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!]]

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[It's a strange thing, to have some sense of familiarity with a place you've never been to. It's like deja vu, but... different. It's not just a strange tingling in the back of her mind - Rapunzel can remember walking along the beach she awoke on. She remembers a bonfire, and people who helped her. She remembers awkwardness and kindness overtaking the fear and uncertainty she felt waking up in such a strange town. And she remembers-]

Varian?

[... She remembers her friend, similar but different than how he was when she saw him what felt like just the other day. He carries himself differently, and his leg...]

So that wasn't a dream?

[Varian has dealt with Rapunzel coming and going more than once. He's accepted that it's a small, crushing experience that raises its ugly head to beat him emotionally with before vanishing once more. He's come to expect seeing her as a fleeting thing, quite possibly Deerington's (and now Trench's) twisted way of messing with him. Letting him see one of the most important people in his life, only to wrench her away too soon.

But then he hears her, and his heart about stops. He turns to stare at her for a moment deer-in-headlights look. Before very quickly striding over, putting a hand on her arm and giving it a gentle squeeze- to make sure she's...real. ]

You... you came back. You're still here.

[She's BACK. Sorry, Rapunzel, you're getting one hell of a hug. Varian's still way too cold to the touch, but he's hugging her anyway. Like she might vanish into smoke if he lets go of her.]

No- no it wasn't a dream. It was real. This is real.

[Real she is. Her arm's a little sticky under his hand, thanks to the dried saltwater still lingering even after she'd tried to get cleaned up, but she's real and solid and her hug is as warm as it ever is when she folds her arms around him with no question.]

Still? I don't know, I was definitely in Corona before I woke up. But before that, there was this dream...

[It's not frustrating, that this feels familiar. It's worrisome, if anything; it reminds her of Tromus's magic, the way everything was layered so carefully to keep her trapped as he drained her of her power. Is this something similar? Could this be related to Zhan Tiri somehow?]

Is this kind of thing normal?

[He doesn't mind the stickiness at all. She could be covered in the grosses substance known to man and he wouldn't care - he'd still hug her just as tightly. She came back. ]

It...yeah it wasn't a dream. [Maybe back in Deerington he could call it as such, but Trench definitely isn't that. ] I...I guess you went back, for a little while? We're still trying to figure out how all of this works.

[Pretty fair assumptions, and ones Varian tried himself when he first arrived in the dream. The truth ended up being far more depressing. He lets her go to step back a little. ]

Yeah. Kinda? It's...complicated, and long. [Oh god, so long. ] But this is a place called Trench. It's...another world. Definitely not Corona. We're about as far from Corona as it's possible to get.

Trench? [Well that's. Ominous.] But how are we here?

[She doesn't really doubt the idea that this is some other world; so many stories and myths talk about the potential for there to be different worlds and realms, and she herself houses an incredible power from the stars. She has no reason to doubt that, but...]

If this is some other world, then something super magical must have brought us here, right? If that's the case, maybe...

[God. Right she hasn't... she hasn't talked to anyone about what happened at the Spire. Well, she did - but she hasn't told everyone the whole truth. About who Cassandra's friend was. With Zhan Tiri back and causing trouble... could this have something to do with that?]

... Varian, I have to tell you something. Something I... I wasn't fully honest about, after Eugene and I returned from the Spire.

[Oh yeah. So the different timeline conversation sure is going to happen sooner rather than later.]

[Varian opens his mouth, ready to go spinning into a long and complicated explanation of Trench, and Deerington that came before it. He wasn't exactly looking forward to explaining it, because in doing so, he'd have to explain a year and a half's worth of some pretty awful trauma, and he's not sure if she's ready for all of that just yet.

Luckily, she goes on her own tangent and...well. If it wasn't already obvious she was further behind him in the timeline... At least this means he can place her somewhere a little more solidly. ]

If you're talking about Zhan Tiri, I know. And this isn't her. I checked. A lot. [Hoo boy, well, this is going to be easier than explaining this to the Rapunzel who was fresh from her tower and never met him yet, at least. ] People here...they're pulled from...different points in time? Like for me? All of this? [He gestures at her hair.] Is done with. Zhan Tiri? Cass? The Moonstone? All of it's been over for months.

[Okay, that's-

There's a lot to process there. At first she wants to know how he knew about Zhan Tiri - it was such an old legend, and Varian was always a boy of science, not magic or myth. He wasn't there when they were dealing with the blizzard (for a very valid reason that she still feels pangs of guilt over), so maybe it was something in his work on the scroll's translations? Or some reference somewhere in Demanitus's chamber-

But then he keeps talking. About different points in time, and how things... ended? And maybe Rapunzel should be happy, but it feels like a ball of ice drops into her gut when she hears it.]

It's all... done with?

[Oh, Varian. You could have worded this so much better. Because there's a look of fear on Rapunzel's face as she echoes his words. She thinks about how she'd tried, over and over, to reach out to Cass, to try and bring her back. Each and every time, it felt like trying to stop sand from slipping through her fingers; more and more fell out each time, until there was barely anything left. Cass would get more angry, more hurt, and even though they'd come so close-

- She'd called her Raps again. She'd seen Cassandra smile for the first time in months, they'd worked together, Cass had laughed -

- ... it just. Never seemed to work out. No matter how hard she tried.

Had... had it not been enough?]

Varian... what happened?

[This is... probably the most scared Rapunzel has ever sounded.]

Edited 2021-11-11 23:15 (UTC)

[It's only when Rapunzel's expression drops like that when Varian realises something is wrong. Confusion flickers across his expression for a moment before it's replaced with a mild, awkward semi-panic. Oh. Wow, yeah. He worded that so badly.

He raises his hands, waging them quickly.]

OH! No, no! Good ending, good ending!!

[He definitely doesn't want to make this any worse for her. Trench in of itself is pretty awful, the last thing she needs to do is worry about home. ]

Cass- she came back to us? We... well, things got dicey for a while there but you two worked together and beat Zhan Tiri. It's the good sort of over, I promise.

[And she, of all people knows Varian neither takes nor gives promises all that easily anymore. If he says it, he means it.]

[Okay.

Okay.

Rapunzel lets out a slow breath, and her shoulders seem to sag a bit as she does. That's... that's a huge weight off her shoulders - a weight that, to be honest, she hasn't even realized was as heavy as it was. Oh, she certainly knew how Cassandra's betrayal was affecting her, and the choking uncertainty that threatened to smother her with each passing day and each new encounter with her friend was getting worse and worse. But she's spent so much time trying not to think about it that the weight just seems so normal now, and without it...

Without it, she can feel the sharp sting of tears in her eyes. She blinks hard once, twice, then shakes her head to push those feelings back, because she can't cry in front of one of her friends like this, but it's so hard. Varian knew; she'd told him that her greatest fear was losing Cassandra as a friend forever, and the idea that this might be because Cassandra died scares her even more. So knowing that this would be averted...]

That's... [The best news she's heard in months.] That's good. Great! It's so great.

[And she can't help it; she needs an outlet for all of this emotion somehow, so she surges forward again to wrap her arms tightly around Varian.]

Please, tell me... is she happy again?

[He's been dithering, really hoping what he's said is enough to ease the pain in her expression. He realises how woefully out of practise he is in talking to her. What used to be easy is now a lot harder. It's nothing like the enormous chasm that grew between them when he stood against her, but it's certainly not the simple closeness they had after that, either. It's been a long time, and he knows he isn't quite the same person he was back in Corona anymore.

But he did know Rapunzel's worst fears, it had played on his mind a lot after she told him. Because knowing how deeply Rapunzel cared about Cassandra and seeing it first-hand were very different things. It's partly why he fought so hard when Cassandra kidnapped him. He didn't want Cass to make the same mistakes he had- to destroy her own life that way. But...he also couldn't bear the idea of Rapunzel facing her worst fear. Of losing Cass for good. So he fought and argued and cajoled and it didn't do a damn bit of difference but he tried anyway. Because Rapunzel was worth helping and Cass was worth trying to save.

It's only when she hugs him again that he finally relaxes again, hugging her back. He's missed Rapunzel Hugs- there's genuinely nothing else like them in the universe. ]

Yeah, Princess, she's...she's happy. [He pauses, then continues.] She left...Corona, I mean, but it was under good terms. She...needed to find herself out there. I can kinda understand that. Needing some distance to heal. But it won't be forever, and she's...she's so much better. She knows she's loved.

[And wanted. And that's...so important. Even if she can't find where she belongs back in Corona. ]

She left, huh...

[Rapunzel is... not sure how she feels about that. Not in a bad way, but just... a way she can't describe. Did Cassandra stick around a little after the end of everything? Did she leave right after? Were they able to talk about all that needed to be said between them? Varian said that Cassandra knew she was loved, so Rapunzel assumes they had a good talk, but even so...

Knowing the future, she realizes, is hard. Knowing the events but not the details, the little intimate conversations or the smallest twitch or smile of someone's expression... it's enough to calm her fears, but not fully comfort her. She wants to see all of this for herself, to feel truly at ease.

But for now, it's okay. For now, Rapunzel can look on the bright side of things, as she always does.]

Well that's... that's good! I mean, she's got Owl with her, right? That means sending letters to her will be easy. And I bet she'll have the coolest stories to tell. And if she's happy...

[Even if it's not with them...]

... That's the most important thing. [She smiles, soft and sad.] That's... that's all I really want for Cass now.

[Being the one to deliver the future sure ain't rosy either. He knows he's skipped out on a lot. On how they go there, on all that mess with Zhan Tiri. He feels a little guilty for not opening up with everything to her. He knows how she feels about the truth being hidden from her, but it's all so much. He doesn't want to overwhelm her. Not for anything. He nods.]

Yeah, she does, and Fidella too. She's definitely not alone out there. And you can absolutely send letters to her, and learn about all the adventures she'll have out there. And I'm... I'm sure she'll have plenty. I can't see her avoiding them if they cross her path.

[Especially if they involve a good fight. He returns the smile. ]

I know, me too. I...I mean it's sad she's not in Corona, but I know she'll... she'll just do a lot better with space and time to clear her head. And she'll come back, eventually. If nothing else than to make sure Eugene's getting tormented the correct amount in her absence.

[In most cases, the idea of Cassandra and Eugene arguing again makes Rapunzel's heart drop. She used to hate when they fought; it got so grating, they fought over the most ridiculous things, and just... the idea of two of her favorite people constantly fighting was incredibly upsetting. But now? Now she'd give anything to hear that one more time. It meant things were normal.]

I never thought I'd say this, but... I kind of miss that. And I think he does too. Nobody can really keep him on his toes when it comes to the snark like Cass could.

[She doesn't fully understand, but... that kind of seems to be the way they show they care? Sometimes? She sure wishes they'd do it less and just be more friendly about it, but she knew that, up until Cassandra's betrayal, it was just... their thing.]

Is it weird, to miss arguing like that? I mean, I always like it better when they get along, but everything seems a lot more... quieter without them going back and forth like that. It's kind of strange.

That's true. They uh... they had something interesting together. I'm sure he missed it, too.

[Eugene had him and Lance outside of Rapunzel, of course, but the batter wasn't the same. It didn't hit the same beats as it did with Cassandra, and everyone knew it. ]

It definitely didn't feel right without them bickering like idiots all the time. [It's said fondly, though- even without the chasm left by Cassandra's betrayal, it's been a while since Varian's seen either of them. ]

I know I've missed it. A lot. I've... I've missed all of you a lot. It's... it's been a long time.

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