deercountry | Luca catchall post - Fun vileblood issues!

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Luca catchall post - Fun vileblood issues!

Who: Luca Paguro and open!
What: Luca's memory flashback, as well as generally sneaking around the Disaster House/Town/getting caught in snares because he's a vileblood and there's two blood types hunting him this month
When: Throughout the month
Where: The Disaster House or anywhere in the Trench

Content Warnings: A thirteen year old boy getting hunted like an animal, both in his memory and in the 'present day' prompts

Luca's Memory – Trying to escape Ercole (OTA)

Whoever touches the Winter Mourning will find themselves witnessing a hunt. Maybe they'll see out of Luca's eyes, a passive observer forced to make the same choices he made, or maybe they'll take on the role of someone else in the setting. Alberto, perhaps, or one of the people trying to catch Luca. Maybe they'll even be able to do their own things, make their own choices.

Regardless, the memory starts with Luca and Alberto in sea monster form racing through the streets on a bike. They're terrified, desperate. Ercole has gotten in front of them, but the hill's too steep to try and turn back and go up. Besides, they need to get back to the water to be safe, and to do that, they need to pass Ercole. Luca stares in horror as he keeps pedaling forward, and Ercole lifts his spear, ready to throw.

"You should have left when I told you. Now...I'm going to kill some sea monsters!" Ercole says, and his cackles fill the alley as he balances on his bike, his spear raised in the air.

Then, just in time, Giulia, a red headed girl who had caught up on her own bike, rams her bike in to Ercole's own, sending both of them tumbling to the ground. Luca and Alberto race past on their bike, but Luca glances back. Giulia bounces roughly on the cobblestones several time, rolling down the steep and rocky pathway.

"No!" Cries Luca.

"Giulia!" Alberto calls out to her.

Not willing to just leave her like that, not knowing if she's okay, Luca stops the bike and he and Alberto race over to her, helping her up. This was a mistake. They're surrounded now. Many of the townsfolk are just standing there, watching to see what happens next. Others seem more ready to participate in this hunt. Some have harpoons. Some have nets. They whisper.

"Look at that," says one villager.

"You're not going anywhere," says another.

Ercole, however, is quick to call dibs. "Guys! I saw them first! The reward is mine!"

Luca tries to be brave. "We're not afraid of you!"

"No," responds Ercole, "But we're afraid of you. Everyone is horrified and disgusted by you, because you are monsters."

The memory may end here. Or it may continue on for a few more seconds, so the viewer sees Giulia saying that they aren't monsters, and Massimo coming out of the crowd to tell them that the boys are Luca and Alberto. Either way, the memory wraps up soon unless the viewer is an active participant and was able to make a different choice in the course of events.

The Disaster House – Open to anyone who would be at/around the Disaster House

Luca's skittish. He's been hunted before, he knows the feeling. He knows the mortal terror, the constant hiding, the fear of discovery. The worst part is, this month even people he loved and trusted seem to be turning on him. Nowhere is safe. But this house...it's still home.

He sticks to the shadows, staying out of sight, easily startled if anyone spots him. Still, there are times he lets his guard down. Enamored with all the pretty antler decorations around the house, Luca decides to make his own. He takes a couple of antlers he's found tying them up with ribbons and decorating them with little twigs and springs from the greenhouse. At one point he even starts having enough fun with his crafting to relax enough to hum a little tune, enjoying himself as he pretties up the antlers, holding them up to see how they're coming.

Other times he can be found grabbing things from the greenhouse or the kitchen to eat. He doesn't know how to cook, though, and this month...this month he's too scared to find someone around the house to help him, so he might just start eating raw ingredients as is just to avoid coming out of hiding.

Out And About – OTA

But of course, living in a household with all bloodtypes can be quite stressful to a young boy during a season where he's doomed to be hunted by two of them, so he ends up spending quite a bit of time away from the house this month. Of course, he heeds the warnings he's been given about cold weather and bundles up. A dark grey wool coat, gloves, boots, a hat...dressed up as well as he can be as he heads out into the harsh winter.

Still, as unused as he is to this sort of winter weather, Luca does stop to marvel at the snow. It really is pretty, and he never imagined it looking quite like that. He stomps it down to crunch it, squeezes it in his hands, experimenting and examining it, fascinated...until he hears anyone else coming by.

Like a prey animal, he's likely to hurry off to cower in the nearest hiding spot, before staring in horror at the obvious tracks he's left in the snow.

Trapped – OTA

Luca is trying to be careful, staying out of sight, avoiding other people and obvious traps. Not all traps are obvious, though, and there are so many this month that he's bound to get caught at some point.

He panics when he feels the snare tighten around his leg, pulling him up. He struggles, and he wants to scream, but he doesn't dare to. He's helpless now in a place filled with people who want to hunt him. If he wrong person comes...he has no hope of survival. They'll just slaughter him right there. He has to get himself down.

He can't get himself down, he soon realizes. He can't get up to his leg. He can't do anything here. Tears well up in his eyes, and he wants to cry, but he's too terrified to be anything but silent. He'll die if anyone sees him...and he'll likely die here if they don't.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That's pretty much the way to look at it, Buddy," he offers a tired smile- through the fangs. "It's totally fine to miss them and hope they come, but it's good to know you have people here who'll have your back, too."

Because if there's one thing he learned in Deerington, it's that found family is a pretty damn strong factor.

"Thanks." He looks at Varian. "And you know, we have your back, too. I know last month I was having a lot of trouble with...you know. Claw and sharp teeth stuff. After everything that was happening last month."

In other words, the sleeper farm.

"It seemed to help when I talked about stuff."

"Yeah, I know. I... I'm starting to wonder if this is something that's going to happen on the regular for all of us? Like...something we always have to be on the watch for."

That seemed to be the idea he got from the books he was reading.

"But...thanks. I'll...uh, keep that in mind."

"I think it might be. Maybe when we let ourselves get too stressed or scared, and it just...starts to happen. I'm guessing this month has been pretty rough for you, too, huh?"

Judging by how Varian looks. Luca's been stressed as well, seeing as he's been getting chased and hunted when that's exactly what happened to him back home.

"It's...not been easy, no," he admits. "A lot of stuff has happened all at once. It's been...pretty heavy."

Hard to deal with. And naturally, instead of talking about it, Varian shut down. He let his own insecurities feed one another until he's got to this point. Feeling like he's failed everyone, that the people he loves will get hurt because he's not enough to save them.

"Yeah, it's been hard for me, too. Especially with all the traps outside. It reminds me of having to avoid boats and being hunted all over again. It kind of helps when I talk about it or stick with people I trust, though. Or when I make myself a saltwater bath, but that might just be a saltwater fish person thing and I don't know if that would help you. Talking might, though."

"Yeah those...can't be helpful, sorry they're triggering bad memories. But having people you can rely on makes a big difference, and I promise you'll always have that in this house."

Varian doesn't make promises easily, but he's sure making one right now and sticking with it at that.

"Hah, you know, salt does help heal a lot of wounds and softens skin, so you might not be on the worst track. Talking is...probably the healthiest way around it though."

"Thanks. It really does mean a lot to me knowing that. And it's helped a lot having so many people see my true form, or know what I am, and so far no one here's had any issue with any of that."

Sure, back home everyone accepted them when Massimo made it clear that no one would be hunting them, but this is a whole new world with whole new people, and Luca hadn't needed anyone to intervene to make people accept him here. Sure, there were issues with the whole vileblood thing at times, but aside from this month with the weird hunting thing going on, it usually wasn't nearly as bad as how people back home reacted to sea monsters.

"Yeah. You can do both. Talk about what's bugging you, then take a bath and relax later. Maybe get some sleep."

Because he knows Varian isn't big on sleeping. Or eating. Or just acknowledging his physical needs when he's focused on a project.

"Anytime. And yeah, folks are...really tolerant here. I think because we've already seen and been through so much that very little surprises us anymore. People are just... people, y'know?"

That's how Varian sees it, anyway. And sure, when people are fresh off the metaphorical boat, they need time to adjust- but in his experience, they learned pretty damn quickly how to be decent people and not treat others differently for what they were.

"It's not a bad idea to uh...work on that."

Because Varian is really back at talking about what's bugging him too. It's going to be stark lesson for him a few weeks.

"Yeah. And I guess when there are actual giant beasts running around, a kid with scales and fins just doesn't seem that scary."

Really, anything you can reason with is probably less scary than the monsters in this place, or the beasts who have lost all reason. As for working on talking about what's bugging him...

"I mean, if you want to work on that right now, we can. We just talked about the bit of my past you saw, so it's only fair."

"Exactly! Especially when you're not actively hurting anyone."

Because he can't ever imagine Luca actually threatening anyone, much less willingly hurting them. It would be like being threatened by a puppy. A scaley, wet puppy, sure, but a puppy all the same.

He hesitates at the offer. Honestly, at this point, it's only fair that Luca knows about his past. He has every right to know who he's living with. But he's always nervous about it.

"...We can, but I have to warn you, I don't-" he shifts uneasily. "I don't have a great past. I did... a lot of bad things."

"That's okay. I mean, you don't do those things now, right?"

After all, Massimo went from wanting to hunt sea monsters to keeping Luca and Alberto safe. Besides, Varian's his friend, and if being able to talk about things is important to keep him from losing himself, Luca wants to help.

"It'll be okay. I mean, I'm pretty sure Reaper might have some dark and shady things in his past, and I still like him."

"...Not if I can help it, no. Not...on purpose."

He does have a point, and he's not as bad as Reaper, at least. But then Reaper's bar is very, very low. Okay, well. He can do this. He takes a deep breath.

"So. You know Rapunzel and I are from the same world, right? That...we know one another from there?"

Because this time, there is a familiar face to the person he hurt the most. He realises it might make the story...worse, somehow.

"Yeah, I know this place...does stuff to you."

Luca's had his own things he's done here that have completely horrified him, so he understands that Varian might not always be able to rely on his own actions being under his control.

"Yeah, I think you mentioned being from the same world. Or maybe she did. Either way, yeah, I know."

Varian's done some pretty terrible things thanks to Deerington's workings. But he's also done...really bad things of his own volition. As Luca's about to learn. Varian exhales, rubbing his arm subconsciously, telling himself it's better Luca learn this way than Trench forcing it out for him to see.

"Okay, so you've seen her hair? Obviously, you have it's...right there. It's powered by a magical artefact, called the sundrop," fun magical lesson there. "Anyway, back when we were getting to know each other, these black rocks started appearing in my village. They...reacted to her. It was like they were growing in search of her."

That's exactly what they were doing, even if he didn't know it at the time.

"I wanted to do something to help. They were destroying my home. Dad forbade me from doing it, but...hah, I think you can guess I didn't take to that all that well."

He had seen her hair. It was kind of hard to miss. There was a lot of it. He had no idea it was actually powered by anything, though, so Luca listens with rapt attention to the story.

"I mean, I definitely can't blame you for that. I've done so many things my parents didn't want me to do that I almost got sent to the Deep. Besides, you wanted to help."

But he assumes that there's more to the story, because Varian wouldn't be hesitant to share it if things didn't go very, very wrong somewhere.

"What happened?"

"Yeah, I did, at first, anyway," he'd been scared his village was dying, but he also knew he desperately wanted his father to see something worthy in him- that maybe if he managed to fix it his dad would be proud. "...It didn't stay that way."

Because Luca is right, it did go very, very wrong.

"I made a chemical compound to try and break down the rocks, Dad found out and was really mad about it. But the compound...reacted to the rock strangely. It created an ember that grew exponentially," he frowns, the memory very much burned into his mind forever. "It nearly caught me in it, but Dad pushed me out of the way just in time. He got stuck in it and it was encasing him. I...I went to Rapunzel for help, but the Kingdom was in the midst of a blizzard. She... she couldn't leave her people to help me."

That sounds horrifying, but also very clearly not Varian's fault. He was trying to get rid of the rocks, he couldn't have known what would happen, and Varian said that he'd started out wanting to help, but that it didn't stay that way. Luca knows there has to be more that happened next.

"I'm really sorry that happened to your dad, I don't know what I'd do if mine was stuck like that...what happened next? Were you able to get your dad out of the amber stuff?"

"Not...right away, no."

He knows it's only going to get worse from this point onwards. There's no way he can make this sound good- and he doesn't want to. He made some god-awful choices and he can't sugarcoat that.

"I was...really angry. By the time I got back, dad was completely encased. Rapunzel got her powers from this...flower that was hidden in the vaults. To find out where it was, I drugged the guards with truth serum and then convinced her to help me steal it, even knowing it was treason," even if she was the princess, he knew her father would not take kindly to such things. "When I got it, I left her to take the fall. Didn't matter anyway, it didn't work. So I...decided I needed to get her, instead. Try her power on it."

"Oh."

Leaving someone to take the fall for treason is pretty bad. Especially someone taking a risk to help you.

"Did you do something to set things right later? I mean, she lives here with you, and she seems to like you, so I'm assuming you did something to make up for that, right? And did her powers work to free your dad?"

Because Luca definitely wants confirmation that his dad came out okay...though he assumes he did since Varian says he wasn't freed right away, so he definitely was freed at some point.

"...Yeah. Oh. And no...not right away. It got...a lot worse first. Things are good between us now, great! But...I did a lot worse to her first."

Because hooo boy did it get worse.

"I knew she wouldn't come to help me, so I decided to make her. I kidnapped her mother," he sounds horribly guilty about that. "I set a bunch of automotons on the guards that came for her and captured Rapunzel and the king when they snuck in to save her. I...threatened her mom with the same amber that trapped my dad, forced her to help. It didn't, it hurt her but her powers couldn't break the amber."

It was all for nothing. He'd done so much damage and got nowhere.

"I...I was really angry. I attacked them, tried to kill them. Rapunzel managed to figure out her connections to the rocks to stop me before I actually killed someone, but it was way, way too close. I spent the next year in jail, until I got out and helped a bunch of people take over the kingdom while Rapunzel was away. Brainwashed the king and queen and everything."

He's just gonna...charge on, because at least they're getting to the better part.

"When Rapunzel came back, the people I aligned myself with revealed they planned to kill everyone in the kingdom with a weapon I'd created. I...didn't want that. I didn't want anyone to die. So I helped stop them. She used the powers she'd learned away to free my dad and I spent the rest of my time there doing everything I could to make up for what I'd done."

"Oh."

This keeps getting worse and worse, and Luca is so glad he's seen Rapunzel and knows everything worked out between them and they made up, because right now his friend's past is starting to sound really bad. He understands why Varian did it, he was desperate to save his dad. Still, learning Varian kidnapped and threatened Rapunzel's mom, tried to kill them when Rapunzel wasn't able to save her dad, and then helped take over the kingdom. At least it's clear he really feels bad about all of it? And he stopped the people who wanted to kill everyone in the end! And has been working hard to make up for it!

"Wow. That was...a lot. But you changed! And...you did it because you wanted to help your Dad, even though that doesn't really make it okay, but...you're better now. And...did I ever tell you Massimo used to be a sea monster hunter before he met us?"

And now Massimo was the one who saved him and Alberto, and even adopted the latter.

"And now he looks out for us. So I know sometimes people can go from being really bad to really good."

Not that Massimo knew they were people when he hunted them, so it's not entirely fair to say he was really bad at the time.

The whole thing was a mess and Varian regrets every living second of it- that much is clear in his manner, in the way he holds himself. Even now, years after the fact at this point, his past weighs heavily on him. He doubts he'll ever be able to carry what he did easily- he doesn't want to. That would minimise the pain he caused others, he thinks.

"I did change- and I never want to be that person again- and yeah...it was a lot, sorry. But you- you deserved to know."

Luca's been living under their roof for a while now, he was long overdue learning who he was living with.

"I think I remember you saying that, and yeah- people can change if they really want to. I believe that more than anything," he kind of has to, after everything. "I'm glad Massimo changed, too."

"That's okay...I mean, what you did obviously wasn't...but I'm still glad you shared it. And you're not that person anymore, so that's what really counts, right?"

After all, at the end of the day, what matters is that it isn't who Varian is now.

"And I'm sure you've done a lot to change if you and Rapunzel can be so close now!"

Because Luca feels like if there's anyone who would be angry at him for what he did, Rapunzel would have the most reason, so if she forgives him Luca's certain he must have earned it.

"I'm glad Massimo changed, too. I mean, obviously, since Alberto and I would be dead if he didn't but...you know, he's a really great guy now. And he even adopted Alberto!"

"It really wasn't. I'm never going to excuse myself for that or say it was anything different," he did terrible things and he was a terrible person- no point pretending otherwise. "And no, I'm not that person anymore. That does matter a lot."

His expression softens at the mention of Rapunzel.

"Yeah...things are really good between us now. In my time...not hers, she's a little behind me, I'm her Royal Engineer. I've...done as much as I can to help the Kingdom after nearly destroying it."

He still chose to live in Trench above Corona, but at least he did make sure everything was settled and good back home before he did so.

"Awww, that's good for both of them. They can be their own little family."

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