matchmade | IC Inbox

[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?

[ 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?

[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.]

[ 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. ]

[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.

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

finding me and everything

are you alright?

Edited 2015-04-03 04:15 (UTC)

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!?

i'm in that park in southern bavan.

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

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

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.]

[ 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?

[ 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. ]

...Thanks. [He hesitates, his gaze drifting to her tail. So she's changed back, too. He can guess by now what that means.

But that's not why she's here, and he doubts she would appreciate it being brought up. Unfortunately, he barely knows where to start with this.]

I'm... sorry you had to see that.

[He can't know for sure what kind of condition his body would have been in by the time she found it, but he knows it wouldn't have been any better than he last remembers. And he remembers how he died - very clearly, more than he would like.]

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?]

Yeah...[ Mabel rubs her arm a little, looking away. She's trying so hard not to think about it, about what he looked like and what Henry did, but it's not something she can just force from her thoughts. It's just there. There and making her stomach feel queasy.

She frowns, her hands balling up at her sides. She's not really mad at him, not yet. For all she knows some monster who lost control (like she almost did) attacked him, but... ]

What the heck even happened?

[He hesitates and looks down again, his grip on his bag tightening as if that will make this any easier to talk about.]

Someone... someone I knew was in trouble. He couldn't defend himself. I had to try and buy him some time.

[And yet Rin had died anyway.]

[ She can understand wanting to protect someone important. Heck, she'd jump in front of an angry monster if it meant saving Dipper. But... ]

Why didn't you run away with him? Or run after he got a head start?

Because I couldn't have been sure it would work - he was injured already, he wouldn't have been able to move very fast. I just had to be sure he would be able to get away, whatever...

[His voice comes dangerously close to choking off there, but he forces himself to keep talking, doesn't let himself move his free hand to his stomach as if to check and make sure that the wound is really gone. He knows how to keep his voice steady, how to avoid telegraphing his thoughts.]

Whatever happened.

But what about you?

[ Part of it is just her being unable to put the pieces together right in her head. Because selfless act or no, she can't figure out why he would just sacrifice himself completely. Plus, it's hard to picture someone being in a situation that's impossible to escape from. She thinks there had to have been a way out, a way to save both himself and his friend. ]

[If there was a way out for both of them, he sure couldn't see it at the time. But he hadn't hesitated with the one option he felt he did have. It had seemed like the obvious thing to do to him.

He doesn't respond immediately. He knows that what he's going to say, what he has to say, isn't going to be well-received. But it's something that he has to try to explain. He's got to try to get her to understand.]

What happened to me wasn't important.

Wh--

[ Okay, now that takes the 'what the actual H E double hockey sticks is going on' cake. Up until then, Mabel had at understood what was going on, at least a little. It hadn't made complete sense, but at least it seemed...somewhat logical. Like when adults explain things you don't get but you can tell they know what they're talking about.

This doesn't make any sense to her, though. None at all. ]

What do you mean it wasn't important? Of course it was!

No. It wasn't then and it isn't now. [There's no less conviction in his voice than there was a moment ago; whether what he's saying makes sense to Mabel or not, he sure doesn't see anything unreasonable about it.

After all, his life has never mattered, even before he ended up somewhere where death doesn't last.]

that troll gideon

was hair always so shiny ?

[ This just...doesn't compute. It doesn't compute at all, and Mabel's face scrunches up in thought while she tries to reason through it. Because she just doesn't get it. Ginko's someone she looks up to. He's helpful, cool, and he knows a lot about stuff (or seems to.) He's even a doctor! Well...kinda? He patched her up okay, anyway, even if the bite on her shoulder is scarred over and ugly, now, because she didn't take care of it properly.

The point is, Ginko is someone she relies on. Someone she had been sure made good decisions. Someone she could go to whenever she needed help. And yet...calm, level headed Ginko is saying this kind of stuff? Like he doesn't matter or something? What the heck.

Mabel opens her mouth to say something and then closes it again. She shakes her head firmly and crosses her arms, looking upset and confused and maybe a little angry. ]

It does to! It matters all the way! Every bit of matter is going on up in here, because you're important, Ginko!

ugh gideon.

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

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<ginko> (April 3)

<sweatertown>

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<MISTER MYSTERY>

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<sweatertown>

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