phenyxsnest:

Hank was, unfortunately, more used to waking from being knocked unconscious than he liked to be.

Which
meant he had plenty of practice at taking stock of his surroundings as
quickly as possible once he managed to wake up, without having to bother
with fuzzy stages between unconscious and awake.

He cracked open his eyes, glancing around and trying not to let on that he’d regained consciousness just yet.

Then
he felt something nudge the back of his head, and long association told
him it was a nightmare snout before he could panic. Sure that they
wouldn’t be simply nudging him if there was danger (since the nightmares
could be just as bad as Uncle Dipper when it came to being
overprotective), Hank opened his eyes properly and sat up.

That of
Teeth stepped back, giving him room as he took in his surroundings. If
Hank had to guess, he’d say he was back in the town square, but…the
platform was back, the cross the Alliance had tied Uncle Dipper to on it
still standing, though tilted and unsteady looking. He knew that thing
had been chopped up and burned down…hell, he had roasted marshmallows
over it! So why the hell was it standing again?

More than the
cross was different from before, he realized after staring at it for a
few more seconds. The platform was made of old, jagged wood, unlike the
smooth surface the Alliance had built, and the whole thing looked
unsteady and dangerous. The cross itself wasn’t the smooth thing he’d
seen, but just as jagged and painful looking as the rest of the
platform, and it gave Hank the shivers and made bile rise in his throat
to look at it.

Since this was at least partially his uncle’s
mindscape…Hank had a pretty good idea for why both platform and cross
looked like that.

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