Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Deep within the oppressing shadow of the woods of the Pacific Northwest, a quiet night was disrupted by the sounds of digging. The woods in this area were as old as time and rarely disturbed by even those who seek their fortune within. A thick fog rested over the trees, and the creatures were all quiet. For in this town, the fauna was like nowhere else in the world. While the normal creatures such as the deer and the bears would usually reign in such terrain, they were not the dominant ones here; that was the monsters. For over 100 years now, this area had been settled by those brave and insane enough to declare it home, and as time went on, people adjusted to life here; it was peaceful. But if there is one thing that is whispered in the rumors around town, it is what really lies in the woods. Creatures like these would be local legends to those who inhabited this area, but to those with actual knowledge, they are a startling reality.

Nestled next to a tree of manufactured creation, a lone individual was preparing his final steps toward a goal he so frantically pursued. His job in these woods would probably have gone by quicker if it wasn’t for the whispers, he could hear them, but he didn’t think anyone else could. They were faint, but as he dug, they grew louder and louder, telling him not to do what he had planned. After what felt like hours of work, his project was finished. A small metal container dug deep within the ground connected to a fake tree,  a genius idea, he thought. Few people would traverse these woods normally, and even fewer would think to open up a tree to open up a panel within the ground. Was this paranoia, ‘yes,’ he thought, but all necessary steps had to be taken for what he was doing and what he was containing.

He took a deep breath and looked within the now-open container. Reaching within his trench coat, he pulled out a large brown book; on its cover, it held a six-fingered gold hand with the number 3 on it. A bit of blood was located on the book's surface, originating from himself. The longer he looked at the blood stains, the more ashamed he had been about his previous actions. He had flipped through several times, viewing the knowledge he had written so thoroughly down. His head started to hurt as the whispers were getting louder, he was tuning them out, but he could tell they were begging him not to do this and that there was some other way. But he stayed firm.

The whispers got louder and louder but could not disrupt him from performing a quick motion to place the book in the container and use the control panel within the fake tree to close it, sealing it for what he hoped was for good or until he really needed it again. The whispers were now faint, and there were fewer voices, but he knew he had to continue his job. He felt ashamed of what he did but knew he had to do it. Lifting up his head in grief, he looked out into the foggy forest to see a figure standing there. They stood before him, and while human in appearance, they were totally alien to the senses. They were almost see-through as they reflected the fog surrounding the area. It was hard to tell any features of the being as it was slowly fading away. The man who concealed the book was their author, and his life's work was now being thrown away for the safety of all. Looking up one more time at the figure, it almost completely faded away, it was still hard to make out any distinguishing features, but he could still somehow read the emotions on its face.

 It wasn't angry, it wasn't scared, and it wasn't hungry like all the other things that resided in this forest that were hard to understand. It was sad. And then it was gone, completely disappearing into the fog surrounding the area.

 The author of the book only sighed; he had made up his mind about what he had done long ago.

 There is no stopping now.

 There is only the future.

A peaceful summer's day in the Pacific Northwest was suddenly shaken as the quiet was broken by a pair of screams and loud footsteps. The Billboard, one of the few that welcomed citizens into the small town of Gravity Falls, had been driven through by a mystery-branded golf cart. In a more normal place, this could have been news alone. What the pair of siblings driving the golf cart would soon figure out this would not only be one of the least exciting parts of this summer, it would be the least interesting part of this day.

 Coming to a rough landing below the cliff where the Billboard sat, the golf cart swerved as it regained its bearings, driving at impressive speeds for a cart. Neither of the siblings had ceased screaming as their ride balanced itself out; this wouldn't matter, though, as a giant hulking beast behind them also made its landing off the cliff, continuing to chase at an impressive speed.

 One of the twins, the female of the pair, was adorned with a purple sparkly sweater, a light blue headband set on long brown hair, and A skirt the same color as the headband. She sat in the passenger seat and looked back quickly; her eyes which had not yet lost the terror of jumping off the cliff, widened even more as she realized what was chasing them was not lost.

"it's getting closer," she exclaimed, rapidly hitting the side of the driver.

The driver was the male of the twins; he wore a raggedy hat with a single star on it. He was also wearing a blue vest, an orange T-shirt, and Gray cargo shorts.

 Despite being wracked with fear, he had a confident glare as he drove the car through the woods at full speed.

 What are a pair of twins doing on a golf cart speeding through the woods, being chased by a large creature of unimaginable horror?

This had been what the male twin had been thinking too. The last few days of his life would already stick with him for the rest of his life. His name was Dipper Pines; sitting next to him and probably going to throw up due to the turbulence of the golf cart on the bumpy road was his sister Mabel.

While out of context and probably in context, this scenario screamed of insanity, there was logic to it. Or lease some sense to it.

He was snapped out of his deep thoughts when his sister hit his shoulder even more. Before he could even question her, she was pointing upwards as, to both of their horror, a massive Redwood tree was soaring over the cart and going in the same direction as their path. It didn't take much theorizing to put together that the giant beast behind them had thrown the tree.

“lookout” cried his sister at the moment the tree landed with a massive thud, he tried to swerve around it but both of them started screaming and flailing around a bit as the cart once again lost control.

 ‘yeah’ he thought there had to be an explanation for all of this.

‘In retrospect, it was very difficult to find a good starting place for this story, So you might as well just start at the beginning’ Dipper thought to himself.

*Cue intro*

If Dipper had to put a specific time when his life had become insane, it would probably be the following weekend after the 7th grade had ceased for him and his sister.

The twins, with the rest of their family, had consisted of a mother and father, and they had been born and raised in the town of Piedmont, California. Despite being in an objectively nice place to live, neither twin really enjoyed living there. The town committed one of the worst crimes to a pair of middle schoolers, being dull, and nothing in their 12 years of life had proven that fact wrong. Even locals agree that Mabel and her antics were the most exciting thing in the town.

Speaking of boring, there wasn’t much to talk about regarding the Pines household, excluding Mabel. Their father, Isaac Pines, was a computer specialist, so Dipper mostly took after him. He was quiet and reserved, even more than his son. If you had asked Dipper, that would be impressive. This quiet and reservedness would be contrasted with the other side of their family. The mother of the house, Laurie Pines, was about as outgoing and free spirit as you can get for a woman of her age. She would wear lovely dresses around the house that she and her daughter would help make together. Mabel obviously followed in her footsteps. But instead of making dresses, she made sweaters; their mother didn’t even bat an eye at this, seeing this as another way for her daughter to express herself.

 The last part of the family, the twins, consisted of brother and sister Mason and Mabel. Born first, much to her brother's annoyance, Mabel was 5 minutes earlier than him, and she will never let it go. There aren't enough words to adequately describe Mabel, But energetic and upbeat are good starting points. She was almost the picture-perfect representation of optimism, and that was reflected in the way she acted, dressed, and treated others. She wasn't the most popular girl around town, most people who met her thought she was a little bit too hyperactive, but she still constantly kept a friendly group of friends. On the other hand, the younger twin, Mason Pines, was nicknamed Dipper because of a birthmark on his forehead; he was almost the complete opposite of Mabel.

Sure, no one ever called him a pessimist,  but at the time of her birth, Mabel seemed to have stolen all the energy from him as he was completely reserved compared to her. This didn't mean he was not fun; he had a different way of doing it. While Mabel prides herself on becoming a party girl from an 80s movie and trying to become the main character, Dipper would happily stay home reading a mystery book and trying to piece it together. He didn't have many friends, and the ones he did were mostly online to discuss mysteries, but he wasn't really upset about this. It was how he wanted to live, and he was happy.

 All this though will come crashing down as their 7th grade year ended.

The 7th-grade year was nothing special in the opinion of both twins, and neither was its end. It had almost become an expected rhythm. Dipper would quietly say goodbye to the less than a handful of acquaintances he had throughout the year and prepared for a nice summer of sleeping in. While Mabel, on the other hand, Gave a tearful goodbye to all her friends she would still stay in contact with, to others, it might have looked like a performance, but to Dipper, he truly knew she was upset she couldn't physically see all her friends every day.

Before they could adjust to being free for the season, their parents hit them with the news that they were staying with their Great Uncle in a different town. The plan was not so subtly a majority of the Pines mother's idea; in the days between their departure and their learning of this trip, she had revealed to them she had been appalled that they had stayed so locked up last summer.

This was common for Dipper, but she thought it went too far when even Mabel did not go outside as much last time. Her reasoning was she had finally mastered her craft and sweater-making. Let's just say the house's attic is now filled with sweaters.

Obviously, there had been some opposition to this; even if they considered the area boring, it was still home, and they could always find some enjoyment there, but their mother was firm. Dipper, on the other hand, was more curious than Mabel about who exactly they were meeting; his parents didn’t really like to talk about their family, and this Great Uncle of theirs that he’d never heard of was apparently on his dad’s side of the family. All they had to go on was a name and a location.

His name was Stanford Pines, and he lived in a town in Oregon called Gravity Falls.

Once again, this set off red flags or at least more questions for the twins. They’ve always known they had family in New Jersey across the country, but they had never heard of a Great Uncle named Stanford or a place called Gravity Falls.

But for all their hesitation, it didn’t seem to matter in the end, for just as the first weekend of summer had concluded, they were all packed and ready to head into the unknown.

This is where they found themselves, standing in front of a bus stop with their two parents next to them. Packed heavy with multiple bags and suitcases, the Pines awaited the transport. Isaac Pines had a sympathetic gaze; he wasn't supportive of the twins going off for a whole summer to visit family without him or his wife. Sadly, both he and Laurie have quite busy work schedules, a summer vacation was just not as available to them as it was to their children, but there was another reason he hesitated. Growing up, he wasn't stupid, and it was apparent that his family didn't have a strong connection. This is why he was so adamant about making Dipper and Mabel grow up close with each other; he didn't want them to end up like the rest of his mess of a family. He tried telling this to his wife, but she was dead set on them reconnecting to what little family they had. It wasn't a secret to anyone in the family why the mother would want their children to connect with the family; it was to get an opportunity she never had. It was a sad fact in the usually joyous mother's head that she was completely alone on her side of the family, there weren't many to speak of in the first place, and the last of them passed away when the twins were too young to even remember. So this meant something to her. Even if she couldn't join, she would want her children to go on and have a happy family life that she could never have. Realizing this fact, Isaac Pines relented, although begrudgingly, he still wasn't very trusting of what he heard about his Uncle in the woods.

 This was such a contentious issue that they were still arguing about it at the bus stop.

 " Now, you two, if there's any bit of trouble, remember to call," He warned the twins kneeling down to them." He warned the twins kneeling down to them. "I know you're new to having cell phones, and you're smart kids, but you're still kids. So, if you see anything dangerous…"

"Ahhh, don't worry, Dad, we can take care of ourselves just fine right dippin dots," Mabel said in her usual loud but excited voice. Immediately poking Dipper right next to his eye as she finished her sentence.

 "ow," Dipper cried, "Mabel, stop." As he was recovering from his sudden assault, he fumbled with the phone his parents had given him, almost dropping it on the ground. The Pines patriarch didn't look that amused at it; sure, he was used to his daughter's antics, but this wasn't the time and place for it.

 The mother took this time to interject. "Come on, you two, I know this isn't exactly how you wanted to spend your summer, but it could be fun; think about you've never been there before; this could be like a whole new adventure for you guys." She knew her children well and how to cheer them up; the promise of adventure was something both twins enjoyed. In Mabel's case, new experiences were what life was all about, she knew she was always willing to try something once, and she'll always probably find a way to enjoy it. But in Dipper's case, she knew her son like the back of her hand; even if she couldn't connect with her son as well as she could connect with her daughter; she knew the promise of adventure was something he dreamed of. Both twins perked up at this, still nervous, but now they were willing.

"That's cool and all, Mom, but, like, do you know what Great Uncle Stan is like?" Dipper said questioningly. The reactions he got from his parents weren't super comforting. His mom almost dropped her smile while his dad scratched the back of his head, looking up in confusion.

"If you two want the truth, we only figured out he was around a few months ago; we've been talking ever since in private to keep this whole thing a surprise. He seems like a… nice man," The mother said, trying to formulate the words to describe the eccentric great-uncle.

 "I know this might sound weird, kids, but we have the utmost confidence in him; he was so excited to hear from relatives for the first time in what must be decades, and from what I remember growing up, he was apparently brilliant." The father said skeptically; he still wasn't entirely on board with the plan.

 "Why do I feel like you guys are trying to get rid of us… wait a minute, how smart are we talking?" Dipper said sarcastically until the latter half; he was now intrigued on if he had a secret genius of a family member. Laurie only smiled, walking closer to Dipper and leaning down to face him.

 "Apparently, we're talking potential MIT" In that instant, she knew she got him; Dipper now had a shocked face and was suddenly gripping his luggage a lot harder.

 "Oh man, I can't wait to go. Wait, what's the place called again?" Mabel asked, shaken out of her excitement with her confusion. Isaac only Put his hands on his face in a bit of frustration.

 "Mabel, sweetie, we've talked about this. It's called Gravity Falls," He said tiredly. It was late at night, and the bus would carry them to Gravity Falls by afternoon the next day.

"Gravity falls," Mabel said in awe. "It sounds magical, Like a kind of place unicorns would hang out; whoa, you think I'll see one?" The mother only smiled, walking up to hug Mabel.

"Knowing you, Mabel, you're going to find one," Laurie said Joyously.

 "Or she'll try and make one," Isaac grumbled, remembering an incident at the petting zoo when the twins were seven when Mabel tried to stick a cone on a horse's head.

"I don't know, it kind of just sounds like a regular town, and I've never heard of it. Does Stan even have a nice house?" Dipper says, still skeptical of the whole trip.

 "He told us he lives in a cabin in the woods." Before Isaac could finish his sentence, he realized he saw the speedy Beaver company bus approaching.

Much like the description of the name, the bus pulled in very quickly, and just like the bus itself, the doors opened fast too. On a side note, Mabel was ecstatic to see that there was an actual picture of a Beaver on the bus.

 "Oh God, they got here a lot quicker than I thought." the mother said, hugging her children while slapping sunscreen onto their faces. "Remember, have fun with Stan, and take lots of pictures." She was obviously hurrying them at this point; knowing their mother, she probably had prepared a whole goodbye speech, but now she was just being rushed.

 "Oh yes, that, and be safe, no offense, Sweetie but Dipper, could you please look after your sister." Their dad said frantically as the mother pushed their kids towards the bus before the impatient driver sped away, their father had also given them a hug, but he was less energetic and faster.

 "So I'm in charge," Dipper said, starting to grin.

"Ah Boo," Mabel said as she was already taking the first steps onto the bus.

 "No, Stan is in charge, Dipper; I mean, just make sure your sister is safe; that doesn't mean do anything dumb yourself," Their father responded quickly; he knew if he actually put his son in charge, he would accidentally torture Mabel by setting rules so he might as well just shut it down now.

 "Yes," Mabel exclaimed, handing the ticket to the bus driver and running back into the empty bus. Dipper walked on the bus much slower than his sister did; he didn't even make eye contact with the driver after handing him the ticket noticing his sister was already banging on the windows, trying to get the parents' attention.

"Bye-bye, we love you," Mabel said and kept repeating as the bus doors closed. On the other hand, Dipper chose the seat next to Mabel and silently waved. As the bus officially pulled off, Dipper felt like a rock had just hit the bottom of his stomach. On the other hand, Mabel had run to the back of the bus, trying to wave at their parents as long as possible.

Still, at the bus stop waving, both parents looked saddened; this would be the first time they had gone without their children in the 12 years they'd been with them.

"I don't think we're doing the right thing," the father said. "You know how my side of the family is."

 The mother smiled at him.

 "It'll be a bet then. I bet they'll wish the summer never ended by the time they come back."

 The dad scoffed.

"yeah, or it never began."

Whoever had said “it's the journey that matters, not the destination” had never been on a bus ride for around 9 hours. That's all Dipper Pines could think about as he looked out the window.

He and his sister were asleep for most of the trip, and the seats weren't exactly comfortable. So, what little sleep they did get was not the best, and by the time Dipper had woken up, the bus was still absolutely empty.

Rubbing his eyes softly, he looked to his left towards the other side of the bus to see Mabel still sleeping on one of the seats; he was happy she was finally asleep as the hour before, she dozed off; she was just as hyperactive as she is usually is during the day. Getting up, he looked out the window to see exactly what he expected, more trees. Even though Piedmont was definitely more of a civilized city, the woods had never been far away. However, this Oregon forest was so different; he couldn't focus on the right words to describe them, but one that came quickly was oppressive. But that's crazy, right? They're just the woods; with his eyesight clearing thoroughly, he got a nice look at the true scale of the trees out there; they were massive.

If he was any more paranoid than he already was, he would have joked to himself that he might have time traveled with his sister on a magical bus. he probably wouldn't tell his sister that, or she might bust out singing a theme song for the cartoon with a similar plot. Now leaning in his seat with his bags neatly around him, he truly observed the cabin of the bus for the first time, it was nothing special dark blue chairs in a Gray cabin, but its emptiness was still unnerving.

Did no one else wanna ride to this town? It was strange that there just so happened to be a bus from their town to this random town. His thoughts probably weren't healthy, especially now that he started looking suspiciously at the bus driver. Oh yeah, the bus driver, he thought. Looking at him, he couldn't even see his face as it was facing away from him. All he could tell was that it was an older man with pale skin who seemed very focused on his job. 

He knew this was probably inappropriate but he was desperate for an answer on how long it would take for them to reach the town ,so even in his awkwardness he stood up and decided to walk towards the driver's area. He didn’t know why but something felt wrong like standing up and going up to here was putting a spotlight on him, at first he thought this was just normal paranoia from him due to his social awkwardness but as it continued it just kept feeling worse and worse but as it continued it just kept feeling worse and worse.

 by the time he reached the top front rows he’d almost paused to lean onto the side of the seats. he wasn't sick he knew that he was just feeling worse like something was telling him to not do this.

“Umm, umm, excuse me Sir do you know when we’re gonna be reaching gravity falls.”  he asked still breathing heavily. The man probably thought he was a weirdo, what kind of kid would be out of breath from just walking up an aisle of seats in a bus. But Dipper’s confusion would not only be toward his physical health, it would skyrocket as he realized the bus driver was not responding to him. he hadn't even moved he just kept driving making his minor adjustments going down the road that was practically empty.

 “Excuse me, Sir do you know when we’re gonna reach…..” dipper froze in terror as he tried to reach towards the man and tap on his shoulder. right before he could, time seemed to freeze as the man’s face let out a small noise.

Kreck kreck kreack

It almost sounded like bones being moved and was starting to freak him out. This entire time he had been thinking his paranoia was returning, but looking at the bus driver now, something was changing. His face, which was once an aging man, was suddenly becoming a sickly dark blue, and worst of all, his neck was slowly moving to face Dipper, his hands not waning in the minor adjustments they were making to drive. The horror of this situation would come to a fever pitch as his face was finally revealed to Dipper. He had long white hair and a skeleton-like face with skin so tightly wrapped around his face he looked as if a mummy had come to life. Dipper, of course, was frozen in his fear as he almost fell back. The horrifying mouth of the driver opened up as if it was being cracked like stone revealing a maw of jagged teeth, mostly rotten. Dipper was almost hyperventilating at this point. He had fallen back in the first-row chair as the driver stared daggers into him. He heard a low groan as he could tell whatever he was trying to say was coming out forcefully.

“Beware Fair child, I sense your blood… and so will others…. You will walk a path others cannot begin to comprehend… and by the summer’s end everything…will… change.”

Dipper was almost too frightened to comprehend he was saying anything, but as the ghoulish man completed his sentence, he blinked rapidly and woke up in his seat.

 Jumping up with fright, he looked out the window to see the woods were still the same, his sister was still sleeping, and the bus driver was now an ordinary man with a tired look from driving all night.

He was breathing heavily; anyone would be from what he had just experienced. Curling up in a seat a little bit, His eyes were frantically moving back and forth, looking around the cabin to see if there was any evidence of what had just occurred was real or not. It had taken him what must have been a few minutes, but he finally realized he was there in reality, and there was nothing there to hurt him. Besides the noises the bus naturally made while traversing, the area around him was tranquil, soon broken by a sudden announcement from the driver.

"we will be pulling into the Gravity Falls Bus Stop any minute now. Please prepare to get all your luggage." He flinched at the monotone voice of the driver. It was nothing like the voice of the horror he had been confronted with, but that didn't mean it didn't leave him on edge.

It was just a nightmare, right, he'd gotten plenty of them in the past, but he hadn't gotten one recently, not the one this bad. Growing up, Dipper Pines was scared of a lot of things. In fact, he still is now; he likes to describe himself as being used to them. Horror movies and TV series are now just an average part of his lifestyle; he likes to think he adapted with all his unnatural fears by realizing that they're mostly entertainment and anything real and strange out there was way too hidden to bother with. Of course, he only came to his realization after his parents told them that repeatedly and kids at school started making fun of him for believing in such stupid things. But now, all that mental training was beginning to regress. It was customary to get fake prophetic messages in your dreams, right? He hoped so; otherwise, there was Something out there, Something he probably didn't want to meet.

When the bus finally pulled into the station, they were less than impressed with what they got because it wasn't a station. It was just a bus stop sign in the middle of the woods with a dirt path that they assumed went into the town proper. While Dipper wasn't an expert in the transportation industry, he knew this probably wasn't up to code or standard issue bus fare. In between the time of the announcement of their arrival and now, Mabel had been woken up by Dipper, and she was groggily holding on to him as they were carrying their stuff off the bus.

"Ugh," she exclaimed loudly while jumping off the bus stumbling a bit as she barely held on to all her stuff. "Are we in Gravity Falls, or did they just abandon us on the side of the road."

While Dipper didn't respond, he did agree with her; looking around frantically, he tried to see if there was any sign of civilization other than the lone bus sign and the speedy Beaver brand transport vehicle rolling away. They only had a dirt path that went into the woods that Dipper now had a slight fear of.

 "I think the only way forward is on this path," Dipper said obviously; it didn't matter to them if this was the only logical way forward. It still wasn't good.

"Wasn't Stan supposed to pick us up," Mabel exclaimed questioningly. She hadn't lost her loud tone, but she clearly wasn't happy about the idea of having the walk.

Opening his new phone, Dipper looked down at the messages that their parents had left them. Their exact instructions were revealed to them. All they had to do was walk down the path, and they'll be met at another bus stop; this stop was for the local bus. But once they got there, they would wait for their Great Uncle Stan to show up instead of boarding it.

 "so we just go on right ahead, into the uhh, spooky forest.' Dipper said, already somehow accepting how much life was not favoring them.

 Unexpectedly Mabel perked up quickly and slapped him on the back of his shoulder.

 "Well, you know what Dad says. You never get anything done by staying in one place," she said optimistically as she started to drag her stuff down the dirt path, not a slight hint of fear within her.

 Dipper only stared quizzically at his sister briefly and observed the surroundings; the mountainous region within a valley was, as far as he could tell, only covered with monstrous-sized trees. whatever this Gravity Falls place was, it was obviously well hidden amongst them.

He then realized he'd taken too much time to think, so he turned around quickly to catch up with his sister.

 "Hey, Mabel! we're supposed to stick together."

luckily, they are right about the short path as they are spat out on a different well-paved road at a proper bus stop. Setting their stuff down, there seemed to be no one there except for some kid around their age holding a turtle.

 Dipper only raised an eyebrow at him as he was utterly ignorant of them showing up, but before he could even speak up, his sister had zoomed off to go and talk to him.

Some moments after her awkward introduction to him, he decided to tune them out and really look at the town proper or at least the parts he could see from there.

The town was exactly as small as he thought a lumber town in the middle of the Oregon woods would be. There was one large Main Street with most of the shops and only a few roads diverging in directions to go somewhere else. Using the map on this phone, he noticed, Interestingly, despite the town's size, there were many things there. He saw a decently sized movie theater, a petting zoo, a Natural History Museum, heck, there was even a huge modern-day looking mall which didn't fit in with the town's rustic environment. This whole place to him seemed like an anomaly. It was so strange; even the geography was odd. The entire town was set in a valley that seemed to have been created when something crashed through a mountain, or at least that's what the giant hole in the mountains looked like. Right next to the massive hole was the town's namesake, the Falls, which was a mighty size. Maybe whoever this caretaker Stan was would allow them to go up there to see the town from that view; from what he could tell, other than things he had listed, there didn't seem to be that much to do here.

His deep thoughts about his surroundings were interrupted as he heard the rapid beeps of a car. The turtle boy Mabel was talking to had long fled; Dipper could only imagine what she had said to him to make him escape in such a comedic manner. But Mabel was now standing right next to him, a little upset that she probably couldn't make a new friend so quickly, but that didn't matter right now as a red car at full speed stopped right in front of them.

What kind of reckless guy would slam their brakes at near full speed in front of a bus stop. He would soon get his answer as an aging, well-built man exited out of the car. The man was eccentrically dressed, to say the least, sporting a black suit with a dark red ribbon on his chest. This was normal compared to what was on top of his head right above his glasses; he was wearing a fez that was adorned with a symbol for some reason. He was also sporting what Dipper could already tell was a fake eyepatch over his glasses.

 Dipper and Mabel couldn't say anything as they only observed the man's struggle to get out of his car. By the time he had fully exited his vehicle and walked around it facing the bus stop, he was already coughing up a storm.

Dipper was almost ready to stand in front of his sister defensively as the older man regained his footing and walked towards them in a showmanship style. The style was interrupted when he coughed again and pulled out a piece of paper from his suit pocket. Holding his glasses closer to his eyes, he inspected the paper, reading over it once again. He then began reading the note in a robotic, totally not prepared voice.

"Ahem, you two must be uh… Mavis and Grayson? ugh wow, I need to get my eyes checked." He said this in his gruff tone of voice. The twins could only look up in shock that this was their Great uncle Stanford; Mabel even just stared at Dipper, shrugging her shoulders before walking up to him and regaining her composure.

 "Your great uncle Stanford?" she asked quizzically. "And if you are, what's our last name?" She asked this question suspiciously. Dipper could only mentally face-palm as she asked a way too easy question to confirm the identity.

 "Pines," the older man set a little, taking it back as he tried to gauge the children's personalities.

Suddenly Mabel’s eyes sparkled as she, in two broad steps, almost tackled Stan to the ground with a mighty hug.

“Oof,” the older man said, looking down to see his great-niece give one of the tightest hugs he’s ever experienced.

 “Oh my God, you’re a great uncle Stan; I didn’t even know we had a great uncle Stan less than a week ago. Is it true you live in a cabin in the woods? Do you really run your own business? That’s why Dad said. Oh my God, you’re a great uncle. Does that mean I can call you Grunkle?

Stanford only looked shocked at how much she spoke in less than a few seconds. Finally recovering from this, he looked awkward and petted her on the head.

 "Sure, you are girl one; you can call me Grunkle or whatever."

it's taken him a few seconds to realize Dipper hadn't moved before he called out to him.

 "Hey, you skinny arms, you just gonna stand there, or you gonna introduce yourself?" Stan said he didn't sound mean. He was obviously playing around, but Dipper still needed to figure out him.

 "oh, don't mind Dipper; he's not much in the talking to other people department unless they care about mysteries," Mabel said, still excitedly hugging her newly acquired family member.

 "Mabel, he didn't get our names right, and my name is Dipper, not Grayson."

 "Dipper, Grayson," you get it all mixed up in old age; come on, let's get moving, sunlight is burning out. The older man said, starting to place their luggage into the trunk of his red convertible. Both twins decided to stay in the back seat as their Grunkle sped off, probably breaking a few speed limits on the way.

 "So," he tried to start off awkwardly, "you guys are Isaac's kids; how's the little nerd doing anyway? The last time I saw him, he was like up to my knee."

 "He's a super boring computer specialist," Mabel screamed at the top of her lungs as if she was responding to a game show. The fast-paced driving didn't bother her as much as it bothered Dipper, who was holding on for dear life via the seat belt; Mabel, on the other hand, was bouncing about continuing her conversation with Stan.

 "Hey Stan, are you sure you should be driving like this," Dipper said nervously as the car shifted significantly.

 "of course, it's fine," he responded, relaxed. "Besides, you'll come to see how this town operates, but first, let's get you guys situated where you'll be staying." As Stan and Mabel continued their mindless conversation, Dipper could only notice that they'd gone entirely through town and were back into the thick woods.

The trees once again surrounding him made him nervous. Before he could again delve into his newly developed fear of the Oregon Woodlands, he noticed they had started rolling upon a clearing in the woods. There was a large clearing completely flat that was almost half the size of a football field, but right next to this large clearing was a large wooden shack. Or at least that's what it said on top, spelled out in giant letters' Mystery Shack'.

There are a choice words to describe the twins' initial reactions when they saw this place; Mabel saw a new unique place, was excited, and was already bouncing around the car seat, ready to jump and get out.

 Dipper, on the other hand, as usual, was skeptical. The large building was probably the picture definition of the word ramshackle; funny enough, that word has the word shack in it, making this seem more fitting. After chuckling at his wordplay, Dipper refocused on inspecting the house, or what he thought was a house at first.

As they rolled up, it didn’t take many inspections to realize this wasn’t a house; it was a tourist destination; he could see signs for deals of knickknacks and memorabilia all associated with the area they would be staying in.

 ‘Oh God, ’ it finally hit Dipper like a car.

The guy they would be staying with all summer was not some latent genius within the family who was secretly working on some mysterious project, as Dipper hoped.  He was a guy who ran a tourist trap in the Oregon wilderness.

 'Well, this sucks,' He thought.

The next few days were an easy adjustment and had yet to do much to boost Dipper's confidence in the area they had lived in. He had only learned a few facts about the town itself.

1. The people living here are a bit eccentric. Not one person he met seemed to fit into the description of ordinary.
2. Apparently, monsters are vehemently denied here; he tried discussing the supernatural with others, including random customers of the shack and Stan. Still, they had all vehemently denied the existence of anything In the woods.

 And 3. this could be as boring as Piedmont except in a more Woodland area.

 The only real shake-up he could tell he had in this new environment was that he and his sisters somewhat had summer jobs now. He said somewhat because he expected to be paid a little bit more than what he was actually getting for working for his now-revealed to be greedy great uncle.

 Learning the extent of how the Mystery Shack operated was a little shocking to both Dipper and Mabel. Apparently, the shack used to be a typical large home in the woods until he had one day, for no apparent reason, turned it into a tourist destination. The logical part of Dipper's brain told him this should have been a failure, but seeing the amount of cash that came in just in the few days he'd been there shut them up pretty quick.

 It was easy to describe what the mystery shack was really like. The bedroom he and Mabel shared was uncomfortable to sleep in the few nights due to the constant noises of the house and outside, but it was still a nice room even if they had to share it. He didn't mind sharing with his sister, but staying with Mabel in such close proximity was definitely a different experience. He was used to having his own room and a little privacy.

 Let's say summer reading was a whole lot more disruptive.

 The rest of the shack was homey, and the living room had an old but still functional TV in its comfortable sitting area; they had a pretty good kitchen and a few other spaces to hang out.

But most of the house was dedicated to the downstairs museum for tour guides and whatever new attractions the Great Uncle rotated in and out to keep people talking about the place. Even though he would never admit it, Dipper initially thought the museum was kind of cool; a whole collection of fake monsters would usually make him excited, but that excitement soon fizzled out as he realized the types of creatures his great uncle was making were all pretty lame, he wasn't a particular fan of the Sasquatch wearing underwear.

 On the other hand, Mabel was adjusting really well, and he was happy to see that. In the brief time they've been here, the only places they've gone outside was the store to get some more stuff for the room, Mabel, in her skill, managed to get a functioning sewing machine and tons of party supplies for a low price. This automatically made her the favorite of the Grunkle, seeing how she managed to acquire everything at such a low price.

 All in all, it would probably be a boring summer in an interesting location; the boredom was so palpable Dipper had already forgotten about his crazy dream with the bus driver. He had strange dreams before, so maybe it really was nothing.

 This line of belief would all end on one fateful day.

Peeking through a collection of Stan bobbleheads, Mabel hid, observing the clever trap she had just laid out.

"He's looking at it! He's looking at it!" She said excitedly, looking at a boy her age reading a note. The boy standing in the middle of the shop looked confused and looked around as he finished reading the message.

 "I rigged it," Mabel said excitedly to herself. Dipper would have asked for more context for the situation a week ago, but the last few days had taught him well enough about what was happening this summer.

 Mabel was trying to find a boyfriend, and when he said trying, she was really trying. They had not been there a week, and Dipper could already probably count the number of potential boyfriends she spotted on two hands; being her brother, of course, this concerned him.

 This current attempt by her was happening in the middle of both of their shift at the Shack. The twins wouldn't say the great uncle had forced them into labor, but he was very, very adamant that they contribute, in some way, something about earning their keep if they were really paying attention.

 These workdays would be relatively easy, in the opinion of the twins, too. Despite the size of the business, there were only a few workers that covered everything well. Stan was obviously a showman and a con artist; he would lead tours of people through the Shack and entertain them with less-than-honest tales of wild creatures like mutated ducks with Beavers for bodies or something crazy like that. Both Dipper and Mabel did not like the dishonesty; Mabel because she thought lying was wrong and was very moral about that unless it benefited her. But Dipper was just upset that his uncle seemed to have a surface-level appreciation of the supernatural, only using them for profit.

 It almost impressed the twins how Stan was able to market himself as some mascot character, as mentioned earlier with the bobbleheads of the guy. but the Pines family were not the only workers at the mystery shack.

There was a teenage cashier who ran the gift shop area named Wendy Corduroy and a large young man named Jesus Ramirez nicknamed Soos.

Surprisingly for the few days they had known each other, despite working together, there hadn’t been that much interaction between the twins and the workers. Mabel obviously made a great effort to be friends with them. They seemed very willing to accept it but in a rush to be friendly with everyone, including the customers she hadn’t really bonded with them yet, Dipper, of course, stood on the sidelines quietly observing the pair of them before he even attempted any honest discussions. As far as he could tell, they’re both friendly, even if they mostly just gossip to each other instead of working.

 Or at least that's the case for Wendy. Wendy was a young teenager, and from the conversations, Dipper totally didn't eavesdrop to learn she seemed to be still getting used to the high school experience. She was also dressed like a lumberjack, which would have been more standout if they hadn't been in a logging town. The only way he can describe her is chill. She seemed to be cool with everything; most of the time, she wouldn't even look over at the shop, just at her phone or reading a magazine. Despite this seeming lack of care, she was very attentive in a way; Dipper had been caught staring at her multiple times; he wasn't being a creep. He swore he was always observing people on instinct instead of making fun of him as other people did for this; she just simply laughed and said it was all cool. This already reassured him; he was glad the people of this town were probably already more accepting of the ones back home. Soos, on the other hand, was a completely different story. He was an expert handyman and a partial technician, and he even helped him make some of the exhibits sometimes. If there's anything that can be done to help the Shack, he will do it instantly; heck, when Stan told him to help bring up the twin's luggage, he didn't even bat an eye and just did it immediately. While a very hard worker, he didn't seem to have the personality of one; much like Wendy, he was also a chill guy who was very fun to be around; Mabel absolutely loved hanging out with him in the brief times they talked, and from the even more limited conversations Dipper had with him he seemed to like a couple of the same things. Mabel would bond with him over eccentricities, and Dipper would bond over their love for video games and technology.

 When it came to the Pines twins, employee roles were much more simplified; Dipper didn't think this was out of kindness, mostly just labor laws. Mabel was only second to Stan in getting people to buy stuff. She was charming and eccentric; Stan seeing this on the first full day, immediately put her in the front of the gift shop, helping people if they wanted something specific. Dipper was impressed because not only did he read her talent perfectly he read his fine too; there would be no logical reason to put Dipper in with any job that included talking with a lot of people, so instead, he just put him in charge of stuff, like inventory and sometimes just cleaning the shack. Sure, one twin absolutely loved their job more than the other, while Mabel got to talk to random people, which she enjoyed. Dipper just got clean and took notes all summer. This boring routine would only be alleviated by the random interesting town member,  Mabel, hitting on some new guy or unexpected animal-related incidents. It was a strange thing Dipper noticed there were a lot of animals at the shack, from a goat named Gompers who apparently didn't have an owner to a random possum who Mabel tried to make friends with but ended up just stealing her food.

Speaking of Mabel hitting on guys, it was getting old quick, and Dipper, while lethargically doing his duties as the shop cleaner, would not let it go unmentioned. Spraying sanitizer on what Dipper hoped was a jar of fake rubber eyes, he turned to Mabel, seeing her all giddy at the prospect of somehow tricking a guy Into a date.

""Mabel, I know you're going through your whole ""Boy Crazy"" phase, but I think you're kind of overdoing it with the ""crazy"" part."" He responded. He didn't want to be mean to her, but her behavior the last few days was concerning. Turning around in mock horror, Mabel responded in the only way she could process; she blew a Raspberry at him.

""Come on, Dipper! This is our first summer away from home! It’s my big chance to have an epic summer romance!"" She said, having a dreamy look in her eyes. This single explanation further proved Dipper’s theory that they just operated on different plains of logic; growing up, the movies they had at home ranged from either their father’s Horror mystery collection or their mother’s hoard of 80s dramas. No matter how much the Pines parents insisted on getting them something else, both twins stuck to these fervently. Dipper was starting to think these films had wired them in negative ways.

Their mother would even tell them tales of the romcoms that had so affected her in such a way she asked out their dad in a spectacular manner like the films. That fact only emboldened Mabel, as now she didn't see it as fiction; she saw it as just potential reality. Despite the previously mentioned movie-based paranoia, Dipper had a firmer grasp on reality unless you started talking to him about Bigfoot, which, no matter how much people make fun of him, he still thinks is real.

""Yeah, but do you need to flirt with every guy you meet?" " He responded, exasperated. He doesn't know why he even really tries anymore. Mabel's chaos wasn't something you could corral only endure.

What he said also brought back a few memories for the both of them; it turns out that boy at the bus stop wasn’t actually just a random kid she tried to make friends with. He was her first attempt. There have been a lot more following that encounter; there had been a couple of people she flirted with in the shack itself, including one boy she pushed over into a stand once. There had been multiple attempts while they were shopping for more supplies, Including Surprise attacking a guy who sold a mattress and unsuccessfully jumping out of a water fountain to talk to someone who hadn't seen her coming. No matter how many attempts she made, all of them were rejected equally, or at least the nicer ones were rejected. The mattress king just ran away frightened, and the guy who got pushed over by accident almost screamed at her until he saw Wendy give him a glare. That earned Wendy points, in Dipper’s opinion.

""Mock all you want, brother, but I got a good feeling about this summer. I wouldn't be surprised if the person of my dreams walked through that door right now."" Her eyes looked in suspense as she was genuinely excited to see who walked past the curtain to the area where tours were usually conducted. To her horror and Dipper's absolute amusement, the next person to walk through was their Grunkle Stan having indigestion problems.

""Aww! Why!"" Was Mabel's response as Dipper could only start laughing. Recovering from his indigestion issues, Stan attempted to rally all his employees together. This could only be called an attempt because Dipper and Mabel were already standing before him, Soos was busy performing his handyman duties, and Wendy simply just didn’t care.

"All right, all right, look alive, people. I need someone to go hammer up these signs in the spooky part of the forest."

Just mentioning the forest had sent a slight chill down Dipper's spine; ever since the dream on the bus, he had been a little scared of it, but it had calmed down drastically. Despite their overwhelming presence and immense size, the trees of the forest seemed to hide nothing but inconsequential animals and a weird bit of fog. Even if he was less afraid, that didn't mean he just randomly wanted to walk off into them; he believed he could see enough of the woods from the front of the shack. He had to repeat to himself, 'There is nothing in the woods.' His deep thought was interrupted when Mabel said, "Not it." Quickly he echoed her, trying to see if he could still get out of the troubling assignment.

"Uh, also not it." Soos unexpectedly responded; this was probably the first time he'd heard him reject a job given out by Stan himself. Maybe he was just trying to echo what the children were saying, or he was just really busy with the assignment he was already tasked with.

"Nobody asked you, Soos," Stan responded, annoyed that even his star employee wasn't up to the task.

"I know, and I'm comfortable with that," Soos said quickly, biting into a chocolate bar he had been keeping in his tool belt. This comment seemed to make Stan even more upset.

"Wendy, I need you to put up this sign! I got a tour scheduled in a few minutes, and I need these signs up before the day ends," Stan yelled across the shack store, which was now devoid of customers.

 With as much effort as she could muster at the time, Wendy attempted to grab the signs… from all the way across the room; of course, after this failed, she seemed to let out a fake groan in frustration and responded to him.

"I would, but I, ugh, can't, ugh, reach it, ugh..." She responded, getting a laugh from Mabel and Dipper. That was the only thing that changed her emotion from the magazine she was reading as she smiled at hearing their liking of the joke.

"I'd fire all of you if I could," Stan said. He wasn't super mad, and neither of the twins had ever seen him angry, so as far as they could tell, this was all he could muster sometimes. All the employees also knew Stan would most likely not fire them for any less than serious offense. Soos would break things on accident, Wendy would slack off, Mabel would, as mentioned previously, knock people into objects, and Dipper would just space out constantly.

They're yet to be any severe punishment for this, and he hadn't even docked their pay. It was Dipper's theory that Stan probably had no one else lining up to get the job. After all, who would wanna work in a tourist trap with a greedy boss, a barely working air conditioner, that also sat far away from the rest of the town.

 After a deep breath, Stan put his fingers to the bridge of his head and came up with an idea.

"All right, let's make it... eenie, meenie, miney...you." He appointed directly at Dipper, much to his shock. The shock didn't wasn't for Stan forcing him to do something. He hadn't even been here a week, and that was the most expected outcome of any interaction they were in. but being sent out to an apparent spookier side of the forest was not registering well with him. He had already tried to talk monsters and theories with Stan once, which he shut down quickly; Stan didn't seem to believe in the supernatural, and from experience he had at home trying to force people to believe you, it made everyone think you were crazy. He wasn't trying to be known as crazy in two towns. He had to formulate his response rationally.

"Grunkle Stan, whenever I'm in those woods, I feel like I'm being watched."

Stan barely graced him with a dignified response as he just scoffed and said, "This again." apparently, Dipper learned that two conversations about this was enough.

"I'm telling you, something weird is going on in this town. Just today, my mosquito bites spelled out "BEWARE."" Rolling up his sleeve, he frantically showed his great Uncle this. He's been keeping this a secret for the past few hours, but when he woke up to it and saw it in the bathroom, he honestly thought it was a sign at least something interesting was happening in the town.

 Grunkle Stan only looked even more skeptical as he read Dipper's arm.

"That says "BEWARB."" Grunkle said, making Dipper more awkward as he scratched the bites.

"They were still spelling that's gotta be something right," Dipper said pathetically.

"Look, kid. The whole "monsters in the forest" thing is just local legend, drummed up by guys like me to sell merch to guys like that." Stand pointed towards a man sweating feverishly at the idea of getting a stand bobblehead. This knocked the fear out of Dipper as he was now confused about how his great Uncle had apparently acquired fanboys via guiding fake tours.

 Before he could ponder more on that thought, Wendy looked up from her magazine with a reassuring face.

"yeah, man, calm down; the woods looks scary, but my family lives out there, and I haven't anything. Right, Soos, the Forest is completely fine," Wendy said to Soos, who was still working.

 "I don't know, Dude."

 "Soos, You were supposed to agree with me to make him feel better," Wendy said, a little annoyed.

 "Oh, OK, I haven't seen anything in the woods, so there's probably nothing in there, but I don't like to spend a lot of time in the woods, so there could be a lot of things in there,"… he stopped talking when Wendy glared at him not getting the point of the conversation was to help Dipper.

Stan having enough of this conversation, pushed the signs and tools into Dipper's hands.

 "So quit being so paranoid and get back before sunset." The great Uncle's words were final, and Dipper could only frown at him.

Mabel, who had been surprisingly silent this whole conversation, gave him a reassuring smile and lightly punched him in the shoulder.

 "Ah, don't worry, bro; Stan is like a bajillion years old. If he hasn't seen any monsters, there's probably none out there."

"wait, how old I am' Stan said, a little offended, as Dipper was already making his way out of the front door.

Not at all to Dipper’s surprise the woods to Gravity Falls didn’t look any more inviting once you were in them.

A barely noticeable dirt trail led from the Mystery Shack into the depths of the woods.

Dipper had no idea where this trail could have gone, but the longer he looked down, the more endless it seemed. If it wasn't for the enormous height of the trees, he probably would have assumed it led to the mountains, but the fact it was paved anyway must have meant it lets somewhere, right.

 The sky didn't look Inviting either, as dark clouds covered most of the sky with only a few splotches of rays of sunshine coming through; if he wasn't so focused on getting his job done, he probably would have taken a few pictures to send them back home even if it didn't look inviting it looked Beautiful.

 This thought was quickly removed from him as a breeze shook the darkened trees around him; every single nerve in his body told him the forest was not inviting, but he soldiered on, continuing to hammer up the signs on the trees. While hammering up these signs, he had to wonder to himself if his Great Uncle was as much of a marketing genius as he seemed to be; putting up signs in the forest didn't scream a good use of time, but for all, he knew he was probably trying to attract some poor lost hiker and trick him into coming to the Mystery Shack for shelter just to take whatever money is left in his pockets.

 That almost got a laugh out of Dipper as he continued his hammering of the signs; he was lucky he still had his annoyance. It gave him something to focus on other than his surroundings.

 In the middle of another one of his out loud complaints, he picked up another sign, hammer, and nail and struck a tree.

 Clang

Dipper was confused for a second, maybe he was just going crazy again, but he could have sworn he heard a piece of metal. This theory was further proven when he looked at the nail he tried to get into the tree; it didn't go in, merely bouncing off. He was almost hesitant momentarily as he put his ear up to the supposed tree.

Tapping it a couple more times with the hammer, he confirmed the noise with a rapid series of clangs that came from it. The tree was entirely metal.

Backing up a bit of confusion, he started to inspect the tree more thoroughly; there was nothing special about the outward appearance. It looked like several smaller trees in the forest below the massive one's canopies. Getting an even closer look, he noticed something special though a part of the tree's bark seemed lifted up as if someone was trying to pry it open.

Investigating this, he realized it wasn't bark at all, and the tree was definitely fake; a panel seemed to open up a completely metal hatch on the interior. Any bit of hesitation left him as he had now entered an investigative mode; if you ask anyone who knew him personally, you would know once he found a good thing to investigate, he probably wouldn't stop unless told directly.

Despite his better judgment, he pried open the Hatch to find what looked like an old radio on the inside. Honestly, he was a bit disappointed. Sure, he could understand hiding things of significant value, but he couldn't imagine what a weird outdated radio would be doing in a tree and why anyone would use it as a hiding spot.

It just wasn't logical, he thought, as he noticed the radio was even more interesting than he thought it was.

Shoving away the multiple spiders that had made this place home, he realized this object wasn't even a radio. Upon further inspection, it looked like a VCR with multiple switches on top of it, the entire thing was rusted, and even the little screen on the front of it was cracked, so even if it was active, he probably couldn't read the information.

 There were buttons, dials, and even a gauge on it for purposes unknown, seeing how it was most likely defunct for years. The last thing of interest on the device was a long metal rod that jutted out the top and went into the tree itself; it probably connected to something, and whatever it did connect to was what the switches controlled.

 Dipper was not naïve enough to not know any government conspiracies, so he weighed the consequences of actually touching the secret device. On the one hand, he could stumble upon some secret government project and never be seen again; on the other, he could stumble upon a secret government device and get recruited. This was a lifelong dream of his, and he started to get a slow smile as he looked at the device again.

Of course, he wasn't stupid, and those situations are absolutely out there, but there was only one way to find out wasn't there. In a decision he could only describe as rash in any scenario, he flipped a couple of the switches curiously, waiting for a response from the device.

What he got was the sound of pressurized air releasing and a goat running away after a bleat.

Turning around quickly, he noticed a fallen tree behind him in an open Meadow; in front of the tree was a small, perfectly rectangular hole in the ground.

 Dipper stood silently, looking at the small hole from a distance; a part of him said he should be terrified of what he was seeing. The cryptic bus driver in his dream had told him if he walked the path, everything would change; this could have meant a multitude of things, whether it meant he could make some big decision in the future or if he just continued living, something would happen; it was pretty vague.

 All in all, he felt that everything would change if he approached this hole. But it was so tempting, he thought; he'd been made fun of his whole life for believing in useless conspiracy theories; he believed in monsters; he had believed in things that even the wildest of crackpots would scoff at. But now, sitting right before him could have been a way to change all that, to make his interest in life not feel like a waste of time and a disappointment to others.

 Or it could have been just a random empty hole in the ground connected to a switch; either way, it would be fun to find out.

 Staying low to the ground, he cautiously approached the hole; his nerves were getting the best of him as the closer he came, he swore he could start hearing something. With all the adrenaline pumping in his body, it was hard to focus on anything but his sole objective, but he could swear the forest started to sound alive. If he were more focused, he could probably make out people talking in unfamiliar languages, he could have probably heard animal noises that didn't match anything known to science, and he could have heard sounds so foreign to him that they probably didn't belong on this earth, but none of that mattered right now. It was almost as if he was in a trance as he looked over the hole to see what was inviting him.

At that moment, the forest went silent. No voices. No sounds. No animals. Just him face to face with what was calling him like it was his destiny.

 It was a book.

"What the," he said questioningly as he finally got a good look at it; it was hard to make out a cover or any details due to the amount of dirt and spider webs on top of it. He reached for it and hoped it was in good condition as centipedes crawl all over it. In a quick swiping motion, all the bugs he could see were flung off, and he blew on the book to remove a layer of dirt.

 The book was still dirty, but he could clearly make out the cover now.

 It was a thick dark red book with an intricate design on the spirals; no other details were of note. There wasn't anything on the back except the book being slightly torn with its leather exterior. The only stand-out element was what lay on the cover. A six-fingered gold hand with a solid black 3 in the middle was all that it gave him.

 Looking up and around the forest once more, he was now focused on seeing if any of the noises were accompanying him, but he was met with the quiet meadow. Quickly turning around and placing the book on the ground, he sat there himself, inspecting it, there seemed to be a small stain on the front of it, but he couldn't identify where it was from.

From his hypothesis, the book was probably some old record or some strange print of a story from what looked to be decades ago based on its condition.

 The only way to tell was to open up, but there were problems with that. While Dipper had always been considered a weak kid, he could still do basic functions. Opening a book should have been a cinch, but for some reason, it was sealed shut; the front or back of the book just refused to open.

 He looked at it, confused for a few seconds, and tried to inspect the surrounding book to see if there was a lock on it, but nope, it was just sealed shut.

 He could bring it back to the shack to investigate it but after one more hard try.

 Straining himself the sounds, or at least some of them returned into his ear, this time more directed. Before, they sounded like a cacophony of noise was just surrounding the woods, but now he almost sort of voice whispering into his ear; this should have freaked him out, but for some reason, he was still so dead set on opening up the book.

 Straining his arms, he grits his teeth, trying to force it open; it would only take a couple more seconds before he gave up and probably just let the book lie there until a sharp pain stabbed into his finger.

 "Ow" exclaimed loudly as he dropped the book onto the ground. His finger didn't hurt now. It almost felt like a light prick hit him and then went away; for a moment, he thought it was another mosquito that got a lucky shot at his finger, but looking down, he saw no mosquito but just a closed-up wound on his index finger that was barely noticeable.

His confusion grew as he looked down upon the book to see a little bit of his blood resting on top of the book; he must have been becoming delirious because he swore his blood shined for a second before fading to its normal color. Picking the book again by its front cover, he was shocked to see all the pages unfurled and a small monocle dropped out.

 The book had opened all by itself, or at least after his blood spilled on it. Now his brain was returning to paranoia mode; it could be magical, right? He thought. Magic most likely doesn't exist, he thought, struggling to find a scientific reason for how a book could open with blood spilling on it randomly, but he was stumped; he didn't even know how his finger got stabbed in the first place there were no sharp edges on the book to cut him.

 That whole dilemma would have to be saved for later, though, as he finally cracked open the book to reveal a torn-apart first page. The two clearly aged pages held the 'property of' page, and another one titled volume three. Obviously, referring to how this is the third of the series. 'The property of' page was utterly torn apart, removing the name; this intrigued him even more. Whoever wrote it didn't want to be associated with it anymore. Turning the page to see if they could finally get more information, he was met with 2 pages completely filled with text labeled June 18th,

The neat handwriting intrigued them as it looked like whoever had written here was most likely highly educated, which was contrasted by the funny 2 little dogs drawn in the corner; or at least he thought they were dogs. This whole book was throwing his perception of reality out of whack.

He began reading the journal's contents with nothing else to do.

'It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon." Dipper first thought this must have been some grand work of fiction. The more pages he flipped through, the more real art felt, not its concepts but its sincerity. "What is all this?" Dipper said, awe-struck; the way the words were recorded down, we're ecstatic about learning the town's secrets; he thought it was nice seeing someone so interested in the supernatural like him. Destroy would all end when he came to a threatening-looking page with large letters saying, "TRUST NO ONE" "Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before he finds it. Remember: in Gravity Falls, there is no one you can trust."

Closing the journal, he held it tight to his chest; whoever wrote this was fearful that someone was looking out for it. He almost felt a weight of responsibility hit him as he realized he should probably keep the book safe. He didn't know why but something was drawing him to the book,

"No one you can trust..."

Standing up slowly, he looked around the forest meadow to see the sun was coming down soon. But more concerningly, the fog was rolling in a lot thicker; this didn't seem all that concerning as all he had to do was follow the path, but the fog was getting thicker and thicker at a supernatural rate.

He began trudging a little faster until he saw a wisp of light; it had to be a Firefly, right, he thought as he tried to rationalize it as it flickered. This rationality would soon shatter as he started seeing more of them, the blinking small lights multiplying almost as fast as the fog had appeared. First, there were two, then there were five, then there were ten, then there were 100, then they were all surrounding him, and it was freaking him out. he almost felt like screaming for a second as the swarm of fireflies was amassing in front of him on the path.

When one passed him by, he realized no bug was attached to it. These were just random floating lights; he almost broke there, preparing to launch himself into a full spirit until he realized the lights were all coming together to form something.

 Standing right in front of him amassed were a swarm of smaller lights, no longer flickering, now staying solid as they created a figure in front of him.

The figure was taller than him, not as tall as Stan, but around the same height as Wendy. As it started to coalesce, it looked more and more like a human being completely covered in light.

Dipper couldn't even think of how this could get worse before he noticed the figure take a mighty step closer to him; the lights had slowed down their blinking, and soon they did. That's when the figure took more and more steps.

Dipper nearly lost his mind as he stumbled backward onto his rear, leaning against a tree.

 He was trapped, and he had nowhere to go.

It didn't take that many steps to finally reach him as it knelt down to look at him closer. He could barely hear now; he was breathing so hard as the figure started to reach one of his hands towards him. It was a maddening slowness as it felt like fate was rubbing in that it was probably his end.

 In TV shows, he'd seen people would always have their lives flashed before their eyes during a traumatic event, but that wasn't happening right now. Dipper could only stare as the glowing hand inched forward to him and slowly neared his face. 

He wanted some heroic final stand or some last-minute burst of confidence to help him escape, but he couldn't even muster that. His heavy breathing almost became uncomfortable as the hand of light opened up its fingers and approached his forehead towards his birthmark. In the seconds it took for the hand to reach his forehead, it felt like millennia; when it finally made contact, he felt nothing.

It took Dipper even more seconds to realize he truly did feel nothing, not in the way some would think if they had finally passed, but in the way as if the hand was not physically touching him at all. If anything, all the noises going off during this situation had quieted, leaving only the figure of light kneeling before him with his hand now horrifyingly embedded in his forehead. But he still felt nothing; from what he could see by looking up, the hand was passing through his body.

Dipper still clutching onto the book, and his heart for dear life was staring wide-eyed at the figure who had yet to move more than an inch since his hand had reached inside his head.

He was terrified, but his breathing was slowing down as he was starting to hope and pray that whatever this thing was doing was nonlethal.

 A whole 5 minutes had passed, and they were still stuck in the same position as the sun was going to set soon. He'd been gone the entire afternoon.

 The figure's head started rocking a little bit back and forth before coming to a halt. With Dipper's breath now slowing down, he heard a voice call out to him. Unlike the earlier noises, he could place it; it was coming from the figure. The voice was quiet, dull, and monotone, but he couldn't put an age or gender to it if he wanted to. But it did sound unmistakably human.

 The figure of light, still with no features on it other than the fact it was glowing, said its first conceivable words to the Dipper.

 "Name?" It's said in its dull voice as it hadn't moved from its position. On the other hand, Dipper had leaned back into the tree; the only adjustment the figure had made was to adjust its hand to stay within Dipper's forehead.

 "name," it repeated, not a hint of any emotion.

 The situation was starting to feel awkward as Dipper looked back and forth to see if anything else nearby could help him. There's only one thing he can think of to do, speak to it. He had always imagined first contact with aliens would be interesting, but he never thought he would be the one to initiate; he's just lucky this didn't go like the movies, and they didn't start shooting each other. If this thing was even an alien, he thought.

 "Name," it repeated a third time, still no hint of any changing tone.

 "Name?" Dipper said questioningly back to it.

 "name," it said like once more.

 "Dipper Pines," Dipper responded slowly.

"No," It simply answered.

 Now this was confusing; he was asking for his name, right? What else could it want? He came to a thought after a few seconds of deliberation. Maybe he was asking for his real name.

"um, my name is Mason Isaac Pines."

 "no," it repeated.

Now he was lost; if he didn't want his nickname and he didn't want his real name, what name did it want. It could have wanted the name of someone. He was confusing himself with his thoughts now. Maybe he just wanted a name in general, 'does it have a name' Dipper thought.

 "Do you want a name?"

 The figure didn't respond this time; its head only lifted slightly.

 A whole catalog of names came to Dipper. He was still so petrified, so he thought if he chose a bad one, the thing might freak out. He was obviously dealing with the supernatural, and if there's one thing, stories told in the supernatural could be temperamental beings.

 "Riley?" Dipper said questioningly; he didn't know why but that name came to his head first. Sure, he had other names he could think of, but he didn't want to give them any of the names he would have liked instead of Mason.

The figure quickly shot its hand out of Dipper's forehead, which, even though it was a relief to him, also frightened him with the movement. The figure of light also glowed a little brighter as it started the dim. Standing up at full height, it's still and terrifying, Dipper. The figure was completely dim now that almost looked like a shadow. But then, even the shadow faded away, revealing a person. Somewhat.

Sure, it was no longer a massive glowing light or a shadow monster. But now he was a human in an interesting attire.

 The attire it dawned on was utterly foreign to Dipper, sure, he had seen people dressed similarly in the films and TV shows, but he had never seen someone in front of him dressed this way.

 Dark blue robes with a hood covered most of the body except for the face and hands. Dipper couldn't even see the feet of the figure as that's how far the robe stretched down; it had reminded him of one of those old plague doctors from medieval Europe. What differentiated it from them was the hands; instead of gloves like the doctors wore, its hands were completely covered in bandages wrapped up like a mummy

the only other exposed part of it not covered in robes was its face which adorned the mask. It was an off-putting white mask with two soulless eyes gazing into his soul. It almost looked like it was shaped like a bird, But it completely covered the face, and the beak was not sticking out. The only other thing that laid upon the mask was small red lines that sat Directly under both eyes and the third one in the middle of its brow that looked like a short red arrow Facing downwards.

Still too stunned to respond, Dipper gawked at the figure; he realized the sun was almost entirely down now, and he had to hurry home and away from that thing.

 Before he even mustered the confidence to get up, the figure kneeled and looked up slightly toward the Dipper.

 "the knowledge is yours now. Use it wisely." The figure said its voice still had no apparent gender or age to it, and it still sounded as monotone as ever. It fades away entirely before he can respond; he can barely see the fog-like smoke. It disappears into going into the book.

He was still sitting there, breathing heavily as he couldn't comprehend what had just happened in the last hour of his life.

 Standing up slowly, he stared down into the book in his hands.

 "What are you?"

 The only response he would get would be loud and sudden.

"HALLO," as Mabel jumped out from behind the log in front of him.

"AH," Dipper yelled as he fell back onto the ground, dropping the book right before Mabel's feet.

"Oh, what? You got there, some new nerd book," she said, grabbing and trying to open the book. But she struggled with it and looked at it confused.

 "what is it locked or something," she said casually

 Dipper had shaken from his fear at this point and got up swiftly.

"Mabel, how many times did Mom and Dad say stop scaring people? Also, give me that," he said as he grabbed the book from her.

"What kind of book doesn't open"? she asked. As soon as she finished, she noticed Dipper opening the book and quickly flipping through the pages.

 "Whoa, how did you do that," she said excitedly, bouncing around Dipper. "And what kind of book is it?"

 He didn't respond, looking around the forest again; the fog had apparently cleared up briefly since his encounter and Mabel's jumpscare.

 "We should talk where it's safe," he said as the goat that's got scared away earlier started chewing on his shirt.

 Much later, the sun had set entirely as the Pines twins discussed Dipper's find in the TV room.

While Mabel was sitting down comfortably on the arms of the chair. Dipper was creating tracks in the carpet for how much he walked back and forth while ranting to her about the book. He thought it was nice of her to indulge him for once, but for the first time, he was 100% sure he had encountered something supernatural.

 "It's crazy, Mabel Grunkle Stan said. There was nothing weird in this town, but I found a book and met some weird ghosts all on the same day; something crazy was going on. Even the book's author is mysterious; they just mysteriously stop writing. Did he go missing, or did something happen to him?" He continued the rant. While taking a deep breath to continue talking, he realized his sister seemed a little antsy; this usually meant she had something to say. She was never subtle when she wanted to tell him something, and right now, she seemed absolutely light on her feet.

 "Um, Mabel, what's wrong," Dipper said, concerned the only thing that could snap out of his supernatural encounter would be something going on with his sister.

"Well, it's time to spill the beans." Before he knew it, she pulled out a can of beans from her back pocket and then slapped it onto its side. "Boop. Beans. This girl's got a date, whoop whoop."

OK, maybe seeing a ghost wasn't the most shocking thing he would see all day.

"Mabel, are you telling me in the afternoon I was gone? You already found a date. Where did you even meet him". Dipper said frantically and confused.

 "Well, while you were out freaking out in the forest or whatever finding books. I decided to explore the town a little bit. He was very gentlemanly when I found him in a cemetery," she said, blushing as she recounted her memory.

 "Mabel, did you say a cemetery?" Just when Dipper thought she could surprise him anymore, she hit him with that one.

 "yeah, I guess you could call it a grave encounter" She smiled at him, nudging him with her elbow a bit.

 "Mabel, a grave encounter is a bad thing and a horror movie," Dipper responded, frowning slightly.

"but it was such a good pun," she said ecstatically. Dipper shrugged and agreed it was good timing for the pun.

 "Who even is he," Dipper said he was absolutely concerned with who would have already decided to go out with his sister.

 "Oh, don't worry, he's such a sweetheart. A little dim but sweet. I'm planning on introducing Him to you and Stan tomorrow; we're going to go on our first date then." She said, twirling around and excitement

 Dipper was absolutely floored. This day had been completely filled with madness from top to bottom.

 "Well, I think we need to get ready for bed," Mabel said as she sped off before he could ask any more questions.

 Mabel having a boyfriend was definitely interesting, but not as concerning as a book that cuts you to make you see a ghost or whatever it did.

 Or at least he thought it made him see the ghost if it was a ghost.

Opening up the book, Dipper read a few pages; the whole thing seemed to be filled with monsters he could never even dream of. It was different from your standard fare, like sasquatches and chupacabras. It had new and crazy stuff, Like a half hawk, half octopus, and a platypus in Plaid. He didn't know whether to laugh or feverishly start studying. His mind would get made for him when he stumbled upon a page with a half cow, half owl.

 "How does it even work biologically," he said out loud. Two voices respond to this.

 One was obviously a sister asking what he said, thinking she had been mentioned from the room over.

And the other was much softer and sent a chill-up Dipper's back. "Their biology does not conform to earthly standards."

All the hair Dipper possessed stood on edge as he slowly turned around in the seat he was placed in. Slowly craning his neck upward, He spotted the figure from the woods standing right behind the lamp and looking over his shoulder into the book.

 Dipper was almost hyperventilating at this point, seeing them just standing there.

 "Who…. who are you?" He wanted to sound brave but couldn't muster anything right now.

The figure only turned slowly to look at him. Unsurprisingly it still showed no emotion in its movements as it stared dead at him.

 "I am Riley." It said simply.

"you're Riley?... that's the name I gave you… did I name you"

 "yes."

 "Are you gonna hurt me?" he said, shaking slightly.

 "No"

"Are you gonna hurt my family?"

 "no."

He didn't know why, but he completely trusted the word of the spirit that stood before him. If it could truly show up anywhere, it would have hurt them by now.

 "Why are you here," Dipper said, turning back on investigative mode; he didn't sound tough enough to elicit any interrogation, so he hoped the creature or whatever was kind enough to share on its own.

"To protect the secrets of the journal."

This confused Dipper; maybe spirits had totally different definitions when it came to the term protecting because, from what he had seen so far, the book cut him, and he was allowed to take it.

 "If your job is to protect the secrets, why haven't you stopped me yet… wait you didn't lie to me, and you actually are gonna hurt me, right?" He said, preparing to jump off the seat to run.

"no, there is no need since you are the book's new owner." This came as a shock to the Dipper as he slowly looked down from them to the book.

"new owner? All I did was pick it up and… spill blood on it.? Did I like to create some kind of demon contract with you?"

 "No, I'm no demon."

"Wait, how could I be the new owner? What about the old one? Can you tell me who he is or where he is?" Dipper said excitedly. He hadn't had the book for that long, but he was already wondering who the genius behind it could be. Every single word in the book called to him like he was speaking to himself from the future.

 "I can't tell you who he is," the spirit said, shutting down his hopes.

 "Why not" Dipper said, growing sadder once more.

 "Because I do not remember, once the contract was broken between us, my memory was fried to say. All I now know is what you know and what the book knows."

 "The old author broke the contract," Dipper said, mumbling to himself.

"how do you break a contract between a spirit."

 "While I cannot remember my time with the original owner of this book, I can remember the terms of our contract. Spirits feel more power when they are tied to the earthly realm; in exchange for help with surveying this area and magic, I was allowed to stay on this earthly realm and possess the book."

"You need permission to possess a book? Wait, you never answered my question. How did you break the contract?"

 "I was not done speaking yet…"

"Oh, sorry," Dipper said nervously. It was strange that he was talking to a spirit tied to a book better than he could speak to many people his age, but here he was.

 "The knowledge and power I had given him was sensitive in nature. If it got into the wrong hands, it could be detrimental to your world and mine. I made him swear he would safely guard the information I recorded for him and helped him record. He broke that with the last memory, I possess of him abandoning me within that container."

 "wow, the author doesn't seem that good of a guy."

 "No, I think that's wrong. I can't remember him well, but I remember something changing, or I would never trust him in the first place."

"Hey, who are you talking to." The loud voice of Mabel cut into the conversation as she walked into the room, now dressed for bed. "I heard you talking to someone. Have you gone Cray Cray yet". she asked jokingly.

From where Riley and Mabel were standing, there was no way she could possibly miss them. It didn't take long for Dipper to realize he probably was the only one who could see the spirit.

 "I'm just reading out loud, Mabel; it helps me think," Dipper said awkwardly, trying to come up with an excuse that would also make sense.

 Mabel seemed to buy it as she just groaned. "please get your late-night summer reading done now. It's always so distracting when we sleep." He looked upset at that remark as she walked out.

 "Your reading is disturbing?" Riley asked.

"she's crazy," Dipper said defensively. He knew she was right but didn't want to admit that in front of the intelligent spirit.

 "So, do you know any other secrets the book doesn't have"? Dipper said, pulling out a pen and preparing to write down stuff in his own notepad.

"From what I remember, my task was to aid the author and his research; all information to the pages would be stored with me… but I do not remember that information."

 "Oh man, I'm sorry."

 They couldn't continue the conversation for much longer as a haggard Stan came in, holding a new magazine and a bowl of popcorn.

 "All right, kid, you can talk to yourself later. Off to bed shoe." Scrambling away, Dipper hid the book in his vest pocket as Riley seemed to fade away the moment it closed. Rushing upstairs, he prepared himself for bed.

Obviously, he was very distracted by the fact he was now tied with a book spirit, oddly fitting for him when he thought about it for longer than a few minutes. Another thought he added was that he was taking this well; he should have been freaking out when he thought he found a werewolf when he was 7, but it turns out it was just a mangy dog.

He knew better this time. He remembered how heartbroken his parents were when everyone at school called him crazy, and Mabel was the only one to defend him.

He would have to be more conservative with it now; besides, Riley said this knowledge had to be closely guarded. But also thinking about it, Riley said something about giving power, which was intriguing.

 Dipper entered the room he shared with Mabel, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts. The sides were cut in half as one side was bright and Rainbow colored with posters adorning the side. The other side was more a hue of dark green and brown, with only Dipper's backpack sitting on the side of the bed frame to show it was his.

 Speaking of the bed frame, that's what he had had Mabel on the other side of the room; she had two mattresses stacked on top of each other with a headboard that was taken from Dipper's bed. he didn't care at all, though; he had a more comfortable pillow. Noticing his sister was already asleep, he probably should catch up with her as he lay on his bed facing the ceiling.

 Not even bothering to place the covers on himself, he stared into the night, thinking about the day he had just had.

He was now tied to a spirit that was tied to a book, his sister had met a boy in the cemetery, and all those fictitious creatures he was bullied for believing in all these years turned out to be real.

Chewing on his shirt in stress, Dipper realized this was not even the first week over yet.

 Maybe Vacation wasn't going to be boring after all.

As he finally dozed off to sleep, Tiny embers of light left the book and hovered around Dipper; he didn't know it now, but the spirit would give him more than just knowledge.

Chapter Text

To say one of the Pines twins was better at waking up than the other would be a complete understatement. Despite their complete upheaval in location and tradition, Mabel was consistently still better at waking up in the morning than Dipper.

 As Mabel put it, every single moment of the day should be enjoyed, and sleep only exists to help you enjoy your day better. So it wasn't a shock to Dipper when he woke up in the shared room alone. What wasn't usual is he had a dreamless sleep; after the hectic events of the last week, he had been having some pretty inconsequential but fascinating experiences in this middle of sleep. But tonight, nothing.

 He was almost confused Until he noticed what was sitting on top of the nightstand next to his bed. The Journal lay there out in the open closed; he must have been tired last night if he decided to put an object, something people were desperately looking for, next to an open window, but what are the odds someone would be up stories of height just to look into their window. Before yesterday he would have said that was probably impossible, but now anything could happen.

 Groaning and struggling to stand up, he hopped out of bed and realized he felt odd. He felt lighter for some reason, not bad, just lighter. His head also felt a bit dizzy; he probably needed to eat something.

 Seeing as the room was unoccupied, Dipper quickly got dressed and prepared to endure another day of crazy. This is when the memories of the last day break through his tired mind into his conscience.

He now had a book full of monsters which were all probably real; this book, without his knowledge, bound him to a spirit that no one else sees. Oh yeah, and his sister somehow got a boyfriend.

 One of those things was clearly not like the other two, he thought as he came to the realization that Mabel's boyfriend would be coming over today. He supposes he should care, but it doesn't really matter.

 Honestly, Dipper didn't know what to think about this; he should be happy about this, but how many great people do you meet in cemeteries. But he guessed he couldn't judge too hard; their Great Uncle did own a tourist trap in the middle of the woods, and he was now forcefully friends with a book spirit.

 Speaking of Riley, his opinion hadn't changed on them; there was a mysterious presence that seemed to only permeate whenever the book was open. For the first time in his life, he can rightfully say he was paranoid about whether he could trust someone. The book even said to trust no one, but also Riley is connected to the book, right,? So would that mean Riley was saying trust no one? His head was starting to hurt even more, and this time not because of him probably being hungry.

Trudging his way downstairs, he'd expected to find Mabel either watching TV or making something in the kitchen, but neither was true; staring at the clock in the TV room, he did notice it was quite still early, not Mabel early but still early for him, seeing as he woke up before 10:00 o'clock without being disturbed.

 Walking into the kitchen to continue his search, he was met with Soos standing over the microwave while Stan was sipping coffee at the dinner table.

 "Um, hey, Soos, what are you doing here? It's like not even 9 in the morning yet."

 Soos turned around quickly, almost dropping the screwdriver in his hand. "Oh, Sup dog, Mr. Pines told me the microwave was messed up, so he called me over."

 "What happened to the microwave?" Dipper said casually as he sat at the table.

"Your sister was so excited with her date that she accidentally put a fork in the microwave," Stan said gruffly as he was reading a newspaper called the gravity falls, gossiper.

 "Oh," Dipper said simply. He probably didn't need more of an explanation.

 "she was making a bowl of cereal," Stan said, clarifying even though this just left the Dipper even more confused.

 "oh," Dipper said once more, finally grasping the state Mabel was in.

A weaker person would make fun of Mabel for this or think there's something wrong with her, but Dipper knows what's really up. His sister, completely opposite to him, was quick to love; even the spark of an idea of romance could excite her, and it didn't help that she'd been so unsuccessful before in her life. Their parents had tried to explain they were still very young and shouldn't be hung up over this, but Mabel didn't care. The moment she entered middle school, she tried to get a boyfriend, and most of the boys she asked usually had the same consensus. She was far too hyperactive for a normal person.

 This was the only reason he was giving the cemetery guy a chance; as long as he made her happy, he guessed there was no problem with it.

 "Where is she now?" Dipper asked, preparing himself a bowl of cereal without the microwave explosion.

 "she's apparently off getting him now, so we can meet each other early or whatever," Stan said, scoffing a little bit. He clearly didn't care about Mabel's new romantic adventure; he would probably only be glad that she would stop harassing customers.

 Not much else happened that breakfast; Soos had fixed the microwave, and Stan had been nonplussed The entire time. He'd probably only get his energy when he was ready to scam some people.

 Speaking of scamming customers, Dipper had already begun his task of helping clean up the gift shop and tour area. By the time the shack opened around 10:00 o'clock, Wendy had arrived silently, assuming her favorite relaxing position at the front counter, Stan was suiting up in preparation for the first guest, and Soos was carving a face into a rock. Dipper didn't really know what was going on with that last one, but he assumed Stan put him up to it.

 A loud slam would echo throughout the shop as the front door was opened forcefully and quickly. The noise was so attention-grabbing not only Soos and Dipper but Wendy as well looked up quickly to see the origin of the noise. It was Mabel; she had asked to be excused from the day to meet up with her new boyfriend to bring them to the shack, he assumed she would be gone with him all day and then bring them to the shack, but Nope, here she was.

 She had obviously run here at full speed seeing her heavy breathing as she sucked in a deep breath and yelled at the top of her lungs.

 "FAMILY MEETING!"

Her voice echoed throughout the shop as Stan came from the back area to see the commotion.

 "hey Mabel, thought you had the day off today," Wendy said casually, returning to her magazine.

 "I did, or I still am; it doesn't matter now. I want you guys all to meet someone; now gather around!"

 Following her instructions, Soos, Stan, Dipper, and Wendy gathered around the cash register; well, Wendy hadn't moved, but it still counted.

 "One second, let me get him," Mabel said. In a quick second, she zoomed out of the building.

 "So what are you guessing," Stan said, looking down at Dipper."Cause I'm thinking young theater kid with a terrible sense of fashion."

 Wendy was unexpectedly interested in the conversation. "Mr. Pines, as someone who has a friend who lives near a cemetery, I'm guessing she's going out with the goth."

"Ooh ooh let me have a guess, oh she's dating uh uh…. Man, I got nothing," Soos said, finishing the commentary.

 Dipper could only shake his head at the gossip. "Not to be rude, but knowing Mabel, it could be anyone."

 Before he can go into greater detail about how Mabel would go out with any personality range. Mabel herself hopped back into the door frame, excited to show the rest who hid behind the wall.

"Hey, family! Say hello to my new boyfriend!." Presenting him as if he was a new guest on a TV show, Dipper was surprised to say he was interested to see what kind of guy he was.

 Oh

 Dipper had expected a wide range of individuals, from a bookworm to a sporty kid, someone too shy to say their name to a theater kid. But what he was met with right in front of him was something entirely different.

 Mabel's new boyfriend was slightly taller than her, but that wasn't the odd part; his look was all messed up. Completely covered head to toe in a black hoodie, dark blue jeans, and black shoes, he looked like a mess.

 Not a single article of clothes he wore looked clean or undamaged, there was a branch sticking out the side of his hoodie, and He looked dead.

 Not in the same kind of dead as a mummified bus driver,  But he was a constant state of slack jaw, ghostly pale, and had a red stain on his cheek. He also looked incredibly nervous to be standing there.

  Dipper was glad to see his reaction of hesitance wasn't unfounded, as all the rest of the employees and Stan seemed to share his sentiment.

Wendy seemed to frown slightly before returning to her newspaper, and Soos even looked skeptical.

 Stan, on the other hand, seemed to not really care; when Dipper said Stan seemed to not care about Mabel's romantic life, he really didn't seem to care. He was probably just upset he guessed wrong.

 The hellos from the mystery shack crew were all hesitant.

 "Sup," the boyfriend said, holding up his hand in a wave that had a robotic movement.

 Reading the awkwardness in the room, Mabel decided to jump back in

 "Like I said, we met in a cemetery. He's really deep." squeezing his arm a bit, she looked a bit shocked. "Oh, a little muscle there… that's...a… surprise."

"So, what's your name," Dipper said awkwardly, his voice slightly cracking. His suspicion rose with every second he stood at the mystery shack door; even if he was normal, something was wrong with him. He didn't think it was just nerves about meeting the family.

"Uh. Normal... MAN!" he barked out in a response, sounding like some kind of mix of a caveman and someone who was half asleep. Yeah, there was something wrong with him, Dipper, though.

"He means Norman," Mabel said defensively, hugging him around his midsection again.

 "Are you bleeding, Norman?" He seemed shocked at this, almost like the giant red splotch on his cheek wasn't obvious.

 "It's the jam." nobody in the shack thought this was convincing. Before they could speak up, Mabel interjected loudly.

 "I love jam! Look. At. This!" She exclaimed, pointing between her and him repeatedly.

 The awkwardness had probably reached its peak as Norman turned to her.

"So, you wanna go hold hands or... whatever?" Norman said awkwardly.

 Mabel blushed profusely at this.

"Oh, oh, my goodness," Mabel said, laughing to herself a bit. Before anyone could tell her anything, she yelled don't wait up and sprinted out the door.

In a horrible attempt to act casually, Norman had tried to coolly point his fingers at the mystery crew before walking out, only to slam his head against the door frame before leaving properly.

 "Well, that was a thing," Stan said as he prepared to leave for the tourist area.

 Dipper could only stare awestruck at him. He couldn't have been the only person to think this was wrong.

"Guys, he was weird, right? I'm not crazy?" Dipper said frantically to Soos and Wendy.

 Soos only shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, dude, there are a lot of weird people in this town; I don't even think he's the weirdest one you'll see today."

 "Yeah, Dipper, just because he looks like a corpse doesn't mean he is one," Wendy said, laughing. "Besides the groaning, I have a friend who acts just like that."

Wendy’s attempts to alleviate him unknowingly backfired as one word stuck out to him the most, corpse. This word that repeated in his head suddenly reminded him of something.

 “Hey, guys, I’m gonna take a break for a bit if Stan asks. I’m throwing up or something.”

“You got it, dude.” “Whatever,” Wendy and Soos responded as he ran upstairs.

There was something obviously wrong with Norman. Maybe it was his newfound discovery of the supernatural, but Dipper had a feeling about him, something more than him just being a little strange.

This was all Dipper could think about when he marched upstairs. If there was something strange in the town, there was only one source to consult, the Journal.

Bathed in the red light of the attic room Dipper sat alone, staring at the closed book in front of him.

This Journal held a record of some of the most goofy, fascinating, and horrifying creatures he's ever heard of, but what scared him the most was what happened when he opened it.

Riley was still an absolute mystery to him when he really thought about it. The mysterious being claimed to help whoever owned the book and, as far as he could tell, only showed up when it was open.

All his worries were soon drowned out when he looked out the window to see Mabel talking with Norman on one of the benches on the lawn. There was an absolute risk to what he was doing, but if there was an even 1% chance his sibling was in any kind of danger, it would be worth the risk. He would do everything to help if she was in trouble, and he knew she would do the same.

 Cracking open the book slowly, he panned his head around the eerie empty room to see if anything would happen yet. So far, no spirit.

After a few minutes of holding his breath, wondering if they would show up, he decided to get his research done.

He was flipping through pages rapidly; there had to be something in this book that could explain Norman's unusual behavior. Not every page was helpful. Obviously, he doubted Norman was a group of flying eyes or a haunted ventriloquist dummy, so he went through the book quickly.

He would suddenly halt as he saw a familiar-looking picture of a teenage individual wearing a black hood. The resemblance was uncanny; his fears were not alleviated when he read the title.

 The Undead

 gasping in horror, Dipper almost dropped the book when he put it all together. The lack of motor control, the weird speech, and the bleeding. It was so much information at once he could barely contain himself.

 "A Zombie!!" he screamed out. Not knowing the amount of confusion he caused everyone else throughout the shack. The more he read, the more concerned he got; apparently, the author had dealt with multiple zombies in the past, most of them originating from some flood in the 1800s.

The author claimed he had dealt with many of them, but they could always spread.

Looking outside once more, he noticed Mabel and Norman were starting to skip off, most likely to start their date. He felt like following right there and then, but he felt like he should devise a plan.

"There's no way Norman can be a zombie, right," Dipper said, asking the question out loud.

 "I don't know how many brains did you see him eat." The sudden voice calling out scared Dipper; as he gave an embarrassingly high-pitched scream and fell back into the seat. Getting up from a shock, he noticed Soos had appeared out of nowhere and was fixing a light bulb.

 "Soos, how did you get here without me noticing," he asked frantically, grabbing his heart while breathing heavily.

 "don't know, dude, it's kinda easy to sneak up on you while you were talking yourself." He said this while stepping up atop the step ladder to reach the light bulb.

 "Hey, man, do you think it's possible Norman could be…I don't know a…zombie." Well, if Soos didn't think he was crazy, then he probably thought he was crazy now, but he was one of the people to say there could be things in the forest, so maybe he could help.

 "Like I asked earlier, how many brains did you see him eat?" Soos said, scratching his chin.

 ", Zero," Dipper said depressingly. He just realized a crucial flaw, he didn't have any evidence that Norman was a zombie, just a statement from a book that looks oddly relevant to the times.

"Hey, don't worry, little dude, I believe you. This town's kinda weird; I'm pretty sure the mailman is a werewolf." Soos said, putting an arm on Dipper's shoulder. "But you have to have evidence. Otherwise, people are going to think you're a Major League cuckoo clock.". Dipper was all too familiar with this; even if he had what he believed was evidence, people would still make fun of him back home. But this time was different. This time, he knew something supernatural was happening in this town, and now his family was potentially in danger. He would have to get some actual evidence if he wants to convince them, and he's determined to get it.

"As always, Soos, you're right," Dipper said, praising him, but he was too deep in thought about his next move.

 "my wisdom is both a blessing and a curse," Soos said cryptically.

 Before the conversation can continue, Stan yells from downstairs about a clogged toilet or something, and before Dipper knows it, Soos leaves him alone in the room. Now all he had to do was think of ways to prove someone was, in fact, a zombie.

"There's gotta be some way to show Mabel her boyfriend is a zombie, but I need proof. How do you prove someone is a zombie?" He said out loud, scratching his chin.

Dipper failed to notice that the book was still open behind him as a soft whisper came past his ears.

"What type of zombie is he." A monotone voice called from behind Dipper. Turning around quickly, Dipper was shocked to see Riley was sitting where he just was previously; they had a proper way of sitting as if they had to address Dipper formally. All Dipper could do in response with a scream.

 "AH, I mean, wait, you're back," Dipper said, shocked that Riley didn't appear immediately after the book was open. He should probably start asking more questions to them.

 "I never left. Remember, I'm tied to you and the book; I am always with either. That is how I remain on earth."

"Oh yeah, sorry, I kind of forgot, or I was focused on other things. Have you seen my sister's new boyfriend?" Dipper said, exasperated, finally realizing he had someone to aid him in his investigations; this was a prime opportunity. He didn't know much about Riley yet, but he knew they were a wealth of information.

 "no, you left the book upstairs," Riley said. While their emotions rarely showed, he could tell they were ticked off by that fact.

 "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't think about it. I was just trying to start my day off, you know." Dipper said, sweating a little bit; he really didn't wanna make a spirit permanently tied him angry.

 "I recommend you take the journal with you; you never know when someone could take it."

 "Well, if you're bonded with me, how can anyone open the book."

 "There are ways,  but those do not matter now. You said your sister is in a relationship with a zombie." Riley said, actually confused.

 "Yeah, isn't that crazy?" Dipper said. He was very emotive at the time, shaking his arms at Riley.

 "it is not recommended," they said simply.

 "Well, here's the thing I don't know if he is a zombie yet; if I get this wrong, I can be in huge trouble with Mabel. I don't want her to freak out that I'm trying to get rid of her first boyfriend." Dipper complained, sitting down next to Riley; he didn't need to scoot away so far from them when he really thought about it. They were still and see-through, so he wondered if they occupied space.

 Riley seemed to ponder for a second before turning down the Dipper."If you need the information, try finding it and recording it for later use."

This was Dipper's light bulb moment. Jumping off the seat quickly, he had a brilliant thought. "That's a great idea! If I follow my sister around on her date, I can deduce whether Norman is a zombie, just like some private detective."

 "you're not a detective," Riley said

 "it was a simile; I just need to get my camera to record the evidence and then be on my way."

 "Why would you need a camera." Riley cocked their head in confusion.

 "what do you mean" Dipper stopped mid-stride while on his way to run to his room.

"You have the journal; you should record your findings in there; it is its purpose," Riley said, a little defensive about the journals.

 "Yeah, but I can't show my sister a bunch of writing; she won't believe me then." He wasn't trying to offend Riley, but he did find it interesting they only wanted information in the book.

"If you find any more information on this, I recommend you write it down in the journal to aid you in future situations. "

 Scrambling out of the room and quickly grabbing the book, Dipper geared up with all the required equipment. A camera and the journal were all he thought he needed. Stuffing both of his backpack, he ran through the house at lightning speeds and out the front door to try and catch up with his sister.

When confronted with the idea of what his sister thought the ideal date was, this was precisely what Dipper figured it would be.

 Frolicking in the park, eating at a diner, and playing Frisbee were ideas he could only imagine his sister coming up with. While they were playing some games, Dipper was hiding behind a bush with the camera on a tripod pointed in their direction.

They had not moved from that spot for a while, so Dipper was confident he could just point the camera and collect the evidence without holding it; besides knowing how loud his sister was, there was no way she could sneak off without knowing. While he wasn't holding the camera, he was reading the journal a bit more; he found it interesting that all the creatures listed inside.

He should probably ask them the next time they appeared, and then he got a crazy thought in his head.

They were linked, right, so if we just thought real hard, they would show up; that's got to be how it works, right. Putting both hands on his temple, he strained his brain hard to focus on Riley appearing before him. It wouldn't be a few seconds when a soft whisper and a little bit of fog around him.

 Riley appeared right in front of him in the same squatting position behind the bush.

 "Oh my God, I just summoned someone. That's so cool," Dipper said out loud but quite enough for sister to hear.

 "is there anything you request?" Riley said, not reacting to his little celebration.

 "Oh, Oh yeah, I was just wondering what you are and what you do."

Despite the nonvisual face, Dipper almost shrunk as he could see Riley's visage pull itself into a scowl; he was walking on eggshells. He obviously didn't want to offend The being.

"You have been informed of this. I am a spirit; my task is to protect the journal, aid in recording bonus information, and provide methods to deal with monsters."

 Methods to deal with monsters that's a new one, Dipper thought; this whole situation felt too alien to him before the summer started. He could barely hold a conversation with people he would call his friends, but now he expected himself to talk to Riley. Luckily for him, he was starting to get acclimated to it. They hadn't shown a hostile bone in their body, but he was still nervous. Just because they hadn't shown it yet doesn't mean they didn't have it.

"What do you mean by methods of dealing with monsters," Dipper said excitedly. He wasn't a guy that dreamed of hunting monsters more discovering, but with Norman hanging around his sister, he had to only hope it wouldn't end in some kind of physical conflict.

"Magic or at least a toned-down version of it, nothing is strong as an actual mage could perform. But that should not be your priority right now; your objective is getting away."

 "My objective is what," Dipper asked, confused; his eyes widened when he realized what they were talking about. Mabel and Norman were walking away rather quickly to their following date location.

Dipper, in his clumsiness, scrambled to get up; grabbing his equipment clumsily, he followed them in what he hoped was a stealthy manner.

He wished he could say he found anything on the note, but the next few hours were more of the same. The only thing that differentiated was his brief conversations with Riley and a sudden raccoon attack, but he didn't really want to talk about that.

From what information he did gather from the cryptic spirit. Whoever the old author has specifically erased any mentions of date in the book; this way, whoever found it would have no idea where it was from; Riley couldn't guess either. He also prodded Riley about the magical power they can give, but every time he asked, they responded with something along the lines of, it takes time or be patient.

Dipper might be timid, but he was starting to get annoyed. He knew he was tied to the spirit but didn't know what kind of privileges that entailed; he had a sudden idea where he'd demand them to give an answer, but that would probably make them angry, or at least Riley's case, mildly annoyed.

Back to his investigation of Mabel's boyfriend, he was going exactly as well as he thought it would; sure, he was confident in saying there was something up with Norman. Even he knew the evidence wasn't strong enough to support a strong case so far. Sure, Norman could easily be a zombie, but he could also be a guy with the worst motor skills known in human history. He constantly reminded himself that this was not a useless venture and that Mabel's safety depended on it.

 It was late at night in the mystery shack when both Dipper and Mabel returned. After a brief discussion With Stan on why they had skipped out on work, they started preparing for bed again.

 Stan threatened them with being fired once more, but Dipper just responded that they were not legally old enough to work; Stan would almost smile at him for assuming he would care about the rules.

 As both twins finally prepped themselves for bed, Dipper knew he had to discuss things with Mabel.

 "Hey, Mabel, how would you feel if the supernatural was real," Dipper said awkwardly; they had talked about this a lot growing up, but this time, he meant it.

"um, Dipper, has there ever been a point in your life when you didn't believe in the supernatural," Mabel said, raising her eyebrow while brushing her hair.

He wanted to tell her about Norman and Riley, but he didn't have any concrete proof for either. Sure, he could pull out the book again and have her fail to try and open it again, but that was strange, not mysterious spirits strange; he would have to find a way to talk about Riley some other time; Norman was the focus.

 "I don't know how to tell you this, Mable, but I think something's up with Norman." To emphasize this point, he held up the book to her; she wasn't dumb; she knew what he was Implying.

At the mention of a new boyfriend, Mabel's attention was completely grabbed as she stared into the book with wide eyes. What he wasn't expecting was a slight smile approaching her face.

"Dipper, are you saying he's a Vampire," Mabel said, realizing her dreams of the romance novels she snuck from her mom could finally come true. Of course, Dipper starts sputtering, confused.

 "what! no, Mabel, he's not a vampire, or at least I don't think he is." Dipper said quickly, flipping the pages of the book to try and show her.

 "Oh, you mean a werewolf," she said even quicker than he could find the page.

 "No"

 "A Centaur"

"No, Mabel, please stop guessing."

 "Oh! Oh! I know. Is he a secret wizard that will whisk me off into a magical different dimension? We will fight together for the name of true love." Mabel said excitedly, twirling around.

Dipper just looked at her wide-eyed at that one.

 Riley, who had appeared once he opened the book, stood behind her when he stared directly at them. He gave him a look of confusion which they mirrored by shrugging their shoulder.

" That one's not in the book," Riley said as they inspected the room around them.

 "OK," Dipper said, relieved Mabel hadn't encountered something he hadn't even known about.

 "OK, what?" Mabel said, confused.

 "Umm, nothing, never mind that," Dipper responded quickly; he had a cheerful look in his eye when he thought he had finally found the page. "Now don't be horrified, sister, but I think your boyfriend might be a…"

 Shoving the book in her face dramatically, he said Shabnam to emphasize his point. He hadn't realized he had accidentally flipped the pages when he shoved it in her face.

Instead of a horrified look, Mabel gave a quick shriek and then a look of confusion when she was reading the page.

 Dipper was now also confused, looking at the page and realizing he had flipped it to Gnomes. "Oh, sorry," Dipper said, flipping the pages again to show zombies.

 Instead of another horrified look, Mabel just got another confused look on her face.

"A zombie? Dipper you got to be kidding me?"

"You have to admit, Mabel, it makes sense, the limp, the way he talks, the bleeding. Have you ever seen him blink!" Dipper said frantically he was losing his cool again like he usually did when he was in the middle of conspiracy mode.

 Mabel only started frowning a bit. "Come on, Dipper, I think I would know if my boyfriend was a zombie. Besides, he could be blinking when you're blinking."

Dipper didn't want to grace that line of thinking with a response. He still got even more frantic and started shaking Mabel's shoulders.

 "Mabel, he might eat your brains. Aren't you worried?"

 All it took was one look from Mabel to know he'd messed up. "Look, dipper, I know he might be weird, but so am I, and you don't think I'm a weird monster thing, right?"

 "what? No, of course not." Dipper said, trying to understand where this was going.

"Come on, Dipper, every time something slightly different in our lives happens, you freak out and think something crazy is gonna happen to us."

 "That's not true," Dipper said defensively.

 "Oh yeah, when you were 10, you thought our new babysitter killed the old one; when you were 9, you thought Santa's elves stole all your Piggy Bank money,  heck just last year, you thought Andrew on the basketball team was an alien."

Dipper could only look down in shame; she was right. All of those incidents were true.

"What I'm saying, Dipper, is that not everything is a conspiracy theory, not everything's a secret alien plot, and not everything's related to monsters. Now I'm gonna go on a date with Norman tomorrow. I'm gonna be adorable. He's gonna be dreaming, and you better not ruin it." It was rare to see Mabel be so stern, but he couldn't blame her; he was just lucky he didn't tell her he was following her all day.

 "Now we're going to go to bed; I'm gonna get my beauty sleep. You're gonna get some actual sleep, and then everything will be fine tomorrow, right?"

 "Right," Dipper agreed depressingly.

 "Cool," Mabel said, perking up instantly; within a flash, she was already running to her bed and under the covers. On the other hand, Dipper slowly walked to his bed and turned off the lamp.

 It wasn't even a minute later that he could hear her snoring. Staring at the ceiling, Dipper could only think about whether she was right; maybe he was acting a little crazy, but when he was rationalizing himself, he saw Riley standing around the room, taking in all the details. He picked up the book once more to put it next to his pillow and asked one more question.

 "Hey, Riley"

 "Yes"

"Is there a way I can figure out to show you to other people?"

 "Not without a magical artifact, why do you ask?"

 "So people won't think I'm crazy."

 "Why do you care?"

 Dipper sat up a little in his bed, staring directly at them, holding the book once more; using his phone light, he started writing down his findings about Norman in the journal under an investigation page.

 Riley seemed more interested now, phasing through objects to better look at what he was writing.

“I thought you were going to cease your investigation,” Riley said.

“Everyone’s right about me. I am paranoid,” he whispered, finishing writing. “I don’t even think I’m a good brother right now. What do you think? Am I acting too paranoid?”

 “Maybe if you were in another area, but here you never know, even I barely know sometimes.”

 “Yeah, I get you; good night Riley,” Dipper said, yawning while closing the book. Riley disappears into a fog. Laying down his head to rest, he would think about the situation more in the morning.

 Little did he know, across the room, Mabel was still awake. knowing her brother and his penchant for monologue, she faked sleep to see what he would say,

she expected him to say something really mean and then for her to jump out and surprise him, but now she was just confused.

 “Riley?” she thought, confused.

It was late the next day when the inevitable date was supposed to occur. Like every day, the Pines twins had spent most of their day working in the shack. Dipper seemed even more distracted while doing his meager task, while Mabel could barely focus due to her anticipation. If she'd been counting, she'd realized that she had sold even more things today just based on her enthusiasm alone which had doubled.

 As all the employees were doing their assigned tasks, Mabel took a break in the corner drinking bottled water; talking for hours hurt her throat. While still smiling, she did kind of feel bad for how she spoke to Dipper yesterday; her little brother, as she always called him, had always been sensitive about being called out for his paranoia ever since the conversation with their parents about getting help, Dipper toned it down significantly, but she could still tell he was holding on to it. It's not like she had a significant problem with this paranoia was just another part of what made Dipper.

But it didn't take a therapist to know it was getting bad while they've been here. The moment he stepped off the bus, she could tell Dipper was almost losing it from anything from a squirrel passing by to a weird rustling tree.

But she couldn't think about that right now; she would be going on a date with her first boyfriend later that day. It made her almost too happy to think. Her mom, her dad, her brother, and her various teachers all agreed she was way too young to pursue a relationship this hard, but she didn't care.

 All Mabel wanted to do was spread the love and feel the love, and she couldn't hold herself back.

When 5:30 hit, an alarm immediately went off on her phone, which had already been decorated in various colors and stickers in the short time she had it. As if he was connected to the alarm, there was a knock on the door, and Norman was revealed to be standing there. She said goodbye to her family, and while stepping out, she saw Dipper was frowning a bit; she knew he was just an overprotective brother, but she needed her space sometimes.

 The date had been going so well in her opinion, her talking with Norman interjecting with only slight comments, but he seemed happy too.

This would only change when they reached a clearing in the forest.

 "Well, that's far enough from the shack. We should be alone. What did you want to tell me," she asked cutely.

 "yes, we're alone," Norman said, his voice had gotten a little darker. As he looked around, he realized no one was around. Usually, this would raise red flags, but Mabel was confident in her abilities to fight off people and read them; she was, after all, the kickboxing champion of her family.

"Ugh, Mabel, Now that we've gotten to know each other… there's something I gotta tell you, something really important." now Mabel was confused. He suddenly didn't seem as scary as before, just nervous. For a second, she started to think he would break up with her, but now he wanted to reveal something. Now Dipper's ranting infested her head. Oh my God, what if he is a vampire, she thought? That would be kind of cool.

"Oh, you, Norman, you can tell me anything. I'll still love you." She said she was on the edge of her seat.

"uh yeah, well, the truth is… well, I should probably just show you." He unzipped his jacket before she could even process what he was saying.

She almost covered her eyes, but what she was met with was far more surprising than anything she could possibly conceive.

Mabel believed somewhat in the supernatural; maybe it was just her brother's impact on her. Even if she thought they were real, they probably didn't wanna talk to humans. Like one of her childhood movies said, unicorns usually hide from humans. But right in front of her, she wasn't confronted with a vampire, werewolf, or even a zombie standing right in front of her, or should she stay stacked right in front of her was a collection of Gnomes forming a human shape.

 "uh, is this weird? Do you need to sit down or something" The Gnome on top, which was once Norman's face, spoke up awkwardly? Mabel desperately tried to respond, but all she could muster was a small groan of confusion.

 "So yeah, um, I'm Jeff." The lead Gnome said, pointing towards himself; she still could barely process what was happening. "And here we have Carson, Steve, Jason, And… I'm sorry I always forget your name. What was it again." Jeff asked awkwardly to the oldest-looking Gnome that made-up one of the legs.

"Shmebulock." He responded in a deeper voice than any of the Gnomes had. All while this was happening, Mabel could barely stand, sitting on top of a rock and slapping her forehead in frustration. This… wasn't how it was supposed to go, right? Every single story she had ever read, I told her how romance is played out, But this… this could not be a reality, right.

While she had her frustrating thoughts, the gnomes continued their little introductions.

"Anyways, long story short, us gnomes have been lookin' for a new queen! Right, guys?" As Jeff asked this question, the rest of the Gnomes all started creepily chanting queen while making grabbing motions at her. Mabel couldn't tell if she was heartbroken; sure, she wanted her first boyfriend to love her, but now her first boyfriend was a collection of Gnomes. All with red pointy hats and little overall outfits, and apparently, they were scouting her for a new queen. Jeff trying to calm down all of his followers ordered them to put themselves on one knee and present her a ring.

"Will you join us in holy matrignomey? Matri...matri-mo-ny! Blah! Can't talk today!"

 This straw broke the camel's back in less than a second; Mable shot up, standing straight, and prepared to walk off.

"Look... I'm sorry, guys. You're really sweet, but I'm a girl, and you're gnomes, and it's like, "what"? Yikes..." She was trying to let them down as gently as possible, and sure did; she wanted to cry or punch them a little, but she was so out of her depth here that she just tried to play it off.

 "We understand, Mabel," Jeff said, downtrodden along with the rest of his men. She smiled at this sure, they were biological anomalies that proved her brother was somewhat correct yes. But it was nice to know they had some class.

 "That's why we're gonna kidnap you."

 Never mind, she thought as before she came to process what was happening, a bunch of gnomes had tackled her.

Back at the Mystery Shack, secluded within the TV room, Dipper was on another one of his prolonged breaks. It was an unofficial rule between the twins that when one of them wasn't working, the other wouldn't either.

 Stan never liked this, obviously, but Dipper was tired of cleaning up that shop and the constant mess the town folks and tourists made.

 "Maybe if I can't prove Norman is a zombie, at least this footage could have something interesting in the background," Dipper said aloud; sure, this was an absolute long shot, but if he had a dollar every time a claimed UFO was caught in the background of a family vacation trip, he would have maybe enough money to buy an apple at a supermarket.

 Looking to his side, he noticed Riley was doing their usual scoping out the building while the book was open; at some random points of the day, he just decided to keep it open, and it seemed like Riley was taking in the sights of the Mystery Shack in an interesting way.

 He was fast-forwarding mindlessly as he decided to ask the question.

 "Hey, Riley, what's up with you scoping out the area all the time?"

"I was trapped in that hole for years, decades maybe. I can barely remember the human world, but now I see why I joined it is so vibrant." Riley said, almost in a reminiscent way. Dipper personally didn't know what they were talking about. The shack was mostly a drab color of brown, and the only interesting things were the random artifacts Stan kept around that he didn't put in a tourist area.

 "Also, your television is… enlightening," Riley said. Dipper swore he could almost feel a hint of embarrassment to their words. But he couldn't blame them, he'd never heard of a show called Ducktective, but it was playing in the background.

At some point during his mindless fast-forwarding footage, Riley had floated over to him, looking over it as well.

 "Mabel was right; I'm acting completely paranoid; just because there are some supernatural things doesn't mean everything is supernatural," Dipper said, leaning back in the chair, accepting defeat.

 "You might want to rewind that last minute," Riley said suddenly. With a quick curiosity, Dipper shot up and watched the camera's video. It started out typical Mabel and Norman were embracing each other, looking over a hill, when suddenly his hand fell off. This would have been shocking on its own if it wasn't for unknown to his sister; he leaned down to pick it up and put it back on his wrist.

 A sharp gasp hit Dipper as he jumped up in fright. In his panic, he accidentally knocked over the chair he was sitting in, getting a surprised look from Riley. On the other hand, he was too concerned with saving Mabel, but first, he would need some help.

 “Grunkle Stan grunkle Stan.” Dipper called out frantically, running towards the front of the house where he knew a tour would be starting soon.

Bursting out the front door, he was met with Stan in front of a large group of people, showing them the rock Soos had carved earlier.

 He was desperately calling out his name to try and get his attention, but he was drowned out by a crowd of people asking ridiculous questions about the rock's nature. He would have probably kept yelling if it wasn't for a sound of a golf cart rolling up behind him.

 Turning around quickly, he noticed Wendy approaching with the golf cart; why she had it, nobody knows, but she seemed a little surprised when he ran up to her screaming.

 "Wendy, you gotta help me; my sister's been taken by a zombie that's actually her boyfriend; please give me the cart; you gotta help me, please." He was begging at this point. Sure, she had no real reason to believe him, but he was desperate.

 Wendy looked confusingly and half a second but then shrugged before tossing the keys. "Don't hit any pedestrians, and be careful jumping off ramps, trust me." She said nonchalantly.

 He wanted to be confused by that line, but he did notice the cart was a little dirtier than usual; that mystery was solved. After a brief smile of thanks for giving him the keys, he floored it to reach where she said she would take Norman yesterday.

 He couldn't remember precisely, but he did remember her mentioning they were going for a walk in the meadows near where he found the book. His brief bout of speed would end quickly as he almost ran to Soos, holding up a for him to stop.

 "Hey dude, you look like you're being serious. you gonna go stop at zombie?" Soos said casually.

 "Yeah, man, and I gotta go right now," Dipper said, trying to hurry him up.

 "I got you, dude; here you go; this is for the zombie." Dipper looked a little shocked to see him be handed a shovel. In an awkward moment, he looked up between the shovel and Soos.

"Um, thanks," he said awkwardly, readjusting himself to go full speed again. But he was stopped again when a baseball bat was held right before his face.

 "And this is in case you see pinata." Soos interrupted once more. Dipper could only stare at him more awkwardly now, questioning why he would carry a shovel and a baseball bat.

 "Yeah, uh… thanks, man," Dipper replied quickly, peeling out with the cart. He swore he could hear Soos tell him better safe than sorry while driving at full speed through the forest.

 Dipper opened the book in his lap along the dirt paths and summoned Riley. If he wasn't in such a rush, he would probably be more surprised that Riley chose to appear holding onto the back of the cart instead of the seat next to him.

 "You summoned," Riley said

 "Riley, this is important. I need to know where zombies usually hang out." Dipper screamed. Before he got an answer, he heard his sister cry out for help.

 "never mind." Whipping the steering wheel towards the direction, the bumpy road was starting to get a little stranger as the woods changed.

 "Be warned," Riley said. "You are entering the enchanted side of the forest."

 "The what," Dipper said, surprised. "What do you mean there's an enchanted part of the forest."

 "it's farther along in the book if you read it," Riley said.

 "you know it's hard for me to read a whole book in two days. Especially when trying to get evidence for a zombie case and working."

 "Excuses," Riley said oddly sarcastically; in frustration, Dipper growled slightly but was cut off when he realized the cart had taken a sharp incline downwards into an ethereal-looking grove.

All sense of discovery and wonder was immediately called off when he heard his sister struggling down the path. Parking the cart and grabbing both the shovel and the baseball bat, he was surprised to see Mabel tied to the ground Gulliver's travel style when he got there. There is no zombie around, just the horde of Gnomes. Wait, Gnomes dipper, though?

He wasn't the only one who seemed to share this surprise as even Riley was speechless, stepping out of the cart even though they didn't need to do that.

 "Huh, fascinating," Riley said. Calmly assessing the situation. Dipper, on the other hand, was obviously freaked out.

 "what the heck is going on here," he said as one straggler Gnome passed by, not without hissing, making him almost drop his weapons.

"Dipper! Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes!" Mabel yelled frantically, breaking free momentarily and beating up a few gnomes before they grabbed her hair.

 Dipper could only stare in shock. He looked at Riley for a few seconds, but they just shrugged and pointed toward who they thought was the leader.

 "The book's guide to monster interactions says first contact should always be taken lightly; you might want to be rational about this," Riley said. They really thought what they were saying was helpful, but Dipper seeing his sister be hurt, didn't care about that right now.

"Hey, HEY! Let go of my sister!" He said angrily towards Jeff, the Gnome obviously leading this event.

 Jeff, for a moment, looked shocked until he recognized who he was.

 "Oh hey, brother-in-law, don't worry, your sister's not in danger. She's gonna marry all 1000 of us and become our queen for all of eternity."

 Dipper thought he heard Riley say something along the lines of fascinating in the background, but he was too angry to focus on that right.

 Holding up the shovel, he pointed directly at Jeff threateningly.

 "Let my sister go, or else."

 Jeff dropped all pretenses of being peaceful. It was starting to grow more enraged every second.

"You think you can stop us, boy? You have no idea what we're capable of. The gnomes are a powerful race! Do not trifle with the—." Before Jeff could even finish his most likely long rant, Dipper took the shovel and scooped him out of the way with it quietly. That was about as easy as he thought it was gonna be. Within a moment, he was already up to his sister, cutting the strings and leading her toward the cart.

 "Here, have a bat he quickly tossed it to her." Dipper grabbing her hand, ran her to the golf cart as fast as he could. If he were paying attention more, he would have realized two things of importance. One, the Gnomes, we're putting together their plan to regain their potential queen. Two, Dipper was running a lot faster than Mabel, noticeably faster, that was definitely unusual, Mabel thought, but she quickly refocused by the fact that they were sitting in the cart. Dipper told her to put on her seat belt.

 Mabel only rolled her eyes at this as she put them on, and they zoomed off.

 Not even half a mile down the road, Dipper was going at a leisurely cruising speed, sighing and relief.

 "Why aren't you going faster," Mabel said, freaking out. She was looking frantic, looking around the whole forest in case a Gnome would be spotted.

 "Ah, don't worry," Dipper said confidently. You saw those suckers' tiny little legs. "They have no way of catching up with us."

"Not true," he heard Riley speak up.

 "What do you mean not true," Dipper said, confused when he heard a thumping sound.

"Dipper, who are you talking to." She stopped pursuing her question when she saw the source of the thumping sound standing behind them was a large Gnome. Standing about the same height as the Mystery Shack, Dipper thought it was a completely different monster until he realized it was made up of hundreds of gnomes, maybe even thousands of them.

 "Oh, Dang," Mabel said in amazement.

"Alright, guys, like we practiced," Jeff said, making his gnome-assembled beast roar as Dipper floored it, pushing the cart to its full speed.

 "You could have told me Gnomes can turn into one giant Gnome." The Dipper yelled frantically while driving.

 "How was I supposed to know." Mabel cried out in fear.

 "You never asked," Riley said. Dipper could only groan in frustration as he felt a weird tingle at the back of his neck. For some reason, he had a sudden instinct to duck. Following his instincts, the moment he put his head to the level of his steering wheel, he noticed a gnome that had been thrown at full speed sail past his head.

 Mabel looked shocked at this, not for his reaction time but because they were currently being attacked by Gnome projectiles. "Look out," she says as she picks up the bat and slaps a Gnome hanging on the side of the cart.

Dipper was trying to swerve the car to avoid the gnomes, but the more being thrown, the harder it got. One Gnome thrown at a perfect angle landed right on the hood of the cart, and it jumped for Dipper's face.

 The sense came back, but this time, Dipper reacted even quicker. As the Gnome jumped for his face, probably to scratch it out, Dipper grabbed it by the top of his hat, holding it out in front of him. Both the Gnome and Dipper looked shocked as before he could process what was going on, Mabel smacked it with the bat making it fly. Unfortunately, it grabbed Dipper's lucky hat while trying to hold on.

 "Nice catch," Mabel said.

 "Yeah, it was," Dipper said, confused.

"Oh no, dipper watch out, focus on the road," Mabel called out frantically as they quickly approached a cliff and a billboard.

 This would catch us up to where we were previously; a giant Redwood would be thrown at the twins as they would swerve out of control at full speeds landing in front of the shack.

 The oddities of Dipper's performance would keep showing up, as while his sister was still groaning to get up, he would be up on his feet in just a few seconds.

He was helping his sister out when he noticed they were cornered by the side of the house by a giant Gnome monster.

 Giving a mighty roar, the assembled Gnome creature punches the ground threateningly. Jeff, from all the way on top of it, looked like he was seething with anger.

 "Mabel, marry us right now. We'll do something crazy."

 "This is crazy" she screamed.

"Mabel, get behind me," Dipper said as he picked up the shovel and threw it like a javelin. He didn't expect it to do much or even go far but was shocked to see when it flew and hit the side of the Gnomes. The creature stumbled for a bit, but the gnomes lost quickly filled themselves out, and now they looked even angrier.

 "Oh God, where's Grunkle Stan" Dipper said. Desperate now, looking around to see if Riley was around, he was cut off by his sister putting her hand on his shoulder.

 "Dipper, trust me, I have an idea," Mabel said calmly as she started to walk toward the gnomes.

 "Mabel, are you crazy he said, grabbing her shoulder? There's gotta be some way out of this Riley probably knows..."

"Dipper, you gotta trust me," Mabel said sternly this time; Dipper could only nod in confusion as she started walking towards more of the side of the house and yelled at Jeff.

 "All right, Jeff, I'm ready to marry you," she said excitedly.

 "Hot dog," Jeff said. Causing the giant Gnome to jump in celebration, it would take a few moments for him to finally scramble down, but the moment he did, he placed a ring on her finger. It looked like the happiest Gnome to ever exist.

 "Alright, honey, let's get you back to the forest for your coronation."

 "you may now kiss the bride," Mabel said, smiling from ear to ear. To say Dipper was confused would be an understatement; his sister didn't seem like the kind of girl that gave up, so he was willing to let the plan play out for a few moments, but if she was leaving, he would follow.

 Jeff looked like he had just won the lottery, puckering up his lips, and said, "Don't mind if I do." Things would all go to chaos from here as, without a moment's hesitation, Mabel turned on a well-concealed leaf blower once his eyes closed and started sucking Jeff into it.

"Hey, wait, what's going on? Stop, please." Jeff wailed out in panic as the leaf blower proved quite effective. Dipper was impressed; not only had his sister come up with this plan on the fly it was a pretty good one too. He knew from experience people usually underestimated her intelligence, and this was a prime example of that. While deep in his thoughts, Mabel started yelling at Jeff while he was sucked into the leaf blower.

 "That's for lying to me." she said while increasing the pressure. "that's for breaking my heart." Jeff was almost wholly sucked into the leaf blower at this point. "this is for messing with my brother."

 Beckoning him to her, they held up the leaf floor and aimed it at the mass of gnomes. At this point, the leaderless giant gnome assembly was shocked to see its leader tortured, and within a second, Jeff was sent flying toward them as the leaf blower reversed.

Being rocketed towards his group at full speed crashed the Gnomes and split them all apart in a mighty explosion entirely made of gnomes.

As they all hit the ground relatively OK or in pain, Mabel pushes them away using the leaf blower.

"And that's what you get for messing with the Pines twins," Dipper said excitedly as they all ran away, except for one unlucky one, which got caught in the trash and taken away by a goat.

For the first time and what felt like forever, they caught their breaths and were relaxed. Mabel gave Dipper a soft smile and then punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"Nice going," Dipper said, amazed. "how did you know that leaf blower was back there."

"Oh, I was using it for kissing practice," Mabel said, shying away from the answer.

Dipper could only stare at her, confused for a few seconds before she turned back to him.

"sorry for calling you crazy, bro; I guess I was just hung up over more getting my first boyfriend. And then he turned into a bunch of Gnomes; you think Mom would have good advice for this?"

Dipper only smiled at her. "yeah, don't do it again. Well, I'm sorry for you, sis; it must be hard having your first relationship end up scattered in the wind."

Mabel was about to respond, and then she caught herself.

 "was that a pun," she said, shocked.

 Dipper waiting, his eyes realize what he's done. "Nope, it was an accident. We're trying to have a moment here. We don't need to talk about that."

 "Oh my God, you made a pun. I knew you could be funny when you wanted to."

 "What do you mean I'm hilarious," he said arrogantly.

 "yeah, whatever; thanks for looking out for me." Opening her arms awkwardly, she said, "Awkward sibling hug?"

 "awkward sibling hug," he responded, embracing each other. The hug would end with the covenant pat on each other's back as they walked off laughing towards the shack.

 "so there is one thing I have to ask you now that I know you're not super crazy..." Mabel said suspiciously.

"Um, what," Dipper asked, nervous.

 "Who's Riley?"

 If Dipper had a drink right now, he would have launched a full spit take. "Oh my God, you just made me remember."

Running back to the mystery shack cart, he looked in the seat to see the book sitting there safely. Sighing in relief, he picked it up and opened it to see Riley staring at him. Maybe because of how they were tied together or just the situation, but he could tell they weren't happy with being left behind in a cart.

 "Umm, Riley is… I don't think you'll believe me." Dipper said, turning back to his sister, trying to ignore the spirit.

 "Dipper, we fought Gnomes together. It can only get less crazy," she said, putting her hand on her hip.

 "OK," Dipper said, taking a deep breath. "Riley is apparently a spirit with a fried memory. They grant people power and information in exchange for being tied to this book; only I can see them."

 Mabel looked at him, shocked for a few seconds, trying to quickly process what he said.

 "do you believe me," Dipper said hopefully?

 "Is Riley out right now?" Mabel asked

 "Yes"

 "Turn around," Mabel ordered.

 "I don't understand," Dipper said, raising an eyebrow.

 "well, if they're real, I have an idea. Do you think I have bad ideas, Dipper?" Mabel asked sarcastically.

 "Yes, but I'll play along with this," Dipper says as he turns around.

 Facing the direction Riley was staring at him, they looked confused when they looked back toward Mabel.

 "All right," she announced loudly, "how many fingers am I holding up?"

 Dipper stared at Riley, and they both shrugged at each other.

 "Well, how many?" he asks

 "Duck," Riley said; the moment they said this, Dipper's senses went off as he hit the floor immediately. As he did, one of Mabel's shoes flew over his head.

"Wow! They are real," Mabel said, surprised.

Dipper turned around quickly and yelled at her. He wasn't angry, just confused.

 "Mabel, why do you throw your shoe at me?"

"just to test, wow, you have a magical thing tied to you now; that's awesome."

Dipper could only sigh as he closed the book, and they both walked towards the shack.

 Once inside, they met with Stan running the front, and after a brief exchange, Stan showed some genuine Charity to them for the first time since they got there and let them pick one item from the gift shop.

With what Mabel called an infamous level of uncreativeness, Dipper picked out a hat similar to the one he lost, but it had a symbol he liked. Conversely, Mabel got a grappling hook, much to her brother and a great uncle's confusion. When asked why she chose it, she simply responded, "grappling hook," and they left it there.

As the night rolled in, Dipper and Mabel were preparing for bed, or at least Dipper, Mabel was jumping on the bed.

Dipper wrote his first log entry in the journal, much like the author before him. Riley said the book belonged to him now, so he might as well use it. Besides, he didn't know the author, but he would assume they would want more research going into the book even after they had probably passed away.

Looking back between Mabel and Riley, who was inspecting one of Mabel's many scrapbooks, Dipper could only relax.

When he first found it, the journal had said words that stuck in his head Trust no one.' while he was still on the fence about Riley, he would always trust his sister Mabel.

"Hey, Riley," he said quietly. Even if the secret was out, talking to them while his sister was around would still feel awkward.

 "you said I was supposed to get power, right? Was that what was happening when I was being chased by the gnomes."

 Riley only looked up slowly from the scrapbook, he had told Mabel they were looking at it, and she appreciated it very much, so she just kept changing the page whenever Dipper motioned for it.

 "yes, that was an early manifestation appearing."

"So, like, are you gonna train me to be some cool wizard or something."

 "No, I do not know any wizard-like spells, and I cannot do your training."

 "oh," Dipper said, disappointed.

 "but do not worry, you will grow stronger." They said, trying to reassure him.

 Mabel suddenly cut in. "hey, um, spirit person that Dipper can only talk to, will I get powers too?"

 Dipper only looked at Riley, and they gave Mabel a confused look; obviously, she hadn't heard Riley's side of the conversation, but listening to Dipper was enough for her.

 "If we can find another book or some magical item, probably."

 "They said probably," Dipper echoed for Mabel. "don't worry, next artifact, I'm totally giving it to you."

 "Awesome!" Mabel said, making a final jump before getting into the covers. "Well, good night, bro."

 "goodnight, and can you get the light this time?" Dipper said, preparing to close up the book.

 "oh sure," she said with a devilish grin. Before he could stop her, she had already shot the light in the room with the grappling hook smashing it out the window. This was the kind of chaos he enjoyed, as all he could do was laugh with her.

Unbeknownst to all parties involved in the attic. Down below in the store of the mystery shack, Stan crept around in the middle of the night. Looking suspiciously around, he closed his eyes to listen to his environment and heard nothing.

 "Good," he said gruffly and quietly.

 Typing in a code on the vending machine, it opened suddenly like a hidden door. The moment it opened, he stepped in quickly; if you're one of the few that could hear them, loud whispers echoed from the hidden room he entered.

Chapter Text

It had been only a couple of days since the Norman gnome incident, and relative peace had come over the Mystery Shack.

 In the days that followed, Mabel had already gotten over Norman, and Dipper was throwing himself back into the journal; much to Riley's pressure, he began reading more of the book. This probably would have been an easy task for him; he had read tons of novels from a young age, but with Riley's pestering and giving him more bonus information to remember, he was kind of getting overwhelmed.

This didn't help with the fact in the back of his mind, he was still wondering about the powers he'd apparently been given; from all, he could tell, he was given slightly enhanced abilities for a human being and great senses for danger. No matter how much he hoped, Riley shot down the idea that he would be some kind of Superman level of strength, and the super senses would not work for everything.

 He figured this out personally when Mabel surprised him with a water balloon.

She had jokingly called it the first bit of training he would ever get, but he called it assault.

Not much progressed these days; Mabel, even though she can't see or touch them, had tried to become friends with Riley via Dipper. The results of this were mixed; Riley didn't like talking to anyone on a normal day, let alone someone as hyperactive as Mabel.

 But they would look at all Mabel's scrapbooks, which she had an impressive amount of.

Overall Dipper had been struggling to find out what his next moves would be; sure, now that he discovered the town's paranormal had really existed, he felt a weight lifted off his shoulders slightly; sure, was he absolutely terrified of What was out there, yes. But it came with the thought that he didn't waste years of his life being crazy.

 But now, what did he do? He could look for more monsters, investigate the books, and even try to find something magical for Mabel. But early in the morning, his day was decided for him.

The twins growing up, were obviously close, but eating breakfast together was rare despite their closeness.

Mabel would probably wake up two hours before Dipper on some days, and even then, the breakfast would be completely different.

Dipper could survive hours with just a bowl of cereal, and Mabel needed an industrial truck of sugar to get her day going.

 The situation they found themselves in was better than those; staring at each other, both Mabel and Dipper had the same thought as if they were communicating with their minds. Within an instant, they both grabbed two syrup bottles from the cabinet and yelled simultaneously.

 "Syrup race!"

Raising the bottles above their mouths, Dipper and Mabel held two distinct brands over themselves, waiting for the first one to get a drop. When did this tradition start? Nobody knows, but any time there are two bottles of syrup within the Pines home, the inevitable would happen.

 "Go, Sir Syrup!" Mabel cheered for her syrup mascot.

"Go, Mounty man!" Dipper then cheered for his. It was a close race, but in the end, without Dipper knowing, Mabel tapped the bottle of hers, forcing the syrup to come out a little quicker; he probably would have felt someway about losing if it wasn't for Mabel coughing while she tried to rub it in unsuccessfully.

Rolling his eyes, Dipper went back to the magazine; he totally didn't steal from the shack store. In all honesty, Dipper thought he was going insane. Over the last few days, he'd possessed a remarkable book with a spirit in it and tons of information about the supernatural; why wasn't he reading it? He needed a break. Dipper loved reading. This wasn't anything surprising; it had been his mom who got him into reading a ton of different books by dragging him to the library. Even if you went inside his room, the closet area was converted into a half library with all the books he had lying around disorganized on the floor.

 Yes, he loved reading, but the journal kicked his butt reading-wise. Sure, he was an excellent reader, and he could understand stuff most college students would struggle with, but when it came to reading the journal, let's say it was unusual. The more paranoid the author became, the more frantic his text was, and instead of guides to monsters around the town, he was starting to get vague personal life drama where the author still wouldn't name any names or give any substantial clues.

His book of monsters had suddenly become a long-winded series of terrified rants.

 Of course, this never fazed Riley; they had expected Dipper to memorize the book from front to back. Of course, they weren't totally understanding. Still, they struggled to understand why Dipper would sometimes want to watch a show about a mutated group of animals fighting instead of reading the rantings of their old partner.

In current times, Dipper was checking out a magazine just to have anything else to read; it didn't matter if it was trash. His opinion on the trashy magazine would suddenly approve when he saw a new ad taking up an entire page.

 "Hey, Mabel, look at this," Dipper said excitedly, showing her the magazine.

 In a flash, Mabel quickly looked over his shoulder and shared his wonder, just not for the right thing.

Her eyes widened when she saw the ad on the complete opposite side of the page.

 "human-sized hamster ball' she said "… I'm human-sized." She said as if she were experiencing a dream, she had only seen it for five seconds, and now she was utterly in love with the idea.

"No, Mabel, this," Dipper said, ignoring her confusion and pointing at an ad. "$1000 for anyone who can get a picture of the supernatural; we saw weirder stuff just a few days ago… wait, did you get any pictures of the Gnomes? "

"Nope," Mabel shrugged, "just this beard hair." Suddenly, she pulled out a lock of beard hair from her sweater pocket, rubbing it into his face.

 At this moment, he wanted to be absolutely disgusted, but his confusion won over as his primary emotion as he simply asked.

 "Why would you keep that." he recoiled.

 Mabel could only shrug as before he could potentially slap the hair out of her hand, Stan walked in.

"Morning knuckleheads," he said, obviously having a rough morning. Unlike the twins, he wasn't fully dressed yet, rummaging around the kitchen in his sleepwear and holding a newspaper. "All right, heads up, kiddos,  you know what day it is?" Stan asked, a little excited.

Dipper and Mabel only stared at each other questioningly.

 "Mazel tov!" Mabel yelled at the top of her lungs

While Dipper quietly said, "Happy anniversary," with a raised eyebrow. The only response they would get is Stan attempting to whack Dipper in the head with a newspaper; much to his surprise, he moved out of the way slightly so it would waft past him. He didn't seem to care that much as he continued going on.

 "We're taking off work today for a family bonding day; you know what that means," Stan said after rooting around in the somewhat empty fridge.

"Prison?" Mabel and Dipper both said as the old man scoffed. Their first family bonding day on the first week of the twin's arrival was not as fun as they thought it would be; this was mostly where the negative stereotypes about Stan came from for both Dipper and Mabel, seeing as making 12-year-olds counterfeit and then somehow getting away with it, in the end, was not average summer guardian behavior.

"Nah, it's a surprise, come on, I know I've not been the best host this summer, but who's ready to get in my car blindfolded and go on an adventure," he said, raising his hands triumphantly.

 Dipper and Mabel, in the heat of the moment, both cheered until Dipper realized what he had said.

 "Wait, get in your car. What."

Not even a few minutes after finishing his own breakfast, Stan had tried to force the twins out to the car he owned.

Dipper lied, saying he needed to go to the bathroom, and really went to find the journal, which was still in the TV room. While usually getting a stern look from Riley about leaving the journal places, he left the TV on and the book open so they thoroughly enjoyed themselves before they departed.

Less than a few minutes later, they were already speeding off in Stan’s red convertible, nicknamed by Mabel the Stan mobile. Speeding off didn’t really correctly define Stan’s awful driving, Dipper thought this might be a little bit arrogant to say, but he was pretty sure he drove better than his great uncle in a golf cart than he could in a normal car.

 After hitting a large bump, Dipper groaned as he held himself against the seat. "Ugh, Blindfolds don't lead to anything good," Dipper complained; he was starting to feel like he was getting motion sickness.

 Mabel, on the other hand, was kind of enjoying the thrill.

 "This blindfold. It's like it's enhancing my senses; I could be like a superhero with this. Hey Dipper, is this how you feel now?" She said while touching Dipper's face. He thought it was a little funny, so he started chuckling a bit, but this would soon be interrupted when another large bump hit the car.

 Thoroughly freaked out, Dipper leaned up to focus all his attention on talking to Stan.

 "Hey Stan, are you wearing a blindfold?" Dipper asked nervously. He didn't think his Great Uncle was that dumb, but you never knew with him.

  "Ha, With these cataracts, that might as well be…What is that, a woodpecker?" Stan said happily and then, confused, squinting his eyes, looking forward on the road.

"wait with your what… "Before Dipper could finish his sentence, they had felt the car slam into something breaking through it, and they had gone off the road.

About 10 minutes later, the Pines twins were standing outside the car, shaken up. While they weren't aware of what was happening, the feeling and the sounds they experienced told a story of great danger.

 Dipper's senses, for which he had yet to come up with a name, had been blaring at him the entire time they went off-roading. It sucks the most because he could not do anything strapped into a seat belt while his Great Uncle drove.

 After a while, they had been let outside the car and had been standing only a few paces away for about a few minutes. Stan said he was preparing something.

 "all right, you two," Stan announced happily, "open up your eyes."

Simultaneously removing the blindfolds, the Pines twins were met with not what they expected.

Honestly, after counterfeiting, they had no idea what their second family fun night could be, but this was far different from what they imagined.

"It's a fishing season," the older Pines announced excitedly.

"Fishing season?" both twins said, confused.

The Pines family was now standing at the entrance of the Gravity Falls lake. Dipper was in awe.

Gravity falls lake, while he had seen it on the map on the first day, he had never really grasped the size of it, but now it was almost intimidating. It wasn't even a contest. The lake was bigger than the town itself, and it looked like it could stretch for miles. The entire lake, except for its entrance, seemed to be covered in dense woods and steep cliffs, and just to make its size seem even more impressive, half of it was fogged over with a small island laying in the middle of the lake.

Living next to the water was nothing special for them; Piedmont was not that far from San Francisco Bay. But this felt different; it was as if another valley was carved into the valley of gravity falls.

 The only other thing of note about the lake was a large banner that hung on two wooden posts above the flat entrance. It read.

 Fishing season opening day.

"Oh yes, gravity falls fishing season when the entire town heads out on the lake and catches whatever is unfortunate to be there. It's one of the few traditions in this town I can… tolerate." Stan said, using a similar voice for when he gives out tours.

 "You want to fish with us. Mabel said skeptically. Dipper could understand her from the short time they'd been in town. Stan, as a guardian, was almost as hands-off as you can get. Other than that infamous counterfeiting fun day, the only thing Stan had really done with his relatives was put them to work.

 "Yeah, what are you playing at, old man," Dipper said, not believing a word Stan was saying.

 "What do you mean? What am I saying? Can't a guy wanna go fishing with his family?"

 "I'm just saying," Dipper said. "You are a professional con man; you always got something up your sleeve."

 Grunkle Stan just laughed at Dipper. "yeah, kid, right now, the only thing I got in my sleeve is money and cheap deodorant. But I understand you kids, you think your old man's lame that's why I brought this."

Before they could even react, Stan tossed them some fishing clothes that were their size. They put on the vest quickly, but then they noticed the details on the hats they were given; they both butchered their names.

Dipper got his nickname changed to Dippy, and Mabel got her spelled correctly, but some of the letters were backward.

 Much to their horror, Stan reached behind his fishing vest, which he now wore, to reveal a joke book. The reactions of both twins were sheer terror, almost the amount they had when fighting the Gnomes.

"Grunkle Stan…" Mabel said nervously, "How long will we be fishing?"

 "10 hours."

 "10 hours!" yelled the twins.

" Oh, come on, we need time to catch all the best fish; besides, those guys at the fishing lodge who kicked me out will see who gets the biggest fish now." Stan said, shaking his fist in anger.

Their conversation with their great uncle would be interrupted when they heard a loud voice yelling over a crowd of people.

 "I've seen it; I've seen it again." This got not only the Pines family's attention but most people in the area as they all turned to see an old Hillbilly with a large brown hat, an equally brown, and a long white beard.

In his terror, the old man had been running through people, slapping over tables, and even hitting a man's sandwich out of his hands, all to get as much people's attention as possible.

"Who's that?" Mabel said.

 "Ugh, only old man McGucket, some local whack job that hangs around the Gravity Falls dump." Stan said, trying to ignore the old man as he continued whaling.

"Come quick, come quick before it escapes! I got evidence this time the gravity falls Gobblewonker is real!" With his frantic motions, the old man was telling people to follow him toward one of the less busy docks. This finally got Dipper's attention. He never heard of a Gobblewonker, and he couldn't even see such a thing in the book. He probably would ask Riley for more clues if Stan wasn't right next to him.

It had taken much consideration after telling Mabel. Still, Dipper decided to keep Riley a secret to those who didn't believe in the supernatural, so pretty much everyone but him and his sister.

 Besides, if Stan found out he was talking to a book, he would, at best, think he was insane and, at worst, call his parents.

The large crowd had begun to follow the old man down the docks; this apparently got the attention of a lot of people, including his own son, who he called out to, and a boat containing two lake police officers, which Dipper swore were the same officers as the ones in town.

As the crowd began to slowly follow the raving old man, Dipper was starting to feel uncomfortable; this wasn't the same uncomfortable as he was hearing whispers or his senses going off to warn him of danger. Maybe it was the old docks that looked slightly unstable, or was the foggy still lake with the only interruptions being other fishers.

While the rest of the group was mostly quiet, Dipper tugged on his sister's sweater a bit.

"Hey, Mabel, what do you think a Gobblewonker is?"

Mabel couldn't guess because the old man quickly darted to him right after his question left his lips. McGucket gave him an insane-looking stare as he looked him over a bit.

"oh, it's horrible! It had a long neck like a gee-raffe! And wrinkly skin like...like this gentleman right here!." He pointed to Stan, who didn't seem offended but just confused.

 "Oh, okay," Dipper said awkwardly, hoping the man would stop focusing on him, and luckily, he did.

 "Behold my evidence." McGucket pointed to the end of the dock where laying in the low water was a chopped-up small fishing boat torn in half.

While Dipper can safely say it did look bad, it didn't look supernatural bad.

Apparently, this was the genuine consensus as the crowd looked skeptical; their light debate on whether the evidence was legit was broken up by the sheriff and his deputy, who called him a crazy old man getting most of the group to laugh. The only people not to laugh was the Pines family and the manager of the lake, who was the old man's son who walked off in shame.

"You gotta believe me," he wailed out pathetically. Unexpectedly he would perform some sort of jig which just makes more people look at him awkwardly. Mabel, completely lost in this situation, put her hands together cutely and decided to comment.

 "Awww... He's doing a happy jig!" She said she would get shaken by this thought literally as the old man put his hands on both of her shoulders and shook her violently.

"No, it's a jig of great danger!" he yelled at her. He couldn't continue to do much when Stan grabbed  Mabel and pushed her back a bit; he obviously was no fan of the old man, much like the rest of the town didn't seem to be.

This was the final straw for most of the crowd as they all walked away laughing at the old man's delusions. Noticing all of them not believing him, the old man would sulk off too. No one in the crowd saw that one figure who stood far in the back seemed to take a keen interest in the story.

 "Well, that was something that happened," Stan said, going to a small shoddy boat nearby and starting to untie it. "well, you two, it's time to start fishing."

While Stan was preparing, Dipper grabbed Mabel her shoulder and whispered into her ear.

 "Mabel, did you hear what that guy said," Dipper said excitedly.

 "No! It's a jig of great danger!" She exclaimed, mocking his posture and voice.

"no, not that," he said. "There's some kind of lake monster; if we can get a picture of it, we can split that money 50/50. Imagine, Mabel, what you can do with all that money. "he didn't seem to get a response from her as she quickly zoned out; it wouldn't be a few seconds later before Dipper snapped his fingers in front of her, trying to wake her.

"Dipper, I'm 100% on board with this, but we're going to convince Stan first," Mabel said

"Don't worry, I got this," he responded before walking over to Stan.

 "Hey, great uncle Stan how would you like to make a lot of money?" He saw his uncle perk up immediately after saying this. He turned around, slowly ceasing his actions. 

"go on," Stan said. He clearly wasn't able to hide the fact he was interested,

 "Mabel and I have an idea; if we get a picture of that lake monster, we can get a ton of money. What do you say." Dipper really thought he got him with the money angle, but when he saw his great uncle's frown, he knew he messed up somewhere.

 "Dipper, how many times do I gotta tell you? There's no such thing as monsters out there." Stan said he was unwilling to hear me out about this topic anymore.

"Come on, Stan, you know there's something out there in those woods we can go on a monster hunt."

Dipper said, pleading.

 Suddenly, Mabel came out from right behind him and started chanting, "Monster hunt, monster hunt" repeatedly.

Dipper would join in on this, but Stan would look still unconvinced when another much larger boat rolled up.

"You dudes say something about a monster hunt." A familiar voice called out. Standing at the steering wheel was Soos.

 "Yooo Soos, What's up" Mabel cried out, running up to him. They both locked their fists together, doing a somewhat complicated handshake ending with an explosion; Mabel, of course, didn't make the boom sound, only literally saying explosion.

"Sup dudes heard you guys say something about a monster hunt." He said, showing off his boat with his hands. "This is the s.s, cool dude, I bought this thing with my graduation gift money from the dump, and it's been my baby ever since it's got an anchor and a steering wheel, you know, normal boat stuff."

"Impressive," Dipper said, simply having a wicked idea come to his mind. "Hey, man, how would you feel about participating in a monster hunt and getting super famous for finding something?"

 "I'm in," Soos said without a moment of consideration.

"Now, hold up, hold up," Stan said, obviously aggravated at the twins. "now you could go on some monster hunt with Soos, or you could spend the whole day with your Great Uncle Stan with some creepy fishing lures."

At first, Dipper thought Stan was making a joke but looking at him winking at them, he knew Stan was asking a genuine question. The moment Stan had closed his eyes, basking in what he thought was an obvious decision, Dipper and Mabel had piled into Soos's boat and were already speeding off.

 Did Dipper feel bad about leaving his great-uncle alone? A little, yes, but he'd already tired of Stan's reluctance to the supernatural. Besides, Dipper thought if he wanted his family to like him more, he probably wouldn't pressure them into working in the gift shop.

 On the other hand, Mabel was absolutely conflicted; when pulling out of the dock, she seemed to look back at Stan, slightly frowning.

 "Hey, Dipper, don't you think it's messed up that we left Stan."

 "Mabel, he forces us to work in a gift shop; besides, you don't want all that money we can get from proving the supernatural."

 Mabel seemed to think of this for a moment; the idea of money and her getting her hands on a hamster ball seemed to push her through her guilt.

"You're right!" she said, perking up. " We're gonna go on a monster hunt, and we're gonna prove that Gobblewonker is real."

"Yeah," Dipper cheered out.

 "And then I'll be one with the hamsters." She also said excitedly, raising both her fists in the air.

"I still think that's an absolute waste of money, but you do, sister. Yeah," he also cheered out.

 Soos was steering the boat and didn't know what they were talking about, but he interjected anyway.

“You guys are saying yeah, so I’m gonna say yeah too, yeah.” Right after he finished saying this, Soos looked around the boat frantically.

 “Hey, do any of your dudes have sunscreen?”

The whole boat froze as everyone looked around each other and their various pockets.

 “We’re gonna go get some sunscreen,” Dipper announced.

 Once again, the entire crew cheered as they turned around quickly towards the docks.

After Soos docked the boat, both Pines twins told him they would get the supplies and be right back.

 While Mabel went off to buy sunscreen and a bunch of snacks, Dipper searched for more equipment to help them.

 In the corner of the room, he looked around and noticed no one was paying attention. Zipping his vest down, he quietly yet quickly took out the journal and opened it up.

 "Riley, I need some help; what does the author say about lake monsters?"

A quick burst of fog appeared right before him. Riley appeared to him, sitting next to him in the corner behind one of the shelves.

"Why would you like to know about lake monsters specifically?" They asked

"Me and Mabel are trying to get a picture of a lake monster for a cash reward and potentially be famous," Dipper said, thinking of all the possibilities that could come out of this; he stopped thinking of them when he noticed Riley's mask contorted a little bit.

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

"While you are now the current possessor of the book, and I cannot tell you what to do with its knowledge, I must advise that you don't reveal a monster to the general public." They said, concerned.

"Come on, Riley, it's a lake monster that's apparently huge; I could be saving lives by warning people about it," Dipper begged. He knew their mission was to protect the knowledge of the book, but he hoped he was still allowed to share it; after all, they had no objections to showing Mabel pages after he opened it.

"I see your logic," Riley said, "but I do recommend you still record your research into the journal before its public debut research will be harder after that point."

"Deal now. Can you please tell me what you got on the lake"

Riley looked deep in thought for a moment. "The author of the book does not go into many details of the lake either via the text or with me,  while the few notes he did record say that the lake could be far a more dangerous area due to them being areas where fauna usually conjugate."

Dipper rubbed his chin. He didn't think of that; monsters were probably just weird creatures, so they probably would act like animals. It didn't take an animal expert to know that a nice large freshwater area would attract them.

"you mean he didn't explore the lake at all?"

 "he has some findings. Are you interested in an island that's also a head?"

 "Is that something I should be concerned about right now?" Dipper asked, a little scared.

 "no, it's hibernating."

 "Cool," Dipper responded. "but do you know any other equipment I should bring."

"Other than the journal to record your findings, bringing some form of protection like a weapon would be beneficial. However, as the author records, lake monsters would probably be larger due to abyssal gigantism. This theory would only prove correct if the author's idea of the lake being deeper than anyone knows is true."

"Well, that's not concerning at all, but the shop doesn't really sell weapons, and I don't even know anything that can go against the lake monster," Dipper said, complaining.

"I think I know a few." Both Dipper and Riley turned towards the noise as they saw an older man dressed in casual fishing gear and a sports cap.

 "Um, sorry, say that again Sir," Dipper said

"you weird boy, talking to the book, I heard you on the docks. You wanted to look for that monster, and I also heard you talking aloud that you want to hunt it down?" The man said he had an interesting accent, some kind of mix between a New Englander and a pirate

 "uh, yes," Dipper said, afraid; he didn't really know who this guy was, but he seemed intimidating.

"you talk like you know a thing or two about these kinds of creatures, and I want to help." the man said arrogantly. Now Dipper needed clarification. Getting a better look at his face, he could tell the man with his short graying beard, and tired-looking eyes was probably a professional fisherman. But the way he was talking to the Dipper, he was almost talking as if he was down with hunting monsters.

 "you believe in the supernatural?" Dipper asked skeptically.

 "Ah, there ain't nothing supernatural about some deep fishy looking all weird,  and there ain't nothing weird about a man wanting to catch it."

 "Sorry, I never caught your name. What was it?" Dipper asked.

 "You never asked for my name, but the name is Martin Hooper, professional angler. I come to this town for a nice bit of fishing, but now I see bigger games going on, and I want in."

"Oh, my name is Dipper Pines, and why are you asking me to hunt it down." He said, standing up now and stuffing the book away; he was lucky the man wasn't focusing, on the whole, talking to himself thing.

 "Well, you see, lad, whenever you enter a new hunting ground, you have to get in with the locals."

"But I'm not local," Dipper said quickly, interrupting.

 "you don't look local, but that book sure is; now, I'm not gonna ask why you were talking out loud to a book, but the way it sounds, it's got all the answers, and I ain't about reading, so I need help."

"what do you want?" Dipper asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What any man truly wants in this sport is to know they've bested another one of God's creations… also my boat is in the shop, so I need a lift." Sticking out his hand, Martin only waited for Dipper's approval.

Dipper's thoughts were going a mile a minute at this point; on the positive, this guy absolutely knew what he was talking about. It would undoubtedly help to hunt down a monster, which the rest of their party was so woefully unprepared for. On the negative, he would most likely shoot him with a harpoon if he dropped his guard.

 Why not.

Dipper shook his hands and told him to meet him at the s.s. Cool dude. The rest of the shopping had gone pretty well, Dipper buying what he would call a prepared amount of cameras and reconvening with the rest of them at the boat.

Back on the cool dude, Mabel looked confused at their new party member as Soos was trying to get his permission to hold one of the several harpoon and harpoon launchers he brought aboard. '

"come on, dude, it's really cool looking; you gotta let me try it."

 "Smarter men have been taken out in Dumber ways than me lending out a harpoon launcher to an untrained boat driver."

Walking aboard, Dipper scooted over to Mabel and touched her shoulder lightly.

"Before you call me out, I know he seems a bit crazy, but he seems like the right bit of crazy we need to catch this guy and get that money."

Mabel smiled at him. "Don't worry, bro. Besides, it's not like I'm already used to having crazy people around me," she said, nudging him in the shoulder.

 "I'm not that crazy," Dipper said defensively. "Am I?"

 Mabel only shrugged as Soos announced they were again pulling out of The dock.

The twins, Soos and their new teammate Martin had stopped the boat in the middle of the lake to formulate a plan. Dipper establishing himself as the de facto leader took charge of the plan-making.

"Alright. If we wanna win this contest, we've gotta do it right! Think. What's the number one problem with most monster hunts?" Dipper said, standing on the deck, walking back and forth while the rest of them stood in a line.

"Your side character and you die early in the movie," Soos said quickly. "Wait, is that something I got to worry about?"

"Oh, you accidentally trip on a rock while running away from a monster," Mabel said, guessing loudly.

 "You run out of drinks 5 minutes into the investigation," Martin said, looking at a canteen he held upside down. "Speaking of guys, I have an announcement."

 "All good suggestions, everyone," Dipper said, interrupting him. "But I was referring to camera trouble; here's an example. Hey, Soos, be Bigfoot real quick."

"Alright, dog," Soos said happily as he walked into the middle of the ship, striking the iconic Bigfoot pose.

 "Not bad," Martin and Mabel said. Dipper, on the other hand, had begun his example.

 "Oh my God, guys, look, it's Bigfoot. Uh-oh, no camera! , Oh, wait, here's one! Aw, no film! You see? You see what I'm, doing here?" He was acting out as he said this repeatedly and over-exaggerated, gesturing.

 The other three agreed, having not thought of the camera issue problem.

 "That's why I brought  21 additional cameras. Two on my ankle, three in my jacket, four for each of you, three extras in this bag, and one... under my hat! There's no way we're gonna miss this. OK, everybody, let's test our cameras out!" Dipper said excitedly after pointing out the location of each camera.

 "How much money did this cost?" Mabel asked questioningly, looking at her bag of cameras.

 "Let's not talk about that," Dipper said

  At the order of the test after cameras Soos for some reason pointed the camera towards his face and flashed it having him throw it in the water by accident.

 "Sorry, dude." Dipper, on the other hand, didn't seem to waver in his confidence.

"That's fine, man. We still have 20 more cameras where that came from."

Suddenly, a bird flew down close to Mabel's head. Her freaking out, she threw a camera at it in an attempt, and it landed directly in the lake.

 "OK, 19 cameras, guys. Don't lose your cameras."

 "Don't lose the cameras," Soos said.

 "Yes! Don't lose the… "Before Dipper continued, he looked behind Soos to notice two additional cameras on the water.

 "my bad dog."

 "OK, 17…." Once again interrupted, he looked to see Martin had accidentally shot a camera with a harpoon.

 "I may have made a mistake," Martin said, scratching his head.

 "Guys, I said don't lose the…!" being cut off one more time, this time by himself to accentuate his anger, he tried to slam his fist on a small table but slammed into a camera instead.

 "OK. So it's time to assign crew roles," Dipper said, letting the frustration go. "Martin, man's the harpoon… far away from us, Soos steers the ship. Mabel, you'll be the lookout, and I'll be captain."

 "What, how comes you get to be the captain" Mabel complained. "I want to be captain too."

 "There can't be two captains, Mabel."

 "What about Co-captains."

"that's not even a real thing. is it?"

 "no," Martin said, simply going to the back of the ship and reloading another harpoon.

 "Come on, please, Dipper," Mabel begged.

 "No, Mabel…" When he turned back to explain why he didn't think it was a good idea, he saw her look him dead in the face and then throw a camera overboard. "OK, fine, you can be Co-captain."

 "Yes," Mabel jumped up, saying excitedly.

 "Ooh, can I be associate Co-captain?" Soos walked up excitedly.

 "As second Co-captain, I agree to your promotion," Mabel said, winking at him.

 "Oh my God, does anyone else wanna be captain," Dipper said, groaning.

 "I'm good," Martin said, loading up the harpoon.

 "Great, any good monster hunt needs a way to lure out its creature. That's why we need to bait it out somehow." Dipper said, scratching the top of his hat

"I got that covered. "Martin announced quickly, walking over to a box he brought on board. The entire crew gathered around the box, opening it to see it was full of fish food. "Never leave home without it, even when I go to the bank."

 Dipper was going to question why he would take fish food to the bank, but Soos raised his hand. "Permission to try some." 

"Granted," both Co-captains said as Martin simply nodded.

Slowly taking the fish-shaped fish food and taking a bite of it, Soos was quickly coughing as the taste disgusted him. "Oh God, I don't know what I expected that to taste like."

  While the Pines twins were laughing up a storm, Martin patted him on the back slightly. "aye, yes, it do put some hair on your chest, doesn't it."

 Recovering from their laughter, Dipper looked up at Martin. "so you're the professional fisherman guy. What do we do?"

"Our first important step will be to get away from the rest of these casual Fisher folk and get somewhere where a real monster can hide."

"Like there!" Mabel said, pointing. The entire group turned around to see an island completely drenched in fog.

 "What is that place?" Martin asked.

 Dipper opened up his book, remembering there was a little information on the lake.

"that place is Scuttlebutt Island; apparently, there used to be a whole bunch of stuff on the island before it was abandoned for mysterious reasons."

"Then I say we start dumping the food around that area, and we'll wait for the fishy to come to us," Martin said, almost licking at his lips at catching the beast.

Dipper only knew a little about official monster hunting other than his youth trips into the woods and several TV shows; the one thing both of those failed to capture was the true boredom of waiting.

At first, Dipper was skeptical of the Gobblewonker existence, but being around scuttlebutt island only gave him further fuel that it could be genuine and the old man wasn't nuts.

 The entire island was, in fact, drenched in a thick fog that almost rivaled the forest in how mysterious and eerie it looked. Usually, this will be the scariest part of the Gravity Falls environment, but no, the entire island was surrounded by charred bits of boats all wrecked on rocks or something else. The boats varied from small canoes to decent-sized fishing vessels; whatever was here, whether it be inanimate or supernatural, was indeed messing things up.

 The island itself didn't look impressive as it shared the same basic geography as the rest of gravity falls wild lands, impressively tall trees on a slightly hilly surface dense in fog. The only thing disrupting the average gravity falls environment was on their occasional rotations around the island; he did see abandoned log cabins.

While Dipper could deal with boredom well enough, he could tell his sister was almost going insane, looking over to her; she was taking her job as lookout pretty liberally, usually leaning on the ship's rails, broadly looking for anything out there.

Soos and Martin, on the other hand, we're still going strong. In the few moments, Dipper wasn't also looking out; he was inspecting the journal to see if there were any hints about the lake, but much like Riley said, no helpful information about the lake or its monsters.

 After about an hour of mindless boating, the crew would fall into a subtle bit of normalcy as they all waited around.

 When Mabel got too bored to spot out, she immediately ran to the other side of the ship to talk to Martin.

 Martin, a usually stoic fellow, and Mabel oddly got along, but that's just the Mabel charm, as she called it.

 "so what's like the coolest fish you've ever caught?" Mabel asked, excited to hear anything other than the mindless sounds of the quiet lake.

"Oh well, that's an interesting story. I was in Spain, and I was 23…" Dipper was almost interested in hearing the conversation, but he realized Martin had stopped throwing fish food into the water. Looking around, everyone seemed distracted when Dipper walked over to the box of food and grabbed a handful of it.

 At the back half of the boat, Dipper walked slowly to the edge, looking over as he tossed a few food around.

 "Hey, Dipper!" Mabel called out. "did you know there is catfish In Spain?"

 Dipper turned back to her, momentarily distracted, while throwing more food overboard. "That's interesting, Mabel." right after his sentence finished, his senses blared at him harder than ever; he was almost frozen with how strong they hit him as he quickly reeled his hand back into the boat; he wouldn't know why until he heard a slight sound of waves and movement.

Chomp

It sounded no different than an alligator closing its mouth, and it was a paralyzing noise as Dipper looked over to his hand. Not a few inches away from it sat a long green neck jutting out of the water slightly, and attached to it was a ginormous head. Dipper was stunned as he took in the appearance of the crocodile-like head. Ginormous hippo-like broken teeth sat outside its mouth, soulless black eyes stared directly at him, and Fins lay on the side of its head as they quickly sunk back into the water, barely with the noise.

Dipper was obviously horrified as he reeled back, bumping into the area where the steering wheel was contained. 'It was so quiet,' he thought, the way it approached, the way it attacked, the way it could have taken him away without anyone noticing. That was the scariest part for him. Everyone on the boat, while on edge, still was slightly distracted. A slight splash of water won't get their attention. If it caught him, he would have died instantly and no one would notice, he thought.

"What's wrong," Mabel said, standing right next to him; she was knocked out of her conversation with Martin as she saw her brother stumble back.

 "It was there," Dipper said, mumbling

 "Aye, you mean you saw the monster," Martin said excitedly.

"He almost ate me," Dipper said, horrified.

Suddenly, a large crash was heard, and the entire boat crew turned to see what the noise was. They were all stunned to see the monster they were chasing suddenly jump out of the water and storm into the middle of the small island they were orbiting. The terrifying part was that it was out of the water and into the thick woods within seconds, barely enough time for them to move their heads around to spot it. Whatever they were dealing with was fast, strong enough to destroy boats, and a danger to everyone in the lake.

"We need to get a picture of this thing and tell everyone," Dipper said.

 The entire crew looked terrified except for Martin in the background, who only smiled wickedly.

 "This is it. This is what I've been waiting for."

It wasn't a long debate to figure out what their next course of action should be.

 Soos said they were entirely out of their league, which was fair, but he did agree with the idea of having to warn people.

Mabel was oddly not terrified, saying they should pursue the monster to get the picture and the money, then warn people at the same time. She then reasoned the beast may not have been that bad. Sure, it almost ate Dipper and tore up many boats, but there were no reports of anyone dying. Maybe it was like one of those shark bites where they only wanna see if you're tasty but still leave you alone; Mabel said to try to explain the monster's actions; this didn't make Dipper feel good comparing it to a shark attack.

 On the other hand, Martin was ecstatic about chasing it into the woods and successfully killing it, as he reasoned there would be no one better for getting rid of it than him, and he could fight with any crew, he exclaimed.

Being the self-appointed captain, Dipper reasoned that their best course of action to follow was to take a picture of the Gobblewonker, get back to the boat, and then warn everybody.

Much to Martins's chagrin,  Dipper just told him he could be a part of the team to kill it later. Right now, they need the evidence.

 So, the plan would be finalized. They would head inland, take a picture and leave. Head into the spooky abandoned island Dipper thought, what a great plan.

Chapter Text

Finding a landing spot was a lot more complicated than anyone in the crew could have imagined; at first, they believed all they would have to do was find a dock that hadn't been used in a while, but that seemed impossible. What few docks the island had around it were all wrecked beyond repair.

This led to the current situation with them surrounded by thick fog that was so hard to see that Dipper and Mabel both had the task of looking out; of course, they had meant to do their task more professionally if it wasn't for Mabel being distracted by a Pelican and Dipper being distracted by Mabel interacting with the pelican, both of they're slacking off at this moment led to the boat hitting the ground. As far as Martin said, the damage wasn't too bad, and it'll be pretty easy to push off, so instead of causing more concern, they took this as their landing zone and descended deeper into foggy woods.

Maybe it was because he was used to living in the woods around the Mystery Shack, but the woods seemed to be the only thing more inviting than the coast; oddly enough, the islands seemed to feel bigger when standing on it. The island still was terrifying in a way. The fog seemed thicker than any other part of town, and what interrupted the endless rows of trees were a few abandoned cabins from unknown times, most of them in states of disrepair. The party had packed pretty lightly for their expedition inland; judging by the height of the beast, Dipper assumed they would find him quickly, but apparently not, as even the trail of broken trees and foliage he left behind was minimal. Dipper, who was merely equipped with a Lantern and his journal, was in front; his sister, right behind him, was taking tons of pictures with her phone, sure while the signal here was worse, she still did wanna take a lot of pictures for their mom and Dad. Behind her, Martin held his harpoon tightly; he seemed a little too tired to be scared, but every time a Creek in the woods would be heard, he did point the harpoon at it threateningly. Finally, in the rear, Soos held nothing but looked around nervously.

"Man, this island is creepy," Soos said.

"You can say that again," Martin said.

"Man, this island is…"

"Please stop," Dipper said, cutting them off.

They had been walking down this path for about 30 minutes now, and it was starting to get frustrating, they were initially on edge due to their setting, but it soon faded out as boredom was put in its place; Martin had told a multitude of short stories, Mabel and Soos had made multiple impromptu rap songs, and Dipper tripped over a rock. This monotony would only be broken when they came upon an opening in the woods. The small path they'd been following ever since they landed was the closest to their boat, and they assumed from the way it looked it would lead to the center of the island; not even Soos, the only local, knew what the island's deal was. He said it closed sometime before he was born. Coming upon the clearing, it was clear what its purpose was; about 10 one-story cabins were in a semi-circle around a large opening with a campfire in the middle. Of course, all these had been abandoned for decades, and we're running into decay. While none of them had been tired, this would be a good place to rest a bit in case they wanted to come up with another plan. The reality was that Dipper had told Mabel to distract both Soos and Martin while he talked to Riley. Sure, he considered telling Soos about Riley, but it had yet to come up.

When Martin was recounting one of his old fishing stories, which he seemed to have an endless amount of, Dipper sat behind a tree and opened the book summoning the spirit. Riley, as commanded, appeared right next to him, lying against the tree just like him.

"Hello, Mason; how does the monster hunt go?"

"It's going nowhere so far, we saw a large lake monster rush into the island center, but we haven't found it yet, and you can call me Dipper, not my real name." He said awkwardly.

"I apologize, but you said you've seen the monster."

"yeah, well, it's head when it was trying to bite me and a quick blur of it when it rushed in here." Dipper and had a thought. "Here, let me write down what I found so far." After a few moments of writing down his findings, Riley seemed pleased.

"Is there anything else you would like help with?" They asked politely.

"Actually, I know you said the author didn't do a lot of exploring on the lake itself, but did he say anything about scuttlebutt island?"

It seemed to have taken Riley a little longer than usual to search for the information, but their posture straightened up as soon as they found something. "ah yes, scuttlebutt island was named after John F scuttlebutt…"

"Ha! That's a joke, right" Dipper laughs suddenly, quickly looking back to hope no one else noticed. Looking back toward Riley, they only stared at him. "Oh, sorry for interrupting."

"as I was saying, the island would be a minor hangout area for the town, not as popular as the mountains but still relevant to the town's culture. This would all end a few years before the author apparently arrived; his records state that there was an infestation of some kind that was completely secluded to the island."

"An infestation? Did it say what?"

"of multiple things, for one, Beavers and something called a scuttle crab."

"a scuttle crab? did he describe what they were like"

", Unfortunately, no, seeing as these notes were taken in as later era paranoia, his details were confusing at best, no extended record of them within the journal or with me."

"You said the details were confusing. What were they?"

"To summarize for you, they were pretty incoherent from what I can find, the book describes them as probably crustacean in origin, and that's all that's clearly decipherable; for some reason, the author must not have left me with any information since I have no recollection of their existence except for what the book says."

Dipper looked at this situation skeptically. "You said the author trusted you with information and a lot of it right, so why wouldn't he give you the details?"

Riley seemed to look depressed at the statement. "I wish I knew; I wish I remembered my old ties with the author, but for whatever reason, he didn't give me the information."

Interesting, Dipper thought as he started to close the book.

"Thanks for the info, Riley."

"There's no reason to thank me. It is my task."

The moment the book was closed, they disappeared and faded away.

Walking back to the group, who were all resting, Dipper sat down around them and coughed to get their attention.

 Mabel shot up immediately, noticing her brother was back, ", Hey, dipstick, did the book say anything."

"Nothing much," Dipper responded. "all it says was the obvious; the area used to be popular, but now it's abandoned. Also, there are these things called scuttle crabs, but I don't know what they are yet, is that just a normal kind of crab?"

 "Aye, I never heard of it," Martin said, scratching his chin.

"Well, that's not good," Dipper said. "come on, guys, there can't be that much left of this island."

So they were off again; continuing down the trail gave them little clue about where the giant beast could lay, but now they were at least halfway through the island. Dipper could only tell this when he spotted a noticeably large hill on it. After getting a somewhat enhanced but still obstructed view, he realized there was a small Cove area on the island that held even more broken boats than usual. What was interesting to him is that he couldn't see it while they were boating around; the rocks must have hidden it, or Dipper's as bad as a lookout as he thought Mabel was. Both could be true.

There wasn't much talk down as they approached the Cove area; if the monster wasn't here, it probably wouldn't be anywhere; after a struggling trek through the woods, they finally made it. What was interesting was the Cove area itself; it took little investigating to realize it was most likely a part of the camp area they stayed at earlier.

A few more cabins surrounded the Cove with a torn-apart dock. The only building that stood out was an impressively large boathouse on the water's edge. They would have kept investigating if they didn't hear a loud noise.

 The noise was unfamiliar to Dipper; he had never heard a growl such as it. He'd never been an animal expert, but whatever made the sound was loud and sounded like a dragon gargling rocks.

The entire party jumped behind a massive log concealing most of their bodies when the sound was heard. When they peeked over, Dipper's eyes widened as they finally processed what was before him. It was a shadow of the monster itself.

 While he didn't get a great look at the monster that almost took his hand, he could recognize some basic outlines, and they matched. Dipper was practically giddy as he started tapping his sister on the shoulder to get her excited.

"Mabel, this is our chance," he whispered yelled as they started pulling out their cameras. She also seemed to share his enthusiasm punching his shoulder just as he did. They were slowly making their way around the log and followed by Martin and Soos. Martin, equipped with his trusty harpoon gun, and Soos, who had picked up a sharp log.

They all snuck up as the tension was getting higher; the creature didn't seem to be moving, so Dipper assumed it to be asleep. This would be even better, he thought. All he had to do was take a picture of the monster while it was sleeping, then run away to the other side of the island, and they could be rich and famous.

 He motioned for the whole party to hold just a few feet away from where the fog broke. "alright, is everyone ready Dipper said. On my mark 3…2..1"

As he commanded him, a bright flash hit as everyone looked toward Soos, who was taking a picture.

 "Oops, I kind of left the flash on."

Everyone broke out, surprised when they turned around to hear the loud noise again, but strange enough, the creature was still unmoving. Now Dipperr was skeptical; in a certain bout of bravery, he started marching towards the edge of the water. Once the fog broke, he was in shock, not because he had found the potential hoax lake monster, but because he was met with a broken boat and many Beavers playing on it.

 As the rest of the party showed up behind him, they were all equally stunned, but he did notice his sister and Soos taking pictures. Martin merely scratched his head in confusion.

"that explains the silhouette, but what was that noise," Martin said as he finished his sentence. A loud noise cut in, scaring everyone, and they looked to the right. Not even a few yards away, a Beaver was lying atop a stump, chomping into a somehow still active chainsaw. While everyone shared looks of confusion, disappointment hitDipperr hard. Not only had he potentially wasted his day looking for a lake monster from a crazy man, but he also spent a lot of his money on cameras. This day can't get worse, he thought.

"Sweet a Beaver with a chainsaw," Soos said as he started taking pictures.

 Dipper only slapped his own forehead.

The mission had been a bust. In Dipper's opinion, as they rested in the area, Mabel tried to cheer him up, saying they could always search the other parts of the island. Still, in his occasional pessimistic mood, Dipper had pretty much given up hope.

He was tricked by a bunch of Beavers, he thought; he wanted to say other explorers went through this kind of situation, but he couldn't come up with any good examples.

 The area they stayed in was relatively calm, with the only thing making noise was Soos taking multiple pictures of Beavers and the Beavers themselves, who had been not hostile in letting them lay around.

 The only thing that would break him out of his mood would be Martin tapping on his shoulder.

 "So first Co-captain, you're just giving up?"

 "most likely," Dipper said, lying on the ground.

 "Geez, when I was a kid, kids would love to explore an area like this, but now look at you all lazy and stuff. Well, except for your sister."

He pointed to Mabel, who was currently trying to put a pine cone on a Beavers' head.

 Dipper, still lying on the ground, looked around the campsite towards the abandoned boathouse. "well if we're gonna be here, might as well we'll look around, you wanna come with." Dipper offered Martin.

 "Nah, this is a good fishing spot." right as he said this, he pulled out a collapsible fishing rod and started casting into the lake. Maybe if it wasn't his mood, Dipper would question why he brought a fishing rod into the middle of an island, but he didn't care.

 For a brief moment, he considered asking Soos and Mabel if they wanted to come with him to the boathouse, but he didn't think it mattered that much; all he did was simply yell at them, saying he was gonna check it out. As he approached the boathouse, he was impressed that it was still standing; with the apparent infestation of Beavers, he expected the whole thing to be collapsed by now. Now he finally got a nice look at the house; it was about two stories tall and mainly sat on the lake, the door was basically broken off, and it only took a slight push from him to open it. He didn't even think he had to use the enhanced abilities he hadn't trained with yet to open it.

 The Inside pretty much matched the outside, as it was all rotting and decayed. Honestly, Dipper thought it was pleasant to see a wooden structure in a worse state than the mystery shack. Looking down into the water where boats usually launched from, he noticed it was unusually shallow with a ton of rocks lying at its bottom, but on the side of the house, he did see something interesting.

There is a lone workbench with a lamp on it. Usually, this wouldn't scream out as something interesting, but the lamp seemed to be newer than he expected.

 If he had to guess, this place went bad before his parents were even born, but walking over to the bench, he noticed that it was, in fact, a clean and recently bought lamp. Looking over the workbench, he saw a multitude of blueprints all lying around.

 Whoever these belong to had been here recently on the island. Dipper could only think he was getting himself into another mystery when he couldn't even solve the first one. Reading the blueprints, he didn't get much from them. They seemed to be parts of something bigger, not the complete project, but whatever they were, they were complex. Sure, Dipper was a certified genius compared to most people around him, but he didn't really know anything about engineering.

 Crack

 While looking over the blueprints for what looked to be some kind of propeller, Dipper heard a slight noise.

It almost sounded like an egg being thrown against the ground. Maybe it was because he relied on his senses a little too much, but he wasn't all that concerned since he felt nothing. Looking around the room aimlessly, he tried to identify the source of the noise when he heard it again.

 Crack

 The noise almost sounded identical; the room was completely open to him; other than a few other rotten wooden pieces of furniture in the area, the only hiding place would be where the boats set.

 Looking over the water's edge, he was faced with the mass of rocks he had seen earlier. Getting a better look at them, the rocks seemed to be half submerged under the water, and we were almost completely covering the lake bottom below.

 Crack

 This time he realized the noise was coming from the rocks; leaning in closer to look, he was kind of upset super eyesight wasn't a part of his powers.

 Luckily it didn't take super eyesight to realize what was happening. The rocks weren't rocks at all. They were eggs.

 While the eggs were massive, almost the complete size of his hand, they weren't as big as an ostrich; Dipper immediately went into theory mode. What bird can make eggs this big but also live in the Pacific Northwest, he thought. But then there are also problems with that assessment; despite the bird-looking eggs, they were all rock-like Gray which led to his confusion; they were too hard to be reptile eggs, and they clearly didn't look like fish eggs, so he was stumped. He thought it had to be a monster; these things couldn't be natural.

 Call it bravery, childlike curiosity, or just stupidity, but Dipper knew his next course of action was to try and pick one up. Laying on his stomach, he stretched both of his hands to pick up one of the eggs.

 Turning around a bit, he saw nothing peculiar about it, sure it was a giant unknown egg, but there was nothing strange about it.

 Crack

 This time he didn't need to investigate where it was coming from as a large Fisher formed itself on the egg. Dipper was lucky he wasn't the same as he was a year ago; otherwise, he probably would have stumbled and dropped the egg.

 He had paused for a few seconds waiting for whatever was hatching to come out, but it was still stubborn. Leaning in his head slowly, he wanted to see if he could truly find what was hiding in there. Unexpectedly in one swift motion, half of the egg had split from the rest popped out and out, revealing not a bird or a fish but a crab.

Or at least it looked like a crab; Baby crabs tended to be tiny, almost completely see-through, without even their hardened natural armor forming.

What they weren't supposed to be was ginormous; he'd seen the nature documentaries. A baby crab was only supposed to be not even the size of your pinky finger, but this one almost was the size of his entire hand.

Still sticking outside the egg, the white see-through crab hatchling only stared at him; Dipper didn't know what to do in this situation. He wanted to be excited. He probably found a new species until he remembered the book's writing. Was this a scuttle crab, he thought? It was definitely a crab, and even though he knew quite a bit about biology, he had never studied what animals were in the Gravity Falls area. It was a safe bet to assume that this was probably something new.

 The staring contest between the hatchling and Dipper would continue for a few more seconds as he analyzed all of its features. It was almost kind of cute with its large eyes and frail-looking body. Turning back to the formation That he once thought was rocks, Dipper was astounded to see that most of them were hatching now. Identical baby crabs started cracking their shells, and the ones who had already made it out had begun wading into the water. It was incredible, Dipper thought.

He had now put the egg he had been holding for such a long time now back into the water; his first instinct was to take a couple photos, but after that was done, a better thought came to him.

 Squatting down onto the floor, Dipper pulled out the journal and started writing.

 The author had not described what a scuttle crab was, but it was pretty apparent at this point what they were; he was writing furiously now, taking notes on what he saw.

 While distracted by this, Riley appeared behind him, inspecting the scene.

 "Is this the lake monster we're hunting?" they asked skeptically.

 "uh, no," Dipper Responded. "But I think I did find these crabs. I guess that's something, but it's not winning $1000 in a contest or something. Hey, maybe I can be known for discovering a new form of crab in the lake."

 "I feel like you're forgetting something significant here."

Riley said, holding up a finger to him.

 "Oh, what's that," Dipper said, perking up from the book writing,

"the example you're drawing down is only the infant stage; if you want to do better research, you might want to take one."

  "no, I'm not taking a potentially giant crab; besides, my parents would be very upset about that."

 "Then how else will we research them if we do not take a specimen."

 "I don't know, but I don't like the idea of keeping a giant crustacean with me."

 Standing up from his writing Dipper drew a crude picture of a crab.

 The mass of baby crabs had now either walked under the wooden building or shifted into the water, leaving the room once again empty. That was when Dipper heard of Long Creek from under the floorboards.

 Looking around this time, he couldn't detect the cause of the noise. It was most likely something was under the boathouse itself.

 "Hey Riley, do you hear that right?"

 "Yes"

 "Do you know what that is"

 "No, but I don't recommend we stay much longer."

 "Why not? I still need to write more notes about…" Dipper immediately stopped talking as his senses activated. To better explain the sense, it never directly told him what was attacking,

it was like radar, to say, but he couldn't even detect the proper shape. It usually just gave him some kind of instinct to move in the right direction away from something that could potentially hurt him.

 This sense hadn't come up much in the few days they'd been here, but he knew he had to follow it whenever it went off. Riley had even said this was probably only the first power he could gain or the only; you could never know with people. Some take the magic differently than others.

 Back to his senses this moment, they were blaring, and he followed their orders dutifully. With a quick shift of his feet, Dipper jumped to the side, closing the journal and stuffing it back in his jacket in fluid movement.

 The enhanced abilities of Dipper were also on display as this hop was no small feat sending him a couple yards away.

 The moment his feet left the ground, a large crash was heard as the wood below him exploded, something piercing through the bottom and shoving its way through. Landing softly, Dipper quickly turned to disturbance, but before he could even put a good visual onto it sucked back quickly below. Quickly sucking in his breath, Dipper had an idea of what had just attacked him, but he really didn't want it to be true.

With another sense flare, up Dipper dodged closer to the door this time as a second part of the floor exploded; not having to dodge as far this time, Dipper landed and got a good view of what was attacking him before it sunk down

 it was a pincer a giant dark green pincer, Dipper was sadly correct. Giant crabs.

 The floor experienced a third crash, but this time was far different from the other ones. Instead of a pincer being shot out of the boards, the whole creature decided to show itself this time.

 Slowly turning around, Dipper was met with the creature.

It wasn't tall, standing about equal height with Dipper, but it was pretty menacing to look at. Its shells seemed to be enlarged, covering its back almost like a hermit crab but small enough to walk smoothly around on its six legs. The pincers, on the other hand, were a major problem seeing as they were so long they reached the floor and were sharp as knives. Dipper didn't want to talk about the face. Of course, it looked like a crab, but it was so angular it was almost like it was mixed with a wolf.

 Much like he had done with the infant, they had entered a staring contest, none of them making the first move.

'congratulations,' Dipper thought; this is your third official confrontation with the supernatural; he thought,

well, third, if he didn't count almost getting his hand chopped off.

 The creature didn't seem absolutely feral, but Dipper doubted he was the one with the blueprints. So at least he didn't have to deal with hyperintelligent crabs.

 All it did was mindlessly chitter at him snapping its claws slowly, almost as if it was preparing itself for the fun it would have.

 On the other hand, Dipper was pretty scared, he wasn't absolutely still with it like he was when he first encountered Riley, but it was still fear. He started sweating as he slowly bent his knees, preparing them in case he had the run.

 This would prove helpful as his senses were blaring when another loud chitter came by as he jumped even farther away from his exit.

 The crabs have proven their intelligence; the one standing before him was a distraction, while another hopped out of the floor below.

Now two crabs, one far from the door and one closer, were keeping him from his escape.

 The one in front seemed ready to commit to his task as he was slowly scurrying towards him; in his panic, Dipper was looking around rapidly for something that he could use to fight off the beast. His eyes finally landed upon a lone oar that resided against the wall towards the back; he was officially on the complete opposite end of the room. The situation wouldn't improve as a third one would pop up farther away from the boat launching area and stood next to the one guarding the door.

 Dipper knew if he had to do something, he had to do it now.

Planting his feet and holding the oar out before him, an insane idea came to his head. Maybe it was just the confidence he gained from apparently having powers, or perhaps fear was driving him to do stupid things, but he had to fight. That was his only option.

 Seeing the oar sticking out as an official invitation to start the engagement, the closest crab launched at Dipper, his feet hurrying as his pincers slowly moved before him to grab him or the oar.

 Dipper's senses didn't go off this time.

 Right before the crab could even become close to getting into grabbing range, the car slammed into its face, stunning it and making it take a few steps back; the boy was trying to hunt, obviously didn't look like a tough fight, so it was shocked it did put up any resistance at all.

 Dipper almost smiled to himself; sure, he was not in this business to be a Monster Hunter or even fight them; all he wanted to do was understand and learn. But right here, right now, he could only smile to himself.

 Finally recovering from its stunned motion, the crab swings one of its pincers towards the oar, attempting to grab it and get it away from the Dipper. In a second smoother motion than the first attack, the Dipper reels the oar back away from its grasp before the crab could even realize it had caught nothing but air, and the oar once again slammed into its face making it move back even farther this time.

 It didn't take a zoologist to tell that the creature was obviously mad; it released a mighty chitter as one of its jagged tooth-like pieces fell out of its mouth. Surprisingly glowing green blood highlighted its tooth as it fell down into the water; he would have to take notes about that later. Right now, he was in a fight.

 This time the crab was ready for its actual test colliding with both of its pincers with each other rapidly. It was obviously doing some kind of intimidation display as it charged this time with both pincers drawn on its side, rushing him with his head and shell.

His danger sense Would go off but not in fear this time. In what he can only describe as a leap of confidence and faith, Dipper squatted down and jumped right before the crab collided with him. In its rush, it slammed into the back of the boathouse and fell to its side, knocking itself out. Dipper's jump had, of course, been far better than he would have been able to perform before his interaction with the book, and he was even shocked by it too. Looking back at the crab as it slumped over to its side, he didn't know what to think, but he wouldn't get much time to reflect on it when he heard the chittering of the other two crabs. While one still guarded the door, the other started rushing towards them in a not-too-dissimilar way to the one that knocked himself out.

 With a little more space to move, Dipper only sidestepped him and used the oar to hit one of its legs, causing it to collapse into the water.

It was a crab, not a person, so this wouldn't be as stunning as it could be as he rushed towards the one at the door.

 He never fully believed most animals could have a human range of emotions, but all he saw was pure fear on the crab. As he rushed him, just then, his dangerous senses came out.

 Dipper and his newly formed confidence just assumed it was directing him towards the crab in front of him, but he didn't realize the dock's floor would explode a final time as two pincers grabbed his ankles.

 "Ah," Dipper cried out in pain. He felt the two cameras he had hidden on his ankles break, but that wasn't the biggest concern as not only had one crab risen out of the bottom of the boathouse once more, the one that had been knocked into the water had returned with a couple of buddies.

He really wished the author had been more specific on what he said infested because a couple of buddies meant there were now about 20 crabs in the boathouse.

 While the pincer closed tighter and tighter on his legs, Dipper was hoping that his body was resisting the pain a lot more, seeing as how it did not seem to hurt as much as it could have.

Reeling his legs back, he kicked the crab holding him and used the oar to jab at the crab who was guarding the door and was now going for an attack.

 Stunning both of them, he immediately bolted out the door and sprinted towards the group. Sadly they didn't seem to give up once he left their home, as he could hear them already moving to follow him.

 Back at the Cove area, the rest of the team to find the Gobblewonker was deep in relaxation. While Martin had been fishing unsuccessfully so far, Mabel and Soos had been taking runway model pictures of the Beavers.

Much like her brother, Mabel had been saddened by the prospect of not getting photos for the contest, but now, at least, she had a distraction.

 "yeah yeah, work it, you go, girl," Soos said as he snapped multiple pictures of a Beaver posing on a stump.

 "you're so beautiful, girl!" Mabel said, cheering with him.

Looking around the area, she suddenly realized she hadn't seen Dipper in a while.

 "Hey, Soos, you know where my brother is," She asked, still smiling at the Beaver antics.

 "Aye, I do, young lass," Martin said.

"Lass?" Mabel said questioningly

 "He went to go explore that boathouse a bit, maybe find some clues or whatever."

 "you don't think he's in trouble, do you?" she asked, concerned.

 "what? No." besides, you've seen your brother. He'd probably let out a girly-sounding yell if anything happened."

"Huh, maybe. But I don't know. I don't like him being out on his own, especially on a spooky island."

 "But Dipper likes spooky," Soos said.

"Trust me, as someone who's dealt with gnomes, the supernatural is probably not the most friendly bunch."

 "Gnomes?" Martin said his concentration from his fishing finally broke. They would all stop when they heard a repeating yell running in their direction.

 "guys! Guys! Guys! we gotta go now." They all turning saw Dipper running at an impressive speed towards them, holding a nor in his hands.

"Geez, Boy, I've never seen someone so skinny run so fast. What are you like, a track athlete." Martin said, genuinely taken aback by Dipper's speed.

 "he tried once. He doesn't like to talk about it."

 "No, Mabel, stop talking about that. We need to leave now!" Dipper cried

 "Hey, what happened to that talk about? Patience is the key to monster hunting, used to say all the time as a kid and while we were on the boat; now, who's the impatient one" Mabel interrupted.

 "no, we need to get out of here. A bunch of monsters are chasing me."

"the lake monsters chasing you? "Soos said once again, picking up the spiked log.

 "not the lake monster, a lot of… there!" Dipper said, frantically pointing at the boathouse.

 They weren't sure what they were looking at for a moment until the front of the boathouse broke open, and multiple human-sized crabs scurried after them.

 "What are those things!" Martin said, horrified, as he aimed his Harpoon launcher

 "They're called scuttle crabs, and we got to get off this island quickly." As they began to run, Dipper looked and was horrified to see their number started increasing. No longer were they at 20, now almost double that.

 "Let's go back the path we came," Mabel yelled as she started sprinting in front; Dipper almost ran past her with how fast he was going with his adrenaline, but he decided to stick with the group, with Martin and Soos taking the rear.

While running, Martin suddenly turned around, stood still, and shot one of the harpoons. Amazingly it landed right in the head of one of the crabs making his head almost explode in a bright green mush. A great effort but not enough.

Another much smaller and faster crab rushed ahead of the pack as it tried to nip at Soos, but using the spiky log, he gave a mighty swing and knocked onto its side. The horde of its allies didn't seem to care, avoiding it at their pace.

 "These things are going to catch up to us before we reach the boat," Mabel said, scared as she started to lag behind. Dipper was still staying beside her. There was no way he was going to leave his sister.

"Does anyone have any ideas, man!" Soos said as another fast crab attempted to grab him but only met the same fate as the first.

 "I have a really dumb idea!" Dipper yelled.

 "Then it better work, boy," Martin said, trying to shoot again but missing.

 "Follow me," Dipper said as he went off the trail into a foggier part of the woods.

 "What are you doing, Dipper" Mabel cried out as she followed him anyway, along with the rest of the group.

 Looking back towards the group of crabs, Dipper could tell half of this plan was working so far. The crab's legs were low to the ground and took up a lot of space, far more than a human's; the fallen trees, uneven terrain, and rocks made it slightly more difficult for the crabs to maneuver, but some were good at navigating the rocks. These crabs usually met the end of Soos's log as he gave slow but mighty swings hitting them away. Dipper would have praised Soos for this if he didn't notice one crab jump for an attempt at Soos but managed to just nick him; the only thing that was lost was a brief bit of his shirt and a bag of cameras.

 "Oh man," Dipper complained as he saw the second half of his plan.

 "Alright, guys, now follow me again," Dipper said as he turned right sharply.

 The group was a little confused. All Dipper had done was brought them to the edge of the island, and now they are running along the coast.

 "smart kid, you're taking us back to the boat via the coast instead of all the hills; it's probably faster that way."

 "Yeah, that's not my whole plan," Dipper said nervously.

 "wait, what else could you be doing?"

 Without even answering, Dipper, while still running, took the oar and started slapping the water with it and yelling.

"Are you trying to get more crabs to attack us!" Mabel said, obviously shocked.

She had almost tripped, but Soos picked her up and ran with her on his shoulders.

"please work, please work," Dipper yelled as he still hit the water.

 The group of crabs was basically on their feet at this time, the boat was also in view, but it was still a good football field away, and they were running out of hope.

 Mabel was about to scream when a crab jumped for her, but suddenly, the whole area lit up with noise.

 Not just the humans but the crabs as well. They were frozen as they heard a mighty roar from the water. Once again displaying a human-like range of emotions, the crabs all looked towards the water and dropped their pincers in what looked like fear to Dipper.

 Then with the same speed and quiet that had almost taken him into the depths, the Gobblewonker rose and launched itself at a horde of crabs.

 Seeing its mass jump out of the water like a beached whale almost stunned Dipper and made him feel insignificant with its size. Luckily he and the rest of the group kept their heads and kept running.

Getting a good look at it, the Gobblewonker looked like some kind of mix of a burly crocodile and a plesiosaur. Its massive jagged teeth ripped into each crab a couple at a time, and the rest that wasn't eaten trying to fight back were swiped by its flippers or tails.

The noises were horrifying as crunches mixed with roars mixed with fearful chittering.

After trudging the last bit of distance, the party made it to the boat and gave it a push to get into open water. Soos drove away in a panic; Dipper could only stare at the chaos that was still occurring on the foggy beach.

 Mabel, who had been dropped onto the boat's deck beside him, was breathing heavily. Even Martin looks stunned; his prospects of a bigger fish to hunt led him out of his league.

 As the boat slowly pulled away, all Dipper wanted to do was collapse onto the ground, he clearly wasn't as tired as his sister, but there was something about being ambushed by crabs less than a few minutes ago that just knocked the wind out of him.

"ugg Dipper," Mabel groaned right beside him, lazily slapping him on the head.

"yes, Mabel," Dipper said calmly.

 "Next time we go on a monster hunt, please do more research first."

 "You're right."

 As Soos slowed down, moving away from the island, things seemed to slowly calm down.

Martin, who was still staring at the end of the ship, was reloading his harpoon. Many thoughts went through his head; what he was about to do next would probably be the craziest thing of his career.

 While the twins were hanging around each other, simply celebrating the fact they didn't get chopped up, Martin marched over to Soos and tapped him on the shoulder.

 "We need to go back," he said gruffly.

 "go back?" Soos said.

"Why did you like to leave something?

 "yeah, the opportunity of a lifetime. Did you see that thing? It was beautiful."

"Beautiful?" said Dipper. Standing up. "It almost ate us."

"I don't care who it almost ate, but that thing, do you know how long my name will live on if I kill that thing."

 "hey man, didn't that thing just save us," Mabel said, still lying on the floor.

 "He didn't save us. He just wanted a meal; big man, turn around the boat. When I meet that beast, I'm gonna show it the true meaning of fear." As Martin said this, he paced to the back of the boat.

 The Pines were only staring at Soos.

 "This guy's crazy right," Dipper said.

 "don't look at me. You're the one who hired him." Mabel said.

 "well yeah, that's because…" Dipper paused. His senses were going crazy again, but it wasn't giving him an exact location this time, "oh God," he said.

 Turning quickly, he saw Martin busy rooting through one of his boxes to look for equipment. "When I catch that beast, I'm gonna show him that the name Martin Hooper will ring out and legends."

 A quick splashing sound, and within almost an instant, a large green creature was leaning over the boat.

 Shock and horror filled the entire crew for a moment as the Gobblewonker, who had apparently finished its crab meal, leaned over the boat, eyeing Martin in particular.

 "What." that's all Martin can get out as right before he turned around to see the beast, its massive jaws opened and closed around him, taking a few pieces of the boat with it.

Soos and the Pines could only stare in shock as it made a gulping motion and then looked down at the boat they were still occupying.

"move move move move," Dipper said rapidly. As Soos hit the engine full throttle boosting them at a crazy speed.

"Did that thing…just…eat" Mabel looked like she was about to cry, but Dipper grabbed her by the shoulder and moved her away from the broken part of the ship back.

 While Mabel was almost too stunned to move, Dipper, on the other hand, was a mess internally.

 He kind of killed that guy, didn't he? Sure, he wanted to go on the monster hunt, but he's the one that invited him on the ship and brought him to the island; he killed that guy.

 Any regret, guilt, and horror the Pines twins felt was knocked out of them as the Gobblewonker was keeping pace with the cool dude. When its head broke the water again, it swiped like an angry giraffe and hit it towards the side.

The twins were almost shaken from the boat entirely as they were holding on for dear life. Mabel, who had slowly climbed her way up to the driver's cabin, only shook Soos frantically. "Can't this thing go any faster… Soos, watch out, Beavers!" she yelled, pointing out right before him.

As she pointed out, right in front of the boat path was a large wooden structure entirely built by Beavers. Soos tried to steer the ship out of the way, but the giant terror slammed its neck again, changing the course. In an instant, the boat smashed through the wooden structure with ease. For a brief moment, Mabel felt horrified that she had been involved in the incident and running over Beavers, but she felt confused as she noticed the Beavers raining around her.

"what the…" Before she could continue, a Beaver landed on her head and started biting her. "Ouch, Ouch, Ouch."

This was the consensus around the entire ship as Soos got a Beaver strapped to his face, and Dipper started to pry them off the boat as they were biting through the wood.

Mabel, in her terror, had noticed Soos had left the steering unattended while the boat was still going full speed.

 Quickly throwing the Beaver offer, she would barely notice that it had grabbed her camera bag and rushed towards the steering wheel.

 Speaking of the cameras, the Beavers, despite their obvious inclination towards wood, were tearing apart the cameras; the Beavers attacking Dipper seemed to enjoy this the most as they did basically no damage to him with their hitting him.

 By this time, Mabel had grabbed the steering wheel and had got it somewhat under control. Mabel was obviously not an expert in driving a boat, but she could drive a golf cart as well as Dipper; that was all the experience they had with driving.

Still, with her lack of experience, she managed to weave the boat away from the lake monsters' attacks.

"Oh no," she called out. "Everyone holds on."

 Looking up from his battle with the Beavers, Dipper noticed she was entering the central area of the lake; tons of fishing folk were now in the path of their chase.

Interestingly enough, the Gobblewonker dove as if trying to avoid detection.

It wasn't until Dipper got a good view of it from the side of the boat he realized he didn't dive to avoid detection. It was going even faster now. "you gotta be kidding me," he called out.

 Back at the helm, Mabel was weaving through the boats and avoiding them with almost an expert skill level for a newbie. She passed by most of the town folk on her way. She saw Stan, who had gotten splashed by the Gobblewonker wake; she saw a pair of twins and an old man that looked like a warped version of her and her brother; she even saw an entire family of gingers, which all reminded her of Wendy there are also wearing lumberjack outfits there was probably something going on there.

 Taking a sharp turn to avoid going towards the main dock area, Mabel realized she was heading straight towards the falls via a smaller river.

 "Dipper, we're running out of lake." she cried out.

 As he threw out the last Beaver, Dipper ran towards her, then pointed towards the falls. "keep going. The author said there was likely a cave in there."

"Likely!" Mabel said, surprised; she sped forward anyway as the beast was right on their tail. On the only positive hand, Soos had successfully gotten the Beaver off his face, but his shirt was torn somehow.

 All three yelled as the boat crashed through the water into a small cave. The boat had hit the sandy ground so hard that it had thrown the occupants onto the shore. As Soos and Mable were groaning getting up, Dipper got up quickly and moved his sister away from the beach-like area.

 He then grabbed Soos by his arms and led him away as the monster crashed into the Cove to get them.

 Dipper was horrified now there was no way out of this cave, and he'd basically got them cornered; maybe he should have just taken the fishing day, would Stan.

 "Hey, Dipper, open your eyes," Mabel said oddly, happy for someone trapped and about the meet their doom. He could barely hear her over the wailing of the beast, but when he opened his eyes, he saw that it was stuck there.

 Soos and Mable were smiling, looking at how they unintentionally trapped the monster.

 "Oh my God, this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen a real lake monster up close." Dipper cried

 "yeah, it's almost so good you can take a... picture of it," Mabel said, winking.

 Dipper immediately got a look in his eyes as he frantically started patting himself down to find cameras. Realizing he felt none, Dipper was almost about to cry. He didn't even have his cell phone on him. Stan had said they should leave them at home for maximum family enjoyment time, whatever that meant.

 "Boop." That usually annoying sound from Mabel had been a saving grace as noticing his frustrations, she pulled off his hat to reveal that he still had one camera there. He quickly hugged her and then started dancing around, taking pictures, surely most of them were kind of blurry, but it didn't matter. He was going to get undeniable proof.

 "so, any good pictures?" Mabel said happily.

"It doesn't matter. We can get as many pictures as we want." Dipper cheered as he hugged his sister again, then dragged Soos in for a group hug. All of them started chanting with each other loudly in the cave, the noise was echoing, but it wasn't loud enough to cover up where they heard next.

The lake monster and its frustrations to get free had shaken off the cave, and without warning, a massive piece of the Cave roof collapsed onto its head. If this was a normal beast, it would have probably knocked it out, shrugged it off, or just straight-up killed it. But no, the moment the rock made heavy contact, sparks came from its head as it, in a janky motion, put its head on the water.

"wait, what?" Dipper said, confused; getting a strange look from both Soos and Mabel, he decided to test his bravery and walk up to the felled beast.

It was clearly knocked out, he thought as he was walking all over it but touching the skin; it didn't feel like scales at all; it felt like metal.

 "Hey, Dipper, be careful, " Mabel said as he quickly scrambled up on top to notice a hatch. Mabel and Soos wanted to see, so after assembling on top, they looked at each other nervously.

 Nodding to each other silently, he reached for the Hatch and slowly opened it.

 "what it's you!" Dipper loved a good mystery; this was never a secret. He could pick together any clues in a show and guess the ending before anyone else could. What he didn't like was then things came out of nowhere. He didn't like it in fiction, and he didn't really like it now.

 Laying there in the belly of the beast literally was old man McGucket messing with a bunch of technology connected to the beast itself.

 "Oh, banjo Polish," he cursed out as he noticed he was being watched.

 "wait, you're that crazy old man," Soos said.

 "What are you doing in the Gobblewonker?! "Wait, what are you doing here at all?

"Uh, Uh." The old man exclaimed nervously. "I was eaten," he said, obviously lying.

 "you made this," Dipper said accusingly.

 "Yes."

 "what, why." The entire group was obviously angry they had been chased by a giant lake beast, but they are too confused even to muster up real anger.

 "Oh well, you see, all I need to do is learn a stick shift for my beard, and I scrounge up some parts from the dump, and then… "he would have probably continued for a long time if it didn't take Mabel interrupting him.

 "no, we're asking why did you do it… wait, where's Martin? Did you eat him? Did you kill him"

 "What, no," the old man said, oddly friendly, as he opened the Hatch next to him.

 They all looked shocked to see Martin sitting there, simply eating a bag of chips.

 "Aye hello, there crew."

"Martin, you're alive," Mabel said happily. "Are you OK?"

"Physically," he said depressingly, continuing to eat the chips.

 "Uh, What's wrong, man," Soos said.

"The catch of the century, and it was a stupid robot. why must fate hurt me so." He said, then munching on another chip.

"OK, well, that's certainly something," Dipper said. "but you still haven't explained why you made a giant monster."

 "Uh, well, I just wanted attention."

 "Attention!" they all yelled out in shock except Martin, who was still eating.

 "Yes, I haven't seen my son in years; I don't remember why, but we just fell apart for some reason. You just don't know how it is us old folk; we'll do anything for attention. So I had an idea my son works at the lake, so why not create a lake monster and spend some time looking for it."

 Mabel suddenly felt a spike in her heart as she remembered how they left Stan; looking at Dipper, she was shocked to see he also felt sympathetic.

She didn't think he hated Stan; he just did not care for him as much as she did. Mabel approached the old man; she was usually more capable of forgiveness, so she reached out first.

 "did you ever talk to your son?" she said.

 "Of course not, Missy; I went straight on this lake robot. That's how we'll deal with all my problems; when my wife left me, I made a robotic laser shooting giant, or when my pal Ernie didn't come to my retirement party, I constructed a shame bot that exploded the downtown area."

 "Oh," the Pines twins said as they looked toward Soos for confirmation. Interestingly enough, all he seemed to do was shrug his shoulders, confused, he either did this a long time ago, or he was just making it up completely, but the accompanying images of news articles he showed them were leaning towards a long time ago.

 "Whelp," this was a bust Dipper said against the rocks while Soos was helping the old man and Martin get out.

 "Well, it's not a complete bust. You got a lot of the research for that old book of yours."

 "I guess," he said, throwing a rock into the water, "how are we gonna explain to Stan that all we did was get chased by a fake giant monster and a bunch of crabs."

 "A bunch of crabs?" McGucket said questioningly, walking to them with the rest of the group.

 "Yeah, a bunch of crabs…you know, the ones you saved us from?" Dipper said, raising an eyebrow.

 "I saw a bunch of crabs, are you kids crazy or something?" he said, waving a finger at them.

"wait, so you're telling us you didn't use your robot to eat a bunch of crabs to save us?" Mabel said, her eyes widening.

 "Nope, why do you say that?" Mcgucket said, clueless.

Everyone in the group looks stunned at him, all realizing what happened earlier today.

 All except Martin, who was previously lying on the dirt. Hearing this, he stood up with a large smile. Dipper only looked at him and shook his head.

 Oh no

It was about 20 minutes later after what was left of the cool dude was repaired by Mcgucket as an apology. Sure, the boat was half its height now and basically sinking, but at least it was functional, and Soos could probably do something with it. They spent the last few minutes rolling around the lake, finding a certain person.

Stan was having a great day, he thought, bothering children and running in with the police; this was probably just a normal day for him, but he sat depressingly in his boat, considering what the day could have been. He'll be knocked out of his thoughts when he hears a weak boat horn roll up to him.

 The cool dude, or what was left of it, rolled up with a clearly disheveled group of Dipper, Mabel, and Soos.

 "What's up, Mr. Pines" Soos announced first.

 "Hey Soos, kids, what are you doing here."

 "We spent the whole day looking for a dinosaur turns out the only dinosaur we should have been with was here all along," she said sweetly, putting on her hat and stepping onto his boat. Stan trying to act tough, didn't visually tell that it was making him happy.

 "Oh really, and how did that go for you, and what happened to you kids?" Stan said skeptically

"We found a whole lot of Beavers. Trust me, you wouldn't believe it. In fact, I don't think anyone will believe it." Dipper said, showing a camera with a cracked lens. "but hey, I should have listened to you. I'd rather be fishing than looking for lake monsters." When Dipper said this, he also put on his hat and jumped into the boat.

 "Alright, kids, alright, the flattery is getting out of hand," Stan said as he noticed the state of Soos's shirt.

 "Soos, what happened to your shirt?

 "It's a long story, dude."

 "Welp, we have some daylight left, so why don't we do some fishing" Dipper said, nudging at Stan.

"Oh, so now you want to participate in family fishing day."

"Oooh, Can I participate in family fishing day," Soos said excitedly.

 "Sure, man," Mabel said as he jumped into the boat, causing it to tilt slightly.

 "So you all really wanna hang out with me now," Stan said, raising an eyebrow; he was starting to let it get to him.

 "Of course, Stan, there are a ton of lake monsters out there that you don't believe in, but there's only one Grunkle Stan."

 "Huh," Stan said, amused at Dipper. "Your brown nosing is improving, kid; I may make a good con man out of you yet."

 The entire group laughed at each other and enjoyed a day of fishing. Stan had revealed he had brought his phone, breaking his rule, and recorded the entire day in pictures.

 Overall it was a good day in Gravity Falls, and hopefully, there'll be many more to come.

Chapter Text

The Mystery Shack, despite its money-hungry nature, did consistently do one thing. Close early.

With a staff that consists of an old man, one young adult, one teenager, and two preteens, the shack would be low on workers willing to participate in late activities.

Not saying that Stan was unwilling to stay open longer to ensure himself more financial gain, but tourists just didn't seem to engage with the shack past the time of 5:00 PM.

This was usually when the shack would close, and since Stan didn't consider himself an average business owner, it could change on a whim.

It had been after one of these average days when twins Mabel and Dipper were relaxing in front of the TV.

Ever since the lake incident, their Great Uncle has been noticeably nicer to them. As Dipper would describe it, they're less employees now and now family. So for their reward of participating in an entire day of helping him gain money, they are now allowed to watch TV in the main room.

 They usually don't have to ask, but Stan usually occupies this chair once nighttime rolls around and doesn't move like a tree.

 This is where we find the twins now sitting on the ground. Mabel continues her hobby of knitting sweaters, and Dipper enjoys a bowl of popcorn. He had also had the book open, so whatever TV they were enjoying, Riley enjoyed too.

Speaking of the Journal, Dipper, at this point, has fully accepted the responsibility of keeping notes in it. Much to Riley's toned-down joy, he started immediately after he realized he wished he knew what a scuttle crab was after they chased them across an entire island.

The entire day after that lake incident, he had spent time feverishly writing down stuff in the journal. Details and scientific hypotheses of the creature's nature with pictures were all added.

A very interesting aspect was when Dipper tried to make a page of whatever Riley was. The page was short on detail, but they called themselves a spirit, so that's what he went with. Riley was also very interested in the development of this page; the broken bond between them and the former author had somewhat shattered their memory, leaving holes in it.

In the present, the twins were enraptured by their access to TV.

"I'm afraid your services won't be required here, sir. My men have examined the evidence, and this is obviously an accident." A constable on tv said, observing a murder case.

 A good murder mystery show would always interest Dipper, but Mabel was captivated for a different reason.

 Walking on screen, a small duckling with a Sherlock Holmes hat started quacking with subtitles below him.

"Accident, constable? Or is it...Murder?!" The subtitles read.

Both the constable and Mabel screamed at the top of their lungs.

"What!"

 The reaction to this was Dipper jumping a little bit when his sister yelled due to how it hurt his ears. He wished she would warn him about that; something that came up in Dipper's mind was how his senses were still drastically inconsistent. He assumed it was tied to Riley, but they didn't even know. All they kept saying was the powers Dipper would possess were still sparking to life and not yet ready to be honed.

The show Duck-tective just hit a commercial break when Mabel dropped her sweater-making gear in awe.

 "That duck is a genius," she said, her mind blown.

"Eh, it's easier to find clues when you're that close to the ground," Dipper said, trying to explain the merits of a duck detective.

 "Oh yeah," Mabel said sarcastically. "are you saying you're a better detective than duck detective,  is that one of your superpowers?"

 Dipper only scoffed at her. "They're not superpowers, Mabel; it's magic; besides, I don't need them to be a great detective."

 "What's the difference between magic and superpowers?" Mabel said, raising an eyebrow.

 "I don't know, but it doesn't matter, watch my great detective… ness? Yeah, whatever. I can tell just by smelling your breath…" Dipper stopped sniffing for a moment when his eyes widened, and he stared at his sister.

 She only looked nervously at him as she started hiding something behind her back.

 "Mabel, did you eat a tube of toothpaste?"

 "It was so sparkly," she said sadly.

 "Didn't Dad tell you to stop doing that?"

 "Well, guess what's not here," she said, nudging him in the shoulder.

 "The rest of your toothpaste," he answered deadpan.

 "Ha ha," Mabel laughed. "You're not funny, Dipper."

Their conversation during this extended commercial break would end when they heard heavy footsteps rushing towards the den. Both turning towards the direction it came from, they saw Soos almost run into the door frame, excited to tell them something.

 "Hey, Soos! I thought you went home." Mabel cried ecstatically.

 "Nah, dude, Stan told me to clean one of the hallways before I left." He exclaimed, tired from his running.

 "Does Stan pay you overtime?" Dipper said, raising his eyebrow.

"you get paid for overtime?" Soos said, not offended by the idea of giving less money.

 "so what's the rush for?" Dipper asked.

"You dudes will never guess what I found," Soos said excitedly.

 "Buried treasure?" Dipper said quickly.

 "Buried treasure. Dang it," Mabel said, trying to beat Dipper to it, then punching him in the shoulder jokingly when he got it out first.

Following Soos, they went down to what Dipper called one of the more decrepit areas of the shack. It was in a weird part of the shack near the tour area that held no bedrooms. On their first days here, Mabel called it the creepy area, and Dipper had to agree. The entire hallway was drenched in darkness due to the lack of replacement light bulbs and many wrecked parts of the floor. The only evidence this had been used as a hallway was the few decorations; they were also becoming decrepit. Stan told them this was for whenever he would run out of space in the main tour area to put some attractions in the rooms down here, but due to the fact the Mystery Shack never really ran out of room due to rotating attractions, the hallway clearly was not well used.

 "So I was cleaning up back here," Soos explained. "Jamming to some tunes, when suddenly I scratched the wallpaper and find out there's a door right behind it. But this door isn't a normal door. It's crazy bonkers creepy!"

The door was barely ajar, and the twins' curiosity was getting the better of them. Altogether, they pushed the door slightly, letting it swing open to reveal a dusty dark room.

 Dipper was freaked out the moment the door opened as he was met with the silhouettes of multiple individuals,  but he recovered from his brief bit of fear when he realized none of them were moving and were stuck in static poses.

 They were statues; he noticed a whole room in the Mystery Shack dedicated to statues, but not just any, statues of historical figures made of wax.

'Just when things were starting to make sense,' Dipper thought to himself jokingly. His thought would be temporarily interrupted when he realized he had left Riley back in the main room. They had been awfully quiet, so he just forgot about them; judging by how they responded so far, he would have about 30 minutes max before they would get annoyed at his absence.

Walking around the room slowly, they took in all the figures they could recognize; Larry King, Coolio, Genghis Khan, Sherlock Holmes, and others all laid about the room in various poses.

Dipper was curious about how a whole bunch of statues could just find their way into a locked room by themselves.

Stan had probably rotated them out from the tour area, he thought, and just never got them back.

 Mabel, on the other hand, was unexpectedly ecstatic about being in this room. Dipper and Soos could tell as she frantically and joyously hopped around each statue individually, taking in all the details. This made sense; she was an artist in all forms she could get her hands on.

From a young age, it didn't matter whether it was painting, drawing, sewing, knitting, sculpting, or amateur video making; art was a core part of who Mabel was as a person. Art was, after all, the ability of one to express their feelings, and Mabel always loved to do that.

"There are a bunch of wax statues!" she said excitedly.

Dipper smiled, seeing how happy his sister was. "too bad they're super creepy" he said, "especially that fake looking one."

Pointing in the direction of the fakest one, it kind of looked like Stan.

 before the rest of them can laugh at it, in a sudden movement, it raised its hand and replied

 "Hello," Grunkle Stan had said

 "AH!" Dipper, Mabel, and Soos all screamed, reeling back and in terror.

 "Oh, calm down. It's just me, Grunkle Stan," he said, chuckling while pointing to himself.

 This didn't stop any of them from screaming and running out; it was a joke, or at least Dipper and Mabel thought they were joking, with no idea how Soos was going about this.

A few minutes later of, jokingly running around the house, the Pines twins and the sole handyman of the Mystery Shack reconvened in the room.

"Welcome to the Gravity Falls wax museum!" Stan said, showing them around. "This was the pride and joy of the Mystery Shack until I forgot about it."

 "you forgot about the pride and joy of the Mystery Shack?" Dipper said, raising an eyebrow

 "Grunkle Stan, how can you forget about a place like this? Isn't it awesome?" Mabel exclaimed, jumping up and down.

 "Awesome? Kid, it's a bunch of creepy wax statues."

 "Well-made wax statues," Mabel said.

 "Yeah, sure, whatever," Stan replied, showing them around. "we got all the classics here. Genghis Khan, Sherlock Holmes, some kind of, I don't know, goblin man?" The goblin man he was referring to was Larry King, and Dipper was shocked at how he knew who that was, but his far older Great Uncle didn't.

 "and last but not least, my personal favorite, President Abraham Lincoln…Oh no." Stan cried out in horror.

 There was a large puddle of old wax in the spot where Abraham Lincoln once stood; over it was an open window responsible for its melting.

 "Man, Lincoln can't catch a break," Dipper said.

 "John Wilkes Booth, I know you're responsible for this," Stan called out to the ceiling, enraged.

 Dipper looked around briefly for a statue of Booth, but he seemed to be missing, or his uncle was just making a weird joke.

Mabel ignoring their Great Uncle's saddened anger walked up to him and patted him on the back. "Don't worry, Grunkle Stan; you should turn that frown upside down."

 "No," Stan said

 "beep boop bop," Mabel responded, poking him in the face several times and then the eye.

 "ow!" Stan replied, shooting back up.

Seeing how he was now focused on her, Mabel decided to take the opportunity. Smiling even wider, she had a great idea. "Hey, Grunkle Stan, if you're so upset about losing a wax statue, why don't I make one."

 "Make one?" Stan said questioningly. "OK, do you know how hard it is the make a wax statue.?

 "Grunkle Stan, don't you know who you're talking to, an arts and craft master? Ever since I was gifted with my two hands, I have been blessed with the divine skill of the art," she said in a fake Shakespearean accent, only to play up the dramatic revelation.

 "What are you talking about? Stan said.

 "Basically, she's been really good at art ever since she's been a baby," Dipper interrupted

"Not just that," Mabel said. "I'm also the winner of several elementary and middle art competitions; I even have a picture hanging in the mayor's office."

 "You do?" Stan and Soos said, impressed.

 "Kinda," Dipper interrupted once more. "we were up there for a field trip once, and she stapled a picture of a cat on a wall; it was in a good hiding spot, so no one probably found it."

 "Still counts!" Mabel yelled.

 "I don't know," Stan said, unsure "Are you sure you're up for the task?"

 "Stan, I've had a glue gun stuck to my arm since this morning; I'm dedicated to my craft," she said, oddly serious.

 "I like your gumption, kid."

 "I don't know what that means," Mabel said, still smiling.

Both Pines twins wish they could say the last few days were easy, but unfortunately, they weren't. With Dipper, this made sense. He could always find something to stress him out, even on days off. But in a rare twist of fate, Mabel was now having one of the most challenging times of her life.

 Mabel was now adorned in a Baby blue sweater, a red beret, and an artist apron. She had been staring at a large wax block for what felt like an hour. After the amount of wax they had on hand was deemed insufficient, Stan, in what he would like to call a calculated risk, bought a new, completely whole block of wax for Mable to work on.

This only made Mabel more proud as she realized he was completely confident in her abilities. The feeling she had now was getting her down, though; she was stumped. Mabel was never one to not have any idea on what to create artistically, she was the exact opposite, but this was a challenge for some reason.

With the rediscovery of the wax figures, Stan was obviously planning to use them for something; Mabel realized her statue could probably be the head of it, and the idea of her art being appreciated publicly was crazy.

Back in Piedmont, she had been one of the favorite students of pretty much every art teacher she sat in front of. Art was about expressing yourself, and she was excellent at expressing herself. While she's been criticized by fellow art students about whether her paintings were of a high quality a couple of times, they couldn't argue with the fact she was probably more creative and inventive than them any day of the week.

All that reputation was coming to a sudden halt right now, 'what would people want to see a wax statue of?' she thought to herself, holding a notebook with multiple sketches inside.

 She was nervous, but she wasn't Dipper nervous as she would call it; Dipper nervous was thinking of so many situations his brain would just shut down. Her brand of nervousness was just not knowing what could happen next.

 What added to this slight anxiety was the fact this was replacing her job for the foreseeable future. Stan said if she could make a wax figure, she should focus on it; this led to her standing in the parlor area, a large, less used room in the shack she would use as a creative studio.

 She almost felt bad leaving Dipper, assuming he would have to cover her job, but Stan said he would never let Dipper talk to customers for long periods of time; he didn't want to lose the money he laughed.

Back to her situation Mabel had a ton of ideas but no one to bounce them off of, and she would stay in this position coming up with new potential ideas for a couple hours.

By the time the Mystery Shack's time of operations had ended, Dipper was walking through the shack with low energy.

After getting some food from the kitchen and a drink, he decided to check in on his sister, who he hadn't seen all day, something he was not used to.

Unfortunately for him, enhanced senses don't cover a sister jumping from out of nowhere to shock him.

 "Hey, Dipper!" Mabel yelled, jumping right next to him.

 Dipper almost coughed up the soda and started coughing rapidly.

 "Mabel, why would you ambush me," Dipper said, still recovering.

 "Man, even when you're a superhero, you're still easy to scare," she said, laughing at him as he gave her a less-than-amused glare. Forgetting about it, he stood up and noticed the wax figure still had no progress.

 "So, how goes the art project?"

 "Huh, well, guess what, younger brother? You're about to be the first to see the wonderful ideas brewing up in my head."

 Dipper chose to ignore the younger brother line as he sat down on one of the chairs she guided him to. A few moments later, she pulled out a large easel with multiple concealed pictures on it.

 "OK, Dipper,." she said similarly to a game show host.

"What do all wax figures have in common?"

 "They are all wax?" Dipper said slowly.

 "No, well, yes, but what else is common amongst wax figures."

 "they're creepy," Dipper said.

 "NO! They're all statues of iconic characters and figures, that's why for my first idea, I got the iconic…" The paper dramatically lowered itself to the ground, and Dipper was somehow more confused than he ever could have imagined.

 "Mabel, what is that?" Dipper asked, his jaw almost on the floor.

 "A fairy Princess half horse fairy Princess." She said proudly, pointing at the horrifying amalgamation of a Centaur of a beautiful Princess with a horse's head in their stomach and human arms for legs.

"Why?"

 "I took a nap like 2 hours ago; I think the sugar is starting to give me weird dreams."

 "Any other ideas?" Dipper said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

 "of course" Flipping the page, he only stared dead at her as he saw it was a waffle with big arms.

 "Really?" Dipper said, unamused.

"Yes, the people will love it…. I'm also kind of hungry."

"want me to make you lunch or, at this point, dinner."

 "No!" Mabel yelled, slapping the easel.

 "All the best artists starve to get their best ideas, so that's what I will do." Mabel yelled dramatically at the ceiling. "I will be one of the greats. Like Leonardo Michelangelo Donatello and Raphael."

 "Mabel, please don't tell me that's all the classical artists you know," Dipper said, now amused.

 "Like I said, Dipper, the greats." She said, keeping a dramatic pose pointing towards the ceiling.

 "OK, well, I'm going to bring you dinner in like an hour," Dipper said, only smiling at his sister.

 "What Dipper, what did I just say about din…"

"I convinced Stan to order quesadillas."

 "Oh, never mind." She said quickly. "But Dipper, you gotta help me; what do people like in wax statues if they don't like a waffle with big arms."

 "I don't know, Mabel statues are usually of real people and Sherlock Holmes over there, but you know close enough." He said, shrugging his shoulders.

 "A person from real life? Oh, what about that hot guy on the 10-dollar bill." Mabel said, putting her hands together in excitement.

 "Mabel, if you're calling him the guy from the 10-dollar bill, I don't think you should make a statue of him." Dipper sighed to himself. "Maybe you can choose someone like close to you, maybe someone in your family."

Mabel would soon find her inspiration when Stan walked in without his pants looking for them. What was like a Renaissance painting comes to life, for Mabel at least; Stan put his foot on a small box and struck an important pose looking off into the distance while light shined down upon him.

 "Oh muse, you work in mysterious ways, Mabel," she said, finally getting her idea.

 "Why is your sister talking to the ceiling?" Stan questioned.

 Dipper didn't answer him and only looked towards the ceiling to find a hole cut in the roof, giving the light; he would not have to wait long to see the culprit as a small Beaver waved at him.

What is art without effort, Mabel thought as she was on day three of working on her project for the Mystery Shack. If there was one thing Mabel was good at, it was being fast at her job, and in less than a week, she had crafted a whole wax statue frame and had painted it to look almost identical to her favorite distant relative.

 He was also the only one she knew, but that didn't matter right now.

Wax Stan, as she called it, was her crowning achievement; no longer would she be known for Mabel, the girl who tried to put Unicorn graffiti on the side of their school bus. She would now be known as Mabel, the girl who created a wax figure of her Great Uncle Stan. In her opinion, an upgrade because she wouldn't have to go to the principal's office.

Despite her evident joy at the project coming along, she didn't enjoy the last three days; like she said, art took sacrifice, and that sacrifice was spending three whole summer days locked up. She almost felt like Dipper, she thought.

 But in the end, it was worth it. Standing right before her was a to-scale recreation of her Great Uncle.

Now she just needed some peer reviews; while sure she should have gone to Stan first, she decided to start with the other inhabitant of this shack. Besides, he was in the middle of a tour which he did not like being interrupted from.

 Dipper was the easiest to find; she found it impressive that even with a book about the local area, he still decided the mostly stay in the same three spots in the house. Apparently, he had been on a break as she saw him sitting in the chair of the den in front of the TV while he was frustratingly writing down notes.

 The TV was playing some old sci-fi movie, and Dipper's face told her a story that what he was writing obviously wasn't amusing to him.

 "Oh, come on, it's not that bad," he said unexpectedly, looking over his shoulder and complaining.

 Mabel took a few seconds to realize what was happening; he was talking to Riley.

 The idea of Riley, in a way, kind of freaked out Mabel, now that she firmly believed in the supernatural; like her brother, the idea of a ghost or spirit or whatever floating around constantly out of sight and talking to her brother weirded her out. This odd feeling would soon almost completely evaporate when she discovered Riley enjoyed looking at her scrapbooks; now Riley wasn't some mysterious being; they were just the first intangible friend she's ever had.

 "Hey, you two!" Mabel cried out as Dipper quickly turned to face her.

"Ah!" Dipper yelled out, almost dropping the pencil on the ground.

 "What are you writing?" Mabel asked curiously.

 "While you were busy making the wax statue, I was investigating this town's hyper-intelligent Beavers, although it's been hard to get the notes down since Riley disagrees with me on many things."

Dipper seemed to pause and look over his shoulder, frowning even more. "Yes, the Beavers are exceptionally strange and definitely worthy of being in the book." He complained once again, going back to writing.

 "OK?" Mabel said, scratching her head; even if she believed in Riley, it was still odd to look at. "But hey, smart Beavers can wait later. You ready to see Wax Stan." She said, striking a pose and smiling at him.

 "I still can't believe you made a wax statue of our con man of a Great Uncle," Dipper said deadpan, still frowning over his shoulder while erasing something.

"You said it right, Dipper; he's not just any con man. He's our con man." Mabel said sweetly, grabbing him by the arm and pushing him towards the parlor.

After once more going down the creepy hallway, whose lights have recently been replaced, Dipper was met with the statue of Stan in all its glory.

 Mabel waited patiently as she stared at her brother's reaction to it.

 "Wow, Mabel, this is…really good," Dipper said, taken aback. "I never doubted you, but I never expected it would be this good."

 "Yes!" Mabel cried as she jumped into a twirl at the same time. "Who's the greatest artist in the world?"

 "You?" Dipper said, obviously guessing.

 "you know it! What does Riley think? I need the opinions of all friends and family of Mabel."

 Dipper raised an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder once again, opening the book. "what do you think" he asked.

 Mabel stared at the open air where she assumed Riley was and was nervous again, sure Dipper's opinion meant a lot more to her than Riley's, but if they could appreciate her art books, they had to have a good eye.

 "They said it looks like Stan," Dipper repeated so Mabel could hear.

 "that's it?" Mabel says, dropping her arms

 "I think she's looking for a little more," Dipper said, staring at them and making hand movements to signal to keep going.

Turning back to her, Dipper had a smile on his face. "They said they don't understand the concept of wax Figures, and this is the first one they've seen, so they called it a very accurate representation."

 "Yes!" again, Mabel said, jumping once more.

 Later in the day, she would get the following opinions from both Wendy and Soos.

 "I don't know, the smile is kind of creepy," Wendy said. "I'm not used to him smiling like that unless he just 'found' a lot of money." She used quotation marks on the word found.

 "I think it's awesome," Soos replied, ecstatic.

 "But it's missing something," Mabel said, scratching her chin and looking around at her art supplies.

 She wouldn't get a response, but Soos would hand her a large bucket of glitter.

 Mabel smiled at the bucket, grabbed it, and walked up towards Wax Stan.

 "Hey, Mabel, I don't think that's a good…" Before Wendy could finish her thought, the bucket of glitter had splashed entirely on top of the wax stand, giving a perpetually shiny look. "Oh, never mind," Wendy finished.

“It sure does look attention-grabbing,” Dipper said, unsure how to comment on the addition of copious amounts of glitter.

 “Perfect!” Mabel yelled.

 The door to the parlor would suddenly be opened as Stan walked in, this time missing his shoes.

 “Alright, crew, I know I put my shoes somewhere, and you know how hard it is to do a tour without any shoes now… ah!”  Grunkle, Stan in the middle of his rant, screamed out as he saw the exact copy of himself standing before him.

 “So, Grunkle Stan, what do you think, Mabel,” she said confidently. Her smile would only grow wider as she saw his smile.

 “What do I think?” Stan said, standing up after his fright and waving his arms in the air. “I think the Gravity Falls wax museum is back in business.”

  There were a few times Mabel was overcome with emotion, especially just happiness. She could have reacted in so many ways as all her family and friends started praising her.

 Right now, all she did was smile.

Stan, never faltering in his business mind, had devised a plan as quick as a lightning strike.

The Mystery Shack wax museum would have a grand reopening out on the front lawn of the shack, of course, with paid admission. He also assigned tasks accordingly; Soos and Wendy would help create the stage where it all takes place, Stan would order all the necessary items, and Mabel, who he called the star of the show, would just need to prepare to speak and touch up the other statues. At the same time, Dipper, of course, got stuck with the worst task.

Dipper was in charge of planting a bunch of cheaply made posters around town, all with giant advertisements for free pizza. He’d obviously complained about being given this task, but Stan just guilt-tripped him by saying he should do it for his sister. No matter how strong Dipper was physically now, he would always be weak to the prospect of not helping out his sister.

 So, he took the advertisements and immediately headed out to town.

 Main Street in Gravity Falls was fascinating to him; every time he was there, it seemed to have more and more items but always kept its small rustic charm. It was apparent to tell not many new people moved into Gravity Falls. Still, whenever they did, they would probably set up a small business and be accepted into the local populace very quickly. The only things Dipper had brought with him were obviously the ads and the journal. He didn’t expect a busy day in the town, so talking to Riley could pass the time.

 Unfortunately for him, it was hard to keep a book open while walking around town, stapling and taping paper everywhere, so his conversations with them were sparing.

 Walking through town, he would staple an advertisement on a wooden pole when it was snatched away seconds later. Turning around quickly to confront whoever had stolen the paper right as he stapled it, he was met with a police officer. This one wasn’t like the other two he had seen before. As far as he could tell, Gravity Falls had two police officers, one named Sheriff Blubs and another named Deputy Durland; this guy was a complete unknown.

This officer was a lot younger than Durland, probably in his 20s,

He had Ashe's hair in a short professional cut, and he was wearing the Gravity Falls standard police uniform with a black jacket over it. Wearing a black jacket in the summer, maybe his sister wasn't the only weird one. "Wax museum?" he said in a confused voice looking between the paper and Dipper.

 "Yeah?" Dipper said, confused, "Is there a problem."

 "No, hey, this is from the Mystery Shack?" he said as if he was getting to a revelation, "you work for Stan Pines?"

 "I'm related to him," Dipper said. He didn't know if this was right to give this information to this random guy; sure, he was a cop, but since when did cops like his family.

"Did he ever tell you where he got these wax statues?" The officer questions once again. Dipper almost froze for a second; during dinner a few nights ago, Stan might have let it slip that he only acquired these statues because of a very open robbery; the only comfort Stan had was that the guy who he stole them from didn't really want to report them.

 "Um.. no." Dipper responded quietly.

 "Weird because my grandfather used to have many of these things that look the same before they went missing."

 "Wait! Stan took the statues from your grandfather?"

 "I thought you said you didn't know how he got them?" The officer smiled back at Dipper. It wasn't threatening, but it wasn't the most inviting.

"Ah, Dang it," Dipper responded. If his great-uncle got locked up because of him, he probably would never hear the end of it.

 "Don't worry, kid, I'm not gonna arrest that old man for taking those statues; he's probably going to do something worse by the end of the month anyway." the officer said nonchalantly as he waved off the notion of actually arresting Stan.

"Besides," the officer continued, "the moment those statues disappeared, my grandfather became way better to hang around. "

 "he did. Why?"

"Oh no, I don't know, the old man was crazy, but I guess anyone is if they have to have a small army of wax people hanging around. My favorite growing up was Lincoln."

 "I'm sorry," Dipper replied.

 "What?" the officer said, confused.

 "Oh, nothing, so am I, like, allowed to hang up these posters," Dipper said, looking around nervously. He just hung up about 20 of them and didn't want all his progress to be waived.

“Nah, it’s good, kid, you are probably new in town, but you gotta realize people do way dumber things here. You just kind of roll with it.”

 “Thanks, officer… Steve.”  Dipper said, reading out his name tag.

 “no problem… whatever your name is.”

 “oh, it’s Dipper.”

 “Dipper?”

 “Yeah, it’s a nickname.”

 Looking down at the flyer again, Officer Steve read some of the more minor details below the giant pizza ad and a small picture of the wax statues.

“You guys have a permit to conduct this event, right?" he asked skeptically.  the moment he looked up from the paper, he realized that Dipper had run away.

 “Wait, was that kid arrested for counterfeiting a few days ago,” Steve said to himself, searching his memory.

Only a little would happen in the next few hours into the next day as the Mystery Shack finally prepared itself for the reopening of the Gravity Falls wax museum.

 Using her familial lumberjack skills, Wendy helped construct the stage with Soos’s handyman abilities building the rest. Dipper would, of course, get again the least flattering job of setting up the chairs and putting up a large banner welcoming people to the Mystery Shack.

While all this was going down, Mabel was almost dancing. She was so excited. She and Stan had moved the wax figures outside next to a large number of air conditioners to keep them cool in the sun. In just a few moments, she would give her first speech on her first major art piece; she didn’t know how life could get better.

 “Isn’t this awesome, Dipper!” Mabel cried from on top of the stage, all while they were still setting up the last decorations.

Even annoyed at his job, Dipper could still muster a smile towards his sister. The final statue that was wax Stan was rolled onto the stage under a tarp, patiently waiting for its dramatic reveal.

 It wouldn’t take much longer for the first guest to arrive, where Dipper and Wendy were now taking their tickets to a surprisingly large crowd.

 “Man, this is weird,” Dipper commented, receiving more cash. “I didn’t think Grunkle Stan had this kind of influence over the town.”

"Ehh," Wendy commented. "Sure, everybody knows he's kind of a con man, but he's objectively the most entertaining person in town right now, so why not."

 "Yeah, but with all these people, you would swear he'd bribe them." Dipper said, laughing.

 "He bribed me," she said, holding out a 20-dollar bill from under her hat.

 Dipper only responded by doing the same thing as they both laughed with each other.

 Back on the stage, the entire gallery of wax figures was behind a podium; between the podium and the figures, though, was Soos on a keyboard.

 While the mic was still off, Stan leaned towards Mabel to give her some final advice. "OK, sweetie, remember what we said about how to sell people on things."

 "Do it loud and do it proud!" Mabel yelled.

 "If it gets the money, then whatever you want," Stan replied, smiling at the prospect of how much cash you could probably get.

The event would officially start when the feedback from the speaker would almost deafen everybody; all in attendance winced in pain as they were assaulted by the amateur setup put up by the Mystery Shack crew.

 Once the seats were properly taken, Stan took the stage, adjusted his tie, and smiled.

Activating the Microphone, Stan waves his arms to the crowd of people sitting before him. The crowd was obviously not the entire town, but it was a good bit of population; some noticeable ones were one and a half-reporter, a crazy old man, some weird bald guy rooting around the bushes, the entire Corduroy family, and others.

"People of Gravity Falls, you know me, the man of mystery who's delighted your town with tales of the paranormal and strange for years!"

A few feet away, Dipper scoffed loudly.

"I know my reputation precedes me as a great man who will do everything to entertain the people, and today is an extension of that… please ladies, control yourself," Stan says, pointing out to a group of fish-eyed women who were not really paying attention.

"But today, it's not about me… it's about me." On cue, Soos pulled the tarp over wax Stan revealing it to the audience; the audience was less than impressed. Only a couple of people clapped, most likely out of courtesy. The crowd's mood wouldn't be enhanced by Soos playing the soundboard keyboard and replaying the word yeah repeatedly.

Mabel sat in the back, basked in the very few claps she got. Her happiness would only be interrupted by a small thump in the background; looking towards the group of wax figures while everyone was distracted, she noticed one of them, Lizzie Borden to be specific, had dropped her iconic axe; she would probably have to hurry up with the speech the wax figures even with conditioning we're probably not going to last long out here.

"But while today is a great day to celebrate me, it's not always about me. It can sometimes be about my family. Here is our own Mabel-Angelo." He said this as he pointed for Mabel to approach the stage.

"It's just Mabel," She said as she took the microphone from Stan and moved closer to the audience on the stage.

"People of Gravity Falls, you don't know me… hi, I'm Mabel," she said cheerily.

 The crowd once again looked awkwardly at each other, a couple of them waving like she did.

 "Anyway, now that we're all introduced, I would like to talk about my art piece. it took me many, many, many hours to complete this piece, and it's covered in blood, sweat, tears, and other bodily fluids." Most of the audience just reeled back in disgust when they heard this. Mabel could only laugh at her joke as she pointed to the general audience.

 "I will now be taking questions."

 The first person up was old man McGucket, who stood up quickly.

"Old man McGucket, local kook,  are the wax figures alive, and can I survive the wax figure uprising?"

 "Uh, yes and no," Mabel responded jokingly, or at least she hoped he was joking along with her. Suddenly the old man would jump in fear and then run away into the woods with the entire crowd looking at him confused.

 Mabel somehow didn't lose her cheery demeanor. "Alright, next question."

"Toby Determined, Gravity Falls Gossiper, one of your Flyers, says you consider this the 8th wonder of the world. Do you really think that's applicable here?" Ask the short vintage reporter.

Before she could answer, Stan interrupted. "Your microphone is a Turkey baster Toby," he said, annoyed at the little man.

 "it certainly is," Toby said, oddly upbeat.

 "Next question," Stan announced, returning the stage to Mabel.

 A quite tall lady stood up with an actual news crew behind her.

"Shandra Jimenez here, an actual reporter." She said this last part staring directly at Toby in disgust. "Did you really invite the entire town out here to watch you reopen a wax museum?"

"Of course, Stan!" said, retaking the stage, "except it's a lot better because I'm in it."

 "Sure," Shandra drawled, "another question one of your Flyers promised free pizza at this event. Is that true.?

The crowd would ignite at this point, most of them Looking around for any tables with pizza. Back at the table near the entrance Dipper and Wendy only looked at each other nervously, realizing the mistake Stan had made.

In a sporadic bit of violence, the entire crowd had rioted, briefly breaking pretty much all of this set up around the shack and throwing stuff everywhere; one lady started throwing chairs around, several people pulled out randomly placed pitchforks, and most of the Corduroy family had cut down the Wooden poles at the entrance, except for Manly Dan who just punched one down.

Stan, while the chaos was unfolding, had run with the money back into the shack, which none of the rioters seemed to care about following him into. After the crowd had dispersed, walking back to the town, Wendy and Dipper both rose from underneath the table they were set up at.

 "Did your dad just punch a wooden pole?" Dipper asked.

 "Yeah, he tends to do that," Wendy replied, also taken aback by the violence. They would both suddenly scream in high-pitched voices when Mabel appeared right next to them out of nowhere.

 "Well, that was fun!" she said loudly, shocking both of them.

 "Where did you come from?" Wendy cried.

"you'll get used to it," Dipper said, already calming down. "Also, what do you mean by fun, Mabel? They wrecked half the outside of the shack."

 "Yeah, but they didn't wreck the wax figures, and how many of those artists can say they had a riot form at their first premiere," Mabel said, still smiling to herself.

Wendy smiled back at Mabel. "Officially makes you the coolest artist in town… it's kind of awesome stuff like this never happened before. Was it crazy for you guys back home?"

 "I wish," Mabel said

"Should we help clean up?" Dipper asked, scratching his head and looking around the wrecked scene.

"Nah, Soos got it," Wendy said nonchalantly.

 "What, should we still help?" Mabel wondered.

 After she asked this question, she and Dipper turned to Wendy to see her response, only to find her chair empty.

 "Well, I guess we know her answer," Dipper said.

As the night finally rolled in, the crew of the Mystery Shack, except for Wendy, of course, had finished most of the work. Stan, interestingly enough, wasn't even angry about Wendy's departure, saying she does this sometimes he doesn't care; it does help that Soos does the work of four men just himself.

 As Dipper went upstairs again to have another journal research argument with Riley,  Mabel had decided to head downstairs and say goodnight to Stan. Finding him in the den in front of the TV, Mabel was intrigued to see that her masterpiece wax Stan was instead of being in the new wax museum sitting on the couch with him.

 "look at him. He truly captures my inner beauty." Stan says, almost crying to the smiling wax version of himself. Taking out a large wad of cash, Stan flipped through it, smiling even wider. "All this success and I owe it to one person."

Mabel took a few steps forward to him and smiled, Ready to attain some praise.

"This guy," Stan said, pointing towards the wax figure. Mabel's only response was to lightly hit Stan in the stomach. Slightly recoiling from it, he smiled prouder at her and pet the top of her head.

 "and, of course, our own Gravity Falls greatest artist," Stan said, correcting himself.

 "is there really no artist better here?" Mable said, smiling ear to ear from the praise.

 "None that make me money, and not like anyone can make a wax figure in like 3 days; you're pretty good, kid; I see a future. We should do more business together."

 "Stan, I already work here," Mabel corrected him.

 "Look at me. I know good talent when I see it now. I just need to find some special skill your brother is good at." Stan said, scratching his chin.

"Dipper can play the sousaphone," Mabel responded back quickly.

"I don't know what that is," Stan responded, turning her around and pushing her towards the stairs, "all right, all right, kids need their sleep or something. Let an old man and wax figure watch television together."

 Finally getting the hint that whatever they considered a bedtime was now, Mabel slowly started walking upstairs, waving back to Stan goodnight.

On her way to the main staircase, Mabel was only even more elated; today had been an absolute success somewhat. Sure, a good population of the town was angry at them, But nobody was mad at her, only the lack of pizza.

 Mabel slowly made her way up the staircase to the large attic. She would usually walk with a joyous skip, but something felt wrong; a slight tap was what she heard against the wooden floor.

 Turning around swiftly, she looked down into the darkened staircase below, where she heard a slight tap. She saw nothing wait, almost nothing. With the long shadows of the TV and the constant laughing from her Great Uncle, Mabel could barely make out a figure she saw in the corner of the darkened room below. She squinted, trying to look farther in without taking steps downstairs; it almost looked like a person holding something. Mabel was sweating now. She was probably being paranoid, like her brother. Turning away from the figure for a second, she searched for the light and turned it on immediately.

 Looking down below into the staircase, whatever was standing there was gone. It couldn't have moved away without making it sound right? she thought; maybe she would talk to Dipper about this.

 Yelling one more goodnight, Grunkle Stan shook her out of her nervousness; Mabel walked over to the bathroom she shared to find Dipper brushing his teeth while arguing once more with Riley.

Dipper, with his hat, vest, and shoes removed, stood up straight in front of the mirror, only taking time to stop brushing his teeth to fire back our response to Riley.

 "I'm not saying it's unimportant; I'm just saying It's too speculative to make the assumption that hyperintelligent Beavers would, in fact, have advanced architecture." Dipper only paused momentarily, staring back at the space Mabel assumed Riley was standing in.

 "What do you mean by a hypothesis? I haven't written anything yet because I don't have a hypothesis. All it did was wave at me."

 "Hey bro, hey Riles," Mabel called out, moving him out of the way to grab her toothbrush.

 Dipper was slowly getting used to being jump scared by his sister, so he didn't even react this time. "What is up with you trying to scare people lately, or are you just doing it unintentionally" Dipper complained, spitting out his toothpaste.

"What can I say? A girl's gotta change up her act every couple of days. Got to keep you on your toes."

Dipper only stared in response and then stared at the empty space again.

 "Yeah, I know it doesn't make sense. That's just how she is." Dipper said, responding to whatever Riley said.

 Mabel still didn't like the idea of being cut out of a three-way conversation, but she was willing to accept it for now, at least. Grabbing her own teeth-brushing equipment, Mabel looked up into the empty space. "Hey Riley, do you need to brush your teeth, or does your breath just constantly stink."

Her only measure of response was getting Dipper to look at Riley, and he smiled at whatever they said.

"Riley says they don't have physical attributes, but they like that you asked."

Mabel did a slight spin in celebration. Today it's been a good day, she thought. She had gotten her art presented in public, been called the greatest artist in a small town, and was now friends with an incorporeal being That only her brother could see. Sure, one of those things was not like the other, but they were all positive.

 "All right, Dipper, it's been a pretty good day, so you know what that means. It's time for a challenge."

 "Why would you having a good day mean I would have to be subjected to a challenge?" He already groaned, hoping the challenge wasn't anything stupid.

 "I challenge you, Dipper Pines, to a….toothbrush race!" she said dramatically.

Dipper smiles. Mabel could tell Riley was probably talking to him since he moved his head slightly to them, but he was still focusing on her.

 "It's a time-honored tradition," Dipper said, staring at Mabel like a Mexican standoff was about to occur.

 Both of them raised their toothbrushes to their mouths and got in a ready position near the mirror.

 “3…. 2…. 1… go”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”

Right before their honorable race would occur, a loud yell rang through the Mystery Shack. It was obvious who it came from as Dipper and Mabel rushed downstairs to see if their great uncle was OK. Mabel was extra nervous. She thought she saw something, but if she did see something and failed to report it, could her Great Uncle Stan be hurt.

Dipper obviously reached downstairs quicker, and when he saw the scene, he was shocked but not horrified; Mabel quickly followed but was extremely horrified at the scene.

 Grunkle Stan was on his hands and knees, looking at the event which just occurred.

 "Wax Stan," Grunkle Stan cried out. "he's been murdered!" True to what he said, Wax Stan, still in his static pose, lay on the ground with his head removed and Several marks on his body.

 All Dipper could do was stare at Mabel's wide range of emotions. First, it was shock, then sadness, and then he noticed her getting a little lightheaded. Not being able to process this situation, Mabel fainted, and Dipper caught her while Grunkle Stan cursed that he would have revenge. With one hand Dipper called the police While staring around the house.

 A thought came into his head, not only had someone defiled his sister's art piece, someone had broken into the shack, and they could be anywhere.

Chapter Text

It took an unexpectedly short amount of time for the police to show up. From how Stan talked about them, Dipper could only assume the police in this town were all terrible at their jobs, but at least their response time was good.

But between the times they showed up in the shack and the discovery of wax Stan's mutilated corpse, if you can call it that, the Pines family was all going through a range of emotions. Stan was still stewing in rage that his potential money maker and new prized exhibit was trashed, Dipper was looking around the house in case someone got in, but he found no evidence of a break-in.

 Of course, no one took it harder than Mabel; after she fainted, Dipper sat her on the comfortable chair facing the TV in the den. Once she woke up, she wasn't crying, but Dipper hadn't seen her this upset for a long time.

By the time Dipper got back from his sweep through the house, he'd seen the police cruiser roll up, and of course, the two officers to step out were Blubs and Durland; he swore this town only had a single squad of police officers.

Within the now brightly lit den of the Mystery Shack, the Sheriff, Deputy, and the Pines family, were all surrounding the 'corpse' of wax stan.

Much to their disappointment, it wouldn't be a few minutes later when they were told the surprising news.

 "What do you mean you think it's unsolvable" Stan yelled at the officers.

 "Face it, man," Blubs said, trying to calm him down. "There's no evidence of a break-in, there are no noticeable traces of DNA, we couldn't even find a fingerprint on the statue."

"No fingerprints! Dipper asked, confused, "What if the killer was using gloves?"

 "I don't know," Blubs said. "All this sounds like some kind of elaborate prank; who would break into a house to behead a statue?"

"Maybe it was someone mad at the party," Dipper said after he thought about it for a second. "Hey, if you guys need help with the investigation, I would love to be of service," Dipper said excitedly.

"Huh, oh, city boy thinks he can solve the case with his fancy computer phone," Blubs said mockingly.

Dipper's frustration would only grow when the deputy repeatedly chanted "city boy" to mock him.

"What city boy? Why can't I help? Dipper cried out, confused.

"yeah, he's really smart!" Mabel said, perking up for the first time in an hour, "He discovered who was eating all of our tin cans just a couple of days ago."

 "All signs pointed to the goat," Dipper said, proud of himself for a quick investigation.

The sheriff would only laugh a little louder. "boy, you are hilarious. Do you know how hard it is to be a real detective? give it a few years or a decade, and maybe you can consider becoming one." He mocked Dipper. The deputy would only laugh louder.

"Hey, I might be a kid, but I could still help, right?" Dipper started to whine; he wasn't really helping his case by complaining this way.

 "Oh man, you're adorable," the sheriff said.

"Come on, you guys, you could totally use some help, or at least can we get a normal officer on this case like that young cop I saw in town? What was his name… Steve."

"You know Steve?" Durland said

 "yeah, why?""

Suddenly a radio frequency came in on the police scanners. "Attention, all units, attention, all units. Steve is going to attempt to fit an entire cantaloupe in his mouth. I repeat, Steve is going to try and fit an entire cantaloupe in his mouth."

 Dipper could only stare, stunned. Maybe there were no normal cops in the town of Gravity Falls; he seemed so normal when he met him too. Dipper started to really consider that there was not a single normal person within this town's borders at all. Him and his sister being the sane ones in any environment, only spelled trouble.

"It's a 23-16!" Durland cried out in joy hearing the broadcast.

"Listen, Stan," the sheriff said. "if you get any more disturbances feel free to report them, but as far as I can tell, this is most likely staged by you, and you're not the most trustworthy individual in town."

 "yeah yeah, whatever you say, officer," Stan said sarcastically as both law enforcement officers walked out.

 "Well, that was a waste of tax money if I paid them." Stan said, helping himself while looking back at the statue. "whelp, the Gravity Falls wax museum has to go without its shining star."

 "It's not over," Dipper said confidently.

 "I mean, his head is torn off. It's kind of over," Stan replied.

 "No, I mean the story of Wax stan is not over, we still don't know who did it, and I'm gonna find out," Dipper said, rubbing his hands together.

"Oh, oh, can I help?" Mabel said, raising her hand.

 "Whatever you say, Watson," Dipper said, smiling towards his sister.

 "Watson?"

 "Never mind," Dipper said.

Stan only looked at them and shrugged. "You two kids have fun with that. I gotta find a new marketing scheme and hope Soos has enough superglue to make one. Also…" he said, starting sniffling. "I need to make some arrangements."

 As he walked out of the room depressingly, Dipper and Mabel only raised their eyebrows at each other, wondering what that last part meant.

 "you ready for a murder investigation," Dipper said, pointing out his sister Mabel,

 "you know it, bro."

 "we're gonna show those cops that I can totally solve a case, and I'm not adorable."

 Suddenly the need to sneeze arose, and a soft kitten-like noise emitted when he released it.

 Mabel cooed at the sound, causing Dipper to stare at her like she had just profoundly betrayed him.

After the hack job, which was the cop's investigation of the crime scene, the Pines twins had completely set up in the den for their own investigation.

After the sun had risen, the Pines twins, who had only a few hours of sleep after the incident, were fully dedicated to their investigation.

 Mabel has set up toilet paper around the living room to mock police tape, much to stans annoyance; he said he would probably focus on this more if he didn't have more tours to attend to.

 Speaking of work, Mabel and Dipper had gotten the day off, while stan enjoyed their contributions to this shack as a business; in his rage over Wax Stan's murder, the twins were given the day off to investigate.

 Mabel was snapping photos of the crime scene while Dipper thoroughly analyzed it. Mabel's easel sat in the corner of the room next to Wax stans body with dozens of pictures of all who attended the grand reopening of the wax museum. In what he assumed professional detectives did, Dipper pulled out his phone and started recording his voice.

 "Investigation day one he monologues. A wax replica of my great uncle has been defiled by the hands of an unknown assailant, a stan with an empty pocket, and a sister with a broken heart is not a good mix. Looks like I have to get serious with this one…"

"What are you doing" she said, staring at him while he was monologuing in his serious voice. Dipper would suddenly turn around, reverting to his normal voice.

 "Oh, I was just… you know… recording our investigation," he said nervously.

 "Can I narrate?" she asked, clapping her hands.

 "Mabel, you have your own phone, besides we need to get back on track." Starting the recording on his phone again, Dipper reverted to a serious voice and began monologuing again. "There were many unhappy guests at the Mystery Shack that day, and due to this town's brand of… characters, it wouldn't be too crazy to say one of them would take their rage out on the wax figure themselves. The culprit could be anyone."

“Yeah, even us,” Mabel said, interrupting him.

 Returning to his normal voice, Dipper responded to her. “Mabel, I really don’t want to think about the idea of evil clones right now.”

 Dipper seemed to stop the serious voice as he returned to his recording. “the town entirely doesn’t make sense, so I expect this investigation to go slow. Some murder investigations can go unsolved for decades, maybe even a century. Who knows when I can find my first clue.”

 “Hey, look, a clue,” Mabel said, pointing towards the back of the chair.

 “Amazing,” Dipper said as he cut off the commentary.

 Both twins looking behind the couch, noticed an axe barely sticking out from under it, grabbing it slowly; once it was revealed from under the couch, it was a pretty small axe and easily wieldable by Mabel as she spun it around jokingly.

 Dipper would take the axe and hold it up to wax stans many cuts along his body; unsurprisingly, they matched.

“Good job Mabel” Dipper said, “now that we have a murder weapon, we just need to know more about it.”

“So you’re saying we need an expert,” Mabel said.

 “Yes, and I know just the right people for the job.”

"So you're saying someone broke into the shack and cut off the old man's fake," head Wendy commented, bored.

 "That's awful," Soos said.

 When the Mystery Shack employees had come in for the day, they were told by the twins Stan would be gone for a few hours to pick up something.

But that didn't matter as much as the questions they had to ask them.

 "That's not all the murderer left behind a weapon," Dipper said

 "Murder, don't you mean vandal" Wendy corrected,

 "Wendy, don't insult me," Mabel said dramatically, "that work of art was a piece of me. It's like a piece of me died. Would you say it be vandalism if I died?"

 Wendy only laughed at her dramatics. "I guess not, Mabes; so what the guy do the job with."

 "He did it with this!" Mabel said, snatching the short axe from Dipper's hands and holding it in front of her face. "What can you guys tell us about it."

For an awkward amount of time, both Soos and Wendy inspected the axe over again. Both whispering to each other for a short amount of time, they both nodded their heads and came to a conclusion.

 "It's an axe," Soos said.

"Whoa!" Mabel said, genuinely amazed at his commentary.

"wait a minute," both twins said suddenly "the lumberjack!"

 "The lumberjack?" Wendy questioned. "you mean my dad?"

 "Yeah, he was furious," Mabel yelled, realizing they probably had a lead. "furious enough for murder."

 "I doubt it," Wendy said, "my dad might be the craziest guy ever to exist. But he's also loud and would never use an axe that small.

Also, I've never seen an axe that looks like that."

Further inspecting it, Dipper realized the shape of it wasn't anything special, but the designs that adorned it were. The axe's blade was utterly blackened with only a silver line on its edge, and the light wooden handle would only be decorated with Red stained paint that covered the top and the bottom of it.

"He's still our only lead," Dipper said. "Do you know where he is?"

"Oh yeah, so I saw him on my way to work. He's hanging out with that crazy biker joint." Soos said

"Crazy biker joint?" Wendy said, "I thought he said he would stop hanging out there; too many fights, you know."

 "That's our first lead; thanks, guys, and sorry we're leaving you to work by yourselves," Dipper said

"ah, forget it. We managed for like a year without you guys. We can manage for a day." Wendy said cooly as she immediately went back to reading a magazine.

 "Man, this is so cool," Soos said, "You two are like the mystery twins."

 Dipper frowned, and Mabel grinned at hearing this nickname.

 "Please don't call us that," Dipper said,

", No, no, keep calling us that; it's amazing. I will be making a sweater for us with that name in no time." Mabel cheered.

 Dipper didn't complain further as he walked out the front door with Mabel.

Rushing outside, the Pines twins probably would have run all the way into the town itself if it wasn't for great Uncle Stan struggling outside with a coffin.

 "Hey, Grunkle Stan!" Mabel cheered. "We're gonna find the guy who messed with my art and…make him pay," she said in a serious voice for the last part. "Hey, what's up with the coffin," she said curiously.

 "You didn't hit someone on the side of the road, did you?" Dipper asked sarcastically.

"Oh please, kids, if you're great uncle murdered someone, you guys definitely wouldn't know. This is a memorial for wax stan. We're doing something classy later tonight, a small family service for those who cared."

 "I'll be there, Stan!" Mabel cried in solidarity with her great-uncle.

 Dipper still looks skeptical, "you're holding a funeral for a wax version of yourself?"

 "You just don't understand what loss is, kid, sentimental or monetary," Stan said, pointing towards him. "Could one of you kids give me a hand with this thing?" he asked, struggling with the coffin again.

 Rolling his eyes, Dipper begrudgingly helps Stan move the coffin out of the car to the ground below. "what are you two jokers doing anyway" Stan asked, wiping off the dust from his hands.

 "We think we have our first lead," Dipper said.

"Yeah, we found an axe," Mabel said, taking it from Dipper's backpack and moving threateningly while making the iconic noises from  Psycho.

"Huh, you already found a lead. I knew you two would be better than those lousy officers in this town. "Stan, for a moment, was in deep thought. "Wait a minute; I wouldn't exactly be a responsible parent  if I let two kids go off investigating by themselves; good thing I'm an uncle." Out of nowhere, Stan put a foot on the back of his car and shook his fist in rage.

 "Avenge me, Kids! avenge me!" Stan yelled into the woods as Dipper and Mabel already started the golf cart and drove into town?

After a relatively short and peaceful drive, ignoring one moment where Mabel freaked out because she swore she saw a gnome, the Pines twins made it into the town and arrived in an alley next to the bar Soos had pointed out to them.

Looking at it, Dipper could only think he was not an expert on biker bars; even though he was not an expert, he assumed it would look more intimidating on the outside.

 Most of the shops on Gravity Falls's main streets look the same, even with coloring and minimal advertisements on the front; it was probably up to locals to know which store was which. The only thing that stood apart from most of these minimal advertisement businesses was Its slightly darker color and somewhat run-down nature.

But still, saying a run-down building in Gravity Falls meant something entirely different; this building still looked like it fit in with the main town.

Of course, the sign 'skull fracture' in neon lights with a skull hanging above the door was the identifying mark. The only other thing to separate it from the buildings was the doorman.

 Dipper and Mabel could swear they'd probably never seen this guy before, but he was definitely intimidating. Built like a linebacker, 'head chin,' as Dipper called him due to his name tattoos on both relevant areas, was an imposing figure.

The twins could tell this was probably going to be the most challenging part of the mission, sure they could always wait till Dan left, but that would be wasting time. Luckily for Dipper, Mabel said she had a perfect plan.

Hidden within the alley, still sitting in the golf cart, Dipper and Mabel hopped out as the female twin rooted through her backpack.

"Don't worry, bro; these fake IDs are totally legit; never doubt a real artist."

 Looking down at his fake ID, Dipper only stared at them, slightly bewildered, 'why not' he thought weirder things had happened.

Approaching the door, they were met with a miner being turned away; guess the logging town didn't like people rooting around in the mines for some reason. As a twin stepped up nervously, head chin looked down upon them unamused.

 "ID?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

 "Oh well, you see…" Dipper said awkwardly, holding his ID still behind his back. He would be interrupted by Mabel, who pushed past him and shoved her ID into his face.

 "We're here to investigate the murder of wax stan," she commented professionally while shaking her idea around. The ID was just as ridiculous as expected. All it held was a name and an age, Mabel being 21 apparently; it was also light blue covered with rainbows and stickers, and googly eyes were placed on both hers and Dipper's.

 Speaking of Dipper's, his was almost the same, except for some reason he was 37, and he got a fake mustache.

 Head chin just looked at the ID for what felt like a minute, almost in awe at what they were trying to pull on him. Looking down at the smiling child, he just shrugged his shoulder. "Works for me," he said as he opened the door for the two obvious kids.

 Awkwardly shuffling through the door, Dipper looked back to Mabel, amazed.

"That shouldn't have worked. He should have like thrown us away or something." Dipper said, shocked.

 "Why are you complaining? couldn't you just fight him off with your superpower strength?" Mable said, mocking fighting poses as she closed the door behind them.

"Mabel, I'm not going to start fighting random people 'cause I can." Their conversation would be put on hold when they saw the room they were in.

Despite its tame exterior, the skull fracture lived up to its name on the interior. The bar was a dark room with neon lights in multiple places, completely filled to the brim with biker folk of either old age or incredible strength.

 Multiple fights were going on at once. At least five people were knocked out on the ground, and others were drinking peacefully.

Dipper put on a serious face and looked at Mabel. "OK, Mabel, we have to be serious here, so stay behind me and let me do the talking."

"You got it dipping sauce," she responded, following him as they walked further into the bar. "Hey, is that guy resting?" she said, pointing out someone on the ground that Dipper didn't want to acknowledge.

Just like the doorman, the twins hadn't got any weird looks about their obvious underage status to be in this location. Most of them were just too preoccupied with themselves, or we're just not caring.

 Without him knowing it, Mabel would split off from Dipper and start talking to some random biker at the bar.

On the other hand, Dipper had marched straight to manly Dan, who he saw on a strength test machine in the back of the establishment.

 Much like the man using it, the machine was massive, and it was an arm wrestling contest that he seemed to be struggling with initially. The only person near them both was Tyler Cutebiker, a local enthusiast enthusiast.

Walking up slowly to the side of the machine to get a good view of manly Dan, Dipper decided to start his interrogation while his hands were busy so he wouldn't clobber him or something.

 "So manly Dan corduroy, is that correct?"

"The one and only," he announced loud and proud, his voice sounding like a wrestler's; while struggling with the machine, he declared absolutely confident.

"Where were you last night? Anywhere near the Mystery Shack after…the, let's just call it a party?"

"Mystery Shack? No, did Wendy get in trouble again?"

"Um, no, this is for some other reason."

"No, I wasn't at no Mystery Shack. I was busy punching the clock."

 "I didn't know lumberjacks worked at night," Dipper said, interested.

"No, I was punching that clock!" Dan said as he pointed to a window with a bent out-of-shape clock. The clock was permanently stuck to 10:30, which just so happened to be around the time of the murder.

 "Interesting, that may be an alibi," Dipper said. "All right, if you weren't around the Mystery Shack, can you explain this?" Dipper said dramatically as he pulled out the small axe and held it to Dan's face.

The quick glance manly Dan got off it made him laugh as he started furiously trying to beat the machine.

After struggling for a bit, he turned back to Dipper.

 "Listen here, you little girl…!"

 "little girl?" Dipper said, confused.

 "I wouldn't even pick my teeth with that axe. It's pathetic; it's not even a real axe. It's a hatchet. Besides that thing's left-handed, I only use my right hand! The manly hand," he yelled as he broke the arm of the strength machine, repeatedly bashing it across the face. Dipper was stunned by the amount of strength Dan had just performed at that moment; maybe he should investigate his strength soon.

"Hatchet?" Dipper said, confused, as he looked down at the axe; another thing he pointed out was intriguing. It was a left-handed axe; he really couldn't tell. He was ambidextrous, and Mabel was left-handed, so the axe felt completely normal to them.

"Thanks for your help," Dipper said as he approached the bar's entrance. He would freak out a bit, looking for Mabel until he saw her surrounded by bikers all gossiping about their futures.

"Your wife's going to be beautiful," Mabel announced to one of the bikers before he dragged her out of there. When the bikers heard his fortune, they all cheered for their friend, throwing a massive celebration while the kids walked out.

 "What did I say about standing next to me," Dipper said a little angrily.

 "I don't remember. Did you find out who did the axe murder?"

 "No, but I found out it's not really an axe. It's a hatchet and left-handed, meaning our criminal is left-handed."

 "We just need to go around town and start questioning anybody at the party to see if there are left hands," Mabel said, coming up with an idea.

 "Genius!" Dipper said to Mabel as they started running off.

A bust

 Something Dipper Pines had said twice during his investigations in this town, and he was already sick of it. It had taken them approximately 5 hours to track down every person at the party and test their hands through several tricks. Fake deliveries, casual conversations, Mabel had the weird idea of throwing a baseball at a woman, but hey, it worked. Unfortunately, what didn't work was the end result.

 Every single name on the list had been scratched off except for one, and Dipper didn't really want to talk about that last one. The attempted police raid on Toby determined's office was somehow more embarrassing for the children than it was for the police officers who went along with them.

 The only thing interesting they had found out was that Toby was a little too affectionate with the cardboard cutout of his rival newscaster Shandra Jimenez.

The Pines twins had told Stan they'll be home late when the funeral started, and it was still around 5:00 now, so they still had time to get home, but they were still stumped.

 "well, that could have gone better," Dipper said to Mabel while they were sitting on the side of the road, the cart right beside them. They decided to stay in town to explore a bit before returning to the shack.

 "I don't know. It could have gone worse," Mabel said depressingly, leaning her arm on the side of the cart.

 "I really don't see how," Dipper said.

"is that really all the leads we had," Mabel said, almost losing her optimism.

 Their moping conversation would be interrupted when a police car rolled up.

 "Oh God," Dipper said, "they're here to rub it in again." His fears were lessened when the cruiser's window went down and revealed it was Officer Steve.

 "Oh, it's you," Dipper said, not really caring.

"you know this guy?" Mabel said, looking at him confused. "Dipper, did you get in trouble while I was busy making that statue and you were supposed to be the good twin," Mabel said, amused.

"Mabel shut up. Are you here to make fun of us like the other guys" Dipper called out to Steve.

 "No, I was just wondering why two minors were operating a golf cart by themselves in the middle of town."

 "let me guess, that's against the law," Dipper said sarcastically.

 "Yes," Steve answered.

 "Oh man, seriously?" Dipper complained.

 "Yeah," Steve said, shrugging his shoulders. Parking on the side of the road and getting out, he walked up to the twins while they were still moping. "What's up with you two?"

 "you didn't hear from your sheriff?" Mabel complained, almost putting her head in her sweater.

 "Yeah, I heard you guys embarrassed yourselves. Most of the sheriff's reports don't exactly scream accuracy. It's always nice to know the true story."

 "Ugg, we accused Toby because all the clues pointed towards that lame reporter being the culprit," Dipper complained, slapping himself on the forehead.

 "Oh yeah, I heard about that. You accused him of murder; who did he murder?"

 "Wax Stan," Mabel said, getting sadder remembering her art's end.

 "Wax, Stan?" Steve said.

 "Yeah, he's one of the new ones we had. Mabel spent days making him, and in one night, he was already gone."

 "Did nobody break in?" Steve said, oddly interested. Dipper raised an eyebrow at this. While he wasn't a prime detective, this adventure had proven to him. He can tell when someone knows much more than they were saying. "yeah, how would you know?"

 "Just a crazy thought," Steve said.

 "No, I know crazy thoughts," Mabel said, "You're definitely thinking of something wild tell us tell us!" Mabel screamed at the officer.

 "OK, OK, kid, calm down."

Steve would look awkward as he leaned against his car, scratching his head. "it's just that when my grandpa was still at those wax figures, he would talk about stuff being broken all the time, and nobody ever broke in.

Dipper sprung at full attention and jumped up at these words. "you mean your grandfather, who Stan stole the wax figures from? Do you think he did it?" Dipper said quickly.

"no, my grandfather died a few years ago; all that's left is his house,  but when he was alive and did have those figures, he did not stop talking about how they were cursed or whatever. I don't know."

 "The wax figures are cursed?" Mabel said skeptically, "But I've been messing with them for days, and they seem completely fine."

 "Hey, I'm just repeating what he was saying, and he was crazy; he always said whenever he had those figures around, someone would be trying to do something around his house. There is no evidence, and the rest of my family thought it was crazy."

 Dipper was now going the full theory mode pacing around. "maybe there's something up with the wax figures like someone's trying to get to them for some reason. Maybe someone else wanted to steal the figures, or maybe the figures are a clue to some bigger conspiracy theory."

"Geez, Dipper, one theory at a time, you're making my head hurt," Mabel complained.

Dipper suddenly turned to Steve with a serious face. "Mr…uh, Officer Steve, I'm gonna have to ask you a big favor."

 "What?" Steve asked skeptically.

 "Me and my sister would like to investigate your house for any clues to the murder of wax Stan.

 Dipper's face almost frowned when he saw Steve laugh. "OK, kid, you're gonna need to run this by me one more time. You wanna investigate my grandpa's house because you think it'll help you investigate the wax figures' murder."

 "Yes," Dipper said confidently. The moment he said that Mabel stood up right behind him, also having a confident face.

 "Kids, why do you wanna investigate this? Can't you leave this to the officers who said they would deal with it?"

“That was Blubs and Durland.”  Mable responded as if she was answering a question.

"Oh yeah, never mind, that's probably not going to go well." After saying this, Steve looked at the sky a bit and thought deeply. After a moment, he laughed, saying something like this is the stupidest thing I've ever done.

 "Here, kids," Steve said, tossing them an old set of keys.

 "His house is in the higher Gravity Falls hills; most places, there are all the large old cabins and the few rich people we have here. It should be abandoned, and no one's going to buy it, so have fun, I guess."

"You're really just giving us the keys to your grandfather's house," Dipper asked, amazed.

 "Yeah, the place is basically rundown anyway. I really don't care anymore. I technically own it, but you know I don't step foot in there.

 "Sweet," Mabel said, looking at the keys, grabbing them, and returning to the cart.

 "Oh yeah, two more things," Steve said before they both ran off. "one cart is only supposed to be used on golf courses, and you're supposed to be older than 16.  two, if a kid named Robbie asked for the keys to that place, don't give them to him; just because I don't use the place doesn't mean I want weak graffiti everywhere. "

 Both Dipper and Mabel nodded at him as they sped off in the golf cart.

 This was the most significant lead they had, the origin of the wax figures.

In Dipper's opinion, the higher hills of Gravity Falls were an interesting place; it was farther away from town than the Mystery Shack and almost on the opposite side of the valley from the lake. The woods here were less dense, giving way to large patches of tall grass. Of course, as its name implied, the hills here were much more frequent and larger than the ones below in the valley; the terrain was almost constantly just ups and downs as they drove through it In the carts.

One of the biggest highlights, though, was the fantastic amounts of large houses that lay upon multiple hills.

These houses range anything from small log cabins to massive mansions, each with its own unique design and storied history.

 The one Dipper and Mabel were off to was supposed to be a more rundown one, and due to Steve pointing them in the right direction, they knew which one they were heading to.

"This place is crazy," Dipper said, talking out loud in awe of just how different Gravity Falls was to Piedmont.

"Crazy awesome, right," Mabel said, loving the surroundings.

Dipper could only look into the woods; he hadn't forgotten Riley in this whole mess, the book was safely tucked away in his vest, and a home with an ancient, storied history would probably require their assistance.

Upon finally arriving at their specific house on the hill, Dipper was not impressed with its appearance compared to the others. It stood two, maybe three stories tall and was probably very well made in the 1800s. The only thing to note was the dead trees and the small family cemetery outside the place.

 Parking in what can only be considered the driveway for the time, Dipper and Mabel looked at each other and then sighed.

"Dipper, are we really gonna go into some old mysterious house?"

 "Well, if there's something weird about these wax figures, this is the only place left we have clues, and I refuse to be known as the adorable kid to a bunch of local city cops."

"You're right, justice for wax stan!" Mabel yelled as she ran towards the door.

"Hey, Mabel, wait," Dipper cried out as she ran full force towards the door. Stopping immediately right before she rammed into it, Mabel tried to open it.

"Mabel, we have the key. Remember, we don't need to break anything down."

 "Oh yeah," she said, smiling before taking the keys and opening the door slowly.

 Both standing at the frame of the door, the Pines twins were met with a rundown home that, to say it clearly saw better days would be an understatement.

 If Dipper had to guess, this probably wasn't one of the richer folk to move to Gravity Falls back then; it looked like just a standard family home for the time, cluttered with wooden furniture and objects all rotting away.

"So, where do we start?" Mabel said, looking at Dipper nervously.

"Well, it's a creepy house," Dipper said, "Where should we start.?"

 "the basement?" Mabel replied, shrugging.

 "Yeah, works for me," Dipper said as he looked at the staircase; staring up, he saw the upper floors, which were as decrepit as the main room, but once he saw the access to the basement near the stairs, he paused for a second.

The entire house was wooden, old wood, To be more specific. But the moment the small door heading down to the basement was opened, the twins were met with a completely different-looking house; the once old wooden halls and cheap wallpaper, which had a history, were replaced with dull grey concrete as a wide room with concrete walls and floors was revealed to them. The room was also cluttered to its absolute. Shelves and jars of mysterious items and a long table that sat in the middle of the room that had a mysterious object with a tarp over it highlighted the room. There are also tables filled with small equipment that Dipper was afraid to ask the purpose of.

Both twins convene at the table, looking at the bumpy object under the sheet. Staring at each other awkwardly, they both knew what the other theorized it was.

 "Dipper," Mabel whispered, "is there a body under here?"

 Dipper's nose only sniffed a bit as he realized he didn't smell anything wrong.

 "I don't think so, Mabel," grabbing hold of the sheet and nodding towards her to do the same. On the count of three, both twins pulled off the sheet to reveal a wax statue.

This wax statue was different because it was of nobody. It was just a generic model of a human body with no details attached, still all one wax color.

 "Well, at least we know where the wax statues come from now," Dipper said, relieved. 

 "But this doesn't help us with who the murderer is," Mabel said. "This wax doesn't even look new; whoever made the other figures probably didn't finish this one." As Mabel looked over the unfinished statue, Dipper was drawn to a piece of paper in the corner picking it up, it was on an old, dried-out piece of paper, and the symbols didn't make sense to him, all in random shapes combined together that almost formed out sentences. Looking over the table further, Dipper realized there was another piece of paper next to it, this time in English.

"the curse of life," he read out loud, "what's the curse of life?"

"Sounds like a cool horror movie," Mabel commented, still overlooking the wax figure and touching it slightly.

 "Do you think it's legit, Mabel, like a real curse?"

 "I mean, Dipper, not everything in this town has to be supernatural nothing in the Shack is probably real we see him make it like every morning."

"that's true," Dipper responded, looking over the paper. While he was analyzing this paper, he wasn't paying attention to his sister, who was looking around the whole cluttered basement for anything interesting; the basement felt cold, but she was right at home with her sweater, so she just playfully investigated everything.

 The jars, whatever filled them, were now empty, most of the papers were rotted away, Dipper was lucky to find a complete one, and all there was left was a mess. With tools and a wax figure in the middle of the room, Mabel had a playful idea.

 She tiptoed over to the default wax figure, taking one of the chisels. It started carving them silently while Dipper wasn't noticing.

Back with Dipper, he read the paper silently to himself. Most of it had sounded nonsense to him; he was mostly skimming it over, planning to take the paper and have Riley analyze it further until he reached one of the final sentences. 'once the dye is cast, once the features are brought upon it, the figure shall live once the night falls and opportunity arises.'

"Well, that was wonderfully cryptic," Dipper thought to himself.

 "Ha," Dipper looked. He heard his sister behind him scream.

Turning around quickly, he was horrified to see that his sister had carved In a smile on the default wax figure and given it to Jack O Lantern-like eyes.

 "Mabel, that's horrifying. Why would you do that," Dipper said, a little annoyed?

 "I got bored. Besides, you're the only one who found good reading stuff here. Everything else here is just kinda boringly creepy and old."

"that doesn't mean you couldn't mess with this stuff."

"Says the guy picking up random papers. Isn't that tampering with evidence?"

"No… wait, is it?" Dipper stumbled. Both twins would pause when they heard a moan-like sound coming from behind them.

"Urggggg"

The room had gone silent as the two twins stood frozen in place; their argument was forgotten. Dipper had begun heavy breathing, and Mabel was a little paralyzed. They are almost too scared to turn around and see what has caused the unsettling noise until they hear it again.

"urgggggggh"

The second noise seemed to knock them out of their shock as both twins slowly turned around back to the operating table to see the wax figure still there lying down. They had almost calmed down at this point. Maybe they were just both hearing things at the same time. That wasn't too crazy, right?

 And then its hand twitched; Mabel could only gasp as Dipper took a few steps back with her trying to witness what was happening.

Its hands were not the only thing twitching now as its legs seemed to be stretching themselves, its body moving forward, and its torso shaking violently. Its head would be the final part of this weird act as it started moving back and forth, left or right, rapidly as if it was being convulsed with a shock.

 "Dipper, what's going on?" Mabel said, holding on to him.

"I don't know," Dipper said, reaching for the book, but he would soon pause when he saw the wax figure go silent. Still lying on the table, the wax body lay motionless until it slowly started craning its neck toward the twins. What happened next would shock the twins. The Jack-o'-lantern-like eyes that were lazily carved into it had blinked.

"It's alive," Dipper said, "It's actually alive," Dipper said slowly. In a quick motion, the wax figure rolled off the table, landing on the ground roughly on its side. The twins were still stunned as they slowly picked themselves up off the floor, staring at them the entire time. Dipper was ready to bolt as he grabbed Mabel's arm but still wanted to see what the figure would do first. The crudely carved mouth would bend and contort until it looked like he was actually forming a natural mouth. But other than that, it just stood there still.

 After what felt like an hour of waiting, the twins started to move towards the stairs to escape, but the wax figure just did nothing.

 "Mabel," Dipper whispered to her, "is it going to hurt us?"

 "I don't think… wait, that weird paper you read out. What did it say?"

"Something about once you put features on it, it comes to life, Mabel. Did you accidentally make a wax creature?"

 "I guess," she said as she shrugged, and then Mabel got a startling realization.

 "Dipper, if this wax figure is alive, could the others also be alive."

 Dipper looked up in horror, looking between his sister and the wax figure, but it was still staring at them.

 "We gotta go," he whispered. Before they can walk any further, the wax figure has started slowly pacing towards them in an intimidating pose.

 "Oh, God! Dipper, what do we do? It's coming towards us." Mabel yelled.

Its movements were slow, like it wasn't used to being alive, as it reached out both arms, groaning still to reach out for the Pines twins. Unexpectedly Mabel was the one to act as, in a single motion, she grabbed one of the jars on the wall and slammed it against Its head.

 The seemingly dark green liquid which filled up the jar had a horrible effect on the wax figure as its face started to lose its design, and it almost melted away with steam rising out of it.

 The wax figure, in its terror, clawed at its face as it went on to its knees and fell to the ground. Of course, both twins were horrified at what they had just witnessed as the still steaming wax figure had its life cease.

 "Did that work?" Mabel said.

 Dipper didn't answer her as he grabbed what was remaining of a jar, reading it.

 "Mabel, that wasn't water. It was acid."

 "Acid? Who has acid in their house."

 "Mabel, who has wax figures that can come to life in their house."

Both of them paused to look at each other when he said that.

 "us!" they both said simultaneously as they started rushing upstairs.

 "Oh my God, do you think the wax museum is alive?"

"They can't be right?"

Mabel responded, "I was working on those things for days. I would have known if they were alive."

 "What if they didn't want to be found out," Dipper said, opening the door out of the basement.

 "It doesn't really matter right now," Mabel said, "because if stan is home alone with a bunch of wax figures, we have to hurry," she yelled as they passed the front door. "Hey, Dipper, remember the other part of that message you read as she pointed towards the sky, seeing a moon out. "

"Once the night falls," Dipper repeated from what he remembered. He then put his hands on his head in shock. "Mabel stan's funeral thing is tonight. We have to hurry."

 Jumping into the cart, the twins never rushed so fast to return to the shack.

The murdered Wax stans funeral would be a somber event, or at least it was for those who cared.

Rows of chairs had been set up in the parlor of the Mystery Shack, along with the casket containing the headless body of wax Stan. Only two in attendance were sad about this event, the man the statue was based on and his loyal handyman. As they quietly cried, Stan said his final words to his wax clone.

Of course, the only other people in attendance were Wendy, who was paid extra to be there, and the entire supply of mystery shack wax statues awkwardly placed in the chairs to give the illusion of an audience. Was it weird? Yes. She looked at her phone most of the time during the eulogies, but she really didn't care; the Mystery Shack was quieter than her home anyway, and she was getting paid the rare overtime to be in attendance; this made her laugh a little bit, maybe grief really did change people, She thought.

The service ended when Stan said he had glitter in his eye and cried out of the room, with Soos following behind him to comfort him. On the other hand, Wendy still sat in her seat, watching them go. With a shrug of her shoulders and the night dawning on them, she started to walk out of the parlor until she heard a tap.

 Turning around slowly, all she saw was the crowd of wax figures; as she could swear Elizabeth was slightly in a different place. She shrugged once more, realizing she wasn't paying attention to where they entirely were in the first place, walking out of the room. Wendy put on a pair of headphones, had just missed a large amount of cracking and groans coming from the room as the door was shut.

It was only a few minutes later when the Pines twins finally returned to the shack.

 Much to their joy, Stan was in the gift shop with Soos crying with each other. They were going to ask what they were crying about, but after the few mumbles about wax, Stan gave them an answer as Wendy just waved politely at them, not saying a word stepping out.

 "Hey, Wendy!" Mabel called out before she left, "Did anything weird happen at the funeral."

 Wendy only looked at Mabel like she was crazy. "hey dude, not to make fun of your art, but it was a funeral for a wax version of my boss, the whole thing was kinda weird and not the kind I like." She didn't say another word as she got on her bike and sped off from the Mystery Shack.

 Dipper and Mabel stared at each other momentarily before rushing to the parlor they knew the funeral would be in.

 Outside the door, they crept up slowly, hearing low noises. It sounded like many shoes tapping upon the old wooden floors of the shack's parlor room, but there were also murmurs, all in different voices and accents. They could hear low conversations going on.

 He held up his fingers the Mabel. They were going in on the count of three.

 1…. 2… 3

 the moment the third finger was held up, the door burst open, both twins screaming only to find the room completely still.

 The still open caskets had wax stans body in it as the figures had paused around them.

 "I didn't hear things, right?" Mabel said.

"You mean we didn't hear things Dipper" corrected skeptically, looking around the statues that were all frozen in their static poses.

"No, I meant me; you're already hearing things." Mabel will respond with a small laugh nudging him on the shoulder, trying to lighten up the mood.

 Dipper only rolled his eyes as he tried to get better looks at the wax statues; all of them seemed completely normal, but they were, interestingly enough, all facing away from them, and he wondered why.

 Nudging his sister closer to him, they spotted Genghis Khan as the Dipper wanted to see something. If they were not alive, why would they all face away from them?

Genghis Khan's figure earlier was perpetually a stoic face. His eyes were detailed to be as human-like as possible, and if it weren't for his apparent waxy appearance, you would not be mistaken to think he would just be an average person.

 But when the Pines twins, in a quick motion, turned around the figure of Khan, they were met with something entirely different. His face was now decorated with a wicked smile, and his eyes were completely different; they were all white. Sounds that reminded them of bones cracking emanated from them as his arm slowly adjusted themselves to move better. As they started backing up in fright, they realized this wasn't a single case as the entire room was coming alive.

 "It wasn't just one statue. They're all alive," Dipper said, confused. On their way there, they rationalized that, most likely, one of the statues was alive, maybe a few, but all of them were the worst-case scenario.

"Oh my God, Oh my God," Mabel said, backing up as they leaned against the table in the room.

The cracking sounds emanating from the wax figures would cease as they are all now staring down at the twins.

 "Well, well, well, I have to give you some congratulations for figuring it out," responded Sherlock Holmes taking the lead.

 "you're alive; you're all alive?" Dipper responded.

"Hahaha," Sherlock Holmes laughed, amused. He turned to the rest of his fellow statues and raised his pipe. "He doesn't sound as surprised as I thought he would; maybe we've gotten rusty in our old age, but no matter."

 "What are you," Mabel said, scared, hiding behind Dipper for a bit. "you're not magical, right."

 Sherlock turned back to Mabel quickly and slammed his hand on the table next to her to frighten them. "magical? you think we're magical? Of course not; we're cursed."

The rest of the figures in the background are disgusted by the idea of the curse, highlighted by Nixon shaking His jowls comically.

 "Cursed?" Dipper said, "Is that not magic."

 "it doesn't matter what it is," Sherlock said. "What it means is that whenever the moon is waxing, we come to life."

"then why didn't my wax statue come to life, and why did you murder him then," Mabel said, confused.

 Sherlock scoffed at her as he sat down in one of the chairs.

"your wax statue didn't come to life because he wasn't one of us; we were created by an old man in a small house. From his young years to his old years, he crafted us for some failed idea of an attraction. But no, he had grander ideas. What if wax statues could talk? Wouldn't he be the talk of the town?"

"so he created you guys to be attractions," Dipper said

"Oh yes, those detectives were wrong about you, boy. You can put two pieces together, but I guess so could a child with a puzzle." Sherlock responded back insultingly.

 Dipper only frowned at that insult as Sherlock continued. "That old man was a failure in absolute; he couldn't run a business if he wanted to, so we were locked the way, but our luck would change as soon as your great uncle took us. The moment we were bought by him and put in his museum, we had freedom like no other during the night; that great uncle of yours is either a heavy sleeper or gone constantly. It was so easy to rule the night."

 "if your luck went so well, what happened," Mabel said.

 Dipper was scratching his chin until he realized. "The wax museum closed down!"

 "Yes," Sherlock said, depressed. "it turns out the same rotation of statues doesn't make the tourists line up as much as they want to; your great uncle came up with the idea of sewing together nonsense, and that, of course, attracted the weak-minded people of this town. Once again, we were locked up, but this time, we grew angry. That fool Lincoln tried to talk us away from what our plans would be later, so we had him melted."

 "You assassinated Abraham Lincoln," Dipper said, surprised. "wait, what plans?"

 Sherlock laughed at him. "Well, of course, our plans to rule once more. With Lincoln gone and our rediscovery at the hands of that foolish handyman, we devised the plan. This shack would be ours, and we would never have to be locked up again if we just killed the problem."

Both twins looked in horror as they realized what was happening.

"You didn't mean to kill Wax, Stan. You meant to kill the real one!" Dipper accused.

 Sherlock stood up, clapping and rallying all the other statues to clap too. "Congratulations, young Dipper Pines, you almost could pass as a junior detective, well, at least in this town."

 "but you are free again; why kill Stan?" Mabel cried out, confused.

 "It's the simple little girl; you're Stan locked us up once, and he'll lock us up again the moment we don't bring in profits,  but that doesn't matter now. None of it does; our debate that has been going on for the last few days has ended tonight in a unanimous decision."

 "Debate?" Dipper said, raising an eyebrow.

 "Why yes, of course. Our original plan was to kill Stan, have this shack run down, and have you 2 sent home, never to be seen again in our presence. But unfortunately, Miss Borden messed up everything as usual."

Lizzie Borden, in the background, was visibly upset as she walked up and grabbed the axe from Mabel's backpack.

"How was I supposed to tell two stand apart from each other they both dressed the same" she complained.

"Wait, you said that was your original plan," Dipper commented, "What's your plan now?"

"we'll use your brain, junior detective, or have I been overestimating you."

 "We know your secret," Dipper thought for a second, then paused, widening his eyes. "you're gonna kill us he said in shock!"

 "Oh, it's so much easier when I don't have to explain everything, thank you,  now I do not like the idea of killing children, but I'll probably make it quick. Wax figures attack!" Sherlock Holmes cried out as all the figures slowly marched towards them.

Dipper was pushing his sister behind him, thinking of something to do. He noticed when she yelped a little as she ran into the table and started throwing things. Dipper's brain was frying itself, trying to devise how to get them out of this situation, until a black liquid soared over his head and landed right into Genghis Khan's face.

"Ahhhhh." The great Khan yelled as he stumbled backward with a melted face.

All the figures looked stunned as they saw one of their strongest recoil in pain. All remaining figures and Dipper stared at Mabel as she was holding an empty coffee pot looking at it confused too.

 She then came to a realization giving a slight smile to Dipper.

 "Dipper, they're made of wax. They're not humans." While he was still processing this, Elizabeth ran towards Mabel in revenge, and she grabbed a decorative candle and hit it across Elizabeth. The heat of the wax figure caused Elizabeth to be completely bisected in one swing. Both halves scrambled to the floor in a heavy thump.

 Dipper was now shocked out of his confusion and nodded confidently toward his sister. His sense went off when a small arrow passed by him slowly; Robin Hood had now taken the front of the group and started shooting the wax arrows at him.

 Once the second arrow was shot at Dipper with incredible speed, he grabbed it and threw it back at the assembly of figures, landing in Coolio's knee.

 Oh, come on, man he cried out as he fell to the floor.

 Sherlock was momentarily stunned as he complained to his wax troops. "Well, come on now, are we just gonna be beaten by a pair of preteens."

 The next few minutes were absolute chaos as the twins were now engaged in mortal combat with a team of wax figures. The twins were unexpectedly performing well in combat as the free for all showed that none of the figures knew what fighting was. The figures mostly just flailed at the twins and were cut down by the heat of the decorative candle or just hit by Dipper.

Some time into the fight, Sherlock Holmes had been looking on at the chaos in frustration. In a fight with Mabel, Lizzie Borden and Shakespeare attempt to grab her simultaneously. Still, Mabel dodging ended up having Shakespeare accidentally get decapitated by Lizzie. Edgar Allan Poe would be the next one to try and assault her as he just tripped, stumbling a bit until Mabel pushed him into the second swing of Lizzie Borden.

 "Oh, come on," Borden complained, still trying to rush for Mabel. Mabel used her speed to her advantage; the wax figures, despite mimicking real people, had different characteristics. For one, their weakness was to heat in any capacity, but two others that were coming in handy in the fight were one, the wax figures were stiffer than actual humans, and two, they were a lot heavier and slower due to being made up of pure wax.

 "Enough of this," Sherlock Holmes yelled, "Borden, the twins will have no victory if Stan is eliminated. Get him now."

 Borden stopped mid-swing at Mabel and turned around quickly to flee the room. Hearing the order, Mabel was horrified as she promptly gave chase to Lizzie.

On the other hand, Dipper was managing himself a lot better than he ever could have thought in a fight growing up. Dipper didn't know how to fight, but neither did the wax statues, so it balanced out; it helped that he was much faster than them. For the first time in Dipper's life, he actually felt confident in some physical activity.

 "Interview this Larry King," Dipper cried as he cut off the King's head with the decorative candle; his body tried to lunge for him, but Dipper just kicked him in the gut forcing him to the wall.

"My neck, my beautiful neck," Dipper heard his head yell as it rolled away.

 "Jokes on you, Groucho," Dipper cried as Groucho Marx tried to grab the decorative candle, only melting his hand. Dipper would cut him in half in a clean strike as he toppled over, not seeming to want to continue fighting. "Now that's what I call a cutting remark," he joked as he fell.

 So far, his biggest challenge will be Genghis Khan as he attempted to rush him, still angry about the coffee attack from earlier. This would be easy as Dipper's senses alerted him to the fact he was trying to rush him, and he ducked in a quick motion allowing Khan the land directly into the fire melting instantly.

"Huh, eat that Genghis Khan. You fell harder than the… I don't know, uh, Jin Dynasty? Heh. Yeah. Alright." He would have to work on his one-liners later.

"All right enough of this," Sherlock Holmes said, taking off one of the decorative swords from the wall; he attempted a quick strike at Dipper, leading him to jump back swiftly and grab one of the fire pokers.

 "Boy, are you attempting to duel me?" Sherlock said, raising a wax eyebrow.

 Dipper only shrugged as Sherlock rushed towards him. He wouldn't expect Dipper to sidestep him and cut off his arms. Sherlock would stumble, landing near the fire and his presence melting away into a puddle on the floor.

Looking over the chaos, Dipper only looked proud as all the figures around him were destroyed. He would only become more frantic when he realized his sister was not there.

"Mabel? Mabel!" he called out, looking around. His brief bit of panic was interrupted when he noticed one of the wax figures, Coolio, who had just been on the ground, slowly melting away; there was something unnatural about it. He wasn't melting via heat. It's as if he commanded himself to do it. A puddle around him, too, led toward the center of the room.

 Dipper then realized there were a bunch of puddles around the room, all of them melting the rest of the figures and flowing into one large mass in the middle of the room where Sherlock's somewhat melted head was lying.

 He then heard a progressively deeper voice as Sherlock laughed at him. "alright, junior detective, I guess you found out our plan, but you still don't know our little secret."

"What's that?" Dipper said, not really paying attention to him as he focused on the wax flowing into the middle of the room.

"I'm more of a leader than you think," Sherlock said suddenly, not laughing. Before Dipper could respond to him, his senses had gone crazy; he wasn't even quick to move when he felt a sharp pain in his back as he was flung into the wall. He thought another wax statue had hit him for a moment until he realized a melted wax hand was coming out of the ground that had just recently formed.

 Looking back at Sherlock's head, his eyes were starting to glow a brighter white as his voice began to sound like a chorus of people speaking simultaneously.

 'Now you see how we're cursed, we may not have that much time left upon this plane of existence,  but our last seconds will be taking you down,' Sherlock cried as the puddles forming around Dipper all started shaking.

 "You gotta be kidding," Dipper said, looking around him.

The door separating the decrepit hallway and the gift shop would burst open as Lizzie Borden, brandishing an axe, ran through. She had expected some resistance, but so far, nothing.

The gift shop was completely empty, and she started running frantically around the house, looking for Stan. The only thing to disrupt her mission was a small 12-year-old girl brandishing a decorative candle chasing her.

 Mabel was only 12, but her hyperactive nature also applied to her speed. She could easily catch up with Lizzie Borden, but every time she did, Lizzie would take a wide swing at her, and this time, there were no other wax statues to take the blow.

 "Stop trying to hurt our Grunkle. Can't we talk?"

 Lizzie checked another room and pushed past Mabel to check another, only scoffed at her. "yeah, OK, little girl, you wouldn't be up to talking if you were locked in the dark for years multiple times."

 "I'm sorry what happened to you, but please don't kill my great uncle," Mabel begged.

 "OK," Lizzie replied, "Why don't I kill you," She said this as she swiped at Mabel, which she stepped back from. The wax figure being slower than the normal humans was no secret as each blow Lizzie attempted was very easy to read and dodge. But While they were slowed down due to their wax nature, their strength seemed to be enhanced as one missed axe strike landed into the wall, making a hole.

"Come on, from artist to art, can we find some common ground."

 "No!" Lizzie yelled as she swung again unsuccessfully. "Oh, why can't I hit anything," she complained.

 Throughout their entire run through the shack, Mabel realized via a window Stan's car was missing, and so was Soos's truck. She sighed in relief, realizing they weren't home.

 Mabel smiled at the wax statue. "well, it looks like it's just you and me… and a whole bunch of wax statues and my brother but you know you and me right here."

"Yeah, and it's only about to be me soon," Lizzie Borden complained as she charged at Mabel again. Mabel had a plan, though. After Lizzie gave another wide swing, Mabel dashed towards the kitchen to grab a few items. This would have been a hard task if Lizzie were an actual human, but the slower wax body kept her from going full speed. When Lizzie inevitably caught up with Mabel, she rushed out the front door and paused in the middle of the empty parking lot.

 "You done running?" Lizzie complained.

 "Yep," Mabel said cutely as she rubbed her cheek, "and I'll give you one free hit."

 Lizzie was too enraged to even think about this as a trap as she rushed forward with the axe above her head, ready to swing it down on Mabel.

She failed to notice that Mabel was holding two items behind her back a Hairspray bottle and a lighter. When Lizzie got even close to Mabel, she combined both items and sprayed a makeshift flamethrower melting the axe-wielding wax figure down.

 Mabel almost felt bad as the human-like cries of the wax figure erupted. The melting would also probably stick with her as it still looked quite human. All she had to do was think to herself that if she didn't do this, that figure would attack her great uncle, and she even tried it once. 'Huh, maybe I'm not the only great fighter in this family,' Mabel thought, thinking about her brother. "wait a minute, Dipper!" she said out loud as she ran back into the house.

This was not as much of a fight as Dipper thought it would be, not that he was doing well. It's just that he literally wasn't fighting. Once the amalgam, as he called it, had combined with all of the other wax puddles around him, it began sending multiple attacks toward Dipper, which he had dodged.

 Luckily what Sherlock said rang true he did not have much time in the world, and it was showing. Sure, wax fists, objects, and even a Mongolian spear all tried to jump out of these puddles to pierce Dipper, but he was moving around them pretty quickly; it was starting to test him. One wax appendage even was bold enough to throw a chair at him, which he caught and tried to throw back. The chair would soar across the room, and the wax figure, apparently lacking quick reaction time, had it slammed right into its face. This would only make the wax figure wail in pain as it got even angrier.

In response, the Amalgam used multiple appendages to throw chairs back at Dipper. He had dodged most of them, only getting hit by one. His luck wouldn't increase; right after that chair hit him, another wax Mongolian spear tried to pierce him, but he shifted out of the way quickly.

For the first time, he saw an opening as he ran towards the wax-melting head, which floated above the puddles with a few tendrils. The head no longer looked like Sherlock. It was almost completely Gray with melting wax covering it, and it had the voice of all of them combined. Running forward at full speed, Dipper tried to take one mighty swing towards the head, but his hand only passed through as the wax figure molded around it slightly.

 "Nice try, boy," it responded as a wax hand hit Dipper across the room and held him against the wall.

 "Alright, junior detective, now it's time to show you ahhhhhhhh."

The wax figures' monologue was cut off when Mabel, now at the parlor door, was using her makeshift flamethrower to burn away the mass of wax. In its pain, the wax figure dropped Dipper as he started to devise a plan. He had to take note of the situation.

 Mabel was slowly walking into the room, continuing her stream of fire as the wax amalgam slowly shrunk into the corner. Running over to the fireplace, he picked up another fire poker and heated it up until he saw a glowing orange on the tip.

 This was the golden opportunity, Dipper thought; with the wax figure distracted by Mabel's flames; Dipper rushed towards it from behind, and, in one mighty swing of the fire, poker sliced through its head.

 All the wax in the room would go still from its previous agitated rumbling as the Amalgam's head, now with a large split in the middle, splatted onto the ground. Both twins looking over it, had confident smiles.

 "How could I be defeated by two insignificant children" it complained as it was starting to melt away.

 "If we're so insignificant, how could we kick your butt, woooooooooo." Mabel cried out in victory.

 "There will be a day when the men of wax shall rise again, and you won't be able to stop us."

 "Unless we have, you know, fire," Dipper said sarcastically, tossing the fire poker in the air and catching it. Suddenly, he would sneeze in his adorable manner as his sister laughed at him.

"Those police officers were right. You are adorable; the only thing more shameful than my defeat is your sneeze, hahaha. You won't last a second in this town." as he finished his sentence, the wax figure's head would finally melt away.

"Oh, man, I couldn't even get the last words in," Dipper complained.

 "cheer up, bro," Mabel said, putting her arm around his shoulder. "We solved the case, and guess what I found."

 Mabel ran out of the room quickly as Dipper only stared at her confused; seconds later, she came back wielding the decapitated head of wax stan.

 "Whoa, you found it?" Dipper said, "Where was it?"

 "Turns out after he was decapitated, his head rolled under the couch near where the axe was. I only found that out after Lizzie tripped on the couch trying to hit me with an axe, we should really check under that couch for anything else," Mabel said.

"I guess this is a case closed," Dipper said, "and I thank it all to my sidekick."

 "not to burst your bubble, Dipper, but you're the sidekick no matter how many powers you have."

"People don't think I'm the sidekick, right," Dipper said insecurely. Their conversation would be interrupted when their great-uncle walked into the parlor door.

"Alright, wax stan, I returned with the flowers…what the Jekyll!" He screamed as he saw the state of his parlor. Splashes of wax everywhere, broken furniture, and the twins both look like they have been in a fight.

"you two kids better have a good excuse for this," Stan said, waving a finger at them. For a moment, Dipper thought about how to explain this to his paranormal denying a great uncle, but Mabel stepped up before he had a coherent thought.

 "We fought a bunch of wax figures to the death; I totally saved Dipper's life," Mabel said proudly.

Stan only raised an eyebrow at Dipper to hear his explanation. "I wouldn't say she saved my life. I probably could have gotten out of it."

 "Yeah, right, you totally need my help," Mabel complained playfully.

 "Kids, kids, quiet if you wanted to play fight, you could have done it somewhere other than my parlor and wrecked my wax statues… wait a minute, is that wax stan's head," Stan said excitedly.

 "Oh yeah!" Mabel said as she handed it to him.

 "Oh, look at this guy as beautiful as the day I lost them; he looks like he's worth a million bucks," Stan said. "which is weird. I don't even think I'm worth that much."

 "I'll take that as a compliment to my art," Mabel said, grinning

 "you really are not going to believe us about the fight. Also, do you not care that the wax museum is basically gone."

 "Not really. All I wanted was this handsome mug," Stan said as he pointed towards the statue, "unless you two want to open it up again."

 "No!" both twins replied.

 "Good, I hated those things. They are creepy for some reason. Besides, wax statues are old news, and I have two relatives, one creative and one paranoid, that can help me come up with some ideas for the shack."

 "Yes!" Mabel said, jumping in the air with a spin.

 Dipper only groaned, but his annoyance was interrupted as they saw a police cruiser roll up to one of the windows.

The window had been broken during the fight, with a chair flying outside of it.

 When the cruiser rolled up, it pulled down its windows to reveal the sheriff and deputy smiling at them.

 "well, well well, if it isn't the mystery twins after that raid on Toby determined, I'm so sure you guys haven't solved this case that I'm going to take a long step in my coffee." As Sheriff Blubs said this, he, in fact, did start dramatically drinking his coffee.

 ", Actually, we did solve the case," Mabel said, grabbing wax Stan's head and holding it above her own.

 Both cops were so shocked about this assertion they spat their coffees into each other's faces; after a brief moment of freaking out, they stepped on the gas unintentionally, and the car was heard crashing a few feet away.

 The Pines family would only laugh at the situation.

 While Stan had walked out of the room, Dipper and Mabel turned to each other.

 "We got all the statues, right?

 ", Probably," Mabel replied, shrugging. Neither of them noticed that there was a wax Larry King spying on them from the inside.

"Ha, our revenge will be swift," Larry King said. "And those guys thought I was too annoying to be a part of the amalgam."

 His planning would have to wait as a rat stole his ear and ran off with it, with him chasing off by only jumping with his head.

“Sentient wax statues?” Riley said, confused.

While a 50s action movie blared in the den, the twins with the now summoned Riley were discussing the previous day's events.

 "And you didn't think to summon me," Riley said, confused.

 "I meant to do that, but things just moved along a little too fast. Don't worry me, and Mabel handled it." Dipper said nonchalantly.

 "Yeah, you should have seen me, Riley," Mabel yelled. "I was all like, burn, burn; you can't fight me. I'm the Mabel."

 "The information In the book still could have helped you," Riley said, looking between both twins.

 "Have you any information on wax figures," Dipper said, raising an eyebrow.

 "No," Riley responded.

 "then it's fine, and Mabel handled it, but I will keep you in the loop next time something weird happens."

 "Yeah, I can't wait for our next adventure," Mabel said.

 "Next adventure?" Dipper and Riley said, confused

"yeah, adventure. We haven't been here a month, and we went against gnomes pretending to be my boyfriend, lake monsters, and wax figures.

We're probably going to get another adventure soon.

 "Speaking of this adventure as you called it, we just finished. We should probably head back to that house for clues." Dipper said

 "That would be most helpful in case these wax figures return in any capacity," Riley responded.

 "yeah yeah, we can check out creepy places later,  but right now, I need to show Riley Dreamboat High marathon," Mabel yelled, holding up a DVD case.

 Dipper only rolled his eyes at her. "I don't think Riley would be interested in…"

 "I'm interested," Riley said.

 "Dang it." Dipper continued

 "Oh yeah, I don't even have to hear their response to know how this will go," Mabel said as she ran towards the TV.

 Dipper only groaned back in the chair as a movie he'd been tortured with dozens of times growing up would be played once more, only this time, there was a supernatural audience member. It was better than fighting wax figures, he guessed, only a little. As Dipper relaxed in his chair, he saw his sister and Riley stare closely at the screen. He would have to ask them about their obsession with human media later, but for now, he just wanted to take a nap. The only thing disturbing him was a cheesy movie and the idea that he would have to record all these notes later because of Riley's pressure.

'that was going to be fun,' he thought.

Back at the old wax maker's house upon the hill, a lone figure stood in its front yard. The house had been burning for a few minutes now. All evidence of the inside would soon be lost. This was all according to plan.

 There are those out there in the falls who wish to learn as much as they can about its supernatural nature, those who want to exploit it, and those who wish to seek shelter from it. But this figure's sole objective was to contain it.

 As the burning house finally collapsed. The tall figure donned in a black trench coat in a hockey mask had completed his mission.

He had one standing objective, and no one would stand in his way of it.

As the fires died out, the figure would slowly walk off before any fire response teams could appear.

Chapter Text

It was a quiet and snowy afternoon at Gravity Falls Elementary. The winter season was not usually kind to this small town. Usually, snow would blanket the underdeveloped area, causing havoc.

But even with the disturbance of the weather, the school would still continue for all children in the county.

One child was having a more challenging time than the others. The elementary school, small compared to most, was only made to accommodate the few children within the town, and one of them had had enough.

The outside doors burst open as a small child cried, running out into the woods, he had lived in town his entire life, and it never got better for him. They made fun of him for everything his dad's business, accent, and white hair.

 This kid was Gideon Gleeful; as tears wept down the seven-year-old's face, he continued running until he stumbled upon the thick woods of Gravity Falls.

The kids had been extra harsh to him today, and he'd finally snapped, making a break for it instead of listening to his teachers.

 Maybe one day he would have the power to show them, but for now, he would sit there and be forced to take it. His mother would basically ignore him, already dreading her own life, and his father would tell him to turn the other cheek. But how could he turn the other cheek when they would just abuse that one as well.

Crying against the log in the forest near the school, Gideon would only stay there a few minutes before something happened.

He heard whispers; at first, he assumed one of his teachers was looking for him, but when he looked up, there was no one. Frantically looking around to hear the original whispers, he slowly walked to a collapsed tree. It was unknown how the tree had been cut down, probably in one of the rampant storms going around the town, but the ordinary tree didn't matter. What mattered was what it landed on.

Near the front of the tree, which had collided with the ground first, a small metal hatch in the ground had been broken open by the force of it; as he walked towards the front of the tree, the whispering started getting louder, but he didn't care as he was suddenly drawn mysteriously towards the open hatch.

The little boy was scared; he'd always known the forest held something but people in this town usually ignored it or profited from it.

Slowly looking over the hole, he was met with a small metal box containing a red journal with the number 2 on a six-fingered hand.

He had never been much of a reader, but it was a great distraction when his limited amount of social interaction got to him. Picking up the book slowly, the whispers all ceased at once. He tried to pry open the book, but it didn't open until a sharp pain hit his finger.

 Dropping the book, he saw his blood collide with the cover.

 "Ow!" he cried out pathetically. He probably was going to leave the book there until he saw it shake slightly; it didn't take a genius to realize his blood had done something.

Picking up the book again, he noticed he could open it.

 It wouldn't take seconds later for him to be completely enraptured with it. Artifacts, spells, and acts of magic he'd never even heard of on TV shows were described within its text. He was too young to understand most of the words, but he knew this was something important.

The text was so distracting that he wouldn't notice when a figure of light formed behind him as the whispering started again.

A few minutes later, a lone teacher from Gravity Falls Elementary was brave enough to walk into the woods to look for Gideon. "Gideon, Gideon!" the young teacher called out while trudging around in the uneven terrain. "I know the kids are mean, but you can't just hide off in the woods!"

 "Oh, I'm not hiding," an expected voice revealed. Gideon suddenly appeared right next to her.

 "Oh! There you are, Gideon," the teacher said, relieved, leaning down to him. "Are you OK?" she asked, concerned.

 "Oh yes, miss, I'm just fine," Gideon said oddly come; she took in his face. He clearly wasn't as upset as he was earlier. He almost seemed confident.

 "You know we're gonna have to talk to your parents about this, right? And the parents of the bullies don't worry; they're gonna get in trouble for this." She said, trying to reassure him.

"Don't worry, miss. I don't think they'll be messing with me anymore." Gideon said, giving her a creepy smile. She didn't seem to notice that; she only smiled back at him, brushing off some of the dirt he accumulated running away.

"That's good, Gideon. We're going to get them in trouble, don't worry, I had a rough childhood too,

it might be easy to make enemies, but it's easy to make friends too. "she said as she grabbed his hand, leading him back to the school.

 "I know, miss, but I think I have enough friends; I just got a new one," Gideon said, holding on to the book the teacher had just noticed.

 "Oh? Did he give you that book, and who is he?

 "I'm not really sure," Gideon said, smiling and looking down at the journal. "But I think we're going to be real close friends."

"Ah, that's great, Gideon. I knew you could make friends. I see great things in you and your future."

The teacher said, finally leading him toward the front of the school. On their walk back, Gideon could barely pay attention to his environment, simply letting the teacher guide him away with his hand. He was too focused on what he had acquired and what he had seen; oh yes, he had a new friend, and he also had a new way of life.

 "me too, miss me too."

Years later, it was a quiet evening in the Mystery Shack. The den area was the site of a small watch party between the twins and Soos.

"The show Tiger Fist will return after these messages." blared the TV, talking about their favorite show. It had been such a long time since Mabel and Dipper agreed on a show they both loved, and Tiger Fist was that, the epic story of an adorable animal that goes on high action quest.

Stan said it rotted his brain every time he saw it, but Soos loved watching it with them.

"That tiger is a hero!" Dipper cried out in praise of the show while Mabel and Soos cheered.

The past few days have been good ever since the wax incident. The only thing of note would be the long marathon of seven films of Dreamboat High Dipper had been subjected to in Riley's interest to watch all of them. His sister and spirit tied to his book both shared one thing in common they could watch those movies for hours. Even though he wouldn't call himself the most active person, he didn't think he could sit down and watch TV or movies all day like them. This would, of course, change when he found Tiger Fist.

"Oh hey, guys, look, it's that commercial I was telling you about," Soos said suddenly as Mabel and Dipper turned towards the TV.

 "is your life completely miserable?" the narrator said, showing a crying man.

 "Yes!" the crying man said dramatically.

 "Then you need to meet Gideon," the narrator said as if this was the most magical thing in the world.

 "Gideon?" both twins said. "What's so special about him?" Mabel continued.

"he's a psychic," the narrator said. Dipper raised an eyebrow as he was confused if the TV was actually answering his sister.

 "I don't know what that is," Mabel said, simply turning her head, mocking a Scooby-doo noise.

 "You may be confused, but if you want to find out more, come to the tent of telepathy." As the narrator said this, the commercial showed a massive light blue tent with a star on top that had multiple colors and an eye in the middle.

"So-called other men of mystery claim to know all the answers to life, but here we know all, see all, and can do all come learn about the future today." The narrator finishes off after this with a long, highly speedy voice talking about something that Dipper couldn't catch, but he did hear the name Carla, and I love you.

 "Huh, I'm all curiousy now," Mabel said.

 "Don't be too curiousy," Stan walked in. "ever since that Gideon monster walked into town, I've had nothing but trouble, and business is down."

 "Yeah, I could see why," Dipper said, "This guy seems like a bigger fraud than you."

 "Ha, you're funny," Stan laughed

 "Hey, Grunkle Stan, can't we watch at least one show." Mabel pleaded.

 "no, he said loudly. As long as you live here, there is no going under that roof."

As Stan walked out, the twins and Soos looked at each other.

"Hey, Mabel," Dipper said, smirking. "Do tents have roofs?"

 "I don't think they do," Mabel said with an evil grin. "I think we found ourselves a loophole, literally." Mabel pulled up a loophole as she said this.

"I gotta say I'm kind of interested," Soos said, scratching his chin.

 "Well, what are we waiting for," Mabel said let's book it.

 "Wait now?" Dipper said, still staring at the television, waiting for Tiger Fist to return from the commercial.

 "Dipper life is all about sacrifice; besides between work and everyday craziness, when else do we have the chance to go out and do stuff."

Dipper sighed, looking at the screen. "I guess you're right." He would suddenly pause as he had an idea.

Opening the journal, Dipper sat it behind the couch so Stan couldn't notice and summoned Riley.

 "Hey Riley, while we're out, can you watch the episode for us and tell us what happened while we're gone."

 Riley only stared at Dipper like he was crazy. "you would have me stay here and sacrifice great knowledge just to see what happened in an episode."

 "Yes, it's a show about a tiger with a fist."

 "I've never seen a Tiger," Riley said. "Do they normally not have fists."

 "no," Dipper said plainly before turning around. "We'll see you later."

 Rushing out of the front with Soos and Mabel, they both got into Soos's truck and started speeding off.

 "So dude, who are you talking to, or are you actually crazy," Soos said, staring at Dipper nervously.

  “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you.  Hey man, this is gonna be a long ride,” Dipper said.

Of course, Soos had been oddly accepting of the idea of Riley; similarly to Mabel, he would prove his case by doing something with magic, but instead of having Riley tell him what was being thrown at them, Dipper just tested his strength by lifting up part of Soos's truck.

He couldn't lift It up completely, but the feat of strength thoroughly convinced Soos, the entire drive there; he was comparing him to whatever comics he had read and started recommending them to Dipper.

 All discussion of this reveal would end when they finally rolled into the mass parking lot to the tent of telepathy.

The group was surprisingly underwhelmed, including Mabel and Soos, who were excited to see what the place was like.

Sure, while the Mystery Shack was a shack, it had a lot of fun details on the outside and inside. It held attractions that, while obviously faked, they were still creative in how they were constructed, enough to make it reasonable for people to come there, at least during a long trip.

On the other hand, the tent of telepathy was truly an anomaly. It was just the tent, Dipper thought; he couldn't really understand why this would rival his Great Uncle, but he guessed they would have to wait for the actual show to begin. The commercial did call this Gideon fellow 'a real man of mystery.'

 The inside wasn't much better as it was a stage inside the massive tent with pews like a church. Or lease what Dipper thought a church was like? He'd never been; his family was never raised religiously. Another difference between this place and the Mystery Shack was they actually had to pay to get inside.

Sure, you had to pay for a mystery shack tour, but there is no charge to just walk into the building and check out some of the main floor attractions; at least, that's what Stan called the stuff he didn't think warranted to be mentioned during the tour.

While Dipper and Mabel had grabbed their seats, Soos had grabbed some food for them at a small nearby snack station and returned with only food for himself, much to Mabel's slight disappointment.

 "Well, this place is interesting," Mabel said optimistically, looking around.

 "Mabel, I think we just paid to get into a cult," Dipper said sarcastically, looking around.

"No, it's fine look at all the people that are here," Mabel said, pointing around the audience. Dipper had to admit the audience was much larger than he thought it would be. If this place was a tourist trap much like his great uncle's place, he'd expected it not to be busy at night, but apparently not, as the crowd filled every seat.

 Whoever this Gideon was, he obviously had a good fan base; people of all ages, men, women, children, and grannies attended, and most wore merchandise. They even noticed a few familiar faces from around town, including sheriff blubs, who was adorned in a complete set of Gideon merchandise. This only made Dipper more skeptical of the show, and his joke about a cult earlier didn't seem so crazy now.

The feeling didn't go away as he noticed they were all smiling, shaking their feet excitedly, waiting for the show to begin. Whatever was about to happen meant so much to these people.

 "All right, ladies and gentlemen, our shows about to begin. Who's ready to feel the magic." a friendly voice called over a speaker system.

 "Feel the magic," Dipper said, already tired of this place. Maybe he was being pessimistic, but the only reason he'd really want to go was to see if there was truly another magical force in gravity falls. Seemingly every single action Dipper has taken in the last few days has led to some weird magical conclusion. So someone claiming to be a psychic must actually be a psychic. Hopefully, he thought. He did pay for his own ticket, so he didn't want that money to go to waste.

 While he was zoning out, thinking of all the possibilities this show could bring, a Grey-haired disheveled lady passed out pins to everyone. When she got to the row Dipper sat in front of, he kindly told her to go away. Mabel and Soos were a little upset that they didn't get any pins before he told her to leave.

"All right now, the show is starting," the kind voice returned as the lights started to dim.

"Oh, it's starting, it's starting," Mabel said excitedly. "What do you think this guy is a magician? You think he's going to bring out a tiger or something. "

 "Mabel, unless the tiger has a fist attached to it, I really don't care," Dipper said.

 "Do you think that would be legal?" Soos said, taking Dipper's joking comment seriously.

 As the lights finally got to their darkened state, the spotlights Dipper had failed to see walking in started shining and focusing on the stage. The stage was wooden, and on it held a giant curtain that had the name Gideon; it was written with light blue text on a blue curtain.

Just then, as the spotlight lights shook around, music started playing from the corner of the room.

 Looking back briefly, Dipper saw a man oddly resembling Soos and a large man playing in a small band.

A drum roll started, and the lights on the stage convened into the center. A large shadow was cast over the audience as a tall man's shadow would cover them.

 Soos and Mabel were elated by this, while Dipper was still a bit skeptical. "Let's see who this big rival of Stan is," Dipper said.

Suddenly, when the curtains were unveiled, all there was on the stage was a short white-haired kid in a light blue suit with a small light blue Cape behind him.

The handyman and the twins were shocked. When Dipper thought of the idea of Stan having a rival, he assumed it would just be some old prison buddy of his or just a crafty businessman. But that was a child.

"Stam's mortal enemy?" Dipper thought it was a child; he would not let this go.

While they were caught up in their shock, Gideon already began his show. “Hello, America!” he yelled in his Southern accent. “My name is Lil Gideon. Are you ready for a magical show tonight” he said with all the childhood innocence one should expect from an elementary schooler.

“I can’t believe this is stan’s rival,” Dipper said

“he’s so adorable,” Mabel said.

 All of a sudden, Gideon threw his cape into the crowd and started warming up for a dance.

They probably would have thought nothing of this; if it wasn’t for when his cape landed in the audience, tons of people started fighting over it like it was a holy relic.

“Oh, this is just great,” Dipper thought.

Onstage, Gideon had hit a pose. “just for a preview tonight, I do have one good prediction. I bet you’re all gonna say, “Aww”

After he finished his sentence, he turned around and turned back to hit the audience with an innocent smile. As if on cue, the entire audience repeated what he predicted, except Dipper, though he was still unimpressed, but for some reason, he felt something deep within told him to, in fact, say it. He didn’t really want to think of that right now.

“Hit it, Dad,” Gideon said as he pointed towards the large man in the corner; as he was told, the man started playing some upbeat music as Gideon began dancing around. Before Dipper can think about how this could get worse, he starts singing.

“Oh, I can see what others can't see
It ain't some sideshow trick, it's innate ability
Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined
And you too could see, if you was widdle ol' me!
Come on, everybody, rise up! I want y'all to keep it going!”

The crowd around them was utterly enraptured by the song as once Gideon commanded them to stand, they all did, Dipper who was barely paying attention at this point, was shocked to see himself stand up too far slower than the others, though; he wasn't thinking too hard about it maybe he just rose when everybody else did on instinct but still something fell weird. He wouldn't get the focus on this as he was distracted by the annoyance of Gideon going around the crowd reading their minds, apparently.

“You wish your son would call you more.” Gideon sang to an older lady while she was covered entirely with cats. While he danced away, she said that she'll be leaving everything she owned to her cats.

“I sense that you've been here before.” Gideon then sang this part to sheriff blubs, who was entirely adorned in Gideon merch.

"Oh, come on," Dipper said. He was willing to buy that the little kid was magical, but seeing this act was, pulling Dipper towards the opinion that this kid was, in fact, just a little fraud like his great uncle. If the sheriff didn't convince him, this next one would definitely push him over the edge.

Gideon twirling around in his little dance, came up to the row of pews Dipper, Mabel, and Soos were sitting at. Then something interesting happened; he froze, it was barely noticeable to most people, but the moment he reached them, he looked up at the twins and the handyman staring at them for a small moment of time. Dipper glared while his sister laughed at his little outfit. It was like a small pulse of radar; for a moment, Dipper thought it was his sense of danger, but this felt calmer than that. His danger sense was like a small alarm going off in his head; this felt like a phone notification.

Gideon unfroze quickly as he stared at Mabel; a second time, he seemed to freeze as he was genuinely taking her smile in; shaking out of this momentary hesitation, Gideon nudged slightly past Dipper to go up to his sister and continued this song.

“I'll read your mind if I'm able

Something tells me you're named Mabel

The moment he said this, he dashed away, slightly blushing from what Dipper could see. Dipper was almost impressed by this one until he looked back at his sister, who was still shocked by her accurate reading. Looking down at her newest sweater, he failed to think about it; it had her name on it. Yeah, Dipper thought he was a fraud.

While Dipper was stewing in his rage on how he'd spend money on a complete sham. Gideon had returned to the stage, preparing his final verse.

“So welcome all ye... to the Tent of Telepathy

And thanks for visiting... widdle ol' me!”

As the final lyrics were sung out, the entire crowd went ballistic; the act would only be finished when fireworks were shot out of a small area behind the stage, exploding above Gideon stood. In that night's first impressive act of illusion, the fireworks transformed into doves mid-explosion flying away.

And that was the end of the act; yeah, the male pines wasn't that happy about it; he probably would have complained more if it wasn't for the fact Soos was somewhat impressed, and Mabel absolutely loved it.

The show had been remarkably short, Soos hadn't even finished his food by the time it was over, and the only extra thing that seemed to be here was Gideon's father collecting money for a 'donation.' Dipper remembered correctly he was doing this before the show and after they bought tickets too.

Turning to his sister and the friend while they were exiting, Dipper could only have one thought.

"Man, that kid's an even bigger fraud than Stan! No wonder our uncle's jealous." Dipper said, laughing to himself.

Mabel looked back at him, shocked. "Are you kidding me, Dipper? That was amazing, and did you see his hair? It was crazy."

"no, I just think you're too easily impressed," Dipper said, smiling at his sister.

"I am not," she replied, slap-fighting him.

As the twins both walked away laughing with Soos, they failed to notice that at the front of the tent, the main star of the show at taking notice of one of them in particular.

The song and dance numbers are really starting to tire him out.

Maybe if he only did one a day, he wouldn't complain, but doing them multiple times was just torture on his young body.

This is all Gideon Gleeful could think of as he burst into his room after another show, downing a bottle of water before throwing it into a small trash can in the corner of his room.

Looking into his movie star-style mirror, he only smiled to himself. "Another good show Gideon and another bunch of suckers' money in your wallet."

When he first started doing this outside the border of gravity falls, the hapless masses were feeding him tons of money and had boosted his ego. But that was beginning to grow stale after so many shows, especially now that he was back in his hometown. It was funny he thought the hometown had once scorned him, what's now eating out of the palm of his hands. Sure. he was still in a different status than the wealthier families, especially not the upper echelon ones like the Northwest, but he could get there, and he could get there real soon. All he had to do was keep focus.

He was still a child, after all, so losing focus was not at all uncommon, but tonight, his focus was taken by something else; in the middle of this show, Gideon felt something when he looked at a member of the audience. It felt like magic, he thought, both literally and figuratively. When he danced his way over to that Pew with the handyman and the twins, a sense came to him telling him that something of interest was nearby. What he found definitely was interesting to him, there was a girl there, and her smile almost wholly changed his worldview.

Gideon had recognized every single girl around town growing up, and he had never forgotten their faces, but this one, she was new. Spying on her slightly as she left for the parking lot, he could already tell what kind of personality she had. She was loud, energetic, and a lot of fun. He knows it was strange to already be thinking of relationships before middle school, but he was a strange kid after all, so why not.

He could feel an energy radiating off of her. He didn't know if he literally felt it; there was definitely something up with her when he was near her.

There is only one source he could consult.

Taking out a key from his suit, he opened a small drawer to reveal a red journal with the number two on it. Opening the book slowly, he touched the pages and entered deep thought.

"Ugh, I can feel your head straining itself. Did you pass out during another show?"

Gideon frowned when he heard the voice behind him mocking him. The voice had no discernible gender but still sounded high-pitched and whiny. Turning around, Gideon saw a bit of light blue rays of light form in a small figure before forming a mass.

Standing before him, only slightly taller than himself, was a spirit.

The figure was completely adorned in white robes with gold patterns covering their entire body loosely; the only parts exposed were their head and hands. But there was not much detail going on there; their hands were wrapped in mummified bandages, and their head was the same. Its only accessory sitting on top of its face was a skull mask that looked to be from a deer.

The deer Skull was the most decorated part of them as it was completely black with gold decorations and lines all over it.

Gideon frowned at the spirit as he shook his hands frantically and faced back to the book to read it. "Quiet spirit, I need your advice."

"You tell me to be quiet, and then you ask me for advice; how rude, you can't even use my name," the spirit complained, floating right behind Gideon to get a look over his shoulder.

"I just meant I didn't need any of your complaining."

"don't call me Spirit, and I wouldn't be complaining if you used the name you gave me."

"I should have given you a better name," Gideon complained, putting his hands on his face.

"it's not my fault you sucked at naming."

"I was a child!"

"you still are a child," the spirit argued back. This would be how most of their conversations would go.

"Fine, I'm sorry, Kellar; now, can we please get back to the situation at hand."

"Situation? Are you telling me something interesting is finally happening to you." The spirit said sarcastically, waving its hands around bored.

For the past two years since the pair have known each other, their relationship can only be described as playfully hostile. When they met each other, their personalities were almost entirely alike. The newly named Kellar was timid, just like Gideon, even if they were only perceivable by him. But the one thing they did bond over was their love of magic and the mysteries they held. Kellar knew everything about magic the author had written down, and they were thrilled to show it to their new friend Gideon. After being abandoned by the author, the spirit didn't know their purpose, they could barely remember the area they existed around, but all they knew was they were made to hold knowledge of magic. Gideon was a new owner, so why not teach it to him.

As time went on throughout the school year, Gideon was ecstatic to have a new friend even if no one else could understand them; soon, both their fortune would change drastically; the power Kellar had promised he would get had arrived, and it was beautiful. He had suddenly been able to interpret people's thoughts, not completely reading, but he could get a general sense of what they were thinking; this led to him impressing so many people at school, and his father would take notice.

Bud gleeful can best be called an opportunist, and the moment he saw his son's gift, he immediately turned him into an attraction for people to see, was this morally dubious, yes, but did Gideon care. No, for once in his life, he was finally getting the attention he thought he deserved. But as time passed and more shows were done, Gideon was tired of traveling around. His relationship with Kellar was also somewhat soured; while they were both excited to explore the outside of town, they're mostly restricted to a few areas they'll perform a show in a tent. Being tied to the book, Kellar was never on stage for these events, so for them, barely anything in the world was revealed. As time and the years passed, Bud decided it was their time to shine as they returned to gravity falls and established a permanent location there.

Back to the conversation with the two magically inclined individuals, Gideon was looking over a picture taken by a security camera and held it up to the spirit.

"You see this girl?" Gideon said, pointing to a grainy photo of Mabel.

"I have eyes," Kellar responded. "Probably"

"While I was performing tonight, this girl caught my eye, she seemed so different from the others, and I felt something when I looked at her, she was I think she was magical."

"Why did her goofy metal smile catch your attention," Kellar said, pointing at the picture and tapping on her braces. "And you said humans couldn't eat metal. Look at that. They're all in her mouth."

Gideon only sighed, exhausted; maybe it wasn't best for a 7- to 9-year-old to try explaining the world to a magical spirit, but it was all he got.

"Ignore that, and no, humans don't eat metal; I got the same sense of when I found my amulet when I was around her. She must be magical, right? Gideon said, confused, staring at the picture longingly.

"You're the one who felt it. I wasn't around, obviously," Kellar said rudely.

"Quiet you! Even if you were on stage, what were you gonna do? SingSing and dance. No one can see you." Gideon responded back, yelling.

Keller didn't answer back, but they seemed to be upset; they were formulating their thoughts for a second before responding. "If your magic sense went off, then yes, they have magic on them. That's kind of how it works; I can't tell you what kind of magic it could be wild magic, it could be death magic. She could probably be a witch. It's hard to tell nowadays."

"I knew she was special!" Gideon said giddily. "But how do I approach her? How do I talk to her." He said, pacing around nervously.

"Why do you care?" Kellar said. "It's not like we can take her like we took that amulet." The spirit said, pointing towards the amulet on his chest.

"Why do I care?" Gideon yelled in surprise, "Why shouldn't I care that another person with magic appears, especially on a girl that looks so nice? Imagine what we can talk about, what we can do together, accomplish together."

If Keller had eyes, they would be wider right now, mostly in confusion. "You seem to have really thought this out," the spirit said, slowly floating back from Gideon.

"You wouldn't understand; what would a spirit know about love?" Gideon said, turning away from Kellar. He opened up his computer and ran her face through a search; being a local celebrity gave connections, and being magical gave him opportunities that no other child could ever possess. Finding a person should be easy, and it was already found within a minute.

"Look at this, Mabel Pines," Gideon said, his reassured face would morph into shock seconds later. "Wait, it says she lives in California."

"Oh, so she's one of those. What did you call them earlier" Kellar sarcastically touched their chin in thought? "Oh yeah, weak tourist, with so little mind they'll put money in a bag if you ask, doesn't sound like a good future partner for magic."

Gideon only blushed at their insult as he stared back at her profile on the computer, he was almost depressed at the thought of someone with magic getting away so quickly, but then he noticed something. Her last name seemed awfully familiar. A few more searches and Gideon would get his answer. "Mable Pines," he read out loud. "Relative to one Stanford Pines who lives here in gravity falls."

Gideon felt conflicted, he was obviously joyous that the girl of his daydreams was a local, but she was also the relative of one of his strongest business rivals. At first, he thought this was a complication, but then he got a wicked smile, maybe it was his dad's opportunism infecting him, but he came up with a plan. He wouldn't have to be rivals with Stanford if they were family. Obviously, he thought of himself as the overlord of this agreement; he could have access to the mystery shack and the tent of telepathy. The profits from both, the scheming of their guardians, and a new potential partner in magic all made the future seem bright to Gideon.

"Now comes the hard part," Gideon said out loud.

"Getting a less dorky outfit?" Kellar said, always taking the opportunity to make fun of him.

"No, I have to talk to a girl" Gideon looked up at Keller desperately. "Do you got any advice"

"yeah, if you keep singing, it'll freak her out. I can hear you from backstage. It sucks."

Gideon only frowned at them before turning into bed; tomorrow would be a busy day, and plans always came better to him when he slept.

The next day the Mystery Shack had gone through a pretty average day; while the Gleeful's tent of telepathy was definitely taking away some business, it wasn't as severe as it was the first few days. Dipper and Wendy didn't seem to mind fewer customers didn't bother them at all.

 Around late in the afternoon, Stan was doing his final day tour as Dipper operated the register; Wendy was going off on one of her breaks. As she called it, she had not been seen in an hour.

With the lack of customers, Dipper was distracted by his writing in the journal. He had opened up a minor page more off in the back reserved for Gideon and his potential magic. His senses had gone off that night, and they usually meant something was afoot. He would have probably gone back to investigate further, but those ticket prices were not minimum minimum wage friendly,

so for now, he just had to assume he would see the show child later.

 He wanted to focus more on Gideon, but he still had to catch up from a few days worth of research, recording everything about the wax figures in detail and his potential theories about them. This probably would have been easier if the house of the creator was still standing, but that was burnt down randomly.

 It was a really tough discussion trying to convince Officer Steve that he did not, in fact, burn his family's home. The officer was far too understanding with him letting it slide, but Dipper could only assume that while two of the cops in this town were incompetent, Steve was too lenient.

 His deep thought and writings would only be interrupted when he heard quick steps approaching him.

 "Would you like to buy anything…" he responded quickly, but when he looked up, he was met with his sister with a terrifying visage. Not terrifying in the same way as a monster, but terrifying in the fact Mabel got a little more creative with her art supplies than usual.

 Staring at each other, Mabel's face was completely bedazzled.

 "Well, what do you think?" Mabel said, showing off her face like it was some achievement.

 "Is that permanent?" Dipper asked. Depending on her answer, he would gauge his response.

 "I'm unappreciated in my time," she said.

 Dipper could only think he wasn't going to take this well at all.

 Before he rightfully scorned her for using her art supplies on anything but paper, the doorbell from the front of the house had gone off.

 They heard their Grunkle Stan yell from somewhere for someone to get the door.

 Both twins stared at each other for a moment.

 "You want to get it?" Mabel said.

 "I'm actually working," he responded, returning to the journal.

 "fine, whatever," Mabel said, turning around quickly, un bedazzling her face on the way there.

Approaching the door, Mabel was met with another ring as she opened the door. For a few moments, she was confused as when she looked directly ahead, there was nothing but a large white piece of hair; taking a few seconds to realize what was happening, she looked down to see little Gideon.

 "Oh, it's little ole you," she cried excitedly.

 Gideon was frozen; he didn't expect her to answer the door, but he guessed this moved his plans further than expected. He had expected to deal with Stan first, but this was the far better outcome.

 "Well, hi, you know me, and yes, my song is quite catchy, the names Gideon gleeful."

 "Mabel Pines," she responded, holding out her hand.

 Gideon stared at it for a few seconds before shaking it slowly. "I know I'm a psychic, remember."

 "Oh yeah. Are you really a psychic?"

"Why I would never lie, especially to a great fan like you; last night, I had never seen such a high spirit with a beautiful laugh."

 "Oh, you mean this laugh" Mabel proceeded to laugh in a strange manner that almost sounded robotic.

 "Exactly!" Gideon said this didn't phase him. He was just even more entranced, though.

 "Seeing how we're both relatively new in town, how would you like to go see the town and make a new friend."

Mabel immediately brightened her eyes. "of course, you can never have too many friends. Do you think we should invite my brother? Oh wait, he's working. Maybe we should wait."

"no, that's fine; I could always just hang out with him later, besides with the girl as obviously high taste as you," he said, pointing towards her sweater. "I think I know exactly what we can do…a makeover."

Mabel squealed at this, a new best friend and a makeover. This was going to be great. Suddenly, Mabel got a horrified face on her look as she bedazzled his shirt with a cough. She thought he would be weirded out by this, but he only stared at his shirt longingly and said the words enchanting to himself.

 "Who's at the door!" Stan called from the back.

 “Oh, no one important, Grunkle Stan. I'm gonna be heading out for a few, though. Tell Dipper, Not to be too much of a nerd while I'm gone." she cried out as she and her new best friend ran off.

Meanwhile, Riley, back in the gift shop and staring over Dipper's shoulder while writing, suddenly got a bad feeling.

Across town, Mabel was in a dressing room Gideon had. The entirety of his closet was probably about the size of her and Dipper’s room. This was even more impressive because the home Gideon stayed in wasn’t that large; compared to the mystery shack, it was just a typical suburban home. She thought it odd that Gideon, the child of the family, would have the master bedroom on the first floor, but none of that registered as a concern when she was confronted with all this stuff.

 Behind her, Gideon slowly followed her, basking in the senses that he had experienced. He could detect emotions much easier than he could detect actual thoughts, and right now, Mabel is radiating joy. Silently turning back while Mabel was distracted, he saw Kellar floating behind him, looking bored, simply giving them a thumbs up.

 Kellar’s response to this was giving him a thumbs down and making a motion telling him to hurry up.

 Gideon can only frown at this as he returns to focusing on Mabel.

 “you see anything you like,” Gideon said, “because I do.”

 Mabel nodded furiously as her joy was almost overcoming him. They both sprinted into the room. What Gideon was feeling was like a real connection being made. Of course, he thought, who could resist the charms of him.

 Unfortunately for him, this wouldn’t be the connection he was looking for.

Dinner at the Mystery Shack was never that well prepared, the Pines family rarely ever cooked for themselves, and grocery shopping was even rarer. Since their great uncle was often busy at random times during the post-work day doing whatever, the Pines twins either had Stan leave them something or make something themselves.

 Stan was probably the worst cook in the family, Mabel the second one, with the Pines parents and Dipper rounding out the top. It wasn't that Mabel was a bad cook. It's just that whenever she was cooking, she had the sudden urge to put as much sugar and sprinkles into whatever dish, no matter how appropriate.

With Stan apparently busy off somewhere and Mabel off with her new friend Dipper found himself in the kitchen alone, reading the journal while eating what he called a sufficient dinner. A can of pit soda and leftover pizza, just because he could cook, doesn't mean he wants to most of the time.

 While in the middle of his satisfying meal, Dipper's only sense of entertainment was the journal and Riley explaining a few more things.

 "So Dragons aren't real?" Dipper said, talking to them.

 "The author was very adamant that Dragons were not seen in gravity falls; I don't know why you're so interested," Riley said, monotone appearing to sit in the chair across from him.

 "I was just interested. I mean, we found gnomes, so, like, why can't other fantasy creatures be real. You said you had knowledge the journals couldn't hold."

"yes, but most of that knowledge is with me only because it would extend the pages to almost novel length each; the author was comprehensive in researching topics compared to you."

"What are you saying?" Dipper said, looking out from the book with a scowl.

 "You could do better at detailing," Riley said flatly. "you're not very descriptive, and your hypothesis like a certain air of education."

"Riley, you know I'm 12, right?"

"Is 12 not a high number in human ages?"

 "no, do you know how old the author was?"

 "from my guess, older than 12."

 "That's really helpful, Riley."

 "thank you," they said, not picking up on Dipper's sarcasm.

 "OK, but if you don't know about Dragons, what about… ah." Dipper suddenly screamed as he felt both sides poked by what felt like a bunch of pencils.

 Turning around quickly, he and Riley were met with Mabel and what he can only call an outrageous outfit with long nails.

"Mabel, where have you been all day, and why are you dressed like a Wolverine."

 "Don't I look great?" she said, mocking a Wolverine noise with the large amount of makeup on her face; it didn't make her look any more saner.

"I was hanging out with my new best bud Gideon; he's a dapper little man."

"Gideon? You're hanging out with a show child now, Mabel. I thought you would have gotten enough of frauds by living with Stan."

 "Oh, come on, Dipper, he's just a Girly little dude. Besides, having someone to do girl stuff with for once is nice."

 "What about your friends back at school?" Dipper said.

"I can't hang out with them here."

 "OK, what about Mom?" Dipper retorted once more.

 "she's our mom Dipper. She doesn't count."

 "I'm gonna tell her you said that," Dipper said with a wicked smile.

 "Please don't. She'll cry, and then I'll cry, and then Dad will cry because he probably won't get any work done. Won't you cry, Dipper, while your whole family cries?" Mabel said dramatically, like a stage play.

"Nope," he responded, simply taking another sip of pit and looking back to the journal. Turning back to Mabel, he did have one question.

"so, did he do any more magic tricks?"

"Unless you count this outfit as magic. No, he was a perfect gentleman."

 "Yeah, I would call that outfit a travesty," Dipper said as Mabel slightly smacked him on his shoulder.

 "It doesn't matter. I got a new friend to tell me otherwise; we're gonna be hanging out tomorrow. Maybe you two can meet up. You could always use more friends, Dipper." She said, running off to get ready for bed. "No, I don't," Dipper said, barely paying attention as he continued to read the book.

 He finally refocused back on Riley, with them only staring at the twin's interactions.

 "How does your sister have so much more energy than you," Riley asked scholarly.

 "Between her and Dan, I can't tell who's more unnatural," Dipper said. Riley only turns their head, slightly confused.

"would you like to open an investigation?"

 "Riley, that was a joke."

Within the evening of the next day, both Gideon and Mabel sat on top of Gideon's family factory, which holds most of his merchandise.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Gideon said, looking out over the entire town.

 "Yeah," Mabel said, stunned; you could truly view everything from the mountains to the lake to even the higher hills. All of it was in view.

"Mabel, you know this view makes me think of…it makes me think of how small everyone else is and how big we could be. It's like when I'm here, I can be a ruler of all I see; I guess that makes you my queen." Gideon said pretty creepily, and then, that last part, he tried to lighten up for her.

Mabel, on the other hand, was surprised, pushing him slightly. "Gideon quit it. That's too sweet."

 For a second, Gideon looked nervously, then back towards her. "Well, I can't quit it. It's coming from the heart."

 "From the where?" Mabel said, confused, getting whiplash from where this discussion was going.

 "I know we haven't known each other for that long, but how about me and you go on a date."

 "A date?" Mabel said, stunned. "you're asking me out on a date?"

 "Of course!" Gideon said, "It'll just be one old date. If it goes wrong, we probably won't have to go on another one."

 Mabel was in deep thought. She really liked Gideon; she really did, just not that way. She didn't really have a type or kind of guy she wanted to pursue, but when she felt the connection, she felt the connection. But for Gideon, that connection was all wrong; it didn't feel like when she met any of her many crushes, it felt like she was meeting up with one of her friends from Piedmont, and they would gossip the entire lunch.

 "I don't know Gideon."

 "Please," Gideon said, holding on to his amulet. For some reason, Mabel felt a lot more relaxed. She was still firm in denying Gideon, but his little smile got to her now.

 "OK, one date."

 "yes!" Gideon cried out, happy as he hugged Mabel. While he was overjoyed, Mabel was feeling a little tortured. She didn't want to hurt his feelings she just kind of felt pressured into the situation.

 This would only get worse as she felt a slight feeling towards the back of her ear.

 "Are you sniffing my hair? She said, mortified.

Back at the mystery shack, Riley was pacing around. From what Dipper could see, something had been off with them for the past few days, ever since the day after they visited the tent of telepathy.

"are you OK?" Dipper said, concerned, looking up from a drawing of the amalgam he was halfway through making.

 "Something feels off; do you feel it?" Riley said they rarely showed emotions, but they were clearly concerned.

 "define off," Dipper said.

 "I feel a foreign yet familiar presence permeating around your sister whenever she gets picked up to leave by that little Gideon."

 "Whoa, you're saying there's actually something up with him," Dipper said, now interested.

 "I don't know if there's something around him or within him, but he is strange," Riley said, concerningly tapping her hands together. "I hope your sister's alright."

 "she just texted me she'll be coming home soon, so you think the psychic thing's legit."

 "This feeling is weird to me; he doesn't feel magical like the gnomes or that strange Beaver…"

 "Can we please not bring up the Beaver" Dipper said tiredly.

 "Their magical feels old."

"old?" Dipper said, standing up from the chair.

Riley tried to respond, but their head started hurting; that was interesting to Dipper. He didn't think they could get a headache.

 "I wish not to think about this for much longer; just be concerned about your sister," Riley said, heading towards the book.

 "I said I would trust her after the whole Norman situation. I don't want to go back on that promise."

 "Dipper, would you rather your sibling be in danger…ow," Riley said, reeling once more from the memories. "looking into my past before being tied to you hurts."

 "Don't worry, I'll keep a lookout," Dipper said, concerned. "You just get some… rest? Do you need that?"

 "Apparently, so we will continue the discussion on the wax figures later; remember, the book said to trust no one. Even if you think it is wrong, that doesn't mean everyone is trustworthy."

Riley faded into the book as Dipper could only stare.

After another day and another shift, the Pines twins were playing video games in the den while Riley simply looked at Mabel, concerned.

"come on, guys, it's one date. How bad could it be?"

"Dipper, tell her the calculations I have of the date going bad," Riley told him. Before they could start off with their calculations, Dipper cut them off with a hand and looked towards Mabel.

"Look, Mabel, me and Riley are just kind of concerned; besides, as a guy, I can attest he's probably gonna fall in love with you. Also, Riley thinks he's magic, so you might want to look out for that."

"Dipper, I think I would notice if he was magic. He hasn't even done anything magical since we've been hanging out."

 "That doesn't mean It's wrong. No matter how much of a fraud he seems, crazier things have happened, besides he's probably been planning this date since he met you; he's probably already in love with you.'

 "Oh please, dipper, I'm not that lovable."

 right after she said this, her vehicle in the game had just run Dipper off the road, causing him to die suddenly.

 "Boom, haha, victory goes to Mabel." She said as she started dancing.

 "Yeah, I agree," Dipper said. Suddenly a ring from the door cut them off, and Riley had the feeling again.

 "Dipper, tell your sister I don't recommend going On this date." Dipper sighed and turned towards Mabel.

 "Riley keeps telling me to tell you that since he's probably magical, you shouldn't go on a date."

 Mabel's only response was blowing a Raspberry and yelling back, "You're not my parent.

Riley only frowned, or what their equivalent of frowning was, as she ran off putting on a nice purple sweater.

"I'd never thought I would see you so down," Dipper said to Riley.

"ever since Mabel discovered my presence, they have been very open to my existence, and she has shown me many wonderful things about the world. Like brightly colored stickers and those very cheesy films, as you call them. But since I am linked with you, I also feel some of the concern you feel."

 "Oh, hey, maybe one day we'll find a way for her to see you, and then you can be even bigger buddies."

 Dipper couldn't see a facial expression, but he could already tell they were smiling.

 "Now I recommend you finish that page on the amalgam," Riley said suddenly, back to their usual monotone way of speaking. Dipper just groaned in response. He loved paranormal research, but Riley's nitpicking brought it down significantly.

Mabel took a couple of deep breaths and thought a lot of self-assuring things to herself.

 ‘Just one date, and you’re done. Just one date, and you’re done,’ she repeated to herself.

Hearing the bell ring again, Mabel opened the door and put a fake smile on her face; it immediately fell.

 Standing right in the driveway of the mystery shack was Gideon on what looked like a model-accurate recreation of Cinderella‘s carriage with multiple white horses.

 “Our evening of enchantment awaits, my lady,” Gideon said in a tiny Prince Charming suit.

Mabel can only stare up at him, the horses, and the carriage. The big smile was returned on her face, but it was pained.

‘Oh boy,’ she thought.

Chapter Text

If you were to look at the small northwestern town of Gravity Falls from a satellite, you would probably assume correctly what the town's whole deal was; it was a small logging town with an incredible amount of random places that didn't belong there.

 In Mabel's opinion, one of them was a five-star restaurant, Somewhere within the higher hills of Gravity Falls.

Despite being made for the upper class, the clientele there didn't seem to show that regular townsfolk dined. It was probably the most fancy restaurant Mabel had ever been to.

Knowing she was not out of her league was almost comforting.

That was the only thing comforting about this whole situation. If you were to tell Mabel a few years ago or a few days ago an influential young star would take her on a Cinderella date via carriage to a five-star restaurant, she probably would have fainted. But there wasn't a single moment of her time she wouldn't rather spend doing anything else.

 Mabel shifted awkwardly in her chair in the booth of the restaurant. Sure, she'd never been on an actual date, but she knew they weren't supposed to feel this wrong.

 The entire way up there, Gideon had tried to start up conversations that she would have loved to join in a few days ago, but they were just awkward now that she could see his true intention.

 She needed to get the conversation away from their potential romantic life and had just the perfect topic.

 "So it's kind of strange they let a horse in here," Mable commented, pointing towards the small group of horses trotting throughout the restaurant's main floor.

 Gideon only smiled at her and shrugged his little shoulders.

"Well, I know you probably would have been upset if you didn't see the horses, so I said, why not bring them in with us." He chuckled to himself, thinking what he said was pretty funny.

 "And they just let you do that?" Mabel said in a low curious voice.

 "Oh, my sweet Mabel Pines…"

 she almost vomited.

"you come to realize that people in this town just have a hard time saying no to me." When he said that, Mabel noticed he was trying to imply something. She didn't know what, but he was oddly invested in his bolo tie.

"So Gideon," Mabel started. She paused somewhat when she saw he was putting his feet on the table.

Looking around, it was still strange; no waiter corrected him.

 "What's it like being a magician." She was trying to get the topic going into anything but romance.

 Gideon seemed even more excited when it came to this topic. "What a interesting question, Mabel. Why would you be so interested in magic."

 Mabel looked around awkwardly. "I met you at your magic show?"

"Oh yeah," Gideon said, failing to sound cool. "Um, What I meant to say was, is there any reason you're so interested in magic?"

Mabel shrugged. "You didn't answer my question, but I guess magic's interesting, like, oh, you can pull a rabbit out of a hat?"

Gideon cringed visibly when she said that. "Heh, Well, I'm not that kind of a magician; Say, Mabel, what do you think about magic in general, like if it was real."

 "Magic is real… you're a magician." She said, confused as if she was explaining it to him.

 "No, I'm not talking about stage tricks. I'm talking about actual magic Big Magic that you've never seen before."

 "I don't know. I've seen some crazy things," Mabel said, somewhat uninterested, as she saw a horse steal from a woman's plate. Their conversation would be interrupted when a waiter came up to them.

 "Excuse me, Sir, about your feet on the table…". Before he could finish his sentence, Gideon stared at the man angrily and held on to his bolo tie. Mabel had no idea what was happening here, but the brief bit of eye contact made the waiter somehow change his whole demeanor, and he seemed very happy now.

"...an excellent choice Lil Gideon, Here is your water." with a weirdly robotic function, the waiter grabbed two glasses of water from a neighboring table and placed it down to them. Gideon, with a sly smile, relaxed even harder into his chair. "Jean-Luc, let's hope we don't have to discuss eye contact again."

 "Yes, yes, of course, Gideon," the waiter said, bumbling away.

 "Whoa, I've never seen a fancy waiter act all that weird," Mabel commented to herself. Gideon seemed to hear her as he smiled.

 "yes, that's just what a true magician can do; they can even get respect in even the highest Society of places." He said, taking a sip of the water dramatically, trying to peek out of his closed eyes to see if Mabel was interested.

 Mabel ignored his flirting as she stared down at her so far empty plate. "you're right; this place is fancy. I've never seen so many forks in my life, even the waters fancy ooo La La." She said, holding up the fizzing water.

"Oh! Parlez vous francais?!”  Gideon responded back, excited he might have a new thing to talk about to her with.

 Both their faces would frown when the awkward silence arose between them.

 "I have no idea what you said," Mabel said.

 "Well, let's move on," Gideon said. "So, Mabel, you see anything weird while you've been in town? I hear this place has a really colorful history."

 If Mabel was paying more attention she could probably tell he was prodding for information but she really couldn't care the agony of the date was blinding her to questions.

Back in the mystery shack, the rest of their crew were doing basically no work.

 Soos, in one of the few times nothing had to be fixed, was currently reading a magazine leaning against the gift shop register counter.

Wendy stared at her phone behind the counter proper, and Dipper, who was sitting on a barrel on the side of the counter, simply sat there resting.

 He didn't know if this counted as a break or not, but with Mabel gone, Dipper had been pressed into finally doing Mabel's duties by Stan. It went just as well as both of them thought it would. Dipper would introduce himself to someone, he would be a little too awkward, and the person would probably not buy anything at all. He got at least a few pity buys from a few adults thinking he's cute, but that didn't boost his ego.

 The store was empty now, so all three relaxed; it would only be interrupted when they heard Stan curse aloud and walk into the room.

 "What the Jekyll is Mabel doing with that Greasy little mutant Gideon." As he said this, he threw a newspaper on the counter next to the register with all three employees looking down at it.

 Just as Stan said, there was a news article with the front page article being a picture of Gideon walking with Mabel down the street. Gideon looked at the camera like it was posed while Mabel was clearly caught off guard.

"Man, Toby can make a newspaper real quick," Dipper commented.

 "Oh yeah," Wendy said, "It's all that's being talked about on the local news. Apparently, they're dating. And they're going on a big date tonight and tomorrow."

"What!" Stan says, furious. "My only grandniece and the only one of these twins that's good at making money is with that little shyster."

Soos had a light bulb moment as he looked at the group. "I wonder what the new name will be for the power couple. Mabideon? Gideabel?." he gasped for effect. "Magidbeleon!"

  "Soos, what are you talking about," Stan said. "That's it. I just figured out about it, and I've had enough."

 "I told her not to," Dipper commented.

 "some effect that had," Stan said sarcastically, walking out the front door. As the door slammed, the remaining employees looked at each other concerned about what the great uncle was gonna do.

 "you don't think he's gonna hurt him, right," Dipper said.

 "hurt a child… Stan…30 to 70 odds." Wendy commented, going back to her phone.

 "Which number is the odds of him hurting him? It's the lower one, right?"

"Heh," Wendy chuckled, looking at her phone, not even bothering to face him.

Soos would cut off This bit of conversation when he once again had a brilliant idea.

"Dude, wouldn't it be funny if that was a closet, and he had to come back out again and go out the real door?" Dipper and Wendy stared at him, unsure where this conversation was going. "Nope. Real door." Soos said, opening the door and then closing it once more.

 Neither of the other two employees reacted in any way.

"I think this is going well," Gideon said out loud to himself in front of the empty bathroom mirror. He was smiling nervously to himself; sure, he could tell he had less than impressed her so far, but she hadn't left, so that was good. "All you need to do is probe for more questions about magic to get a good idea of what she was like in that department. Then when the mood is right, announce the second date tomorrow, and you're good.

"If it's going so well, why are you talking to yourself." A whiny voice came from behind Gideon. He frowned instantly, looking back at Kellar floating nearby.

 When he entered the bathroom, he immediately took out the journal he'd been hiding to discuss a plan with them.

 "Quiet, I need your help."

 "What's up with the quiet nonsense? Do you just not like having conversations unless they're with short brown-haired metal-mouth weirdos." Kellar said Mockingly.

 "Don't make fun of her!" he yelled, "She could be my new second in command to what will be a beautiful empire."

 "beautiful empire? I thought you said you didn't want to take over the world."

 "I don't mean a literal empire; I meant a business one. Anyway, I need you to do a favor and detect if she has magic."

"… why are you asking me?" Kellar said, scratching their head.

 Gideon froze for a second, looking at the spirit like they had just gone insane.

 "What do you mean why am I asking you? Your magic, so detect the magic."

 "I can't detect magic; you can detect magic," Kellar said, basically screaming at him.

 "you mean you gave me a power that you can't do yourself, and you just now told me this," Gideon said, slamming a hand on the bathroom sink.

 "You never asked. Also, I told you multiple times when we were tied together, it gave you access to magic, your own magic, not my magic. Your. Own."

 "So what's the point of you then?" Gideon said, putting his hands in his hair.

 "I don't know," Kellar responded, putting up their hands in the air. "remember memory loss; all I know is everything in the book. I didn't give you my power; I was like a key that opened up your ability to power."

 "so you can't detect if she has magic."

 "Why are you asking me to do that if you can do that."

 "I'm asking because I keep expecting her to give me a sense of her magic, but I feel nothing," Gideon said, frustrated the entire night; he'd been probing her for questions, and while he did love her, he was concerned if his predictions over her magical properties were wrong.

 "So, according to my research or someone else's research, magic is an inconsistent force; sure, some magic is permanent, like if you cursed someone to trip forever, that spells always going to be around him. But if it's like a person casting flames, the magic's only there when they call for it."

 "so you're saying I just need to have her reveal the magic to me."

 "I didn't say that at all."

"Great, all I need to do is spend more time with her, and hopefully, she'll open up to the fact she can do magic."

 Kellar was just frustrated at this point. "why don't you just ask her instead of being weird or weirder."

 "It's all about trust; how can I be in a great relationship with someone if they don't share their secrets. I could see it now, Kellar. It's a lovely night and a nice restaurant, she's all nervous about revealing her secret, and I'm all loving and accepting about it, and boom, happily ever after."

"wow, you should be a story writer. You're good at making things up. Also, I doubt you shared your secrets as well." Kellar countered.

"Yes, well, it's because my secrets are almost surely bigger than hers; you know the knowledge in that book and what I could do with it. What are the odds she has anything to compare."

"Doubtful," Kellar said. They didn't like Gideon's boasting but loved being acknowledged as powerful.

"All right, I've been in the bathroom for too long. It's time to put my game face on," Gideon said, hyping himself up to go out there.

 "Even when you're in a nice restaurant, you're all sweaty," Kellar said rudely before the book was shut, and they disappeared.

Back outside in the restaurant proper, Gideon walked confidently to his booth seat with Mabel. She was a very interesting girl to him. Almost everything she did exude a sense of personality he never got anywhere else. So, of course, when he got back, she was doing something strange such as playfully fighting with a very much still-alive lobster on her plate.

 "try and block this, she," she said happily as she lightly poked the lobster with her fork. The lobster's response was to try and snap at the fork. Gideon was almost a little sad about how her most positive reaction of the night was playing with a lobster.

"I hope I wasn't gone too long," he said, returning to his giddy nature.

 "Oh no, it's fine," Mabel responded. She was obviously trying to pretend to be happy he was back, but she wasn't the greatest actress.

Looking down at his own plate, Gideon ignored her apprehension and decided to proceed with his plans. Mabel, I know how you felt tonight about this date.

 "you do!" she said, perking up immediately.

 "Of course, and that's why I can safely say it was a complete success, and I can't wait for you to see what I got planned for tomorrow."

"To…tomorrow," Mabel said, stumbling on her words. "you mean like another date, but you said one date, and this was it here right now."

"Oh wait, what a surprise," Gideon said in mock surprise; Mabel could barely tell that he was holding on to his bolo tie as suddenly, a gigantic macaw landed on his arms. This, of course, freaked Mabel out as; she gave out a short scream getting everyone's attention in the restaurant. Apparently, horses were normal, but big birds were not.

 "Let's see what he has to say," Gideon says, already smiling

 "Mabel. Will. You. Acompany.Gideon. 2. The. Ballroom. Dance. This. Thurpsday." Gideon would suddenly violently shake the bird with his arm as it corrected itself. "Thursday".

If this situation couldn't get any weirder for her, it then barfed out an invitation that landed right in front of her.

 Yep, this was officially too weird for Mabel, she was all about making friends, but this was crossing a line and then erasing the line and then putting the line even further away from themselves.

 Before she could reject his offer, the entire restaurant got up and surrounded them.

 Mabel had always been good around crowds and in front of them, but this situation was terrifying to her.

 All around her, the townsfolk were cheering on their support for Gideon and the prospect of her dating him. An old lady even said she would die if she rejected him. While Mabel was almost hyperventilating, she failed to see Gideon in the background holding on to his bolo tie, focusing harder than ever before.

"I..I don't know, I uh." Mabel stumbled out, a little scared, backing up slightly. Her fears wouldn't be put to rest as when she turned to Gideon, he was now facing her with a small smile holding out the invitation himself.

"come on, they're expecting us," He said softly.

Mabel was almost freaking out at this point. She knew what she had to say. She just didn't really want to say it.

Back at the Gleeful residence, Stan had parked on their front lawn at the best of his ability. So let's just say they will be needing a new mailbox.

Stan exiting his car, furiously marched up to the front door, pushing past everything he saw, gates, garden gnomes. It didn't matter as he blitzed the door hitting it repeatedly.

 "All right, gleeful, I know you're in there," he yelled. Looking around the small suburban home, it felt odd to him; he almost swore he heard strange noises on the inside until the door opened to reveal Bud.

 "Well, well, well, if it ain't Stanford Pines," Bud said, his thick accent similar to his sons. "Now, normally, I would call the police if Someone Like You were to show up, but I think we got something to talk about."

 "Yeah, we got something to talk about," Stan said angrily. He was soon cut off by Bud putting his finger up.

 "Now, hold on there, Pines; let me get you a cup of coffee so we can discuss things further."

 "Look, I don't need a cup of…"

 "Oh wait, it's imported from Colombia."

 "Columbia!" Stan said, shocked. "I went to prison there," he said happily, following the other man inside.

Walking inside, Stan's opinion of the house didn't go up at all; the lovely suburban house looked exactly like what a nice suburban home would look like on a TV show. The only stain on its view was a disheveled housewife slowly shuffling away when she saw guests come in.

 Stan really didn't want to ask what was going on there, but he quickly turned to Bud back to his anger. "Alright, gleeful, I know your son is making googly eyes at my niece, and I don't support it."

"Oh, why Stan Pines? I think your business sense must be impaired. You can't see the opportunity laid in front of us."

 "Opportunity?" Stan said, confused, looking around the room.

 "Why Stan Pines, just think about it the mystery shack and the Tent of telepathy fused together on the family tree. Imagine the profits. We can use our superior business sense, my son's magical inclination, and whatever your kids and workers got."

Stan paused for a second; the prophets, he thought. There was an old saying the way to a man's heart is his stomach; this was total nonsense. The real way to a man's heart, and Stan's opinion, was his wallet. And right now, his wallet was interested.

 "Go on," Stan said slowly.

"Ever since Gideon was a little boy," Bud started as he looked at a bunch of baby photos. "I always knew he was a special child, and I always knew he could help me further my career."

 "Yeah, I know you marketed him around town when he was first born," Stan said, remembering when the gleeful used to inhabit the town.

 "and guess what? It sold more cars; think about it, Pines, an epic romance story between my Gideon and your Mabel. They'll eat it up, and they'll be the entertainment centers of all of Oregon and then all of America. And guess whose name is gonna be plastered out as the manager of all this."

 "You," Stan said sarcastically.

 "wrong," Bud said gleefully, "Both of us. My Gideon is a surefire genius when it comes to business, and he's got his magical stuff to impress those common folk; what about your Mabel she knows anything about magic." Bud said awkwardly. Stan Pines didn't know that Gideon had told his father his theory of Mabel's magical sense.

"She likes glitter, like a lot, but that's about as much I know other than finding it in my pancakes," Stan said, disgusted at the memory.

"Oh well, that's fine," Bud said, disappointed at the lack of information.

"I mean, she is a great girl and brilliant artist, but a little too much energy."

"Would you say a supernatural amount of energy?" Bud said, trying to get back on track.

"Ha, maybe, but you don't actually believe in this supernatural, right?" Stan laughed.

Bud chuckled nervously, sweating. "Nah, I'm just saying."

"Good Stan replied. "I hear enough about potentially magic stuff from my nephew."

 "Nephew?" Bud said. He hadn't heard anything about the other Pines twin; Gideon had never mentioned him. But this did intrigue him. "Well, since your great-niece is an artist. What about your nephew? Do you think he can help the family business?"

 "Ha," Stan laughed. "the kid is about as charismatic as a car crash."

 "That bad?" Bud said.

 "Nah, he reminds me of my childhood, just a lot more awkward. I guess he's smart too, so if you ever need an accountant, just ask him."

 "I'll keep that in mind," Bud said as he reached out and grabbed some drinks for both of them, handing one to Stan. They clashed their glasses against each other in celebration.

 "So what do you say, Stanford Pines business for the sake of peace, prosperity, and the most important  P, profit."

Stan thought this down for a moment. He wasn't the kid's parents, but from what he could tell, Mabel was such a loving person she'll probably fall in love with anyone. It couldn't hurt, he thought greedily, thinking of the business this would inspire.

 "You got yourself a deal, bud, but I have one more thing to discuss."

 "what's that?" Bud said nervously at Stan's aggressive tone.

 "where did you get this beautiful clown painting?" Stan said suddenly, turning around to a painting of a sad clown that clashed with the rest of the living room.

"Would you be surprised if I said Canada?" Bud said

 "You'll never believe this…" Stan started.

"You went to jail there, too?" Bud guessed correctly.

 "Are you sure your son is the Psychic?" Stan said jokingly, taking a sip and leaning back on the couch.

The night was young at the mystery shack, Stanford had been gone a couple hours longer than expected, and Mabel had yet to return from her date. This left Dipper once again alone with his journal.

 "It's perfect," Dipper said confidently, looking down at its completed page. It took him longer than expected, but the official page of the amalgam was complete; sure, he might need to take drawing lessons from his sister if he wanted to improve, but Riley said his theories and descriptions were passable, which is a definite improvement.

 "The word perfect it's subjective," Riley said behind him.

"I must ask you a question?" they suddenly said.

 "Oh uh sure, what's up," Dipper asked.

 "I would like to watch another movie," Riley said. Dipper sighed a little bit. It's becoming a daily thing at this point, ever since the Dreamboat high marathon, that they have been obsessed with human culture more than before.

 "Well, depending on…" Dipper was going to explain why he wasn't up to watching another film, the second of the day and probably like the 8th of the week, but he heard a door slam in the front of the mystery shack.

 Both boy and spirit turned their attention to see Mabel depressingly walking through the living room holding a lobster. She didn't say anything to them as she sighed, passed, and placed the lobster in their empty fish tank.

 "Oh, how did your day go," Dipper said nervously; he knew just from her face it didn't go well.

 "I have a lobster now. That's a thing," Mabel said, slowly walking to the table to sit with him. "Have you or Stan made dinner yet? I'm hungry; I didn't eat my lobster."

 "I made it; Stan went over to the Gleeful's house."

 "Really, why?" Mabel said, getting a little bit of energy back.

"He heard you were hanging around with Gideon, so he went over there to stop it. He's probably been arrested by now, but I'll check later." Dipper said nonchalantly.

 "That's perfect!" Mabel said, unexpectedly excited.

 "Perfect?" both Dipper and Riley responded.

 "Dipper, ask your sister if Gideon has displayed any traces of magic," Riley said, leaning close to Dipper. He nodded in response.

"Did you find out if there's anything magical about him?"

"Either he is magical, or the people of this town are really weird."

 "well, that doesn't help."

"Who cares? I'm a free Mabel, and you know what free Mabels do; they dance." Suddenly, Mabel started shifting her feet rapidly in a dance, Dipper and Riley could only stare, but she tired herself out a few seconds later.

 "Impressive," Riley said, scratching their chin.

 "Riley said that was impressive," Dipper parroted.

 "See, I know one person in this house can appreciate quality. high 5." Mabel said, putting her hand up to where she believed Riley was.

 Their only reaction was to stare at the hand and look toward Dipper.

 "She wants you to hit her hand," Dipper said.

 "Why?" Riley asked cocking her head to the side. 

"Did they do it yet?" Mabel asked awkwardly.

 "It's a celebration; here, it means she appreciates that you liked her dancing," Dipper explained.

 "Then why would she want me to strike her hand? Wouldn't that hurt her if I was physical?"

 "Dipper, please tell me, did they do it," Mabel said, a little impatient.

 "No, you're supposed to hit it lightly or at least light enough to where it doesn't hurt that much."

 "OK," Riley responded, their hands slowly approaching Mabel's.

Of course, when they made contact, nothing happened as it passed through slowly.

 "OK, they hit your hand," Dipper said, smiling.

 With an obviously delayed reaction, Mabel yelled, "Boom. Now that's what I'm talking about."

 "What was she talking about?" Riley asked.

 "It's an expression she is just happy," Dipper replied.

"That's nice," Riley responded.

Suddenly, in the middle of Mabel's second celebration, they heard their Grunkle stumble in.

 "I'm home!" they heard him announce oddly cheerily.

 "Hey Stan," Mable said, still smiling, "How did your day go…" The moment she turned around, she was frozen in terror and saw what her great-uncle was wearing. Dipper was also confused as Stan was dressed in a T-shirt that said, Team Gideon.

 With all his speed, Dipper, before Stan could even walk in fully, had closed the book and hid it; he still didn't want Stan to see the journal. He didn't want him taking it for any ideas or something like that.

 "Stan, what are you wearing Mabel said, horrified.

 "Oh, this, this is the product of one of my smartest decisions to date."

 "Stan?" Mable said, extending the word in fear. "what did you do?'

 "So you know that little Gideon fellow you've been rolling around town with."

 "Oh no," Dipper said loud.

 "yeah?" Mabel said, just looking at his shirt; she was drawing a terrifying conclusion about what this conversation could lead to.

 "you gotta marry him."

 "What!" the twins yelled.

 "What do you mean I gotta marry him? Are you crazy?"

"Crazy more like a crazy genius, look sweetie, I know you're a little too young to understand right now; this marriage between the two of you can help both of our families imagine it for the first time ever the Pines family is going to be the ones on top, we could rule the state." While trying to reassure Mabel of the idea of the marriage, he looked down at himself and the white tee shirt he held that had team Gideon on it.

 "Boy, I'm fat," Stan said morbidly.

 The only response to this was Dipper's confusion and Mabel running around in terror back upstairs.

 Dipper, who had been silently viewing the conversation and stuffed the journal back into his vest before Stan could notice, had a frown on his face.

 "You're marrying her off to Gideon," Dipper said, confused. "Man, I knew you were an evil businessman, but that's low."

"What did she not like the kid? I thought they were all buddying around with each other."

 "Apparently not, from my guess, he is a creep."

 "a creep isn't he like 9," Stan said skeptically?

 "Yeah, which makes it all weird that you just tried to marry him off to your great-niece."

 "You should have seen the clown paintings, Dipper."

 "clown paintings? Look, it doesn't matter. Did you even talk to our parents about this?"

 Stan looked like he had a face of confusion, and then he realized, "I did not."

"well, that makes a lot of sense," Dipper said, standing up. "Look, I'm gonna go talk to her and see if she's not. I don't know, hyperventilating."

As the young twin left, Stan felt weird, he had never hung around his family for that long, but he felt like he betrayed them at this moment.

  "What am I about to do?" Stan said.

Back upstairs, Dipper saw Mabel in a familiar state.

In the corner of the attic sitting behind a small chest, Mabel sat with her sweater over her face rocking back and forth and speaking to herself.

 "I gotta get out of this, I gotta get out of this," Mabel repeated.

Dipper kneeled down next to her. He's seen this before. The few times Mabel had been distraught, she reverts to a form called sweater town. Back in Piedmont, it was much more common to find someone like Dipper wanting to be alone after a saddening event, but when it happened to Mabel, it was worse, in his opinion.

 Dipper asked softly, "Are you OK."

 "what do you think?" she said sarcastically, stopping rocking for a second.

 "Is Gideon that bad?" Dipper asked.

 "don't say you're on stan's side now." She said angrily, still in her sweater.

 "No, we're twins. I got your back no matter what; I just want to know how bad the guy is."

 "he's… ugg, I don't know, Really sweet, but I don't want To be with him, especially for the rest of my life; I just wish we were friends. But looking at his face whenever I try to say no to him, I can't."

 "You just can't say no to his face," Dipper said, trying to understand.

 "Yeah, you got it. I just don't wanna break his probably tiny heart."

 "well then, you don't have to," Dipper said, tapping her shoulder.

 "Dipper, I don't want to marry him," she responded, depressed.

 "What? No, of course, you're not gonna marry him because I'll just break up with him for you."

 "You would do that?" Mabel turned to him quickly, her face still covered by the sweater.

Dipper only nodded in approval as all of a sudden, Mabel jumped out from under the sweater and hugged him, hitting him repeatedly.

 "thank you thank you, thank you, thank you," she cried out repeatedly, almost screaming with joy. "What about grunkle Stan? Do you think he's gonna be angry that I call off the relationship?"

 "Mabel, he set you up with a guy you don't like for marriage when you're 12; I think it's OK if we don't feel too bad about this. "

Mabel nodded in approval.

"He said he was gonna meet me in some restaurant called the club, then we're gonna go out dancing for the night at some ball."

"Then I'll meet him there and break up with him for you, and you can go back to being what did you say, a free Mabel," Dipper said, trying to remember.

 "Yes!" she yelled suddenly. "The best kind of Mabel!"

 laughing with each other, they both headed out of the mystery shack to confront Gideon.

By the time the night sky finally rolled around, the Pine twins had driven up to one of the many cliffs of Gravity Falls, going to a fancy restaurant, The Club, as they called it.

 It was obvious how it got its name as it was shaped like a giant red playing cards club. As the Pines twins parked their card outside, Dipper could only stare at all the fancy vehicles.

 "Man, this has got to be some high up place. No wonder why Stan tries to marry you off to Gideon. He must be rich." Dipper exclaimed.

"Yeah, rich and clingy, Are you sure you really wanna go in there? What if he used his psychic brain magic to attack you." Mabel said, concerned, grabbing onto his shoulder.

 "Psychic brain magic?" When Dipper said this out loud, he opened the book and summoned Riley. Mabel knew what he was doing and only sat patiently to see the conversation.

 "Hey Riley, do you know anything about psychic brain magic attacks?"

 As he asked the question, Riley finally formed, sitting on the back of the cart.

 "I don't think the term you're using this proper, but from what you're describing, I have no idea…why are we at a restaurant shaped like a playing card," they asked, looking at the restaurant?

 "Oh, I'm breaking up with Gideon from Mabel," Dipper responded

 "Yeah, he's totally clingy, and he smells like baby powder."

 "I must warn you to be cautious; if your theories of this magical nature are true, you could be in serious danger."

"Ha," Dipper laughed, "isn't he like a nine-year-old. I've beaten up a bunch of wax figures to escape from a lake monster. I think I can handle a child."       

 "Dipper, we're children," Mabel said. "And I did all those things too."

“You’re only helping my point,” Dipper said. “Besides, no one messes with my sister.”

“Be careful,” he heard both Riley and Mabel say as he closed the book.

 “You just wait outside,” he called to Mabel before walking in.

Things were going perfectly for Gideon in the relatively short time he knew his beloved. He had convinced her great uncle and his father to bind them in marriage; soon, all he would have to do was merge their businesses and further his magical studies.

 The idea of being magical with Mabel filled him with a giddy; from what he assumed, she would probably not know that much about magic; he was almost kicking his feet, excited at the idea of teaching it to her, just another thing they could bond over.

Of course, he was still planning out the specifics, he wouldn't know what role the actual mystery shack would play in their merge, but he refused to move into that place. By the time he's an adult, he plans to cut out his father without him even expecting it. The same would obviously do for Stan. He knew nothing of Mabel's actual parents, but he would probably treat them the way he would treat his mother and ignore them. They were perhaps too weak to interfere. Lastly, there was the brother. Gideon didn't really like talking to Mabel about her family on their date. From what she told him, he was probably very book-smart; she said something about him being cooler this summer.

Most surprisingly, she even offered him to be friends with her brother, saying he needed more friends, same with Gideon. That almost made him laugh; all he needed was Mabel; he would assess the brother later; if he was brilliant, he could help them with the business and have a minor role. If not, he would just treat them the same as he treated the parents and his mom.

 Speaking of Mabel, he felt a presence; he almost smiled when he felt it was the same feeling he got when he first met Mabel and assumed it came from her. In retrospect, he didn't have much evidence that it came directly from Mabel, but from how he focused on her, it had to be her, right. Getting comfortable in his seat, he would be sadly proven wrong when he saw who walked into the entrance.

It was the brother. He had to play this off cool.

 "Oh, would you look at the future brother-in-law? How's it doing?" Gideon said, genuinely interested to see why he was there. He wasn't wholly scheming if he had to be family with him; he might as well try to be civil, besides there is no way he could be as annoying as his great uncle and his father.

 "Yeah, brother-in-law, man, I'm already getting sick of being called that this summer." He whispered the last part. Gideon could barely hear it.

"What was that?" Gideon said quickly.

"Oh, nothing. We just need to talk about Mabel."

Gideon perked up at this. "And how is my dear Mabel? I hope she took the news of our engagement. Well, I will say I am mighty surprised. But you know how those money-hungry relatives are. But they did make an interesting offer. I have to say I'll probably accept it."

 "yeah, accept it," Dipper said awkwardly. "Umm, hey man, I'm not saying it's your fault but Mabel…well, kinda says she doesn't wanna be with you."

Dipper cringed when he said that it came out way harsher than he intended.

 Gideon could swear he heard glass break as he reached for his bolo tie. "you don't mean that," Gideon said arrogantly.

 "No, I kinda do," Dipper said. "you're probably a fine guy, but like, she just kind of feels weird being around you; no offense, you could probably be great friends."

 "Great… friends." At this point, Gideon held on to his bolo and firmly focused on the Pines twin in front of him. he was confused when he felt that nothing was happening; he couldn't reach Dipper with his abilities.

"Are you OK, man? You look like you're straining yourself," Dipper said, concerned.

 "Oh no, I'm fine," Gideon said, quickly going back to normal. "it's just that…I thought your sister was like me," Gideon said sadly.

 "I mean, she does like makeovers, and she used to love stage plays, so she…"

 "No, not like that," Gideon said, interrupting. "Dipper Pines, is your sister different from other people?"

 "I mean, she's definitely high energy and unique, but she's still my sister, and she's still willing to be friends with you."

 "Yes, OK… well, I have much to think about. Thank you for telling me this, Dipper Pines, but why didn't she tell me herself."

 "Like I said, she just kind of feels uncomfortable with you. It's nothing too bad, man." Dipper tried to make this sound better than it did. He failed to notice that Gideon was starting to freak out a little, but he wasn't showing it on his face.

 "Oh, I hope this means you didn't come between us," Gideon said seriously, almost failing, in his adorable voice.

 'come between you? I'm just telling you how she feels."

 "Then why didn't I feel it," Gideon said quickly.

 "Why didn't you feel it? Are you telling me you're actually a psychic?"

 "What, do you believe in magic?" Gideon said sarcastically.

 Dipper had to stop and think for a second the kid was obviously kind of unstable he didn't think telling him about magic would be a good thing, so we just decided to keep his cards to himself for now; it didn't help that he still thought the kid was a little fraud. Riley said something weird surrounded him, but he wasn't sure.

 "I mean, I've never seen magic." Dipper lied if he was paying more attention, he would see Gideon's eyes widen.

 "Oh well, that's all I had to ask; tell Mabel I'll see you soon, not real soon, but maybe some other time," Gideon said sweetly, going back to looking at the menu.

"Oh, OK, then later, man," Dipper said, casually walking out.

 When he left the room, ultimately, Gideon slammed his hand on the table. 'He's lying to me he thought to himself. And I couldn't control him. It can't be, is he?' thousands of questions were rolling around through his head, but there was one thing he was somewhat sure of, the biggest roadblock between him and his Mabel was a brother, who he believed he felt magic from.

 Gideon had to get home real quick; he had another plan.

As Gideon stormed back into his room, he couldn't contain his anger anymore; at first, it manifested in him repeatedly yelling at his walls, but then it escalated further and further, him smashing things. Holding his bolo tie and furiously focusing, he started throwing objects around his room, breaking them.

"This is not how it was supposed to go," Gideon wailed, "Dipper Pines, you have just made a great enemy this day." In the middle of his rant, Kellar was manifested, staying in the corner of the room doing what they did most of the time while Gideon ranted and just sat there waiting for him to cool down.

 "Dipper Pines? Did your girlfriend change names or something?"

 "No, you idiot, that's her brother."

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Yeah, the brother, you know, for a person who claims to be a tactical genius, you seem to forget a lot of factors constantly," Kellar responded.

"Shut up, spirit; what I'm about to tell you is important. I think that Pines boy might have magic too, or he might be the magical source." Gideon yelled, running back and forth in his room, enraged.

 "Oh, you mean you are completely wrong. I should have known," Kellar said. "Whenever you get emotional, you get a little stupid."

 "Enough; I need to take him out. He's standing between me and my Mabel."

 "Your Mabel?" Kellar questioned. "I thought we could not take possession of her like the tie."

 "she'll learn to accept me in time," Gideon said nonchalantly.

 "So what are you going to do?" Kellar responded cocking their head to the side.

 "First, I'm gonna corner the Pines boy, then I'm going to figure out where his magic comes from, and then I'm gonna kill him."

"I know I do not advise you as much as I used to, but I believe most individuals care for their family more than you; Mabel would probably be upset that her brother was killed."

 "Killed mysteriously, and you'll never guess who will be there to comfort her?" Gideon said, smiling evilly.

 "Oh, nice plan," Kellar said, impressed.

 "Where do you think his magic comes from?" Gideon said, thinking. "Use that book knowledge of yours and tell me."

 "Oh yeah, I forgot it's my job to give you information since you hate me talking to you most of the time. Anyway, magic can be acquired in ways.

Artifacts, blood transfusions, reading ancient manuscripts, being tied to a spirit, and most commonly being born with it."

"Being born with it? If he's born with it, then Mabel still has the chance of being magical. We could still have our perfect future together," Gideon said hopefully.

 "wow, you're really hopeful that she's magical," Kellar said.

"Of course! By tomorrow's time, there's gonna be one less Pines in the world." Gideon started chuckling to himself.

 Suddenly the door flew open as his dad walked in. "Gideon, gleeful, what on earth was that noise," he said, referencing the destroyed room around him.

 "I will buy and sell you, old man," Gideon yelled venomously.

 Bud's only response was to shrug his shoulder, say, "Fair enough," and walk out.

 "No wonder Mabel likes you; how charming," Kellar said as Gideon stared at him angrily.

"I don't see why this is necessary," Dipper said, confused, standing on the front lawn blindfolded.

 "Dude, it's super necessary," Soos said.

 "Yeah, super," Mabel laughed.

Ever since Dipper had broken up with Gideon for Mabel, the whole mood in the shack had increased the following day; with Stan gone to conduct more business with the Gleeful family, the rest of the workers were not as motivated to continue working. Sure, Wendy was inside doing what she did best, but the rest of them decided to come outside for what Soos called a training exercise.

 Dipper stood blindfolded backward while Soos and Mabel were about to throw water balloons at his back.

 "I don't see how this is training and training me for what." Dipper wondered.

 "Um, of course, dude, you're a superhero superheroes need training how you gonna defeat supervillains or save people," Soos said, filling up the last water balloons.

 "Soos, I'm not a superhero. I'm just a kid who got a little bit of magic or something; Riley, back me up."

 Riley, who had been summoned by the opened book lying on the porch chair, was looking at the water balloons with interest.

 "That is correct. From what I understand, a superhero is; you do not complete the classifications; I have yet to see you in a costume."

"You see, they said I'm not a superhero."

 "I can't hear them," both Mabel and Soos said.

 "All right, Dipper, now we're going to need you to dodge any last words," Mabel said

 "I hate this."

 Suddenly, his senses went off lightly as he moved to the left; he felt a brief shift in the air past his head as a splash of water appeared on the ground next to him.

 "Whoa, that's like crazy," Soos said, "Dipper, when we're done here, I gotta show you some TV shows. I think you're gonna get some great ideas."

"Dipper, tell him that I would be very interested in watching the shows," Riley said.

Before he could mimic what they said back to Soos, he felt more of his senses go off as Mabel began throwing them rapidly.

 While further enhanced, Dipper was still not used to his abilities, so every time he moved, it was less of a fluid dodge and more like a brief jerk of motion.

 "Come on, Dipper, you gotta dodge better than that; less robot, more dance lessons."

 "Neither of us took dance lessons, Mabel," he yelled back as another water balloon almost hit his face.

 "Oh man, we're out," Mable announces, and Dipper stops. His sense went off once more as he jumped and heard a water balloon splash right before him.

 "Oh man, I thought I was going to really get in that time," Soos said.

 "I know this doesn't sound like me, but can we go back to work," Dipper said, annoyed.

 "Nah, man, we gotta move on to the strength test," Soos said.

 "strength test?"

 "yeah, so how would you feel about me running into you with the cart," Soos said honestly.

 Before Dipper could even respond to that insane idea, a ring of the phone from inside had gone off repeatedly; clearly, Wendy wasn't trying to answer it.

 "I'll get it," Dipper said, rushing inside to avoid the conversation about getting hit by a vehicle. As he took off at a quick speed and ripped his blindfold off

 Rushing inside, he was met with what he expected Wendy sitting peacefully next to the ringing phone as she continued the read magazine.

 "Sup dude," she said as Dipper didn't answer, her grabbing the phone.

 "Hello, mystery shack front desk. How may I help you." He announced in his attempt to sound professional.

 "Gravity Falls gossiper, this is Toby speaking."

 "Oh, Toby," Dipper said, surprised; he really never expected to interact with Toby in any sense; you don't really talk to people after they accuse you of being a wax murderer. "I apologize for accusing you of being a wax murder last week."

 "Oh no, it's fine," Toby said. "Water under the bridge, well, I would like to discuss some golden news opportunities."

"golden news opportunities ?" Dipper said, raising an eyebrow and looking at Wendy. She only shrugged and went back to reading.

 "Yes, me and an associate have been cataloging some strange occurrences going around town, and I heard you're quite interested," Toby said, friendly.

 "Oh man, you have no idea how interested I am. Would you like me to tell you now!"

"Oh no, come meet me at

412 Gopher Rd. That's where me and my associate are keeping all of our evidence. We would love to interview you."

"All right!" Dipper said, writing down the address. I'll be there soon. He hung up the phones moments later and turned to Wendy.

 "If Stan asks, I'm going out to the store."

 "cool, could you pick me up some more sodas?"

 "Oh no, I'm heading To the place 412 Gopher Rd. Apparently, they need my evidence for a story. Isn't that awesome" Dipper said excitedly?

 "Gopher Rd.?"

 "Why is that place weird."

"I could have sworn there was really nothing on Gopher Road, but whatever, have fun," she responded, returning to her magazine.

 Running back outside, Dipper immediately dodged another water balloon thrown at his face.

  "Dang it!" Mabel said.

"Enough with the water balloons, guys. I just got an invitation from Toby to spread my knowledge of the supernatural."

 "Toby, the reporter? You said you questioned him about wax stan's murder," Riley said skeptically.

 "Of course, maybe my rantings got him a little interested."

 "I don't know," Riley said.

 "good for you, bro," Mabel said, patting him on the back.

 Riley seemed to move next to her to get Dipper's attention.

Remember that I told you sharing the greater secrets of the book should be discouraged."

 "Thank you, Mabel, and don't worry, Riley, I won't give Toby any secrets like… I don't know." Dipper flipped through the book quickly.

"Oh yes, how to summon a wolf demon. I'm just gonna give him enough the show him the supernatural is real."

 "The knowledge of this book is valued. Just make sure it's not getting into the wrong hands." Riley said as the book was closed and they were disappearing.

 "All right, I'm heading out; if I'm not back before dinner time, tell Stan not to touch my pizza," Dipper said quickly, running to the golf cart.

 "oh, was it the pepperoni?" Mabel responded quickly.

 "Yes?"

 "I fed it to a raccoon," she responded, a little guilty.

 "You know what? I should be mad," Dipper said, "but I will just roll with it. See you guys he said, happily speeding off in the cart."

Wendy was right. There basically was nothing on Gopher Road; by following the address to the best of his ability in the golf cart had led him to a decent size warehouse on the side of a Cliff.

In retrospect, he thought he might have been jumping the gun going to tell Toby determined about the supernatural. Knowing the shabby reporter, he would probably misuse every word Dipper said, but he didn't see that right now. Having any chance to get the people of this town interested in the crazy world they live in was always a positive to him.

 Of course, the journal and, subsequently, Riley was brought around; he'd already decided first that Riley's existence would be a secret. People could accept the idea of the supernatural, but Dipper really doubted They would take him seriously if they heard he basically talked to himself.

 Honestly, Dipper had no idea what he was going to be discussing at this meeting. He had no evidence of the gnomes or the wax figures, the best he could think of was the Gobblewonker and the scuttle crabs, but Dipper didn't think the last one was supernatural at all, just some weird creature. He should probably go out and look for more creatures in the woods and grab evidence of them. He had been thinking of the finer details of starting some kind of video series about documenting these things, but by the time he was hammering out the details, he was already rolled up to the warehouse.

 "Welp, this is it." He said out loud to Riley, who had been summoned for the past few minutes.

 "I can feel your emotions without magic. You are skeptical about as this as I am." Riley said.

 "yeah, you're right; the first sign of danger; I'm getting out of here."

 "wouldn't it be better not to put yourself in danger in the first place?"

"I mean, I don't know if I'm in danger until I step in. Besides, what's Toby gonna do? Throw a microphone at me? Oh wait, he doesn't even have one of those." Dipper joked a bit.

 "you have a point, but there is still a slight idea he could want revenge for exposing his little secret about his rival reporter cut out."

"I mean, I promised not to tell anybody, mostly because it wouldn't be the weirdest thing he's already been accused of, and I really don't want to think about it. So we should be fine," Dipper said, turning off the cart. "Alright, I'll talk to you after the interview. Don't worry; I won't expose anything too bad."

 "I trust you," they said as they disappeared as the book was placed in his vest.

Getting out of the cart and walking towards the front of the warehouse, the only entranceway was the massive doors on the front, but they were closed. Yes, he wasn't having good feelings about this, but he never had good feelings about this town; the fact he was so close to the woods right now still concerned him.

 Knocking on the large doors repeatedly, he would get a response once they slowly opened with loud creaking. His danger sense didn't seem to go off, so he just walked casually into a dark warehouse filled with boxes in a large window on the back that oversaw the entire town.

 'yeah, OK, this is a prank,' Dipper thought. Honestly, this is probably the best scenario. Toby wanted a little revenge; he got his hopes up, so he sent him all the way across town to a spooky place. Dipper wasn't immature enough to declare a prank war over this, but he would subtly nudge Mabel to get some ideas later.

Turning around casually to leave, he was shocked as the doors, which had slowly opened, quickly shut. Now his danger senses went off, but they weren't pointing him to dodge; turning around quickly, he noticed something sitting in front of the windows overlooking the town; it looked like an oversized chair.

 As the warehouse lights all flickered on leading up to the figure, it was revealed to be an oversized red chair that turned to face him. The chair was turning slowly. Dipper was scared for a second. He believed everything he did in this town led to some supernatural incident, so who knows what could be jumping out at him. he can't tell if he was a little disappointed or just creeped out when the chair finally turned around to reveal Gideon holding a Gideon doll.

"Well, howdy there, Dipper Pines," Gideon said happily, playing with the doll in his hand while staring daggers at Dipper. His tone didn't match his eyes, but it fit his mouth, giving him a somewhat creepy face.

 "Gideon?" Well, he believed this was somewhat of a twist, but at least it wasn't like a vampire Lord or something.

 "So, Pines, how have you been enjoying this town so far? Isn't it special? a special place for all of us special people, you know what I mean?" Gideon said creepily.

 "I guess it's definitely… unique the people are a little bit… unsettling," Dipper said, obviously referring to Gideon in this circumstance.

 "Yeah, I agree," Gideon says, not picking up on his insult. "The people here are strange, but they're not what makes this place special, and I think you know it too."

 Dipper gulped for a second; if his theory about Gideon being magical was 50/50 before, it was definitely leaning towards being true. "Hey man, what's this about," Dipper said, "this better not be about Mabel."

 Gideon just chuckled softly. "Oh, it's about a little more than Mabel. Tell me, Pines, is your family normal."

 "Define normal," Dipper said, squinting.

 "Oh, shut up!" Gideon said, "You know what I'm talking about? I felt it on you; I thought I felt it on your sister; you know about magic now. Don't make me pry information from you any longer!"

"I know of magic," Dipper said. Gideon only frowned more at this response as a box suddenly came from behind Dipper, trying to hit him. he dodged quickly out of the way, and when he saw the box, he noticed it glowed light blue as it passed by his head.

"Stop kidding me. First, you lied to me about my Mable, then you lied to me about your magic; that's fine, Dipper Pines. You're never gonna lie to me again."

 All of a sudden, the entire room started shaking as multiple objects started floating; it seemed every piece of merchandise owned by Gideon was now being levitated by him and pointed threateningly at Dipper.

 Dipper, of course, was freaking out at this. Seeing Gideon, he saw he was holding on to his bolo tie and holding out his hand, straining himself.

 "you're magical but not like just a psychic. You have actual magic." Dipper said, shocked.

 "Yeah, you should be glad you're gonna be the first person to be on the receiving end of it." Suddenly, all the objects in the room started moving towards him quickly.

 Both Gideon and Dipper realized this would be the first time they would go against someone with magic.

Back at the mystery shack, Mabel was depressingly sitting on the side of the house, chewing on her hair in stress. With Dipper gone and Stan refusing to let her cook, combined with him being too lazy, leftovers were all they had for dinner tonight. After her familiar dinner, Mabel had something on her mind all day, was it right for her to let her brother break up with Gideon.

She was pleased to be out of the relationship, but something was nagging at her. She'll always be thankful for what Dipper did, but she feels like it was kind of a cop-out, like there are some loose threads of this she's missing that haven't been wrapped up yet.

 While sitting down, Wendy, who's probably just leaving the shack to go home, sat down next to her.

 "How's that hair tasting, buddy," she said casually, sitting beside her.

 "Hey Wendy, have you ever had to break up with a guy before," Mabel asked, looking down at the dirt and kicking her feet a bit.

 "Oh yeah, of course, Oh yeah: Russ Durham, Eli Hall, Stoney Davidson..." She said casually, listing them off with her finger.

 "I just feel gross, you know," Mabel continued.

"Mike Worley, Nate Holt, oh, that guy with the tattoos…" Wendy also continued barely paying attention to what Mabel was saying, too wrapped up in listing how many guys she had broken up with.

 "Gideon deserves the honest breakup even if I didn't like him. It's the least I can give him; thanks for the advice Wendy," Mabel said cheerily, running off to go get her bike.

It wasn't her bike to say some kid left at the mystery shack, and she called finders keepers.

"Danny Feldman, Jack Elmont... Oh man, I'm not sure I ever actually broke up with him. I haven't seen him in months, weird."

As Mabel zoomed by, she planned to head to Gideon's house to tell him the truth.

Back at the warehouse, Dipper was getting flashbacks figuratively of his fight with the amalgam, Gideon had an impressive amount of merchandise, and he was branded on everything. So everything was being thrown at Dipper right now at full speed.

 He would probably be able to focus more if it wasn't for Gideon laughing the entire time while playing with the tiny doll of himself.

 "I must say that's quite impressive; you're pretty good at dodging, boy. You ever consider being a clown."

 "I'm not gonna be called a clown by a guy whose hair is bigger than his head," Dipper yelled out angrily. The moment he paused to say this, a large box hit him, making him fly toward the corner of the room.

 "Well, that was easy," Gideon said, laughing, turning attention to the doll.

 "Now, who is the greatest magician to ever live?" Gideon said, pointing to the doll. "you are."

 "no, you are," the high-pitched doll version of him replied as they both started laughing. Gideon paused suddenly when he felt a large spike of emotion running towards him. He immediately put up a magical barrier right before him and saw Dipper Pines slam into it face-first.

 "Ow!" Dipper cried as he fell onto the ground. It didn't hurt as much as he thought, but it still stunned him for a second.

"You know, when I felt magic around you, I kind of assumed you would be a bigger threat than this, but this is kind of sad you've done nothing but run. Are you sure you're a real magician?"

 "I'm as much as a magician as much as you are going to marry Mabel," Dipper said sarcastically as he got up quickly. Gideon frowned heavily when he heard that; he wouldn't have much time to be upset after Dipper threw a baseball bat at him at a quick speed.

 For a second, Gideon was almost impressed until he caught it midair.

"Huh, maybe I get this whole magic thing twisted. Maybe you just got a different kind of magic, one that's a lot more useless than the one I got," Gideon said, holding on to his bolo tie tighter and grabbing Dipper.

 The moment Dipper felt his body get covered in blue energy and lifted off the ground, he was freaking out. "let me go, man, what is this all about? You're never gonna date my sister. She doesn't like you."

 "Liar!" Gideon yelled. "I bet it was you who came between us. You probably brainwashed her or something."

 "Brainwashing who uses brainwashing," Dipper said until he got a thought. All around town, people bent the will to Gideon. Sure, his fame helped, but what Mabel told him and what he observed in this show linked two pieces of evidence for him.

 "you're controlling people at your show," Dipper said, realizing. "Oh my God, you are a fraud, just in a different way."

"What did you call me," Gideon said angrily as he started constricting Dipper slightly more. "Boy, I'm the real deal, and I'm going to show you how real I am." As Gideon said this, he used his powers to grab a shearing set from the corner and point it towards Dipper's neck.

 "Any last words, Dipper Pines?" Gideon said, closing the shearing kit towards him and smiling wickedly.

 "yeah, how do you think Mabel's gonna react when she sees her brother in danger." When Dipper said this, the doors crashed open as Mabel looked at the scene in shock.

 "what the heck is going on here." she cried out, looking over the scene. Gideon holding her brother using telekinesis while aiming sharp objects at him.

 For the first time in the fight, Gideon seemed to completely lose focus as all his magic ceased when he saw Mabel. Dipper crashed into a metal object, stunning him for a bit.

 "Mabel? Sweetie! What are you doing here" he said nervously.

 "I went to your house to talk to you, but then your dad told me you were out, so this is the only other hangout spot I could think of for you." What are you doing here with Dipper?

 "Oh, he and I were just having a little disagreement about our wedding."

 "Our wedding Gideon… I have something to tell you." Mabel said nervously.

"What?" Gideon said, heartbroken, holding onto his bolo tie. A lot of objects around the room started shaking.

 "Mabel, be careful what you say right now," Dipper cried as several objects around him started moving sporadically. Nothing seemed to interrupt Gideon and Mabel's close conversation, though.

"Look, Gideon, you're a nice friend, and you're really sweet, but I don't really want to date you. Can't you respect that?"

 "But Mabel were meant to be lost magical souls in the world that doesn't appreciate them."

 "Gideon, you know that's wrong Mabel said. Besides, a ton of people appreciate us, I got my family, and you got a bunch of fans. Isn't that enough."

"No," Gideon said quietly. "I mean real people who get us like you and me. Mabel, you don't have magic, don't you?"

 "Uh, sorry, Gideon, I don't. That's all, my brother; I don't know if I should feel sorry that I let you down, but I just don't," Mabel said sympathetically, shrugging her shoulders. "but you know there is one thing that can happen now…"

 "What?" Gideon said, a little afraid.

"we could still be friends, and I would love to come over to your house for makeovers. Let's just, you know, be casual about it."

 "Casual about it. you really want to be friends with me?" Gideon said, almost hugging Mabel, relieved that he didn't scare her off.

 Suddenly as quick as a lightning bolt, Mabel grabbed the magical tie around his neck and ripped it off.

 "of course not, you little weirdo! You're hurting my brother. What the heck is wrong with you." She cried out furiously, holding the tie above his head.

 "Hey, give that back," Gideon said pathetically. All the magic around the room ceased as Dipper finally got his advantage. Tackling Gideon, he didn't even see it coming as Dipper tried to force him on the ground to submit.

 When he stopped moving, Dipper got up triumphantly. "Good work," he called out. Mabel holding the bolo tie, looked over it questioningly.

"What is this thing?" Mabel said, confused ", Here, check it out" She threw it at Dipper, and he caught it quickly, looking over himself.

 "it looks like a…" Dipper was cut off when he heard a loud high, pitched screaming. Gideon and his fury got up suddenly and tackled Dipper. Gideon was not super strong as far as Dipper could tell, but the force of his tiny body mixed with the speed he was going slammed him against the window and crashed both of them through it. Dipper was freaking out as he realized he and Gideon were falling, already continuing their fight.

Dipper's theory of Gideon's lack of enhanced strength was proven when, after Gideon slapped him a couple of times, Dipper hit him once, and he seemed to reel back much harder.

They would ignore this when Dipper felt his danger sense coming in; he realized the ground was coming a lot closer rapidly. Dipper wasn't 100% sure about the idea of him having enhanced durability, but right now, that was probably about to get tested.

He didn't see his life flash before his eyes, and he really had no major regrets; maybe he should have made more friends, Dipper thought. As Dipper and Gideon closed their eyes, awaiting impact, they paused momentarily, realizing it had never come. Opening their eyes slowly and looking at each other, they were both violently turned, facing upwards to see Mabel descending slowly, holding the bolo tie.

 She was using magic, and it shocked both of them. Holding both her and them, she softly put her and her brother on the ground while making Gideon fall on top of his head.

 "ow!" Gideon cried.

"Mabel, you just saved our lives," Dipper said, amazed.

"Yeah, I guess I really am the superhero of the family," Mabel said jokingly towards Dipper, which made him groan. In one last vain attempt Gideon tried to rush at Mabel to get his bolo tie, but Dipper stuck his foot out and tripped him.

This time, he didn't even make a sound as he crashed to the ground, picking himself up softly. Turning around, Dipper couldn't even tell if he was about to cry or scream at them when he just stared at them.

"You'll regret this," Gideon said threateningly, backing up into the woods. "you haven't seen the last of lil old me; you will be mine, Mabel," he said creepily, disappearing into the brush.

 The Pines twins could only look stunned at the events that had just occurred. Looking at each other, Mabel and Dipper drew long breaths and returned to the cliff to get the cart.

Back at the Gleeful residence, Stan and Bud were lounging around with each other.

 "So Stan, this is a very unexpected visit, but what did you have to talk to me about."

"Umm yeah, bud, there's something we gotta talk about. Stan said nervously. I've done some thinking, and I'm backing out of the marriage deal."

"What, what" Bud said, surprised. This wasn't a good thing, and he knew it if his son found out the marriage was canceled, there would be consequences for everyone involved. "Why Stan, I think you need to have a drink. Why don't we discuss this further."

"No," Stan said, standing up. "My niece doesn't like your son, and I have to respect that." he said solemnly. "also, the parents don't know about this deal, so that was never approved."

 "But what about Gideon?" Bud said, pleading.

 "Why should I care," Stan said.

 Suddenly, while their conversation escalated, the door slammed open, with an angry little Gideon revealed.

 "we're getting we were just discussing some… finer details," Bud said, nervous

 "Yeah, you can discuss these finer details. The marriage is off," Gideon said, angry.

 "Easy!" Stan commented quickly.

 "Stan, your whole family has put a mighty transgression on mine. Your whole family will pay recompense." Gideon yelled, standing on the table to give himself some kind of intimidation.

 "Kid, I have no idea what you're saying. But all I'm hearing is the marriage is off." Stan walked over to the clown painting. "but kid, just for your little attitude, I think you need to pay some recompense, whatever that means."

 "what does that mean? Bud said, widening his eyes when he realized what was happening. "Hey, Stan, put that down, Stan Stan." As quickly as he could run, Stan evacuated the house with the clown painting under his arm stolen.

 "Try and catch me, suckers," he yelled as he ran into the night

After the embarrassing situation with Stan stealing his painting, him losing to Dipper, and his bolo tie being stolen away by the girl that rejected him, Gideon had enough for the day.

 He wanted to be angry, but all he could do was sit on his bed, punching the sheet repeatedly, as he was so overcome with emotion it was hard to think.

“And I thought humans loved their bedding,” Kellar said, floating around in the background.

 The moment he heard his voice again he could barely respond. In an unexpectedly quiet voice, he voiced his complaints. “Shut up, spirit. You have no idea what I lost today.”

“I can guess you lost your little tie. Now all you can do is barely read emotions; I’m not counting the Pines girl as a loss; I don’t think you ever had her. Ha”. Kellar said the last part loud.

 Now he was being mocked by his spirit, Gideon thought. “I want you to accelerate our plans.”

 Kellar suddenly stopped laughing. “Wait, seriously? Do you know how bad it hurts to search too deep into my own information? The more I look into the past, the more my head wants to blow up.”

 “You think I care?” Gideon responded quickly. “I just went through the most embarrassing night of my whole life.”

 “Your whole magical life,” Kellar said.

 “Shut up! I know if you push hard enough, you can find more memories, and if you find more memories, you can find out more about the secrets of who made you. And whoever made you had real power.”

 “You don’t even know what that real power is. What are you gonna do with it,” Kellar said.

 Gideon only smiled to himself slowly. “Anything I want,” he said, cracking his first genuine smile in a long time. “Now follow my commands, or by the time I do get real power, I will turn you physical just to torture you.”

 Kellar seemed a little scared of this prospect. “You would do that.”

 “You know I would now get to work,” Gideon said threateningly.

 Kellar stared at him angrily for a second before putting their heads on their temple, doing what was told of them.

As the night fully enraptured the Mystery Shack, the Pines twins sat relaxing in the den TV area. The past couple of days had tired them out both emotionally and physically.

 "So, do you think he finally got the hint," Dipper said, staring at the TV?

 "Yeah, but I don't think we've seen the last of him," Mabel said. "But listen on the bright side, look what I got," she said in a sing-song voice.

She was holding up the bolo tie.

 "so, like, you can do telekinesis now," Dipper said, raising an eyebrow.

 "Maybe, I think it can also control people, but you know that doesn't seem right," Mabel responded cheerily. Looking at it, she wrapped it around her neck and hid it with her sweater. This would be lucky timing as their great uncle had walked in by the time she had a concealed.

 "what's up, kids?" he said, tired.

 "Hey Stan, how was your day? Why do you look so sad." Mabel asked

 "I'm not sad. I just threw away a lot of money."

 "intentionally?" Dipper said, raising an eyebrow.

 "Yeah, also, I told Bud Gleeful the marriage is off. I guess I should say I'm sorry." He didn't say anything more as he reclined in his chair, looking at the TV.

 "Don't worry, Stan, we know," Mabel said

 "Yeah, I can tell the little stinker was pretty mad when he came into the room when I was talking with his dad and started saying a bunch of words of revenge."

 "And who cares," Dipper says. "I'm pretty sure his magical act just got busted anyway."

 "Oh yeah," Mabel said.

 "Wait, are you kids saying you found a way to get rid of his fraudulent magic."

 "Sure," Mabel said, winking.

 "That's my niece and nephew. What is he gonna do now? Tell me what number I'm thinking of." The entire group laughed with each other.

 "He will never guess what number I am thinking of… negative eight. nobody ever thinks of a negative number." Mabel said as the Pines family would jokingly laugh around with each other thinking their problems were resolved.

Chapter Text

As the next few days passed, Gideon slowly faded into the same realm of memory as the other strange encounters the Pines family had. But right now, Mabel had another situation on her hands; this situation, unlike the rest of this summers, had been brewing for the last few years, but she was especially noticing it now. Dipper could barely talk to people.

 As she sat next to Wendy at the gift shop's counter to take a quick break, Mabel saw her brother being asked questions by various tourists.

Every interaction seemed to blend together as whenever someone would approach him, he would turn into a stumbling mess, and then they would walk away. When Mabel really thought about it, Dipper was very inconsistent; talking to new people almost seemed like an impossibility to him unless he was saying something slightly sarcastic or they engaged a particular interest of his.

 A great example of this was how it took him much longer to open up to Wendy and Soos than her. Watching the customer ask Dipper questions and then walk away was starting to get difficult. She secretly had one objective for the summer: to get him more friends, along with her quest for epic summer romance. She believed once their time here ended, they would be changed people.

 So far, her summer romance quest had gone spectacularly wrong twice; zombies and child psychics were not a good starting record. But then there was something interesting about her quest to give her brother friends, Riley; unlike anybody else, Dipper seemed to talk to them like they were an extension of himself, which, when she paid attention to what he was saying, was probably what they were. They were bound by blood, as Dipper said once. Even though she wouldn't say it in their vicinity, she tried not to count Riley as a friend no matter how much she appreciated them without even seeing them.

 She wanted Dipper to have friends like she had where they could go out places and have fun. Riley seemed to push Dipper further into seclusion, not that his mystery hunting was bad. She thought it was just not healthy in mass quantities.

 On the other side, it confused her that he still wasn't out there even with his enhanced abilities, as he called them. From all the stories she read, getting powers gave people great confidence but not her brother; sometimes it felt like he barely remembered he had powers, Happily going days without using them.

As her deep thoughts continued, she was suddenly interrupted when great uncle Stan busted in. All employees looking in his direction now.

 "Soos, Wendy," he cried out halfway through the door. "I have some business in town. You two are gonna clean up the bathrooms, right."

 "Yes, Sir," Soos said, saluting.

"You're a good man Soos “ Stan replied. "Wendy?"

 "most likely not," she replied casually, also saluting.

"Ha," he laughed. "You two stay out of trouble," Stan said slightly threateningly as he left. It was an interesting thought to Mabel that despite her great uncle being basically a mascot character of his own business how much he left work up to the employees sometimes.

 Soos would never intentionally hurt the business; only random and frequent accidents stained his work record. While lazy, Wendy's greatest crime against the shack would probably be stealing snacks; this was nothing too serious to Stan. He was a little proud she could steal from a professional thief. He absolutely adored Mabel's ability to get people to buy anything. Lastly, he appreciated Dipper seeing how inventory was a breeze with him here. She noticed that Stan was slowly trying to push Dipper into interacting with customers more, much to his chagrin.

 Mabel thought for a moment it was probably because of how often she left work compared to her brother. Even when nothing was happening, she sometimes skipped out to make another sweater.

 The moment the Stan mobile kicked up its dust, leaving the crew of the mystery shack, Wendy got a wicked smile on her face.

 "Hey guys," she said sinisterly. "Is that a secret ladder to the roof?" she said sarcastically as she pulled back a curtain to a ladder on the wall.

 "whoa, aren't we not supposed to go up there?" Soos said, walking up to her.

 "We aren't?" Wendy replied, raising an eyebrow

 "aren't we?"

 "We aren't?" she said, this time accentuating it by holding her hand mysteriously.

 "You're freaking me out, dude," Soos said.

 "whoa, we can really go up there," Mabel said cheerily.

 "Why does Stan have a secret entrance to the roof," Dipper said questioningly.

 "you know, normal stuff escaping the cops. but who cares about that." She climbed onto the ladder, opened the Hatch on the top, and turned back to the twins. "roof time, roof time," she chanted.

This hyped up both the twins as they both chanted back toward her.

Soos still looked awkward as the rest of the group ascended to the roof. The Pines twins awkwardly followed the older redhead to a small hidden place on the roof. It had an umbrella, a cooler, a pool chair, and a bucket of pine cones just resting there. The Pines twins were amazed.

"whoa, this area is awesome," Mabel exclaimed, running up to the chair and immediately jumping on it.

"yeah, I come up here all the time," Wendy said, slowly moving Mabel off her chair, making sure she didn't break it.

 "Stan know about it?" Dipper asked.

"I don't know, let's just say ever since I first started working here, I've been using this as my getaway spot," Wendy exclaimed, picking up the bucket of pine cones.

  "stop the questions and have some fun," she says as she pulls out a pine cone and throws it across the yard.

The Pines twins squinted to see what she did; she perfectly arched the pinecone to hitting a target on a totem pole. "Yes!" Wendy exclaimed as she relaxed in the chair. Satisfied, she hit the target.

 "Oh, let me try," Mabel said as she started throwing a bunch of pine cones. Most of them didn't go too far. Some were just bouncing off a random truck that was in the parking lot.

 "come on, Dipper try," Wendy said. He was just staring at this point, but he oddly felt happy when he locked eyes with Wendy. Picking up a pine cone quickly, Dipper winded up dramatically and threw it. Unfortunately for him, a small bird was flying in his path, and he knocked it out of the sky in one hit.

 Everyone on top of the roof looked shocked until they saw the bird fly away harmlessly. Dipper was too stunned to even move while Mabel sighed in relief.

 "Whoa, nice shot, kid," Wendy said, holding up her hand high 5.

From Mabel's point of view, something interesting was happening; Dipper only stared at Wendy a little awkwardly, but not the normal kind of awkwardly. She could swear he was breathing a little heavier as Wendy approached his face.

 "You're gonna leave me hanging?" Wendy said, slowly pushing her hand towards Dipper. He would suddenly knock out of this frozen state as he high-fived Wendy. In the background, Mabel was getting a theory in her head, and she liked the results she was getting at.

As Wendy grabbed another pine cone, she noticed a van roll up to the parking lot with loud music playing. Noticing the window was open, Wendy smiled sinisterly as she threw the pine cone flawlessly into the window, hearing a scream seconds later.

 "Ha," Wendy laughed. "Alright, it looks like it's the right time to go. Tell Stan I actually did help."

 "No problem," Dipper said awkwardly and loudly. All Mabel could do was piece together that her theory was true.

 "great" All of a sudden, much to the Pines twin's confusion, Wendy walked back a few steps and jumped off the roof; quickly pulling out an axe, she connected it with a nearby tree and used the tree to safely descend onto the ground. The moment she hit the ground, she sprinted off into the van, and it sped off.

 "Bye, Wendy!" Dipper said even louder and more awkwardly, ", Huh, that was awesome." Dipper would get slightly frightened as he turned to see his sister smiling devilishly towards him. He had seen the smile before when Mabel was confident she was confident, and right now, her face to him could only be described as evil.

 "Oh my gosh, does my brother have a crush, his first crush?" Mabel said excitedly. "Oh my gosh, this is the craziest day of my life."

 "What! No, Mabel, I don't have a crush on Wendy; I just think she's really cool." Dipper said defensively, still looking down the tree. "How do you think she did that? I know she's a lumberjack, but that's not normal lumberjack stuff."

"don't deflect." Mabel cried out. "I see how you were staring at her. You're totally enraptured; oh, my brother's going through his first feelings of romance."

 "Mabel, please stop."

"Don't worry, bro. I won't rest until you guys are happy and together." she cried out, trying to hug him, but he just stepped to the side. "Come on, it's perfect. You're a new superhero…"

"I'm still not a superhero."

 "and she's an awesome lady. You guys are perfect for each other."

Mabel cried out

 "Mabel, we're not superheroes. I'm not a superhero. I just got access to magic, and you have that tie."

 "Oh yeah," Mabel exclaimed loudly, pulling down her sweater a bit to pull out the tie. She had an evil smile as she held it close to her and tried to pick up the bucket of pine cones. The pine cone bucket would slowly move up in a swift motion, and Mabel chucked it across the parking lot with a loud yell.

 The bucket with the pine cones slammed into the target, and it fell to the ground.

 "Nice throw," Dipper said.

 'Mabel, with the power of telekinesis, was definitely concerning,' thought Dipper. The first time she used it after the Gideon incident was only for jokes. All she did was use it to eat a slice of pizza and laugh at the results, saying she didn't need her hands to eat pizza anymore.

 Of course, there were drawbacks; when the bucket of pine cones hit the ground, Mabel almost fell into the chair.

 "Oh man, I barely used it that time," she said, rubbing her head. Both twins were very confused about how the cliff use of magic was so much more impressive than anything she could pull off now, but for some reason, she was stuck with the weakened power. They had already told Soos, and he had obviously brought up even more superheroes, so now, if they were ever gonna pull that training thing again, Mabel would be included. Dipper just hoped they didn't bring out the golf cart.

 "I'm gonna figure you out one day," Mabel yelled out, a little tired at the bolo tie.

"Yeah, OK," Dipper said, helping her up slowly, "let's get you inside."

 "No, we still need to talk about your obvious crush on Wendy."

 "She's just cool, Mabel," Dipper exclaimed, already tired of the conversation.

 Slowly guiding Mabel over the roof to the stairs, she frowned at him. "come on, Dipper don't you want to have a girlfriend or boyfriend? I don't discriminate."

 Dipper only frowned at her. "Mabel, I just don't know if I can have a relationship like you want right now."

 "but come on, you're interested, and you can make her think you're so cool.' She complained tiredly, slowly heading downstairs while Dipper ensured she didn't fall.

Dipper, from the top of the Hatch, while guiding her down slowly and deeply, sighed. “Mabel, I don’t want to try and impress Wendy by making her think I’m cool. I’m just happy with, you know, staying in the background.”

 “Then how are you going to make new friends? When’s the last new friend you made.”

 “Riley?” Dipper said questioningly

 “I meant before Riley, who is also a spirit that is bound to you. I’m not saying you’re not friends; I’m just saying it’s unconventional.”

 “Since when have you had a problem with unconventional Also, the last friend I had, I had two friends in 6th grade.”

 “Only two!” Mabel looked at him, shocked. “Now I really need to make you more friends.”

 “No, Mabel, stop. I know what you’re like when planning; just slow down. I don’t need friends and won’t even think about Wendy.”

Late at night, while Mabel had fallen asleep, Dipper drew down his page of her bolo tie and the incident with Gideon. He had slowly realized Riley had a minimal scope of magic, but they didn't concern him right now as he zoned out for a while. Riley was watching Mabel sleep.

 He appreciated Riley's presence, but they would do creepy things like that; they tended to just watch the twins whenever they weren't conversing with him while the book was open.

 For some reason, when media on television wouldn't enrapture them, simply observing their surroundings and gaining every detail from it was something they enjoyed. Dipper can only assume this was because they came from a hole in the ground for an unknown amount of time, which would make anyone appreciate everything.

After about an hour in his zoned-out writings and drawing, he yawned as Riley floated over to him quickly to see his progress. Dipper couldn't see their face as always but could tell they were a little confused about something.

 "your sister seems to be having a nice dream, but I was disturbed by something else," Riley said softly; Mabel couldn't hear them, but it was nice they were still whispering while she was asleep.

 "Oh yeah, what's that?" Dipper said, also whispering.

 "The contents of your book and your recent additions are…interesting."

 "Wait, what?" Dipper said. Looking down on the page, he noticed he had drawn a picture of Wendy; it was crudely made, seeing he wasn't paying attention, and he wasn't the best artist anyway, but it horrified him when he got a look at it.

"Oh no," Dipper said, holding up the book in shock.

"is the corduroy girl concerning," Riley asked skeptically; it's not like they interact with Wendy in any capacity. She and Stan were the only people Riley had not been summoned into a room with. Not like she could see her anyway, same for Stan Dipper thought.

 "No, it's just I was a little distracted" Dipper stumbled on his words, trying to explain it.

 "you got a little distracted, so you drew an entirely different person?"

 "Yes, it happens." Dipper, seconds later, realized he was trying to lie to a spirit tied to him. Even if he wasn't sure, they could detect his lies; they didn't seem to believe him anyway.

"Look, I think I've just been up a little too long; I'm going to go to sleep," Dipper said, putting the book on the shelf. "I'll find some ink eraser later."

 "Could you please leave the book open?" Riley said.

 "Don't you need rest, or have we not figured that out yet."

 "I'll usually get my rest while you're working and unable to reach for the book. I'll just stay here observing the night. It's peaceful."

 "Observing the night, or you just going to look at me and Mabel while we sleep."

 Riley seemed slightly stunned at that accusation like they'd been caught red-handed stealing something.

“i…thought that…”

 Dipper thought it was interesting they were stuttering still with a monotone voice and a whisper, but he cut them off quickly. "it's fine. It's not like you do anything bad." He paused for a second, leaning on his side. He had an exciting thought that Mabel put in his head.

 "We're friends, right," Dipper said, a little hopeful.

 "Our relationship is something different from normal humans, I can guide you, but I can't order you around; I give you the power, and I have been given some semblance of freedom. But human terms allude me; if you wish to call our partnership friendship, I see nothing wrong with that."

Dipper smiled at that. "Nice to know, and goodnight Riley; I better not be seeing you standing over me creepily when I wake up," he said jokingly.

 "I will try not to be creepily, as you said," Riley said as they watched him drift off in his sleep.

Walking to the back of the room, one of the things they hated was the limited amount of walking distance they could cover away from the book; it was still adequate enough to reach the other side of the room and just stand there.

They could see both of the Pines' sleeping forms from this angle. And that's how the night would go. They would stand and observe.

"Random dance party for no reason," Mabel yelled out loud to the mystery shack crew. Whenever there were no customers in the gift shop, and usually when Stan was gone, Mabel would probably do something fun. The only thing different this time was more people joined in as Wendy started dancing with her.

Of course, this brief bit of fun can only be pulled off because Stan was again doing his activities outside the shack. While sitting in the corner of the room, Dipper was writing in the journal as usual. Mabel can only be slightly disappointed in the middle of the dance while her brother predictably doesn't join in.

 "Yo Dipper, you want any of this," Wendy said as she started dancing, not as actively as Mabel but still putting a little effort into it.

"Oh no," Dipper said awkwardly. "I don't dance."

 "Yeah, you do," Mabel cried. "When we were growing up, our mom would show us a ton of dances, Especially the lamby dance."

"The Lamby dance?" Wendy said curious

"Mabel, let's not talk about the Lamby dance," Dipper said, furious. Neither girl could tell that Riley was standing over him, confused about what they were talking about.

 "Lamby dance?" Riley asked, confused.

"It's nothing, it's nothing really," Dipper said defensively.

 "No, it's not; back when we were children, our mom would make us dress around and do a bunch of little dances. The one he used to do was called the Lamby dance." Mabel said, pulling out a picture and showing it to Wendy.

 "Oh man, that's real embarrassing," Wendy said, laughing a bit. Dipper could only feel his world collapse as his sister and Wendy laughed. The only person not laughing was Riley as they looked over Mabel's Shoulder to see the picture; much like usual, they didn't seem to react, only absorbing information about what they were viewing. It was true; the worst part about it was he really did enjoy the dances until he was about seven years old, not that he would admit that to anyone, especially not Mabel. Honestly, for how many secrets she seemed to shoot out at any moment, he was shocked that his sister had not told the entire town about the strange things they'd seen or the fact she had a magical bolo tie.

Before any more embarrassment could continue, an owl-themed clock went off on the wall, and Wendy looked surprised.

 "Hey, look at that quitting time; I'll see you guys tomorrow; I'm hanging out with my friends tonight," Wendy said quickly, trying to leave the shack.

 "Later," Dipper said, going back to the journal. While he was writing something, Mabel had devised a genius idea.

 "Hey, Wendy," Mabel said excitedly. "can we come with you to hang out with your friends?"

 Both Wendy and Dipper froze, both of them looking a little nervous.

 "Mabel, what are you doing?" Dipper said he wouldn't get a response as she lightly tapped him on the side, motioning him to shut up.

 "Oh no, mabes, my friends are kind of intense. I forgot how old you guys are, teenagers right."

 "Oh, of course, right, Dipper," Mabel said, obviously motioning for Dipper to say something. Mabel was obviously doing some plan, Dipper thought. The only thing he would have to ponder about was if he wanted to support his sister's most likely hair-brained scheme or not. Of course, he relented.

"of course, we're both 13, technically teenagers. I guess."

 "Oh sweet," Wendy said 'well, I'm gonna go grab my jacket real quick, and I'll take you guys outside to meet everyone.' The moment Wendy said this, she walked into the employee-only door, leaving the Pines twins and Riley in the room.

 "Mabel, what the heck was that," Dipper said.

 "Look, Dipper, I'm sorry about talking about the Lamby dance. I just can't resist bringing it up." Mabel said, shrugging.

 "No, not the dance. Obviously, I'm talking about lying about that. We're teenagers; why do you wanna hang out with Wendy anyway."

 "It's not that I just want to hang out with Wendy. It's that you want to hang out with Wendy."

 "What? Dipper said."

"What I'm saying is I'm conducting a part of my special operation this summer."

 "Special operation?" Mabel, could you please make sense for a few seconds.

 "No, but I'll explain it; I'm getting you, friends," Mabel said, poking him in the nose.

 "friends?" Dipper said, his eyes twitching a bit. "I don't need a lot of friends."

 "That's the thing that we're you don't have a lot of friends or a few friends. You only have like two friends, not counting me. And you don't even talk to them. I've sent letters to all of my friends."

 "I have Riley," Dipper said defensively.

"That's true, But I want you to have a group of friends you can hang out with. All you do with Riley is write in the journal."

 "I see no issue with this," Riley said.

 "Riley said she has no problem with that."

 "come on, Dipper" bear with me. "Besides, you can impress Wendy with how mature you are."

 "With how mature I am, huh," Dipper thought, smiling a bit. 'All right, you've sold me for one night tonight were 13. just warn me next time you have one of these plans.

 "I probably won't be," Mable said, smiling as Wendy returned to the room.

 "you dudes ready?" she called out.

 "Sure," "Yeah," was the response she got from both twins.

Walking outside, Wendy, Dipper, and Mabel were met with a group of teens messing around the parking lot next to a teal van. There were 5 of them, Three boys and one girl. Mabel immediately thought they were interesting, but Dipper could have gotten a better first impression, in his opinion. Mainly because two of them were holding the larger one upside down with his shirt off. They would immediately drop him when they saw Wendy come out.

 "Wendy!" The two boys that were holding the larger boy upside down cried as they ran up to her excitedly. One was blonde and had really long hair. With a thumbs up on his shirt, the other wore a trucker hat and a skull on his black T-shirt.

 "Sup guys, if you don't mind, I brought some friends," Wendy said. "Dipper Mabel, this is Lee," she pointed towards the blonde one, "and this is Nate," she pointed towards the skull shirt. "over there, you have Thompson," she pointed towards the larger teen just now getting up after struggling. "He ate a waffle off the road for 50 cents," she whispered.

 "Hey, don't tell them that," Thompson said, Mabel already laughing at him.

 "Over here, you have Tambry; if you get her away from her phone, she's probably a nice person," Wendy said, joking around Tambry only gave her a slight glare and went back to texting.

 "And last but maybe least, we have Robbie," she said, pointing to the last one who was leaning against the van. Dipper didn't really like the look of Robbie. He reminded him of a zombie, but at least he was sure this one wasn't a group of gnomes. Probably.

 "You're babysitting a bunch of kids?" Robbie said. "You know what we're doing tonight, right? I don't think  these kindergarteners could handle it."

"Kindergarteners?" Dipper said, "We're 13, and what do you mean what's going on tonight."

 "Yeah, what are we doing tonight?" Thompson said nervously, "You haven't told most of us" he was pointing his question toward Wendy and Robbie. Robbie just kind of looked annoyed at his question while Wendy smiled.

 "Tonight, gang, we're going to one of Gravity Falls's most notorious no-go zones."

 "Lee's bedroom," Nate said jokingly as he was roughly elbowed by Lee as they almost started fighting.

 "Great answer, but I have a more special place in mind," Wendy said wickedly. "Yo, Mabel Dipper, you guys are chill with scary places, right."

 The Pines twins only looked at each other, and Dipper looked into his vest to see he still had the journal.

 "We should be fine," Mabel said confidently. "We are the mystery twins."

 "Mystery twins?" Robbie said skeptically, "You, the old man that works here's kids or grandkids."

 "He is our great uncle," Dipper said.

 "Oh man, Wendy, you really are babysitting. I swear if I have to drive one of these kids home because they start crying, I'm never letting you live it down."

"Nah, trust me, these two dudes are fine," Wendy said, stepping in front of Robbie. "Besides, they cover my shift a lot of the time, so I can hang out with you guys, so I think I owe them one."

Robbie still scowled, but when Wendy interfered, he immediately retreated. "Alright, whatever, everyone in the van Thompson I'll give you the directions."

 "How are you guys going to use my mom's van and not tell me where we're going," Thompson said pathetically.

 After somehow piling into the car, Thompson nervously put on his seat belt and turned back to everyone. "All right guys, my mom saw what we did last time, and we can't punch the roof, so can you guys please…"

 Before he could finish the sentence, the entire group started cheering Thompson repeatedly and punching the roof. He didn't seem angry, just disappointed, as he started the van.

As the van went through the Gravity Falls county and the night soon descended into the sky, the Pines twins could only think about one thing.

 "Mabel, what do we get ourselves into," Dipper said, looking over to his side to see his sister scribbling on the side of the van. Thompson probably would disapprove of that, but he didn't really care.

 "What I'm thinking is that we're going to hang out with some cool kids and have some nonsupernatural fun for once," Mabel said, admiring her work.

"What's wrong with supernatural fun?" Dipper said

"Nothing, really. I just don't like almost dying every couple of days or, you know, you dying." Mabel said sarcastically.

 "That's fair," Dipper said as he looked around nervously for a bit. "Do you actually think Wendy could be impressed by me?"

Mabel smiled at her brother ", Oh, look at you already thinking about romance. Don't worry, bro; you're one of the most mature guys I've ever known; she'll probably think you're super cool or something. Especially if you show her your powers," she said the last word, screaming aloud.

 The other teens were occupied with their own conversations, but when she screamed, they all looked back at them until Dipper covered her mouth.

"Mabel, can you keep a secret to save your life."

"Probably not," she said. "I still don't understand why you don't want to tell anybody. Weren't you all about getting famous earlier?"

 "yeah, but that was famous for exposing a lake monster, not famous for exposing ourselves. Imagine what would happen if they found out we can do magic or you have that tie," he whispered.

"Oh, so you're willing to let a monster go get grabbed by the government but not yourself."

"I see the point you're making," Dipper said deadpan as he felt the car jerked to a stop.

"Welcome one and all to tonight's venue," Wendy said out loud in a showmanship style, getting out of the car quickly. All the other teens followed suit more gradually while Dipper and Mabel, who were in the back of the van, got out last.

 When they got out, They were met with a small desolate area with overgrown Flora, and sitting right in the middle of this woodland area was an old grocery store.

"Welcome to the Gravity Falls first grocery store." the store was larger Than pretty much any other store in the town. To the twins, this store seemed about average size, but telling from the kind of people that lived in this town to them, it was massive.

 "Grocery store," Dipper said skeptically. "What's wrong with it. Did it like get shut down for a health code thing" Dipper said nervously.

Lee looked at him like he was crazy. "Kid, are you telling me you don't know the story of the Gravity Falls grocery store."

Nate also walked up to Dipper, "Yeah, man, where have you lived under a rock."

"Chill out, guys," Wendy said. "They're from California. I'm just showing them around town, you know all the cool spots. Next, we should show them the water tower."

"Oh, you mean the Water tower with the giant muffin on it," Mabel said excitedly. Both twins were confused when the entire group of teens started chuckling, except for Robbie, who was frowning.

"You mean the water tower with the picture of the explosion on it," he said, offended.

"Explosion Are you sure it's not a giant muffin?" Mabel said, confused. She looked into the distance to barely see the water tower, but luckily caught it from the right angle of the picture. When she pointed it out, all the other teens started laughing

"It does kind of look like a muffin," Thompson laughed.

Seeing how he was even being made fun of by Thompson at this point, Robbie only stared daggers at Mabel while she looked on, not even recognizing any angry emotions.

"Why is an old grocery store a hangout spot," Dipper asked the teens.

Oddly enough, Tambry was the one to answer, although it was a short one.

"Murder," she said, immediately going back to her phone. Almost instantly, she had an article placed on its screen and showed it the Dipper.

"Well, this town certainly has a colorful history," Mabel said, looking over Dipper's shoulder to see the phone.

The headline read in all bold, 'Elderly store owners fall dead foul play is expected.'

 "So you guys think the places… Haunted?" Dipper said nervously.

"Ha," no, Nate laughed. "Well, I don't know. Nobody's ever been inside."

"Until tonight," Wendy said confidently, climbing over the fence. Robbie followed right after her.

"wait, we're breaking into this place for real," Thompson said, shocked, already following, succumbing to the peer pressure quickly. "Aren't we gonna get in trouble?" he said as he had already landed on the inside.

"With what cops," Robbie said. "There's barely any in this town, and they all suck. Are you sure you preschoolers can get in" Robbie said, facing the Pines?

Before looking up, he suddenly sees Mabel right next to him on the other side of the fence. He jumped in a little bit of fright.

"Ah, when did you get over here, kid."

"I can climb really quick," she said excitedly, looking back at the grocery store.

Lee and Dipper were the only two on the other side of the fence now near the van.

"I'm not sure about this," Dipper said, looking up at the fence.

 "Oh, come on, your sister did it," Robbie said, pointing to Mabel, who was running around.

 "I'm not saying I can't do it; I'm just saying…" Before he could finish his sentence, Lee suddenly picked him up and threw him to the top of the fence. He let out a small scream as it happened.

 Once he was at the top of the fence, he scrambled up, and before he could get his bearings, he was already pushed over the other side by Lee, who was climbing over.

 "Sorry little dude thought you needed some help," he said genuinely.

 "Did you just throw a child off a fence?" Nate said, amused. "Nice going, genius."

 "Shut up, man," Lee said, pushing him back jokingly.

 "Hey, be careful with those kids," Wendy said casually. "They're kind of related to my boss."

 Dusting himself off the ground from the brief bit of embarrassment, Dipper looked to see the front of the old parking lot was well-disheveled.

 "Whoa, this is crazy," Dipper said as the group started marching towards the entrance.

Something weird stood out to Dipper, though. The entirety outside of the store looked like it had been abandoned for maybe 30 years, but when he looked inside, it looked clean and new. Even all the food looked fresh.

 "Why would someone restock an abandoned grocery store," Dipper said out loud.

 "Who cares," Robbie said, "If any of that food is still good, you know what that means."

 "Free food for like ever!" Thompson said excitedly.

 "Yeah, of course, you would be bringing up the Food First," Nate said, elbowing Thompson.

 "It's literally a grocery store. What else would I talk about," he said yelling defensively.

 "it doesn't matter; let's just go in," Wendy said excitedly as she tried to open the doors. After struggling for a few tugs, she gave up huffing.

"Here, let me try," Robbie said arrogantly, rolling up his sleeves. After a few tugs, he gave up as well.

"So what now," Tambry said.

 "Can I try?" Dipper said. The entire group looked back, confused, and Robbie looked slightly offended?

 "Oh yeah, kid, 'cause you're gonna bust down the door like Hercules." While the entire group was looking at him, Dipper moved his head slightly to see that behind the rest of the group, light blue energy was around the lock, and he saw Mabel poking her hand towards the door, smiling a bit.

"Yeah, I think I got it," Dipper said confidently. Walking to the door, he slowly reached out one hand and opened the door realizing Mabel had unlocked it.

 The entire group of teens was shocked, but this would quickly turn into happiness as they all passed by and went into the store.

 They all praised him as they passed by, except Robbie, who went in huffing. He smiled especially wide when Wendy gave him a fist bump with a "Nice job, dude."

 Turning back to his sister, he saw she was a little tired from already using the little bit of power.

 "Are you OK?" he said, concerned.

 "Of course I am," she said happily, "and guess what? You just impressed a group of friends."

 "Yeah, apparently, I'm nicknamed Dr. Fun Times Now," Dipper said, reflecting on Nate's nickname to him after he opened the door.

 "I think I like Dipper," better Mabel said, walking into the store slowly.

 "So what do we do about the lights?" Tambry said. Suddenly, the lights burst on, covering the entire store.

 "Oh, OK," she said, intrigued. The rest of the group looked confused, looking around for a switch to see how the lights came on.

 "so wait, this place still has power, and all the food's fresh is this not weirding anyone out," Dipper said.

 "Nah, calm down, kid," Robbie replied. "It was probably some motion sensor. Don't go wetting your pants or something."

 "how old do you think we are?" Dipper said, raising an eyebrow.

 "Not enough," Robbie replied, turning the Wendy. "So it was your plan to come here. What do we do now," he asked.

 She simply smiled at everyone and gathered them around. "Anything. We. Want." Suddenly, the entire group would cheer as a small party began. None of them noticed that the open sign would soon flip to closed.

A couple miles away, in the dense woods of Gravity Falls, A small wooden cabin lay disheveled from the outside; you would probably assume it would have been abandoned for years, but this would be the opposite of true as it is constantly in use even when unoccupied.

 If you were more keen, you would realize the entire structure was actually very noisy despite no presence being able to be seen there.

 Suddenly, the whispers surrounding the shack ceased, and a stench only a few could pick up moved through the area.  Once this smell sat in the air for a few seconds, a loud banging sound could be heard within the cabin.

 There's barely any furniture within the rundown place, only hoarded items for varying encounters, miscellaneous boxes, and more.

Quickly a trap door opened up at the bottom of the floor; stepping out of it slowly was a white hockey mask figure who wore a Black trench coat.

 Fully stepping out of the door and closing it robotically, he marched outside toward where the stench was coming from.

 he had a mission that he would follow to the letter

 And right now, he detected another mission that must be dealt with quickly.

After about an hour of partying and one instance that can only be described as an ice cream fight. Which was just a regular snowball fight but then throwing ice cream at each other. The tone was starting to wind down. Tambry, who had been texting all night, continued doing that; the other boys were hanging out In a nearby aisle, stuffing ice down Thompson's pants. Meanwhile, Wendy and Dipper were sitting on top of one of the aisles; Dipper had seen Mabel walk off to the candy section. He hadn't seen her since he should probably check in with her in a second.

 "you know this night's going pretty well," Wendy said. "I thought the cops would be here by now, and we all have to run away."

 "yeah, it's pretty cool." Dipper said, opening up another ice cream pop.

 "So are you, dude? I never knew you were this chill. You always seemed kind of awkward," Wendy said honestly, eating her ice cream.

 "Hey, I'm quite mature," Dipper said, trying to stick the freezy pop in his mouth, missing and hitting himself in the cheek. Wendy only chuckled lightly at him, making him smile.

"Hey, we need some more ice," Robbie said as he dumped another ice pack down Thompson's pants.

"I got it," Dipper said as he got up to head toward the ice section. So far, his fears have been demolished. As he walked past the mostly empty aisles, he stumbled upon Mabel leaning against a candy stand.

 "Whoa, Mabel, are you all right?" Dipper said, a little concerned, going next to his sister, who was coughing a bit.

 "Dipper Dipper," she said softly. "they have smile dip." She groaned out, feeling her stomach. "It was so good, Dipper."

 "Didn't those things get banned from the United States for like a lot of reasons? Why are they here."

 "I don't care, Dipper," Mabel said, opening up another pack and Downing it in one go.

 "You should probably stop eating those. Do you want me to call Stan?"

 "No!" she suddenly yelled out. "This is a party, and I don't care how many flying rat people I see. I will enjoy the smile dip."

 "flying rap people? Mabel, you should stop eating that stuff. Look, I'm going to get some ice and see if you're alright."

 "Whatever, nerd," she cried out as she groaned on her side again.

 Walking up to the ice storage, he opened it up and grabbed one of the large bags from the bottom. This was almost routine for him until he noticed the soft blue light floating right above his sight.

 His danger senses hadn't gone off, but he did have a feeling something was very wrong. Panning his head up slowly, he couldn't even fathom what he saw. It was a brain. A floating brain with blue tentacles out of its side, but that wasn't even the scariest part. Right in front of it were human eyes and a mouth all widened, reaching for him. It made a weak groan sound as the tentacles moved forward, but before they could, he slammed the ice door shut and held his body against it.

 He didn't just see that. He thought to himself.

 "yo, what's up with all that racket" he heard as he saw Wendy and the rest of her friends walk around the corner.

 "Did you get the ice or what?" Robbie said, "Oh wow, you dropped it he said, looking at the ice pack Dipper dropped without even noticing. What did you get scared by, like a rat or something."

 "What, no, it's just you guys said this place might be haunted, right."

 "Huh?" Robbie said, "I knew you'd be too scared to be here, told you, Wendy."

 "Oh, stuff it, Robbie. He probably ate some bad candy like his sister over there." Wendy said, pointing towards Mabel, staring at the ceiling wide-eyed, breathing heavily.

 "Is she OK?" Nate said, concerned.

 "yeah, she does this sometimes," Dipper said.

 "so why did you drop the ice, little dude," Lee said.

"I just thought I saw… a hey Look, a Dancy pants revolution game. I thought those got removed in the early 2000s," Dipper said, getting their attention away from him. They all looked excited to see the arcade game and ran over quickly.

 While they ran in one direction. He walked into another behind an aisle and sat down so no one could see him. Assuming he's far enough so no one could hear him. Dipper slowly reached into his vest and opened up the journal. "come on, there's gotta be something about floating brains in here." Dipper said, concerned.

 "floating brains?" Riley said, forming next to him, sitting on top of the aisle far above him.

 "Oh, Riley, you almost scared me. I just really need to know if you know anything about flying brains or if the book has anything about them."

 "There are floating eyeballs and floating feet, but I have no records of a floating brain?"

 "Floating feet?" Dipper said disgustedly. "never mind, here is the rundown. I'm hanging out with Wendy and her friends, and I went to go get ice, and I saw a brain with tentacles that was floating in the area the ice was."

 "Did it try and harm you?" Riley said, scratching their chin.

 "No, it tried to reach out to me, but my senses didn't even go off." He said a little bit, frantically looking back to see all the teens still focused on the game.

"I might need more information. Can you tell me anything else of interest?"

 "Oh yeah, we're in an old grocery store that apparently had a murder in it."

"Oh, you might be dealing with a ghost," they said nonchalantly.

 "A ghost?" Dipper said, "Ghosts are real?, Well, obviously ghosts are real, Dipper; if gnomes are real, anything can be real, I guess." he said to himself mostly.

 "yes, ghosts have a varied amount of abilities. If you are in a place of traumatic death and you start hallucinating, a ghost could usually be behind it. That and floating plates. They really like floating plates for some reason."

 "OK, so watch out for more signs of a ghost and floating plates."

"Yes," Riley said, completely serious, "there are many tricks that ghosts can perform, stuff like…"

 "yo, check this out," Dipper heard Nate yell from across the store.

Dipper had a genius idea. Grabbing a large piece of paper, he folded it several ways to make it thick enough and put it between the book pages.

 "What are you doing?" Riley said.

 "I have a plan. Let's hope it works." Slowly closing the book on the paper, he noticed that once it was shut with the paper, it stopped altogether; Riley was still there.

"Interesting," Riley said, "but remember to take the paper out. I still might require rest later. But this is a genius plan. Now I can follow you around more easily."

 "All right, let's go see what they're talking about," Dipper said, getting up.

 "that is mad creepy," he heard Lee said, laughing a bit

 "Don't be a baby," Robbie said, "It's probably fake." walking up to them, Dipper slowly walked around the group next to a cash register to see what they were looking at.

 Two outlines of obvious adults lay on the ground in white police tape. Dipper was not an absolute expert on law, but he knew what this meant .this is where the two victims were murdered.

 "I dare you to lay on it," Lee said jokingly to Nate.

 "no way you lay on it," Nate responded. They started pushing each other.

 "Yo Thompson, I dare you a whole dollar to lay there and make the pose."

 "Yeah, sure, why not," Thompson said, shrugging and walking forward until Dipper put his hand out in front.

 "Hey guys, I don't think this is a good idea," Dipper said. "What if it's like, I don't know… disturbing the dead?"

 The group around him groaned.

 "Oh, come on, man, don't be a buzzkill. It's just a police outline. It's not like the bodies are still there. What are you scared of," Nate said.

 "I knew you would be a buzzkill," Robbie said, uninterested.

 Tambry looked unamused more than usual, but she still didn't look up from her phone.

 Dipper's last hope was looking towards Wendy to see if she would defend him, but she just kinda rubbed her shoulder and shrugged. "he's kind of right, man. It was a buzzkill move."

 "Buzzkill, I'm not a buzzkill," Dipper said defensively.

 "Oh yeah, then prove it," Robbie said. "Lay down there."

 "Dipper, I don't advise that," Riley warned him.

 "Unless you're scared," Robbie said mockingly.

 "Hey man, leave him alone; he's basically just a little kid," Wendy said

 He didn't know which one offended him more, Wendy calling him a little kid or Robbie mocking him. The whole night, he thought he had finally gotten the respect of his peers, and Mabel said he finally got some friends, but right now, he really saw how fragile that was and how close he was to losing that already.

 "Oh yeah, you think I'm scared. Watch this," Dipper said, slowly marching towards the outlines.

 "do it, do it?" The group of teenagers chanted, except Wendy, who looked a little upset.

 "Hey man, you don't gotta do it 'cause we said so," Wendy said early, honestly.

 "I agree with the girl Dipper; if the ghosts are real, it wouldn't be advisable to offend them in any way until more information is discovered."

 Unfortunately for both outcries, Dipper wasn't paying attention as he laid down into the outline marking the pose the person died in.

 "See, done now; who's the little kid," Dipper said angrily. Before he could get up, a bright blue light shone from the outlines, and a pulse went through the whole store.

 For a brief moment, everything felt like it was shaking, and then they heard a booming voice go over the PA system.

 "Such disrespect," the voice cried out.

 Thoroughly freaked out, Robbie and Lee tried to run towards the doors, but they were locked shut.

 "Oh God, what's happening," Tambry said for the first time, looking away from her phone.

 "Ghosts are real, and I just offended one. I'm such an idiot," Dipper said, smacking his hand on his forehead.

 "What are you talking about, kid? How could you know ghosts are real," Nate said, freaking out. When he said that, Dipper only side-eyed Riley, who was staring at him. Being linked with each other, Dipper wasn't privy to their exact emotions and thoughts, but he could somehow tell some sort of change with them, at anytime, it was like mentally seeing a new facial expression. He didn't really need this ability right now as Riley's face was just a few inches from his staring him down.

 "The movies you have shown me have told me this phrase is disrespectful, but I must say it in this situation, I told you so," Riley responded.

 That was probably the rudest thing they had said to him during their entire time of knowing each other.

 "let's see if your punishment is deserved," the PA system cried out again as it went dark. The boys were still trying to open the door, but it was still locked shut whenever they tried.

Dipper could only hit himself in the head as he just subjected himself, his sister, his coworker, and her friends to the wrath of a ghost.

 How could this night get any worse, he asked himself. And, of course, he would get an answer.

 "what is that!" Thompson said, freaking out, pointing towards the front door.

 The entire group would slowly shuffle to the front door and look through to see a lone figure walking through the abandoned parking lot towards them slowly.

He was taller than anyone in the group, and Dipper couldn't make out any features on him as he walked closer. All he had was a white mask, a black trench coat, and a large bag wrapped around his back.

 But there was something wrong with him. Dipper thought he was surrounded by a faint light. It looked so familiar, but he couldn't grasp it.

 And then he looked back to Riley, who was also looking at the figure confused; he then put it together.

 That light reminded him of the light Riley looked like when they first met.

 Slowly walking ahead in the parking lot was a spirit Dipper realized.

But everyone could see this one.

Chapter Text

Within the bright pastel world, Mabel found herself surrounded by joy; she laughed slowly as she watched the butterflies and weird dolphin creatures frolic around her.

 She was 50/50 this wasn't real, but this summer had messed with her perception of reality, and she was enjoying it right now. Laying her head down upon the bright yellow grass next to her purple river of probably delicious contents, she relaxed as a gigantic Labrador probably almost the size of the Mystery Shack, walked up to her and offered her his paw.

 "Oh, of course, you, Angel," Mabel said before biting into it and chewing, savoring the taste. Life truly couldn't get better than this.

 Suddenly, she heard a louder thumping as another gigantic Labrador appeared beside her. Its golden fur shone a little brighter than the first one as it just stared at her.

 "Oh hey, a second one, you guys are pretty cool. You know I've always wanted a dog, but my dad said no."

The dog would start speaking at her, but it definitely wasn't the typical barks and ruffs of a dog; it sounded as if a garbage disposal was trying to talk to her.

“dia tsum uoy desaeler eb dluoc live dne s'remmus siht yB dlihc smees eh tahw ton si natS”

Mabel was trying to understand what it was saying, but she could only laugh at it, thinking it looked funny. For the first time in what felt like hours, her dream of bright colors and great animals was suddenly interrupted as the Labrador who had been speaking suddenly morphed.

 Long gone were the cartoonishly long tongue, animated eyes, and small teeth. Even its yellow fur slowly fades into a whitish, sickly color.

Its eyes hollowed back into its skull, leaving black holes on its visage like pools of darkness. The teeth had rapidly grown sharp, and its body was morphing into more of a wolf shape.

srehto eht erongi ton od detimil si ereh emit yM .sgninraw erom teg lliw uoY .ekoj a sa ffo em yalp uoy dna erutuf eht fo ycehporp uoy gnirb I ,dlihc em ot gninetsil ton era uoY.  The sickly giant wolf said snarling at her.

 Mabel in her delusions only laughed a little more thinking the wolf was still kinda cute.

Outside in the real world while Mabel slouched on the side of a candy stand, still feeling the effects of smile dip, the screams of teenagers could be heard in the background.

"Who is that guy, and what was that voice," Robbie said, freaking out, still trying to tug on the door.

The voice on the PA hadn't returned, so the most pressing issue was not its message but the fact there was a mysterious figure in the parking lot approaching very slowly.

 "Maybe we should chill," Wendy said nervously. "I mean, like, what if it's some guy who just caught us trespassing? Nothing crazy, right? He's just going to tell us to leave." She was obviously losing it a little bit, but she could always stay cooler in the head than her friends.

 "I don't know who would own a grocery store decades after it closed. That guy's wearing a hockey mask. You know what kind of people wear hockey masks," Thompson said, biting his nails a bit.

 "Hockey players?" Nate said, genuinely asking.

 "No, axe murderers, dude, or machete murders. I haven't seen the movie since I was a kid," Thompson said. "he's probably got a whole bunch of crazy weapons in that bag."

 "Calm down, dude. There's like five of us and one of him. We could totally beat him," Robbie said, wavering in confidence.

 "Unless he has a gun," Tambry said, simply trying to regain her calm nature. Robbie only looked at her wide-eyed for a second before freaking out again.

 While the teens were freaking out, Dipper immediately went into action. Not literally, though. It was just him going back into the store and grabbing his sister. The person slowly walking towards the entrance was a spirit, and by the time he was just halfway through the parking lot, Dipper had already sprinted full speed back to the area Mabel was in and dragged her to the front.

 This was risky. He didn't know who this guy was or if he was a threat or not, so bringing his sister closer could lead to a whole spell of danger, but it was their only way of getting out.  , Besides, he was linked with a spirit. He could probably talk to it, right. Of course, there was only one source he could ask.

 "Riley, is that guy you know one of you?" Dipper said while dragging Mabel by her arms. The smile dip knocked her out, and she was just mumbling at this point.

 For one of the first times ever, when he asked them a question, Riley didn't answer, simply staring ahead at the store's front door.

 "Reminds me of what was around Gideon," Riley said, simply unmoving.

 "Wait, what?" Dipper said, surprised he had slowed down his approach back to the main group so he could talk with Riley for a few more seconds. He could still hear the frightened conversations of the teens ahead, and the masked figure obviously hadn't gotten in the store yet.

 "Are you saying the magic around Gideon was a spirit, and that's him." Dipper continued he was now starting to freak out himself.

 "No. It's not the same, just similar. When I try to look back on it, my head hurts. It may be something from my past."

 "Your past? Are you saying you've met this guy before, Riley?"

 "I don't know, but whoever they have undoubtedly magical properties, which disturbs me the most is not their properties. It's that they are possessing physical form. Something I didn't think was possible."

 "Maybe we can ask him," Dipper said sarcastically.

"Do you think they would sit down for questioning?" Riley said.

 "No, That was sarcasm," Dipper said plainly, reaching the front.

The scene he was met with was pretty much exactly what he expected; the male teens had given up prying the door and started stacking some boxes in front of the entrance to stop the masked figure from getting in. Wendy had surprisingly pushed back her flannel shirt, revealing she had a white T-shirt under it but, more importantly, an axe.

 "Never leave home without it," she said once to Dipper when he asked her why she, in fact, brought an axe to work.

 Of course, Tambry was on her phone, but she was trying to get a signal to call someone. Suddenly, Wendy stopped looking at her axe and turned toward the Pines twins running up to them.

"Oh geez, I'm so happy you guys are alright. You disappeared for like a second, and we were worried, right guys." Most of the teens, so only Lee, Nate, and Thompson agreed. Robbie wasn't paying attention purposely and continued to stack things while Tambry just gave them a side-eye.

 "What's going on," Dipper said.

 "Hockey mask over there is about to reach the front door and this better stop him," Robbie said looking proud at the stack of boxes he put in front of the door.

 "And if it doesn't, I'm gonna jump up and hit him, and we're gonna run," Wendy says, flipping up her axe. "If there's one thing my dad can do right, it is show me how to use an axe."

 Riley seemed to frown at the idea of Wendy attacking them, and Dipper could tell.

"What if we just talked to them? Maybe they're not bad, just I don't know, misunderstood… or nice," Dipper said.

The reactions he got were expected as Wendy simply paused her axe twirling to think about it, and the rest of the group just looked at him, confused.

 "Dude, you were freaking out all night about ghosts before you even knew they were real, and now you wanna take your chances with the hockey mask-wearing, probably weapon-filled bag guy," Nate said.

 "Yeah, man, look, I'll apologize once for not believing you, but now you've gone insane. Why don't you take your sister and let the grown-ups deal with this." Robbie said.

 "Grown-ups? I can't even drive yet," Lee said, scared.

 They would all freeze when they heard a bunch of light tapping on the glass of the store's front. Turning back slowly, they were met with a figure almost a foot taller than Robbie. For a moment, Dipper had believed they were tapping on the glass to knock until he could really tell what they were doing.

 He was tapping on it with a hand that looked like he was looking around for weaknesses in the door.

All the teens backed up to the nearest aisle, still within sight of the door, while Wendy hid nearby, ready to jump out at him when he got in. Dipper was frozen, standing close to the entrance while Riley stood beside him.

Dipper's analysis would be interrupted when a large slam hit the door. After a few moments of tapping, the masked figure had just punched the door, and it gave off a menacing rattle. He was probably trying to break the glass. After repeated punch after punch and threatening sounds, he suddenly stopped and looked like he had taken a deep breath.

 The blue energy surrounding the door would suddenly cease as the figure grabbed the handle and was let in. Now that really shocked Dipper, who's still standing a little stunned in front of the door. The figure was robotic in its movements, slowly opening the door and knocking over the rudimentary box barricade.

 Now, nothing stood in his way from getting to the teens and Dipper. Looking back at Mabel, who had been behind him, Dipper grabbed his sister and started to move back slowly. Riley followed him slightly, just observing as the figure walked in with slow steps, now entirely in the store. The moment he entered completely, the door slammed, and the blue energy returned. All the teens would flinch, and the masked figure would look back at the door, turning his head and then turning back to Dipper.

 The height difference was definitely threatening, but right behind him was his sister, and he knew he couldn't leave her.

 All of a sudden, Wendy's surprise attack was sprung as she yelled loudly, raised her axe above her head, and jumped at him from behind one of the cash registers. It all happened in a quick flash as all the remaining teens and Dipper stared in awe as she jumped an impressive height and brought her axe down upon his head. Or at least that would have happened if the figure didn't move slightly and the axe caught him in his shoulder. Dipper didn't even hear a grunt as they stumbled back a bit.

 Lee took this as his opportunity and yelled as he went for the door only to find it still closed as he slammed into it, falling onto his back.

"Oh man, Lee, are you OK?" Nate said, running out to check on his friend. While all this was happening, Wendy was staring down the masked figure as it looked at the axe embedded in its shoulder and then looked back towards her.

 As Nate was checking up on him, Lee was slowly gaining consciousness. Dipper and Riley were analyzing the situation as Wendy had a standoff with the masked figure, neither opponent moving.

 Wendy was obviously nervous. Her axe was pretty much her only form of attack, but she would punch and kick if the opportunity arose, so she was still confident in fighting. The only thing bringing down her confidence was the fact whoever this person was had an axe of impressive make lodged into their shoulder with no blood or no expressions of pain. All he did was stare at her.

 The figure would suddenly break contact with Wendy, looking down at Lee and Nate and then toward Dipper. He looked towards Robbie, Thompson, and Tambry and then towards Mabel, who was also barely conscious.

 "None of you are ghosts?" a voice said. It wasn't as deep as the PA system voice nor as intimidating. It was obvious where it came from; the masked figure had spoken; it reminded Dipper of Riley in a way.

Riley's voice to Dipper sounded young; they didn't have any real emotion most of the time, but it was far too young to sound like his mother and far too old to sound like him. It was perfectly how he would describe a young adult or older teen speaking with no identifiable gender to its voice. Hockey mask sounded quite similar, but it was a deeper voice. It sounded weird to him; it was also monotone, but while Riley's Voice clearly sounded like someone who lacked strong emotions, this one sounded like their voice was being compressed by a walkie-talkie.

For the first time since the standoff, Wendy seemed to freeze in her combat-ready stance. "Ummm, no?." She said curiously, still not letting her guard down entirely as the hockey mask figure looked around the group once more. 

"Then where is it then?" the large figure asked.

"Are you not mad?" Wendy said to the figure as it looked around the store.

 "About what?" they asked, turning towards her cocking its head.

Wendy barely responded as she just pointed towards the axe still embedded in its shoulder; they looked at it and just stared back at Wendy.

 "Why would I be angry?" They responded. By this time, Lee was up, and Nate dragged him to the area where the rest hid.

 "Does it not hurt?" Wendy said, a little scared now, unsure what she could be dealing with.

 "No."

 "Oh," Wendy said, dusting herself off while standing up awkwardly in a non-threatening position. "Can I have it back?" she says awkwardly. She was obviously joking around, trying to play off The awkwardness of the situation. The figure simply reached and grabbed the axe in its shoulder by the handle and tossed it to her slightly. She caught it and put it back onto her belt.

 "You never answered my question," the figure asked.

 "Sorry I was distracted," Wendy said, backing up to her friends. "I don't know."

 Before the questioning could continue, the PA system suddenly cracked open. "I let you in simply so you could be a part of the punishment. Soon, you will all feel my wrath." The angry voice of what they believed was the ghost rang through the store. "Soon, I will come up with a challenge for you teens, and you will pay."

"Oh man, I knew I shouldn't need all that free food," Thompson said, sweating.

 "Not literally, pay genius," Robbie said, pushing him slightly. "he wants to kill us because shortstop over here laid in the dead bodies outline."

 "And whose fault was that?" Dipper said angrily.

 "You didn't have to listen to me!" Robbie said defensively.

 "he's a kid, Robbie. Of course, he's gonna do what he's told," Lee said, trying to defend Dipper.

 "Hey, I'm not a kid; I'm a teen. 13."

 "I don't see why lying to them is important at this point," Riley said, staring down at Dipper.

 "Why would he lie about his age?" the figure said, and all conversations seemed to stop.

Dipper and Riley froze, slowly craning their necks up at the tall figure.

 "What do you mean lie about his age," Thompson said, confused. "he didn't say he was lying about anything."

 "The robed one said something about it." The figure said, staring him down. The moment he looked at Thompson, he shrunk behind the aisle again.

 "Robed one?" Wendy said, confused. "You mean his sister? Can she even say anything right now?"

 "No, I'm speaking to the one in blue robes."

 "Blue robes? Are you seeing the ghost?" Wendy said, pulling out her axe and facing towards where she thought they were looking.

 "Are all of you in this store incompetent? There are nine individuals, not including myself."

 "9?" Robbie said, looking around.

 "Wait," Thompson said, opening his hands to count. "Me, Tambry, Robbie, Lee, Nate, Wendy, girl twin, and boy twin. That's 8," he said as he showed the results on his hands.

 Meanwhile, Riley and Dipper were still stunned as 1000 theories were going through his head.

 "You can see Riley," Dipper said, stunned now he wasn't even trying to hide the fact they existed now. "Could it be spirits physical or not can see other spirits? I was just under the assumption only I could see you 'cause you're bound to me, but now…"

 "Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down their kid. Who's Riley? Are you insane?" Robbie said.

 "Um, there's kind of a secret I haven't been telling you guys," Dipper said scratching the back of his head.

 "That doesn't matter now," the figure said. He hadn't shown any emotions yet, but Dipper could slightly tell he was tired of this conversation. Maybe it was because he was hanging out with Riley, but he was starting to be able to read more expressions from those who barely showed it. "What matters is that there is a ghost here, and he seeks all of your ends."

 "The ghost wants to kill us? What did we do we just…?" Nate said.

 "Broke into its domicile," the figure said. He started picking up wrappers that were left behind. "Ate the food in its domain and apparently desecrated their spot of death. What could possess such infantile actions."

 "Oh man, it's talking like my parents," Lee said quietly.

 "We're sorry," Wendy said, shrugging a bit.

 "I do not understand why you apologize to me. The ghost has already decided your fate; I doubt it will accept apologies. That's why it must be eliminated," the figure said, putting its bag on the ground and zipping it open slowly.

"Whoa, you got like an anti-ghost gun in there," Thompson said excitedly.

 While they were all looking to see what the figure would open, Dipper stood beside Riley, confused.

 "He can see you," he says, whispering to Riley even though he really doesn't need to anymore.

 "It's strange. I guess spirits can see each other. Do you think they remember me? I still feel like we've met before." Riley said.

 "I mean, he called you the robed one and not by name, so my guess is not really; maybe whatever happened to you happened to him," Dipper said, scratching his forehead in confusion.

 "Clearly not," Riley said, staring at the teens surrounding the figure. "I was trapped and bound to a book that required a user; he seems to just wander and has a physical form," Riley said. Dipper always knew there was no real change to their voice, but now he felt a longing sense to them. He can already guess that Riley was jealous in a way; they were obsessed with the outside world but couldn't interact with it in any meaningful way except watching. And now there is a spirit who can do just that and more.

"This is what will deal with the ghost," the figure said, pulling an axe out of his bag; it was a longer axe, unlike Wendy's short one. Also, instead of the brown wooden markings like Wendy's, it was equipped with a fine metal handle, and the blade tip had blue lines on it.

 "Whoa," Wendy said, impressed. "You can cut down a tree in one strike with that."

 "This is not meant for mere trees. This is meant for the supernatural; this is meant for ghosts."

 "A ghostbusting axe?" Tambry said, confused. Taking a picture of it.

 "I will need you to delete that," the figure said non-threateningly, not even looking at her.

 "Or?" she said sarcastically.

 "Or I'll delete it for you," the figure said, shifting its voice to sound threatening before returning to work. She wasn't as intimidated as the rest of the group as she slowly deleted it.

 "So, like, who are you?" Robbie said, leaning a little bit back. "And what's happening?"

 "As I've said, you have offended the ghost that resides here; my purpose, as far as I can remember, has always been one. To deal with the supernatural in this town as soon as they pose a threat. I detected a strong ghost and went into action." As he said this, he started to bring out more tools from the bag, most of them the teens couldn't even recognize. They all looked to be some sort of technological pieces, and then there were some random pieces of natural ingredients like salt and a bottle of water.

 "And your name?" Thompson said nervously. This would get an interesting reaction as the figure would cease,

"The area I based myself at once belonged to a man named Marcus, so that's what I call myself."

 "No last name?" Nate said, confused.

"They're not required; it seems all my equipment's here. I'm ready to deal with the Ghost whenever the challenge starts."

 "When is the challenge supposed to start? Wendy said, looking around the store.

 "Ghosts are fickle creatures; they are the raw power of humanity left behind on the mortal plane after death. I almost admire them for their tenacity alone. They're mostly aggressive. We wait. It will happen soon."

Two hours later

The group of teens were mostly dying of boredom at this point. You would think when a masked figure breaches into a haunted grocery store, things would go crazy quickly, but apparently not, as the ghost’s punishment or challenge or whatever they want to call it had not even begun yet.

 The time had hit 10:00, and the teens were all in various states of boredom.

 Lee and Nate we’re reading some old magazines while lying against one of the aisles.

 Tambry, who still had no way of communicating with the outside world, still used her phone for various functions to distract her.

 Robbie was trying to look relaxed and alert, facing down Marcus, but he slowly stopped and just started sitting on one of the cash registers, bored.

Thompson was next to him, talking his ear off; he seemed to have not been calmed down at all.

The only one of the teens that was really alert in any way was Wendy. She stood standing straight up with her arms crossed, staring right in front of her as a few feet away was Marcus; she was doing the same pose as them.

At some point during their waiting, Marcus had decided just to stand still and wait for anything to happen, and Wendy had been mocking his stance for an impressively long time. She jokingly said she was just keeping an eye on him to make sure he was all right.

 Marcus just stood there unmoving, not even a flinch, unlike Wendy; he probably wasn’t even human, she thought.

 The real center of activity was off in the corner with Dipper Riley and Mabel. , Well, not in Mabel’s case; she was still grumbling a bit. Looking down at her, Dipper believes she is in some kind of deep food slumber. This also happened frequently; she’d probably just wake up with a stomach ache. What concerned Dipper also was that Riley had been staring directly at Marcus. No matter how many times he tried to get their attention, this had not changed in an hour.

 “Do you want to talk to them?” Dipper said, looking up from the journal he had been taking record of the situation.

 “I don’t know?” Riley said.

 “What? Don’t you want to figure out what your past was like? Why don’t you see if he knows anything?”

 “I don’t know,” Riley said simply.

Dipper suddenly got a slight smile on his face. "Are you nervous?"

 Riley only slowly turned their head to him. "Maybe I'm nervous, maybe I'm simply upset that you didn't take my advice, and now we are in this situation."

 Dipper wasn't expecting a comeback, so he leaned back against the wall he was sitting against.

 "Well, I'm too much of an investigator to let this go by any longer," Dipper said, standing up slowly. He dusted himself off and turned to Riley. "Just watch over Mabel while I go talk to him."

 "No," Riley said, "If you're going to talk to him, I will talk to him."

 "Whatever you say," Dipper said, slowly approaching the staring contest Marcus and Wendy were having.

 "I'm sorry to interrupt you guys," Dipper said nervously, looking up at both Wendy and Marcus curiously. Wendy suddenly blinked and relaxed, a little bit more upset that she lost.

 "What were you interrupting?" Marcus said, not moving his body at all while responding.

 "Were you guys not having a staring contest for, like, the last few minutes," Dipper said as Wendy raised an eyebrow, blinking rapidly.

 "Why would staring be a contest?" Marcus responded.

 "And never mind that I just wanted to ask you a few questions. Is that alright?" Dipper said.

 "Your friend you call Thompson has asked me enough questions."

 "I meant real questions, not if you're the revived spirit of a dead camp boy or an alien from outer space."

 "OK," Marcus said, finally looking down at the boy. He then panned his head up to see the spirit next to them.

 "So, what's your earliest memory? This goes for both of you," Dipper said, pointing at both Marcus and Riley.

 Wendy would suddenly cut in. "Is the Riley you're talking about right next to you?" she said, a little scared.

 "Oh yeah, they are a spirit, not like a ghost, something completely different that's tied to the journal; they help me find  and learn about monsters and stuff."

"Huh, so monsters are real, so your great uncle's not lying."

 "No, he is. he doesn't believe in it, and he doesn't know, so please don't tell him," Dipper said, cringing. "I don't want him to sell off any of the ideas or pester me about it; I'm the only one who can open the book, by the way."

"I always knew something was weird about this town. And you're the only one who can see Riley. Does anybody else know?" Wendy said awkwardly as both Riley and Marcus were staring at her; only one she could see, though, but she bet the other one was too.

 "Mabel and Soos and now, I guess now, all of your friends; I would really like to keep the list of people short, so please don't tell anybody.'

 "My lips are sealed," Wendy said, smiling at him. He got a happy feeling in him as she walked away. "I'll let you get back to your, I don't know… interview; I'm gonna go save Robbie from Thompson talking to him for too long."

 "So you guys ready to answer the question?" Dipper said, turning back to both spirits.

 "My first memory was being tied to the book, but it is spotty at best; I remember a voice telling me what I must do and my purpose. My first clear memory is meeting you and receiving my name." Riley said, reminiscent in a way.

 "And what are yours?" Dipper said, looking towards Marcus.

 "I remember my origin better. There was someone I was tied to before, but he gave me fewer details or restrictions than he gave you. I don't know what he did, but somehow he made me physical. The magic came at a cost, though. While I don't remember the man, I do remember our deal. I was to make sure the supernatural in the town didn't harm anyone. But at some point, the one who made me physical disappeared. I can't even remember him now, but I will still carry out my mission, his mission, as thanks."

 Riley and Dipper only stared at him as Dipper got an idea. "What if it's the same guy?" he said excitedly.

 "The same guy?" both spirits responded.

 "Think about it: you're both connected to someone who stayed in this town and abandoned you. It may be jumping the gun to say it, but how many people abandoned their spirits? There can't be that many of you guys. The only other person I can think of having a spirit is Gideon, but that was the amulet we stole that gave him power. And he's way too young for how old that area I found Riley was."

 "Gideon?" Marcus said.

 "They are some annoying kid who tried to date my sister," Dipper said nonchalantly. "Maybe whoever summoned you here or found you had you help him with the supernatural around town, and that's why he let you walk the earth."

 "But why was he allowed to be physical while I remained confined by blood in the journal," Riley said. Dipper could really tell now they were a tad bit jealous.

 "I don't know, but you said the author was going a little crazy."

 "I feel like you're guessing a little too much with too minimal evidence, but I can't say I'm uninterested," Marcus said, staring out into the woods. "One day, I found myself abandoned in the woods my brain had been… I don't know."

 "Fried?" Riley said.

"Yes, exactly, like what memories I had were now spotty, and I found myself in an abandoned cabin that I now use as a base."

"Don't worry, it's my number one priority now," Dipper set excitedly. "I'm going to find out what happened to you guys. I'm gonna help you get your memories back. And I'm going to find the author or at least who he is."

 "You would do that?" Marcus said, confused, "What do you gain by aiding us in remembering our old master."

 "Master?" Dipper said before shaking off that confusing title. "But it's obvious whoever this guy who helped you out knew a lot about the town; he knew a lot about these secrets; for most of my life, nobody believed me about anything, and now, it's real. Besides, you guys are cool. Why wouldn't I help you out." Dipper suddenly laughed at himself a bit when he thought about something. Here, he was barely able to talk to random customers, but when a hockey mask-wearing spirit and his own spirit that looked like a cultist talked to him, it was as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He would have to tell Mabel about this when she woke up.

 He felt an emotion coming off Riley that he had rarely felt before.

 "I know I am unable to express my emotions in a normal human capacity, but I have to say I appreciate everything," Riley said.

Dipper's response was to smile. "So, should we continue with this interview?"

"Ahhhhhhh." Most of the teens jumped up in Fright as they heard a yell, as they looked to see Nate punching one of the windows.

 "Yo dude, what's wrong with you," Lee said suddenly, getting up and trying to hold his friend back.

 "I'm tired of it. This freaky ghost thing says we're going to get punished, and some challenges are coming, but all we've gotten is waiting so far. Two, some weird hockey mask axe-wielding guy walks in and starts chatting up a little boy and his imaginary friend. And that stupid dancing game won't stop repeating the same background song." Nate yelled, punching the glass once more.

 "Geez, dude, calm down," Robbie said, reaching up to hold him back too. "But he is right. I wonder what's taking this ghost so long."

 "Huh, what if he is still coming up with ideas like he has no idea what he's doing?" Lee joked.

Suddenly, a loud noise from the PA system got all their attention.

 "You know nothing of preparation, you apathetic youngling," the deep voice responded, obviously offended by their words.

 Marcus looked towards the group of teens. "You would think you would learn to stop offending ghosts, but apparently, you don't learn."

 "Lee learning? That's the funniest joke I've heard all night," Tambry said, getting up and joining the rest of the group and immediately sitting down next to them, looking back at her phone.

"Your lack of resolve has offended me even more," the PA voice announced. The first punishment will begin soon.

 "First punishment?" Tambry said, still typing her phone as it started shaking rapidly on her hands. Her eyes widened as she threw her phone to the ground, and the entire group stared down at it.

"What's it doing?" Dipper said, getting a little closer before Lee grabbed him and shoved him back of it.

"Dude, are you insane? You see mysterious stuff going down, and you run towards it. What's wrong with you," Lee said. "Leave this to, I don't know, the only people here with weapons." As he said this, he craned his head towards Wendy and Marcus, who were too busy distracted by the phone's violent shaking.

 Suddenly, Dipper's danger sense went off as he looked towards the phone that stopped shaking. "Get down," Dipper said as the feeling came to him.

 Everyone except Marcus and Riley would duck as the phone sprouted two wires from its side and jumped at the group high, landing just above their heads and smacking into an aisle. Marcus, who is already standing off more to the side, was just observing the situation, fascinated.

 "Hey, what do they do with my phone?" Tambry said as the small phone creature with spider-like legs regained its balance and jumped at them again.

 "Tambry, this isn't the time to talk about your stupid phone," Lee said, trying to run around a few aisles while the phone scurried around.

 "I mean, seeing how it's trying to kill us, I think this is the only good time to talk about her phone," Nate said, ducking as the phone swiped at him, its cable-wiry legs extending when it tried to attack, but then returned back to normal size when it walked around scurrying.

Dipper wanted to fight back, but his brain wasn't functioning. He was too busy observing the madness going on. He would only snap out of it as the phone stopped scurrying for a second and looked towards his sister, still resting against the wall. In a moment, both Dipper and the phone burst off into a race towards Mabel. Right when it jumped from Mabel, extending one of its sharp cables, Dipper kicked it. The phone was surprised. It wasn't expecting the boy to catch up with it at an impressive speed as it was sent flying back to where it was initially attacking the teens.

 The phone's cables and wires were reshaped to give it a soft landing, but this would never occur as it reached mid-flight; a quick slash was heard as it split in half. The moment the phone landed, it cracked in two halves. Standing right above it was Marcus with his axe lightly glowing blue.

The PA system lightly cracked with an angry groan, but no other message was made as the rest of the teens emerged from hiding.

 "Oh man, my phone," Tambry said, "how am I gonna explain this to my parents."

 "How is an axe hard to explain?" Marcus said.

 "Oh yeah, the axe is the weird part about this situation," Tambry said, a little angered as they all surrounded the broken phone.

"So, like, that was the first challenge," Wendy said, confused, looking at the formerly living phone, "let's hope the next one doesn't take two hours."

 "Silence, girl!" the voice cried out. This time, it was a more female voice, still just as aged and angry as the other one. "I will devise the next challenge; get ready to dance. Oh, I do love a good dance." The voice said oddly sweetly at the end.

 "Dance?" Robbie said as he looked over towards the dancing machine, which was now also violently shaking. The screen, brightly shining multi-colored lights, started flashing.

 "Um, guys, I don't really think this is going to go well," Dipper said as he and the teens started backing up. Marcus was the only one not moving as he stared at the machine.

 "Who's a dancing machine?" said the energetic male voice announcer from the game at a deafening volume.

"Ummmm, You are?" Thompson said confused, as right after he answered, the screen went dark, and silence permeated the area.

 "Oh man, this is gonna suck," Nate said. He would turn out to be correct. As the multicolor lights flashed brighter, the machine started shaking more violently, and Dipper's danger senses returned again. When he yelled for everyone to move, he got the answer as to why, and a giant red arrow flew out, sticking itself into the wall right above his head.

His first instinct was to grab Mabel, this time using his enhanced strength to pick her up and push her behind an aisle, where she groaned a little bit.

 "Stop talking to me, big doggy. I'm trying to relax." Mabel whined this as Dipper made sure she was safe.

"Don't worry, Mabel," Dipper said, trying to reassure her even though she probably couldn't hear him. "I'm going to find a way to get us out of here."

 Looking up from his hiding spot, Dipper noticed every teen was now behind cover as a barrage of multi-colored arrows were shooting everywhere.

He realized he hadn't spoken to Riley in a while. Looking for them, he noticed they were behind cover next to Marcus, even though they really didn't need to be.

 "Riley!" He yelled, "What's going on?"

Riley looked back at him, concerned, and immediately walked over to their hiding spot.

"Higher-level ghosts can manifest objects. Apparently, this one was very angry when it died. Now, is it extremely powerful"

"How do you fight a dancing machine?" Dipper said, freaking out a little bit, trying to come up with a plan, "especially one that shoots literal giant pixelated arrows."

 "This is how," Wendy said nearby, rushing behind another aisle that was closer to the machine.

 "What are you doing, Robbie?" said freaking out, seeing Wendy approach the dancing machine.

 Marcus peeked up from behind his cover and tried to reach Wendy, but he was immediately struck with arrows and fell back on the ground.

Everyone almost felt bad, but the arrows did minimal damage to him as they were just embedded into them as they pulled them out back behind cover.

 "Does that not hurt?" Thompson said, yelling, confused.

 "My body experiences no pain, but I would assume if they had struck me enough times, they would probably kill me," Marcus said, pulling out a red cartoonish arrow and inspecting it. "Right now, we will have to deal with the machine somehow."

 "I know how," Wendy said confidently. In one moment, she exposed herself, jumping out in front of the machine and throwing her axe quickly, diving and rolling behind one of the aisles.

 Everyone looked at her like she was crazy, but then the axe perfectly soared into the cord of the dancing machine, shutting it down.

 "Yes!" she cried. "Maybe lumberjack games since I was like 5 weren't a waste of time."

 Everyone rushed out of the cover and went around Wendy, except Marcus, who walked up slowly. They all praised her to varying amounts of degrees, even the more reluctant and quiet of the group, happy to see her accomplish it.

 "Calm down, guys," Wendy said coolly. "You never mess with a corduroy."

 "Oh, Dang it," the female voice on the PA system announced. "Oh, Pa, they ruined our dance machine; how many more challenges do we have?"

 "As many as I can come up with," the male voice growled. "I just need some time to think," he said strangely nervous as the PA system cut out.

 "This guy's a joke, right?" Lee said, confused, as the PA system didn't come back on to tell him off.

 "Clearly not," Marcus said, pulling out one last arrow from his arm. "And if he is joking, his sense of comedy is not aligned with normal human or inhuman conventions."

 "There's gotta be a way out of here, right?" Wendy said. "Dipper, you said that book of yours has answers to the supernatural. Well, what does it say?"

 "Book?" Marcus said, confused, looking towards Dipper.

 "There are tons of ways to get rid of ghosts," Dipper responded. "You could appease them into going to the afterlife, splash them with anointed water, or you can burn their bones."

 "Well, seeing how their bones aren't here, do we have anointed water, whatever that is?" Robbie said.

 "I'm pretty sure it's water that's been prayed over," Dipper said. "But, like, does anyone have that."

 "Now, who would keep that on them casually?" Robbie responded rudely as Marcus perked up and went to his bag.

“I knew I was dealing with the ghost, so of course, I brought some anointed water… “Marcus paused as he looked down at the water bottle he had brought to see a comically large purple arrow had sliced through it in half.

Most of the water now spilled on the ground.

 “I can safely say I was not prepared for this situation,” Marcus said calmly as the rest of the teens looked stunned.

 “You didn’t account for your only bit of water being taken out,” Nate said, gripping his head in frustration.

 “Video game dance arrows are not a common occurrence,” Marcus said straightforwardly.

 “Noted,” Riley said behind Dipper. “You should write that down”

 “I don’t think I really have to,” Dipper said.

“So, like, do we just wait for the next incident?” Lee said nervously.

 “The ghost only let me in so they could Punish me as well; my guess is the only way we can get out is if we can convince them or beat them,” Marcus said seriously.

 “Man, I don’t want to wait for another couple of hours. Can’t he just hurry up?” Nate said. “Then you and Wendy can just, you know, pull some axe nonsense.”

 “I do not like that you called my axe-wielding nonsense, but I understand you’re hysteria,”  Marcus replied.

 “The next challenge I present to you won’t be so easily defeated,”  the PA system announced as it went quiet quickly. This time, it was back to the older man speaking.

 “Oh great, he already turned Tambry’s phone and a dancing machine against us. What is he gonna do now.” All of a sudden, a small bucket of ice cream slammed into Robbie’s head, being thrown from somewhere. “Ow,” he cried out as he fell onto his side.

“Well, nice to see the ghost has good aim,” Wendy said jokingly, rubbing the side of his head while picking up the ice cream bucket. Inspecting it further, she saw it was halfway eaten and recognized it from when they were eating copious amounts of ice cream earlier. Reading the front, it was a pretty widespread brand, Bonnie Bell Ice Cream. It was supposed to have a smiling cartoon cow on its cover, but the mascot was missing for some reason.

 “Ice cream, are you serious?” Nate said as a box of cereal hit him in the chest, being flown from out of nowhere. Marcus was interested now, running over to Nate as he picked up the cereal box. It was a brand of cereal with a toucan on it that held up a spoon, but it was also missing.

 “Guys, I don’t like where this is going,” Thompson said nervously, backing up.

 Dipper got a good look at the cereal box and was scratching his head. “Why would all the mascots be missing unless…” Turning back to Mabel, he heard a small noise as a packet of ripped open smile dip landed on her stomach, her only groaning in response.

 Quickly rushing over to it, Dipper noticed the two blonde dogs that stood happily on the cover were missing. He had come to a conclusion about what was happening, and he was not excited to hear about it.

 A loud crash was heard as one of the back aisles fell. Dipper had once again picked up Mabel, this time maneuvering her to have her on his back as he backed up to the rest of the group.

 "Riley, I have a theory of what's going on," Dipper said.

 "Yes, I'm coming to the same conclusion," Riley said, following him to the group. "I believe this ghost we are fighting must carry a large amount of rage, and his abilities to manifest are far more than I expected."

 "Dipper, are you talking to that weird. Sorry. spirit thing you told me about who's combined with the book." Wendy asked nervously, holding up her axe.

 "Yeah," Dipper said, shaking in fear a little bit. He had to come to his senses. He knew he had powers and was stronger than most of the teens; he knew he had to stand up sometimes, but protecting Mabel was his first priority.

 "What did it say?" Wendy asked

 "It said the ghost's ability to manifest is far more powerful than they thought."

"Oh man, I think I know what that means," Robbie said depressingly. Another loud boom was heard from the back of the store, followed by a couple others.

 "Wait, I'm lost. What's going on here?" Thompson said, backing up all the way to the store's front he's back leaned against it.

 "Your meager trinkets and entertainment stagger your adolescence, and now your indulgence will, too." The PA chimed in

 "Our indulgence? It's talking about the food, isn't it?" Lee said, putting it together. "Oh man, you're not telling us…" another loud boom cut him off as right behind one of the aisles, something was poking out, moving slightly, just barely covered in shadow.

 The teens were barely moving as they could tell the shadowy being was breathing slowly, just staring at them. The terrifying question of what it could be arrived when walking into full view was a cow with cartoonish yellow and white coloring. Unlike the cow on its ice cream brand, it wasn't smiling and only walked at them on all fours. By the time it was three aisles away, slow cracking could be heard as it stood up on two legs entirely straight up and stared at them.

 "Oh my God!" Wendy said, holding her axe out forward. She was going to rush It, but then the two other booms made themselves noticed. One was a giant cartoonishly rainbow-colored toucan who jumped on one of the aisles, holding a huge spoon in one of its wings.

"Oh man, I knew I shouldn't have eaten that cereal," Nate complained, backing up even more.

The last figure would be revealed as a golden dog with two heads snarling at them.

"Let your final challenge begin," the PA voice announced.

On his orders, the cow mooed, The toucan squawked, raising its spoon, and the dogs barked viciously.

 "Oh man, how are we going to defend ourselves," Robbie complained

 "Dipper, I recommend you take out the dog first. It seems to be eyeing Mabel the most." Riley said.

 "We're so going to die," Nate said, pounding on the windows again. "Come on, man, we're sorry. Can we please leave?"

 "Yeah, I'm not gonna die to a stupid cartoon cow from some mediocre ice cream," Wendy said, holding up her axe.

 Dipper was heavily breathing as he was almost overwhelmed by all the creatures around him until he felt a slight punch on his shoulder.

 "I sense magic within you," Marcus said, staring at him directly.

"If you can fight, I recommend you do it now." Pulling out something from his bag, he dropped it in Dipper's hands; he noticed it was a Blade. It was bigger than a machete but too small to be any real sword he'd seen before, so it was perfect for him.

 "An arming sword," Marcus said, "usually a backup weapon, but I don't think that matters now,”. Dipper held the sword in his hands, inspecting it; it was very crude. While the blade wasn't rusted, the leather handle seemed to be mistreated, and he could tell it probably hadn't been cleaned in a while.

 "I don't expect the rest of you to fight," Marcus said. "This is my job, and I must do it."

 "Yeah, well, I'm still helping out anyway," Wendy said, eyeing down the cow.

Dipper looked down at the sword in his hands and saw his sister on his back. He gently took her off his back and sat her next to Tambry, who had fallen over in fright earlier.

 "What are you doing?" Robbie asked rudely but was still too busy being scared by the monsters.

 "I got us into this mess," Dipper said nervously. "I guess… I have to get us out of this mess. or at least help." Holding the sword now in two hands, Dipper turned towards the dog.

 "What are you waiting for?" the PA system yelled. "Attack, Attack, you stupid creations."

 As if the starting gun of a race went off, the cow hobbled towards Wendy slowly but powerfully. The toucan swooped towards Marcus, holding out a spoon like it was a spear. The dog rushed towards Dipper, who was still nervously holding the sword; he'd never even done anything like wielding a sword before, so he was going on what he saw on TV, already in a stance.

In the meantime, Riley had decided to step forward; they realized the ghost's creations could not see them, giving them an idea.

The fight had begun; Marcus was obviously fearless in his approach, while Wendy had enough confidence to push her to that point. On the other hand, Dipper was still shuffling slowly towards the dog that growled at him.

The first contact would be made when the toucan dived for Marcus, only just slightly missing him with his spoon and ramming into him at full speed. This would cause both of them to tumble on the ground as the toucan would start flailing around pathetically when its spoon fell out of its hands.

 On the other hand, Wendy was having more success as the cow, still with its stubby arms and its standing position, failed to even try and grasp at her. She had been taught her entire life how to defend herself, but right now, she was completely on the attack. As their opening move failed, she realized the cow could barely reach, so she jumped up high with her axe and brought it down on the cow's shoulder like she did with Marcus. This time, there would be an actual reaction as it dug in, and the cow kneeled a bit in pain just to drive in the attack further. Wendy still held on to the axe while she lowered herself and dragged it, pulling the cow down to the ground with her.

 Dipper was more successful than he thought possible, as when the dog realized he wasn't as scared as he was earlier, it backed up a little, trying to assess the situation. He noticed Riley inspecting the dog a bit during their standoff.

 Suddenly, Riley turned to him and pointed towards the shoulder of the dog.

 "The ghost must have a limited understanding of finer movements; the dog's legs are too weak to support its overweighted upper half. If you get it to jump at you, it would be unstable enough for you to press your attack." Riley analyzes Dipper simply nodded and tried to walk around the dog, trying to bait it.

 It would take it as giving into its instincts. The dog jumped at Dipper, landing awkwardly; even though he had a sword in his hands, he was so uncomfortable with using it that his first attack would just be to kick it like he did the phone. Unfortunately for him, the dog was nearly not as light as it only moved to the side a little bit before trying to bite him again. The dog wasn't that big. It was nearly not as big as the toucan or the cow standing up, so when it jumped, it barely reached his neck as it gripped onto his vest. This would freak out Dipper as his senses would blare at him.

 Still, in their calm voice, Riley tried to direct him . "he's chewing on your vest, which means he's exposed. Hit him now with the sword, Riley cried out."

 He tried to focus for a few seconds while the terrifying dog's dual mouths bit him hard. One of the mouths firmly grabbed onto his vest, shaking violently, while another managed to hold onto his arm. He felt his arm in pain, but no blood was being drawn, so maybe that durability was pulling through. Grabbing the sword with one hand, he jabbed it into the dog's face. He thought he was gonna be horrified for a second, but he realized there was no blood, just light blue energy within it.

The dog was obviously pained by this as it fell onto its side, standing up quickly to square up with Dipper again.

The only change now was that it was missing one of its eyes.

 Back with Marcus, the toucan was more frustrating than he thought it would be. It wasn't strong, nor was it fast, but its rapidly flapping wings and sharp talons that stabbed him in the legs were making this difficult.

 As the toucan stood up again, trying to tackle them, they gave a mighty push towards its torso, which sent it back a bit. This would ultimately be its undoing as the toucan stumbled back into an aisle, crashing into it violently. Marcus used his other hand to lift his axe in a massive arching motion and slam onto the toucan's head. Surprisingly, it didn't kill it instantly as it was flailing; Marcus was used to this kind of resistance, though, as he grabbed the axe with both hands, dragging the toucan onto the ground and then raising the axe high above his head again. with a mighty slash he hit its neck. Surprisingly, it didn't fall apart; the creature was soundly defeated and disappeared with magic.

Looking around the scene, Marcus was a little confused as to why there was no blood splatter. He didn't complain, though he'd been sick and tired of cleaning he's apparel anyway. Looking up, he would notice how the other fights were going.

 Wendy's fight with the cow was nearly the same; once the cow was on its back, it struggled to get up. The only issue Wendy was having was removing her axe from the side of its shoulder. She would suddenly hesitate as the cow would rise again, pulling her from her axe. She was lucky the cow couldn't actually grab the axe, only rushing at her. Looking behind her, she noticed she was cornered, her back to an aisle as she jumped up suddenly when the cow rammed into where she used to be with its head. Scrambling on top of the aisle, she had one more idea That most likely wouldn't work. With all of her might, she pushed the aisle from the side, just getting enough force for her to tip it over. She heard an overly animated cow moo as it slammed. Looking at her results, she saw that the cow's lower half was taken out by the aisle as the half that was left slowly faded into magic.

 Her axe was left behind, and she picked it up, twirling it around. "Still got it," Wendy said confidently, returning to her friends to see if they were all right.

 Back with Dipper, the dog had jumped him several times, but he had yet to get another opening. His footwork was nowhere near as impressive as Wendy and Marcus's, and even with his enhanced human abilities, he was still almost stumbling over himself repeatedly. In one moment, he dropped the sword in the middle, dodging it, and started to pick it up when the dog jumped at him. Luckily for Dipper, this was completely planned.

Riley had realized the dog only seemed to attack Dipper when he was off his footing; using this to their advantage, Riley told Dipper to fake stumbling. When the dog was in the air doing its unathletic jump, Dipper slashed the sword up, closing his eyes shut as the blade cut through the air with a whoosh. Only when he opened his eyes would he see the results as half a second later, the dog's body slammed into him. His sword slash was not enough to stop the dog's momentum as they both fell to the ground.

He was freaking out for a moment until he realized the sword had done its job and both heads had been cut simultaneously, the dog starting to fade away.

 "I did it," Dipper said. "we did we did it," he cried excitedly while Riley inspected the disappearing dog.

 "We all did it," Wendy said, returning to the store's center.

 "Excellent fighting, although you could both use some work," Marcus said. "You may keep this sword, boy; I never found use for it."

 "Oh, umm, thanks. So that's the end, right?" Dipper said nervously, looking around.

"Noooooooooo!" The loud voice from the PA system rang out. The blue energy that surrounded most of the store all went in one direction towards the group of people who weren't fighting.

 "I still have one final trick," the male voice said, "it takes a lot of energy, but I'll do it."

 "What is he talking about now?" Robbie said

Nate cried out in fear as he jumped away from the group, looking at Mabel and Tambry. At this point, Mabel was still firmly being held by Tambry, who was still stunned by all the fighting around her. Tambry only looked at him, confused.

 "What's wrong with you?" she asked.

 "The girl you're holding her eyes are doing a weird thing," Nate said as Lee, Robbie, and Thompson backed away.

 "Wait, what?" Tambry said, looking down at Mabel, whose eyes began glowing light blue. As the boys backed up slowly, Tambry was freaking out, wondering what she should do.

She knew this was probably a bad thing, but she just laid Mabel down on her back and backed up a few steps.

 Suddenly, the blue energy would assemble into Mabel as she started floating, her eyes completely covered in blue energy.

 "This time, you will fail," the deep voice came from Mabel.

 Suddenly, a much more elderly woman's voice came from her. "Oh my, possessing the body, this seems a little much, Pa."

"No, they must pay now, and it will be by her hands." The older man started laughing with a mix of him, his female counterpart, and Mabel's laugh being mixed with it.

 "Now your fate is sealed," the ghost announced as her hands started glowing blue, and everything started floating around crazy.

 "Hey! Let go of my sister!" Dipper yelled.

 "Or what?" the ghost laughed evilly

 "Hey man, this isn't fair. We beat all your challenges." Wendy said

 "Yeah, isn't there some like some supernatural deal that you have to follow?" Dipper said, confused.

 "No," Marcus and Riley responded. Riley would give more details in a second. "No contract was ever signed, no deal was ever struck. He just simply lied about it being the final challenge, and he never said he would let us go afterwards."

 "Yes, this is very in line with ghost," Marcus said.

 "You guys aren't helping," Dipper said, a little annoyed.

 "Fair, why should you talk about fair? Teenagers like you are the reason I'm dead. We're dead."

 "Wait, what?" Wendy said. "What did teenagers do to you? Did they murder you?"

"Murder?" the ghost sounded offended. "I was never murdered, well, not conventionally, at least," it stated calmly explaining.

 "It was Those blasted teenagers in their boom boxes and rap music which done killed me." the ghost said, circling their hands using Mabel.

 "Teenagers killed you with boom boxes? Did they like throw them at your head?" Wendy said, almost laughing. "How old are you guys?"

 "Hey, we died in the summer of 86; show some respect for the dead!" the old woman's voice said.

 "Respect for the dead?" Wendy said, confused, "You tried to kill me and my friends with a dance machine and a cow. What respect would I have for the dead?"

 "Dipper, I suggest you calm down your friend," Riley said.

 "Wendy, calm down. Can we hear them out?"

 "There's not much for you to hear. We hate teenagers, and when we saw a whole pack of them enter our store, we knew we had to get revenge." The old lady's voice said.

 Dipper looked nervously, and Riley stared at them.

 "Dipper, I have an idea," Riley said.

"Does it involve the ghost being destroyed?" Marcus asked. This confused Riley for a bit. They weren't used to anyone but Dipper interacting with them, so the moment Marcus talked to them, they backed up a little bit.

 "No," Riley responded. "Tell them the truth."

 "Do I have to?" Dipper complained.

 "Would you rather your sister be put in any more danger?" Riley said. This might have been a little manipulative on their part, but they knew it was the correct answer. Dipper sighed; he would never let his sister down like this.

 "You're right." He responded simply, "Hey, ghost, I have something to tell you."

 Mabel's floating body looked at him curiously.

 "Oh, what could that be?"

 "I'm not a teenager," Dipper said reluctantly as all the magic ceased. "I'm 12, not a teenager. I don't know if that really changes anything…"

 "Of course, it changes everything." the sweet old lady's voice came out from Mabel's mouth. "How could we hurt a poor little baby? You're not even old enough to start growing a mustache. Oh, I think we've just embarrassed ourselves, dear."

Dipper could tell when the old man took back control of Mabel's body because he looked a little embarrassed. "Oh, I'm sorry, kid us Ghosts. Ghost can just be so wrapped up in revenge."

 "So, could you please let my friends go? I know they're kind of bad, but trust me, they've changed tonight, and isn't changing young minds better than getting rid of them?"

 Mabel's body put its hands up to her chin and thought for a minute. "I guess, but I still feel unsatisfied. How can we pass on unsatisfied."

 "Is there anything we can do to help you with that?" Wendy said curiously. "Unless it, like you know, gets us killed."

 "Oh well, in my youth, I and my darling wife did enjoy those dances that were on TV. Do any of you know any funny dances?"

 "No," Wendy said quickly.

 "I don't dance," Marcus said, completely serious.

 "No," Dipper said until he felt Riley's presence staring at him from behind his head. "I know one, but you know it's kind of impossible to do without a lamb costume, so well, it looks like we're out of luck."

 With the snap of a finger, a lamb costume manifested itself around Dipper. It looked exactly like the childhood version, and he only frowned deeply when he saw Wendy and Marcus stare at him along with all the other teens.

 "This is the only way you'll let us out?" Dipper said, his voice lowered in shame.

 "Yes!" the old man's voice said evilly as Mabel made a maniacal gesture. "Dance!".

 "I'm never gonna live this down," Dipper said. Suddenly, Dipper got into a cute pose and smiled brightly. In a sudden spike of emotions, Riley was confused about what was happening.

“Who wants a Lamby lamby lamby? I do! I do! So go up and greet your Mammy mammy mammy! Hi there! Hi there! So march march march around the daisies.” Dipper sang frolicking around while the whole group stared at him.

 Robbie wanted to laugh but the rest of the group was just confused as Marcus and Riley stared like deers in headlights.  Wendy on the other hand was desperately trying not to record with her phone laughing a little bit.

“Don't don't don't you forget about the babies!”  Dipper sang this final part, sweating. He had not done this in a long time and clearly wasn't happy about this. Striking the pose, the ghost used Mabel's body to clap as It laughed uproariously.

 "That was excellent, just like the things I used to see on TV as a kid. You have a talent, boy," they said, almost tearing up.

 "Thank you, child, you make ascending so much easier," the old lady said. "All your friends may go free and enjoy your newly reformed lives as better members of the community; make sure to spread our message to other teenagers."

 As they said that, Mabel's body fell to the ground as the blue lights ascended towards the sky.

 "Yeah, I'm not going to do that," Wendy said as Dipper ran towards his sister, shaking her a bit.

 Getting up slowly, Mabel was finally waking up and looking around her. "Stop talking to me, you stupid dog. Oh, I'm awake. Why do you have a sword? Who's the hockey mask guy?" she said, pointing towards Marcus, confused and still groggy.

 "I'll explain it later," Dipper said, concerned, hoisting up his sister. "Let's get you to the van so you can rest."

 "lame rests for the weak," Mabel said as she strolled towards the exit.

 The moment he returned around, he was met with all the teens still confused.

 "Did you just save us with a dance?" Nate said.

 "Yeah, and a little lamb costume?" Lee followed up.

 Dipper had prepared for this; he thought there goes his hopes of making friends. It didn't help with Robbie's response.

 "Yeah, pretty ridiculous, right guys?" Robbie said, trying to get some reactions from his friends.

 "Umm, no." Nate said, "he saved our lives. Way to go, Dr. Fun Times," he said, punching him on the shoulder, walking towards the van, and finally heading outside

 "Yeah, little dude, I can't wait to hang out with you again," Lee high-fived him. Dipper looked stunned at the reaction.

"Man, I owe you one," Thompson said, hugging him tightly, "but please don't ask me to do anything embarrassing."

 "Not bad, kid," Tambry said, smiling while walking out with Thompson, both tired.

 "Ugh, fine," Robbie said, relenting. "Thank you for helping save our lives and help us get free. I'm not gonna start worshipping you or anything. I could have helped, too he said, walking out."

 "I'm sorry about this," Wendy said, leaning down the Dipper.

 "You did nothing wrong. I did lie to you and start this whole ghost thing.

 "Oh please, I was about to peer pressure Thompson into starting it, and he definitely wouldn't have handled himself well in your position. If it helps, it doesn't matter how old you are. Hanging out with you is pretty cool." Wendy said fist bumping him and walking back to the van. All that was left in the store was Marcus Riley and him.

 "So Marcus, what do you do now?" Dipper said, and Riley turned to them, interested.

 "I will go back to conducting my operations in ensuring the safety of the citizenship of gravity falls from the supernatural. It is my mission; I will follow it." Marcus said as if he was reading out from instructions.

"Well, I can't wait to see you again," Dipper said. "And I'm still gonna help you find out about your past. That's a promise."

 "Yes, and it was very nice to see how I'm not alone as being the only spirit in this area, maybe even the world." Riley said.

 "I feel like there are more of us," Marcus said to Riley, "and with help from this one." he put a hand on Dipper's shoulder. "I think we can figure out anything."

Dipper smiled up at him; not only had he impressed a group of teenagers, but he was now being praised by another spirit connected to the author, most likely.

 "Well, goodbye, young possessor of the journal; our fates will most likely cross again, and you've proven to be a sufficient ally." Walking out the doors, Marcus would disappear into the forest's fog.

 "You know I can safely say this was a good night." After he said this, Dipper immediately yawned. "But I think I'm a little tired. I think I need my rest, and so do you."

 "Agreed," Riley said, "Do not expect this from me often, but I think we can hold off on the note-taking until tomorrow."

 "Wow, that is unlike you," Dipper said, walking out of the store.

 "Don't get used to it," Riley said, completely serious. They would hear a loud buzzing sound as when they turned around, the lights on the inside of the store faded away.

 "Huh, so I guess they really are gone," Dipper said.

 "Yes, it seems your little dance appeased the spirits. Let's make a journal archive about it.

 "Ha ha, that's funny," Dipper laughed, not wanting to talk about the dance.

 "I was being completely serious," Riley said.

Dipper and Mabel were one of the few people still awake in the van on their way home. Dipper had firmly closed the journal, and Riley was now getting rest; the only person active in the van other than the twins was Thompson, driving everyone home.

 "So you're saying the party went off completely fine," Mabel said, still a little sick to her stomach.

 "Yeah, Mabel, it was fine, just a normal night, and I made a lot of friends. Isn't that right, guys?" Dipper called out.

 "Yeah," only Thompson cried out, seeing as he was the only person awake.

 Mabel just smiled brightly. Even in her sick state, she clapped her hands together in Glee.

 "How does it feel, Dipper? That's five more friends." Mabel said, hugging her brother.

 "More like 4," Dipper responded and hugged his sister back, which was unexpected to her. "Robbie doesn't like me that much." He also wouldn't know if Marcus counted as a friend, but they would be an ally he could tell

 "Oh, since when are you a tight hugger," Mabel said.

 "Ever since my sister knocked herself out with smile dip, and I had a watch over her for an entire party."

 "Oh man, I'm gonna be barfing for the whole next day." She said queasy.

 "Want me to cover your shift?" Dipper asked sincerely.

 "No, I think I've been giving you too much work. You're gonna be busy all tomorrow writing down that journal cause Riley told you to."

"Oh yeah, that's gonna be fun," Dipper said as they finally rolled up to the mystery shack.

 "And while you're doing that, me and Riley are totally going to watch a movie if I'm not too sick."

 "Only if it's not too bad," he said as the twins got out, walking towards the shack slowly. "You have to remember, Mabel, I have to watch those movies too…" The conversation was interrupted when a TV sparking with electricity was thrown outside the window.

 "And that's for bailing on the wedding!" they heard Stan yell as he looked out the window awkwardly.

 "Um, nothing good on TV."

 They laughed at this situation as the twins went inside for a good night's sleep.

Chapter Text

It was early in the morning in the mystery shack, and a truly rare event was taking place. Now, one might say the monsters or spirits of this town were the craziest things, but the current scenario was far more outlandish than all those things put together.

 Stan was working the register. Stan Pines was no lazy man, he would cut every expense if possible and would probably leave you in a ditch for $5 if he didn't know you that well, but few people knocked on his work ethic. With just a crew of 3 then five, he manages a successful tourist trap location that constantly had a new rotation of new and exotic exhibits for gullible travelers to gawk at on their way to more important things. But while Stan was hard working in a business sense, actually working was something he rarely did.

Ever since Soos was a child, he would put him to work fixing stuff, which he had a natural inclination to do.

 Before Wendy was hired, he'd have a cashier for no longer than a month. Not that any of the people he hired were insufficient. It's just that some of them asked about stuff such as pay raises, which was always a red flag. When Wendy was hired, she was the perfect employee, in Stan's opinion. She wasn't so unsociable that she couldn't get people to buy things, she would get people out of the door quickly and move on to the next sucker, and she seemed just content with staying at the register all day.

Sure, he later found out the reason why she was so okay with being left to the register all day was because she was constantly relaxing, but he admired her honesty for telling him the first time he asked.

 If there is one thing Stan Pines cherished, it was money, but now he was cherishing another thing. With Wendy constantly manning the register and someone like Mabel or Dipper good backups, he had forgotten how miserable it was to deal with customers.

 , Sure, he had done his tours and had been asked stupid questions, but there was something far more frustrating about the idea of waiting for someone to buy something and just sitting there until they made up their mind.

 Of course, Wendy and the twins he cared for were all not there at the moment. Wendy had said it was a Family Day, and she wanted to hang out with them; it was probably an excuse, he thought, seeing how she rarely ever wanted to hang out with them, but it could be true, and the twins were still tired from hanging out with Wendy and her friends last night so they slept in.

"You know I like to get my Christmas shopping done early. Do you always get your Christmas shopping done early? I bet you do. You seem like a smart guy. People who are smart usually wear suits. You know, I always wanted to start a business on my own, but I was just never sure of how to begin. Oh, what's that thing." This long-winded speech with barely a breath in between it was presented by the ire of Stan Pines at the moment. Tyler Cutebiker, a local enthusiasm enthusiast, Tyler was known for being the underwhelming hype man to most people in the town. But right now, he was making Stan almost feel violent as he stared at the shorter man looking around his gift shop aimlessly.

"You know you could always shop for Christmas items around Christmas," Stan said at the register, trying not to die of boredom.

"Well then, I wouldn't get ahead of the Christmas season. Do you know how many people I have to buy presents for?"

 "Please do tell me," Stan said sarcastically, looking down at a lot of money he was counting.

 "Oh well, there's Mary, the gardener, there's Dan, there's Stan, not you Stan, another Stan, there's Margaret, there's Finn, there's Ben, there's Leslie, there's Morgan, there's another Mary… "As Tyler continued the list of names, Stan only stared daggers at him while he was suddenly interrupted by a slight tap on his side.

 Looking down, relieved to be distracted by something, he saw the older of the Pines twins poking him in the side, looking a bit upset. Mabel has been upset in his presence before, but this didn't look that bad, nothing as bad as the whole Gideon situation, which he wants to forget about.

"Perfect timing…" he coughed. "I mean, what's wrong, sweetie" Stan said, feigning sympathy. Mabel only frowned at him a little more.

 "Grunkle Stan, I'm hungry. Can we go out and get some food?" She whined.

"Hungry?" he said, confused. "What about all the food in the kitchen?"

 "What food?" Mabel said a little louder. "We ran out of cereal like two days ago."

 "What about the eggs?"

 "They're gone."

 "What do you mean gone?" Stan said, raising an eyebrow at her.

 She looked slightly nervous for a second and then stared back at him with sympathetic eyes. "Let's just say there's a huge omelet in the kitchen that's now on the floor." Stan's only response was to put his hand on his head; looking back at Tyler, who was still aimlessly shopping, Stan had a beautiful idea.

"You're right. We should go get some breakfast." Stan said evilly while Mabel just looked at him, confused.

 "Shouldn't we wait for all the customers to leave?" she said, looking at Tyler continue to look at two identical shirts, pondering which one was better.

 "Sweetie," Grunkle Stan said, leaning down to her. "Sometimes in life, you just have to pick between 2 choices. One of them is extremely hilarious and gets us breakfast; another has us standing here until 1:00, waiting for Tyler to pick up a snow globe at most. These are very easy decisions."

 Mabel looked at Tyler shopping briefly while inspecting what looked to be the fake old mermaid corpse they had in the corner.

 "Do you have this with a Christmas hat?" Tyler said, genuinely curious. Mabel stared at him briefly and then turned back the Stan.

 "I'll go get Dipper," Mabel said, completely serious, walking off quickly.

 “that's my girl. I know just the spot for a good breakfast” Stan said. Mabel could tell he was getting a really clever idea, but she just couldn't tell what he was implying.

Back upstairs, Dipper had woken up roughly from last night's craziness. Usually, he would like to sleep in, but looking to his side to see that his sister was already gone, he decided he probably should get out of bed soon.

Yawning loudly and putting on his clothes, he looked over to the small shelf beside his bed where the journal lay. Every time he really thought about the book, it was crazy to him, but now he felt like he was starting to get used to the craziness. It was harder to get weirder than ghosts wanting you to dance for them. Reaching a bit slowly, Dipper opened up the book, and the presence of Riley was almost immediately summoned.

 Upon their summoning, Riley looked towards the window high up between Dipper and Mabel's beds.

"Interesting, you probably would have been awake by now if it were an average day," Riley said, looking directly at the sun.

 "Yeah, I guess," Dipper yawned. "Stan probably let us sleep in after getting home so late. Alright, I prepared for myself. I'm ready to get writing on that journal for the day."

 "Excellent," Riley said. "I believe we should make a page first on Marcus, then on the ghost with a short analysis of the procedures they were defeated in."

 "The procedures they were defeated in?" Dipper said skeptically.

"Riley, I really don't want to write about the dance."

"Why not?"

"It's embarrassing."

 "Who else but you observe the journal? Also, recording things for future use could have endless benefits." Riley explained, waving their arms around a bit. They were always so passionate about what went into the book Dipper thought he was just lucky he inevitably erased that picture of Wendy.

 "Look, it's…" Before Dipper could finish his sentence, the door quickly slammed open with an excited Mabel holding the door open with a big smile.

 "Guess who just got Grunkle Stan to agree to let us go out for breakfast. This girl." Mabel said excitedly, jumping in the air.

 "Woah, we're going out to breakfast. Where?" Dipper asked, a little excited.

 "I don't know," Mabel said, keeping her bright and happy tone, "but it's better than an omelet that landed on the floor."

 "A what?" Dipper asked, confused.

 "Oh, nothing. Come on, let's go before Tyler Cutebiker realizes we're gone." Within a moment, Dipper apologized to Riley and stuffed the journal back into his vest, then bolted downstairs; in less than two minutes, the Pines family had already driven out of the mystery shack, closing down for the day and locking an unaware Tyler within the gift shop.

When Dipper heard they were heading out to breakfast and that Grunkle Stan would not be telling them anything, he could only frown a little bit in concern. Sure, he was slowly warming up to his great-uncle, but he still wasn't wholly trusting in his choices or his ability to drive. With every small fast-food restaurant they passed by, Dipper got a little less excited as he realized his great-uncle had a set destination in mind, and he was utterly devoted to getting there. On the car trip there, Mabel only exaggeratedly held her stomach in hunger pains; at first, Dipper thought she was actually suffering, but the moment he put his hand on her shoulder, she bit him as a joke.

He didn't know whether to be more disgusted or laugh at it; it's not like it hurt anyway. The answer to the Pines twin's curiosities would be answered when they finally rolled upon the edge of town.

 As previously mentioned, Gravity Falls was a tiny town. Once you left the main town area and the miniature suburbs, there were very few businesses nestled in within the woods, along with people's houses. The Mystery Shack was a great example of this. It was just within enough range for Wendy to bike there every day, but it was so well concealed within the gigantic trees of the forest that if you were at the shack, you'd have no idea there was a town nearby.

 This location, the ones the Pines found themselves at, was precisely like that: Greasy's Diner. The diner was nowhere else like Dipper had ever eaten before; even before he stepped in, he could tell it would probably be different, Mainly because the building was the shape of a giant log sitting on a small railroad track. Walking up these steps to enter the restaurant proper, Dipper lagged behind a little bit, feeling on the side of the walls. Oddly enough, it felt like natural wood, but they probably didn't use a natural giant log for the building. He took that thought back immediately. He should stop assuming usual stuff could be possible in this town.

 What was expected was the interior; while it was obviously still log-shaped, the interior of the diner looked like every stereotypical diner you would see on a TV show about the 50s. Booth seats and people sitting at the counter were everywhere; when Dipper really thought about it, this was probably one of the town's most popular spots to get breakfast.

He saw a couple familiar faces, Wendy being the most notable as when she saw them come in, she gave them a smile and waved before turning back to her dad and multiple brothers all eating. Tambry was also there, but she was oddly eating alone; Dipper found it weird that she wouldn't go hang out with Wendy, but he never really understood Tambry anyway. The most striking fact about her being here, though, was she already had another phone, this one noticeably lower in quality.

 He would have probably taken in more of the people sitting around if it wasn't for Dipper almost tripping on a Beaver that poked through the hole in the floor. Stan ignored the beaver's presence walking to an empty booth while Dipper and Mabel stared at it. He swore it made a rude gesture at him as it ducked into the floor before one of the waitresses tried to hit it with a broom.

"What is up with this town and Beavers," Mabel said, walking to the booth now.

 "I'm glad you didn't say that while the journal was open," Dipper said sarcastically, taking his seat.

 "What was that? Grunkle Stan said, looking up from the menu he'd been reading over.

 "Oh, nothing," Dipper said, sliding into the seat across from Stan and Mabel; he tried to relax in his seat more while Mabel just kept bouncing up and down, looking at all the food being delivered to other tables.

"Stan, this place looks amazing," Mabel said, looking over the restaurant.

 "Yeah, I guess the food sucks, though," Stan said honestly, putting down the menu. Dipper and Mabel looked confused at this.

 "If this place sucks, why would you take us here?" Dipper asked. Dipper was almost surprised when he saw that his great-uncle looked slightly nervous for a second. When Dipper thought about his great uncle being anxious, it was not an emotion he associated with him at all. He was always confident in his idiocy and in his intelligence; something was wrong, and he would soon get his answers when he saw an older waitress roll up to their table.

 "Well, hello there!" an aged, excited voice called over to the table. Looking up, the twins saw an older lady with one lazy eye and a waitress uniform smiling at them.

"Lazy Susan, how's it been for you lately," Stan said nervously, raising an eyebrow. Dipper only stared at Mabel. If he could put together an idea of what was happening, he knew she was along the same track of thought.

 "I got hit by a bus!" Susan said energetically. Both older folk would laugh awkwardly as the twins stared.

 "And who are these little angels," Susan said, grabbing Dipper by the cheek. He wanted to pry her off, but he was just confused when she caught a hold. Mabel would have this same face of apprehension when she did it to her, too. Stan didn't seem to care as he was laughing to himself still.

"Oh, these two, they're nobodies; I mean, they're my great niece and nephew Maddie and Derek," Stan said, raising his voice a little too much awkwardness.

 "It's Dipper and Mabel." Mabel corrected him. "So, do you two like know each other?" she said, raising her eyebrow.

 "we're talking to each other, aren't we," Stan said, trying to push her out of the conversation. "So anyway, Susan, how about you hook us up with a special, split an order number 7 three ways. I'll take the eggs, the boy the hashbrowns, the girl can have the bacon, and they can fight over the pancakes. A man's gotta watch his weight," Stan said, smiling.

Before either of the twins could raise any protest to that absurd order, Susan had said OK very loudly and walked away. Mabel only dropped in her seat and looked at him, shocked.

 "Grunkle Stan, you're getting one plate between the three of us. But I'm hungryyyyyyy," Mabel complained, holding on to her stomach.

"Sorry, sweetie, in this expensive world we live in, do you know how hard it is to get a good breakfast nowadays? What has the world come to," Stan said dramatically.

 Dipper looked at him curiously when he said, "Stan don't you have, like, a business, a really profitable one."

 "Yes, but do you know how rich men stay rich, Dipper?" Stan said, putting his elbow on the table and leaning in towards him.

 "Um, how? Making a lot of money?"

 "No," Stan said. "well, yes, but it's also about saving money. Do I look like I made of money?" The moment he said this, a $20 bill flipped out of his sleeve, and he tapped it down awkwardly.

 Dipper was about to scold his great uncle, but he saw something in the back of the restaurant that interested him.

 A manliness tester, he had seen the games before they were supposed to test grip strength, but that wasn't the best part about it. Right next said on a sign, 'If you beat the challenge, you will get free pancakes.' Dipper got a devious smile; when he thought about his past lack of physical activity, he realized the main reason he never participated in things such as sports was not just because he didn't know he could do it. It was also because he was never that interested in them in the first place. But now, with his enhanced strength here in this town, he found himself in the same situation despite having the power he never really cared about using until now.

"Don't worry, guys, I'm gonna beat this manliness tester," Dipper said confidently, standing up in his seat.

The reactions from his family were different. Mabel had looked back at the challenge and gave him a thumbs up. While Stan only looked at him like he was crazy.

 "You beating a manliness tester with those noodle arms, kid. I might as well just pay for pancakes because that's slightly less unrealistic than you beating that machine," he laughed.

 "Hey, I'm plenty manly. Remember you had me chopping firewood earlier, and I did it," Dipper pointed out, complaining.

The Grunkle thought for an instant, then stared down at Dipper, smiling.

 "Kid, anyone could lift up an axe and chop wood. I bet even your sister could do it," he said, pointing to Mabel.

 "I probably could," she said excitedly, rolling down her sleeve and flexing her muscles a bit.

"Besides, kid, you're hardly the picture of manliness," Stan said mockingly.

 "I could be," Dipper said defensively.

 "Oh yeah, remember two days ago when I caught you in the bathroom singing that song?" Stan said, chuckling.

 "What song?" Mabel said, suddenly interested.

He laughed and announced it before Dipper could tell Stan to not say anything.

 "Huh, your brother over there was listening to disco girl," Stan said, hitting his hand against the table and laughing a little bit.

 "Disco girl? Oh, Dipper, why didn't you tell me we could totally sing it together." Mabel, we'll say excitedly, holding her hands together.

 "it's never gonna happen," Dipper said seriously before turning back to Stan confidently. "You bet I can't beat that machine."

 "Kid, I know you won't beat that machine," Stan said, leaning back in his seat and confidently putting his hands behind his head.

 "Well then, Grunkle, prepare to be eating those words," Dipper said jumping out of his seat; he returned a few seconds later. "And some fresh pancakes." When he said that, Mabel clapped; apparently, her clapping would get the attention of all the other patrons in the restaurant as the moment he walked towards the game, everyone stared down at him expectingly. Once he got to the game confidently, he looked back and shriveled, seeing all the attention he was getting. He was never good in front of crowds, but this wasn't the time for that.

Dipper sucked in his breath and breathed out, calming himself as he turned towards the handle of the manliness tester.

 The game's rules were simple: you grab the handle and test how strong you are with the cartoonish man on the front calling him a wimp. There were a bunch of levels that his strength could end up in. The weakest one is called Wet Noodle, and the strongest one is called Hercules's bigger cousin. He did like the sound of that.

 "Prepare for some free pancakes," Dipper said, oddly confident, not looking into the crowd at all. He grabbed onto the handle and tried to focus briefly, but his nerves slowly got to him. He felt a slight struggle when he pulled the lever and heard a snap.

 The whole room froze as no one made a sound except for a Beaver that popped out of a hole to observe this situation.

Dipper opened his eyes slowly to what he had realized he had done. The handle of the game had just snapped in half. He wanted to be proud of himself. He probably just beat the manliness tester, but looking up at the levels, he realized it hadn't even registered his strength, immediately starting off strong and then faltering back down to nothing as it disconnected from the handle.

 Turning back slowly to the group, Dipper held up the broken handle and awkwardly looked at the crowd. "I guess the machine is broken," he said awkwardly, "do I still get free pancakes?"

His awkwardness would be curved when manly Dan suddenly stood up and shoved him out of the way lightly.

He was confused. The game was already broken, so he couldn't understand what Dan was planning.

"Hey man, the game's broken. I'm sorry, but like…" Before he could finish his explanation manly, Dan slammed his fist on the game's counter and growled at the manly figure. The next few seconds were a blur to Dipper as the game strength would suddenly shoot up to the highest level, and a bell would go off.

 Everyone seemed to ignore his mistake as everyone started cheering for the free pancakes that Dan announced with a victorious yell. Dipper was stunned; this was another attempt to impress a whole group of people, and he blew it. At least this one didn't end in him prancing around in a lamb costume, he thought, frustrated as he looked back to Stan. He frowned even more as he saw Stan smiling at him, laughing as free pancakes were delivered to his table, and Mabel immediately started eating.

 As the entire restaurant cheered in joy at the feast they were given, Dipper stood there next to the game still and strolled towards his table.

 Right before he sat down, Stan, with a mouthful of pancakes, gloated at him. "never take a bet with a con man, kid. Don't worry. Maybe you'll grow some muscle one day."

Looking down at his noodle-like arms, Dipper's frown was ever more apparent as he just walked away and out of the restaurant.

"I'll see you guys later," he said, clearly upset, as he left the great uncle and sister to look at each other awkwardly.

 "Your brother seems kind of upset," Stan said curiously. He would wait for a few seconds to hear a response from Mabel, but she was too busy gorging herself on pancakes.

 Before her brother walked out ultimately, though, she called out to him. "Come on, Dipper, don't be upset; you're plenty awesome."

 He probably wouldn't hear the last part as the door slammed as he just walked down the road towards town.

 "Is he going to be alright?" Stan said curiously.

 "Hopefully," Mabel said with a mouthful of pancakes. "But you and me gonna talk about something just as important."

 "So how do you know Susan," Mabel said, smiling evilly.

 Stan got a wide-eyed look in horror as he looked down at his great-niece. "Oh no," he said.

During the late morning of the day, the town had its standard fare, few people really walked the streets, and all businesses tended to just wait for out-of-towners and locals to visit. Every time he'd been on the street, Dipper thought the town looked a little bigger; from far away at areas such as the cliff where Gideon's warehouse sat, the town looked almost minuscule, but once you were really in it, it seemed to be full of life. But no matter how full of life it was, Dipper couldn't appreciate it as he was frustrated.

'Amazing,' he thought. Not only did I embarrass myself in front of a ton of people, Grunkle Stan is now gonna make fun of me even more.   At least he had one person to talk to as he opened the book, stuck a piece of paper in it, and then quickly put it back in his vest. The motion was quick but had its desired results as a short bit of fog. Then Riley appeared, standing beside him as he walked down the street.

He was about to start talking when he saw they were taking their environment even more now. He didn't want to interrupt them until he saw them staring at him, concerned.

 "Is there something wrong?" Riley said, "You seem more uneven than usual."

 "I'm just going to assume uneven means I'm upset, and yeah, I'm definitely upset," Dipper complained, walking slower now.

 "Would talking about the reason you're upset aid you," Riley said curiously.

 "I guess," Dipper sighed. "It's just that I can do all this impressive stuff, but every time I try, it just ends up failing. I couldn't even be cool going against that ghost last night without having to do that stupid dance."

 "The others didn't seem to have a problem with your dance, and it was quite effective. I see no issue." Riley said.

 "It's just why am I not as cool as Dan? What's his secret."

 "From what you told me, he's nearly seven feet tall and has superhuman strength; also, he's quite older than you. Aren't you still growing?"

 "You're right, but there's got to be some secret to cracking it now."

 "Cracking, what are you investigating something?"

 "Not really. I just want to be manly."

"Manly?" Riley said curiously.

"You know, big, tough, and strong, I don't know, not embarrassing myself," Dipper complained as he approached a street corner.

 "Are those typical manly attributes?" Riley said.

 "Yeah, and I just…ahh." Out of nowhere, as he turned around the corner, he almost fell face-first into a large pool of water flowing around the street. He was momentarily confused until he saw a broken fire hydrant being inspected by a group of police officers. It was, of course, Blubs, Durland Steve, the only officers Dipper had seen.

 "That's like the third fire hydrant this week," Blubs said, surprised.

 "You're right; this is too many incidents to be an accident. There's probably something going down. and we have to stop them." Steve said, writing down notes

 "Or," Durland said, raising an eyebrow.

 "Or?" Steve said, curious.

 "We can take off our uniforms and start running around in circles," Durland continued excitedly. Both Steve and Dipper in the background would have a similar reaction of confusion when he said that.

 "Deputy Durland, I don't think that's a…" he was suddenly cut off when he looked towards the sheriff, who already had his shirt off. Steve only looked shocked as blubs pointed towards Durland.

 "Oh, you just read my mind," the sheriff said as both sheriff and deputy suddenly started running around in circles around the broken fire hydrant in the water.

 Officer Steve didn't have any heavy reaction to this.

He simply walked a few feet to a drier spot and sat down next to the curve with his face in his hands.

 Both Dipper and Riley looked at each other.

 "Is this not average law enforcement practice?" Riley asked, confused.

 "There's nothing about the law enforcement in this town that's normal," as he walked towards the mystery shack.

Deeper within the woods of gravity falls, Dipper found himself in an unusual situation; on his walk back, Riley had admitted that as long as they weren't piling down notes, exploring the area should be sufficient if they had nothing else to do. Of course, Dipper wasn't a local, and he knew no actual locations in the woods, except one the hatch where he found Riley.

 Standing right above this still-open mechanical hole, Dipper stared out at it curiously. he didn't know why they returned there. Maybe it was to look for more clues, but as far as he could tell nothing.

 "So, do you like remember anything by being here?" Dipper said curiously.

 "No," Riley said plainly, staring around. "It greatly upsets me that I can't even remember basic areas of my past; this is where I assume the contract between me and the author was broken, but I could never know."

 "And I thought we really had a lead; there is no place to start when it comes to looking for the author; even reading his  journal entries, he's pretty vague about everything?"

"He probably didn't want to be found," Riley said quietly.

 "Yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't find him."

 "I guess you're right," Riley said slightly depressingly as a thump was made in the back of the forest.

 "What was that?" Dipper said curiously; he had been sitting down on the log next to the open hatch, and when he jumped off to look behind him, all he saw was the foggy woods. He took a few more moments of squinting to see what was happening when a few deers ran past them. Some birds, even a few gnomes, were running by in fear.

 "Riley," Dipper said awkwardly. "I don't know what's going on." The thumping in the woods got a little louder. It sounded like something was stepping towards him.

"I'm unaware of the noise as well, but I suggest we don't waste any more time and return to the shack quickly before… well before that," Riley said calmly, pointing.

 Looking toward the woods, Dipper was horrified to see a massive figure within the woods approaching gracefully. He didn't even get a good look at it as he turned around quickly and ran for the trail.

 This has officially been the worst day; his great-uncle made fun of him, and now he's being chased by some gigantic monster. Luckily, he would put on the gas figuratively as his feet rushed. He would assume he would get away, but it was unexpected to see whatever was chasing was keeping up with him at a brief pace.

 Rushing over rocks and woodland debris, Dipper heard the heavy footsteps right behind him. They had to be from something huge, almost the size of an elephant, and by the time he could almost make out the mystery shack, he was grabbed by the back of his vest and lifted up. His danger sense was playing as Riley only looked up to him in fright.

 "Don't worry, you can fight a way out of this," Riley said, yelling at him nervously. If it wasn't such a stressful situation, he would have realized this was probably the first time Riley had shown an actual human level of emotion for the situation; they were obviously worried that their partner was being taken by a monster, and they couldn't help.

Interestingly, he thought Dipper's danger senses wouldn't go off as the massive hand that held him up by his vest turned him around to face his pursuer. The first thing Dipper would notice wouldn't be with his eyes. It would be with his nose. Whatever was holding him stunk terribly. Finally being turned around, Dipper was face to face with a giant brown hairy monster with horns sticking out of his head and cow-like features despite standing on two legs. He was no expert on mythology, but anybody could tell what kind of creature this was.

 It was a minotaur holding him up about 8 feet up in the air, staring at him, breathing heavily.

 "You small boy," the beast unexpectedly spoke in a rough voice that sounded like a biker. "Are you going to eat that?" he said, pointing towards his vest.

 "Finish what?" Dipper said nervously as he looked down at his vest. he had a single vest pocket on each side. One obviously held the journal, but the other held something far less critical he picked up in town a few minutes ago. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small packet of beef jerky and held it out for the minotaur to inspect.

 "Yes! Are you gonna finish that?" the minotaur said, unexpectedly excited.

"Umm, no, you can have it," Dipper said awkwardly as he threw it. The moment he did, the minotaur unexpectedly dropped him and caught the pack of beef jerky with both hands. He would have a pretty okay landing on his feet, but it would still hurt how he landed awkwardly, making his knees hurt as he fell to the ground.

 "Oh man, what was all that about?" Dipper cried out as he saw the gigantic minotaur snacking on the beef jerky he bought.

As he lay on the ground, stunned, Riley came right next to him and inspected him. "You seem to be alright," they said, relieved, looking back at the giant beast. "This creature tried to harm you. Should we escape?"

 "No, I think he just wanted the jerky." he was still confused about the situation. Not even 5 minutes ago, he was relaxing next to a fallen tree, and now a giant monster from Greek mythology was somehow in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States eating leftover jerky.

Sitting awkwardly against another fallen tree, Dipper could only stare as he gorged himself on the jerky. Leaning further up, Dipper had a crazy idea; he's talked to ghosts, he's spoken to gnomes, so what if just maybe.

"So like so like." his voice cracked harshly as he coughed violently to correct himself. "Who are you exactly?"

 The beast suddenly stopped eating as he stared at him. "I am a Manotaur, The creature yelled as it punched the ground. Half man, half…uhhh. Half taur."

"So, like, you're not here to, like, eat me or anything, right?" Dipper said nervously. "I gotta say I'm probably very disgusting, and I haven't eaten pretty much all day; skin and bones, you know."

"Of course not. I was summoned by the almighty presence that binds us all together in the universe," the beast announced proudly.

 "Almighty presence, are you attracted to magic?" Dipper said, surprised.

"Of course not," the Manotaur said, "I'm attracted to jerky!" he yelled as he punched a tree.

 "I don't think jerky truly binds together the universe?" Riley said

Dipper didn't even grace that bit of analysis with a response as he continued to inspect the Manotaur.

 "Oh well, now that you had your fill of jerky, I guess I should go," he said, quickly turning around, trying to get away.

"Hold on there, boy, something's off about you," the Manotaur said, getting closer and inspecting him. Dipper could smell his awful breath and see his oddly human-like teeth at this close distance. All this did was creep him out even more.

 "Is there something wrong?" Dipper said awkwardly.

 "yes, you run pretty fast for a normal human hairless child; let me see something," the Manotaur said curiously, rubbing his chin with his giant hand.

 "No, I don't think they'll be necessary…" As he spoke, a giant boulder was thrown at Dipper; his sense gave him enough time to roll out of the way, and then both he and Riley stared up at the beast, shocked.

 "What's wrong with you?" Dipper yelled.

"You passed the test, although you'll need some more work." the manotaur said excitedly, looking down at him. he was even more confused now as the giant beast opened up his arms with joy and patted him on the back awkwardly and slowly.

 "Test, what test did I pass?" Dipper said, genuinely surprised.

 "You were fast enough to avoid that boulder. I knew you were quick. And that was such a manly dodge, too." the Manotaur praised, flexing at Dipper.

 "It was, really?" he said, a little surprised, standing up straight now. "But why would I need to know how to dodge," Dipper said curiously, adjusting his hat.

 "For the great hunt, of course." He said excitedly, "All right now, small boy, hop upon on my back, and we shall head for further preparations. It would be glorious!" he yelled.

 "Whoa, whoa, man, calm down. I have no idea what you're talking about.

What is the great hunt? And why would I need to join."

 "The Manotaur only looked at him, confused. "Oh yes, I forgot humans are so much different from us. The great hunt is when the manliest creatures in the forest all prepare to hunt down a true danger to the forest itself."

 "Wait, a true danger to the forest and wait manliest creatures? Are you guys trying to stop some big threat before it hurts people?"

 "Yes!" the Manotaur cried as if he was recounting a terrible memory. "The terrible beast in the mountains will soon be so strong we won't be able to stop him. That's why we're preparing a great hunt; we will take him down with me and the other Manotaur."

 "That's cool and all," Dipper said, rubbing the back of his head, "But why would you invite me."

 "Because I've never seen such speed from such a tiny noodle-armed creature, you were like a deer but even skinnier and somehow almost more pathetic." the Manotaur said as if he was complimenting him.

 "Thanks, man," Dipper said sarcastically, "Well, I guess I'll go."

 "But don't you want to be manly and learn the true secrets of manliness? Then I can see you turning into a real man and saving the forest with us," he yelled out into the forest.

 "The secrets of manliness? is like what lifting weights." Dipper said, thinking out loud.

 "No, being manly is so much more than strength. It's the attitude. It's the spirit. I see potential in you; come with me, boy, if you wanna be a real man."

 "Real man?" Dipper said curiously.

 Riley looked down at him skeptically. "I suggest not buying into whatever the Manotaur is saying; while there is no record of them in the journal, subscribing to the beliefs of newly encountered groups does not sound like a wise decision."

 Dipper's only response was to whisper into his hands so the Manotaur could not hear him. "But if we follow him, we get to learn all about his race and customs, more information for the book, and also save the forest from some threat."

 Riley suddenly quieted themselves as they thought about it for a moment. "We should follow."

"Manotaur, I'll take your request and help you stop the great danger to the forest."

 "Excellent, now climb on my back hair," the Manotaur said, leaning down and revealing his disgusting pelt to Dipper. Dipper only stared at him queasy momentarily before returning to the Manotaur.

"Is this really necessary?" Dipper said, almost disgusted.

 "Of course! The Manotaurs are the fastest mode of transportation in the forest." Within a moment of awkwardly grabbing his back hair, Dipper was whisked away into the forest.

In the middle of watching the forest zoom by in a blur, he had multiple regrets. Maybe going with the supernatural wasn't a bright idea. But there was some great danger to the forest he had to investigate; besides, the secret of manliness didn't sound all that bad.

Back within Greasy's Diner, Mabel and Stan were finally finishing up their free pancakes and were prepared to leave.

"Oh, come on, grunkle Stan, You're an old man, and you're lonely. You have to put yourself out there. What's the worst that can happen," Mabel said energetically, scraping off the syrup from her plate.

 Stan grunted angrily. "Listen, kid, the last girl I had was years ago, and she was crazy. really crazy."

 Mabel suddenly sat up seriously. "Stan, when I came to this town, I promised myself I would have an epic summer romance, but I'm seeing the light right now; what good is happiness if it cannot spread to other people."

"I have no idea what you're saying," Stan replied honestly.

 "What I'm saying is I'm gonna help you get with Lazy Susan, And you're going to live a happy rest of your short lives," Mabel said with wonder in her voice despite the morbid topic.

 "Mabel, that sounds awfully nice, like a fairy tale; the fairy tales don't exist; besides, how would I even talk to her? Look at me; I'm a mess." Stan said, leaning down on the table.

"You're right, you are a mess," Mabel said. "And you're also right. It does sound like a fairy tale, but you know what's more powerful than any mess in any fairy tale?" she said dramatically, raising her voice and looking up to the ceiling.

"Uhhhh. Money?" Stan said.

 "No, the almighty power of Mabel, and this power is going to be all full force into getting you a date with lazy Susan."

 "This can only go wrong," Stan says as he gets up, leaving the diner.

 Following behind him quickly, Mabel was excited, already planning out all the ideas.

Back in the forest, Dipper was breathing heavily as the minotaur finally stopped, crashing through a giant mountainside.

 Opening his eyes slowly, he was suddenly met with an entirely different world than he was expecting. If you asked Dipper what first contact with a group of giant manotaurs would be like, he would probably have anticipated something crazier than a huge hangout spot in a mountain cave. Looking up at his entrance, he noticed the ceiling of The Cave had several Manotaur-shaped holes in it. Apparently, them bursting in through the walls was a common occurrence.

 “Manotaurs assemble,” the one that dragged him in said, hitting a gigantic gong. The rest of the manotaurs stopped their manly activities, such as foosball and arm wrestling, to join the center, where Dipper awkwardly sat on a rock.

“This boy shows great promise,” the Manotaur said “he was almost able to outpace me, the fastest manotaur, Chutzpar. “

It was a very awkward situation where most of the Manotaurs were just inspecting him; one slightly shorter manotaur raised his hand but immediately asked a question.

 “Promise? He looks like we should eat him.” One random manotaur cried out as a few others agreed.

 Dipper immediately started backing up, preparing to sprint in any second, but Chutzpar stopped him.

 “No, trust me, brothers.” Chutzpar proclaimed. “This boy shows great speed and agility. He is also very small, so he can reach the den of the great enemy, the one who will ruin our forest.”

The Manotaur seemed to stop in their bloodthirsty nature and think momentarily. All of them seemed to agree.

 "Yes, you are right. He can infiltrate the den of the enemy so he can no longer run." One Manotaur agreed. Many excited responses came, all realizing the genius's plan.

 "But how could he fight off the great enemy?" a greenish one announced. "he is so skinny I've seen grills with more meat on him."

 "Now you know that's an unfair assessment," Chutzpar said. "Our grilling is notoriously bountiful, but trust me, brothers watch this. "

 Dipper was confused for a second as, all of a sudden, another giant rock came flying towards him. It took him less than a second to dodge out of the way, but more of them kept coming as Chutzpar Kept throwing a bunch of boulders at him.

 "Hey man, you said you were gonna teach me manliness, not throw a bunch of boulders at me," Dipper complained, running away.

 "See, brothers!" Chutzpar said, raising his hands. "he is quick and swift as the wind; besides, if we ever want to win, we must rely on more help."

 "He is right," a reddish one announced. "We are so massively muscular and impressively built that we cannot make it through parts of the caves. We must rely on the boy."

 "No!" a gigantic voice cried as the cave shook. Dipper was almost horrified for a second until he looked behind him to see an even more giant cave with the rumbling coming from within. Horrifying, he could hear steps; every one of them echoed with a loud boom. As it got closer and closer, he started to realize the rock he was standing on was just the edge of a gigantic stage, and whoever it was built for was arriving soon.

 All the Manotaurs seemed to be varying colors, but most of them shared bison-like fur and cow-like appendages and features, but not this one.

Standing almost three times the size of a single manotaur. His skin was as black as a starless night, and with red eyes, a gigantic bull appeared out of the shadows and looked down at Dipper.

"You wish to take down the great threat of the forest." The gigantic bull said in a deep voice, almost making The Cave rumble.

 "Umm, I really just wanted to figure out how to be a man, and I guess I could help with the forest monster," Dipper said awkwardly.

 The great leader only seemed to frown at him. "The common rubble of this cave is right; we do need aid getting into the enemy's mountain, and your size is helpful, but I do not approve… yet."

 "yet?" Dipper and the Manotaurs said.

"Yes, yet," the bull almost growled as he looked over his group. "We manotaurs will need your aid in taking down this threat, but I would never let a small human boy who doesn't even know our ways fight our battles. Do you think you can save the forest yourself, boy?"

Dipper looked around nervously for a bit; he noticed that Riley had disappeared. Looking down at his journal, he saw the piece of paper had fallen out, and they had been cut off sometime during his crazy ride on top of the Manotaur; it was better than him losing the whole journal, but it still wasn't good in the situation. he might have needed their advice. Stuck without a single response, Dipper only looked up semi-confidently and looked at the leader.

 "Uh, sure, I think I can save the forest," Dipper said, trying to muster up some confidence.

 "You don't seem confident; that's bad. Confidence is a key trait of a man, but no matter. For what I have planned, that won't be an issue.

Here is the deal: What is your name, young hairless child."

 "Dipper," he said awkwardly. Unexpectedly, all the other Manotaurs in the cave started booing him.

 "That is an insufficient name; from now on, you'll be known as Destructor because you will destroy our enemies." The leader said

 "Oh sure, that works," Dipper said awkwardly.

 "Silence!" the bull said. "Here is the deal: We will teach you how to become a man, we will teach you how to get strong, and we will teach you how to use your speed to aid you in the final battle. All we ask is, in return, you defeat our great enemy and bring back his head," the bull said violently.

"Bring back his head?" Dipper thought this was starting to sound a little bit crazy. As he thought earlier, he never wanted to become a Monster Hunter. He just wanted to become a researcher, which was definitely blurring the lines. He thought about the quote when in Rome, do as the Romans, but he doesn't think that implies a Society of manly half bull Half Men trying to get him to kill some mysterious beast that's apparently ruining the forest. He would have to gauge for more information later, but he was stuck with one option for now.

 "I'll do it," Dipper said, feigning confidence. The entire cave seemed to erupt in cheers as even the leader seemed pumped, breathing fire out of his nose. Dipper could only stare around him as he basked in the craziness he had gotten himself into.

 He really hoped Mabel and Stan were having a normal day.

Chapter Text

Back in the near decrepit rooms of the mystery shack, Mabel had begun her operation in full force. Sitting in the den was Stan on the sofa chair while Mabel, Soos, and Wendy gathered around him.

Soos and Wendy, for the last few minutes, had been curious about what was going on; they had gotten an emergency call from Mabel saying it was some kind of trouble. But once they arrived, they were all met with Mabel standing before their great uncle analyzing.

"So, mabes, what's up," Wendy said?

"Yeah, dude, you said there is an emergency," Soos said, out of breath. Everyone there could tell he had rushed over.

"And there is an emergency," Mabel said, raising her hands in the air. "An emergency of passion."

"Oh boy," Wendy said. "I'm guessing my paycheck is not endangered, right?"

"Who knows," Mabel said suddenly, yelling, "but right now, this emergency affects us all; grunkle Stan has a crush on Lazy Susan."

"The lady at the diner?" Wendy said confused

"That's cool, Stan, you're gonna ask her out," Soos said optimistically. Mabel suddenly stood up quickly in front of the group.

"That's the problem, Soos he's too scared to ask her," Mabel said

"Now hold on, sweetie Stan Pines is scared of nothing," Stan declared, raising a fist

"Then why haven't you asked her out," Mabel said accusingly

Stan scoffed at her '" huh, I'm too busy working all the time."

"Yeah, sure," said Mabel, looking skeptically. Wendy had a much more volatile reaction as she immediately started laughing at his excuse.

 "Wow, Mr. Pines, if looks aren't going for you, you probably could win her over with your humor as long as you're not talking about money," Wendy said

 "What's wrong with money?" Stan said shocked

"Yeah, I don't expect he's gonna be paying for any dates," Wendy said, making fun of Stan.

"And why should I pay for a date" people gotta pay for the experience of going out with all this," Stan said arrogantly as Soos applauded. Mabel looked at him like he had done something very wrong.

"All right, gang, here's what I called you here for; we need to help make Grunkle presentable and get him to ask out Lazy Susan," Mabel said cheerily.

"Mabel stan is like, I don't know, a weird uncle to me," Wendy said, "but you really want my help to get him to go out with people."

"Of course, you went out with tons of people and Soos… he's just always supportive, and we need that in these times," Mabel said as if she was explaining out simple science.

"Mabel, there's a difference between going out with people and having a good relationship. Also, am I being paid to be here?" she asked curiously.

"Wendy wait," Mabel said in the middle of her talking Stan and erupted with a swift 'nope' and she turned around quickly to leave.

"Wendy wait, don't you want Stan to be happy? Don't you just want to find that special person that can help you through thick and thin? Everyone should feel that. Don't you want Stan to feel that? she said with wide eyes.

Wendy just stared up at Stan and just shrugged.

Mabel scoffed for a second, "I read online somewhere that married couples pay more than single people." That got her interested.

"I'm in," Wendy said excitedly.

 "I was already in," Soos said, putting his hands in the air. "But wait, where is little dude," he said looking around.

 "Yeah, shouldn't your brother be interested in helping out?" Wendy said also looking around for Dipper.

"Dipper said he wanted to go check out some stuff in the forest; you know how he is exploring, I guess," she said awkwardly, trying to come up with a convincing lie. "Besides, we need advice on dating Soos. Have you ever had a girlfriend?" Mabel asked.

"Do video games count?" he said seriously as Wendy and Stan gave up a quick snicker.

 "No," Mabel said simply. "But I like your enthusiasm."

 "Get ready, guys; it's going to be a tough challenge; we're gonna fix my great uncle, Stan," Mabel said seriously.

"Why do I feel like I'm already gonna regret this," Stan said seriously.

 "Oh, you probably will," Wendy said smiling, "and that will be the funniest part."

Dipper had found himself in many awkward moments in his life, but when he really thought about it, none of them topped the current situation he was in.

Being only the age of 12 and never being confident in his physical abilities, standing outside shirtless was something he had never imagined himself doing before. Still, now it's precisely the situation he found himself In.

The manly creatures known as the Manotaurs apparently had a strict code of manliness and how to become a man officially. Of course, Dipper had many questions about how their society or biology worked, but that was quickly swept under the rug as they didn't seem to know, care, or bother with knowing anything about the origin. All they knew was that they were the manliest creatures around, and anything else had to live up to their standards, including Dipper.

Outside on top of one of the mountain peaks, Dipper found himself shirtless only in what he assumed to be a fur loincloth from an animal they skinned. He obviously had massive reservations about wearing it. Still, they once again told him this was a requirement to become an official man, as they called it, and he would have to be an official man to deal with whatever creature was ahead.

That was also a thing that was also frustrating was the Manotaurs didn't deem him manly enough to know what his true enemy was yet, saying that when he learned of his existence, it would break his small mind; this, of course, gave him many theories on what could be going on. But sadly, he couldn't bounce off Riley as much like the rest of this stuff and clothes; it was forced off and decided to be given to him only after he completed his manliness training. He should probably stop running into situations like this. It was better than being chased by gnomes, but this first trial wasn't giving him the greatest impression.

On top of a flat top mountain, he stood with a bunch of Manotaurs behind him; sitting right in front of him was a small hole barely bigger than any of the giant creatures fist lying in a hole in the mountain.

While he was still reeling from the situation's awkwardness, Dipper looked down into the hole to see nothing perceivable. His only reaction to seeing it would be to look back at the Manotaurs and see them somewhat cowering in fear behind him

"So I just put my hand in," Dipper says curiously.

"Yes, small boy," the curator of this challenge said. "This is the fearsome, the almighty Pain hole," he said in horror.

"Pain hole?" Dipper said, looking back into the hole and then at the beast. "Is it like full of snakes or something? I don't think I'm immune to snakes."

"No, it's not full of snakes, boy, it's full of pain," the Manotaur barked.

"Pain?" Dipper said, raising an eyebrow. "Just pain? Like if we had to measure on a scale of 1 to 10, what kind of pain are we talking about here?"

 "Silence, boy! If you wish to prepare yourself to fight the beast, you must endure great pain, so you must plunge your fist into the pain hole and learn," the head Manotaur said.

If this were any other situation and any other year of his life, Dipper would probably run away as fast as possible, but looking down into the hole, he could only stare at it curiously; he couldn't see the bottom, so it could be that deep, he also doubted his arm would reach the bottom.

"So I'm a man if I stick my hand in this hole," Dipper said, laughing to himself a bit. "OK," he said depressingly before sticking his hand in the hole.

"Huh, this isn't so bad," he said earnestly as he plunged his hand in feeling nothing. "It's almost as if"

His relief would suddenly be cut off when he felt a sharp pain that felt simultaneously like a bite and a burn go through his skin.

 The Gravity Falls forest would not know the events that happened that day, but they would hear a loud, girly scream echo throughout the forest.

Thirty minutes later, apparently, Dipper had passed out from pain and had woken up slowly and groggily on a small rock in the Manotaur's cave. When he woke up, he saw they were praising him. Apparently, his lasting around 20 seconds before freaking out was longer than most of them.

Dipper still didn't know what was in the pain hole and would probably have to consult with Riley. A horror came to his face until he still saw his stuff sitting unmolested in the corner of The Cave; it concerned him how many notes he would have to catch up from the ghost incident and this adventure. Chutzpar approached him happily.

"Congratulations, boy, you are now one step closer to being a man; how does it feel?

 "Like I put my hand in a garbage disposal," Dipper said, complaining while sitting up, feeling his hand slightly. "Can I have my clothes back now?"

"Ha ha…not yet. It's time for the next challenge."

"Next challenge?" Dipper said, concerned.

"Of course, to be a man, there are many trials in life."

"Do any of them involve being passed out because of a hole in the ground?"

"Your nickname should be Dipper the hilarious, but no, your next challenge will be much easier."

He hadn't even started the challenge, and he was already getting sick of the manotaurs.

Apparently, for some reason, they decided it would be necessary to take him further into the woods to a mysterious-looking riverbed.

This fascinated Dipper; he thought he'd memorized basically every route the river could take someone in gravity falls, but this one seemed to be wholly contained in the deeper part of the forest.

On his first day of craziness, he remembers that Riley had said there was an enchanted side of the forest, so he probably landed there somehow. It would make sense if the Manotaurs were connected to magic in some way, but he doesn't really think they care. But a mysterious river in the forest was not as shocking as what he found in the river.

It was alligators.

Now, one may question how alligators got into an enchanted part of the forest in the Pacific Northwest of Oregon. Those are all questions Dipper asks himself while the Manotaurs push him forward and tell him to cross the river.

"I thought you said this challenge was going to be a lot easier," Dipper said, stunned, looking out to alligators all looking at him hungrily.

"And we did," A Manotaur said. "These angry lizards are nothing compared to the horror that is the pain hole; it is far easier."

"But why do I have to cross the river? How does this help me fight the beast?" Dipper said frantically as another manotaur was pushing him forward.

"It's obvious if you can fight these minor species, you'll have no problem with a bigger challenge; real men work their way up progressively," the Manotaur said, holding up a finger as if he was spilling out some wise ancient knowledge.

"I'm going to die," Dipper said, getting pushed progressively further.

"That's the spirit, boy; once you accept you could die, then you truly become a fearsome warrior; now go!" One mighty push with two Manotaurs doing it this time had Dipper almost stumble completely headfirst into the river.

This moment would be a rush for Him as the moment he was pushed towards the river, his danger sense glared at him, and he quickly jumped to the right of the bank as one alligator immediately attacked, missing. The Gator quickly thrashed in the water, adjusting itself to lunge at him again. Honestly, he thought this was probably one of the worst situations he's been in so far. As the Gator lunged again, Dipper rolled out of its way, standing up completely now. He didn't really want to fight an animal, but then he realized what the Manotaurs had said: he didn't have to fight. He had to cross swiftly; his brain was processing faster than ever before as the alligator snapped at him a third time. Dipper jumped and landed on its back, hurting it a bit; he almost felt bad for hurting them, but it was him or his life at that moment.

As Dipper painfully landed on the big Gator's back, it flailed around even more once he jumped almost into the waiting mouth of a second Gator. This encounter would go better for him as he just jumped immediately once more; landing on its back, he could vaguely hear the oohs and ahs of the Manotaurs as he progressively kept stopping on the backs of the menacing reptiles.

The encounter felt like it went on for a whole minute, but Dipper had finally jumped off a final Gator's head and landed on one side of the river, violently breathing as he looked back across to the Manotaurs; they were cheering louder than he ever heard of before.

"He's amazing, this child; he is truly something special," they cried out as he took a break on the side looking at the Gators; they seemed to have frustratingly gone back into the water.

 "I'm not impressed," one of them said "he didn't even beat the Gators; he just ran away; what kind of man runs away," the Manotaur said aggressively.

"You have a fair point; we should subject him to one more challenge."

As Dipper heard the rest of the Manotaurs agree to this, Dipper just breathed heavily, looking back. In shock, the beast he was fighting better be the most horrible thing imaginable.

"This is so going to be worth it." Mabel cried out as she looked at her great uncle.

"Now, Stan, what is the first and most important step to dating a lady," she asked quizzically, holding up a clipboard in a fake pair of glasses.

"Having her pay for the meals," Stan said. "You know, equal rights, that's what they like, right."

Mabel stared at him, confused for a bit, waiting to see if he was genuine or not, but when he didn't pipe up, she just sighed.

"No, Stan, the most important part about dating a lady is being presentable; now, how would you describe your current attire," Mabel said, smiling.

"Business casual," Stan said happily, showing off his suit; despite having a strong eye for fashion, Mabel had never really observed his suit in finer detail until now. Now, it was starting to make sense why her great-uncle was wearing a suit when he didn't seem like the kind of person to pay for one. Firstly, it was most likely just for show and to give him some extra personality on the tour; second, it was clearly one of the cheapest suits she had ever seen in her life, not that she'd seen a lot; there was a couple hastily patched holes some holes that weren't patched at all, a couple of stains from varying condiments and his pockets were almost over stuff with miscellaneous pieces of paper.

Mabel frowned a little bit at his response.

 Wendy, who was in the back of the room at the table with Soos, would finally speak up. "Do you call it business casual because you're in a business suit?" she said curiously, not paying attention.

"Is that not what business casual is?"

Mabel groaned loudly as she hit her head with the clipboard; this was going to be harder than she thought. She would suddenly get her cheery demeanor back as she looked over her relative.

 "Oh, I have an idea," Soos said. "What if we ask her out to dinner to her face?" Soos said, acting like he came up with a brilliant idea.

"That's the problem, Soos," Mabel wined. "Stan can't even ask her out; that's what we're trying to build up to, not the date itself."

 "Oh, then I'm out of ideas," Mabel heard while Wendy laughed at that.

 "Yeah, this is kind of an impossibility," Wendy said jokingly.

"What do you mean impossible? I'm a great-looking guy for my age," Stan said

"How old are you?" Mabel asked, curious.

 "Like I'm ever going to tell you that."

"No offense, Mr. Pines, but I'm just saying you don't really put in any effort," Wendy said honestly, going back to her phone at the table.

"Oh, and you put in tons of effort," Stan said sarcastically.

"No, I don't put in any effort at all. I'm just naturally charming; why do you think Stony Davidson asked me out the first day we met." She said, smiling.

 "Let's not bring up Stony Davidson," Stan retorted. "No good punk stole from my register, and what are you talking about? I have plenty of charm in me."

"If you say so," Wendy said, "you kind of give off the vibe of a, I don't know, those guys who sold wacky inventions door to door decades ago but kind of drunk."

 "What do you say? I did exactly that," Stan said, genuinely amazed. "you know me so well. he said, honestly happy."

 "Well, this helps me segway to our second point." Mabel cried, "Personality!"

"Personality easy. I have loads of personality."

 "Great," Mabel said, holding up the clipboard and writing down something. "So Stan Pines, tell me about yourself; what makes you the ideal candidate for a lucky lady."

 "I'm rich," Stan said as awkward silence began; everyone waited for him to continue, the only disruption being Soos clapping.

 "Anything else," Mabel said, twitching her eyes a bit.

 "not really," Stan says awkwardly, scratching his back. Even Soos saw this as bad as he stopped clapping, and Wendy held back a laugh.

 "Stan, come on, you gotta give me more than that; also we're not rich."

 "Mabel, listen, from my life experience, the easiest way to get a lady is to lie and say that you're rich and hope she never finds out or is too late to find out; at least that's what my mom told me," Stan said, reminiscing.

"Well, that's certainly an opinion," Mabel said awkwardly. "But definitely not enough; what do you like to do for fun? What are your hobbies."

 "making money," Stan said honestly; he would reel back for a moment when he saw Mabel glaring at him, holding the pen and the clipboard a little tighter.

 "I mean, I really do enjoy fishing," Stan said, thinking hard.

 "Perfect fishing, that's a great starter; we saw her on the lake the day we all went fishing; you can definitely bond over that," Mabel said excitedly writing that down.

 "Yes!" Stan said celebratory

 "Now that we have something for you to talk about, finally, let's work on your introductions, and I have just the perfect person to judge."

 A few minutes later, Soos would come out in an almost identical uniform and makeup to Lazy Susan.

 A little shocked, Wendy was still sitting at the table and looked at Mabel curiously. "Why did you have Soos dress up as a woman."

 "We need standard practice; what did you want to do it," Mabel said curiously.

 "Huh, no," Wendy said, laughing a bit as she returned to her phone. Stan, who'd been sitting on the couch, looked at Soos curiously.

 "Alright, now, Grunkle Stan," Mabel announced. "I need you to show me how you would introduce yourself to Susan before asking her on a date."

 In an awkward moment, Stan would take a few paces towards Soos, and they would stare each other down. Mabel hoped he would have an effective plan, but that would all be dashed immediately as he spat in his hand and held it out to Soos.

 "So, do you have any money," he said gruffly; before he could continue his attempt, Mabel had suddenly yelled, "No, no, no," as she ran over to them.

 "Stan, what was that? That's not a proper introduction."

 "What are you talking about? Money's a great opening; everyone's always interested in money whether losing it or gaining; it's how you get attention, sweetie; you'll learn that if you enter the business world."

 Mabel groaned loudly and put her head on the clipboard.

 'I hope Dipper's having a better day than this,' she thought, frustrated.

"What does this have to do with being manly?" Dipper cried out, surprised. When the Manotaur said one last challenge, he expected one last challenge, but apparently, they didn't know the basic counting systems. So, instead of one final challenge, he had been subject to many other challenges, the last being his 20th. All of them were relatively short, none of them taking over 10 minutes, but it was still annoying. This final one wasn't even the most difficult; he could really tell they were probably running out of things for him to do. Just two minutes ago, the Manotaurs had instructed him to climb a tree, which he was halfway up. If he had still been in Piedmont, CA, he probably would have already reached the top, but the massive trees of this forest were giving him complications as he was only halfway up while still yelling down at the Manotaurs who were chanting to his annoyance.

 "What do you mean Destructor? climbing a tree is a manly activity." "Yeah," they all cried out in unison as Dipper stumbled on a branch. He had never liked heights, but that was pretty normal human emotion if you're over 30 feet in the air, only climbing up trees. Honestly, he believed this whole situation was going off the rails. The beast weren't that intelligent, so he was thinking there could be a way just to trick them into telling him what the monster harassing them was, and he would go there and stop it.

 It would take just a few more minutes before he could successfully climb to the top of the tree, and once he was there, he was a little stunned at how easily he could see nearly the entire town.

 "You did it! You are now a true man!" the Manotaurs cried out in celebration. Dipper sat at the top of the tree, his hands hurting a bit as he was tired from climbing already.

 "So I can come down now?" he yelled.

 "Of course, you must begin your final preparations for the great hunt now."

 Now Dipper was a little excited for nearly the entire day he had been led around and tested with his physical and mental abilities, as they exposed him to manly songs and posters for whatever reason. He could only assume they believed exposure to manly posters would make them more masculine, but Dipper wasn't really feeling that. he was glad he had a good memory and could tell Riley about all these later.

 It was an awkward climb back down the tree. He never would have guessed going down a tree was just as hard as going up, but a few broken branches showed him that truth.

 The towering beast applauded him once he got to the ground, and Chutzpar approached him.

"Now, boy, are you prepared for your induction into our ranks of being a real true man?"

 "I guess," Dipper said, a little tired, scratching his arm.

 "What was that? A lack of confidence; it sounds like you are not truly a man at all," he said jokingly, getting laughs from the crowd.

"No, no, nothing like that," Dipper said. "It's just that I'm a little tired from all these challenges, but I'm pumped up now; show me the beast, and I can protect the forest."

 "Yeah," repeated all the other Manotaurs cheered as they headed to The Cave, "a new man shall be crowned." Picking him up, he was lifted back to The Cave in a rush of running Manotaurs, all excited for his indoctrination or whatever he could piece together was going to happen.

Back within The Cave, the scenery had slightly changed, and Dipper was shocked to see this. All the games and most of the manly accessories were removed from the main room, only leaving a bunch of torches that cinematically lit the room with fire. All the members of the Manotaur tribe were gathered around as Dipper was led to the stage he was first introduced to the horde on; the only difference was their great leader, Leaderaur was already standing there looking down at Dipper expectedly.

 Chutzpar would speak first as he placed Dipper on the small stage before the gigantic Manotaur.  “Great leader and strongest of the manotaur, I present to you this hairless child who is no longer a hairless child; he is now a hairless man.” The moment he announced, the entire cave went up in celebration except for the leader, who just stared at him.

“ he has completed the challenges?” the great Manotaur says.

 “Of course,” Chutzpar responds quickly. “Will you grant him the blessing of being a true man?”

 “Not yet,” The leader said as they held up his hands. “Do not feel ashamed, boy, but I will only give you access to our tribe and resources to our mountains of barbecue and games if you complete the task I will give you?”

 “Please don’t say I have to cross another alligator-infested river?” Dipper said, tired.

 “No, something much more dangerous. You will fight the beast; that was already your mission, but now this request is simple: take my spear and destroy the beast with it while returning its head to me, and then you will truly be a man.”

 Before Dipper could ask what’s that, The giant leader suddenly stabbed himself in the heart with his fist, and with a slow creaking motion, a bloody spear was torn out of his chest and placed right in front of his feet; it was a surprisingly good size for him, and it reminded him that he still had a sword at home he had forgotten to bring, but that would have been difficult to explain during breakfast.

 Dipper was revolted at the site of the spear being removed, only turning back once the spear was stabbed into the ground right in front of him.

“With this spear, you will be a man,” the great Manotaur chanted as the others hit their hands against the floor in recognition.

"Wait, you haven't told me what I'm fighting and where it is."

 "The beast you fight is in the northwestern peaks of Gravity Fall's small mountains; once you are there, you will enter a cave on the left side, and there will be your enemy. The Multi Bear."

 "The multi-bear? Is it like a bear that can clone himself?" Dipper asked curiously.

 "Its physicalness and ferocity are nowhere near as strong as it's Hersey. Be warned, the boy next I see, you better have the head of my great enemy."

 Dipper wasn't sure about this; it started sounding more like a war than a simple intervention in monstrous territory. "So, like, what this guy do so bad to offend you."

 "offend? he didn't offend me at all. The leader said, "his mere existence is a crime to us."

 "Hey, what's this," a Manotaur asked as he rooted through Dipper's backpack, he would suddenly be shocked as he realized the giant beast's hands were near the journal, and he would have to stop them from damaging it all. Still, he noticed the Manotaur pick out something very embarrassing on his way there.

 The top thirty single of the day, Disco Girl by BABA, was in plain sight; he knew he shouldn't have randomly brought the disk with him around.

 "Umm, no, it's not mine; it's my sister's. She's always, you know, using my backpack too.."

 By looking around, he could tell he was losing the support of the Manotaurs, so he had one bold and risky idea: picking up the spear, he held it high in the sky with both hands and announced, "I will slay the multi Bear, and I will be a real man" he cried out angrily as all the other Manotaurs started cheering for him.

All Dipper had to do was now update Riley on what he knew; there was a creature called the multi-bear that was threatening the forest, and he thought he was ready to stop him. He should probably collect his clothes soon, though.

"Now," the great leader of the Manotaurs cried, "you will head out to defeat the beast alone." The moment he said that, time seemed to stop as Dipper awkwardly held the spear up and looked around the cave. The confusion on his face was obvious as he looked around to see the manotaurs not shocked by this development. Dipper was stunned; each and every one of them was in some state of awkwardly looking around, the once barbaric and overconfident monsters that symbolized masculinity slightly cowering.

 "Alone?" Dipper said, his voice cracking. His voice had done this plenty of times while training, and they had scolded him every time, but now no one seemed to raise a complaint. "You're sending me to fight the beast alone."

 "Of course, you are the only one of us who is small enough to reach inside of his dwelling in the caves. Also, you have proven yourself worthy of taking him down yourself." The leader said, completely straight-faced, that he was the only one of the beasts who didn't look concerned.

 "But no one else. You guys said this guy was a huge threat to the forest, and now you're sending me all by myself," Dipper said. "All you're giving me is a stick with a blade on the end."

 "Silence, boy," the leader cried, "that blade is made from bones outside your comprehension."

  Dipper looked at the spear and could tell it still had a bit of residue from when he pulled it out of his chest; he would just say 'ew' quietly and recoil as he returned to face down the leader.

"Dawn tattoos and war paint, young boy, and then you will fight." Before Dipper could ask what this meant, the Manotaur group suddenly gained their confidence and surrounded him on sides; all of them had placed temporary tattoos onto his arms. he wanted to say the tattoos made him look cooler, but his skinny body mixed with the cheesiness of the manly tattoos didn't help. He almost looked like a Viking or at least a Viking that you would find on a children's TV show. The war paint wasn't that impressive anyway; it was just a few lines of both red and black on his cheeks and body, less war paint, and more of a football player.

 "Now go, young child; you are the forest's only hope. Will you sit down and let it perish?" the leader cried, smoke coming out of its nose.

 "Why do I feel like you guys are totally lying to me about a threat to the forest that doesn't even exist."

 "Oh, he exists," Chutzpar said. "I've seen it myself; it terrified me so bad I thought I was a calf again." He shuddered as the rest of the Manotaurs punched him in the shoulder in what Dipper could guess was solidarity.

 "OK," Dipper said; the Manotaurs made a small way for him as they pointed towards the entrance; it was probably a very awkward situation as he slowly trudged back to the exit of The Cave, only stopping the look back at the group of Manotaurs who are cowering underneath the idea of the mission he had to accomplish. If there's one consistent thing, it is how weird the creatures of gravity falls were. They weren't goofy like the kid's stories Mabel and Dipper would read, and they weren't as brutal as the more adult stories Dipper would read; they were just odd. Not even 24 hours ago, he was fighting a two-headed version of a cereal mascot, and now he's on a quest to defeat some great threat to the forest by himself.

Exiting The Cave and looking into the forest, he came to realize he wasn't that scared of the forest anymore. Sure, its atmosphere was always oppressive, and it felt like there was a constant hum of danger when he was in there, but the training with the manotaurs made him realize the things in the woods were not directly dangerous; some of them were just kind of dumb, some of them could be both like the gnomes.

Taking a deep breath and heading out into the foggy woods, Dipper was now a man on a mission; if there was a threat to the whole area and no one else would step up, he would have to.

 He really wished he knew Marcus's phone number if they even had a phone.

Before he had left out, the Manotaurs had given him one piece of advice that aided him greatly, and that was the location of the enemy's den. They had known about his escape area for months, but they'd never been able to push the advantage and get them.

Another relief about its location was the Cave it apparently stayed in was on what they called the non-enchanted side of the forest. Being the inquisitive mind he was, he was obviously interested in the idea of a non-enchanted and enchanted part of the forest. Still, seeing as he was getting this information from the Manotaurs, it was a vague explanation at best. From the way they put it, and he interpreted it better, the area the humans called home, even places like the mystery shack, was the non-enchanted side of the forest; few people actually lived in the enchanted side, but most didn't even realize it. There was also no geological difference between the enchanted and non-chanted sides to an untrained eye. But he got enough clues to learn, stuff like bigger trees that were also harder to knock down, caves that seemed to appear out of nowhere, and the fluorescent plant life. The more he heard of the enchanted side of the forest, the more it sounded like some kind of trip, and Dipper was somewhat glad he didn't have to venture into it yet.

 When he asked what would populate this side of the forest, their obvious answer was wimps or anything that wasn't them. Dipper could only assume it included races like the gnomes. Unfortunately for him and Riley, who had been summoned secretly when he was pushed out of the door, after a few questions, they yelled at him to get going and complete his manliness training, then save the woodland area.

The atmosphere of the forest was still heavy, but Dipper trudged through it; he was starting to take in more details about the land he'd always had a good memory of, so if he got lost some time, he would probably remember his way back.

"Do you think I'm insane for trusting them?" Dipper said honestly, trudging through the forest; he had recovered his clothes, and he had lied to them, saying sure he was a real man, but he still felt more manly with his stuff on. They bought that somehow. Ignoring his easy deception once he got his stuff and left

 "Trust is a difficult thing to give out to the supernatural, the author said this once, but if there really is a threat to the forest and we can gain more effective research on the inhabitants of it, maybe we can trust a little bit," Riley said earnestly it was kind of confusing him why they made their body go over objects like him, he knew they could just phase through stuff.

"Yeah, but what about this great threat? All they said is I'm ready to fight it, so it can't be that strong, right? Or what if it's really strong, and they just want to sacrifice me to it." Dipper said, holding the spear up and scratching his head with his other hand.

"Then turn back and cease the investigation until you feel more comfortable," Riley said honestly.

 "No," Dipper sighed. "I already made a promise to them. Besides, if I don't do what they ask me after training, they might, I don't know, hunt me down or something, let's just go."

 Dipper's journey across the Gravity Falls forest would be far, shockingly uneventful, and quick, apparently; the caves the Manotaurs lived in were actually pretty close to the ones they dreaded. Dipper felt like he'd been training all day, and he didn't see the sun setting yet. That was good for him; he didn't want to stay out in this forest at night. It didn't take an expert to know spookier things came out in the middle of the night.

 As Dipper doubted he was even missing dinner right now, he walked upon a change in the environment as the green woods suddenly turned into a grey rocky terrain, all leading up to an open cave.

 Riley stared at The Cave blankly and then backed down to Dipper. "The creature known as the multi-bear Is said to reside there. Do you think you can stop it?"

"No, But apparently, they say I'm strong enough to fight it already," Dipper said.

"Yes, but they were also terrified of the beast. I say we approach cautiously, identify the creature, and don't seek any engagement at first."

 "What do you mean by that?" Dipper said

"I mean, we look in the cave, identify a threat, and probably come back more prepared with the sword you were given by the monster fighting spirit instead of a spear made of bone."

"I hear you, but they said this threat was huge, and I don't know if we have enough time to get back to that shack before it begins. I just wish they gave me more details."

 "You should have demanded more details," Riley said.

 "Yeah, those didn't seem like the kind of guys you could demand to; let's just take a peek. The moment He said this, a large roar was heard from the cave; it almost sounded like a man mixed with a wild animal, and it was probably a warning. In Fear, Dipper held the spear out before him and slowly ascended the rocks toward The cave.

Back at the mystery shack, Mabel was on her last legs figuratively. She loved her great uncle Stan as much as she loved the rest of her family, even with what limited time they had together, but she would not lie to someone forever, especially herself; this whole situation was frustrating.

The entire day they had off, Mabel had made it her personal mission to prepare her great uncle to ask out Lazy Susan, and every single attempt to improve him in some way, he had failed spectacularly, smiling, makeup, clothing, basic etiquette had all failed somehow only leaving spectators like wendy with more content to laugh at.

 Right now, Maple leaned back in her chair, tired in the den, looking at a photo she had printed out of Stan just a few hours ago; back then, he looked so normal, or just as his normal Grunkle self, still a little messy but acceptable to go out in public. But now it's like the past few hours of help somehow degraded him even more; it's like the more effort that's put into Stan, the weaker he gets. 'how is that even possible?' she thought.

 "Arg, what am I doing wrong?" Mabel complained out loud. Stan just looked at her, confused. "Also, Stan, what happened to your clothes," she said as she noticed he was in his underwear and a white T-shirt.

 "Well, I don't know," he said, confused looking down on himself

From the table across the den, Wendy looked at Mabel sympathetically. "Come on, mabes, I think you tried hard enough, but you gotta realize there's a difference between teaching an old dog new tricks and just completely changing the dog."

 "What?" Mabel said, confused, looking at her.

 "What I'm saying is Stan is well…" Wendy said, cringing a little looking at him. "Stan, he's too Stan to change if you know what I'm saying. It's like if I asked you to stop being so energetic or me to be so cool or Soos to stop being awesome."

 "Aww, thanks, man," Soos said from the background, smiling brightly.

 "Mabel, I know it's a little weird to say out loud to a 12-year-old, but you can't change who you are for a relationship; trust me, I did it a lot of times and notice how many of my boyfriends are still around zero," Wendy said smiling at her.

 "But, like, aren't you afraid you'll be alone? I'm just trying to help him find that special someone everyone has." Mabel looked a little depressed. "Is it just bad? I just want my great-uncle to be a little happy. Is it bad I think everyone should be in love and happy?"

 Wendy's only response was to laugh at her, but not in a condescending way. "Mabel, every few moments, you prove to me why you're one of the best people I've ever met, and yeah, I'll find that special someone one day, as you said, but I'm not going to change my whole personality to be with them I want to find someone who thinks I'm cool and if Lazy Susan thinks that Stan is cool, then she's cool with Stan."

 Still leaning back in the chair, sad, Mabel suddenly got wide-eyed and jumped up; the sudden burst caused Wendy to back up quickly, almost tripping. When she looked back at Mabel, she saw she had a gigantic smile on her face.

 "Wendy, you've just given me an idea," Mabel said, smiling and running upstairs quickly.

 Once she was out of the den, Wendy only smiled awkwardly at everyone else. "Man, I really hope I didn't give her another bad idea."

 Before anyone could respond, she rushed back downstairs with Dipper's camera and hit an energetic pose.

 "Everyone, we're heading back to Greasy's Diner." Mabel said, preparing to leave.

 "Wait, are you serious?" Stan said, confused. "Weren't you almost declaring this whole project a failure like 5 minutes ago?"

 "Yes, and that was before I saw the light," Mabel said energetically. "Come on, Grunkle Stan, don't you wanna find out If love still lives between that money-grabbing heart."

 "You don't have to be so rude about it," Stan said, walking out.

 Mabel cried out to both Soos and Wendy. "Come on, team, if my calculations are correct and Wendy's advice was right, I think I've just cracked the code."

 Wendy, Soos, and Stan looked at each other awkwardly as they all followed the girl anyway into Stan mobile.

 Once they rolled off, Wendy from the back seat looked up to Mabel, who had claimed the front passenger seat concerned. "Hey, Mabes, not to doubt you or anything, but you know what you're doing."

 "Of course, I know what I'm doing, Wendy. I'm creating romance," she said energetically as Stan looked at her awkwardly while driving at full speed. Interestingly Mabel observed while she was still getting used to Stan's driving, Soos and Wendy seemed perfectly acclimated to it.

After a drive that was less rushed than their initial time heading up Greasy's Diner this morning, Stan Mabel and the mystery crew had all gotten out after Stan nicked a car in the parking lot.

 It had a Gideon gleeful branded license plate, so there were no real hard feelings about it as Mabel laughed and ran inside to confront Susan.

 As all three trailed behind her when she sprinted at full speed, Mable quickly opened the door and ran inside.

"Lazy, argh!" Mabel cried out a few feet into the door after bursting in; she tripped over the hole still left in the ground as multiple visitors looked at her like she was crazy. By the time she got up, the rest of her group had caught up with her.

 "Have you ever tried out for track?" Stan said, breathing heavily as Soos was helping him up a bit.

 "No, but that doesn't matter now. Lazy Susan! We need you." Mabel yelled

 "Over here," Lazy Susan cried energetically as she was pouring a man's coffee; she smiled and waved at the group happily as she turned to face them, not realizing she moved the pot slightly so the coffee would land into a man's lap, him screaming a bit."

 No one seemed to acknowledge this primarily because it was a normal situation with coming here, but now Mabel, a disheveled Stan, Wendy, and Soos were staring down Lazy Susan.

 "Susan, I would love to make a proposition to you," Mabel said happily.

 "A proposition?" she said, confused

 "Yes, how would you feel if you went on a date with my great uncle?" she said simply. Both Susan and Stan were shocked at how forward Mabel was about this, but she continued before they could even recover from this announcement.

"Susan, I'm not gonna pretend to know how life is; in fact, I get all my knowledge of older people from my parents and high school dramas, but if there's one thing I know, romance never dies, and if two people really want to get with each other why can't they get with each other especially when they're so alike."

 "So alike?" Susan and Stan at the same time.

 "Yeah, you're both old; oh Wait, sorry, but you're both energetic in your own ways, and you both have great personalities while running your own businesses. You too could be awesome together, and sure, I know my great uncle isn't exactly the number one most handsome 80-year-old man probably."

 "I'm not 80," Stan said, a little offended.

 "Anyways," Mabel continued, "what I'm saying, don't be shy, please give it a shot. Don't you guys want to spend the rest of your lives happy with each other? If you get the chance so, why not go for it? You learn nothing new by being shy."

 Susan stared at Mabel for a second, who was smiling at her nervously but then looked up to Stan, who was just plain nervous.

 "Is this true, Stan?" Susan said slowly.

 "Oh yeah," Stan said awkwardly. "Ever since I started talking to the town, you've always been different. No matter how many coffee cups you spilled in my lap."

 Susan laughed lightly at this.

 "So what do you say," Stan said awkwardly.

 Susan unexpectedly pointed up one hand and walked away. Stan didn't think he got the message as he just sat in one of the booth seats and looked a little sad. Soos, Wendy, and Mabel all followed him into the seating area.

 "Well, businessmen take shots. Sometimes they miss," Stan said

"Don't worry, Stan, I'm gonna find you old ladies, and soon you'll be beating them off with a stick; there'll be so many."

 "That sounds terrifying," Stan said. Before he can get into his backup plan, a notepad was suddenly thrown onto the table as the group looks up towards Susan.

"You should call me," Susan said. We can go on a date tomorrow night at the club restaurant. "Just you and me unless you don't have a babysitter for your kids."

 "Oh please, I leave these kids alone all the time unattended," Stan laughed awkwardly and happily. As he and Susan started chatting each other up, Wendy and Soos looked towards Mabel.

 "Good job dog," Soos said, giving Mable a fist bump, which she greatly accepted.

 "Yeah," Wendy said, ruffling her hair a bit. "I should have known if there was one person who could pull this off, it would be you. You're a miracle worker, Mabel."

 "Yep, that's just me, the miracle worker matchmaker Mabel; wait till Dipper finds out what I did today… Oh man, where's Dipper?" Mabel said, surprised. "I should probably call him," she said, pulling out her phone.

Entering the cave proper, Dipper could only be amazed. He can honestly say he's never been in a cave before, but then he realized he had when he was getting chased by a giant lake monster. Maybe one day he'll explore a cave without the supernatural justification, but from what he can tell, supernatural is what his life was now.

 Holding on to the spear like his life depended on it, which he was pretty sure it was, he raised it forward, trying to adjust his eyes to the cave's darkness as he shuffled in slowly. Unfortunately, the darkness of the cave was starting to get to him as when his eyes were still adjusting, he had tripped over a small object on the ground. It's about the size of a coffee table, but then Dipper finally had a great idea to find out what it was. Dipper pulled out his cell phone and sprayed light from the flashlight over the object to find out it was a skull, not just a human skull but the skull of a Manotaur; what other kind of large bull was there in this side of the forest?

 "The multi-bear ate a Manotaur; this thing must be dangerous," Dipper said, whispering to Riley, who was inspecting the skull beside him.

 "I don't think the skull was eaten," Riley said. "It seems too clean; we should take it back for research purposes."

 "Oh, that's actually not a bad idea," Dipper said, "but we might need to carry it after we're done, you know, with the multi bear, which, what do you think a multi bear is by the way?"

"Most likely a lot of bears," Riley said. "The idea of cloning was not bad, but I can't for the life of me understand how a bear would learn to clone."

"Probably the same way a Manotaur learned to play foosball," Dipper said lightly. Even though he was in the middle of a conversation, he was still being very quiet; this would all come to an end as a phone rang and a bright picture of Mabel's face appeared on his phone, with the Dreamboat high theme song playing.

He swears he should not give her access to his phone again, hearing that. The loud noise of the phone would be stopped as Dipper answered it, backing up a little bit towards the cave entrance. He used the flashlight again to look over the cave, but he saw it was relatively small and nothing inside.

 "Yes, hello, Mabel; what's up?" Dipper said, a little anxious. "I'm kind of in the middle of something right now."

 "Wait, what are you sure, or are you still feeling the smile dip," Dipper said, his voice raising a bit.

 "What's going on?" Riley asked, walking up to him, "Is your sister in any danger."

 He would wave off Riley as he continued speaking to Mabel, "What! That’s most insane thing you've ever done."

 "Please inform me what's going on; you sound as if something serious is happening."

 Continuing to wave Riley off as he spoke, neither he nor Riley would realize something in the background of the cave. A large rock was slowly being moved to the side as a pit underneath was revealed.

 "OK, yeah, I'll be there later, Mabel. Just don't do anything stupid." He hung up the phone as Dipper stared directly at Riley. "You know it's hard to concentrate on conversation when you're speaking to me."

 "It's your fault for leaving me uninformed about what has occurred with your sister."

"Probably nothing you would care about," Dipper said honestly as he fumbled with the flashlight he had turned it off while he was making his call.

 "I care for your sister almost as much as I care for you. I wish not to be uninformed of any aspect, especially when knowledge can further be enhanced and gained from it."

 "Nice to know you care," Dipper said, frustrated dealing with the phone settings. "But it was nothing she somehow found our great uncle a date."

 Riley stared at Dipper for a few seconds. "You're right; that wasn't something I really cared about."

"Still happy to see you care about my sister," Dipper said reassuringly.

 "Let's move on to a different subject, like how inefficient you are turning on your flashlight," Riley said; if Dipper were more curious, he probably would have thought they were trying to change the conversation.

 "Yeah, don't worry, I can change it so it's brighter; when I turn it on, let's see," Dipper said curiously. The moment the light finally flashed on, not even a few feet away from them, at the end of the cave was a large, hulking presence that neither he nor Riley had seen.

 They were both stunned as they were met with a giant bear much larger than a regular black bear and even a polar bear. Standing on two legs with short black fur, a bear with not one head upon its shoulders but multiple all around its body stared directly at them. Multiple heads surrounded this shoulder on its knees and back, even its sides; it was disgusting to look at from Dipper's opinion. For a moment, he was reminded of the two-headed dog he had encountered in the store, but this was worse because he knew this was real, and this one was angrily staring right in front of them.

 Dipper was almost too stunned to hold out his spear when he heard the bear roar at him. Of course, it spoke to him just because the day couldn't get any more shocking.

"I heard that music from all the way into my den; who dares play the Dreamboat High original movie soundtrack in my cave."

 If Dipper weren't so petrified, he would be more confused about how the bear or amalgam bear knew of Dreamboat High specifically. Still, right now, he was too concerned with the fact that this monster existed, and it was speaking to him because everything seemed to speak in this forest.

 Dipper and Riley looked at each other quickly, encouraging him to speak with it.

 "Multi bear, you've been accused of being a great threat to the forest that will destroy everything," Dipper said as if he was accusing him of something. He's still nervous underneath all this. The large bear creature's response was simple as it frowned at him and then spoke in its soothed voice.

 "Ah yes, another mind corrupted by the Manotaurs; you know there are easier ways to seek your end, like jumping off a cliff. If you think I threaten the forest, then I'll just have to show you what a true threat looks like." the multi-bear said arrogantly as his eyes started turning white and his teeth were growing a little more.

Dipper's danger sense obviously went off as the bear charged him, slashing at him quickly. This should have been a hard fight; this should have been one of the most challenging things he'd been training for an entire day to go against.

 But it wasn't.

 There were three attacks from the multi-bear, and all of them were almost as efficient as the other one, each swipe, each attempted tackle. I was met with a miss. At first, Dipper thought this was because he was training more or even just at all, but no, after the third miss was slower than he could punch before he was magical, Dipper was starting to realize something was up here.

Deciding to end the fight here, Dipper had a clever idea as the fourth swipe came in; almost as quickly as he attacked, Dipper countered as he jumped behind the bear monster and smacked the spear on the head of the bear in the back. He didn't stab him, but it would still hurt, and then he choked the bear from its main head.

Not a few seconds later, the bear would come tumbling down as it lay on the ground, coughing in defeat.

'That's it?' Dipper thought the great threat to the forest was just a very slow bear monster. When he really thought about it, there had to be more threatening things in the forest, right? The gnomes assembled, the lake monster; he was willing to say the masses of scuttle crabs were probably more frightening than this bear as he pointed the spear toward him.

 "Multi bear, I've been told to seek your head, for you are said to have caused many issues in the forest."

 "So be it, lad," the bear said arrogantly. "I can see what you're adorned in; if you prove yourself a man today by killing me, then do it."

"You're just giving up," Dipper said awkwardly as he looked at Riley.

Riley was only shrugging as they motioned for him to continue the conversation.

 "What did you do?"

 "Why do you ask questions, servant of the manotaurs? You were given a mission to dispatch a threat to the forest, and if that is what you perceive me as, then do it end me. My existence knows no purpose."

 "Hey man, don't say that about yourself," Dipper said oddly, sincerely reaching the spear back.

 "How much of the Manotaurs told you about why you were sent to hunt me."

 "That you are a great threat to the forest, and the only way to prove I was a man is if I… Oh my God, I was gonna kill just to prove I'm a man… what's wrong with me?" Dipper said, looking at the spear.

 "Oh, I guess there's something different with you," the multi-bear said genuinely on his side, looking towards Dipper. "Tell me, boy, why do you wish to prove yourself a man?"

"I don't know," Dipper said awkwardly. "I guess the whole day, I've been kind of emotional about being made fun of and embarrassing myself in front of people. Oh man, I'm just stupid."

 "Not stupid, boy," the bear said oddly sympathetically. "Just emotional, a natural thing for all youth. What's important is that you learn from it and control it, unlike those filthy beasts with horns."

 Dipper then perked up at this. "You seem pretty chill why do the Manotaurs hate you?"

 "Huh, those beasts hate anything that is not subscribed to their theory of muscle mass chaos. Before me, they declared war on the Pixies."

 "They destroyed the Pixies," Dipper said, a little surprised as Riley remembered that for later use.

 "What, of course not, it was the opposite. Have you ever seen Pixies? They stood no chance against the little demons," the bear said, surprisingly fearful. "The reason the Manotaurs declared war upon me is because of how I like to live my life."

 "Live your life?" Dipper said, confused, as the multi-bear led him over to the hole in the ground at the back of the cave. Looking down, Dipper was amazed to see that the multi-bear's den was not far off from his sister's side of the room in decorations.

 "Yes, my habits of collecting human-perceived girly material were frowned upon by the Manotaurs, so they declared war upon me and sent warriors."

 "So you killed one of them?" Dipper said, referencing the skull back at the front.

 "Oh that, that stupid beast slipped and fell on his way up to my cave; by the time I found his corpse, he was already picked cleaned by the Super vultures,"

 "The Super what?" Dipper said, getting confused.

 "Never mind that you'll meet them one day. They accused me of murdering their comrade, and now I've never known peace since."

“Huh, you’re not some threat to the forest; you’re just a threat to everything they believe in,” Dipper said, putting the pieces together.

“So what now?” the bear says, suddenly getting a depressed look on all his heads.

 “What do you mean what now? Dipper asked, confused.

 “Do you think the Manotaurs would allow you to let me live? No, if they figure out you failed and walked away, they will hunt you down, too. End it here and complete your trial. I’m sick and tired of waiting for the end.”

 Dipper looked at his spear, then looked at Riley, and then looked at the multi-bear.

 “You know what you must do,” the multi-bear said, pleading with him, almost crying a bit.

 “Yeah, I know what I gotta do,” Dipper said, having the spear above his head.

"The multi bear is dead!" Dipper announced, holding up a tiny bit of fur in his hands. Standing on the stage back in the cave of the manly beast, Dipper was surrounded by cheering bull people as the leader looked at him skeptically from his higher point.

 "I told you to bring back his head, and you bring me back fur; how is this proof of his termination."

 Dipper looked nervously as he held up his spear, which was covered in a light bit of blood. "Oh great leader of the Manotaurs, I destructor, wish I could have gotten more from him, but he fell off a cliff, and all I was able to grab was his fur and some blood; he wouldn't even grace me with a manly death," Dipper said. Neither he nor his sister were good actors, and Dipper was obviously giving a cheesy act, but surprisingly or unsurprisingly, the Manotaurs bought it up completely. "I guess he was not manly in his life or in his end," Dipper said arrogantly, hearing the cheers from the other beast.

 An unexpected event would happen as Dipper looked upon the leader's visage, seeing him smile.

 "Exactly as I predicted," the leader pronounced as he stood up. "We celebrate new manliness; welcome to the tribe, young boy."

 "Um, sorry, but I'll have to say no to that." Predictably, all the Manotaurs looked at him surprised except the leader, who just sat down questioningly.

 "Speak, boy, why do you reject our offer to join."

 Dipper hummed awkwardly. He really hadn't thought of the plan that well.

"Well… you see, I have a lot of manly responsibilities back at home like, I don't know, chopping firewood. So I can't stay here… After all, what's more responsible, or I mean manly, than doing all the tough work at home? Am I right, guys?" Dipper said awkwardly.

 A large 'yeah' from the crowded beasts pierced through as even the leader pumped his chest in respect.

 "Boy, know that you are always amongst the manly now. The rest of you, I expect you to see each other at the great barbeque tonight; if it is not bountiful as last time, I will eat one of you," the leader cried as everyone started cheering in joy as they ran outside the cave.

Leaving Dipper alone, he turned to Riley, who would be leaning against one of the cave walls for some reason.

 "Do you think they bought it?" Riley says, looking at the mass of cow people running away.

 "I think they're too stupid not to have bought it."

 Walking out of The Cave, he approached the area of the mystery shack when he heard a small twig snap.

Looking over, he saw the multi-bear cowering behind a large rocky area; as he came out to look at Dipper, it was pretty noticeable that he had a patch of fur missing.

 "Were they fooled, boy? Was your act successful?"

 "More successful than I ever thought it would be," Dipper said, smiling.

".. are you saying…do you mean I'm."

 "Yep, all you have to do is live in the more lower side of the forest where the Manotaurs don't go, and you should be safe.

 Suddenly, Dipper was pulled into what he could only call a bear hug as the multi-bear picked him up and swung around in circles and joy.

 "I can't thank you enough, small child."

 "You could stop spinning me," Dipper said, a little out of breath.

 "Will I ever see you again?" the multi-bear asked, genuinely

 "Oh yeah, I'll make sure to find you so we can talk again. Also, I think I would like to get more notes about you and my research if that would be OK."

 "For the person who freed up my life, I would give any information," the bear said genuinely.

 "Oh yeah," Dipper cried out before the multi-bear could walk off. "If you ever encounter a guy in a white mask and a black trench coat, tell them you know me, Dipper Pines. He could probably help you out, or I don't know, not hurt you."

 "I'll take your advice," the bear said as he walked into the woods.

 "Would you look at that mission accomplished?" Dipper said, smiling.

 "Truly," Riley said, standing next to him. The moment the bear disappeared, Riley stared at Dipper, directly hyper-focusing on him, getting his attention.

 When he stared directly at them, their faces were almost a few inches apart, and he could feel the intensity radiating off of them.

 "Do you know how many entries into the journal we will have to fill in based on just today alone? And that doesn't even include yesterday."

 "Oh man," Dipper said, realizing what he was up for.

 "Everything from the Pacific Northwest alligator-like species to the entire Society of the Manotaur to the ghost to the grocery store must be cataloged immediately."

 "Yeah, but my sister invited me to Greasy's Diner for dinner. So I guess we'll have to do it later." Dipper said, smiling a bit as he walked off.

Riley only stared at him. He could tell they were having a slightly annoyed expression. "Procrastination was a trait I did not give you when we first met, and I'm ashamed to see it now."

As Dipper finally appeared in the dining area, he was surprised to see the entire mystery crew and his family eating a full meal with a spot reserved for him. He had closed the journal a few minutes ago so Riley could get some rest and so he wouldn't have to hear them complain about his work ethic. He would apologize tomorrow anyway by working twice as hard.

 "So, how was your day?" Stan said, "Whoa, what happened to your face."

Stan said, a little surprised, pointing his fork at Dipper.

 He was a little surprised to hear this when he turned his phone's camera on his face to see still he had his war paint, as they called it, on his face.

 "Oh, it's nothing. I was just hanging out with these guys who are trying to teach me how to be manly."

 "Oh, how did that go, dude," Soos said in between bites.

 "They asked me to do this awful thing, so I just lied to them. I don't know; I feel stupid for even thinking doing something horrible would make me into a man."

 Smiling at him, Stan gave him a genuine pat on the shoulder as he looked towards him. "well, you're not in jail, so you either got away with it, or you just flat out didn't do it, and you made your own decision the manliest thing" he said waving around his fork in emphasis.

 "You think so?" Dipper said, smiling.

 "Of course," Soos said, "you think I care when someone calls me not manly? Nah, bro, I just don't care."

 "Yeah, I guess that's what I should have done at first," Dipper said, leaning into the table a little tired.

 "How are you already tired," Stan said, amazed. "I let you sleep in this morning, and you're still already tired."

 "I just had a busy day," Dipper said, yawning as another plate was placed before him.

 "There you go, food," Susan said energetically before walking off. Taking a few bites, Dipper enjoyed the taste as he looked back to Stan.

"I gotta say, Stan, you know how to pick a good breakfast place, and good job, Mabel, for getting Stan to go out with her."

 "Hey, how do you know your old man didn't use some of his old game."

 "yeah, OK," Dipper laughed; everyone around the table started laughing at Stan.

 "OK, OK, you win that round, kid," Stan said happily as he took a bite of his food, the whole group enjoying the rest of their day.

Chapter Text

The following days, since the events of Dipper entering the forest and Stan getting a date with Susan, we're relatively quiet. In Dipper's opinion, this was absolutely necessary for what he was going through.

 As he promised to his spirit in the book, Dipper would throw himself into the research of the journal by recording, analyzing, and detailing every single thing he'd seen in the last two days he had failed to record. No matter how enhanced he was, he would have to do far more than soldier through his work as he quickly got tired.

This is where we find the youngest twin, now tired, lying on one of the couches. Instead of the normal sitting area in the den, he decided to rest a bit in the middle of a task given to him by Stan.

 What was this task?

 The task was setting up for the mystery shack's first official dance party; he wasn't joking. In a stroke of genius, as Stan called it, he declared that there would be a party on this date, and he would set up flyers all over town to advertise it to the young people of gravity falls. It was definitely an idea Dipper thought he didn't really think two ways about it as he was never much of a party guy; also, he didn't feel like partying; days of note-taking and trying to work zapped all his energy away, in this brief time Stan was out of the room was when he can finally shut his eyes.

 Unbeknownst to Dipper, as he was lying down, the room around him would be more active than him. Soos and Wendy were busy setting up some supplies, but they didn't really care that he was slacking off. Interestingly, as he was finally drifting off into a brief bit of sleep, a small object wholly covered in blue energy slowly made its way toward his head.

 Boom! An air horn blared right next to Dipper's ear; with an instant, his eyes shot open, and he jumped almost a few feet into the air before landing back on the couch roughly and tumbling off it. Groaning to himself, he looked up to see what had happened; there was an air horn floating a foot above him, which finally dropped to the ground seconds later. Behind it, halfway across the room, was Mabel laughing.

 "Ha, gotcha!" she laughed as she almost fell over giggling.

 "That was a great use of telekinesis, Mabel," Dipper said sarcastically as he saw she removed her hand from the tie, ceasing the magic.

 Dipper had heard the quiet laughs of both Soos and Wendy after his fall, but he just chose to ignore them, that would be until Wendy walked up to the pair of them.

"You know when you said your sister was magical to me yesterday. I don't know why, but I didn't really believe you. Man, both of you kids are kinda crazy." Wendy said, laughing a bit as Dipper looked up sad. His feelings for Wendy were a bit more complex than he would like to think about. Wendy, to him, was everything cool about being a teenager all wrapped into one; it didn't help his complex feelings that he also thought she looked very attractive. Dipper had a very childish thought in his head that if he impressed Wendy, he would pretty much be seen as mature; from what he could tell, Wendy barely looked twice at other people to impress her; he knew he was worthy of something.

Unfortunately for him, if there is one thing more powerful than Mabel's telekinesis, her sense for a relationship is absolutely insane. The moment she saw Dipper pause for even a second while looking at the older girl, Mabel got a big smile, and he could tell with her devious smile she was plotting something.

"Well yeah, you know Mabel," Dipper said, "always full of surprises, whether you want them or not," he said, looking at his sister directly, trying to give her a message.

 Mabel only continued to laugh at him quietly, as she knew what he was trying to say but was already planning on ignoring it. This brief interaction was interrupted when Stan suddenly burst through the door near the stairs and looked out throughout the crew.

 "Alright, Crew, gather around; final announcements are here," Stan said, waving his arms around and a clipboard rounding all the workers up in the middle of the room and standing in front of them while they lined up.

"Alright party people and Dipper," he said, both him and the twin glaring at each other. "Tonight's gonna be the mystery Shack's first proper annual dance party, you know what that means."

 "Dancing!" Soos said as everyone just kind of stared at him awkwardly.

 "Yes," Stan replied. "but it also means we gotta be on our A game tonight; I created this party so the youth of this town could finally appreciate their local business and spend some more money here."

 "So your first idea of attracting the youth to the mystery shack was to throw a dance party," Dipper said curiously. "Stan, that seems a little overly complex."

 "Your nickname should have been party pooper," Stan says, not even looking up from the clipboard. "Anyways, now handing out very key assignments."

 "First and obviously, Soos, you'll be the DJ."

 "Oh man, I'm so honored to be chosen," Soos said, almost crying

 "You begged for like 2 hours while we were getting the supplies," Stan said casually, moving over to Mabel.

 "You," he pointed towards her. "I can barely trust you with regular work, so I'm just going to have you run loose and get the people excited; you're good at partying, right."

 "Stan, I basically invented partying in Piedmont; just ask what happened to the elementary school gym three years ago, and no one will ever forget," she said, smiling.

 "That's the scariest thing you've ever said to me," Stan said, moving over to Dipper.

 "Geez, kid, I thought I was telling you to get some sleep; you like narcoleptic or something," Stan said, looking at the bags under Dipper's eyes.

"No, I have just been getting in my summer reading. Don't you know you just can't put down a good book?" Dipper said awkwardly. The moment he said this, Stan only looked at him disappointed.

 "Man, kid, you can't even stay up late and do cool stuff. Your task is, I don't know. Just don't make everyone feel down, party pooper."

"Oh man, so I'm not getting paid for the day?" Dipper complained, barely paying attention though.

 "Yeah, neither is your sister," Stan replied. Mabel would release a quick 'Boo' as Dipper only gave him a thumbs up as he moved on to Wendy.

"And lastly, you. Now, I don't want to hear any complaining, but you gotta work the ticket stand."

Stan immediately recoiled because he knew what was going to happen.

 "Oh, what, Mr. Pines? You're having a party at the shack, and you're not gonna let me join in," Wendy complained.

"Yeah, I knew that was coming," Stan replied quietly, looking back at the clipboard. He calmly flipped over one piece of paper and then showed it directly to Wendy's face. "You see that? That's how many absences from work you have, so while I kind of feel bad, I really shouldn't."

 "Ohh man, but you're letting the twins not work," Wendy complained.

"The twins are 12."

 "And I'm 15," she replied back quickly.

 "You make a fair point, but I need someone to run the ticket stand, and I don't trust Mabel with money. and Soos really wants to be the DJ, and do you wanna see Soos upset." Stan said, raising an eyebrow.

"No one wants to see that," Wendy said; she would suddenly get interrupted from her next point when she saw Dipper step out of line and up to them.

 "If Wendy really wants to go inside and party, I guess I could take her job as the ticket stand guy," Dipper said. Everyone could tell he obviously wasn't thrilled about the job, but why not, he thought.

 "You sure, kid, you gotta stay out there and take all the people's money all night."

 "Don't make it sound too boring," Dipper said, yawning.

 "Boring, that sounds amazing," Stan said happily as he patted him on the shoulder and walked off to inspect the supplies; before he could even take a few steps away, both Wendy and Mabel approached Dipper.

 "Thanks, man. I really owe you one or like two. You did save me from a ghost." Wendy said happily, giving him a noogie. "Apparently, all my friends are going to be there."

"Hey, just because you're not working the ticket stand anymore doesn't mean you can slack off," Stan cried from across the room. Hearing that, Wendy smiled back at the twins and then returned to preparing the party.

 Mabel then looked at Dipper and frowned a little bit. "Ticket stand, come on, Dipper, don't you want to party."

 "No," Dipper replied honestly as he started hanging up a few decorations.

"Why not? Doesn't it sound fun, a bunch of people our age all enjoying themselves? Maybe I can find some friends in this town, or maybe I can find an actual pleasant boyfriend." Mabel said hopefully, looking up to the ceiling, her head busy with the idea of what kind of people could show up tonight.

 "It really doesn't sound fun. You know I'm not much of a party person."

 "Oh come on, Dipper, you avoided every school dance that was offered, you barely talk to people at our own birthdays, and you never really use those sick dance skills you got."

 "We don't need to talk about the dance skills," Dipper said quickly.

 "What I'm saying is a dance is a perfect chance to throw yourself out there, and you threw it all away just cause Wendy asked," Mabel said, waving her finger in front of his face. "I knew you got it bad, but you got it bad."

"What are you talking about?" Dipper said curiously, turning back to his sister.

 "I'm talking about your crush on Wendy," she said quietly so Wendy couldn't hear that was the most unexpected thing about this situation was her being or attempting to be quiet. "You're always like, oh, I'm Dipper, of course, Wendy. I'm so cool and mature." She said in her voice that was mocking him.

 "I'm not that bad," Dipper said, "and I don't even know if I have a crush on her. I just don't know. She's really cool, and I want her to think I'm cool," Dipper replied nervously, keeping his voice down while looking at Wendy blowing up balloons in the back.

 "Well then, just be cool; you were super cool when dealing with those crabs, you're super cool when dealing with those wax figures, and the ghost; what's the difference between all those and just talking to someone."

 "Adrenaline mostly," Dipper said honestly thinking.

 "Whatever, I need to get prepared for the party anyway. I have a special outfit in mind that I created, and I've been dying to use it for a situation."

"Is it the 80s-style sweater with the big bow?" Dipper guessed bored.

"Whoah, how did you know?" Mabel said, shocked,

"We share the same room, and you are very loud while knitting. Well, good luck with that. I guess I'll enjoy my night all alone doing nothing but selling tickets."

 "not yet," Stan said, suddenly approaching the twins. "I need you two to do me a favor and go copy these." Before the twins could even ask what he was talking about, they were suddenly handed a stack of advertisements for the shacks party. They reminded Dipper of the ad for the pizza wax opening, as it was deceptive in nature but just goofy enough for people to ignore it.

 He truly believed his great uncle was either the luckiest man on earth or a marketing genius.

 "You want us to go all the way to the copier store?" Dipper said, raising an eyebrow.

 "what? No, we don't need to pay those jackals anything; we are modern people. I fixed up the printer in my office, and now it's as good as new."

 "Oh sweet, we get to go in your office for once," Mabel said excitedly. "Can't wait to find out some stan secrets she said twirling around."

 "Touch anything other than the printer, and I'm not buying anything with sprinkles in it ever again," Stan said.

The moment he said this, Mabel gained a look of horror across her face as Stan chuckled and walked away. Dipper only laughed lightly while looking at his sister's face.

Stan's office is exactly what the twins would have guessed it looked like. Their great uncle was never conventionally organized, and calling him a bit of a cluttered person would be an understatement, so when they entered the office, they weren't shocked to see it filled to the brim with stuff; the only thing marking it as an office was Stan's desk that's about it. Everything in the room looked more like a storage room for paper. But that wasn't important right now; what was important was the copy machine in the corner of the room near the door.

All Dipper could think about when he first saw the copy machine was Stan needed a new definition of the word fixed. It was a standard large white machine, but it looked like it had been run over by a truck 100 times and then taped together recklessly. What Stan would be doing with the copy machine that involved it looks like it survived a war was not crucial.

"Stan thinks this looks fixed," Dipper complained, inspecting pieces off the printer.

 "Of course, it looks fixed it, has duct tape and everything," Mabel said joyously, grabbing the advertisements and hitting the start button on the printer; of course, it started with a horrible rumble, and brief bits of smoke were already popping out.

 "Whatever, let's just print the papers," Dipper said as he put an advertisement flat down on the top of the printer.

 He and his sister were confused by the layout of it. It looked like every other printer, but the features were all warped, and even some buttons were not marked with words but weird symbols. This was foreign, he thought, but he wasn't exactly sure.

 "Where's the start button or print button or whatever?" Mabel complained, inspecting the entire thing.

 "Oh, found it," Dipper said as he pressed the button. The light to print would start briefly but then fade out immediately; it was obviously still broken.

 "Should have seen that coming," Dipper complained as he climbed on top of the printer.

 "What are you doing," Mabel asked, confused, looking at her brother.

 "I want to see if I can fix the thing from up here or at least just hit it a bunch. Do you think Riley knows anything about printers?"

 "Soos probably knows it took you 5 minutes to explain to Riley what a toaster oven is," Mabel said, putting a hand on her chin and thinking a bit. After a few seconds of fiddling around, Dipper said Uh-huh, and then turned to Mabel, smiling.

 "I think I got it," Dipper said happily.

 "Look at you; nice to see you're a handyman. Mabel congratulated him

 "It was nothing special. I think there was just some…AH!" Dipper screamed silently as unexpectedly, while he was sitting on top, the light would go off, and he was scanned. Both twins paused briefly to see if the tray and any paper had come out. Lo and behold, a few seconds later, a printed piece of paper with a shocked Dipper was presented.

 "I gotta say it really captures your paranoia," Mabel says, while Dipper looks at her, a little annoyed as he steps down from the printer.

 "Well, I'm glad to see it works," he says as he prints the advertisements.

 "What do you want to do with it," Mabel says.

 "Do with what?" Dipper asked, raising an eyebrow as he was collecting the now-printed advertisements.

 She chuckled a little bit, getting his attention, and she held up his large piece of printed paper with a scared expression.

 "What do you want to do with you?" Mabel joked around.

 "I don't know, just throw it away," he replied calmly, not even looking back a second time.

 "Oh, you're so not fun; maybe you should get some sleep instead of writing in that book."

 "I like writing in the book, sometimes; besides, Riley thinks I will need this information one day."

"For what?" Mabel said, confused, crumpling up the printed Dipper and throwing it in the trash can with impressive accuracy. Sadly, she would miss anyway, but in a burst of energy, she used the tie to throw the paper in the trash can with telekinesis.

 "Just in case something dangerous happens like I don't know, you use your telekinesis for something wrong," Dipper said, joking around with his sister.

 "What are you talking about? I'm gonna be perfectly responsible with these powers."

 "Mabel, the only time I've seen you use them in the last two days is eating food and throwing things."

 "Yes, Dipper, I'm using my power to the fullest potential; maybe you should start. I don't know… Lifting something." Mabel said, failing to come up with a good comeback for once.

He only shrugged at her and then walked off with all the advertisements. While both twins were arguing about using their newfound abilities, Both failed to notice that the trash can the paper fell into started rumbling slowly. Once the room was clear, the paper would unfurl itself, and a hand would stick out of it, shaking violently.

Much later, as the party was set to begin, no inhabitants of the shack would realize a figure stalking around in the darker hallways.

Back up in the twin's room, both twins were in the early stage of preparing for the party. In what he called an attempt to look more mature, Dipper put a black bow tie on his regular outfit and called it a day. In contrast, Mabel was scrambling around for the perfect attire.

"Dipper, what do you think is the best look, retro 80s or retro 70s?" she asked, holding up two different outfits.

 "Is there a difference?" Dipper said, confused, writing down in the journal immediately after finishing preparing himself. "I thought you were going with the 80s one anyway."

 "You're still writing in the journal," Mabel said curiously. She wasn't upset this time. She was just surprised he still had more to write down.

 "Yeah, I don't expect a lot of people will be at this party; I mean, the advertisements we put up in town can't get that many people's attention right." Dipper shrugged while holding the journal; he immediately looked to the corner of the room and stared there for a second.

 Mabel knew this meant he was paying attention to Riley, who had usually had a knack for staying in the exact few positions whenever they were in a certain room. Whenever they were in their bedroom, Riley tended to stand in two places, the exact end of the room right next to the door or right between both beds near the window.

 "If only Riley had a physical form, they would probably be a better party person than you, Dipper."

 "I really doubt that," Dipper said. The moment he said that he got a sharp look out of the corner. Whatever Riley said to him was probably a comeback that he didn't like.

 "Well, they like dreamboat high, and that means there…" Mabel started

 "Interested in human culture," Dipper interrupted as he was looking between his sister and Riley rapidly. "It's really hard to keep track of conversation when you two keep talking at the same time."

 "How is that my fault?" Mabel complained. The only response she would get was Dipper turning to Riley again, and after a few seconds, he turned back to Mabel.

 "They said they were sorry for not really interrupting you, but you know."

 "Oh wow, super polite too; you can learn something from Riley," Mabel jokes. "Going back to what I was saying, you're really just going to start writing in the journal all the time you're at the ticket stand?"

 "You're right. How many people could possibly show up."

Mabel felt bad for her brother; that's a standard feeling for her to have. She's always been in some sort of situation where she would sympathize with him, but right now, she really felt bad. Her best guess was that this was an attempt to impress an older girl he liked; Dipper had volunteered his night to handle a ticket stand. He thought both he and this night would be relatively quiet, and he would probably spend most of it writing down on the table, but this was sadly not the case for him. The entire ticket stand was swarmed as Dipper, who was never really good at talking with people, was now forced to interact with many customers, all desperately trying to give him their money.

Back inside proper, the party had begun in force as many teens and children were dancing alike.

 Stan and Mabel, who were standing on the top of the stairs nearby, were enjoying the sights for two different reasons: the loud music from Soos was blasting.

 "I gotta say I outdid myself," Stan said arrogantly, dressed in a white shirt with his tie out; Mabel would call this suit business casual casual.

"Yeah, Stan, you threw a great party. Everyone seems to be having fun, and they just got here."

 Stan laughed ", Yeah, they're having fun, and they're also spending money," Stan said as he laughed at the window area where Dipper was getting a bunch of customers.

"It makes me so proud," Stan said, looking at the tons of people begging for entry.

 "Kind of sad Dipper didn't get the opportunity to party, though," Mabel said. That was the first thing to sour her mood since the party began.

 "Eh, he wasn't going to do anything with it anyway; sorry to say this about your brother, but he's kind of a what's the word I'm looking for… "Stan said, holding up a finger to his chin.

 "Introvert?" Mabel said.

 "oh no, I was going to say scaredy cat, but that works too," Stan says before eyeing the snack area.

 "Now excuse me, while I go stop people from taking too much complimentary food," Stan said, rushing over to a teenager who was getting a bunch of cookies and hitting him in the hand.

 "Anymore you'll have to pay," Stan said, shocking the teen before he shuffled away.

 "All right, Mabel, it's time to begin objective one," she said, talking to herself. "Let's see if there are any good friends in Gravity Falls," she said as she walked into the party properly.

Back in Piedmont, friendship was something Mabel never lagged in any capacity; depending on what grade she was in, people would either ask to become her friend or would just be enveloped into the fold unknowingly of friendship. Unlike her brother, she had always had a strong group of friends around her throughout every grade, whether they changed or not. She would try and keep in touch with a few of them, and most of them she was still intact with, even from elementary school. But there's one thing Mabel believed in: you can never have enough friends, and what was a better idea than making friends while spending the summer in one location?

 It might sound wrong, but she was trying to find out who were the most exciting people in the crowd to talk to. She would not hate anybody who didn't seem externally interesting; she just wanted to find an easy conversation starter to get the ball of friendship rolling. So far, her time in Gravity Falls had slightly shattered the idea of how good she was at getting to know people. With Gideon and Norman being strong cases in why she should be more reserved about whom she talks to, some things did make her feel better. She had a great relationship with her Great Uncle; she just met his older employees, too, and she apparently had a great relationship with a spirit of her brother she couldn't even see.

 After a few minutes of scanning the party, Mabel would find two people of interest sitting silently next to each other in the two corner seats. One of them was a large girl with muscular arms sitting calmly with a lizard on her shoulder. Next to her was a smaller Korean girl with glasses and forks taped to her hands eating popcorn. They were definitely the strangest people in the party.

 "Perfect," Mabel said as she approached them. After all, strange was not bad; she'd been called strange her entire life. Indeed, this town could be an exception, but to her, a strange person didn't mean a bad person. It meant a unique person.

Outside the mystery shack, a long black limo rolled up as the large crowd was forming to get into the party, and three preteen girls stepped out slowly.

 Each one had a different color of hair: one had red hair, one had brown hair, and the last one to get out, whom people in the surrounding crowd backed up slowly from, had blonde hair.

 "I told you there was a party out here." the redhead claimed, finally being proven right after nearly an hour of arguing.

 "Yeah, OK, cool, there's a party. Here doesn't mean we have to go, especially when it's in this part of town." The brown-haired girl says.

 The blonde girl simply looked between the two arguing girls, a little disinterested as she looked at the party itself. She would suddenly hold up her hand to her two friends, and that shut them up immediately.

 "If there's a party in this town that's this popular, I think it's worthy of us showing up," the blonde girl said, looking disgusted over the shack. "No matter how weird the venue is."

 "Thanks, Pacifica," the redhead said, sticking out her tongue to the brown-haired girl who was obviously annoyed.

 As all three walked to the ticket stand, the people in line would part for her as if they were all afraid of her, which would be accurate based on her reputation with the town's inhabitants. The three individuals wouldn't even bother with the ticket stand as right before Dipper could look up to see what was happening; a well-dressed man presented him with the money they needed to attend. He would have questioned this further, but he was immediately swarmed once more by more potential partygoers.

What's the best way to approach someone you've never met? This question never really forms in Mabel's head as the moment she sees two interesting people she thought she could be friends with, her first instinct would always be to dash at them and introduce herself very loudly.

 This is what Mabel did as she put herself in the chair next to the muscular girl. She stared in awe at the fact she had an actual live lizard on her shoulder.

 "Whoa, that's an actual iguana on your shoulder," Mabel said, now staring at the dark green lizard on the bigger girl's shoulder.

Neither of the two girls would seem offended that she interrupted their conversation as they smiled at her.

 "Oh, hi," the bigger one says awkwardly in a surprisingly deep voice. "I'm Grenda. This is Candy," she said, pointing to the smaller girl who waved at her with a hand adorned with forks on it. Mabel was still smiling at how friendly the girls were so far but was still curious.

 "Whoa, why do you have forks attached to your fingers?" she said curiously. The girl didn't answer as she smiled and stabbed into the popcorn bowl.

 "Natural improvement of human body," Candy said, smiling when she realized Mabel was actually impressed and not weirded out by them. "You think they're cool?" she said awkwardly, shrinking back.

 "Cool? There is probably no better way to eat popcorn." Mabel didn't want to say she had an even cooler way of eating popcorn by using telekinesis, but she wasn't sure about sharing her secret the moment she met two girls. "Oh, I'm Mabel, by the way."

 "Mabel? Do you go to school here? I've never seen you around." Grenda said curiously as she was feeding her lizard popcorn.

 "Yes, I have knowledge of all students. I've never seen you before," Candy replied.

 "Oh," Mabel said, a little embarrassed, "I'm just staying here for the summer with my great uncle; this town is so weird, but it's kind of cool."

 "I guess," Grenda said. "But are you sure you want to be hanging out with us?" she said, a little nervous. We're not exactly the popular kids."

 "Quite the opposite," Candy said, frowning.

 "Popular kids? A girl with a lizard on her shoulder and a girl who tapes forks to her fingers aren't the popular kids. Man, this really might be a backward town," Mabel said.

 "You actually think we're cool," Candy said energetically.

 "I barely even know you, and I can already tell you're cool," Mabel said, smiling wide as both girls started laughing joyfully.

 "We honestly came to this party just hoping we could have some fun, but I never guessed we could get a new friend out of it," Grenda said excitedly.

"So now that we're all friends, why don't we all go and hit the dance floor?" Mabel said excitedly, hopping out of the chair and starting to give a preview of the moves she planned out.

 "Oh, we don't really dance," Candy said awkwardly.

 "You guys came to a dance party and didn't plan to dance?" Mabel said, a little confused.

 "Yes," both Grenda and Candy said, smiling wildly at her.

Back in the nearby hallways of the mystery shack they we're lowly occupied by some guests who just wanted to get away from the dance for a bit. Stan had ensured that almost every room in the house was locked before he let anybody enter, but they still conjugated in the hallways near the bathrooms. Some of these individuals were Wendy and her group of friends, as they were all chatting with each other.

 "So I tell him to step off but, but he still tries to boss me around. He's so lame." Nate complained as he crossed his arms, leaning against the wall.

"I mean, it wouldn't have been as lame as the fact you were telling off your 7-year-old cousin," Thompson said.

 "Shut up, Thompson," Nate said, a little annoyed. The rest of the teens would laugh at Thompson as he immediately went back, leaning against the opposite wall.

 "Man, Wendy, the old man sure knows how to throw a party. Pretty sure that's the only thing he's good at." Robbie complained, sipping a drink while holding up his guitar.

 "Yeah, he's good at other things. He's good at stealing money from everyone." Wendy joked as she leaned further back into the wall, laughing a bit to herself.

 "Man, I wish my boss was as cool as yours. He always tells me to do actual work and stuff," Lee complained.

 "Or maybe because you're lazy," Tambry said, looking down at her phone.

 "Tambry, do you even have a job..." Robbie raising an eyebrow, before he could continue someone bumped into him, getting angry; he quickly turned around, a little shocked to see who had run into him almost full speed.

"Well, well, look who it is, Doctor Fun Times," Nate said as the rest of the group noticed who was there.

Standing in front of the group was Dipper. However, Wendy, who had a keener eye, noticed there was something a bit off about him. He seemed to be out of breath a little, and his eyes were moving around back and forth quicker than usual; even more odd was the fact that he was slightly pale, which, when talking about Dipper, was saying something.

 "Hey, kid, watch where you're going," Robbie said aggressively. The moment Robbie threatened him by pointing at him angrily, Dipper seemed to shrink back, almost like a small child in fear, shaking a little bit. This confused the group even more; they had seen him be brave before, but now he was acting odd.

 "Sorry, zombie, I mean uh uh Robbie," Dipper said in an oddly more nervous voice than usual.

"Zombie? I think he's making fun of you," Lee said, chuckling a bit to himself as Nate and Thompson laughed a little. Robbie wasn't amused as he frowned, then noticed Wendy's even bigger frown.

 "Hey, is something wrong, dude?" Wendy said towards Dipper, leaning down slightly, "You look a little sick."

 "Yeah, like a vampire but nervous," Thompson said, trying to come up with something.

 "Me, no, sorry for interrupting you uh…you…erased. I mean Wendy, yes. I'm sorry, Wendy," Dipper said, stumbling around a bit before running off in a random direction.

 "That was normal for him, right?" Robbie said he wasn't angry anymore, just confused, as everyone in the group, even Tambry, looked slightly confused about what had just happened.

"From what he told me he likes to deal with, he's probably just freaked out; I'm just surprised he left the ticket stand," Wendy said.

Back at the main party, Mabel had been enjoying her conversation with Candy and Grenda as Soos started to slow down the music.

  "All right, guys," he announced over the speaker, "tonight we're going to be inducting the party, king or queen. whoever parties the the.." Soos stopped speaking momentarily as he reached down to get a party instruction manual.

"party the… har har hardest. Wait, that doesn't make sense. anyways whoever parties the hardest will have to be voted on by the people, and they will receive the party crown." As he said this, Soos held up a pretty cheap-looking silver crown. Even if it was obviously cheaply made, the entire crowd looked at it like it was a grand prize to be won.

 Before he even put the party crown down and announce more information, the crowd was splitting again as three preteen girls walked up.

 "A party crown, hey, you might as well just give it to me now," the blonde girl said arrogantly, leaning on the stage with one arm. Mabel was confused as she saw Soos get extremely nervous around the girl.

 "Oh, um, you're the daughter of, well, sorry, dude, it's kind of a competition. You know, you gotta earn it." Soos said awkwardly, looking around to see if anyone was going to help him, but no one dared.

 "A competition? The blonde girl looked around, and just like her friends, she saw no one apparently stepping up to her. "Well, it looks like no one here wants to compete against me as usual." Before Pacifica could fully reach and grab the crown, a loud voice rang over the quiet party.

"I'll do it!" The high-pitched voice screamed as the crowd looked shocked back at Mabel, who was smiling and walking up to the front of the stage, just like Pacifica.

 "Oh, and who are you?" Pacifica said with a mix of annoyance and genuine curiosity. "I've never seen you in town before."

 "Oh, I'm Mabel Pines, glad to meet you; I'm also not from here," she said, smiling and holding out her hand to Pacifica.

The blonde would only look up at her and down at her hand rapidly before slapping her hand away. "Your name sounds like the name of an old lady." This joke would get a few laughs from her friends, but Mabel was still undeterred.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Mabel said, undeterred, as she looked up towards Soos. "So, how's this party challenge work."

 Soos was shaken from his confusion as he looked down towards Mabel, smiling. The rules are simple: both contestants will have to party hard, and at the end of the night, the audience will vote via clapping volume to decide who is the true party queen, or at least it's queen because I don't think any dudes are competing. Does anyone else want to compete?"

 Mabel could swear she could see a few people willing to join, but one quick turn and look from Pacifica sent all of them backing up.

 The blonde slowly turned back to Mabel and gave her an arrogant smile. "My name is Pacifica Northwest, Heir to the northwest fortune, soul daughter of Nathaniel and Priscilla Northwest. Do you know what any of that means?"

 "Heir? Oh my gosh, are you like a Princess but like in America? Is that a thing?" Mabel said excitedly as Pacifica's arrogant frown dropped to a face of confusion. She would later get her bearings back when she smiled back at Mabel.

 "Yeah, I guess you could say that; see you on the dance floor," Pacifica said, backing up slightly with her friends.

 "OK, see you there! I hope we can be friends!" Mabel waved at Pacifica, and her friends just looked at her, confused.

"Yeah, friends?" Pacifica said before she and her friends walked off laughing. By the time she had fully been covered by the crowd, Grenda and Candy had walked up to Mabel.

 "Mabel, that was a very dumb thing to do," Candy said. "Pacifica Northwest, the most popular girl in town."

 "Yeah, and she's also really mean," Grenda said. "She makes fun of my voice all the time. She says it makes me sound like a wrestler.

 "Oh really, but wrestlers are cool," Mabel responded, a little shocked.

 "Yeah, I know they're really cool, but not when she is comparing me to them," Grenda said sadly as she slinked down slightly as Candy patted her on the back.

 "Well, if she's on such a high horse, I'm just gonna have to knock her down," Mabel said, holding an arrogant pose and smiling brightly.

 "High horse?" Grenda said, confused.

"Pacifica owns many horses, I believe; what do they have to do with the party," Candy asked.

 "Guys expression." Mabel said slightly in disbelief, but she shook it off quickly as she turned to Soos. "alright, DJ, how long until this party challenge starts."

 "It starts when I can find the right dance mix tape, dude," Soos said while frantically searching his laptop. "Man, maybe I should have organized this in more than 3 minutes," he said, complaining as he typed furiously.

 "Are you sure you really want to do this?" Grenda said, concerned. "I doubt going against Pacifica could lead to any good consequences."

"Oh please, girls," Mabel shrugged off. "She's just another girl our age; what's the worst that can happen," Mabel said nonchalantly. While Grenda and Candy explained the various and elaborate ways everything could go wrong, her face would fall as she looked behind them to see a small figure in the crowd rushing. She wanted to ignore it for a moment until she saw the one-of-a-kind, unless you bought it at the store, pine tree hat weaving in between people. It was interesting; she thought she'd never seen anyone else where the hat except. Her eyes widened when she saw him.

 It was Dipper talking to random people and then quickly moving on to the next people confused. She thought that was nothing really to worry about, even if her brother looked a little more pale than usual. He finally managed a way to get into the party, and maybe he was having fun; he was even talking to a lot of people, so it couldn't be that bad. But that had raised another question for Mabel. If Dipper was inside, who was taking care of the tickets? Soos was DJ, Wendy was with her friends, and she doubted she would come to work during the party. And Stan was off counting the money he collected from Dipper back in his office. There shouldn't be another working. When Mabel slowly craned her head towards the window, she was met with a horrifying sight. She saw still sitting there at the ticket stand, taking people's money was Dipper with a tired expression. By now, she completely tuned out Candy and Grenda as she looked between the two versions of her brother.

 She could never just have a normal night, could she? Mabel felt a little bit onto her neck, still feeling the tie there under her 80s theme sweater. She knew something was happening, and she was probably the first to know; she had to step in.

 So much for a fun night, She thought.

Chapter Text

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. This was Mabel's very calm and totally not frantic thoughts as she looked across the dance floor to see her brother and looked to the side to see her brother in two different places.

 'There had to be a logical explanation of what was happening,' she thought.

 A few seconds of hesitating later, she realized that there was no logical explanation for this.

Sure, the entire town of Gravity Falls was weird and filled to the brim with the supernatural, but just because she knew it was real doesn't mean it was logical, or at least that's what Dipper told her once. Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she finally realized she was losing track of the Dipper inside the party. It was getting harder and harder to focus while Grenda and Candy were explaining to her still why going against Pacifica was a bad idea.

 "Hey, Mabel, are you paying attention to us?" Grenda said curiously, tapping on her shoulder.

 "yes, we are giving you good advice," Candy replied, grabbing Mabel's arm and shaking her softly.

 This would get Mabel out of her shock, but she was still focusing on her brother or one of her brothers.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. I just got a… I just gotta go talk with my brother real quick." Mabel said awkwardly as she ran over to Dipper and tried to chase him down. Weaving in between the party people, it was getting harder to catch up with him as whenever he stopped for only a second to talk to people, he would move on randomly to another person; he didn't seem to have any pattern of what kind of people he was going for, just picking at random, walking up to them, and saying words she couldn't hear yet. Unbeknownst to Mabel was that Grenda and Candy had gotten curious and were following her.

She would freeze when she heard his voice. It obviously sounded like him, but something was off about it. It sounded a bit Shifted; it was hard to describe, but his voice didn't feel like his own.

 When Mabel finally pushed gently aside to see where he was, she noticed he was talking to a random teenage boy who looked pretty awkward at the situation.

 "What, it wouldn't make sense, right? How would a gremlin and a goblin combine? The species are not compatible in any biological capacity, but somehow, the species has formed into one being. One that's not only powerful but maintains a vast territory of the forest, it's impressive in my opinion, but other than that, its dietary habits must include…" While Dipper was going off on his long speech, he would be interrupted by Mabel putting a hand over his mouth and dragging them a few feet away

 "I'm sorry about him," Mabel said to the confused teen as she walked behind a corner to a hallway. The entire time she dragged her apparent brother, he was freaking out. When they were finally clear of sight of most people, Mabel decided to release Dipper and push him against one of the doors. She looked at him frantically.

 "Please, please, please tell me you're my brother, no wait, please, please, please tell me you know what happened? Mabel pleaded with Dipper. The pale Dipper's eyes were bugging out as he looked all over the place for a way to escape. Something unexpected would happen next, as when Dipper tried to push her over, he was too weak to do it. Mabel knew Dipper's strength was impressive, so she had no doubts her Dipper could push her over if he wanted to; whoever this was didn't have Dipper's strength.

"Please don't hurt me. I was just; I was just warning that guy about the efficiency of protecting himself against Gremoblins."

"Oh, what?" Maple said, surprised. "Is there one here?"

 "Well, no, but it's beneficial information to have, especially when most of the inhabitants of the woods are humans unaware of the supernatural…"

 "Dipper, stop!" Mabel cried. "What's going on with you" Why are there two of you?" and why are you telling people a bunch of secrets that you would never or Riley would never let you tell."

 "Dipper? Riley? Are those my name?" The person, who apparently was not her brother, almost yelled out as he stared directly at her.

Mabel was obviously shocked as she loosened her grip on pushing him into the door but still held him there. "who are you?" she said slowly.

 "I I I don't know, but I know I have to do something. I have to...I have to tell people right." The not Dipper held his head in pain, looking like he was trying to remember something. "I have all these ideas in my head, all these terrible things. I know I have to tell people right so they know too, right so they can be safe, right."

The fake version of her brother was getting increasingly frantic with each word, and Mabel was starting to freak out a little. There are obviously pieces to a puzzle here, but she wasn't the family's detective. Mabel reached into the back of her mind to find out what could be this person's origins. She sighed heavily, looked over the party, and realized what she had to do.

"I have to bring you to my brother," Mabel said seriously. "Maybe Dipper will know what to do with you or Riley."

 "Dipper am…am I, not Dipper? I thought you said I was Dipper." the fake said, a little sad.

 "no, you're apparently not Dipper. You just look exactly like him. It's like you're a copy."

 "Copy, I can't be like a clone; clones are bad and evil and made to replace." The copy said, shaking violently under Mabel's grip now. "I have to stop him. I have to stop him before they replace me."

 "what? He's not the copy. You're probably the copy." she cried while he was struggling a little bit more.

 "I can't be the copy," he cried out. "I'm starting to remember stuff like like taking the bus up to the town, fighting off that ghost; I remember it all. I can't be fake."

Mabel had really no idea what was happening, but all the words he was saying kind of reminded her of what Dipper would read out from the journal. Mable's interrogation would unfortunately be interrupted when she turned to the side to hear two people approach, and of course, it was her new friends.

 "Oh, what's going on here," Grenda said, looking between the two of them.

"yes, it's very strange you would walk away from us so frantically. Is something wrong?" Candy said sympathetically.

 Both the Pines twin and apparently not Pines twin would stare awkwardly as the copy of Dipper still struggled a little bit.

 "Oh, Mabel, is that your brother?" Candy said, walking up to both of them. "Hi, I'm Candy," she introduced herself, holding her hand awkwardly as the copy Dipper stared at her.

 "umm, Candy, we're in the middle of something," Mabel said a little awkwardly, "but I'm sure I'll hit the dance floor with you guys in a second. I just gotta finish talking with my brother."

 "Oh, that is your brother, so he's fair game, right?" Grenda said, honestly shocking Mabel. The female Pines's reaction to that was a look of shock, and she almost lost her focus from her brother.

 "Grenda! What, you just saw him?" Mabel cried out until she took a second to think. "Oh, so this is how it looks from an outside perspective; interesting."

 "I didn't hear no," Grenda said, rubbing her hands.

 "the answer is I'm a little busy right now," Mabel cried as she started arguing with Grenda about an appropriate time to hit on her brother.

 While both girls were distracted, Dipper and Candy were still staring at each other while she held out her hand, which still had forks taped on to it.

 "Are you a Cyborg?" the copy of Dipper said, looking directly at her hands calmly.

 "If I told you yes, would you like to talk to me more," Candy said, interested.

 "I can't say I've ever encountered a Cyborg before; cyborgs are a fascinating concept alone. A true mix of robot and human also…" he was suddenly shut up when Mabel focused back on him.

 "stop it! Where did you come from? What is your first memory?" Mabel said, finally coming up with a good starter question.

 "Being in Piedmont with you," the fake Dipper said honestly as both he and his sister had a staring contest; they would move suddenly as the door she was holding him against slowly opened, and they both fell on the floor.

A random partygoer was confused about why there were so many preteens outside the door and would step over the collapsed twins and walk off back to the party. When Mabel got up, she saw the clone, copy, or whatever was standing up, frantically looking around.

 "I gotta, I gotta stop; he's the clone, right? Not me. I gotta find out where he is and stop him."

Before Mabel could hold on to her magical tie, the fake version of her brother had already run across the corner into a deeper section of the shack.

 Looking up on the floor, Mabel felt very frustrated as she got up slowly, turning towards her friends. They both looked awkwardly at her, taking a few steps back, they didn't know how she would react.

"OK!" Mabel said energetically, "I think I have a lot to explain. That wasn't my brother. That was some weird clone of my brother, who's also very confused, and now, for some reason, he wants to attack my brother. I think I'm not even sure."

  "A clone of your brother? are you saying clones exist?" Grinda said, a little interested. "That's awesome. Imagine what I can use that for."

 "Well, technically, clones already exist," Candy said. "Cloning humans is not really a thing yet, Mabel. Is your brother advanced within the field of science? Because if he is, I would love to talk with him," she said, putting her hands together. Seeing the reactions to her brother, Mabel realized she had indeed picked two friends who were like her in spirit, but this was not the time she thought.

 "Both of you, stop it; whatever that thing is, it looks like my brother but isn't my brother; it's like he copied himself but made himself more crazy."

 "Mabel, this is turning into some supernatural stuff," Grenda said. "I'm in!"

 "yes, if there's something wrong going on, we'll definitely help you out," Candy said, smiling at Mabel.

 "Wait, really?" Mabel said, a little shocked. "You guys are just going to help me like that; this is pretty weird, and I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt."

 "You gave us a chance, so why not? We'll give you a chance." Grenda said, "Also, it's like were crime fighters or monster stoppers or something," Grenda said, punching her fist.

 Mabel smiled at her group of friends as she put her hand out to the other two girls as they huddled around each other.

"All right, here's the plan," Mabel said." We need to chase down that thing that looks like my brother, all before the party crown challenge starts. Then I don't know, we bring them to my actual brother who's at the ticket stand. If we don't hurry copy Dipper might try and do something against my real brother."

 "got it," Grenda replied

 "got it," Candy replied

 "all right now, go, team friendship," Mabel said, throwing her hands up in the air with the rest of them.

 "team friendship?" Candy said, confused.

 "I need more time to think of good names for stuff like this. Don't worry, we'll come up with some soon, all right, team friendship; now let's head out and save, I guess, my brother. I'm so confused. On what's happening here," she said awkwardly as she ran off in the direction the copy Dipper went off into, with Grenda and Candy following quickly.

The dash down the hallway after copy Dipper would slow down as soon as the three girls entered the den of the Mystery Shack. The room was supposed to be locked so none of the partygoers could get in, but Mabel had found the door open; somehow, copy Dipper must have gotten a key, but how the only people with keys were the direct Pines family and maybe Soos. Mabel had a theory this copy of Dipper was probably new; she could tell because of how scared it was of its surroundings, but maybe when it copied Dipper, it made a copy of the key.

 'When it copied Dipper, it made a copy of the key,' Mabel thought back to herself. Suddenly, a loud gasp came out of her mouth as she realized what was happening. It was a copy of her brother; what else copied her brother? It was from the copying machine. That was a completely insane idea that Mabel believed, but seeing how the rest of the summer was going, why not check up on every little possible insane detail?

 "Guys," Mabel called out, "I think I know where this other of my brother came from."

 "You think a wizard did it?" Grenda said

Mabel didn't know if she was serious or not, but she just decided to answer anyway.

 "Now, bear with me. This is going to sound crazy. I think the copy machine in my great uncle's office copied my brother and then made a second one of him, but instead of it being on paper, he's real." Mabel explained she realized how crazy this was sounding. For a few moments, she believed she probably wasn't gonna keep this group of friends, but then they just shrugged at her and said yeah, that makes sense.

 "Really," Mabel said in disbelief, "you guys are just rolling with this. Do you know how hard it took for me to process the fact my first boyfriend was a collection of gnomes in a jacket?"

 "You dated a bunch of gnomes?" Candy said curiously.

"Not willingly," Mabel said, walking off into the office area, motioning her friends to follow her. After a short walk to Stan's office, she got through with the key and found the copier machine lying dormant. As the girls walked in, they scanned the area until Mabel saw what she was looking for in the trash can: a piece of paper that was stretched out. Mabel held it up to realize it was an outline of where the scared Dipper was, but now it was missing.

"so either you have a really accurate cutout process, or your brother came from that sheet of paper," Grenda said, a little scared as Mabel held up the paper for both of them to look at in shock.

 "My cutout abilities are unmatched," Mabel said, boasting a little bit. "But this is something else. I think I think the clone must be a piece of paper but alive and 3D… maybe I don't know. I wish Dipper was here and not busy; perhaps he could have a better theory.

 "All right, everyone, a loud voice rang through the room." The entire time they've been sneaking around the house looking for the copy of Dipper, they could faintly hear the party in the background; it was pretty loud. The music would suddenly cut for a second as they heard Soos give an announcement.

 "All right, party folks, I would like the two party contestants to assemble near the front stage so we can begin the competition."

 Mabel froze for a second hearing this; she almost had forgotten she had signed up for a party competition to put what a high school drama would call a stereotypical mean girl in her place for fun. But now she was a little preoccupied; Mabel's mind was working overtime as she had to think. Would there be any problem with abandoning this investigation for a brief bit of time to go party, maybe she thought. The copy Dipper had spoken words of getting rid of the original Dipper, but as far as she could tell, he was nowhere near as strong, and Dipper could pretty much tell when anything was about to hit him. It wouldn't be too bad if she left for what couldn't be longer than 15 minutes, right?

Mabel sighed, stood up, and looked towards her friends. "All right, guys, we're pausing the investigation. I have a party competition to win and a really cheap trophy to get."

"Whoa, you're like actually standing up to Pacifica," Grenda said, impressed.

 "you go against monsters, and you're brave enough to go against the meanest girl in town. You're like the coolest girl we've ever met," Candy said honestly, almost jumping for joy. Suddenly, she would get close to Mabel's face and get a serious look. "Can I be your best friend?" Candy said.

 Unlike her brother, she wouldn't be put off by this kind of awkwardness as she stared back at Candy with a smile, "100% Candy, 100%. But right now, we gotta get back to the dance floor."

 "What about the copy Dipper? Isn't he like still dangerous." Grenda said, looking around the room.

 "It's a clone of my brother Dipper without any of his cool powers. I really doubt he can do anything."

 "Powers?" both Grenda and Candy said, surprised.

 "Oh man, I have a lot to catch you guys up on," Mabel said as she was already dashing out the door.

The moment all three girls had left the room, a small thump was heard at the desk as popping out right behind it was Copy Dipper, staring at them, shocked.

"Powers!" copy Dipper said out loud. "How am I going to stop someone who's like me with powers? Don't I have powers? I remember getting powers? I remember giving powers. Wait, no, getting that's right, I got powers." he was a nervous wreck at this point after he escaped the clutches of his sister, who, in his opinion, had randomly attacked him. She was a sister, right? he was pretty sure she was. That doesn't matter. After the person he was pretty sure was his sister betrayed him and almost sold him out to a copy of himself, he knew he needed to take action; hiding in the room was just a way for him to think of one while avoiding her.

Standing up in the room, copy Dipper started pacing around, thinking while speaking aloud frantically. "He has powers, that means, But wait, I have powers too, but I can't use them, or I can't feel them? Something's wrong. How am I gonna fight a Dipper without my powers? Their powers? He started to hold his head in frustration when Copy Dipper suddenly got an idea as he turned back to the copy machine in the room. Pulling out the version of the journal that had been printed with him, he slowly started flipping through the book to find anything about the copier; in fact, he couldn't find anything at all as the pages were all blank.

 "What?" copy Dipper said, surprised. "I need to consult myself; I mean consult what's their name about this. Don't they usually show up about now? he said, looking frantically around the room.

 He leaned down against the wall and looked nervously around. "how am I gonna fight a more powerful version of myself without any help."

He would pause for a moment as he looked at the copier without any help, he repeated to himself.

 For the first time since his existence began copy Dipper had a smile. Finally, he was putting together a solid plan to regain his life.

Returning to the dance floor, Mabel and her friends quickly push through the crowd to get to the stage where Pacifica was waiting impatiently.

 "geez, what took you so long?" she said annoyed.

"Oh, nothing," Mabel said nervously as she suddenly gained her confidence back quickly and smiled at Pacifica. "you ready for the challenge of your life?"

 "oh please, I've never lost a challenge in my life." She responded back.

 "Well then," Mabel said excitedly, turning back to Soos, who was onstage. "Tell us what our first party challenges to do."

 "Oh well, according to the manual, a great party activity that gets people to...Get the people going, yeah, whatever, is karaoke. Both of you should probably pick a song and start singing.

unless you don't want to." Soos shrugged. Before Soos could properly hand her the mic, Pacifica snatched it from his hands and walked onto the stage.

"I think I'll go first," she said arrogantly, barely even looking at Mabel as she walked over to the karaoke machine. As she began singing some slow old romantic song Mabel had never heard of, Mabel had an idea. Turning back to Candy and Grenda, she whispered to them a plan she had on how to deal with the copy of her brother.

"I have an idea; while I'm competing in the party and knocking Pacifica off her horse; you, too, go look for the clone of my brother," Mabel whispered to them.

 "What do we do when we find them?" Candy asked, adjusting her glasses.

"I think he might be planning something, but he seems too nervous to get anything off the ground, so just make sure he doesn't do anything to hurt himself or my actual brother, and then we'll bring the clone to him. He should know what to do with it."

 "Got it; grab the clone, make sure it doesn't do anything, and then bring it to your brother," Grenda said, excited to get going.

 "but do it quietly," Mabel said, trying to keep her voice down while Pacifica performed. "I know someone called Riley who's really picky about the supernatural getting out; like, don't show him around in public, which I guess is hard because my brother is running a busy ticket stand."

 "Don't worry, Mabel," Candy said reassuringly. "We won't let you down. We'll find the clone and get them to your brother. You just Beat Pacifica," Candy said excitedly as Mabel smiled back at them.

 As they were talking, Mabel was announced onto the stage, grabbing the microphone from Pacifica, still smiling. Mabel started singing an 80s song called 'Don't Stop Unbelieving,' getting the crowd pumped. She had tried to do a backflip, but that failed, but that only seemed to excite the people more. Out of the corner of her eye, she was still looking out for the copy of her brother, but she was happy to see that her friends were so willing to help her after just meeting.

"Do you think we're doing a little too much?" Grenda asked while walking down the hallway of the Mystery Shack.

"not really," Candy said. "we're just walking."

 "No, I mean, do you think we're doing a little too much to try and impress Mabel? I know you think she's cool and all, but this sounds a little crazy."

 "you saw the window, too," Candy said, barely looking at Grenda. "She apparently has two brothers, and one is not real; I never believed in the supernatural, but now I'm interested."

 "Oh man, cloning. Do you know how many cool things I can do with cloning?" Grenda said excitedly.

 "Nothing legal, I imagine," Candy said, opening the door back to the copy room. They really didn't know where else to start, but since it was the origin of the copy Dipper restarting the investigation there made sense.

Both girls were shocked that once the door was open, there was a loud mumbling as multiple figures were seen in the room. For a moment, both girls thought they were partygoers until the lights came on, and shocked faces met shocked faces. Standing in the doorway, Candy and Grenda were met with not one, not two, but six different Dippers; the only difference between them is that each one looked a different level of freaked out, and they all progressively got paler and paler.

 "Uhhh uhhh," One of the Dipper clones looked shocked at them. "We're…sextuplets," he said, obviously nervous, trying to come up with a lie. The moment they were briefly shaken out of their shock, they noticed another slight difference between all the Dippers; each one had a number on their shirt going from 1 to 6. The moment that awful lie came out from one marked #5, The one marked #1 slapped his hand against his forehead.

 "Really? They know who we are." number one said, baffled.

 "The ogre knows who we are?" number six said, scared, running behind the desk.

"Ogre?" Grenda said, offended. "what's going on here?" she cried out as all the Dippers seemed to freeze. Dipper # 1 would sigh, approach the girls, and step down from the desk.

 "look, there's kind of this situation where some clone of me has tricked everyone into thinking he's real, including my sister. Now, I'm going to use a small army of counterclones I made to take him out. I thought, what's the best way to beat someone with powers? an army."

 "an army?" Candy said, interested. "There's only six of you,"

she said, counting them all out on her fingers.

"yes, well, it turns out the copy machine ran out of ink. Also, I'm out of options. My magic isn't working for some reason. I can barely lift that desk. The clone must be taking it."

 "Magic? What are you talking about? We can't use magic," Number Two, who had been leaning against the desk, said, surprised. "We can only give magic, not get it."

 "What are you talking about? We can use magic… right, I think we can," number four said, confused, scratching his head.

 "How I'm still confused how you all see me. Shouldn't I not be able to be seen, or should I be able to be seen? I really don't know what's going on," number six cried from behind the desk.

 Observing the chaos, Grenda and Candy only looked at each other, confused. They weren't really sure what they were supposed to do when they found the copy other than show it to Mabel's brother discreetly, but now there are six of them.

 "enough!" The lead Dipper shouts to get all the clone's attention, "We have one common enemy, and that is the Dipper that everyone thinks is the real one; I'm the real one," Number One says, frustrated.

 "Are we sure?" number two said, raising an eyebrow.

 "What do you mean, are we sure? I literally printed you. Why would I give you the number two if you were the original."

 "Who knows, maybe you're lying to me So you can get rid of better competition; what if I'm the real one and you're just lying to get me to help you take out the strongest one." number two said frantically, thinking while holding on to his hat and his chin in the same time.

 "Yeah, yeah, to that point, any of us could be the prime one." three said, thinking aloud.

 "What, no," both one and two said.

"you're obviously a copy," #2 said. "we both saw you get printed at the same time.'

 "how do I know you're not lying?" Three repeated in a similar tone to when the two were raising doubts.

 "Oh, you gotta be kidding me," number one said as all the Dippers except six started arguing.

 "I don't think I should be here," Six started hyperventilating. "I need, I need,  I need a drink of water," he said, crawling outside from under the desk and walking away, trying to avoid the fight.

 Candy and Grenda, who were still observing the chaos, would only slightly get pulled out of their confusion when they heard that. Candy reached into her pocket and pulled out a small water bottle she'd been holding on to since the party began.

"here you go," Candy said sincerely as she tossed it to number six. In a frenzy, six grabbed the water and then drank it down quickly, trying to alleviate his nerves; the whole room would freeze, though, when they heard a weird noise coming from his gut and saw him freak out even more.

"Guys, help, help, help, help," Six yelled rapidly as he felt his entire body start to melt. He would give off one more brief scream of terror, and then not a second later; they were all left with a Gray puddle on the floor, which looked like paper mush.

 The five remaining Dippers and the two girls were shocked at what they saw.

 "Oh my gosh, he was the clone," four said, surprised.

 "Yeah, obviously," Five responded a little angrily. "Normal humans don't melt when they drink water; we're not witches," Five said.

 "clones have a weakness to water," two said, confused. "Huh, I should probably write that down and inform Riley."

 "Why would you need to tell me?" five said, confused.

All the Dippers would look at 5, confused. Even the preteen girls didn't even know what was going on.

 "Riley is not your name; it's Dipper. Are you stupid?" number four said, pointing at 5.

 "What didn't I say, Dipper, what I say?"

 "You said your name was Riley," three said, confused.

 "it is."

 "no, it's Dipper. That's what the numbers are for. We're all Dippers," number one said angrily. He was starting to realize that his plan was falling apart.

"What I am, Dipper. Did I say I was someone else? You guys are weird."

 "Oh, I don't care," Number One groaned. "we all have a common enemy, the powerful Dipper; we just need to take him out."

 "Well, if he's powerful, Dipper, what if you're manipulative, Dipper." number two said accusingly.

 "whoa, what Dipper am I?" 3 said.

 "We don't each have one trait, you idiots," number one proclaimed. "There's just three kinds of Dippers: the normal Dipper, the evil powerful Dipper, and the paper clone Dippers like six and the rest of you."

 "stop calling me a paper clone," four growled. "I know I don't melt when I drink water."

"You wanna take that bet?" number two said, holding up what was left of the water bottle that had dropped on the floor with six melted.

"no, not really," four said nervously.

 "This is getting confusing. Do any of you actually remember getting printed," Candy said, interrupting the madness.

 "no," all of them replied. "Because we weren't printed," they all said simultaneously. As the Dippers returned to arguing, Candy huddled with Grenda to talk about what they should do next.

 "So, like, what do we do?" Candy said, eying the mass of clones suspiciously.

 "I don't know, Candy, should we just like kidnap one and bring them to Dipper or whatever?"

"What are you guys whispering about?" Grenda and Candy suddenly jumped up in fright as they heard a third voice in their huddle; they were shocked for a second with a quick scream, but then they saw it was Mabel right next to them.

 "Hey guys, what's going on? Did you find the…" While asking her questions, she suddenly would be cut off from the fact she finally saw what was in the room.  Five versions of her brother were arguing in a room, with one grey puddle by the side. Without the mass of Dippers noticing, Mabel pulled Candy and Grenda off to the side, away from the door's view, and hushed them.

 "What happened?" Mabel said frantically, "I performed one song, and now there's five more."

"We don't know?" Grenda said, shrugging and looking back into the room. "They said they just printed themselves or made more of themselves or something like that. They only had enough for, I guess, five more, though."

 "But there's already five of them," Mabel said, confused.

 "Oh yeah, Candy accidentally melted one by giving him a water bottle. Apparently, they're all weak to water."

 "Interesting," Mabel said, rubbing her chin. "Well, I guess we know how to stop them," she said, looking up at Grenda and Candy.

 "Hey, what are you guys whispering about?" number two barked, getting all the attention of both the Dippers and the girls.

"Uh, nothing; you know how I am, Always whispering about girl stuff, and you know about girl stuff, right."

 "No," all the Dippers replied, but one of them had an idea. Stepping out in front of the crowd, three pointed at Mabel. "Hey, wait, you're our, I mean my sister. That means you can totally tell us apart, right? Just ask who's the real Dipper, and we will be settled."

 "The real Dipper?" Mabel said, a little creeped out about what they were talking about. She put the pieces together really quickly; obviously, the single Dipper had cloned himself for most likely help; she doesn't need to think like her brother, who is usually rational in these supernatural situations Most of the time.

 "Alright, let's calm down everyone and think about this for a moment: what are all your earliest memories."

 "Kindergarten," one and two responded quickly.

 "I remember slipping on a bucket in the third grade." Three responded.

 Four responded with a confused look, but he really thought about it for a second. "Helping you with the spelling test in 3rd grade."

 "a hole in the ground," five said confidently.

Mabel was not a budding detective like her brother, but she was slowly putting together a theory; all of the answers except #5 made sense. And the copy machine had done more than just copy his body but somehow his memories too. But obviously, something got corrupted, they constantly contradicted themselves in conversation, which was most noticeable with the number one Dipper. Mabel thought maybe she could find out what was happening; she could probably help Dipper figure this out whenever he was done.

 "All right, guys, I'm gonna need you guys to come upstairs with me so we can get you some clothes, and then we'll all walk down and talk things over with the real Dipper."

"I'm the real Dipper," all the Dippers responded. "no, you're not," they repeated all to each other furiously.

"And wouldn't it be better if we rounded up all the Dippers to talk about this, you know. So we can get a accurate… accurate…whatever scientific guessing thing is."

 "A hypothesis," most of the Dippers and Candy said at the same time.

 "Yeah, that would be great if we had a hippo thesis."

 All the Dippers looked around each other questioningly; most of them were thinking independently, too, all wondering if she had a point. This would come to an end quickly when number one slapped the back of the head of #2.

"Are you guys crazy? The Dipper she is talking about has powers. What if he gets us all in a single area and, I don't know, attacks us when we least expected."

 "stop it!" Mabel said quickly, "I'm just trying to figure out how to help everyone here."

"If you want to help us, then why don't you help us take out the magical Dipper?" number two said angrily

 "Because he's my real brother," Mabel said, obviously annoyed at how long this conversation was going. The moment she said that she would immediately regret it as all the Dippers got a funny look in their eyes and looked at each other awkwardly; you didn't need a genius to guess that they were all coming to the same conclusion.

 "No, wait." Before Mabel could say anything else, the clones all split up and ran. Luckily for Mabel and the rest of the girls, the Dippers were not as strong as the real one. In their haste to get out, they barely scrambled past Grenda and Candy, barely strong enough to push past them. The only one who didn't break free was three, whom Grenda grabbed and held in her arms, keeping them from getting away.

 "let me go," #3 cried, trying to claw his way out of Grenda's control.

 Grenda, who wasn't struggling as much as she thought she would, then turned to Candy. "Quick, Candy, get the rest of the water and splash him with it."

Mabel can only watch for a quick burst of movement as Candy grabbed the remaining water on the ground in the water bottle and splashed it on #3. The paper clone would melt away in an instant, leaving all three girls mildly horrified.

 After a few breaths, Mabel finally gained control of herself.

 "what was that!" she cried out, pointing towards the pool of formally #3

 "am I a murderer now?" Candy said, interested.

 "They can't prove anything," Grenda said, folding her arms.

 "Guys, quiet," Maple said, freaking out slightly. "There are clones of my brother now out there, and we need to stop them. From…I don't know what they are going to do. Mabel thought for a second. Will they attack my brother, or is that plan done with?

It doesn't matter; we need to do something about them."

 "But there's four of them and three of us. What do we do now." Candy said curiously.

 "girls, they're my brother; he's not that strong, and if they get too crazy, just splash some water on them or something."

 "in the middle of their planning, a loud noise would be heard from the Mystery Shack. It was Soos announcing the next part of the party.

 "Alright, party people who's ready for the dance section of the night. let's see if our two-party Contestants can duke it out on the dance floor." After that was said, Mabel could vaguely hear a loud cheer from the audience.

 "Oh man," Mabel said, "the next challenge is starting already. Did we really waste that much time here arguing with a bunch of my brothers?"

 "So what are you gonna do, quit the party challenge?" Grenda said, worried.

 Mabel thought for a moment deeply. "No, if this Pacifica Northwest is as mean as you guys say, someone needs to knock her down a peg. But I need to ask you guys a really tough question. Can you guys please stop the Dippers from doing pretty much anything?"

 "Got it," both girls responded as Mabel smiled.

 "Are you guys sure?" Mabel said, "I'm asking way too much of you guys."

 "Mabel, we're friends," Candy said, giggling that she could say that with anyone other than Grenda.

 "Yeah, and friends got each other's back; just so you know, we will expect you to owe us back when something crazy happens," Grenda said honestly, but Candy elbowed her in the gut.

 Mabel smiled. "now let's go." As she cried out, all the girls ran off.

Back in front of the stage, Pacifica waited impatiently, looking at her nails while her two friends were still talking. The redhead girls name was Amber. If she had to give her any character trait, it would be a brown noser, and the girl with brown Hair's name was Samantha, who was more open to speaking her mind. Of course, this meant nothing to Pacifica, as they were both equally suck-ups when they were in her presence.

Which mostly annoyed her; they were just lucky that they were the daughters of rich friends of her parents.

 "I'm here, I'm here," Mabel cried out energetically, pushing through the crowd of people. "Who's ready to dance."

 "geez, what's taken you so long? The party is only in one room," Pacifica said, annoyed.

 "You wouldn't believe me," Mabel said straight face, laughing a little bit.

 "No, I probably wouldn't care," Pacifica responded.

 "Umm, are you two like ready," Soos said awkwardly, looking at the two preteen girls almost arguing.

"yeah, whatever, DJ."

Back with Candy and Grenda in their hunt for the Dipper clones, the initial search would be easier than expected when they quickly found two arguing with each other next to the stairs. They didn't get the context for the conversation, but it basically boiled down to one remembering a whole event differently from the other. Obviously, their argument would cease when they noticed Candy and Grenda eyeing them and seeing them as a potential threat; they split up and ran. #5 dashed towards the den, and #4 dashed upstairs.

 Grenda would charge at the clone heading upstairs as she pointed for Candy to chase the one going into the den. While Grenda was definitely stronger than any Dipper, she wasn't as fast when going up the stairs, so the Dipper had a brief few seconds ahead of her to find out where to go. The shack had two upper levels, and the Dipper, marked number four, had run up to the highest one. Finally reaching the top, she was met with a wide, spacious room with only two doors as options to go.

 Creeping up as stealthily as she could, she pushed the door open slightly to reveal that it was a bedroom for what she assumed was Mabel and the real brother. Other than the messy room, there were no signs of the Dipper being in there; in her brief exploration, she looked under the bed and even checked the closet. There was only one room up there left: the bathroom.

 She hyped herself up for this one,  almost like the cop shows her parents would watch for too long; one foul kick opened the bathroom door, probably a little too rough, and she heard a small squeak of a voice the moment she did. Entering the bathroom, there was nothing special about it, just a shower, a toilet, and a cabinet with a mirror, all in a small area.

Interesting, Grenda thought, looking back and forth across the bathroom. Unless the Dipper melted itself, she didn't know if there was anywhere for it to hide.

"ah ha," She called out when she moved the shower curtain to see nothing there. She would scratch her head in confusion until she heard a loud bang from right behind her around the cabinet area. She had a confused look on her face when she finally opened up the cabinet to see that number four was hiding under it.

"Umm, hi," number four said awkwardly.

 "Oh good, I finally found you," Grenda said, relieved. "Now we just need to get you to the real Dipper so we can figure all this out."

 "I am the real Dipper, you ogre…I mean, girl. Girl ogre?" the Dipper cried out furiously.

 Grenda didn't even change expressions; she wasn't looking angry or upset as she poured some water into her hands from the sink.

 "Hey, wait, what are you doing?" #4 cried out.

 Before four could even move out from under the cabinet, Grenda splashed some water on his face, and he started melting slowly.

 Grenda only stared blankly as the Dipper faded away.

 "Huh,"

she said curiously. "I guess you're not the real one, obviously. Well, three down, three to go," she said as she left the room.

The chase in the den had been more comical than #5, and Candy wished; the Dipper didn't want to go into any other rooms as it kept avoiding Candy. Both of them were around the same speed, but they were just moving a bit more erratically.

 "Can you please stop running?" Candy begged as she was chasing him.

 "no, can you please stop chasing me?" #5 replied, also as tired as her.

 "no," Candy said. "I'm doing this for a friend."

 The chase would unexpectedly end when #5, dashing around the room, tripped over a remote, oddly sitting on the ground, and accidentally started the TV up.

 Both Dipper and Candy would freeze as they look up at the screen to see a familiar movie playing.

 "dreamboat high 7?" Candy said curiously.

"Oh, I love this movie," #5 said on the ground.

 "you do?" Candy said, unexpectedly happy.

 "Yeah, I watched all of these," he said, smiling at her.

 The next few moments would be a blur as when Grenda finally ran back downstairs; she wouldn't see Candy celebrating a victory or subduing the Dipper. She would be met with both of them just watching the movie.

 "Hey, Candy, are we supposed to, like, take these guys down or out or something?"

"Shhhhh," both Candy and #5 said. "You're interrupting the movie," #5 finished.

 Grenda looked confused for a moment, but when she really noticed what movie they were watching, she just shrugged and started watching it with them.

The final two Dippers, number one and two, were out of breath both in the kitchen; they ran between pretty much every slightly concealed part of the shack but looped back to the kitchen, thinking they were still being chased. After a moment, they realized no one was actually on their tail, so they stopped for a breather.

Number one looked nervous at the kitchen entrance. "they're so going to find us, and we're dead, man, that magic Dipper clone, it's corrupted them all. How am I going to get my life back."

 "what do you mean your life?" number two said, confused. "I'm the real Dipper."

Number one just looked tired at him. "You're obviously not the real one. I made you to stop another one of us."

 "I don't remember you making me," two complained, getting angrier by the second.

"Yeah, well, I remember making you so shush."

 "you shush!" #2 pushed him violently, making number one back into a cabinet.

 "What's your problem, man?" number one cried as he looked up, shocked at #2.

 "My problem is you're trying to replace me," number two cried, "and you're talking about some Dipper clone I've never seen."

 Number one looked tired at number two. He was second-guessing ever since he came out of the printer, which somewhat made sense. Still, it was getting annoying at this point; all he wanted was a follower to help him take out the most likely stronger Dipper, but all he got was an overly questioning clone of himself. When he really thought about it, he probably should have seen this coming. While number two is still ranting at him, number one sees a spray bottle right behind a few items on the counter. He was eyeing between it and the clone for a while until he had a devious plan. In a quick burst of movement, number one grabbed the spray bottle and pointed it at #2, who was shocked.

 "What are you gonna do with that?" number two said. "I'm the real Dipper; I'm not gonna melt." Number two said, angrier than ever.

 "If you're so sure it's not going to melt you, why are you nervous." Number one replied. What he had said was true; while he wasn't sweating, there was a slight twitch or fear in #2 as he saw the spray bottle pointing toward him.

 Before he could react, two grabbed a water bottle and stood on the far side of the kitchen from him. They were now in what looked to be a showdown.

 "Listen here, clone," number two said bitterly. "I'm sick and tired of taking orders from you, so I'm gonna come up with a plan, and I'm gonna get my life back, And I'm going to get my powers back, and that's it."

 "What do you mean your powers? They're my powers; we just can't use them right now; magic Dipper probably stole them or something."

 "How do I know you didn't do something with them?" two said frantically.

 "I don't want to do this; let's just team up and…" Number one started, but then he saw number two frantically trying to unscrew the bottle; he was lucky Dipper was infamously weak because he was struggling to get a grip on the bottle. With a deep breath, number one knew what he had to do; his whole plan had failed, he thought, and there was no starting over. With one spray of the bottle, Dipper would quickly close the gap between the two of them, and #2 would melt away horrifically.

 Dipper number one didn't really know what he was saying, but, in the end, he really didn't think it mattered. Holding up the spray bottle, Dipper knew even if this magic Dipper was strong, he probably would have the same weakness as the others; there was no holding back now as number one left the room, marching towards the party.

A loud crowd cheered as Mabel finally finished her dance. The competition between Pacifica and Mabel had been going on for a few minutes as they both completed their routines. Pacifica had a nice elegant dance, which could have been more enjoyable to the partygoers, but one glare and a few payments without anybody noticing, and she would give a good applause. On the other hand, Mabel had a fun dance that everyone loved, giving her a natural applause compared to Pacifica's artificial one. The party could go any way, but as the challenge finished, she knew she had to return to dealing with the Dipper clone crisis.

 She was on her way back to the back of the shack to see how her friends were doing, but then she would be distracted when she heard Wendy's voice.

 "Hey, little dude," she heard Wendy call out. Usually, this wouldn't get her attention, but there was one person she called Little Dude the most; quickly turning to her side, she saw that talking to Wendy was the number one Dipper trying to get away from her, but she was still trying to talk to him.

 "Oh hey, erased. I mean, umm, Wendy," number one responded, trying to look around her out the window to see the Dipper still there. By this time, guests had stopped flowing into the party, and he was now just writing down furiously in the journal. Interestingly, number one noticed nobody was around, which didn't feel right to him. For some reason, the memory was foggy. But normally, someone was with him when he saw the journal, right? He would get knocked out of his conversation with Wendy that he wasn't paying attention to when he felt an arm around his own.

Standing right beside him was his sister, which almost made him excited until he realized what had been happening in the past hour or two of the party. Before Dipper could freak out, Mabel had told Wendy they needed a private conversation and dragged him to one of the hallways.

Once again pushed against the wall, Dipper number one was struggling again.

 "Hey, aren't we back where we started?" Mabel said curiously, fighting back Dipper number one, who struggled a lot more than the first time.

 "Mabel, let me go," Dipper said furiously. "I gotta stop the clone."

 "No, you're the clone. It's not that I hate you for being a clone; you just have to admit. You are a clone." she said slowly, the last part, trying to drive it the point.

"Mabel, I remember everything from our childhood. I remember everything from our summer. I'm not a clone." Number one said frantically. "I remember my mom and dad, I remember helping you go against the gnomes. I remember watching that stupid Dreamboat high marathon with you like a week ago."

 Mabel, who was struggling to keep him back, paused for a second when he said that. Letting go, she looked at him bewildered.

Number one Dipper would take this opportunity; the moment he was even slightly let free, he broke free and pointed the spray bottle toward Mabel's face. This wouldn't go well as the moment it was pointed at her face, the bottle would float up into the air slowly and awkwardly; when number one looked back at Mabel, she was holding on to the pendant, still looking at him, confused.

"Dipper fell asleep during that? Quick, tell me who ended up dating who at the end of 6."

 "Morgan and Allison," Dipper said quickly and robotically.

 "You see, you weren't awake when that happened," Mabel said, surprised, "But how would you know that?"

 "unless unless unless," Mabel said, holding on to her head thinking. As she said earlier, she was never as much of a detective as her brother, pretty much not a detective at all, but she was starting to get the clues together about what was happening. In an instant, she turned around and pointed towards the clone of her brother.

 "Dipper, open up your journal?"

 "What, why would I…"

 "I said open up your journal!" Mabel screamed at him.

Fumbling the book out of his vest pocket, number one opened it and showed it to Mabel. After flipping through multiple pages, she realized what was happening. The book was absolutely blank. Mabel, with a shocked look on her face, finally concluded. Number one was correct. He wasn't a clone of Dipper. He had all of his memories and personality, but there was something more with him. Somehow, when the copying machine copied him, it didn't just copy her brother but the journal, too.

 It was hard to wrap her head around but maybe when it scanned Dipper, Riley got mixed up in there.

"you're not just my brother; you're my brother and Riley combined," Mabel put together.

 "What, that's crazy," number one said nervously. He was thinking to himself. His eyes were moving rapidly again, and he was putting the pieces together. After a few moments of thinking for himself, he realized what was happening.

"Think about it; most of the night, you have been spilling every secret you knew from the Journal; you can't even see Riley, can't you? That's because you're the same person." Mabel said, putting it together.

"No, no, that's a lie. Stop saying stupid things," number one said, slightly holding on to his head in frustration.

"Oh yeah, then prove it, Mabel," she said. "When Dipper was asleep, and the book was still open, I said one final thing to Riley before I woke up my brother. What did I say?"

Dipper thought back for a moment, and he was horrified when he searched into his memory. He remembered it; he remembered seeing something from a perspective that was not Dipper's; he remembered looking at Dipper and then looking at Mabel, who was still attentively looking at the movie. Maple couldn't hear Riley, but she sure was still talking to them anyway.

 "But I, but I, I am. I'm Dipper, right." He said sympathetically. Mabel didn't know if he was capable of crying, but he probably would be starting to if he could at this point. Number one would slowly just collapse onto the ground, mumbling to himself. Mabel could barely hear it, but she knew he was starting to realize that he was not supposed to be here.

 She stared at him awkwardly as she kneeled down to him to try and give him some comfort. "Look, just because you're not my brother and not Riley doesn't mean you're not your own person."

 "But I'm not my own person; I'm literally not," number one yells at her angrily. "I'm just I'm just a copy." At this point, he started slowly standing up, and Mabel hugged him.

 "It's fine. I bet we can get this all situated after we talk to my brother." She tried to make him feel better, but she could tell nothing she said to him was getting through.

 "Please, I can think of a new name for you," Mabel begged as number one stood up and walked away deeper into the shack.

It wouldn't be hard following him as he walked towards the house's front door, where no one was coming through, and just stared out into the forest.

 "I'm I'm really sorry, Mabel," Dipper said. Before she could tell him to stop again, he suddenly grabbed an all-black bike and rolled off at full speed. Mabel only looked dumbfounded at what had just happened, and this definitely wasn't how she wanted her night to go; her brief bit of thinking would be cut off when she saw someone burst out of the shack running after the bike.

 "Hey, that guy is stealing my bike," Robbie said as he chased after number one, who was already far gone into the forest.

Walking back through the shack, Mabel would cut through the den to get to the party area to see how her friends were doing or if they had caught the other Dippers yet. Still, all she was met with when she crossed in was a weird situation where one Dipper clone, Candy, and Grenda were all watching Dreamboat High with each other.

“Oh hey, Mabel,” Candy called out happily, sitting in the large chair next to Dipper while Grenda was on the floor watching with them. “It turns out this clone is pretty cool.”

 “yeah, he absolutely loves 7,” Grenda said, eating a bowl of popcorn.

 Mabel only looked dumb-struck as the movie party continued on for a few seconds.

 “Oh man, Next up is 8,” Candy said excitedly.

 “Oh, I hate 8,” the clone said. The reaction to this would be unexpected when Grenda and Candy got a look in their eyes, and in an instant, Candy, who had been drinking from a bottle of water, splashed it on Dipper, melting him immediately.

 As he wailed in what can only be assumed was pain, Mabel stared, shocked at both of her friends, not even saying a word.

 “So, mission accomplished?” Candy said optimistically, smiling back at Mabel.

"Alright, who's ready to crown the party queen?" Soos announced. After he said this, the entire party exploded joyously as they all moved towards the stage to see the results.

 Mabel, Candy, and Grenda, who had just walked in, were interested in the results, but Mabel was a little emotionally tired from what just happened. She barely remembered there was a contest going on, and she was going against Pacifica. Speaking of Pacifica, she was now at the front of a stage, patiently awaiting her crown.

 "If you wanna vote for Mabel, clap now," Soos said as a roar of applause came. It was almost half of the party, including people like Stan, who had just come out of his office, and Wendy with her friends. Soos nodded slowly as he raised his hand to indicate how much noise was being generated. "not bad," he announced.

 All right now, if you want to vote for Pacifica, let your voice be heard now. As the announcement commenced, another half of the party started clapping slower than Mabel's as they were all getting a dirty look from Pacifica, who encouraged them to clap more. Mabel's face would almost fall entirely when she heard the applause slowly getting louder than hers.

 Pacifica, who was now smiling brightly, ran up to the stage and snatched the crown from Soos. "Thank you, DJ," she said happily, "all right, everyone, I expect to see you at my own yacht party I'm throwing tomorrow. what better way to introduce a party queen than an even better party." Pacifica said, smiling as everyone cheered at the prospect of getting into a Northwest party.

 A few minutes pass, and after the decision was made, Mabel, Candy, and Grenda all sit back in the chairs they initially met at while the party is slowly dying down and people are leaving.

 "It's OK, Mabel," Candy said, patting Mabel on the shoulder. Mabel was sitting between Grenda and Candy, looking quite tired after the whole situation with the night.

"It's alright, girls; beating Pacifica was always just something for fun anyway. Besides, I feel like more important things happen tonight than a simple party crown."

 "you fought a bunch of clones of your brother?" Grenda said curiously.

 "Calling it a fight really wasn't fair," Mabel said. "I was going to say I made some great friends…" Before Mabel could finish this, she was already wrapped up in a tight hug between Candy and Grenda. This was nice, Mabel thought, but she would be interrupted when Pacifica and her friends would roll up.

 Pacifica's friends were obviously going to say something taunting, but Pacifica held up a hand to stop them from speaking. Showing off her crown to Mabel's face, Pacifica smiled at her.

"Well, you asked me if I was a Princess," Pacifica said arrogantly. "Can you read the future or something?"

 "I wish," Mabel said, still somewhat down in the dumps.

 "AH, don't worry, we all learn our place sometime. but hey, if it cheers you up, that yacht party invitation also extends to you.." When Pacifica said this, her friends Grenda and Candy were shocked.

"Thanks Pacifica, that's honestly really nice of you," Mabel said awkwardly. "Why do I feel like you're just inviting me to rub it in."

 "Oh, I absolutely am," Pacifica said, "but it's nice to meet someone who will stand up to me for once. Just don't do it again," she said seriously.

 Pacifica put her hand down and walked off with her friends. Then Mabel slumped back in her chair. Grenda and Candy looked amazed at her.

 "You just got respect from Pacifica Northwest," Grenda said, surprised. "You're now probably the coolest girl in the whole town… other than her, of course."

 "Yeah, Mabel, she doesn't even praise her own friends," Candy said, equally amazed.

 With that, Mabel only smiled at both of the girls. "What have I told you? We're the coolest girls in town." Mabel, all of a sudden, got a perplexed face as she looked towards Grenda.

 "Hey Grenda," Mabel said curiously.

 "yeah?" she responded.

 "where's your iguana?" the moment Mabel asked this, they heard a small yell from outside. By this time, the party was essentially over, even though Soos was still playing music, probably for his own fun at this point.

 Walking in through the front door was Dipper holding one of the chairs he'd been sitting at under his arm, and on the other arm, he was holding an iguana that was biting his hand.

 He looked even more tired than before as he stared at Mabel and her friends.

 Walking up to them slowly, he held out the iguana to the group when Grenda picked it up and put it back on her shoulder.

 "Mabel, why did an iguana attack me?" he asked sleepily.

 "Pines twins, bad luck, bro," Mabel said, thinking this was a sufficient answer.

 However, Dipper would get surprised when a splash of water hit him in the face from Candy, who was holding a water bottle. He didn't respond at all and just stared at the girl.

 "Oh, he's the real one," Candy said, a little embarrassed. "sorry."

 "Real one?" Dipper said as he wiped off the water from his face.

"Oh man, I have a lot to explain to you," Mabel said. "but first, how would you feel about dumping a copy machine in a lake."

 For the first time in a few hours, Dipper actually perked up at something. This was going to be an interesting story, he thought.

Chapter Text

A few days had passed when Mabel had thoroughly freaked out Dipper with the news that he apparently had a copy of himself somewhere out in the woods; the male twin had decided he should probably search the woods for him, but the woods around Gravity Falls County were so large and expansive it would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack. Also, when Dipper heard he had an extreme weakness to water, he was less concerned about it surviving that much longer.

The next few days would pass in relative quiet as Dipper would fill out a journal entry for the clone, not much of one, though, since he had no first-hand information and only relied on his sister and her new excited friends for context. But while the Pines family avoided town for a few days, they would miss the preparations for something big. They wouldn't even notice until one day, driving into town early in the morning.

On one of the few days, great uncle Stan had decided the shack would be closed, and the entire family would head out into town to get some grocery shopping done. Despite living in a town smaller than most, they would come across a tiny bit of traffic standing completely still right outside of town. Stan was frustrated, of course, at the wheel, but the twins just minorly distracted themselves in the back.

"Nice to see you not tired anymore," Mabel said, smiling at her brother.

"Hey, yeah, all it took was a good night of sleep, and I'm back ready for action."

"Good," Stan said, frustrated at the traffic still. "At least you don't look like a vampire anymore. God, what's taking traffic so long?" he complained.

Poking his head out the window, Stan would suddenly be shocked back as he saw unexpectedly, right next to his window, a young cow staring at him with wide eyes. The young cow with brown and white fur simply ate some grass next to his car window.

"What the heck," Stan said, leaning back into his chair, trying to avoid the cow as much as possible.

"Oh, it's so cute!" Mabel said, leaning over Dipper to get a closer look at it through the window.

"what is it doing so far into town?" Dipper said, confused, trying to move his sister out of the way to get a better look at the cow.

While the entire Pines family was confused about what it was doing, suddenly, an even more confusing thing would happen as an old farmer would be holding up a stick and poking the cow to move further down the road. This would have been confusing on its own, but it was doubly confusing when they realized the old man was dressed and was talking like he was in the 1800s.

"Oh no," Stan said, coming to a horrifying realization. When he said that, the twins got curious as they saw him genuinely scared, looking around frantically. "It can't be today. I thought I memorized the day it happened. It can't be today. "

"Stan, what's happening," Dipper said, a little concerned.

"It's… it's Gravity Falls Founding Day," Stan said depressingly.

"Founding day?" echoed Mabel and Dipper.

A few minutes later, the entire Pines family would find themselves on the side of the road just at the entrance to town, looking over the town itself. The appearance of Gravity Falls had never blown away Dipper and Mabel, but now they were shocked. In less than a week, the twins have been closed off in the shack, and the entire town has changed to look like its 1800s counterpart. Buildings that usually have the same concrete boring structure are now decorated to look like wood and made back in the day. Citizens flocked around the city in traditional clothes and dresses. There are also masses of people engaging in all sorts of activities, such as butter churning and candle making, and there was even a guy getting married to a woodpecker. Dipper didn't really want to know what that one was about.

"Yeah yeah," Stan said, "Every year, this mad town celebrates the day it was founded nearly two hundred years ago. I just hate it because no one comes to the shack, and it's…annoying."

"If you don't like the festival so much, why don't we just leave," Mabel said, a bit concerned at her great uncle's anger.

"I would, but we have a little situation," Stan said honestly as he pointed toward the car. The twins wouldn't have noticed it earlier, but it turns out an old-timey bear trap had hit one of the wheels.

"Who would leave a bear trap lying around on the road," Dipper said, horrified. A few seconds later, he would get his answer as he saw manly Dan pick up the trap, smiling in an outfit that didn't look too dissimilar to his everyday lumberjacking outfit.

"And here I thought I caught a Big Bear" Dan laughed heartily while Stan looked at him like he had shot his dog.

Ignoring Dan at this point, Stan turned towards the twins. "I know you're a curious bunch, so you two  can explore the town while I get this all fixed up, but if even one of you comes home with an old-timey accent, you're sleeping on the porch."

The Pines twins stared at their great uncle happily as they got an evil look in their eyes.

"Thar's a carpetbagger in the turnip cellar!" Dipper said with a thick southern accent.

“Well, hornswabber my haversack!” Mabel Said, copying him. Before Stan could say anything in his apparent rage, both twins had run off into the middle of town.

"I'm serious!" Stan said as he yelled after them as they ran into the town's heart.

"Isn't this crazy?" Mabel said, looking around the town and taking in the sites happily.

"I guess it feels like we time traveled; some brief sections in the journal talked about the origin of Gravity Falls, but I wasn't really paying attention to it. It could be an interesting read now that I think about it."

"Oh, reading, who cares about reading? We're going to have some fun, and I know just where to start," Mabel said, smiling as she pointed toward a poster.

It was still early in the morning, so Dipper knew the festival had not gotten into full swing. The greatest evidence of this was a poster that said Gravity Falls founding opening ceremony; checking the time, he realized it was only a few minutes away. Looking at the poster properly, he was kind of glad someone was better at graphic design than his great uncle, but the smaller text would give him some real interest.

'Meet the original founder of the town's family.' The poster read.

Dipper did enjoy some good history, so he simply gave his sister a thumbs up as they started heading towards where the paper directed them in town. After a few minutes of hiking through town, they would suddenly get met with a small stage in the middle of Main Street with many people crowding around the front of it.

Both twins had been interested in figuring out what the modern-day ancestors of the town's founder would be like, but by the time they rounded the corner to the large crowd, both of them had two different reactions.

Dipper was amazed at the environment's look, still seeing all the old-timey stuff; he read the banner that hung over the stage casually and was already waiting patiently to see what announcement would be given.

On the other hand, Mabel froze even though, like her brother, she took some time to appreciate how the town looked. The banner that hung over the stage made her freeze for a second.

'Meet the founding family. The Northwest' the poster said in all bold letters.

"Well, that certainly explains why she's the head of the town," Mable said as both twins pushed their way towards the front of the crowd, moving by a surprisingly large amount of townsfolk; they were finally met with an empty stage.

"Oh man, this thing should be starting any second now," Dipper said, checking the time. "Huh, Northwest, why does that name sound familiar," Dipper said, thinking.

"Dipper, I kind of met her at the party a few days ago," Mabel said, a little concerned as she saw a limo roll up to the back of the stage and could clearly hear people getting out just out of sight.

"Oh really, was she one of your friends?" Dipper said, barely paying attention as he was still taking in his environment.

"Uh, let's just say we could have gotten off on better terms."

"Better terms," Dipper said, curious as his voice would get drowned out by the noise of the crowd cheering. The stage with lovely purple curtains would roll back suddenly as standing in front of the entire town was a young blonde girl in a designer version of a Frontiersmen outfit. Behind her were two middle-aged individuals, most likely Pacifica's parents, Mabel thought. They were all clearly wealthy. As the stage curtains finally revealed the young girl, the town applauded pleasantly as she walked up to the microphone.

"Hello, Gravity Falls," Pacifica said in her thick valley accent. "I would like to officially declare that Gravity Falls founding days activities are officially open. You know, long ago, my family blazed its path into this valley, and we've never looked out of it. It is our home. But we don't share our home alone, so why don't we hear some words from the nice people of Gravity Falls."

It wasn't hard for Mabel to tell she was clearly acting out her lines; they were clearly scripted, and pretty much everyone bought it except Mabel, who knew what Pacifica was really like just based on her experience and the experience of her new friends. As the crowd cheered at Pacifica's declaration, many hands would go up to request a visit upstage. Pacifica seemed to slip back into her old arrogant mood as she blandly looked across the entire crowd for someone to pick. After barely looking over the whole crowd, her eyes would finally settle on someone of interest.

"Well, look who we have here; it's the girl from the party I won my crown from. Maple something like that." Pacifica said, grinning. Pacifica would quickly turn back to her parents, who were sitting at the back of the stage. Her father seemed to give her a slight nod as she continued finally.

"won't you come on up and say a few words about our nice town," Pacifica said, returning to her playful demeanor that would make the crowd fond of her.

"hey, Mabel, you don't have to go up there if you don't want to. Also, why did she call you out like that? Are you guys like not on good terms or something?" Dipper said, concerned.

"oh please, Dipper, when have I ever given up the chance to speak in public? Besides, Gideon is closer to being a bigger rival than Pacifica. She's just, I don't know, intense, maybe."

"Whatever you say," Dipper said, concerned as he leaned back, letting his sister run upstage. Once she finally reached the top, Pacifica would slightly move the mic away from her.

"Why did you call me up?" Mabel whispered, just enough for the crowd not to hear her.

"my parents told me I would be opening the festivities today, so I had to call someone up on stage just be loud and annoying like you probably usually are," Pacifica said pretty rudely as she went back and sat next to her parents.

"Hey, everyone!" Mabel energetically said, "Now, I don't know much about this town. Heck, I barely know anything about this town. But there is one thing I do know: it's pretty crazy, and it's old, so let's act old and be crazy people, USA, USA, USA."

This would all be enough to excite the people as they started chanting with Mabel. Pacifica had no real reaction to Mabel getting the crowd excited, merely looking at her nails, but one sharp glare from her parents would send her back up to the stage. Pacifica's father was clearly upset that his daughter was upstaged in any way.

"Oh yes, yes, Mabel, that's great so glad you're in the spirit, but you could at least try it a little harder," Pacifica said, rushing up and grabbing the mic.

 "a little harder?" Mabel said, confused.

"I mean, yeah, a puppy dog playing basketball sweater and bright-colored skirt doesn't exactly scream pioneer day. Honestly, it's just a bit too silly, even for this town, but you know what they say? You gotta give a little leniency with other people every now and then." Pacifica said this arrogantly. If people were paying attention more, they could tell Pacifica constantly looked back between her and her parents.

"but don't worry, better luck next time for the true pioneer spirit," Pacifica said, motioning for Mabel to leave the stage.

"give it up for Mabel, whatever her last name Is!" Pacifica announced as Mabel walked down the steps.

By the time Mabel reached down the stairs, she wasn't smiling as brightly as she was before, but she only looked at her brother, a little confused.

 "What was all that?" Dipper said.

"I just think she's trying to keep a public image," Mabel said, trying to excuse Pacifica.

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say," Dipper said, unamused, looking at the Northwest.

Another 20 minutes would pass, and by this time, Dipper and Mabel were eating some candy from a large bag near a booth. They decided the best place to stash themselves for a while would be a small alley way between businesses as they ate slowly and talked with each other.

"So they used to marry woodpeckers?" Mabel said, a little confused.

"That's what the weird guy at the candy stand told me, and then he talked to me about his wife," Dipper responded, leaning back against the wall.

"Oh?" Mabel said, lifting an eyebrow, a little interested.

"his wife was the woodpecker," Dipper said disgusted, trying not to think about it and focus on the food.

They would soon get interrupted when they saw a familiar figure walk up to them. 

Pacifica was looking down at the twins- half amused, half bored.

Meanwhile, she froze for a second; Dipper only looked bored at her appearance. From what he could tell, she was clearly trying to give an air of power wherever she walked, but she just wasn't pulling it off.

What confused the twins was that Pacifica, who had approached them, had yet to start speaking to them. It was almost as if she was considering even the act of starting a conversation. Mabel decided to go first.

"umm, hey, Pacifica," Mabel said, tossing a wrapper into the trash after finishing a bit of candy. "what are you doing here."

"I'm trying to determine if this is a situation where I should apologize to you or just confront you."

"confront me," Mabel said, confused as she looked at Dipper, who was still eating candy. Dipper only shrugged and looked back towards the rich girl.

"Yeah, my parents were complaining to me about how you got a bigger applause than me for a whole 15 minutes. That's like most the time they talk to me a day."

"Oh, I feel like I should be sorry," Mabel said, "but I'm more confused. How do I embarrass you by getting more applause than you? Didn't you invite me to talk to people on stage?" Mabel said, confused.

"Ah, don't worry about it," Dipper said, surprisingly, speaking up. "Rich people are usually just like that if they don't have control 100% of the time over people who aren't as rich as them. They think their lives are coming to an end."

"what was that!" Pacifica snarled. Mabel had almost forgotten that Dipper, growing up consistently, didn't like one group of people the most; it was rich people. Maybe because he was bullied constantly by the more affluent members of the school, but the people he was bullied by didn't really matter. She wished she could guess the origin, but she couldn't. For some reason, Dipper had an absolute disdain for the wealthy, whether it be on TV or in real life.

"What he meant was it's silly that your parents would even consider me a threat to their influence just because I challenged you once to a party, and I spoke on stage then got a lot more cheers than you. Nothing crazy."

"they think you're a threat to my growing influence or something like you'll grow up to be a rival of mine, which I doubt." Pacifica scoffed. "don't worry, I told them the truth. I warned them that you're not a threat at all. You were just too…what was the word I used earlier? You are just too silly to get in the way.

"Too silly? what do you mean?' Mabel said, a little confused. "aren't I the perfect amount of silly?"

Pacifica cocked her head slightly in confusion like she didn't say anything wrong. "I mean, you wear sweaters all day in the middle of summer, you have a really loud voice, and you can't not joke around with people for what I've seen for like a few minutes."

"Because that's fun," Mabel said

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with that, Mabel," Dipper said sympathetically, glaring at Pacifica, who didn't seem to care. "she's just trying to bring you down because she thinks you're competition."

"no, I specifically said I don't think she's competition," Pacifica said dryly.

"hey, quiet," Dipper said, frustrated as he turned back to the blonde girl.

"Who are you telling me to be quiet? actually, who are you?" Pacifica said, a little annoyed.

"My name is Dipper; I'm her brother."

"And I think you know who I am, Pacifica Northwest, heir to the mighty Northwest family?"

"I don't care," Dipper said flatly, reassuring his sister the Pacifica was just being mean to bring her down while patting her on the back.

"Well, you should care," Pacifica said, annoyed. "Now, my family is responsible for pretty much every great event in this town since its founding. You know, they even called him the greatest town founder in American history."

"The greatest town founder in American history? And he made Gravity Falls," Dipper said skeptically.

Pacifica seemed to look around town, acknowledging its low status as she shrugged. "you have a point. It was a great town founding, not a great town growth. Look, I have had enough time with you guys. I hope my message got through."

"What message? You didn't apologize at all for embarrassing me on stage," Mabel said, confused.

"Oh, I mean, I was never here to apologize anyway, mostly just to explain myself in the situation you found yourself in. Mabel tread lightly; my parents are crazy, and guess who has to follow their craziness." Pacifica said coldly as she walked away.

As she finally took a few steps out of earshot, Dipper looked surprised and then back down to Mabel. "it's like she's intentionally rude but somehow unintentional at the same time. That's the girl you had a dance-off with."

"yeah, she seems to have changed zero in the last four days."

"I mean, have we?" Dipper said.

"You got some sleep, and I got some friends; also, there's a clone of you out in the woods. I would say something's changed for us." Mabel said thinking

"Yeah, but we don't really act differently, but something Pacifica said to me stuck out. She said her ancestor had the greatest town founding in all of American history, but something tells me that's wrong."

"Is this one of your average conspiracy theories or one of your journal-based conspiracy theories?" Mabel said, raising an eyebrow.

"Journal based," He said, quickly reaching into his vest.

"yeah, yes!" Mabel said excitedly. Dipper would only look at her, confused.

"I thought you were getting sick and tired of the supernatural and dealing with it."

"yeah, but it's kind of the most exciting thing we do now. besides, if it involves the Northwest family, I can get my sweet, sweet revenge." Mabel said, rubbing her hands together.

"huh, I didn't see you as the kind of person for revenge," Dipper said, opening the journal slowly.

"It's just girl things, Dipper you wouldn't understand."

"Revenge is girl things now?" Dipper said, confused.

"Like I said, you wouldn't get it," Mabel responded. Unbeknownst to her a slight fog would rush across the area where the Pines twins were sitting, as Riley would form just a few feet away from Dipper.

As usual, Riley would scan the environment before speaking to them, but now they were confused about what was happening. "have you cracked the means of time travel?" Riley said curiously as they looked at a wagon being pulled by a cow.

"no, it's just some weird local festival, but there's something more important," Dipper said, flipping the page to the Northwest history. "I need as much information on the Northwest family as you got, especially about the founding."

"Hmm," Riley said, "the founding of this town is mired in deep mystery. Even the author couldn't fully solve it, but due to his recordings, he stated he had many run-ins with the Northwest of the past. He always had doubts about the true nature of not only their origin but their business as well."

"interesting," Dipper said as he turned to Mabel. "The author basically says that he thinks the Northwest family have always been kind of mysterious involving something that founded the town."

"Did they ever figure out why?" Mabel said.

"no," Riley responded, even though they knew she couldn't hear them. "The Northwest mystery was never a primary investigation, merely a collection of loose theories with rudimentary evidence. The author doesn't go into much detail, but he apparently had many more important things to deal with."

"no," Dipper said. "he didn't think the investigation was worth it," he simplified.

"Dang it," Mabel said. "didn't leave any clues or anything?"

"no, but he did leave this envelope attached to the book. It's really squished in there."

"interesting," Riley said, "a thin piece of paper not technically a part of the journal squeezed in between. Since it's not the journal itself, I wouldn't have access to any of the information on that piece of paper. I would like you to read it and record it better later."

"you got it," Dipper said as he removed the piece of paper. It had to be very old, but so was the journal itself, which didn't give him much detail on its origin. Unfolding it slowly, Riley leaned over both twin's shoulders to get a better view.

"Dear name scratched out," Dipper started to announce. "I have taken your words into great consideration about your theories about the Northwest family and their founding of the original settlement of Gravity Falls. So far, all my investigations have been deemed inconclusive; I know you're not exactly in the best state of mind right now, but if you ever get the chance to investigate this, I recommend you start at the grave of Nathaniel Northwest. It is located within the oldest section of the cemetery on the Northwest side of it. The contact I made to get this information told me the clues were on the grave. Something about only the right kind of person being able to open it. I would further aid you in this investigation, but I'm preoccupied with my own tasks of most likely greater importance."

"from name scratched out," Dipper finished.

"wow, this author guy really doesn't want anyone to know his identity," Mabel said

"yeah," Dipper said, a little sad that he didn't get any more clues into the author's identity. "But he gave us a start to our investigation. There's apparently some clue on the Northwest grave."

"So, do we like need a shovel?" Mabel said a little louder than she probably should have. "I don't think digging up a corpse is exactly what I wanted to do this summer."

"what's this about digging up corpses?" a voice from behind them suddenly said. Turning around quickly, both Pines twins were met with a slightly in-costume officer Steve, as he looked down upon the twins curiously.

Dipper fumbled the journal around nervously as he looked up at the officer. "What digging up corpses? What are you talking about? My sister says that, you know, getting into character for this special occasion."

"Yep," Mabel said, looking a little weirded out, "I sure do love getting into character; we all love getting into character, right constable." she was pointing at his half-baked pioneer costume as Officer Steve looked down at himself and up.

"I guess, not to sound rude to your entire family, but you kids wouldn't happen to be up to something," Steve said, scratching his chin.

"What, no, of course not," Mabel said. "we're just having a good time; in fact, me and Dip were going to go somewhere else and have fun right now."

"don't call me that," Dipper said quickly as he grabbed Mabel's hand and jogged off.

As they were leaving, the officer got a strange look in his eye when he saw the book Dipper was holding. He didn't recognize the book at all, but it was old from what he could barely see while the kid was fumbling with it.

He might have to keep an eye on them. The entire Pines family was suspicious to him anyway.

Farther into town, the Pines twins had jogged for a good amount of time, looking back constantly to see if Officer Steve was still following them, but so far, they'd seen nothing.

"Man, why is that guy so nosy," Mabel said, a little tired.

"maybe you shouldn't talk about corpses in public genius," Dipper said, miffed at his sister.

"Ah, whatever," Mabel said nonchalantly. "We're not too far away from the Gravity Falls graveyard. Anyway, all we have to do is find a singular gravestone in a literal field of gravestones, and we should be on to our next clue; this will probably take a while," she said deadpan.

Dipper shrugged at her as he looked over the letter for more clues. "According to the letter, it's in the northeastern part of the cemetery. Let's just hope it's recognizable."

After a brief walk to the Gravity Falls cemetery, the twins were met with the standard somber fare; not even the genuinely happy tone of the festival around town could pierce through a sense of sadness a cemetery usually had.

"Man, this clue better be real," Mabel said, looking over the graves while walking through the main pathway in the cemetery with Dipper.

"Mabel, I think we've come to figure out at this point that the book is trustworthy." Dipper responded, then looked towards the space next to her. "hey Riley, Do you have any theories of what's going on before we reach the grave?"

"no," Riley responded simply while moving forward.

"you're such a great conversationalist," Dipper said sarcastically.

"thank you," Riley said, not a hint of awareness of sarcasm.

"I bet it's like some secret treasure or something," Mabel said excitedly. "Maybe her whole family's only rich because they found some ancient treasure, and then we'll find some ancient treasure, and then we'll all be rich for life."

"That does sound nice," Dipper said. "But right now, we need to focus on finding the right grave. Even for a small town, the graveyard's pretty full. It will take forever just to find which one is the right one."

"is it that one?" Dipper heard Riley point out, suddenly drawing his attention to a huge grave amongst the smaller headstones. Dipper was expecting a crypt when he thought of a rich person's grave, but no, this was so much more than that. Following Dipper's eyes, Mabel would turn quickly, surprised at what the grave looked like.

He hadn't even really met them yet, but Dipper knew the Northwest family were never modest; he didn't know who did this, the family or the town, but their idea of celebrating their old town's founder had his grave be one taller than everyone else, not just a headstone but a perfect replica of the town's founder standing heroically on a rock.

"yeah, I think I found it," Mabel muttered, already moving towards the grave.

It was a short walk to get there, but on their way there, the twins were already discussing what they had to do next.

"the note was vague, but it said something about only the right kind of person opening it," Dipper said curiously.

"that can mean plenty of things," Riley said, interested. "it could be purity of heart, wealth, familial status, species, gender, race. We could never just go off a clue that vague."

"you're right. We just gotta hope that we got the right stuff or  something," Dipper said in vague cheer. He clearly wasn't excited about trying to find a too-vague clue.

"Oh please, Dipper, we're the Pines twins. We always got the right stuff," Mabel said confidently, trudging ahead. "it's going to be awesome, other than the maybe interacting with a dead body part; we're just going to find This out, expose the Northwest family, and then rub it in Pacifica's face."

"I don't think that's very wise," Riley said honestly. "a secret in the journal should stay a secret."

"Riley says a secret in the journal should stay secret," Dipper responded, looking over the grave. It was an impressive piece of art, but the quality matched something more of a Roman emperor or a United States president who really liked Roman generals more than a town founder.

"What we're just exposing who really found the town that's not supernatural that's contributing to American history," Mabel responded nonchalantly.

"That's funny because American history is one of your least favorite subjects," Dipper said, not even looking at her while walking around the statue to look for a clue.

"the present is more interesting than the past. one has television." Mabel said confidently.

"I disagree," Dipper said as he looked toward Riley, who was thinking.

"she might have a point," they said honestly.

Dipper barely acknowledged this as he walked over to both Riley and Mabel, who were standing next to each other towards the face of the statue.

"I couldn't find any levers or anything. not even a secret button, but there is apparently some clue on this thing. It just looks like a normal statue," Dipper said, frowning and starting to complain.

After what felt like just 30 minutes of Riley and Dipper bouncing off theories with each other, Mabel had finally had enough. Maybe it would have been more bearable if she could actually see who he was talking to, but instead, it just looked like her brother was talking alone next to a statue.

"This is so stupid," Mabel said, complaining. "why can't these treasure hunts ever be obvious?" she told accusatory towards the statue.

"Mabel, this statue could be made by an ancient society or powerful people so that the common people could never get into their secrets. I can't even begin to think what an ancient society member or an old powerful politician could devise as a method for a clue."

"I have an idea," Mabel said jokingly as Riley and Dipper stared at her blankly.

"Dipper, tell your sister that the smile on her face does not bode well. She's obviously planning something."

"I know," Dipper said skeptically as he watched Mabel walk up to the statue. "hey, Mabel, whatever you're doing, you should probably stop it."

"what? It's just going to be a joke."

"no," both Dipper and Riley said as they watched Mabel climb on the statue.

Dipper and Riley could only stand in mock horror as Mabel wound up her leg and kicked the crotch of the original Northwest.

"Mabel, why would you do that? It's a priceless piece of history. Well, local history but history," Dipper said loudly, confused at his sister as she climbed down.

"Oh, calm down. It was just a joke." Mabel said, relaxed.

"Mabel, that was unwise," Riley said, still acting like Mabel could hear her directly. "That could have caused damage to…well, that's not normal.." at this point, Riley was behind Dipper, so when they said that, he was drawn to the sound, of creaking they were obviously pointing out.

The creaking sounded like the metal or stone of the statue was moving for the first time in 100 years. For a moment, the twins thought something on the inside was happening, but no, it would all come to a head when the creaking stopped and small slab-like movements were heard when the hand of the Northwest statue gripped harder.

"Dipper," Mabel said, a little freaked out. "did that statue just move?"

"Unfortunately," Dipper responded as he and his sister backed up.

Hiding behind a nearby grave, the statue would suddenly become alive as it stood straight out of its heroic pose and looked toward the twins. Its eyes were glowing red, but it didn't seem like a threat. Dipper noticed this when his senses weren't even going off. The statue now stands up from its position, pointing in a specific direction towards the town. But before any of the Pines could respond, it would quickly return to its natural position, and its eyes would fade away.

"What was that?" Mabel said freaking out.

"it appears your sister's lapse in judgment has garnered us the answers," Riley said, the lack of emotion highlighted with a bit of shock.

"yeah, I don't believe it either," Dipper responded as he quickly noted where it was pointing. Forgetting his discussion with his sister before the incident, he quickly climbed on the statue to get a better view of where it could have been pointing.

They're on the far north side of town, so the buildings in its general direction got sparser. There were only a few that stood in the path of the finger.

It didn't take an expert to know that most of the buildings were added, most likely far after the original Northwest had died. But one stood out from that. City Hall.

"Mabel, I think I found out where the next clue is."

Looking in that direction, Mabel put it together almost as quickly as her brother, or at least that's what he thought. 

"the next clue is Tony's snack Shop," Mabel said, a little bit surprised.

Dipper would jump down from the statue and slap his hand on his forehead.

"Mabel, I meant City Hall' he responded, frustrated.

"yeah, I know I was joking with you, but I really would wanna stop and get some food on the way there. I am hungry."

"that's fair," Dipper said as he, his sister, and Riley shuffled off.

Unbeknownst to them, standing behind one of the larger buildings in the graveyard stood Officer Steve observing them. Over his brief career as an officer in Gravity Falls, he knew the Pines family was always up to something shady, but this was a big shock.

Fumbling with his radio a bit, he dialed in a special key and held it up.

"yes, hello, this is an officer stationed in Gravity Falls Code 41920. I have a situation involving a pair of prepubescent detectives. I think they might have stumbled upon something big. I think it's a code 2004."

He silenced his radio for a bit, waiting for a response, but lucky for him, he would get one quickly.

"then what are you waiting for? These are children, right? It shouldn't be that hard. if they're really on the right track, apprehend them before they see too much, and if they see too much, you know what to do."

Steve looked down on his radio when he heard this.

"Sir, I don't know about…"

"you know what your job is," the voice on the radio responded quickly. "I expect you to do it."

"yes, Sir," the officer said, stuffing his radio away. He meant to keep an eye on the twins, but the moment he looked up, they were already running away at full speed and just out of sight.

"Dang, why do those kids have to be fast?" Steve said as he began to run across the entire graveyard just to get a hope of catching up.

The Pines twins didn't know much about city administration. Still, compared to the one in their hometown, the City Hall of Gravity Falls was noticeably smaller, with only about three recognizable police officers, and neither heard about the mayor. The twins weren't expecting much, and that's precisely what they got.

the building was clearly old, but It was probably refurbished many times. This was a quick observation Dipper had made once both twins had entered City Hall proper. there was a sign-out front that said it was closed for the day, but the fact that the twins could still open the doors didn't discourage them at all.

The main lobby for the City Hall was just as unimpressive as the outside, just a simple desk where a secretary would have stood and two doors on the side of her desk each that led to a different part of the building. while one led to the office space of a mayor, another one had a sign that said it led to extra offices and, more importantly, a basement.

"Hmm," Dipper said, looking at his sister smiling a bit, "how much do you want to bet we'll find our clues in the basement."

"oh, I don't doubt that," Mabel said, smiling as they ran off towards the door.

Passing by the plain, empty offices, the Pines twins would run to the opposite side of the room as they found themselves at the end of it had a simple sign that said Gravity Falls records/basement.

Mabel decided to be the bold one here and opened the door that led down into a dark basement via a straightforward ladder system. Both twins looked at the utterly dark basement with worry as they stared at each other.

"for some reason, I'm starting to think what we're doing is crazy," Mabel said.

"no, yeah, you're right," Dipper said. "I think breaking into City Hall was probably too much."

"is it really breaking in if they didn't have a closed sign?" Mabel said grinning at her brother.

"but they did have a closed sign?" Dipper said skeptically

"Not anymore, they don't," Mabel said, revealing from one of her sweater pockets that she had taken the closed sign. Dipper just looked at her dumbfounded.

"Why would you take that," he says, a little confused.

"I don't know memories," Mabel said, shrugging as they both continued to look down into the basement.

"Well, nothing was ever done by standing still," Dipper said, taking his first steps into the basement. "And if there's nothing down here, we can just check the other rooms."

The Pines twins knew they were crossing some boundaries into the illegal side of investigating. Still, Dipper theorized with how the officers were in this town, he could quickly negotiate his way out of trouble. Maybe it was just his new confidence, but in the heat of the moment, he seemed to be able to talk to people far more confidently in danger than casually, or at least that's what his sister said about him.

The basement was exactly what they expected: a large underground room with multiple racks of boxes with paper and a few items that didn't matter, or at least they didn't think they mattered. Descending down the wooden steps in need of repair, the Pines twins were cautious. Neither of them could guess how important the Northwest conspiracy was, but it had been pretty straightforward so far.

"How are we going to find clues in here?" Mabel said, surprised, looking over the entire room in awe of its many items.

"That's a good question," Dipper said, taking the final steps off the stairs. Nothing was really pointing them in a general direction.

Riley, who had been stuffed away into the book as they made their way to City Hall, was resummoned as Dipper opened the journal to show them around.

"I see you've reached the basement," Riley said, noticing the surrounding area.

"Yeah, this was our first guess of somewhere to look, and it's also probably the oldest part of the building. Since the Northwest mystery is probably one of the oldest conspiracies this town has ever had, it would make sense that it would be here, right."

"Yes," Riley said, "that certainly does make sense, but in this town, few things do make sense on a conventional standard."

"so you're saying we're wrong," Dipper said, raising an eyebrow as Mabel looked at him, hearing his conversation.

"I never said that. I simply stated the fact that the unexpected is always into play when dealing with the supernatural."

"are we dealing with the supernatural?" Dipper thought about it for a second. "I mean, I guess you're right. Statues made over 100 years ago don't tend to move."

"what if it's like a secret old technology they didn't teach anyone else?" Mabel thought, thinking a bit out loud. "It would look like they used the magic; that sounds like something that could happen."

"well, that's definitely a terrifying thought," Dipper said, searching throughout the journal. "the author really doesn't have any notes about this. I guess we're going in blind."

"Hey, we were going in blind when we fought the wax figure, and that had us in a creepy basement, too."

"yeah, but this time, you better not activate any weird wax bad guys to try and kill us."

"it was an accident," Mabel said as Dipper walked to one of the older shelves searching through the papers.

"what are you doing?" she said curiously, looking over her shoulder.

"well, if this is an old conspiracy theory, it has to have some evidence about it around here somewhere. Also, I'm not seeing a lot of ancient stuff. So like, I don't know, investigate?"

"investigate how?" Mabel said.

"I don't know how did you deal with the clones of me you told me about."

"I don't know. I just kind of chased them around for a bit, and then I had my friends help chase them around that wasn't really investigating…is it? does that make me detective… Mabel Holmes, Sherlock Mabel or..."

"You're right, that doesn't make you a detective," Dipper said, cutting her off before she could keep going.

As Dipper silently mumbled to Riley about the documents he was looking over, Mabel decided to wander off once more to begin her own investigation. While she wasn't still on board the whole become a detective thing. She was excited to contribute to the case, sure the fact this whole thing started with the fact Pacifica had tried to embarrass her on stage helped with her drive to finish the investigation.

Walking along the back wall of the basement, Mabel found a lot of interesting things back there, most of them obviously relics of the town's lightly interesting past, but one thing that stood out to her was a head mounted on a wall. It was not a human head or even a real head; it looked like a completely fake metal wolf's head on the side of a plaque on the wall.

While this definitely was interesting to her, it wasn't too weird, or at least for them. Stan did have a mummified mermaid in the gift shop harder to get weirder than that without actually getting to the supernatural side. Inspecting the wolf more closely, it had a stoic stare as its eyes almost felt like they were following Mabel around the room.

"why aren't you a cutie?" she said honestly as she began to pet the wolf, looking back quickly to her brother and then back at the wolf. Mabel had a really funny idea, in her opinion.

"hey, Dipper, look! Mabel said, getting his attention and unknowingly Riley's too. The moment she had gotten their attention, she decided to joke around and stick both her fingers in the wolf's nose.

Dipper just looked annoyed as he stared at her as she started to dig in the nose.

"Mabel, for crying out loud, why would you…" both twins would pause suddenly when they heard two clicks from the wolf's head. Mabel was almost too stunned by the move, feeling she had accidentally triggered something. Turning her head slowly toward the wolf, she was confused to see that the wolf was now actually staring at her. It clearly wasn't alive, not even as animated as the statue, but it looked at her, and its mouth opened with a metallic hiss with slight pressurized gas releasing.

"oh man, this is bad, this is bad," Mabel said.

Backing up to her brother, Mabel grabbed his arm, ready to dash out of the basement, but both of them were too curious about what the wolf was doing next. Once the jaw was opened, a metallic howl from the wolf was heard as the wall next to it started to shift.

As the walls started forming cracks on them, they opened up slowly as if they were elevator doors embedded into the wall. As the door slowly opened, the wolf growled a bit.

Funny enough, as the doors finished opening, revealing what looked to be a cave system, the wolf would give a comical Ding noise from its head as it seemed to return to its resting state.

"I'm assuming this is irregular human architecture," Riley said, looking up from a file they were inspecting; during the entire incident, they had barely reacted. Dipper knew it was because when they absorbed details, they would hyperfocus on it.

"Yeah, No," Dipper responded, "Mabel, what did you do?"

"I don't know, I don't know. I was just messing around, and the wolf just, you know, did that."

"Should we like go in?" Dipper said questioningly, looking down the Cave entrance. Dipper noticed that Riley seemed to be now inspecting the edges and the wolf personally, but once they got a good look at it, they only shrugged back to Dipper.

"Anything?" Dipper asked Riley.

"I can't tell if it is magical; I don't think it's magic at all. It's probably mechanical. The supernatural was probably not involved here."

"Oh, that's just perfect," Dipper said

"What Riley say? Is this thing magic?" Mabel said concerned.

"No," Dipper said, focusing on the wolf's head.]

"oh, that's a problem," Mabel said, suddenly shocked, Grabbing Dipper by his arm.

"wait, why was that a problem?" he was confused, trying to figure out why his sister was frantically dragging him down The Cave.

"no, not that," Mabel said, pointing back towards the top of the stairs. They heard an opening sound as someone tried stepping down to the basement.

It didn't take any other words for Dipper to realize what was happening, and he rushed into the cave with his sister. The moment they crossed the boundary between the basement and The cave, Mabel turned back to see a lever she had just passed by; that was probably how they closed the door, she thought. There were two of them, so she probably just had to take a gamble on which one.

She would be too late to reach for them as she accidentally ran by in their haste. Quickly grabbing her tie, she used her magic to yank both levers down, but this would also be too late.

It was hard to see from the distance they were at, but the person running downstairs had reached the bottom and was now running towards them at full speed. It also didn't take them long to realize who it was: Steve.

"Steve?" Dipper said questioningly, not hesitating to run a little faster.

"Hey, wait!" the officer said as the elevator-like doors closed quickly.

"Sorry, we don't know how to work this thing," Mabel lied as they both stood still, noticing the officer.

Mabel thought they could pass off as victims in the situation or at least unknowing as she feigned ignorance. She obviously expected the doors to close a little faster as, in a moment flat, Steve had crossed across the entire basement and jumped through the basement elevator-like doors, reaching inside The Cave like the twins.

"Oh, what?" Dipper said surprised a little further back than Mabel.

Steve would respond to this by breathing heavily from the run.

“..why….are you….kids….so fast.” Steve said, huffing, taking a knee for a second before standing up immediately and regaining his composure. "what do you kids think you're doing?"

Mabel and Dipper only looked awkwardly at each other.

"spelunking," Mabel said, obviously lying, as Steve looked at them like he saw the truth.

Steve regained his composure and stood straight, looking down at the two kids. "Look, I know exploring is fun, but you know this is trespassing, right? So let's get out of here before you kids…I don't know, get in over your heads."

"what's that supposed to mean," Dipper said skeptically.

"it means I'm getting you out of here, or you're under arrest," the officer said deadpan, grabbing his sister and him by the arm. When he grabbed Dipper, though, he was oddly resilient.

Steve looked back at the kid, a little surprised. "geez kid, what are you like? Hercules now move." he said with a tug.

He would stop pulling them when he noticed that the door had suddenly closed, and now they were in a dark cave.

"Well, this is just perfect," Steve said, releasing the twins and returning to the door, "now, how do we get out of here?"

"oh, don't worry, those levers I hit should open it," Mabel said confidently.

Dipper would shine a light on both of the levers as he realized both were active.

"why are there two of them?" Dipper said.

"one open, one close?" Mabel said, shrugging as Steve looked at the levers on the panel.

"one says open, one says entrance," the officer relayed to the twins. "what's the difference between an entrance and an open…"

The young officer would suddenly be cut off when a slight rumbling was heard. All three people and spirit looked down at the floor to see the ground was looking like it was disintegrating. The thick rock that made up the floor looked like it was fading away into sand, and the ground was starting to feel looser and looser.

"what's going on," Dipper said, confused, as he tried to find his good footing on the increasingly sandy-feeling cave floor.

"it seems like the rocks are displaying a magical property that makes them erode faster. I take back what I said. There is something supernatural about this case." Riley said, not sinking in the sand like everyone else.

"yeah, I can see that," Dipper said as he tried to hold on to his sister.

"Who the heck are you talking to?" Steve said, a little angered at the situation as the entire floor collapsed in on them, and they fell.

Luckily for all involved, they wouldn't fall far as they were immediately put on a natural slide that pushed them down further and further underground.

Dipper and Steve would be freaking out as Mabel started having a little fun on the makeshift slide. After what felt like about a minute pass, going down the slide, all three of them would suddenly fall from the cave system into a room.

Groaning slowly, Steve would rise up first and turn on his flashlight to look around the room in shock.

"what is all this?" he said, surprised.

The twins would also get up just a second later to look around the room. To Dipper, it was probably one of the best things he has ever found, after finding the journal Of course. He didn't want to say that to Riley out loud.

The whole room was filled with objects that looked to be from the 1800s, the same time the town was founded. Several items, such as weapons, food, and clothes, all styled after the time period, were strewn about in a room filled with documents and statues of historical figures.

"It's like some kind of early American history treasure trove," Dipper said, amazed.

"This is crazy," Steve said as he reached for his radio. "Yes, this is officer41920. I have a confirmed code 2004; the twins I was chasing down managed to find some sort of historical hideaway".

The Pines twins were shocked when they heard this and started backing up slowly from him.

"yes, Sir, I understand…yes, Sir." The Pines couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but Steve obviously looked a little saddened that he failed in whatever he was doing.

"I'm sorry I have to do this, kids," Steve said as he reached behind him.

Mabel looked shocked, and so did Dipper as he looked angered. "you're gonna shoot us?"

Steve looked confused and surprised at what Dipper said. "what, no! I just have to take you in for questioning now on how you figured this out. I don't want to kill you."

"Oh, thank God," Mabel said.

"you know this is a whole misunderstanding," Mabel lied more convincingly this time. "You see, me and my brother were just messing around in a graveyard, you know, as preteens do, and we just decided to follow a statue after I kicked it in the crotch area. Nothing crazy; we don't even know what's going on here, right Dipper."

Dipper silently glared at Riley and then back at the officer. "um yeah, nothing going on here. We just stumbled upon this, so, like, do we get to go on the news for this."

Steve couldn't tell, but Mabel could tell that Riley was probably saying something to him that didn't flatter him at all as he frowned immediately after looking over his shoulder.

"yeah, no, this is the case that the United States government has been trying to find for a long time. It's a real down-low affair. Apparently, it has some implications in Washington."

"Well, we're in Oregon, not Washington, so I don't think that …Ah," Mabel cried out as her foot suddenly sunk into a wooden panel on the floor.

Dipper would move quickly and drag her out of the wood area her foot collapsed in. 'that was interesting.' he thought the entire floor was made of stone or natural earth, but that one part was wholly made of wood.

"I'm OK," Mabel said. "I just kind of stepped in something."

"stepped in what?" Dipper said as he and Steve looked over to the wooden panel. Upon further inspection, the officer and Dipper realized this wooden panel was too long to be just a standard panel. It almost looked like a coffin door. It even had a handle.

"hmm." Dipper was going to reach out for it, but the moment he tried, his hand was immediately slapped away by Officer Steve, who took the lead instead.

"Look, I already had enough of you and this conspiracy theory today. I think I should take the lead."

"So what you knew about this conspiracy, and you're here to what protect it." Dipper accused.

"more like find it for ourselves before some civilian gets in our way," Steve said, glaring at Dipper.

Opening the panel quickly, everyone in the room jumped in freight, and they saw a disturbing sight.

Encased in a solid block that looked like amber was a man resting in a small coffin. In a normal situation, the fact he was encased in amber in a coffin would have been the weird part, but no, he looked perfectly preserved except for a few parts of him. He looked like an old-timey politician, in Dipper's opinion, or a person you would find in the advertisement for food except for one horrifying detail. His head looked half-decayed. You can see the skull on him. The body was obviously not preserved well in the amber, as it was clearly rotting.

"Oh my God, did we just find a dead body," Mabel said, almost barfing as she reeled back in horror.

"I don't think it's a dead body," Dipper said, horrified as Mabel and Steve looked back at him, confused.

"What are you talking about?" Steve said as he was already reaching for his radio.

Pointing shakingly, Dipper pointed towards his head. Mabel would come out of her fear to look at what was happening to see that the area her foot had struck had begun cracking the amber grave. But that wasn't as important as the eyes of a man opening slowly and staring at everyone in the room with a wide gaze.

"he's not alive. He's a zombie," Dipper said, horrified.

Chapter Text

Sometimes life comes at you fast, and sometimes by the time you realize you're even in a situation, life is already there punching you in the face; this is somewhat how Dipper felt as he was trapped underneath a cave with a police officer, a zombie, his sister, and his spirit only he could see. Honestly, he lived an interesting life.

But in this current situation, Dipper really couldn't appreciate how interesting his life had become when the amber-like substance that was contained in a coffin was breaking apart. Neither the twins nor the officer could get any honest, coherent thoughts together as they all backed up slowly; the cracks along the amber were breaking faster than expected, almost like ice, and each shatter brought a new loud sound. Whatever Mabel did to break it open accidentally was not helped by the fact that the zombie underneath was also waking up.

"A zombie, the secret underneath Gravity Falls is a zombie," Mabel screamed. "Why can't it ever be cool stuff like treasure."

"On the bright side, how strong can one zombie be? It can't be that much better than a wax figure," Dipper said, feeling around his vest. "Man, I keep wishing to bring that sword."

"What are you kids talking about?" Steve yelled as he pulled a pistol and pointed it towards the coffin. "You're acting like this is normal."

"I mean, it's definitely not normal," Dipper said, calmer than everyone else in the room. "it's just… man, what's the word I'm thinking of?"

"Unusual," Mabel said.

"No," Dipper replied, scratching his chin.

"Horrifying!" Steve said, checking his pistol for ammo.

"Again, no."

"Predictable," Riley said.

"Yeah, predictable, that's the word. It's kind of predictable at this point."

"No one said predictable are you schizophrenic," the officer said rudely.

"What, no, of course not," Dipper said. He paused for a moment, thinking and looking up to Riley. "Well, at least I hope I'm not."

"Don't insult my presence," Riley said calmly. "I'm real."

"You're obviously not crazy. Riley's real. It's half that weird Dipper clone," Mabel said candidly.

"Hey, Mabel, I don't think we should be talking about everything in front of the officer."

"I mean, he's already seen a zombie. There's not much more we could tell them about this stuff being real, right." Mabel said calmly as she began backing up behind Dipper; she wasn't scared, just cautious.

"Yeah, there's a lot of things we shouldn't talk about." Both twins were lucky that, at this point, the officer had stopped paying attention to what he deemed was a crazy conversation and had put himself in front of the Pines twins to see the zombie finally break through the amber-like material and put its hand on the solid ground.

"Alright, whatever you are, I need you to stop whatever you're doing right now," Steve said. He was obviously trying to act brave, but he was wavering slightly as his voice shook.

Not paying attention to his orders, the zombie, wobbling slightly, stood up an impressive tall height and looked towards everyone in the cave.

He would take one step forward when all madness broke out as Steve dumped what would have to be an entire magazine's worth of bullets into him.

This shook the Pines twins out of the conversation as they both covered their ears and stepped back, cringing at the loud noises. Steve, for a moment, had a cold look in his eyes, but it softened when he stopped firing; he was about to feel bad for potentially killing something, but then his sadness shifted right back to horrified confusion when he realized the zombie was standing completely still upwards.

Instead of reacting to the bullet like regular zombies in movies or a natural person would. The zombie would simply look down to the bullet holes in its chest; they weren't even bleeding. His half-decayed face would look down in confusion as he started up his mouth, which was rotting and loose; he would slowly open it as he released a groan and then allowed a series of coughs.

What shocked the party of still-alive individuals would be when his coughing stopped, and he seemed to shift his posture into a respectable pose.

"Well, that was quite unpleasant." The zombie said in a surprisingly clear voice, which sounded to be an accent the same as most of The Pioneers were faking up in Gravity Falls.

The more alive group of people in the cave had all looked shocked.

"That zombie just spoke," Mabel said, shocked, her mouth hanging open in confusion.

"I shot him like ten times. how is he still alive?" Steve said, also surprised.

Dipper, on the other hand, would turn towards Riley questioningly.

"There's nothing that says zombies can't talk." They responded by looking at the zombie. Dipper could feel no emotions.

"Is he gonna like eat us?" Dipper said, confused as the zombie simply readjusted the tie on its outfit.

"Eat you? Well, I've done some very, very, I shall just say, unconventional things in my life, but I have never once eaten a person."

Mabel was now shaken out of her surprise as she stepped up closer to where Steve was. "Are you like Nathaniel Northwest?"

"Nathaniel northwest?" The zombie said, annoyed. "I would never be associated with that low-born idiot; why I say I get along with all my citizens, but none get on my nerves so thoroughly like that Northwest."

"Low born? wait, all your citizens who are you." Dipper asked, confused.

"And what are you?" Steve growled. "I just dumped a mag into you, and you're still walking."

"Well, I don't know what a mag is," the zombie said. "I'm more shocked that you don't know who I am. Are we not in the United States of America? Are we not in Gravity Falls."

"We're in both, but that doesn't tell us who you are," Mabel exclaimed.

"Oh, kids these days," the zombie wailed, "you think they would know a president and town founder by their name."

"President?" Steve said. "Unless you're the president of the zombie fan club, I don't know what's going on here."

"Of course, I'm willing to educate, though I am a fair and balanced man unless you ask my wife. I am Quentin Trembley the Third. The 8th president of the United States and the town founder of Gravity Falls, what is so hard to understand about that."

Steve and the twins just looked at each other, confused; when Dipper looked over them, he could tell Riley had no idea what was happening.

"That's wrong," Dipper said, pointing to him, "the 8th president was Martin Van Buren."

"You just know that off the top of your head?" Steve said, surprised, looking for another magazine.

"Martin Van Buren? My vice president?" Quentin said, surprised. "My, what time have I found myself in? I knew I planned to escape to the future, but this future was all wrong."

"Escape to the future?" Mabel said, confused. "Weren't you like buried here 'cause you were dead."

Hearing this, the zombie only looks surprised at her. "Dead I was never dead. I was merely acting death so that I could arrive at a time where my ideals were obviously superior to the ones at the time."

"Wait, so you willingly put yourself in the ground," Dipper said, pulling out the journal and taking notes. Why would "you do that?"

"Like I just said, boy, so I could come to an era where my ideas weren't seen as silly and were commonplace."

"What was that?" Dipper said deadpan, looking up from the journal. "Mr. President, what exactly did you do during your term."

"Oh, where could I even start? Such fun times. Like that time, I replaced all the writing materials in Andrew Jackson's office with bread, the time I elected my baby nephew to the Supreme Court. Who could forget The time I sent a housewarming gift to Buckingham Palace? You'll never believe what I sent."

Dipper only looks shocked at the tons of things the apparent ex-president was saying, all while Steve and Mabel looked in confusion. "I don't really want to know," he says.

"It was Beavers!" Quentin said as he laughed heartily

"It was?" Riley said, interested the moment Dipper heard that, he quickly panicked a little and then went back to writing in the journal.

"Anyways, you can't be serious, right? You can't be an actual president and have actually done those things. Why would you get elected?" Dipper interrogated.

"Oh, I won in a landslide, my dear boy."

"People like you that much," Steve said, pointing a gun back toward the zombie.

"Oh no, they all died horribly; it was a literal landslide, quite a funny incident," Quentin laughed a little maniacally.

 The conversation would pause once again when another magazine's worth of ammo was dumped into the zombie. All the people in the cave just stopped and stared at Steve as he did this.

 As he awkwardly finished, he pulled his gun in his holster, and he and the ex-president stared at each other.

 "Are you done?" the president said, not energetically.

"I am now," Steve said calmly.

 "Wait, wait, let me get this straight: you're apparently the 8th president of the United States, and you're also apparently the true founder of Gravity Falls." Dipper said, writing more notes in the journal. "but like, those were two separate people, and they weren't you."

 "Why yes, I say my presidency was quite unconventional. I do say the people of Washington DC might have had a little bit of enough of me. They ran me out of town, and I escaped all the way to the West. When I got here, I founded this settlement where I hid out for about a year or two. I must say that founding a town is way easier than running a country. Did you know fewer people will get angry at you if you elect a baby mayor than you elect a baby to the Supreme Court?"

"I would have never known," Mabel said, genuinely amazed.

 "I think I'm starting to put together all the clues," Steve said.

"they're not really clues as much as me explaining what is happening," Trembley said honestly.

 "no, not that. I understand why this is such a mystery." he replied angrily. "you were replaced in history because you were an embarrassment. "

"Embarrassment why I say I've been called a lot of things, and embarrassment is definitely one of them multiple Times, in fact."

"If it's my guess, the United States government probably didn't want people to know that they had a complete fool as a leader, so they just scrubbed him from the history books," Steve said, putting it together. After he said that, Dipper also had a light bulb moment.

  "and then, when he encased himself in amber to go to the future, they just pretended he never existed. I'm guessing that's where Nathaniel Northwest came into play. He was just some random guy who was credited with founding the town… wait did we just solve the mystery? Is the mystery over." Dipper said awkwardly, looking around.

 "no, there's still a pretty big mystery here," Mabel said. "like, how is he still alive?"

 "oh, of course, my dear girl, that's an easy question to answer. You see, this is not merely a coffin of amber. It is, in fact, a coffin of peanut brittle, 100% peanut brittle, me and my organization and friends and had a theory that it had life-sustaining property, and it apparently came true." Quentin said, smiling to himself.

 "Hey, Mr. President," Steve said sarcastically, pulling out his radio. "half your heads rotten. Yes, hello, officer reporting in. I've discovered the true nature of the Gravity Falls town founding mystery, multiple witnesses, and one person of interest,

yes, I'll be taking them into questioning."

 The moment they heard that, Dipper got a scared look in his eye and backed up to his sister. "I get the whole zombie president thing, well, not the zombie part yet. But what are you? Aren't you just like an average Gravity Falls police officer?"

 "yeah," Mabel said, "I'm shocked you guys even have radios or uniforms."

 Steve heard that last part and grumbled. "yes, I am technically just an officer, but I'm a plant."

"like a sunflower," both Quentin and Mabel said simultaneously.

 "no, not a literal plant. what's wrong with both of you?" Steve said, genuinely shocked at the question.

"What I'm about to tell you is classified, but you know I'm taking you in for questioning anyway, so like that doesn't matter anymore. I guess." Steve started explaining. "you see, throughout the world, weird things happen all the time, and the United States government, being exactly what you think of them, really likes to get ahead of this stuff early. So they'll plant officers around in areas where they know supernatural sightings happen frequently and tell them to keep an eye out. These conspiracies don't have to be supernatural; they usually aren't. I was supposed to be investigating for clues on Gravity Falls. to see if it truly was a supernatural hotspot. But all I got was the world's dumbest government conspiracy theory," Steve finished angrily. "But hey, I guess zombies are real, so that's something."

"you're hunting for the supernatural too," Dipper said, shocked. His eyes widened when he realized he probably shouldn't have said that.

 "yeah, I am, and don't try and hide it, kid; I know you're obviously hunting for some conspiracy nonsense. Kids don't usually hide around in graveyards for no reason, especially around old statues. well, I guess there is that weird group of teens around this town, but I don't count them." Steve responded, typing something on his phone now.

 "so-so, what are you going to do with us?" Mabel said, backing up even more.

 "Well, as I said earlier, I'm not going to kill you. I'm a government agent; I'm not a monster."

"what's the difference?" Quentin said.

 "weren't you the president," Mabel said, confused.

 "Look, the government knew the founder of Gravity Falls was a weirdo and probably was up to some weird stuff, like, I don't know, peanut brittle zombification. I'm taking him for questioning. And guess what two guests he will have along the way."

"is it my wife, Sandy?" Quentin said awkwardly, scratching himself on the side of the head that was rotten. It would freak Dipper and Mabel out a little bit as he was not even scratching the skin, just a part of his skull that was exposed.

 Steve stared at him, not amused at the question. "you had a wife?"

"Yes. she was the finest woodpecker in all of Gravity Falls."

"I've heard enough!" Steve yelled disgusted. "now I just need to find a way to get out of here. How are we going to climb all the way up a cave slide."

 "Just use the stairs," Quentin said. The entire group would look at him awkwardly. Even Riley just stared at him, confused.

In an awkward stumbling motion, the zombie ex-president stumbled over to an American flag and moved it out of the way to reveal that there was a large cave with a well-maintained staircase leading up to the surface. As everyone except the president looked up the stairs awkwardly, Steve looked toward the living corpse.

  "Man, I hate this town," Steve said.

 After what felt like nearly half an hour of waiting and walking and boarding a train, the Pines twins were locked inside of an empty passenger train moving across the county. Honestly, you wouldn't be able to tell that it was rolling its way to DC and that it was, in fact, a federally commandeered train. With rows of well-furnished seats and an excellent interior design, they gave it an air of cleanliness like an airplane. The Pines twins sat in two seats next to each other, staring at the window, while across the train cabin was Quentin looking at a magazine, which seemed to fascinate him. Honestly, the train also didn't seem like it would be hard to break out of just by going to one of two doors in the front and the back. The only thing keeping them from doing this was Steve, who was in the back, constantly watching them.

 Dipper wanted to run away the moment Steve caught them, and they reached the surface via the staircase, but the officer had reminded him if he ran away, they would, in fact, just be fugitives, a prospect that didn't appeal to either Dipper or Mabel.

 This was going to be really hard to explain the Grunkle Stan if he ever saw them again, Dipper thought.

 Outside and far ahead of the train, unbeknownst to its minimal occupants. Two figures were standing on top of a Cliff overlooking the track. The secluded mountainous area they were in had a perfect view of pretty much the entire county, and the only thing that broke up the dense wilderness in rocky terrain was the train track that passed through.

 Standing on top of one of the ledges that overlook the train tracks, two figures look down towards the inevitable pathway the train would pass through. Despite being two of them, only one of them was there in the physical. A lone white wolf was one of the figures as it stared down blankly at the tracks. It was slightly larger than other wolves, but it had a calm demeanor that almost seemed to be on equal footing with the human level of intelligence.

 The other figure would appear in a small mist right next to the wolf. Covered in black robes, a skeletal being with white hair and a sickly blue face overlooked the pathway, and his head would snap slightly when he turned towards the wolf.

 "There… is… no way… they can leave the falls yet,  turn them back. That is in order fate depends on it." after the message was sent, the blue figure would fade away quickly. The wolf wouldn't need to acknowledge visually or audibly as it shuffled slowly towards the tracks.

Back on the train, Mabel was trying to cheer up Dipper by playing I Spy, but nothing was really working.

 "I spy with my little eye something…"

"is it a rock?" Dipper said, board leaning against the glass.

 "whoa, how'd you guess?" Mabel said excitedly.

 "Because you said tree last time, and the only thing out there is

rocks and trees."

"I could have said bird."

 "no, you weren't," Dipper said. Still annoyed, Dipper would look over to his side to see Quentin Trembly finishing up the magazine. This entire time, he'd been bothered by the thoughts in his head other than his futile plans for escape.

"Hey," Dipper called out to Quentin, "you know you answered some questions I had, but there were a lot of them I still had to ask."

"oh, ask away, my dear boy education is nothing to be ashamed of," Quentin said joyously.

 "then why don't you have any?" Steve called out from behind them.

But everyone chose to ignore his insult as they continued speaking amongst themselves.

"so I get that you're the president, and I get you were the town founder, and it also kind of makes sense why they want to replace you. You're kind of silly."

"you know I'm not liking this question already," Quentin said.

 "but I just wanted to ask," Dipper continued. "Why is the key to unlocking the Northwest statue kicking him in the crotch, and why is the only way to get into the bunker picking a wolf's nose?"

"picking a what?" Steve said as he was continued to be ignored.

 "Oh, those are the entries to my passageway! I told my followers to get creative, but they didn't have to go that far."

 "your followers? Wait, you told them to leave clues to your tomb. I guess that's what it's called." Dipper said, surprised.

 "of course, everyone likes a treasure hunt, and if anyone was silly enough to guess those clues, they must be like-minded to my followers."

Quentin said oddly arrogantly.

 "your followers," Dipper said, confused, repeating himself.

 "I thought everyone hated you. That's why you were like, you know, scrubbed from history," Steve said, confused. This time, they would acknowledge him as  Quentin had turned back to him.

 "of course, I had followers when I discovered the great valley of Gravity Falls. It was such an interesting land full of beautiful, unique, and interesting characters. Even before the settlers arrived in that town, I've seen sentient beings with far more interesting stories than a common human."

"sentient beings? are you saying monsters exist, old man or dead man?" Steve said, writing down his own notes.

 "well, of course, they exist. Are you blind? They're practically everywhere, at least in my time. You have to be a fool not to see them or know of them."

Quentin said, genuinely surprised.

 "I can't say I have."

 "These followers of yours, what exactly did they believe in," Mabel asked, confused.

 "well, of course, they were obsessed with discovering the great secrets of this town; in fact, it was my follower's idea to make our official symbol the wolf." As Quentin said this, he pulled out a small badge and showed it to the twins. It was nothing fancy, just as well stitched as a Boy Scout pin, but it looked like a wolf with glowing red eyes staring at them.

 "what's significant about the wolf?" Dipper said, interested writing down in his journal.

 "Well, I don't know," Quentin said. "Honestly, a few of my followers just said they saw it around the woods, so I said, why not? It looks cool."

 "it does look pretty cute," Mabel admitted.

 "Wait, you said your organization was discovering the great secrets. Did you ever, you know, write a journal about it." Dipper said he was getting excited again a little too much, thinking he was finally getting an answer.

 "what? Of course not. I can't write."

 A loud groan was heard from Steve in the background. He was obviously having a hard time believing what was happening; he was just struggling to believe he was in this situation right now. "oh man, I can't wait to get to Washington DC. I've grown up my entire life in this town, and it's only seemed to get dumber every year."

 "Oh yes, Washington DC. I wonder how much it's changed since I was there. I wonder if my ban on pants in the senatorial building is still in law."

Everyone in the cabin looked at him, more tired of his antics than confused; they'll be shaken out of their confusion, though, when the train came to a quick halt, almost throwing them out of their seats.

"What was that?" Dipper and Mabel said at the same time as they leaned up.

 "Nothing, the train just stopped suddenly for some reason; there's probably some wreckage on the tracks or something." Steve said calmly, "Is everyone alright?"

 "of course, we're all right," Quentin said as he turned towards the people. They would all gasp as they saw one of his eyes had fallen out.

 Disgusted, Steve would go up through the cabin and open the door to see what was happening. Right as he opened it, a conductor walked through nervously. Before getting on the train, they knew a conductor was on board getting them from point A to point B; Dipper had assumed somehow he was also a federal agent, but there was nothing to confirm that.

 "you train guy, I don't know what your name is," Steve complained. "Why did we stop?"

The older conductor man looked nervously as he wiped his arm against his forehead. "I, I don't know." he said nervously. "one moment, I was driving along, and then I saw a large portion of the tracks had been cut via an alert."

 "the tracks have been cut? what do you mean the tracks have been cut?" Steve retorted.

 "I think it's better if you checked it out. It's really weird, Sir."

The conductor said nervously. Both he and the officer would pause for a second as they saw Dipper walk up slowly to them.

 "oh God, what do you want now, kid," Steve said tiredly.

 "I just wanted to know, can I see it too?" Dipper said a little excited. He was trying to contain it to sound mature, but he wasn't helping himself out.

 "kid, I'm kind of sick and tired of the junior detective act over here," Steve said, wiping his brow.

 "come on; I already surrendered peacefully. Can I just like see

you going to investigate it right, and if he said something weird going on, why not get the help from the guy who helped solve the northwest case."

"Hey! I did most of that actual clue finding," Mabel complained from the back of the train.

"Please let me have this," Dipper said quickly to his sister.

 Steve stared at him blankly for a minute before sighing. "OK, I'm only doing this because I feel bad for arresting a child and shipping them off to Washington. Conductor watch over the other two. I don't think they're anywhere near as smart or troublesome as this one probably is."

 "yes, Sir," the conductor said as Steve and Dipper hopped out of the cabin onto the sand below next to the tracks.

 It would be an awkward walk for a few minutes before Steve and Dipper made it to where the train tracks were apparently broken. There was a significant break on the tracks to confirm the conductor's suspicion, but they were definitely not conventional. There had been three separate points of damage; one was probably enough, but the rest was probably just to drive home the point. Each damaged section looked like it had been chewed up, ripped out of the ground, or clawed in half by something with massive teeth and claws.

Both Officer Steve and Dipper were intrigued. Both of them also looked around their surroundings. As far as they could tell, it was just the edge of Gravity Falls forest and the woods were quieter than usual.

The only landmark they can find is only a few feet away from the damaged section; it was a sign that said now leaving Gravity Falls.

"Well, this was obviously sabotage," Steve said, leaning down and touching the damaged area. He would reel his hand back quickly when he realized the middle of the tracks was still extremely hot. Whatever had hit the tracks was not just ferocious but also extremely hot.

"Hey, kid," Steve said awkwardly back to Dipper, who was writing in his journal. "is there anyone you know that would desperately want to keep you from getting arrested, or at least more than just normal parents would?"

 "I mean this little kid named Gideon. I'm pretty sure he hates my family but likes my sister now, but I don't think he did this." Dipper said, thinking hard about what was happening.

 "Gideon, the little psychic kid? The only person you can think hates you is a ten-year-old with a big ego?"

 "It's a whole other story," Dipper said sharply. At this moment, he really wanted to summon Riley and converse with them, but the officer, who was keeping a closer eye on him now more than ever, was already very suspicious of him, and he didn't want to risk it.

 "yeah, I'm not super interested in it right now. You can tell that to the government," Steve said as he started taking pictures of the track.

 Looking down at his phone, frustrated, Steve sighed in even more agony as he realized his phone signal was low; he couldn't get a call out successfully even if he tried. "you got to be kidding me. What's wrong with this stupid town?" he complained.

 "what's wrong?" Dipper said he had gotten much closer to the tracks; from what he could analyze, he didn't know anything that could cause this kind of damage. Of course, with no previous evidence to go off of, his mind went wild with speculation it could be anything, but with claws and heat, he kind of hoped it was a dragon; he always wanted to see one.

 "Nothing, well nothing unusual; this valley or woods or whatever must be blocking out my signal," Steve said, shaking his phone slightly. "I could probably get some better bars. If we walked out of the valley."

 "Well, you do that. I'll just go back to the train," Dipper said, thinking he could finally get away from the officer. The moment he turned around to walk away, he felt a violent tug on the back of his vest as he was dragged by his heels forward farther and farther away from the train.

 "Hey, what are you doing?" Dipper said, complaining he really wanted to use his strength but didn't want to expose any more secrets, and besides,  he saw the jokes that the government would experiment on him if they got the chance.

 "I'm getting some signal so I can call for help. Maybe an actual helicopter can pick us up like I wanted to, or you know, they can give me a better car than a police cruiser that looks like it was made in the 1970s." you're coming with me while I get that call," Steve said yanking him.

 "Man, You seem so much more angrier than the last time I saw you,"

Dipper mumbled, but Steve still heard him and frowned.

 "yeah, well, last time I saw you, I just thought you kids were getting

into some harmless family mystery, but now you kids are actually doing important stuff, and it's interfering with my job."

 "What was your job exactly?" Dipper said, curious as both he and the officer were now walking normally on the tracks.

 "You remember how I said my grandfather was thought to be crazy. Well, the craziness spread through the generations. My dad started believing in the supernatural, then he found my mom, who believed in the supernatural, and now I'm here. The biggest skeptic in the family and the only one to find definitive proof." Steve said depressingly. "you know I still called my whole family crazy even when I joined. Now I feel weird."

 "crazy, it's like the opposite with my family," Dipper said, looking down. "I feel like I've spent so much time trying to convince other people this stuff is real, but no one would believe me. Everyone called me crazy."

 "yeah, and they called me crazy for not believing. It turns out I wasn't crazy; I was just wrong," Steve said angrily, kicking a rock.

 There would be an awkward silence between the two of them as they both continued to walk. The now-leaving gravity fall sign was getting closer and closer. Right behind the sign was the edge of the Valley's walls. They would be officially into the greater Oregon wilderness when they passed the sign.

 "This should be the border of Gravity Falls County," Steve said.

 "so is the county named after the city or the city named after the county," Dipper said, holding up his pencil again to take notes.

 "Well, there's nothing really else in this County that matters. There are barely any other towns, so why not name it after the city, I guess?

actually, I think it's called Beaver County." Steve said, confused as he was starting to get into a proper conversation with Dipper.

 "Officer Steve!" Dipper said, freezing in place.

 "Hey, kid, didn't I tell you to stay next to me while I was walking to get a signal? Did I? Well, if I didn’t, I strongly implied  it now get walking…"

  "shush," Dipper shouted. Before the officer could react to what he deemed rude, the young Pines twin would point forward on the track where Steve wasn't paying attention. During their entire walk, Officer Steve was mainly focused on his phone, trying to get a better signal, and Dipper was preoccupied with walking and writing in the journal, a difficult task he mastered.

 They failed to realize that sitting calmly in front of them on the tracks was a large white wolf staring directly at them. Both officer and twin froze in slight fear as they looked at it, but the longer they froze, the more they realized it wasn't making any moves toward them.

  "Oh, what is this?" Steve complained, looking at the wolf, which was about a good 40 yards in front of them. He nervously looked around the forest to see if there were any wolves, but the more he realized there were none around, the more angry he looked at the lone canine sitting there.

 "Is it not going to eat us?" Dipper said nervously, but he was mostly confused. He was pretty sure he could fight off a lone wolf; he fought a ghost dog with two heads, and that probably wasn't that much harder."

 "I don't know, but it's annoying, and it's in our way," Steve said, looking at the now-leaving Gravity Falls sign. Interestingly enough, he kind of chuckled when he saw the supposed border of Gravity Falls was right where the wolf was standing, perfectly aligned with the sign.

 Looking down at his phone again, Steve realized he didn't have a signal yet, and this wolf was the only thing blocking his path.

 "Well, I love nature as much as anyone else, but this thing's starting to get on my nerves."

 "but he's not doing anything," Dipper said, a little surprised at what the officer said.

 "yeah, and that's the worst part," Steve responded, "he's not doing anything he needs to move."

 "we're probably in his territory; what if he's like an exiled pack leader? I saw those in nature documentaries; what if we're like in his territory."

 Steve chuckled at Dipper and patted him on the head slightly.

"kid, I don't think the United States government recognizes the territory of a lone wolf, especially not when I have this," Steve said arrogantly, holding up a Taser.

 "You're gonna try and use a taser on a wolf," Dipper said, a little surprised.

 "yeah, I could scratch that one off my bucket list," Steve said, smiling as he approached the wolf. Dipper, who'd been warned multiple times already to stay next to him, just continued his path as he walked forward with Steve slowly.

 On their slow approach, Steve would get a little ahead of Dipper as the moment he was only a foot away from the wolf, they both stared at each other. Dipper, who was only a few feet behind, was confused as the wolf would not react as Steve made a weird shoving motion with one hand while pointing the Taser in the other.

 The wolf would be non-reactive to this as its wide-eyed, unblinking stare with all white eyes looked at Steve. In a moment of interest, the wolf would calmly walk away from the middle of the train track, seeming to let Steve pass.

 "huh, would you look at that?" Steve said as he walked back a few steps to grab Dipper. "come on, we have a phone call to make."

 As Steve continued dragging Dipper, the moment they crossed the border, a sudden hiccup would be made. Right before Dipper crossed the official border, leaving Gravity Falls, the wolf had pushed its way in between Steve and Dipper. This was such a quick motion that both Steve and Dipper jumped back, separating the two of them as the wolf directly stared at Dipper, ignoring Steve, who was right behind him.

Dipper was expecting it to take a bite any second, but his danger sense didn't flare, as a wolf simply headbutted his chest forcefully. The way it pushed him was obviously trying to imply he should go a certain way, and that way was back towards the train.

 "What on earth?" Steve said, confused, as he walked back to Dipper, pushing the wolf out of the way. The wolf was clearly allowing himself to be pushed over slightly, but it didn't seem to bother him as the moment Steve tried to drag Dipper across the border once more, the wolf headbutted with a lot more force removing him from Steve's grip.

 Steve was pulling out his Taser, prepared for the confrontation that was about to happen, but nothing ever did arise. The moment he and the boy were separated once more. The wolf simply sat back on its behind. It was slowly craning between Dipper and Steve as if waiting for them to get the message.

"what's happening?" Dipper said, confused at the whole situation.

 "kid, can you please tell the wolf to let you go? This is getting really annoying. "Steve exhaled, rubbing the bridge of his nose as the wolf only stared at him this time.

 "All alright, pooch," Steve said arrogantly. "you're obviously smart, or I've just gone really mad, but I need to get that kid out of here. Now you understand?" the moment he finished his sentence, Steve would be put on guard as the wolf hunched its back over slightly and seemingly grew out all of its claws slowly.

 The most significant change would be with its face; it was a normal fluffy-looking wolf earlier, but the hair seemed to stick down, and the now sickly wolf started growling with serrated sharp teeth.

 "yeah, OK," Steve said as in a quick movement, he shot out the Taser, and it struck directly into the wolf. Whatever the wolf was, it was clearly susceptible to some human-like weaknesses. As the taser prongs hit, it seemingly paused for a few seconds, widening its eyes as the jolt of electricity coursed through the body. The wolf lightly convulsed on the ground, and Steve again dragged Dipper away. This time, when he reached the border, all hell broke loose.

In an instant, while he was still looking back at the wolf, Steve noticed it get up quickly and trudge over to Dipper.

Preparing another shot at him, the officer would miss as the dog somehow skillfully weaved and then jumped towards the arm holding Dipper. It would all happen in a flash as sharp teeth quickly bared at Steve's arm, causing him to raise it quickly, dropping Dipper. Almost as soon as the moment Dipper was released from the grasp, the wolf would push him, this time a little harder, to go back towards the border. Dipper's thoughts on this were sporadic at best; he couldn't even put together another thought before some crazy thing happened next. The newest bit of information he learned was probably the most terrifying, as the wolf kept pushing him effortlessly even when Dipper tried to use his strength.

Steve was a little confused, looking at his arm, looking for bites as the wolf was staring directly at the youngest Pines twin, who just realized he was probably not going to be able to leave town.

 "Oh, this is insane," Steve said, throwing his Taser on the ground angrily. "kid, can you tell me why pound puppy is so afraid of you leaving him."

"I-I-I don't know this one." He said nervously, trying not to stare directly into the eyes of the wolf still staring at him.

 "Well, it seems to like you. Could you please tell it to stop?" In his frustration, the officer would give up on trudging and immediately sit back down in the dirt.

 "hey, Mr. Wolf, could you please let me go?" Dipper awkwardly says as the wolf continues to be unfazed. At this moment, Dipper would have an idea, something he really didn't want to do.

"Hey, Officer Steve, remember when I was talking to myself?" he said, not believing he was about to do this.

 "Oh yeah," Steve said, his head in his hands, looking like he was about to scream in frustration.

"I'm going to talk to them real quick," Dipper responded honestly, not knowing how this would go over. with the agent.

 "yeah, sure, go ahead. I don't care."

With that rough bit of approval, Dipper immediately thought hard, and Riley was summoned right next to him, although something different would happen this time. Usually, when Dipper summons Riley, they would stare around their environment for a few seconds and strike up a casual conversation. But now it was different.

 The moment Riley had popped out, they obviously looked across the forest, but their body froze violently as they looked towards the dog staring at Dipper.

"This dog is familiar to me," Riley says coldly as they stare directly at it.

 "How?" Dipper asked, confused, writing down more notes in the journal.

 "Marcus, I've never met Marcus before the ghost incident, I don't think. But it still feels like we could have shared a past. I don't feel that with this creature. Whenever I think about it, I don't feel the pain of memory, just something hollow inside me."

 Dipper didn't know how to respond when he paused writing; he just stared at the wolf, who was now slowly pawing the ground. Dipper's thoughts of this being random would soon shift to him being shocked when he realized the wolf was creating an almost perfectly straight line in the dirt on the train track. It didn't take long for him to understand what the line was when he looked back up at the Billboard and then to the wolf, then the line. He realized it was telling him not to cross the border.

 "so, did your book tell you anything new?" Steve said, still sitting down frustrated, a few feet behind the wolf.

 "I think it's a supernatural being, but I'm not exactly sure what," Dipper said. At this point, he was lying through his teeth; it was probably a spirit, and he hoped this would work. Sure, he knew he believed in the supernatural already, but the spirits were something closely kept to Dipper, and he knew Riley wouldn't like their existence being outed so loosely. Another thing that stuck in his mind was that Riley apparently compared this wolf to Marcus, but something was unfamiliar. Maybe all spirits didn't have the same feelings around each other, just like humans don't immediately gel with other humans. But with how violently Riley froze, Dipper knew there was something more about this one.

"oh, so the wolf is supernatural, that's awesome, that's really awesome," Steve said sarcastically. Sitting up, he started reaching into his belt, but instead of pulling out the Taser, this time, he pulled out the actual pistol. "I don't know if you can speak dog or something, but could you give that thing a warning because I'm really running out of nice guy points for the day."

 Dipper stared directly at the wolf to see if he could get any reaction out of it, but there was barely anything there the moment he made eye contact with it. It seemed to stare back at him and then up to Riley. Yes, it was definitely some sort of spirit, Dipper thought as Riley mainly remained quiet, still inspecting the wolf.

 "Well, Mr. Wolf or Mrs. Wolf or just Wolf. I would like to ask you to please let me go," Dipper said awkwardly. Just as he predicted, the wolf didn't react as it stared at him and then looked back at Steve. This was starting to get annoying.

 "That's it, could you cover your eyes? I'm about to put this thing on the endangered species list," Steve said angrily as he walked up behind the wolf to shoot it.

 "no, wait don't…" Dipper cried out, but before he could reach out to do anything, a loud bang was heard, and Dipper closed his eyes. He didn't want to see what was happening, but when he opened his eyes slowly to look at Riley directly, all he could see was they were unfazed.

 When he turned back properly, he was met with Steve heavily breathing over the wolf that seemed to be dead on the floor.

 "their mission accomplished," Steve growled as he grabbed Dipper's arm. Dipper wasn't paying enough attention to resist, just staring at the animal's corpse. As he was pulled forward towards the valley entrance, he could hear Steve mumbling to himself as Dipper was horrified at the sight of the blood in front of him.

 "there, that's finally over now," Steve complained as Dipper turned forward, trying to shake the event out of his head.

 "you didn't have to do that," Dipper complained. He was a mix of shocked and angry as he looked up to Steve.

"Oh yeah, well, that wolf didn't have to stand in our way, but now look at us… AHH!" a loud yell came from Steve as something slammed into him. It wasn't a hard guess to make as when both Dipper and Steve got up; they were met with the wolf. Its calm demeanor was gone as the red stains over its face remained, but the bullet entrance wound was gone.

 "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Steve said, freaking out before reaching for his pistol again. he would push Dipper out of the way to get a clear line of sight on the wolf. Instead of backing down, the wolf seemed to growl louder at him; it's snarl sounded much more like a chainsaw than anything Dipper could imagine a wolf making.

 "all right, pooch, try that one more time, and I'm laying you to rest permanently," Steve said confidently as he stood up and pointed the pistol. "come on, show me what you got, dog."

 That seemed to be the wrong choice of words, as the moment he said this, the wolf ceased its anger and looked confused at the officer. Dipper, throughout this whole interaction, had been thrown to the side. He was thinking about making a run for it, But something crazy was going on, and he would be there to observe it. His number one issue was that the journal had been flown away. He had heard Riley give out a gasp as the book was closed in the fall, and he ran forward to grab it.

 Back with the officer and the wolf, the wolf shook out of its confusion as it lowered its head in an even more aggressive growl. As Steve prepped himself to fire, he was stunned by what happened next as the wolf's body seemed to be making cracking noises all over it. It wouldn't be hard to tell what was happening as the wolf was simultaneously getting taller and skinnier with each every few seconds. The officer was too stunned to fire, and Dipper, who was on the sideline with a newly resummoned Riley, were both too shocked to speak.

With every noise that sounded like a bone breaking, the wolf's height would increase, and its fur got slightly more disheveled; its blank eyes seemed to be glowing as its teeth got sharper and sharper. Somehow, its howl rose violently as its snarls echoed throughout the forest.

 Steve, who had fallen on the ground in fright, still held his gun out to the wolf shakingly as he squeezed the trigger; this time, there would be no satisfaction in hitting the enemy as the moment the bullet was fired, it did not affect the wolf. The creature now had taken its chance to attack as in one foul jump and bite; it snapped the gun Steve used in half.

 He knew it sounded crazy, but Dipper realized this was probably the best time to interfere. The wolf, obviously in its enraged state, would open its jaw wide enough to probably bite the officer in half, who is now cowering on the ground. But before the final bite could be secured, Dipper, who had used his strength and speed, had to run up to the wolf and hit it against the side with a single fist.

 Dipper, who had stuffed the journal into his pocket, was ready to fight; it was probably the most insane thing he'd ever done. The wolf didn't show any hostility towards him, but he couldn't just let the officer die, no matter how mean he was.

 What was expected to be a terrifying or epic fight would never happen, though the moment he punched the wolf, its anger would seem to fade away as it stared at the young twin. The wolf would calmly look up at the bordering sign of Gravity Falls and bite down on Dipper's vest. Dipper was obviously a little shocked at this, but his danger sense still hadn't gone off, and now he was being carried. The destination was pretty obvious. The moment he got to the small line the wolf had made earlier, the wolf dropped him on that side, still within Gravity Falls territory.

 He would awkwardly look at the canine until his head got close to his, and they were staring at each other intensely.

 "Your fate is here."

 Dipper wasn't sure where this voice came from. The wolf's mouth didn't even seem to move as he left the stunned Dipper and walked off. Dipper was a little frightened for a moment as it was walking towards the officer who was crawling away in terror, but he didn't seem that interested in them as he walked over to him and stared directly into his face.

"his fate is here. Do not interfere or else."

 The threat would be accentuated when its horrifying jagged state appeared before returning to normal for a flash of time. The wolf would then walk off calmly into the woods.

It had admittedly taken Steve and Dipper a brief amount of time to collect themselves. While Steve was knocking himself out of his panic, Dipper was trying to get some information out of Riley and to feed them some. This would come up sadly inconclusive. All they could really figure out was whatever the wolf was, it was similar to Riley but not in the same way as Marcus. But that wasn't the troubling part. 'Your fate is here,' Dipper thought to himself slowly. It could mean a multitude of things, a lot of them he didn't like. But the one most pressing moment was that it basically told him he could never leave the town until whatever fate was accomplished. Dipper, being the child he is, obviously was driven into a panic at this, and his mind was corrupted entirely with the most horrifying scenarios possible. Fate was a pretty neutral term; it could mean good or bad; it just meant inevitability. And whatever was inevitable, and whenever it happened, it would happen here, and Dipper would only have the chance to go home then.

"He almost got himself up into a panic, heavily breathing at the idea he probably wouldn't go home for who knows, it could be anything from minutes to years or decades. Somewhat luckily for Dipper, though, the moment he almost started hyperventilating on the ground, a swift kick to the side of his leg would get his attention as Officer Steve was looking down at him, upset.

 "get up," Steve said simply. Dipper hadn't been paying attention to him for the longest time. He could tell he walked off somewhere, but he wasn't sure where.

 "where are we going?" Dipper said nervously, still wrapped up in his thoughts.

 "back to the train. We've been gone for almost an hour." Steve replied almost robotically. He didn't even try and grab Dipper this time as he simply started walking back on the tracks.

 "but the train won't work with the tracks removed. How are we going to leave."

"we're not," Steve said, obviously annoyed at his continued questioning. "while you were on the ground freaking out, I was walking out of the valley to get some signal. Let's just say I got a mission update, and we're going to have a long conversation when I get to talk to you and your sister together."

 "what about the president," Dipper said confused. The reaction he got from Steve was one of absolute pain as he just slapped his hand on his face and dragged it down slowly.

 "I forgot about that corpse," he groaned loudly. "let's go. I'll think of something on the way."

 Steve was obviously in a defeated mood as he and Dipper awkwardly walked together side by side to the train. Dipper had one more question.

"Are you going to arrest me or something?" Dipper said, a little freaked out of what his future could hold.

 Steve didn't react this time as he paused briefly and looked down towards the twin. "like I said, we're gonna talk later."

The short walk to the train would be awkward as the moment they climbed aboard the passenger section; they were met with a scene of chaos, as loud singing and banging against the sides of the cars could be heard. A mix of high-pitched voices and screams, both of them assumed someone was being attacked until they genuinely entered.

“Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a pony

Stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni

Yankee Doodle, keep it up

Yankee Doodle dandy

Mind the music and the step

And with the girls, be handy”

The scene Steve and Dipper were met with was Mabel, Quentin, and, of course, the conductor, all yelling at the top of their lungs, singing the song while simultaneously hitting the side of the train car. The moment they ceased their song, they would all laugh.

 "Finally, a truly great song that embodies the nation," Quentin said happily.

 "All right, all right, it's my turn," Mabel said excitedly. "next song is called Plastic Love," she said, adjusting her phone to play another song.

"oh hey, look, it's Dipper," she cried out happily, waving over to them. Quentin looked happy, too, but as the conductor realized Officer Steve was back, he immediately ran back to the front of the train. All four would stare at each other awkwardly as the forest sounds would quietly echo.

 "you have a signal, but I don't?" Steve said annoyed.

 No one would respond to him as Quentin simply looked down at Mabel.

  "So what nation is this plastic love the anthem of?" Quintin said excitedly. Before Mabel could even respond, Steve hit his head against a cabin wall.

Less than an hour later, the Pines twins had returned to Gravity Falls city center. While the festivities were happening around them, Steve had stealthily put the decaying president into the back of a police cruiser where he was yelling something about government tyranny.

 "God never thought I would hear a U.S. President, past or present, complain so much about government," Steve said as he walked over to the curb with Dipper and Mabel, who were waiting patiently to discuss something important with him.

 "so you're not actually going to arrest us," Mabel said as she noticed him walking up.

 "No, which is a good thing. I wouldn't want to arrest kids anyway," Steve said honestly but still tired.

 "Why are you back to being nice all of a sudden?" Dipper said defensively, finally turning his eyes away from the festival going around when he realized they missed about 90% of it.

 "Think of it as less of me being nice and me being tired. It's been a day."

 "you'll get used to it," Mabel said

 "What was that?" Steve said, a little confused, pulling his hands away from his face.

 "she said, yeah, it was kind of a tough day," Dipper responded quickly. "So what are you going to do with us if you're not going to turn us into the government."

 "Well, I could arrest you here in Gravity Falls, but you did nothing wrong other than breaking into City Hall. But breaking into City Hall wasn't the most important thing that happened today. You two are special," Steve said, pointing out to them, annoyed.  "I don't know if it's one of you or both of you, but for some reason, you can't leave the town."

 "So what happens now? Are you just going to let us go?" Dipper said all optimistically, already preparing to dash away.

 "in a manner of speaking, yes." Steve replied honestly as he kneeled to get a closer look at the twins.  "here's the deal that I got the organization to agree with. My job is to deal with the supernatural of this town and report it; you two are intrinsically linked with the supernatural now. I could lock you up in a facility, but here's a more humane strategy. You kids, preferably the smart one…"

 "thank you," Mabel said as Dipper frowned.

 "Shush," Steve interrupted.  "you kids will report to me once a week about anything supernatural that happens, and in exchange, I don't one, arrest you, and two, don't need to spy on you, I have my own life to get to, and I can't waste it watching a bunch of kids."

 "So you're saying we have to tell you anything weird we find, and you won't be watching us constantly."

 "that's the gist of it," Steve said as he looked down at his phone.

"Look, while you two are in the clear, Mr. Zombie President here is still being sent to Washington. And I have a long drive to an airport because now that the train tracks are ripped up,  So I don't know, say goodbye or something," he said awkwardly as he walked back into the police station.

 As the pine twins looked awkwardly at each other and walked towards the cruiser, they opened the door to see the former president Handcuffed to one of the seats.

"and another thing, I think you smell like my ex-wife's… oh, it's you two," Quentin said, happy to see the twins again. "always lovely to see the fine youth who introduced me to the modern day and modern-day culture."

 "so I guess this is goodbye," Dipper said awkwardly. "sorry we couldn't, I don't know, show you around the new world."

 "yeah, and it sucks you're being forced to go to Washington DC." Mabel sympathized.

 "sucks? Why it would be exquisite. I can't wait to see what the nation's capital is like now that all my former rivals are dead. that sounds like paradise." Quentin said joyously.

 "you're a strange one," Dipper said, "nothing wrong with that. You're just very strange."

 "And that reminds me, what kind of president would I be if I didn't give out totally not politically motivated gifts? In exchange for my freedom into a brand new age, you shall each get items."

 "items?" both Dipper and Mabel said awkwardly. Quentin started digging around in his suit with his free hand.

 "ah, here it is," Quentin said as he pulled out a top hat almost out of nowhere and placed it upon Mabel's head. "You miss Mabel Pines, now become the first-ever female congressman of these United States of America."

 "oh sweet," Mabel said, putting the top hat more snuggly on her head.

"I'm going to legalize everything," she said, jumping up in the air.

 "Well, she's not the first actually that would go to Jeannette Rankin, But the sentiment is nice, I guess," Dipper said.

 "And you young boy whose name I don't remember, I see something in you, a spark that inspired many of my own followers to find out what really happens just out of eyesight. I think you'll do great things. This will help you." as he said this, Quentin held out a small object in Dipper's hand and dropped it into his awaiting grasp. Dipper would be a little shocked when he saw that in his hands was the same wolf patch he had shown off earlier. He didn't put the clues together earlier, but the wolf on the patch looked like the same one that ambushed the officer on the railroad tracks.

 "you're giving me a patch?" Dipper said, both amazed and confused.

 "Not just the patch, it's a symbol,  a symbol for a group that has probably long passed from this earth.

I want you to have it cause you represent the group's ideals to a tee. But if that one doesn't tickle your fancy," Quentin said quickly. "here, have some money."

 All of a sudden, Dipper was handed a negative $12 bill as he and his sister looked at it, confused.

 "Isn't it amazing?" Quentin said proudly, pointing towards the picture of his face on the bill.

 "This is literally less than worthless," Dipper said, a little stunned at its existence.

"ah, kids can't appreciate the good stuff nowadays." Before he could continue rambling on, the door to the police cruiser was closed suddenly as Steve had returned.  When the door was closed, they could tell Quentin was already back to rambling about some anti-government sentiments. This annoyed the officer as he turned to the twins.

 "Remember, I'm checking in on you two in a week. now excuse me while I go take crazy and dead to the nation's capital." Steve said, tired, as he entered the driver's seat and pulled off quickly.

 As both twins stared a little amazed at the day's adventures, the car would slowly go into the forest, disappearing out of sight.

 "Well, this was certainly a day," Mabel said, stretching and looking over to Dipper, smiling a bit.

 "Yeah, too bad we don't have any evidence about the Northwest,"

Dipper said, a little upset.

 "what about me?" they heard a loud voice from behind them, and they both jumped in fright. Turning around quickly, Mabel and Dipper were met with Pacifica looking at them confusedly.

 "geez, why do people keep sneaking up on us today?" Dipper said, annoyed, as Mabel stepped forward.

 "Oh, nothing," she said casually. "we just, you know, got into a government conspiracy that involved your ancestor being a fraud and the real town being founded by the former 8th president, who was actually still alive sort of, he was a zombie, and then we got in trouble with officer Steve, and then my brother fought a wolf."

 As Dipper slapped himself on the forehead, hearing his sister spell out all the details, Pacifica would try to decipher the quickly spoken speech.

 "Mabel, literally none of that made sense," Pacifica said, more confused than annoyed when her eyes widened. "wait," Pacifica said, finally putting together the clues. "why would Martin Van Buren be the town's founder."

 "Oh my God, you're a nerd too," Mabel said, shocked as she reeled back a bit.

 "Hey!" both Dipper and Pacifica said at the same time.

 "oh, whatever, I guess I was right. After all, you are a little too silly for this to count as some weird rivalry. Thank you for proving my parent's point worthless," Pacifica said happily.

 "always happy to help," Mabel said, smiling back at her, "but next time, I'm going to get a win."

 "win? what is this competition?" Pacifica said, laughing a little bit.

 "it is," Mabel said in a jokingly serious voice. "and you'll never know when I strike next. You will never know," she told creepily as she backed up, only to run into a concession stand and fall over.

It wouldn't take much longer for the Pines twins to find out what their great-uncle had been doing for the day. Apparently, while he was getting the car fixed, he was locked in some stockades while Gideon pelted him with tomatoes. So let's just say the ride back from town was highlighted by the fact that Stan was covered in red stains, grumbling to himself about how much he hated the town.

 As Stan took a shower, the Pines twins finally decided to discuss the day's events.

 "so," Dipper said, eating the dinner he and his sister made at the table in the kitchen. "we can't leave this town, I guess."

"it could be worse," Mabel said, trying to be optimistic. " we could be locked in a really terrible town."

 "Yeah, well, this town has monsters, ghosts, and all sorts of things. but isn't it crazy?" Dipper said quietly. "we're just normal, somewhat kids. Sure, we have powers, I guess, but what will happen to us? Why is our fate to be here?"

 "Who knows, Dipper," Mabel said honestly as she slurped down spaghetti. "That's just how fate works. It happens when it happens."

 "wow, that was oddly sagely for you. Where did you get that fortune cookie." Dipper said jokingly as he started writing down the day's events in the book. Riley had yet to pop up again, but from what Dipper could tell, they were probably processing some things.

 "you're right, I did," Mabel said, laughing as she held up an actual fortune cookie.

 "Mabel, where'd you get a fortune cookie? We made spaghetti."

 "Maybe that can be the next mystery for the Mystery Twins," she said, standing on the table yelling while Dipper groaned at the nickname.

As nighttime finally descended upon the mystery shack after a long, chaotic day, both twins would have a pretty rough sleep at the idea they could never leave this town until something happened.

 Dipper’s sleep would be restless, but that was normal; now, it was filled with brief nightmares fueled by many logical and illogical scenarios.

 On the other hand, Mabel had descended into another one of her dreams with more colors than the rainbow and was more chaotic and joyous than humanly conceivable.

 As Mabel strolled through the field, Happily with a group of potential boyfriends, she would miss that within the brightly colored purple and yellow tree lines, a figure rested on its belly staring at them.

 Sitting there perfectly still, the wolf observed the scene with complacency as he rested his head.

 ‘such nonsense,’ the wolf thought, ‘such important nonsense.’

Chapter Text

Despite what the great philosophers thought, war was not a human-exclusive endeavor. And if the great philosophers could see or experience what happened in Gravity Falls, they would know this was true. In the early hours of the Gravity Falls forest, deep within the heavier wooded areas far away from civilization, a loud commotion had been roaring for the past few 6. Most who inhabit The forest and know its dark secrets know this event was nothing special.

In the middle of a tiny clearing, barely giving enough light so the sun could pierce down into the forest floor below, two large groups of creatures squared off against each other; none reached a tall height.

On one side of the clearing, on the side of the taller trees, stood the gnomes with various sticks and acorn-based weapons, looking menacingly towards the side of the clearing with more rocks. Almost their exact height were the goblins, small little green men who could barely tolerate the gnome's existence.

"For the last time, I will never give up this stump," Jeff, the so-so leader of the gnomes, proclaimed, pointing towards a stump in the middle of the clearing. As he made this proud declaration, he and his followers behind him all cheered very loudly.

"Well, that's not up for you to decide," the lead goblin proclaimed harshly as he gritted his sharp teeth. His proclamation would also be responded to with cheers from his followers, who all held small spear-like sticks.

"Well then, if our armies can't decide who shall rule, it will be a one-on-one between rulers," Jeff said, holding out a small dinner plate as a shield and a stick as a weapon.

"Then it shall be," the goblin said, brandishing a small knife and another shield. Both armies would cheer this time as both leaders would rush at each other furiously towards the stump. The goblin-gnome feud was one of the more violent yet rarely talked about encounters in the forest amongst its inhabitants. War was usually an event that changed the course of history, and all nations surrounded by them would be affected. But in the case of the turf wars between the gnomes and the goblins, it was most likely just to see which tiny race would annoy the larger ones in a particular area; they didn't seem to care.

Well, one member of the forest did care.

As both leaders were about to meet each other in the middle of the clearing, they suddenly got interrupted as before they met, a large axe descended between them and landed in the space on the stump. Both leaders paused in fright not only because a giant axe almost killed them but because they recognized who the axe belonged to.

"Enough!" a loud voice announced in a quick blur of motion; both leaders looked up on top of the stump. Standing on it was a humanoid figure covered entirely from head to toe with a hockey mask. "Your meaningless turf war ends now."

"What!" the goblin proclaimed. "we have been fighting for the stump through day and night. You cannot interfere on this great day of battle."

"Yeah, you big jerk," Jeff said, "right when I was about to slay the goblin leader once and for all."

"Slay me? I will skin you like a…" Both leaders would be shocked out of their conversation as Marcus reached down, grabbed them, and picked them up. They were both terrified while Jeff was picked up by his little overalls. The goblin was being picked up by the top of his head. They were brought to eye level with Marcus, whose eyes were not perceivable through the mask.

"Democratically elected leader of the gnomes Jeff and Godwin the goblin the third; I was not asking or implying you should end your conflict; I was telling you to end it now," Marcus said, deadly serious, as while they still had a calm voice, it was drenched with annoyance. "There is a human hiking trail nearby, and if anybody sees you or gets wrapped up in your little scuffle, it will be a problem."

"But but, the stump is an important mark of our territory," the goblin snarled, trying to jump out of Marcus's grip.

"Yeah, big man, that thing has been fought over by our people for generations."

Even though they couldn't see Marcus's face, they could tell they were annoyed by that statement as they sighed and threw both leaders down roughly.

"Then so be it," Marcus said. The two leaders thought they would be let free to battle for a second until the axe still connected to the stump was ripped out of the ground, taking the stump with it.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Jeff yelled angrily.

Marcus, who was now holding the stump in their arms, looked down at both armies and held up their axe, which seemed to glow. "This war is over, and the stump is now mine; maybe if you behave yourself, I'll put it back, or maybe I'll just throw it in the river for the Beavers to have fun with."

It would be unexpectedly quick how both armies took this threat to heart as they retreated back to their respective territories. As Marcus stood there silently in the clearing, they slowly processed the information they had acquired throughout the night and morning to help in future missions better. After all, that's all he did: fight things, stop things, and repeat. Did they hate this task? No, but this was their purpose, and he would do it.

Marcus would almost stand completely still for half an hour, thinking about how they should deal with the goblins and gnomes, until they heard a loud popping sound which sounded like a small explosion; there was also a bright light that shined right behind them as they looked wide-eyed and turned around.

Right behind Marcus, a large bald man in a grey jumpsuit suddenly stepped out, stumbling on the ground and falling face first.

"This is gotta be it, right? I have to be in the right era." The bald man said, freaking out as he patted himself down from the small fires that seemed to randomly pop up on his uniform. "All right, objective one complete. I'm in the past. All I have to do now is find the source of the anomalies, and I will get a promotion. Alright, second objective, make sure nobody sees me."

Marcus had been staring awkwardly at the bald man who couldn't even realize he was there. Of course, Marcus was only used to some situations involving people actually being there, so his only idea was to speak up.

"I think you have already failed your objective," Marcus said calmly as the bald man turned around in fright.

"Wait, who, who are you? You're not supposed to see me. Why would someone be this deep in the forest." The bald man cried out, stumbling over his words as he leaned back against a tree, obviously terrified of Marcus.

"I don't know reasons," Marcus said oddly sarcastically.

"I I you didn't see me," the bald man said before running off into the woods at his full slow speed. Marcus could only stare for a few awkward moments as the man tried to run away; while Marcus stood entirely still, his thoughts diverged from the goblins and gnomes to the current situation. He thought this man looked like the opposite of a threat; he was more likely to hurt himself in the woods than actually hurt a human. But what they really thought about was humans were fragile, and that person was mysterious. With his ability to appear out of nowhere, it would take a few more seconds for Marcus to conclude; they might want to interrogate the man. As the balding man was almost out of sight, Marcus began to pursue him, walking briskly.

Dipper and Mabel were taking the news that they could probably not return home pretty hard. For a while, they considered telling their parents or Grunkle Stan, but they didn't know how to explain; they reasoned no one would believe them, but there was another reason they didn't want to tell anyone.

"What if it's like a good thing?" Mabel suggested, much to Dipper's confusion.

"a good thing," he said skeptically, sitting on his own bed while Mabel was knitting on hers. "Mabel, that wolf almost munched Steve because he almost took me out of town. I don't think it could be a good thing."

"But think about it, he only tried to munch Steve after he shot him in the head. Also, he was being a little gentleman beforehand. What if he is a good guy?"

 "or what if he's a bad guy that just needs us for their fate or something? What if we, like, are destined to accidentally do something that causes, I don't know, everyone to die."

 "Dipper, I think you're taking it a little too extreme too fast. Sure, that's the most extreme way, but what if it's something I don't know pleasant like we're destined to become the rulers of an alternate dimension of nice people like the Wizard of Oz."

 "Mabel, that's not the plot of the Wizard of Oz," Dipper said, a little angry.

 "yeah, but it could be the plot of our Wizard of Oz," she said optimistically. "all we have to do is keep an extra eye out for anything weird." As she said this, they both heard a crane outside and rushed to the window.

They would be shocked to see that somehow in their sleep, they had just recently woken up from. An entire small County Fair had been shipped out to the large lawn of the mystery shack.

 Both twins looked at each other, confused; they came to the same conclusion. Grunkle Stan was up to something.

After a quick run down to the yard, the Pines twins were met with a scene of almost absolute chaos as all around the shack, tons of people were moving objects, setting up equipment, and decorating throughout the area.

What was most shocking about this was the fact that it was still very early in the morning. The sun had just risen, and the Pines twins had not had breakfast yet. Usually, Stan would wait a few hours before he went crazy with business.

"What is happening?" Mabel yelled to Dipper, trying to have her voice heard over the amount of equipment going off at once from the various workers.

 "Oh, what's up, dudes?" both twins heard spoken to them as they turned slightly to a large man welding; their face shield would be removed as Soos was revealed, smiling brightly at them.

 "Soos! What's going on?" Mabel yelled, "Why are there a bunch of construction people outside the mystery shack."

 "Yeah, and why are they setting up a County Fair," Dipper asked.

 "oh, did Stan not tell you? Let's just say the mystery shack will be closed for the next few days," Soos said, a little upset. "The boss says he has a great way of making money." Before Dipper could respond, already looking skeptical, a loud voice would be heard from behind them.

 "and it is a great way to make money!" Stan said proudly, already dressed in his average mystery suit attire. He was also smiling brightly to himself. Dipper knew this smile usually came out when the prospect of tons of money was around. Standing next to Stan, though, was Wendy, who looked dead tired and was holding a clipboard.

 "yeah, a great way to make me miss out on sleep," Wendy complained, and she checked off another box. When Dipper thought about it, Wendy reminded him of himself and how they were obviously not early risers.

 "OK, so is anyone going to explain what's going on now?" Dipper said as he saw a crew put up a stand with random generic festival games.

 "youngest members of the mystery crew, welcome to the Gravity Falls fair, the two-day event-long festival celebrating everything mystery shack," Stan said as if he was trying to sell it to the kids themselves; with a dramatic movement, he pointed towards the entirety of the lot used for the festival. The view probably would have been more impressive if anything was finished construction.

 "Are you saying there's gonna be a whole fair here," Mabel said brightly as her brother only looked slightly confused.

"you're having a whole festival based around the mystery shack.

Stan, I might not be the biggest expert on money here, but I can definitely say you're probably losing a ton of money doing this." Dipper exclaimed, looking at a already broken game.

 "oh Dipper, oh poor faithless Dipper," Stan said, going over to his great nephew and petting him on the head through his hat. "you see, I'm a smart businessman. Of course, a festival is very costly, but do you know what is cost-effective."

 "I'm genuinely afraid of your answer," Dipper said.

 "a cheaply made festival is cost-effective. You see, I was talking with my guy Horatio we met in jail in Philadelphia. He was telling me that he has this festival that's going under mostly due to safety reasons, but I told him I could do the marketing, and he could set up his festival here and get a lot of cash before he officially closes down, and, of course, for cheap."

 "wow," Dipper said, "so you purposely bought an unsafe festival?"

 "oh please, Dipper, don't be so negative around the workers, don't think of it as an unsafe festival or fair think of it as a fun fair, or anything can happen at all times,  and rides should not be going over five mph because of likely damage, but that's just the fun part," Stan said treating himself like a genius.

 "yeah, guess who has the work the stupid festival," Wendy said, annoyed.

 "oh man, is it going to be like a repeat of the party, where one of us has to work during it," Mabel said. "because if so, I call not it."

 "not it," Soos said. Wendy repeated it right after him and then Dipper just half a second later.

 "oh man," Dipper said when he realized he was last.

 "what? No, of course not. I'm just letting him use the lot, and I do the marketing; I'm not wasting any of my valuable employees on these death traps. Although," Stan said, scratching his chin with a devilishly good idea. "I do have a great idea to get some money through this festival my own way; Soos get the power drill. I think I'm on to something."

 "yes, Sir," Mr. Pines Soos said as he ran off.

 "so wait," Wendy said, way more excited now. "Mr. Pines, are you telling me I don't actually have to work at all for two days."

 "I guess so. I just said you guys don't have to work the fair. "

 "yes!" Wendy yelled as she threw the clipboard down and started running off. "I'll catch you guys at the fair when it's ready later today. It would be cool to hang out again."

"Hey, wait!" Stan yelled, "Just because you're not working the festival doesn't mean you're not working right now." by the time he called out to her, he realized she was basically already gone. "I swear every time I see that girl, she's not doing a job."

"Sweet, we get to hang out with Wendy at the festival; I bet you like that" Mabel said, a wicked grin on her face as Dipper frowned at what she was obviously implying.

  "Mabel, I don't want to talk about this right now."

Dipper said, frowning as a sister was poking him rapidly.

 "come on, Dipper; I bet you two could be real cute together when you know, actually grew a couple of inches taller, don't you think Stan?" Mabel said, smiling at her great uncle, who had just now barely stretched enough to pick up the clipboard.

 "you with Wendy?" Stan said, a little surprised. He looked over the clipboard's condition. "kid, let me give you some life advice. Never fall for women who are good at using weapons. Trust me, I know from a lot of experience it doesn't go that well a lot of times."

 "That's all you got to say?" Mabel said, surprised. "wait, what happened to your old love lives."

 "let's just say when you cross the country as a young adult, you meet a lot of interesting people, and interesting is not always a good thing," Stan grumbled as he started to get memories of events he did not care to remember.

As he walked out of speaking range, Dipper turned to Mabel with a slight frown.

 "Mabel, you know I'm unsure how I feel about Wendy. She's like the coolest girl I've ever met, but she's just like, I don't know; it just really makes me nervous."

 "yeah, don't worry. We could probably knock those nerves out once you show her how awesome you are at winning fair games."

 "you think that would impress her?" Dipper said skeptically, lifting his head as his sister shrugged back at him.

 "Trust me, Dipper, who else could you go to for advice on asking out girls, I'm a girl," Mabel said proudly.

 "Yeah, but you're also you; I think that gives you negative points."

Dipper replied back sharply.

 "And I get plus 100 points for getting Grunkle Stan and Lazy Susan together."

 "Haven't they only been on like one date?" Dipper responded. "Are they even still dating right now."

 "if I want to keep my 100 points, I'm not going to look into it further," Mabel responded, smiling.

It would be a couple more hours into the late afternoon when the fair was surprisingly put up quickly. During this time, the twins had returned inside and relaxed, sometimes watching the progress as it went by. As the hours passed, the twins would hear a message over a hastily put PA system that the activities were now open.

 In the upstairs room, Dipper sat alone, writing in his journal as Riley sat beside him. Mabel had gone down a few minutes earlier, yelling something about how people were already showing up and that she would win many prizes. Dipper considered going downstairs to join her for a while, but he just couldn't muster up the care to spend his entire day at a festival that would most likely kill him.

 "so do you really think the peanut brittle affected his zombification, or did it directly cause the zombification?" Dipper said, chewing on his pen as he scribbled down some more notes in the book. He paused for a second to hear the response, but when he got nothing, he slowly craned his head up at Riley, noticing them staring out the window again.

 "it looks fun down there," Riley said. Dipper could feel the sense of longing they had to do something.

 "I guess much like I was never one for parties, I was never one for county fairs either. They just kind of seem like arcades, but you know, outside, and more ripoffs."

"I have never experienced either. How can you be sure this is a ripoff, and the other isn't?"

 "Well, I can't be sure the other one isn't a ripoff, but I know this one is; my great uncle is promoting it and getting money off of it, which just screams rip," Dipper said, chuckling to himself as he put an end to another note. Dipper stretched as he finished the note and looked up to Riley happily.

 "all right, that should be enough writing for the day. What should I do today? Do I really even wanna go to the festival?” Dipper thought out loud, leaning back against his bed. "I mean, it doesn't seem too unfun, Wendy said. I can hang out with her."

"Um, Dipper," Riley said oddly, concerned enough to get Dipper's attention when he felt a tiny bit of emotion coming from them It was mainly confusion, but there was worry in there, too.

 "Are you good Riley? what's wrong?" Dipper said, leaning up as he saw them staring out the window. He could tell they were paying their full attention to what was alerting them.

 "I think we might have an unexpected guest at the festival," Riley said, pointing out the window. Dipper would get up skeptically and boost himself up to get a clear enough view out the window. What he saw was exactly what he expected, a shoddily made smaller County Fair with an oddly large number of people participating. He saw his sister running around rapidly,  his great uncle and Soos were operating the dunk tank, and many people genuinely enjoyed their merriment. But what Riley was pointing out was definitely not what he expected; it was Marcus. From the last time he saw Marcus, they seemed to have not changed attire, still sporting the exact same look from when he helped them with the ghost.

 What was interesting, though, was he didn't have his bag with him, but he was carrying his axe and was slowly stalking around the bushes around the mystery shack.

 "yeah, something's up," Dipper said, concerned, putting back on his vest and hat to run out while grabbing the book.

 Back down at the fair itself, Mabel was having a surprisingly fun amount of time. Besides the fact her brother choosing to be extra introverted in her opinion. Luckily for Mabel, while the fair was definitely cheap, so were the prices for most of the games, so on the paycheck she earned from the mystery shack  she could buy and play to almost her heart's contents. If she even needed more money, she could always just ask Dipper; he rarely spent his own money and earned a lot more than Mabel.

 As she was eating some cotton candy fresh from a vendor, she would sit herself on a small rock next to a bush and calmly eat, thinking about her next move. A light rustling in the brush would get her attention as when she turned back suspiciously, she was met with only the visage of a slightly decorated hockey mask sticking out of the bushes staring at her.

 Mabel was about to scream until she realized who she was met with. "Marcus?" she says confused.

 "Yes, that is my name," Marcus says plainly as they look through the crowd.

  "Glad to finally meet you; I kind of recognize you because of the mask, but what are you doing here? Are you here to enjoy the fair? would you like some cotton candy?" Mabel said, sticking up the cotton candy to the bottom of this mask. Their response to this would only be to stare up at Mabel and the cotton candy briefly before focusing back on the crowd.

 "hello there, sister of the Pines twin I fought with. I'm here on a current investigation or manhunt," Marcus said simply.

 "manhunt? Is there like I don't know a monster in the fair?"

Mabel said, a little worried, looking around.

 "As far as I can tell, there is no monster, then it would be a monster hunt," Marcus said. If it weren't for the tone of voice, Mabel would have assumed that it was a joke, but there was no joking with them. "The mysterious figure I'm chasing appears to be all human, if not strange. I'm determining his threat level."

 "Well, if you need my brother's help, he's upstairs recording stuff with Riley. Try not to let him nerd you out too much." Mabel said, going back to eating her cotton candy excitedly while inspecting the fair

"Ah yes, it would be nice to meet with the journal's owner and spirit…"

 Before Marcus could finish their sincere thoughts, she would suddenly drop her cotton candy on the floor and scream out loud, pointing towards the opposite side of the fair.

 "Oh my gosh, you could win a pig!" she said as the moment she got the words out, she sprinted, pushing people out of her way to run towards a game, giving out pigs as prizes.

 "fascinating; I wonder if there are any supernatural elements to her," Marcus said. Before they could ponder Mabel's probable hidden nature, the porch door to the Mystery Shack slammed open right behind him, revealing a Dipper who had clearly run downstairs.

 "there you are!" both Dipper and Marcus said simultaneously. As they said this, Dipper looked around rapidly from the porch door to see if the fairgoers noticed their conversation. He let out a deep sigh when he realized there was no care to see what was happening at the side of the house at the time.

 "It's good to see you again, young investigator; it's also nice to see you, fellow spirit, how are…"

 "what are you doing running through the fairground with an axe?" Dipper said, interrupting him. From what little he knew about Marcus, he expected them to be stealthier than they were currently doing. They were in the middle of the afternoon, and light foliage was all that was keeping the residents of Gravity Falls from seeing a very tall figure, completely covered from head to toe and wielding a giant axe; the town might be weird, but that would obviously cause a panic.

 As he interrupted them frantically, both Riley and Marcus looked at each other, a little surprised. They clearly hadn't expected him to make an outburst.

 "Is there a problem with carrying an axe in public?" Marcus asked, oblivious.

 "I'm sure if he explained the purpose of the axe, there would be less issue with it; your friend with the red hair, Wendy, carries an axe," Riley said.

 Dipper looked at the two spirits in disbelief. He obviously knew the spirits had a weird sense of social standing; none of them, or at least the two he'd found so far, seemed to interact with the society properly, but sometimes the things they said were just crazy.

 "yes, people have a problem with an axe being held out in public; Wendy always keeps her small axe hidden. Marcus, you are

like the tallest person I've seen in my life, and you're holding an axe that would probably be too heavy for most people to lift. Of course, people would freak out." Dipper explained, trying to keep his voice down, but he was frantic. The idea that someone would catch Marcus out in public was something he hadn't considered before. With Riley, his biggest concern was only them talking to him while someone else was speaking, a minor issue that came up during work days.

 He had assumed Marcus had been at this for a long time, or at least ever since whoever made the books disappeared. But due to how he didn't really hide his appearance when he met them in the grocery store and how he's just barely hiding behind bushes, Dipper couldn't really fathom how he has not become local common knowledge. But knowing this insane town, maybe a very tall man in the woods brandishing an axe would just sound like manly Dan.

 "Fascinating," Marcus and Riley both said at the same time.

  "But back to your previous question, I'm currently hunting down a mysterious individual who appeared during one of my expeditions," Marcus explained, looking through the fairground. Dipper could tell he was trying to spot the mysterious presence, but now he was hooked; if there were a monster in the fair, it would have to be dealt with before someone got hurt.

 "Mysterious individual?" Dipper said, confused, pulling out the journal. "what kind of mysterious individual."

 "Human, most likely, bald, light skin; he was stammering a lot when I saw him, and he's wearing a grey jumpsuit," Marcus explained quickly.

 "I mean no offense to your judgment, but that individual does not sound mysterious. It sounds just like a normal human." Riley interrupted while Dipper was already writing down a few clues.

 "yes, but most humans don't randomly appear in balls of light in the middle of the forest… I think."

 "No, they don't," Dipper said, finishing up the few notes he had gotten," you said you were hunting him down. Are they like dangerous or something?"

 "as far as I can tell, probably not, but it's better to investigate every lead than have a potential lead uninvestigated," Riley said towards Dipper; they would then turn towards Marcus. " Do you have any plans so far on how to deal with them?"

"no, as far as I can tell, they used a strange teleportation magic or whatever it was. It only worked once, and they've been running around since; every time I thought I'd gotten close

they seem to disappear, though."

 "Disappear. Are you saying they can go like invisible or something?" Dipper asked.

 "I have insufficient information to make any concrete guess, but for now, all I know is that they have run in this direction; with this being the largest concentration of humans in the surrounding area, it would be pretty easy for them to blend in."

 "Interesting," Dipper thought to himself. He would get knocked out of his thoughts when he heard someone marching up to the porch.

"Hey, man!" Wendy called out, running up to the porch. "I told you we can hang out at the festival..." Wendy looked surprised when she saw who Dipper was talking to in the bush.

"oh hey um…. yeah Marcus, that was your name, the guy from the grocery store with the cool axe."

 "yes, that is a sufficient description of myself," Marcus said plainly, still not getting up from the bush he was hiding in.

 "you trying to hang out at the fair too," Wendy asked. Dipper could tell she was a little off-put by his appearance, but she was still trying to be friendly with them.

 "no, I'm in the middle of an important or perceived to be important operation right now."

 "What?" Wendy said confused.

 "he thinks there's some mysterious person in the fair, but as far as we can tell, it's probably a human that could teleport," Dipper explained.

 "Dang, and I guess you're on the case. Well, I would like to help out, but I'm kind of all still adventured out from the whole grocery store incident. Maybe we can hang out some other time, Dipper," Wendy said happily.

"whoa, wait, we can; we can still hang out," Dipper said nervously, hopping down from the porch.

He didn't know what was coming over him right now, but the idea of missing hanging with Wendy rubbed him the wrong way.

 "Are you sure, man?" Wendy asked, confused. "Marcus sounded serious."

 "I must agree with the girl Dipper: if something dangerous is going on, it might be better to investigate it now," Riley responded.

 "Oh, what," Dipper said nonchalantly. "Marcus always sounds serious; besides, it's some bald guy who stammers a lot. I don't really think Marcus needs my help to take him down, right?"

 "Dipper, this is unwise..." Riley started.

 "completely true. I'm 100% confident in my abilities to take out any threat." noticing they had been cut off, Riley just stared at Marcus. The emotion Dipper could feel at this point was annoyance, only slight.

 "cool dude!" Wendy said, preparing to walk off. "I'm going to go over there and get some corn dogs. Let's go. Also, I saw your sister running off somewhere. Maybe we can find her."

 "of course, let me just give me a second," Dipper said nervously as Wendy only gave a thumbs up and walked off. Dipper knew what conversation would be had as he turned back to Riley, who was staring down at him.

"... now Riley, don't get mad at me, but…" Dipper said nervously.

 "There's quite obviously something strange going on, and yet you still treat it like nothing is happening… I take back what I said. That's not unwise. It's incompetent." Riley said harshly.

 "yeah, that's true, but you know, I don't really get to hang out with people often, and it's weird having friends that are not my sister."

Dipper explained, trying to get the spirit to understand. "especially with someone like Wendy who is just, I don't know, awesome."

 Riley only stared at Dipper momentarily, trying to formulate their thoughts. "your sister was right. Your infatuation for the Corduroy girl does impair your mental systems."

 "Well, she didn't say it like that," Dipper said defensively.

 "I don't understand what's happening here," Marcus asked, looking between the two of them.

 "From what I can discern from his sister, the young owner of the journal has what's called a 'crush' on the girl named Wendy; this is a human term for when they feel romantic feelings towards each other. I believe it is impairing his thinking and not giving him critical decision-making abilities."

 "Hey, hey, you don't have to say like that," Dipper said, a little offended, trying to shut up Riley.

  "how very human of you," Marcus said. Dipper couldn't tell if it was an insult or a compliment.

 "come on guys, lay off me a little bit; I like her, but it's not like it could go anywhere, right? Maybe."

 "I don't know," both Riley and Marcus said as Dipper just looked frustrated.

 "Man, why am I fishing for romantic advice from you guys? can you guys even understand the human concept of romance?" Dipper asked, genuinely interested, before flipping open the journal to write down more notes.

 Both Marcus and Riley looked at each other awkwardly as they shrugged.

 "most likely not," Marcus said.

 "Oh well, that's sad, but anyways, here's the plan: I'm going to hang out with Wendy; I'm going to be walking around the fair with her anyway, so I'll keep an eye out. If I find them, I'll just call you, you know?" Dipper explained he was getting a little excited that he found a way to get his Wendy hangout time mixed in with his aiding Marcus.

 "that's not a bad plan, although you will require a way to call me here. Have this." Marcus then threw a  Walkie-talkie at Dipper. Dipper wanted to comment on how cool it was to have his own communication system with Marcus until he realized the walkie-talkie had a very childish design with its bright orange colors and simplistic design. It also had a cartoon character on it. Before Dipper could ask, Marcus seemed to move on.

 "it is already pre-set to the channel we can communicate on. Keep an eye out," Marcus said threateningly as he disappeared into the woods.

"I'll secure the perimeter to see if he is around the outskirts."

 "see their happy ending," Dipper said joyously, looking at Riley, who still had a skeptical feeling around them.

 "Well, your plan certainly has some merits. I can definitely say that it's flawed. You will definitely be distracted by Wendy."

 "Oh please, Riley, have a little faith. Don't you believe I can multitask? I can totally pay attention to Wendy and look out for a bald guy in a grey jumpsuit. you think I can do it right?" Dipper said slightly arrogantly. Dipper wouldn't be met with any confidence as when Riley stared him down, and he stared back, there was a nonverbal conversation going on, and the point was getting across clearly.

Before Riley could even drive home the point they didn't trust him in that instant, he would slam

close the journal. Was Riley probably going to be annoyed with him for doing that later? Most likely, he didn't think the journal closing actually hurt them, and they were still conscious even when the book was closed, as far as he could tell.

 "all right," Dipper said aloud. "hang out with Wendy, get close to Wendy, possibly become great friends, and maybe find Mabel. wait, where is Mabel?" Dipper asked, looking around the fair.

There is truly no knowing the top speeds Mabel could reach. She was always a fast child, but when something really excited her, she would go into what her brother liked to call hyper-speed; she would almost be a blur.

Their Mom had always joked she could be one of the fastest track stars ever to exist.

 Her father always responded with if only there were something with glitter at the finish line.

  What caught Mabel's eyes this time, though, would be the complete opposite of glitter within the secluded corner of the fairgrounds, a decently sized stall that was just a large wooden fenced area with a small podium right next to it. Above read a sign. 'guess the weight of the pig, take it home.'

 "As she ran at full speed, she accidentally slammed into the fence but grabbed hold of it, keeping herself up. This wouldn't even phase her as she looked over the muddy pit of pigs, all playing around. It was so wonderful, she thought.

 "Oh my God, they're all so adorable," Mabel said, almost overwhelmed by all the pigs she saw, but one stood out to her. While most of the pigs weren't very large, one was remarkably clean as it stood completely still in the mud and stared directly at her, sitting down like a dog.

"Oh, so I see you're interested," a loud showman-like voice shocked Mabel out of her thoughts as standing right next to her was an older man who seemed to be dressed like it was the 1920s. "all you have to do is pick a pig guess it's weight and you can take it home."

 "That's really all I have to do guess its weight, and I get to take it home; how much does it cost to play?" Mabel asks excitedly.

 "Oh well, it doesn't cost at all; all you got to do is guess the weight. I'm serious. I'm not even charging people; I just really need to get rid of these farm animals. Apparently, you need a farm before you start collecting farm animals." The man said, a little depressed at his lousy business choices. Mabel stared and was confused as he continued. "if you can't get the pig right, I'll give you a chicken for free."

 "no, I'm good," Mabel said, returning to staring at the pigs. "I want that one she said, staring at the smallest pig. He's so adorable, and whenever he oinks, he sounds like he's saying Mabel or doorbell. One of those who cares? I want it."

 "oh, that one old 15 Poundy? Yeah, he's a special one. I bet you'll never guess how much he is," the older man said. Mabel could not pick up on social cues as quickly as her brother, but she assumed he was trying to trick her, when really hearing his tone of voice, there was no way he was joking.

 "is he 15 pounds?" Mabel asked awkwardly. The older man would be shocked as he looked at the little girl like she said something crazy.

 "How did you guess?" he said, amazed. "are you like a psychic." when he said that, Mabel was reminded of Gideon's tie she had around her neck, and she almost laughed a little bit.

 "No, but I am the new proud owner of a pet pig," she said excitedly as the older man picked up the pig and put it in her arms. The moment the small pig was put on the ground right in front of her. Its waddling little legs gave her the perfect idea for her name.

"Henceforth, you shall be known as Waddles Sir Porkins Pines," Mabel said, impersonating a medieval accent while hugging her pig. She would get a little offended when the older man handed her a knife and a fork, obviously implying she should eat waddles, but one stern look and he walked away shrugging.

 "oh man, this is going to be one of the greatest days of my life," Mabel said excitedly. While she was twirling around in circles happily, she could only think about all the fun she could have with the pig. She has always wanted a cat or a dog, but her parents, for some reason, were not thrilled about having a pet.

Everything would be going well until she slammed into someone else in one of her wide twirls, knocking everyone, including the pig, to the ground.

 "Hey, watch where you're going," a loud valley girl accent spoke out; Mabel knew immediately who it was.

 "oh hey, Pacifica," Mabel said awkwardly, dusting herself off as she picked up waddles again. "sorry about that, I was just, you know, excited."

 "As Pacifica looked down at her outfit, which was partially ruined, she looked a little offended as her two friends were about to say something; just like when they met at the party, Pacifica put her hands up, shutting up her friends to allow her to speak.

 "you know, Mabel, when you said you were going to get back at me or whatever, I didn't expect you to knock me down with a fat, greasy animal."

Pacifica said with an annoyed face, staring at Mabel as she then turned her eyes to the pig. "what are you doing with that any way other than assaulting people."

 "oh, this is Waddles. Isn’t he adorable," Mabel said, picking up and shaking him slightly right in front of Pacifica's face. While her friends were disgusted, Pacifica would only stare blankly as the pig's fat body was shaken before her.

  "for a pig, I guess," Pacifica said honestly, "but next time, be careful of where you're swinging around your actual twin." Pacifica Laughed just like her friends as she started walking off. Mabel was going to feel upset by this, but the waddling of the pig a moment later shook her out of her emotions.

 "Don't worry, waddles. She's just jealous she can't see the all-loving light of an adorable pig." Mabel said, carrying the pig in her arms like she was holding a baby. "now come on, let's go show you to my brother." as she said that, she ran off at full speed, amazed that the pig was keeping pace with her when she put it on the ground. The love for a pet was almost impossible to beat, and Mabel just found that.

"I'm having a hard time understanding," Wendy said honestly as she held up the corndog in her hands next to Dipper. They hadn't been hanging out for that long, but while they had, Wendy was amazed at the fact that the fair was actually somewhat branded in the mystery shack image. The biggest proof of this is that the corn dog she was holding up was shaped like a question mark.

 "how did he make these?" she said, genuinely amazed.

 "That's a good question," Dipper said jokingly as he put his head right under one of the corn dogs. He and Wendy would laugh at the joke as they were having a good time at the fair. Dipper was amazed that he had never really had a conversation with someone this long who wasn't a spirit, and that wasn't his family member that was going so well. Another thing he still needed to sort out at this time was his feelings for Wendy. With both the spirits and his sister commenting on it, he decided today would be a good day to figure it out.

But just because he had to figure it out didn't mean he thought it was possible. He had always been self-conscious about literally every aspect of his life. Getting superpowers, as Soos called them, didn't help him with his confidence, so a crush would be doing the opposite of helping. Every move, thought, and word he did was not only filtered through the idea he was in public. But now it's filtered through the idea that someone he liked was always looking at him. It was a hell of his own making before his thoughts could eat at him anymore; the cotton candy held in his hand would suddenly get torn in half with a loud oinking sound next to his ear.

Turning slowly, Dipper was met with a small fat pig eating his cotton candy right in his face.

he wanted to be annoyed, but he was mostly confused about how a pig would even get up at this height when he realized someone was holding it. It only took a slight movement of his head to see his sister brightly smiling behind the pig's body while it ate his cotton candy.

 "Really, Mabel?" Dipper said unamused, while Wendy was laughing.

 "hey, a pig's gotta eat," Mabel said defensively, putting the pig down; surprisingly, to both Dipper and Wendy, it was obediently walking around Mabel as she occasionally scratched it while talking to them.

 "Dipper Pines, I would like you to meet the newest Pines family member, Waddles Sir Porkins Pines. the first official pet of the Pines family." Mabel said proudly as she showed off the pig.

 "you've got to be kidding me," Dipper said while Wendy continued laughing.

 "I think it's awesome," Wendy commented to the pig.

 "wait, really?" Dipper and Mabel surprised.

 "yeah, I wish I could have a pet, but my dad's always going off about how we can barely feed my siblings." Wendy said honestly, leaning down to pet the pig. "besides, my little brother is so annoying. He's basically a pet already."

  "Haha, take that Dipper, that's one person who supports the newest family member," Mabel said joyously.

 "Mabel Wendy is not a part of our family," Dipper explained, a little annoyed. "How would she get a vote in it."

 "Booooo" Wendy called out. While she was saying this, Mabel said something quietly to Dipper that she couldn't hear.

 "yeah, I bet you would like to change that," Mabel said jokingly, just quiet enough for Wendy not to hear as she elbowed her brother. A quick nudge to her side shut up Mabel quickly as Dipper looked up at Wendy; he was lucky she didn't hear that.

 "Anyway," Dipper said, turning to Wendy. "So, what would you like to do next?"

 "I don't know. I saw your great uncle laughing at people from the dunk tank that he rigged to get more money, but I'm up for getting more prizes." right as she said that Wendy accentuated her arm, accidentally spilling mustard on her shirt. "ah, Boooo again," Wendy cried out as she walked towards the bathroom.

 "I'm going to go clean up, then we'll talk about this in a second," Wendy said, a little annoyed.

 When she was gone, the Pines twins looked towards each other, and Dipper was obviously annoyed.

 "Come on, Mabel, can you at least be cool about this and don't try and push anything," Dipper complained.

 "oh, come on, brother, I'm just giving you a push; the worst she can say is no, and… oh, what's that smell?" Mabel complained.

 Just as soon as she said that, all the Pines heads, including waddles, would turn towards Robbie, who's just now showing up to the fair.

 "what's up, toddlers?" Robbie said rudely. "I heard Wendy was off work today and wanted to see if she wanted to hang out at the fair. I wanted to show her my new skinny jeans," he said, showing off and flexing his pants, "what do you think."

 "a little too tight," Dipper said, disgusted by Robbie's flexing.

 "What do you know about fashion?" Robbie said slightly defensively. "where is she anyway, and why is there a pig." He asked, a little grossed out.

 "it's my new pet," Mabel said proudly. "and she went over there," Mabel said, pointing towards the opposite side of the fair.

 "Thanks kid," Robbie said. As he went off, Dipper only looked at his sister, a little confused.

 "Mabel, why did you tell Robbie Wendy was on the opposite side of the fair?"

 "Because genius," Mabel said frantically, "he's totally going to ruin your shot at getting with Wendy."

 "ruin my chances at getting with Wendy? what are you talking about?" Dipper said.

"Oh Dipper, Dipper, Dipper, my poor younger loveless brother, you don't know the ways of the world, and it's blinding you to the idea of competition."

 "Mabel, translate yourself to a language I can understand," Dipper said, now annoyed.

 "I'm saying that Robbie's obviously trying to get with Wendy, and if Robbie gets with Wendy, then she's not going to get with you."

 “Mabel… what are you… stop talking. Like I have any chances with Wendy anyway," Dipper said, a little down in the dumps now.

 "I won't stop talking about it because you always have a chance. Just think about how much we have changed since the summer began, and I believe you have a chance. Besides, if we have to stay in this town forever, we might as well try." Mabel said, oddly optimistic.

"Mabel, we'll probably not be trapped in this town forever. Hopefully, but think about it: Robbie's her age, has skinny jeans, and has a sick guitar. I don't have anything like that."

 "Well, you have a cool magic journal, super strength, danger sense, and you're rocking that vest. I think that makes you the perfect candidate." Dipper was blown back at the praise she was giving him. It was almost getting his optimism up. But Dipper only had a little optimism to begin with, so it wasn't a high level.

 "let's just hang out for the day so I can, you know, sort my feelings out myself," he said awkwardly, rubbing his shoulder. "it's just complicated."

 "Don't worry, bro. I'm here to uncomplicate things or simplify them; with my help, you and Wendy will be in smooch town by the end of summer."

 "Who says smooch town?" Dipper said, confused. He would immediately shut up Mabel's response when he saw Wendy come out of the bathroom.

 "All right, Pines twins, ready to win some cheap prizes!" Wendy said happily. The response she got was a resounding cheer from the Pines twins as they all headed off to the games.

After about an hour of fun between them, the Pines twins and Wendy have been walking around playing whatever games seemed fun and weren't too dangerous to participate in. Dipper swore for a second; his danger sense was getting louder every time he walked closer to the horribly made Ferris wheel.

  Dipper was also happy that they hadn't run into Robbie yet again. He knew he was probably overhyping his Fear of him, but the ideas Mabel yelled were stuck in his head. Of course, though he couldn't forget his slight professionalism of being a mystery hunter, he had been looking out for the man in the grey jumpsuit, but so far, he'd seen nothing and felt nothing. Interestingly enough, he hadn't even seen Marcus, who he knew was sneaking around somewhere; he thought he doubted his stealth a little too much.

 "yo, check that out," Wendy said excitedly as she walked over to another game. Dipper would be taken out of his thoughts as both Wendy and his sister dragged him to some random, cheaply constructed game. It was pretty simplistic; the game's whole objective was to hit a stack of bottles stacked upon each other, and then, if you knocked them down, you would get a prize. But what would grab Wendy's attention was clearly different from the game. It was the prize.

 When Dipper looked up to see what his sister and Wendy were looking at, he would be met with an odd creature. It was purple and yellow while it looked like a bear/panda/platypus, but if there is one thing, and it surely was, it was loved by Wendy already.

 "I don't even know what that thing is, but I want one," Wendy said confidently. Before either of the twins could react, she already ran up to the man running the game and paid him to have a go.

 "all right, $1.00, one chance," the man said, tired as Wendy forced the dollar into his hand, grabbing the baseball with a wicked smile. Just as Mabel and Dipper started chanting her name in support, Wendy winded up like a baseball player and threw a solid hit to the bottles. In a more fair world, this probably would have done it, but the moment the ball hit the bottles, it would bounce off, leaving the bottles slightly shaking.

 "Oh, what?" Wendy said, annoyed, looking at the game runner with a look of anger. " Hey man, I hit center mass."

 "yeah, and I guess you just didn't throw hard enough," the man said, barely paying attention; clearly, he was used to people being angry at this situation. Wendy was about to say something but just shut herself up and forced another dollar into his hand. Winding up once more with an extra bit of aggression, Wendy threw the ball, and a similar result happened this time, the bottles just slightly shaking a little bit more but not falling over.

 "oh, this is rigged!" Wendy said, now annoyed, slamming on the table.

 "Yeah, well, I didn't say the game was fair," the man said. " so you're going to pay to try again, or are ou just going to spit in my face more." When he said this, Wendy got real close to his face, trying to formulate some words that would tear them down, but before she could, Dipper walked up and had a brilliant idea. Thinking about his powers, Dipper thought they were better than Mabel's in one fundamental way: there was no visual way to tell he was using them. When his strength, speed, or senses were enhanced, there was no visual cue like Mabel's blue glow when her telekinesis activated. This gave him a wicked idea. He knew he could throw pretty hard due to his strength, so all he had to do was apply to the game and impress Wendy.

 "I'll take a crack at it," Dipper said somewhat confidently to the man as he held up a dollar. Both the man and Wendy would be slightly surprised at this reaction; the man obviously doubted him, but Wendy looked at him amazed.

 "go ahead, little dude," Wendy said happily as she stepped to the side.

Hearing her encouraging words, Dipper smiled even brighter as he exchanged the dollar for the ball, tossing it up lightly.

 "you know," Dipper said arrogantly. " My uncle told me a trick with this game was just to throw the ball at the guy's head and then take the prizes."

"yeah, well, that would be a felony, but I'm pretty sure there's like nine of those going on in this fair alone, so don't try it anyway," the man replied, still bored.

 As Dipper stood facing the bottles, tossing up the ball slowly to get a feel for its weight, he felt a sense of power to himself. In just one moment, he can prove himself remarkable, and all he has to do is put in some strength. Maybe these powers weren't so bad, he thought.

 "and here I go," Dipper said while the supportive chants of Wendy and Mabel came from the background; maybe it was his own ego, but he swore he heard Waddles's squeals cheering him on, too. With one mighty swing of impressive speed, the baseball would release from Dipper's hand and be thrown at full speed at the bottles. In the brief milliseconds of the ball's release, Dipper could tell everyone was impressed, but things would all go wrong very soon. Apparently, great strength didn't equal great accuracy. The ball Dipper threw was a little too low as instead of hitting the bottles on the table; it perfectly hit the side to where it would ricochet right back at Wendy.

 The next few seconds would be a blur for Dipper as one second he was basking in the excitement of impressing someone, and the next moment, the ball had slammed into Wendy's eye at a hard speed, and he made her collapse to the ground.

He believed this was a nightmare for a few seconds, but when Wendy gave out a short cry in pain, he knew this was all too real as he and Mabel knelt down to help her up.

 "Oh my gosh, Wendy, are you alright?" Mabel yelled, concerned, while leaning down to her to get a look in her eye. After the ball hit, Wendy covered up her face in pain and was slowly starting to get up. Dipper was almost too freaked out to speak.

 "don't worry, guys," Wendy said, trying to reassure them, sitting up completely. "now, how does it look?" when she said that, Dipper and Mabel would recoil back when they saw Dipper had given her a black eye with the ball.

 "I need to go get some ice or something,” Dipper said, scrambling off and running towards the mystery shack. Again, These moments were just as frantic as when the ball hit her as he ran through the entire Mystery Shack Kitchen trying to get some ice and put it in a bag. All while this was happening, Dipper was overwhelmed by his thoughts on what happened. He was genuinely starting to believe there was no person in the world with as much bad luck as him. Finally acquiring all the ice he thought he needed, Dipper ran as quickly as he could out of the shack back to the fair; using his impressive speed, he wouldn't even have enough time to react when his danger sense came out in a quick flash, he rammed into someone quickly spilling the ice on the ground.

 "ow," both Dipper and the man he ran into cried simultaneously.

 "Hey, watch where you're going," Dipper said angrily at the guy who he swore just walked right in front of him. Dipper would be slightly confused when the weird bald man stumbled on his words and ran away. Too wrapped up in the moment to realize what was going on, Dipper sprinted back to where Mabel and Wendy were to see a weird sight.

In the less than two minutes he had to have been gone, Wendy was standing up smiling as Robbie was comforting her, holding up a snow cone to her hurt eye.

 "See there, that should feel all better," Robbie said sweetly while side-hugging Wendy.

 "Thanks, man," Wendy said weekly, holding onto her forehead. "I don't know what I would do without this."

 "Oh, nothing much, you just know how it is, right time, right place, or whatever they say," Robbie said slightly arrogantly. "you know, Wendy, there's kind of been a question I've been trying to ask you."

 The moment Dipper heard this, he was about to freak out. He knew what was coming, and Mabel's crazy ideas had officially infected his head.

 "Oh yeah, what's that?" Wendy asked, a little confused.

 "would you like to go on a date with me?" Robbie said awkwardly. "we hang out all the time, and it's like, you know, you're super cool and…"

 "Sure, man," Wendy said, smiling a bit.

 "Whoa, wait, really," Robbie said excitedly. "That's awesome. I can get us some nice dinner tonight…"

 "Not tonight, man. I think I got a huge headache," Wendy said, holding her head even harder now. "but definitely tomorrow, hey, but if you want to be a gentleman, you can walk me home."

 "of course," Robbie said, smiling wider than anyone had ever seen before as he and Wendy left the fairground.

 During this interaction, Mabel and Dipper had sat on the sidelines looking surprised. Mabel had quickly broken out of her surprise to see her brother's reaction; his face fell as his mouth was wide open in shock, trying to process the last five minutes.

 "hey, Dipper, it's going to be fine, right?" Mabel said, trying to reassure him, but the moment she said that, Dipper would only step a few feet back, sit on the porch and just think to himself.

A couple of hours later, the fair had been winding down for the night as the Pines twins were sitting on the porch. Mabel had gone off to chase around waddles for a bit, but Dipper had stayed there mostly the whole time. While Dipper was still deep in thought, he would suddenly get interrupted when a pig booped him in the nose with its snout and stared directly into his eyes.

 "paging Dr. Waddles, we have reports of a boy with a broken heart," Mabel said, mocking a radio voice as she held up the pig now in a doctor's outfit.

 "Really, Mabel," Dipper said, grumbling back in the chair he was sitting in.

 "hey, these are funny jokes," Mabel said. Noticing the reaction to her saying this, Mabel immediately put down waddles next to her. She moved her brother over so she could sit in the same seat. "come on, Dipper, I know Robbie's dating Wendy now, but it's not the end of the world. There's a ton of other girls I could get you with."

 "It's not just that, Mabel," Dipper said. "I mean, I guess it might be a little bit of that, but it's also that I hurt Wendy all because I was trying to impress her. Stupid powers," Dipper grumbled.

 "hey, what do your powers have to do with this?"

 "if I didn't have my super strength, I probably wouldn't have hit her on the head so hard," Dipper complained, standing up now. "Heck, I wouldn't even have dropped the ice if I wasn't pushing my speed. That's why I ran into that guy… that… guy." At this moment, Dipper came to a horrifying conclusion.

 "is something wrong?" Mabel said, concerned as she saw Dipper freeze for a second.

 "Oh my God, the guy Marcus was looking for, I ran into him, and I didn't even stop him." After he finished his sentence, Mabel was shocked when she saw Dipper almost collapse onto the floor, holding his head in frustration. "Dang it, now I'm a bad friend and a bad mystery hunter."

 "Now hold on, Dipper, it's not your fault you were distracted,"

Mabel said, patting him on the back.

 "It's literally only my fault; oh man, Riley and Marcus are going to be super mad at me and now I lost the only lead I had on the potential of investigation. Who knows if that guy was important or who knows if he will show up again," Dipper said, a little frantic, breathing heavily.

 "Dang, you're kind of right," Mabel said, not trying to be mean. "what are the odds we're going to find him again."

 When Mabel said that, a loud crash was heard in the background. Both twins turned quickly off to the section of the fair. They were around to see a grown man who had tripped and stumbled over a small fair game, making a bunch of teenagers mad. The older man would shrink immediately, trying to escape from the teenager's barrage of insults. His attire was interesting: a completely grey jumpsuit with a bald head, and the man looked to be stammering a lot. For a second, both of them were in complete disbelief as Mabel turned to Dipper.

"That wouldn't happen to be him, would it?" Mabel said curiously. Dipper wouldn't even respond to her as he was still very surprised at his appearance; within the next few seconds, Dipper reached into his pocket and pulled out a cartoony walkie-talkie. At the same time, he reached for the journal and his other hand.

 "I'm going to take that as a yes," Mabel says, smiling.

The next few seconds would be chaotic, for within moments of Dipper making this short radio call, Marcus had sprung out of the bushes and grabbed the bald man. Apparently, Marcus was truly scoping out the perimeter for the entire day, but he somehow never laid eyes on him.

 Once Marcus grabbed a hold of the back of his collar without a fight, the bald man, who was obviously still scared, basically gave up. In another move that reminded Dipper of how stealthy Marcus could actually be if he tried, he somehow grabbed him in the middle of the fair. He dragged him to the secluded side of the mystery shack without anybody noticing.

 When the bald man was finally let go, he was met with twins, a large spirit holding an axe and, unbeknownst to him, a second spirit who had been recently summoned from the book.

 "you, it was you who ran into me while I was carrying the ice for Wendy! You're the guy who appeared out of light? Dipper said accusingly.

 "Hey, I I I none of you were supposed to see me, and it's your fault for running into me," the man said defensively.

 "whoa whoa whoa, let's calm down here, everybody," Mabel said. "let's just all calm down and explain where we're all from. Hi, I'm Mabel Pines. Are you from like the future or something? Are you magical?

 The moment she said future, the bald man freaked out even more.

"you're not supposed to know that," he yelled as he threw something at Mabel's face. A small rectangle flew out of his pocket and onto Mabel's face, and it attached itself. Riley, Marcus, and Dipper were about to freak out for a solid second until Mabel nonchalantly pulled the towel off her face.

Mabel looked down, confused at it for a second until she looked back up at the man.

 "Is this a baby wipe?" she asked, confused.

 "it's supposed to be a memory wipe," the man said pathetically as he sat down on the side of the building.

 "I don't think he's using any magic," Riley said, obviously unimpressed by him.

 "yes, something tells me this is less of a monster threat and more of a fluke," Marcus said, still holding the axe threateningly.

 "a memory wipe? whoa, are you like some kind of tech genius?" Dipper said, needing clarification.

 The bald man looked pathetic as he leaned back against the wall and exhaled. "No, I'm from the future."

 "What!" both Dipper and Mabel said simultaneously as Riley and Marcus looked on, confused.

 "time travel? Time travel is only theoretical. Dipper, prepare to take a lot more notes." Riley said, a bit animated.

 "Enough," Marcus said. "I've been in the dark for too long while chasing you. I must know who you are and determine if you are a threat."

"what? What? I'm not a threat; I'm here to stop threats. My name is Blendin Blenjamin Blandin, and I'm part of the time anomaly removal team."

 "the TART?" Mabel said.

 "I don't think it's supposed to be an acronym," Riley said, even though they knew Mabel couldn't hear them.

 "Anomaly removal team? what's your mission here?" Dipper said. This whole experience had almost made him completely forget about the Wendy incident, and now he was locked in on a mystery mode.

 "my organization has been telling me there's going to be a bunch of time disturbances around this era and day; I haven't seen anything that's close to a disturbance, maybe maybe I'm just too late or too early, I don't know."

 "We should interrogate them about the time he comes from to determine whether he is a threat or not," Riley said, nodding to Marcus, who was starting to twirl the axe.

 "Something tells me he's not much of a threat," Marcus says.

 "you would think a time traveler would be better at time traveling," Mabel said, almost full of pity for Blendin and how pathetic he was.

 "yeah, wait a minute, you're a time traveler," Dipper said, getting an evil thought. "that means you have a time machine, right?"

 "yeah, that's how it works," Blendin said, tired.

 Riley didn't have eyes, or at least visible ones, but the moment he asked that question, he could feel them staring into the back of his skull, but it was too late. He already knew what he had to ask.

 "so can I borrow it?

Chapter Text

The reactions Dipper got were completely expected.

"Are you crazy?" Blendin said.

"Awesome!" Mabel yelled joyously, already thinking of what they could be doing.

"Huh," Marcus said in confusion.

"No," Riley said, staring directly at him firmly, letting him know this idea was insane.

"Now, hold on, guys, wait. Let me explain." Dipper said, trying to give his case before everyone judged him too much.

"No, your minimal interest in this investigation was already concerning at first, but now it's boarding on. exploitative." Riley said oddly, passionately.

"I agree," Marcus said. "it is my job to protect the people from the supernatural, not use their abilities for my own personal use."

"Wait, guys, I know what you're saying, but please let me explain. Think about it; this is time travel. Something that's never been studied before by people in our time, if we can get ahead of this, it will be the most valuable information the world has ever known," Dipper explained.

This would cause Marcus and Riley to freeze for a second as they were deep in thought, while they stopped Maple stepped up to say something.

"Wow, you're really passionate about this. Are you sure you don't just want The Time Machine so you can fix your mistake from earlier today?"

"Well, I mean, I do, but like, it's a great test, right? It's not too far in the past."

"No, no, no," Blendin said, freaked out by the conversation in front of him. "I can't let you use my time machine. Do you know how many time rules that violates? Probably like 12, and I don't even know what you're going to do yet with it." Before he could even complain more, Marcus put his hands on his shoulder, forcing him down to the ground again.

"Calm down," Marcus said threateningly. "you have been captured here. You don't have that much say in this decision-making. But he does make a wise point." they turned to the group calmly. "There's a little too many unknowns for my liking."

"Well then, let's make those unknowns known," Mabel said, supporting her brother. "Besides, what's the worst that could happen." She frowned when she really thought about what she said and turned to Blendin.

"What is the worst that can happen?" she asked concerned.

"Something terrible, I I think, I'm not exactly sure. No one really remembers changing time." He said, confusing himself.

"So the people in charge of maintaining order and time don't know what happens if you change the timeline," Dipper said, more disappointed than anything.

"This is a very disappointing interrogation," Riley said.

"The time baby probably knows; he knows all, but he doesn't like to share. He's a bit cranky." Blendin said frantically, realizing he probably released too much information.

"Time baby?" Mabel said, confused. "All right, we're getting off track here. Can we at least see The Time Machine? Is it cool? Is it like a cool car from that movie?"

"It can't be," Marcus spoke up. "when he appeared in the forest, he was just by himself. Nothing major spawned in with him, so unless he's stuck in this time, it has to be small."

"Yeah, you got it," Blendin said. He was fishing around in his pocket for a moment until he pulled out a tape measure. This didn't give him any more confident looks from the people around him.

"Fascinating," Riley said, inspecting the device.

"No, it's not," Dipper was clearly annoyed. "that's a tape measure. Soos has like 10 of them because they keep going missing. Are you telling me the future of time travel is controlled by a tape measure?"

"Yes, I agree with the boy." Marcus rubbed the bottom of his mask in confusion. "I've seen some peculiar things in my time here, but a tape measure being used as a time travel device is unique."

"Oh yeah, you think I'm lying," Blendin said, annoyed that they were doubting him so much.

"Well, we didn't say we didn't believe you," Mabel said, trying to calm him down. "We just said It's kind of weird."

"Oh yeah, and then watch this." In a quick motion, before Marcus could stop him, he used the tape measure, rolled out a bit of it, and snapped it back into place. Blendin would teleport away in an instant with a flash of light, leaving everyone stunned. There was a moment of awkward silence as they waited for him to come back.

"I think he escaped," Marcus announced stiffly.

"Yeah, that would make sense," Dipper said.

"Maybe we should have taken all of this stuff Before we started interrogating him," Mabel said, confused about the whole ordeal.

Riley looked down at Dipper. "I hope you know even with this very inconclusive adventure, we still have enough to write down a couple of pages, right."

"Yes, Riley, I know," Dipper sighed; before they could continue, speculating how weird this encounter truly was, another ball of light appeared as Blendin reappeared in a renaissance outfit.

"Guess where I've been?" Blendin stood arrogantly. Much to his surprise, before he could even keep up his impressive pose, Marcus grabbed him by the collar again and time travel device out of his hands. "Oh man, I knew I should have just escaped instead of showing off."

"It actually works!" Dipper was surprised. "you went back to Renaissance Italy. That's incredible."

"Did you meet Michelangelo?" Mabel cried happily.

"What, of course not," Blendin said, giving up from struggling in Marcus's grasp. "in the 1940s, this place was a costume shop. "

"Wait a minute," Dipper said, putting together some pieces of a clue. "That means you're originally from the future Gravity falls if you can't teleport while you time travel."

"I guess," Blendin said. "In the future, city names and counties don't really matter. It's just mostly a few large locations."

"Hey Marcus, let me see that," Dipper asked as Marcus tossed the time travel device over into his hands.

"Hey, no, you can't use that. It's a very complex machine to use."

"Actually, no, it's not," Dipper examined the device, surprised. "All you have to do is roll out the tape, and it's just whether you want to go back in time or forward by minutes, years, or other lengths of time. It's miraculously easy."

"Sweet, I know exactly what we can do with this," Mabel said excitedly.

"Fix my mistake," Dipper said

"Get two dodos and make them make out," Mabel said simultaneously as her brother.

"Oh yeah," Mabel looks around awkwardly, "fix your mistake. That's a way better first test."

"This still feels very dangerous," Riley said. It was hard to tell, but Dipper realized they were being quiet because they were thinking over the process of time travel. "But I think you might have a minor point. Dipper ask the time traveler if there are any consequences involving meeting our past selves."

"Hey, time travel guy." Dipper looked up, interested and a little excited that Riley was more on board with the test. "Is there any danger of, you know, meeting ourselves when we time travel?"

"What? Stop asking me questions like you're gonna time travel. I'm not gonna let you…" before Blendin could continue speaking, he had been shaken somewhat violently by Marcus.

"That decision is out of your hands," Marcus said sternly as they turned back towards Dipper and Riley and then turned back to Blendin. "Just give them an answer, and no harm will come to you."

"Yes, yes, fine, there's no danger of meeting yourself. You automatically replace your past selves if you only go back a short amount of time. Don't ask me how it works," Blendin said, scared. "My bosses will kill me if I give up more information. I'm shocked I haven't destroyed my future yet."

"Well, that sounds ominous," Dipper said, but he returned to smiling when he turned to Riley and Mabel. "Hear that? That's a green light for trying out time travel and fixing my mistake."

"Note Dipper," Riley said, "this is simply for research, and frequent time travel should probably not be conducted."

"Cool, and after we're done, let's go kidnap some dinosaurs," Mabel said excitedly.

Rolling back the tape measure-like device, Mabel slowly touched Dipper's shoulder as Riley returned to the journal.

"You're not coming with?" Dipper said to Marcus, who was still holding Blendin.

"Go forward without me. I shall see you later. If that's how it works," Marcus said as the tape measure began sparking rapidly.

"Don't you mean to see us earlier?" Mabel said, poking herself on the cheek as Marcus only stared at her deep in thought.

"I guess," Marcus said. The last few things they would see before teleporting away would be Marcus standing there holding Blendin down, who is freaking out in the grasp with waddles who had backed off, confused at the noise.

 "no, stop, stop," Blendin said. "time traveling is very dangerous and spontaneous; you can cause a…"

Before they heard anything, a loud flash was heard. Both twins had the instinct to keep their eyes shut. But in a few seconds, they felt energy all over their body. When they opened their eyes, the whole world around them seemed to be a tunnel of blue fire-like energy, and they were rapidly descending through the tunnel. As they approached the end of a tunnel that appeared to exit out to a black void, a white flash would blind them again.

 In a rough landing on what they could obviously tell was grass, the Pines twins opened their eyes once again to see they were back earlier in the morning. Dipper was about to ask his sister what time they dropped in specifically until he saw Robbie walking away and saying thanks kid, back to  Mabel.

 As Robbie left hearing range, both twins looked at each other, surprised.

 "We did it, we actually did it," Dipper said, almost yelling, surprising a few people walking by.

 "yeah, actually went back to the past; oh my gosh, we are time travelers, Dipper," Mabel said excitedly. She would get even more excited when she saw who was sitting beside her. It was Waddles, who was staring at his new owner, confused.

 "oh, waddles, I don't know if your pig brain comprehends, but we are awesome," Mabel said, picking up the pig and twirling them around.

 Dipper would open up the journal quickly to reveal Riley, as they stared at the area, surprised, they would then look up to the sun to get a better confirmation that the time had, in fact changed.

 "Amazing, we've broken the time and space barrier and successfully placed ourselves in a previous event. This is unheard of until now," Riley said, amazed.

 "Yep, I guess you can say I have a lot to record," Dipper said, already pulling out his pen and writing down some notes. 

 "Indeed," Riley said, interested as they inspected over Dipper and Mabel's bodies.

 "what are you doing?" Dipper said as Mabel looked confused; she could tell he was talking to Riley but was unsure about what.

 "what are they doing? Mabel, less confused, still holding up Waddles.

 "they're just circling us," Dipper said, anxious as Riley turned back to them.

 "I was merely just inspecting to see if there was any external damages due to time travel."

 "Oh, thanks," Dipper said. "wait, was there any external damage."

 "uh, Dipper," Mabel said awkwardly as he turned his head. He couldn't see it, but he was starting to smell a burning smell coming from around him when suddenly when he pulled off his hat and looked on top of it, a small fire raged. He was honestly surprised his danger sense didn't pick up on it as he quickly started tapping his hat down. Once the fire was gone, Dipper would look at the slightly charred tag and put it back on his head.

 "Well, I guess that explains the bald head," Dipper said, annoyed, as Mabel looked around to look for any fires.

 "Hey guys." Wendy said, walking back to the twins. "whoa, what happened to your hat?" she was pointing towards the top of his head.

 "Oh, I…. you know, random summer fires," he said horribly, lying as he stared at her.

"…cool, now let's go win some prizes," Wendy cheered as she led the way for both Dipper and Mabel. Both twins would look at each other and give each other a thumbs up as they walked off with her.

The moment he'd been waiting for had arrived; throughout the whole time they had been hanging out with Wendy again, much to Wendy's surprise, the twins had been playing extra well at the carnival games. Unbeknownst to her, the twins were applying the skills they earned from their first tries to work with them here. By the time they came across the faithful game that ruined his day, they were already carrying a lot of stuffed animals and random carnival prizes. In Dipper's mind, he hoped this would satiate her need for anything more, but the moment she saw the weird creature as a prize for the game, she dropped almost all of her prizes and ran towards it.

 "what is that thing," Wendy said, confused at the small creature. "I don't know what it is, but I want it."

 A repeat of the first attempt would happen as Wendy would complain to the game runner. Both would be cut off from complaining when Dipper appeared beside them with money ready for his chance at the game.

 " alright, kid, $1.00 one try," he said, bored, as Dipper grabbed the baseball and stood back. Looking back at Wendy and Mabel, they both gave him a thumbs up as he reeled back and threw the ball. Dipper was much more confident this time as the ball perfectly sailed through the air and smashed through the bottles. Was it morally dubious that he used time travel to solve his personal issues? Yes, but in the end, everyone's happy and….

Before Dipper could finish that thought, the ball that had knocked over the bottles had punched through the back of the tent. A small noise sounded like a thunk, but all anyone knew was that just a few seconds after Wendy was celebrating the game being beaten, a baseball flew back down to the earth and hit her in the eye.

 Dipper wanted to be frightened as he was the first time, but now he was just confused. He didn't know how it happened, but the ball must have ricocheted and flown right back at Wendy's face.

 His thoughts would be once more interrupted when Robbie came out of seemingly nowhere and helped Wendy with her eye. Dipper looked back to his sister, confused; while Wendy was being carted off, they stared at each other, not knowing how to process the situation.

"How?" Dipper said angrily. "how did it happen again." Dipper was pacing in front of a log his sister was sitting on; they were in the same area where they had taken the captured Blendin.

 "Maybe it's like I don't know fate, but not like the same kind that wolf was talking about. Maybe it's like just destined to happen."

 "Why would the universe predestined me to hit Wendy in the eye?" Dipper said, frantic as he stared over at Riley, who had been thinking to themselves for about a minute while he ranted to his sister.

 "the universe works in mysterious ways," Riley said. "who knows what exists to do anything?"

 "Riley said the universe is mysterious or something," Dipper said angrily, parroting to his sister.

 "Weird," Mabel commented. "Maybe it's like me meeting up with waddles, just an event in life that's meant to happen," she said as she hugged her pig tightly.

 "I have an idea," Dipper jumped, finally breaking out of his funk. "what if we just go back and do it again?" he said, trying to pitch it to the two of them.

 "OK," Mabel said, shrugging. "as long as I get to do even better on those fair games," she said, cracking her knuckles.

 "I don't know. The time traveler was trying to imply something to us, maybe we should recapture him and hear him out." Riley said, getting up from the log.

 "yeah, and we found what was wrong with time travel," Dipper said, annoyed. "it catches people on fire. Look what it did to my hat." he said, pointing out the top of the hat, but they really didn't seem to care.

  "Well, fine, but before we even do anything, I have to inspect you for damages," Riley said, concerned for the both of them.

 "don't worry," Dipper said calmly as he turned to his sister. "Riley's condition is whenever we get out of the time portal thing, we need to make sure we get inspected by them so we're not like, I don't know, on fire."

 "OK, whatever, Mom," Mabel said sarcastically, looking toward the area she thought Riley was at while Dipper chuckled.

 "I'm not your mom," Riley said only a few seconds before the tape measure time device went off. Sending all of them back in the past. As he traveled through the tunnel again, Dipper could only think it had to be better this time, right?

  Six attempts later, it hadn't gotten any better.

  While Mabel and Riley sat at the same log, Dipper was pacing around frantically now. With every attempt, he had changed the style of pitch, his position, and even the distance of where he threw it. But it would all end up with the same result. Wendy being hit in the eye. When he first started off on this crazy journey to fix things, he blamed his powers, but now he was starting to believe Mabel that the idea of fate was telling him this had to happen.

 The whole subject of fate had been unnerving to Dipper ever since that wolf had said the words that changed this summer even more. Maybe he was in a desperate attempt to prove it wrong; even if he tried to tell Wendy not to participate in the game or have himself not participate, he would constantly be pressured by her. He thought he would have gotten over it. But every time he looked at her, he just got weak.

 "There's gotta be some factor I'm missing or can introduce. Oh, what am I doing wrong?" He was pacing even faster now.

 "what if it's just inevitable, bro, I know it sucks, but like, I'm kind of getting bored of trying," Mabel said, playing with waddles at her side.

 "No, I refuse to believe it," Dipper said firmly. "and I think I got an idea," he said, showing her a notepad. Mabel would read about 10% of it before she immediately got bored and craned her head to look at her brother directly.

 "um, Dipper, what is this?" she said, freaked out as Riley leaned over to look at the notepad.

 "Like I said, I think I just need a new factor, and what's the greatest way to make sure the ball doesn't hit Wendy? Make sure it stops. You're going to use your telekinesis to stop the ball after it's thrown." he was obviously desperate at this point; while her brother had always believed in the supernatural, he was a very logical. If something stumped him or eluded him for too long, she knew how crazy he'd be about it until he finally resolved the matter or learned to let it go.

 "OK," Mabel said, "but like, what if people see me."

 "not to worry, my sister." flipping the notepad, Dipper revealed an amateur drawing of where his sister would be standing when the event occurred. " if you position yourself right behind the tent as the ball flies out, You should be able to stop it, from ricocheting."

 "why can't she just catch the ball normally," Riley asked, scanning over the notes.

 "you see, Riley asked a good question; they asked, why can't you just catch the ball normally? Well, you see, I factored in that, and in my belief, there's a 0.01% chance  that the ball somehow ricochets out of your hands, and then somehow back into Wendy's face."

 "doesn't that mean there's like no chance of it happening at all?" Mabel said.

 "oh .01% Mabel is, in fact, a chance, one I'm not willing to take." As he said this, he closed the notebook, leaving Riley and Mabel to return back to their positions on the log. " so, who's ready? One more try."

 At this point, Mabel was really starting to feel bad for her brother. This was stressing him out, and she could tell whenever her brother got like this, it wasn't good for him.

 "all right," Mabel said reluctantly as the tape measure went off a few seconds later, and they were sent back to the past once more.

"Hey, I'm going to go check out something real quick." right before her brother threw the ball, Mabel said this oddly confusing Wendy.

 "Hey, what's up with your sister?" the redhead said as she saw the younger Pines twin preparing to throw the baseball, not caring at all.

 "Oh, nothing. You know how weird she is," Dipper said, almost ignoring Wendy as after a few seconds of waiting, he knew Mabel would be in the correct position to receive the pitch. With the familiar windup, he threw the ball higher and knocked over all the bottles. He flinched for a few seconds, wondering where the ball would strike Wendy from this time, but after a few seconds of waiting, nothing happened.

 "Congratulations," the game manager said unamused. "you have won your creature of unknown species."

 "Yes!" he cried out excitedly right before she reached for the stuffed animal, though a loud ringing noise would be heard over the fair as everyone seemed to hold their heads in pain for a second.

 Dipper could not tell what it was, but it almost sounded like a whistle that fell over the entire gravity falls area and disappeared a second later; for a moment, he was willing to tolerate the idea he probably just imagined it in his head. But looking around the entire fair, people were all looking confused. Some were returning to their day, but the loud noise was an obvious mystery.

 "What was that?" Wendy said, "The PA system?" when he heard her ask that, Dipper was almost praying nothing would go wrong now, but from what he observed, everything looked completely normal; his sister even came from behind the tent holding the baseball, looking around confused.

 "Oh, what was that?" Mabel groaned, holding her head still.

 "Something tells me I think I messed up somewhere," Dipper said, a little horrified at the idea of what time travel could bring. His questions would somewhat be answered when he saw Blendin again, this time looking even more nervous.

 "hey Wendy," Dipper said, a little sad he wouldn't get to bask in the victory of winning her the stuffed animal. "we're going to go check something out real quick. We'll catch up with you in a second."

 "no problem," Wendy said, inspecting the stuffed animal, amazed as Dipper dragged Mabel away, although Mabel was a bit more hesitant to leave.

 "Hey, where's Waddles?" Mable said, confused, as she hadn't seen her pig since she caught the baseball.

 "we'll catch him later," Dipper said frantically as he pulled out the cartoonish walkie-talkie.

A similar situation happened when Marcus was called by radio; he grabbed  Blendin stealthily and took him to the other side of the shack.

 The only difference now was that Riley Dipper and Mabel had some time travel experience, and Blendin was even more scared.

 "I don't know what you guys want from me," Blendin said frantically, "but I really need to go; I think there was there was an incident that I can't really explain, but it's really important, so could you please let me go…"

  "I'm here to determine whether you're a threat or not," Marcus said, twirling his axe.

 "you know, actually, Marcus, we have a few questions we need to ask because we've kind of done this already."

 "What," both Marcus and Blendin said, stunned as Dipper spoke and showed them The Time Machine.

 "what, how did you get that? Why would I let you get that?" Blendin said, horrified as Marcus only stared, confused, looking between the two of them.

 "I know this might seem bad," Mabel said, trying to excuse her brother, "but trust us, it was for something really important."

 "something so important it might have destabilized time and space."

 "OK, well, not that important," Mabel said, stepping slightly back.

 Riley would then turn to Marcus to explain to them as they were still confused. "by my guess, in another timeline, me and the twins, along with your help, detained that version of Blendin.  After we took his time travel device for research, the Pines went on an adventure to fix their mistake when the young book owner accidentally hit the corduroy girl in the eye. My guess is that changing the past probably affected the present in strange ways."

 "What kind of effects on the present," Marcus said, confused.

 "Who are you talking to?" Blendin said, confused, as Dipper snapped his fingers right before his face.

 "no focus on me, man," Dipper said, getting a little worried. "now all I did was go back in time and stop Wendy from getting hit in the eye with the baseball. That wasn't that important. Why is time and space destabilizing."

 "Well, it's not destabilizing; we would already be dead, but it's definitely an anomaly, and anomalies do bad things."

 "Like what?" Mabel said, now scared. She wouldn't get an answer as she started hearing clucking behind her. This seemed to disrupt the entire group's conversation as everyone stared at the chicken pecking at Mabel's foot.

 "Huh?" Mabel said, confused as she picked up the chicken.

It unexpectedly was compliant with the idea of being held as she held the chicken up to the group.

 "what's wrong?" Dipper said, "Is it like horrifying mutant chicken or something?" he thought, thinking of the worst scenario possible.

 "No, "Mabel replied as she held up the chicken, inspecting it slightly. "just a normal chicken. Why would it be here."

 "aren't you happy to have the chicken, though?" Marcus asked, confused as Mabel looked at him like he said something crazy.

"Why would you say that it's just a chicken."

 "didn't you say something about wanting a chicken or winning a free chicken?" Marcus said, not understanding why Mabel was changing her opinion on animals.

 "No!" Mabel said, surprised, "I said I wanted a pig, and I would win a pig from the... Oh my God, Dipper!" Mabel screamed as she realized what was happening.

 "Like that," Blendin said, concluding, "when an anomaly happens, or something that was meant to happen gets interrupted, it doesn't merely affect that decision; recent decisions throughout time are suddenly changed, or at least that's what the time baby says. "

 "so you're saying I don't have waddles," Mabel said, almost crying. 

 "Oh well, this is bad," Dipper said. "hey, time guy, is there any limit to how bad things can get because of an anomaly."

 "No, pretty much whatever, the worst thing you can think of could happen or the best thing. Time travel is quite inconsistent. It takes a professional just to master it."

  Mabel suddenly steadied her resolve, looking towards her brother and reaching out for the tape measure. "we gotta fix our mistake, Dipper."

He wanted to respond, but when he saw Wendy still hugging the stuffed animal, Dipper hesitated for a second. "do we really have to?" he said nervously.

 "of course," Blendin said. "if an anomaly is happening, then we're all gonna die, or you know nothing happens. It's the what-ifs that really get you in this job."

 "Dipper, please, we need to get Waddles back; he's a part of the family." Mabel cried out.

 "Mabel, he's only been with us for about a full day."

 "Yeah, we've been reliving the same day for like 6 hours. I think I'm owed this; besides, don't you think Wendy would forgive you."

 "yeah, I know she will forgive me," Dipper said sadly. "but how am I supposed to live with that I hurt her? You know how awful that feels." he clutched the time travel device.

 "Look Dipper, give me the tape measure," Mabel said, grabbing onto the time travel device as Blendin was freaking out on how roughly they handled it. At this point, both twins would start struggling for the time travel device as they try to force it out of each other's hands. Dipper thought he had the advantage in his strength, but then, all of a sudden, the glowing blue of Mabel's magic would engulf The Time Machine, too. he didn't think she knew she was doing it. Still, Mabel somehow figured out how to use the telekinesis of the tie without holding on to it directly. He probably would have been more impressed with his sister if he currently wasn't engaged in a tug-of-war with her.

"both of you, stop fighting," Riley said as Marcus didn't seem to care to interfere, just looking over the conflict of interest. Riley would then turn back to Marcus and point toward the twins.

"Can you please split them up?" Riley requested, a little heated at the fact Dipper wasn't listening to them. Marcus would only give them a swift nod as he walked forward toward the twins. Unfortunately for everyone, before they could reach them to split them up, Mabel's chicken noticed its new owner was upset and decided to try and attack Dipper.

 The attack wasn't strong, but it was sudden as the moment the chicken flew up and flapped its wings rapidly in his face, he tripped over and brought himself and his sister falling onto the floor. When he was already on the ground, he wanted to apologize, but his face shifted to horror as both he and his sister noticed that the tape measure had been unfurled quite long and was snapping already.

 Both twins can only say, "oh no," as not even a second later, a ball of light engulfed them again, and they disappeared, leaving a shocked Blendin and Marcus.

After a brief bit of screaming, the Pines twins would fall onto the ground once more to rise into a much wilder Gravity Falls. The portal had successfully taken Riley, Dipper, and Mabel with the chicken away as they stared into the now fairground-less wilderness that seemed to be more mountainous.

 "Mabel, when are we?" Dipper screamed.

 "don't you mean when are we?" Mabel said, raising an eyebrow, thinking she got him.

 "I literally just said that," he said unamused as he picked up the tape measure, inspecting it.

"how far did this thing send us back." he wouldn't get an answer from his sister as he heard her stepping backward as the chicken clucked louder in fear.

 "I would suggest you turn around," Riley said. When Dipper turned around, he was met with one of the largest creatures he's ever seen. It stood about the height of a bus, on four legs with brown scales, and covered in plate armor. Growing up, much like a lot of young boys, Dipper had a phase where he loved dinosaurs; this wasn't even exclusive to him. Mabel loved them too when they were met with the giant beast they knew they were in prehistoric times.

 "Mabel, that's a real ankylosaurus," Dipper said, amazed as the creature only fed a few feet away from them.

 "that's amazing," Mabel said as she held up the chicken to the dinosaur. "hey, look, it's your great lots of great grandfather."

 "Those two things are related?" Riley said, stunned.

 "kind of," Dipper said, returning to  the time device. "all I have to do is make sure this thing sends us to the right timeline and the summer, we'll finally have a nice positive to it."

 "Oh no, you don't," Mabel said as suddenly, the time-traveling device was snatched from his hands and placed in Mabel's via her telekinesis. "we're going back to the timeline where I won waddles."

"oh, come on, Mabel," Dipper complained, "you have a chicken now. Isn't that like the same thing."

 "Dipper, you spent an entire day, well, kind of a whole day, trying to change the past. You're usually the one to tell me not to do stupid things. Well, it looks like it's my turn to tell you not to do a stupid thing. Changing the past is dumb."

  Dipper lunged at his sister, "Give me the device." in their next bit of struggle, the Pines twins were now locked into the time travel device. As before, the chicken jumped up to Dipper, but its foot caught on the device this time, dictating it to time travel again.

 "Man, this thing needs a safety feature," Dipper said, annoyed, looking at the chicken pecking him on the head.

 "now you see why I don't want a chicken," Mable complained as, in another instant, they were teleported away.

 After another almost headache-inducing time trip, the Pines would land in deep snow on their faces while the chicken fluttered around, freaking out. Looking up, Mabel was confused at what she saw was clearly a lot of the Mystery Shack. But it looked far more different now. All the branding on it was not there yet, and it seemed to look like a normal cabin home in the woods with strange technology strapped on the roof. She would be knocked out of her Confusion when she saw her brother on the ground holding his head.

 "oh man, Dipper, are you alright?" Mabel said, concerned as she saw her brother seemed to have a massive headache.  

"just just get us out of here," Dipper said, struggling to get up. While Mabel was fidgeting with the tape to take them to another time, she would look surprised as she saw the lights to the cabin come on.

She wasn't sure if interacting with Stan in the past would have significant consequences, but it was a safe bet.

Speeding herself up, she grabbed ahold of her brother and the chicken, then teleported away.

As the Pines teleported away, the door to the cabin would finally open, revealing a young Stan looking over the area where he heard a commotion. He would shrug to himself as he turned back to his house guest, closing the door.

 “any of your friends?” he called out, and the door slammed shut.