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sticksandbones2024-11-01 09:27 am
sticksandbonesmods) wrote in sticksandbones2024-11-01 09:27 am
Entry tags:
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.
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.
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.
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!
UPDATES
❖ None yet!
SUBMISSIONS
no subject
[It's a rough subject, so he pivots away from it and turns the conversation back to Dipper.]
So! You had stuff you wanted to ask me about?
no subject
[But for now, he is generous and lets it drop. He does have questions.]
Right, so ...I've been reading the journal and there's a ton of stuff that's missing context, mostly because this is his Journal 3. What's the deal with Trench? And... [He flips through a few more pages.] "Deerington", I guess? Both of those places come up a few times but I don't recognize them at all.
no subject
[He knows he's not as good at the whole recapping thing as Dipper and Ford, but right now he's the only one who has a semi-accurate recollection of the situation, so it's gotta be him.]
Okay, so. You kids were heading home to California and me and Ford were out on the ocean and we got sucked into this place called Deerington? It looked like a town straight out of the fifties, but it was actually the dream of some...really powerful little girl? We were there for a little bit, you and Ford at first, then me, then Mabel turned up after. The dream started crumbling after a little while though, so we took the chance to get out and move on.
[There are a lot of details missing, a lot of hardship and pain, but as far as Stan's concerned this Dipper doesn't need to know everything. Just telling him what the place is should be enough.]
Apparently "moving on" meant waking up in Trench as weird magic squid people? ...Don't look at me like that! We literally washed up on a beach as squid and when we turned back into people we found out we have blood magic now! The people there called us Sleepers and they kinda worshipped us a little? So we stayed there for a while, until--
[--until he abandoned everyone by vanishing into the ocean first. He stumbles over this part, noticeably skipping something.]
--well, we all wound up back in the ocean eventually. You woke up here first, then me and Ford showed up, and now we're waiting on Mabel.
no subject
[But here he is, also in another dimension, and he has been for a few months now. Really it's not the multiversal stuff that bothers him, it's the Squid People thing and blood magic.]
So is the blood stuff the reason you turn blue when you're flustered? The journal mentions using bloodstones to develop photos and also like? Powers? There was something about a dreamscape incident he wrote about that sounds pretty crazy.
no subject
[No one's actually told him he flushes blue, but it makes enough sense.]
But yeah, we all got different blood types. Mine's coldblood, so it's blue and I can do tricks now--!
[In case Dipper still thinks it sounds nuts, Stan twiddles his fingers and lets blue flames dance around them. Ta da!]
Yours is paleblood, so you can do a lot of stuff with dreams and the mindscape and--
[Wait. Wait...]
...wait. Dreamscape incident? What?
no subject
[He opens his mouth to answer him only to realize, at that very moment, that he just accidentally snitched on his other self. Stan doesn't know about this. It happened before this uncles got here if the dates are right.]
[FUCK.]
Oh. Uh. That. So you um. [He clears his throat.] It's probably nothing worth bringing up, hey uh. So what about Grunkle Ford?
no subject
He's got darkblood. It's sparkly and he can mess around with reality but he doesn't do it much.
[He's still got his fire on, moving his hand around as he talks. Left, right, left, hoping that Dipper's attention follows it--
--and if it does, he's going to make a sudden grab for the journal, with his free hand. Bullshit it's nothing worth bringing up.]
no subject
Hey! Give it back Grunkle Stan!
[He is not above reaching across this table to try and wrestle it away from him, this sure looks hilarious since they're at the Cafe still. I hope Passenger enjoys his soaps.]
no subject
Not a chance! Look, I don't make a habit of snooping through his magic diary, but if there's something going on with his magic then it's for his own good! It-- ugh, it's too convoluted to explain, but that kinda thing can get a lot worse really fast.
[He remembers arriving, and seeing black feathers sticking out of his Dipper's hair. He knows some of the cause by now, but he's always suspected there was more under the surface. Right now's the perfect time to take advantage of the chance he's got here to figure out more about it.]
no subject
[Yeah, the fire is too hot, which is what really helps him not be super freaked out by it honestly. Bill's fire felt such a certain way- its clear this isn't the same. However it means he has to back off.]
[So he does, but not happily. He sits back down with his arms crossed and a sour look on his face.]
Okay but, what if he had a really good reason not to tell you!
no subject
That doesn't mean he's going to cave, of course. But he doesn't just tell him "tough luck" and start reading. He just raises an eyebrow.]
Well, you read it already, right? What's his reason for not telling? ...And not wanting us to worry about it doesn't count. Does he have another reason?
[They're supposed to be talking more, to ease the symptoms of blood corruption before they get too bad. It's a hard habit to break, especially on Stan's end, but it means it's the least valid reason Dipper could give for not wanting to share.]
no subject
Well-
[Sighs. He did read it, and he does know. He just doesn't think Stan will buy it as a good excuse now.]
No, it's ...mostly that. He didn't outright say that was why he was keeping it from you, but from what I gathered of the incident the whole thing had been...
[He taps his fingers on the table a bit anxiously.]
I think he really wanted to put it behind him.
no subject
Listen. There's...a lot I'm not gonna tell you about him and what he's been through. And about me and the Ford I'm used to, and how Sleepers work. Either you know it already from this thing-- [He waves the journal.] --or you don't, and it'll just keep you up at night for no reason.
[That directly contradicts being afraid of worrying someone being a terrible reason, but it's different and Stan knows it is. He taps his fingers on the table too, mirroring Dipper and thinking.]
What I'll say is...
[He draws it out, trying to look for something that will make this Dipper get it without giving anything away for real. He's stalling, biting his lip.]
...not telling us this kinda stuff can make him..."sick" if he does it too much. That's why not wanting to worry us isn't a way out of it - 'cause one of the things that helps is noticing and worrying and, ugh. Talking it out.
[Gross! He still doesn't like talking things out after all this time! Just this conversation is going to give him hives!!!]
no subject
[It's half joke and half deadly serious. If it's something the Pines hella don't want to do, it's that. Dipper likes to think he's better about it than most. Mabel doesn't let him get away with much, but Stan and Ford? Haha, yikes.]
[But that explanation makes sense. The Other Dipper talked about corruption a few times in the journal, marking the differences between the Forest's corruption and Sleeper Corruption but without too much explanation, only that he was worried about it. That could be the "sickness" he was talking about. Especially if he was worried about it while alone.]
Fine. You've got the journal anyway, so it's not like I can stop you. I don't get a lot of it, anyway because I've basically got a busted puzzle where someone fed half the pieces to Callan. Though, it sure is worrying just how cagey you're being about all of it.
no subject
Yeah, well, I'm allowed to be cagey with you. Perks of being your Grunkle from another timeline or whatever.
[Mostly because he's a hypocrite! But at least a little because it's a lot to dump on this Dipper at once when he's probably not even gonna remember it or be able to do anything with that information.
Anyway, enough stalling. Stan flips open the journal and starts looking for anywhere Dipper might've talked about a dreamscape incident. He's honestly skimming for specifically that, skipping past anything that isn't relevant for now. What has Dipper written about it?]
no subject
The journal, though, will tell Stan what he wants to know pretty fast. It was something that happened pretty early in his stay in the Grove. It starts with explaining how they're trapped in an underwater base with no way out and how the entire Grove is slowly going stir-crazy. Food is limited, something keeps banging against the walls of the base. The emotional feedback is starting to make Dipper feel crazy so he has to get out for a while.
He's going to go exploring in the deep using some of the diving equipment. Maybe there's some clue about their situation that can get them out of here.
The next page starts with "I fucked up. I fucked up bad."
Dipper explains that he found the lost temple of the Fallen Sun jerk down in the depths, but when he got close he got driven out by some kind of sea serpent. As he tried to escape, something got a hold of his pendent and he blacked out. He describes it as how the cursed bedroom possessed him with its lingering bad emotional energy but a THOUSAND times worse. when he woke up again, he found out his powers going out of control dragged the entire grove into a dreamscape. Several people had to help Alcaid find and wake him up, and that it almost sent him into Beasthood because he has a new scar around his eye.
It was a huge mess, but so far no ones come to kick him out of the Grove or banish him or whatever. He's going to make an entry in the netbook about it. Try and apologize. What a mess...]
no subject
He tries his best to keep his face neutral as he goes, but it's hard not to feel a ton of retroactive worry for Dipper. No wonder the kid was so surprised when he told him everyone had great things to say about him...and no wonder he was starting to corrupt.
When Dipper returns, Stan snaps the journal shut and slides it back to him.]
Alright, I got what I needed out of it.
[Which means Dipper can just have it back now, like it was no big deal at all.]
no subject
[As Dipper comes back, he passes him a suspicious look but he takes the journal back.]
Yeah? Really?
[Hm. Is it his business to ask about it? He wants to. He wants to know a lot more about what's going on with them but he feels strangely out of place.]
...Is it bad or ...you mentioned he could get sick from keeping it from you.
no subject
He could, sure. But this gives me more intel incase anything does go wrong. An extra puzzle piece, y'know? That way...
[His face falls a little as he trails off. He sighs.]
...that was if it starts bothering him and he decides not to tell me about it, I still might know how to help.
[Because the truth is, Stan doesn't expect his Dipper to tell him about it out of the blue. Why would he? But these things linger and fester and eventually they're hard to come back from on your own.]
Anyway! [Sudden tone change! He's Fine!] I'm keeping my mouth shut for once, but if you really wanna know more about it you should see if he's written anything about it in there. It'd be Corruption, or Beasthood.
[He'll worry less if he has something to research like a nerd, and maybe this whole thing will be over by the time he puts it all together.]
no subject
[If all this ends up reversing and they all go back to their timelines, he'll be sure to leave this other him a note.]
Alright, fine. I'll look into it and see if he left me any clues.
[A pause, where to steer this so it isn't too awkward.]
So... you guys really spent a bunch of years together, huh? I'm a little jealous.
no subject
Jealous? Really? Don't tell me you didn't wind up coming back to Gravity Falls!
[He isn't sincerely worried about that. Dipper and Mabel would always come back, just like he and Ford were always going to come back and see them. ]
But uh, yeah. It's definitely been a few years now! Weird to even think about it, honestly...sometimes it feels like you kids just got off the bus, y'know?
[What do you MEAN they're teenagers now?!]
no subject
Of course we do, but it's like, you know. Only on the summers and sometimes holiday breaks. We still have to do the annoying stuff like go to school.
[There's a pause while he thinks about something. Something occurs to him and he suddenly looks like he's debating bringing this up.]
...Huh. Out of uh, curiosity, do you know exactly when Mabel and I left home? I know it sounds like sometime after the summer in Gravity Falls but do you know the exact point?
no subject
[He hadn't been thinking about it before, but now that this Dipper's pointed it out, it's pretty obvious the dynamic between them is different now. He can't really pinpoint the exact moment things changed, but they really have. He's watched Dipper grow up in real time, instead of just at breaks from school.]
If it makes you feel any better, I still made you go to school in Deerington. Shoplifted a bunch of school supplies and everything! So the other you didn't get off that easy.
cw: emeto mention
No, that's the same. Obviously I didn't get interdimensionally kidnapped until a few months ago so Mabel and I just, you know, got off the bus and went back to our lives.
[Dipper fidgets a bit with the journal thinking about what this means. Stan will be able to tell there's something he's not saying.]
I'm sure he hated that, but it would be kind of weird to just stop going to school at thirteen I guess. Not gonna lie, I'm kind of enjoying the break here, but the longer I go, the more it feels like I'm gonna wake up one day to being a year behind on school work and that anxiety is enough to make me wanna barf.
cw: emeto mention
Ha! Don't barf over it! School's bad enough as it is without letting it get under your skin while you're on an extra long summer vacation. There's plenty to worry about around here without all that.
[This is probably not as reassuring as Stan thinks it is.]
Besides, school's not all it's cracked up to be anyway. I mostly made you go because you needed something that was actually normal there and you needed to go hang out with kids your own age. But if you turn up back home and you're behind? Then you're behind, big whoop! I didn't even graduate high school and things worked out for me in the end! So whatever happens with that, you'll figure it out. You're a smart kid.
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