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Holiday caaaardss
HEY IF YOU WANT A CHRISTMAS CARD FROM MEEEEEEE GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS I BOUGHT CUTE CARDS AND WANT TO USE THEM.
Just reply below with your name and address!! comments screen etc etc
Just reply below with your name and address!! comments screen etc etc
Netbook | 8/31
Hey, uh. Would anyone want to, I dunno, play some video games or watch a movie or something tonight?
No reason!! Just uh, just bored. Haha!
-Dipper
[It's his birthday but he sure isn't going to admit that when his sister isn't here and all of this sucks.]
No reason!! Just uh, just bored. Haha!
-Dipper
[It's his birthday but he sure isn't going to admit that when his sister isn't here and all of this sucks.]
(no subject)
MAY YOU FIND YOUR WORTH IN THE WAKING WORLD
INCEPTUS NOLANUS OVERRATUS
It happens without warning. You're enjoying yet another day, trapped under the ocean in a metal can, waiting to either escape or die, when a scream rings out. Strange, because it almost sounded like it was in your head. What happens next is a deathly silence, a ringing in the ears, and then suddenly reality shifts. Color drains from the world around you, time slowly crawls to a halt, and the cosmos holds it's breath.
A moment ticks by.
Reality exhales and the world bursts forth, warping your environment until it becomes something different, something new. Somewhere you definitely weren't before. Your greatest fantasy or your worst nightmare has come to life, and something has become increasingly apparent: You are not alone. Traverse your fears, your dreams, your secrets with whoever else wound up in this hell with you. Maybe together you can figure a way out, or a way to make it stop.
A moment ticks by.
Reality exhales and the world bursts forth, warping your environment until it becomes something different, something new. Somewhere you definitely weren't before. Your greatest fantasy or your worst nightmare has come to life, and something has become increasingly apparent: You are not alone. Traverse your fears, your dreams, your secrets with whoever else wound up in this hell with you. Maybe together you can figure a way out, or a way to make it stop.
WE'LL MEET AGAIN SOME SUNNY DAY
While moving between dream to dream, a few things start to become apparent: Most, if not all, of the Sea Base has been affected. Every so often, certain edges of the dream will shift to look like a haunted looking old Victorian city. Despite that, before dreams get to be too bad, a lamp will appear with it's small attendants beckoning you over. Touching the lamp will send you either to a new dream, or to ...a house.
The house is empty, though it appears to be well lived in. There are personal affects littered all over, so if one is nosy enough, it will be easy to find things like pictures. Either way, it's a safe space for people to collect themselves in. There's sodas in the fridge, just don't mind the kitchen possums running around.
The house is empty, though it appears to be well lived in. There are personal affects littered all over, so if one is nosy enough, it will be easy to find things like pictures. Either way, it's a safe space for people to collect themselves in. There's sodas in the fridge, just don't mind the kitchen possums running around.
SPARK NOTES
OOC
Hello! Welcome to your Dreamscape plot! Have fun and be as self-indulgent or as terrible as you like, just be sure to tag your CW's appropriately! If you have any questions or concerns you are welcome to DM at [maplecoffe] or hit up my plurk ![[plurk.com profile]](https://www.plurk.com/favicon.ico)
takatorabatta.
a top level for the Moon Presence showdown will be in a top level below.
UPDATES
❖ None yet!
SUBMISSIONS
OPT-IN/OUT
HEY THERE. Dipper has a lot of weird abilities that may at some point need permissions. They can be opt-out of completely or you can opt into only certain things, that's cool! Dipper's canon and CRAU history is also full of upsetting and triggering content that may also be something you'd like to opt-out of for any reason! I'll keep comments screened on this post for privacy!
Dipper's Paleblood Abilites:
Empathy: Dipper can pick up on emotional vibes of the people around him, to the point that large crowded rooms can overwhelm him. He can pick up on as little or as much as you like. He will mostly use this to keep from fucking up a social interaction because he has a lot of anxiety.
Dreamwalking: This is something that will only ever be situational and likely discussed ahead of time with whoever I am threading with. While he can induce a dreaming state without people being asleep in bed, I'll never just straight up do it on a whim. I'll contact who i am playing with first. THAT SAID if you want to wholesale take it off the table, you may do so!
Telepathy: Dipper has a very mild telepathic ability and almost never uses it unless he is trying to contact people he cares about. If you have a strong emotional bond to Dipper, then they can have a telepathic bond. If not he'll only be capable of picking up some vague surface thoughts. It probably won't come up much unless there's a fun narrative reason.
Prophecy: Dipper can get weird visions. Do you have a fun plot where a character is going to fuck around and find out? Want dipper to get an incoherent corkboard vision and be unable to decipher it in time to do anything about it? Hit me up!
Hallucinations: Technically Dipper is capable of inducing hallucinations in those around him. He can only do this when he is under extreme emotional duress or if he's succumbed to beasthood and is trying to eat you.
This is a quick and dirty explanation of his powers. You can completely opt-out below, or you can also respond and give me some ideas of what he might pick up with his empathy or limited telepathy. You can also use this post to hit me up with ideas if you want! idk go nuts.
Dipper's Paleblood Abilites:
Empathy: Dipper can pick up on emotional vibes of the people around him, to the point that large crowded rooms can overwhelm him. He can pick up on as little or as much as you like. He will mostly use this to keep from fucking up a social interaction because he has a lot of anxiety.
Dreamwalking: This is something that will only ever be situational and likely discussed ahead of time with whoever I am threading with. While he can induce a dreaming state without people being asleep in bed, I'll never just straight up do it on a whim. I'll contact who i am playing with first. THAT SAID if you want to wholesale take it off the table, you may do so!
Telepathy: Dipper has a very mild telepathic ability and almost never uses it unless he is trying to contact people he cares about. If you have a strong emotional bond to Dipper, then they can have a telepathic bond. If not he'll only be capable of picking up some vague surface thoughts. It probably won't come up much unless there's a fun narrative reason.
Prophecy: Dipper can get weird visions. Do you have a fun plot where a character is going to fuck around and find out? Want dipper to get an incoherent corkboard vision and be unable to decipher it in time to do anything about it? Hit me up!
Hallucinations: Technically Dipper is capable of inducing hallucinations in those around him. He can only do this when he is under extreme emotional duress or if he's succumbed to beasthood and is trying to eat you.
This is a quick and dirty explanation of his powers. You can completely opt-out below, or you can also respond and give me some ideas of what he might pick up with his empathy or limited telepathy. You can also use this post to hit me up with ideas if you want! idk go nuts.
viva la
OOC INFORMATION
Player Name: Jami
Pronouns: They/Them
Contact:takatorabatta
Characters Played: NA
IC INFORMATION
Character Name: Mason "Dipper" Pines
AU or OU: OU/Deer Country CRAU
Canon: Gravity Falls
Canon Point: Post-canon
Character Age: 15. boy dipper has been through some shit
OU Backstory:
Powers and Abilities:
Desired Faction: Vault or Flotsam!
SAMPLES
Please include two IC threads with your character of at least 5 comments each with two different characters. Samples for AU characters must be within the AU setting. Alternately, you may answer 10 of the following questions from the Interview Sample. The interview sample, ICly, is a discussion with a Corsair recruiter when your character joined the Crimson Corsairs. Answer the questions in-character, and the character may lie but if so please indicate [lie] in the answer.
Why do you wish to join the Crimson Corsairs?
Because you guys are standing against what I can only describe as Nightmare Fascism. Look, This isn't my first experience falling through dimensions. My home is a literal blood-soaked hellscape where people are at constant risk of going insane and turning into monsters, so when I say the Empire is probably one of the worst places I have ever been? It means something. They need to be stopped, and that portal they have? It needs to be shut down.
If anyone is going to be able to do it, It's probably you guys. So, yeah, sign me up.
(What Dipper is conveniently not adding, is the fact that his family may also be out there somewhere, or may yet come through the portal, and the Corsairs are the best way he can have a shot at finding and rescuing them.)
Why should the Crimson Corsairs allow you to join them?
I've learned multiple schools of magic, I am incredibly experienced at dimensional travel, I've survived two apocalypses, I'm well read, my math is college level, I've had both combat and firearms training, and I think we should eat the rich.
What is something you will lay down your life for?
Family.
When is it appropriate to take a life?
That's not an easy choice to make, regardless, but I do think there are circumstances where it has to happen. I know we are fighting a war, and the people who run the show over there are monsters. Preserving the sanctity of life is important, but so is our own survival. Principles don't help dead men, you know?
Unrelated to that, I think also death can be a means of mercy, depending on the situation. It's a little hard to explain my experience with it, but basically someone, her name was Cynthia, she'd been chained to a nightmare, forced to live out her own personal unending hell, and she begged me to release her. So, I did. It was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but I knew it was the right choice.
Describe a failure in your past and what you learned from it.
Falco
Describe a success in your past and what you learned from it.
Baking contest
What has your experience with the Imperials been like?
What would you refuse to do in service of the Crimson Corsairs?
How well do you work with comrades? What can we expect from you when you are placed on a team?
Describe how you believe you would act if your mission has failed and you know your life is forfeit.
If there's really no way out, then I'll give them hell until I stop breathing. I'll make whoever has the misfortune of putting me down never forget my face.
Have you ever lost a comrade? How did you react?
What are you unwilling to sacrifice yourself for?
How do you handle orders from a superior officer?
If a superior officer orders you to do something you believe is morally wrong, what would you do?
Many Crimson Corsairs will die in the line of duty, how does that make you feel?
What are you willing to do to preserve the secrets of the Crimson Corsairs?
Many Crimson Corsairs must serve Imperials to preserve our cover and gather resources. How do you feel about this?
What are your dreams for the future?
Describe a time your life was in the hands of another, what did you do?
What would you be willing to do if it meant the defeat of the Empire?
Player Name: Jami
Pronouns: They/Them
Contact:
Characters Played: NA
IC INFORMATION
Character Name: Mason "Dipper" Pines
AU or OU: OU/Deer Country CRAU
Canon: Gravity Falls
Canon Point: Post-canon
Character Age: 15. boy dipper has been through some shit
OU Backstory:
Powers and Abilities:
Desired Faction: Vault or Flotsam!
SAMPLES
Please include two IC threads with your character of at least 5 comments each with two different characters. Samples for AU characters must be within the AU setting. Alternately, you may answer 10 of the following questions from the Interview Sample. The interview sample, ICly, is a discussion with a Corsair recruiter when your character joined the Crimson Corsairs. Answer the questions in-character, and the character may lie but if so please indicate [lie] in the answer.
Why do you wish to join the Crimson Corsairs?
Because you guys are standing against what I can only describe as Nightmare Fascism. Look, This isn't my first experience falling through dimensions. My home is a literal blood-soaked hellscape where people are at constant risk of going insane and turning into monsters, so when I say the Empire is probably one of the worst places I have ever been? It means something. They need to be stopped, and that portal they have? It needs to be shut down.
If anyone is going to be able to do it, It's probably you guys. So, yeah, sign me up.
(What Dipper is conveniently not adding, is the fact that his family may also be out there somewhere, or may yet come through the portal, and the Corsairs are the best way he can have a shot at finding and rescuing them.)
Why should the Crimson Corsairs allow you to join them?
I've learned multiple schools of magic, I am incredibly experienced at dimensional travel, I've survived two apocalypses, I'm well read, my math is college level, I've had both combat and firearms training, and I think we should eat the rich.
What is something you will lay down your life for?
Family.
When is it appropriate to take a life?
That's not an easy choice to make, regardless, but I do think there are circumstances where it has to happen. I know we are fighting a war, and the people who run the show over there are monsters. Preserving the sanctity of life is important, but so is our own survival. Principles don't help dead men, you know?
Unrelated to that, I think also death can be a means of mercy, depending on the situation. It's a little hard to explain my experience with it, but basically someone, her name was Cynthia, she'd been chained to a nightmare, forced to live out her own personal unending hell, and she begged me to release her. So, I did. It was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but I knew it was the right choice.
Describe a failure in your past and what you learned from it.
Falco
Describe a success in your past and what you learned from it.
Baking contest
What has your experience with the Imperials been like?
What would you refuse to do in service of the Crimson Corsairs?
How well do you work with comrades? What can we expect from you when you are placed on a team?
Describe how you believe you would act if your mission has failed and you know your life is forfeit.
If there's really no way out, then I'll give them hell until I stop breathing. I'll make whoever has the misfortune of putting me down never forget my face.
Have you ever lost a comrade? How did you react?
What are you unwilling to sacrifice yourself for?
How do you handle orders from a superior officer?
If a superior officer orders you to do something you believe is morally wrong, what would you do?
Many Crimson Corsairs will die in the line of duty, how does that make you feel?
What are you willing to do to preserve the secrets of the Crimson Corsairs?
Many Crimson Corsairs must serve Imperials to preserve our cover and gather resources. How do you feel about this?
What are your dreams for the future?
Describe a time your life was in the hands of another, what did you do?
What would you be willing to do if it meant the defeat of the Empire?
sticks and bones
PLAYER INFO
Name: Jami
Pronouns: They/Them
Contact:takatorabatta | maplecoffee at disco
Permissions: Here
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Mason "Dipper" Pines
Canon: Gravity Falls
Canon Point: Post-canon | Deer Country CRAU just after his and Mabel's fifteenth birthday.
Age: 15
Species: Sleeper
History: Gravity Falls and Deer Country
And I'll quickly try to sum up his Deer history:
Dipper and his sister turned 13, Dipper wakes up in OG Deerington right at the end of his canon which is a nightmare horror game set in 1950's Maine with a lot of cosmic horror
The world basically ends in Deerington which leads to the game's chapter 2: Deer Country where people wake up in the Gothic Victorian horror city of Trench that is heavily based on Bloodborne lore.
Dipper lives there with his family in their quaint home that's packed to the brim with ghosts and bones, going about his business in Trench. Dipper's business includes ghost hunting, demon exorcising, biting off more than he can chew and turning into a hideous monster, and winning a baking competition!!
Personality:
✽ What is your character's main motivation? What drives them and keeps them going?
Dipper's got two very important drives. The first one is that he is an insatiable desire to seek the truth. What truth? All truth. If there is a mystery, he will fucking solve it. It makes him both an enormous busybody and someone with way too much personal responsibility heaped onto his shoulders. Secondly, and more importantly, Dipper is driven by his love of his family. He would do anything for them, and god help anyone who threatens them. Dipper is a morally good person most of the time but a lot of that gets tossed out the window when his family is on the line.
✽ What is their biggest regret? Why?
Dipper's biggest regret currently is the fight he got into with Stan right before Stan returned to the ocean (aka Stan was dropped). They both said a lot of things to each other in a frustrated, heated argument and while they made up, Dipper can't help but think that maybe it was his fault the ocean called him back. It's something that's going to haunt him for a while.
The second, and notably canon regret, will always be the fight he had with Mabel at the end of the summer. He agreed to an apprenticeship under Ford, thus separating the twins and Mabel took it really hard. The resulting fight lead to her running off and being tricked into basically starting the apocalypse. Imagine how much grief everyone could have been spared if he hadn't done all that!! Imagine!!! it's something else that will always haunt him.
✽ What is their worst fear? Their greatest comfort?
Losing his family, definitely. If it isn't clear by now family means a lot to him!! Very little would rattle him more than something happening to his twin sister or his uncles. And likewise, they are his greatest comfort, because generally no matter what dumb shit he gets up to, they will always be there at his back.
Unless of course, he wakes up alone in some weird world without them.
✽ Top three strengths?
- Dipper has an incredibly strong will. Once he has set his mind to something, he is difficult to stop. Once he is committed to seeing something through, he will do it. Additionally, and it's of note, Dipper is just not easily affected by things like illusion based brainwashing or magic like "charm person". Bill Cipher himself once commented that someone will a will of solid titanium would be needed to see through the prison he'd locked Mabel in, and surprise, when everyone around him fell prey to the brainwashing paradise of Mabeland, it was Dipper that could see it for the nightmare it was.
- Dipper is ride or die for the people he cares about. If he considers you close friends or family, this little lunatic will tear the world inside out for your sake. Dipper has fist-fought a giant robot with his bare hands once for his sister, he has stared down an alien death machine, trained to detect fear, and told it to fuck off so hard it exploded in order to keep it from vaporizing his uncle. Do not hurt his people, or you will live to regret it.
-While Dipper is often touted as The Smart One of his friends and family, Dipper is far more than just a human calculator. Dipper is someone who can solve dire, life threatening situations under heavy stress. He is resourceful and cunning on top of being swiftly intelligent, and his quick thinking has kept him alive through three dimensions and two apocalypses*
✽ Top three weaknesses?
- Dipper is an overthinker and gets wrapped up in his own head super easily. His sister will fondly dub this "Getting in his own way". This over thinking has lead him to stir thoughts of self doubt and hesitation that will often spell trouble for him if he doesn't get shaken out of it. He will also catastrophisize situations and be prone to paranoia and mistrust.
- He is ...so stubborn. He's so stubborn and sometimes he really doesn't know when he should back down. This stubbornness often makes him butt heads with one of his uncles, and it has gotten him into plenty of trouble when someone couldn't reign him in.
- Dipper is deeply petty and has a vengeful streak a mild wide, especially if it comes to defending his family. He has no problems with being underhanded or resorting to cheating, if it means fueling said petty vengeance. He really is a menace if you manage to get on his bad side.
✽ What was their last lie?
"I'm fine."
Inventory: His journal, the Azure Pine (a spear than can turn into a sawed off shotgun. It was built by Ruby Rose.), his lucky pen (gifted by his sister), some tools for blood magic (a knife, runes, some small handheld tools.) and a pendent with a strange green liquid that he wears around his neck. (It's filled with his sisters blood, it's a natural stabilizer for his blood and powers. Yes, I'm serious.) Dipper also has a small, shadow-like creature named Alcaid that lives in his soul. They're like a daemon that he can summon. Alcaid looks like a tiny little ball of feathers and teeth with glowing red eyes. Like Mothman but very compact and round.
Abilities: cracks knuckles.
Dipper is someone with Paleblood. What this means is he has a powerset unique to his bloodtype. Paleblood is described as having a strong affinity under the moonlight. It grants abilities that include: Empathy, Telepathy, Precognition, Dreamwalking, and illusions/hallucinations. It's largely left up to players to interpret how these traits manifest in characters specifically so I will give you the rundown on how Dipper's Paleblood abilities manifest:
Dreamwalking: Dipper can dreamwalk both willingly and unwillingly. It's extremely easy for him with people he knows well, or people who have a similar type of sensitivity to dreams, but it can also happen on accident. Dipper can also use this ability to create "dream bubbles" which are basically little pockets of space he can carve out for people to exist in when dreaming. Lastly, Dipper can forcibly induce a dream state to the people around him if he is under duress. This tends to manifest in the world around them greying out and reality getting fucking weird.
Telepathy: Dipper is not very good at this! He can only read some vague surface thoughts at most, but it works best if he has a strong bond with the person. This has the potential of being honed better the more he practices it.
Empathy: Dipper suffers from emotional disregulation frequently from his abilities and will suck up the emotion and energy from the places around him. For example: If a room had a bunch bad things happen in it, then the lingering negativity would be something he could soak up. He wears that pendent to help smooth that out, but if its bad enough (or he loses the pendant) then a surge of grudge-like energy could send him straight into deep corruption or beasthood.
Precognition: Dipper can receive visions! They manifest in him going in a trance and putting together an insane looking corkboard leaving him to decipher it when he snaps out of it. He can also briefly touch an item and view a little bit of it's past with a very specific form of tactile clairvoyance.
Hallucinations/Illusions: Palebloods have the ability to induce hallucinations in others, Dipper does not have full control over this ability and has only been able to use it in moments of extreme duress or as a Beast. He could learn to better control it over the course of the game, but for now that's all he can do.
Powers aside, Dipper is an incredibly intelligent, deeply cunning and resourceful kid. He's a problem solver, a tinkerer, and has a strong affinity for the occult. He possesses a strong will and an unyielding stubborn streak that keeps his wits about him in dangerous situations.
Sample: here and here
Name: Jami
Pronouns: They/Them
Contact:
Permissions: Here
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Mason "Dipper" Pines
Canon: Gravity Falls
Canon Point: Post-canon | Deer Country CRAU just after his and Mabel's fifteenth birthday.
Age: 15
Species: Sleeper
History: Gravity Falls and Deer Country
And I'll quickly try to sum up his Deer history:
Dipper and his sister turned 13, Dipper wakes up in OG Deerington right at the end of his canon which is a nightmare horror game set in 1950's Maine with a lot of cosmic horror
The world basically ends in Deerington which leads to the game's chapter 2: Deer Country where people wake up in the Gothic Victorian horror city of Trench that is heavily based on Bloodborne lore.
Dipper lives there with his family in their quaint home that's packed to the brim with ghosts and bones, going about his business in Trench. Dipper's business includes ghost hunting, demon exorcising, biting off more than he can chew and turning into a hideous monster, and winning a baking competition!!
Personality:
✽ What is your character's main motivation? What drives them and keeps them going?
Dipper's got two very important drives. The first one is that he is an insatiable desire to seek the truth. What truth? All truth. If there is a mystery, he will fucking solve it. It makes him both an enormous busybody and someone with way too much personal responsibility heaped onto his shoulders. Secondly, and more importantly, Dipper is driven by his love of his family. He would do anything for them, and god help anyone who threatens them. Dipper is a morally good person most of the time but a lot of that gets tossed out the window when his family is on the line.
✽ What is their biggest regret? Why?
Dipper's biggest regret currently is the fight he got into with Stan right before Stan returned to the ocean (aka Stan was dropped). They both said a lot of things to each other in a frustrated, heated argument and while they made up, Dipper can't help but think that maybe it was his fault the ocean called him back. It's something that's going to haunt him for a while.
The second, and notably canon regret, will always be the fight he had with Mabel at the end of the summer. He agreed to an apprenticeship under Ford, thus separating the twins and Mabel took it really hard. The resulting fight lead to her running off and being tricked into basically starting the apocalypse. Imagine how much grief everyone could have been spared if he hadn't done all that!! Imagine!!! it's something else that will always haunt him.
✽ What is their worst fear? Their greatest comfort?
Losing his family, definitely. If it isn't clear by now family means a lot to him!! Very little would rattle him more than something happening to his twin sister or his uncles. And likewise, they are his greatest comfort, because generally no matter what dumb shit he gets up to, they will always be there at his back.
Unless of course, he wakes up alone in some weird world without them.
✽ Top three strengths?
- Dipper has an incredibly strong will. Once he has set his mind to something, he is difficult to stop. Once he is committed to seeing something through, he will do it. Additionally, and it's of note, Dipper is just not easily affected by things like illusion based brainwashing or magic like "charm person". Bill Cipher himself once commented that someone will a will of solid titanium would be needed to see through the prison he'd locked Mabel in, and surprise, when everyone around him fell prey to the brainwashing paradise of Mabeland, it was Dipper that could see it for the nightmare it was.
- Dipper is ride or die for the people he cares about. If he considers you close friends or family, this little lunatic will tear the world inside out for your sake. Dipper has fist-fought a giant robot with his bare hands once for his sister, he has stared down an alien death machine, trained to detect fear, and told it to fuck off so hard it exploded in order to keep it from vaporizing his uncle. Do not hurt his people, or you will live to regret it.
-While Dipper is often touted as The Smart One of his friends and family, Dipper is far more than just a human calculator. Dipper is someone who can solve dire, life threatening situations under heavy stress. He is resourceful and cunning on top of being swiftly intelligent, and his quick thinking has kept him alive through three dimensions and two apocalypses*
✽ Top three weaknesses?
- Dipper is an overthinker and gets wrapped up in his own head super easily. His sister will fondly dub this "Getting in his own way". This over thinking has lead him to stir thoughts of self doubt and hesitation that will often spell trouble for him if he doesn't get shaken out of it. He will also catastrophisize situations and be prone to paranoia and mistrust.
- He is ...so stubborn. He's so stubborn and sometimes he really doesn't know when he should back down. This stubbornness often makes him butt heads with one of his uncles, and it has gotten him into plenty of trouble when someone couldn't reign him in.
- Dipper is deeply petty and has a vengeful streak a mild wide, especially if it comes to defending his family. He has no problems with being underhanded or resorting to cheating, if it means fueling said petty vengeance. He really is a menace if you manage to get on his bad side.
✽ What was their last lie?
"I'm fine."
Inventory: His journal, the Azure Pine (a spear than can turn into a sawed off shotgun. It was built by Ruby Rose.), his lucky pen (gifted by his sister), some tools for blood magic (a knife, runes, some small handheld tools.) and a pendent with a strange green liquid that he wears around his neck. (It's filled with his sisters blood, it's a natural stabilizer for his blood and powers. Yes, I'm serious.) Dipper also has a small, shadow-like creature named Alcaid that lives in his soul. They're like a daemon that he can summon. Alcaid looks like a tiny little ball of feathers and teeth with glowing red eyes. Like Mothman but very compact and round.
Abilities: cracks knuckles.
Dipper is someone with Paleblood. What this means is he has a powerset unique to his bloodtype. Paleblood is described as having a strong affinity under the moonlight. It grants abilities that include: Empathy, Telepathy, Precognition, Dreamwalking, and illusions/hallucinations. It's largely left up to players to interpret how these traits manifest in characters specifically so I will give you the rundown on how Dipper's Paleblood abilities manifest:
Dreamwalking: Dipper can dreamwalk both willingly and unwillingly. It's extremely easy for him with people he knows well, or people who have a similar type of sensitivity to dreams, but it can also happen on accident. Dipper can also use this ability to create "dream bubbles" which are basically little pockets of space he can carve out for people to exist in when dreaming. Lastly, Dipper can forcibly induce a dream state to the people around him if he is under duress. This tends to manifest in the world around them greying out and reality getting fucking weird.
Telepathy: Dipper is not very good at this! He can only read some vague surface thoughts at most, but it works best if he has a strong bond with the person. This has the potential of being honed better the more he practices it.
Empathy: Dipper suffers from emotional disregulation frequently from his abilities and will suck up the emotion and energy from the places around him. For example: If a room had a bunch bad things happen in it, then the lingering negativity would be something he could soak up. He wears that pendent to help smooth that out, but if its bad enough (or he loses the pendant) then a surge of grudge-like energy could send him straight into deep corruption or beasthood.
Precognition: Dipper can receive visions! They manifest in him going in a trance and putting together an insane looking corkboard leaving him to decipher it when he snaps out of it. He can also briefly touch an item and view a little bit of it's past with a very specific form of tactile clairvoyance.
Hallucinations/Illusions: Palebloods have the ability to induce hallucinations in others, Dipper does not have full control over this ability and has only been able to use it in moments of extreme duress or as a Beast. He could learn to better control it over the course of the game, but for now that's all he can do.
Powers aside, Dipper is an incredibly intelligent, deeply cunning and resourceful kid. He's a problem solver, a tinkerer, and has a strong affinity for the occult. He possesses a strong will and an unyielding stubborn streak that keeps his wits about him in dangerous situations.
Sample: here and here
SLEEPER GRIMOIRE
Welcome to The Sleeper Grimoire; a public, IC collection of spells and rituals created and submitted by the Sleepers of Trench. If your character has something to share, grab the form below and add it to the collection!
INBOX [DEER COUNTRY]
"Hey! You've reached Dipper's Omen, Alcaid! Sorry I couldn't pick up! Leave a message after the Ḇ̷͍͑̐ͯ̈́̚̚e̾ͭͫ҉̻̰̻̤̠̭̩ȩ̜͍̐̐̑͛ͪ̒͐e̡͍̬̭̙͔͈ͪͦͤ̆p͋͊͊͏̪͖̭̤̞"
Corruption/Beasthood Info
Content Warnings for: Eye gore, eye horror, and general body horror all around.
CORRUPTION
STAGE 1
Dipper's baseline. He is a natural insomniac with a tendency to hyper-focus and lose himself to projects and interests. As is the case with all the Pines, their early symptoms are indistinguishable from their standard habits and quirks. It is better to assume there is always just some mild corruption running through him.
STAGE 2
The first indication something is up, is that Dipper starts to sleep more. Despite sleep, however, he appears exhausted and cranky, with dark circles around his eyes, appearing as though he hasn't slept in weeks. His judgement begins to get iffy, at the stage, becoming more reckless and impulsive.
STAGE 3
Continues sleeping more than is reasonably healthy. While awake, his mood is foul, argumentative, and snappish. His vengeful streak is a mile wide, and if he has anything particular driving him, some goal or project, it consumes him entirely, throwing common sense and caution out the window. He is more likely to take off on his own than communicate with others. Physically, his skin takes on a pale, sickly quality, his eyes are dark and sunken, and his teeth are sharper than strictly human.
STAGE 4
This stage is the countdown to Beasthood. If he's not reigned in fast, it's all over for him. Previous signs of emotional corruption stack, in addition to vacillating between cold ruthlessness and overwhelming empathy. Physically, he begins to show signs of Beasthood filtering though. Feather growth will form along his neck and arms, his nails will turn black, harden, and begin forming into claws. The right eye will discolor and warp. Strange scarring will form in slits around that eye that will eventually force open into additional eyes. If he's begun wearing an eye-patch again, he's probably hiding these signs underneath.
BEASTHOOD
The point of no return. Beast!Dipper is on the smaller side, thin, with awkward limbs causing him to constantly hunch over. His arms are wings, tipped with nasty talons, and his face is a horror show of way too many eyes shoved onto one side of a face, a gaping hole where his left eye once was, and a maw of deadly teeth. He is destructive and indiscriminate, while at the same time ruthlessly intelligent, opting to play with his victims before growing bored and tearing them apart. He has access to the darker aspects of Normal!Dipper's blood magic, and will utilize them in a fight. This includes awful hallucinations and nightmare manipulation. He might be small, but he is quick, vicious, and clever. Like an Eldritch raptor covered in eyes!
DEER COUNTRY
Character Base
• Character Name: Mason "Dipper" Pines
• Age: 14 as of August 31st
• Canon (Date/Year Released)/Canon Point: Gravity Falls (2012) | End of Series
• Items Coming Along:
1. Azure Pine (Transforming weapon that has a spear form and a gun form. Made by Ruby)
2. Short Sword (Gift from Fern. Has affinity with wind and can do an air slice if Dipper ever Gets Good enough with it.)
3. Journal 1 (His log of his stay in Deerington. Full. Has several photos tucked in between the pages)
4. Set of Clothes (Including a magic coat gifted to him from Oscar. It's cozy and it has a slight magic to it that makes him hard to detect by monsters.)
5. Magic Eyepatch (grants sight in his bad eye and also allows him to view auras and hidden secrets. Gives him a terrible headache after extended use. Gift from Glitch)
6. President's Key (Can open any lock in America. Trench might still count? An Item from home.)
7. Yuiko (A Mismagius that Dipper took in when her trainer went home. They both miss Ritsuka a lot.)
8. Magnet Gun (A gun that manipulates magnetic fields. Can be used a number of ways including rappelling off metal walls and disrupting technology with magnetic pulses. Item from Home)
9. Camera (a nice camera for taking ordinary photos. Comes with a few rolls of film.)
10. free space
• Content Warnings for Character: Bullying, Violence towards minors, minors in life-threatening situations, mild cartoon horror, demonic possession
Original Deerington Application
• Link to Accepted Deerington Application: Here.
• Additional Adjustments to include:
Positive Experiences from Chapter 1
To kick off this list, we have a very simple yet pivotal experience for Dipper's stay in Deerington. It is that Dipper made friends with kids his own age. For a kid who's spent a large portion of his life with depressingly few friends other than his own twin sister, immediately getting thrown into a nightmare realm with unspeakable horrors and coming out with not one, but upwards of four to five people who he made fast friends with is something Dipper has never really experienced before. Even back home, most of his very close friends are several years above him. He's always had an incredibly difficult time relating to other people in his age range, and as a result, often kept to himself and his family.
From the start he met many people who shared his own interests and the fact that he would often go to school willingly spoke volumes of how much their acceptance of him had meant to him. Honestly, it is likely most of the crew from Deerington Elementary would never quite grasp the significance of their invitation to him to sit at their lunch table. For a severely lonely kid who was without his twin for the first time in his entire life, it meant the world to him.
Dipper might have come into Deerington during the worst possible month, and had unspeakable trauma to sort through from the beginning, but socially Dipper found a place of belonging like he'd never had before, and as a result, became much more emotionally stable than he would have being somewhere without his sister.
-
Unsurprisingly his next positive experience of note, is his sister arriving in Deerington, five months later.
It cannot be overstated how much Dipper missed Mabel. The twins were raised together, and they spent their entire lives together, and at the end of the summer, they made a promise to one another to Grow Up Together. Right before they made that promise, they had a catastrophic fight where Dipper nearly took an apprenticeship out of state that would have separated them indefinitely, and after realizing what a miserable mess that would have made them both, he took it back and they patched things up.
So of course, days later, Dipper would find himself in Deerington without her for months. The very fate he almost damned her to before, and that realization has haunted him from day one. Dipper might have found some stability in the friends he was able to make, but Dipper would feel her absence every other moment until she finally arrived. Their entire family would, with such an important part of them missing.
While her arrival sparked a number of fears and anxieties relating to her safety, ultimately it lead to Dipper finally evening out, letting go of some tension he'd been holding tightly the moment he got to Deerington. In a lot of ways, he started to act like a kid again, as her presence has always been the one to encourage him to goof around and act his age. Despite how much of Deerington's horrors would escalate over the next several months, Dipper was a lot more mentally sturdy as a result of having his other half there to back him up.
Negative Experiences from Chapter 1
October is extremely formative for Dipper. October was the first real month he experienced in Deerington and it showed him and his family no mercy. Dipper was just fresh out of an apocalypse from his canon that very closely resembled the looks of October!Deerington and this fact preyed on the fraying sanity of the Pines family little by little until it broke them. Dipper experienced what it was like to lose his entire grip on reality, to lose any ounce of control over his own mind, and as a result, Dipper lost his right eye, and very nearly his life.
After that incident, and one more close call a few days later, the Pines figured out that they really needed to pull together and watch out for each other, lest this place tear them apart. It was good for them in a lot of ways, to cement this kind of dynamic between the three of them. but it also festered a lot of bad habits between them, too. For Dipper that was his constant fear of his family falling apart if he did not try to step in and mediate when his uncles got into arguments. The Stans had only recently repaired their broken relationship and the idea of losing even more family when he was without his sister was something he couldn't handle. This has worked in the family's favor, but it's taken an emotional toll on Dipper, being just a kid trying to manage the emotional well being of two grown adults. Unfortunately, it's entirely up to the Uncles to catch onto this and stop it, and they have yet to do so.
Additionally, Dipper came out of October with numerous scars, some he could hide, and some he really could not. They were all constant reminders of his easy downward spiral and his failure to break free of it until he was literally dying in Stan's arms. These scars will always be a point of shame for him, regarding them as a huge hit to his self-confidence and pride. He blames his lack of will on what happened, rather than the town itself, and as a result his self-worth has taken a hit. This is not something Dipper has ever voiced to anyone, not even Mabel, and it's likely he never will unless something drags it out of him.
-
In May, as everything started going to shit, and the town was confined to their houses to wait out the murder mist outside, Dipper met a Waste version of himself, dying on his front porch. This Dipper looked about ten years older than him physically and appeared to have been living there trapped in the dream for ages all this time. It was then Dipper realized the truth of who the Wastes were, and he was forced to reconcile the fact that an entire version of his family had lived here all this time, and not once did any of them feel safe enough to approach or reach out to them. This Dipper only did so in the moment on his death bed because he wanted a safe place to die.
Dipper tried to save him, but whatever injuries he had sustained, they were too great for him to recover from and he died after leaving him a cryptic demand that shook him to his core.
"Don't make my mistakes. Don't lose the part of yourself that hungers for the truth."
Meeting the other Him left a hell of a mark on Dipper. It made him have to come to terms with his own mortality, with his constant brushing with death and the beyond, and with the notion that of the thousands of worlds out there, there are thousands of paths to take, doors to walk through, and not all of them will have a happy ending. And that even he could lose his way somehow; for what other reason would he leave him such desperate words? It also served to prepare him for some of the tougher decisions he would have to make going forward. In a morbid way, Dipper has a lot to owe his other self for the precious few moments they got to speak before the end.
He was buried in the backyard, and slowly he was joined there by the other three members of the Waste!Pines family, after Dipper and Stan made it a mission to hunt them down. Regardless of their circumstances, they were still family, and they made sure that eventually, all of them would find their way back home to rest.
Experiences That Are Kind of Both, Actually!
Dipper and Mabel made the decision to go through each of the visions together, to learn all they could so their choices with the eggs could be as informed as possible. When they reached Cynthia's vision, they were presented with a difficult choice to make. Cynthia was a prisoner to her own unfair fate, and she'd been chained to her living hell for who knows how long, so when she begged the twins for release, Dipper knew what needed to be done.
With shaking hands, he told Mabel not to look, and did the deed himself. Even if out of mercy, Dipper's never had to physically end someone's life before, and it's likely he would've had a nervous breakdown shortly after, had her death not sent that overwhelming feeling of relief around them. Despite what a grisly task he completed, both the twins knew and understood that it had been the right thing to do. This becomes further validated when the results of their choices became known, and Dipper saw what Cynthia could really be, freed from her fate. The experience rattled him for certain, as it's not easy to come to grips with such an act at the age of thirteen, But Dipper's confident now more than ever that he did what had to be done, and that out of such a grim act, there can be good.
As he comes into his abilities in Trench, he'll probably come to see his blood and its gifts as a boon from Moon Presence, perhaps thanking him for his help. He is very happy with his Patron Pthumerian, but he will always feel a particular fondness for Moon Presence, wherever she is, and my be inclined to reach out to her in the future should the need arise.
-
Many people on the other side of the Door were surprised to find that the Pines Family had not opted to go home, but rather moved forward through the doors instead. Each of them had their own reasons, but for Dipper (and Mabel), what solidified their decision had in fact been their trip home. The twins woke on the bus that carried them home at the end of the summer, and it made them realize something both of them had feared all along.
Their summer in Gravity Falls was over. Their time in Deerington was merely a rapidly fading dream. They were home in California and it was the day before school. It turns out, after spending nearly a year traipsing through the supernatural, it's extremely difficult to adjust back to a normal, boring life. It became shockingly clear to them both that they no longer fit into this life. It wasn't theirs to live anymore, and both of them would sooner wade through another blood apocalypse than go back to middle school where the two of them were alone and void of their friends and family. Where their experiences had to be either kept secret or else they'd be the subject of ridicule or worse. Where no one else would understand them.
So that startling experience is what lead to Dipper (and Mabel) deciding on their next course in life. They didn't know what would be beyond the door, but whatever it was, it was where they were meant to go. It's with that that the whole Pines Family made their way through the door, chanting PINES! PINES! PINES! all the way through.
Chapter 2 Attributes
• Canon Powers: Dipper possesses no supernatural powers of his own.
• Blood Type: Paleblood
• Omen: A small round owl-shaped ball of feathers and teeth named Alcaid.
• Blessed Day: August 31st
• Patron Pthumerian: Mariana. She is their natural patron, with their canon birthdays, but also, she's the best possible fit for both the twins. Dipper's passion for delving into the unknown is a core part of who he is and his own chaotic tendencies are only going to be encouraged through her. It's very good. A+
• Blood Power Manifestation:
Dreamwalking - Dipper's main ability is going to be dreamwalking. It'll take time and practice to hone but he will go from accidentally stumbling around in other people's dreams without much control, to eventually being able to actively project himself on purpose into peoples dreamscapes and nightmares. Further practice will let him capable of manipulating dream spaces, like for example: Creating a safe little dream bubble for him and his sister to relax in when they sleep.
He will also be able to enter the dreamscapes of people succumbing to corruption and beasthood, and will eventually be able to help bring someone back from the precipice by navigating their chaotic dreamscape and fishing them back out again. This particular trick will take a lot out of him. Anytime he forces himself into someone's dreamscape this way he will often need a few days to recover afterwards to ensure he doesn't slip down into corruption himself. His empathic nature means that soaking in these violent, negative situations will make him very susceptible to corruption if someone isn't keeping an eye on him.
In moments of extreme distress and borderline beasthood, he may be able to drag others around him into a nightmare of his own making. Talking him down and waking him up will be what it takes to escape such a thing.
Tactile Clairvoyance - On a lesser scale, Dipper is also able to perceive either pre- or retro-cognitive visions of objects he touches. For example, he could touch a cup and might see who picked it up two days ago, or who might soon pick it up later that day. He won't always know which it is, until he's able to practice and really hone this skill. Until then it's up to his intuition.
Ghosts - His empathic nature as a Paleblood also makes him sensitive to ghost and spiritual presences. Ghosts tend to be made up of energy and emotion and so being a sensitive empath means he can pick up on activity before most, by coming across faint emotional imprints left behind. He might also see them where others might not.
His blood is particularly good for ghost related rituals, and having him around while doing one might boost your success. However, the price for that is Dipper is also very susceptible to possession if he is not careful.
Other - Dipper's hallucinogenic abilities will only manifest as products of his emotional regulation going out of control, or late signs of corruption. It won't be something he ever has control of unless he finds a reason to hone it in the future, and for now is only something that happens as a reaction to something distressing and traumatizing. (example: Soaking in the negative emotions of a haunted room and becoming so overwhelmed that he causes those around him to hallucinate images related to the haunting.)
Dipper can also utilize Paleblood Telepathy, but it's not very strong. He can reach out easily to other Palebloods, especially if he has a strong bond with them. He can't do anything more than project thoughts and pick up on some surface thoughts of others. He's not able to go riffling through peoples brains. He'll be able to form telepathic bonds with others, but that will require purposeful effort on his part and will only be available to people he's close with.
Final note: This is not a power so much as something I'd like to make a note of. Because of the empathetic nature of Palebloods and how he will likely be getting tossed into very upsetting visions and nightmares, his emotional regulation is going to be extremely out of wack for a while. He'll absorb emotions out of peoples dreams and also sometimes from items he touches and he won't really understand how to outlet that. As a result it puts him in danger of quickly spiraling hard into corruption if he isn't caught quickly enough. Until he can get a handle on it, he'll always be at risk of a downward slide.
The Player
• Player Name: Jami
• Player Age: 32
• Player Contact:
• Permissions: Here. Please make sure this includes our permissions requirements.
Link to your reserve for this character: Here.
Darkness brings evil things, oh, the reckoning begins
Prompt: Shedding
Content Warnings: inevitable death of NPCs, time shenanigans, duplicates of Sleepers, suggestion of alternate universes/timelines, blood, fatal injuries, grief.
You can run but you can't escape
The mist is an oppressive force. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that it's supernatural in nature. Of course it would be, it's Deerington, and like all things in Deerington, it's best to be cautious. No matter what experience Dipper has with the supernatural, Deerington always finds a way to surprise him. So, rather than test his luck, or his curious mind, he stays inside with the rest of his family. For once he is not out there, tempting fate for the sake of an unsolved mystery. Not when Great Uncle Ford has been in such duress, and when Grunkle Stan is still recovering. Not when Mabel needs the company and not when...
...Not when the dread in the pit of his gut is just so potent, that Dipper just can't ignore it.
Dipper's no stranger to anxiety or panic attacks. He's had to cope with them all his life. Despite all the bravado he carries, he frequently gets through his ordeals just a hair short of going into cardiac arrest. Sometimes he's good at hiding it, sometimes he's really not. This has never stopped Dipper from pursuing something of interest, not usually.
That he's willing to let it stop him this time, is telling.
Still, he hovers near the windows and keeps a nervous, watchful eye on the outside.
It's in one of these fidgety bouts of paranoia that Dipper catches it. A blink of movement out of the corner of his eye, just outside the window. Dread runs through him like ice water under his skin and he reaches for the Azure Pine that he's taken to keeping on him pretty consistently of late.
He barely grazes the grip of the gun before an ominous thump echos just outside the front door. Whatever it was, it was on the porch now. Cool, awesome, great. Dipper's heart is pounding so hard Ford could probably hear it in the basement. The gun is in his hands a moment later, and he creeps to the front door as quiet as he can, waiting, listening for what might be on the other side.
He ends up waiting a great deal longer than he hoped. Whatever it was, it was already gone, or it was just keeping real quiet. Knowing there was no way he'd be able to walk away from this without the question of what it was haunting his every thought for the rest of the night, he makes a decision against his better judgement. He takes a deep breath and pushes open the door.
The door swings with force and slams hard into what should have been the opposite wall. Instead it makes a very dull thump as it collides with something else. A soft groan sounds from behind him, and Dipper whirls around bringing his gun up to aim in time to find-!
A Waste.
A moment ticks by. Dipper lowers his weapon and sighs with enough relief that it damn near makes him lightheaded. The Wastes were not threats, far from it. They were worse victims in all this as far as he was concerned. Their family has been reaching out to them for as long as they've lived here. Just the other month Mabel had curated a bunch of colorful care packages for them, even. It wasn't surprising at all for them to lurk near by. They must have found their yard safe. This is however, the first time one's come up to the porch, though with the state of things, he really couldn't be that surprised.
Dipper holsters the Azure Pine and very carefully approaches. This one looked injured and he wasn't going to assume he would be completely trusting of Dipper just because he came up to the porch. Especially after he slammed the front door against him.
Ah, his clothing is familiar. Dipper's seen this one around, he thinks. Usually in the company of a young girl. Yes, okay.
"Hey, man, don't worry. You're safe here, okay? But-" Dipper swallows and the Waste turns his head just enough to indicate he was conscious enough to listen.
"I'm sorry," Dipper continues. "I really didn't mean to hit you with the door."
There's a silence that drags on longer than Dipper can put into words. Louder than any of the ominous sounds echoing from around them. Louder, until something else breaks it, something so surprising that it breaks through the silence and takes Dipper completely aback.
The Waste chuckles, quiet and weak.
The look on his face must have been incredible, because the Waste continues talking, and it's frankly, some of the most talking he's heard any of them do.
"Can't do much worse than what the town's already done, kiddo," he replies, in a soft-spoken, hoarse voice. The kind that would sound young, if it didn't also sound like there was just a bit of sand caught in his throat. Either way, the Waste is expressing humor, and Dipper's struck speechless, again.
Luckily something makes a horrific sound from the mist, something deep and foreboding, that sends dread right down Dipper's spine. The Waste reacts, too, jolting up, as if to make for his feet- but whatever injury he seems to have, makes him falter just enough that he can't do it. Dipper makes the choice for him instead and swoops under him. Before any sort of protest can be croaked out of his thin, dirty frame, Dipper has all but dragged him inside, slamming the door shut behind them.
The sound grows closer, and then slowly fades away. Dipper breathes a sigh of relief for the second time in the same ten minutes, and turns to their new house guest.
The Waste is having a panic attack. Dipper recognizes it almost immediately, because he's having a panic attack in almost the exact same way he does: Curled up as small as he can manage and heaving like he's one misstep away from throwing up all over the living room. He's shaking, too, but that's not really a surprise. Without saying anything, Dipper bolts for the kitchen, passes his sister concocting horrific kitchen science on the stove, and fishes out a bottle of water from the fridge before returning to the Waste.
Gently, he moves to his side, pushes the bottle into his hands and urges him to sit up against the couch. With something solid at his back, Dipper keeps a hand on his shoulder and lets him ride it out. It seems to have worked, at least, until he starts to choke and gasp for air, only to cough so hard Dipper can practically feel his own lungs rattling from the force. Whatever's going on, this guy really wasn't in good shape.
And that was before he noticed the trail of smeared blood on the floor, leading to where they were sitting.
"Hey- you. you don't sound good. Listen, I know the mask is a Thing for you guys, but I really don't think it's helping right now. If anything it's obstructing your-" His words die in his throat as he reaches up to gently try and nudge his mask off. The Waste reacts by snatching his wrist lightning quick, like a snake, though his grip is weak and shaky. Even so, he doesn't look willing to budge at first.
The seconds tick by with his heart racing. After a moment the Waste lets out a haggard, defeated sigh. His shoulders sag with an unknowable weight.
"You," He says finally. "are one who drives himself ceaselessly towards the truth, no matter how harsh. Isn't that right?"
The words strike him in a way he's not sure how to feel. Sure, that was ...definitely true, or rather. He likes to think that's true, it's always his goal, in the end. To find the truth, to uncover mysteries, to bring light to that which isn't understood. It's just such a surprising thing for this Waste to say it with such confidence, like he knew him. He isn't sure what to say.
"Y-yeah. Yeah, sure but how did you know that? Have you been, I dunno, watching me, or something?"
Before Dipper can dive into theories or explanations, or begin to properly accuse or sus The Waste, he releases his wrist. It falls at his side with a soft thud, lacking the strength to keep it up any longer.
With apprehension, Dipper once more regards the mask, and slowly begins to pull it up and over the Waste's head. The Waste makes no move to stop him this time, strangely resigned. What was under the mask all this time? Dipper had always wondered, of course. Were their faces marred? Were they undead? Or monsters? or maybe the masks were just part of their bodies. He'd always theorized to no real conclusion.
He's almost disappointed to find the face underneath mostly normal, if gaunt with the clear indication of living a harsh life outside. Tired, dark eyes regard him quietly, with a mean scar going across his face that's been long healed. No, he seems like a normal guy, maybe in his late teens or early 20's. Or rather Dipper thinks that until he sees something that makes his heart stop: The Big Dipper smattered across his forehead.
The Waste seems to understand the moment he's caught on, and closes his eyes, the rest of his energy draining out of him. He leans against the couch, resting his head against the cushion so that he can gaze up at the ceiling. He says nothing for a long time and Dipper spends that intolerable silence wondering how he didn't see it from the start. The memories are further away now, but they're far from faded. Not so long ago he wore a face nearly identical to his.
The questions rush up to him next, hurling across his thoughts at lightning speeds. He can barely sort them out, put them in a list, there's just so much he wants to know and so much he actually doesn't, where does he begin?
The Waste- no- The other him speaks up, instead.
"It looks like I thought it would," He says, gaze still trained on the ceiling. After a moment he slides his eyes towards Dipper. "The inside, I mean. I've always wondered."
It gives him something to latch onto, at least. A question he can put into words.
"Then why didn't you just knock? We would have let you in! We have a spare bedroom- I-It's kind of cursed but- We could have made space for you and for--" the girl that's always with him, he nearly says but Dipper cuts off before he does, seeing the way the expression in the other him suddenly changes. From wistful resignation to something deeply sorrowful.
A knot tightens in his throat, and Dipper knows to drop the subject.
"Why?" Dipper says after a moment, his voice much smaller than it was a moment ago. "Why didn't you say something? I-I've seen you, like, a dozen times. You've always been near, so why didn't you just tell us?"
His expression is ...mournful, apologetic, as he looks at Dipper.
"We've spent ...so long being afraid. Decades of fear makes bad habits hard to break, you know? But I guess I've always wanted to, deep down. I wish-" He cuts off with a harsh coughing fit, doubling over. Blood sprays across the ground this time, and Dipper remembers with startling terror just how bad off the other him is.
"H-Hey, don't- Don't talk, I'm gonna get you a first aid kit and-" Dipper moves to pull away and instead the other him grabs him by the arm, holding him still. He goes still with surprise and the other him looks up, eyes imploring, desperate almost.
"No. Listen, I need- I need to tell you something. I need you to listen, please."
Wordlessly, Dipper nods. The other him settles back down again
"The layers," He begins. "They're not breaking. That's not ...what it is. They're shedding. Shedding away the old into something new, something better."
"...like a snake?"
"Yes, exactly like a snake. The Snake. She's waiting for us, I've seen her."
Dipper frowns, not exactly sure he's parsing him, correctly. He's babbling on the verge of hysteria, he can tell that much. He doesn't think he's lying though, maybe just stirred up. Eventually curiosity wins out over concern or suspicion.
"Who's 'The Snake'"?
A soft, hopeful grin suddenly catches the other him's face. Something knowing and amused. Something proud, almost.
"That's for you to learn, you who seeks the truth. That-" He clears his throat, finding his voice again. He's firm as he speaks, the hysteria gone, but he's no less adamant. "Never let go of that part of yourself. The one that's hungry for answers, the one that'll unravel the darkness for the truth. Promise me you won't make my mistakes, Dipper."
"...Your mistakes?"
"We've wondered lost in this hellscape for so long, we clung to only one thing, and lost sight of all else," He answers, bitterly.
"What?"
"Survival. And what good is that, if you've got nothing to survive for. K-Keep seeking the truth. It's your turn now to step through the door. I've seen you, I've seen all of you, I know you can do better. Promise me."
"I-I promise."
Silence falls between them, and finally a smile, genuine, though tired, spreads across his face. It's like watching the years lift off of him with just one sentence. He settles back against the couch again, a deep, bone tired sigh of relief escaping him. Dipper feel like ...maybe he passed some kind of test.
"Thank you. I think... I'd like a minute to rest. I'm really tired, do you think that would be okay?"
"Y-Yeah, of course. I can get you some water? Or blankets? Or- Hey!" Dipper rushes to his side in time to catch him, The other him suddenly just slumping over as if he'd fallen asleep mid-sentence. He struggles to hold up his weight a second time, and starts to shake him, fear lacing his words.
"H-Hey! Hey! Wake up, I can't- I can't hold you up for ..." Dipper swallows, dread building in his heart. He moves him to the floor and tries again to rouse him, but by then he knows that it's no use. That in all that effort he must have expelled every little bit he had left, to give Dipper his message.
And now he was gone, just like that.
Grief grabs hold of him in a way that's violent and unbidden, and it's all he can do to keep from wailing for the person he barely got the chance to know. Who's story would die with him in a void of questions, despite his promise, he wasn't sure he could find answers for.
Content Warnings: inevitable death of NPCs, time shenanigans, duplicates of Sleepers, suggestion of alternate universes/timelines, blood, fatal injuries, grief.
The mist is an oppressive force. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that it's supernatural in nature. Of course it would be, it's Deerington, and like all things in Deerington, it's best to be cautious. No matter what experience Dipper has with the supernatural, Deerington always finds a way to surprise him. So, rather than test his luck, or his curious mind, he stays inside with the rest of his family. For once he is not out there, tempting fate for the sake of an unsolved mystery. Not when Great Uncle Ford has been in such duress, and when Grunkle Stan is still recovering. Not when Mabel needs the company and not when...
...Not when the dread in the pit of his gut is just so potent, that Dipper just can't ignore it.
Dipper's no stranger to anxiety or panic attacks. He's had to cope with them all his life. Despite all the bravado he carries, he frequently gets through his ordeals just a hair short of going into cardiac arrest. Sometimes he's good at hiding it, sometimes he's really not. This has never stopped Dipper from pursuing something of interest, not usually.
That he's willing to let it stop him this time, is telling.
Still, he hovers near the windows and keeps a nervous, watchful eye on the outside.
It's in one of these fidgety bouts of paranoia that Dipper catches it. A blink of movement out of the corner of his eye, just outside the window. Dread runs through him like ice water under his skin and he reaches for the Azure Pine that he's taken to keeping on him pretty consistently of late.
He barely grazes the grip of the gun before an ominous thump echos just outside the front door. Whatever it was, it was on the porch now. Cool, awesome, great. Dipper's heart is pounding so hard Ford could probably hear it in the basement. The gun is in his hands a moment later, and he creeps to the front door as quiet as he can, waiting, listening for what might be on the other side.
He ends up waiting a great deal longer than he hoped. Whatever it was, it was already gone, or it was just keeping real quiet. Knowing there was no way he'd be able to walk away from this without the question of what it was haunting his every thought for the rest of the night, he makes a decision against his better judgement. He takes a deep breath and pushes open the door.
The door swings with force and slams hard into what should have been the opposite wall. Instead it makes a very dull thump as it collides with something else. A soft groan sounds from behind him, and Dipper whirls around bringing his gun up to aim in time to find-!
A Waste.
A moment ticks by. Dipper lowers his weapon and sighs with enough relief that it damn near makes him lightheaded. The Wastes were not threats, far from it. They were worse victims in all this as far as he was concerned. Their family has been reaching out to them for as long as they've lived here. Just the other month Mabel had curated a bunch of colorful care packages for them, even. It wasn't surprising at all for them to lurk near by. They must have found their yard safe. This is however, the first time one's come up to the porch, though with the state of things, he really couldn't be that surprised.
Dipper holsters the Azure Pine and very carefully approaches. This one looked injured and he wasn't going to assume he would be completely trusting of Dipper just because he came up to the porch. Especially after he slammed the front door against him.
Ah, his clothing is familiar. Dipper's seen this one around, he thinks. Usually in the company of a young girl. Yes, okay.
"Hey, man, don't worry. You're safe here, okay? But-" Dipper swallows and the Waste turns his head just enough to indicate he was conscious enough to listen.
"I'm sorry," Dipper continues. "I really didn't mean to hit you with the door."
There's a silence that drags on longer than Dipper can put into words. Louder than any of the ominous sounds echoing from around them. Louder, until something else breaks it, something so surprising that it breaks through the silence and takes Dipper completely aback.
The Waste chuckles, quiet and weak.
The look on his face must have been incredible, because the Waste continues talking, and it's frankly, some of the most talking he's heard any of them do.
"Can't do much worse than what the town's already done, kiddo," he replies, in a soft-spoken, hoarse voice. The kind that would sound young, if it didn't also sound like there was just a bit of sand caught in his throat. Either way, the Waste is expressing humor, and Dipper's struck speechless, again.
Luckily something makes a horrific sound from the mist, something deep and foreboding, that sends dread right down Dipper's spine. The Waste reacts, too, jolting up, as if to make for his feet- but whatever injury he seems to have, makes him falter just enough that he can't do it. Dipper makes the choice for him instead and swoops under him. Before any sort of protest can be croaked out of his thin, dirty frame, Dipper has all but dragged him inside, slamming the door shut behind them.
The sound grows closer, and then slowly fades away. Dipper breathes a sigh of relief for the second time in the same ten minutes, and turns to their new house guest.
The Waste is having a panic attack. Dipper recognizes it almost immediately, because he's having a panic attack in almost the exact same way he does: Curled up as small as he can manage and heaving like he's one misstep away from throwing up all over the living room. He's shaking, too, but that's not really a surprise. Without saying anything, Dipper bolts for the kitchen, passes his sister concocting horrific kitchen science on the stove, and fishes out a bottle of water from the fridge before returning to the Waste.
Gently, he moves to his side, pushes the bottle into his hands and urges him to sit up against the couch. With something solid at his back, Dipper keeps a hand on his shoulder and lets him ride it out. It seems to have worked, at least, until he starts to choke and gasp for air, only to cough so hard Dipper can practically feel his own lungs rattling from the force. Whatever's going on, this guy really wasn't in good shape.
And that was before he noticed the trail of smeared blood on the floor, leading to where they were sitting.
"Hey- you. you don't sound good. Listen, I know the mask is a Thing for you guys, but I really don't think it's helping right now. If anything it's obstructing your-" His words die in his throat as he reaches up to gently try and nudge his mask off. The Waste reacts by snatching his wrist lightning quick, like a snake, though his grip is weak and shaky. Even so, he doesn't look willing to budge at first.
The seconds tick by with his heart racing. After a moment the Waste lets out a haggard, defeated sigh. His shoulders sag with an unknowable weight.
"You," He says finally. "are one who drives himself ceaselessly towards the truth, no matter how harsh. Isn't that right?"
The words strike him in a way he's not sure how to feel. Sure, that was ...definitely true, or rather. He likes to think that's true, it's always his goal, in the end. To find the truth, to uncover mysteries, to bring light to that which isn't understood. It's just such a surprising thing for this Waste to say it with such confidence, like he knew him. He isn't sure what to say.
"Y-yeah. Yeah, sure but how did you know that? Have you been, I dunno, watching me, or something?"
Before Dipper can dive into theories or explanations, or begin to properly accuse or sus The Waste, he releases his wrist. It falls at his side with a soft thud, lacking the strength to keep it up any longer.
With apprehension, Dipper once more regards the mask, and slowly begins to pull it up and over the Waste's head. The Waste makes no move to stop him this time, strangely resigned. What was under the mask all this time? Dipper had always wondered, of course. Were their faces marred? Were they undead? Or monsters? or maybe the masks were just part of their bodies. He'd always theorized to no real conclusion.
He's almost disappointed to find the face underneath mostly normal, if gaunt with the clear indication of living a harsh life outside. Tired, dark eyes regard him quietly, with a mean scar going across his face that's been long healed. No, he seems like a normal guy, maybe in his late teens or early 20's. Or rather Dipper thinks that until he sees something that makes his heart stop: The Big Dipper smattered across his forehead.
The Waste seems to understand the moment he's caught on, and closes his eyes, the rest of his energy draining out of him. He leans against the couch, resting his head against the cushion so that he can gaze up at the ceiling. He says nothing for a long time and Dipper spends that intolerable silence wondering how he didn't see it from the start. The memories are further away now, but they're far from faded. Not so long ago he wore a face nearly identical to his.
The questions rush up to him next, hurling across his thoughts at lightning speeds. He can barely sort them out, put them in a list, there's just so much he wants to know and so much he actually doesn't, where does he begin?
The Waste- no- The other him speaks up, instead.
"It looks like I thought it would," He says, gaze still trained on the ceiling. After a moment he slides his eyes towards Dipper. "The inside, I mean. I've always wondered."
It gives him something to latch onto, at least. A question he can put into words.
"Then why didn't you just knock? We would have let you in! We have a spare bedroom- I-It's kind of cursed but- We could have made space for you and for--" the girl that's always with him, he nearly says but Dipper cuts off before he does, seeing the way the expression in the other him suddenly changes. From wistful resignation to something deeply sorrowful.
A knot tightens in his throat, and Dipper knows to drop the subject.
"Why?" Dipper says after a moment, his voice much smaller than it was a moment ago. "Why didn't you say something? I-I've seen you, like, a dozen times. You've always been near, so why didn't you just tell us?"
His expression is ...mournful, apologetic, as he looks at Dipper.
"We've spent ...so long being afraid. Decades of fear makes bad habits hard to break, you know? But I guess I've always wanted to, deep down. I wish-" He cuts off with a harsh coughing fit, doubling over. Blood sprays across the ground this time, and Dipper remembers with startling terror just how bad off the other him is.
"H-Hey, don't- Don't talk, I'm gonna get you a first aid kit and-" Dipper moves to pull away and instead the other him grabs him by the arm, holding him still. He goes still with surprise and the other him looks up, eyes imploring, desperate almost.
"No. Listen, I need- I need to tell you something. I need you to listen, please."
Wordlessly, Dipper nods. The other him settles back down again
"The layers," He begins. "They're not breaking. That's not ...what it is. They're shedding. Shedding away the old into something new, something better."
"...like a snake?"
"Yes, exactly like a snake. The Snake. She's waiting for us, I've seen her."
Dipper frowns, not exactly sure he's parsing him, correctly. He's babbling on the verge of hysteria, he can tell that much. He doesn't think he's lying though, maybe just stirred up. Eventually curiosity wins out over concern or suspicion.
"Who's 'The Snake'"?
A soft, hopeful grin suddenly catches the other him's face. Something knowing and amused. Something proud, almost.
"That's for you to learn, you who seeks the truth. That-" He clears his throat, finding his voice again. He's firm as he speaks, the hysteria gone, but he's no less adamant. "Never let go of that part of yourself. The one that's hungry for answers, the one that'll unravel the darkness for the truth. Promise me you won't make my mistakes, Dipper."
"...Your mistakes?"
"We've wondered lost in this hellscape for so long, we clung to only one thing, and lost sight of all else," He answers, bitterly.
"What?"
"Survival. And what good is that, if you've got nothing to survive for. K-Keep seeking the truth. It's your turn now to step through the door. I've seen you, I've seen all of you, I know you can do better. Promise me."
"I-I promise."
Silence falls between them, and finally a smile, genuine, though tired, spreads across his face. It's like watching the years lift off of him with just one sentence. He settles back against the couch again, a deep, bone tired sigh of relief escaping him. Dipper feel like ...maybe he passed some kind of test.
"Thank you. I think... I'd like a minute to rest. I'm really tired, do you think that would be okay?"
"Y-Yeah, of course. I can get you some water? Or blankets? Or- Hey!" Dipper rushes to his side in time to catch him, The other him suddenly just slumping over as if he'd fallen asleep mid-sentence. He struggles to hold up his weight a second time, and starts to shake him, fear lacing his words.
"H-Hey! Hey! Wake up, I can't- I can't hold you up for ..." Dipper swallows, dread building in his heart. He moves him to the floor and tries again to rouse him, but by then he knows that it's no use. That in all that effort he must have expelled every little bit he had left, to give Dipper his message.
And now he was gone, just like that.
Grief grabs hold of him in a way that's violent and unbidden, and it's all he can do to keep from wailing for the person he barely got the chance to know. Who's story would die with him in a void of questions, despite his promise, he wasn't sure he could find answers for.
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STAGGR
STAGGR
ABOUT ME
FULL NAME
13
AGE
August 31st
BIRTHDAY
He/Him
PRONOUNS
Single
RELATIONSHIP STATUS
Solving Mysteries
INTERESTED IN
618 Shepard Rd.
ADDRESS
Student
OCCUPATION
“The only thing we have to fear, is giant man-eating spiders!” - Sir Quentin Trembley (And you know what, turns out giant man-eating spiders are actually terrifying!)
FAVORITE QUOTE
Icelandic Pop Sensation BABBA, The Bad First Impressions
FAVORITE MUSICIANS
The Sibling Brothers Mystery Novels
FAVORITE BOOKS
Ghost Harassers, Tiger Fist, Ducktective,
FAVORITE MOVIES/TV SHOWS
EXPERIENCE
Middle School
Code Breaking
Mystery Solving
Ghost Hunting
(All self-taught)
Part-Time Mystery Shack employee
Freelance Supernatural Consultant
English
Busting Ghosts
Playing Sousaphone
Sketching and Journaling
COMING SOON
EDUCATION
Code Breaking
Mystery Solving
Ghost Hunting
(All self-taught)
TRAINING
Part-Time Mystery Shack employee
Freelance Supernatural Consultant
PAST JOB EXPERIENCE
English
LANGUAGES
Busting Ghosts
Playing Sousaphone
Sketching and Journaling
ADDITIONAL TALENTS
COMING SOON
PORTFOLIO PIECES
CONTACT ME
Deerington Stuff
This is a post where I keep track of things for various events and shenanigans in Deerington.
INBOX
“... ... ...What? Is it already- oh! Uh, Hey this is Dipper Pines. Sorry I missed your call, but leave a message and I’ll- [Beep!]”