[OPEN] "These shallow waters never met what I needed. I'm letting go; a deeper dive."

[mviw]

Who: Ford (mviw) & YOU! | Closed prompts for Fiddleford, Wendy & the kids, tiny!Rick and Frisk, and Bill Cipher
Where: Around Neverland
When: Through the Neverland event + the Aftermath
Rating: PG-13/R for violence, swearing, limb amputation
Summary: Ford tries to protect his best friend, his nephew and niece, his friend's daughter, and his brother. It goes horribly awry. (You could say the casualties are about half his armies.)

(This log is corresponding to the events in THIS log.)

The Story:
[ooc: Prompts are written! Have at it.]

Comments

[canofwhoopass]

[Ugh. God. She feels awful about this. Like, churning-in-her-stomach awful. She's messed up before, been caught doin' dumb stuff in school, messing around places she shouldn't, but like... god, not this. She never meant to fuck up this bad.

She ends up drawing her arm across her chest, gripping her other arm and not quite making eye contact. She knows it's unlike her, but she can't quite muster anything better right now.]

Heh, well, you only have so many limbs, so, no surprises there.

[Ugh, god, she's so bad at this.]

Hey man, listen, I know we haven't like, talked a lot? Even back in Gravity Falls. But I'm... really sorry about all this. Like, you getting caught and stuff. Stan got away from me, they found out I was lying, it was... kind of a mess. I should've been more careful, 'cause like, you lost an arm dude. That's freakin' intense.

[mviw]

[Perhaps it's better that he's on pain killers. Makes it easier to talk, when interacting with people never really came easily.

His brow is knit in mild concern and he watches Wendy under the rims of his glasses. She kind of reminds him of Dan, except she's a lot better with words.]

Hey. Hey. This was not your fault. [Ford's tone is stern, but reassuring. Being verbose is something he can't QUITE manage today (he could if he really tried) and it seems better to just cut to the chase.] If anything, I'm just glad you, Dipper and Mabel weren't hurt badly.

I knew how dangerous it was going to be and I still let you go alone. Events don't last forever. We could have waited it out on the beach in the shade.

[He briefly trails off, and they both know damn well that wasn't going to happen.]

... Look. We did what we had to in order to help Stan. If I regrew my arm, I'd do it again. [HE SHRUGS.] I'm getting a robot arm out of this, and the pain killers are doing their job. It's hard to complain.

[canofwhoopass]

[Eugh, he's lumping her in with the kids. Dangit. That's not what she wanted. She doesn't want to be treated like a baby. She's smart and capable and something went wrong but it should be her fault! It should!]

You don't have to worry about me like that, y'know. You talked about knowing my dad. You know I can handle it! You don't have to sugarcoat this for me!

[She's fifteen. She's got a dad who can probably break her with her pinky finger. She's not scared. She's not scared, damnit.]

I was gonna go in alone before you said it anyway. We didn't know that was gonna end! Who knows how long we could've been there. We had to stop him from hurting somebody, or himself, and... I messed up, and you got hurt.

[Ugh, she came here to apologize and now she's just here desperately trying to take the blame.]

It is my fault, alright? And I'm sorry.

[mviw]

... [Ah, teenagers. There was a time he was also fifteen. Ford tries not to lose himself in nostalgia. He rubs the bridge of his nose.]

Sugarcoating? You think that was sugarcoating? Fine. Let me put it another way.

We were all being reckless idiots, and frankly I would rather do something like that alone because no matter how old or young or capable anyone else is, I still don't want them to get hurt because of me; the same reason you're here trying to take the blame for something you didn't do.

I was caught off guard because I was tired and standing out in the open, and if I hadn't been so careless, Rick wouldn't have pulverized my arm with a sharp rock.

Do you want to see the stump? Because I'm fairly certain that is the least sugarcoated thing here.

[...]

Actually, it is pretty fascinating.

[canofwhoopass]

[She pouts. He starts berating her like some kind of child and she straight-up pouts, crossing her arms and looking away from him. God, why is he like this. Why are they both like this. Treating her like she's a god damned kid. Like she doesn't know anything! But still, it's... he's...

uuuuuuugh.]

... You sound just like him. No wonder you're twins.

[After another bit of pouting...]

... And I totally wanna see the stump. That sounds awesome, dude.

[mviw]

[He was honestly trying to go for berating her like she was a fellow adult, but apparently he got the point across.

It's Ford's turn to pout though, but on him it looks more like a stubborn, petulant frown.]

Are you saying I sound like Stanley? I can assure you I sound nothing like--[wait. wait wait wait WAIT]

You really wanna see it? Here, help me get the bandages off. [Normally he'd be quite opposed to being the object of fascination, but how often do most people get to see something like this?

... Under normal circumstances, he would outright oppose this, but the pain medication makes it harder to enforce caring about this kind of thing.]

[canofwhoopass]

[She snickers, because she does totally want to see it, and she knows outright Ford wouldn't let her do this if he wasn't half-high, so it is SO worth taking advantage of. She peels back the bandages and makes an array of gross faces for his amusement.]

Woahhhh, dude, that is sick! Like, literally sick, are you sure you're okay, man?

[mviw]

[Ford is straight up really really amused.]

Yes. I am sure I am not okay, but I'm sure I will be. [He laughs.]

--Alright, now please help me get those back on. I don't want it to get infected. You're lucky! I didn't even show this to the kids. ["Lucky" Is relative, and also, Ford isn't an asshole. He wouldn't expose the wee ones to that, no matter how capable they are.]

Feel any better?

[canofwhoopass]

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<small.[she>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

<small.[She can't help but grin a little bit at his comment. She likes Dipper and Mabel, don't get her wrong, but... she is nearly 3 years older, and she appreciates the fact that Ford is willing to treat her like it.]</small>

Yeah, yeah, you don't gotta pity me.

<small>[She helps him re-wrap everything, but she's still smiling.]</small>

I'm just glad you're not, like... I dunno, super mad or whatever.

[mviw]

Mad? Why would I be mad? You've spent the summer at home helping the kids and you've basically been adopted by Stanley.

Besides, it would be foolish to get on the bad side of the young lady with the hatchet.

[canofwhoopass]

[She winks at him and gives him a finger gun.]

Well, can't argue with that. I wouldn't wanna be on the bad side of me either.

[At least this helped assuage her feelings a little.]

Let me know if you need anything though, okay? I still feel like I should probably do something.