#BUT IM PRETTY PROUD OF THIS ONE I THINK

[ramshacklerumble]

and the more that i am in pain, the more that you’ll gain (and to me, that seems like a pretty fair trade)

The boy was unconscious before he hit the floor.

Gia’s boot connected with his side.

Then his stomach.

His chest.

Face.

A blaze threatened to burn Gia to ash. Burning brighter and hotter and into a mounting roar— it would consume them to nothing. They could feel it in the trembling overtaking their body and so, in the only way they knew how, they’d take the source of it out with them. Gia would make kindling of this boy’s bones through stomps and swears and spit.

At least, they would have.

Hauled away before they sent the tip of steel toes smashing into the boy’s nose again, Gia fought against the pair of arms pinning their own to their side. They cursed at them and their owner. Struggled to grind their heels into his feet only for him to nimbly maneuver them away.

“Hey,” Floyd said as they tried— and failed— to rock their head back to catch him right on his teeth, “Hey. Knock it off, it’s over.”

It didn’t sound like this was taking much of an effort, which in turn only sent Gia into another round of thrashing and yelling. What this got them was a tighter squeeze around their diaphragm and a lift off the ground as their legs kicked at empty air.

They were screaming. And they kept screaming as there was a brief shift in balance…a stomach-drop instinct of falling back…followed by a pain shooting up their tailbone as they both dropped to the floor. This stopped the screaming.

“Ouch,” said Floyd flatly. He kept Gia sat between his outstretched legs. “You done?”

In a wheezing voice, Gia swore at him some more. They fought against his hold. When that got them nowhere, they thumped their back against him, weak and spent.

The fire puttered to smoke.

Gia slumped forward. The only reason they didn’t flop face-first into their knees was because Floyd still held onto them. So they stared at their lap, breath ragged, innards wanting to crawl up their throat. And there was something else. Something else was making its way out.

“Hm..?”

One long arm slipped out from around them, clamped a hand under their chin, and forced them to look up.

Gia shut their eyes in a final attempt at protest. Tears fell.

“Woah,” Floyd breathed.

Against their will, they blinked up at him. Floyd studied them, an expression settled prettily on his features. Curious… and something Gia was almost too scared to name. A merfolk trick, maybe, and idly Gia understood why sailors back in the day would risk finding out what it was.

“Aw, what’s the matter?” Floyd crooned, gently wiping his thumb under their eye. His skin felt cool on their cheek. It was terribly nice. “We got to the bottom of it, didn’t we, Shrimpy?”

Gia jerked away from him, the nickname a shock of ice water. Gia ground the heel of their palms into their eyes, pulled their knees to their chest, and curled into themself.

Floyd didn’t pin them again, but he continued, “C’mon. You knew going in you weren’t gonna get the money back.”

“I know.” Gia grit out. And they did know. The moment they realized the Ramshackle had been broken into they’d known. That’s not why they were here. What they wanted was payback.

But after the two weeks they’d spent tracking down the thief— somehow picking up one of the Leech brothers along the way— they hadn’t settled on what that would look like. Sure, the thought of getting in a jab or two crossed their mind, but when they’d cornered the culprit and Gia got a look at the mastermind who’d whisked away all their hard work…the thoughts evaporated.

It was just some Ignihyde kid. Small for a freshman. Gia actually felt bad. Floyd, on the other hand, was so bored with the reveal he circled into disgust. To top it off, Gia would still have to compensate for “dragging him along.” They didn’t even want his help in the first place.

But despite that blossoming headache, Gia couldn’t bring themself to raise hell. What was the point?

They’d been having dreams again. There was another shoe waiting to drop somewhere in Night Raven. And if that were the case, then they were going to have to focus their energy on keeping ahead of the curve. That was hard enough with the Corlux girls living in their dorm, but now with the boys bringing another wave of chaos under the guise of the “SDC Training Camp,” well…

In comparison, dealing with this kid didn’t feel worth the effort. So they thought.

Until Gia asked the sniveling snotball what he’d spent their money on. He’d barely gotten the word out when Gia’s fist slammed into his jaw with the force of a wrecking ball.

“Gacha...” They spat into their legs. “Gacha. Spent my money on stupid, 2D anime girls. Pictures he could look up for free.”

“Heard it’s a mega-popular title, too.” Floyd added unhelpfully. He played with their braid as he said so, Gia could feel him twist their hair between his fingers.

“But say…Shrimpy.” Floyd caught their eye from where he hovered over their shoulder. His chest was to their back again. “Here’s what I don’t get…”

He had that look on his face again. Interested. Intrigued.

“Why’re you so worked up about this?” He asked, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not lettin’ anyone get away with taking something from me and I’m chargin’ ten-fold for tryin’. But I’ve never seen you blow up like that. Not when Jade and I kicked you outta Ramshackle or when Sea Snake sent us flying across the desert. This…”

Floyd pointed over his shoulder where the boy from Ignihyde lay sprawled on the ground, “This is small fry. Might as well be plankton. It wasn’t even that much money—”

“It’s all I had.” Gia said, hating the unsteadiness in their voice. They twisted around to face him.

“What’s it for?”

“It's…” They couldn’t figure how to reply to that. The best they could give him was a limp shrug. A shiver hit their spine and it came to mind how warm Floyd was now that they’d leaned away. They rubbed their arms. “I…I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.”

“What?” Floyd laughed, “Don’t tell me you’ve been mixing it up with loan sharks.”

Gia shook their head. “When Grim and I graduate…we can’t stay here. We need somewhere to go.”

A twitch of confusion crossed Floyd’s face. “Sealie’s a direbeast. He’s teeny, kinda stupid, and you prolly pampered the feral out of him, but you never really lose your survival instinct.” He looked down at Gia, “And aren’t you going home?”

Gia let out a snort, short and sour. With it that…thing that had wanted to come out earlier clung itself to the back of their throat— their words thick and heavy with the ache in their jaw. The memories of a ranch full of distant eyes and rotting apathy. “Home?”

The word was an ugly, wet noise they tried to smother under their hand. Heat rose to their face again, but nothing like the scorching rage from earlier.

Shame overtook them. Gia could feel Floyd’s eyes on them as they tried in vain to scrub away the tears. They just kept coming, hot and damning, overflowing like a boiling pot.

It was stupid. They were stupid. Crying over something they couldn’t change. Crying over scraps. This wasn’t fixing anything. This wasn’t getting them anywhere. They hadn’t cried once when they were sent away to their aunt’s house. They didn’t bother begging their parents to take them back home because they’d known they didn’t have one to go back to.

The concept was lost far before ever stepping into Twisted Wonderland and the only thing they could do was keep moving. Gia knew this.

They told themself this after each and every misstep. Every time something went wrong…when everything inevitably went wrong….

Gia needed to get as far away from Floyd as they could— maybe they couldn’t stop themself from absolutely losing it, but he was the last person allowed to see them do so. Except before they’d pushed themself off the ground, his arm circled around their shoulders and pulled them towards him.

Gia gave a sound somewhere between a hiccup and a gasp. On instinct they started to shove him back, but a second arm wrapped around their back and locked them in place.

Floyd held them against his chest and…no. He was hugging them to his chest.

“I think…” He started in a slow, pensive voice, his hand moving to pet the back of their head. “I think you’re being too hard on yourself.”

Gia kept still, their forehead pressed against the spot beneath his collarbone. They were aware of many things at that moment.

A deep amber trace of cologne, tear stains gradually spreading through the fabric of Floyd’s shirt, the shakiness in their hands, and how his strong, steady heartbeat only made theirs beat a faster jig against their rib cage.

“Did you know lobsters never stop growing?” Floyd asked.

“…What…?”

“Lobsters.” He repeated, “They keep growing throughout their lifetime until eventually they get so old and tired, they can’t molt out of their shell. That’s what kills them, y’see. They get stuck in their shell because it gets too hard for them to break and it gets so diseased and spoiled they just die in there.”

From their spot under his chin, Gia chanced a look at him. Floyd was still stroking the back of their head. They were crying in the arms of a merman with a sudden interest in shellfish. Behind them still lay the unconscious Ignihyde boy they’d tried to beat to death not five minutes ago. It occurred to Gia that surreal couldn’t possibly begin to describe what was going on right now.

“…Am I the lobster or something..?”

Floyd shrugged as if admitting pep talks were painfully not his thing, “Lobsters, shrimps. Both decapods.” He pressed his hand down on their head, guiding them back to him. It made them feel small.

They didn’t fight as he shifted their legs over his thigh and closer to him.

“Point is…You’re a tough little shrimp and you like it that way, but this shell's too old for you now. You’ll smother yourself if you don’t break out sooner or later.”

Gia knew a thing or two about lobsters, too. Lobsters didn’t come out of their old shells with a new one intact. A recently molten lobster was soft, tender— and highly vulnerable to a watchful predator.

They were all but giving Floyd the go-ahead to sink his teeth when he already had them in his jaws. Whatever he was looking at them with, it wasn't concern. His eyes were not soft. His were sharp, hunting eyes.

“Why are you doing this, Floyd?” Gia heard themself ask. The answer wouldn’t matter. Their arms were already around his neck.

“It's your lucky day, Shrimpy. Think of it as grace from the benevolence of the Sea Witch.” He chuckled as he curled himself around him, resting his chin on their shoulder. “And I’m in the mood to carry it through.”

“Ha.” Gia guessed it meant to be a laugh, but it was brittle and fragile and cracked and soon— nothing more than a cascade of sobs.

—

Humming.

Somewhere along the line, between where Gia’s cries waned into a silent weeping, Floyd started humming. He cradled them, though accurately speaking it was more that he had them propped against him.

So Gia stared out into a place far beyond where they lay wilted in his arms as his melody moved through them. A comforting, lulling sweetness he carried achingly well. They’d never heard it before, but in its notes they caught a timbre of nostalgia.

It was only through sheer luck— or maybe the unfortunate fact that Gia’s body was too-well trained against the notion of sleep— that they caught themself nodding off with a jolt.

“Floyd.”

He replied with another hum. Low with an undercurrent of disappointment.

To call it a glare would’ve been giving it too much credit, but whatever it was Gia did their best to fix it on him, “What is that?”

Floyd dipped back into his song long enough for Gia to think he chose to ignore them before saying, “You don’t like it?” Gia hadn’t noticed he was gently rocking them until he stopped to return their gaze. He knew the answer and let it show, smug as ever.

“Mama used to sing it to me and Jade as kids when we got upset.” He said, “It sounds way better underwater. You should come listen to it. I’d be happy to sing it for you again…if I feel like it then, anyway.”

“Right.” Against every fiber in the shriveled husk of their being, Gia sat up. “You enjoyed this way too much.”

“Listening to you cry?” Floyd laughed, “No. Not really.”

Gia thought about lobsters again. Soft ones. They closed their eyes and took a deep breath. The air was cool coming in. Colder coming out. When Gia opened them, they set their sights directly into his eye. The golden right one. “I’m paying you back. How?”

What they got was a low whistle, “Back on it again, huh? You’re a regular ice maiden.” Floyd giggled as he swiped a knuckle over their cheek, “Even if you’re still a bit leaky.”

Gia didn’t look away from him. “Unless it’s for free,” they pressed.

“Eh-heh! You wish.” A pause. Then, “A month.”

He clamped his hand down on their head and roughly ruffled their hair, which did nothing to soothe the throbs assaulting Gia’s temples. Floyd looked hungry with the moonlight caught in his teeth, “You do as I say for a month and I say: You're workin’ at the Lounge.”

Gia expected an anemone to sprout from where Floyd removed his hand. It didn’t, but their headache morphed into a full-on migraine. A month at the Lounge.

They felt a twitch at the corner of their lip and huffed, dropping their focus towards the ground between their legs.

There it was. The puncture of teeth. They had to hand it to him— the guy knew an easy catch when he saw one. And this one did him the added favor of shucking itself for him. A soft little lobster, indeed.

Gia wanted to get angry. They couldn’t. Crying, as it turned out, was dangerously exhausting.

Had Floyd considered that, too?

“Got stuff going on with the SDC. Make room for me to deal with that first or take it up with Vil and Crowley.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Floyd sighed, stretching long and towards the sky. Satisfied with the pops he elicited, he leaned back on his elbows. His eyes fluttered closed, content to bask in the starlight. That was easy.

Gia guessed it made sense for a hunter to know their place on the food chain.

They reached into their pants pocket for their phone. It hadn’t rung, so it was safe to say no one noticed they’d snuck out of their own dorm yet. Grim probably still snoring away in bed. It was past two in the morning.

Gia turned to look at the Ignihyde boy. Blood poured down his nose, now pointing at a new angle. They watched for a few seconds until they were sure of the rise and fall of his chest. Something that should’ve been done earlier, but better late than never or whatever. They weren’t angry at him. Not anymore. Still, Gia wasn’t inclined to care much either.

You never learn.

Whether it was their own voice or their mother’s, they couldn’t tell. Regret didn’t sound all that different between them.

Gia stood, giving a few stretches of their own as they ran through what to do with the guy. Fights weren’t anything recent and though Gia knew Crowley turned a blind eye to them handling their problems in however way they saw fit, this…might be overstepping.

This wasn’t a fight for their life when someone hit overblot or a simple scuffle with some jackass. This was, plainly put, an outright murder attempt. They didn’t care about the boy, but this definitely would be grounds for expulsion, right?

You never learn.

They stared at the sack of bones, three-fourths considering turning one of the rooms at Ramshackle into a makeshift dungeon when Floyd interrupted the thought.

“Leave’im.”

Gia glanced at him, expecting Floyd to be looking at them, but his eyes were still closed. “There?”

He nodded lazily then said, “I’ll take him to Octavinelle, no problemo.”

A wave of throbbing around their skull. Oh, great. Another debt. “I’ll figure it out.”

At this, Floyd frowned and peeked up at them through a single eye. His green one. “We made a deal. I’m taking a month.”

Gia blinked. “That was…I thought that was for—” For what? Was he talking about finding the boy? Was body disposal included? They gestured at the general area of their meltdown.

“Noooo. That’s for the minnow over there.”

“…Then what about…?” Gia pointed at the wet stains on his shirt.

Methodically, Floyd made his way onto his feet. “I told you.” He said as he stood to full height, “I was in the mood. You’re not taking my kindness for granted, are ya?”

Gia felt wrung out, they were too tired to fight him on their sentence at the Lounge— but they couldn’t leave him with a loose end to tie their noose with. They’d messed up too much already. Gia stood their ground. “Running a charity now?”

Though he smiled, a shadow crossed over Floyd, his right eye glowing sharper.

“Alright,” He reached out to flick one of the stubborn strands of hair sticking out from the top of Gia’s head. “You’re too fun to let you go out all ‘woe is me.’ Doesn’t suit you. You still gotta looooong way to go before your time’s up.”

Blackmail. Gia thought. Blackmail for sure.

He breezed by them, stalking towards the not-corpse, “Don’t let me down, okay?”

Gia watched as he considered the boy on the ground for a moment. Then without a trace of effort, haul him up by his shirt before throwing him on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. For a beanpole, the dude was wickedly strong.

Gia’s arms rose to hug themself as if with a mind of their own. It wasn’t the same. They turned on their heel and returned to Ramshackle Dorm.

—

tag list: @cyanide-latte @inmateofthemind @simons-twsted-children @tixdixl @blithesharem @thehollowwriter

@jovieinramshackle @theleechyskrunkly @skriblee-ksk @boopshoops @the-trinket-witch (lmk if you wanna be added)

[hyakunana]

The Black Rabbit Brotherhood

[solcarow]

seafood trio portraits !

+ some alts. with spoilers !

[dantes-number-1-fanboy]

Lady Aphmau, Lord of Phoenix Drop

I wanted to draw her being dramatic w/ her dogs, but the problem is that i dont actually have designs for her dogs so i just half assed some wolf-ish puppers-

Also pictured here is my hc that aph is pretty religious, idk how to put my justification into words i just hc in :/

Heres some other bits :D (including the dress ref)

[thelien-art]

Elrond and Celebrian, how I love them~

[evgar]

sadie adler; acrylic on wood

after painting arthur and now her, i'm thinking this will probably become a series of paintings of the gang so expect a john piece as soon as i can make it happen 🧡

prints

[spearxwind]

There's been reports of a gigantic leviathan attacking ships sailing into Void's Embrace. [...] None of the hunters are making it back.

Bonus detail shots:

[justarandombrit]

when the chastity is graceful or smthn idk I didnt watch the show

Individuals under the cut ↓

[averlym]

fairest of the fair

[quirkle2]

i have GOT to stop drawing things for fics i haven't written yet

[d1edre]

sneak peek of some lockers i've been working on, inspired by a recent fandom resurgence 👀👀

[mispelled]

Should probably stop drawing the background last but hey. what can you do

[fairyofshampgyu]

he’s literally so beautiful and handsome

[catinasink]

the traveler, the star, and the fish

"why are there fish, nico?" you ask. well. lets jusr say. fish

sign that says id really appreciate reblogs of my art !!! /nf

[benetnvsch]

drew this for day uhhh 4? of kunikida week which is flowers,, and also like 4 days ago whoops,, finally got around finishing it today cheems-

[writterracoon]

Hades 2

Lately, I've been a bit obsessed about Hades 2, I've been watching people play the test run , listening to compilations of interactions and scouring theories.

While doing all of that, I noticed something of a pattern, a theme that often came back and I think I may have found out one of the MAIN theme and conflict of the game and I've seen nobody talk about it yet, so here we go.

More under if you're not against being possibly spoiled.

I think one of the major themes of Hades 2 is going to be about Humanity and its complex relationship with the Gods, the way the gods treat mortals and the way mortals treat the gods.

here are my evidences

The interactions

the first thing that put me on this path was this interaction between Melinoe and Nemesis.

In this conversation, Nemesis and Melinoe are talking about Retribution and Justice and how Nemesis believes that Kronos taking over the underworld and challenging the Olympians may be what they deserve. Notice how Nemesis specifically mentions mortals and the Golden Age.

For those who don't know, in greek mythology the Golden Age was the first Era of Humanity and when Chronos was the ruler of the heavens. It was a time of peace and harmony for humanity where there existed no plague or famine, there was no need to work as they could simply pick their food from nature itself. They lived long lives, remaining youthful and died peacefully in their sleep.

Nemesis is I think trying to hint to Melinoe that maybe the situation is not exactly as black and white as it first seems and that humanity may have a bigger role in this than first thought.

A second interaction i want to bring to mind is about Moros and his relationship with mortals.

Here Moros admits that sometimes he because of was simply bored he would knowingly bring doom and pain to Mortals ending their lives painfully.

Archnea's interactions are also the strongest contenders for that theory, as they bring back that theme of divine cruelty, the gods view of mankind and how they callously treat them.

She has been wronged by the gods for the simple reason that she was better than them at something and they naturally couldn't stand it so they cursed her to live as a spider. She is filled with resentment for them and even warns Mel not to trust them. Also, note how she admits she fears the gods more than she fears Chronos.

2. Dora

Now Dora is a bit particular because we don't know much about her, but I have seen a theory and some interaction with Moros seem to be pointing toward it, which is that she might be Pandora, the original sinner of Greek mythology.

the myth of Pandora goes a bit like this: During the Golden Age, after Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gifted it to humanity, the gods decided to punish Prometheus by punishing humanity. They built Pandora, a woman beautiful beyond compare, and gave her a box full of the evils of the world. They then send her to seduce Epimetheus Prometheus's brother, who despite his brother's warning is promptly seduced by Pandora's beauty and welcomes her into his home. She then opened the box and released the evil of the world upon mankind, thus ending the Golden Age. Only hope stays inside the box.

Again if this is indeed true, it would follow the theme of the gods inflicting pain and suffering upon mankind for petty reasons, uncaring about the consequences of those actions.

3. Hades I

During the first game, many interactions points toward the gods general uncaring attitudes about mortals. Demeter thinks it was a mortal who stole her daughter away, so she decides that she will punish them all by starving them with an eternal winter. The other gods make almost mention of it only to say how much it annoys them.

4. Speculation

This part is not so much about evidences and more about speculations about the story of Hades 2 based upon my theory that mankind is going to be central in this tale.

The reason how Chronos is so powerfull, powerfull enough to free himself from Tartarus and claim the Underworld for himself, is that mortal were tired of being the gods' playthings and prayed to him, they prayed for his return, for the return of the golden age, where pain and suffering were unknown to them and the gods weren't using them for their own amusement.

The gods are going to have to deal with the fact that their poor treatment of humanity has consequences and those consequences are the return of Chronos and a second titonomachy.

Melinoe will propably have to face the fact that Chronos is wrong in challenging the gods and that the current status quo cannot be sustained any longer. The Olympian gods will have to change how they treat mankind if they wish to even have a stand a chance against chronos.

(TLDR, The Olympian gods have treated mankind like shit for a long time and now they are dealing with the consequences of those actions when the mortals are praying to Chronos to come back and restore back the golden Age where their lives weren't even half as awful. Melinoe will have to deal with the fact that her family might very well deserve what is happening to them and if she wishes to save them, the gods will have to change.)