headcanon: what if I gave this man a pistol
okay so I wanted hugo and varian to have different fighting styles despite sharing the same skill set as alchemists and I wanted their weapon of choice to also strongly reflect the kingdoms they came from.
for varian, he has his staff and throughout their quest he uses it often to illuminate the group's path, especially in darker places—which makes sense because he's from corona, the kingdom of light.
so for hugo, being from ingvarr aka the iron kingdom of warriors run by technological advancement and utilitarian system—I imagine him owning a pistol that he made himself that he specifically modified to accommodate alchemy wherein his ammos aren't bullets but rather alchemical compounds instead (think like Varian's project obsidian in season 3 but on a much smaller and portable scale) and he's made a built-in switching compartment so he'd have element variety of compounds as ammos ready to go. (think like Honey Lemon's chemistry purse)
it just made sense to me that he'd know how to make and use a firearm (frankly even his DnD counterpart knows how to use a riffle) considering his mentor Donella is a royal engineer and arm's dealer (at least basing this from Varian's Tangled Trials Lore by @i-found-you-justine-time) he's bound to pick up a thing or two from observing and watching her work—plus this provides a practical explanation to why he chooses to wear fingerless gloves instead of a full safety gloves like Varian—because he needs that extra mobility to pull the trigger faster.
and this also says a lot about his character because he made it solely and purely for self defense, designing his weapon with the intent to only immobilize opponents rather than actually inflicting serious harm to others.
