Living out in the desert isn't too bad, at least to Varian. It gives him time to think and be alone, things he really didn't living in Corona with Rapunzel and Eugene. He loves them both dearly, but he knew he couldn't stay there. He felt like he was suffocating, chasing after a breath he could never catch.

They had wanted him to stay, close to them, because the way the world was now, full of more danger than ever before. But Varian was sixteen now, he was old enough to take care of himself now. Or, he was sure he was. Varian had already seen more than most teenagers his age, he was pretty sure he could handle living apart from them for awhile.

So Varian had moved out, to a small shack out in the desert, where he was mostly surrounded by machines and whatever chemical he was cooking up that day. Sometimes, Rapunzel or Eugene would stop by, just to check on him. Varian was a little annoyed, but he knew it was just them being worried about him. After all, the world they lived in had ended, even if the one they existed in now was the only one Varian's every known.

Varian only hears bits and pieces of the Old World; of magic and machines co-existing with each other. Of robots and witches. He didn't care much for magic, but he's endlessly fascinated by the old machines and chemistry; since he was young, he's scraped together engines and robots from iron and steel he's found lying about. For awhile, it was just a way to pass the time and keep his mind occupied, a distraction from his drape life. But soon enough, he'd realized he had a knack for it. So, he kept working and working until he felt confident enough to share what he was doing with others. The first thing Rapunzel told him when she saw his work was that his father would've been proud.

Varian sighed, pulling up his goggles to see the progress he had made on the small engine he had been working since he had gotten up this morning. Honestly, it wasn't as much as he was hoping to make, as he was sure it wasn't to the point where it could run without a battery attached to it. He leans back into his chair, contemplating taking a break when he hears it.

A knock.

Varian twirls his chair around, combing a hand through his hair to at least look halfway decent. Sometimes, people would come by and ask him to fix things for them. Varian hadn't told anybody in town where he lived, so he assumes this is Rapunzel's doing, probably offhandedly mentioning. Or bragging. She did have a hard time keeping her mouth shut when she was proud of him.

He opens the door, and is halfway about to say "what do you want" when he actually sees who it is at his door. And he shuts his mouth quickly.

This wasn't a townsperson. He knows this, because he thinks he'd remember someone who's hair was so...blue.

Well, a lot of her was blue. And black. They seem to be the only colors she knows, as no other ones are anywhere on her. She's clutching her arm, a blank expression on her face.

"U-um. W-what can I do for you?" He mumbles out, and he immediately feels embarrassed, and he feels his face go hot. Varian's always had trouble talking to strangers, either being too enthusiastic upon meeting them and talking a mile a minute, or being extremely close to being non-verbal. It was especially awful when it was pretty girls like the stranger in front of him.

"Arm," she responds, and that just confuses Varian. What about her arm….? And then she raises her left arm up, and Varian instantly understands.

Her arm is a prosthetic, scrapped and cobbled together with various metals, making it look like a rusty mess. Varian cringes internally at it, because his engineering senses are tingling for him to fix it, or he was going to lose it.

"Need it fixed?" He says, a little more confident now. He may not know his way around girls, but metal? He probably has every metal memorized backwards.

She nods, stepping fully into his shack and yeah. She was kinda intimidating. She was tall (to him, at least) and she had sharp points. And the blank expression. It made her unreadable, which unnerved Varian.

She sits down on a stool, presenting her left arm for him to inspect. He swallows, pulling his chair over to the table and sitting down himself, grabbing the prosthetic gently to inspect its working.

It looks like it was haphazardly put together, because none of the metal is constant. Scraps of whatever she-or whoever the arms creator was-could find. Most of it is rusted, and probably extremely hard to move. He doesn't think he can save any of it, unfortunately. She doesn't look at him the whole time, just at a space on the hall the whole time. Varian couldn't blame her, he was a stranger.

"So," Varian clears his throat, and scoots his chair back, breaking the woman's staring contest with the wall. "I really can't fix this-"

"What?!" she barks out, and Varian flinches away. He can see the anger building in her eyes, and Gods, he hates it when people are mad at him. She rushes and is preparing to stomp out, but Varian just instinctually reaches out and grabs her arm, and immediately regrets it when she turns her head and her eyes are filled with pure rage. He has to fix this, somehow.

"L-look, I can't save it, but I can make you a new one." She stops at that, considering it. At least, he thinks she is. She just...kinda stares at him for a bit.

"How long would that take?" Oh, she did consider it. Good.

"I-it depends on how complicated you want it. And what material you want it made out of."

"Hm." And suddenly, there was a metal arm on the table and-

Ah.

In the Old World, cybernetics were common. Replacing body parts was extremely easy. Some specific types were powered by magic-like the one in front of him. Varian knows for a fact he knows little to nothing about them. He's never had much interest in exploring magically-powered material before; it was always man-made stuff for him. However, if he's just building an arm attachment…

"Well, I think you already know this, but your old arm didn't fit your cybernetics. So, I'd have to find material that fits this model specifically. So that means…"

He'd have to go out into the city.

He can already feel the fear spike throughout his body. The city was terrifying. It was filled with scavengers and creatures that could rip off his limbs and loads of other things that would happily kill him. He's only been to the outskirts of it, looking for some scraps to finish a project he had been working on. He'd heard one bump and Varian had bolted. You never really knew what was out there.

"You would need to go out into the city, correct?" The woman sits back down, regarding him with the same blank expression, except maybe it wasn't? Varian may not be the best at reading people, but he feels like he can see...something else in her eyes. It's not something he can really describe. "I can go out there with you, if you want."

Varian blinks. Was she offering him protection? "I have a sword attachment, and I must say, I know my way around it." She sounds slightly amused while saying it, and Varian can feel his cheeks heating up. Is she mocking him? But, really, Varian knew little to nothing about weapons, besides how to make them. Holding a gun or a sword was as foreign to Varian as building complex machines was for…

"Um, I'd like to accept your offer, but I. Don't know your name?"

"Does it matter?"

"Kinda? If you're going with me, I'd like to know your name. It's. It's a trust thing."

"Hm." She stands up, turning her back to him, opening the door and stepping out into the desert once again. Varian panics.

"W-wait! I'm sorry if I-"

"Cassandra."

"Huh?"

"My name's Cassandra." She says again, before walking off into the desert. Varian lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding, slumping back into his chair. That was the most stressful interaction he's had in his life, and every interaction he had with someone usually had some low-level anxiety attached to it. But here? He felt he was on the verge of a heart attack every second of it.

He glances over at the rusted arm on the table, and he realizes:

He didn't even tell Cassandra his name.

"So, the boy."

"His name's Varian." Cassandra remarks, attaching the sword to her cybernetics. It glows a light blue before stopping.

"Oh, so you know his name even though he didn't tell you?" The Ghostly Girl had some strange venom in her voice, even more than her usual snark. Honestly, Cassandra wished she would just leave her alone. She'd been following her around for weeks now, and the girl never knew when to shut up.

"What are you implying by that, ghost?" She growls at her, cutting away at some vines that were in her way. Cassandra decided to head back to her home back in the forest, to start gathering supplies for their trek into the city. It'll take a day to get there, and as long to get back. She has no idea how long Varian wanted to stay there. Probably not long, judging by the face he made when he realized he would have to go there to gather supplies for her arm.

"It just seems strange to me, that out of every engineer in this area, you went to the one who matches your...proclivities." Cassandra freezes and she can feel the deathly cold hands of the ghost on her shoulders..

"That has nothing-"

"Oh, really? Then how did you know his name without him having to tell you? Why did you have to train your face to be blank like that while talking to him?

"Were you-"

"Of course I was watching you, Cassandra. I'm always watching. I have nothing better to do. Anyway, have you been watching him, Cass?"

"It's Cassandra. And why is it any of your business?"

"Oh, so you have? Kind of creepy, Cassandra." Cass takes a deep breath in, before turning to face the ghost girl.

"I'm not watching him, but even if I was it would be. None. of. Your. Business." Cass punctuates each word with a jab with from a sword at the ghost, but she dodges each time. It wouldn't have mattered if she had hit her, it would've went right through her anyway. "Why don't you just leave me alone?"

"Because you're entertaining." Cassandra lets out a groan of frustration.

"I'm going to start packing. I'd rather not have you hanging around." The Ghostly Girl shrugs, before she vanishes, though Cassandra knows she really isn't gone. She closes the door behind her and slumps back against it, letting out a sigh of exhaustion. Because she doesn't see Varian like that. At all. She was able to control herself.

Right?