[Varian notices Jun looking ahead, but as promised, he doesn't read anything into it. Jun has a million hang-ups of his own to deal with, too, and Varian figures this entire thing will be made a lot easier if they allow one another to navigate through them with zero judgement. At least they're both used to that at this point.]
I lived in a farming village, about half a day's ride from the island that made up Corona's capital. The rocks seeking out the Sundrop... seeking out Rapunzel got to there first. They were devastating our homes, our crops, our roads, everything. I was fourteen at the time. I was experimenting on them to see if I could do anything about them, but nothing worked, and when Dad found out, he flipped out about it.
[He frowns softly. ]
Of course, in hindsight, I know now it was because he'd experienced them first-hand and knew how dangerous they were- but he never told me that. Eventually, he agreed to go to have an audience with the King to get things fixed, but then he pretended there wasn't a problem at all. Rapunzel promised me that she'd help me with it, seen as no-one else would, but things were getting desperate. People were suffering, and it felt like everyone who could do something were just-just standing with their hands in their pockets, letting it happen.
... So I decided to do something about it. I created a chemical compound that reacted to the rocks and thought maybe it would... I don't know, break them down or do literally anything to stop them growing and destroying everything. [ He shifts an arm hugging it around his midsection in an old comfort tactic he's always had. ] It didn't though. Instead it grew an amber rock that swallowed anything in its path. It nearly got me, but Dad pushed me out of the way in time and got stuck in it himself. It was slowly just enveloping him and I didn't know how to reverse it- but I knew Rapunzel had a connection to the rocks, so I ran to the capital to get her. She was the only chance I had left of saving him.
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I lived in a farming village, about half a day's ride from the island that made up Corona's capital. The rocks seeking out the Sundrop... seeking out Rapunzel got to there first. They were devastating our homes, our crops, our roads, everything. I was fourteen at the time. I was experimenting on them to see if I could do anything about them, but nothing worked, and when Dad found out, he flipped out about it.
[He frowns softly. ]
Of course, in hindsight, I know now it was because he'd experienced them first-hand and knew how dangerous they were- but he never told me that. Eventually, he agreed to go to have an audience with the King to get things fixed, but then he pretended there wasn't a problem at all. Rapunzel promised me that she'd help me with it, seen as no-one else would, but things were getting desperate. People were suffering, and it felt like everyone who could do something were just-just standing with their hands in their pockets, letting it happen.
... So I decided to do something about it. I created a chemical compound that reacted to the rocks and thought maybe it would... I don't know, break them down or do literally anything to stop them growing and destroying everything. [ He shifts an arm hugging it around his midsection in an old comfort tactic he's always had. ] It didn't though. Instead it grew an amber rock that swallowed anything in its path. It nearly got me, but Dad pushed me out of the way in time and got stuck in it himself. It was slowly just enveloping him and I didn't know how to reverse it- but I knew Rapunzel had a connection to the rocks, so I ran to the capital to get her. She was the only chance I had left of saving him.