#(don't mind my circus OC's I just thought the circus was a fun setting to use for shenanigans) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gravityskittles · 8 days ago

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Chapter 12: Welcome to the Green Fairy Circus

It had been slower going than they had hoped. It shouldn’t have taken them four days to get across the border of South Dakota, but they had kept running into detours. First, they got lost on the ghost roads and took an accidental trip south for an entire night, ending up near Missouri. A day later, after making it back up into Minnesota, they had missed the jump into the ghost roads because Mabel had run into a gas station to grab a drink. As they then discovered, ending their day in the real world resulted in them being reset back to the beginning of the day prior, all the way back down in Missouri.

Their fight had been bad enough that day that they had ended up pulling off at some kitschy roadside attraction and taking a few hours away from each other, instead of trying to talk it through. Surprisingly, it ended up helping a lot, and so they had decided that taking it slower in general was probably better for them. It wasn’t like they were actually losing time anyway.

Thus began the ritual of the last two days, using the ghost roads for sleep, the real world for driving, and finding at least two silly roadside attractions per day to stop at. Aside from the unicorns they had run into outside of the ‘Minnesota Holiday Light Spectacular’, and the pack of gnomes raiding the dumpsters outside of a fast food restaurant in Iowa, it had been a pretty smooth leg of the trip.

Currently, Dipper was sitting on the roof of the car, watching the stars. Part of the reason they had taken to sleeping on the ghost roads was because the temperature was milder. Occasionally they would phase into pockets that seemed to match the frigid temperatures of their real world counterparts, but mostly the ghost roads seemed caught in an endless state of early fall. Most of the foliage was just starting to turn, and the crop fields around them were always just ready for harvest.

Mabel was asleep in the car, curled up on her half of the folded down backseats. Dipper had slipped out an hour or so ago, intending to add to his journal sketches, but the journal lay abandoned in front of him, flipped open to a half finished sketch of the corn husk people they had encountered back in Ohio.

He had long ago picked out the constellations he was most familiar with. Orion, the big and little dippers, the Pleiades, and Cygnus. He liked the stars, he always had, but he wasn’t nearly as good at recognizing the constellations as Mabel was. She had been the first person to show him how to see Ursa Major, pointing out the extra stars around his dipper, which made up the bear. She had also been the first person to show him how, as the big dipper rotated through the night sky, it always pointed towards the North Star, Polaris. He remembered Grandpa Shermie addressing their Hanukkah and Christmas gifts to Dipper and Polaris every year, even when Mabel stopped using the nickname entirely, and he started using his own all the time.

He sighed, remembering the year before when he had taken Astronomy at school and Mabel had been really excited for him to learn more about the constellations. He had told her that they learned about science in astronomy, not stories. He winced thinking about it now. He hadn’t meant to brush it off like that then. He couldn’t remember if it had upset her at the time or not. He hoped it hadn’t.

A car door clicked beneath him, and a minute later Mabel clambered up onto the roof next to him. She was wearing her jacket over an eye-searingly pink sleep shirt and shorts. Her hair was pulled back into a fuzzy braid, and she blinked sleepily at him as she pushed her glasses up more securely onto her nose.

“How long have you been awake dum-dum?”

“Not long,” He flipped the journal shut and scooted over to make room for her. “Maybe an hour or so? The stars were nice.”

She flopped down next to him, staring up into space. “The stars are nice. Although, a lot of the constellations are out of season.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well, because of the tilt and rotation of the earth, only certain constellations can be seen at certain times of year, and some can’t ever be seen in certain hemispheres at all.”

He pushed back the small flash of annoyance, he knew that. But he also hadn’t clarified what he was asking so it was reasonable of her to have explained. “Sure, but why are ones visible that shouldn’t be?”

She shrugged. “No clue, some sort of weirdness ghost magic probably. Look! That one is a southern hemisphere constellation! I’ve never seen it before.”

She threw out her arm, pointing to a dim cluster of stars near the horizon he hadn’t noticed before. “Which one is it?”

“It’s the Argo Navis! Well, technically it’s now three different constellations because astronomers thought it was just too big. It’s a huge ship! Based on the Argo from Greek mythology.” She carefully drew it out in his notebook and connected the dots around it to showcase the ship.

He turned back to the sky and looked for the outline again, this time able to pick it out from the stars around it. It really was huge. “Does it have a fun story behind it?”

She shrugged again. “Eh, not really? Mostly it’s just Jason’s ship from mythology. It doesn’t really have a fun story for why it was a constellation.”

“Can you tell me about one that does?” He didn’t really know why he asked. The logical part of his brain knew they should get going since both of them were awake now. But somewhere in the back of his head, in the half formed thoughts he didn’t want to let himself think, he knew he isn’t in a rush to get to Gravity Falls anymore. Also, Mabel had been so quiet the last few days, hearing her talk about something she enjoyed came as a relief. Buried somewhere under their recent arguments,cold silences and long exhausting hours trapped in a car together, was a person he genuinely loved spending time with and listening to, he just had to give her the space she needed to find it again.

She grinned at him and started scanning the sky before pausing, fingers held out almost directly above them. “Do you remember the story of Cygnus? There are a couple of variations, but I think I’ve told you my favorite one before.”

“I remember some details. Something about a swan right, and someone crashing into the sun?”

“Sort of. Well, the swan part is right anyway, and there’s a love story involved!”

Dipper rolled his eyes at her and stared up at the constellation. “Well, sounds like you should remind me then.”

She launched into it immediately with an excitement that made him feel warm inside.

“Okay so, back in the time of gods Helios spent the days pulling the sun across the sky in his chariot. It was a difficult job; the horses that pulled the chariot were powerful and often tried to break free of the reins and run wild across the sky. The chariot itself was heavy and awkward and burned with a heat that would have killed a normal human. If Helios flew too high in the sky the earth would be rendered cold and icy, if he flew too low, he risked burning up crops and buildings with the heat. Because of this, it had been decided that only Helios himself was allowed to drive the chariot of the sun. Now that I’m thinking about it, this sounds really similar to the Icarus myth, but like. The Greeks didn’t really understand how the sun worked so I guess literally flying too close to the sun seemed plausible and a common issue for people?”

As she talked, she gestured, weaving her hands in the air in front of them, and he watched the stars flash between her fingers with a smile. No matter how much they changed and grew, Mabel remained the same amazing storyteller she had always been.

“Anyway, like most gods, Helios had a son. Well, he probably had a lot of sons, and daughters. Most myths are about the gods just kinda, having a lot of kids and that directly causing issues for mortals. This son in particular wasn’t a god himself, merely a demigod born from a spirit of the ocean.”

She paused for a second and Dipper decided that if she mentioned Mermando he was going to push her off the car. But after a moment she continued, “I think Oceaneids are different from mermaids, but either way I get why Helios went for it.”

Dipper supposed that didn’t exactly count as mentioning Mermando, but he gave her a tiny shove anyway and she laughed. “Okay, okay don’t worry I’ll keep going. His son’s name was Phaethon. Phaethon spent his childhood happy, but as a young man he set out to find Helios, hoping that the god would claim him and bestow some power onto him. Helios was delighted to meet his son and offered him anything he wanted. Phaethon asked to drive the chariot of the sun, just for one day, hoping to prove to his father that he was powerful in his own right. Which like, I kinda get. It was depicted as a really shiny chariot and the horses seemed pretty cool, but also like. He was definitely not qualified to be the literal sun. So, obviously, Helios protested, terrified of what might happen if anything went wrong, but Phaethon insisted, and eventually Helios relented. This was a huge mistake. Phaethon failed like, instantly. Flew way too close to earth leaving scorch marks in his path, burning down forests and causing deserts to form. Overcorrected and flew way too far away from the Earth,freezing parts of the oceans solid. As he sped across the sky, unable to control the power he had bargained from his father, Zeus struck him down with a lighting bolt, sending his body tumbling down to earth to the depths of a river near his hometown.”

She paused, letting her hands fall out of the air and smack dramatically down onto the roof of the car.

“Now, presumably, up in the sky Helios retrieved his chariot and horses, and finished pulling the sun around the earth while mourning the loss of his child. On the ground however, is where we finally meet Cygnus. Phaethon’s best friend and companion since childhood. He saw his friend fall to earth, and dove into the river after him. Cygnus spent days diving to the bottom of the river to retrieve his friend’s bones, one by one from the river bed, determined to give him burial and ensure his spirit traveled to the underworld. This was pretty important at the time cause everyone believed that without a grave marker your spirit would be cursed to just kinda wander forever without ever getting the rewards of the afterlife. So, it was a really huge deal for Cygnus to be risking his life to give his best friend a proper burial. The gods watched over Cygnus as he dove and after Phaethon’s eventual funeral, they watched as Cygnus returned to the river still, sitting by its banks every day, mourning the friend who he had lost. Helios took pity on him then and took Cygnus from the mortal realm, lifting him up into the stars, forever etched into the sky as a swan.”

Dipper was quiet for a minute, staring up at the constellation. “Best friend, huh?”

“Well of course not, they were obviously boyfriends, duh. History just doesn’t like writing about people like us. Obviously in that story Helios knew though.”

“How do you figure?”

“Well, he saw that Cygnus didn’t have a life worth living without Phaethon in it. He may not have necessarily known they were boyfriends but like. He knew it was love. He had to have, otherwise he wouldn’t have turned him into stars.”

“Man. I wish my astronomy class had taught us more about the constellations. They seem like really cool stories. Instead, we just learned how stars die, and I’m not even sure that information was accurate given that we met Cassie.”

Mabel slid slowly off the roof of the car, as daylight started to creep up over the horizon. “I’d get your butt off the roof Dip-dop!”

“Why?”

“Cause if you don’t you’re going to be freezing in a couple of seconds!”

“Ah crap!” He grabbed his journal and slid off the roof just as everything around them shifted. He landed shin deep in snow and coughed roughly as the cold suddenly burned inside his lungs. He struggled to get the driver’s door open and did his best to brush off the snow from his pajama pants before it could melt all over Mabel’s car.

“Told you!” She grinned at him, looking warm and comfy in the passenger seat. “Now close the door, you’re making it cold in here!”

…

“Mabel, are you sure this is what you want to use your stop on?”

“Yes!! C’mon Dipper! When else would we get to watch a fairy circus?”

Dipper stared at the billboard in front of them. It was red and black with a top hat and cane on it. In curling gold script the words “Green Fairy Circus” were written, and in smaller script underneath it read “one night only, New Years Eve spectacular!”

“Mabel, I don’t think it’s a fairy circus, I think that’s just its name. Anyway it’s not until later this evening so we’d have to spend the whole day here instead of driving.”

“Dipper,” she said seriously. “We’re caught in a time loop; we can waste all the time we want. Also, don’t be silly, why would they name it that if it wasn’t true?”

He sighed. He just knew that any second she was going to try and convince him this was his idea.

“Anyway, you were just saying the other day that you were sad we didn’t have the time to see more anomalies on our way to Gravity Falls. You wouldn’t want to miss it if it really was a fairy circus! The only Fairies in Gravity Falls are the barfing fairies, and the only two anomalies we’ve seen in the past four days have been things we’ve already encountered before!”

There it was . Mabel always thought he was an easy mark for this specific kind of con. Which wasn’t fair. He did have a habit of caving to them, but he was choosing to cave to them, not being tricked into it. It was an important distinction. And he was choosing to cave in this particular instance because they were caught in a time loop so time didn’t mean anything anyway, so it didn’t actually matter how long it took them to get to Gravity Falls, so maybe he wouldn’t mind if they didn’t get there anytime soon, it’s not like he knew how to fix this anyway— okay stopping that train of thought right there, that wouldn’t help anything right now.

“That’s not entirely true! The gnomes were all female and looking for a King. Which is a really strange sort of sexual dimorphism by geographic area.”

“Yes. But those were just gnomes Dipper! Think of all the anomalies there could be at this circus.”

“Fine Mabel. But don’t get your hopes up, it’s probably just a totally normal circus.”

…

Dipper wasn’t convinced this was a totally normal circus. He’d started to get suspicious when they pulled into the field that the tents were set up in. Every other place around them was covered in at least a foot of snow, but this field was completely clear. The ground wasn’t even muddy or packed down with dead grass and dirt to suggest that it had been cleared off by hand. Instead, it was full of soft, bright green grass, and a large red and black circus tent surrounded by painted wooden wagons. The central tent was closed with a sign on it that said the show would start in one hour. Each of the wagons was hand painted with a name on it and art of the performers. An old-fashioned ticket booth was situated at the edge of the parking area.

He had become even more suspicious when they got out of the car and the air was warm. It felt like spring instead of the dead of winter, warm with a slight bite to the air. It wasn’t t-shirt weather or anything, but it was distinctly wrong. From where they had parked, he could see snow laden trees and a partially frozen river just on the other side of the road. He knew it had been absolutely freezing this morning when they had shifted back into the real world because he had felt it. It had taken over half an hour of driving with the heat on high for him to stop shivering. So, he knew this wasn’t normal. As they walked up towards the tents, however, that feeling started to bother him less and less. As he noticed this he paused, Mabel ran into him.

“Dipper! Why did you stop, silly?”

“Because.” He struggled to figure out what was wrong, focusing on it felt like trying to hold onto a dream after you wake up. “Something’s wrong. But I can’t remember what it is, it’s like it’s being pulled out of my head.”

Mabel stiffened, staring at him with wide eyes. Then she bolted back towards the car so suddenly that he flinched. “Mabel what are you—”

“Stay there, keep focusing on it!”

He watched her dig through the trunk of the car, as he chanted the words ‘too warm’ over and over again, he knew they were the crux of it even though he couldn’t remember why. He couldn’t even remember what he had been concerned about before Mabel ran to the car, there was a warm calming buzz in the back of his head that was overtaking the panic he had been feeling before.

Then Mabel was sprinting back towards him holding something. She shoved it into his hands and the buzzing immediately faded out. It was too warm here, there should be snow and there wasn’t, this was not a normal circus. The thoughts were no longer hard to focus on, whatever had been messing with his head was gone.

“Woah, It’s like springtime!” Mabel gasped.

“Yeah, you didn’t realize that before?”

“No? There was snow when we parked, at least, I thought there was.”

Mabel frowned, spinning something around her wrist. “Well, we know these work now!”

Dipper looked down at what he was holding. It was a thin braided bracelet made of—

“Mabel, where did you get unicorn hair from?”

“I kept it from before Weirdmageddon. I hated the unicorns, but I was still going to put some of their hair in the scrapbook, and Grunkle Ford didn’t need all of it for the shack anyway. I gave him some after Weirdmageddon for the Stan-O-War II just in case, and I kept a couple strands for us to make bracelets.”

“But Bill’s gone.” He was. Dipper knew he was. Whatever had just been in his head hadn’t been Bill, it hadn’t been sharp and angular and cold the way Bill had been, it had been warm. It had felt safe. He felt gross thinking about it, how had he gotten lulled into it so quickly. He was supposed to be better at this stuff.

Mabel shifted uncomfortably. “Well yeah. But other things can possess you or mess with your head. Grunkle Ford wanted it for the boat in case they ran into Sirens. It’s not as powerful without the other ingredients from the protection spell, but he said by itself it’s still a good blocker for magical stuff. So, when you said you felt like something was pulling thoughts out of your head, I remembered we had these.”

She stared at the ground for a moment, kicking at the grass. “Did you really not see snow when we got here?”

Her voice sounded wrong, but he couldn’t immediately pinpoint why. “Nope, it always looked like this to me, it was just getting harder to remember why it was wrong for it to look this way the closer we got to the tents. I think eventually I would have lost my train of thought enough for it to look like there was snow again.”

“Why am I weaker than you?” She said it so quietly he wasn’t even sure he’d been meant to hear it.

“Mabel!” He grabbed her shoulder pulling her around to face him. “You aren’t! You absolutely aren’t. You just haven’t ever had Bill in your head before. If something like this ever happens again, you’ll probably recognize it too. Now you know what it feels like for there to be something in your head that shouldn’t be there. This wasn’t actual possession or anything, but the initial sensation was similar to how it felt when I was talking with Bill before we made a deal.” He shuddered a bit.

“Thanks, Dipper. I know I’m not weak, I just. I hate that I still get more caught up in the magic stuff than you.”

He gave her an awkward one-armed hug. “You’re more trusting than I am, that’s a good thing, sometimes I’m way too skeptical. We balance each other out well. Also, with practice both of us could probably combat something like this without the bracelets.”

She frowned at him. “Right but we have them, so we don’t need to do that. Because willingly subjecting yourself to something like this is dumb.”

He opened his mouth to argue, it wasn’t dumb to be prepared. What if they lost the bracelets, or they met something stronger than the bracelets? She was allowed to prep for another Weirdmageddon but he couldn’t prep for something breaking into his own mind?

Then there was the sound of a door shutting behind them and the argument died before it had a chance to start.

A man had stepped out of one of the painted wagons. He was short, but still managed to cut an impressive figure wearing a dark red ringmaster’s coat and a sleek black top hat. He was holding a clipboard in one hand and a cane in the other. He didn’t appear to notice them as he strode across the grass towards the ticket booth. As he got closer and noticed that the booth was closed he let out a loud groan and pinched the bridge of his nose for a second before muttering:

“One job, that’s all I ask of him, one job and he can’t even…”

He trailed off and spun on his heel, heading for another one of the wagons on the other side of the tent. Calling out over his shoulder as he went. “Someone will be right with you!”

Mabel took a step back in shock and Dipper let out an involuntary squeak of surprise which he quickly stifled, mentally kicking himself for having had a reaction at all. Of course the man had noticed them, they were the only people here and thus a bit hard to miss, especially when one of them was wearing a bright green sweater with purple overalls.

He was of half a mind to suggest they retreat to the car, but this had been Mabel’s choice and he didn’t want to shut her down even though the weird mind control thing made his skin crawl to think about. There was a chance it was totally innocuous. He didn’t really believe that, but he could tell himself he did, at least until something happened that was clearly dangerous enough for the logical response to be running away.

He surreptitiously pocketed the bracelet, shaking down his shirt sleeves to hide the fact that he wasn’t wearing it. Mabel wasn’t even looking at him, instead she was focused on the man who now appeared to be having an argument with someone in one of the wagons.

Instantly, the warm buzz started up again, but this time he could feel it much more clearly. Now that he knew what to look for, he could feel it dancing across his skin and lightly thrumming in the back of his head. The second he focused on trying to push it aside, it let him, and he felt it slip off of him almost willingly, like the magic wasn’t interested in affecting someone who didn’t want it there.

He glanced up to see the man heading back towards him, this time he noticed a slight limp as he walked. It was well masked, and only the way the cane pressed into the ground as he walked gave it away. Dipper was used to watching Stan use the eight-ball cane for his Mr. Mystery persona. Most of the time the cane was just for the grandiosity of it all, he used it so much for gesturing that it barely touched the ground. On bad days however, when the weather was changing or he and Ford had done some more athletic adventuring the day prior, the cane pressed into the ground as he walked, less of a prop than a necessity.

The ringmaster was followed this time by another, somewhat sheepish looking young man, wearing a dark red suit and holding a case of tickets in his hands. As he drew closer Dipper felt another warm buzz dance across his skin, this time slightly more staticky and sharp than the last one had been. He focused again, pushing at the feeling, but this time it didn’t fade off of him, instead it seemed like he hadn’t made a dent in it at all.

Next to him Mabel had begun to bounce on her toes, tapping her fingers together in delight.

“Oh my god he’s so fuzzy!” She squealed under her breath.

Frustrated by his inability to push past this particular shield, Dipper reached into his pocket and slipped the bracelet back on. The young man, who was currently unlocking the ticket booth, shimmered slightly in front of him, and then the buzzing feeling melted away. The man’s upper body was replaced with the broad head and mane of a lion. His arms remained humanoid, but from the way his height shifted, Dipper guessed he had leonine legs beneath his suit pants as well.

Dipper stared. He couldn’t help it. This was so incredibly cool and also slightly terrifying, and he felt himself reaching automatically for his journal. Mabel swatted his hand away hissing, “Don’t be rude!”

The ringmaster was staring at them both intently.

“Welcome to the Green Fairy Circus” the lion man said in a bored voice as he pushed open the ticket window. “Tickets are pay what you can tonight as it is our New Year’s Eve special, the show starts in forty-five minutes sharp and will run until our grand finale at midnight!”

Dipper shifted uncomfortably; the ringmaster was still looking at them.

“We have some programs for you, which are right. Ah, hmm. Potentially they might be in my wagon as well. One second!” The lion man painstakingly closed the ticket window and backed out of the booth, he locked it carefully and started back across the grass towards his wagon. Dipper noticed belatedly that Mabel was bouncing again, he felt the outburst coming before it did but shot out his hand to cover her mouth just a second too late.

“Fluffy!!!!”

“Mabel, shut up!”

“You can see them!”

Mabel stilled immediately and Dipper let his hand drop away from her mouth in defeat. The ringmaster had a delighted grin on his face.

“I thought you could! Neither of you are wearing winter coats, but some people are just strange like that, so I wasn’t certain. But if you can see that Silon is an Animal Fae that means you know it’s not cold here. What kind of creatures are you?”

They both stared at him in confusion.

“Oh, I’m sorry, let me introduce myself. Lucian Ozwin, owner and ringmaster of the internationally acclaimed Green Fairy Circus.”

“Ozwin? Like the wizard of Oz?” Said Dipper with a frown. That felt so glaringly, obviously evil, it was almost comical.

Lucian shrugged, still grinning. “I was much younger when I chose that name, I was going for spectacle at the time. I assume you aren’t fae then, given you don’t seem at all confused by me telling you my name.”

“We’re human.” Said Dipper flatly, still unsure exactly what con this man was trying to pull.

“That’s fascinating. Not at all the answer I expected to be honest.” He frowned. “Would you mind stepping into my office for a second?” He gestured towards the wagon he had stepped out of earlier.

Dipper slipped off the bracelet again, feeling for any sort of magic from this man. He expected to feel something compelling him to the wagon or perhaps something trying to make him fall asleep or otherwise let down his defenses, but he found nothing except the background buzz that had been there from the beginning.

Seeing their hesitancy, Lucian continued, “Listen, I promise I mean you no harm. I just want to confirm something before the show tonight, and I’d prefer not to have this conversation in plain view of other patrons who may be arriving soon. If you’d prefer to have this conversation inside the tent, we can also have it there, if a larger space would be more reassuring.”

He spoke calmly and firmly and, try as he might, Dipper couldn’t find any signs of lying hidden in the man’s words. He glanced at Mabel, and she shook her head at him very slightly, which told him that she hadn’t caught anything weird either. Which was reassuring. She was much better at reading people than he had ever been.

She nodded at Lucian. “We’ll come.”

They followed him up the stairs into a warm homey wagon. The walls were full of books, most of which had spines in languages Dipper couldn’t read, some of which he was sure were not human. A framed map of the world sat behind the desk; it was filled with pins in various colors. Most of them were centered on Europe, but there were at least a handful on every continent, including Antarctica.

There was a smaller map above it that said “Faerie” which was also scattered with a few pins.

Lucian took a seat behind his desk and hung his cane on a hook beside him. He cleared a stack of papers away, revealing a framed photograph of him and a girl with short blue hair and ice blue eyes. She was wearing a silver crown inlaid with what appeared to be sapphires, and in pen at the bottom of the frame was written Nalia’s Coronation alongside a date from almost 70 years ago.

“So,” Dipper’s attention snapped back to the man in front of them.

“What business have you with my circus?”

“What do you mean?” Mabel asked quietly.

“People like you don’t just turn up unless you want something. Humans born with true sight are incredibly rare. It’s often gifted by powerful magical entities. Most of the time those entities gift it because they want to use humans to do their dirty work for them. I won’t have my people harmed. The Green Fairy has remained a neutral party since its inception, that means neutral no matter where we are . I do not myself know the politics of the American Ghost Roads or how the American Fae system works, but I refuse to allow my circus to become a pawn in it. Do you understand ?”

“We’re not—” Mabel started, indignant, at the same time Dipper said. “We weren’t gifted true sight by anyone! We weren’t born with it either. We just happened to grow up adjacent to a lot of anomalies and magic, so we got used to it.”

Mabel stuck out her arm, showing off the bracelet. “We don’t even have true sight! These are made of unicorn hair.” She offered quietly, “I made them so we couldn’t be tricked or hurt by anything that wanted to hide itself from us. We both got a bit freaked out by it not being winter outside, so we put them on.”

Lucian visibly relaxed. Sinking back into his chair in relief. “I apologize. There have been… incidents in the past. I am perhaps more vigilant than I should be. I didn’t mean to frighten you. The glamour around the circus is just to keep people from being afraid. Most humans don’t understand the things we do.”

“No, I understand. You weren’t overreacting. These people are your family, right?”

“Well, I mean. I am human, human enough anyway. So, they aren’t my family in that sense but—”

“They’re your family.” Said Mabel firmly. “Wanting to protect them is natural, we’re sorry for freaking you out. We really didn’t mean to.”

Lucian suddenly glanced over towards his cane with a frown. He appeared to be listening to something. Then he said, “Are you sure?” before nodding to himself.

He glanced back at the two of them. “This is, perhaps, a bit of a weird request. My cane would like to meet you both, they say they have things to share with you.”

Dipper stared at the cane, it was made of a twisted dark polished wood. He could see nicks and scratches in it, but it looked very well cared for. At the top, acting as the handle, was a bird skull. It was the same brown as the rest of the cane, but it was carved with a level of realistic detail that reminded him uncomfortably of the lumberjack’s curse which Pacifica had broken. The skull turned to look at them both and Dipper jumped backwards in shock. It clicked its beak at him, and he had the wild thought that it was laughing at his reaction.

“Hey! None of that, that’s not kind.” Lucian tapped the cane roughly. “My apologies, they like to play tricks on people sometimes. It is made from the wood of the world tree, Yggdrasil. I was gifted it years ago on my first foray through Faerie.”

“You’ve been to Faerie?” Mabel gasped.

“Of course!” Lucian smiled, “Every pin on those boards is a place we have performed in the past century or so. We travel through Faerie, or its equivalent, in whichever country we happen to be in. America doesn’t have Faerie, but the ghost roads work quite similarly I’ve found. Nearly all of my performers are originally from Faerie as well, although we’ve picked up all sorts of different people in our travels.”

He picked the cane off the wall and held it out towards them. “I promise they will not hurt you; they just want to play fortune teller. There is something about your future which they think is unsafe for you to not have warning of.”

Mabel reached out for it gently, murmuring a soft “Hello!” before she grabbed it. Her body suddenly went rigid, and her eyes flew open wide. Dipper reached for her, filled with the desire to rip the cane away from her, but some force met him in the air, stopping him before he could reach the wood in his sister’s hands. He could see her knuckles turning white as she clutched it tighter. Then, in an instant, her hands uncurled and the cane clattered back onto Lucian’s desk. Mabel slumped against the wall, breathing heavily.

“Mabel, are you okay? Can you hear me? What did it do to you?”

“M’fine. Just wasn’t expecting…I’ll be okay in a sec, don—don’t worry about me.”

The cane turned to look at Dipper again and clicked their beak impatiently. Steeling himself, he picked it up.

There was a roaring in his ears and everything around him faded to darkness. He couldn’t feel the floor beneath his feet anymore. The whole world was condensed down to the single point where he could feel the old, gnarled wood between his hands.

Then from the void came a voice. It creaked and cracked like a tree in high winds. It was old, older than anything he had ever heard before. Each world rang through his head like a bell, deliberate, ponderous, and final.

You Stand Before A Crossroads,

A Deal Waits,

The Decision Is Yours To Make,

Your Life Is Yours To Take

Or Yours To Leave Behind,

Choose Your Name Carefully

The voice died away and from the void ghosts of images flashed past, a circus tent, stars, Mabel’s hand in his, an inhuman smile in darkness.

Then he was back in Lucian’s office. The cane lay on the floor at his feet. He stumbled backwards into the wall, trying to get his breathing under control.

Mabel laid her hand on his arm. “You okay, Dipper?”

“Yeah,” he gasped out, “just a bit intense. Sorry.”

Lucian stood up and bent down stiffly to retrieve his cane. “Apologies, I forget how much of a shock those visions can be to people who haven’t experienced them before.” He pulled a small gold pocket watch out of his jacket and glanced at it, “I must go to make sure that everything is ready for the show. You two can wait in here until you feel recovered.”

He tucked the watch away again, pulled his hat onto his head, and opened the door before pausing. “You are, of course, free to leave. If you want to stay, however, the show is pretty incredible. Even more so when you can really see what the performers are up to.” He tapped his wrist meaningfully, then hurried out of the wagon pulling the door shut behind him.

…

They went to the show, and loath as he was to admit it, Dipper thought it was incredible.

There were fire-spinners whose hands flickered with living flames, winged acrobats who danced through the air from one trapeze to the next. There was a section where fae twined around each other in various animal forms, performing tricks that astounded the audience around them. Privately, Dipper’s favorite tricks were the ones that didn’t involve any magic at all.

A pair of fae, distinguishable from humans only by the small pairs of antlers on their heads and the moving vines tattooed onto their arms, performed an amazing acrobatic routine on the floor, surrounded by fire dancers using physical props instead of their elemental powers. A group of centaurs, no doubt glamoured to the audience as horseback riders performed a fairly complex sequence of choreography around each other in a blurred dance. Lucian and a bird-headed partner did a juggling routine involving multiple different sets of props, Lucian's top hat, and a really excellent set of steals.

In fact throughout the whole show Dipper found himself watching Lucian. The man directed his troupe around the ring effortlessly. With twirls and taps of his cane, flourishes of his hat, and occasional flash paper fires, he commanded the space entirely. Dipper could see he was having the time of his life. Every-time the audience cheered he seemed to glow with joy. At the same time Dipper could see he was focused on the acts. Once or twice, he caught Lucian tracking something with carefully disguised concern. An acrobat falling out of balance, a lyra artist slipping slightly and almost revealing her wings trying to catch herself, one of the lions missing the edge of a fire ring and singing their mane on the way through.

Dipper found the longer he watched, the more he envied Lucian. This man seemed so certain of who he was. He led his friends—his family as Mabel had called them—with a parental care and determination that Dipper realized he hadn’t felt in a long time. This circus was full of creatures from all over the world, he was even fairly certain there were some normal humans performing here and there, and all of them seemed to get along. Mabel was right, this was a family, and it was the type of family he didn’t think he had ever had.

The finale of the show involved lots of pyrotechnics and different elemental performances. Right before it started, Lucian came onstage to announce the dates of several more shows in the area and thank the audience for their attendance and donations. He also mentioned that they had a few more positions open for auditions if anyone was interested in joining the troupe, and for a second Dipper was certain that Lucian was staring directly at him. The next moment however, the stage was filled with people and Lucian had vanished into the finale.

He and Mabel remembered at the last second to switch themselves over into the ghost roads before the clock struck midnight. They found themselves standing in an empty field, the chaos of the lights and sound fading around them. As they walked back to the car Dipper realized there was something in his jacket pocket. He paused and pulled it out in confusion. It was a business card for the Green Fairy Circus. The acid green text appeared and disappeared as he flipped the card over to look at the back. In elegant cursive there was a short note.

It was lovely to meet you both, if you ever need a place to stay, the Green Fairy will welcome you home. – L.O.

Something warm flared to life in his chest and he carefully tucked the card back into his pocket, hurrying after Mabel.

…

A patron leaves the circus. Their passage is unseen, unheard. They walk slowly, lost in thought. Flicking through memories that are not their own. A panicked phone call, a tearful voicemail. An argument in a dingy hotel room, an argument at a gas station, many arguments in a car, raised voices, flushed faces, a growing rift. They know a decision has almost been reached, their work is almost over.

In the distance a car starts, and, with a click of their fingers, time begins to loop once more.

#gravity falls #whereverwegoau #my writing #writing #dipper and mabel #cryptids #trans dipper pines #this chapter took me forever to figure out #but im pretty happy with it #its also really long whoops #(don't mind my circus OC's I just thought the circus was a fun setting to use for shenanigans)

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