[Open] Keep it locked up, keep it sealed tight

[droptheious]

Who: Varian and YOU!
What: Varian's final corrupted days, his beasthood turn and the aftermath. See his corruption/monster page HERE!
When: First 2 weeks of Jan- before the event.
Where: Around the city!

Content Warnings: Applicable content warnings go here. Mentions of death, corruption, dissociation.



Hope you've stocked up - Last days of corruption

Anyone who's close to Varian will have noticed his slow corruption growth over the last two months. By the time January rolls around, things have gotten worse instead of better. By now his skin is made of a thick, black rock. This same black rock has turned his teeth into sharp fangs and his nails into claws. two amber horns sprout out from his head, and his elbows and one remaining ankle have spurs of the same stuff- as is the tail he's since gotten, flicking nervously as he paces around- firey red eyes darting around furtively.

He'd largely been keeping himself out of sight, trying to handle this alone, but his hallucinations have driven him onwards. He stares at things seemingly only he can see. If he comes across you, he'll grip your arm tightly (sorry if those claws hurt, he's not even thinking about it). He points at an empty spot of nothing, worry on his face.

"Eugene!" you are definitely not Eugene, but it's clear that's who he's seeing right now. "We- we gotta deal with these rocks before they take over everything! There's...there's got to be a cavern around here somewhere so we can cut them off, right?"

It's a long night - Monsterdom (Gaze and surrounding area)

Regardless of how much or how little help he gets in his final days of corruption, eventually, Fern decides enough is enough and the best way to handle this is to Fistfight God. Which is to say, he goes off to confront The Tower about this and gets himself killed by Never Mind in the process. Varian got there too late, and being the driving reason behind his boyfriend dying again was the final nail in the coffin for him.

The transformation is quick and sharp, and what's left is a a ten-foot rock monster spewing fire everywhere. His leg is still missing in this form, at least, which should help anyone with a quick ID-check. Varian himself rages through the city, slamming against buildings and breathing fire at anyone foolish enough to come close. It's definitely attracting the attention of nearby hunters- so perhaps finding a way to talk him back down before there's another death today would be for the best?

Nothing good is meant to stay - Aftermath

Eventually, Varian lets his friends in, lets them talk him down and the best hood fades. Parts of corruption still cling to him- his skin is still an unhealthy grey colour and his nails aren't quite back to normal yet. He's also sitting in a ball on the floor- partly out of shock and partly because he can't go anywhere without his leg - if someone could fetch him that, that would be awesome.

Or perhaps you come to him in the days that follow. He mostly stays near the Disaster House in Cassandra, as he waits for Fern to come back to life. He can be found inside the house, or sometimes sitting on the front porch, people-watching. Though he's certainly not better yet, day by day the signs of corruption lessen. Any visitors will get a tired smile, he's still a little withdrawn, but he's getting there.

"H-hey, thanks for checking in," nothing has changed how awkward he is at least! "Um...how are you doing?"

Because obviously, you're here for him to check up on you. Obviously.


[[OOC: The monster battle is intended to be open to any CR who want to take part. No ONE character will be responsible for talking him down from monsterdom, it is intended to be a team effort- hammering home that Varian is able to rely on his support network. Feel free to make separate threads, team up with other players, thread hop, etc. Do what you like, and we can wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey it so it happened around the same time- to make it easier than players trying to keep to one concurrent thread! Go nuts! As always please hit me up on teeeff for anything! ]]

Comments

[themuseabandonsyou]

Maybe it's not necessarily wise, the way Orpheus is thinking of Varian right now in the same way he always does - as his friend, in pain, and not some huge and dangerous thing that needs to be dealt with somehow before he hurts someone else. Both can be true at once, but only being able to see the first has Orpheus not exactly thinking straight, and it's a big part of the reason he darts forward, past a hunter trying to stand between Varian and him, and grabs onto the spear lodged in his side, yanking it free.

"You're making it worse!" He throws the spear down, rounding on the hunter currently trying to grab him. The heat this close to Varian's molten hide is sweltering, but he bats the hunter's hands away and stands his ground. "I can calm him down if you just let me tr-"

This is the point where the hunter gets fed up with trying to be gentle with him and simply kicks him in the burned shin. Surprised and in pain, he collapses forward, and they take the opportunity to stoop down and sling him over their shoulder like a sack of flour, gesturing to the others before running off with him to get him out of the way.

[droptheious]

At least while the hunters are distracted by getting Orpheus out of the way (violent as they are about it) it gives Varian time to scrabble out of the way. He does pause for a moment, turning his head to watch them- seemingly torn between helping Orpheus and actually escaping. But the beast mind wins out over the human and he scrambles over a building- claws digging into the mortar, as he lopes off towards what sounds like people yelling his name.

So at least he seems to be heading towards people who know him, what little comfort Orpheus can take from that.