un: trienemybest; video

[droptheious]

[The video feed opens in Varian's creepy basement lab where health and safety regulations go to die. The boy himself isn't looking that great, his skin has a grey-ish tinge to it and he looks more exhausted than usual. But that's fine, he's fine. He turns the camera around to take in some sapphires on his workbench. Some are soaking in various chemical substances, some are under a microscope, some are in various steampunk-y machines: it's clear some testing has been going on. ]

So, Flynn was kind enough to give me some of the crystals that grew on his corpse during...whatever weird new thing death is here. [He doesn't sound as excited about this as his usual projects and anyone who knows about his deeply unfortunate past will know why.] I have experience in creepy, magical death rocks -no...no I'm not going to elaborate on that- so I decided to study them. They seem to be crystalising the actual cells of the body- so not just a separate coating. I also found traces of warmblood within the crystals themselves, which I think is what Flynn is? A-anyway, it seems they're working on a cellular level, like they're what jumpstarts the reversal of the cell degeneration after death- so- so it's possible they're what reverses then entire process.

Anyway, moral of the story is, they're probably super important in resurrecting people so maybe don't mess with the process when it's happening? Of course, without having any other samples to compare this to, it's all conjecture right now.

[A beat, he turns the camera back to himself, grimacing.]

Sorry, I forgot who I was talking to. Please don't take that as encouragement to get yourselves killed in the name of science.

[Another beat, then he waves a hand airily.]

Thaaaaaat said, this is October, so statistically, there's a high chance that a not-insignificant portion of the population will be dead by the end of the month. So...if you wanna donate your death crystals for science then, that would be less...morally grey. Probably? Probably.

Comments

video | un: sharpshooter

[azurestar]

[Since October started, he's had a nonstop headache, so Lance looks pretty haggard himself and isn't even fully looking at the screen as he rubs at his forehead.]

Sure thing. If I die you get a piece of my crystal, I'll put it in my will and everything… but hey, you think they're worth anything?

[droptheious]

I'm gonna hold you to that. Given your track record back in Deerington, you'd be a safe bet.

...

No offence. [Probably. ] You don't look so hot, Bud.

voice | un: givemeyourown

[unsheathedfromreality]

[Oh, this is interesting. The scientific aspects of it are well out of Illarion's ambit, but when it comes to death...]

Forgive me if I am misunderstanding the ways of death here, but does anything worse come of it than the dying itself? [Dying is awful; he would know.] That is--these crystals and your fine research on them aside--do those who die come back changed?

[droptheious]

[Varian's always one for validation, so having his work be called fine research does lift his spirits, despite the subject matter.]

Nope, judging from what Flynn has said, he had no side effects. Which- which is really weird because the last place we were in really made you suffer every time you were resurrected. It wasn't an easy process.

[imaglyphwitch]

[Ok, good grief, where to start, where, with all of this.

She wants to concentrate on that dump of super cheerfulness she just heard. The whole idea was enough to have her screaming into the night, or at least to go back to the tree and think about what all of that means. The ramifications of...of the idea that you could now actually stop the reforming process if you felt inclined was horrifying and Luz was really glad that sleep was working again. Usagi's Kirugimi was going to be fantastic for killing any nightmare fuel that would offer.

BUT ALL OF THAT is coming second to Varian looking the way he did, and she felt it necessary to put that first].

VARIAN. How much sleep have you been getting? It October, you don't have an excuse now.

[droptheious]

[The ramifications are deeply unpleasant and he doesn't like them at all. At least in Deerington the bodies just...vanished. No corpse left behind. This has given a whole new level of uncertainty to the entire process.

Whiny:]

I did sleep! Maul came and did some...some Force thing to my head and I definitely slept for hours. I don't know why I'm still tired.

text; un: doublehedgedsword

[laminae]

[Fern is a little less concerned with what the weird crystals do and a little more concerned with Varian doing so much work on them given, you know, the whole amber trauma. And the whole moonrock trauma.

Maybe he should just keep Varian away from anything geology for like six months, because he isn't looking so good.]

cool now that you're done informing everyone of this super important info you can take a break

[droptheious]

[There's a whole lot of trauma going on here and Varian's doing his best to ignore it because that's obviously the best way to handle it. Obviously.]

You're almost as bad as Luz, you know that. Fine, fine, I'll take a break. Not that it'll do anything, but fine.

text; un: lowell

[vibing]

the parts under the crystals weren't as rotten
this tracks

squid ink crystals
thats what was left
made a huge mess
little squid was in the middle of all that ink

i dont know if death was reversed
more like starting something new

[ varian needed this, right? ]

thanks for looking into it

[droptheious]

That makes sense then. So the crystals seem to be encouraging new growth...or... I guess returning us to the squid form we apparently default to now. Great.

[Varian absolutely needed this. As much as he hates having to work with magical crystals (and oh, how he hates it) this is at least some sort of help he can provide. It makes him feel less helpless. ]

Don't mention it. Honestly, I should be thanking you guys- at least this gives us some answers to move forward from.

text - UN: IceCream

[threelayers]

One, get some sleep you ghoul.
Two, now that I've pretended to be your mother for a hot second, good to know death isn't permanent here still.
So, instead of turning to dust, we rot fast and turn into weird crystal things.

Whattaya wanna bet people make death jewelry out of them?
Use 'em to make those lunar orb things or something else needlessly horrific?
Maybe if you get a spare lunar orb you should compare them?

You know, after a nap.

Oh, and no promises on not stabbing people.
It's October, and I know better than to promise that this month.

[droptheious]

1. Rude. I have? Maul managed to get me to sleep finally but I still feel tired. For once I genuinely did sleep!

["For once" being the key phrase here. ]

2. Not just crystals! After the crystals, there's this whole...ink thing and then we turn back into squids. So I'm guessing squid is our default form now. Which is definitely not what I signed up for.

Oh no. Oh god you're so right. People are so weird here, they're absolutely gonna do that. [Varian, you're weird enough to do that.] But maybe you're right. I should try and see how they correlate to a lunar orb- just in case.

I know that one. Don't you find it weird it's still RELATIVELY calm? It's windy, sure and I can't shake the feelings someone's watching me but there's no blood tides yet.

Video; UN: EternalMoon

[lightthedarkness]

[It is not Usagi who is on this call, it is, in fact, Sailor Moon. She smiles warmly and brightly at Varian.]

Thank you so much for finding this out for everyone, Varian.

Now, go to bed or I suspend you in mid-air again until you do.

[droptheious]

[Oh god, she brought the Sailor Moon guns out, he raises his hands in mock surrender. ]

I have been sleeping! Maul helped me sleep! Ask him! He'll vouch for me!!

voice; un: yuuki

[siriusly]

That...sounds like a weird take on cryostasis...

[droptheious]

I know right? I guess we should have expected this place to make it weird, but I never expected this. It doesn't make a whole lot of logical sense, but neither does I guess we're squids now, so-

video; un:scifo

[thinkfirst]

[ Flynn—who looks much better than he did when Varian saw him at the house, gray around the edges and recovering as he was—offers Varian a small, true smile. His face is flecked with paint, in fact, little stripes suggesting some kind of large cat. ]

Thank you for making such meaning and use from my death. It's bringing me an unexpected amount of peace to know that something actually came of all that research. I'm not asking you to elaborate on your experience, but, are you alright?

[droptheious]

[He's so glad Flynn looks less...well, like death warmed over. The paint is...interesting.]

I'm still sorry you died at all, but I don't think we can avoid it forever. It really helped out, so thanks for letting me use them. [He shrugs.] Not sleeping a lot, I feel kinda tense too, but it might just be an October thing.

What's with the paint? [Not changing the subject at all, no sir!]

Video | un: headmaster

[eugenesis]

[Don't mess with the crystalline products that spring forth from organic flesh? Then he just has to make sure he isn't caught!]

Why? What's wrong with October? [The robot on the other end of the video eyes Varian's lab, judging the quality of his workplace. If he seems decent enough of a scientist, maybe he could agree to a collaboration on the research.]

[droptheious]

[Nice and easy! Varian chuckles a little, nothing says "new person" like asking what October's deal is.]

The world this one was built on? I...uh don't know how much you know about there? October was bad. Dangerous. The streets would run with blood and some Sleepers would go crazy and turn into monsters. [He shifts his camera down to show off his steampunk prosthetic leg. ] Foooor example, last October a Sleeper turned into a dragon and literally ate my leg.

[He sounds weirdly okay with this. He's over it. Then, excitedly: ]

But hey! You're an...autobot?!! Do you know Ironhide?

video | un: agentmothman

[zib]

This is really fascinating, thank you for telling us about them... hmm.

[Zib seems to be humming aloud in thought here for a moment, before he speaks again.]

I wonder if burying any of these would make flowers show up like some of the stuff people were burying last month... or what would happen if someone actually consumed one of these "death crystals" and if it would affect their body in some way...

[oh my god Zib no]

1/2

[droptheious]

Not a problem. Important we keep information running freely after all.

[That's...honestly a good question.]

I'm not sure, maybe? It could also end up being messy if the body turns into a squid under the ground. And-

video; un: ushiromiya

[entreats]

[ Somehow this conversation here, about poking corpse crystals, is less awkward of a subject matter than what they spoke about last.

That's probably saying a lot, but Ange finds it weirdly comfortable. It makes it easier to fall back on something closer to her usual deadpan, rather than having to deal with complicated emotions she'd rather not think about like she had to last time around. ]

Are you asking for permission to poke people's corpses?

[droptheious]

[It really is one heck of a segue after...all that mess. It's nice to see her back to her deadpan self, though a twinge of guilt still tugs at his heartstrings. He raises his hands up in mock surrender.]

Poke their crystals. Which...are technically on their... corpses.

...

I don't think I thought this through.

video: un: ontherocks

[queenking]

[Well, that's a bunch of words she barely understands, cool. And some neat looking rocks! That's nice.

Still, she's wya too goddamn nosy, so:] More people die durin' October? How come?

[Then, immediately answering her own question:] Ohhhhhh, Libra season.

[droptheious]

[Oh god he's just staring, what in the googly mooglies?]

...Like the constellation? I don't- no. October had a higher death rate in Deerington because it was the month everything went crazy and turned into monsters?

text; un: shiro

[shiro2hero]

I'm sorry, you have experience.

With 'creepy magical death rocks'?

[You said don't ask, Varian, but he is.]

text; un: shiro - Private

[droptheious]

[Well. If there's someone here who does know that he doesn't mind knowing.]

It's-

Well, it's not fine. It was mostly a tragedy of my own making anyway. I don't mind telling you, but it's a lot. And you've got a lot on your plate already.

[You better be damn sure he's noticed Adam still hasn't arrived on the tides, Shiro.]

voice; un: dovahkiin

[fusrodaaaah]

Wh... why would people want to be killed?

[droptheious]

People are weird, Meli. They're so weird, all of the time. Some people would look at that and think "wow, that sounds like a great idea!" and like... go punch a monster in the face or something.

video | un: alcaid

[ghostharasser]

Wow, so the death process here really is nothing like we know.

[Something about this has been bothering him, but he isn't sure how to put it into words. Maybe just word vomiting at Varian will help, it usually does.]

So, in the dream we know why we kept getting brought back. There was someone actively resurrecting us every time, in a realm where reality was dodgy and we were (according to my still standing theory) non-corporeal.

I fully expected us to uh. For death to be permanent this time, but it isn't. So ...what's the implication here? That some entity is still interfering with death? Or is it something else.

[droptheious]

Pretty much! This place is full of fun new surprises.

[Dipper and Varian word vomiting at each other is generally a good way for them to get the ball rolling on their ideas anyway, he doesn't seem to mind.]

Yep, exactly, I thought we wouldn't come back either. I mean, Ramona definitely got wiped from existence and without her around to bring us back, it would have made sense that we'd just...stay dead this time? But the weird thing is, after all the crystallisation, Flynn turned back into a squid- like we were when we arrived here.

[He rubs the back of his neck, this is pretty batshit, but they were in a literal child's nightmare before this so he shouldn't be surprised.]

What if it's not technically resurrection so much as it is reincarnation? Or something like it. Same memories and we find the same form, but maybe the body is brand new?

text (cw: underage drunk behavior but due to vileblood shenanigans)

[klussy]

bro
yo
i disd

i got the EXact same results lol i mean wit the things. the like
i did a bunch of samples of the flynn corpse too it wa s usefl though i felt jjinada bad o was like could i dissect this but mentally out of Respect


out of RESPECT forf you i will resist the urge to thow myself off a cliff <3

[droptheious]

[Eddie. Buddy. ]

Well, I'm glad at least we can collerate on results here. And yeahh, I told Yuri you were probably the best person for body stuff.

I appreciate the great amount of restraint you're showing right now.

You doing okay? I ask because it looks like you're basically NOT?

Text; un: Reaper

[no_reload]

[It was like listening to a mini but far less ascorbic Moira. Naturally that only meant one thing for him.]

I've donated by body to science twice before, so third time will be a charm. When I die, you can dissect whatever is left of my body.

And be certain to be as invasive as possible. That's how science works.

[droptheious]

[This is just where he's at now. Sigh.]

Thanks, Reaper. I'll bear that in mind but also no. So much no. I don't want to be THAT invasive with someone's body.