#they're so. oh my god. stanny allies with kyle and can stand up to cavisuwa

[razzle-zazzle]

thought too long about Cavisuwa & Stanny's relationship in Bad End and started losing my mind because oh my god. oh my goddddd cavisuwa you cunt

this uh. this got long + death & alcohol & small snippet so i'm putting it under a cut

They're such idiots. If Stan hadn't been kidnapped then people would have listened to Tweek about Craig and if Craig hadn't been possessed then they could have gotten Stan out of the woods. Stan and Craig doomed each other, indirectly, without ever really knowing, and Stanny and Cavisuwa are gonna keep dooming each other. they don't even have any kind of relationship for the first five years of Cavi's takeover because Stanny's out in the woods with the critters. And then a piece of the resistance goes deep enough into the woods that Kyle and Stan finally reunite.

And just like that, Stanny and Cavisuwa are enemies, lightning and fire and blood every time they clash. The only one powerful enough to give the other pause. A possessed god and a feral demon attack dog. They don't hate each other, exactly, but Kyle and Cavisuwa oppose each other and even if Stanny can only remember his childhood before the woods in scattered pieces—it's Kyle. Of course Stanny's gonna claw and bite and take every inch of spite and violence he learned out in those woods and turn it against the world for Kyle's sake. They're Super Best Friends!

But Cavisuwa refuses to have his power contested and the woodland critters don't like how Stanny's starting to pull away from them in favor of Kyle and all it really takes is a few meetings. An offered human sacrifice. A few words about how really, don't you think this Kyle is such a terrible influence on your son, Deery? Don't you think the chaos I've caused would be so much better for him? You care so much about your little fawn, and now he's pulling away from you. And that's all it takes and next thing Stanny knows Kyle is dead, killed by infighting in the very resistance he believed in according to the Woodland Critters, who all crowd around and try to comfort him. And it's devastating and cruel and Kenny and Tolkien and Wendy know there's nobody in the resistance who would've wanted Kyle dead but Cavisuwa's half a world away and Kyle wasn't killed with lightning anyway. But it doesn't matter because Stanny's already retreated back into the woods and Kenny's dead in the snow from the outburst.

And it's there in those woods, far away from anything and anyone, that Cavisuwa finds Stanny, alone but for the same deer that Cavisuwa talked to so recently. They almost fight. Stanny's certainly upset enough for it. But Cavisuwa's just oh-so surprised that Kyle's not there, that Stanny's so far away from where the resistance is likely located, what happened to the loyal little guard dog that almost ripped Cavisuwa's arm off?

"He's dead." Stanny grits out. He lifts the bottle to his mouth and chases the bottom, not caring what Guinea Bastard does next.

Cavisuwa laughs, this soft thing that's so unlike the few memories of Craig Stanny still has. "Surprised it took this long." He murmurs, floating down to stand on the snow. "Humans are a plague," he hisses, "you just can't rely on them."

Stanny opens his mouth—to say what, he's not quite sure—until he realizes that they really are alone, not even the guy that Stanny's pretty sure must be Clyde anywhere in sight. He huffs. "You still keep them around." He points out, not inaccurately.

"Doesn't mean I trust them." Cavisuwa responds, sparks flickering idly in his hands. "They're only useful to a point."

Stanny falls back until he's laying in the snow, staring up at the sky. He's not sober—he hasn't been in a while. Maybe once or twice while Kyle was still alive, but—well. "Kyle's trustworthy." He defends.

"Except he's dead now." Cavisuwa states, leaning forwards to look Stanny directly in the eyes. Electric blue meets baby blue, like so many times before when they'd been trying to kill each other, grappling in the air on the ground trying to tear each other apart—there's no hostility. No flash in those eyes signalling an incoming laser, nothing but a calm contentment. "And doesn't that just tear you up?" He asks, lips pulling back to show off teeth, "That the one person who you thought would never leave got taken from you, and won't come back?" Cavisuwa's egging Stanny on, voice harsh and bright and perfect for riling Stanny up.

To the side, Deery watches. She nods, slightly, and says nothing.

"Don't you wanna make the world hurt?" Cavisuwa continues, "Don't you wanna watch it burn like it burned you?"

Stanny breathes deeply. The bottle is empty in his hands. He sits up slowly, laboriously, and the bottle refills as Deery nods her head again. Somehow, through the usual drunken haze, Stanny manages to pull together enough suspicion to ask, "What's in it for you?" Because doesn't Cavisuwa have an empire to protect? Temples he'd rather not see destroyed? Infrastructure that propagates his rule?

"There are plenty of places I'd love to see destroyed." Cavisuwa shrugs, leaning back and holding out his hand (Craig's hand, some part of Stanny's mind notes, but it's small and really kind of unimportant). "And, if I'm being honest," Cavisuwa glances away, then looks back at Stanny with a lazy grin and bright blue eyes. "I've always been a little jealous of Kyle—you and I have so much in common."

"We do?" Stanny stands, without taking Cavisuwa's offered hand, stretching his arms. His antlers are heavy on his head—but they'll be gone by the time the winter snow starts hitting in earnest. And he's lived with them for years, now, so the weight is barely a footnote as far as Stanny's concerned.

"We both may have human bodies," Cavisuwa spits the word human like a curse, "but we're not really like those pathetic little monkeys, are we?" He nods, "We're something more, you and I, and, well—can you really say you don't hate mankind for what they'd do to your family? For what they did to your best friend?"

And it's true, isn't it? Stanny thinks back to a half-remembered childhood in that hick town, to a weed farm he hated and baby cows tied to stakes and a scoutmaster who got fired for being "different". There's so many things missing, in his recollection of it all, but isn't what he can remember enough to go off of—it must be.

And it's not like Stanny's really all that human anymore, is he? If he ever was, which he doubts. He's always been a Woodland Critter, even back before he knew it. The weight of his antlers is suddenly much more prominent.

Cavisuwa's head tilts slightly, hand still outstretched. He's not really a demon, insofar as Stanny can tell, but he's got the vibe what with this whole possession thing. The cloak made of giant guinea pig fur matches the pelts Stanny learned to cover himself in, sparks of lightning in Cavisuwa's eyes not so different from the hellfire Stanny carries.

They really are kindred spirits, aren't they?

"Okay." Stanny takes Cavisuwa's hand. It feels hot and sharp, static jumping between them. It feels like a pact, an unbreakable deal. It feels like a promise and a surrender.

It feels like maybe Stanny's just found a new friend.