entrancelogs | closed } this is a place where your mind can escape

Entry tags:

closed } this is a place where your mind can escape

Who: The MYSTERY TWINS
Where: Alice's room
When: 3/9
Rating: PG
Summary: The Mystery Twins do their mystery thing.
The Story:

[Ford's stuff is still in his room. Dipper's holding onto that thought tightly, even as his stomach knots with worry. Ford's told him just enough about the future to leave him nervous. But Wonderland wouldn't send him home to his death and leave his stuff, right? Like that goes against what it does normally, and while Wonderland does break its own rules just enough to drive Dipper insane, he's still willing to hope this means he's okay.

But that doesn't tell him about Mabel. And even if Ford is alive, that doesn't tell Dipper what sort of state he'll be in when he gets back.

Dipper suggested exploring Alice's room to Mabel because he wanted to do it anyway and he was hoping it would distract him from his thoughts about home. Instead, it seems to be doing the opposite. He's distracted when he should be focusing on the mystery at hand. He snaps a picture of the mirror, then grimaces as he realizes he's already taken two. Duplicates are good, but usually they're supposed to be intentional.]

Ugh, I am not on my game today.

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[Mabel is looking through the ribbons in the drawer, holding them up to her hair as if considering "borrowing" one- Alice might not mind- but her brother admitting he's off his game brings her attention back to him and she drops them back into the drawer.] What's up, bro-bro? Did you eat some bad Wonderland food?

[she knows he's... been a little off, but Dipper's paranoid about a lot of stuff. it could be anything from a legitimate concern to a stomachache.]

I don't think that's possible unless you're specifically going for it. [He glances over at her, frowning. Great Uncle Ford had said it was better to not tell her. He doesn't want to make her worry. He doesn't want this to be another... Wirt situation. He sulks, moving over to sit on Alice's bed.]

Mabel, do you think it's better to not tell people bad stuff? When there's nothing they can do to fix it?

Duh. [she moves over to the bed with him and flops down on her back, kicking her feet, clearly missing the gravity of the situation... or at least trying to make Dipper less serious by being flippant.] Why would you wanna tell people bad things that can't do anything about? It'll just make them go cuckoo waiting for it.

You don't think they might be mad if they found out you'd hid it from them?

[Dipper knows he'd rather know. But Mabel isn't him, and here, at least, it might be showing.]

[she blows an errant strand of hair from her face, realizing this conversation won't be saved by her silliness.] I dunno. I guess I wouldn't be mad if there was a good reason for it.

[she thinks. it would have to depend on what it was, but if she couldn't fix it, she can't imagine being too broken up about it, beyond that it WILL happen and that she'll have to worry about it.]

Right. [Is Ford said not to a good reason? The fact that it would make her sad? What's good reason enough? Dipper stands up again, moving to go through the trash.]

She must have started crossing these off as she forgot the people she knew.

[He snaps a few pictures.]

[Mabel sits up on the bed and now that he's changed subjects, she's getting worried about him.] Dipper, what's wrong? Look, if you've got something you're keeping from somebody, just tell me, and I'll tell you whether it's something they should know. That'll solve the problem.

[Seriously? He knows Mabel isn't stupid. That being said, she's great at ignoring bad stuff.]

Mabel, you don't want to know.

[She literally just said that. How can he both want desperately to tell her and desperately to keep her from knowing? He feels like he's being torn apart.]

Like... Because it's about me or because it's so bad that I'll freak out when I hear it?

[She kicks her legs, still not quite accepting the gravity of the situation.]

Both. [His shoulders slump. He can hide things from her, but he can't lie to her face. Even when he's not looking at her.] Ford's... told me some stuff.

[it's not so much the fact that it is about her that makes her stop kicking her legs and stare at him with a look of hurt shock. it's the fact that Ford didn't tell her, himself. or at least ask her if she wanted to know. it hits too close to her feelings of isolation when it comes to ford and dipper, and she really thought they were growing past that here in Wonderland.

if dipper and ford were keeping that from her, then what else would they keep from her?]

...So you two have been talking about me? [hesitantly, because she doesn't want to outright ask when she said she didn't want to know, but now the situation is different.] Like... Future me?

[Dipper glances over her shoulder, expression wavering. She doesn't want to know. He doesn't know how much he can tell her before she starts to know.]

It... gets really bad back home.

[She blinks, waiting for him to go on, and when the silence stretches on, her shoulders slump a bit.] Dipper, just tell me. 'Cause this isn't working.

[she rubs her shoulders, resisting the urge to retreat into Sweater Town.] It's fine. I won't get mad or freaked out or whatever.

It's Bill. [Which... probably says enough. Or would be enough to make him this upset. He walks back to the bed and sits next to her, shoulder bumping against hers. Whatever happens in the future, she's here now.]

He's found--

[Oh. She doesn't even know about the rift. Dipper swallows. This is going to take some explaining. But he has to get the worst out of the way first. Like ripping off a bandaid. Horrible, but fast.]

Bill's taken over Gravity Falls. Ford said I escaped, but he doesn't... he doesn't know what happened to you. And he isn't sure if he's alive.

But... [she tries to piece it together- how this even happened or why. she has a thousand questions, but she doesn't know if Dipper has any answers and if he does, she feels sick knowing that he got them from Ford and that for whatever reason, she wasn't worth telling the truth to, especially after she proved to him she was capable back home. he knows that. he has to know that.]

But Bill's... [she laughs, trying to make light of it and falling flat.] He's crazy, Dipper, and we both know I've messed up his plans a lot more than you. It's my fault he didn't get the journal after he used you for a living sock puppet. If he did anything to me, he'd totally be talking about it.

[Dipper pulls his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them, ducking his head so his hat hides his face.]

I don't know. Apparently we were fighting-- [Should he tell her about the apprenticeship? The rift?] I guess... we got separated right before it happened. So, I mean, you might totally be fine. Ford just didn't know.

[She's alone. That's not fine. But if Dipper escaped, maybe he'll find her?]

Fighting? [she can only imagine about what, but right now her head is an endless wall of FORD FORD FORD, and she knows it's probably something to do with him. he and stan got stupid, so he probably led dipper to being stupid too.

she pulls her sweater over her own knees and pulls the neck up over her head. it's time for sweater town.]

I'm probably totally fine. I'm probably wandering around the Billpocalypse being a folk hero with my grappling hook and my trusty pig sidekick.

[she doesn't sound convincing. possibly it's the sweater.]

Aww, come on, Mabel. [Ford was right he shouldn't have told her. He puts a hand on her knee, though he doesn't try to get her out of the sweater. He's kind of wishing he could pull one over his head too.] If anyone could, it'd be you. And I escaped! So I'm probably on my way to find you. And when I do we'll probably take him down again, just like everything else that's tried to attack us this summer.

[He doesn't sound convincing either. He slumps.]

Guess I shouldn't have told you.

No. Ford should've told me. [She pulls her head out of her sweater, quick to point out that right now, the fault isn't Dipper's- whatever will happen to make her mad at him hasn't happened yet, and the only person who screwed up here is Ford.]

He knows I know about Bill and that I've fought him a bajillion times by now, and even if he thought I couldn't handle knowing, he should've at least asked me. He told you all this future stuff without thinking about it.

[it's clear she's... pretty hurt by this.] I thought Ford and I were finally bonding... I know I'm not as smart as you, Dipper, but it's not like Ford and I don't have plenty in common. [she rubs her shoe against her ankle, her expression positively downtrodden.] I guess it wasn't enough.

Edited 2016-03-17 06:41 (UTC)

I'm sure that's not it! [He loves Ford and Mabel and he really wants Ford and Mabel to love each other. But he guiltily thinks of the other things he hasn't told her. The thing Ford specifically told him to tell not even Mabel.]

Look, he just... didn't want you to worry. Since he doesn't know anything yet.

You worry about stuff more than me! You were worrying about this five minutes ago.

[it doesn't make sense. anyone whose known Dipper for more than five minutes would have known that news would have messed with him. she could have handled it better. at least she would know Dipper was okay, even if she wasn't sure of herself. putting that pressure on Dipper is too much.

but ford trusted dipper and he didn't trust her.]

[He's worrying about it right now. On top of worrying about Mabel right now and Ford back home and his constant low grade worry about everything.]

He is the guy who wrote Trust No One in his journal.

[At times he makes Dipper look trusting and completely rational in his level of caution. The fact that Dipper's managed to earn his trust sometimes feels impossible, and considering he had to do such things as, oh, try and read Ford's mind to get some of the information he's gotten.... that's saying a lot.

He swallows and straightens, reaching to squeeze Mabel's hand. He can't make it hurt less that Ford didn't trust Mabel. But Dipper should never have gone along with it, and at least that he can start to make right.]

But Mabel, I trust you, and I'll tell you everything he's told me, okay? [He hesitates, then hedges.] If--if you still want to hear it, that is. You're gonna hate all of it.

He trusted you.

[it would've been better if he had trusted No One. she wouldn't feel so bad, so small, so insignificant. she presses her face to her knees and resists the urge to pull her hand away from dipper's. it's not his fault. it's not his fault.

and at least he's gonna include her, which takes some of the edge off. she peeks up at him.] I don't care if I hate it, Dipper. We shouldn't be keeping stuff from each other.

[all the words she said before have gone out the window, because they don't apply to when two of her family members conspire (even inadvertently or with no real ill intent) to leave her out. the reasons don't matter. it happened. and there's no changing it. she probably won't even be mad at Ford when he gets back, even if it's another ten steps back towards really trusting him. she sniffles and wipes her nose with her sleeve.] So just tell me everything, and when Ford gets back, we'll just... move on from it. It's not like it'll matter until we have to live it too. And that might not happen for a long time.

Edited 2016-03-18 01:01 (UTC)

[He glances away, trying not to feel guilty. It's not his fault. But he should have told Mabel everything sooner. He should have told Ford to tell her. He knows her better than Ford does. Even if Ford didn't know whether he could trust her or not, Dipper could have convinced him.]

It's not like he just came to me and started spilling his history. [At home, anyway. In Wonderland, he had, but that was after Dipper had been working hard to get him to trust him.] I had to work really hard and ask him all sorts of questions and play a lot of Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons before he started telling me anything. Even then, there... may have been a certain amount of using a mind reading machine and that worked out... about as terribly as you'd expect.

[It's up there with "time travel" in the seemed like a good idea at the time list.]

That was how I found out about his history with Bill.

Mind-reading machine?? [Mabel looks at him skeptically, though it's not the weirdest thing that's ever been said by her brother and it's not even the weirdest thing in the journals.] So like... how he learned all that stuff about how to get him out of a person's head, right?

It was plan B, in case we couldn't Bill-proof the shack. He was going to encrypt my thoughts.

[Cause that's not weird or terrifying at all.]

But I got really curious about what his history with Bill was since he kept not telling me, so I put the thingy on him to see if I could just... find out. Then I saw him making a deal with Bill in his memories and calling Bill a friend and then I-- [He grimaces. This was not his finest moment.] I sort of freaked out and tried to erase his memories since I thought Bill was possessing him? Which he wasn't! But, uh, Ford has a steel plate in his head so it didn't work. It just broke the machine. So you know. Really good thing you got that unicorn hair.

[encrypting his thoughts?? what the hey, dipper. at least she just lets him go without adding any commentary about that part. the rest of it is more startling, anyway.

it's not like dipper didn't fall for bill's tricks before too, but it's sort of disheartening to know that anyone- even the people who are supposed to be smarter than that- can be fooled by him. and that's why he's so terrifying.

she has a lot of stuff she has to say about all of that or at least wants to say about it, but all that comes out is:] Yikes.

[she shifts on the bed, tugging her sweater over her feet a little more.] But it didn't matter, 'cause Bill won anyway.

Yeah. Yikes. [Dipper rubs his arm, looking down at the ground.]

Bill helped him build the portal, but after Fiddleford saw through it, saw what Bill was really trying to do, Ford realized how completely evil Bill was and tried to call it off and find a way to stop Bill's plans for good.

That's why he was so mad at Grunkle Stan about the portal. It caused a tear in reality... a rift actually, that Bill could get through. For real get through, not just creepy mindscape possession get through. Ford had it contained, but I guess... it got uncontained.

[not for the first time in her deepest darkest thoughts, Mabel regrets pushing that button, even though she doesn't know if Grunkle Stan's sadness was worth saving the world. it's hard for her to imagine doing that to him, even with the world on the line.

she's twelve. she shouldn't have to make those kinds of decisions.]

And now you and Ford, I guess, are trying to fix that... And I'm missing... [she looks over at him.] What about Stan?

I don't know. [Dipper is a little ashamed of himself for not even asking, but there's nothing like telling him Mabel is missing to make him stop thinking about anything else.] I don't know about any of our friends, either.

But see, that's good! [she shifts again, this time pulling herself out of her sweater, so she can grab Dipper by his shoulders. if she's missing just like stan and the others are, and Bill isn't gloating about hurting her, then she has to be with them.] I could be with Stan! Or Candy and Grenda and Wendy forming our own Girls of the Billpocalypse gang. It might not be as bad as you guys think.

[it's a tiny sliver of hope- one little crack of light in an otherwise dark room, but that little crack keeps the monsters in the closet and the nightmares at bay. they don't know anything and if they don't know anything, then she can just take the best case scenario and latch onto it.]

[Mabel's always so hopeful. It's nice to have her know too, to be able to remind him that the worst case scenario isn't necessarily what's true. He cracks a smile. It's small and a little shaky, but it's there.]

That would be a terrifying gang. Bill would be pretty screwed.

He so would be. [it's a pretty comforting scenario and it's enough to just shake her completely free of the rest of the dark thoughts plaguing her. she's still upset with ford, but he's not here, and that can be dealt with when he's back.

so comforted by all this, she wraps her arms around her brother.] Thanks for telling me all this, bro-bro.

[He smiles a little and hugs her back. He feels lighter now too. He really should have told her all of this a long time ago.]

...there's one more thing. It's not nearly as bad as the rest, but it is what we were fighting about. So you should know.

[she pulls back, but she isn't eager to let go of him right now, so she just looks at him with a stricken expression. Why is there more?]

...Okay?

Ford wanted me to stay in Gravity Falls as his apprentice. [He's still got one arm around her shoulder, but he raises his free hand quickly.] I'm definitely not going to do it. I love Gravity Falls, but after everything we've been through there's no way I'd want to grow up without you. But you should know that he offered.

...Oh.

[her heart sinks a little. it's some consolation that dipper isn't going to do it, but the fact that ford offered still makes her heartsick, so the point is less about dipper and, again, more about ford, himself, and how little she really knows about him.] How could he even ask that after what happened to him and Stan?

Maybe he doesn't remember what it's like.

[Ford and Stan are always fighting. It's not that Dipper and Mabel never fight, but even when they're angriest at each other there's still this solid certainty that they'll never lose each other. Dipper isn't too worried that he and Mabel will end up like Stan and Ford. Their bond is unbreakable, even if all the secrets probably tested it. But he can see how maybe, after so long without his twin, Ford forgets what not being lonely feels like.]

Stan does. [stan who tries to lie about it or hide about it, but worked for years to bring Ford back. the worst of it is that she and dipper both would have done that for each other, and they'd be grateful for the other one for doing it.]

I used to think if I could make them hug it out, it'd mean everything ever would be okay.

[Dipper looks over at Mabel, his heart twisting a little. Then he puts an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a half hug and leaning his head against hers.]

Hugs can't solve everything, I guess. [A beat.] Like this mystery. Are you up for ignoring our problems and snooping into Alice's some more?

[she puts her hand on his hand, closes her eyes and sighs, willing the rest of the bad feelings away.] Yeah. Definitely.

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closed } this is a place where your mind can escape

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