open } take the time to know yourself not a clone or a fraction of someone else

[cloned]

Who: Kon, George, Dipper, YOU!
Where: Bathhouse
When: over the course of the event
Rating: PG-13 tops, probably
Summary: Exploring a strange place is always a good idea. Definitely. Especially when there are weird bizarro shadows lurking around. But what's the worst that can happen, right?
The Story:

[Starters in the comments! If none of the scenarios work for me, let me know and I can put something personalized.]

Comments

[choosetruth]

"It's nonsense." George scowls, turning away brusquely. She's uncomfortable enough around other people showing this much emotion. When it's herself....

She just wants to leave as quickly as possible.

The shadow has other ideas, though. "Liar," she says standing up, though her cheeks are just as tear stained as before. "But I'm always lying, aren't I? Can't tell people how bad the nightmares are, can't tell people how much I'm hurting, certainly can't tell people that I'm anything less than perfect. Even if I know in my heart it's true. I'm a mess. I'm a liar. I'm--"

"Not me," Georgia finishes, slicing a hand through the air angrily. "I don't know what you're supposed to be, but you're not me. Everyone knows I'm no liar."

[beatupgrass]

Rocket bristles a bit and reaches up to tug on Georgia's pant leg. "She clearly ain't gonna put up a fight. Let's just leave her here to feel sorry for herself."

Never mind that there's some truth in her words- he knows it because he knows his own heart and his own lies about how much is going on internally. But if he won't admit that there's something amiss inside him, he's not going to force George too.

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun grits his teeth. His own Shadow had been easy enough to deal with. Since George died and he got a version of her in his head, there aren't a lot of secrets he keeps from himself anymore. It was easy to recognize the parts of himself he didn't like very much and accept them for the parts of him they were.

George's Shadow is harder to deal with. He can see how upset George is, even if she's pretending not to be, and he's finding it just as uncomfortable to face her. So he's mostly trying not to--focusing on his real sister instead, as if things weren't confusing enough for him, having more than one George around.

"Yeah. Let's go."

[choosetruth]

The shadow Georgia starts to cry again. "Of course you're leaving. I knew it was only a matter of time. You know I'm not really her. Why settle for anything less than the real thing?"

The real George turns to look at Shaun, trying not to telegraph her distress too much. "Shaun, you know I don't think that, right? That isn't me."

"I'm more you than you'll ever be," the other Georgia says.

[beatupgrass]

Rocket bares his teeth and points accusingly at the weeping shadow, still holding onto Georgia's pant leg like it'll stop her from marching over and socking the Shadow.

Which, admittedly, would be funny, but he directly attacked his own, and it... was not good. "Lady, you're just Wonderland screwin' around. Try cryin' about that, why don'tcha?"

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun shakes his head. "You're not," he tells Shadow George. "You're not even as real as my hallucinations and that's a pretty low bar."

He's trying to be flip, but's still hard looking at her like this.

[It's not me.]

"I know," he mutters softly. "But she looks a lot like you."

[choosetruth]

Not softly enough for the shadow to miss it. "See?" She gestures at Shaun angrily. "There you go again, talking to the woman in your head instead of the one in front of you! You don't think I'm real! You have so many versions of your sister and none of them can match up to the original!"

"That's not true! That's not how I think!" Georgia clenches her fists, stepping between Shaun and the other Georgia. "You're not me."

"Isn't it?" The color starts leeching from her skin ans black smoke surrounds her. When it clears, a new figure stands before them, one that's less a person and more a black and white conglomerate of slowly swirling words. "You say you can face any truth no matter how terrible, but you can't even accept the truth about yourself!" She leans forwards and her face becomes clearer, just in time to shoot out a spray of words from her eyes that, if anyone takes the time to actually read them before they fade away, all say "tear."

[beatupgrass]

"Shit!" Rocket exclaims, at first anticipating the eye-words as some sort of projectile, and ducks and rolls accordingly. "Maybe a little less yelling at it and a little more making it go away, Masons."

As the one with less baggage about Georgia here, he feels he has to be the voice of reason. Unfortunately, despite his gun being out and ready, he still hesitates. How does... One shoot that.

[adaptiveimmunities]

"Shit!" Shaun's own gun is out in a matter of seconds, but he knows that he's not going to be able to exorcise this demon for George. He can shoot her, sure, but she's not going to go away for long. She's here for George, not him.

Plus, he's in the same camp as Rocket. Where do you shoot... that?

[choosetruth]

George doesn't hesitate. Her bullets tear through her shadow's head and body like newspaper, though it's hard to tell if it's actually doing any harm. She is still advancing, though she does scream in anger when the bullets tear through her.

"You know better than that, Georgia!" the shadow screams. She holds up a hand and words swarm into a ball of writhing letters. She throws one at George then forms another to throw at Shaun. "Sometimes you have to actually deal with your emotions!"

"Shut up!" Georgia shoots the thing again, scowling viciously.

[beatupgrass]

Rocket wastes no time dropping his gun and barreling into Shaun's legs with all the force of a furry cannonball. Georgia won't forgive herself if Shaun gets hurt fighting something that came from her, so he'll just do what any good friend would do and... Fucking mow Shaun down to get him out of the line of fire. "GET DOWN."

[adaptiveimmunities]

In theory, you wouldn't think someone Rocket's size would be able to have so much success knocking over someone of Shaun's size, but Rocket is special, and his aim is excellent. Shaun goes down with a grunt, and is grateful for the save. He's not really sure what that ball of writhing letters would do to him, but he's not sure he wants to find out.

He gives Rocket a nod of thanks before turning his attention--and his gun--toward George's increasingly terrifying shadow.

[choosetruth]

The bullets seem to be sort of working, at least. Georgia keeps shooting.

"If I start dealing with my emotions, I'll fall apart! If you're me, you should realize that!"

Her words have a lot more effect than the bullets, slowing the shadow down.

[beatupgrass]

Rocket doesn't say that maybe that's the whole point, because he's just like her. He'll fall apart too if he deals with his own issues.

So he's just gonna keep firing, only snarling out one thing as the Shadow recoils from George's words. "It backed down... kinda! Keep doin' what you're doin' there, Georgia."

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun's not shooting--yet--but he's not lowering his gun either. It does seem like George's words are having an effect, and he doesn't want to piss her shadow off by shooting at her--with his gun or his mouth. The George in his head has plenty to say about the situation, but even he's not stupid enough to respond out loud right now.

[choosetruth]

Indeed, the words that form Georgia's shadow are starting to unravel a little.

"And what do you think happens if you ignore this?" The shadow lashes out, sending words flying at the three of them again. "I'm in so much pain! Why does no one ever notice?"

"I don't want them to notice." George dodges, then stops, lowering her gun, and looks over at Shaun. "I don't want them to worry."

[beatupgrass]

"Not gonna lie, I am gettin' a little worried, on account of the flyin' words and all, but that's neither here nor there."

He's... just saying. That is his contribution. "But it's not a bad thing!"