[MAY 2022 | GRAVITY FALLS, OR] they're going door to door with lamp-black eyes

[mabeljuice]

♫ wild waste and welter- jeffrey foucault

 

After arriving back in Gravity Falls, Dipper learns that Bill is, indeed, back, and that the cryptic encoded messages all over the Shack were just taunts. Stan is still missing and there aren't any leads on where he's gone, but before Dipper can even start his investigation, he's pulled into a completely different mystery- a series of murders that Mabel and Wendy have been investigating.

In pursuit of their prey, the trio investigate a motel near the woods, only to find themselves face to face with a strange humanoid monster, capable of contorting its body into small spaces that seems to be preying on the livers of its victims. Dipper and Mabel manage to take it down, but not before having a heart-to-heart about the nature of their estranged relationship.

The twins carry the monster's body back to the Shack where Dipper sets up shop in the basement. His autopsy and toxicology report reveal that the monster is actually a mysterious mutated human with a strange chemical substance in its bloodstream. I'm sure it's fine.

Dipper works late into the night, but there's still more to be done. Wendy has revealed that there is government facility in Gravity Falls now that none of them has been able to get into. The Gleefuls are currently running the town, and Gideon has his own little "flock" of believers, who seem to be both enamored and fearful of him. And that's only just the surface. Things have been getting much weirder in Gravity Falls, and the Mystery Twins are back together and on the case.

Mabel usually sleeps in on days the Shack isn't due to open, so Dipper has some time before she wakes up to do some investigating on his own if he chooses. 

Comments

[lowvi]

Dipper looks over at her, rubbing his arm and frowning a little. He's not very good at reading people, but this is his sister, and he's pretty sure the hurt's a little too deep to be wiped away by any kind of good reason, if Pacifica even had one. Especially considering it was Gideon.

"Well," he says slowly. "That doesn't mean she was wrong about this. I did make things a lot worse last time. I don't want people to get hurt again because I'm back."

[mabeljuice]

Mabel looks down at the floor, unable to find a good argument. "I don't know, Dipper. I just... I feel like if you leave, it's only going to get worse. And I'm not just saying that. I know it. Those dreams I was having before Stan-"

She cuts herself off and shakes her head.

[lowvi]

"Dreams?" Dipper looks up, frowning at her. "What dreams?"

[mabeljuice]

Mabel looks mildly uncomfortable for a moment and rubs her arms, awkwardly. "Well, there was one with Bill just... mocking me, but even before that I kept dreaming about being in town and everything's gray like the mindscape. And it's empty. So I keep walking and I end up in the woods and I find everyone in town just staring up at the treeline, and they won't answer me when I talk to them. And then the forest starts burning and they all just keep standing there like trees as the forest burns and I look up and the moon looks like an eye, and-"

She stops and bites down on one of her knuckles, shaking her head. "I've had it so many times now."

[lowvi]

Dipper leans forward, resting his face in his hands. None of that sounded good. Not least because he knows Bill likes calling him Pine Tree and it's hard not to imagine that a burning forest might have something to do with that. He's also seen the moon look like an eye before too, when Bill came to talk to him about the laptop for the first time.

"It's a threat. Or... a warning." He can't leave. He feels the strands of the mystery tightening around his neck like a noose around his neck. He doesn't know how he can thwart Bill when everything he does seems to be exactly what Bill wants, but he can't leave. This remains his mess. And he can't fix it by leaving.

"I'm sorry, Mabel. I wish I had the answers." He always used to. How was it he knew everything when he was 12 and nothing now? "I'm not even sure what the right questions are."

[mabeljuice]

"That's what you're here to do, Dipper- figure out everything. I know that much. I just... feel it. Like stuff got so messed up when we were kids and now we have to put it right again." She reaches over to put a hand on his arm. "It's scary as heck, but we can handle it... Right?"

She's asking for reassurances from someone who can barely be reassured, himself, but Dipper's always been better at this than her. He'll find his footing and it'll be like he was never blindsided. They'll fall back into the way of things and end this cycle once and for all.

[lowvi]

Dipper doesn't look up at her immediately. It's a lot of weight, responsibility he once would have embraced that now feels like too much. He was brave as a 12 year old--or reckless, and he wouldn't have hesitated back then. But now he knows the cost. Now he can't stop thinking about how he might have to pay it again, and he's not sure he can handle it.

"That's what we do," he says, voice low. It's not really reassurance. He doesn't feel sure. He feels lost. He knows he's supposed to be strong, to protect Mabel like he always used to--and some brother he's been lately, can't even do that--but right now he's not seeing any way out of this situation.

He covers her hand with his, still not looking at her, but he does relax, if only by a fraction. "I won't leave." It's about all he can promise. He doesn't know what he's doing. "But I need to... do more research."

[mabeljuice]

"Nerd," she smirks, ducking her head a bit, before pulling him into a tight hug. "I promise I won't keep anything else from you. Whatever you need to know, I'll tell you." She hadn't mean to deceive him or intentionally leave things out, but it's a lot to take in- sometimes it's too much even for her.

"I guess I'm more like Stan sometimes than I thought."

[lowvi]

He shakes his head, hugging her back and leaning his cheek on her hair. Sometimes it still feels weird that he's taller than her. He isn't sure if that's because they just weren't as close as they had been when he was getting his big growth spurts or if a part of him will always just think of the two of them as the same height.

"No, it's okay. This one's my fault. I should've read your letters."

[mabeljuice]

"Yeah, you should've, you dumb jerk," she teases, though there's no real bite to the words. She gets it in some ways, but in others, she probably won't ever understand. The important thing is she's forgiven him.

"C'mon. I'll take you into town. It's probably a good as start as any..."

Plus it'll get him to familiarize himself with things in Gravity Falls these days.

[lowvi]

"I was thinking I should do that." It's nice how even after all this time, they still work like this. They still can practically read each other's minds when it comes to next steps. "Though after talking to Pacifica I feel like I might need to dodge some rotten vegetables. Should I wear a disguise or something?"

[mabeljuice]

"Pacifica's not the whole town." She waves him off, as she backs up towards the front of the house. "But it might not hurt to wear some big sunglasses or something."

Is she teasing him or does she mean it? The world may never know.

[lowvi]

"I'll keep that in mind." Dipper smirks, looking more amused than worried. But he does... pocket a pair of sunglasses anyway. Just in case.

[mabeljuice]

Lemme just get changed.

[She pats him on the shoulder and heads upstairs, leaving Dipper alone in the Shack...

For approximately a minute before the front door bangs open.]

[lowvi]

Dipper jumps up and wheels towards the door. It's perhaps paranoia that makes his fingers inch towards his crossbow, though he doesn't actually grab it, but considering everything that's happened since Mabel showed up at his dorm, he's pretty sure he's earned it.

[yvorvevi]

Holiday looks up from removing her backpack and just... stares at Dipper, face slowly coloring.

"H...Hi." She swallows and stands up a little straighter as she tries to look relaxed and confident. "I mean... Hey."

[lowvi]

Oh right. New Wendy. Dipper gives her a slight smile, relaxing. "Do you always enter buildings so aggressively?"

[yvorvevi]

"If I don't, Mabel'll forget I'm here," she shuts the door with a little less urgency, looking mildly sheepish. "I'm supposed to be working on inventory today, since the Shack's still closed."

[lowvi]

"Oh," Dipper pauses for slightly too long, not really sure what to say. Unlike Soos and Wendy, this girl is an unknown factor. Someone Mabel apparently trusts, but not someone Dipper knows at all. For the sake of not standing in awkward silence, he adds: "...if you're short a selfie stick, that's my fault."

[yvorvevi]

"Stealing from the Shack. What a rebel." She's trying too hard to be sardonic and 'cool' and it shows with her... crit failed bluff check. "It's fine. I started making up numbers after Stan vanished- Mabel doesn't check. It's just busywork so I don't have to..."

She runs a hand over her fluffy cotton candy pink hair and swallows, "Um. Anyway. So you're... really him, huh? Dipper Pines." She looks him over. "Wow."

[lowvi]

"I was going to bring it back!" Stealing from Stan would be one thing. A pretty stupid thing because he would have both noticed and been angry about it, but Dipper's not stealing from his sister. Or not intentionally anyway. Considering what he now knows about Mabel's relationship with Pacifica, he's pretty sure she'll understand.

"Yeah, and you're..." he hesitates, trying to remember what her name was. He'd been distracted by a lot the day before (wis 10). Holly, maybe? He grimaces and finishes, "...new Wendy."

[yvorvevi]

That makes her face turn a very interesting shade of red that does not mesh well with her hair. "H-Holiday," she stammers. She bites her lip like she's trying to resist the urge to cry, but she manages to swallow it down. "It's cool. You've got stuff on your mind. I can't really expect you to remember my name. I'm shocked my dad remembers my name, he's so busy talking about you and your sister."

That's definitely some unchecked bitterness as she goes to... rearrange the bobbleheads.

[lowvi]

"No, no, I'm a jerk, I should have remembered. I'm sorry, it's been a... really weird week." And now he's almost made a kid cry. Whoops. "Who's your dad?"

[yvorvevi]

SHE IS A TEENAGE GIRL. YOU CANNOT SOOTHE HER SOUL SO EASILY. She keeps her back to him. "You wouldn't know him. He isn't from here. We moved here when I was seven." She adjusts the bobbleheads so that they're lined up perfectly and then moves to the snowglobes, turning them all the same way. "Word spreads if you believe in the stuff that happens here, and my dad's always been a believer. He packed me and my brother up and moved here after... That happened."

She's not callous enough to just casually drop the near-apocalypse on him, even with hurt feelings. "You're like his idol. The stuff you did at twelve, he's wanted to do his whole life... Minus the stuff that nearly caused Armageddon."

Okay, only moderately callous enough.

[lowvi]

"I'm his idol?" Dipper stares at her, blinking slightly. Some guy not even from Gravity Falls knows who he is and what he's done. And doesn't hate him for it, which is even weirder. At 12, he probably would have relished this reputation. Now he just feels like a fake. What he did at 12 no one should want to do. Even aside from the Armageddon stuff, aside from making deals with demons and betraying his family, he was never all that responsible. He raised the dead to prove a point and cursed his sister when he was mad at her. No one should idolize him, especially not the version of himself he'd been at 12.

He shakes his head. "Look, that's not--he shouldn't want that."