Teenagers scare the living shit out of me | OPEN

[charlastan]

Who: Stanley Pines (charlastan AND stananigans) and Open!
What: For the first half of the month Stan whines about lack of business due to everyone going to The Red instead of going on tours at The Murder Hut. Then, in the second half of the month, he sheds into a teenage version of himself and says "Actually, fuck this!" and runs off to cause trouble. Also, some closed prompts in comments!
When: All of January!
Where: Murder Hut, and then all over Trench.

Content Warnings: All content warnings for The Shedding Ceremony Prompt, possible mentions of child abuse/neglect, possible memloss discussion, maybe arson


A. THE MURDER HUT (FIRST TWO WEEKS OF JANUARY)

[Ever since Stan re-opened the Murder Hut, business has been fairly steady! A lot of the Sleepers already know his schtick and while a number of them enjoy it, the real boost has been from the locals in town who are delighted to go on a weird tour run by a Sleeper, showcasing supposed oddities from Deerington past and present. Much of the exhibits are the same as they were in Deerington, with a couple of new additions that haven't found their way to the post yet. Probably the biggest new addition is inspired by the parasite fish from October - Stan's made a couple of big goofy papier-mâché fish and stuck leg bones under them and labeled them as "Reverse Mermaids", and somehow they've been a hit with locals even though they know the real parasitic truth. It's almost as though humor and levity are useful in times like these!

Well, except for right now. Right now, despite the fact that Madame Generosity's invitations went out to Sleepers, it feels like half the town is looking for their entertainment at The Red this month. It's actually been slow, and despite the fact that he was also invited to The Red, he's stubbornly keeping the Murder Hut open incase anyone does show up - or, so he can whine at friends and family that swing by.]

Where the heck is everyone?!

[He already knows the answer. He's asked this about thirty times in the last few days anyway, whining for the sake of whining.

On the upside, if you're someone who hasn't yet toured the Murder Hut, you'll likely get your own private tour if you stop by! No discounts though. Never discounts.]

B. TEEN STAN (JANUARY 15TH-31ST, WHEREVER)

[By the 15th, all of the above goes straight out the window. Stan wakes up that first morning and none of his joints ache. Sure, the shedded skin corpse is gross, but it's kind of cool too, and more importantly when he looks in the mirror he doesn't look a day over seventeen.

Thankfully his memories haven't been scrambled - that's always a bit of a sore spot for him. Instead he feels like himself, but a younger version that actually has energy. He'll recognize anyone who knows him, but he plans on taking full advantage of this - especially since the shedding didn't take away his powers.

He can be found causing mischief on the boardwalk with his seagull Omen Pollux (who has stayed effectively the same, since he's the same in his head), trying all the food he can, setting the occasional probably harmless fire, and running around doing whatever the hell he feels like doing, because he can! Because he is a bottomless well of energy!

The one thing he isn't doing though? Running the Murder Hut. Fuck that. Fuck that!!! He's got better things to do. If anyone is trying to find him there, they'll be met with a locked door and no note whatsoever.]

C. WILDCARD (WHEREVER, WHENEVER)

[ooc: Got something else in mind? Hit me up! I'll match format, and also if you want teen Stan please specify! All of his teen replies will come from [Bad username or unknown identity: stananigans"].]

Comments

( b is for BABY )

[cryptograms]

Ford is woken up not by the sound of Stan causing trouble, or the suspicious lack of sound of Stan causing trouble, but by Castor. She thuds onto the couch next to him and, when that fails to immediately get him out of bet, sets to tugging at his hair and shoving around his glasses until he finally blinks himself awake. She's not sounding the alarm bells or anything, but it's unusual for her to make this much of a fuss - and when he hears her tiny, soft voice insist that he should go check on Stan, he doesn't hesitate to get to his feet and make his way towards the living room. And once he does...

Well, it takes him a second to understand what he's seeing. There's a teenager in their kitchen stealing their food. Whoever it is he's too pale to be Glitch, too male to be Ruby, too much not a plant to be Fern, and too much entering their house uninvited and stealing their food to be any of their other acquaintances. So Ford just stares for a moment, and it's not until the mysterious teenager turns around that understanding clicks.

"Stanley?"

[stananigans]

Stan startles like he's been caught red-handed, which only makes him look even more like he did at that age. Pollux is with him - apparently still the same age as she always is, sitting in the sink and keeping him company while he rummages for snacks.

Awkwardly he waves.

"Hey, Sixer. Uh. ...How's it hanging?"

His voice is actually fairly similar to how it usually is, still sort of gruff but with decades of age removed from it. It feels like he owes Ford more of an explanation than he's given him though, so before Ford can say anything he quickly adds:

"So...I just woke up like this, next to this real cool gross snake skin of my normal old man body, and I have NO idea what happened. Whatever it is, I didn't do it."

[cryptograms]

"It's... uh, hanging?"

The answer is quite clearly one Ford is giving for the sake of giving an answer, rather than one he's put any degree of thought into. Deerington has thrown all sorts of weird things at him and Trench is quickly catching up - hell, Dipper is a girl right now - but something about this is throwing him off kilter in a way he no longer thought was possible.

But at least it definitely sounds like something that should occur in Trench, and the explanation of the weird snake skin helps Ford find his foot. Unfortunately...

"You didn't throw it away, did you?"

Finding his footing means it's time to ask a weird question.

bbb

[vibing]

[ Another certain young person is hanging out at the beach, mostly alone,
with a small kestrel watching out for him, but he isn't too interested in the bird. He watches people passing by, and sometimes he decides to use these new strange powers on them. He isn't really the type to harass people, but he's feeling lonely and angry and he's so used to always having his best friend around that he feels like he does when Flynn's mom makes him come home and Yuri is left to fend for himself. But instead of it just being for the evening, it's been days now, and he hasn't had that many people to talk to, so harassing people on the boardwalk it is.

He sees this older boy walking along with a seagull and narrows his eyes at him as he sets something on fire. Well, that certainly can't stand.

Yuri hops off the little wall of the boardwalk and stalks over to Stan. Yuri himself is about ten years old, small and skinny with a bob of black hair and a demanding expression on his face. ]

Put that out. Now.

[stananigans]

[The thing Stan's set on fire this time is the contents of a trash can. Blue flames can clearly be seen lapping out of it, and Stan's been having fun throwing things in it and seeing what happens. Even Pollux has gotten in on the fun, dropping some abandoned garbage into the fire from above.

Stan turns when someone interrupts though, and raises an eyebrow at this tiny kid.]

Who are you? The fire police?

[Pollux comes in for a landing a little closer to the boy and his omen though, ignoring Stan's rude remarks to investigate. All of her parental instincts are going off at both of them. This is a baby. Where did this baby come from? Did someone abandon this baby and bird here?!]

[vibing]

No. [ What even are fire police, Stan?! Yuri glares up at him with a hand on his hip. Even though fire is, inherently, cool, burning stuff seems like a bad idea. Right? Is it a bad idea? He doesn't know. He's ten. ] Put it out. People might need that stuff.

[ That stuff, in the trash. Hey, there might be food in there. You don't know there's not. ]

B - weird shedding shenanigans is go

[ghostharasser]

[Dipper has bolted out of bed screaming at the state of things, entirely because Dipper woke up fully sure that she'd always been a girl. Mabel sure raised a fuss, and while Dipper knows whatever is going on is Trench's fault, Dipper is not ready to assume its her that's weird, but rather everyone else.]

[While she's maybe wondered once or twice what it might be like to be a boy instead, she's never actually wanted that, so the problem isn't hers, thanks. She's going to go about her day.]

[Or try to, but she gets down the stairs only to find something extremely amiss! You know, it's probably only because she still has a small handful of Ford's memories knocking around in her brain that she actually recognizes the person she comes across heading out the door]

...Grunkle Stan!?

he's not actually this mad I just REALLY wanted the spiderman point

[stananigans]

[Stan, now that he's thoroughly raided Robert's snacks, was just heading out to go cause some mischief now that he's full of youthful energy. Pollux is happily perched on his shoulder, though it's a toss up whether she wants in on the mischief or if she feels the need to babysit just a little.

He turns when called though and startles when he sees who it is.]

Dipper?!

[But then he pauses, and he squints at Dipper - he's going without his glasses to really complete his teenager look, so it's about half in thought and half because he can't actually see that far.]

...Wait. I already knew about your thing. We just did this like, last week.

MURDER HUT MURDER HUT

[wishforaneye]

Who knows.

[Spoken idly, mostly because- Alice had not yet been paying attention to the goings and comings of others. Distracted in her own things- of course in time she would finally notice and visit The Red herself; and finally notice a lovely gown, but she had other priorities.

Such as apparently finally visiting somewhere a new friend had told her about.]

You're here, at least. Yes?

[Legs tucked beneath her, sitting in the air as skits idly floated with attached ribbons as if caught up in her own gravity. Just Darkblood Things™]

[charlastan]

[Stan jumps about a mile and yells when he sees a girl just floating in the air near him. Not because that in itself is scary, but because he just flat out hadn't noticed her in his own wallowing.]

HOT BELGIAN WAFFLES! You're gonna give an old man a heart attack like that!

[SHEESH. He settles quickly enough though, because apparently he's got a customer. A...floating, spooky, child customer.]

Uh, yep! I'm here! Welcome to the Murder Hut! You here for one of our tours?

[wishforaneye]

[Whoops.]

I often forget not walking makes me incredibly quiet.

[She really, really did. Even with the fact she started wearing shoes simply because she enjoyed how the boots stomped about in; stompy boots were fun okay. She sat up a little in her mid-air perching, skirts smoothing down as her attentions pulled back in rather than floating as if underwater.

A little gravity, as a treat.]

Oh, yes. Mabel told me quite a bit about it, and I was interested in the sorts of things her Grunkle Stan put in it- how she described it sounded quite wonderful, and he a creative and fun person.

[She liked Mabel, and Dipper was interesting in his visits to the house. So really, it was about time she checked this out.]

B

[laminae]

[It isn't until towards the end of the month that Fern can be found all the way out on the boardwalk, far from the house in Cassandra. Everything that happened with The Tower and Varian had him sticking close to home, really only occasionally heading out to Willful Machine and The Red. It feels weird to be heading out so far after so long, but he's feeling restless and is curious to see if there are any new Sleepers showing up.

He's bundled up and Blodeuwedd is chattering away on his shoulder when he notices a small crowd has formed on the boardwalk. Getting closer, he can see the tail end of a small, harmless trashfire getting stamped out. The owners of the stall near it look more exasperated than concerned, as if these nonsense pranks have been going on for a little while.

He scratches his chin, hanging around for a bit after the crowd disperses. Huh, that's weird.]

[stananigans]

[These nonsense pranks have been going on for a while. Little blue fires have been cropping up all over the place, and whispers from locals are blaming it on a hooligan of a Sleeper - which is to say that they're sort of resigned to it at this point. Most of them have at least been contained to trash cans, and if not then they've been chucked almost ceremoniously into the sea where they melt through the ice and sink when extinguished.

Speaking of nonsense pranks though, a mostly familiar voice yells out from behind him suddenly.]

FERN!

[When Fern turns though, he'll see...another teenager. A teenager grinning wide at him, with a seagull perched on his shoulder like a parrot.]

It's me, Stan! I shed my skin and now I'm a teenager!

A

[littlelikeroses]

[After Stan makes that shout he'll feel a tug at his pant leg. There's a young child there who looks awfully offended.]

I'm down here!

And I want to go on the ride! I want to ride the murder butt!

[There is something familiar about this red highlighted, two eyed child.]

[charlastan]

What the--

[Stan looks down and sure enough there's a child clinging to him. A...familiar child, actually. Ruby?

He awkwardly glances around to see if any sort of adult came in with her, but...nope. Of course not - that would be too easy! Instead he's apparently babysitting.]

I dunno, kid. You think you can handle the Murder Butt?

[He's teasing her, just for the sake of it. If it's really Ruby she's already seen a lot of it anyway so it's not like he can really traumatize her. ......Probably.]

B

[justoscar]

[Sitting on the boardwalk is a teen girl who looks very familiar-- partly because her entire appearance almost completely resembles a certain young man with a messy ponytail who frequented the murder hut.

Ossi slurped at her soda and peered down at Stan from her perch, totally not recognizing him at all. Rather:]

You know there are better places for a bonfire, right?-

[stananigans]

[Stan looks up and squints. He's made the brilliant decision to forgo his glasses on the grounds that he didn't wear them when he was a teenager, but the problem is that he did need them when he was a teenager, so his eyesight is pretty garbage right now. All he clocks is that there's a girl above him criticizing his choice of bonfire location.]

Oh yeah? Like where? The incredibly flammable forest?

murder hut murder hut we're makin CHOICES babeyyyy

[thinkfirst]

[ Flynn was not expecting to be asked a direct question upon entering this establishment. Actually, Flynn isn't sure what he was expecting: he'd entered with his hackles up, having been to an all-too-literal murder house in his day. With a name like that (and with Yuri missing, out in the city alone and Flynn is not thinking about that, he's not) it certainly bears investigating. He walks in with his heart in his throat and his eyes narrowed, ready for a fight, and actually jumps a little at Stan's shout, his hand flying to the hild of his sword before he can think about it. ]

Ah—

[ Just... an old man. Okay. Alright. That's... less murder-y than Flynn was expecting. He forces himself to relax, glancing surreptitiously around. Nope, definitely talking to him. Or, at least, there's no one else here, so Flynn may as well answer to paper over the whole I almost drew my sword on you sir... thing. ]

I presume most of the city is taking Madam Generosity up her offer or otherwise staying indoors to avoid the effects of the shedding. This is, ah. A... business?

[ Please explain. ]

HECK YEAH CHOICES!!!!

[charlastan]

[Honestly, it had been more of a rhetorical question - he was pretty sure he was alone, so having someone walk in the second he said it was a surprise. He eyes the sword, if only because ironically the only murder that's ever happened in the Murder Hut was his own, but the guy's calmed a little so...it's probably fine.

More importantly, he has a customer!]

Sure is! Welcome to the Murder Hut! I'm Mr. Murdery - owner, proprietor, and bone collector. I give tours of my gruesome collection of horrors - skeletons of terrible creatures I've picked up over the years, locked here away from the faint of heart and light of wallet.

[He twiddles his fingers as he talks, as though this makes it spookier somehow.]

So! You here for a tour or what?

A

[delilah_dirk]

She's earned a bit more than usual this past month, really, and she's definitely up to spending some of it. Now the words 'Murder Hut' rather attract someone who uses 'adventuress' as a label and a descriptor - and she's soon at the location, looking for the proprietor.

"I say, how much for the tour?"

A

[charlastan]

The proprietor is nearby, as business has been uncharacteristically slow for the last few days. This is the fun part for him though - Trench's economy is highly based around bartering interesting goods, so Stan's decided not to post set prices and just let people haggle with him. He can always turn them away if they offer too little and rob them blind if they offer too much. It's the perfect system!

"Depends," he says, leaning on the counter. "What's your best offer?"

B!

[frogfear]

[It's the nose that gives the boy on the boardwalk away, otherwise Willow probably wouldn't recognize him nearly so quickly. The shedding, and seeing so many Sleepers so very different is strange, but it's Trench, and Trench is usually at least a little strange. Besides, with the change in the moon, it seems likely that this too shall pass.

The fire is a little more alarming. Sure, it's cold, but the boardwalk is made of... well. Boards. Boards which are flammable.

Stan, no.]

Uhh... Stan? Is that you?

Re: B!

[stananigans]

[Stan, yes!!!

He looks up from the fire he is literally playing with, making it hula dance as if the trash can it's in is the skirt. It wobbles when he loses concentration, but by some miracle doesn't fall over and light the whole boardwalk on fire.]

Horse Girl! [He holds up a hand in greeting and grins.] How's it hangin', Willow?

[Despite literally being a teenager, it still has the energy of "How do you do, fellow kids?".]

A - cw: mention of physical child abuse

[survivalthroughhate]

[Bundled up in warm clothes that he's most definitely stolen, there's a small (or Smaul) Zabrak child looking up in a timid fashion at Stan. He looks shy and fretful, the kind of child who's always afraid someone is going to yell at them if they speak more than two words.

Still, the name of the place intrigues a kid whose been raised by a psychopathic Sith Lord, so here Maul is, golden eyes peering out from under the hood of the black child-sized cloak he's wearing. He doesn't say anything, having learned from his master that it was better to wait to be spoken to directly before he says anything, less someone get mad and hurt him.]

[charlastan]

[There is a child staring at him. And Stan stares back for a long, long time. The kid looks kind of easily spooked though. Is he...lost, maybe? Stan's not sure this the kind of kid who would wander into a place called The Murder Hut on purpose.]

Uh. ...Nice face paint you got there, kiddo.

[Nailed it.]