I don't own the fanart in any way.
I was leaving the apartment with my skate when my mom reminded me that I might need a scarf, since it was still cold outside.
I went back to my room, finding it somewhere in my bed, since it was where I tossed it yesterday when I got home.
I had been talking to Dipper for a while before coming back home.
When I did, my mom smiled at me, saying that it seemed that I would make new friends quickly here.
I just blushed slightly, responding with a "yeah, sure", before going to my room and tossing my scarf onto the bed.
But today was a new day, I had more things to do than to just sit here and look for my scarf.
As I left the building, I had to peek outside first to check if the ghost lady wasn't here today. I didn't need a crazy person behind me all the time to melt my head with undead problems.
I passed through the street, always on the lookout for any ghosts, but it seemed like they weren't out in the street at 10 in the morning.
I walked to the gravel road on the side that I knew that would lead me where I wanted.
Walking can be boring sometimes, and now that I had memorized the path to the Mystery Shack, I could just slide in its direction with my skate instead of making my legs carry the burden of passing through a road filled with rocks that were small enough for the skate to ignore but not small enough for my feet to ignore.
And that's what I did. Giving a push with my feet, I hopped on the skateboard. I still don't really know why I find skating so enjoyable.
I looked at the woods as I slided along the path.
Could Bill still be out there? Should I mention my encounter with him to the twins? And could I even trust any of them?
There were a million of questions storming through my mind, and some of them would only be answered according to my choices in the matter.
The walk wasn't very long, but that was hardly noticeable due to all of the ghosts that I was passing by.
So many lost souls, wandering across the road. Some of them looked really bad, others not so much. I tried not to look at the man that was sitting by a tree crying, nor at the lady that seemed to have a broken leg, dragging it in the air as she floated.
What bothered me the most was a little girl, that had really pale skin, and vomit dripping from her chin, and was holding hands with an older woman that seemed to have a stab wound on her stomach.
They were clearly victims of crimes and disasters near and on the road.
This is why I hate my 'gift' so much. I can see the suffering of others and not be able to do anything. I can't even fix my own problems, much less theirs.
I lowered my head, reajusting the scarf to cover a little bit of my face, as the sadness and guilt that come with these lost ghosts invaded me.
These were nothing like the ones in my town. Those knew me at leats ever since I was 10, so they don't push me too far, and I have experienced what happens when I mess with a lost soul.
I finally started to breath more easily and with light conscience again when I started to take in the shape of the shack that I had been in previously.
As I got closer, I realized that there was a wave of tourists leaving the shack, and an older man smiling at them.
They all left some tips to the old man, before leaving the area.
I noticed that most of them had those silly objects from the gift shop, which made me wonder how carefree and manipulated those people are.
I passed through the crowd, getting an insult from a man that accidentally bumped shoulders with me. My only objective was to get in the gift shop, and see if the scientist that both Mabel and Dipper talked about was here.
I finally managed to get into the small room, looking around at the people that stupidly were considering to buy those expensive, silly objects that probably would break in a week or two.
I wasn't surprised by the fact that neither Mabel nor Dipper was there, which made things a little bit more difficult.
I looked at the smiling old man, and since there was a cardboard of him on the shop saying 'spend', I had reasons to believe that he was the owner.
I was reluctant to go talk to him, but what other choices did I have?
I moved towards him, that thought that this was going to turn out bad always haunting my mind.
I knew that it would, It always does for some reason.
"Hum...hi, are you the owner of the Mystery Shack...?"
He turned his attention to me, his smile disappearing.
"Well, yes, isn't it obvious?" He pointed at himself " Stanley Pines. What do you want, kid?"
"Oh, I, hum, would just want to know if your brother was here, I heard that he was a scientist, and I, hum-"
"Huh?" He interrupted me, looking both shocked and suspicious.
I immediately closed my mouth, feeling slightly paranoid and nauseous for a moment when I looked at the face the man was doing, and I am pretty sure he noticed my scared look.
"Why do you need Stanford?" He asked, with the same suspicious look.
I was getting fairly uncomfortable with it, but I couldn't back out now, or he probably would think that I was up to something bad, so I prayed in my mind that he didn't do anything.
"I-I need t-to speak with him...a-and I n-need his help-"
I took one backwards, noticing that he looked like he was about to jump on me. I was hopping that the people inside the shop would try to do something, but I quickly realized that they all were looking at us, but instead of offering any help, they just placed whatever items they had on their original places and exited the shop.
He took a step towards me.
"For what?"
I didn't really thought of how I would reply to this, the words just mindlessly escaping my mouth.
"I...h-he knows s-something about...m-my uncle knew him and-"
"Oh, something tells me that you are lying, kid, and I do not like liars." He remarked.
"I-I'm not, Mr. Pines, I-I just n-need his help, that's all-"
"Are you here to steal something? Gather information? Blackmail? Got nothing to say for yourself? Heh?" He threatened.
"W-what?! N-no, I..."
He didn't let me finish, before he grabbed my jacket with both his hands.
"Listen to me, punk, I don't care what you want to do with Stanford, but you are not leaving this place without answering me: what do you need him for?!" He took another look at my face.
"I-I don't wanna d-do anything, I swear, I-I..."
He judged me for a while.
"I never saw you here before... Are you working for somebody? Did somebody sent you? Who are you working with?!" He screamed, shaking me.
People were looking, I could see them standing outside with crossed arms and annoyed expressions through the window.
"I-I am not working for anyone! I swear!" I screamed back, trying to make him let go of me.
I kept looking around, seeking for help with terrified eyes.
He was old, but he was strong, and definitely stronger than me.
"Bullshit! What do you want?!"
"Nothing! I just wanted to talk to him, I need his help!"
"Yeah, that's what they all say! Why are you here?! What are you planning to do with Ford?! Kill him?! Kidnap him?! Do some weird experiment with him?!"
I was about to reply that I didn't want to do anything, when the same door that I passed through yesterday opened, revealing a rather unaware Dipper, before realising that his uncle was about to murder me or something.
"Hey gruncle Stan, have you seen my- WOAH, WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?!"
Stanley didn't even looked at him, he just kept staring at me and at my attempts to escape his grasp.
I looked at him, my eyes asking for help, but he just stood there, surprised, and trying to understand why was his great uncle fighting against a 15 year old.
"Dipper!" I looked at him with a mortified look.
"What- why are you two-" Dipper tried to grasp whatever he could.
" He wants to do something with Ford! I bet he is working with someone!" Stan told him.
Dipper just looked at me, and face palmed himself, sighing.
"No, gruncle Stan, he is not working for anybody, he is just new in town, he was here yesterday."
Stanley's grip on my jacket loosened a bit.
"Really?" He curiously said, looking at Dipper with surprised eyes.
I managed to break free, stumbling back and against the wall, panting from both the force that I used in trying to escape and also by the fact that he looked like a bear that was going to kill me. I grabbed the jacket where he grabbed it, probably a reflex to make sure that nobody nor anything was still holding it besides me.
"Yeah... he just needs to talk with him about something that Ford knows. He is from Massachusetts." Dipper calmly explained.
Stan looked between me and Dipper some times, before changing his attitude completely.
He composed himself, all anger long gone.
"Oh! Ok then!" He looked at me with a smile" Welcome to the Mystery Shack!"
I just stood where I was, simply nodding quickly when he addressed me, and still grabbing my jacket with one hand, the other glued to the wall at my side, like the wall would fall if I hadn't putted it there, and if the wall wouldn't, then I certainly would.
"I didn't know you had been here yesterday!"
Stanley then looked at the window, where a new row of tourists could be seen, turning his attention to them.
"New customers!" He proceeded to run out of the door, leaving a shocked me with a calm Dipper.
I looked at Dipper, taking in a deep breath before moving again.
"...I swear he was going to kill me if you hadn't showed up..."
Dipper came closer to me, looking at my shaky figure.
"I...don't think so, what happened?"
"I-I came here looking for you. Well, not you, your other great uncle... but I didn't found you, so I just decided to ask, but when I did he just went beserk, and I freaked out! Next thing I knew he was grabbing me and yelling at me, asking what I wanted, and who I was working for...jesus crist, that wasn't...okay at all..." I let myself slide along the walls, landing on the floor.
"Are you okay?" He asked, looking at me with a worried look.
"Do I look okay to you?! My hands are shaking as hell!"
He sighed, coming to sit down besides me, where he then stood, looking at me
"Look!" I said, bringing a hand up to eye level.
He noticed it, and just rolled his eyes, looking at me after it.
He grabbed my hand, and brought it down to the floor.
He looked at me and pointed at me with his free hand.
"He may seem really scary and crazy sometimes, believe me when I tell you that" he said with wide eyes " but I really doubt that he would kill you, so...just calm down. Alright?"
I stared at him, and I noticed something.
His eyes really matched his hair. Except that they were a little bit lighter.
I blinked twice.
I broke my gaze, and stared at the floor.
This was stupid.
I gotta stop doing that. Analysing people.
It makes it impossible to stare at him if I do.
I brought a hand up, looking at it. It was no longer shaking.
"Better?" He asked, noticing my actions of looking at my hand.
"Yeah, I guess." I felt something on my other hand. "You can let go of my hand now."
He looked at our intertwined hands, before quickly letting it go.
"Oh! Sorry...about that" he laughed nervously. "I forgot."
He got up, dusting his pants, and so did I.
"So, what brought you here...exactly?" He asked.
I opened my mouth to reply that I had already said it, but he brought up a hand to explain.
"Calmer explanation this time please."
"It's just like I said, I just came by to know if your other uncle was here today, like you told me to..." I explained.
He shrugged his shoulders
"No, he still hasn't. I think that Gruncle Stan is worried though ."
After hearing it again, I decided to question it.
"Why do you keep calling him that? Why don't you just call him uncle?"
He chuckled, probably not expecting me to ask something so mundane.
"Well...he really isn't my uncle, is he? He is my great uncle, so calling him uncle would be kinda incorrect, but saying great uncle every time that I see him would be a mouthful, so me and mabel came up with the 'gruncle' idea so that we wouldn't have to break any of the other rules. In my opinion. If you ask her, she probably would just say "because 'gruncle' sounds better."
"...In other words, you are a little bit of a dork?" I said.
"Hey! I am not a dork!"
I smiled.
"You gave me an explanation to a nickname in an almost scientific way. Nobody does that." I smiled.
"Well, I do! You got a problem with it, Babcock?" He teased.
"No, not at all." I replied. "Also...please don't call me that...Norman is fine."
He didn't questioned it, but his expression had it plastered everywhere.
Me, on the other hand, had no problem asking.
"And about that...Dipper? Really? Why Dipper? You said you had a birthmark, but how the hell does a birthmark reminds people of Dipper? And why do you keep your real name a secret?"
I was almost worried that he would be offended, since I had no business in his private problems, but our talk yesterday had left me wondering.
Much to my liking, he didn't, seeing as his mood didn't change.
He rolled his eyes in a playful way.
"Like I said, I don't really like my real name."
"...And it would be?"
He gave me a funny glare.
"No."
"Okay, okay, I was only curious." I defended myself.
He nodded, not really sure about what he should do.
We stood there in an awkward silence for a little bit, since our conversation had reached an end.
"I guess I will be going then." I pointed to the exit "...before your... psycho uncle comes back again."
"Yeah...sorry about that...but hey, you don't need to leave yet! I was going to the lake, there are this weird fishes that I found last week that I want to check out. You could help me...if you want." He offered.
I thought for a moment.
Sure, I had no better things to do, but how would fish-checking be fun? Would Mabel come with us?
I looked around.
"Huh, where is Mabel? Is she coming?" I asked, looking at the door from where he came from.
"Mabel? No, she isn't here, she went over to a friend's house, I think she will have a sleepover." He sighed "Girls and their sleepovers." He looked at me with an annoyed, almost angry look " She and her friends have been tormenting me with them since I was 12."
"Four years ago?" I asked with a tired expression.
"Four years ago."
I sighed again.
"Good thing your tormenting was better than mine."
Dipper crossed his arms.
"I have no idea of what you have been through, but I can assure you: girl's drama isn't easy. There was this one time where gruncle Ford created a rug of some sort that could switch minds into different bodies-"
"Woah, what?!" I asked, surprised.
Dipper smiled ironically, placed a hand on my shoulder and then gave me a sincere look.
"You still have a lot to learn when it comes to Gravity Falls. This isn't just west of weird, this is the weirdest place on earth, I assure you. Here, mind switching rugs" he smirked " are nothing."
I guess that I looked a little bit shocked, cause he laughed at my expression.
"Anyway, me and my sister switched bodies and...do you have any idea of how bad, horrible, girly and scary girl books are? Cause I HAVE. On that same days, her friends came for a sleepover, and I had to let them chase Mabel, that was on my body, to the room where the rug was, let them smear my face- I mean Mabel's- I MEAN DIPPER-MABEL'S FACE- with loads of make up, lip gloss, mascara and WHATEVER more those things were, so that I could have my body back." He nodded in pride. "So there you have it. My dignity died that night. I got it back though, so don't worry."
I was surprised.
" I guess you win. The only majorly weird thing that I had to live with was the fact that our town was 100% inspired in the hanging of a witch 365 days a year, there were stupid puns everywhere, even the shops had names that were somehow related to it. Or it used to, until..." I scratched my neck and looked at the floor "four years ago- but well, that's in the past." I stoped for a moment" Well, not really, Witchy Wieners is still open and with the same name, but life goes on. Their menus are still pretty dry... But oh well, time's passing. Even when you have to get away from your family to have peace for a while." I tried to sound confident, but turns out I am no good at pretending that.
Dipper looked confused, but shrugged it off quickly, pushing me towards the door.
"Okay, that got pretty depressing, so, let's go find those fish!"
He made a much better job than me.
-----------------
The sun, even in December, was making an excellent job at blinding me. Even with all of those clouds covering it, it seemed like it only got worse.
I stared in boredom at the lake, while sitting on a bench.
Dipper stood still on the same place, loking like he was setting a trap or something for those fishes that he discovered. Apparently they glowed in the dark and produced some weird glowing stone with an antena or something.
This was relaxing, at least. There was no pressure to look out for people staring at me, waiting for me to do something weird.
One of the problems back at home is that even when I'm acting normal, people will still look at me like I'm trying to balance an elefant on a needle.
Some people do know how to treat me like a circus attraction.
Dipper looked busy, with his pants rolled up to his knees, as he set some sort of net on the shallow water.
As I looked around, I felt my phone go off in my pocket, and got my attention.
I took it out, seriously hopping that it wasn't a message from mom saying stuff like ' how's it going, honey, having fun'.
I was relieved to read that it was from Neil and not my mom.
From: Neil Received: 13:23
Hey! How's it going?
I was glad to know that he remembered to text me, and since I had nothing better to do now, the timing was good.
To: Neil Sent: 13:23
Fine, I guess. No news from the scientist yet, but I met this guy that says that he is his great uncle.
I read what I had typed and it almost sounded wrong. Was I doing the right thing placing my trust on this guy? He sure seemed to know what he was doing, but he could just have made it all up. Or his great uncle could be someone else and not the person I was looking for.
I thought about it for a while.
What about that whole thing with the Bill ghost? Dipper couldn't have made that up, could he?
This left me wondering even more, and the lack of answers was annoying, but I couldn't just go and ask him about it.
My phone went off again.
From: Neil Received: 13:24
Are you sure he isn't lying or tricking you?
I stared at the message, and I bit my lip.
Neil had a point.
If Dipper had indeed made it all up, I would be ashamed. He probably would laugh at me afterwards, and that's one of the reasons why I can't reveal much about my intentions until I'm hundred percent sure this is for real.
But taking that apart, my mind was already set.
To:Neil Sent:13:25
Positive, I trust him.
He is nice.
I stared at the message, wonderimg to myself how true that statement could be. He had been nice to me, yes, and I did trust him in a way, since he looked pretty honest about all that he was saying. However, there is always space for doubt.
I looked over at Dipper.
The dork was mumbling to himself as he set the net, with a determined attitude but with lack of experience. It was kinda... cute, actually.
I giggled as I watched him curse when the net fell apart.
He stared at me with a sarcastic glare, which only made me laugh even more.
"You could help me, you know. Mabel's the one who usually helps in this kind of situations."
He stared at the fallen net and sighed.
"Or at least she used to..."
I sighed, still with a small smile.
I looked at the phone one more time.
From: Neil Received: 13:25
Just be careful, bro. Don't do anything stupid!
I got out of the bench, and I walked towards the water casually, stopping right where the water couldn't reach, so that I could be as close to Dipper as possible without getting my shoes wet.
"Why did she stop helping you?" I asked nicely.
He went back to work on the net, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
"That's simple. She grew up." He looked over at me." We might be twins, but we aren't the same. We have different interests. Besides, she is having her teenage crisis, and all the hormones and stuff..."
I laughed again.
He smiled.
"I miss it thought. All that... 'Mistery Twins' crap that I used to dislike. It seems so far away now."
"It sucks to grow up..." I agreed "But you just have to face it. You can't stop time."
He smirked and shruged his shoulders.
"Well, actually, you can, because this is Gravity Falls we are talking about."
My eyes went wide.
"Are you kidding?! Jesus, is there anything that you don't have here in Gravity Falls? Coraline was right, Oregon is really weird..."
"Corawho?" Dipper asked, confused.
I smiled.
"Nothing, just a girl from my town. She said that she lived in Oregon before moving to Blithe Hollow."
"Oh, a girl? So, you like her or... something?" He questioned.
"...no, not really. And apparently she has a stalker..."
Dipper looked intrigued, stopping what he was doing to look at me.
"...that turned around quickly. Anyway, can you help me, please? I have tried to set this up like 6 times already."
"Sure."
Yellow, lovely readers, it is I, Leclerc!
I'm joking, and if you got that reference, then I'm really proud of you for watching shows that old, and 150 points to your house, well done - anyway, me and L really need to know something that will be relevant for a 'nearby' chapter and regarding the character which colour is referred as intro to this authors note >:} :
What are your opinions on human Bill Cipher?
L had this little idea (wink wink), and honestly I would like to add the human version of Bill, but we wanted your opinion first :} so what do you say?