#Dipper's going to have to work around that if it was one of his major tools in his job

[tswwwit]

Does reincarnated Dipper ever go and work in medical? - as a doctor or nurse or pyschologist. I think that would be funny. I'm sure Bill would *looove* that.

He definitely could! Dipper does love helping people.

And it'd be delightfully frustrating for Dipper to try and navigate his chosen profession while hooking up with a guy who's into intestinal origami and mind-breaking. Bill might be knowledgeable, but he offers a lot of highly inadvisable advice.

[sage-nebula]

Thinking about how important it is that Wendy is a part of the Pines family. (Because she is, as much as Soos is. It's why she's in the family photos, such as the one representing Ford's happiness at the end of The Book of Bill.)

We don't know too much about Wendy's home / family life. Unfortunately, we don't a single Wendy-focused episode, and we don't get to learn too much about her outside of how she interacts with the main characters. But here is what we do know:

Wendy is the oldest of four siblings, with three little brothers. Wendy herself is 15. We are never given ages for her brothers, but given the photo that she shows Dipper of her younger self in "Double Dipper", I'm guesstimating that the youngest Corduroy brother (Gus) is about 6 in the present day. This is because young!Wendy was wearing braces and also noted to be "freakishly tall" for her age, and Gus was wearing a diaper in the photo (but standing on his own). Braces can take two to three years to be removed, and Wendy doesn't have them in the present day, meaning she was probably around 11 or 12 in the photo. Meanwhile, Gus was in a diaper but able to stand, meaning he was probably a toddler, likely around 2. So in the present day, Wendy is 15, Gus is around 6 (depending on if Wendy was 11 or 12 in the photo), and Marcus and Kevin (the middle brothers) are between 14 and 7.

Wendy's mother died when she was young. Given the age of Gus in the photo, we can estimate that Wendy's mother died when Wendy was, at youngest, 11 or 12 -- so, three or four years pre-canon. (Because any earlier than that and Gus couldn't have been born.)

Wendy's father is Manly Dan, who shouts just about every line of dialogue he has and routinely breaks things, including in his own house, albeit sometimes by accident. He also spends most of his time in a biker bar, though we do know that he does love his children. (e.g. is seen with the boys on both family fishing day and Summerween, is seen taking Wendy out for breakfast in "Dipper vs. Manliness").

Dan is the reason why Wendy has a summer job. As she says in "Gideon Rises", "If I can't work at the Shack, my dad's gonna force me to work at my cousin's logging camp up north." This implies that Wendy has to work somewhere, per a rule of Dan's.

In "Into the Bunker", Wendy has this to say when she comments on how she's excited to be going on an adventure with Dipper and Mabel: "It beats cleaning up after my dad at home." She says this with a frown, in a grousing tone. We're then treated to a clip of Dan breaking apart the cabin as mentioned above.

In "Society of the Blind Eye", before she's about to have her memories erased, Wendy confesses thus: "I'm stressed like 24/7. Have you MET my family?"

Wendy dreams about her mother every night. The glimpse of her dream that we're shown depicts her receiving a comforting hug from her mother.

The conclusions that I draw from the above are thus: prior to her mother's death, Wendy had what amounts to a normal family life in Gravity Falls. The Corduroys were a two parent household, her mother was there to help balance Dan out and raise the kids (Wendy included), and Wendy could, well . . . be a kid. It's possible, even, that some of Dan's more worrying traits (such as spending the majority of his time at a bar) didn't exist when Wendy's mom is alive. It's pure speculation on my part, but it's possible that Dan feels compelled to go to a bar to be aggressive (and drink, even if we don't see it because it's a kid's show) because that's how he processes his grief over his wife's death, away from his children's eyes and ears. He's trying to be a responsible father and not hurt his kids, while at the same time still not handling things in the most healthy way.

But back to Wendy. Once Wendy's mother died, the dynamic in the Corduroy household shifted. Dan was hit by the tidal wave of grief that comes with losing a spouse, as well as the sudden onslaught of being a single father to four children, one of whom was very possibly still in diapers. And if my speculation is correct and that he took to going to the bar to deal with his grief, then who is left to change Gus' diapers and get him potty trained? To operate the stove or oven or microwave to make sure that the boys (who would all be under age 10 at this point) got fed, and to make sure she got fed herself? To, in her own words, "clean up [her] dad's messes" when he was at home to make them by breaking apart the house with his own head?

Wendy.

Wendy was a child herself when her mother died, but she was the oldest child, potentially freshly into middle school while the boys were still in elementary, and the oldest daughter to boot. The girl, expected to know how to do "girl things" like cook and clean. I'm not saying that Dan told her to do these things, but we know from Wendy's personality that she is protective of those who need it (e.g. Dipper and Mabel) and, more importantly, that's her home and her family, and she does love them (she makes this clear in the Weirdmageddon episodes numerous times). She wouldn't let her little brothers starve, wouldn't let her youngest sit in a filthy diaper, would try to pick up the house if her dad and brothers wouldn't. Wendy would step up to do it out of necessity, even if she hated it and felt stressed out about it, especially while also feeling the crushing grief that comes with having lost her mother.

So Wendy, having lost her mother at a young age, probably had to step up into a pseudo-parental role in her own house, trying her best to fill the void that was left by her mother's passing even though she was only a child herself. And this is why she's "stressed, like, 24/7." Because not only are her father and brothers loud and chaotic (especially with Dan raising the boys into miniature versions of him), but because it's her responsibility (spoken or no) to keep the house in as much order as she can. It's little wonder that, outside of the movie that she and Dipper are watching in the beginning of "Into the Bunker", Wendy seems to spend as little time as possible in her own home.

So, how does this fit into it being important for Wendy to be part of the Pines family? Or, worded in a better way, why it's so important that she has the Pines as a second family, and the Mystery Shack as a second home?

As I said above, once Wendy's mother died, her ability to be a child in her own home effectively ended. Again, to make it clear, Wendy doesn't hate her family. In fact, it's the opposite; the Weirdmageddon episodes make it clear that she still loves her father and her brothers very much. But "Society of the Blind Eye" also makes it clear that they stress her out. She has a lot of complicated feelings, something that's understandable given her complicated situation.

But because she has to help keep the house together when she's at home, that means she can only really be a kid (or teenager, as the case may be) when she's outside of it. She has a lot of fun doing this with her friends, but sometimes a teen does need a home to relax in. And for Wendy, that home is the Mystery Shack -- and yes, that includes when she's on the clock.

Now, I know what you may be thinking: it's stated that Stan is a terrible boss, that he barks orders, that he yells -- how is that any different from her father? Well, I'll tell you how: the only time we actually see this is in "Boss Mabel", in which Stan being a boss who yells and barks orders at his employees is a plot point meant to create the conflict for the episode. Otherwise, we never really see Stan being an awful boss, and in particular we never see him being hard on Wendy. In fact, I would argue we see the opposite.

Here are things we know about Wendy's behavior at work, and Stan's response to her behavior at work:

Wendy constantly reads magazines while working the cash register, often right in front of Stan. Stan never tells her to put the magazine away.

Wendy often puts her feet up on the counter. Stan never tells her to take her feet off the counter.

Wendy goes up to the roof "all the time, every day" to the point where she has a chair and cooler up there. ("The Inconveniencing"). We don't know if Stan knows about this or not, but it's hard to believe he wouldn't if Wendy goes up there as much as she says she does.

When Stan told her to hang signs up out in the woods, she said, "I would, but I can't . . . reach . . ." while making no effort to get up to get the sign, and not removing her eyes from the magazine or her feet from the counter. Stan simply said, "I'd fire [. . .] you if I could." i.e. she got away with it 100%. ("Tourist Trapped")

When Stan double checks with Wendy and Soos that they'll wash the bathrooms while he's gone, Wendy says, "absolutely not" with a salute. Stan laughs and then says to stay out of trouble, not caring at all. ("The Inconveniencing")

Wendy was supposed to work the ticket stand all night at the party. She quit about ten minutes in and blatantly joined the party. Stan had to have seen her. He did nothing. ("Double Dipper")

Wendy claims in "Boss Mabel" that Stan doesn't let her have friends at work. In contrast, we see Robbie visit her at work all the time throughout their relationship (e.g. "Fight Fighters", "Boyz Crazy"), and Stan even comments on "is that the guy that's always making googly eyes at Wendy?" but otherwise has no problem with it. So again, it was a conflict invented for "Boss Mabel" that otherwise doesn't exist.

And that is just off the top of my head. The point is, Wendy is perhaps treated the easiest of the staff at the Mystery Shack. She's blatantly lazy and snarky and the most Stan ever does is grouse that he would "fire [her] if he could."

And this is a good thing.

The Mystery Shack, even if when she's on the clock, is clearly a place where Wendy can relax. It's somewhere she feels comfortable, rather than stressed. Yes, she's working -- but she's putting in the barest minimum effort because the stakes are the lowest they could possibly be. Because even though Stan grouses and complains about how little she cares, he won't fire her. He says he can't, but let's be honest, he could. One could argue that he'd be out a cashier, but he already is when the school year starts and Wendy has to go back to school. The Shack doesn't close down then, so it wouldn't close now if he fired Wendy.

But he won't fire her, because he knows that if he did, she'd be sent up north to her cousin's logging camp, a job she would hate and that would add on to the stress she already has from her home life. Stan has been in Gravity Falls for 30 years; he's been there since before Wendy was born. He knew her mother. He remembers when her mother died a few years ago. He probably saw how Dan's personality changed, how Wendy's personality changed from a more carefree little girl to a little girl who had to act more carefree than she actually was because she won't ever dare let anyone know she's anything but tough as nails, kinda like the guy he sees when he looks in the mirror. So he'll grouse at her about her laziness, and she'll complain about how much she hates having to work, but he'll also never hire another cashier even during the school year when the Shack maybe could use the extra help, and she knows that he both has an orthopedic back pillow and where it's kept, and that's as much as either of them will say about it. (Source for the orthopedic back pillow: "Soos and the Real Girl").

Wendy spends time at the Shack that would otherwise be spent at her home. When she decides to leave Tambry's party early, she goes to hang out at the Shack and watch movies with Stan, before the twins or Soos arrive ("Summerween"). She's likewise hanging out with the Pines and Soos watching television despite work clearly being over in the beginning of "Dreamscaperers". Wendy can relax at the Shack, can be in a home environment where she has no responsibilities, where she can simply be a teenager without also having to be a pseudo-parent. She can be a big sister figure to Dipper and Mabel without the added responsibilities of having to make sure they're fed and brought up right. She can be snarky with Stan, and he'll be snarky back, and there are no risks or consequences at all.

It's important that Wendy is a member of the Pines family, because here there are no complications for her. She loves her original family, but things got difficult when her mother died, and they won't ever stop being difficult. But things aren't difficult with the Pines. In a way, being with the Pines is as comfortable as the hugs she gets from her mother in her dreams every night. Being with the Pines feels right. It feels safe.

It's good that Wendy has them. It's important that Wendy has them. And fortunately, she always will.

[mortalfaerie]

hi here's a little series on what i think the gravity falls kids grew up to do since they're 25 now

Pacifica "Paz" Northwest

after weirdmagedden, she became increasingly disenchanted with her parent's and their worldview, which led her to start questioning the structures around her

though they sold the mansion, her parents had a lot of money in real estate and they live in a condo building they own in town

she took a job at greasy's diner initially as an act of rebellion but stuck around throughout high school because it gave her a refreshing taste of the real world

she got really into politics, also initially as an act of rebellion, but did eventually become a really staunch take-no-shit feminist and went to protests in portland

she reconnected with the twins one summer during their teen years once she had "been cured of her rich girl mentality" (-mabel) and she and mabel became pretty close. things remained a little awkward with dipper when they were teens, but they relaxed once he realized she did actually care about mabel and wasn't going to hurt her

she's actually very analytical and level headed, which makes her a good foil to dipper - who continues seeking out mysteries to solve in gravity falls

she continued competitive golf and even won some local and regional titles in the women's junior division, which gets her an offer to go play golf at UCLA (conveniently, also where dipper goes)

she got access to her trust fund when she turned eighteen, and relies a lot less on her parents after that. she continues to try to have a relationship with them but it very aware of the toll they take on her, leading her to go low-contact with them in university.

she joins a sorority (i think kkg, she feels like a kappa) and probably ends up as treasurer or some other leadership position

she majors in political science, makes the dean's list, and gets an honors degree. she considers becoming a lawyer, but decides she's more interested in public policy & decides to go into policy analysis & international relations

she and dipper have a prolonged will-they-won't-they throughout college, finally getting together in the summer before their senior year. this borrowed from rockslide on ao3 but hilariously, she doesn't realize he's trans until she sees his too surgery scars for the first time because 1) she only ever knew him as a guy and 2) she only saw him in the summers growing up.

her parents disapprove of their relationship and generally the pines family, which is the straw that breaks the camel's back for her to go fully no contact. after that point, she's embraced by the pines family as one of their own.

she graduates magnum cum laude and dipper is her biggest supporter. he gets an offer to do his doctorate in archeology at king's college london, which ends up working perfectly because she gets a job at the us embassy in london.

they move to england together and rent a flat in a new building because even though the historic ones are beautiful, she can't deal with more ghosts.

i think by this point they've been there for two and a half years and they've gotten a cat (named tyrone, or ty for short) and dipper's just made the transition from phd student to phd candidate and started his dissertation.

[badly-gravity-blog]

Wooohoo !! Monster x Reverse Falls au with ultra dupa new lore.

[1/2] — Because next up is ; Stan, Ford, Pacifica anddd Gideon ! Link here when it happens.

I’ll add more info under the cut but here are the basics —

Mason -> Tufted Deer

Mason ‘Dipper’ Gleeful was taken in along side his twin sister by Stan Gleeful. Together with Mabel, they help Stan with attractions.

Mabel -> Caecalia

Mabel ‘Ursa’ Gleeful has a lot of trouble getting around, as such where her and her brother lives, the floor and certain walls are made out glass filled with water to allow for safe travel.

Will -> Elf

William Cipher, also nicknamed Will, is an Elf who was enrolled by ‘pressure’ to work for the twins and help them with their deeds. Behind the meek/shy appearance, he’s not very nice or kind.

I had SO much trouble figuring out a coherent storyline….

But here’s what I figured out so far !

Human and fantastic creatures are far from living in harmony; some of the creatures have made their own town cut off from the rest of the population.

One of the only towns is named Gravity Falls. It’s very diverse !

Gideon and Pacifica Southeast are childhood friends, Pacifica having acted as the one Gideon could rely on for the longest time.

Gideon is a phantom, while Pacifica is an unicorn.

Ursa and Dipper are the main event of the town, living in a previously abandoned mansion that was restored and rebuilt by Stan Gleeful.

Ursa is nicknamed that due to matching with her twin — ‘Ursa major’ being a constellation.

While twins, they’re from different species ; their creations was artificial.

Will is…. Well I can’t say he’s planning nothin !!

PS : if you have any questions, go ahead ! It helps with worldbuilding and characters <3

[year2000electronics]

I absolutely LOVELOVELOVE your Reverse Falls HCs from what I've seen :). I would love to ask more about so much aspects haha.

What is Reverse Ford's main goal in this universe?

What is Ford' and Stanley's backstory?

Mind sharing some info about Reverse! Dipper and Reverse! Mabel?

HOKAY. i will use this ask to talk a little about the reverse stans' backstories because i have Some Ideas. as always full answer under cut bc its got images and rambles galore

in my mind, the gleeful family association with magic & the supernatural starts with caryn's phone psychic business, and ford having "The Gift" while stan ABSOLUTELY doesnt. but in real terms that means just having a really strong intuition and being able to guess well. (at least thats what filbrick and caryn thing. ford genuinely thinks he has some semblance of psychic ability and so does his mom, but they just havent properly honed it yet) and so ford is the preferred child for that, instead of his smarts really. ford is also obsessed with the supernatural still, but it's more focused on the magical aspect.

ford and stan's relationship ends up being close because stan is the only one who believes ford about magic. i mean there are other reasons but thats very important to ford

ford, seeing how stan has always had his back by believing what he says about magic, offers to try and "tutor" stan into having The Gift. drilling him for hours by holding up cards and making him guess, stuff like that. but yknow, since both of them are kinda clamoring to inherit their mom's business, stan kinda ends up relying on ford for everything, and theyre taking on almost a mentor-student relationship when theyre Literally Brothers.

instead of west coast tech, the scholarship ford is being offered is for a famous performing arts school after his teachers saw him take the leads in school plays year after year. they tell him a scout will be at their school's talent show, and ford decides he's going to put on a stage magic show (with stan as his assistant). this time, not only is stan worried about ford leaving, but also, since they've both been working towards a really similar thing (performing for a crowd), he's really worried he'll never get a chance to show off that HE has skill, too! ford brushes him off about this saying that he'll put a good word in for stan when he's at performing arts school and stan is like "ok." and agrees to be his assistant.

in the middle of ford's show, he goes rogue, trying to show the scouts that he can be just as skilled as ford is, and completely screws up the trick he ends up performing. ford doesnt get that internship, ford is furious, so is filbrick, stan gets kicked out, you know the rest.

ford goes to backupsmore and double-majors in both theatre and whatever he majors in in the show. he plans to move to gravity falls because of its high ratings of weirdness. after stan got kicked out, instead of becoming a traveling salesman, he becomes a street magician who doubles as a pickpocket. stealing peoples' watches and stuff. he runs around all over the place

ford digs up four mystic amulets once he gets to gravity falls and stays there for a while, and is like "oh man i can USE these". so how i imagine the amulets to work is that they're kinda like, a conduit through which you can learn legit magic? like casting spells and stuff. but he probably only needs one so he keeps the other three in his house (and that's how the kids eventually find the others)

and of course thats how he starts up the tent of telepathy!

but he wants more. he wants to make the world pay for ever calling him a six fingered freak. and he wants to prove to the world that his magic IS real. he can't just lie sequestered in gravity falls forever. so he goes hunting for more answers about gravity falls' weirdness, and how he might be able to get more POWER to make a show so good the entire world will see... and that's how he summons will cipher! will tells him about the portal, and how itll open up a dimension of weirdness into his own, and ford accepts on those terms, looking out just for himself. then he asks fidds to come help with the portal, fidds walks out on him, he shackles will to him in a deal, but they both realize they don't have the manpower to run the portal. reluctantly, ford calls stan up, telling him to come and that it's important.

...but of course that doesnt go well. stan initiates a physical fight and ford ends up getting sucked into the portal. will is left alone with stan, who tells him he can buzz off because HE certainly doesnt want him around. stan works for the next 30 years to get ford back because he wants ford to finally be the one who has to suck up to HIM and owe HIM something.

at some point, mason and mabel's parents become unable to take care of them and give them to stan. he reluctantly takes them in, but soon after, not only do they find the amulets but also journal 2, and they end up reactivating ford's deal with will, getting passed down to the "next of kin" after stan rejected it. AND THATS SORTA WHERE THE SHOW STARTS. THUMBS UP.

[green-kitty-02]

pines twins headcanons!

mabel ran a roblox youtube channel for at least six months (dipper edited all the videos. he told her that she'd have to pay him, but he secretly enjoys it and never asks about payment again. mabel forgot)

this ended though after mabel got banned for getting into fights in the chat (dress to impress..........)

they go to the roller rink together: mabel cause she can actually skate and can do (read:attempt) tricks in her customized skates and dipper so he can play the low quality arcade games. they both get slushies together once dipper's exhausted the games and mabel has gotten scraped up enough.

dipper ran cross country, mabel did theatre

she's not getting leads in shows, but she's by far the most enthusiastic and decides to use her time "lending her talents" to the costume department. the school's entire production of oklahoma had them all wearing sweaters

i feel like she convinced dipper to eventually join crew (either lighting or scenic)

mabel gets superrrrrr into shrinky dinks (she makes earrings, rings, little keychains). dipper puts a few on his backpack. mabel also mails a whole box to ford, stan, wendy, and soos.

dipper joins the hacking team at his school and participates in hackathons (he's decently good! his college counselor tries to get him to major in computer science, but he decided against it and instead wants to major in history and film).

both are absolute BEASTS at just dance

after the summer in gravity falls, both develop some sleeping problems (and some recurring nightmares....). So once they have licenses, they'll go on long night drives.

sometimes they get fast food, other times they go sit in the park, sometimes they just drive around.

they talk about the good parts a lot, the bad is often left unsaid.

sometimes they (usually dipper) will try and broach the subject, but it never has gotten too far. for better or worse.

dipper pines they might be giants listener hear me out

mabel floats between different jobs in high school but her favorites were working at an ice cream shop and a party supply store.

dipper only ever works one place during high school and it's front desk at a local historical society (he wrote about six emails to the owner begging for the job, eventually they relented)

while neither twin tells the other, both of them have called stan's phone when they know he's asleep, just to hear his voice on the answering machine so they don't forget it.

[eregyrn-falls]

Gravity Falls Revival Prospects Teased by Disney TV Boss (Exclusive)

By Russ Milheim Posted: June 05, 2024

(From "The Direct", original article linked above.) While Gravity Falls may have ended in 2014 on the Disney Channel, fans are still hoping for a revival—thankfully, that doesn't look too far out of reach, at least according to an update from a top Disney executive. The series may have ended in 2014, but since then, creator Alex Hirsch has published several books in the universe. This included Gravity Falls: Tales of the Strange and Unexplained, Lost Legends, and Journal 3. In fact, another book is even coming out later this year, called The Book of Bill, which tells the story of the show from the perspective of the big bad. However, while books are great and all, a continuation of the show would absolutely thrill the franchise’s fanbase. In an exclusive interview with The Direct’s Russ Milheim while promoting the release of Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation, Executive Vice President of Television Animation and Disney Branded Television Meredith Roberts gave a hopeful update on a possible Gravity Falls revival. She confirmed that they’re “in conversations with [creator] Alex [Hirsch]” before ending with an encouraging “never say never:” “You know, we're in conversations with Alex. He's about to publish a book with Disney on his project. And we also do some shorts. So never say never.”

What Could Be Next for Gravity Falls? While the update is a small one, plenty of fans will be thrilled to see even a slight glimmer of home. Sure, the new book releases are exciting, but not nearly as much as having the show back. If the show were to return, creator Alex Hirsch would likely want to introduce a new threat other than Bill. Admittedly, that's a high bar to clear. Perhaps a continuation would also age its leading characters, Dipper and Mabel. However, having older leads could transform Gravity Falls into a much different, more adult-based narrative. Either way, there's plenty of demand from fans to see the world of Gravity Falls again. Hopefully, that's something Disney can capitalize on sooner rather than later.

Since this is going around, and I haven't seen it posted here... well, here you go. What does it mean? Nobody knows! It may not mean anything. It's hard to tell whether this is just a Disney exec making noises for promotional purposes or what. I honestly would take this with a grain of salt until or unless Alex himself posts or tweets about it.

(My own thoughts: to be worthwhile, I strongly feel that any new Gravity Falls content would need to have the involvement of Alex Hirsch AND a good chunk of the other folks who worked on the show. People like Rob Renzetti, and others like Matt Braly, Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Emmy Ciceriega, Dana Terrace, Matt Chapman, Jeff Rowe, etc. etc. It would probably be difficult to impossible to get everyone back, unless it was for a very limited project, like a TV-movie or something.

I'm not saying they would ALL need to be back, and I do also think you could find some new folks to work on the project who would be very good replacements for some of the original crew who might not be able to come back. But, I've said many, many times: Gravity Falls was not the work of only one man. I respect the hell out of Alex Hirsch, but, the show that we love had contributions from a lot of other people that went into creating the final product. If what we want is something as good as the original show, then I think it would need input from those people.

And even then, we still have to keep in mind that it can be difficult to recapture lightning in a bottle. Even if they got back a majority of the original team, it's 10 years later (ish), and all of those folks have been through a lot, and most haven't been working with each other. There's a groove that the crew of the show got into at the time, and they'd have to recapture that groove. It would be different in at least SOME ways. Maybe a GOOD different! A lot would depend on the enthusiasm they had for doing it.)

So, we'll see! Keep an eye out, though, for more news.

[artisiumstudios]

PART TWO

Okay I realized today reading through my last post that I made a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes but now that I have slept for 9 hours I should be good to go! Okay so first of all I do want to state that the mystery shack will be a thing here even if it wasn’t exactly Fords idea. And a lot of things that happened in the oh timeline do still happen in this au but with a twist, for example Wendy and soos still end up working at the mystery shack MUSEUM but apart from being workers soos is also fords apprentice and Wendy is kinda like a student to ford (aka she likes to learn about all the crazy shit he did).

The other thing is ford did tell people he studied the paranormal and anomalies but didn’t say anything about the portal. Now as for the journals because dipper does still find the journals, after ford disassembles the portal he hides his journals once again but not before ripping out and hiding the blue ones prints and most of the pages that either had anything to do with him or Stan out and the most of the ones he had with bill. He hides the pages separately throughout his house and the forest because he can’t bring himself to destroy them.

Oh and other stuff ford found in the car was the box that had Stan’s fake ids, another pair of bras knuckles, a map with states he was no longer allowed in, another small notebook with names and money he owed them, a first aid kit, weed (you cannot tell me Stanley pines was not a stoner during the hippie area like come on), and a picture of ma and Shermie with the date June 15 with the words “ HAPPY 27th BIRTHDAY STAN WE MISS YOU!” Alright now let me get back to the time line.

So 2 years go by and the mystery shack museum is now a thing, a small one but it’s a thing. It’s less of a tourist trap and more of a museum where he captures small harmless (or well mostly harmless) creatures of gravity falls and provides activities to for people to hang out or interact with them. It starts off well and eventually he is able to produce merchandise. Occasionally he does have to provide “handmade” creatures (ideas taken from Stan’s notebook. The mystery shack continues to grows and by the late 90’s he’s able to pay off his mortgage and pay the school his grant back, and he slowly expands the shack to fit more anomalies. But still he can’t stop the nagging feeling that giving the portal up was a mistake, that stan is still alive.

THE TWINS ARE BORN! Ford being Ford he still didn’t contact his family much. He was trying to do so more especially after his dad’s death, his ma had lost so much already. When he got the call he immediately left to the hospital and once he got there much like og Stan he couldn’t let them go. He knew he had to protect them, that he couldn’t have them make the same mistakes that cost him his brother, the same mistakes that tore them apart forever.

Around the next five years this is where ford find soos after his birthday and where they begin to connect. Soos doesn’t really open up but ford gets that whatever upset the child involves his birthday. So he offers him a free entrance to the museum and soos accepts, this is kinda where I’m figuring out the details but soos love for building things reminds ford of his old lab partner that he decides to take him in as an apprentice. Now the twins are around 8-9 when ford gets called up to see if he can take the kids for the summer! (No this is not where the major story takes place) He says dipper and Mabel have been wanting to visit and they also were hoping to have them learn a thing or two. Ford agrees and almost every summer after that ford has been in charge of the twins for every summer.

During these summers ford starts to wonder if maybe he gave up on his twin too soon. He sees how the kids act with each other and he feels the guilt rip him from the inside out. He begins his research once again, even if he still feels like the odds are against him. Now the twins are 13 (this is where it takes place) (oh btw Wendy gets hired when the twins are 11 and she’s taken a liking to learning about the forest creatures, even if she doesn’t want to admit that she’s finding learning fun, and occasionally she’ll join ford on field to study these creatures) Summer this year feels a little more sad, their parents have been arguing a lot more this year and Dipper fears for the worst. He doesn’t want a divorce, and he especially doesn’t want to get separated from his twin sister.

But this is also an exciting summer since Grunkle Ford said this would be the year they can start going into the forest by themselves! Now you can guess how dipper found the journal. Now I’m not going to spoil much now but that’s it for fords part!

Now for Stanley!

After being pushed into the portal he blacked out for a second. He woke up to find himself surrounded by creatures! He panicked clutching (his pearls) the journal, and sneaking it into his jacket. This is his first encounter with bill. Bill at first seems friendly, kind, offering Stan some food and water. Stan didn’t trust it. His gut told him to run and after being on the streets for 10 years he knew not to trust food and water handed to you by someone you just met. Bill shows ford around explaining his dimensions and that those little black holes are worm holes that lead to different dimensions. He tells him his brother was working on a portal that would created would do something similar, that he made a deal with ford. He would help him create a portal so that his name would go down in history and give him the opportunity to explore other universes and in exchange he could go into fords dimension and explore the stars there. But ford backed out last minute and betrayed bill. Stan obviously didn’t trust that especially after seeing the state ford was in.

However he knew guys like bill. Unless you want to die just let him keep going and hear him out. Bill tried to make a deal with him, charming him saying that maybe he would listen to Stanley, that if Stanley let him control his body for a bit he could convince ford to open the portal once again and afterwards bill would give Stan what he always wanted: a million dollars, the opportunity to get his family back. But there were so many flaws with that deal. Bill never said how long he would take over his body, he kept using vague language when he said get his family back. For all he knew his family could be given to him in coffins. And he during that little montage bill showed him of ford he saw fords eyes, well more like his pupils. Bill was what ford was looking for when he checked his eyes. Yeah no he’s not trusting him .

But how could he escape if he was practically surrounded. He acted as if he was thinking looking subtly around. A worm hole! But he needed to get closer, cause a distraction, but how???

ANYWAYS PART THREE LATER CAUSE I GOT CLASS OKAY BYEEE

[storm-and-starlight]

Narrative Absence in Gravity Falls

Or, the reason why Ford's introduction DIDN'T go down like the Stan Balloon

(you know the one)

Lets talk about narrative absence, character introductions, and plot twists in Gravity Falls, because honestly? There's some really fascinating things to talk about. Spoiler warning for a show that's ten years old at this point, I guess? and essay below the cut

Ford's introduction is one of those plot twists that, mishandled, would have fallen flatter than the second dimension -- a new character introduced barely a handful of episodes before the massive finale, with massive backstory that changes everything we think we know about the setting, the backstory, and one of the lead characters? It sounds like a recipe for flubbing the landing and yet it's one of the best character reveals of, imo, all time. Like... the kind of reveal I want to write an essay about. Which I'm doing!

Part of the tricky thing with last-minute reveals is not only not having the time to let the audience get to know the new person the way they know the old cast, but also getting the character's place in the narrative to feel earned. A piece of writing advice I've heard is to never introduce a new character more than three-quarters of the way through a story, and two-thirds is better if you can manage it. Ford shows up at literally the last possible second, according to that (seriously, episode thirty out of forty total, and three of those are the finale), and yet he meshes so well it's like he was always there! And it's because he kind of always was. We never saw Ford, but we saw the holes he left behind, and in seeing those holes we could see what kind of person he would be, and so he's not really a new character at all -- he's Stan's version of what Dipper is to Mabel, and he was all along.

(A really quite obvious example of the whole "Stan's version of what Dipper is to Mabel". Just look at that sweater!) (Which, incidentally, is relevant to another point from later in the meta.)

Part of why it worked is, admittedly, the textual foreshadowing, but there are already enough discussions of that (right down to the DVD commentaries) that I don't really feel the need to go into it here, and also it's totally possible for a plot twist to be foreshadowed and STILL come off as stupid, like, the stupidity doesn't rely on the fact that the audience could have picked up on it beforehand. So we'll leave the foreshadowing out for now, and talk about the other major element why the Ford reveal works so well: the space in the narrative. We never saw Ford, but we saw the giant gaping hole he left behind, and we could see the shape of him in it. He's not really a new character -- his outline was there all along.

Okay, "giant gaping hole" might not be the best way to describe it. Narrative absence might be better -- there's a... gap in the story, a place where a character should be and yet isn't. In Gravity Falls, there are three of these -- the big honking WHO'S THE AUTHOR? that's the main mystery of the entire show, and two others that are... subtler. Because WHO'S THE AUTHOR is 1.) explicitly discussed in text and 2.) a driving element of story structure, rather than a negative space in story structure, and therefore something that doesn't need to be explained like the other one does, I'm not really gonna bring it up until much later.

The other major absences -- the ones that only come about because of the way Gravity Falls is built as a story -- are a lot more interesting.

Gravity Falls as a story is structured a lot around the idea of narrative foils and counterparts. There are a lot of these in the show  -- pretty much every character who has a consistent speaking role in multiple episodes comes in a duo -- Wendy and Soos, Candy and Grenda, the tall teens vs the goth teens, Manly Dan and Tyler Cutebiker -- it's not something that was meant to be an explicit symbolic element (at least to my interpretation), but it is something that was on the writers and character designers minds.

The most prominent of these opposing pairs is Dipper and Mabel, who are outright narrative foils -- they are markedly different in every way, and their differences are complimentary, meant to help make the other character shine, or to fill narrative roles that the other one cannot. It's a very balanced way of making a pair of main characters, and it's really noticeable. Very neat, very symmetrical, very clean.

(Yeah, I know it's just a screenshot of the first episode, but it's a nice example of how their characters are opposites. First episodes are good at that.)

This is where the first absence comes in: Stan Pines has no opposite.

He's just straight up not given a foil in the show, and for someone so important to the entire narrative, that's... noticeable. Soos and Wendy aren't his direct opposites, and he and Dipper are very different people but are never arranged as opposing counterparts that fill in the holes of the other's narrative the way a proper foil does (this actually comes in later, like, Dipper is sort of set up to be opposite to Stan but it's a really weak sort of opposite -- the basics are there but the narrative never focuses on them the way it does on how Dipper and Mabel actively complement each other), and Stan and Mabel are set up not as a contrasting pair, but as a complementary pair. This goes beyond simply the fact that she's textually his favorite twin (though that is an element of it! That's a pretty darn big element of it!) -- she's shown to be basically a younger, nicer version of him. The clashes he has with her aren't about being different, they're about being too similar, or aimed at the same goals. Boss Mabel is the best example of this, with Mabel taking over Stan's job and having to become like him, but Land Before Swine also reinforces that connection with their fight being the main conflict of the episode and Dipper getting the B-plot with Soos.(Hence part of where the Dipper thing comes in -- Mabel is foil to Dipper, and Stan is similar to Mabel, and so Stan and Dipper have elements of foil-dom but aren't actually foils.)

Hell, from Not What She Seems she even gets the famous "Grunkle Stan, I trust you" line, while Dipper is placed as being the one to not trust Stan.

Stan Pines stands alone as the only character without a contrast in an entire cast full of pairs, and it leaves things unbalanced. Like, once again, the Dipper thing comes back in, because if they wanted to make a balanced set of relationships it would be set up like a triangle, with the similarities and differences between Stan and Dipper and Stan and Mabel focused on in the story itself, but instead it's just Mabel who gets the plotlines emphasizing her thematic connections with Stan, and Dipper just gets plotlines dealing with their relationship as people, which is a very different experience.

And this is the source of the second absence: Dipper Pines has no complement.

This one is less dramatic than the foil relationship, because "contrasting pairs" are just straight up a fundamental design aspect of the show as a whole, but it's still very much there. Mabel is shown as being strongly similar to Stan, but Dipper doesn't have anyone who shares his interests at the level they matter to him. There's no one with whom he clicks. It's a negative space in the story, and it makes the whole thing lopsided. Dipper should have a similar counterpart, and Stan should have a foil, and the way the rest of the relationships are structured and the characters are designed it's kind of glaringly obvious that they were designed and written with those roles in mind, and yet... there's nothing.

It leaves two very big holes in the story -- subtle ones, yes, that you probably aren't even going to pick up on at all your first time through the show (I certainly didn't, it took me a long time to pick out all the little story-structure-and-themes related stuff that generates this) -- but they're very, very much there. And, really, the place they intersect is... interesting. "Stan's foil, who is complement to Dipper, whose relationship with Stan is the same as Mabel's relationship to Dipper" (except different, because there's a whole nother essay I could write on how Stan&Ford and Dipper&Mabel are themselves a contrasting pair, in that one set of twins "got it right" when the other set "got it wrong", but that's only semi-relevant here and really requires Ford to be part of the analysis) ends up in really only one place -- "Stan's nerdy twin sibling who is connected and deeply involved in the mysteries of Gravity Falls".

And whaddaya know, that's exactly what we got. There's a big honking hole in the narrative, and Ford fits it perfectly, because he was the reason the hole was there in the first place.

It dovetails so nicely with WHO'S THE AUTHOR because that's also a big honking hole in the narrative, it's just one that's talked about in the text because, well, the characters can see it, so they can talk about it. (Gravity Fall is, alas, not meta enough to have the characters discuss the thematic implications of their own narrative arcs and character relationships.) It's the biggest absence in the story, and it gives Ford a textual place to fit in, and that gives him just that extra little bit of thematic consistency with the rest of the show, which makes his reveal that magic combination of unexpected (because holy shit Stan has a twin????) and expected the whole time (because holy shit of course Stan has a twin, it all makes sense now!), and that in turn leads to it being one of the best character reveals ever.

---

(There's one more thing I'd like to talk about here, and it's "how did Hirsch manage to write something so subtle into the story in the first place"? Because Gravity Falls, for how good and tight of a mystery it is, is surprisingly unplanned (seriously, watch the episode commentaries, it's honestly really cool how they managed to take random elements they tossed in for flavor and build up on it to enhance the mystery). I think the answer is "because he knew there was supposed to be a character there in the first place", which -- that'll do a LOT of surprising things to your ability to foreshadow and make room in a story. Knowing how it's going to end means even subconsciously, an author knows what needs to happen in that story to make room for that ending, and knowing that there was going to be a character who'd be Stan's foil and Dipper's thematic parallel, and that the most important thematic parallel in the entire show would be the one reflecting Dipper and Mabel's relationship in the older generation that didn't quite get it right. And Hirsch and the writers, obviously, have an incredibly strong grasp of the characters in the show, like I could write another entire essay on how well Gravity Falls manages to pull off "character as fate" and "character as plot driver".

Anyways, all of this really boils down to OH MY GOD LOOK HOW GOOD THE CHARACTER WRITING IS IN THIS SHOW IT FULLY FORESHADOWED FORD'S EXISTENCE EVEN WITHOUT ACTUAL PLOT SUPPORT and like. that's basically just my entire opinion on Gravity Falls anyways.)

[thebeckster]

Ooo I would love to see some cute kiss scenes for trio of towns weekend! How about

Prompt #4 An accidental brush of lips followed by a pause and going back for another on purpose, with Wayne and Hinata?

Another prompt for the Trio of Towns weekend!

This one was fun! I've never written Hinata/Wayne, but they could compel me as a ship. Might have to explore this one a little more.

💋💋💋💋

They had been looking for a reason to get together for a bonfire. The season was perfect for it. Summer was beginning to turn to autumn and while the days were warm, the nights held a slight nip in the air. Nothing uncomfortable, but perfect for getting chased away by a warm drink, or a crackling fire.

When Hinata had been cast as leading man in his next play, Wayne suddenly found the perfect excuse fallen into his lap. A small celebration to congratulate a friend was a good enough excuse to get their friends together for an evening.

He prepared everything, gathering the firewood, preparing snacks and drinks, passing around invitations to their friends. It wasn’t a formal party, people could come and go as they pleased, or as their schedules demanded. All in all it was a successful evening. Plenty of laughter and song. The food never ran low, the drinks were always cold, and the company was most excellent. There were even some congratulatory toasts to Hinata, which the aspiring actor accepted with the grace (and speech) of one winning a Tony. Spurring some thrown popcorn and joking heckling from his audience.

Now, the bonfire was almost burnt down to embers. Nearly everyone was gone, the early risers heading off for a reasonable bed time. Wayne and Hinata were the last two left, neither having to work the next day so they could stay out later than usual. They sat on opposite sides of the fire, lapsed into comfortable silence.

Hinata stretched and leaned back. “Great party, Wayne. Thanks for putting it all together.”

Wayne smiled, poking at the fire. “Thanks for giving me an excuse to have folks over. Been wanting to do this for a while now.” He looked skyward and his smile broadened. “Gorgeous night for it too. Not a cloud in the sky. Perfect night for stargazing.”

“Yeah?” Hinata looked up, staring at the sky. “Never got into stargazing, much. My brothers used to tease me all the time about having my head in the clouds. Didn’t need to go chasing the stars too.” He chuckled. “Turns out I decided to chase stardom instead.”

Wayne sighed contentedly. “One of my favorite parts of livin’ out here is how clear our night sky is. No light pollution to speak of.”

“I think I remember a couple major stars… that’s the North Star, right?” Hinata pointed into the sky.

“You’re pointing south, bud.” Wayn laughed. “Polaris is up behind you.”

Hinata turned, trying to see which of the many stars overhead Wayne was pointing at. They went back and forth for a minute, Wayne trying to tell him how to find the Big Dipper and then find the North Star from it, but Hinata just could not see it.

“Hang on, scooch over. I need to see from your perspective.” He walked over and sat down next to Wayne, scooting as close up against him as possible, propping his chin on Wayne’s shoulder and looking straight up his pointing arm. “Show me again.”

Wayne tilted his head to try and match Hinata’s angle, and then pointed out the stars again. “See those four stars, you can draw lines and make them into a box. Now from this corner, follow the line of stars up, there’s the handle. See? That’s the Big Dipper.”

“Oh! I see it now!” Hinata breathed out in excitement.

“Great! Now, from the opposite corner of the top of the dipper, draw a line straight out to that bright star. That’s Polaris. It makes the end of the handle for the Little Dipper.”

Hinata gasped. “I see it! Oh man, that’s so cool! I’ve never been able to –”

He had turned his head at the same time Wayne had turned to look at him. Given their closeness, the fact that they were practically cheek-to-cheek, close enough they could feel the scratch of each other’s stubble and the warmth of their breath on their skin. And when they’d turned their heads, their lips brushed. Just a touch, just enough contact for them both to realize what had happened, and then jerk away.

“S-sorry,” Wayne muttered. In the low light of the fire, he knew the blush creeping across his cheeks wasn’t visible, but his face felt hot all the same.

“No, it’s okay,” Hinata quickly insisted with a small smile and laugh. “Not the first guy I’ve kissed. Even on accident.”

And a thought occurred to Hinata in that moment, as he watched Wayne deal with the flustered moment. There was no denying Wayne was a handsome man. Women flocked to him, and even resolutely straight men couldn’t help but admit there was just something about the postman’s charm they found hard to resist. Hinata had thought more than once about how he’d take the opportunity to kiss Wayne, if the opportunity presented itself, but it had never really been more than a passing fancy. As far as he knew, Wayne was not inclined to kissing men, though truthfully, he seemed disinclined to kissing anyone. He didn’t mind the female attention he garnered, but he never reciprocated the attention beyond what good manners required.

But goodness, now that the opportunity had presented itself, Hinata could think of nothing else but leaning in again and cupping his hands around Wayne’s face and pulling him in for another kiss.

And in that split-second pause of thought, that moment between breaths when time stood still while the mind raced, Hinata saw something change behind Wayne’s eyes. A shift from surprise to curiosity to desire, and if he was a betting man, he would have put money on Wayne having almost the same train of through Hinata was having.

And he would have been correct. Wayne was having his own rapid flashes of thought, of how he’d always admired Hinata, how they were good friends, how he made Wayne laugh, how his boundless optimism constantly endeared Hinata to Wayne. And how very suddenly, he realized that he might quite like to actually kiss him for real this time.

And at the same time, they both spoke.

“D’you?”

“Can we?”

And they smiled as they realized what they were both asking, and the answer was an enthusiastic ‘yes!’ And they leaned into each other. Hands bumping awkwardly as they both reached for the other, pausing just a hair’s breadth away. And they kissed. Once more with feeling.

[imaginethathaikyuu]

separating

atsumu miya x fem!reader

from this request

featuring: childhood friends to starcrossed lovers, college!au, reader wants to be a hometown teacher, atsumu wants to go pro, history major!atsumu, sports injury, angst, break ups, canon divergent, you and atsumu are lovesick fools, arguments, comfort, i dont know how injuries or college or sports work i’m a theatre kid turned college dropout, i made it up, i made all of it up, 

im back baby 

word count: 6854

-

You were six and Atsumu was seven. The sky was clear, the air had a crisp chill, and the ground underneath you was uncomfortable, but you could lay on that blanket in the grass next to him forever. 

His arm came into your view, pointing up at the sky. 

“Bet you can’t guess what constellation I’m pointing at.” 

You closed one eye, giggling as you looked up his arm toward the end of his finger to find the stars right behind it. 

“The Big Dipper?” 

“Orion’s Belt,” he said. “See it? The three stars in a row?”

“No!” You were laughing and he was scolding you like a parent. 

“It’s right there! It’s staring you right in the face, just look!” 

“I see it! The three stars in a row, I see it.” 

You didn���t see it - you looked and looked for the rest of the night and never found it. But you said you did, anyways, like it was for his sake. 

“You should just make up your own constellations, since you can’t find the real ones.” 

“I can find more than you!” 

“In your dreams!” 

“Whatever - I’ll just let you win so you’ll feel better.” 

You could almost hear the boy pouting as you laughed, and you were being loud enough that the neighbors could hear, but you didn’t care. The whole world felt like yours when you were laying under the stars with him. 

After that it was quiet, all but the crickets chirping and the frogs croaking and the occasional owl’s hoot - so, it wasn’t quiet at all. 

“We should sleep out here every night,” Atsumu said, almost whispering. 

“Every night? Forever? Even when we’re grown up with houses and big beds?” 

“Well, maybe not ‘til then -” 

“We could just make our ceiling a big window. That way we can still see the stars when we’re going to bed.” 

“But I want my own room, I’m not sharing with you.” 

“You have to share!” 

He huffed a breath out loud, “are you gonna be like this forever?” and you laughed. 

“If I know you forever, then, yeah. Are you gonna let me know you forever?” 

“I guess.” 

You lifted your arm up straight in the air, the same way he did when he pointed at the stars, with only your pinky up. 

“Promise?” 

“Ugh.” 

“Promise, or I’ll cry.” 

Even though you were laughing, and you were only trying to annoy him, a part of you was being serious. Because when you’re a kid, forever means something and so do pinky promises. 

“Fine!” 

And he stuck his arm out and wrapped his pinky around yours and squeezed. You looked up and saw your promise in the air surrounded by all of the stars in the sky, and thought of it as your own constellation. One only you could see. 

- // -

It was so cold outside that you felt it in your fingers and your nose, with a burning in your chest to match. Walks home during December were menacing; your boots hurt your feet, your beanie made your forehead itch, and your jacket was too big. 

You hated winter. 

The overcast day made everything seem so muted; even if you wanted to be in a cheery mood, this weather wouldn’t let you. 

But you were finally home, and when you turned up the sidewalk, Atsumu busted through your front door and came running toward you with a piece of paper in each hand. The fact that you didn’t question why he came running out of your home was a testament to your friendship. 

“I got in,” he said, shoving an acceptance letter in your face. “And so did you.” 

Suddenly all the dreams you had felt palpable. You didn’t have to keep whispering your goals like secrets underneath blanket forts - you could take the steps and achieve them. Atsumu could play for a college volleyball team; you could finally get a serious education. 

And that felt like the first day of forever. Two matching letters from Atsumu’s university of choice, the one you’d made a compromise for, is what cemented your next four years with him. 

Four years could feel like forever, if the time drags by slowly enough. 

-

The only time you were confused about your relationship with Atsumu was when somebody else asked you about it. 

“Do you know him?” 

Because it was unspoken. There weren’t words or labels on it - just an invisible chain that kept you tethered to each other. And you didn’t know what to call it - you’d never called it anything. 

The girl next to you gestured to the boy in the other room, who stood with a ping pong ball in his hand. 

You played ignorant. “Who? The blond?” 

She giggled and nodded. “Atsumu?” 

You shrugged, not really knowing what to say, because you had shown up to this party with the boy and you still hadn’t gotten used to no longer having the high school reputation of being together.  

“We’re friends,” you said. 

Atsumu was your best friend and you always thought that was enough. To you, it was. But friends ask questions and family pushes into your business and you never have answers that satisfy, because there wasn’t an answer to give. 

And you wished he was there now, because you weren’t good at sitting on couches surrounded by faces you didn’t know. For some reason at parties like these there were always separate groups - girls in the living room with their drinks and the gossip, boys in the kitchen with the beer pong and their arguments. You never knew most of the party but usually got drunk enough to tell them all you loved them by the end of the night, although the alcohol wasn’t helping how awkward you felt tonight. 

You sat in silence with the girl who was on her phone, looking around the room that was casted in a purple glow. Music you didn’t like was blasting from a TV mounted on the wall and someone’s dog was sitting at your feet and your drink was getting warm in the bottle and you felt like you were all by yourself. 

Red light was pouring from the kitchen and you stared at Atsumu who was bathed in it. He’d thrown and missed his shot in the time you were mulling over being alone. 

“You’re all over his Instagram,” your party friend said. “Like, in every picture. Are you with him?” 

“We grew up together, we’re like - friends, good friends.” 

She laughed at your rehearsed response. “Are you getting it or not?” 

And you laughed with her because you felt like you had to. “No, god no, stop.”

 Her next question was interrupted by someone calling your name, and you snapped your head towards it and nearly ran to the one it came from. 

“Let’s play,” Atsumu said when you stepped foot in the room. He took your hand and placed a ping pong ball in it. “We’re gonna smoke Aran and his girlfriend.”

“You know I hate playing with you.” 

“Come on, babe, just one game.” 

One game always turned into half a dozen, and Atsumu was always too competitive for it to be fun. 

But you would play anyway. And Atsumu wouldn’t bother waiting for your response before getting the first round going.  

“You ready to lose to my girl, Aran?” 

-

Were you friends? Were you more than that? Were you somewhere in the middle? 

The answer to all of those questions was yes and no. 

It felt like a secret you were keeping. A relationship that was only yours, that confused everybody else. 

Atsumu once called you his security blanket. And it made you laugh, but you understood what he meant. He was an anchor. Something strong to hold you up. That’s what he was. 

Even after you started holding hands in secret, or when he became your first kiss because you were too scared to kiss anybody else, he stayed your best friend. You never thought about it any more than that. 

That’s why you did everything together, because you couldn’t imagine doing anything without him. Life was easier when you weren’t doing it alone, and having him around seemed to make university life manageable. 

While your first year was a lot of parties and adjustment, the second year brought talks about the future and a side to Atsumu you hadn’t seen before.  

Atsumu was an achiever. He’d get whatever he wanted and he would make it look easy. And whenever he told you about all of his big dreams, you told him that you believed in him, because you did. So maybe you were stupid for thinking that college would be forever. 

It was late at night, too late for someone with class in the morning to still be awake, but Atsumu kept you up. 

He’d been sleeping in your bed more often. He claimed it was more comfortable than his own - you knew he was lying, but you didn’t question it. Just like you didn’t question the way his chest was pressed to your back every morning. 

That’s where he was now. “I gotta start planning, babe,” he said. There was still too much space between your bodies but you didn’t move to change it. 

“Planning for what?” you asked with a laugh. 

“The future,” he said. “Like - I’m pretty sure I’ll make a Division 1 team, but that’s not the goal, right? I could play for the Olympics one day, if I play my cards right, but - I mean, I don’t even know how I’m gonna get there. It’s not like there’s a map to follow. The coach from the Tokyo team has been scouting, so I guess that’s a good direction to go…” 

He spoke candidly, almost like nobody was listening. Like he was treating this conversation as a diary entry. It was the same way he spoke about his dreams of the future when you were kids.  

He turned his head and looked over at you. “What’re you gonna do?” 

You shrugged, and you tried holding back the smile that was growing on your face. “I dunno, Atsumu. I… think I wanna go back home.” 

“You do?” 

“Yeah,” you said. “Maybe I’ll teach at an elementary school at home. I think I would like that.” 

He pouted a little at that, and all of his thoughts were written on his face. 

“You don’t wanna follow me to Tokyo?” 

“You could follow me,” you laughed. He laughed too, and the conversation ended there when you scooted close to him. His arm wrapped around your shoulders and he pulled you in. 

“I gotta stop thinking so much. It’s bad for my head.”  

But he picked the conversation back up a few days later, as if he had just thought of something to say in response to your made up plans for your future. 

“I just think you should try to do more,” he said. You were both walking home from his volleyball practice. 

“What do you mean?” 

“More than going back home and being a teacher.” He pulled his backpack higher on his shoulder. “I mean, don’t you wanna move somewhere cool? Have a big life? Be a little spontaneous?” 

“What made you think I wanted any of those things?” 

“I don’t know.” He looked over at you and you couldn’t decipher the look he gave. “We’ve only got a couple years left. I guess, I just thought…” 

You waited for him to continue, and sometime in the silence your hand latched onto his out of habit. 

“I just think you’re capable of more, is all.” 

You shrugged. “Maybe. I mean, I know I could do a lot of things. But maybe I want something comfortable. And I’ve become more passionate about teaching than I thought I would - I think it would make me happy. I know it will.” 

“You could be a teacher anywhere, though.” 

You had a feeling you understood what he meant. 

But this isn’t something you could compromise on. You wouldn’t make this decision on impulse; you weren’t going to follow him to a city you didn’t want to go to. 

Your goals weren’t as grand as his, but they were still yours. 

You stepped closer to him, knocking your shoulders together. “I want to go home. I wanna be with my family - I want to have a classroom full of my friend’s kids one day. I don’t want something cool or spontaneous.” 

Then he pulled you even closer, and your footsteps got caught up with his. It was an awkward walk but you were comfortable being pressed into him. 

“Then you should do that. I was just making sure you knew what you wanted, that’s all. If that’s what you want… go for it, babe.” 

-

For the first time you saw a life on the horizon that didn’t have Atsumu in it, and you weren’t sure how you should feel about it. Atsumu had always been in the picture - nothing ever felt right without him. 

Maybe it was that familiar comfort that brought the two of you so close. But as you got older that simplicity waned and in its place grew something more; it was intimate and flirtatious and free. 

And it wasn’t innocent, it wasn’t pure. It landed somewhere close to romance but not quite. 

You let him flirt with you because it felt natural until you started to like it too much. Unspoken emotions rushed in all at once - ones you shouldn’t be feeling toward a friend. 

But he wasn’t just a friend. Both of you knew that. 

And he wasn’t yours. Both of you knew that, too. 

The more you thought about it, the more you hated all the time you had wasted. If you had known that things would work out this way - that Atsumu would be taking his path and you would be taking your own - you would have done everything differently. You wouldn’t be so content with being just friends who flirt and hold hands and sleep in the same bed. 

And maybe you should have realized earlier that you were never really just friends with Atsumu. Your friendship was nothing more than the foundation for every risky thought you had about the boy. And everyone but you could see it. 

Maybe what you were doing was intentional, and maybe you were seeking affection from him in your own secret ways, but did either of those things give you a right to be jealous? 

When you saw him at a party with his hands on someone else’s hips, were you allowed to be angry about it? 

You weren’t sure, but fury didn’t ask your permission to cloud your judgment, and tears welled in your eyes before you could tell them not to. 

You were coming to terms with your own feelings, having wars in your mind over how to love him in a way that felt normal, and Atsumu didn’t even know. He wasn’t technically doing anything wrong because you weren’t his to take care of. 

Even if he did sleep next to you every night. 

And you didn’t want to be at that party anymore. And you didn’t want anything to change between you and your best friend, but your heart had made up its mind. 

But there was only one way home and it was through him. For all he knew you were in the kitchen making the party yours - he had no idea you were across the room from him boiling in your own pitiful anger. 

You could walk up to him and interrupt his good time and face him with your tears and shaky hands. Or, you could go outside, sit on the stoop, and let yourself be alone until he found you. 

You chose the latter. 

Stray tears were wiped away and you didn’t let any more follow. It was childish to cry; it was immature to be angry. You couldn’t even be honest with him, so how could you be so jealous without being ashamed? How could you blame him when he had only gone along with your silence? 

You could tell him the truth, or you could regret holding it in forever. 

By the time he found you out in the cold, you still hadn’t made up your mind, but you decided you still had time.

-

 It was one of the last volleyball games of Atsumu’s sophomore season. 

You watched from the stands, eyes trained on the only person on the court who mattered to you, as Atsumu fell onto the glossy gym floor and didn’t get back up. 

It happened so fast that you missed it, and when more than a few seconds passed you stood up and yelled his name along with the shouting crowd. 

His team crowded him, the coach rushed in, and all you could do was watch. Someone rolled him onto his back. He was holding his right arm to his chest and you swore his hand shouldn’t be bending in that direction when medics ran over and blocked your view. 

Your heart was in your throat for the rest of the night. Doctors and x-rays and casts; silence from Atsumu, pestering questions from you, and calls to family. You didn’t relax until you got him back to your apartment. 

When he breathed another deep sigh, you finally asked if he was okay. 

“Just want to shower,” he said. His words sounded clipped. 

“I’ll have to put your arm in a grocery bag or something.” 

“I can do it myself.” 

“Just let me help.” You were as insistent as you always were. “But I’m not giving you a bath, so you have to fend for yourself in there.” 

He didn’t laugh at your joke. You weren’t expecting him to. 

“You’ll be fine, Atsumu, you heard the doctors,” you called from the kitchen, “in six weeks you’ll be in physical therapy. It was the end of the season, anyway. You’ll be playing again in a couple of months.” 

You caught him rolling his eyes. “You don’t understand how much every game and practice matters. You aren’t under the same pressure as me. You don’t get it.” 

“Well, I’m sure there’s always a bedroom back home for you. Could use that degree you're getting, History Major.” 

He didn’t like hearing that. 

“Right. That’s what everyone expects, that nothing will work out for me - is that what you think, too?” 

You shrugged, “Would that really be so bad?” You didn’t know you were walking on thin ice, but you should’ve.

He sat a little bit straighter and looked at you hard. “Yes. It would.” 

“I just think you’d be fine if you didn’t end up going pro -” 

“That’s what you think,” he said, almost calm before his voice raised, “but I’m not like you. I don’t have to settle for that fucking town. I don’t want to go back there and do nothing with my life like everyone else - don’t tell me what I’d be fine doing. You don’t get it.” 

And you didn’t know what to say to that. You wanted to bite back - you had venom on the tip of your tongue. You knew the right words, how to dig deep enough to scar. 

This is the first time it had really sunk in that all of Atsumu’s goals weren’t just pipedreams. He wanted something and he didn’t need your help getting it.

That, maybe, he thought less of you for your hometown goals. For not striving for more.  

All the spoonfuls of sugar in the world wouldn’t help you swallow that.

You could hurt him back by saying something you didn’t mean, and maybe it would make you feel better, but it wouldn’t take away the truth. It wouldn’t make Atsumu stay with you after graduation. It wouldn’t make everything he said a lie. 

You held it in because you had to. Even though you knew how to hurt him, even though you had a selfish need to hit him back, even though you wanted to lash out. You held it in. 

“Just - fucking… put your arm in the bag and go shower.” 

You wrapped his cast with the plastic bag and lots of tape in edgy silence. Then he went into the bathroom, and you sat outside of the door in case he called out for help. He didn’t. 

-

His wrist ended up being fine. But you weren’t; months later, you were still reeling over that argument you had with him. 

It was the proof you needed to pull yourself out of your head. 

In two years, when you and Atsumu graduate, he’s going to Tokyo. And you aren’t. 

You wondered what it would be like to follow him into succeeding his goals. Even though you thought it would be hard to say no, it was an easy decision to make. 

You had a life you wanted to live, and so did he. But those lives weren’t the same - they were nearly opposites.

And you’d do anything he’d ask like it was doing yourself a favor. He knew it, too. But you wouldn’t drop your map to follow his. Even if all you wanted was a small life in comparison, it was still yours. 

But you still had time to let yourself answer to his call. 

Tonight, though, you were drinking because you wanted to. And you’d roped him into opening a bottle because you didn’t want to drink alone, because it was the weekend and the third year of university was busting your asses. 

So you sat on the floor in your small apartment kitchen and drank from the same bottle of the corner store’s cheapest wine. When your hand fell into his it was an accident; when your legs became tangled it was on purpose. 

Atsumu played a playlist you made for him while you were still in highschool, and it was quiet all but the music. It looked like a sad picture, but it wasn’t - it was comfortable. It was fun and simple and secure, and you’d love it if you never had to leave. 

“What’s got you in this mood tonight?” he finally asked, with his head thrown back against the cabinet behind him and the wine bottle in his lap. 

“Nothing,” you replied, honest. “Just want to be here with you.” 

“Yeah?” He looked down at you, his face much closer than you remembered it being. You nodded and he tilted his chin up towards you, and you watched a smile grow on his face. “I wanna be here with you too.” 

You couldn’t look at him for too long without getting a strain in your throat, and you blamed the wine for it. 

But there were thoughts you couldn’t shake, that you needed to get out. 

“Do you really think,” you started, laying your head on his shoulder as you cleared your throat and tried again, “Do you really think I’m… doing nothing with my life, by going back home?” 

His posture straightened a bit at that. 

“No,” he said. “Of course I don’t think that. About everyone else there, maybe, but not you.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yeah, babe.” He squeezed your hand, shook it a bit. “I just want you to be happy, baby, that’s it.”

You decided you liked his answer. It didn’t wash away any of your self doubt but it was good enough to drop the conversation in favor of taking another drink. 

You sat like that for what could have been too long until you moved closer. Maybe it was the wine, or the simmering envy you never could shake, or the ticking fear of regret - it was probably all three that had you leaning in close and waiting to see what he would do. 

Your noses brushed. You were breathing the same air, nervous shallow breaths that didn’t fill your lungs, blinking slow because you could hardly keep your eyes open. You wanted to keep looking at him but your eyes closed on instinct. 

He said your name then nothing else. For just a second, he hesitated, kept you waiting, and then he fell slow into a crashing kiss. One that tasted bittersweet, like the alcohol in the wine. 

He pulled away and asked, “You okay?” and instead of answering you kissed him again. You put your hand on his jaw and held him there so you could kiss him slow and soft for as long as you wanted because he was letting you. 

You had kissed him before, but never like this. It was always a dare - it was never spontaneous. Despite years of flirting, touching, and pining, neither of you had ever made a move like this. 

You let yourself mumble truths against his lips, things you’d only ever said in your head now falling onto his ears. And he said his own right back. 

Emotion flooded in and washed away any tension. “I just want to be with you,” you said. You had his shirt in your fist, you had tears in your eyes. 

“You’re with me,” he said with a bit of a laugh. “I’m all yours.” 

“For now.” 

You hoped he understood what you meant; he did. 

“Yeah. We’ll make the most of it, then. Don’t think about anything else.” He took your hand and pulled it from its grip on his shirt, bringing it to his lips. “You just have to think about now.” 

“It’s not that easy.” 

“It could be,” he said. “I’ll keep you distracted.” He wrapped an arm around your waist, keeping you close. 

“I should’ve told you.” 

“I already knew.” 

He kissed you again, quick, just because he could. You shook your head as if it would make the way you felt go away. 

“This is never going to work, is it?” 

Atsumu didn’t reply. 

“Because you’re going to Tokyo, and I’m not.” Your words had an unintentional bite. “It would be stupid to… to start dating now.” 

“Yeah.” 

His eyes held yours inside of them; neither of you moved to separate, both of you stayed trying to forget the words you’d said. 

It was easier to forget. Because you still had time. 

When you kissed again it was like two magnets attaching to each other. You kissed him and drank the wine until it was gone, until he pulled you onto your feet and into your room, and he slept next to you the same as always. 

The next morning, you asked him to kiss you again. He did. 

-

You had failed to make any relationship official with Atsumu - the two of you always favored unspoken rules. 

But you had taken a liking to where you were now. A place where you could do anything you wanted with him, where he was yours and you were his and that was all that mattered. 

You knew it wouldn’t be this way forever and that’s why you savored it so much. 

It was hard not to get lost when seemingly everyone you knew was living a life you couldn’t - not currently, at least. All of your friends were engaged or pregnant or both, marking their futures before they could even see graduation, and jealousy settled deep in your stomach. 

You didn’t want to be married. And you definitely didn’t want to have a child. But watching blooming relationships made you all too aware that what you had in your future was a break up. A broken heart. What you had now was fleeting. 

You wanted permanence more than you had ever wanted anything. 

And Atsumu had to remind you often that despite all of that, what you had now was real and it was worth it. It was hard to see it but he showed you; with his words and his lips and his heart. 

“You’ll have me forever,” he told you, one morning when you decided to blow off class to stay with him. He had pressed you into the bed and had every intention of keeping you there. “I’d pull my heart out of my chest and give it to you if I could.” 

“Normal boyfriends give rings, you know.” 

He grinned wild, because you had never used that word before - never called him your boyfriend. You could tell he liked it. 

“I’m not a normal boyfriend, I guess.” 

-

You had never been this nervous walking into a room of people you didn’t know. 

Atsumu had invited you to a sports banquet, because he couldn’t be the only one without a date on his hip. He wore all black and insisted you dressed to match; you felt good until you stepped into a stuffy conference room in your university’s sports building - a room you didn’t even know existed. 

Atsumu stood tall. You tried your best to do the same, even though you were tripping on your high heels and pulling your hair out of your lip gloss every five minutes. 

This celebration marked the end of Atsumu’s final college season, one that he led as team captain. And it was obvious that he was the man of the hour when he walked in. 

Every conversation was interrupted by cheers, starting from his teammates then spreading to everyone else in the room. Claps and shouts and whistles all for the man at your side, and you couldn’t help cheering along when you saw the blush on his cheeks. 

You let yourself forget about your nerves just long enough to feel proud of him. He smiled in a way he couldn’t hold back - in a way that told you he was proud of himself. 

When he became surrounded by a group of his friends and teammates you found yourself being pushed away - not by him, but by the atmosphere itself. You didn’t know how to share a spotlight that was all his, and you didn’t want to. 

You were on the outside looking in. Looking at this man who used to be a boy in your backyard, who you knew to be clever and loud and sparkling. You always knew he was the life of the party but you had never seen him so… polished. Shaking hands and sharing polite compliments as if it was his job, even with ones who were his friends. 

There were important people here tonight. People he was putting on a mask for. 

And you felt selfish all of a sudden, because you knew him better than any of these people here. You loved him more than all of them combined. Atsumu didn’t have to hide any part of himself from you. Why would he choose this life over you? Did he love this sport more than he could ever love you? 

Maybe you were selfish. And maybe you should stop being so greedy and give up a part of yourself so you could be with him, the same as Aran’s fiance had done. Maybe you should be his cheerleader and nothing else. 

But you didn’t belong in this room. The men in suits who were lined up to offer Atsumu contracts, money, fame - would laugh if they saw you standing next to him. Because your dress didn’t fit right, and you didn’t have a ring on your finger, and you weren’t Atsumu’s cheerleader. 

And everything you had come to terms with was bubbling back up, threatening to poison your entire mind. That’s how you knew you could cry about this forever and still not be over it. And every selfish part of you hoped that he would feel the same way. 

You were pulled out of your own thoughts when an arm came around your waist like a hook. Atsumu pulled you into his chest, the infectious remnants of a smile left on his face, looking at you like he knew every thought in your head. 

“Told you not to go too far,” he said. That’s when you remembered why he had brought you. “I’m sweating bullets over here, you know.” 

You took a deep breath. His smile rubbed off on you. Your emotions seemed to melt away on their own. 

Another deep breath, then, “Did you forget deodorant?” A joke you knew he’d believe. 

“Did you let me -” 

“Kidding.” You straightened his tie and laughed a bit too loud at the look on his face. He rolled his eyes. “You smell like a star athlete to me.” 

“I told you to be normal, too.”

You shrugged, “You get what you pay for, babe.” 

He took your hand and began pulling you toward the dinner tables, until the sound of someone clearing their throat behind him made him spin on his heels. He knew who it was just from the sound, and squeezed your hand hard enough to hurt. 

You busied yourself trying to loosen his fingers from their grip, and you didn’t look up at the person until they coughed again. 

It was his head coach. You had never met the man officially - you only knew what you had heard about him. He was an old man of few words. The kind of person who didn’t have to raise their voice to be intimidating; his players could see the disappointment written on his face, could feel his anger in the sound of his footsteps. And he was someone Atsumu would do anything to impress - he was responsible for all the growth he’s had as a player. 

He stood stiff, almost nervous, like he was in a lineup, waiting for his coach to speak - waiting to see if he even would. 

“I’m proud of you, son.” 

You heard Atsumu’s deep breathing go quiet. He bowed his head at the man and didn’t look back up until he walked away. 

You didn’t know for sure, but you had a feeling Atsumu had been waiting a long time to hear those words. 

-

Atsumu was graduating early. 

He needed to in order to join the professional team he’d gotten drafted into - they wanted him in practices as soon as possible. 

It was hard to be anything but proud of him despite your time together dwindling down to only a couple more weeks. And you let yourself get lost in celebrating him, lost in watching him live a dream, until your head hit the pillow every night and you were burying reality. 

You were pretending to be asleep now, suppressing every negative thought that crept in. But Atsumu knew you were awake. 

He scooted up real close, pressing his chest tight against your back and tucking his chin on your shoulder. 

“Got my schedule today,” he mumbled. You didn’t want to hear what he’d say next. “First practice is the first of the month. I’ll be moving into the new place a week before.” 

You didn’t know what to say. You wondered what you would say if this didn’t mark the end of your relationship - no words came to you. 

He dropped a kiss on your shoulder. “We could… try long distance.” 

You rolled over to face him. A tight throat and watery eyes gave away how you felt about his offer. 

“I know,” he whispered, a sarcastic huff following his voice. “I know, it’s just… just an idea.” 

“Atsumu.” 

“Isn’t it - isn’t it worth trying? Shouldn’t we, at least?” 

“What if it only makes it hurt more?” 

He sighed, “What if it doesn’t?” 

And you had to shake your head and pull away from him just enough to put your thoughts together. “I don’t want to end this hating you, Atsumu, I - I want it to stay good.” 

It was quiet for a moment. “Yeah,” he said after too long. You hoped he would say more, something to make everything easier, but you knew he couldn’t. It wouldn’t get any easier - only harder, only worse. 

Maybe you would have had a better time swallowing the long-brewed regret. If you wouldn’t have taken the leap you wouldn’t have to crash into the ground below. You could have moved on, gotten over what was once a crush but is now a burning love. 

You moved into him until he fell onto his back and you laid on his chest. And you pushed your tears back and swallowed the lump in your throat and said the only thing you knew was true. 

“It’s gonna be okay.” 

It hurt to say it, because those words brought a separation that both of you would heal from, even if you didn’t want to. 

“I know.” 

You tried to joke, “You’ll forget all about me when you’re big and famous. Don’t worry.” 

“Don’t say that,” he said, “that’s not true.” 

You cuddled into his neck, “I know.” 

“We’ll still be friends. It’s not like we’ll never see each other again.” 

“I know.” 

“It’s not like I’m dying.” 

“I know.” 

“It’ll be alright.” 

You let his words hang in the air, simmering, ringing in your mind until you believed them. Until the silence was comfortable. Then you lifted your head and looked at him; he looked back at you. 

“I’m proud of you, Atsumu.” 

He smiled. “I’m proud of you, too.” His thumb traced your bottom lip. “As long as you make it to graduation.” 

“As long as you aren’t warming the bench,” you said before snapping to bite his finger; he laughed and pulled it away. 

“Take that back,” he pouted, shaking your shoulder and squinting his eyes. 

“I meant it!” 

“You’re mean. We’re breaking up and you’re being mean!” 

You shouldn’t have laughed, not when his words hit like a truck, but you couldn’t help it. “It’s out of love, baby.” 

“So you love me?” He was teasing. 

“Yeah.” 

“I love you too.” He meant it, and you could have cried, and he would have said it again just to tease you for being so emotional. 

You squeezed his shoulder as if that was enough of a response, and for him it was. 

Then, he said, “Thank you for getting me here. And for being proud. And for going back home even though I want you to come with me. I’m proud of you, I love you.” 

And you knew, despite this mutual heartbreak and the longing for him that would never go away, that regret would have been worse. You would have chosen this path a hundred times if given the chance, because you loved him and you were loved by him, and you could never regret the jump you took. The fall before the end was worth it. 

[nicnacsnonsense]

📖 👀

Perhaps I can interest you in a Gravity Falls one, just to mix it up a bit?

Cheating a little here because I have written some of this one, but I don't know when I'll be back to it, and I do really want to share. It's sort of my Science Dad AU meets the A Better World bit from Journal 3.

(Anyone who doesn't know The Whole of Us/Science Dad AU, it a fic where Dipper & Mabel are Ford's kids from a one night stand that he didn't know about until he had a pair of five year olds dropped on his doorstep. Stan is called in to help Ford with taking care of them and Stan & Ford reconcile. Beyond that it roughtly follows the major story beats in the first part of Journal 3, with a lot of family fluff and trauma healing thrown in. And of course they get a happy ending of beating Bill before Ford falls in the portal.)

The plot of the fic was that a more canon-typical Ford shows up in the Science Dad universe in the same way that canon Ford does with the Better World excerpt in Journal 3. But really the plot was just an excuse to tour the future of the characters from the Science Dad AU, so here are the highlights.

The Institute of Oddology exists, though built around the Pines' house. It's still nearby in Gravity Falls, just not right on top of their home. Ford is the Director of the Institute, and Fiddleford -- who still has a happy relationship with his wife & son -- is the Head Researcher.

Dipper also works at the Institute, and he's acually the one who comes to fetch Ford after security takes him in. He used to be a researcher too, and he still keeps his hand in it, but his actual job title is Head of Public Outreach. He makes YouTube videos. Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained started as a little side project and ended up gaining so much traction that it's his full time job now. He's like the Bill Nye of Oddology. And the Institute funds him doing it, because it encourages interest in their still very new field.

Mabel lives in Portland and is the head of a non-profit that she founded to help combat child abuse and help victims of it. It's called "The Lucky Ones" because she refers to herself & Dipper as two of the lucky ones because they were saved by their dad. It's both a reminder that there are more kids out there that aren't so lucky, and a mission statement that they are going to save more kids and make more lucky ones. She is happily single and lives with her adopted daughter Pacifica (another one of the lucky ones) and their pet pig Waddles.

Ria still dies; I'm so sorry! But before she dies she makes Stan promise he will be there to look out for her son, keep his asshole biological father far away, and be a dad for her baby the way he was a dad for her. Soos still lives with his abuelita, but he calls Stan dad and has since he was four years old. (And he also still works for Stan of course).

Stan works at the Museum of Oddology (And Gift Shop!). This is technically a separate business from the Institute because they didn't want Ford to be Stan's boss, but it is partnered with and adjoined to the Institute. Stan and Ford also have a boat, and every other year or so they go out on a months long research expedition together, just the two of them. That's actually where they are when this fic takes place.

There's also a running joke in the story where any time someone sees Portal!Ford for the first time, they very first thing they say is "You're not Ford/my dad/my grandpa/etc." It's meant to show how close they all are that despite the two Fords nominally looking identical, everyone can immediately tell that this Ford is not their Ford. Except Stan. They do a video call to the boat and Stan immediately, without any forewarning or knowledge of the situation, smiles and says, "Hey look Ford, it's you." Because obviously Stan knows this is a different version of Ford than the one on the boat with him, but as far as Stan is concerned any version of Ford is still Ford and Ford will always be his brother.

[davenweenie]

Lab Rats Headcanon’s

I don’t know if anyone has realised but I’m horrendously British so you’ll have to excuse some of my language if you’re American and don’t understand it. Also I am a massive Chase stan so most of these will be about him.

-I could go on about the Chase is Trans hc until the day I die. He just gives off major trans vibes and it’s canon in my head. lol.

-Spike is so odd to me. The fact that they can’t find a way to remove him form Chase’s chip is odd. On another note please give me DID Chase fic recs.

-Chase is really durable. Adam can literally carry tons of weight and punches Chase all the time, also throws him, and Chase is just, like fine?

-Adam feels really guilty when he gets older about how much he hurt Chase when they were kids/teenagers. The fact that his baby brother’s arms were covered in bruises so much that he could never wear short sleeves in fear of someone thinking he was being abused makes him feel terrible.

-however, Bionic Brother Tosses still happen. Adam just makes sure Chase has somewhere a bit softer to land when they see each other.

-Bree can pick Chase up like he weighs nothing. Just throws him over her shoulder. She could since they were kids and made sure they could all carry each other if they needed to (getting out of dangerous situations, especially if someone is unconscious)

-Adam and Bree still have nightmares about seeing Chase’s ‘dead’ body in Giselle’s lab.

-their necks are incredibly sensitive from where their chips are. Kaz thinks it’s funny to touch Chase’s all the time and surprises him all the time when he sneaks up from the back.

-this is way in the future but I think Perry cried at Kaz and Chase’s wedding. Also Skylar and Bree’s. She told everyone she had hayfever though.

-Perry was inconsolable when one of her cats died from liver failure and came knocking on the EF penthouse door in tears. Bree and Chase were terrified to see that woman cry. Of course they comforted her though.

-I don’t think bionic people can get pregnant. I feel like it would be super dangerous idk. Adding to this, Bree and Skylar wanted kids but it would have been too dangerous for them both to have children so they ended up fostering and adopting twins of a superhero that was killed by the shapeshifters (idk this one’s a work in progress)

-Kaz and Oliver go back to being doctors when Mighty Med is rebuilt. Kaz was so excited after delivering his first baby (idk, do they do that at that hospital, I still haven’t finished MM) and kept rambling about it to Chase over the phone. Oliver was passed out because he’s terrified of babies.

-Adam and Leo both smoke weed for sure. They’re stoner brothers. If Chase had been around when they started he would for sure also get high a lot (probably not by smoking it because he cares too much about his health. He’d probably eat it)

-Chase doesn’t get dizzy. Instead: he sees in pixels until it goes away. This only happens if he gets really dizzy though, like has spun around 100 times sort of dizzy. Otherwise he’s like a normal person.

-Adam loved My Little Pony when they were kids, he still watched it from time to time when he’s feeling sad. He also really liked watching Monster High with Bree.

-Adam is literally Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls reincarnated. Chase is absolutely like Dipper Pines which is the main reason he loved Gravity Falls when he was younger.

-people used to think Bree and Chase were twins only because they were so similar in height and build, as they’ve gotten older they’ve become easier to separate from each other.

-Tasha drives and Davenport is the passenger princess. I know Davenport can drive but he chooses not to if he doesn’t have to.

-Adam loves going on drives with his siblings, it’s perfect bonding time. They sing pop songs (usually Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Brittany Spears etc) at the top of their lungs while driving to get food.

-When Kaz and Chase move in together, the first thing Kaz does is get a red pickup truck. He told Chase that he got it so they could drive out of the city and go stargazing where the sky wasn’t polluted by light. (It’s giving Dante and Aristotle, I know)

-Chase’s first car was a Ford Fiesta which he got with his own money. He knew he could have asked Davenport for a car and he would have gotten a high tech, brand new car the next day but he wanted something that he had worked hard to get. He wanted visual proof that he could accomplish things on his own and saving up for a car had been one of them.

-There were many road trips in that small car. They drove to Hollywood a lot and often times climbed up to the Hollywood sign even though they knew it was trespassing. When Chase eventually had to get a new car because the Fiesta kept breaking down, he had cried. He felt stupid crying over a car but Kaz had assured him it was okay.

-they had made so many memories in that car and after being split up as a team, Chase clung onto it as if it would make him and his siblings a team again. It took a lot of willpower to sell it for parts. He kept the steering wheel, he wanted to keep one part to remember the amazing times in that little car.

-although Bree used to constantly talk about how she wished she didn’t have to be around her brothers, now that she only had Chase around she realised how much she missed them. As annoying and obnoxious her brothers could be, she missed them more than anything.

-the reunion after being split up was a tearjerker, Douglas had sobbed into Otis (the dog, who Adam had kept after Chase moved out of the island) and then denied it ever happened.

Anywho, that’s all, luvs. I’m posting a lot because it’s my day off and I don’t feel completely exhausted anymore. Hopefully I’ll get back to posting more regularly now that my brain can function agains.

[cookiekitkat8484]

dipper hcs

This is super long, like 2000 words super long because i have a huge hyperfixation and cringe culture is dead. he reminds me of me and my friends/family so i have a million ideas. split into topics for reading convenience

low 20s, autistic, bi + demi with a preference for women, ftm. I totally understand people disliking ftm dipper because of stan and mabel making fun of his masculinity and it would be shitty in canon but this is my post so i make the rules bitch and am pretending that never happened. None of this is ship stuff. I imagine him to basically look like the lovley art in this post.  

shares an apartment with mabel in portland, completely full of nerd memorabilia, mabels diys, a conspiracy corkboard, and arts & crafts materials 

works in a bar/arcade where wendy bartends, calls soos and fidds when he needs help fixing machines

pet ferret called pippin

started his own journal 

pacificas plus one to her prissy rich person events, sit in the corner and shit talk

carries around fidget toys, was too embarrassed till mabel convinced him (partially because his pens kept exploding everywhere)

has protective runes tattooed 

mabel talks about astrology to be annoying, is baited into getting mad and rambling about how modern astrology is fake and a scam every single time

nervous driver, doesnt have a car but is sometimes driven by mabel in her heavily adorned funmobile 

helps mabel dye her hair after a three am hair emergency, got really good and bleached pacificas (she refuses money from her parents after moving out) till she decided to chop it and grow it out natural, used to have the ultimate gossip sessions

joint problems and pain, god awful posture

one sided beef with all of mabels partners till they “prove themselves”

doesnt believe in cooking like he (mainly) used to not believe in laundry

punched someone for making fun of mabel, got beat up so mabel kicked their asses (thank you stan and wendy)

only social media is reddit, an instagram account made and run by pacifica, youtube, and a tumblr on nerd/mystery stuff 

only has tumblr bc candy convinced him in like 2014 then he succumbed to the brain rott, they're mutuals and make weird references no one else gets, personalises blog extensively via html/css, had a brief superwholock phase in 2015 (fight me)

coded mabels laptop into a custom 2000s esc blinged out hellscape she made in graphic design class, got her rgb stuff bc she likes rainbows and he thinks its funny

occasionally clashes with mabel bc shes sensory seeking and he gets sensory overload

pacifica takes him clothes shopping bc otherwise he will literally never buy new clothes, they sometimes go thrifting with mabel the thrift god

mildly dyslexic and in denial

needs glasses but usually wears contacts because he finds them annoying then forgets to take them out, wears glasses when he misses the grunkles

Sugar addict like mabel and their pantry shows it 

Best nerd shirt collection like that's all he wears

Gets into online arguments way too much for like no reason 

Mabel makes like ten different protective friendship bracelets with unicorn hair so he could have options, just wears all ten at once

uni

journalism major with a minor in computer science 

takes history, pure maths, and film units as electives 

member/helps run the clubs for DnD/DD&MD, MTG, Warhammer, and scifi & fantasy appreciation

founder and president of the uni cryptozoology, supernatural, aliens, and occult society

gets ford to proof read his writings/math and fidds his code

attends lectures for units hes not even enrolled in for fun

has gotten into multiple arguments with professors, including ones that dont even teach him 

has read theory (all people who’ve read theory are annoying including myself)

hobbies

goes to cons with mabel, she helps with (/mainly makes for him) matching cosplays which bring the joy of their childhood trick or treating

once met spock and kirks actors and got so excited he passed out so mabel took pics of him on the floor next to them and thinks its hysterical

DMs an online DnD/DD&MD and ttrpgs group

competes in MTG tournaments 

does karaoke night with mabel and the gals atleast once a month, sometimes brings pacifica 

goes to the renaissance fair with the squad where him, mabel, ford, and soos all dress up and get super into character with melony while wendy and stan take shrooms and go to watch the sword fighting 

listens to DnD podcasts 

ex band kid and still plays Sousaphone, often to mabels dismay 

obsessed with boardgames and hosts boardgame nights, always makes everyone play super overcomplicated ones then has to play monopoly when its stan and mabels choice

almost always wins boardgames, sometimes loses to ford (who is a sore loser lol)

has had risk games last multiple days once its only him and ford left

bonds with mabel painting figures (warhammer, dnd, the usual) with her and soos and embraces her covering hers in glitter and gems

goes ghost hunting, has a shit tone of real gear from ford and fidds and sometimes vlogs, quotes buzzfeed unsolved

secret AO3 account, caught grunkle stan writing dutches approves fics but both have sworn an oath of secrecy 

wendy taught him skateboarding, doesnt do tricks (uncoordinated as shit) but uses it as transport

broke bc he cant resist collectables 

made his own pc from scratch using parts he bought and custom ones made by fidds

goes to local band concerts with wendy and her gang including watching wendy play drums

Did debate in highschool, usually gets nervous doing public speaking but gets so invested he forgets

tech guy for productions mabel is in

games 

loves all strategy and puzzle games

fav games include fallout 1&2, nethack, xcom, civ, FTL, and dwarf fortress

ford and fidds play games they used to play before the portal accident with him eg. zork, MUD1, rouge, star trek, colossal cave adventure, and mystery house

plays portal 2 with ford and sometimes mabel

plays baldurs gate with mabel and she spent five hours doing character customisation, he plays wizard and she plays bard and both are total stereotypes

plays lethal company and phasmophobia with mabel, soos, wendy, grenda, and candy (goes as expected) (lots of screaming)

BDG unravelled fan and grew up on matpat but cant play fnaf or ddlc bc giffany 

had a breakdown playing dark souls and started crying at 2am so mabel banned it permanently

spectacularly bad at rhythm games but will play with mabel anyway and she completely sweeps, esp in arcades and just dance

play bishi bashi together and have broken the machine before

really good at retro arcade games, shares strats with soos and remembers all the combos for everything, helps kids beat levels at work

gets ford to help optimise game stats/teams/strats with the POWER OF MATHS !!!, has on occasion coded algorithms to assist 

forced everyone to play among us constantly for like three months straight

member of mabel, candy, and grendas chaotic nightmare of a minecraft server, usually offline and generally regrets it when he joins, more of a terraria guy

undertale kid

ports/emulates games himself, esp retro console stuff like old fire emblem, Zelda, earthbound

in the ace attorney fandom  

runs a server for online friends he plays games with

shows/movies

does annual lotr (extended edition) marathons with ford, mabel drifts in and out of watching because snacks and that legolas and arwin are both a “total smash”

loves scifi, including classics like star trek, star wars, ext.

watches doctor who with mabel (shes a david tennant enjoyer) including the super old stuff 

goes to old scifi/horror/fantasy rerun marathons, wendy joins depending on the films

watches scifi and mecha anime with soos, sometimes ford and fidds join

loves evangelion, knows cruel angels thesis in japanese, lowkey a shinji kinnie and is bullied ruthlessly 

watches candys exquisite curation of 90s shoujo with her, mabel, and grenda, wont admit he gets super into it but has been caught doing sailor moon magical girl transformation poses 

watched madoka magica with the gals and was kuybey hater #1 from the start

never shuts the fuck up about theories and guesses the end of movies unless mabel smothers him with a pillow

hate watches conspiracy theory/ghost hunting shows with wendy bc theyre either laughably wrong or so close and totally missing the obvious, except this one random guy who was somehow spot on (like doug forcett in the good place) 

Made to watch all of twilight at a girls night because mabel (mostly) watched lotr, cant stop overthinking the insane lore implications which somehow get worse with every book fact mabel tells him (because what the fuck ???? the world building is batshit), him and candy keep periodically saying effervescent and bursting into hysterics to the others confusion

still quotes star wars bad lip readings with mabel

books

favs include hitchikers guide to the galaxy, discworld, lotr, do androids dream of electric sheep, earthsea, dune, and HP lovecraft esp cuthullu 

him and ford have both read the salmirilion and make it everyones problem

likes classic scifi and early cyberpunk, esp spec fic thats wacky or raises ethical questions to ponder with ford

loves sherlock homes and agatha christie, big who dunnit story fan

read good omens bc mabel likes the show (again, david tennant enjoyer) and its terry pratchet, tries to get her to read the book for ages and eventually she listens to the audiobook

music

likes lemon demon, TWERP, starbomb, NSP, tally hall, will wood, and other nerd bands 

owns spirit phone on vinyl, made ford listen and accidentally gave him flashbacks

can and will recite the entirety of the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny at the drop of a hat

went through a midwest emo phase, still listens to csh

listens to vocaloid with candy, went to a concert with the gals and everyone learnt the dances, mabel deccorated their light sticks 

always ends up belting (B)ABBA when drunk

Fav (B)ABBA songs are disco girl and under attack 

weezer defender, bullied by mabel and wendy

listens to math rock with ford while stan complains the time signatures and polyrhythms (though he’d never bother to learn the terms) give him a headache 

listens to game OSTs and chiptune stuff

mabel got him into musicals, knows the words to hamilton, bmc, and dear evan hansen, sing duets together

trans 

once forgot to take off a too small binder for like two days and fainted, mabel made him a custom one

short king, used to have hight dysphoria

mabel alters his pants bc mens trousers are evil for the transmasc gang

didnt shave ever when he first got his wiskers till pacifica staged an intervention 

forgot to tell stan he was trans till he got body hair and stan joked it was his genetics to thank, dipper responded he was lucky they worked with the T he takes

drinking/drugs

cant smoke weed or he gets suuuuper paranoid, only smoked once w wendy and tried to smoke more to calm down but just ended up greening hard

drinks alcoholic ginger beer and indie APIs wendy recommends, though shes more of a whisky gal

super low alcohol tolerance, doesnt drink often

drinks mabels own recipe cocktail monstrosities when she convinces him they wont get shitfaced, always ends up shitfaced because theyre 100% alcohol + sugar and mabels tolerance is like double his, will always eventually end with him trying to explain lotr poorly

once drank so much caffeine he started hallucinating 

tripsits mabel (LSD legend) and sometimes wendy (totally does shrooms), again is neurotic and should under no circumstances take hallucinogens 

sometimes smokes cigs when stressed, tries to hide it but is laughably bad, sometimes bums a cig off wendy

[harper-collins]

Dipper's College Job - Coffee Shop

Dipper was watching the door fiercely, to see if he could time it right. The brunette was on his shift once more, and it was about to turn five. He had realised through pure trial and error that the blonde enjoyed coming on during his last hour of work… Which made Dipper wonder whether the blonde was trying to bring him out for dinner after work.

There weren’t many people in the library today either, the majority of the people who did use the library weren’t here today due to it being close to the holidays, meaning that Dipper had seen his co-worker once or twice for the first time during his shift today. It felt a little odd and alien to the brunette, but he welcomed the ‘familiar’ face despite everything. 

At exactly five o’clock on the dot, Bill strolled through the doors of the library and headed straight to the front desk, where Dipper was always situated. The brunette groaned and covered his face for a moment before looking up to see Bill’s grinning face. The blonde didn’t want to seem like an utter creep, but he had subconsciously figured out the brunette’s shifts.

“You know Pinetree, you still haven’t told me your name,” Bill said, raising his eyebrows up and down suggestively. He hadn’t even said hello, not that either needed one. They knew one another by now, even if Dipper didn’t really want to know the blonde. “What makes you think I’ll ever give you my name?” Dipper asked with a look of irritation.

He didn’t see it being much of an issue for the brunette to talk with Bill today, especially with there being little to no people in the library. He’d shoo him off as soon as he got annoying… Which would be in five minutes. Bill grinned at the chance, finally something that wasn’t ‘go away’.

“What if we did something, a challenge perhaps?” Bill suggested, tilting his head slightly as he watched the brunette raise his eyebrows in confusion. “What kind of thing are you trying to get me to do Bill?” Dipper asked, his face quickly turning into a frown. The blonde chuckled as he leaned over the table.

Dipper rolled his eyes as the blonde neared. “How about… We play a game of truth or dare?” Bill asked with a grin plastered across his face. Dipper shook his head, he wouldn’t be playing around today. “Sorry but I do have work Bill, I’d appreciate it if you left me alone so I could work on sending out these emails,” Dipper said, looking up at the demon.

Bill whined and stood up properly. “Well how about this? You do your work, and we catch a coffee after?” Bill offered. It was a tempting offer. The brunette knew it shouldn’t have been so tempting, but he wanted the blonde to leave him alone. What if he took the offer, and then left before Bill could catch up? No, the blonde would definitely point it out to him the next time he was working.

As Dipper weighed out his options, Bill stared at Pinetree with a silent, longing expression. He wasn’t quite sure what kept drawing him to the brunette in front of him, and he could never find said brunette outside of the library. He had looked all over campus, but without a name (which the brunette always avoided giving him) it was nearly impossible to find out his courses or dorm without him telling the blonde himself.

“You promise you’ll not bother me for the rest of the shift?” Dipper asked for reassurance. Bill chuckled slightly and nodded. He didn’t mind as long as he got the coffee at the end… Maybe he’d get a bit more from the brunette outside of the library. “Fine, but you’re paying,” Dipper grumbled, wheeling the chair closer to the computer in front of him.

“Yes! Thank you, Pinetree,” The blonde blurted, happy to see Dipper’s reaction. It felt extremely unusual for the blonde to be so polite when talking, but both ignored it. “Now go, I’ll see you once I’ve finished here,” Dipper said, waving him off. Bill nodded quickly and left, allowing Dipper to finally do his work quietly for the next hour.

And that’s exactly what happened. Bill went away to a quiet part of the library for the rest of the hour and Dipper got to work. The hour went by before the brunette knew it and soon enough, the blonde appeared at the desk whilst Dipper began to log off the computer. It all went by in a flurry after that. Dipper’s co-worker got their things out from the back room and left, leaving Dipper to lock up. 

Bill waited outside whilst he was waiting for the brunette to do the last few things, and then once he was done, Dipper walked right next to Bill and looked up at him. “Oh Jesus,” Dipper muttered, suddenly realising the obvious height difference. Bill chuckled, neither of them had been able to notice before since the brunette had more or less always been sitting down when they had seen each other.

“Shortie,” Bill teased, as he began to walk ahead. Dipper quickly caught up with him, cursing at Bill as they continued to walk. “Look just because I’m a little shorter doesn’t mean you can call me a fucking shortie,” Dipper spoke back, feeling a little irritated. 

“Oh come off it Pinetree, it’s fine! A shortie has got to be reminded some days!” Bill continued to tease, up until the point Dipper kicked his left shin. Bill grunted in pain and playfully pushed the brunette, making him laugh a little. The two relaxed a little, and Dipper got a little closer to Bill so that they were walking next to one another, practically in sync.

“So, where are you taking me?” Dipper casually asked, trying to keep a smile off his face. Bill snickered and kept walking, they were getting outside of the campus by now. “A little coffee shop, they stay open until midnight, so it’ll be a while until they close,” He supplied, watching Dipper with delight.

“Alright, I could do with a coffee!” Dipper said, excited to get a good shot of espresso through his system. Bill smirked and looked over to the brunette. “So, now I have you out of that library, name please?” The blonde asked raising his brow. Dipper looked away for a moment, Bill seemed… A little odd as a person.

He’d never met him outside of the library, and he had continuously been coming back ever since his first day. Dipper decided that he wouldn’t give out his legal name, the one that was on the paper, the dorm or his course… No, that’d be too easy. Not even his last name, then he’d be able to track it all the way to Mabel. No, Dipper, just Dipper would be fine.

“If you’re going to call me anything… Call me Dipper,” The brunette said, looking over to Bill with a grin. The blonde gasped as he looked at the brunette. “That’s not your real name is it?” Bill accused, but this only made the brunette laugh further. “No it’s not, but it’s gonna have to do Bill, everyone calls me Dipper, so you’re not missing out on very much,” Dipper replied, shrugging a little.

“Nah, Pinetree sounds better than Dipper, it sounds like everyone hates you,” Bill observed, whilst checking the roads before crossing. The brunette frowned and turned to the blonde and brought up his fringe hesitantly. Bill turned to look at the brunette who hadn’t verbally replied to see the strange birthmark and instantly understood. 

“Oh,” He responded, feeling a little stupid now that he was aware of the big dipper birthmark. Dipper brought his fringe back down and shrugged. “You’d never usually know Bill, many people who call me Dipper don’t actually know about it,” The brunette explained as they got nearer to the coffee shop. 

Bill hummed in understanding and sped up slightly so he could open the door for the brunette. As soon as Dipper realised this he narrowed his eyes, he was trying too hard. No one had ever treated him like this before, and it felt weird… This was how Mabel’s boyfriends and girlfriends treat her…

He shook away the observation and stared at Bill. When he realised that Dipper wasn’t going to go through the door with him keeping it open, he frowned. “Pinetree, get inside,” He said, motioning towards going inside.

Dipper bit his lip and sighed. “Fine,” He muttered and went through the door. Bill followed quickly afterwards and shook his head slightly. Romancing this nerd would be harder than he thought.

-

If you guys want a little short for what happened in the coffee shop lemme know! But this one is placed a few weeks after their first meeting :)

Thank you everyone and have a great day!

[aba-daba-dooo]

Commencement- Gravity Falls 10 Years Later Zine (ao3 link included)

@gf10yearslaterzine

Mabel stood on the gravelly sidewalk just outside the football field, which felt rough and uneven against her high heeled shoes. The wind blew her hair around, which was disappointing because she spent hours that morning trying to get the curls to lay just right. But she had bigger problems right now. As she waited in line for the promenade, Mabel realized there was no one standing to her right. Ok well, there was someone there, but it was a stranger. She peeked around the bleachers – no one standing on the stage either.

Dipper was missing seven minutes before their college graduation ceremony. Mabel tried to convince herself there was some ridiculous reason why he was late. Maybe he had spilled coffee down the front of his shirt? Or maybe while trying to put on his tie he accidentally tied himself into one big knot? But neither of those reasons seemed very good. Dipper was far too anxious to be late for anything.

The twins liked to pretend like going to the same college was a happy accident. Mabel claimed it was because the college was just a few blocks away from the city’s art district and would help her find work in a studio or museum. Dipper simply said it was because the school offered him the best scholarships, and was also willing to let him attempt his ambitious triple major. Of course, the true reason was that it was the only school they had both agreed on.

Giving a cautious glance over her shoulder to make sure no one was around to scold her for leaving, Mabel slipped out of her place in the line and hurried around the football field. They were running out of time and he needed to be there.

Turning around by the concessions stand, Mabel found a familiar lanky figure passing back and forth across the grass. Dipper muttered to himself, flipping through the stack of notecards in his hands. His black gown whipped in the wind and curled around his legs with each anxious step he took.

“Bro, you gotta be back at the ceremony like… now!” Mabel exclaimed. “Come on, Mr. Commencement Speaker. Let’s go!”

Dipper looked up, realizing that she was there. “I’m sorry,” he groaned. “I’m just— augh! I feel so nervous. I can’t believe I said yes to doing this. What was I thinking?” He continued to pace more frantically, his shiny black dress shoes leaving scuff marks in the grass.

Mabel shrugged, “Probably because it’s a huge honor. And you’ve totally earned it.”

He made a nervous expression, face pale and mouth twisted up. He rubbed at his upper arm, an old nervous habit. “Have I earned it? I mean, what am I really going to achieve after this?”

Mabel had done so well for herself, he thought. People like to say art degrees are useless, but in her usual fashion, Mabel had proved all those people wrong. Her senior project titled “Apocalypses and Dream Bubbles” sold to a collector. She had won several prizes in competitions and, not to mention, her charity focused on knitting sweaters for the homeless had done very well. Mabel would be fine after graduation.

Dipper knew he had much to also be proud of. Being a triple major in Biology, Physics, and Film Production with a 4.0 is no small feat. Yet he still felt small and ill prepared for what the world had to offer. You’d think after surviving a demonic armageddon that he would feel more confident in himself, but you would be wrong.

“What about MIT? Have they gotten back to you about grad school yet?”

He gave a slow nod. “Accepted.”

“That’s incredible, Dip! It won’t be long until I’m introducing everyone to my brother, Dr. Pines.” Playfully, Mabel nudged her elbow into his side.

Dipper chucked, “Grunkle Ford is also a doctor, and he has like… 12 PhDs.”

“Eh,” she waved a hand flippantly. “He went to school in the 70’s back when things were easy and you could pay for college with a summer job.”

That got a chuckle to rise up from Dipper’s chest, a temporary moment of relief. “I guess that’s true. But I just…” his voice drifted off along with his thoughts. “I’m not sure if that’s what I want.”

“Not what you want? Pfft. You love school and nerdy stuff. MIT should be begging on their knees for you to go there.”

“But what comes after MIT?” he said, a bit more forceful in his tone. “What will I do? What’s my calling? My purpose? You’ve found your calling. You’ll get to paint and travel and work with your charity.” Mabel flushed a deep pink in her checks. She fiddled with the tassel on her graduation cap. “What’s wrong?” Dipper asked.

“I’m not sure what comes after that either,” she admitted. “Sure, I’m doing all the things I love now. But what will happen in a few years? I’m…” Mabel paused, struggling to put her feelings into concise thoughts. “Scared. What if the future isn’t everything I want it to be?”

He sighed and leaned his head back against the wall of the concessions stand, nearly knocking the cap off his head. “I’m scared of that too.”

Mabel pursed her lips in thought. “Remember the first summer in Gravity Falls?”

“It’s a little hard to forget considering the amount of times we almost died.”

“Yeah, but looking beyond all the horrifying monsters and near-death experiences.”

Dipper closed his eyes, thinking back to those days– the hot sun on the back of his neck, the sting of breath in his lungs as he ran screaming from monsters. “I miss the adventure,” he said. “The adrenaline coursing through me.”

“Mediocre pancakes from Greasy’s Diner. That funny, moldy smell in the Mystery Shack.” She breathed in, as if the scent were in front of her. “Seeing all of our friends. Hanging out with Stan and Ford.”

Kicking one foot into the grass, a billow of dry dirt flew into the air, Dipper let it dirty the tops of his once clean shoes. “I want to study the supernatural, like Ford did. And I want to start in Gravity Falls and do my own research. And, I know you have all of these plans for the summer, but if you wanted to come with me–”

Mabel cut him off, gripping him at the shoulders and jumping up and down. “Yes! Definitely! Absolutely!” With each jump, she shook Dipper back and forth like a doll.

He braced her arms and pushed her away, blinking the stars from his eyes. “Alright!” he chuckled.

Mabel gave him a knowing smile that tugged gently at the sides of her mouth. She held out a fist. “The mystery twins are back in action.”

Dipper grinned back and bumped his fist into hers. “We definitely are.”

The twins laughed, feeling like children for the first time in years.

From across the football field, they could hear the commencement music starting to play. Mabel grabbed Dipper by the forearm and pulled him back towards where students were lined up alphabetically by last name. They wiggled into their positions in the line just moments before they were set to walk along the grass. Mabel walked in unison with the music, each of her steps radiating delight and confidence, while Dipper tried his hardest not to see how many people were in the crowds.

Throughout the ceremony, Mabel gave Dipper a few pats on the shoulder. She knew he would give a great speech, he just needed some support. Once the graduation ceremony was over, they would be packing their bags and headed off to a summer in Gravity Falls.

The president of the college leaned forward into the microphone. “I would now like to welcome our Student Commencement Speaker, Mason Pines.” Dipper grimaced. He had specifically asked them to call him Dipper.

Dipper made his way up to the stage that was placed in the center of the football field. The sun blinded his vision and made thick beads of sweat trickle down his face. He shuffled the notecards in his hand anxiously. He sucked in a breath, realizing how long he must have been standing in front of the microphone without saying anything. He had spent hours preparing his speech, making sure it contained all the best quotes from Albert Einstein and Maya Angelou and even a joke to lighten the mood. But at that moment, he realized he really didn’t care about the speech at all.

Looking at the crowd, he tried not to feel daunted by the photographers standing nearby or the president of the college standing to his right. Instead, he looked at Mabel, the paint-splattered stole around her shoulders and the goofy grin on her face as she gave him a thumbs up. He saw his parents, happily looking at him through the lens of a phone. And of course, Stan and Ford. Stan was clapping and shouting as loud as he possibly could, while Ford nodded his head in approval.

Dipper set down the notecards and instead focused his family. He swallowed, feeling the nerves start to take over, but began to speak. “I spent my first summer in Gravity Falls when I was a kid with my twin sister, Mabel.”

Mabel hollered from her seat and pumped her fist in the air. “Yeah!”

Dipper cracked a grin, feeling the anxiety subside. “The summer we spent there was full of uncertainty. Everything felt new and even dangerous. But it reminded me that the world is full of magic and adventure. So long as you have the right people with you, anything is possible. I think we should keep chasing that adventure; that wonder and awe we haven’t felt since we were kids. Your Gravity Falls is out there somewhere.”

He looked back at Mabel, who had turned around to wave at Stan and Ford in the crowd. He felt his face flush, hot from the sun and excitement for the future. “Some people think it's a myth,” Dipper continued. “But if you're curious, don't wait. Take a trip. Find it. It's out there somewhere in the woods. Waiting.”