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

Entry tags:

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

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! ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Varian just takes the glare, he's expecting it at this point, and he's trying his best not to let it eat at him- or at least not let it devour him. After all, at least this time he's not lying. He's straight-up agreed that he's not fine.

"I know, I know I didn't handle it as I should have. I'm not arguing with you on that," he knows full well that he should have let people in- that's what Dipper told him, he needed to trust his people with his pain and he didn't, and this was the result. "I'm- I'm not going to let it happen again."

He hugs his arms around himself, frowning softly.

"You really rallied the troops. Thanks...for that. It- it made a huge difference in me getting help."

Luz watched him and decided it was better to let it be. This was a lesson he had to learn, and honestly, Trench was not Deerington so they were all still trying to understand this Blood Corruption stuff.

"Then I won't have to yell at you anymore about it."

Good. GOOD. Luz didn't mind arguing with Varian, but lecturing wasn't something she wanted to do with Varian. She was angry, sure, but she mostly cared a lot about him and seeing him descend into monster hood had been hard for her. She didn't think she'd feel more helpless than the Farm, but seeing a friend suffer was so much worse.

Oh, right. She did do that.

"Of course I was, Varian. I wasn't going to let you die or go rampage and feel worse about it later. I did everything that I could, and I was lucky so many people care about you that they wanted to lend a hand. Even Grunkle Stan did his part. Besides, come on. Didn't you think I'd have your back the moment I came to live here?"

"That's the plan."

He's not trying to get any of them to yell at him anymore. He shouldn't have to get them to that point, and he's aware of that now. He'll still for sure be on a learning curve, but at least he is trying to learn.

"I don't...really remember a whole lot about what went on, it's kinda... fuzzy, but I am... I mean, I'm really lucky so many people wanted to help out, I'm not sure how I can ever repay-" no wait. "...Stan helped? Stan Pines? That Stan?"

"You been eating and drinking ok? How's the, well, aftermath?"

She didn't want to hover, he had plenty of people doing that, but she had ALWAYS done it a little bit, she really couldn't help herself. She still wanted to make sure that he was not going to need to die to get his corruption back to where it wasn't hobbling him.

"Yeah, it was a lot, and I was really trying to make a plan in as little time I had. But that one girl and Grunkle Stan both figured that they wanted to divert any hunter that wanted to get to you first. She ran some distraction, and Stan created some explosions to get their attention away from you. I was pretty surprised, honestly. I thought you two didn't get along."

"I haven't had much of a choice either way," his response is wry. "Everyone's making sure I get plenty of everything. "And it's...what it is, I guess. I'm getting there. I'll be better once Fern's back."

Because until Fern does come back, his healing will be stalled. He, quite frankly, needs the other boy to get all the way there. His absence is very much felt.

"We...uh, don't usually," though things have been weirdly better between them as of late. "Huh. I'll have to thank him later."

And by thank, he means mock mercilessly, of course.

"I'm glad to hear that," Luz said, smiling a little to herself. She'd have to remember to send thank you notes to the people who were sitting for Varian. Sure, she was used to doing that herself, but they all needed to properly grieve one of the people in their house. Luz had been keeping tabs on Fern, but even she felt a lingering sadness at him not being around. "Me too. It's strange to not have him here."

Luz had ALSO been watching for how slow Varian had been to healing up, but she at least understood why. No way the boy would be in peak health without his boyfriend back from the dead.

"Don't get on him too much," Luz warned, sticking out her tongue. "You know how he is about showing affection and all of that. If that's what you guys are like, he'll try to be as ambivalent about it as he can."

Luz would thank Grunkle Stan personally later. It meant a lot to her that he got involved, honestly.

"I hate it when this happens. I've always hated it," and Fern's died more than once now, this is not Varian's first rodeo. "It never feels right without him here."

And, of course, he's always scared Fern won't come back. It eats at him quietly, even if he won't put it into words. The chances always are that Fern just...stays dead. He's not alive back in Ooo, he's always on borrowed time- existing so long as Trench allows it. Varian's terrified one day that time will just...run out.

"Hah, it's definitely how we're like," that's putting it lightly. "If I didn't give him grief for it, it'd be weird."

"You and me both," Luz said, moving closer to Varian. Fern dying had sucked. Varian dying on top of that would likely have sent Luz into a tailspin. There would have been too much pain for her to stay uncorrupted at that point.

Luz was also aware of what happened to Fen back in Ooo and really couldn't think about that or she never would have been able to help Varian.

"Oh, I agree. You and Eda were a little like that too, but man. She really cared about you and Fern, I could tell."

He shifts a little so she can have some space to sit on the bed with him if she wants. It's a pretty damn cosy bed with all the furs and the like. The reminder of Eda is a pain, but a good one. It's nice. Familiar.

"Yeah, she really was good at that. And we cared about her too a lot. This place is way quieter without her here."

Luz definitely sides up next to him, and in typical Luz fashion bundles herself up like a burrito, wriggling around like a worm. It was a very comfortable bed.

"I mean, I don't know if its exactly quiet here. It's what I like about this place!"

She looked over at Varian.

"He'll be back soon. Fern, I mean. When he is, we'll have to make sure he doesn't do any more crazy missions like that. But now that you're back...I can miss him properly."

It's an excellent bed, okay. There's a few reasons they picked what was originally Fern's room to become their room, but the bed was a major deciding factor.

"Well, not this house specifically, this house is always pretty... loud."

Which is so different to when he first came here. When it was just him in his basement, working away. He might get less peace these days, but he wouldn't change it for anything. He likes having this much life around him. It reminds him to live.

"...Yeah," his expression softens, saddens as he plucks at the bedsheets. "It's just the waiting part now. I hate this part."

Being afraid that he'll come back at all.

Soft, comfortable beds were just a must have for all types of reasons, but especially for times like these.

"It is! But I think you know that it's not something I really mind. Then again, I live all the way upstairs, so I sort of have my own fortress of solitude there!"

He's not going to get that reference Luz, but she's sure he gets the idea that she lived how busy and robust this place was. It was halfway between always noisy and very quiet when she needed it to be.

"Well," Luz said, putting her head on his shoulder a moment, "now you get to hate it with us. We all can miss him together. But he'll be back, and when he is? We'll remind him how great it is that we can see him again."

Luz was all too aware what happened to him back in those memories, and she just keeps the faith that he'll be back.

"...I thought you had people up there a lot?"

Yeah, he does not get the reference at all. Off it goes, sailing above his head. He smiles lightly, sadly, putting an arm around her shoulder so she can snuggle in.

"Yeah. You're right, we'll do all of that, because he will be back. And we can be really obnoxious about it when he does come back."

"More that its my special place of comfort," Luz explained. "Never mind. Besides, if I had a REAL fortress of solitude, it would be the tower anyway."

Well, maybe. Rapunzel was up there a lot more these days. She'd just have to handle that no one understood her hip phrasing. Instead she just sort of wriggled and lounged a little on Varian.

"Yeah we will. I hate that he had to go at all. I'm guessing that Dirk explained specifically what happened to him?"

"Hah, our tower is at least a good place for comfort?"

Better than the original anyway. And what Cassandra created from the rubble. This is a nice tower. His smile fades, because...well. This is what triggered his beasting out, and he doesn't want to get too much into it, lest he trigger himself back into it.

"I saw the end of what happened to him. I don't- can we not talk about that? I'm not ready yet."

"It's definitely been comforting ME the past few days."

Ooh, right. She definitely needed not to talk about this. Why would she need to know? Other than whatever he did he SHOULDN'T have, that was all that she needed to know. The last person who she needed to ask that question was Varian.

"Yeah, we don't. I wasn't thinking, sorry. I just didn't have time to process all of that."

She probably SHOULD have been dealing with all of this at some point. Even Luz was starting to get that she wasn't getting to process any of this healthily.

"We need to focus on getting you uncorrupted anyway. I brought some more of Lysithea's wafers, and a few books on meditation. I know you don't love the idea of the latter, but every little bit helps, right?"

"Hmm"

He kind of curls into himself a little, trying to push the memories away. He knows the healthy thing is to talk about them, and he will, but not until Fern is back, alive and with them. He does look over at her suggestions, offering a tired smile.

"No that's...great, thank you. I'm willing to give it a try. Who knows, it might really help me."

Luz took a long breath, and yes, at this point she was just sort of leaning against him now, little sister style. She didn't know how to tell him how happy she was that he was back here in one piece, that he was at least starting to recover, that he was her big brother but she would protect him with every part of herself if she had to.

How did you even say all of that without overwhelming someone?

"Take them slowly, and you can even record your findings to see how well they help. In fact, maybe do that with all of this stuff, so when this corruption possibly happens to anyone else in the house, we'll know what to do. In the meantime, whatever you need..."

She trailed off, laughing unconvincingly. "I guess Usagi, Ariadne or Rapunzel will jump at the chance to take care of it. I'm glad you've got so many people looking after you right now."

At least, for the most part, Varian was already very aware of all of that- she didn't need to say it- it was unspoken. He got it, just as much as he felt the same towards her.

"Oh yeah, trust me, I'm not gonna...race into this, I still need to heal first," he's taking his time as much as he DOES want to race into things as he normally would. "And yeah, I'm hoping if nothing else, my experience can mean we have a better way of helping people in the future."

Then maybe all of this suffering wouldn't have been...pointless.

"Me too, I guess I really lucked out, huh?"

"Seriously, I don't know how you and Dipper manage it, but you wind up worrying your prospective sisters half to death despite being so smart! Must be something about putting your life so close to danger that brings out endorphins or something."

Not that YOU would know anything about that Luz, oh no, you are always so SAFE.

"Maybe we should start documenting all of the Sleeper corruptions, see if there are correlations between how they happen and what the corruptions actually turn the subject into? Yours full on and, well, the start of mine and a few other people are the only ones I know about."

"Hey now, me and Dipper do a lot of research too! It just so happens that research sometimes involves...poking dangerous things with sticks. To take samples. And you're one to talk- how many times do I have to tell you not to fly into danger onto your staff?"

Just how many times, Luz?!!

"You know, that's...not a bad idea. I think- I think I'm gonna stop looking at the death crystals, it was...doing more damage to me than I really wanted to admit," and at least he's admitting it now. "Maybe focusing on something that can help people that isn't a massive emotional trigger for me would be a good thing."

"Yes, I noticed! But you know, if you guys buddied up, you might find yourselves in less crazy situations!"

Ooh, he might be right there.

"Ok, so we're both idiots that need to start thinking about the people around us. I'm still not wrong!"

Darn him and his points.

"Exactly! That kind of stuff can only cause you to start getting detached from reality, which is still pretty grim. If you want, I'll even help you with your next project! Just...take it easy and make sure that your corruption is going down."

"Or the exact opposite might happen and we might be in more crazy situations because we decided we needed to study some eldritch monolith and ended up leashing the End Days or something."

Because that feels like a highly likely scenario when Dipper is involved.

"I am glad you also acknowledge your idiocy here," he smiles, patting her head. "Sure, I want to get back to working on my car. That kinda...fell by the wayside with everything."

"Well, you can always call us for back up, you know. There are a variety of people who are super willing to go along on whatever crazy stunt you have in mind, so at least you won't be risking getting killed and making everyone upset at you later."

And yes, that did sound EXACTLY like something Dipper would do, and something that Luz would just as easily come with to help if he asked.

"Dumb recognizes dumb," Luz said, shrugging. "Even I know that I can do some crazy stuff. But now that you mention THAT, if you need a grease monkey sidekick to help you with that, I'm your girl!"

"Oh, I know. A lot of you are worryingly willing to fling yourselves head-first into all kinds of danger. "

Given how easy it is to die in this place, he wonders if he should be more worried about that- but it would be pretty hypocritical of him if he did that, so-

"Thanks, Luz," he chuckles softly, giving her a squeeze. "Knew I could count on you."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject