Pythagorician Thoughts
Chapter III — Second Part
The Pine Tree Triangulation
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Aoshima growled enthusiastically, carrying on his back two enchanted children laughing in wonderment while flying over meadows of pink gummy lawn and polychrome unicorns, cities made of candy rocks where the stuffed animals waved at them in return, lakes with a choral of singing mermen, and other landscapes of multiple colorful and crazily joyful inhabitants. Dipper had reminded her that since she was dreaming, they could also have some fun as well: and while in the Dreamscape, he was technically not the only omnipotent one.
Actually, Mabel had been the most active in creating that world they were contemplating from above; the dream demon just smiled and jokingly hid some little tricks here and there, surprising her and making her laugh and call him stupid.
Mabel had proudly suggested to name it Mabeland. She was basically in her own brain and she was practically the only creator of this place after all. But Dipper had cringed at the sound of this name for some mysterious reason.
"I'm not sure that's really appropriate." he had shyly mumbled while looking away.
"What, you also want your name in the credits?" her sister obliviously teased.
"Hey, if I wasn't here in the first place…" He jokingly nudged her.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Watch out~!"
And Aoshima made a splendidly gracious back flip in order to dodge a random cotton candy cloud with fat little angels who saluted them with giggles, making Dipper jerk a short high-pitched scream in surprise.
"You didn't see that one coming, ha. Not that all-knowing, are you?"
"S-Shut up." he chuckled embarrassedly; though he seemed to be trying to laugh at it like any other prank, her sister felt that something was off.
"Ooh. Touchy subject~?" Mabel muttered sneakily, creepily approaching her smile full of braces.
"L-Let's just change the topic. How's William?"
He had suddenly burst out that question from nowhere in less than half a second, in a precipitously quite serious tone. Mabel was genuinely surprised, though amused. That was so much not Dipper and yet so much Dipper at the same time. Dipper often started acting voluntarily out of character when he was annoyed.
"Woah, whoa, whoa. So now you start caring about him?" She poked him jokingly.
"He's kinda close to you, right? Was just willing to hear a little about your favorite boy, that's all."
She felt hurt by that expression. Though he probably meant not to let any hint at it in his intonation, she felt that he… still was somehow upset over it.
Of course she would have thought about it. He still was her brother, she had been convinced of that hours ago already; how could she have believed that becoming a dream demon would change anything? If he hadn't changed at all, how could she have dared thinking that he would miraculously—
"I'm sorry."
She widened her eyes and turned her gaze towards him.
Did he just…?
"Yes, I did." He chuckled nervously. "I guess I really was paranoid this time. Sorry I got in your way the other day."
"That's… Dipper, that's alright. Let's just forget about that."
She felt like Mabeland was fading away. Was it because her mood was fading itself? But she tried to focus and regain her smile and soon glitter started snowing around them and flakes danced between crystal canyons and rainbow falls. Then penguins in costumes and bowties came and glided on the rocks. That would be a cold place, because the Word of Mabel had spoken. Speaking of cold…
Dipper took a piece of one random cotton candy cloud and put it on a cone before handing it to her with a collusive smile. She noticed then that it didn't look like cotton candy anymore.
"You wanted some ice cream?" he chuckled.
"Did you just read my mind?" she laughed jokingly. "What are you, a psychic—?"
She noticed her joke didn't make him laugh. Maybe mentioning Gideon was not a good idea? Come on, he knew how she felt about that child-psycho anyway, he wouldn't—
But then she remembered.
… Oh.
Yes, that also made sense.
"We're inside your mind. What were you expecting?" he retorted nervously while looking away. "Let's say I… somewhat hear all your thoughts. If that even makes sense in the first place… I don't actually hear them but— uh, I just don't know. T-That's kinda complicated."
"I… see." she mumbled. "B-But that's really cool isn't it? I mean, right?"
"If you can't turn it off, that's easily getting on your nerves." he laughed uneasily before pausing. "But that's the only way you can actually see me now I guess. By 'entering your mind' and… making you see me. I never realized how simple the mind was. You just make the right stimuli here and there and—"
He stopped and stared for a moment at her confused eyes.
"… Sorry. I lost you, didn't I." he muttered embarrassedly. He looked away before mumbling something that sounded like "That's why I don't really want to talk about that stuff. That's just creepy and overcomplicated. Too many dimensions."
She didn't know how to answer. She simply noticed that he was still holding the ice cream so she awkwardly took it and thanked him.
"B-But even without that… The look on your face was telling enough anyway. Look, I know you enough to recognize when you're hungry." he tried.
"I'm not hungry for real though. Am I?"
"Well, you haven't eaten for hours and you missed breakfast. Though I… kinda guess I can't do anything for that… But when you think about some food you like, you can still remember the flavor, right?"
She smiled shyly before staring at that ice cream that still wouldn't melt. They were in a cold place after all. She wasn't cold but that was because she didn't want to. But she wanted the air to be cold so the ice cream would not melt. That was just a question of logic. In a way.
She had looked back at her brother when he had muttered "Come on, give it a try." Then she licked it and it actually felt good.
Gummy koala. Of course he would know how to make that kind of absurdity actually possible. Now she had a new favorite ice cream flavor. One she would never get the chance to test for real but she didn't care.
It felt amazing. The food was fake, but the feeling was very real. The flavor, the texture, the cold— she could lick the prickly freezing yet soft cream and munch the warm and tasty cone and smell its cold sweet odor and feel the ice burn her throat…
"I'm sorry Mabel. I was wrong about him. He's… a nice guy."
She turned back towards him. Back to talking about William then?
Though she was relieved he had made up his mind. She couldn't take it anymore any other way… And now she knew the consequences. How weak she was.
"Never say that again." Dipper scolded gently.
She repressed a laugh.
The demon passed one arm around her shoulders and she leaned towards him. She still had her ice cream in her hands so she couldn't hug him.
"I never actually said it in the first place, you know?"
"Well, stop thinking it, then. You're the strongest person I know, Mabel. I mean, Bill doesn't count, right? He's not even human. I mean, he wasn't supposed to be or— w-well, you get the idea. He's supposedly strong because he doesn't care. He just has nobody he cares about but himself."
She would not argue with that. That was what she had always seen about that guy. Nothing but lies and tricks only to amuse him or get everyone to do what he wanted. Selfishness impersonated itself in one dumb three-sided geometrical form.
But Dipper cared about at least some people and she was glad to see that this had not changed at all.
"… And William cares about you." Mabel heard him mutter softly in her ear, the same way one shamefacedly admits how deadly wrong he has been. "I should have seen it before. I guess I was just blinded by all those crazy theories and conspiracies and— I mean, not like your previous summer romances were successful and harmless…"
"And you were just jealous?" she giggled wistfully.
"… And I was kinda jealous." he admitted while rolling his eyes. "I mean, you've got so many friends during that summer. Guess I just didn't wanna be left behind…"
Mabel completed his sentence, without really thinking:
"And then you got all stupid."
"We both got 'all stupid', Dum-Dum." He nudged her gently in the arm.
"Pff, yeah, alright." she said teasingly while innocently faking to look away.
She paused. Sighed. And mumbled gloomily:
"I want you back, Dipper."
"I know."
But he was not even looking at her.
Her look saddened in realization. Or was it in resignation? She felt like she always kind of knew after all.
"You're not coming back are you?" she muttered blankly.
"I can't."
"Of course you can. There has to be a way back. Right?"
But he had closed his eyes and sighed.
"B-But," she tried hopefully, "with all your crazy powers and everything there must be something to do! I mean, isn't there? I'm sure there is, there might even be something about it in the journal and—"
"Mabel, don't you think that if there were a way, Bill would have already managed to do it himself?"
"Bill doesn't know everything, Dipper— I mean, right?"
"Mabel—"
"I'm sure there is something he wasn't aware of and then we'll get you back and everything will be back to normal and—"
"Mabel."
Silence.
She raised slowly her eyes towards his, afraid of what he was about to say. Though she was certain she already kind of knew.
She finally noticed that Aoshima was gone, and so was everything else. They were back in that creepy empty black-and-white silent forest. But she didn't care anymore.
Dipper sighed deeply and looked at her with two resigned pupils.
"Don't you think I've already thought it through all day?"
She raised an arm to object, but she could not speak. What could she retort to that?
"I'm sorry. But… Trust me. That's the safest option." He paused for a short second, then smiled sadly at her. "Have a good day, Mabel."
It took her less than a second to realize what he exactly meant by 'Have a good day', but when she did it was already too late.
"No, wait, Dipper—!"
It felt like some invisible flood had suddenly surrounded her and was irremediably taking her away from him. He had turned his look towards her one last time, waving weakly at her before slowly fading away.
It was cold and strong. It was everywhere invading her mouth as she was trying to call out for him again. She could not breathe. She wanted to scream but her lungs were suffocating.
She jumped as she sat up and coughed in a rushed panic.
The first thing she noticed was the fact that she was back in her bedroom.
The second one was the fact that she was wet. Cold, and soaking wet.
The third one was Bill glaring at her, holding a half-empty basin.
"What the heck?!" she blurted out in an angry and panicked voice. "What was that for?!"
"Waking you up."
"I didn't need your help. Especially not that way, you creep."
"It's past midday."
"We're on vacation. I can sleep for as long as I want to."
"Not if he's here. He's dangerous."
Silence. She narrowed her eyes.
"He's Dipper. You're paranoid."
Bill rolled his eyes skeptically.
"Dipper told me you'd try to turn me against him anyway." she muttered while crossing her arms, annoyed.
"He's trying to turn you against me."
"The point is I already am against you."
"That's why he wants to make sure you don't change your mind. You're the only one besides us two to be aware of the situation, so of course he wants to be sure you won't get in his way."
"He came because he actually cares about me, you see. Unlike you. Because you only care about yourself."
The former demon couldn't help but burst out laughing in a mysterious and deeply macabre way.
"That's what you think! But believe me. He's just playing with your feelings. And the day you won't be a threat anymore to him, you'll see how much it hurts."
Mabel wanted to retort, but she never got time to.
Noisy and frightened footsteps resonated in the attic before running to her bedroom. Then some random enraged redhead banged the door open and rushed towards Bill before lifting him up one or two feet above the ground by pulling his collar, making him drop the basin in the process.
"Okay, now you tell me what the heck is going on. Who are you and what have you done to the real Dipper?!"
"Woah Wendy, calm down!" Mabel instinctively shouted while jumping off her bed and waving at her in panic.
The elder relaxed a bit while turning her look towards her and unclenched a little her fist, but she kept it up and close to the boy's face, ready to hit whenever necessary. She was about to tell her little friend about the origin of such violent (yet perfectly justified) suspicions, but she was interrupted even before she could open her mouth by some annoying snigger coming from her very hostage; though he was facing Mabel, now.
"Ha. So now you're taking my defense Shooting Star?" the former demon grinned. "How ironic. Should I remind you what you'd almost done yesterday?"
'Shooting Star' narrowed her eyes and lowered her head a bit in contempt.
"Actually I take that back. Wendy, go nuts."
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~ Reviews & feedbacks ~
That chapter took way longer than expected to write. At least it's more than twice as long as usual, but still...
And yes, the reference to Mabeland was intended and sarcastically hilarious. To me at least. To you it might turn on some alarms that something is going on. Or not. I'm not gonna tell you whether it was just a troll or not. I'm such a jerk, yeah. And I love it 8D
It's not the first time we hear about that so-called boyfriend Mabel would have, and now we finally got to get his name... Yet why would I maintain that I'm not pairing anybody, and especially not the twins, if no sooner than just the next chapter I introduce what appears to be one? Stay tuned!
And before you ask, yes, picking the name 'William' was intentional (you know what "irony" is, right?), and yes he's an OC. I'd be glad to answer any of your other questions, but I'm afraid that would turn out to be what we commonly call "spoilers." So that's all you're gonna get for now.
You might as well have noticed, but I did make up my own explanations over dream demon magic and some other stuff. We already got some hints here and there and we will get further details in the next chapters (especially in the next one), but I never intended to expand explanations all over the fiction, so that's gonna be it; I will only say that I was inspired mostly by Bill's AMA, and that "Edwin Abbott Abbott has a decent idea." Also, quantum physics are cool. Seriously.
Now back to the reviews:
⁂ WyldeHeart : Thank you so much! That's indeed what I intended to do, so I'm glad it worked ^^ Notice by the way that I hate happy ends. I also hate stories that end badly because I feel like I'm being betrayed (what? For chapters and chapters I see the characters I love being tortured and struggling to save the world or whatever and then they just die for no reason except for "ZE FEELZ"? I know some people like those stories, but I personally don't get the point of it since we just basically see our favorites characters... suffer for, basically, no reason whatsoever?). So whatever happens, there will never be in my stories a complete and perfect happy end, though it generally ends well. Or "relatively" well... But I'm getting a little ahead of myself, heh.
Anyways, I hope this chapter respected your expectations ^^'
⁂ Ilya39 : Don't worry, I'm not mad at them, I simply wanted to make things clear once and for all (even before anyone makes any comment about it, that's even safer). You want some Wendip? Well, that's a shame the first meeting between Dipper and Wendy was made offscreen. Maybe some others are coming though? Maybe not? Heh, anything's possible. Dream demons are so unpredictable ;D
⁂ Rose Verdict : Don't worry, I can assure you he's genuinely honestly sincere. Except if he's hiding something big from everybody, of course. Is he though? Well, one thing's clear, it's that either Bill or Dipper is right, and some characters will have to make a choice at some point. Or change their mind once, twice, many times. Some people think our mind's logic concept is based on the same phenomenons as quantum physics, so there are so many possibilities. But still two main opposite sides that can't possibly be right at the same time.
... Unless they're all wrong?
