028 - 4th wall

[tapestodiane]

[Suddenly, on a video feed near you for no reason whatsoever, a llama.]

[A llama with a crush on our special agent.]



[OTP.]

[Also, talk about deja vu.]


(As per usual, action absolutely anywhere, with or without llamas! GO WILD. I want all of you!)

Comments

[tapestodiane]

<sub>[It stirs in his mind that it could all be connected. Windom, the Little Man, his visions and BOB, and fire walk with me, but it's only a flicker of an idea that doesn't get much hold. Instead he thinks of Caroline.]

[Her and Windom had been happy, once. And Cooper couldn't save either of them.]

[It really hits him, right in that moment, when he sees it this close, that he's lost Windom too. He'd known that before, of course, but this is different. This is a confirmation that's another knife between his ribs. It hurts that much.]</sub>

Where did they take you?

[likediamond]

The Black Lodge.

[And they are Lodge Brothers, aren't they. And they will be again, someday, when poor Dale's self-sacrificing nature comes back to haunt him in the worst way.

His moves are as predictable as his chess, and this is why he never wins.]

I'll kill her, Dale.

[It's so simple, so easy, so devoid of theatrics. Deadly real, fatally reliable.]

[tapestodiane]

<sub>[And that's where he takes half a step back to reclaim the space that Windom had invaded those few minutes ago. He needs it to look at him. Needs it to think. He's mouthing an echo of the words, "The Black Lodge", and it makes sense.]

[It just does. It falls into place.]

[And it terrifies him. Because they are Lodge Brothers. The Soulless. He just doesn't know it consciously yet. But it's there; has always been.]

[And that's what makes Windom's worth so true, too. He's thoroughly lost to Cooper. Is probably lost to himself. But something else knows what it's doing, and it guides it all with a firm, steady hand.]</sub>

I can't let you.

_{[Even to his own ears, it sounds just a bit false.]}

[likediamond]

Then stop me.

[His laugh, when it comes, starts out faint and low and then burbles up from deep within his throat.]

It's your move.

[And he begins to back away, back into the concealing shadows of the trees, simultaneously daring Coop to hinder him and confident that he won't.]

[tapestodiane]

<sub>[He's right. He won't.]

[He swallows as he watches Windom go. He debates doing many things, but ultimately feels like he can't do any of them. And once Windom's gone and Coop starts moving away from the area, he feels it all come over him in waves of weakness and guilt and grief, but he doesn't let it stick, not yet, not now.]

[He's going to make a few warning calls.]</sub>

[likediamond]

[It's only after Windom has disappeared into the trees that the laughter starts.

Slow. Menacing.

Then louder, faster, more out of control. Wild, reckless, screaming hysterics that echo through the open air in a cacophony of sound.

It's almost enough — almost — to cover up the screech of the owl.

It descends fast, talons out, and then suddenly around Coop's head it's flapping and feathers and a flurry of commotion, lasting just long enough to bring the terror to a peak before it manages to shake free and careens off into the woods after its master.

Sweet dreams, Agent Cooper.

This owl is precisely what it seems.]