A little doodle of one of one of my favourite vat7k fics on ao3 In the Closet With Skeletons by in-a-slanted-outhouse (the_t_stands_for_tall) (@i-feel-like-a-bird).
If u wanna know the context go on and read the fic🤭
Hi Vat7k fandom!! I’m super happy with how this came out!! This comic strip was very experimental with lighting and colors and backgrounds, but I had tons of fun with it : )
For context, this takes place before team Radical reaches Corona, where the Light Trial takes place. The four stopped by a small village and split off into two groups to gather supplies—Nuru and Yong, and Hugo and Varian. (Totally wasn’t intentional) (it was)
At this point in the story, Hugo’s completely smitten. He doesn’t want to be, and he hates that he is, but he just can’t seem to get over this fuckass guy with freckles. (Who he has to betray soon) Varian’s also completely down bad, but he’s still kind of oblivious. “Offering my best friend to live with me once the trials are over isn’t gay, I’m just being friendly! Anyone would offer their friend a place to stay, it isn’t romantic!!” (In their situation, it’s gay, but he says otherwise)
Hugo has become a well known political figure after the library and was in a paper from Ingvarr talking about his efforts on fixing the class system issues
Anyway varian got a hold of it lol
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This is basically an AU if Hugo didnt stay in Corona with Varian after the trials because he wasnt sure how to face them and returned to Ingvarr with Donnie.
First one is Hugo as part of Donellas crew before the trials. The second one is the trial one obv. Hes looking at him all mad cuz that was kinda just his personality before he became smug and goofy😭growing up on the streets does that to ya. Anw here's my backstory for him no one's gonna read
So. Oh my god. HUGO. Ok i have like one billion thoughts for him and how his life would be like before he met Varian, so let me just sum up what I have thought of for his backstory.
Hugo comes from Ingvarr, the biggest kingdom of the 7 kingdoms, that also joined this alliance the latest, after the Dark kingdom was, uhm, abandoned and wasnt rlly part of the 7 kingdoms anymore, ingvarr decided to join.
Imagine it like the earth kingdom from atla, just replace all the rocks with metal. Thats how i imagine invarr to be. Its very technologically advanced and has the strongest army of the 7 kingdoms, thanks to this, they've never lost any wars ever.
Because of this, many refugees come to invarr seeking safety and shelter. This leads to the kingdom being severely overpopulated.
Hugo's mother was one of these refugees. Since Hugo's semi-canon last name is Rottewange which is german (where ive also placed corona), i headcanon his birth mother to be from germany! At least the fantasy version of it here. And i also headcanon ingvarr to be in russia.
Long story short, his mother falls in love with an ingvarrian guy, they have hugo, they both die of the plague or whatever when he's a baby so he can get his orphaned boy tragic backstory.
He ends up being placed in the ingvarrian orphanage in the lowest class. (There are 3 classss btw, lowest, middle and high (where all the rich ppl live.) The passage through low class to middle class is possible but u cant go travel between more then one class, meaning low class can only go to middle, high class can only go to middle, and middle can go anywhere. Basically low class and high class ppl will never meet.)
One day the royal court is trying to get rid of the overpopulation problem. And cuz theyre horrible people they decide to just get rid of some of them and they're thinking-
Who are the most ussless people in society right now? That don't bring anything to the table currently and probably never will?
That's right. Low class, children, and orphans.
Sooo as ive said before, the royals are horrible people so they decide to burn down every single orphanage in the low class.
But Hugo, because hes a smart cookie and has a talent for sneaking in an out of places even as a kid, is able to escape his orphanage and be the only survivor from all of them, at only 6 years old.
He then lives on the streets for years after that. From scrap metal he finds he builds olivia to help him steal (and also so hes not lonely :( but one day he gets cocky
Hes only ever been able to get to and steal from the middle class. But at the ripe age of 13 he decides hes tired of this life and risks it all to sneak into the castle in high class.
And yk what? He actually manages it! Hes had like 7 years on the streets of experience now, even has olivia to help him!
He splits up from her in the castle and they decide to meet at the last room they'd steal from, the royal engineers laboratory :0
He waits there for olivia while checking out some of the equipment when suddenly the door opens and-
Oh wow, its Donella, the royal engineer!! Who wouldeve thought. She spots him and Hugo's about to quickly slip through the window when he notices that Donella is holding olivia In her left arm.
He panics cuz obviosuly he cant leave without her, and Donella's holding her in her metal arm. (Yes i headcanon donella to have a prosthetic). She is talking to him calmly though, kinda even praising him for being able to rob the castle unnoticed and even being able to get to her lab
She also notices how he could technically easily escape, but he doesn't seem to be leaving without the mouse.
Donella tests her theory and starts crushing olivia with her metal arm. Hugo panics and grabs a pistol from the wall that donella made and shoots at the arm holding olivia
And he misses
Don, unphased, tells him so, and he's still at shock with himself for what he has just almost done. Donella goes to a random cupboard and pulls out a pair of round glasses from it. She hands them to him and tells him to try and shoot again (not at her though 😭at a target or smtn)
Hugo, afraid to disobey since shes still holding olivia, shoots at a target and its almost a perfect bullseye.
Donella, impressed, offers him a job.
He says he would never work for the government, especially this one and isn't looking forward to being the royal engineers apprentice.
But she tells him she's not just the royal engineer, that she also secretly runs a crime ring in low class, where she hires thieves and works with guns and weapons, she also doesn't agree with the current government and plans to overthrow it someday. (Or something like that idk how to make her both the royal engineer and a crime boss tbh😭😭)
Hugo eventually agrees to join her, since hes tired of living on the streets and wants to make something of himself. Donella takes him into her crew, teaches him how to fight, run, dodge, how to use weapons and guns.
Hugo however, finds guns to violent, and wouldn't want to kill a person, so he modifies them and makes his own guns that instead of bullets use little alchemy balls, could be like smoke bombs or something similar to varians sticky bombs.
At first Hugo gets sent on jobs only with Cyrus (and Cyrus absolutely hates it. Having to babysit this smug little brat while also trying to rob a place is not fun.
But eventually, Hugo is old enough to be sent on jobs himself and becomes the most hardworking person in her crew jdbskdnjd even though everyone just thinks hes gotten that high with donella cuz hes her pseudo son or something. He rarely gets taken seriously by anyone there, so hes actually excited to go on the mission with the 7k gang since it's the biggest job anyone has ever pulled there.
(Also the reason donella decided she wanted Hugo on her team wasn't just because he was a good shot, or that he was smart enough to sneak into the castle and rob both the royals and her nearly undetected (though that also was a big part of it)
But it was becouse of his loyalty to olivia. He wouldn't leave without her, would go against his own morals, would risk his life just so he can get her back.
As loyalty is a big rarity here, she was determined to aim his all to herself and groom him into the soldier she needs.
Soooo that's it! Good job if yall read it this far cuz i wouldn't 😭please give me your feedback or other headcanons in the comments!😝
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