sticksandbones | EVENT 018

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EVENT 018

LIKE BRANCHES ON A TREE

A WINTER WONDERLAND

For a brief time, the world seems brighter; the sun pokes through the clouds more, and the gloomy atmosphere of the constant overcast days lessens ever so slightly. The sky seems bigger, brighter… but, it is the end of autumn as we know it and with the change of leaves comes bitter frost. The change is practically overnight — one morning grants pretty frosted windows and pleasantly crunchy leaves underfoot, and the next the world is being softly blanketed in snow.

Heimr stands at the window of the General Store, and every time he sees someone not dressed for the weather, he immediately calls them in. No one leaves without a proper pair of winter shoes and a coat, and the more you try to decline, the more he adds. Hats. Scarves. Gloves. Snow pants. Just make it easy on the both of you. Although, if you do feel you need that for the weather, he’ll oblige … And at least everything is nice to look at alongside being high quality.

Those with the bone ring may hear childish giggling as they leave, see the flick of a fox tail out of the corner of their eyes — but Plum is content to stay in the shadows still.

Winter frost and the falling snow seem to spread everywhere — Callan’s lake already has ice forming a thin shell on top while Terho’s cabin is blanketed in white. The river water is crisp and clear as ever, but the cold is bone deep and the Guardian tires from it already. Even the beach seems washed over with the cold.

Winter is here, and the cutting chill already tells you one thing: this won’t be an easy one.

WHISPERS IN THE WOODS

As the weather worsens, the forest and fog seem to open in sprawling paths. Some are inviting, a warm feeling in the air and even plant life poking through the snow still, an early spring! Some are alluring, wind beckoning and urging you forward. Come home, it says. Come home.

Even if you know it’s a bad idea, others might not — will you really let Mamika wander into the woods alone? Not that it’s truly her. The forest isn’t above tricks to get what it wants, and will lure you down these paths with illusions and mirages, the sounds of voices you know and love calling for you, for help, for anything and anyone — and maybe that is a trick, but can you really risk it?

Regardless, once you’re on the path, there’s no going back. It leads to a dead end and the fog closes around you. You’re trapped, alone in the woods, and all eyes are on you.

A DIFFERENT “ME”

… But only for a few hours. After that, you’re free to go, unharmed and unscathed. It’s just that… are you really you? Your clothes are different. Your memories too. Maybe now you remember making a different choice at a major crossroad. Maybe you didn’t save them. Maybe you did. Maybe everything went wildly wrong, and maybe it actually went right. But you’re different now, despite remembering your life in the abandoned Grove and all the people here clearly.

As you wander back off the path into town, you know this is right. You’ve been trapped here for however long with the people here, and maybe you no longer love them like this, but you know them, know yourself, and know what’s happened.

You’re just from a different walk of life, now.

SPARK NOTES

CLICK TO EXPAND!

A WINTER WONDERLAND

Winter has come, and during the light snowstorms, Heimr is lovingly forcing everyone into winter clothing. The more you say no, the more clothing you get. Be warm or else!

WHISPERS IN THE WOODS

Mysterious pathways open up in the woods. Should you go into them as they tempt you with murmurs and whispers, you'll be trapped for a few hours by a fog wall you can't pass through.

A DIFFERENT “ME”

But don't worry, you'll come out fine in the end - just with a few memories, or maybe even your physical body, changed entirely. Everyone will still recognize you as "you", and you'll still recognize the others... but maybe you know something has changed. Or maybe you don't.

OOC

Everyone thank Aspen for this month's player plot! Enjoy playing your AUs (or not) and get ready for winter. OOC Plotting Lives Here if you'd like to plot anything out!

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[Speaking of someone who's acting weird. And like. Looks weird, too. Here's Dipper walking up to refresh his coffee. Dipper with both his eyes, clad in a hat that none of the pines have probably seen in years, and somehow more awkwardness than he had before. He's uh, not allowed in the kitchen. He's allowed to bus tables! and take orders! But he is not allowed in the back after a mishap with the ovens. Haha, don't worry about it.]

Hassling the customers won't get you out of dining-and-dashing again, you know.

[He still fills his cup anyway. Like the threat really isn't there, but it's normal for them to banter about this.]

[The banter part is normal, sure, but a confused look crosses Stan's face for a second. He has absolutely no idea what Dipper's talking about, but after an uncomfortable beat he tries to keep the bit going while steering it away from the weird assumption that he didn't pay.]

Pfft. I don't need to dine and dash just to hassle the other customers! I hassle them all the time!

[You know, after paying. Which he did. He paid! He didn't even haggle!]

[Yeah, see, that look kind of unsettles him a bit and he's not sure what to make of it.]

You've got me there.

[And he knows he paid, since he took the order. After a moment, Dipper glances over at the rest of the Cafe and deems it quiet enough to take a seat opposite of him for a moment.]

That uh, thing with Great Uncle Ford is pretty weird, right?

[Things are uncomfortable for exactly three seconds, until Dipper sits down across from him. Then it's easy to fall right into the complaining he'd already been doing.]

Right?! I mean, don't get me wrong - your whole thing is weird too.

[He waves that off with a hand though. Not the point!]

But it's like I never even existed to him! At least you didn't go and completely lose any of us. I don't even know how much of it is the forest, 'cause I came back just fine!

Yeah, yeah, I know. You've already said it. We'll come back to that.

[Dipper also waves it off. It's not important!!]

Grunkle Ford acting like he doesn't have a twin is insane, but are you really sure something isn't weird with you? Maybe it's just less obvious.

Pfft. If something was wrong with me, we would've figured it out by now! I lost my whole memory before, so I'm pretty sure you guys would've noticed if something was off.

[He pauses, realizing what he said, and then his shoulders fall a bit.]

...Or, well. You would've noticed.

[Since Ford doesn't even know who he is right now.]

[Hm.]

[See, that's the thing is, Dipper has noticed something is off. Calling attention to it has been kind of weird, so he's debating what to do from here. Sigh, he really should just rip the bandaid off, right? Maybe test the theory?]

[Dipper reaches into his wallet. His. Very normal wallet from home that has actual real money in it. Like, a couple of bucks, nothing crazy. He pulls out a five dollar bill, holds it up, and then rips it in half.]

[Stan watches Dipper curiously when he fishes out his old wallet, but...what Dipper does with it doesn't clear anything up at all. He gives Dipper a look, as if he's the weird one here.]

Uh. ...Okay? What was that all about?

[He's confused for sure, but not upset over it. Why would he be? It's Dipper's money; he can waste it if he wants.]

You're kidding, right?

[Stan might be confused, but Dipper's looking at Stan like he just grew a third head.]

I once watched you flip an entire buffet table for a dollar. The second day Mabel and I were in Gravity Falls we got arrested because your family bonding idea was counterfeiting. Does none of this ring a bell? Grunkle Stan, you taught a dinosaur how to pickpocket!

[None of it rings a bell. ...Well, one thing rings a bell.]

I didn't teach Compy that! He figured it out all on his own and then we had to get rid of him 'cause he was pick-pocketing the tourists!

[The rest of it though? Not a clue.]

Anyway, it'd take a lot more than a dollar to make me go around flipping tables. ...I think I flipped one over a piece of bacon on a string once though? And what're you talking about? Second day I took you kids on a joyride to see the town and then all of a sudden Blubs and Durland were throwing us in the county jail for "evading arrest" and "trying to set a world record for most traffic violations at once".

[Said with finger quotes, as though he doesn't think those are real crimes...even though one is a real crime and the other is a series of probably real crimes.]

[Okay, so, he might be right about that. It was long enough ago he isn't sure and he'd need to cross reference his notes. The rest, though...no. No, it was definitely a dollar on a string. He made that plan!! And the other one sounds so wildly different from his memory of the events.]

How did your run on Cash Wheel go, then? Out of curiosity.

[He holds his hands together and raises an eyebrow.]

Oh, that? Pretty good! I won something like...a couple hundred thousand?

[He doesn't even remember the exact number. Who is this man.]

They give you a chance to double it at the end but I just took what I had and left with it. More importantly, I crushed your sister in that best boss contest! Ha! She wore that loser shirt under her sweater every day for the rest of the summer!

[The stakes were really only high for Stan in that one, if she could get away with just wearing it as a T-shirt under her many, many sweaters.]

Yeah, that's not at all how that actually went! You went double or nothing and Mabel totally won the bet. She made you do an apology dance and everything!

[A pause.]

She definitely let you be boss again, though. Running the shack was way more than she bargained for.

[WAIT.]

Wait, so if you walked out of there with that much money what did you do with it?

Ugh, that sounds terrible! Glad it didn't actually happen like that!

[And he laughs, which is probably a little mean, but it feels better to insist he's the one in the right here.]

And oh, y'know. Since Mabel didn't actually make that much it just kinda evened out the profits. Plus some of it got lost to taxes when I cashed out, so it wasn't even as much as it looked like it was on TV. It definitely wasn't anything huge or life-changing. Everything just went back to normal!

[But he got to feel like a winner for a few minutes and that's what matters!]

Hm.

[Pulls out his journal and starts writing stuff down.]

So, even though you won't admit it, I think it's pretty clear what's different about you. You don't care about money nearly as much as you did before, and even some memories surrounding it are totally different from mine.

[Stan throws his hands up in the air, all dramatics but admittedly very much like himself.]

There's nothing to admit! Your memories are different too and Ford can't be a tiebreaker anymore, so how do you know it isn't part of your messed up memories, huh? Maybe I'm fine!

[In his defense, missing memories are still a bit of a sore spot for him.]

You see, it's funny you ask that. It seems to me like we need some kind of proof of record that isn't tied to our memories.

[And Dipper very nonchalantly pulls out a journal. "His" journal. He sets it on the table.]

This is the journal I found in my room. It's definitely mine, but I don't recognize a lot of what's written in here, and it's stuffed with photos I don't recognize, and it's numbered higher than the one I remember writing in before we went into the forest.

Edited 2024-11-14 05:44 (UTC)

[Stan leans over and looks - he hasn't taken a look at Dipper's journal beyond anything he's actively chosen to show him. After all, it's not like he's needed it to save family stranded in the multiverse. The purpose of it is clear now though, and familiar.]

...Right. So, it'll know the stuff we don't.

[He doesn't say it, but Dipper has enough of the same memories to know - it's basically like Mabel's scrapbook. It's enough to make Stan calm down a little. Whatever's in there will probably be proof. That being said, this Dipper's been carrying it around, so Stan raises an eyebrow at him.]

Did you already look through it?

Of course. With how weird everyone's been acting, as soon as I found it I knew it would tell me something. It is missing a lot of context without the first two journals, though.

[He flips it open. He's careful to remove some of the photos jammed in it.]

I've got a few questions to ask you about it, actually, since your memories line up more with whats in here than with what I remember. But first...

[Flip, flip, flip, here we go.]

"September 5th, parenthesis-approximately-parenthesis, Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford seem to be settling in okay here in the Grove. Grunkle Stan's already dine-and-dashed twice from the Cafe, but I expected that, and have just been prepaying his coffee before he gets here. Passenger doesn't seem too fussed about it so it's probably fine. Speaking of which, I got a pretty sweet tip payout tonight, so I'm going to go buy that pots and pan set in Heimr's shop I had my eye on."

[Right, of course it was going to be like this. Dipper knew exactly what the truth was the whole time, and now he's going to rub Stan's face in it. His cheeks go a pale blue with embarrassment, and he drags his hand down his face.]

Alright, alright. I guess there's one thing different. Sheesh, that's lousy of me though. ...I'd say sorry but, y'know. It didn't happen to you, 'cause I paid!

[That being said, it didn't...trigger anything. It's like the photos in their new home. They're there and he can tell what happened, but nothing snaps into place the way it did with Mabel's scrapbook.]

I don't get it though. I-- [He pauses, then corrects mid-sentence:] --I remember telling you kids money ain't everything. ...There's all sorts of things money's never gonna buy you.

[From someone else, that might sound like a cheesy inspirational quote, but out of Stan's mouth is sounds sad and bitter. He shifts before it can linger too long though.]

Besides, there isn't even a real economy here! What, did I really wanna keep a couple shiny rocks or bones that bad?!

[Oh, that. That IS interesting, when Stan flushes blue. He's already gotten the sense that the Dipper who wrote this journal wasn't human, because he talks about it quite a lot in some of these entries. Some of them get into some pretty existential shit that Dipper really isn't sure what to make up, but if this Stan is from the same dimension this Dipper is, then, that makes sense, right? He logs this away.]

Well, I have a theory, because there's definitely more different about me than just memories, right?

[He waves his hand in front of his eye to punctuate that.]

I think it's possible we're all just in the wrong timeline, right now. Like, the Dipper who wrote this book and I are just. Separate iterations. Maybe its the same for you. You're not missing memories so much as you are just a different version that for whatever reason doesn't have the same money motivation the Stan I remember does.

[Of course, Dipper isn't sure what might have changed that, but something clearly went differently in his past. Sadly Stan has always been cagey about stuff like that so he literally has no idea.]

Well...yeah, I guess.

[At least, about Dipper being more different than just his memories. That should have been obvious from the start, with his mysteriously healed eye. He knew this on some level, but had just really, really wanted himself to be an exception. By the end of Dipper's explanation though, Stan's eyes widen.]

Oh. So I didn't lose anything, I just never had it?

[For some reason, that's a lot easier to deal with than the thought of him missing memories again after working so hard to put his brain back together. He frowns though, after a little more consideration.]

I mean. I dunno, it's not like I was never than kind of person about money. I just...gave on it. Grew out of it, or something.

[What a cagey answer, as expected!]

Basically. You just had different experiences than this other Stan. It's like how I've never been to this "Trench" place. I've literally just been in Piedmont until I woke up in the Grove a few months ago.

[He hums, tapping his fingers on the pages of the journal.]

So, maybe whatever it is that made you give up on it, is something that just didn't happen to the other Grunkle Stan. Do you remember what it was?

[Stan shrugs, because acting like it's no big deal will keep it from becoming a big deal and then they can just move onto all the things that are different about Dipper instead.]

Sure. I got a lucky break in my twenties, made a million dollars, and learned the hard way that money was never going to be enough for some people.

Edited 2024-11-21 06:58 (UTC)

[Huh!! Dipper feels like he is missing a lot of the picture here but. "For Some People" that does make him wonder. He knows Stan left home after the incident with Ford's project but was there actually more to it than that...?]

So, then. I guess the other Grunkle Stan never got this lucky break.

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