deercountry | Was I really seeking good [Open]

Was I really seeking good [Open]

Who: Varian and you!
What: November catchall!
When: Throughout November.
Where: All around the place!

Content Warnings: Child poisoning in the comments, bloodletting in the first half of the Sleeper Farm prompt

BUILDING AN ABOMINATION TO THE GODS - Driveway of Disaster House, Cassandra- OTA

Varian can't actually remember the last time he built something purely for himself. Both back home, in Deerington and here in Trench, his inventions have always had a greater purpose. Sure, he enjoyed making them, but they were always ultimately to help other people. Building something just for his own enjoyment generally wasn't on his radar. It's only recently that he's felt like he's earned the right to indulge in something for himself.

And so, at the start of the month, Varian can be found on the driveway of the Disaster House- starting to put together the very early beginnings of a frame for a car. He isn't bothered by the lightly falling snow- he doesn't feel the cold anymore and the crisp air is honestly good for clearing his head. He's wearing his serial-killer-esque welding mask and has his little foot-pump-powered 1800s welding kit with him, but that isn't doing so well in the cold weather. After a few frustrating attempts at getting the damn thing to work, he gives up, stepping back to stare at the metal he's trying to get into shape. He looks at his hand, a soft hmmmmmm sound echoing in the mask. He's not comfortable with this, but Mako has been helping him get a more...positive outlook on his abilities.

So, for the first time since he got here, he decides to actually use his abilities for something instead of actively avoiding and being reviled by them. He flexes his fingers, using the techniques Mako has run over with him many a time, willing flame to sprout on them. He has to concentrate a lot, and it's definitely not a tiny, careful flame like the one on his torch (he's not quite THERE yet) but it's enough to start welding the pieces of metal together. Once he's done that he snuffs the flame by closing his fist. He steps back, pushing the mask up so it rests above his goggles (why doesn't he just take the goggles off, why does he have to wear both?) to assess his work, before realising someone is standing nearby, turning to offer a little smile.

"Do you think it looks okay? It's kinda shoddy but I guess I can always go over it later once the snow stops."

IT'S FULL OF OPENINGS, IT'S JUST YOU AIN'T SEEING THEM - All around the city - OTA

For once, fate has smiled down at Varian. His Patron is The Tower and while the buildings are shifting and doorways keep vanishing and reappearing he's still able to find his way around. It's given him confidence that means he might just be ignoring the always buddy up system, because it's fine. It's totally fine. He knows where he's going. So he goes about his daily business as normal - unfettered by the chaos that the vast majority of the population are dealing with. He's a compassionate soul, though, and if he sees someone looking lost, he moves over to them, raising an awkward hand in greeting.

"Uh... hey. You look...lost? Do you want me to help you out? I understand where I'm going for...for some reason. If you stick with me, we can get to where you need to go."

SECRET, SECRET, SECRET SECRET BUNKER - Willful Machine - 28th November OTA with CR prompt

Finding the compass on his workbench had been a happy little surprise. He didn't really need one, but it's pretty nice and after quizzing the people in his house (none of whom took responsibility for the little gift) he probably should have been worried about the device that just appeared in his lab in the dead of night. He isn't, though, because it's cool.

Naturally, he uses it as a normal compass first- but as he's working on his car, he does need to try it on bigger things. He's headed to Willful Machine for more parts, and it using it on a sheet of metal on the ground to measure out exactly what he needs. It's while he's doing this that the circle opens up under him, upending him into a little room. One moment he's there, the next he isn't. Maybe you were there to watch him fall in like an idiot. He looks around at the space- full of everything a person would need to hunker down for a night and makes a soft confused noise before yelling because that seems the best course of action here.

"Um- HI??? Is anyone there?"

And if that doesn't work, he'll get out his Omni and send a message to his friends:

Fell in a hole. I think into a pocket dimension? Help.

MUSHABOOMING

On hearing there were cool new mushrooms to deal with here, naturally, Varian's gone about trying to harvest some. He can make all kinds of cool alchemy with them!! This being Varian, of course, means he's neglected some pretty basic health and safety in his mushroom harvesting. So people can catch him in various pickles throughout the town as he goes about stupidly collecting stuff for his lab.

They may find him hallucinating on Walking Terrors, covered in spores and running around with a panicked expression and screaming about the floor melting. Or maybe you'll find him face-down in the dirt, a Floater sitting happily on top of him. Just...help the idiot out, he'd appreciate it.

THE SLEEPER FARM

Varian starts his No Good Real Bad Time swinging upside down- his blood dripping down into a bowl underneath him. It freezes before it hits the bowl, of course, leaving a blue, frozen blood slushie at the bottom. He's still confused how he got here, but he knows that's not the pressing concern here- not while there are other bodies strung up who have definitely had body parts removed. Varian does a quick, muggy-headed check that nothing seems to be out of place- no organs missing, two arms, one leg. Everything as it should be. They've even left him with his prosthetic, which is nice. But he'd still rather get down from here before this gets worse.

"Uhhhhhh, hi? Anyone still...conscious here?"

Or perhaps you find him afterwards, once he's down and on his feet again. He's still got a sizeable gash on his arm, but at least it's frozen over - thanks for the natural cauterization, coldblood! He'll be helping get other people down or helping them move as best he can. Much like earlier in the month in the town, he feels a strange pull towards the way out, and he'll be trying to bring whoever's with him along that path.

"C'mon, I...I know the way out."

He's not offering a reason for that, oh no. It's while he's leading someone towards the alter that they're suddenly pulled out by a force Varian recognises almost immediately. It's an old, familiar one after all- and once they're upended onto the lawn where Disaster House's Lamp Friend sits, he looks up at the sky, frowning.

"...Cynthia?"

[[ooc: As always if you want something else or a closed thread, please hit me up on

teeff or PM me! Will add event stuff later!]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's okay, Manabu, he won't judge. You're far from the worst he's had to deal with in this area. He grins fussing the pupper some more clearly unbothered by the information he's so casually dumped in Manabu's lap. He finally looks up again, frowning softly.

"It's...okay. I mean- I don't think everyone could see them? I don't know if it was something you could have avoided."

Maybe sometimes here, they're just doomed. Like there were back in Deerington.

"...Others, then?"

Manabu doesn't seem keen to raising his voice much, not really trusting his voice and tongue to collaborate properly and speak well. But he has to ask while he has the chance.

"How many? Me, and...who else? Died."

"I know Luz could see them pretty well. It might have been a paleblood thing."

He frowns softly.

"Reaper was killed a couple of days ago," that one still hurts, even if he knows not many people would mourn the man- maybe because of that. Flynn died early October. So that's at least three and we've only been here two months."

He frowns softly.

"Not...not great odds, there."

Manabu rubs at his face, which serves as a way to smear off some of the impulse grimace he gets when he hears a name like Reaper. Too close to home, and it reminds him to suddenly pat around his pockets and his stomach to drop with dread.

Satchel...his stuff...Bruce's harmonica...

Dammit.

"Right," he breathes, his face flushing hot with that flash of adrenaline. While he tries to tamp down that feeling for Varian's sake, he can't help but shift in place, and Magnet can't help but whine to convey a problem.

"Not...not good." He swallows, looking around. "Need to...figure out. Stopping it. Yeah."

Varian's still watching Manabu with very much undisguised concern, the guy really doesn't look good. Unsurprising, given he's just come from death and all, but it's still worrying.

"I mean... we never figured that out in Deeringon, either," he shifts his feet, uneasy. "I'm starting to worry this place is just like there for making...bad things happen. I'm not sure avoiding death would be so easy."

"Still gotta."

Because laying down and dying really isn't the answer, is it? And even if avoiding it is hard, folks need to try like hell. It bothers him not knowing if he tried or not - he can't remember the immediate moments leading up to his own demise. All he knows is he didn't shoot Mako like he was afraid he did, but it's not the whole story.

The pieces he has gotten aren't a great sign, so he can only assume the worst of himself. But that doesn't mean he has to assume the worst in others - that includes Varian.

Seeing the troubled look on Varian's face prompts Manabu to try and rise up out of his own discontent for his sake, reaching and planting a hand on the boy's shoulder in a gesture he'd pine for from those he looked up to.

"St-still new to it, but. Not hopeless." He hesitates, trying to wrangle his tongue into better talking order. With a shrug he adds, "No flu here. So...it's different."

"Yeah, we do."

Varian is definitely too stubborn to just lie down and take it. Even when things were at their worst, the kid tended to fight tooth and claw, like a cornered animal. Still, that hand on his shoulder does mean a lot. It's solid and comforting and it gives him a chance to let out a slow, calming breath.

"That's...what I've been seeing. No flu- no apparent memory loss. It genuinely looks like we just get...rebuilt and sent back out. No catch," which makes him...suspicious. "I don't know if it's because I've been in Deerington for so long, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop on that one."

Manabu shakes his head a bit, even if he'd just as likely nod at the notion in his own regard.

"Not, not really a...a, uh...a good use of time," he says, his brow furrowing a bit as he works out his cadence of words. He sighs a bit, letting his hand lift off Varian's shoulder to rub at the back of his own neck in a more characteristic manner.

"What I mean is--is if it. Drops, it drops. Whether you wait or...or-or not. Yeah?

"There's...other stuff. To do. Think about."

Varian knows that Manabu is right. What happens really will happen, regardless of if they worry over it or not. They have no control over any of it. Which, hoo boy, he doesn't like. He shifts, uncomfortable.

"I know, I do. I guess I just don't like feeling...powerless. People had been in Deerington a long time. Even if things were still crazy, we had a pretty solid grasp on how the world worked," he waves a hand to encompass all of Trench in a single gesture. "Here? We're all blind and I hate it."

Varian very well could just be the voice of some of Manabu's lingering anxieties at this point, and...Manabu's not sure how much he likes that. While he's still rather strung out from what he's been through, he also can't just let things like that go unaddressed, and honestly? Being able to get out of his own head isn't a bad thing, and few things make him feel better than being able to be a tangible help to someone.

That said, pretty solid grasp gets a look of plain doubt out of him, because if that was true, then Manabu sure wasn't on the same page as most others.

"Not-not all blind," he utters, needing to pause to swallow, nose scrunching up. He hates how much he keeps stuttering through words, even when he's got the words in mind to spit out. So he talks slower. "Don't...write it all off...yet. Esss...pecially you." He nods at him to punctuate that.

"You can light up some stuff. Bit by bit. Okay? Not...all at once."

Varian had poured over the information other Sleepers had compiled before he got there. He found their information invaluable in trying to understand the world he'd suddenly been thrust into. He hasn't had that here, and it's made him feel like he's flailing helplessly.

Still, he does listen to what Manabu is struggling to get out, his frown gentling on his expression a touch. The especially you sure hits somewhere in his chest, a comforting bolster in all his worry.

"...I guess you're right," not all at once- Varian's always had a habit of trying to run before he could walk, and it's got him into plenty of trouble. "I don't know, I guess I'm just worried we'll be caught out by something really obvious. That we could have avoided if we knew more."

"Yeah..."

Yeah, Manabu can't really blame Varian's mindset, especially when it so clearly echoes some of the voices of his own misgivings. Still, he's keener to being kind to those kinds of doubts when they come from outside of himself - classic 'do as I say, not as I do,' one of those chronic mannerisms he doesn't realize is what keeps him just as human as most anyone else struggling along.

"But. Even if it hap-happens? We...get through. Yeah?" One way or another.

Varian's very good at finding fault in himself. He's certainly found healthier ways of handling his self-loathing in the time he's been away from home but it still rears its ugly head in times like this. When he feels he should be doing more to achieve the expectations he's put on himself. Still, he manages a smile.

"Yeah...yeah you-you're right. We always get through. We stick together and we figure it out."

He gives a soft, affirmative sound with a gentle nod. This kid's got a good head on his shoulders, for sure, but he seems to fear more than he trusts. Not that he can blame him, considering all that Deerington was...and Manabu only knew it for half a year! Who knows what the ringer was like for Varian. It makes Manabu want to try a little harder himself, to ensure there's less need for a kid like this to feel burdened with stuff folks twice his age oughta be handling.

...Jeez. Is this what it was like, Mamoru...?

"M'I...gotta...look for some stuff." He turns his head to look at the unfamiliar street ahead. "Satchel, say-saber. Remember it? You, ah...took the first shot."

The greatest tragedy of Varian's life is that most of the damage was done before he even stepped toe into Deerington. All that place did was hammer home just how broken the pieces he carts around with him truly are. But still, Trench at least provides him with the chance to heal- especially with people like Manabu around looking out for him. He appreciates that far more than he can put into words.

"Oh yeah! I remember that! It's missing?" oh that's concerning. "Okay, I can help you look. Where did you have it last?"

Don't say where you died, don't say where you died.

Manabu makes a dubious sound.

"Out...near woods? I think." He can't remember enough of what befell him - can't remember how much of his stuff he had on him before it all went black. He remembers the gun, the one pointed at Mako.

Mako gave it back to him.

The rest, though?

Magnet yips, deciding he's been ignored long enough. The dog circles and weaves between their feet before padding out a bit and looking back toward them expectantly, to which Manabu sighs and juts his chin at him.

"Been following him."

Oh. Hmmm. Out in the sticks is definitely a more dangerous part of the city that Varian's largely been avoiding. Mostly because he can't run very well and if he dies out there, Fern will kill him. Varian looks down at Magnet, leaning down to give him another pet by way of apologising for not giving him all the attention he so rightly deserves.

"Right. Um. Well, maybe he can help us find your stuff?" he looks at Magnet. "Do you think you could do that?"

Magnet's tail begins to wag, ears perking up at the ask. He barks, bounding away from Varian's hand to trot further down the street, looking back at the both of them expectantly.

Manabu rubs at the back of his head.

"Seems...like a yes to me." He hesitates. "But...weren't you, uh, up to something? Before me?"

Magnet is a good dog, the best dog, all should be in awe of him.

"Nah, I was helping people navigate the city," he says lightly. "For some reason, I can find my way through it. Don't know why."

That remark was said so confidently that Manabu almost doesn't question it, but...

"...Huh?" He squints. "Why...would...that be new? Do...pe-people not know?"

"Oh...right," Manabu was dead and missed it- he waves at the nearest wall. "The city keeps...moving? Like...by itself. A lot of people are getting lost. I can figure out how to get around it though. It's like...I dunno. I can just sense the right way?"

Moving...by...itself?

The words have meaning on their own, but together like this? Manabu's kind of stumped. What the heck is that supposed to mean?

"Are...bi-businesses...changing locations?"

"I'm...not really sure."

Varian doesn't have the answers here- because while everyone else is struggling, he isn't. It's like trying to explain what it's like to be blind when he can see perfectly fine all the time.

"I think it's more the routes are changing? Like...the pathways there move? I don't really get it myself, I can just find what I need. But that's what people are telling me."

Manabu breathes out a soft sound of confusion, turning himself partway to look toward Magnet and the pathway ahead.

"I didn't...notice." He hesitates. "But then. I wasn't...paying attention, either. M-maybe it's true, but...I can't...imagine it.

"Mm-maybe we'll...see. Moving ahead."

"Don't worry about it, that's....uh, pretty understandable, given everything."

You know, the fact you died, buddy. He nods, moving forward seems to be a...good idea, he starts to do that, then pauses.

"Uh- you gonna be okay walking or do you need me to hold your hand or something?"

He's not saying it to be a shitty teenager for once, his offer is genuine and comes from a place of worry.

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