sticksandbones | [POST-MORTEM] not to blame

[POST-MORTEM] not to blame

Who: Loop & others
What: Loop doing Loop things
When: October 5th ~ 14th (and probably onward to the end of the month)
Where: Locations™
Warnings: hello depression spiral my old friend.... talk of murder/dead kids, suicidal thoughts, ISAT and GF spoilers, will update if needed!

After everything that happened on the 4th, it's not long before Loop's cozy new camp is also left abandoned. The cozy pillows remain for awhile, perhaps, but Loop is nowhere to be found near it for the rest of the month.

... and they're not at their old tree, either, if anyone decides to check. There's slash marks in the ground, here, and deep in the tree's bark, swathes off willowy branches sheared from the curtain surrounding it. How long has it been like that?

Regardless, they don't plan on being an easy person to find.

((using this as a catch-all instead of attacking like a dozen inboxes maybe, so hit me up

BlueFlewFedUQueen/discord/PMs/etc if you want to do something with Loop!!))

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[It's late in the evening by the time Loop shows up. They only vaguely knew where Dipper and the grunkles lived, anyway, and it took awhile to decide that's where they were even going...

But! Here they are. Standing outside their boarded-up door like a lamppost. They give it three little knocks.]

[It's definitely not the worst place to go if Loop's looking to keep a low profile. The Pines live just north of everything else, a little out of the way. Kind of hard to accidentally stumble on anyone out here.

At first no one answers, but no one's answering because Loop's knocking on a boarded up front door. There's a muffled "hang on, hang on--" from inside followed by the most dramatic-sounding groan. Then that's followed by some clicking sounds to their right as Stan undoes the locks, and suddenly Stan's at the side door, leaning a little heavy on the frame but trying to look really casual about it.]

Heh. Long time no see.

[It feels better than immediately addressing...well, everything else.]

[They don't look especially happy, but they are... slightly less miserable, maybe? Upon seeing the familiar face. They shuffle awkwardly on their feet, not really meeting his eyes. Their voice is quiet when they finally speak, a bit strained.]

... I don't have anywhere to stay. Feels like I'm asking to get killed sleeping outside now.

Can... can I stay here? Just for a little while. I can sleep on the floor, I'll try not to be a bother, I... have nightmares, sometimes, but I'll deal with it, just—

[They don't know where else to go, when anyone could be another copy. And it feels like they still barely know Stan, and he's grieving, and he probably doesn't want to deal with them on top of everything else, but... they don't know who else to trust, besides the one person who believed in them.]

[Stan lets them explain what they need to and get it all out, and his face falls in quiet concern. He barely knows them either, but after everything that happened what is he gonna do, say no? A lot of this strikes a familiar chord in Stan, more than he'd care to admit.

So, he steps aside and gestures for Loop to follow.]

Sure, c'mon in. You don't have to sleep on the floor either; there's plenty of space here. It's safe.

[Even if they feel weird about borrowing a bed there's at least armchairs or couches they could lay on.

Once they're both inside, Stan locks the bolts and musters up a weak laugh.]

I knew it was you, y'know. Sun doesn't usually shine through the boards this late at night.

[They feel and look like a mess, but they simply nod in quiet acceptance when he gestures to let them in. Once they're inside... some of the anxiety melts away, at least. They hug their arms to themselves, looking around idly as he locks up the door. They're safe here. They can trust Stan. They can trust him.

They can't trust anyone else, but they don't think about that part. Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it...]

It does make it difficult to be stealthy. [They huff a noise halfway between a laugh and a sigh, which is as close as they're gonna get right now. Distractions are fine. Their tree might as well be a Grove landmark...] It's a lot easier hiding during the day, anyway. A little too obvious once the stars come out.

Edited 2024-10-15 06:18 (UTC)

[There's a lot to look at already, even though the house is brand new. The Pines had found it half-burnt (or, well. Dipper had and then showed Stan and Ford when they got there) and have since gotten it repaired, but a lot of items from their supposed past lives remained - photographs, knick-knacks, the kind of things you would find in a well-lived in home.]

Yeah, I bet. Won't be a problem way out here though.

[If their reaction bothers him, it doesn't show. Distractions are what he would want anyway, and they're both a little too tired to put the full mask on at the moment.]

Let's see, uh. There's an armchair...Ford's probably not using his room tonight...heck honestly you could even borrow my room if you wanted? Odile kinda broke me in half and if I lay all the way down I'm gonna get stuck like that.

[It's very normal to joke about getting your ribs crushed, right? If not, too bad, Loop will have to get used to it!]

[Looks very lived in. Homey! They try to ignore the pinpricks of envy in their chest, in light of recent events. Don't think about it, Loop.

They're listening, but they perk up to full attention only at the last part. Ah, right. That does sound like something the Researcher would do. And it's something they can help with, something to focus on besides everything else, so...]

Sorry, I guess I could've warned you better. [but they did try to! Not a lot of time to explain her Craft to him, in the moment. They're glad he's still in one piece.] I can do a bit of Healing Craft. Hold still.

[They cup one hand as if making an invisible toast, then pour a sprinkle of Craft energy over Stan. Not the most effective heal, but it'll make the ribs a little less crushed, maybe. They pause to check their hand after casting with it, squinting slightly, but if anything is wrong they don't comment—they go back to crossing their arms loosely.]

An armchair is fine. I've slept in worse places before. [They would ask about somewhere with windows, but considering they could see how boarded up the place was from outside... yeah, no point asking. They'll have to deal with it.]

Edited (words) 2024-10-15 07:55 (UTC)

[Well! They definitely have! A lot to unpack!! But mostly, they just feel bad and worried about freaking out at night, like what if they do something weird while half-asleep... they don't want to get kicked out of the Pines' house, but honestly, it's kind of the worst place ever for their nerves. Boarded up windows, no easy way to stand in the grass for awhile, they can go on the roof but it's no safer there than it is under a tree...

So. Therapy! Is a thing, that has been suggested to them before. They recall stardust shoving a survey in their hands in their first few weeks, which they half-heartedly half-filled and then decided never to think about again... but maybe it can still help them. Maybe they can at least be a little less broken, this way.

They can try it, just this once, and if it doesn't work then they'll never try it again. Easy.

... Anyway. They are here, in the therapy building, looking for Mizuki! Where's the Mizuki at.]

Edited 2024-10-15 07:54 (UTC)

[ Unfortunately, no one has put a bell on Mizuki since losing his voice. "Where's Mizuki?" is a significantly harder game to play now that he's lost his voice.

Fortunately, not for Loop! Mostly because the faint sounds of Pac-Man will catch their attention as Mizuki plays within one of the many piles of stuffed animals in the lobby/lounge. He does put it down when he realizes that Loop is, in fact, not lost, and probably meant to be here??

He gives a very quick sign before he has to pull his phone out. He figures it's universal enough. ] « Hi. You okay? »

[It's a little past noon, and Loop has given up the chase. Could they have caught up if they hadn't wasted time with the Researcher? Maybe... but it doesn't feel like it matters. Siffrin is dead, either way. What would killing a fake do to bring him back? Why go after the Fighter, who wouldn't believe them? Why care about any of this at all?

They end up back at the inn, staring at footprints in the grass again. Eventually they start climbing, past the still-broken window and up to the roof. There is where they remain, for now, knees pulled up to their chest and staring off into the distant trees.]

Edited 2024-10-15 17:54 (UTC)

[They have no idea what he's messing around with but yeah, they can find him. The hollow little laugh at that question probably isn't reassuring.]

Oh, absolutely not. Why else would I be here?

[Shit's fucked, Mizuki.]

[Stan does hold still (though admittedly, he's been trying to keep kind of still anyway, with the injury), but he looks up curiously at what Loop is doing with their hands. Whatever they did, it actually does make him feel better? Somehow? Stan bends in a couple different directions and hey! His range of motion is-- ow, wait, that one's still bad from sitting all day.]

Oof-- ha, back to just the regular old man pains!

[He rights himself and laughs - and he can actually laugh now, instead of having to go easy on it so he doesn't make his chest move!]

Thanks. Broken ribs are the worst, especially when ice packs don't work on you anymore.

[Does he elaborate on that? No, of course not! Why would he do that? Instead he just waves for Loop to follow him to the living room, where the chair he'd been sitting in is. It's worn out, like it was once well-loved, but Stan wouldn't know anything about that. He did add the pillow for his back though, which Loop can take or leave.]

Heh. Yeah, same here. Really makes a shitty old mattress feel like you're staying at the Ritz after a while.

[ He just kind of flops out of the plushie pile, giving a small stretch, then waves for Loop to follow him into the office at the back. It's painted calming greens with plants filling the room and fidget toys on the desk. Something a little less medical, since Mizuki would likely go insane in that regards.

Mizuki has a seat in the chair and gestures to the couch, pulling out his phone to type. ]

You can shut the door and have a seat when you re ready. Is there something specific bothering you?

[Boy is there.

... but that's not what they're here for, or at least not what they think they need right now. Too much, too soon, too heavy to just dump on a stranger. They take a seat, hands clasped in their lap.]

I've been having a lot of nightmares lately. Do you know a good way to deal with those?

[They don't question it, yeah. Maybe it's to do with the fire thing? They follow behind him, taking in more of the new surroundings. Cozy here, too...]

I got used to sleeping on the ground, so pretty much anything is a step up from that. [They only had a tree in stardust's loops and barely slept at all in their own... everything before that is a blur, but they don't imagine a traveller with no name or home to speak of had many options. A week in the clinic sure did feel like luxury.

They pause, considering the chair... they should probably thank him for letting them stay here, let him get back to his night, but.]

Thank you. For believing me. [it means a lot, when not even their former friends would back them up] ... I let him get away. Sorry. I... both of them deserved better than this.

[They should've avenged them. Should've taken out the fake when they had the chance.]

Yeah, well. You were the only one making any sense anyway. There wasn't any reason not to believe you.

[There's this awkward moment where they're both standing around and no one takes the chair, and Stan finally moves to a different piece of furniture in the room - a little table with a couple of chairs in the corner. They're not good chairs for sleeping in, but they're good for a midnight chit-chat, which is apparently what's going to happen.]

You don't gotta apologize - Odile got away from me too. But hey, I'm glad she didn't wind up, y'know. Murdering you? ...Enough people died for one day as it is.

[It's the closest he gets to mentioning his own grief. He's been trying to keep it contained, since the odds are still good that Dipper will come back as a squid and everything will be fine, but that doesn't mean the whole thing doesn't still hurt - especially with the knowledge that someone murdered Dipper on purpose. But for now, he'll just bury that.]

--Plus if you hadn't wound up fighting that knockoff in the hall, I would've wound up going on a wild goose chase all day! I knew it was someone in the room, but we were still trying to figure out who. You basically brought the culprit right to us!

[Yeah, okay, midnight chit-chat it is. They take a seat, leaning an elbow on the table. It's not the most pleasant topic to discuss, but. Maybe it'll help, to process at least some of it now while it's fresh on the mind.]

Honestly, it really was just a guess at first. If he'd acted better I probably would've sided with him. [but he didn't trust them. Ironic, since he made such a fuss about Loop not trusting him.] There were footprints outside the window, too... and I didn't know any of that stuff about the camera. You would've figured it out on your own without me. He did a poor job of hiding everything.

Pfft. You still saved us a bunch of time. And since I don't actually know Siffrin that well, I wouldn't've figured out he was a copy on my own. Someone who knows him needed to go "Hey! He doesn't act like that!"

[If Loop is going to admit that he would have sided with him, Stan can admit that he was fully prepared to wreck Siffrin even if he was the real Siffrin. Grief does some weird things to you, and they both went a little off their rocker.]

By the way...

[Stan taps his fingers against the table, trying to decide if this is actually a good idea or not. But eh, fuck it, he already started saying it. And it's not like Loop has to answer.]

...what was the whole "I stopped being Siffrin a long time ago" thing about anyway? Seemed a little too real to be a bluff.

That's... fair I guess. [Their shoulders slump, relenting on that point. Okay, they did help.] I do know him best.

[The next question still surprises them, if only for a moment. Because yeah, they did say that pretty clearly in the hall there... but they were so focused on everyone else and their reactions that they kind of forgot? That Stan was also right there??

... but the surprise passes, and they just laugh.]

Yeah, we're the same person. Were the same person, anyway.

He got to keep the face. [and the name, and basically everything else.]

[Surprise! Stan was right there and actually listening!

It isn't that Stan's not surprised, but there were only so many things that could have meant and this is one of them. Granted, it's the most unbelievable one, but...weirder things have happened. There's a scale in his head from normal to cookie person, with Sleeper right in the middle, and news that Loop and Siffrin are the same person is like...at the three quarter mark. Weird on that kind of scale, but not the weirdest!

The wince is sympathetic at least.]

Eesh. So...what, is it an alternate dimensions thing? Or more of a not-so-literal "I lost my whole life in a fight with my twin" thing? And why'd you have to lose your face?

[If either he or Ford had to give up their face forever for some reason, Ford would have to fight him for it fair and square.]

[They sigh, leaning back in the chair. It's not something they've ever dreamed of talking about to anyone, but... it's kind of freeing? Like a weight has been lifted off of them. Talking about this secret they've clung onto for so long, refusing to let even stardust hear the truth until he discovered it on his own, like it's an ordinary fact about them everyone should know.

They're not bold enough to be that open, but since he already knows the gist of it...]

It's a long story. [but they have some time to kill, and it doesn't seem like either of them is eager to get to sleep tonight.]

The short version is... timeloop? I was stuck for a long time, so I got desperate. Made a wish that I ended up regretting. I got turned into this, and stardust took my place.

It came with a few perks, but mostly downsides. Didn't even get me out of the timeloop! I still had to wait until stardust figured it out. It probably took us a collective few years to break out of, if I had to guess. Definitely more than one.

[Stan nods along. Timeloop is a good enough reason. He's never gotten stuck in one, but the concept is easy enough without the details of how it worked or what they were doing.

At the end of the night, that's not really what this whole thing's about anyway. It's about commiserating.]

It didn't even work?! Wow, you've got some lousy luck...

[This is the part where a normal person would tell Loop how sorry they are this happened to them, or how they wish things hadn't happened to them this way.

But...Stan's always been a weirdo.]

...I get it, y'know. I mean, I've never been literally stuck in time before and obviously I don't have a star for a head, but...doing the same things over and over without getting anywhere? And not telling anyone who you actually are? I did that for over thirty years!

[Did, past tense. He doesn't have anything to hide anymore - at least, not about how he lied to everyone for half his life.]

[Timekeeper has... managed to miss this whole thing. On the plus side, she's found one half of her Sonic Embroider again, buried somewhere random at the edge of the woods. How it got like that is a mystery for another time... she's still brushing dirt and polishing smudges off it as she walks back towards the inn, and it isn't until the black, bony dog walking with her stops dead in his tracks and growls that she looks up.

...Is that window broken? Hmm. More importantly, she spies a familiar glow up on the roof. She thought Loop had a new space, now? Something feels off, and it's an easy choice to speak to the person she knows who's right here, first.

She pats Sidereal on the shoulders, then points to the ground. He sits back on his haunches, staying obediently on watch, and Timekeeper steps onto the Embroider like it's some kind of hoverboard, swooping upwards to step onto the roof and approach Loop.]

Well now, what are you doing up here of all places, looking so glum?

[They're looking pretty glum, yeah. Having your secret exposed along with the realization that your better-self was replaced and no one else seems to care will do that to you. They look up at her tiredly.

... hah, wouldn't it be awful if she was a doppelganger, too? That'd just be their luck. They sigh, unfolding themselves to lean back on their palms.]

If you're another copy, just get it over with and kill me. I don't care anymore. No one will bother looking for me anyway.

[So, you know! Having a normal one!]

[Ah, hm, yeah, that's... something. Timekeeper tilts her head questioningly, taps her chin, then sits down herself in one smooth motion, legs crossed as she sets the abused scissor half down next to her.]

I did notice a few spats with apparent doubles... [That she more or less ignored because it wasn't anyone she immediately cared about, oops!] ...So have you encountered yours, then? Hm! At the least, I do not have to worry that this is really you. I doubt a copy would offer to die, or believe that lie so deeply.

[She would look. Siffrin would look. Any of Siffrin's friends would look, she'd wager, they're all frustratingly mushy enough for that - well, if none of them are imposters, anyway.

Timekeeper isn't going to proclaim that she's not a double, because what would be the point? A double would say they're not a double. Instead, she snaps her fingers, and after a moment Continuum Cog zips up, having arrived from somewhere else in town. It clicks curiously, then in alarm as it sees Loop, hovering down to nudge at them in concern.]

As for me, would it do to have Cog vouch?

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 3

[POST-MORTEM] not to blame

[October 4th] FOR STAN

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

[October 6th] after 3000 years.......... therapy time.

no subject

[October 4th] for TK

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject