OPEN } what if i'm far from home? oh brother i will hear you call

[krmvgivv]

Who: Dipper and OPEN
Where: His rooms, around the mansion and grounds, the caves
When: 6/8 and the week after
Rating: Probably no more than PG
Summary: Mabel is gone. Dipper, of course, takes the loss totally reasonably and calmly. HAHAHA yeah, no, the opposite.
The Story:

6/8

[When Dipper first wakes up and sees that all of Mabel's stuff is gone, his first thought is that she's playing some kind of weird joke on him. It's a little crueler than he'd expect from her, but really, if your sister can't be cruel to you sometimes, who can be? He rolls his eyes.]

Very funny, Mabel. Come on out. [After all, her playing a mean trick on him is a lot less upsetting than the other possibility. That her stuff is gone because she is. Dipper's read enough that he knows what to look for. Missing stuff. Missing person. Not coming back any time soon.]

Mabel?

[He looks in the closet, under his bed, everywhere. Then he starts getting nervous, but he still doesn't want to admit it. He doesn't want to believe that his sister could be taken from him just like that. He rushes from his room.]

MABEL!

[For the rest of the day he can be found tearing his way through the mansion, searching everywhere. He knows, logically, how all the pieces fit together. He's always been smart. Good at puzzles. And this is an easy one. An easy puzzle that he refuses to accept the solution in front of him. There has to be more to it. She can't just be gone.

Evening finds him on the edge of the forest, a bag full of provisions on his back. There's only one place he hasn't looked. And he's not giving up. No matter what people have told him.]

6/9 - 6/11

[Mabel is gone.

Dipper had to admit it eventually. And thankfully he admitted it before going in the forest. But admitting it isn't the same as accepting it. In the days that follow, Dipper won't be approaching people with his usual cheer. He eats meals with his nose buried in a book, either his Journal or something he's taken from the library, something, anything, that might be useful.

He isn't sleeping much. His half empty room hurts too much. He could change it, make it just his room, but that would feel too much like giving up, and he won't do that.

So instead he spends his nights down in the caves, holding a flashlight and reading. Journal 3 might not have an answer for how to travel between different worlds, but surely somewhere in all the books on Wonderland he can find some answer.

This just can't be it.]

Comments

[krmvgivv]

She's not... it's not that kind of lost! [He looks over at her, expression twisted in pain. It hurts, but Mabel's okay. He'd know if she wasn't. She's okay, she's just... really, really far away.] I'm gonna get her back. Somehow.

[mindbend]

It still leaves a void, does it not?

[Whatever kind of lost she might be, the fact is she's not here. That in itself is enough to cause an incurable ache.]

[krmvgivv]

...maybe a little void. [A big void, but if he pretends it's smaller he can maybe convince himself and maybe not fall into it.] I just... I should have been able to stop this. Somehow.

[mindbend]

I tell myself the same thing.

[As though her being there would have made a difference, and yet some part of her is convinced that it would.]

This place-- the way it works. Even if she is lost, she may come back to you. You may go back to her.

[krmvgivv]

That's what everyone says. [So why is it so hard to believe? Maybe because Mabel's always been the one who's good at believing in the good parts of life. Dipper's the one who's filled with doubts. The one who questions everything. Who has trouble seeing to a happy ending when everything hurts so much.]

[mindbend]

I do not find it as comforting as others seem to intend it, either.

[She smiles thinly, though it flickers and dies a moment later. She's with him on this one. As good as it sounds, as wonderful as the possibilities have the potential to be, it's difficult to believe in them.]

[krmvgivv]

It's cause it's still not our choice. I might get ejected again or she might get kidnapped again and either way it's not fair. [He actually likes Wonderland--events and demonic triangles notwithstanding--but he doesn't like being trapped.]

[mindbend]

Nothing is fair. Here or anywhere else.

[She's had a long, long time to learn that particular life lesson firsthand.]

'Fair' does not exist, especially not in matters like these.

[krmvgivv]

[Dipper likes it better when it's unfair in his favor.]

That doesn't mean you can't find a way to win. You just... have to not be fair either.

[mindbend]

I have tried fighting unfairly.

[Because really, there's no other way to think of it, nothing else to call it.]

It did not work out so well for me, or those I cared about.

[krmvgivv]

Well, that's the risk. But the other option is losing and anyway, it shouldn't be unfair to use everything you've got, even if it's not something the other guy's got. You can bet anything they'll be using their everything.

[mindbend]

Using my everything-- hurt many people.

[It also saved a whole lot of people, once she'd gained some perspective, but without Pietro, she's been left to dwell on what they'd done wrong, how things might have changed if they hadn't.]

But-- you are not wrong. Most people will not hold back.

[krmvgivv]

I mean, hurting people isn't good.

[And Dipper's a hero, so he wouldn't want something like that. But he doesn't have to think about it at all to know that if there was someone he could hurt to get Mabel back he'd do it. There's being a hero, and then there's being a brother, and he knows which one comes first.]

Question's just if it's worth it.

[mindbend]

For me, it was not.

[She'd lost everything. The exact opposite of what she'd meant to happen.]

But that does not mean the same will be true for you.

[krmvgivv]

Guess we'll find out when the time comes. [He wraps his arms around his knees. He doesn't feel much like a hero or like a particularly good brother right now. Just like a failure.]