Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had been exactly six years.

Six years since Weirdmaggedon ended. Six years since Dipper and Mabel had been announced teenagers.

Welcome to angst and acne for life.

Six years since their lives changed forever.

“So what do you think all this junk with the portal really is?” Mabel hummed as Dipper turned the steering wheel into the exit for Gravity Falls. Turning onto the old, bumpy road felt nostalgic, in a way that Dipper wasn’t prepared for.

Then again, it felt like this every year

“It isn’t junk Mabel,” Dipper sighed, gripping the wheel a little tighter as he took a spare moment to slide a side eye in Mabel’s direction, before shifting his focus back onto the road. “Ford sounded really worried. The portal was completely dismantled, it shouldn’t be powering up again.”

Rain began to sprinkle down, gently hitting the small car’s windscreen. Dipper turned on the wipers as the trees started to grow thicker. Dipper got a strong scent of pine before rolling the windows up.

“I don’t know,” Mabel said, tapping her fingers against the window, drawing a little smile in the top left corner where the condensation was thickest. “He seemed more… study study study, to me.” she waved her hands around in front of her, before moving them right into Dipper’s face.

“Are – Mabel stop – Are you kidding?” Dipper gently smacked her hands away, earning a quiet ‘owww.’ “after last time? The only thing Ford would want to do is shut it down… again.”

“You sure?”

“Of course.” Dipper said – not, in fact, sure – “Ford is a smart man.”

“The same smart man who caused Weirdmaggedon?”

“You caused Weirdmaggedon!”

“I did not!” Mabel argued, her jaw falling as she stared at Dipper, “I caused nothing, and anyone who says otherwise is evil and hates joy and also women.”

They continued to bicker and laugh all the way down the long, winding, pine-covered road to the Mystery Shack, Mabel distracting Dipper from his driving, Dipper waving her off.

It was nice to be like this again.

With the both of them at uni, it had gotten so difficult to stay entirely together, Dipper felt like just half of a dynamic duo.

Of course, they went to the same university, the best one in Oregon, so that they could stay together. But with Dipper’s double degree in film and science, and Mabel’s creative writing and art degrees, they were both so busy all the time. With their own separate groups of friends – of course Mabel had found the strangest kids on campus to befriend – it was hard to stay in contact every single day.

But they made the most of it by moving in together after high school anyway. So they still had the time to hang out when they’d both get home exhausted from their respective workloads.

Double degrees, man. Who thought them up?

It was almost too soon when they pulled up into the carpark of the Mystery shack. And it was just how they’d left it last time. And the time before that, and before that, all the way back to their thirteenth birthday.

“Mabel, could you– hey!”

He hadn’t even had the time to fully park before Mabel was ripping off her seatbelt like it was burning her and sprinting out the car door.

“Grunkle Stan!”

In the rearview mirror, Dipper could see Mabel launch herself into the old man’s open arms. He gave a quick wave too, leaning over the driver's seat to smile at his great uncles, who were waiting outside the shack for them.

That was nice.

“Come on out of that old useless metal box and help me fix something up dipstick!”

Nevermind.

Mabel snorted, Grunkle Ford nudged Stan, and Dipper rolled his eyes. He parked the car properly, keeping inside the crudely drawn lines that Stan had made thirty-something years ago.

“What needs doing, old man?” Dipper yelled when he got out of the car

The nickname was met by a chorus of ‘ooooos,’ mostly (only) from Mabel, who had her hand over her mouth and was looking between Dipper and Stan like they were going to fight. They weren’t. “That old portal would be great,” Stan yelled back after a large laugh – most of which was drowned out by coughing.

As the rain grew heavier, Dipper pulled his flannel jacket over his head, and ran over to the porch. When he got close to Mabel, she ducked under the jacket too, and they shared it – running close together, under the illusion of safety that was Dipper’s thin, very drench-able jacket, laughing the whole way – until they were safely inside.

The rain trickled down the windows, which had now been renovated and turned from triangles into circles. (thank god. Trigonometry had traumatised Dipper and Mabel all over again for a lifetime.)

That was when Ford stepped in, closing the door behind them, “alright,” he said in that same old stern, gravelly voice of his, “this way.”

The laughter had died down now, and the real reason they’d had to come to Oregon brought itself to light again.

This wasn’t just some regular summer visit.

The three of them followed Ford to the vending machine, passing by all the old, bullshit exhibits Stan used to make when he was running the shack. Dipper heard Mable giggle at the Cornicorn.

“So where is Soos?” Dipper asked.

Ford raised his eyebrows as he turned back to Dipper. “I had him evacuate immediately, my boy. This is very dangerous equipment we’re working with. Not just anyone can be around to tamper with it. I wanted him and his wife out of the danger zone as soon as possible.”

Mabel sighed.

“I missed Soos,” she said, tugging at the yellow strap of her star-shaped bag, “I was really hoping we’d get to see him again this summer.”

“I am sorry,” Ford said, and it sounded genuine. “But I couldn’t risk having unauthorised personnel in the area with the disastrous potential this portal possesses – I mean – to simply turn itself on is… well it’s a marvel in and of itself! I only wish I had the time to study it before–”

“Told you,” Mabel leaned over to Dipper to whisper as Ford continued on, “I win.”

“Win what?”

“Nothing,” Mabel beamed, “I just win.”

Dipper rolled his eyes as he saw Stan nudge Ford in front of them, “alright poindexter, the kids get it.” he huffed as he put in the code to the vending machine.

The door swung open, revealing a misty blue light. The Pines family made their way down the nightmarish stairs, taking slow deliberate steps until they reached the elevator.

Dipper couldn’t help but recall their first time down there. He’d been absolutely terrified, but of course – for Mabel and Soos – he couldn’t let anybody know that (but let’s be fair now, they definitely did. Dipper would have rather died than admit it.)

When they reached the lowest floor, and the elevator doors chimed and slowly opened, Dipper couldn’t believe his damn eyes.

There it was.

In all its fucking glory.

The portal was so much worse than Ford had made it out to be.

“Now I know this may be jarring–” Ford began to say, but he was cut off quite quickly by Mabel yelling-

“Holy shit!”

And despite Stan and Ford’s shared look of horror, she had been entirely justified to do so.

The portal had begun to… knit itself back together. Little blue sparks and streaks of electricity would fly off every now and again, and the disassembled metal triangle was holding itself up and together with nothing but pure power.

“You said nothing about this.” Dipper said, looking over to Stan and Ford, who both happened to look immeasurably guilty. “You just said it was starting to turn on! Not that it was already assembled and opened!”

“We didn’t want you kids to worry,” Stan said, crossing his arms and looking toward the portal, his face being bathed in a ghostly blue light when facing it head on. “We were worried enough as it was,” he continued, “and the last thing we wanted was for you two to come racing – speeding over here to lose your minds too.”

“Grunkle Stan!” Mabel put her hands up to her cheeks, staring at the portal, “if it’s this bad, we obviously want to know!”

The guilt on his face only grew. Stan turned to look at Mabel, who looked – and probably felt – completely betrayed by this withholding of information, which was never a good thing. The last thing Dipper wanted was Mabel mid-episode, needing to go to Sweatertown, while in close capacity to something this dangerous.

“I’m sorry pumpkin,” Stan sighed.

That seemed to ease Mabel up. Her face went from hurt and panic to something slightly more numb. It wasn’t good, but it would have to do for now.

“No time for apologies now!” Ford declared, swinging the door for the room that held the portal wide open. “If my hypothesis is correct, simply taking the gateway apart won’t be enough, and neither will just powering it off–”

“Doesn’t mean we can’t attempt!”

With that, Stan entered the room, rolling up his sleeves as he walked towards the portal.

“Stanley!”

Ford rushed in after Stan, who already had his hands on the portal, using his brute strength to tear large metal pieces off it. “Don’t knock it until you try it, poindexter!”

That was when the sparks started to gather around Stan’s feet.

“Stan!” Dipper yelled out, but the older two were too busy arguing to hear him and Mabel yelling. The electricity started to circle Ford as well.

“– is a safety line for a reason!”

“Well sorry if your wimp line was too boring, but I’m trying to get shit done.”

“Stanley, the children!”

“Oh for crying out loud, Ford, they’re 18–”

Mabel was the first to go running. Dipper followed quickly after as the sparks became brighter. Charging up for something big. The room was glowing an eerie blue, bathing everything in a ghostly pale colour. The metal of the portal was glowing too – only it was starting to turn… purple, and gold, swirling and mixing together in odd shapes and patterns.

“Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford!” Mabel yelled, grabbing Stan’s arm and trying to pull him backwards, away from the portal. “Look at your feet! Get away from there, please.”

They seemed to notice, then.

“Great uncle Ford,” Dipper said, caution leaking into his voice as he took a very careful step backwards, but it didn’t matter – the sparks were under his feet now, and no matter how many steps back he took, they followed. “What is this?”

“Fascinating…” Ford said slowly, looking down as his face was engulfed in the blue light shining up onto him. “Fascinating and bad. We’re far too close to the portal, it must be drawing us in.”

“Personally,” Mabel said, stepping back as well, but to no avail, “not super fascinated right now.”

The sparks got brighter, they got higher than just their feet – moving up to their knees, enveloping them. Mabel quickly wrapped her arms around Stan, and Dipper ran over to do the same.

Then, Dipper felt a force pull him down, into the earth – no. Into the sparks. Then, everything went black.

–

The feeling of falling had never been one that Mabel was particularly fond of.

Ever since gaining a fear of heights (which was her own fault, but she’d take that to the grave) the idea of falling had always made her throat catch. The sensation of your stomach dropping and your hair raising and your whole life flashing before your eyes as you braced for impact, well… Mabel, justifiably, wasn’t a fan.

But here she was.

She’d been clinging to Grunkle Stan and Dipper before being torn away from their arms and launched into space. Now she was falling, falling, falling and Mabel felt like she was going to be sick.

“Dipper!” she screamed out, but no reply. “Dipper!” she tried again, a little more desperate.

Nothing.

Just the endless feeling of falling with nowhere to go and no one else around.

Then, something hard hit her back. Ground. The spinning in her head at the feeling of falling halted and Mabel cherished the way the hard earth stung her back with its impact.

She rubbed her eyes, still disoriented, and looked around.

A few feet away, she spotted Dipper, who’d landed on all fours and was rubbing the back of his head with a groan. It took everything in her not to get up right then and sprint over.

He had landed relatively close, in some big, lumpy… fleshy mass.

Only when the flesh opened to reveal a collection of eyes, all eyes, did Mabel stifle a yell.

It made an uncomfortable groaning sound which alerted Dipper, who had just started standing up. He screamed and stumbled backwards, covering his mouth as he fell flat on his ass instead. Mabel rushed over, scooping her hands under his arm and pulling him to his feet.

“What is that, what is that?” Dipper yelped, jumping back and staring at the thing, which was looking back.

Mabel dragged Dipper back a few steps, “I have no idea. So let’s not go near it.” she said slowly. Then, her sight shifted upwards. What a mistake that was. Because holy heck this place was... indescribable.

The ground was a scorched red colour, and the trees weren’t dissimilar. They looked like pine trees, only wrong.

The worst was the bone.

They were standing on a giant skeleton. In the far off distance, Mabel spotted an arm, extended towards the sky like it was reaching for something in its final moments. The bone was yellowed with age and covered in the same red moss, trees and…

And houses.

“Did we…” Mabel began to ask.

“No.” Dipper’s eyes widened. “No, we didn't start another one.” and even he didn’t look certain. “Weirdmaggedon was a one off, crazy phenomenon that Bill made. We couldn’t have done it again, it wouldn’t be possible!”

“But Dipper, this is weird.”

And it was. Mabel didn’t use the word lightly – it had become sort of taboo between the twins. Strange, odd and unusual were okay, always had been and always would be. But weird was bad. Weird was wrong.

Dipper nodded slowly, pressing his lips into a thin line and looking around. Mabel swore she saw him glare at the fleshy eye monster attached to a lamppost. Then, he paused.

“Where are Stan and Ford?”

Mabel looked around. And Dipper was right. They weren’t anywhere around. Mabel felt something in her stomach clench, there was an ache in her chest as she desperately looked around for her Grunkles.

Where had they gone? Why weren’t they here? Had they woken up before the two of them had and left? Why would they have done that?

“Hey, hey,” Dipper’s voice was far away and fuzzy, but Mabel looked at him. His hand came up to her face to wipe under her eyes, only then did she realise the tears that had started to well up. “They didn’t leave, okay?” he was coming back into focus “they probably landed somewhere else. That portal was whack, it spit us out at separate points, they wouldn’t just leave us. You know that.”

Mabel nodded.

She brought her hands up to her face, wiping under her eyes as she took a few deep breaths. Dipper was right. They would never just leave the two of them.

God, Mabel felt crazy sometimes.

Dipper was looking at her like she was fragile again – like she could break and fall apart at any second. Mabel hated when people looked at her like that. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, waving him off. “I’m okay.”

She was not, in fact, okay.

They were stranded in some weird, skeletal dimension, with no idea where Stan and Ford were, completely lost, no clue how to get home. Mabel was feeling abandoned for no good reason all over again and Dipper knew that.

She was not having a fun time.

‘It’s okay,” Dipper said, and when Mabel opened her eyes again, he was smiling at her – a quiet, gentle smile that told Mabel it was okay. – “at least we’re together this time.”

“Hey!”

The voice had come from behind them so suddenly that it shocked the both of them, causing Mabel to jump a little. Mabel and Dipper spun around, she’d barely had time to wipe the residual tears from her face when the voice suddenly cut through. But they were looking now.

The girl appeared to be around their age. She was tall, and built. Her hair was up in a purple mess of a ponytail, with a brown buzzcut – presumably her natural hair colour – underneath and sticking out in a cute kind of way. She had a little white cat sitting on her shoulders. Behind her was a large ship, attached to a dark purple… hot air balloon? It looked like more of a strange blob.

But the strangest of all? She didn’t look remotely concerned that they were standing on a giant corpse. In fact, she looked like she was completely used to it.

“Shouldn’t you two be at school–” the girl paused, and looked at them like their heads were on backwards. A mix of shock, wonder and concern. That was when Mabel spotted her ears.

Pointy.

“You two are human…” she said. “You’re not supposed to be here.” The girl took a deep breath and tucked the purple strands of her hair behind her very pointy ears.

“We got lost?” Dipper said, grimacing as the words left his mouth. “Do you think you could help us, uh… whoever you are.”

“Amity Blight,” she walked over and held out her hand, which Dipper took and shook immediately. “I know how to get you home.”

Chapter Text

The Boiling Isles is what Amity called it.

Why was it boiling? Mabel couldn’t quite be totally sure. But it was still a ginormous skeleton, which was still deeply unsettling. When Mabel had asked about it, Amity had just chuckled and hummed “oh, don’t mind him.”

They had a birds eye view, from the flying ship Amity had come in on. Dipper had yelped when the balloon had turned out to be a giant blob of goop with a friendly face. Of course, that was just Mabel’s style, but it was huge. Incredibly daunting at first. Watching it inflate and show off a large grin above them was only slightly unnerving.

“This little guy is adorable,” Mabel cooed, looking up at the giant balloon that was keeping them flying.

“Little?” Dipper chimed in, trying not to vomit over the side of the ship. “Hey I thought you had a fear of heights, you should be where I am physically right now.”

“Not if I never look down!”

Dipper groaned as he continued to lean over the railing, keeping his hands firmly planted on the hard wood as Mabel continued to sit cross legged in the middle of the ship.

It was the best place there. She could feel the wind on her face and in her short hair (she was glad she’d cut it to shoulder length, not only did it look great, but it allowed for sensations like this.) but she didn’t have to worry about seeing over the edge of the ship and seeing the terrifying drop beneath them.

Stan would have liked it too.

And that thought made her sad.

The ground was a welcomed sensation, too though. The feeling of being up in the air wouldn’t be too greatly missed. Dipper had never taken it seriously when Mabel had gone off on a tangent about how horrifying being up high was. But now that she’d watched him experience it like that first hand, she knew he would never laugh again.

The Blight Manor (which was what Amity had called the monster of a house looming in front of them) was enormous. Mabel thought it looked like the kind of castle you see in fairy tales.

She led them through the front door which, like the rest of the house, was humongous. It was almost comical how tiny Mabel felt walking through those double-swinging, large wooden doors.

Mabel squealed in delight when another purple blob made itself known. Instead of being a hot air balloon. This little (not little, he was huge) guy seemed to be more person-shaped, and had a fancy little bowtie on. Like a butler.

“Why hello,” Mabel absolutely beamed, “now who are you?”

The purple blob just groaned in response. Mabel was only a little bit disappointed.

“Mabel, I don't know if you should be talking to that… thing.” Dipper said cautiously, grabbing her arm and steering her away from the friendly blob who just waved as they left.

“But Dipper!” Mabel protested, letting her shoulders fall, “it had a friendly face! And it’s waving to us!”

“Oh, that's just Mavery, he’s our abomination–”

“MAvery! Like MAbel!” Mabel wept, putting heavy emphasis on the first syllables of their names. “Dipper we were destined to be friends and you dragged me away! You monster.”

Amity gave a small laugh as Dipper rolled his eyes.

They made their way through the manor, walking past all different kinds of rooms Mabel had never even been able to dream of since visiting the Northwest Mansion. They had so many bedrooms, and a wide, open kitchen with a really tall roof. Mabel could have sworn she spotted an indoor pool somewhere. These people were the Northwest’s of the Boiling Isles. Only Amity was considerably nicer.

She led them down a corridor and down a set of spiraling stairs. At the end of the long hallway down the bottom of them was another large door with a window in the top half of the wooden door.

Mabel watched for a moment, waiting for Amity to open the door… she didn’t. That was when suddenly, another small blob of dark purple came flying towards the glass, landing on it with a hard, wet splat.

“There it is,” Amity said, as if she was expecting it, and only after that did she open the door. As it swung open, and the three of them walked in, Mabel registered the mess of a lab. She’d hung out with Grunkle Ford enough times to recognise the trademark working room of an inventor. There was a man standing at a table right at the edge of the lab wearing a dark grey coat covered in the purple goop. He was facing away from them, but that didn’t hide the absolute mess of brown hair on top of his head. “Hi dad,” Amity said gently as she walked towards him, giving the man a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Ah! Mittens, you’re just in time!” the man said, before holding up what looked to be the same purple substance, in the shape of a mini carousel. “Look at what I’ve made.” the carousel began to spin, emitting a lovely tune as it did so.

“That’s great dad,” Amity smiled, before grabbing him by the shoulders and spinning him to face Mabel and Dipper. “Now it's your turn to look at what I’ve found,” she laughed.

The man took Mabel and Dipper in, squinting his eyes, before they landed on their ears.

“Round!” he exclaimed, “who are you two? How did you get here? What part of the human realm are you from? Is it true that possums exist? How are the giraffes? Can you–”

“Dad!” Amity interrupted, “you never ask Luz these sorts of questions.”

“Well that’s because you always tell me not to interrogate her. I’m simply taking my chance.”

Amity sighed, before turning to the twins, “I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer any of his questions, just–”

“No, that's okay!” Mabel said, then she turned to Alador. “Mabel,” she pointed to herself, then to her brother, “Dipper; faulty portal my great uncle made; Piedmont, California but we live in Oregon; possums are a very real thing, I’ve had one too many chew through the sweaters I’ve made; giraffes are… fine? And I think that was it.”

The man nodded solemnly, “I told Eda that possums were real. I knew it!” he seemed indignant at that, only to shake his head. “I’m Alador Blight, I work with abominations, and you’ve clearly met my daughter.” That was when he turned to Amity. “Why haven’t you taken them to Luz yet?”

“Planning on that!” Amity said from far into the lab, grabbing what looked to be a bunch of flowers from a vase, “I just dropped in to pick up the flowers I made her. We’re going to be heading that way now.”

Dipper groaned quietly. “Does that mean going back on that… delightful ship of yours?” he raised his eyebrows in what was a poorly disguised grimace.

Amity seemed to catch on, and she snorted. Dipper’s face went red with shame as he folded his arms over his chest.

“Well we can't just walk to The Owl House,” she said.

“Oo?” Mabel tilted her head to the side. “What’s the owl house?” she asked. Maybe it was a delightful little bird sanctuary. Or maybe, in the theme of this place being weird, it was a house where they… fried up owls? Mabel didn’t like the second option, so she decided to push that one wayyyy far down and imagine a nice little house full of cute birds not getting fried or eaten.

“Well, you aren’t the only humans on the Boiling Isles currently.” Amity admitted, which did pique Mabel’s interest, “The Owl House is where my girlfriend, Luz, lives when she stays here instead of the human realm, it’s also home to one of the most powerful witches on the Boiling Isles and her titan.”

“Now that was a lot of words I didn’t understand.” Mabel noted.

Amity laughed. “Right,” she said, “the Boiling Isles is home to witches and Demons alike. All the strangeness that makes its way into your world? It’s created by a little bit of our word leaking into yours. And a titan is a powerful being. The skeleton that the Isles is built on is a titan. Only King is a lot smaller because he isn’t fully grown.”

“And if we go to this Owl House, we can find a way to get home?” Dipper asked tentatively.

“Certainly,” Amity said. “There’s a portal that Luz uses to come to and from the demon realm.”

“Great!” Dipper clapped his hands together. “Now we just need… to go on the ship.” he added, his spirits seeming to drop substantially.

“Well,” Amity said, “there is another way that would be just as quick and involves being only slightly high off the ground,” she added with a raised eyebrow, and Dipper seemed all too ready to take the second option.

–

“This is not what I had in mind!”

Dipper’s voice was caught by the wind, flying away from him and anyone else who could have possibly heard him if they were just on the ground. Which they weren’t. And Dipper still hated it – loathed it.

When Amity’s little white cat – who’s name she’d said was Ghost – turned into a long white staff and she’d said “I promise I’m a safe flier.” Dipper felt his legs turn to jelly.

Mabel was loving it, because of course she was.

They weren’t even flying up that high, but god it was fast. Dipper thought he might lose his breakfast and lunch the way that they were going. Zooming through the streets of the Boiling Isles was both electrifying and also horrifying. Dipper felt like they would crash at any second. He'd never been on a flying staff before and he would like to never again please and thank you. At this point, he would have preferred the ship.

“This is great!” he heard Mabel yell faintly.

“No it’s not!” Dipper yelled back, feeling his stomach go all squelchy.

When they finally landed, Dipper could have kissed the ground. (he didn’t, but that wasn’t the point. He could have.) they’d landed in front of a strange old tower with a little house attached. It was an old, white stone thing, clearly two stories. There was a large, orange and yellow circular window that looked like an eye in the top story which unsettled Dipper slightly. By the way Mabel was shifting on her feet, he could tell it was having the same effect on her. It looked like it had been smashed and fixed on multiple, non-consecutive occasions. The whole place looked a little run down.

Amity’s staff turned back into the animated little white cat, she crawled up and rested on her shoulders, tail flicking from side to side as she quietly purred against her.

Then, Amity made her way up to the door, which had a strange, circular shape of an owl head carved into the door. For some reason, Dipper already found the carving oddly annoying. Just looking at the thing gave him a headache.

“Heeeeyyyyyy Amity!”

Dipper jumped.

What. the fuck. Was that.

“Oh my GOODNESS!” Mabel shouted, pushing past Amity to get a better look at the… the tube that had just extended out of the door and was wiggling its awful, terrible way towards her. The bird, worm, thing circled Mabel, the evil brown tube of its… body? Extending to god knows what length to be eye level with Mabel. “You are extraordinary.”

“A human!” the thing yelled out, its voice high pitched and awful. Dipper flinched at the sound. “Hello! I am Hootsifer, the first, great and powerful guardian of the Owl House! And who might you be?”

“Mabel Pines, guardian of… of smile dip land!” Mabel laughed, then brought her hands up to the creature's face, tilting at this way and that as she inspected it. “What are you?”

“A type of worm demon myself, o, great guardian of smile dip land. I–”

“Hooty!” a voice came from inside the shack, young and full of a lively, seemingly endless energy. “What has Eda said about harassing people passing by outside?”

“I wasn’t harassing! Hoot!” the owl worm thing yelled in its shrill, awful voice, “she came to me! She is also the guardian of a land such as I myself am. Smile dip land!”

The door swung open, but the owl stayed in exactly the same place, simply extending to match where the door was going. “Smile dip?” the girl who opened the door said. She was about the same height as Mabel, maybe slightly taller, and her hair was cut all the way short. “Hey, I thought that stuff was banned in America–”

Then, she stopped, taking in the sight of Dipper and Mabel.

“Oh, my, gosh.”

“I messaged you that I had a surprise,” Amity said from where she was standing next to Mabel. Dipper walked up hesitantly, and Mabel gave an enthusiastic wave with a wide grin on her face.

“Oh my gosh! Sweet potato, you didn’t tell me it would be… people! In the Boiling Isles! Other than me! What the heck?” the girl, presumably Luz by the way Amity handed the purple goo flowers over to her and kissed her on the cheek before walking inside. “How did you guys get here? I thought we had the only working portal!”

Luz had a sparkling look in her eyes as she glanced from Mabel to Dipper to Mabel again. She gave a tiny little jump before ushering the two of them inside. Mabel immediately took the offer, giving a small squeal as she passed Luz, the two of them holding hands for a brief moment to share their excitement. Dipper hung back for a moment.

“I don’t like the owl thing.” he said, glancing over at the creature, who looked completely unaffected by his words, still grinning… which was just as unsettling with its beak. How did it manage to do that?

“Oh, that’s just Hooty, don’t mind him, he’s… always like that.” Luz said, and Dipper imagined that she thought her words were supposed to be reassuring.

They weren’t.

“So how did you two manage to get here?” Luz asked once they’d sat down in the… living room? It had a large red lounge that Luz and Mabel were already sitting on, which – great – left Dipper the floor. There were countless chests and candles strewn about, which surely would have to be a fire hazard, right? Dipper noticed a poster above the lounge – two, actually. One was a detailed drawing of one Eda the Owl Lady with her… pet? And the other was of Luz, there was purple goop all over her and the bold, red words ‘BANNED’ written above.

“You can blame our Grunkles for that,” Dipper said, deciding to ignore that.. “Our great uncle Ford is a scientist, he created a portal a few years ago with the help of…” he noticed Mabel flinch. “Well that doesn’t matter. The point is, it was dismantled and recently began putting itself back together. Our family and I got sucked through.”

“Well that isn’t a concern!” Luz leant forward with her head resting in her hands. “We have a portal here that you can use to get back! Easy peasy. I can show you there now if you like–”

“No,” Mabel cut in quickly. Her cheery demeanor had vanished, and was now replaced with a sort of melancholy. She always switched between the two emotions frighteningly fast. “We can’t leave without our Grunkles. They got sucked through the portal too.”

“Well where are they?” Amity asked from where she was sitting on one of the chests next to Luz, her hand draped over her shoulder. “Why aren’t they with you?”

“That’s the thing,” Dipper said, pulling his knees up to his chest, “we have no idea.”

–

Stan pulled himself up.

It was fucking freezing.

He rubbed the back of his head, feeling a bump already forming from where he'd absolutely bashed it on the hard earth where he fell. Not the worst he’d ever had though, so that was a definite plus.

Looking around, Stan could tell that he and Ford had landed somewhere snowy, and very high up. Probably a mountain somewhere. The red, pine-looking trees, covered in glistening snow gave Stan the heebie jeebies.

“Stanley, you blubbering fool.” Ford groaned from just a few feet away. He’d landed flat on his face and was pushing himself up from the ground. He sat up slowly, wiping the beard of snow that had collected on his jaw. “This is why we have lines around the portal. You completely disregarded the safety of both us and–”

Ford paused. Stan had the exact same realisation in the exact same second he did.

Where were the kids?

“Stanley!”

“I was only trying to help!” Stan yelled back, throwing his arms up in the air. “I admit, I fucked up. Okay? There. But if we keep yelling at each other and playing the damn blame game, we’re not going to find the kids at all. We’ll be stuck up here, freezing our asses off, in negative degrees, and we won’t get anywhere.”

Ford took a deep breath, looking like he was about five seconds away from strangling Stan where he stood – and god knew he could. “You’d be the only one freezing.” he muttered, folding his arms over his chest. “I didn’t decide to wear nothing but a singlet and sweatpants. Not to mention, I had an automatic warming device stored into my coat when it was being crafted.”

“Well good for you.” Stanley said, completely deadpan as he wrapped his arms around him, feeling the impact of the cold already. “Can we just get off this stupid, dumb mountain and get somewhere that isn’t minus a zillion degrees?”

“That’s not a real number, Stanley.”

“You’re not a real number.”

Ford huffed, his breath visible in the cold of the mountain. He nodded and began to walk downhill. “Let’s find our way somewhere warm before night falls and you freeze to death like an imbecile.”

“Yeah right, how kind of you.”

Just as they started walking, a noise stopped them in their tracks.

A laugh.

A bone-chilling familiar laugh.

Stan and Ford paused. They completely stopped moving, only to stare at each other with wide eyes. Stan couldn’t feel the cold anymore. Adrenaline had kicked in and his body felt hot. That same cold, sadistic laugh that had terrorised them one summer all too long ago. It was far away, but far too close at the same time.

Ford nodded to Stan. One quick, short nod, and they both continued walking, leaving large footprints in the snow behind them as they scaled down the mountain.

They needed to find the kids. And fast.

Chapter Text

Therapy was the worst.

Bill didn’t need it! He was fine without it! And if one more person told him that his insatiable thirst for global destruction was “unhealthy” or “a poor coping mechanism” or “a desperate plea for help, Bill, we just want to make you feel better,” he would…

Well, he didn’t know what he would do. But it would be ugly.

(as soon as he found a way to get his powers back)

And as soon as he got out of this stupid, hick psych-ward-thing-whatever-the-fuck-it-was, Bill was going after the Pines family. The ones who put him here. It was their fault he was suffering. Not his. He didn’t belong here!

And of course, explaining that – viscerally – to his therapist earned him a sympathetic look and an offer of help. Because of course it did. But Bill didn’t need help! He was fine already. He was plotting demises and downfalls regularly, he felt great!

Bill was–

What was that?

A tear in time and space. The portal – his portal, Stanford’s portal. It was open again. And it had opened so violently, that Bill could feel the impact – the shake it sent through dimensions – all the way in his little therapy pocket-dimension.

“Oh, I’m so outta here, suckers.” he said to nothing and nobody, knowing the universe was listening. And it could do nothing to stop him.

Bill felt his way through the rift, closing his eye and making his way back to the stone statue that had been sitting idly in the woods for six years, sprouting moss and pathetic, little white flowers. Its hand was still extended, still waiting not-so-patiently to make a deal. Bill put all his consciousness into that statue, making a gamble.

“Hey,” he put out into the world, waiting for someone to answer, “hey.”

Bill waited.

And waited.

He waited.

When finally.

“Hello? King, is that you? I can hear you!”

A young child's voice. A child from the stars. Bill recognised his type immediately. The meddlesome, curious archivists. “Hey kid,” Bill said, coaxing the young archivist through the tear in the portal – what a fool Stanford was for trying to open it up again. Stars, what possessed him this time? – when the child was right in front of him, Bill could have grinned. “What’s your name, buddy?”

“The Collector,” the star-born child said, and Bill cringed. What kind of idiot puts “the” in front of their name. “King, you know my name. Where are you?”

“Oh– that’s right! Hey there, Collector!” Bill felt the stone around his body, heavy against him. “I… uh… I’m hiding. Playing hide and seek with… someone. But! I have something for you. And I didn’t want my game to stop me from giving it to you.”

“What is it?” The Collector asked, tilting their head and bringing their hand up to their chin, looking curious. Hah. idiot.

“A toy?”

The child perked up, “like a game? I love games! What is it?”

“Oh it is such a cool game. It’s this really fun statue! Right in front of you.”

For a moment, the child’s eyebrows furrowed, knitting together as they stared at Bill’s body, considering it.

“That doesn’t sound any fun.”

“It’s a… a magic statue!”

“...”

“...”

“Cool!”

The Collector zoomed forward, inspecting the statue from every angle he possibly could, whirring left and right and up and down, examining every inch of Bill. They looked slightly puzzled, tilting their head as they scanned the stony thing. “What do I do with it?”

“You just gotta… shake its hand.” Bill said, attempting to wiggle his fingers before remembering – oh yeah – he was completely and utterly encased in stone, thanks to the Pines.

“Well that’s boring.”

“J̶̳̀́̃U̠҉̷̙ͦS̵̙͕̀̃T̨͈͗̌ͥ S̵̙͕̀̃Hͥ̽ͣ̃̔A̷͙ͭͫ̕K͕͓͌̎̾Ḛͭ̉̇͟ I̍̅̀̎̊T̨͈͗̌ͥ”

Bill will be the first to admit, maybe he lost his temper. But he’d been behind stone walls for six infinitely long years, pacing and waiting and going to therapy and hating it and losing his mind more than he already had and he was NOT going to let some stupid kid ruin all his plans. I mean. He killed TIME BABY, dammit.

“Jeez! Okay, I don’t know why you’re yelling!”

The collector reached forward, with a grimace on their face as they took Bill’s hand, looking the statue up and down with an uncomfortable expression.

Finally.

Bill felt himself settle into the statue, before the stone began to crack and crumble around him, falling and chipping off to reveal spots of yellow where Bill had been encased, and was now finally breaking free.

“Hah! Sucker!” Bill yelled, before flying off in the direction of the Mystery Shack, zooming through the trees to get there as fast as he possibly could. He was going to make the Pines family pay for what they’d done to him. He was going to cherish every painful moment they went through. He was going to follow them through that portal.

The Collector was left entirely alone in the woods of Gravity falls.

“King?” they asked, tentative as they spoke, looking around them, into the trees and beyond. “King, where… Where did you go?”

They were scared.

–

“Pines… Pines…” Eda said slowly, rolling the word around in her mouth. Luz had never seen her this… calculating before. She seemed so in her head about it, actually thinking. “Pines,” she said again, “why does that name sound so familiar? Do you think these kids are wanted in the human realm? Maybe that’s where I’ve seen and heard of them before… Pines…”

“Nah,” Luz said, gently patting King’s skull as he’d laid his head on her lap. “They don’t seem like the ‘wanted’ type,” she shrugged.

Eda and King had arrived at The Owl House shortly after Mabel and Dipper had shown up. King had already been asleep and was hiding in Eda’s hair, but when Eda had seen them, she’d gotten all weird, like she’d recognised them from somewhere. But she clearly couldn’t remember where. She’d sent them outside with Amity for just a moment while she talked to Luz about them.

“You never know. That Mabel girl has a look in her eye that says killer.” Eda said, clearly convinced that that is where she knew them from. No other explanations needed, because of course the only people Eda was capable of recognising were wanted criminals.

“Killer style maybe, but I don’t think these guys are what you think they are.”

Eda waved one hand, or she would have if it hadn’t fallen off mid-gesture. “Whatever, you can tell Maple and Dopper to come back in now.”

Luz shook her head as she stood, laughing, which caused King to groan in reluctance to let Luz get up and move.

“Sleepy.” was all he said. And it sounded like more of a demand.

“Sorry, King,” Luz gave his skull a little kiss, which seemed to keep him docile and happy enough to stay put. Luz made her way over to the door, opening it.

Mabel was chatting happily away to Hooty, the two of them going on and on – it was nice to see someone tolerating Hooty that wasn’t just Lilith for once – Dipper, however, stood quite far away from their friendly neighborhood owl, looking at the poor guy like he absolutely loathed him. Guess her reassurance hadn’t paid off in the way she’d expected.

Amity was standing by Dipper, keeping a hand on his shoulder just in case he’d finally had enough of their house demon. The guy looked capable of murder as he glared at Hooty and his sister. Clearly protective.

That was okay. Luz felt the same way about King, Vee and Hunter. She could relate.

“Alrighty, you guys are good to come back inside now!” Luz shouted to the twins and Amity. The three of them made their way back inside, Mabel giving Hooty a quick, gentle fistbump to his side, which Hooty seemed to greatly appreciate.

As soon as they walked through the door, Eda was eying them again, like she was trying to pull them apart and decipher them as if they were some sort of code.

Dipper seemed to notice, narrowing his eyes. But Mabel squealed when she noticed King sleeping on the lounge.

“Oh my gosh!” she seemed utterly delighted as she ran to King, picking him up and giving him a light squeeze, which seemed to rudely wake him up, “he’s so furry, he's just as big as Waddles, oh my goodness you are precious!”

“Hey!” king yelped, wiggling his little arms, “you will put me down this instant!”

Then, Mabel reacted in a completely uncharacteristic way – Luz thought, considering she’d known her for less than half an hour.

She shrieked.

She shrieked and she dropped King the second he started taking.

Mabel fell backwards and Dipper seemed to be right there with her, grabbing under her arm and pulling her up before backing away as far from King – who looked just as confused as Luz felt – as they could get.

“Get away from him! He’s possessed!” Dipper yelled, pointing at King.

“Possessed? He’s not possessed!” Eda scratched her head, looking between King and the twins, “what makes you think he’s possessed?”

“His voice!” Mabel said, tears forming in her eyes. The poor girl looked beyond distressed. “He sounds just like…”

No name ever came. In fact, it seemed to choke her up more, becoming unable to continue speaking. “That’s just King’s voice,” Luz replied, holding her hands up in front of her in what she hoped was a calming gesture. “He’s always sounded like that.”

“Yeah! I’ve always sounded like this, what’s your problem?”

The twins flinched at the sound of King talking.

That was bad. Not a good sign. Luz picked King up then, despite his kicking and his protests and brought him out of the room. “I’ll be back in a second! Just let me talk to King!”

“Hey! What’s the deal?” King wriggled his way out of Luz’s hold, landing on his feet on the floor.

“King,” Luz said in her best older sister voice, crouching down to be at eye level with the young titan, “those two Cleary think you’re someone else, and I’m not sure how good of an idea it would be to have you in the same room as them.” King began to protest, but Luz held up her hand “just for a little bit, Kay? They’re in a completely new and strange world, let’s give them some grace. Remember when I first got here?”

King rolled his eyes, making a ‘pfft’ sound as he waved his hand. “You weren’t scared in the slightest! You practically begged to stay!”

“Nevermind. Not my point.”

It was beginning to rain outside. The boiling droplets of water gently hitting the ground and turning the flowers in their yard to ash upon impact. Luz heard what she only assumed to be Mabel yelping at the way the boiling rains impacted the world around them – god knew Luz had done the same thing – she looked out the window to see Eda and the twins standing under one of Eda’s protection spells that she’d learnt with King’s new glyphs, sending a pretty blue shield over the house.

“My point is,” Luz continued, looking back at King, who was pouting in her direction, “they’re probably really scared right now, with no idea where their family is, so we need to help them out as much as we can. And right now, that might mean slowly warming them up to you.”

King huffed, turning his head away and crossing his arms over his little fuzzy chest.

“Fine. But they’ll learn to adore me?”

Luz could tell the way he’d said it, the words were supposed to be something of a demand, but there was a clear layer of unsureness, something vulnerable and self conscious.

“Of course, King,” Luz said, giving his skull a nice scratch, “everyone always does.”

–

“Fuck this stings!”

“Stanley! Language.”

“I’m less worried about language, and more worried about the burn marks on my arm, poindexter.” Stanley scratched at his bicep, irritating the burn marks he’d gained from being out in the seemingly harmless rain. Which was – in fact – NOT harmless.

It was acid hot and burnt like a bitch. They’d found shelter in some sort of a cave on the leg. That’s right, no you read that correctly. The LEG. because, on their way down from the KNEE, Stan and Ford had been absolutely gobsmacked to find that they were standing on a giant skeleton corpse thing.

Ford, of course, was completely unsurprised, claiming he “believed to have passed through this place briefly on my travels.” He was also entirely unharmed by the rain, because he’d thought ahead for a situation like this and made his coat acid proof too, like a lunatic. Or a weird human version of inspector Gadget. Who prepares for acid rain on an alien planet… dimension… place!

Stanley wasn’t sure where they were and he wanted to go home, even though this whole mess was his fault. He knew that, okay? He was learning to… what was it Mabel called it… take accountability for his actions! Yeah! He was taking accountability. Lots of it! More than anyone else was. He was better than everyone at it. And also incredibly humble.

“Here,” Ford said, handing Stan a container of thick oozy stuff. It was beige and creamy and looked like the kind of shit you’d find in an oyster.

“What is it?” Stan cringed.

“Apply it to the afflicted areas, it should help. I made it myself when I found myself stranded on a volcanic planet. I always keep it on me.”

Stan took the metal container, scooped some out and rubbed it into the burns and thank god, it worked like magic. The stuff soaked into his burnt skin and alleviated some of the pain.

“Thanks.” Stan said, handing it back.

Ford nodded, and for a while it was quiet. No spoken words passed between the two, no annoyed banter or prodding and poking. Just the simple quiet and the drip, drip, drip of the rain dropping off the cave mouth. It was a damp, depressing cave.

“We need to talk.” Ford said, breaking the silence.

“‘Bout what?” Stan scratched at his chest, before moving his hands behind his head, leaning back on the damp rock he was sitting up against, using it as a resting space.

Ford just blew out a sharp, impatient breath. “We both heard it, Stanley. Don’t pretend you didn’t. We need to talk about Bill.”

“Oh.”

Stan had tried to forget about that. He didn’t want to deal with the thought that he’d gotten them stranded in this weird dimension with the potential of Bill – who he’d thought he’d gotten rid of for good when he sucker-punched him into next millenia – just around the corner.

But there was no mistaking that laugh.

“How do you think he got here?” Stan asked hesitantly, not wanting to hear the next words out of Ford's mouth, which he was sure would be “because of you, you big idiot.”

They weren’t.

“I’d assume that when the portal became active again, the waves of it opening and sucking us through reached his statue in the woods, waking him up from whatever six-year-slumber he’s been in.” Ford said.

“I really thought I’d gotten rid of him,” Stan sighed, rubbing his hands down his face as he tipped his head back, looking at the roof of the cave. It was sharp and pointy and jagged, facing down towards him, condemning him for not being good enough, for not taking down Bill completely.

Ford looked at him like he could read his mind.

“There’s no time for pity parties now,” he said very matter-of-factly, “the most we can do now is find the kids and then find a way out of here. If I remember correctly, this dimension is full of weird and wacky ways to the human dimension –

You just have to know where to look.”

–

“So you kids have lost your…”

“Grunkles,” Mabel said in response to Eda’s uncertainty. Mabel liked Eda. She was spunky. She had a lot of sass and colour. She was a very colourful lady – in the metaphorical sense. “Stanley and Stanford”

Eda was looking out the window. But at Mabel’s name dropping, she swivelled her head around to narrow her eyes in what Mabel could only assume was recognition, quite suddenly.

“Stanley Pines?”

“Stanley Pines.” Mabel nodded.

“Big ears, red nose, real know it all, spent a lot of time in Vegas?” Eda continued, her eyes getting wider with every pointed word she said.

“Yep, that’s pretty much Stan,” Dipper chimed in, playing with his cap in his hands, picking at the stitching. Mabel swiped his fingers away so that he wouldn’t ruin the hat. “Owned and ran the Mystery Shack in Oregon for 30 years, that Stan.”

Eda’s face was paler than it had been moments ago, all the colour sucked out of it.

“Oh no.”

“What?” Luz said, looking between the three of them, as if she was feeling left out from some big inside thing, watching from through a window. “What is it?”

Eda gulped, her eyes moving down to the floor where she stayed staring for a considerably long time. Mabel remembered looking like that for hours after her last time eating smile dip. She did not envy Eda at this particular moment.

“I think I remember where I know these kids from.”

–

“You were WHAT?” Luz felt betrayed, swindled, hoodwinked.

“It was only for a night!” Eda clawed her hands down her face, tilting her head up as if begging the heavens for a reprieve of this interrogation, which Luz was NOT going to give her. “I only did it to steal his car!”

Mabel and Dipper were staring, wide eyed and open mouthed at Eda.

“You know,” Dipper spoke up, “Stan told me he’d been divorced once, but I pictured, you know… a normal human person, not…”

“A hot witch way out of his league?” Eda finished his sentence, giving her hair a self-confident flick, “well this mama wanted his shiny car. He didn’t know I was a witch, obviously I kept that to myself.”

“You were married!” Luz interrupted, waving her hands in the air. Because oh my GOD Eda had been married before Raine and hadn’t told her!

“For a night!” Eda said, in the same tone as she groaned into her hands, letting the frustration seep between her fingers and out into the world. “It was for one night, and I didn’t consider it important enough to tell you.” she then turned her attention to the twins, “if and when you find them, do not bring them back here. The last thing I need is a desperate ex on my doorstep.”

“But we have the only portal!” Luz interrupted again.

“Then don’t bring them inside!”

Luz groaned, holding her hands out to Eda like she could strangle her, but was desperately holding herself back.

“Alright, you two,” Luz turned to Mabel and Dipper, deciding she was now ignoring Eda. “We’re out. The boiling rain has passed, so it’s time we go on a trek to find your missing grunkles.”

Mabel seemed to perk up, giving a little set of claps, “are we going back on the flying broomstick things you guys have? That was fun!”

“No it wasn’t,” Luz heard Dipper mumble under his breath, looking nothing short of sick at the thought.

“Sorry, Mabs,” Luz said, and despite the shut down, Mabel looked absolutely delighted at the nickname that had slipped out “but I think walking is the way to go with this one. The Boiling Isles is a huge place, and if we walk, we’ll have a better look in all of the nooks and crannies of the Isles.”

“Thank god,” Dipper sighed.

“We’ll start with Bonesburrough, then make our way through the towns, to the knee.” Luz said, grabbing Stringbean, who was in staff mode, before making her way to the door, the twins close behind. “And maybe I can teach you two some magic on the way.”

Chapter Text

Mabel was a natural.

Call it an artist's spark or whatever name you think fits best, but the glyphs Luz kept teaching the two of them as they made their way to Bonesburrough came so easily to her.

She kept her little notepad in her bag, and it was easy enough to draw the glyphs, even with the threat of having to make a perfect circle.

Dipper, on the other hand, was clearly struggling.

“Just try it again, like how I did it, here!” Mabel offered Dipper her notebook, and he just groaned in frustration, hands flying to tear at his hair when the latest of his attempts at glyphs practically blew up in his fingers.

“I have been trying! For the past half an hour!”

“Don’t stress!” Luz chimed in, giving Dipper a firm pat on the back, “it took me a while to figure out King’s new glyphs at first. Your sister just happens to be a natural, don’t take it to heart.”

“Yeah,” Dipper sighed, crumpling up the new glyph he’d attempted to draw and tossing it over his shoulder, just as it exploded behind him. “Not that big of a deal if I don’t get it. At least Mabel has one other thing she can claim to beat me at now,” he lightly taunted, looking over to Mabel, who just stuck out her tongue at him.

“Alpha twin,” she taunted right back.

“Do NOT,” Dipper stopped walking, holding his finger in the air at Mabel, his face twisted in recognition, “bring that back. We are not having a repeat.”

“Back?” Luz laughed, “repeat? What’s that about?”

Mabel shrugged, making a nonchalant ‘hm’ noise, “I’m taller than Dipper, so when we were 12–”

“Mabel, shut up.”

“–he made a growing and shrinking ray–”

“Stop it!”

Dipper was trying to cover her mouth, but she was a master of avoidance, dodging and weaving as she laughed her way through her words, leaning at a weird angle as she held Dipper's hand at bay. “So that he could be taller than me! But it didn’t work because my crazy ex stole it and used it against us!”

“I’m sorry?” Luz looked genuinely concerned, but Mabel waved her off with a large grin. Dipper had given up trying to shut Mabel up – good! She would not be silenced! – and was now sulking as he walked behind Luz and Mabel, shifting his satchel over his shoulder.

“It wasn’t a big deal, I got to eat a giant gummy koala.”

“You mean a gummy bear?”

“What’s that?”

Luz narrowed her eyes, tilting her head at Mabel. “It’s like you live in a world where everything is copyrighted.”

“Or maybe YOU do. Maybe you’re the strange one.” Mabel countered, to which Luz nodded sagely, her hand coming up to scratch her chin.

“I don’t have an argument for that.” she admitted. “So what other weird things are in your world? Do you guys have demons and witches in Gravity falls? Skin badgers? Fire bees?”

Mabel cringed at ‘weird,’ if Luz noticed, she didn’t say anything about it. Mabel ignored the sting that the memories around the word brought up, and continued. “None of those things. But we do have gnomes.”

“Really?” Luz asked, wonder in her eyes, “I always knew those things existed, I was sure of it when I was a kid. Were they as whimsical as I imagined?”

“They were jerks!” Dipper shouted from behind them, and Luz looked between Mabel and Dipper with curiosity.

“Yeah,” Mabel agreed, drawing Luz’s attention back to her, “they tricked me into dating them and tried to kidnap me and make me their queen. And then they turned into a giant gnome monster when we ran away.” Luz looked horrified, her eyes wide as she stared at Mabel, “don’t worry! We defeated them with a leafblower.”

“Right…” Luz said, her words slow as she nodded. “Okay, why don’t we start with something a little less horrifying to get to know each other, then? What’s your favourite kind of drink?”

“Don’t ask her that,” Dipper chimed in, rustling through his bag, not looking up as he spoke.

“Mabel-Juice!”

Luz paused. “What’s that?”

“It’s like if coffee, energy drink and nightmares had a baby.” Dipper brought out his notebook and began looking around to take notes. His journal was exactly like Ford’s, only with the big dipper constellation on the front cover.

He was always writing and taking notes in those old things now. He’d basically become a younger Ford.

“That doesn’t actually sound too bad,” Luz hummed.

“Basically,” Mabel started holding her hands out, ready to explain, “I mix apple juice with orange juice, dump in five heaped spoons of sugar and pink edible glitter, then I mix in little plastic dinosaurs just so I’m getting my fill of microplastics too.”

“Honestly?” Luz said, and Mabel heard Dipper preemptively groan behind them, “that doesn’t sound awful. I might have to try that some time.”

“God, there's two of them.”

Mabel and Luz laughed, bumping their fists together as they continued on. It wasn’t very long that a little, adorable town came into view. Luz opened her arms and spread them out in a grand gesture, taking the entire town in as it was. “Welcome to Bonesburrough. This is where it all started for me a few years ago. My best friends Willow and Gus live here too. They’ll be stoked to meet you guys!”

The sun was shining on the small, abnormal-looking town, and Mabel took it all in. she spotted some of the fleshy, eye-mass Dipper had landed himself in connected to a street light. The houses were all small and homey, albeit somewhat strange in their architecture. This was a town Mabel could get behind!

“So,” Dipper started, looking around the little village, “where do we start?”

Luz piped right up, looking joyful. “I’ll find my girl Willow, and also Gus, the more people looking, the better, right?” and without letting either of the twins answer, she ran off, leaving the two of them behind, yelling out “just wait there!”

So that was what they did.

–

“First it’s freezing cold, then it’s pissing down boiling rain, and now it's blisteringly warm.” Stan groaned, dragging his hands down his face, “when will this place make any goddamn sense?”

“Never!” Ford piped up, holding his finger in the air as if about to go on a tangent. Which he definitely was. “In my time trapped between dimensions, I believe I found myself in this one briefly. From my studies, I discovered this was a weirdness dimension. All the odd and unusual entities that found their way into our world were bleeding through from this one! It really is quite fascinating.”

Stan was about to open his mouth when – despite the heat – a chill ran down his spine.

They were being watched.

Still.

They’d both noticed it since the knee. Flashes of yellow in the glistening snow, a quiet laugh at misfortunes the brothers encountered, the pointed feeling of one beady little eye on them at all times.

Neither of them wanted to say anything about it. The cave was the only place they’d felt safe enough to.

“Ford,” Stan started, but he was quickly cut off by his brother holding up his hand.

“I know.”

This was all Stanley’s fault and there was nothing he could do about it now.

–

“Willow, Mabel, Mabel, Willow,” Luz introduced the two of them, a spring in her step as Willow held out her hand for Mabel, who completely swatted it away and went in for a hug. Dipper shook his head, classic Mabel

“It's so exciting to meet more of Luz’s friends, hi!” Mabel gleamed, before stepping to the side, putting Dipper right into Willow’s view. “This is my brother Dipper.”

Willow giggled, tilting her head in a fascinated way at Mabel. “It’s lovely to meet you too! Luz told Hunter and I a lot about you two on the way here.” That was when she stepped aside to reveal a boy about Dipper's height. He was blond and tall, with scars all over his face that Dipper found himself very intrigued by. All the while, the guy had a hundred-yard smile, and was looking at Willow like she was something utterly precious.

“Hi,” Dipper said, lifting a hand to wave.

“Hi,” Hunter replied, doing the same.

So he was awkward. Dipper could get behind that. They both seemed to be men of taste, then.

“Gus is on his way, but until then, I think we should split up to cover more ground!” Luz took a step towards Willow and Mabel, which seemed to mean those three would go together, then, which meant… “Hunter, you can take Dipper with you and meet Gus outside the library.”

“No worries,” Hunter gave a quick wink and a thumbs up, before tilting his head at Dipper, indicating to follow him.

This should be fun.

They started walking through the town, weaving through houses and streets, giving Dipper a relatively good layout of the small village. He was already doodling away in his journal, he was up to the fourth installment now, he hoped Ford would be proud.

“What’s that you’re doing?”

Dipper looked up, eyeing Hunter, who was leaning over his shoulder to get a look at Dipper’s journal. Dipper raised an eyebrow as they continued to walk through the town.

“Just journaling. I document weird and unusual things, and this entire dimension… well,” Dipper started to say.

“Weird and unusual?” Hunter finished his sentence.

“Yeah.”

“I get that,” Hunter said, shrugging, “for a human, it must be really strange coming here unknowingly and getting stuck.”

“Especially for the more… paranoid,” Dipper added on quietly, putting his journal away into his satchel, absentmindedly fiddling with the strap.

“Right?” Hunter said loudly, putting his hands up in the air, before realising they were getting strange looks, putting his arms back down and scratching the back of his neck. “I mean… yeah. Paranoia sucks. When I was growing up in the castle, I was always watching my back. I was… different then, not as confident in myself. Heck, even now that I am me, I'm still paranoid sometimes.”

Dipper resonated.

“Yeah, man,” Dipper nodded, lightly punching Hunter’s shoulder, “before I started going by Mason, I–”

“I thought your name was Dipper?”

“Oh,” Dipper coughed, before sighing, then moving his hand to lift up his fringe. “It’s just a nickname, but everyone calls me Dipper now anyway, so I don’t really go by Mason anymore. You know how strange some trans names can be.”

“You too?”

Dipper paused, halting in his tracks as he stared at Hunter. It reminded him of the spiderman meme, pointing at one another as they realised they were the same.

“No way.”

“Yeah, man!” Hunter gave Dipper a light push, “only difference is I was made out of a tree first.”

“I– you were what?”

“Nevermind.” Hunter laughed, before continuing his walk.

They continued in silence for quite some time, but it was a comfortable silence, not awkward like it had been before. They’d found solidarity and familiarity within one another.

And it was nice.

“So that girl you were with, Willow?” Dipper decided to speak up again after some time asking around the town.

“Yeah,” Hunter sighed, his features softening at the mere mention of her name. “She’s the greatest. I met her a few years ago when I was on a… different path. She really helped me a lot. Made me realise that I could be more than just half a witch, I think I helped her with the same thing.”

Dipper thought of Pacifica for just a moment.

The two of them had gotten close after the haunting of Northwest Manor, and Dipper always had an underlying feeling that he’d helped her deal with some of the abuse she’d undergone.

“I have a similar person.”

“A girlfriend?” Hunter poked Dipper’s shoulder, a devious smile on his face as he teased him.

“What! No! I mean, not exactly, it– look it’s complicated, man,” Dipper groaned, dragging his hands down his face as he looked towards the sky, pleading with anyone up there listening for help. “We kind of hated each other for a bit, but then I busted a ghost in her mansion and… I don’t know, we’ve been close ever since but it’s never gone… that far.”

“Do you want it to?”

Dipper paused, hesitating for just a moment, a lapse in his step, a tightness in his chest, before nodding.

“God, she’d love hearing about this place,” he said to Hunter, a small grin forming on his face at the thought. She liked hearing about his and Mabel’s wacky adventures. He should invite her on one at some point. Like he did with Wendy.

God, Dipper still cringed at that.

He considered telling Hunter about that too – considering they were basically best friends now – before suddenly, Dipper was met face to face with…

Another Dipper?

“Agh! Tyrone!” Dipper yelped, punching the clone. But instead of his hand making contact with anything, Tyrone exploded into a puff of blue smoke. Dipper tilted his head, before scanning around the area to see if any more of his creepy ex clones he thought he’d gotten rid of were out to get him.

“Gus!” Hunter yelled, cupping his mouth and waving.

That was when a younger boy, probably around sixteen, walked over towards them. He had his hair up and in dreads that fell down his neck, with a small amount of stubble on his face.

“Hey, man,” he greeted Hunter with a really cool handshake, ending in a ‘boosh’ sound, before turning his attention to Dipper, grinning widely, “Luz said something about more humans in the boiling isles, but I didn’t quite believe her. Hi, I’m Gus.”

“That–” Dipper started, pointing to where his clone had been, then moving his finger towards Gus, “that was you?”

Gus laughed, nodding, then he made a circular motion with his finger, creating a blue line in the air out of nothing, connecting it together to make a circle which then… poofed into more clones of Dipper and Hunter all around them. There were so many that Dipper couldn’t count. The demons of Bonesburough just moved their way around the fake crowd, like this was just a purely normal day for them.

Dipper stood, starstruck, as the clones poofed away one by one.

“That is cool, dude.”

–

It was starting to cloud up again.

Mabel looked up at the sky as the three of them walked, rubbing her thumb along the inside of the strap on her bag. Was it going to downpour with that boiling rain again? How was Dipper faring? What were her grunkles doing? Were they okay? What if–

“Right Mabel?”

“Huh?” Mabel shook her head, zoning back into the conversation. As she looked up, she met Luz’s concerned eyes, watching Mabel carefully.

“I was just telling Willow about how quickly you picked up the glyphs,” Luz said, and then Mabel realised she was holding out a notepad and pen in her direction. Mabel took a breath and smiled widely, trying to make it look at least somewhat convincing that she wasn’t worried sick.

Mabel began to doodle on the page, drawing the light glyph Luz had shown her and Dipper, “yeah, I mean, it wasn’t too hard. It’s probably easier when you're an artist and can actually draw a circle.”

Willow laughed. “That’s probably why Luz is so good at it.”

Mabel tilted her head and looked at Luz, “you’re an artist? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Luz gave a quick shrug. “Probably because my artwork always got me in trouble at school. That anatomically correct griffin was probably what did it for me in high school.”

“Spider breath?” Willow asked.

“Spider breath.” Luz confirmed.

Griffins with spider breath was not something Mabel was prepared to encounter on the Boiling Isles. Mabel hadn’t been able to stand spiders since Mystery Mountain. It had been six years and she still got squirmish at their spindly legs and beady little eyes. To think something could breathe them out made her sick.

“What kind of stuff do you make, Mabel?” Willow asked, falling back to be in step with her. She had such a kind, welcoming face, framed well by her short indigo hair.

Mabel shrugged. “I really like crochet. I used to just make sweaters when I was younger but now I make all sorts of things. Plushies, blankets, bags, oo! I actually made this one!”

The star shape that hung at her side was lifted up by Willow for inspection. Mabel had filled the bag with all sorts of bits and bobs, it was completely packed. There was a journal of her own – a pink one, with the shooting star on the front that Ford had made her – a first aid kit with bandaids and bandages, extra hairbands, her hot glue gun – you never know! – a book or two and her water bottle.

Willow ran her fingers along the stitches in awe. “This is so neat! Would you be able to make a leaf-shaped one?”

“Definitely!” Mabel said, nodding quickly as she grinned at Willow, “that sounds like a lot of fun.”

Luz cooed as she walked backwards, staring at the two of them. “God it’s so nice to see you two getting along! My heart feels all fuzzy.”

Willow giggled, putting her arm around Mabel and tipping her head in her direction. “It’s hard not to when the company you keep is this phenomenal!”

Mabel grinned.

She felt warm. Accepted.

After some time, the boys met the three of them back where they started, joined by a third kid who must have been Gus. Mabel pretended not to be surprised when she saw Dipper happily, excitedly chatting away to the two of them.

“Find anything?” Mabel asked Dipper when they were within earshot. Dipper looked up at Mabel, as if realising for the first time what they were supposed to be doing. His face sunk and he shook his head. “Neither did we.”

“Well, that just means this road trip gets to progress!” Luz cheered, throwing her arms around Dipper and Mabel, bringing them in close. “The band leaves Bonesburrough and so their journey continues! You guys in?”

Luz turned to Willow and Gus, who looked at one another, and then back at Luz with preemptively apologetic expressions on their faces.

“I’ve got an assignment for boiling biology due tonight,” Willow sighed, “no adventure for me today.”

“Gus?”

“BI history,” he said, his shoulders sinking.

“Darn!” Luz said, kicking the dirt under her feet. She turned to Dipper, Mabel and Hunter then, as the other two glumly made their ways back to their respective homes. “Guess it's just us four then!” she said, turning on her heels and marching right out of Bonesburrough, leaving the others no choice but to follow her quickly.

Luz had said the best place to look would be on the knee, because it was the highest vantage point there was, so that was the direction they went.

It didn’t take long.

They hadn’t even made it to the road up to the knee when they saw two familiar silhouettes against the skyline. Mabel teared up, seeing Grunkle Stan’s funny hat and Ford whacking Stan on the arm when the kids came into view.

“Grunkle stan!” Mabel yelled, running forward.

It didn’t take long to find them.

No.

But it didn’t take long for everything to go completely wrong too.

Before Mabel could run and squeeze her uncles to death, there was a familiar sound, a laugh, that stopped her dead in her tracks. She turned back to Dipper, eyes wide with horror, and he looked the exact same.

“I knew he was waiting for something.” Ford whispered.

“Well, well, well, well well well well…” said the voice that had haunted their family’s narrative since they were twelve.

“Didn’t you Pines’ miss me?”

Chapter Text

Mabel felt herself floating.

She heard Dipper, and Stan and Ford, scream out her name, voices distant, far away cries.

She saw the Boiling Isles shrink when she looked down, growing further as she was lifted into the sky.

But Mabel was gone.

Panic had set in and Mabel froze. She hadn’t heard that voice, seen that awful triangular shape and that golden yellow, felt that sort of power gripping her since she was twelve. And Mabel, despite everything in her screaming to fight back, went completely still

“Admit it, you kind of missed me!” Bill said in a sing-song voice, smiling with his one, big, beady eye as he gripped Mabel’s torso, holding her high above the ground as he taunted her family.

She’d gone running, right into the middle of it. Of course she was the object that Bill had gone for first.

“Hardly!” Dipper yelled. He must have been so confused, like Mabel was – how did he get back? Why wasn’t he stone anymore? What happened? – but there he was, fighting back anyway. Like Dipper always would.

“Ooh come ON Pines’,” Bill groaned, throwing Mabel up in the air as she screamed, before catching her – like she was nothing more than a ball, his plaything – “lighten up a little.”

“Let her down, you one eyed monster, or I’ll–” Stan started to say, raising his fists in the air.

“Or you’ll… what?” Bill flew down at the speed of light, right in front of Grunkle Stan, face to face, unafraid. “Do what you did last time? Punch me again? Look how well that worked out for you, Stanley. So go on. Do it. DO IT.”

Mabel could feel Bill’s grip tightening around her, becoming painfully tight. She looked back to Luz and Hunter, who were standing there in shock, eyes wide as they stared, unable to do anything. Mabel looked back to Stan as she felt her ribs squeeze, and a tiny noise left her mouth, her eyes screwing shut.

She heard Stan suck in a breath.

“C’mon Pines. You won’t.”

“Let. Her. Go!” there was a loud sound of impact, and Mabel felt herself get thrown back.

A pair of arms caught her. She looked up – wincing – to see Luz above her, arms under hers, holding her up. When Mabel looked back, Stan was in a position that told her that he had – in fact – punched Bill, and by the way he was clutching his face, it looked like it was right in the eye.

“Gah! You know how long it takes to regenerate that you–” he opened his eye and began lunging for Stan, before Ford stepped in, holding up his plasma gun and shooting Bill one, two, three times right in the bowtie.

Bill fell back as Stan and Ford ran around him, making their way to Mabel. Stan took her from Luz, who was standing up now, taking out her notebook.

“We can take it from here, you keep her safe.”

Luz held out her hand, and Stringbean transformed back into a mighty staff, the stick growing to fit in her hand. Hunter did the same with his little blue bird. The two of them boarded their palismen and raced towards Bill.

Stan stayed behind with Ford right beside them, aiming his plasma gun at Bill from the distance.

“I don't think that’s such a good idea!” Stan yelled out after them.

Luz took a slip of paper from her pocket, balancing on her staff as she slammed the piece of paper onto Bill’s side, causing a large stem of a plant to grow from the yellow bricks, rooting him to the ground.

Hunter jumped from his staff, holding it over his head as he brought the blue palismen down against Bill, who cried out, holding his arms up as Hunter landed back on his staff to fly away just as Bill began shooting lasers from his fingers at him.

“Nevermind, they seem to have it handled.”

“We need to get back to the owl house!” Dipper yelled out over the crashing and fire and growing sounds.

His hand was gripping Mabel’s, tighter than she’d ever felt him hold before, through any moments of distress they’d been through together. This was the hardest he’d ever squeezed her hand, as if he was holding onto her like a lifeline.

“The what house?” Stan yelled back.

“The owl house!” Dipper groaned, running his free hand down his face, “it doesn’t matter what it’s called– just– I’ll take us there!”

Stan scooped Mabel up in his arms, holding her close to his chest as Dipper took the lead, running off towards the direction of the Owl House.

Mabel could feel every bump in the path, every ache in her body from where Bill had gripped her mercilessly. She’d always known that – if things had been different six years ago, if just one thing had gone wrong – she would have been the sibling that didn’t make it home. And feeling the way Bill had had her in his hand, it seemed like he’d known that too.

Maybe she’d always just been too fragile.

–

Mabel had passed out halfway through the run to the Owl House.

Dipper remained in front, pretending like his heart didn’t hurt when Stan yelled out that Mabel had “conked out” like that. Could he not have picked a better way to phrase it? God.

They were only a few steps from the old shack now. Dipper could see that god awful bird tube, who greeted them with a high pitched noise Dipper barely counted for words.

“Oh, you’re back! And you’ve brought friends, thats–”

“Thank you, tube. We need to get inside now!” Dipper hurried the owl along in its greeting, looking back anxiously towards Mabel, checking that she was, in fact, still there and not still wrapped in the clutches of that diabolical triangle.

“Oh… oh no,” Hooty said, spotting Mabel. “I’ll get Eda super quick!” and he spun his nasty way in through one of the upstairs windows. There was a crashing sound, some loud voices and then, after some silence, steps coming to the front door.

When it swung open, revealing Eda, her face went white.

“Marilyn?”

She looked between Stan and Ford, loudly stating “oh no.” Then, she landed on Mabel. Her eyes widened, taking a steadying breath in. “Oh shoot.”

She opened the door wider for them all to come in. Stan looked starstruck, but he seemed to push it down well enough to get inside.

—

Awkward couldn’t begin to describe the events that were taking place right now.

Stan was sitting in a room with his ex wife who just so happened to be a witch, his brother looked like he could have been seconds from bursting out laughing if he wasn’t so fussed over Mabel.

“So,” Stan said, pausing. He looked at Marilyn… no, Eda – apparently – who was very pointedly avoiding eye contact. Fair, no hard feelings there.

The only hard feelings there were was that she’d married him and then attempted to steal his fucking car. No, he’d never get over that, no matter how many times anyone would tell him. “Oh but you still have your car,” “oh but she didn’t actually take it,” “oh but it was thirty years ago.” NO.

Stanley Pines would hold that grudge forever.

It was what he was good at, holding grudges.

“You tried to steal my car.” he said

Eda snorted, her shoulders bouncing once as the noise escaped her. Her mouth twisted into a downwards smile as she lifted a mug to her lips. “I did do that.”

Stan suppressed a grunt, holding it back as he looked over towards Mabel, who was lying on the lounge, breathing slowly. Dipper was looming over her, his hand on her forehead as Ford paced back and forth behind the lounge, scribbling away in his fifth journal.

He’d made the fourth on their journeys together out in the Atlantic.

“Is she going to be okay?” Stan asked, looking back towards Eda. there was a hitch in his voice, a vulnerability that made him wince.

Eda looked slightly surprised, but as she glanced over to Mabel, she nodded slowly. “I have some people who can fix her up in no time.” she said. And as the words left her mouth, there was a knock at the door. It swung open, revealing three young people.

“Amity!” Dipper yelled, shooting up from where he was sitting on the floor. “Who are these two…?”

The pink haired girl, supposedly Amity, walked into the room, the two older people trailing in behind her. They both had green hair and looked startlingly alike.

“These are my siblings,” Amity said with a beam that faltered when she saw Mabel, but she went on nonetheless. “Edric, Emira, meet Dipper and… Mabel,” she gestured to Mabel who was still unconscious on the lounge. “Emira is a part of the healing circle.”

Emira stepped forward, rolling up her sleeves. “Hi,” she said, and there was a gleam of mischief in her eyes, Edric’s too. It mirrored the way Stanley assumed he and Ford were like in their early years, or Mabel and Dipper, or most twins, now that he thought of it.

“You can fix her?” Dipper said, watching Emira approach.

“Fix her? Of course I can.”

“She’s the best healer in her circle,” Edric chimed in.

With a flick of her wrist, a dark blue circle appeared in the air in front of Emira. She moved the circle downwards and towards Mabel as she knelt down in front of the lounge. The circle grew to the size of Mabel’s body and began to glow.

Within a beat, Mabel gasped, sitting up.

“He’s back,” she said, looking around frantically. Dipper had to grab her shoulders from behind as she shook, suddenly conscious and clearly freaking out. “He’s back!” she said again, scooting to the edge of the lounge and pulling her legs to her chest.

–

Luz and Hunter had arrived shortly after. They were battered and bruised, and Amity had set Emira onto them immediately.

Dipper desperately wanted to press for answers as soon as they walked through the door, but god they looked so tired.

“Did he follow you?” Ford asked, his voice grave.

Luz shook her head, her arms tightening around her. “He was nuts. Like genuinely… crazy.” she said, and before Ford could press for more, Hunter put his arm around her and looked up at Ford.

“He’s headed for Bonesborough now, said something about ‘getting weird’ and flew for cover somewhere after we blinded him.” Hunter stated.

Mabel was sitting in the corner of the lounge, huddled into herself. She was rocking back and forth with her knees up to her chest. Dipper sat beside her, his arm gently around her as he kept glancing over to make sure she was still okay.

He was going to kill that triangle.

Luz made her way over to the two of them and crouched down, so that she was eye-level with Mabel. “You can still go home. Let us deal with this, take your family and go.”

“No.”

The words left Mabel’s lips and surprised everyone except her. Her face was stone and she looked more certain than ever.

“No, this is our problem. We brought him here.” She began to unfold herself, her legs moving away from her chest as she sat up. “We’re the only ones who know how to take him out.”

Dipper felt a surge of pride as he squeezed her shoulder. Mabel looked over at him then, a small smile on his face. Stan and Ford were watching the two of them closely, Dipper swore he saw a look of satisfaction on Stan’s face as they nodded.

“We’ve done it once before.” Dipper said, still looking at Mabel, the two of them coming to a mental agreement with the other, knowing what they were going to do. They were going to stay and fight Bill.

“And we’ll do it again.” Mabel finished.