droptheious | Deerington inbox

Deerington inbox

FROM:

SUBJECT:

	FERN	Ooo slang part the second
	FERN	i think we just shared electrons, because i'm feeling a covalent bond between us
	LANCE	Pidge, I need your help. I gotta send a meme to Chloe but ...
	DIPPER	Hey Varian. You know those crazy alchemy bombs you used...
	PETER	Hey Varian, this is Peter. Um, Peter Graham.
	USAGI	Soooooooo~ How'd the date go?
	MAKO	Varian— Checking in.
	SHIRO	i think one of us put a chicken patty in my toaster
	EDDIE	Hey. We need to talk.
	MELIUS	𝐻𝒾. 𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒾𝓉 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓀𝓈 𝓌𝑒𝒾𝓇𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓉
	EDA	Hey, kid. I... owe you an apology.
	LUZ	Valentines
	MAUL	I have a proposition for a project I think you'll be interested in
	USAGI	I LOVE YOU
	FERN	DUDE you still have your bandana!
	BUZZ	Morning. I heard from Fern you wanted to go out into the blizzard.
	FERN	dude your profile changed
	USAGI	Ruby told me about the breakup.
	GLITCH	Varian, I'm gonna go live somewhere else for now
	MAKO	A "nerd" is somebody smart...
	MAUL	Gifts
	FERN	heeyyyy quick question
	FERN	Christmas is coming up!!!
	CHLOE	god who the FUCK ever thought emojis were a good idea???
	KRISTOFF	Varian,It's getting colder so I thought you could use this
	FERN	heyyyy Variable
	RAPUNZEL	okay not to put you on the spot but...
	EDA	Potion time
	NEO	Dude, I can mine antidote shit here!
	GLITCH	Got this in my basket.
	EDA	hey smart kid
	TEN	Hallo
	ADAM	Hey, k-- uh, Varian. I just wanted to check in
	USAGI	I'm sorry I worried you and fainted on you yesterday.
	AMARA	i lived, bitch
	NEO	Debatably good news, asshole
	USAGI	Hey Varian! It's Usagi
	OSCAR	I'm sorry, Varian. Tell me what you need
	FERN	a dark past huh
	MAUL	Varian. I am in great need of your assistance
	FERN	Varian VARIAN I CAN EAT FOOD
	USAGI	How much moon essence do you have?
	USAGI	VIVI-KUN, VIVI-KUN GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT!
	RICHIE	well I promised
	FERN	A TOTALLY INCOMPLETE LIST OF OOO WORDS 'N SLANG
	GLITCH	VARIAN ARE THERE BUGS IN THE WATER?!
	USAGI	To help with restless nights and the...
	VIRA-LORR	Little alchemist. I have a gift for you.
	MARTIN	Hi, Varian. This is Martin. I wanted to reach out...
	USAGI	Hi Varian, sweetie! I have a question for you.
	GLITCH	varian I need to talk to you. it's important.
	USAGI	I need you not to panic after what I tell you.
	FERN	dog you have so many vests
	IRONHIDE	HONK HONK
	USAGI	... I'm sorry I couldn't help you better, Varian
	EMERALD	Hey, V. Not that I care that much or anything...
	FERN	tell me when you're alive
	FERN	Varian i stabbed two people
	AMARA	hey weirdo i have something for you
	FERN	is the Rapunzel in town your Rapunzel?
	PENNY	Salutations!! You do not know me, but my name is Penny Polendina
	YANG	Hey, is this Varian? I think we've met once before.
	FERN	hey can we talk
	FERN	you told ruby
	MAUL	Surviving another year is always an occasion worth celebrating
	USAGI	Hey I wanted to apologise
	USAGI	VARIAN-KUUUUNNN!!!!
	FERN	birth
	MAUL	Look what just arrived for me.
	KATHERINE	Do you want to get paid to make more purple goo things?
	FERN	ok i know you're good with plants but what about animals
	FERN	dog interested in means girls or guys

TO:

SUBJECT:

	USAGI	So. Maul dropped by, he's got his memories back.
	ADAM	I'm worried about Shiro
	FERN	Hey handsome
	OSCAR	You've been weirdly quiet lately
	FERN	Guess what I haven't told you lately?
	USAGI	Hey. I'm back from the dead and I feel like trash.
	FERN	I made meatloaf that may or may not poison us!
	Emerald	Hey. I know you probably don't want to talk to anyone right now...
	BELLA	Hey Bella. You've dated someone who's a different species to you right?
	BILL	Hi, Fern mentioned you were interested in interdimensional portals...
	FERN	Aw, your pictures are nice!
	KURT	Hey. Are you around?
	RICHIE	Is it just me or is Eddie acting weirder than usual?
	QROW	Hey. Checking up on you.
	EDA	Hi Eda. Hope Ruddiger found you okay.
	GLITCH	Hey. What happened between you and Maul?
	LUNA	Luna- I uh... I think I need your help
	EDDIE	So hey, I finally worked out how to replicate the Antidote
	OSCAR	So, I noticed Ozpin has shown up.
	ROGUE	Hey, I managed to replicate the Antidote
	KURT	Hey. We're back. None of us are dead.
	QROW	Uh... hey. How are you guys holding up?
	PETER	You gave Ruby the haunted dolls
	GLITCH	Hey, Bud. Sorry I tried to murder you with a robot
	KURT	I'm probably the last person you want to talk to...
	JON	I'm sorry I attacked you
	JON	Stay away from Fern.
	FERN	Hey you still haven't got me those baking ingredients
	FERN	Okay so the Betties are upping their war...
	USAGI	Hey. So. Update.
	NEO	You tried to bury her alive? SERIOUSLY?
	USAGI	Emotions are really difficult
	FERN	OH MY GOD YOU HAVE ONE TOO
	FERN	Okay this better be to Fern this time.
	WYNONNA	So guess who got into the fridge and ate literally everything in there.

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[Well. This isn't a message he was expecting. He sits up in bed, staring at it for a moment, wondering if maybe he's hallucinating. Probably not, though.]

About as well as a reanimated corpse can be, I guess. Been better.

Did you get through it okay? Not that I care that much or anything.

Wait.
You died too?
Gods, there needs to be a better way to get this information out there.

Yeah. I got sucked into one of those trials. It was deserved.

Like a deathwatch or something? Might make life easier. Who else died? Did you?

[oh, fuck.]

[no. she won't be the one to tell him. she doesn't have that right. there's just... a delay in her response. the little "💎 is typing..." notif appears and disappears a few times.]

Too many people. I'm just surprised that you did enough to get on the bear's radar.
But I guess it doesn't take much.
I've been lucky enough to dodge him so far, but I'm trying to lay as low as I can while all this is going on.
Maybe I just haven't caused enough trouble since I got here.

[He watches her take her time with her response- he's not got a whole lot else left to do laid up in bed, after all. It strikes him as odd, but it could equally be Emerald showing how much she doesn't care as it could mean something serious has happened.

Normally he'd be hedgy around his past- but that's been well and truly unearthed at this point. He's tired of keeping up the lie and it's clear the town won't allow him to do so regardless. ]

There's a lot you don't know about me. There was a point in my past where I was a legitimate threat. Kidnapping, blackmail, high treason, all the fun stuff. I tried to kill innocent people, got sent to prison for a year once they managed to stop me. I've tried to redeem myself from that mess since then, but this month just forced that all back to the forefront. I attacked a lot of people here. I'm honestly surprised the bear took as long as he did to catch me.

Good. Try and keep out of his way. It's a super not fun way to die.

[and he rehabilitated himself. and he worked hard to change who he was. and he'd earned the trust of Ruby Rose (not that that was hard) and he'd become not only an upstanding member of society, but a friend to everybody on team RWBY.]

[another pause in response, but this time it's because she doesn't know what to say, rather than how to say it.]

Ask Ruby what I've done sometime. See if it makes sense to her that you and I get along.
It really doesn't take much to tear down redemption, does it? You can work for years and something like this can just happen.
The world can just happen to you and take everything away and you won't be able to do anything but start from the bottom again.

Almost makes you wonder if making up for the things you've done in the past is worth it.

[It had taken a lot of hard work to get there- back home and here. A lot of lying too, especially here. Obsfucating his past from all but a select few. It did nothing for his self-worth, of course. That was one thing that never healed. He's quiet, mulling it over because that's- that's quite the thought. One he's had himself, mostly at the start of things, where most of Corona still despised him and he felt like he was swimming uphill the whole time. They had every right to hate him, of course, but it didn't make it any easier. ]

I'd rather you decide for yourself if you want to tell me anything. This place takes that choice away from us too often.

I like to think it is. Because even if you can be dragged back to step one again, you owe it to the people you hurt to try and make it right. You might never feel okay and that's something you just have to carry with you. But it's important. To try and leave the world in a better state than you put it in. Regardless of if it actually redeems you or not. What's important is trying to fix your mess- that's something that should always be on you.

You just have to decide if you want to fix things or let them stay broken.

[fix things or let them stay broken. well, Penny's back. Ruby's dead, but she'll be coming back, too. what's left? what's left for Emerald to fix? the world she lives in? the society that made her? sure. and then maybe she'll stab Salem right where her heart should be and save Remnant singlehandedly.]

The kind of stuff that still needs to be fixed is more in your girlfriend's wheelhouse.
Everything else fixed itself without me.
So what now? What's left?

You don't have to answer that.

I'll answer it anyway.

[Because he's helpful like that. And it's something he feels she needs to know.]

That person I told you about back home who is very... Ruby-esque does most fo the fixing, too. Thing is, you need to help mend the stuff you can't see so easily. It's not just one thing you do, you just need to add good to the world bit by bit. Sometimes you'll mess it up, but it's important tog et up again and keep at it. Even if you feel like you don't deserve it any more because it stops being about you when other people are the victims. You kind of need to put them before yourself for a while.

So you build their faith in you, a little bit at a time. Doesn't have to be a grand gesture. Help them move some boxes. Do something to make their day a little easier. Be there to answer the call if they need you. I'm still working on mine, but I was getting there, back home.

[...]

Something like turning back around to save Ruby's life after she saved mine in the labyrinth?
Or letting her friends know that I'm not interested in getting any kind of revenge on her for anything?
That kind of thing, you mean?

Sure. That kind of thing. Little by little.

Redemption is kind of like restoring, I don't know, a chair. When you start, it's been tossed out for ages, it's all messed up and splintered, parts of it are torn, it's been through some stuff and it's categorically broken, tossed out and useless. But little by little you fix it up. Give it new stuffing, maybe fill in a couple of cracks on the legs. Sometimes you might mess it up, break a piece off because you tried too hard, or couldn't save something in time, but you keep going anyway. Eventually, you get a functioning chair again. You can't ever get it looking exactly like it did before- it can't be the same chair it was before it got tossed out, that's impossible. But you get something different, built on what was left behind. It's still a chair, it's still good, it's just got... a messier history now, is all.

...Or something like that, I'm an alchemist, not a writer, I'm not so good with the allegories. Rapunzel could probably do it way more flowery and probably throw in some super encouraging pep talk buzz words in there too. But she isn't here, so you're gonna have to settle for me and my cruddy broken chair analogy.

You really have been hanging out around her for too long.
Throw in some random crap about cookies and you'd sound just like her.

I think I have a couple ideas. I should probably talk to... a couple people.
I guess if nothing else, I have some time. I don't have to do all of this at once.
It would probably be really weird if I did, and it would be the most draining thing I've ever done, too.
Going from doing nothing to redeem myself to doing everything to redeem myself in a day and a half? Gods, can you imagine?

Oh no, did that sound OPTIMISTIC? It's finally happened. I caught it. It's probably terminal.

HAH. HAH. Yeah.
Imagine that.
Crazy.

I mean. If say, someone was trying to blow up like, THE ENTIRE TOWN and you were the only person who could stop that. And then you did. Also kind of maybe tried to turn it into a suicide mission but apparently THAT'S not acceptable. So you get to live through that. And get like pardoned and stuff for stopping the thing from murdering literally everyone. Sometimes that can happen.

As a completely unrelated and random example plucked out of thin air.

But also the people you saved still kind of hate you but then you save them again from magical nightmare rocks that literally bring their worst fears to life and getting rid of that apparently negates all the bad things you did because people are fickle. Also sometimes happens.

As an equally completely unrelated and random example.

Also plucked from thin air.

And absolutely not from personal experience.

Man.
Good thing it's not from personal experience or it would really put being a professional Dust thief into perspective.

I mean, a professional Dust thief who's stuck working under someone who wants to kill everybody on the planet, but still.

I've never been optimistic for a second in my life and if you think you can infect me with it, you've got another thing coming, V.

That wanting to kill everyone on the planet thing does kind of spin on it.

[Also Rapunzel and Salem are kind of the same person but Varian's just going to continue his long tradition of not talking about that ever.]

I might not be able to, but be careful around Ruby. She's how I got it. She's not careful how she spreads it around.

[Kids, it's optimism, not an STD.]

[hey, optimism is a social disease. like the fantasy Bon Jovi song.]

I know. She's terrible.
Thinking that everyone can be forgiven and actually giving people the chance to forgive themselves... hearing people out if they need to work through guilt...

I hate that she'll probably end up being good for me. I know I say that all the time but I'm starting to think I won't actually hate it.
Gods, I must be losing my mind.
If she helped reform someone who did everything you've done, I'm gonna be child's play.

That sounds like her alright. There's a couple of other people like her around here too. If you ever see someone called Usagi? Hoo boy, she's like Ruby times 100. Which I didn't think was actually possible, but here we are.

Well, to be fair Rapunzel did most of my reforming back home. Ruby's been more of a stepping stone to... normalcy? I guess. But it does feel good, eventually. Or at least you feel better about TRYING to be better? I'm not all the way there yet but from the view half-way there? It's... not so bad.

Listen, I don't want to bare my soul or anything here.
But you're still, like... you can still do the things you did before Rapunzel and Ruby started trying to win you over to their side, right?
You're just doing them with different goals in mind. It's not like you had to drop everything about your "old life" to start making up for it.

Not that that's something I'm worried about or anything.

God forbid we have any soul-bearing. Who wants that? Not us.
But yeah, there's a different set of problems here, but I'm working on making things better for people here. Can't do anything back home while I'm dreaming here, so- Fixing stuff here is the best I can do.

Of course you're not. Would never dare thing otherwise.

That's encouraging, I guess.
There's probably some way to spin being a thief into something that can actually do some good for them.
'Cause I get the feeling they're not gonna be too happy if I just try to steal stuff for myself. If I can even still steal anything around here.
Stealing's a victimless crime anyway, I don't know why the cats get so angry about it.

You can always do the Robin Hood thing? Stealing from the rich to give to the poor or something. Or stealing from Mother Superior. I don't think stealing from her counts. Or the Mayor.
The cats get touchy about arson too, it's rude. Surely there's bigger things to be concerned about. Like all the murder.

Edited 2020-07-28 23:01 (UTC)

Like... the Atlesian rebel leader? I'm pretty sure her name's Robyn Hill, but close enough, I guess. Didn't expect Ruby to know much about her. It's not a bad idea either way.
The cats really do need to sort out their priorities. Like, I know they work for Mother Superior (probably), but there's petty crime and then there's people getting kidnapped and burned alive. Get it together already.

What? No. I mean Robin Hood? He's from Earth folklore. Had a group of bandits who lived in the forest. You can probably find books about him in the library.

[Oh god, is this another case of someone showing up in Remnant. The Rapunzel/Salem thing is weird enough, thanks.]

I think they like to turn a blind eye to things beyond them. You know. Like real guards. Or... police. Whichever.

Folklore from where you're from, huh...? I don't know. It's probably pretty hard to measure up to Robyn Hill and her band of Happy Huntresses working in secret to right injustice and fight for the common man, woman, and Faunus, all while some jerk in his ivory tower tries everything he can do to stop her because he likes having power too much.

Which, now that I say it, really makes me think you're on the right track with those cats. Can't trust a cop as far as you can throw them.

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