justoscar | Inbox for Deer Country

Beaches have good ambient noise for focusing on incantations.

[One day someone will tell Dipper he's a witch.]

[Anyway, Dipper balks at that answer.]

You heard me calling? I don't remember... [He has to think back, even if its extremely unpleasant, and as he does the sky grows just a little darker. He remembers the room, and he remembers screaming, but then-]

Did we ...do a weird mind-link thing again?

Maaaaay-be??

[Oscar shrugged-- any answer was good, because he had no idea.]

One of the people from Remnant, someone I didn't meet until I got here, explained that his telepathy works best when he's formed a Bond with someone. I wonder... is it something like that?

[Regardless of the legitimacy of their blood pact, given their lack of ritual and incantation, there was no doubt that they shared a distinct bond. Oscar reached out as the sky grew a little darker, knowing full well that their bond would help Dipper not get lost once more.

They had their families, and they had each other.

In a town where they didn't know anything? This was pretty good.]

[It was good, and this time, Dipper reaches back, taking Oscars hands. It's grounding, and the sky settles. Dipper takes a deep breath and nods, giving it some thought.]

...Yeah, maybe.

[And then Dipper holds Oscar's hands a little tighter.]

This is weird, right? Suddenly being able to do something like this. It's almost like--

[He can't even say it. It feels way too weird.]

Almost... Like what you had to deal with, with Bill?

[Oscar squeezed those hands in his regarding Dipper with notable concern. The last time one of the Wizards from Remnant accidentally used a power similar to Bill's, it had ended catastrophically. As much as he understood he was treading in delicate territory, he didn't wish for that kind of outcome.]

[Luckily, (or maybe unluckily) Dipper did not come to that conclusion over Oscar, but rather himself. He's thinking back now, to what happened in the bedroom. The way the room felt like it attacked him. It was easy to think at first that it was maybe something the town had done.]

[It's easy to blame the town, like it had been easy to blame Deerington, but this was different. After all of it had settled Dipper knows the truth. It had come from him.]

[He'd done something to the room, and it had affected not just him, but his family, too. And here they were inside this dream that he was having.]

Yeah.

[He looks down at their hands for a moment, and then back up at him, concern and ...fear? In his eyes.]

Oscar, I did all this. Before I fell asleep- I walked into that room and it was like it attacked me. My memories came back, but it felt like I'd soaked in every nasty feeling associated with that room and it was like something burst out of me. Everything went crazy, like October came back.

Whatever it was, I did it and I somehow dragged my family into it with me.

[He's the one with Bill powers.]

Dipper-- you can't think like that.

[He shook those hands emphatically, squeezing tighter as he fought to make sense of his own frustration at Dipper's words.]

Leaving the dream did something to all of us, whether we broke our eggs or not! There was no way you could have guessed any of this would happen.

[He cast his gaze downward as well, at the bed of pine needles from the trees that towered endlessly above. The scent was like an autumn forest-- musky with the damp of the changing seasons and the promise of cooler weather to come.]

Maybe the same happened to our homes? I know that the Clockhouse has overgrowth like you wouldn't believe-- and I worry about the Tower.

[The one that got burnt out by a wraith-like image of Salem, which was impotent to all but direct contact with flesh and the ability to rend the environment with flame.]

Maybe... I dunno, maybe Julia or Cynthia did something. Maybe it's a remnant of how Julia's memories affected the dream.

Except, this time it's our memories affecting the world.

I-

[Oscar has a good point. These are all plausible theories. It could be that something in the house had reacted poorly to him, for some reason. He's still pretty sure his powers are at work here, which still feels weird to think. That whatever's changed their blood has given him weird abilities.]

[But regardless of any of that the fact remains that Dipper does not have enough data, not enough information. He can't know for sure what happened until he looks into it more. He settles down.]

Maybe. I guess it's still too soon to really tell what's going on here, huh?

[He frowns, something bothering him still. Small lingering worry pulls at the corner of his mouth and he glances away.]

But say ...hypothetically speaking, if it did turn out that I could do something like that. That I could do stuff like Bill ...what would you think?

I would think that we're more alike than we previously knew

[There was no hesitation in his reply, just earnestness and understanding. They truly didn't have enough data to make any judgements or conclusions about anything, but this was a fact that Oscar had already learned to live with.]

.... You do realize we haven't ruled out body hopping as something I could possibly do, right? I don't plan on testing that, but it's very possible. How would you feel if it is?

[That's the crazy thing about them standing in what is basically the manifested representation of Dipper's mind, when something illicits a strong reaction, it's felt all around them.]

[Of course the body hopping thing is something Dipper's thought about, but having Oscar say it like that, so openly, so bluntly, it forces him to come to terms with it. Yes, is probably really possible. He's inherited the same powers as Ozpin so who's to say he wouldn't one day wake up with Oscar in his head.]

[He's not proud of what happens next, but there's nothing he can do to prevent it. That's what really sucks about PTSD and unprocessed trauma. Sometimes something will just dredge it back up without your control, and Oscar bringing that to the forefront immediately summons a memory.]

[The forest flickers away, leaving a rustic attic. The light is red around around them, pouring in from a stain glass window. Bill's laughter fills the air and Oscar might feel the strangest sensation, like a sudden tear under his skin, a sundering of the physical and metaphysical.]

[It lasts for only a moment, before its gone. Dipper exhales shakily, and lets Oscar's hands go so that he can cradle his had as he pulls himself back together. The forest returns before Dipper shakes his head.]

It-... It doesn't matter what you can do. It's that I can trust what you'll do with it.

Edited 2021-09-30 03:52 (UTC)

[This close to the edges of Self, Oscar should have known better than to mention anything that rattling. The very world shifted to the scarlet nightmare for a moment before Dipper pulled away-- and Oscar felt empty in the pine forest where they stood.]

... I'm just one Pine tree, Dipper. I've had to learn how to be responsible with these powers because there was no choice. Everyone would leave if I wasn't.

But, you're one of many Pines. They'll help you learn how to use these powers right and still be there if you make a mistake. You're not alone. And ..

I trust you.

[Once Dipper is sure it's passed, he reaches out for Oscar's hands again. He's not willing to let Oscar isolate himself like that just because Dipper had a lapse.]

Oh no, don't you start on tree metaphors. You realize you're stuck with us whether you like it or not.

[He sighs, and then offers him a smile, tired and uncertain, but determined. A lot of things have happened tonight and its starting to wear on him.]

But I get it. Trust goes both ways and if I can trust you with your abilities, then that means I have to let you trust me, right?

[Allegory and metaphor were an unfortunate habit Oscar had gained from Ozpin. The man was unfortunately fond of story-- doubtless, Oscar's own love of books was one of the qualities which made him... a like-minded soul.

Oscar was pulled from his reverie by Dipper's hands and words, and he couldn't help but regard the other boy with momentary bewilderment. These were details that Oscar had taken as fact. Even if he had found a family within Deerington, a part of him always felt like an outsider.

It was why he didn't have many friends, even before he left the farm.

But he couldn't help but return Dipper's smile with a sheepish one of his own, for he was gladdened by Dipper's reassurances.

Surely that was a better Truth.]

You're right. About... everything.

[Oscar squeezed Dipper's hands. Though the days and nights had become long, with each date on the calendar bleeding into the next, he was willing to continue trying despite how weary he was.]

Thanks, Dipper. For trusting me... and now letting me trust you.

We'll work all of this out. Somehow.

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