So who is Varney? Who is Alcyone?

Varney is an androgynous candy demon with enormous claws and a love of art. Varney's preferred pronoun is "they," being a gestalt of many people who died in the forest dreaming of escaping an oppressive small town environment. The collection of energy started within the coalfields, where they stayed for some time, and picked up a thick Appalachian accent and the habit of collecting coal figurines as a result. They are fascinated with how it is formed and the process of its extraction. “Dead stones workers dig from their graves.” They have a fascination with its utility of the corpse past death, the scale of time it represents for how long something has been dead, how old a graveyard is, all part of a major fascination with geology and funeral rites. Varney feels that the earth is sacred, and has great reverence for nature. Of course being a combination of many dead souls that may have been incorporated into a forest spirit, they feel a great connection to the ecosystem.

They advise people who stumble upon their Hobbit hole like cave. Their attachment to nature does not mean that they don't appreciate modern comforts. Most who go there do not expect Varney to have a VHS cassette player, and less so that they prefer it to DVDs. Snack foods are also a greatly appreciated gift that are occasionally given in return for advice or what some have perceived as protection from the forest spirits. Their favorite snack foods are Pitch Black Mountain Dew, barbecue chips, and grape taffy.

It is highly probably that Varney's appearance of being a cutesy mix of a rabbit, kangaroo, and assorted types of candy comes from the fact that many of those who compose their form died as children, leading them to feel very protective of children they find, to the point of vicious violence towards those who would be abusive. To illustrate an example of their humor and easygoing nature, as well as part of their past: "I wanted to be a kangaroo when I grew up. In that respect, I guess I'm doing better than my peers did for their goals. Maybe drowning in the river was the best thing to ever happen to me."

Alternately, I may go with Alcyone. Alcyone is in her early 20s and working as a projectionist. While very clever and sometimes sarcastic, she frequently comes across as in a world of her own. This is largely due to her somewhat shaky grasp on reality. She has been accompanied by the monster under her bed from the time she was about 11, and they've gotten along perfectly well having a similar sense of humor. Her companion, Fachtna, has now moved into her closet in her new one bedroom apartment. Having been institutionalized for a short time, she now knows not to talk about her "roommate" with others or any other supernatural beings she sees, or may in fact be hallucinating. She is kind of insecure, finding her own place in the world, finally free of doctors' orders and the watchful eye of her helicopter parents. Sometimes this insecurity manifests as a tendency to present herself as tougher than she really is and a somewhat aggressive or over the top manner.