countryclub | APRIL 2022 TEST DRIVE MEME

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meme: tdm

APRIL 2022 TEST DRIVE MEME

Another month, another test drive meme! Our test drive memes are open to anyone interested - regardless of whether or not you join our game!

All Test Drive Memes are game canon. Players can choose to keep their TDM threads canon or not. TDM threads can be used for AC and can be used as your writing sample for your application.

Our TDMs serve as a way to build into the actual lore and worldbuilding of Deer Country and we strongly encourage everyone to enjoy and participate! Current players are always welcome to pull prompts from the TDM to reference on the Network or bring into logs as well as tag out to new characters top-leveling on the TDM itself.

Characters will always be able to actively die during TDMs as this is an extremely dangerous world. You can still have this be game canon! Check out how character death in Deer Country works here.

If you have any questions about the TDM, please ask down below!

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: Delicious, Gelatinous Fruit Treats]
[Image Two: Women in white dancing around a May Pole (Animated)]

Prompt Two
[Image One: A woman turning away from a mirror. ]
[Image Two: A woman trapped inside a mirror with disembodied hands grabbing at her. ]

Prompt Three
[Image One: A Forked Trail on a Wooded Path]
[Image Two: The Grim Reaper at the end of a sewer tunnel]

[NAVIGATION]

TDM Questions • Reserves • Taken • Applications • Full Navigation

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A MOSTLY PLEASANT ARRIVAL

WHEN: May
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: Forced honesty, personality changes, physical changes.

Congratulations, sleeper! You're one of the lucky ones to arrive in a month that is not awful to come ashore. The transformational process is almost alarmingly quick and painless. In fact, it is so quick that it is deceptively easy to change back into a squid and do it all over again! Partial transformations are not uncommon during this month for the first twenty-four hours after arriving, and even brief transformations of minor facial features like hair color, eye color, height, weight and a few more extreme possibilities have been known to happen. Don't worry, because the transformations are all temporary and none are inherently monstrous (Unless you already are a monster, in which case good luck with that!). Greeters are present in force to help accommodate you as you make your way, your welcome backpack and items all freshly and neatly cleaned and ready for you as they put the robe on. Everything is so welcoming and inviting that it almost seems like they're having a party.

This is, in fact, because they are. The Wild Moon is about and festivities are in full swing throughout the month of Bauphomette. May poles are set up and it is possible to dance around one if you should wish. Doing so can help to ground oneself in their current form, which may help new arrivals settle in a bit better. Even ignoring that, it feels good to sing and dance, and everyone is very friendly. Even the usually grim Hunters who guard the roads and entries to the shores seem to have less stern smiles on their faces, though their eyes are ever watchful to keep the peace of the festivities.

SEASONAL DETAILS ON THE BOARDWALK
Decorations this month are decidedly floral in nature. Everyone is dressed in white, regardless of their usual preferences. Flowers adorn many of the people of Trench and the weather throughout the first week of May is pleasant. Even if it rains, it is a refreshing, light and pleasant rain, and there are many awnings and umbrellas to take shelter underneath.

And of course, there's refreshments. What festival in Trench would be without them? The foods this month have a very floral theme to them. Edible flowers have been grown and prepared especially for this time of year. They've been used to help create infused and gelatinous sweets, Floral spring rolls and edible flower cookies and the like, along with floral teas that are meant to calm the mind. Additionally, the people of Trench will note that any of the foods present can have a beneficial, albeit transformative effect on the mind and body. They promise it won't last long, but if you're really concerned there is hard tack and water available that's quite filling.

Changes from Food will last a few hours at most. There are several options available among the drinks and foods. These may be combined as the player sees fit. Drinks have mental effects, while Treats have physical ones, the Trenchies will inform:

Pomegranate Juice: Sweet and tart, anyone who drinks it or has some of the fresh pomegranate and seeds will feel compelled to speak nothing but the truth. Pomegranates are found littering makeshift shrines to Bauphomette throughout the party, and Trenchies insist they are free to take.
Petal Infused Hot Tea: Pungent and aromatic, it is relaxing. The heat gives a warmth and vibrancy that fills a person with confidence, to the point of arrogance and fearlessness, leading the emboldened to try something that they might not otherwise do, even if it's very risky!
Floral Iced Tea: While refreshing, it feels like there's something just a little lacking, and anyone who drinks some will feel that they need more but not what they need more of at first, making them clingy and affectionate towards other people, especially strangers.
Iced Water: It's not the tastiest, but has a way of washing things away. Water can cleanse and remove the effects of other drinks, though it leaves the person feeling emotionally drained if it is used this way.

Floral Spring Rolls: Trying one of these surprisingly edible treats will have the added effect of giving a person plant traits temporarily. Hair may convert into tresses of ivy or carefully manicured moss, or perhaps a mushroom cap! Skin might become bark-like or chlorophyl green. The more that one eats, the more that they change.
Gelatinous Sweets: These curiosities come with a note. “Have you ever wondered what it is like to walk in someone's shoes?” Eating one has a profound physical effect, causing a person's appearance to transform into that of another person in Trench! It may not even be someone they've met, or seen yet! It would be awkward to meet someone, not looking the way you're supposed to, or worse? Looking like them!
Edible Flower Cookies: They come with lovely notes saying “Eat Me!” What could be sweeter? Well, like something out of Alice and Wonderland, eating one can cause a person to grow or shrink by a foot. More cookies can cause the height difference to become worse and worse, though if you're only a foot tall, it's a good way to end up an inch tall! So, maybe eating more to fix the problem is risky.
Hard Tack: Like the water, it can fill the stomach and remove prematurely any physical effects, though if it does so, removing a physical change physically drains the character.

A DIM REFLECTION

WHEN: May
WHERE: Throughout Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Paranoia, existential dread, hallucinations, possession-related horror.

They warned you about mirrors. Every once in a while, one of the locals in Trench might have whispered it, made a sign of warding when they passed by mirrors, but nothing seemed out of place. They told you that you might see yourself in it, and you would never be the same. However, every time you've looked it's been fine. So, maybe they were being superstitious about something? It certainly wouldn't have been the first time someone had gotten paranoid about nothing in Trench, would it?

How wrong you were. Maybe it was when you were looking down at a puddle rippling in a light breeze. It might have been a formerly polished piece of bronze covered in tarnish that adorned a building. Perhaps it was that lovely bit of obsidian in the shop where you caught your reflection garbled by the shape. It happens only when a reflection is seen in a distorted surface, especially those that are naturally occurring, though occasionally damaged and weathered surfaces that were polished will work. When you were looking at the image, it seemed to look back at you and something was wrong, distorted, imperfect. By then it was too late.

The natives were right. You saw some part of yourself there in the mirror. It might be something that you've hidden from others for a long time, or it might be an exaggeration of a single part of yourself that you aren't proud about. What it is, is a distorted and incomplete part of yourself, something that you try to keep controlled and in check, and it was there, smiling at you and winking. The moment it winked, it was like you were riding in your own skin, watching and unable to act as you changed into a self that reflected that distorted, unnatural and incomplete side of yourself. What shadows do you hide from yourself?

This effect lasts for, at most, one solar cycle. From the rising of the sun to its setting, or the moon to its setting, the effect can last no longer than that. Especially strong-willed people, particularly palebloods, can end this effect sooner through force of will, though it usually lasts at minimum an hour. The character is, for the duration of this effect, changed in personality to behave in accordance with some singular aspect (of the player's choice) of their personality that they do not usually focus on in their day to day behavior. This change can be subtle, or it can be drastic and even dangerous. Its goal is to make sure that everyone sees and witnesses this change, and goes out of its way to impact others in a memorable fact, making sure that they see there is more to the character than what they are revealing. This could be relatively innocuous or extremely dangerous, depending on the person, and the whole while the dominant personality is riding inside their skin, forced to watch what is happening.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

WHEN: May
WHERE: Dream worlds
CONTENT WARNINGS: Existential dread, disturbing visions

It happens when you are asleep one night. There is no warning for this effect, and it comes without apparent cause. One night, you go to sleep, and then suddenly you find yourself in a dreamscape, on a path. You can sense eyes on you the whole time that you are present in this field, and though they have a sense of benevolence to them, there is a deeply alien element to the experiment, almost like you are being observed by a scientist through a microscope. You are not alone on the path, either. One, or possibly more than one, other people that you may know or not know, they seem to have entered the same dreamscape. Behind you is nothing but shadow, and before you is a path. Might as well get going if you want to wake up, right? That's how these things work.

Introductions and questions aside, there's nothing but the path and dense, impenetrable woods on both sides, so eventually you and your companion start walking. As you do, shortly you see a branch in the path ahead of you. The fork has two paths, one of which shows the traffic of many feet, footprints grooved well into the worn cobblestones and mud. One of you will somehow recognize that the footprints are their own, and will notice that the other path has no footprints or very few. That is when the compulsion hits. It is inexorable and impossible to deny, the curiosity to see what is down the path that those footprints do not travel.

Travel, walk and taking that path, you will be treated to a vision. It is a moment in the dreamer's life, where they see something that happened in their life, which involved a choice. Did they go left or right? Did they say yes, or no? A choice they made, even one that seemed immaterial at the time, had some profound effect, and now you and they watch as the other choice was taken. And, within the hour, you will see the results, to your horror. Something terrible will happen to them. It could be anything, but it will be life-shattering, perspective altering and ghastly. They might even die from the experience or see a loved one die. The horror of it will still be in your hearts as you stand there for a moment, trapped in the sight of the aftermath, trying to come to terms with what you have just seen, and just at this moment, after a few parting words are said, both will wake up in a cold sweat.

The event that plays out can be from either character. Close CR is not required. Bauphomette has summoned the characters into the dream directly, and is sharing a distorted mirror of an opposite choice that could have been made. Actual “What if” canon events such as alternate timelines in Supernatural could be used for this, or the entire event can be concocted for this scene. The characters themselves are witnesses, and cannot be personally harmed in any physical way, but the horrific ending for the 'vision' version of the one whose dream this can be as awful as desired and take any form wished so long as it is unpleasant. Please be aware and mindful of each other's Content Warning Preferences in setting these scenes up.

CODING

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

His face does something really interesting the more Dipper talks. It starts carefully neutral, grows cautiously optimistic, and then sort of wavers like a candle that just got hit by a gust of wind. 'Packed to the brim with ghosts' is a sentence that is not doing him a lot of favors, but he manages to yank his expression back into some pale semblance of 'doing alright' by the time Dipper finishes talking.

"You, uh. You take after your Uncle that way, huh."

Which is a nice way of saying 'oh my god you're all weird, all of you, you're all just like this, I'll never escape it, I'll be in my deathbed and there'll be a Pines there offering to do a séance the second I pass over'.

"I imagine if I've got an exorcist on call that opens up my options, so that's... that's good. That's goin'-- going. To make things simpler."

No you don't. You push that accent down. You're normal and respectable and in control of yourself and you aren't upset enough to be forgetting the g on the end of words. You're fine.

He has no idea that Dipper is used to hearing his accent at full force just as a baseline so he's making an effort for absolutely no reason.

Boy there sure is a lot going on in Fiddleford's head that Dipper has absolutely no privy to.

Fiddleford is extraordinarily lucky that Dipper's paleblood abilities limit him in the telepathic department by comparison. He does not hear any of this, and is none the wiser. For now, anyway. He's caught on that Fiddleford is nervous, but that's really not surprising considering the guy just got here, and everything is probably a lot.

"Yeah, you could say that." Dipper unsurprisingly took that as a compliment. "You ...want me to show you around? I've been here long enough that I know the city pretty well."

It's probably good Dipper can't peek in there, all things considered. There's always a lot happening in a sort of unfortunate jumble, and it really is just a toss-up of how equipped he is to sort it out on any given day. That he only comes across as nervous means he's doing pretty good!

"I suppose it beats sitting here not knowing where to start. You wouldn't happen to know a place a man could barter for some pants?"

He figures if they're really on top of things they can do that as part of the tour, on the way to... wherever he winds up. That's still a big question mark.

He is doing pretty good! If Dipper didn't know better, he would seem on par with most new comers. Dipper does know his history, and he is also an empath, and while he's gotten good at shutting out the emotions of others (otherwise he'd be inconsolable in large crowds), it's hard for him not to get the echos of Fiddleford's turmoil from where he's standing.

He doesn't want to lose sight of McGucket, so he needs to be careful not to scare him away. That sounds easy enough, but the McGucket Dipper knows is so thoroughly unshakable by virtue of having had his mind broken for decades he feels like he's walking on eggshells around this ...much more jumpy, younger version.

"Yeah, dude. The boardwalk has a ton of stalls and shops. They won't have anything fancy there, but we can definitely find pants," he explains with a nod. "There's also a full-blown shopping district further in the city if you wanted to find actual clothes."

Dipper takes a moment to look around, climbing on top of a bench to get a higher vantages point. He makes a triumphant ah-ha! before climbing down and pointing.

"That way. C'mon!"

Time to follow this small, strange Pines child.

Yeah. This is how today is going to go, it looks like. Fiddleford walks after him through the crowd, careful not to accidentally bonk anyone with the neck of his banjo. At least even living in suburbia and resigning himself to wearing shoes couldn't get rid of the farm boy mile-thick calluses, so walking around barefoot isn't much of an issue. Shoes are going to be the last thing on his list of things to figure out how to trade for, at least until someone explains to him that maybe direct contact with the blood-soaked ground is a bad idea.

"I don't need fancy, I just need them to fit." Which... actually given his height and what a beanpole he is can sometimes be an issue, but he imagines the addition of a belt will fix that pretty fast. "If it's all barter, what do folks usually pay with?"

He doesn't have a lot to his name right now, and most of what he does have he isn't interested in giving up.

Luckily the stall Dipper spotted isn't too far away. It's a small corner shop with some very basic clothing. It's all dull and uninteresting, but they do have lots of different sizes. The people who come out of the ocean are very diverse after all.

"All sorts of things," He says in response to his question. "From blood and magic components, to cool looking seashells from the farther shores. It varies a lot depending on what you're trying to get your hands on. The sort of things that have value here are a little different from back home."

Dipper reaches into his coat and pulls out a small bag. What mysterious Pines nonsense could he have?? Witchcraft bottles?? Eye of newt?? Bones????

Just a small pack of seeds, it looks like. He will offer it to him.

"Anything that has anything to do with agriculture is pretty valuable, for instance, because growing stuff here is really hard. This should get you whatever you need from this shop."

Okay, see, that's a really nice and concise explanation and anybody else would be glad to have such an attentive tour guide. It's just that Dipper decided to lead with blood, and so Fiddleford spends most of the rest of the explanation only half-hearing it because his brain is still repeating BLOOD? BLOOD? BLOOD? BLOOD? along with the mental equivalent of a tornado siren. It takes him a second to even register the seeds he's being offered because, you know. BLOOD?

Okay. No. He already knew this place was weird about blood. The first thing that happened to him upon arrival besides being a squid was apparently getting all his blood replaced, something he has not looked further into because he is still grappling with the basic concept of it happening to begin with. The point is he should not be surprised that blood is a form of payment, and he forces himself to refocus on Dipper and what he is very glad is not a bag of bones.

"Oh, I couldn't, uh-- I couldn't take your hard-earned... seeds." That feels weird, right? Taking money (the equivalent of money) from a child? "Not without knowin' if I could pay you back."

There goes that g. He lost it somewhere around 'blood' and isn't going to bother trying to retrieve it while there's still a quiet undercurrent of blood? blood? blood? blood? in the back of his brain.

Hm. The panic seems to be getting worse. Did he say something he shouldn't have? Was it because he mentioned blood so casually?? God, he has been in this hellscape for so long he didn't even think about how weird that must sound to newcomers. He's also super underestimating how easy to spook McGucket is, apparently.

He did start a memory wipe cult to cope with Gravity Falls. This shouldn't be surprising. Crap.

"No, it's okay, really. I've got a bunch more at home and I'd rather they go towards helping out a friend." His face falls a little, like he's realizing his words. "I mean, I guess that's pretty weird from someone you just met, but I know you as a friend, so I want to help."

"It's not -- it's not weird. Promise. It's very kind of you."

Okay. Okay. Okay. There is nothing, at present, actually threatening his blood. It is all very much still within his body. So it's fine. He's fine.

"Still, I... wait. Hold on."

As tends to happen, an idea has just occurred to him. It is not a good idea, probably, but it's an idea that follows logically based on the information he has. The simplest way forward would be to just take the seeds and make a mental note to pay Dipper back later whether he wants it or not. The way forward that Fiddleford decides to go with is reaching up with both hands, grabbing the rosemary growing out of his head, and snapping both 'horns' off at the base where the plant gets woody and snapping is easier. He winces, but it doesn't actually hurt. He expected it would. This is going better than he thought!

He flags down the person running the stall with the hand now holding two fairly large freshly-picked bundles of rosemary.

"Pardon me, would you take this for a pair of pants?"

Holy shit. He just snapped them right off.

Dipper had honestly forgotten they were even there. That's a crazy thing to think, since they were literally growing out of his head, but Dipper is incredibly desensitized to Trench's nonsense by now. Once he realizes what he's doing, he laughs and follows after him.

"Nice."

Given what he just explained, the shop keeper is unsurprisingly thrilled by being presented with fresh herbs. She will take them and tell him he can have a pair, sure, and something else too, if he likes, since he handed over two.

"Did that not hurt?" Dipper meanwhile, couldn't help but be curious.

Ha! Great. There's still a very soft blood? occasionally repeating itself in the back of his mind, but it's blessedly crowded out by the pride of solving the fiendish puzzle of Buy Pants.

"No," he says as he thumbs through the options. "Plants don't usually have nerves, I don't think." Not that he's a botanist, so what does he know really. There's still little woody nubs in his hair, of course, and he tries not to think about how there might be roots just straight up in his flesh. They're supposed to not be permanent. It is, theoretically, fine.

He picks a pair that seems about the right size. Pity they're a drab not-quite-gray-not-quite-brown, but that seems to be the fashion here. A belt, too, because that seems like the next thing on the list in terms of necessities. The robes do a good enough job of keeping his upper half decent; he can figure out a proper shirt later. A good belt, though, that's priceless.

"Glad to be rid of them, anyway. Odd enough bein' a squid werewolf without also bein' part plant."

"Fair point." You knew a plant person, actually, and he was pretty sure picking stuff off him never hurt him either? He decided long ago to not question what exactly was going on with Fern's biology.

"Yeah, did that come from something on the boardwalk? Sometimes the food there gets weird." He remembers dumplings a few months ago doing some wacky stuff to people. Also there was cursed chocolate running around, too? He decides to wisely not bring any of this up to McGucket. "It's all been pretty harmless though, as far as I heard."

If McGucket takes a moment to become pantsed, Dipper will discretely pull out his omni to uh. Check something. Sure. That's what he's doing.

Well he sure isn't going to buy pants and not put them on. It helps that the arrival robes are more than long enough to allow him to do that without risking his decency.

"It was my own dang fault. I should've known they meant transformative literally." Serves him right for trusting strangers offering him food. Dumb of him, really. "I hope at least some of the food in this place is normal though or I'm liable to just not eat."

"There's definitely normal food in this place, promise. If not we probably wouldn't have survived here as long as we have."

He knows some nice places he can recommend, but Dipper honestly just eats at home most of the time. With Stan gone, he's been doing a lot more of the cooking than usual, too. Ford can cook ...edible food, but none of it is very good. Dipper picked up stress baking in a hellscape known as Deerington and it's suited him well into Trench.

He slides his omni back into his pocket.

"Hey, so, can I ask you something?"

That is one way Ford and Fiddleford differ. Being one of the older siblings in a fairly large family meant helping in the kitchen quite often. He can't cook anything all that fancy but he sure can cook, and more importantly, he can do it with not a whole lot to work with. He isn't thinking of eating out, is the point.

"Sure," he says as he buckles the belt and then adjusts the bag and banjo (they got a little skewed in the process). "Can't promise you I'll have an answer but I'll do my level best."

That will probably be very good for him! And also maybe the Pines, depending on how much Fiddleford is willing to let them pester him. With Stan gone, its down to Dipper and Ford as the one's allowed to use kitchen equipment. Ford only knows how to make incredibly bland, but very nutritious, weird science!meals. Dipper is a decent cook but he's also ...fourteen. Maybe they can convince Fiddleford to have mercy on their household and cook them some decent biscuits and gravy every so often.

"What do you remember last about back home? It was probably like, the 80's or something, right?"

That's an innocent enough question, but it will give Dipper an idea of what's up on McGucket's end without hopefully kicking a hornets nest.

Ah. Yeah, that's a reasonable question. Direct, easy to answer. When was it? The decade had just changed, disco was dead, it was summer because he remembers the sun and the muggy Oregon air. 80? 81? One of the two. It's not as bad as it will be, but after over two months of intensive Memory Gun usage his ability to put things on a timeline is questionable. Especially anything that happened recently. It's like it's all in a drawer someone slammed shut hard enough to mix it all up and every time he reaches in for something he has to grope around in the mess to find it.

Which is to say he looks at Dipper, mouth slightly open, gears audibly turning in his head, for way longer than such a simple question really requires.

"... Yes. Yes, it would've been '81. Near the end of summer? Maybe the start of fall?"

No, that's already too uncertain. Gives too much away.

"Sorry, I'm still a little, uh. Out of sorts from this whole..." He waves a hand lamely as though to indicate The Entire Trench Situation. That's all it is. He's off-kilter because he's had a long day and not because his brain is just like this now.

There are a lot of things that can be attributed to Fiddleford's slow answer. Crawling out of the ocean takes a lot out of you. He's seen people struggle with basic motor functions, speaking, and yes, even memories. When he first arrived here he remembered he'd lost an extremely specific and traumatizing memory, out of what he could only assume was his own subconscious trying save him. That Fiddleford is having trouble recalling specifics is not weird. It's expected.

Which makes is frustrating when Dipper is trying to gauge what state he might be in. It's been ...a long time since he saw that recording of his memories, and it had been a rapid fire collection of transitions as the man spiraled into insanity, but he did remember a few important identifiers: His accent and his word choice. That's all he really had to go by.

For now, it doesn't seem like he's in a lot of trouble. Dipper nods to his answer, and does not seem at all suspicious on the outside. After all, this is pretty normal! Dipper would just be keeping a close eye on him in case this continued beyond the initial few days.

"No worries, man. That's pretty normal for people when they first get here. A friend of mine had trouble remembering how to speak."

Hopefully they are all lucky and the memory gun is lost at sea somewhere.

Yeah! Haha, good thing that's totally what happened and he definitely doesn't have it tucked into his horrible eye bag at all and nobody has to worry about it and he definitely will not be using it anymore. Glad we all know that and feel good about it.

Ahem.

"That's what Stanford said, too, that it wasn't unusual for folks to have a hard time remembering how to have two legs or speak English." It hasn't been too bad for him, something for which he is eternally grateful, but he can very well believe it hits other people real hard. "I had trouble with the walking, the first time around."

He chooses not to explain that he didn't notice too much first because he spent a lot of his time freshly-formed out in the ocean so walking wasn't a concern, and then on his hands and knees digging around in the sand. Not relevant.

"I have to admit I don't like knowing I'm taking real well to being a squid with magic blood but I suppose I ought to be grateful."

Dipper pauses as his pocket goes off, and he pulls out his omni to take a look at it. His eyebrows go up, before he shoves it back in his pocket.

With an awkward cough, Dipper bounces on his heels in an incredibly unsubtle, hilariously awkward manner before speaking again. His voice kicks up in pitch a little. "So uh ...speaking of my Uncle."

He glances off to the side, rolling his wrist casually.

"On a scale of one-to-ten, how did running into him go? One being 'We're cool' and ten being 'Homocidal Pteradactyltron.'"

"Uh."

It's not that he doesn't have an answer, or that he's even surprised by the question. It's the casual reference to the Pterodactyltron that gives him pause. Is that... did Ford tell Dipper about that? Did he tell Dipper about that, in the future? Now on the other side of it he can see that, perhaps, a giant robot engineered only for destruction was not going to win Emma-May back even if it had felt very good and justified in the moment. He doesn't know if it was worth the damage, or the people he put in the hospital -- probably? He assumes he did. There was a lot of fire and rubble.

The point is he doesn't know how Dipper heard about it, but having it dropped so casually throws him a little off-kilter.

"Solid six?" Does he go into it with Ford's beloved nephew. Is that a thing he wants to do. Is it worth it. It's not like he's trying to keep it from Ford.

"Your uncle is... difficult. To be around. He's done some things I'm not too pleased with him about." There. That neatly sidesteps the issue of him not remembering, fully, what those things are. He just knows that Ford is bad news, that he left himself strict notes not to go back no matter how much his best friend might potentially need his help, and that must mean that Ford did something truly egregious. "I wouldn't say we're cool, exactly, at this point in time. But I'm willing to be civil."

Dipper nods. Alright. That is ...honestly the best he could hope for with Fiddleford's assumed point in time. He frowns a little, trying to think of how to navigate this knowing Ford is probably minutes away from them, depending on if he thinks to use the lamps rather than just running his way over here following the compass.

This is probably going to be a disaster no matter what, but he's gotta try and mitigate it somehow.

"No, I get it," He says, finally. "Some ...major stuff went down between you two and It's probably still really fresh on your end? Where Great Uncle Ford is thirty years removed from it."

He slides his hands into his pockets, scanning the crowd a bit before he looks back at him.

"Whatever ill will you have at him is pretty justified, so I'm not going to talk you out of that or anything. I will say, without giving up any future spoilers, which I think is probably a bad idea? That he's realized a bunch of his mistakes in that time."

A pause.

"But he's still, you know, Stanford Pines, so he's got a long way to go."

'Major stuff'. He wonders how much Dipper knows. What did Ford tell him? A future Fiddleford couldn't have done it, because presumably a future Fiddleford wouldn't remember any more than he does now. That would defeat the point. It occurs to him that Ford could have said anything he damn well pleased, could have spun it any way he wanted, and while Dipper doesn't seem to think his uncle is blameless he wonders exactly what story Dipper heard. He doesn't remember some key big things but he remembers all the little ones and he remembers the way Ford would brush them off. 'Realized his mistakes'. Sure. That doesn't sound like the Ford that Fiddleford knows.

"It's... fresh, yes. That's a good way of putting it. Do you -- did he tell you about it? I'm sorry, you have to understand it's a little odd talking to someone I've never met who knows so much about me."

It feels kind of like walking up a flight of stairs and missing a step, conversationally. The step is there, the conversation flows logically, but his foot just doesn't land right.

He does at least appreciate Dipper not telling him too much about his own future. Not that he's not blazingly curious, but it feels like inviting trouble. And it's not his future anyway when you get right down to it, because he's here now, and he's a squid, and he's never going back to Oregon either way. Which begs the question of whether the him in that timeline and the him he is now are even the same person and have the same trajectory of events to follow, but if he starts thinking too hard about that he's going to start either hamboning or tearing his hair out and neither would be a great thing to do in a crowd in public.

Edited (lost a word) 2022-05-04 09:15 (UTC)

Ah, his bracelet is blinking--

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1/2

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cw: memory issues, confusion

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there's that paranoia

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