Dipper Pines (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ghostharasser) wrote2020-08-30 03:03 pm
ghostharasser) wrote2020-08-30 03:03 pm
Open Post
All purpose open post for Dipper Pines of Gravity Falls. Top levels below
All purpose open post for Dipper Pines of Gravity Falls. Top levels below
no subject
There's a lot of sound coming from directly in front of Dipper though - the creaking turning of knobs, pressure being released from values rhythimcally, and metal clanking. It looks...like a very dark, dusty boiler room, of all things.
Looking around will reveal interesting things - hundreds of little levels and knobs that all move independently, making instant adjustments as needed. One knob labeled SNORING VOLUME cranks up all the way and back down again. HEARTBEAT and BREATHING are constantly moving gauges, but protected behind glass. A small light source in the room is a blue spark from a panel that has been broken off - BODY TEMPERATURE - which makes sense, given Stan's new status as a coldblood that can't feel temperature extremes as well anymore.
There isn't a proper control panel for someone to sit at, but there is a wall full of filing cabinets. Some of the labels have been burnt off from the same fire that still burns upstairs, but others are still clear, or have even been re-labeled with time. BIASES. FLIGHT OR FIGHT. STRESS RESPONSES. NERVOUS TICS. TELLS. GRUDGES. SURVIVAL INSTINCTS. DRIVING. SHOPLIFTING. BLOOD MAGIC.
The list goes on and on like that, with dozens of other drawers full of information on his great uncle's automatic responses.]
no subject
[He eyes the gauges behind glass, and thinking vividly, how horrifying it would be if something happened to them here. As he walks by them, he gives them plenty of space, trying not to think too hard about the prospect of being so close to such important functions. Though he's technically incorporeal, he gets phantom chills and tingles under his skin. Ugh, bad, bad.]
[Let's look at the file cabinets instead. These seem less important and just as interesting. He eyes the drawers with the labels burned off, opening them to take a peek inside, frowning to find ash.]
Should have expected that.
[Here, let's take a look inside one of the less burnt looking ones.]
no subject
Inside of the SHOPLIFTING drawer are files of things that Stan just...understands implicitly after years of practice about the art of snatching things from stores. Impossible photographs of aisles in grocery stores with different weak points circled in red. Arrows drawn toward bored-looking red-shirt employees saying NOT PAID ENOUGH TO STOP ME, and more serious ones saying THESE GUYS SUCK, CAUSE A DISTRACTION. What sort of distraction? Diagrams follow of towers of cans with points circled saying KICK HERE AND RUN, most effective places to throw down a smoke bomb, and so many more general tips and tricks about grabbing almost anything and slipping it into his pocket. There's even one paper that just says DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES STEAL FROM WITCHES with no further explanation. It's a pretty full file that Dipper could read for days if he really wanted to.]
no subject
[This is very informative, actually. Dipper will actually spend a little while looking through the folder. It shouldn't surprise him that Stan has such a thorough understanding of the art of shoplifting, and yet.]
[Ah, right, he's not here to pick Stan's brain about crime. This time.]
[He will put everything back the way he found it and open up another drawer. This time he finds one with a label, but the contents look burnt again. He frowns.]
[And then he gets an idea. What if he could ...restore these burnt remains? Is that something he's capable of? He's not sure, but ...he kind of wants to try. This would be helping Stan with his memory loss, right? Right, so it shouldn't hurt him....right?]
[Dipper reaches into the cabinet to carefully touch the ash.]
no subject
Naturally, the label is a mysterious one. It's one of only a few that aren't labeled with words, but instead odd hieroglyphics. They don't seem to be a cipher of any kind, but there's no key inside the drawer - just ashes and a few more scraps of paper with other symbols, like large X's, ancient-looking hashtags, and maybe most bizarrely, a cat that looks like it could have been drawn by Mabel?
The ashes are just ashes, dust is just dust - though now Dipper's fingers have glitter and ash on them. It doesn't seem to hurt or help. Stan's brain doesn't combust, but it also doesn't change anything.
It certainly isn't a bad thought though - maybe it's something he just has to learn how to do, or something that could be done with time. Unless, of course, Dipper has anything else he'd like to try now.]
no subject
[Weirdly cryptic... Does he recognize those symbols? He doesn't think they're alchemical, though they do remind him of those symbols. Hm]
[With one of the scraps on his hand that's been partially burnt, and some of the ash from the drawer he decides to give it a try. He's not really sure what he ought to do, thinking about it. Should he try to will the paper into better shape? Like he would summon a soda or alter a dream? He realizes that ...not knowing what the symbol is actually stops him from being able to do much.]
[What a crazy, but enlightening thing to realize. That his powers are hindered so utterly on his own knowledge or imagination.]
[With a frown he decides instead to commit the symbols to memory, and maybe ask Stan about it later. He'll shut the drawer and take a step back.]
[...a lot's been damaged here, but ...maybe there is something he can do about it later. All the more reason for him to figure out his powers better, he thinks. With that he feels definitely like he shouldn't stay down here. He hasn't heard his uncle heckle him in a while so ...yeah, this is probably meant to be off limits. Okay, back up the stairs we go!
no subject
It's more than just that though - once the crab skitters out of the way so Dipper can get up, Dipper will realize the entire front room of Stan's Mind Shack is bending inward toward the top of the staircase, as though the walls themselves were dying of curiosity. The bats flutter back to the shadows and the gift shop speakers sputter back to life as the walls slowly recede back to where they were before. It's like the whole room sighs with relief.]
Ś̶̨͡͝h̢͡҉e̴̴̡͘͜é̢͢͞s̨͘͟ḩ̸̕!͘ You were in there forever, kid! Ẁ́h̶͢҉́a̷̢̛͡t́͘, did you f̸̢̨̀a̵̷̷̵̢l̵̢͡͝ĺ̴͠ ͘͜͠͡i͏̧́̀ņ́͜͞?̷̢̡̀͞
[It's the only appropriate Uncle Response.]
no subject
[No wonder he was so nervous down there, yeesh.]
Please, you really should consider putting in some lower level lighting. It was so dark down there I probably got lost in your uh, morality void or something.
[Here, he'll make a terrible joke back. Let's not... talk about what was down there. Time to move on! To another door! Memories is an old favorite, lets go in that one.]
no subject
Just like the first time around, there are a lot of rooms. Closer to the front are more recent short term memory halls, from Deerington and Deer Country. There are designated halls for Dipper and Mabel respectively, Ford, and even Soos.
Unlike in his unconscious mind, where pieces destroyed by the memory gun are no longer burning, some doors are still engulfed in blue flames. They're more contained than they were though, with no danger of spreading to anything else. They're just...forever on fire. The Deerington and Deer Country ones are mostly unscathed, and even the bulk of his recent Gravity Falls memories are fine, but the further back Dipper goes, the more fires there will be. It isn't the majority anymore, not by a long shot, but it's still probably concerning.
Stan knows this though, so a door opens up within a foot of Dipper. Inside, Stan is leaning against a mini-golf club at the Ye Royal Discount Putt Hutt back in Gravity Falls.]
Ah, don't worry about it, kid!
[Then that door slams shut, and another opens, of the kids shining a flashlight on Stan in a dark room full of cursed wax weirdos.]
It's just me! Your Grunkle Stan!
[Sure, having some memories still up in flames doesn't look great, but this is what he's got to work with now and the last thing he wants is Dipper worrying about it more than he has to.
That door slams shut too, leaving Dipper seemingly alone. So then - where to?]