Adventuretimefantic's drafts and oneshots

The twins (Hades)

Fandom: Hades (game)
Ship: Zagnos w Thanares and Chames in the background
Oneshot/unfinished story: first few chapter of a potential story
Synopsis: A modern, human AU that explores family and relationship dynamics between the underworld gods and the Olympians.

Chapter 1 | small towns

Small towns were one thing, a collection of small towns were another. A collection of small towns that all shared landmark locations in on the borders of each town, made for an interesting dynamic.

Within the area of Erebus on the border of Elysium, a funeral home had been running and standing for generations. Owned by the Cthonic family, and that family was a big one. Many children of the current owner Nyx's had gone through the local schools, gone to the university just outside of town and either began work in the family business or went into a similar field.

But none of them stood out like the twins did. Not identical, but eerily similar. Thanatos and Hypnos were their names, and they had a reputation. They kept to themselves, didn't have many friends, were freakishly close. Like that stereotype of creepy twins who can communicate telepathically with one another. Both of them autistic but in different ways. Thanatos wasn't a very emotional person, he was bad at expressing them and came off as cold and grumpy. Hypnos wasn't great as social cues, so people found him awkward and hard to talk to. So, they stuck together. They were twins, they could understand each other better than anyone else could after all.

Zagreus, son of the Styx family that owned the biggest cemetery in the state, had gone to school with the twins. Although they didn't cross paths often. But due to his parents work, and the twins parents work overlapping, they had interacted here and there. Zagreus didn't find them creepy like others did, but he did find them... interesting in a way. He had his own sibling, although she wasn't a twin and was much younger. Melione was still primary school aged, while Zagreus had just left highschool and turned 18. So maybe it was the very unique twin connection that Hypnos and Thanatos had compared his his own age gap sibling dynamic that intrigued him.

Even more interestingly, when Zagreus heard that his cousin Ares had come in from out of town to sort out a deceased estate from a distant family member and had been spotted around town with Thanatos of all people more than once, he began to find himself even more intrigued with the twins. There was something about them, the way they had such a reputation while never really interacting with anyone other than their own family...

Maybe it was the fact Thanatos was the picture definition of a goth and drove an 80s hearse. Maybe it was the fact Hypnos often wore vintage nightgowns as day to day clothes despite his gender (actually... what was his gender now Zagreus thought about it... he? They?). The fact they were almost always holding hands, or the way they could look at each other once and a whole conversation will have happened in that single gaze.

There was something up with the Chthonic twins and Zagreus wanted the details. He was a yapper at heart, a gossiper. He liked to know things, he never spread them, just sat with the information for his own curiosities sake.

He saw his chance when he'd began to notice that despite Hypnos currently not being in university like his brother was, he'd still show up on campus. Thanatos would go to his class on mortuary procedures and Hypnos would wait for him. Usually out at the campus cafe, eating whatever sweet treat he'd picked up that day. Sometimes he'd be passed out asleep on the table, despite how uncomfortable it looked. He'd do that in class back in school too, sleep on the desks. He got the nickname 'the narcoleptic one' while his brother was 'the goth one' from the rest of the students whenever they came up in conversion.

Zagreus was in university for something completely different, taking after his mother and getting really into plants and wildlife so he'd settled on horticulture. Gave him the chance to get outside, explore nature. He was sick of being trapped in the damn house his whole childhood, some family drama between his parents and his grandmother apparently. He didn't remember much, he was too young at the time. But as soon as he had the chance to get outside and explore, he never looked back. Fishing, hiking, camping, you name it. He was an outdoors guy.