Video | un: Alcaid

[ghostharasser]

[The feed starts up, and people who have seen Dipper's ghost banishment post might recognize the backdrop of a messy bedroom and a desk full of books, notes, and dubious magic supplies.]

[It's the same serious looking 14-year-old from the last post, and it looks like he's about to address the network at large with something important-]

Okay, Trench, we need to talk.

[Only that is not the voice that usually comes from Dipper. The differences are now probably a little more apparent. Dipper's hair is up in a messy bun with several pens and pencils sticking out of it. She reaches up to grab one and it does not disturb her hair in the slightest. (How many are actually in there????). Dipper is definitely a girl suddenly, and does not seem to be bringing any attention to it.]

We've had some pretty big incidents over the past few weeks and they need to be addressed. I think it's safe to say that Corruption, with a capital "C", and Beasthood, similarly capitalized, have indisputable correlation.

[Dipper reaches up to scratch at something under her jaw and peels away ...a bit of flaking skin. She makes a face flicks it away. Bleh.]

And if we don't keep a closer eye on it, then we're not going to see an end to watching friends turn into monsters and having to put them down.

We need to brainstorm ideas for battling Corruption, and fast.

Comments

Video | un: Alcaid

[ghostharasser]

[Different? Who's different? This is the Mako she has always know, obviously. It's everyone else who's being weird about it!!!]

Yeah, the mushrooms were great quick fixes, but relying on something consumable... I think we need to have multiple options.

[Dipper peers curiously into the feed.]

What's your theory?

[arclightning]

[ Dipper gets it, it is absolutely everyone else being weird and they are clearly the normal ones here, end of story. Mako is mostly just relieved not to be having the same conversation she's been having for days now. This is the important stuff: corruption, beasthood, fixing it with a too-smart kid.

Her cheeks are, however, a little flushed. ]

Uh. It sounds...

[ Mako groans, huffs, makes herself focus and look up. ]

I didn't turn into a beast, but I got pretty badly corrupted last month, and it took me a while to realize it.

[ It'll take her a second to get to the meat of this story, because it's a pretty intimate thing. Worth telling, but Mako has to work to pull out the words. ]

Don't know much farther I could have gone, but one night I... barely remember, honestly. Was trying to recreate a recipe of my mom's, couldn't think about anything else, guess I caught on fire or something. Wu ended up pulling me back. Proves that it can be fixed without mushrooms or anything like that, I think.

[ghostharasser]

[Dipper very politely listens, because she can tell this is something Mako is having a hard time recounting. It makes sense. This sort of stuff, it's weirdly intimate all around. These vulnerabilities that drive them to become monsters, they're very personal at the heart.]

Being single-mindedly focused on something to the point that every thing around falls away- yeah that. Sounds familiar.

[Dipper frowns, looking a little contrite.]

That was where I was going, honestly. I got wrapped up in doing something so badly that I didn't talk to anyone and focused so hard on the task and then, because I wasn't thinking straight, I botched what I was doing and made a huge mess.

[Massive understatement.]

It's scary because it can happen without you even knowing, and it takes someone else to catch you. If they don't...

[arclightning]

[ Mako winces. It's hard to hear someone tell your own story back to you. It lays bare the things she should have seen, the warning signs missed, the very literal smoke signals that had gone up around her which she had ignored in favor of chasing a half-remembered thing that it turned out she couldn't recreate anyway (and her own identity, and her sense of self and her sense of belonging: they're all wrapped up in ginger and tamarind and some unidentifiable scent from childhood).

And that grim ending is one that makes her nod, her eyes hard. ]

Then you become a danger to everyone around you. Yeah. Problem is, it happened like that for both of us, but the list of symptoms in all the books in the archives is... it's a lot. It could just be a normal bad day, or it could be the start of something bad. Hard to self-check, and if you're already heading down that path? You're unlikely to stop yourself.

First step could be a checklist, though. Signs to look for, a pact to look out for each other.