droptheious | Somewhere in Kaisou's junkyard

Fern is so, so glad he managed to catch Varian before he snuck out. He'd been aware of his plan, of course, and he'd helped out a little when he needed something big and heavy moved, but he hadn't been keeping up with all the intricate developments. For one, he's nowhere near smart enough to understand how the damn thing works, and two, he's... been a little nervous about the thought of having a working interdimensional portal here.

Varian's offer has been floating around the back of his mind, not to mention the threat of nothing stopping him from going back to Ooo. He hasn't made any decisions about any of this, and even with a working portal staring him in the face he isn't he knows what he wants to do. He misses Ooo, he sorely misses Ooo, but going back there means being betrayed and alone, and stuck in some awful nightmare. Going with Varian back to Corona feels like he'd be intruding on a whole life he has no place in. It's like he doesn't fit in anywhere anymore.

That's probably why he's so nervous as he stands back a bit, watching Varian circle the portal. "Cool, so. Uh...." He pauses, trying to find the words. "You gonna do a test run? Or open it straight back to Corona?"

Varian definitely hasn't forgotten his offer to Fern. He hasn't pressed the other boy about it- he at least understands that deciding to pick up sticks and move to a completely different dimension with someone you've only known for a few months is a BIG ask. But now they're almost at the edge of going...well. It makes him nervous- both ways now if Fern chooses to stay or go.

"Well, I know the calibrations to set for Corona. My idea was to open to Corona, to peek inside to make sure it worked and then set it for other worlds," he smiles. "I want to make sure everyone else can get home too if they want to. I need to be on this side of the portal to do that. Once everyone else is out of here, then I'll go home."

He moves to the startup lever, pausing. He shouldn't ask yet, but...

"That uh...offer's still there. By the way. If you want it. To...uh- go to Corona."

Well, at least this buys him a little bit of time. No going to Corona right this second! That's a relief, though Fern is still dreading having to make that decision.

"Y... yeah. Good to know," he starts, a couple of small, thorny acacia twigs growing out of his hat. "I've been thinking about that a lot."

Fern stops there, deciding to reach over and put his hand over Varian's to stop him from pulling the startup level. And... because he wants to. This is an incredibly important conversation they need to have, and it feels right to. Okay, here he goes. He just needs to get this out.

"I don't know what I wanna do. I don't wanna go home. Home, it - it kind of sucks a lot for me. But I'm not really sure about Corona, either. It isn't my home, it's yours. I'd just be crashing the place, and I don't know if I want to do that again."

Varian stills when Fern's hand moves over his own. He doesn't pull the lever, but he does stare at their hands for a moment, feeling his heart do a little flip-flop in his chest. It takes him a moment to focus on what Fern is actually saying to him, finally pulling his eyes from their hands to the other boy's face.

"It won't be crashing if I invite you, you know," he says. "And you've met Rapunzel. It's- her kingdom. Or...it will be, soon. And she'd want you there too."

A blush starts to pinken his cheeks.

"And-and I would really want you there. I um- I like you...like...having you...around. I mean," he's doing great here, wow. "I-I mean, it's still totally your decision. Just...don't worry about...crashing because I want...you to crash."

Rapunzel is definitely nice, but he still can't help but feel like he's intruding on a whole world where he doesn't belong. It's terrifying, no matter how much reassurance he gets from Varian.

"Thanks," he says slowly, not moving his hand. It feels nice, for whatever reason, so he keeps it there. "I'm still not... sure what I want to do. About any of this. It's really hard to figure out, going from a world that doesn't want you to one that never expected you to some whole new one you've never even seen. It's a lot to deal with."

And he already feels like he's floundering.

"I'll - go with you. To check it out. I dunno if I can stay there, but I can at least see the home my friend comes from."

Varian for sure notices that Fern's hand does not move. He's kinda...staring at it for a moment, only half-listening to what Fern has to say. It feels like there's a buzzing in his ears and he really has to concentrate on the other boy's words.

"I can understand that. I-I mean going to a whole other world is a lot to deal with. I um...didn't mean to put you on the spot."

He has a lot more on the tip of his tongue- words he doesn't know how to voice. That he wants Fern to be somewhere safe, where he'll be appreciated and cared for. That he doesn't want Fern to go to a world where things are hard for him. Or, chiefly, that he's not ready to say goodbye yet.

But he doesn't say any of that, instead clearing his throat and nodding at the lever.

"Okay, sounds good. Guess I should uh...get started, huh?"

Fern gives a tiny nod of acknowledgement. Even if all the weird, complicated feelings weren't present Varian is right, going to a whole other world is huge. There's a lot of unknowns, and he's afraid about going there and not fitting in and having a huge meltdown. He knows he's prone to those.

They should get started, though he opens his mouth to say they need to talk about Varian's weird behaviour. That he should see a doctor before maybe doing something as important as world hopping, but... his nerves get the better of him and he just nods again.

"Um. Yeah. Yeah, we should," he replies, finally pulling his hand back.

Varian sucks in a steadying breath. He knows he needs to do this, he needs to go home to his dad. He needs to get Cass and Rapunzel back to try and figure out what the hell has happened to the timeline. He needs to check that Catalina back home is normal and doesn't have messed-up memories.

He can't stay here. As much as there are things...people worth sticking around for.

"Right, let's get going!"

He pulls his level and sparks fly from the machine, a low humming sound emanating from the God Blood. Blue light swirls in the centre of the portal, congregating into the centre . Varian stills, watching it for a moment, his eyes glancing around, looking for weaknesses, flaws. But it looks fine.

"You know, I think it's stable. We can check in to make sure it's working before we-"

There's a deep, bone-shaking thud from the other side of the portal. The thuds continue, growing louder and closer.

"...That's not normal."

Varian pulls that lever, and Fern hopes to the four-faced god of Mars that this is the right thing to do. He jumps a little at the sparks and the humming, and it seems like it's doing what it's supposed to? That sure is a portal, and Fern is familiar enough with glowy cosmic portals to know that much.

Of course, he only relaxes when Varian says it's stable, which is the wrong thing to do. His gaze snaps in the direction of the thud, and the following thuds, and he protectively steps in between that noise and Varian, forming a sword in his hand.

Look, he has no idea if he can even fight the noise. Maybe it's some portal machinery and it's going to explode, he had no idea. But he isn't about to let Varian get hurt, not when he's so close. "It doesn't sound like normal portal biz," he agrees. "Maybe you should turn it off."

Things were looking so hopeful and now they've definitely gone belly-up. Varian definitely takes note of Fern stepping between him and the portal and finds himself a little at odds on how to feel about that. Sure, having someone step in to save him (someone he's definitely having some pretty awkward feelings about) makes his pulse quicken- but he doesn't want Fern to be hurt, either. He's not worth that.

"Y-yeah, I think that's a good idea."

He reaches out to pull the lever when a giant, reptilian head comes through the portal, letting out a roar as a bigger body follows. Varian takes a step back- mostly because the thing is ALREADY through the portal and closing it now means being trapped with it.

"That's a dinosaur, why is there a dinosaur??!!! Corona doesn't have dinosaurs?!!!"

Things aren't looking great, but Fern is assuming that all Varian has to do is pull a lever and they're all good. But then there's that dinosaur making its way through and ohhhh no, they've really screwed things up now.

Fern clutches his sword tighter, ready to go after the dinosaur. He'd love to, honestly, but the fact that Varian is here makes him hesitate. He can't leave the other boy alone, he could get hurt.

"Did you get the measurements right?? Maybe you got the wrong time?" He glances back, a little frantic. "You don't have a - a button or something to suck it back through??"

"I don't know! I thought I'd got it set to Corona?!" he genuinely did. "But...that doesn't make sense, Tyrannosaurus rex was never in my part of the world. So even if I got the time wrong it shouldn't have been in there. "

This means he got the calculations very wrong, and now there's a dinosaur on this side of the portal. Where people live. A giant, apex predator running rampant in a city full of people...well, this is a disaster.

"Not without sucking us through, too," and he doesn't want to close the portal to trap it on this end- the rex catches a whiff of the blood, and stretches her huge head towards the bag- moving to get a hold of it. "...Oh that's bad. That's BAD."

"Oh geez -" It sounds like they don't have any good options then, and Fern is about to say that, but the t-rex turning her attention near them draws his attention.

"Hey - hey! Drop it!" He yells, waving his sword. He doesn't know how to talk to a dinosaur, but he knows how to talk to dogs, and clearly they're close enough that it should be fine.

... Or he's just panicking and doing the first thing to come to mind. Either way, the t-rex isn't listening to Fern at all, pulling her head back once she has the blood in her jaws. Fern follows a few steps but freezes, not wanting to leave Varian alone, and glances back at him. "What do we do??"

The T-Red definitely isn't reacting like a dog- she chews on the bag a little more, drops of blood splattering on the ground at her feet. The portal rumbles, followed by a sound like crackling static that starts rippling out away from the graveyard and to the rest of the city. Varian's face pales, because that...that's real bad.

"It destabilised the portal!!!" real panic is in his tone now. "We have to get that blood back and shut down the portal before it causes more-"

The rex turns back towards the portal as metal and wood creaks, the whole shape morphing, becoming large, wooden gates with torches on it, Varian shifts a little closer to Fern as the Rex continues to stamp around the yard causing havok, this...this was not what he was expecting.

"I- I don't understand! It shouldn't DO that? Oh, oh no, I- I didn't factor in the instability of this realm," he threads his fingers into his hair, letting out a gargling noise. "I'm so dumb, how did I miss that?!"

Letting out a frustrated noise when the t-rex ignores him, the next thought that comes to Fern's mind is that he should just stab the thing and take the blood bag. It'd be super easy, that dinosaur is one gigantic target. His sword arm even shifts into a vine to do so, but the sudden rippling that extends out into the city and Varian's cry of destabilisation makes him pause.

Oh boy. Ohhh boy, and there goes the portal. This is officially a whole lot bigger than a minor screw-up.

"What's that mean?? Did we break reality??" He's starting to freak out, the desire to solve this issue with violence pounding in his head and coming up against his desire to protect Varian. "What do we do?!"

"I don't-I don't know, maybe?!! Maybe we broke reality?!!"

This is such a big, big screw-up. This is a major screw-up. He's definitely made worse messes than this before but only on purpose. Varian is trying not to hyperventilate as the Rex crashes around the junkyard before focusing on the gate, stomping off in the direction of home.

"Oh no, we need to get the blood back!"

He doesn't know how to fix the breaking reality thing, but he's pretty sure that blood shouldn't be loose in another world.

"Okay! Okay - stay here, or try to hide or something - " Fern says quickly, and then he's off. He darts after the dinosaur, whipping his vine arm out to wrap around her jaws, giving himself a hold and starting to climb up her.

She isn't thrilled with this. She stops and starts shaking her head, and by the time Fern gets on top of her head he's just barely hanging on. Swearing loudly he reaches with his free hand for the blood bag in between her teeth, but at the same time she's managing to snap his vine, letting out a resounding roar before violently tossing him into a pile of trash.

"What?! What about you? You can't-"

Never mind, Fern's just running at the fucking dinosaur to jump onto her. Varian doesn't hide, he doesn't even stay put. He's running after Fern, digging in his backpack for something, anything to help his friend in this fight. He knows Fern can handle himself pretty well, but that is a giant creature and he's one person. Varian's not sure how he can help, though- he has limited alchemy since he got here and even if he did have it all, he's not sure how well it would work against such a huge animal.

And then the Rex snaps his vine and tosses him aside and he feels his heart leap into his throat.

"FERN!!"

Genuine fear rushes into his tone as he skids down his pile of garbage and runs towards Fern's- not knowing or especially caring if the Rex is paying him any mind at all. He slides to his knees in the trash, digging through it desperately to find his friend, eyes wide.

"Fern? Fern talk to me! Pleasepleaseplease don't be dead."

This is a really, really stupid idea, but Fern isn't exactly known for his incredibly clever strategies. Besides, between the two of them, he's got a better chance of getting the blood back from this monster. He's a fighter, he's tougher and, frankly, he's way more okay with getting hurt than letting Varian get hurt. So he just needs to get in there, get the blood, and then - kick the t-rex back through the portal.

Easy! It should be easy!

That is why he's mentally kicking himself as the dinosaur tosses him into a pile of trash. It isn't a soft landing and it knocks a bunch of garbage loose and onto him, so that's just great. He groans, vaguely hearing Varian's voice, and part of him why exactly it's possible for him to get knocked around like this so easily when he doesn't even have a normal brain.

"I'm okay," he manages after a few minutes, though his torn arm isn't regrowing and the t-rex is roaring in their direction, so who knows how true that actually is.

This whole thing, Varian is quickly realising, was a stupid idea. He should have been more careful. He should have taken his time instead of rushing into this. Now Fern has been hurt and the portal has destabilised and everything is really bad. He's messed up so badly. His heart is thundering in his chest as he finally finds Fern in the trash, his face pale and panicked.

"You are not okay, look at your arm!!!"

The T-Rex is still too close and he's a sitting duck but he doesn't care. If he gets eaten, so be it. He probably deserves it at this point. His hands are shaking as he rests one on Fern's ruined arm, the other moving to the side of his neck to check for...what? A pulse? He doesn't know, he's not thinking clearly.

He doesn't notice immediately that Fern's arm is starting to slowly regrow from under his hand- healthy grass shooting up and binding together, moving downwards. He's too focused on Fern's face right now, his own lined with fear and worry.

"Does it hurt? Are-can you stay conscious? I- I can get help."

Fern is focused entirely Varian's terrified face, and it's only when he hears the roar and looks down at his arm that he sees it's been torn off. "My a -" Not at big deal, honestly, he can just regrow it - the t-rex still stomping around is a bigger danger to both of them. He shakes his head, forming a sword in his free hand.

"I'm okay," he says, feeling his cheeks darken a tiny bit in response to Varian's hands on him. There's no pulse, though his grass twitches a tiny bit, and he doesn't even notice the grass in his arm starts growing until he looks down again.

That's new. Sometimes his body grows things on its own, but it's always been small stuff, flowers and the like. Never entire limbs. He flails a bit as he tries to sit up, watching his arm regenerate itself and a couple of little daisies sprout up where it had been torn.

"Aah, oh Glob - I didn't do this! Do you do this??"

Varian catches the sword being formed out of the corner of his eye and shifts the hand on Fern's neck to his shoulder- effectively pinning him down. Or...you know, trying to. In theory. He's still a tiny stick boy and Fern could very easily shove him off if he wanted to. But Varian wants to do something to stop him from diving headfirst into danger and he's hoping that's enough.

"Stay put, you're hurt! You can't fight like this!"

The Rex is trashing the junkyard and he hears a scrap of metal and wood as she starts chewing the portal, oh that's baaaad. He winces before his attention is drawn to Fern's healing arm. His eyes widen as he looks down at his own hand on the other boy's arm- he pulls it away for a second like he's on fire - and the growing pauses. Varian stares at the hand, before carefully putting it back on Fern's arm, concentrating this time, trying to feel what he's doing.

It's not helped by the thick alchemy glove though- they're great for his work normally but not for anything like this. He takes his hand away again, this time to pull a glove off (with his teeth, because he's still using the other hand to pin Fern down and it doesn't occur to him to use his tail) before putting his hand back where it was. He can feel the grass better now, the stems shifting and growing under his fingertips- healing. He stares at it a moment longer, before finally looking at Fern properly.

"Um- I think I do now?"

Edited 2022-08-07 23:59 (UTC)

"You do??" Fern exclaims, staring up at Varian with wide eyes. The grass making up his arm keeps on growing, forming a forearm and individual fingers. Along with the grass more flowers grow - yarrow, honeysuckle, and of course one or two sprigs of cherry blossom.

Well, that makes a weird kind of sense. Varian was growing little flowers before, and while this is a big jump it's still something totally doable. He did back home before, so why can't Varian do it here? Besides, Fern doesn't really have a lot of time to have a whole investigation about this.

He makes a frustrated noise, pushing against Varian's hand a little. Not enough to actually shove the other boy away, he doesn't want to hurt him, but to make it clear he doesn't want to just lie there. "Great, then you can fix my arm and I can go after that thing."

"I- I guess so?"

He watches the flowers grow, feeling his chest tighten as the cherry blossom appears. Those were a pretty solid memory of the time on the beach where, if he were honest with himself, he started to realise that he really liked Fern... definitely more than in a Friend Way. He can still sense them growing and reforming, almost as if they were a part of him and not a part of Fern.

Luckily, everything is still chaos so he doesn't have the time to freak out about that entire thing. He can try to compartmentalise all those feelings later on. When they're not dealing with a literal dinosaur attack. As Fern pushes against his hand, Varian's fingers curl into the grass of Fern's shoulder just for a moment, before letting him go- letting him sit up at least.

"Fern, that thing ripped your arm off, what if it kills you next time?" there's genuine fear in his tone, not for the Rex, but for what it can do to his best friend. "I don't know what I'd-"

The Rex roars, cutting him off, then starts to stomp into the portal, along with the god blood. As the only thing powering it leaves through it, the portal groans and shudders more.

"...Okay that's bad."

Weird. This is weird. There were other plant people back in Ooo, wizards who could control plant life, but he's never met a regular human who could regrow his arm. It's weird, but... it's not a bad kind of weird. It's kind of nice? It seems to be coming from Varian's concern for his safety, which he really appreciates even though he wants to get back out there and fight.

This is definitely a point they're going to argue about, though. He's sitting up, the last bits of his arm rearranging themselves into a whole new limb, and he's ready to shoot back that he'll be fine, he's good at not dying completely. It's only one dinosaur, after all.

He doesn't get the chance. The roar from the t-rex makes him glance over in time to see what Varian sees: their biggest problem walking straight out of their universe and back to its own. With the god's blood.

Cool. Cool. Fern suddenly moves, trying to stagger to his feet. "We gotta go after it! We gotta get the blood back!"

It's extremely weird and Varian's really not sure what to make of this yet. His powers are changing all the time and he's never sure what to expect next. But at least this time his powers were actively helping Fern- they're something that can continue to actively help Fern in the future - because lord knows the plant boy is gonna keep diving into danger. He's still not super comfortable having actual magic now, but that sure is something he can find comfort in.

As Fern gets to his feet, Varian lets out a worried noise, clambering to his own, raising his hands to try and steady Fern in case he stumbles. He looks back at the portal, brow furrowed.

"I know. I know, I - I can try and shut it down here first?" guilt is starting to settle in, this is a mess, this is such a mess. "And if not...we'll figure something out."

He absolutely does not plan to let anyone else go in there besides him, already. But soon he'll know the real extent of this damage and be even more determined to do it alone, to not let anyone else pay for his mistakes.

He isn't quite steady on his own two feet, so he latches onto Varian for some additional support, gripping his sword tighter. This is fine, his arm is healed now so he can jump back into the fight. Or whatever, because he doesn't exactly have a plan here aside from 'kill the t-rex.'

"Okay... okay, that might work," he replies. It wouldn't scratch the itch of wanting to kill something, but it's safer for Varian. He nods and starts heading over to what's left of the portal, hoping it's still intact enough to work for this plan.

Oh wow, Fern latching onto him sure does send a burst of endorphins rushing around his system. He can feel his heart beating tighter and this is not the time to start to feel awkward and tripping over himself, damnit. He sucks in a breath, willing his heart rate to go down.

"Yeah... I think that's...the best first step."

He follows Fern to the portal, leaning down to study it when his phone starst vibrating, angry and insistent. He frowns, picking it up.

"...Oh...Zodiac's noticed."

He's very glad Varian is there, he's very sturdy in both the physical and emotional sense right now. Fern isn't feeling that way at all, and certainly not when the phone buzzes.

"Seriously?" He huffs, rolling his eyes. "Great, that's just what we need."

As far as he's concerned they can handle this without Zodiac stepping in, and if they do, there's a good chance they'll get into trouble. He resists the urge to take Varian's phone and throw it in a pile of trash, because as satisfying as that would be it wouldn't actually help.

"Maybe we can get this fixed before they get over here."

Varian would rather he didn't. As much as this is...bad, he also knows he can't run from it. He opens up his phone to view the message - stating there was an anomaly from a man-made portal and his heart sinks.

"I think they already know. I... I can try to stop it but...I don't think I can hide if from them," his brow furrows as he turns to his control panel. "...And I don't want to. That wouldn't be fair. I can own up to my mistakes. "

Fern, however, would love to hide this screw-up from everyone. The reason for that is mainly to keep Varian safe and prevent him from getting into trouble. Not just with the authorities, but anyone who is particularly angry over all of this. Who knows what humans can do when they're angry enough.

"Let's deal with that later," he says, putting a hand on Varian's shoulder. "Let's just get this thing closed first. Okay?"

Varian glances at the hand on his shoulder and does manage to force a scared, tired smile Fern's way. He's not so convinced he can close it with the blood gone, but damnit, he is going to try.

"...Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Later."

And with that, he takes a deep centring breath, focusing back on the controls, hoping to fix things but honestly knowing it's just a matter of time before Zodiac find them.

Somewhere in Kaisou's junkyard

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