#Nodding to himself and taking Dipper's hands - then turning to the officiant and going 'okay continue'

[tswwwit]

Are Dipper's successors destined to live in the Mindscape forever? Or can they live with Bill on the mortal realm, just like during Dipper's first life? if there are pics and videos of bill in his human body all over the internet then I'm guessing he's kind of like a celebrity...

They don't have to live in the Mindscape! They, along with current Dipper, get to spend time in reality or in the dream realm depending on what they prefer. Bill's place just has a lot of great amenities and a really kickass bed, so it's a convenient place to crash.

Also, Bill absolutely gets a reputation. You can't have Bill Cipher be in the mortal realm for decades on end without having a considerable number of noteworthy stories, after all.

[toothpastecanyon]

A Name From the Mailbox, Chapter 4

Dipper finds out the author's name before Not What He Seems. It's not the person he expected.

See most updated version on Archive of Our Own.

______________________________________________________________

“The end times?”

The ride home had been strange so far. Dipper and Mabel exchanged glances before looking back at the old man sitting between them.

“There’s a doomsday device under Gravity Falls?” Dipper made a face. “No offense, but is this, uh, like the Gobblewonker situation?”

“It’s real! Look at these gravitational readings, kid!” He gestured at a matrix of numbers on the screen. “Waves of anomalies! And once it activates - you best be holding onto something, cause you’ll start floating up!”

Soos looked back. “Whoa. That sounds pretty cool, dude.”

“It’s not cool! It’s tearing a hole in our universe!”

“Aww.”

“Okay, okay, calm down,” Dipper raised a hand. “We can shut it down, right? Where is it?”

“Ohhh… I used to know, I don’t recall!”

“Maybe it’s in that old bunker?” Mabel sat forward. “We should go back there!”

“Maybe…” He frowned. “After the Shack, yeah.”

At that moment, Soos turned into the parking lot. Mabel’s frown deepened.

“Why after?”

“We’re already here, right? It’ll just take a second.” Dipper opened the door and jumped out. He held it for McGucket, and raised an eyebrow when Mabel remained in the car. “Mabel? Come on!”

“We should find the bunker, Dipper.”

“Yeah, we will, just-”

“We should go look for the bunker, now.” Mabel crossed her arms. “We just got told there’s a big scary thing that’s gonna end the world and you still want to look for Stan stuff? He’s not gonna know about a doomsday thingy.”

“Well, we don’t know that-”

“Dipper.”

Mabel was looking at him with a very knowing expression. He took one look at it, and then sighed.

“Well… if Stan’s the Author, he’s gotta know where it’ll be, right? He probably built it.” He watched Mabel raise her eyebrows. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Because I don’t think Grunkle Stan’s the Author, Dipper.” She pulled her hands into her sleeves. “You know that, right?”

Dipper hesitated. He looked back towards the house; Soos was opening the side door. “I mean, it’s very possible. And we’re already here, we might as well-”

Mabel got out of the car and pushed past him without a word. He frowned and hurried to catch up with her.

“Come on, Mabel. Don’t be like that.” A pause. “I don’t think it’d be in the bunker anyways. We looked all over that place.”

“Hey, dude!” Soos waved him over. “What are we looking for? I forgot.”

“It’s…” Dipper glanced one more time at Mabel, then jogged forwards. “It’s a big stack of papers, it should be in the living room. Come on.”

They entered the kitchen, and Dipper suddenly froze - was Stan back? He listened for a couple seconds, but the house was silent… eerily silent. They headed into the living room and were greeted by an empty chair - and no thesis, no picture to show Fiddleford.

“Of course,” Dipper frowned. “Stan must’ve put them somewhere.”

“...What is this place?”

A strange question - he glanced over, and found McGucket looking around the room.

“Oh, it’s just our house,” he said, and then cleared his throat. “I bet he still has it somewhere. Soos, you know where he hides stuff, right?”

“Yeah… he says I’m supposed to keep them secret, though. Like the money under the squeaky step on the stairs, the arrest warrants under the rug in the gift shop…” He counted them off with his fingers. “The wallets in the Sascrotch…”

“Okay, cool, you can take the gift shop.” Dipper looked over at McGucket. “And, uh, take him too, I guess. Mabel and I- oh, you know where it might be? His office, we’ll go there.”

“Okay,” said Mabel. He cringed a bit at her tone, but continued.

“Alright, if we find it, we can meet back up. It’ll be hard to miss, it’s like a giant stack of paper, and it’ll have Stan’s picture on top.”

“Got it, dude.” Soos shot finger guns at him as he backed away. “Come on, McGucket, it’s this way.”

The two of them shuffled out of sight, and Dipper nodded to Mabel.

“Alright, let’s, uh, go.”

“Yeah, to the office.”

Mabel turned and started walking to the back. He trailed along behind her.

“Yeah, it’ll just be quick,” he said. Paused. Then: “It’s worth checking out. I mean, you saw the same stuff I saw. It’s not at least a little weird to you that he’s got a whole PhD on anomalous events even though he never-”

“Yeah, Dipper, you told me already.”

“Then why doesn’t it make sense to check it out?” He opened the door to the office. “If he’s not the author, then we can just go to the next thing, right?”

Mabel snorted. “Oh yeah, and you’re totally ready to let this go. I know you, dum dum. You’re gonna spend the rest of the summer obsessing about this, and not in a fun way. In the ‘arguing with Grunkle Stan every night’ way.”

“Well… well, it’s weird, isn’t it? Stan is hiding something.” He made a beeline for the paper shredder, and picked it up. “Look, look! This thing’s stuffed - ugh, I bet he shredded it! Now why do you think he’d do that?”

“I dunno?” Mabel poked at the paper copier. “Hey, do you remember that dance party we had? Maybe we could ask Grunkle Stan to throw another one!”

“Oh, that? Oh, that…” He started going through the papers scattered around the desk. “I remember that. I didn’t really get to spend a lot of time at it, I was, uh…”

“Trying to nerd your way into dancing with Wendy?”

“Yeah, yeah... Mabel, look!” He grabbed a piece of paper. “There’s one page he didn’t shred for some reason - and it’s the one with his picture! Yes!” He flipped it over to show her. “Look, it is him, right down to the glasses! And he’s building the Mystery Shack - tell me that’s not him!”

Mabel frowned at the photo. She started to open her mouth, but-

There was a sound. A yell. A cry. Both of them locked eyes, and without a word they ran for the gift shop.

“Are you guys okay?” Dipper said as he burst through the door. The first thing he saw was McGucket, on the floor, trembling. “McGucket?”

“I seen it!” McGucket stabbed a finger at - the vending machine? “I seen it, right down there! It’s there!”

“What’s here?” Mabel tried to help him up, but he scrambled away. “What’s wrong?”

“The machine… my mind… I’m not going down there again! You can’t make me!”

Then he bolted for the door. Soos tried to grab him, but he was gone in a flash, the door slamming shut behind him. Dipper blinked, and then looked to Soos.

“Uh… what happened?”

“I dunno, dude! One minute he was fine, I turn around and suddenly he’s freaking out!” Soos picked up a case on the counter. “He left his laptop, too.”

“Weird.” Mabel took it from him. “What do you think he saw? Dipper?”

Dipper wasn’t right beside her. He had walked a couple paces forward, towards the vending machine.

“Dipper?”

It looked normal, mundane. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d passed by this thing without sparing it a second glance. There was nothing really to draw the eye; no flashy colours, no display lights on the snacks, no attempt from Stan to dress it up as any sort of attraction. It was maybe the most normal looking thing in the gift shop, but…

He reached out. Felt the sides. There was decades’ worth of grime caught between the metal edge and the wooden wall, but as his fingers slid down, they came across something - a bump?

He looked.

A hinge.

______________________________________________________________

Shit. Shit, shit. Did he lose them?

Heart beating in his chest, Stan slowly raised himself up, and looked out the side of the van he was driving. Through the cracks in the grass, he could see lights from the highway silhouetting the trees he looked through. White lights - no red and blue, though it was harder to tell with the feds.

He grit his teeth, and forced his shoulders down. It had been quiet for a while. If they were gonna find him here, they would’ve done it by now.

“Alright, Stan,” he grunted. Opened the door. “Hard part’s done. Now I just need to get it home.”

He rubbed his forehead as he got out of the van; there was a split in it that had stopped bleeding not that long ago. He cast one look to the front, to the smoking engine crumpled into the side of a thick trunk, and limped his way to the back - past the side of the van that read ‘OFFICIAL WASTE DISPOSAL VEHICLE’ in large letters. He unlatched the rear doors, opened them, and shone a flashlight inside.

There was the shine of several metal cylinders. One of them had flown up a little in the collision and was resting sideways on the others. It looked like it had a pretty bad dent in it, but nothing looked to be leaking out; not noticeably, at least.

“Hmph.” He nodded a little. “I can work with this. Alright.”

There was a tarp and a couple construction signs thrown about the back; he covered the van, set up a few signs to keep away curious onlookers, then started off through the forest. It slow and dark, but, as he checked his watch, not dark for too much longer. The kids’d be up if he took too long, so he groaned and forced himself to walk a little faster.

Shouldn’t’ve tried to rush this job, he thought. Should’ve learned his lesson from Columbia. If the feds weren’t onto him before, they sure were now. Maybe he should get out of town for a bit, take the kids on a little road trip…

He made a face. Miss the portal opening, probably. Thirty years of work, and he might not even be there to see it pay off.

There was a tug and a ripping sound as his pantlegs brushed past a thorny bush, and he swore under his breath.

“Great. Just great.” Finally he trudged his way out onto the Shack’s parking lot. “Alright, focus. Gotta work quickly.”

Stan grabbed some supplies stashed by the outhouse and loaded them into his car. He put the seats back, started it, and drove right back to where he’d hit the trees; for once he was driving carefully, following the speed limit. Once he saw the flash of construction signs down in the forest, he turned off his headlights and drove slowly down to the van.

There, he stopped. Pulled the tarp off. The words emblazoned across the sides of the van were really gonna catch the eye of whoever found this thing; he took a can of spraypaint and quickly covered them, paused, and then replaced it with ‘PROPERTY OF TENT OF TELEPATHY’ After that, he opened the back and loaded as many drums of waste into his car that he could. When he ran out of space, he wrapped two in the tarp and tied them to the roof.

Stan tightened them one last time, and stepped back to catch his breath.

There. Now all he had to do was get home.

The sky was just barely beginning to lighten as Stan pulled back into the Mystery Shack. He pulled off his gloves as he made his way toward the gift shop, opened the door, and walked towards the vending machine.

Something did catch his eye, though. There was something on the register with a little red light; he picked it up, and immediately he could feel it was a little camera… A camera that was currently recording. Stan frowned at that, and looked up, up to the vending machine it was pointed at.

He had a bad feeling about this. And a second later when he heard a strange creak from the corner of the gift shop, he reached down, grasped the baseball bat leaning against the side of the counter, and made his way to the sound.

He stepped silently, avoiding the squeaky floorboards. There was definitely a figure in the corner, but… smaller than he was expecting. It didn’t look like an agent, actually, it looked more like…

“Kid?”

Dipper squinted when the flashlight came on. Stan breathed a sigh of relief - yup, it was just him - before a new fear started churning his stomach.

“What are you doing here kid? It’s late, you should be in bed!” He shone the flashlight lower. “Are those IDs? Did you go rooting through my room?”

“It is late. Where have you been, Grunkle Stan?”

Stan glanced back to his car. He really didn’t have time for this.

“And what happened to your face?”

“Eh… woodpecker.” Stan motioned him up. “Cmon, kid, off to bed with you. Your parents’d kill me if they found out how late you’re up.”

“Since when have you cared about how late we stay up?”

“Since right now, kid, so-“

“No!” Dipper crossed his arms, and there was a strange shine in his eyes. “What’s wrong with me sitting here? In this room?”

“Dipper.”

“You’re hiding something, aren’t you!”

“Dipper, you’re trying my patience.” He glanced back again. “Look, how about I cut you a deal. You go to bed, tomorrow we can have a proper talk about this, alright?”

“What, so you can tell me more about how you aren’t the Author?” He rose to his feet. “You know, ‘Stan’, at first I thought you weren’t telling me because you wanted to ‘protect me’ or whatever, but now I know what you’re up to. McGucket, he saw what the machine was gonna do to the world, but you kept going, didn’t you?”

“McGucket? What?”

“It’s too late to play dumb, Stan! I know what you’re really hiding. There’s a doomsday machine under the Mystery Shack!”

Stan heard that, and the first thing that came out of his mouth was a startled snort. “What?” He managed. “You spent this whole time trying to figure me out, and you came up with that?”

But the look in his eyes… wow, he was serious about this, wasn’t he?

“You really think I’m building a doomsday machine?” Stan laughed again, but it rang hollow against Dipper’s unsmiling expression. “Have a little faith in me, kid, come on. I’m not trying to end the world.”

“You’re lying.” He said, trying to puff out his chest. “And I’m not gonna let you do this. I’m gonna stop you.”

At that, Stan let out a deep sigh. He looked up at the first morning rays peeking through the blinders, and then back at his nephew.

“Go to bed, kid.”

“No. I’m gonna stay here, I’m- hey!”

In one move, Stan picked him up and hoisted him over his shoulder. He started towards the back, wincing a bit as Dipper pounded on his shoulder.

“Let me go, Grunkle Stan! Let me go!”

Up the stairs. Dipper tried to wiggle out of his grip, but he held him firmly in place.

“You’ve just proved I’m right, you know! You’re not gonna get away with this!”

Stan made his way up to the attic, opened the door, and set dipper down in the bedroom. He blocked Dipper from squeezing past him as he started swinging it closed.

“Stan!”

“We’ll talk about this tomorrow. You get some rest.” As the gap narrowed, he saw the light landing on Mabel’s bed. She almost looked asleep, but he could see her staring back at him. “Night, kids.”

Then he shut the door, turned the lock… and after a second of hesitation he dragged a chair over and slotted it under the handle. A bit extreme, he thought, but the kid was smart. Tonight wasn’t the night to take chances.

Stan backed away, and started back down the steps.

He was so close, now. So close.

And no one was going to get in his way.

Hours later, when Dipper was slumped half-asleep against the door, he grunted at a strange light. It wasn’t like the sunlight; it was strangely blue, and as he bolted up and rubbed his eyes, he could see it shining up from between the floorboards.

Then he felt… strange. Light. He yelped as his feet suddenly left the ground, and suddenly everything in their bedroom was starting to float up, up; McGucket’s laptop, slowly spinning in the air, beeped and displayed a message that made his blood go cold:

MACHINE STATUS: ACTIVE

And then suddenly the weightlessness vanished, and he dropped back down, scrambled over to the laptop.

“Oh, no, no, no,” he said, his face lit red from warning signs. “Stan, what are you doing?”

[zacks-oc-house]

“Just Because”

Starring Roul and Ia ( @ia-bi-tia ) enjoy!

*BUZZ BUZZ* It was 2 am when Roul heard his phone go off, waking him in a daze. I’ll just ignore it. No one needs me rn. But apparently someone did, for the texts turned into a phone call. Roul sloppily reached for his phone, momentarily blinded by the bright blue light against the pitch black room. After his eyes adjusted, he realized it said Ia and the cute selfie they took for his contact picture of them was up on the screen. Failing to swipe the answer the first time, he quickly swore before getting it the next time. “Hello Ia, is everything alright?” Roul half mumbled into the phone.

More under the cut because wow I wrote a lot.

“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Woul. Let’s go stargazing on the dorm roof!!” He could easily hear Ia’s energy and apparent lack of feeling tired. “Why?” Ia excitingly answered back “just because.” He hated to tell them no, but damn he was tired. “I’m already in bed, baby. Why don’t you just come over and cuddle up against me. We’ll watch a vid of stars instea-“ but Ia had already interjected with “NO! I WANNA SEE THEM IRL. With myyy star.” Ia poured as much sweetness as possible into their voice. “Alright, baby. By the time you get here I should be ready-“ But the door was already opening, Ia scurrying inside. Roul let out an impressed gasp as he turned his lamp on. “You little gremlin!! You knew I’d say yes. Get over here.” He finished with a playful grunt, patting his bed. He saw them happily bite their tongue and hurry over, leaning in to give him a kiss. He sat up in the bed to wrap his arms around their slim waist. “C’mon sleepy head!!! Those stars won’t be there forever!! Don’t make me get your clothes” Ia went over to his wardrobe. Roul knew what they were about to do as they turned their head to him, mischief plain as day on their face. He quickly bounded out of bed and hurried over to it, saving his clothes from being tossed out if they had to pick his outfit. “You really know how to get me to do anything, don’t you?” Ia wrapped their arms around him, thrumming. “Uh huhhhh!!! I sure do. Oh no not that. This! And this! And this!” Roul looked at them, confused. “Why does my outfit matter if we’re stargazing?” Ia danced their fingers over Roul’s bare chest. “Just because.” He laughed lightly, shaking his head and going along with them. After he was dressed and hair fixed, he grabbed his Diana camera before being pulled out the door with Ia.

They climbed the staircase hand in hand until they reached the top, Ia quickly blocking the door with their slight frame. They sure are acting different tonight. “Okay, bunny boy, I may have lied about wanting to stargaze “just because”. I wanted to surprise youuuuu.” Roul was definitely confused until Ia opened the roof access door. On part of the roof was a topless gazebo of sorts, strung with countless lights twinkling in the dark. In the middle was a tarp covering something lumpy. “Oh fuck hold on.” They darted over, ripping off the tarp to reveal very pretty cushions, pillows, and blankets. “Ia, sweetie, this is beautiful. Did you do all this for us?” Ia laughed, shoulders raising as they scurried back to him. “Oh no, I’m too scrawny to manage that! Some of the art kids had photography sessions up here. And I just happen to be friends with this installations owner. They said as long as we don’t destroy it AND replace the tarp, we could use it for a couple hours. SO COME ON!!” Ia tugged at Roul’s arm.

“So this is why you wanted me to wear nice clothes. I thought you were just bored and wanted us to dress up.” Ia nodded along. “That’s believable. But no, we’re going to take some fucking cute ass pictures because we’re a cute ass couple and the world needs to KNOW!!” Roul let out a small gasp. “You. You said the c-word.” Ia looked at him quickly, confused. “I didn’t call anyone a cunt.” Roul shook his head as he pulled them into an embrace. “No, you called us a couple.” They had been PLENTY intimate for the weeks they’d known each other, but neither had made it official, until now. Ia’s mouth went wide. “I guess I did say couple.. do... you wanna make things official? IT’SOKAYIFYOUDONTWANTTO. I’LLUNDERSTAND-“ Roul placed a finger to their lips, calming them. “I would be more than happy to make things official and call you my partner, and I your boyfriend.” He pulled them into a kiss, letting physical touch replace what they may have been unable to put into words. After their kiss broke, Ia let out a wild giggle. “I’m dating an absolute huuuuUUUUuuunk.” Roul laughed in unison with them, before pulling them into another kiss.

“Okieee there’s a tripod we can set your phone in and take these cute pics! You lay down so I can test where to put the phone.” Once Ia got the frame adjusted, they nestled into the pillows and cushions up against Roul. They did a multitude of poses together, some serious, some cute, some fun. In addition, they took some singles as well. “I have an idea hehe..” Ia leaned into Roul and unbuttoned his shirt. Enjoying Ia on them so much, Roul only just then noticed Ia had worked off all clothes except for his undies. “You sure do quick work of me, baby.” Roul wanted more, but Ia pulled away, going to the phone.

“C’mon hunky boy, give me some steamy poses for when you’re not with me.” Never to disappoint them, Roul arched himself amongst the pillows in a couple arrangements. He could only hope they turned out sexy and not silly. He was also very thankful it was summer and not cold. “Alright, now it’s your tur-“ Ia descended upon him, kissing him wildly as he (gently) tore off their clothes. (He had ripped a shirt once and felt terrible.) Eventually, the kisses slowed, giving Roul a chance to man the camera, getting some splendid shots of Ia. They were well versed in seductive photos. Roul received them regularly, and they were much more artful than the ones he sent in return. Their final series of photos were them together, sans clothing.

After they agreed they were finished, they redressed and resumed cuddling. “I’m sure the stars looked lovely while we were up here hehe. Maybe tomorrow we’ll get to see them.” Ia said as Roul pulled them both up. “Let’s reset everything and head back down stairs, baby.” Ia let out a whimper, but agreed. They replaced the tarp and unplugged the lights. Once they were out, the glittering night sky was easily viewable. “Oh wow, look at them all.” Remembering his Diana, Roul quickly attached it to the tripod, readied it, and opened its shutter. “Okay, my phone will go off when to close the shutter. For now we can enjoy Earth’s beauty in peace.”

Ia shook against Roul excitingly as they stared up at the night sky. “That’s the big dipper and then the little dipper. The little dipper is actually part of another constellation but it’s harder to make out... “ they continued on until Roul’s phone buzzed. He closed the shutter and wound to the next exposure. Ia picked up where they left off, educating Roul on stars and all the wonders of the night sky. They soon realized Roul was only looking at the sky part of the time, most of it he was gazing at Ia. “Heyy now I’m not the night sky!” Roul chuckled and wrapped them close to him. “No, but you’re my star. You’re all I want to look at.” They buried their face into his chest, semi muffled, they said “You’re my star tooo.” They hugged tight for a couple more minutes. “Ia, baby, I’m so glad you wanted to go star gazing, ‘just because’.”

[wendip-week]

What If: Lifeguards

It was still an exceptionally-blazing hot afternoon at the Gravity Falls Pool. Mabel was checking out the mysterious teenage-hunk with a Spanish-accent who had yet to get out of the water after all this time. Stan was still contemplating a way to procure his ideal seat from his longtime rival, Lil’ Gideon (preferably without facing Pool-Jail like that poor young-sap inside the filter). And Soos was unknowingly doing the bidding of two young, mischievous lifeguards.

Said lifeguards were around the corner, giggling like the youths that they were. One was a tall, redheaded teenage girl in a red, one-piece swimsuit. The other was a short, brown-haired pre-teen boy in red swim-trunks and a white tee. They were Wendy Corduroy and Dipper Pines, best friends and coworkers at both the town-pool and the locally infamous Mystery Shack.

“Alright,” Dipper said between chuckles. “We’ve pranked Soos good, exposed Stan occasionally, confiscated those borderline-inappropriate magazines, and helped ourselves to some name-brand snacks. What’s next?” he asked the older-girl he was not-so-secretly crushing on, who was checking her watch.

“Ooohhh… Sorry, Dip. I’d love to pal around some more, but unfortunately, this job does call for actual work sometimes. ‘Scuse me a sec.” Wendy walked over to her chair, where she could see the whole pool, and picked up a megaphone.

“ALRIGHT! LISTEN UP, FOOLS! THE POOL’S CLOSING IN A HALF-HOUR! GET OUTTA THE POOL, GRAB YOUR BELONGINGS, AND GIT! AND NO, CONFISCATED BELONGINGS WILL NOT BE RETURNED! THOSE ARE OURS NOW…! THAT WILL BE ALL! OH, AND THANK YOU FOR COMING!” she shouted into the megaphone somewhat unprofessionally. Still, the people all started moving (with several of them complaining, including Stan himself).

Dipper was a little caught off-guard, but he sure loved seeing Wendy take charge. “Man, you are so awesome! A little loud, but awesome!”

Wendy smirked at the compliment. “Comes with the job. I told you I make the rules.”

“Yeah, you do!” Dipper laughed but was quick to catch himself before he made the same mistake as he did that morning.

“Right. Anyway, dude, let your uncle and Mabel know you’re going to be here a while. Tell ‘em not to wait up.”

“Huh?” Dipper asked in confusion. “What’s going on.”

“Work,” she stated directly. “Tell your family what I said and meet me by Poolcheck’s office. Hurry up.”

Dipper shrugged and walked (running was not allowed, and Mr. Poolcheck, his and Wendy’s boss, might have been watching) to Mabel, Stan, and Soos (whom Stan was ignoring, not wanting to deal with anymore nonsense than he had to).

“Hey, guys,” Dipper said, addressing them.

“Hi, Dipper!” Mabel said eagerly. “Ready to head out?”

“Actually Mabel, I’m going to be here a while. Wendy says it’s work-related and that you all shouldn’t wait up for me.”

“Oh, you’re staying after? Cool! Can you let me in when you’re done?” Mabel asked. “I want to see if that hot guy in the pool is still around.”

“Also, I need you to put up a sign that says ‘Reserved for Stan Pines’ on that seat so Gideon can’t nab it from me tomorrow.”

“No can do for both of those. Stan, you know it’s ‘first come; first serve’ here. I don’t have enough pull to make that call. And Mabel, only staff are allowed here after hours. If I do spot him, he has to go.”

“Boo!” Mabel said, making a face.

“What Mabel said!” Stan added. “Boo!”

Dipper groaned and turned back in the direction of his boss’ office. “See you two tonight. Oh, and you, too, Soos.”

“Later, Dawg.” Soos nodded.

//

Dipper stepped into the slightly cluttered office of Mr. Poolcheck (though whether it was messy or simply a pattern only he knew was debatable). The muscular lifeguard and Wendy were both sitting at the man’s desk. The former nodded to the boy.

“Sit down, son,” he said, pointing to the chair next to Wendy. Dipper obeyed. Mr. Poolcheck continued. “You’re probably wondering why we’ve called you over. It’s time to discuss your training and future in this line-of-work. Basically, without training, you have no future as a lifeguard.”

“What?” Dipper asked in confusion. “I thought when I got this whistle, I was official.”

Wendy spoke up. “Yeah, but you’re basically on probation, man. Just do as we say, and you’ll be official-official in no time.”

“Have a bit more of a professional-tone, Corduroy. You are still on the clock. But yes, Pines, you have work to do tonight,” Mr. Poolcheck stated directly. “And once every week, there’s mandatory drills for all my staff. But that’s another story.

“That said, the main-focus of our discussion is emergency-situations. We have not discussed the proper-protocol for any eventuality. At this point, you have only learned about keeping the public under control to minimize the risk of emergencies. But as I said, the pool is a dangerous, crafty, and cruel mistress. You could blink and discover half of the visitors are suddenly underwater without a means of coming back up! And there’s the matter of my hand…!”

“Uh, sir…?” Wendy said. “You’re getting a little hysterical again. You asked me to let you know-”

“Right. I know.” The head-lifeguard cleared his throat. “Excuse me. I need to take my own advice. Now, let’s get started.”

The seemingly-unstable lifeguard spent the next hour-and-a-half explaining the various situations that could occur and the proper responses for a lifeguard to take. Wendy would occasionally help explain or clarify parts of the lecture. Dipper, having an above-average aptitude for learning, paid close attention and did his best to retain the proper information, occasionally asking questions.

“Alright,” Mr. Poolcheck finally said. “Now that you understand the basics, it is time for you to apply what you’ve just learned.”

“I’m ready, sir. Just tell me what I’ve gotta do,” Dipper replied in a serious-tone.

“Good spirit. I like that. Normally, we’d have you practice standard-procedure on a training-dummy, but thanks to a certain kid who didn’t follow the rules…” Mr. Poolcheck looked outside, in the direction of the infamous pool-solitary. “…It was destroyed beyond repair. We haven’t been able to replace it yet. Fortunately for you, Miss Corduroy has agreed to remedy this situation.”

“That’s right,” Wendy said with a smirk.

Dipper looked confused. “I don’t get it. What does that mean?”

“It means she’s going to teach you how to save a life… through example,” Mr. Poolcheck said.

“She’s going to save a life?” Dipper asked.

The head-lifeguard shook his head. “Not exactly. Of course, you two are still expected to demonstrate professional-courtesy while I’m gone for the night.”

“Yeah, man. That means no tongue. Got it?” Wendy told her best-friend/partner-in-crime.

“Not really…?” Dipper’s innocence really was a blessing and a curse at times. “Wait! Mr. Poolcheck, you’re taking off?”

“I’ve got some business at the Skulk & Lurk tonight. You two need to remember to turn off the lights and lock up when you’re done. Corduroy, I expect a full-report on his performance first-thing tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir,” Wendy replied.

Mr. Poolcheck nodded… and smiled. “Excellent. Goodnight, you two.” He marched off, leaving the two young lifeguards to their work.

As soon as he was gone, Wendy turned towards Dipper. “Okay, Dip, let’s get this show on the road. I’m going to step out of the office for a bit. After, like, twenty-minutes, listen for me. I’m going to call out for you. That’s when your test starts.”

“But you haven’t explained what we’re doing,” Dipper said.

“Don’t worry. You never know what’s going to happen at the pool. This is just like that.”

With that, Wendy stepped out of the office. Dipper, who still wasn’t clear on the plan, went over one of the pamphlets his boss provided during the lecture.

//

About twenty-five minutes later, he was half-listening, half-studying when he heard a hysteric shout.

“HELP!!! LIFEGUARD!!! ANYONE!!! SOMEBODY’S DROWNING!!! PLEASE HURRY!!!”

Dipper jumped, scattering his papers as he did so, turned, and raced outside toward the pool, which was still properly lit thanks to the lights above despite the night-time darkness. He looked around and noticed that there was a figure floating in the water. He ran over to investigate.

Dipper looked across the water and saw what appeared to be long red hair. “Wendy?” he asked. It was then that he immediately noticed she was lying face-down in the water. “Oh, crud! Wendy!” Dipper rushed to the lifeguard chair, pulling his shirt off quickly, grabbed a floatation-device, and jumped in the water. Swimming over to his crush, he nudged her. When she didn’t stir, he quickly raised her head above the water and was alarmed to discover how pale she looked.

Dipper, almost panicking, looked around for the red square he just had. Noticing it was floating away, he got behind Wendy, keeping her head above the water, and pulled her towards it. Using it to keep them afloat, Dipper paddled them as fast as he could toward the side of the pool. The boy got them both out and laid the redheaded victim on her back.

It was then that he noticed Wendy wasn’t in her red lifeguard uniform. Instead, she was clad in a green bikini. “When did she…?” Dipper started to think, his cheeks turning a bit rosy. “No, wait! Save her now; gawk later, Dipper!” The boy started to check her airways for clogs, then checked for a pulse and heartbeat (careful not to get too touchy while doing so).

“Wait a second…” he thought out loud, feeling a seemingly standard rate on both accounts.

“Psssttt!” Dipper looked down and realized that Wendy had an eyelid half-open. She subtly raised an arm and shook it before putting it back down and closing her eye again.

“Wendy? What are you…?” He looked at Wendy’s arm and suddenly realized there was writing on it.

“I HAVE NO PULSE OR HEARTBEAT,” it said.

Suddenly, everything clicked: this was Dipper’s test! How had he not realized that? Taking another quick look at Wendy, he noticed what appeared to be slight smudges on her face: the dark circles, the paler face, the… red lips? Was she wearing makeup? She was selling the victim-role. Clever.

From the lecture, Dipper knew that it was time to administer CPR. The first thing he had to do mouth-to-mouth. He reached over to pinch Wendy’s nose when it hit him hard: he was about to put his lips onto Wendy’s! Now Dipper’s face was exceptionally red. He had been dreaming of something like this for weeks. Granted, it was an actual kiss and he imagined everything from a romantic-night to one of his and Wendy’s everyday games.

Could he really do this? Dipper looked at himself and saw a boy that clearly wasn’t in that beautiful lumberjack-girl’s league. There was no way that he could even pretend that this was anything but a professional deal. It was probably why she didn’t give him any information before they got down to business after closing the pool.

And Wendy had volunteered herself for this task. Was she the kind of girl who would let any guy do this? No, she trusted Dipper. He had to prove himself worthy of that trust and treat this like the job it was supposed to be. And he had to do it now, considering that lifeguards can’t just sit there and contemplate in front of a dying victim. He just wished he didn’t admire her so much right now (even if she had the face of someone about to see the other side).

Dipper pinched Wendy’s nose and cautiously put his mouth on Wendy’s. He breathed into her twice, (trying to ignore the alluring taste of cinnamon), then started to make gentle chest compressions, as he knew she was actually alive. After thirty, he repeated the cycle once more.

He then started once again, only to suddenly feel the other face press up against his as he started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Dipper pulled back to see a grinning Wendy leaning up.

“Congratulations, dude,” she said with a hint of amusement. “You just saved my life.”

“I… uh… I did?” Dipper asked, a little startled (and red).

“If this had been a real situation, then yeah.”

“… You really went all out with this test, huh?” he replied.

“Well, it wouldn’t feel legit if it looked like you were rescuing a lifeguard, would it? Plus, it was a good excuse to break out the bikini and makeup my dad won’t let me wear. This way, I can look like a beach-babe stereotype and get away with it.”

“Well…” Dipper coughed awkwardly. “You, uh, really pull it off. Uh, if you don’t mind me saying that! I mean-”

“Thanks,” Wendy replied simply. “And I appreciate that you acted like a gentleman while taking your test. Not a lot of guys would do that.”

“No problem. So, how’d I do?” he asked hopefully.

Wendy looked thoughtful for a moment. “Hmm… you did lose a little time when you let that floatation device get away, and you hesitated for sec when you prepared to revive me, but you were pretty timely, overall. And you did as instructed. I think I’ll call it a pass.”

“Yes!” Dipper shouted and jumped. “Thanks, Wendy!”

“Sure, man. Let me grab a form for your report and we can shut down.”

As she said that, the lights around the pool began to flicker on-and-off. Dipper and Wendy looked up for just a moment when they went out altogether.

“That’s not supposed to happen, right?” Dipper asked.

Wendy looked at him. “Pretty sure. Maybe we should find the breaker? If we can’t, we might need to call Mr. Poolche-”

As Wendy spoke, a thick fog began to envelop the pool grounds. The ground started shaking, knocking the two lifeguards off their feet. The pool water began splashing hard in random directions as thunder and lightning appeared above their heads.

“Dude, what’s going on?!” Wendy shouted.

“I was hoping you could tell me!” Dipper replied in a panic.

From out in the direction of the pool somewhere, a voice called out: “This is why I say the nights are the hardest!” The two couldn’t see, but the boy in pool-solitaire had his eyes covered as an ethereal light suddenly burst from his right and began rose above the prison. Said light took shape of a wiry teenage-boy with wild hair and pupiless eyes in swim-trunks. He let out a high-pitched cackle.

“I’M FREE! I’M FREE! AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! FINALLY!” the ghostly-man cried out. He looked around and spotted the shocked-looking Dipper and Wendy by the side of the pool. “AH! The lifeguard I have to thank for getting me out of that wretched hole!”

“Who are you?!” Wendy shouted.

“And what do you want!?” Dipper added.

“Oh, how rude of me! I’m Mike, and I was once a swimmer in this pool! I was minding my own business when I got the idea to have a little fun! I pretended to drown in the pool and waited for the hot lifeguard on duty to pull me out of the water to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. I scored an open-mouth kiss in the process!

“Little did I know that said lifeguard was a witch in disguise! Her fury was boundless; excessive, even. She put me in pool-solitaire and magically-bound me to my cell. All would forget I ever existed and I would never be freed! The only means of breaking my chains would be the broken integrity of this pool’s staff!”

“What does that mean?!” Dipper asked.

“It means that little unprofessional kiss was just what I needed! The attraction I sensed certainly bordered on personal but acting on it while on the clock sealed the deal, unsealing me!”

“I had to! It was part of my training!”

“I’m not talking about you! I meant your attractive superior and how she returned that kiss!” Dipper’s eyes widened. He looked at Wendy, who was glad it was too dark to see her rosy cheeks. “You’re not fully-accredited yet, are you?”

“Uhhh…”

“Exactly. It’s all on your girlfriend, kid!” Mike said, ignoring their predictable reactions of surprise and irritation. “But I’m getting off-topic. As for what I want, it’s REVENGE!!!”

The splashing water had almost instantly turned into a whirlpool as he said this. And it was rising out of the pool!

“As the days go by, there’s going to be people underwater faster than the lifeguards can blink! And I think I’ll start with you two!” A heavy stream of water burst from the whirlpool, following Dipper and Wendy (who had finally started running). They weren’t quick enough, however. The two were quickly overtaken and pulled into the whirlpool.

Or that was the idea. Wendy had grabbed ahold of the side of the pool while holding onto Dipper’s hand with her other arm in an attempt to keep him from getting swept away.

“Dipper, hang on!” Wendy cried out. Unfortunately, a hard splash hit them both, breaking them loose and sending Dipper down into the depths. And Wendy was close to joining him. She clung to the side for dear life, not even having time to mourn her apparent loss.

She was just starting to think this was the end for her, as well, when she felt a pair of hands grab her ankles and push her up. The sudden elevation positioned her perfectly to pull herself out of the water. As she recovered, a long, vague silhouette beneath the surface swam hard to the bottom of the pool, despite.

Meanwhile, the ghost known as Mike floated above the office where Dipper and Wendy had come from. “Next on my list is that maniac-boss of theirs,” he thought out loud. “Last time I escaped I nearly started my vengeance. If only he hadn’t been so dedicated… Well, this time I’ll make sure it’s his head that’s stuck in a filter!”

He was so busy monologuing that he hadn’t noticed Wendy was out of the pool, or that a body had splashed onto the side, as well.

“Wendy!” The boy in pool-solitary shouted to the redhead, who had just regained her senses. She looked to see him pointing to something on the other side of the pool.

“Oh my gosh!” she whispered. Wendy hurried to the other side, where she found her partner-in-crime lying perfectly still. “Dipper? Dipper!” Remembering her training, Wendy got to work. She checked for a pulse and heartbeat, then began to administer CPR.

Mike was still above Poolcheck’s office, on the lookout. “Where is he…? He’s normally watching this place with such vigilant…” He turned and discovered that the female lifeguard was out of the water, doing chest-compressions on her trainee. “No! Noooo!!!” He charged at her in desperation.

At that moment, Wendy had her mouth on Dipper’s again. She breathed… and pulled back as her favorite-dork started coughing. He turned to the side and spat out some pool-water.

Mike had nearly reached his would-be victims, only for what seemed like an invisible vacuum pulling him away and back towards the makeshift cell built into the pool. He gave one last scream (which made his face look incredibly gruesome), only to suddenly vanish. The lights immediately came back on and the water turned still.

As soon as the shock of that wore off, Wendy turned and pulled Dipper (who found himself in a rather awkward-position) into a tight-embrace. “I thought I lost you, man! How’d you get out of the water?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “I was starting to think you got me out.”

“It was him,” said the young prisoner of the pool. He pointed to the deep-end of the pool, where a familiar teen was currently floating.

“Hola,” he greeted them in a deep voice and Spanish-accent.

“Hey,” replied Dipper. “Thanks for saving us.”

“Yeah,” said Wendy. “Not to sound ungrateful, but what are you still doing here? It’s after-hours.”

Their savior-in-question introduced himself as Mermando, a merman (he asked that they keep that a secret) who, through some strange-circumstances, ended up trapped in the pool for quite a while.

“As you can imagine, it’s very hard to journey across the land without dying. Is there any chance you two could help me get to the ocean?” he asked

“Of course, dude. We kind of owe you one,” Wendy replied.

“That’s right,” Dipper added. “It’s kind of been a rough night, though. Think you can wait until tomorrow?”

“That works just fine. Gracias.”

“Alright. Then we’ll see you tomorrow. Come on, Dip. Let’s shut down. Oh, and grab my clipboard, will ya? I still gotta do that report”

Dipper nodded. He moved carefully (he did not feel like falling back into the water right now) and returned the item in question.

“Hey, Wendy?” Dipper asked. “About what Mike said…”

“Hey, what did exactly happen to Mike?”

The two of them heard a familiar-voice, yet again, and looked towards the pool-prison. “You did your job, Wendy. He didn’t tell you this, but he wasn’t really free until he got rid of you. If you acted like a professional, he’d go right back in here. I hear him whisper at night sometimes. That’s why I know…”

“Good to know…” she told him.

“Wendy, do you… like me?” Dipper asked, trying not to look embarrassed.

“Oh, boy,” Wendy groaned. “Look, Dipper. I know you have a crush on me, but there’s a couple of years between us.”

“Oh…”

“But… that doesn’t mean I’m not interested; not completely, anyway,” Wendy said, looking away.

“Wait, what?” Now Dipper looked confused and hopeful.

“Dipper, I really value our friendship, and if you were a little-older, I probably would date you. It’s complicated.”

“Okay?”

“Listen, let’s keep tonight a secret, okay? I really don’t think either of us needs our friends and family’s teasing. Am I right?” Wendy asked.

Dipper looked a little dejected. “I guess so.”

“Hey, buck up, dork! I’m not saying ‘no’. I just think we should keep doing what we’ve been doing and see how we feel after a bit. I’ve got a pretty open-mind. How’s that sound?”

Dipper smiled. “Yeah. I think that can work.”

“Great. And maybe later, when we’re not on duty and my dad’s not around, I’ll where this swimsuit again. What do you think?” she said with a chuckle.

Dipper blushed and tried not to look at Wendy. That was all the answer she needed. She tapped Dipper on the shoulder and showed him their special sign, zipping her lip and throwing away the key. Dipper returned the gesture happily.

Suddenly, the two lifeguards heard loud plop. They looked towards the fence… and were not incredibly shocked to find out Mabel.

“What are you doing here?” Wendy asked suspiciously.

“Oh! Uh, hi Wendy! Hi, Dipper! I was just… Uh, why are you guys here? Isn’t it way after hours?”

“We were just getting off,” Dipper stated. “Did you seriously try to sneak in here after I said you can’t be here?”

“Come on, Bro. This is me you’re talking to. When has that ever stopped me?”

Dipper looked behind his sister. “Did you also break Poolcheck’s skimmer?”

Dipper and Wendy both stared hard at the other Mystery Twin, who gulped.

“… You guys aren’t gonna tell anyone, are you?” Mabel said, knowing she was trapped.

The lifeguards looked at each other. “We could let her go…” Wendy said to her partner.

“… But that would be unprofessional,” Dipper replied, looking back at the pool.

//

That night, pool-solitary wasn’t so solitary.

“Don’t worry, Mabes!” Wendy shouted from outside the fence as she and Dipper walked away. “I’ll talk to Poolcheck for you tomorrow-morning!”

“You guys can’t do this!” Mabel shouted back. “I have rights! I have…” Mabel felt a hand from outside her cell grasp hers. One she knew from that morning… “Never mind! Take your time!”

Her cell-mate just cringed.

[presumenothing]

〜the guiding star〜

the promised neverland official short story serialised in shounen jump giga 2019 summer vol.1–3 written by nanao // translated by presume (@angerylab)

emma’s part | ray’s part | norman’s part

Before Emma and the rest learned the truth about Grace Field House, the morning of a certain day —

In the Grace Field House of morning, down the hallway bustling with children walking about, a girl with bright-coloured hair ran past.

“Emma, good morning!”

“Good morning! Conny!”

Greeting her younger sister who was hugging a rabbit plushie, Emma descended the stairs with vigour. Towards the two boys she found there, Emma called out in a loud voice.

“Ray, Norman, good morning! Hey, let’s go look for constellations tonight!”

On being addressed, the boy with black hair and a book held under his arm turned around.

“Just as I was wondering what she’d suggest this early in the morning…”

With a despairing sigh, Ray curtly dismissed that outrageous suggestion.

“Going outside in the middle of the night, there’s no way Mama would allow something like that, is there.”

Confronted with the rule she was well aware of, Emma puffed up her cheeks.

“But look, the constellations can only be seen at night!”

“Emma, why this again, all of a sudden?”

The perfectly composed voice belonged to the other boy, Norman. With much gesturing, Emma spoke about what had happened yesterday.

“See, I was looking at the book on constellations with Phil and Marnya before bed. You know, the one with stories about the constellations, how to find the North Star, and all that. Then the two of them asked me ‘What are constellations?’, but I couldn’t answer well, so – ”

“Constellations: groups of several stars that are marked out and given characteristic names.”

“Raaay! Listen to the end, will you!”

At the wisecrack from her knowledgeable sibling, Emma got cross. Pulling herself together, she put up an adamant finger and told the two boys.

“Even for us, we’ve seen the stars, but we haven’t gone outside to do astronomical observations or anything, have we!”

Ray and Norman looked at each other. Indeed, although they both theoretically knew of it, they had never searched for actual constellations.

“Right? So, let’s all go see some constellations!”

“Hmmm, I see. Trying to ask Mama is an option, too, but…”

While turning towards the dining hall, Norman put a hand to his chin, as if deep in thought. He glanced fleetingly at Mama, who was walking on the other side of the hallway. Just as Ray had been about to flatly declare it impossible –

“—the attic window.”

“Eh?”

Emma asked in reply, eyes round. Even Ray, who’d been listening in apparent boredom, looked up at Norman despite himself.

Dropping his voice, Norman explained to the two of them.

“One of the windows in the attic is damaged. If it’s from there, we might be able to sneak out onto the roof at night.”

“Onto the roof!? Wow! Great!”

At Emma’s cheer, Norman shushed her with a finger to his lips.

“Compared to opening the door and going outside, this’d be discovered less easily, perhaps? Ray, what do you think?”

With his opinion sought, Ray knitted his brow. After a brief silence, he opened his mouth.

“…well, as long as we return before Mama comes to patrol the rooms.”

On hearing Ray’s words, Norman nodded in reply.

“To start with, let’s try going out with just the three of us. If it looks like it’s not dangerous, then the other kids too.”

“Yup! Then tonight, after lights out!”

Looking in turn at her two dependable friends, Emma smiled, eyes sparkling.

The stairs creaked ever so slightly. Three shadows climbed the oft-unused stairs, and entered the attic room.

“Over here.”

Norman approached one of the small windows. Indeed, on a closer look the inlaid lattice was loose, and on shaking it could be removed just like that.

“Yeah!”

“Emma, not so loud.”

Ray scolded from behind. Emma leaned out through the window. The night breeze swayed her hair.

“I’ll go take a look first! You two wait for a bit.”

“Emma, be careful.”

With a smile at Norman, who’d touched her shoulder, Emma stepped down onto the roof, in the boots that she’d changed into. At first, her soles slipped for just a moment on the grit and dirt that had accumulated on the roof, but it wasn’t as steep as she’d thought. Just by walking like that and aiming for the ridge of the roof, it seemed possible to climb.

“It’s okay!”

Behind Emma, now climbing up the roof, Ray and Norman too followed.

“Wow!”

Standing up atop the roof, Emma looked around at the stars spreading out above her head. The forest surrounding them had been sunk into darkness, becoming only silhouettes, and above that a deep blue starry sky stretched out.

Big stars appeared, dotted here and there.

In the positions as seen from books, she noticed the twinkling of those fixed stars.

“Is that Cassiopeia?”

“Yeah, it is.”

Norman, who’d similarly climbed up the roof, stood beside her and looked up. Setting down a hand lantern, Ray opened a book and read by its light. It was a book with the names of the constellations and their stars.

“That one’s Ursa Major… the Big Dipper, huh.”

The star that Ray had turned his gaze towards – Emma and Norman too had realised which one it was. The seven stars shone especially bright.

“Then… that one is – ”

The three of them pointed at one star, their voices overlapping.

“The North Star!”

That was a small star, but by connecting the constellation, it could be found.

The one that showed where north was: the guiding star.

Emma opened her eyes wide, and raised her voice.

“Amazing! It’s really the constellations!”

“Of course, duh.”

Even while speaking in a bored voice, Ray sat down on the roof, comparing the book and the night sky with seemingly deep interest. Emma and Norman burst out laughing together, then similarly sat right beside him.

“Hey, in the past, people relied on this star for things like travelling, right?”

Emma recalled what she’d read in the book. Norman nodded.

“Yeah. It’s the star directly above the axis of the Earth’s rotation, so it absolutely must point north.”

“Well, after we leave the house, one day when we’re all adventuring together, we just need to use this North Star as a landmark, then!”

Adventuring? laughed Norman as he asked.

“Yep! For a secret treasure, or someplace that no one’s ever been to before, stuff like that.”

Eyes sparkling, Emma spoke of her grand imaginings. Ray had only been acknowledging her words curtly, but after a little while, he gave a mutter mingled with a sigh.

“Besides, relying on the stars and all that, it’s ancient stuff y’know? Even in faraway places, we can still get in contact anyway…”

“That’s true, but!”

Emma leaned towards Ray.

“It means that even when we leave the house and go to separate homes, we can see the same star if we look up at the sky like this every night, can’t we? So it’d be a suuuper certain landmark, right?”

At Emma’s words, Ray’s eyes widened slightly, and Norman let out a laugh.

“Yeah, that’s true. It’d be a guide!”

In Emma’s mind were the faces of her younger brother and sister who’d asked ‘What are constellations?’.

Someday, the time would come when everyone would leave the house and journey outside. It’d be lonely, but at that time, as long as they could connect the constellations and find the North Star, they’d still be linked no matter where they were.

No matter where, they should be able to meet again without losing their way.

“This star will be the landmark!”

Reaching a hand out towards the starry sky that looked about to overflow, Emma thought of the future and smiled.

fin.

[halfwayinlight]

Paton and Belle finally get that real first date.

dang… I had NO IDEA it would end up being this long…

Paton Rumfield would be lying if he didn’t admit to himself that he had been a little nervous about tonight. He reminded himself more than once that the last time they were together just a week and a half ago in Chicago, Belle had kissed him. During the last days in between getting Bae settled back into something like a routine, calls with his lawyer about Milah’s case and his pending petition for full custody of his son, he had read up more on Belle’s role as Director of Community outreach for the Knights. It was impressive.

She seemed quieter tonight, although to be fair she was usually directing a gaggle of young children when he was around her. He assumed it meant she was nervous, too.

As they took the last steps to the roof area of the restaurant, he hoped that it would help to be settled into their table. Their hostess was discreet in ushering them to a table for two. The rest of the roof area would remain solely theirs until they were finished tonight. Two glasses of ice water were waiting, along with the informal arrangement of pink tulips. He hoped she enjoyed the bistro.

Stepping forward, he pulled out the chair for Belle and gave her a moment to scoot forward a bit before he moved to his seat. “Would you like wine or something else to drink?”

She bit her bottom lip, clearly in thought for a long moment while she reached out and let her fingers brush over the petals of a nearby tulip. “I think I’ll stick with water for now.”

With that, the hostess left them to enjoy their seats and the view of the sun just starting to set over the skyline.

Paton took his napkin and settled it in his lap before scooting a little closer to the table. Deftly he unbutton his shirt sleeves and began rolling each shirt to mid-arm length. It wasn’t particularly warm, Belle herself had brought a light jacket, but he was suddenly conscious of the formality of the moment. The ‘official-ness’ of this first true date. “Will it bother you if I drink?”

Her head shook slightly. “No, it’s not that. I don’t have a problem with people drinking, I simply never cared to do much of it myself. Sometimes on holidays… But, ah, it doesn’t mix with my pain medication if I need to take it later.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking when I chose upstairs.” He grimaced, and wondered if there was, perhaps, a lift somewhere that they could take to go back down. He didn’t think so.

“It’s okay,” she reassured him with a soft smile. “Today has been a good day for my knee, overall. I was in my office most of the day with Paige working on plans for helping with the Special Olympics in a few weeks. So I was sitting a lot today.” She was still fiddling with the flowers, seemingly fascinated with the petals and texture.

Paton took a slow sip of his water and let himself settle a bit more into his chair. “Do you mind me asking what’s caused your knee to bother you so much?”

A rueful smile crossed her lips. “I was a catcher for most of my years playing softball. It’s murder on knees. It’s… not a pretty story to tell.”

“Still…” he trailed off, curious to see if she was going to share or if he hadn’t earned that right, yet.

“I’ve had so many injuries, including one that was caught on tape that I will never be able to bring myself to watch. I don’t remember much about that one except a collision and god-awful sounds and the worst pain I’ve ever been in. At some point I woke up in recovery after a surgery with a nasal cannula and days of foggy pain. That was my sophomore year of high school, well the spring part in play offs for state. It’s never been the same since… a few more injuries in college, enough that I didn’t get to try out for the Olympics. It’s gotten worse this spring, though. One wrong move during a workout… My orthopedic specialist has been after me for months to consider a new technique, but it means surgery, so I wanted to ride out the season with Step Up to the Plate.”

The silence that stretched out was surprising. Deep blue eyes lifted from the flowers to meet Paton’s. She looked a little surprised. “This… probably wasn’t the type of conversation you were expecting.” It sounded like an apology.

His mouth quirked into a half smile. “I think it’s safe to say that you have not been at all what I was expecting from the first day I met you.  I have yet to be disappointed about that.”

“Maybe a little disappointed when Bae had a black eye.”

“For half a moment,” he conceded. “But then disappointed later that I couldn’t stay angry with you because you handled an angry parent so well. I had in mind to call up your supervisor and give them a piece of my mind.” It made her blush, something that had happened several times already tonight. Paton found it rather endearing.

She smiled a little at that. “Until you realized I was the supervisor.”

“Something like that.” Before he could comment further, their waiter was emerging with a small salad and crab cakes for both of them.

They tucked into their food, which broke seemed to make both of them feel a little better. Belle finally took a sip of her water and continued. “Anyway, Graham and my father have both been dropping subtle and not-so-subtle hints that they want me to go through the surgery.”

“What do you think about that?” It was clear from her long pause before answering that it had been a while since someone had asked her about her thoughts. He made a mental note to do that more often.

She mulled over the question, chewing thoughtfully but the quiet was more relaxed now. Nearly halfway through, she took a long drink of her water before answering. “It’s hard… knowing how long recovery might take. The physical therapy I’ll have to deal with… But it’s not getting better, either. It’s more or less a knee replacement. And since I’m younger, it could mean another knee replacement eventually.”

Paton didn’t often feel out of his depth, but he was in this realm. He’d enjoyed pickup games of football, or rather soccer, and rugby as a boy. Sometimes even a game of cricket. Although he’d been better at football. But he’d never played at the level she had.

“Okay, your turn,” her sudden comment brought him from his reverie. “What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?” Belle took a bite of her salad and watched him expectantly.

He dabbed his mouth before answering. “Cracked ribs and, bruises, and a broken wrist in something like year nine of school.” Her surprised was evident as he shifted in his seat. “It was a rough neighborhood. My mum was scraping by, and I think your term ‘jumped’ best describes it. That, more than anything, showed me how important it was to get out. To go the places my mum hoped I would. She cleaned homes and took in all sorts of mending and other work to keep us going.” He knew that Belle was sharp enough to notice he hadn’t mentioned his father, but he was glad they weren’t tackling that subject just now.

“It must’ve been hard.”

He nodded, “It took me a while to appreciate all of that. And I wasn’t the nicest person back then. Let’s say no one beat me up again after that.” Paton winced a little, knowing his choices when he was younger were certainly not ones he wanted Bae to repeat.

The rest of the meal eased into more relaxed conversation as they enjoyed their coq a vin and the sunset. As much as he was coming to like her, and possibly more that he wasn’t quite ready to admit to himself, Paton was surprised to find they had a few more things in common including a love of brunch, crème brulee, and the stars.

As they sipped coffee and watched the sky darken a touch more, Belle gave a contented sigh. “I wish we could see the stars better in the city.”

He swallowed a bite of dessert and cleared his throat. “We could drive outside the city and watch them. I, ah, didn’t bring a blanket this time, but we could still enjoy it if you like.” Paton couldn’t help but squirm a little, hoping she didn’t misunderstand him or think he was trying to lure her to some tawdry make-out point. Not that he didn’t want to kiss her. Because that had been an extremely pleasant surprise…

“Paton?”

“Hhm?” He blinked and she came into focus, chuckling a little.

“I said that could be nice.” Belle took one last sip of the water and set her napkin beside her plate. “No rush,” she added.

He took the moment to take a final drink of his coffee and then stood. “Don’t forget your flowers.”

Her eyebrows lifted in surprise. “I thought those were…”

“For you,” Paton assured, lifting the small arrangement, clear vase and all. He offered his free hand to help her to her feet and stepped back to allow her a moment to collect her things. As the approached the door and the stairs down to the foyer, he offered his arm. “Next time I’ll be sure there’s a lift.”

Belle wrapped one hand around his upper arm and the other went to the handrail. “As long as we take our time, I’ll be fine,” she promised.  Their descent was slower, but he let her set the pace, pausing when she did as though nothing was out of the ordinary about it. He wished he could make it magically better.

  She was glad she had her jacket. The night air coming in through the moon roof was cool, but Belle was not willing to say anything. The stars were so bright out here in a vacant lot on a back road outside of town. It was a breath of fresh air in every way, and Belle relaxed further into the reclined passenger’s seat.

“There’s the Big Dipper,” Paton murmured, pointing lazily above him from his spot reclined beside her. “Next time I’ll think to bring some blankets and the telescope.”

“You have a telescope?” she asked in surprise, twisting slightly to regard him, although she could barely make out his profile.

“Mhmmm, I want to get a better one when Bae is older, but it serves its purpose for now.”

“I had one when I was younger. We didn’t bring it when we moved from the west coast, and I think by then I was so busy with softball that I kind of … lost track of the idea of getting a new one. Sometimes when I was having a bad day in college Graham would take me down a dirt road, and we would go watch the stars… I dunno… things… just make more sense out here like this. Our… smallness. How big earth is. That it keeps going on and on despite us…”

“Graham seems very protective of you.” The words were neutral, but Belle caught the curiosity behind them.

She smiled a little in the darkness. “He’s the big brother I never had. And he’s been in love with Ruby for years. She’s too wild to see what she’s looking for is right in front of her. And he’s too far gone to look for anyone else.” It was a little amusing that Paton would wonder about her and Graham. “He’s also the best trainer we’ve ever had. And he’s one of the few people I’m willing to let near my knee when it’s bad.”

Somewhere in the distance the tree frogs were singing their night song. And occasionally Belle caught sight of a distant lightening bug. Her eyes scanned the sky again. “There’s Andromeda… it was one of my favorite stories as a girl.”

“The sacrifice given to the gods, rescued and made queen,” he mused quietly.

“I’ve always loved a good princess and dragon story.”

“Beauty and the beast,” Paton teased lightly.

“Yes,” she admitted. “I loved archetypes and theme. I almost majored in English or in Library Science.” She bit back a sigh. “Sometimes I think about going back and getting a second degree.”

“What stopped you?”

Belle went silent for several long moments. She’d never really fleshed it out. “There aren’t many jobs in libraries… and I have a lot of privilege because of my father and his money. It seemed… a little selfish to take a job I didn’t really need. If I could’ve landed one.”

“Any library would be proud to have you.”

“Business Management with a minor in non-profit seemed like something I could do to return a lot of … good back to the community. And once I found my niche, I do enjoy it.”

“There’s always time,” he added quietly. “If you really wanted to go back, the door is always open.”

She gave a murmur of agreement before feeling around a bit on the console. It was so dark out here, and she almost considered turning on her phone’s screen for some extra light, but she didn’t want to break the darkness. There was something intimate and more private about it. Her fingers finally found his, and she gave a soft squeeze. “Thank you. Tonight was wonderful.”

He gently brought her fingers to his lips, and she shivered feeling his warm breath against them before his lips brushed them lightly. “You’re welcome… and you’re cold. Shall we head back?”

“Can we stay just a bit longer?” she asked.

He reached over and turned on the car but left it in park and adjusted the settings so that warm air began blowing from the vents. “Of course.”

[xxfanfiction-emo-trinityxx]

Staying Up - Joe Trohman x Reader

Summary: The fans are worried after Joe looked very tired at an award show, so he clarifies things

Reader: implied female, but not necessarily.

Word count: 1 449

A/N: had this idea after I saw some pics of fob at an award show and pictures of joe with his daughters. Also: Happy belated Birthday, Joe. I didn’t forget you. I’m actually wearing a shirt with your face on it as I’m proof reading

A smile was stretching over your face as you opened Instagram that morning, and found your feed filled with pictures of Fall Out Boy at last night’s award show. It had been the first time in years that you had not accompanied your husband Joe to the event, but your three months old daughter had a cold, and you wanted to make sure she had you around. Also you could not risk having whoever would jump in as a baby sitter to get ill; that would just be unfair. Not to mention that Rosie just was crying all the time and not being quiet for one second, unless someone was carrying her around.

Admittedly, you were a little sad that you had not been able to accompany Joe, had not even managed to stay up late to welcome him home. But he had assured you that it was fine. He knew how tired you were with Rosie terrorising you the whole time, and when he had found you tight asleep on the couch, Rosie sleeping on your belly, he had only carefully covered both of you with a soft blanket.

Now you were sitting at the breakfast table. Rosie had woken you up at 5am, and after you had checked if Joe had gotten home, you had carried the baby through the house for almost two hours, feeding her, changing her dippers, trying to make everything as comfortable as possible for her, but she was just in a bad mood, being sick and all.

So after you had gotten her to fall asleep around 8am, you finally allowed yourself some breakfast. Rosie was lying in the crib in the dining room, Joe was, just like the world outside, still asleep, and you finally got a few quiet moments for yourself. And looking at pictures from last night, seemed the best way to spend it. Some of the pictures had been posted by the official Fall Out Boy Instagram, some by Pete, Andy had posted a couple of snaps too, and some photographers, as well as other musicians you were following had taken photos, and published them, too.

You scrolled through your Fall Out Boy dominated feed, and could not help but smile. Damn, Joe had really looked good. He always did, but when he was wearing a suit… that was always something different. With a chuckle you shook your head. Sitting at breakfast, crushing on pictures of a musician, like back in high school, you thought. Only that now that musician was actually lying in your bed, and you were married. Hell, you would not want it any different.

Stopping at the next picture of the band, you noticed how tired Joe looked. He had tried to help you loads with Rosie, and you had a feeling he had been staying up at night to keep her company so you could sleep.

And sure enough, you were not the only one who had noticed the dark circles under Joe’s eyes. Not only in the comment section of this picture, but in many others as well, you found an increasing number of fans commenting on how worn out Joe looked. Some worried about whether he was getting enough sleep; others theorized he was sick, saying he should get some proper rest.

It touched you, seeing the fans worrying, but there really was no reason too, as far as you knew. So just when you wanted to take a note to tell Joe he should maybe address the fan’s worries about his health, Rosie started crying again, and you quickly hurried over to the crib to calm her down.

You only remembered the whole thing in the evening, when Joe, who had gotten up soon after Rosie had started crying, had told you to go to bed, because you were obviously drop dead tired.

“Hey, that reminds me,” you turned around to Joe, who was trying to get Rosie’s little fingers out of his curls, “I saw some people worrying about you on Instagram this morning; you looked pretty tired yesterday evening.”

“Really,” Joe looked up to you, for a moment allowing his daughter to pull on his hair, which he quickly regretted once she pulled too hard.

“Yeah, they think you’re sick or something,” you took in his appearance.

The idea did not come out of nowhere. He did look tired and a little pale, but other than that he showed no signs of illness. But then again he was good at hiding it, like the time he had insisted on going to your parents’ silver wedding, even though he had been seriously ill, but he had pretended it was only a little cold. And the next day he had been so sick that he had been unable to get out of bed, and you had to stay at your parents’ house for almost a week until he was well enough to travel.

“You’re not sick, are you?”

You added the question, just to be sure, having learnt not to trust him blindly in that matter.

He chuckled lowly, finally managing to get the little sticky baby fingers of Rosie out of his curls.

“No, I’m not, just tired,” he assured you with a soft smile.

“Maybe you should, I don’t know, send a quick tweet or something, so the fans can stop worrying,” you suggested, making him nod.

“Want to film a quick video,” he suggested, making you laugh.

“The way I look? Rather not,” you giggled.

Rosie looked over to you in confusion.

“You look amazing, come here,” Joe insisted.

Knowing he would not let it go until you gave in, and too tired to put up a fight, you walked over to the sofa, and sat down, Joe sitting down closely next to you, handing Rosie to you so he could film a short message.

“Hey guys,” he greeted, after he had pressed record, “(y/n) said that some of you’ve been worrying about me ‘cause I looked super tired yesterday. But I can promise you it’s all fine.”

He got interrupted by some incomprehensible babbling from Rosie, which made both of you smile, and you quickly turned her so she was looking over your shoulder.

“Yeah, exactly,” Joe laughed, as if he was agreeing to what Rosie had been sharing with you, “well, actually this little thing there,” he pointed to his daughter, “is the reason I, we,” he gestured between you and him, “are super exhausted. Rosie’s been sick, and I thought it would just be fair to be looking after her during the night so her mummy here,” he demonstratively wrapped his arm around your shoulder, “could get a little sleep as well. So that’s all there is. I’m fine, Rosie’s got a cold, but we’re all three super tired.”

“I’ll make sure he gets some sleep soon,” you added with a smile, unable to supress the little glance over to your husband who was trying not to yawn.

“Okay, I guess that’s about it, Trohmans out, good night.”

Joe pressed the red button again, stopping the recording, and finally allowed himself to yawn.

Quickly he posted the video on Instagram and Twitter, with a short caption before he turned back to you. You were already half asleep, Rosie, magically, also quiet for once. Maybe the cold was finally getting better.

“Hey darling, let’s go to bed,” Joe suggested, and took the sleepy baby from you, carrying her into the bedroom.

You followed soon after, finding that Joe had already placed her in the little extension of your bed, which allowed you to reach over to her, or even to pull her into your bed, during the night, without having to get up.

Rosie was tight asleep, her eyes closed, her breathing regular, her little fists closed tightly.

“Finally,” Joe sighed, sitting down on his side of the bed, and falling back against the soft pillow.

“Don’t jinx it,” you warned with a smile, and crawled into bed next to him.

Like a reflex, years of sharing a bed having trained him, Joe wrapped his arms around you, and pulled you into him. You suspected that it was some kind of conditioning, that you felt safe and loved and happy the second you were able to bury your nose in his shirt, but on the other hand it was Joe, so it was very possible that it was simply his mere presence that caused this reaction.

You closed your eyes, breathing in the familiar and comforting scent of your husband, listening to the quiet breathing of your daughter and Joe’s steady heartbeat, and before you even knew it, you had fallen asleep in his arms.

[sceptilemasterr]

ES Act 2, Scene 14 - No Escape

Title: Endless Summer: The (un)Official Screenplay

Main Pairings: Estela x Ian (M!MC), Jake x Alyssa (F!MC)

Other Pairings: Craig x Zahra, Grace x Aleister, Michelle x Sean, Diego x Varyyn

Genre: Full Rewrite

Rating: PG-13 for swearing, violence, alcohol, and sexuality

Summary: The group finds a way off the island, but their escape attempt is quickly cut short.

Previous Scene: Respect

Masterlist: Link

Note: PG-13 movies are allowed one F-bomb per film. The word gets dropped in this scene, FYI!

EXT. ROURKE MARINA - DUSK

As the group clears the jungle and approaches the marina, the sun has started to rise in the west (or, more accurately, the sun is actually setting “in reverse.”) Aleister shakes his head in disbelief, muttering to himself. Sean glances up at the sky and gasps as a realization dawns on him.

SEAN: The stars! That’s what’s wrong!

QUINN: What about the stars?

Sean points into the sky. The rest of the group crowds around him.

SEAN: I spent six years in Boy Scouts-

JAKE: Of course you did.

Sean shoots Jake a look before continuing.

SEAN: I learned all the constellations and stars by heart. We’re not that far from home; I should still recognize most of the stars. But I don’t see any of the usual constellations. Not even the Big Dipper.

Jake, Ian, and Estela all squint and look around, trying to spot something familiar in the night sky.

IAN: ...Now that you mention it, you’re right. How’s that possible?

ESTELA: This island is strange. We should all know that by now.

JAKE: Well, yeah, but... how the hell do the stars change?

Grace and Aleister exchange a look but say nothing.

ALYSSA: Screw it, we’re almost there!

She points to the distant marina, where a pair of pristine yachts are floating nearby.

ALYSSA: One of those boats is taking us home!

DIEGO: Hear, hear!

As they head toward the marina, Zahra walks over to Estela.

ZAHRA: Hey. Spear girl. Y’know what this is?

She pulls a sharp amber-colored blade from her pocket and hands it to Estela.

ESTELA: No idea. It looks like... amber?

ZAHRA: But way harder. It was in one of that crab’s legs when I was cutting it up. Want it?

ESTELA: Sure. But this looks... man-made.

ZAHRA: Yeah. Keep this on the down-low, huh? We don’t need everyone freaking out when we’re this close. Just thought you could use something since your old spear got crabbed and all.

ESTELA: Thanks, Zahra.

ZAHRA: Anytime.

They reach the marina. In addition to the two yachts, they can see several speedboats tied up at the docks. Craig runs a hand along the side of one of the yachts approvingly.

CRAIG: Sweet ride! Let’s sail home in style!

DIEGO: All aboard the... Huerta Star!

The group files onto the Huerta Star. Jake heads back to the helm station, with Alyssa following. Estela and Ian hang back on the docks.

ESTELA: I... guess this is goodbye.

IAN: Guess so.

ESTELA: You’re not going to try to make me stay?

Ian shakes his head.

IAN: I may not know why you’re here, or what your mission is... but I trust you. I know you’re doing the right thing.

Estela looks down, shuffling her feet nervously.

ESTELA: Ian. Before you go... there’s something I-

The yacht’s motor starts up. Alyssa pokes her head out of a window.

ALYSSA: Ian! You coming or not?!

IAN: Guess I should get going. What did you want to tell me?

ESTELA: It’s- it’s nothing. Stay safe.

Ian nods and turns to board the yacht.

IAN: ...You too.

ALYSSA: Okay, y’all, we’re going home!

Ian leans his arms on the stern railing of the yacht, watching Estela as she stands at the dock, alone. Ian’s eyes are watering in spite of himself as the ship pulls away from the dock. He watches Estela until she vanishes over the horizon. Diego walks up to him and pulls him into a hug.

DIEGO: How are you holding up?

IAN: I was really hoping she’d change her mind.

DIEGO: For what it’s worth, I think you did the right thing. If it’s meant to be... you two will find each other again. One way or another.

IAN: I hope you’re right.

Ian slumps down onto a small metal box, which clangs when he kicks it with the heel of his shoe. Diego kneels down by the box.

DIEGO: Hey, Ian, stand up for a sec, would you? I think this thing’s hollow.

IAN: Sure, why not...

He and Diego wrench open the top of the box to reveal another set of folders like the ones Alyssa and Estela found. This time, the folders have pictures of Zahra, Craig, and Quinn on them. The two open the Zahra folder to reveal a dossier filled with personal information on Zahra, as well as a combat analysis and a threat level designation.

DIEGO: What the hell?!

IAN: Somebody’s... watching us?

Diego opens up the Craig folder to find a similar dossier.

DIEGO: I am officially creeped out.

IAN: We should let Alyssa and Jake know about this. Let’s go.

Meanwhile, inside the ship, Alyssa and Jake man the helm.

JAKE: Nearest port should be the Dominican Republic. These weird stars are screwin’ things up a bit, but that’s why we’ve got you, Blue Girl Group.

I.R.I.S.: Incorrect designation. I will respond to either “I.R.I.S.” or “Intelligent Reactive-

Alyssa laughs as Jake scowls at the hologram.

JAKE: Yeah, yeah, shut up. Are we still on course?

I.R.I.S.: Current trajectory should place us within Dominican Republic waters in approximately 3.44 hours.

ALYSSA: Nice. Good thing we’ve got such a fancy boat, huh?

JAKE: ...Yeah. Listen, Princess, there’s something I gotta tell you before we get back to the mainland. It’s about my discharge-

The yacht suddenly jerks sideways, sending Jake and Alyssa flying into the wall. The two of them scramble to their feet.

JAKE: The hell was that?!

ALYSSA: Look out!

Michelle slams open the door to the helm station, eyes wide with fear. Behind her, Ian and Diego struggle up the stairs and into the room.

MICHELLE: Huge whirlpool up ahead, guys! And that crazy storm from the flight in is back, too!

JAKE: You gotta be shitting me-

He looks to see that Michelle is telling the truth. A huge crater in the sea lies just ahead of them, and all around are dark storm clouds and balls of light just like the ones seen during the flight to the island. Jake jerks the wheel hard to port, sending the yacht away from the whirlpool.

IAN: The whirlpool! There’s something coming out of it!

JAKE: What, like a waterspout?

MICHELLE: Mother of God...

The five of them stare at the whirlpool... and at the massive, blue, scaled shape emerging from its depths. The beast has a huge fanged maw, no eyes, and a pair of glowing antennae that crackle with electricity. Its huge form continues so deep into the ocean that it is lost to view. From the lower deck, the sounds of the others screaming can be heard.

JAKE: What. The. FUCK?!

ALYSSA: TURN! NOW!

JAKE: I’m trying!

DIEGO: What is that thing?!

Ian and Alyssa both help Jake with the wheel, but the current is too strong, and the yacht is slow and cumbersome. The sea monster roars, a horrifying, unearthly sound, and dives toward the yacht, teeth bared.

ALYSSA: AAH!

JAKE: Princess! No!

MICHELLE: Hang on!

They are helpless in the wake of the beast’s attack. It grips the bow of the yacht in its colossal jaws; everyone hangs on for dear life as it lifts the vessel out of the water. With a single shake of its head, it sends the entire yacht, passengers and all, flying through the air, straight back toward the island. One by one, the students and Jake are thrown from the yacht into the sea, falling into the depths as the now-empty yacht itself crashes into the marina, destroying the other yacht and most of the speedboats. Alyssa and Ian both plunge, deeper and deeper, into the waters....

Next Scene: “We're Not Alone”

Tag List: @brightpinkpeppercorn @mysteli @edgydepressedchoicesthot @bbaba-yagaa @endlesshero1122 @endlessly-searching-for-you

[nautiscarader]

Wendip Week 2017 - Day 1, Meet the parents

(My fanfiction masterpost) (Read on Ao3) (Read on FF)

Rated: G, older!Wendip story 

Dipper is about to meet Wendy’s father, officially as her boyfriend. What could go wrong? 

- Hi! I'm Dipper Pines, remember me, Mr. Corduroy? - Of course he remembers you, you doofus. We helped him find his stolen beard last month. Not to mention all the other times we did something around the forest while he kept screaming "You crazy Pines go back to your crazy house of crazy craziness!".

Dipper threw an angry look to his sister, shuffling through the pages of her magazine. For the better part of last hour, she's been trying to help prepare Dipper for an official meeting with Wendy's father, although so far, her support turned out to be nothing but collection of casually thrown snarky responses.

- Alright then. - Dipper cleared his throat and tipped his hat to his reflection - Hi, mr Corduroy! I'm so glad I can finally have a dinner with my girlfriend's father... - Are you really glad, though?   - Of course not! - Dipper shouted - He's a walking mountain that could crush me with his little finger! If I say anything wrong, then I'm dead, do you understand that?

Mabel rolled onto her back and let out a deep sigh.

- Dipper, you are doing it again. - What? - You're over-thinking things - she finally looked at her brother's frowned face - You've spent so much time prepa- is that a bow-tie?

They both stared at the curious bit of Dipper's attire that stood out from the rest of his vest and shirt.

- Okay, this has to go. - It will work, Mabel! I've got something neater to wear it with. - Dipper, they are lumberjacks. - Mabel sighed, looking at her brother flipping through his set of identical, white shirts - They only know one colour: PLAD. If you wear a suit, they're gonna take you for a penguin!

A loud sound of a car horn interrupted the twins' bickering, but eased none of the tension Dipper was suffering from.

- Oh my god, she's here! I'm late! - In a car? What for? - Mabel raised her brows and jumped to her feet as well

And indeed, when Dipper opened the triangular window, the source of the sound turned out to be a green jeep, driven by the red-haired park ranger, Wendy Corduroy. She waved at her boyfriend through the car's roof, that was not so much "open" as "turned into a molten bit of metal about a week ago". Seeing his silhouette, Wendy pressed the horn once again, hastening Dipper's arrival.

- Hi, Wendy! What's going on? - Dipper exclaimed, running through Mystery Shack's door without any care, leaving them open. - I got an unexpected call, do you want to come with m- What are you wearing?  

Dipper looked down, noticing that in the minute he had to finish dressing up, he has managed to put on his blue vest over the pristine, ironed white shirt, as well as socks of distinctively different colours. And the bow-tie.

- Sorry, I was preparing for the dinner! - he apologised, giving her a quick peck on her cheek, as he hopped to the passenger's seat - So, what's the problem? - We got call from the Multibear. Their daughter is missing. - Oh no! Bear bear? - Dipper yelped - Yeah. She's not a kid anymore, but still, things can go wrong. Hold on tight.

Dipper managed to lock his seatbelt a split of a second before he was pushed into his seat, as Wendy released the gas pedal and drove straight through the woods to the mountains towering over the treetops.

The term "park ranger" is a bit misleading. It implies a person that takes care of a park, but no one sane would ever use that word to describe the forests around Gravity Falls. Regulations, no matter how strict would fall flat on unicorns demanding supplies of glitter, or gnomes declaring their dens independent nations at least twice a year. The word "ranger" is also ill-fitted; no group of people would be able to range over the vast, ever-changing terrain of the Gravity Falls forests, that might look perfectly fine on Monday, but could be completely unrecognisable by Friday. And yet, when mayor Cutebiker decided that something should be done to protect the citizens of Gravity Falls from the forest creatures (as well as the other way around), the idea of "park rangers" was the most sensible one that was proposed. That position certainly wouldn't be Wendy's first choice of career, if not for the fact that nearly absolutely everyone else was terrified about the prospect of keeping the forests under control. It meant, however, that in Summer she would get to spend a bit more time with Dipper and Mabel, who, while not rangers themselves, provided much insight into the three key parts of the local ecosystem: fauna, flora, and the unknown. And truth to be told, the forests and the creatures could mostly take care of themselves, giving Wendy arguably even more free time than during periods of no visitors in the Mystery Shack.

As they drove up, Dipper remembered the first time he had to traverse the long road to the caverns atop the mountains surrounding Gravity Falls to prove his manliness to the clan of Manotaurs by killing the Multibear they were going to visit now. The very same reason pushing Dipper to these ridiculous quests was now keeping her focus on the bumpy, rocky road.

- What? Is there something wrong?

In the corner of her eye Wendy noticed that for the last minute or so, Dipper kept staring at her, sitting motionlessly in his seat.

- What? No, nothing. - Dipper quickly answered - I just like you in that outfit, it goes, uh, well with your eyes. And the, uh, the hat, I think it looks great too.

Wendy returned a polite, warm smile.

- Dip, I hope you're not making some sort of list of small-talk jokes and praises for tonight, like this one. Dad doesn't like those, he can smell them. - What? Me? Never! - Dipper retorted and tucked his hand deeper into his pocket pushing the piece of paper he spent his last night on. - It's just I- - It's here.

Wendy stated firmly, rescuing Dipper from an awkward dead-end he got himself into, as they reached a giant, ominous cave at the very end of a windy road. The two adventurers got from the car, took their backpacks and wiped their boots on the colourful doormat, before they rang the doorbell.  

- Al-right, al-right, one head at a time! - Wendy shouted through the cacophony of ten jaws of the Multibear trying to explain what happened - So far, I got that she was sick, she got fed up with her favourite band, she thought the porridge was too hot, too cold, just enough, all at the same time. I, I need some clarification.

Wendy put away her notepad, trying to calm the distressed creature.

- Multibear, just tell us what happened, step-by-step. We're gonna help you. - Dipper joined Wendy in her consolations

Ten loud sneezes into ten large handkerchiefs later, the Multibear told their story anew.

- So, she hasn't come home tonight, and wasn't that keen on talking for the last month or so... - Wendy pondered. - Have you tried searching for her before you called us? - Of course! We went that way!

Wendy was quick enough to push Dipper from the reach of the claws, before the arms of the Multibear pointed, predictably, in seven different directions.

- Please, help us! She only has two heads! - Multibear, don't worry, we will find her! - Dipper quickly assured them. - Okay... we're gonna start the search, and we will contact you if we find anything. - Wendy spoke unsteadily, giving her boyfriend a knowing nudge with her elbow.

The two rushed to the door, and only when they exited the cave, Wendy spoke.

- Dipper, you don't say "don't worry" to someone, whose kid got lost. Worrying is kinda a part of the deal. And she obviously has tried searching for her. - Wendy fumed - I'm sorry, Wen! - Dipper apologised profusely, getting into the car - I sometimes panic with stuff like that. That's why you do the talking, you're way better than me. - That;s cos' I got experience, Dip. - Wendy smiled - Three brothers, and one more baby to scold at now. - Wait, who are you talking about?

Only when Wendy gave him another smug smile, Dipper threw his arms into air with a loud "Come on!" that only cheered his girlfriend, opening the series of teasing that lasted all the way down the mountain.      

After less than an hour of searching, Dipper was the first to notice oddly broken tree branches, paving their way down the forest.

- Wendy, I think she was here. - Well, it was something big. - she added - Actually, two of somethings.

The ground beneath them was filled with two overlapping trails, though both Wendy and Dipper had difficulty telling which series of paw-prints started and ended, or how many of paws each one had. Without any doubt, however, the mixed trail lead them to another cave underneath the mountain they drove from.

- Is that cave on the map? - No, it wasn't there last time we checked! - Dipper exclaimed, opening a large map - And that was last month, so Multibear's story makes sense. Something's fishy here.

Equipped with torchlights and guns with sleeping darts, the two adventurers followed the path up to the entrance of the cave, masked with a simple net of sticks and leaves. The two gave each other a knowing nod and held their hands one last time before pushing the provisional door away. As much as they both would like to make sure the other one is secure, four ready hands were better than two, providing better protection than the strongest infatuation. From the very start it became obvious that the creature, or creatures, had problems with the height of the cave. The middle of cavern's roof nearly looked like a cartoon cut-out of some enormous head trying to push through the rock. As the two ventured down the steep slope, Dipper tried imagining what animal could leave such unique markings. But when they saw a light at the end of the tunnel, they both spoke its name under their breath.

A horned silhouette of a manotour was visible on the wall in front of them, giving Wendy and Dipper some idea behind Bear bear's disappearance. It didn't help the fact that the manotour stood next to a huge steaming cauldron, and a sound of bones cracking and meat chopping reached Wendy and Dipper's ears. The two gave each other one final nod, prepared their weapons and crept towards the angled turn. The stench of a stew made from unknown meat filled their nostrils as they were about to lean over the wall, causing both of them to hold their breath for a moment.

- And it's finally ready... Bear... - the deep, husky voice of the manotaur reverberated through the thick air.

Dipper and Wendy looked at each other, their eyes wide with both fear and determination, and on her mark they leaped from around the corner, ready to stun the manotaur.

- Don't move, manotaur! And tell what you did to Bear bear! - Ah! Humans! Help! - the manotaurs shrieked in a voice much higher than either of them expected, dropping the metallic bowl that landed on the rocky floor with a loud clunking noise. - Oh, no, honey, your soup! - said a third, feminine voice.

Wendy lowered her gun and was about to instruct Dipper to do the same, but her boyfriend already seemed to have realised what was going on and stared, unable to shoot or aim, at the bizarre sight in front of them.

The bowl of spilled soup laid on the floor, to the dismay of two creatures: a manotaur in a pink kitchen apron, and a female multibear, with her four arms around her two heads, cowering in fear. She sat by a large, decorated rock table with two sets of utensils and a flowerpot in the middle of it.  

- What the heck...? - You're not going to hurt us...? - Bear bear lowered her arms, staring at the two intruders. - Gosh no, of course not! - Wendy explained, tucking her gun behind her back. - We, uh, sorry for the intrusion, but we got call from your...uh, mom, and we're not really sure what happened to you, so... - Oh come on, Wendy. - Dipper interrupted - They are dating, isn't it obvious?

The brown face of the multibear blushed with red tint, matching the red skin of her boyfriend. Wendy moved her eyes from one to another, finally getting the whole picture.

- But, shouldn't manotaurs be hating multibears...? Or has something happened in the last year? - Most of us do.

The large horned creature, who was wiping the fluid from the floor for last minute or so stood back and faced Wendy.

- Hi, I'm Razortaur. - Uh, hi, I'm Wendy, and that's Dipper. - she reached to shake the enormous hand of the manotaur towering over her. - So, you guys live here? - He was probably banished from his tribe - Dipper interjected once more. - Or something, the manotaurs seem to have lots of weird rules.

The cavern shook again, when Razortaur slammed his fist against the table, breaking off a part of it.

- Razor, darling, don't get upset, they didn't mean to. - Bear bear closed gently her three paws around the manotaur's fist. - Of course they banished me. They think I'm weak because of my love to you, my dearest!

To both Dipper and Wendy's surprise, Razortaur lowered his head and begun weeping into Bear bear's shoulder.

- I was told to kill her as my trophy to prove my manliness! - he roared - But I couldn't kill someone of such beauty...

Razortaur cupped her closest mouth with his other hand, giving her a quick, oddly disproportionate-looking kiss.

- Listen, guys - Wendy started - I hate to interrupt you, but your mom is seriously worried about you. And they knows something is up. - But I can't go back! - Bear bear cried - They will hate me for dating our mortal enemy. - Of course they won't. - Dipper retorted, sitting on the stone bench next to her - They love you, and will understand you, I'm sure of it. - Are you, though...? - Wendy whispered, giving him another subtle nudge. - Well, what else can we do to help them? - I don't know, you do the talking. You seem way better at it.

Wendy sent him a cocky smile, stunning him momentarily, as he understood he was in charge now.

- I really think you should go back to Multibear now. - Dipper replied to the creatures - Both of you, in fact.

Razortaur raised his head, staring at Dipper with utmost confusion in his eyes.

- But... What if she hates me as well? - Listen, I know it may be hard to confront your girlfriend's parent. - Dipper calmly replied - I mean, you are a manotaur, and she's a multibear- - No, no, I'm not worried about that. - Razortaur quickly replied - Well, maybe a bit. But what if she doesn't like me as her daughter's boyfriend? What if I do something wrong, like eat honey with a spoon instead of a hand?

Dipper turned his head and exchanged a smile with Wendy, feeling the fingers of her hand intertwining with his.

- Well, in worst case scenario, at least you will know it. Can't live in uncertainty forever, can you? - Actually that was our idea. - Bear bear suddenly replied - We spent two weeks decorating this place! - Okay, aside from that - Wendy took over from Dipper - I think Dipper is right. And we can vow for you that nothing nefarious is going on here.  

The table shook again when Razortaur suddenly stood up, raising his fist into the air, and subsequently, the roof.

- You are right, tiny humans! - he roared - I cannot cower in fear anymore! Quick, to your parent's cave!

Before Wendy or Dipper could react, the manotaur took his girlfriend into his arms, who in return grabbed them and flung the pair of adventurers onto his back, covered in thick hair they could grab onto. With three extra passengers, Razortaur ran with surprising ease, getting to the exit of the cave in no time, and traversing the rocky road much faster than their jeep could.

- Okay, this is the moment. - Wendy put her arm on Bear bear's back, giving her much needed bit of courage. 

- When do I come in? - Razortaur's voice reached Dipper's ears from the corner he was hiding behind. - We're gonna give you a sign. - Dipper whispered. - Oh, and one more thing.

Dipper ran to the Razortaur, took the bowtie from his neck and placed it crudely in his thick chest hair.

- Now you look the part, buddy. - Dipper patted his back, before running back.  

The doorbell rang again, and the figure of Multibear appeared in the doorway.

- My child!

From the side, Dipper and Wendy could safely observe the heart-warming scene of mother and daughter hugging and exchanging kisses with combined twelve snouts, and wait until the right moment arrived.

- But what happened? - the Multibear reached to Dipper and Wendy - Where was my Beary bear? - Mom, don't call me that. I'm a grown up now. - the two mouths of younger multibear cried in anger - And, I want you to meet someone.

Dipper and Wendy grunted, and moved aside in unison, opening the road for Razortaur to appear. As they both predicted, Multibear was taken aback, but remained restrained, so neither of them had to use their stun guns.

- This... This is Razortaur. And, uh, he's my boyfriend, mom. - Afternoon, uh, mrs Multibear. I'm Razortaur. - the manotaur stepped from the behind the turn, fixing his bowtie, and digging his hoof nervously in the ground. - And your daughter was taking care of me when my tribe banished me. She was really sweet, and all of that.

Ten mouths gasped in awe and disbelief, before ten arms closed around manotaurs' neck and back.

- I'm glad he omitted the whole "daughter killing" business - Dipper whispered to Wendy, getting a soft giggle in response - Well... That's not what I expected - the Multibear admitted through tears - Would... Would you like to come in? - Oh, it would be my pleasure. - Razortaur smiled - And you can come too!

Multibear turned to the two humans standing somewhat cautiously by the rocky wall, once again hiding their guns behind their backs.

- I didn't even thank you properly for finding my daughter. - Not a problem, Multibear. - Dipper replied, tipping his hat. - And anyway, we have to attend, uh, another dinner now. - Yeah, that was one heck of surprise, but we have to go. - Wendy added - We're glad everything turned out fine for you and Bear bear.  

Arms of the multibear closed again, this time around Dipper and Wendy, smashing their bodies together and soaking them with salty, motherly tears.  

- At least now you will have to get a change of clothes... - Wendy wheezed through her teeth. - And it can't be worse than this, can it? - Dipper smiled, wondering how long will Multibear's hug last.

- Are you ready, dude?

In an oddly reminiscent fashion, Dipper stood in front of the large, wooden door of the Corduroys' house, still feeling a bit scared to make the first move. As if she could read his mind, Wendy took his hand and they both pressed the doorbell, and knocked the door a couple of times, just to be sure.

No one answered back.  

- Dad, guys, we're home! - Wendy shouted, wondering why her father wasn't responding. - Uh, mister Corduroy, sir? It's me, Dipper Pines!

Suddenly, a loud, thundering series of approaching footsteps echoed through the house, giving both Wendy and Dipper an obvious sign to move out from the door, expecting Manly Dan to appear any moment now. Instead, however, not only he, but Wendy;s three brothers burst through the door, clinging their hands to their unnaturally weird looking faces.

- My beard! They stole my beard again, damn pelicans! Why would they do that?! And my boys' too!

Wendy was first to reach to her father's back to give him a consolatory hug, leaving Dipper to get lost between the three crying beardless Corduroy brothers. Wendy gave Dipper a silent nod, and once she freed him from her family, they ran to her car again, knowing that their dinner might turn into a late supper today.  

Author’s note: To all of you claiming that the multibear didn’t sound female, had different number of mouths, or arms, or the fact that pelicans do not steal beards, I have just this to say to you. 

[pengychan]

Friend Shaped

Title: Friend Shaped Summary: Whatever Dipper had thought that summoning spell would result in, that wasn’t it. Characters: Dipper Pines, Mabel Pines, Bill Cipher Rating: K

A/N: this one is for  @skypher-drabbles - the request was Liam intreracting with the Pines kids (and being happy). This scenario was fun to come up with. Hope you like it and thanks again for your charity donation! (This is pretty much based on Flat Dreams and won’t make much sense if you haven’t read it.)

***

To be completely, a hundred percent, absolutely honest, Dipper hadn’t thought that whole summoning thing could actually work.

He had sort of hoped it would, of course, or at least that something would happen so that he wouldn’t look like a complete idiot. He had also fervently hoped that, should it work - unlikely but not impossible, because he firmly believed nothing was - he would wind up summoning something that was… not too dangerous. Like maybe a pixie, or a fairy, or a leprechaun, or a gremlin they could put in a cage - just possibly not a demon. Please, anything but a demon.

He really didn’t want to have to tell his parents he had summoned Beelzebub or Lucifer or something in the living room while they were out for dinner. They’d ground him for life and then a little past that.

“Maybe you’ll summon an unicorn! Or a hot vampire!” Mabel had said hopefully. Dipper, who was rather hoping it wouldn’t be a vampire either, had laughed and said that it was possible. Because really, they hadn’t known what to expect: all that the book he’d found in the attic said was ‘beings from other worlds’.

Either way, a couple of gray geometric shapes with thin black limbs an eye each were definitely not listed among the possibilities they’d thought up.

“Omigosh, they look so cute! Not in a sexy werewolf way–”

“Wasn’t it a vampire you–”

“… But still cute!” Mabel finished. They were crouching down over the circle, and she leaned closer. The two… things in the middle of the summoning circle were still and resting close, eyes shut. Sleeping, Dipper thought, because he really didn’t want to think of the other possibility.

“Are they alive?” Mabel asked, as though reading his mind.

“I… don’t know,” he admitted, his voice faint.

The bigger of the two beings - a Scalene triangle, by the looks of it - was holding a tiny book in even tinier hands. When Mabel poked it, it made a mumbling noise and shifted closer to the other.

“They’re alive!” Mabel crooned, and that was finally caused the two triangles to awaken. Under Dipper’s amazed gaze, they shifted. They sat up. They opened their eye. They looked up at them. They blinked.

And screamed a lot louder than Mabel had yelled. Not to be outdone, Mabel screamed, falling back on her butt and dragging her brother with her in the fall. Dipper screamed because… well, everyone else was, after all.

It seemed like a normal thing to do, given the circumstances.

***

“Okay, is it… are you feeling any better, uhm…”

“L-Liam.”

“Liam. Right. Any more milk…?”

“Or Mabel juice! Would you like Mabel juice?”

The smaller triangle lifted his hand. “Oh! I want Mabel juice! It’s sparkly - why is it sparkly?”

“It’s all the glitter!”

“… What’s glitter?”

“Here, let me show you…”

“Mabel, no!”

Too little, too late. With a ‘ta-daaaa!’, Mabel produced a fistful of pink glitter from who knew where and threw it in the air. Dipper sighed, taking a mental note to use the vacuum cleaner before their parents came back and looking on as the smaller Triangle - Bill, he had introduced himself - laughed somewhat maniacally and began making angels in the glitter that fell on the kitchen table. When he sat up, some of it stuck to his surface. Plenty of it, really.

“Look! I’m… what color is this?”

“Pink!”

“Pink! I like it! Hey, Brainiac, look at me!” Bill called out, standing up with his arms spread. “I’m pink!”

Dipper couldn’t help but give a small laugh, thankful that no glitter ended up in Bill’s eye, and turned back to Liam. “So, your dimension - Second Dimension, right? - has absolutely no color at all.”

“No, sir.”

“Hey, no need to call me that! I’m just twelve!”

“But you’re so big!” Bill piped in. “And what shape are you to begin with?”

“Friend-shaped!” Mabel exclaimed, but Bill didn’t seem to hear her at all, because the next moment he was staring at Dipper and scowling, the enthusiasm over pink glitter entirely gone.

“Hey! HEY! What are you doing with that thing?”

It took Dipper a moment to realize he was really talking to him, and another few instants to guess what he was referring to - the ruler in his hand. “Wha…?”

“You can’t measure him! He’s fine as he is!” Bill snapped, and ran across the table on tiny black legs to come to stand between him and what Dipper had understood was his brother. That seemed to scare Liam more than the entire situation, which had to be as surreal to them as it was to Dipper. “Bill, no! Don’t… i-it’s all right if–”

“No! No Inspection! I won’t let him!”

“I… I don’t want to inspect anything!” Dipper blurted out, and put the ruler down on the table. With a tap, he sent it sliding to the other side. “I just wanted to measure you guys and… sorry if that was rude? I had no idea.”

Liam looked up at him, blinking, then he spoke very slowly. “Is it… I mean… does Irregular mean nothing to you?”

“Not really? I know what it means, but…”

“Oh! Is it because you’re all tilted?” Mabel asked, leaning her chin down on the edge of the table. Liam made a movement that looked much like a nod.

“Yes. Please, don’t be mad at my brother. He’s just impulsive,” Liam all but pleaded, putting his arms around Bill and pulling him closer. Bill let him, but kept staring at him in open defiance. “It’s just… back in our world, my shape is… not a good thing,” he said, and it sounded like every word was taking him an effort to force out. Bill’s scowl deepened.

“Well, our world is–”

“Your world is dumb! I like your shape!” Mabel spoke up, and Bill gestured towards her with both hands.

What she said.

Liam blinked up at her, like he had just said something wonderful and yet utterly incomprehensible. “You do?”

“Sure! You’re just like us!”

This time, it’s Bill to object. “But we look nothing like–”

“We’re all friend-shaped! And look, I have friendship stickers!” she exclaimed, and proceeded to slap one above Liam’s eye with a finger. “Bwop! Now you’ve got a star!”

“Oh. I… thank you,” Liam said, a bit taken aback, but his eye crinkled up in what Dipper decided they could take as a smile. “That’s really kind of–”

“Hey! I want a sticker, too!” Billy protested, and was immediately rewarded with another sticker - one shaped like… a butterfly? - being stuck right below his eye.

“Here you go! And one for Dipper, and one for me!”

Dipper knew better than arguing, and let her put a sticker on his cheek - something that looked like a pine tree - before she put another - a comet? - on her own and grinned down at the triangles. “Now we’re officially friends! Mabel’s law! I’m going to knit you friendship sweaters, too!”

“Ooh! Will the sweaters have color?”

“All the colors of the rainbow!”

The two exchanged a confused glance.

“… What’s a rain-bow?”

Mabel leaned closer, eyes wide and positively shining. “There are so many things we’re gonna show you. Right, Dipper? ‘Cause we’re keeping them, right? They would fit in my dollhouse and everything! Mom never goes near it, not since the frog incident!”

Dipper, who’d been trying with little success to forget all about the frog incident for the past few months, nodded. It wasn’t like they had alternatives, anyway: he had no idea how to send them back in their own world, or even if it was possible. Plus, it really sounded like they wouldn’t want to return to begin with.

“Sure,” he said, pulling out a pen and a bloc notes while hoping they wouldn’t cause offense as the ruler had. “We’ll tell and show you all about this world. So… can you tell me something about yours?”

They could, and they did. Or, at least, Liam did, his voice growing calmer and steadier as he answered question after question and then began asking his own.

Bill seemed a little too busy guzzling down Mabel juice to add much, while Mabel went on explaining all the different ways she would turn her old dollhouse into their perfect home, and knitting the first of many, many pairs of tiny sweaters.

[subukunojess]

Gravity Falls: Omniscience

Okay... hopefully this works. This is my first time posting up my stories here. I know that this AU is probably unlikely, but I had fun writing this. Actually, I originally did this one-shot for a college assignment where we had to write a fanfiction of basically anything we wanted and I took it as an opportunity to write for my GF AU. Hope you guys enjoy this~

           Stanford watched the metallic bus drove down the dusty road back to Piedmont, California as it passed a large sign that read “You are now leaving GRAVITY FALLS”. The bus got smaller and smaller until it disappeared amongst the trees. He sighed, continuing to stare at the evergreen as the wind blew on his body, foretelling the official end of summer.      If someone were to tell Stanford Filbrick Pines that thirty years after his youth he would save the world and reunite with his family, he would’ve scoffed and continued his research. A six-fingered freak becoming a hero? It was absurd!      Truth be told, his brother Stanley was the real hero. Unlike his nerdy twin, Stan still believed in family and he put his own life on the line for it. It helped that he had a mean left hook too.      Still after the regret and torture he was put through a week ago, Ford couldn’t help but wonder that this outcome of events seemed too easy.      “Hey Poindexter!”  A warm hand touched his shoulder, snapping him out of his daze, “You asleep or somethin’?” Ford blinked, his view foggy as he adjusted his glasses, trying to focus on his brother.      “I’m sorry, Stanley.” Ford apologized, “I don’t know what came over me. I guess this feels so unreal, you know? Dipper and Mabel are okay. We’re together-”      “Yeah, I here ya.” Stan nodded, putting an arm around Ford’s shoulders. “I can’t believe it either! But what matters is that it turned out great in the end. Now, let’s go home, swindle some people one last time in this town, and get me out of this sweater until we set off for adventure!”      The researcher smiled softly, “You didn’t change your optimism at all, nor your randomness.” He elbowed his brother with Stan returning it with his own. With that, the rest of the day passed by with the breeze. While Stan was giving his employee-turned-manager some last advise of running the Mystery Shack, Ford decided to take a stroll around the shack. He found himself staring at the massive hole on the ground known as the bottomless pit.      To think that he threw his three journals, the three books that documented the mysteries and tragedies of Gravity Falls and the Pines family, in this pit! He had wanted to destroy the remaining physical mistakes of his past, but Dipper convinced him that they would be more useful if they were found by someone who wanted to dream and explore like he did. Now that he reconciled with his brother and dropped the books into the pit, it felt that Stanford was starting his new life with a blank slate. He still had his suspicions, but that was what brought him trouble to begin with. He needed to forget about it and focus on the present.                                                             ~~~      The following few days, Stanley and Stanford made preparations and travelled west to start their paranormal adventures across the seas. Stan managed to buy a boat waiting for them at the coast. It wasn’t a big yacht or anything fancy, but it wasn’t a sailboat either. The brothers didn’t care. It was sturdy and simple, the dream boat of their lost childhood. They named it the “Stan-o-War 2” and headed out of the harbor towards the Pacific Ocean, hoping to reach an anomaly found at the center of it. During those days, Ford tried to keep up with his brother and went along with everything, but once in a while he had migraines at random moments. He would shrug it off when they disappeared since they weren’t too drastic.      One day after sailing for several days, the boat stopped to rest as Stan went on deck to fish while Ford wrote some notes on a journal. In the middle of his writing, a sharp pain suddenly overcame his brain as if sharp claws were slicing his head piece by piece. He dropped his pen and took hold of his skull with both hands, hearing ringing in his ears. He opened his eyes and was about to call out to his brother, but noticed the water in front of them bubbling rapidly before a massive black tentacle came out of the surface. Ford held his breath before he suddenly ran for the wheel and started the boat quickly, trying to get away. Stan almost fell out of the boat, but he pulled himself back up, losing his fishing pole.      “What’s the big idea? I almost caught something!” The brother exclaimed, disappointed at his lost catch. Stanford ignored him. As he drove on to avoid the tentacles, his perception started to change.      Skies of blue flashed back and forth to blood red. White clouds turned black. Calm waters were now waves of torture crashing against their ship. Ford squinted, trying to get the images out of his mind. The wheel seemed to disappear constantly at his touch.      “Whoa, Ford! Keep your grip on the wheel!” Stan exclaimed, staggering on the bouncing deck. Hearing those words, Ford woke up from his trance for a second, breathing heavily. His right eye started throbbing continuously, causing him to press on it with the palm of his hand.      “There’s nothing to worry about…” He reassured, more to himself than to his brother, “I can control it. I got this!”      “No, you don’t. Give me the wheel!” Stan came from behind, pulled Ford to the side, and firmly held the wheel. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you’re really losing your mind, Sixer!” Ford was about to interject when he suddenly caught on the name.      “… What did you just call me?” He muttered.      “I said Sixer! It’s your name iSN’t iT?” The image of Stanley was replaced by a large yellow triangle floating, staring at Ford with its one eye gleefully. He knew it all too well.      “Bill Cipher… We-We defeated you before! Y-You shouldn’t be here!” Stanford backed away, stuttering. His brother now became concerned. He grabbed Ford by the shoulders and shook him a bit.      “Snap out of it! That stupid triangle’s not here. I should be the one getting headaches, not you! It’s not real, Ford! It’s not REAL!” Ford hyperventilated, Stan and Bill switching places back and forth in his view. His mind was playing tricks on him. He closed his eyes and shook his head, whispering for the thoughts to go away, but they overwhelmed him. All of a sudden, something slimy encircled his waist, making him open his eyes. Two black tentacles had a hold of him. From behind him, a massive Bill Cipher was in the water, roaring, “TIME’S UP!” The tentacles pulled their target, dragging him into the ocean.      “STANLEY, HELP ME!” Ford grabbed his brother’s hand, refusing to let go. The tug-o-war abruptly ended with a simple tug from the tentacles and Ford found himself calling his brother’s name as he was forced into the ocean, red water filling up his lungs.      Then everything turned black.

                                                          ~~~      This was the moment Ford was waiting for. Stanley dropped down to his knees, his eyes closed and his face frozen as if he were sleeping. After the old twins were trapped in a pyramid cage and were forced to watch their grand-niece and nephew run away from the one-eyed beast all over the fear-a-mid, they devised a secret plan. All they had to do was switch clothes, pretend to be the other, let Bill into Stan’s mind, and then Ford would erase his brother’s memories with Bill trapped inside.      Ford was hesitant going through with this plan. What if Cipher caught on early at the ruse? There were many possibilities that this plan could fail. However, it was the only plan they had and Stan insisted on it. Once it started, the brothers could never turn back.      Ignoring the kids, Stanford took off his brother’s red fez from his head and prepared the memory gun. It was now or utter destruction. As Ford dialed the name “STANLEY PINES”, he focused on his brother. If he went through with this, Stanley won’t remember anything about his life again. As he stared at the grey hair, the square glasses, the shaven chair, it was like looking at a reflection. He was shooting himself.      Ford aimed, his arms trembling as he closed his eyes, turned his head to the side, and pulled the trigger, a light blue laser blasting on Stan’s forehead. What he didn’t notice was Stan’s eyes suddenly open at that moment, glowing a cat-like yellow. The next few seconds moved on like minutes. Ford was pounced upon by his brother, his weight pinning him down as his wrist was grabbed by cold hands, causing him to drop the gun.      “Nice try, Six-Fingers!” Stan laughed, his voice hoarse and crackling with fire as it was joined with a loud, high-pitched voice. “You gotta do better than that to bring me down!”      “You’re supposed to be trapped in there, Cipher! Let my brother go!” Ford struggled to get free, only to wince as his possessed brother applied pressure, almost crushing his bones.      “Bill!” Dipper and Mabel exclaimed in terror, which quickly changed to anger, “Leave our Grunkles alone!” The two charged at the demon in hopes of ramming him down. Bill scowled and used one of his hands to snap his fingers. The children immediately dropped to the floor and iron bars burst from the ground, entrapping the twins in a cage.      “Kids!” Ford screamed, forcing his arm to stretch out towards the cage. Bill noticed and elbowed the arm hard when his arm raised up and punched his own face all of a sudden, freeing Stanford.      Ford dragged himself backwards, glancing up. For a moment, Stan’s eyes turned back to their normal brown as he cried out with his familiar voice, “Forget about me! Just stick with the plan!”      The brother frowned and focused on getting the memory gun, crawling towards it as Stan punched himself repeatedly, fighting Bill for control. Both sixty-year-old men fought on. After what seemed to be an hour, Ford managed to reach the gun. He grabbed it and sat up straight, aiming it again at Stan when he froze at the sight before him.      Stanley’s eyes pieced with golden ferocity, snarling with a switch-blade army knife against his neck. His face was covered in bruises. He roared, “Don’t get any ideas!”      “You wouldn’t dare…” Ford narrowed his eyes, thinking it was a sorry excuse for a bluff.      “Oh, I WOULD dare! Make any more moves and my hand will slip! If I’m going down, you’re all going down harder!” To prove it, Bill slightly pressed the shining metal on the neck, a cut forming and revealing blood.      “Stop!” Ford barely choked, having seen enough. Tears weld up in his eyes, “I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll do anything! Just please… please don’t hurt my family! They’re all I have left!”      Bill was silent, staring at Ford in disbelief. Seeing him genuinely cry and beg for mercy, the demon smirked. “That’s better. You know what I want. We both drop our weapons and you give it to me.” The mortal obliged. Slowly the two dropped the gun and the knife, staring each other down. Ford stood up tall and took a deep breath, taking it all in before he told Bill the equation...                                                        ~~~      Ford woke up with a forceful gasp, his head resting on top of his arms. He panted heavily as waves of orange and brown filled his vision. Was it one of those long nightmares that lasted for eternity? He expected that would be the case, that his brother would come into his room and greet him casually like it was a normal day.      “About time you woke up from that dream! I was beginning to worry about you!” A voice laughed mockingly. It was too good to be true. Ford’s eyes widened, having remembered seeing the same orange and brown colors in textbooks and telescopes. He was staring right at Saturn as he rested on its rings. He let out a cry and stood up… well, floated up, looking at himself. Instead of the brown coat and red sweater he always wore, he had a long black overcoat, a yellow sweater, brown pants, and fancy black shoes on his body.      Sitting on Saturn was Bill, now a planet-sized triangle floating above it. He continued, “Here, I tried to wake you up from your dreams and you wouldn’t budge, so I just came back from eating Pluto!” Seeing the look of disbelief Ford gave him, he added, “Relax, no one would notice! Pluto wasn’t a planet anyway!”      Hearing that, it was all coming back to him. The plan failed horribly with Bill about to end his brother’s life. Seeing the only person who truly cared about him about to die, Ford couldn’t take it. He gave in and helped Bill take down the weirdness force field. In moments, Bill and his gang of unusual freaks he called friends grew into the overlords of the universe, bringing chaos to the surrounding galaxies. However, the triangle didn’t forget his promise to Ford. He made him an immortal being as well, giving him abilities one would dream about and taking away his human limitations. Under specific conditions, North America was spared the insanity and wrath, letting the remaining Pines family believe that they won. When they were awake, Ford would be there, pretending to be there as if nothing happened. It was illusions and nothing more.      As Ford became silent, Bill talked about how he broke some universal laws and how he played dodgeball in a meteor shower with his friends. The new immortal didn’t pay attention, but did make out one sentence or two, “And don’t worry about my guys. I sent them off to claim galaxies of their own. The milky way only belongs to you and me, the head rulers of the universe!”      Ford wanted to punch Bill right in the eye, his hands tightening into fists. Acting so smugly as if everything was all fine and dandy. Always interrupting his time with his family in order to wake up into reality! However, he couldn’t do a thing. If he rebelled, it was back to the Pines family being dead at Stanford’s feet. After a while, he spoke up softly. “Bill, I want to see him again…”      “What? But you just did that now!”      “… I want to see him when I’m awake.”      Bill just shrugged and rolled his eye. “Fine! Just this once… besides, I want another go at our new form!” With that, Cipher closed his eye and glowed yellow, merging his body with Ford’s. Stanford gagged and moaned, feeling his forehead and right eye burn as blue fire came out of his body and went to his neck and wrists, becoming glowing blue chains and shackles. He opened his eyes with his right eye yellow with slanted pupils. Now fused and ready, he made his way to his old planet. As he got closer to Earth, he could hear the agonizing screams of humans in his mind getting louder, but for today, they don’t matter. He needed to see Stan. He stopped in front of Earth, towering over it as he gazed upon it. The Earth now had red oceans instead of blue. Except for North America, all of the other continents were broken and scrambled all over the place. Moving towards the back, Ford searched the Pacific Ocean until he found the small boat, zooming in on it. It was on stand-still, bobbing up and down the calm, crimson water.      Stanley’s body was sprawled on the deck, unconscious but breathing slowly. He was alright. His brother was alright. In awe, Ford slowly reached for his brother with his enlarged hand. Before his six fingers could break the atmosphere, a sudden force slapped his hand away. His brother appeared before him as a young child, glaring at him.      “You promised, Ford!” Stan growled, tears in his eyes, “You promised me we would always stay together! How could you?!”      That did it. Tears of blood streamed down his cheeks steadily before the giant let go of Earth and flew to Mars. He wailed at the top of his lungs as he pounded his fists on the red planet, dust flying everywhere. He found himself crying and laughing with Bill at the same time. He lost everything; his normal life, his family, his brother. For all eternity, he was forever bound by Cipher, cursed with omniscience.

[spookysummersmores]

Mind Heist - Chapter 1

Word count: 1,677

Author's note: Hello there! So...here's the official first chapter! A huge thanks to everyone that has liked and reblogged the prologue so far; it means a heck of a lot, to me and Kaylee both! :'D

Fun fact! I'm actually sick right now, as I'm sitting here editing this! I've had a cold for almost a week now. So...fun! ;w;

Hope you all enjoy! And brace yourselves, folks...the next chapter is where the REAL crap begins to go down...

The next morning, Mabel was greeted by soft summer sunshine and the twittering of birds...and then a few kisses from Waddles.

Mabel woke up giggling and smiled to see her piggy friend. "Good morning, Waddles." She booped his nose with her nose. "Good morning, Dipper!"

She turned to look at his side of the room, but Dipper was still curled up in a little ball under his blankets, sound asleep.

"Aww." Mabel smiled and decided to let him get the rest he needed.

She took her clothes and tiptoed down to the second-floor bathroom. Soon, she was downstairs and having breakfast with Grunkle Stan. He was quick to ask where Dipper was, but Mabel explained to him that he needed extra sleep, and Stan agreed to let him come to work late. Several hours later, however, Stan had already been giving tours for quite some time, and Dipper was still nowhere to be found.

It was then that Mabel decided to check up on him, just in case. She went up into the attic and peeked at his bed.

The door squeaked a little as it opened. Dipper, who was just starting to wake up, groaned softly and turned over. Mabel noticed that he seemed to shiver, just a little bit, as he curled himself into a tighter ball.

"M-Mabel?" he said quietly, picking his head up a little. "What...time is it?" When he spoke, his voice didn't sound quite right, and suddenly, a muffled sneeze came up from underneath the covers.

"It's still early, don't worry." Mabel quickly walked over to his side. "Are you feeling okay? You don't look so good..." She reached out to touch his forehead...and her eyes widened. "Dipper, you're burning up!"

Dipper sneezed again and slowly sat up, holding his head. His face was pale and flushed, and his cheeks and nose bright red. "Ugh...yeah, I-I don't feel so hot..." He soon started coughing, and he sounded terrible. He shakily began to climb out of bed, but Mabel stopped him.

"Uh, NO...hot is EXACTLY how you feel! You gotta stay in bed," Mabel cried, the concern evident in her voice. "Maybe this is 'cause you haven't had much sleep recently..." She frowned at the thought. "I'll go tell Grunkle Stan so he can get you some medicine."

Dipper tried to object, but dizziness overcame him. "Okay..." He cleared his throat and wrapped his blanket back around himself as Mabel headed off to find their Grunkle.

Downstairs, Stan was in the main exhibit room of the Mystery Shack, giving a tour to some Canadian tourists who were taking a bus tour through the Pacific Northwest. "Be prepared for the SHOCK of your life...literally, shock. I'd keep the weird cordless phones at a safe distance. Behold-"

Suddenly, he felt a small hand tugging on his suit jacket and paused his speech. When he looked down, there was little Mabel. "Hold on a sec, folks. I'm gettin' a message from one of my little elves here." The tourists giggled at that.

Stan took Mabel aside and bent down to her level. "Sweetie, what're you doin'? What's up?"

"Grunkle Stan, Dipper just woke up but he looks a little under the weather," Mabel replied. "I thought you might have some medicine to help him feel better."

"Under the weather?" Stan didn't let it show, but he became a little concerned himself. "How serious are we talkin'?"

"He looks pretty bad. I think he might have a fever." Mabel looked a bit sad as she said it.

Stan patted her shoulder. "Okay. Calm down, honey; I'm comin'. Just give me a minute..." he said gently. He cracked open the gift-shop door, where Soos was in the process of changing lightbulbs. "Soos! Dipper's sick, so you're gettin' your wish. I need ya to take care of these tourists. And don't be afraid to extort as much cash out of 'em as possible! The economy's better in Canada!"

"Aww, poor little dude." Soos straightened his hat with a determined look on his face. "I shall not fail you, Mr. Pines."

Stan came back into the exhibit room and laughed nervously. "Sorry about the interruption, folks; looks like I'm gonna have to cut this short and head off for parts unknown." The tourists were quick to "aww" in disappointment. "Ah, ah - have no fear, dear tourists. No more than usual anyway. I'm leavin' ya in the capable - HOPEFULLY, capable - hands of my handyman/henchman, Soos. Have a spooky daaaay..." he said dramatically as he walked away. Then, he turned to Mabel, completely serious. "Alright. Take me to 'im."

Without hesitation, Mabel took his hand and led him upstairs.

Dipper picked his head up at the sound of Mabel walking in with Stan and tried to act like he wasn't that sick. "Hi, Grunkle Stan..." he said hoarsely before sneezing again.

Stan walked over and put his own hand on Dipper's head. "...Oh boy." He was really worried then, but refused to show that, internally, he was freaking out somewhat. "Stay. There. I'll be right back."

Mabel tried to give him a reassuring smile. "It's okay, Dipper. I'm sure you'll get better in no time...with Dr. Mabel and Nurse Waddles!" Waddles then walked over and sat nearby the twins with a small oink.

Dipper managed to smile a little. "Thanks, sis," he said quietly, sniffling. Mabel grinned back, feeling glad she could lighten up the mood.

The twins heard Stan grumbling down on the second floor. "I do not believe this; of ALL the times..." He came back upstairs shortly, this time with a thermometer. "Well...I got nothin'. I normally do all of my stockpilin' before Halloween, so the Shack's wiped out. I'm gonna have to make a medicine run, but before I go anywhere..."  He stuck the thermometer in Dipper's mouth. "I gotta know what I'm dealin' with here, kiddo. Don't move."

Dipper mumbled what was probably an 'OK'.

Stan then turned to Mabel. "Hate t'ask you this, but I need Soos and Wendy t'manage the Shack by themselves while I'm gone - Lord help us." He rolled his eyes at the thought of it. "Y'think you can keep an eye on your brother while I'm not here?"

"You got it, Grunkle Stan." Mabel gave him a thumbs up.

"Thank you," Stan said...and then acted as if it had been painful for him to say it.

Suddenly, the thermometer beeped. Dipper mumbled something when it beeped, but nobody could tell exactly what it was that he said.

Stan took it back...and winced a bit when he saw what it said. 100.4. "Well...you're not dyin', but you're certainly not leavin' that bed, either."

"Fair enough," Dipper replied, coughing.

Stan patted Dipper on the shoulder. "Alright. Wendy should be comin' in for her shift any minute, so I gotta give orders." He was about to leave...but he peeked back in for a second. "You kids gonna be alright here by yourselves?"

"Don't worry about it. Me and Waddles got it covered." Mabel put an arm around Waddles and smiled.

Stan couldn't help but smile a bit, too. "Alrighty. Hang in there, kid," he said to Dipper. "See you kids later." And with that, he headed out to his car.

"Bye, Grunkle Stan," Dipper called after him. He quickly realized that that was a mistake, though, when his throat began to burn. "Ow."

Mabel frowned and put a hand on Dipper's shoulder. "Take it easy, okay?"

Dipper nodded. "Mhm..." He suddenly grabbed the box of tissues he kept next to his bed and sneezed into one. "Okay...THIS...is seriously the WORST. Who the heck gets this sick in the middle of the summer?"

"It DOES seem a little weird...but all we can do now is help you get better." Mabel tucked him in and fixed his pillow. "Do you need anything?"

"Um...just a drink, if you don't mind," Dipper replied.

Mabel nodded. "Sure thing!"

She could hear Dipper cough a bit as he snuggled back down into his blankets. As she headed downstairs, she found herself deep in thought. Something felt...off to her. At first, she thought that she was just concerned that Dipper had become so ill so quickly, and in the middle of July, yet. While she was definitely worried about him, that wasn't it. She shrugged it off, for she wanted to remain focused on getting her brother well again...but for a moment, she wondered whether or not something about the whole situation just felt...unnatural.

[wendip-week]

What If: Quicksand

It had been roughly seven years since that fateful summer in Gravity Falls when the second-generation of the appropriately-named Mystery Twins visited the town for the first time. For the next couple of summers, Dipper and Mabel Pines would visit their true-home at their Grunkle Stan’s infamous Mystery Shack and have plenty of grand and minor adventures.

A few years after the events of Bill Cipher being annihilated, Dipper and Mabel would come to an arrangement with their parents, allowing them to live and continue their education in Gravity Falls (an arrangement the two had kind of wished they had thought of on their first summer). They could live with the people and weird-elements that really helped them to thrive. After graduating high-school, the extended-family would continue their fun, dangerous adventures while pursuing their futures. Mabel would become a growing social-media personality. Dipper would finally begin his full-time apprenticeship under his great-uncle Ford. But before that, he’d make another endeavor, arguably harder than his pursuit of paranormal-science: Dipper would ask out his best friend and long-time crush, Wendy.

Yes, she shot him down when he was twelve, making it clear she wanted a platonic-relationship. However, over the years, things began to change. Puberty had been good to Dipper, making him much taller and far less scrawny than he had been. At the age of sixteen, having grown closer to the girl he never completely got over, he finally found the confidence to officially ask her on a real date. That time, she agreed. They’d been an item since.

Now, Dipper and Mabel were nineteen, Wendy was twenty-two, Soos was twenty-nine, and the Stans were old (they refused to give an exact-age at this point). Mabel was an online-college student and making a few bucks online, as well, while Dipper was in the middle of his studies. Wendy was enjoying being out of college, having gotten an Associate’s Degree in General Studies, and free to offer her assistance to the Pines-family whenever adventure called (or anything fun in general).

Currently, the family was doing a little of both. After the events of Weirdmageddon, Stan and Ford took to traveling across the globe and investigating paranormal mysteries outside of the valley surrounding Gravity Falls. If at all possible, they liked to travel by sea, like they’d planned on since they were young. Besides their investigations, it also presented opportunities to look for lost treasure or check out sea-babes (though they were cautious to avoid Sirens…).

Through some contacts of theirs, Stan and Ford had found out of a small, unmarked pocket of weirdness out somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. While they typically took a couple months of planning, this seemed doable without such extra preparations, especially since they had quite a few extra hands who were more than willing to come along. Of course, some only volunteered after they found out a certain arrangement had been made.

One enemy-turned-ally of the Mystery Crew (and a member of the failed Zodiac) was Pacifica Northwest, rich heiress of the semi-disgraced Northwest-family. After graduating high-school, she was immediately called to help her family restore their currently-meager fortune. Inexperienced though she was, she was still a Northwest, so she had some innate-talent for finding lucrative business-opportunities. In this case, she found out about this little trip from her ex-boyfriend, Dipper Pines, with whom she was still on good terms. Knowing that there was a small island in that area that was going to be explored, Pacifica saw an opportunity.

Her family had been forced to liquidate a number of assets (property, business-shares, etc.) to still live in relative-comfort, invest in the future, and not have to get day-jobs like most of their neighbors. One particular asset was that island that they had originally used as both a summer-home and a potential-means of business (if there was any oil or valuable-minerals). Unfortunately, they had not been able to sell or rent it for some odd reason. Most interested parties never even really got back to them after going to check it out. However, seeing as though she had connections in the form of paranormal-scientists and investigators, she might be able to turn this around.

That’s why the Mystery Crew were currently on an island. Pacifica offered to let them use it as a base-of-operations in exchange for a quick sweep of the area, just to check if there was anything wrong with it. Of course, there was other uses for it. It did, after all, have a beach and a well-furnished house (with plenty of natural power-sources for electric-appliances) not far from it. It would be an opportunity for a mini-vacation for both sets of twins, Wendy, and even Soos, who left the Mystery Shack in the capable-hands of his Abuelita.

  //

  Back at in Gravity Falls, the Mystery Shack was currently open, and boy, was business booming! Melody and her grandmother-in-law were at the register, making sales left-and-right while trying to keep the seemingly endless crowd of customers in order.

“Wow, Abuelita!” Melody stated, handing a customer the Shack’s newest piece of merchandise. “Who would have guessed tourists were such fans of your hand-made doilies?”

“Is gift of mine,” Abuelita replied. “Tomorrow, we sell pot-holders.”

  //

  For Dipper, however, this presented another opportunity…

Now, here they all were, relaxing on a small beach far from human-civilation. Soos was building a sandcastle, or rather, a sand-replica of the Mystery Shack. Stan and Ford were making plans near their anchored boat. Mabel and Wendy were hitting a beach ball back-and-forth in the water (and staying withing reasonable distance, as there was no lifeguards). And Dipper was recording their fun on his phone.

Well, he was mostly video-recording Wendy’s fun. He had always been crazy about her. How could he resist when she was clad in a bikini? After watching her splash a bit, the nerd decided he should probably make it look like he was interested in other things going on (which wasn’t entirely untrue). He came over to Stan and Ford, sporting tropical shirts and sun hats.

“Hey, guys,” Dipper said, pointing the camera to face his great-uncles. “So how are things looking?”

“Great!” Stan replied with a grin. “According to Pointdexter, the source of weirdness might actually be sunken treasure, after all. We’re gonna be rich!”

“Perhaps, Stanley. But bear in mind that we might not yet have the resources to retrieve such an item (if it is, in fact, treasure). It could require a submarine, of all things. And there’s the possibility of it being cursed. However, we can for sure locate it. And depending on the circumstances, even if we can’t clear out the weirdness here right now, we can still establish a safe travel-route for sailors everywhere.”

Stan groaned. “I’m just gonna say that it’s treasure,” he muttered.

After a bit of back-and-forth, Dipper decided he wanted to check out more of his girlfriend, who was laying back on an innertube, floating around with a pair of sunglasses (and an extra coat of sunscreen, considering she was a pale-redhead and a bit easier to burn). Dipper stood back at a reasonable distance, watching and recording. He was so fixated that he didn’t notice a body just beneath the surface of the water approach and slowly rise out of the water.

Before he could sense another presence, the young adventurer suddenly found himself splashed hard from behind. He turned and shouted in surprise: “MABEL!”

His excitable twin gasped in faux-shock. “My goodness! Do my ears deceive me? Does my doofus-brother realize there’s other people on the island besides him and his not-subtle crush?” she asked with a smirk.

“Mabel, you made me drop my phone!” Dipper said in irritation. He looked around for a second before finally finding it in the water. He groaned, before turning back to Mabel, eyes rather cross. “And she’s my girlfriend. I don’t have to be subtle!” As he said this, he subtly patted the pocket on his trunks, making sure a certain object was still there.

“Yeah, Mabes,” Wendy said, as she approached, now out of her tube. “He doesn’t have to insert how much he loves me under his breath in our conversations. Now he can just say it in his normal voice.” Dipper blushed. “Hey, is your phone okay?”

Dipper looked at his wet phone. “I… think it still works? Oh, better turn off that recording!”

Wendy whistled. “You’re lucky, dude. I so hate waiting for my phones to dry in rice! It takes forever and there’s no guarantee it solves the problem.”

Dipper nodded. “True.”

“Hey, I’m kind of thirsty. Let’s go back to the house. I think we forgot the cooler,” Wendy told her boyfriend.

“Sounds good.” The young-adult couple, leaving Mabel behind. “Hey, I’m still here, you know!”

“Leave them be, Hambone,” Soos said, walking over to Mabel. “Let them enjoy this while they can. One day, they’ll probably be married. And after the honeymoon, it’s work-work-work.”

“… You say this from experience, don’t you?” Mabel asked.

“Yes, I do,” Soos told her. “And it’s totally worth it.”

Mabel just blew a raspberry. “Oh, Soos! That doesn’t make any sense.”

  //

  Sure enough, Dipper and Wendy found the large cooler on the porch. After lugging it to the beach, the two cracked open a couple of cold Pitt Colas.

“Mmm… I pity the rest of the world. They don’t have access to this kind of soda,” Wendy said with a burp. “Excuse me.”

“Tell me about it,” Dipper agreed. “Of course, the occasional pit inside the can might be a bit of a turn-off for some people.”

The tall redheaded adult shrugged. “Whatever. So, what do you wanna do now?” she asked after finishing her soda.

Dipper smiled. This was his chance. “Want to go on a walk along the beach; just the two of us?”

“That sounds awesome, dude. Let’s just dump our trash first.”

The young couple dropped their now-empty cans into the trash bag the family brought along, and let Stan and Ford know what they were doing.

“Okay, but be careful,” Ford told them. “We haven’t scanned for potential threats like Ms. Northwest requested. Don’t go out too far.”

Wendy nodded. “You got it, Professor Pines. We’ll keep our eyes peeled. Come on, man,” she said, leading Dipper away.

Stan chuckled. “Ah, to be young and in love, then cheated out of your winnings… Think we still got a chance in such a game, Sixer?”

Ford looked at his brother. “I’d say our chances are very slim, Stanley (at least in this dimension). Even more unlikely is the possibility of kids. On the other hand, I don’t think that’s ever stopped you before…”

“Darn right, it hasn’t!”

  //

  Dipper and Wendy walked slowly along the beach’s shoreline, just enjoying the scenery around them, as well as each other’s company.

Wendy sighed. “I tell you, between twelve and fifteen, I would never have seen myself somewhere like this, at best, maybe a dirty, local beach. And between fifteen to eighteen, I could only see myself getting somewhere this nice by running away from home and hopping cars and trains for a while. I love how life surprises us…”

“I know,” Dipper replied, putting his arm around her. “I always imagined myself as an adventurer, but before Gravity Falls, I thought that would just stay a fun daydream. Now here I am, on a mysterious island with my family and the coolest, most-beautiful girl I have ever seen.”

“Oh, dude!” Wendy made a face. “That’s so mushy!”

“Sorry…”

“I didn’t say stop, though,” she said, grinning.

Dipper returned that expression, albeit blushing as he did so. After a moment he got bashful and looked forward. “Man, that is such a beautiful sunset, isn’t it?” he said, trying to change the subject.

“Hold it. Are you going to go with the ‘not as beautiful as you’ line? Okay, as much as I love cheesy romantic-talk in an ironic way, please don’t say that, of all things.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Dipper replied. “Even though it’s true. I was going to say that it reminds me of the moment I first really realized I was crushing on you. It was on the Mystery Shack roof.”

“That sounds about right, dude,” Wendy said thoughtfully. “Points for that line.” Wendy looked at the horizon, with the sun’s reflection across the water, the clouds and light across the sky making resemble an abstract canvas of orange and purple. “It is beautiful, though.” Wendy laid her head on her dork’s shoulder, admiring the view.

“We shouldn’t waste this opportunity,” Dipper said after a few minutes.

“Oh? What did you have in mind?” Wendy responded.

Dipper smiled. “Let’s get some selfies. We want to remember this moment, don’t we?”

“Yeah, let’s do it. And if Tambry reposts it online, practically half-the-world can see us and be totally jealous.”

Dipper pulled his phone back out and turned on the camera. He and Wendy got into position and Dipper started snapping away as they made various poses ranging from classic romance to fun summer-cruise themed ones.

They had just gotten into snuggle position and were about to take another pic when they felt the sand under their feet shift.

Dipper looked down, finding his feet had sunk beneath the sand. “What the-”

The couple let out a yelp as they suddenly began to sink rapidly beneath the sand. They were now up to their knees. It was so quick that Dipper lost his balance and dropped his phone. He was about to fall over into the sinking sand, too. Fortunately, Wendy was there.

“I’ve got you!” she shouted, holding his arm. “What is this? Quicksand?”

“I don’t know! The ground was relatively steady a second ago! I don’t think we moved too much while taking pictures!” he replied, rather worried.

“Dude, can you move your legs?” Wendy asked.

“No, I’m stuck!” He said, wiggling about. “What about you?”

“No good!” she told him. They were now nearly at their waists. “Wait! What if I-?” Wendy reached out (holding onto Dipper to avoid falling and going under), trying grab a stable patch of sand. Everywhere she reached, her hand just sank. “Drat! Dipper, you try!”

The young academic tried what his girlfriend did. He got about the same result. “This isn’t working. I don’t get it! What’s going on here?!”

“I’m what’s going on here!” a deep voice said out of nowhere.

Dipper and Wendy turned and discovered a humanoid-figure rising out of the sand… and was made out of sand, apparently.

“Who the heck are you?” Wendy asked the newcomer.

“Who am I? Why, I’m the Sandman! What else would I be called?”

“The guy who comes when people try to sleep?” Dipper asked.

The two of them, now up to their stomachs in sand, suddenly stopped sinking.

“No! (Why does everyone guess that)? I’m not that Sandman!”

“Oh, so you’re the bad guy from that movie with the Spider-guy, right?” Wendy asked.

“I remember that,” Dipper interjected. “It was like one of our B-movies, but with half-decent effects.”

“I know, right?”

“Yeah. Come to think of it, I wish there’d be a movie or show with the guy with the gas mask. He was a cool hero,” Dipper thought out loud.

“Huh?” Wendy replied. “What’s that got to do with sand?”

“I’m not either of those guys!” the so-called Sandman shouted. “I hide in the sand, waiting for creatures to come to my island. Then I slowly drag them under and feed on them slowly over the course of a thousand years! Of course, I don’t know that it’s a thousand years, but that sounds pretty ominous.”

“So, it’s like that monster from that movie?” Dipper asked.

“The one with the blind worms, dude? As far as PG-13 horror-flicks go, I kind of hate that series.”

“No-no! The scif-fi one. Remember? The third one from the original trilogy?”

“Eh, kind of…?”

“Hey, I’m talking here!” that monster yelled, grabbing their attention again. “Look, bottom-line: I’m the Sandman! I’m gonna suck you into the sand, and I’m gonna eat you slowly! Now, let’s get it over with before you start rambling again.”

Before Dipper and Wendy could respond, they found themselves sinking much faster than before.

“AAAAHHHH!!!” they shouted.

“BLEHEHEHEHEAUGH!!!” the Sandman cackled.

The young man and woman were now at their necks, looking utterly terrified. Dipper turned to look at the love of his life. It was now or never. “Wendy, I was planning on asking you this after we finished taking pictures, but if we happen to survive somehow… WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

“Yes! Dude, yes! I will… if we don’t get eaten, anyway!” Tears were in the girls’ eyes. They were happy tears, mostly.

“Wendy! I love-” Dipper didn’t get to finish his sentence, as they had finally gone under…

“Well, that was fun,” the Sandman said. “Time to sample the fresh stuff.”

      He didn’t get a chance to do so. A concentrated blast of energy suddenly hit the Sandman square in the chest, leaving a gaping hole in his chest.

“Augh!” the Sandman cried out. “Was that from a gun? Those aren’t supposed to hurt me-AUGH!” Another blast hit, taking most of his sandy-shoulder. “Where is that coming fro-?” This time, a heavy-volley of laser-blast hit the Sandman in rapid-succession, reducing him to a pile of sand before he could think of way to escape.

In the distance, an angry Stan and Ford were holding smoking proton-rifles and pistols, waiting for the Sandman to move again. When they saw no sign, Stan shouted back behind himself: “NOW! HURRY!”

Mabel raced past them, holding a shovel tied to a rope. Soos wasn’t far behind. He was holding the majority of said rope. When she got close enough, she threw the shovel into the loose sand where Dipper and Wendy just were. It sank in fairly quickly as Soos approached.

Not long after, he felt a strong tug on the rope and began pulling it back up. After a few hand-over-hands, the shovel came back up. Attached to it was a very dirty Dipper, who was desperately trying to suck in air. A moment later, it was revealed that in his other hand was his redheaded beloved. With one more tug, Soos pulled the gasping and coughing couple from out of the sand-pit.

The two were laid flat on their backs as Stan and Ford approached. Mabel hugged the two of them. “You guys are alive!”

“Yeah… Thanks to you all,” Dipper said between coughs.

“Got that… right,” Wendy added. “How’d you… find us?”

“Didn’t you guys know you were live-streaming?” Mabel asked them.

“Wait, what?” Dipper asked.

“Soos was looking at hilarious cat-videos when he saw you guys post.”

Soos nodded. “Good thing I wasn’t looking at one of the better ones.”

Stan chuckled. “We saw you lovebirds making all kinds of weird poses before you dropped your phone.”

“EEEE!” Mabel squealed. “I’m gonna have a sister soon!”

“And then we saw what might have been the reason nobody ever comes to this island come after you,” Ford added. “Kind of a shame we had to destroy it (or him?); I would have liked to have studied such a creature. I’m just glad my assumption about these guns against it was accurate.”

“Nah. I’m glad he’s gone-for-good. I mean, he was eating people,” Stan replied to his twin.

“Ergh…” Some of the sand started coming together, reforming parts of what vaguely resembled a human.

“AH!” Stan shouted, shooting his laser-pistol in response. The Sandman disintegrated again, and this time, he didn’t reform.

“Uh, back on topic…” Dipper started. “…Since when are we live-streaming?”

Soos brought Dipper his phone. “You still are, dawg,” he said in response.

“Seriously?” Dipper pressed a couple of buttons on his touch screen, only to get no response. “What’s going on?”

“Let me see,” Wendy took Dipper’s phone and tried to fiddle with it. “Oh… Here’s the problem: there’s water behind the screen. It must have actually been messed up after Mabel splashed you earlier.”

Dipper thought for a moment. “… So, when I tried to press the camera-app, it must not have registered right.”

Wendy shrugged. “Could be.”

Ford looked thoughtful for a moment. “Say, Stanley. Didn’t the Sandman say on the video that he devours living people over the course of a thousand years? I think the Northwests have had people on this island over the last half-decade or so. You know what that means?”

Stan groaned. “We have more work to do than a routine-sweep? That’s just great…”

  //

  Back at the beach-house, Dipper and Wendy were cleaned and patched up; now sitting together on the porch.

“Some day, huh?” Wendy asked.

“Tell me about it. It was not how I was hoping the afternoon would go,” Dipper said, shaking his head. “Still up for marrying me? I know it was kind of sudden, but…”

“Dude, I said yes twice. I think I’m sure,” Wendy replied with a smirk.

“Well, in that case…” Dipper reached into his pocket and produced a ring with a large diamond. Bordering the diamond was some kind of stone that resembled flannel.

“Wow… Dip! It’s beautiful! Where did you get this?” Wendy exclaimed.

“The, uh, diamond was from some time-travel adventure Mabel and I had with Blendin. Suffice to say, we’re secretly kind of rich… Oh, and the ring was actually crafted by some goblins that sort of owed me a favor.”

“Well, I love it. And not just because it’s unique.”

“I was hoping you would.”

“By the way, that reminds me…” Wendy punched Dipper on the shoulder.

“Ow! What was that for?” Dipper asked, rubbing his shoulder.

“For choosing a life-or-death situation to propose. I’d prefer a fancy restaurant, personally. It was also for proposing to me on your ex-girlfriend’s island, dude. Did you ever check to see who all saw that live-recording?”

“I… didn’t. Oh, boy…” Dipper rubbed his temple, realizing the worst-case-scenario.

“Ah, cheer up. You still got a fiancé, don’t you? Now, do me a favor and put that ring on my finger.”

“With pleasure.” Dipper took Wendy’s hand and slid it down her ring finger. He looked up, only to get a mouthful of his beautiful bride-to-be’s own mouth.

They stayed like that for a while.