#but I'm not gonna tag anyone in it bc it's one of the oldest headcanons I have

[halfofxerxes]

//Xerxes, to a certain extent, does take from Roman and Greek aesthetics in canon. There are also some thematic eliments of Mesopotamia as ancient Mesopotamia was destroyed almost entirely through their irrigation systems.

ofc the way the real danger of Mesopotamia was because they built their canals badly and raised the salt levels in the area as well as the water table and choked out their plants, and Xerxes died because their ''irrigation" was built by a bunch of freaks bent on giving head freak an everlasting boner. Still the connection is there and it is cool.

My point being that they most definently have a way of handling water, and the architecture to have it flow through the city, which is why it survived so long. While the well of Xerxes is well known and still in use centuries after the city fell, water wasn't wasted and often recycled and filtered for reuse.

It should be noted that slaves in Xerxes are brought up to be extremely social, co-dependent, and dependent on their fellow slaves. I could get into it more but it's the same concept as 'whipping boys' where an individual can by hurt by using someone else, except while a rl whipping boy was used so that noble children could be punished, the slaves of Xerxes experience their greatest distress when isolated from their group.

I use the term 'slave brother' a lot in relation to Xerxes but they straight up have a word that means exactly that, a slave or group of slaves thst prolonged absence of which causes psychological distress. As a whole, groups of slaves are treated better than individual slaves and children are conditioned to think that their group may as well be part of their own bodies.

(I mean that makes it really easy for them to adapt to life in Hoho because He's One Of Them And He Understands, but the downside of having a bias is that when he does get triggered he's experiencing not Just His Own Issues but since they're basically indistinguishable from his own he blames himself for it but anyway)

Anyway that means that solitary confinement is a punishment that's used liberally, it goes: scolding>lack of feeding>whipping>confinement. Because it's one of the standard punishments, there are chambers built for it. They are linked to the filtration system as one of the last stops for Xerxes' dirty water so that they don't need to be scrubbed out as often.

It means that they are damp, cold, and dark in the inside, always. They are built so that they can be water tight, giving them the added bonus of being claustrophobic and somewhat stifling. There's not a lot of room in them, maybe enough to lay down and some of them are big enough for two slaves if need be.

The rooms don't fill up all the way, but it's enough that you can't just stand up to be clear of the water, you have to be able to float on your back or otherwise position yourself to clear the waterline. The rooms flood on a schedule weather they are empty or not, and they never stay flooded long enough to drown anyone, but it can come real close.

Prolonged confinement can kill a slave's instincts to survive and at that point they're useless and get sent to the alchemists for research. This is what happened to Hoho, except when he was given to his master, he was like "oh hi" and got up and followed him. At that point Hoho was legally the property of the King's Alchemist and was kept as such.

Hoho never had enough buoyancy to float and panicked too much to swim, on the few occasions he tried, he was in chains and could not do it. He goes into panic mode when he gets wet unexpectedly, splash a cup of water on him and he might actually cry, shove him in a pool and he's going to sink to the bottom until someone fishes him out.

As himself, he is fully capable of overcoming this through time and effort, as a stone he will probably never be able deal with it.

Also: Baths are hard for him, he bathes like a bird would, and he can maintain his hygiene. As for relaxing in a tub, he'll do it as long as the water is warm and someone's with him, holding him. Ideally, he's pressed up against their chest and their arms are around him, but hand holding is also good.

He can relax enough to play in the water if his partner works with him long enough, but it takes a lot of trust between them, and if he's ever left alone in the water, he's probably not doing it again.

Sex in the water is a bad idea, bc generally speaking Hoho won't,,,, stop you,,,,, but also Hoho generally has trouble saying no and refusing sex, at most playing coy when he desperately wants to stop. It fucks him up so badly that he'll have trouble speaking for a while after it, both the language his partner can understand and his native Xerxean as well. Straight up kicking him in the nuts is a kinder way to hurt him.

I mean especially because he's most worried about connecting to people and taking away his ability to reach out to anyone is the best way to make him suffer. He probably won't even stick around long enough for you to see him again, instead choosing to leave until you die lmao.