video;

[thecourier]

Red Queen said somethin' t' me a while ago.

[He starts the video like it's an afterthought, like stepping into the middle of a conversation that started a few minutes ago. It was a while, a few months in fact, but time does pass so strangely here and he's had other things on his mind.

Dan's sitting on a bench in the gym, after running himself to near-exhaustion not for the first time. It's a habit now, not necessarily a good one, almost like a kind of self-flagellation for one reason or another. He rubs the back of his wrist across his forehead and clears his throat.]

B'fore that chess game. [He thinks. Almost sure of that.] Tried t' get some info outta her 'bout how this place works. Didn't get much, but she did tell me, we only see 'two sides to this place'.

[His accent slips as he enunciates carefully, glancing away from the camera for a moment.]

May be more sides we don't see, an' there might be answers there. Been tryin' t' figure it out, but I ain't got a head on me for riddles an' she tells worse ones than the psyker kid at 188 Tradin' Post back home. Know some people here 've dug deeper into this shit than I ever did. What y' all thinkin'?

Comments

[thecourier]

A-- [A tesseract? Never mind. He doesn't need to know.]

It could be a damn paper bird fer all we know, yeah? Point a' fact, that wouldn't surprise me at all. Always knew this place weren't simple, but I'm thinkin' it's more complicated than I was givin' it credit.

[krmvgivv]

It probably is. [He frowns at the piece of paper, then crumbles it up.] The problem is, we can only see three dimensions. At least, I can only see three dimensions. Four if you count time. There might be people here who can see more.

[thecourier]

Three dimensions. [Dan isn't a scientist. He's barely educated at all, but he's done more than his fair share of reading since his literacy skills improved. Enough that he doesn't have to ask any embarrassing questions.]

Okay, so we see like regular people. Who here d'y' think's a likely candidate for not?

[krmvgivv]

Hm.

[He taps his forehead with a pencil thoughtfully.]

I can think of a few people who are gone, so that's not really helpful. Especially since one of them I'd never, ever make a deal with again. Maybe some of the magic users? Like Regina, or the unicorns, except asking them for help is pretty questionable too.

[thecourier]

Yeah? What makes y' say so?

[Regina he gets, actually, more so than the unicorns. He'd like to hear Dipper's take on their resident magic users, though.]

Magic ain't a thing where I come from, and I ain't too clued up on how it works fer the people here.

[krmvgivv]

Well, Starlight made me and my sister almost die of old age over the course of a day. So I kind of don't trust her as far as I can throw her. Sunburst's okay, but way less magically powerful. Super smart, though!

[It's added almost defensively. Because smartness is its own power!]

[thecourier]

That's... yeah, that's fair. Guess I wouldn't trust someone what did that t' me neither. [Grimace. As far as weird things go, he's seen weird, but that's off the charts even for him.]

Reckon bein' smart can be better than bein' powerful, though.

[Preaching to the choir, kid.]

[krmvgivv]

[His entire face lights up. He loves when adults agree with him on that.]

Right? I know you need brawn sometimes, but it's nothing if you can't employ it strategically.

[thecourier]

Mm. Always preferred talkin' things out b'fore I start throwin' punches. Works out well fer me most a' the time.

[Sometimes it ends up in him nearly getting himself killed, but it usually works out in the end.]

Ain't gonna say I got too many brains, but 'm good at workin' out what people want.