#hydrownus

[sepublic]

Art Fight

An art gifting game

Finally created an Art Fight account and these are the current OCs up for attack! You have the Council of Warlocks…

And on the side: Tamara, Shogaken, and Fipik! I plan to add some more but Tumblr only allows ten images per post.

[sepublic]

            So what happens to the Council of Warlocks?

            I’ve already gone over how, in an obvious homage to something most of you should understand, Ruby inherits the power of Magick and uses it to thrash the warlocks definitively. It’s a humiliating defeat, and they’re left in the mud and rain.

            More specifically, Ruby shatters an entire mountain, or causes a chasm to cave in; Either way the warlocks are buried after they spit out their meagre curses and defenses at Ruby, but it’s too late. They know they’ve lost.

            Majikus gripes earlier on about how she doesn’t believe in worship or relying on reputations, but that she ultimately has no choice in using Magick and their power; By doing so, she inevitably reinforces that worship of Magick. Narellus reassures her that you can use a battery without worshipping it, but in the end it’s Majikus’ idea and it’s what the plan depends on, because the truth is that there is no plan, just some general ideas of how to keep the regime running until they revive Magick.

            Magick was their lynchpin, the warlocks’ way of strongarming and convincing everyone into doing what needed to be done; The rest would be figured out from there. They put all their faith that they could settle any questioning or dispute by aiming a big bomb in whatever direction was necessary. Without Magick, they would have to make this work on normal ideas and systems and solutions, instead of vague promises and threats.

            So when Ruby defeats the warlocks, she reclaims the Magestones to disintegrates them, preventing Magick from being misused and ending that plan forever. Likewise, seeing Magick clearly side with this human outsider over the warlocks delegitimizes them in the eyes of the Monster Realm as a whole; So on top of realizing they have no plan, the Council of Warlocks have also been disgraced in the eyes of the Monster Realm.

            Basically? They give up and jump ship.

            They all individually recover, dig themselves out of the rubble, and limp away to safety, their first focus being survival before thinking about finding the others. I imagine the first out are Hydrownus and Narellus; Hyd salvages Nare and brings her to safety in a cave, finding shelter from the rain.

            Nare feels a bit of relief as she attempts to rest, but Hydrownus… He reflects on how doomed the situation is. He looks at his hands, trembling, and thinks of how this is all gonna collapse and fall apart. He joined Majikus because she made him feel like he could actually do something for once, he could build and not just be nothing more than a destroyer.

            He thinks of what he did; Murdering a mother protecting her child, and how his own mother would’ve thought of that. At the time he made good with it, but now, in this tenuous moment?

            Hydrownus panics, and gives up. Without another word he just leaves the cave and Narellus turns to see he’s gone. Not so much as a goodbye or a parting gift, he’s just outta there and skiing as quickly in whatever direction is away from here. She’s quiet, and can only call out his name once, unsure.

            Viracious wakes up, to find himself in some bedroom. He’s bandaged and tending to his wounds is his sister Thanasia. He already knows what happened, so he’s just quiet. Thanasia admits to him, that… she helped do it. Just as Spelaris betrayed Majikus by powering the barrier spell that cut off the warlocks from one another, she helped plant the necessary nodes for that spell.

            That was the reason she was there; To sabotage the warlocks, and by extension her own brother. It grieves her… and realistically, she should’ve just gone along to preserve the mission. But Than couldn’t help herself. During that visit she called out Viracious to his face what he was doing, tried to appeal to him, only to be rebuked. She risked Majikus’ suspicion, because in the end she just wanted her brother by her side, and didn’t want to just throw him out so readily.

            That’s why she saved him, she tearfully admits; She really shouldn’t have. There’s no way he’ll forgive her now, so it’s pointless. But that’s what happened.

            Viracious is quiet. By all means he should be upset, but at this point he’s just resigned. It’s all over anyway. He wonders what his father would think and just lets Thanasia do her work.

            Megarus is recovered from a river and is nursed back to health. He lays low, knowing there’s a lot of enemies out for the warlocks, who see their chance with the regime’s collapse. He finds himself reunited with some old friends of his; Other mercenaries indebted to Mammon, who were freed when the warlocks slayed the dragon. They express gratitude, and so for old time’s sake, they offer him a new job. They’re working for this boss, and a warlock like Megarus could fetch a hefty price as a mercenary, and be valued as someone who could get the job done.

            Megarus considers… And relents. He finds himself signing a contract again, as he had with Mammon. Maybe this employer will be better, and they certainly can’t be worse, right?

            A door knocks and Kisonus’ mother opens it, surprised yet happy to see her daughter, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck, arms full of cardboard boxes; Her stuff, retrieved. Kisonus comes in and explains that this warlock gig didn’t exactly work out… Her mother reassures her that this has happened before and each time she’s gotten out of it! Kisonus feels a little better. And as always, her mother adds, she’s welcome to crash here until she finds a new job.

            Kisonus sighs, digging up her old mile-long resume scroll. She really thought she’d never need to touch this thing again, huh? But now… Well, time to start updating it. And there’s a lot to add with THIS entry… She begins typing.

            For so many people, the warlock regime was something that changed the course of the Monster Realm’s history forever. But for Kisonus? It was just another job of hers that didn’t quite work out, another addition to her lengthy resume.

            Editaurus wakes up unenthusiastically in one of her studios. It’s been a few days and she can already hear protestors outside, tangling with her chimeras. She made her way back to safety a long time ago, but of course here she finds herself, cancelled once again; In this case, for being a warlock. Probably a worse sin than the child labor sweatshop debacle.

            She considers, but in the end? She can only do as she always has; Blindly move forward and ignore the haters as she steels herself and begins work on a new project.

            Narellus’ mansion weakly limps itself to a big clifftop to overlook the area below. It still hasn’t fully recovered from Khemh and the Monster Realmers’ assault, and the chaos of the warlock regime collapsing didn’t help either. But in the end it’s reunited with its master Narellus, who opens its doors. Inside is a whole lott of empty, abandoned dust.

            …She sighs, and then sits down at a table as the door closes behind her, as she gets to work sewing together a torn curtain. Back to her usual tasks.

            Majikus? I’m still workshopping her ending. I’m playing with the original idea I had for the warlocks’ ending, where they end where they began; At the first village they saved, a scenario in which they actually were the heroes. Even after everything, this village still holds them dear, and believes in what they did for them; And so they offer to host them. Besides, the village reasons; They’ll need protection in the ensuing chaos. Since this chaos is the result of the regime they established, that is now collapsing under their watch, surely the responsibility of this place’s safety falls to them, right?

            In this original ending, the humbled warlocks would’ve been able to reflect on how it started right, and wonder where it went wrong from there. But maybe they can stay here, and just… leave it as this. Don’t allow it to develop and go wrong. Just keep it the same. If this was one good action of theirs, maybe they can just follow its example and they might not go wrong from there.

            I’m thinking about this for Majikus alone; Or maybe she remains a guardian for the community she started off in.

            Either way, we have a brief montage revisiting the warlocks’ fates as Ruby or someone else monologues the ending; Hydrownus butchering sea monsters in some underwater location, having resumed his travels and quest to develop his magic, taking down whatever gets in his way without much regard, once again. Narellus opening the curtains to let in some moonlight, tending to this mansion by herself, once again. Kisonus baking something with her mom and having some fun as she notices a bit of cream on her face, her mother laughing.

            Megarus protecting a traveling caravan from bandits. Viracious playing a boardgame with Thanasia and being surprised when she wins, only for them to both laugh happily over it. Editaurus notices some protestors engaging in combat, not very successfully, with her guardian chimeras outside as she rolls her eyes and focuses back on her current project. And Majikus, once more fighting as she defends this place; Is she still delusional or has she learned something from all of this?

            The ending is meant to be cyclical, stagnant; The Warlocks thought they could break their fates, but the tragedy is they find themselves back where they started, it kind of really was all for nothing. They thought they could change the world, but they couldn’t even change their own lives! And so there’s a bittersweetness to the curse as life moves on anyway and they’re forced to live with the shame and humiliation of their mistakes and keep going; Perhaps the cruelest mistake of all.

            Viracious is a… curious exception because like. He’s the only warlock to demonstrate some actual growth, just on the implication that he actually let it go and embraced change by hanging out with his sister. It’s not cyclical because to do this, he had to have given up on his conquests and just become a normal guy.

            My reasoning for this was because we already have two warlocks who have a complex past with their sister; I wanted to keep in Spelaris and Thanasia because they were OCs I created to develop the warlocks further, and I didn’t want to throw them out. I wanted to make them work. But if I already have the same situation twice, I gotta justify it by having both be different enough to warrant it, to avoid redundancy.

            So I opted for the idea that one Warlock-Sibling dynamic would end in tragedy, and the other wouldn’t. Likewise, I was endeared to the thought that came to me while figuring out the endings of Thanasia saving Viracious, confessing, and making an appeal to her brother that actually works because he’s too defeated and humbled, and she’s proven him right so in a retroactive sense what can he blame her for? And he DID miss her, truth be told.

            Conversely, Majikus and Spelaris… Yeah, Maj crosses a line and murders her own sister, doubling down. I chose Majikus just because I like making her deranged and realistically, while Viracious was the one being a warlord even before Majikus began her quest, it’s also true that as leader of the warlocks, Majikus takes responsibility for everything they do under her watch, and even retroactive responsibility for what they did beforehand by deciding that was fine and could keep happening.

            So in that sense, she is morally the worst warlock. And for that other reason it made sense to have Majikus’ sibling dynamic end on a sour note, while Viracious’ has hope. Not to mention the perspective of Kita and her story, realizing her aunt is fucking insane and having to live with that. Poor Kita.

            I guess it’s a bit funny though because I feel Viracious is morally one of the worst warlocks because he was already pillaging and slaughtering villages even before the council formed. Compared to more down-low ones like Kisonus or Megarus, it does seem a bit unfair doesn’t it? But I also suppose that what makes Viracious different is that… he has a family member who actually called him out and didn’t enable him.

            Bless the heart of Kisonus’ mother but uh. Yeah she’s really letting her do all that. Same for Editaurus’ father. Narellus and Hydrownus enabled each other in the end, what with Hyd’s suggestion of killing Nare’s colleagues, and Nare offering to help Hyd with murdering a mother and child that reminded him of his own past. Still working on what the story is with Megarus and his family member. Majikus did at least have Spelaris… But again, he had to differ from Viracious’ story beats and it feels more fitting for Kita’s story and tragedy for her aunt to fail her so badly.

            So I guess there’s a point that the warlocks enabled one another and were enabled; That in the end they needed someone to call them out, but also to take the final step of listening to them.

            This does make me consider that Megarus’ family member, perhaps a cousin, is someone he is actually resentful towards, just to diversify things and add to the whole mess. So if that cousin also spoke up, well that’s just another reason Megarus should do it. I suggest this because the thought of Meg, such a cheery guy, having this family member he actually fucking hates started off as this irony-based gag, but it could be more than that as I think about it.

            Regardless of Viracious’ anomaly of an ending, it still applies to the entire Council of Warlocks; In the end, they turned out to be the biggest losers of all.

[sepublic]

The original poster turned off reblogs dammit so I had to make this edit. Because it describes exactly Narellus’ obsession with Hydrownus because while she does play with offering herself as a romantic and/or sexual partner to Hyd, by the end of the day it doesn’t necessarily have to be that. All she really wants is to be important to him while he is important to her. She could be his mother or daughter or sister figure dammit! As long as he sees her too.

[sepublic]

HOLY SHIT IT THEM!!!!! IT THEM!!!!! I got a donation request done by @pespillo for Narellus (on the shoulder) and Hydrownus (the shoulder)!!! The steam, the bubbling water textures, the flourishes of Narellus’ outfit… I even got both sides of her asymmetrical mask! It’s everything and I ref recommend checking the artist out!

[sepublic]

Basically Narellus would see their dynamic as “He’s going to fix me!!!! 🥰” while Hydrownus resignedly thinks to himself, “She’s making me worse.”

Though I guess it’s unfair to ignore Majikus as part of the equation, as someone Hyd feels indebted to, who did explain that his role was the executioner, something Hyd chose to take to heart in that crucial moment!

[sepublic]

            I do consider Hydrownus a bit of a tragic character, probably the most tragic of the warlocks alongside Megarus.

            But at the same time he still did all that. He still killed all of those people. He can’t treat himself as some victim. In the end, men would rather be the most violent murderers imaginable (or even just run away from it all) than get therapy.

            What I’m getting at here is that after Narellus and Hydrownus reach an understanding, there’s that cute little moment where he offers, of his own brilliant volition, to help Nare murder her old coworkers… They’re out doing a typical massacre or whatever. I dunno if they already got to that part, if Narellus politely declined but still appreciated the sentiment, if they were saving it for later and that potentially saved those colleagues of Nare’s.

            Either way life seems like it should be great! Hydrownus has his memories back, he’s beginning to welcome Narellus into his life, Majikus the nice lady really has helped him be more than just a destroyer!

            He’s entering a building all menacing and brooding, ready to slaughter a bunch of poor defenseless civilians and then it happens. A little kid cries out for his mama, and the mother cries out as she runs over, forgoing any fear of Hydrownus, to embrace and shield her child from the beast.

            And Hydrownus has a whole episode. His memories are back, he can’t pretend he doesn’t see the reflection here; His mother died, trying to protect him. He was spurred into wrath by the grief of losing his mother’s love. And yet here he is, facing a child sheltered by their mother. He raged at the injustice of being torn from his mother, over his mother’s mistreatment and separation from the child she looked forward to, well what he’s gonna do this to this kid, to this mother? He is now the monster who tore him and his mother apart, the monster he raged about, who he suffered from and was defined by.

            Hydrownus hesitates and has an internal crisis. At that same moment, Narellus floats in, casual and expecting things to be going smoothly as always, chit-chatting when she notices. She can be borderline oblivious in how out-of-touch she can be with what a normal person is like but even she can immediately pick up the dilemma Hyd is facing here.

            She figures out her solution fast; She addresses Hyd, who notices her. Narellus begins to offer to take over for him, to do it for him, to spare him the pain if he’s willing to spare her the pain of murdering her old colleagues (she wouldn’t actually feel anything but it’s the thought from Hydrownus that counts)-

            And then Hyd snaps, realizes what’s also happening here, and he commits. He doubles down. He swings his snowflake hatchet and butchers the mother and child to pieces.

            Narellus stares in surprise and then concern, but Hydrownus, surprisingly calmly, reassures her. Don’t worry about it, he says. My mother… she died a long time ago.

            That’s not his mother. And that’s not him. And anyhow, he may or may not this out loud, and how much of it I don’t know; Hydrownus’ mother died with her final wish being for her child to be happy.

            Perhaps this is happiness; His role among the warlocks. And so to sabotage his duties as a warlock is to sabotage his belonging and contribution and thus happiness among them. And so to preserve his role as the executioner as Majikus taught him, to preserve his happiness, to preserve his mother’s wish, Hyd will just have to do what he’s always done.

            She never would’ve forced him to do it. But that just makes it all the more important that he did.

            Is he better for this? Moving on, finally? Or is he just getting worse. Did he betray his mother? Is he letting go of the excuse to cause pain and thus maturing, owning up, or has he just replaced it for a new one? Maybe Hydrownus is a kid who needs to grow up and replace his mother with a wife who’s on equal terms and not some mere caretaker, because he can care for himself. Does it matter what Hyd has done to his mother when he has someone who’s actually alive and needs him to be her executioner? His mother isn’t getting any deader. Narellus very much can, and she has things she wants outside of her life too.

            God, what a Freudian freak. Narellus isn’t actually the only one thinking about being his “new mommy” and in that sense they’re kinda made for each other. Which makes it all the more tragic when the conviction that comes with this backfires on Hydrownus when it haunts him in a vulnerable moment, where otherwise he may not have made a decision if that were not there to haunt and chase him out of that cave in a way Narellus the ghost could only dream of.

[sepublic]

            I think Hydrownus looks up to Majikus a bit, he feels alienated from the rest of the Warlocks, who all regard him as some weird animalistic freak, and then there’s Narellus who feels like she’s coming onto him like a rich woman with a fetish towards her servants. Maj of course is the leader who singled out and chose Hyd for this, so it all comes down to her as to why he’s here, she was the one who really pushed and ultimately inspired Hydrownus to do it.

            So there’s a quiet little moment where Hydrownus walks into her study and awkwardly asks a willing Majikus, Um, Ma’am, with all due respect.

            He gets what Viracious does; He’s a military tactician. Editaurus creates their army of chimeras. Megarus handles finances and logistics. Narellus knows the political intrigue. Kisonus is good for production. And Majikus is the leader, the strongest. The one with the vision that the others could not have done this without.

            So what does Hydrownus offer? He feels like he’s just there. And Majikus quietly sets down her book and explains:

            It’s because he does what others won’t. He’s the first to step up because somebody’s gotta clean the toilets. Hydrownus doesn’t question it, he just does; Do or do not, there is no try. That sorta thing. While the others might try to delude themselves about how they wouldn’t do this or that, in the end they need and want for things to happen, and Hydrownus is reliable in that he’s honest and doesn’t operate on any pretenses. He is the executioner, the one who gets things done.

            And, as someone who doesn’t have the patience for bureaucracy and politics, as someone who cares about results and just gettings things done. Well, Majikus finds that invaluable. And believe her, she would not ask Hydrownus to do something she herself would not. If he ever falters, call her.

            Hyd reassures Majikus that’s not gonna happen; To him, that’s letting this nice lady down.

            At the same time, Hydrownus notes that Narellus is also someone who’s ruthless and willing to get things done. The morality is there, she’s just more of a hands-off type but that’s not really much of a road block in the end, is it? Majikus concedes that point. Perhaps that’s why she paired them together, she postulates; They’re both the ones who will get things done.

            But then, Hydrownus counters, why not pair each of them with another who won’t? Isn’t Majikus being redundant.

            Perhaps, Majikus considers, perhaps. And she leaves it at that. Hyd exhales, a little frustrated but still appreciative.

            Meanwhile, we have Narellus: Narellus gives treacherous advisor vibes and I think the other warlocks speculate about it behind her back every now and then, but she IS loyal. She’s someone who could’ve only dreamed of the political intrigue and plotting and conquest she’s living out now because of Majikus’ will and drive and vision. She’s indebted to her for that.

            They have their disagreements, their resistances. Narellus will suggest something dishonest like a false flag attack, Maj says no, draws her line in the sand. Nare will say they need to do a presentation and appeal to the audience. Maj feels that the Warlocks should be true to themselves and invite only those who honestly feel the same way, this isn’t right. It’s almost kind of juvenile and Narellus giggles and finds it a little cute.

            In the end, Majikus will listen to Narellus usually, and even concede that she was right. She values and takes into account what the other warlocks have to say, but she’s not a parasite either and lifts them up, that’s why they’re loyal. She wears her heart on her sleeve.

            Because of that, there will be times where she puts her foot down, and makes a point to Narellus that while she does accept feedback, and has been proven wrong sometimes, by the end of the day she is the leader and the final call is on her, and if Majikus wants to do things the hard way, then they will. Sometimes this is for reasonable things, other times Majikus wants to blow up a couple children to send a point, which Narellus KNOWS is bad publicity but alas Maj feels slighted and she just has to accept after a few attempts. It’s frustrating but Majikus is too good for her not to let it slide.

            I do think that she does things behind Maj’s back though, things that pay off for the warlocks in the end. Maybe Narellus does something big like exacerbate the big fight between the warlocks and Mammon, although tbf that was something Majikus had been itching to do since the beginning. Just something that causes a real headache but with a huge reward, and then Maj realizes what Nare did and just glares but leaves it be because she respects that Nare meant and accomplished well at least.

            Aaaaanyhow there’s that vulnerable moment when Hydrownus gets his memories back and realizes what happened to his mother, and he’s processing the grief and despair all fresh and anew for him. And Narellus takes her opportunity to help console him, and Hyd’s in just that right mental state to accept it. Nare almost blows it by thinking of saying something deranged like, I’ll be your new mommy before quietly deciding No, that’s a bit much and too soon.

            (“Too soon,” implying there would eventually be a time for it. I guess Hydrownus is a bit of a Mommy Issues freak after all.)

            The absurd thing is that there’s a moment afterwards, them having developed a new mutual understanding for one another, where Majikus and Narellus are talking whatever. Hyd greets Narellus and dares something, suggesting… Well, I dunno. It’s just that… I killed Asphyx to preserve the truth of your past. But the problem is that you have colleagues who remember you, who are probably still alive out there. So if we really wanted to keep things safe, it might be best to go out and kill them, because two’s already a crowd.

            (Majikus doesn’t find out. It doesn’t really matter and I doubt she’d care. In fact I think she’d respect the lack of reverence for titles, she’s respect Narellus making a name for herself because names had to start from somewhere to become titles, right?)

            Hydrownus keeps himself decently stoic as he proposes this but Narellus holy shit she is googoo gaga eyes for this guy and can understand the meaning. She plays with the idea, but for now Hyd has to go off and do whatever. As Hyd leaves, Maj rejoins and notices Narellus being all boy crazy and observes that they seem to be getting along better now. Nare confirms.

            She’s glad, Majikus confesses; She always thought they had a lot in common. It’s why she paired them up together; She hoped they would recognize that.

            Narellus’ eyes widen. She certainly recognized that in Hydrownus, and it took him a while to do the same, and some of that was her fault. But to have the confirmation that Majikus basically was matchmaker this whole time, encouraging it, set it up?

            She already gave Narellus so much. Now she’s given her everything. Narellus truly cements that she would die for, she would KILL for this warlock. She is so deeply touched and if she ever had any doubts in Majikus’ leadership or direction, well fuck that Maj has just proven what happens when Nare shuts up and follows without asking, and it. Is. Good!

            Externally though? She just happily, professionally thanks Maj as always. Maj dismisses it as not a problem to her.

[sepublic]

It’s not easy being the designated “dirty work” guy…

Explanation below the cut!

Viracious tries to act above it all but by the end of the day he’s a judgmental hater who thinks of Hyd as some savage, animalistic brute, when in reality Hyd is just doing directly what Vir often does from more of a distance. In Vir’s POV he’s way less messy about it, which, fair. But otherwise.

Kisonus and Hyd actually have a bit of a bonding moment where she rambles about alchemy and philosophy, and being an alchemist himself Hyd briefly adds to the conversation. Surprised, Kis tests the waters of his knowledge and confirms Hydrownus as someone with his own thoughts and opinions to the discourse. This leads to Kisonus sometimes sending Hydrownus some of her notes and alchemy schematics to use as a second opinion, get some feedback, as well as inquiring as to sources Hyd would know about. So the implication is that Hydrownus felt safe enough to extend the same, hence… This.

Megarus is the group financier and worked under Mammon. He would know this, and I guess he’s trying to be helpful here, the same way SpongeBob is trying to be helpful when he reminds people that licking doorknobs on other planets is illegal.

Editarus does not need Cocaina she needs Chimera (ingredients) and her main complaint with Hydrownus is that the bodies he butchers are so torn apart that it’s hard to salvage anything for her chimeras. Hence her reminder to be a little more clean this time.

Narellus has this weird little obsession with Hydrownus who she’s rotating in her mind. Truth be told the attraction doesn’t have to be romantic or sexual, as long as she’s important to him and vice-versa. But she has fun being a little depraved.

Majikus is Majikus and entrusted Hyd with the role of group executioner. And he’s never let her down.