+ Guilt Runs Deep

[vitaelamorte]

Who: Everyone!
Where: The Mansion
When: Feb 23-25
Rating: Please warn in top level subject lines for potential triggers/NSFW
Summary: Various residents are trapped in their own guilt, watching their guiltiest memory play on a loop.
The Story:

Welcome to the gathering post for the event. Please see the plotting post for more information + the bulletin board link. Have fun!

Comments

[krmvgivv]

If it wasn't for you, Soos would have grown up without any family besides Abuelita and Wendy would have had to go to Lumberjack camp.

[Dipper steps forward cautiously, still holding onto the railing. He doesn't want to be dragged off either.]

We might have had to stay in Piedmont all summer, and Mabel would never have gotten Waddles!

[Not all of that's directly because Stan pushed Ford into the portal, of course, but things would have been very different. Sure, it's possible he occasionally fantasized about what it would be like if they'd been with cool science uncle Ford instead of Stan, but things would have been so different he doesn't even know how to contemplate it.

Not least because odds are good Bill would have manipulated his way into this world a lot sooner with someone who already knew how to work the Portal still there. He doubts it'd help to tell Stan that now, but it's occurred to him.

He braces himself and delivers the final, most crushing logical blow.]

Besides, think about how much money people not you would have held onto if they didn't have Mystery Shack souvenirs to blow it on!

[charlastan]

[The portal blinds them all for a moment as Ford falls through, begging to be saved. Stan keeps a tight hold on Mabel until the machine shuts off again, and Ford's glasses clatter to the floor.

For once though, he listens to both of them. He can think of worse things than most of what they're saying, counters for all of it. Maybe Soos would've found another boss father, and maybe Wendy would have weaseled her way out of logging camp. There are worse things than being stuck in Piedmont, and Mabel wouldn't have known Waddles to miss him. Someone else would've scammed everyone.

But...he wouldn't have gotten to know these two little gremlins. He'd be on the road somewhere, still making a huge mess of his life and everyone else's around him. He wouldn't have these two good kids here trying to talk him down from something Wonderland dredged up.]

...Heh. Guess it does sorta run in the family. And hey, what were they gonna do with that cash anyway? Buy other things?

[He laughs, and now that the machine's broken again he bends down and reaches out to Dipper with one arm, with Mabel still tucked securely in the other, so they can turn this into a group hug.]

[powerofmabel]

Hup! [Mabel protests a bit as Stan bends down as if she's expecting things to play out as they were and this won't be enough, and all he's doing is trying to make her get down, but when he collects Dipper, she relaxes and goes in for the neck hug.]

I mean, probably, but none of it would be worth the experience of your showmanship, Grunkle Stan. Boop. [She pokes him in the nose, and giggles in, albeit relieved, triumph.]

[krmvgivv]

[Dipper hugs them both, squeezing tightly as the tension starts to drain out. Stan's okay. They're all okay.]

Our parents might have given us an allowance.

[charlastan]

[Stan makes a face when his nose is booped, but he laughs anyway, squishing the kids closer to him.]

Ha! Can't have that now.

[As they have a good family hug, the room around them flickers and changes, and suddenly they're standing in Stan's room instead of being reset to the beginning of that portal memory.]

...Huh. Guess that actually worked!

[powerofmabel]

We did it! We're the best at saving people from themselves!

[She sighs in relief, and then just kind of collapses onto the floor as she releases Stan.] Whoo... Saving people from their guilt takes a lot out of a person, huh?

[krmvgivv]

Sure does. [Dipper glances at Mabel, then slyly up at Stan.]

Pretty sure it's the kind of hard work that deserves ice cream, don't you think, Grunkle Stan?

[They can (and have) gotten ice cream without asking permission, of course. But it's more the principle of the thing.]

[charlastan]

[Stan pretends like he has to think reeeeeeeeeeeeeally hard about whether these two deserve ice cream. Hmmmm. Hmmmm.]

Eh, I guess you two earned it. Ice cream for breakfast! Or whatever meal it's supposed to be now!

[Who knows how long he was in there? He sure doesn't!]