This time I might just disappear | Semi-Open

[charlastan]

Who: The Pines Family + Friends
What: A Semi-closed catchall for the month of October - this time with ghosts of the Waste versions of themselves they buried in the backyard!
When: Throughout the month of October
Where: The Bone Fortress + elsewhere around town.

Content Warnings: Ghosts, themes of death, shenanigans


Top levels below!

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STAN

[charlastan]

[sparklehorror]

The pumpkins at the boardwalk when the new squids arrive are the first hopeful sign that things might be super great in the very near future. Then the Black Parade arrives, and the decorations spring up all over town. They don't call it Halloween or Summerween, but it is! It is! And the Trenchies even say the decorations help protect places from stuff, so the Pines have more reason than ever to go super hard. Trouble is, they have both the Bone Fortress and the Murder Hut to watch out for, and even when you are bartering that's a whole lot of stuff to get.

Fortunately, Mabel has oodles and oodles of time for reconnaissance missions, and it's only a matter of days before she comes scurrying in with good news.

"Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan! I found out where the pumpkin patch is."

And Stan, of course, knows what that means.

[charlastan]

Stan knows exactly what that means. He looks up from his current art project (which is flinging red fabric paint on a new suit while his old man rolls in his grave probably) and grins like he's been waiting for this moment for years.

"Great job, Pumpkin!" he says. "You ready to do a little B&E with your Grunkle Stan?"

Of course, they could probably get them more ethically than this. But gathering up all the stuff to barter would take forever and stealing is a lot easier and more fun!

[sparklehorror]

"You bet I am," she answers eagerly. "I already oiled the squeaky wheel on the wheelbarrow."

Ahhh, growing up. The kids have already come such a long way from yaaaay, vandalism, thinking of such things in advance.

Dipper

[ghostharasser]

Walking with the ghost. [Mason Pines (Waste!Dipper)] [Semi-Closed to Pines CR]

[ghostharasser]

[The air is different in the Bone Fortress this month. While the house had certainly kept its share of spooky critters around, with it's ghost pokemon that roam the halls, it had stayed remarkably unhaunted all this time, until now. In the house's miraculous transition to the waking world, it brought with it four graves buried in the back yard.]

[October was here, and the spirits stirred.]

[There's four of them in all, but one of them might be seen a little more regularly than others.]

[A man of moderate height in his early 20's. He looks worn and disheveled, gaunt and dirty. He's dressed in ragged clothes, his face is marred with scarring, and he genuinely looks like he hasn't slept in a decade. Those who remember the Dream might easily peg him as a Waste, though he lacks the iconic gas mask. Though his identity isn't easy to discern, those who know the family could also guess him to be a Pines. The family resemblance is pretty unmistakable.]

[He's quiet and listless at first, seen pacing the halls or passing by doorways. He doesn't say a lot, but he seems to always have some mark of concern on his face. ]

[He's not terribly responsive, early on, but if you make an effort to get his attention, he might stop and acknowledge you. Though, it might be with some surprise.]

[B. No matter which way you go.]


[Partway through the month, the ghosts are more lively, and Mason is no different. He's seen walking around much more often, curiously investigating the house and seeing what people are getting up to. You might easily spot him in the corner of the room, observing without getting too close.]

[Or you might turn and find him peaking over your shoulder at what you have in your hands.]

[If he's caught, he'll offer a light (faintly mischievous) smile.]

Sorry, curiosity got the better of me.

[C. You're out of my mind.]


[While the transition over to this plane hadn't been that difficult, the fact remains that this guy, and his family, are all ghosts who died under extremely grim circumstances. Mason might be one of the stronger presences in the house, but that just means when he slips, it's rough.]

[In one of these episodes, Mason can be seen running down the stairs, or running through the halls, looking through rooms and circling around. He looks harried and desperate- before he stops and sees you. If you make eye contact with him, he'll advance on you in a hurry.]

You have to stay here, keep each other safe!

[He might be looking at you, but it's clear he's caught up in some kind of scene or memory. He looks around wildly before looking at you again.]

I'll go out and find her, I'll bring her back. Don't move.

C

[laminae]

[Fern is no stranger to the Pines' household, even here in Trench. Stopping by the place to see what nerdery Dipper is up to or to drop off some more monster bones so Stan can use them in the Murder Hut is a common part of his day, and today is no different. He has an armful of eldritch-looking bones and he's looking for somewhere to dump them (the living room floor? That seems like a perfectly good place for bone storage) when he notices... Dipper? Except it isn't Dipper, even though he looks a heck of a lot like him.]

I... what?

[He blinks in confusion, glancing around. Who's 'her'? Why does this guy look like a Dipper who's been through the post-apocalypse? He's so bewildered.]

What's going on?

C

[ghostharasser]

It's my fault. We got into an argument- I'm going to apologize to her, but I have to leave now.

[He starts to back away, looking like he's about to bolt. He points to Fern.]

Remember what I said! Stay down, stay quiet, stay safe. I'll-- we'll be back.

[And then he starts to run, passing entirely through the front door.]

C

[justoscar]

Oscar was no stranger to the Bone Fortress. If he wasn't at the Clockhouse, odds were high that he was there. Between helping Stan with the Murder hut and dropping off materials for Mabel and Dipper-- along with spending some Quality Time with one of them-- his presence was a familiar one.

Besides. Sticking near the Twins was one way to keep the headaches at bay.

It was impossible to not make eye contact with this scruffy, anxious looking figure-- but the swiftness of his approach had Oscar's spine stiffening.

A moment passed before recognition dawned, and Oscar reached for one of his hands before he could run away.

"You're... Dipper, aren't you?" He asked quietly, hazel eyes bright with concern. "Please, tell me...

"What happened to Mabel?"

C

[ghostharasser]

Oscar's hand passes right through "Dipper", and he makes no indication that he saw it, let alone felt it. Instead he looks bewildered by Oscar's words. He looks at Oscar with recognition but not....the right kind. Like he's seeing someone else.

"Don't worry about it, we just. We got into an argument and she ran," He says quickly. Despite the assurance, his voice is thick with fear.

"I'm going to apologize and bring her home, but I need you to stay put. The mist is more dangerous and almost anything we've seen. I won't loose any of you, understand?"

He steps away, ready to bolt on his mission.

B!

[charlastan]

[In Mason's defense, Stan is doing something a little different from his norm and it's probably worth checking out.

He's in the kitchen, but he's not cooking for once. Instead he's filling a bucket with hot water from a kettle and pouring (without measuring, because he lives dangerously) a good amount of Borax in. He also drops a couple frozen pieces of his own blood in, which he will insist is not because it's magic. It just felt like the right thing to add here.

Throughout the month he's been hearing whispers, but rather than get paranoid about it he's just been assuming that it's Ford playing with his newfound invisibility powers, one of the ghosts, or occasionally both. Given how much the ghosts have been out lately, he's usually accidentally right, which is why he's not at all surprised to see Mason behind him when he turns.]

Yeah, that sounds about right.

[Of course he's curious - he's still Dipper deep down under all that apocalypse trauma or whatever.]

I'm making fire proof stuff. It's not actually all that exciting.

[Despite that, he moves so Mason can see if he wants.]

[ghostharasser]

[He couldn't help be drawn to Stan, honestly. He knows Stan was who helped Dipper bury his body when he just kind of ...unceremoniously died in their living room. It was morbidly kind of touching? But there was also something else. Stan brought him deep nostalgia for a time he could scarcely remember anymore. A summer that felt like lifetimes ago, back when he still lived in a linear timeline.]

[He never thought in a hundred years he'd get close enough to speak to him again, and he thinks maybe once, long ago, he had a lot of things he wanted to say to him, but its all lost on him now. Instead, he tries not to get hung up on Stan's casualness with his curiosity, when not so long ago he'd pleaded with his younger counterpart to not throw that part of himself away like he had.]

[The emotions are complicated, and difficult to sort out. And when ghosts get fixated, things get weird, so he brushes past it as quick as he can.]

Is the fire becoming more of a problem?

[He's been paying attention, even if he wasn't always visible in the house. This world had done strange things to his family.]

B

[droptheious]

[Varian had dropped by the Pines with some extra research notes for Dipper- mostly observations from the crystals, but also a few notes on what he'd found in the soul around Trench. He figured if Dipper didn't know what to make of them, Ford would be a good second set of eyes on it too.

He startles at the person behind him, and then blinks, surprised. That- looks kind of like Dipper, but...older? Dipper had said there were ghost problems in the Pines household, and while Varian had never come across them himself, he knew they were feasible back home. You treated them with kindness and understanding- antagonising them was definitely not the way to go. So he offers a tiny smile.]

Hey, no problem. Just dropping off some research notes. Figured I'd better get a wider scope by seeing what other people think of them. Less chance of missing something then, right?

[ghostharasser]

[He vanishes and reappears some feet away to give Varian space, and then regards Varian with a quiet, but openly curious expression.]

About this world?

[He's been active and around enough to know they're in the Waking World, and he'd known in the past in small hints what that world was like. After all, that is how the Wastes had come to know of The Snake. He can't claim to remember very much of it now, and he suspects that had to do with his death and shift across planes, but its still there in the back of his mind.]

Makes sense to me. The more to bounce theories with the better. Are you a friend of the family, then?

November [For Childe]

[ghostharasser]

October had been quiet. Quiet and fun, if one could call Dipper's specific hobbies fun (which he does.) He actually felt pretty good about things as they came into November, and even the early days of November had felt quiet.

Eerily so.

With the knowledge now that something was going on, after Dib's encounter with Cynthia, Dipper could help feel they were in the calm before the storm. That was why he was hurrying home, currently. He had to run a few errands but had the full intention of bunking down with his family until they could figure out just what was fueling all this dread.

Of course Dipper would find out much sooner than he really wanted to. He really should have taken his sister with him, he thinks as he slows his steps down the street. The air had gone ...strange. The hair on the back of his neck raises as he realizes it's familiar. Dream-like.

Like when his own powers start to manifest.

He feels the edges around his vision, around his awareness start to fuzz, his limbs go heavy, disconnected, like one feels when trying to run in a lucid dream.

To anyone observing, it simply looks like Dipper's spaced out, though so much so that he's dropped his paper bag of baking supplies, spilling them across the stones with out him even noticing.

[monoceroscaeli]

While Dipper had been shopping, Childe had been out collecting more Weepers after a particular incident a few days earlier. Of course, he can't ever trust for things not to go sideways in a place like this, so he's taking the time to have some things on hand just in case they do. Or rather, when they do. Satisfied with the day's collection, he begins to head home, and when he does, he comes across Dipper seemingly staring into space.

All the groceries he'd gotten now spilled all over the ground next to his feet, and no one around. Childe quickly deposits his little weave basket onto the ground, before taking a quick glance around the area. The blood pollution has seeped into his own mind, but not quite like what he's seeing before him right now- if that was what it was at all. He doesn't see anything for the moment, and approaches Dipper carefully.

"Hey," he says, waving a hand in front of the boy's face, unaware of the danger that lurked in the shadows around them. "Are you alright? Can you hear me?"

Mabel

[sparklehorror]

For Dipper

[sparklehorror]

So far, October hasn't been bad, like, at all. Sure, Dipper has been inexplicably inflicted with horrific headaches when out of Mabel's presence for too long, but just about everything else is going so well Mabel is happy enough to just make jokes about him going into twin withdrawal from being away from her cute and great self. People are suffering from loneliness corpses and the streets are filled with wailing! But there's also a month long Halloween party going on in town and it's been a heartwarming chance for the younger set of Pines twins to indulge in their deep love of the holiday in a way that smooths over the hurts that came up between them during their Summerween in Gravity Falls.

Not too bad at all.

With so many opportunities for costume shenanigans, the twins have been sorting it out as they go rather than plotting out the whole month in advance. Tonight is a night to consider their next batch of great ideas, and to that end at the appointed time Mabel comes trundling down the stairs with her sketchbook stuffed under her arm as usual. This time, though, she has the omni in her other hand, and she waves it around excitedly as she blasts into the living room.

"Dipper, Dipper! On the network, did you see? There's a way to help your headaches!"

[cryptograms]

Ford tends to stay on top of his art and journaling supplies, even in odd situations. And he's managed here in Trench... mostly. It's an interesting place with interesting things to see and so many notes he needs to take. So he's decided to prioritize efficiency over quality and taken to buying from the first nearby art store that he stumbled across, grabbing whatever's closest to what he needs and simply making do.

But he's started to get on top of the deluge of new information this place has presented and stopped chewing through his field notebooks quite so fast, and he's realized... the paper he's been using kind of sucks, and the ink really isn't much better.

Fortunately, he knows an expert, and it isn't lost on him that Mabel doesn't seem to have suffered from any sort of dearth of art supplies. She's surely located a reliable store by now, right? So while Ford doesn't make any particular plans to seek her out, the next time they cross paths he doesn't hesitate to speak up.

"Mabel! You've found a good art supply shop by now, right?"

[sparklehorror]

It's certainly not difficult to cross paths with Mabel given that they live in the same house and all, but it is weirdly uncommon in a way. Despite being solidly attached to her poor brother and his paleblood problems, Mabel is keeping all kinds of busy, sticking her thumbs in a multitude of pies. Set free from the shackles of going to school, she now has time instead for apprenticeships that will teach her things she genuinely wants to know, and has gone for these things with incredible gusto.

When she does finally emerge in Ford's proximity it is with an armful of leather scraps in assorted sizes and shapes, most of which seem useless, which is how she acquired such a large pile of them. She drops them in a pile on the kitchen table for later organization, and beams up at her great uncle.

"You bet, Grunkle Ford! In fact, I've found tons of 'em." She whips a packet of basic leatherworking tools, all of which look like torture devices, out of the hammerspace of her jacket, and sets them on the table with the rest of her loot. "Just tell me what you need and I'll get you the goods."

She sounds a little like an enthusiastic drug dealer when she says this, but such is the way of art supplies.

For White Alice

[sparklehorror]

The Black Parade, it is fun and it is games. But not all fun and games. Mabel has an inkling of a very long term thing beginning to come together in her head, and of course the first step to any huge project is research and development. And the festival, with its wild costumes and performers and general atmosphere of weird, is a veritable fountain of inspiration just waiting for Mabel to dunk her whole head into, or something.

To that end, she's set herself up at a picnic table, her largest sketchbook open in front of her. An arsenal of art supplies is lined up on either side of it, though most of what she's grabbing is pencils in various colors for the moment. The festival is quick-moving and so are the people in it, and Mabel has to work at top speed as she fills her pages with sketches and notes to herself for later, slammed down as scribbles of colors and shapes. Despite the fact that she can't get too into detail before the next cool thing catches her attention, her drawings are certainly clear enough to be read as what they are, and Mabel will have a grand time sorting through all this later.

[wishforaneye]

"Oh, that's lovely."

This was a habit that would likely be hard to break if anyone put it in Alice's mind to; so suddenly being where she hadn't been the moment something had caught her eye and the incredibly silent approach that floating everywhere gave her. Perhaps, one day, someone may think to attach bells to her hair or clothing in some way. For now? Well, the fact that she spoke from just over one of Mabel's shoulders was the only real warning.

At least this day the face paint Alice had on was far more colorful- a rainbow of spiderwebs here and there, even accenting her eyes with color that made the light purple color pop even more than usual. A few little spiders whose bodies were made of tiny but sparkling stones for nearly every web.

FORD

[cryptograms]

for Stan

[cryptograms]

Who says that the weird things that happen at the beach are only for newcomers?

No one. No one says that, and Ford certainly isn't thinking it to himself, but someone might wonder why an established resident might come all the way to the boardwalk only to walk right past the new arrivals and straight into the ocean.

Or rather, straight onto a boat in the ocean. He's heard about some of the oddities that pop up on these things and he, of course, is now overcome with the desire to investigate them in detail. Plus, it's been far too long since he's been on an actual boat, which is a real shame considering that he lives on a coastal town now. So he finds a promising looking cabin cruiser and gives the ice on the shore an experimental stomp. When it fails to dramatically crack and dump him into the ocean, he waves for Stan to follow him.

"This way, Stanley! Once we're done here, I think we'll be able to go directly to the trawler further out."

[charlastan]

Stan's not usually much for the boardwalk at new arrival time. It's crowded and there's probably monsters or something, so he tends to grab whatever free food is around and head home. He operates on the rules of anyone who's ever grown up on a coast - avoid peak tourist season.

Not this time though. This time there's old boats to explore, and Stan's in a particularly good mood. Once Ford tests the ice, he steps on it himself and follows to the first boat.

"Think any of these old dinghies still run?" he asks along the way. "We could use a boat here."