Dipper shoves down an information kiosk with his teke to help bar the door and buy them some more time, but when she says that, he looks like a cat that had someone stand on its tail. He suddenly looks like he's going to rattle out of his own skin.
He knows she doesn't blame him for it, so it's not that. It's more like an internal scream rings inside his head, "YES, YOU COULD HAVE, THE TIME TRAPPER SHOULD HAVE," that he has to hold in -- that he's been holding in, for quite some time now.
So much of what's happened has been good. He's made friends his own age without nearly as much difficulty as in the past -- and without needing Mabel as social glue for once (even though he definitely wouldn't have minded her help). He's found mentors that've taught him cool things -- cool, adult, dork mentors even! (There is a light at the end of the awkward nerd tunnel!) He's solved some mysteries, helped save a whole lot of people, done the kinds of things that he hoped to do as Ford's apprentice.
But then there was the yellow ring. Initiation. "Conditioning." The fight with Hiccup and Hal. The telepathic treatments. The crazy drawings on his Medbay walls that he used to sort out his mixed up mind.
And he knows it all would've never happened if she'd been there. There's no way she'd have tolerated him holding onto that yellow ring long enough to get captured, and even if he'd been captured and brainwashed anyway, all it would've taken was her telling him to knock it off and he would have. Just like that.
Even without her being there, it hadn't mattered.
"You did help," he says enigmatically. And then he uses his 'I am totally not telling you something and I'm hoping you won't notice because I'm focusing on something important' voice. "Mabel, let's just focus on not getting eaten by a dinosaur right now, okay?"
His whole brainwashing escapade -- and what broke him out of it -- isn't something he wants to get into until they actually have a moment to breathe.
Mostly because she already has that betrayed look now, and he's almost afraid to see the expression on her face when he tells her that someone actually managed to make him forget she existed, even if only for a little while.
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He knows she doesn't blame him for it, so it's not that. It's more like an internal scream rings inside his head, "YES, YOU COULD HAVE, THE TIME TRAPPER SHOULD HAVE," that he has to hold in -- that he's been holding in, for quite some time now.
So much of what's happened has been good. He's made friends his own age without nearly as much difficulty as in the past -- and without needing Mabel as social glue for once (even though he definitely wouldn't have minded her help). He's found mentors that've taught him cool things -- cool, adult, dork mentors even! (There is a light at the end of the awkward nerd tunnel!) He's solved some mysteries, helped save a whole lot of people, done the kinds of things that he hoped to do as Ford's apprentice.
But then there was the yellow ring. Initiation. "Conditioning." The fight with Hiccup and Hal. The telepathic treatments. The crazy drawings on his Medbay walls that he used to sort out his mixed up mind.
And he knows it all would've never happened if she'd been there. There's no way she'd have tolerated him holding onto that yellow ring long enough to get captured, and even if he'd been captured and brainwashed anyway, all it would've taken was her telling him to knock it off and he would have. Just like that.
Even without her being there, it hadn't mattered.
"You did help," he says enigmatically. And then he uses his 'I am totally not telling you something and I'm hoping you won't notice because I'm focusing on something important' voice. "Mabel, let's just focus on not getting eaten by a dinosaur right now, okay?"
His whole brainwashing escapade -- and what broke him out of it -- isn't something he wants to get into until they actually have a moment to breathe.
Mostly because she already has that betrayed look now, and he's almost afraid to see the expression on her face when he tells her that someone actually managed to make him forget she existed, even if only for a little while.