You've mentioned the wildlife in the Sewn Forest avoid Pretty Vanya before, especially when he tries to ask for help. Why is that? Is it something in his presence, or does his reputation precede him?
oh, yes, the quiltbeasts which inhabit the forest have pretty disgruntled reactions to vanya, ranging from mild disappointment to discomfited agitation at his presence. they won't chase him off (they can't really, he's quite solidly above their potential level of power), but they will ignore him, and most importantly, staunchly refuse to gift him with any of the winter berries he's after. admittedly he is also hesitant to outright agitate them into action, since there are A Lot Of Them. if they wanted, they could probably imitate a cucco swarm >>
in the fic itself i was kinda writing this with the assumption that not only did vanya Know they were never going to give him what he wanted, but he also probably knew Why as well, with it being kind of a distant Noodle Incident that would never be explained
now however, in the story proper, he doesn't really remember why they don't seem to like him. and they'll like him even less after he steals from them lmao
in a meta sense, the quiltbeasts owe their allegiance/existence to another pair of gods named reginaldonald and lisally. vanya only vaguely remembers lisally and doesn't remember reginaldonald at all except in very specific circumstances. they've been Away from oostal for quite some time now. the short of it is that there's immensely bad blood between the two and vanya, even now, and the quiltbeasts are only just choosing their side
