[MAY 2022 | GRAVITY FALLS, OR] and they're giving me hell back in hades

[mabeljuice]

♫ You Made Me Realize- Brad Breeck

Ten years ago, Bill Cipher attempted to turn the world into a heinous nightmare realm with the help of a broken and misguided Dipper Pines. The fight was brutal and lives were lost, but Mabel Pines, determined to get her brother back, managed to yank Dipper back from the edge of darkness and together, they supposedly banished Bill from this dimension permanently. 

The cost, however, was unimaginably high.

Dipper grew estranged from his family and his sister and Mabel, unable to truly face what that horrific summer did to her, suffered from a serious case of arrested development. As the twins grew up and went their separate ways, Dipper went off to college, and Mabel returned to Gravity Falls, out of fear of being alone. And so it went- Dipper studied the occult and distanced himself from his family so they might never get caught up in his problems again, and Mabel tried to make a life for herself without ever truly growing up.

But this could not hold. 


During the summer of 2022, exactly ten years to the day of their arrival in Gravity Falls, Stanley Pines has gone missing, leaving a series of cryptic codes in red paint. Determined to get her brother back to Gravity Falls to reunite the Mystery Twins and find their missing grandfather, she goes on a quest to find him, only to find him less enthused about recapturing the past. Things change, however, when Dipper deciphers one of the codes left behind and discovers it's a message from Bill- he's back and he's looking for Dipper.

With no choice left, the twins set off back to Gravity Falls, and Dipper is about to learn that the town has changed significantly in ten years.

+++

The forest hasn't really fully healed from the events of ten years ago. Passing the endless pine forests, there's still scorched gaps where the forest fires took out chunks of the vegetation and only the bare minimum seems to be returning its former glory. Up ahead, the water tower comes into view- repainted and no longer proudly displaying Robbie V's muffin-shaped mushroom cloud. The forest might be shabby, but the town itself seems to be flourishing far better than it was when the twins were here before- a sharp contrast to the fact that Mabel warned Dipper the town was weirder than usual.

"It's... a lot different than you remember, probably," Mabel says awkwardly, keeping her eyes straight ahead.

Comments

[lumberjacked]

She reaches over to squeeze his shoulder. "Past's in the past, though, man, even when it comes back from the interdimensional grave to bite us on the ass." She spares a glance back at the road where a quirky and very cheap roadside motel is situated just up on their left.

"But we'll work up to that. For now... Liver guy." She pulls in and parks, noting the Stanleymobile is already parked in a space nearer to the main entrance. "Looks like Mabel's already doing her thing."

[lowvi]

He glances over at her, offering up a small smile. "Liver guy." One step at a time. And he's got his friends with him to work on it now.

He scowls slightly as they make their way past the Stanleymobile. Because why wouldn't Mabel charge right in instead of waiting for them? Waiting would involve too much not avoiding Dipper. For someone who went to so much effort to get him here, she's sure doing a good job of staying away. Maybe she forgot all the less fun parts of having Dipper for a brother. Well, too bad for her. She was going to have to deal with him eventually.

"Guess we better catch up. And hope there's anything left for us to find."

[lumberjacked]

"She's probably just getting the keys to the room," Wendy laughs, embracing his discomfort for what it is. "Seriously, you should see her. She can talk people into anything. I know that's one of those Stan traits you probably hate, but it's saved our butts."

Sure enough, Mabel strolls out of the office, swinging a set of keys on her finger. The motel's open air, so the rooms are all outside, situated in a semi-circle around the office right in the middle.

"Mabel does it again," she crows victoriously, looking at Dipper like she deeply desires for him to be impressed with her. "They haven't cleaned the room yet either. Everyone's too creeped out to touch it, and they're understaffed right now."

[lowvi]

"She could do that before she met Stan too." Though he has no doubt Stan taught her a few tricks for when sheer cuteness wasn't enough, Mabel's always been good at talking people into things.

When Mabel comes out, he nods at her. "Good. Let's go." That's all he'll give her right now. He's still a little too frustrated to give her more than that. "I read something in Journal 3 about a monster like this one. The Author," he pauses, and amends, "Grunkle Ford never caught it. After five kills it vanished. We might not have much time to catch it."

[mabeljuice]

Mabel deflates and passes the keys off to Wendy, so she can reach into her pockets and pull out a pair of chipped burnished brass knuckles, sliding them over her fingers. "We know it's only attacking tourists and people who don't live in town, and it hasn't been hitting the same place twice. That's something anyway."

Wendy slides the key into the door and unlocks it, and everyone is greeted to the lingering smell of 'dead person' that no amount of Febreeze will get out, even though the body's long since been moved. There's white tape on the carpet where said body was and still dried crusty splatters of blood on the puce carpet, visible when Wendy flicks on the light.

"Good old Gravity Falls," she mutters, stepping inside with Mabel close behind her, hands up in a fighting stance in case something comes out at them.

[lowvi]

"Yep, this was definitely a smell I was hoping never to experience again." Says the boy who went into occult studies. Yeah, that was definitely a smell he was always going to experience again. He starts to explore, careful not to disturb anything too much as he searches for anything that might prove useful (search 27).

[mabeljuice]

There's a definite gross yellow substance around where the body was, easy to miss, given it's mixed with the dried blood. For the most part, however, the scene is clean... Until you get to the vent. The cover is still off and Dipper will notice that the thing has been unscrewed and further investigation into the vent- assuming he's willing to stick his hand in there and it's Dipper so I assume he totally will- will find traces of more dried yellowish gunk.

Mabel keeps her eyes on the door, while Wendy watches Dipper with keen interest. "So what's the word, brain guy? The stuff from the truck might be fresher, but I'm pretty sure they hosed that sucker down, already."

[lowvi]

Yep, Dipper sure has some yellow gunk on his hand now. He pulls it free and grimaces.

"The word is that next time we're bringing rubber gloves. And maybe those little evidence bags cops always have on TV."

He straightens and walks over to Mabel and Wendy.

"But I've got something. Yellow guck in the vent. Seems likely that's how it escaped." Possibly how it came in too, but unscrewing the vent from the inside? That seems like it could be a stretch.

[mabeljuice]

"That has gotta be one noodly monster," Mabel mutters, turning away from her vigil over the door to approach her brother and take his hand in hers. She eyes his hand for a moment and then proceeds to lick his fingers, because that's the only way I can translate an Investigate 21 from her.

"Ick. That's like... stomach-y fluids. Or... bile. That's it. Bile!" Then she realizes she just licked bile off her brother's hand and spits onto the floor. "Aw gross. That was a better idea in my head."

[lowvi]

Dipper makes a disgusted face and wipes the rest of it (and her spit) off of his hand and onto her sweater. At this point he's pretty sure that's a fair move. "And you just licked bile off my hand. That... just happened." Why, Mabel. "Also, kind of both impressed and grossed out that you can recognize bile by taste."

But the bile thing is interesting, which means it's time for Dipper to make a few checks of his own. Without licking. (investigate 22, knowledge arcana 41 IDK ARE THERE OTHER ONES I SHOULD MAKE?).

[mabeljuice]

"You investigate your way, I'll investigate mine." Even if it means licking his disgusting bile-tainted fingers.

The arcana check doesn't do him much good other than give him an idea of the sort of monsters that thrive on bile, none of which fit the MO of their particular beastie (most would have mauled the body more or wouldn't have been able to escape or enter through tiny enclosures, so at least it gives him a good guess on what it ISN'T), because this isn't something that's ever really shown up in lore anywhere, but his investigate check turns up a weird elongated fingerprint on the side of the vent.

No sooner has he found it than Wendy whistles to get their attention, peering through the blinds. "Looks like someone else wants to get in on this action. Stay cool, guys."

[lowvi]

Dipper snaps a picture of the finger print on his phone and straightens, frowning. "I haven't heard of any monster that this could be." Which is weird because Dipper's heard of pretty much everything.

He walks over to Wendy, peering over her shoulder. "How cool are we talking?"

[mabeljuice]

"I dunno. Looks like a janitor or something." She backs away from the window as someone opens the door. Mabel readies her fists, prepared for anything, but all the trio gets is a man of indeterminate age in coveralls and boots, staring at them with an eerily blank expression. (Mabel quickly drops her hands and hides them behind her back.)

Wendy, as the one closest to him, takes center stage. "Sorry, man. We're just checking the ventilation."

The man blinks slowly and shrugs one shoulder. "Funny. That's what I'm here to do," he drawls.

[lowvi]

"Double booking, I guess. You should talk to your manager." Dipper gives him a hard look, expression staying reasonably blank (bluff 17), before glancing back at Mabel for help. She's the one that's too charming to get in trouble.

[mabeljuice]

"You were late," she scolds, giving him a completely sour look. "We got here in five minutes, so we already did the prelims, buuut since you came all this way, we'll let you finish." Her ungodly diplomacy works wonders or possibly this guy doesn't give enough of a fuck to care. He moves aside to get closer to the vent, and Mabel grabs Dipper and starts ushering him towards the open door and back out into the parking lot with Wendy close behind.

(make a spot check)

[lowvi]

Dipper keeps his eyes open as they make their way out (spot 21), pausing to mutter, "Nice one," at Mabel as they make their way out. He wouldn't have even thought to use words like prelims.

[mabeljuice]

Mabel gives him a weak smile, but it's not enough to convince her all is forgiven. Meanwhile, as they step out into the late afternoon sunlight, Dipper can see that there's a slimy yellowish substance on the concrete in the shape of a bootprint.

[lowvi]

Well, she's not wrong. He still is going to have a talk with her. And he's still pissed.

When he notices the boot print, he frowns, halting in his tracks. "Oh, no." His wisdom check of 19 is enough that he connects where the boot print might have came from. Instead of sharing his knowledge with the class or anything like that, though, he turns around, bursting back into the room.

[mabeljuice]

"Dipper!" Mabel and Wendy don't have his keen eyes, and they follow Dipper back inside just in time to hear an awkward banging sound from inside the vents like someone climbing through them, which is... pretty unnerving.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Wendy balks.

[lowvi]

"Oh no, this thing is not getting away." Dipper grabs his bag and rifles through it, but he's not going for his crossbow this time. He pulls out a scroll of shocking grasp and squints, reading the text aloud in halting Latin (decipher script 31) then shakes it to try and activate the magic since he honestly doesn't know what he's doing, but it seems to work (use magic device 27). Then he smacks it down against the metal of the inside of the grate (atk 26, dmg 2).

"Magic meet physics," he grits out. "Let's see how this thing likes electricity."

[mabeljuice]

IT DOES NOT LIKE IT. The thing howls, humanlike, the sound echoing creepily from inside the vent, but since it's fairly deep in there, it's hard to say whether it actually continued on, injured, or is unconscious in the ventilation system somewhere.

Mabel and Wendy look at Dipper with awestruck expressions, once again. "You, uh... You can do magic now?" Mabel asks, a little bit awkwardly.

[lowvi]

Dipper looks vaguely satisfied that he's at least injured it, though the fact that it... is still in there takes some of the joy out of it.

"Huh?" He glances back at them and shrugs a shoulder, rubbing the back of his head. "Sure, if I've got the right scroll. It's not that hard, just a matter of saying the right words."

From what he's learned, there are people who can do it without scrolls. That's not Dipper. But this is close enough for him. He can keep up with the best of them, even if his magic's not coming from inside.

He frowns, glaring at the grate. "Too bad I don't have anything to see if it's still in there or not."

[mabeljuice]

"The vent has to lead somewhere..." Mabel peers inside of it, but it's dark and the metal shocks her a little when she grabs it, causing her to yelp and stick her finger in her mouth. "We could stake it out?"

Wendy pats her smock. "Cool. You two do that, while I go close up shop and head home. If you find anything, you better call me." Her patting gets more aggressive. "Aw crud. Where the hell did my nametag go." She brushes it off with a wave of her hand. "Probably left it at the shop. Anyway. See you dudes, later."

And off she goes, leaving the awkward Mystery Twins together in the hotel room with a monster either escaping or unconscious in the vents. Yay.

[lowvi]

"It's probably dead," Dipper shrugs a shoulder dismissively. "I guess we can hang out by the car or something just in case." That plan was a crit fail, so don't expect any bonuses. He turns towards the door abruptly, pushing past Mabel. He has to talk to her, but being in the same room as her without Wendy as a buffer is uncomfortable. He needs air.

[mabeljuice]

"What?" Mabel follows him out, sparing an awkward glance at the vent as she vanishes out the door behind him. "Ugh. Dipper, look. I get you're mad at me, but that was a lot of stuff to explain on a long car ride. I didn't wanna overwhelm you."