Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mabel’s soft breath fogged up the window as she rested her head on her open palm, staring out past the bugs clinging at the glass to watch the blur of green whiz past. Every so often, the clanky old bus would hit a large rock or something that was lying in the gravelly forest road, and Dipper would make a little noise of surprise beside her. Mabel would glance at him, just to confirm he was alright, before turning back to the window, sighing into her palm as her knee knocked against the car door. She probably had a bruise by now, she thought to herself, but that was okay, she was wearing some cute knee-high socks, so no one would notice. She tilted back into the brightly patterned seat, that looked like it was straight out of either a bowling alley, or Mabel’s wardrobe. Something flashed by the filthy window, and Mabel perked up, hoping it would be a bus stop. But the bus kept wheeling along the old dirt road, and Mabel sighed, shifting back into her seat. 

This was the first time either of the twins would be spending longer than a summer up in Gravity Falls, and although Grunkle Stan left Soos to run the Mystery Shack back during their first summer there, it would be the first time either of the twins would be staying somewhere other than the Mystery Shack. Dipper bit his lip, fidgeting with the platinum blonde streak Mabel had dared him to dye in his hair. Now that he thought about it, he and Mabel’s hair was very similar at this point, with Dipper’s ending just below his chin, and Mabel’s falling around her shoulders. She also had streaks in her hair, although hers were all purple and pink. Ditched were the headbands of her tweenage days, as pulling back her hair just made the dyed streaks mix up into her curls. Instead, she now used a multitude of colorful hairclips, with stars and hearts and all sorts of stuff. Dipper on the other hand, usually didn’t do anything with his hair, simply sticking to a trucker or baseball cap, and just awkwardly dealing with it when it got too tangled. 

Mabel yawned, stretching out slightly, and Dipper shifted his bookbag so she wouldn’t bump into it. Instinctively, he glanced around the bus, checking to see if anyone was looking at him, or more importantly, his bag. Great-Uncle Ford’s journals had caused such an ordeal back when they were twelve, and Dipper wasn’t about to be careless with his own journal, even if it was much less conspicuous that any of Ford’s. It was a simple black composition book, the kind you could pick up at any dollar store. However, within its pages was dangerous information, years of Dipper’s research of the paranormal, both inside and outside of Gravity Falls, and his recollection of what had been in Ford’s journals before they were destroyed. It also doubled as his Book of Shadows, as Dipper had begun dabbling in wicca magic, mainly of the protection variety. Mabel had picked up a little as well, but never really got into it as much as he did. She still kept a few various gemstones on her, but that was the extent of it. 

Dipper did another quick sweep of the bus to confirm that no, nobody was looking at him. Mabel, seeming to sense his worry, glanced over to him.

“Hey,” She murmured, nudging him with her elbow. “You good?” 

Dipper nodded in response, settling back into his uncomfortably stiff seat. “Yeah.” He sighed, glancing up at the stop display, which currently read Fairview. So they were getting close. “How about you?”

“Bored.” Mabel shifted in her seat. “But, excited! I can’t wait to meet my roommate. I bet she’s going to be the coolest! We can have the best parties!”

Dipper sank into his seat. He had forgotten about the roommate thing. With his luck, he was bound to get a demon or a ghost or whatever wacky creature this town had to offer him. 

“Come on, haven’t you seen any college movies? Your roommate is going to love you!”

“I’ve only seen Pitch Perfect.” 

Mabel huffed, folding her arms, which were intimidatingly muscular at this point. “Just have an open mind, okay? If your roommate turns out to be a serial killer or something, I’m sure Soos will let you stay in the attic.”

“Like I’m twelve again?”

Mabel playfully shoved him, and Dipper let out a chuckle, before the two of them settled back into their comfortable silence.

Christine’s hugs were always crushing, but this was a bit much , Jeremy thought, as he felt something pop in his spine.

“Okay, I’ll miss you too, but can you let go now?” He wheezed, and she quickly released him.

“Sorry!” She yelped, in that sweet angel-like voice that always turned Jeremy’s knees to jelly, and he would have done so if he wasn’t doubled over and gasping for breath. 

“I-it’s cool.” He huffed, raising a placating hand before straightening back up. “I’m gonna miss you a lot.” 

Christine sniffed, tears welling up in her eyes again. “Gosh you’re going to be all the way in Oregon. You have to FaceTime me a whole bunch, okay?”

“I promise. Although, I don’t know how much you’ll be able to pick up, miss Julliard.” He laughed, playfully punching her arm. The way she rubbed her shoulder as she laughed was clearly from excitement, rather than any actual pain. Jeremy knew damn well he was the physically weakest member of their friend group.

“Alright, if you two lovebirds are done flirting, the car’s all ready to go.” Michael called out with a laugh, shutting the trunk of his old, worn down P.T. Cruiser.

“Right! You two can’t miss your flight!” Christine gasped. She turned back to Jeremy, giving him a big kiss on the cheek before backing away. “I won’t keep you any longer!” 

Jeremy nodded, heading towards the car, before turning and kissing Christine one last time. She laughed, and shoved him back towards the car. 

Jeremy hopped into the passenger’s seat just as Michael shut the driver’s seat door. Jeremy let out a deep breath, glancing over to Michael, who was turning around in his seat to look out the back window.

“You ready?” Michael grinned, glancing back at Jeremy.

“Not in the slightest.”

Jeremy tugged at his sleeve, glancing at the number he had written on his wrist on top of the twisting, branching Lichtenberg Figures that traveled from the inside of his wrist all the way up his forearm. He walked down the long hallway of doors, glancing at the numbers on each one, counting up until he found the number that matched the sharpie on his arm. He paused in front of the closed door, and the blue wood seemed to loom over him, urging him not to open it. Jeremy’s heart constricted in his chest, pounding against his ribcage in a desperate attempt to escape. 

Just breathe.

Jeremy took his brain’s advice, sucking in a huge breath of air, and sighing it back out as he rested his hand on the doorknob. Another deep breath, and he turned the doorknob. Exhale, and the door was open.

The room was empty.

Well, empty in terms of not having any people. Whoever Jeremy’s roommate was, he had clearly already been there, set up his side of the room, and left. It was an interesting contrast to look at, Jeremy’s pristine half, and his roommate’s quite cluttered half. There were bedsheets on the bed, but it seemed like they had been thrown on rather than properly done, with much more attention being shown to the desk, with various chotchkies placed in a neat row underneath the computer screen, a corkboard on the wall, although it only had a few pictures set up, one being of who he assumed were the roommates grandfathers. Probably twins, Jeremy figured, since their faces looked like they could have been copy-pasted onto each other. Another was of a group of people, all around the same age as Jeremy. A girl with short, colorful hair who was dressed like she was from the 80s, an young woman with a bright red undercut and two flannel shirts, a very nervous looking blonde who was dressed in an incredibly expensive looking outfit, and a smaller woman with long black hair and glasses who had her arms wrapped around a much taller, muscular woman. There was a third photo on the opposite side of the corkboard, a tree, with a very unnatural-looking crack in it, as if it was made of glass rather than wood. Probably modern art, Jeremy figured, turning to look at the other stuff in the room. There was a very nice camera on top of the dresser and-

Was that an altar?

Jeremy moved to get a closer look, seeing that it was, in fact, a Wiccan-style altar, the same type that Brooke had in her room. The row of candles set up to be in rainbow order was very pretty, as well as the neat row of colorful gemstones, but Jeremy backed away, wary of the large, fancy knife sitting on the blue cloth, as if it would suddenly spring to life and viciously attack him. The altar seemed quite different from Brooke’s, however, as the small vase with the orange flowers was the only plant life on the altar, as opposed to Brooke’s lush, green altar covered in various flowers, herbs, and other plants that Jeremy couldn’t really tell the difference between. And an oddly excessive amount of grapes, now that Jeremy thought about it. 

Jeremy’s phone pinged, pulling him out of his thoughts. He fished it out of his pocket, plopping it on the bed so he could read his discord messages as he pulled stuff out of his bag.

shut up about jenna marbles Yesterday at 3:17 PM

don’t worry we’ll get up to plenty of bullshit while you’re gone

[jeremy voice] christiiiinneeee Today at 12:52 AM

jeremy!!!!! have u landed yet??

beep beep richie Today at 12:52 AM

no hes dead

[jeremy voice] christiiiinneeee Today at 12:54 AM

don’t say that!! >:c

Jeremy chuckled, putting down a pillow to grab his phone and respond.

college boy time Today at 12:56 AM

no im not dead!

and yes, I landed.

beep beep richie Today at 12:57 AM

duh

college boy time Today at 12:57 AM

I'm in my dorm now! unpacking all my stuff

haven’t met my roommate yet

just let me have a fucking cookie Today at 12:57 AM

what’s ur roomate like???

oh rip

[dies of dysentery] Today at 12:58 AM

lmao

beep beep richie Today at 12:58 AM

dude youv’e gotta check out the cafeteria like first thing

thats the most important part of college

shut up about jenna marbles Today at 12:59 AM

I thought the education was the most importat part of college?

beep beep richie Today at 12:59 AM

nah mah its the food

shut up about jenna marbles Today at 12:59 AM

*important

college boy time Today at 12:59 AM

ill make sure to check out thr cafetiria rich 

also, does anyone have any reccomendations for like

exploring a small town

bc like

this place is BACKWOODS

and ive literally lived in edison my whole damn life 

so i have no idea what im doing

[dies of dysentery] Today at 1:02 AM

climb a tree

college boy time Today at 1:02 AM

no

[jeremy voice] christiiiinneeee Today at 1:02 AM

climb a tree!

college boy time Today at 1:02 AM

no?

beep beep richie Today at 1:02 AM

climb a tree

do it bitchboy

college boy time Today at 1:03 AM

i am no longer taking suggestions

dionysus tried to murder me Today at 1:04 AM

climb a tree

college boy time Today at 1:04 AM

chloe, did you literally come online just to cause me suffering

dionysus tried to murder me Today at 1:05 AM

pretty much (edited)

Jeremy glanced away from the texts as a notification dot popped up in the corner of his screen. He switched over to his DMs, seeing that Michael had sent a message.

mellbell Today at 1:05 AM

Hey, are you done setting up your room yet? 

My roommate tod me there was a pretty good diner not to far from here

We should go over and try it

*told

Jeremy glanced around his side of the room, now fully unpacked and set up. 

jeremy Today at 1:06 AM

Yeah! i’m all set up, where are you at?

Dipper sighed, leaning on his broomstick.

“Why did you get the job of making new exhibits?” He glanced over at Mabel, who was gluing a large rhinestone to a clay monster.

“Probably because I’m the creative one?” Mabel laughed, and Dipper scoffed. There wasn’t really any arguing with that. Both the twins knew their specialties pretty well, and it didn’t really bother them that much. Mabel was the athletic, creative, street smart one, and Dipper was the focused, logic-driven, book smart one. 

“Yeah, but I could make actual paranormal creatures. You’re making up stuff!”

“Isn’t that the point though?” Mabel set down her brightly colored creature on one of the empty pedestals. “This is Gravity Falls. You can see crazy supernatural monsters, like, everywhere. The Mystery Shack is where you go to see the crazy stuff. Besides, it’s a tourist trap.”

Dipper shrugged, sweeping away the last of the winter dust. “Think we’re ready to open the Shack?” He asked, before there was a sudden knock at the door. Dipper groaned. “Seriously? We’re not open yet!” He went over to the door, grumbling under his breath something about entitled customers. “Sorry, but we’re not currently ope-”

“Dipper?”

Dipper’s eyes shot wide open at the familiar voice, to see a very surprised-looking Great Uncle Ford standing in the doorway. 

“Grunkle Ford? I thought you and Grunkle Stan were in the Atlantic!”

“We were! We came back to surprise you two- Oh damn, we had a whole surprise party planned, now it’s ruined!”

“Oh no! Uh, I’ll just pretend to be surprised!”

“No no, it’s fine.” Ford heaved a heavy sigh, before smiling warmly at the boy. “I’m so proud of you, Mason.” Dipper grinned from ear to ear.

“Oh! Do you want to come in?” 

“Of course! Let me get Stanley.” Ford turned around, and Dipper could clearly see Stan’s car, and Stan rooting around in the trunk. “Stanley!” Ford shouted, and Stan’s head popped up from the trunk. “The surprise is ruined, the kids are here!”

“Fuck!”

“You know, Greasy’s Diner isn’t exactly an encouraging name for a restaurant.” Jeremy laughed, sliding into a booth across from Michael.

“Yeah, but Damien says the food here is pretty good. Well, he said “The food is the best in town, but that’s not saying much since the food in this town all sucks.”

“Even more encouraging. Wait, your roommate’s name is Damien?”
Michael laughed, picking up a menu. “Yeah, and he’s even got that whole ‘rock and roll goth devil worshiper’ aesthetic going. I’d ask him his last name, but I’m almost certain he’d tell me it’s Thorne. He’s got a pretty friendly boyfriend, though.” 

“That’s good.” Jeremy looked down at his menu, before Michael nudged him. “Hm?”

“I have a very important question for you.” Jeremy glanced up at Michael’s words, and was surprised to see the intensity and seriousness on his face. 

“Y-yeah?”

“What the hell... is a Manliness Tester?”

“... Huh?”

“Behind you.” A huge grin broke out on Michael’s face as he nodded towards a machine behind Jeremy with a large sign declaring it to be a ‘Manliness Tester!’

“What the fuck is…” Jeremy was cut off by Michael’s burst of laughter, smacking his face on the table. Jeremy chuckled, turning back to Michael. 

“Heads of the table, Mell.” A new voice chimed in, and Jeremy jolted in his seat. A younger-looking girl stood beside their booth, her dark aesthetic clashing with the rustic aesthetic of the diner. She had a neon purple bob cut, along with heavy dark purple eyeshadow. She had chains hanging from her belt, falling past the hem of her shorts. Her outfit was pretty much all black, with the exception of her bright yellow cropped bomber jacket that she had her hands shoved into. Michael popped his head up from the table, grinning at the girl. 

“Heyyy, double x! So that’s what you look like.”
“Huh?” Jeremy glanced between the two as the purple-haired girl slid into the booth, squishing Michael against the window. She turned to Jeremy, giving him a very intimidating once-over before sticking her hand out across the table. 

“My name’s Gaz. I’m assuming you’re the infamous Jeremy that Michael keeps talking about.”

“Wait, your name is Gaz? ” Michael howled with laughter as Jeremy tentatively shook her hand. Her black nails weren’t long, but they were sharp.

“You’ve got a problem, Mell?” She snapped, yanking her hand away to smack him on the shoulder, but Michael just laughed harder.

“I mean, it isn’t worse than xXDarkRavenXx, so like-” Gaz turned bright red, squishing Michael’s face against the window with the palm of her hand. 

“Um. I think I’m missing some context here.” Jeremy mumbled, shrinking in his seat. Michael perked up, shoving Gaz’s hand off of him.

“Oh, shit, sorry Jeremy. I’ve told you about my Warcraft buddy before, right?” Michael’s expression was a lighthearted grin, but Jeremy’s stomach sank at the memory of the first time she had ever been brought up to him.

“Oh yeah, you… Mentioned her a few times.” 

“Well, it turned out that we were both planning on going to school here! So we decided to meet up here and actually meet in person!” Jeremy smiled and nodded as the pair continued to chat, but his heart was sinking in his chest. He knew way too much about this girl he had never met, just from that one conversation in the bathroom. Did she know that Michael told him? Was her brother still in the mental hospital? Would she be okay with him knowing all this super personal information? Did she even know that Jeremy used to have a SQUIP?

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” Gaz suddenly said, interrupting Michael and snapping Jeremy out of his spiral. “I come bearing gifts.” Michael perked up, leaning on her shoulder as she rummaged around in her backpack. After a moment of silence as she felt around in her bag, out came a massive thermos, bigger than any Jeremy had ever seen. 

“Jesus, is your bag like a Bag of Holding or something?” Michael exclaimed, and Gaz rolled her eyes, placing it in the center of the table. 

“They stopped making it, right? But my dad has like, fifty million connections in all of the major corporations, so he was able to get his hands on the recipe, and me and my brother ended up making a huge batch.” She pushed the thermos towards Jeremy. “You’ve been having bad dreams, right? Waking up in the middle of the night, and you can feel it watching you. My brother has been too. This should help.” She tapped her forehead, and it suddenly clicked in Jeremy’s head what she was talking about.

“Don’t want to say it out loud, since this is a huge bottle of off-switch. You don’t know who here’s got one.” 

Jeremy nodded, pulling the thermos of Mountain Dew Red to his chest. “Thank you.” 

“No problem.” She smiled, and suddenly she didn’t seem so intimidating.

Dipper groaned, closing the door behind him. The welcome party was fun, and he enjoyed seeing everyone after so long, but there was only so much social interaction he could take in one day. He stared out at his dorm room, having a vague realization in the back of his mind that his roommate must have shown up while he was out. There were posters up on the wall of some retro video game that he was too tired to remember the name of, and the bedsheets were Star Wars, which was cool. Alright, so maybe he wouldn’t be a serial killer demon vampire, but Dipper couldn’t be sure until he-

The door opened behind him, and Dipper whirled around, suddenly wide awake. The other guy froze in the doorway, eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights and a massive thermos clutched against his chest.

“Uh, hi.” Dipper coughed, suddenly bright red. Why was he embarrassed? He was in his own room doing absolutely nothing! The guy in the doorway seemed to flounder for a moment, although it didn’t occur to Dipper that he was thinking almost the exact same thing.

“Oh, uh, hey.” The guy parroted uncomfortably, shifting his grip on the thermos. Dipper wasn’t even about to ask, an oversized container was the least weirdest thing he had seen today. The two stared at each other in silence for a few more seconds before Dipper realized that he was blocking the guy from entering the room, and stepped aside.

“I um- My name’s Mason. Pines.” Dipper fidgeted as the guy put the thermos in the mini-fridge at the foot of his bed.

“Oh, cool. Like- like the Freemasons?” The guy asked, and Dipper perked up a little.

“Yeah! That’s, uh, that’s why I picked it, actually.” Dipper said against his better judgement. The guy looked at him, surprise etched into his face. Dipper’s heart sunk, preparing for the worst, when instead the guy grinned, replying.

“That’s really cool! I don’t really have a good story for why I picked Jeremy.” The guy- Jeremy said, closing the fridge. Relief washed over Dipper as Jeremy stood up. 

“I mean, it’s a good name. As long as you like it, right?” Dipper laughed. Jeremy grinned, and shrugged.

“Yeah, I do like it. I guess that’s why I chose it. Anyways, it’s cool to meet you, Mason.” 

“Yeah, you too! I’m glad you’re not like, a serial killer or something.”

“You never know.” Jeremy laughed, pulling some clothes out of his dresser. “Anyways, I’ve had a long day, I’m gonna get ready for bed.”

“Yeah, same here.” Dipper sighed, the memory of Grenda hurling a plate across the room replaying in his mind. Thank the gods they used paper plates for the party. As Jeremy slipped away to the bathroom, Dipper quickly threw on some pajamas, throwing himself into his bed. As he sunk into the soft bedsheets, he sighed. Maybe college wouldn’t be so bad.

Chapter Text

The room was pitch black. Jeremy’s eyes were trained on the ceiling, unable to move them as the glowing blue light crept nearer. The warmth was sucked from the room just as the air was sucked from his lungs, leaving him cold and hollow, as if his skin had turned to steel. His arms lay by his sides, bound by glowing blue string that wasn’t there, it wasn’t there, it couldn’t be there. 

It was there in the room with him.

Jeremy had failed, hadn’t he? It was back again, he never got rid of it, it was going to kill him. It was going to kill him. 

He tried to suck in a breath of nonexistent air, but the puppet strings wrapped around his throat. 

He’s going to die here, in bed, with no one around to care. 

A light turned on.

Not the glowing blue eyes that vanished the moment Jeremy turned his head, but a little white light, coming from Mason’s phone.

“Oh, shit,” Mason said as he made eye contact with Jeremy. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“No,” Jeremy sighed a breath of relief that he had survived yet another night. “You didn’t.”

Mabel squeezed her eyes shut as sunlight flooded through the curtains, urging her to wake up. She sighed, giving into the sunlight’s demands and sitting upright. She glanced around her room, noticing that her roommate was already awake and packing her stuff up. 

“Good morning, Connie!” Mabel cheered, stretching. The other girl seemed startled, turning to look at Mabel with raised brows.

“Oh, um, hi.” She replied quietly, turning back to her desk and slinging her backpack over her shoulder.

“You’re heading out already?”

“I have a 7:30 class, so I need to leave now if I want to get there on time.” She sighed, adjusting her backpack so it rested properly on her shoulders.

“Aw okay.” Mabel yawned. “Have fun!” Connie smiled at her sheepishly, before grabbing her keys and leaving the dorm room. Mabel collapsed back into bed. Her first class of the day wasn’t for another two hours, so she had time to kill. She grabbed her phone, rolling over onto her stomach to check her texts. After reviewing all the unread ones, she shot Dipper a text.

Me

hey loser are u awake

Dipper

Yeah

Don’t you have class today?

Me

not for another two hours

its your free day right?

Dipper

No thats tomorrow

I’m gonna head over to the Mystery Shack today after class to show Grunkle Ford all the pictures I took tho

But i gtg bc i gotta get to class

Me

jeez thats one early class

dont die

Dipper

no promises

Mabel tossed her phone onto her nightstand, finally rolling out of bed. She stretched again, opening up her dresser to meticulously pick out her outfit for the day. It was kind of weird, she thought to herself as she pulled on a jean vest covered in patches, she had been here for almost two weeks now, and she had barely made any new friends. Maybe it was just the fact that she had to learn so much new stuff, like her schedule and the campus layout, that she hadn’t had time to meet anyone new, other than Connie. 

Well that settled it! Today was the day she was going out and making new friends, she decided with determination, finishing off her very 80s inspired outfit with a pair of neon pink dangle earrings. She ran her fingers through her hair, debating whether or not to put her hair up into a ponytail, when her phone chimed. She picked it up, seeing it was the group chat she had with Candy and Grenda.

Candy

Mabel, did you hear about the mixer that Sigma Upsilon Xi is having?

Mabel grinned. Perfect.

Lyceum buried their face into the pillows as River pulled the curtains back, letting the sunlight flood into the room. 

“It’s time to wake up, dearest.” River sighed, but there was a hint of a chuckle hidden underneath his exasperation. 

“Why?” Lyceum’s voice was muffled by the pillows, although they rolled over slightly to look at River with pleading eyes. “Come back to bed.” 

River paused as he pulled his coat out of the closet, looking down to where Lyceum was curled up in the sheets. A ghost of a smile played across his lips, and he draped the coat over the desk chair. His hand pressed into the bedsheets as he hovered over his partner, before pressing a soft, chaste kiss to the corner of their mouth. 

“No.” He pulled away with a smirk, and Lyceum shot straight up in bed, the heavy blanket falling off of their bare shoulders. 

“Rude!” They scoffed as River shrugged on his coat. 

“It’s not rude, I need to get to work.” River replied, kissing them again, this time on the forehead. Lyceum grumbled, falling back into the pillows. “I have to meet a new class of students today.” He heaved a sigh.

“Hopefully they won’t be as bad as the last class?” Lyceum offered, propping their head up on their hand as they watched him flit around the room to gather all of their belongings. 

“It would be difficult to beat that group in terms of…” River paused, fidgeting with his keys as he tried to come up with the right term to use. “Ineptitude.” He finally finished, tucking his keys into his bag. “Honestly, you wouldn’t believe how many people actually thought I was going to be teaching them some nonsense about how your birth date affects your personality! I teach astronomy, not astrology!” 

Lyceum laughed softly as River continued to rant, looking around the room for something.

“On the nightstand.” Lyceum interrupted, pointing to the laptop sitting on the nightstand. River paused in his rant, looking to where he was pointing.

“Ah, thank you.” He quickly grabbed it and placed it in his bag. Lyceum moved to sit at the foot of the bed so that River could lean over and give him one last kiss before leaving for the day. 

Norman managed to pause his music just as his headphones were yanked out of his ears for the third time. He shot a look at Agatha, grabbing the headphones out of her tiny hands before anyone could see them seemingly suspended in midair. He unplugged the headphones, raising his phone to his ear.

“What is it this time?” He sighed, looking forward as he walked down the hall. He only glanced at her for a moment, but it was still so strange how small she seemed in comparison to him now. He could still remember a time when he was barely an inch taller than her, and now she only came up to his waist when she wasn’t floating. 

“There’s a girl talking about something cool!” Aggie hopped up and down excitedly, floating higher with every bounce. She pointed over to a girl with colorful hair, and Norman sighed, and knelt down to act like he was tying his shoe.

After the whole zombie debacle, Norman really started to embrace his powers, since his father had stopped- or at least lightened up on degrading him constantly for it. And in doing so, he found he had a few more abilities than just speaking with the dead.

“Lend me your ears.” He said, his phone still pushed against his ear with his shoulder. Agatha nodded and chased after the girl. Norman stayed put, but the sound around him shifted as Aggie moved further down the hallway. Finally, the girl was within earshot.

“... No, Candy, I promise I’ll make it! But I already promised Soos that I would help him set up the new exhibit at the Mystery Shack! No, no, it’s the one with ghosts.”

“Ghosts! Did you hear that, Norman? I’m a ghost!” Aggie exclaimed.

“Yes, I’m aware.” Norman instinctively replied, despite knowing full well Aggie couldn’t hear him at this distance. 

“We’ve got to go see it!” Aggie ran back to Norman’s side, and he stood up, continuing down the hallway. 

“We can check it out after my class, okay?” 

Agatha gasped, before bouncing excitedly in celebration. “Yes! I can’t wait!” She exclaimed, and Norman laughed, happy to see that she was excited.

“And don’t forget about the homework!” The teacher called as all the students gathered their things. Dipper quickly scooped up his bag and left the room as fast as he could. He sent a quick text to Grunkle Ford that he was on his way, before he arrived at the bus stop. Surprisingly, there was only one other person there. She had short, dark hair and a button down shirt, and for some reason looked very familiar. She seemed exhausted, but Dipper decided not to pry, especially since he couldn’t pin where he knew her from. 

When the bus finally came, Dipper almost didn’t notice, flipping through the pages of his notebook to review what he was going to show Grunkle Ford. When he saw the girl move out of the corner of his eye, he glanced up, seeing that the bus had arrived. He jumped up, quickly showing the driver his bus pass. As soon as he was on, the bus lurched forward, causing him and the girl to collide against each other.

“Shit, I’m so sorry-”

“No, no, it’s fine.” The girl shook her head, sitting in an empty seat as Dipper stammered out an apology. Dipper glanced around the bus, before sitting in an empty seat behind the girl, not wanting to sit directly next to any strangers. The bus was silent for a while, each person minding their own business, until the girl turned around to look at Dipper, whispering, “I don’t mean to be rude but like, do I know you?”

“Uh, I don’t-”

“I don’t mean that in a rude way or anything, you just look really familiar.” She quickly corrected herself, and Dipper shrugged.

“I don’t really know? Me and my sister Mabel both go to school here so maybe we’ve seen each other in the halls?”
“Mabel… Pines?” The girl asked, and Dipper lit up.

“Yeah! We’re twins, actually!”
“That must be why I recognize you! She’s my roommate! I’m Connie. Connie Maheswaren.” Connie stuck her hand out over the seat, and Dipper happily shook it.

“Cool! Nice to meet you Connie, I’m Mason.”

“Oh, it is? I assumed your name was Dipper for some reason.” She laughed nervously as Dipper turned red.

“Oh, uh, yeah, it’s a nickname.” He fidgeted with his hands, chuckling as he glanced out the window. He could see the outline of the Mystery Shack growing closer, and so he glanced back at Connie. “My uh, stop is coming up, so-”

“Oh, of course!” She nodded, and he stood up to leave. The bus came to a stop and he climbed out, waving goodbye to Connie as he did so. 

“Grunkle Ford, I’m here!” Dipper called out as he pushed past the ‘Employees Only’ sign. He paused for a moment, listening to the muffled sounds of the customers in the gift shop, and the gentle settling of the wooden walls. The silence was soon broken by the heavy ‘thump, thump, thump’ of heavy boots descending the staircase, and soon Dipper saw his great uncle’s grinning face, beaming at him like he had just won a trophy. Dipper didn’t think he’d ever get used to the ever-present pride Ford had in him, even if all he had done was step into the house to meet him. Ford beckoned him over with an excited wave of his hand, as if he were a schoolchild trying to get his friend to join him for some delinquency. Dipper grinned back at him, adjusting the strap on his shoulder bag as he followed his great uncle down into the basement laboratory. 

“So, how was the Atlantic? You didn’t really get a chance to talk about it much at the party.” Dipper bounced on his heel, swerving past a shelf of books that he always forgot was in that particular hallway. 

“Oh, the Atlantic was fine, I suppose. Frankly, the sea can get awfully lonely. It was England that was so much more exciting than I expected it to be! Actually, that’s part of what I really wanted to talk to you about!”
“Oh? W-well, actually, I had something I wanted to bring up too-”

“And I’m sure it’s important!” Ford reassured him, clapping a large hand onto his shoulder before running off to shuffle papers around on his desk. “But this is absolutely vital information I need to show you.” He grabbed a stack of papers with a flourish, holding it up triumphantly, and Dipper found that he was scrambling to pull his journal and a pen out of his bag. As Ford took a seat in his desk chair, swiveling it around to face Dipper, Dipper settled down in the armchair in the corner, sitting cross-legged with his journal in his lap. 

“Now,” Grunkle Ford began, leaning forward in his seat. “Have you ever heard of a man named Robert Smirke?” 

Dipper racked his brain, trying to come up with any recognition of the name, but came up empty. Slowly, he shook his head, and he was relieved to find no trace of disappointment on Ford’s face as he continued. “That’s alright,” He said with a wave of his hand. “The man worked pretty much exclusively in England. But,” Ford held up the stack of papers in his hand, “He had some very fascinating theories on the paranormal. I managed to get my hands on every scholarly article the man had written, courtesy of the Magnus Institute.”

“The huh?” Dipper asked, unconsciously leaning forward as he jotted down notes. 

“The Magnus Institute! They’re a wonderful academic institute dedicated to studying the paranormal! They do have a similar organization over here, the Usher Foundation, I believe it’s called, but they don’t exactly have quite as extensive and spectacular a library. The head of the institute was quite helpful as well, although he had to leave rather abruptly as one of his archive staff was misbehaving, so I couldn’t exactly get the full tour.” Ford sighed wistfully, and Dipper imagined it must have been a very impressive library for Ford to get that particular expression on his face. He quickly shook himself out of his thoughts, holding up the papers again. “Anyways, Smirke theorized about the origins of the paranormal. I’ll admit, it was a little out of the ways out of the topic I was originally investigating, on why the paranormal was drawn to certain areas, but I’ll admit, once I heard about this, I could not resist digging deeper. 

Smirke theorized that everything paranormal is caused by otherworldly entities, fourteen of them to be exact.” Ford twisted around in his seat, grabbing an overstuffed file folder off of the desk. “I’ve been categorizing all of the creatures that I’ve encountered over the years, and trying to sort them into the fourteen entities he outlined, and it’s astonishing! Almost all of them fit perfectly into these categories! Look!” Ford opened the folder, pulling out a file at random and handing it to Dipper. As Dipper glanced at it, his heart caught in his throat, primal fear rushing through him, despite it only being a drawn image of the Summerween Trickster. He swallowed his fear, and let his gaze drift to the new addition, in Ford’s distinct handwriting: The Stranger.

“What is-”

“The Stranger!” Ford cut him off, far too excited to wait to give his explanation. “Smirke listed a few names for it, but the two most common are ‘The Stranger’ and ‘I Do Not Know You’. It emulates humanity, but it can never get it perfect. Its creations are unnerving, and are those that are never quite human. When I heard about the Trickster, sentient candy taking a humanoid-but-not-quite form, I figured it must be The Stranger! Although, my initial urge was to classify it as The Flesh, but I think it only counts for The Flesh if it’s actually made out of meat.” 

Dipper shuddered at Ford’s excited explanation, handing the file back. “So… You said almost all of the creatures you encountered fall under a specific category?” Dipper prodded, and regretted it immediately as the borderline manic grin slid off of Ford’s face like mud. Ford settled back in his chair, setting the folder back on the desk.

“There's…” Ford sighed, searching for his words. “There’s one creature I’ve encountered who I’ve… Well, I’ve had quite a lot of difficulty sorting him into a specific category.”

“Him?” Dipper asked, although he didn’t need to. He somehow knew exactly who Ford was talking about, but Ford confirmed it, spitting out his name like an ancient curse. Which, in all honesty, it very may well be.

“Bill Cipher.” Ford leaned further back in his seat, a million emotions lining his face, emphasizing the bags and folds to make him age a hundred years. He sighed, before continuing. “My first instinct was The Eye, also known as ‘The Ceaseless Watcher’, ‘The Beholding’, ‘It Knows You’. And it does work! The powers associated with The Watcher match up perfectly, the all-knowing, always watching, but… The actions don’t add up.” He sighed. “The Ceaseless Watcher’s attitudes- The creatures associated with it, they just- All they do is watch, leaving you with that lingering sense of paranoia, that you’re being followed, that someone always knows your secrets. But that’s not exactly what Bill does, is it?”

“I mean, a lot of that stuff does apply to him, though?”

“It does! Which is why I was initially going to write him up as a creature of The Eye! But then…” Ford unfolded his arms, thumbing through the crumpled stack of papers in his fist. “I read up more on The Spiral. The entity of liars. Which is exactly the perfect description for Bill. He lies, and he deceives, and he tricks. The Twisting Deceit drives people to madness with its lies, it’s distortions. It causes hallucinations, makes you doubt your sanity, brings you into realms and dimensions beyond human understanding. But,” Ford sighs again. “It doesn’t manipulate like Bill does. I’ve been sitting in my quarters on the Stan O’ Ford for a while at this point, weighing the similarities and differences he has to the two entities when I realized that little detail. Neither The Ceaseless Watcher nor The Twisting Deceit manipulate. Then I glance over the list and I spot The Web. I hadn’t made the connection at first because at this point I was still assuming that all of the creatures associated with The Web had to be spider-related. Then I looked at one of the other names Smirke had listed for it. The Mother of Puppets. ” Dipper stiffened in his seat, his hand coming up to numbly rub the four small scars on the outside of his wrist. The distant anger on Ford’s face drifted away as he saw Dipper’s shallow breaths, worry quickly taking its place. “Dipper, are you…”

“He called me that.” Dipper was startled as the words tumbled out of his mouth as laughter, an uncomfortable mix between fearful and ironic malice. Hot tears rolled down his face as the horrible memories came flooding back to him, breaking the flimsy barrier he had put up in his mind, turning it to mere splinters. “He called me his puppet.” He sobbed, and he instinctively covered his reddening face with his hands, if not to hide how his face contorted in a manner that he found to be just so ugly, then at least to cover his eyes, so he wouldn’t see Ford’s expression shift to pity. “Th-that’s how he tricked me. It was all so… so convenient, that Mabel was putting on a puppet show. I thought, maybe, maybe he wanted to sabotage her chance at love, that that cruelty would be payment enough but-” Dipper’s body didn’t let him finish, forcing a painful sob out of his throat that left him trembling, hunched over in the armchair he found himself confined to. 

“Dipper, I…” Ford trailed off, and Dipper didn’t need to look up to know his face was a wash of pity and sorrow and anger and guilt. There was a silence that settled over the two, uncomfortable and restraining. Then, Ford pushed away the silence to replace it, not with words, but with silent comfort, as he wrapped his arms around his nephew. He was a man of academia, and he knew he had no words that were of comfort, only of logic and strictness and curiosity. So he let his actions speak for him, as he cradled his nephew close and let him sob violently into his chest. He whispered no words of comfort, instead rubbing gentle circles into his back as he felt his breathing gradually slow, and the horrible sobs quieted into gentle hiccups. They stayed like that for a long while.