schoolingfish: (Horrified human)
Luca Paguro ([personal profile] schoolingfish) wrote in [community profile] deercountry2021-12-05 10:54 pm

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.
droptheious: (You gotta let go)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-01-16 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"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."
droptheious: (Best leave the rest unspoken)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-01-19 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"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."
droptheious: (So you cast her)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-01-20 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"...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."

droptheious: (Look at me still talking)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-01-24 12:40 am (UTC)(link)
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."
droptheious: (For the good of all of us)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-01-26 12:35 am (UTC)(link)
"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."
droptheious: (It makes me glad I'm not you)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-01-27 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
"That's Rapunzel for you. She's...honestly the best person I know, the best person I'll ever know, likely."

It's really hard to beat Rapunzel for her sheer ability for forgiveness. He doesn't think he'd have been...well, anywhere without her giving him a second chance. Rotting in prison for the rest of his life, if anything.

"Yeah, from what you've told me about him, it sure sounds like he deserves someone who'll be there for him while you're in school."
droptheious: (All by myself... finally)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-01-31 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)
"Exactly! You could both live pretty easy, and of course, he'd be more than welcome to live here if he ever showed up. There'd be like...no question about that at all."

Because people from home were important- so desperately important. Hell, the fact Cassandra is living outside the house makes him continually worried. He wants her to be safe, under the same roof as him and Rapunzel. But that's...not happening. So he has to live with being anxious about it instead.

"Yeah. I mean- she showed up in the dream a couple of times, but she doesn't remember it and it was never for long."
droptheious: (Even the suit has teeth)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-02-02 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
"There you go- you guys will be just fine."

He nods, his smile a little drawn.

"Pretty much, yeah. She'd show up, be around for a month or so, and then vanish again. This is the third time I've had her here now," and good lord, does it hurt every time she vanishes again. "I really hope she sticks around, too. I've missed her. And Cass."

Messy as things with Cassandra are, that is very true.
droptheious: (While you're dying I'll be still alive)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-02-04 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
"It wasn't the most fun, honestly, no. The first time she came here, she was from a time before she'd even met me so that was...definitely the worst."

Because he'd been so damn desperate to cling to her- he was still new to the dream, still scared and desperate for the comfort of home. And he might as well have been hugging a stranger. He'd hated every waking second of that, it had been awful. He wouldn't wish it on anyone.
droptheious: (He's a sweetheart calls me master)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-02-06 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
"It isn't an experience I recommend in the least, nope."

He chuckles, nodding.

"She does! And she's only a few months behind me this time instead of a few years. It's much easier to deal with."
droptheious: (Now these points of data)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-02-08 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hah, that's a good point! Imagine how freaked out you'd have been if you'd shown up here fresh out of the ocean."

Hah HAH. Imagine that.
droptheious: (He has a way of finding pretty things)

[personal profile] droptheious 2022-02-11 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"See? You probably would have spent your time screaming at us- at the whole city! Until we showed you that you were safe, anyway."