zoomingupthathill | RYSLIG; ic inbox

[It's just barely gone from June to July. The weather is getting warmer by the day, even for being on a Peninsula, which means that Basil's favorite hobby is ironically more comfortable to do after dark than it ever was during the day. Not that gardening during the day could bother a monster immune to fire...but it is a problem given the fact that Basil can no longer be out in the sun, period. It's why, just a few days prior, he'd summoned Mana for the first time since summoning her months ago to ask if she could give him something to protect him from the sun during the day. Something magical, perhaps, like a sun hat...

And, well. She didn't. At least, it wasn't something physical. She just assured him his request would be granted "in due time" and disappeared shortly thereafter. It's why, earlier today, Basil had nearly accidentally blitzed himself into stone trying to test if Mana had fixed him yet or not. Oh well...there wasn't much else he could do other than wait.

Things as of late have not been positive. Between the incident with the trees, and the incident with Trish leaving Max understandably frazzled, Basil had been trying to do his best to give her a bit of space regarding...everything. Now that she had a new Walkman, it meant that she could at least listen to her music again and relax somewhat. He thinks about that trip to the mall often, actually. It had been hard for Max, but he was proud of her for managing to push past her insecurities and trauma and just...go. But that's not really the part about it that stuck with him.

But that part, if he thinks about it too hard, makes his chest feel like it's going to explode. So he has to be careful.

It's been rough for a lot of reasons. Between the Trish situation, and Steve going home, and even Basil's ongoing struggles with Sunny...it's all a lot piled on collectively to think about. Which is why Basil had asked Max to come with him after sunset so she could see the plants he has cultivating in his garden, newly set up over the last month in the impromptu greenhouse that Kaito had set up on the Palazzo's back lawn for him.]

These are my Vanilla Lillies that Mr. Pure Vanilla gave me! And Jellyragoras!

[He's showing off his "plants from other worlds section", excitedly gesturing to each as he explains what they are. The lillies...are strange, because they look VERY much like closed eyes, their petals unfurled around the centers like eyelashes.

Before Max can ask about it, Basil is already very carefully using his claws like a trowel to dig into one of the pots, pulling out what looks like...literally a little tube-like plant that looks like a tiny guy. Like, it has a face (it looks like its asleep) and nubby arms and legs.]

He says they have a defense mechanism when they mature that makes them unplant themselves and run around screaming...but they'll plant themselves again if you leave them alone. It's just magic. Isn't that cool?

["""""Just"""""" magic]

[ It feels like it's been a slow-motion trainwreck of a summer so far. That's the opposite of last summer, which was great until it abruptly wasn't. So maybe it's a sign that it'll keep being steadily bad, instead of suddenly crushing.

Max has spent the last few days doing...something with Will. Should Basil have asked, she's responded with an embarrassed grumble that he'll see soon, that it's just a project she's helping him with. But it's been clear that she's distracting herself. Every waking moment, it's been something, out of fear that she'll fall back into a crushing depression the moment she wakes up on the 4th and expects to hear fireworks and screaming.

It's technically been over a year. If she's counting chronologically, it had actually been the anniversary of Billy's death shortly after this new year started. Shortly after she met Basil. But months tended to blur and fly for Max when her mood drops, and it certainly proved that way in her initial arrival in Felfri and adjustment in Ryslig, as death refused to let her go for all but a month. The weather shoots her back to those summer days, and the already gaping feeling of loss when she thinks about Steve put her in just the right position to close her eyes and feel El's weight against her, or the back of Billy's hand on her cheek—see the tendrils tear into his body, the hole in his stomach. Hear his weak apology, smell his blood, so thick she could taste it in the air.

So yes. With this, and with the trees, and with Steve, and with Trish, Max is desperate not to sit and feel it. This also means, consequently, though she has her new Walkman, she tends towards listening to it with company, rather than alone in her room. It's an echo back to the old Max. The energetic, active one, who sought people out instead of pushed them away. She tells herself it's not pretending when she genuinely wants connection. The idea of losing someone else keeps reaching down her throat and clawing at her insides. It's been planted in her head that one by one, they're all going to vanish, and she'll be stuck all alone. So she starts making plans. Going out, seeing people.

It means she doesn't have to come home ("home") to a mansion with two less occupants—one against his will, and one by choice.

Today, she's adjusting her skateboard while she sits in the grass next to Basil's garden. She doesn't even have to ask, he approaches her—which has her feel some kind of way, which...also has her feel some kind of way. Funny and fuzzy, and overwhelmingly guilty.

A small wrench in her hand, she tilts her head at the Jellyragoras, somewhere between amazed and grossed out. ]

Oh, I guess magic's just normal for you, isn't it? [ She teases, reaching out a hand toward the plant but stopping short. ] Can I touch it?

[ It is, for the record, much nicer for her after dark, too. Moreso than usual, what with the hot temperature, and how long days last and how short nights are. That used to be a joy for her, a California girl born and bred; either warm San Diego beaches or green Hawkins fields, where she'd listen to the waves or feel the blades of grass tickling her freckles.

Now, she longs for the day to end, so the heat won't beat down on her, exhausting her body and frustrating her mind. ]

[Ignoring one's feelings, pushing things away and just hoping they'll improve on their own is definitely not the healthiest coping mechanism, but Basil isn't the person to throw stones in that particular glass house. He's the type of person who knows he needs therapy, he just politely declines ever going.

Yet, he's been made to confront these things time and again during his time in Ryslig, and even MORESO when he's spent time with Max. He's not sure yet what that means because he hasn't exactly had the time to unpack it.

For now, the goal is to try to pretend things are better than they are. It's easier to do when he's not doing it entirely for his own sake.]

Haha...don't worry, I thought it was pretty weird at first too!

[When Pure Vanilla explained it to him, he was more than a little...alarmed. For obvious reasons. But so far in the time he's owned them, they haven't moved or done anything. ...for now. There are two of them in the pot as it is, the other one still planted while Basil holds the one in his claws a little closer to Max.]

Uh-huh, go ahead! I gotta show you the Oran Berry sapling that Gladion gave me, too. I think it'll start growing fruit soon!

[Bloranges.

Basil, mid-sentence, has to pause to cough a little. He takes a bit of a deeper breath than usual, shaking his head, but the moment seems to pass fairly quickly. Like that feeling when you're talking too fast and suddenly get short of breath...]

[ Max brushes a soft finger against the plant, expecting it to start and wake up. So weird that it doesn't, and she's about to comment on that—but Basil coughs, and she tilts her head. ]

A little tongue-tied?

[ It's light, still somewhat teasing, with just the slightest bit of worry tucked away there. ]

[Fortunately for both of them, probably, the plant does not in fact jump out of Basil's claws and start running around and screaming. It continues its slumber, not yet mature enough for such shenanigans. In the meantime, Basil is drawing the plant back to himself as he clears his throat again, ears drooping at the weird...sensation that hits him again. It's hard for him to describe, but it's mostly a tightness in his chest. It makes him feel like he needs to cough, and so he does again as he goes to replant the sprout.]

S-sorry, I think I breathed in some dirt or something...

[Basil, of all people, doesn't have allergies. If he did, it would make his hobby a difficult one, so that's definitely not it. Still though...he's not entirely sure what's happening. He's definitely felt weird like this before, but not this specific brand of weird.

Either way, he gets the plant back in its pot and walks over to put it back onto the shelf where it was.]

Hang on, lemme see what else I wanted to show you...

[He can't show her the sapling, that's something Max would have to get up to come see, so instead he looks to see if there are any other unique flowers he's been growing that might interest her. He's got all sorts of varieties, from those native to the peninsula, to others a bit more obscure. Eventually, he settles on a variety of pansies, Viola Northern Lights, because it's probably one of the more unique earth-plants he's got in his collection.

But then, just as Basil is turning to bring the pot back, he stops short. That tension in his chest that he'd been brushing off has mounted suddenly to an unbearable degree, to the point where his breath feels literally caught in his throat. His heart thuds loudly between his ears, blood roaring as if it's pounding off the walls of his skull.

It comes for him without preamble. The grass, fortunately, is a soft enough buffer that the pot doesn't shatter when Basil drops it, though the soil falls out as it tips onto its side, rolling a few feet away from where Basil collapses in a heap, like a marionette with its strings cut.

He isn't moving.]

[ About half a second before it happens, Max feels an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. The feeling that something is cold and wrong. Maybe it's in the way he coughs. Maybe it's just because it's July, and July isn't exactly her favorite month anymore. Whatever the reason, as he's turning back she can feel her ears swivel forward towards him, and the fur her tail, which is squeezed through a hole in her modified jeans-into-cutoffs, flare out, despite how gross and matted it is.

A moment where everything in the air tells her: Something very bad is about to happen.

And then it does.

All at once, Max is on her feet, skateboard and wrench discarded. ]

Basil?!

[ Her voice catches in her throat in lieu of any breath. She drops to her knees, hard, and a jolt of pain shoots up her body. But Max doesn't care about that, right now. Not as she pulls on his arm to turn him over, wings large and cumbersome and in her way. ]

Hey- hey, Basil, what's wrong? B-Basil, wake up—

[ The déjà vu's stronger now. So strong it feels like it's going to choke her. ]

[From a distance, it would be easy to assume Basil fainted. He'd passed out for whatever reason, which wouldn't be entirely out of the realm of possibility for Basil to be doing. He's an anxious, nervous person, and he gets overwhelmed easily. But Max had every right to feel like something was wrong, because something is wrong.

When Max reaches down to lift Basil in her arms, it will be like picking up completely dead weight. He's limp, his head lolls loosely as she turns him over onto his back. Logically, if he had simply lost consciousness, his eyes would be closed. He would be breathing- shallow and faint, perhaps, but breathing- and his body perhaps reacting in some way to outward stimuli. His tail twitching, ears moving, anything.

But as Max turns him over, the moon hits his face, and his eyes are wide open. Jaws slack and unresponsive. His body, normally almost too-warm for Max to touch, is losing its heat rapidly. It isn't just getting cold.

It's a cold Max is implicitly familiar with. It's the same cold she feels all the time, every day.]

What...? No.

[ Max stills. She's watching the life leave him. The glow of his eyes fade. ]

Basil. Basil, get up—

[ Billy, get up, please.
Billy, get up, please, please— ]

Basil, pl- please, I can't- do this again—

[ His empty face kaleidoscopes as she blinks out tears. Max gasps and wheezes, trying to take in breath to calm herself—because that's how she reacted, when Billy died, but it does nothing for her, physically, so she's just stuck like that, caught directly in the moment, a second away from screaming for help. ]

[Basil...doesn't respond. He can't. There's no way he can reassure her, because even if he was conscious and could, he wouldn't know what was happening to him either. Just that one moment he was fine, and the next...

Well. At least for a mercy, the changes aren't slow. In fact, since Mana generally wants to make sure monsters get their bang for their buck in most cases, the moment that Basil's body has died...that's when things start changing. It's a blessing in disguise, perhaps, because Basil isn't present to feel the pain of it all.

It's almost...weirdly efficient, the way un-needed body parts drop off first. His wings are the first to go, the scales along the membranes flaking off like petals before the mass drops onto the grass. The same goes for his long tail, which thuds to the ground like it's been chopped off, clean and effortless. His horns crack and become brittle in the seconds that follow before snapping off at the roots and tumbling to the ground as well, clattering together like old bones. Perhaps this is just the result of Max never seeing what it looks like when the Fog reclaims a body before, but...that won't seem like the case very quickly, here.

Because Basil's body starts changing just as quickly as parts of him disappear. His scales are still falling off as fur quickly grows in its place, patchy and dead looking. Where scales used to cover his head, actual hair- the hair he once had- rushes back to fill the gaps around the crevices where his horns were, with new ones already poking through to take their place. And the final nail in the coffin, perhaps, is the way his legs start to shift and bend underneath him. No need for the bones to reform for the most part, so much as his feet themselves. The claws fall off just like the horns had, regrowing, reforming, reshaping-

...hooves. They're hooves, and everything is starting to become clearer now.

Basil's body is dead. A corpse, parts of him already sunken in and hollow. The places on his body where hair- fur- has grown to take its place ranges between dead-grass blonde to almost neon green, an unnatural color that stands in stark contrast to the clumps of dead lichen that his old monster parts have shriveled up into within moments. And while Basil has yet to actually take a breath, when his muzzle finally shrinks and his face begins to reform into the shape it once had when he was human, his eyes begin to flutter back open.]

[ Now, pieces fall off him, and Max is, perhaps, even more distressed; her pleading turns to whimpers, as she thinks he's going to crumble apart in her arms. And, in that moment, she does think it's the fog, as despite him going to pieces, Max doesn't shy away. No, she holds tighter, as if she can physically hold him together, choked thoughts escaping her in bursts, don't go, you can't take him—

And then the feeling of fur springing up under her arms gets her to pull back. To look at him through her teary eyes.

Max was with Basil when his body grew scales to begin with. When his hair was what fell off in clumps, blood and tissue oozing off him. She sat with him in it, the gross and the muck. This is some...bizarre reversal, except different. New horns grow. And, he's practically in her lap (—she would never know it, but it's eerily similar to how Lucas held her many months before, as she sputtered and choked in his arms—) and she can feel legs move even though his torso, his body is still, his eyes staring at nothing.

She jerks her gaze to them, and that's when she feels horribly impossibly cold, as she watches his feet crush and twist and mold to something new and familiar all at once. ]

That's...

[ How macabre it is, to be surrounded by the remains of Basil's discarded body parts. How horrifying. Max can't look at them, now, once it all starts to click. Because her eyes are locked on his face, so she sees it the moment his eyelids start to flicker. ]

B- Basil, c- can you- hear me—?

[ Her nose is going a mile a minute. Quite suddenly, Basil's scent has changed. He still smells like soil, potting dirt—but there's a fundamental shift from something like hot rocks to...a wild mix, honestly. Something earthier. Musty...and musky, at the same time. A hint of sweetness, from the flowers growing from his horns, and it's strangely overwhelming.

Without realizing it, she starts to lean in. ]

[By the time it sinks in for Max what exactly is going on, the main transformation is nearly complete. Basil isn’t a Gargoyle anymore. His scales have been traded for fur and hair, and his skin- though cold and pale- is closer to human than it’s been in a very long time now. For Basil’s part, everything is still dark and hazy. He can hear Max, muffled and distant, but can’t quite make her out yet as the darkness slowly pulls back. His vision- gone from the height of a Gargoyle being able to see from miles away- has drastically lessened, yet his hearing and sense of smell are both almost unbearably strong. It’s almost too much to wake back up to.

Yet, that’s what’s happening. He’s waking up, a soft wheeze escaping his lips as his eyes actually move a little, now.]

Ma…..w….what’s…….ha-happening…..

[It isn’t over, not yet. Basil’s body has more decaying to do as some of the skin on his legs abruptly slips away, exposing the bones of his ankles and femur underneath. It happens in patches on his arms, but the most obvious is the way his collarbone seems to sink into his chest cavity, a dark recess hiding underneath the fur of his neck as jagged spikes of bone appear like a crude necklace around his throat.]

[ She smells it more than she sees it. At the neck, yes, it's obvious, but the arms, the way skin sloughs off his leg—she far too close to take it all in. She gasps quietly, as her nose almost vibrates. ]

You're—

[ —alive, no he's not. That's a foolish thing to almost say, and she's glad she doesn't.

Eyes wide, still leaning in, Max murmurs, a hand brushing hair from his forehead: ]

You're...becoming like me.

Edited 2023-07-03 05:50 (UTC)

[He’s…

……what?

Basil…is barely coherent, still trying to regain consciousness. His body isn’t in pain thankfully, though he is very sore…the changes are slowly finishing up now, his long ears more deer like than they were previously, less large and floppy. His horns are smaller, purple, and his snout is missing, replaced with a dark deer nose instead. Perhaps the one glaring difference between them are the long fangs he now has, which actually don’t seem much different from the snaggleteeth he had as a Gargoyle.

But…as his vision swims into focus, Basil realizes that the shadow blocking out the moon in front of him is Max. She’s holding him up off the ground, he thinks. And she’s………

Very. Very close.]

Hh….wh……?

[ Max is very close. Close enough to watch his nose fully round like her own. Her frostbitten lips, slightly parted, exhale cold, cold air.

Captivated, she leans down— ]

[ —and bumps her nose against his in one easy, fluid motion.

Boop. ]

[Are you ever just so out of it that you have no clue what's going on until it's already too late and the moment has mostly passed? Because that's how Basil feels, right now.

The first thing he's able to see as he literally reanimates is Max just inches from his face, leaning in close enough that his ears end up perking straight up, quite literally a deer (or in this case, Deerling) in headlights as he leans back against her knees, his fingers pulling at the grass underneath him. Like, she's so close he can feel her frosty breath against his skin.

He feels his throat flex, constricting as he swallows, but before he can think to do or say anything...she leans in.......

And she boops her nose against his.

Basil's response is for a sound to finally escape him: a very soft, pathetic sounding little mmmeeeeh.]

[ The noise sparks a strong protective instinct in Max, which in itself is weird. Her ears shoot up, and her eyes go very wide as she realizes 1) how close she is and 2) that Basil is quite literally cuddled in her lap. ]

I didn't- [ Moving her lips this close, that's bad too, she jerks up. ] I'm sorry- I don't- literally don't know why I did that—

[ If she could blush, she'd be beet red. ]

Edited (wrong beet) 2023-07-04 01:57 (UTC)

A-ahh...uhh...

[Basil doesn't...really know why he did what he just did either! Someone help.

He's still laying where Max dragged him, because he has no strength to sit up on his own just yet. He...doesn't even realize yet that he's not alive anymore. When Max said "you're becoming like me", well...it hasn't fully sunk in. It probably won't until he notices just how much of him has suddenly changed.]

It...it's okay! I...

[Basil has to close his eyes for a moment, a brief wave of dizziness threatening to overwhelm him. It's half due to the sudden change, and half because his head simply doesn't weigh as much as he's used to. The added weight from his larger horns and snout is just...absent, suddenly.

And as he lifts one of his hands, tentatively touching his face with it, he's starting to realize something has happened here.]

W....am I....?

[Now he's actually trying to sit up, even though he's shaking head-to-toe from the exertion.]

[ Embarrassment be damned, the moment she feels Basil start to shake, Max leans back down, this time taking hold of Basil's arms and helping him sit up, slowly. ]

Whoa, whoa, easy. You're gonna feel kinda out of it, 'til your body adjusts.

[ He has his face back. Max was starting to get more used to seeing, well...the snout. How weird is that? ]

[The world is still swimming into focus, and it's made worse by the way everything swings about dizzyingly as he sits up. Having Max there to steady him helps, at least...with Basil blinking hard to try to encourage his vision to correct itself. Everything has a subtle blur to it, like he just can't focus properly...

In the end, though, the first thing he finally settles on are his legs. They're stretched out in front of him, half bent at the knee. Somehow his clothing didn't get horrifically torn by the changes- perhaps because they're tailored to work for a Gargoyle, less so for a wingless monster as now the back has a useless gaping hole in it- meaning that he's able to fully focus on the deer legs he now has, completely lacking in any proper feet or digits or...anything. They're just hooves attached to furry green stilts.

...and they're. Partially decayed.]

H....e...mm-eeh!?!

[Basil brings both hands to his face, touching it all over until he reaches his ears, squeezing them briefly before he reaches up even further to touch his horns...no, his hair. His HAIR. He has hair??]

I- I ch-changed! But-...!

[I want to be able to spend more time with Max.

...]

[ He keeps making that sound, and it's got Max alert and attentive all at once. There's actually a part of her brain that thinks it sounds...incredibly cute, and she does not know how to address that at all. ]

Yeah, you're- holy cow—! [ Max has turned her head to where Basil's looking. Sees his decaying leg. Becomes aware of the bones at his collar.

Realizes that's a bad thing to say, she's just a little on edge from it all. Basil dying, the change and revival, the—thing she just did for some stupid reason— ]

It, uhh- Was it...something you said to Mana? You went today, right?

Y...yeah. I...I asked her...

[...

Max reminding Basil gives him a chance to think about what he said to her. Like, really think about it. See, he didn't exactly know what he was asking for at the time, just...you know. Something to help with his weakness to the sun. The part about Max was added unconsciously, and as a result...

Oh. Oh no.

Basil looks...both appropriately stunned and embarrassed all at the same time, and perhaps he's lucky that he's dead because he'd be blushing so fiercely his entire head would be flushed at this point. He brings his hands back up to his face, feeling it a little more deliberately now. His hands...he has his fingers back. The scoop-like claws are gone, replaced with fingers tipped with much smaller claws. Claws that pull through his hair, which is a little more...straw-like and lifeless than he remembers. He pulls his legs a little closer to himself with some difficulty, looking from his knees to his torso, then properly down...

His eyes settle on the now gaping cavity in his chest, and he has to cover his mouth with his hand. Max can't see it at the angle she's at, as you can only really get a good look from directly above. But even with how dark it is, there's enough moonlight filtering in for Basil to see the openings past his ribcage...and the organs beneath. His lungs. His heart.

All of them motionless. Lifeless.]

[ Max waits for him to explain. There's probably a pretty simple place Mana got screwed up, and Max isn't sure if they can do anything about it...but maybe if she offers some of her coins, too? She'll offer, once Basil's done...

...but instead he trails off, getting reacquainted with his body. She can't really blame him there, either. And it gives her a little time to get her brain under control. What the hell was that? And why does just sniffing the air make her feel like she's covered in goosebumps? Like...she's got tingles all over, just from being near him. Like, okay, Max knows- she's figured out by now she has an incredibly inconvenient and somewhat guilt-inducing crush on him, but seriously? He just died literally on top of her, that is not supposed to be a turn-on!!

She's still supporting Basil as he gets his bearings, so she feels when his hand moves abruptly. ]

What? What's...

[ And she tilts her head and trails off herself. As she catches just the briefest glance at the chasm open in Basil's skin.

There's a hole in him. There's multiple holes. ]

...I'm gonna kill that witch.

[As much as Basil is feeling nauseas from seeing his own insides, it does at least distract from him having to actually tell Max what he asked Mana for. At least...in more specific terms. He's having a weird enough day as it is, he does not need to add embarrassing himself horribly onto that!

Nevertheless...it's clear just by looking at him that Basil is rattled. He's been completely changed into a new monster, and his body is not yet accustomed to the feeling. He's freezing cold, for one, unused to no longer being impervious for the most part to temperature since he's just so hot all the time. That, and every so often Max might notice the way he'll suddenly gasp like he's been startled, but the truth behind that is the fact that he's not used to just...not breathing. He keeps scaring himself by the way his body simply isn't telling him to take a breath anymore, and its giving him this recurring awful sensation in his chest that he does not like at all, thanks.

Basil whines a little under his breath in the silence that follows, and when he exhales, he can feel how icy cold his own breath is.]

M-max. Just now....d...did I...?

[When he blacked out...]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, MADMAX. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 005.08.019.85 * MADMAX has joined 005.08.019.85 <MADMAX> do your thing or whatever <MADMAX>** don't be dumb

7/2 | Action, Evening

cw: ptsd mentions, depression

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cw: death

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cw: death cont but like worse this time

death 2 the sequel to death. cw: ptsd

cw: decay/dessication/changes

cw: body horror/decay

cw: body horror/decay

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1/2

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cw: decay

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cw: gore mention

cw: gore mention

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