Gravity Falls Pines Triplets (Original Version)

Little Gift Shop of Horror

One dark and spooky night, a stranger was walking up to the Mystery Shack, and was about to open the door to go inside.

But it didn't appear as if that would be necessary, for Stan had seen the stranger and opened the door. Stan was holding a lantern, which only added to the creepy atmosphere.

"Well hello, traveller" he greeted. "I see your car broke down in the middle of this country road, a place so remote that no one can hear your screams!"

A bit freaked out, the stranger backed up a few steps.

Stan frowned, realizing his slip.

"Pretend I didn't say that" he said. "Come in, come in!"

The stranger took a few steps closer.

"But be warned" said Stan. "If you enter, you may be subjected to my tales. Tales designed to sell my merchandise!"

He then started to laugh evilly, but this time the stranger surprisingly didn't back up again.

There was a long, awkward pause after Stan was finished laughing.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something funny I heard earlier."

Stan's lantern had gone out after the stranger had entered the Mystery Shack, so he was was currently trying to relight a new lantern he had found lying around in the gift shop, taking out a match from his pocket.

"You've come to the Mystery Shack after hours" Stan was saying as he stuck the flame on the end of the match into the lantern.

"A time where only our-"

BOOM!!!

There was a huge explosion the instant that the lighted end of the match had touched the inside of the lantern.

The stranger coughed and when the smoke finally cleared, Stan was covered in black ash and holding only half of a lantern.

Stan looked a little angry now.

"Mara!" he growled. "How many times do I have to tell you not to put dynamite in the lanterns?"

He stopped yelling and looked at the stranger, who was standing there with a confused look on their face.

"Oh, Mara's just my niece" he said. "She's a little renegade, that one. Very difficult to control."

He chuckled lightly to himself as a small smile worked its way up his face.

"Speaking of which..."

Stan pulled out a small test tube with a bit of red substance left at the bottom of it.

"How would you like to buy this special chemical that she made a few weeks before that scamp Gideon almost took over. There's quite a tale that's linked with this little vial. I call it:

The Memory Game."

It was just a regular morning in the Mystery Shack, with Soos and the triplets getting ready for the gift shop to open.

Just then, Stan walked into the shop through the entrance door.

"Mystery Shack's about to open in a few minutes, and there's a tour bus at three o'clock!" he announced. "Man your stations!"

He walked up to everyone and started to go down the line.

He walked up to Soos.

"Soos, I need you on pricing duty. Those prices aren't gonna inflate themselves."

Soos raised a hand to his forehead in a saluting gesture.

"Yes sir, Mr. Pines!"

Stan then walked up to Mabel.

"Mabel, register duty" he said. "You know what to do."

"Of course I do!" said Mabel cheerfully. "Press random buttons on the magic number machine thingy on the counter!"

"You mean the cash register?"

"You say potato, I say curly fries' mommy."

And with that, she scampered off towards the counter.

Stan then walked up to Mara.

"And Mara, quit using your brother as a guinea pig."

A trembling Dipper was sitting on a short stool anxiously, and Mara had been about to pour a purple substance in a test tube onto his head.

Dipper breathed a sigh of relief.

"Aw, but we made a bet!" she said. "And Dipper lost, so he's subject to participate in my experiments all day. Besides, this one is actually supposed to help him."

She held up the purple liquid that she had been about to pour onto Dipper's head.

"But working in the gift shop is much more important than science experiments" Dipper said quickly, glad for an excuse. He grabbed the vial out of her hands, afraid that she might try and use it on him anyways, and stuck it into his vest pocket for safekeeping.

"So I'll see you later, Mara."

And with that, he hurriedly scampered off before she could stop him.

Mara looked a bit upset.

"What'd you do that for?" she said to Stan.

"Because I need all the hands that I can get working in the gift shop" he said.

"But you of all people should understand the terms of a bet."

"Mara, none of your problems are really of great concern to me" he said carelessly.

Mara's jaw dropped in shock as her eyes widened, the force of his words hitting her like a concrete wall.

Inside, Stan was slightly cursing himself. That statement had come out wrong, and he knew that it was too late to take his words back. He hoped that Mara had just brushed them off, but unfortunately it looked like her face was starting to turn red in fury.

"None of my problems are really of great concern to you?!" she exclaimed, her fists clenching at her sides. "Am I really not important enough to you that you don't even care about my problems?"

"Look, kid, of course I care about your problems" Stan countered, as he fumbled for an excuse to try and correct his previous statement. "It's just your minor issues that I can't stand."

Those were the wrong words.

"My minor issues?!" exclaimed Mara furiously, her eyes filled with rage. "So tell me, Stan, what are these minor issues of mine that you just can't stand?"

Now Stan was starting to get angry.

There was a storm outside that was starting to brew, dark clouds were gathering and the rain was starting to pour down. The turbulent weather only reflected the intensity of the argument.

"How about that stubborn head? Or your disputatious attitude? Or all the devices of destruction that are carelessly littered all over the attic?!"

Mara and Stan were now having an intense and furious staredown as they argued, and everyone else that was in the gift shop was too afraid to intervene.

"I'm nothing but a nuisance to you, aren't I?" said Mara angrily. "I bet you don't even need me."

"Well, maybe I don't."

Lightning flashed from the storm outside.

Everyone gasped.

Stan knew that he had taken it too far. He realized his slip, and had regretted it the instant he said it, but he was too furious at Mara to care about it too much. He only glared angrily at her and watched as she melted a bit under his glare.

But the look of hurt was quickly replaced by a look of fury, and Mara shot a savage glare at him that was nastier than any other glare she had given him over the entire Summer.

It was so fierce that Stan actually flinched a bit, and took a tiny step back.

"Fine. Then I guess I'll go" said Mara in a deadpanned voice, as she started to walk towards the door. "If you don't really need me, then I'll just get out of your way."

And with that, she slammed the door shut, and walked outside through the pouring rain of the storm.

No one dared to tell her to come back.

Stan looked at the shut door guiltily, now starting to regret his words. He turned and noticed everyone staring at him with shocked expressions. Dipper and Mabel looked especially appalled.

Stan only glared at them.

"What are you looking at?!" he yelled at them furiously, and everyone instantly turned away in fear, keeping their attention on whatever task it was that they were doing.

Stan sighed, and stared out the window at the tiny blur that was Mara disappearing into the forest as the storm raged on.

The weather seemed to be getting more and more intense with each passing minute, and Stan couldn't help but feel a bit worried for Mara's safety.

"She's a tough kid. She'll be back" he reassured himself. "Mara will be fine..."

Mara had regretted not taking a raincoat with her as she walked through the storm, for she had difficulty seeing through the thick sheets of rain, even as she was trudging through the dark forest.

But then again, she had been too furious to think about things like that.

"Stan's such a two-faced jerk" she muttered to herself, and she started to murmur indiscernible phrases about how much she hated Stan.

Just then, the new cell phone that the triplets shared started to ring, and Mara took it out of her toolbelt and flipped it open.

She groaned when she saw who was trying to call her.

It was Nathaniel.

She let it go to voicemail.

"Hi, you've reached Mabel, Dipper, and Mara Pines" said the recording, each of the triplets saying their own name.

"So please leave a message after the beep!" said Mabel's voice. "Wink! Wink! Smiley face!"

"And we'll try and call back" said Dipper's voice.

"Unless you're Nathaniel" said Mara's voice. "If you are, I hope you fall into the bottomless pit."

The cellphone beeped, and Nathaniel began his message.

"Hello, Mara darling" he said. "I know that you've been blocking all my calls. I've had to purchase a new cell phone each time you block me, but in my world that's not a big deal, really."

Mara groaned.

"Anyways, I wanted to call and tell you I wake up every morning and think of you, and that I'm going to be stopping by the Mystery Shack to pick you up tomorrow."

Mara was very tempted to throw the cellphone into the stream, which was overflowing because of the storm, but remembered that she had actually destroyed their original cell phone for the same reason. Dipper had told her that she would have to pay for the next cell phone if she destroyed the new one that all three of them had chipped in to buy.

"Call me back, Mara! Not a day goes by when I don't think of you!"

Then, the phone clicked, and the message ended.

Mara scrolled down to the voice message mailbox, which looked like it was full. There were thirty eight voice messages, all from Nathaniel.

Mara growled in frustration.

"Could this day get any worse?" she yelled aloud, as if she was challenging Gravity Falls.

Apparently, Gravity Falls accepted her challenge.

She was walking forward, towards the overflowing stream that she had been wanting to throw the cell phone in earlier.

The rain had somehow gotten even thicker somehow, and Mara could now barely see anything.

"Maybe I should head back?" she wondered to herself. Then, this was quickly followed up by stubborn logic.
"And go back to Stan? Never."

She continued to trudge forward anyways, the rain now pouring down so hard that it was almost pushing her body into the ground.

The wind had even picked up speed, pushing her forwards much faster than she wanted to go. It was moving so quickly that she couldn't hear anything but the loud whistle of the wind. It wasn't long before she was digging her feet into the ground and pushing backward, fighting against the wind.

"Maybe it would be a good time to just go home" Mara finally concluded, after she found that she was no longer able to see or hear anything. "At least I'll be out of this storm."

She tried to turn around, but found that she actually couldn't. The wind seemed to have a mind of its own, pushing her even more forward, and further away from home.

"Uh oh" said Mara, finally realizing the true danger that she was in.

"Um, Storm? You can stop, now, I've learned my lesson!" she yelled, but the storm paid no attention to her words.

She screamed in terror as she desperately turned around and tried to run back, but the wind was so much stronger and it pushed against her, forcing her to move further into the woods.

The entire time while she had been trying to fight her way through the wind, she couldn't see anything because of the thick rain, which only added to the fear.

But the wind only seemed to be getting stronger, and it eventually got so powerful that it blew her right off her feet.

As she was flying backwards, Mara pulled out the first invention that she could get her hands on from the toolbelt, which happened to be the net gun.

She fired a net at what was probably the nearest tree, and the net wrapped itself around one of the branches. Mara then grabbed onto the net with both hands, putting the actual gun back into her toolbelt.

For a long moment, the wind continued to blow her back while she held onto the net for dear life, using it as a rope.

She knew that she couldn't keep this up forever.

"HELP!" she screamed. "Dipper! Mabel! Anyone, please!!!!"

Of course, she knew that there was no one there to help her.

She looked forward at the other end of the net, and what she saw sent a chill down her spine.

The net was holding quite fine, she knew because she had woven strands of titanium into it, but the branch that it was holding onto was starting to snap, she could see it weakening at the base.

"Oh, how the cliche stings" she said.

The branch snapped, and Mara flew backwards, screaming as the wind blew her even further into the woods.

She could feel herself falling backwards, and she suddenly felt something wet touch her arms. It was water from the overflowing stream that she had seen earlier.

Mara fell right into the stream, head first.

She struggled to get back to the surface of the water, as the current kept on pulling her downward. She finally let it take her all the way to the bottom of the stream, and the instant she felt the ground, she pushed her feet against it and used it to propel herself upwards.

She gasped and took in a huge breath as she finally surfaced.

She was treading water for only a few seconds before a wave hit her in the face and pushed her back down.

Mara resurfaced, gasping for breath as the strong current of the river was pushing her downstream.

"I've gotta get out of here somehow!"

She caught sight of two rocks that were on opposite sides of the river that she was starting to come close to.

She suddenly got an idea.

Mara yanked out the net gun from earlier, praying that she had stored a backup net inside it.

She had.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she took aim with the gun at the two rocks and fired.

The net swung outwards over the water, and just as Mara had wanted, each of the two ends of the net wrapped around one of the rocks.

There was now an open net where the river would simply push Mara's body into, and from there, she could simply use the net to pull herself out of the river and back onto the land.

Mara prepared her body to hit the net, readying herself for the climb, when suddenly a huge rock appeared in front of the net, and the river was pushing her at a rapid speed right towards it.

Mara screamed as she tried to swim around, going to the left so that she could avoid it, but the river had other ideas. It was pushing her straight forward, right towards the huge rock.

Mara knew that the net would indeed save her from floating further out through the river, but not before she hit that huge rock a few yards in front of it.

The only thing that she could do was scream as the river current carried her backwards at fifty miles an hour towards the rock.

The back of her head was slammed into the rock, and her vision started to go blurry as her body floated right up into the net.

But she was already unconscious once the net had caught her body seemingly lifeless body.

"Mara! Mara, wake up! Oh man, this is bad. This is really, really bad!"

"Don't worry, Dipper. I think she'll be fine."

"She'll be fine?! There's a huge gash on the back of her head! She must have hit it on a rock or something in the river that Soos pulled her out of. Who knows what kind of damage that caused!"

"Shh! Look, Dipper! She's waking up!"

Mara groaned as she opened her eyes to see the people who had been talking.

"Mara!" exclaimed Dipper, hugging his sister tightly. "I-I'm so glad you're alive!"

She cried out in pain from the force of the hug.

"You're crushing her!" said Mabel, prying her brother's arms off of Mara.

"See? What did I tell you?" she said, gesturing towards their confused sister, who was sitting on the floor now as they were kneeling in front of her.

"I told you that Mara be fine!"

Mara looked at them with a bewildered look on her face.

"Who's Mara?" she asked.

Dipper and Mabel's jaws both dropped in shock.

"Y-you're Mara" Dipper stuttered.

"I'm Mara?"

"Oh no..."

He started to rummage his hands through his hair in an anxious way.

"Mara, do you remember who we are?" he asked in vain, gesturing towards Mabel and himself.

Mara squinted in confusion at them.

"I don't think I've ever seen any of you in my entire life."

Dipper paled.

Mabel smiled at Mara.

"Well, I guess it's time to start over!" she said. "I'm Mabel, and this is Dipper."

Dipper was distressed though.

"This is bad. This is really, really, really bad!" he said.

He got up off the floor, and started to pace back and forth anxiously, ranting to himself about how bad of a situation they were in.

"What's so wrong with that?" asked Mabel, as she got up off the ground and then pulled Mara onto her feet.

"We'll simply just remind her about everything! It'll be so much fun! She'll remember in no time!"

"Mabel, that's not how it works!" said Dipper. "I could maybe try and hit her on the head again..."

"Please don't" said Mara. "I may not know anything currently, but I do know that my head really hurts right now."

Just then, she looked down at her soaked clothes.

"Why am I wet?" she asked, then for the first time, she looked around the room where she was, which happened to be the triplets' room.

"Where am I, some kind of dusty, old attic?"

She then looked into the mirror, where she saw her reflection for the first time, and she could also see Dipper and Mabel's reflections in it as well.

"And why do I look exactly like you guys?" she asked. She then gasped. "Are we doppelgangers?"

"No, no" said Mabel. "Although, that would have been really cool. We're triplets, you, me and Dipper. We're family."

Mara looked amazed.

"Whoa..."

She walked up to the mirror, and started to examine her reflection.

While she was busy doing that, Dipper grabbed Mabel and pulled her aside out of Mara's earshot.

"Mabel, do you realize how bad this is?" he said.

"How could I not?" said Mabel in a carefree. "I mean, you've said how bad it was twice already."

"How are you not taking this seriously?" said Dipper. "Our sister just lost her memory! And we don't know if it's permanent or..."

"Dipper, don't you see what this means?" said Mabel excitedly "It means that we'll just have to jog her memory!"

"How? Are you suggesting that we try and reenact the past twelve years of her life?"

Mabel grinned.

"Exactly."

"Hey, guys, what's this white thing underneath this piece of cloth on my head?" asked Mara, as she used one hand to pry the bandana up. "

Her eyes widened when she saw the rest of it, and she let the bandana rest back onto her head as she let go of it.

"I have white hair?! Am I aging early?"

Just then, Stan entered the room, practically plowing the door downwards as he did.

"Soos filled me in!" he said. "Where's the kid? Is she ok?"

He hurried up to Mara, who had been standing in front of the mirror, and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Are you alright, Mara?" he asked, his voice drenched with concern.

Mara looked at him with a bewildered expression.

"Who are you?"

Stan's eyes widened, and he looked back at Dipper and Mabel.

"Kids, spill."

"Mara fell into a river during the storm, and hit her head on something" Dipper explained. "Now she can't remember anything!"

"Anything?"

He couldn't help but feel a bit relieved.

"Even the argument from yesterday?"

"Stan!" exclaimed Dipper.

"But don't worry, Grunkle Stan" said Mabel cheerfully. "We're going to relive the past twelve years to get Mara to remember again!"

"Grunkle?" said Mara in confusion. "What is that, like Grandpa and Uncle?"

She gasped.

"Are you related to me? When I get old, am I gonna look like that?"

Stan scowled.

"Even when she's got amnesia, she never fails to mock me."

"Let's start with hobbies" Mabel said, getting up and walking towards Mara. "Grunkle Stan, you wanna help?"

Stan looked from Mara, who had a very bewildered expression on her face, to Dipper, who had a very worried expression on his face, and Mabel, who had a very eager look on her face.

Even though he knew that his entire thing was technically his fault that Mara got amnesia in the first place, Stan did not really want to be involved in trying to get her to remember twelve years worth of memories.

But then, he remembered that Mara was currently in a very vulnerable position right now, since she couldn't remember anything. He could mold her to be...well, not Mara, and therefore they wouldn't have any more arguments that ended with dangerous consequences like this one.

He then turned towards Dipper and Mabel.

"I guess I've got nothing else remotely interesting going on today other than being old."

Mabel grinned, and then swung her arms around all three of them, putting one arm around Stan's shoulders and the other around Dipper and Mara's shoulders.

She pulled them all together into one hug.

"This is going to be so much fun!" she squealed.

"Yeah" said Stan as a smirk appeared across his face. "This is going to be so much fun..."

"Ok, Mara" said Mabel, as the four of them were sitting in the TV room in front of a large chalkboard that Stan had managed to drag down the stairs.

She wrote a name onto the board with a piece of chalk.

"Your name is Mara (m/n) Pines, or just Mara for short. Although when we were little kids, we all used to call you Storm."

"How come?" asked Mara.

"Because of that patch of white hair" said Mabel, pointing to the bandana that was currently covering it up. "Which, by the way, is just a little birth defect."

Mara frowned.

"I have a birth defect?"

"You're not technically the only one" said Mabel, pointing at Dipper. "Dipper has a birthmark on his forehead the shape of the big dipper."

"Hey!" said Dipper, pulling his hat down further over his forehead.

"And you also have ADHD" said Mabel. "Which is why you can't sit still for too long."

She gestured towards Mara's leg, which was thumping up and down uncontrollably because of a lack of motion.

Mara, however, didn't seem to be able to control it, for it wasn't before her entire body was on the move, jumping up and down and running back and forth wildly.

"I can't stop!!!" she yelled.

"We'll go get your remedy" said Dipper, getting up and walking back up the stairs towards their room, as Mabel followed behind him.

When the two of them were out of earshot, Stan suddenly made his way towards Mara. He managed to sit her down onto the couch, and get her to at least stop jumping up and down.

"Hey, kid" he said cheerfully to her. "What do you say we do one of your hobbies while we wait for the others to get back, eh? Sound like fun?"

Mara grinned.

"Sure, Grunkle Stan" she said. "So, what are we gonna do?"

"You were right, Grunkle Stan, this is fun!" said Mara, giggling as she painted a streak of sparkly pink paint onto her canvas.

Stan laughed along with her, and painted a streak of red paint onto his own canvas.

They were in the gift shop, painting on two canvases together with paint buckets scattered all over the room, and brushes littered everywhere as well.

Just then, Dipper and Mabel entered the room.

"Stan, there you are!" exclaimed Dipper. "We've been searching the entire Mystery Shack for you and Mara!"

"What are you guys doing?" asked Mabel, gesturing towards all the art supplies that were strewn everywhere. She suddenly gasped.

"Are you finally giving the gift shop that makeover I suggested?"

Stan grinned.

"Oh, you know, just a little painting" he said. "You know, brings out my inner creativity."

Mabel grinned at him, proud that her uncle was finally reaching his inner creativity, while Dipper looked at him with a suspicious look on his face, obviously sensing something going on.

Mara grinned widely, and held up her canvas for her siblings to see.

"What do you think?" she asked jubilantly. "I made it myself!"

On the canvas was a picture of a sparkling white unicorn with rainbow hair, and at the bottom of the picture were the words 'Pure of Heart.'

Dipper was short of words.

"It's very..."

"Beautiful!" exclaimed Mabel, hugging her sister so hard that she lifted her up off the ground. "It's beautiful, Mara! I never knew you were such an artist!"

Mara was smiling as Mabel set her back down onto the ground.

"Thank you!" she said. "It took me forever to make, but I'd say it was totally worth it!"

She held up the painting proudly.

"I'm going to hang it up on my wall!"

Mabel squealed.

"I can help you!"

"Um, Mara, so what do you say we stop the painting and do another hobby of yours?" said Dipper, putting an arm around his sister's shoulders as he started to lead her outside.

"Where are we going?"

"To the shed! I'm going to re-introduce you to all the tools that you use to invent things" said Dipper. "Don't worry, you'll pick it up in a matter of seconds."

Stan's eyes widened, and he hurriedly took Mara from Dipper, and started to redirect her.

"Uh, how about we not go to the shed?" he said. "It's a tiny cramped space that's filled with filth."

Mara's nose wrinkled in disgust.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. Spending time in there is no fun at all!" assured Stan. "How about we do something else, like uh, play dress up!"

Mabel squealed.

"I've got so many clothes that you can try on, Mara! And you're my size, so we don't have to worry about anything not fitting!"

And with that, Stan ushered Mara up the stairs, and Mabel trailed behind eagerly.

The only one who was reluctant to go up was Dipper, who was starting to wonder what exactly was up with Stan.

The rest of the morning was spent trying to 'jog Mara's memory,' as Stan claimed it had been. But most of the time, they had been getting Mara to try on clothes, sing karaoke, and dance to girly pop music.

While Mabel had been having the time of her life, Dipper was extremely skeptical.

They had not done anything that Mara actually liked all morning, and it appeared as if all the girly things that they were doing together were starting to really grow on her.

And whenever he spoke his concerns, Stan only pushed him aside and encouraged more girly hobbies for her.

Stan and Mara were now in the gift shop writing poetry about their true inner feelings.

Stan turned towards his niece.

"So what do you think?"

He held up his piece of paper and cleared his throat, before reading his poem aloud.

"Money's everything

Cash cash cash cash cash cash cash

I ran out of words."

Mara laughed, then held out the poem that she had written on a piece of paper to him.

"Here's my poem" she said, as he took it in his hands. "It took a bit longer to write than yours, but I think it's fairly decent."

"This is a nice poem, Mara" said Stan, not really reading the poem and shoving it into his suit pocket. "Thank you!"

Meanwhile, Dipper and Mabel were secretly watching them from behind the 'employees only' door through a small creek in the door.

"What is that old man playing at?" said Dipper, his eyes narrowing. "There's no way that he just happens to be keeping her away from all the things that she loves."

"I know, right?" said Mabel. "I'm so confuzzled right now!"

Dipper watched the two of them suspiciously.

"We need to get to the bottom of this" he concluded. "But every time I approach him, Stan merely pushes me away..."

He then looked at Mabel, and an idea formed into his head.

"Mabel, why don't you approach him?" he said suddenly.

"Me?"

"Yes, you!" said Dipper. "Think about it, Stan loves you! He doesn't have it in him to push you away even if you asked him an uncomfortable question."

"Well, I have been practicing my Stan-charming skills" said Mabel confidently, thinking about Dipper's idea in her head. "Ok, I'll do it!"

Dipper smiled.

"Great! The sooner we figure all this out, the better" he said, turning back and watching Grunkle Stan with a suspicious face.

"He can't lie forever."

Later that day, Mabel walked up to Stan, who was cleaning up the gift shop that they had left a mess in from the painting while Mara was upstairs in the attic.

Stan noticed Mabel making her way towards him.

"Oh hey, kid" he said. "What's up?"

"How about you tell me 'what's up'" said Mabel, squinting suspiciously at her uncle as if she were interrogating him. "Hmm?"

"What do you mean?" Stan asked.
"You've been exposing Mara to a lot of things that she doesn't normally like, like artwork, karaoke, poetry" said Mabel. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're hiding some sort of secret-y secret. Hmm?"

She leaned in close to his face and looked into his eyes with a skeptical gaze.

Stan gulped.

"Ok! Alright, kid, you caught me!" he said, backing away from her. "I've been trying to change Mara to be just a little bit different than how she was before. There, happy?"

Mabel's eyes widened.

"Grunkle Stan, how could you?" she exclaimed.

"I know, I know, when I put it like that, it sounds like some really horrible thing to do" he said.

"I'm telling Dipper!" said Mabel, and she started to walk away, but Stan stopped her before she could, running in front of her and blocking her path.

"Whoa, hey there, kid!" he exclaimed. "Before you do something rash, why don't you think about it this way: your sister is currently in a very susceptible state. With no memories, we can easily just turn her into someone who doesn't get into arguments a lot, that way accidents like that don't happen anymore."

"I don't know..." said Mabel uncertainty, knowing that that did sound like a good idea when he put it that way, but still feeling like it wasn't the right thing to do.

Stan bent down onto one knee so that he was at her level.

"Look, Mabel, haven't you always wanted a sister?" he said. "I mean someone who likes to do the same things as you do. Think about it: entire afternoons spent shopping at the mall, mornings trying on different outfits with each other, someone who you can talk about boys with..."

Mabel did often wish that Mara would do all of those things with her, and it looked like this was the one opportunity for her to do so.

She looked back towards her uncle.

"Ok, Grunkle Stan. I'm in."

"OMG, Mara, you look so cute!!!" squealed Mabel, as she twirled her fingers through Mara's hair.

Currently, the two girls were upstairs in their room, doing each other's hair. Mara was sitting down on a chair somehow managing to stay perfectly still, while Mabel was weaving her sister's hair into a long french braid.

Mabel had never done anything like this with her before, exempting the rare times when Mara would do the occasional makeover with Mabel just to spend time with her.

This was the first time that they had ever done something girly together, and Mara was enjoying it.

"Really?" said Mara timidly. "Th-thanks Mabel!"

She looked into the mirror at herself.

Mabel had taken off the bandana to do her hair, so the white lightning bolt shaped streak of hair was showing.

"I can't wait to take you out to the mall later today!" squealed Mabel. "I've had my eyes on this dress that I knew would look perfect on you!"

Suddenly, the door was slammed open, and standing right there at the newly opened door was Dipper, who had a furious look on his face.

"Mabel!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing?"
He walked up to the girls, and stopped in front of Mabel, who dropped the half-finished braid.

"You were supposed to get to Mara away from this stuff, not join her!"

"But Dipper, I've never gotten to do anything like this with Mara!" said Mabel. "Can't you just let me have some fun while it lasts?"

"Not when your fun could potentially turn our sister into a helpless, boy-loving damsel!" exclaimed Dipper. "I need the old Mara back!"

He held up the journal for Mabel to see.

"I've been trying to build this thing in the journal that acts as a homing beacon for monsters, which I can study for scientific purposes!" he said. "But obviously, I can't build it without Mara!"

"Well, I want the new Mara!"

"I want the old Mara!"

"Hey!" a new voice intervened, and the three of them turned to see Grunkle Stan at the door. "I was summoned by the sound of children fighting. What's going on in here?"

Dipper pointed an accusing finger at Stan.

"You!" he shouted. "This is all your fault! You're trying to turn Mara into an entirely different person for your own benefit!"

"Hey, it's not just for my benefit" argued Stan. "I mean think about it: if we could just tweak Mara just a little bit from how she used to be before, she wouldn't get into any more fights ever again. It would be advantageous for everyone, including her."

"She has amnesia, Stan!" yelled Dipper. "We're not trying to take advantage of that! How would you feel if you had amnesia, and we used that to step all over you, huh?"
"There's no way you'd do that if that ever happened" said Stan. "You'd just try to get the old me back!"

"Which is exactly what I'm trying to do to Mara!" yelled Dipper. "I'm trying to get Mara back, not get another Mabel!"

The three of them broke into a huge, heated argument, and Mara watched them all and cowered in the background.

She hated conflict now, and she couldn't stand to watch her family fight.

Too afraid to get involved, she snuck out the attic and climbed down the stairs as quickly as she could, managing to run outside of the Mystery Shack.

She froze when she finally was outside again, unsure of what to do now. The cool and crisp air was helping her think, but she still had no idea what she was going to do.

What were they talking about when they mentioned the old Mara that they needed to get back? Did she not like all the things that she had done with Stan and Mabel before she had lost her memory?

Memory.

Just thinking about the word made her head hurt, for the inevitable feeling of confusion had always been in the back of her mind ever since she first woke up. It was as if it was lurking there in the shadows of her mind, waiting to consume her when her guard was down.

Mara pulled a bandana out of her toolbelt, and tied it over the white hair, feeling a bit more comfortable when it was hidden once again.

Suddenly, there was the sound of tires screeching, and she looked up to see a sleek, expensive white car driving right towards her.

Thinking that it was going to run her over, she screamed, and held her arms out protectively in front of her, waiting for the blow.

But the car simply parked right in front of her.

Mara opened her eyes slowly, and saw the car door opening.

It was none other than Nathaniel who got out of it.

He stepped out onto the ground in front of Mara.

"Greetings, Mara Pines, my darling!" he said. "I have come for you, just as I said I would yesterday."

Mara looked at him with a clueless expression.

"I'm sorry, but do I know you?"
Nathaniel was confused at first, wondering why she had used the polite phrase 'I'm sorry' to him, and also why she didn't seem to remember who he was.

She also seemed to be acting differently than how she normally did. Usually, her body would tense and she would be readying herself for a fight whenever she was around him.

But this time, while she was still as tense as she had ever been before, she did not appear to be looking for any fights. She looked...intimidated by him.

Nathaniel walked in a circle around her, Mara seeming to get more frightened as he encircled her, and he managed to get a look at her from behind.

On the back of her head was a rather nasty looking gash.

Instantly, Nathaniel knew exactly what was going on.

An idea was starting to form in his mind, and he couldn't help but smirk at the thought of it.

He finished circling her, and then came in front of her.

"Why, don't you remember, my dear Mara?" he asked in a honey-sweet tone. "I'm Nathaniel Northwest V, your boyfriend."

"I have a boyfriend?"

Nathaniel nodded, and took her hand into his. She flinched at the touch, obviously uneasy.

"You must have forgotten" he said. "As anyone who suffers from amnesia does. But I'm here to help you."

Mara looked into his eyes.

He could see that there was nothing but innocence in her eyes. Nathaniel could see that she was obviously way too naive. He couldn't help but grin at how vulnerable she was right now.

"Really?" she asked, her voice taking a hopeful tone. "My family is fighting inside, and I can't help but feel like it's my fault. I don't know what to do."

Nathaniel smiled, and took her other hand.

"Come with me" he said. "My family hardly ever fights. With our vast riches, we can find a cure for your little amnesia, and we can be together...forever."

Of course, Nathaniel had no intention of actually finding a cure for the amnesia. He was planning on keeping her in the dark for as long as he could, and maybe even finding a way to make the amnesia permanent.

Mara smiled.

"Ok" she said.

Nathaniel grinned. This had gone so much better than he had thought it would before he had arrived here.

"Excellent!" he said. "Now come along, darling, we mustn't keep my aunt and uncle waiting for too long!"

Nathaniel guided Mara into the car, and then got in himself, slamming the door shut behind him.

And with that, the car drove away towards the Northwest Mansion.

Stan, Dipper, and Mabel had been fighting furiously amongst themselves when they had heard the sound of a screeching car coming from outside the Mystery Shack.

They had obviously stopped their arguing, and rushed towards the triangular window, where they could see Nathaniel getting out of a fancy white car that was parked in front of Mara.

They had been watching in horror while Nathaniel was manipulating Mara, for it appeared that he had found out that she had amnesia, and the two of them got into the car and drove off.

"Mara!" yelled Dipper, now worried for his sister as the three of them ran down the stairs as quickly as they could and bolted outside.

But it was too late, for the car was already disappearing from sight.

Mabel turned on Dipper furiously.

"This is all your fault!" she screeched.

"My fault?" yelled Dipper. "How is this my fault?"

"If you had just left me and Mara alone, you, me and Stan wouldn't have gotten into that stupid argument, we wouldn't have scared Mara away, and Nathaniel wouldn't have gotten to her!"

"No, it's not my fault" said Dipper. "It's Stan's fault!" he yelled, directing his fury at Stan.

"What?" said Stan with disbelief.

"You turned Mara into a helpless little girl!" screamed Dipper. "If it wasn't for you, she wouldn't have gotten scared away when we started that argument in the first place, and she also wouldn't have been gullible enough get tricked by Nathaniel!"

"Yeah" said Mabel, agreeing with her brother since what he was saying made sense. "And technically, it was you who started this whole mess when you hurt her feelings by saying that you didn't need her."

"The kid was practically asking for a fight!" said Stan. "And besides, Mara's as tough as nails. She always comes bouncing back, no matter how many times you try and tear her down."

"But that doesn't mean that your words don't hurt!" said Mabel. "I know Mara acts like things like that don't get under her skin, but they actually do! When she lost her memories, her walls came down and she became vulnerable. Believe it or not, that soft side to her has always been there, and it's just been exposed because of the amnesia."

Stan was completely taken aback by that statement, for he couldn't help but feel like Mabel had just described himself.

Dipper stood with his sister against Stan.

"Mabel and I are going after Nathaniel to get our sister back" he said determinedly. "I think you need to stay here and get your priorities straight. You've been doing nothing but using Mara's amnesia to your own benefit...just like Nathaniel."

And with that, Dipper and Mabel took off and started to run towards Northwest Mansion, leaving Stan behind them.

For a long moment, Stan just stood there, unsure of what to do. He knew that the right thing to do probably was to help Dipper and Mabel get Mara back, but he really didn't feel like doing it at the moment.

He was currently thinking about how Dipper had said that he wasn't any different from Nathaniel.

"That self-centered jerk?" said Stan to himself. "I'm nothing like him."

But then, Wendy's words from when she was the lifeguard at the pool suddenly echoed through his mind.

"I never miss an opportunity to soak a self-centered jerk who doesn't care about anyone but himself."

She had immediately thrown a water balloon at him after she had said that, and she had soaked Nathaniel before that.

Stan sighed, and shoved his hands into his suit pockets.

However, he felt his hand brush over something. Confused, Stan pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.

It was Mara's poem that she had given to him earlier.

Stan uncrumpled it, and started to read the poem to himself. It didn't appear to be a half-hearted haiku like his was.

The uncertainty feels almost like being lost,

Where you don't know where you're going,

Following the entrails of the mind

That only lead you deeper into the dark woods

The only way out is to trust the stars,

Even if they don't seem to guide you in the right direction

The one thing that I have is hope that I'll find my way back,

And I hold fast to it like it's my lifeline

Stan felt himself getting crushed by guilt after he read that poem.

He sighed, and then carefully folded up the poem and put it back into his suit pocket.

He knew what he had to do.

Mabel and Dipper were still running towards Northwest Mansion, but unfortunately they weren't getting very far. They were only just starting to reach town, and they were getting tired from running already.

Dipper panted in exhaustion, and then finally came to a stop.

"M-Mabel...w-w-wait...for m-me" he said between breaths.

Mabel was glad to have an excuse to stop, for she was exhausted herself.

She bent over and panted as well.

"W-we're never...gonna reach...Northwest Mansion...at this rate" she said between breaths.

As if on cue, a red car suddenly pulled up by them, and the driver's car window rolled down.

It was Stan.

"Kids!" he said urgently, gesturing towards the empty back seats. "Get in!"

"Stan!" said Mabel in relief, as she and Dipper hurriedly hopped into the car.

Stan didn't even give them enough time to fasten their seatbelts before slamming on the gas and gunning it towards Northwest Mansion.

"I can't believe it, you...you came back!" said Dipper.

"Yeah yeah, kid, don't give me that overused statement" said Stan in his usual grumpy tone.

"What changed your mind?" Mabel asked, though it was clear that she was looking for a particular answer.

Stan frowned.

"Look, if you're wanting me to say 'it was more like a change of heart,' forget it" he snapped.

That was a good enough answer for Dipper and Mabel, for both of them knew that he had good intentions.

"So, what's the plan?" asked Stan.

Dipper and Mabel both gave him confused looks.

"Plan?" asked Mabel.

"What, you're not telling me that you were just gonna bust into the mansion and demand for that scumbag to hand over your sister, are you?"

Mabel laughed nervously, and started to play with her hair.

"Um, well..."

Stan sighed.

"Well at least tell me that you at least have some idea of how to get the real Mara back" he said. "Everything would be a whole lot easier if we had some way to get all her memories back."

Dipper was suddenly struck by an idea.

"Wait a minute, that's it!" he said excitedly, suddenly pulling out the vial that he had pocketed from yesterday that Mara had been wanting to use on him.

"This is a serum that Mara created yesterday" he said. "It's designed to restore lost memories. Mara was aiming for curing forgetfulness with this thing..."

"...But we can use it to get Mara's memories back!" said Stan.

Dipper grinned.

"Exactly."

Mabel frowned.

"Wait, why didn't you tell us before?" she said, hitting her brother on the arm. "It would have saved us a lot of trouble!"

Dipper scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"I, uh...well I kinda forgot about it."

"I should have just let Mara use that vial on you" said Stan.

"But there's a catch" said Dipper. "She said that the effects of the serum are only valid if it has not expired..."

"And?"

"And, it only takes twenty four hours for the serum to expire. You can tell by its color."

Dipper held up the vial, which Stan specifically remembered had contained a purple liquid in it before. However, the liquid inside the vial was now a reddish purple color, and it looked like the potion was only turning more red.

"What?!" exclaimed both Mabel and Stan.

"What time yesterday did Mara create that serum?" asked Stan.

"I think it was about 8:00 pm" said Dipper.

Stan looked down at his watch.

It was 7:45 pm.

"We have to hurry" said Stan, slamming on the gas even harder. The car shot forward at speeds over seventy miles per hour, heading right towards Northwest Mansion.

When the mansion had finally come into view, Stan slammed on the brake, and yanked the wheel to the side.

Dipper and Mabel were thrust to one side of the car as it swung around and parked perfectly along the curb.

Stan looked back at his niece and nephew.

"You kids ok back there?"

Mabel was currently pressed up against Dipper, whose face was squished into the window.

"We're good" said Dipper, his words a bit muffled and in pain.

They got out of the car, slammed the doors shut, and then looked up at Northwest Mansion.

It was huge.

It was like a giant, aged house with nice shrubbery in the front, and a huge wall surrounding it. In front of the three of them was a locked gate.

Stan looked down at his watch.

It was 7:50 pm.

"Ok, we've got ten minutes to jump this fence, find Mara, and use this serum" said Stan, holding up the vial with the purple-red liquid in it that Dipper had entrusted him with. He stowed it inside his suit pocket for safekeeping.

"Ok" said Stan, looking back up at the rather tall fence. "I don't suppose any of you has a key to this thing, do you?"

Dipper sighed.

He picked up a nearby rock, and walked up to the gate. He then used the rock to pound on the gate's hinges, which gave way after several blows.

The front gate fell right forward, leaving a huge opening for them to enter.

The three of them hurried forward and started to run towards the mansion, which only looked more intimidating as they got closer.

"How are we supposed to find Mara in less than ten minutes?" said Dipper worriedly.

"Ah, darling, might I say that you look as lovely as always?" said Nathaniel's voice from an open window on the left side of the mansion.

"Thank you...I guess" said Mara's voice uneasily.

The three of them looked up at the window, which was on the very top floor.

Mabel smiled.

"It's grappling hook time!" she exclaimed, taking out her grappling hook. She aimed at the window, and fired.

Unfortunately, the hook went into the window instead of catching on the ledge underneath it, and they heard the sound of it smacking someone.

"Ow! My face!" Nathaniel's voice howled.

Mabel pulled back the hook a little, and it managed to catch onto the bottom of the window inside.

"Go go go!" she yelled, and with that, the three of them started to climb the rope, first Stan, then Dipper, and last Mabel.

Stan was the first to climb through the window, and he bent over and quickly helped his niece and nephew through the window as well.

Then the three of them turned to face Nathaniel.

They were in a rather spacious and elegant room that was probably Nathaniel's bedroom. It had high ceilings, navy blue walls, a polished dark brown floor, and a huge king-sized bed. There was also a grandfather clock leaning against the wall.

Nathaniel and Mara had been sitting on a red carpet on the floor, Nathaniel with his arm around Mara's shoulders.

He was using his free hand to rub his cheek where the grappling hook had hit him.

He then looked back at the three intruders, and smirked.

"Well, if it isn't the Pines family" he said, as he stood up along with Mara, and let go of her so that he could cross his arms over his chest. "What a lovely surprise."

"Give me back my sister, you jerk!" demanded Dipper.

Nathaniel only laughed at that request.

"You're really funny, lad" he said, draping his arm around Mara and pulling her closer to him. "Your sister is mine now."

"Mara, listen to me!" said Stan, but she took a step back from him as he got closer to her. "You probably already know this, but I've been been lying to you from the start."

"Lying to your own niece, eh?" said Nathaniel. "Now that's low, even for you."

"Hey, stay out of this, sleazeball" Stan snapped at him. He then turned back towards Mara.

"I'm really sorry, kid" he said sincerely. "And it took a rather sappy poem to realize that I was wrong."

Mara smiled at him, knowing exactly which poem he was talking about.

Dipper looked up at grandfather clock, and looked at the time.

It was 7:55 pm.

"Stan, the memory serum!" he yelled suddenly. "Hurry up and get it to Mara before it expires!"

Stan quickly pulled out the vial, which was almost completely red by now.

He, Dipper, and Mabel stepped closer to Nathaniel, who clutched Mara more tightly as they got closer.

"It's over, Northwest" said Dipper. "It's three against one, now hand over my sister!"

"Why don't we let little Mara decide, huh?" said Nathaniel, letting go of her and then gesturing towards them and himself.

"It looks like you've got a choice, darling."

Mara was very indecisive though. The conflict that had been raging around her was starting to cloud her judgement, and the intensity of everyone's stares at her was only making it worse.

"I...I..."

Suddenly, Mabel had an idea.

She walked up closer to her sister.

"Listen here, Mara" she said. "Stan's not the only one who's been lying to you. Nathaniel over here has been lying to you as well! Before you hit your head, you hated him, more than anyone else in the world! And I can prove it!"

She grabbed the cell phone from Mara's toolbelt that the three of them shared, and opened the voice messages mailbox.

She pressed a button, and a few of the voice messages that Nathaniel had recorded started to play:

"Oh, Mara! I love you just as much as you hate me! I wish that you would be mine!"

"Darling, I know that you loathe me, but time will bring your heart to me eventually!"

"I know that you've been blocking all my calls. I've had to purchase a new cell phone each time you block me, but in my world that's not a big deal, really."

Mabel stopped playing the messages there, and let that all sink in.

There was a look of remembrance that was starting to cross over Mara's face, and Mabel could see the gears turning.

Mara turned towards Nathaniel, whose eyes were wide with panic.

"You...you lied to me" she said. "I...I hated you!"

She walked right back with her family, right next to Stan, who had the serum in his hands.

"Even though I'm sure that I'm never going to live this down later, I want to remember again" she declared, and while her voice was a bit shaky, they could all hear a bit of her old determination laced with the words she spoke.

Stan grinned.

"Tip your head down, Mara" he said.

Mara obliged, and Stan uncorked the vial.

He was about to pour the red substance onto her head, when suddenly Nathaniel lunged at them from the side.

He snatched the vial out of Stan's hands, and retreated a few feet away from them.

"No!" screamed Dipper and Mabel.

"Yes!" triumphed Nathaniel.

But Stan had a huge smirk on his face.

"Uh, you might wanna check that vial" he said with a confident tone.

"What?"

Nathaniel tipped the vial downward, and the serum started to pour out.

But something wasn't right. The liquid was very thick and viscous, and it took a while for it to pour down onto the floor.

This substance, whatever it was, was definitely not a serum.

Nathaniel bent down onto one knee, stuck a finger in the red liquid, and then raised it up to his nose.

He sniffed it.

"Paint?!" he exclaimed. "You gave me red paint?"

Stan laughed triumphantly, and then produced the real serum from the inside of his suit.

While this one was mostly red, it still had a bit of purple swirling around inside it.

Stan looked down at his watch.

It was 7:59 pm.

He grinned.

"And just in time."

Before anyone could interfere, he poured the real serum onto Mara's head, and the thin liquid fell easily from the vial.

The instant the substance touched her head, Mara's eyes started to glow a purple hue, before finally dying down back to their normal color.

As they were all watching her in anticipation, she looked back up at them, and smirked.

"I'm back."

"Yes!" Stan, Mabel, and Dipper cheered.

"No!" exclaimed Nathaniel.

"Oh, and that reminds me" said Mara, walking up to Nathaniel.

Before he could react, she brought out the ice gun, and fired it right at him.

The ray of ice hit him right in the chest, and spread until Nathaniel was encased in a block of ice, a surprised look frozen on his face.

"Oh don't worry, he'll be fine" said Mara, as she put the ice gun away. "When that ice melts, he'll just have a very mild case of hypothermia."

The four of them were now back at the Mystery Shack, filling Mara in on everything that she had missed over the past day.

Mabel had wrapped Mara's head with a bandage to help with the gash.

"Wait wait wait" said Mara. "So you guys are telling me that I actually was wearing a dress at one point?!"

"Yup" said Mabel, holding up a camera. "I've got a picture right here."

In the picture, Mara was wearing a knee length purple dress that had short sleeves and lace.

Mara scowled.

"Burn it."

"Don't worry, Mara, I promise I'll get rid of it" said Mabel, though Dipper noticed that she had her fingers crossed behind her back.

Mabel then bent over and whispered to him.

'Total Scrapbook-ortunity moment!'

"So let me get this straight" said Mara. "You guys were basically using me all day while I had amnesia, and never actually tried to get me back."

"I was!" said Dipper.

"Well, why didn't you use the serum before Nathaniel found me?"

"I forgot about it!"

Everyone started to laugh as Mara sighed, and even Dipper couldn't help himself. It wasn't an actual argument. More like playful jabs at each other.

When the laughter finally died down, Stan turned towards Mara.

"Look kid, in case you don't remember me apologizing back there, I'm really sorry about everything" he said. "About trying to change you, and also for hurting your feelings in the first place."

"Ah, don't fret about it, Stan" said Mara, as she pounded a fist against her puffed out chest. "Nothing gets past this thick skin!"

She said that with a really tough voice, but Stan could see what Mabel meant about the softness in her eyes. Even though she wasn't admitting it outwards, this was actually a very meaningful moment for her, and she was now beginning to heal.

Stan couldn't help but think that it was like talking to a younger version of himself.

He laughed, and ruffled her hair, the bandana coming a bit crooked.

Mara laughed along with him, and re-adjusted it.

"So, about this thing?" said Stan, pulling out the poem from his suit pocket. A huge smirk crossed over his features.

Mara frowned.

"Can we please burn that thing too? I don't ever wanna read it again."

"Oh, so you want to destroy, this thing?" said Stan teasingly, standing up and holding it out in front of her.

"So that you won't get embarrassed whenever I read it?"

"Stan, don't you dare."

"The uncertainty feels almost like being lost,

Where you don't know where you're going,

Following the entrails of the mind..."

Stan laughed as he read her poem aloud, and a deep crimson blush flourished across Mara's cheeks.

"Stan, give it here!" she said playfully, jumping up and trying and grab it from him, but Stan held it just out of her reach.

All of this was mostly a joke, and Stan could tell that she wasn't genuinely upset because she couldn't stop laughing, and it was only a half-hearted attempt.

He chortled, and continued to read the poem aloud. He started to run all around the Mystery Shack as Mara was chasing him from behind, both of them laughing uncontrollably.

"Ok, so you don't want the serum because it's just a bit expired" said Stan, dropping the vial onto the ground. The remnants of potion were now seeping through the floor.

"No big deal. I've got more merchandise to sell" he said. "Like...that thing there."

He gestured towards creepy purple-tinted monster that looked like a blob mixture of hands, feet, tongues, and eyeballs.

"No, not a fan? Too many orphosis?" he said. He then moved on to a small chest.

"Alright. I can tell what you're looking for..." he said, opening the chest and taking something out of it. He held the object out to the stranger. It appeared to be an old hand.

"...is this disembodied hand!"

The stranger looked at the price tag that was attached to the hand skeptically.

"Why's it so expensive?" said Stan. "Well, that's quite a tale. And it's called hands off!"

Lightning flashed outside as he said the last two words of that sentence.

He then grabbed the object that the stranger had been holding, a red eyeball that was glowing slightly yellow.

"No seriously, hands off, that's not for sale" said Stan, putting the object down onto a nearby desk. "Alright...Hands off!"

Stan had taken the triplets to an outdoor place called the 'Gravity Falls Swap Meet: Where Parking Lots Meet Garbage Dumps.'

"Swap meets, swap meets, swap meets!" exclaimed Mabel excitedly. "Look at all theses priceless treasures!"

She ran up to a table, where there was a row of halloween themed bobbleheads.

"Bobbly heads!" she exclaimed, running her fingers over their heads to make them move back and forth.

"They agree with everything I say!"

Dipper walked up to a stand of glasses, and placed a pair of them over his eyes. He kept his hold on the purple balloon that he had been holding.

"Professor glasses!" he said. "They make me look like a genius!"

Dipper turned around and tried to walk forward, but the glasses were distorting his vision, so he fell right into the stand of glasses, knocking them all to the ground.

He dropped his balloon in the process.

Mara walked up to Old Man McGucket's stand, which was labelled 'Whosits and Whatsits.'

She took a peek inside the small cardboard box that was sitting on his stand.

"So, come to buy some kajiggers of mine?" asked McGucket rather cheerfully.

"Actually, yes" said Mara, as she rummaged through the box.

"Oh cool, an ethanol-based magnitude furnisher!" she said, pulling out a small part from the box. "These are extremely rare! Where did you get one of these?"

"Oh, that old do-hicky?" said McGucket. "I built it myself!"

"It figures" said Mara. "How much are you willing to sell it for?"

"That's my most expensive item there, missy!"

Mara reached into her pocket, and brought out the small invention. She placed it onto the counter in front of him.

"This is my own invention that I call the tidal-accelerator" said Mara. "This thing is capable of generating hundred-foot tsunamis that can wipe out entire cities. Never let it touch water."

"You're little doomsday device couldn't have been in safer hands!" said McGucket cheerfully, taking the device from her as she pocketed the device that she wanted from him.

He placed it on the counter.

McGucket then bent over, and started to chug water from a rusty pail. However, a little bit of it spilled out onto the counter and started to stream towards the tidal-accelerator.

"NO!" screamed Mara.

But fortunately, McGucket grabbed the device just before the water touched it.

"Ah, I'm just messing with you!" he said, as he started to laugh kookily.

As he was laughing, Mara slowly backed away, until she reached her family.

Stan was looking around the swap meet, when something suddenly caught his eye: a table that was full of shiny gold watches.

He hurriedly made his way towards them.

"Look at the faux-gold beauties!" he said eagerly. "They've mob boss quality!"

The lady behind that counter was a stout, and quite ugly, woman with white hair, unhealthy skin, and a crooked nose.

She was reading a magazine, and she glared back at Stan.

He turned around, and put his hands on the triplets' shoulders.

"Alright, kids" he said, as he cracked his knuckles. "Prepare to watch the delicate art of the deal."

He then turned around, and put his hand on the table carelessly.

"Hey, hag-face, how much for the junk watches?" he said with a rude tone.

"They are not for sale" said the woman. "Not for you, Stan Pines!"

Just then, the wind started to pick up, and it blew leaves towards the Pines.

"The wind whispers your name!" the woman hissed.

The wind rustled past Tyler's wind chimes, which all went off loudly when it did so.

"Shush you guys!" said Tyler.

"Alright, I get it, you're creepy" said Stan, taking out some money, and slapping it down on the woman's table. He grabbed a gold watch off of it.

"Less talkie more watchie."

But the woman grabbed Stan's wrist, and her eyes started to glow.

"Get your hands off my watch!"

Stan dropped the watch and yanked his hand away from the woman.

"Eesh! Freakshow!" he said, as he and the triplets walked away.

"Wow" said Mabel. "Someone needs to work on their social skills."

"And their observation skills" said Stan, pointing to his wrist. "Boom!"

The triplets all turned to see Stan wearing a gold watch on his wrist that he had supposedly 'dropped.'

"Good job, heisting hands!" said Stan, as he held up his hands to his face and kissed both of them.

Mara flinched at the sight of that.

"Eesh, have you been hanging out with Gabe Benson or something?"
But Dipper took a more skeptical approach.

"Grunkle Stan, are you seriously shoplifting from a witch?" he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "That sounded like a curse."

"That sounded like a curse" said Stan, mocking Dipper's words. He suddenly turned towards everyone in the swap meet.

"Hey, anyone wanna buy a wet blanket?" he announced, gesturing towards Dipper. "We've got a wet blanket for sale!"

Everyone started to laugh, except for Toby, who had actually been selling wet blankets at his stand.

"I can't survive in this market."

The next morning, Stan woke up to his usual alarm, and he hopped up out of bed and walked into his bathroom.

"Ha! Curse" he said, as he walked up to his mirror. "Yeah, right."

But upon seeing his own hideous reflection in the mirror, he yelped in shock.

His grey hair was messy, his eyes were red, and there were bags underneath his eyes as well.

He then squinted at his own reflection.

"Wait, is this curse ugly or normal ugly?" he asked himself, finally concluding that this was actually how he normally looked in the morning.

Stan then laughed.

"Looks like I got off scot free."

He held up his hands...only to find that he had no hands. Instead, his wrists were glowing pink on the end of them where his hands should have been.

Stan screamed so loudly that it was a miracle that none of the triplets had been woken up.

Later that morning after everyone had gotten up, Stan was walking from the kitchen, wearing oven mitts over his wrists so that the triplets couldn't see his lack of hands.

He was carrying a pan of breakfast towards the table where Dipper, Mara, and Mabel were sitting, trying to look as casual as possible.

"Alright, kiddos, breakfast time" he announced. "Prepare yourselves for-"

It was just then that Stan accidentally dropped the pan and oven mitts, revealing his missing hands.

Waddles squealed in surprise, and scrambled underneath the table while Mabel screamed.

"AAAAHHHHHH! NO HANDS! GRUNKLE STAN, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HANDS?"

Stan shrugged casually.

"So I might have got cursed a little" he said, but then he held up his left wrist, where the gold watch was still clasped around.

"But the watch looks nice, right?"

Suddenly, the face of the watch was replaced with an image of the hideous woman that he had stolen it from, and she appeared to be talking directly to Stan.

"Foolish man! Leaving hands find wicked face" she screeched. "You must return what isn't yours and-"

Stan, with a rather bored expression on his face, reached down and picked up an oven mitt with his mouth, and then stuck it over his left wrist and the watch.

"Ah, that's better!" he said.

Dipper groaned in irritation.

"Ugh, I told you, Grunkle Stan, you've gotta give that watch back and apologize!"

Stan frowned, pulled up a chair in front of the table, and sat down.

"What?" he said. "That old crone should apologize to me for denying my right to buy cheap junk!"

He then flipped the oven mitt off of his left wrist.

"I don't need hands!" he said. "I've got self respect!"

He then tried to grab a mug of coffee off the table, but without hands he ended up dropping it instead, the coffee spilling all over the table.

He then tried to grab a piece of bacon that was sitting on the table on top of a fork, but he accidentally hit the fork instead, and the bacon flew right into his face. It was now sticking on his glasses.

"Mara, would you make your uncle some hands, you little renegade?"

A few minutes later, Mara stuck a pair of prosthetic hands that she had created onto Stan's glowing pink wrists.

"There you go" she said cheerfully. "One pair of hands for my favorite uncle!"

She shot him a bright and innocent smile.

Stan was too excited about his new hands to notice her peculiar shift in character.

He got up out of his chair, and started to walk towards the gift shop.

"Alright, let's do this!" he said.

Mara remained standing there when he was out of earshot, with her hands behind her back.

"Just be warned, those mechanical hands are sensitive to water, sweating, very slight changes in temperature, and any type of movement" she said, keeping the 'innocent' smile plastered across her face.

She smiled even wider as she heard the sound of electricity sparking from the prosthetic hands disfunctioning, and Stan's screams as he was electrocuted.

Stan dropped onto the ground, the smoking remains of the prosthetic hands still clasped around his wrists. He looked exhausted.

"Mabel, sweetie, will you make your uncle some hands?"

Mabel stuck her homemade hands onto Stan's wrists, which were just pink paper cups with forks taped on the end of them along with flowers.

"La la la!" she sang as she placed them onto Stan. "Hand makeover!"

She sprinkled some glitter over Stan's new hands.

"Say hello to your new hands!" said Mabel. "In quotes."

Stan observed his new hands in awe, pretty sure that they wouldn't electrocute him like Mara's hands had.

"Great work, kid!" he said, as he used his new hands to try and ruffle her niece's hair. But unfortunately, the forks ended up getting caught in Mabel's hair, and so as he pulled upwards he accidentally pulled some of her hair out.

"See, hands are overrated!" he said, as he stood up confidently.

"I'm ready to take on the day!"

Just then, Lazy Susan walked by the Mystery Shack, and Stan used his new hands to lift his fez up to her.

"Ma'am" he said with a charming tone.

Lazy Susan screamed as Stan waved at her with his new hands, and one of the forks got stuck in his face.

Later that day, Stan took the triplets bowling, and it was his turn to roll the ball.

Stan grabbed the ball with his new hands, and then pulled his arm back to throw it while Tyler was walking by behind them.

However, his hand fell off along with the bowling ball, and it tripped Tyler, who fell forwards onto his face. This caused the bowling ball that he was holding to go flying up into the air, and strike a TV screen down from the ceiling.

The TV screen fell downwards onto the ground, and almost crushed another bowler.

Stan was now at the grocery store, pushing a cart with a smile on his face, when suddenly a familiar grocery store employee approached him.

"Hey, Mr. Pines!" he said cheerfully, as he held up an armful of eggs. "Should we play toss me a dozen eggs like we always do?"

"No, Jimmy, not today!" yelled Stan, holding his new hands up in front of him in protest.

But Jimmy had already thrown the eggs at Stan, and they hit him all over his body as he fell down onto the ground.

"Not today!!!!"

Just then, the triplets approached Stan, Mabel holding a shopping list and Dipper and Mara each holding a bottle of pitt cola.

They were all looking at him with the same frown.

"Let's find that witch" said Stan.

That night, the Pines were approaching a dark and mysterious cave, and Mabel was leading the way since she had the directions.

"According to the Swap Meet pamphlet" she said. "The hand witch lives in her hand witch cave on hand witch mountain."

"Although why we didn't guess that is beyond me" said Mara.

"Stop saying hand witch" said Stan.

The four of them walked into the dark cave slowly, Stan providing the only light since he had two flashlights taped onto his new hands.

Suddenly, Mabel felt someone tap her shoulder.

She shuddered at the touch.

"Mara, not funny" she said.

"It wasn't me" said Mara. "Sheesh, why do you guys always blame me for everything?"

"Grunkle Stan, did you tap my shoulder?" asked Mabel.

"Kid, I can't tap anything" said Stan, holding up his new hands to show her.

Suddenly, Dipper felt somebody tap both of his shoulders at the same time.

"Mara, seriously, quit it" he snapped. "Can you stop tapping both of my shoulders?"
"It wasn't me!" Mara hissed. "Do you guys really think so lowly of me to believe that I would pull off a prank right now?"
Suddenly, they heard something crawling up the ceiling of the cave, and Stan paused before shining the light of the flashlight after it.

The light exposed hundreds of disembodied hands that were disconnected from the wrist, crawling along the cave walls and ceiling.

All four of them screamed.

Suddenly, the hands started to advance towards them, launching themselves off the cave walls right at them.

"Hands!" screamed Stan. "Lots of hands!"

Dipper attempted to stand his ground. He managed to punch several hands away, until one lucky hand that had launched itself at him wrapped around his face, and Dipper screamed as he fell down.

Stan had been cornered by multiple hands, who were now flying past him and slapping him across the face as they went by him.

Mara pulled out the first weapon that she could get her hands on from her toolbelt, which happened to be a laser gun, and she fired it at all the hands that were coming her way.

For a long moment, she kept shooting hands with lasers left and right, that is until one of the hands managed to slip right past the ray, and with its index finger sticking out, managed to launch itself right into a button on the invention labelled 'self destruct.'

The weapon blew up in her hands, and disappeared into nothing with a huge puff of smoke.

Mara sighed.

"Why did I even install a self-destruction button on that thing?"

She screamed as several hands launched at her and tackled her to the ground.

Mabel was playing rock-paper-scissors with two of the hands, and when she picked paper, one of the hands picked scissors. She screamed and started to run away as the two hands pursued her.

Eventually, the hands managed to pin all four of them down, and they were fighting against them in vain. The fight had gotten so intense that the hands that Mabel had made for Stan had fallen off of his wrists.

Suddenly, there was the sound of someone's evil cackling, and they all looked up to see the hand witch, holding up a lantern to light up the dark cavern as some of the hands started to make their way towards her.

"This looks like such a touching moment!" she said, holding up a hand. "Up top!"

One of the disembodied hands high-fived her.

"You guys get me."

"Alright, you horrible wench, you got me" said Stan, as he shook the gold watch off of his wrist and pushed it towards the hand witch. "Stealing is wrong, et cetera et cetera. Now can I have my hands back? I have a certain gesture I would like to share with you."

The hands suddenly crawled underneath the witch, forming a mobile throne under her as they moved her closer towards Stan.

"Alas, your hands cannot be gotten so easily" she said, bending down and picking up the watch. She put it back into her pocket. "The spirits say...um, that the curse can only be broken by a kiiiiss!"

"What?!" exclaimed the triplets.

Stan sighed, and simply stood up, brushing the hands off of him.

The triplets still had hands gripped around them that were pinning their arms to their sides.

"It's alright, kids" he said, as he walked closer towards the witch. "Just look away."

He took the witch's hand, and bent over as he puckered his lips.

Very reluctantly, he kissed her wrinkly, withered hand.

"A kiss on the lips!" screeched the witch.

"What? Forget it!" said Stan angrily. "I'm not kissing any of that mess! I don't need my hands that bad!"

"You go, Stan!" said Mara. "You're a strong, independent woman who don't need no one!"

Stan turned and glared at her.

"Shut it, Mara."

Dipper looked at the witch indignantly.

"You're just making stuff up now."

Stan turned and started to leave the cave.

"Let's go, kids" he said.

"No no, don't go!" screamed the witch, as she hopped out of her hand throne and made her way towards Stan.

"You're right, you're right, I was just making stuff up" she said. "I was just trying to get something going, you know it's so hard to meet people these days."

She snapped, and the hands that had been holding the triplets let go of them and scurried away.

Or at least, Dipper's did.

The hands that had been holding Mara and Mabel started to braid their hair.

While Mabel giggled with admiration at what a good job they were doing with her hair, Mara angrily swatted her hands away.

"Hands off!" she exclaimed, snatching her hair back. "No one touches my hair but me."

"Wait, so this whole thing was a ploy to get a date?" asked Dipper.

"I'm desperate, ok?" said the witch. "But every time I bring someone back here without keeping their hands hostage, they just run away!"

"Gee, I wonder why" said Mara sarcastically.

"I know, right?" said the witch, thinking that she was being genuinely sympathetic.

Mara sighed.

"Well, yeah, look at this horror shop!" said Stan, gesturing towards the creepy cave around them. "It's creepy even for a cave."

"You just need to redecorate!" said Mabel cheerfully, as she bent down and started to make something out of the hands that had been laying on the floor.

"For example..."

She shaped the hands into a piece of furniture behind her back, and then turned around and showed the hand witch her creation.

"...a handalabra!"

The hand witch looked at Mabel's creation made entirely out of hands with admiration.

"Ooh, the hand witch likes!" she exclaimed.

"Then watch me work" said Mabel. "Home makeover!"

The next few hours were spent using the witch's hands to redecorate the place, including hanging up a painting, painting the walls, hanging up banners, and creating furniture.

It wasn't long before the four of them were standing outside the cave, and a pair of disembodied hands were covered over the witch's eyes.

"Ok" said Mabel cheerfully, as they all walked into the new cave past the curtain. There was a pair of hands throwing flower petals as they walked further into the cave.

"Time to see your fantastic new cave!"

"And you'd better like it" said Mara rather grumpily. "Because that was an absolute waste of my time."

The hands over the hand witch's eyes came off, and her eyes widened with shock and admiration as she saw her new cave.

It hardly even looked like a cave now. There were sofas, pink banners, lamps, and rugs that covered the ground. It was so tiny and homely that one would almost think that they were inside a little cottage.

"Men will definitely tolerate you now" said Mabel. "And I left a book of pick-up lines on the end table."

"Blaaaah!" said the witch excitedly, as she walked onto the rug. She was so excited that she was tearing up. "Oh my goodness! I can't believe this is the same cave!" she said. "I just can't find the words!"

"How about, here's your hands back?" said Stan irritably.

"Oh, right" said the witch cheerfully, as she snapped her fingers.

Suddenly, a pair of more colored hands crawled right out of her hair, and towards Stan.

"Ew" said Mara.

Stan's hands crawled up his face, and slapped it several times, before he held out his empty wrists in annoyance.

The hands finally obeyed, and snapped right back into place onto his wrists.

"Shakey! Scratchy!" he said excitedly, addressing his hands. "I've missed you, old rascals!"

He then turned towards the hand witch.

"You're alright, sister" he said, giving her a thumbs up.

All of the hands in the cave gave a thumbs up as well.

"Will you be my boyfriend now?" asked the witch.

"Nope. Never."

"Well, I learned nothing" said Stan cheerfully, as he and the triplets were finally leaving the dave. The hand witch was waving to them as she watched them disappear into the distance.

She sighed sadly.

"Back to my crippling loneliness."

Suddenly, a man's face appeared right in front of hers.

"Hey!" he said, climbing up the mountain and onto her level. "I'm lost in these mountains. Can I crash here for the night?"

"Please, come in!" said the witch, reaching behind her and grabbing the pick-up line book. She chose a random line from the book.

"Um, girl, are those space pants, because your butt looks out of this world!"

"Wow, thanks for noticing!" said the man cheerfully.

The hand witch pumped a fist.

"Yes!"

Stan looked at the stranger with anticipation, but he could see that stranger obviously did not want to buy the hand.

"Alright, I get it" he said, throwing the hand back against the wall. Right as it hit the ground, it came back to life and started to crawl away towards the shadows.

"You're a savvy customer" said Stan. "Perhaps you'd be interested in buying...uh..."

Stan started to search his suit and pants pocket, unable to find anything.

Just then, Waddles started to walk through the gift shop, holding a Summerween basket in his mouth. Stan ran over to Waddles and picked him up, holding him up to the customer.

"This magic pig!" he said. "Sure he doesn't look magic, but there's a very interesting story I'm about to make up about him. And it's called Abaconings!"

That morning, Dipper was in their bedroom, sitting on his bed as he held a purple box on his lap.

"The What-The-Heck-A-Hedron!" he read aloud the words on the box. "Solve this test of intelligence, and your photo could be on this box."

He turned the box around to see a picture of a stout, nerdy kid with glasses standing triumphantly as a pretty woman was kissing him.

"Whoa" said Dipper, as he opened the box. "That's false advertising that I can get behind."

He pulled the what-the-heck-a-hedron out of the box. It was a large purple, pink, and blue colored orb that could turn in multiple ways, and the goal was to get it into the swirly shape that was pictured on the box.

Dipper stared at it determinedly as he started to turn the hedron, but the top part of it stuck out and glowed red as it beeped incorrectly.

"Come on..." said Dipper in a frustrated tone, as he tried turning it in several different ways again. But this time, three ends of the hedron stuck out and glowed red, and it beeped incorrectly once again.

Dipper groaned in frustration.

Just then, Mara walked up to him.

"Whatcha got there, Dip?" she asked, looking curiously at the strange object in her brother's hands.

"It's a what-the-heck-a-hedron" said Dipper, not even looking at her as he tried to solve it again. This only ended with the hedron beeping incorrectly yet again.

"Ok, but what does it do?" asked Mara, intrigued by the complex device that was causing him so much frustration.

The hedron beeped incorrectly a fourth time, and Dipper sighed as he put it down onto his lap and finally faced his sister.

"It's an intelligence test" he explained. He picked up the box, and showed Mara what the solved hedron looked like. "You spin the sides of the hedron, and try to get it into this shape."

Mara was observing the picture on the box with a normal-looking expression that Dipper couldn't quite read.

"So, like a Rubick's cube?" she asked.

"Sort of" said Dipper. "But much harder."

He went back to solving it, spinning random sides mostly in vain, and just as he knew it would, it beeped incorrectly.

He groaned in irritation, not even looking back at his sister.

Mara had not taken her eyes off of the hedron in her brother's lap, her attention focused in on that one thing as her mind started to formulate and analyze solutions.

"Can I try?" she asked.

Dipper sighed, thinking his sister wouldn't have much more luck if he hadn't been able to solve it.

"Knock yourself out" he said, placing it into his sister's hands.

Mara bent downward, and started to spin the sides rapidly in a certain order, her attention focused in on the puzzle as her mind was formulating multiple algorithms expeditiously.

"According to the box, the what-the-heck-a-hedron is one of the world's most complicated intelligence tests" Dipper continued, as Mara's hands were spinning the hedron rapidly. She didn't seem to be paying any attention to what he was saying. "The world record for solving that thing is twenty four hours straight, so I doubt that you'll be able to-"

"Here" said Mara, handing Dipper back the solved hedron.

Dipper's eyes widened in absolute shock as he looked at the now perfect swirly hedron. He grabbed the box back and quickly compared it to the one that his sister had just created.

There was no comparison, for the two puzzles looked exactly identical.

He looked back up at his ingenious sister, who was looking at him with the same normal expression that she had been wearing earlier. Her countenance made Dipper feel like she didn't even understand exactly how great of an achievement she had just accomplished so effortlessly. He wouldn't have been surprised if she really didn't.

Mara couldn't have looked more ordinary, and yet she had solved the what-the-heck-a-hedron in less than a minute.

The hedron suddenly started to glow green.

"Congratulations!" said a recorded voice from the inside of the hedron. "You've solved the what-the-heck-a-hedron in fifteen seconds. Now recording record time."

Dipper's jaw dropped.

"You solved the what-the-heck-a-hedron in fifteen seconds?" he said with a flabbergasted tone.

Mara looked absolutely clueless, as if she wasn't aware of the importance of the situation.

"Yeah..." she said uneasily, unsure of how to respond to her brother's astonished reaction.

There was a long pause as Dipper stared at his gifted sister. It wasn't until moments like this that he remembered that she was a genius. It was such a huge fact about her that was so easy to forget, for she most certainly never acted like one.

"Mara, this is amazing!" said Dipper excitedly. "I can't believe you solved one of the world's toughest intelligence problems in under a minute! Whatever's in that genius mind of yours, you need to share it with the world!"

"What? No!" exclaimed Mara. "Share it with the world? Dipper, we've been over this. I'm not ready for stuff like that yet."

"But you could make the world a better place!" said Dipper. "Think about it! The what-the-heck-a-hedron was only the start. You could create a cure for cancer, invent weapons that can be used to protect the innocent, heck you're apparently supposed to invent time travel in the future, Mara!"

"Yeah, I guess..." said Mara uneasily, rubbing the back of her neck uncomfortably as she looked away from him.

"Don't you wanna help people?" said Dipper.

"Of course I want to help people" said Mara. "It's just that, I don't think I'm ready for things like that right now. You know, take things one step at a time?"

Dipper frowned. She had not given him the answer that he wanted. Here was his gifted sister, who had great potential for success and achievements, and yet she refused to take the first step towards that. Why was it that she was so strongly against that?

Trying to distract his thoughts, Dipper picked up up hedron, reset it, and then tried to solve it himself. Unfortunately, it flashed red and beeped incorrectly yet again.

"Ooh, that's a bummer!" said Mabel's voice, and Dipper and Mara turned to see their sister sitting on her bed wearing sunglasses and a hat, and Waddles was sitting next to her dressed as a dj as well.

There was a soundboard sitting in front of them that was playing, and a microphone in Mabel's hand.

"This is May-May and the Hogg!" said Mabel, hugging Waddles closer to her. "Coming at you on the am!"

Waddles squealed into the microphone.

"Whoa! Not sure we can say that on the air!" said Mabel. "Don't touch that dial truckers, cause the Hogg just ate it!"

Mabel pressed several sound effect buttons on the soundboard, including a horn and a fart noise.

"Mabel, could you knock it off? I'm trying to solve this intelligence puzzle, but it seems impossible" Dipper said. "Even though Mara solved it in fifteen seconds" he added, looking at Mara and hoping that he was getting to her.

It didn't appear as if she was letting him get to her that easily, for she shook her head and stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest.

"Maybe you're just not as smart enough" said Mabel.

Dipper froze, an expression of shock and insult crossed over his face.

Mara's eyes widened at that statement.

Dipper's eyes narrowed as he stared determinedly at the hedron.

"We'll see about that."

Late that night after both of his sisters had fallen asleep, Dipper was reading the journal. He turned to the page that he was looking for and read aloud.

"Buried in the woods is the perceptshroom" he said, holding up the glowing purple mushroom. "To increase brain power grind it up and apply to the forehead overnight."

He placed the mushroom into a bowl in his lap, and started to grind it with a wooden tool. Dipper then turned towards the hedron, which was sitting on the side desk next to his bed unsolved.

"Tomorrow, I own you" he said determinedly.

He took some of the crushed perceptshroom from the bowl, and smeared it across his forehead.

When this was done, he got under the covers, placed the bowl next to him in the bed, and fell right asleep.

Meanwhile in the bed with a sleeping Mabel, Waddles suddenly woke up. He sniffed the air, smelling something that smelled an awful lot like truffles.

He squirmed out of Mabel's bed, crawled underneath Mara's bed, and made his way up to Dipper's bed, where the bowl of crushed percepshroom was sitting with its sparkling pink color.

Waddles hopped up onto the bed and started to lick the bowl clean up crushed perceptshroom, and when it was gone, he licked up the substance that was on Dipper's forehead. He went back to the bowl, and started to lick the remains.

However, Waddles fell off of the bed, and the bowl tumbled off of his head. He suddenly looked around, feeling much different than before. It was then that he caught sight of Dipper's encyclopedia and dictionary books, sitting on a shelf below the window.

Now curious, he climbed up onto the shelf and started to read the books.

The following morning, Dipper sat up in bed, overly excited as he felt his head.

"Ha ha! I feel smarter already" he said triumphantly. "The digits of pi are 3.1...um..."

"415926 et cetera et cetera" said a new voice.

Dipper looked around.

"What? Who said that?"

Thinking that it was Mara, he turned to his left, but saw surprisingly that his sister was sound asleep in bed, sleeping the morning away.

Mabel was asleep in her bed as well.

"Mara? Mabel?" he said aloud.

Mabel and Mara both slowly woke up, and turned towards the door.

Mara's eyes widened in shock.

"Dipper, look!" said Mabel.

Dipper turned to see what his sisters were looking at, and his jaw nearly dropped.

Standing in the doorway was Waddles, who was sitting on a wheeling contraption that was made up of a remote control race car, two planks of wood, a pillow, a book, and an automated soundboard.

Waddles started to type something onto the soundboard.

"Greetings friends, it is I, Waddles the Pig" said the speaker.

"What?!" exclaimed Dipper.

"Waddles, what happened to you?" exclaimed Mabel. "Have you been possessed by the spirit of a nerd?"

"That is an awesome contraption, dude!" said Mara, and both of her siblings looked at her with weird glances for breaking the shocked mood.

"Um, I mean, WHAAAAT?!" she added.

"I understand my transformation might be vexing" said Waddles. "But I have prepared a presentation."
He tried to wheel the contraption forward towards a stack of books, where a laptop was sitting on top of. There was a mug of coffee sitting on the floor nearby.

Unfortunately, he accidentally ran the wheeled contraption right into the stack of books, causing the laptop to fall forward and the cup of coffee to spill.

"Forgive me" he said. "My pig arms are cute and useless."

Dipper suddenly leapt out of bed, and noticed the empty bowl on the floor.

"The brain goop!" he said. "You ate it and built all of this, didn't you?"
"This isn't right!" exclaimed Mabel, running up to Waddles and holding up a baby sound toy that made the noises of all the farm animals. "The pig goes oink. THE PIG GOES OINK!!!"

"Now, the pig goes wherever he can shine the light of knowledge into the darkness of ignorance" said Waddles, as he showed them the solved what-the-heck-a-hedron.

"Whoa! The what-the-heck-a-hedron!" said Dipper, sliding down onto his knees and picking it up. "How did you do that?"
"I can teach you, Dipper" said Waddles. "I can teach you many things. From the secrets of astrophysics to the-"

Suddenly, Gompers the goat appeared, and she started to chew on the pillow that Waddles was sitting on.

"Hey!"

He suddenly got on all fours and started to squeal furiously at Gompers as she continued to chew at the pillow.

"I am loving this new Waddles!" said Dipper excitedly.

"Yeah" said Mabel nervously, as she started to fiddle with her hair. "He's uh...he's definitely different."

Waddles suddenly started to shoot Nyarf rockets from the wheeled contraption at Gompers with the push of a button, and she finally scampered off.

"Dude, that rocket cart is amazing!" said Dipper with admiration. "You and me should go invent stuff!"

"Um, hello? Am I even here now?" said Mara with a rather offended tone. She crossed her arms over her chest in an irritated way to cover up the hurt, but Dipper didn't seem to notice.

"Um, Waddles" said Mabel, holding up the soundboard and Dj outfit from yesterday. "Wouldn't you rather stay here and record pranks with me?"

"Mabel, this pig's got a gift" said Dipper. "He needs to share it with the world!"

"Who cares about having gifts?" said Mara, despite how ironic that sounded from her mouth. "I mean, they're great and all, but what matters is spending time with your family, right?"

"I'm sorry, Mabel" said Waddles to Mabel. "There is more to life than making fart noises and laughing at those fart noises. I see that now."

"And Mara" said Dipper to Mara. "Having a gift is all about using it to change the world! Maybe you should try that sometime instead of wasting it by hiding it from the world."

And with that, the two of them laughed as they ran out of the room, or at least Dipper ran. Waddles wheeled his contraption out the door after him.

Those words stung to Mara. She could feel herself starting to collapse on the inside. She sank to the ground and just sat there for a long moment looking at the empty doorway.

Mabel laughed nervously, and she sank to her knees as well.

"You guys. Just go on without me."

She sadly pushed the fart button on the soundboard by herself.

Grenda was flying an orange kite outside, when the wind suddenly blew it into a tree. She tried tugging on the string to get it down, but it appeared that it wasn't moving.

"Ah, my kite got stuck in a tree!" yelled Grenda with a frustrated tone. "I HATE EVERYTHING!!!!"

She threw down the end of the kite in her rage.

"I bet we could be of service" said Dipper, as he and Waddles made their way towards Grenda. Waddles was still sitting on the wheeled contraption.

"Ah! An affront against nature!" she screamed, when she caught sight of Waddles.

"Ha!" said Waddles. "Forget kites. Here, take this rocket pack I invented."

Dipper handed her the rocket pack as Waddles talked.

"And explore the heavens yourself."

"Forget that" said Grenda, as she slipped the rocket pack onto her back. "Grenda's gonna look at cute boys through skylights!"

She ran off and turned on the jet pack. She suddenly was shot upwards into the sky at a force so powerful that it knocked Dipper's hat off of his head, and onto Waddle's head.

Grenda was mostly flying around randomly because she couldn't quite control the rocket pack, flying close enough to the trees to accidentally catch them on fire.

"I RULE THE SKIES!!!!"

Mara and Mabel were watching Dipper and Waddles invent things outside through the triangular window.

"Dude, that rocket pack we made was amazing!" said Dipper excitedly, as he carried a box of parts for inventing towards a site in the front outside where there was already an invention that was partially built.

"Psh" said Mara. "Big deal. I've invented rocket boots and a rocket booster. What's the big deal about a rocket pack?"

"Don't forget the laser gun we made for Candy" said Waddles.

As if on cue, there was the sound of a laser being shot, and there was a flash of pink light.

"Death to my enemies!" yelled Candy.

"Are you kidding me?!" exclaimed Mara. "I've already invented something like that too!"

She walked away from the window, and started to pace back and forth as she ranted angrily.

"I can't believe that Dipper actually replaced me. He's spending his time inventing with that gluttonous pig when he could be inventing with me. I mean, he could have helped me invent things, all he had to do was ask!"

Mara stormed over to a pile of random scrap parts that were laying on the floor, and started to build with them absent mindedly as she muttered angry rants under her breath.

But after a few seconds, the anger slowly transitioned into sadness, and she sighed as her shoulders slumped downward.

Mabel sighed sadly herself, and walked over to the soundboard that was laying on the bed.

"This is May-May and the Hogg am" she said into the microphone rather sadly. "New story today: coping with crippling loneliness after losing my co-host."

She pressed a sound effect button.

"Loneliness!" the soundboard sang.

Mabel picked up a picture frame in front of her that had a single picture in it.

It was an image of her celebrating Waddles's birthday. The two of them were eating pink birthday cake batter, and there was a banner that hung over their heads labelled 'Waddle's ???????th birthday.'

Mabel sighed sadly when she looked at the picture.

"What did that nasty goop do to you?" she asked aloud with a sad tone. "You're not happier like this, are you?"

Suddenly, there was the sound of a drill coming from lower in the Mystery Shack, and it was so loud that it shook the entire building.

In the shed, Dipper was standing on a ladder as he finished screwing in the final cord.

"Ha! This is your greatest invention yet!" he said excitedly. "It could solve every problem of mankind!"

"And bring me many potatoes" said Waddles, as a robotic arm from the machine held a potato in front of his face. "Delicious potatoes."

He ate the potato in a single bite, and started to munch on it happily, smearing the starchy food all over his face.

"Yummy yummy, for my fat little pig tummy."

"What the heck is going on here?" said Mabel.

"And what are you guys doing in my lab?!" exclaimed Mara in a furious tone. First, Dipper had replaced her, and now he was inventing with Waddles in her own personal space?

Waddles turned towards the two new arrivals.

"Girls, you are just in time to witness our greatest achievement."

He wheeled his contraption towards the huge invention that was in the shed, which was so large that it reached the ceiling.

It looked like a giant sphere with random junk that was attached to the top and wires extending all out from the sides. It was also hollowed out from the bottom probably so that someone could stick their head underneath it.

"The smarticle accelerator" said Waddles, as he wheeled himself into the the machine. The giant invention picked up him and the wheeled contraption, and pulled him inside of the hollowed out section.

"Solving that puzzle was just the tip of the iceberg" said Dipper. "With this, Waddles will be able to solve all the greatest puzzles of the universe!"

"The origin of life, The meaning of existence" said Waddles, as he turned on the machine and tubes were starting to extend to his head. "Why dudes have nipples."

Suddenly, the machine came to life with a blue glow, and it became the light source for the entire shed.

"Mabel, your pig is gonna be world famous!" said Dipper. "Meeting with scientists, presidents...I wonder if I can teach him to wear pants."

"This is great and all, but don't you think you're going a little too fast?" said Mara, turning towards Dipper.

"The whole world? But when will you have time for us?" said Mabel, turning towards Waddles. "I'm your best friend!"

Dipper turned towards Mara.

"See, this is your problem, Mara, you take things too slow. This is exactly why I've been inventing stuff with Waddles all day! I know that you could have build this machine easily, but there's something holding you back. You're capable of great, world-changing things, Mara, surely you know that by now."

"You really think I don't know that? I'm not an idiot" said Mara. "I know that I'm probably going to change the world when I get older, but that's just the thing! I'm only twelve, Dipper. I don't have much time left to be a kid. I want to spend the rest of my childhood life with the people who matter the most in my life before I do all of that."

As she said that, she looked from Mabel to Dipper, showing that by people who matter most in my life, she was referring to them.

"I'm not going to be a kid forever" she continued. "I already know that I'm going to do all these great things you're talking about when I'm grown, so why should I try and push the date to be sooner?"

Dipper was now looking down at the ground guiltily. He had never really thought about it that way. Of course Mara was aware of her gift. It wasn't because she was oblivious to it that she wasn't already accomplishing great things, it was that she cared more about her family than her intelligence.

Now that he was thinking about it, he couldn't help but admire how she had managed to keep her priorities straight and her moral compass pointed in the right direction even with her gift. He wasn't sure if he would have been able to do the same if he was in her shoes.

Waddles then turned towards Mabel to answer her question.

"I'm still your friend Mabel" he said, as he used the machine's robotic arm to stroke Mabel's head. "But I'm helping people now."

"But what about helping me?" pleaded Mabel. "Do you really want to spend your whole life in meetings with dumb smart guys? This brain junk had made you forget who you are!"

She pulled out the photo of her and Waddles from earlier, and showed it to her pig. Her eyes got significantly larger.

"Don't you remember us?"

As Waddles stared at the picture, all sorts of memories of him and Mabel resurfaced in his mind, including the time when Mabel first won him, the two of them running through the forest together and him leaping into Mabel's arms, and him and Mabel banging their heads against the sides of Stan's head as he ate a grilled cheese sandwich in an attempt to try and ignore them.

As the memories started to end, Waddles then turned back towards Mabel.

"It all makes sense now" he said. "What good is helping the world if I can't help my favorite person in the world? It's a good thing I built in a dumb-dumb switch."

Waddles then turned towards a control panel labelled 'Intelligence Enhancement,' and he switched the dial to 'reverse.'

The machine's power enhanced as the tubes extended and planted themselves into Waddle's head.

"Waddles, Waddles, wait!!!" exclaimed Dipper, reaching out towards the pig. "Don't!"

They all watched the intelligence level on the machine drop from high, to low, and finally to pig.

The machine lowered Waddles and the wheeled contraption onto the floor.

"I'm sorry, Dipper" he said. "In my last eight seconds of consciousness, I want you to know that science is a horizon to search for, not a prize to hold in your hand, and that sometimes, the thing that you're searching for is right under your nose. You just need patience and time."

Waddles gestured towards Mara, showing Dipper that that was the person he had been referring to.

"Also, I miss getting my tummy tickled."

And with that, Waddles suddenly squealed excitedly, and then hopped off the machine into Mabel's outstretched arms.

"Oh, Waddles!" said Mabel, as she hugged her pig tightly.

Suddenly, the machine that Dipper and Waddles had built powered off, and fell to the ground, shattering as it hit the floor.

"No! Our invention!" exclaimed Dipper.

Mara put her hand on her brother's shoulder.

"That's alright, Dipper, we can reinvent that thing later."

"Wait, we?" he said with confusion, unsure if he had heard her right.

"Yeah, of course!" said Mara, punching her brother lightly in the arm. "I'll probably need a lab partner in the future, and I think that you're the perfect guy for the job."

Dipper could feel himself getting excited.

"You really mean it?" he said. "Even after I replaced you and invaded your personal space?"

"Mmm hmm. You're still my brother, and we're sticking together no matter what happens" she said. "Plus, there's a pretty high chance that we'll accidentally create something capable of destroying the universe that ends with us not being sure who we can trust and junk like that" she added quickly.

Dipper laughed. He wouldn't have been surprised if something like that did happen to them in the future.

"I know what will make you feel even better!" said Mabel, holding up Waddles to her brother. "A simple hug from a simple pig."

"Yeah, guess so" said Dipper, shrugging as Mabel put Waddles in his arms. The pig started to lick the side of Dipper's face, and he couldn't help but laugh.

Suddenly. Waddles threw up the solved what-the-heck-a-hedron, and Dipper caught the slobbery puzzle in his hands.

"Good pig" he said, before turning back towards the disgusting puzzle. "Ew."

"You know what, you're right" said Stan to the stranger as he set Waddles back down onto the ground. The pig started to walk away. "Don't buy the pig. In fact, I'm better off leaving it with my niece."

As if on cue, a small plunger dart was suddenly shot at Stan, and it landed on the side of his fez.

Stan turned towards the direction where it had been fired at him.

"No shooting in the house, sweetie!" he said, an affectionate expression flashing across his face.

He then turned back towards the stranger and grinned.

"But perhaps I can interest you in something else" he said, walking over towards an old chest and opening it up.

He held up an old VHS tape that had cobwebs hanging off of it.

"Like these spooky movies!" he said. "Movies are great! You watch the movie, you scare the girl, the girl snuggles up next to you, next thing you know you've gotta raise a kid, your life falls apart...forget that last part."

He then returned back to his cheery tone, and walked closer to the stranger.

"This next tale is called Clay Day!"

The four Pines and Soos were sitting in the TV room watching the screen yet again.

But this time, it appeared that the only person who was actually enjoying what they were watching was Mabel, who was sitting close to the TV in the front grinning widely as she rocked back and forth.

Stan was sitting on the touch with a rather bored expression on his face as he was barely tolerating the movie

Soos was sitting on the steps leaning against the side of the open door fast asleep.

Dipper was lying on the ground with his head propped up against a pillow, and his hat pulled over his eyes so that he didn't have to watch the TV.

Mara was facing towards the dinosaur head coffee table with her back facing the TV. She was banging her head against the coffee table repeatedly as the torturous movie was playing behind her.

"You did it, Shimmery Twinkle Heart!" said a little girl on the TV.

"No, you did it, Cinnamon..." said the giant star that was named 'Shimmery Twinkle Heart.'

"...Because you believe in yourself!" said Mabel and Shimmery Twinkle Heart at the same time.

However, the rest of them had quite a few comments to that movie.

"Boo!"

"Everything about this is bad!"

"The Twilight movies were better than this!"

Stan sat up.

"Well, that just put me ninety minutes closer to death" he said, reaching downwards and pulling out an old VHS tape. He started to walk towards the TV to put it in.

"It's time you kids watch the classics from back in my day!" he said.

"Ooh, old people movies!" said Mabel cheerfully, as Dipper and Mara scooted closer to the TV. "Get ready for references we don't understand and words we can't repeat."

Stan stuck the tape into the player, and the movie started rolling.

'The Voyages of Loinclothicles.'

In the movie, a cartoon man was facing a stop-motion clay cyclops that was stomping towards the hero.

"You're no match for Loinclothicles" declared the man.

Mabel's eyes widened in fear at the sight of the clay cyclops.

"I've come for the golden pants!"

The clay cyclops roared at the screen.

Mabel screamed in a terrified voice, and bolted away from the TV room.

"Oh no, Mabel!" screamed Dipper, as he reached out after her.

Mara turned on Stan angrily.

"Why did you have to play that movie?" she exclaimed. "I bet she's in the closet upstairs right now hiding in the laundry basket!"

"Well, your sister's broken" said Stan.

Dipper put his hand to his forehead.

"Ugh, Grunkle Stan, we should have told you before, but Mabel has a childhood terror of old timey stop motion animation!" he said. "It's like her number one fear since we were kids!"

Stan laughed.

"Come on, those hokey old things?" he said. "How scared could she be?"

"The cyclops..." said Mabel in a terrified voice as she hid in the laundry basket that was filled with dirty sweaters. "His face is made of nightmares!"

Just then, the door to the closet opened, and Dipper, Mara, Stan, and Soos peered in on her.

"It's ok, Mabel" said Mara in her most soothing voice that she could muster. "The movie's off. You can come out now."

"Kid it's just a movie" added Stan. "It can't hurt you."

"No talking" said Mabel. "They wait for you to talk and then crawl inside your mouth!"

She pulled the sweater over her face, concealing her entire body.

Mara turned on Stan and completely dropped the sympathetic act.

"This is all your fault!" she said.

"Yeah, why did you have to show her that movie?" added Dipper.

"Look, there's gotta be a way to get her over this" said Stan, as he turned towards Soos, who was holding the VHS movie cover up to his face.

Stan looked at the back to see a picture of the animator behind the movie, whose name was 'Harry Claymore.'

Stan scanned the bottom, and saw very clearly the words, 'Filmed in Gravity Falls, Oregon.'

"Hmm..."

A few hours later, they were all standing in front of an old warehouse with locked gates in front of it that had the letters 'H' and 'C' molded on the front of them.

The laundry basket was also sitting next to them, since they couldn't get Mabel to come out of it since she watched the movie.

"Alright" said Stan, as he turned towards the others. "If we could just get the director to show her that the models are fake, maybe she'll finally calm down."

"I don't know, dude" said Soos. "According to the internet, the special effects genius, Harry Claymore, has been kind of recluse."
"Man likes his privacy" said Stan. "I can respect that."

He took out Mabel's grappling hook, and fired it over the gate.

"Well, everyone over the fence."

A few minutes later, the four of them were walking past the gate towards Harry's warehouse. Soos was carrying the laundry basket with Mabel inside.

"You see, Mabel, those monsters are just tiny clay figures that get moved around one frame at a time by an antisocial shut-in."

"Those people are called animators" said Soos.

Mara opened the door to the large warehouse, and Dipper peered inside.

"Hello?" he called, and his voice echoed throughout the huge and dark space. "Mr. Claymore!"

They all started to walk inside.

The warehouse was cluttered with all sorts of junk, and there were goops of clay all over the floor.

"We wanna get a look at your figurines!" said Stan.

"We're not paparazzi!" said Soos, as he took out his phone and started to take pictures of everything around him.

"I'd like to do this the easy way, but I'll be willing to adjust if it comes down to the hard way" yelled Mara, as she started to crack her knuckles.

Dipper bent down and picked up an ape figurine off the ground.

"Ah ha!" he exclaimed, as he held it out in front of the laundry basket in Soos's arms.

"See, Mabel? It's all just special effects" said Dipper. "You can come out."

"No!"

"Kid, listen to me" said Stan, not noticing the rather large shadow that was passing over them. "For the last time, there's nothing here to be afraid of-"

"Um, Stan?" said Mara, pointing behind him.

Stan turned around, and saw a huge clay cyclops, the very same one from the movie. It seemed to be very much alive. It roared at them fiercely.

The four of them screamed, and Soos dropped the laundry basket onto the ground.

"Ugh!" said Mabel, from the impact of hitting the ground.

Suddenly, the cyclops swiped at the three of them in slow motion, and they all ducked as his hand passed over their heads.

"It's slowly..." said Stan, before they all ducked as the cyclops swiped at them again.

"...swiping at us!"

"Let's escape by standing still!" said Soos, as he remained still as a statue. However, the cyclops bent down and grabbed him up with one hand, picking him up towards his face.

"It didn't work!" yelled Soos, as the cyclops bent downwards and picked up Stan as well.

Suddenly, clay skeletons that were armed with swords and shields started to rise out of the goops of clay that were on the floor, and they started to pursue Dipper and Mara.

Both of them screamed, and Mara put her arm in front of her brother protectively.

She grabbed the nearest item, which happened to be a golf club, and swung it at the clay skeletons, managing to slice the first one in half.

"Go, Dipper, run!" she screeched.

Dipper snapped out of his state of panic, and ran blindly, not even watching where he was going. He tripped right over the laundry basket, and he and Mabel came tumbling forward.

Mabel looked up and saw the claymation skeletons.

She screamed, and suddenly she felt a hand grasp the top of her head that she knew belonged to one of the skeletons.

She screamed in an even more terrified tone as she bolted, leaving her family to fend for themselves. Mabel tripped in front of the stairs, but recovered quickly and scurried up them.

The cyclops stuck Stan and Soos into two large piles of clay until they were stuck in the sticky substance from the chest down.

A skeleton was struggling to stick a rather feisty Mara into a smaller heap of clay, along with Dipper into a small heap next to her.

Mara turned furiously on her brother.

"Dipper" she seethed. "When I said run, I meant out of the warehouse!"

"I couldn't leave you all behind!" said Dipper. "How is this happening? What do they want with us?"

"I'm afraid they want you" said a new voice.

The four of them turned to see a rather old Harry Claymore, who was bound in a rope that coiled around his top half. One of the clay skeletons was holding the end of the rope.

"Harry Claymore!" exclaimed Stan. "Master of special effects...circa nineteen seventy something."

Harry looked down sadly.

"Alas, my effects are more special than you know" he said, as he slowly made his way towards them, the skeletons still holding the end of the rope that was binding him.

"But how are these things real?" said Dipper. "What about stopmotion?"
"What? Do you really believe someone moves these figures one frame at a time? I'm not a masochist. I use black magic to make them animate themselves" said Harry. "It was great at first, but one day computer animation was invented and stop motion was declared dead! Now that they were out of work, they went mad and enslaved me! And now they will turn you into unholy beasts of clay to join in their mischief!"

"See, this is why you don't mess with black magic!" said Mara. She then turned towards Dipper. "Dipper, if we survive this, I am burning that page in the journal about using magic."

"Well, Mr. Pines, at least you finally get to work with your favorite director" said Soos cheerfully. "And by work, I mean suffocate inside a giant wad of clay!"

A skeleton suddenly stuck a wad of clay over the bottom half of Soos's face, covering up his mouth as they moved to completely cover the rest of their victims.

They all started to scream in terror.

"Ah!"

"Help, somebody, help!!!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

Mabel was watching the entire thing from a platform above in terror.

"Oh, what do I do?" she said to herself worriedly, leaning back and accidentally sticking her hand in a pile of clay.

She picked up a handful of clay, and stared at it.

"How can I defeat those monstrosities?"
She noticed that there were two holes in the clay, and she automatically drew a curved line underneath it, making the piece of clay look like a smiley face.

"Hey!" she said cheerfully. "I changed into something I like! Whoa, I think I have an idea!"

She ran down the stairs, and jumped onto the first level.

"Hey, one-eyed clops!" she yelled, and the clay cyclops turned around to face her.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you dum dum!" she screeched. "Come at me!"

And with that, she started to run right at it screaming a determined war cry. When the cyclops was right in front of her, Mabel leapt up at him and penetrated her body through his chest. She then wormed her way upwards through his torso, and emerged out of his shoulder triumphantly.

The cyclops roared in pain.

"Wipe that face off your face!" said Mabel, as she literally used her hands to wipe a huge streak down the cyclops's face. She then started to mold the rest of his body.

"Oh, I've got big plans for you!"

The skeletons had nearly finished burying their victims in clay, when they suddenly heard someone's shouts.

"Hey, skeleton dorks!" yelled Mabel. "It's clay-back time!"

She was standing on top of the newly formed cyclops, which was now just a giant version of Shimmery Twinkle heart.

Mara had never been so glad to see that dumb character.

Shimmery started to laugh as he crushed clay skeletons left and right.

"Dude, you conquered your fear!" said Soos.

"That's right" said Shimmery. "Because she believed in herself-"

"Jam it, Twinkle heart!" yelled Mabel. "Just start pounding those skeletons!"

As Shimmery started to make his way towards the skeletons, who were backing up against the wall, Mabel hopped down from his head and landed in front of Soos, Mara, Dipper, and Stan, who were still trapped in the clay.

"Mabel, you did it!" said Dipper, as she started to free him and Mara. "So you're not scared anymore?"

"Oh I'm scared twice as much now" said Mabel. "But now I know it's rational!"

"Well, it's a start" said Mara, who immediately went to work on freeing Stan once Mabel had freed her.

"Kid, I'm sorry I doubted you" said Stan, addressing Mabel as Mara freed him and Dipper freed Soos. "You were right. Stop motion is pure evil."

"And probably very expensive" said Soos, as they watched Shimmery battle the skeletons.

"Incredibly expensive" said Harry, who was now free from his bonds.

"This is an impressive fight, though" said Soos. "Glad I'm facing towards it."

Suddenly, all the clay figures jammed into each other, causing them all to disappear into one huge pile of clay.

"Yay!" cheered everyone, as they clapped at the defeat of the clay figures.

"That was the best part!" said Harry.

The four Pines were now sitting in front of the TV, watching yet another stop motion movie. Mabel didn't seem to be in the least bit scared.

"Well, today I think we learned that you can remold your fears" said Dipper.

"Mabel, I'm so proud of you that you can watch these stop motion movies without hiding in a laundry basket" said Mara.

"I'm just glad that none of us got turned into clay" said Mabel.

"Holy Tolito!" exclaimed someone that sounded an awful lot like Soos. The four of them turned to see a huge slab of green clay sitting against the wall.

An outline of Soos fell forward, and a green and flat clay Soos turned towards them.

"Who wants to see me change into most anything?"
As he hummed aloud, Soos molded his clay body into a swirled cylinder, and then back to his original clay form.

"I can walk through walls!" he said, as he ran right through the wall and came back into the scene again.

"Whoa, whoa!" he was saying, before a radio was thrown right at his face, causing the clay to turn into a lifeless green pile on the floor.

The triplets were hugging each other.

"We're safe now, kids" said Stan, bending downwards and putting his arm around his nieces and nephew protectively. "We're safe."

Stan was looking frustratedly at the stranger, who didn't seem to want to buy the old movies either.

"I don't get it" he said. "You don't want the serum remnants, you don't want my tapes, what are you gonna buy?"

Stan suddenly froze, and an idea came to his head.

He smirked as he reached behind the shelf and pulled out a vial with a green substance in it.

"How about this delicious potion, also created by Mara?" he said, handing the stranger the vial. "Here, have a free sample."

The dumb stranger gulped the entire liquid down in one sitting, and found that their vision was getting blurry, for Stan's huge grin was starting to get out of focus.

It wasn't long before they started to stumble, and finally collapse to the floor, the empty vial rolling out of reach.

"You should have bought my merch when you had the chance, buddy" said Stan, as he bent downward and picked the empty vial off the ground.

"But that's ok" he continued, holding up a bottle of paint and a paintbrush up to the stranger's face. "I'll have something new for sale very soon!"

And with that, the stranger lost consciousness, and the last thing that they heard was Stan laughing maliciously.

When the stranger woke up, they found that they were stuck in some kind of display case. The stranger saw Stan lead a group of tourists up to the case.

"And here we have our latest attraction!" said Stan. "The legendary cheapskate!"

"I saw it blinking" said a little girl in the group.

Stan laughed.

"Just an optical illusion."

A woman in the group took a photo of the stranger with a camera, and then followed the group as Stan led them away.

"Come on, everybody, step right up!"

The stranger started to pound helplessly on the glass as Stan laughed maniacally at their distress.

"That's right, I'm a jerk."

Later that day, the triplets were in the gift shop, and of course, they noticed the new attraction.

Dipper was sitting on a table reading the journal, Mara was sitting on a chair at that table working on an invention, and Mabel was keeping the stranger company.

"Hey! Wanna play tic-tac-toe?" she asked, drawing the empty board on the glass.

The stranger placed an X in the top middle box.

"Hey, I wanted to be Xs, let me be Xs" said Mabel.

"Trust me, just let her be Xs" said Dipper.

"Yeah, and don't be surprised when she constantly asks to switch" added Mara.

The stranger sighed, and then marked an O in the middle square.

"Yay!" said Mabel, as she marked an X in the middle right square.

"Actually, I'm sorry, I changed my mind" said Mabel. "I'll be Os."

"See? I told you" said Mara.

The stranger marked an X in the top left box.

Mabel could see that the stranger was about to win.

"Ok, you're gonna hate me right now, but is Xs still a possibility?"

In response to that, the stranger started to write on the glass a very clear message:

'Help me.'

Mabel smiled at the stranger.

"I don't think you're playing this right."