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"Mabel, you can't be serious," Stanford crossed his arms.
"He finally wants to help us, grunkle!"
"Yes, but how exactly? He wants to just talk Bill out of it? Do you realize how stupid that plan sounds?!" Ford raised his voice and Mabel frowned. "Cipher is a heartless demon, Mabel, he won't change his plan on destroying this planet just because we said please."
"I know," Mabel said. "That is why we won't be the ones asking him not to, Alcor will. I know you think Bill doesn't care about him, but I don't think so."
Mabel now stood face to face with Ford, holding eye contact. The room filled with silence as the two stubborn Pines stared at each other, waiting for the other to back down.
"Ford," Stanley placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "It is the only hope we have. The kid won't go against Bill, even if it might cost him his life, but he would like to stop him, which isn't less than what we need."
Letting out a sigh, Ford pinched the bridge of his nose in defeat and Mabel grinned from ear to ear.
"Fine, so what exactly do you want? To let him out?" the last part was a sarcastic remark, not really a suggestion put out on the table, but Mabel nodded eagerly anyway.
"How do you want him to cooperate while being treated like a prisoner?" she had a point, and Ford had never been a person to not take other people's arguments seriously, even when they sounded ridiculous to him.
With a face full of doubt and hesitation, he agreed.
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That was how Alcor ended up roaming the earth beneath his feet as a free man once again. Well, not exactly free as Ford would follow his every step and he wasn't allowed to leave the Shack as well as that he had to wear special bracelets on his wrists that would shock him whenever he used his magic.
Only a few days had passed since Mabel had bailed him out of that basement, and Alcor couldn't decide if it had been for the better or for the worst. He felt more on leash than he had felt in a literal cage! His every step was carefully watched and observed, every sound he made was immediately detected and listened to with alert.
He was walking on eggshells, his every move being able to be noted and listed as reasons why he shouldn't be given freedom.
"The cage in the basement sounds better at this point," Alcor stared out one of the windows, his hand cupping the side of his face.
The feeling of comfort and safety that the woods gave him was like no other, and he felt like a bird in a tight cage, hurting his wings.
"Believe me, I would rather have you down there as well," Ford didn't look up from his newspaper.
The silence between them was something that would take place daily, yet still uncomfortable.
Both of them not bothering to bring any light or warmth into the atmosphere, but instead filling it up with frost and ice, ice that they constantly walked on, unaware of when it could break beneath their feet and break all hell loose.
The room was cold, in all the wrong ways.
Until suddenly through the door stepped a ray of sunshine, almost blinding Alcor. Even Mabel started to feel a bit incongruous with her warm presence in this arctic landscape.
"Did I just walk in on something?" her question hung in the void of silence between Ford and Alcor. "Ugh, what is up with both of you?! You obviously don't like each other, why are you always together?!"
"Someone has got to make sure Alcor doesn't escape," Ford's voice was as monotone as one could get, it pissed Alcor off.
"You think the worst think I could do is just escape? If you are going to treat me like a criminal, at least be more creative and give me a little more credit. Say that I would go mad and start murdering orphans or something."
"Dipper!" Mabel snapped.
"What?" Alcor's voice was mockingly innocent to which she responded by rolling her eyes.
"I swear, both of you are so childish-" suddenly a ringtone interrupted Mabel, and she reached for her back pocket. With rushed steps, she walked out of the room, her warmth disappearing with her as fast as it came.
"Who was calling?" Ford raised an eyebrow and Alcor just shrugged. "She seemed onedge."
"I guess," Alcor shrugged and turned his attention back to the window. Bill was sure taking his time.
The only sound that could be heard was the ticking of the clock on the wall and after around twenty minutes, Alcor started to wonder who Mabel was on the phone with.
The walls in the shack were thin, and mumbling could be heard from the other room. Not loud enough for Alcor to tell what exactly Mabel was saying, but also not quiet enough for it not to be obvious that the call was not bringing good news.
A few minutes passed and the door was opened again and Alcor could almost not recognize his own sister. Mabel had a tormented look on her face, clutching the phone in one hand while the other curled in a fist.
She almost could not bring herself to look up when she spoke. "Grunkle, can we... can we talk in the other room?"
Alcor looked frantically from Mabel to Ford, trying to get any hint on what was happening. Ford put his newspaper down and frowned. "Alcor can't be left unsupervised-"
"Stanford," Mabel looked up at her great uncle with lightning in her eyes, ready to strike if he were to say or do the wrong thing.
With a barely audible gulp, Ford stood up from his seat and walked to the other room, leaving Alcor alone.
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Alcor POV
I was actually alone for once, which would normally be something I would be grateful for if that hadn't just happened.
I guess I shouldn't be too nosy, it might be some family issues, I shrugged and sighed. All I do is sleep, eat, and like walk around the house, I'm literally like a dog! And they don't even take me out to walks!
Wait a goddamn minute, I am part of the family too! I reminded myself and my head jerked up towards the door where they had left.
I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I do forget that these are actually my blood relatives, not that you can blame me, when have they ever acted like such? Okay, maybe I'm being a bit too hard on them, Stanley and Ford hadn't really done anything much other than lock me in a cage.
...That isn't really a good thing either, is it?
"God, when is Bill gonna come pick me up?!" I said out loud as if I yelled loudly enough, Bill would actually show up.
But instead, Mabel and Ford walked inside the room again, this time with Stan following close behind. Stan was pale, while Ford was glaring at the ground like the carpet had murdered his entire family.
"What is going on?" I asked. "And don't tell me it's nothing because since I now also live in this house I have the same rights as all of you, unless you're homophobic."
"It doesn't concern you," Ford answered before stopping himself. "Okay, maybe it actually does."
"What? What does?" I kept repeating my question as all of them looked at each other uncomfortably.
At last, Mabel sat down next to me on the couch and laid a hand on my shoulder. She was silent for a bit and by now I was unsure if she was preparing herself or me.
"Alcor, um..." she fidgeted with the sleeves of her sweater, she usually did that when she was anxious. "Mom is... she's coming to stay at the shack for a while."
My soul left my body.
"WHAT?!" I jumped up from the couch. "SHE- WHY?! WHAT?! WHEN?!"
"Alcor, calm yourself," Ford told me but I didn't listen and instead grabbed Mabel's shoulders.
"Why would you do this to me?" my voice was shaky.
"Dipper, you're being over dramatic," she said and maybe she was right, but I didn't care.
"Fucking mom is coming here, I think I have the rights to be dramatic," I said.
Mabel sighed as she stood up and looked at me. "It's going to be fine, Dip, she's only going to stay here for a week or two-"
"A WEEK OR TWO?!" I repeated. "Oh god, I'm starting to get dizzy."
"She doesn't even know that you're... y'know, her son and all," Mabel tried comforting me.
I sighed, I couldn't get out of this. "Fine, but if any of you somehow out me, I will do much worse things than murder a few orphans."
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3rd person POV
A few sleepless nights passed, and before Alcor knew it, the one and only was sitting on the sofa. His mother looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep for the past few days either, and she looked moody.
She had that look on her face that would usually signal for Alcor to stay as far away as possible if he didn't want to get yelled at for something that she would convince him he had done, but he wasn't twelve anymore, so he should be fine.
Mabel was sitting with her on the couch as well, mostly nodding and listening while her mother talked, and Alcor was peeking from the door like a nosy child.
Suddenly, his sister stood up and walked towards the door and he quickly backed away.
"So? What exactly is going on?" Alcor whispered once they had walked down the corridor so their mother wouldn't hear them.
"She had a fight with David," when Mabel saw Alcor's confused look, she quickly remembered he had no idea who David is. "David is her husband, my stepdad. Which I guess makes him your stepdad as well."
That statement was way more straight forward then what Alcor was prepared for. Sure, Mabel was his sister, he had never stopped seeing her as his sister, but the whole step-family thing wasn't sitting right with him.
He wasn't even sure when the last time he would have considered that woman his mother was.
Mabel saw that he was uncomfortable and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Okay, listen, I need to go make some phone calls and breathe some fresh air since talking with mom is exhausting-"
"Yeah, I would know."
"-you need to go try keeping her calm," Mabel finished and Alcor's eyes widened.
"What?!" he yelled and Mabel hushed. "What?! Why me?! Why not Stan or Ford?!" he whispered.
"Because both of them have bailed on me and judging by that, they probably don't have the best relationship with mom so it could backfire," that was true, as soon as their mother had pulled in the driveway, Ford had hurried down to the basement and Stanley practically ran towards the gift shop.
"I can guarantee they would have a better relationship with her than I do."
"Alcor," Mabel grabbed his wrists like she knew that if he could, he would bail and run until his legs gave out. "Please, she needs it. You've seen how she was when she divorced our biological father."
Even though she was speaking carefully, Mabel's words cut like blades. Alcor jerked his hand back and turned his head away. "And why do I care?"
"Please, think about Charlie," Mabel could tell that argument got to Alcor by the way he tensed. "He's just a toddler, do you want him to go through what we did?"
He thought about the little kid he met a month ago. Back then he had some complicated feelings towards the child, mostly jealousy about how he got the perfect family, but Charlie hadn't done anything to deserve any of this, it wasn't his fault he was born, and if his mother fell into the same mental state she was before, she would make that little child believe that it was.
"I'm not asking you to fix her problems-"
Alcor scoffed. "I doubt a licensed therapist could do that."
"-But just calm her down, she has impulse problems, you know she does. The whole fight thing probably wasn't even that big of a deal, but she'll make it one if she doesn't calm down."
They stood in silence for a few seconds, Alcor wished the darkness of the corridor surrounding them would cover him completely and make him disappear.
"Fine," he sighed. "But you owe one. No, scratch that, you owe me at least twenty."
Mabel's lips curled up into a smile that could bright up the whole room. "Thank you!" she hugged him so tightly that the air escaped his lungs.
"Yup, Mabel, I can't breathe," Alcor said and she let go.
"Thank you," Mabel repeated again. And so, she was gone out the door.
The brunette sighed. It had always been either him or Mabel fixing their mother's problems. From the age of five-ish to ten, Alcor had to make sure the relationship between their parents was stable, giving him more responsibility than he should've had as a toddler.
And now, it seemed as the title of family therapist had been passed on to Mabel, something Alcor felt truly sorry about. He remembered how disgusted he had felt towards his parents' behavior, he really wanted to break the cycle, and if he wanted to do that, he had to do this.
He knew that the fate of Charlie wasn't in his hands, and he wouldn't blame himself if his mother fucked that child up as much as she had fucked up Alcor, but he would try his best to prevent it.
He snapped his fingers and two cups of tea spawned in his hands. A small electric shock quickly followed which made him wince, but since it was only a small spell, it didn't hurt that badly.
With a sigh, he entered the door where his mother sat.
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Okay, so this was supposed to be a double upload, but I haven't really had much time to write recently (with holidays and having to deal with family members while also making sure my mental health doesn't go back to being absolute shit, etc, etc) plus I'm also not at home right now, so once I'm back home I'll write more.
The next chapter is already on like 500 words so I don't think it'll take too long before another upload, maybe a week or smth like that.
Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed, baiii<33
-Ghost