Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I sat on the bus, looking out the window, watching the rain pour down on the window. The twins were in the back of the bus, doing God knows what. We were the only ones on the bus, apparently barely anyone goes to Gravity Falls during the summer. Or maybe it was just the bus. It did seem a bit dirty. When the bus hit a pothole, there was a thud in the back. I immediately looked back from my seat to where the twins sat. "You two alright?"

"We're fine!" They both yelled in union. Twins, I thought to myself. I returned back to my original sport on the seat, staring out at the window. The rain had stopped. I leaned my head back against the window, watching the trees pass by. The memories of my parents came flooding back. They were fighting about something, then Mom threatened a divorce. By then I had already gotten the twins out of the house, I felt they were too young to be hearing that, even if they were 12.

I started fidgeting with my fingers, which were in the pockets of my hoodie. It's been a habit to always keep my hands in my pockets; People always teased me for them. Called me a freak, monster, other hurtful things. Not that it bothered me anymore, having six fingers has its advantages. I played cello and violin, so sometimes I wouldn't need to shift, since I had that extra finger.

The rest of the bus ride was uneventful, the thudding from the twins in the back was nothing to be concerned about, although Dipper would probably want to get revenge on Mabel later. Eventually the bus came to a stop. The bus driver yelled out to us, his voice sounding a bit scrawny. "This is y'all's stop! So get off!" He sounded like he was agitated. I grabbed my mini suitcase and stood up, watching the twins rush off of the bus with their own luggage. "Guys, don't go too far!" I yelled out after them. When they didn't respond I sighed and got off the bus. Almost immediately after I stepped off of the bus it closed its doors and drove off.

It didn't take too long for me to spot the twins. They were over with this old looking man. He looked like a con man. I rushed over to them. "Who is this?" I eyed the man suspiciously.

"I'm your great uncle Stan!" The man said with a lot of enthusiasm. So this is the man who is supposed to take care of us for the summer. Fantastic. Mabel was all over him, overly excited about this all. Dipper was... Skeptical, which he had every right to be. My overly paranoid self immediately already believed him to be a kidnapper, but we didn't really have a choice. It's not like I couldn't hold my own in a fist fight. I realized he had been staring at my hands, and I stuff them into my pockets. Dipper quickly looked between me and Stan and grabbed my suitcase for me. He had always been understanding. After a quick introduction we all got into Stan's car, and the ride was mostly quiet and awkward until he decided to break the silence.

"So... Vivian, you got 6 fingers?" He asked, as though just to confirm it, and not that he was seeing things. Dipper and Mabel were both looking between us nervously, worried as to how I would take this. It's not like I would thrash out at anyone who dared to ask about my fingers, I just had a tendency to shut down at the question.

"...Yeah." I looked out the window, not really caring to say anything else. My hands were still hidden in my pockets.

"Yeah... so... how's school for you all?" He asked awkwardly, probably just trying to break the silence. I zoned out as the twins answered, Mabel obviously more enthusiastic than Dipper.

. . .

"So this is the Mystery Shack!" Stan said, raising his hands like a showman presenting something. "I run this place, it's sort of like a museum for all the weird things that you can definitely find out here! It also doubles as my home, so this is where you squirts will be staying!" As he showed us inside, I look around. I see a red haired girl at the counter, reading a magazine. She looks about my age.. She looked up and smiled when she saw us.

"Hey! So you guys are Stan's family?" Mabel was the first to respond. "Yeah, we're here for the summer!"

Before anybody could say anything more, this...rather large looking guy came walking in with a broom.

"Hey Mr. Pines! Who's this? Wait wait, don't tell me...." We all sat in silence as the man thought. "Oh! You guys are his family, right?" Stan nodded. "Yup!" He turned to us. "I took the liberty of telling them that you three are coming. This is Jesus, but we call him Soos, and that's Wendy. Soos, Wendy, these two rascals are Dipper and Mabel, and this one here is Vivian." He gestured over to the twins, then me.

Mabel, with her usual smile and positive outlook on everything, was practically jumping with glee. "We're gonna have so much fun here!" Me and Dipper exchanged a look of uncertainty. Stan led us up to the attic.

"And this will be your guys' room!" There were two beds on either side of the room, a couple of shelves and a big triangular window in the middle. The twins immediately claimed their beds. "And Vivian, I got a room for you downstairs." I followed him as he led me downstairs to a spare bedroom with a single bed and a window. "So... If ya need anything, I'll be in my office." He left without another word. I don't even know where his office is...

I start unpacking my things. I didn't bring much, just clothes, a couple books, and some music sheets. I brought the sheets because I thought I would be bringing my violin, but my parents wouldn't let me. I put my clothes in the dresser and left the rest in my suitcase, I figured I wouldn't really need to take them out, it would be a waste of time. I laid down on my new bed and stared at the ceiling. I'm going to spend a lot of time in here...

Chapter Text

I'm sweeping the floor of the gift shop. I'm not too aware of my surroundings. This is one of those moments where I would get absorbed in what I'm doing, my thoughts leading from one thing or another, though sometimes I become stuck on one thought. I always make a mental note to get that checked out.

Why is this place so dusty? Does Stan never clean? Does Stan ever clean up? Does Grunkle Stan ever sweep? Does he sweep? Does he- Ok, ok, move on, Viv... What is Mabel doing?

As I briefly look around I see Mabel peeking up behind a counter that has Stan bobble heads on the top of it, smiling about something. She mumbles under her breath, "He's looking at it, he's looking at it!" I look over to where she's looking and see a boy reading a card. I sigh. She's going through that faze... The boy reads the card out loud, "Do you like me? Yes, definitely, absolutely?" I look back over at Mabel as she says, "I rigged it."

Dipper speaks up from a different counter as he cleans a jar of fake eyeballs. "Mabel, I know you're going through your whole boy crazy faze but I think your kind of overdoing it with the crazy part." I nod, agreeing with Dipper as you speak up. "Yeah, at this point you're just scaring them away."

She looks over at us. "What??" She blows raspberries as she walks over. "C'mon, you two, this is our first summer away from home! It's my big chance to have an Epic Summer Romance!"

Dipper looks at her skeptically. "Yeah, but do you need to flirt with every guy you meet?"

She wags her finger at him. "Mock all you want, brother, but I got a good feeling about this summer." She crosses her arms smugly. "I wouldn't be surprised if the man of my dreams walks through that door right now." She says as she points back to the doorway behind her. At that moment Stan walked through the door with a bunch of arrow signs tucked under one arm, burping a bit. Dipper and I both laugh as Mabel groans.

Stan composes himself and starts speaking. "All right all right look alive, people. I need someone to go hammer up these signs in the spooky part of the forest." Me, Mabel, and Dipper all say "Not it" at the same time. Soos pipes in from the back, also saying "Not it."

We all look over at him as Stan speaks up. "Nobody asked you, Soos."

"I know, and I'm comfortable with that." He takes a bite of his chocolate as he goes back to drilling something into the wall. Stan looks over to Wendy, who has her feet propped up on the counter where the cash register is, reading a magazine. "Wendy, I need you to put up this sign."

Without looking up, she responds as she tries to lazily grab the signs from her position in her seat. "I would but I... Can't... Reach it.."

"I would fire all of you if I could." He turns back to us. "Alright, let's make it eeny meeny miny, you." He points at Dipper.

"What? Grunkle Stan, whenever I'm in those woods I feel like I'm being watched." Dipper shivers a bit as he talks.

Stan groans and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Oh, this again."

Dipper continues talking. "I'm telling you something weird is going on in this town. Just today my mosquito bite spelled out 'Beware'." He rolls up his sleeve and shows Stan his arm. Stan squints a bit as he reads. "That says 'Bewarb'." Dipper nervously rolls his sleeve back down.

"Look kid, the whole monsters in the forest thing is just a local legend drummed up by guys like me, to sell merch to guys like that." He points over to a guy staring at a Stan bobble head, laughing and sweating a bit. "So quit being so quit being so paranoid." He gives the signs to him, then turns to me. "And Viv, go with him. Just so he doesn't, like, taste something." Dipper shoots a glare at Stan before walking out, with me behind him.

. . .

The two of us are walking through the woods, putting up signs every now and then on the trees. I mumble under my breath, "Nobody even comes to this part of the forest..." I pull out a lollipop from my hoodie pocket and put it in my mouth. I see Dipper looking with a confused expression. "Lollipop?" I ask, trying to make the situation NOT awkward. He nods and I pull out another one and hand it to him; He unwraps it and puts it in his mouth.

"Where do you even get these?" I shrug.

He keeps putting up signs, muttering some stuff about Stan under his breath. I start to zone out again, staring at a rock, when I hear a clang. I look around and see Dipper with the hammer in his hand, staring at a tree he was trying to hammer the sign to confused. He hits the tree with the hammer lightly, and it makes the clanging sound, as though it's made of metal. He moves his hand across the trunk, then opens a hatch. Surprised, I walk up next to him, looking at what's inside.

It looks to be a transmitter or something of the sorts. He wiggles some of the switches a bit and I hear a sound behind me. "What the..." His voice trails off as we both turn around and walk up to the hatch. He picks up the object inside, which is a journal. He dusts off the cover, and see a big 3 on it, which is right over a big hand. Upon closer inspection, I realize the hands has six fingers. Six fingers... I stare at the journal with surprise, looking at it then my own hand multiple times.

Dipper opens the journal and looks through the pages. He reads aloud the first page. "It's hard to believe it's been 6 years since I began studying the strange and wonderous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon." He flips through the pages. Flying eyeballs, gnomes, and other weird things were on every other page. "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." We both exchange a worried look. Before either of us can say anything, Mabel pops up from behind a log behind us, causing Dipper to jump and fumble with the journal. I just flinched a bit.

"Hello! What are you reading, some nerd thing?" Dipper turns around and hides the journal behind his back, not really sure if he should tell her. "Uh... It's nothing." Mabel waves her hands and stutters, mocking him. "U-uh, it's n-nothing! Are you actually not going to show me?" Dipper thinks for a second. "Uh... Let's go somewhere private."

The three of us start heading back to the shack, I still have my lollipop in my mouth, though it's nothing more than the stick, Dipper had probably trashed his once he finished it. I look between him and Mabel, since they're walking on either side of me. I pull out another lollipop and hold it out to Mabel. "Lollipop?" Mabel gladly excepts when Dipper speaks, frustrated. "Seriously, where do those keep coming from??"

. . .

I'm sitting in the armchair, half listening to Dipper, half watching whatever's playing on the TV, Mabel is sitting on the armrest of the chair, facing Dipper, and Dipper is pacing with the journal in hand. "It's amazing! Grunkle Stan said I was being paranoid but according to this, Gravity Falls has a secret dark side!"

"Woah, shut up!" Mabel gives Dipper a little shove.

"And get this! After a certain point the pages just stop, like the guy who was writing it mysteriously disappeared." At that moment the doorbell rings. "Who's that?"

"Well time to spill the beans!" She tips over a conveniently placed empty can of beans. "This girl's gotta date." She woo's a little and falls backwards onto my lap, laughing. I leaned back into the chair, that being my natural reaction to it. Or something. It's just what I do to any contact. I also braced myself, I have a hard time reminding myself that nothing is going to happen now.

Dipper pinches the bridge of his nose. "So let me get this straight. In the half hour we were gone you already found a boyfriend?" Mabel pulls herself back upright, leaving me free to shift around and get back into a comfortable position. "What can I say? I guess I'm just, irresistible." She waves her sleeves around in front as she said irresistible. The doorbell rings again and she jumps down from the chair and runs to the door. I stand up and follow her, Dipper taking my spot on the chair.

Mabel opens the door to reveal a guy standing there. He's wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, he has pale skin and... Is that blood on his cheek? Not to mention the twigs and hole in his hoodie. I stare at him suspiciously, while Mabel jumps up with glee. "Hey, Norman! This is my big sis, Vivian! Vivian, this is Norman!" He grunts a response. Mabel, how low are your standards? She leads Norman back to the living room, but I head back up to my room.

I don't feel like dealing with whatever that's going to turn out to be. I walk into my room and close the door behind me, locking it. I take off my gloves and throw them to the desk I had managed to get into the room. I had found it at a dumpster, but it's in surprisingly good condition. I lay down on top of my bed, not really feeling the need to do anything else at the moment.

After a couple of minutes, I take out my phone and search up "Violin for rent" deciding to see if I could possibly get my hands on one for cheap. After searching for a bit, I found exactly what I'm looking for. One quick phone call later and all I need to do is drop off the money for this month and take the instrument. I get up off of my bed, grab my wallet, put on my gloves, and leave my room.

As I walk through the shack, I hear somebody yell out something. Sounds like.... Cronbie? Is that even a word? The voice sounds like Dippers, so I start looking for him, figuring I should tell someone where I'm going. I eventually find him up in the attic. Wait, I thought their room is in the attic... Where am I? I shake the thoughts as I walk up to Dipper. We stare at each other for a second before I speak. "Is it important enough that I need to know?"

He thinks for a minute before responding. "I think Norman is a zombie."

I stare at him for a moment before a start talking again. "Right... So, I'm gonna head to town for a bit, if you need anything, go to Grunkle Stan, ok?"

"Viv, this is serious! Mabel is in danger!"

"... Dipper, you've had that book for less than 12 hours, and you're already assuming things. It's like Soos said, get some proof, then you can tell people without seeming insane."

"Wait, how did you know-"

I turn around and start walking out. "If ya need me, go to Stan instead!" I put a lollipop in my mouth as I walk out of the room.

. . .

I'm walking through the town, looking at all of the buildings and shops as I go along. As I walk past Lazy Susan's Diner, I look through the windows, thinking of grabbing a bite to eat, and see a rather odd scene playing out. Lazy Susan herself chasing a possum out, two reporters interviewing who looks to be Wendy's dad, though one of the reporters are fake I'm pretty sure, and then this old man jumping between them, saying some random stuff.

Weird town...

I decide not to go in there and I keep walking, sucking on the last bit of my lollipop.

When I get to the music store I walk in and look around. I see a guy at the counter and walk up to him, he puts on a friendly face as he greets me. "Hello, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Um, yes, I called earlier asking if I can rent one of the violins?"

"Oh, yes, we have a few, what size do you play with?"

. . .

I walk back out with the violin in its case. I had checked to make sure it has all of its essentials, like the rozin, shoulder rest, and bow. One can never be too sure. Then I gave the guy the money and left. He was a bit of a chatter box, so it took much longer than it could have. As I get closer to the shack, I hear the twins yelling. The shack comes into view just in time for me to see them crawl out of a tipped over golf cart, Dipper looking a bit beat up, though Mabel looks to be ok.

Then I notice the big monster, which is as big as the shack, standing before them. What did I miss? Dipper says something, pointing to the monster, though I'm too far away to hear, and throws a shovel at it. It punches the shovel to the ground, shaking the earth. Upon closer inspection, the monster seems to be made out of... Gnomes? Ok, I'm losing it... The gnome on the very top says something, then Mabel steps forward. Dipper talks to her for a sec, then he takes a step back.

The big gnome monster does a quick jig, then the gnome on top climbs down to Mabel, seemingly happy about something. He pulls out a box and shows her something inside, I can't see what, then he puts it on her finger... Wait what???? I come to my senses and rush over there, but as I run over, she had pulled out a leaf-blower and blew away all of the gnomes.

I just stand there for a minute as they do their "awkward sibling hug" when I speak up. "What the heck just happened?"

. . .

After they quickly explained to me what happened, we all head inside. Stan's counting his money at the cash register when he looked over at the three of us. "Yeesh, you two get hit by a bus or something? Ha!" He hits the counter with his hand, laughing at his own joke. The twins keep walking, and I notice they have leaves in their hair. A start to follow them, wanting to go try out my new instrument, when Stan called out to us.

"Uh... Hey! W-wouldn't you know it, um, I accidently overstocked some inventory, so, uh, how about each of you take one item from the gift shop, on the house, you know."

The twins turn around, and the three of us look at Stan in surprise. Mabel responds happily, "Really?" while Dipper crosses his arms, not trusting him. "What's the catch?"

"The catch is do it before I change my mind." He says as he puts the cash all in one pile.

Mabel runs over to a box full of random stuff while Dipper starts looking at the hats. At that moment I notice that he had lost his other hat. He picks out one that's blue and white and has a pine tree on it. I'm about to walk away when a shiny gold object catches my eye. It's a necklace with a pendent on it, an eye. I walk over to it and read the tag. "Third eye..." I read aloud. I toy with it in my 6 fingered hand before taking it off the rack. I take the tag off and put the necklace on me. I throw away the lollipop stick and lean against the counter that has the cash register, where Stan still is.

"Hey, where'd you get that?" He sees my violin, which I'm still holding. I look down at it, I forgot about that.

"That's why I left; I went to pick this up."

"You left?" We both broke out laughing, but then he stopped. "No, seriously." Before I respond, Mabel starts talking, though more to herself if anything.

"And I will have..." She takes out an item and holds it up, Legend of Zelda style. "Grappling hook!"

We all stare at her, then Stan speaks up. "Wouldn't you rather have like, a doll or something?"

She shoots the weapon up at a beam on the ceiling, it wraps around the beam and lifts her up. "Grappling hook!"

We all stand there for a minute. "Not it!" I rush out the room, leaving Stan to be the one to get her down.

. . .

I'm lying in my bed, under the covers this time, trying to sleep. I lost the urge to play on my new violin when I brought it up here. I instead read for a bit, had dinner, then came back up and did whatever on my phone before I decided to sleep. I hear the sound of glass breaking in the attic, and I wait and listen for a couple of minutes. I decide it's fine, since if it was serious they would have come down by now.

I toy with my new necklace, which I decided to keep on. I've never been one for jewelry, but for some reason I like this necklace. It suits me. It represents me so fittingly, it's crazy. I should make that my profile picture... That's my last thought before I fall asleep.

Chapter Text

I'm sitting at the table with the twins, looking out the window, my forgotten plate of pancakes in front of me. I hear them playing with the syrup bottles.

"Are you ready for the ultimate challenge?" Mabel asks, holding up a syrup bottle that says "Sir Syrup" on it.

"I'm always ready." Dipper replies, holding up a different bottle that says, "Mountie Man".

"Then you know what this means~"

"Syrup race!" They both say at the same time. They open the bottles and hold them upside down above their mouths, trying to get the syrup to come out. I sigh. You'd think they grew out of this already...

"Go! Go! Go!" Mabel hits the bottom of the bottle to get the drop to come out faster. When it hits her tongue, she holds her arms up in triumph, then starts coughing a bit. "I won!"

"Do you guys have to do that here?" I ask, annoyed. Mabel shrugs, and Dipper looks at the newspaper that's at the table... For some reason.

"Oh, no way! Guys, check this out!" Dipper holds out the paper enough for Mabel and me to read.

"Human sized hamster ball?" Mabel reads aloud. "I'm human sized!"

"Nono, Mabel, this." He points to the other page, which shows of a picture of a monster and the guy who took it. It reads, Monster photo contest. "We see weirder stuff than that every day! We didn't get any photos of those gnomes, did we?"

"Nope! Just memories! And this beard hair!" She holds up a piece of white hair.

"Why did you save that?" Dipper asks as he leans back away from it, as I say, "Ew, Mabel." She shrugs and makes the "I don't know" sound as she puts the hair away.

Stan walks up to us, still in his underwear. "Good morning, knuckleheads. You three know what day it is?"

Dipper says, "Happy anniversary?" while Mabel exclaims, "Mazel Tov!" I just sat there, not really trying to answer the question. Stan hits Dipper in the head with the newspaper he has in hand, messing up his new hat. "It's Family Fun Day, Genius!" He puts the paper down and goes into the fridge, grabbing the carton of milk. "We're cutting off work and having one of those... y'know, bonding type deals." He sniffs the milk, checking to see if it's expired yet.

Dipper fixes his hat. "Grunkle Stan, is this going to be anything like our last family bonding day?"

I think back to what happened. Stan had Mabel and Dipper try to paint realistic looking money, while I was to stand outside as a lookout. I was supposed to warn them if the police came, but in truth the second I heard their sirens I booked it. I ended up having to put on a lot of makeup to make me look older and pay the fine to get them out of the county jail.

Mabel shivers. "The county jail was so cold..."

"Alright, maybe I haven't been the best summer caretaker, but I swear, today we're going to have some real family fun." He puts his arms around the three of us. "Now who wants to put on some blindfolds and get into my car?"

The twins yell "Yay!" As they put their hands into the air, before the words settle in for Dipper and he asks "Wait, what?"

. . .

We're all in Stan's car, the twins and me having blindfolds on. Dipper is in the middle, Mabel on the right and I'm in the passenger seat. I'm holding on to the side door as the car swerves a bit. I hear Dipper start to talk. "Blindfolds never lead to anything good."

"Wow, I feel like all my other senses are heightened. I can see with my fingers." She must have been touching Dipper, because he laughs. Just then there's a big bump and we fly off of our seats a bit.

"Grunkle Stan, are you wearing a blindfold?" I could hear the nervousness in his voice. In all honesty I was starting to wonder the same thing.

"Ha! No, but with these cataracts I might as well be. What is that, a woodpecker?" I could hear the car crash through something. The twins yell out in surprise. I take off my blindfold and see we're no longer on the road.

"What the heck??" I look at Stan, who's trying not to crash into trees. "I got it I got it!" Dipper speaks up from the back. "What's going on?"

"It's fine, Dipper... Keep your blindfold on." I say, trying to keep him from panicking.

. . .

After some time, Stan had somehow managed to get us to a lake. We all get out of the car. I no longer have my blindfold on, though the twins still do. I watch Stan as he gets out a bunch of fishing gear. I groan. After a couple minutes he got everything set up. "Ok, ok, open them up!" The twins take off the blind folds and look around. He puts one foot on the mini cooler he had brought. "Tada! It's fishing season!"

The twins look confused. Mabel looks around. "Fishing?" while Dipper looks at him suspiciously. "What are you playing at old man?"

"Oh, you're going to love it! The whole town's out here!" He turns towards the lake, looking out at the people on it. Lazy Susan with a pan in her hand, as if she's trying to get the fish in there, Toby taking a picture of a guy who had caught a big fish, Dan, showing who looks to be his sons how to catch a fish. "That's some quality family bonding!"

"Grunkle Stan, why do you want to bond with us all of the sudden?" Dipper asks, crossing his arms.

"Oh come on, this'll be great! I've never had real fishing buddies before, and the guys from the lodge won't go with me. They don't 'like or trust me'." He makes air quotes as he says like or trust me.

Mabel looks over at Dipper. "I think he actually wants to fish with us."

Stan grabs something and hides them behind his back. "I know what'll cheer you three sacs up. Pow!" He places two hats on the twins' heads. "And one for you too." He pulls out another and puts it on my head. We take off the hats and look at them. It appears he had sewn cutouts of letters that spell out our names. "Pines' family fishing hats! That-That's hand stitching y'know. It's just going to be you, me, and hose goofy hats on a boat for 10 hours."

We all look at each other, worried. Dipper is the first to speak up. "10 hours?"

Stan takes out a book. "I brought the joke book!"

Mabel half whispers to her brother. "There has to be a way out of this."

At that moment, an old guy randomly yells out. "I seen it! I seen it again!" It's the same old man that I saw at Susan's. He runs through everything, breaking a bunch of stuff in the process. "The Gravity Falls Gobblewonker! Come quick before it scadoodles!" He does a little dance. Weird guy...

Mabel walks up. "Aw, he's doing a happy jig!" The guy grabs her shoulders for a moment. "No, it's a jig of GRAVE DANGER!!" Another guy walks out of a nearby shed with a spray bottle. "Hey, hey! Now what did I tell you about scaring away my customers? This is your last warning, Dad." He sprays the old man with the bottle, attempting to get him to stop. The old man tries to reason. "But I got proof this time!"

He takes us all to the docks, And points at a wrecked up boat. "Behold! It's the Gobbleywonker that done did it! It had a long neck like a giraffe, and wrinkly skin, like, like this gentleman right here!" He points to Stan. "It broke my boat to smitheroons and shim shammed over to Skuttlebutt island!" He pointed over to a foggy looking island in the distance. "Ya gotta believe me!" He tugged on his son's arm.

"Attention all units, we got ourselves a crazy old man." Sherrif Blubs said, which got everyone laughing. "Oh, donkey spittle your banjo..." He walks away, defeated.

"Well that happened. Now let's untie this boat and get on that lake." He climbs in the rickety old boat he has and starts to untie the rope. I watch as the twins exchange some words, Dipper pulling out the magazine from morning and showing it to Mabel. Mabel goes into some fantasy and agrees. Dipper walks up to Stan. "Grunkle Stan, change of plans, we're talked NG that boat to Scuttlebutt Island and we are going to find that Gobblewonker." He goes back to Mabel, and they start chanting, "Monster hunt! Monster hunt! Monster hunt!"

Soos comes in with his own boat, which is much much bigger, and more appealing, I admit. "You dudes say something about a monster hunt? What's up, hambone?" He and Mabel fist bumped, then mimicked an explosion with their hand afterwards. "Dude, you could totally use my boat for your hunt. It's got a steering wheel, chairs, normal boat stuff." He pats the boat a bit as he talks.

Stan gets up from his spot in the boat and tries to get us to stay with him. "Alright, alright, let's think this through. You kids could go waste your time on some 'epic monster finding adventure', or you could spend the day learning how to give knots and skewer worms with you great uncle!" The twins look between Soos and Stan a couple times before hopping onto the boat.

"Hey Viv, you coming with us?" Mabel calls out to me. I pretend to think. "Let's see, hours on end spending time with my most favorite people in the world, and Soos? Nope. Be careful, k?"

"Mabel shrugs as the boat drives off, or however it moved in the water. Stan looks over at me. "So I guess it's just you and me!" I look over at him, then at the shore. "Nope, sorry. I got a little side job now, and I gotta start heading over. I'll be back by 5 or something."

"How long have you had a job??"

"Eh, 10 hours. Anyway, I gotta go. Catch a fish for me!" I walk off leaving him alone. I admit, I do feel bad for just leaving him there, I thought the twins would have a bit more heart, but oh well.

. . .

I walk into the music store once again. When I was looking for a job, I saw that this place was hiring. They were looking for someone who has experience with instruments and stuff like that. I guess the last guy quit. I see the store manager. He turns and sees me. "Hello, can I help you with anything?"

"Um... I've been hired to work here?"

"Oh! Yes, yes, you're the new hire. Right, so all you'll need to do is stand at the cash register, charge people for the stuff that they buy, answer any questions they got, then at 4 your shift ends! You know how to work a cash register, right?" He talks really fast, like he's in a rush... Or high off of caffeine.

"Yeah, I know how to work one, I've done this before." Stan had me work at the resistor a couple times when Wendy was wherever.

"Okay, great. Uh, here's your name tag, just right your first name on it and stick it to your chest," I notice his eyes lingers on my chest for a second before he looked back at my face, "And you're all set for the next couple of hours! You get paycheck every Friday, by the way. Anyway, I need to be somewhere, so... Yeah!" He exits the store swiftly.

Great, my 2nd week here and I think I already found a perv...

I sigh and walk beyond the counter and grab a marker. I write my name on the name tag he gave me, and I put it on my chest. I get into a comfortable standing position and mentally prepare myself for the probably boring hours ahead.

. . .

My shift had ended a whole ago now. I'll sitting at the docs, looking at the lake for Stan. It's already sundown, so I'm a bit late. My blind ass can't see if Stan is even still on the lake. Eventually I see him, and the twins are there too... And Soos... Who is shirtless. I agree my arms, trying to get their attention, but I still when they're about to take a picture. At that moment I felt a sense of loneliness. I watch them laugh and joke.

They've forgotten about you... That horrible voice speaks through my mind. I turn around and walk back to the shack.

. . .

I quickly eat dinner, which is just a sandwich, and I had up to my room, locking the door behind me. They haven't yet come back from the lake, though they probably are.

You're being selfish. It's not the first time I told myself that ever since I thought that they forgot about me. I left them, not the other way around. I don't want to fight this battle again, so I take out my violin and bow, and I start paying a piece I know from memory.

. . .

I'm lying in my bed, it's late. Stan and the twins have long come back, and thankfully nobody's bothered me. I've been laying here for a while now, unable to fall asleep easily. Eventually my eyes start to droop a little and I drift off into sleep...

The next time I regain consciousness, I see that I must still be dreaming, because I see a dapper Dorito hovering not too far away from me.

Chapter Text

I stare at the floating Dorito being. It just stares at me.

...Are we having a staring contest?

The creature laughs. "Ha! That wasn't what I was doing, but whatever works!"

?????????????

"Huh, that's the first time I've seen one of you meatsuits think without using words or pictures! I knew I had a good feeling about you!"

"What... Who are you?"

"The name's Bill! Bill Cipher!" He holds out his hand to shake. I reluctantly shake his hand, receiving a strong electrical shock as I do so. I yelp and let go of his hand, taking a few steps back. "Haha! You humans are so easy to scare! That wasn't even that bad!"

After I get over the shock, literally and figuratively, I look back up at him. "... I'm guessing this isn't a normal dream... Right?"

"You catch on quick! Just like your uncle!"

"Wha-?"

"Anyway, I've been watching you for a while now, Third Eye, and I think we can help each other out! You see, I can give you anything you could possibly want. Money, power, knowledge, even your own universe! All you gotta do is help me with a little something and whatever you want is yours!" Bill snaps his fingers, and a couch appears under him. He floats down and sits on it, crossing his legs.

"What's the catch?" I eye him skeptically. It's not good that I'm actually considering it, but as of now it doesn't seem too bad.

"Nothing much, just a little favor I need you to do! You see, there's a portal right under the shack, and I need you to turn it on, and you can get anything your simple heart desires!"

"... Ok... Say if I agree to do this, I don't know where this alleged portal is."

"Oh, don't worry about that! I know where it is! It's behind the vending machine. Your uncle had put it there to hide it. Here's the code." He waves his hand, and a vending machine appeared next to him, the buttons on it lighting up in a certain order. "Ya got that, Third Eye?"

"...um.... Yeah." I stare at the vending machine, then Bill. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to go through with this just yet. He gets off of the couch and floats up in front of me.

"So, it's a deal?" He holds out his hand, which is... On fire... Yeah, that's normal. I stare at his hand. Crap crap crap crap crap... I decide to just do it, and I shake his hand. "Fantastic!" He lets go of my hand and floats a bit higher, some sort of wheel with symbols on it appearing behind him. "Remember, reality is an illusion, the universes is a hologram buy gold byyyyyeeeee!"

The next thing I know, I'm awake in my bed. What the hell just happened? I sit up and look around. It's the middle of the night, as my clock says 1 A.M. I take a few deep breaths, then decide to see if Bill was actually a real thing or just a random creature my mind made up. I stan up, put my gloves on and get out of bed. I smooth out my hair a bit before walking out to the first floor of the shack.

I make my way to the vending machine, being careful not to make any noise. Once I get there, I look at it. It doesn't seem out of the ordinary. I take a deep breath, then I enter in the code. I hear a soft click, and one side of the machine comes out a bit. I grab that side the best I can and pull. It opens to reveal stairs going down. I step in and close the machine behind me.

It's cold down here... I think to myself once I get to the room the stairs lead to. It looks almost like a lab. There's some sort of machine with a lot of buttons in front of what looks to be a window, some cabinets and a couch. No portal. I walk up to the machine, examining all of the buttons. I look up at the glass, and squint at it. I see this big structure on the other side. It's almost like... A portal!

At that moment I hear the secret door open, and I look over, panicking. Before I have time to react, Stan gets to the bottom of the stairs and freezes once he sees me. "What are you doing down here??"

"Um... I.... The door was open, so I came down here to see... What's here..." I say nervously, trying to sound convincing. He seems to buy it though, as he walks up next to me, looking at the portal.

"Well, I guess there's no use in hiding it... You see that? It's a portal. A portal to another dimension." I guess he sees the confusion on my face and pulls out a book. "I've been using this to build it, but there's more of them, and I need the other ones to complete the portal." I look at the book. It looks just like the one Dipper has, but with a 1 on it instead of a 3. 'Oh crap.' "You're free to look in the book." He becomes busy with something else, though I'm not sure what he's doing because I open the book and flipping through the pages. It's pretty much the same as the 3rd journal, just different creatures. A loose paper is in between one of the pages, so I take it out and read it.

"To anyone who is reading this, everything I've written about the dream demon Bill is false. Bill is a trickster, and untrustworthy. He had tricked me into making a portal that leads to his dimension, The Nightmare Realm. If I had not came to my senses in time, I would have activated it, and he would have gotten to our world. The world as we know it would come to an end. Whatever you do, do not summon, or trust him."

I put the page back in the journal and slam it shut. Ignoring Stan's "What's wrong?" I walk back upstairs, not saying a word. I close the vending machine behind me and head back up to my room. I am so stupid. I knew there was something off. I walk into my room and close the door behind me. I toss my gloves onto my desk and collapse onto my bed, upset. Despite my mood, I fall asleep easily.

I open my eyes back to the whiteness of the dream and see Bill. "Why are you back so-"

"I will not open that portal! The deal's off!" Once I say those words, I feel as though a heavy weight has been lifted off of my shoulders, and I relax a little, assuming that the magic or whatever is no longer bounding me to the deal. Bill starts panicking a little though, he floats a bit closer to me and starts trying to convince me to keep the deal.

"Wait, let's talk about this! Why would you call it off?? There's nothing to worry about! I don't understand why-"

"Save the crap! There's nothing you can say to get me to open that portal! I know where it leads!"

"But what about learning about your ability?? Don't you want to know how you're able to see-"

"No, I don't! I mean, yes, obviously, but it's not worth it! I don't want to see you anymore! Stay out of my head!" In a moment of rage, Bill's sclera turned black as his body enlarges, his skin or whatever turning red.

"YOU'RE GOING TO REGRET THIS!! I WILL KILL YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE FA-"

I manage to wake up. Luckily, I had learned what to do in a lucid dream if you wish to wake up, and I did just that before Bill could do anything. I realize I'm breathing heavily a bit, and I try to slow my breathing. I look out the window that's right next to my bed. Full moon tonight. Why's Stan fixing the portal anyway?

Chapter Text

I stifle a yawn. I haven't been getting a lot of sleep, not with Bill trying to invade my mind. I fell asleep once or twice, and he was there. I stifle another yawn as I try to watch Duck-Tective. The twins are sitting in front of me on the ground, Mabel is knitting, while Dipper is eating a big bowl of popcorn. He slaps her hand away when she tries to grab some. I don't really like the twins watching this show, it has a lot of adult jokes, but oh well.

I lean back in the armchair as the show ends. The twins start talking but I can't hear them, I'm dozing off again. I hear someone say buried treasure. The next time I open my eyes, I'm alone in the living room. I sigh and lean back in the armchair. It's not long before Stan comes in the room.

"Woah, kiddo, you don't look so good."

"Shut it." I'm not in the mood for any of what he has to say. So, I've probably got bags under my eyes and my eyes might be the smallest bit bloodshot, I don't care. Whatever it takes to not see Bill.

"Where are the-?"

"Something about buried treasure..." I close my eyes again, dismissing him.

I hear him say "Hmm..." before his footsteps fade away. A couple minutes later, I hear a scream, then another. I groan and yell through the shack. "Keep it down!" I don't care if it's a 30ft monster with tentacles, the least I could get is silence. It's not too long before I doze off again.

The next time I wake up, the moon is high in the sky. I know this because of the window next to my bed...... I'm in my bed... I don't remember falling asleep in here. Stan probably moved me. I get up and head downstairs, but once I do I see something really weird. Sherlock Holmes taking Stan's head somewhere. What? Holmes looks at me and freezes. We stare at each other for a bit before I realize that him and the Stan head are both made of wax.

I shake my head and go back to my room. I don't want to deal with that. It's not my problem as of now. I lay down on my bed. Maybe Bill is leaving me alone now. He hasn't invaded my dreams for the last two times. Happy with my thinking, I close my eyes and quickly fall asleep. Of course, I was wrong.

I dream of my worst nightmares, which cycle between losing the twins, being in outer space, stuck in the ocean, and becoming a lab rat. That one scares me the most because it is the most likely. This is all of Bill's doing and I know it. And it sucks, because I don't know what to do about it.

I wake up in a cold sweat. It's morning now, so I quickly get out of bed and head downstairs as I put my gloves on. I look over to the living room and see that it's blocked off by fake police tape, and the twins looking at a wax replica of Stan, or at least of his body. I duck under the tape, and they look up at me.

"Mind telling me what's going on?" I must still have bags under my eyes because they stare for a second before responding.

"We're solving a crime!" Mabel says happily, taking pictures of the wax body from different angles. Dipper turns to what looks to be his suspect board, tapping his chin in thought.

"There were a lot of unhappy customers at the unveiling. The murderer could have been anyone." He turns to us. Mabel gasps. "Even us!"

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Guys, it's a wax figure. Nobody killed anyone! It's just wax! The face could have just melted off!"

Mabel gasps again, seemingly offended. "He's not just a wax figure! He's a work of art, modeled after our Grunkle!" She looks down at the headless figure, then at the floor next to it. "Hey, look! A clue!" She points to footprints on the carpet right next to the figure. Dipper kneels down next to the footprints.

"That's weird, they've got a hole in them, and they're leading to..." They look behind the couch and freeze. I tilt my head a bit and see an axe.

"Guys if you want to play detective, be careful at least, okay?"

Mabel looks over at me, giving her best puppy dog eyes. "Vivs, can't you just please come with us for this adventure?"

I'm about to reject her when I see Dipper looking at me hopefully too. Well, I guess it could distract me from sleep. "Fine." Mabel jumps up with glee, while Dipper picks up the axe.

"We should get this to Soos, see what he thinks about this."

. . .

"In my opinion... This is an axe." Soos holds the axe in his hands, inspecting it closely. I mentally facepalm myself at his words.

"Wait a minute... The lumberjack!" Mabel and Dipper turn to each other as they both say "Of course!" at the same time.

"He was furious when he didn't get that free pizza." Dipper explains. Mabel finishes the sentence, her raising her fist and shaking it to be dramatic. "Furious enough for murder!"

"Oh, you mean Manly Dan. Yeah, he hangs out at this crazy intense biker joint downtown."

"Then that's where we're going." Mabel says, her arms crossed. Soos talks again, breaking the semi-intense moment.

"Dude, this is awesome. You three are like the Mystery Kids!"

Dipper looks over at him, annoyed. "Don't ever call us that." Soos shrugs as the twins run, or more like march quickly, out to the porch. I run up and stand in front of them, blocking their path. "Woah, woah, guys, I don't think it's a good idea to head into what sounds to be a bar. Especially if it's anything like Soos said."

Mabel looks up at me, pleading. "But Vivian, we gotta solve this mystery! For Grunkle Stan!"

"No, no we don't! We could get seriously hurt if we go in there!"

The twins exchange another glance before Mabel looks back at me and says, "Well, I guess we'll have to see what Grunkle Stan says." I look at them surprised as they run past me to Stan, who's hauling out this coffin. "W-wait, guys! Y-you guys can't just-!" I run after them as they speak to Stan. Mabel takes out the axe which was in Dipper's side pocket of his bag. "We have an axe!" She gives it the tiniest swings, for a reason I can't think of.

I look at Stan, giving him multiple signals that says to not let them. But naturally, he doesn't see them until he lets them go. "Avenge me, kids! Avenge me!" He puts one foot on the coffin as he raises his fist to the sky. He then sees me shooting the most menacing glare and he rushes the twins out. "Ooh, best to get outta here before your sister blackmails me to change my mind." The twins run off quickly as I stomp up to him.

"What were you thinking, letting them go like that?? They could get hurt! Do you even know where they're going??" He's about to answer when I continue on my rant. "They're going to a bar! It's not safe, they could get hurt, or worse! They're your responsibility, so if they get hurt the blame's on you!" There's a moment of silence before he speaks.

"Ya done yet?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

. . .

"Grunkle Staaaaaaaaaaan!" I yell through the shack. I had decided to just let the twins go, figuring they would be fine. I mean, what's a couple of tough guys to an army of gnomes? I walk through the shack until I find him sitting on his armchair in the living room.

"Oh, hey, kiddo, what's up?"

"I can't find my gloves anywhere, have you seen them?"

"Oh yeah, they're right here." He picks them up off of the end table and holds them out to me. I reach out for them, muttering a "thank you" as I try grab them without making contact with his skin. Unfortunately, the worst possible scenario happened; My fingers brushed against his, and as my eyes started to roll back, my only thought was OH NONONOHDFKUVGDKFUVGDKUFBVDKUFGHSKUDHFKSUEHFKSRJHG,SRHGBMSRJGHKU

...

PEARLY WHITE WALLS

EXPENSIVE OUTFITS

EXTRAVAGENT FEASTS

HUGE WEDDING

MONEY

KIDS

...

I come to my senses, my heart beating rapidly, that being the first thing I notice. The second thing I notice, as I blink to adjust to the lighting, Stan's face over me, concerned. He's saying something, but I can't hear over the ringing noise, and leftover sounds from the vision. I'm shaking a bit, my eyes unable to completely focus on him. He feels my forehead, probably to check temperature, and my eyes roll back again, another vision coming.

...

KIDS

LAUGHTER

HAPPINESS

BOMBS

FIRE

HOT

SCREAMING

...

I wake up again, feeling worse than before, everything even brighter than last time, the ringing louder. My bed? I stare up at the ceiling. It's patterns are familiar. My bed. I see a familiar figure stand over me. Looks like Stan. He's waving his hand in front of my face, trying to get a reaction. I can't move. Even though this happens whenever I get a vision, the shock of not being able to move while conscious never dies away.

I can tell he stayed by my side for most of the time, except for when I assume to be the end of the day, due to the lighting in my room, he left for something. It takes me a while to realize there's an ice pack on my forehead. It also takes me a while to notice how slow my heartbeat is. Too slow. I try to move, or call for someone, but I can't. All I can do is lie here and wait.

It's morning when I feel thumping on the floor. Quick thumping, like running. It gets heavier, as if coming towards me. I can't tell much of what's going on, since my hearing is still out, before I feel a hand over my heart. A tiny hand. The twins are here! They are the only ones here who know what to do. A couple of hours later, I regain use of all of me, and I take an extremely deep breath before sitting up. I look next to me and see the twins and Stan all right there, looking at me worried. "Hey guys..." I smile weakly.

Chapter Text

"Hey guys..." I smile weakly. Mabel lunges at me, wrapping her arms around my waist as she hugs me tight. I raise my arms, my hands don't have the gloves on them, so I would rather not risk it. I look over to Dipper, who looks like he's on the verge of running around in panicked circles. "Dip, could you get me my gloves?"

"O-oh, yeah, right. Um..." He looks around the room and spots them on the desk. He grabs them and tosses them to me. I put them on and return to hug, half heartedly, not really feeling the energy of the hug.

Stan clears his throat, and I see him looking genuinely worried for the first time. "So, would anyone mind telling me what the heck is going on??" Mabel releases me from her hug, and both she and Dipper looked over at me. I look down and think for a minute. I guess there's no use hiding it anymore. I give a tiny nod, still not looking up.

Dipper turns to Stan, nervous. He takes a deep breath and starts trying to explain. "So.. um.... y-you see.... she-"

"VIVIANHASMAGICPOWERSTOSEEOTHERPEOPLE'SPASTLIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Mabel yells at the top of her lungs in excitement. Seems like she's been dying to say this, though Stan just gives her a blank stare. She doesn't notice this, and instead shoots a happy, accomplished smile at him. Dipper sighs.

"What she's trying to say, is that Vivian can see people's past lives." I fiddle with my fingers, feeling awkward. I sneak a glance at Stan, he's looking at me in disbelief.

"That's impossible!" He turns to me. "Listen, I'm calling the hospital. I should have done this yesterday, but I got distracted, so-" Mabel and Dipper both cut him off.

"Grunkle Stan you can't tell anyone about this!" Mabel hugs my waist again, making puppy dog eyes to Stan.

"Yeah, our parents already decided that it's best for all of us if the government doesn't get their hands on her!"

"You guys are being ridiculous! It was probably just a seizure or a heart attack, the government isn't going to lock her away for that! I'm calling the hospital!" He walks out the room.

"Wait, Grunkle Stan!" Dipper runs out after Stan, leaving me with Mabel. She looks up at me, concerned still.

"You ok?" I look down and smile a bit. I ruffle her hair a bit, earning a laugh from her.

"I'm fine now, you little worrywart." She tries to get away, but I grab her by the waist and pull her onto my lap. She squeals as I begin to tickle her stomach, her legs kicking frantically in an attempt to get away.

After several minutes of intense tickling, I stop, giving her a break. After we calm down from laughing, Dipper walks in, his face looking a bit defeated. Mabel and I both look over, Mabel being the first to speak.

"Hey! Why the long face?"

"Stan still says he's going to call the hospital..."

"Oh..." Mabel's face fell, now looking a bit more like Dipper. They both look at me, worried. "What are we going to do?" I think for a moment.

"I'll go talk to him." I nudge Mabel out of the way as I stand up, my legs wobbling a bit. Once I get myself steady, I walk out of the room.

I see Stan in the living room, about to pick up the phone.

"Stan." He stops and looks over to see my tired face. "If people find out, there's a big chance that the government would want to get their hands on me. I know that my... ability is not normal, and even unnatural. But my parents both agree it would be best if this were to be kept a secret." There's a silence as Stan thinks. After a minute, he sighs.

"Fine, I won't call or tell anybody about it. But if it comes to a thing where your heart stops, your parents can't stop me from getting you to the hospital."

"Relax, that's what the twins are for. They know what to do." He shakes his head, muttering something as he walks out the room. Whatever, at least he's not telling anybody.

Chapter Text

I'm sitting at my desk, my violin out and in my lap as I try to tune it. Stupid temperature always messing with the instrument. I start to zone out, my thoughts wondering to the events that happened a couple days ago. I never wanted Stan to know, for multiple reasons. A, he would have a high chance of calling the hospital, B, he would never look at me the same, and C, he could accidentally let it slip to Soos or Wendy or anyone really of it. So far, the only one that hasn't happened (yet) is C. He has indeed started looking at me differently, though I pretend not to notice. He's also been subtly treating me as though I'm disabled, which really gets on my nerves. But I suppose there's nothing to do about it now.

As I twist the peg of my E string, my right eye feels a burst of pain, causing me to jump and twist the peg too hard, snapping the string. I shut my eyes, as if doing so would make the pain go away. I sit there for what I assume to be a minute before the pain goes away. I slowly open my eyes, fearing the pain will come back. When I get over that fear, I examine the violin. Nothing on it is harmed, save for the string. I feel something warm trickle down my cheek, so I take my hand and wipe at whatever it is. Blood. Shit. Now my glove is dirty.

I take off the now dirtied glove and throw it to my dirty clothes pile. I turn back to my violin and put it away reluctantly, not wanting to have to postpone my practice. I set the case down by my desk and I go over to my drawers, opening the top one, which is full of black gloves. The only problem with them is that they're all five-fingered. Which means there's some knitting that's needed to be done.

I take out one single glove and head out of my room, looking for Mabel. I find her and Dipper in the living room, watching some TV, both eating some of her food while she draws with what looks to be badly misshaped crayons. I never trusted the stuff she comes out from the kitchen with. Unlike Dipper, I'm not as afraid to tell her that I don't want to eat the crap she makes. Though maybe it's because I'm older.

"Mabel." She looks up at me, smiling, about to reply before she pauses, staring at me curiously, slightly concerned.

"Are you bleeding?" Dipper looks up at me with these words, his eyes widening slightly when he sees the cut on my cheek. I guess I forgot about that. He jumps up off the armchair and runs up to me.

"Oh my god, are you okay? Do you need anything? Should I tell Stan? What happened?" He's talking very fast, so I only catch every three words that come out of his mouth.

"I'm fine, Dip, just a little accident, that's all. Mabel, can you get you're knitting stuff for me please?" I look back over to her; she's smiling at the new task. She loves anything to do with knitting.

"Yeah!" She jumps up and runs out the room, up the stairs. A couple moments later and she's back down, hands full with knitting supplies. She hands them to me, not realizing I don't have a glove on. I fumble a little, thinking I'm in danger of touching her skin, even though I'm not. I nod as a thank you and head back up to my room.

. . .

As I'm knitting the extra finger to my glove, I hear a thumping in the vents. At first, I ignore it, but then I hear a voice from in there. "Do blue-eyed people see better?" I look towards the vents, confused and wondering if I'm hearing voices now, since the voice doesn't belong to anyone I know, and nobody should be in there.

I hear a series of thumps before the voice speaks again. "There's nothing funny about the funny bone." There's a few more thumps then a really loud one, before the voice speaks once more. "Have a great week everybody! Good night!" The thumps start up again but fade away until I can't hear them anymore. Maybe nightmares are a reasonable price to pay if it means getting rid of the imaginary voices.

. . .

It's been a couple hours since then, and I ruled against taking a nap. Not worth it, especially since the voices stopped. I take a look at my glove, which now has the new finger sewed onto it. I put it on and wiggle my fingers a bit, fixing it to be comfortable. I head downstairs to see Mabel finishing up one of her favorite TV shows.

"Hey, have you seen Dipper?" She looks over to me, practically tearing her eyes away from the screen.

"No, but he said something about the vents a couple hours ago." She looks back at the screen, unconcerned.

Suddenly everything clicked into place. The voices in the vents, and the thumps. Though I'm still not sure of who was speaking, I assume it to be a creature Dipper was chasing. I wouldn't be so concerned if she told me hours ago, when he first went into the vents, but it's been hours since then, and no sign of Dipper. I'm about to run around the Shack in a probably stupid attempt, when the vent in the room opens with a bang and Dipper falls through.

Both Mabel and I jump at the bang and turn our heads towards him in time to see him falling to the floor. It looks like he's covered in... Peanut butter? Not to mention his smell. He stands up, grabbing onto the armchair for support. I speak up, irritated. "What were you thinking, chasing after a creature in the vents? You could have gotten stuck permanently! You're lucky you got out without help!"

Dipper groans, trying to stretch out his back and limbs. "One of the wax figures survived..."

"...Well did you at least get him?" I cross my arms, expecting him to at least have caught it.

"...No..." He looks down, looking ashamed of his failure.

"Well then go clean off, and don't go back in the vents for it ever again, or I will tell Stan." He sighs and walks solemnly out the room, slowly making his way to the bathroom.

Mabel turns back to the TV, then pouts a bit when she sees whatever she was watching changed to something else. I take small interest into what's now on the TV, and I sit on the armchair, relaxing back in it. I yawn, the TV becoming increasingly hard to focus on. I close my eyes for what feels like a second, but when I open them, I hear that same voice from the vents. I look around and see a wax head talking to Mabel from the vents. Seems like it's interviewing her.

Dipper walks into the room, journal in hand, and he freezes when he sees the wax head talking to Mabel. I chuckle a little, catching his attention. When he sees that I'm not nervous about it or anything, he relaxes a little and sits on the floor in front of the armchair, leaning his back against it as he writes a new entry into the journal.

Chapter Text

I sit there, my head leaning against the window as I watch Stan trick tourists into putting their money in the bag. I hear Soos and the twins cheer for that stupid show, Tiger Fist in the living room. The TV here is pretty stupid, but not nearly as stupid as the actual people, and the proof can be seen 10 feet away from me outside. I zone out for a bit, mentally venting to myself how frustratingly stupid the people here are when I hear Stan's voice call to me.

"Vivian!" I turn my head and see that he's inside now. Wonder when that happened.

"Hmm?"

"I need you to restock the gift shop, those tourists look like they're about ready to drop a lot of money." He rubs his hands together before continuing as he turned away, walking to the living room. "So step on it!"

I sigh and stand up, stretching a bit before I start heading over to the closet that we use to keep the merchandise. I grab some snow globes with a mini figure of Stan inside, since that's what appears to be the least stocked item out there, and I head back out. As I put the snow globes on the shelf, I hear someone say Gideon, then loophole. As I place the last snow globe onto the shelf, Soos and the twins come running out, making a beeline to the door.

"Hey, hey, woah woah woah, where are you two going?" Mabel stops running abruptly, grabbing onto Dipper's arm to stop him, causing him to fall onto the floor, dragging her down with him.

"Ow! Mabel, c'mon!" Dipper groans from the weight of his twin sister on top of him. Mabel simply laughs as a response and jumps back onto her feet, turning to me.

"We're going to go see Lil' Gideon!" Mabel says excitedly as Dipper stands up, readjusting his hat.

"Soos is taking us, so there's no need to worry." I think for a minute. I do need to do get out and do something.

"I'll come, if that isn't a problem." Mabel squeals in happiness as she wraps her arms around my hips, that being as high as she can comfortably reach. She grabs my arm and drags me out to Soos' car, Dipper not far behind.

. . .

We all take our seats in the wooden benches. I look around, it's a big blue tent, which seems to be a reoccurring theme, and there's a small stage in front of us, the curtains closed over a part of it. Dipper also looks around, saying his thought out loud.

"Woah, this is like a bizarre version of the Mystery Shack. They even got their own Soos." We all look to where he's pointing. There's a guy who's carrying a bunch of tools and strongly resembles Soos. His nametag even says that his name's Deuce. Small town.

"It's starting, it's starting!" Mabel says excitedly as the lights dim. We all look back at the stage, curious as for what we're going to see.

"Let's see what this monster looks like." Dipper crosses his arms as the spotlights focus on the center of the stage. A silhouette of a big person gets bigger as the person approaches from the other side of the curtains. When the curtains open, I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding. It's just a small kid with abnormally big hair and a blue suit with shoulder pads.

"Hello, America! My name is Lil' Gideon!" He claps his hands, and multiple doves flew out of his hair. I have to admit, that's impressive. The crowd goes crazy for this, but Dipper seems unimpressed.

"That's Stan's mortal enemy?" Dipper asks skeptically as Mabel looks as though she's trying to not laugh as she clutches her popcorn bag. "But he's so little!"

Gideon continues, "Ladies and gentlemen, it is such a gift to have you here tonight. Such a gift." He suddenly stops smiling, getting serious. "I have a vision. I predict you will all say 'Aw!'" He turns around, then turns his head to the audience, making a cute face. As if on cue, everybody but us four said "Aw!" though Mabel looks mystified.

"It came true!" She looks at Gideon in wonder and amazement.

I scoff. "That's not psychic, that's probability! If you show people something cute, there is a high chance that they'll say 'Aw', and with these idiots, you can get them to say anything!"

"Yeah, I'm not impressed." Dipper sits back in the bench, excitement gone.

Mabel looks over at us, deciding to tease. "You're impressed."

At that moment, Gideon starts speaking again. "Hit it!" A rather large looking man sitting at a piano, who strongly resembles Gideon, starts playing it. Gideon takes off his cape and throws it at the crowd. A woman in front of us catches it and other women immediately starts trying to grab it from her. I turn my attention back to the stage as he starts singing.

Oh boy...

. . .

We're all walking out, Soos is already at the car. Dipper stops and turns to Mabel and me, talking about the show.

"Man, that kid's an even bigger fraud then Stan. No wonder our uncle's jealous."

Mabel, obviously liking the show, defended him. "Oh, come on, his dance moves were adorable! And did you see his hair? It was like 'Woosh!'" She moved her arms back, emphasizing the woosh.

"You're too easily impressed." Mabel laughs as she tries to poke her brother, the two start walking towards the car as they play fight. I walk behind them, wishing to get home.

. . .

I'm sweeping the floor, thinking about the performance last night, when the doorbell rings. I sigh and open it, since I'm right next to it. I look down, upon realizing that the person isn't as tall as I had presumed. Actually, they're quite short. I groan inwardly as I see Gideon standing there. There's an awkward silence before I speak up.

"My uncle hates you." He shifts around uncomfortably. "...What do you want?"

"Is Mabel here? I would like to talk to her." He looks up at me hopefully. I sigh and turn back into the shack, yelling for Mabel.

"Mabel! It's for you!" I close the door and go back to sweeping the floor. Almost immediately she comes running and opens the door, ignoring my presence. I listen to them as they talk.

"Howdy!" Gideon is the first to speak. Times like this make me wonder where he grew up, saying stuff like "Howdy". Maybe a lot of people say that despite where they live.

"It's little old you!" Mabel says happily. She's always so optimistic. Gideon chuckles a bit at her comment.

"Yeah, that song's quite catchy... I know we haven't formally met but after yesterday's performance I just couldn't get your laugh out of my head." Oh boy. This kid can't be serious.

"You mean this one?" She laughs.

"Oh, what a delight." Oh no, Stan would not like where this is going. "When I saw you in the audience, I said to myself, 'Now there's a kindred spirit who appreciates the sparkly things in life.'" Mabel gasps.

"That's totally me!" She laughs again but ends up coughing. She probably coughed up some glitter or something, that always happens. We've tried to get her to stop trying to consume such stuff, but even our parents have given up on that.

"Who's at the door?" Stan yells through the shack. I look back at Mabel, expecting her to say it's Gideon. She hates lying.

"No one Grunkle Stan!" She yells back. This is bad. Very, very bad.

"I appreciate your discretion. Stan's no fan of mine. I don't know how a lemon so sour could be related to a peach so sweet." That's... actually a really good pick-up line... Wish someone would say that to me... I shake my head of those thoughts.

"Oh, Gideon." Mabel giggles a little.

"What do you say we step away from here and chat a bit more. Perhaps in my dressing room?"

"Oh! Makeovers!" She whisper-shouts excitedly. She looks back into the shack and sees me. I turn my head towards her, feeling her gaze. She's smiling, and waves, mouthing she'll be back soon. I nod and go back to sweeping. I hear her close the door, leaving.

I stifle a yawn as I continue to sweep. Every time I blink my eyelids feel a bit heavier. I nearly fall over when I doze off a bit, but I luckily manage to catch myself. I sigh and put down the broom, deciding that it might be best to sleep, even with Bill still being a threat.

I head upstairs to my room, closing the door behind me. I collapse onto my bed, almost immediately passing out from sheer exhaustion.

. . .

After a series of violent nightmares, I wake up in a cold sweat. I look at my window. Nighttime... There's something very familiar about these windows... I stare at them for a good 10 minutes before I shrug it off and head downstairs. I come down just in time to see Stan saying something very odd to the kids.

"Great news Mabel, you have to marry Gideon!" He's wearing a... very skintight t-shirt that says "Team Gideon" on it. What did I miss?

"What??" Mabel and I both exclaim. I walk into the living room, leaning against the wall as Stan explains.

"It's all part of m long term deal with Bud Gleeful. There's a lot of cash tied up in this thing. Plus, I got this shirt!" He look down at his shirt, before coming upon a realization. "Ugh, I am fat." Mabel runs out of the room yelling. Stan calls out after her. "Bodies change, honey! Bodies change..."

Dipper and I both head up to their bedroom, looking for Mabel. When we get up there, we see her tucked almost completely into her extremely flexible sweater, knees to her chest and head down.

"Oh no... Mabel." Dipper says, concerned.

"Mabel's not here... She's in Sweater Town." She's rocking back and forth pitifully. I hate it when she's like this, it always brings everyone down.

"Are you going to come out of Sweater Town?" Dipper walks up to her, making an attempt to cheer her up. Instead, she whines a bit as she shakes her head. I walk up next to her, kneeling down to her level. I pull her into a gentle hug as I try to comfort her.

"Aw, honey, it's okay, I doubt you'll actually have to marry Gideon." She whines again as she snuggles into me.

"Alright, enough is enough." He gets on one knee to also be down on her level. "If you can't break up with Gideon, then I'll do it for you."

"You will?" She peeks through her sweater, looking at him hopefully. He nods. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!" She gets out completely and playfully punches him.

I follow the two downstairs, Mabel walks out the door, but before Dipper follows her out, I stop him. "Dipper, wait." He stops and looks back at me curiously.

"What is it?"

"Is this really such a good idea? Gideon might react... Badly to you breaking them two up."

"What choice do we have? Mabel doesn't have the courage and I sort of already promised her." I sigh.

"I know, but... Be careful." He nods and leaves. I feel another burst of pain in my right eye, causing me to cover it with my eyes as I fall to my knees. After a couple of seconds, the pain is gone, and I take a few breaths to calm down. That's the second time this week...

. . .

The next day, I'm sitting out on the porch, sipping some PittCola, watching the twins run into Soos' belly, bouncing off of it. It's kind of funny to watch.

"I'm so glad everything's back to normal!" Mabel says happily after falling to the ground from impact on Soos' belly. The phone from inside the shack rings. They both look at each other and say "Your turn", and Dipper ended up being the one to go answer it. He gets up, not happy about this and heads inside. Mabel stands back up and readies herself to charge back into Soos.

The rest of the day is pretty uneventful. A couple hours later, I'm in my room studying this book for college, bored out of my mind. I look to my window, struggling to focus on the book. In the distance I see this particularly odd tree. It looked mostly normal, but one of the branches seemed almost metal. Like the tree where Dipper and I found the journal. With a new potentially exciting thing to do, I stand up and head out of the shack in a hurry, nearly forgetting my gloves in the process.

When I get to the tree, I look up at the branch. I underestimated how tall the tree is. I knock on the wood, and it makes that same metal sound like the other tree. I feel around it, hopping to find a hidden compartment, but no luck. I look up at the tree, seeing the branch I saw from my window. The base is most definitely metal, the paint must have washed away.

As I look at the branch, I notice how it looks as though it's a switch. I start to think of how I plan on getting high up on it enough to reach it. 'Maybe I don't have to get up there.' I look around on the ground and see a rock. I pick it up, and with careful precision, I aim and throw it at the lever. Probably out of sheer luck, the rock hits it just the right way and it turns upwards.

At first nothing happens, but then the tree starts shaking. I take a couple steps back, unsure of what's happening, then the ground around the tree sinks. I carefully approach the hole, seeing that it goes extremely deep. Then stairs come out of the walls, creating a way down. I cautiously walk down them, unaware of the horrors I am soon to experience.

When I get to the bottom, I walk through a door to what seems to be a bunker. There's food and supplies for what seems to be years. There's boxes of food and stuff dated for years far into the future. I explore the room, finding weapons, more supplies, and a bed. I find a random can of food on the floor and pick it up. My stomach growls, I haven't eaten anything in a while. I reason that this food can last for decades, which is why it's down here, so I open it with a can opener I see on a counter, then eat it.

It's not too bad. When I finish, I put it on the counter, then accidentally knock it over. Before I pick it up, I see a hatch door on the far end of the room. I open it carefully and look through. It's a long metal tunnel. This place keeps getting stranger and stranger...

I take one last glance at the bunker before I get into the tunnel, slowly making my way through it, brushing away cobwebs and such as I go. I eventually reach the end of the tunnel and into a room with a bunch of squares and symbols on the wall. I take note of how small the room is, my excitement leaving me as I start to believe this is as far as I can go. When I turn to go back through the tunnel, I step on one of the symbols on the ground, and it sinks a bit.

I quickly step off of it, then there's a thud of the hatch closing and locking. I run up to it and try to reopen it, but it won't budge. The room starts to shake as the symbols on the wall start to glow red. I look around with wide eyes, having no idea of what's to happen. The tiles start to extend into the room, one by one. My mind races as I look around in a blind panic. I take a few deep breaths, trying to calm down.

Relax, there's gotta be a way out. I look at the symbols. They can't just be here for decoration. I start pressing my hand up to all the ones I can reach in time, hoping that I'm supposed to find buttons. I press down on one, then another, both being the lucky buttons. I continue to press my hands against the symbols, it is getting harder and harder to reach each one. I press two more, and I hear the locks on a door open. I look around and see the door on the other side of the room. I run, or at least try, to the door, twisting and bending to avoid the tiles. I make it through successfully, closing the door behind me.

I lean against the door, catching my breath. I look around at the new room I'm in. Looks like a lab? Or maybe an observation room? It's something with a lot of buttons, that's for sure. I walk through the room, brushing my gloved hand across the dusty control panels. Maybe I should've brought the twins here. I think to myself. They would have gone nuts for this place. I chuckle to myself as I think of their reactions.

My eyes land on a closet, though something stands out about it. I walk up to it and peer inside. A metal closet. Huh. I walk in fully, blinking a couple times, trying to readjust my eyes to the darkness.

"Where is the light switch?" I mumble to myself. I look up and see a dangling thing. "Ah, here it is." My foolish self grabbed it and pulled. The door behind me shuts with a bang as something sprays some sort of water onto me. I cover my eyes, trying to shield them from the substance. When whatever was working the contraption stopped, a new door opened. I take off my gloves to wring them out as I walk into the new room.

There's a bunch of glass tubes, along with wires and such. I look at a cage with iron bars that look as though whatever was inside had broken out. I move away from it, more concerned than ever, when I see a tube that stands out from the others. This one is in front of a control panel and looks as though something is in it. I walk up to the panel, looking at the tube, then the panel, trying to decide what to do.

"I wonder if this still works..." I press a button, then there's an odd hissing sound from inside the tube. There temperature gets warmer, then, to my horror, the thing inside the tube starts moving. I back away from it, unsure of what to do. I watch as the creature moves around inside, before it breaks the tube, glass shattering all over the place. I yelp and run back to the room I came from.

Before I reach it, I hear the skittering of the creatures feet, or legs, on the floor rapidly approaching me. Then, something hits me hard on the back of my head, causing me to black out.

. . .

I groggily open my eyes. Something is tying me up. Wait, no, someone is tying me up. I blink a few times, trying to correct my blurry vision, groaning a bit from the new pain in the back of my head. The person finishes binding my body, and I hear the sound of tape being ripped. I can't do anything besides blink and make uncoherent noises as they place the tape over my mouth, sealing it.

My vision comes back in time to see who is tying me up. My eyes widen slightly as I see myself, staring back at me, grin on their face, just before I pass out again from another blow in the head.

Chapter Text

All I can hear is the sound of footsteps running around outside the darkness I'm trapped in. The footsteps stop. The sound of the person, or monster, digging. I blink a few times, still in a daze. I can't see anything. I try to move. Oh, that's right. It bound me. Ropes. And tape over my mouth. My stomach growls. I wonder how long it's been. I don't know. Who, or what is out there that looks like me? I don't know. Has anybody noticed I'm gone? I don't know. I don't know anything.

For all I know it's been weeks. Wait, no, that's not possible, I would be dead from dehydration. Maybe even starvation. Weird how I haven't seen Bill... I become mentally sidetracked as the sounds that the creature is making turns into nothing more than background radiation, except audible to my ears.

Some time passes, I seem to no longer be thinking. Just sitting there. My limbs started to feel a bit cramped, if that's even the right word, due to my position in whatever I'm in. I wonder if I'll die here. The door opens, and I immediately close my eyes to the sudden brightness that engulfs me. Before I have time to do anything, the tape that covers my mouth is ripped off, causing me to gasp in surprise.

I open my eyes, blinking a bit, trying to get a bearing of my surroundings. Suddenly, it pries my mouth open with its own 6 fingered hand. I'm surprised as to why I'm not getting a vision, but then it pours some of the canned food from the bunker into my mouth. I nearly gag, since I wasn't ready, but I then eagerly swallow, not feeling enough energy to protest or fight back. Once it finished, it put a new thing of tape over my mouth and closed the door, leaving me alone in what seems to be a closet. It's definitely small enough, that's for sure.

I sit there for what feels like ages. I have no way to tell time, and I can't really escape, for the ropes are too tight. Eventually I do manage to fall asleep. When I open my eyes, I realized I must be in the dreamscape, but it's different than how it's been before. There's an assortment of books everywhere, along with random eyes. The place has no gravity, so I'm just floating there. One eye catches my attention; its pupil is slit. There's a familiar laugh when a triangle forms around the eye, revealing Bill.

"As keen as ever, aren't you, Third Eye?" He floats down to me, but the most I can do is wobble around in the zero gravity. This causes him to laugh again, which is not the greatest at the moment.

"For the last time, I'm not going to make a deal with you!" I'm definitely not in the mood to deal with him, being held hostage and all.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I'm not here to make a deal!" I stare at him. It's a lie, obviously. Or something. "Listen, it's called a favor! Something friends do for each other!"

"If your plan is to guilt trip me, that's not going to happen." I cross my arms, which happens to be a very uncomfortable position to be in, but it would be embarrassing to put them back down immediately after. "And we're not friends."

"Hey, it's called investment. Can't have you tied up in a closet, now, can we? I have much bigger plans with you." At that moment my right eye feels a burst of pain, then I wake up. I notice a small burning sensation, and I look down to see the ropes are burnt off. I quickly brush them off then rip off the tape over my mouth. I start trying to devise a plan. I don't know what I'm up against and I'm probably much weaker than it. Sometimes, I just gotta go with it.

I punch the closet door with my fist and wait. I do it again, and again, until the door suddenly opens. This time, it's not my look-alike, but an entirely different creature. It's a bit translucent, and is white all over, along with questionable body parts. I lunge at it, catching it by surprise. I wrestle it to the floor, but then it easily overpowers me, trapping me between itself and the floor. To my surprise, it speaks in a deep and raspy voice, its horrid breath hitting my face.

"You think you can overpower me that easily? You humans are weak, and-" I the closest thing I could find within my reach, an iron bar, and I hit the creature over the head with it, knocking it to the side off of me. I quickly stand back up and run to the decontamination room and looked around for a handle of sorts. The creature gets back to its feet and starts running towards me.

"You can't escape-!" I find a big button and press it, shutting the metal doors with a slam. There's a deafening silence as I wait, then there's a loud thud, indicating that it had rammed itself against the door. This happens a couple more times, and I decide that it might be best to leave. I start making my way out of the underground bunker, walking through the surveillance room, security room, and bunker.

When I get back to the surface, it's nighttime. It's so calm up here, as if there's not a big underground bunker holding a dangerous creature. I lay down onto the soft grass, stretching out my limbs a bit. I stand back up after a bit, fixing my hair a bit, before I start making my way back to the shack.

I think I might've gotten lost, it's taking longer than I remember to get back. The sound of leaves crunching under my shoes are becoming repetitive to the point where it's annoying. After what feels like forever, I see the shack in the distance. I break out into a jog, not having enough energy for a full-on sprint, and quickly run up to it. I practically burst through the door, panting a little. It's deadly silent, which makes sense, considering the hour.

The floorboards creak under my weight as I make my way through the shack, trying to be as quiet as possible. I pass Stan's room, then I stop. I've been gone for who knows how long, shouldn't I tell somebody that I'm back? I backtrack a little back to his room, and I knock softly. No answer. "Stan?" Still nothing. I knock again, this time a bit harder. The sound echos through the house, there being no other sound.

This time I can hear something rustling inside the room, he must've woken up. I take a step back from the door and he opens it. We both just stand there for a moment, neither of us sure of what to say.

"Vivian?" He says, surprise evident in his voice. "Where have you been? We've been worried sick!"

"It's a long story... I kinda got lost in the woods..." I don't think I should tell him what really happened. He would never believe me anyway, but it looks as though he doesn't entirely believe this story either. I shift uncomfortably as he thinks to himself.

"Alright then, at least you're okay. I guess just go get some rest and clean yourself up in the morning." He says tiredly, rubbing his eyes. I nod and head up to my room, each step becoming harder to take as my lack of rest catches up to me.

When I get to my bed, I collapse onto it, causing it to creek underneath my weight. I don't bother changing or anything, besides taking off my shoes. I tangle myself into my blanket, quickly falling asleep.

Chapter Text

It's been a few days since I came back from the bunker. One can imagine how the twins reacted when they saw I was back the next morning. In all honesty, it was exhausting, dealing with them and their questions. Apparently, I was gone for only a bit over a day. The tree which I found to be the entrance to such bunker also happened to be where Mason and I found the Journal. I can't believe I didn't notice the hatch the first time I was there. How did I realize this, you may ask? I went back yesterday to settle my lingering unease that the entrance hadn't entirely closed. Despite my short disappearance, everything is back to normal. Everyone seems to have bought my story of getting lost in the woods, and I would prefer to keep it that way.

I close the notebook with a sigh. I look over to my alarm clock. 8:53 am. I'm supposed to be working the register today in 7 minutes. I've been ready since 8:30, but I didn't feel like heading down at the moment, so I killed time by writing in my notebook. I reach over for my gloves and put them on as I walk out of my room, heading down to the gift shop.

. . .

I stare at the guy, who seems to be about my age, blankly. He's been flirting with me for the past minute, and I'm getting annoyed at it. He hasn't taken any notice to my expression and is still going on with no apparent attempt of stopping. I'm not even listening anymore; I've been thinking of how to get him to go away. I decide to take a page out of Stan's book, and I cut him off.

"Sir, there's a $10 fee for flirting." I say nonchalantly, then I gesture to the people behind him. "And a line."

His cheeks flushed a bit, embarrassed, and he walks off without another word. As I take the next customer's item and ring it up, I see him talking to Mabel. Oh, I see how it is. It's not the first time she's tried to hook me up with someone. Though I've never been interested in anybody, which has led her to be frustrated with me. I can already see where this day will be going.

As the day goes on, she keeps sending more guys my age my way. It was mildly entertaining at first, some impressively good at flirting, and others... Not, but it got annoying after a while. Though I did come to realize how many 16- and 17-year-olds there are in this town. Wendy then walks in, the door swinging open loudly, announcing her presence.

"Hey, Vivian! I'll be right there, I just gotta go get a soda from the vending machine." She walks off to the vending machine, not waiting for my answer. I stand up, stretching my back, then start heading to the living room, in hopes that Mabel is there.

As I walk into the living room, I hear her calling out my name. "Vivian!" I turn in time to see her running up to me, seemingly mad about something. Before I can ask what's wrong, though I can already guess, she speaks. "Why can't you make an effort to get together with boys? You act like it's an inconvenience!"

I roll my eyes and sigh. "Mabel, you don't even know what that means."

"So maybe I don't, it doesn't matter! You need to get out there, make some friends, maybe even some boyfriends!"

"Boy... Friends?" I stare at her, confused. It's not the thought of having a boyfriend, it's the thought of having boyfriends, emphasize on the 's'. She nods eagerly, her smile a mile wide. "Listen, Mabel, I've told you this before, I'm not looking for anybody, now can you just drop it? Please?" I turn away from her and walk back to my room, not wanting to see her heartbroken expression. She'll get over it.

. . .

I'm dusting off one of the instruments that are on display in the music store with a cloth. My shift is almost over, just less than 5 minutes. Barely anybody comes in, so I'm rarely doing anything. As I continue to dust off the violin, I hear the door open. As I turn to see who it is, my expression sours when I see my boss, looking a bit tipsy, per usual. Just about every encounter I've had with him has been him subtly flirting with me. Not great, for sure, but nowhere else in town pays this well for this number of hours.

I start to walk back to the counter, deciding not to acknowledge his presence, with the hopes that he would just ignore me, but just before I get there, he grabs my arm and turns me to him a bit harshly.

"Not even a hi? C'mon, don't I deserve something?" I lean back away from him, but he only leans in more. "I can think of something else you can give me if you can't manage a simple 'hello'~" He's close. Too close. I can smell his breath, which smells like alcohol. My mind races as I try to think of a way out. I see the clock on the wall behind him, it says 4. Quitting time. I shove the cloth that I've been holding into his chest, which confuses him and gives me the chance to quickly weave around him, out of his reach, and out the door.

Good lord, I need a new job... I quickly walk back to the shack, checking behind me occasionally to make sure he's not following me.

. . .

I'm sitting behind the counter at the shack now, Wendy having just left. Just 2 more hours before I'm officially done for the day. I watch as somebody appears to be making an important life decision on whether to get a green shirt or a blue shirt. I barely notice the twins coming down the ladder from the roof, or Mabel talking to this boy who looks to be about my age, and emo. A few minutes later, he comes up to me with a snow globe in hand, then placing it on the table.

I look at him, then at Mabel, who's peaking from the living room. I roll my eyes and pick up the globe, looking over it for the price tag. "Will this be all for today, sir?"

"W-well... u-um..." I watch him as he stutters, his face only growing redder by the second. "Y-yes..." He looks away, defeated. I couldn't help but feel a little bad for the guy, but oh well. As I enter in the numbers into the cash register, he seems to decide to try again and makes small talk. "Um... It's for my grandmother..." He mumbles in a quiet voice.

"Fascinating..." I say unenthusiastically as I accidentally enter 30 instead of 20 into the register. I clear the numbers and retype 20. He pulls out his wallet, which I see to be barren except for the money he pulls out and sets on the counter. I pick it up and see how much it is. $15. I bite my lip as I try to figure out how to say this.

"It's not enough, is it..." I look up at him, feeling bad. I sigh and make a risky decision.

"Well actually, these snow globes happen to be..." I quickly do the math in my head. "30 percent off, so this covers it fine." I say as I put the money in the cash register, and taking out $1 to give back to him. I hold out the dollar to him as he stares at me, mouth open.

"W-what? I.. Why-?" I cut him off as he takes the dollar and snow globe.

"Shush, it's a one-time thing, now get out before my uncle sees this." He nods, still looking shocked, and quickly walks out of the shack.

Mabel runs up to me, yelling loudly. "VIVIAN, YOU DID IT OH MY GOSH YOU ACTUALLY DID IT YOU TALKED TO A BOY!!!" She basically tackles me in excitement, earning some curious glances from others.

"Mabel, jeez, it was just... It was nothing special, just a normal conversation. You act like I've never talked to a boy before." I push her off of me, regaining my balance.

"You might as well not have! I bet you haven't talked to any boys outside of school and work." She says teasingly, wagging her finger at me.

"Of course I have, like... Um..." She stares at me expectantly, waiting for an answer. "There was this boy who asked me for something... Which is technically outside or school and work!... Sorta..."

"And how long ago was this?"

"... Three years ago..." She just sighs and shakes her head disapproving me.

"Sometimes I worry about you, Vivs. Anyway, wasn't he cute?" She clasps her hands together; I can practically see the stars in her eyes.

"What, the boy from three years ago?"

"No! The one from just now!"

"Oh... I guess so...?" I look back towards the exit door, thinking of how it went with him.

. . .

As I lay in bed, my mind drifts back to the boy. For some reason, I haven't been able to not fully think of him. I'm not sure why, I think to myself, all he has looks wise is that way black hair, those charming brown eyes, and that cute stutter... The thoughts continue for the night as I stay in denial, until I eventually fall asleep, experiencing another series of nightmares.

. . .

I walk down the sidewalk of the downtown area of Gravity Falls. It's a bit of a hot day, and I can feel the sweat forming on my arms and hands, but in no way am I going to take any of it off. I had decided that, with all the chaos of what happened in the morning (Mabel had attempted to make pancakes, but ended up making fire instead), that I need to get out of the shack. Some fresh air outside of work and work should be nice. And in truth, it is. I've been the most relaxed now than I've been in the past. I don't even feel as tired as I normally.

As I walk, I see the local hospital. Nothing special, but as I turn my head away, I hear someone speak.

"You like it? I got it from the Mystery Shack." I turn and see the boy from yesterday, talking to an elderly lady in a wheelchair right outside of the front doors of the hospital. I stop walking to watch. She looks absolutely ecstatic about getting the globe. Heck, even I gotta admit, it's a pretty cool snow globe. It has a miniature version of the shack inside, and with the usual glitter that floats in the water.

She nods happily, but before he can continue talking a nurse comes out of the building and grabs the handles of her wheelchair. "I'm sorry, Ms. Garcia, but it's time to come inside. Say your goodbyes, now." The nurse says in a rather rude way, but the boy simply mutters a small goodbye as she takes her back inside. I take this as my que, and I jog up to him.

"Hey!" I come to a stop in front of him and smile a bit by the look of surprise on his face. "I saw you give the snow globe to that lady. Is she your...?"

"U-um... Yeah, that's my grandma..." He mumbles quietly, still confused and surprised. "How... How did you find me?"

I blush a little out of embarrassment, I forgot how weird this probably looks. "Oh, sorry, I was just walking around town when I saw you here." We stand there awkwardly, unsure of what to say next. He then clears his throat and begins talking.

"I'm Liam, by the way... And you're...?"

"Vivian."

"W-well, I'll be at Susan's Diner tonight... If you wanna meet up there... or something.... If you want..." His voice trails off as his face flushed in embarrassment, and he turns his gaze to the ground, suddenly interest in the pavement. I think for a moment. It wouldn't be too bad, I suppose. It's either him or the chaos at the shack...

"I wouldn't mind that... Meeting you there, I mean." I say, blushing a little. He looks up in surprise, probably not expecting me to agree.

"R-really! Um... Great! Uh... How's 5? Does... Does that work?"

"5:30. My shift at my job ends at 5 today. But I'll be able to make it there by 5:30." He nods happily, now having an absolutely adorable smile on his face. "By the way, what time is it? I left my phone back at the shack."

"Um..." He takes out his phone and looks at the time. "It's 10:36."

"Oh, I gotta be back by 11, I'll see you later, I guess." I wave to him as I jog back to the Shack, not wanting to miss my shift there. As I jog off, I see someone in a purple hoodie with their hood pulled up, looking in my direction. Weird.

. . .

I'm reading a magazine I had grabbed on the way here to work. I have about an hour left before I can go, and I must say, I'm really excited for the... Is it a date? I wouldn't mind if it's a date. What he did kind of does define as 'asking me out', so I guess it is a date. I hear the door of the shop open, and I turn to look who it is. My blood runs cold when I see it's my boss, who's in a purple hoodie. A part of me hopes that it wasn't him, and just somebody else. For obvious reasons.

"Come with me." He walks to the storage room, expecting me to follow. I swallow a lump in my throat and nervously follow him. I have a bad feeling as to what he wants with me.

When I walk in, I hear the door close and lock behind me. I quickly turn around and see him there. I back away, subconsciously trying to put distance between me and him, but only results in him walking closer, and backing me up against the wall.

"Who are you seeing?" He asks in a slightly menacing tone. It takes me a moment to realize what he just asked of me.

"What?"

"You heard me. Who are you seeing?" He sounds more irritated this time, I guess he's not in the mood for being slow.

"Nobody!"

"Really? Then who was that boy?" My heart skips a beat when it's confirmed that it was him.

"It was you! What were you doing there?? Were you stalking me??" He chuckles darkly, and lightly hooks his index finger under my chin, tilting my head up to fully meet his gaze. I'm confused at first, because normally this triggers a vision, but then I realize he's wearing gloves.

"I was just making sure that you were safe, sweetheart, going out on your own." I swat his hand away, not liking any of this.

"Don't call me that! I'm 16, you can't do this!" His eyes narrow, and this time grabs my chin very roughly to the point where it's uncomfortable.

"I don't care if you're 16, you can't do anything against me. You're nothing but a helpless little girl. You should be happy that someone like me cares about you."

"You're a freak! Why should I be happy that a freak is-" I'm cut short by him backhanding me hard across my face. The glove on his hand reduces the pain, but it hurts, nonetheless.

"You won't say a thing. I'll be generous. You need the money I pay you. I can tell, most would've left by now. I'll double your paycheck, as long as you keep quiet, and you stop seeing that boy. Is that good enough for you, sweetheart?" He strokes my cheek with his hand, caressing the area where he hit in an attempt to soothe me. It does the opposite, but I don't want to rile him up. I'm not in the right position to get him mad. I nod quickly, trying to suppress how obvious I'm scared. "Use your words. I won't repeat myself."

"Y-yes..." He hums in satisfaction, and after he moves his hand across my cheek one last time, he leaves, leaving me alone in the storage room. I'm left standing there, shaken and scared.

. . .

I walk quickly down the street from the music store. My shift had ended well over 30 minutes ago, but I lost track out of time, mostly due to paranoia. Between Vincent and Bill, I don't think I'm going to make it through the summer. As I walk, I see Susan's Diner.

I slow down and see Liam in there, waiting at one of the tables. He seems sad. I come to a stop and take out my phone to look at the time. 5:52. Oh crap. I look around, checking to see if I can see Vincent around. When I don't see him anywhere, I quickly come inside and walk over to where Liam is, and I slide into the booth where he's sitting. His face lights up when he sees me, and I almost immediately forget about what happened almost an hour ago.

"Hey, sorry I'm late, I just... Lost track of the time." I say sheepishly. He chuckles, not seeming to mind too much now that I'm here.

"It's fine... I arrived a bit late myself, I was worried I had missed you..." He clears his throat and slides one of the menus to me. I take it and start looking at the food options.

"You can afford it, right?" I ask, teasing him playfully. His face flushes out of embarrassment, and mutters something that I can't quite make out. "I'm just teasing, silly." His face flushes further upon the realization I didn't mean it in a mean way.

"Ha... Yeah, I got my paycheck today, so I'll be able to pay for the meal." He says in a timid voice.

"Oh, it's fine, you don't have to, I can-"

"N-no, really, I can afford it!"

"Oh, I didn't mean it in a rude way, I just would feel bad if you were to pay for my food."

"Yeah, but I want to pay for it. I asked you out on a date, and I intend to pay for it for you! That's what a man does!" He says, puffing out his chest, trying to make himself more manly. I giggle a little, amused by this.

"Alright then, since you're such a man." He blushes a bit, his chest easing back to a normal position. He looks back at the menu, and as do I. At that moment, a waitress comes up to us, smiling.

"Hi, can I take your orders, now? Or are you still looking?" The waitress asks politely, a smile on her face.

"I'm ready, are you...?" Liam looks over to me, waiting for my response. I nod and look up at the waitress.

"Yeah, um... Can I have the Breakfast special? And some PittCola, please?" I ask, slightly embarrassed for ordering breakfast at 6 in the evening. The waitress smiles and looks over at Liam.

"And anything for you, sir?" He looks down at the menu for a moment, reading out what he wants.

"Yeah, um, can I have the Buttermilk Pancakes with a thing of water, please?" The waitress smiles as she writes it all down.

"Alrighty then, is that all?" Liam nods, and she takes our menus and walks off. Liam looks back at me and attempts to make some small talk.

"So, um... You're also a breakfast person?" I nod, glad he doesn't think me to be weird for some reason.

"Yeah, I prefer it over every other meal. It's just like... Different, or something!" He nods eagerly, being able to relate.

"Exactly! It has a different vibe than lunch, or dinner!" We both laugh a little, before he becomes fixated on one of my hands. "Wait... Do you have-?"

"6 fingers? Yeah." I avert my gaze to outside, losing all of my enthusiasm. Welp, this is it. He's never gonna look at me the same. Or at all. Or-

"That's cool!" I look back at him, surprised.

"W-what?"

"It's cool! You have 6 fingers! Can I...?" He reaches for my hand, which I instinctively pulled away, still unsure of what's happened. He realizes his mistake and pulls his own hand away. "I'm sorry... I-I didn't mean to... I just..."

"No, it's fine... I'm just not used to people not being weirded out by it..." I look away, hiding my hands in the pockets of my hoodie. There's an awkward silence before he speaks again.

"I... I do think it's cool, though. I mean, like, come on! You have a physical advantage at a lot of stuff! Probably." I chuckle.

"Yeah, like instruments."

"Yes! Instruments, exactly. Probably the string ones, I don't think it matters too much for the instruments in band. I wouldn't know, I've never played an instrument outside of a piano."

The waitress comes back with our food and drinks, and we eat our dinners, talking about random stuff that we've experienced.

. . .

As I stand outside, waiting for Liam to finish paying the bill, I look up at the sky. The moon is high, high and bright. They're probably waiting for me... I think to myself, thinking of the twins and Stan. I look back down, away from the bright moon, and rub my eyes. As I do so, I see a vague figure in the distance, which looks to have a purple hoodie. I gasp as I take a step back, and fight before I rub inside, Liam comes out, happy as a clam.

"Hey! So, um... I really enjoyed tonight." I smile weakly, I internally panicking as to what to do about my current situation. He doesn't immediately pick up on this and keeps talking. "I hope we can do this again... Text me, okay?" We had exchanged numbers in the diner. He waves as he turns away, but before he can leave I grab his arm, my whole demeanor shifting. When he looks back at me, he looks at me, concerned and worried. "What's-"

"Walk with me..." He looks at me confused, and opens his mouth to reply, but I cut him off. "Please." Still confused, his eyes dart around, looking for the reason for why I'm scared. His expression changes when his eyes become fixated on something, presumably the figure. He nods, still looking over at it, grabbing both of my shoulders and making me walk with him.

As we keep walking, he must've realized how tight he's holding me, because he stops, stuffing his hands into his hoodie pockets, muttering an apology. When he does so, I suddenly feel more exposed, like something could snatch me away now. My solution to this is to link my arm with his, and that's exactly what I do. I try to subtly look behind me as we walk, but I don't see anybody.

"So... Where do you live again?" He asks in a low voice, breaking the quiet of the night. This almost snaps me out of my paranoia. Almost.

"The Mystery Shack." I sometimes forget not everybody knows that I live there. I'm so used to Soos and Wendy that I forget not everybody knows everybody and their moms here.

"Really?" He looks at me, surprised. "That's really out there. Not alone, surely."

"Oh, no, of course not. I'm up here with my great uncle and my twin siblings."

"Ah, that makes sense. What you said about your uncle yesterday. And I think I met one of the twins. Gosh, she didn't even tell me her name. She just came up to me and begged me to try to flirt with you. Gave me the impression that a unicorn was gonna die somewhere if I didn't." I chuckle.

"Yeah, Mabel's like that." It puts me a bit more at ease, talking about the twins, and he seems to notice this. He opens his mouth to speak, then there's the sound of a twig snapping. I practically jump out of my skin since it sounds really close, giving a little yelp in the process.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, it was just me. Sorry, it was me, okay? Are you okay?" He tries to comfort me, turning me to him fully. He cups the side of my cheek and tilts my head upward, causing me to freeze. He's not wearing gloves. I stand there, my brain lagging a bit as to why this isn't triggering anything, and how odd skin feels. He looks at me, confused more than anything. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" I open my mouth to speak, then change my mind. If I say anything about it, I'm going to have to tell him about my visions.

Instead, I look around, checking for the figure, and brush off his hand. I turn and sort of drag him along, walking faster than before, our arms still linked. I can tell he's still confused, but doesn't say anything.

. . .

We stand outside of the shack, it's so silent besides of the crickets chirping.

"Why is there a TV out here?" Liam asks, looking over the side of the shack. When I look myself, I see the TV that'd normally in the living room sitting on the ground, surrounded by glass shards from the broken window.

"Ugh. He probably got mad at a show or movie again. I got it." I walk over, carefully avoiding the major glass shards, and pick up the TV, with some effort but nothing I can't handle. He looks at me, surprised I can lift something that looks really heavy, but I ignore that. "Maybe I'll see you tomorrow, I'm always here."

"Y-Yeah." He clears his throat and speaks again, this time his voice sounding a bit deeper. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll come."

"M'kay. See you tomorrow, then. And be safe." I look back at him one last time before heading inside, closing the door with my foot. "Alright whoever through the TV out the window this thing better be back in the living room by morning because I am not cleaning this up for you again!" I set the TV down on the ground, it's getting too heavy for me to carry. I sigh when there's no response, and I head up to my room, too tired and stressed to bother anyone about anything.

When I get to the stairs, I come to a stop, looking around. It's really quiet, yet I have the impression that I'm being watched. I look around the shack from my position and I see it. Out the broken window, I see the figure, just close enough to see him. I panic and run upstairs into my room, locking the door and hiding under my covers like a scared kid.

Chapter Text

"I like to do my Christmas shopping done early. Do you have anything that's in the spirit of the season?" Tyler asks, turning to Stan, showing no signs of leaving anytime soon. I groan quietly as I lean against the wall, tapping my foot impatiently. Stan said that we can't leave the gift shop until the last customer leaves, which is annoying because I have somewhere to be. Just my luck that the last customer is an idiot.

"Uh, how about these crystals?" Stan holds out a bowl of clear crystals that looks suspiciously like glass shards. Tyler seems to notice this, too, as he chuckles.

"That looks like broken glass."

"What are you, a cop?" Stan asks, putting the bowl down.

"Ooh! What is that new thing?" Tyler runs over to something he sees, forgetting about the shards. At that moment the twins walk in.

"Grunkle Stan?" Dipper starts, then Mabel continues. "Can we go to the diner? We're hungry." She drags out the word as she grabs her stomach and moves it around. Dipper also joins in, and they push their stomachs against each other while making noises.

"Yeah, just as soon as this yahoo makes up his mind." He points over to Tyler in the back, who's now looking at this fish that's mounted on the wall.

"Do you have this in another animal?"

"I'm fine with locking him in if you are." The twins nod, content with that idea. "Vivian, come on." He gestures me to come with them as they head out quickly.

I follow them outside and watch as Stan blocks the door by putting a long wooden plank through the door handle. Seems a bit excessive... Wait, where did he get that?

When he secures it, we all quickly run over to his car to get out of there before Tyler notices.

. . .

We take our seats at one of the booths in Greasy's Diner, Mabel next to Stan, and me next to Dipper. Despite the chaos going on around us (A lady chasing a beaver around with a broom, McGucket getting concerningly hyper by the second, and the local police seeing how fast they can eat pancakes), I manage to block it all out as I look out the big window next to me.

I think I hear Stan saying something about a sugar packet for me, but I'm not sure. I'm not hungry, anyway. But what I do hear is Dipper saying he's going to beat a manliness tester. We all burst out laughing at that statement.

"You're going to beat a manliness tester??" I manage to say while laughing. Stan doesn't have as much luck, though, for he can't even finish his sentence as he bangs his fist on the table while laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" Dipper looks at us in confusion.

"It's hilarious how you think you can beat that manliness tester!" I say, wiping a tear from my face.

"Yeah, no offense, Dipper, but you're not exactly 'manly-manington'." She laughs.

"Hey, I am too manly... Manny, or whatever it is you said."

"C'mon, Dipper. I could probably get a higher score than you. And Mabel, too." I say, chiming in.

Stan speaks up. "Look, face the music, kid. You got no muscles, you smell like baby wipes, and let's not forget last Tuesday's 'incident'." He turns to Mabel and me. "He was listening to Girly Icelandic Pop Sensation Baba." He says, explaining.

"You were listening to Girly Icelandic Pop Sensation Baba?" Mabel asks, holding back laughter.

"No, I wasn't... That's not important." Dipper says nervously. "Look, c'mon, guys, I'm plenty masculine, you see this chest hair?" He pulls down his shirt to show us his chest, which is completely bare. It's so bare, that there's a glare on it, making it hard to look at without seeing black spots afterwards. He puts his shirt back up after realizing he doesn't have any chest hair. We all start laughing again.

"Fine, family-of-little-faith. Get ready to eat your words, and a plate of delicious pancakes." He says, pointing at us. He scoots out of the booth and walks to the machine. Everybody turns to look at him as he approaches it. He rolls up his sleeves and stops right in front of it, preparing to try it out.

"Quit stallin'!" Stan yells from across the diner. Dipper grabs the handle and tries to pull it together. The lights on it light up, going from 'wimp' to 'man'. Then, it goes back down to wimp, and flashing there, showing that's what he gets. A paper comes out of the machine, which he takes and looks at. He chuckles nervously and turns back towards everyone.

"This thing must be broken. It's totally broken, guys, it's like a million years old, probably ran out of steam power-" He gets cut off by being pushed aside by Dan, who turns to the machine, cracks his knuckles and tilts the handle with his pinkie, causing the machine to overload, and the top blew off. It hit the pancakes, and they all flew onto everyone's plates (somehow).

"Yeah! Pancakes for everyone!" Dan yells happily, and everyone cheers. One of the pancakes landed on Dipper's head, and he looks over at us. Mabel and Stan had started laughing at him again, though I feel a bit bad for him. He mutters something, which I can't hear over the laughter of the two, before he runs towards the door, tripping over a beaver on the way.

"I'm fine! Everything's fine!" He says nervously after getting up, chuckling nervously as he continues to run out the door.

I take out my phone and look at the time. It's close to noon. I start to get out of the booth, which Stan notices.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" He looks at me, suspicious.

"Out. I got somewhere to be." I walk out of the diner before he can ask any more questions.

. . .

"This town is prettier than it looks," Liam says as we walk down the street. "You just gotta know where to look."

I hum in response, I've never been a talker, though I do enjoy my time with him. I take out a lollipop from my pocket and put it in my mouth. There's a silence, and I hand him one without even looking. I could feel my cheeks heating up a bit, and I don't want him to see that. He takes the treat out of my hand, the sound of it being unwrapped soon follows.

He stops me abruptly, putting his arm out in front of me. I look around, confused, until he grabs my arm and pulls me inside of a shop. A bell rings as we walk inside, and a combination of many different sweet scents hits my nose. Flowers of all kinds fill the shop, and merely a few people are in here. As I look around, taking it all in, Liam takes me over to this one section, which are filled with different color roses. He picks out a red one with thorns and turns to me, smiling.

"A little birdie told me you like red roses." He says, holding out the rose to me.

"Mabel?" I ask, my eyebrows raised.

"Yup!" I feel a small smile spread across my face as I take the delicate flower, admiring its beauty. I feel his hand interlock with mine for a brief second before he quickly let go. I look up at him, confused. His face is flushed in embarrassment as he mutters an apology and instead gestures for me to follow him to the cashier.

He quickly pays for the rose, and we walk out of the shop. As we walk back to the shack, I see his hand by mine. I study his expression, he looks nervous, as if he wants to do something. I look back at my rose, spinning it gently in my hand as I casually interlock my fingers with his. After a moment, I feel him tense up, then relax.

...

"Smile harder." Mabel's voice rings out from the living room. "Harder!" I look into the living to see her standing on a chair facing towards Stan. "Perfect! Oh hey Vivs!" She looks over to me, smiling.

"Hey, um... What's going on?" I ask nervously, not really sure if I want to know the answer.

"We're fixing up Grunkle Stan! Soos!" She calls excitedly. Soos walks up, chewing on a sandwich with a broom in hand.

What's up, hambone?" He asks, looking at her curiously.

"What do you think?" She gestures over to Stan. Soos looks over at Stan's face, then screams in fear, throwing his sandwich and dropping his broom before running out of the room. Curious, I walk into the room to get a better look at Stan. My eyes widen as I see that his face looks as though he's scared for his life rather than smiling happily.

"Yeah, Mabel, I think you should work on your... fixing skills." I say as I tear my eyes away from Stan's terrifying face to her. She looks at me, a determined expression on her face.

"This is going to take some really great training music." She says as she holds up a CD with the words "TRAINING MIX" written on it. Stan and I exchange a worried look as Mabel puts the CD into her boombox and presses play. "Vivian! Go cut up some cucumbers!" She shouts over the music. I sigh and rush off to the kitchen.

We spend the next few hours trying to get Stan to be more likeable, from trying to give him some sort of spa experience to shaving his chest, which was something I personally wish I never saw.

We all gather around Mabel on the armchair in the living room as she holds up a photo she took of Stan before she started working on him.

"Okay, Grunkle Stan," She says, looking at the picture, "You started like this, but you became..." Then she lowers the picture to show how he turned out, and the sight makes me purse my lips. He somehow looks worse, with grime all over his body, and unknown liquid stains on his clothes, all accompanied by a few flies.

"Can I scratch myself now?" He says stiffly.

"No! No, no no! Mabel shouts in frustration. Is that throw-up on your shirt?" She says, pointing accusingly.

Stan looks down at one of the stains, confused. "I don't know how to answer that."

Mabel groans, and Wendy puts a hand on her shoulder trying to reassure her. "Face it, Mabel. Your uncle is unfixable, like that spinning pie trolley thing in the diner."

"Yeah," I chime in, "Some people aren't meant to be fixed." I say, straightening out my back. Suddenly, she gets up off the armchair, excited about something.

"Grunkle Stan, come with me!" She yells as she runs out of the room. Then she pops her head back in, looking at him with a wide smile. "And leave your pants at home!"

"With pleasure!" Stan says happily as he goes to follow her. Soos, Wendy and I are left there in the living room, awkwardly sitting there.

"So..." I say, my voice trailing off as I drum my fingers against the air.

"Well, that's 3 hours of my life I'll never get back." Wendy says as she stands up. Soos chuckles a bit.

"Yeah, tell me about it." He says as they walk out of the room. I sit down on the armchair, grabbing the remote as I do so. I turn on the TV, watching what seems to be a documentary of sea life, which works for me.