hi so um... the Barnabas au details please??
hehe :D hi :D hello :D
welcome everyone to the au I like to call Barnabas Lives And Gives Everyone A Horrible Time With It. first of all keep in mind this is entirely self-indulgent. and extremely disorganised. and probably very ooc. and there’s lots of things I haven’t really defined yet. with that said
if you know me (or my rp account) you know I love the idea of Corruption!Barnabas. so basically this started with me thinking about Barnabas Somehow pulling his ass out of the Lonely (maybe on his own, maybe with help, who knows) and becoming a Corruption avatar to. compensate in a way. dear old moth princess, we’ve been through that.
so, now we have a fledgling avatar with no fucks left to give about anything roaming around. and he feels. hurt. in a lot of ways. but at the same time he’d always expected something like this to happen. he’s feeling a lot of things in general so for the first couple months he just acts like nothing ever happened, even if his newly gained confidence makes him look like an entirely different person. he dies his little jobs, tends to his little plants, has his little feedings, goes to his little social gatherings (bonus info if you’ve heard me ramble about the last couple years before this man died. essentially he was not having a good time at these events), and in one of those gatherings he runs into Mordechai.
and that whole thing is so funny in my brain, even if I don’t have a single coherent thought about it. basically Barnabas greets him like he’s just seen him yesterday and goes oh here’s your money btw :D (my headcanon is that he actually had the money to pay that little debt all along, the dumbass just decided he didn’t want to. which ties to issues with the lack of control over himself and his life that are part of the bonus info), all while Mordechai is just standing there like ??????????
at some point, of course, he has to run into Jonah too. and that’s when Barnabas realises that huh, he’s far less hurt and angry than he’d thought. literally all he can feel is glad that Jonah’s doing ok. again, barely any fucks given. he’d been avoiding Jonah because. it was hard to think of seeing him and feeling the sorrow he’d imagined he’d feel but. nothing. and Jonah, not having realised Barnabas was alive (not having Looked, as he hadn’t Looked at him in years), is a little bit Confused. and confused means curious, so they end up talking. eventually. it’s pretty awkward tbh, with the whole Situation and Jonah not being all that fond of the Rot, but soon enough it feels almost like none of that had happened. and it’s. weird. for both of them. but it’s nice to see each other doing well after literal years without talking so.
so now. this rb comes from what is by far the most horribly self-indulgent part of this au. another headcanon of mine is, when the institute was but a dream in Jonah’s little head, he’d offered Barnabas to work with him. but back then Barnabas hadn’t even entertained the idea of believing in the supernatural. it wasn’t real, and if it was he didn’t care. now tho things are a little but different aren’t they. so he shows up at the institute one day like hey Jonah my darling my sweetheart love of my life :D is that offer still standing :D just out of curiosity :D and out if curiosity Jonah ends up letting him stay (bc tbh I doubt Mordechai would give two shits about Barnabas or what he does once he’s been paid what he’s owed).
so one day let’s say some other avatars attack either the institute or just Jonah himself as he’s doing his thing. and Barnabas happens to be there for it. and he just absolutely rocks their shit. fills them up with bugs. gives them every disease ever. and that’s when Jonah realises that oh that’s right. this guy is a whole ass avatar. who serves the fear of disease. and could give me every disease ever whenever he wanted. hey that’s a little bit scary! and also a little bit hot! but of course Barnabas would sooner kill himself and all of his bugs (little ones <3) before hurting Jonah.
years later Jonah tells Barnabas about the whole ritual plan, expecting Barnabas to be at least a little bit unsure about it, but, again, Barnabas has very little to care about. as long as he can keep his loved ones safe the rest of the world can go fuck itself. not like the world has ever done anything for him anyway.
now if I get really really self-indulgent with this it can turn into a All of jonahbarnshawe lives until the modern day au. cue in the most toxic and also the sweetest old man yaoi you’ve ever seen in your life. and some Mordechai/Barnabas (but if I get into lonebones self-indulgence I will never shut up and this will become even worse (which is very much possible, believe me)), and lots of general chaos.
so anyway that’s most of it! I’m not proofreading this shit I’m far too lazy and it’s bad anyway so I’m just going to leave before I get killed with hammers bye :D