sticksandbones | [Netbook] [Mid-month, a day or so after Loop's post]

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[Netbook] [Mid-month, a day or so after Loop's post]

[The handwriting on this page is distinct enough to be familiar to those who've read Timekeeper's comments before - a neat script, albeit missing some of its signature little hooks and arrows at the end of letters, and less mechanically precise than usual.]

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing well. As I've come to understand it, some of us have been lured into the woods this month and come back different. Insofar as we can tell, those who have done this appear to have swapped timelines with a different version of themselves. A little rough immediately after we all had to deal with doppelgangers, I know, but please don't panic if someone you know seems a little off.

That being said, hi! I'm Croissant Cookie. Loop tells me that the version of myself who was here before was called Timekeeper Cookie, and that she's... quite different from me. I don't know much more than that, but I'm not really sure how appropriate it would be to pry, so sorry to anyone who was expecting her instead. I also apologize for not writing this sooner - I've been quite wrapped up in getting things sorted so I can work on this timeline issue.

If you want to help, Loop asked who went into the forest on a previous page, it would be great if anyone who did could go there and answer honestly! Or just answer here if you don't want them teasing you. I won't judge, I did the same myself after all. :)

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[Siffrin squints so hard at this page in his notebook.]

You *would* be named after croissants.

Sorry, Siffrin. We Cookies can't help our main ingredients any more than you can help being made of flesh and blood. You can call me something else if you want, I don't mind a nickname!

Speaking of that, I've got some interesting stuff to show you re: timelines.

Anything at all might help, so that's definitely appreciated! I'm kind of cooped up in the clock tower right now, but feel free to drop by anytime.

Sure, thing. Give me a few to gather everything up and I'll be right over.

Awesome, I'll see you in a few! The door will be open so come on in - I can't guarantee I won't be focusing so hard I don't hear you, haha.

No worries, man. See you soon!

[True to his word, Dipper makes it over there in about half an hour. He has a bag on him with a bunch of his things stuff into it. He doesn't bother to knock with Croissant's warning, and just let's himself inside.]

Croissant?

[The workshop on the first floor has been mostly sorted by now, and Croissant has made sure everything is as organized as possible. Well, there's still that huge contraption in the corner but... she's been putting off disassembling it, honestly. It doesn't feel right to take it apart, somehow, even though it's threatening to fall apart on its own.

Right now, she's standing over the drafting desk with all her drafting tools out, hunched over what looks like some sort of blueprint in progress. The netbook is open on an easel to the side. It takes a few seconds for her to even register her name, but then she jolts to attention, glancing over her shoulder with a smile and waving Dipper in.]

Oh, hey! Come in, come in. I need a break from this, honestly, so what've you got for me?

[Honestly this place looks sick as hell, and he thinks he should come over more often so he can look at all her cool stuff. When she notices him here, he just grins and waves. He will drop his bag on the floor near her drafting table and start rummaging through it.]

Sure, thing. First, though, I do kinda wanna ask your opinion on all this. The timeline, stuff I mean. What do you make of it?

[The first thing he pulls out is a journal, though. It's the one he's always seen writing in, though Croissant might note the number on it is 3 where the one she would know this particular Dipper to have has always been labeled 2.]

[Croissant unhooks something on the underside of the drafting table, and flips a whole other adjacent desk surface out so Dipper has something to put his stuff on, swinging it around to face him and locking it in place.]

Ugh, what don't I make of it. I knew the Forest had power over time, but to find it's capable of something like this is kind of unnerving. Not to mention all the questions it raises - if there's multiple branches to the Grove's timeline, does this mean it's the same fallen god tormenting all of them? What's going to happen if one timeline succeeds and reconciles all the branches? Then again, you seem to be the Dipper I know, so is there only one alternate timeline? If so, why?

[She sighs, rubbing at her forehead, the lines under her eyes suddenly a little too visible.]

If only I could contact the rest of the TBD, we'd have this sorted nice and quickly. Suppose we've got to work with what we've got, though. Oh hey... did you get a new journal?

[Oh sweet. He will just make himself at home and start emptying his bag on the new table. The journal is obviously the big important thing here, but also, Dipper drops a nice stack of photographs, too. And also...a bottle of nail polish? Sure.]

I know from my uncle that Multiverse stuff can get pretty complicated. Adding that on top of timelines sounds like the headache from hell. Honestly, I'm trying pretty hard not to think about the existential implications of all of this.

[Dipper flips open the journal.]

Nope. This is my journal, or maybe I should say his journal. Looks like both versions of us had the same idea when going into the forest, and thought to leave it behind as a record. Anyway, I'm not surprised you noticed what's weird about it right off the bat. It's a volume higher than mine. This other mes been multiversal traveling since he was thirteen.

[He flips through a few pages that definitely start with his arrival in the Grove, but it starts by talking about Trench and where he was before. There's also pictures tucked in the pages, and he pulls a few of them out. There's a younger Dipper, maybe about thirteen wearing the lumberjack cap current Dipper is wearing right now. He's also sporting an eyepatch and seem to be taking a selfie with some kids his age at a school cafeteria.]

For it to be a trick, it's way too thorough.

Oh! Goodness, I see. That certainly would put him a journal ahead.

[She considers the photos that Dipper pulls out carefully, a bit of sadness flashing across her face as she notices the eyepatch. Whether it's time travel or dimensional travel, it always seems to be the eyes for some reason...

She reaches up to adjust the contraption on her head, retracting the gear shaped lens away from her left eye and rubbing at it. That eye is a brilliant gold with an unnerving swirl in the iris, a stark contrast to the warm brown of her right. The result of being a little too reckless in the time rifts, years ago.]

I agree that it's likely to be real. Almost par for the course for your family, really. [A soft chuckle.] ...And actually, I've found some photos, too. Hold on.

[She goes over to the workbench, pulling open one of the drawers and taking out a stack of photos. Dipper might catch a glimpse of something else in the bottom of the drawer - some kind of flyer? But Croissant leaves it be, taking the photos back over to the drafting table and setting them next to Dipper's journal.

Of course, they're the photos of Timekeeper that Dipper had given her. A number of normal ones, and a number of ones that, uh. Photos of someone probably shouldn't do that? Croissant stares down at the normal one on top as she sets them down - Timekeeper seated on some kind of floating golden blade, not looking at the camera but with a manic expression nonetheless - and sighs, looking a little lost.]

This is what I've been trying pretty hard not to think about. I know branching timelines can make people really different from other versions of themselves, but... I don't even recognize myself in her, Dipper.

Not gonna lie, I would kill to have his first two journals. It feels like the missing link in whatever he had going on. It must be nuts.

[But, yeah, he will let her look at the photos all she wants. He'll shuffle a few more of them out. There's a lot of pictures of the Pines, notably including his sister. There's a bunch with assorted people that neither of them will recognize: acquaintances from his previous dimension. Something that might stick out is the abrupt shift in setting between some of them. All the photos of Dipper wearing an eyepatch, he seems to be in some average looking modern town, but all the photos where he's stopped wearing it, and his right eye is visible in all it's blind, scarred pink glory, he's dressed like a Victorian with a goth phase, and all the scenery seems to match.]

[Dipper will also help himself to the weirder photos, frowning in thought, remembering reading specifically a journal entry that had outlined photo development with blood magic, of all things. He recalls seeing the little stones in the dark room and couldn't bring himself to touch them.]

[The photo of Timekeeper does make him go very still, however. There's no mistaking her resemblance to a certain other someone.]

..."Timekeeper", right? She looks ...[Hnn. How does he put this.] ...I've told you about Bill Cipher, right?

[There's definitely concern settling in Croissant's face as she notices Dipper's reaction - a reaction not unlike fear.]

The demon you and your family fought, right? Of course.

[Although the conversation had never happened to include Bill's appearance. Croissant thinks she doesn't like the implications of where this is going.]

[It wouldn't be fair of him to make such a direct comparison when he knows Croissant and who she is now, but there really is no mistaking the resemblance here.]

[Dipper picks up a pen and actually takes a second to draw a quick Bill on the margin of the journal. A very simplistic looking thing, but it should get the point across. A little triangle guy with one eye, a top hat, and bow tie.]

I don't exactly have much in the way of pictures or anything, and it's not like an conjure the memory out of thin air, but ...there's something eerie about her expression that reminds me a lot of him. The aesthetic is weirdly on point, too. Actually-

[He picks up the journal and actually flips through a few pages to find ...Timekeeper's entry!]

[A weird cookie who time travels and looks way too much like a certain terrible dorito, but she's actually pretty cool. Not many people will just let me talk about crazy portal stuff and not be weirded out. Tnfib M ergzwmzxkppn wvgb qzovcdrv mw flo hvtedlkmto mrhxvtl aj qiximez umh, cli lej txbebiripp bubvowwth? Jhuqlya? Fjx jam ajpivth dx iz mxxigrjaqb asxl wii Mqyi Yvkprzsifmyr awmta qe e mveoc kaqzk ds xwmed insex. M iscw pqv S'h lpzv mw fevo xd qp yiymvc jxvjm jqjyvi X qrwm m hogmhmfg, etmml wwi rvkqtdih.]

I wrote an entry about her, which I apparently made the same connection, but I guess I didn't think it was that big of a deal? I haven't cracked the code on the rest, yet, though. It definitely needs a key.

I... see.

[Croissant frowns as she reads the uncoded part of the entry, not quite sure how to feel about this at first.]

I really don't like that any version of me reminds you so strongly of something like that... although... I guess if the other you liked Timekeeper anyway, that speaks to her character despite our differences. Or... maybe she's not so different from me where it matters?

[She bites her lip, then shakes her head and gives as much a tiny laugh as she can muster.]

Well, if it were me, I'd be giving myself an aesthetic makeover as soon as I knew. One question though, sorry if this sounds silly to you, but what's a "dorito?"

It's hard to say without knowing either of them. I do think that this other me ...I won't say he's as different from me as you and Timekeeper are, but there's a lot about him that feels ...off. Whatever went on in that dimension, Trench I guess, it changed him. It's kind of spooky.

[A long pause.]

Oh. Uh. Doritos are a triangle shaped corn chip usually covered in cheese powder.

Experiences make the cookie - er, person, I suppose. That's why it's never easy seeing yourself or people you know from other timelines, no matter how used you are to time travel. I don't think it's something to be sad about, it's just... different! ...But I don't think anyone can help that weirded out feeling either, heh.

[She drops a long pause here as well. They're both feeling it in this clock tower tonight, man.]

Ah, I see! That makes sense, cheese cookies are rather fond of triangles too.

Mabel threatened to eat him with guacamole once.

[He would have paid a lot of money to watch her crunch on his stupid corn chip ass, too.]

The really weird looking photos, I think he treated them with magic, because I have an entire two pages in here that outlines photo development with blood magic, using something called "bloodstones" which uh. It seems to heavily imply he's using his blood to do this. Which is weird.

That's... well, when it's what you have to work with then you do, I suppose. What an unnerving way to use magic, though.

[She picks one of the weird photos out of Timekeeper's stack, squinting at it.]

I don't suppose he outlined the exact effects, did he? To me this looks a lot like an overlay of concurrent timelines. A uh, lot of concurrent timelines. How much time travel does my other self do...?

What is the plan, exactly?

I wish I had more of one, if I'm being honest. Right now I'm really still gathering information. Who went in, what changed - most importantly, I think, whether those of us not native to this timeline all remember the same alternate timeline consistently. That would be a big clue.

Returning everyone to the proper timeline would be a simple matter with TBD technology, but... the best I can think of right now is proceeding with my original plan to make the clock tower into a temporal anchor, stabilizing time around it. That would hopefully allow me to pursue further technologies, like building a timecraft - ah, that is, a vehicle that can move through time - and opening stable time rifts to access these other timelines properly. The downside being that it would probably take a lot of time and resources that I'm not entirely certain we have.

Edited 2024-11-19 01:30 (UTC)

How does that information help, exactly? It's my understanding that multiple people were lured into the forest one way or another. Do you think that's relevant to what changes occured in the timeline?

It could be. Knowing if everyone who changed is from the same timeline or from different ones would tell us how big a scale we're dealing with. The more timelines we have to account for, the bigger the problem... especially if things don't go back to normal whenever the forest gets tired of all this.

From the same timeline relative to the Grove? Is that feasible to discover? What if the differences are small, or occured prior to our presence here?

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[Netbook] [Mid-month, a day or so after Loop's post]

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