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[matchmade]

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[pinetree]

[Okay, so it's become pretty clear by this point that Stan is not coming back any time soon, which is a problem on quite a few levels. For one, he didn't leave a whole lot of easily-prepared food. And also, the lack of any other presence in the house makes it difficult to get over what happened back in Rota, or more recently. The place remains as gloomy as ever. So when Dipper finally realizes, after looking over his notes, that the new arrivals should be changing soon...

Gosh, how is he going to bring it up to her? After what happened in Rota, she's got to be even more terrified of changing. But Dipper sure appreciates all the info he got right off the bat, it definitely made the changes a little easier to deal with, so...he owes it to Mabel to try and make this easier for her, too. He grabs his notebook and heads to the living room.]

Mabel? Do you have a minute?

[matchmade]

[ The longer the gloominess goes on, the less sure Mabel is on how to make it go away. She knows they need to address it somehow. They can't keep tiptoeing around each other like this, it's driving Mabel crazy. She hates the weird, oppressive wedge that's been driven between the two of them, and just wants things to go back to normal. But even though she wants to patch things up, even though she knows she has to...she keeps putting it off. She keeps telling herself 'I'll do it tomorrow...' like a solution will magically present itself.

When Dipper appears in the living room, Mabel is binding off a rainbow mitten. The knitting needles aren't actually proper knitting needles, and the yarn is salvaged from her sweater, but she's making it work for her. She looks up halfway through the last row of stitches, notes his serious expression, and sets her project aside. ]

Yeah, of course. What's up bro bro?

[pinetree]

[Seeing her do something so mundane and normal as knitting just makes this harder, but he swallows his awkwardness and opens his notebook to the timeline page, setting it to face her on the table.]

I've been talking to people who have been here a while, to get an idea of how this whole monster thing works, and it turns out that things are on a schedule. [He's hesitant at first, but once he gets rolling with the explanation, he finds it's easier to just wordvomit and not think about how uncomfortable this is.] The first changes start happening a month after people show up, and...well, you've been here for about that long, so it should be happening soon, and I want you to be prepared for it.

[He forces himself to stop and look up at her, checking to see if she's...receptive to hearing about this.]

[matchmade]

[ Mabel has spent most of her time trying to pretend the whole monster thing isn't happening, and that it won't happen to her (which is hard to do, all things considered) So hearing that there's a schedule? That she needs to actually prepare for something? Isn't news she really wants to hear.

She fiddles with the edge of the timeline page, trying to keep her frown from becoming too much of a thing. ]

Is there any way to be prepared for something like that? I mean, it's--kind of a big thing. [ Not to mention that she doesn't want to prepare. She doesn't want it to happen at all. ] And--are you sure it happens to everyone? Maybe--

[ And then she feels bad for thinking maybe she's different from everyone else, from Dipper, so she looks down at the table and fidgets. Ugh. This whole situation stinks. ]

[pinetree]

[If only he could assure her that it doesn't happen to everyone. If only the numbers dictated that was possible. But this has been happening for months before he got here, and the schedule doesn't lie. But he can't bring himself to outright shoot her down, either, and flat-out tell her "No, this is how it is". She's already miserable. Why make it worse?]

You can be prepared for it. [This is a more hopeful and helpful topic.] It helps if you have someone else around to keep an eye on you. Things get kind of painful and you never know when you might need... [He forces himself to finish his thought] medical help or something.

[Having a buddy will also prevent you from being stuck in a wall for three hours, or doing weird stuff like wandering out into the snow in the middle of the night.]

If you want, I can ask Ginko to come over. He helped me when I was changing.

[matchmade]

[ She pouts a little, but she pays attention to what he says. As usual, he's more in the know than she is, and this is something she can't just...brush off or ignore like she might normally. This is important, even if she wishes she didn't have to worry about it at all. ]

I guess that makes sense...[ She bites her lip and fidgets a little. She's trying really hard to just stomach her worries, but it's not working so well. ]

Ginko knows a lot, huh?

[pinetree]

Yeah. [Not that he knows why. Dipper's just assumed Ginko is...some sort of doctor or at least knows a lot about medical stuff, but he realizes he's never asked. Well, whatever Ginko is, he's effective when helping the twins, and that's what matters.] He's probably the most helpful person I've met here, so if I'm--

[And then he stops, because the thought completes in his head and he isn't sure he can say it. What he wants to say is that Mabel can rely on Ginko if she needs to, but it comes with the condition of "if I'm not around". He wants to protect Mabel, he wants them to look out for each other like they always have, but if Rota is any indication, it's not always going to be an option and he may even be more hindrance than help.

He starts over.]

Just...go to Ginko for help, okay?

[It hurts to say, because it feels like he's removing himself as an option completely, but that's for the best, isn't it?]

<ginko> (April 3)

[onegreeneye]

hey, mabel, are you there? it's ginko. henry told me what happened. with you two

finding me and everything

are you alright?

<sweatertown>

[matchmade]

ginko! im

[ haha she can't lie and say she's actually okay, so she's just going to end that sentence there. ]

where the heck r u!?

<ginko>

[onegreeneye]

i'm in that park in southern bavan.

...we should probably talk about this in person, if you'd rather do that.

<sweatertown>

[matchmade]

um yeah we should! ill be there soon ok so don't move

[onegreeneye]

alright. i'll stay here.

-----

[Sure enough, he'll be waiting on a bench when she gets there, one hand half-wrapped in the strap of the bag next to him. Unsurprisingly, he's back to looking about how he did before the ritual or the fallout. There's no trace of the damage his body took those few nights ago.

When he hears her approaching, he finally stops staring at the ground, looking up at her instead, his expression largely unreadable except for the slightest trace of guilt.]

[matchmade]

[ She wastes no time in getting to the park. It takes her a little while, she has to hunt down the rainbow hat, mittens and cowl she made, but eventually she makes her way there in all her sweater-wearing glory. She's not quite as peppy as she usually is, though, her leafy, clematis tail dragging behind her. For one, her death and everything that happened before it is still on her mind. For another, well...she's worried about him. Stumbling on his dead body had been real upsetting, especially when Henry started eating it.

Ugh. Okay, no. She's not thinking about this right now.

She stops in front of him and crosses her arms, frowning just a little. ]

I'm glad you're back [ She's really glad he's okay, even if she's really upset with him. ]

<MISTER MYSTERY>

[kolus]

that troll gideon

was hair always so shiny ?

<sweatertown>

[matchmade]

ugh gideon.

yeah his hair has always been the SHINIEST. its a shame something that great is wasted on a creepy stalker :(

<MISTER MYSTERY>

[kolus]

want me to eat him?

<sweatertown>

[matchmade]

uhhh probably not. he'll just get all weird and stalkery if you do.

[ Also eating children, even if they're creepy, is bad. ]

<MISTER MYSTERY>

[kolus]

that was a joke.

sounds like you already know hes here.

<sweatertown>

[matchmade]

i know! i just figured i should cover all my bases. in case you really did decide to eat him or something :P

yeah, i do. i saw him in vandare when he first got here. what a creepy little CREEP. he called me marshmallow! like we're actually a thing! ugh i feel super gross just thinking about it.

jesus christ this is so fucking backdated what day is it even

[pinetree]

[It's been at least a day since...since everything went down and the fog dumped Dipper back into the world of the living. He's been torn between doing everything, keeping himself busy so he doesn't have to think about the fires and the screaming and the flesh between his teeth--

or doing what he's doing now, which is staring directly at the ceiling and not moving.

He knows Mabel went through this too. Now that it's over, he's starting to get an idea of what happened to them, and understands why he has these weird jumbled memories that keep lingering even after he died. It's easy to pinpoint which memories are Mabel's, but what he's really having trouble with is when they're from. He already knows his sister is ahead of him, time-wise, but she didn't say anything about this stuff when they talked about that. She didn't tell him about the bunker under the shack or the portal their grunkle was building all this time.

Why didn't she say anything?

Given the events of the last week, it's no surprise he hasn't been able to find Mabel. She needs recovery time just as much as he does. But he really needs to get to the bottom of this, and for that, he has to find her. So rather than search all of Bavan (and possibly the nearby forests) for her, he sends her a message and hopes she has her device on her.]

Mabel
where did you go

It's a mystery

[matchmade]

[ Mabel needs some time to herself, even though alone time hasn't really been all that helpful. Maybe she should craft this out, go through her pablo picasso blue period and make a bunch of really sad looking sequined canvases. Or sweaters, lots of blue sweaters. But even that's not really all that appealing, so she just kind of wanders around the park, kicking rocks and looking at plants she doesn't know the name of yet. She should learn, considering she's turning into a plant.

Mabel's both surprised and not to get a message from her brother, and for a second she stares at it. It's not that she doesn't want to talk to him, she needs some quality twin time after everything that happened. But at the same time...she can't believe she forgot him. Yeah, it was because of this stupid place, but still. It makes her feel bad.

She lightly taps the keys for a second before replying. She can't avoid her brother forever, and she doesn't want to. Maybe they could help each other through this. ]

the park

[pinetree]

[He stands up and starts getting ready to head to the park, but stops as he's packing up the laptop. Does she actually want him around, or is she just telling him where she is for safety? If he told her he needed to talk about what happened this last week, would she shut him down because it's too hard to talk about? He realizes, yet again, that it's getting harder and harder to read Mabel the longer they stay here, and he hates it. This place could have been like Gravity Falls, where having to unravel all these mysteries and deal with weird creatures was bringing them together, but instead...

He opens his device to type one more message before he actually leaves.]

can we talk?
not about last week
just about the memories

[matchmade]

[ Mabel's response doesn't take long, she forces herself to type it out quickly, to seem natural and not emotionally drained. She's worried about it, though. About what he means, what he wants to talk about. She doesn't know why, but...what if he's mad? What if he's realized what memories she gained, lost, tried to reconcile. ]

ye course bro bro
park or hom?

[pinetree]

I'll come find you at the park
be right there

[He finds her quickly, minotaur senses making it easy to find his way through the park. All the way over, he's thought about how to approach this, wondering if he should just get right to the point or maybe just talk to her about something else for a little bit to see how she's feeling. He never came up with a concrete plan, though, and now that he's here, he's run out of time to decide.]

Hey.

[That's a good start. Dipper glances around for a good spot to do this, and finds an oak tree nearby. Being young, its shade is sparse, but it's as good a place as any. He points towards it.]

Um...Do you want to sit over there?

[matchmade]

k
see u soon

[ With that she waits, trying not to worry too much or pace, so she ends up poking around by the trees and in the grass, admiring all the cutie-patootie little baby flowers, plants, and mushrooms. When Dipper appears, she manages a smile and a wave, wiping her hands on her skirt to get rid of any dirt.

Please, please don't be anything bad. She thinks, nodding as she looks over towards where he's pointing.]

You betcha. That little ol' oak is gonna love having two rad as heck twins sitting under it.

[ Ahaha, when did acting like herself become so hard. ]