I wanna say that c!Punz got infected from a mixture of exposure and fatigue. The vines would grow in their sleep, silently whispering in their ear, promises of wealth, of chaos, of companionship. It's effective, but slow, every day the egg gets closer, Punz makes sure to clear more vines from their property.
So the Egg takes another approach. The first night Punz wakes up, heart beating rapidly, their tower deathly quiet, they think nothing of it. A flip toward the cold side of the pillow helps and soon morning comes.
The next night they wake up to their own rapidly beating heart in their ears. They try falling back asleep but the uneasiness is still there, the quiet thumping of their heart is all too much to ignore. A walk in the cool night air feels good, but the restlessness stays till morning, so Punz reasons that staying up until dark would be best.
It's days later, days of restless nights, of being woken up countless times, of being so horribly exhausted and frustrated, just wanting to wake up without the rapid rush of blood in their ears or the slight throbbing of pain behind their eyes. Its then, when Punz begins seeing things move in their peripheral vision. Its slight as first, the movement of a bush when there's no wind or animals, the outline of a spider and turning toward it to find nothing there.
It comes to a head when he's talking to Sam one day, talking quietly about the increasing troubles of the Egg and how Sam's many projects have been going. The door to the area they'd been in, seemed to have bent in on itself, twice in rapid succession, but when Punz had turned to face it, the door was as sturdy as the day it'd been built. No bending, no cracks, no sign of it having ever moved off its hinges.
Sam insists Punz get some rest after that, and Punz can only agree, too exhausted to be stubborn. That night Punz wakes up again, their limbs feeling heavy, and the room feeling too cold and too warm all at once. Their head is throbbing, too much so to form coherent thoughts, to even focus their eyes on something in the room that may help.
The past couple weeks have led up to this, Punz's inability to properly sleep, their lack of strength, their inability to be thorough in clearing vines from their property, their growing paranoia with each false movement. The Egg planned for this, it was happy to whisper to Punz, planting images in their mind, in their dreams. Did you know you don't remember a majority of dreams you have?
Punz, in their feverish state, was easily won over, finding comfort in the vines, in the whispered promises. The wealth, the chaos, the companionship, all of it, it sounded divine. How could they have ever said no? Punz was asleep for a while after succumbing to the Egg and when they woke up they felt better than they had in a long time.
(Flower anon. Idky, but I just rlly feel like the Egg would get Punz while they're asleep yknow? Idk, this turned out a lot less gory/horror-y than how I'd pictured it. Also this turned out to be so long, I am so sorry.
Smth that rlly stuck with me was when cc!Punz said that he felt naked without having his stack is golden apples and certain items, which were mostly pvp items. Honestly it'd be pretty easy to use that sense of paranoia??? against Punz. I know that wasn't technically lore, but he said he always had 'em on him, so during lore c!Punz would still have those items, and possibly more, potions from his vault and such. Idk,,,, again I'm so sorry abt how long this got
!!!!! this is so so good i love it !!!!!!
yeah the vines getting to punz while he’s asleep make so much sense, they got infected from spending so much time in that tower and they are definitely a very paranoid guy already
