Dani's POV
It was a clear morning at the Mystery Shack as I sat at the kitchen table with Dipper and Mabel who were both about to have a "Syrup race". I took a bite of my oatmeal with a smile on my face as Mabel held up a syrup bottle and asked her brother, "Are you ready for the ultimate challenge?"
"I'm always ready!" he responded.
"Then you know what this means..." Mabel trailed off.
"Syrup race!" the twins chorused. They tilted their heads back, along with their bottles as the syrup slowly dripped down. "Ahhh!"
"Go, Sir Syrup!" Mabel cheered.
"Go, Mountie Man!" Dipper added.
I laughed and decided to join in on their chanting of, "Go! Go! Go! Go!"
I looked at Mabel and saw her tapping the bottom of her syrup bottle so she could cheat her way to win. "Almost... almost..." she trailed off. The syrup dripped into her mouth and Dipper just smiled and put his bottle down. "Yes!" she said and started coughing. "I won!"
I just chuckled at her and started eating my oatmeal again. "Ho ho, no way!" Dipper said, causing me to look over at him and see him read a newspaper. "Hey Mabel, Dani, check this out."
Mabel and I looked at the newspaper and my eyes widened at the article I saw. "Human-sized hamster balls?" Mabel asked excitedly looking at a completely different article. She gasped. "I'm human-sized!"
"No, no, Mabel," Dipper corrected her. "This." He then gestured to a monster photo contest ad that was in the newspaper.
"We see weirder stuff than that every day!" I added. "You guys didn't get any photos of those gnomes, did you?" I asked the twins.
"Nope, just memories," Mabel answered. "And this beard hair." She pulled out a few white locks and smiled.
I raised a brow at her as Dipper asked, "Why did you save that?" Mabel just shrugged, humming an "I dunno" sound.
"Good morning, knuckleheads," Mr. Pines greeted as he walked into the kitchen, wearing only his boxers and his white undershirt. "You three know what day it is?"
"Um... Happy anniversary?" Dipper guessed.
"Mazel tov!" Mabel brightened.
"National Doughnut Day?" I asked excitedly.
Mr. Pines then aggressively hit Dipper over the head with a newspaper out of nowhere. "It's Family Fun Day, genius!" he snapped. "And this time, we're bringing along 'Ms. football means soccer and chips means fries'," he said the last part, gesturing to me.
I raised a brow at him. "Wait?" I asked. "Why?"
"Don't question my choices," he threatened. Mr. Pines walked over to the fridge and opened the door as he began rummaging through it. "We're cuttin' off work and having one of those, you know," he paused and sniffed a carton of milk, "bonding-type deals."
"Grunkle Stan, is this gonna be anything like our last family bonding day?" Dipper asked his uncle.
"What happened last time?" I asked.
"Nothing illegal. That's for sure," Mr. Pines said, avoiding eye contact. I could tell he was lying.
Mabel shuddered. "The county jail was so cold," she murmured.
"All right, maybe I haven't been the best summer caretaker," Mr. Pines stated. "But I swear, today we're gonna have some real family fun. Now, who wants to put on some blindfolds and get into my car?"
"YAY!" the twins and cheered.
But I soon realized what Mr. Pines was saying and I think Dipper got the same idea. "Wait, what?" we chorused.
---
Soon or later, Stan eventually convinced us to put on a pair of blindfolds each. He walked us to what seemed like his car and we sat inside as he began driving. I was sitting close to the window with Dipper in the middle and Mabel on the other side of him. I clung to the strap of my seatbelt, fearing that we might crash. Suddenly, the car started to swerve and Dipper pressed against me. "Whoa whoa!" I exclaimed.
I then heard Dipper sigh. "Blindfolds never lead to anything good," he muttered.
"Agreed," I added.
"Wow!" I heard Mabel chirp. "I feel like all my other senses are heightened. I can see with my fingers!" She began touching my face and I assumed she was touching Dipper's as well, which caused both of us to laugh.
The car made a sudden jump, making the twins and I fly into the door on my side. "Whoa!" we exclaimed.
"Grunkle Stan, are you wearing a blindfold?" Dipper asked his uncle nervously.
Mr. Pines laughed. "Nah, but with these cataracts, I might as well be," he explained. "What is that, a woodpecker?" We felt a sudden jolt when it felt like we crashed into something, causing us to scream.
---
After what seemed like forever, we finally made it to our destination alive. We were standing outside of the car with our blindfolds still on, waiting for Mr. Pines to tell us when we could take them off. "Okay, okay," I heard Mr. Pines say. "Open 'em up!" We finally took our blindfolds off and I almost fainted at the sight of where we were. The Gravity Falls Lake... "Ta-da! It's fishin' season!" Mr. Pines announced.
"Fishing?" Mabel questioned.
"Water..." I breathed, terrified out of my mind. Luckily no one heard me.
"What're you playin' at, old man?" Dipper asked, pointing an accusing finger at Mr. Pines.
"You're gonna love it! The whole town's out here!" Mr. Pines encouraged.
We scanned the area, spotting different people doing their things. Like, Lazy Susan using a frying pan to catch fish. "Here, fishy fishies! Get into the pan!" she spoke to them.
I turned my head in a different direction and spotted Toby Determined, taking a picture of a man holding a large fish in his hand as he stood on the edge of the docks. "Say cheese!" Toby said and took a picture of the guy. The flash of the camera startled the guy and he screamed, falling into the water.
Looking further into the lake, I noticed a family that was fishing, composed of a father and his sons; all with red hair. Maybe they're related to Wendy. One of the sons held up a fishing rod and asked his father, "Uh, is this good?"
"NO!" the father screamed. He then grabbed the fishing pole from the boy and broke it in half against his knee. "I'll show you how a real man fishes!" He leaned over the side of the boat and stuck his hands in the water, taking a fish out of it right after. The father then threw it onto the bottom of their boat and began punching it like crazy.
"Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad!" his sons chanted together.
Another person rowed their boat up behind the family and started cheering, "Get 'em! Get 'em!"
"That's some quality family bonding!" Mr. Pines said, gaining me and the twins' attention.
"Grunkle Stan, why do you wanna bond with us all of a sudden?" Dipper asked him. "Especially with Dani?"
"Come on, this is gonna be great!" Mr. Pines encouraged. "I've never had fishing buddies before. The guys from the lodge won't go with me: they don't "like" or "trust" me."
"I think he actually wants to fish with us," Mabel whispered to Dipper and me.
"Hey, I know what'll cheer you sad sacks up," Mr. Pines said. He pulled something, or should I say, some things out from behind his back and plopped them onto our heads. "Pow!" We took them off and examined them. "Pines family and Dani fishing hats!" They were poorly made fishing hats with our names stitched on them, except Dipper's was spelled as 'Dippy' and mine was spelled as 'Danny'. "That—that's hand stitching, you know," Mr. Pines continued as the 'M' on Mabel's hat fell off. "It's just gonna be you, me, and those goofy hats on a boat for ten hours!"
"Ten hours?!" Dipper exclaimed.
"In water?!" I added.
"I brought the joke book!" Mr. Pines said excitedly, holding up a red book titled '1001 Yuk 'Em Ups'.
"No! NO!" Dipper screamed.
"There has to be a way out of this," Mabel whispered to us worriedly.
"Yeah, because there is no way I am staying in the water for ten hours," I said.
"What? You're afraid of the water?" Dipper asked with slight laughter. I didn't say anything, only looked down at my feet. I assumed Dipper noticed my expression since he exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, you are, aren't you?!" I nodded. "I am so sorry!"
I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "No, it's okay, Dipper!" I assured. "You didn't know."
"Now I feel bad..." Dipper admitted with his head hanging low. I comfortingly patted his shoulder.
"I SEEN IT! I SEEN IT AGAIN!!" a familiar voice shouted. It was the town's local crazy man, Old Man McGucket. He ran up from the docks, crashing into and overturning various things as he ran. "The Gravity Falls Gobblewonker! Come quick before it scrabdoodles away!" he yelled and then started doing some weird dance.
"Awww... He's doing a happy jig!" Mabel cooed.
"NOOO! It's a jig of grave danger!" McGucket screamed in her face.
We quickly backed away from McGucket as Tate McGucket, the lake ranger, came up to him and sprayed him with a spray bottle, yelling, "Hey, hey! Now, what did I tell you about scaring my customers? This is your last warning, Dad!"
"But I got proof this time, by gummity!" McGucket exclaimed. The twins and I exchanged looks and followed McGucket to the docks, along with some other people at the lake. Once we got to the docks, I was immediately terrified since we were so close to the water. And without any hesitation, I clung to Dipper's arm in fear. I felt him tense up, but he didn't pull away. McGucket then pointed at his wrecked boat and said, "BEHOLD! It's the Gobble-dy-wonker what done did it! It had a long neck like a gee-raffe! And wrinkly skin like... like this gentleman right here!"
He pointed at Mr. Pines who wasn't paying attention as he picked at his ear. "Huh?" he questioned.
"It chawed my boat up to smitheroons, and shim-shammed over to Scuttlebutt Island!" McGucket continued, pointing to a dark, mysterious island across the lake. "YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME!"
"Attention all units!" Sheriff Blubs announced from a police boat alongside Deputy Durland. "We got ourselves a crazy old man!" Everyone around us laughed and pointed at poor McGucket. Even his son shook his head in disappointment at him.
McGucket's face fell when he looked at everyone mocking him. Poor guy... He started walking off, his head hanging low in sadness as he mumbled, "Aww, donkey spittle! Aw, banjo polish!" Everyone else on the dock soon walked off as well.
There was a hanging silence before Mr. Pines spoke up. "Well, that happened," he said. "Now, let's untie this boat and get out on that lake!" He stepped off the dock and into his rickety old boat and began untying it from the dock.
Dipper then faced Mabel and me, a big grin on his face. "Guys, did you hear what that old dude said?" he asked us.
"Aww, donkey shpittle!" Mabel said, mimicking McGucket. I laughed at her impersonation.
"The other thing. About the monster," Dipper corrected. "If we can snag a photo of it, we can split the prize three ways! Imagine what you guys could do with three hundred and thirty-three dollars!" I began to zone out, thinking of the one thing I wanted and I noticed Mabel doing the same thing. I began to picture myself out in a beautiful meadow by myself lying down on a cotton blanket as the wind blew through my curly locks, a Vintage yellow Sperry-Remington Tenfifty typewriter in my hands. I'm writing a heartbreak song, which I know as though it expresses my feelings exactly. I breathed in deep and soon exhaled as another gust of wind blew past. This was my dream. Not a big dream, but a simple one. That's how I like things. Simple. My dream was absolutely perfect... until it was ruined by the sound of me and Mabel's names being called. "Dani? Mabel? Guys!" We both looked over and noticed Dipper snapping his fingers in our faces to get our attention.
"Dipper, I am one million percent on board with this!" Mabel said with a toothy grin.
"So am I!" I added. Though, I was having second thoughts about going out on the lake...
We turned around a faced Mr. Pines who was in the middle of untying the boat from the dock. Dipper walked up to him, throwing his arm over his uncle's shoulder, a cheeky grin plastered on his face. "Grunkle Stan!" he said in a fake enthusiastic voice. "Change of plans: we're taking that boat to Scuttlebutt Island, and we're gonna find that Gobblewonker!"
Dipper turned to Mabel and me and the three of us started cheering, "Monster hunt! Monster hunt!"
As we were chanting, McGucket seemed to join in with us. "Monster hunt!" he chanted and the three of us soon stopped and just stared at McGucket with blank expressions. "Monster... Eh... I'll go," he said and walked off, his head hanging low.
After McGucket was out of sight, we all heard the sound of a horn honking. We looked up and saw Soos riding up to the docks in this little boat of his, titled 'S.S. Cool Dude'. "You dudes say somethin' about a monster hunt?" he greeted.
"Soos!" Mabel and I exclaimed happily.
"Wassup, hambones?" Soos and I greeted with a friendly handshake while he and Mabel fist-bumped and added exploding sound effects to it. "Dude, you could totally use my boat for your hunt. It's got a steering wheel, chairs; normal boat stuff."
"All right, all right, let's think this through," Mr. Pines said, turning our attention towards him. "Ya kids could go waste your time on some epic monster-finding adventure, or you could spend the day learning how to tie knots and skewer worms with your Great Uncle Stan and amazing caregiver!" The twins and I had to make a decision quickly. We looked over at Soos in his boat who was doing this little robot dance, which made us smile. We looked back at Stan in his leaky old boat who was sniffing his left armpit, which made us cringe. We then looked out across the lake at Scuttlebutt Island in the distance. We all looked at each other and grinned.
We rushed over to Soos' boat and he helped the twins inside then turned to me and held out his hand for me. I smiled and reached out to his hand, but the sight of the large lake caught my eye and I immediately froze. The hairs on the back of my neck bristled as I retained my fear of water. A throng of goosebumps coated my glacial skin. I tried to breathe in and out but little air was entering my lungs. I stood looking at the large body of water, for what felt like a perpetuity but was five seconds before Soos started shouting my name. "Dani. Dani!" I shook my head and looked up at him. He had his hand still extended towards me with a concerned look on his face. "Hey, you comin', dude?" he asked me worriedly. Behind him, I could see Dipper and Mabel giving me the same worried expression.
I turned back to the lake and stared. I could feel my pulse beating through my veins. Clenching my fists up, hands full of sweat. I wished and wished it would go away. But I had to suck it up. I couldn't let the twins and Soos down. I sighed and regained myself, looking back at everyone else. "Let's do this," I replied, my voice cracking with fear. I grabbed a hold of Soos' hand and he pulled me inside. I gave him an awkward salute and he returned the gesture. Once he sauntered off towards the wheel of the boat, intense fear washed over me, and I rushed over to the center of the boat and sat on a wooden crate, shaking in terror as I covered my face with my hair.
I heard footsteps coming towards me and, looking through my hair, I noticed Dipper was walking towards me. "Hey, Dani, you okay?" he asked me, concerned as he knelt beside me.
I looked up at him and our eyes met. It felt as though I was looking deep down into his very soul and I knew right then and there that I couldn't lie to him. I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I... I'm, like, terrified of water..." I admitted to him.
"Oh," he said. "You have Aquaphobia."
"Yeah, and we're on the water..." I added.
"Well, do you wanna stay back if you think it'll be better for you? I mean, I'd be a little sad that you're not going with us, but as long as you're okay, it's fine with me."
I shook my head. "No," I said. "I really want to do this monster hunt and I don't want to let my fear get in the way of having fun."
"You sure?" I nodded. "Alright, but if you need me, or if you ever get scared you can always come to me. You know that, right?"
I smiled slightly. "Yes." Dipper smiled back at me and ruffled my hair before walking off. As I watched him stroll towards the front of the boat, I began having this heavy feeling in my chest. Like a feeling of the first couple of seconds on a roller coaster as your cart climbs slowly up the lift hill. Leaning back as your pumping heart is making a scene and you're building up the strength to scream and you're wondering if you can't turn around now if you can't press the stop button and slide back down if you could at least stay in this spot for a little while longer. I feel like I can't even swallow. What's happening?
My train of thought faded as I heard Dipper shout, "Hoist the anchor!" I looked over and saw him standing at the front of the boat with one foot on the guardrail. He looks kinda cute. ...Wait, what? Soos obeyed Dipper's command and pulled the anchor out of the water. "Raise the flag!" he ordered. Mabel pulled out a beach towel that had the words 'FUN' written on it. That made me giggle.
"We're gonna find that Gobblewonker!" Mabel cheered.
"We're gonna win that photo contest!" Dipper added.
"Do any of you dudes have sunscreen?" Soos asked all of us.
"We're gonna... go get sunscreen!" I said with a hint of enthusiasm in my voice.
"Yay!" everyone else cheered. Soos made a sharp U-turn, heading towards the docks.
The turn was so sharp my grasp on the crate I was sitting on loosened and I let go. Screaming, I kept tumbling until I met the very side of the boat. I made the mistake of looking down and I came face to face with the lake. I screamed and scooted back immediately. I felt my back hit something and I stopped in my tracks. I turned around and looked up to see it was Dipper giving me a concerned expression. "You okay?" he asked. I didn't think before I acted and impulsively grabbed a hold of his legs, automatically feeling safe, although I kept shaking. "Dani?" he asked again. I looked up at him and gave him a half smile, still shaking, reassuring him. He chuckled lightly and patted my head, which calmed me down even more.
After finally making it to the docks, we stopped at one of the shops, bought the sunscreen, Dipper bought a bunch of cameras and we were back on the boat. I was still a little frightened so I decided to sit back down on the little wooden crate, my safety spot. As I was doing a couple of breathing exercises, Dipper made me group up with everyone else in a line in front of him. He wanted to discuss something important. I was still a little fidgety but luckily Mabel let me hold on to the brim of her sweater for comfort. "Alright," Dipper started. "If we wanna win this contest, we've gotta do it right! Think. What's the number one problem with most monster hunts?"
"You're a side character, then you die within the first five minutes of the movie," Soos said. Fear started to show on his face. "Dude, am I a side character?! Do y'ever think about stuff like that?" he asked frightened as he grabbed Mabel's shoulders, freaking her out.
"No, no, no. Camera trouble!" Dipper assured. "Say Bigfoot shows up. Soos, be Bigfoot?" He let go of Mabel and took a few steps before getting into this weird stance that I guess was supposed to be Bigfoot. "There he is! Bigfoot!" Dipper poorly acted out. He then started patting his life vest. "Uh-oh, no camera!" He eventually pulled one out and held it up to his eye. "Oh, wait, here's one! Aw, no film!" He then put it back in his vest. "You see? You see what I'm, doing here?"
All of us nodded in understanding as Soos said, "Oh, yeah. Dude's got a point."
"That's why I bought twenty-one disposable cameras!" Dipper exclaimed and started revealing the cameras as he listed off their locations. "Two on my ankle, three in my jacket, four for each of you, three extras in this bag, and one... under my hat!" Wow... those are a lot of cameras. "There's no way we're gonna miss this. Okay everybody, let's test our cameras out!"
I opened up the side of my satchel and pulled out the cameras Dipper gave me. I took a few pictures of my surroundings on each of them and put them back. I then looked over at Mabel and Soos and saw them testing theirs out as well. Although Soos had his face towards him and he took the picture, the bright light of the flash startled him. "Aw, dude!" he screamed and threw the camera behind him, tossing it overboard.
"You see? This is exactly why you need backup cameras," Dipper said calmly. "We still have twenty!"
A seagull came swooping down and it went for Mabel so she decided to throw one of her cameras at it, screaming, "AH, BIRD!!"
"Nineteen!" Dipper said, and I noticed he was trying to keep his cool. "Okay, guys, I repeat; don't lose your cameras!"
"Wait, lose the cameras?" Soos asked.
"DON'T!" Dipper yelled, agitated.
"Dude, I just threw two away," Soos explained and I looked over the side of the boat to see two cameras floating in the water.
I sharply inhaled nervously and looked back at Dipper to see him getting angrier by the second. "Seventeen! All right! We still have seventeen cameras—" Dipper started but soon stopped when he realized that he had broken one of the cameras when he angrily slammed his fist down. "Sixteen... we have sixteen cameras."
I walked up to him and rubbed his back in circles to calm him down. "Don't work yourself up," I whispered.
He took a deep breath and looked me in the eyes. "I'll try," he said.
"So what's the plan?" Mabel interjected. "Throw more cameras overboard or what?" My eyes widened when I saw her holding her bag of cameras in one hand and a single camera in the other, but she was dangling it over the edge.
"No!" Dipper shouted. I grabbed his arm and he took a deep breath, composing himself. "No. Okay. You and Dani can be the lookout, Soos can work the steering wheel, and I'll be captain," he said to Mabel.
"What? Why do you get to be captain?" Mabel asked, upsettingly. "What about Mabel, huh? Ma-bel! Ma-bel! Ma-bel! Ma-bel!" she chanted.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," I said, cautiously.
"What about co-captain?"
"There's no such thing as co-captain," Dipper stated, firmly.
"Aw, whoops," Mabel said as she tossed the camera she had overboard. I cringed because I knew it would irritate Dipper.
"Okay, fine!" Dipper exclaimed, giving in. "You can be co-captain."
"Can I be associate co-captain?" Soos asked.
"As co-captain, I authorize that request," Mabel declared.
"Well, as first co-captain," Dipper said, "our number one order of business is to lure the monster out with this." He gestured over to a barrel full of fish food that I just now noticed.
"Permission to taste some?" Soos asked.
"Granted," said Dipper.
"Permission co-granted," Mabel added.
"Permission associate co-granted," Soos said
"This is a bad idea," I stated. Dipper chuckled and nodded in agreement.
Soos ignored me and picked a piece out of the barrel, licking it. He then gagged and wiped his tongue off repeatedly as he coughed. "Dude, I don't know what I expected that to taste like!" he exclaimed.
Dipper, Mabel, and I started laughing at him and I shook my head with a light chuckle as I opened my satchel back up. I pulled my canister of water and handed it to him. "Told you it was a bad idea," I said.
Soos grabbed the canister from me and took a big swig of it, panting, he said, "Oh, geez... thank you, Dani."
"No problem," I said as I took back my canister from Soos.
"Do you think I can get some of that?" I heard someone ask. I turned around and saw Dipper giving me a half-hearted smile with an eyebrow raised and his arms behind his back.
I sorta just stared at him for what seemed like forever. The more I kept staring, the more I noticed the little details of his face. Like the golden flecks in his brown eyes, and the barely visible freckles across his blushed nose that were even more visible in the sunlight. The sun exposure could have also contributed to the chapping of his lips. In an awing of sorts, his features were somewhat... mesmerizing... I didn't exactly know how long I was staring until someone's voice brought me back to reality. "Dani...?"
I shook my head and blinked a few times. "Hm?" I asked.
"I was just, um, asking if I could have some water," Dipper stated. "You zoned out and just stared at me..."
I blushed. "Oh! Uh, sorry. I was just, uh... dissociating." Dipper gave a light chuckle. I looked at my canister before bringing my attention back to him. "Uh, here," I said as I extended my arm towards him to take the canister. He reached his hand towards the canister to retrieve it and his fingers accidentally brushed my hand. We both looked at each other and both of our faces turned a bright red. From the tip of our noses to the tip of our ears.
We stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like forever but in reality was only a few seconds until we were interrupted by Mabel saying, "Hey guys, look!" We adverted our gaze from each other and looked over at Mabel who was standing beside a pelican that landed on the railing. "I'm gonna pretend he's my new ventriloquist act! Haha!" I gave her a lighthearted smile at her childish behavior before it soon faded when I realized Dipper was looking at me through the corner of my eye. He noticed I was looking at him and he cleared his throat and walked to the front of the boat with Mabel. I stood there, watching him, before taking a deep breath walking over to the barrel of food, and began shoveling it out into the water, hoping to attract the monster.
After a while, the fog around us started to get thicker and thicker as we got closer to the island. It got so thick that I couldn't even see what I was doing anymore. The amount of fog that crept in became so much that I was even scared to be by myself, so I made my way to the front of the boat where Dipper and Mabel, with her pelican, still were. I went up to Dipper and grabbed the hem of his shirt to reassure myself of my fear. He took notice of my hold on him but didn't really think much of it and turned his head towards the fog, trying his best to look through all of it. At that moment, we heard Mabel snicker to herself and we looked at Mabel and her pelican. "Hey! How's it going?" she asked the pelican. "It's going awesome! Bow bow, buh bow bow!" she replied to the pelican in a goofy voice.
Dipper looked unamused. "Mabel, leave that thing alone," he told her.
"Aw, I don't mind none!" she said as the pelican. "Hey, look, I'm drinking water!" Mabel then pulled out a glass of water and began downing, but was still making the pelican talk. "Twinkle, twinkle little..." She abruptly stopped once she started coughing up her water. The pelican ended up flying away.
"Aren't you supposed to be doing lookout?" Dipper asked Mabel.
"Look out!" Mabel hollered before chucking a volleyball at Dipper and me. I luckily moved back, dodging the blow but it ended up hitting Dipper in the arm. I gave his impacted arm a reassuring rub. Mabel chuckled to herself. "Heh, heh. But seriously, I'm on it." All of a sudden, the boat jolted forward, almost launching us off the front of the boat. I frantically stood up and saw that we crashed into the shore of the island. I was still in such a state of shock that I couldn't move as I tightly grasped the railing. "See? We're here! I'm a lookout genius!" Mabel exclaimed as she walked off the stern of the boat and onto the shore. "Hamster ball, here we come!"
Dipper picked up a lantern and adjusted his lifevest then climbed over the railing but stopped when he saw I was still frozen in place. "Dani?" he asked, but I didn't respond. "You... ok?"
I managed to mutter out the words, "I could've fallen off..."
Dipper's face fell into a sense of concern at what I said. He hesitated at first but jumped down off the railing and landed on shore. Out of the base of my eye, I can see him looking back up at me. "Dani, hop over the railing and I'll spot you," he told me.
My eyes widened and I looked down at him with a disconcerting look. "What?!" I exclaimed with a slight crack of my voice.
"Dani, trust me, you'll be fine," he said. "I won't let anything happen to you." My eyes, still wide, looked deep into his. They showed genuine concern and worry for me. The more I fell into his gaze, the more I could feel myself relax. It was... hypnotizing in a sense. "Trust me..." he repeated once more. I smiled ever so slightly at him and took a deep breath. With shaking hands, and a stomach in knots, I slowly made my way over the railing and onto the other side. I looked back and looked down to see Dipper still beneath me, his arms outstretched.
I smiled at him, knowing he was there for me, but my smile quickly faded once I felt my foot slip off from the boat. I screamed as it all happened at once. From the moment of my slip to the moment of impact. But I didn't expect my point of impact to be so... fleshy... Looking for what it was, I realized I was in Dipper's arms. He... caught me? His arms were wrapped around my body tightly. It also seemed that the force of the impact knocked us to the ground, with his lantern knocked over beside him. We met each other's gaze and our faces became red once more. I had no words. That wasn't until I realized his right hand was on my thigh and slightly up the base of my skirt. "Eep!" I squealed and immediately jumped out of his arms, awkwardly adjusting myself. He stood up as well and gave me a worried look, waiting for something. "Thank you..." I awkwardly choked out before fast-walking away up to where Mabel and Soos were. I got the sense that Dipper was watching me as I walked and if I wasn't awkward before, I sure as am now.
We eventually were all grouped in these dark, foggy woods. We stood in front of a large sign nailed to a tree that branded the island's name. Soos and Mabel looked it over. "Dude, check it out," Soos said then raised his arm to cover the 'Scuttle' part of the sign. "Butt Island."
Mabel gasped as I gave a light chuckle. "Soos, you rapscallion!" Mabel exclaimed. I saw her look over at her brother to see that he wasn't laughing at Soos' joke. "Hey! Why aren't you laughing? Are you scared?" she teased.
Dipper scoffed with his arms crossed. "Pssh! Yeah, right!" he retaliated. "I'm not—" his sentence was cut short when his sister bopped his nose as she blew a raspberry. Dipper flinched.
"Yeah, you are!" Mabel said and continued to poke him, causing him to drop his lantern.
"Hey!" Dipper exclaimed as he shielded himself. "Quit...! Stop! Mabel!"
I lightly chuckled at their playful banter but abruptly stopped when I heard the sound of a low growl. It seemed as though everyone else had heard it too since Mabel had stopped teasing Dipper and we all huddled together out of fear. "Dude, did you guys hear that?" Soos asked nervously.
"What was that?" I asked, inching towards Dipper who didn't take notice.
Mabel turned to Soos. "Was it your stomach?" she asked him.
"Nah, my stomach normally sounds like whale noises," he corrected. I raised an eyebrow at him as Mabel pressed her ear to his stomach.
I watched her eyes light up as she said, "Wow. So majestic." I'm assuming his stomach did sound like whale noises.
As I adverted my gaze from them, I took notice of a possum running up and snatching Dipper's lantern before running off into the foggy woods. Dipper also took notice and gasped, exclaiming, "Our lantern!"
I tried my best to take in our surroundings but it was hopeless. "Aww! I can't see anything!" I cried.
"Duuude, I dunno, man," Soos said worriedly. "Maybe this, uh... Maybe this isn't worth it."
As a chill went down my spine I said, "Y'know, Soos... might be right." I hesitated at the last part, knowing Dipper might get upset.
Which he did. "Not worth it?" Dipper asked in disbelief. "Guys, imagine what would happen if we got that picture!" He suddenly became distant and started spacing out, along with Mabel.
Soos gave them a look of concern. "Uh, guys?" he asked them.
I put a reassuring hand on his back. "Hey, no need to worry," I told him. "They're just fantasizing."
"Fantasizing?" he asked.
"The real reason we want to go on this monster is because there's prize money for getting a picture," I explained.
"Prize money? Oh dude, that sounds nice."
I suddenly got a pain in my chest. The tone in Soos' voice made me feel bad, knowing that we didn't include him in the prize money. I mean, he's a big part of this mission too so there's a reason why he shouldn't be excluded. And in all honesty, I can live without that money. I gave Soos a light-hearted smile. "It is nice. In fact, why don't you take my portion of the money."
Soos' eyes widened. "What? Really?"
"Yeah, I don't mind."
"Wow... that's-that's generous of you, Dani. Thank you." The both of us smiled at each other. "We just need to survive all this spookiness to get the dough." I nodded.
A few seconds later, both of the twins snapped back to reality with big grins on their faces. "I'm in!" Dipper exclaimed.
"Me too!" Mabel added before both she and Dipper ran off into the woods, leaving Soos and me behind.
We gave each other a worried look before Soos hollered, "All right, dudes, we're comin'!" and we chased after them. After a few minutes, we were all grouped, trailing behind each other. Dipper was leading the group with me behind him, Mabel behind me, and Soos at the end.
As we walked, Soos and Mabel tried to lighten the eerie atmosphere which I very much appreciated. Soos started beatboxing while Mabel was prepared to 'rap'. I bobbed my head to Soos' rhythm and Dipper chuckled, making me smile. "My name is Mabel! It rhymes with table! It also rhymes with... glabel! It also rhymes with... shmabel!" Mabel sang.
Soos stopped beatboxing. "Dude, we should be writing this down," he added.
My attention was soon brought to Dipper frantically repeating, "Guys, guys, guys!"
I walked up closer to him. "What? Did you hear something?" I asked. He was about to answer but was interrupted by the same low growl we heard earlier, causing a flock of birds to fly away from where the sound was assumingly coming from.
Dipper pulled out his camera and plastered a huge grin on his face. "This is it! This is it!" he said, excitedly. Mabel made her way towards her brother and the both of them started playfully punching each other in excitement as they walked through the fog some more. I wrapped my arms around myself, tightening the grip on my lifevest in reassurance to myself, and followed the twins. I noticed Soos pick up a big stick for his defense. We made it through the fog, but Soos stopped us in place once we saw the silhouette of some creature in the lake in front of us. We then bolted behind a log to hide. "Everyone, get your cameras ready!" Dipper ordered. I pulled mine out and turned it on, Mabel did the same with a big grin on her face, along with Soos who looked like he was ready to strike any moment. The look of determination on Dipper's face hardened. "Ready! GO!" he hollered.
Soos wailed a battle cry and jumped out from behind the log, snapping pictures at random. The rest of us soon followed suit but slowed down once we came to realize that the 'monster' we saw on the lake turned out to be a group of beavers on the remains of a wrecked ship. Two of the beavers spoke to each other and hugged, happily thumping their tails. Another one just blankly stared off into the distance as he slid off the side of the boat. Dipper, Mabel, and I all stood there, confused while Soos was just taking pictures of them. "But... but what was that noise, then?" I asked.
"I heard a monster noise!" Dipper exclaimed. Just as he said that, the same noise echoed again making us jump in surprise. We all looked over to see a separate beaver chewing on, and sometimes activating a rusty old chainsaw.
Soos grinned widely. "Sweet! Beaver with a chainsaw." He then proceeded to take several pictures of it.
Dipper sighed, disappointedly. "Maybe that old guy was crazy after all," he said. I put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"He did use the word scrapdoodle," Mabel stated. I nodded in agreement.
Dipper walked towards the shore and hopped on a rock in the lake, sitting on it. He just stared at his reflection, a sad look on his face. He would occasionally toss a pebble in the water. I wanted to join him and just comfort him, but I just couldn't shake my fear of water. Instead, to distract myself, I decided to watch Soos who was taking even more pictures of a beaver on a stump, telling it to do different poses which of course it did not follow. "Ooh, yeah! Work it! Work it! Nice! Nice! Gimme another one of those! Yeah, I like that one," he told the beaver. This whole situation made me force out an airy laugh.
I then brought my attention towards Dipper when I heard him say, "What're we gonna say to Grunkle Stan? We ditched him over nothing." He tossed another rock in the water, causing ripples to form, but there was something off. Ripples were forming in another spot. Suddenly, the ground underneath our feet began to rumble. "Hey... guys, do you feel that?" Dipper asked. Right then, the rock he was sitting on sank from under him and he fell into the water. "Hey, hey, whoa, whoa!" A rush of courage coursed through me and I ran over to him, pulling him out of the water.
I then backed away as Mabel gasped when we saw a silhouette of some creature swim away. "This is it!" Dipper beamed as he tried taking a picture of what we saw. "Come on! This is our chance!" Soos, Mabel, and I backed away even more, our fear-filled eyes locked on the creature as it rose from the water. It had a long neck and green, scaly skin. Its eyes were a dark green and its lower jaw overlapped its upper jaw. It had two tusks along with other sharp teeth, and its head had two fish hooks stuck on it: one on its nostril and one just above its eye. I'm guessing this is the Gobblewonker... "What's wrong with you guys?" we heard Dipper ask us.
"Dipper...?" Mabel and I choked out as Soos said, "Dude...?"
"It's not that hard, all right? All you gotta do is point and shoot. Like this!" Dipper explained. He turned around and aimed his camera at Gobblewonker, panning upwards at it before freezing up and dropping his camera.
"Run!" Soos hollered. It roared and Soos, Mabel, and I all started running away.
But I quickly turned my head around to see that Dipper was still frozen in place. I stopped in my tracks and yelled, "Dipper!" and he snapped out of it, bolting away quickly. The Gobblewonker roared once more and began chasing after the four of us. We ran even faster. I heard the crackling of a nearby tree and looked over to see one falling towards me.
I stared at it, frozen in shock as I braced for impact, but instead of feeling the weight of the tree Dipper took notice of my situation and tackled me, pushing me out of the way. We tumbled until we were immediately back on our feet and running again. We then caught up with Soos and Mabel. "Get back to the boat! HURRY!" Soos hollered. We picked up the pace even more and the Gobblewonker snapped at Mabel and I. Soos grabbed a hold of both of us and put us on each side of his shoulders.
I turned around and looked at Dipper to see him whip his body around to take a picture of the Gobblewonker, but tripped over a tree root which caused him to drop his camera in the process. "The picture!" he exclaimed and started running towards it to pick it up.
My eyes widened. "Soos!" I yelled to grab his attention. He turned to notice Dipper and took action, immediately running for him and grabbing the back of his lifevest to pick him and he began running again with all three of us in his possession.
"Dude, if it makes you feel any better, I got tons of pictures of those beavers, dude!" Soos said in hopes of reassuring Dipper.
"WHY WOULD THAT MAKE ME FEEL BETTER?!" Dipper growled. I wanted to just yell at him in the moment to tell him that none of that matters right now but instead continued to remain quiet.
We eventually made it back to the boat and Soos helped the rest of us inside, eventually helping himself on as well. The weight of his body also pushed the boat back into the water, causing us to tumble a bit. "Let's get outta here, dudes!" Soos exclaimed.
I hit my back against a part of the boat and noticed it was where the steering wheel was kept. I quickly rushed over to the wheel and just froze. I've never driven a boat before, let alone how one works. Like, HOW DOES IT JUST FLOAT ON WATER?! "Uh... oh gosh," I muttered.
"Dani, get us out here!" I heard Dipper shout. I panicked even more, I had no idea what to do. "HURRY!" And with that, I did what I thought could start the boat, and to my surprise whatever I did worked! But I started driving away backward. I noticed Dipper eagerly pulling out his camera, and aiming it at the monster. "All right! This is it!" He tried to take a picture but was immediately taken aback. "Cracked lens?! Soos! Get a photo!" Soos pulled out his cameras and instead of taking pictures began throwing them at the Gobblewonker which only enraged Dipper. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he yelled.
Soos chuckled. "Oh! I still have one left! Don't worry, dude!" he said and threw his last camera at Dipper. Dipper luckily dodged it and the camera smashed into the wall behind him, breaking into pieces. The Gobblewonker went deeper into the water, causing a giant wave to form and the boat to swerve. I tried my best to steady the boat and I got it to face forward, driving the boat even faster.
"Go, go, go, go, go!" Dipper urged. I drove past several people, including Mr. Pines in which I ended up soaking him in water.
I looked back at him. "Sorry, Mr. Pines!" I yelled although I knew he couldn't hear me.
"DANI! BEAVERS!" I heard Dipper shout. Looking ahead, I saw a group of beavers in front of a bunch of wooden debris. It was too late for me to steer out of the way and I ended up crashing right into beavers. As a result, they all landed on our boat and instantly started biting at everything. Especially Soos' face. He started running around in circles, crying in pain.
Dipper and Mabel started dislodging some of the beavers and throwing them overboard. Except for one of the beavers, which landed on the window in front of the wheel. "Ah!" I yelled in surprise. I growled in frustration and turned on the windshield wiper, wiping it away and into the water. "Phew..." I breathed. But when I looked back in front of me, I saw I was driving through a crowd of boats. "AHH!" I panicked and started to swerve again. I drove past the father and his boys we saw earlier, to which the father had a fish in a headlock. The force of the boat and the Gobblewonker caused a wave of water to splash over them completely. "I'm so sorry!" I shouted to them. "This is not going smoothly..."
I then heard Mabel scream, "Aah! Look out!" We then both screamed when I saw I was heading straight for a pane of glass that two men were carrying. I ended up smashing right through it.
"My glass!" one of the men shouted after us.
We then all gasped when we realized I was driving us straight towards a waterfall. "WHERE DO I GO?!" I exclaimed.
Dipper pulled out his journal and frantically flipped through it. "Um... uh... GO INTO THE FALLS!" he shouted. "I think there might be a cave behind there!"
I looked at him with wide eyes. "MIGHT BE?!" I bleated. The four of us all screamed, with Mabel covering her eyes as I drove us towards the waterfall. I braced for impact, prepared for the hard stone behind the water but instead, I went right through it, crashing it right on the shore of a cave. We all ended up flying off the boat and into the dirt. I frantically stood up and helped the others up as well, checking to see if my reckless, and no knowledge of, driving the boat injured anyone. "Are you okay?! Did you break anything?!" I asked as I was checking Dipper.
He gave a light chuckle and gently grabbed my hands, pulling them off of him. "Dani, I'm fine. Just a couple of scrapes and bruises," he told me. I smiled back at him. Just then, we heard the booming sound of the monster's roar and looked over to see it follow us through the cave. Dipper protectively grabbed a hold of me then Mabel and Soos held the three of us in his arms. We were ready for the monster to eat us whole but it never came.
We looked at the monster to see it was stuck at the entrance of the cave. "It's stuck!" Mabel stated.
Dipper laughed excitedly. "Ha ha! Yeah!" But his smile faded once he came to the realization. "Wait... it's stuck?" He patted himself, looking for any camera he could but sadly there was none. That was until Mabel lifted his hat to reveal his final camera. Dipper laughed even more as he started taking several pictures of the Gobblewonker.
It lunged at him, snapping its teeth but Dipper lept back and continued with the picture-taking. "Did you get a good one?" Mabel asked.
"THEY'RE ALL GOOD ONES!" Dipper cheered and hugged his sister in excitement. Soos and I smiled at the twins and he gave me a light noogie. I laughed.
But our joyous success soon ended when we heard the monster roar again and just the noise alone was enough to shake the entire cave, causing a stalactite to fall off and onto the Gobblewonker's head. What happened next wasn't what I was expecting at all. With the point of contact came sparks of electricity. "What the...?" I questioned.
Everyone else seemed to find this odd as well, but Dipper was the only one who was brave enough to walk up to the monster and get a better look. He placed his hand on the side of the monster and immediately jumped back. "What's wrong?" Mabel asked. Dipper dismissed her question and he then knocked on it and in return came a metallic, hollow sound. What...?
He began climbing over the monster. "Careful, dude!" Soos advised.
"I've got this! Hold on!" Dipper replied. He disappeared on the other side and a moment later his head popped up. "Hey, guys! Come check this out!" Soos, Mabel, and I all exchanged worried glances before we all joined Dipper at the monster in the same spot he was in. In front of us sat a hatch.
We were all now even more confused. Dipper grabbed a hold of the handle and turned it, causing a bit of steam to pour out. He hesitated for a second before opening the hatch completely. More steam came out and we all coughed. Our eyes then widened when we saw someone we weren't expecting at all. Old Man McGucket?! He was sitting in front of some control pad and a few levers, but it seemed like he was having some trouble with it. "Work the bellows and the..." he said but froze up when he noticed the four of us staring at him. "Eh? Aww, banjo polish!"
"Wha- Yo- You?!" Dipper exclaimed. "You made this? W-w-why?"
I saw beads of seat start to form on McGucket's forehead. "Well, I...I, uh..." he stuttered then sighed, "I just wanted attention..."
I furrowed my brows. "I still don't understand," I said.
"Well, first I just hootenannied up a biomechanical brain wave generator, and then I learned to operate a stick-shift with ma beard!" McGucket explained, gladly demonstrating the last part.
"Okay, yeah. But why did you do it?" Mabel added.
"Well, when you get to be an old fella like me, nobody pays any attention to you anymore," McGucket said. "My own son hasn't visited me in months! So I figured maybe I'd catch his fancy with a fifteen-ton aquatic robot!" He laughed maniacally then sighed. "In retrospect, it seems a bit contrived. You just don't know the length us old-timers go through for a little quality time with our family..."
A pain ached in my heart and the feeling of guilt rushed over me. I pulled out the hat that Mr. Pines had made me and I guess Dipper and Mabel felt the same because they pulled theirs out as well. The three of us gave each other the same guilty look and we sighed. "Dude. I guess the real lake monster is you three," Soos stated. "Heh, heh! Sorry, that just like--boom--just popped into my head there." The guilt grew.
"So, did you ever talk to your son about how you felt?" Mabel asked.
"No, sir," McGucket responded. "I got to work straight on the robot!" He pulled out a projector and turned it on to show blueprints of the Gobblewonker. "I made lots of robots in my day!" He presses a button and the image switches to a newspaper clipping of a robot pterodactyl breathing fire on a town and the word "chaos" shown in the heading. "Like when my wife left me and I created a homicidal pterodactyl-tron," he pressed the button again to show a picture of a random man, "or when my pal Ernie didn't come to my retirement party and I constructed an eighty-ton SHAME BOT THAT EXPLODED THE ENTIRE DOWNTOWN AREA!" He laughed manically again and I inched closer towards Dipper for safety. "Well, time to get back to work on my death ray!" McGucket ducked down back into his robot and immediately construction noises could be heard. His hand shot back up in a grabbing motion. "Any of you kids got a screwdriver?"
Dipper sighed as he pulled out his camera. "Well, so much for the photo contest..." he sulked.
"You still have one roll of film left," Mabel stated.
"What do you guys wanna do with it?" I asked the twins. We all gave a similar look, thinking the same thing.
---
We thought of something more important than a photo contest and headed back to our now beat-up 'S.S. Cool Dude', this time Soos was driving. And since this time the boat was so destroyed by a giant hole through the side of the boat, I was more frightened to ride in it. Luckily, Dipper offered to hold my hand and keep me close. I very much appreciated it. As Soos drove us through the lake, we were coming up to our destination. Mr. Pines in his boat. Dipper decided to get his uncle's attention by saying, "Hey! Over here!"
Mr. Pines looked up at us with wide eyes as Soos drove us up to him, parking the boat. "What the-- Kids?" he asked. "I thought you three were off playing "Spin the Bottle" with Soos!"
"Well," Dipper started, "we spent all day trying to find a "legendary" dinosaur."
"But we realized, the only dinosaur we wanna hang out with is right here," Mabel added, gesturing to Mr. Pines.
He scoffed. "Save your sympathy!" he retorted. "I've been having a great time withoutcha'! Makin' friends, talkin' to my reflection—I had a run-in with the lake police! Guess I gotta wear this ankle bracelet now, so that'll be fun."
"So... I guess there isn't room in that boat for four more?" I asked him with a soft smile.
Mr. Pines glared at us until Dipper, Mabel, and I placed our handstitched fishing hats on our heads and his expression softened. "You knuckleheads ever seen me thread a hook with my eyes closed?" he asked us.
"Five bucks says you can't do it!" Dipper wagered.
"You're on!" Dipper climbed onto Mr.Pines' boat and since he still had a hold of my hand I went on the boat with him. He didn't let go.
"Five more bucks says you can't do it with your eyes closed, plus me singing at the top of my lungs!" Mabel added.
"I like those odds!" Mr. Pines said as Soos and Mabel joined us on the boat. Mr. Pines looked Soos up and down. "Whoa! What happened to your shirt?"
Soos chuckled. "Long story, dude," he responded.
Dipper let go of my hand and pulled out his camera. "All right, everybody get together," he announced. I made my way towards Mabel and Stan and I wrapped my arm around Mabel while she did the same to me. "Say fishing!"
"Dude, am I in the frame?" Soos asked before Dipper snapped the picture. The rest of the time we were out on the lake, we just took a bunch of pictures and goofed off. It was a lot of fun, I must admit. Although, I was still shaken up by being on the water. Luckily I had the twins to distract me.
After a while, the sun started to set making the sky a gorgeous pink. I watched the sky as Mr.Pines drove us back to shore, putting an end to our fishing trip. Everyone hopped out of the boat once Mr.Pines parked it and put the anchor down. While everyone else started to walk away from the boat and back to Mr. Pines' car, I stayed put, my eyes still locked on the beautiful sky in front of me. The yellow ball of fire changed to hues of orange, and then almost tangerine. It merged with the sky, like a juice mix dissolving in a glass of water. The clouds were cotton candy, as though they blushed at the warm touch of the sun. Silhouettes of birds flew home across a sky that was now magenta, and the sun was half into the water, but its reflection in the lake made it look complete. The mauve of the dusky sky intensified, and in just a while, the biggest star had nearly set, giving way to a small number of others. It was just breathtaking...
"Dani?" I heard Dipper ask me while also hearing the sound of his footsteps coming closer. "You coming?"
I didn't answer his question as continued to stare, instead, I responded with, "'Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky,' 'Rabindranath Tagore'." I looked over at Dipper. "The world creates just wonderful works of art for our very own souls to admire. I have never missed an opportunity to watch the sky sleep..."
Dipper had no response, he just stared at me, a glint of amazement in his eyes. "Woah..." he breathed. He realized he was staring because then he looked away from me and cleared his throat. "Y-Yeah, yeah. I would agree. Sunsets are really pretty." I could sense the awkwardness radiating from him.
But I just giggled. "C'mon, we should probably head to the car," I said as I began to walk away. I smiled to myself remembering the look on Dipper's face. It was just... adorable.
Wait... what?
(A/N: SORRY FOR THE EXTREMELY LONG WAIT. I JUST HAVE LOST MOTIVATION SINCE THE SHOW ENDED. BUT I RECENTLY GOT BACK TO WATCHING IT AND DRAWING DANI MORE AND MORE SO EXPECT SOME UPDATES LOL. THEY'LL STILL BE SLOW THOUGH BECAUSE I DO HAVE WORK AND COLLEGE TO DO. THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING SO PATIENT! LOVE YOU <3 UWU)