#virus!danny

[legendofgrump]

Plot Corner with Poco #8: Dr. Grump

@pocotippy went all the way back in our chat logs and found this!!! The first plot rant we did!! (This one’s 99% poco, though, so you know who to thank)

Poco: I think it’s a really inventive idea and has a lot of different like story opportunity. Like you could make some really good comics/fics about it. Heck if it wasn’t a game grumps AU it totally sounds like a legit cartoon plot to me.

Legend: Hahaha I mean, I could still make a cartoon if I really wanted--but yeah, it’s one of my more inventive plots I think.

Poco: Totally, plus I just really love the idea of like each of the little viruses going off on their own adventures and Brian going around trying to track them down. And like Brian gets a reputation as this mystery doctor type of thing. I could go on about my virus grumps headcanon stuff forever, dude.

Legend: What if I have forever and I want to hear all of your virus headcanons.

Poco: Dude sit down and prepare for some text spam. Ok first off, Dan has like a major sweet tooth so he ends up infecting a lot of candy shop owners and stuff (especially this one really nice candy shop lady).

Legend: I’m already into it. I might need to record this for the future.

Poco: Also since Arin infects by punching people he’ll just like climb buildings or hide under boxes like solid snake and then just jump on people liek a cat out of nowhere.

Poco: Since Barry and Arin are protective of Dan, they kinda baby him sometimes so Dan gets annoyed and he’ll like sneak out at night and explore/infect. So Arin and Barry wake up and Dan is just gone so they spend the day tracking him down.

Poco: Barry just kinda wanders around and he tries to be helpful, he really does, but it never seems to go quite right, think a series of unfortunate events type thing. Also one time Arin and Barry get caught by Brian trying to save Dan, so Dan actually has to focus and try to save them.

Poco: Whenever they get stuck in crowds and Arin gets overwhelmed Barry just kinda goes “welp” and like picks him up over his shoulder and continues on.

Poco: One time one of the viruses actually makes friends wth someone and they try really hard not to infect them.

Legend: The Barry carrying Arin one is amazing oh my god. Also them making friends ahhhh.

Poco: When they’re trying to steal food Arin is just like “ok listen, here’s the plan” and Dan is sorta listening, but mostly zoning out and while Arin is distracted with Dan, Barry just kinda walks up and takes some stuff while the shopkeeper isn’t looking and then he just goes back and continues to listen to Arin’s plan, which only works half the time.

Poco: Dan will sometimes just run around, like just run and zone out so he’ll just end up in these weird places. I really like the idea that Danny knows/has met the most people out of all the viruses.

Legend: He totally would know the most people oh my god

Poco: If Arin sees Dan or Barry shivering he’ll immediately just go up to them and start cuddling.

Poco: On time Brian loses the pills and he has to go through this whole ordeal to try and find them and then Barry/Dan find them by accident and return it to him secretly because they’re just nice dudes.

Poco: Brian is kinda like an action doctor, like he is super athletic and cool.

Poco: Dan sings and it does a thing, it could be comforting or something with his virus but I just want it to do something.

Poco: How ya liking them so far?

Legend: Oh my god, I love all of them and they’re so spot on??? Like you’re so good at this.

Legend: And for the singing thing: I imagine it would act as like a natural “immunity” (not quite that strong, but it would at least lessen) for the anxiety/depression that his virus produces.

Poco: Oooo! That’s awesome! Also I like the idea that whenever they steal from a place, Barry will go back later and leave a little apology gift.

Legend: Maybe that’s why they start stealing out of dumpsters exclusively. Barry feels too bad about stealing.

Poco: Ya Barry is too nice to do it so Arin is like “ugh fine!” and to the dumpsters they go.

Legend: And I mean, they can’t really have any kind of stomach problems so it’s not like gross/rotten food can hurt them anyway.

Legend: They just have to sustain those puny human shells, y’know?

Poco: Exactly, but they aren’t completely viruses so they still kinda prefer not spoiled food but they’re fine with the rotten stuff.

Legend: Right, right, of course. And they have their preferences (i.e. the sweet tooth on Danny that you mentioned)

Poco: Exactly. Also Dan knowing a ton of people not just in town but like everywhere cause like I said he kinda runs off on his own a lot. So like he’s actually kinda well liked by the people he’s interacted with that he didn’t infect.

Legend: Dan’s a wily one anyway. Like, he gets close to you in order to infect you, but sometimes I guess he just changes his mind and he’s like “actually nah, I’m cool with this one.”

Poco: Totally, I like the idea that Dan is like actually super competent. Like he’s awesome and stealth and he’s good with handling people and all types of stuff.

Legend: Yeah! He just gets zoned out sometimes, which actually helps when he’s trying to focus on something important because he’s DEAD FOCUSED until that thing is done.

Poco: I like the idea that in all of Brian’s files, he has them all analyzed and stuff and Dan is labelled as the most dangerous one.

Legend: I bet he is! Because Barry is totally benign. He only infects by pure chance and he’s pretty conscious of coming into contact with people. Arin is really predictable and most people run when a horned child comes running and screaming at them.

Legend: But Danny gets all up in your insecurities. He’s devious and sly. He preys on mothers and people who look lonely or trusting.

Legend: He’ll get into your head and make it so you just wanna give him a huge and then BAM infected.

Poco: But even though they get infected, Dan is still a nice guy so once in a while he will try and actually help them after he infects them so when they get cured sometimes they’re kinda grateful.

Legend: He’d especially feel bad for really intense cases because their anxiety would probably start slipping into paranoia and they’d be so depressed they wouldn’t wanna do anything. Even stuff they needed to do.

Legend: So Danny is like “Okay I’ll run those errands for you. You just stay in bed and get better.”

Poco: Exactly. Also one time the viruses find someone who’s already sick from something else so they can’t infect them, but the person is super nice and sweet to them so they purposefully lead Brian to them to make them better. And maybe Brian has the chance to grab one of them, but he realizes wha tthey’re doing so he lets them go just once.

Legend: I LOVE WHEN STOIC “VILLAINS” GIVE UP THEIR GOAL OF CAPTURING THE HERO BECAUSE THEY RECOGNIZE THAT THEY’RE DOING SOMETHING GOOD.

Legend: THE “JUST THIS ONCE” TROPE IS TO DIE FOR.

Poco: Jeez I’m rambled off a lot of things haven’t I

Legend: I enjoyed all of them, though. And we had a nice bouncing off of each other session too.

Poco: XD I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it cause I sure as hell had. Also for that just this once time Arin and Dan don’t notice, but Barry does so they just have this moment where they stare at each other and maybe Barry waves or Brian winks and then Barry runs and Brian goes to work.

Legend: AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

[legendofgrump]

Can I have some info on the viruses? What are they? What do they do?

OKAY YEAH! Lovely question, thank you for asking!

Okay, so basically, the viruses were created in a lab headed by Dr. Brian Wecht, PhD, as a goal of finding a definitive cure for things like depression, anxiety, and aggression without having to take pills every single day. Like, one-and-done kind of medicines. But first they had to isolate those traits so they could experiment on them and test different things that would fight those specific traits.

And there’s a bit of moral ambiguity behind it because they might have “borrowed” a couple of infants to insert these isolated traits into and experiment on. But they’ve decided it’s okay as long as you don’t think about it too much.

So Arin came first and they pretty much pegged down that aggression trait. But giving someone literally just one trait kind of fucks with the brain and all the experiments made the virus that was put into his body kind of take over and use this innocent little baby as a host. Despite this “setback” the lab still managed to create a cure for the infection that Arin was now spreading among the lab via basic skin-on-skin contact. But they also found that the cure wasn’t able to destroy the virus that had so quickly grown within their test subject. It could only incapacitate him for a while.

Barry was kind of an accident. They were trying to peg down the anxiety trait, but he developed into more of a heat-stroke type of virus and they couldn’t figure out how to fix the whole host-virus thing to start over. So they just created the cure like they did with Arin and disregarded him as a “failure” basically.

Then with Danny, they pegged down both anxiety and depression (because the two are very often linked). The same business happens with the whole host-virus thing and the doctors create a cure.

Brian names the viruses to try and connect to their humanity, to see if that can help them take back over their bodies or anything, but really, the experiments made it so the kids were too far gone. As they get older, little kid instincts start kicking in and they wanna run around and play and have fun, but there’s also a strong part of their brain that’s literally just screaming “infect, infect, infect”  throughout their entire existence. Arin’s is the strongest because they put the biggest dose of virus in him without knowing what it would do, which is why he will almost never skip an infecting opportunity. Barry’s is actually the weakest because they fucked up his genes enough that the virus is like “I don’t know what to tell you man.”

And then Danny’s got this really exaggerated symptom of depression where he can really only focus on one thing and that one thing takes up ALL of his concentration. So he sees something that interests him and you have to literally shake him out of this trance to get him to focus on something else. He just gets fixated on things really easily.

And they can’t infect each other because it’s kind of like blood types. Like, you can’t have A blood type and B blood type in the same body because the body rejects it. You can’t have A-Virus and B-Virus in the same body, because the virus that’s already claimed that space will fuckin wreck the other virus’s shit. So them being in contact with each other is fine. But other people get such small doses through contact that you could have all three at once if you weren’t careful.

They were meant to stay contained in the lab, but that went to shit, so here they are!

[legendofgrump]

wait what about when brian takes the viruses after LoC dan passes out barry and arin like yell at virus danny to run and he does and then when LoC dan wakes up danny is just crying and it's like looking and a younger version of himself and that's exactly what happened with his arin - au anon

Virus!Danny getting away is probably the only way that Colossus!Danny would wake up back in his own place. Everyone else was just gonna kind of leave him there because I mean, they have on clue where he lives or anything so fuck it, right?

But virus!Danny would drag him all the way back to the comfort of his own bed and then explain everything that happened. And now these two Dannys are on a fuckin adventure to get Barry and Arin back.

[legendofgrump]

Virus danny about to run straight to Brian and than Barry and Arin are like no avoid him and danny becomes the hardest TO CATCH THING IN THE WORLD

So I was going to draw something for this. And then I wrote a fic. So uh…here’s that. It’s kinda lengthy because I’m a windbag, so I’ll put it under a cut, but enjoy my amateur writing skills!

Arin, Barry, and Danny dashed out of the alley behind the corner mart, dumpster donuts stuffed into their mouths and hands. Grins plastered their filthy faces, knowing they were going to eat like kings tonight. It was baffling to them that people would throw so much away when, for years, they’d been fed nothing but a disgusting paste cooked up by the doctor.

The three had stopped briefly until they could safely cross the street. They learned the hard way that people don’t appreciate when you run in front of their giant machines. Leaving the lab had definitely been a learning curve for them, but they’d picked up on quite a few intricacies just through trial and error. Don’t get in the way of moving machines. Only steal out of dumpsters, never actual stores. Only cross the road when the light is green. Little things.

Arin’s head snapped to the side as he picked up something in his peripherals. It was like he had a sixth sense for detecting the doctor that neither of the other two seemed to have. It probably had something to do with him being the oldest. Sure enough, he could see their captor walking toward them.

“We’re taking a detour,” Arin demanded suddenly. “Follow me and don’t look behind you.” He gaze settled on Danny with the last direction, knowing full well he’d probably look back anyway.

A mere moment later, Danny’s head was over his shoulder, trying to see why Arin had a death grip on his arm as they ran. His eyes scanned the crowd, trying not to focus too hard on any faces because then he’d surely get distracted. His eyes locked onto Brian and immediately registered recognition. Danny’s feet practically screeched on the pavement, almost sending Arin toppling back on top of him.

All the donuts in Danny’s arms toppled to the ground without a second thought, almost as if he were in a trance. Get to Brian, his brain was screaming. He didn’t know why, but he needed to. He bolted.

Luckily, Arin was faster. He transferred all the donuts from his own hands to Barry’s and instructed him to run back to their hideout. Then, arms pumping like pistons, he dashed after Danny and grabbed the boy by his shoulder, flinging him around.

Danny’s eyes were glazed over, constantly glancing back at the doctor that was closing in on them. His wriggled, every nerve in his body burning to quiet the yelling in his head. Arin grabbed his chin, forcing Danny to look him in the eyes.

“Run,” Arin insisted, noticing the cloudiness in his companion’s expression already slightly clearing. “You run and you don’t look back. If he catches you, he’ll hurt you again, you got it?”

Though it was a struggle against Arin’s iron grip, Danny nodded. Somehow Arin’s strong tone had sliced through the internal shouting. There was a new demand taking over his one-track brain. Not nearly as loud, but just as pressing. Run. Run. Run. Chanting over and over like a mantra.

As soon as Arin released him, Danny shot like a bullet down the street, leaving Arin, and Brian, in his dust. It was like jumping into another plane of existence for Danny. He catapulted himself over cars, ignoring the people slamming on their horns. He weaved expertly through confused crowds. His long legs bounded forward like he was running on clouds, weightless and determined. Without even realizing, Danny was back at their little hovel, having traversed almost the entire city in mere minutes.

Barry greeted him pleasantly, as if nothing had happened. The two gorged themselves on donuts until Arin busted through the door not long after. He looked smug, triumphant even, and reported that he’d left Brian behind by scaling a massive fence.

They were safe.

[legendofgrump]

Dr. Grump - Basic Plot

(Based off of Dr. Mario)

Arin, Danny, and Barry are dangerous viruses that are wreaking havoc among the general public, as well as infecting many other versions of themselves that they probably shouldn’t be meeting at the moment, thanks to Link!Arin. Brian, the only doctor that can stop these viruses, has to chase after the wily troublemakers and stop them from infecting people (or cure people who have already contracted any of the three diseases the viruses cause).

Arin (the A-Virus), based off of the Red Virus, is extremely aggressive and will pursue victims with tireless energy. Contracting the disease is extremely painful, as Arin viciously pummels his victims with blind punches and kicks until they submit to his infection. Any infected areas (i.e. anywhere Arin managed to get his hands on) becomes inflamed and extremely irritated. The victims also becomes aggressive themselves (or at least, more so than they would be normally) and much more impulsive. Luckily for victims (and Brian), Arin is easily distracted and pursues anyone he sees, even if that means abandoning someone he was already chasing. In large crowds, he becomes overwhelmed and freezes in his tracks, essentially coiling into himself.

Barry (the B-Virus), based off of the Yellow Virus, is a high-energy, but rather benign virus. Or, as benign as a virus can be. Infections caused by Barry are accidental and unplanned--the poor fella doesn’t even know his own strength. This innocence makes him incredibly easy to subdue, as he enjoys the company of others and doesn’t seek to infect anyone. Symptoms of infection are similar to that of heat stroke, such as feeling lightheaded/dazed, shortness of breath, headache, rapid heartbeat, and the possibility of fainting. This is also coupled with nausea and stomach pains.

Danny (the D-Virus, ayyyyyy), based off of the Blue Virus, is curious and slippery. He’s mischievous in the most adorable way and very stealthy, making him possibly the most dangerous of the viruses. He uses his cuteness to get into the good graces of those he’s attempting to infect, often finding it the easiest to infect mothers and more empathetic people under the guise that he’s a lost child in need of assistance. Contact with Danny ensures a quick increase in body temperature, making the infected feel freezing. More serious cases can also result in unexplained depression and increased gullibility. Like his victims, however, Danny is extremely trusting and often grows attached to anyone he spends extended amounts of time with. This results in him often running with open arms to Brian when he sees him, despite knowing in the back of his mind that he’s being pursued and he’s not supposed to let himself get caught. Arin and Barry tend to look out for him for this reason and, once reminded that Brian isn’t someone he should run toward, Danny is tough to catch.

Dr. Brian Wecht, PhD (see guys, it’s hardly even a character), is one of a few scientists and doctors that has experience with Danny, Arin, and Barry. His research on the extremely rare and unusual viruses has led to a cure--a collection of ingestible pills that can subdue the viruses in certain doses--but he spends much more of his life out in “the field” chasing down the escaped viruses. Keeping them within the confines of his lab was extremely easy until they came into contact with each other the first time and began working together and devised a plan to escape. Now, he fights against some kind of pact that the three viruses have to help keep each other out of harm’s way and--more specifically--just out of Brian’s reach.

Questions, headcanons,  and/or requests related to this or any other AU I’ve made are totally welcome and encouraged!