A/N: I wrote 11k in 48 hours. Please be prepared to read this in several sittings or not move for an hour or two. I apologize for its length.
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Ao3
ff.net–>refuses to accept my copy and paste as non-coded text.
Enjoy!
Chapter 7: Lloyd Remnit is the Victim
of a Break and Enter and Subsequent Theft
It takes several days of
ever-heightening tensions to find Lloyd Remnit. In the interim, Torako shouts
at Dipper twice to quit hovering (she wants to shout more), Dipper stubbornly
refuses to answer any summons (the third time one comes through, he makes a
disgruntled expression and mumbles something about an answering machine,
whatever that is), and they have a harrowing experience at a Twin Souls
convention in South-Central Canada because of a thief. Torako might have
enjoyed Dipper’s shock and subsequent revulsion at a graphic Mizcor fanfic
reading in room D27, but she was a little busy. Not only was she trying to hunt
down the little shit that stole her phone and all the evidence on it, but her
period was also square on day two. Yes, she had a MagixTampon in. Yes, she had
extras. Also yes, stress fucked her period pain up to astronomical levels, and
the cramping was making everything ten times worse than usual.
Honestly, there were only a few
things that saved the convention from being razed to the ground between
Torako’s pain-enhanced irritation and Dipper’s Twin Souls related disgust. They
were that one, Torako managed to corner the thief between a rarepair merch
stall and somebody selling fanart just safe enough to be shown to the public
and just raunchy enough to make Dipper squirm, two, Dipper remained stubbornly
attached to her hip and was therefore unable to wreak havoc on the
convention-goers, and three, the thief apologized in a small, tremulous voice
before offering Torako all his money, please, just don’t hurt me I didn’t
realize you were this intense. Torako showed mercy. Torako only took half—and
she only took it because the thief had wasted
time that she could have spent finding
Bentley. Even half wasn’t an insignificant amount of cash.
In the end, however, Dipper managed
to find Lloyd Remnit’s residence, and they blipped just outside the walls
before continuing on.
“I still think you should have taken
all that dude’s cash,” Dipper said in a (recently) rare display of emotion
beyond guilt, protectiveness, or rage. His footsteps were purposefully heavy as
they walked up the long gravel drive to Windfall Manor proper. There hadn’t
even been a gate, but even with Dipper running interference the hum of the
wards they passed through had set Torako’s teeth to vibrating. Rich people,
Torako thought.
“Does this guy even need this much
land? This much grass?” Torako said
instead of answering Dipper’s question. It was moot point anyways. Torako
looked out at the wide, hilly lawn surrounding them, exquisitely cultivated
ornamental gardens dotting the landscape here and there. She hadn’t seen so
much useless grass in one place in her life. The gardens didn’t even look like
they had any fruit- or vegetable-bearing plants in them. It was, quite frankly,
insane.
Dipper did his shrug thing. “Grass
was pretty normal a millennia or so ago.”
“Weird,” Torako mumbled. She stared
at a bush shaped like a narwhal as they passed. She half-suspected that it
wasn’t even real. “This is a really weird dude.”
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