#monstermonsoon

(monster au stuff for @teenytinyhatkid-)

@teenytinyhatkid

The little sqib perching in his nest was not, apparently, the type of bug who took ‘no’ for an answer. 

If Tiso wasn’t currently struggling to breathe, he’d probably try to kick them out himself. As it is, each breath still bubbles in his throat, and even just the thought of sitting up sends nausea stirring through his already-messed up insides. The civilians in Dirtmouth did their best to pick the armor shards from his split carapace, but from the throbbing tearing through his entire body, he’s not entirely sure that they got all of it.

(It would have been kinder, really, if they had just dropped him into the acid below, so that this strange pale bug wouldn’t have found him bleeding among the ash, where all the dead broken things that wished for a new life withered away.) 

The grub tapped his leg again, soft little paws soothingly cold against his feverish carapace, then pointed at the herbal brew sitting in their lap. Something to stave off the sepsis, he knows. But the thought of swallowing something so bitter after getting his entire abdomen crushed is not a thought he cares to entertain, and with a weak snarl, he pushes them away.

“I’m not taking it, kid. Get lost.” Bitterness wells up in him, unbidden and useless, and, with a bitter laugh, he snarls, “you should have left me to die anyways.”

The cold little paws come back, but this time they press to his leg and stay there, a still, cold compress. He waits, and waits, but their owner doesn’t take the hint and doesn’t move away, and, eventually, he sneaks a glance back at them, against his will.

It’s astounding, the emotions a desperate mind could pick from a face so blank and empty. But Tiso’s half-feverish already and on his deathbed, so for once he finds that he doesn’t have the energy to push away the fear he thinks he sees in the little one’s eyes, to dismiss it as the mad ramblings of an ant who hasn’t had anyone to talk to since…

“Fine,” he sighs, and tries not to let the growl in his voice fade to a whimper. He’s too tired to fight anymore, but he won’t cry here. Not now. “Bring it here.”

When the pale thing crawls up to his side to feed him the medicine (carefully, ever so carefully, doing their best to not cause him any pain), he screws his eyes shut, and swallows every drop.

.

BOY TIME BOY TIME BOY TIME

Headcanon- He was actually a pretty damn good fighter! This is evidenced by how far he got in the colosseum; his death was by getting crushed by the mawlek, which means he got really far into the stages and probably would have gotten farther had they not dropped it directly on top of him. Personally, my headcanon for the way the colosseum works is that champions are chosen on an interest level rather than skill alone, and Tiso was just a biit too cocky for them to like him as a long-term champion, so they dropped the mawlek on him for a good laugh. Poor fucker didn’t realize that the game was rigged from the start, or that the only reason why Ghost won instead of him was because of a combo of them being able to come back and everyone being so intrigued by the fighting capabilities of something so strange. In particular, I think that his capabilities come from the fact that his weapon is just so fuckin weird on comparison to more traditional nail and shell kinds of combat; it appearing to be only a shield at first, and then popping out blades, gives him a major advantage in combat. In particular, I can see him using it to parry (maybe while popping out the blades? To better catch the point of an enemy’s weapon), and then taking advantage of their disarmed state to shred their chest/stomach/etc. Frankly, his biggest flaw is his cockieness, as that trick is best not to be bragged about and you can only take advantage of that ‘big trick’ kinda deal once. BUT that’s something that can be explored in aus, especially ones where he actually meets and catches the attention of Godtamer, who can then spar with him and knock some sense into him.  

Heartcanon- Part of why he’s so cocky and, well, kind of a dick is because he came from a colony where he wasn’t really,,,wanted much. The colony he came from were all farmers and looked down on fighting/saw his dreams as foolish, so he took to loudly talking himself up and training to try to draw attention, any attention, even if it was negative. His desire to throw himself at harder and harder fights and to challenge himself more and more is genuine, but it stems from a frustration of the mundane and the fear of being a nobody. This upbringing also makes him intensely suspicious of things and people that seem peaceful or helpful, as he he either believes they have ulterior motives (even if he is a fool, he’s not an idiot), or are passive and weak-willed and will dislike him for wanting to push himself to new heights. He’s also a perfectionist of sorts, and hates having to back out of things, as he thinks that this is proof he is being weak and soft, like the bugs he left behind. He truly believes that if he can prove himself and be the best warrior that he can be, he will prove he is more than what he left behind, and that he found a place for himself in the world when others told him he couldn’t. It takes a LOT of knocks on the head and the friendship of others to realize that no, he doesn’t have to be a big scary warrior to be seen and respected, and hey, pretty much all the bugs he’s hanging out with now are warriors and hunters, so he’s hardly going to be called the ‘town troublemaker’ and ignored in THEIR ranks 

(Imo he’s also a pretty young male- maybe 19 or 20 or so?- and half of his cockieness is bc he’s hopped up on Fite Hormones lol. I know I’m down to fight pretty much 24/7 so I can only imagine how hyped to fight an ant with more primal instincts would be. There’s a whole lot of sadness and anger with his place in the world down there but admitting to it is for CHUMPS)

Gutcanon- He’s actually pretty smart and is excellent at crafting/engineering!! He just thinks that EVERYONE can do it, which is why he doesn’t brag about it as much, and he’s often so focused on being a better fighter that it just kinda ends up being a secondary skill to him, something that he doesn’t think about as much. Kinda like a high int, low wisdom kinda thing? He tends to intake information about engineering and crafting without even realizing it, like he can pop open a mechanism and look at it and passively absorb all that he needs to know about it while also thinking about how cool it would be to weaponize stag beetles and ride them in the arena. Part of it is his upbringing, but part of it is also just that he has a knack for figuring shit out like that and seeing where things need to go. I mean fuck, just look at his shield; making something like that is pretty damn impressive, he could have gotten really far in Hallownest society if he came pre-fall. I can easily see someone like him becoming a knight (maybe getting knocked around a bit to calm him down) or an engineer, given that Hallownest really seemed to favor those kinds of things. Like!! It’s frankly quite tragic how his own ego/dreams were his downfall, because he has SO MUCH POTENTIAL!!

Hat kid: “thank you!”

Bow kid: “>///<”

Hat kid: “bow get’s easily flustered, don’t mind her”