#mabel's fairy/fighting

[l0verseyes]

partner pokemons 🌲🌠🤚🐟

[ckret2]

Hey gang, time for Crowdsourced Brainstorming Time

for reasons, I've got to write Mabel and Bill watching (at least large chunks of) a full Color Critters episode, which means I need something more in-depth than the quick snips & summaries I've done for previous episodes, and I feel like brainstorming a kids' cartoon plot is the kind of thing where twenty brains are better than one.

The goal: episode plotlines that sounds like something you'd find in an 80s Care Bears or Rainbow Brite episode. We're going for "run-of-the-mill episode," not a plot you'd expect in a pilot or a finale or an exciting two-parter special event

the premise of the show: anthropomorphic animals are defending colors, which are magically tied to different concepts. Example: the color green and friendship: when friends are fighting it kills nearby green things and if green things are destroyed it negatively impacts nearby friendships. it's for kindergarteners and teaches simple life lessons that people in the 80s thought were a good idea.

And if you haven't lost interest in this post yet, I'm sticking the available characters under the read more

Good guys, the colors they're in charge of, and what that gives them power over:

Prisma the Rainbow Fairy - rainbows, white, light - she's basically just Rainbow Brite. Everyone else's boss. Unofficially the main character.

Glory the Unicorn - pink - no particular domain, just Prisma's second-in-command and bestie. A bit of a worrywart.

Leo Proud - Red - life, exercise, playing (especially active play like sports)

Teddy Tender - orange - health/healing, fun & enjoyable things (less active play like board games)

Sunny Cat - yellow - sunlight, self-confidence, personal strength/power/assertiveness. she and Leo are cousins

Love Bunny - Green - friendship, love, nature

Howell Wolf - Blue - creativity, storytelling, magic (he's a wizard, he's got a wizard hat). he's besties with Leo

Misty the Dolphin - indigo - serenity/harmony, cooperation. She can't travel most places due to being a dolphin and gets used in well-intended but dated episodes about accommodating your friends with disabilities.

some bird I haven't named yet, maybe a peacock - purple - spirit

Bad guys:

Duke of Smog - the Big Bad, floating cloud of purple-gray smog with red angry eyes. He only takes an active role for special occasions like the pilot episode and season finales; otherwise the other characters frequently reference him but he's rarely seen. Wants to destroy color and goodness. No Heart mixed with that one creep in the Rainbow Brite pilot two-parter, what was with that dude anyway, they built him up so much as a villain and then bam he doesn't even survive to be part of the actual show

Serpent Grey - the second-in-command and most frequently seen bad guy. snake that has a mane for some reason. Bosses around the rank-and-file bad guys, cowardly dumbass who thinks he's a courageous genius. Shreeky mixed with G1 Starscream if he wasn't trying to overthrow megatron. If this show actually existed in the real world and I had watched it at age 7 then Serpent would be my favorite character and I'd probably have shipped him with the Duke.

a big fuzzy tarantula I haven't named yet - well-meaning bumbling dumbass who doesn't seem to realize he's one of the bad guys and is just happy to be included. Think Lurky.

a bee I also haven't named yet - the most important thing to know about him is that in season 1 he was a bad guy but then a special interest group angrily wrote the TV station to say that bees are so important to nature and agriculture and it was shameful for a children's cartoon to teach kids that bees are bad guys and so in season 2 he inexplicably joined the good guys and it took half the season for them to air an episode showing he switched sides because the other bad guys were bullying him and the good guys were nice.

"Hey Puff how come you can describe the bad guys in so much more detail than the good guys even though they're much less important?" don't look at me

[twoa-plus]

hello gravity falls fandom i am going insane and putting everyone into monsterfalls. i cannot be stopped. i’m on mobile so i can only post 10 at a time but here’s the first 10 + explanations :3

mermaid mabel is cool and all but i think she should be Weirder. also the idea of her not being able to frolic makes me sad. so she’s a wolpertinger now

i like cervitaur dipper he can stay. gave him a lil saddlebag for the extra pocket space & turned the spots on his back into more constellations :3

BEAR WITH ME OK dragon stan. PLEASE PLEASE HEAR ME OUT PLEASE i pulled out the monster manual for this and everything & copper dragon suits him PERFECTLY they’re funny and charismatic and like having company around and get annoyed with people who don’t like their jokes and are very protective of their hoards and

i like sphinx ford i think it suits him but i don’t really like how everyone just makes him a lion furry with wings like c’mon get WEIRD !!!! give that cat a jarringly human face

tbh my justification for this one is mostly just that i think it’s funny but. fur bearing trout wendy. they come from lumberjack lore so it’s at least kind of on theme

listen i usually just draw twinks and pretty girls im fighting for my life here dont @ me. anyways fairy soos comes from a post by @/year2000electronics :3

GRENDAAA i wanted her to be both pretty/cute and also strong bc like. yeag. so i settled on peryton with a violet-backed starling as the bird :) c’mon man it’s a deer pegasus with cool colors what’s not to love

when i first started doing these my bestie said candy would be a fresno nightcrawler and i have not looked back. i dont know why but it suits her so much

someone in my tiktok comments said mothman robbie and i was just like. yeah sounds legit. and then my bestie said he’d be a rosy maple moth who dyes himself black/red to be emo or whatever and now we’re here :3

gideon is a kitsune bc they’re tricksters or whatever and also easy to turn into a marketable plushie. he would totally be plushie-able

ok now i am off to make the sequel i’ll put a link here when it’s done :D

edit: IT HAS ARRIVED

[pixeltwix]

Alone Together Au (except it’s the other half left behind)

In which both Stanford and Fiddleford fall through the portal and both Stan and Emma May work together to bring them back (even with two people it still takes thirty years, oops)

Together though they keep a marriage of convenience so that the town doesn’t suspect anything odd of them. Everyone still thinks Stan is Stanford and Emma May simply says she got a divorce from her old husband and remarried

“Come one, come call, to see the awe inspiring ability of Madame Mystery! Only 30 bucks a pop, and there ain’t no refunds, the spirits hate refunds~“

Emma May works as a sort of telepath and psychic medium in the mystery shack before the Gleeful’s rolled into town. Her true inspiration however is from the twins mother, Caryn. She recalls all of her tricks and swindles she watched the woman do when she was younger and was happy to apply them for herself <3

All together though her get up resembles much more of a fairy godmother type appeal than anything else (which Mabel loves)

Even though Stan and Em were friends in the past it was still undoubtedly difficult to yknow, pass as a married couple at first.

Eventually they pulled it off effortlessly in public, but there’s still a lot of emotional turmoil behind closed doors. Em missing her actual husband desperately and Stan having to juggle that, Tate’s bitterness towards him, and the fake identity

They don’t hate each other or anything though, quite the opposite, they feel they’re the only support the other has after Tate moved out to live by the lake. Ultimately at the end of the day while it seems they’re just a ‘bitter old married couple’ they’ll be the first to back each other up

Emma May acquired a pretty nasty scar after the portal incident, so she began to style her bangs over her eyes to prevent anyone from seeing them. The only one who occasionally does is Stan, but when you’re working into the ams on a portal you can’t comprehend it’s hard to care too much about said scar

But this doesn’t stop Dipper from speculating what she could be hiding under the bangs

“I don’t know, but I reckon it feels like the end of the world.”

In order to convince Stan to come to Gravity Falls, Em sends the postcard copying Fords handwriting to bait him to Oregon. Once he shows up though he’s shocked to find his brother actually didn’t want to see him at all and it was instead her who wants to talk

She promptly explains she needs backup confronting Ford and Fiddleford because while she can get through to Fiddleford she worries no one can get through to Ford. Her last resort was asking for Stans help

Things do not..go very well though. Ford and Stan still fight, Fiddleford tries to break them up and accidentally gets shoved alongside Ford. Meanwhile Em is the only one close enough for Stan to actually grab hold of before the portal shuts off and the two are left alone together

And then the last silly detail atm regarding Tate

Little dude ✨hates✨ Stan

He blames him for his father falling through the portal and he absolutely detests the ‘uncle/friendly paternal’ type role he tries to fill as he grows up

He can’t help but feel bitter towards his mother as well considering she was so quick to marry Stan as well, even with the context of the situation, even if it was just on paper, even if he knows they’re working to get the two back. It still felt like a betrayal

Once he was old enough he moved out to live by the lake where he eventually opens his tackle shop, but fishing isn’t exactly the only job he has

Knowing Tate is potentially even more intelligent than his father he found the memory gun when he was around the twins age, made himself leader of the society of the blind eye as he’s ‘the heir’, and promptly continues to run the cult in the bg as he feels it’s what his dad would want him to do

[mint-fixates]

If you've been following my concept for an AU where Bill isn't evil, you'll know I've been planning to write a fanfic about it. I plan on posting an actual multichapter AU fic on AO3 eventually, but here's a snippet from one of the early chapters for now because I'm drunk and haven't decided I hate it yet

"Well, children, I think it's finally time I introduce you to my husband."

Mabel's eyes widened. "Ohmygosh, Grunkle Ford, you have a HUSBAND?!"

Dipper furrowed his brows. "Our parents never mentioned you being married..."

"Yes, well," Ford cleared his throat, eyes darting around, "The family doesn't exactly... Know. Well, aside from my brother, Stanley, who I'll also be introducing you to fairly soon."

"Grunkle Ford, do you really think the rest of the family would judge you for liking guys?" Mabel raised an eyebrow, "I like guys and girls, and no one cares!"

Ford shook his head. "Oh, no, that's not why I- you know what? It'll be easier to explain once you've met him."

He led them to his room. Mabel was bouncing in place with anticipation, while Dipper was looking at his great uncle skeptically. Why all the secrecy?

Ford knocked on the bedroom door. "Bill, are you in there? I'd like to introduce you to the kids!"

"Ugh, FINALLY! I was going insane hiding in this damn room all day. Well, more insane than usual, haha!" a chipper, pitchy voice said on the other side of the door.

The door opened to reveal... A floating yellow triangle. He had one eye, a bowtie, and a top hat. He was holding two small sacks, both seemingly made from the skin of some indeterminate creature.

"Hiya, mini-Pines! Name's Bill Cipher," he tossed each of them a bag, "A little something to welcome you in!"

Dipper had several questions, but was currently stunned into silence. He opened his bag curiously, fighting the urge to throw it down the hallway when he saw its contents: teeth. The "present" prompted a whole new series of questions: What kind of teeth even are these? How did he get them? Why did he think that this was an appropriate gift for children?

"Woah..." Mabel said as she rifled through her bag, "Are you, like, the reverse tooth fairy? Do I owe you money now?"

Bill laughed. "Nah, these are on the house, kid!"

Dipper cleared his throat, finally finding his voice. "Uh... Great Uncle Bill? Can I ask you a few things?"

Bill shrugged. "Sure, Dip, whatcha got?"

Ford gave his nephew a knowing smile, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Actually, Dipper, I probably have most of the answers you're looking for written down already. I interviewed him extensively once he got here. Where did I put that old journal...?"

[gravity-falls-dreamer]

Gravity Falls: Dreamer Chapter 37: The Plan

Tumblr Links: << Chapter 1 // < Chapter 36 // Chapter 38 >

Ao3 Links: << Chapter 1 // < Chapter 36 // Chapter 37 // Chapter 38 >

WattPad Links: << Chapter 1 // < Chapter 36 // Chapter 37 // Chapter 38 >

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The summer sun shined high in the sky, casting warmth on the Pine's family backyard.

Dipper sat on the porch steps, book in hand.

Mabel burst through the Mystery Shack’s screen door, radiating boundless energy and a scrapbook in her hand.

She plopped down next to her brother.

“Dipper! You need to see the updated version of the Summer Scrapbook!”

“Mabel, you don't need to show me every time you get a single page done,” Dipper huffed, rolling his eyes dramatically. 

Mabel nudged Dipper with her shoulder.

“Sure I do! Got to keep my bro-bro up on all of my fancy work!” she boasted as she flipped the book open and started to go through the pages. “Here is the time Grunkle Ford found out it was me who was turning all of his socks inside out. KERPRANKED! And here is the time we stole a painting from Bud Gleeful with Grunkle Stan!”

“Mabel, I was there, remember?” Dipper groaned, running his hand down his face.

Mabel's face beamed brightly as she turned the page.

“And here is the time you dressed up as a wolf/weasel hybrid just to fight off a scary lizard chicken!”

Dipper felt his stomach drop as heat rose up to his cheeks.

“MABEL! BURN THAT PHOTO!” he shouted as tried to snatch the book out of Mabel's hands but she was too fast.

“No way in hell, Dip-Dip! That and the picture of Evi covered in fairy graffiti are my favorite photos in the entire world!” she cackled, pushing her brother back with her free hand.

Dipper reached over Mabel but couldn't quite grab the scrapbook, his fingers just brushing the cover as he shouted, “Come on, Mabel! That's embarrassing!”

Before the fight could escalate more, Stan walked out of the shack, scratching the side of his face, the Nix's harp in his hand.

“Woah, I wish I was warned you two were fighting. I would have brought out the video camera,” he chortled, a wide grin stretching across his face.

“Grunkle Stan, this is hardly a fight. Dipper just wants his wolf costume picture back,” Mabel teased, still holding Dipper back with ease.

Stan waved a hand in the arm, smirking as he stated, “Don't worry, pumpkin. I have copies for blackmailing reasons.”

“You’re officially my favorite criminal~” Mabel snickered with an impish grin.

“Why?!” Dipper complained, throwing up his hands.

Stan pointed at him, warning, “In case you ever decide to turn the kitchen into a science experiment again.”

Dipper leaned his head back, groaning, “A guy creates ONE potato bomb and now he can't live it down.”

“I told you to add glitter. No one can be mad at glitter!” Mabel taunted with a smirk.

“Yes, they can,” Dipper deadpanned, narrowing his eyes at her.

“I will never believe that,” she rebutted with a wave of her hand, sparkles falling lazily from her fingertips.

Dipper rolled his eyes before turning to Stan and asking, “What's up with the harp?”

“Isn't that the instrument from that hot/not hot river monster?” Mabel asked, grimacing.

“Yeah, Spooky asked me to fix it up last week. I finally fixed it. Now I just need to find her to give it back to her,” Stan explained, inspecting the harp in the light before looking down at the twins. “Have you kids seen the crazy lady?”

Before they could respond, a voice rang out from above, shouting, “Up here!”

Dipper, Mabel, and Stan looked up to see Ford peering over the edge of the roof, a wide grin on his face.

“Woah, Grunkle Ford, what are you doing up there?” Dipper asked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

“I want to be on the roof too!” Mabel exclaimed with a smile before running into the shack to make her way to the top floor.

Ford chuckled, still peering over the side of the roof.

“Evalin had agreed to allow me to watch her sigil work on the shack.”

“You're letting her do magic voodoo on the Mystery Shack?” Stan questioned, squinting his eyes slightly.

“It's not Voodoo, Stanley. It's her sigil work. You should come up and see for yourself. It's quite fascinating,” Ford encouraged before disappearing back over the ledge.

His eyes shifted back over to Evalin who was bent over, a blowtorch flame flaring at her fingertip.

Her face was scrunched with focus as she finished another sigil before looking up at the sun.

Bringing a finger to her chin, she started to mumble at herself, “Alright, so if the sun is out 12 to 13 hours a day on this planet, we are going to need a battery for overnight. This is for a whole damn house. It isn't small like my cabin. I'll have to set up conduits so the power can be distributed properly throughout the house.”

She scratched the side of her head in frustration, grumbling, “That means I need to draw up modules in specific locations throughout the house just to get power.”

Ford sat comfortably as he watched her with an excited smile.

“This is quite impressive, Evalin. So, this sigil array—it's channeling ambient solar energy? Or are you using another energy source?” he inquired, his mind running wild.

Evalin didn’t look up, her focus locked on the sigil.

She muttered something under her breath before finally answering, “It's called a sigil grid, Stanford. And yes, I'm using the energy from the sun to—“

The window to the roof opened and Mabel came tumbling out.

Evalin immediately reached out her hand to catch the falling child, exclaiming, “Woah! Easy there, sparkle gremlin. Don't step on the sigil lines. They WILL burn your toes.”

Mabel's eyes flickered from the sigil lines up to Evalin, a huge smile growing on her face.

“You doing witchy magic doodles?”

Evalin blinked before she helped Mabel stabilize herself and pushed her over to Ford.

“Close enough. Now go sit down with Stanford, please. I'm working.”

Dipper and Stan climbed out of the window too.

Evalin pressed her lips together, grumbling, “Please tell me you're not here to interrupt me too.”

“Woah, what is happening here?” Dipper asked as he looked at the sigils before crawling onto the roof while Stan sat on the window sill, dangling his legs over the edge.

“It's called work,” Evalin sighed, gesturing down to the sigils. “As I was saying just a bit ago before everyone stumbled out like clowns scrambling out of a clown car, this is a Sigil Grid. My own creation.”

She shrugged, shaking her head as she added, “Most magic users are too stupid to do something this complex without the whole thing blowing up but that's because they are cowards with no power control.”

Ford raised an eyebrow, asking, “I take it that most practitioners aren't as refined in their technique?”

Evalin let out a dry laugh.

“Those weenies would piss themselves if they saw this~”

She started to pace around the roof, avoiding the sigil lines with ease and using the tip of her boot to point out sigils as she explained them.

“This big boy in the middle is an energy absorption sigil. I drew this one specifically to go for the sun's energy,” she explained before dragging her foot next to the line connecting to another much smaller sigil. “This one siphons small amounts of energy through the conduits and distributes that power to these smaller modules so the energy can be spread throughout the whole house but it looks like I need to make a few more sigils to make sure this works. An energy storage sigil to act as a battery for overnight, a redirection sigil so things don't overload, and a bigger siphon sigil that goes into the ground just in case there is extra energy that we don't need.”

She looked up in thought, adding, “Not sure if that is necessary but it never hurts. This place doesn't have my other energy stabilizing sigils so this would be more so I don't accidentally bow the roof off of the shack.”

Mabel threw her hands up, shouting, “Raise the roof!”

Evalin rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

“If I mess this up, we’re looking at either a blackout or a small rooftop explosion—neither is ideal.”

“Yeah, let’s NOT have another roof incident, thanks,” Stan snorted.

Dipper pressed his lips together as he muttered, “Pretty sure we don’t need a second sun in Gravity Falls either.”

Evalin hummed, deep in thought.

“I've never made a sun before...” she mumbled before a smile spread across her face as something flickered behind her eyes. “Now THAT one sounds like fun~”

Dipper deadpanned, “Don't do that. It's hot enough as it is.”

“That is very true... Another time then~” Evalin teased as she tilted her head side to side.

“Hey, Spooky, I fixed the thing for you,” Stan announced as he pulled out the Nix's harp from inside the window.

Evalin's face lit up as she quickly dashed over to check out his work, her smile growing wide.

“It's perfect! Thank you, Stanley! You are a lifesaver for sure!”

As soon as Evalin took the harp from his hands, Stan felt the pressure around his pinky release with a light fizzle.

He rubbed his hand where the promise ribbon once was, mumbling, “So, I got my soul back?”

Evalin didn't even glance at him as she looked over the harp.

“Hm? Oh, I didn't take your soul but, yes, you are free now~ Thank you for your help.”

The tips of Stan's ears turned pink as he rubbed the back of his neck before he flashed her a shit-eating grin and finger gunning her, teasing, “You got it, sweet tits~”

Ford's eye twitched as he groaned, “Don't call her that, Stanley.”

Stan burst out laughing.

Evalin began to strum the harp, the sound ringing out beautifully.

“You know how to play that?” Ford inquired, eyebrows raised.

Evalin shrugged, her fingers plucking the strings absentmindedly.

“Not yet but it's also not the first instrument I've had to teach myself how to play so it shouldn't be too difficult.”

Dipper raised an eyebrow.

“You have learned how to play a Nix's instrument before?”

“Yeah, I learned how to play a lute before too. That was extremely difficult, but totally worth it.” Evalin snorted, not paying attention.

Dipper tilted his head with a smirk.

“So, you do know a lot more than you are saying.”

Evalin froze, realizing what she said.

She pressed her lips together and pulled her hat over her eyes, mumbling, “Mabel, sweetie, come here please.”

Mabel perked up and skipped over.

Evalin bent over and whispered in Mabel's ear before pulling out a paper from her bra.

She handed it to Mabel, who started vibrating with excitement.

Mabel turned to her brother and fully sprinted, shouting, “TICKLE SIGIL ATTACK!” before slapping the sigil on Dipper.

The effects were immediate as Dipper felt muscle spasms all throughout his body, making him laugh uncontrollably.

Stan and Mabel both howled out with laughter as Evalin snickered to herself.

Ford rolled his eyes and got up to remove the sigil from Dipper so he could breathe, grumbling, “Evalin, I told you not to use your sigils on the kids.”

Evalin barked out a laugh and pointed at Mabel.

“I didn't do shit! Mabel slapped Dipper with the tickle sigil!” she claimed before shrugging, a shit-eating grin on her face. “That sigil wasn't even originally my idea. That was Mabel's idea.”

Mabel nodded approvingly, adding, “I have the best ideas~”

Ford pinched the bridge of his nose, groaning, “You two are horrible together.”

“I beg to differ~” Evalin argued with a smirk as she tousled Mabel’s hair.

“We are the greatest witchy team out there, Grunkle Ford! Bow before us!” Mabel shouted as she pointed down to the ground.

Ford didn't even dignify that with an answer as he rolled his eyes.

“What did my brother mean by the promise is over?”

Evalin hesitated, her grip tightening on the harp.

“Oh... that. Well, I needed him to do something for me and it was pretty important so I made a promise with him. Simple~”

Ford raised an eyebrow.

“And what did Stanley get in return?”

Evalin flashed him a sharp grin.

“A night with Lady Luck~”

Ford choked on air.

He slowly turned to his brother, his expression darkening.

Stan looked at him back, wiggling his eyebrows with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“What in god's name did you do, Stanley?” Ford demanded, his face twitching slightly.

Stan's smile widened.

“I got to play games with her all night~” he drawled, enunciating each word.

Ford felt his stomach hit the ground as his whole face twitched.

Evalin shrugged, unaware of the damage Stan was causing.

“Yeah, because sitting with you as you played Poker was lots of fun for me.”

Ford's head snapped to her.

“Wait... what?”

Stan's laugh echoed through the air.

“Holy shit, Sixer! You should have seen your face! I wish I had a camera!”

Ford pinched the bridge of his nose, groaning, “Goddamn it, Stanley. You are such an ass.”

Dipper took a closer look at the sigils, his mind racing with theories.

“Where have I seen these symbols before?” he asked before looking up at Evalin. “Evalin, what did you use to make these?”

Evalin blinked.

Then she reached up and fiddled with the brim of her hat.

“Well... since this is more... technological, I had to use a different alphabet to make the sigils.”

Ford’s ears perked up as he leaned forward, intrigued.

“You can interchange the base symbols for your sigil work? I'm assuming each alphabetical sequence produces a different result then?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Evalin explained with a nod. “Some alphabets are better suited than others. It all depends on what I'm using it for.”

“So what alphabet did you use for this one?” Dipper questioned, pointing to the sigils.

Evalin hesitated.

Her fingers twitched against the harp as she cleared her throat, her cheeks dusting pink.

“Well... I used... Stanford's alphabet.”

Stan furrowed his brow.

“The scribble in the journals?”

Ford shook his head.

“No, Evalin has never seen the journals. Those were thrown in the Bottomless Pit at the end of last summer, remember?”

Stan rubbed his head.

“Last summer is still a little... fuzzy. You know, between the memory gun, time shenanigans, and whatever the hell that deer was saying to me—“

There was a moment of silence.

Evalin blinked, her eyes flickering over the family.

'Woah... This family is actually quiet for once? Whatever happened last summer must have been pretty shitty.'

Ford rubbed the back of his neck, mumbling, “Right, my apologies, Stanley.”

Evalin's eye widened slightly.

'Woah! Ford is actually apologizing to Stanley?! What the fuck happened last summer?!'

Ford cleared his throat, breaking the silence.

“Anyway, yes, Evalin has seen my work before apparently. One of my old research papers from college appeared in her dimension one day back when I was still testing out different ciphers. Supposedly, she deciphered it and is now using it as a basis for technological sigil designs.”

Evalin's shoulders eased a little, as she smirked.

“Yep~ The sigils made from that alphabet work really well for stuff like powering my fridge and freezer as well as infinite hot water for showers. So, thank you for that, Ford~”

Stan blinked, the gears in his head turning.

“Wait... so you're tellin' me, all of this doodle work is so we get free power?”

Evalin hesitated for a moment before answering.

“I mean, yeah. You wanted to see my sigil work—so I went all out. Stanford said I could go big, so... I did,” she explained before a smirk crawled across her face as she added, “Gives me the chance to show off why my sigil work is so powerful~”

Stan's smile grew wide.

“You beautiful genius! This is amazing! Now we don't have to spend thousands of dollars because of all of the power my brother's nerdy lab uses!”

Evalin heard a memory of a voice echo in her head.

“HOLY SHIT—YOU INSANE FUCKING GENIUS—”

Something tugged at her heart as a small smirk curled her lips, heat rising in her chest.

For just a moment, she softened.

Then she shook her head, a normal smile plastered on her face.

“Yeah, yeah. You're welcome. Now you see why I'm the most powerful sigil user in all of Elaris~”

“You've talked about that before. What is Elaris?” Dipper asked, tilting his head.

Evalin froze, realizing what she said.

Without missing a beat, Ford cleared his throat, stating, “Elaris is the planet she is from.”

Evalin reached up and pulled on her hat.

'Godsdamn it... I have such a big mouth around these people...'

Mabel smiled brightly.

“Is it pretty on Elaris? It sounds like a gorgeous name!”

Evalin paused as her gaze landed on the young girl.

She studied her for a moment, eyes flickering with something unreadable.

“Yeah, Elaris is beautiful,” she whispered with a small smirk as she turned her eyes up to the sky, the sun warming her face. “I can’t wait to get back home.”

Mabel's smile faded entirely as something twisted in her chest.

“Wait... you're not staying here?” she asked, her voice small.

Evalin blinked, confused.

“What? N-no, I need to go home,” she explained as she gave Mabel a weak smile. “I don't belong here, Mabel. I have to go home.”

Ford's jaw tightened as he looked away, his heart knotting against his ribs.

Mabel's eyes widened in disbelief, murmuring, “But you do belong here.... You're a Pines… just like us.”

Evalin shook her head slowly.

“Mabel... I'm not—“

“There has to be something we can do!” Mabel shouted as she snapped her head to Ford.

Evalin paused, her smile faltering as she felt a strange feeling in her stomach.

Ford kept his eyes to the side, resting his arms on his knees.

“I have already asked her to stay but it’s her choice.”

“So that's it?” Stan grumbled, crossing his arms. “You fix up the shack, play house with us for a while, and then go back to your lonely life in the middle of nowhere. You just go and disappear?”

Evalin snapped her head over to him, her lips pressed together.

“Wow, okay, fucking rude much?”

She stood up tall, placing a hand to her chest.

“I was in the middle of work before I came here. Granted, I'm not sure how I landed here in Gravity Falls but I would still love to get back home.”

Her eyes narrowed at Stan before adding, “No matter how lonely that life might be to you.”

She exhaled through her nose, calming her tone before continuing.

“Don't get me wrong, I appreciate everything your family has done for me and I'm trying to make it up to you guys. I've been trying to make myself useful to you all in any possible way I can.”

Her voice grew quiet.

“You are all wonderful people and probably the best group I could have ended up with.”

She pulled at her hat again, muttering, “But I have work to do.”

The whole area grew quiet.

Not a single one of them said a word.

Ford pressed his lips together, gaze unreadable.

Mabel clutched her sweater as tears started to swell in her eyes.

Dipper shoved his hands in his vest pockets.

Then—Evalin spoke up again.

She swallowed hard, fingers tightening on the brim of her hat.

“However...”

The word hung in the air.

Ford’s gaze sharpened as she continued.

“There is something I’ve been working on that might allow me to come back whenever I want...”

She exhaled, running a hand through her hair.

“But.... It’s a lot of work, and I have no idea if I can actually pull it off by myself...”

Ford immediately stepped forward.

“What do you need done?”

Evalin hesitated, her gaze shifting over to him as she studied his determined face.

Her jaw tightened as she tangled her free hand in her hair and started scratching in frustration.

She mumbled under her breath, “This is absolutely fucking crazy...”

Then, she moved the hair out of her face before addressing them again.

“Okay, let's say I can make a portal but it's unstable and I can't control where it leads to without an anchor. Let's also say we could somehow manage to make an anchor here in Gravity Falls.”

She rubbed her face, thinking, 'Fuck, this is such a horrible idea but...'

Her eyes flickered over the Pine's family faces.

“Look, when I get home, I'll pull some strings and complete the portal from my side... making a bridge between Elaris and.... uh....”

“Earth?” Dipper supplied with an arched eyebrow.

Evalin pointed at Dipper, confirming, “Right... Earth.”

She turned back to Ford.

“That way I can come back at any time and I can still get my work done.”

She flashed a weak smirk before adding, “Then, everyone is happy, right?”

Something flickered behind Ford's eyes as he studied her.

He couldn't stop the smirk from curling against his lips as he whispered, “Extremely.”

Mabel smiled wide as she turned to Ford.

“Grunkle Ford! You've built a portal before! You and Evi can make it together!”

Evalin raised an eyebrow.

“You actually made the portal that you traveled through to the multiverse? I thought you just fell through a random tear in reality.”

Ford stiffened, his expression darkening slightly.

“Yes... I have created a portal,” he faltered, his voice measured, but there was something heavy in it. “It was very... dangerous.”

“So is the rest of the multiverse, what’s new?” Evalin snorted, waving her hand in the air.

Dipper narrowed his eyes.

“How do you know so much about the multiverse?”

Evalin immediately shook her head.

“I've seen things, Dipper. A lot of things. I... I can't tell you how but I need you to trust me on this...” Her voice dipped low, quiet. “Please...”

Dipper was taken aback by her sudden genuineness.

He swallowed hard and nodded, filing all of his questions for another time.

Evalin let out a sigh of relief, a smirk curling her lips as she whispered, “Thank you...”

Ford crossed his arms, a smirk growing on his face.

“Then let’s get to work.”

Before anyone moved, a voice rang throughout the air.

“Woah! There you dudes are!”

Everyone blinked and looked over the edge of the roof to see Soos on the ground, a big goofy smile on his face while he waved his hands.

“I've been looking everywhere for you guys! You having a rooftop party without me?”

“No way, Soos! We wouldn't throw a party without you on your birthday!” Mabel bellowed out.

“Does our birthday gift fit you?” Dipper inquired as he leaned over the edge, his lips curled into a smile.

Soos gave them the thumbs up.

“It fits perfect! That's actually why I came to find you dudes! I'm closing the shop early today. Me and Melody are going to go play laser tag with the new equipment!” he stated as he hopped into his pickup truck. “See you dudes later!”

With that, he drove off the parklot and disappeared down the winding road. 

Stan rubbed the back of his neck, grumbling, “Damn, mid-July already? This summer’s flying by.”

Evalin blinked, looking over to Stan.

“.... What did you say?”

Stan paused.

His eyes shifted from side to side before landing on her again.

“Um... it's already mid-July?”

Evalin looked down for a moment in thought before turning to Ford.

“What is today?”

Ford hesitated before adjusting his watch.

“July 13th. Why do you ask?”

Evalin froze for a moment, blinking quickly.

Then she rubbed her cheek.

“Well... That means I turn 30 tomorrow.”

A silence filled the air.

Then—

Mabel shouted so loud Dipper almost fell over.

“TOMORROW IS YOUR BIRTHDAY!?”

Evalin jumped, her grip tightening on the harp, exclaiming, “Sweet stars, Mabel! Volume control! Learn it at least a little!”

“So... tomorrow is actually your birthday?” Ford questioned with an arched eyebrow.

“Yeah. Guess I forgot again. At least I recognized it before instead of days later. I've done that a time or two,” Evalin answered with a shrug, unbothered.

“You forgot about your birthday?” Dipper asked, incredulous.

Evalin adjusted her hat, her gaze shifting down to her work.

“Yeah, I guess. Don't really celebrate it so it's whatever.”

Mabel snapped her head at Evalin so hard, it was surprising that she didn't give herself whiplash as she shouted, “YOU DON'T CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY?!?!?!?!”

Evalin winced as she covered her ear.

“Godsdamn! Volume control! Please!” she pleaded, rubbing the side of her head in pain. “Shit... keep this up and my ears will start bleeding.”

Mabel ran over and clutched Evalin's dress.

“Why don't you celebrate your birthday?! It's like... the best holiday ever!”

Evalin blinked.

Then she let out a dry laugh, smirking.

“Holiday? Mabel, please. It's not that big of a deal. Besides, celebrations are with other people. Kind of don't have that in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere.”

Mabel studied her for a moment, her eyes flickering over her features.

A realization hit her hard, one she couldn't even say out loud.

Instead, a huge grin spread across her face.

“Don't worry, Evi! Me and Dipper will set you up with the best birthday ever!”

Evalin gave her a weak smile.

“Mabel, don't trouble yourself. Seriously. It's not a big deal,” she muttered before turning to Ford with a serious look. “I can meet you down in the study after I put this harp somewhere safe.”

With that, she started toward the edge of the roof.

Ford stepped forward to stop her.

“Evalin! Wait!” he shouted before motioning to the window. “This way is safer.”

Evalin furrowed her brow before lifting her eyebrow.

“Ohhh, you mean 'boring?'” she mused.

Her eyes traveled past him and up toward the tip of the roof above them.

A mischievous smile stretched across her face as she stepped away from the edge of the roof.

It looked like she was going to use the window but instead, she hip bumped Ford and ran up to the tip of the roof.

Ford felt his heart lurch and his stomach drop.

Dipper tightened his jaw.

Stan smirked as something buzzed in his mind.

“You gonna swan dive off the roof, Spooky?”

“DO A FLIP!” Mabel shouted at the top of her lungs.

Ford felt his chest tighten as he begged, “Evalin! Don't—!”

Evalin didn’t even glance back as she let out an amused giggle.

Then, she stepped off the roof, spun in mid-air, and landed on her feet with ease.

She didn't even look back up.

Instead, she smiled as she stepped into the shack, strumming the harp in her hands.

“WOOO! What a fucking woman~!” Stan whooped with a wide smile.

Ford groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, groaning, “You are all going to be the death of me one of these days.”

Mabel came up and patted him on the back.

“Don't worry, Grunkle Ford. You keep Evi busy while Dipper, Grunkle Stan, and I come up with a plan for Evi's birthday. We aren't going to let a single birthday go uncelebrated!”

Ford looked up at his family who were all smiling at him.

Slowly, he nodded and got to his feet, ready to start the next step of their plan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tumblr Links: << Chapter 1 // < Chapter 36 // Chapter 38 >

Ao3 Links: << Chapter 1 // < Chapter 36 // Chapter 37 // Chapter 38 >

WattPad Links: << Chapter 1 // < Chapter 36 // Chapter 37 // Chapter 38 >

[iamblue15]

If the Calamity Kids had Pokémon Types

Dipper: Dark/Psychic

Mabel: Fairy/Psychic

Raz: Psychic/Fighting

Lili: Fire/Grass

Coraline: Dragon/Flying

Wybie: Steel/Electric

Norman: Ghost/Electric

Neil: Steel/Ground

[askthemysterkids]

The Kids have been teleported into the world of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon! What kind of Pokemon would they be?

I'll be honest, I've been holding off on this one a lot. I don't tend to play Pokemon, even then it was Brick Bronze (anyone remember that game that got shut down?), Magikarp Jump, and Pokemon Go.

So, how about I set up the types, and if you guys say it looks good, I'll look into those Pokemon? I just want to make sure I get this right.

Now that the excuse is out of the way, answers!

~~~

Dipper: Grass and Psychic? I'm thinking this because of the fact that his spot on the wheel is "pine tree" and the fact that he deals with the strange. Though, would it be fun if he was Psychic because Bill possessed him? Like, if he was just Grass before? That would be fun. :)

Mabel: I'm definitely thinking Fairy for her.

Coraline: Water and Ghost. I was debating Fighting but I think Ghost would work better. Water because of the whole water witch thing and Ghost because of the Beldam and ghost children.

Wybie: I'm definitely thinking Metal and maybe Ghost? Maybe Bug instead of Ghost. Bug because of slugs, Ghost because he does seem to possibly have a connection with some of the Beldam stuff through his grandmother, the Cat, and that hand via Coraline.

Norman: Ghost and Electric for sure! This is flat out through his ancestors!

Neil: Normal and Fairy maybe? I'm not sure. He's a support type.

Raz: Psychic and Water. Legitimately because he's a psychic and he's Maligula's grandchild.

Lili: Psychic and Fire. Again, due to her being a psychic, and her specialty being fire.

Wirt: I tend to associate him with Grass and Ghost. Or just straight up Deerling.

Greg: Grass and Water? Frog Pokemon. (Or Phantump for a darker thing...)

Luz: I will need a bit of help here but I'm thinking Normal and Dark because she's a human learning demon magic.

Anne: Bug and Fighting? Bug and Water? I think this works? I'm thinking frogs and her using her sword. Maybe Bug and Fairy?

Marcy: Water and Psychic? Psychic sounds smart. Water was very prominent in Newtopia too.

Sasha: Fighting and Bug? Fighting for sure. Maybe Fighting and Normal.

Also realizing that for the Calamity trio, Grass can also fit... Crud.

[countlessrealities]

New Year's Eve toasts || Accepting !

@thesafaribaggirl-returns sent: 🥂 for a toast - Kaban to Mabel with some kind of nonalcoholic concoction?

Mabel had always loved holidays and anniversaries. No matter what they were supposed to be about, in her eyes they mainly meant two things: having fun and an excuse to dote on her loved ones.

New Year's Eve was no exception to that rule. As per usual, the girl had bullied her way into being in charge of decorations and the result was that the cabin now looked as if a tornado of lights had run through it, leaving colourful bulbs and scented candles everywhere. Of course, the Christmas decorations were still around too, which only added to the festive chaos.

To use Stan's words, their living space had been turned into the bad trip of a fairy who had got wasted on rainbows and cocaine. ...Of course, he had muttered the comment only to Ford, when he was sure that the kids were out of ear's shot.

As midnight approached, Mabel had dragged both Dipper and Kaban to the roof, to make sure they could get the best view of all the fireworks, including the ones that Stan and and Soos had prepared for the upcoming midnight.

"This is going to SO AWESOME!" Mabel exclaimed, loudly and excitedly, wrapping her twin in a suffocating hug. "And of course I made a new version of the Mabel Special for the toast!"

Dipper groaned, both because the too tight hold and because of the news. Mabel's drinks were...unique. They didn't necessarily taste bad, even if some of her first attempts had turned out pretty disgusting. The problem was the amount of sugar they contained and his sister was very much prone to sugar highs. Even if they weren't supposed to be a thing.

Mabel finally let go of him, just to whip out a bottle full of an oddly sparkling purple liquid. It was hard to fully see its content, and perhaps it was for the best, because, knowing the girl, she might have put glitter in it.

"Here!"

Mabel gingerly pushed a glass of her "special" in Kaban's hands, then one in Dipper's and finally poured a third one for herself.

"Countdown! Countdown! Countdown!"

Her voice was the loudest as everyone started to count down from ten to zero and her yell was so loud that it almost overcome the sound of the first firework exploding in the night.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!" She shrieked, clinking her plastic cup against the other two's and then gulped down its content all in a go.

"You better follow her lead on that," Dipper whispered in Kaban's direction, before swallowing his own drink in one go too.

The sky was quickly turned into a show of bright lights, bathing the forest with different colours with every bang. Mabel wrapped her arms around both her twin and her friend, holding them against her sides, sighing contently.

That year had been messy too, with all the running and fighting she and Kaban had been doing to save the Park, but it had been worth it. She had gained an amazing friend and gotten to discover a whole new world.

There were still things, dark things, she would never be rid of, and there would be more waiting ahead, but they no longer scared her as they had used to. She had overcome some of the worst already and, besides, she wasn't alone. And never would be.

[andromerot]

Any predictions/wants for the next season of mabelpod?

i would not dare predict anything but here are some things would be fun if they happened but i like. literally have no idea

mabel lolo friendship please please pleas

annamabel together again they find thousand new things to argue and fight back and forth about

veraluna epic divorce

THE KING. DOES SOMETHING. or maybe doesn't

becca maybell infinitymirroresque events and occurrences, same for tressa

uncle jack hasnt shown up in a while huh

calliemabel lore PLEASE

the repercusions and consecuences of jonathan mills (violette?)

the repercusions and consecuences of jonathan mills (AURORA SILVER IS NOT WILLING TO WAIT ANY LONGER)

SEASON EIGHT GAY SEX (canon)

things that are not happening but would be funny

due to the huge empty space around the newly crowned king: fairy hill declares itself an independent republic, anna limon has to find something else to be king of

thing is im pretty sure this may be the last season so. scary!

[askroahmmythril]

Made-Up Gym Leaders

So I was looking through some old files of mine and stumbled across these. I forgot I'd even come up with these, but I kind of like these ideas. One of those things, if I had more time and was better at imitating the Pokemon design style, I'd want to try drawing these characters to have a visual on them. But anyway, some Gym Leader ideas I had :

Flying - Audi (name basis, Audubon Society)

An elderly lady with grey hair in a bun, a decorative feather holding it in position. Horn-rimmed glasses, a kindly but spry look to her. White blouse with peacock teal shorts and hiking boots, a pair of binoculars hanging around her neck. Essentially a birdwatcher look.

Strictly uses bird type Pokemon, like, nothing that just happens to have Flying type, they're all definitely birds of various types.

A bit flighty (ha) and can get carried away talking about all the birds she's seen in her time, but not as "spaced out" as someone like Drasna, is pretty sharp and spry.

Gym Gimmick : Her gym is actually outdoors, set up as a nature hike trail. It's also a quiz gym, asking questions about bird Pokemon such as if you can identify certain footprints or other dex details. Trainers will still be eager to show off their bird Pokemon, but if you fail the quiz, you might get a harder fight as they think "Looks like you need to study more, but I can help with that!"

Rock - Cris (name basis, crystal)

Hippie type guy, unkempt hair and goatee with stubble. Very laid back look, wears various crystal necklaces, a brown leather vest with fringe around the bottom, a tie dye shirt with earth tones, worn jeans, and sandals.

His Pokemon tend to have a crystalline aspect to them, such as the Gigalith line, Carbink, etc.

Talks about the healing power of the earth, the voices of nature, very laid back in personality. Even in defeat is likely pretty lax about it and would say something like "Far out!" in admiration of your Pokemons' power. Likely would say something that might allude to being a relative of Mina from the Alola region, like a cousin or such.

Gym Gimmick : ?

Fairy - Mabel (name basis, sounds like fable / make believe kinda)

Kids' show host, probably in her early 20s. Light pink hair in a pixie bob style, cheerful expressions. Sort of fantasy princess look to her style of clothing, but notably has a cute dragon hand puppet that she provides a voice for. Her default "pose" for battle has her kicked back in an overstuffed cozy armchair, dragon puppet up eagerly, and a storybook open in her lap.

Narrates a "hero's journey" type story about the trainer as they traverse the gym.

Gym Gimmick : Her gym is actually the studio where she does her storytime show, her subordinate trainers being actors in different fantasy themed sets, like a witch in a forest, a knight in a castle, etc. If you pay attention to the story she tells, it may hint you on what your next opponent will use against you so you can prepare accordingly.

Dragon - Dyson (name basis, dice)

D&D style Dungeon Master. Dressed in a mostly modern style outfit, open jacket and jeans, but with a few accents here and there like a helmet, necklace with a D20, etc. He has fairly sharp eyes, focused looking, cocky grin. Perhaps kind of a faux fur collar on his jacket for style.

Has a flair for the dramatic, liking to build up battles in his gym as great fantasy setting encounters.

Gym Gimmick : Gym is set up like a Fire Emblem style tactical game. Battles have special gimmick rules, such as if an area is marked as a certain "terrain" type, different effects can happen in battle like weather or one of the terrain style effects. If you approach a trainer from behind, you start the battle with a free turn for "catching them off guard," but the same can apply if a trainer catches you this way.

Psychic - Tara (name basis, tarot)

A fortune teller wearing a black hooded cloak with golden runes along the trim. Her hood keeps a bit of her face in shadow, though she has sharp lavender eyes and a long violet hair braid that spills from her hood and down her side. Has a cozy looking velvet sort of outfit under the cloak, a burgundy top with black leggings and thick tan boots.

Has an aloof way of speaking, as though fate is decided and she's just there to play her part. She is however rather philosophical about her tarot readings, introducing herself by saying "My personal reading today… it spoke well of my fate here… Let us see…" Upon losing however, she amends this with "A reading, however, is not assurance. It is merely a guide and it is ours to find the way…"

Gym Gimmick : ?

Normal - Reggie (name basis, regular)

A store clerk. Clean cut light brown hair and a friendly face. White work shirt and khakis with a blue store apron. Tends to have a friendly smile, though it does become a bit more of a strained "customer service" smile for his losing animation.

Very service oriented, upon encounter he even asks if you were able to find everything you wanted today.

Gym Gimmick : His gym is in whatever city in the region happens to have the huge size department store, his gym actually being IN the store. Your bag is sealed while in the gym, and instead you're given a shopping cart. Certain areas in the gym have "Free Sample" kiosks where you can get items for use in the gym. Defeating trainers in the gym gets you coupons you can use at kiosks to obtain extra items.

……Kinda jokingly want to have a Beauty trainer in the gym that's very rude and demanding when you talk to her, and turns out her name's Karen, haha.

Bug - Nadia (name basis, needle)

A tattoo artist with a punk aesthetic. She has a yellow and black mohawk themed on Beedrill, and a green vest worn over a black half top. Has spider web sleeve tattoos.

Rough personality, confident style. Respects you as a kindred spirit upon defeat, can respect your power.

Gym Gimmick : ?

Steel - Victoria (name basis, Victorian style)

Wears a steampunk aesthetic outfit, complete with top hat and a tailed jacket. Overall a brown with bronze trim theme, gear and cog accents here and there. She has blonde hair with a silver streak, worn in a ponytail.

A refined yet excitable personality, eager to test your abilities, delighted even in defeat as it was an impressive showing.

Gym Gimmick : The gym is a tower, each floor requiring you to reassemble pipes to carry a flow of steam to power an elevator to the next floor.

Grass - Dr. Basil (name basis, holy basil, a medicinal herb)

A medical doctor, studies the medicinal properties of herbs. A bit of a gaunt, serious face, glasses. Stubble from his hard work life, though his hair is nicely kept. Wears a doctor's coat, tends to keep his hands folded behind his back and poses slightly hunched over.

Fairly serious and methodical. His comments during battle tend to be on the analytical side. Possibly a descendant of Tao Hua from Legends Arceus, similar thus in appearance.

Gym Gimmick : ?

Water - Porter (name basis, port)

Captain of a luxury cruise liner. Wears a crisp white captain's uniform with blue trim. Smarmy sort of grin, well trimmed mustache. Possibly tends to carry a fancy glass of (ahem) vacation juice.

Fairly posh attitude, proud of his vessel and the services his cruise provides. Overall fairly jolly, sees even his battles as providing entertainment for passengers on his ship.

Might make reference to the captain of the St. Anne and his struggle with seasickness.

Gym Gimmick : The gym is on his ship and may sort of feel like a combination of the St. Anne and the abandoned ship from the Hoenn games. As you traverse the ship, dipping into the different rooms to challenge trainers, you'll find keys to other cabins and areas. Upon finding the Captain's Key, you'll be able to enter Porter's room to challenge him.

Ground - Cheval (name basis, shovel)

Super into geocaching. His outfit is perhaps similar in style to BotW Link's climbing outfit, but more decidedly modern, patterned bandana, sleeveless top, cargo shorts. Has a shovel he usually poses with held across his shoulders. Shoulder length dirty blond hair worn in braids, tanned with freckles from being out in the sun so much.

Has an encouraging personality, though can be a bit antsy, always after hunting the next cache.

Gym Gimmick : Gym has a rocky and natural look. Each room has a hidden button you need to step on to open the way forward. Defeating trainers will give you hints toward the button's location, but alternatively if you're good with it, you can use the Itemfinder to track the buttons down.

[ckret2]

Guess who shows up in this chapter! With a ✨summer job✨!

Unlearning the "act like a rich snob" instinct is an ongoing process.

Here's "Bill is the Mystery Shack's extremely sulky prisoner" chapter 10, featuring: a haunted living doll, a trip to Greasy's, Bill acting like a playground bully, and the twins figuring out how they feel about another summer of triangle bullshit. Other chapters here. 9/29/2024 edit: now updated for TBOB compatibility!

####

Late in the morning, Mabel came home from a sleepover at Candy's. She went upstairs to drop her backpack in her room.

Unusually, Bill's nest by the attic window seat outside the kids' room was abandoned. In his place were half a dozen empty cans of hard cider and a sandwich with the crust peeled off and three bites taken out of it.

She grabbed a change of clothes and her toiletries and went to the main bathroom to shower.

The bathroom looked like a salon got in a fight with Bill's hair and won. The wet floor was coated in shorn golden locks like fallen soldiers. The air reeked of hair treatment chemicals and sick. There was a towel smeared with blood.

Maybe she'd brush her teeth downstairs and shower later.

Mabel gingerly plucked her toothbrush and toothpaste from her toiletries bag, gingerly stowed the bag in a bathroom cabinet, and retreated.

She descended the stairs warily.

Soos's blanket of the anti-Bill zodiac no longer hung on the living room wall. 

Mabel moved on to the downstairs half-bath. She pulled aside the doorway curtain.

There, sitting in the dark, curled into a ball in the small space between the sink and the toilet, was a human shape. Draped over it was Soos's zodiac blanket. The head of the thing under the blanket lifted and blindly turned toward the sound of Mabel drawing the curtain. The zodiac was positioned just right so that the image of Bill Cipher covered the hidden face like a mask. The false Bill stared into Mabel's eyes.

Mabel quietly backed out of the bathroom. She let the curtain fall shut.

She stood in the hallway, hand to her chin, contemplating the omens she'd witnessed.

She said, "Something happened last night."

####

Less than a week into summer vacation, Dipper and Mabel had seen every single movie currently playing. (They'd even seen the R movies, after getting advice from Jeff on how to convincingly pull off the "two kids in a trench coat" gambit. Thompson made direct eye contact with Dipper in the theater lobby. He said nothing.)

They'd hung out with all their friends, had at least one meal over at each of their houses, and caught up on a school year's worth of gossip. Mabel had sleepovers nearly every night, alternating between Grenda's and Candy's houses. Even Dipper had voluntarily subjected himself to an evening of aggressive girliness in order to tag along for one of the sleepovers. (They'd probably only gotten permission because Grenda's mother assumed "Mabel's twin" must be a sister.)

They found a fairy ring in the forest that connected to a crop circle in Wiltshire, England. They discovered a crane game at the mall that was full of haunted dolls. They took Waddles for a walk and had to save him from a cult of feral flower children that wanted to sacrifice him to their love shack.

In other words, they did everything they could think of to avoid home.

When they were in the Mystery Shack, they were either in their bedroom or using the bathroom. They avoided the kitchen and living room as much as they could, they talked more quietly in their room in case of an eavesdrooper, and they fell silent when they heard the floor creaking outside their room. They tiptoed whenever they had to pass Bill's nest by the window seat to reach the stairs. They grew accustomed to strange thuds and quickly cut-off arguments, although they never became comfortable with them. They got used to waking up afraid.

The plague of hair was new; but it was, they had to agree, exactly the kind of thing they expected at this point.

"You could collect some of the hair," suggested the haunted porcelain doll they'd gotten from the crane game. "You could make a poppet. It would let you control him. I could teach you how. All you need is that hair, five black candles, a doll—"

"Nope," Dipper said. He was getting dressed in their bedroom alcove with the curtain drawn. "You're always trying to make more haunted dolls, Bartholomew, and the answer's always no!"

"It won't be haunted!" Bartholomew insisted. "Honest! I promise! Not initially. Until you use it to kill Bill."

"Listen, young man." Mabel scooped the porcelain doll up from the cardboard cradle she'd made for him. "We've told you, we can't kill Bill until we know it won't cause the apocalypse! Do you want the world to end?"

Bartholomew let out the longest, heaviest sigh that had ever come out of a doll with an unmoving face. "No. I don't."

"That's right. So reign in that bloodthirst, Barty!"

"Ugh. Fine."

"Good!" She set Bartholomew back down.

Dipper asked, "Could we use a poppet to control him in non-fatal ways, though?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. Torture it, restrain it, freeze it, burn it, cast spells on it, soak it in lemon juice, throw it in the dryer—hey, that one's really funny—"

Dipper pulled aside the curtain and looked at Mabel. "Maybe a poppet wouldn't be a bad idea. In case Bill tries anything."

They collected the biggest, healthiest lock of hair off the bathroom floor, stuck it in a sandwich bag they found at the bottom of Dipper's backpack, stuffed it in his backpack, and left the house to look for brunch.

####

Dipper and Mabel had been putting off visiting Greasy's Diner as long as possible, hoping that at least Grunkle Stan could come along for their first visit of the summer, if not the whole Pines family; but after coping with another morning of Bill-related nonsense, and hearing from Soos that Stan and Ford had also been up half the night dealing with said nonsense and would probably sleep in, they decided they really needed to visit somewhere as comforting and familiar as possible.

And so, off they went to Greasy's. Lazy Susan warmly greeted them, asked when Stan would come by, showed them to a booth, and then left them with a couple of menus and their glum thoughts.

"Dipper?" Mabel spun the laminated menu on the table top. "You remember how at the start of last summer, we just thought Grunkle Stan was some weird smelly old guy and we wanted to do anything except hang out with him?"

"Ugh, don't remind me. If this was last year, I'd be sweeping up dead hair instead of getting breakfast right now." He laughed weakly; but he knew that wasn't what Mabel was getting at. "This summer's even worse, isn't it."

She stopped spinning her menu to look across the table at Dipper. "We still haven't spent any time with Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford, but this time I feel all guilty about it."

"I'm pretty sure they feel guilty about it, too."

"It's not their fault, though."

It wasn't Dipper and Mabel's fault, either, but pointing that out wouldn't help. Dipper also felt like they'd callously abandoned their grunkles in Bill-infested territory while they ran off to have fun. The fact Stan and Ford they kept telling the kids that they wanted them to have fun didn't lessen the feeling that they were traitors. "Grunkle Stan did say we could take a fishing trip once everyone's figured out the best... guard schedule."

"I know, but there's still..." Mabel waved a hand in vague circles. "All this. I almost feel like..."

She didn't want to say out loud that she wanted to go home; saying it would start tilting their course in that direction. If she said it, and if she found out that Dipper agreed, then it might come true. And nothing would be worse than that.

Dipper didn't want to say it, either. "This won't be all summer," he said. "Grunkle Ford already has a weapon that can get rid of B—Goldie's body and whatever's inside of it, no matter if he's human or alien. He won't even leave a ghost. It's just out of fuel right now. He only needs to find enough to take one shot, and then the rest of our summer goes back to normal. Right?"

Mabel took a moment too long to reply. "Right," she said. "It's that quantum jumbo-laser thing you told me about, right?"

"Yeah, the Quantum Destabilizer."

"How long will it take to get the fuel?" Mabel asked. "Is there anything we can do? I hate just having to... steer around everything while the grown-ups try to deal with it without us."

"Yeah. So do I." 

Before Dipper had to admit that he didn't know what it would take to refuel the Quantum Destabilizer, someone approached the table. "Hey, I'll be your waitress this morning. Do you guys have any questions about the menu, or..." The waitress trailed off in horror as she registered her guests' faces. "Oh no."

Dipper and Mabel gaped. "Pacifica?!"

She hid her face behind her notebook. "Don't say anything. Do not say anything."

"You work here?" Mabel asked, followed immediately by Dipper, "You work?"

Pacifica's cheeks flushed. "Don't make a big deal out of it okay! I'm not, like, working-working! I'm just—making some pocket money, that's all!"

"That's working-working," Mabel said.

"Pacifica—" Dipper had to choke back a laugh at the absurd sight. She was wearing normal people clothes. She was wearing an apron. "What."

"Okay, look!" She slapped her notebook on the table. "It's not like I'm poor or anything? But after we built a smaller manor, my parents slashed my allowance—my wardrobe budget only covers a new summer/spring wardrobe instead of summer and spring wardrobes—and like... it's hard, okay? So I'm just—doing a few odd gigs or whatever. To keep up with my hobbies! That's it."

Dryly, Dipper said, "Wow. Earning money if you want to buy things."

"It must be so hard." Mabel was doing a slightly less successful job of maintaining a poker face.

"Oh, whatever! You two just don't appreciate the value of hard work." Over Dipper and Mabel's giggles, Pacifica stuck her nose in the air and went on, "I'm investing in my future. I'm picking up part-time jobs while you two are spending your summer goofing off! It's like you're saying you don't want to have money."

Dipper and Mabel exchanged a glance. Mabel said, "Soos said he'll pay us $20 an hour to help in the gift shop."

"He what?!" Pacifica's jaw dropped. "Shut up! There is no way that cheesy tourist trap can afford those kinds of wages! Is it even legal for Soos to hire you! Aren't you, like, thirteen!"

Dipper said, "Aren't you thirteen?"

Pacifica huffed. "Never mind, I don't even care about your dumb job! This isn't even my main income stream. I've got this great modeling gig coming up with a huge paycheck, so—forget you you guys!" She flipped her hair and stomped off.

And immediately stomped back. "I forgot to take your orders."

"Pancakes." "Also pancakes."

"Fine." She re-flipped her hair and stomped off.

Mabel leaned across the table to whisper to Dipper, "Wow, the return of Rudy McSnootypants! Did she switch from acting snobby over being rich to acting snobby over being working class?"

"She's probably just embarrassed," Dipper said. "She's actually been pretty cool the last few months. When we play Bloodcraft together, she's... I mean, okay, during PVP matches she's the meanest person ever, and she's the worst to healers—but she's nice enough outside of that."

"Oh, yeah." Mabel grinned. "Guess she never mentioned her new job while you guys were playing?"

"Nope."

"You're probably right! She was nice when I talked to her about making her blanket. She even shipped new materials to me when she wanted alpaca yarn instead of acrylic." Mabel's voracious yarn habit did not have the budget for alpaca yarn.

Dipper laughed, "Wow, I can't believe Pacifica had to get a job just to afford your blanket."

"What can I say, I'm a master artisan!"

Pacifica returned, set down two plates of pancakes and two sodas, and said, "This is a bribe. Free drinks all summer if you don't tell anybody else about this. All the other cool kids would ditch me and my family would kill me if they knew. They cannot find out."

Mabel considered the offer. "Free drinks and dessert."

Pacifica bounced a heel as she considered the offer. "Only out of the half-off day-old pie case."

"That sounds fair."

"Okay. Deal. Um, thanks." Pacifica turned to go, then paused. "Hey, Dipper. Your uncles don't use the Internet, right? Does that mean you won't be available for Bloodcraft this summer?"

"Soos finally got the shack online. He says the Internet goes out when the weather's eldritch, but I can borrow his computer for our guild raids. He understands how important it is."

Pacifica's eyes lit up. "Cool. Then I'll see you on raid night."

"Yeah! See you then."

Pacifica left to tend to another table, and Dipper said, "Yeah, she was just embarrassed. She's fine. ... Why are you smiling."

"Guild raids? Am I gonna have to warn Kelsey about Pacifica—?"

"Mabel!" Dipper's face flushed. "Come on, we're not—! Worry about your own love life. We've almost been here a week, haven't you found a new crush yet?"

"I've decided love will find me when it finds me. For now, I'm focusing on my matchmaking services."

"Well! Make a match somewhere else."

"You're sooo red right now. Bop." Mabel leaned across the table to poke Dipper's nose, then dug into her pancakes. "You know... even with everything going on—I'm glad we're here. Think! If we'd gone home as soon as we found out we'd be stuck with him all summer, we'd never have learned Pacifica is a waitress. Or met Barty-Mew! Mew-mew. Meow."

"So that makes it worth it, huh?"

"Yes! Making new friends! Being around our old friends! Being part of their lives again. I don't want to miss out on that because I'm afraid. Do you?"

Dipper half smiled. "No. I don't. If we were home, I'd be missing Gravity Falls and still worrying. At least here, we can keep an eye on him."

"Yeah!" Mabel beamed. "We got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but this summer's gonna be great! And there's nothing he can do to stop it! Right?" She offered her fist.

"Right." Dipper fistbumped her.

####

Stan and Ford were worrying over coffee mugs in the kitchen when the door opened, but both their faces lit up when they saw Dipper and Mabel in the entryway. Stan said, "Hey, kids! Whaddaya doing back here?"

"Soos said you'd just gone out," Ford said. "We weren't expecting you back until this evening."

Mabel bounded into the kitchen. "We decided to hang out here today!" She hugged Stan and Ford in turn.

Stan looked between them in surprise. "Really? To do what?"

Mabel said, "Art project!" at the same time Dipper said, "Sorcery."

"I'm gonna sew a doll with Barty," Mabel said. "We'll figure out what to do with the rest of the day after that."

Dipper said, "Grunkle Ford, do you know anything about poppets?"

"Huh." He stroked his chin. "I'm familiar with the concept, but I've never encountered a working one myself. I probably can't tell you much you don't know yourself."

"That's okay." Dipper puffed his chest out. "After we've made one, maybe I can show you my research on them?"

Ford smiled. "Maybe you can. We still haven't compared our past year's research notes, have we? I just haven't been able to find time, with..." His smile faltered.

Firmly, Dipper said, "We'll make time."

"But later!" Mabel insisted, hanging off the kitchen doorframe by one hand, "C'mon, Dipper! Arts and witchcrafts!" She bounded up the attic stairs two at a time. Dipper followed after her.

Stan turned to Ford. "Who's Barty?" Ford shrugged.

Mabel froze at the top of the stairs. The zodiac blanket-bedecked specter was back upstairs in his usual spot, curled up in the window seat, apparently trying to read a book through the gaps in the yarn.

But she quickly gathered her courage again. "Hey! Stinky!"

Bill turned to face her. "Yello?"

She planted her hands on her hips. "I'm not afraid of you! There's nothing you can do to make me afraid of you ever again!"

The yarn triangle face stared at Mabel in unimpressed indifference. "Ouch. You're breaking my heart, Shooting Star."

"And I'll break your face if you ever try to torture my family again!"

"Hey, whoa, that's a loaded word! I never tortured anyone in your family," Bill said. "Except Stanford. And he knows what he did."

"What are you talking about! You stuck me in a bubble!"

"That wasn't torture. You had a great time."

Coming up the stairs behind Mabel, Dipper did a startled double-take—this was his first time seeing the blanket ghost—but he said, "You threw me down the stairs and stabbed my arm."

"That was self-torture, and I had a great time."

"I don't care what you call it with your fancy words!" Mabel said. "The point is, everything I wrote last fall goes double!"

"Yeah!" Dipper said.

Unperturbed, Bill said, "'Wrote'?"

"W—yeah. The ones we stuck in your book. The one you were using to try to contact us from the dead," Dipper said. "Don't act like you didn't see our letters telling you never to bother us again."

"You mean the letters you taped to my pages blank side down, with all your messages facing outward from the book?"

Dipper and Mabel processed that. "Aw, man," Dipper said. "And after I wrote that cool boast."

"Oh did you." Bill cupped a hand around where his ear was hidden. "Well? Let's hear it."

Dipper's brows furrowed. "Uh... It was something about—"

"Go on!"

"Um—"

"I'm waaaitiiing!"

"I can't remember it."

"Aww, what a shame."

"Well, I remember mine!" Mabel said. "I said if you ever bother my family again, I'm dipping you in guacamole and biting your in half! Which—made a lot more sense when you looked like a chip!" She turned away from Bill, did her best approximation of Pacifica's dismissive hair flip, and flounced off to the bedroom. "And stay away from Grunkle Ford!" She slammed the door.

"Pfff." Bill turned toward Dipper as he passed by and asked wryly, "What'd I do to warrant all this? Have I not been minding my own business and avoiding you humans intimidatingly enough?"

"No. No quippy banter. We're not doing that. Banter is for friendly chess club rivals, not attempted murderers."

"Oh, you joined the chess club?"

"Shut up." Dipper put his hand on the doorknob, stopped, and about-faced to squint at Bill's book. "Is that—? How did you get my journal!"

"I summoned a living shadow and commanded it to bring me your worst and deepest secrets— Just kidding. You left it in the bathroom, genius."

Dipper must have taken it out of his backpack when he was looking for a baggie for the hair sample. "Give it back!"

Bill held out the book—and jerked it back when Dipper reached for it. "Too slow!" He held it over his head. 

"Hey! Bill!" Dipper jumped for the book. "I know martial arts!"

Bill got up on his knees to keep the book out of Dipper's range. "And I like pain! Fighting me will annoy you more than it'll hurt me!"

"Come on, man!" Dipper stuck his fingers in the blanket like a cat climbing a curtain as he tried to reach the book. He took a deep breath. "GRUNKLE FO—"

"Don't!" Bill shoved Dipper back.

Dipper fell to the ground, taking the blanket with him. He groaned—then froze, staring at the burns, the bandages, the raw red-rimmed eyes.

Until Bill shoved Dipper's journal in his face. "Sheesh, relax." He glared down at Dipper, eyes squinting unevenly, a hard smile forced onto his face—then snatched back the blanket. He turned it in his hands until he'd found his face again and pulled it back on. "You can't take a joke."

Dipper gave him a dark look, but retreated after Mabel.

Ford climbed the stairs just high enough to shoot Bill a suspicious look.

Bill returned the stare, head cocked in a pantomime of wide-eyed innocence. "What?" He flung his hands in the air. "What! I'm just sitting here!"

Ford narrowed his eyes, but went back downstairs. 

Bill's gaze drifted again to the kids' door. "'Not afraid of me,' huh? Pfft." He turned to watch the world through the window. "Yeah. That could be useful."

####

"What do you think?" Mabel asked, plopping the Bill-shaped doll in front of Bartholomew for inspection. It was shaped like a fabric gingerbread man. It had X's for eyes and was sticking its tongue out. "I made his dress out of a sock!" 

"I guess it'll do," Bartholomew said. "The clothes could be nicer."

"Nice clothes are for nice people. He can deal with the sock dress." She considered her handiwork again, then said, "I guess a few more flowers on the dress wouldn't hurt." She rummaged in her craft supply basket for her yellow puffy fabric paint, and asked, "How's that pentagram coming, bro?"

"Just about finished." Dipper set the last candle on the fifth corner of the chalk star he'd drawn between their beds, checked to make sure all the lines were connected, then pulled out a matchbook and lit the candles. "Okay, now what?"

Bartholomew said, "Now, we wait until the next full moon to start the binding ritual."

"When's that?"

"In about two weeks."

Dipper looked at the pentagram, looked at Bartholomew, and said, "So why am I setting this up right now?"

"That's what I've been wondering."

Dipper grumbled and started blowing out candles.

Mabel pulled out a couple balls of yellow yarn and asked, "Hey Dipper, can you get the hair baggie? I need to see which shade of yellow matches Bill's hair better."

"Sure." He rummaged around in his backpack. "Although if you want the poppet to be accurate, you should just leave it bald." He looked at Bartholomew. "Does accuracy affect how well a poppet works?"

"It can be pretty loose," Bartholomew said. "Give it the hair. Blondes are hot."

"You're a creep." Mabel threw a yarn ball at Bartholomew's face. "What do you mean, 'leave it bald'?"

Dipper said, "I saw under the blanket. Bill looks like he burned his hair off."

"Whaaat!"

"Yeah, he's totally bald except for a bit on the back of his head. Not a surprise, considering how the bathroom looks, but—yeah." He snorted. "Maybe he tried to copy Grunkle Ford's shaving technique."

Mabel laughed; but it quickly petered out. "So... he's just hiding because he's embarrassed?"

"I guess," Dipper said. "Huh. Kinda makes it seem less creepy when you put it that way. Even Bill Cipher can have bad hair days."

"Guess so."

So Bill was basically in Sweater Town: hiding under a protective layer of yarn because he felt bad. It must be really horrible if he'd been hiding all day. Mabel considered that, staring at the bald doll she'd made.

Then she grabbed her ball of yarn and started giving the doll hair.

####

(If you enjoyed, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!)

[medleyofthepast]

Gravity Falls: Next Gen AU

Taking place about 20 years after Weirdmageddeon, Dr. Dipper Pines and his wife, daughter, and nephew, move back to Gravity Falls to make use of Grunkle Ford's old lab.

Dipper is now married to Lia Ramirez, Soos' cousin, and Soos is more than happy to let the Pines family move back in. Dipper and Lia's daughter is none other than Celeste Pines, a rough and tumble tomboyish smarty shorts that isn't afraid to fight some boys that are picking on her poor twin cousin, Gene.

Gravity Falls hasn't changed too much since the Pines twins left it, and while Mabel's a bit upset she can't be there too, that doesn't mean she can't stop by for a visit.

Soos and Melody continue to live at the shack, running it like Mr. Pines would have.

This is literally what it says on the tin. The next generation of Gravity Falls adventures, following Celeste and Gene as opposed to Dipper and Mable.

Gene and Celeste were tending to their fairy garden they'd been building for the last four years. Whereas most kids had a tree house, these two had this fairy garden in the forest they've been crafting, and this is where they go to get away from the rest of the world. Things had been surprisingly normal for them, that is until Celeste heard strange sounds from the forest. Following the noises, she discovered a weird statue. While she didn't touch the statue, Celeste began to notice such weird things happening ever since, and Gene was dragged along with her. It wouldn't be long until she began to document things in one of her school notebooks, just so she could keep track.

Lia has become an esteemed author, and Dipper a renowned scientist- a scientist of the weird that is- he certainly followed in Ford's footsteps.

[gravityskittles]

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.

[yourfavepokemontype]

mabel pines is fairy type, dipper pines is normal type, stanley pines is fighting type, & stanford pines is psychic type

Mabel Pines is a Fairy Type!

Dipper Pines is a Normal Type!

Stanley Pines is a Fighting Type!

Stanford Pines is a Psychic Type!

[mythomagically-delicious]

Monster Falls is great but I feel like Mabel would turn into some sort of fairy or pixie, not a mermaid. I like deer-boy Dipper, Sphinx Ford, and Gargoyle Stan. But not Mermaid Mabel