Chapter Text
Noie was surprisingly awake for the first class of the day. That didn’t mean she was listening; she sat still, she stared at the teacher, and she was absolutely lost in her thoughts.
A tap on her shoulder made her jump.
“Noie?” Dipper drew his hand back. “Oh, didn’t mean to scare you.”
“What? No, no, you didn’t scare me, silly.” She poked his nose. “Boop. Whaddaya want?”
“You know the big knight thing in front of the gates this morning? I went on Gran’s email and I found this.”
He passed his phone over to her and sat back, rubbing his forehead. Noie raised an eyebrow at him.
“You okay?”
“Oh, yeah. I’ll be fine.” Dipper rolled his eyes. “Just another one of those headaches that came from nowhere. Read the thing.”
Came from nowhere. Noie gave him a tight-lipped smile before turning to the phone.
It was currently on an email page, of course. There were a couple messages from the gym, one from the ‘Argenta Grant Foundation’, but the only one that was opened was from the school, and it was titled, ‘IMPORTANT UPDATE RE: VAMPIRE ATTACK ON CAMPUS’
Noie tapped it once, and read its contents.
Dear parents and guardians,
We are writing to inform you of an update to the police investigation concerning the vampire attack that occurred on campus Saturday the 21st. An angel crusader has joined with local authorities to assist in the capture of this perpetrator and will be stationed outside school gates until further notice. Pursuant to the 2027 Crusade Assistance Act, the school and the state authorities will be providing all reasonable accommodations to assist the angel in His mission and to ensure the safety of students.
Please note, this angel poses NO THREAT to students on campus. He is prohibited from interacting with students or exercising force without police approval. Students belonging to supernatural populations should be advised to exercise caution, but to repeat this angel poses NO THREAT and is only here to find and apprehend the perpetrator.
For any further questions about the angel crusader, please contact the front office. Thank you for your patience.
Noie frowned. “Angel crusader? Is that a band name?”
“I was just looking that up.” Dipper took his phone back. “Apparently, it’s a term for angels that come down to Earth for a specific purpose. Like, defeat this guy, or hunt down that vampire. Stuff like that.”
“What’re angels, though? Are they like,” she mimed opening a book. “angel, angels?”
“Biblical ones?” Dipper shrugged. “I mean, probably not, right? Demons aren’t – they’re just manifestations of chaos, and angels are the opposite of that, so-“
“Manifi-who-ha?”
“Manifestations.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “You don’t know what that means?”
Noie giggled. “Nah, I do, I do. I’m just teasing ya, you big-word-using nerd.”
“Oh, of course. You jerk.”
“You nerd.”
He rolled his eyes at that, but Noie could see the smile in them. She turned away from him, back to the teacher at the front, her own grin rapidly fading.
Beneath the desk, she took out her own phone. She typed in ‘angel crusader demon’, pressed search, and went down a rabbithole for the rest of class.
“Hey, look at that. It’s the weird girl who ate my homework.”
Noie smirked at the guy in Dipper’s group. “Hey, look at that. It’s the lazy asshole who can’t get his homework done on time. I can call people names too.”
His expression soured. “What is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with you? You can dish it out but you can’t take it?"
She chuckled, but there was a nudge on her shoulder. Dipper was giving her a look.
“What?” Noie frowned. “He totally started it this time. And for the record, he mostly started it last time too so-”
“Noie…”
“Alright, alright, I’ll get outta your hair.” She backed off, shooting the table one last grin. “Well, I’d love to stay and chat with my favourite mean girls, but I got my own project to do. Seeya.”
With that, she turned on her heel and trotted back to the other side of the classroom. Her partner, Katy, glanced up from her phone as she came over.
“Hey,” Katy said. “You were doing the poster, right.”
“Yeah, I did it already.”
“Oh. Cool. Thanks.”
She looked down again, and Noie rolled her eyes. “Nooo problem. Alright.
She got out her own phone. After typing in her password, the first thing to come up was an article on demons and angels she’d been reading – an unpleasant surprise. She found herself reading it over again.
There are no two beings in the universe, the article read, as diametrically opposed as the angel and the demon. Angels are the lovers – and, oftentimes, the enforcers – of order, and dislike the imperfections of the physical world. They want for nothing and cannot be summoned with offerings, but will occasionally visit to right a perceived injustice in the world. Demons, on the other hand, crave chaos, and enjoy sowing as much of it as possible. They take every chance to visit the physical world and welcome being summoned.
Demons and angels reside in very different areas of the Mindscape and rarely encounter one another. When they do, the results are deadly. The two beings will become incredibly agitated and attempt to annihilate each another.
Noie snorted. ‘Annihalate’, that sounded so dramatic. Ooo, annihilate, scary big word! Sounded like something her brother would use, the big nerd. Hah!
Yeah…
She looked over at Dipper now. He was facing away from her, hunched over a sheet of paper with his head resting on the palm of his hand. Noie watched him write for a while, watched the back of his pen quiver in the air, watched his hand twitch up and itch his nose for a second before returning to its normal position.
Normal. All so normal. She snorted, a little at herself, a little at the absurdity of the entire situation. He wasn’t possessed, for god’s sakes – just look at him!
(Remember this morning. Remember his eyes?)
Noie frowned. Stared down at her phone, with the dumb nerdy article half scrolled through. She closed it.
This whole thing was ridiculous, and she was ridiculous for starting to buy into it.
Thump.
“Oh, dude! Dude, are you okay?”
Noie’s head shot up, and she saw
on the floor
curled up
holding his head
Dipper. Dipper.
Her heart stopped. She dashed over.
“Dipper?” Noie knelt over him. She touched his cheek. “You okay, bro? What’s wrong?”
He let out a low moan.
“Is your head okay? What happened?” She locked eyes with the rune guy and hissed, “What did you do?!”
The guy put his hands up. “I didn’t do anything! I wasn’t even working on runes this time, he just dropped!”
“What’s going on?” The teacher pushed through a gathering crowd. “What happened?”
Noie pulled him onto her lap. “Dipper gets magic sensitivity headaches. There has to be something in the room.”
“Alright, any students with a magi-orb or anything like that, turn them off right now!”
A couple people went for their bags, but it didn’t seem to do anything. The pit in Noie’s stomach deepened as she felt him clutching at her hoodie, moaning in that quiet, desperate, awful voice – just like when he had that nightmare about the vampire. She could hold him, but she couldn’t stop it; the sense of helplessness stabbed at her like a thousand needles.
What the hell was going on?
The teacher knelt beside them. “Does he need to go to the nurse?”
Noie nodded.
“Okay.” He threw one of Dipper’s arms around his neck. “Help him up. Everyone else, please behave while I’m gone.”
Dimly, she picked up his other side and helped him up to his feet. They carried him out to the hallway and across the campus, and all she could think was this happened so fast.
They passed by the front office; not far in the distance were the main gates. Noie caught sight of a glowing figure standing guard by them.
She had no way of telling, but somehow she knew it was staring at them. Staring at him. She felt its gaze like a cold wind on her soul, and she shivered.
“Nearly there,” her teacher grunted. “Dipper? How’re you doing?”
He didn’t say anything. And Noie had no way of telling, but somehow she knew
she knew
exactly whose fault it was.
The angel watched them pass, still as a statue.
“I promise you, I am fine. Noie. Noie.”
“Just one more blanket.” She unfurled it. “Look! It’s such a pretty colour!”
“It’s hot pink.”
“I know, right?!”
“Why don’t you drink your lemsip already, Dipper?” Their grandfather crossed his arms. “That’ll make you feel better.”
“I don’t even have a headache anymore. It’s completely gone.”
“You have a headache?”
“I had a headache, grandma. It’s not- Noie I don’t need that blanket I’m already sweating.”
"Then drink your lemsip. It fixes everything, kid.”
“What about this blanket?”
“Oh, if you have a headache, you should drink some lem, some drink. Ask David for it.”
“Dipper, what about-“
“Alright, alright!” Dipper chugged the cup of lemsip, threw another blanket over his chest, and glared at the three of them. “Can you guys chill out now? Please? I don’t even have a headache anymore – I’m fine.”
A short, stunned silence, broken by a chuckle. Noie looked over at her grinning grandfather.
“You need a break, kid?”
Dipper nodded.
“Alright, why don’t you get some rest? I’ll check on you in an hour.”
“Sounds good.” He settled back against the pillows. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. Holler if you need anything. C’mon, guys.”
David took Allie’s hand and started leading her out, but Noie didn’t follow. She watched them start to leave, then leaned in close.
“Dipper-“
“That means you too, Naomi!”
Noie glanced back at her grandfather. “Huh?”
“We’re all leaving your brother alone, okay?”
“But-“
“Come on.”
“It’s okay, Noie.” Her brother gave her a tired smile. “I’m fine.”
“No, but… I need to tell you something.”
“Right now?”
“Well, yeah. It’s not urgent urgent, but… yeah.”
He rubbed his eyes. “Can it wait?”
“Looks like it can.” David put a hand on her shoulder. “Come along now, kid.”
He led her into the hallway, and closed the door behind them. Noie frowned at that.
“How long are we leaving him alone again?”
“Just an hour. But you’d better not try and wake him up if he’s sleeping.” David sighed. “Kid needs it with the week he’s been having.”
Noie looked down. After a moment, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Hey, you done with homework?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.”
David raised an eyebrow. “All of it?”
“Yes, Grandpa. All of it.” A pause. “Due tomorrow.”
“…Eh, good enough. You wanna throw on a movie or something in the back?” He shrugged. “Might help take your mind off all this.”
Noie nodded. “That sounds nice. Yeah, that does.” She began to smirk. “So when you say ‘throw on a movie-“
“I mean a movie from the bookshelf. If it’s some weird new show of yours I’m leaving.”
“Aww.”
“David,” Allie nudged him. “Don’t be such a grump, dear.”
“Yeah! Listen to Grandma, you big ol’ grump!”
His lip quirked up. “All I’m saying is, I’ll watch anything from the shelf. You wanna put something else on, it’s gonna be a gamble.”
“I will take that gamble! Have you ever heard of ‘The Rainbow Adventures of-“
“Okay, no. Something from the shelf.”
“But-“
“I am not watching ‘rainbow’ anything. Something from the shelf please, Naomi.”
He crossed his arms, and Noie heaved a sigh.
“Ugh, fiiine.”
“And drop the attitude, too. Thank you.”
There were ten movies on the bookshelf, and Noie was certain she’d picked the worst one. ‘Legend of the Shadow’ was an old, old horror movie. It’d caught her eye because it was one of the films her grandfather didn’t let her choose when she was younger; now, she was starting to regret her curiosity.
It wasn’t because it was scary; it looked like it was from pre-Transcendence times, with goopy blood effects and a hilariously dated skepticism of supernatural creatures (‘Vampires? Don’t have a cow, Brad! Those don’t exist.’) In fact, it was so corny her grandfather seemed to be watching it as a comedy – she could hear him chucking away beside her – but at that moment, Noie didn't find it funny. She couldn't.
At that moment, all Noie could see was a demon-possessed, shadowy figure stalking through the forest. He came upon the main character, and all she could hear was the screaming.
‘No, no, Brad, it’s me! It’s your sister! Brad, no, no no nooooo!”
Firetruck red blood splattered all over Brad’s face. Beside her, David let out a snort.
“I love this piece of garbage.” He sat back. “My father thought it sucked too. This bit coming up – watch, this was his favourite.”
Noie watched. She watched the camera shove itself right into Brad’s face, right up against one inky black eye. A blink, then it was back to a normal brown. With excessively trembling hands, he wiped some blood-slime off his hands and stared at it, breathing hard. Then rather abruptly, he dropped to his knees and threw his arms up to the full moon.
“I’M A MOOOONNNSSSTTTEEERRRR!”
David cackled and slapped his knee – the sound made Noie jump. Allie cocked her head.
“David, are you sure this is appropriate for her?”
“Huh? Aww, she’s fine. She picked it out!” He shot her a grin. “How’re you liking it, kiddo?”
Noie tried for a smile. “It’s, uh, good! It’s weird… hey, if you like weird stuff, there’s tons of new-“
“Over my dead body am I watching Rainbow Adventure Sunshine whatever.”
“It’s actually ‘The Rainbow Adventures of Mr McStabberson’ and it’s hilarious. It’s about this serial killer-“
“Shhh.”
Noie blinked. Then she sat back in her seat and glared at her grandfather. The couch was lumpy, the air was stuffy. On the TV, melodramatic screams fell too loud on her ears.
“Can I check on Dipper yet?”
“Dipper?” Allie frowned. "Is he okay?”
“He’s just got a headache, Grandma. He’ll be okay.” She turned back to David. “Can I check on him?”
“What time is it… it’s barely been twenty minutes, kid. Hold your horses.”
Noie hesitated. Then she stood up.
“I’m going to check on him.”
"What?” David lookede up at her, surprise quickly turning to a hard frown. “Oh, no you will not. What did I just say?”
“What did I just say?”
“Naomi, I said no!” He fumbled for the remote as she walked out. “Naomi Faybelle Argenta, you get back here right now!”
“What’s going on, Dav-“
“Not the time, Allie! Naomi!”
She darted over to the bedroom and cracked open the door before he could catch up with her. Slowly, slowly, she pushed it open, careful not to let the light beam land on the beds.
“Dipper?” She whispered. Slow, even breathing was the only reply; he’d clearly fallen asleep already. “Dammit.”
“Naomi!”
With an eyeroll, Noie closed the door – she had to force herself not to slam it – and headed back into the living room. David and Allie were standing there, waiting for her, one with crossed arms and a deep glower wrinking his forehead, the other wearing that increasingly ever-present look of confusion as she glanced between them. The TV, Noie noticed, had been turned off.
“Naomi-“ David started. Noie cut him off.
“I just wanted to check on him. It’s no big deal.”
“But I told you to leave him alone! You need to listen to me, Naomi!”
Noie hunched her shoulders. “What, like you listen to me?”
“Excuse me?”
“You said you wanted to ‘take my mind’ off things or whatever, but you’re only cool doing it your way with the same dumb crap you like!”
“No! I let you pick a movie out!”
“Yeah! Again, out of ten movies you like!”
He gave her an angry shrug. “Okay, well, I was just trying to cheer you up, kid! If you didn’t want to watch a movie then you didn’t have to, so that’s on you! It is absolutely not acceptable to be acting this way over something like this!”
“It’s not just this, though!”
“Naomi-“
“You never listen to me! You never take me seriously! Why’ve you gotta always ask me if I’ve done my homework, tell me I’ve gotta look after-“ her eyes darted over to Allie. “to be responsible about serious things like I’m some sort of clueless kid? I’m almost sixteen – you don’t treat Dipper this way!”
“Well, Dipper doesn’t act this way.” He glared down at her. “If you want to get taken seriously, why don’t you start taking yourself seriously. Get serious about school. Get some sense about you.”
“I do have- argh!”
She clenched her fists until they went white. All the things she wanted to tell him, all the frustrations that had built up over a long weekend… they got stuck in her throat. While she was silent, Allie tugged at his sleeve again.
“David, you’re just upsetting her. Calm down. Breathe.”
David looked away, and took a deep breath. He let it out, and it came with a sigh.
“Naomi,” he started, and then he hesitated. “Look… I don’t want to be yelling at you. I want you to be happy here, I want you to feel like you’re being listened to. But I’ve just got a lot on my plate right now and I need you to listen to me too, okay? It can't be a one way street. When I tell you to leave something alone, you can’t ignore me.”
Noie didn’t know what to say to that, so she didn’t say anything.
“You can’t, okay? Do you understand?”
“David.” Allie rolled her eyes. “This isn’t product, this isn’t going anywhere. Why don’t you have Leo pick her up?”
It was stuffy in the room, and at her words it suddenly got a whole lot stuffier. You could cut the air's tension with a knife as David turned to her.
“What?” He said. Fists clenched.
“Just call her father.” She crossed her arms. “Why are you looking at me like that? David?”
“That’s not, an option!”
His words made Noie flinch. She tried not to show it.
“What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean! Come on, Allie!”
“David, I don’t-“
“Leon is-“
“Please don’t!” Noie raised her voice to cut him off. “Please don’t. That’s just mean – you know she doesn’t remember. And she's not going to remember this time, either.”
Allie frowned at her. “Remember what?”
“It’s complicated, Granny. I’m sorry.”
“What’s complicated?”
David shot Noie a look. “Then I have to remind her. That's how you treat an adult, how is that 'being mean'? Allie wouldn't... Look, you wouldn't understand. Why don't you go to bed?"
“Understand what? David?”
“You keep getting frustrated with her and it’s just mean.” Noie gave him one last defiant look, and turned on her heel. “I’m not going to bed.”
“Naomi, you-! Ugh, okay, do what you want! Do what you want.”
She stalked into the hallway, furiously rubbing her eyes. Her throat felt sore, and her face felt flushed from this stupid, stuffy house-
She was going outside. She needed some fresh air. She wrenched open the glass door and slammed it shut behind her, feeling the handle judder in her grip. Cool night air wrapped around her like a blanket, and she paused. Took a deep breath, and let it out.
Her breathing got a little funny for a second. She sniffed, and pulled up a chair. Sat back in it, felt the creak. She closed her eyes, and pressed her palms to her sockets.
“Ohhh my godddd.” She groaned. “He’s such a… Argh!”
Noie rubbed her eyes for a moment. Then she let her arms fall, and slowly blinked them open.
“This day. This fucking day, I swear it couldn’t get any…”
She looked down. Locked eyes with a small, hooded girl crouched in the yard with blood and fur smeared across her mouth.
Noie blinked. She watched Lucy Ann raise her clawed hand, and give a little wave.
“…worse.”