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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Varian doesn't respond immediately, he's lost in the memories of finding Quirin, locked in amber and presumably gone forever and how that moment had destroyed his own life. Quirin came back from that- he came back from seemingly being dead forever. And now Adam is back, plucked from the abyss and brought back. He's as grateful for this as he was with Quirin being brought back, but it still creates a painful wrench in his heart to think how close he'd been to losing Adam for good.

"It's okay," his voice wavers all the same. "You- you couldn't control that."

He exhales, slow and shaky.

"Shiro told me about what happens to you. Back home."

Adam stiffens. He'd kept the knowledge of what happened to him close to the vest these days. Of the people here, only Takashi and Vyng knew he was dead back home. That there was nothing for him beyond this place.

And for a flash he's angry, actually angry at Takashi. He kept this from people like Varian so they didn't have to bear any additional burden of grief. He had enough on his shoulders, and was so young. He should get to enjoy as much of that as he could.

It bleeds from him as quickly as it surged. He can imagine plenty of scenarios where the two of them commiserate about those who weren't here. Taking care of each other when Adam couldn't.

He exhales.

"Well, you're taking it better than he did."

The whole conversation with Shiro had been a mess. Both of them understanding that if the people they loved the most in the whole world went away...they wouldn't go home to anything good. Adam would die. Fern would die. The fact that they wouldn't even have a future beyond this world made the fear of them leaving it all the greater. It was something they could understand in each other and as such provide support many others could not.

He lets out a laugh, but it's sad and tired and wrong.

"I didn't. I freaked out a lot and I was really scared about it. Because between you and Fern that now makes two people I love a lot who'll just...stop existing if they left," and it utter shatters his heart to think about. "I just...I really hate it."

Adam's heart constricts. He squeezes Varian a bit tighter, swallowing around something rough that seemed to have lodged itself in his throat.

People that I love.

It was precisely then that Adam knew there was someone here besides Takashi that he'd be willing to throw his life away for.

"We're both here. We're alright, Varian."

Varian learned a hard lesson about letting people too close- and though the pain that came from the perceived and actual betrayals in his life was eased, it was something he carried with him. Certainly, he gained himself plenty of friends- if he wanted to or not- but family was a lot harder for him to accept.

Adam was categorically that, though. Family. And while he's being told they're alright, he's struggling to accept it. Because they hadn't been. He lets Adam squeeze him a little tighter.

"Does Shiro know you're back?"

That's...easier than lying and pretending he's okay when he isn't. Changing the subject.

Varian isn't pulling back so Adam isn't either. He tucks Varian under his chin, enabling him to feel it when he nods.

"He's the one who found me on the beach. I got the rundown and we went home straight after."

Which was also why this had been his first opportunity to explore. Takashi had been reluctant to let Adam out of his sight. Afraid he might vanish again.

He definitely isn't pulling back and being tucked under Adam's chin is...very comforting. He'll just keep clinging like a sad, skinny kola for a little longer.

"Oh good. I'm glad he found you he-" Varian hesitates, before exhaling slowly. "He's really not been doing great. Since...since you vanished he's- I've been worried about him."

The latest message about the Hunters had been especially worrying. It had reeked of Shiro throwing himself into danger instead of dealing with Adam's absence. Now he's back...well, maybe it will encourage Shiro to be a little more careful.

Adam's jaw flexed. He'd thought as much, just from knowing Takashi. Once he found out how long he'd been here on his own, after their first night together and how exhausted he'd looked even for him... well. It'd been obvious that he hadn't been doing well.

"Can you tell me?" Adam licked his lips. "I can tell Takashi wants to, but he can't figure out how to say it all. Not to mention his propensity for underselling how much risk he takes on himself."

It's something they'd been working on before. Forcing Takashi to think about what he was taking on himself before he did it. Adam was anticipating a not insubstantial amount of backsliding.

"It's mostly just...feelings," he exhales slowly. "You know what he's like. He avoids any direct questions about his wellbeing or if he's doing anything to risk that - especially when he knows people will worry about him."

Shiro is the god-king of This Is Fine after all. Trying to root out a problem, even when you can see something is wrong is almost impossible. But Varian's a smart kid, and he's been paying attention.

"I think he was planning on doing something with the Hunters. They...they run out and fight monsters, protect the city. Sounds like a reckless, dumb thing he'd do, right? He was asking about them and then he got squirrelly when I asked him what he was planning...Y'know. Like he does."

Adam smiled tightly. He certainly did know what Takashi could be like, especially when he was trying to be strong for everyone else. He hoped he found someone to lean on, someone to open up to when he hadn't been around. But based on Varian's description it sounded like he'd tried to deal with it all on his own.

Unsurprising, but heartbreaking.

His jaw flexed.

"So.. a suicide mission, then. Or at the very least, recklessly and unnecessarily disregarding his own safety for the sake of others."

It's exactly what it looked like. Varian's been deeply worried about him, because no amount of cajoling seemed to make a difference, no matter how stubborn or obnoxious he was about it.

"More the latter than the former but basically, yeah" he sighs. "I mean...if I was in his position, I doubt I would have been much better, so glass houses...stones and all that. But I've still been worried about him."

Adam closes his eyes. "Thank you. For keeping an eye on him." As best as he can, as best as anyone can. Even Adam didn't have a 100% success rate.

"But hey, he's alive. He's healthy. He insisted on practically carrying me home from the beach." His lips twist with a bit of wry humor. "So I think he'll be alright." They'd just need to have a talk about self-destructive impulses.

"Hey, don't mention it. I'm always happy to pester him into doing something that vaguely looks like him taking care of himself."

Which, yeah, the success rate was not always great, but at least Varian has intense stubborness on his side.

"Wow, how romantic," he's teasing. "Fern did that for me, but that's- that's mostly because I didn't wash up with my leg. Took a while to find it. But yeah...yeah, I'm sure he'll be fine."

He hopes. He's still going to worry.

That earns Varian a short laugh. Vaguely looks like taking care of himself indeed.

"Oh, extremely romantic. Covered in sand, freezing in the November wind. Being half dragged completely naked across an alien city. Still an improvement on the first time he asked me out, though."

Adam blinks, looking instinctively downward. He clearly sorted it out since, but--

"You didn't have your leg when you arrived?"

Look, sometimes they have to just accept that they're going to get minimal effort from Shiro in self-care. That's sometimes a thing they have to accept.

"I mean- there's definitely less romantic things that have happened here," he grins. "Wasn't it in a bathroom? I'm sure I heard that story."

He shakes his head, waving his leg a little in response.

"Nope. It washed up on the shore a few hours later, but at first? No leg. Nearly got eaten by crabs and everything."

Its the way of their world, Varian. The way of their world.

"It was indeed. The bathroom of a very cheap restaurant, even. I suppose that could have been worse too. It has given me almost ten years of great teasing material."

He squints a bit at Varians leg. "Very interesting. I should ask Takashi if he arrived without his arm. I wonder if something about this place prevents the arrival of organic and synthetic together."

"There you go! Unromantic as that was, it's given you something to tease him about! That's a very important part of any relationship, pretty sure."

He says that because he and Fern's idea of flirting is to have little villain-offs that anyone else would think was a weird fucking way to show affection, but clearly, they know better and here is Adam getting it too!

"Right? I know Eddie was missing his arm when he showed up," he scratches his cheek. "I can't remember if Shiro lost his- but his is kinda...more complicated anyway."

"Oh, absolutely. What else are we supposed to fill the time with? Besides, if I let the silence lapse too long Takashi fills it with awful dad jokes."

He rubs at his chin for a moment.

"Since the squids we embody are organic it could just be that they automatically reject anything inorganic. Not a very useful note for now, but something to keep an eye on at any rate. You never know when this place may throw us a curve ball that makes it useful."

"...I can utterly and completely believe that. He probably thinks they're really funny, too."

He nods because honestly, that makes as much sense as anything else right now.

"Yeah. I have a feeling this place works on the same non-logic as Deerington used to. I guess all we can do is wait and see. I hate not knowing for certain."

Because he is a scientist and he likes to work with certainties.

"He routinely laughs at his own jokes. The worse the pun the more he enjoy it. Honestly he was built to be a dad."

Adam clucks sympathetically. He knows that feel, Varian.

"I agree. But isn't that what science is built on? Cataloguing the unknown variables until we detect a pattern that we can apply rules to. Think of us as trailblazers."

"You're totally right. He's completely a dad, all the way through."

He was doomed to have all the kids from the start!

"I guess that's...a nice way to think of it. Like we're trying to work it out. I think I can live with that."

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