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

[vibing]

definitely a squid in there

[ it's sort of comforting. they're all the same. and the squid doesn't seem to actually die, not like they would

its kind of like a phoenix, but instead of rising from the ashes, the squid rises from the ink ]

i didnt do anything except clean up the mess

[thinkfirst]

That's a lie and you know it. According to Varian's findings it's very possible that had you really done nothing, I wouldn't have come back.

[vibing]

i did do nothing
i specifically did nothing because these guys kept saying i should do nothing
could have been worse if i did something

cant you give this a rest

[thinkfirst]

Specifically doing nothing is very different from "I didn't do anything."

[vibing]

no its just doing nothing

thank smokey if you want to thank someone

[thinkfirst]

[ Instead of responding to this, Flynn does three things.

1. He settles at the desk in their room to write an elaborately-calligraphed letter reading "Thank you, Yuri, for doing nothing."

2. He sends Daisy to go find Smokey.

3. Having done that, and after greeting Smokey with some pets and a mutual nuzzle, he hands the rolled-up letter to Smokey with instructions to take it to Yuri.

Your move, Lowell. ]

[vibing]

[ And Smokey is just annoying enough to do it, too, smugly depositing the letter in Yuri's lap as he cleans his sword in the backyard. He stares down at the letter, bemused, and when he unrolls it, it doesn't really get better. He stares at the writing with a twist of his lips.

And do you know what he does?

Nothing.

You're welcome.

He doesn't mention it, at all. Not today, not tomorrow. Not until Flynn breaks. ]

[droptheious]

Squids all the way down now, I guess.

[It's nicer than knowing there was an escalating sense of awfulness like Deerington gave them, at least.]

I disagree, you kept him safe and did everything right so he could come back without disruption. But I can see he's already telling you that, you should listen to your boyfriend, he's right.

[vibing]

guess we're just squids in a people suit

[ g o ddess why is everyone like this.

but he knows where protesting gets him. he decides not to correct varian on any of these counts ]

dont tell him that
flynn gets annoying when hes right

[droptheious]

That's sure what it's looking like.

[Maybe it might be the MARITAL SPAT you're having right on his network post, guys? Maybe it's that!]

Oh, I know what that's like. Sometimes you have to ride that out, they're usually wrong again before long and you can get your own back then. Try tripping him up with something you know he can't be right about.

[vibing]

[ just spat no marital about it! ]

he always thinks hes right
i just ignore him most of the time

sounds like you have some experience

[droptheious]

[X to doubt.]

Sometimes, you've just gotta remind them that they aren't right though. Because otherwise they think they've won at something they haven't.

[Not everyone treats flirting like a competition, Varian- that's just you and Fern being weird.]

Absolutely. It's pretty easy to get one up over on Fern though. He's pretty impulsive- it's endearing, really.

[vibing]

he always wins anyway
thats the problem with flynn. hes a planner.

[ and yuri? he isn't at all ]

ive accepted it.

yeah he is huh
works though
ferns a good fighter

[droptheious]

Ohhhhh, see, that's usually how I win. By planning.

He's a very good fighter! I've seen him take down all kinds of monsters- there was one time he fought a sixty-foot worm that burrowed underground and caused earthquakes. He did that without even breaking a sweat.

[THAT'S how you gush about your boyfriend, Yuri. Take notes.]

[vibing]

damn impressive
we fought those crabs together a couple times
he makes a sweet sword

[ too bad, he can't purposefully say nice things about flynn ]

thought about planning before but it isnt my style

[droptheious]

He is! And yeah, he's really good at swords.- our house is full of them.

[Look, Varian is more than happy to heart eyes about Fern all the lifelong day.]

To each their own. It's better to have a good balance of people anyway- you never know when you need someone who can think on their feet.

[vibing]

i have the one he made me
really well balanced

[ you know, sword compliments ]

yeah you need one you call me
but i guess you cant plan for stuff like that

[ ouch burn ]

[droptheious]

He'd be so pleased to hear that- he sometimes struggled to accept he's really good at stuff like that.

[Such a burn. It's a shame Yuri can't see this shit-eating-grin right now.]

Well, I can always use more of that- I can only think on my foot personally. But I get it, sometimes stuff just happens randomly, or it did in the dream. The Dog Keeper would sometimes try to warn us of what was coming, but it was usually pretty vague.

[vibing]

ill be sure to tell him then

[ even though... yuri does suffer from a similar affliction ]

got to be ready for anything
never know whats going to hit you

dog keeper huh
someone else mentioned him
whats his deal

[droptheious]

[Why are you boys like this? Just accept that you're good at a thing, wow!!]

That's pretty much it!

Oh right! So he was in the Dream- he was a firefighter, before the Dream was created. A really decent guy, as his name suggested, he had a lot of dogs. While the dream was going, he'd send his dogs out to bring us news about what he could work out was coming next- sometimes he'd even send us items to help us combat whatever was coming that month. You'll find while most Sleepers have...mixed feelings about the rest of the natives of the dream, we unanimously like the Dog Keeper. We call him Doug. I don't think that's...his actual name, but it's what we gave him.

...I haven't seen him in Trench yet. I really hope he's okay.

[vibing]

doug
sounds like a good guy
ill keep an eye out for him

someone mentioned him and something about a snake
you know what thats about

[droptheious]

He's a great guy, genuinely. He'll always have your back if you need him.

Hm. I know there was talk about a snake as the dream was ending. We were trying to figure out what it meant. The Wastes... who he was a part of, they talked about shedding skin like a snake. And there was a "she" snake that was waiting for us all. I only came across one snake in the Dream and that was in the forest and she vanished after the month was done. She could make us see the past, pretty much used it to hypnotise us so she could try to eat us.

[vibing]

that all sounds really weird

alright. so maybe snakes are a deal
ill keep an eye out for snakes

man why doesnt anything just happen in plain language
snakes and ravens and dogs
what the hell does it even mean

[droptheious]

It WAS really weird. We got to the forest in a cat bus. A bus that a literally a giant, hollow cat. It seemed pretty happy.

[You live in a bullshit dream long enough and you just accept a bus that is literally a cat is a thing that can actually exist because there it is, existing, whether you like it or not. So much of the dream was like that, so very much.]

Snakes may be a deal, yeah. But nothing is ever simple- the dream wasn't and I can't see it being like that here, either. Whatever we managed to learn from the dream was largely from working hard and trying to cross-reference what we did know to try and...make sense of it all.