OTHER MOTHER [modplot]

[letsgolegion]

Who| Dipper, Dave, Ken, and Casey
What| "Other Mother" plot
Where| On Legion World
When| Roughly around the same time as "To Have and To Hold" and "Gods Among us"
Warnings/Notes| creepy stuff

Dipper hadn't noticed the doll. Why would he? Mabel had accumulated dozens of stuffed alien animals. So the doll had been there for days. It had sat and watched as the kids had talked, and mentioned all their "never have I evers." She'd watched through it, gathering ammunition.

It's still watching, the morning after the party.

Comments

Part 1

[captainbuzzkill]

Dipper doesn't see the doll even as he staggers into the bathroom. He needs to brush his teeth. Aside from the head ache and feelings of wooziness, his mouth tastes like furniture varnish.

It's only as he stands there in the doorway of the bathroom, brushing his teeth with a sonic toothbrush that he sees it, a little doll propped up against the doorway, facing the party outside. It's dressed like him. Which is...weird. Why would Mabel get a doll made to look like a tiny mini-him? That's weird even for her.

But his attention doesn't stay on it for long. Because of the door.

For a moment, Dipper just stares at it, still brushing his teeth. Then he goes back to the bathroom to spit and put his toothbrush away, because he's he's not letting creepy doors get in the way of oral hygiene.

Then he goes back to the door, shrouds himself in teke (just to be safe), and cautiously tugs it open, crouching to look inside.

He immediately closes it again and stands up. He calls out, in a voice that cracks and rises suddenly in pitch, "Uh. Guys?!"

Only a few of them crashed overnight. Those that did, that respond to his alarmed cry, will find him standing in front of a tiny door set into the wall of his room. It's right in the middle, between his bed and Mabel's old bed.

[jonesiseverywhere]

"Aw, do not yell, dude," says a voice from the other room, strained from the excess of the night before. Casey is horse and headache-y and he has only barely managed to stagger to his feet while rubbing his head with the back of his palm.

His eyes slowly swim into focus and then...huh, was that door always there? And why exactly was Dipper all powered-up? Something he probably needed to be ready for, which he might have been if he had his sticks with him and if his head wasn't stuffed with ten pounds of wool. He doesn't remember much from last night...

"Uh...did we lock something in there? And is it living?"

[turntex]

It takes Dave a good few minutes to roll out of the bundle of blankets he'd used as a bed the night before, a few minutes full of a lot of groaning and soft cursing. Eventually he's up, one blanket still draped around his shoulders and shades...somewhere. Normally finding those would be top priority, but Dipper sounds kinda frantic. He wanders up to join the others, red eyes squinting in the normal lighting, and it takes him a moment longer than it should have to notice the cause of their concern.

"...Okay, I know we were sort of collectively trashed last night, but..." Dave frowns and gestures vaguely at the little door. "That sure as hell wasn't here last night."

[stophamatime]

Ken's been using Koromaru as a pillow (and the dog, still sleeping peacefully, hasn't seemed a bit bothered by it). "Hey. Not too loud."

At least someone in this room can still get their sleep, right?

That door, though...

"I don't know if it's a...thing for you guys, but the last time I saw a randomly appearing door, it was bad news."

[captainbuzzkill]

Dipper opens the door to show them the completely random tunnel inside that leads to...somewhere else, and just stares at it for a moment.

"I don't know about you guys, but I don't trust that it leads to a land full of anthropomorphic animals and whimsy, and vague religious allegories, so I think we should tell the rest of the team about it, and see about just --" He waves vaguely at it "--getting the whole thing shut down."

He kicks the tiny door shut and goes over to the wall comm unit in his room, to talk to the others on the network.

[jonesiseverywhere]

Casey strained his eyes down the hole, trying to catch a glimpse down the tunnel, but then Dipper shut it in his face.

"Shut down? We don't even know what it is we're supposed to be shuttin' down in there!" He kneels to open the door again. "We should at least see where it leads. Y'know, so we can give the team a heads up."

[turntex]

Thankfully, Dave is there to take up the slack while Dipper sets up that post, slapping a hand on the closed door and giving Casey a look. Had his shades been on, it would have only read as a coolly raised eyebrow, but with his face bare for once it's all obvious exasperation and judgement. His poker face really isn't as great as the shades make it seem.

"Dude. In what stories has haphazardly crawling into a mysterious hole ever been a good idea?" He shakes his head and goes to join Dipper by the wall comm.

[stophamatime]

"Forget stories, it happens in real life too. I survived the monster-filled time loop in our dormitory basement, I can confirm."

Ken gets to his feet, a bit carefully so as not to disturb Koromaru, and heads over to the comm with the other two.

[captainbuzzkill]

After talking for a little bit with the others on the comm, Dipper turns slightly away from the wall panel but not far enough to look at the other boys.

"That hole leads somewhere, and it's probably another dimension or a dimensional bubble or something, and the last time the team wound up in another dimension, half the team wound up mutating into unspeakable horrors and tried to eat their friends."

He waves vaguely at Dave, but it's a vague wave of agreement.

"We're not haphazardly crawling into the hole. We don't even need stories to figure out going to some weird dimension is a bad idea. Dr. Ry'kerr basically stopped having days off after the last time it happened."

[jonesiseverywhere]

Casey was close to being a good boy for once and hanging back. He wanted to argue that climbing into the mysterious hole was the story. Nothing happens to those people, then they climb into the hole, and they have a rad adventure and things always work out.

But he doesn't know how to put that into words, exactly, and everyone's going to the com for backup. And that could have been cool, except that two people in a row just totally blanked immediately after finding out about the door, one of them being the Legion's super brain.

So it's an evil door, not really a surprise. And Casey's pals are too nervous to go through it. That's fine.

Casey's not.

So, alright, a little bit of caution might not be the worst idea in the world. So while the guys are messing with the communicator, Casey props the door open with a trashcan full of empties from the night before. Should be heavy enough to keep it from slamming shut behind him. He could pop out and pick up his sticks, but he probably doesn't need to. He's just going to see where it leads and then come back and tell the others. Shouldn't take long.

So he gets on all fours and climbs through the hole.

[turntex]

Meanwhile, over by the comm, Dave is frowning, brows knit together, and stepping aside so he can drop his head against the wall.

"Awesome. Surprise magic probably interdimensional door no one else can see or remember talking about." His voice is slightly muffled by the wall but the frustration carries on through just fine. "How the fuck are we supposed to deal with this shit when none of our sciencey people can do anything about it? Any of you guys hiding some secret spacey powers, maybe?"

[stophamatime]

"I wish. It'd be nice to just close this thing and be done with it." Ken frowns. Actually, if nobody who isn't here is seeing it...

He glances back over to where the dog is still curled up on the floor. "Hey, Koromaru!" Not that he's got spacey powers either, or the ability to tell them any bright ideas he has, but Ken does have to wonder if Koromaru can see it too.

[captainbuzzkill]

Dipper turns back to talk to the others and -- looks around the room.

Then angles his head and looks into his living room, at the trashed remains of the party. Then he looks at the door.

"Why's the magic door open? I didn't leave it open. And where's Casey?"

Dipper slams the wall comm off and shields himself in teke again, walking over and peering through the door.

"He went into the hole! Why would he go into the hole?! We were just talking about the many reasons to not haphazardly go into the hole!"

i assume we're skipping casey this round? lemme know if i'm wrong

[turntex]

Turning to properly take in the open door and Casey's disappearance, Dave groans in exasperation and crouches to hunt down his missing shades.

"Doesn't matter. If there's some mysterious magic hole to god knows where, there's always gonna be some asshole who goes for a peek inside. It's like an unwritten law of the universe. We coulda tied Casey to a chair or something and we'd still be stuck going in after someone else wandering in or the dog or some shit."

Ah, there they are. Apparently drunk Dave had decided to stash his shades under the bed to prevent anyone from knocking them around or stepping on them while stumbling around in their inevitable hangovers. Probably smart, really, but he's not in the mood to be all appreciate of past Dave's drunken genius right now. Dave slips the shades on and rolls his shoulders.

"Alright, no avoiding it," he says dryly. "Let's gear up and submit ourselves to the universe's love of godawful cliches."

[stophamatime]

Ken finally gives up on waking up Koromaru, who's still peacefully snoozing and barking a little bit in his sleep. He doesn't have the heart to ruin what sounds like a very nice dream that's probably full of chew toys and mailmen, or whatever it is that dogs dream about.

"Maybe we'll get the cliche where everything works out okay despite horrible odds, too."

He's well aware that life doesn't always work that way.

[jonesiseverywhere]

And from the depths of wherever the hole goes comes the shout. The kind of shout that the savvy among them will recognize as the prelude to every single long adventure, good and bad, that has ever happened or will ever happen.

Casey's voice rings through the door: "Guys, you gotta come see this!"

[captainbuzzkill]

It is the prelude to every adventure, including the terrible ones, so Dipper decides to forgo grabbing his uniform and changing in the bathroom, in case something bad suddenly happens. His clothes are fairly comfortable and sturdy.

So he just puts on his uniform boots, slaps his utility belts over his normal clothes, and pulls out his bugout/adventuring bag.

"This bookbag has enough supplies for all of us, in case we get cut off," he says as he shrugs it on.

Then he drops to his knees in front of the hole and starts crawling.

[turntex]

Well. That is Boy Scout-level preparedness.

"You just have that shit prepared in advance?" Dave asks, eyebrow arching up over the shades, but he grabs the sword he'd stowed in the corner the night before and following after Dipper. The t-shirt and boxers will have to do for now, because ironically, he doesn't actually sleep in the god pajamas.

[stophamatime]

"If only everyone in this group was that genre savvy," Ken says dryly as he ducks into the hole and starts bringing up the rear.