+ Your imagination can't hurt you! +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: YOU!
Where: The Mindscape
When: starting November 11th
Rating: may be up to R for character deaths
Summary: Navigate challenges to learn valuable lessons about nonviolence, cooperation, and self-sacrifice! Release your inner animal! Read more about the event here, and on the bulletin board.
The Story:




"If you know yourself, you have nothing to fear."
"Working together is the only way."
"Deaths are a necessary part of life, but not all deaths are necessary."
"The needs of the many outweigh the life of just one."

Comments

[krmvgivv]

[Well that's. Creepy. But what else are they gonna do? Dipper awkwardly looks away and starts poking at the vegetables.] I guess we just throw it all in a pot and it'll taste pretty good, right? It's just vegetables and meat.

[itwouldbeatragedy]

That's what I was hoping for. I think in that case, it will just depend on how and how long we cook it. [With the meat, at least, in smaller pieces he sits back and looks at it.] It's...not really ideal to cook the meat in the pot, I think, but unless you can find a stick, we'll have to go with it.

[krmvgivv]

I mean we could... sharpen a carrot? [Probably not. Dipper shrugs.] How discerning can a beast be anyway? I'm sure pot cooked is fine.

[itwouldbeatragedy]

It just takes longer to cook the meat that way.

[But that doesn't stop him from dumping all of the meat into the pot.]

So we've got some waiting to do. [Awesome.]

[krmvgivv]

So just... waiting for the meat to cook while some mysterious monster that's probably more interested in what we're cooking than us prowls out of view.

[He wraps his arms around his knees.]

This is great.

[itwouldbeatragedy]

[Kaneki sits down near the fire so he can check on the food as it cooks. He glances over at Dipper as he settles in cross-legged.]

I'm probably not the company you were hoping for, but we could talk while we wait.

[krmvgivv]

[Dipper glances up at him.] You're not that bad! I mean, there's the whole eating people thing, which, speaking as people, is a little disturbing, but it's not like you're actually eating people here, with the closets and everything. And you're usually pretty cool, so....

[itwouldbeatragedy]

Not that bad. [Kaneki smiles to himself.] No, I'm pretty bad, Dipper-kun.

[Maybe it's because it's dark here that his thoughts are going somewhere dark, too. It's probably not appropriate with Dipper, who doesn't know him well. But that might be exactly why. It doesn't matter what he says to Dipper.]

But I don't eat humans much anymore.

[krmvgivv]

[Wow, that's so reassuring. Dipper swallows slightly and turns to raise an eyebrow.]

Do you talk to humans much anymore? Cause you're clearly pretty bad at it.

[itwouldbeatragedy]

I don't, actually. [He scratches at the back of his neck and looks over at Dipper.] Once I accepted what I was, I realized I wasn't the type of ghoul who could easily mix with humans.

[krmvgivv]

That must make being in Wonderland pretty hard. [Dipper frowns.] You always seemed okay before. Had you… not accepted what you were before or whatever?

[itwouldbeatragedy]

Before I left and came back? [He knows that's what Dipper means, but he's buying himself a couple of seconds to think.] It was more like I thought I could be both human and ghoul. But living like that isn't sustainable.

[He checks on the food, which is not cooking quickly at all.]

Besides, I have things I need to do that won't allow me to live as a human for now.

[krmvgivv]

Things? [He tilts his head, watching Kaneki curiously. Since those things don't seem to, for now anyway, include eating Dipper, he's more curious than scared.]

[itwouldbeatragedy]

I need to find the man who did this to me. And find out why he did it.

[And to do that, he's having to trample a lot of people who are standing in his way.]

[krmvgivv]

"This?" [This sounds like a revenge thing. Dipper's not sure he wants to know, but that's never stopped him from asking before.] What'd he do to you? Do you know who he is?

[itwouldbeatragedy]

The doctor who turned me into a ghoul.

[It's partly a revenge thing. It's partly an existential thing.

He smiles, just a little, but it's not a happy expression.]

The me from before wouldn't have been able to do anything like this.

[krmvgivv]

Wait, you were turned into a ghoul? [Dipper shakes his head, squinting at Kaneki.] What were you before? I thought ghouls were something you were, not something you became.

[itwouldbeatragedy]

Heh. I'm kind of a special case.

[Not as special as he used to think, but still not a natural occurrence.]

I was a human before I became a ghoul.

[krmvgivv]

[That's definitely not something Dipper knew, and it's, well, fascinating. He knows a lot about all kinds of magical beings, but ghouls aren't really on the list and he knows he's gonna have to write an entry in his journal about them now.]

Huh. How'd that happen? Was it like a vampire thing?

[itwouldbeatragedy]

I had a ghoul's kakuhou implanted in me. It changed my physiology completely.

[...Okay, there's something else there he needs to clarify.]

A kakuhou is the organ where my kagune originates. And my kagune is the thing you just saw me using on the food.

[Speaking of which, he needs to check on that.]

I was told it was a kidney.

[krmvgivv]

That's... one hell of a kidney transplant. Man, dude, that sucks.

[He peers over the brim into the pot.]

And so you're, what, looking for revenge? A new kidney?

[itwouldbeatragedy]

I... [He hesitates, shakes his head.] I want answers. None of this had to happen.

[He checks the contents of the pot as well.]

...This is still raw.

[krmvgivv]

Really? [Dipper leans over the pot and looks. It sure... seems raw. To the extent he knows anything about meat.]

Maybe it like sushi.

[itwouldbeatragedy]

Do you want to chance that?

[Before Dipper can answer, Kaneki fishes a piece of meat from the pot - which is stupid because the contents are hot by now - and tosses the chunk toward the hungry beast.]

Let's see.

[krmvgivv]

[Dipper takes a step behind Kaneki because honestly if something does want to eat them and gets super offended by uncooked meat, he'd rather it go for the scary guy with knife hands. Seems more likely to end well for them.]