dcwnturn:
dcwnturn.
there is a lot that goes into keeping the mystery shack, and on the bad days that can be quite overwhelming. the bad days can find dipper hiding behind the counter, dreading the moment that someone walks in. the bad days can find dipper focusing entirely on stocking even when the store is at its busiest, and apologizing to mabel later for throwing them to the wolves. the bad days can find dipper calling out of his shift, even if all that means is texting mabel, who is already downstairs, and hoping that she doesn’t ask. but there are good days too, thank every god in the universe, every little being that dipper does not believe in. there are good days, and sometimes those good days lead dipper here.
the good days find dipper at the closest hardware store to the shop, using an extended lunch break to figure out how exactly he wants to go about fixing the shelf that has been falling apart for the past month and a half. the good days find dipper price checking different types of wood planks, the measurements he needs scribbled on a sheet of paper. the good days find dipper nearly running headfirst into someone who also found themself at the hardware store today. he laughs, awkward.
“thanks,” he says, ducking past so that he can look at the next step of his process: procuring the tools that he needs to make this work. if stan saw what he’s willing to put into this venture, he would lose his mind. now if only he can figure out what it is that he’s looking for…
the person who is hovering nearby at the endcap, likely completely engaged in whatever it is that they are looking for, seems to be comfortable here - like they know what they’re doing, what they’re looking for. he’s speaking before he can talk himself out of it.
“hey, sorry to bother you - i’m sure you don’t work here, and i should find a worker, but i haven’t seen a single person in uniform since i got here. would you happen to know anything about drills? i’m looking for something good for general, around the house type of work… there’s just a lot of options.”
she's seen this guy before. he works at one of the shops that she's gone to with her friends, something impractical that she wouldn't go to by herself, and she remembers the person behind the counter calling him brother dear. she only remembers the shop for just how odd it was. it looks like a tourist trap on two supporting columns if she remembers correctly, if this is even the right guy. going into places like that always makes her wanna get out her toolkit, call up the girlies just so they can fix something up all together like they used to, but she never does. people don't really take as kindly to a bunch of adults cleaning up their workspace as they used to when a gaggle of children would do it.
it doesn't make sense to her. children are so much more likely to fuck up the measuring of something, the weight distribution- why can't she still do what she did then? being a campaign organizer for the mayor isn't so bad, she even likes it some days, but it's not what she wants. non-profit stage and home building doesn't exactly pay the bills.
they keep their eyes on the prize even while wondering what brought the shack guy to come into the hardware store. she knows it could have been a lot of things- she's been in the shop, after all, and all she sees when looking at a place is what's wrong with it, because of course she does- but there's all kind of fix ups he could be doing in there.
it's the way that he apologizes for bothering her that makes her want to help him, really. so many people feel entitled to her time that she's hardly able to take any for herself, but it's nice to have someone ask.
"it's no problem," she says, because she might as well help someone if she's gonna be out here. like she would help just anyone who asked. she picks up a set she would never purchase for herself, but only because she already owns every single bit in it. "this is a six piece bit set, and it covers just about anything you would find in a basic home. if you need to drill into metal, that's a whole different bitch, but this is good for wood. hey, unintentional rhyme. nice."
