#hydrownus

Or she’s caught two employees arguing because one of them was a reactionary twat and that pissed off his sister enough to fuck his coworker out of spite and now both coworkers are beefing about it instead of saving lives by taking over the world. Whichever!

And with that, the whole set is complete:

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.

            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.

            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.

            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!