meet, finding the woman insanely attractive and spending most of their conversation trying to flirt. When Luz and Boscha come down for breakfast the next day and try to explain who they are and why they're there, Eda doesn't know what they are talking about until they ask if she at least recalls their mom.
  Eda: Boy, do I. Raaawwwrr. [Beat] Oh shit, was that out loud?
• Entertainingly Wrong: After seeing Boscha's inhuman features like her Third Eye and pink hair and skin, Camila and Manny speculate that her biological parents abandoned her for being deformed. She isn't, and even if she was it wouldn't be a problem on the Isles.
• Failed a Spot Check: Camila is severely annoyed when she learns that Boscha's magic comes from a bile sac attached to her heart, since that means that none of the doctors they went to noticed it.
• Fantastic Racism: Albeit with neither party realizing it at the time. Boscha was a victim of teasing and bullying when she was younger on account of her looking inhuman with her pink skin, pointy ears, and third eye she has to hide, culminating in some kids convincing local conspiracy theorist Jacob that she isn't human in revenge for her fighting back (which gets her kidnapped later that night). This eases up as Boscha gets older, as her natural athleticism makes her reasonably popular by the time she's a teenager.
• From the Mouths of Babes: After overhearing the word from Camila, Boscha starts to call people she comes into conflict with "puta", a slang word for prostitute in Spanish, which morphs into her regularly swearing by the time she's a teenager.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Boscha Valentina Noceda gets hit with this when Camila learns she got suspended a mere week before the school year ended.
• Gene Hunting: Downplayed. Boscha gives this as the reason why she wants to stay in the Boiling Isles for a while, and argues for Luz to stay with her so she isn't lonely. However, Boscha reveals to Eda and King the following day that she has little interest in learning who her birth parents are, proudly and comfortably viewing herself as Camila's daughter; she only claimed she was doing this trope so Luz would have an opportunity to learn magic.
  Boscha: If I happen to bump into them, then fine by me. Otherwise, I don't give a shit about finding them. I'm more concerned with helping Luz find a place where she fits in, and against my better judgement, I think this place might be it.
• Happily Adopted: Boscha with the Nocedas. While she is upset when she believes that Eda is the reason why she found herself in the Human Realm to begin with and punches her over it, she doesn't have any strong feelings about her birth family. When Luz asks if Boscha is even a little curious about who her real parents are, she angrily tells Luz that Manny and Camila are her real parents.
• Hard Light: Luz figures out that with a little applied willpower, she can make her light glyphs solid.
• Heroic RRoD: Boscha overdoes it with her Playing with Fire spell when fighting Adegast, and collapses after he's defeated because she basically used up all her stored bile at once.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Boscha makes it clear that only she gets to mess with Luz, and no one else does, not even their mother.
• I Resemble That Remark!: Upon first meeting Willow and Amity, Luz suggests that Amity might be Boscha's sister on account of them having the same short fuse.
  Amity and Boscha: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!
• Identity Amnesia: Boscha has no memories from before Camila and Manny found her. They only know her name because it was written on a tag on her shirt.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Since it wasn't because of external causes, Manny still dies from an illness when Luz and Boscha are young children, leaving Camila a single mother.
  • Even though Boscha is seen as odd in the Human Realm for her pink skin, ears, and insistence on always wearing a hat, Luz is still the only outcast at school thanks to Boscha's athletic ability making her well-liked and respected by their peers.
  • Despite the events leading up to the event being much different, including the fact that it's a week before summer vacation and there's no indication that Luz is going to a summer camp, the sisters still end up in the Boiling Isles as a result of chasing Owlbert into the shed to get Luz's book back.
  • Even with Boscha as an additional voice of reason, Luz goes on the "quest" Adegast sets up anyway due to feeling like she's Always Second Best when compared to her sister and wishing to prove otherwise.
  • Even though Amity is only pretending to bully Willow and is still secretly friends with her, she still gets railroaded by other students into exposing Luz as a fake Abomination.
  • Boscha still loves sports, becoming captain of the school basketball team back in Connecticut; as such, she's instantly enamored when Eda teaches her about grudgby.
    Boscha: I think I've found my most favorite sport ever. It's called Grudgby and it's like basketball, except it's a full-contact sport! And Luz? Luz? LUZ... you can set the ball on FIRE."
• Internal Reveal: Boscha and the rest of the Nocedas don't learn that she's a witch until Chapter 13. The additional reveal that she's half-demon doesn't come until King makes an off-hand remark about it in Chapter 16.
  Boscha: I'm a witch, Luz. By definition, I can't gain superHUMAN strength.
  King: Technically, she's half witch, half demon.
  Boscha: ...THE FU-?!
• Interspecies Adoption: Boscha is adopted by the Nocedas after a few weeks of living with them, though it takes several years for anyone to realize that Boscha isn't just a human with an odd mutation.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Boscha is still rude with a short temper to boot, but it's clear that she cares about her sister.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: As in canon, Adegast does this to the girls, with Boscha getting trapped in a vision where she reunites with Manny while Luz receives the same fantasy land as in canon. Both she and Luz break out within seconds due to Adegast underestimating their sibling bond, and assuming Boscha would love a world where Manny is alive and declares Luz The Unfavorite, and Luz would be enraptured by a land where Boscha never existed.
• Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Boscha in this AU is part Ifrit, a species of Biped demon that can withstand intense temperatures.
• Not Me This Time: Upon hearing from Eda (who thought she knew already) that the search for Boscha's birth parents was just an excuse for Luz to stay in the Demon Realm and learn magic, Camila assumes that it was Luz's idea. It takes Boscha yelling in her face that it was her own idea for Camila to get the point that Luz is innocent.
• Only Sane by Comparison: As her sister, Boscha makes sure to look out for Luz and keep her safe, especially once they start living with Eda, King, and Hooty. However, while Boscha is usually the rational one who tries to slow things down and ask questions, she still has some serious anger issues, and hurting or insulting Luz is an instant Berserk Button that overrides everything else.
• Parents as People: Camila admits that she was always so focused on keeping Boscha's true species hidden that she feels like she ignored Luz's needs.
• Playing with Fire: Being part Ifrit, Boscha has a natural skill with fire spells.
• Precision F-Strike: Amity caps her Rage Against the Mentor moment with Lilith with a "Fuck You!".
• Rage Against the Mentor: Amity is outraged when she realizes that Lilith made her cheat in her duel with Boscha, chewing her out for doing it without thinking about how Amity would feel.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Jacob successfully manages to guess that Boscha is a demon, but like in canon, simply assumes that she's in the human realm to harvest teeth, rather than believe she came here for any other reason.
• Running Gag: Several characters get turned into balls by Eda, with Boscha getting this treatment the most. The authors even made "Ballscha" one of the tags on AO3 to reflect this.
• Ship Tease:
  • In addition to Lumity getting nods from Luz and Amity's first meeting (with them getting lost in each other's eyes while Amity is first examining her, Luz calling her pretty, etc.), Boscha notes that she finds Willow attractive.
  • More prominently though, Boscha finds Skara beautiful and clearly develops a crush when first meeting her at Covention.
• Shout-Out:
  • In Chapter 2, Luz refers to a raccoon she let eat some of her food as Rigby, and initially believes Boscha is Princess Bubblegum when Camila and Manny first bring her in.
  • In Chapter 6, Boscha is revealed to be a fan of Goosebumps books.
• Signature Headgear: A variant. While living in the Human Realm, Boscha doesn't have a signature hat to hide her third eye with, but she does draw a cartoon eye on all of them.
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: Luz admits in Chapter 14 that she's envious of Boscha, as despite her sister being the weird pink-skinned girl who is secretly a triclops, Luz is the one who is a bullied social reject while Boscha is a popular sports superstar at their school. Part of the reason why she does the chosen one quest in this fic is because she wants to be better than Boscha at something.
  Luz: Seriously, it's always Boscha, Boscha, Boscha! Well this time, it's gonna be my turn!
• Suddenly Bilingual: In an attempt to impress Camila, Eda tries to learn her "human dialect"... only to learn Japanese instead of Spanish, not realizing that there are so many human languages other than English.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Boscha lived her life believing she is a human like her adoptive parents and sister, albeit one with a birth defect and fire powers. However, after trying to deny any possible connection to the natives of the Boiling Isles, she is forced to accept that she's a witch when she cannot enter a pillar that keeps out non-humans.

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