Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Well, what do we have here?” a voice asked, muffled but with a noticeable accent. “What is a mortal like you doing all the way down here?”

Through dark and blurry vision, the ‘mortal’ tried to focus on whoever was talking to him. It was hard though, what with a body that didn’t want to listen to him. Heck, for all he could figure the only reason he hadn’t collapsed on the floor was because something was holding him up by the pits. Something rough that hardened as it wrapped around each of his biceps kept him aloft. Regardless of his weariness or restraint though, eventually he managed to force his gaze up.

“Got a problem with that, limey?” the mortal said with a voice just as gruff and old-sounding as always, though infinitely more exhausted. He couldn’t quite tell exactly what the “person” he was talking too looked like. His vision was going in and out, with much more “out” than not, the “in” being murky and dark at the best of moments. Despite that, he could see a vaguely human shape standing above him. Draped in a brown cloak and golden…mask. That or he was talking to some kind of British deer if its horns were anything to go by.

The figure laughed, but was otherwise unfazed by the question. Though whatever was holding the mortal up tightened its grip, as if taking offense for the figure. Once the laughter subsided, the figure kneeled to meet the mortal’s gaze. “On the verge of death in the worst imaginable place to do so and still so lively. Yes, I think you’ll do nicely.”

Raising both hands, the figure gripped one of his gold-studded gloves in the other and pulled. What lurked beneath was not a hand the color any flesh was supposed to be. Instead, it was a putrid thing of greens and blacks that shifted at any given moment as if it was filled with ooze just looking for a place to seep out. The mortal tried to pull away as the fetid hand reached forward, but whatever was holding him in place didn’t budge at all. The mortal gritted his teeth, preparing for his terrible day to get even worse, when–

---

Chapter 1: Prep

Dipper

The clink of glass shook Dipper from his concentration, at once halting the constant tapping of his keyboard.

“Sorry,” Anne said right before another few glass bottles collided. “I just wanted to…clean up my mess before I left.”

Dipper looked at her out of the corner of his eye, her and the myriad of bottles she’d brought with her the night before. A few had made their way into the trash bag she was lightly wringing between her gripped hands, but more from the pair of drained six-packs remained haphazardly strewn across the floor. How she drank all those and whatever had been left in her wake without ever getting a hangover was probably worthy of study, but between school, the club’s business, and having to shampoo his now beer-stained carpet again, he had enough on his plate.

A few more bottles swished into the bag before clinking with what was already in there, then, “And I’m sorry for doing…it again.”

Dipper bit his tongue. There were so many things he wanted to tell her off about, to yell and scream and shout in her face for what she kept doing, but he didn’t. Instead, he partially swiveled around in his seat and said, “Can we just not talk about it?”

Anne wrung the trash bag between her hands under his gaze. Her light brown skin was still damp from the shower she had tried to slip quietly in and out of to wash off the stench of booze with, and thus her day-old outfit was partially clinging to her body. Dipper had been able to tune out the sound of running water and occasional splurt of backed up shampoo or bodywash to get some classwork done, but now that she was trying to be helpful…with every clink of glass reminding him of how her poor life choices were affecting him…he just wanted her to go.

“I know you probably don’t believe me,” she said, meeting his eyes for a brief moment before returning her gaze to the floor, “but I am trying to stop. It’s just that we’re so close, which reminds me how long she’s been gone. And then the only thing that makes it feel better is–”

“Can we just not talk about it, please?” Dipper repeated before her voice could crack, this time adding extra emphasis. She actually winced at please, fat lot of good the word ever did any other time. He wished he’d learned that lesson from Stan before it had been too late. Dipper sighed, “Besides, don’t you still have something you have to do before the meeting?”

“But I–”

Dipper’s hands tightened on his arm rests as she started to reach out for him. He was only able to unclench once she lowered the hand and thankfully backed another step away.

“Right,” she replied after a moment. Dipper thought he heard a sad sigh between the shifting of the bag and continued clinking of glass, but didn’t care. “I’ll just take the trash and go.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

A moment passed, then one more glass clink, then the strained sound of the dorm’s old door handle filled the room. “See you later.”

He thought there might have been another “I’m sorry” beneath the light thud of the door closing behind her, but like all the others it meant nothing. If you can apologize for something a thousand times and still keep doing it how sorry could you really be?

For now he was alone again, safe in the quiet. It wouldn’t be until that evening that he’d have to deal with her or her “Anne-tics” as the others called them. They only saw the one side of those antics though, and probably wouldn’t give them cute nicknames otherwise. But that was hours away, and luckily before any of it did or didn’t work he’d get to spend some time with–

“Ding dong!” Wendy announced as she barged into the room, dropping her overstuffed backpack and slamming the door behind her. The floor shook under with the bag’s impact, reminding Dipper that all the variety of school and ‘life’ supplies she carried with her could kill a man if dropped on him incorrectly. Though he was always amazed how effortlessly she handled it all. “How’s my favorite study buddy?”

“Fine,” he replied, flashing her one of his rare smiles. “Ready to work on the–”

“Fine’s putting it mildly,” Wendy said, grinning as she nonchalantly slid beside him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Dipper instantly felt his face start to heat up. As always she smelled like pine, same as the ones surrounding the town they’d met in. She nudged his arm with her free hand and added, “I passed a certain someone doing a certain walk of shame in the hall.”

The heat, along with the blood, drained from Dipper’s face.

“I didn’t know you had that much game, Dip. I mean, I’ve passed her in the locker room, so I know why they call her ‘Boobchuy’,” she said with a chuckle. “Am I gonna lose more of my Dipper-time to that club now that you got a girlfriend out of it?”

It took everything Dipper had not to vomit. Wendy thought he and Anne were anything? She was the one person he’d never want to think that, no matter the reason. The very thought was…it was just…

“Anne and I aren’t…together,” he managed to scrape out after a moment. He tried to make it sound casual, oh how he tried, but he didn’t think it was as convincing as he meant for it to be. “We’re nothing…like that.”

“But I saw–”

“Anne gets drunk sometimes,” Dipper said quickly, not meaning to cut Wendy off but not being able to help himself. He needed to get this out of the way before it tore his insides to shreds. “And I remind her of someone she hasn’t seen in a long time. So when she drinks, she stumbles over here and I…I put up with it for the night.”

Wendy let out a little ‘awww’ and leaned her head against his. “I think that impresses me even more.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she said, as if it should have been obvious. “I want you to have a good time while we’re in school, but knowing you’re still the same guy I met during summer vacation, I like that a lot more.”

Dipper actually felt himself smiling again.

“Plus, now I know you’ll take care of me if I ever wander in drunk,” she added as she stood back up, stretching a bit while smiling at him. He’d always enjoyed her nonchalant little grin. That too-cool-for-school look of her hadn’t changed in the past few years, never seeming too into anything even though he knew even she spazzed out about some things. “I could do it too, you unwisely gave me a key.”

“Drunk or not, I’d be glad to take care of you over letting some rando at a party or whatever do who knows what.”

“You could be that rando if you left your room a little more often.”

“What?”

“Hmm?”

A moment passed where he just looked at Wendy, unsure exactly what he’d heard while she just seemed confused by his confusion. Then the moment ended and she turned her attention to the bag she’d dropped on the way in. Dipper looked away as she bent over to ruffle through it, not needing to stare at her behind as her jeans rode up from the movement. Not for more than a few seconds anyway.

“Anyway,” she said after tossing a few books and random items to either side. The floor was getting covered in junk again, but this time he didn’t mind. “I know I’m early, but I finished the numbers for our report and wanted to run them by you. Pretty sure the last step needs to be tweaked.”

A bent and battered three-ring binder with papers sticking out of it from every which way emerged from Wendy’s bag before being unceremoniously dropped on the desk. It wasn’t the first time he had seen or even worked from one of the messes that contained Wendy’s notes and projects, but it never ceased to amaze him how she could not only keep her work in such binders but also be able to find things in them at all. But, without fail, she could open any of them to whatever she needed practically at command. She proceeded to prove this by flipping the binder to a seemingly random page, only for it to be the very page with her notes for their ecology class. A class that was required for her Forest Biology degree and he was just taking for credit. Though it was a credit that saw he and Wendy working together on almost every assignment, so credit well taken as far as he was concerned.

“Maybe that program you were telling me about could check it?”

“It looks good at a glance,” Dipper said, honestly not seeing what she was worried about. Though this was more her field than his, and he didn’t like to discount her opinion on things in general. “But it never hurts to double check.”

Dipper grabbed his mouse and started to close and minimize what he didn’t need on screen, if only to make finding where he’d saved the file he’d modified easier. It had been a population tracker of some sort, but after some code-shifting he was pretty sure it would check their work and help with their paramecium spread project in general. And if it worked for that then maybe a few of the projects their professor had subtly threatened the class with for after spring break wouldn’t actually be so bad.

“Wait a second,” Wendy said, clasping his hand and the mouse with her own just before he could close the word doc he’d started earlier. “Is that your story for creative writing?”

“Yeah?” Dipper replied, hoping against hope she would let it go. Creative writing was a class they were both taking for credit, but while he was still happy for the extra time they got to hang out because of it, he didn’t have nearly as much fun with the process as she did. “But that’s not what you came her for–”

“It is now,” she stated matter-of-factly. Then, in one swift motion, grabbed the back of the chair with her other hand, pulled it and Dipper back, then took a seat herself. Though, with the chair already occupied, she inevitably landed in Dipper’s lap. Not that she seemed too bothered as, now guiding the mouse despite his hand still being on it, she maximized the window to make it easier to read. “You barely let me see anything you do for that class anymore.”

“Because it’s always bad,” he insisted while trying to think of some way to keep her from seeing what he’d hastily typed to avoid thinking of other things that morning. “And it’s based off an old dream, so it barely even counts as something original.”

“You’re just making me want to read it more,” she said, the laughter prominent in her voice.

She leaned back into him, pressing Dipper against the seat. At the same time she crossed one of her arms, bringing his with it, while toying with the locket around her neck and the white gem embedded into it. So now, one arm around her waist, her in his lap, and his no doubt burning red face looking over and resting on her shoulder, he had nowhere to go and was full of confliction about how much he should be enjoying it or not.

“Besides,” she added as she tilted her head just enough for their eyes to meet, “isn’t the whole reason we scheduled our classes together so we could hang out like this?”

It was only in Dipper’s wildest dreams that he’d imagined them hanging out quite like this, but she wasn’t wrong. Besides, Wendy had once seen him in a Peanut Butter and Jelly twin costume. How much more embarrassed could a dumb short story make him feel than that? So, he just decided to give in and let it happen.

Better this than something else anyway.

---

Connie

“And how did your mock test go?” Priya Maheswaran asked over the zoom call.

“Fine, mom,” Connie replied, her flimsy attempt to cover her exhaustion for such question not landing at all. “I scored in the 93^rd percentile.”

“Hmmm,” her mother considered. “Room for improvement, but well done Connie.”

“Thanks mom,” Connie said. She wasn’t looking at the screen, instead a piece of paper on her desk held her attention. She ran her pen along the checklist she’d written down to make sure everything was ready for that night’s meeting. Most of the top items on the list, her last school assignments before spring break, had been checked off days ago, which just left the lower half, those for the club, in need of double-checking.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come home for the break?” Priya asked. “Your father and I would like to see you.”

“Maybe in the second half of the week,” Connie said as she glanced at the tubes of prepared materials just out of camera view, mentally counting to make sure they were all still there and in the correct order. “I have a group project I need to meet up for, plus the club meeting.”

Her mother audibly groaned. “I can’t for the life of me understand why you waste your time with that group.”

“Think of it like a sociological experiment,” Connie said, stating one of the rehearsed set of lines she had for things her mother didn’t approve of. “A percentage of the world believes in the things Molly and Dipper do, I’m just trying to understand why.”

“That boy hasn’t tried anything…questionable, has he?”

This actually got Connie to look back at the screen. She knew her mom was just being protective, as odd as that sometimes manifested, but the thought of Dipper of all people doing anything questionable was almost laughable. “Dipper can’t muster being questionable with the girl he’s been crushing on for half a decade. You don’t have to worry about him doing anything. Besides, wasn’t that why I took all those fencing lessons?”

“I suppose…I’ll trust your judgement then,” her mother replied.

Connie managed not to let out a sigh of relief when she wasn’t asked about doing anything questionable herself. Granted, she didn’t think it would be the type of thing her mother was worried about, but mixing the materials for what they were about to attempt at the meeting had produced some…odd gasses with unexpected side effects. But even the time or two that had led to her waking up in Dipper’s room she didn’t think anything had happened. And he never said anything about it, so her “trip” as it were must have been just that. Her going from one place to another, but under the influence of concocted gases. Eventually she’d gotten thicker breathing masks to use while mixing up the supplies, if not for her own safety than to preserve Dipper’s miniscule chance of ever getting with Wendy.

“I’ll try to keep it good judgement,” Connie said.

“You always do. Call us when you think you’ll be able to stop by. We love you.”

“Love you too.”

The call ended and screen went back to the default zoom page. Connie watched it for a moment longer, just to be sure, then closed her laptop. With it shutting down and its fan slowing to a stop the last bit of sound seemed to disappear from the world. She sat there in it, staring at the vials she had painstakingly concocted for tonight’s meeting. Some of them would coat the club room, some would be burnt, but all of it was to one end.

Standing up, Connie let herself drop face first into her bed. She almost gave in to the urge to scream with giddy excitement. To let loose a maddening howl because she was about to be free. Free from familial expectations and lessons she had mastered before the class even started. Free to do what she wanted in a place no living person had ever been before. Oh, how good it would feel to just let loose. But her nosey dorm neighbors hadn’t left yet, and the last thing she needed was to draw attention to herself or her room full of probable contraband.

Instead, she reached under her pillow. Her hand found the small, soft body almost at once and pulled it out. Turning on to her back, she raised the plush into the air above her and admired the small form and how reasonably well it had held up in the near decade since she had made it. She’d only had to replace a little bit of his curly, black hair; the star on his red t-shirt had faded a bit, but the patches she’d used to fix it that time it ripped were barely noticeable; and the seams had held despite all the nights it had kept her company in one way or another. She hugged it to her chest, rolling side to side as she blushed at the thought of finally getting to see him again.

She’d been nine when the boy had walked out of a fiery patch of air. When she’d made her first friend in that lonely forest she’d gotten lost in. When she’d been so afraid, but he’d been so kind. Taking her by the hand while smiling and humming that little tune. She’d never forgotten, nor would she. It was how she calmed herself done when her parents became too overbearing for her to handle. It was what let her fall asleep most nights. It was what, like in this moment and the one later in the night to come, made her feel ready to do anything. And so, as she slid one hand from her chest to somewhere farther down, she started humming it to herself.

Hmmmm hmm hmm mmhmm hmm…

---

Anne

Anne flipped the page of the book she was “reading” as she watched the quad. She hadn’t actually read a single word in all the time she had been out there that morning, but if she didn’t flip the pages every so often someone might notice. And if that someone happened to be who she was waiting for, then things could get tricky. But she was pretty sure who she was waiting on had never so much as noticed her before, and this was far from the first time Anne had waited or followed who she was after.

But, despite how sure she was that she could pull this off, she still had an unsettling tightness in her stomach. Maybe it was because Anne knew this might be her only chance, that if she messed it up then the last few years of research and borderline stalking would all be down the drain. And that probably was part of it. But the fact that she had let it happen again last night was too. A second shower had cleansed the stench of cheap booze and a new set of clothes kept her from seeing exactly what he had when she looking in the mirror, but she knew what she’d done even if she only remembered some of it. God, what would Mar–

Anne was shaken from her spiral as the pages in her tightening grip began to crinkle and tear. With an exasperated sigh, she slid down the tree she’d been leaning against until she was sitting against it and started pressing down the pages as best she could. Though even this only received part of her attention. The rest remained focused on the comings and goings of people outside her dark spot of shade.

The girl Anne was waiting on, the “Initiate” based on what the others called her, should be passing through from the opposite side of the quad any time now. Her schedule wasn’t something you could set your watch to, but it was regular enough that Anne was able to watch her most days. It was tougher at night, between a lack of regularity and the Initiate’s semi-goth/semi-punk wardrobe there were only a few meetings between her and the others Anne had been able to listen in on. But what she had heard between the Initiate, the Trainee, the Lady, and the Head had confirmed so much of what she’d been looking for ever since that day back home. It was what led the club to what they were doing tonight, with only one piece missing to complete the puzzle. A piece Anne knew the Initiate would have with her after the last overheard conversation.

Anne wished she had a better idea of what the others actually looked like, but the few glances she’d ever managed to steal were usually of the back of their heads at night. But, while she couldn’t be absolutely sure the Trainee, Lady, or Head weren’t somewhere around, she had never noticed anyone regularly enough around the Initiate to make her think they were anyone worth worrying about. She was pretty sure none of them even went Rev. U., especially the Lady and Head, but the Trainee seemed too young while the Initiate herself didn’t go to any classes as far as Anne could tell. So, if anything, Anne guessed they just used the school as a base since just about every type of person crossed its grounds every day. What better place for a bunch of wit–

There she was! The Initiate walked onto the quad, wincing a bit at the sudden surge of light she had entered. As usual she was decked out almost entirely in black; skirt, crop-top, boots, even her hair. The brightest piece of clothing she seemed to own, other than the occasional skull or supernatural emblem across her shirts or patched on to her messenger bag, was her old, ratty beanie in the noticeable shade of dark greenish-brown. Granted, the look worked with the Initiate’s apricot-complexion, but even during Anne’s own “dark” phase she’d worn more than just black.

None of that mattered though. Cute look or not, all that Anne needed to focus on in that moment was the Initiate’s messenger bag and the rolled-up piece of paper she could make out just barely sticking out of one side. That would make this a little bit easier at least. A couple dozen hours watching videos online and practicing with Molly and Connie had prepared her, but seeing what she was after gave her some actual confidence.

Standing back up, Anne wiped off her own skirt and adjusted her own bag before starting towards the Initiate. She still had her book out and was still pretending to read it, but with every other step her gaze shifted towards the woman heading towards her. The Initiate didn’t seem to be paying her any mind, just like everyone that she passed whenever Anne had watched her quietly walk through the quad. Good. Anne picked up the pace, aiming her strides so that she’d cross the Initiate at the one point of the sidewalk she could make her plan look the most convincing. Still nothing from the Initiate. Still good. Anne took a deep breath. They were so close now. Just a few more steps and–

Anne’s foot struck a slightly upturned piece of the sidewalk and careened towards the Initiate, falling face-first into a woman who finally noticed her. The partially crumpled book went flying, one of Anne’s hands reached out and up while the other went low, and, surprisingly, the Initiate actually put out her arms.

The whole process of “tripping” and falling took barely a second, but time seemed to slow down as she collided with the Initiate. She had expected to push the goth to the ground, but instead found herself chest-to-chest in a pseudo embrace, the Initiate’s arms wrapped around her while her left arm came to rest on a black-clad shoulder and her right probably looked like she was trying to cop a feel having gone the other direction.

“You ok?” the Initiate asked. Her voice was deep and her dark, almond eyes seeming to pierce right through Anne as they gazed down upon her. Despite herself, Anne could feel the heat build in her cheeks. She’d never been this close to the Initiate before, and to hear anything other than the flippant remarks she tossed at the others come out of her mouth took Anne more off balance than her little trip had.

“Y-yeah,” Anne said as she quickly stepped back, turning around as quickly as she could. She made out as if she was looking for her book, and it must have worked given the Initiate’s continued nicety. “I’m sorry for falling into you.”

“As long as you don’t go falling for me,” the Initiate said, a laugh seeming to coat each word. “’fraid I’ve got too weird a situation going in that part of my life already.”

Anne gave a small chuckle that sounded awkward even to herself. Then, as she finally found her book and had a legitimate reason to stuff something her bag, she said, “I’ll stick to falling because of gravity for now.”

“You might want to avoid that too,” the Initiate said, that same laugh still coating her every word.

An idea occurred to Anne once everything was locked down in her bag. She had originally intended to just run off once she’d done what she needed to, but maybe she could get more. So, instead of just running away while not having to feign embarrassment, Anne turned back to the twenty-something goth, smiled the best she could, and said, “I’ll try. I’m Anne, by the way.”

The Initiate’s brow raised ever so slightly, but relaxed just as quickly. “Janna.”

“Nice to meet you,” Anne said, trying to keep the embarrassment obvious in her voice and not finding that very hard. She wasn’t great with new people to begin with, and this meeting had started a bit closer than even she had intended. “Do you go here? I don’t think I’ve seen you around any of my classes before.”

“Night classes,” Janna stated simply, though not shortly. “I like to surround myself with insomniacs, makes it easier to pull one over on them.”

Another awkward laugh. If Janna was enrolled in night classes her attendance must be practically non-existent. Anne may not have been able to follow her every night, but she had trailed her enough to know classes were the last thing Janna attended on Reverie U’s campus. “Well, if my schedule ever changes, I’ll keep an eye out for you.”

“You do that,” Janna said, tossing back some of her shoulder-length hair. “But let’s avoid the crash next time, ok?”

“Heh, yeah,” Anne said, gripping the strap of her bag in both hands. “Well, see ya.”

“Bye,” Janna called as Anne took off, not outright running but definitely hustling.

She didn’t stop until she had reached the edge of the quad and turned a corner around the Glover building, and even then she didn’t outright stop but only slowed enough so she could reach into her bag and make sure it was actually there. That she had actually done it. She felt the little book first, but shoved it aside. The scroll felt warm in her palm as she wrapped her fingers around it, though this time she made sure not to crush it the way she nearly had the book. But she had it. She’d done it!

“I’m coming,” she said to herself, picking up her pace again. “I’m finally going to find you.”

---

Twilight

“All done with these,” Twilight said as she plopped the stack of books on the library counter. “Thanks for helping me find them before.”

“No problem,” the purple-haired librarian said. With swift and deliberate movements, she started sliding the top books from the pile one at a time, running them under a scanner, then placing them on a cart behind her, mostly without looking. “I hope they were helpful.”

“Oh, they were,” Twilight said, smiling.

Twilight wasn’t going to try and explain what she’d used the reference books for, she’d learned back in high school most people didn’t want to hear about what she was working on. Still, the librarian had been able to get her every book she had needed as if she knew them all by heart. Which had helped immensely as she prepared her spectral analysis devices and fined-tuned their appropriate ranges in the EM field. That would make it all the easier to prove, or more likely disprove, everything they were preparing for.

“Well there’s plenty more where they came from,” the librarian noted as she scanned the last book back into the system. “So come back any time.”

“Will do.”

---

Checking her phone as she exited the Reverie U. library, Twilight shaded her eyes from the intense midday sun while waiting for her app to update. The library was always a bit of a dead spot if you didn’t use their Wi-Fi, but almost as soon as she was outside the connection came back and her update progress updated.

Eighty-three percent data formatted. Not terrible, but hopefully she wouldn’t have to do the entire last seventeen percent manually. Her estimate had been closer to five percent, but a quick diagnostic might get her wide-range spectrograph analyzation set up closer to one-hundred percent ready. Manually updating more than she’d planned would be an especially big pain since she was pretty sure Dipper would be completing a few final assignments with his not-girlfriend for a chunk of the day, so there’d be no one to help her.

Ding.

She looked down at her phone again. The percentage had jumped to eighty-five. Good. Maybe the diagnostic wouldn’t be needed after all.

That would give her some more time to go over her notes. Those speculating about what to do if something actually happened, the more likely speculation for when nothing happened, and then her personal notes on the others. While psychology was far from her expertise, keeping track of why her little cohort was so gung-ho to try something that had no scientific basis had become a bit of a hobby for her. Some made more sense than others, ranging from simple curiosity from the likes of Molly to a kind of scientific interest with Dipper. Then, there was Connie…

Connie was the one whose reasoning she didn’t understand. For all intents and purposes Connie was as intellectual as they came, so her interest and willingness to go along with some of the others’ supernatural beliefs had never completely clicked with Twilight. It wasn’t that Connie was any kind religious, that Twilight could have understood even if it wasn’t something she really connected with with, but Connie still seemed to take in almost everything suggested without so much as a grain of salt. Especially when it came to Anne.

Anne was…well Twilight didn’t want to call her a true believer, but she was the one member of the club that really seemed to believe they’d be able to do what they were planning and go where they wanted. Not that she wanted to know more or hoped it was true the way Molly did with all her ghost-shenanigans, but truly believed it was going to happen. She might have even needed it to be true. Between how much time she spent hunting down old books or other sources, not to mention how much she mumbled to herself about “finding” something, Anne really seemed like she was on a mission. Though what, or perhaps who based on some of the mumblings, Anne was looking for she would never say. Which didn’t exactly make it easier to understand her drive.

But tonight, well, Twilight hoped tonight would help Anne with whatever her mission was in one way or another. In the very small chance that something actually happened maybe it would at least open Anne up about what she was after if not outright fulfill her need. Though personally, given the overwhelming evidence and common sense that all this prep would be for nothing, Twilight hoped that when the ritual ended Anne would see that whatever she was looking for needed to come from somewhere other than centuries-old belief systems about magic.

Though Twilight knew she wasn’t one to talk about doing things with no basis. Despite her skepticism, she had spent the last several weeks building and programming a series of devices to monitor tonight’s event. So maybe they all just needed something to do and she was overthinking it all, especially Anne. At least, that’s what she hoped.

---

Molly

“Are you ready, Scratch!?” Molly asked with her usual exuberance. Not even her overstuffed backpack or the sign she was lugging could dampen her spirits. “Aren’t you excited for tonight!?”

“Take a chill pill, Mol,” Scratch said as he floated along beside her. “I bet none of this witch nonsense ends up working anyway.”

“Don’t be a spoilsport, Scratch. After all the stuff we’ve looked into and all the prep work we’ve done, I’m sure it’s gonna work.”

“All I’m saying is that I’ve been around a while and never seen a witch. So don’t get yer hopes up.”

“But that’s the point of hopes, to accomplish the impossible,” Molly replied, then checked to make sure her airpod was still in after noticing a few looks from the people she was passing. It was, so the people around her must have just been taken aback by her positive exuberance and not because she looked like a crazy woman talking to a ghost no one around her could see. “And besides, aren’t you interested in finally finding out what lies beyond the ghost realm?”

Scratch placed his hands together in front of his face, as if he was about to make a really informed point. “Given everything I’ve ever heard about the alternatives to the ghost realm, whatever we find would either be really good or really, really bad.”

“I like those odds.”

“It’s a coin flip, Mol.”

“A supernatural coin flip,” Molly replied, not at all put off by Scratch’s usual pessimism. While it occasionally helped keep her grounded when she got too far ahead of herself, it was just as often just a speedbump on her way to whatever she was going to do anyway. And since what she wanted to do was learn more about Scratch and the afterlife so she could help him and other ghosts with their baggage, her optimism was going to win out over his pessimism.

“And all I’m saying,” Scratch started as he floated through the door. Molly had to readjust what she was carrying to be able to open it herself. Luckily Scratch had waited for once before continuing. “Is that just ‘cause something is interesting, doesn’t mean it’s good.”

“Psh.”

They descended the Medrano building’s darkened stairs into what was probably supposed to be a hallway just for storage. Despite the…unwelcoming location, over the past semester Molly had gotten more than familiar with the Supernatural Studies Club’s home base. Before she went in to help set up for tonight's event, she shifted the sign from under her arm again and attempted to hang it on the lone hook in the middle of the door.

“I told ya’ it was too big,” Scratch commented as he watched her struggle to get the cord on the sign’s back to latch on.

“Next you’ll be telling me I used too much glitter glue.”

“Well…”

“Scratch!” Molly gasped. “There’s no such thing as too much glitter glue! After five years you should know that.”

“Not everything needs to sparkle all the time.”

The sign caught on the latch as Molly gave Scratch the closest thing to a glare the little lady was capable of. “Well talk about this later,” she said as she turned the handle.

A beam of light shot out into the dim hallway as the door swung opened, followed quickly by the sound of brushing, typing, and interspersed electronic beeps and boops. Molly stepped and Scratch floated inside to find the clubroom transformed from the cozy, library-like room to a staging area for the night’s event. Tables, shelves, and chairs had all been stacked against the farthest wall of the oddly rectangular room, making it almost a square. Cameras and other pieces of Twilight’s equipment had been mounted around the room, some overhead on the ceiling while others sparkled with reflective glass lenses and little lights of red or green. The floor and wall-space that needed it had been covered with thick white sheets of paper, on top of which a series of patterns, runes, and other symbols had been painted in a spiraling display that left only the very center of the floor an untouched void of white.

“Hey Molly,” Dipper said, looking up from where he was kneeling at the edge of the blank spot in the middle of the floor. He was holding a paint brush in one hand, with one of Connie’s glass vials to his right while one of the red-bound books he carried everywhere sat open to his left beside his open backpack. “Watch your step.”

Molly did just that as she carefully tiptoed over the various patterns that had been painted around the room. As she did, letting the door swing closed behind her, she noticed Connie similarly painting from a glass vial on the left wall and Twilight typing away at a podium-like machine in the back corner. “Shouldn’t you have masks? I thought you said the paint had fumes?”

“Only while brewing,” Connie said without turning from what she was painting. “It’s safe now that it’s settled.”

“Or maybe she wants a repeat of what happened last time she and Dipper sniffed it.”

“Be nice, Scratch.”

“Is your ‘ghost’ being mean?” Twilight asked, the disbelief as clear in her voice as the little smirk on her face. She was normally really nice, but whenever Molly brought up or talked to Scratch she could get a bit condescending.

“You can see for yourself once tonight works out and he can’t be invisible anymore,” Molly replied.

“If tonight works out.”

“I’ve seen weird stuff like ghosts,” Dipper said before anything could escalate. “But why won’t he show himself?”

Molly crossed her arms and sighed. “The last two he showed himself to started dating and he thinks I feel left out because we used to be a trio.” Then, more to Scratch than Dipper, “Even though I keep telling him I’m good with what Andrea and Liab do together and with me still.”

“It’s more what they do do with you that bothers me,” Scratch said under his breath.

Molly just rolled her eyes. Maybe some of what she did in private with Andrea and Liab weren’t…traditional friendship activities, but it wasn’t like they just ignored her. If anything, Molly was usually right at the center of what they ended up doing. For better or worse, she guessed.

“Well, at least it sounds like he ca–”

The door burst open behind Molly, cutting Dipper off as Anne nearly fell over herself first coming in then attempting not to smear the paint near the door. “I got it!”

“Really?” Molly asked with barely restrained glee. She didn’t even mind that no one noticed her sign rattling against the door behind Anne before it swung back closed on its own again.

“Really, really,” Anne replied, digging in her bag for a moment before pulling a rolled piece of paper out and holding it out.

“Here we go…” Scratch sighed.

“Pass it to me, Molly,” Dipper said. Molly was surprised at how uninterested he seemed, not even bothering to look at Anne or the paper in her hand. But that wouldn’t darken Molly’s cloud, she was about to learn so much more about the world of ghosts and dead beyond that that everything might as well be the silver lining.

Anne took a few careful steps farther into the room, following basically the same path between runes and patterns that Molly had, before handing the scroll off to Molly. The paper’s unnatural warmth hit Molly the second it met her fingers. Not…totally uncomfortable, but definitely much hotter than any paper should be on its own. Molly looked up at Anne, who instinctively seemed to know what she was about to ask, and just shrugged her shoulders.

Holding the scroll lightly in one hand, as if not wanting that heat to infect any other part of her, Molly tiptoed around a few more symbols until she was close enough to hand it off to Dipper. He likewise gave her a look when he grabbed it, but similar to Anne just shrugged. Placing the scroll down in front of him, Dipper then set the paintbrush down to rest in the vial before flipping closed his red book. Like all of them the red leather was old, seemingly a bit burnt, and embossed with a numbered, six-fingered golden hand. Molly had asked him about that way back when the club had formed, but he said he didn’t know why the hands had an extra finger. They’d just always been that way.

Sliding the closed “Two” book into his backpack, he pulled the “One” book out and flipped it open to a marked page in one effortless motion. The one book was thinner than the others, with several ripped-out pages, but Dipper said it had the most about translating runes and other mystical languages. Plus, even if it didn’t have anything of use in it, Molly figured Dipper wouldn’t get rid of that book. Those three tomes seemed to mean a lot to him. He never talked about why, but he always kept them nearby and made sure not a single spec of food, drink, or anything else could stain its already smoke-stained pages.

“Is everyone ready?” Dipper asked, looking from each member to the next, except for Anne.

“Finishing the last of the pattern over here,” Connie noted, then nudged a backpack beside her with her foot. “Then I’ll be good to go.”

“We’re all set,” Molly added.

“Don’t speak for me,” Scratch grumbled.

“Then,” Molly said, somewhat quieter than before, “talk in a way the rest of the group can hear.”

Molly could practically hear Twilight’s eyes roll before she chimed in with, “I’m loading the last program in…now.” Her console dinged a triumphant little ding that Molly thought was just adorable. “Okay, ready to proceed.”

“I…” Anne started, glancing quickly between Dipper and the floor as she twisted her bag’s strap, “I’m all ready too.”

“Ok then,” Dipper said, not to anyone in particular as he turned the scroll over in his hands. “Here goes nothing.”

Holding the scroll out in front of him in his left hand, Dipper pinched the end of the wax seal with his other and pulled. A spark that grew into a plume of fire erupted from the scroll, briefly filling the air in front of him with sweltering, shimmering heat. The flames disappeared as quickly as they had come, leaving no evidence of their existence other than a slightly darkened room from where smoke had stained the lights above.

“Sweet baby corn,” Molly mumbled to herself.

Everyone was staring, totally taken aback by what they’d just seen. Dipper was looking at the scroll while unconsciously pulling at his collar, something he did when he was thinking or embarrassed. Anne and Connie were staring at Dipper, each startled but in very different ways. Connie was biting her lip which, with her wide eyes, made her look equal parts worried and excited. Anne, on the other hand, well her mouth was agape and her pupils little more than pinpoints. She actually seemed scared. But if she was getting any kind of cold feet she didn’t’ say anything.

“Still think there’s nothing to any of this?” Molly asked Twilight, unable to hold back her grin.

“You could probably rein in the smugness a bit, don’t cha think Mol.”

Molly ignored her ghost friend as she watched the ever-logical science major look from Dipper to her computer screen and back several times, her fingers holding unsteadily above the keyboard as if she just needed to figure out what to type in to explain what had just happened. That probably was what she was thinking. Afterall, that line of thinking had never failed her in the past, it’s what got her into Rev U. with a full ride scholarship. But it also left her pretty closeminded to certain possibilities, like ghosts and other planes of existence.

“That was…it could have been,” Twilight started and stopped for a moment, then took a deep breath to collect herself. “If the scroll and seal were coated in the correct chemicals, it’s very likely the friction from pulling them apart could have caused that…” she waved her hand out towards where the flames had been, “display.”

“Even one that big?” Connie asked. She may not have been the science genius that Twilight was, but Connie was probably the most generally knowledgeable in their little group.

Twilight’s eyes darted to the side. “It’s…possible. Once we’re done here I can run a spectrographic analy–”

“It doesn’t matter,” Dipper said, once again gripping the scroll between both hands. “We’re not here for light shows. If that’s all we’re getting out of this we’ll know soon. But for now…” He trailed off as he tightened his grip on the edge of the scroll. “For now, we just have to keep going.”

With that he pulled one edge of the scroll from the other, unraveling it until it nearly spanned from one end of his outstretched arms to the other. Scratch commented that it didn’t seem like it could have unrolled to be that big, but Molly ignored him. She was entranced by Dipper starting to work. He laid out the scroll in front of him, produced a notebook and pen, then started shifting back and forth between the scroll and his leather-bound book, his arms and eyes little more than a blur of motions as he noted something on the scroll then compared it to something in his book. All the while jotting, jotting, jotting each and every thought without ever truly looking at the notebook.

Watching him made Molly wish she’d been able to introduce him to Liab on one of his and Andrea’s visits to the campus. He and Dipper would have gotten along great, Molly just knew it. And speaking of Liab, he would have loved looking over the scroll too. Molly couldn’t make heads or tails of what was written on it, even having inched closer to the center of the room to watch Dipper, but whatever it was she was sure as sunshine that Liab would have been all over it. Andrea would have been bored, unless she had managed to get a selfie with the fire plume, but she liked seeing Liab happy, so it usually worked out.

Dipper went on working like that for a few more minutes, or maybe it was longer. In that moment, in that little room, surrounded but their little group, Molly couldn’t quite tell how much time was passing. It could have been a few minutes, it could have been an hour or two. All she knew was that when Dipper finally stopped flipping between the pages of his book and scribbling things in his notepad, he did something completely unexpected.

Shifting forward on his knees and pushing the scroll more towards the very center of the empty space, he glanced around the room as if measuring things out in his head, and then he folded the scroll at a sharp angle.

“Hey,” Anne nearly yelled. “Are you sure about that, we only have…the…one…”

She trailed off as Dipper looked up at her, his eyes narrowed. “It’s what it says to do.”

“O-ok,” she said as she began to twist the strap of her bag between her hands again. “Sorry.”

Dipper made four more folds, turning the long strip of paper into a five-pointed star. Its original ends, once several feet apart, now overlapped. And, thanks mostly to the incoherent writing that covered so much of it, the ends seemed to blend together as the star took shape. It was as pretty as it was unexpected. The only thing Molly would have added was glitter. She wondered if she still had any in her bag.

Dipper pocketed his notebook and slipped on his backpack, then gripped the vial of special paint in one hand. “Everyone in front of one of the points,” he instructed without standing himself, swishing the paintbrush around in the vial. “And bring your stuff.”

Everyone did as instructed and, once in position, Dipper started painting again. But, instead of intricate symbols and patterns like most of the room, this time he painted in large sweeping motions. Starting at a point between Molly’s feet and her tip of the star, he painted a large circle around her. A tingle went up Molly’s spine as he completed the circle, as if suddenly she was part of a force just waiting to be let loose. A similar feeling must have affected Connie, then Anne, and finally Twilight as Dipper went around the star painting circles around each of them that just barely touched each of the circles of the people on either side of them, because each let loose a similar shiver to what Molly had had.

Even Dipper must have felt the sensation as he finished painting his own circle. He didn’t shiver like the rest, but the moment he completed the design his eyes locked on the floor beneath him. Like, he had heard or felt something below it and was trying to figure out what it had been. Whatever he felt though, he seemed to push it away as he set the brush and vial off to the side before standing up. “There’s just one thing left to do, so this is the last chance for anyone to back out.”

Molly met his gaze then watched him look from each of the other club members to the next. She and Connie nodded, Anne gave a nervous smile, and Twilight shrugged as if she just couldn’t think of a good reason to say no.

With that confirmed, Dipper slid out his phone and notebook again then snapped a couple quick photos of the latter. A moment later, Molly felt her own phone vibrate as each of the other girls’ also buzzed or rang. Swiping hers open, Molly was greeted to a group text from Dipper. There was no actually text, but instead a series of photos taken of his little notebook. About half of each page was made up of scribbles that Molly couldn’t even begin to imagine the meaning of, but then there were regular old letters below the unknown symbols, just ones that when put together didn’t seem to make any kind of sensible words.

“I’ve written out the incantation as phonetically as I could,” Dipper said. “It may sound like nonsense, but the instructions are clear. We have to all say it aloud, together, for it to work.”

Molly half-expected Twilight to make a comment like, ‘If it works,’ but the fire show must have really shaken her since she remained silent while flipping through the photos.

“And one more thing,” Dipper added. “The scroll said it was important that while saying the incantation we all think of an important wish. I don’t know why, it didn’t go into it, but that’s what it says to do.”

“Wishes and nonsense words, seems like a great start,” Scratch scoffed.

“Everybody got it?” Dipper asked, of course not hearing the ghost’s roast. Another round of nods answered him. “Good, then here we go.”

Molly thought they might have needed to hold hands or light some sage or something, that was what always happened at times like these in movies, but he didn’t say anything, so Molly just looked at the incomprehensible words on her phone and thought about her wish. What was her wish anyway? To enhappify the world as much as possible was her end goal in all things, but for this club and what they were doing tonight…that didn’t seem quite right. No, the reason she was doing this was to learn more about spirits like Scratch and what was beyond the ghost realm they existed in. That was her wish tonight, to find someone or something that could help her understand ghosts and what was beyond them. If she knew about that she could work harder to enhappify the entire ghost realm.

“Vír gru webuz orh vhrefzgiru grog nabc vunif, gru pnocu iw hobcruzz grog tu zuuc gi mo,” they chanted. Molly knew she missed pronounced a few of the words but did her best to keep up the rhythm.

“Tu focu o cirgbocgb gi cobbír, gi wanwenn iab tezruz trenu noccum hiavg.”

A new feeling filled the pit of Molly’s stomach before spreading throughout every nook and cranny of her body. It wasn’t like the cold she felt before that ran up her spine as a shiver, this clung to her bones and stomach and even seemed to intensify the further along they got in the chant. A building heat that made her feel sticky and strange, but on the inside.

“Zi tegr grez pocg orh iab huchruu, zrit az trog uíruz tubu rig fuorg gi zuu!”

Chapter Text

Molly waited for something to happen. For the warm feeling that had filled her insides and clung to the lining of her stomach to become…well, anything. All the work they had done, all the research and prep and glitter glue spent making signs so they wouldn’t be interrupted, it all had to lead to something. But, as Molly looked around the room trying to find any trace that the chant and symbols had actually had an effect, she saw nothing. Nothing but the other members of the club seeming to look around for the same thing.

“It’s for the best, Mol,” Scratch said, his arms crossed with a smug little expression on his misshapen ghost face. “Like I said, big chance it’d be bad if any of this gobbledy gook actually led to anything.”

“Did I get the chant wrong?” Dipper said, mostly to himself. He was flipping through his notebook again. Flipping between pages as his eyes raced back and forth, searching for whatever little detail he thought he’d missed. But what if Scratch was right and it was just mumbo jumbo? What if–

A creaking moan cut Molly’s thoughts short as she and everyone else looked up, startled by the sudden sound. But it wasn’t the door behind her that was creaking. Not only was the door still locked shut and unmoving, but the creaking sound also hadn’t stopped. And the more Molly tried to figure out what was making the sound, the more she found her gaze tracking towards the floor and a small slip of it that was actually showing between two sheets of the thick paper they had painted their ritual on.

The creaking sound passed beneath her feet like a snake, leaving noticeable crack in the wooden floor as a wild “eep” escaped from her mouth.

“What is it?” Anne shouted. Her eyes were darting all over the place. She must have realized the sound came from below them too, since that was mostly where she was looking, but Molly didn’t think she’d seen the crack form.

“It’s just an old building making old building sounds,” Twilight said, practically chanting again mostly to herself as she stared at the floor directly beneath her feet and absolutely nowhere else. The narrow points her pupils had become in the wide sea of her eyes probably couldn’t focus on much else. “Old building, old sounds. Old building sounds…”

“That, or it worked!” Connie shouted, practically with glee. She was looking around, the only one of them smiling in the moment.

“Let’s all just take a deep breath and calm down. We’ll figure out what the sound is and go from there.”

“You nerds know the floor stopped creaking like a minute ago while you were freaking out, right?”

“Scratch is right!” Molly shouted, if only to grab the others’ attention. “The creaking already stopped.”

“Well,” Anne started after Molly’s exclamation was met with a moment of silence for confirmation. “Do we think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?”

No one would have a chance to answer that question, not before the floor itself did. There was a sudden shudder that threw everyone off balance, Molly and the others each trying to remain upright within their painted circles as if that was still important. And it might have been for all Molly knew, because what happened next might have been exactly what the ritual had been aiming for.

With barely a moment to think following the shudder, the floor fell away completely. It didn’t collapse. It didn’t disappear. It fell downwards while ripping apart down the crack that had nearly escaped all detection while creaking into existence. Wood splintered, paper tore, and below it all was nothing but darkness. Pure darkness beyond even what Scratch had shown her of the ghost realm. There was a brief, but also terribly long, instant where Molly and the others hung weightless above that darkness. The rest of the room was still around them, mostly covered with paper and painted designs but the shapes of bookshelves and the other furniture still showing through. It was just the nothingness under it all that was wrong.

And then the instant came to an end, and they were falling. Screaming, yelling, more wood splintering and cracking as floorboards fell with and around them, some colliding along the way in showers of splinters and wood dust. None of it was coherent though. Rushing air and a cacophony of screaming voices made making out anything impossible, not that Molly was even thinking of that as she stared into the nothingness below her, screaming like everyone else. This isn’t enhappifying! This isn’t enhappifying at all!

Was this going to be it? Darkness and falling forever? It didn’t look like it was ever going to end. And if it did…well what usually happened to things that fell a really, really, really long way? That really wasn’t enhappifying.

And then she saw it, and she didn’t know if it was going to make things better or worse. In the distance, still seemingly far below them, was a tiny red dot of light. It wasn’t a bright shade of red like a happy fire truck, but a deep red that flickered like a flame as they fell towards it. Great! Falling was already the opposite of enhappifying. Falling towards fire was even more the opposite.

Molly and the others kept screaming. It was all she could do as increasingly hot air rushed past her, with the others probably unable to get anymore of a cognizant thought through their own heads. All the while the dot got bigger and bigger, staining the darkness around them with its fiery hue the closer it became. From black to maroon to crimson, until the red consumed them entirely.

---

“Mol!” Scratch screamed.

“Scratch?” Molly said slowly. She had to fight to get her eyes opened. In the bright redness they’d fallen into she’d shut them so tight her eyelids had practically locked together. But now, as Scratch called her name, the intense red light was no longer trying to burn its way through her eyelids. Things were still red as she peered out between narrowed eyes, but instead of blinding red the world around her was just that color. The sky and clouds around her were all different shades of red, even the ground there were hurtling towards–

A fresh scream spilled out of Molly as she flailed her arms in a hair-brained attempt to flow her descent.

“Calm down!” Scratch yelled. “I’ve got ya!”

Looking up, Molly only then realized Scratch had wrapped his arms around her and even inflated himself a bit. But, despite his grip, they were still falling from very high up so his normally reassuring presence did little in the moment.

“Oh my stars!” another voice shouted. It came from off to the side, somewhere Molly hadn’t bothered to look. Her attention had been too focused on the ghost above her and the ground getting closer and closer below her. “What the heck is that!?”

It was Connie, falling a little ways off as she pointed at Molly and Scratch. The others were all there too, each grasping with the situation in their own way. Dipper was grabbing for his notebook that had come loose from his pocket, its pages flapping in the rushing air. Anne had gone fetal, arms and knees to her chest as she stared at the approaching ground and twisted her bag strap back and forth. And Twilight had tears welling up in her eyes as she did her best to keep her skirt held down in the wind. At least that’s what they were doing until Connie caught their attention. Their horrified expressions didn’t change as their heads turned from looking down, but all four of their faces gained a twinge of confusion when they noticed something holding Molly that could have been mistaken as a plastic bag in the wind if not looked at too closely. It would have been funny if they weren’t all going to die soon.

“Rude,” Scratch said over the rushing winds. “I’m obviously the ghost that’s been ignoring you all semester.”

“He’s real?!” It was Twilight this time, somehow speaking with a completely dropped jaw. The fact that Scratch wasn’t just an imaginary friend like Molly had heard Twilight “posit” to the others didn’t seem like the most important detail in the moment, but at least she didn’t look like she was about to cry.

“A’doy.”

“Everybody shut up!” Dipper yelled. And everyone did, more so because they were all taken aback by his outburst. Dipper never talked like that, but they were usually never in a situation like this either. He had managed to finally grab his notebook and was frantically looking through it. “We did not open a path to…wherever this is just to die on the way down!”

He held the notebook really close to his face. Maybe the chicken scratch he wrote in wasn’t the best reading material while plummeting from the sky. Then he yelled “Zgip!”

Nothing happened.

Dipper said something under his breath, something Molly couldn’t hear but she thought might have been a naughty word. Another new one for Dipper. He flipped another few pages, then tried, “Zowu!”

Still nothing.

“How does this get us our wish you da–”

In that instant, the thought that Molly had held on to right up until the moment they started falling uncontrollably popped back into her head. But it was nearly thrown out when she suddenly lurched to a stop as if someone had pumped the brakes on gravity. They hadn’t reached the ground or been caught midair by some kind of miracle, but just stopped in place. It was a place that had to still be hundreds of feet in the air, if not more, but it was better than falling those hundreds of feet and going splat.

“What the hell is going on!?” Twilight screamed. Molly had never heard her curse before, it would have been funny if not for the situation.

“Did anyone else start thinking of their wish when Dipper mentioned it?” Molly asked as she stared at the ground below. Sweet baby corn was that a long way down. Like the sky they had been falling through, the land stretched out below them seemed to be made from shades of red and little else. But as she glanced back and forth, her eyes remaining wide as they flitted from one thing to another and occasionally back to her little floating club, she started to notice what was what. In the distance there were buildings, skyscrapers even, in bunches like she had seen in some of the bigger cities her family had lived in. And there were multiple bunches too, did that mean wherever they were had multiple cities? She knew the ghost realm had town-like appearance, but full-blown cities seemed off for another spiritual realm.

“Yeah,” Connie and Anne said nearly in unison. Then Anne, “Is that why we stopped?”

“How does that make any sense?” Twilight shouted, still the loudest and clearly on the verge of tears.

But what was directly below them didn’t look like a city. More like a mountain range, spotted with towns and…were those tracks of farmland? It was all still so very red with just different shades to differentiate one thing from the next, but she thought so. And in what she guessed was the middle seemed like the biggest settlement of all, more than a town but lacking the skyscrapers of the cities she saw in the distance. Wherever they were in the grand scheme, it was filled with all kinds of places in of itself.

“None of this really makes sense,” Connie chided. “That was the whole point of trying to understand it!”

“We’re not falling and that’s all that matters,” Dipper said, less exasperated now that they weren’t dropping to their deaths anymore, or at least for the moment. “If thinking about why we started this is what’s keeping us from dying then keep thinking about it. It probably has something to do with that or this…I don’t know, film around us.”

“What–” Molly started, but stopped when she noticed what he was talking about. It was hard to see when she was looking towards the ground or cities, but easier to notice when she looked back towards the sky. Like a wall of glass or plastic, there was something wrapping around the group like a transparent tunnel. Had it been there the whole time? If so, it didn’t seem to have stopped any of the wind that had been rushing past them. Even now there was a strong breeze coming at them from the side that caused Molly’s pigtails and all the other girls’ hair and skirts to flow behind them.

“Can you get us closer to it, Scratch?” Molly asked, looking up at him and almost laughing at his quizzical face. The one he put on when he was forced to really think about something.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said.

“Is that a good idea?” Twilight asked between deep breaths. When she had started that Molly hadn’t noticed, but it seemed to be calming her down, if only a little. “We don’t know what this…film is, or what that g-ghost might do.”

“Just bobbing in the wind isn’t going to do us any good,” Molly said as Scratch started to float them over. “As for Scratch, he and I have been together for more than five years. I’d trust him with my life.”

“Yeah,” Scratch added. “There were loads of times I could have let one of Molly’s hairbrained ideas kill her, but there’s still only one ghost here, isn’t there?”

“What hairbrained ideas?” Molly nearly scoffed as they neared the ‘tunnel’ wall.

Scratch just looked at her for a moment before replying, “Do I really need to answer that?”

“Just get us to the wall,” she replied, looking away from his mild glare.

He did so with only minor difficulty. While gravity had seemed to have switched off, there was still some wind to deal with, which Scratch fought valiantly as he moved Molly from near~ish the middle of the would-be tunnel towards its edge. They bobbed along as they went, with Molly bracing herself and guarding her eyes against incoming gusts when they made themselves known, until after a few moments they were there, mere inches from the transparent wall that seemed to have guided their fall thus far.

“Does it look any different up close?” Dipper called from where he and the others were still floating in place. He had flipped to a new page of his notebook and had a pen at the ready to take down notes on what she said.

“Not really,” Molly called back. “It still just looks like a pane of glass or plastic.”

“What does it feel like?” Anne shouted.

“Should we touch it?” Twilight’s voice was shrill and high as she questioned no one in particular.

“Do we have any other ideas about what else we could do?” Connie replied with a question of her own.

No one answered. Maybe they exchanged looks or something, but Molly couldn’t see any of that. So, she did what she may have always been intending to do anyway and touched the tunnel wall.

It was smooth and cool and slippery. As soon as Molly touched the clear barrier she had to struggle to keep her hand from going off to the side and dragging her and Scratch with it. The gentle curve of whatever the tunnel was made of made it nearly impossible to rest her hand in one place for long, so even though she managed to keep it mostly steady she still found herself moving her arm back and forth any time every few seconds to keep her hand from sliding in any one direction too far. But besides its lack of friction there didn’t seem too much else to it. It was just your regular ol’ tunnel in the sky. Or at least as regular as that kind of thing could be.

Molly looked over her shoulder, back towards the group. “It’s like touching glass, but doesn’t seem like–”

Bruuuuum

The deep, gong-like sound echoed through the air, vibrating along the tunnel wall and up Molly’s arm as it passed. Even pulling her arm back as fast as she could, the vibration hit her like the wave of heat they had felt in the club room. It churned her stomach and made her feel both wrong and as if something was about to happen. But was that “something” going to help or hurt their situation?

BRUUUUUUUUM

The sound echoed up the tunnel again. Louder this time and with such force that Molly and Scratch shook in place despite not touching the wall anymore. She heard someone say something behind her, but couldn’t make it out over the echoing, thunderous sound. That wasn’t what she was focused on anyway. Molly’s attention was still on the tunnel wall, clear as it was she could still tell something was going on with it.

It was moving.

Not just from the vibrating thrum, the clear barrier was shifting. As if breathing, the tunnel wall around them expanded out then back in, in then out, out then in. All the while the brumming sound continued. If anything, it seemed to get louder and more forceful with each “breath.” And then, as the fifth breath was completed, everything changed.

At the height of the brumming’s loudest point, the tunnel cracked. Not just cracked, but shattered. Whatever the clear wall was, it became a thousand-million pieces, exploding out in a massive crash. At the very same instant, gravity took hold as a massive gust of wind barreled through the group. Molly and Scratch were sent spinning. There was screaming and yelling and the utter lack of being able to tell what was going. Ground and sky rotated around Molly and Scratch as they fell once again.

“Is this what socks in the dryer feel like?!” Scratch yelled as he clung to her.

“What do you know about doing laundry!?” Molly screamed back, clinging just as tightly to him.

The world turned around them. Molly didn’t know how far the wind had blown them, but while she couldn’t see where the others had been blown to, she was starting to make out the town below. It must have been the larger one she had thought she’d seen before, surrounded by mountains that jutted out at odd angles.

“I’m sorry Molly!”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind doing it!”

Turning again, Molly couldn’t help but notice the shapes of some of the mountains seemed almost bone-like. As if what she was seeing below her was one massive corpse. Is that what she was about to be? A skeleton on some rocks? Probably not with how fast and far they were falling, she was more likely to just turn into a puddle on impact.

God Molly thought as tears started welling up in her eyes. Why did I watch all those gory movies with Andrea and Liab?

“No,” Scratch yelled back. “I can’t stop us falling like normal. Wherever we are, my ghost juices haven’t been flowing right since we started falling.”

Another turn, the town was becoming more and more defined. Molly could make out buildings and roads, even little moving dots that might were probably people. She hoped she didn’t hit any of them on the way down. That would do the opposite of enhappify their day.

“It’s okay, Scratch,” Molly said through her now free flowing tears. She hugged him even tighter. “I know you’d do whatever you could. I’m just glad you’re here for…for…”

Molly couldn’t finish the thought through a fresh sob and wail that overtook her. She buried her face in his ghostly shoulder as the tears flowed and they finally stopped spinning and entered into a dead drop with her back to the quickly approaching ground.

“I’ll always be here for you, Mol,” Scratch said. “For this…and whatever comes next.”

Molly held her eyes closed and thought of her family and friends who she’d never see again. Mom, Dad, Darryl, Andrea, Liab. I’m sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye to any of you. I hope you all have the most enhappified lives you can. I’m just sorry I won’t be there–

And then their fall came to an end.

---

“You ok?”

Molly didn’t react at first. She didn’t know whose voice it was or how they could be asking her if she was ok while she was plummeting to her doom. Not to mention she was embracing her best friend for the last time before she was about to hit the ground, interrupting that was borderline rude.

“Uh, hello?”

Molly purposely didn’t respond this time, just kept holding on to Scratch. If she was about to meet her end, she wanted to make sure when she woke up dead she wouldn’t have to go looking for him.

“Mol,” Scratch chimed in. “Open your eyes.”

Hesitantly, Molly forced her eyes to open. They had been clamped so tightly together that it actually took some effort before the light started to crack its way through the darkness of her closed lids. What she saw came through blurry at first, between the sudden light and tears her eyes needed time to focus. The still red sky above hadn’t changed, but now there was an incomprehensible white splotch right above her. She tried wiping her eyes with the one hand she was willing to let go of Scratch with, but even then, it was a moment before the splotch solidified into something recognizable.

And that something was a face. With a side-swept tussle of white hair, a boy with green eyes was looking down at her as the clouds above gently floated farther away above them.

“It’s a good thing I got here in time,” he said, smiling. “That kind of fall wouldn’t have ended…pleasantly.”

“We’re not falling!?” Molly exclaimed as she startled forward. As she did she felt Scratch squish between her chest and knees, squishing him in that cartoony way of his as her now wide-open eyes tried to see what had happened.

Unfortunately, what those wide-opened eyes saw was the still considerable height they were falling from. She froze at the still quite real threat of falling to her death, causing her to tip forward farther from where she had shifted weight. Luckily, the hands on her shoulder and leg she hadn’t noticed before tightened in response, pulling her back in before she could fall back into a spiraling descent.

“Woah now,” the white-haired guy said as he held her princess-style against his chest. Like his arms, his chest and overall build seemed slender, but not she could still fill a bit of muscle. “We’re descending slower, but it’d be safer to not move until I can get us to the roof.”

“Safe sounds good,” Scratch added, still squished between her chest and legs. His eyes and nose were sticking out at wildly different angles, and he felt a bit more solid than usual, but it was far from the strangest or most painful looking amorphous blob she had seen him become over the years, so he could stay that way for a few minutes if it meant not falling out of their savior’s arms.

“I’m Molly,” she said, looking back at him. “Thank you for saving us.”

“Danny,” he replied as he glanced below for a look at where they were going. “And no prob, though it was my…friend Gaz who sensed you coming.”

“We’ll have to thank her too,” Molly said. She had started to relax a bit, and while she still tried not to move more than she had to, she allowed herself to wipe away the rest of her tears so it wouldn’t be too obvious when she did finally reach the ground. Andrea would have had a fit if one of her friends had let themselves appear so disheveled as a first impression.

“She should be where I’m aiming to land,” Danny said, still looking more where they were going instead of at her. “Just don’t expect the warmest welcome,” he chuckled a bit at that, but quickly continued with, “she can be a little surly.”

---

It took a few minutes for Danny to get them to solid footing, during which he apologized for it taking so long. According to him he was still getting used to being able to fly, with him being better at lifting off and moving around than he was at landing. But Molly really didn’t mind. Scratch complained about feeling weird, but that wasn’t completely out of the ordinary for him so she just reassured him that it wouldn’t be much longer.

As they descended, Molly got a better look at the town they were descending into. It was old looking, in style at least. Like something out of the medieval or colonial eras. Cobbled streets between rustic buildings that didn’t reach beyond two or three stories were populated with groups of moving people. Too far away to see much detail besides color, of which Molly noticed a variety just being nondescript dots. At least that was the case until they neared the roof Danny planned to land on. There, Molly could see a girl with dark purple hair and crossed arms, tapping her foot as she watched Molly, Scratch, and Danny come down.

“About time,” the girl Molly guessed was Gaz said as Danny helped her onto her feet. “I was about to die of boredom waiting on you.”

“Well excuse me,” Danny replied. “We’re not all trained prodigies.”

Molly couldn’t tell if they were actually arguing or not, so she just tried to push Scratch back into his proper shape while they talked. Usually he’d snap back to form, but not this time. Was this like what he’d said before Danny had caught them? That his ghost “juices” weren’t flowing? And what was that going to mean for–

“Whatever,” Gaz said, dismissing Danny and grabbing Molly’s attention with a pointed finger in her face. “Pigtails, are you the one who broke the corridor?”

Danny’s ‘friend’ looked like a living Hot Topic catalogue; steel-toed black boots with more straps than seemed necessary, torn and faded violet leggings that disappeared beneath a teal skirt, a ripped top with imprinted skulls, a purse in the shape of a stuffed green dog, fingerless gloves, and a mop of dark purple hair that almost entirely hid her eyes from view. Despite Danny also wearing darker clothes, some kind of robe or school uniform in a few shades of grey, the two couldn’t give off more different vibes. Like how even not being able to see the top of her face, Molly could tell Gaz was angry. But Molly barely understood anything that was going on, let alone what she could have done to make anyone angry at her. She tried to rush through what had happened. She had been falling, Danny had caught her and Scratch, they’d landed, but now they were separated from the others. Oh sweet baby corn, the others! She had forgotten all about them in the fall. What had happened to them? Where were they now? They couldn’t be–

“I’m talking to you,” Gaz said, pushing the finger closer in towards Molly’s face.

“I-I-I don’t know,” Molly got out after choking back a fresh sob. The thought of what could have happened to everyone else was too much. She was shaking and wanted them to be alright. “My friends and I fell and–”

“Uuuuuugh,” Gaz moaned. The goth girl rubbed between her eyes, or at least seemed to. That was within her bangs’ territory and not entirely visible. “So the corridor’s broken and there’s more of you. Did your coven head even talk to ours? There’s supposed to a system for this crap.”

“Coven?”

“Mol,” Scratch said, her name coming out in an elongated warble. “I really don’t feel good.”

Molly had been so preoccupied by the demanding goth that she hadn’t even noticed what was going on with her best friend. Scratch’s shape had shifted far beyond the amorphous splat she had tried to fix him from a moment before. The edges of his bluish-white body were rippling, as if filled with writhing snakes or insects that were trying to find a way out. His eyes had rolled back, not in his usual cartoonish way, but actually into his body to the point that he just had black sockets. His arms were getting longer, and even his plump little body that normally looked like an upside-down shopping bag was starting to stretch into something more human-like, but also sharper and darker.

“For fucks sake,” Gaz said, sounding more annoyed than anything. “Did you not prep your contracted spirit? Did your coven head teach you anything?”

“No!” Molly screamed. She was already on her knees beside Scratch’s shifting form. She wanted to comfort him, to let him know it was going to be alright, but every time she tried to touch him his outer layer would shift or sharpen or just be weird. “What do I do to help him!?”

“That’s your queue, oracle track,” Gaz said with a huff and a gesture towards Danny.

“It’s going to be alright,” Danny said as he kneeled beside Molly. “We just need to cast a stabilizing spell to keep him from changing into a sinner.”

“What?” Molly’s mouth was agape. So little of that made sense, and what did only made her worry more.

“Just make a spell circle,” Danny continued. He pressed his hands together as he spoke, then separated them to reveal a glowing circle of purple light that expanded with his hands. “And then I’ll lead you through the rest.”

“Can’t you just–”

“No, dumbass,” Gaz cut in. “If that lump is your contracted spirit then you have to do it.”

Molly looked at her hands for what felt like forever, but had to only have been a few seconds. But could she really do what he just had. A spell circle? Was he telling her to do magic? Could she do magic now? Or was this all just some assumption sprung from her not being able to answer their questions. Nothing was going the way she had imagined or hoped. But if she couldn’t do what Danny was asking her, if she couldn’t pull it together right now, then she didn’t know what was going to happen to Scratch when his body stopped squirming inside itself. And that was already really bad!

“No pressure, Mol,” Scratch more gargled than said as he tried to give her a thumbs up. He didn’t quite complete the gesture though, as every movement made a hundred little pops of bones cracking, a sound that shouldn’t come from someone without any bones.

Slamming her hands together, Molly imagined a circle just like Danny’s. Shining all purple and bright-like. When she opened her hands it would be there, just like his. Then she would fix Scratch and they’d find the others and find a way home after impressing Dipper with her new magic and everything would be enhappified forever. She knew it was going to happen, because it had to. The next thing she was going to do was pull her hands apart and gaze at the spell circle she had conjured.

There was nothing between her hands when she opened them.

“For fuck’s sake,” Gaz bellowed. “Are you even supposed to be down here?”

“I-I-”

“You’re not helping,” Danny said harshly, then to Molly, “It’s ok, I’m still learning too. I’m going to try a trick someone used to help me get the hang of it. Just stay exactly as you are.”

Molly shook a bit, but otherwise complied as Danny waved his circle out of existence like smoke and shifted to kneel behind her. Placing one of his hands on the back of each of hers, Molly at once felt a tingle in her palms. A sensation she would have failed to try and put into words if not for another gurgling moan from scratch.

“Ok, now we’re going to try making the spell circle again,” Danny instructed. “When I push your hands together just imagine the circle forming.”

Molly nodded and Danny did just what he said he would. As her palms came together the tingle expanded into a vibration within her hands. It didn’t hurt, though her first reaction was to wince in expectation of pain. Instead, there was a kind of warmth there so unlike what she had felt ever since the wave of heat that had filled the club room she almost didn’t recognize it. But how could she not when taking even a nanosecond to think about it. That warmth was what she felt when she did something to enhappify someone else. The warmth that usually welled up in her chest when she saw someone’s life improved for the better and a big smile on their faces. So much warmth and happiness, and it was right in the palm of her hands.

Danny pulled her hands apart, and this time they weren’t empty. Formed between them and expanding to fill the space between her separated palms was a golden circle of light. It shown like a beacon before her, so much brighter than Danny’s had been. And even though she knew she should still be worried about Scratch, somehow looking at it made her feel like everything was going to be alright. That the moment was enhappified just the way it was.

“Why is it gold?” Danny asked, probably to Gaz.

“It doesn’t matter, just finish it.”

“Right…” Danny said before directing his words back to Molly. “Alright, good circle. I’m just going to aim us a little more at Scratch. While I do that, you think about whatever linked you two together in the first place. Just keep that in mind and how much he means to you.”

Molly thought back to her first day in Brighton and the curse that had linked her and Scratch together, a curse that had given her first life-long friend. The irony of which had never been lost on her or him. She could remember it all so clearly as she stared into the golden ring of light, so much so that she thought she could even see the scenes from when she was thirteen in the light, but it was just Scratch coming into focus as Danny angled them towards her moaning spirit. It was time to be linked again, but this time it was her turn to connect them.

“Got it in mind?” he asked.

Molly nodded again.

“Good, now I want you to imagine the circle connecting you and Scratch. Like a link between you if that helps. Picture it in whatever way you need to, just so that what you picture features you alive and him the ghost he was before you came down. Got it?”

Another nod.

“Great. Keep that picture in your mind, then release the circle towards Scratch.”

Molly imagined the circle leaving her hands and flying forwards. In an instant it would come to Scratch, colliding with his agonizing shifting body in a brilliant flash before tendrils shot out and encircled her and Scratch in a newer, larger circle of light. This one wouldn’t be a solid ring like the one that had formed between her hands, but made of interspersed waves the flowed around them, linking them in a brilliant display that would shine from the rooftop with a brilliance that would even ease Scratch’s pain. It would be amazing and magical and stupendous. And then, as the light faded after one more flash of happy warmth, Scratch would slowly shift back into his regular little blob of a body. But this time there would be no pain, only soothing relief as things were put back the way they were supposed to be.

“Now,” Danny instructed.

Molly released the circle of light and it flew forward. It struck Scratch just as she had imagined, which was the last part that went to plan. A plume erupted from within the light, stamping it out as the whole roof was covered in a cloud of pinkish-grey dust. It didn’t last long, as the very blast that had caused the eruption continued to push the dust away until… In one moment there had been a shining gleam of light enveloping her agonizing friend, then a cloud of dust, then…everything was fine? Like, Scratch was just there and back to normal. No reverse transformation of anything.

“Scratch!” Molly shouted as she scrambled forwards. Danny had covered with face with his hands and arms at the same time she had done the same, making it easy to slip out from between his arms and pounce on her ghost so she could give him the biggest, tightest hug he’d ever had.

“I’m fine, Mol,” Scratch said, his words somewhat muffled as her embrace has partially flattened him again. “All better now.”

“I was so worried about you! Never contort yourself into a monstrous form again!”

“I’ll try not to,” he said as he hugged her back.

“Enough of this sappy shit,” Gaz scowled. Molly looked up to see Gaz taking deep, measured breaths while holding her dust covered arms away from her dust covered body. Danny and Molly were practically caked in the pink stuff too, but Gaz was basically fuming. In fact, she was fuming. The dust on her head and arms, as well as the ground at her feet, began to rise in puffs of smoke. Crackling, snapping, and eventually the roar of an actual fire echoed across the rooftop as the smoke gave way to flames an even brighter shade of red than the sky. The flames spread out from around Gaz’s feet in two lines going opposite directions. They continued like that, picking up speed as the lines of fire curved around Molly and Scratch, quickly encircling them in a wall of rising flame.

Molly tightened her grip on Scratch as Gaz, now a shimmering silhouette amongst the flames, stepped forward. Her heavy black boots struck the ground as she approached, her flames following each step as the sweltering circle tightened further and further. The shadowy figure, who in truth was barely any taller than Molly, seemed to tower above her and Scratch, who couldn’t help but shiver despite the intense heat. The eyes that gleamed from the darkness of Gaz’s silhouette were fires of their own, a mix of red and orange and yellow that somehow only further darkened the rest of her to the point that she was just a person-shaped void amongst the flame.

“You came down here without knowing anything,” Gaz said. She didn’t yell, though her words caused the fire to sway as they swept over the rooftop. “What kind of coven would even allow that.”

“M-my friends and I–”

“Shut up.” Gaz’s flames jumped higher. An arm with what looked like clawed fingers separated from the darkness that was the rest of her. “It’s clear you don’t know the first thing you should. Which means there’s only one thing to do with you.”

“Wait!” Danny shouted over the flames. He had been cut off from the rest of them by the fire, now seeming a world away as Gaz loomed above. “You can’t just–”

The shadowy arm darted from where it had been hanging, latching onto Molly’s arm in an ice-cold grip. A new wave of heat and flames started to sizzle around Gaz’s feet as those burning eyes of hers shifted just barely back towards Danny. “It’s what she deserves.”

The fresh flames at Gaz’s feet erupted, rocketing her upwards as Molly was dragged along behind her. Molly was screaming again. Scratch was screaming. Gaz was silent save for the sounds of the rushing fire that propelled them back up and through the red sky. Buildings rushed by below, some mere feet away, all a blur as they flew onwards while continuously picking up speed.

Molly tried to question Gaz, to ask what she’d done wrong and what was going to happen to her now. But if the shadowy figure could hear anything over the roar of her own flames she didn’t respond. She didn’t even look back. Just stared forward towards wherever they were going.

Then they dropped. Gaz tilted them into a descent that sent them hurtling between two adjacent buildings without dropping a lick of speed. Bricks and windows and hanging laundry zoomed past as Molly and Scratch were dragged along in the wake of a living rocket. But nearly as quickly as they had dipped between two solid buildings that would have been very bad to hit while going so insanely fast, they were out from between them. And not just from between two close buildings, as Molly would discover when she dared to open her eyes again, but they had seemingly left the would-be “city” behind as well.

The old-style buildings they had fallen towards, flown over, then shot between were behind them, and when Molly looked around as best she could on this bumpy ride she could still see them in the distance. They surrounded the large swath of pale-pinkish grass below them, what seemed to be acres of it, but that wasn’t to say there was nothing built on whatever space they were hurtling through now. In fact, that’s exactly what they seemed to be hurtling towards as Gaz dipped them closer and closer to the ground.

Right in the middle of the field of pink grass was another series of buildings, though slightly different from those they had just left behind. What they were flying towards were a collection of tall, almost white, stone buildings. They looked like most of them were taller than the buildings from the town, if only because of the towers and buttresses most of them had, each lined and accented with darker stone for their windows and roofs and other details that made the marble or light granite the rest of the buildings were made of pop all the brighter in the sea or red that seemed to be everything else in this place. But, as colorfully refreshing as that was compared to seemingly everything else, that wasn’t what caught Molly’s attention. Even as she was dragged through the air by a shadowy figure being propelled by feet flames towards an uncertain fate, Molly just couldn’t help but notice the layout of the buildings ahead of her was familiar. In fact, it was practically the same kind of layout the Rev U. campus had.

Gaz’s flames finally started to die down, the last of them used to slow and cancel out their descent as she angled her feet towards the ground. As if it was nothing, she went from flying to walking while Molly came down much less gracefully. She managed not to fall, but as Gaz went from dragging her through the air to dragging her along a stone pathway she nearly stumbled onto her face several times. Gaz’s own grip on her arm, something that had only tightened if anything, was probably all that kept her somewhat upright.

“Mind tellin’ us where we’re goin’ now?” Scratch asked from within Molly’s embrace.

“You’ll see,” Gaz replied, clearly irritated by all of this despite being the one doing it. She was also no longer a shadowy figure now that her flames had subsided. Or at least not completely. It hadn’t been like a switch being flipped. No, the darkness that had turned her into a silhouette was still there, but it was slowly slipping away as her heavy boots came down on the path and echoed between the university-like buildings.

“That’s not really an answer.”

Gaz turned her head just enough for a single, still-flaming eye to glare at the ghost in Molly’s arms. Both Scratch and Molly gulped, Molly slid a hand over his mouth, and Gaz turned her attention back to where she was dragging them. Which seemed to be the largest of the buildings that made up this latest place. The pathway, a similar light-color stone to the buildings it branched between and even lined at the edges with the same kind of darker green accents, lead them between arches and pillars, under a banner that might have had a book with a sideways eight on it, then from what could have been called a quad into a more confined but still open courtyard.

Doors lined the courtyard, spread apart with windows separating some while long stretches of blank wall were all that stretched between others. All of it the same kind of stone they had seen on the way in, just now darkened by the shade from the interior sides of the building that loomed over the courtyard. But that was about all Molly had time to take in. Gaz didn’t slow their pace or loosen her grip as she dragged them along, causing what few signs or plaques she spotted to rush by before she could tell what they said. That was, until Gaz brought them to a door and very briefly paused.

The door’s plaque, while partially blocked by Gaz in front of her, at the very least read “Bump.”

“As in,” Molly gulped, “What things in the night do?”

Gaz didn’t look back, but she did reply. “You wish.”

The next thing Molly knew Gaz’s heavy boot had kicked the door end, somehow not splintering it or knocking it off its hinges despite the impact of both her boot and it when it swung inwards echoing throughout the courtyard and probably beyond. Just as quickly as the kick, Molly was being pulled forward again. But not just dragged as before, this time Gaz pulled Molly past the doorframe then practically tossed her the rest of the way.

Molly tried to grab hold of something as she stumbled, spun, and started to fall. But there was nothing to grab. Thoughts raced through her head as she fell. What was going on? Why was she doing this? Was she being thrown in here to feed something? Was “Bump” what needed feeding? Had the emo girl decided a college coed was what “Bump” needed to eat? What was the point of telling Danny to help her and Scratch then? Why hadn’t she had more s–

Her fall was cut short as she landed in a large wooden chair. Her mind went blank for a moment as she processed this. Not only that she had been thrown into a chair instead of onto the floor for a monster she’d imagined to eat her off of, but that the room itself was utterly…ordinary. In fact, it was just an office. The chair she had been thrown into, as well as another identical one to her side, sat facing a reddish-brown desk. Bookshelves, cabinets, and even paintings lined the walls, just like you’d expect in any office. It was especially similar to some of the faculty staff offices she’d visited back at Rev. U. She’d always thought she could have brightened up those office spaces if given the chance. But that chance always required breaking and entering, and she tried to avoid that as much as possible.

“What have I asked you about scheduling meetings, Ms. Membrane?” A voice questioned from the far side of the room. Shaking her head, Molly finally noticed that Gaz hadn’t just thrown her in an empty office. There was actually a man, probably whoever “Bump” was, standing beyond the other side of the desk and flipping through one of the books from a bookshelf. Molly wasn’t sure how she had missed him, because now she didn’t know how she could look away.

He was tall, but clearly up there in years. Dressed in a dark grey, gold-accented robe that almost reached the floor, he had a prominent cleft chin and long, straight, stark white hair that fell well below his waist. And yet, as interesting as an appearance as all that was, it wasn’t what kept her attention. Not the long, pointed fingernails on each hand or the red-tinged, pointed ears sticking out from his head. Nor was it the massive scar that ran up from his right eye and into his hairline. No, what Molly found herself staring at, what she felt Scratch must have been staring at given how slack he’d gone, were the pair of white and black striped horns that rose from out of either side of his head.

“Not me you’ve got a meeting with,” Gaz replied. Then, before leaving, “She’s your problem now.”

And then Gaz was gone. The sound of her stomping through the courtyard echoed through the door she’d left open for a moment, but soon even that disappeared. Which just left Molly and Scratch with this “Bump” person. The question was, would that be an improvement for their situation or not? Also, would he let her brighten up this office? Molly was still certain she could make this type of space happier.

He sighed, placed the book he’d been reading back on the shelf, and pulled out the chair from behind his desk so he could take a seat himself. As he did, he waggled a single finger in the air. From its tip shown a brownish light that quickly formed a shining circle, like the ones from the rooftop. Oh yeah, she had done magic. So much had happened so fast in the last, what? Hour? Less? That she could barely keep track of it all. But yeah, she had done magic. That Danny guy had helped, but she had still done it. Dipper was going to love that.

“I take it you’re not a member of her coven,” the horned Bump-man more stated than asked.

Molly just shook her head.

“Well, I apologize for any rough treatment she may have given you,” he continued. “Ms. Membrane has her…difficulties. But at least she brought you here instead of, well that’s not important. What’s your name?”

“Molly McGee, and this is Scratch.”

He glanced down at the ghost. The simple smile he’d been speaking with broadened just a little, showing a fanged tooth within. “Ah, an Oracle student. Quite the field of study, sometimes wish I had followed it myself. But let’s not dive into that just yet, if you’re not with Ms. Membrane’s coven, where might yours be?”

“My frien- coven and I were separated on the way…down?” Molly said, hoping that made sense.

“Been a while since that’s happened,” he replied, evidently understanding what she’d said more than she had. “I’ll have my staff put out word to look for fresh faces in case they don’t make their way here on their own.”

“So they’ll be alright?” She was practically pleading for it to be the case. The fact the others had fallen in completely different directions hadn’t ever left her, but with so much else going on it had kind of gotten lost in the jumble.

“Well, some might come in a bit bruised,” he said. “But even if the corridor you lot use breaks, the fall rarely kills anyone. That generally has to happen before you wind up down here.”

“O…kay.”

His one good eye widened. “Where are my manners,” he said, standing up. “I haven’t even introduced myself. I am Dean Hieronymus Bump, and I’d like to welcome you to Hexside University of Demonic Witchcraft. You won’t find a better institution to study magic on this or any other ring of Hell.”

Chapter Text

“The scroll said it was important that while saying the incantation we all were thinking of an important wish. I don’t know why, it didn’t go into it, but that’s what it says to do.”

Twilight almost chuckled out loud. Wishes. Of course, something like that would come into play with this whole show. One little chemical reaction from some paper and now everyone’s taking wishes seriously. But, as illogical and unfounded as something like a wish was even in the grand scheme of everything else they were doing, why shouldn’t she go along with it? The cameras and sensors couldn’t track “wishes” any more than they could track daydreams, so no one would know she played along with the silly concept.

So, what would her wish be? World peace? A fully funded lab? A taco? All sounded equally likely to come true on their own. But if she was going to take this even somewhat seriously it would probably be something else. Someone else? Yes, even though it somewhat annoyed her to admit, if she was going to wish for anything it would be for someone to share her studies and interests with. She was glad to have the club members, especially Dipper and Connie, they were the first real friends she’d had in a long time, but they were either part of the club for drastically different reasons than her or they couldn’t understand half the things she said when analyzing how the world worked. She pulled on the hem of her skirt a bit as she finalized the wish in her mind, she wished for someone to share things with in ways she couldn’t with anyone else.

“Everybody got it?” Dipper asked. Twilight nodded along with everyone else. Dipped looked at his notepad as Twilight and the others looked at the pictures he had sent them. For some reason the idea of chanting nonsense words had lost its funny appeal. But it was too late to back out now. Especially not because of such a silly reason as a wish. “Good, then here we go.”

“Vír gru webuz orh vhrefzgiru grog nabc vunif, gru pnocu iw hobcruzz grog tu zuuc gi mo,” they chanted. Twilight wasn’t sure how accurate, if accuracy was even a thing with this gibberish, any of them were, but as she read the supposed words out loud along with the others, she was sure if any of them weren’t pronouncing them right it was going to be Molly. The girl was surely trying, but she just couldn’t seem to wrap her tongue around the foreign writing. If this was even a tongue to being with.

“Tu focu o cirgbocgb gi cobbír, gi wanwenn iab tezruz trenu noccum hiavg.”

Suddenly, something felt off. Something hot. It didn’t make her feel sick, but right in the pit of her stomach Twilight could feel a surge of churning heat. It seemed to intensify and spread with every word of the chant they uttered. Like a humid day shoved inside her, sticking to her muscles and bones the way the heavy air would have stuck to her skin.

She must have been having a reaction to the goop paint Connie and Dipper had been using. Yes…that was the most logical reasoning for such a feeling to occur.

“Zi tegr grez pocg orh iab huchruu, zrit az trog uíruz tubu rig fuorg gi zuu!”

The chant ended and the room went silent. It didn’t even seem like anyone was breathing. And then…nothing. No portal or mystical sign or any of the other things the others had hypothesized all this mumbo jumbo might lead to. And, of course, there wouldn’t be. That was all just superstitious nonsense without any logic to it. She had known that going in. So, whatever feeling she had gotten during the chant, assuming for a moment it wasn’t some reaction she’d need to visit the medical center for later, was just her mind getting caught up in the moment.

“Did I get the chant wrong?” Dipper said, mostly to himself. He was flipping through his notebook again. His eyes raced back and forth, searching for whatever mundane detail he thought he’d missed. It was cute how he still relied on written notes. If he would use a tablet or something like the laptop Twilight carried with her it would be so much easier for him to find what he was look–

The floor creaked. Not a short and simple creak like from stepping and a weak part of the floor or opening an old door, but a long and noticeable moan of a sound. Twilight couldn’t help but look around for the source, something everyone else seemed to be engaged in as well, but none of them were moving and the door was locked shut. So, the shrill wail couldn’t be coming from them or there. And it wouldn’t make sense for the floor to be wailing anyway, they were in the basement after all. Now if the ceiling was creaking that would be bad. But, as much as Twilight tried to follow the logic of that thought and find the where the creaking was coming from as she looked around, the more she tried to identify the source the more it felt like it must be coming from below her.

“What is it?” Anne shouted. Her eyes were darting all over the place, but mostly down towards the floor. Which, Twilight reminded herself, couldn’t be where the sound was coming from. It just couldn’t.

“It’s just an old building making old building sounds,” Twilight said. Even she could tell that she was mostly talking to herself as she finally allowed herself to look down towards her feet. Immediately she could hear the creaking more clearly. As if giving into the impossible idea was giving it more power. But that didn’t make sense, it wasn’t logical. It had to just be the building doing what old buildings did. It just had to be. “Old building, old sounds. Old building sounds…”

“That, or it worked!” Connie shouted. The other bespeckled member of their group sounded downright gleeful at whatever was happening, even though it probably just meant something was about to collapse on or around them.

“Let’s all just take a deep breath and calm down. We’ll figure out what the sound is and go from there.”

“Scratch is right!” Molly shouted, relaying something from her imaginary friend. “The creaking already stopped.”

“Well,” Anne started after Molly’s exclamation was met with a moment of silence for confirmation. “Do we think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?”

The floor lurched before anyone could even consider answering the question. Thrown off balance, Twilight struggled to stay standing. She managed to do so, even keeping her feet within the circle Dipper had painted on the floor. As if that mattered at all.

But the lurch was just the beginning. The beginning of so much worse. There was no collapsing building. There was no collapse of rubble or shudder that led to falling debris. Instead, like a trap door beneath them, the floor simply opened downwards as the wood and painted paper on top of it tore the timbers to shreds right down the middle. And there was only darkness below it.

For a moment, Twilight was sure it had to have been less than a second, she and the others hung there over the void of nothingness that had opened beneath them. Impossibly opened to something that was impossible to be there. Everything else about the room was still the same; covered walls and furniture and her equipment sitting in place as if nothing out of the realm of possibility was happening at all. But as many times as the words impossible and illogical passed through her mind in that brief moment, it wasn’t enough to keep her and the others from falling as soon as the moment ended.

And it did end. The moment, what could have only been a second at most if there was any logic left in the world and even that was stretching it beyond rational norms, ended and they were falling. She was screaming, the others were screaming, wooden floorboards and scraps of paper were breaking off and falling after and around them. Into the darkness they all fell. Dropping beyond the level of their club’s floor and into an inky darkness that seemed to only grow darker with each passing instant. The fact that Twilight could see anything at all when she dared to open her eyes seemed miraculous to say the least, and she hated to say it aloud or not. But what she could see in the briefest of glimpses through half-opened eyes were just the others and the refuse falling with them. There were no walls or floor or anything within this void. It was all just so…so…impossible.

Which was when the heat started to rise. The rushing air began to pelt her with a heat even worse than what she’d felt back…up where they should have been. Where the world made sense and nonsense gibberish didn’t cause your stomach to churn and the floor to fall away into a space that shouldn’t have existed. But that’s not where they were. They were falling down into darkness while the heat rose and rose and rose.

She would have given anything for that void to have something in it she could latch on to, mentally at least, for it to make sense. A shape or color in the darkness at least. But, as she felt a fresh bead of sweat join one of the tears escaping from her clenched shut eyes, what she noticed didn’t help at all. The darkness was giving way to red that was bright enough to shine even through her eyelids. Twilight tried to look and see what the source could possibly be, but a crimson shine was obstructing everything from view. A brilliant crimson that utterly engulfed them all.

---

It was when a new scream erupted from someone, probably Molly given how shrill it was, Twilight realized there was no red light coming through her once again tightly shut eyes. She also had the uncomfortable thought that regardless of what had elicited the latest scream it didn’t really matter. They had hit terminal velocity and were still falling, so there really only was one outcome for them left. But her normally reassuring logic did anything but in the moment.

“Oh my stars!” Connie shouted from off to Twilight’s side. She didn’t sound much farther away than she’d been when they and the others had been in that stupid series of circle. “What the heck is that!?”

“Rude,” a voice Twilight didn’t know said over the rushing winds. It was rougher than anyone else from the club, and a bit high-pitched despite obviously being a guys. “I’m obviously the ghost that’s been ignoring you all semester.”

The fact Molly was using this time to put on voices for her imaginary friend actually got Twilight to open her eyes. She didn’t want to spend her last moments listening to the inane ramblings of…a…a transparent, glowing, blue-tinted, plastic-bag-in-the-wind-shaped being with a big nose and sunken yellow eyes. It was latched on to Molly’s arms and falling with them, its little tufts of “hair” shifting violently in the wind as they continued to fall.

It couldn’t be what it looked like, what Molly had always told them was there. Her imaginary friend. Her ghost. A ghost.

“He’s real?!” Twilight yelled in exasperation through a dropped jaw.

“A’doy.”

“Everybody shut up!” Dipper yelled. And everyone did. Probably more because he had said something so out of character than because of what he had said. Despite being the most generally knowledgeable about both the science and mysticism they had tried to combine and delve into, Dipper usually went with what other people suggested. He hadn’t always been like that, Twilight remembered when the club had formed he had been much more gung-ho and ready to take the lead, but that had changed and softened over time. Though, they had never been in a situation like this before and Twilight could attest that would have an impact. Like now, as he flipped through his pocket notebook and was purposefully looking for something. Though what Twilight couldn’t fathom.

“We did not open a path to…wherever this is just to die on the way down!”

He held the notebook really close to his face, mouthing words to himself despite the wind threatening to rip the paper loose in every instant. Then he yelled “Zgip!”

Nothing happened.

Dipper scowled and said something under his breath. Twilight couldn’t hear that one, but she guessed it wouldn’t fly in a classroom setting. He flipped another few pages, then tried, “Zowu!”

Still nothing.

“How does this get us our wish you da–”

Wish. What a silly little word to think about now, especially with everything else going on. And what had hers been? To have someone to share things with? How stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stu–

Twilight’s self-depreciation was jerked to a stop as she was. Her stomach dropped and bounced in place as her fall ceased without warning or reason. She wasn’t weightless or even really floating, she was simply not falling anymore. The ground was still seemingly miles below with what might have been towns or cities dotting its landscapes while the stark red sky and dark red clouds still swirled around them for as far as the eye could see. 

“What the hell is going on!?” Twilight screamed. She didn’t like to curse or give power to antiquated concepts like hell, but in the moment it was the only thing that could properly convey how she was feeling. And stopping midair by no means whatsoever definitely was a “what the hell” kind of feeling.

“Did anyone else start thinking of their wish when Dipper mentioned it?” Molly asked as she and her ghost floated on the other side of Dipper from Twilight. She looked like she was hanging off of the translucent creature despite having stopped at the same height the rest of them had.

“Yeah,” Connie, hanging there with her knees together and her arms outstretched as if trying to balance herself, and Anne who held her knees to her chest with one hand while keeping her skirt from billowing with the other, said nearly in unison. Then Anne, “Is that why we stopped?”

“How does that make any sense?” Twilight shouted. The tears threatening to escape her eyes could be heard in her voice, but she didn’t care. If anything, everyone else should have been breaking into deep breaths the way she was.

“None of this really makes sense,” Connie chided while sounding practically elated. “That was the whole point of trying to understand it!”

“We’re not falling and that’s all that matters,” Dipper said, less exasperated now that they weren’t falling to their deaths anymore, or at least for the moment. “If thinking about why we started this is what’s keeping us from dying then keep thinking about it. It probably has something to do with that or this…I don’t know, film around us.”

“What–” Molly started, but she must have caught a glimpse of what Dipper was talking about as Twilight and presumedly the others did. Initially near impossible to see, there was some kind of barrier around them. Like a clear tunnel or corridor that ran from where they had fallen from above and down towards the ground below. It couldn’t have been a solid barrier though, as a constant gust was still shifting her ponytail the same as Molly’s pigtails and Anne’s entirely too short skirt.

“Can you get us closer to it, Scratch?” Molly asked as she looked up at him.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said.

“Is that a good idea?” Twilight asked between deep breaths. The breathing helped give her a sense of control, even if she realized how fleeting that control really was. “We don’t know what this…film is, or what that g-ghost might do.”

“Just bobbing in the wind isn’t going to do us any good,” Molly said as she and her apparition helper started to float towards the barrier. “As for Scratch, he and I have been together for more than five years. I’d trust him with my life.”

“Yeah,” Scratch added. “There were loads of times I could have let one of Molly’s hairbrained ideas kill her, but there’s still only one ghost here, isn’t there?”

“What hairbrained ideas?” Molly nearly scoffed as they neared the barrier.

Scratch just looked at her for a moment before replying, “Do I really need to answer that?”

“Just get us to the wall,” she said, looking away.

“Does it look any different up close?” Dipped called from where he was floating a few feet away from Twilight. He had flipped to a new page of his notebook and had a pen at the ready to take down notes on what she said.

“Not really,” Molly called back. “It still just looks like a pane of glass or plastic.”

“What does it feel like?” Anne shouted.

“Should we touch it?” Twilight could hear the shrillness in her voice as she asked her question for any and everyone. She didn’t care though, she just didn’t want the nonsense to get worse for them.

“Do we have any other ideas about what else we could do?” Connie answered with a question of her own.

Molly tentatively reached out and touched the translucent film, then looked over her shoulder and called, “It’s like touching glass, but doesn’t seem like–”

Bruuuuum

The deep, gong-like sound echoed through the air, vibrating along the tunnel wall in stark undulations that were plain to see despite the barrier still being nearly invisible. Molly pulled her arm back as fast as she could, but based on the look on her face as she and the ghost spun loosely back towards the group, the vibration must have hit her with a sensation that seemed uncomfortable to say the least.

BRUUUUUUUUM

The sound echoed up the tunnel again. Louder this time and with such force that Twilight could feel it despite being practically in the center of the tunnel or whatever they were floating within. Anne said something, but Twilight couldn’t make it out over the echoing, thunderous sound. She didn’t care either. All of Twilight’s attention was on the barrier. Its vibrations were increasing in power, shifting the fabric of whatever it was made of in undulating thrums as if the tunnel was breathing.

Unfortunately, just like Twilight, it was starting to take deeper breaths.

Out, the barrier contracted inwards. In, it expanded like a bubble. The sides remained utterly equidistant from where the club hung in midair, which was reassuring when it was “breathing in” but not so much when the tunnel contracted around them. The brumming sound continued all the while, getting louder with each breath.

In and out. The brumming’s pacing seemed to match Twilight’s own, quickly turning her attempt at a modicum of control into a mockery in the overwhelming face of just how little control she had.

In and out. The sound got louder. Every second made Twilight wince harder.

In and out. Twilight’s hands strained to press as hard as they could against her ears, but it did nothing.

In and out. The sound reached its loudest point and the tunnel broke. First it cracked, then completely shattered. Whatever the barrier had been, it was now an incalculable number of tiny pieces exploding out in a massive crash. And if that wasn’t bad enough, to be showered with an uncountable amount of tiny slivers, gravity took that moment as the one to start working again just as a massive gust of wind rushed through the group.

At once there was nothing but spinning shades of red as Twilight was spent spiraling away from the others. She could hear their screaming and yelling for a few seconds, but it was quickly lost under her own and the constant rush of wind once again pressing past her as she plummeted towards the ground at greater and greater speeds.

Now alone, or at least far enough away from the others that it didn’t matter, a host of new thoughts she hadn’t considered before raced through her mind. The people she would never see again. The A’s she would never get for all the final assignments she turned in before this fatal experiment! The things she would never get to do. Her brother and parents would never know what happened to her and would likely imagine the worst for years to come. Her teachers, those poor professors who would never be able to give her back the immaculately graded assignments she was so certain of, they would just have to hold on to those projects as a way to remember her. And there were so many experiments in the lab and outside of it she had spent so much time imagining and planning, so much work that could have illuminated the world now just set to rot for all time or be done by other people because she’d never found the right partners to do it with.

And that brought things back to that stupid wish of hers. Had that really had something to do with what had caused them to drop to their deaths? And possibly also paused that drop for a moment before a silly girl and her ghost, which actually existed for some inane reason, sent them spiraling to their doom again? Maybe if she’d been able to fulfil that wish before she wouldn’t be in this mess now.

Not that it matters now she thought as she held herself tight, her eyes shut tighter, and hoped for unconsciousness to strike before something else did. Which is why she didn’t see what was about to happen.

She heard the sound of ripping cloth before she had a chance to register the soft resistance. She was slowed, if only momentarily, and in that brief moment she dared to open her eyes again. But even with them open there was only darkness. No, not darkness, something was over her face. A veil that she could just barely see light shining through. Twilight instinctively reached to free herself from whatever had wrapped itself around her head when–

More unseen resistance struck her, slowing her descent and robbing the use of her arms. The same kind of cloth, or at least something similar had ensnarled her upper torso. It only seemed to tighten around her as she struggled, right up until the point–

Another scream of tearing cloth, another drop in speed. Then another, and another, each encasing her in another layer of restricting cloth until she finally hit something with more weight to it.

There was a splash. But, in the fraction of a second Twilight heard it before becoming completely submerged, it didn’t sound like water. It was more like a ‘splorch’ than a splashing sound, which went right along with what she felt as the darkness finally consumed what little light had been making its way through the cloth that had ensnarled her. Warm and thick, whatever she’d fallen into was heavy. Much too heavy to be water. Much too heavy for her to float in.

Twilight once more fought against the cloth as she attempted to hold on to what little breath she had gone under with. Whatever happenstance had kept her from going splat, she wasn’t going to waste it by drowning in what felt like warm mud. She wouldn’t die with that kind of irony plaguing her final thoughts.

Yet, despite her newfound conviction, Twilight found little success. The cloth that had slowed her descent wouldn’t budge. It had been too tightly and repeatedly layered around her arms and even upper legs that her light frame couldn’t get it to tear or even shift in any way that would give her an inch of leverage over her newfound situation. What’s more, the messy substance quickly began to seep through it, stinging her eyes and caking her skin in a way that almost felt like an embrace attempting to take her farther away from the surface.

The cloth clung to her. Her chest began to burn. Somehow the darkness behind her closed eyes grew darker still. Everything was getting darker and warmer…and darker…she wanted to struggle and fight, but did she? It was so warm. So comfortable. All she had to do was let out the breath that was making her chest hurt so much and she could be comfortable like this forever.

So she did.

---

There was a feeling of something pressing against her lips. Somewhere, someone said something, but Twilight didn’t care anymore. She just wanted to be warm. The sensation against her lips was warm though. And it was nice. So nice that she would have liked to study the sour–

The strike to her chest sent a spew rushing up her throat in a coughing fit. More coughing. Reeling from the pain. Realization that she had drowned, she had survived falling an impossible height just to drown. But that realization gave way to another, that she had to have been revived to be able to realize anything at all. The urge to look around, to understand how it was possible for her to still be amongst the living, couldn’t fight the soreness coursing through her entire body. Mostly centered around her upper torse, the rest of her was in no way lacking something to complain about as she slowly managed to open her eyes.

The cloth was gone, presumedly removed by whoever must have pulled her from the goop she had dropped into. With it had gone her glasses, blurring what little of the world she could make out as she stared upwards into the red sky. And yet, even in such a state, as her eyes met the light turquoise, almost teel, eyes of the person who had saved her, the only thing that she could say was, “Pretty.”

The feint smile, the lips who must have been against hers giving CPR a moment before, parted in a light chuckle. That smile belonged to a face framed by red hair, with streaks of yellow highlights that caught the light coming across the top her head. “Not too bad yourself.”

A rush of heat flooded Twilight’s face as she tried to push herself up. What had she just said to a complete stranger? What had that stranger just said back to her? Where were her glasses? She needed to be able to see clearly in order to make sense of things. To finally catch her breath and take stock of everything she had been through. Oh, and the others! Where were they? Could they have survived too? So many questions, so little time to think about them as her one free hand slipped in goop while she tried to push herself up.

“Woah there,” her red-headed savior said, catching then cradling Twilight’s head in one hand before it could strike what felt like cold stone below. “Let me get you free of this stuff, then we can see if you’re able to go anywhere.”

“Th-thank you,” Twilight said, the heat doubling down in her face.

“Don’t mention it,” she replied as she started to peel the soaked pieces of cloth from where they’d encased Twilight’s body. Her small smile never ceased, nor did she ever break eye contact while doing so, or at least Twilight didn’t think she did. She and the world beyond were still blurred without her glasses. Despite that, Twilight found herself unable to look away. She had some kind of eyeshadow on, surrounding her turquois eyes in seas of red that itself was set apart from her slightly golden-tanned skin. She probably looked completely amazing when seen crisply and clearly.

“You dropping out of the sky was the most interesting thing that could have happened today.”

As Twilight was freed from her bindings, she unfortunately had to entertain the thought that she had hit her head at some point despite not feeling any pain from an impact, or perhaps she’d been under too long and had brain damage from oxygen starvation. Because either way she could swear that all the while she was being unwrapped a gruff voice not too far off was urgently yelling things, but she couldn’t quite tell what the voice was saying. Yet the crimson-haired woman above her didn’t seem to notice it all as she quietly continued, finishing freeing Twilight’s arms before turning to the last bit of cloth that had entangle her legs.

“Have you seen my glasses?” Twilight asked as she let her gaze leave her savior’s blurry face for a moment to try and look around. She could hold herself up now, but that didn’t make the purple blurry lumps surrounding them stand out any more grayish-brown blur she was sitting on. And since her glasses were nearly pitch-black, if they were anywhere nearby they would not be standing out.

“I think I felt them when I pulled the first banner off your head. Give me a sec and I should be able to find them.

“Thanks,” Twilight said as the other girl turned and started checking some of the purplish lumps around them. She assumed those lumps where the cloth pieces that she had been entangled in, both because as the red-head shook out the nearer ones they seemed to drape like cloth and because there was some kind of goop in the same color splotched all over her body. Trying to pick up a thicker piece of the puddled goop, it ran through her fingers like mud but felt more like thick jelly despite its general warmth.

“I’m Twilight by the way,” she said, finally realizing that she’d been resuscitated and then been staring at someone for what felt like a few minutes without even introducing herself.”

“Sunset,” the red-head said in response.

“I suppose that is a period of twilight.”

“No,” the red-head said with a bit of a chuckle as she turned back around. “My name’s Sunset, and these look to be yours.”

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you. And thanks,” Twilight said, holding her hand out. But where she had expected to be handed the glasses she so dearly relied on, Sunset bypassed the outstretched and leaned right in towards Twilight’s face. If she heard the small “eep” Twilight let out as their faces closed in once more she didn’t react or make a note of it, simply raised Twilight’s misplaced glasses up and slid them back into place.

“Try not to lose them again,” Sunset said with a tilt to her voice that made the heat in her face start rising again, right before her glasses came to rest on the bridge of her nose and all the blood drained from her face.

Now that the world was no longer blurry Twilight could actually see what was going on around her, she could actually see who was in front of her. Sunset was indeed pretty, Twilight’s half-conscious Freudian slip hadn’t been wrong about that, but she also wasn’t…human.

The light that had been “coming across” Sunset’s head was a flame, a red and yellow swath of fire that floated there like a little sun between two darker yellow horns emerging from between the brighter yellow streaks of her luscious red hair. The red “eyeshadow” wasn’t eyeshadow at all, but the actual color of the sclera surrounding her stark turquois eyes and the rectangular pupils that rested therein. Then there was her tail. The dark yellow, spade-like tip flicked back and forth and showed no signs of being mechanical as it emerged from just above the lower half of a string bikini that was all Sunset was wearing.

And Twilight didn’t even want to get started on the figure that bikini was barely concealing. There was a no way a real human who looked shorter than Twilight’s already below average height could have such a lithe figure while sporting breasts that rivaled Anne’s and then some. Was this girl some sort of living anime character? Her skin was flawless like one, blemish free save for splatters of the purple goop she had saved Twilight from staining her hands up to her elbows, thighs, and somehow a bit had pooled between those monsters on her chest.

“You okay?” Sunset asked, her head cocked a bit.

Twilight scrambled to look up from the perfectly tan breasts she must have been blatantly staring at. Sunset didn’t look angry or upset about being ogled, though one of her eyebrows had lifted in a quizzical manner. “I…I’ve just never seen someone like you before.”

And that was true. To the point that despite the logical part of her brain telling her to get away from the girl with a tail, horns, and personal floating flame, the rest of her brain and body didn’t want to move even an inch away. It was like she was entranced by, well, a beautiful sunset.

“First time down then,” Sunset said, nodding a bit as if that or any of this made sense. Twilight could also still hear the grumbling and rushing in the background, which meant she really did have brain damage or Sunset was ignoring whatever was going on behind her. Either way, Twilight couldn’t bring herself to look away from Sunset to check. From those horns, or eyes, or tail, or…chest, there was just so much to take in. “That could explain your fall.”

“Yes!” Twilight unintentionally yelled as she snapped back to a bit of herself. “How did I survive that fall? What happened before you saved me?”

“Well, I don’t think the fall would have done more than rough you up,” Sunset began. Twilight didn’t think she was going to like this explanation if that’s how it started. While she was glad to be alive, she had been far past terminal velocity and was definitely going to be more than ‘roughed up’ when she hit the ground. “But if you look up there you can see where you were slowed down.”

Twilight followed the direction of Sunset’s pointing hand, which somehow still looked flawless despite being stained purple at the moment, and found herself finally looking at something else that wasn’t a nearly naked…whatever kind of girl Sunset was. What Twilight found herself looking at was some kind of brick and cobbled stone structure that reached at least four or five stories above wherever they were now. It could have been a clock tower, she had seen 15^th century ones with a similar design in history class, though she couldn’t see any clock from this angle.

What Twilight could see were a series of banners hanging from poles off the side of the tower. Or rather, the remains of banners. Sunset walked her through it, despite the almost cartoony logic seeming to fill itself in as Twilight followed what must have been the trajectory of her fall. She had hit the first banner, tearing it from where it hung and ensnarling her head, before repeating the process with the three other banners that had hung below it before crashing through the awning that hung over the pool of swirling, multi-shaded purple goop they now sat beside.

“I was able to pull you out pretty quick after that,” Sunset said, finishing her recount of what had happened. She skipped the part where she had given Twilight mouth-to-mouth, which did bring a bit of blood back to Twilight’s face as she thought about it. “And here we are. Though I don’t think today’s sponsor is going to be as ‘amused’ with everything else that your fall caused.”

Twilight once again followed Sunset’s motioning hand to find a series of repercussions her fall had caused. The far pole holding the last banner Twilight had fallen through had snapped from the added tension, swinging downwards and striking some kind of tiki statue. She didn’t recognize any of the designs on it, but she did recognize that it was now on its side while the pole hung where it would have been if it were right-side up. Meanwhile, the table the tiki had landed on had snapped in half, sending some kind of electronic equipment flying.

Twilight couldn’t tell what the equipment was from where she sat, but it was absolutely anachronistic with the old stonework of the floor beneath them, tower above them, and general feeling of wherever this was. From there imagination filled in the gaps. The equipment from the table went flying, knocking over a series of spotlights, cameras, and microphones that had been set around the pool of goop in a semi-circle before being knocked down like dominoes.

It must have been fascinating to watch play out. That being said, Twilight could tell whoever all this belonged to wouldn’t be happy about what she had inadvertently caused. Some of the knocked over pieces were sparking, several were obviously cracked or shattered, and one or two might have actually been on fire. But, as Twilight looked around, she found herself less focused on what she had had a hand in destroying and more so on the people scrambling around trying to pick up the mess. Not because they were “pretty” like the red head still kneeling beside her, but because they were even more “not human” than said red head.

Most of the workers, as Twilight could only imagine calling them in the moment, were just dogs. Dog people, standing upright with fingers and thumbs and cloths, but still dogs. For a few seconds Twilight almost convinced herself that she had fallen into a furry convention as she watched them scamper back and forth carrying pieces of equipment or trying to put out small fires, but then she noticed the little red people doing the same. In addition to their stark red skin and long spaded tails, each of them had a pair of white and black alternating horns growing out of their heads. Horns that put Sunset’s to shame in size and complexity as most of them curled around or swooped in one direction or another while Sunset’s just emerged from either side of the crown of her head before curving slightly inward towards the flame that hung between them. Sunset’s seemed nicer overall though.

Oh, and there was a cyclops in a fedora just watching things from the far end of the stone patio or landing or whatever they were currently on. His massive eye calmly following the chaos of the people (?) around him, but occasionally focusing back on Twilight and Sunset for a moment. If the grumbling and shouting hadn’t suddenly closed in she thought that’s what would have made her done with everything in the moment. That one large, articulated eye.

“Do you know what the heaven you just cost me!?” came bellowing from behind Sunset, accompanied by crashing stomps like hooves on stone shook the patio beneath them.

Sunset rolled her eyes with a small huff before shifting a bit to look at whoever or whatever was approaching. But while she didn’t seem at all worried, Twilight was. Especially when she looked and saw that she had been right about the hoof thing. She couldn’t have guessed much beyond that though. The yelling brute of a person stomping their way indeed had hooves and so many other equine traits it was almost ludicrous. Double-jointed legs, a muzzle beset by a scruff of hair on its chin and two yellow eyes above it, yellow eyes with square pupils, and of course a pair of massive horns curling out from the top of his head just above long floppy ears that ended in a pointy tuft of fur.

But then there were the non-equine traits. Primarily the massive upper body that looked like it could crush boulders, the type of muscular build Twilight didn’t want to have angry at her for any conceivable reason. But more attention grabbing, the third horn sprouting right between the other two. The one that looked like a candle. The one that looked like a lit candle with a flickering flame that bobbed as the goat-like man angrily made his way towards them.

Twilight was beginning to think she really had gotten brain damage. It was the only logical way to describe seeing all…this and still believing it could be real. That or she was still in the pool of goop drowning, and these were her last confused thoughts making their way through her mind before the end. Both were very pleasant hypotheses.

“She obviously didn’t mean to,” Sunset said. She had started to stand, and offered Twilight her hand as she did. “But if you’re panties are in such a wad I’ll pay for the damages, probably won’t take more than two or three streams.”

“Valentino’s not going to accept that!” the goat-man bellowed. He came to a stop in front of them just as Sunset got Twilight to her feet, not lowering his voice despite their newfound proximity. Maybe because he was so tall, easily a head or more above Twilight not counting the horns, and didn’t want the severity of his tone to be lost. Though, the severity of his width was weighing more on Twilight than his height. His rippling chest and shoulders were easily twice as wide as she or Sunset, looking fulling capable of collapsing their chest cavities with a hug if the idea occurred to him.

Despite this, Sunset didn’t look worried in the least. No, instead she looked annoyed. This girl, who was at most as tall as Molly and thus at least a foot shorter than this…this angry thing, had a twitch to her eye as she glared back up at him.

“I told you not to lease from him,” she replied, very clearly trying not to yell herself.

“He’s got the bbbbbest stuff!” he bleated back, taking Twilight by surprise. The bleating would have been comical in a less tense situation. “Those udders of yours don’t bring in nearly as much money if they don’t look good on camera!”

Sunset crossed her arms in a huff, hoisting her “udders” up over her arms. Twilight wasn’t sure they could have been made to look bad based on what she was seeing. “You made your bed with the sinner, you’re gonna have to lay in it. I’ll pay for repairs and replacements, but for now I’m taking my new friend to get cleaned off.”

“Does that mean we’re not shooting?” another voice called, once again from the far end of the patio. Twilight glanced to the side of Sunset’s head, who she had unconsciously inched behind, and at this point wasn’t even surprised it wasn’t just like, a person. Instead, there was a shark, with arms and legs of course, standing at the top of the stairs descending the side of the patio while wearing nothing by a towel.

“No Bruce,” Sunset called back, sounding downright chipper compared to how she’d been talking to the goat man. “You can go home or whatever.”

“Aw man,” Bruce the shark moaned as he started down the stairs. As he disappeared behind the edge of the patio Twilight could just make out him saying, “Of course THIS shoot goes wrong…” before fading into incomprehensible ramblings.

With the shark gone, Sunset shot the goat-man a sarcastic smile before turning in place. Twilight quickly shifted to not be in her way and then follow after, noting to herself not to stare at Sunset’s twitching tail or essentially bare bottom now in front of her. Unfortunately, she didn’t get the chance. As before she could even make to follow a tight grip closed on her arm and yanked her back, spinning her in place to once again look upon the goat-man.

“Nothin’ doin’,” he snarled. “Valentino’s gonna want an inconvenience fee. And what better addition to his brothel than a witch. Sinners will pay top dollar to stick their dick in something actually alive.”

For what seemed like an eternity, Twilight’s wide eyes stared into his narrow ones. Her breathing stopped, her heart raced, her whole body shook as the only thing she could even feel was the tightening grip on her arm. At least, until it wasn’t the only hand on her.

Sliding in beside her, Sunset somehow draped one arm over Twilight’s right shoulder while lightly hanging on the left one with her left hand. Twilight hadn’t heard her, hadn’t even felt her hands, until they were firmly in place. And yet, as nerve-wracking as everything was in that moment, it was nothing compared to what Twilight felt with what Sunset said next.

“You’re right, she’d sell very well.”

Twilight’s heart dropped. She may not have known what Sunset was, she had seemed like the best way to get out of this mess. And now what? Had her savior given up? Was she only willing to go so far against this goat and whoever “Valentino” was? And he had said brothel. She didn’t want to go to a brothel, she hadn’t even gotten to do…well anything–

“But I have a counteroffer,” Sunset continued, shaking Twilight from the thousand racing thoughts filling her head. A pair of soft palms slid up the side of Twilight’s neck and head, coming to rest over her ears. At once, practically instantaneously, the world went totally and utterly silent.

At least for her.

The goat-man suddenly reeled back, releasing his grip on Twilight’s arm as both his hands flew to cover his own ears. His legs buckled beneath him, sending him to his knees as his jaw dropped into the shape of a scream. He looked to be in complete agony, and he wasn’t alone. As Twilight’s eyes zoomed back and forth to try and figure out what was happening she saw all the workers going through the same thing. The dog people, the horned red people, even the cyclops way in the back. Some remained standing, some were on their sides, but all were covering their ears as if the loudest, shrillest sound imaginable was piercing right into their ears.

But she heard nothing. And from the looks of it, she and Sunset were the only ones unaffected. Which meant…

Twilight turned her gaze as far to the side as she could while those soft palms held her head in place, but it was enough. Standing beside her with her own mouth agape, yelling but more so from anger than any kind of pain, the air rippled in front of Sunset’s mouth as the lone lock of hair that hung between her eyes, the complex wave of a hair style that hung behind her shoulders, and even the flame above her head were blown in the opposite direction. It looked like she was facing a massive gale head on, but that wasn’t it. That wasn’t it at all.

Sunset’s mouth closed a moment later, at the same time her hands slid from Twilight’s ears. Sound returned to the world, though the ambient wind and gurgling of the goop pool was now joined by a chorus of moans and cries of pain. It didn’t seem like a single person on the patio had been spared from…whatever Sunset had just done.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked. Sunset had bent forward a bit while her hands held on to her stomach. She didn’t look like she was feeling what the others were, but something was definitely wearing on her.

“Just held it a little too long on an empty stomach,” she said, looking back up with a pained smile. “Don’t worry about me though, let’s just go.”

Not giving Twilight a chance to reply, Sunset once more turned in place. This time she grabbed Twilight’s hand with the one of her own she was willing to spare from her stomach and started leading them towards a door at the base of the tower. Three steps later Sunset went sprawling towards the floor, taking Twilight down with her.

“You bbbbbitch!” came roaring as Twilight tried to collect herself. She had no idea what had just happened, only that she was on the floor and the goat-man was yelling again. It was when Sunset’s grasp was ripped from her hand that she managed to get in any kind of gear, pushing herself up just enough to look back and see Sunset being pulled by her leg back towards him.

He was on his knees, blood poured from his ears as he pulled her back along the ground like she was no more than a wet rag. Sunset’s mouth parted, but the goat’s other hand came down over it with such force that her head was slammed against stone flooring. Without thinking, Twilight scrambled to get up and help. She didn’t know what she could do against him, but she had to do something.

“Just for that,” he said, breaths pained as the flame on his candle flame roared into a blaze between his horns, “We’re gonna get whatever cameras workin’ that we can, then make a different type of movie. And after everyone here has a go, Valentino can have both you bbbbitches.”

Of all the things Twilight might have done in the next moment, slipping in a puddle of goop and nearly crashing back into the pool would not have been her ideal. Her knees and one palm hit the stone floor as she tried to catch herself, sending a fresh shudder of pain as her other arm sunk back into the swirling purple concoction. It clung to her arm with that familiar warmth from before, but somehow felt thicker and warmer now.

“Don’t hurt yourself rushing,” he said, a rough chuckle following his slow words. He probably couldn’t even hear what he was saying with all that blood flowing out of them. “You’ll get your turn soon enough.”

Sunset, who was struggling to push his hand off her face, didn’t seem to notice when the other hand let go of her leg and found its way towards her chest, grabbing the thin middle string of her bikini between his meaty fingers. The world slowed down as he pulled on that string, forcing Sunset’s back to arch as the upper loop and tied knot of her swimwear forcefully pulled against her back and nape. The heat rose and the goop stopped swirling.

“Let go of her!” Twilight heard herself yell as she did the only thing her instincts could come up with, she tried to fling some goop at him. Get him in the eyes, grab Sunset, run away. That was as good as any idea, but as her arm emerged from the pool with a spluttering “splorch” the handful she had meant to send flying slid through her fingers.

The fist shaped wave that followed got him right in the face though.

Emerging from the pool, an arm of goop knocked the goat-man to the side and completely clear of Sunset. Who didn’t let the chance go to waste. Twisting over, she got to her knees and to Twilight’s side quick as she could, though she had to grab hold of Twilight’s non-goopy arm to steady herself.

“You could have mentioned you were an abomination witch,” Sunset said between deep breaths now that her face was free from the goat’s palm.

“Wha–” Twilight started as she drew her outstretched arm back, the action of which forced her to notice two things. The first was that the massive goop arm, easily ten feet tall with a hand that could have grabbed the goat as wide muscled as he was, matched her movement. As she drew her arm back to her chest it mirrored the action. And second was the glowing circle in the palm of her hand. Perfectly round, it glowed violet as it hung just above her goop-stained skin.

Impossible. Impossible. Impossible. Impossible.

“I’m…new to this,” Twilight stuttered out, closing her hand around the circle and once again being mirrored by the much bigger goop hand.

“Well, here’s a chance to practice,” Sunset said, pointing to where the goat had rolled to a stop. He was shaking with rage as he pushed himself up again, taking a stance like a runner readying to charge.

Oh shit Twilight thought to herself. He was going to charge them. And what was worse, the dog and red people were getting up too, most of them glaring at Twilight and Sunset. There was no time to think or analyze or plan. The workers were starting to shamble their way over and the goat was launching himself forward. But he was like a bug compared to the goop arm, and bugs get squashed.

Twilight raised her arm up into the air, then brought it down so perspective made the goat disappear beneath her illuminated palm. Which was when he did disappear, beneath a palm of goop. The arm crashed down on him hard enough to burst, splattering its impossibly held form in a wave that rushed across the patio and stopped the oncoming workers if not knocked them back down as well.

Had she done that? It certainly seemed like she’d been connected to it in some way, but how? She looked at her palm again, but the glowing circle of light was gone. Had it only lasted as long as the arm had? Or was there some other trigger? There were so many questions on so many, many different topics to be had.

“Great job,” Sunset said, oblivious to Twilight’s multitude internal questions as she once again interlocked their hands. “Now it’s really time to go.”

With fresh moans and groans and “schlorps” of feet trying to move through the spread goop behind them, Sunset was finally able to lead them through the door at the base of the tower. It must have been a taller structure than Twilight had guessed, as the door had led them into a stairwell that of course continued upwards, but also seemed to go several stories down. Sunset slammed the door shut behind them, cursed about it not locking, then grabbed a large purse hanging from a coat rack beside the door. Then they were moving again, down the spiral stone stairs as quickly as they could.

With each step Twilight’s satchel bounced against her outer thigh, reminding her that it had somehow stayed looped over her shoulder. She briefly wondered if anything inside had survived the fall and the goop and hoped that the “waterproof, all-terrain bag” her brother had bought her as a gift was as good as it advertised itself to be. Sunset hadn’t let go of Twilight’s hand as she led them, which somehow felt reassuring despite the fact that a bunch of monstrous animal men were probably going to do terrible things if they caught up. But while that thought filled an uneasy corner of Twilight’s mind, Sunset’s other hand was deep in the purse she had grabbed, feeling for something as her attention remained on the stairs before her.

They made it two stories down before a bang echoed through the stairwell, the door had been thrown open. Yelling filled the stairwell in a cacophony of overlapping angry yowls and curses, with paws and claws and boots hitting the stairs as Twilight and Sunset’s pursuers broke into a dead heat behind him. Luckily there was only one flight of stairs left, with another door practically beckoning to them from just beyond the bottom step.

Sunset kicked open the door as they reached it, then stopped. Despite the quickly approaching mob of…monsters or whatever Twilight was supposed to call them, Sunset was still searching for something in the depths of the large purse she had grabbed on the way down. The stomping feet and roars were getting closer, but she just wouldn’t budge at Twilight’s insistence. That was until she pulled her hand free of the bag, a heart-shaped glass container gripped tightly in her palm. Then and only then did she pull Twilight through the doorway, throw the container with all her might towards the floor, then slam the door behind them like the one above. Twilight briefly saw a plume of pink smoke start to billow and spread, but the door was shut before she could even guess what it was or what the point of waiting for it had been.

“Over here,” Sunset commanded, leading them through the small alleyway the door had led them too. Crammed between the tower and whatever other archaic stone building was beside it, Twilight now found herself in a surprisingly mundane and ordinary looking location compared to what she had literally dropped into a few minutes prior. Scraps of paper and other trash littered the floor. Posters and ads, most faded or torn, were plastered over the walls, and there was even a dumpster they were heading towards. It wasn’t the type of place Twilight would ever want to spend much time, but compared to upstairs it was at least a recognizable setting.

They passed the dumpster, its unique smells burning Twilight’s nostrils as they did, and looked to be heading towards a corner that she could hear a new set of sounds coming from. More footsteps, lighter and more numerous, and a small roar of constant chatter. If that was what this alley was leading towards then it must have been a street. Twilight felt almost giddy at the thought. Even with the way Sunset was dressed it had to be easier to disappear into a crowded street compared to their current situation. So all they had to do was reach that and they’d be home free!

Or least that’s what Twilight thought until, to her surprise and mild horror, Sunset slid to a stop and ducked behind the dumpster. “Get down here.”

“What? But there’s a street that way. Shouldn’t we–”

Sunset yanked on her arm before she could finish the thought, sending Twilight tumbling downwards for the third or fourth time that day. Fortunately, this fall ended with a softer landing. Twilight could feel her face practically catch fire as, after a very short moment of her vision being blocked by whatever soft mounds had broken her fall, she realized exactly where she was. She tried to pull away, but Sunset held Twilight’s head exactly where it had landed, between the red-head’s prominent breasts. Twilight could feel the warmth of Sunset’s body, her breathing, even her heart beating furiously as if in concert with Twilight’s own.

“Be quiet for a minute,” Sunset said, as if Twilight wasn’t already effectively muffled. Then, looking just slightly around the edge of the dumpster, Sunset held up her other hand with her thumb and middle finger held together as if preparing to snap. She didn’t though. Instead she just held her hand there while the other held Twilight’s head in place.

“What’s that stench?” came down the alleyway a second or two later. Though slightly muffled behind the shut door, Twilight could still hear a growl underlying the words.

“It’s that bitch’s perfume,” another voice called, though beneath it Twilight could just hear a small creak. The kind an old door handle might make. And, as if that’s what she had been waiting for, Sunset snapped her waiting fingers. There was a small flash of reddish light around her hand, maybe even in the shape of a circle, but at the same time Sunset was pulling herself and Twilight as close to the wall as she could.

Twilight could hear the door open, the crowd of beasts and miscolored people emerging, many sneezing or coughing from the cloud of perfume Sunset had left them, but also something else. Two more sets of footsteps, lighter than those of their pursuers and going the opposite direction from the dumpster.

“Is that them?” another voice asked.

Then, as if to answer, a now familiar voice to Twilight echoed down the alleyway from the same direction as the footsteps. “This way,” Sunset’s voice said clear as could. “We can lose them down here.”

Twilight looked up as much as she could. Sunset was looking towards the corner of the dumpster, but briefly looked down to meet her gaze. With a smile, she raised a finger to her mouth, then turned her attention back towards the alley.

“You heard ‘em,” the second voice said with smacking lips. “Let’s go have some fun!”

A series of yips and howls filled the air as the group started off in the direction of the footsteps and voice Sunset had somehow…thrown? Conjured? However she’d done it, it seemed to have worked. In seconds the alley was quiet again, nearly silent save for the murmur coming from the street ahead. Sunset still held Twilight in place for a moment longer though, which Twilight had to admit wasn’t the worst place to be held, before leaning to the side and looking around the corner of the dumpster.

With a relieved sigh, Sunset let go of Twilight’s head then stretched her arms into the air. “Not my worst shoot, all things considered.”

Sunset seemed to lose all the tension being chased by a group of monstrous men. Her shoulders loosened, breathing calmed, even her heart rate evened out. Was it because Sunset was a bit monstrous herself that she could get over what had just happened so quickly? Twilight didn’t think she’d be over being chased by a bunch of normal men so fast. But did that mean she was the strange one or Sunset–

“You can sit up now,” Sunset added, prompting Twilight to remember where her face was planted.

“Sorry,” Twilight barely squeaked out after pushing herself up and away. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Sunset now, instead finding herself glancing to the side as she adjusted her glasses. They’d shifted during her faceplant, which just made her remember where she’d just been.

“Don’t worry about it.” Sunset didn’t really seem to mind. She was rooting around in her purse again, though found what she was looking for much quicker this time. Pulling a purple bundle out, she tossed it to Twilight before finding a yellow one for herself. “Slip that on. It’ll soak up the abom goo and help us blend in.”

Unfurling the bundle, Twilight discovered it to be a robe-like towel with hood and all. She did as instructed, though got a lost a bit on the way. Not sure how, but she just couldn’t find the hole for her head to emerge from until Sunset reached over to help her out. With her rudimentary clothing problem fixed, she was able to see that Sunset had already successfully put on her towel-robe and was thus finally covered with a semblance of modesty as only her face, lower arms, and lower legs were now showing any skin.

The disappointment Twilight felt was an unexpected addition in the myriad of that day’s emotions.

“Good thing I always bring two when I have a costar,” Sunset said as she helped Sunset up. “But we should probably get going. Even a bunch of idiots like that will realize they’re following nothing eventually.”

“Right…” Twilight said slowly. As she looked back the way the group had run off in after a phantom set of noises, Sunset took her hand and started casually leading them once again towards the more friendly sounding street up ahead. “How’d you make those noises and get them off our trail?”

Sunset raised a brow. “You must be really new witchcraft not to recognize bardic magic.”

And there it was. The word she hadn’t been letting herself think even since she and the club had started falling. Magic. Adding witchcraft to it didn’t help either. The others were going to have such a field day with her once they found each other again, if they were even alright…

No. If she had survived, they could have too. So, she took a deep breath and put the grizzly logic of what should have happened to her and the other out of her mind. Instead, she focused on what Sunset had said. Bardic from bard, which was about music, so sound magic. And then there was what had happened upstairs and what Sunset had said about the goop arm. “Right, so you can use sound magic and upstairs I used abomination magic.”

They turned the corner and, while still a stretch of alley away, the street could finally be seen ahead of them. On it were a bustle of what Twilight guessed she needed to start considering people, some dressed in normal if not outdated clothing and some draped in more traditional robes that reached all the way to the ground.

“What kind of coven are you in?”

Twilight sighed. “An inexperienced one.”

“So,” Sunset started as they reached where the alleyway finally met the street. She peered out in both directions then pulled Twilight into the bustling crowd. “I’m guessing you’re down here for the school then.”

Twilight perked up at the word. There was something she could wrap her head around, a place of learning. The type of place she found comfort in. It made her so relieved for a familiar concept she almost didn’t care about the pair of pink people in front of them with horns, tails, and wings; the tall shark beside her; or the incalculable number of other people with bother person and animal traits around them.

“Yes! I am all for school. Is that where we’re going?”

Sunset smirked. “You’re cute when you’re excited. But yeah, we’ll hit my dorm for now.”

Twilight tried to absorb as much as she could as Sunset led them through the crowds and streets of what she learned was the town of Bonesburrow, the centermost city of Goliath mountain range. They went in a circuitous route by Sunset’s own admission, just to be safe, but that gave them more time to talk as they walked hand in hand. Of course, Twilight, who had a feeling admitting she wasn’t a real…witch wouldn’t be the best idea, let Sunset do most of the talking as much as possible. Though she nodded and gave vague answers when she needed to.

And boy, was there a lot to take in. That Twilight was evidently a “modern witch” like a pair named Danny and Gaz she’d probably meet later, or that Sunset was a “native witch” who lived down here full time. From context she also realized what “down here” meant and thus what Sunset and the other people around them were, partially or fully.

There was a moment when, while describing how she practiced her bardic magic, Sunset asked what Twilight’s preferred method of studying was. Without thinking, Twilight answered how she would go about studying just about anything back home. The scientific method. She immediately realized she should have something like “by feeling” or “from the heart” or other such nonsense, so when Sunset whistled as if impressed Twilight was taken aback and a bit relieved.

“There’s one I haven’t heard before. Nice to hear though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Sunset noted. “So many people think you can just do anything with magic. But there are limits and methods to it all. I’d love to hear your take on how to really study it, though you might need to dumb down some things for me.”

“You mean, you’d want to share my research?”

“Yeah, seems like it’d interesting at the very least.”

For a little bit after that Twilight couldn’t bring herself to say anything. She just walked along in whatever way Sunset was going, smiling and feeling a way she couldn’t really put into words. Sunset, as if knowing Twilight needed a moment, was likewise silent for a little bit.

At some point, when Sunset had started talking again and the topic of species was wrapped around to via some tangent, Sunset somehow got on a whole diatribe complaining about getting the short end of the stick when it came to being a native witch. While one set of the…nonhuman traits of a native witches’ parents usually won out over the other or mildly mixed, she was eternally miffed that her mother’s succubus and father’s baphomet traits had practically cancelled each other out instead. She seemed really disappointed that she didn’t have wings like her mother, though less annoyed to have missed out on hooves like her father.

“Well,” Twilight said as Sunset led them across a street that was much emptier than the ones they’d been on for the last while. “I think you look nice, wings or not.”

“Thanks,” Sunset replied, though with less enthusiasm. Even her tail, which for lack of a better word had been wagging through most of their long conversation, went slack. “I guess I must since that’s how I make my living.”

“You mean what you were filming before I dropped in and destroyed everything?”

“Sometimes. Mostly I pull in Penstagram sponsorships, but a girl’s gotta eat and those more than pay the bills in every way I need. Though that producer was a real dick, so I’m not counting it as a loss.”

“Were you,” Twilight started, but paused to consider her words. “Were you going to use abomination magic with that pool, or something like that.”

That actually got a chuckle out of her. Twilight had a feeling it was a reaction to her own nativity. “No, I can’t use abom magic.”

“Then why have it?”

“It’s good for the skin,” Sunset explained. “So whenever they want something messy I insist it be abom goop instead of mud or whatever junk they try to cheap out with.”

The less crowded street they were on was leading them towards what could have been a park. Though the field of pinkish-red grass ahead seemed to be surrounding another group of buildings at its center. And then there was the fence. Looking like cast iron, the spiked poles that lined the field reached up at least ten feet into the air with the only way through seeming to be an even taller gate at the end of the street. Despite the imposing nature of its…security and lack of a sign, Twilight hoped that was the campus Sunset had told her about. Having a gate between them and, well, everyone in general, would be very welcome indeed.

“I still don’t think I get what you were going to film.”

“Oh, well, you saw the tiki-tropical theme, right?” Sunset asked, to which Twilight nodded without mentioning how little decorations for that “theme” there’d been. “I was going to be the sunbathing beauty and that Bruce guy was going to be the monster lurking in the goo who’d attack me when I went in.”

She made air quotes around the word “attack” with her free hand as she said it.

“But like I said, no big loss. I don’t actually like filming with sharks. They’re fine in general but have a habit of, let’s say, putting too much of themselves in different places at once. If you know what I mean.”

Twilight did not know what she meant. Or, at the very least, didn’t feel like she wanted to know anymore. She’d just be content accepting that people “down here” got a real kick out of shark attack movies. Yes. That’s what it was.

“Speaking of boys,” Sunset began as another tangent, “you got any?”

“Oh, I…no, not really,” Twilight said. She felt her face heating up again, though less comfortably this time as she looked away.

“Surprising. I’d expect at least a few to want to experiment with a cute thing like you.”

“In high school there was a basketball player and a camp counselor who I hung out with a little, but it never went anywhere and always felt awkward.” Twilight bit her lip. “I guess…I guess if there were any guys I thought about “getting” I could see it being Dipper from my cl- coven. He’s smart and nice, but we barely talk outside of our research and it’s not like I’m longing for some guy like that.”

Sunset nodded her head with a little “hmmm,” but didn’t add anything more.

By the time they reached the gate they were essentially alone. The sole exception was a tall man in a too small blue suit standing a bit off to the side. He didn’t seem to be trying to get inside, instead just stared through the bars while his head sat cocked to the side. His skin had a wood-colored look to, even appearing cracked in places while his combed back orange hair cast a shadow over his eyes.

Twilight looked at Sunset to ask about him, but the latter shook her head. Twilight got the sudden feeling, perhaps by design since Sunset said she could use “oracle” magic as well as bardic, that she shouldn’t bother with him. Along with that feeling came a word to the forefront of her mind, another that Sunset had used to describe the inhabitants of “down here” that mostly stayed out of the Goliath mountains. Sinner.

Between Sunset’s expression and the ominous feeling the wooden-looking man gave off, Twilight was more than happy just to follow along as Sunset led them directly to the gate barring them from the campus beyond. Upon closer inspection, Twilight quickly noticed that there didn’t actually seem to be any mechanism for the gate to open. Did that make it just a fancy part of the fence? If so, what was the point? Was there a secret entrance you had to take to get into “magic school.” A shiver went up her spine at the very thought.

“This might feel odd,” Sunset said as she squeezed Twilight’s hand extra tight. “Or not, I don’t know how it works for modern witches.”

Before Twilight had the chance to consider questioning that, Sunset crossed the last few steps between them and the fence, dragging Twilight with her. Right as she was about to yelp something in protest, which was also right as Sunset’s forehead was about to collide with one of the gate’s iron bars, there was a blip. A tiny moment, just sort of, didn’t happen and suddenly the fence wasn’t in front of them anymore. No, Twilight realized that wasn’t quite right as she looked around. The gate was behind them now. But it hadn’t moved, they had. The gate was exactly where it had been, just now the city and the strange man in the blue suit were on the other side of it while they stood on a cobblestone path within a field of red-tinged grass.

“Feel anything?” Sunset asked.

“Wha- bu- how?” Twilight stuttered out, tripping on her own words as she frantically looked back and forth from Sunset and the gate behind him.

“There’s like two answers to explain things down here compared to the mortal realm,” Sunset said. Twilight could tell she was a little amused, but not completely. “And when it comes to this school and a lot of things that happen in Goliath, well you can probably guess which usually going to be the answer.”

Twilight let out a single, defeated laugh. Right. The answer that “explained” it all, welcome to be studied or not, still flew in the face of all the logic Twilight had built her understanding of the world on. Magic. Magic, magic, magic. Maybe she would be able to understand and decipher the mysteries of it if she was going to be here a while, or maybe she would just go crazy the next time she blipped through a solid object or a person who was actually some kind of demon species tried to eat or beat or do so many worse things to her or her friends.

“Anyway,” Sunset cut in, as if knowing Twilight shouldn’t be left in her own head for too long, “I doubt any admin is still here after we took the long way back, so we’ll deal with getting you enrolled tomorrow. For now, you can stay in my dorm tonight.”

“Thank you,” Twilight sighed. It was still bright enough out, or at least seemed to be, but after the chase and winding path to the campus she was starting to treasure the idea of laying down. And maybe a shower, the goop that had clung to her had mostly dried. So yeah, a shower would be good too.

“Don’t mention it.”

While they seemed far off, it actually only took Sunset and Twilight a few minutes to walk across the fields that made up the outer campus. As they neared its center, what Twilight imagined was probably their version of a quad with three larger buildings at its edges while smaller ones could be seen beyond them, Sunset veered them to the right. She continued to lead them along a cobbled stone path, though it quickly narrowed as the left the main route. Now passing between and beneath structures that appeared to predate the old style of those they’d passed in Bonesburrow, Twilight was amazed these buildings had survived until the modern day seemingly perfectly intact. Though she quickly guessed at least one answer for how.

Emerging from the shadows of the larger buildings along the quad’s edge, Twilight found herself looking at a pair of identical rectangular buildings sitting across the little path from one another. While of course much older looking than those she had spent the last semester in, she could recognize dormitories when she saw them. The main entrances, a window for every room against an outer wall, and the complete lack of visual amenities were all perfectly mirrored from one to the other.

The one thing Twilight didn’t notice was any kind of sign to note which building was which. Thinking about it, other than what might have been the school’s logo on one of the buildings around the quad, she hadn’t seen any signs whatsoever. That didn’t slow Sunset down however, who continued her brisk pace once again to the right. She even held the door open for Twilight before entering herself.

“Right down here,” Sunset said as she motioned to one of the first doors past the small entranceway, complete with message board and mail bin. “Perks of being an honors student, no stairs.”

While there was a keyhole in the door handle Sunset motioned towards, she didn’t bother reaching into her bag for any kind of key. Instead, with a wave of her hand a small glowing circle appeared around the knob itself. This circle glowed purple, similar to the one that had appeared in Twilight’s hand but darker. Something clicked, the circle faded as quickly as it had sparked to life, and the door swung inwards.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” Sunset said once they were inside. She let her bag drop onto the nearer of the room’s two beds before adding, “Sorry it’s kind of a mess. My last roommate moved out because she ‘couldn’t keep up with my lifestyle,’ so I haven’t been picking up as much.”

“I think it’s nice,” Twilight said. It was bigger than her dorm back home, but otherwise about what she would have expected. Beds on either side of the room, with a desk and chair for each person on the far wall between them. There were even two windows instead of just one like she’d guessed, though both had blackout curtains drawn tightly shut. And while there were a few piles on the floor here and there, none of it was trash or anything too gross. A few clothes, but mostly books and binders. If anything, she would have guessed Sunset knew exactly what was in each pile, barely qualifying it as a mess at all.

“So, where would you like me?”

Sunset blinked a few times.

“Oh, you can use that bed.” She pointed at the farther one. “It should have cleaner sheets. Though, we might want to grab a shower before settling in. Once evening classes get out we’ll lose all the water pressure.”

“Is there a communal shower?”

“Yeah, but we’re not using that hole. Honors perks, remember.” Sunset opened one of the doors closer to the room’s entrance, what Twilight had initially guessed was a closet. The interior illuminated at once as if by candlelight, revealing a fairly standard bathroom with a sink, toilet, and of course shower. Like the buildings themselves, everything looked like it came out of the far gone past, though not as if it was about to fall apart.

Sunset’s towel robe hit the floor with a wet flop that somehow arrested Twilight’s attention. Once again the red-head was down to nothing but that black string bikini, something Twilight found very hard to look away from. With a nervous stutter she asked, “S-s-so you’re going first?”

“Only if you want a cold shower,” Sunset said. She was arching her back now, sticking her chest out as she reached back to untie the knot holding her top together. “Like I said, the pressure’s not great in this building. Luckily the shower fits two.”

“You want to shower…with me?”

The knot came undone. The bikini top hit the floor. Twilight’s eyes widened.

Sunset stepped closer, looking up through downturned eyes with a mischievous grin about her. There was a bounce to her…well not her step but everything else worth noticing. “Twilight, that jerk hit my head early. I might need to shower with you, lest I slip and fall. And you wouldn’t want that, would you?”

Twilight watched Sunset pull the string tying her bikini bottom in place. Then she watched it fall to the ground near its other half. “No, n-not at all.”

Sunset’s grin widened. “Then let’s get you out of those dirty clothes and into a nice, hot shower.”

Chapter Text

“The scroll said it was important that while saying the incantation we all were thinking of an important wish. I don’t know why, it didn’t go into it, but that’s what it says to do.”

Anne didn’t need to come up with a wish or even think about one. There’d only been one on her mind for the past three years. It was what drove her to start looking into the supernatural, it was what got her into this club, it was how she had made herself learn to lockpick and pickpocket to make sure she got whatever she needed to see it fulfilled. From the day she’d tried to search amongst the rubble to today, her only wish had always been to find her.

“Everybody got it?” Dipper, who had gotten the raw end of Anne’s obsession, asked everyone. Anne nodded, the rest of the club doing the same. Dipper looked at his notepad while Anne and the others turned to the photos he’d sent them. What was written there didn’t even look like words, but if it got Anne to her it didn’t matter. “Good, then here we go.”

“Vír gru webuz orh vhrefzgiru grog nabc vunif, gru pnocu iw hobcruzz grog tu zuuc gi mo,” they chanted. Anne felt like she was tripping over every word, though not as badly as Molly was. If this didn’t work because of that Anne would…not be happy.

“Tu focu o cirgbocgb gi cobbír, gi wanwenn iab tezruz trenu noccum hiavg.”

A sticky heat struck Anne in the stomach, not enough to make her stop but enough to be noticeable. It surged and twisted, spreading through her muscles as if it was flowing through her veins. Every word, every syllable, seemed to make the heat grow and spread farther through her body. It made her feel sweaty, but on the inside. Was that a thing? It didn’t feel like it should be a thing if it was.

That meant it was working though. At least that’s what Anne told herself. If chanting these funny words was having an effect, then everything she’d done would be worth it. Even the things she wasn’t proud of, the things she downright regretted, they would all mean something once this worked.

“Zi tegr grez pocg orh iab huchruu, zrit az trog uíruz tubu rig fuorg gi zuu!”

The chant ended and…silence. Anne held her breath on the final word, one that everyone had actually said in tandem, but there was nothing. She had researched and stalked and stolen, and there had been that feeling while they did the chant! Something had to happen! She had done too much, Dipper had gone through too much, for it all to end with a silent nothing!

“Did I get the chant wrong?” Dipper said to himself as he flipped through his notepad. Anne doubted he’d gotten it wrong. He was the only one who took this as seriously as she did, even if she didn’t know what his reasons were. No, it had to be something else. Maybe the girl she’d taken the scroll from had gotten it wrong. Or, maybe it took a min–

The room moaned, filling the silence left in the chant’s wake. It was like the hardwood beneath their feet was actually in pain. Like it was going to rip apart. But that hadn’t been the point of what they’d done, of what Janna the Initiate and her night-crew had been planning. Unless…maybe it was. Maybe this was the first step Anne needed to take to find her!

“What is it?” Anne called over the moaning and creaking that more and more seemed to be coming from the floor beneath her. Even the paper everything was covered with was starting to bunch in places, forming a haphazard line from the middle of the design they were all standing around. Anne looked to Dipper for some confirmation, despite knowing he wouldn’t respond directly if he could help it, but it wasn’t him who yelled next.

“It’s just an old building making old building sounds,” Twilight yelled, though Anne didn’t think it was to anyone but herself. Twilight’s eyes were looking everywhere but the floor, until they finally did and her chocolate skin started to tremble like a jackhammer. “Old building, old sounds. Old building sounds…”

“That, or it worked!” Connie shouted in total contrast to Twilight. Whatever Connie was wishing for, she must have thought this was the first step to getting it.

“Let’s all just take a deep breath and calm down. We’ll figure out what the sound is and go from there.”

“Scratch is right!” Molly shouted with a reminder that she had a ghost friend hanging around. “The creaking already stopped.”

They all went silent again. It was true. The moaning creak had stopped in the middle of all their shouting. Which just left Anne to ask, “Well, do we think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?”

What Anne got for an answer was…vague. It did come in the form of the floor violently lurching under them, which seemed kind of bad in the moment, but maybe that was actually a good sign. They were the Supernatural Studies Club trying to get something supernatural to happen, rooms shaking in response to mystic chants from stolen scrolls kind of seemed like what they’d want to happen.

The floor completely dropping away a second or two later, well that seemed to fit more into the bad category. At least that’s how Anne felt as, after a split second of hanging above an endless darkness that now beckoned to them from below, everyone fell.

There was screaming. There was crying. There was wood from the floors that splintered around them and fell along with sigil-covered tattered paper that had been dragged along for the ride. Dipper, Connie, Molly, and Twilight fell along with her, still in the loose circle they’d been standing in seconds before as they descended into total darkness below.

Anne twisted in place as she tried to keep her skirt from revealing what little shame she had to hide, and found herself looking back up as they fell. The light from their club room was getting farther away by the second. And yet, as she frantically looked back and forth, as she screamed along with almost everyone else, she realized she could still see everyone. Everything else was completely black, no reflections or shadows or anything like that. Just darkness. But even with the light their club room becoming little more than a speck in the distance above them, she could see everyone else clearly. That wasn’t how darkness worked. Between all the things Sasha had made them do in middle school and stalking Janna’s group the past few months, she was more than used to discerning things in the dark and figuring out what she was looking at without much light. But the darkness of this…pit wasn’t working like that.

Anne tried to twist around again, to get a better look at anything she could. But, just as her first attempt sent her spinning in place, a wave of heat hit her in the face. Then the side, the back, the other side, and finally the face again. It was like the gut punch of temperature she’d felt during the chant. But this heat came with something else, a light. Or maybe a source.

As Anne stopped spinning and was finally facing downwards again, she had a sudden idea of where the heat was coming from. Now that the light of the club room was gone, a new source had appeared to replace it. The fact that it had spawned from the opposite depths of this dark nothingness and emanated the deepest red Anne had ever seen was less than reassuring though. Neither was the fact that it was getting brighter, and hotter, and closer.

As almost everyone continued to scream, they were bathed in red light. A light that first stained them red, then the darkness red, and then there was only red.

---

A scream shook Anne from whatever darkness she had somehow slipped into within the red. Little seemed to have changed in however much time had passed since the red light had engulfed them. She was still falling and was still surrounded by red, but it didn’t come from a light this time. There was sky surrounding her as she fell, a red sky but sky nonetheless. Dark red clouds billowed past and, as Anne once again sent herself spinning as she tried to turn in place, there were what looked like pale red mountains below her. Far below.

“Oh my stars!” Connie shouted, grabbing Anne’s attention. The reminder she wasn’t alone also reminded her she had to keep her skirt in check. “What the heck is that!?”

“Rude,” a grouchy guy’s voice replied. Anne was instantly thankful for her underwear-hiding instincts. “I’m obviously the ghost that’s been ignoring you all semester.”

“He’s real?!” Twilight screamed as Anne looked on.

“A’doy,” the ghost replied. He wasn’t quite as Anne had imagined him as. Instead of being like that ghost guy from Ghost, this floating puddle was more like an upside-down plastic bag with a really big nose. Which was blue for some reason. Was that what everyone looked like when they died? Because that would just be depressing, being stuck as a plastic bag with a big nose forever.

“Everybody shut up!” Dipper yelled, nearly roaring. That wasn’t how Dipper talked. Maybe if it was…then maybe she wouldn’t have… Anne shook her head to get rid of the thought. It wasn’t right to think that way and she knew it.

“We did not open a path to…wherever this is just to die on the way down!” He brought his little pocket notebook right up to his face, then mouthed words to himself as the wind nearly ripped the paper off its spiral wire with every passing second before yelling, “Zgip!”

Nothing happened.

Dipper scowled and said something under his breath. Then flipped another few pages and yelled, “Zowu!”

Still nothing.

“How does this get us our wish you da–”

Their fall came to a stop like a cartoon character who had timed out of their antics for the day. The wind stopped rushing past them, the ground stopped getting closer, and yet very little else changed. Anne was thinking about who she was doing this all for, but that was always on her mind at least somewhat. Which might have explained why, aside from the initial drop, Anne wasn’t too worried about their sudden fall. If she had gone through something like this after the explosion, then this couldn’t be too much of a problem for them now.

“What the hell is going on!?” Twilight screamed. If Anne didn’t think Twilight was about to start crying she would have pointed out that was the first time she’d ever heard Ms. Science utter a “naughty” word.

“Did anyone else start thinking of their wish when Dipper mentioned it?” Molly asked as she hung from her ghost’s dangling little arms. What had she always called him? Scratch! That was it.

“Yeah,” Connie replied first. She was holding her arms out to the sides, as if to balance in place. Like Anne herself, Connie’s knees were tightly together as she floated in place. Though while Anne was just doing it to keep her underwear better hidden, Connie was probably doing it to ‘center herself’ the way she explained that time she had tried to teach Anne fencing.

“Is that why we stopped?” Anne added.

“How does that make any sense?” Twilight shouted.

“None of this really makes sense,” Connie said. Opposite to Twilight, Connie sounding exuberant about what was going on. “That was the whole point of trying to understand it!”

“We’re not falling and that’s all that matters,” Dipper said. He sounded less forceful than before, but they also weren’t actively falling anymore which might have helped. “If thinking about why we started this is what’s keeping us from dying then keep thinking about it. It probably has something to do with that or this…I don’t know, film around us.”

“What–” Molly started, but cut herself off as she looked around. Anne looked where Molly was and just barely saw it. All around them, like a tunnel or cylinder, was some kind of transparent wall. It couldn’t be solid since there was still wind blowing her skirt and some of the others’ hair, but she could just make it out.

“Can you get us closer to it, Scratch?” Molly asked her ghost.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said.

“Is that a good idea?” Twilight asked between channeled deep breaths. “We don’t know what this…film is, or what that g-ghost might do.”

“Just bobbing in the wind isn’t going to do us any good,” Molly said. Scratch was already moving her too, pulling her along midair as they bobbed in the wind. “As for Scratch, he and I have been together for more than five years. I’d trust him with my life.”

“Yeah,” Scratch added. “There were loads of times I could have let one of Molly’s hairbrained ideas kill her, but there’s still only one ghost here, isn’t there?”

“What hairbrained ideas?” Molly scoffed.

Scratch raised a brow. “Do I really need to answer that?”

“Just get us to the wall,” she said, looking away.

“Does it look any different up close?” Dipper shouted over to Molly when she got to the clear “wall.” He was on a new page of his notebook, pen ready to take notes with.

“Not really,” Molly called back. “It still just looks like a pane of glass or plastic.”

“What does it feel like?” Anne shouted.

“Should we touch it?” Twilight’s voice was shrill despite her attempt breathing technique.

“Do we have any other ideas about what else we could do?” Connie shot back.

Molly tentatively reached out and touched the clear wall, then looked back and called, “It’s like touching glass, but doesn’t seem like–”

Bruuuuum

The tunnel vibrated like a gong being struck. Even with the wall being nearly invisible it was now clear that the whole thing was shaking as the sound ran up it. Molly pulled her arm back, but as she floated back towards the group Anne saw an uncomfortable expression that so rarely graced the cheeky girl’s face.

BRUUUUUUUUM

The gong sound shook the air and everything else as its volume intensified. Anne could feel it even though she and the others were nearly at the very center of this tunnel thing. She tried calling out to Dipper for some kind of answer about what was going on, but she couldn’t even hear herself over the sound. A crashing thrum that just kept getting louder and louder to the point that, panties be damned, Anne had to cover her ears to keep the sound out. But, like the red light before it, the sound wouldn’t allow anything to block it or keep it out.

The brumming noise continued to rise in intensity even then, building up as the air shook around them. There was seemingly no end to it until, in a sudden shrill splintering crash, the tunnel shattered. The sound didn’t matter, nor that it had stopped, because they were falling again. Not only falling, but spinning and tumbling and blasting apart at angles that Anne couldn’t follow as she lost track of everything around her except the ground once again rushing up at her.

It didn’t matter though. She had gone through this, probably worse if what was left of her house was any indication, so Anne was going to be okay. Something else would stop her fall, hers and the others. All she had to do was wait for it to happen. To wait for this hellish fall to end so her true search could finally begin. That was what was going to happen. That was what had to happen. Anne would stand for nothing le–

SPLOOOOORTCH

---

A voice called out to her. A bit high, a bit young, not quite the way she remembered it, but it could have been her. But Anne couldn’t see where it was coming from. She couldn’t see anything. Everything was dark again. And she was so sore, sore and sticky and cold and…and…

The voice called again. When Anne still couldn’t respond, something warm and slick wrapped around her wrist. It felt gross. Gross and sticky. She didn’t want it there. She just wanted her. Instead she had dropped out of the sky, after falling through a basement floor, and was now too sore to move.

Whatever it was around her wrist started to tug, causing Anne to slightly move through…whatever she was in. Maybe it was someone trying to help her. That’d be nice. Or maybe it was something trying to eat her. That…well she did kind of feeling like dying. So maybe that wouldn’t be too bad. Then she wouldn’t ever have to feel like this again. Not sore or hurt or with three years baggage from what her counselor thought was “clinical depression.” But what did they know? Nothing, that’s what. Because they couldn’t understand what Anne was dealing with. What she was willing to do and had done to find who she was looking for. So no, so wasn’t about to let herself get eaten. Not after all the crap she’d put up with over the past three years!

It was just as Anne made her mind up that the thick, slimy thing around her wrist pulled her out of the muck and through the air.

Anne hit the ground rolling before sliding to a stop thanks to the slick substance that she could feel covering most of her body. It oozed inside her clothes, over her skin, and between her joints. She didn’t like it.

“You ok?” the voice, now much clearer and closer, asked after Anne had coughed and sputtered for a few seconds.

Anne tried to turn towards where she thought the person asking must have been, but she still couldn’t see. The slick muck she could feel all over was in her eyes, but she couldn’t move enough to even wipe it away. Just trying sent a jolt of through her arms despite neither doing more than trembling for her effort. She couldn’t even really respond to whoever it was that had dragged her out of the muck. All she could get out was, “…hurts…”

“Yeah, that fall looked pretty bad,” the voice replied. Now that Anne could hear it clearly it was obviously not hers. Heck, despite it being a bit high-pitched she was pretty sure it wasn’t even a girls. There was a rustling, then, “You allergic to any berries?”

Anne tried to shake her head, but the sudden throbbing her neck nearly moved her to tears. “n-nah.”

“Good.” A hand came down over her mouth, slipping something round in before holding it closed. Anne tried to spit it out on instinct, but the hand wouldn’t give at all. “You’ll feel better if you just swallow it, I promise.”

A second hand joined the first, this one on her chin. It moved back and forth, forcing her to chew what had been slipped between her lips until it burst. A sour surge filled her mouth. The taste was awful and would have made her recoil in agony if she wasn’t in another kind of agony already. Then the hands tilted her head back, and the juice of what she had just chewed ran down her throat. There was no fighting it anymore, not she had been able to fight it to begin with, forcing Anne to squirm as the juice left an unpleasant tingling in its wake.

Then she was up. The hands were gone. The pain was, well it was mostly gone. And with the ability to wipe off her face the darkness was soon gone too. She swiped away the slick muck, which she could see now was just a thick coating of brown mud, as the pain numbed throughout her body. Neck, arms, legs, chest. Maybe numbing wasn’t the right word since she could definitely still feel it, but she didn’t feel like she could die any second anymore and that was enough of an improvement.

“Take it easy,” the boy’s voice said from behind her when she tried to go from laying to sitting and almost slipped back to laying. Small hands grabbed her shoulders, stopping her from sliding too far back to the ground. “That berry isn’t a cure-all, just a pick-me-up. You’ll just feel worse when it wears off if you’re not careful.”

“Than–” Anne started, then stopped as she turned to look at the one who had helped her. The boy behind her, the one who had dragged her from the mud and maybe just gotten her high off some kind of berry, made her stop in her tracks. He was short, with a folksy kind of farm outfit out. Though the fact that he was pink and had little black and white horns sticking out from under his green hat stood out more. And even then, there was once other thing that made her look at him and question her sanity for a few seconds before asking, “Are you a frog?”

“What? No,” he replied as he helped her fully reach the sitting position. Then, while helping her stand, “I’m Sprig, an amphimpian.”

“Aren’t frogs a type of amphibian?” Anne asked as she unsteadily stood up and started wiping away more of the mud she was covered in. His brow furrowed in response as he looked up at her. And boy did he have to look far up. He was barely half as tall as Anne, like one of those oversized dolls she sometimes saw in the girls’ toy aisle when she was younger. And, despite standing upright and having horns, he still looked like a frog.

In fact, wherever they were looked like the type of place you’d find frogs if you were looking for them. There may have been mountains in the distance in just about every direction, but the immediate area was some kind of bog or marsh or whatever it’s called when pretty much everything is mud and dirty water. She could even still see an impression of where she’d splashed down then been pulled free of the mud, though it was slowly filling in now.

Trees dotted the muddy area. Sporadic in the vicinity but thickening into a full forest a little ways off in every direction. So, no matter where she looked it was just red sky at the top, then mountains, then bog forest at the bottom. Which did not help tell her where she might need to go to find the now five people she had to keep an eye out for. Six if she counted the ghost, but she didn’t think she was going to.

“Amph-IMP-ian,” Sprig the not-frog enunciated. “I’m a Goliath imp.”

“Oooooh,” Anne oohed as it clicked. “So I’m in hell.”

“You fell from the sky, isn’t that how witches get down here?” he asked. “Where did you think you were going to end up?”

Anne’s search from that house of rubble to this bog had led her down so many paths of research. And, while the one that had ultimately led her to where she actually was had been more mystical and superstitious than she had initially thought, she had always hung on to the hope there’s be a bit more of a sci-fi twist to it somewhere along the way. Alternate realities or planets linked by the magic or some such. Like those witches in the Star Wars cartoon. Instead, she’d just robbed a regular old witch with stereotypical links to hell. Or at least robbed a stereotypical trainee witch. That was sort of a letdown, and maybe the reason it hadn’t been a smoother ride.

“It was my first time,” Anne said, hopefully putting on enough confidence to make that seem like enough of an answer. “Thanks for the assist though.”

“No problem,” Sprig replied.

She wiped off some more mud from her neck, then felt for her pulse while looking around. She was willing to accept this was hell even if the not-frog boy wasn’t there to confirm it, but felt like it’d be better to be alive in hell than dead in hell. Luckily, she did find her pulse. There was a kind of relief in that. Though not as much as she felt when she spotted her satchel bag lying a few feet away. It was mud-stained as much as she was, but miraculously still buckled closed and in one piece.

“Thank goodness,” she sighed, dropping back to her knees beside the over-sized purse.

Sprig followed and watched as she unbuckled the formerly blue, now brown bag and started digging through it. Tennis racket, sure great, off to the side. Snacks, still unopened bags so those would come in handy, but still off to the side. Toothbrush that had come out of its carry tube and was now covered in mud, back into the bog it went. A change of clothes, almost as dirty as what she was wearing but not worth tossing yet. Her phone, mud-stained but not soaked so there was hope, off to the side. More knickknacks and supplies and, some ruined and some not, but where was it? It had had to be in here. It just had to.

Finally, sticking to the very bottom of the bag, Anne finally found it. Carefully prying it free, she pulled out the hair clip and gently scraped away the remaining mud until it shown green again. Just looking at it almost brought tears to her eyes again. Just wait, she was coming.

“You’re not like the other witches I’ve seen at school, are you?” Sprig asked. He was poking at some of the stuff she had put to the side while looking for the hair clip.

“Heh, probably not,” Anne replied, then stopped. Other witches. Other witches? School? She turned to face him, being slow and careful as if she’d spook him or herself if she wasn’t. “You know other witches? Other living witches?”

“I know a bunch of native witches,” he said as he picked up her phone and dangled it between his little pink fingers. “But modern witches, personally just Danny. I know there’s more than just him though.”

Anne swiped the phone out of Sprig’s hand and frantically clicked the button on the side. “Come on,” she pleaded until the screen flashed on and finally started to load. When it finally did she had to fight with the touch screen to get over to the photo app and then to the photo in her favorites folder she was looking for. When the image was finally up she thrust the phone back into Sprig’s face.

“The girl here with me, is she one of the witches at your school?”

Sprig inspected the photo for a second, then asked, “Why does it look like part of this was cut off?”

“Because people who give up on their friends get cut out of photos,” Anne growled. “Now please, have you seen her?”

Sprig glanced at her and bit his lip. “I don’t recognize her.”

Anne’s head dropped. Damnit. Damnit, damnit, damnit! She had felt so close. Getting here was supposed to be the hard part. And it had been hard. Anne had so wanted to believe that after all the time and effort that had taken that, well, she’d find what she needed once she got here. That’s basically what her wish had been. If that even had anything to do with what part of hell she’d wound up in.

“But that doesn’t mean she’s not there,” Sprig added quickly. “Plus, sometimes modern witches get internships around the range, so she could be in school but not ‘in school,’ if that makes sense.”

“Really?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Don’t call me ma’am.”

“Yes, miss?”

“Just Anne,” she said at last. “But that’s a relief. Which way is the school?”

“You want to go now?” Sprig asked, seemingly surprised and maybe even alarmed. “That’s not a good idea.”

“It’ll be fine, dude. I can find somewhere to wait out the night if no one’s there,” Anne said. She had started shoveling her still usable supplies and junk back into her bag, excited again at the possible lead. After all, she could camp out for one night after three years of waiting.

“Um, it’s a couple hours ride north of here,” Sprig explained. “But even if you didn’t get lost something would probably eat you once it got dark. So maybe don’t try to get there right now.”

Anne let out a long “ugh” as she got back to her feet and looked in what direction she thought was north. She was pretty sure it wasn’t though. Even still, she tried to figure what this added hiccup would cost her in trying to get to who she was looking for. A couple hours ride could mean a couple days walk if the way was bumpy or winding or any other kind of b.s. a mountainous place like this could throw at her. And there were things in the dark that wanted to eat her too? Granted, that was more in line with what she had read about hell than what she was seeing now, but it sure didn’t help.

After a moment of her trying to figure out any kind of idea that would get her moving again and failing, Sprig piped with, “Hop Pop’s giving me a ride back in the morning, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you tagged along.”

“Really?” Anne said, eyes wide with excitement as she dropped to one knee so they were face-to-face. “Wait, hop pop?”

“My grandfather…”

Anne really tried not to focus on it, but she couldn’t help it. “But you’re not frogs?”

“No!”

“Ok, ok, sorry,” she said, raising her hands defensively. “But you really think he’d let me ride along?”

“As long as you don’t call him a frog. He’ll also probably ask for a story or something, he loves hearing stories from outside our valley. He might even let you stay the night at our place.”

“Sweet.” Anne fist pumped before pushing herself back to her feet. “You’re a lifesaver, dude. Literally and metaphorically.”

“It’s just the neighborly thing to do. Now come on, I’ve got to find mushrooms on the way back so we should get going.”

With that Sprig started in the opposite direction from the edge of the bog he had pulled Anne from, not hopping but with a spring to his step. And believe it or not, as Anne followed she felt like she had a spring to her step too. Things were finally going her way. Everything was coming up Bounch–

Anne bit down on her lip as something dug into the bottom of her left foot. Reactively lifting her leg and grabbing it by the ankle, Anne made an annoying discovery as she hopped in place. There was a rock sticking out of her sock. Not her shoe, her sock. How had she not noticed she was missing a shoe?

“Where’d my other boot go?” she asked as she continued to hop in place while looking and turning to look for it. Because she was so tall it had taken her forever to find a pair she liked and fit her and were comfortable, the last place she needed to lose one of them was right at the start of her trip through the afterlife.

“Uh, if I had to guess…” Sprig trailed off as Anne followed his gaze. He was looking at the bog, at the muddy swamp that didn’t even have the divot she had made at the end of her fall anymore.

“Ah hell.”

---

Sprig turned out to be a little chatterbox once they go going. Perhaps it was because their pacing slowed from Anne having to watch every other step for rocks, and barbs, and who knew what else, but he filled in the time by filling her in about anything that popped into his head. Or hopped into his head, though Anne kept that chuckle-worthy thought to herself.

In addition to “Hop Pop,” Sprig also lived with his sister Polly, who was evidently a little bundle of chaos. Anne could see herself jiving with that. Though Sprig made sure she knew not to show Polly anything that could be turned into a weapon or taken apart to see how it works, because it would be if given the chance.

The three of them lived in a small farming town, one that rested between the mountains that began the left leg of the Goliath range. Evidently this was the “best” place to be as a farmer since it was close enough to get the benefit of the heat from the range’s right leg without being too far left where the soil got hard and unbearable. Anne didn’t know if any of that made actual sense when it came to farming, but she did think it was hilarious that the swamp they were slowly leaving behind was called the “crotch” of the Goliath range. Who would even think to name it that? She loved it.

Between explaining his family or their home or the oddball sounding neighbors Anne might never even meet Sprig would bounce around trees, large rocks, and bushes looking for mushrooms. He must have had a knack for it because more often than not he returned to the path with a grey or brown little shroom, holding it up like a prize before stuffing it into a makeshift backpack Anne hadn’t noticed at first. Despite not being something she could ever see wanting to do, it was still somewhat impressive how often he found something despite there being no sign anything would be where he was looking.

Maybe his knack for finding them came from the plant magic he said he was studying at the Hexside place his family was going to take her to. Though he didn’t seem to love that too much, being much more peppy when explaining his Beast Keeping classes since it meant getting to wrestle things into submission. It was one of the first and only times Anne had actually thought the saying ‘boys will be boys’ actually made sense.

“So, are these shrooms for dinner or something?” Anne asked after a little while.

They had left the muddy forest bog behind and entered a much more open space as twilight fell, at least when it came to being surrounded by trees. On either side of their path were stretches of tall pinkish grass, or maybe it was supposed to be some kind of straw. Hay? Straw? Whatever. Though to their right the pink stuff gave way to a rising slab of stone before long. From where they were walking the rock shelf seemed to abruptly end after rising fifteen or twenty feet up into the air, though Anne guessed there must have just be an outcropping or cliff at that point before continuing to rise beyond where they could see.

“Some,” Sprig said after safely storing a rather plump shroom in his bag. “Most I’m taking back to Maddie tomorrow though, it’s hard for her to get some ingredients for her potions in the heart of the range.”

Now here was something Anne could dish about. “Ooooh, is Maddie someone special?”

Sprig tapped his chin for a second as if this was something he really had to consider. “It’s complicated.”

“Complicated’s the best kind of special,” Anne insisted. “Tell me all about it.”

“Well…I accidentally made a marriage pact through her father’s business when I was ten. And it’s still set to happen once we graduate. But Maddie says it’s ok for me to be with someone else as long as I give her what she needs. Which is good because there’s this girl Ivy I’ve always really liked, but it’s confusing because sometimes Maddie says ‘needs’ like she’s not talking about mushrooms or vertical integration between our farm and her father’s shop and–”

With speed practiced from years on the tennis court, Anne kneeled down and grabbed him by the cheeks before turning him to face her, stopping his spiral before it could go any further. That would come later, if she was lucky. “Sprig, buddy, pal, everything you just said is amazing and I’m here for it.”

“What does that mean?” His words ran together a bit from how she was holding his face.

“It means I’m going to help you through as much of this soap opera you’ve stumbled into as I can, or at least watch it play out.”

“Thanks?”

“No, thank you,” she replied, thankful once again for the frog boy who had hopped into her life. Now she had a ride to her first real lead and a replacement for the trash tv that had been her only reprieve between barely passing her classes, practicing to keep her tennis scholarship, and studying/stalking that wanna-be-witch. She was looking forward to seeing how this frog love triangle stood up to daytime tv.

But, as excited as this bonus to her time in hell looked to be, it didn’t keep her from noticing something on the rockface behind Sprig. A splotch of purple practically shined from the pale stones it was growing between. Maybe in the bright red sun its color was washed out, but with the sun setting and the sky beginning to darken the difference was clear. That and its general shape, despite being almost twenty feet up a few yards from the path, was clear.

“Is that a mushroom?” she asked, turning his head again to match where she was looking.

“Oh snap!” Sprig hopped out from between Anne’s hands and bounded across the pale grass in two quick bounds. He was definitely a frog. “I’ve never seen one that color before.”

Before Anne had the chance to respond he was climbing. With his little hands and feet he scaled the rockface with ease. No doubt sticking to it instead of looking for handholds like, well Anne wasn’t sure, but maybe a frog. Regardless, he made quick work and before she knew it was standing at what she saw as the top, looming above the shroom as a darkening sky as all that loomed above him.

“We’ll have to see if Hop Pop knows what it is,” he called down while gently prying the shroom loose of the rocks around it. “But I bet Maddie will love it.”

“You go, guy.” Anne tentatively stepping through the grass in order to get closer, though the idea of touching let alone climbing the cliff never crossed her mind. Maybe that was why, as her view of what was going on above shifted, it took her a moment to realize what was going on.

A shadow fell over Anne as she took what she expected to be her last careful step towards the cliff face. Was it a cloud? There were certainly still enough of the dark red puffs up there, but that wasn’t it. What she saw when she looked up, what she saw directly above her and thus directly above Sprig, was too close, too solid, and too sharp to be the shadow of a cloud.

“Got it!” Sprig yelled in triumph. He raised the purple shroom high up above his head while looking down at Anne, oblivious to what was going on right behind him. “And man, it’s got all these greyish-blue spots, it’s gotta be a special kind.”

“Sp-sp-sprig…” Anne tried to call out, but found herself stuttering as she stared upwards.

“Is something the matter?” he asked while shifting his bag around so he could store it.

Anne raised a hand and tried to point, though her arm shook so much it almost looked like she was waving. “B-b-b-behind you…”

“Wha–”

Sprig went silent as he finally looked back and saw the shadow behind him. Only it wasn’t a shadow anymore. Its features had emerged from the shifting twilight. A long mouth, filled with rows of sharp yellow teeth parted just above Sprig’s head. Black spikes quivered in the evening air all long its head, back, and along its shifting tail. Its scales, which shifted from pale fleshy pink of its snout to deep blood red of its wings twinkled in the setting sun. And its eyes, all eight of them, glowed yellow as they stared intently as the small, little, bite-sized frog boy just ready for the taking.

“Jump!” Anne screamed.

The creature’s jaw stretched wide open, larger than any mouth needed to be, then snapped down on Sprig.

Or at least where he had been. He had done the only thing Anne had thought he could and jumped. With outstretched arms she reached for him as he came down, plummeting towards her like the most awkward looking comet imaginable. But a comet she could actually catch, and did so without completely falling on her ass. She managed to only stumble backwards as his weird little pink body collided into hers, overcoming the effects of that berry he had force fed her before with a shock of pain that made her want to collapse then and there. But then–

“Screeeeeeee!”

That happened. A shrill, ear-shattering roar filled the air as the creature spread its wings and roared. Anne was running before it finished. She didn’t put Sprig down. She didn’t look back. She didn’t think about the pain in her chest or what her shoeless foot might come down on. She just ran. Ran while wings flapped and maws screeched behind her.

“What the hell is that!?” Anne yelled. She emerged from the grass back onto the pass, beating feet as fast as she could.

“It’s a dragon,” Sprig shouted as he flopped between Anne’s arms and chest. “What did you think I meant when I said you’d get eaten?”

“I don’t know, other demons?”

“Just keep running!”

The shadow fell over them again. It was smaller now, so it must have been really high up. Maybe that meant it was flying away. Or maybe Anne would give herself a break for once and realize that was too stupid of a hope to believe in. “Use your beast magic on it! Or plants, there’s loads of plants here.”

“I’m in my first year!” Sprig bounced in her arms again, blurring his words into a barely recognizable combination. “I can’t control a dragon yet! Or do anything but help plants grow!”

“What do we do then!?”

The shadow grew bigger. And bigger. And bigger.

“Get out of the way!”

Anne jumped to the side of the path. In the brief moment she was airborne she heard the crash of scales on dirt and felt a buffet of air and dust sent up, propelling her and Sprig just a bit farther before they came crashing down into the tall grass.

They hit the ground rolling, and while Anne did her best to hang on to him Sprig slipped free amid the rush of grass and dirt spinning around them along with the rest of the world. That berry was definitely wearing off by then. Anne’s whole body seemed to be screaming by the time she stopped rolling. She could still move, but she had to stifle an actual scream with one hand when she tried to push herself back up. There was no time for that though. There was a damned dragon trying to eat her and her new frog friend, screaming in pain would have to wait for later.

“A-anne,” came a woozy sounding voice from somewhere closer to the path. She didn’t respond, but it did.

Click, click, click echoed across the sea of pale grass. Getting to her knees, Anne peered through the stalks and could just barely see its throat undulate in rapid waves as series after series of clicks filled the air. Its head bobbed back and forth while peering down, looking for the exact place to strike in order to get the meal it was looking for. Unfortunately, Sprig made it easier for the monster.

A patch of grass to Anne’s left, maybe a third of the way between her and where she’d leapt from the path, shifted as Sprig stood up. He was wobbling in place. Maybe he had hit his head in the fall, or too much of her weight had come down on him while they rolled on the ground, but either way he was out of it. But not out of trouble. Anne’s hand was in her bag at once, feeling for anything that had survived the fall that might help. There was one thing her hand found, the only thing in there big enough that something like a dragon might even notice, so she grabbed it and pulled.

The dragon’s mouth opened into a gaping maw of teeth that Anne could have fit in without trouble, let alone a frog boy half her size. Then it came down. Anne leapt at the same time and came down swinging. Her tennis racket collided with tip of its snout, knocking its charging mouth off target and into the ground with a thud.

For a second, probably less, Anne was eye-level with the dragon. Its pupils were pinpricks boring into her from within the four glowing yellow orbs she could see. And then the split second ended. The dragon’s wings hit the ground, creating another plume of dust and falling dirt as it ripped its mouth from the ground. Free again, it didn’t seem interested in Spring anymore at least. At least there was one boy she had done something good for before she died, as short lived as his own life might end up being.

The dragon lunged again, and Anne swung again in kind. She imagined the tip of its finned snout was a tennis ball. All she had to do was hit the ball. Hit the ball, Anne. Hit the ball! She swung blindly, feeling resistance and thinking she’d done good once more. But, when she opened the eyes she hadn’t meant to close, it wasn’t quite as she hoped.

The tip of the dragon’s muzzle was right there, hanging in front of Anne’s outstretched hands with her racket between its snarling lips. Jutting its head to the side, it ripped the racket from her hands and tossed out of sight. Then it was rearing up again, widening its jaw, and coming back down. Anne held out her arms, closed her eyes as the dragon screeched, before being shrouded in the darkness of its fangs.

There was screeching and darkness and humidity like nothing Anne had ever felt.

But there was no gnashing or chewing. No sudden pain as a thousand needles of teeth dug into her flesh. Even the darkness seemed to abate a bit. The only thing she felt in that moment was hot, moist pressure against her outstretched hands.

“Anne!” Sprig yelled, sounding much more clearheaded than a moment before. “You didn’t tell me you could use Construction magic!”

Anne opened her eyes and was instantly greeted by teeth. Teeth above her, teeth in front of her, and no doubt there were teeth behind her as she realized they were standing in the dragon’s open mouth. Its tongue flailed around them, whipping back and forth overhead as a new series of clicks echoed from the black hole of a throat it so very much wanted to send them down. But it wasn’t closing its mouth. It couldn’t close its mouth.

It tried to rock its head back and forth, to force shut its jaws, but couldn’t. All the while Anne just stared at her own arms. Each was illuminated by a pair of glowing brown circles, one for each of her lower and upper arms. That’s how she could see the tongue flailing above or the toothless grips her hands had found on either side of its mouth. But it didn’t explain how she was keeping the mouth from closing, how the pressure from a dragon’s massive jaws felt like nothing more than holding open a door.

“Construction…magic?” she asked, not risking turning towards Sprig in case that caused whatever was happening to stop.

“Strength magic!” he cried with excitement so palpable Anne could hear it echoing down the dragon’s gullet. “Why didn’t you use this before?”

“I told you I’m new at this!”

“Well, you’re doing it. So show this thing who’s boss!”

“Sure, no problem.” Not that she knew how the hell she could do that. Though, she didn’t know how the hell she was doing what she was already doing so she might as well try. Her arms were already all the way out so she tried for a better grip, digging her nails into the hot, slimy roof and floor of its mouth. The response was an immediate and shrill anguished cry. Anne smiled. “Don’t like it when the snacks fight back, huh? Well then you won’t like this!”

Dragon saliva flowed over her hands and cries of pain filled her ears as she pulled on the interior of its mouth, lifted up, and threw it. Suddenly awash in evening light once again, she and Sprig had to shade their faces to watch the beast sail up and over the path it had chased them from before coming back down in a cacophony of shifting grass and disturbed dirt on the other side. Its tail laying limp on the path and back legs sticking up from the grass were all that remained visible of it.

Sprig let out a gasp of surprise, but Anne wasn’t done yet. Without pause she stomped her way up the slight hill they had rolled down, back on to the path, and right up to that tail. It was covered in sharp spikes or horns or whatever the hell you wanted to call them, but there were still plenty of places to grab hold of. So she did. And, just like the electrician in that old game she’d been made to play at sleepovers, she swung the overgrown lizard around. And around. And around. Until, when she was sure they were facing the rockface again, she let go.

One more time it went flying. One more time it screeched in fear. One more time it came crashing down. The rockface shattered under the force of the thrown dragon, raining down pebbles and boulders and every other type of rocky bit imaginable down on it as it fell. The screeching disappeared under the clatter of falling rocks and, when the last of those had finally stopped rolling, everything was quiet.

---

“You might be exaggerating a bit,” Anne said as she stuck her head out the bathroom door. It had taken her over an hour to rinse off the muck and drool in the kiddy pool the Plantars called a tub, but she’d eventually managed. She hadn’t managed to make those glowing circles that had made her so strong reappear no matter what she imagined or thought to herself, which wasn’t great if she happened to need that kind of strength again. Even less great though was that the Plantars didn’t have any clothes big enough for her, which left her the only option of covering her chest with one of their towels and pelvis with another.

It wasn’t the look she would have gone with in a stranger’s home, frogs or not.

“And thanks for what you put out, Mr. Plantar, but nothing really fits me.” She had spent her hour in the tub being regaled in the story of how she and Sprig had met thanks to the thinness of the walls in the hobbit-burrow the Plantars called home. Which was how she learned Sprig had pulled her out of the mud with his tongue, something that was both gross and didn’t help the frog comparisons.

“Oh, call me Hop Pop,” Sprig’s grandpa said from his place at the table. It looked like he and Sprig had been organizing the collected shrooms during story hour. “Mr. Plantar was my father. And he’s dead.”

Anne blinked in the silence following what was maybe supposed to be a joke, she wasn’t sure though. He seemed nice, but an odd kind of nice. Granted, he was a not-frog in hell so she was probably the odd one here. “Ok…”

“Ignore him,” Polly said as she came down the stairs, carrying some kind of dark green bundle. Sprig’s little sister was a purple-hued amphimpian and a bit shorter than him, but otherwise pretty similar save for her horns. While Sprig and…Hop Pop had alternating white and black horns, Polly’s were almost entirely black with thin white circles every little bit. Maybe that was a boy and girl thing down here. “I figured that’d be the case, so I got you this.”

Polly handed her the bundle, which turned out to be a bed sheet. But beggars couldn’t be choosers and at least a sheet would cover her. “Thanks little dude, you’re a lifesaver.”

“Hey,” Sprig protested from his shroom sorting spot across from Hop Pop, “I thought I was the lifesaver.”

“Yeah, but you’re not helping me not be naked right now,” Anne said before retreating back into the bathroom. She let the towels drop to the floor and went to at tying the sheet around her. She was going for a chut thai look, like what she had to wear when her parents made her help cater, but it probably looked more like a toga. That’s what the idiots in her dorm had thought the one and only time she had bothered to talk to any of them. Either way, at least she had something to wear.

“Your actual clothes should be dry by morning,” Polly said once Anne joined them in the kitchen. Anne was glad she was only spending the night, she constantly had to hunch over in this place since the ceilings were so low and didn’t need to add actual back pain to the behind the back comments she got about her figure already.

“For the record, I offered to help,” Sprig added. He had joined Hop Pop in looking at a book as they organized the shrooms into two piles. Regular looking ones to the right, weird looking ones to the left. Which left the purple one with grey-blue spots right in the center, uncategorized and alone.

“And why don’t we let you help with laundry anymore?” Hop Pop asked while turning the page in his shroom book.

Sprig slouched back into his chair. “Because everything I wash shrinks three sizes.”

“That’s right.”

Anne could think of other reasons she didn’t need a fifteen-year-old boy doing her laundry, but that was enough of one.

“Well, thanks again for all you’ve done for me. Tonight and offering to take me to the school tomorrow.”

“Don’t mention it,” Hop Pop said with a little hand motion, as if literally waving off the idea. “You kept Sprig from getting eaten, so it’s the least we can do.”

“Yeah,” Polly added. “It would have been terrible if anything had happened to Sprig.”

The way she said ‘terrible’ was the closest she’d sounded to the little gremlin Sprig had described on their way to the farm. Until then Anne had thought it was just brother-sister rivalry staining his description of her, but maybe there had been a little truth to it. Or maybe both views were right and she was just a gremlin to Sprig but no one else.

“Right…so, how’s the sorting going?” Anne couldn’t care less, but she also didn’t feel like instigating a sibling spat. Those were usually the worst parts of dramas. Except when they ended up not being actual siblings, now that Anne could get behind. “That purple one got us in to too much trouble not to know what it is.”

“We haven’t been able to find it in any of my books,” Hop Pop explained. “I’ve never had that happen to something growing in these parts before.”

“All we know for sure is that Bessy really wants a taste of it,” Sprig said, pointing with his thumb to the window on the other side of the kitchen.

A shiver went up Anne’s spine as she spied the overgrown boar’s massive black eye staring in at them. To hear Sprig tell it, the ‘family pig’ that just so happened to be nearly as tall as Anne helped plow the fields and tow the family wagon, was as sweet as could be. But Sprig had almost lost his hands when playfully showing her his bag full of mushrooms on the way in, only for a snout full of tusks and razor teeth to chomp down without warning. Anne had just barely pulled him out of the way in time, though that hadn’t stopped the boar from stalking them along the length of the fence separating them from her on the way inside.

“You’re taking most of them to Maddie anyway,” Polly chimed in, giving Anne a reason not to look at the disturbingly large pig eye anymore. An eye that wasn’t blinking as it focused entirely on the mushroom horde on the table… “She’ll probably know what it is, or one of the teachers there if not. Isn’t that good enough.”

“Don’t put things on others that you can do yourself, Polly,” Hop Pop noted before turning another page.

“Yeah, Polly,” Sprig said before sticking his tongue at her. Or at least a little bit of his tongue out. It must have been pretty big if he had been able to…Anne rubbed her wrist as she thought about him actually dragging her out of the mud with it.

Polly hissed back, something Anne didn’t know frogs could do, while Anne herself poked the mystery shroom out of boredom. It was spongy like most mushrooms and easily stood up as she twirled it by the tip with her finger. The little fungi had nearly gotten her and Sprig eaten and was now attempting to drive an old…man to obsessively learn about it, but at least it couldn’t cause any real trouble before their trip in the morning.

The shroom slipped from under her finger and Anne instinctively grabbed it before it could fall, not that thudding an inch or two to the side would do anything to it. And yet, as she grasped the purple and blue shroom, something did happen. The spots began to glow, the sides began to swell, and then–

Poof. A cloud of sparkling spores filled the room.

Chapter Text

“The scroll said it was important that while saying the incantation we’re all thinking of an important wish. I don’t know why, it didn’t go into it, but that’s what it says to do.”

Connie’s wish was never too far from her mind. It was what had led her to this club in the first place after all. It was what she thought of when her parents, or rather her mother, got too overbearing. Looking for ways to fulfill it was what pushed her to ger her schoolwork and other insisted activities done so well as quickly as possible. It was what helped her get to sleep at night before dreaming of the freedom she hoped he would offer her. Her one and only wish in this life was to find the boy from the woods.

“Everybody got it?” Dipper asked the club as a whole. Connie found herself nodding along with the others. He turned back to his notepad while the rest brought up the photos he’d group messaged them. Connie hadn’t expected Dipper’s phonetical translation to actually make sense on their own, but the so-called words on those pages were less than a pleasant sight at first glance. “Good, then here we go.”

“Vír gru webuz orh vhrefzgiru grog nabc vunif, gru pnocu iw hobcruzz grog tu zuuc gi mo,” they chanted in an awkward unity. Connie didn’t think anyone was accurately saying what they were supposed to, but she found herself wincing a few times at Molly’s attempts to keep up and the even more garbled words that came out of her mouth.

“Tu focu o cirgbocgb gi cobbír, gi wanwenn iab tezruz trenu noccum hiavg.”

Connie almost had to stop when something spun itself into existence in her stomach. It was a sticky feeling that welled up in her gut, but didn’t stop there. As if it had tendrils, the hot sensation seeped out of her stomach and out across her body. It wasn’t painful, but the sensation almost forced her to gag as it made its way to her chest then out to each of her limbs. That was definitely new. None of her research, or the research the others done as far as she was aware, had ever mentioned such a feeling. But if that was a sign that the chant and ritual was working, and since there had been a kind of heat when she’d met the boy she wasn’t going to be stopped by what might be her first real step forward in almost a decade.

“Zi tegr grez pocg orh iab huchruu, zrit az trog uíruz tubu rig fuorg gi zuu!”

Stumbled over or not, Connie and the other four members of the Supernatural Studies Club finished the chant only to be met with silence. At first Connie figured everyone must have been holding their breath so they wouldn’t miss anything if it had worked. But as the seconds dragged on the held breaths were let go and the silence became heavy with disappointment. Connie thought she could feel most of it coming from Anne in the spot beside her, but Connie’s nails weren’t biting into her palms because she was happy. That feeling had to have meant something. That heat, different than the shimming blaze he had passed through but heat nonetheless, had to have meant something. It just had to. She had put up with so much waiting for her chance to see him again. To finally be free for once.

“Did I get the chant wrong?” Dipper mumbled to himself before starting to flip through that notebook of his. Connie couldn’t count out the possibility of that being the case, but she wouldn’t bet on it either. He was basically as diligent in his work as she was, with the few pieces of his research she had double checked coming back practically perfect. He wasn’t someone who just got things “wrong.”

And maybe he hadn’t.

While no one in the club dared to answer what he’d asked aloud, the club room itself took the opportunity to fill the silence. What could have been a wail of shifting wood crept to life, surrounding them in a ghastly sound. Like the creaky stairs leading to her dorm room or that one spot in her parents’ kitchen that betrayed her attempts at the occasional midnight snack, the floor wailed as if under an inordinate amount of pressure. Only, none of them had moved. The pained sound didn’t have anything to cause it. At least, nothing that naturally would.

“What is it?” Anne practically yelled. Connie watched her head dart back and forth before locking onto something in the center of the room. That something was a line of the paper they’d covered the floor down. Creaseless and pristine with its painted runes mere seconds before, the paper had started bunching in a line that spread from either side of the final design Dipper had added. Now that was something. It couldn’t not be. Paper didn’t just do that, not in a matter of seconds at least, which had to mean something was really happening. Something besides–

“It’s just an old building making old building sounds,” Twilight insisted, yelling to herself as she looked everywhere but where the evidence latterly lay in front of her. Something was happening that didn’t fit inside the boxes she used to quantify the world. “Old building, old sounds. Old building sounds…”

“That, or it worked!” Connie shouted. She tried not to make it sound like an attack on Twilight, the poor girl might not have been able to take much more, but Connie wasn’t going to deny the possibility of what they wanted actually happening.

“Let’s all just take a deep breath and calm down.” Dipper said. If he took more of a stand on things he would have been the club’s actual leader instead of just the one they looked to for ideas every so often. “We’ll figure out what the sound is and go from there.”

“Scratch is right!” Molly shouted out of nowhere. Of all the times for her to bring up her ghost this didn’t seem the best, at least not until he was willing to prove himself real. “The creaking already stopped.”

Everyone stopped trying to yell over one another. Molly was right. The wail of creaking wood had ceased. The paper had stopped crinkling up along the middle of their design as well. Which led Connie to the same thought that Anne would verbalize. “Well, do we think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?”

Once again, it was the room itself that would answer one of their questions before anyone else could. It did so in a way that Connie could only hope would be good in the long run. Though, in the short run, the very short run, it seemed very bad.

The floor lurched and tore and dropped. Paper ripped and wood splintered before completely dropping away to either side below them. Like some sort of comically large trap door, the entire floor of the club room swung apart beneath them. Below there was only darkness. Connie stared at it during the introspectively long time she hung above it, suspended by nothing and just waiting to fall, and as she stared into that darkness it seemed to stare back at her. Practically beckoning her with the nothingness that suddenly existed below them. And beckoned she was as gravity kicked in, dragging Connie and the others down into the nothingness.

Anne screamed. Molly screamed. Twilight really screamed. Even Connie screamed as she suddenly started plummeting into the dark below. And with them the room around that quickly became the room above seemed to scream right along with them as the wooden flooring continued to rip and tear apart around them, dropping planks and splintered wood falling right along with them.

Connie gritted her teeth, catching the next pointless cry in her throat before it could burst out. This is what she wanted. This is what was going to take her to the boy she’d longed after since she was ten. This was not something to fear. This was good, damnit!

And it wasn’t like she was alone in that belief. Or at least didn’t think she was. As she held in her scream, Connie looked around the impossible situation she’d found herself in. Most of the others either had their eyes locked shut or were wildly looking around for something. What that something could even be that would possibly help them now she didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. This wasn’t some normal tunnel or hole, if it was they wouldn’t be able to see one another as they got farther and farther away from the light of the disappearing room above. Instead, the darkness deepened around them while everyone stayed completely visible. Her only choice was to believe that this was all by design. And seemingly Dipper, the only other club member not screaming, must have been thinking something similar. Like Connie, he wasn’t screaming as they fell, nor frantically looking about. Instead, he just looked down, as if determined to find something far below.

When a burst of heat washed over her Connie caught on to what Dipper must have been looking for. Deep in the void below, but growing closer with every second, was a deep red light. It grew brighter and hotter the farther they fell towards it. Though “brighter” might not have been the best word for the light growing among the darkness below. The red light was a darker shade, a blood-stained hue that didn’t illuminate the darkness so much as it consumed it.

Connie watched the black nothingness around them turn red, watched herself and the others become stained crimson, and then she couldn’t watch anymore. Everything became red. So red it was blinding in its paradoxical intensity. She closed and covered her eyes, yet still all she saw was red as all the while the heat increased and suffused the crimson eternity she found herself in.

---

Whipping wind shook Connie from the light unconsciousness she had somehow fallen into. She winced as she was once again greeted with a sea of red in every direction, but quickly realized something was different from before. It wasn’t a blinding, all-consuming red light, but a sky above and all around. A red sky with even darker red clouds. A vast red sky…and she was still falling.

Nearly flipping over as she startled into something resembling an “awake” position, Connie was greeted with more wind to the face and sights that almost made her forget her current situation. A whole world stretched out before her. Shades of red, both darker and lighter than the sky above, created a world both similar and different from the one she had come from, studied, and so rarely seen.

In the distance she could make out cities, or at least what looked like city skylines, surrounded by deep crags. But below, laid out in peaks and valleys, was a mountainous range spreading out towards either horizon. One massive section of peaks cast others in perpetual shade while yet another reached around a lake of faintly pink water that darkened where it must have been deeper near the center. But there was more. Dotting the mountains and plains between them were structures. Nothing like those she saw in the distance, but collections of village and towns nonetheless. Would he be among one of them?

And yet, while that possibility intrigued her to no end, there was something else. Something that gnawed at the back of her mind as she held her hair out of her eyes. She was looking at more mountains than she could count, yet there seemed to be a kind of shape built into or maybe even lain across the various peaks. It was a familiar shape, with a central form and four outreaching sections. Almost like limbs. It reminded her of a person, or perhaps a body, maybe even a ske–

A shrill scream ripped Connie from her thoughts and reminded her that she wasn’t just looking at some pretty scenery, but falling towards it. Shifting her weight as if going to dodge a fencing strike, Connie managed to turn herself in place until she was facing the others that had temporarily left her thoughts. They were all there, even still roughly in the same positions and order they’d been in the room, just falling in a circle instead of standing in one.

Twilight was practically full fetal as she held herself and her eyes shut. Anne looked to still be unconscious, though at least one of her hands had managed to stay in place holding down what she generously called a skirt. Dipper was awake and reaching for his pocket notebook that was tumbling over and over a few feet above him, but his attention was turned to where Connie’s had already been going, Molly. The smallest member of their club, the one who it wasn’t hard to forget was actually in college with them and the one who had just screamed, was flapping her arms as if that could possible slow her descent. At least until someone grabbed her by the arms. Or something…

“Oh my stars!” Connie shouted despite herself. She found herself pointing at the amorphous, opaque blob with a massive blue nose falling along with Molly and now holding her by the wrists. “What the heck is that!?”

“Rude,” the big-nosed creature replied. It might have been a he based on its voice. Somewhat high but still rough, and oh so grouchy. “I’m obviously the ghost that’s been ignoring you all semester.”

“He’s real?!” Twilight screamed from across their little circle. She had evidently finally allowed herself to open her eyes.

“A’doy.” The ghost, which Connie guessed he could be, looked a bit more classical in appearance than she had imagined from the times Molly had described him. If it weren’t for his nose, he’d look little different from someone with a sheet over their head. Though perhaps that was where that trope had come from in the first place because, if that’s what ghosts looked like, then how else would thrifty costume-makers replicate the look than with anything but a sheet.

“Everybody shut up!” Dipper yelled, surprising Connie more than Molly’s scream had. At once everyone’s attention was on him, some of them maybe even forgetting they were still free-falling miles above the ground. Connie hadn’t let that fact slip her mind, though she wasn’t letting it worry her as much as it was the others, especially Twilight. The initial fall into darkness had surprised a scream out of Connie, but now that they had passed through a fiery hot doorway or portal or whatever else it might have been, just like he had both coming and going, she was sure they were going to be alright. This was just part of getting where they were going, as scary as that might be if you didn’t think it through.

“We did not open a path to…wherever this is just to die on the way down!” He swiped his notebook out of the air then brought it close to his face. He was mouthing words to himself while the wind tried ripping the paper off its spiral binding with every passing second. Finally he yelled, “Zgip!”

But nothing happened.

Dipper scowled and curse under his breath before flipping to another page and yelling, “Zowu!”

Still nothing.

“How does this get us our wish you da–”

Connie’s stomach lurched as she and the others bounced in place. They hadn’t suddenly found the ground or been caught, but just randomly stopped and hung in place as the ground still awaited far below. But, after making sure her lunch wasn’t going to make a reappearance, this sudden stop only reinvigorated her belief about what this fall meant. If something so out of left field could happen without a moment’s notice, then their “way down” wasn’t going to end with a splat. It couldn’t. It wouldn’t/

“What the hell is going on!?” Twilight screamed. Connie was almost impressed. Their stereotypical egghead relied on logic over emotion for so much that using such language seemed impossible for her.

“Did anyone else start thinking of their wish when Dipper mentioned it?” Molly asked as she dangled from her ghost’s little arms. Didn’t he have a name? Molly always called him something that started with an S. Skip, Skud, no…it was…Scratch! Molly always called him Scratch.

“Yeah,” Connie replied as she held her arms out to the sides. She was trying to balance herself since, despite no longer falling, it wasn’t as if she had gained any great control over her position or movement. Regardless, when dipper had been yelling at the world the word “wish” had made her think about hers, not that it was ever far from her mind.

“Is that why we stopped?” Anne asked.

“How does that make any sense?” Twilight shouted.

“None of this really makes sense,” Connie said, her excitement showing in her voice. “That was the whole point of trying to understand it!”

“We’re not falling and that’s all that matters,” Dipper said. “If thinking about why we started this is what’s keeping us from dying then keep thinking about it. It probably has something to do with that or this…I don’t know, film around us.”

“What–” Molly began but quickly stopped as she looked around. Connie had to adjust her glasses, but as she followed Dipper and Connie’s gazes she managed to just make it out. Surrounding them in a vertical tube-like structure was a nearly transparent wall. All around them, like a tunnel or cylinder, was some kind of transparent wall. There was still a breeze rustling her and some of the others’ hair and clothes, so it wasn’t solid, but it definitely was there.

“Can you get us closer to it, Scratch?” Molly asked her ghost before receiving a hesitant “Yeah, I guess.”

“Is that a good idea?” Twilight asked between channeled deep breaths. “We don’t know what this…film is, or what that g-ghost might do.”

“Just bobbing in the wind isn’t going to do us any good,” Molly said. Scratch wasn’t waiting for the sign off anyway, already floating the pair towards the wall. “As for Scratch, he and I have been together for more than five years. I’d trust him with my life.”

“Yeah,” Scratch added. “There were loads of times I could have let one of Molly’s hairbrained ideas kill her, but there’s still only one ghost here, isn’t there?”

“What hairbrained ideas?” Molly sounded insulted.

Scratch raised a brow. “Do I really need to answer that?”

“Just get us to the wall,” she said, looking away.

“Does it look any different up close?” Dipper shouted once Scratch and Molly had made their way to the “film.” He had turned to a new page of his pocket notepad, with a pen at the ready to take down anything of note.

“Not really,” Molly shouted in reply. “It still just looks like a pane of glass or plastic.”

“What does it feel like?” Anne shouted.

“Should we touch it?” Twilight had started some deep breathing technique as she watched what was going on. It didn’t keep her voice from cracking.

“Do we have any other ideas about what else we could do?” Connie found herself calling across the still mostly intact circle, perhaps a bit more harshly than intended. But the callout wasn’t wrong, their goal was to find something supernatural, this was something supernatural. But if they couldn’t study it or get down to what was waiting below how where they ever going to learn from it? Or use it to get what they wanted. Or needed.

When no one said anything else, Molly held up a hand and carefully reached across the small distance between her and the clear wall. Connie could see her hand slide across the surface, almost looking like it was touching nothing at all but just barely able to make out a light streak from where she had touched it. “It’s like touching glass, but doesn’t seem like–”

Bruuuuum

Their makeshift tunnel vibrated so loudly Connie could feel it from where she, Dipper, Anne, and Twilight floated near the center. And if she could feel it all the way in the center, she couldn’t imagine how it must have felt for Molly. All Connie could see was that at the same moment the gong-like sound filled their ears Molly was pulling her arm back as if from a hot stove. And it didn’t get better from there.

BRUUUUUUUUM

The sound grew louder, and with it the vibrating air shook harder. She had to cover her ears, same as the others, though it seemed to be to no avail against the actually deafening thrumming that  surrounded them. And it only continued to grow in power and ferocity. The brumming got louder with every second as her skin crawled and ears threatened to bleed. It seemed like there’d be no end to it until, as Connie looked with one wincing eye, she saw the film of the tunnel had expanded around them. No longer a perfect vertical cylinder, the space around them had grown outwards like a bubble being blown.

And, unfortunately, bubbles pop.

As the incessant sound reached a shriek that Connie thought for sure would shatter her glasses, the tunnel burst. Wind rushed at her from every direction, but especially below as she was suddenly falling again. But whereas before she and the others had all been falling in a neat circle, the buffeting winds and suddenness of the fall sent Connie flailing off into one direction as what little she could see of the others were blown in every other way but the one she was. In seconds she had lost them amid the spinning blur of red sky, red clouds, and red ground all blending together as she plummeted downwards.

With gritted teeth and balled fists, Connie forced herself not to scream. Afterall, she had already decided this is what she wanted. That this fall was just what she had to go through to find who was looking for. That she and the others were going to be alright even if this kind of fall made that seem impossible at best. But that’s what she had decided. And damnit, that’s what she was going to believe!

With that decided and believed, Connie threw her arms out to each side. Even if she thought this was all going to work out, that didn’t mean she didn’t want to see how it was going to work out or at least have some idea of where she was going to touch down. So first things first, she had to get some control of her descent. The added resistance of her arms against the wind would help that, even if just a little. And it did, slowly but surely amid her rapid fall her spin subsided to the point she could aim herself downwards to watch the ground rush up at most easily. And it was most certainly rushing.

Not just the ground though. As Connie found herself no longer violently spinning like shirt in the dryer she very quickly got an idea of where she’d be setting down, the surprise being that she might actually go below ground level. Quickly growing below her was the pink lake she had seen resting within the outstretched upper arm of the mountain range. To what she was going to call the west was a shoreline where the lapping waves were pastel, like blush on otherwise clear water. To what she assumed was the east from there were the darkened depths. From the shore to there the water darkened from a blush of pink, to a redder shade, before taking on a bloody hue where it must have been deepest.

She wasn’t concerned about surface tension, that from her height and speed she’d normally go as splat against the water’s surface as any solid end to a fall. Afterall, she believed this fall wouldn’t kill her. She really, truly did. What suddenly did concern her as she did her best to use her arms to angle herself towards what she assumed would be a medium depth was her backpack. Everything in there could be replaced, some of it even lost and discarded without a second thought, except for one thing. Her plush. She wasn’t going to risk losing that in the deep or, just as bad, letting the waters dampen to the point it fell apart in its old age. Even if she thought he was going to be wherever she touched down, which even she thought was a stretch, she wouldn’t give up the thing that had gotten her through so many hard times unless she had to.

So Connie did the only thing she could think of doing. When she was reasonably sure she was going to splashdown where she wanted, she slipped off her backpack and got ready to throw. With widened, unblinking eyes she watched the water and shoreline make their final approach. Five seconds, she pulled her arms back in parallel. Four seconds, she noted a rocky outcropping to throw her bag towards. Three seconds, the whitecaps of the waves rolled over the sand. Two seconds, she tightened her grip. One second, she threw the bag with all her might! Zero.

Connie was lost in crashing waves and swirling bubbles as she crashed through the water’s surface and into its depths. It was like nothing she had ever felt before, warm to the touch but instantly making her feel cold throughout her entire body. By the time she hit the bottom she was damn near frigid despite the burning in her chest. She’d been so focused on saving her bag she’d barely taken a breath in the last seconds of her fall and she was already feeling it.

But she could see the light above. All she had to do was get. up. to. it. With a kick she propelled herself off the murky lakebed, a plume of sand spreading around her as she pushed her way through kelp or some other kind of plant life growing around her. Even through the pain growing in her chest she was surprised at how brittle and tough those plants were. It could have been coral if not for how it flowed back and forth in the current. But that would be something to think about later, now all she was thinking about was air.

Despite her vision blurring, the light got closer. She was almost there. Another kick, another push as she left the strange plant life behind. Each of the stalks ending in five spouts that almost seemed to wave as she made her way beyond their reach. And then she did it.

With a splash her head pushed past the water’s surface, and in that moment she took the biggest gulp of air she ever had. It felt amazing and relieved the pain in her chest in a way she had never imagined possible. She looked back towards the red sky, her thick curly hair sticking to the side of her face, and just breathed. But it didn’t warm her back up. The strange water, temperate as it seemed, was still sapping her warmth away. The shore wasn’t far though, all she had to do was make it there and she’d be good. And look, she could even see her bag resting safely on the sand near that rock. Great. Wonderful. Excell–

Air rushed out of Connie’s lungs in a stream of bubbles in leu of a scream as she was dragged back under. The light rushed away from her once again, an outright shiver dulling all feeling she had except for the grip digging into the flesh of her ankle.

She looked down. One of the hard but waving plants was wrapped around her ankle. No, that wasn’t right. Five of the sprouts at the end of one the plants had wrapped around her ankle…like a hand. Like a skeletal hand at the end of a skeletal arm, one of a hundred or more she was being dragged back towards. And then there was another kind of light, one with just a glance she knew she didn’t want to be heading towards. That ice blue light shined from within the shadows of the numerous bone-like plants, blinking into existence in pairs as Connie struggled to kick at the one she’d gotten tangled up in. Pairs of lights that rose from amongst the plants, sitting in growths of their own.

The last of Connie’s bubbles erupted in another attempted scream as fifty or more skeletons rose out of the lakebed. Sand and rocks fell away in scattered clouds that revealed skulls and ribcages and all the other bones she didn’t want to see rising up of their own accord as she was dragged towards them. All of them moved with slow yet deliberate movements, their wavering lights of their eyes all focused on Connie as they crawled their way out the sediment and over one another to try and grab her as the first had.

But screw that!

Connie’s foot finally hit its target, knocking the initial skeleton’s grip away then turning to a different kind of kick as she swam away as fast as her rapidly chilling body would allow. Back towards the light of day, away from the skeletons and their eerie ghost-light eyes. She just had to go. No stopping. Just go. Go, go, GO!

Her head burst out above the water again, but this time she didn’t dare relish in the sweet relief filling her lungs held. She continued kicking, continued fighting the cold embrace of the warm water while trying to put as much distance between her and those grasping skeletons as she could. She just needed to get to the shore. Get out of the water to her bag and then go from there. Just keep kicking. Just keep aiming towards the rocks just like before that she had somehow actually gotten her bag close to. She just had to get to it.

Connie felt the first bit of the shallows on a downward kick. Then she was more crawling than swimming. She tried to stand and slosh the rest of the way to dry land, but her legs buckled out from under her before she even got upright. But that was alright, that was fine, she could practically breathe easy. Just a little more and it wouldn’t matter how cold she felt. It wouldn’t…matter…at…all.

A boney hand gripped her ankle just as the water started to fall below her crawling thighs. Another hand shot out of the water, catching her by the belt. Another on her wrist, and arm, and torso, and shoulder. She pushed and smacked some away but every one of them she managed to free herself from was replaced by two more within seconds. They pulled at her, dragging her back the way she’d come as the tops of their skulls stuck out of the water and their icy eyes colored the water an unnatural blue. All the while, a new sound overwhelmed that of the gently rolling waves she’d been so close to escaping. The clattering to teeth and bones. Her own and their, but more and more theirs as more of them emerged from the water to grab at her and drag her back to where the depths with them.

But by then, with only one free arm, all she could do was reach out towards her bag and the shore it lay on. If only she could have gotten to it, if only she could have felt the softness of her homemade plush one more time. It wouldn’t have replaced finally seeing him again, but…but…

Tears flowed from her eyes, like her own screams of “no” and “help” they’d all be something lost beneath the waves before long. But still she reached out. The water was back up to her waist and she was reaching. The bones threatened to cut into her flesh, and she was reaching. The chill sapped away the last of her strength, she reached out and she yelled out for the last time.

“Steven!”

A wave of orange light burst from Connie’s hand. The skeleton’s stopped, however briefly, but their grips didn’t loosen and she didn’t have the strength to fight them even they had. She was so cold. So cold that she barely noticed the outcropping of pink and white rocks rise out of the sand and turn. So cold that everything was going dark as the rocks turned in place. So cold that…

As the world went black Connie could feel the skeletons pulling her under again. She could hear their chattering movements and the crashing of the waves. But there was another sound. Another crashing, or maybe galloping. It got closer, and closer, and then it came down with a mighty roar and a flurry of cracking ticks. Cracking! Slashing! Gnashing! Water splashed around her and rained down on her as she floated free. She felt a warm blast of air roll across her face in a huff, then heard something growl.

---

“Li…ars…good…ope…works.”

The words came sporadically through, some fully and others in part. It was a voice Connie didn’t know, but still sounded oddly familiar as she lay in a haze. She didn’t know where she was or what was happening, who was speaking or even how long it had been since she had slipped into her own personal veil. All she knew that she no longer felt the icy grip of the water or the more literal grasp of the skeletons. She was still cold, and wet at that, but now the chill was simply from her wet skin meeting the air and not something that made her feel at the edge of death, her drenched clothes didn’t feel like they were going to weigh her down, and whoever she could just barely hear sounded far kinder than the clattering teeth of dozens of skulls pursuing her.

A warmth started to spread within her. It moved through her body like the feeling that had suffused her back in the club room. But, where that had begun in her gut and been sticky like a humid fog, this sensation started in her chest and felt like her favorite tea on a chilly day. A familiar and invigorating warmth that was only there to comfort her. The kind she imagined with every happy memory. Especially the one of her day lost in the forest, where she’d fallen and cut her leg only for the boy who appeared out of a shimmering blaze to heal her wound and take away the pain…

Connie was slowly able to open her eyes as the warmth in her chest became a general warm feeling throughout her body. The red sky above had deepened in hue, helping cast the figure kneeling above her as just a silhouette as she first tried to get a sense of what was going on. Or perhaps it was the lights between she and the him, she thought it was a him, that made it hard for her to focus. Not in her face, she still couldn’t help but wince as a pair of light blue circular lights glowed above her while moving up and down above her chest and torso.

“Careful,” the voice, much clearer now, said when she tried to sit up. “You’ll want to rest for a few.”

A gentle pressure came down on her shoulder, pushing her back against the soft surface she was leaning against. What that surface could be she wasn’t sure, it was soft and covered with something that almost felt like…fur. More importantly than that or that what she lay against seemed to be expanding and retracting in small intervals, one of the light blue lights disappeared as she was held from trying to get up.

That wasn’t quite right. The glow from the light was still there, but was now glowing between her shoulder and what lightly held her down. What that was felt like a hand. She blinked in an attempt to clear her vision, but everything in front of her stayed blurry as if in a fog. Somehow though her peripheral was clearer. Or at least not impeded, nothing she saw was ever clear without her glasses. Which made her realize what she obviously needed to do.

Reaching up with her other arm, Connie wiped off her glasses with the flat of her palm. The world cleared up in streaks of wiped away condensation. What felt like a hand on her shoulder was indeed a hand, a large one at that. And the glow, it was coming from between it and her. The hand was connected to a muscular arm that ran into a pair of wide shoulders sitting above a chest that rippled even beneath a black t-shirt. Her gaze ran along these muscles she wouldn’t have expected from such a gentle touch or tone, but as much as she enjoyed taking in such a defined figure, as soon as she saw the face it all belonged to she couldn’t look away. His eyes were white within pink set within black, his hair the same shade of pink shifting from white at the base, and a pair of white and black horns curled up from either side of his head. It was different, grown and aged, but she knew that face.

“My bag?” she managed to get out after a few seconds of trying. Despite nearly drowning she felt like she hadn’t had anything to drink in days.

A small poof of sand rolled across Connie’s right side as something came down beside, the thud of its impact dulled by the soft ground. It was her backpack. Intact and not soaked, except for a light coating of moisture near the top. But he hadn’t dropped it beside her, both of his hands were still hanging just over her body with those circles of blue light floating just beyond his palms. Which meant…she craned her neck up and understood why what she was laying against kept expanding and retracting.

“He must like you,” he said as Connie stared into a single large eyeball set into a pink, feline-like face surrounded by a main of white hair. “Lion not only pulled you out but kept you warm until I showed up, he never helps anyone when treats aren’t on the line.”

Lion, the cycloptic…well, lion, closed its massive eye and yawned. Connie went from staring into an eye nearly as big as her face to gazing into a maw that could easily bite off her face thanks to a series of jagged yellowed teeth that lined every inch of it. Luckily, the overgrown cat’s yawn only lasted a few seconds, and it rested its head on the ground on the other side of her bag right after. This creature had saved her? Had kept her warm? Had gotten, and perhaps chewed on, her bag?

She raised her hand towards its head and, when she wasn’t told to stop, lightly stroked behind its ear. It peaked out from the corner of its one massive eye before shutting it completely and evidently going to sleep, or at least acting like it had. Which, as much as she knew from internet videos, was a very cat-thing to do. Connie then looked at her hand and slowly recounted that, “There was an orange light, when I was getting dragged under.”

“So you used Beast Keeping magic?” he said, grabbing Connie’s attention even as things were still foggy in her mind. Magic? Was that what that orange light had been? “That’s pretty impressive. I did figure you must be a witch, but even the professors at school have trouble making Lion do things.”

She had done…wait. That didn’t matter. Magic smagic, that’s not what she cared about or needed to be doing! Wiping away the lion drool that coated the top of her bag, Connie unzipped her backpack and dug in. She didn’t have to go too deep, as she always made sure she could get to her prized creation as easily as possible should stress, or bad dreams, or her mother popped in uninvited.

Pulling the plush from her bag, she held it up to him. He may have traded in youthful roundness for tone, his hair may have been bigger and a different color, his eyes might not have been entirely human, and the horns she had only glimpsed as he’d come in and out of the blazing doorway may have been much more solid now, but he still had the same face. The face that had looked so kindly at her as a child and was doing the same now. The face she had dreamed of so often, wondering how similar it would be if and when she ever saw it again. The face she had tried so hard to recreate in this plush when she was ten. The face that…that…

“Is this you?” she asked between shallow breaths. “Are you the boy from the forest? Are you Steven?”

He touched the plush doll, then pushed it and her hands down. His brilliant, diamond-like eyes wide with surprise looked into hers, wide with hope. “Connie?”

She threw herself against him without even thinking, tightly wrapping her arms around him. She didn’t care that she was still damp, that she’d nearly been killed by living skeletons, or that she had no idea where she or her friends were. She wouldn’t have changed anything about that moment. It was perfect. He was perfect. Everything was perfect.

---

Connie rode on Lion’s back as Steven led them back to his place. He was tall enough that he almost came up to her shoulders despite the large cat mount propping her higher than normal. She had insisted she could walk along the shore with him, but when her legs nearly buckled after two steps she relented while he carried her bag and shoes. That did allow him to walk between her and the where the water met the shore, reassuring her a bit despite his assurance that the Styx souls couldn’t leave the water and wouldn’t be a problem for a while once the tide dragged them back away from shore.

“That’s the River Styx?” she asked, gazing across the wide expanse of water. It didn’t look like a river. It was practically an ocean from where she sat, though the skylines sticking up from the other side squashed that idea down to ‘lake.’

“Well, it pools into a lake at the edge of Goliath. But it’s a river around the rest of the Pride Ring. I don’t think anyone really uses it anymore though.”

So this really was some version of the underworld. A Judo-Christian one if she understood what he meant by ‘pride.’ As if the flaming gateways she’d seen Steven come and go through as a child, the fact she and the others had fallen through a dark nothingness to get here, and Steven’s very pointy horns she had managed not to try touching yet weren’t indicators in their own right. Connie briefly wondered if that meant completing the ritual to come down here had damned her soul, then Steven pushed back his hair and the setting sun glistened off some of his muscles. She didn’t think of it again.

While Connie was thrilled to finally be there with Steven, even if “there” ended up being some version of the bad place, she figured she could only gush so much as they talked their way towards the south end of the beach where Steven lived when not at school. She had enough sense not to give everything away in case how she arrived ended up being a bad thing…or, well, a bad thing as far as other people were concerned. Steven had called her a witch, which Connie could piece together was the kind of person Anne had gotten the scroll from, and it felt like a good idea to just let that stand as it was. And anyway, not only had she and the others used a ritual to open a path here, but if he was right and she had somehow used Beast Keeping magic to get Lion to help her then maybe she was a witch anyway. Or “modern witch” from the living world as opposed to him being a “native witch,” being part imp and part Goetia.

Connie was interested in the Hexside school he talked about, if only as an opportunity to learn something of her own choosing for once. But she also figured at least Dipper and Twilight would be keen on making their way there if they found out about it. It was also where Steven would be going back to the next day anyway, so Connie was going to go, so it sounding interesting was just a bonus.

As he talked about some of the people and professors at the school, Steven eventually noted that he wished he had the knack for beast keeping magic like she did, if only to get Lion to be better behaved. Though what he showed her next made compelling animals seem lackluster at best. When she asked what type of magic he studied, he responded first with, “I dabble.”

And second with a wave of his hand. A rainbow of glowing circles of light sparked into existence in its wake. Red, Brown, Green, light blue, violet, and purple. He motioned to the red one, making a swiping motion as if there was a tablet before him instead of a magical array of his own creation, and music began to serenade them. A pleasant melody he called simple but filled Connie with a nostalgic feeling despite never hearing it before.

They passed an actual large rock, as opposed to a sleeping Lion like she had seen during her fall and failed escape from the water, and Steven continued his display by pushing his fist through the brown ring of light before grabbing the stone. Its exterior cracked as his fingers dug into it. Sand fell to the ground by the pound as he lifted the stone, which was easily larger than he was, overhead with ease. Then he just sort of tossed it into the water as if it were a pebble.

By the time Connie looked away from the massive splash he had so nonchalantly caused, Steven had waved away the light blue circle, since she’d already seen his healing, and the purple circle since he said he didn’t like to invade others’ privacy. Which just left the violet and green circles. Steven continued the show by flicking the green circle, sending it flying towards a spot on the beach up ahead of them. At first nothing seemed to happen, but as they approached the sand around where the light had struck began to shake before finally–

A plume of sand shot into the air, stopping Lion with a huff as the column of grit blocked their way. It only lasted a few seconds though, the gentle lake breeze blowing it towards the cliffs that lined the side of the beach opposite the water until the air was clear again. Once it was something new had appeared. A thick, bulbous base of wood had grown out of the sand and into a narrow stalk that ended in a bouquet of flowers. Like nearly everything else around they came in shades of pinks and reds, but they were beautiful all the same. Steven had one circle left though, the violet one, which he likewise flicked as he had the green.

“Abom magic’s weird,” he began as the final circle struck the plant he’d just grown from nothing. “So I don’t focus on it too much, but I can do this with it.”

The final circle disappeared into the plant, causing the whole thing to glow the same violet shade. That was, until it didn’t. The glow stopped and once again it seemed like nothing was going to happen, but just as before it just took a few seconds. A few seconds that ended by the newly grown plant falling apart to Connie’s horror. The base of the plant, shriveled into a dried husk after each of its dozen or so branches had fallen to the ground around it. But where the base of the plant had died, the rest of it seemed to do the opposite. While each of the flowers laying on the ground curled in on themselves a bit, they also…stood up?

In a series of little jumps, the branches of the newly dead plant became a dozen round little bodies with tiny carved faces and everything. Still obviously plant-life, but also more. Connie just stared with a combination of leftover horror and amazement as the little plant people ran up to Steven and started dancing around him to the sourceless music. Oh, and their flowers had curled to match his hair style!

“Alright,” Steven said after a moment. “Why don’t you all go see if our northern neighbor needs your help with anything. I’ll even send the music with you.”

With a twirl of his fingers, Steven conjured or perhaps reconjured the red circle again, then tapped it in the opposite direction they were heading. The little flower people continued to jump and dance about, following the tune as it floated along with the light to the north.

“I hope you didn’t think I was trying to show off,” Steven said as they continued south. His house had come into view, a massive A-frame built into the cliffside. It almost looked like something had been carved into eh stone above it, though in the darkening evening light she couldn’t tell. “Unless it was impressive, then I was.”

“It was impressive,” Connie said. “So impressive…with getting to study and do all that, I’m surprised you even remembered me.”

Steven paused as they reached a porch at the top of a set of wooden stairs. It wrapped around the whole front of the house, with the house’s front door right in the center. Before going any further though he offered her his hand. She took it, but it was a moment before he would help her down from Lion’s back.

“Connie, I’ve been on this beach most of my life. You saw how there’s really no one else here. Most of the time it’s just been me and Pearl, one of my Guardians. Training, learning, preparing.” He rolled his eyes at that last part. “Until this year, when I started going to Hexside, I never saw anyone my own age. So that day I got to visit the mortal realm and met you has always been special to me. I could never forget it or what it meant to me.”

Connie felt her face start to burn as he helped her down. She was still a little unsteady, but much better than when they’d begun their trek. Lion plopped down on the porch as Steven held the door for Connie, who crossed the threshold while not looking at him. Her heart was beating too fast and hard to risk that. Always special. Never forget. That was…it meant…it meant she was going to do that?

“Looks like Pearl’s still out,” Steven said as the house lit up at the entrance. What greeted them wasn’t as underworldy as Connie had expected. Instead of gothic designs it felt a bit like she had stepped into the 50’s or 60’s. There was a wraparound couch and a coffee table, an open kitchen on the other side of that little sitting area, and a staircase that disappeared to another floor above. All of it covered with carpet and tile and wallpaper she’d never seen outside of old tv shows and her grandparents’ house. “I’ve got some clothes upstairs. It’ll all be big on you, but it’ll be better than nothing until we get your clothes washed and dried.”

He started up the small stair well while Connie followed. Her heart was beating at a mile a minute. Her face was positively flushed. But why shouldn’t that be the case? Everything was going as perfectly as it could. Not only had she found him, but he remembered her. She was special to him after all this time. So, she really was going to do that? She had told herself she would, she had promised herself she would if everything was right, she had imagined herself doing it one way or the other. And everything was lining up for it.

She swallowed as they approached a door at the top of the stairs. It had a little tilted sign on it that read “Steven’s Room.”

“Why, um, did you never come back?” She hated to ask, especially since it had taken her so long to find a way to him, but she needed to know. If she was going to do what she had planned, then she needed to know that it all lined up. That she hadn’t wasted her life and wouldn’t be throwing away what was left of it with what she decided to do tonight.

Steven stopped as he was reaching for the door handle. “I wanted to. I begged Pearl to let me go again, but Meister Belos started to crackdown on travel between the realms. Our Asmodean crystal was confiscated and I’ve never been able to get permission to use one since.”

“But you would have…” It was barely a question, yet it prompted him to turn back to her. His flushed face was cute and completely out of place on a body like his.

“Of course!”

Connie smiled, meeting his flush with her own red face. “That means a lot.”

He returned her smile before finally opening the door to his room. “Well, let’s get you out of those clothes.” It must have immediately hit him what that sounded like, because his already flushed face turned beat red. “I meant so you wouldn’t get sick, not–”

“I know what you meant.”

He turned the handle and rushed inside, practically running away from her. He continued to be cute that way. She followed him in, pulling the door softly shut behind her as she looked around. She pulled her wet socks off as she gazed up at where the angled walls of the A-frame came to a point above them. She unbuckled her belt and stepped out of her damp shorts as she passed the full bookshelves that lined the non-slanted wall. And she already had her shirt mostly unbuttoned as she passed the bed and approached Steven as he dug through his dresser.

She had known what he meant, but also what she meant to do.

Steven’s back went erect as Connie’s shirt hit the floor with a little plop, the wet fabric just heavy enough to be noticeable. She didn’t make another move, not until he turned around. When he did slowly turn to face her, the small stack of clothes he’d been preparing slid out of his hands and joining hers on the floor.

He looked down at her, she looked up at him. She, a five-foot-nine bookworm in the red lace underwear she’d worn just in case, felt terrified and he, a six-foot-something-tall muscle-clad half-demon, looked. She was afraid because he could break her, destroy her…reject her. He didn’t have anything to be afraid of, and yet she loved him all the more for looking like he was.

“Connie–”

“I’m sorry if it’s too forward or fast,” she blurted out. If she didn’t say it right then and there it wasn’t going to be said. So even if she had to stare at the floor while saying it, it was coming out. “But the day I spent was one of the happiest I’ve ever had. All I’ve wanted for years, all I’ve wished for and hoped for, was to be with you and feel that way again. And to me…to me that means more than just being near you like this.”

She paused, biting her lip, but took a breath to make sure she could get the last of what she needed to say. “I’m not ten anymore. I want more. I’ve wanted more with you for a long time.”

Connie could feel the tears trying to escape and fought to hold them back. She probably sounded pathetic. That as she stared at the floor he was looking at her with disdain or maybe pity if she was lucky. Even if he grew up separated from many other people he could still do better than her. She was just…just…

“Connie.” He stepped closer, though she could only tell because his feet came into view. “You’ve never been far from mind, but you also don’t know that much about m–”

“Is what you said before true?” she demanded, cutting him off again. “Would you have come back to see me if you could have?”

He didn’t pause or stop or even think about his answer. It came as a quick and simple, “Yes.”

“Then I don’t care what I don’t know now, there’ll be time for that later. But I do know what I want. And…and if you want it to then you can have it.”

One of his large, strong hands met her chin, lifting her to face him eye to eye. He was smiling, but there was still a trace of that blush-stained fear from before. “Are you sure?”

She nodded in his hand, unable to speak anymore. But it didn’t matter. He leaned into her and she leaned into him, lips pressing against lips as he tilted her back. She felt him; his touch, his warmth, his everything. And, as he leaned her all the way onto his bed, he felt everything of hers too.

Chapter Text

“The scroll said it was important that while saying the incantation we’re all thinking of an important wish. I don’t know why, it didn’t go into it, but that’s what it says to do.”

While Dipper wasn’t sure he had ever thought of it as a wish, he did have one. One he had held on to since he was thirteen. After everything that had happened with Stan and the Falls he had assumed he would have been close to fulfilling it already, but if keeping it in mind now was what he needed to do to finally show some results for it, then that’s what he’d do. That was already so far beneath the minimum he was willing to do at any given moment to make it happen. So, to make this ritual work, he thought of his sister and he wished for something, for anything, that would help return her to the girl she had once been.

“Everybody got it?” he asked the others. They nodded back, he looked at his notepad. If anything was going to make them feel silly for what they were about to attempt it wasn’t thinking of wishes, it was the chant he was about to lead them through. If the language even had a name he hadn’t been able to find it, which left a bit more luck and feelings in the mix as to how close his translation actually was. “Good, then here we go.”

“Vír gru webuz orh vhrefzgiru grog nabc vunif, gru pnocu iw hobcruzz grog tu zuuc gi mo,” Dipper began and the others followed along in an attempt at a chant. No one did it particularly well, with Twilight and Connie having being close enough to what Dipper suspected it was supposed to sound like while Molly had a hard time not ruining the words more than their phonetic translation already had.

“Tu focu o cirgbocgb gi cobbír, gi wanwenn iab tezruz trenu noccum hiavg.”

Dipper felt the heat hit mid-word. It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t seem exactly good either. Whatever it was, it caused his stomach to roil and his lungs feel sticky as if he was breathing in gulps of pure humidity despite their basement lair being cool as always. The feeling spread as the chant continued, latching onto his bones and muscles so that the more he spoke the more his insides churned in the muggy heat. It was the weirdest thing he’d felt since Gravity Falls had been quarantined, which meant he wasn’t going to stop even if all the others did. Luckily though, even though the quick glance he risked up from his notepad made it clear they were feeling it too, no one stopped.

“Zi tegr grez pocg orh iab huchruu, zrit az trog uíruz tubu rig fuorg gi zuu!”

The Supernatural Studies Club finished the chant and were replied with…nothing. There was simply silence. But that couldn’t be right. That weird feeling, he had felt that kind of thing so many times chasing or being chased by the Falls’ creatures that summer. Even if it wasn’t exactly the same, it had to mean something. After so many years, and months of planning just with this group for this night, it couldn’t be for nothing. Mabel needed more than an upset stomach to wake up.

“Did I get the chant wrong?” Dipper flipped through the pages of his notebooks while the others mostly shifted in place. Though, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that none of them moved from the circles.

What came next started with a sound that took him right back to that summer. A creaking floorboard, the kind that had littered every other step in the shack. Whether it had been them trying to sneak out or into the kitchen to salvage a snack from one of Stan’s odd old-man foods, even the slightest weight on certain parts of the floor had practically caused the shack to scream in protest. And that’s exactly what Dipper heard then, screaming.

The room was filled with the wail, yelling at them for committing some terrible act none of them could understand. But none of them had moved, and the floor of this repurposed basement storage room was the one part of it that didn’t make a sound it shouldn’t have. Yet there it was, at first seeming to come from nowhere but quickly asserting itself as not being able to come from anywhere but beneath their feet. All of the club at least winced as eyes and heads darted from side to side as they looked for the cause, but the longer it went on the more he could see the others’ hands start to move towards their ears to stifle the near screech assaulting them.

“What is it?” Anne was basically yelling, with Dipper not completely proud of taking even a little glee in her distress. But it also wasn’t as if he had an answer. Not for the sound or for the paper that started to bunch in a line from either side of the star he’d folded out of that scroll, not for any of it.

 “It’s just an old building making old building sounds,” Twilight yelled. She was looking everywhere but the floor, despite that being the clear source of whatever was going on. Dipper was always impressed by her keen scientific mind, but it wasn’t doing her any favors in this moment. It may have been the most logical and believable sounding explanation she was trying to sell herself on, but it didn’t make sense based on where they were in the building or after that feeling he had seen her react to at the same time as everyone else. “Old building, old sounds. Old building sounds…”

“That, or it worked!” Connie was practically ecstatic, if not a bit giddy in her exclamation.

“Let’s all just take a deep breath and calm down,” Dipper said in an attempt to calm everyone down. “We’ll figure out what the sound is and go from there.”

Like usual though, no one really paid much attention while they were doing their own thing. With most of their own things being to worriedly glance about or continue repeating the same line over and over. That was, at least, until he noticed something but was beat to the punch by Molly. “Scratch is right! The creaking already stopped.”

Everyone got quiet real quick after that, just like the room itself had. The creaking had stopped, leaving the room as if nothing strange had ever happened. Well, almost. The paper along the floor was still bunched and twisted into a line across the floor, but it wasn’t moving on its own anymore.

“Well, do we think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?” Anne asked.

Dipper gritted his teeth as the reply came not from any of them, but again from the room itself. There was a mere instant where the lurching, screeching sound of wood full-on splintering roared to life, and in the next the entire floor split into along that line of bunched paper. Half the floor went one way and the other half another way, tearing the rune-decorated paper down the center as darkness opened beneath them.

Dipper was suddenly twelve again, falling into a nothingness with no sign of a bottom while some of the people fell with him. But while the others’ screams and rushing wind from below were very much the same, there was something different this time. He could still see. No glowstick was necessary to make out the others still in their haphazard circle from above. The sides of this pit, if there even were any, were as black as the darkness below, but he could still make everyone out. Hell, he could even make out the refuse of their club room falling along with them in a rain of splintered wood and torn paper. So it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t even natural. But it was still weird, which was exactly what he was looking for.

The others continued to scream, but Dipper turned his attention to looking around and eventually focusing on what was below. He had survived one bottomless pit, if he wanted to make sure they survived this one he needed to tell if there was anything else different about this one besides the physics of light taking a break. What he eventually found, what he hoped wasn’t a “bottom” in the traditional sense, was a red dot.

Just as the room they had fallen from was quickly becoming a speck of light far above, Dipper could see a speck of red looming deep within the darkness below them. Dark like blood but flickering just a bit like a far-off flame, it was getting closer. Whether it was a bottom or not they were falling towards it. If only that alone was all they were falling towards.

The wave of heat that rolled over them a moment later was intense, putting that sickly humid heat from the chant to shame as it only grew hotter and more noticeable as the red grew larger and closer below them. Dipper couldn’t even wipe away the sweat that started to bead across his brow, all he could do was stare into that redness. A “light,” for lack of a better word, that consumed the darkness until the void that awaited them farther down was not black but entirely blood-stained. More heat came at them, the red colored each of them in shades of crimson, and then there was nothing else.

---

The wind continued to rush by, but the screaming and the overwhelming crimson had abated. Something had changed, but Dipper couldn’t immediately tell what as his eyes slowly opened. There was still red…everywhere. A vast sea of it above and even around, with darker red lumps floating above and soaring past. And what was that right above him? Something flapping in the wind, spinning around and around just a few feet away.

It was his pocket notebook.

Dipper’s eyes shot open and his arm shot out towards it. That notebook was full of, well, notes. Important notes that had gotten them to this point. It wasn’t something that should be dangling in the wind…and that’s when it hit him. The notebook wasn’t suspended in the air, he and it were just freefalling. He wasn’t falling away from some red sea, he was falling out of a red sky. Which meant…

A face full of wind confirmed his fear. Around him Molly, Connie, Twilight, and even Anne were still falling. Some still seemed out of it, or maybe purposefully ignoring the situation, but they were all still there and all still falling towards a world of rocky red spires spread out for miles below them. Different shades built upon one another, mountains of dark stone looming above paler fields or casting more mountains yet in shadow. It was a sight unlike any he had ever seen before. A mountain range with four separate stretches reaching out from one another like a misshapen star or even a person looking up at the sky. A solid piece of ground that was still getting closer with every second.

There would be time for that later though, he hoped. Right now he needed that notebook. What he’d written in there had gotten them into this situation, hopefully it could get them out of it. If there was getting out of it. Not the time for that. Not the time for anything but grabbing the notebook with the language cypher, with his notes on the ritual, with anything else he could hope to use right then. But every lunging grab nearly sent him spinning in place, all the while the pad of wire-bound paper remained just out of reach. He just needed to get a little closer to–

A sudden scream threw Dipper off balance, his lunging reach going of target and spinning him around in place. The ground below switched places with the sky above and then vice versa again. It was nearly vomit inducing, though somehow turned in his favor. Coming back up, Dipper’s still outstretched hand collided with the notebook and he did not hesitate to grab it as if his and everyone else’s lives depended on it. Because they just might.

With that in hand and held to his chest, Dipper shifted in place the best he could. While the scream he’d heard was probably just Molly “waking up” the way he just had, he still didn’t want to take the chance something had happened to her. However, what he saw once he twisted in place made him pause and lift a brow, giving Connie time to shout “Oh my stars! What the heck is that!?”

It was pretty clear to Dipper what the thing plummeting along with Molly was, he was just sort of disappointed by it. For all her talk of Scratch the ghost, Dipper had never imagined him as a plastic bag with a big blue nose. But that was exactly what was attempting to hold Molly aloft as they plummeted downwards. After the last ghost he’d dealt with, the one with the flaming beard and later skeleton, he had just expected something more impressive.

“Rude,” Scratch scoffed back. Like his appearance, his voice was also not what Dipper had imagined. “I’m obviously the ghost that’s been ignoring you all semester.”

“He’s real?!” Twilight screamed, which seemed par for the course.

“A’doy.” Scratch rolled his eyes before returning his attention to Molly.

“Everybody shut up!” Dipper yelled before anyone could start some other inane conversation. Had they all forgotten they were still falling from miles up in the air? He may not have been worried about the pit since he’d seen that before, but they weren’t exactly in that situation anymore were they. Something about the ritual had worked, but neither that scroll nor any of his other research had mentioned crashing down onto a rocky terrain from on high. “We did not open a path to…wherever this is just to die on the way down!”

Opening his notebook and fighting the wind to keep the pages halfway readable, he looked through his notes for anything that could help. But just as he remembered there was nothing about this kind of situation, so he turned to the translation cypher. Another few seconds passed as he figured out the spelling, and then he yelled his command. “Zgip!”

But nothing happened.

Dipper cursed and flipped to another page. “Zowu!”

Still nothing.

“How does this get us our wish you da–”

Dipper didn’t know what he said or even if it was because of something he said, but in that moment they all came to a sudden halt. There was no warning or sign that it was going to happen, one moment they were plummeting and the next they weren’t. Which was good enough for him in the moment.

“What the hell is going on!?” Twilight’s scream was partially choked, she was on the verge of crying but had somehow held back so far.

“Did anyone else start thinking of their wish when Dipper mentioned it?” Molly asked. She was still dangling from her ghost’s little arms, making her seem to be in the safest position of any of them. Though Scratch hadn’t been able to slow her descent up ‘til then, so his presence might not have been doing anything.

“Yeah,” Connie replied. She had her arms stretched out to either side of her, probably in an attempt to balance herself and remain upright. Dipper briefly wondered how necessary or helpful that actually was, but didn’t have time to focus on it.

“Is that why we stopped?” Anne asked.

“How does that make any sense?” Twilight yelled.

“None of this really makes sense,” Connie said. She seemed to be the only one enjoying this situation. So either she had hit her head on something on the way into the pit or maybe she’d always just been a bit unhinged and hid it well. “That was the whole point of trying to understand it!”

“We’re not falling and that’s all that matters,” Dipper said. They were starting to get “excited” again, which was not what anybody needed then and there. He went on like that while looking around, which was when he noticed something he hadn’t been able to see while in mid free-fall. “If thinking about why we started this is what’s keeping us from dying then keep thinking about it. It probably has something to do with that or this…I don’t know, film around us.”

“What–” Molly cut herself off nearly as quickly as she started her question. Everyone else seemed to notice too, whether by following her or Dipper’s gaze, everyone started looking at the same general area a bit off from where they now found themselves floating. It was just off enough to be noticeable, though only because they were no longer falling. And oddly enough, aside from the fact that there was some kind of near invisible vertical tunnel around them, it couldn’t have been solid. At least, not with the wind still coming at them from the side.

“Can you get us closer to it, Scratch?” Molly asked Scratch, who took a moment before noncommittally replying, “Yeah, I guess.”

“Is that a good idea?” Twilight’s words were now spaced out between deep breaths that may have been an attempt to calm herself, but didn’t look to be working. “We don’t know what this…film is, or what that g-ghost might do.”

“Just bobbing in the wind isn’t going to do us any good,” Molly pointed out, which Dipper would have agreed with if Scratch hadn’t already been on the move. This little ghost didn’t seem to work the same as the ones Dipper had dealt with before, but while it didn’t seem capable of lifting Molly any higher than she was it did seem able pull her along towards the clear surrounding wall. “As for Scratch, he and I have been together for more than five years. I’d trust him with my life.”

“Yeah,” Scratch chimed in with a bit more animation. “There were loads of times I could have let one of Molly’s hairbrained ideas kill her, but there’s still only one ghost here, isn’t there?”

“What hairbrained ideas?” Molly almost sounded insulted, but Dipper wasn’t sure if she knew how to feel that kind of negativity because it came across more as shock. That kind of thing was why she reminded him of…

“Do I really need to answer that?” Scratch replied with a cocked eyebrow.

“Just get us to the wall,” she said, looking grumpy.

“Does it look any different up close?” Dipper shouted once they finally reached the ‘edge’ of the tunnel. During their short trek he had made sure to find a mostly blank page in his notebook to take notes down on, just in case. Luckily it was a lot easier without the notebook being nearly torn apart by wind pressure.

“Not really,” Molly shouted back. “It still just looks like a pane of glass or plastic.”

Dipper jot that down, along with what anyone else would probably consider an incoherent drawing of their situation. Two lines to represent the tunnel; the five, scratch that, six of them represented by dots only the same axis; a cloud here or there to note they were still very high up…

“What does it feel like?” Anne called, making Dipper wince.

“Should we touch it?” Twilight’s attempt at a breathing technique didn’t keep her voice from cracking.

“Do we have any other ideas about what else we could do?” Connie shouted back. Dipper thought she could have used a softer tone, but he didn’t think Connie was wrong either. This was the point of their club. Maybe it had gone…differently than anyone would have guessed, but it was still what they had grouped up together to do in one form or another. Plus, not touching the weird thing didn’t look like it was going to get them anywhere.

Molly must have taken the lack of continued argument as a go ahead, because the next thing Dipper knew she had reached out and touched it. From where he floated the barrier looked like it must have been slippery, as her hand quickly slid from side to side, though there was little else he could tell from what little of a viewpoint he had. He went ahead and started to right down what she said next, but neither of them got a chance to finish. “It’s like touching glass, but doesn’t seem like–”

Bruuuuum

Dipper nearly stuck himself with his pen he went to cover his ears so quickly. The bellowing, gong-like sound filled the air around them with vibrations that shook the air and everything else worth noting. The near-deafening thrum and vibrating air was bad enough away from anything solid, Dipper couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Molly who’d actually been touching something. He tried to stay focused on her through wincing eyes, but all he could tell was the she still looked to be in one–

BRUUUUUUUUM

Dipper’s teeth rattled as the thrumming struck again, and so much louder the second time. Then again, and again in a melodic rhythm that was as constant as it was painful. It rose and fell but never abated. Just kept going until, finally, it came to an end in a single moment that was simultaneously relieving and terrifying.

The sky, the tunnel, Dipper didn’t know and couldn’t tell anymore, but it shattered. Splintered and broke apart into a million tiny shards as the final crescendo of ear-splinting shriek broke the clear tunnel wall apart. Then there was wind and falling again, but not like before. Before it had been controlled and even. This was anything but. Red spiraled around in every direction, a swirl of crimsons dark and light that were nearly incomprehensible from one another as everything was lost in the fall. The others disappeared, flung who knew where. But even if they were right beside him Dipper wouldn’t have been able to tell. Everything was happening too fast, too frantically, too–

The last thing Dipper felt was his backpack arm straps snapping. The last thing he saw was his backpack swinging around from the other side towards his face.

---

“Uuuuuuugh,” Dipper moaned. He was sore. More than sore. Every part of his body was throbbing, an ache that went all the way to his very bones. He didn’t want to move. He didn’t want to think. He did kind of want to die. But at least he was laying on something soft. Course and grainy against his skin, but soft nonetheless. Soft enough that, when he finally did start to try and move, whatever he had landed on actually shifted beneath him.

The world was still spinning a bit as he tried to look around. Not as bad as during the fall, but he still had stare at the ground for a little bit to keep from throwing up until things finally started to settle down. But at least he was able to put together he had come down on some sort of sand. Which explained the coarseness, graininess, and how it had gotten everywhere, coating his arms, clothes, and legs. And it was better than having gone splat.

There was water to his right, with rolling pinkish waves that lapped against the pale sand. The waves didn’t come anywhere near the small crater he found himself in, and he wouldn’t have wanted to get near the oddly colored water even if he wasn’t utterly sore and probably concussed, so he turned his attention elsewhere.

On the other side of what he guessed was a beach, sheer cliffs rose into the air. But it wasn’t the realization that he might have been trapped between a rock and a wet place that finally got Dipper thinking in full gear again, it was what lay scattered between him and those cliffs. His backpack, open and practically empty lay several yards away while everything that he had packed inside was now strewn across the pale sand. Including his books.

Dipper fell on his face again trying to scramble out of his little crater, but that didn’t stop him. He crawled out, the sand shifting under hand and foot, before breaking into an uncoordinated gallop. He reached the number 2 book first, pulling it from where it was sticking out of the sand. He held it to his chest while continuing towards the next, his original number 3 book. He scooped it up without stopping and continued his rush towards the last of the three. He passed packed clothes, papers, and other junk he couldn’t have cared less about in the moment, all of his focus was on the last of his red-bound books. They were all he had left of…them after all, of before. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to his books if he could help it.

Falling to his knees, Dipper grabbed the last one. He held the completed collection tight as he took in deep and ragged breaths. His chest was burning, his arms and legs pounding. The need to save the unorthodox trilogy had cast the pain out of his mind, but with them in hand what he’d been ignoring came rushing back. But at least he had his books. His warm, glowing books.

“Huh?”

He looked at them and had to once again wonder if he was nursing a concussion. Each book was glowing a different color; 3 was a yellowish-green, 2 a bright red, and 1 a vibrant blue blue. But they weren’t glowing in totality, just their back covers. Placing them hand-side down on the sand in front of him, easily enough since he was still kneeling, he then stared at the books that had never done this once in the past five years. Each book’s glow was being emitted by an odd symbol on their backside. While each one rested inside an identical circle, the symbols themselves were completely different and nothing he could identify at a glance. That was, until he tilted his head to the side and had an idea.

Turning each book upside down, making it as if the glowing backside was in truth the front cover, the symbols on the first two books became much clearer. For the number 1 book, what Dipper was ashamed to say he had thought looked like an angular sus crewman before, was now clearly a split stone. The number 2 book’s symbol was now a flame, which at least actually made sense to be glowing. That just left his original number 3 book.

Even flipped, the yellowish-green glow didn’t immediately become obvious. Inside a circle like the other two symbols, the third one consisted of a series of concentric partial circles within the outside one. Or at least that’s the best way he could think to describe it. There was a small semi-circle on the interior right side of the outer one, with another, larger semi-circle to the left of it. And then another, and another, and so on, until the partial interior circles reached the other side of the exterior one. The only thing that really came to mind was a sound symbol on a computer or phone. The one that was replaced by an X next to the little speaker whenever you muted it. But did that make sense? Stone, fire, and sound? Not what he’d consider a common trio at the very least.

Not that anything in the books he’d saved from the ruins of the Mystery Shack and Gravity Falls had any true throughline other than “weird.” And besides, it might give his five-hundredth read-through a little more interesting if he had something new to look for. Maybe he needed to look for entries regarding earth, fire, and sound in each book? Would that lead to a new cipher? A clue to something he didn’t even know needed looking for? Maybe he’d even finally get some info on who had actually written them.

“Wait, do I have to read them upside down and backwards for this?” he asked aloud. Luckily no one else was there because the question sounded like the dumbest thing ever and he’d been the one to ask it. And if that was even a possible way to hide something in the books then it was probably going to be a headache-inducing search back through them. Which meant he might need to put it off for later. Molly, Connie, Twilight, and he guessed Anne weren’t anywhere to be seen, he should look for them. Especially Molly, even with a ghost…companion he was worried she might get herself into trouble if the locals, if there were even locals, weren’t open to her insistent brand of friendliness.

Sighing, Dipper grunted through the renewed pain in his legs as he stood. Of course, everything else hurt too, but he’d been on his knees staring at the books for a few minutes, and was nearly reeling from the effort afterwards. Slowly, he made his way back to his backpack. Even with a broken strap it would still be the best way to carry whatever was left of his stuff to salvage. And maybe he could tie broken the strap ends into a knot or something to hold him over until he could find a replacement. However long that might take.

But, just as he got close to the tattered old grey backpack his parents had been telling him to replace, one of the books slipped out of his grip. It hit the ground with barely a sound and, after a flash of the earthy brown symbol shining up at him, fell open. Maybe he had wanted an excuse to see if anything else had changed, maybe it really had just slipped out, he couldn’t say for sure. What he could say was that the first page of the book, or rather the flipped last page, had something new scrawled on across it. Filling the page and written in the same glowing light as the stone symbol on the cover were words, or at least what looked like words.

Dipper dropped back to his knees and, after placing the other two books to one side, pulled the number 1 book in front of him. The words weren’t like anything he had ever seen before. Even the unnamed language from the scroll was more recognizable than what shined off the page, but somehow looking at the incomprehensible scribbles just felt right. Like he could understand it, even though he knew he didn’t. It felt like he did. And it continued to feel that way as he turned to the next page and let the next set of glowing words shine up to him. It was like he was absorbing the light through his eyes, syphoning it off to the point that whenever he flipped a page the words there appeared to shine less vibrantly.

But none of that mattered, nothing mattered except reading what couldn’t be read and getting to the next page. He turned more pages, coming across the now upside down writings and drawings he had gone over again and again but for the first time ignoring what was there if it wasn’t glowing brown. More pages turned, more words he couldn’t understand shined into his eyes. He didn’t plan on stopping, there was nothing he needed to be doing beside this.

Even when the shadow fell over him, he didn’t pause. He was almost halfway through and the weather wasn’t going to stop him now. He had passed enough of those dark red clouds on the way down, he didn’t care if one of their lumpy shadows blocked his light now. What he was reading was its own light. He did briefly pause when the first drop hit his left shoulder. Great, rain. That’s just what he needed. He couldn’t risk the books getting damaged…well, more damaged. What if the rain affected the words. Just washed away whatever made them glow.

Another drop hit him, heavier this time. But there was something else too. Something warm. Something hot. Something was burning. Finally looking away from the book, Dipper glanced at his shoulder. His shirt was smoking around where each of the drops had struck. Without thinking, he grabbed a fistful of sand and pressed it onto his shoulder. A muffled hiss came to and left the world within a second as the heat of the burning cloth was replaced with the grittier, but lesser warmth of the sand.

“Acid rain?” Dipper exclaimed in exasperation. He grabbed the 2 and 3 books and tucked them under his arm before sticking his thumb between the pages of the 1 book to hold his place. He thought they had been trying to get to another plane of existence, not New Jersey. “Hopefully no one else gets caught in…”

He trailed off as he stood, as the same shoulder that had nearly just caught fire brushed against something. But there hadn’t been anything around when he had kneeled down to read, and certainly nothing above him. Which forced the consideration that the neither the “cloud” shadow or acidic “rain” were caused by the weather. The gargling hiss that followed seemed to confirm the idea.

Dipper turned his head. A long, dark green muzzle rippled next to his face, splitting in different places to reveal flesh-colored maws. Thick droplets of drool oozed out of each fleshy maw, a few falling free and sizzling on the sand below. All the while, a pair of massive blank orange eyes, one above the other, stared down at him. And then it roared. The muzzle split apart, revealing itself to be a series of five tentacles that flailed widely back and forth as spittle flew and a repugnant stench rolled over the beach. Each tentacles’ flesh-colored undersides leading into a circular mouth full of rotating fangs, a mouth that suddenly lurched down upon him.

Dipper flexed his fingers and a square of pale sand rocketed upwards. The creature, its rotating teeth, and all its flailing tentacles were knocked to the side as the equivalent of a ton of bricks rushed into the side of its head. A shower of sand rained down as it reeled to the side, screeching in pain as the two eyes on the struck side of its head clenched tight from the sandy impact.

The worm, no, slug was more apt, was big as a truck. If a truck could be likened to a pudgy bundle of sludge covered in black spikes and even more orange eyes. Some were bigger than the pair he’d…thrown sand into, others smaller, but all were focused solely on him. It started to swing that head of writhing tentacles back towards Dipper, who had taken its momentary reeling to glance at the blue glowing circle that had formed just above his palm.

It was just as the book had said. Or rather, it was just as the book had ben trying to tell him. What he hadn’t understood until he had needed to, until he had the opportunity to unleash what he had been holding on to for the past half a decade. What had been just under his nose but never known until now. Until he’d found himself in a place where he could attune to its power. And now he had it. Now, in this place, he could move his fingers around the circle he’d conjured and–

Another pillar of sand rushed upwards, striking the massive slug on what might as well have been the chin. Its head shot backwards with another screech, revealing the overgrown garden pest’s brown underside. Dipper unleashed another pillar, rising from his left to keep the slug off balance. Then another, and another, until nearly a dozen summoned spires surrounded him. He didn’t bother keeping them up for long though. Releasing his grip on the glowing circle, the spires collapsed in on themselves and returned to the beach below. But it wasn’t like he was done. For all its screeching, for having started to look like a battered fruit from all the dark bruises Dipper had left it with, and even with several of its eyes now being jammed shut or spikes broken off from the impact, the damned slug wasn’t slowing down. Each impact just made the beast jiggle, but never stopped it no matter how much pain it seemed to be in.

Dipper sighed and twisted his hand counterclockwise. The sand at his feet collected in a series of ripples that built up around his feet. At the same moment the slug barreled forwards, sending up a spray of sand behind it like waves of water in its wake. Dipper just pointed to the side with his circle hand. The slug came down on where he was standing, or had been standing. The sand built up to his ankles hardened and pulled him in the pointed direction before the slug’s massive weight could come down on him.

Dipper didn’t bother watching the explosion of sand that plumed upwards. Nor did he bother watching the slug confusedly search for a splattered corpse to feast on. No, Dipper had thumbed back open the 1 book instead. It had already given him the means to some power, and he’d barely gotten halfway through, surely a few more pages would enlighten him to a way to deal with his problem.

Another hiss gurgled out from between the slug’s tentacles, begetting another torrid stench. And then they repeated the same dance. The slug advanced in vicious lunge and Dipper pointed, causing the sand to drag him in whatever direction he needed. Only now he was reading again, letting the words’ light pass into him as he appeared to glide across the sand. It took three pages for him to find what he was looking for. For him to be made to understand what he was looking for. But then he had it.

“Compression…” he said to himself. “Of course.”

Again he released his hold on the circle and the sand at his feet became a loose pile once more. As the slug prepared to charge for what it didn’t know would be its last attempt at anything, Dipper held out his hand. The circle pulsed with a brighter glow as he imagined what he was about to do, and then he did it. Dipper pointed downwards with two fingers. The slug spewed sand and slime in its wake. The sand rippled halfway between him and the slug. The slug roared. Dipper flicked his fingers upward and a final eruption of sand bellowed across the beach.

Like the pillars, this final construct reached well in the air, but that was essentially where the similarities ended. The sand pillars had been squared and thick, this was nearly flat. Because this wasn’t meant to bludgeon, this was meant to cut. Dipper had raised a blade of ultra-compressed sand, razor sharp and thin as paper, from the ground to a height beyond the slug’s. And the creature didn’t have an inkling of a chance to avoid it.

It barreled headfirst into the sand-blade and then kept going. Dipper watched as what had been a behemoth of a beast intent on crushing and eating him instead passed to his side, both sides in fact. Split right down the middle, the remaining momentum pushed its entire body through the blade, resulting in two half-slugs that slid across the sand on its remaining mucus until either side of its carcass came to rest to either side of where Dipper stood. And thus, it was done.

The body halves sputtered and gasped, but it was just more vile gasses escaping. Parts of it still moved and twitched, but mostly it was just organs slipping out in clumps or membranous strings. But there was a sound that he didn’t expect, one that continued well after it was obvious how dead the slug was. Clanging metal, rustling cloth, and a myriad of other dings and clinks continued to knock against one another as, from the remains of its bisected stomach, a veritable heap of garbage spilled out. How it all hadn’t burnt to a crisp or melted from the saliva he didn’t know, but it certainly explained the smell. Rusted metal, moldy clothes, straight up trash, and things that he didn’t want to try and identify poured out seemingly by the ton.

“Eh,” Dipper grunted as he stepped back from the growing pile. The carcass was less disgusting than what was falling out of it, and he wasn’t counting the already partially buried organs that had popped out.

“Yeah, trash slugs can be really disgusting.”

“Wha!” Dipper jumped in place, the hair on the back of neck standing up as he turned to face the sudden voice. A monstrous slug attempting to flatten him had barely made him take notice, but a…a girl made him jump?

“But man, you took it out like a champ,” she continued, smiling at him as if she’d been there all along. Her crossed arms pressed her bracelets and the green sleeves of her jacket against a white and purple striped shirt, while her slightly tilted head made it seem like she was expecting something from him. “I’ve never seen anyone read so calmly during a monster attack.”

“Probably because it was a grimoire.”

Dipper twisted in place again, managing not to jump as a second person appeared beside him without notice but he was no less surprised. The new voice belonged to another woman, though she couldn’t have been more different from the girl who had appeared first. This lady had long grey hair compared to the girl’s short, curly brown lockes; utterly pale skin unlike the girl’s darker brown complexion; as well as some kind of red dress-like outfit that made her look like some kind of witch as opposed to the tomboy thing her younger companion had going on. But what really set them apart, what made Dipper stare in something other than just surprise, were her yellow in black eyes and feathers. Dark grey feathers that poked out of her dark red collar and sleeves, out of slits in her leggings, and even out of her hair. And, despite not being sure how, he was somehow certain those feathers weren’t just braided in.

“Those things’ll put you in a trance to make sure you get as much out of them in one go as possible. And that’s only if you get them to attune to you.”

“Really!?” the younger one seemed genuinely excited about whatever the older one was talking about, inching closer as her eyes flitted towards Dipper’s books. He tightened his grip. “I’ve been down here a while a never come across a working grimoire, and you’ve got three? Are they a set? Or did you manage to find each of them on their own? Are you taking them to Hexside? I’ve never seen you at school so did your coven just send you down?”

“Luz honey, breathe,” the older one said. She had been inspecting one of the piles of trash, but paused when the other, Luz evidently, started rambling. “Give him a chance to keep up.”

“Right, Right,” the younger one, Luz evidently, said before tenting her fingers in front of her mouth and nose then taking a deep breath. “Sorry about that, I just haven’t met another full human in a while. I’m Luz and that’s Eda, it’s nice to meet you.”

She held out her hand. Dipper eyed it for a second, glanced back at the other woman who had gone back to rooting through the trash, then slowly took her hand with his free one. As she shook it emphatically he replied, “…I’m Dipper.”

“Do all modern witches have such interesting names?” Eda asked while pulling a hunk of metal out of the pile. “First that Gaz girl and now ‘Dipper’? At least ghost boy had a name I recognized.”

“Eh.” Luz waved her hand at an angle, making it clear she thought Eda’s take was shaky at best. “I’m more of a modern witch than Danny is. But that doesn’t matter. So Dipper, are you here for Hexside?”

“Have you ever seen a modern witch who wasn’t down here to study?” Eda commented.

When Luz didn’t say anything else and even Eda looked back over her shoulder as they waited for a reply, Dipper just decided to go with it. If this Hexside place was some kind of school at least Connie and Twilight would gravitate towards it, which was something at least. “Yeah, my…coven and I were studying the ritual, but got separated in the fall.”

“That’s what you get for still using that corridor spell,” Eda grumbled. “I’m surprised more witches don’t wind up in the middle of Pentagram City instead of where they mean to go.”

Luz leaned in closer and quietly said, “She’s grumpy because they cracked down on how we used to go to and from Earth. So if she snaps at you don’t take it personally.”

“I’m not grumpy and I don’t snap,” Eda snapped. She had started dividing the trash into more organized piles; metal to one side, cloth to another, and rancid junk generally left where it lay.

“So you go to…Hexside?” Dipper asked in an attempt to not get caught in this pair’s back and forth. He was already having a hard time not hyper-focusing on Eda’s bird-like traits, so any excuse to keep his focus on Luz was welcome.

“You bet,” she said with a smile. “You’re looking at their first New witch, I even got them to expand the curriculum a bit.”

The way she said “new” made Dipper think she meant something beside just being a recent addition to the student body, especially considering how she’d compared herself to someone named Danny a minute ago. But she also didn’t seem to be inviting questions about that point, so he didn’t push it. Until he had an idea where here was and what he needed to expect from the locals he just wanted to go along with whatever he could. At least his experience dealing with weird locals would finally pay off.

Out of nowhere, Luz clapped her hands and shouted, “Ooh, I’ve got an idea! You can stay the night at our place, and I can take you to school when I go back tomorrow.”

“Don’t I get some say about who gets to stay at my place?” Eda interjected. She stood, dusting off her knees and hands before stepping closer. In his earlier surprise Dipper had somehow not noticed how much taller than him she was, but she was at least a head above him. Which meant that nearly seven feet of bird-lady was now looming above, eyeing him with those yellow in black eyes that seemed dismissive at best and hostile at worst. “Even if he doesn’t look like trouble, where would he even go? Lilith’s still crashing on the couch and the other two lay-abouts already take up too much space.”

"Please,” Luz pleaded. “He can stay on my spare bedroll, I can tell him about Hexside, and he can tell me what’s been going on topside.”

Dipper almost took offense about being toted as not looking like trouble, he had just killed a giant slug after all, but he also realized that drawing attention to that wouldn’t exactly help his case. On the other hand, it sounded like where he was haphazardly being invited to might be a tad crowded. So maybe he’d just… “I don’t want to cause any problems. Maybe you could just point me in the right direction.”

Eda’s eye twitched, then she let out an annoyed grunt. “You know, it’d be easier if you didn’t act like such a goody-two-shoes.”

“Sorry?”

“Does that mean what I think it means?” Luz asked, eyes large and shining.

Eda groaned again. “If you’re willing to help us pilfer this corpse, we’ll find a place for you.”

“Yes!” Luz shouted before grabbing Dipper’s hand. “Come on, Dipper. We’ll find a place for your stuff and then knock this out quick.”

---

Dipper started to put things together when Eda made a comment about why the slug’s trash hadn’t melted, because the Styx water neutralized its acidic drool. Add to that the fall, the fact that practically everything was red, how Eda and Luz referred to Connecticut and the rest of the human world as “up top,” and he had a pretty good idea of where that ritual had sent the Supernatural Studies Club. Though, he basically didn’t have to guess once Luz started preparing him for meeting her family. There was Aunt Lilith and Hooty, who like Eda would get feathers on his clothes if he wasn’t careful, but there was also her little brother, King. And she knew he would just love meeting King, what with his wagging tail, dark fur, and adorable skull helmet as she put it. Yes, Dipper was going to love her little hellhound brother.

So, Hell. Dipper had opened a portal to hell. Not bad. Well, it might end up being really bad down the line, but it was impressive. Afterall, the list of people who could say they’d managed to open a portal to hell couldn’t be a long one.

But, disregarding the monstrous slug that had wanted to eat him, since the immediate locals didn’t seem intent on torturing him for his sins or anything else one normally heard about hell Dipper continued to just go with it. He was just a modern witch that was helping a new witch and a bird lady find salvageable trash from a carcass so they could resell it in the heart of Goliath. Which was what the mountain range butting up against the Styx was called and where the school Luz was going on about was situated. Simple enough, he could keep track of that. And if moving some trash got him a place to stay the night, and thus a place to continue reading, as well as a guide to where he expected at least two of his friends to head for, then all the better.

All the while they chatted and sorted Dipper watched the others wield their magic. Eda created circles of light as he had, though hers were drawn with her index finger and were much dimmer than what he could produce. Luz, on the other hand, produced circles in a completely different way. What Dipper had initially taken for bracelets, but realized were more like manacles around not just her wrists but also her ankles, emitted their own circles whenever she went to cast a spell. Whether that meant shifting her left ankle to send blue light directly into the ground or a flick of her right wrist to command tendrils of darkness from her shadow via a radiant black light, the magic circles formed around the edge of manacles, expanded, then went in whatever direction she was working in.

Like with the pillars of shifting sand Dipper could muster, Luz mostly used her magic in these moments to separate trash she didn’t want to touch with her bare hands, though she did it with such nonchalant movements that it was clear that regardless of what being a new or modern witch meant she had been perfecting her skills for quite some time. Watching her work so effortlessly filled him with questions. Would he be able to reach that point? Why did her circles form differently than his or Eda’s? But mostly, if each manacle emitted a different color magic circle, and one was like what he could do from the first book, then did that mean her other two manacles would emit something else? Like a flame or sound? And adding on to that, did that mean he was still missing…

Dipper’s mind continued to race as they finished loading a wheelbarrow Eda had seemingly pulled out of her mane of hair and feathers. Questions piled up when Luz tried to show him how to channel the Earth element he’d been using into what she called construction magic for a boost of strength so he could push the barrow, but he evidently hadn’t gotten to that point in the first book. But nothing got the questions flowing more than who, or what, they met when their trek farther up the beach led them to a odd house nestled against the cliff faces across from the water.

The house was about the same size as the Mystery Shack had been, though with a random stone tower randomly built onto one side, but the stained glass above the front door was at least a more pleasant sight than the shack’s disheveled sign had been. Though, speaking of the front door, Dipper didn’t quite understand why there was an owl face decorating it. Were they just that into the bird motif?

“Get the door, kid,” Eda instructed Dipper as they got closer. “Luz, you wheel it right in. Lilly can make herself useful for once and start prepping the loot for sale.”

“Don’t be surprised if Hooty jumps out at you,” Luz added as she pushed the wheelbarrow behind Dipper. “He has…personal space issues.”

Dipper looked back while reaching for the door handle. “Unfortunately, I’m used to mine being invaded, so I’m sure–”

“Hoot hoot!”

The decorative owl face rushed out of the door and practically headbutted Dipper as it hooted right in his face. Before he knew what was happening he was on the ground, tripped by a combination of surprise and his own feet as a face of feathers flew around him, supported by a neck that just kept stretching to any length and twisting to any angle imaginable. It may have been the most disturbing thing Dipper had ever seen, and yet his would-be hosts just stood there watching as if it was an everyday occurrence.

“Who’s this? Hoot,” the owl head asked as it snaked back and forth. Its voice was shrill and grating, every syllable a screech that assaulted his ears nearly as much as its elongated neck assaulted his eyes. “Friend? Snack? Lover?”

“Don’t be gross, Hooty.” Eda dismissed the very notion of the tube-owl-snake’s nonsense as she stepped past where Dipper had fallen, pushed it out of her way, and grabbed the door handle herself. “Now get your butt out of the door, we brought loot for you to root through.”

Eda practically threw open the door, revealing a tall avian body pressed up against the door on the other side. She ignored that just as she’d ignored the elongated neck and head stretching out of her door as she went inside. Hooty watched her go, his head following along and even passing his body as he looked inside after her before twisting back towards Dipper and then pulling his neck and head back through the hole in the door. A little flap fell into place after him, covering the hole with a slightly cartoonier owl face than the one that Dipper had just gotten way too up-close with.

Dipper was too preoccupied to watching…whatever was going on in front of him to register anything about the state of the door though. The talons at the end of Hooty’s spindly, feathered arms and legs braced him in place as he pulled himself free. And, just as Dipper started to have a coherent thought about how such a slim body could support such a long winding neck, it suddenly didn’t. Hooty didn’t so much pull his neck back through the hole as his neck shrunk back towards it until, by the time his head finally came to be on the same side of the door as his body, his neck was no longer a mile-long abomination but instead something resembling what an eight-foot-tall bird man should have for a neck…Dipper guessed. He didn’t have much in the way of context.

Hooty winked at Dipper, then ran into the house screaming, “Lulu! Eda brought home treasures! And a boy!”

“Sorry about him.” Luz wheeled the barrow beside him as Dipper got back to his feet. The pair of earthy circles she had conjured around her arms still glowing brightly as she hoisted the barrow’s weight with ease. The fact nothing of the precariously shifting pile had come tumbling down on their way here was surprising, increased strength for its driver or not. “Hooty’s an odd duck…er, owl. But as far as possibly insane goetia go, he’s a good egg. Plus, he’s great at scaring people off when Eda gets on someone’s bad side.”

“Does he shove his neck in their faces too?”

Luz chuckled. “Kind of. Just don’t give him a reason to swallow you.”

“Luz, chop-chop,” Eda yelled from inside before Dipper could react.

Luz squared her shoulders, easily lifting the barrow handles back up while cocking her head to towards the door. “Come on, we’ll drop this and then we can book it upstairs.”

What Dipper stepped into reminded him less of a house and more of one of those restaurants where the walls were covered in stuff attempting to be kitsch. Stuffed heads, nick knacks, idols and figures of things or people or something in between that Dipper couldn’t place, and more adorned every surface but the floor itself. It was a combination of things that ran the gambit from demonic artifacts of the utmost importance to roadside trash.

And in the middle of all that sat a massive overstuffed couch opposite an equally massive fireplace, its jagged opening a massive pair of fangs that Dipper could just imagine a tongue of fire lapping out if it had been lit. But it wasn’t, so his attention quickly diverted to the pair on the couch.

There was Hooty of course, excitedly watching Luz tote the pile inside, as well as another woman slouched on the faded cushions. Despite being partially spread across the couch in an awkward slump, she looked like she was probably around the same height as Eda, though her skin was even paler while her hair was straighter and nearly raven black in comparison, while her green-within-black eyes peered out from behind a pair of askew glasses. Despite all the differences though, it wasn’t hard to figure this woman was “Aunt Lilith” given how similar her face and protruding feathers were to Eda’s.

“Oh good,” Lilith sighed as she watched Luz haul in the wheelbarrow. “You brought a trash pile home for me to throw myself in.”

“Aunt Lilith’s still a little upset about getting fired recently,” Luz noted. She said it fairly quietly over her shoulder to Dipper, but Lilith’s pointy ears still twitched and lip trembled at what must have been a taboo topic. Which immediately prompted Luz to add, and much more loudly, “That she was much too good for anyway.”

“That’s right, Lulu. You’re a treasure that can never be replaced, and since Luz is hauling a bucket of treasure you could throw yourself on it and still be right where you belong. Hoot hoot.”

Lilith raised a hand to Hooty’s cheek, bristling the feathers there. “Oh Hootsifur, your poetic diction is the only thing that brings me comfort some days.”

Dipper didn’t know how anything that came out in that voice could be considered comforting. He also was pretty sure the owl-man had just told her that she’d would be at home in a trash pile, so again…but maybe it was a hell thing he didn’t understand. Or maybe it was a middle-aged woman thing he didn’t understand. Both seemed as likely as the other.

Eda emerged from a doorway opposite the one they’d come in through, swirling a mug in her cupped hands. “Enough mushy junk. There’s sorting to be had and sales to make. Many hands make short work or whatever. Speaking of…” She looked around the room then leaned back through the doorway and shouted, “King, get your furry butt down here. It’s prep day.”

As the clattering of tip-tapping claws on wood scrambled upstairs, Dipper couldn’t help but liken Eda to Stan. Exploiting her family for sales opportunities was…well, it wasn’t just in but had been his whole wheelhouse. Though it didn’t seem like this lady had ever built a secret town-destroying machine in her basement, not that he was ready to completely put it past her. They probably would have gotten along at the very least, though if she was smart enough she’d make like that Marylin lady who had dumped him in Vegas and bow out before too long. Not that she’d ever get the chance. Well, considering where they were–

“Have you gathered new minions to strengthen my army?” came echoing down the stairs as the click-clack of claws grew closer and closer. Dipper had mentally prepared himself for what he thought a hellhound might look like, but he hadn’t even considered what one might sound like. King’s voice was a lot like Hooty’s, not as painfully wistful but in a similar pitched range.

What came scampering through the doorway past Eda and up to the now resting wheelbarrow was a lot more of a person than hound, at least as far Dipper was concerned. And considering he had delt with actual talking animals before he felt like he had some level of experience on the matter. King certainly had hound-like traits; from his fur to his oversized collar and what could be seen of his head under his skull “helmet,” to his tail and little claws, but if you tossed him on the street at Halloween everyone would just think he was a kid with a really well-made costume.

So was everyone down here part or wholly animal based? Eda and Lilith had bird traits, Hooty was a disturbing owl, and King was a dog. And did that make them furries? Was hell full of furries?

“Sorry kiddo,” Eda said as King flitted around the wheelbarrow, his bushy tail wagging. “Your kind of goods didn’t wash in with the other sinner stuff this time.”

His tail dropped. “Oh, ok.”

Eda reached down and gently shook King’s head with one hand. “Hey, you keep your end of the deal making sure our resident, couch surfing birdbrains do their jobs and I’ll see if I can get you something from the Night Market.”

The tail wagged once more. “Really.”

“Of course.”

Luz went over and bent forward to be at eye level with her “little brother.” It was probably something she was used to doing considering King was maybe four and a half feet tall while Luz had an inch or so on Dipper, putting her closer to six. “That’s great, King. I’m sure you can handle the job while I show my new friend around.”

“Of course! Wait, new friend?”

King’s gaze shifted to Dipper for the first time and narrowed. “And who is this?”

“This is Dipper,” she explained while Dipper gave a little wave to the hellhound. “He’s going back to Hexside with me tomorrow.”

“Oh really…”

“Does Amity know about your new friend?” Lilith had sat up a bit, but was still partially slumped over as she peered at Luz between the trash and Hooty.

Luz sighed and stood back up. “She’ll know tomorrow, Aunty. And it’s not like…”

Dipper found himself being pulled away by the wrist, causing Luz’s explanation to fade into the background as King led him into the dim hallway Eda had emerged from a few minutes before. To one side there was a staircase leading to the next floor and the other side opened to a kitchen where Eda’s drink must have come from. King stopped them before they got to either, halting right between the two once he and King were out of eye- and earshot.

 The little hellhound let go, crossing his arms as he looked up at Dipper through narrowed eyes. This was obviously supposed to be intimidating, but it was a little hard to take his attempt at building tension too seriously. Not only because of the way he looked but because even in the dimness of the hallway the collection of novelty junk, demonic or otherwise, lightened the tone considerably. Whatever King had to say wasn’t going to take away from the fact that the wall to the right featured a cartoonishly stuffed head with its tongue rolled out and literal X’s for eyes while to their left hung a painting of a worm doing the worm on a slab of cardboard while a beatbox blared in the background.

“So you’re here to study some magic, huh?” King finally said after a moment.

“That’s the plan,” Dipper replied. He let himself sound a bit unsure, as he was, if only because it seemed like what the kid wanted.

“Which means you’re not here to try anything with my sister?”

“No.” Dipper couldn’t help letting his surprise shine through or the speed at which the word rushed out of his mouth. If there was one thing he wasn’t here to do, playing a role or otherwise, it was to try anything with anyone. And to drive that home, Dipper kneeled down the same way he’d seen Luz do with King earlier and said as sincerely as possible, “I have someone back home I’m…still hoping to see again, so no one down here has to worry about that from me. Plus, your sister looks like she could spell circles around me, so you really don’t have anything to worry about from me.”

“Good, good. Because Luz can be a bit too trusting sometimes,” King said, nodding between words. Then, out of nowhere, a clawed hand grasped Dipper by the collar and pulled his face close enough for him and King to be literally eye-to-eye. “And if that trust was ever betrayed, everyone in this house would make that person wish they were dead.”

Dipper gulped.

“I’d bite out their throat. Hooty would peck out their eyes. I don’t know what Eda and Lilith would do, but it wouldn’t be pretty. And that’s before her girlfriend got ahold of them. So make sure you don’t get to know anyone like that, ‘kay?”

“Y-yep, more than okay.”

“What are you two doing back here?” Luz stuck her head into the little hallway, quizzically looking in at he and King.

“Just showing our new friend around,” King said jovially. The dog-boy had let go and scurried over to Luz so quickly Dipper barely had a chance to register it.

“Aww. Thank you, King.” She lifted him up and hugged him while his tail wagged nonstop. “You do such a good job at keeping people from seeing this family’s craziness.”

“Yeah,” Dipper added after straightening up and shifting his backpack back into place. “His tour was very informative.”

King shot him a side-eye glare, but Dipper just kept smiling. He was sure it was a nervous smile, but there were so many things to be nervous about that he couldn’t help it. He had things to figure out, things to pretend to be, and above all things to read.

Luz returned the smile, either buying the farce or so used to it like she was all the other craziness that it simply didn’t bother her. She put King back down and said, “Well, I need you to inform the others about how not to get into a fight while Dipper and I talk about stuff for tomorrow. Can you do that for me?”

“So you’re saying I’m in charge?”

“Of Lilith and Hooty at least.”

“Then I’m on it!”

King marched back into the other room, full of pep and vigor. His squeaky voice started to bark orders, but by then Luz had waved Dipper towards the stairs and whatever he was commanding the others to do started to fade into shrill mumbles below. More paintings and figures and other assorted decorations lined the walls of the stairwell and upper floor it led to, occasionally broken up by drapes in the corners or where Dipper could only assume there would be windows behind them.

“Sorry about them,” Luz said with a sigh. “I know they can be a little much.”

“Oh, they’re a hoot.”

Luz laughed as she opened the door to a small room. “That’s putting it mildly, but they’ve been my family for so long I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

“How long have you been down here?” Dipper asked as he followed her inside. What he supposed must have been her bedroom given the mattress on the floor may have actually been a converted storage room. Instead of shelves to keep books, candles, pictures of a girl with pinkish-purple hair, and other assorted odds and ends off the floor, all of that was stored on planks of wood built into the house frame. Which didn’t really keep the room from looking like a storage closet given the chests and piles of who-knew-what that lined the walls. Even the drapes partially covering the room’s sole window was only held up by a few nails. Still, it wasn’t like Dipper could judge. Some of his happiest memories involved sleeping in an attic or getting chased through a cryo bunker.

Luz had to think about it for a second, but managed to huff out a reply while pushing a pile out of the way of massive cabinet. “Hmmm, Eda’s door topside was destroyed over four years ago, so I guess it’s been close to five years by now since I stumbled in.”

“Door?”

“Something Eda cooked up with counterfeit Asmodean crystals.” Luz flicked her wrist and pointed when the bottom drawer of the cabinet that wouldn’t budge. As before, a glowing black circle formed along the edge of her manacle. The shadow beneath the drawer began to wriggle and writhe, until the darkness itself rose off the floor as inky black tentacles that slid themselves into the seams of the drawer. They continued to undulate, all the while inflating and pulling until, with a massive yowl of splintering wood, the drawer burst open. A rolled-up mat was practically flung into Luz’s arms amid an explosion of paper slips with what might have been circles drawn on them. Though none of it seemed to phase her at all. “But it was…lost when Belos and the Sins cracked down on travel to and from the mortal realm.”

She unlaced and spread the thin mat across the floor as if she hadn’t just admitted to being trapped in Hell for as long as he’d been looking for something like it. Had it all just become so normal for her after so long? It must have, right? The people downstairs were her “family,” she went to school, King even said she had a girlfriend, but it seemed like such a stretch to call a place with giant slugs and animal-people home. Though, again, Dipper had once had a conversation with a multi-headed bear and a group of minotaur. Maybe he should split the difference and just tell himself this was Hell, Kansas until he got used to the idea.

“What about your family back on Earth?”

Luz’s smile faltered, becoming a sad one for a moment. She turned back to the cabinet to root around in the drawers before replying. “It was just me and mom back home, but she didn’t really get me.” She flung a comforter over her shoulder without looking, it landed mostly on the mat. “I miss her, but I’m doing better here than I ever did in Connecticut. Plus, we made a Luz disguise for a demon who was willing to take my place for a while. It’s been longer than originally planned, but Gaz said she might let me talk to her coven head next visit so who knows…”

She turned around again, holding a pillow to her chest. She wasn’t looking at him, didn’t seem to be looking at anything at all really, and she definitely wasn’t smiling anymore.

“I’m…” Dipper bit his lip. “I’m sorry to bring that up.”

She shook her head. “You didn’t know.”

The pillow dropped to the head of the mat before Luz plopped herself down on her own makeshift bed. She almost immediately looked more relaxed, but still Dipper didn’t say anything as she peered at the pictures on her shelves or up towards the rafters and the sparkly bits and bobs that hung from it. Then she took a deep breath and the smile came back as she motioned towards the mat she’d just set up. “But that’s enough normie talk for now. Park your butt so I can fill you in on everything they don’t tell you about hell.”

Dipper did as instructed, though he wasn’t surprised when the mat she’d laid out for him was just as limp in the cushion department as he had expected given how old and ratty it had looked when she’d pulled it out. Still, he’d take that over wandering around in hell’s wilderness overnight. Even if that had been his suggestion, the last time he’d camped out a wolf had tried to eat his leg and he didn’t really want to experience the hell version of that. And, besides her helping him understand as much about this place as possible, he thought it would do both of them some good to have someone relatively normal to talk to.

She talked about the Goliath Mountain range and where they’d set off for in the morning; people, places, and species included. He gave a mostly accurate recount of where the journals, or rather grimoires, had come from. She mentioned that there must be a fourth book if they were a set, since he was missing one for the shadow element. Which was also her element to hear her tell it, the first she had discovered through glyphs before discovering her manacles at the four ends of the range. And so on back and forth, until what little of the red daylight that had been filtering in through her window had long turned to darkness.

Chapter Text

“This is why you’re still an initiate,” Lucy chided as she and others followed. She may have said everything in monotone but Janna knew, she was utterly certain, that the gothic Lolita was enjoying the excuse to spout her superiority. As if “trainee” was some massive step up in title. “If the wrong people got their hands on that scroll–”

“That’s enough,” Lady Gwen interrupted. “Right now all that matters is finding it. We’ll deal with who took it after that.”

Those two along with Headmistress Kaisa followed, their four sets of footsteps echoing through the normally buzzing quad. The late hour and first night of spring break had emptied it though, the very reason the coven had been preparing the ritual for that night. Now it was just them and the stars above, retracing Janna’s steps to the only place she figured the scroll could have been made off with. At first her run-in with the buxom freshman had seemed a fun distraction while waiting for the day to end; but tall, dark, and top-heavy was the only person to get even remotely close to her bag the whole day, so there’d be less time for flirting the next time they ran into one another.

“This is where she ‘tripped’ into me,” Janna said as they came to the cracked and jutting part of the quad path. “She called herself Anne. Tall, Thai I think, dark clothes. She was reading while walking, so I didn’t think anything of it then.”

“Does the boy you doodle in your spellwork know how easily you get distracted by other women?” Lucy’s monotone question grated on Janna’s ears. If she didn’t need to play nice with them to get where she needed to be Janna would have throttled the brat by now. “Or is tall and tan just your type?”

“Considering the blonde I doodle with him, I think he knows what I’m about.”

“Stop bickering,” Kaisa commanded, her Scandinavian accent breaking through in her annoyance. “Gwen, shield us from wondering eyes.”

“Yes, mistress.”

The tall red-head bent down so that her crackling violet spell circle forming between her hands wouldn’t attract the very attention she was setting to repel, her subservience to their head witch still something that was hard to take at face value even after three years under their tutelage. While neither Headmistress Kaisa nor Lady Gwen looked to be much beyond their late twenties, not much older than Janna herself, everyone in the coven was expected to bow down to the former’s every command. Though that had more than a little something to do with Kaisa not being in her twenties, at least if the thirty-year-old photos Janna had found of her looking exactly the same were anything to go by.

Lady Gwen’s spell circle sunk into the ground, but Janna could still feel it, could still almost see it as it pulsed and grew. It spread right beneath the surface, until the entirety of the quad lay within it. She looked up to Kaisa and nodded. Once she’d received a nod in return, Gwen raised her arms. A wall of violet light rose along edges of the quad. It was a shimmering barrier that would have induced panic among the plebs that actually attended the school, if any of them could see it. Supposedly in more magical realms it was harder to hide spell effects, but while Janna hadn’t reached the point where her own magic could be completely hidden she could still see the spells of those who could.

“We’re safe to proceed,” Gwen stated matter-of-factly. “No one will disturb us or want to come this way.”

Janna raised her hand, her own purple circle already glowing to life. “Bon Bon, heed my–”

“Your…clown won’t be necessary,” Kaisa said quickly. “At least not yet.”

Janna’s fist closed, extinguishing her circle. “Wasn’t the point to track it down? My contract can do that easy.”

“This trip was to prepare Lucy for her upcoming stay at Hexside, let’s give her the opportunity to prove she’s ready for such responsibility.”

Lucy curtsied. “Very well, Mistress Kaisa.”

Little miss uber goth held out her hand as if to offer it to someone, allowing the silver bell that never rang to hang from her charm bracelet. The very sight of that bell annoyed Janna, it was the reason Lucy had managed to move from initiate to trainee so quickly despite joining the cover just before she had. And, as if just to taunt her, Janna had no idea where she’d gotten it. Like Lucy’s own eyes behind her bangs, she had just disappeared one day and when she popped back up a week later she had it. If anyone should have had a cheat item like that it should have been Janna.

Lucy began to chant, speaking in the old tongue that had taken Janna so long to master. But she had finally gotten to a point where she could hear and understand it as clear as English. Basically to the point where it came through as English now. “Upon the earth where feet doth tread, allow the thief’s trail to be read.”

She shifted her hand, and this time the bell did ring. The single, piercing chime it let out echoed across the quad while a ring of blue light formed just below Lucy’s wrist. The vibrant spell circle almost immediately fell to the ground, dropping like a stone before sinking into the ground below. However, unlike Gwen’s circle, the effect of Lucy’s spell remained visible even without what the others didn’t like Janna calling witch vision. The spell circle’s light glowed bright as it spun in place. Brighter and faster until, with a pop and a flash, it went out.

Janna wanted to believe the teacher’s pet had failed, but knew not to get her hopes up. And she would have been wrong to hope anyway, because mere seconds later the glow returned. Instead of a circle though, what flashed beneath their feet where the silhouettes of footprints in every shape, style, and size, all glowing the same blue as the spell circle Lucy had created. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, flashed into existence and then went right back out. Over and over the different footprints came and went, but with every wave of appearing and disappearing outlines the size of the next wave got smaller. What started as a mass of indistinctive blue light became overlapping prints that crisscrossed and ran into one another, which in turned became a few dozen with much more identifiable paths and less overlap. So on and so on, until there was only one set of footprints left.

Boot prints to be exact, exactly the type Janna would suspect from what that Anne girl had been wearing.

Maybe Lucy saw the recognition on Janna’s face, or more likely just trusted her own magic more than Janna in general, because the brat didn’t even bother asking if they were the right ones. Instead, she turned and monotonely asked Gwen, “My lady, are you ready to move the barrier with us?”

“Just show us the way.”

Lucy nodded and shifted her hand again. The bell rang, though less loudly, and immitted its blue light from within. The boot prints began to move. Well, their trail did. Each step Anne had taken appeared one after another. There was where she pretended to trip, a few steps as she shuffled around and talked, and then off her prints went across the quad.

The coven followed. Lucy still holding her arm and bell out, though as usual it had stopped making noise. Janna stayed close, ready to give that girl a piece of her mind. Hot or not, no one was going to get in the way of the only thing she cared about in this world. Lady Gwen was next, now openly holding her spell circle out in front of her to better control the barrier that followed them. Anyone that the came across while she had that spell going would either think of a reason to turn away or just zonk out until they passed. A useful bit of magic that Janna had been told early on she couldn’t use to steal personal information with. And then taking up the rear was Headmistress Kaisa, silently watching as usual.

The path of blue footprints, appearing as the coven followed and disappearing as they passed, crossed the quad and turned the corner. Anne must have wanted to make sure she wasn’t followed after that, because the trail just meandered around for a while, even crossing itself a few times. Which was either smart or paranoid, but definitely annoying. Regardless, after a tour of the campus they finally found where she must have gone.

The Medrano building was all dark as far as they could see, and locked up tight given the hour. Janna still tugged on the door just to be sure, then stepped aside for Kaisa. While it would have been neat if their great leader had cast a spell to covertly let them get inside, instead she flexed her employment status. Pressing her ID badge that hung around her neck against the pad to the side of the door, there was a beep and then a click as the door unlocked. That was actually more Janna’s type of “magic,” it just wasn’t the type that would get her what she was really after.

The footsteps continued into the building. Then down the stairs into the basement. And finally, near the end of an otherwise pitch-black hallway, they stopped at the only door with light shining out from under it. Janna felt the heat rise as the door neared, the same kind of heat Kaisa had conjured to prepare them for tonight’s ritual. That…wasn’t a good sign. There was a surge of magic at the tail end of the coven, but since Lucy and Gwen were still maintaining their tracking and shielding spells it must have been Kaisa. The surge of heat must have spurred her to action. And that, well that could mean bad news for whoever was behind that door, Janna herself, or both.

Yet, as they neared the door and the air swelled with magic, something caused every one of them to pause. There was a sign on the door, hanging off-center with one side drooping farther down than the other. The bright white sheet of posterboard was decorated with great big letters spelling out “The Supernatural Studies Club is making magic, thanks for not interrupting” in sparkling gold glitter glue. There were also six simplistic faces drawn in the corner, also in glitter glue but each a different color.

“This is either an orgy or a bunch of kids that snuck onto campus.”

“Enough,” Kaisa snapped, her already thin patience for Janna wearing thinner. “Open it.”

Janna reached for the handle, if only so she could beat Lucy to the punch, and was instantly bathed in another wave of sticky heat. That didn’t completely count out her orgy idea, but it was seeming unlikelier by the moment. Gritting her teeth, Janna turned the handle and pushed the door open.

There wasn’t an orgy.

Walls covered in rune-covered white paper met a gaping hole of utter blackness where there should have been a floor. Shattered planks of wood jutted out like teeth between the white and black while a few pieces of furniture hung suspended in the air and all the while heat filtered upwards and, thanks to the open door, swelled over the coven members. It was bad. It was worse than bad. It was the most disappointed Janna had ever been to not walk in on an orgy.

“How could non-witches manage this?” Lady Gwen asked aloud. “Even with a freshly prepared traversal scroll, it should be impossible for those without the gift of magic to open the corridor.”

“Why does it feel…off?” Lucy had finally let her hand fall to her side while her eyes, as little of them as could be seen behind her bangs, stared into the darkness of the void below.

“How would you know what it should feel like?” Janna shot back.

“It doesn’t matter.” Kaisa waived them out of her way as she stepped to the edge of where the hallway met nothingness. “Whoever belongs to this club, they managed to open the corridor. Imperfect as it may be, living people from our territory are now in Hell. It’s our responsibility to deal with the situation. Though, Lucy is right. Something about it feels off.”

She took a deep breath before extending her right hand into the room, palm up. Without a word or follow-up gesture, a purple circle of light formed between her fingers then floated up and towards the center of the bottomless room. The circle glowed brighter, then shined so brightly it was almost too much to look at, before finally bursting in a flash that colored everything purple for a few seconds. After that though, the light was gone. In its place floated a girl with pigtails and an oversized shirt, she could have been any student from Rev. U. too lazy to put on real clothes before going out for a midnight snack, but there was something that made Janna sure that wasn’t the case. It might have been the total disinterest and possibly annoyance as she looked around the room, even into the void below her. But it was probably more that she was a bit transparent.

“Like, what can I do for you,” the girl rolled her eyes, “mistress. Quickly if possible. I was at a party and it’d be great to get back to my host body before someone tries something with it.”

“Marra,” Kaisa began, ignoring her summoned spirit’s request. “I need you to go down and check the corridor.”

“Uh…” The Marra leaned forward and floated closer to where the floor should have been while gazing at the long way down below her. “You know it’s not safe for spirits like me to go into hell alone, right?”

Kaisa muttered something Scandinavian under her breath. “And you know my magic will keep you from becoming a sinner. But, if it will incentivize you, do this for me without further complaint and I’ll lift your feeding restrictions for the night.”

The Marra’s eyes widened. “Yes, ma’am,” she replied with fresh vigor while faux saluting with a hand lost within an oversized sleeve.

Then she was gone. She dove into the darkness like a rock into the sea, disappearing into the nothingness and the pinprick of red in its depths within seconds. Janna leaned towards Lady Gwen, the member of the coven least likely to bite her head off as she asked, “Is her feeding something that we’re going to have to clean up later?”

Lady Gwen sighed. “Marra’s induce nightmares to feed on fear. She’ll add to the hangovers of the others at her party, but it’s nothing we should have to worry about.”

“You’d know that if you actually completed your assignments,” Lucy added. As usual, Janna could hear the superiority beneath the monotone delivery, whispered or otherwise.

Janna took a deep breath. Hiccup in her plans or not, she only had to get through this to get what she wanted. What she’d been wanting for years. Who she’d been wanting for years. Even before that day, the day blaring horns and screaming had filled the street. The day she’d been startled from reviewing captured footage. He’d finally figured out where the camera was too, but still did everything she ever hoped to see from either of them. And then…and then…the horns blared inside her head. What she wanted was always on her mind, yet she spent so much time not thinking about the day that had set her down this course. What she’d lost after losing so much more than her coven or the orphanage or anyone else in this world could ever imagine. But soon she’d never have to think about any of that ever again. Soon she’d get back what fate or destiny or whatever other piece of shit universal force had stripped her of when it was all she had left. She had played long enough, her endgame was coming.

A schlurping noise pulled Janna from her obsessive thoughts, disgusting her back to the present in just the right way. If she wasn’t certain the sound was from the hell hole or the spirit who had just slid down it, she would have pulled out her phone to record it. But she had learned quick enough once taken in by Kaisa that most of what would have made good material just didn’t show up on electronic recordings. Which was why almost no one who swore by supernatural experiences could ever prove them. Without the right setup or counter-magic the evidence would usually remain right outside of what technology could capture.

The schlurping continued, growing closer as the spirit came back into view. Her body had stretched as she clawed her way back up, though what she was grabbing onto was a mystery considering there was only darkness down there, but whatever. Everything from just below her arms had elongated into a snake-like form that reached all the way down to the pinprick of red in the depths below. Every time she moved a little higher another schlurp blurted out as her body stretched a little bit more. Her legs never came into view, just an ever-elongating shirt the disappeared far below.

Kaisa made no move to help her contracted spirit, with Janna and the others following suit. Until, after several minutes of watching the Marra crawl her way up, a sleeved hand gripped the edge of the broken floorboards. Her nails left gashes even through her sleeves as she gripped the wood tightly. Then her second hand appeared, leaving its own set of gashes in the wood before she was finally able to pull her head above the border between the void and what remained of the club room. The snap came as soon as her massive pigtails came into view.

Like a rubber band or old cartoon character, the rest of the Marra snapped back into place with the rest of her as if she’d been let go from the other end. The momentum launched her into the air, spinning her head over heels in a blur of alternating blonde hair and dark clothes. Eventually she slowed to a stop, though her head and eyes continued to spin as wobbled in the air. She had picked up a bit of a green hue in her trip, and with her hands on her stomach Janna could only lament missing out on recording the inevitable ectoplasmic splurge.

“What is the situation?” Kaisa asked. There was no consideration for the spirit’s state, just right to the point as always.

“I wanna get off Mr. Bones wild ride…” she muttered.

“Marra!”

“The…uh…” the Marra covered her mouth, then swallowed something. Janna didn’t think she’d ever been so disappointed. “The corridor…it’s like…uh, shattered…half-way down.”

Lucy and Gwen’s jaws nearly dropped. But, while the latter managed to somewhat hold her surprise, the former couldn’t help but blurt out, “Someone actually destroyed it!?”

Kaisa rubbed her eyes. “More likely their goals must have been different, so it threw them to the winds to fulfill them as best it could.”

Her hand fell from her eyes into a wave, leaving a purple glow in its wake from her already formed magic circle. As quickly as Janna and the others could form their own magic circles, none of them could move from such mundane movement to casting spells with as much ease as their head Witch. Even Gwen, practically a perfectionist in everything she did, regularly had to take a casting stance or motion before finalizing her spells.

“You’re relieved for the night, Marra.” The purple spell circle floated off her hand and towards a space below the spirit, just like the one that had summoned her. “Try to keep your feeding in check though. If I have to clean up another broken mind you won’t be feeding again this lifetime.”

“Righty-oh…neiborino…” the Marra said. She attempted to give another little salute, but she undershot her forehead by a few inches as she wobbly floated into the expanding spell circle. Her feet and legs went into one side, but didn’t come out the other. More of her disappeared into the circle; waist, torso, then neck. Right before her head disappeared completely she mused, “I wonder if that one tasty boy is still there. Gonna eat me some Da–”

She was cut off as her head sunk into the circle, which then shrunk to a point. There was another flash, much less impressive than the one that summoned her, and then there were just the four of them again. Leaving Janna with a singular, questioning thought. Should she be worried about the boy the Marra had in mind, or envious?

“Lady Gwen,” Kaisa cut in. “Explain the ritual to begin repairing corridor so we can survive our next descent. I will see if this club is actually registered so we know who we’ll be looking for.”

“Yes, mistress.”

Kaisa twirled in place, her hair, minicape, and skirt fluttering along with her. She started back down the hallway towards the stairs, leaving them to follow her instructions. Their head witch really was a woman of few words, how Janna seemed to be the only one who ever questioned any of those few words she didn’t know. Even Gaz had always done whatever Kaisa told her without question, something Janna had never seen her do with any other “authority” figure. What did the others know that made them all so subservient? What had she missed?

“The repair ritual follows a similar principle to the connection ritual,” Lady Gwen began as she reached into the folds of her scarf. A moment later her hand reappeared, now holding a scroll very much like the one Janna had prepared for that night. “So the process should be familiar enough.”

“I know I’m going to regret asking this,” Janna started, “But if the corridor’s still there, broken or not, then can’t we still just go? What I came up researching was that the connection was the hardest part.”

Lucy let out a single guffaw. As usual she was too high and mighty to even normally laugh at Janna. “Why don’t you jump in and tell us how it goes then.”

Lady Gwen sighed again. She didn’t like to be the babysitter, but Kaisa always left her in exactly that position. One more than one occasion Janna had overheard her saying something about “dweebs” under her breath whenever the younger members of the coven started to get into an argument, especially before Gaz went down. And considering how often arguments occurred it made Janna wonder just when their second-in-command would finally crack.

“The part of the spell that prevents the trip down from being lethal is contained by the corridor,” Gwen explained. She had finished unfurling the new scroll and, while holding it up by one end, had begun casting a series of short spells in succession. With each flash of a spell circle a new section of the scroll’s inlaid text began to glow. “If the corridor has shattered then the magic would have gone with our band of thieves, leaving us with nothing but a several mile drop. Which isn’t the way you want to arrive anywhere.”

Well, technically that wasn’t a deal ender for Janna…but it could lead to complications. She didn’t want to imagine her hard work not paying off, whether by not finding what she was after or not being accepted when she did find it. Which meant, as much as she hated it, going along with this farce even longer. It would pay off though, she knew it would.

“Then let’s get it fixed,” Janna finally replied. “I’ve got words for that Anne chick anyway.”

“We’ll have more than just words for them,” Gwen replied with a grimace. What she said next didn’t seem to please her, but come from a place of responsibility. “We’ll have to clean up their trail if there’s anything left to bring back. Or, if they become too troublesome, we’ll have to make sure there’s nothing left to bring back."

Chapter Text

“I still can’t believe you started a civil war in town,” Sprig mused as he hopped alongside Anne.

“There’s nothing civil in shipping wars, dude.” After a long night of keeping the not-frogs, as Anne still had to think of them, from going at each other’s throats, she was more than ready to slide into her basement abode. Maybe she could even get a few hours of sleep before something else inevitably went wrong. The distant rays of the sun were still only just threatening to come up over the horizon, so there was some hope. “Still can’t believe everybody went so crazy over a movie though. You’d think they’d be more invested in your little triangle if that kind of thing got them so hot and bothered.”

Sprig’s boisterous little hops slowed as his gaze drifted away. “It’s probably because Ivy and Maddie have been gone…for a month?”

A breeze rustled Anne’s hair, at least she thought it was a breeze. “You say something?”

“Huh?” He looked up at her, seemingly confused. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh…well, anyway, at least no one was almost eaten this time,” Anne noted as she continued down the path from town to the Plantar’s farm, Sprig quickly following along.

“Like the time you convinced me to take you swimming?”

“Or the time I tried to teach you how to make pizza.”

“When you wanted a pet.”

They pointed at each other and said in unison, “the restaurant!”

The laughter of a middle school girl and not-frog echoed through the darkness. They were close enough to town not to have to worry about predators, and since everyone was so tired from fighting their shipping war there was no one to complain about their noise for once. Which was nice. Going from a big city to a small town had led to a bunch of norms and expectations dropping on Anne that she had taken some time to adjust to, not counting the Amphimpian detail about her new neighbors. But, with nothing but time to kill while they waited for the path out of Goliath’s crotch to be cleared so they could finally leave, she had gotten used to what farm-town life had in store for her. Still, to think she had almost been eaten or almost gotten others eaten so many times was hard to believe, and she had been there. It was almost like so much shouldn’t have happened in just a month…

Had she really been here a month? That didn’t seem right. Like, she remembered it. The times she had nearly had or had tripped over all the not-frogs scampering underfoot. The times she’d nearly been eaten of course. Getting used to living with Hop Pop and his old-person ways. Trying not to laugh at Sprig and Polly’s fights. It had all been so great. But…but she was missing something. Someone. She had come here to find…

Her hair rustled in the night air.

A melodic tune interrupted Anne’s thought. In fact, she completely forgot what she’d been going on about as she found herself facing good ol’ one-eyed Wally. The local accordion-playing bum was a crazy little not-frog, both in his rambles and how he looked. The rags he paraded about in as his hooves tapped along to the accordion beat were a stained, mismatched set, and whatever had permanently closed his left eye had also broken off most of his left horn so that only the right one pushed through his tattered old hat. Yep, a loveable bum if there ever was one.

“Evenin’ kiddos,” Wally said between compressions of his accordion. He didn’t quite manage to talk in tune with his music. “That was a mighty fine war you caused Anne. Team Hunter would have had it in the bag if you hadn’t gone and talked sense into everyone.”

Sprig rolled his eyes. “Wally, you know Team Alastair was clearing going to win. The superior suitor had the superior army.”

The accordion stopped on a sour note. “Oh really? Wanna see if you can prove it?”

“Alright, alright.” Anne had to interrupt the posturing. Neither of them were tall or muscular enough to pull it off anyway. “We just finished fighting over this, let’s not start again before the sequel comes out.”

The two not-frogs narrowed their eyes at one another.

“Yeah,” Sprig said, “wouldn’t want to start something not everyone can finish.”

“Exactly,” Wally said in ‘agreement’ before flipping a switch to, “Any who, I’m heading off to my favorite bridge. You lot stay safe.”

“Bye Wally,” Anne said with a wave. The town bum started off with a pep in his hop, his accordion starting up along with him. Despite him going in the opposite direction of Anne and Sprig, the tune would drift through the brisk air, carrying them part of the way back home.

Anne gazed into the night sky as they continued along. She didn’t worry about tripping or stepping on something as she moved along, by now she had memorized every step along the way. It was practically like she had taken the same steps everyday since she’d arrived. The exact same steps…

Rustle.

“I wonder what crazy thing will happen next,” she mused into the darkness of the night.

“Well, the yearly cold snap is around the corner,” Sprig noted. “I’m sure you could turn that into a disaster if you really wanted.”

She punched him, mostly playfully, and said, “little jerk,” as she bopped her head to the sound of Wally’s tune as it slowly grew farther away. That was, until the accordion screeched to a stop and the melody was replaced by screams. Anne and Sprig turned in place, staring into the distance before meeting each other’s worry-stricken faces. Without saying a word, the pair started back the way they’d come. The scream had already stopped, leaving nothing but silence to be filled by their foot- and hoof-falls as they raced towards where the scream had come from.

“Was that Wally?” Sprig asked as he came up and down. Anne knew it wasn’t the time, but as much as he and everyone else around here hopped everywhere she just couldn’t figure why they took such offence at being called frogs.

“Who else could it be?” she shot back between measured breaths. It never ceased to amaze her how much exercising for tennis had paid off keeping her in one piece since she’d gotten here. Running from villagers. Running to villagers. Keeping out of very large animals’ mouths. Middle school tennis just kept saving her bacon. And that wasn’t even counting the times she got the chance to hit something with something else. A good backswing was worth her weight in gold. “He’s the only one we passed on the way.”

Something rushed across their path, an imperceptible black blur that emerged from the thrushes on one side before almost instantly disappearing into the tall grass other side. Anne and Sprig slid to a stop. Neither said a word or moved a muscle. The blur hadn’t just been fast, it had been massive as well. How the towering midnight streak had even managed to disappear into the grass at all was scary to think about, let alone how silent it must have been for them to not hear the parting grass with each step it took. If it even took steps.

“What was that?” Anne whispered. She didn’t dare look at Sprig as she asked. Or really, she didn’t dare look away from where the black blur had disappeared into the grass. If she did, if she gave anything that fast and quiet the chance, it might come back while she wasn’t looking. And for some reason, one that she just couldn’t comprehend, this massive beast felt different than all the other things that had tried to eat her since she’d wound up in the crazy place. It was as if something from the back of her mind was screaming at her to stay away from whatever she had just seen.

“I don’t know,” Sprig whispered back. Anne could hear him trembling, perhaps the same screaming was going off in his mind. “But I think…I think it came from where we heard the scream.”

Anne gulped and the screaming got louder. But Anne had never let a good idea or reasonable feeling stop her from doing something stupid, and she wasn’t going to start now when her favorite bum might have just been attacked. Especially since he wouldn’t have been out and about so late, or at least not so far from town, if she hadn’t accidentally gotten the town into a shipping war. Which was starting to sound even dumber by the second.

“Ok. You watch where it went, I’ll check to see if Wally’s where it came from.”

He nodded and Anne began to inch closer to where the thrushes had first parted. Usually the pale plants sprung back into place on their own, but a new path padded by crushed and bent grass had been formed in the blur’s wake. But at least that meant she knew where to go. No tripping through the grass for her…yay.

She took her first step off the path to town and her attempt at being quiet was immediately foiled. Wincing at the crackling underfoot, she trudged along the impromptu path of crushed grass until…until…nothing. It ended at a tree in the middle of the field. Anne breathed a sigh of relief, if only because there wasn’t a horrifically mangled body like she’d been expecting. Maybe once she got to college she’d be desensitized enough to deal with something like that, but middle-school-Anne was more than fine not stumbling on a crime scene in the middle of the night. Because she…she was still in middle school, right?

Mrreeeeeeh

The groan lurched its way from around the other side of the tree, creeping out of the darkness as if reaching out for her. Anne started to back up, but by then whatever it was stepping around the tree. By then its incoherent, wallowing cry made the crackling grass underfoot barely audible. By then she wasn’t sure what to do.

What lurched out of the darkness was something of darkness itself. Little more than a silhouette, though one she recognized. From the brim of his hat that stuck out to each side and single horn, to the instrument that one hand lazily dragged behind it. It was exactly who she’d been looking for. Exactly who she’d guessed had screamed. It was…it was…

“Wally?”

“Mrrrraaaaaaan,” the shade gargled, the sound hitting Anne like a truck. She wobbled in place and held her head as it continued towards her. That sound, that head-drilling concussive moan, was unlike anything she’d ever heard before. Worse than the roars of all those things that had nearly eaten her, worse than Hop Pop’s singing, it was as if whatever it was just being near was dangerous. And if being this close could hurt so much, then she didn’t want to find out what would happen if it got closer.

Without thinking, Anne turned and ran. It didn’t matter that it looked like Wally, sort of. It didn’t matter what had happened to the actual Wally. All that mattered as she darted down the path of crushed grass, as the wind hit her face and rustled her hair, was that she get away from whatever that was. That she get Sprig and get as far away as humanly or Amphimpianly possible. That was all that mattered. That was all she could do. And that’s exactly what she would do. Because if she did that everything would be alright. She could feel it in the back of her mind. A promise being whispered, a promise of safety away from the darkness. A promise she wouldn’t be passing up.

Bursting back onto the proper path, Anne slid to a stop in order not to collide with Sprig. The not-frog looked absolutely terrified as she emerged, but they didn’t have time for that. She had to get away like the promise voice wanted.

“Wha-what’s the matter?” Sprig stammered out. His eyes were darting all over, from where the black blur had gone, to Anne, to the path she had just sped out of, then all over again. All the while holding one of the muay tai she’d tried to teach him. “Did you find Wally?”

“No…yes…I don’t know,” she said before grabbing him by the collar. He didn’t have half a chance to know what was going on before Anne had scooped him up and tucked him under her arm. And before he was even secured she was running again. Back to town this time, it was closer and she didn’t want to risk leading…whatever that was back to Hop Pop and Polly. They were too old and young to be exposed to that shade. “There’s a shadow that looks like him, but it’s not. It’s not anything that should be.”

“What are you talking about?” Sprig’s words tumbled out in little batches as he bounced between Anne’s strides. “You’re not making sense.”

“It didn’t make sense,” she gasped out. She wasn’t sure how else to explain it. Never in all the time she’d been here, or even before for that matter, had she ever felt this way about anything. That shade, or shadow, or whatever was just wasn’t right. Every fiber of her being, especially the voice, told her it wasn’t. “It was like his shadow come to life, or he’d been turned into a shade like some fantasy zombie thing. Why can’t Marcy be here, she knows all about that kind of junk.”

“Mrrraaaaan!” bellowed from behind them. Anne and Sprig peered back in tandem, only to see the dark outline of what should have been Wally but wasn’t lumbering after them. Not nearly as fast as Anne was carrying them, but fast enough that she didn’t dare slow down and wouldn’t have even if the pain in the back of her head wasn’t blaring again.

She booked it out of the fields and through the outskirts of town. Looking for somewhere, anywhere they could hide while they figured out what to do next. All the while Sprig was shaking under her arm, holding his head. He was feeling it too. The complete wrongness and pain just seeing and hearing that shade caused. She had to get him somewhere safe, there had to be somewhere around this town they could hold up until they figured out something to do. But everywhere Anne looked she saw buildings with shattered windows and broken doors, a farmers’ market full of smashed carts and overturned stalls, and all sorts of mess that she couldn’t expect them to safely hide in or even behind. She’d never been so…so pissed about shipping war before.

“Over there,” Sprig said weakly, finally shaking off his first Shade experience. Anne followed where he was pointing and for the first time in her life was happy to see a dive. Stumpy’s had survived the back and forth between Team Alastair and Team Hunter with only a few graffiti scars to show for it.

“Great,” Anne huffed while veering in that direction. “And Stumpy never locks the back. We can barricade ourselves in the kitchen.”

“With the sharp stuff!”

“With the sharp stuff.”

For the first time since she’d heard Wally scream, maybe even since before that she didn’t even know anymore, Anne felt like things were going to be alright. She continued the breathing technique her tennis coach had taught her and kept up the speed, there’d be time to rest later anyway. After they had some locked doors between them and any shadowy creatures traipsing through the night.

Even with her breathing technique, Anne was nearly out of breath by the time she rounded the back corner of Stumpy’s restaurant. She had sprinted at least a mile without stopping, leaving her lungs, legs, and head aching as she finally allowed herself to slow to a stop. But there it was, their salvation. It may have just been a simple wooden door, but from her time working there Anne knew it’d be unlocked. Especially after a day of idiotically fighting neighbors over a dumb movie, Stumpy wouldn’t have even thought about latching it up.

Putting Sprig down, she took some nice, long, deep breaths before reaching for the handle. It didn’t quite put a stop to her labored breathing, but it sure felt good. Then she pushed, and for once that day things actually went her way. The door pushed in without resistance, revealing the darkened kitchen within. Good, great even. Now all they had to do was–

The shadowy cleaver smashed into the door frame inches from Anne’s face. Splinters flew as both her and Sprig’s eyes widened at the sight of the shadowy arm emerging from the darkness. An arm with no hand, just a makeshift butcher’s knife prosthetic latched on to a stump. “MRAAAAAN!”

Anne and Sprig were holding their heads as they inched backwards, trying to keep some distance between them and what was stepping out. Stumpy’s bulbous head, or at least the silhouette of it, emerged next. Then his rotund body and second stump of an arm, this one dragging an oversized meat-tenderizer from his other stump of an arm. And then, finally, the Shade of Stumpy fully emerged. “Mraaaan!”

The pain was unbearable. It took everything Anne had not to fall to her knees like Sprig did, and even then her whole body was shaking. There was no time to think, all Anne could do was push through the pain and grab Sprig again. Holding him to her chest she tried to run, but it was like charging through syrup. Every movement she tried to make fought her, worsening both her soreness and the explosions going off in the back of her head. She had to keep going though. She had to keep Sprig safe. She’d already lost someone she cared about, she wasn’t about to lose her little brother too.

Stumbling back around the corner, Anne nearly collided with the stomach-high silhouette of another of the town’s farmers. “Mruuuuulups!”

Dodging to the side, Anne stumbled against another wave of pain. There was a moment, she couldn’t have said for how long, where she dropped to one knee. But she knew she couldn’t stop. Even if she couldn’t focus and the world was spinning around her, she had to keep moving. Because the battered doors on houses and shops around them were opening or being tossed aside, only for familiar shaped shades to emerge. Mrs. Croaker from among the market stalls, Loggle from his shop, Joe from an alleyway, and more. So many more. Each bringing a fresh wave of pain until, with a crooked step that found a rock beneath it, she went down.

“A…nne…” Sprig tried to get out. He had curled up in a ball beside her, one that she tried to put her arm around, but it was shaking so bad she could barely move it. “Are w…we gonna be…ok?”

“Off course, dude,” she lied with a smile. It was the least she could do. “Sp…spranne against the w…world, right?”

He returned the smile, even if his was smaller. She could see in his eyes that he knew she was lying, but he still said it back. “Spranne…against the world.”

The hands, dozens or maybe even hundreds of them, descended on her and Sprig. Their dark fingers were cold, but in a way that Anne could barely comprehend. It wasn’t cold like touching ice, it was like being touched by nothingness itself. Just like looking at them or hearing them, the shades’ very touch went against everything that the world was supposed to be. That nothingness grabbed them by their arms and clothes, hoisting them up.

“Anne!” Sprig screamed as they dragged him out of her grasp.

“Let him go!” Anne yelled. But he was already gone, dragged into the sea of familiar shapes and darkness. “Please, whatever you want, do it to me. Not him!”

The shades didn’t reply. They didn’t move. They might not even have been looking at her as Anne pleaded with them not to hurt Sprig. But something else happened. The ground shook. Then it shook again. Then more, each time louder and stronger, sending rocks on the ground bouncing from the force, until something arrived. Another shade, larger than the others by a wide margin, rose up behind the gathered crowd. No, not just behind them, but in the direction they’d taken Sprig.

There was another scream, just like the one that had started all of this, and then the sea of shades parted. Three dark shapes stepped forward, three silhouettes she’d know anywhere. Tears began to roll down her cheeks as the shapes of Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly added their nothing touch to the many hands holding her in place.

She couldn’t even bring herself to plead anymore, to call out their names. They were…they had been like a family to her along with the rest of the town, and now they were all just gone. She had lost them. Was that her lot in life, to lose everything and everyone she cared about. First the explosion, and now a whole town that had only ever been good to her? That wasn’t fair, nothing about this was fair! How had everything gone so wrong?!

The shades of her friends and family dragged her forward, through the opening that had parted. On the other side stood the first, largest shade. A towering mass of darkness, one that had no doubt been that blur that attacked Wally, waited for her. She didn’t bother fighting back, not that she could have anyway. Everything hurt, especially the screaming in the back of her mind. All she could do was spill silent tears as they dragged her towards it. Even when the massive shade opened its mouth, a maw that was somehow even darker than the rest of it, she did nothing.

Maybe she hoped as more tears ran down her cheeks maybe they’ll let me be a shade too. Let me be nothing with my family too.

Anne closed her eyes as the shades held her head between those massive, open jaws. She just wished she could have done better, been better, for the people she loved. That she could have at least seen her ag–

The jaws slammed shut.

---

“I…ink…e’s…ming...”

“Don…sh her, boy. Tha…room mus’ve…a shock to ‘er…ystem.”

The voices came through as fragments in the dark. Familiar, but just barely discernable. She could make out snippets of what they were saying, but she couldn’t hold it all together. Then there was the movement. She was swaying back and forth, almost in rhythm a dull thudding beneath and between the voices. She knew that sound. Every time she’d gone anywhere in the last month that sound had followed her. Not footsteps, but hoovesplodding on the dirt.

“Wha-what’s going on?”

“Oh good, you’re really not dead.” Unlike the other two, Polly’s voice came from beside Anne instead of above. Despite sounding so close, Anne couldn’t see her or much of anything else. The whole world was just a blurry strip of light between eyelids that were having trouble opening. “I definitely wasn’t planning to claim your stuff or anything.”

“Don’t bother her, Polly,” Anne heard Hop Pop say. His voice came from right above her face, so it must have been his hands she felt holding her up by the arms. He sounded older than he had before, like it had been years since she’d heard him bellowing at others during that shipping war. Almost like…when she’d first met him? “Anne, we’re gonna put you up on the fwagon. So just take all the time you need to get yer bearings while we get going.”

“O…kay?”

Anne felt herself being lifted up, and then the hard wooden seat of the Plantar family wagon slide in beneath her. The world was starting to come into focus, little by little at least. The sky above was still dark, but with tendrils of red reaching out from over the horizon. And as she looked around, three familiar froggy blurs started to take shape as they rushed between the wagon and house it was parked beside. Polly and Sprig darted back and forth from the house, carrying things out then racing back in for whatever else once they’d dropped what they were carrying at Hop Pop’s feet, who in turn was stuffing what he could in the back and tying everything else to the side.

But hadn’t they…hadn’t she…nothing was making sense. Flashes of shadows passed through her mind, forcing her to bend forward with a sudden headache. Shades of her amphimpian neighbors and family had been chasing her, and that big one. It had opened its mouth and…and…

It was then, as Anne held her head while rocking back and forth, that she saw it. Her uniform was gone. In its place was a tattered and stained bedsheet, loosely tied up like a chut thai that clung to a more…shapely body than the remembered having the night before. A taller body. A more…college aged body. Because that’s what she was, a college freshman. Not a middle schooler, not for a while now. But what did that mean for everything that had happened to her since she fell? Had any of it been real?

“Hop Pop,” she started. She had to grip the edge of the wagon seat to keep from falling off as she looked over the side towards the adoptive not-frog grandfather she thought she’d spent the last month with. “How long have I been here?”

He looked up and offered a trying smile. “Technically, since yesterday.”

“So…did I just dream up a month of time with you all? And sleepwalk out here or something?”

Hop Pop dusted off his hands as he tied off the last of the pile Polly and Sprig had brought out. “Well that’s the tricky bit, you did but you didn’t.”

“Huh?”

“Do you remember that mushroom you and Sprig brought home, the mighty awkward lookin’ one?”

“The one that got us chased by a dragon? And then…burst into yellow dust?”

“That’s the one,” he said, nodding. “Sprig’s gonna check when he sees Maddie, but near as we can figure that dust, its spores, put the whole town in a kind of trance. Making us live out a month in one night, at least until Bessie got out and started eating the shrooms that were growing out of our heads.”

As if on cue, Sprig rounded the corner pulling a familiar shape by the reigns while Polly followed behind. It was large shape, one that would move like a blur in the night, with massive jaws that her head could easily fit between. The shape of a boar named Bessie.

With eyes wide and one finger furiously pointing, Anne yelled, “Did you feed me to Bessie!?”

“Relax Anne,” Sprig said as he led the massive boar to where she’d be hooked up to the wagon. “We only let her chew on the top of your head.”

“Dude, that’s not better!”

“So you wanted to be stuck in a mental prison for all eternity?” Polly chimed in. She had popped up through the hatch in the wagon’s roof, and was now watching as her brother and grandfather finished prepping to go. “Or at least until that fungus emptied out your brains.”

“No…but it was scary…and, and…” Anne struggled to put what she was feeling into words, “and does that mean none of that really happened. That whole month here was just…nothing?”

“Of course not, Anne,” Sprig said after locking Bessie in place. “We all went through what you did, and remember it too. And that makes us family, right Hop Pop?”

“Of course,” the eldest not-frog said in agreement while climbing up to the seat beside Anne where the wagon reigns lay. “Which is exactly why we’re going to book it to Bonesburrow before anyone else figures out it was you who brought that cursed mushroom into town.”

“Why?”

“Anne,” Polly said as Sprig joined her on the roof, “how many times during that hallucination did the town form a mob?”

“…a lot.”

“Yeah, and for dumb reasons too. Let’s not give them a good one.”

Anne slumped on the wagon bench and sighed, then immediately straightened up to tighten her makeshift dress. She didn’t want to think of how many times she might have nearly popped out of the sheet while wandering around in her mushroom haze, that would have been all she needed. Which, as Hop Pop spurred Bessie on, reminded her of something.

“Are my clothes in the wagon? I don’t want to think what got on this sheet while I was out of it.”

“Well,” Hop Pop said, not looking at her. “We did pack all of yer belongings, including yer clothes.”

Anne narrowed her eyes. “But?”

“But they shrank,” Sprig announced. “And it wasn’t my fault for once.”

Polly let out a nervous little laugh as she too refused to look Anne in the eyes. “Since we got zonked out right after I put them in the cold water, they just sort of…stayed there all night.”

Anne groaned and slumped in her seat once more. Less than a full day down here and she’d been chased by a dragon, had a month-long existential hive-mind experience with her new frog family and neighbors, and now lost the use of most of her clothes. Great way to start things off. Anne sighed as Hop Pop whipped the reins again to speed up Bessie, who had been looking back at Anne and licking her lips. The scenery, still only partially illuminated by the coming morning, rolled past with each trot of the oversized pig, leaving Anne to think to herself while Sprig and Polly argued with one another about who was to blame about the clothes and Hop Pop hummed a tune to himself.

She wondered about the things that had but hadn’t just happened to her. She wondered about where she was going. She wondered about the rest of her club. She even briefly wondered about what horrible thing might happen next. But mostly Anne wondered about her, and if there’d be any trace of her to find once they got to the Sprig’s school. All she could do, even while going through literal hell, was hope.

Chapter Text

Connie woke to the warm morning light filtering in through Steven’s window. But it wasn’t the pale red light that she noticed first as her eyes fluttered open. It was his chest, rising and falling softly beneath her head, that was her whole world in that moment. She ran her hand across his exposed pectorals. His skin was so smooth beneath her fingertips. It felt nice, both under her fingers and cheek. She’d never woken up feeling so…nice before.

She had dreamed of something like it a thousand times, imagined it a thousand more, but to actually finally experience it with him, the one she had always hoped to share this moment with, was beyond anything that she could have ever prepared herself for. She was sore of course, when his pants had finally come off she had known there was no avoiding that, but he had still been so gentle…so loving. Where his fingers had gone, where his tongue and lips had pressed, where his…his… Connie blushed just remembering it, then shifted her gaze up to his sleeping face. Even with all his height and muscle, it was hard for her to think it possible for such a face to be anything but gentle. And that was including the horns and sharp teeth that were just visible when he breathed. Her hand found its way to his cheek and rested there as she gazed up at his face. Nothing could make this moment any less perf–

“Is this what they call ‘being down bad’?”

Connie screamed and shot backwards as a red face appeared next to hers. The top cover went with her as she sprawled off the side of the bed, hitting the floor with a thud before rolling a few times over, and only stopping when her side collided with something. The comforter that had wrapped around her in the fall and what followed had softened the drop, but that didn’t stop her from groaning at the soreness in her rearend. At least until–

“Nah,” the pale, purplish-blue woman whose legs Connie had rolled into said while looking down at her. “Just a ‘maiden in love’.”

Connie instantly tried to scramble away from this second unknown woman, but the bed cover was just getting in the way. All she really could do was half-way drag herself backwards, her eyes glued to the blue woman with her one horn protruding from a head of short hair that seemed to move like water, pair of small wings that bounced as she hunched down to get a better look, and a waving tail like Steven’s, but one that ended in a massive fin instead of a plume of pink and white feathers. And once this stranger was at eye-level, she closed her eyes and sniffed. Once, twice, then half-opened her eyes and smirked. “Well, maybe not a ‘maiden’.”

Connie felt the heat rise in her face as she backed into the nightstand. Partially from embarrassment, but she could practically see the air quotes from the way the blue woman was emphasizing some words, which was leading to a good dose of anger there too. This was supposed to be her morning after. This was supposed to be as perfect as the time she and Steven had spent going so late into the night. And yet these two…these….these…

“Steven!” Connie yelled as she pulled herself up by the nightstand. Her thoughts were failing her. She had been so ready to be just blissful today, to celebrate almost a decade of preparation and putting up with her parents finally coming to fruition, that her mind just wasn’t in gear yet. “Why are there technicolor women in your bedroom?!”

Steven let out a grumbling moan of his own as he started to shift in the bed, but didn’t get much farther than that before the red woman tumbled over him, nearly fell off the side herself, then less than gracefully found her balance as her hooves landed next to Connie’s feet so that the little red woman was looking up at her over a pair of pointed glasses. While the blue one was somewhere between Dipper and Anne’s heights, the red one had to have been shorter than even Molly, if her large batch of triangular white hair or bright red horns it seemed to be formed around were ignored. While the blue one’s skin seemed to be spotless in every way, the red one had various splotches of white across her body. There was a rounded, upside-down triangle like mark on her forehead, just below her horns, as well as a star spread across her chest just above her stretched, dark green tank top. Connie even thought she saw another star-shaped splotch on the red one’s spade-ended tail as it angrily whipped back and forth. And then there were their eyes, both had yellow sclera instead of white, but while the red one seemed to lack any irises around her slitted pupils, the blue one had a pair of bright blue eyes in those seas of yellow.

“I’ll have you know,” the red one said, pointing up at Connie, “that we’re both firmly in the RGB scale. As a witch you should know that, they’re your primary potion colors up in the living world.”

The blue one sighed. “I really shouldn’t let you talk to Miko anymore.”

“Wha…what’s going on?” Steven said, finally sitting up in bed next to them and looking around the room. His eyes were barely opened, but he eventually seemed to focus in on Connie and the pair of strangers who had cornered her against the nightstand. Though, much to Connie’s dismay and confusion, he only let out another groan, rubbed his eyes, and said, “What have I told you two about sneaking in here?”

The red one put her hands on her hips and smiled. “To not let Pearl catch us.”

Steven’s hand fell away from his eyes, which were now much more focused, but also narrowed in a different way. “No…well once I guess, but that’s not the point. Just give Connie some space, you’re making her uncomfortable.”

The blue one shrugged and did an about face, backing up enough so she could lean against the dresser. The red one looked less sure as she looked back and forth between everyone else, though eventually she did hurry over to also lean against the dresser. She even crossed her arms below her puffed out chest as if to look more intimidating. Connie wasn’t sure the red short stack could look intimidating, but the blue one seemed to appreciate it as she glanced down at her partner and a little smile crossed her face.

“Connie,” Steven started. He was holding the remaining bed sheet to his waist while leaning over the side of the bed and feeling for something on the floor. Though whatever it was he didn’t have much luck finding while he tried to keep his eyes on her and the others in the room. “This is Lapis and Peridot. They’re friends of mine from school.”

A pair of boxers flew into Steven’s face, tossed across the room after the blue one, Lapis evidently, had pulled them from one of the dresser drawers. They boxers fell into his lap and, after letting out a measured breath, Steven pulled them under then sheet and then started putting them on.

The red one, Peridot, raised a finger to her chin, as if deeply considering something. “I thought we had been using the term sex-friends?”

Connie’s jaw just about dropped.

“I always preferred fuck buddies, personally,” Lapis added.

“Oh my Satan,” Steven practically roared. He was out of bed finally, clad in the boxers Lapis had thrown at him and nothing else, but Connie couldn’t even focus on the sight of his body in that moment. This was really not how her morning after was supposed to go. “How can you two be so smart but always say the wrong thing.”

“Steven,” Connie said. She was gripping the edge of the nightstand beside her as if for dear life. As if, if she let go, she might fall backwards down a decade’s worth of wasted time. “Am I…am I a one-night stand? Or some attempt to add to a harem?”

Lapis snorted, but neither Steven nor Connie broke eye contact with one another. Neither looked away as he raised his hands in front of him, as if to show he meant no harm, or as he started around the bed towards her. “No, not at all. This is why I wanted to talk more last night before, well before everything. But look, Lapis is part succubus, so every so often she needs to feed. And well, Peridot wasn’t cutting it at first so I stepped in so she wouldn’t die. Just until Peridot was um…”

“Trained,” Lapis finished for him.  She had wrapped her arm around Peridot’s waist and pulled her in close. “I trained her up good so now I can eat whenever I need or want to.”

“Hey!” Peridot’s expression had soured. “You two are making it sound like I, the great and loveable Peridot, was useless for a long time. Don’t forget to mention how great a battery I was even before I got the hang of things.”

“That’s right Peri,” Lapis said, no longer just holding Peridot close but also leaning her head against the shorter one’s triangular hair. “When Steven pumped you up I could snack for days.” She let out a lazy sigh. “Good times.”

“Times that haven’t happened in weeks,” Steven overemphasized while shooting a bit of a glare at the pair, “and that was just because I forgot the punch at Hexside parties always gets spiked.” He returned his attention to Connie. He had rounded both corners of the bed and now slowly approaching where she stood. “So please don’t get freaked out about this. They’re making it sound worse than it is and I’m pretty sure at least Lapis is doing it on purpose.”

Was she freaking out about this? As fast as she was breathing and as hard as she could feel her heart beating she must have been. But did she have the right to? Steven had lived a whole life since seeing her last, and from what he’d said it didn’t look like he could ever expect to go back up the way he had before on his own. The fact that he’d had relationships made sense. Not the most desired kind of sense, but sense all the same. And who was she to judge. She’d woken up naked in boys’ rooms before. Well, a boy’s room. And it was because of the paint fumes working to get down here…but she was getting sidetracked. Things happened; life happened. So no, she wasn’t going to freak out about him not waiting around like a chaste child for her.

Connie took a deep breath and let go of the nightstand. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes. I’m okay with this,” she stated more for herself than for him. “I didn’t come down here so I could control your life like my mother controlled mine, and I couldn’t control what happened before I arrived anyway. So whatever lifestyle you have…I just hope I can find a way to fit into it.”

“Well ok then,” Lapis said, almost exuberantly as she and Peridot appeared on either side of Connie. Lapis hung an arm around Connie’s shoulders while Peridot, being shorter, wrapped one around Connie’s waist. Each was pressing in close, close enough for her to realize as Lapis’s string top and Peridot’s two-sizes-too-small tank top bunched up against her sides, that one smelled like the ocean and the other metal. Neither was unpleasant. In fact, while it didn’t stand up to anything from the night before, now that she had thought it through, she didn’t find anything around her to be…well, bad. “I was afraid for a second you had pulled in a nag, glad you dodged a shot there. Would have sucked since she’s a pretty good looker too. That harem line though. Peri, could you imagine Steven trying to lead something like that?”

Steven and Connie smiled at one another as the red and blue women exchanged laughs and joke about how much he would run himself ragged trying to keep too many people happy. Though, for him at least, that smile turned to a bit of confusion as Connie wrapped her own arms around her new friends’ waists and said, “In fact…I don’t want you stop what you’ve been doing up until now.”

“What?”

Connie looked down and furrowed her brow as she tried to find the words. This wasn’t part of her plans, yet what was coming to her in the moment didn’t seem like it would go against those plans. What she was discovering in the moment was something she’d never had a chance to find in all her time obeying her parents or trying to get here. “I want to discover how our lives can fit together, not just for last night or today. But I just realized that, besides you, I don’t really know what I like. What if I’m bi or pan or…or omni, is that a thing?”

Peridot shrugged as Lapis half-heartedly said, “They’re all just labels.”

“Anyway, it wouldn’t be fair to myself not to figure out, well, me. And it wouldn’t be fair to you to come in here and expect you to change to better fit a fantasy I made up when I was eleven.” Connie took another deep breath. “So, while you and I go…wherever we go, but hopefully far, maybe Lapis and Peridot here could help me figure things out on the girl side of things. Or even teach me some stuff that you’d like… Either way, it lets us ease into things, but only if everyone is okay with all that.”

She let out her breath and looked from Steven to the others and back. She was so far off plan now she had no idea where she was going anymore, but it still involved Steven, which was the original point after all. It just so happened to involve a bit more of herself and two demon women as well, which for all she knew was the norm down below anyway.

Steven scratched the back of his head. It was clear this wasn’t how he had expected this morning to go either, but he still didn’t disappoint when he answered. “If that’s what you want, then I’m alright giving it a try.”

“I too find it amicable,” Peridot announced. “As long as I can study some of your modern witch biology in the process.”

“I guess…”

“I’m game,” Lapis added. “Always thought I’d make a harem before joining one, but corrupting someone who wants it instead of tricking them into it is too good to pass up.”

Peridot tilted her head and looked up at Lapis. “Who did you trick into it?”

Lapis chuckled and, while jostling Peridot’s hair with the same hand that hung over Connie’s shoulders, replied, “That’s why I love you, Peri.”

Connie smiled. “Great, now can someone help me find my clothes. Because I have no idea where they are and I don’t want my first introduction to the rest of the world to be wearing a sheet.”

---

Connie’s clothes had disappeared. One wouldn’t think a pile of soggy clothes could go missing on their own, but despite having been dropped between the bed and the door they were certainly not there anymore. And it wasn’t just her clothes. Steven’s clothes from the night before, what he’d been trying to feel out from the side of the bed before, had also gone missing. Connie half-suspected one of her new “friends” might have hidden them for some reason. But they were helping search too, and Peridot at least seemed to be giving it her all, so Connie was hesitant to believe her initial gut-feeling on the matter even if any hiding would have happened before they made their new arrangement.

After a few minutes of turning up nothing though, Connie reached up to rub her temple and didn’t have to move her glasses out of the way. Had she really been talking and looking around for so long without actually being able to see? Peridot popping into view right as she woke up must have really shaken her to not have reached for glasses as she instinctively did every morning. How she hadn’t been bumping into everything and everyone like she usually would was one mystery too many when she already had the case of the missing clothing to solve. She might be aiming to discover a new side of herself, but that side didn’t have to be nude for anyone beside the three she was with right at that moment.

Her glasses were still just where she’d put them halfway through her and Steven’s…intimacy the night before, on the corner of the nightstand she’d been gripping so hard onto after falling off the bed. Picking them up and letting out a slight sigh of relief, Connie slid them on and turned back around to look around the room.

A set of beige, blue, and red blurry blobs moved around an indistinct space in front of Connie as she looked through her familiar lenses. She slid the glasses off and the room became distinct around her again, the three blobs becoming shirtless Steven, crop top Lapis, and stretched tank-top Peridot as if in high definition. She slid the glasses back on again and again everything went blurry, plus her head started to ache.

“Are you…well?” Peridot asked as Connie pulled off the glasses again and she became distinct again.

“I, uh…well, my eyes seem to have gotten better,” she said while twisting the familiar yet suddenly alien glasses between her hands. “Is that something that happens down here?”

“A thing probably had something to do with it,” Lapis noted. She was leaning against the bookshelf, not so much looking for lost clothes as she was browsing Steven’s library.

“What she means,” Steven started, pushing himself up from where he’d been looking under the bed once he saw the look of confusion on Connie’s face. “Is that it was probably because of me.”

“I know I’m the new girl, but I don’t think that explains as much as you think it does.”

“Healing magic is my specialty,” he explained.  “So it has a habit of seeping into the…parts of me I share with others.”

Connie considered this for a moment. “So, like your saliva? From us kissing last night.”

Steven’s eyes shifted to the side as a faint blush crossed his face. “Yeah, that could have done it.”

“Unless there’s any other body fluid of his you sampled.”

It was Connie’s turn to blush once Lapis’s remark set in, so much so that it was amazing that her head didn’t catch fire from all the heat rushing into her face. But, as if by the graces of…well Connie didn’t think it would’ve been God, but something happened to take the attention off of why she suddenly didn’t need glasses anymore.

The bedroom door swung open without warning, grabbing everyone’s attention as a cheerful, “Good morning,” filled the room.

As she watched yet another unknown woman make her way into the room, Connie’s utter embarrassment turned to confusion and the mildest amount of discomfort. Carrying a basket of laundry and wearing what Connie could only see as mom-jeans was a dog. A dog woman? A beige-coated dog woman in a blue top and mom-jeans carrying a basket of laundry. The blue and red girls with horns Connie had been able to accept pretty quickly, it was hell after all, but no one ever said anything about dog women.

She traipsed in and between Lapis and Peridot, utterly ignoring them as she made her way to the bed. Without missing a beat, she placed the basket on Steven’s bed, then looked at him and said, “I’m afraid your clothes from yesterday are still in the wash. I thought it’d be more prudent to take care of Ms. Maheswaran’s first since all of hers were drenched.”

“How do you know my name?” Connie asked. She had unconsciously backed against the nightstand again. She didn’t think she was necessarily afraid of this dog woman, but she’d never understood furries and this seemed like the ultimate goal for anyone with that kind of predilection.

The dog woman looked at Connie and smiled. She didn’t bare any teeth or even grin in a way that Connie could have imagined sharp molars pointing through, just simply smiled in a good-natured and welcoming way. “From going through the bag you left downstairs. And might I say, you have lovely penmanship and pristine organization for your notes.”

“…thanks?”

Steven groaned. “Pearl, what have I told you about going through my friends’ things?”

“Well, I had to make sure it wasn’t some ne’er-do-well thief’s bag. What if someone had come to steal all of our precious memories?”

“I can’t imagine anyone in any of the seven rings coming to this armpit of a beach to try and steal something.”

Pearl’s ears went flat. “You know I don’t like you referring to our home like that.”

“That is where the beach is on Goliath though,” Peridot added. Connie wasn’t sure if she was trying to be helpful or just prove she knew something, but either way it didn’t seem to land in any kind of positive way.

Pearl’s eyes narrowed and shifted back towards Peridot and Lapis, though she neither turned nor directly addressed either of them. Her ears remained flat to her head and her top lip pulled back with her next words, revealing those fangs Connie had been dreading. “I see the riffraff is here again.”

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Lapis said, not looking at Pearl. “We always go to school together.”

“And fill his mind with filth and nonsense on the way,” Pearl practically spat back.

Connie knew that tone. It was the same tone she’d heard every time she’d even attempted to do something of her own choosing growing up. The tone that arrived right on cue whenever she didn’t do as well as expected. The tone that she’d always assumed was Priyanka Maheswaran’s personal invention but was now thinking it was just something that came with being a–

“Oh,” Connie said aloud without thinking, “you’re the one Steven said was like his mom.”

The room went silent, with all eyes suddenly on her.

Lapis covered a smirk with her hand before turning to the side while Peridot’s gaze shifted between Connie and her blue companion, seeming somewhat confused or at least not in on what was making Lapis hold in her laughter. Steven’s eyes rolled towards the ceiling as what Connie could only imagine as utter defeat enveloped his face. And Pearl, well the dog woman could only be described as looking looked pleased. From her ears slowly rising until they were at full attention, to her eyes widening to the size of saucers, to her tail slowly starting to wag then picking up speed until it was basically a blur of pale orange fur flying back and forth.

“Steven,” sounding on the verge of tears, she nearly choked getting his name out. “You said I was like a mom?”

He didn’t look at her as mulled over a response. Connie didn’t think he could look at her as she inched closer. Regardless, his eyes were taking in all of the ceiling when he finally got around to replying, “Kind of.”

Her arms were around him, or at least as far around his large frame as she could reach, in an instant. Her head in the crook of his neck while her tail continued to wag with a fervor that would have beaten away anyone who tried to get close. Connie wasn’t sure if this was a normal reaction or not. It didn’t seem normal, but then again all she really knew about Steven’s home life was that he didn’t live with his parents. If Pearl the dog woman was like a mom to him but had never been told it, then maybe this was exactly how she should be reacting.

“Oh Steven, you have no idea how happy that makes me. I haven’t felt like this since…since…”

“I know…”

Pearl pulled herself away and wiped away the tears welling up around her eyes. “Right, right. Of course. Oh, what a morning this turned out to be. To celebrate I’m cracking open the last dragon egg Amethyst and Garnet brought last time they were home. Pearl’s scrambled egg medley for everyone, even the riffraff.”

“Yes!” Peridot cheered with an enthusiastic arm pump. “We will feast, and the protein will finally push me past five feet tall!”

The amusement Lapis had been holding in dropped away along with her hand from her face. Something about what Peridot had said had switched the finned, blue woman into a more serious temperament. Connie herself was less than amused when it was revealed why.

“What have I told you about growth spurts.”

Peridot’s excitement drained away, leading to a dejected, “That they’re not allowed.”

“That’s right. I like you cute and smol.”

“But I don’t want to always be so smol.”

Connie could hear them pronounce it smol. She…didn’t like hearing something that should be relegated to the internet being said aloud. It didn’t seem right, even if Peridot was basically cute and smol…er, small. Though Connie did agree with what Lapis noted next.

“You shouldn’t worry so much, you’re not small in any of the ways that matter anyway.”

Not if that tank top had anything to say about it Connie thought to herself. The shorts either.

“Yes, yes, that’s all well and good,” Pearl said, having recomposed herself. It didn’t seem like she had really been listening to anything Lapis and Peridot, or rather the riffraff from her point of view, had been going on about while being caught up in her own emotional reverie. “Why don’t you two take your nonsense downstairs so Ms. Maheswaran can get dressed.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lapis said dismissively before leading Peridot towards the stairs. Connie could hear the two chatting as they headed down, though she couldn’t make out what they had started on, but she had something of her own to say anyway.

“You can just call me Connie, Ms. Pearl. I’m hoping to change it from Maheswaran one day anyway.”

Pearl, who had been making to follow after the other two, paused before she got to the doorway. Even her tail, which had still been wagging despite her attempt to recompose herself, came to a rest as she looked back. “Oh? What were you thinking of changing it to?”

Connie let a small smile slip as her eyes shifted to who she’d spent the night with. “I don’t know yet. What’s your last name again, Steven?”

His blush returned, if anything much brighter this time. But that didn’t stop him from meeting her gaze and directly answering, “Underverse.”

“Underverse,” Connie said, testing it out. She liked the sound of that. It had a good feel, even taste, on her tongue. “Yeah, something like that would be good.”

Pearl looked back and forth between them, her head partially cocked in confusion. “Well, whatever makes you happy dear.” Then, as if suddenly remembering something, “Oh, and speaking of change, if what I smelled on your clothes was Styx water, then the drowned souls left quite a few holes in the back of your lovely blouse. I brought up some of mine, Amethyst’s, and Steven’s old clothes, as well as garments the riffraff have left time and time again, for you to look at. Wear whatever you want and we’ll pack the rest for you to take to Hexside.”

“Oh...” Connie hadn’t thought about those skeletons actually ripping her top. It had been one of the few pieces of clothing she actually really liked, on top of what she’d been wearing when she’d finally found Steven again. “Well, thank you. I really appreciate it.”

“Of course, dear. Now let me get out of your way and into the kitchen. Come down when you’re ready.”

Connie gave a little wave as she and Steven watched Pearl trot out of the room, closing the door behind her. The sound of her pads and claws tapping down the steps echoed from under the door for a few seconds before fading away to the floor below. And then they were alone again. Just as they had been the night before. Just as Connie had imagined they would have been when they woke up that morning. And yet, despite all that had happened in the short time she had woken up to a strange face leaning over her…boyfriend? she felt oddly good about the course of the morning. This was a new place and she was going to be a new Connie. She had expected that to mostly revolve around her activities with Steven the night before, but discovering another side of herself with whatever her time with Lapis and Peridot amounted to was going to be part of that too evidently.

As she told herself that was going to be okay, Connie turned to the hamper of clothes Pearl had placed on the bed. Her top was folded at the top of the pile, and even without unfolding it she could see a few of the holes left by finger bones on the sides that she hadn’t noticed the night before. She sighed and put it to the side along with her high-waisted jean shorts. Steven helped her rifle through what Pearl had left; a pair of green stockings Peridot had forgotten; a smaller red version of Steven’s black t-shirt with a pentagram design; black and grey tank tops, shorts, and tights Steven explained were some of Amethyst’s old clothes, who he would introduce Connie to along with Garnet next time they were home; as well a teal jacket and wrap that she could guess belonged to Pearl; and finally a blue dress and crop top that almost seemed too modest to have belonged to Lapis given the smaller top and torn up shorts she’d been wearing today. Though, as Connie started putting together something to wear to get her through the day, an…unsettling thought popped into her head whenever she caught the clothes she’d arrived in the corner of her eye.

“Steven?”

“Hmm?” He looked up from where he’d been arranging some outfit options for her, something he actually had a bit of a knack for. That was a pleasant surprise to be sure.

“We dropped all our clothes in here last night, right? I didn’t just imagine that part?”

The look on his face made Connie feel like he already knew where she was going with this. “No, we definitely left them in a pile by the foot of the bed.”

“So if Pearl washed them then she had to come in here after we…got to know each other, didn’t she?”

He took a breath. In it she could hear years of stories. But, while she was more than willing to listen to any and everything he had to say, he distilled that feeling into one sentence that still told her everything she needed to know for the moment. “I would trust Pearl with my life, but not my privacy.”

---

Connie heard the voices coming from around the bend of the beach, just beyond where Steven said the cliff face that stood opposite the Styx opened to a path leading towards the heart of Goliath. Lapis had mentioned over breakfast that she and Peridot had left their things where the path met the beach so they wouldn’t have to carry them over the sand, so the girl they usually went to school with would probably be waiting for them there. It would be Connie’s first introduction to a “normal” friend of Steven’s and the world she was going to try and be a part of with him, so she tugged at the outfit he had helped her put together while Lion carried her along the bend.

“You look fine,” Steven said upon noticing her attempts not to squirm. He was walking along beside Lion, both straps of his backpack slung over one shoulder while Lapis, Peridot, and Pearl followed along behind. It seemed to her that, even with Lion following her commands without the spell circle she wasn’t even sure she could make again, the others didn’t think it wise to get too close to the overgrown pink cyclops. Pearl had even said as much, though Steven had noted that she’d need a beast if she was going to be in the beast keeping track.

“So you’re really never going to come visit?” came around the bend before Connie had the chance to reply, the first thing she could fully make out from the approaching but still out of sight neighbors.

“Why would I come to your nerd school before I have to?” A higher pitched voice shot back. He, at least Connie thought it was a he, sounded annoyed.

“So I guess I should tell Skara you don’t ever want her to give you Bard tutoring either,” the first voice mused.

“Weh-weh-well you don’t have to do that,” the higher voice quickly stuttered out.

There was a small collective laugh, then an older voice asking, “Anything else you wanna wrack my brain about before you head out, kid?”

“Huh?” came from a fourth voice. A voice that sounded familiar. A voice that, with the next thing said, she knew. “Oh, well I was wondering if healing magic really came from the fire element.”

Connie nudged Lion with her heels and the older voice let out a single laugh as the cat sped up. “Most healing specialists never put that together, how’d you?”

“When I read the fire grimoire the second time I picked up something about keeping people alive during torture…so, yeah…”

Connie had no idea what he was talking about, and she didn’t care. Despite telling herself over and over that the others would be alright, she’d had no proof until now. With excitement growing, she prodded Lion to go even faster. Steven and the others were left behind, their calls after her lost in the rush of wind, while the cliff face dropped away to her left. Puffs of sand went flying with every plodding leap, the voices got clearer and closer with every second, and then they turned the bend.

Four figures came into view as the cliff face fully gave way to a field of tall grass. One tall, one short, and two right in the middle. But, even from a distance, Connie immediately recognized the one standing a bit apart from the others and, whether by magic or instinct, Lion seemed to know which to head towards as well. The sand began to harden as they neared the beach’s outer edge, giving each of Lion’s massive footfalls a noticeable thud. It was the last of these, as Lion’s full weight came down into a preparatory leaping position, that all four of the figures turned to look. By the time Connie realized what it might look like from their point of view, to have a giant pink cat of all things racing towards them and getting ready to jump, it was too late. Lion leapt, he and Connie soared through the air, and then they descended towards Dipper as the wind rushed through Lion’s mane and Connie’s hair.

As the world shifted into slow motion for that moment, Connie watched Dipper turn in place. His eyes widened, almost large enough for her to see Lion’s reflection. One of his journals and the hand holding it up fell to his side as the other hand rose up as if to block the oncoming ton for fur and claws. Then there was a flash of blue and the slow motion ended.

Lion collided with two crisscrossed pillars of sand that hadn’t been there an instant before, nearly throwing Connie from his back as they came to a sudden, lurching stop. Dipper stood on the other side of the pillars, his free hand illuminated by a glowing blue circle. His eyes were no longer wide, instead having narrowed nearly into a glare. It almost made him look cool, if not a little badass. Especially if that blue circle was what had blocked Lion’s descent. But none of that mattered in the moment.

“Dipper!” Connie called as she slid off her dazed mount’s back. She hit the compacted sand before practically jumped between the pillars. Dipper’s eyes were wide again as she went to complete what Lion had been barred from. He started to say something, but Connie collided with him before a single syllable escaped his lips.

“I’m so glad you’re alive,” she went on, squeezing him tight. Despite him being a bit taller, it took her almost no effort to lift him in excitement. “I kept telling myself you all would be, but I wasn’t sure until now. Where’d you come down? Have you seen the others? Who are your friends? What’s with your shirt?”

“I’m glad you’re ok too,” Dipper half-grunted as she put him down. At the same moment, Lion finally slid off the crossed pillars. The pink cat hit the beach with a cacophony of thuds, shifting sand, and guttural growls. Only for, as the cloud of sand that had been thrown up under its weight settled, the cyclops lion to come back in to view with an extremely wide-eye expression of confusion across its face.

“Is that yours?”

“Kind of.” Connie scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. In her moment of happiness seeing one of her friends again she’d forgotten that Lion had almost crushed the lone boy in their club. Or coven, which seemed to be what everyone else expected her to be a part of. Though she surmised that it didn’t really matter that Dipper had almost been crushed by a giant cycloptic pink cat, because he hadn’t. And in a way that proved she wasn’t the only one who found herself with a new skillset if that blue flash was anything to guess by. “Steven said I could borrow him. Oh, speak of the devil.”

Connie briefly wondered if ‘speak of the devil’ would be offensive to the bird woman, who was more woman than bird, or the dog boy, who like Pearl was much more dog than boy, watching off from the side. The girl, who was just a girl from what Connie could see, standing between them and the other two didn’t look like she’d be opposed to such a saying, but her presence opened up a different set of questions. Ones that would have to wait though, since Steven and the others were finally catching up around the bend of the cliff face and Connie found herself unable to focus on much else in the moment.

Steven, carrying a bag that could have fit a few of the others in it and seemingly packed with everything Pearl thought he’d need for the next several lifetimes, came around at a light but impressive jog. His arm muscles glistened a bit in the red morning light and Connie couldn’t help but bite her lip a bit remembering what else had been glistening in the moonlight that had shown through his window the night before. Following him was Lapis, looking disinterested as she seemed to in all things as her wings buzzed to keep her just barely afloat while her arms just kind of dangled down and to the sides. Doing her best to keep up with those two was Peridot but, no matter how much the imp pumped her arms or bounced with exertion, she was barely able to keep up. And that was with Pearl taking up the rear to try and push her along.

“So you made some new friends too.”

Connie smiled. “That’s one way to put it.”

Steven paused briefly to pet Lion on approach, somewhat calming him. Enough for him to stop glaring in every direction and plop his backside down in the sand, sending another puff of sand up into the air. He then raised a hand to the others and said, “Hey Luz, King, Ms. Eda.”

“Hey,” the girl and dog boy said nearly in unison.

“Heya kiddo,” the bird woman said with a nod, shaking her mass of feather-strewn grey hair. “I see you added another one to the gaggle.”

“More like she added us to hers,” Lapis commented as she caught up. The moment she had her wings stopped flapping, dropping her the few inches off the ground they had managed to keep her aloft. She, of course, didn’t look like the time spent mildly aloft had mattered at all to her, but Connie could see a single bead of sweat trickle down the side of face.

“I’m going to guess you all know each other then?” Dipper asked the lot he’d been waiting with.

“Yep,” the girl said, smiling. “Steven and his friends go to Hexside too.”

The dog boy squared up his shoulders. It was probably in an attempt to look imposing, but Connie couldn’t help but think it just made him look adorable. What he said next, or at least the high-pitched voice he said it in, didn’t help his case either. “Plus, it’d be pretty dumb if we didn’t know our only neighbor.”

“I’m just glad to meet one of Connie’s coven-mates,” Steven said, holding out a hand to Dipper. Dipper hesitantly took the outstretched hand, which immediately engulfed the former’s as they shook. At the same time Pearl strode up to the group, dragging an exasperated Peridot behind her by the collar. While Dipper raised an eyebrow, which Connie could only meet with a shrug, everyone else on both sides ignored the display. “I’m Steven. The indifferent one is Lapis and the out of breath one is Peridot. They’ll be going to school with us. And that’s Pearl, who’s just sending us off.”

“Nice to meet you.” Dipper shook out his hand once Steven had stopped shaking it. He then tilted his head towards the three standing with him and said, “Since you know everyone, want to let Connie in on these three?”

“Sure. These are Ms. Eda, Luz, and King,” Steven said, gesturing to the older woman, girl, and then dog boy in kind. “Luz is a new witch at Hexside who lives with Ms. Eda and King at the north end of the beach.”

“Are Ms. Lilith and…Mr. Hooty not seeing everyone off as well,” Pearl, who had more or less flung the exhausted Peridot at Lapis, asked. Whatever a ‘Hooty’ was she didn’t seem to care for it.

“Nah,” Eda more scoffed than stated. “Lilly’s out of sorts because she got fired.”

“Again?” Pearl feigned a gasp.

“Again. So the two of them are commiserating, probably going to find their way to the night market later. If you’re feeling lonely in that big house of yours your welcome to stop by later.”

“Ms. Eda!” Pearl slightly looked away, not so much feigning as before. “Well, Garnet and Amythest are still going to be out–”

Steven slapped his hands together and announced, “I think it’s time to go to school.”

With polite efficiency, Connie watched Steven say goodbye to Pearl, wish Eda but particularly King well, then nearly scoop her, Lapis, Peridot, Dipper, and Luz up as he pushed them forward towards the edge of the beach. He didn’t explain why when Connie asked, though both Luz and Lapis snorted a bit at the question. Luz’s at least didn’t seem as dismissive as Lapis’s.

“It’s okay, Steven,” Luz said once they had left the beach behind. By then he was actually letting them all walk on their own again and didn’t comment when they stopped so Lapis and Peridot could pull their bags from where they’d hidden them, out of the first large patch of pale grass they came to. For Lapis that meant some kind of belt contraption she easily hung around her waist. Connie’s first thought at seeing it was ‘fanny pack,’ but instead of a bag it actually had two clear canisters of teaming purple goo that came to rest just above her backside. For Peridot that meant a bag almost bigger than she was. One she struggled to barely get the straps over her arms let alone pick up. “Sometimes one mother figure gets lonely and just needs another mother figure to–”

“So Dipper,” Steven said loudly, far louder than Connie had heard him be so far, in an effort to ignore and drown out Luz, “Did you come down in the Styx like Connie?”

“Um, no?” Dipper gave the much taller and wider Steven some unsure side eye as the latter led the former along the path they’d be taking partway towards Bonesburrow. As they walked Steven plucked Peridot’s bag, what Connie thought contained most of Lapis’s things as well, right off the imp’s shoulders before tucking it under his other arm. “I came down on the beach.”

Peridot, chasing after the boys once she’d caught her balance, and practically demanded an answer to, “Did you come down in the ‘Yamcha’ pose? Luz says all the best falls have to come down that way.”

“I-I don’t think so.” Dipper, who Connie had never seen get too up close and personal with anyone of his own accord who wasn’t a tall redhead, seemed to shrink under the admittedly innocent questioning. She could sort of understand it if Steven were harsher in his tone, but he was basically a muscley teddy bear while Peridot, well she was something else you might want to squeeze at night.

“He totally did,” Luz mock called from where she, Lapis, and Connie were following not too far behind while Lion plodded along even farther behind. “Crater and everything.”

“That’s from an anime, right?” Connie asked while Steven and Peridot continued to each have their own conversations with Dipper. Steven talking about how that was actually the safer way to go, but not to try it again, while Peridot attempted to locate trace elements of a ‘Yamcha Fail Energy’ on Dipper’s clothes.

“Yeah,” Luz replied while leaning back with her hands behind her head. The new friend Dipper had made, and evidently spent the night with in some fashion that Connie didn’t even being to believe might be the same way she’d spent the night with her new ‘friend,’ seemed overall good natured and relaxed. But Connie couldn’t help but wonder how this seemingly normal girl, whose only abnormal traits were the manacles around her wrists and ankles, had gotten down here alone. And did that mean there were more witches like her where they were going? “It’s from a scene that gets meme’d a lot.”

“Did his shirt get torn in the fall?” Connie asked. While she had asked him something like that in her excitement upon seeing him, the question had never gotten the chance to be answered. Instead of the red shirt he had been wearing the day before, he was now wearing a t-shirt that was white up to the top of his abdomen then faded purple the rest of the way up. There also seemed to be a hood attached for some reason.

“Nah, it got a little dissolved by a trash slug. I gave him one of my old ones King stretched out in the meantime.”

Now that she mentioned it, the faded purple on the upper half of the shirt Dipper was wearing was similar to the stripes on Luz’s shirt. Connie wasn’t sure the color really went with her green jacket, but it was a clear she had a personal style that had lasted since however long ago made that shirt “old.” Connie wasn’t exactly a fashion expert in her own right, she was currently wearing a red version of Steven’s shirt tied off to show her midriff while a pair of Peridot’s stockings come up to a few inches before the hem of her shorts, but she had the feeling Dipper’s new look would need to change sooner rather than later. But, compared to Steven at least, she thought what he was wearing would serve him better than going shirtless. He couldn’t pull that off anymore than he could pull off any of Wendy’s…

Connie stopped herself from finishing that thought. She’d always been a little bit catty with Dipper’s lack of resolve when it came to his crush, but where she’d been going just seemed mean. Was that just part of her new Connie persona slipping through? Was it because she was in hell? Did being in hell make someone act more like someone who should be there anyway? Or was it just a bit of herself she’d never been able to let out before making its way free? Connie didn’t know but, with a smile to herself while the others continued to talk and banter and get to know one another, she was looking forward to finding out.

Chapter Text

Twilight’s grin spread cheek to cheek as she and Sunset, hip to hip and clad in their matching lab coats, gazed up at their invention. After toiling together late into so many nights, among other things on those late nights, the fruits of their various labors had finally arrived. They looked at one another and Sunset met Twilight’s broad smile with a demure one of her own as her head tilted down and eyes looked up into Twilight’s. Twilight wanted to kiss Sunset’s cool, vanilla cheek to celebrate their success, but she held back. It was hard holding back, but she knew they should make sure the machine actually worked first.

“Ready, partner?” Sunset asked. She was toying with the topmost button she had been able to clasp of her lab coat, which left a long line of cleavage running up between the collar of her coat.

Twilight leaned even closer into Sunset. Her eye’s swept down from Sunset’s turquoise eyes, slowly over her ample chest, and finally to her hand, which Twilight promptly took in her own. Holding it tightly, Twilight guided both of their hands to the switch that would activate the device and said, “Ready, partner.”

They gripped the lever, their fingers intwined between one another’s, and pulled. Electricity hummed, lights flashed, pistons pumped, and every other conceivable mechanical form of movement started up. Twilight and Sunset looked at one another again, the light from their device in all their myriad of colors glinting off the whites of their eyes, and smiled. It was about to happen. Everything that would prove they worked so well together was about to show the world the just how ingenious–

Knock

Twilight and Sunset’s gazes were town from one another and back on their device. The sound it had let out, the thumping of something hitting wood, was not a sound it was supposed to make. Or was it? What was their invention supposed to do again?

Knock knock knock.

More knocks, each louder than the last. Each of them more intrusive than the one that came before. Whatever all their hard work had gone into, whatever they had spent so long doing together, it wasn’t this. Twilight didn’t like this. This was going to take her away from her lab partner. This was going to end their time together. But this wasn’t going to happen if she could help it. So she gripped the lever with her other hand and started pushing. All she had to do was turn the device back off and it would all be good again, it would all be the way she wanted it to be.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

As Twilight attempted to push the lever back up using the limited strength her lab-trained arms could muster, she realized Sunset’s hand was no long intertwined with her own. In fact, Sunset wasn’t even helping with the lever. Instead, she was looking somewhere else off to the side of the lab.

“Sunset,” Twilight said through already exasperated breaths, “help me turn–”

Knock. Knock.

“–this off.”

“Wha…” Sunset muttered as if in a daze.

Knock knock knock knock knock

“Sunset,” Twilight said again, now pleading. “Please, I need you!”

“I’m…” Sunset yawned before starting to stagger towards the door on the far side of the lab. “I’m coming…”

Knock knock knock

Twilight closed her eyes as she strained to push the lever back up, as she strained to put things right. If only she could–

KNOCK KNOCK

---

Twilight’s eyes slowly opened. The dark room that emerged from the darkness around her was no lab, but that made sense. She hadn’t fallen asleep next to Sunset in a lab, but in the latter’s dorm room. Which was exactly where she was. Unlike how she had gone to sleep however, her limbs entangled between Sunset’s on her small dorm bed, Twilight wasn’t warmly cramped to one side but had managed to sprawl out into a now empty and cooler space.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Hold your horses…” Sunset’s words transitioned into a yawn.

Her soft words combined with the knocking got Twilight a little farther into consciousness, which in turn allowed her to start putting pieces together now that the dream she’d been shaken from was fading from her mind. The knocking was someone at the door, of course, not whatever preposterous thing her mind had cobbled together in her sleep. And as Twilight sat up to get a better view of what was going on, making sure to hold the lone bed sheet to her bare chest, she caught sight of Sunset groggily swaying back and forth towards her dorm’s door. Like Twilight herself, Sunset was still nude with her entire soft yellow backside from head…to tail and tail end…to toe bare despite the top cover of the bed she was covering her front side with. Which in turn explained the room’s briskness, her bunkmate and top cover were gone after all.

“Shouldn’t you put something on?” Twilight asked while reaching for her glasses, wherever they had gone to during the previous night’s…activities. Sunset was quickly losing definition the farther away she got from the bed, something Twilight both did and didn’t want to see.

“It’s a girls’ dorm.” Sunset yawned again. “Nothing they haven’t seen before.”

Twilight finally found her glasses stuffed in one of the pillowcases, giving her just enough time to slip them on as Sunset threw open the door after another series of knocks. The figure waiting on the other side was tall. It was the first thing Twilight noticed. It was hard not to notice. Even not counting her horns, which almost reached the top of the doorframe; her head, neck, and even a hint of cleavage poking out from the top of a blue dress were visible above Sunset’s messy red hair and between her own set of horns.

The knocker wasn’t just tall, like Sunset she had yellow skin. Though unlike Sunset’s hers was a paler, more pastel shade. She also had horns with a flickering flame between them emerging from a mane of pink hair and a pair of turquoise-in-red eyes, so there must have been some inborn similarity between them. Twilight didn’t think they were related, at least that wasn’t high on her hypothesis list, but there were some similar genetics between the two. Shared genealogy to some degree, though the tall girl looked a bit less human than Sunset did. So maybe she was one of the hellborn Sunset had mentioned the day before, as opposed to being a native witch like Sunset herself or that sinner they’d seen.

“Fluttershy…why are you here so damn early?” Sunset moaned. After wobbling for a moment, she took up leaning against the doorframe while her tail lightly twitched behind the sheet.

The taller girl, Fluttershy evidently, seemed to pull back a littler bit. Her eyes were racing back and forth, almost as if she was scared or at least overly worried about Sunset’s reaction. “It’s…um…actually almost ten-thirty.”

Sunset didn’t reply for a moment. From behind it appeared that she had just stopped in place, with even her tail ceasing to twitch. The meme-worthy phrase Sunset.exe has stopped working passed through Twilight’s mind as she continued to watch from the bed. It didn’t quite make her laugh or even giggle to herself, but she thought it might be funny to recall later when she wasn’t naked around a stranger.

“Huh,” Sunset finally let. She glanced back at Twilight, a mischievous smirk on her face. “Guess we had a later night than I thought. Twilight, come say hi to my old roommate.”

Twilight automatically pulled the sheet higher around her. “But I’m–”

“In a girls’ dorm,” Sunset repeated, now actively motioning with her hand for Twilight to come closer. “And she knows what’s up anyway.”

Twilight held the sheet tighter to her chest as she tentatively slid herself off the bed. She instantly felt the cooler air of the room all along her backside, which she haphazardly attempted to block by wrapping more of the sheet around herself. She almost fell in the process, but somehow managed to retain her balance while inching closer to the door. She knew it was a graceless and embarrassing display, but she couldn’t just not cover up from possible prying eyes and brisk air. She just couldn’t.

When she finally made her way to the door, after only one more near fall, Twilight realized that this Fluttershy woman did indeed share many traits with Sunset along with a few she had mentioned not having. Especially notable were her succubus traits, both those the two had in common and one Sunset had bemoaned not having the night before. Their horns and flames dancing between them, Fluttershy’s was a pinkish blue that was practically flapping like a butterfly; their eyes and skin of course; and then their…well Twilight didn’t want to think too crassly, but their chests were nearly if not equally impressive. She thought Sunset’s assets inched out Fluttershy’s, but the height disparity made comparing them a bit questionable. Almost as questionable as how much she had started thinking about such things. Was that something else she’d need to put under observation and study? How being in such a place, even for just one night, was affecting–

“–nice to meet you.”

Fluttershy’s voice interrupted Twilight’s self-analysis. Sunset must have started introductions because the tall woman had her hand held out at a soft angle. Twilight made sure the sheet she’d covered herself with was held tight then shook the outstretched hand. Lightly so as not to disrupt the sheet, but also to match the strength put into it from the other end.

“Nice to meet you too,” Twilight responded, attempting to get into the swing of the conversation she had missed part of. “You used to be Sunset’s roommate?”

Fluttershy shifted her hooves while her small wings flapped and hands wrung together. Twilight could see her pale-yellow cheeks darken as she attempted to keep a nervous smile in place. “Yes, but I couldn’t keep up with how…outgoing she was.”

Sunset’s mouth parted, but before she had the chance to get a word out a guttural growl filled the air. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was noticeable enough to draw both Fluttershy and Twilight’s attention to Sunset’s stomach and the hand she had pressed against it. Now it was the native witch’s cheeks that darkened as she looked away, as if attempting to pretend she hadn’t heard the sound her stomach had just made.

Twilight started to inquire if she was alright, but Fluttershy beat her to it. “Is everything okay, Sunset? Shouldn’t you be full between your…um, work yesterday and your…” her eyes flitted to Twilight briefly, “new friend.”

“Maybe if she had worked yesterday,” came a new voice from out in the hall. Twilight was still partially behind Sunset and thus couldn’t see who or where in the hall the voice was coming from, but neither Sunset nor Fluttershy seemed surprised to hear it. Neither were they surprised that the voice sounded both younger and more like a boy’s than would be expected in a girls’ dorm.

“Is that my favorite minion?” Sunset, having stuck her head into the hall, called down the way they’d come in the night before.

“Hello, Spike,” Fluttershy added with a small wave. “I hope she’s not working you too hard.”

“No more than I’m willing to do,” the voice of Spike replied, though without seeming to get any closer. Something that reassured Twilight given she didn’t really want anyone to see her in such a state besides Sunset. Unfortunately, to put it in Fluttershy’s words, Sunset was outgoing.

“Well get down here then,” she beckoned.

“I will if you’re decent.”

Sunset rolled her eyes before looking down at herself then Twilight. Her turquoise eyes seemed to linger, long enough to make it Twilight’s turn to blush, before returning her attention to wherever Spike was down the hall. “Decent enough.”

“But–”

“Just get your finned butt down here,” Sunset interrupted, annoyance creeping into her voice. “I can see you’ve got at least some of what I asked you for and I don’t want to be out here all morning.”

“Not that, um, there’s much left of it.”

Sunset’s gaze fell on Fluttershy, whose own eyes slid towards the floor rather than match looks with the red head. If Twilight had a better understanding about what was going on she might have found it somewhat amusing, or at least more ironic, to see the much taller girl seemingly so scared of the shorter one.

“Fluttershy’s also here for some reason,” Sunset continued. “And I wouldn’t want to keep her waiting either.”

Footsteps started to approach, light on the hall’s hardwood flooring but quick as well, prompting Twilight to once again check on just how securely she’d covered herself in the sheet. Just in time too, as a hand jutted into the doorway, the strap of a large satchel bag grasped between its fingers.

Sunset rolled her eyes again and grabbed the outstretched wrist, pulling Spike the rest of the way in front of the doorway. “How are you still so embarrassed after working for me all this time?”

The purple shark that Sunset had dragged into view was short, even accounting for a slight stoop, with wide eyes and a mop of dark green hair and a lighter green underside that ran from his lower lip down into the collar of his worn black shirt. He was the same kind of demon that had been going to film…something with Sunset the before, though far less imposing. Something being what Twilight was just going along with at that point. In fact, he was kind of cute in a little brother kind of way. A little brother whose massive sharp teeth could still be seen even as he attempted to look away and cover his eyes in embarrassment, but logically even non-shark-demon little brothers could still bite so Twilight told herself she wasn’t going to focus on just how sharp they were.

“Because he’s sensitive,” Fluttershy chimed in. “You shouldn’t deride him for it.”

“I’m not sensitive,” Spike insisted while, because he was still covering his eyes, he blindly attempted to thrust the bag he’d brought at Sunset. “…I just don’t want to offend anyone.”

“I don’t mind if he’s sensitive,” Sunset said to Fluttershy, ignoring Spike while grabbing bag from his hand. She peered inside and nodded. “It’s actually a good point for what I’ve been trying to help him with. But he can be sensitive and not embarrassed with something he deals with on pretty much a daily basis.”

“I’m not sens–”

“Good job getting the stuff,” Sunset said, finally turning her attention back to the shark-boy. “Now how about the deets I asked for.”

Spike huffed before allowing himself to peek between his fingers. Twilight realized someone she’d just been categorizing as a little brother was looking at her while she was still only wearing a sheet. But he still wouldn’t look directly at her or Sunset even after dropping his hand, so she managed to steel herself enough to get through it. She hoped at least. Meanwhile Sunset was casually standing there as if there was nothing awkward about any part of what was going on. How she could be so nonchalant both confounded and amazed Twilight.

“Bruce is still pretty bummed about not filming. He wants you to know he’d still be willing to work with you on anything.”

Sunset sighed. “What a simp. And the douchy director?”

“Well, I didn’t talk directly to him–”

“Good.”

“–but from what I found out he still wants you to pay, in a couple different ways, for the damage.”

Twilight’s palms went clammy at the thought of that goat demon. At what he’d been willing to do to Sunset and maybe even herself. At how he’d whipped all those other demons into a frenzy to chase them. At the look in his–

She felt a warmth in her right hand that stopped her mind from racing. Looking down she found Sunset holding her hand, their fingers intertwined. Sunset wasn’t looking at her but, either by instinct or perhaps her magic, she had known Twilight needed her touch in that moment. She liked Sunset’s touch, now and the night before. She thought she’d like it no matter the time and probably no matter the place. Sunset’s grip tightened at the thought.

“Send him a check,” Sunset said after another sigh. “And we’ll stay on campus until he carts himself out of Goliath. Anything else?”

Spike shook his head.

“Ok, thanks for doing all that. We’ll have our next planning session after I get Twilight officially settled.”

“Um, speaking of that,” Fluttershy said, partially raising her hand as if asking for permission. “Dean Bump sent me to ask Twilight to meet at his office at one this afternoon. Evidently members of your coven are supposed to be there too.”

Twilight’s grip tightened on the sheet and on Sunset’s hand. “Really? They’re okay and here?”

She nodded. “That’s what I was told, or at least on their way.”

“That’s a relief. Thank you, Fluttershy.”

The tall girl smiled. “Of course. And while I’m sure Sunset will try to make you feel, um, at home here, if you ever need anything I’m right down the hall. Plus, I’m sure Spike would be willing to help you out since he’s in and out a lot.”

“Sure,” Spike said with a nod after just listening to the rest of them for the past few minutes. “As long as Sunset’s not got me doing too much.”

“Don’t make me out like some kind of slave driver,” Sunset protested.

Fluttershy and Spike exchanged looks and, almost in unison, shrugged. Sunset shut the door in their faces.

“What a lovely wakeup call,” she said turning back towards the room proper. She was still holding Twilight’s hand, and thus lightly pulled her along. Not that Twilight had any kind of problem with that. It was much like the way Sunset had led her out of the shower the night before, maybe not as playfully, but if anyone was going to show her the way she didn’t foresee minding as long as it was Sunset’s yellow hand guiding her. “Glad Spike got the message I sent. Now you won’t have to meet the dean in abomination-stained clothes.”

Sunset lowered her shoulder and the bag Spike had given her slid down her arm, the strap reaching Twilight’s hand right as she realized what was expected of her. Letting go of Sunset’s hand, she caught the strap in both hands just in time. It was a hefty weight, but not unexpectedly so if it was full of clothes the way Twilight was inferring it to be.

“Thank you for doing that,” Twilight said after a moment reflecting on the bag. “You keep doing things for me that I’m not sure how I’ll ever be able to repay and I just…”

“Don’t even think about it,” Sunset said. She smiled as she let the top sheet she’d been half-covering herself with fall away before traipsing over to the dresser at the center of the back wall. Twilight found herself once again watching Sunset’s tail and tail-end bob from side to side as she approached, opened, and then bent over the middle dresser drawer. “I can almost count the number of people I actually like on one hand, and that includes Tweedledee and Tweedledum out there, so I try to show it when I can. Even if, like for Spike, it’s just paying him for his work along with the lessons on getting a girlfriend we first agreed to.”

Sunset pulled out a string of black cloth and held it out in front of her for a moment, tilting her head one way and then the other as if considering what miniscule uses such a small, sheer swath could have. Eventually she made up her mind though before bending over once again. It was only then that Twilight realized the practical scrap of cloth was supposed to be a pair of panties, and only because part of it went between her legs as she tied it on. The sheer lace and string left little to the imagination as she turned back to face Twilight.

“And for the people I think I might really like, well I try to really show it. Especially when it’s someone I want to go to class with and see how she analyzes the hubbabaloo we get up to down here. Or someone that I want to see what she can really do once she gets a handle on her own hubbabaloo.” Sunset had started towards Twilight again as she spoke, swinging her hips with each step in a way that cause her chest and flame to bounce at the same time. “So if you ever think I’m not showing how much I care to someone like that, someone I’d be happy to have as my new roommate once she’s officially enrolled, then you tell me, alright?”

Twilight took an excited gulp. “I think you’ve shown me plenty so far.”

Sunset smiled. “Good.”

As Twilight looked down into Sunset’s eyes, among other things, and just as she was about to let her own sheet join Sunset’s on the floor before leaning forward, another growl broke the moment. It went on longer this time, and louder too. It got to the point, as both of their attentions fell to Sunset’s bare midriff, that Twilight thought she could even see the other’s stomach moving beneath the hands she attempted to cover it with. Needless to say, the moment was ruined.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked, realizing as she did that Sunset had never answered Fluttershy when she’d asked the same thing. Spike had arrived and the conversation had gotten swept up in a different direction, maybe even by Sunset’s own design. “Is there something I can do?”

“Just succubus things,” she replied, attempting to wave it off like it was nothing. Though, and noticeably so, she no longer had the bounce to her movements. “Maybe later you and I can snack. For now though, the best thing you can do is let me watch you try on some of my old clothes until you find something you like.”

“Are you sure, because I could–”

“Twi, babe, I’m more than sure. So please, try on some clothes.”

Sunset was still smiling as she looked at Twilight, but there was less…swagger, or maybe confidence was the better word, than there had been before. Now it almost sounded like she was pleading for Twilight not to talk about it, or maybe not even think about it. “Okay, but if there is ever anything I can do, please tell me. I also don’t have too many people I can say I like, and none until recently that I really like, so I’d want to do or show whatever I could for someone…someone I’d hope to be roommates with.”

Sunset’s smile lost the pleading edge. “I’m going to teach you all about it, I promise. Hell, I’ll even dig out my old biology textbook for you so you can learn about all us freaks down here. Just don’t go worrying about me yet, ok?”

“…okay.”

They exchanged one more thoughtful look before Twilight finally flipped the satchel flap over so she could look inside. It was stuffed to the brim with all sorts of colorful clothes; tops, skirts, even some accessories. She reached in and grabbed the topmost piece she could, an orange sweater that felt cool to the touch despite its thickness. Along with it came a slip of paper, or rather a tag attached to its sleeve.

“Nerd Collection, episode 1?” she read aloud.

“That was a series of videos I did dressed like smart girls,” she explained. The more Twilight heard about her videos the less sure she was that she should be playing along about understanding what they were. “Spike must have pulled from that part of my storage closet.”

“But why would you have to dress like a smart girl?” Twilight attempted to make air quotes around ‘smart’ but between the bag and still holding up the sheet the gesture was lost. “You’re an honors student after all, you are a smart girl.”

Sunset shrugged. “People don’t look at me, what I am, or what I do and think smart. They think ‘nice rack’ and ‘dem hips.’ But the people who only think that when they see me aren’t on the short list of people I like, so I don’t let it bother me. What does bother me is that the cute and smart girl in my room isn’t trying on the clothes I got her. So chop, chop. I wanna make a montage out of this for Penstagram.”

“Alright, alright,” Twilight relented. She playfully threw her hands up as if surrendering, inadvertently letting go of the sheet in the process. It fell to the floor with a ‘ploof’ of displaced air. Sunset licked her lips, once again smiling with all the swagger and confidence Twilight had come to expect of her in the short time since they’d met.

“Now we’re getting somewhere.”

Chapter Text

Molly clung to Scratch as they sat, alone, in Dean Bump’s office once again. The dark red desk in front of her was empty except for the plaque with his name on it, a crystal ball to her left side that she hadn’t noticed the day before, and a set of papers loosely spread to the other side. Scratch had, after growing tired of waiting around, suggested she let him loose to flip through the place. To “get a look at what we’re in for,” as he’d put it. But there was nothing doing when it came to snooping as far as Molly was concerned, and Molly usually loved snooping when she thought there was a good reason for it. But in this case, given what she’d seen as Danny had walked them to a dorm room Dean Bump had made available the night before and then to the cafeteria before Bump’s office that morning, she was in no mood to do anything that might put them in anyone’s bad graces while “down here.”

While the idea of animal people or people with animal ears or tails or eyes would have filled her with wonder and amazement the morning before, being up close to so many as she made her way to and from the dorm room or while eating what had looked like some kind of bacon and eggs despite quite…different coloring, had hampered the enjoyment. Mostly it had been the teeth. So many different, yet all so sharp, sets of teeth had greeted her with every smile.

She had told Scratch over and over that if they were smiling they must be at least a little friendly. He had definitely needed to hear it again and again to make sure it sunk in. Even when he’d been chomping away at the miscolored food, burying his fear beneath huge mouthfuls of food, she could just tell that he might break down if she didn’t let him know it was going to be alright. Because only nice…people would show so many teeth. Yes. Yep. Only nice…people.

But regardless of how nice she kept reassuring him that everyone was going to be, she didn’t want to give any of them a reason not to be nice to her and Scratch. Even Danny, who was by far the closest thing to normal even when including that Gaz girl, wasn’t exactly what Molly thought of as a normal human either. Between his shock of white hair and how he occasionally stepped through something solid as if it wasn’t there, it was clear that she shouldn’t expect anyone to be what they appeared.

And that was alright. That was the way it should be. No one should be judged by how they look. Unless it was smiles. No matter how pointy, she knew to always take a smile as the happy greeting it was meant to be.

“All I’m saying,” Scratch started again after picking at his teeth for a minute or two, “is that we might as well try to get an idea of what we’re in for.”

“And all I’m saying,” Molly stated while continuing to stare at the empty chair behind the desk, which just seemed like a good place to keep her attention. “Is that Dean Bump and some of the others we’ve met have been…nice to us–”

“Even that Gaz chick?”

“She brought us here didn’t she. So we should return their kindness by not snooping.”

He shrugged. “Seems a little out of character honestly. And considering one of us can still die, just seems like knowing what the up an’ up is would be a good idea.”

“And it seems to me that–”

Sounds from the other side of the door caught Molly’s attention. Initially just footsteps, but voices quickly joined them. She couldn’t make them out at first, but she strained her ears to listen while shrinking into her chair and squeezing Scratch even tighter. There were at least three of them, maybe four, that she could hear talking out there. Each step got closer to the door, bringing the voices closer to audibility as the distance closed between them and her.

“…up here,” what Molly thought was a girl’s voice said. She didn’t sound like she had a…sharp smile. “Are you still good to hang by the door for them?”

Molly stiffened in her seat.

“All good,” a deeper, male voice replied. Not “old” deeper, but bigger sounding. “I know you’ve got someone else you’re looking for.”

The girl laughed. “Yeah, but it shouldn’t be hard to hunt her down.”

She was going to hunt someone? Were the rest of them going to hunt Molly down? A series of quick glances around the room reminded her that there was no other way out of the room but the one door and a window to the same open hall area. She could throw Scratch through the wall to save him, but if they wanted to get to her then there was nothing Molly could do to get away.

“She’s the one you have all the pictures of, right?” another boy’s voice asked. This time Molly was torn. At first thoughts of Andrea and Liab’s horror movies came rushing back to her, of walls of photos taken by stalkers and murderers preparing to go in for the kill. But then she realized she knew that voice, or at least thought she did. And that thought filled her with a new, hopeful warmth.

“That’s the one,” the girl replied. “After four years I have a pretty good nose for where to find her.”

The second voice, the familiar one, mumbled something that Molly couldn’t hear through the door. But she still knew it, that under the breath grumble. She had noticed it every time Anne had dropped something or Twilight had disregarded a theory. Even though Molly knew he could explain anything in the world he needed to, sometimes he couldn’t help but grumble to himself instead of speaking his mind. It was something Molly had always wanted to find a way to help him with, to enhappify his world just a little, but she’d never found a way to help–

By the time the doorknob turned Molly was leaning forward in her chair, watching it in the hope that who she was wishing it to be was about to walk through that door. And then it opened. Red daylight, blocked until that moment by the closed door and shuttered blinds, streamed into the room. Molly could only shade her eyes in an attempt to make out the silhouettes appearing in the doorway. But that could only last so long, and she was already on her feet by the time her eyes adjusted.

“Dipper!” Molly cried as she threw herself at him. There was a grunt as she collided into him, burying her face in his chest while her arms wrapped around him.

“H-hey Molly,” Dipper gasped out, lightly patting her head.

Even she could tell she was holding him too tightly, but she didn’t care. She’d been holding on to hope that he and the others would be okay, but she’d had no way to know and all through the night she’d been rocking herself between the best and worst case scenarios of what might have happened to them after they’d been blown apart. But he was really there. And if he was then–

“What am I, chop liver?”

“Connie!” Molly shouted with a little less enthusiasm before repeating her leaping hug at the second club member to appear. She managed to restrain herself from restraining Connie as tightly as she had Dipper, but she was still so glad to see her. And the fact that they were both here only made it so much better, because if they were here and okay then the rest of the club had to be too. They couldn’t not be if she, Dipper, and Connie had managed to get here seemingly unscathed.

“Why do you two look like you fell out of a thrift store?” Scratch commented as he floated off to the side where Molly had evidently tossed him as Dipper appeared.

“Scratch!” Molly chided, though she saw what he meant. As usual though she just wished he’d say it in a nicer way. Connie’s sensible white blouse had been replaced by a red t-shirt with a pentagram design, knotted to show off her midriff; green thigh-high stockings had replaced her socks; and Molly wasn’t completely sure but it seemed like her jean shorts, normally a sensible length like everything else about her, had been replaced by a shorter pair. Short enough to show a good amount of skin between the hem and the top of the leggings. Dipper’s change in wardrobe was less drastic, but still noticeable now that she was looking. Instead of the red shirt he’d been wearing yesterday, he was now wearing a stretched and faded purple and white shirt that didn’t quite suit him. And, was that a hood laying across his shoulders?

“But, what did happen to your clothes?”

Dipper looked down at his shirt and shrugged. “There was a slug.”

“And yours, Connie?”

“I fell in a river,” Connie started before pausing to consider her words. “And some skeletons in the water had a bone to pick with me for disturbing them.”

Molly blinked. She, Dipper, and even Scratch just looked at Connie. “Was that a joke?”

She put her hands on her hips and smiled. “New place, new me.”

“Regardless,” Dipper said in an attempt to end the awkward silence being shared by everyone but Connie. “I’m glad you’re alright, Molly. I was worried about you.”

Molly played with one of her twin-tails as a bit of heat filled her cheeks. “Really?”

“Of course, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.” He scratched the back of his head. “Especially since I’m the one who dropped us down here.”

Connie nudged him with her elbow. “Like the rest of us didn’t do anything to help.”

“Yeah,” Molly added in. She didn’t want to miss a chance to enhappify Dipper if she could, especially since Connie was right. Dipper may have figured a lot of the process out, but she and the others had more than helped make their current predicament possible. “We all got ourselves down here. And who knows, maybe those wishes that we had to hold on to while falling actually will come true. Danny and Dean Bump both mentioned Oracle classes would help me connect with Scratch and other spirits, and that’s basically what I wanted.”

Dipper readjusted his backpack strap and glanced away for a brief moment. There was a look in his eyes, one that Molly couldn’t quite place. It was as if…as if the idea of their wishes being granted was even less likely now than they had seemed before opening the portal down here. Yet, when his eyes shifted back towards her, he didn’t say a word about it. “Maybe, but for now we should focus on making sure we’re all alright and back together.”

Molly smiled. “Of course.”

As if on cue, a new pair of voices drifted through the door, the sound of light footsteps approaching with them. One was a slightly deep girl’s voice, while the other was almost instantly recognizable to everyone waiting in the Dean’s office.

“…like I’m prepared for this,” the familiar voice said. “Are you sure what I’m wearing is appropriate?”

The other girl scoffed, but even through the door Molly didn’t get the sense that it was in a mean way. “Babe, you look fine. You’re going to do great once ‘ol Bump shows up. And, by the looks of Muscle-verse waiting over there, I bet one or two of your friends probably already have.”

“Hello, Sunset,” the deeper male voice, which Molly guessed belonged to whoever had led Dipper and Connie here, replied.

“Steven, tell her I’m right. She’s nervous and my tongue is already tired from–”

“She looks great,” whoever Steven was cut in to cut off the Sunset girl from saying anything else. Molly didn’t know exactly what she had been about to say, but all her guesses made her think she’d get along with Andrea’s attempts to playfully embarrass Liab. “And I’d assume, if she’s anything like the other members of her coven, then meeting with Dean Bump will go great as well.”

“My coven…mates are here?” Twilight blurted out. Dipper released a breath, seemingly at her nearly instantaneous use of the word coven. Gaz, Danny, and Dean Bump had all used that word during the conversations they’d had with Molly the previous day and that morning, and despite her starting to slip inside herself the longer she’d been alone with anyone or thing down here, she had rolled with its usage the few times she had replied or asked something about her missing friends. She had thought it might just be colloquialism for friends or club, but maybe there was more to it than that after all.

“A couple,” they heard Steven say.

“Good then,” Sunset added. “Go see how they’re doing. I’ll be waiting here when you’re done.”

“Okay,” Twilight replied, though the door handle didn’t start to turn in the moment that followed. Instead, before a final footstep approached the door to open it, she took a moment to say, somewhat more seriously than before, “If you need anything though, come get me.”

“Psh. A girl’s stomach growls twice and you’d think the ring was falling apart. Get in there.”

Things repeated much as they had when Dipper and Connie had come in. Molly threw herself at Twilight to hug her, only to be surprised when it was actually returned. Twilight had never spurned Molly’s friendly hugs before, but she had never returned them either. Then she commented on Dipper and Connie’s apparel changes, only for Connie to blush at the mention of her missing glasses and Dipper to toss the comment back to her. She looked down at the orange sweater and red skirt, a color scheme that was repeated in a pair of knee-high orange socks and red slip-ons, before looking back up and saying, with a nervous smile that was unlike the usual self-assured Twilight, “My clothes got stained in the fall.”

“Well,” Dipper started after a moment glancing around the recollected members of their club, “since we’re all here, we should get some things straight before–”

“We’re here!” a young sounding shout resounded from outside the door. Not just young though, tired sounding. At least from the drawn-out way the words were said, only counting as a shout because whoever had called out had made themselves as loud as possible. And with it came an unsteady set of clops ringing off the stone flooring, as well as some kind of light slapping sound.

“We’re not…uh late, are we?” came another voice, even more slurred and tired, or more so exhausted, sounding. But like Twilight before her it was a voice that everyone seemed to recognize at once.

Dipper grumbled something under his breath. Molly couldn’t hear it clearly, even as close as they were standing, and what she thought it sounded like couldn’t be right given the circumstances. Dipper would never say something like “damnit” about one of their friends being alright after all.

“We just got here and no one’s complained,” that Sunset woman said to Anne and whoever she had come with. It seemed like everyone but Molly had made a new friend on their way to meeting back up but her, which was exactly the opposite of how it usually was with their group. Well, Danny had been nice enough to her, but he had also excused what Gaz had shouted and done to her, so she wasn’t exactly enhappified by his attempts to be helpful beyond catching her before she hit the street.

“Great,” the younger voice said, not quite gleefully in his tiredness. “Go get ‘em, Anne.”

“I……m on it,” she sheepishly replied.

The handle turned and the final member of the Supernatural Studies Club entered the room. Molly intended to greet Anne with the same kind of hug she had given all the others, but she was taken back enough by how Anne looked that she couldn’t help but stop in her tracks as Anne, wobbling more than a little with each step, came in. But who stepped into the office wasn’t exactly the tall, quiet, dark-clad woman that Molly had so often literally and figuratively looked up to since meeting. Who stepped inside was a…well, she was a mess.

Anne’s hair, curly and poofed out as always, was utterly lopsided. The bags under her eyes, always there to some degree from late night studying if Molly had to guess, had grown vast and wide like grungy silver dollars. And the dark clothing she only ever changed out for lighter sets when playing tennis had been replaced by a stark white sheet done up in what might have been a makeshift chut thai. A sheet that, despite coming to an end above her bare ankles and feet, was frayed and mud-stained for several inches up the length of its folds. If her face and figure weren’t so recognizable Molly might not have even thought it was her without a second glance.

“Hey guys,” Anne said. She looked around at each of them through bleary, barely open eyes before adding, “Likin’ the new looks.”

“What happened to you?” Molly managed to get out. “You look like you haven’t slept in a month.”

Anne half lifted her arm as if shake her hand back and forth. Neither part of the movement quite worked out. “More like three.”

“And that means what?” Twilight asked when Anne didn’t seem like she was going to explain any more than that.

“Huh?” Anne yawned. “Oh, there was a uh, kind of…mushroom mind…mrison. Made it feel like three months in one night. Gotta not-frog family out of it though. So that’s cool I guess.”

“Great, super. We’re all here now,” Dipper said, the vitriol thick in his voice.

Molly found herself looking at him more than Anne, all the while asking herself what was going on with him. Had everyone but her changed in some way; Anne sleepy, Connie…outgoing, Twilight flustered, and Dipper mean? Although, she hadn’t exactly been herself since arriving. Molly had basically been shaking in fear from any and everything that happened around her instead of trying to be friendly or enhappifying. But couldn’t that be considered normal given what she’d been through? Or had coming to…hell shifted her and the others in ways they couldn’t have expected? Molly didn’t like the idea of changing because of where she was. She had managed to keep her spirits up through every city her dad’s job had ever taken them to, she wasn’t going to let some new town, in Hell or not, be the end of her good vibes.

Dipper continued by motioning everyone to the other side of the room, which everyone but Anne picked up on and followed pretty quickly. After he let out an aggravated sigh, Molly helped things along by grabbing Anne by the hand and leading her to where the others had huddled up opposite the door. Once they joined the others, coincidently in the same order they had stood in the circle that had dropped them here, Dipper began again but in much more hushed tones.

“Has anyone else discovered a new talent since we got here?” As he spoke, he held up one of his hands and flexed it. With that simple motion, three glowing circles flared into existence in the air above his palm. One a fiery red, another solidly blue, and the last a more yellow shade that Molly couldn’t quite describe.

“You mean like this?” Connie less asked than stated as a wave of her own hand brought an orange circle into being. “I was able to make a cat like me with this.”

“I was able to do something like that…” Twilight added in. She held both her hands up as if ready to catch something between them, but couldn’t get more than a few violet sparks to form before dropping them back to her sides. “I think I have to be near some goop for it to work though.”

Dipper nodded before turning his attention to Molly, the last fully conscious member to add their two cents. Like Twilight, Molly held up both of her hands as she had practiced the night before, but unlike Twilight a little more than sparks appeared. While it wasn’t nearly as bright as when Danny had helped her on the rooftop, a golden circle of light flashed out of nowhere between her hands. Not only that, but she managed to hold it there without it obnoxiously wavering or sputtering out like so many of her attempts in the dorm room had ended up.

“Danny says it’s the wrong color, but this Oracle magic helped me keep Scratch from turning into some kind of…of dark, sharp…thing.”

Everyone’s attention shifted to Scratch, who nonchalantly if not a bit annoyedly floated over Molly’s shoulder. Noticing this, as well as the lack of positive attention it came with, he went to the trouble of uncrossing his arms just so he could better lean forward with them put on what constituted his hips. “Can I help you? Jeez, you can all finally see me and you do nothing but scream or stare. You’d think with all the trouble you’ve gotten yourselves into I wouldn’t warrant so much non-food related attention.”

It was Dipper who replied, which Molly also realized was the first real interaction Scratch was having with any of her friends. She didn’t think any of them really counted that little screaming fit while falling anyway. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m just wondering if being dark and sharp would have made you look more interesting.”

Scratch’s mouth and arms dropped. Molly’s did too, but as they both stared at him while noting the Twilight and Connie’s nodding heads to either side she managed to reach up and grab her ghost by the wrist. She pulled him into a hug, holding him tight until she managed to get her words out. “Scratch is plenty interesting looking. Just gaze upon his majestic blue nose. Have you ever seen a nose like that?”

“No,” Dipper said slowly, with Molly dreading the ‘but’ she knew was coming. “But the last ghost I dealt with had a giant flaming beard and could turn people to wood. Can Scratch turn people to wood? Can you turn people into wood, Scratch?”

Scratch’s eyes darted back and forth as he tried to sputter out a retort. But, as nothing that could get him out of the situation miraculously appeared, all he could do was shrink farther into Molly’s embrace before letting out a tiny, “No.”

“Are we still showing off glowy circles?” Anne cut in, probably not even realizing she was interrupting an awkward moment. She had already raised one of her hands, where a brown circle of light could be plainly seen floating around her wrist. “I…threw a dragon…”

“Oh great, strength magic,” Dipper scoffed. “Just what you need.”

Glances abounded between Molly, Connie, and Twilight. It seemed like neither of the others understood what Dipper was upset about when it came to Anne. Wasn’t it a good thing that that they’d all managed some level of magical ability, as strange as that may have seemed given none of them had any the day before. At least Molly thought so, given that they had all gravitated towards a magical school after all. And wasn’t that amazing in its own right? And that magic had already seemed to help some of them. Molly keeping Scratch the way he should be and whatever Anne had done with that dragon, which Molly really wished she could have seen.

“Moving on…has everyone here been using the word coven describe us?” he asked. And when everyone nodded, “Good. I haven’t figured it out yet, but being covenless or a ‘New Witch’ seems to be looked down on around here. I’ve gotten the feeling five of us coming down all at once is out of place enough, no reason to make that attention becomes negative.”

“Could we share that we’re not a real ‘coven’ with someone if we happened to get close to them?” Twilight asked while looking intently at the floor.

Despite herself, Molly couldn’t help but smile at the idea of Twilight finding someone to be close to. She always seemed so closed off to other people that weren’t part of her experiments or at least working on something in a similar field to her. So it didn’t matter who or what she had gotten close to, just that she had. “What kind of close? How’d you two meet? What are they like?”

“Um,” she started, already blushing as if she had a fever.

A love fever Molly thought to herself.

“Sunset, who’s waiting in the hall, saved me from drowning after the fall. Then we had a little…adventure before getting back to her room. So I’d just feel better if I could let her know…more about me.”

Molly let out an “Aaaaawwww” while the Dipper just looked at her, blinking through his surprise, and Connie gave an impressed grin. Anne on the other hand, who was still wobbling in place with half-opened eyes, looked on with an expression of at least a mild lack of comprehension.

“Is that weird?” Twilight asked, her eyes flitting between everyone else and her own hands. Flexing the fingers of one hand against those of the other, glancing up, then returning her attention back down.

“Not weird,” Dipper replied much more kindly than he had to Anne, though with a notable twinge as he looked for his words. “Just unexpected. Weird is what Connie has going on.”

Connie crossed her arms below her chest in a confident stance as both Twilight and Molly’s attention turned more definitely to her. Anne remained bleary eyed as Molly asked, “What does he mean?”

“I found the boy I’d been looking for,” Connie stated proudly. “Plus two girls that came with him.”

There would have been an awkward silence following that declaration, but Scratch let out a whooping “Daaaaaaaaaaaaaang, girl” that turned the awkwardness to cringe. “I’ve got new respect for you.”

Connie grinned. “Thanks. I have to figure out what one being a native, one being an imp, and one being a succubus-possessor means for our alone time, but Steven being a native witch worked out better than I expected so I’ve got high hopes.”

“Oh, Sunset lent me her biology book, so I was reading about different demons while she was getting ready. There’s the various hellborn demon races who vary between humanoid and animalistic, the native witches that are basically half-demons, and then the modern witches that we’re pretending to be are humans with magic. Of course, then there’s the sinners, who seem to exist to spit in the face of consistency.”

“You mean like that puppet-looking guy we saw on the way in?” Connie asked back.

Twilight shuddered. “You saw him too?”

While Molly had had her run-ins with an unsettling puppet or two, it was hard for her to imagine one that would be so off-putting for Twilight to make her visibly shudder that way. Though, she had done her own bit of shuddering between the previous day and that morning, so however unsettling the puppet-sinner was she supposed it would make sense with everything else going she’d seen. Not that she liked to admit that even to herself.

“Yeah, Peri pointed him out. Said not to mess with them if we could help it. Oh, Peri’s–”

“Someone who we don’t know how they’ll react,” Dipper cut in, not yelling but much louder than the hushed tones they had been talking in. He really did seem more aggressive than Molly had ever seen him before. And while she didn’t think was necessarily a bad thing for a number of reasons, was it really him or the effect of hell or his new magic or something else. Once he was sure he had all their attentions, even Anne’s as his sudden outburst had partially stirred her back to consciousness, he continued in the hush tone once again. “So, until we know more about what’s going on we need to keep it to ourselves.”

“But–”

“No buts, Twilight,” he cut her off quickly. “Look, I’m glad you…and I guess Connie, found someone to connect with or whatever, but I spent half of last night hearing about how hard it was for a new witch to get by down here. Add to that us having to figure out if it’s even possible to get back home since the corridor broke and we do not need to be drawing any more attention than we absolutely have to. Does everybody understand that?”

Molly nodded. Anne nodded. And, after exchanging upset glances both Twilight and Connie, they nodded as well. Twilight, who was pulling on the hem of her skirt and looking at the floor, seemed more upset than Connie, whose mouth wrinkled but otherwise mostly continued acting blasé as she had been since coming into the office. How they had found significant others after just one night Molly couldn’t fathom, especially given how everyone down here seemed, but it did ensadden her a bit to know they’d have to lie to people they cared about. She thought she understood Dipper’s reasoning though. Gaz had been downright demonic despite being what Twilight had called a modern witch compared to the full or partial demons everyone else was, if the ones with teeth and horns and all those other sharp bits got as mad at them as she had been it was going to be really hard to get anything done in a…healthy way. Especially finding a way back home. Molly may have wanted to learn more about spirits, but doing so in hell was not how she’d imagined it happening.

“Kay, so we’re agreed then,” Dipper continued. “We’re a coven down here to master our magic and we’re just going to go with whatever happens or what we’re told the best we can until we find a way home or at least know enough to make actually informed decisions.”

With that ‘agreed upon,’ their huddle broke. Dipper looked at one of the chairs facing Bump’s desk, of which there were now five, and made to sit in it. Molly followed suit, or at least would have, but before either of them could do more than really straighten up from the huddle the doorknob turned one final time. But there was no one left of the club that could be dramatically arriving after a night lost to the wilds of Hell, so Molly wasn’t surprised when the figure that entered the room was none other than who the office belonged to, Dean Bump. But while the massive black and white horns sprouting from between his long white locks of hair gave Molly reason to remember all the other…people she had seen since the day before, she did her best to remember how nice he had been to her. How he’d set her up with a dorm for the night before even being fully enrolled. And how he’d set up this very meeting once he got word that more members of her ‘coven’ were on their way. The fact that he had big ‘ol horns on his head and probably a tail under his robes didn’t mean anything. Because no one should ever be judged just on what they look like. Not even that one girl in the cafeteria whose whole head had just been one giant, unblinking eye that wouldn’t stop staring at her…or that giant wolf man she’d passed when Danny had been escorting her around, the one with the massive teeth and claws and–

“Ah, good to see that you’ve all arrived,” Dean Bump said as he closed the door behind him. His robes swished back and forth around him as he made his way behind his desk, though not as much as his eyes moved from side to side as he looked them over along the way. Like Molly and the others, his attention seemed to be particularly grabbed by Anne’s lack of real clothing, though he also paused a moment when he got to Connie’s mismatched wardrobe. “What an interesting coven you appear to be. Please go ahead and have a seat. And Ms. McGee, would you mind making introductions since we’ve already made each other’s acquaintances.”

Molly did so, motioning to Dipper, Twilight, Connie, and Anne in kind. Each of them said some variant of hello as she got to them, even Anne who was doing her best to remain conscious in the moment. Dean Bump remained just as cordial as he’d been the last time they’d spoken, even making comments of who had informed him of their arrival once they’d been introduced. If he had been any old dean in a school upstairs he may have been Molly’s favorite administrator ever, but she was still having trouble accepting any of…the anything going on.

“Well it’s certainly a pleasure to meet the youth of a coven I’m not familiar with,” he continued once everyone had been introduced. “There are so few outside of Goliath or the rings in these modern times, I was beginning to think that I’d never meet another witch who wasn’t beholden to Kaisa. Not that there’s anything wrong with her coven.”

He rushed out the last sentence, as if worried what he said might be taken the wrong way. But Molly didn’t have any idea who ‘Kaisa’ was, and didn’t think the others did either, so it just came across as awkward as he rushed to the next topic. “But that’s enough musing out of me, let’s get your registration out of the way.”

Dean Bump held up a boney finger, only to then press it down against his desk surface and run it across the length of it. A glowing white line shone in the wake of his finger, covering over a third of his desktop by the time he lifted his hand away again. But then the line wasn’t just a line, but a rectangle. It had changed in the blink of an eye, pulling apart to become not a glowing space but just a space in general. As it expanded towards the front and back of the Dean’s desk an expanding hole formed between its edges, only ceasing its silent advance when there were mere inches between it and either the front or back side of the desk. By the time it stopped the hole with its glowing edges was over two feet wide from Bump’s initial finger line and probably close to four feet long. But that wasn’t all that held Molly’s wide-eyed attention.

Rising from the newly formed hole was a yellow platform adorned with eight cylinders, four along each side. Each of the cylinders was about a quarter full of different colored liquid; brown, orange, red, violet, purple, blue, a lighter blue, and leafy green. They shifted as the rising platform filled in the space that had opened or it then came to a stop, but not by much. Whatever was in those tubes must have been thick to not even ripple at the movement.

“This will test your magical capacity against our standards,” Dean Bump explained. “We used to have prospective students put on a display of what they could do, but have since found analyzing what’s on the inside works better in the long run.”

Molly decided she was going to tell herself he meant inside their hearts, that’s where magic came from after all, right? If a life of cartoons with happy endings had taught her anything it was that.

“Ms. McGee, why don’t you get us started by placing your hand between the cylinders.”

“Okay…” she said slowly, not getting out her chair any faster. She sent Dipper a quick glance, but all he could do give her a half-hearted smile and nod towards Bump’s desk. The next thing she knew she was standing in front of it, Scratch floating to her side while the platform and its various liquids sat before her. She started to raise her right hand towards the space between the glass containers but, as if it would buy her any more than a second, found herself asking, “Will just one hand do?”

“That will be fine, Ms. McGee,” Bump said with a nod. He didn’t really sound annoyed by the question, he might even have come across being happily helpful to anyone else, but Molly didn’t think she could drag it out anymore than that. As much good as that had done her.

Taking a deep breath, Molly placed her hand on the short yellow platform and braced herself for what would come. Nothing did. Or, at least, nothing beyond the polished stone and its adornments. The small platform itself began to glow yellow, not as brilliant as the gold light she had produced before, but bright enough to dispel most of the shadows around the room. That wasn’t where it stopped though. The cylinder containing the darker, purple liquid began to shift. Not the glass itself, which Molly took a second to recognize in the light, the liquid was what was moving. What had barely budged while rising in place was now swirling about, rising as it did until there was a tiny vortex of purple within the glass. It kept rising inside; first reaching halfway up the glass, then inching higher and higher, until it ceased right below the three-quarters mark on the glass’s exterior. And then it just stopped, the glow and swirling and everything else, as if a plug had been pulled somewhere.

“Very good, Ms. McGee,” Dean Bump said with a wide smile. “I had a sense yesterday that you’d do well, and already having a contracted spirit doesn’t hurt either, but I’m glad to welcome you to our Oracle track officially.”

Molly pulled back her hand and attempted to return his smile. “Thank you, Dean Bump.”

His attention turned back the other four as Molly sat back down. She hadn’t noticed during her test, but everyone had leaned forward at some point while she was up there. Even Anne, who still looked half-asleep was doing her best to pay some kind of attention. So at least if something had gone wrong they would have known it, which Molly supposed gave her some use.

“Good job,” Dipper whisper once she was back in her seat beside him. She smiled back at him much the same way she had at Dean Bump. She didn’t feel any different than she had before touching the stone slab, but something had changed. She was now enrolled in two colleges, which meant they were getting deeper into this place despite Dipper noting they were going to look for a way out. She trusted Dipper, she really did, but was this really the right way to go? She could only hope so.

“Ms. Boonchouy was it,” Bump said, looking at Anne. “Why don’t you give it a go next.”

“Yes sir,” she said, rising from her chair. She wobbled a bit in the few steps it took her to get to his desk, but she managed to make it work. She brought her hand down more on the slab to keep herself steady than how Molly had done it, but the effect was the same. The slab started to glow, not as brightly as before but still noticeably so, and then one of the liquids started to move. It was the brown cylinder this time. But instead of swirling into a mini tornado it jutted up like a stone spike emerging from the ground. Even the slab itself seemed to rumble as the liquid rose, but the effect was short-lived. The liquid ‘spike’ only got a bit above the halfway mark on the glass before stopping. Then it was the same as it had been with Molly, the glowing stop and the liquid dropped back down to the bottom of the cylinder.

“Was that good?” Anne asked.

“It was more than acceptable,” Dean Bump replied, still sporting his welcoming smile. “Welcome to Hexside’s Construction track.”

It was Connie’s turn next, with the process repeating step-for-step except for the last. Unlike the purple and brown liquids that Molly and Anne had caused to react, Connie’s touch prompted a reaction from the vial of orange liquid. There was little surprise at that point. Molly had realized each of them were causing the same color liquid to react that they had formed circles of light from earlier. Though it seemed to be to different degrees. Like Anne, the rection Connie caused only went up about half-way up the vial, though how it did so was again very different from either of the previous two. The orange liquid literally clawed its way up the side as what looked like a dozen little claws, wings, and even webbing rise upwards as it all climbed over itself until it reached that halfway point.

“Ah, you must be an animal lover,” Bump said jovially. He didn’t comment on how high the liquid has risen or anything else, just continued on with the same sort of greeting he had already given. “You’ll make a fine addition to our Beast Keeping track, I’m sure.”

“Thanks, Dean Bump,” Connie replied, matching his smile. Molly didn’t think she’d ever heard Connie ever mention liking animals before, but the continued nonchalant tone she spoke with made it seem like she wouldn’t have expected anything else.

“Certainly. Now, Mr. Pines, why don’t you give it a go next.”

Dipper stood as Connie returned to her seat. He looked back at his bag briefly, though seemed to steel himself in the next moment. Whatever he had paused for, he seemed to cast it aside before placing his hand on the yellow platform. There was a pause where nothing happened. Molly bit her lip as Bump raised an eyebrow. Was it not reacting because Dipper’s circles had been different colors than the liquids in the vials? Even if only by a little? That didn’t seem right. And it wouldn’t have been fair, if Molly, Anne, and Connie could get it to react than Dipper had to be able to–

The office was cast in intense light as the platform glowed a shining, brilliant yellow. It was as if a switch had been flipped. Molly had to cover her eyes. Everyone had to cover their eyes in fact, the glow was just that much. And it wasn’t just the intensity of the platform’s light that had started after the brief delay, there was a rumbling too. Like glass and wood and stone all pushing against each other in one direction and then another. Through it all though Molly fought to try and see beyond and between the fingers she’d guarded herself from the light with, though all she could make out was Dipper’s familiar silhouette, standing right in the center of that ever-brilliant radiance.

“That’s enough of that,” came Bump’s voice from somewhere on the other side of the room.

There was another sound, a “shwoom” of something sparking into being, and then the light was gone. No, not gone Molly realized as she blinked through the sudden shift and looked around. The room was still being lit in more yellow than it had been before the platform had risen from Bump’s desk, but no longer was that the only thing anyone could see. It was clear why once Molly’s attention returned to Dipper to make sure that he was okay. A dome of what looked like darkened glass had appeared over and around the platform, the smooth surface of which was only broken by a single hole through which Dipper’s arm snuggly filled so not a single beam of extra light made its way out unfettered. Which left what was inside almost visible, though at least from where Molly sat it was little more than the outline of the platform and its various vials.

“Are you alright?” Molly asked. She was trying to focus solely on him as he looked back at her, but now that the light had been contained she could see what had been making that rumbling sound. It was the desk. Or rather, it was the platform Dipper still had his hand on, the one his hand might actually be trapped on now that the bubble was around it.

“I’m fine,” Dipper said, giving her a weak smile. It was probably meant to comfort her in the moment, but he looked so unsure as his arm continued to lightly shake along with the platform and desk beneath it.

“My, my,” Bump exclaimed as he fell into his chair. He stared into the darkened bubble he had conjured and the light trapped within, seeming to soak in the sight before returning his gaze to Dipper. “Have you always had this much of a connection to magic?”

“I, uh…have been a part of some weird stuff,” Dipper got out after a moment of fumbling with his words. “Maybe that had an effect on me?”

Bump cocked his eyebrow again. “Perhaps. Just make sure you give anyone a warning if you ever have your magical capacity measured again.”

“Yes, sir,” Dipper replied quickly. “But what does this mean for my track placement?”

“Right, right,” Bump said, leaning closer to the darkened bubble. He nearly pressed his face right against it to get a look at what was going on inside. Then he started mumbling to himself, “Illusion…Healing…Construction…is that, yes that’d be Beast Keeping which makes that one Bardic. And then Plants of course.”

Bump sat back up and cleared his throat. “Do you feel that shaking, Dipper?”

“Yes.”

“That’s six of the eight primary magic indicators reacting at full capacity. It appears you lack as strong a connection with the shadow element, but that more than qualifies you for the Multi-Track. Which means that I’m more than happy to welcome you to Hexside.”

“Thanks,” Dipper said before pulling his hand and arm away from the platform and bubble. Almost at once, the light within the darkened bubble started to fade, the last tendrils fading over a few seconds like an old lightbulb powering down. With it also went the desk’s shaking rumble. The sudden stillness and following silence, which would have unnerved Molly in so many other situations, was practically heavenly in the moment. “Multi-track’s what’s Luz is in, right?”

“Who’s Luz?” Molly blurted out without thinking. Not just blurted, but practically spat out. She covered her mouth as soon as she realized she’d said it, not because of what she’d said but how she’d said it. There was a tone to the question that she hadn’t mean for, one that she didn’t think she’d ever used before. One that almost seemed…jealous?

“She and her…family found me where I came down,” Dipper explained. He was looking more at his right hand, the one he’d just pulled from Bump’s bubble, and flexing it than at her. So maybe he hadn’t noticed exactly how vitriolic her question had really sounded, though out of the corner of her eye she thought she might have seen Twilight and maybe Connie sending some wayward glances their way. But putting that aside, Molly decided to focus more on Dipper’s hand the way he was. After pulling it from the bubble, the hole into which had closed and was now almost completely black without the interior light shining through it, his hand and lower arm seemed fine. Maybe, if she squinted, it might have looked a little tanner than the rest of him, but was otherwise completely unchanged. Which was good, he didn’t need to change. None of them needed to change. Not as far as Molly was concerned.

“Multi-track is indeed where Ms. Noceda is placed,” Dean Bump said, continuing the conversation from before Molly had interrupted. “It was actually a bit of her brainchild to begin with, and good thing too. We’ve found more than a few multi-talented witches and other special cases that have benefitted from the diversified teaching methods put in place there. But you’ll be able to see all that for yourself soon.”

“Pst. Mol,” Scratch whispered. “You ok?”

“Yes,” Molly whispered back without looking at him. She had come up with a hundred and twelve ways to talk to Scratch without looking crazy back home, but now that he was visible to everyone horns or not none of them would work. And she didn’t want to be drawing attention to herself right then anyway.

“Cause that didn’t sound like you usually do a second ago.”

“I’m fine,” she said through her teeth.

“Oh, and tell me Mr. Pines,” Dean Bump went on before Dipper could turn back towards his seat. “Were both Clawthorn sisters still residing in their…lovely Styx-side abode when you were there? There’s something I’d like to discuss with the two of them.”

“Yeah,” Dipper said before correcting himself. “Yes, they were both there. Though Ms. Lilith wasn’t in a happy mood.”

“Excellent,” Dean Bump stated before creating a new magic circle and poking his black bubble through it. He must have realized how that sounded because, as it popped to reveal the unchanged platform and its vials of once again resting liquid, he added, “Not that she’s upset mind you, just that she’s still there. It will make what I want to talk to them about so much easier. And perhaps it will lift her spirits as well. But anyway, thank you Mr. Pines. Let’s let Ms. Sparkle have her turn to finish things off.”

Dipper returned to his seat as Twilight cautiously took his place in front of the desk. Like everyone else before her, she raised her hand then placed it on the platform between the vials. Though unlike the others she closed her eyes tight as she did, something Molly could see even from her seat that was slightly behind where everyone stood during the process. But for all her hesitation, Twilight didn’t have anything to worry about if she was afraid of causing something like Dipper. Because from where Molly was sitting her touch amounted to exactly nothing.

“Hmmm,” Dean Bump noted, hand rubbing his chin. “Have you actually used magic before, Ms. Twilight?”

“Y-yes,” she stammered out.

“Because this doesn’t look–”

Schplop

The sound, a gooey popping sound as if another bubble had been blown out of sludge and then had the decency to rid the world of itself, cut Dean Bump off. It prompted him, and the rest of them by proxy, to lean closer in towards the platform. Only then, and just barely, could any of them see that the violet liquid next to the purple stock that had reacted to Molly’s touch was bubbling upwards. And sludge was the only way Molly could think to describe it. Despite its various shades of violet and other purple hues, the way is so very slowly rose wasn’t pleasant to say the least. Though what Molly realized also wasn’t pleasant was that she couldn’t think of a better way to phrase it, something that she was sure she could have done just the day before.

“That’s not a very strong reaction,” the dean commented as the bubbling fought to reach the vial’s quarter marker. It continued to bubble as he spoke, though didn’t seem to grow any bigger from there. “And I’m not sure if that’s enough to qualify by Hexside’s standar–”

“Hold on!” a new voice interrupted out of nowhere. “I saw Twilight control hundreds of gallons of abomination goo yesterday, she definitely meets Hexside’s standards.”

While Molly and the rest of their coven looked around for the source of the new voice, the dean just sat back and rubbed his eyes. When his hand fell away a few seconds later his gaze had shifted down and to his right. “What have I told you about spying on people with your magic, Ms. Shimmer.”

“Not to get caught?” the voice replied.

Even before Molly caught sight of what the dean was looking at, she could hear the smirk in that voice. It was also in that moment, just before she caught sight of the direction he was looking, while noticing Twilight was glancing towards the door, that Molly realized the voice they were hearing now was the same one that had arrived with Twilight. But, before she could question if someone had invisibility magic and start to worry about whether she was always surrounded by people with fangs and claws, her eyes fell on the crystal ball Bump was already looking at. It wasn’t just an opaque crystal ball anymore, an image had formed within it. A face in fact, yellow with red hair and horns. And was that a flame dancing between those horns?

“That doesn’t sound like something I’d say to a student,” Bump said, though it came out as more of an exasperated sigh.

“Sunset!” Twilight, who had also noticed the face in the ball, exclaimed.

“Hey babe,” the floating head in the ball said, winking up at Twilight before returning her attention to Bump. “Twi’s got talent, Dean Bump. Maybe it’s not flowing right yet, but I’m sure with some practice and tutoring she’d get the hang of it.”

“And are you going to be the one to tutor her?” Bump asked. “Last time I checked neither of your specialties were in the abomination field.”

“Um…” Sunset’s head nodded from side to side as if looking for the answer. Though that might have been exactly what she was doing because in the next instant her turquoise eyes looked up and widened before saying, “Oh, Steven. One of your gal pals is good with goo, right?”

“Yes,” Steven, who Molly realized she’d heard cut off Sunset earlier through the door, replied slowly to the question from off screen, or rather off-orb, as if he wasn’t sure he should. “Lapis is pretty high ranked in the abom track.”

“There you go,” Sunset’s head said with a smile, once again looking towards Bump again.

Bump rubbed his chin again. His eyes flitted from the crystal ball, to Twilight, once over Dipper, and then back to the ball. “Given the exceedingly high average of magic this would still bring into Hexside through her coven mates, I’m willing to give it a chance.”

“Thank you, Dean Bump,” Twilight said quickly, grabbing one of his hands in both of hers. “I promise I’ll show you that if there’s something to learn I can learn it.”

“I hope to see just that,” Bump replied. He wasn’t looking at her dismissively as he said it, but there was something about it that Molly just couldn’t quite place. Like maybe he didn’t actually expect too much from her. “And Ms. Shimmer.”

“Yes?” Sunset’s head said, suddenly snapping back to attention instead of watching Twilight as she had been.

“While I will see to all of our new students’ schedules, I’m putting you in charge of Ms. Sparkle’s extracurricular education. If you don’t stay on top of her development, there could be repercussions for both of you.”

“Not to worry, Dean Bump,” Sunset said as her eyes slyly shifted back towards Twilight. “I’ll make sure to stay on top of her as much as she can handle.”

Twilight’s face went red and Scratch stifled a laugh, barely. Only to then notice Molly glaring at him and say, “What, it was funny,” while holding his arms out in a ‘what do you expect me to do’ sort of way.

Dean Bump ignored Scratch and Sunset’s comment, the look on his face showing no amusement at all. At least for a moment. Once he started speaking again he gradually softened back to the man he’d been a few minutes before. “Now that that’s settled, we’ll just need to take care of some details and housekeeping. Then you’ll be official students of Hexside on paper as well as in spirit. I do so hope you enjoy your time studying with us, and look forward to whatever adventures might await you within our halls and in Goliath at large.”

Chapter Text

Dipper found himself hoisting a new pile of papers into his bag by the time the dean had said all he had to say. Class schedules, room assignments, uniform instructions, and more were all now sandwiched between two of his journals. Grimoires, sandwiched between his grimoires. Connie and Anne had their own collection of added papers as well, only nearing the size of Dipper’s multi-track stack because were carrying Twilight and Molly’s piles as well given the latter two had left their bags in their formerly temporary rooms.

Formerly being the key word. Twilight had been given permission to become Sunset’s official roommate, if only so the face in the crystal ball could ‘stay on top of her.’ The dorm room Molly had stayed in the night before was now officially hers, with the addition of Connie as a roommate since she’d been denied bunking with Steven. Dipper had been as surprised as everyone else when she’d actually had the gall asked for that, but Bump had shut that down with a “this may be hell, but we still have rules, Ms. Maheswaran.”

Which had just left Anne and Dipper as the odd ones out. Anne was offered a spot in the Garden dorm, evidently some sort of small, specialized dorm for witches that didn’t have enough room for four new girls but could make accommodate her. She turned it down though, saying she did better alone. So a normal room she could make her own would be all she needed. Dipper doubted that. He knew how well she did while alone, and it wasn’t great. But he put that out of his mind. There wasn’t anything he could do about it in that moment even if he thought he could. Although, he did have magic now…a lot of magic, so maybe he could do something about it.

While he had been musing about the change in the status quo, Bump had assigned him a special room of his own in the boys’ dorm. Essentially an honors dorm room, one of the perks of being on the multi-track it seemed. An added scholarship was another. Everyone in the club, i.e. coven, got one to cover food and uniforms just for being modern witches, but he got an added one for qualifying for the multi-track. Though exactly what that entailed was buried in the pile of papers now stuffed between two grimoires in his bag, left to be dug through and understood once they had a tour and were ‘settled’ in their new rooms. Which meant it wasn’t even the first day of classes and he already homework, which was swell.

Granted, Dipper could find himself liking homework if it meant figuring things out. Like magic for instance. Though with that all taken care of and Bump wishing them well and noting that his office was always open, from 9am to 5pm at least, Dipper just wanted to figure out where the library was. It just made sense that there’d something there about restoring the corridor they’d broken on the way down, and if there wasn’t then maybe there’d at least be a clue about where to go next. That was the hope at least. If he couldn’t have one he’d still take the other, but if there was nothing about it then…

No he thought to himself, literally shaking off what had been creeping into his thoughts. There will be something and I’ll figure out whatever I have to in order to make it work. The club is counting on me, she’s counting on me, and I’m not going to let my first success in five years end with all of us trapped in hell of all places. Now, let’s take a–

The door nearly flung itself off its hinges as Dipper turned the handle. Colors of all kinds billowed into the office; smokes of blue, green, red, and yellows rushed through the door in a series of explosions that filled the room in a rainbow haze. Without realizing it, Dipper had stumbled backwards and almost fallen over. The only reason he hadn’t been blown all the way to the floor were the hands suddenly bracing him.

“Are you alright?” Molly practically screamed. She was on his left, holding him up with arms thrown around his stomach. He glanced down at her and might have been pained by the expression on her face if not for everything else going on. Outside of her regular jubilation when he, Connie, and then the others had come in, she had been overwhelmingly timid the whole meeting in the office. That wasn’t like her at all, she was the outgoing one of the group and of anyone he had dropped down here he didn’t want her to change because of it.

“I’m fine,” he replied through gritted teeth, putting aside the ‘maybes’ that he’d have to deal with later to focus on what was going on now. Molly and Connie, who had caught him by the shoulders as Molly had his midsection, helped steady him, then turned their attention to the door. The colored smoke had already started to fade, but that didn’t mean they could see anything through it yet. “Dean Bump, what’s going on?”

The dean, who out of the corner of Dipper’s eye looked completely unphased by the wanton destruction seemingly happening right outside his door, replied with, “Oh, I’m sure it’s something unnecessary and unasked for,” while watching the platform sink back into his desk. “But in all my years as an educator I’ve learned to just let such things play out.”

Before Dipper could even react to that, something else unnecessary floated through the doorway. Luckily, it wasn’t anything as destructive this time. Instead, balloons rose up out of the smoke which in turn billowed up as if to push each of the seven oversized that came in after one another into place. They weren’t the average upside-down teardrop style balloons, but shaped as massive letters that barely fit through the door. There was a W, then an E, and by the time the L came in Dipper was already guessing what was coming. It was something his sister would have done, something he’d put up with until he was thirteen and wished he could put up with again.

As he guessed, the balloons spelled out “WELCOME” in bright, shiny, rainbow letters once the last one had floated its way into place. It would have been impressive if not so out of nowhere. But from nowhere they had come and it was soon nowhere they’d be. Within just a few seconds of spelling out the words, the Welcome balloons popped. Seven quick, successive pops dispersed what little of the smoke remained, only to replace it with a heavy rain of colored paper.

“Ooh, confetti,” Molly said with a brief return of her usual wonder.

“Eh, confetti,” Twilight said at the same time, with much less wonder.

“That better be the kind of magic I’m guessing it is,” Bump, still seeming unconcerned by everything going on in his office, loudly said. “Or else a particular student will be cleaning up in here for a long, long time.”

What came next didn’t directly answer the dean’s threat of punishment, but it did make it clear that explosions, balloons, and even the confetti still sprinkling down from above before pooling around everyone’s feet wasn’t quite as real as it appeared. Because it all glitched. Dipper didn’t know how else to say it. One moment tendrils of smoke were swirling across the floor while confetti continued to rain, the next moment the colors had all gone electric blue as it jutted around back and forth, and then it went back to normal. Or at least as normal as an assault of welcoming smoke, balloons, and confetti could be.

That’s when she appeared.

Arriving amidst one last burst of smoke that plumed into existence right in front of Dipper, was a girl with vibrant purple-blue hair and pink highlights. She was just short enough that he got an eyeful of her vibrant locks before anything else. But once he had taken in the blue hue covering her head, the bun it was done up in, and the one long lock running down the side of her face and well below, he was able to blink through the final bits of smoke and actually get a look at who was so overwhelmingly welcoming them.

“Hello new Hexsiders,” she said with a massive grin of perfectly pointy teeth, save for a chipped one off to the side.

As she stood there, looking them over with hands on her wide hips, her black wings fluttered ever so slightly and her tail, the same color as her hair save the magenta highlights, slowly swung side to side behind her. Dipper’s first thought as she stood there was that she must have been one of the native witches Twilight had confirmed for the group, she certainly looked to have a bit of human and demon about her after all. But there was something different about her than the other native witches and pure hellborn he had seen so far. Neither her skin nor eyes had a trace of non-human coloration. The Clawthorns had their bird bits and eyes set in black sclera, Steven had pink irises and even bits of his body with an extra pink coloration, and his and Connie’s “gal pals” were all sorts of colors. But if it weren’t for the wings and tail Dipper would have just thought this was just some Japanese girl with dyed hair.

“I’m Miko,” the girl said, announcing herself. “And I just wanted to properly welcome you to your new school before starting your tour.”

“Ms. Kuboto,” Bump interjected, sounding just a bit annoyed now that he knew the source of the mess in his office. “I don’t recall asking you to lead our new students’ tour.”

The girl, Miko, turned on her heels, sending the light grey skirt and darker grey minicape fluttering up as she came to face the dean. The greys were in stark contrast to the bright orange sleeves and light blue tights beneath them; was this the uniform Bump had mentioned? She retained her smile, though Dipper could see it twitch and her eyebrows, covered as they may have been by her bangs, droop ever so slightly. “But Dean Bump, as the otherwise newest student I know just what they’ll want and need to know about our campus. I even put my uniform on, on a Saturday, to make it more official.”

So it was the uniform. Seemed more like a private high school thing than what would be expected from a college, but when in Rome. Or Hell, Dipper supposed. He did have to wonder if the colors on her arms and legs were indicative of anything. The blue leggings looked like the shade used for Illusions, if what he gleaned from the fire grimoire was correct, but the orange was completely off. Unlike the darker orange Connie had managed to produce for beast keeping, Miko’s orange sleeves were much brighter and vibrant. So if the colors were supposed to match the users magic track, what kind of magic could she use?

Regardless of Dipper’s internal questions, Bump seemed less than impressed by Miko’s attempt at looking official. Only returning her plea to be useful with a contemplative, “Hmmmm.”

She looked away. “Sunset and Steven said they’d come just in case.”

“Ah, well in then I suppose it’s alright.”

Miko turned on her heal in an instant, once again the fountain of bubbliness she had been upon entering. Her smile stretched from one side of her face to the other again, really showing off those pointy teeth before bouncing forward to take Dipper by the arm. “Come on crew, let a nearly as new student show you around.”

---

The tour had to pause before it even got started as, twice actually.

Bump reiterated his distaste the mess covering his floor before Miko could even guide them one step towards the still open door. She paused and Dipper watched as, with the flick of her left wrist and  a silver bracelet that dangled around it, she caused the dropped bits of balloons and confetti to disappear. Not all at once though. The mass of what did turn out to be illusions didn’t go poof or simple fade into nothingness, but glitched out like before. Parts of the piles jutted in one direction while others jutted out in the other, all the while shifting towards different levels of the same electric blue. Then it all just sort of exploded. Not like the bursts of smoke that had started Miko’s grand entrance, but into floating triangular particles that bounced around the room like asteroids for a brief moment, casting the office in various shades of light, before finally it all just disappeared.

They had to pause a second time as soon as they were out the door. Not because anyone was stopping them, but because Dipper and the others couldn’t help but stop in their tracks to look at the pair waiting in the hall. For Molly and Anne, who was being led by the former as she continued to wobble along, it was Steven who caught their attention. After all, he was seven feet of muscle just waiting there for them. Though since dropping him and Connie off he had somehow come to be cradling a small red child in the crook of one arm, which even Dipper had to do a double take at.

“Aw,” Anne cooed. “Sprig’s like a little baby.”

“How…fatherly,” Connie noted, barely loud enough for Dipper to hear as she eyed her overnight significant other.

But it was the other person waiting for them that had stopped at least Dipper and then Connie, if not Molly and Anne, in their tracks. Sunset, whose face and only her face had appeared in Bump’s crystal ball before, was leaning against the wall beside Steven for all to see. The contrast between the two was stark to say the least. Steven, with his seven feet of height, utterly dwarfed the red and yellow-headed native by at least a foot and a half, not counting her horns or complicated hair bun. She was even shorter than Molly, if only by an inch or two, yet had a much more…mature figure. Something perhaps unintentionally drawn further attention to as she held her stomach, causing her arms to somewhat press together and up her…well, her noticeable…

“Whoa mamas!” Scratch proclaimed as he zoomed from where he’d been lazing in Anne’s hair to right up in Sunset’s face. “I already liked you from the ball. But darn did someone knew what they liked when they drew you up.”

“Scratch!” Molly shouted as she tried to grab the opaque trash bag of a ghost, not quite reaching as Anne who she was still leading didn’t follow along quite as fast. “Don’t talk to people like that!”

But Sunset just smirked before leaning back farther to further accentuate her breasts. Though Dipper, after realizing he shouldn’t be staring where she was so obviously aiming their attention to, noticed that her hands remained firmly on her stomach. “Don’t worry about it. It’s refreshing to meet a spirit who’s so direct. Most that come up in oracle summoning like to talk in riddles as if they’re so deep.”

“Oh you don’t have to worry about depth from me,” Scratch continued, causing Molly to just hang her head and sigh. “I bet if we took you home the dunces at Rev. U. wouldn’t bother calling string bean over there Boobchoy anymore,” he noted, hiking a thumb over his nonexistent shoulder back at Anne.

“Nah,” Connie noted. As if contemplating an idea, she had one hand to her chin as her eyes flitted between the monolith that was Steven quietly standing off to the side and the much smaller, but somehow also bigger, Sunset who was practically basking in the attention. “It’s too good and fitting of a nickname for a bunch of horny teens to drop. They’d just ogle both.”

Then, with a playful nudge of her elbow she added, “Right, Dipper.”

Dipper’s knees locked as his stomach tried to expel the breakfast Eda had made for them.

“I don’t say this often, but that’s probably enough about me for now,” Sunset said after another moment of conversation about her insane figure. “Twi’s told me a bit about all of you, so I’m sure we’re get along fine. But we should let Miko give her tour, she was so excited waiting for you to come out. Wasn’t she, Steven?”

“Yeah Miko, you ready to get this show on the road?”

Miko, who had been waiting silently next to Dipper the whole time the focus had shifted to the pair of utterly opposite native witches, perked back up as eyes started to come her way again. Even her blue tail started to sway back and forth, almost wagging before she smiled and replied, “Do salamanders eat seaweed.”

---

Miko led their procession, now nine strong if they counted the sleeping amphimpian, away from Bump’s office and into the open-air hall that made up the center of what she called the administration building. She was still guiding Dipper by the arm as she walked and talked, as if he were some beacon that would keep the others following along as they went, which he suspected wouldn’t work most of the time but looked to actually be going as planned in the moment.

Connie, Steven, and Sprig followed most closely as Miko gestured to certain offices and rattled off names that might actually be in their offices if anyone needed anything. Following them were Molly and Anne, the former still leading the wobbling latter. Whenever Dipper glanced back he could see Molly struggling to keep pace with the part of the group in front of her, but the responsibility she’d saddled herself with of keeping Anne vertical kept dragging her back. Which seemed about right to him. And then lastly were Twilight and Sunset pulling up the rear. Sunset was still holding her stomach as Twilight worried over her and whispered questions about what she might need. Though no one else seemed to notice the brief notes of worry that Dipper would pick up every little bit.

“And here we have the tri,” Miko said as they stepped out of the admin building’s shadow and into the space between it and two other nearly identical buildings to either side. Unlike when Luz had lead them to the admin building on the way in, there were actually other people out and about now. Some dressed the same as Miko and others not, but all heading the opposite direction of them while giving them a wide birth. “It’s like a quad at colleges topside, but there’s just the three buildings so tri it shall be known. There’s a lot of little differences like that in Goliath, but you get used to it.”

Dipper started to ask why she’d have to get used to it, but Molly actually got a question out before he got the chance. “What are the other two buildings?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Miko said before sweeping one arm out towards the building to their left. “That, my new friends, is the most important building on campus. I present to you the cafeteria.”

A quick flash of blue light from Miko’s palm caused a dream-like shimmer to appear between them and the cafeteria. The effect was augmented by her attempting to make angelic “awe” sounds, but she wasn’t as good at that as she was the visual. “There’s also a store in there. But seriously, make sure me, Luz, or one of the other modern witches is there before you try anything. Some of the food there will NOT agree with you.”

“And the other building?” Dipper asked.

Miko’s attention turned to the building to the right of the tri and the shimmering dream effect went with her attention. Though it faded into little more than a smear before fading completely as she looked at it with something akin to disgust.

“The tutorial zone,” she practically spat. “Or ‘the library,’ if you want.”

Dipper’s ears perked up. “Great. We need to look up some stuff about the corridor and maybe some other–”

Miko stopped him before he could start leading her by the arm. “They’re still closed from the break, but I promise I’ll take you inside once they’re open again. Or at least get someone who likes it in there to help you.”

“Oh.” Dipper looked at the building. What he needed to get the others home had to be in there. If just had to be. But for now it was stuck behind a locked door of all things. Something he was pretty sure he could break or burn down now that his journals had become his grimoires, but could he find what he needed quick enough before campus security or whatever the hell-based-magic-school-equivalent was could show up? Probably not. Which meant he’d have to wait to fix things. “Ok, thanks. Just let me know when we can go.”

“Sure thing,” she said with a renewed smile. “You can count on me to take–”

“Take off, maybe!” A deriding jeer shouted from back in the direction of the cafeteria. “Which is what you’d do if you had any sense!”

Miko’s grip briefly tightened on Dipper’s arm before she let go completely and took a step away from him. Dipper’s attention, along with the others’ if he had to guess, turned towards where the voice had come from, only for his gaze to fall on an approaching trio. They were wearing the school uniform like Miko, though only their sleeves were colored and instead of leggings they sported grey pants the same color as tunic/shirt piece that served as their tops.

“I can’t believe we finally got new modern witches and Bump let you show them around,” the one in the lead nearly spat. He was some sort of native, like the two following in his wake, with green scales coating parts of his neck and hands where they met his collar and sleeves. And then there were his eyes, yellow with thin slitted pupils that were burning with absolute vitriol.

“Drago, I’m just trying to–”

“Poison the well,” the lizard native sneered. “To try and make it so someone on campus won’t think of you as just the pair of thick thighs you are? Either way the only thing you’ll ever amount to here is biting a pillow while someone rides that fat a–”

“Don’t talk to her that way.”

Dipper found himself stepping partially between Miko and the scaley jerk. He didn’t think before speaking or moving. Didn’t weigh options or consider the likely bad outcomes. He just did what felt right. Maybe because, for the first time in forever, he could actually back up what felt right to him.

Drago looked at Dipper as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. As if the thought of someone not letting him berate a woman was the farthest thing from conceivable for him, so much so that he even had to look at both his cronies to check that they were seeing the same thing too. The brown-sleeved native with dirty blond hound traits, in addition to the round traits that both followers had in spades, scratched his head in confusion. The yellow-sleeved fishy looking native, who was even rounder than his cohort, just shrugged.

“I get that you’re new here,” Drago began again. “But you don’t want to start by getting chummy with the wrong sorts. This one can’t even do magic right.”

“Hey I–” Miko’s voice broke as Drago’s glare shot back at her. “I’m in the specialty class.”

“Only because your ‘specialty’ isn’t a Goliath element,” Drago snapped. “Further proving all you’re good for is what can be shoved between your legs.”

A blue circle spun into existence in Dipper’s palm, sparking as it spun and readied. “I said not to talk to her like that.”

In the moment Dipper didn’t know anything else except the disgrace going on in front of him. He didn’t know how the rest of the club or the couple of natives that were tagging along with them were reacting to any of this. If they were as mad as he was. If they wanted him to stop. If they were scared or confused or anything else. All he knew was that he was mad. Was that he didn’t like what was happening. And, if needed, he could do something about it.

Drago’s confusion slipped into annoyance instead of something that Dipper would have preferred. Though, Dipper wasn’t sure what he would have preferred to see out of those yellow eyes. Fear? Terror? Desperation? Maybe all of the above.

“I think I see the problem,” Drago said, pulling something from his pocket. “Her little disguise has you thinking she’s actually some kind of person. Let me fix that for you.”

Raising a violet-sleeved arm, Drago pointed what he’d pulled from his pocket at Miko. Whatever it was, it wasn’t much larger than a ballpoint pen and glowed around where his thumb met its slick surface. At least until his thumb pressed down. There was a flash, little more than a camera’s worth, but enough to briefly illuminate Miko in beige, bone-colored light for just an instant. But that instant was all it took.

Her wings, her tail, even her pointed teeth started to glitch the same way her confetti and decorations had in Bump’s office. Each bit jutted one direction or another in rectangular batches, each disrupted part flashed shades of electric blue or pink if they weren’t outright flashing in and out of existence altogether.

“No, no, no,” Miko nearly cried before covering her mouth and trying to hide her glitching tail and wings behind her back. “Please, I need those!”

Drago only laughed, his cronies quickly joining in. Then to Dipper, “See how she tries to hide what she is. But her magic doesn’t even disrupt the right way. New witches like her are nothing but low-class breeding stock–”

The pillar erupted from the ground like a locomotive barreling out of a tunnel. The blunt top end collided with Drago’s wrist and sent the device flying. There was a snap in that same moment, as well as a cry of pain, but Dipper didn’t care. If anything, the pair of sounds might as well have been music to his ears as he watched the tool’s tool spin in an arc through the air. As soon as it started to come down Dipper snatched it out of the air without missing a beat, only then returning his attention to Drago and the scene centered around him.

While the loser lizard held his likely broken wrist with the other hand, gritting his teeth while the lackies crowded around him, Dipper saw that Miko’s glitching had subsided. Her wings and tail were back to how they had been before this whole idiotic interruption.

“You’re going to regret that!” Drago yowled through sharp, clenched teeth.

Dipper just tilted his head, trying to find an angle from which the threat or trio looked any kind of intimidating. But he just couldn’t find one. Not while the would-be leader fought to keep upright through the pain, or while the followers crowded around like nursemaids who didn’t know what to do. If they ever knew what to do that was. “Will I?”

Drago’s eyes became spots of yellow in a sea of red. “Slab! Doyle! Welcome this idiot to Hexside!”

The hound native launched himself at Dipper first, jumping from all fours into a leaping punch. Dipper still had his earth circle at the ready though. Another pillar or a wall rising from the ground to protect him would have been nothing. But he didn’t even have to bother with that.

A hand came in from the side and caught the mongrel of a witch by the wrist, halting him in place after a sudden lurch. The dirty sheet Anne was dressed in swayed in a light breeze as she held on to the attacking lackey. A pair of magic circles, the same brown as the hound native’s sleeves, had formed around her lower arm, making her skin glisten as her grip tightened. Now it was the hound’s turn to yowl through gritted teeth.

“That’s a bad dog,” Anne mumbled. Her eyes were still half-closed, so who knew what she even thought she was looking at. “You should…go fetch!”

And then she threw him.

One moment there was a dog boy whimpering to free himself from a toga-clad girl’s grip, and in the next moment he was flying through the sky. It was like watching a live-action cartoon or gag manga. The dog boy screamed as he soared through the air, until the moment he’d completely blasted off and they couldn’t see him anymore. Which just left the other two.

“Well,” Drago sneered at the remaining lackey, the fishy looking one with yellow sleeves. “Go get them!”

The second lackey, who Dipper guessed was Doyle only because Slab sounded more like a dog name, shakily stood and reached under his minicape with both hands. One hand in front, one in back. From the folds he pulled phials of differently colored liquids, one between each set of digits. Unlike the thick rainbow of colors that filled Bump’s placement test, Doyle’s collection of concoctions freely sloshed about like they were little more than colored water.

As if just to prove they weren’t, Doyle sank his fish fangs into the cork stopper of a phial with a browner colored liquid and pulled. The cork popped out, was spat out, and then the phial took its place at his lips. In two quick gulps the disgusting substance had emptied down his gullet. What followed wasn’t necessarily unimpressive, but Dipper would have just expected more. Doyle got bigger, both in height and mass to the point that his clothes started to stretch or show more leg and arm coming out of his pants and sleeves, but not to the point that any of his clothes actually ripped. The end result was a slightly larger, mildly less round fish man. Sure, Dipper wouldn’t want to take a punch from him, but in the grand scheme of things he didn’t actually seem that much more intimidating. He must have thought he did though. Because, with a maniacal grin, he raised the remaining phials overhead like grenades ready to be thrown and rushed forward.

His plodding little run gave Connie more than enough time to join Anne at Dipper’s side, raise her hand out in front of her with an already glowing dark orange circle prepared, and snap. The sound reverberated through the tri, halting the few remaining onlookers who hadn’t completed stopped to watch the display but otherwise seemed to do nothing. It certainly didn’t stop the approaching, mildly-hulked-out lackey.

“Oh right,” said, practically without a care in the world. “Here kitty, kitty!”

It was at that moment that the mildly-hulked-out lackey stopped, right as two massive paws descended upon him. Lion came down on the fish native in a pink blur, a pounce for the ages that slammed Doyle’s face into the dirt hard enough to leave a fresh divot in the tri’s grass. Lion stood over Doyle as the dust of their impact cleared, snarling down at the clearly unconscious student as the cat’s one massive eye swept the area looking for other threats. Or maybe prey.

“Good Lion,” Connie said as if he’d just done a trick.

Dipper heard gasps behind him, likely Molly and Twilight given they hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting Connie’s new pet, but he disregarded that for the moment. Once he made sure it didn’t look like Lion was actually going to eat Doyle, which wouldn’t have looked any better for them than his fleeting idea to break into the library, he returned his attention to Drago. The ringleader of this whole affair hadn’t moved an inch from where he’d staggered back to following the initial impact, nor was he holding his quickly darkening wrist anymore. He was dripping though. Or at least his sleeves were. The violet color of the abomination track was running down his arms not like cloth, but instead like the very goop Twilight had barely been able to budge in her placement test. The gasps were replaced by “eww’s” at the sight of that.

“You’re going to regret this,” Drago snarled. “All of you!”

Drago raised his good arm and a violet circle formed around in the grass around him. Without any further prompting what remained of his sleeves fell away into the puddle at his feet, which in turn began to rise. There was a brief moment of undulation as different shades of violet and purple overlapped one another within the shifting mess, then the puddle was no more. Instead, uncoiling around Drago’s feet was a massive snake.

There was far more to it than what should have come from his sleeves, but that was magic for you. Put in two sleeves made of goo, get out a snake that was bigger than the one making it. A snake that, when it hissed, showed a mouth large enough to fit a person or lion’s head inside. A snake with pitch black eyes save for a tiny bead of light within the darkness. A snake that was rattling its tail while hungrily surveying all the tasty witches in had been created in front of.

“Tear that bastard to shreds!”

The snake shot forward, a bullet of slime sliding across the grass with one singular intent. Dipper didn’t bother casting a wall, spike, or pillar as it shot forward. In fact, he let the spell circle he’d been holding disperse. He didn’t worry as it sped past Lion, who could barely bat at it before it was well past the beast. Instead, he just glanced down at what was in his other hand, just to make sure it was still glowing. It was, and more brightly than before. And he didn’t so much as twitch as the snake abomination leapt towards him. Instead, he just held his hand out in front of him and, just as that wide, pitch-black maw was about to swallow him, he pushed his thumb deeper into the indention.

Just as before, a single bone-colored pulse flashed from the tip, but this time it was a bit more noticeable. Beige-light illuminated the gooey insides of the abomination and shown out its eyes like spotlights, but for less than half a second in total. The other half of that second was filled with exploding goo.

The snake burst. Exploded might have been a better word. There was one instant where it was flying gracefully towards Dipper in an attempt to swallow him whole, or at least his head, and in the next instant what made the creature was being flung in every direction, but mostly back the way it came. A rain of ‘plops’ hit the ground and splattered into a myriad of puddles and droplets of purple goo, a not insubstantial amount being thrown directly back at the one who’d summoned it to begin with.

Drago was almost knocked to the ground as one blob and then another slammed right back into him, painting a swath of his shirt and most of his face purple. And by the time he had rubbed the remains of his own creation from his eyes Dipper was there, standing right in front of him. And there was the fear.

“You should run now.”

---

“Hot damn,” Connie said, nudging Dipper with her elbow as they watched Drago race back the way he’d come, trailing goop and cradling his arm as he ran. “Didn’t know you had it in you to be such a bad ass, Dipper.”

He looked at her and felt his brow furrowing. “You and Anne did more than me.”

She shrugged. “That’s debatable. But back home there were times we had to practically force you to say what was on your mind, but here you’re stepping up like it’s nobody’s business.”

“Yeah,” Anne added as eloquently as usual while giving him a wobbly thumbs up. “You…did good.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Dipper said. He didn’t feel like a badass. He felt like someone who had wanted to help someone else, and for once it had worked out the way he hoped it would. It just wasn’t actually too much thanks to him. The…thing he’d snatched had done more than he had. And speaking of that someone, she had backed further away from the others, not looking at anyone as she fiddled with her tail. “Are you alright?”

Miko very briefly glanced up at him before looking back down at her illusionary tail. “Yes, I’m…I’m fine. Thank you for standing up for me even though you didn’t have to…I’m gonna go and let Steven and Sunset finish your tour.”

Molly, who was quite visibly conflicted about whether she should try and pet Lion, quickly asked, “Why? What happened wasn’t your fault.”

Miko bit her lip. “I wouldn’t want anyone else to think badly of your coven. It was dumb of me to think I could be friends with real modern witches when I’m just a new witch…”

Dipper looked at the rest of the group, something Miko couldn’t see as she continued to stare at what must have been her attempt to fit in down here. Which meant she was just like them. The only difference being that no one knew they weren’t from a real coven. Dipper hoped that the looks of confirmation he got as he turned to the others would have been the same even if they were ‘real’ witches, especially since what just happened was much worse than what he’d thought Luz had been implying the night before. She’d said it was hard for new witches, but those three had acted like Miko wasn’t even a person because she was one.

“None of us care about that,” he said, stepping closer to her. “You said you were the newest student before us and knew what we needed to know. Well, we still want you to show us.”

Finally she looked back up from her tail. Dipper could only hope she saw their sincerity, even if none of them could tell her why they didn’t care. “Are you sure? Some people won’t like it.”

“Then we don’t have to like them,” Twilight noted from where she had scooted behind Steven, the biggest thing she could put between herself and Lion. Her obvious fear for the giant cyclops cat was almost comic compared to Molly’s apparent need to pet him but not knowing if she could. Unfortunately, her barrier would move a moment later as he walked over to show Molly she could indeed pet the giant cat.

“That’s right,” he said while showing Molly a spot Lion liked scratched on the side of his neck. Then checked Doyle’s pulse, who Lion was still partially sitting on. He brushed his hands clean once he’d confirmed the fish boy wasn’t dead. “And we’re not all like those jerks. This might be Hell, but we’re not all bigots.”

“Yeah,” Sunset said, now leaning against Twilight who had moved behind her once the option of hiding behind Steven had been removed. “You’re definitely more than just a nice butt and hips. Though you do have s nice butt and hips…”

She paused for just a moment, but Dipper thought he saw Sunset bite her lip. But not in the nervous way Miko had. In a hungry way.

“But yeah, friendship and not being bigots and stuff…” she trailed off and shook her head. Once again, quieter than even he could completely make out, Dipper thought he heard Twilight ask Sunset if she was ok. Though this time it sounded more like “are you sure you’re really okay?”

“Well if you’re all alright with me,” Miko said before Dipper could guess at what Sunset whispered back. “Then let’s finish the tour. We can get to the first of the lecture halls this way, and then the dorms, and by the time we’re done with that the cafeteria should be serving dinner.”

From there it was very much like a normal college tour, almost the same as the one Dipper had gone on his first visit to Reverie University. Of course, he had already known he’d be going to Rev U even before the tour given who else went there, but the similarities were still apparent. Simple campus layout that only seemed confusing because people didn’t like figuring out how to read maps. Overly enthusiastic tour guide, though once Miko’s own brand of bubbliness returned it was less grating than the Rev U tour had been. Even the strange looks they got from the regular students they passed were their own kind of familiar. At Rev U the looks had come from upper classmen who knew what was coming for the fresh meat. Here though the looks might have had more to do with the brawl the new students had just been a part of. That or the massive, pink, cycloptic lion that was walking with them. The massive, pink, cycloptic lion being ridden by some of said new students; one overly happy girl and her ghost holding on to his mane, one sleeping girl in dirty rags, and one sleeping imp sandwiched between them to be precise. Which, even during homecoming, wasn’t something Dipper had ever noticed on his regular campus.

The one difference turned out to be contraband, at least when it came to Dipper’s personal college experience. While he knew others walked around with illegal substances on every college in the world, he’d never held anything of the sort. At least not until that day. Steven took a look at the pen-like device as they circled to the right of the admin building, confirming it was an anti-magic tool. Something that had been a problem around Goliath recently to hear him tell it. A smuggling operation from the inner ring that High Meister Belos had been attempting to squash and Belos had doubly forbidden from campus.

“It’s probably nothing to worry about in the long run,” Steven said as he turned the device over in his hands. “And turning it in to Dean Bump will keep those three from trying to spin what happened into anything it wasn’t.”

Dipper could only hope that Steven was right. And so he put it out of his mind as best he could, intent to just take in as much of Miko’s tour as he could while trying to play the modern witch everyone expected him and the others to be.

The first lecture hall Miko showed them was the farthest to the right of four massive structures spread out in an arc behind the administrative building and the tri beyond it. This one, as well as the other three from what Dipper could see on the path ahead, were identical in style to the three marking the sides of the tri. The only difference were their accent colors, with this one’s being black.

“This is Zrohit Hall,” Miko announced with a flourished wave of her hand. “They all have weird names like that which no one knows how to pronounce correctly.”

“Actually,” Steven started, but Miko quickly ignored him.

“Like the library, most of them aren’t open right now. But each hall also has smaller buildings behind it for more specialized classes. We all start in one of these. This is where the main Oracle, Abomination, and Potion tracks meet. I can already tell Molly and Scratch will be spending some time here, but did we have any new Abomination track students?”

Sunset bumped Twilight with her hip when the latter didn’t respond. Though the bump only caused her to raise her hand, not actually say anything.

“Well I hope you like a little bit of sciency stuff in your magic. General abom students study with the potions track too.”

Sunset smirked as Twilight perked up at the mention of something that ran on logic. “Oh, I actually do like the sound of that.”

“Great,” Miko said, grinning. “Let’s hit the next one.”

The next one was, again, identical to most of the campus buildings that they’d seen so far. But, like Zrohit Hall before it, Ziarh Hall also had its own shade of accent collation, this one being a familiar yellow-green shade. It was a color Dipper hadn’t seen much down here, except in a certain book. Ziarh Hall was where Connie would take her Beast Keeping classes, which Miko had always wanted to see since she used to have a pet bird but didn’t qualify for, as well as where Sunset and Steven took their Bardic classes. That once again left Dipper wondering what Miko’s orange sleeves represented if they weren’t the Beast Keeping orange. His interest was doubly piqued when, while she was bouncing around to show off one thing or another, he noticed that she had an earring in her left ear that had been hidden behind her long bang until then. It was the same orange as her sleeves, but there was something else familiar about it. He just couldn’t put his finger on it.

Before they got to the third building, Miko paused them at a path that ran directly between the four lecture halls. Past the lecture halls on either side of the path and a few of the auxiliary buildings they could finally see from this angle, were two new buildings that were instantly identifiable as dorms. Simple in design, both were longer than the other buildings around, but smaller in every other way.

“Boys on the left, girls on the right,” Miko explained once everyone had noticed the dorms they’d eventually be making their way to. “Since it sounds like you all were in college before coming down here, I’m sure there won’t be many surprises about what you’ll get in your dorms. Though if you ever feel like seeing a slightly different sight you can follow this path all the way to the end and you’ll find the Garden, my little dorm. It’s mostly for modern witches but they let me stay there. It’s really only meant for four students at a time, which I guess is why none of you are moving in there.”

She laughed, but it wasn’t convincing.

“Anyway. Two more halls to go.”

The third lecture hall had bright red accents, which allowed Dipper an educated guess about what the fourth hall’s color would be. Not having a grimoire for the fourth, or first in this case, element had thrown him off, but the organization made sense to him now.

“As a second-hand weeb thanks to JRPG’s, I’m proud to call the Webu Hall home to most of my classes,” Miko said once they were in front of the third identical lecture hall. She gripped at her light blue leggings for a second before continuing. “I guess you all caught on I’m in the Illusion track from earlier, but the Healing track is also in here. Will I be seeing anyone around?”

No one raised their hands or made themselves aware in any way. That was the first time Dipper realized their group didn’t have a strong connection to the fire element. Molly and Twilight’s magic was shadow based, Connie’s was sound, Anne’s would undoubtedly be earth, which just left…oh right.

“I guess I’ll just have to keep keeping the good seats for myself.”

“I’m multitrack,” Dipper finally noted when it looked like she might cry despite her smile. “So I guess I’ll be in there at some point.”

She instantly brightened up. “Really? Great! I’ll make sure to show you the ropes.”

“Thanks?”

And thus they came to the fourth main lecture hall, the Uobghr Hall. She mangled the pronunciation of this hall much in the same way Molly had mangled most of the pronunciations of the chant that had opened the gate down here. Just as Dipper had guessed, it was accented in royal blue. And, by process of elimination even before Miko had a chance to explain it, he figured the Plant and Construction tracks would be taking their classes inside.

“So that means Anne, right?” Miko asked. She asked the group more than Anne herself, given that Anne was still asleep on Lion’s back. “Based on that throw earlier at least.”

“That’s her,” Dipper said, he didn’t bother hiding his disdain. “Ms. Strongarm.”

“Ok, well besides just that, there’s something special about this building compared to the others. Can anyone guess what it is?”

Dipper didn’t think what he would think as special would be the same as what Miko would and, glancing around at the others, no one else seemed to have an idea either. Not even Sunset and Steven, who exchanged glances followed by shrugs, seemed to have a clue. Eventually leading to Twilight trying to move things along. “I think you got us. What’s so special?”

“There’s actually people here today,” Miko beamed. She waved for them to follow, continuing to explain as they headed not towards the main entrance but to the side of the hall. “One of the meisters is a club host, and I have classes with two of the members. It’s not really my scene, but they’re nice enough and maybe some of you might be into what they like to do.”

While there was a makeshift path along the way Miko took them as she somewhat explained why she was taking them around the building, it was obviously not a well-worn one used by much of campus. In fact, it was just broken-up patches of dirt between the grass from a few people’s comings and goings. If it had been darker out it would have reminded Dipper of some of those old movies he and Wendy would watch. The ones where the teens go down the obviously dangerous path no one uses only to meet some monster along the way. Of course, that might just mean meeting another student given where they were.

The path led along the side of the building, between it and a smattering of trees that surrounded most of the buildings they had seen so far, and directly to a cellar entrance. One of those doors built into the ground at an angle, the kind that only ever had good things in them in movies. Definitely never killers or monsters of any kind. This was a thought that was not helped by a sign that had been shoddily attached above the handle reading “The Wolf’s Lair.”

Miko bent over and knocked. Twice regularly and then twice more in quick succession. Almost immediately they could hear movement from within. Scraping wood on stone, followed by the rush of approaching footsteps.

The door didn’t open, but shifted a bit before a voice demanded, “Who goes there?”

“A type of geek people actually like.”

“Oh, it’s just Miko guys,” the voice said, seemingly to someone else below. “Opening up, watch your face.”

The door was pushed open and a gangly student emerged. Somehow the white hair, red skin, or black horns and wings weren’t the first things Dipper noticed about him. Instead, it was his pair of buck teeth. Followed quickly by the expression of shock when he noticed that Miko wasn’t alone. He looked around, took in the small crowd he clearly hadn’t been expecting, then silently started to descend back from whence he came.

“Nope,” Miko declared as she grabbed the edge of the door and pulled it back open, easily overpowering the gangly red hellborn on the other side.

“But we have a procedure for this,” he grunted.

“And that’s part of the reason you only have like three members.” A sudden wind swept through the small clearing, rustling hair and clothes enough that Dipper noticed Molly holding on to Scratch from her perch on Lion while Twilight held down both her and Sunset’s skirts. Though Sunset seemed more amused than worried about what might be seen. Miko took advantage of the sudden gust, using the added momentum to throw the cellar door the rest of the way open while leaving the hellborn student grasping at nothing for a moment before he realized what had happened. “Now let me introduce this nice coven to Meister Diaz and whoever else is down there. Okay?”

The hellborn, despite being a good bit taller than Miko even while on a lower step, shrank under her gaze. He was quick to sigh, then motioned towards for them to pass down the stairs. “Fine. Everyone’s at the main table anyway.”

“Thanks, Lincoln,” she said, all smiles again. Then back to the group, “Follow me everyone, it’s not actually any of the bad kinds of creepy down here.”

“Does that imply it’s a good kind of creepy?” Twilight asked as she straightened her and Sunset’s clothing.

Lincoln shrugged. “Most people would probably go with neutral creepy.”

“Should I wake Anne and her friend?” Molly asked. She was trying to slide out from under the sleeping duo, who had slid forward at some point during the ride or gust and were now partially leaning on top of her. Scratch was trying to help, but he didn’t seem sure where or who it was ok to grab. Which at least meant the blue-nosed trash bag wasn’t a completely perverted spirit. Though, given his reaction to meeting Sunset, Dipper had to wonder how well the ‘living’ situation was going to go if he was going to stay in the girls’ dorm with Molly and Connie.

“I’ll watch them,” Sunset offered after Steven stepped up and helped Molly out from under the others. “Too many of my videos go a very particular way when I go into dark places, not really what I’m in the mood for today.”

Sunset ignored the looks Dipper and several of the others gave her at that comment, as if they should already know what it meant. Even Twilight, once the questioning gazes slipped to her, could only respond with an ‘I don’t know’ kind of look. Though, as the native witch oddly volunteered, Dipper thought she seemed to grip her sides a bit tighter. She still hadn’t let go of stomach since the moment they’d come out of Bump’s office, not to mention Twilight kept doting on her and making sure she was alright about something. And here Dipper had hoped this day would have more answers than questions for once, how silly that idea had been.

“Then I’ll stay too,” Twilight quickly added. “I don’t really need to–”

“Go see the dungeon,” Sunset interrupted. “Then you can tell me about it later. Plus, there’s a teacher down there. You like teachers.”

“Um, when they know what they’re talking about. I guess.”

“Well, you can tell me about that too. So skedaddle.”

Twilight let out a defeated sigh of, “Fine,” before stepping towards the cellar door. Miko was quick to grab her hand and start leading her down the steps.

Connie, evidently not wanting to be left out, offered her hand to Steven and asked, “Would you care to escort a lady into a weird cellar-space?”

Steven caused her hand to disappear by taking it in his, and grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.” They followed after Miko and Twilight, descending the steps hand in hand past the still waiting Lincoln.

“This neutral creepy bs better not mean lame,” Scratch said as he and Molly approached the doorway. Lincoln gave the ghost a look like he was seeing something nostalgic, though didn’t say anything beyond that. “Because I didn’t go through all that bumpkiss yesterday to start seeing lame stuff now.”

Molly paused at the angled doorway, looking back while Scratch disappeared down the stairs. “Are you coming, Dipper?”

“In a sec, you go ahead.”

She started to say something else, but was interrupted by Scratch shouting, “Come on Mol, I’m not to the point I can make deriding comments to the rest of these nerds yet.”

“You heard him.”

Molly frowned and followed after the others. Leaving just Dipper, Sunset, and Lincoln up here. At least they were the only ones up there if the unconscious pair and giant cat weren’t counted. Which was almost what Dipper was going for, with one exception. Luckily, the exception seemed to be getting tired of waiting for his guests to get in on their own.

“Do you need me to stay up here?” Lincoln asked after finally dropping his arm back down. “I usually do when we have prospective members, but since she kept me from doing the rest of the show I feel kind of…dumb just standing here.”

“I can find my way in a sec.”

Lincoln nodded then followed after the rest, returning to wherever he had come from, the others had gone, and Dipper would eventually make his way to. But first…he turned to Sunset. Though she wasn’t quite where she had been a moment before. Instead, she had made her way to the closed half of the cellar door. She actually pulled a hand away from her stomach for a second or two to steady herself as she sat, but quickly returned it once her behind was on the ground and her back was against the angled door. She didn’t quite relax once in place, if anything Dipper would have called her expression a grimace as she held her eyes closed and faced towards the sky, but she seemed looser now that she wasn’t standing anymore.

“So,” she started without hoping her eyes. “You’ve got me kind of alone, in a kind of isolated place. Do I need to be worried that it’s going to be one of those kinds of videos?”

“W-what?” Dipper stammered. “What are you…just no. No to whatever you’re talking about.”

She laughed a little ‘humph.’

“I just wanted to…well, are you alright?”

Sunset opened a single eye to look at him. Or maybe study him might have been a better way to describe it. Through the narrow opening she allowed for it, that turquoise in red eye of hers seemed like it was ready to take in all of him in any way it could. Almost like her very gaze was hungery. “Do I have to worry about all of Twi’s friends going all mother hen over me? I’m used to people wanting to be all over me in other ways and the switch is jarring.”

“I don’t know about any of that, but you’re…important to Twilight and something’s obviously wrong. So, if there’s something you need that you don’t want to ask her for then, well…” Dipper paused, he hadn’t exactly thought this through as some grand plan. Today he was just going with whatever came, whatever felt right. “Not counting when she thought she was going to die falling out of the corridor, talking about and being around you is the most emotional I’ve ever seen her beyond contentment. I think it’s a good kind of emotional for her too. So, as much as I can, I want to help keep that going in the right direction.”

Sunset had opened both of her eyes by the time Dipper finished. She looked at him, not to study or judge or feast on and smiled. Not one of her smirks that she had put on for almost everything else since they’d met, but a small, soft smile. “No wonder Twi considered…speaks highly of you.”

“Huh?”

“It’s not that I don’t want Twi’s help, it’s just–”

“Where was the announcement!?” A higher pitched voice exclaimed from deep beyond the cellar doors but echoing its way back up to be almost as if they were right next to whoever was yelling.

“Miko kept me from starting,” Lincoln complained in reply, his own voice echoing along with the first.

“Sorry, but no one likes hearing about the realm where imagination becomes reality,” Miko shot back, but in a joking way.

“Sounds like you’re missing quite the time,” Sunset said, her eyes closed again as she let the day’s red light wash over her. “I’ll be fine, nothing I haven’t dealt with before. So go see what’s going on in the Wolf’s Lair and if I decide I need something I’ll grab you later.”

Dipper’s mouth crinkled, but she wasn’t saying anything more and so neither would he. He let out an exasperated breath before finally starting down the steps to catch up with the others. The stairs led just far enough down for a tunnel of cobbled stone to have room to form, though not with a ton of headspace. Anne’s hair would have probably dragged across the ceiling if she wasn’t passed out on top of Lion, so Dipper didn’t want to imagine how much Steven had been forced to hunch over. And it wasn’t really a tunnel despite its first impression, more of a short hallway that just happened to be lit by torchlight leading to an old wooden door standing ajar at the end.

The voice that wasn’t Lincoln’s moaned as Dipper opened the door. “We had the whole thing choreographed and everything. But the first time we get actual modern witches down here we don’t even get the chance to show off. I feel like such a disgrace.”

“Miko’s right though,” another new voice added. This one was deeper, almost a growl. “You come on too strong.”

Dipper stepped into the room, which had only slightly taller ceilings than the stone hallway but otherwise opened up to be much wider and circular. The walls were lined with bookshelves and, while there where books on many of the shelves, they weren’t old tomes like one would expect to find in a semi-secret dungeon. They almost all looked to be tall paperbacks. And every time the collected books would get a couple volumes or copies deep, they’d be broken up by a box or two. In fact, some of the shelves had nothing but boxes of the same height on them, though a few were much thicker than others. There was something familiar about those paperbacks and boxes, something he couldn’t quite make out as his eyes adjusted to the flickering torchlight. But then his gaze fell on the table at the center of the room, where the owner of the second voice was slumped over. The native witch had the same kind of black and white horns as Steven, though his tail ended in a spade instead of feathers, and his sleeves were the same sky blue of the Illusion track that Lincoln wore.

But Dipper didn’t care about that. Laid out on the table in front of the slumping, disgraced native witch was a board segmented into a massive grid. Were figures of what could only be monsters and heroes. Were dice and a three sectioned divider!

Dipper rushed to the table. Past Steven, who had found a chair so he didn’t have to bend over, and the rest of his group who were awkwardly looking around, and slammed his hands down in excitement. “Is this a tabletop game? Is this a tabletop club? Do you ever play Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons?”

A pair of fury ears pricked up from behind the dungeon master divider. They rose up to reveal a pair of red in yellow eyes, one with a scar across it, and eventually an entire wolf head was looking at him. Its brown fur, which turned red around the neck, bristling a bit their eyes met and took one another in. Maybe it was his excitement, maybe it was his time with King the night before, maybe it was just being in Hell in general, but Dipper didn’t even bat an eye at the hellhound. He just wanted to know if the demon was a good DM or not.

“We have the 90’s version,” the wolf demon said with a fanged smile. His was the deeper, growly voice. Which made sense. “But we don’t play it much because of the slang. Though if you like real DDnD then one of the TTRPG’s we’ve got down here would probably float your boat.”

With everyone there, that was conscious enough to be, the wolf demon stood and got them started with some introductions. His name was Meister Diaz, one of the head construction track professors. Though Dipper would never have guess that from the black leather jacket he wore over his reddish-brown fur or his impressive height that, while not quite as tall as Steven, was enough that his ears almost reached the ceiling, something they would probably drag across in the hallway leading back outside.

The moping native witch with imp traits was Gus, who had personally planned their welcoming presentation to get prospective members in right mindset. And then of course there was Lincoln, who turned out to be an incubus. Lincoln was much less distraught about not being able to put on the fog and light show that Gus had planned, though he did mention never getting to wear the cloak he’d picked out for the role. Which just left–

“Spike?” Twilight said allowed when a door on the other side of the room opened to reveal a purple and green shark holding a tray of nachos.

“Oh, hey Twilight,” the shark said as he walked around Meister Diaz’s seat so he could put the tray down. “I didn’t think you’d be into tabletops. Most people who Sunset knows don’t even know what they are.”

She looked from the dungeon guide she’d randomly taken off the shelf, to the table and all the campaign pieces spread across it, then back to Spike. “I think it might be more of Dipper’s interest. But I’m always…happy to learn about new things. Is this where you spend your time when you’re not working for Sunset.”

“Not all my time,” he said, popping a nacho into his exceedingly sharp maw. “Especially since, besides what you see here, we only have a couple of floaters filling out our membership.”

“Luz and Hunter used to play with us more,” Gus said, still slouched over the table. “But then they got girlfriends. Not to mention whatever Sprig’s got going on.”

Miko, looking up from the figure she’d been clashing together in a mock battle with Scratch, noted that, “You’d keep more players if the graphics were better.”

Lincoln, who by then had taken a seat back at the table so he could get some nachos, rubbed his eyes. It was clear this was not the first time this point had been brought up. “They’re role-playing games, you imagine the graphics.”

As Miko allowed her figure to be struck down by Scratch’s, the conversation turned into partial argument between one part of the room, awkward watchers sometimes attempting to broker peace from another part of the room, and a singular civil talk about play schedules and campaign roles between Dipper and Meister Diaz. Slowly but surely the professor gave him a look at the different kinds of games he’d managed to collect, in addition to some of their add-on material, and also mentioned the one-shot he was putting together to try out a new one he’d found on a trip to one of the inner-ring cities. Dipper didn’t know what the difference between a Goliath town and inner-ring city might be, but by then he didn’t care. It had been years since the last time he’d even had anyone to talk to about DDnD or other tabletops, let alone play it with. The last time he could even remember bringing it up to anyone was during that summer in Gravity Falls before… It didn’t matter, it wasn’t like he’d had anyone to play it with then anyway.

“Dipper,” Molly said, standing at the door back to the hallway and exit beyond. The others had already headed out, their voices jumbling up in echoes from the hallway. “Are you going to be okay if we take Anne to an actual bed? She shouldn’t sleep on Lion like that for too long.”

“I’ll be fine,” he replied, waving her off. “I’ll catch up to you guys at the cafeteria or something.”

“Okay. Have fun I guess.”

Dipper didn’t know how long they’d already been there. He’d have to guess a while given the others’ willingness to leave him. They might not have always listened to him back home, but they wouldn’t often just disregard or leave him to work unless he told them to. So he might have wasted a good chunk of the day. Maybe. And at this point, what would a few more questions about campaign comp and dice regulations really hurt?

---

By the time Dipper emerged back outside from the cellar door it had gotten darker. Not drastically so, but he really must have been in there a while. But that just meant he’d go along with what he’d told Molly. Drop his stuff at the dorm and then find them at the cafeteria or something. If need be he could try asking someone by the girls dorm to go in and see if they were there. Or at least that’s what he would have done if he’d actually been alone when he left the Wolf’s Lair.

He heard the grumbling wail before he saw either of them. Like an animal in pain, the sound filled his ears like a yowling moan. But while Dipper didn’t have any clue what that sound could be, there was only one place that it could be coming from. Just a little way back towards the front of the building were Sunset and Twilight. Sunset was sprawled partially on the ground and partially against lecture hall’s masonry, holding her stomach with one hand and her mouth with the other, while Twilight had dropped to her knees and was trying to fan her with some of the papers bump had give them.

“What happened?” Dipper yelled as he raced to their side, dropping to his own knees to try and get a sense of what was going on.

“I don’t know.” Twilight’s voice cracked as her eyes started to tear up. “She wanted to wait until the others left, and then she collapsed when we did try to go.”

“Thought I…could make it…through today…” Sunset strained to say through labored breaths, and it came out further muffled through her hand. Her eyes were closed again, shut tighter than before, and she was radiating heat that Dipper could feel without even touching her.

“I’ll go get Meister Diaz. There must be a nurse or healing station or something he can take–”

“That…won’t help,” Sunset wheezed out.

“Then what do we do!?” Twilight screamed as the tears started flowing. “You have to tell us, Sunset. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what I need to do for you!”

Sunset’s left hand left her stomach and reached up until she found Twilight. For a moment Sunset caressed Twilight’s cheek with her palm, then slid her hand back behind Twilight’s neck, where she let it rest. “Is what…you said about him true? Would you be…willing to do something with him?”

“Yes, fine, whatever you need me to do.”

Sunset opened her eyes and at once Twilight was taken aback. Not enough to pull away, but enough to be visibly shaken. It took Dipper longer to see what she had, and only once Sunset’s attention had turned to him. Her eyes were no longer turquoise within red, but instead turquoise within black. What’s more, her formerly rectangular pupils had become paper-thin slits. Even as she lay on the ground in obvious pain, those eyes looked angry. More than that. They looked hungry.

“Then…I’m sorry it…it’s happening this way.”

Sunset’s right hand left her mouth, finding the hooded collar of Dipper’s shirt in an instant. And then she pulled. Dipper and Twilight found themselves eye to eye with each other and Sunset as she brought all three of their foreheads against one another. Not hard enough to hurt as they lightly collided, but fast enough to disorientate by the sudden shift. But that disorientation wouldn’t last long. Their worry wouldn’t last long. Even what remained of the day wouldn’t seem to last long after what happened next.

Inhaling deeply through her nose, Sunset opened her mouth five words in quick succession. With them carried the scent of flowers with just a touch of cinnamon and honey. With them went any fear from Dipper’s mind about what was happening to Sunset. With them came a single thing he needed to do and all the desire to do it his body could muster.

“Take me to my room.”

Chapter Text

Her teeth dug into the meat, tearing it from the bone as juices spurted and ran down her chin. She had waited so long for this, forcing herself to follow along with what everyone else was doing to the point she had almost collapsed. But now, now she could feast. Now she could eat her fill until the hours wasted with the others were buried beneath the pile of meat building up in her stomach. And it tasted so good. It always was when it was fresh from the–

“I somehow always forget you eat as sloppily as you act,” Lucy sneered before taking a sip from her teacup.

Janna rolled her eyes and wiped her mouth and chin free of the wing sauce that had dripped from her lunch. Really it was closer to dinner, but also the first break Lady Gwen had let them have since discovering the shattered corridor the night before, which meant it was also basically breakfast. She was more annoyed by the fact that the Lolita hadn’t bothered to so much as thank her after she’d been instructed to go get a meal for everyone, at least Lady Gwen did her that curtesy, but instead was using that ever-present monotone to nitpick her eating habits.

“We can’t all be as prim and proper as you,” Janna shot back, practically spitting the words prim and proper. The very idea nearly made her shudder.

In fact, she had to do something to get back into the right headspace. Looking down at her little bucket of wings, Janna knew just what that something was going to be. Picking up a big one, Janna slid it into her mouth, puckering her lips and sinking her teeth into the meat. Then slowly, all the while staring directly at Lucy, she pulled the wing back out of her mouth. The meat pulled away as the bone passed through her teeth, a dribble of sauce escaping down her chin before she slid the bone back into her mouth, turned it with her tongue, then pulled it out once more.

“You’re disgusting,” Lucy said as she watched Janna swallow. “And yet, given why you became a witch, it’s utterly expected.”

Janna let out an amused huff before tossing the wing bone through the open door she and Lucy were seated on opposite sides of. It fell into the void, disappearing into the darkness below. “At least I’ll admit why I’m here. You act like all you care about is improving your magic, but we all know the real reason you want to get down there is to see your precious o–”

“Let’s not bicker like schoolgirls,” Lady Gwen sighed as she came back down the stairs. Her phone was already away and her arms were crossed, so Janna assumed only good news could be on its way.

“Well, she is a schoolgirl,” Janna noted while hitching her thumb at the Lolita, who had quickly gotten to her feet once Lady Gwen reappeared. “And I’m technically enrolled here, so doesn’t that make me one too?”

Lady Gwen ignored her. “I’ve informed Mistress Kaisa of our lack of progress, as well as my analyzation of how our channeling interacted with the corridor entrance. And, unfortunately, we’ve come to the same conclusion.”

Janna palmed her last wing, slid the other remains of her lunch into the void, watched it tumble towards oblivion for a second, then stood. “And what’s that?”

“That some member of our thief’s group had a deeper connection with what’s below than the others. Drastically enough that we need more than what we have here to fix it.”

Janna blinked. “Three members of this coven have contracts with spirits from down there. Some,” she motioned to herself, “more connected than others.”

Lucy huffed as Janna motioned to her at the end of her statement.

“What could a normie have that one of us doesn’t?”

Lady Gwen averted her eyes for a brief moment, then took a deep breath. “I don’t know. But Lady Kaisa has taken this as affirmation for her attempt to call in aid. To that end…she is doing additional research while waiting for a reply from Master Wirt.”

“Wirt!” Lucy exclaimed. The Lolita was so startled she was gripping the fringe of her dress with one hand and the doorframe with the other, her bell of course not ringing as she grasped the wooden molding.

“Who’s Wirt?” Janna guessed she had to ask.

“Someone loosely affiliated with our coven,” Lady Gwen stated as if that explained anything. Then added, “One who, in his youth no less, dealt with a devil from below and was changed by it.”

“And because of that he can fix the corridor?” Janna prodded, keeping eye contact with Lady Gwen while also nonchalantly dropping her last wing to her feet. The moist meat allowed for a single tiny bounce before coming to a stop, it’s little remaining sauce already pooling around it.

“Because of that he can fix an aspect others would have a more difficult time with. His aid will save us days, if not weeks, of channeling.”

Janna had the sudden urge to just let herself fall backwards into the opening. A broken corridor might mean she’d splat on the other side, but she’d still be on the other side. And that was the whole point. Though, and she had to remind herself of the possible bad ends, if she got down there and things didn’t go the way she hoped she’d then be stuck in hell if she was dead. If she had a way back she could at least spend her time figuring out immortality or, if all else failed, becoming a good girl.

She shivered at the thought.

“How long will it take him to get here?”

“Probably a while,” Lucy, who at some point had dropped her prim posture to lean against the wall and hang her head, said. She still spoke in her usual monotone, but it warbled just the slightest bit with not annoyance, but dismay. “The last time Mistress Kaisa called him it took over a month for him to arrive.”

“That wasn’t a situation like this,” Lady Gwen noted before the comment could be allowed to sit. “While Master Wirt does keep his everyday life separated from his magical duties, he’ll understand that a broken corridor might lead to an unstable rift between realms. And he’d be more averse to that than anyone else.”

“Well as long as he’s averse,” Janna scoffed. Lucy may have been dismayed, but Janna was annoyed. Not only had that chick and her merry band of thieves put her in hot water and delayed her plans, now some extra rando was going to hold the coven up from going after them. All the while the path down was right there! She was next to it and couldn’t risk going in because a bunch of kids had broken the way down and she didn’t know how much the people she was looking for would really want to see her.

By that point she had stopped listening, and thus barely registered Lucy’s question about what they should do in the meantime or Lady Gwen explaining how they’d keep normies from wandering too close. Instead, with her arms crossed and finger tapping against her sleeve, she glared down into the void. Six years of insatiable hunger and the meal was right in front of her, yet she couldn’t even get a whiff of what was waiting for her. But she could wait if she had to. She had known this would be a long con going in. And if she’d been able to wait this long for a taste, she could wait a few more days for her feast.

She saw something move out of the corner of her eye while staring into the void. Of course, she didn’t try to look at it directly, if she did his gloved hand would shrink back into her shadow until the next time she called him out. And where would the fun be in that? Especially since the others didn’t like her spirit, but it wasn’t like she was going to let her contract with him go. He was one of the few things she had left of home, even if he just resembled a part of it. So no, she didn’t look. She let that clown-gloved hand slink out from her shadow, grasp the wing she’d dropped for him between his clawed fingers, then drag it back into the darkness he called his own.

At least someone’s hunger was being satiated.

Chapter Text

Dipper stared at the pale grey ceiling as the shadows cast by flickering candles danced in front of him. Or rather, he looked towards the ceiling because if he closed his eyes the all too recent memories became too vivid. With his eyes closed every detail became clear and crisp in his mind. Every motion was put on repeat, every locking of eyes and bead of sweat was felt again. It couldn’t have really happened. Not all of it. Not any of it. Because, for once, he had been the one actually doing–

Someone sighed, and before Dipper realized it he was gripping the sheets. Clenching his jaw to keep his teeth from clattering, Dipper slowly turned to look. The head resting on the pillow besides his was turned away, but her long ponytail of dark hair immediately told him who he was laying beside. From the way it rose off the upper back of her head, to how it lay across the pillow and reached down just past her bare shoulder blades.

In an instant Dipper was scrambling backwards, nearly falling off the small bed in his haste. That was Twilight. That was Twilight’s naked back. He was in bed with her; she was naked; and, as he was almost as quick to discover as he half-slipped/half-fell out from under what little of the covers she hadn’t pulled to cover her lower-half and chest, so was he.

She didn’t move as he backed away, as he tried and failed to keep his breathing calm while looking for something to cover himself with. Luckily his heel brushed against cloth as he backpedaled, leading him to discover the three sets of clothes strewn across the floor. Even in the dim candlelight it was easy to spot his amongst the other two, especially his underwear. Still breathing so hard and loudly that he could hear nothing else, Dipper grabbed what he could of his from the scattered pile. He was pretty certain at least one of his socks was gone, but at least he could cover himself, at least he could hide his shame and run away if he could only find a–

A door on the other side of the room swung open with just the trace of a squeaky hinge and Dipper’s heart nearly stopped completely. Stepping out of a door was Sunset. Her long red and yellow hair, free from its complicated bun, was partially covered by a towel she was using to pat it dry. And that was all that was covered.

Droplets glistened on her hips as she sashayed out, dripped from the ends of her hair as she dried it, and collected between her large but surprisingly perky breasts when all else failed. Despite himself, Dipper couldn’t help but follow the journey of a drop that fell from her hair to her shoulder, raced down along the curve of her left breast, traced the edge of her nipple, then found its way to her stomach and parts below. It and every other drop catching the flickering candlelight as they went in a way that made her bare skin seem to catch fire.

“Running away?” she asked with a bemused smirk once she noticed him. “Not often I get someone doing a walk of shame away from my place.”

The heart that had essentially stopped a moment before made up for lost time in that moment, beginning to beat a hundred miles an hour and seemingly in Dipper’s ears as he struggled to stay upright. His legs were going to mush, his breathing was no longer deep but ragged as it struggled to catch in his lungs, and all around him the room began to spin.

“Mason?”

“Y-y-you…” he stammered. So what he saw when he closed his eyes, those memories that he couldn’t have actually done, they were true. “You made me…”

Sunset caught him before he could fall, latching her arms around his chest while hers pressed against him. Dipper stared at the flame dancing between her horns, the tiny little sun that like so many other parts of her had bounced and jiggled during the long moments he, she, and Twilight had shared once they’d helped Sunset to her room. Once they’d helped her and then each other out of their clothes. Once they’d…once they’d…

“Look at me Mason,” Sunset demanded. She had gotten him to a chair pulled from a desk in the corner, now bent over and holding his face between her hands so they were eye to eye. Hers were turquoise-in-red again, the sclera no longer that famished black from his last clear memory before…before everything else. “Everything’s going to be alright. You didn’t do anything wrong, and no one did anything you didn’t want them to. So take a deep breath and relax.”

Dipper did as he was instructed, feeling almost compelled to do so as the warmth of her hands enveloped his face and her wide eyes stared into his. Slowly his breathing evened out and heart began to slow, though he could still hear it thumping in his chest. Though like a mallet instead of a jackhammer. It probably helped that she kept his face pointed at hers, lest his eyes wonder back to what was hanging in front of him.

“There we go,” she said with a comforting smile. Her gaze continued to match his, though she looked up at him through downturned eyes. “All better?”

He shakily nodded his head. “A little.”

“Good.” She dropped her hands from his face. One completely back to her side and the other to his shoulder. Without missing a beat she joined him on the chair, or rather sideways on his lap, an arm flung over his shoulders as she leaned against him, one of her bare breasts pressing against his equally bare chest. He tried to look away, but there was almost nowhere to look. She was in front and partially to his right as she leaned against him, and to the left was a still passed out, bare-backed Twilight.

“Mason,” she continued after noticing everywhere he was trying not to look. “Your fingers, tongue, and big dipper have been on, between, and inside every part of me over the past few hours. After all that it’s okay for you to look at me while I’m naked.” She sighed. “Though, I guess my pheromones can be disorienting for people not used to them. But man, I won’t have to eat for a while thanks to you. And it’s a good thing classes don’t start ‘til Monday, because I’m not sure Twi will be able to walk much before then.”

“Pheromones…eating…” Dipper mumbled as he put two and two together, remembering what he’d heard during the short journey from Eda’s beach to Hexside. It felt better than focusing on that last comment she’d made. “So you’re like Lapis? Part succubus?”

“Mmhmm,” she nodded. “And if you know about that I hope you know that all a whiff of us can do is lower your inhibitions, not make you do anything. Though if that caused you to cheat on Wendy I’ll try to help you deal with that if you need me to. I’m not some succubitch who likes ruining good things for people. At least not anymore.”

“How do you know about her?” Dipper demanded while trying to hide a fresh surge of panic, only to then realize what she had been calling him since coming out that door. “And how do you know my real name?”

The comforting look she’d been maintaining slipped into a bemused expression. Dipper didn’t think it was meant to come across as patronizing as it did. “I’m top of my year in the Oracle track. I usually keep it in check, but all it takes is a touch for me to glean something from someone’s mind. When I’m hungry though, well all sorts of things just come pouring into me then.”

Dipper’s eyes widened. With a touch? Just a touch? But there had been so much touching. So much skin against skin against skin during…everything they’d done. During everything he’d done. During…right then and there! Her chest against his, her arm over his shoulders, her legs and butt pressed firmly together in his lap. If all it took was a touch then she could know anything. She could know every–

“I’m not doing it now,” she said bluntly, stopping what must have been an obvious internal spiral to see even without magic. “Like I said, I keep it in check when I’m not hungry. But before, well with every flutter of your fingers, twist of your tongue, and each thrust you thought of her. Not something I’m used to by the way. Most people can’t think of other women when I’m around, let alone when they’re with me. She must be one helluva girlfriend.”

“She’s…not my girlfriend.” Dipper felt himself blush and bluster. While he knew he had been before, realizing what he’d been imagining doing to…with Wendy all the while actually being with someone else, another red head no less, it made him feel like a creep. Like all those times he had fantasized about her that first summer. But this was some kind of perverse projection on a whole other level.

“Oh. Uh, well she’s not someone else’s girlfriend, is she?”

Dipper shook his head. At least there wasn’t someone else in the mix to make him look and feel even creepier. Sunset rested her chin in her free hand, thinking to herself while the index finger of her other hand melodically tapped a beat on his shoulder. This went on a for a few moments longer than Dipper thought it should. He didn’t actually understand why they were sitting like this at all. Did she just not know how to do anything in a way that didn’t attempt to be seductive? Was that just a succubus thing? Was thinking that a racist thing? And why, oh god why, did she keep fidgeting her legs just enough for him to notice?

“Do you want her to be your girlfriend?” Sunset asked at last, stopping the tapping of her finger on the last syllable as if ending a song.

Dipper almost laughed. He could even feel the sarcastic guffaw welling up in his throat. But he swallowed it and any trace of it that might have started to appear on his face. “She’s too good for me.”

Sunset didn’t laugh either. Her smile had vanished, replaced by a look of annoyance that Dipper could imagine an adult trying to maintain in the face of an annoying child. “Am I too good for you?”

Of all the unexpected things that happened since the day before, or even just since arriving at Hexside, for some reason that question took him the most aback. It was like a tigress asking if she was above eating a gazelle. Sunset was a succubus that had been starving, he had whatever energy succubae ate. That’s all there was too it.

Despite already knowing the answer, Dipper finally allowed himself to look at her before answering. From her face to her neckline, to her ample curves and perfect posture, to the way she crossed her legs just enough not to show literally everything had anyone else been there to see it, the confirmation was clear. “Of course you are. You needed to eat, I heard Lapis and Luz talk about it being easier for succubae to feed on guys than other girls, and I just happened to be there.”

Sunset exhaled, raised her free hand, and flicked his forehead.

“Ow!”

“I repeat, I’m not some succubitch,” Sunset stated tersely, her formerly understanding expression having shifted to a cross one as she ignored Dipper’s cry. “I don’t use and abuse guys like fast food worth forgetting once it’s served its purpose. If I didn’t think you were at least a little cute and,” she motioned back to her sleeping girlfriend, “if Twi hadn’t already thought a little about you that way I wouldn’t have dragged you into this. I hadn’t gone fully wraith yet, I could have figured something else out.”

“Wraith?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, then sighed again. “The point is that if you’re good enough for me you’re good enough for anyone. And I’m going to prove it to you.”

“You really don’t need to–”

“Nope, shut up, this is happening.” Sunset shifted in her seat, his lap, raising a leg then turning in place so she could face him directly. He seemed to be the only one at all dismayed by the fact this meant she was now straddling him, her legs tightly pressing against his outer thighs. Or maybe he was just surprised by the odd sensation of her butt twisting in place on his lap, or that both her breasts were now pressed against his chest, or just by how close she brought her face to his without ever breaking eye contact.

If she was at all aware of how bewildering this was for him, despite it not even being the first time she’d straddled him that day, she didn’t show it. Instead, she placed her hands on either side of his face to keep him from turning away. “You’re going to think of as many memories of Wendy as you can, old and especially new. I’ll take a look at them to see if you actually have a chance, then we’ll go from there.”

“All you’ll see is me being like a little brother to her.”

Sunset held her grip on his face when he tried to look away. Then, when he refused to look directly into her turquoise eyes, she brought her face even closer to his. Their foreheads softly collided and she became all that he could see if he wanted to keep his eyes open. “I said, shut up. Now close your eyes and think of Wendy.”

Despite himself and being absolutely certain of what the outcome of this would be, Dipper did as instructed. He thought of Wendy. He thought of her red hair, her freckles, even the way she seemed to tower over him despite the difference in their height having considerably shrunk once he left pre-pubescence. Then came the memories, and with them a feeling that that even his creative writing teacher would have had a hard time putting into words. There was a comfort to it that radiated through his head, starting on either side as well as his forehead before enveloping every bit of him in a sweet, nostalgic bliss. A bliss that surrounded him, comforted him, before allowing him to sink into it. Sinking to depths he hadn’t thought about in years…

---

Sunset touched down, landing effortlessly as always. She was the top of her class for a reason after all, something she wouldn’t be if she couldn’t infiltrate a mind with ease. Even if Mason hadn’t relented and “allowed” her in she could have taken his whole mind if she’d wanted to, but those days were behind her. Today she was on a mission to get the guy she’d just slept with several times over a girlfriend. Or, if he was right about how this Wendy chick saw him, come up with a way to keep him for herself and Twi. She already had some video ideas that could involve just two or all three of them and hot damn the eating would be good if things worked out that way.

She reminded herself that getting Mason together with Wendy was the preferred outcome, then turned her attention to the first thing one had to do when mind diving. Step one, as it were, was to get a lay of the mental landscape. Everyone’s mind was different, but similarities still abounded. Mason’s memory hole fell into the tunnel trope. A long winding route that went deeper and deeper into the mind until it reached the subconscious and things got trippy. Not that she should need to get that far today, nor could she if he had been focused enough. The tunnel should end after the latest memory he had of Wendy. If it didn’t, she’d start to find herself in his fantasies or possibly dreams that concerned the girl in question, which wouldn’t actually be helpful and might actually loop back around to what Mason had been imagining during his time with Sunset and Twi. Which would be interesting to say the least, seeing a memory of herself overlayed with a fantasy of another girl.

Sunset dismissed the musing as she stepped closer to inspect the tunnel wall. What she called the tunnel trope came in all sorts of variations; manmade tunnels for vehicles, natural cave formations and valleys, or even alleyways. Each sort fit the same kind of bill though, somewhere along the way there would either be a turn off that led into a memory or the tunnel would simple lead into one on its own. But, while she had dived into all sorts of minds before, even some where the tunnels were formed from an uncountable number of books, Mason’s mental landscape was the first she’d ever encountered to be formed from the pages of books instead of the books themselves.

There were no traces of book covers or bindings, just hundreds of thousands of pages that slightly overlapped one another to form solid walls on either side that curved to meet overhead. Each page was yellowed with age and covered with dark handwriting along side drawings of various creatures. Not anything that Sunset could identify as actual demons, hellborn or otherwise, but things that probably wouldn’t have stuck out if placed in wilds of Goliath or elsewhere in hell.

The only things that broke up the cascade of pages forming the tunnel in front of her were the lights that lit the way. Every ten feet or so a cord slid out from between some of the pages that formed the ceiling. At the end of each cord was a long, rectangular casing with a glowing purple light set inside it. Sunset had seen lights kind of like that through the Sinstagram spell-extension for her Pentstagram, what Lincoln and Luz called halogen lights. Though she’d never noticed any as that kind of purple before, or ones hanging so haphazardly for that matter. Which meant they probably represented something to Mason, but she wasn’t here to explore his whole psyche so the meaning behind all this imagery would have to wait.

With the landscape taken in, Sunset moved to the second step of mind diving. Step two, taking a look at herself. To better meld with the mind in question, Sunset always took on aspects of who she was diving into. Looking at her hands, she was not at all surprised to see that her usual yellow skin had been replaced with a shade closer to Mason’s, if not a tad tanner. She confirmed that her hair hadn’t changed by pulling a few locks in front of her face, though her horns, flame, and tail were gone. Which led her to believe she probably looked like what she would if she had a modern witch disguise. That would mean the reds of her eyes would have gone white, maybe the turquoise shade shifting more towards either blue or green as well. Which was basic but would mean this dive should be a walk in the park, or tunnel at least, since she should just be able to walk on through what Mason was thinking about.

But while she had to guess a little about what her appearance had shifted to, what Mason’s mind had conjured for her was less of a mystery. The dark grey sneakers and nearly knee-high socks were fine she supposed. The shorts would have been shorter if she’d been picking them out. The red shirt should have been a size smaller to show off her curves while the blue vest needed to be two sizes smaller so she could zip it up right under her breasts to really accentuate things. Then there was the hat, which was where she would have drawn the line in reality. The bright blue completely clashed with her hair and only sat as snuggly as it did because she hadn’t redone her bun after getting out of the shower. She sighed because she knew she couldn’t get rid of it. Mason was and wasn’t the world around her just as she was and wasn’t going to be a version of him in the memories to come, from both points of view she needed to fit in. Which meant keeping the hat.

She started down the tunnel, passing under and between the purple lights as she looked for the first memory opening. Despite her cap annoyance though, Sunset realized the hanging lights weren’t the only things disrupting the otherwise solid walls of pages around her. Every so often and just barely noticeable, pieces of the pages would be torn off. Just tiny little slips of paper torn away that, when she got close enough to pear through, revealed a sea of ever-shifting static behind them.

That was…different. She’d never seen static in a mind’s landscape before. And once she saw the first triangular rip, she started seeing them all around her. Granted they were all still small and barely noticeable here, but what if there were more farther down this tunnel? What if they got bigger? What would that mean for her? But more importantly, what would that mean about Mason?

Groaning just a little, Sunset did her best to put her worries aside as she started down the tunnel. Afterall, Mason seemed stable enough from what she’d seen so far. Whatever had happened in his life to cause his mental landscape to look like it did couldn’t have been too debilitating. There must have just been some connection to the static she didn’t know about. Which is what she was going to tell herself until something made her rethink it, since otherwise it might mean something had literally been ripped from his mind. Which, from personal experience, she knew never went well.

Luckily the first opening came quickly, or at least the first one without static didn’t take her too long to find. The pages didn’t separate as she might have guessed, but fell away before quickly disappearing into darkness. If this were a real tunnel she might think twice about leaving the odd purple lights behind and delving into that inky blackness, but she knew the shadows would give way fast enough not to worry about it. So in she went without that second thought.

When the darkness parted a moment later she was no longer in the tunnel, but stepping off a large carriage. What did the sinners call it…a bus. Sometimes she really hated living out in the boonies of Goliath, it made her feel so behind the times. Whatever though, this wasn’t about her or how her home was three centuries behind the rest of creation. This was about Mason and he was–

“Damn!” Sunset exclaimed when she realized who she was standing behind. “You’re so short!”

Of course past Mason and his sister, a wide-eyed girl that Sunset instinctively learned was named Mabel, couldn’t hear her giddy shout. But even if this was years ago she hadn’t expected him to be quite so small, or smol even. Though if Lapis or anyone asked she would never admit to even thinking the term. It was kind of nice not being the short one in the moment, even if being a “short stack” as so many commenters liked to note was part of the reason for her continued success.

Things sped up from there, the memory fast forwarding itself along. Sunset had just enough time to realize Mason’s hat was brown instead of the blue and white one she had come in with before an old man appeared. There was something familiar about him that she couldn’t place. His jawline maybe? No, she didn’t think that was it. Maybe just the way he held himself or something. Though she’d been messaged by enough old men since she’d started streaming and posting videos that they all sort of just blended together now.

She followed along as the old man, their “Grunkle” Stan, show them inside the gift shop of his roadside attraction. Which was where two things happened. The fast forwarding slowed back to normal speed, just in time for Mason to see Wendy for the first time.

“Cute,” Sunset said, giving her fellow redhead a look over. Did Mason’s crush being a ginger make him imagining her during their sexy times easier? In a logical way she supposed. Still wasn’t something she felt like getting used to. “Pulling off that lumberjack chic pretty well.”

There weren’t any sparks though, not that she could see or feel between them in her connection to the memory. Not even the start of something one-sided. In that moment, Wendy was just a teen girl that worked for Mason’s great uncle. Honestly that was for the better. Love at first sight was so blasé, not to mention unrealistic. That lack of sparks allowed her to look around, taking in a bit more of the nostalgic hole in the wall before noticing the second thing.

More static.

Part of the carpet, a sign, and even chunks of some windows had been torn away like paper. In their place, just like the holes left in the tunnel that led to this memory, was a field of static just past the ripped edges surrounding what had been removed. As far as she could see there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to what was missing. The triangles that had been stripped away might have been part of some design on the carpet or sign or window, but it wasn’t a repeating one if that was the case. So it remained just a guess.

The memory sped up again as Grunkle Stan led them away from the shop area. Things progressed, beds were made in the attic, Mabel found what looked like a hobo, and then there was some child labor. Mason found a book during said labor, Mabel went missing, the memory slowed down just long enough for Wendy to throw Mason a set of keys to some kind of cart thing, then sped back up as a whole lot happened with gnomes. Sunset let that bit pass without getting too invested. The only part that seemed important was that one of them grabbed his brown hat before being tossed aside, only for Stan to let him replace it with the same blue and white one she had come in wearing.

Then she was back in the tunnel. The walls of yellowed pages with their scribbled writings and drawings, the hanging purple lights, the rare static tears between pages, and another darkened drop-off just ahead. Which was good. The next memory that darkness led to would either happen soon after the last or Mason had linked them close in his mind. And, since he had gone to the trouble, she would take him up on it and step in.

Sunset found herself climbing up to the roof of the shack, a torn slice of static off to her side below a flat landing where Wendy was hanging out. A pinecone throwing display ensued, with Wendy trouncing both Mason and Mabel, but when Mason managed to hit one of those cars and Wendy told him he’d scored “bonus points” the memory went into slow motion. He looked at her as the wind tussled her hair, as the sunlight shined upon her freckles, and the world became a blur around them.

There were the sparks. One-sided sparks, but the sparks that changed Wendy from cool teen to teen crush in the world of Mason Pines. Regardless of speed, the memories started to blur together in a long series of attempts to impress her. Did Mason pretend to be older, break into a building, then dispel some spirits through dance? Yes. Did he and Wendy share a moment “zipping” their mouths to keep a secret afterwards? Especially yes. Did Mason create a series of clones and plan out all sorts of small talk to have the perfect party night with her? Yes, and despite getting into a fight with those clones he still shared a good moment where he revealed a birthmark on his forehead to her, bonding them. Did he attempt to change fate and essentially succeed to keep a greasy looking teen from impressing her himself? Yes, though then he undid his hard work to keep Mabel happy.

Sunset let out a loud huff in that moment. It was sweet, but did that kid need a pig?

Letting himself get beaten up by one of Miko’s video game characters then avoiding getting eaten by a demonic pile of candy were interesting to watch back-to-back, but both paled in comparison to when she walked out of the tunnel and onto a pool patio. Suddenly it all made sense to Sunset, how Mason could look at her in the nude and think of Wendy. For a twelve-year-old already crushing, the bright red one-piece Wendy showed up wearing on that summer pool visit might as well have been a war crime, forever imprinting Mason’s mind with the shape of his own personal wet perfection. Long moments of that memory went in slow motion as the pair ran after one another and fooled around, while other long moments went by in a flash. Something about a merman, but it seemed to be more Mabel’s thing than Mason’s, and Sunset was happy to skip over it. There was a red head to ogle after all.

Sunset was full of both her and Mason’s regret at not seeing anymore of that one-piece when that memory ended. Unfortunately, she couldn’t even stew in the imagery because of what was waiting for her. The instant she was back in the tunnel her senses were shocked by a barrage of static. The blare of it first. While less than a whisper in each of the torn away pieces she had gotten close to so far, it was now a roar that threatened to deafen her at her approach. Then her eyes, straining to even see the page-based lining of the tunnel through all the wide swaths that had been torn away to show the static nothingness beyond. Even her sense of smell was assaulted by the absolute lack of scent that had replaced the scent of old paper she hadn’t completely registered until then.

And in the face of all that static, all that nothingness, what could Sunset do? Run. Cover her ears and run. Wince through static sights and run. Avoid the torn away spots, run, and jump into the darkness that would hopefully be her salvation through another memory.

The memory came, salvation didn’t.

Sunset came crashing into the next memory, landing hard on her butt before bouncing and rolling. She groaned and fought to get a handle on where she was when she finally came to a stop, but the blaring static had followed her. Not only that, but the glare of it too. What little she could see between the torn-out parts of the memory was full of doors. It was another mental landscape, the maze type reserved for either the very intelligent or very disorganized minds, but so much of it was impossible to make out as the memory versions of Mason, Mabel, and their big friend Soos traipsed between doors and static that she couldn’t fathom a guess whose mind Mason had visited. Even whatever they were saying was lost beneath the constant buzz.

“Mason!” she yelled, reaching out for the pre-teen boy as he inaudibly yelled at something lost to one of the torn-out sections of the memory. She yelled despite knowing that version of him couldn’t hear her. She yelled despite realizing that if the real him, the him that was everything around her, wasn’t reacting to this then it must have been buried deep or somehow masked. She yelled because it was the only thing she could think of doing under the weight of all that nothingness pressing down upon her. She couldn’t move, she could barely think, and she couldn’t begin to understand how he could even function with a part of himself so brazenly ripped away.

“Please, Mason! I don’t want to risk messing with your mind!”

The static-torn mental landscape fell away, leaving Sunset in the darkness that had preceded the other memories. Though this bought of it lasted longer than the others. There was relief in that darkness though. No blaring roar or stark shifting fields of a black and white mess. It was peaceful enough for her to catch her breath.

She hadn’t been able to focus enough to make her physical body speak to Mason in a way that his consciousness should have been able to pick up. So had his subconscious helped her, or had the memory simply collapsed from all the missing parts? The former would have been unlikely given his low connection to the shadow element, but the latter could pose a risk to his mental health, so it was a toss up either way. Either way there was something going on that she’d have to look into later. The question was if he’d let her.

The other question was why was she still in the dark?!

No matter what kind of mental landscape, the transition into memories was supposed to be quick, no more than a few seconds in darkness as the memories loaded for lack of a better word. But, just like all the static that had deafened and blinded in the scrambled mess of the last memory, something wasn’t right here.

Screams filled the darkness. There were a pair of them, muffled as if far away or behind something, as well as some sort of hissing followed by what Sunset could only think of as a distorted bell ringing in warning. She steeled herself for whatever such a cacophony had to be a warning for, only to be met with another sound creaking in the darkness. This time the rusted scraping of metal against metal. Still bracing herself for whatever was lurking in this dark corner of Mason’s mind, lights began to flicker on around her.

A cave arose around her in the cold electric light, its rocky walls perforated with misshapen tunnels as well as pipes that went in just about every direction. Some up and down beyond the cave’s floor and ceiling, others that ran along the wall past the creature-dug tunnels and busted cages before feeding into devices that Sunset couldn’t fathom the purpose of. The vertical tubes of metal and wires looked big enough to stuff a big person into though, which to her gave the whole place a secret dungeon vibe from then on. Probably not the kind of dungeon that sometimes popped up in her videos, but a dungeon nonetheless.

Mason, still small and innocent, along with Wendy walked beneath the flickering lights and past Sunset into the cave. They had come out of what looked like a metal-lined closet, each holding expressions of cautious skepticism about what they had walked into. Not unlike Sunset’s own growing cautious skepticism about Mason’s mind in general. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world that the torn memory had shifted to this seemingly stable one, but she had found herself in the memory of the place itself before the event, the only way she could have been there before Mason himself, and that was just one more sign that things weren’t lining up the way they should.

“Woah, a hidden lab,” Mason stated aloud as he and Wendy looked around. This, of course, made Sunset scoff. She knew a dungeon when she saw one. Modern witches and mortals needed to get their acts together and call things what they were. “Maybe the author did experiments down here.”

Author? Sunset thought to herself. Her connection to the memory that should have given her some instinctual insight into what was going on had been disrupted along with everything else, but she was feeling the word journal and all the importance Mason put on it. But there was another feeling, one much more recent and obviously not tied to the memory she was in, that being grimoire. Kid’s life had some layers to it, that was for sure.

“What do you think dug all these tunnels?” Wendy asked. She was looking into one of the oblong holes in the cave wall, showing a level of concern that Mason hadn’t caught a glimpse of ever since those ghosts had tried to kill all her friends.

“Let’s hope we don’t find out,” Mason replied. Which was of course when the screeching roar came echoing out of the cluster of misshapen holes in the far wall.

Something moved in the shadows and both Mason and Wendy screamed. They raced back to the metal-lined closet, furiously banging on the wall opposite the opening and begging to be let in. Their fists striking against the metal couldn’t drown out the creature’s continued hiss, made worse as it echoed endlessly through the tunnels that littered the cave. But no matter how hard Mason and Wendy tried, the pair on the other side wouldn’t let them in.

“The only monsters are your own inner demons, Dipper,” Mabel calmly called from the other side. Even with her connection to the memory still fuzzy, that alone gave Sunset an idea of what was going on. The sister had figured out Mason’s feelings and was going to be oblivious to anything she didn’t have to be until he told Wendy how he felt.

But Mason wasn’t having it, instead grabbing Wendy by the hand and running into one of the few tunnels that the monster’s wrenching cry wasn’t coming out of. Good for him Sunset thought to herself as she ran along with them. Maybe not smart of him in that exact moment, but taking charge and holding his crush’s hand were both things he needed. Unfortunately, at the end of the tunnel he’d pulled them into, past the puddles from its leaking pipes and at the end of what little light filtered in from the main cavern, was a dead end.

“What do we do?” Wendy asked through labored breaths.

“I don’t know,” Mason said back between his own heavy breathing.

Sunset wondered if what happened next to get them out of this situation would amaze or annoy her. She didn’t have to wait long. A bulbous, multi-limbed silhouette crept along the tunnel wall, a mouth full of pointed teeth clearly agape and ready to be filled with tasty teenagers. Sunset couldn’t say she was a novice in that department, though this thing’s version didn’t look as fun for all involved. Another shadow appeared before whatever kind of creature was casting the shadow could crest the curve of the tunnel, that of a man throwing himself on the monster’s back, fighting for control, then being thrown down in front of the shadow’s gaping maw. Before it could strike, the shadow man’s hand shot up and between the spread teeth, gripping its long tongue and pulling it clean out.

“Back! Back you heinous beast!” the shadow’s owner yelled as the monster’s scurried back the way it’d come. Almost as if on command, barely even making a sound as it shrunk into the distance.

Sunset narrowed her eyes, watching the shadow’s owner approach. The man who rounded the curve, the one who’d so spryly jumped that much bigger shadow, had long gone grey. His coat, haphazardly patched in places, had stains dried by time but none from the mucus or blood of a monster he’d just ripped the tongue out of. A tongue he tossed at Mason and Wendy’s feet before telling them to follow before it could regenerate. They did, of course, with Sunset right behind them as their “savior” led them back towards and into another tunnel.

“You’re the guy I’ve been looking for!” Mason exclaimed after the old man had his time to ramble.

“He’s the guy?” Wendy asked, latching on to his excitement.

“The guy?” the old man asked, cocking his head slightly and seeming not to latch on to Mason’s excitement.

“He’s too sus to be the guy,” Sunset muttered to herself as Mason started to list off questions he’d no doubt be holding on to for weeks. She didn’t know enough to understand why he wanted to find the guy so badly, but she knew Mason should have been too smart to get pulled in this easily. Hell, Wendy should have been smart enough to see something was off. Though that might have been Sunset trying for solidarity with a fellow redhead. “Plus, he smells like beans. What’s with that?”

The old man continued leading them through the tunnels, explaining that he’d been trying to capture the changeling that had escaped its cage and Sunset could only sigh. She reminded herself that they were younger and running on adrenaline, but it was so obvious how things were going to go. She considered using the spell circle she’d been holding, in case the static came back in force, to fast forward things herself, but decided against it. Mason had included this in his Wendy memories so it must have been important. She hoped it actually was.

Yatta yatta, more annoying dialogue as the old guy led them into what must have been his base given all the empty canned food, past the surely impenetrable sheet mildly blocking the entrance. Mason steadied himself against the tunnel wall when going down a dip just past the sheet, something catching to his hand as he did. He didn’t notice of course, being too enthralled by the old man’s obvious BS that he must have thought the loop of string or cord a spiderweb and absentmindedly tried to brush it off on his shorts without looking. It didn’t rub off though.

“Alas,” the old man continued, “I lost my journals so many years ago.”

“There it is,” Sunset scoffed.

“Dude, I found one of them,” Mason almost shouted, while just barely noticing Wendy’s impressed smile towards him as he reached into his inside vest pocket. “That’s how I tracked you down here.”

The hand with the looped string went into the pocket, a small sparkle shining from its weighted end, then reemerged gripping a red and gold book. There was no string to be seen. The old man greedily grabbed the journal and started flipping through its pages, muttering to himself with every new page turned. Mason and Wendy, in turn, took a seat against the tunnel wall while they waited. Evidently, they were content to just sit and watch and gangly old stranger read a book he supposedly wrote. Again, Sunset tried to tell herself that they were just young, but Satan-damn-it she didn’t remember being that naïve when she was either of their ages. Luckily, the farce didn’t last much longer.

“Dipper, look,” Wendy whisper-hissed as she shoved one of the cans littering the tunnel into his face. It only took a second for he and Sunset to understand her sudden worried expression. Right there, adorning the can of Baron Num Nums High Flyin’ Beans, was the old man giving an enthusiastic thumbs up.

“That explains the smell,” Sunset noted to herself as the realization struck Mason. Though not why anyone would think an old man mascot would help sell beans, mortals were weird.

“Uh, you know what,” Mason said, trying to sound confident while his voice threatened to crack, “We should probably get going. Can I have my journal back?”

The old man’s head turned a full one hundred and eighty degrees, his pupils becoming slits as his mouth enlarged to reveal protruding teeth from massive gums. His body, still facing the other way, sprinted to and then up the nearest wall, clutching the journal in one hand while his other three limbs dug into the thick tunnel surface. All the while his neck extending to better focus on Mason and Wendy, his prey.

Prey that evidently needed to see just how far from a person this shapeshifting freak could look. The old man’s skin and clothes melted away, his whole form shifting into an amorphous blob. An amorphous blob whose color Sunset was familiar enough with, though not in a way that she’d ever imagined coming to life. And its red eyes and tipped legs didn’t help the combined imagery going through her own head. Thanks for that, Mason.

Thankfully, at least for Sunset, the shapeshifter started looking at the journal and transforming into what it saw there. She recognized some of what it turned into from the pages lining Mason’s mental tunnel; the mushroom covered gremlin looking beast, the…gnome, a spindly tree creature, and lastly some kind of three-eyed toad just as Wendy grabbed a can and threw it while shouting, “Hey body snatcher, snatch this!”

The can bounced off harmlessly, giving Wendy barely a second to grab a discarded piece of metal to shield herself from the tongue that was launched back in retaliation. The tongue collided with the metal hard enough to knock her on her back, but she didn’t let go of her makeshift shield. The massive tongue with its rounded end stuck to the metal sheet, trying to pull it out of Wendy’s grip. Which she was more than willing to let happen once the tension was high enough. It slipped from her fingers and went flying back into the toad’s face, knocking the journal from one of its nubby feet as it wretched in pain.

“You go, girl,” Sunset beamed.

Mason grabbed the falling book and, without missing a beat yelled, “Run, run, run!”

Which is exactly what they did. Scooting past the sheet back the way they’d come before hurrying into a darker, side tunnel along the way. They could feel the tunnel rumbling around them though, the changeling had shifted into something heavy as it gave chase. Following fast enough that it would no doubt catch up before long. So Mason did the only thing that came to mind. At the next fork they came to, he pulled a flashlight from his belt, lit and tossed it down one way while he and Wendy ducked into the other. The creature, now some kind of massive armadillo-bug, rolled up to the split and screeched when it caught sight of the flashlight tumbling in the distance before chasing after it.

Mason and Wendy were running down the other path without wasting a second, only to run into something else entirely a few seconds later. What followed was entirely too lighthearted given the monstrous beast that was after them, but given who the pair Sunset had been following collided with what else could she expect.

Mabel and Soos proved themselves not to be the changeling by showing just how somewhat stupidly they could prove themselves to be. Sunset wasn’t impressed, but Mason and Wendy seemed convinced enough. Which gave him just enough wherewithal to notice that at some point in the chase Wendy had badly scraped her knee. Mason almost started to freak out, but Wendy was quick to calm him before taking off her shirt. Sunset supposed, given their ages and the situation, that it was a good thing she had an undershirt on. Though, undershirt or no, Sunset thought she understood why this memory had stuck with him after all these years. There may not have been any one-piece swimsuits, but in addition to the danger-based bonding, he was getting to see more of her than usual. Something, like a swimsuit, that would stick with a boy his age.

As Wendy wrapped her knee in one of her torn off sleeves, a plan was formed. And with it the memory sped up. Or at least it seemed to, maybe things were just going fast on their own. Mason and his sister loudly lured the monster to them, it became a warped version of the both of them and gave chase, only for them to lead it back to the massive water piper Wendy and Soos were attempting to spring. One thing led to another when things didn’t go as planned from there. Another long tongue shot out to grab the journal, only for Wendy to dive in to protect Mason just as Soos finally got the pipe gushing. Gushing too much. The initial surge hit Wendy and the monster head on, sending them flying backwards before, with a creaking moan that turned into the screech of rending metal, the pipe burst completely. A wave of water spouted out of the massive pipe, submerging everyone and everything for a few seconds.

When the gushing water subsided, Mason found himself, Mabel, and Soos sprawled out across the soaked tunnel floor. But there was no sign of Wendy or the monster, just her dropped axe from when she’d jumped in to help him. Snapping up, he grabbed the axe without so much checking on the others before running deeper into the tunnel the way the water had flowed. In a few seconds that felt like hours of sludging through sopping, muddy tunnels he found himself back where this memory had started, only there was something in that main cavern that hadn’t been before.

A redhead laying limp in a puddle.

“Oh no, oh no,” Mason whimpered as he fell to his knees beside her. “This is all my fault. If I had told you when we were in the closet we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Sunset, who was leaned over watching beside them, couldn’t help but snicker a little at how his words came out. She knew to him this was a serious moment, but she also knew Wendy was still alive in the present, so it was hard to get to invested in the weight of the moment he was feeling. Would have been easier if the connection would come back in full force, but that was neither here nor there. Well, it was actually everywhere and everything around her, but also not, which was getting too metaphysical for where she wanted to be in the moment.

“I was too scared and now you could be hurt or worse and I never even got a chance to tell you. I’m like, in love with you, Wendy.”

As Mason covered his eyes to hold back the tears, Sunset wondered if Wendy had heard any of that. Was the twist going to be that she never heard any of it to this day? Or maybe–

“Uh, Dipper,” came from behind them, startling Mason up and around.

“Oh,” Sunset said as she looked between the two Wendys. The conscious one was just as soaked as the one in the puddle, but carried the journal as she uncomfortably stood opposite Mason. “I should have seen that coming.”

Puddle Wendy sprang up and launched herself at the other one before Mason had a chance to react. And once again, to Sunset’s lack of surprise, she saw how this memory had stayed so ingrained in his mind. Boys had a habit of remembering cat fights, make it a cat fight between two sopping wet versions of that boy’s crush and there was no way he wasn’t going to remember every little detail as they fought over that damn book.

Fists flew into faces, boots struck guts, one tumbled over the other until the pair had fought their way over to those tube devices in the center of the cavern and neither Mason nor Sunset could tell which Wendy was which. Despite not knowing who was who, Mason grabbed the axed and ran over to try and help.

“Hit her with the axe!” one yelled.

“She’s the shapeshifter!” the other screamed over her.

“I-I-“ Mason stuttered as sweat trickled down his brow. “I don’t know who’s who! Give me a sign!”

Left Wendy winked at him without giving up an inch of her grip on the journal. Right Wendy, on the other hand, risked letting go with one hand so she could pantomime zipping her lips and throwing away the key. Mason grunted as he raised the axe and swung it into the left Wendy, sending a spurts of mucus green blood pouring from her new stomach gash.

“Knew that was going to come back,” Sunset said, smiling to herself as the left Wendy’s scream turned into an inhuman wail. Right before she turned back into her true inhuman form, the green surge of blood still running from the axe wound as well as her leech-like mouth.

“Push him in!” Mason yelled once he spotted a green blinking light on one of the tubes, reading ‘ready’ in big shining letters.

Together they charged the wounded changeling, ramming into with their full weights. It toppled backwards, falling against the lining of the metal tube, which in turned let out a hiss of cold steam before dropping a glass divider and trapping it inside. More of that cold mist filled the tube as the changeling fought to escape, but none of the panicked forms it took in desperation could shatter the glass or escape the containment.

Soon the inside was full of mist, causing the changeling to almost completely disappear within it. But, as the glass frosted over, the changeling’s face slammed against the glass one last time. It spoke as frost built up across its body and its limbs froze completely. “You think you’re so clever, don’t you Dipper. But you have no idea what you’re stttthhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii–”

Sunset’s magic circle, held at the ready for some time, shone as she prepared to protect herself once the static overtook the changeling’s words. But before she could she blinked, and then it was gone. Not just the static, but the cave and its pipes and tubes and everything else. Instead, she found herself at the top of a hill in the middle of a forest, the sun setting in the distance as Mason and Wendy watched Mabel and Soos trot off while chanting about cereal.

“Look, Wendy,” Mason started. “About earlier, in the heat of the moment I might have said some dumb things and…can’t we just pretend none of that ever happened. Please.”

By the time he’d spilled the words out, Mason had turned away from Wendy, unable to even look her in the eye as his impromptu confession raced through his head. As such, he didn’t notice her kneeling beside him until she was right there, her hand on his shoulder. “Dude, dude. It’s okay. I always kind of knew.”

Mason groaned and backed away until he hit a fallen log, then let his butt fall onto it. “Oh man.”

“But listen, Dipper,” Wendy continued. “I’m, like, super flattered. But I’m too old for you.”

“There it is,” Sunset said with a sigh, doing some mental math while Wendy’s words echoed through his mind. The real reason this memory was so prominent. Sure, there were parts of it Mason had no doubt gone back to, imagined in some kind of positive light his imagination could take from there, but those five words had cemented something in Mason that he still believed.

I’m too old for you.

They held so much power over him that, even as he and Wendy agreed to get over their awkwardness and remain friends, they continued to echo through his brain. Never mind how much fun she admitted having with him over anyone else.

I’m too old for you.

Or the fact she said she’d throw herself in a pit if he wasn’t in her life. It didn’t matter that they were still going to have movie night, something that no one else was invited to, or anything else. Because, as he did his best to smile while she grabbed her bike and started home, those same five words kept playing on repeat.

I’m too old for you.

Sunset turned in place, expecting the memory to shift to darkness then the tunnel again, but she hadn’t arrived in this memory that way and it looked like she wasn’t going to leave it that way either. The environment turned and twisted with her. Still woodsy when she stopped, but with a cleared-out dirt parking lot instead of rolling hills. She was back in front of Stan’s roadside hole, standing next to Soos’s ugly brown truck as he, Mason, and Wendy piled in. Which was exactly where this stopped being normal in any way.

The truck door closed and Sunset saw the problem. There were two Masons. One, floating and transparent outside the truck, the other smiling maniacally in the seat next to Wendy, the top half of his head torn away with only a rough outline of static-filled space left from the eyes up.

“I’m going to stop you stttthhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii–”

Mason’s words turned to static just as the changeling’s had, but this time it didn’t stop and the scene didn’t shift. Like the other mindscape, the blare of static started and only got louder the longer it went on. Even as the floating Mason continued to yell at the static-headed one, the sound grew and grew, almost to the same point as that other memory. But this time she was prepared. Before it could become overwhelming, before the weight of absence could barrel down upon her, Sunset released the spell she’d been holding.

A circle of purple light spread from her raised palm in an explosive corona. The sound abated, though not completely, as Sunset was thrown forward in both space and time. Scenes of yet another tattered memory flew around her, whole parts of it torn away. And the sound of it never stopped completely, it chased her as her spell propelled her to the end of the memory, almost like the very absence itself didn’t want anyone to know it was there. A chase that wouldn’t end until she was thrown into darkness following an explosion of fireworks that had been set off inside.

Just as the spell had thrown her forward through a memory she wouldn’t be able to understand, it threw her out of it just as quickly. She came down face first back in the tunnel, the impact slightly lessoned by her one bit of overdeveloped succubus physiology. But at least she was finally out of that messed up part of…

Sunset’s thought trailed off as she pushed herself back up. She was back in the tunnel, just as intended, but she might not have been as home free as she initially thought. For one, there was still static here. Just a single strip of it, but a long strip that reached out from the memory behind her right to what else made this section of tunnel different from previous parts. Two large, monolithic and pitch-black doors stood farther down the tunnel. One along the wall at the end of the strip of static, the other opposite it.

Sunset approached slowly and carefully. In mental landscapes, doors usually were a person’s way of locking things away they didn’t want to think about. Or maybe, she thought as she retraced the path of the static strip to the right-side door, weren’t supposed to think about. This guy was going to be on her mind for a while, wasn’t he? She had already decided to help him if she could before diving in here, but there was so much to figure out on top of if he even had that chance with Wendy or not that suddenly helping him seemed more monumental than she had originally imagined. And she hadn’t even figured out if he had that chance yet, just why he didn’t think he did.

Now between the opposite doors, she contemplated opening one. Though, given how large and stout both were, that might take more forceful magic than she wanted to use for the friendly dive this had started as. Plus, there was no guarantee what was behind either door would help her in the Wendy situation. And it wasn’t like doors were in her way or her only option, the darkened section of tunnel leading into the next memory was just ahead. She could just take a couple more steps and leave these on her list of Mason mysteries for later. But still, she wanted to get a feel of what might be waiting whenever “later” happened. How big a mental or repressive block were these? Reaching forward, she lightly grazed the surface of one door with her fingertips.

Mason cried out in pain. Sunset could hear it here and through her physical ears. Whatever was behind these doors, even the idea of bringing them up physically hurt him and shook the tunnel with such ferocity that it threatened to break their connection outright.

“What was that?” he asked in the real world, his breathing labored and agonized.

“It’s alright,” Sunset reassured, shifting enough of herself back to her physical body so she could tenderly caress the sides of his face with her palms. “I got close to something I didn’t mean to. I won’t do it again, I promise.”

“It hurt,” he gasped.

“Some memories do that,” she whispered. “But I’m almost done. Just give me a little longer, okay?”

She heard him let out a harrowed breath, but the shaking slowed to a stop. “Ok.”

Sunset returned her attention to her mental projection and proceeded into the darkness past the doors. Later she thought to herself.

The memory she stepped into this time was not a pleasant one. Already seeming to be mostly done, whatever point in Mason’s life she was in now it oozed sorrow. It was nighttime, or maybe very early morning if the first traces of the rising sun could be trusted on one horizon. Which begged the question, what was that light on the other horizon? The one that was flickering around the edges like a flame.

“Dipper!” Wendy yelled as she raced towards the minivan Mason had just helped his blanket-wrapped sister into, the blue and red flashing lights eerily highlighting them all in turn. But as she ran towards them all he could do was clench his hands and teeth.

“Dipper,” she gasped again as she reached him, dropping to her knees to embrace him regardless of the muddy road her legs partially sunk into with a tiny squelch. “Are you alright? I was so worried when I heard it started near the shack.”

He buried his face in her shoulder. Even before he replied Sunset could hear him trying to hold back tears. There was no static here, so she felt what he did, guilt. Guilt that barely let him even choke out the words, “I’m sorry.”

She pulled away just enough to be able to look into his eyes, though never letting go of him completely. “Hey, you didn’t do this. It was a gas line or one of the freaky things we’ve seen…”

It was Mason shaking his head as the first tears, or at least the first she could see, rolled down his cheeks that made Wendy trail off. Mason knew what had caused it, even if Sunset couldn’t tell what it was yet, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. Wendy’s eyes raced back and forth, trying to figure out what to say or what she even could say. Which was when she caught sight of the minivan, the still silent Mabel strapped in one of the passenger seats along with familiar backpacks and luggage packed in the way back, as well as the pair of adults talking to police on the other side.

“Are you leaving?”

“When our parents heard…they drove overnight to come get us.”

“Makes…sense,” Wendy said, now struggling to get her own words out. She glanced back the way she’d come, back towards the flickering orange light opposite the sunrise. “But were you just going to leave me here with Stan as the only Pines man in my life? Without even telling me.”

Mason winced at the name, and the strained smile Wendy had been trying to hold for him completely fell away. As did her grip on his shoulders, her hands sliding down the lengths of his arms until, just as they were about to fall away completely, their hands found one another and latched on. Sunset couldn’t tell who grabbed the other’s first; him, her, or maybe even they both did it without realizing.

Wendy bit her lip and took a deep breath. “You still have my cell number, right?”

Mason nodded.

“And my email?”

He nodded again.

“Good, so you’ve got no excuse not to let me know when you get home safe. Or to talk to me about more dumb movies and all the stupid junk you’re going to discover about high school. You got that?”

“But Wend–”

“No, Dipper.” She didn’t yell, probably couldn’t as her voice waivered and her hands shook. “I already told you I’d throw myself into the bottomless pit if I didn’t have you in my life. So please, please Dipper, don’t make me lose anything else tonight.”

They stared into each other’s tear-filled eyes. Then Mason whispered, so softly that only Wendy could have ever heard it, “I promise.”

She stood and wiped away her tears. “That’s my favorite mystery twin for you. And just so you won’t have an excuse to forget on the way home…”

With an unexpected plop, Wendy’s hand grabbed the bill of Mason’s hat, snatching it away before dropping her own lumberjack hat on his head. She re-covered her own head with the blue and white cap she’d just “traded” for and took another deep breath. “So you’ll always have something to remember me by.”

Mason let the weight of her, now his, heavier hat settle, then replied, “I’ll always remember you.”

“Bye, Dipper.”

“Bye, Wendy.”

The minivan door shut and Sunset was back in the tunnel. There was no more static, she’d evidently left the disrupted part of Mason’s mind behind just as she’d watched him leave Gravity Falls behind. But there were still more memories ahead of her. Smaller ones, quicker ones. Memories that passed by like a montage of similar actions repeated over and over again; the promised calls, mail that was somehow electric, and even something called zoom that let them see one another on the screens they did everything through. Most of these conversations or back and forth messages were over the same topics again and again as a second form of repetition; what was going on in either of their lives, one helping the other with some kind of homework, Dipper trying to be subtle seeing if she’d started dating anyone, somehow watching movies together despite never turning her screen to face the one with what they were watching, and occasionally there was a relatively short-lived chat where Wendy asked if there had been any change with Mabel. Those ended by him changing the subject.

Sunset walked through these memories, noting how excited Mason always was before the call or zoom and how happy he was during them. And also how much she heard the same in Wendy’s voice. It was tiresome to sit through so many over time and time again, to the point that the only reason these repetitious memories didn’t completely blur together was because puberty was taking hold. Each new memory featured a slightly older Mason “Dipper” Pines, showing Sunset the gradual change from the boy that had gone on adventures in a weird little town to the man she and Twi had had their own kind of adventure with.

The only break in Mason and Wendy’s cycle came about two years after the last time they’d seen one another. Mason was in his room, going over one of his grimoires for the hundredth time, though the text wasn’t glowing so he might not have been attuned to them yet, when one of his screens started ringing and flashing, “incoming call from Lumberjack Queen.”

Mason glanced at the time, clearly this wasn’t a call he was expecting. Nonetheless, he did a quick check to make sure his room wasn’t too much of a mess and that his prized hat was still on the hook by the door, a spot just casually enough in frame to be seen. Only then did he accept the call. “Hey, what’s up Wend–”

“Dude!” she interrupted, if she had even heard him to begin with. Sunset had noticed sometimes the zooms would skip something one of them said, especially towards the beginning of a conversation. “What were you thinking?”

Mason, who by this point had sprouted enough to pass for 16 despite that birthday still being over a year away, started nervously looking back and forth as he tried to think about what he might have done to get this kind of reaction. But, even if he had done something, it wasn’t coming to mind. “I, uh, don’t, uhm–did I do something wrong?”

“Dude,” she repeated in frustration. While Mason was basically a different person from the last time they’d met in person, Wendy hadn’t changed nearly as much, aside from perhaps being a bit more built. Her forest green eyes were wide in a kind of bewildered annoyance, shaded beneath the bill of the pine tree trucker hat her ponytail was fed through the back of. But all of that got lost behind something she thrust forwards, filling up the box. It was a locket on a chain. A silver one by Sunset’s guess, or at least silver-plated. Decorating the front was a forest of tiny trees not completely unlike the one on her hat, though more detailed, while a frosted white diamond sparkled above them like a brilliant sun or moon, depending on how the light hit it. It was beautiful. “How could you send me something like this.”

“Oh, your birthday present got there,” Mason said, letting out a held breath in relief. Only for that relief to turn downtrodden. “You don’t like it?”

“If she sends it back can I call dibs?” Sunset asked, ignoring the fact they couldn’t hear her. It may not have exactly been her style, but that rock was no slouch and the setting was pretty in it’s own right. If anything she could find a way to pull of a classy-but-woodsy look for it to go with. Or at least a sexy-in-the-woods-with-a-big-diamond-locket kind of look.

“Dude,” Wendy said again. She kept saying that and it was becoming apparent that it was because she was having a hard time finding what else to say. She wasn’t angry but flustered. There were even shades of red creeping into her cheeks. “I-I love it…but how could you…you shouldn’t have gotten me something so expensive. The rock alone must have been–”

“Oh, I found that,” Mason said. That brief lapse into being downtrodden had been given a reprieve after hearing she loved the gift. “Remember that bunker we almost died in?”

“With the thing that shapeshifted to look like me?”

“Yeah, well the next day I found it on a cheap cord in my old vest pocket. Far as I can tell it must have gotten stuck to me somewhere down there and I just didn’t notice until later.”

Wendy pulled the locket back so she was visible in the box again. She looked at the piece of jewelry and the stone sparkling on its face, then turned back to the screen and said, “And you just held onto it after that?”

“…a lot happened after that…”

The slight flush on her face brightened, though this time it was a more shameful hue. “Right, sorry. But what about the locket? It’s so…well made. And I know you’re already thinking about college and could be saving money for that or at least getting something to relax that big brain of yours with.” She ran her thumb over the locket’s face. “So you shouldn’t waste your money on something like this for me. I would have been happy just having an extra movie night or something, and even then you already waste so much time with me that that’s probably asking too–”

“I made the locket,” Mason interrupted. Now he sounded downright annoyed, if not insulted. Though not on his own behalf.

Wendy looked at him with wide eyes. Then the locket, then him again. “You made this?”

“As part of an electroplating class I took.” Wendy only blinked so he continued from there. “I thought there might be a secret message in a pattern on one of the journals’ metal bindings, so I was wanted to understand if how that was put there might be needed to decipher it. The process is really interesting actually. It all starts with–”

“Dipper,” Wendy said, stopping him before he could spiral into every little detail. “I do want to hear your mystery and science stuff, but can we stick with the shorter version for now.”

“Right, um, well as part of that class I cleaned, oiled, and eventually detailed the trees and socket into the front cover. So if you’re worried about me spending money, it basically didn’t cost me anything.” He took a deep breath before adding one last bit. “And even if I had, I wouldn’t have if I didn’t think it was worth doing. If the person I wanted to give it to wasn’t worth giving it to.”

A moment of silence passed between them. In which Mason couldn’t look directly at the screen and Wendy’s face took on a shade closer to that of her hair, a blush most certainly not fueled by shame. And speaking of color, Sunset couldn’t help herself but lean over and say, “Color me impressed. Where’s this Mr. Pines been?”

“And I’ve felt really bad about only getting you a digital card and coupons to help with math last year. But if you don’t want it I guess I under–”

“Dude, if you ever see me without this grab an axe because I’m never taking it off again,” she said, already fixing it around her neck. “And I think I turned those coupons in like ten times over, so don’t knock how much I needed them.”

From there their conversation turned back to how their calls usually went, just with slightly more blushing left over from the misunderstanding and then fixing of it. This included the important knowledge that the pattern on the book had just been imperfections from age, thus making Wendy’s gift the only good thing to come out of it anyway. And so one and so on before the memory ended, then faded into the next.

The previous cycle returned for months that became years, punctuated with talk about Wendy’s upcoming graduation and the gap year she was going to take hiking and participating in woodsman games right after. There was still talk of college despite the break she was going to take from school, with each of them throwing out the names of places they were considering. Which was where Reverie University was mentioned for the first time.

“Small world, man,” Wendy said with a grin after he’d mentioned it. “Rev U has a bunch of forestry programs I’ve been looking at. Wouldn’t it be a trip if we actually wound up at the same school?”

Those calls he had so rigorously committed to memory became mere blips from there. They still happened, especially during the year he nervously waited between calls she made to check in along the trails she was hiking during that gap year. But eventually those all led to a memory that involved no screens or small boxes therein, but Mason’s first trip to Reverie University. And who was waiting there to greet him but Wendy Corduroy. It had been six years and she no longer towered over him as she had during that summer long ago, but she picked him up on a massive hug as if he was still that boy. While, Sunset happily noted, still wearing the locket.

Admission, orientation, picking classes; the conversations stayed surprisingly similar but in person more and more. The black doors came back between these memories, not long after the one where Mason introduced Wendy to his new friends; a group of girls interested in the spookier side of life. The right one still had its single strip of static leading out or into it from behind, but it was the left one she was now drawn to. Every time she passed it going from one instance to another it would thrum. Sometimes louder than others, but always noticeably enough. Whatever was behind those doors, it was clear to Sunset that one of them kept a secret from Gravity Falls and the other guarded something from Rev U.

Once again she had to tell herself not to get too invested in secrets that were besides the point of why she was here, something easily done when she entered the last memory on this trip; the last memory he had of Wendy before coming to Goliath and Hexside. What Sunset watched in that morning “study session” reinforced everything she already had in mind when it came to the pair. The banter, the time spent together, the obvious flirting that at least one of them but maybe both were still somehow oblivious to. It would have been cute if it didn’t start to annoy Sunset so incredibly much.

---

The darkness abated from Dipper’s vision as he slowly came out of the trance. It was sort of like waking up, more so than when he’d come back to himself in the bed earlier at least. He’d never completely passed out during or after being affected by Sunset’s pheromones, but her diving into his head had been like dreaming. One by one he had reexperienced times spent with Wendy from all the way back in his one summer in Gravity Falls right up to and through his time in college. Sometimes he thought he had heard another voice commenting smugly about what he was reliving, but he could never quite make it out.

Sunset was still on his lap when the world solidified around him, though she had leaned back and crossed her arms. She didn’t look as enthused as she had before. Clearly she hadn’t seen what she’d gone in hoping for. Because, just as Dipper constantly remembered and sometimes even reminded himself of when he got too hopeful, Wendy only saw him as a little–

Sunset’s arm shot up and flicked him on the forehead again. Hard.

“Ow!”

“Bre…quiet,” Twilight groaned from the bed. She had curled up into even more of a ball since Dipper had gone under, though even having pulled in so much of the bed sheet her bare back was still completely exposed.

“Yeah, be quiet,” Sunset agreed. “Little brother my tight ass, you two are already dating.”

Dipper pulled back as much as the chair she’d pinned him in would allow, his brow rising in confusion. It was like she had hit him again, except for real this time. How could she go through his memories, specifically his memories of Wendy, and that be her take away? It was ludicrous beyond imagination. “We are not dating.”

Sunset just looked at him, glared may have been a better word, like he was the most utterly stupid thing she had ever seen. “Why are the smart ones always so dumb?”

“What?”

“Brothers and sisters don’t spend hours calling or zooming or whatever every week for years, Mason,” Sunset said. It was far from all she had to say though. “Brothers and sisters don’t plan their class schedules to overlap as much as possible, Mason. Brothers and sisters don’t have movie nights every week, sometimes multiple times a week, that they don’t let anyone else come to, Mason. And sisters certainly don’t sit on their brother’s lap the way she did the last time you were together.”

“She was just reading my dumb writing assignment.”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed. His knee-jerk reply hadn’t lessened her annoyance in the least. Instead, without breaking eye-contact with him, she started to swivel her hips. It only took a few seconds of her shifting on his lap, of noticing her chest jiggling and bobbing from the movement, for blood to start flowing.

“Do you know what I’m feeling right now?” she asked.

“…yes.”

“Do you know what Wendy felt for that entire half hour she was on your lap? What especially pressed against her each time she leaned forward to make sure she was reading something right, pressing her well-toned back end harder into you?”

Dipper’s blood continued to pump, but more of it was flowing to his face now. “Sh-she would have gotten off if she’d felt it.”

Sunset exhaled. “Those jeans you’re so apt to notice her curves in aren’t so thick that she wouldn’t feel your big dipper. And whether she realizes it, getting off is probably exactly what she wanted to do.”

A drop of cold sweat ran over Dipper’s temple. That couldn’t be right. Wendy couldn’t see him that way. She had told him herself that day after they came out of the bunker. It wasn’t like anything else had changed between them, so why would that? And if it did then when? Or how? Or why would she not tell him? No, that couldn’t be. Because if it was, then that would mean how many opportunities had he wasted just sitting beside her when he could have…could have…

“She’s too old for me,” Dipper muttered. His eyes and head dropped, unwilling to look at Sunset’s displeasure with him anymore. Or anything else for that matter.

“Mason,” she said a moment later, gently taking his chin between her thumb and forefinger. She lifted his face back up, casting his eyes from her stomach which had seemed a safe place to let his eyes linger, over her breasts, and then back to her face. Her expression had softened. Perhaps not completely, she likely still thought him at least dense, but the displeasure and annoyance had shifted to something more understanding. “Eighteen and twenty aren’t the same as twelve and fifteen. You’ve held on to what she said for almost six years, not realizing both of you were changing the whole time. That what two kids thought they knew about the world might change when they stopped being kids. And, if the last couple of hours tell me anything, it’s that you’re definitely not a kid.”

Dipper stared into her eyes as she spoke, her rectangular pupils seeming to curve upwards ever so slightly as she comforted him. Her point made sense. It really did. If this were a story, and their ages were reversed, it might even be expected for the older guy to get the younger girl. And she, or he in this case, wasn’t even that much younger. It just might be that…that Wendy could like…

And then an intrusive thought came to mind. One that seemed even more likely.

“But Wendy could be with anyone she wanted. Why would she settle for me?”

Sunset’s eye twitched. Her annoyance returned. Her hand, which had still been holding his chin, slid to his cheek then around to the back of his head. Her lips parted just enough to mutter the word, “idiot,” before digging her fingers into the back of his head and pulling his face down into her chest.

Those soft, warm, enormous mounds enveloped his face in an instant. All he could see or feel was her warm flesh pushing in from either side. All he could taste, his mouth agape in surprise, was a hint of salty sweetness as one breast or another brushed against his tongue. And all he could smell as those mounds threatened to suffocate him, were the same alluring traces of cinnamon and honey that had lured him there to begin with.

“Listen you ignoramus,” Sunset scowled as she kept his struggling head in place. “Do you know what literal legions of demons in this circle alone would do to be where you are right now? To do an iota of what you’ve done today? With me, or,” she shifted his face so one of his eyes, and graciously his nose, rose above her cleavage so that he could see Twilight still asleep on the bed, “with that cute-ass nerd over there?”

He tried to reply with, “a lot,” but it came out, “ah yaht,” as most of his mouth was still pressed against her right boob. Which in turn gave him another taste of salty sweetness. Whatever was going on, as confusing and perhaps harrowing as it was, it was still getting his blood pumping again since it was being done to him by a sexy redhead sitting naked in his lap.

Sunset’s eyes turned upward and she bit her lip ever so briefly before turning his face back between her breasts. “You’re Satan-damned-right, a lot. But it happened to you because you’re nice and approachable, not to mention smart and caring. If I can see that after a couple of hours, then the girl who you endeared yourself to so much she’s worn your old hat for the last six years and your birthday gift for three has to be at least mildly aware of it. Don’t you think.”

That last bit wasn’t an actual question, but he nodded in agreement the best he could between her three-way grip on his head. Which, in turn, seemed to placate her enough to free his face from the suffocating bliss of her chest. Though, as he took massive, labored breaths of sweet refreshing air, she didn’t remove her hand from the back of his head. Instead, she just watched him for the moment. Watched as he breathed deeply. Watched as his eyes stayed glued to hers, afraid to go anywhere else. Watched and thought until something occurred to her.

“You don’t have much confidence in yourself, do you Mason?”

He blinked. Partially because he hadn’t let himself for the past several seconds in order to keep eye-contact, but mostly because he hadn’t expected that to be the next thing out of her mouth. He wasn’t even sure the last time someone had asked him about that, if ever. But, like so much else she’d asked, the answer seemed obvious.

“What do I have to be confident about? My smarts, what I’m sure I know about the world? What I know wrecked the lives of everyone I cared about. My magic? What good is it if it trapped my cl…coven in hell. As far as I’ve ever been able to tell the dipshit you’re on top of isn’t worthy of you or Wendy. Even the bad things that happen to me are probably better than what I deserve, as much as I hate A–”

Dipper bit his tongue and clamped his jaws together. He hadn’t realized he was trembling, couldn’t even guess when it had started. But he’d said too much. Enough that he could only hope Sunset was good to her word and wasn’t looking at his thoughts right then and there.

If she was she didn’t react. Instead, she reached up with her free hand and rubbed her eyes. She no longer looked mad or annoyed, but tired. Not tired in the way she had before getting him and Twilight to drag her back here, but mentally exhausted. Which made sense. On top of dealing with his mealy-mouthed nonsense, she’d also been going through his memories. That sounded exhausting for anyone, even him.

Yet, as her anger melted into that tired look, it wasn’t to her side that her hand fell to when she had finished rubbing her eyes. Instead, she reached up and slid that same hand under his bangs and up over his forehead. She held his hair back like that for a moment, looking at the spot she had struck with her battery of aggravated flicks and the birthmark surrounding it. Then she leaned forward and kissed the spot.

Biting her lip again, she slid off his lap and stood up. She wobbled a bit, but steadied herself on the edge of the bed before Dipper could try and help. Only then, after staring at Twilight’s slender back for a moment, did she say, “I’m sorry for almost suffocating you with my boobs. I was angry and it seemed like a good way to get my point across.”

“No problem?” he said slowly, unsure if that was the right way to respond regardless of why it had happened.

When she looked back at him her eyes were narrowed again. But not in anger or displeasure this time. No, Dipper could see gears turning a mile a minute behind those eyes. She was thinking, and planning, and coming up with something. But was it something he would like, regret, or both?

“I’m going to help you with your confidence,” she said. She was looking him over, especially the lap she’d spent the last while on top of, as if seeing it for the first time. Enough so that when you get home you can at least try and get yourself the redheaded tomboy gf you deserve. In return, if you’re willing, you’ll keep me and Twi eating good. If not, I’ll find something else for you to do so you won’t feel like a charity case. How does that sound?”

“Good, I guess…but why?”

Sunset looked at him as if unsure herself. Then her gaze turned to Twilight, which brought a small smile to her lips and eyes. A smile that didn’t go away when she looked back at him. “I guess I just have a thing for nerds.”

---

Dipper emerged from the girls’ dorm without running into anyone else. Luckily enough since, even if it wasn’t against the rules per say for him to be there, he didn’t want his first meeting with prospective classmates to be him sneaking out of Sunset’s room. Or, God forbid, to run into one of the other club members and have to explain what he’d been doing in her dorm room for so long that hell’s version of the sun had gone down.

He made his way across the small, makeshift street that separated the girls and boys dorm, walking calmly as he could through the inky darkness. That was, at least, until he heard the clapping.

It echoed through the darkness, seeming to come from all around him yet nowhere at all. The long, almost sarcastic sounding reverberations of a single person clapping. Or, more likely given where he was, a demon clapping.

“Hello,” Dipper called into the darkness. In the palm of one clenched hand a blue circle sparked into existence, just in case. “Is someone there?”

“Impressive first day, kid,” came a high-pitched voice to join the clapping. And, just like it, seemed to come from both all around Dipper and nowhere at all, echoing despite nothing to echo off of. “From that one guy you bodied to layin’ a hottie, you’re certainly not wasting any time. Can’t wait to see what other forms of depravity you Dip into.”

And then the voice, as well as the clapping that had never stopped beneath it, disappeared into the night. Almost as if it had never been there at all.

Chapter Text

“Scratch, if you keep eating that much you’re going to explode,” Molly said dully. While her constant ghost companion was happy to shovel fistfuls of Hexside’s breakfast buffet into his gullet heaps at a time, Molly couldn’t bring herself to do more than poke at the miscolored meat and eggs Danny and later Miko had suggested. Unlike her first time eating in the school’s cafeteria, where she’d nervously nibbled on whatever had been put in front of her, Molly had calmed enough now to really look at what was in front of her.

It didn’t look great.

Different cultures and places she thought to herself, looking for the brighter side as always. The happier side. It had always been so easier to find that happier side of things, and to enhappify things herself when she couldn’t find it already there. But ever since Friday, ever since she and Scratch had landed in hell, she was finding it harder and harder to find that happy side of things. To even imagine how it could be brighter when even the sky was that drastic shade of red.

She had hoped when she found the others things would go back to normal. Or at least as much as things could until they found their way all the way home. But, even given how happy she’d been when Dipper and the others walked into Dean Bump’s office, things weren’t back to normal. The people around her weren’t normal. Their smiles weren’t normal, those that bothered to smile, those that didn’t snarl or look at her like the kind of snack she didn’t want to be. But no matter what they did with their mouths there were always such sharp teeth just inside. So sharp. So many… Not even the talk she’d overheard while getting her food could raise her spirits, and that had literally been about a “Happy Hotel” set up in the Sinner territory to make them better. If it was even real.

“Mol, If I could explode I think I would have done it already,” Scratch said through smacking lips. Normally his cheeks, stuffed like a chipmunk’s as they were, would have at least amused her. But now all she saw was a glutton, and she hated to think that way. It felt so wrong. But it came so easy.

“You alright?” Connie, Molly’s supposed roommate, asked from the other side of the table. Supposed because Molly had barely seen her since Connie had dropped her stuff off Saturday evening. Besides the little bit they’d been together on Sunday getting their uniforms and books from the school store, Molly hadn’t seen Connie again until they met up on the way to breakfast. “You’ve seemed pretty down.”

When did you have time to notice that Molly caught herself thinking. She shook her head in an attempt to dislodge it as quickly as she could. Something else that felt wrong, the kind of thing she’d spent her entire life trying to help others not internalize, but another thing that came so easily.

“Just…thinking about Dipper and Twilight.”

“Oh yeah,” Connie noted before taking another bite from Steven’s offered fork. The pair had been feeding one another ever since sitting down, though Connie at least looked like she was taking extra care not to let any spill on her uniform. Her dark orange sleeves and leggings didn’t stand out as much from the light and dark grey shirt and skirt and Molly’s purple sleeves and leggings did, but it was still clear what track she was in and Molly guessed that was the whole point. “We really didn’t see them after that club thing on Saturday.”

“I took Dipper to his fitting yesterday morning,” Steven added after swallowing a bite Connie had fed him. Like most of the guys Molly had seen in uniform, though not all, Steven opted for the grey pants option over leggings like most of the girls wore. Which meant, as Connie had bragged about at the dinner they’d all had together after leaving that basement, the colors of Steven’s multiple magic tracks were lined up along each of his sleeves. Pale red near the shoulder, then purple like Molly’s, followed by blue and green, then finally brown at the end. “It was before the girls’ fitting, and then he picked up his books, which were a lot since he’s in every general class. He probably just spent the rest of the day getting acquainted with them.”

“But that doesn’t explain Twili–”

“Yeah, where is Twilight?” Anne abruptly asked as she, accompanied by Miko who’d been getting her own food after pointing out good options to everyone else, slid into a seat on the other side of Steven from Connie while Miko herself sat next to Molly. The bags under Anne’s eyes had receded to a more normal size, or at least a size normal for her, and she was actual fully conscious. Which was a nice change from the last two days. “And did all of your uniforms just appear in your rooms this morning like mine did? The fit’s perfect and everything.”

Molly glanced that the brown sleeve Anne held up along with a forkful of breakfast…food, but before she could add anything herself Connie leaned forward to look around Steven and said, “Molly, Peri, Lapis, and I carried you to get fitted since you wouldn’t wake up from your 30-hour nap. Then we left the uniforms in your room. So make sure to thank them the next time you see them.”

Anne chewed on this information for a moment, along with whatever had been on the end of her fork. “Who are Peri and Lapis again?”

“Steven and my girlfriends.”

Anne chewed on that as well, during which time she looked over Steven as well as how he and Connie had the arms they weren’t using to feed one another locked together. “I missed a lot, didn’t I?”

“You seemed really, really tired,” Steven said in an attempt to be tactful. “You said something about a mental prison and mushrooms. That could have been exhausting, I guess.”

“Oh yeah…” Anne said, as if some long ago memory had just been unlocked instead of something from two or three days ago. “Never picking those again. But, uh, that doesn’t explain Twilight or Dipper.”

“I don’t know about your token smurf,” Scratch said between more mouthfuls. “But if I had that redhead for a roommate I know what I’d be doing.”

“Scratch!” Molly exclaimed, though it came out more like a groan than a shout.

“What? You’re the one always telling me I don’t have to skirt mature topics with your anymore.”

“In private, not around other people. And,” she raised a finger and a magic circle spun into being around it. Still gold, but stable. Dipper wasn’t the only one who’d looked at his new textbooks. “Not about what you’d do to redheads either.”

Molly twirled her finger counterclockwise. Deep within Scratch’s swirling mass of ectoplasm a second ring appeared in response. Or really, Molly’s original magic circle began to shine. Based on what little Danny had told her, and what she had gleaned from her new Oracle textbook, what kept Scratch from changing into that dark and pointy mess wasn’t a one-time spell but a continuous cast. Which, with a little effort, she could manipulate. And manipulate she did.

Scratch’s mouth, wide open and ready for another handful of food, slammed shut. There was a quick second where he frantically tried to pull open his newly sealed lips, but it was as short lived as his enlarged size from all that food would turn out to be. All of Scratch’s heft floated off the table, sloshing around before settling beneath him as his eyes darted back and forth and his little arms flailed up and down. Sometimes his gaze fell on Molly, sometimes his hands reached back for his mouth, but it didn’t matter in either case. The circle in his very center glowed brighter, a brightness that caught and reflected inside him until he started to glow himself. Until he was more yellow than blue. Until his outline and features were lost in a luminous haze.

Pop.

The light dispersed and Scratch’s mountain of mass went with it in the flash. What was left floating amidst where the gluttonous ghost had just been was a mini-version of her translucent companion, the size he shifted to back home to go into his dollhouse but not one he’d had much use for since they’d gone to college.

Scratch said nothing as the final bit of what Molly could do pulled the miniaturized ghost to her side, just grumbled and crossed his arms as she grabbed him out of the air. He continued to complain that way as Molly plopped him on her shoulder, where if he knew what was what he would halfway behave himself there for a little while.

“Sorry about him,” Molly said, looking up at the trio across from her. “I’ve been the only one who could hear him for a while, so I guess he’s forgotten his manners.”

Scratch mumbled something sounded suspiciously like “I’ll show you manners,” but Molly decided to let it slide since only she had heard it. And, because once again, she was even thinking about him that way to begin with.

“I thought it was impressive,” came a voice from behind Molly, who turned in her seat to see despite being pretty sure who it was. And she was right, though Sunset wasn’t the only one who Molly turned to see.

“Dipper,” Molly said in surprise. She sat up a little straighter once she noticed he was more closely behind her while the redhead, as Scratch had so uncouthly called her, and Twilight were a little more off to the side.

Dipper looked up from the book he was engrossed in, just long enough to see the trio on the other side of the table and then Molly herself. He nodded and gave her a “morning,” before returning his attention to the pages in front of him.

“Twi and I ran into him on our way here,” Sunset said, grinning.

“Hey everyone,” Twilight added with a little wave. Was that a blush in her cheeks?

“Thought I’d show him the way,” Sunset continued after the others had returned the greeting but before drawing attention to how she’d looped her arm in his much as Connie and Steven had. “With how far into that book he had his nose I was afraid he’d never find his way on his own. Lucky thing I’ve got two hands.”

Molly didn’t care for the way Sunset said that, as if she were in charge of him. Even if Molly knew she could have a point, having once watched Dipper walk into a tree while reading before. And it wasn’t just him either. Sunset’s left hand was locked together with Twilight’s. Had Sunset claimed them both? Had she charmed them both? Brainwashed them both? Sunset’s sleeves, short as they were, were purple like Molly’s. Which meant she could do Oracle magic too. And the other thing oracle magic could do was mess with peoples’ minds, right?

No no no Molly chided herself for assuming Sunset had to have done something wrong. Sunset wasn’t even one of the scary looking natives, so why would she assume…sweet baby corn. Molly’s stomach twisted in place as she realized the thought going through her head. Was she becoming racists? Or was it specist? Ugh…she was going to need so much therapy when she got home.

“Dipper, if you want to sit Twi and I can get food,” Sunset said. She tugged his arm with hers a bit, just enough to get his attention back out of the book.

“Huh? Oh, sure. Thanks.”

Dipper took a seat on the other side of Miko from Molly. He might have sat on Molly’s other side if the remains of Scratch’s behemoth breakfast weren’t still there cluttering up that side of the table, though Molly guessed she had to blame herself in part of that. Not only had she let him get so much to begin with, but she’d shrunk Scratch and put him in timeout without even thinking about cleaning up his mess. Another thing to add to the list.

“So you got a long pretty well with the Wolf’s Lair crew,” Miko, who’d been mostly just watching everything going on around her, said after swallowing a large bite. “So did I do good?”

“You did well,” Dipper replied without looking up. “I’ll be doing a one-shot with them later in the week.”

“Nice. Bonus points to me,” she beamed. “Victory sausage?”

Dipper’s eyes partially shifted to the piece of meat offered up to him. Maybe he recognized it was held up on the end of Miko’s fork and maybe he didn’t. Either way, his attention returned to the book while simultaneously opening his mouth, leaning in, and then chomping down on the sausage. Molly felt a twinge as she watched him chew what had once been a piece of Miko’s food, though a twinge of what? She…wasn’t really sure.

Dipper’s chewing slowed. His attention rose from the book, which in turn lowered to the table. And a confused look crossed his face. One that didn’t leave, but shifted to reluctance as he forced himself to swallow whatever he’d just torn off Miko’s fork. “Why does it taste like that?”

Miko gave him a half-hearted smile. “I said I could show you what was safe to eat, not what’s great tasting.”

“Did you expect the food to be heavenly?” Connie said, almost taking Molly aback with her newfound snark.

“Might want to close that jaw, Mol,” Scratch said as he pat her cheek from his enforced perch on her shoulder. Molly didn’t know when her jaw had dropped, either when Dipper had bitten off a bite of Miko’s food or Connie’s reaction to his displeasure with the taste, but she was glad that Scratch wasn’t so cross with her not to still look out for her.

“Luz used to talk about getting used to the food down here,” Steven noted with some sympathy. “She got used to it, and the other modern witches never seem to have much problem getting used to it. So I’m sure you’ll all do fine.”

The conversation shifted to what they had to expect for the day, with every track having a meet and greet with the head Meister of their department. Connie and Anne seemed excited enough, though Connie noted she wished she and Steven could have at least one class together before Anne brought up that Sprig would be meeting her to show her around a little more after they’d both had their classes. Dipper lacked any such excitement, which made sense considering he had to go to all eight main track introductions and the special nineth. For him it was going to be a long day.

“At least you’ll have company,” Sunset chimed in as she and Twilight rejoined the table with three buffet trays in tow. Sunset was right, of course. Steven was going to be in most of their tracks, five or six she thought she remembered Connie bragging about, along with someone named Luz who was likewise in all the tracks like Dipper, Miko in his Illusions and Special classes, and of course Sunset herself. Molly was glad they’d have someone there, more than one at least for her Oracle class, to help them get through things until they figured out something about the corridor, but no matter how much Molly tried to put on some happy thoughts she just couldn’t get herself to see Sunset as the best person for that. But there was no good reason why!

Was it because, despite being in her own gloomy state when they’d met, Sunset had somehow gotten over it and was now being just as chipper as Molly wanted to be about everything? That shouldn’t bother her, she should be happy about others being happy. At least she would have been if they were back home.

Was it because of what she’d overheard what Sunset did when not at school? No, that was practically what Andrea did and she’d always been okay with it. Even Liab was fine with it, which mattered more since the two were dating. And if Sunset made Twilight half as happy as Andrea made Liab than Molly couldn’t be upset over whatever kind of videos the former happened to make for a little extra spending money.

Was it because, despite there finally being girl in their circle shorter than Molly, she still felt like the small one? That had never bothered her before. And neither Andrea or Liab had ever made her feel uncomfortable about her size, even when Andrea bloomed or what Liab had before the surgery. In fact, if they said anything it was what they liked about how she was in that department. So, once again, it shouldn’t have been that. Though the way Sunset flaunted her assets was beyond what anyone else she knew ever would, having modified the collar of her shirt into a deep V-cut that was further accented by a minicape held open much wider than anyone else at the table or that she’d even seen around campus so far. Wide enough that, between the two garments, several inches of her cleavage were framed between a diamond of fabric for all to see.

“Mol,” Scratch whispered, the back of his shrunken hand tapping her cheek.

“Huh?” Molly blinked back to the real world from the questions rattling around in her head. At some point since she had zoned out trying to figure out why she felt the way she did Dipper, Sunset, and Steven had stood up. Dipper was putting the book he’d been reading away in his bag. He was the only one of them to have brought his backpack along, but Molly caught a glimpse of his red bound books already inside. He took those everywhere with him before they turned out to be grimoires, he wasn’t going to stop now that they had evidently gifted him more magic than any of the others had managed to muster.

“Ready to go?” Dipper asked while slinging his bag over his shoulder. “Oracle’s up first.”

“Right,” Molly said, trying to smile like she normally would. To return the one Sunset was giving her despite not wanting to. To be herself at least a little again. “Let’s go learn some magic.”

---

The inside of Zrohit Hall was brighter than Molly would have guessed given its black accented façade. Instead of simple greys or blacks or other dark colors the inside was colored mostly in the shades of the tracks which used the building. Those being Oracle, Abomination, and Potions. Which meant  the hallways and rooms they passed or passed through were colored in different shades of purple and violet with yellow accents thrown in for good measure. It wasn’t exactly the happiest place on earth by any stretch, but she liked the inside a whole lot more than the outside.

“Here’s the Oracle general studies lecture hall,” Sunset explained as she led them into what looked like it had to be the largest room in the building, but Molly guessed there was at least one or two others stuffed in along with it if three tracks all had classes at once. The lecture hall was similarly colored to the hallways, though with more focus on the purple than violet or yellow that adorned the hallways and in somewhat more muted shades. And, while sparse like most lecture halls Molly had seen during her brief time in college on earth, there was a repeating pattern embossed into the walls of the room. Straight lines on top and bottom with eight swooping, curving lines between them. Like some of the bigger classes back at Rev U, the lecture hall here was filled with auditorium seating in ascending rows, though instead of the little desktops that swung out from between the seats there were full tables running between each row that had the same pattern as the wall running along their sides.

“We all start in here for a while until we get put into more specific classes for study,” Sunset went on. While Steven was still there with them of course, he had let their shorter guide do pretty much all the talking on the way from the cafeteria to Zrohit hall, only occasionally adding in a note here or there. Molly wondered if without Connie he didn’t care too much or if he was just too considerate to interrupt Sunset’s info drop. “Molly, I bet you’re moved to mostly spirit classes before long.”

“That’s pretty much why I’m here,” Molly said, thinking back to the wish she’d made during their ritual. That seemed like so long ago now, even if it had barely been three days since.

There were already a number of other students strewn about the room, some seated in little groups while others sat off by themselves. So not much different than mortal college. The main difference being the teeth, and the horns, and the other non-human bits all of these students had that the people back home didn’t. Steven and Sunset were halfway normal, beyond the horns and off-coloration, but there was a girl with hooves for feet and a lit candle protruding from her purple hair heading up one of the aisles. There was another girl, or rather a horse with fins that was girl-like, who was sitting halfway up the auditorium seating, her eyes narrow as she watched the comings and goings of the students around her. On the far side of the hall were several boys, all with different animal parts, huddled in a circle as flashes of differently colored lights occasionally sparked between them. There was even a bird-person sitting all the way in the back corner, as far away from everyone else as she could be.

“Hey, it’s my new favorite coven,” called from the far end of the first row.  There, leaning forward and over the front table, was a girl with a somewhat messy head of brown hair. Her arms, halfway crossed on the table in front of her, were each clad in differently colored sleeves. The right in black and left in that odd yellowish-green Molly had seen here and there. She also had some kind of bracelets on each wrist. Large and clunky, they almost looked like shackles. “At least based off the two I’ve met so far.”

“Hey, Luz,” Dipper said, heading towards the girl as Molly and the rest followed. “Did you find who you were looking for the other day?”

The girl’s casual smile turned into a knowing, mischievous grin. On someone else it might have seemed halfway malicious, but on her it seemed almost innocent. Almost. “I never have too much trouble tracking Amity down, mí batata is a creature of habit…Don’t tell her I said that when we see her later though.”

“My lips are zipped,” Dipper said with a good-natured smile of his own, one that Molly rarely saw. “This is Molly by the way.”

“Nice to meet you,” Luz said, followed by a quick ‘hey’ to Steven and Sunset before giving her attention fully back to Molly. “You’re the one with the ghost, right?”

“Yes,” Molly said, feeling at ease talking to her. Maybe it was because Luz didn’t have sharp teeth or wings or horns or any of that stuff that set everyone else apart from their club. Maybe it was because Molly realized Luz was the voice she had heard along with Steven’s on the other side of the door Dipper and the others had come through. Either way, it felt nice talking to someone who at least seemed normal. “This is…”

Molly trailed off as she looked down at her shoulder and found not her constant ghost companion but whole lot of nothing. She looked at her other shoulder, but it was likewise empty. “Scratch? Where’d you go?”

Molly pat her shoulders and even spun around in place looking for Scratch, coming to a stop once she’d gone full-circle and grabbed her pigtails looking for her ghost. He couldn’t have left her. He couldn’t have been that put off by what she’d done, not after all these years together. They might not have been cursed together like when they first met, but he wouldn’t have just wondered off. Would he? It wasn’t like he could leave anymore than she could. He’d tried making portals to the ghost world since Friday night and hadn’t been able to get once of those spectral tears to so much as glimmer for a moment before fading away. Did that mean he was lost? Or had someone ghost-napped him? What if he started to change again? What if–

“Who’s shaking the joint?” Scratch half-said, half yawned as he emerged from Molly’s left pigtail. He came out sideways as she was still holding it out to the side, holding it in her trembling hands. She didn’t realize how afraid she’d be until she saw how much her hands were shaking. “Can’t a guy nap in peace.”

“Don’t do that to me,” Molly said, grabbing him with her other hand then hugging him to her cheek. “I thought you’d disappeared.”

“Isn’t that what ghosts do?” Luz asked, still with that same mischievous yet somehow innocent grin.

“I tell her that, but does she listen,” Scratch mumbled out from within Molly’s clenched hand, his lips sticking out between her fore- and ring fingers. “No, of course not.”

Dipper stepped closer, subtly enough that the others didn’t notice while exchanging the everyday pleasantries that demons, part or otherwise, didn’t seem like they’d be partaking in. “Are you alright? You seem on edge.”

Molly’s eyes flitted across the room. At the forms and faces and things that people she was used to being around didn’t have. Shouldn’t have. Even in their own growing friend group there were horns and tails and teeth that she just couldn’t help but notice with every glance. She kept telling herself that she didn’t really feel this way about people she didn’t know. That she shouldn’t feel this way. That Molly McGee sought to enhappify the world and that meant being friends with everyone. She’d never had trouble being that way with people or ghosts, but with these people, these demons, she just couldn’t bring herself to feel that way. Which she hated so so so so much. But of course she couldn’t say any of that. It wasn’t right. And if she said it aloud then, even more so than it was as a looping thought in her head, it would be real.

And she’d have to admit that, regardless of the reason, Molly couldn’t live up to her own standards. So instead she put on the best smile she could, one that she didn’t think was very believable but it was what she could muster, and said, “Just nervous.” That was close enough to the truth, close enough that the guilt might not eat away at her stomach too much as the day went on.

“Why don’t we go ahead and take a seat,” Steven suggested as a fresh batch of students started to pour in from the hall. “It’ll fill up before you know it.”

They filed in the same row as Luz, Steven taking the far seat to her left, followed by Sunset to her right, then Dipper, and finally Molly. The seats were spaced far enough apart so that each person had a fair amount of table space, or would once they started actual class activities. For now it was just a somewhat comfortable seating arrangement. Might have been a little more comfortable if Molly hadn’t been at the end of their little group, meaning some…person she didn’t know might end up sitting beside her. She’d grin and bear it if she had to, but just like at Rev U it seemed like most of the students starting to fill in were heading towards seats farther back in the lecture hall.

“Looks familiar, doesn’t it?” Dipper asked from the seat to Molly’s left.

Molly returned her attention to him from the filling lecture hall students and agreed with a, “Just like classes back home.”

“You’d think they’d be interested enough in magic of all things to sit closer,” added a voice from her right.

Molly started to agree with him in spite of herself, but froze when she realized it hadn’t been Dipper who’d said it. Slowly she turned around, her nails biting into her palm as she prepared herself for who, or what, might be waiting there. He sounded friendly enough, as she had to keep reminding herself many of the natives could be, but anyone could sound any way and turn out to be another.

“Danny!” Molly exclaimed, letting out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “When’d you get here?”

“Just a second ago,” he replied. He was leaning back in the seat, hands behind his head and feet hoisted on the table. Surely she would have heard him get that close if he had walked down what seating remained between her and the aisle, or at least him sitting and plopping his feet on the table. But no, it was like he had just appeared there. “Glad I caught you before the hall filled up, would have sucked if I couldn’t be close by for your first taste of Hexside classes.”

“Don’t you have a girlfriend,” Sunset said, the accusation clear in her voice as she leaned forward to look around Dipper. Molly hadn’t even noticed that Danny might have meant it like that, though she couldn’t help but notice in that moment how the considerable chest weight Sunset was leaning forward on was pressed and bulging on the table as she leaned forward.

“I didn’t mean like that,” Danny spat back. “And whatever I have don’t let Gaz hear you say that if you know what’s good for you. She’ll roast you then me alive. I wanted to be nearby because Bump asked me to help her out with any oracle tutoring she might need.”

Then, with much less vitriol than he had been slinging towards Sunset, he added, “If that’s okay with you, Molly.”

“That’d be fine,” she said slowly. “You were able to help me keep Scratch from turning into…whatever he was when we got here.”

“Good lookin’ out on that one,” Scratch chimed in from where he sat in his still shrunken form on top of Molly’s head. “You can’t improve on perfection and I was startin’ to look like I did when I was saddled with my old job.”

As Danny noted how Scratch looked different than the ghosts he was used to an image of Scratch in the old cloak he’d worn as the ghost chairman rushed into Molly’s head. It wasn’t quite what he’d been turning into on that rooftop, given he’d never had claws or teeth that pointy as chairman, but now that he’d mentioned it the similarity seemed impossible to miss. The main difference though, was that she’d never been scared of or for Scratch when he’d been chairman of the ghost world. Well, except for all those times he let the chairman powers run rampant or accidently fall into the wrong hands, but those always had a way of working out. It had never been anything like what Hell had been trying to turn him into when they first arrived.

“You know, Molly,” Sunset said, still leaning forward on her considerable bosom as she looked around Dipper, who had taken out the book from earlier as he watched the back and forth. Though if he was watching the back and forth as someone who didn’t know how to join in or someone too annoyed to join in Molly couldn’t tell. “I’ll already be helping Twi and…”

She paused to give Dipper a look, one that was part knowing and part…seductive maybe, before continuing. “Dipper with their general magic and oracle studies, I could help you too.”

“You are?” Dipper asked, a little surprised.

“Of course,” Sunset said. Her right hand slipped under the table and Dipper suddenly sat up much straighter. “I know what both of you like, so it only makes sense.”

“But you don’t even do the spirit side of Oracle magic,” Danny said snidely. While Molly hadn’t spent a lot of time with the white-haired boy, she hadn’t seen him act like this at all. He’d only been nice or concerned about her and Scratch, but with Sunset he was all sorts of different. Did that mean there was a good reason not to like Sunset? Because that would mean Molly was just being intuitive and not racist or specist, at least not completely. And while having a feeling about who not to like wasn’t the way Molly wanted to be either, it was a lot better than just feeling like she shouldn’t trust certain people for no reason.

“I’m the top student in the oracle track,” Sunset said in kind. “You don’t get there without knowing a thing or two about every part of the track.”

“But I’m ghost magic incarnate.”

“Being able to act like a ghost doesn’t make you a good tutor.”

“Well it’s better than being a–”

“Why don’t you both just teach her,” Scratch, sounding utterly bored, said from his perch on Molly’s head. “Make a competition out of it or whatever.”

“Uhm,” Molly interjected. “Do I get say in this?”

“Sure,” Scratch replied, patting her head with his widdle ghost hand, “You can pick the winner.”

“Fine by me,” Danny said with a huff, falling back in the chair he’d been slowly rising out of as the back and forth with Sunset got more heated. “I’ll show Molly everything there is to know about ghosts.”

Sunset smiled, though it was far from the glad one from breakfast or the enthralling one she’d shot at Dipper just moments before. “And I’ll make sure to correct everything you get wrong.”

---

“Good morning, darlings,” a woman’s British-like accent called into the room once the tide of students filling the hall had died down. In stepped a woman at least as tall as Anne, though that was about where the similarities ended between her and anyone else Molly knew. Her eyes were pure lilac-colored save the squared pupils. Coming off her head was a main of hair that fell well past her waist in a spiral of shimmering purple. Only it wasn’t hair, it was more like a translucent, white-trimmed bubble pretending to be hair as it bobbed and swayed with her every step. She could just make out the outline of the woman’s head within the purple sheen, including a small horn with a diamond-blue flame flickering above it, though it was faint. Add to that the lowcut, almost businesswoman-like robe she wore to show off a bit more chest than she probably needed to in a school setting and she was beautiful to look at, but it didn’t take away from the fact that she was a horse.

“I’m so excited to see so many returning faces,” the horse woman said, the hoof steps from her little trot as she surveyed the seats echoing around the hall as she bounced a bit with each one. Maybe she was more “pony” than horse though, if her somewhat short muzzle was anything to go by. “As well as some new ones.”

Dipper must have noticed Molly’s…discomfort at figuring out what she was looking at because he slid his book in front of her and tapped the open page. On it was another horse woman, though this one looked even less like a horse and more like a goat. The accompanying page showed another horse/goat person, but one that was much more muscled and masculine looking. The pages were titled “Baphoment: Female Example” and “Male Example” respectively.

“As the majority of you know, I’m Meisterlin Rarity and I teach the Oracle General Studies classes.”

Molly looked from the pages showing demons somewhat similar to their new teacher to Dipper. Then, as if he’d been waiting for confirmation, he slid his fingers into a different section of the book and turned it to a page marked with another tab. Now that what he’d been reading was so close she noticed that he’d actually marked a lot of things with those page tabs. The particular page he’d turned to showing another type of demon, one that looked sort of like a person inside a jellyfish. She couldn’t tell what it was called because of how he held the corner of the page, but jellyfish seemed like a good enough name to think of it as.

“Those of you focusing more on spirit-based magic will eventually end up with Meisterlin Goodwitch,” Meisterlin Rarity continued as Molly once again returned her attention to Dipper. “While those who seek to explore mindscapes will find themselves with Meisterlin Sally. But all the darling little students of this track start with darling little me.”

Molly only saw it out of the corner of her eye, but the Meisterlin ended her sentence with the unnecessary flourish of resting her hand on her not so little chest. Was everyone down here overly horny? She knew it was hell, but there were other sins they could focus on. Not that it mattered too much as long as they weren’t trying to get horny with her.

Dipper nodded to the Meisterlin while flipping back and forth between the Baphomet and jellyfish pages. It took a second, but she got what he was trying to tell her after a few page flips. Meisterlin Rarity was probably half-baphomet and half-jellyfish. That’d explain her peculiar “mane.” It also showed that different types of demons could mix together besides through the native witches they’d already met. Which made sense. It didn’t matter what color or shape people were upstairs, Molly herself was evidence of that kind of mixing, so why wouldn’t a horse and jellyfish person be able to make an oddly beautiful baby.

“The oracle track is unique given that you’re likely to see other track students in the general classes though,” Meisterlin Rarity noted. “Less specific spells like barriers and levitation are taught in our halls, so don’t be surprised if you see sleeves outside of own lovely shade of purple. The more the merrier I say. But enough of that boring old introduction, let’s see what you all can do. I’m going to come around and each of you are going to display a bit of oracle magic for me. Once I’ve seen my fill we’ll be good to call it a day. How does that sound?”

The general murmur of agreement made it clear most of the Oracle track students thought that sounded pretty good. So with a smile and a glimmer in her lilac eyes, Meisterlin Rarity trotted towards the end of the first row, where only a few students had been filled in between where she was starting and where their group sat. At least Molly wouldn’t have to wait long to put on her first display in front of a group, getting it out of the way sounded better than having to watch a butch of people who might have been doing magic all their lives and then go. At least she hoped so.

The Meisterlin, while continuing to be pleasant, made it clear she wasn’t looking for a show as she approached the first student in the row. What followed was a quick succession of magic displays, most alternating from either a student touching their forehead to produce a small orb then offering it to her, that or summoning a spirit. Steven, the first of their section of the row the Meisterlin came to, touched his own forehead like several of the others before him and offered up the resulting sphere of light. Rarity’s eyes glazed over when she took it, the same as those before, though this time she chuckled when the effect of whatever they were doing wore off and her eyes returned to normal. Horse/jellyfish normal at least.

“Your family never ceases to entertain, Mr. Underverse.”

“That’s why I keep them around,” Steven replied with his own smile. He didn’t laugh or chuckle, but Molly could hear it in his voice.

“Speaking of, are you excited about the change?” she added. Steven had clearly not heard about any kind of change, not with the way his brow furrowed at his question. Meisterlin Rarity noticed this and, before he had a chance to respond himself, added, “Oh, a surprise then. Well you’ll just have to tell me how it goes later.”

“Ok…but can you at least tell me–”

She cut him off with, “Mums the word,” before stepping over to Luz. “Now what do you have for us today Ms. Noceda?”

With a flick of her wrist that toed the line of close-up magic a little much for Molly’s liking, a rectangular slip of paper appeared between Luz’s pointer and middle fingers. A thin black line appeared around her right bracelet and then she flicked her wrist again and the slip was airborne. It didn’t simply flutter back down to the table or floor though, instead it hovered in place for a moment before spiraling up higher into the air then diving down and around the Meisterlin then finish things off by shooting towards and sliding back between Luz’s fingers.

Meisterlin Rarity sighed, though it wasn’t exactly one of exasperation. “Visually impressive as always, but wasn’t that a bit simplistic for you?”

Luz met the feigned disappointment with a large smile. “Just trying not to waste your time.”

The Meisterlin sighed again, then continued to Sunset. “And what does one of our top performers have for me this morning?”

Like Steven and some of the others before her, Sunset touched her forehead and produced a shimmering ball of light, though she offered it with much more of a display than the others had. Molly supposed everyone was showing off what they could do, but that didn’t necessarily mean they had to put on an actual show. Or should they? Their professor did seem kind of showy. In some ways similar to how Sunset herself, if only when it came to certain physical attributes. But even if the club, or the coven as she was supposed to call it, was supposed to make their time here look on purpose did she really have to put on an extra act on top of the first to seem like she belonged? That was too many acts. Act-ception even, and she didn’t even love making that reference because the ending was only sort of–

Scratch tapped Molly’s forehead. Ceasing yet another spiral of negativity just in time to see that Meisterlin Rarity’s eyes were unglazing from the light Sunset had given her. The horse-woman was still smiling, though in a way that seemed more…appreciative maybe, unlike the amused way she had when she’d come out of Steven’s.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a demon as hard working as that darling little shark,” she said to Sunset while once again holding a hand to her chest, but this time tilting her head as well like she’d been touched right in the heart. Molly wished she could feel that way right about now.

“Oh, he’s quite the guy,” Sunset replied. At some point she’d taken to holding her head in overlapped hands while watching the Meisterlin do whatever it was she was doing with the spheres. It made her look casual and approachable, the kind of person who you could talk about anything with. Although, with how Danny acted with her all it would take was a shadow across her eyes for the pose to be that of an evil mastermind. “And he’d do absolutely anything for you.”

Sunset seemed to put a little more emphasis on the word “you” than the others, enough to draw both Molly and Dipper’s attention and a little bit of confusion from the Meisterlin, though she continued to smile in spite of it. She even gave a little nod and replied with, “He certainly is one of my favorite students from outside the Oracle track. I’ll have to make sure he knows how much I appreciate his effort next time I see him.”

Sunset’s smile grew, and was that…no. Did Molly see a shadow fall across her eyes as Twilight’s new girlfriend looked up at the teacher? “He’d love that.”

The Meisterlin took another step to the side, bringing her in front of Dipper. While he had taken more of a leading role when they’d gathered back together in Dean Bump’s office, he now looked like a schoolboy who’d forgotten his homework as the teacher was collecting it. Which, considering how certain parts of the Dean’s magic test had responded, he might as well have been.

“And you must be Mr. Pines,” Meisterlin Rarity said, still smiling as she looked from him to Molly. “Which would make you Ms. McGee. Dean Bump made sure to tell me all about my newest students and I for one want to make sure you’re feeling welcome here at Hexside.”

Dipper met Molly’s gaze for a moment before his eyes slid over towards Sunset.

“It’s been pretty welcoming so far,” he said with a nervous smile. “But if he told you about us then you must know that I’m not really–”

“Yes, yes,” she said, nodding as if in agreement instead of cutting him off. “He mentioned your connection to the shadow element was lacking, but if you’re connected to the other elements as much as he says then learning to connect to the shadows shouldn’t be as much of a task it might seem. He brought up some ideas to start you off with, but it was actually something Sunset suggested that I think will be a good start for you.”

Startled, Dipper’s attention returned to his left. “You talked with her already? When?”

The shadow Molly was sure she had imagined over the top of Sunset’s eyes was gone as she met Dipper’s look of surprise with the look of someone who knew their planning was earning dividends. Molly just wasn’t sure what kind of dividends Sunset was after. “I made time. Yours isn’t only Luz’s new favorite coven after all.”

“Yes, it was very charitable of her,” Meisterlin Rarity added before turning towards the teacher’s desk at the front and center of the room. In a proper class most of the hall’s attention would be focused there, but today it stood mostly empty, save for a purse the Meisterlin must have put down on her way in, though Molly surely hadn’t noticed. Instead of heading back to the desk, she simply raised her hand in the general direction.

Instead of a circle, it was Meisterlin Rarity’s hand that started glow. A faint white aura with just a twinge of the same purple from her jellyfish hair, but noticeable enough as it came to be. What Molly only noticed after the large flap of the purse on the desk came open was that it was glowing too. The purse opened wide, then a ring rose from it, surrounded by that same purple-white glow. It floated above the purse and desk for just a second, then soared through the air straight into the Meisterlin’s hand much the same way Luz’s paper had.

“This,” the Meisterlin said as she presented what turned out to be some sort of metallic ring to Dipper. “Is what we’ll start you out with, darling.”

The piece of bronze or at least bronze-looking metal gleaned in her hands, those familiar but still incomprehensible runes that had brought them down here engraved around its outer edge catching the light one symbol at a time. Now that it was right in front of them though, Molly didn’t think ring was the right word for it. Whatever it was, it looked big enough to fit around a basketball, or at least someone’s head.

“A circlet of mind reading,” Rarity explained. “It will allow you to practice aspects of Oracle magic even if it seems like you can’t use any at the moment.”

Stifled murmurs and snickering came from the rows behind them as Dipper took the circlet, though Meisterlin Rarity paid it no mind. “I would recommend starting with people you know and trust. Like your coven for example.”

“I can help too,” Sunset chimed in, before projecting what she said next for those behind to hear. “You don’t mind being inside me after all, right?”

The murmurs and snickering stopped at once. If Sunset was in anyway nefarious, she was at least using her powers for Dipper’s good. So she couldn’t be too bad, right? Molly hoped so. She’d rather have a reason to like someone than a reason not to. Afterall, it wasn’t like anyone here was practicing close-up magic. So they weren’t lying to her in that way at least.

“Isn’t that lovely,” Rarity said, either misunderstanding or once again ignoring the inappropriateness of the comment. “With the help of such a prestigious student like Sunset you’ll be on your way to mastering oracle magic in no time.”

“Sure,” Dipper said, though he didn’t sound as sure as the Meisterlin did. “Thanks.”

Then it was Molly’s turn. The Meisterlin stepped in front of her, casting Molly in a horse-woman shaped shadow. This was it, this was where she had to prove she was witchy enough or magical enough to blend in with everyone else in this school. For a moment she flashed back to that rooftop on Friday, where she’d been so powerless to help Scratch without Danny’s help. But in the next moment she forced herself to think of that very morning and the size she’d forced Scratch into. She wasn’t going to be the best student ever, not after just one weekend of practice, but she could do her best and she just had to believe that’d be enough.

“And I assume your display will involve this fellow,” the Meisterlin said, looking from Molly to Scratch still sitting on her head. “And what would your name be, little ghost.”

Molly, feeling Scratch’s eyes wondering the way they had when they’d first met Sunset, reached up and cupped him between her hands. Making sure he was at table-level and below any exposed skin before letting him go. “His name is Scratch, ma’am.”

The Meisterlin made a dismissive little wave. “Oh, I hope that’s politeness and not me looking old. I like to think I’m not quite a ma’am yet.”

Flushing, Molly did her best to stare at the table through Scratch’s translucent blue ectoplasm. “I’m sorry. Up…up top that’s just how…”

“Don’t fret about it, darling,” Meisterlin Rarity said. She didn’t sound upset, and that was something at least. “Why don’t you go ahead and show me what you and Scratch can do.”

“Right, yes. Okay.” Molly refocused her gaze on Scratch properly instead of trying to look through him and took a deep breath. Then another. Then she started.

The golden circle of light she’d gotten used to creating formed almost at once. There was a brief pause between when she imagined it and when it actually came into being, but she didn’t think anyone noticed that. What they did notice, what she could hear them talking about even more clearly than when they’d been snickering about Dipper, was the color of her magic circle. She knew this was going to happen. Danny had told her as much, so she had just decided to go with it. She didn’t like the idea of standing out here, like at all, but she told herself that as long as she acted like it was normal the rest would get used to it just like she was having to get used to all of them. She hoped.

Her circle resonated with the normally invisible one still inside Scratch and, as she pulled her arms apart, he returned to his normal size. Unlike the luminous haze that had surrounded him when Molly had shrunk him to mini-size at breakfast, the reverse of the process simply had Scratch size up. It was like watching Daryl or Andrea working on one of their techno endeavors, upscaling an image for scams or views respectively.

And then he was back to his normal, huggable size. Though Molly restrained herself from doing so in the moment.

“Ah, spirit size manipulation,” Meisterlin Rarity said. She was obviously unimpressed, just like all the comments she could hear coming from the rows farther back. “Is he not normally this size?”

“Oh, no, I just shrunk him earlier because he was misbehaving,” Molly quickly explained.

“This little darling?” Meisterlin Rarity asked, bending over just enough to pinch Scratch’s cheek. Something he in no way fought or acted against unlike most forms of affection. Or at least forms of affection from those with differently curved body types. “He doesn’t look like he’d cause any trouble.”

“I must admit,” Scratch said with a heavy sigh, “that I can occasionally be a bit of a scamp.” This was when he started batting his eyes. “I hope that doesn’t make you think less of me.”

Rarity giggled. “Oh you. I’m sure your little bit of scampery isn’t too much to handle. Now though, why don’t you and Ms. McGee show me what you can do.”

“You heard the lady,” Scratch said, spinning place to look at Molly. “Let’s show her that little diddy.”

Molly was actually a little taken aback. He had done nothing but moan about that spell all Sunday from the moment she had undone until dinner when he’d been able to stuff his mouth to put an end to it. But it was one that she hadn’t found in the textbook, so maybe it was the perfect spell to start things off with. She only had one first impression to make after all. And if Scratch was willing, regardless of motive, then she guessed…

“Alright, if you’re okay with it.”

“As long as you turn be back afterwards.”

“O-of course,” Molly stammered out before holding her arms out again. Once more she had to keep herself from using the opportunity to just up and hug her long time ghostly pal, instead she formed another golden circle between her outstretched hands. It formed around Scratch, tinted him in a golden outline as he smugly floated within it, his arms crossed as he continued to give the Meisterlin that look he had been sparing for certain ladies since arriving down here. At least that would end for a few minutes if the spell worked the way it had before.

Molly breathed in through her nose and focused on the spell. Her hands turned over in the air as the circle sped inwards, shrinking towards Scratch until it sank into his gooey goodness and caused the circle inside him to light up in response. Then he was glowing again, a glow that just barely showed the shape of his body shifting within it. And then the light went out.

“Heh heh,” Scratch giggled, his voice higher than ever before. “Howdy folks.”

Meisterlin Rarity and the entire hall were utterly silent as they gawked at Scratch, floating before them in a similar but also completely different shake. Almost perfectly round except for a bit of his “hair,” his nose, and the rounded bits that always hung from his underside, Scratch shifted from side to side while a smile bigger than any Molly had ever seen him with spread across his face. Scratch had gone from soggy frump to a little ball of joy, like some kind of children’s tv channel mascot.

“Crikey!” Luz shouted, cutting through the silence. “You chibified him!”

“I hope that’s a good thing,” Scratch said, his voice filled with laughter and eyes full of sparkles. “Cause I only wanna hear good and happy things.”

“Did you…” Meisterlin Rarity began before pausing to consider her words. “Did you just change his personality?”

“I call it enhappification,” Molly said, not realizing how little that explained without context.

“And I sure am happy,” Scratch said, sounding more and more like a cartoon mouse the more he talked. “I want the whole world to be as happy as me!”

“Is this something you can do to other people? Or just your contracted spirit?”

Molly looked down at Scratch and then back at the Meisterlin. The jellyfish-horse lady was looking the way Molly had felt the last three days, almost as if one of the natives was actually scared of her instead of the other way around. But because of a spell like this?  She had come up with this just playing around, surely actual witches had done this kind of thing before.

“I haven’t tried it on anyone but Scratch,” Molly said after a moment. “So I don’t know for sure.”

“I see,” the Meisterlin said while pulling a pen and small notepad from a set of hidden pockets. Her hand shook a bit as she made a note to herself then hurriedly pocketed the pad again. “Well that’s certainly something that we’ll have to speak with at least Meisterlin Goodwitch about, but um, very well done for today. Let’s move on to you, Mr. Fenton.”

Murmurs once again ran through the hall as their professor sidestepped towards Danny. While he proceeded to phase through the desk and maybe turn invisible so he could reappear behind the Meisterlin, or at least invisible to most, Molly could still see him the way she could Scratch when they were back home, she turned back to the others and asked, “Did I do something wrong?”

While Dipper could only shrug, both Sunset and Luz leaned forward so they could chime in.

“You kicked ass,” Luz said, beaming. “I’ve never seen an oracle spell like that before.”

“There might not have been an oracle spell like that before,” Sunset added. She was leaning forward again, though this time more over Dipper than the table. He had to lean back not to get caught in her mass of red hair as his left arm was absolutely buried beneath the heft of her breasts as she reached out to gently poke Scratch’s forehead. He just giggled at her touch, since right now just about any and everything made him happy. “Manipulating spirits is one thing, but changing the essence of who a person is…that’s an a whole other level.”

“Who’s manipulating me,” Scratch said, his hands on his hips as he leaned forward with a false expression of skepticism. “Cause if I’m not as happy as can be, I don’t want to be any other way.”

As if brought on by the mention of another way to be, the circle inside of Scratch began to glow again. Then, poof, a faint flash of light and Scratch was back to his frumpy normal self. It still kind of bugged Molly how little of a show his changes back to normal were whenever he changed form down here, but she wasn’t exactly upset to him back to himself.

It was a self that had a shiver run up through his ectoplasm when the sparkle left his eyes and he realized the table was staring at him. A self that eyes everyone suspiciously before asking, “So, how’d she like it. I bet everyone was impressed. And that’s what really matters, not the weird, pukey feeling it gives me when I come out of.”

“You left the room nearly speechless,” Dipper said when it became clear no one else knew what to say.

“Darn straight I did,” Scratch said, now he was the one beaming. “Pretty good start to this magic school thing, huh Mol?”

“Um, uh-uh,” she replied weakly. She was glad he wasn’t in a bad mood coming out of the enhappification spell this time, but that worry had just been replaced by others. The way Ms. Rarity had looked at her, the way the other students had been whispering, what Sunset and Luz had said. None of it made her feel better, none of it made her feel like she could even pretend to fit in the way Dipper wanted them to while looking for a way back home. If anything, what had seemed to come so naturally to her made her feel like, despite being surrounded by literal demons, she might be the monster.

Chapter Text

“Was it really that obvious?” Connie asked between stifled laughter. She and Luz were leaning against the wall to the side of Ziarh hall’s main entrance, killing time as they waited for the last two that would make their group when it came to Beast Keeping general classes. Luckily they had passed Sprig on the way there, and the not-frog as Anne called him had offered to grab them seats. So they could be on the lookout without too much fear of being stuck in the nose bleed section or anything like that.

“More than I’m making it seem,” Luz replied. “If Meisterlin Rarity realizes how much Spike’s crushing on her then she’s the best actor in this world or any other. And now that he’s got Dipper as an excuse to stop by classes he’s not in it’s just going to happen more. But man, when they had to fill the time since Sunset had dragged Dipper off to talk Spike’s face got red. But that I understand, if Amity had told me I was her favorite person or student or whatever before we confessed to each other I would have been blushing hard too.”

Connie liked Luz. Not the way she liked Steven or even Lapis and Peridot, now that they’d had a few nights to show her the ropes and try a few things out, but she was fun and lively. Plus, she seemed to just accept whatever was going on without question. Her eyes had widened when Connie had dropped in something about what she, Steven, Lapis, and Peri had going, but she hadn’t recoiled or seemingly even given it a second thought. And as one of the only other modern, or in her case new, witches down here, that was a relief.

It was also a relief that no one had yet to try and give Luz trouble the way they had Miko for being a new witch. Connie didn’t know if it was because Luz had been down here longer, or if it was because she had managed to make friends with their coven or had a girlfriend who was evidently a big deal in the Abomination track, but it made her feel a little better to know that kind of harassment wasn’t a constant.

Now if only Luz would do something about her style. The jacket and pants she’d been wearing during their trek from her and Steven’s beach on the Styx had covered them in part, but now in uniform the shackles on her wrists and ankles were wholly apparent. She had dismissed Connie’s one attempt to ask about them as “a whole thing not worth getting into,” but adding them to her already unique uniform made her seem almost alien to everyone else around her. Instead of any the nine colors Connie had seen around campus so far, Luz’s sleeves and leggings matched the colors of the hall accents, with the only other student she’d seen wearing those shades being Dipper. Though even between the two it was different, Dipper had all four colors in a stripe pattern for his sleeves, whereas Luz’s left arm was in black, right in the yellowy-green of the Ziarh hall’s accents, right leg a rich royal blue, and left leg a much fierier red than the bard shade Steven had. If there was any rhyme or reason to the differences between she and Dipper’s uniforms despite both being multi-track students Connie hadn’t figured it out.

“And why did Sunset drag him off?”

Luz shrugged. “They said something about needing to talk, but with some of the stuff she said during class I think she was hungry. If you pick up what I’m putting down.”

Connie did pick that up. Afterall, she had had her own part-succubus that had explained and then demonstrated what all went into feeding. She did wonder, with Twilight in the mix as Sunset’s roommate, if it was a full thruple situation or if Dipper was just there for feeding. They had all been together that morning after all, so who could say… Not like she was going to judge either way, not when she was leading her own multi-colored quadruple despite coming down here for one person in particular.

“Speak of the demon,” Luz noted with a nod towards the walkway leading to Ziarh hall. Amongst the meandering groups of other students, nearly all with the same dark orange sleeves as Connie, were a purple shark leading the way for the only pure human in sight. Connie couldn’t say for sure, but even from a far she thought she could still see traces of blush on Spike’s purple face.

“Glad you could make it,” Connie said when they made their way closer. Then, with Luz nodding in agreement, “We were afraid you got lost or something.”

“Sunset and I were talking about the library and lost track of time,” Dipper said in his usual way.

“Oh yeah, Amity and I used to talk about the library all the time too,” Luz said with a smile. “It was always a good way to get some relief.”

Dipper furrowed his brow. “She’s taking Twilight there while I’m dealing with all the intro junk. I gave her a run-down of what to look for so we can try and fix the corridor.”

Luz’s smile became a smirk. “Well, no matter what you were giving her, you certainly left Rarity with the chance to talk with her favorite student. That must have been a good start to the day, huh Spike?”

Spike, who had been contemplatively looking at the stone walkway below them, quickly looked up, somehow surprised to have been brought into the conversation. Connie could definitely see that he was still blushing now, and whether that was from talking to his teacher crush earlier or having it brought up now the source was the same.

“Wha- I, sure. She’s very nice and…um…”

“Appreciative of your hard work?” Luz offered. “That’s the way she seemed when Sunset gave her that memory of you working hard. It’s nice to see her still helping you out with that, it’s probably the most wholesome thing happening on campus. Or at least the most wholesome thing when it comes to Sunset.”

Spike’s eyes returned to the ground and would have been burrowing into it if they could. His face more red than purple by that point. “We should get inside. Meister Tennyson won’t be happy if we’re late, and you definitely don’t want him to be mad at you.”

Spike rushed inside, not checking if the others were even following. Luckily Luz was there to guide them if needed, but given the way Dipper followed in Spike’s wake with exasperated confidence he must have an idea of where they needed to go. Connie already supposed if the outside of the four main halls were nearly identical their interiors might be too, which should hopefully make things easy when she wanted to visit the others or sneak off with Steven between classes.

“Does every track have drama like his?” Connie asked as she and Luz followed behind Dipper. While it was more Anne’s thing than hers, Connie thought it might bring a bit of extra flavor to her classes if she got to see something play out during their time here. And might be a little put off if it was happening everywhere but where she was.

Luz considered that for a moment as they passed through the door and into the cooler air of the hall’s interior. Unlike the yellowy-green of the outside, Ziarh hall’s insides were colored a combination of light red and dark orange, the shades of the Bard and Beast Keeping tracks that used the hall. So, in addition to being cooler, it also seemed much darker inside.

“I’d say each track has its own drama,” Luz finally said in response. “Though with Beast Keeping it’s mostly going to come from the Meister’s bad attitude.”

“How bad is it?”

Luz exhaled and made a less…enthusiastic smile. “The best I can say is…you’ll see.”

---

“All you little shits, shut up and sit down,” a cranky, seemingly human twenty-something in long, green-tinted robes growled as he strode into the Beast Keeping hall.

Connie and the others had already found seats in the front row, having been called over by Anne’s amphimpian friend Sprig. He and another hellborn, a yellow-skinned and pink-haired girl named Fluttershy, had saved them a set of seats. While taller, Connie hadn’t been surprised to discover Fluttershy was not only one of Sunset’s friends but also of the same combination of species, just a hellborn instead of a native. There were the similar horns with a flame between them, the squared pupils, and spaded tail of course, but also a strikingly similar figure. If it weren’t for Flutteryshy’s hooves and wings they could have been sisters.

They’d barely had time to file into the row that had been saved for them before who Connie had to imagine was the professor stormed in. Fluttershy at the end, followed by Spike, Sprig, Dipper, Connie, and Luz from the far end and closest to the door. Connie had barely had the chance to catch sight of whatever other types of colorful characters there might be in class with them, instead her attention had initially been grabbed by the large door on the wall opposite the way they’d come in. It was much bigger than any of the students, which made Connie think back to what she’d been instructed to do the day before. If the large door led to what she thought, then this introductory class might end up being more of a display than she first imagined.

The professor rubbed his eyes and brushed some of his brown bangs away from his face. Then more groaned than said, “I’m Meister Tennyson. For the idiots among you who’ve forgotten, I’m in charge of general beast keeping and transformation studies. If you’re not in the latter then I’m not going to give a damn about you, the actual beast keepers will deal with the other guy.”

The students filling the rows of tables behind them barely murmured at the crassness of the Meister’s declaration. Based on what Connie had seen from looking at Hexside documents that had come with her new books and uniform, most everyone here must have already heard this…speech before. This was still the middle of the year regardless of the school’s use of trimesters or not. The fact that she’d never had a teacher give such an open display of disgust for his students before was just jarring. Beyond jarring really, to a degree that it made her glad Twilight wasn’t there. As much as that girl praised the land of academia she might keel over if she heard any kind of teacher talking this way.

“I’m supposed to get you all to show me something you can do. “But, since I’ve seen the sorry excuse for what most of you call magic, I could not give less of a damn.” The Meister’s emerald green eyes shifted towards their row, especially Connie and Dipper. “So instead, I’m just going to see what our newbie students can do then kick the rest of you out. Any complaints about that.”

This got more of response than what he’d said before, with the rows of students letting out hushed murmurs of approval. The only ones not whispering with stifled delight were Connie and Dipper themselves, the so-called newbies, and a few of their fellow students on either side of them. While Connie couldn’t tell if anyone on Dipper’s side of their row said anything, Luz leaned in against Connie’s shoulder and whispered, “See what I meant.”

Connie did her best to maintain her good-natured, studious demeanor. Back straight, chest out, eyes forward, and even tried to smile while meeting Meister Tennyson’s gaze. She managed it, but it didn’t feel like it was very convincing. It was hard to imagine anyone being happy or smug under such a gaze. Maybe if they had some kind of perceptual blindness or ineptitude, but otherwise no. There would be no true smiles growing under that look of disdain.

Without looking away, Meister Tennyson trudged over to their table. He took up a spot between she and Dipper, where he leaned against the sturdy stone and crossed his arms. “You’re gonna be a brown-noser, aren’t you?”

Connie’s jaw clenched. She knew he wasn’t talking about the color of her nose and skin beyond, at least she was reasonably certain that was the case. Of course she’d run into her share of ignorance and hatred growing up, but never from a teacher. This man though, the utter disgust that seemed to lace his every word hit her the same way comments from racists had in the past. If it weren’t for the fact that Steven was down here too, she would have thought it fitting that such a man had wound up in Hell, even if he wasn’t dead yet.

“I try to do my best, sir,” Connie replied. She knew her smile had faltered, but she still presented herself the best she could to him. And if that was brown nosing, well then screw him.

Meister Tennyson rolled his eyes and said, “Whatever,” before pulling a scroll from inside his robe. He looked over it for a few seconds, rolled his eyes again, then returned it from whatever pocket he’d pulled it from. He traced a magic circle in the air then snapped his fingers within it. Then, as the massive door opposite the entrance rumbled open, he said, “Alright Connie, show me what you can do.”

She glanced over at Dipper then Luz before standing. Dipper attempted an encouraging look while Luz just smiled and gave her a thumbs up. That was hardly all she would have liked in preparation for her first display in front of the teacher and students she would be taking classes with as long as they were down here, but if it was all she was going to get then it was what she would work with.

Connie stood and looked into the darkness beyond the massive open doorway. While the beginning of a path or perhaps another hallway like the ones that had brought them to this lecture hall could just be made out beyond the door’s wide frame, it quickly disappeared within the shadows beyond. But if the Mesiter had opened the door so she could show off her magic, and if her sense of direction wasn’t completely useless, then she knew exactly where that darkened corridor had to lead. And what was about to come out of it.

Raising her own hand up, Connie prepared to do on purpose what she’d done by instinct twice already. The first time had been in desperation, the second in retaliation, but now she needed to succeed in order to meet her own expectations and others’ ingratiation. And she had very high expectations for herself.

Mimicking Mesiter Tennyson’s own display, Connie traced a magic circle in the air, held her fingers within its glowing circumference, then snapped. The snap reverberated through the nearly silent classroom, crossing over all those watching with bated breaths, before echoing into the dark passage a single time before fading away completely.

There was a moment where nothing happened. No sound or movement occurred within the hall but for Connie’s own clenching jaw. She couldn’t believe it could be the case that twice she’d called Lion on mere instinct, once in the Styx and then later on this very campus, but the one time she’d actively prepared to do so it didn’t want to work. She couldn’t believe it, she wouldn’t believe it, and when the jaw-clenching moment ended, a moment that may have lasted mere seconds despite how it and the silence that carried it seemed to drag on and on, she realized there was no need to believe it.

A rumbling growl answered her call, seeming to shake the very darkness it moved through. But that was all that moved through the passage’s shadows. Lion, ever the proud beast and natural show-off, didn’t come leaping out of the passageway from the pens Connie had left him in. Instead, he descended from on high, leaping down from just outside the breath of Connie and everyone else’s vision and striking the floor hard enough to send a tremor through the table-lined rows of seating.

A new sort of silence filled the hall. This one a form of awe as the massive, pink, cyclopean cat reared its head above Connie and let his one, striking eye take in each and every student present. Despite him being behind her, Connie could feel Lion looking at everyone else, taking in the admiration or fear his presence elicited. It was a sensation she’d never experienced before. One that she could get used to. One that she might have found addictive had she not already been enthralled by the way Steven made her feel during their nightly activities.

“Whooooa!” cried out, breaking through Connie’s sensational bliss. She and Lion looked around in tandem, both spotting the source at the same time as the classmate making the noise bounded his way out of his row and into the aisle of stairs leading back down. It was a classmate that made Lion lick his lips.

“That cat is wicked cool,” the bluejay-like hellborn said, loud enough to be heard by everyone from the increasingly annoyed-looking Meister to the cringing students way in the back. Connie could recognize him as a Goetia, the type of hellborn both Steven and Luz’s guardian shared a lineage with. Though, and Connie couldn’t help but notice, that this guy looked a lot less put together than any of them had.

“Mordecai,” the Meister grumbled, though either not angrily or not loud enough to stop the Goetia’s display.

“So cool in fact,” Mordecai continued, “that you two need to show us that it’s for real!”

There wasn’t a swelter of agreement the way the class had when the Meister had said they’d be able to leave early, but Connie picked up more than a few whispers noting similar thoughts on the matter. It seemed redundant to her though. How real did a giant Lion have to prove itself to be? Or cool for that matter. It was already a massive cat with claws and teeth that could tear the lot of them to pieces. She didn’t get a chance to reply though, as Mordecai was already spinning his own magic circle into being. A magic circle he shot in a finger-gun motion into the darkened hallway Lion hadn’t bothered to emerge from.

Like with Lion’s growl, a sound answered the circle’s summoning. It wasn’t anything nearly as impressive though, certainly nothing that shook the darkness itself. Instead came the scrambling, skittering sound of tiny claws on stone. The real surprise came with just how tiny those claws would end up being. The sound grew closer, just barely noticeable as the sound fought to even echo in the hall, until its source finally emerged with all the glory and amazement of a wet rag.

Out of the hall’s shadows rushed a tiny brown animal running on all fours, a fluffy striped tail trailing behind it, and big, buggy eyes that took up most of its head. It was a raccoon. Bug eyes aside, there was no other name for the little…creature that came at Mordecai’s call. The hell-raccoon bounded past Meister Tennyson, sparing the professor a timid glance before noticing Lion and nearly tripping over itself as it picked up speed and scampered around far enough to give him in wide berth. It ran over to Mordecai, hiding behind and grabbing one of his pants legs as it reared up on its own hind legs and peered fearfully at Lion.

“Do you want to watch him eat?” Connie asked, patting Lion’s mane to keep him in place. While she didn’t think Lion would just lung at the creature without warning, though he was running his tongue over his jaws again, the combination of the bird-like meal and the furry morsel within leaping distance might get the better of the pink behemoth if not reassured.

“Don’t go snapping my crank,” Mordecai responded, shaking his finger like some sort of anime protagonist-wannabe. “Rigby may not look like much now, but see how he looks after I activate my spell circle!”

A magic circle appeared around the bird-brain’s wagging finger. He raised it above his head, then caused it to expand until it was large enough to encircle his entire body, which it then proceeded to do. The enlarged circled fell along the length of his spindly body, all the way down to whatever birds had instead of shins, where it abruptly stopped. There, still cowering behind its master, was the hell-raccoon. The circle constricted again, passing through Mordecai’s legs before sinking into Rigby’s furry little body.

The raccoon went still for a moment, its fur standing on end before it fell forward back onto its front paws. It blinked its massive bug-like eyes as a faint orange glow surrounded the entirety of its body, which was when it started to grow. Its body expanded in equal measures to the point that, before more than a few seconds had passed, the raccoon that hadn’t even come to Mordecai’s knees on its hind legs reached the point where even on all fours his head nearly came up the bird demon’s shoulder. Connie would have been impressed by how perfectly proportional the raccoon’s body remained compared to its original size, but it was still just a big trash panda. Meanwhile, she had a massive lion who only looked even hungrier now that the morsel had become a buffet. Maybe an angrier seeming buffet, but a buffet none the less.

“Let’s give this class a show!” Mordecai continued boisterously. Rigby pawed at the floor, his claws making a much more intimidating sound on the stone than the scritches that before had barely echoed from the passageway.

Connie raised an eyebrow. Unless the anime this weirdo thought he was a part of was Pokémon, she couldn’t imagine any good reason why they should resort to supersized cockfighting. And even if it was Pokémon, she had a lion and he had a raccoon. Size could only make up for so much when one had razor sharp claws and the other liked to wash what it scavenged in nearby puddle. Luckily by then Meister Tennyson had had enough.

“Shrink that mangy thing and sit back down before I fry those piss pore excuses for wings and serve them with a side of raccoon jerky!” the Meister yelled. “Do you understand?”

Mordecai, who had metaphorically shrunken into Rigby’s fur and seemed to have literally shrunk under the Meister’s beratement, didn’t say a word as he created a new magic circle. This one was much less showy as it left his finger, flying straight into Rigby instead of expanding out and then re-collapsing into the animal companion. The process of growth was reverted much the same as it had first occurred, only the other way this time. Rigby went from roughly the size of a bear down to a mountain cat then back to his original size in one fluid motion. It was almost elegant in its simplicity, and if Connie had been a bit more like Twilight she knew she’d be wondering where the mass came and went from such size changing. But she wasn’t a bit more like Twilight, so she didn’t bother herself about it. They were learning magic in hell, fretting about the physics of it all wasn’t going to get them anywhere productive.

The Meister took a deep breath in through his nose, one that in no way seemed to actually calm him. But he wasn’t outright yelling afterwards, so there was that. He watched Mortdecai scoop up his pet raccoon and back his way the way he’d come, then returned his attention to Connie. “Acceptable enough display with the Lion.” Then he turned to Dipper. “You’re the one with the…unconventional name, right?”

Dipper sat up straighter, clearly a bit intimidated by the sudden attention even if he had to have known it was coming. “It’s, um, a nickna–”

“I don’t care,” the Meister groaned. “Get up and show me what you can do. You didn’t register a pet, so that better mean an impressive transformation.”

“I actually haven’t…” Dipper trailed off as the Meister’s gaze hardened.

“Haven’t what?”

Dipper gulped. “My connection is more to the sound element as a whole, so I don’t think I can…trans…form.”

He trailed off as the Meister stepped closer to the table, as close as he could without completely stepping through it. Which Connie had no doubt he could if the thought occurred to him in his current mood. Connie had seen Dipper do some interesting, and evidently powerful, things in the few instances of magic she had seen him use, but it had all be what Steven called elemental magic. Supposedly that could be more powerful but less specialized than the tracks Hexside and other schools in hell focused on. Connie hadn’t really considered how that might be a bad thing until now; Steven, Lapis, and Peri had been giving her enough other things to think about that it hadn’t even occurred to her.

“Let me get this straight,” the Meister said slowly, drawing out each word as he placed his hands, fingers splayed, on the table in front of Dipper. “You came into my class, without so much as a stupid pet, and now you’re telling me you can’t even use beast magic? Did it just seem like a big joke to come in here and waste my time? Did it, Dipper?”

“I was just doing what Dean–”

Dipper’s head slammed down onto the table, his words becoming a pained gasp as the clunking thud of an impact boomed through the hall. In a series of actions that Connie had barely even registered, the Meister had reached out, gripped Dipper by the crown of his head, and then shoved his head against the smooth surface in one drastic movement. Except it wasn’t the Meister’s arm anymore. Connie hadn’t even seen it change, but it had become an oversized, orange beast of a limb that threatened to tear apart the Meister’s sleeve and ended in a paw-like and claw-tipped hand that easily covered the majority of Dipper’s head as it held him down.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Meister Tennyson hissed as he drew closer to Dipper’s ear. “I’m going to count down from ten. If I hit zero, and you haven’t done some beast magic, I’ll crack that big head of yours like an egg. Got that?”

What Dipper got was a blue magic circle around his splayed-out right hand. Connie, still reeling from the suddenness of all that had just happened, could do no more than brace herself for the rush of earthen magic she expected to come erupting out of the floor. But it didn’t come. There was no rumble or shifting of stone, just a flash of blue light that only lasted a second itself before sputtering back out into nothingness.

“Errr,” the Meister screeched in a mock buzzer sound. “This is a beast magic-only classroom. You should have left that earthen junk at the door.”

“Why…can’t I…use it?” Dipper asked through clenched teeth.

“Perks of the position,” the Meister said, sneering. “Now, let’s begin. Ten!”

As Dipper’s eyes ricochetted in their sockets, Connie finally found her wits and yelled, “Let go of him! What kind of teacher are you?”

Meister Tennyson returned his attention to Connie just long enough to say, “What kind of teacher am I? One from hell of course! Nine!”

It was Connie’s turn to frantically look around. First towards the others in their row of seats, but she could immediately tell no help was going to come from their new friends. Spike, Fluttershy, and Sprig wouldn’t even look at her or Dipper while Luz, who at least met her gaze in the moment, seemed unable to do more than offer her an apologetic shrug. In desperation Connie looked to the class at large, the corner of her eye catching a faint shifting glow on the wall as she looked for help in any form. But no one else in the room looked anymore willing to help than those already right next to it, if anything they looked excited to see what would happen. Which just left her and Lion. And if that was all she had then that was what she’d work with.

“Eight!”

“Lion!” she called, feeling the beast magic welling up in her voice even without a spell circle. Her pink beast bared his fangs and growled as he hunkered into a pouncing position. “Stop him!”

Lion leapt from its crouched position, soaring the short distance through the air with claws out and fangs parted. But despite the small amount of space he had to cover to reach the Meister and knock him off of Dipper, he never made it.

“Heel.”

The Meister’s single word reverberated through the hall, dropping Lion to the floor instantaneously. His single eye glaring up at the man who had restrained him without lifting a finger. The giant cat tried to rise from where he had fallen, halfway between where he’d jumped and the Meister he’d been jumping towards, but his mass of fur and muscles could do little more than tremble as if he was fighting against a zoo’s-worth of invisible restraints.

“Just because I don’t like keeping actual beasts doesn’t mean I can’t,” the Meister said, his amusement apparent in his voice and on his face. “Now where was I? Oh yeah. Six!”

While it wasn’t her head on the line, Connie still felt as desperate as Dipper looked as he continued to strain against the weight of the Meister’s paw pressing down on his cranium. What was left to her though? If Lion could be stopped with a word and the other witches wouldn’t help, what did she have? She wished Steven was there. Or Lapis. Or Peri. Or even the other members of her so-called coven. But they weren’t. The only one who could or would do anything was her. So she did the only thing that was left to her, and threw herself at the Meister.

She got farther than Lion.

Rushing past her prone pet, enough that his massive mane of pink fur was lost beyond the edge of her vision as her feet beat against the hard floor. But with the next stride her feet left the floor completely, her arms were bound, and her stomach lurched as she was lifted up into the air. The Meister’s second arm, the one that had still be normal the instant before, had transformed into an elongated vine-like appendage that had crossed the several feet still between them before wrapping around Connie’s torso and upper body. Suddenly she was hanging in the air, her upper arms and the back of her hands pressed against her chest as the plant arm held her tight.

“Aw, such friendship,” the Meister sneered. The brief glance he spared in her direction lasted only a second before returning his attention to Dipper. “Too bad that won’t do you any good unless you can man-up and do what you have to do. Four!”

Connie’s finger scraped against the rough exterior of whatever the Meister’s arm had turned into, but it was so thick and tough that she couldn’t even scratch it. At the same time Dipper was trembling. Not from fear, or at least not completely, but from an anger that was welling up in his eyes. But not just anger, there was an orange glint there as he continued to struggle against the paw holding him down.

“Three!”

Despite the ‘skin’ of the Meister’s vine-like arm being far too tough for her fingers to do anything to, Connie kept struggling as well. Even if the other students wouldn’t do anything, even if her Lion couldn’t do anything, she just couldn’t let Dipper’s head be crushed. If only she had time to think of a way out of this.

“Two!”

Dipper tensed beneath the paw holding him down. Connie tried to shift her weight forward, to do anything that might have an effect.

“One!”

Dipper and Connie yelled, drowning the hall lecture hall in a deafening roar.

Connie was lurched in place as the Meister stumbled backwards, splashes of deep crimson blood spraying from opposite sides of his paw. Connie and the Meister stared at the blood-matted fur, the sudden spurts of dark red having already left streaks across the table that led to the puddle forming on the floor beneath his outstretched arm. It continued to spread as both of their attentions turned back to Dipper. Or at least what had been Dipper.

The form that rose to stand on the other side of the table was no longer trembling, but instead bulged within the school’s uniform robes. A tufted tail swished back and forth behind him while a pair of bull horns, stained red from where they had ripped through the Meister’s paw, seethed up and down between ragged breaths as droplets ran down their ivory shafts. If anyone else in the hall was breathing, Connie couldn’t hear it.

“Put her down,” growled the bulging mass of muscles as he placed his fists, knuckles down, on the table. He had Dipper’s face and stood no taller than the gangly teen that Connie had known for the last several months but was in almost every other way was completely different. He clenched his fists against the table and veins rippled up his arms. It looked like he was about to charge his way through the table. And, with the bull of a body he had taken on, he might just be able to do it.

The Meister glanced over the beefcake that Dipper had turned into, especially the blood-coated horns, then back at his still bleeding paw. He made a barely acknowledging “Hmm,” then let his right arm drop to his side while his left, vine-like arm slackened around Connie. A moment later she slipped from its clenched grip and stumbled as she dropped the foot or two she’d been lifted into the air.

As Connie fought to maintain her balance, Dipper positively glowered at the older man while the Meister looked him over as if seeing something nifty for the first time. As he did, the Meister’s arms slowly shifted back to what they had started as though still bleeding throughout and after the reverse transformation had completed. All the while he just kept looking, surmising, maybe even…grading?

“Not bad,” Meister Tennyson said at last, not completely dismissive but not fully impressed either. “Were you going for a partial Baphomet or is this something else?”

Dipper’s glare was broken by confusion. No doubt taken aback by the Meister’s seamless transition from threatening to mild interest as if the two weren’t wholly unrelated. As if the latter hadn’t just been trying to squash the former just a moment before. Though, being the teacher and all, Meister Tennyson might not see even a prodigy like Dipper as much of a threat or something to take interest in even when he had transformed into…to…well, transformed into whatever he currently was.

Dipper looked down at himself, biting his lip briefly before replying, “I think I’m a manotaur. A group…used to live somewhere I visited once.”

The Meister gave another little “Hmmm,” then waved his non-pierced hand dismissively, sending droplets of blood off to the side. “Good enough then. You’re all dismissed.”

“Wait a sec,” Dipper demanded before the Meister could fully turn away. “You just tried to kill me and could have hurt Connie, and now you’re just going to walk away as if it didn’t happen?”

The Meister looked back and grinned. And while Connie tried not to think this way about teacher, she couldn’t help but see it as the very definition of a shit-eating grin if ever there was one.

“I may not like any of you little shits,” he began. “But even I wouldn’t just outright kill a student. Bump would have my head if I didn’t have a good reason. So don’t give me one.”

With that he once again turned to leave before the blood could pool anymore at his feet. Though Connie forced him to stop again before he got very far. “Sir, your arm.”

He turned once again, this time with no shit-eating grin but back to the scowl he had come in with. He threw up his pierced hand, flaps of blood-drenched skin hanging off either side, before saying, “Where do you think I’m going?”

“Not that one,” Connie said, drawing back a bit. Luckily Lion, now free from his magic bindings, was there for her to put her weight against. She also felt his nose against her hand. “The other.”

Meister Tennyson turned his attention to his left arm, the one that had briefly been wrapped around Connie’s body as she’d been hoisted in the air. There, running out his sleeve and over his hand, were several trickles of blood. A mere fraction of the amount spurting from his right hand, but still clearly there as the light gleaned off the red liquid. The Meister looked at his left hand, eyes narrowing slightly, then pulled at his sleeve. The blood gushing from that hand stained the cloth in an instant, but he paid it no heed as he brought the sleeve far enough up to reveal a second wound. There, right around the interior of his elbow, were eight small holes.

He looked at them with as much interest as he’d recognized his other, much worse, wound, then glanced at Connie’s own hands. “Maybe you won’t be a complete waste of time after all.”

Connie followed his gaze and felt the blood drain from her face once she saw the coating of it that stained each of her fingers. Lion, who had already been sniffing at her hands, licked a few fingers’ worth away and Connie blanched even further.

“B-but how…” she managed to get out as spiders ran up her spine at the just the thought of blood, human or otherwise, literally on her hands. With it actually being there she was practically transfixed, helpless to look away from the red liquid being licked away by her pet. But despite the size and thoroughness of his tongue, a smear of the red liquid remained to stain her dark fingers. “I couldn’t even scratch your arm before.”

He gave a single condescending laugh. “I guess you’ll just have to figure it out then, won’t you?”

By the time Connie managed to tear her eyes away from her reddened fingers the Meister was stepping into the cavernous hallway Lion should have and Rigby had arrived through. A trail of blood following him on each side, one large and the other made of thin droplets, as he disappeared into the shadows of the darkened hallway leading to the stables. Leaving the class with the last word of “Dismissed,” before completely disappearing.

Connie staggered her way back to her seat, needing the support after what had just happened. As she did, the rest of the hall started to chatter and talk as if a completely normal class had just ended and not with her and Dipper almost getting maimed. Dipper, by the way, had collapsed into his own seat by the time she made it back to hers. He was still the bull of a man he had transformed into, with bulging muscles, the tail hanging off the side of his chair, and the still blood-stained horns rising above his head. If he still didn’t have that babyface she might not have been able to guess it was even him. For some reason though, the part that made him seem the most different was his feet. Because they weren’t there anymore. Instead, a pair of thick hooves held fast against the floor. Almost everything else about how he’d changed could, at least hypothetically, be explained away. But not those hooves.

While Connie was content to just collapse into her own chair while the rest of the hall was starting to get out of theirs, the natives and hellborn that had joined them in the row had taken to leaning over one another to inspect the no longer gangly Dipper. But, while Sprig, Spike, and even Fluttershy were trying to get in close to poke at or feel his newly formed muscles or even his horns despite the drying blood on them, Luz had the good sense to lean over to Connie instead and ask, “Still alright after your first class?”

Connie let her head slide a little bit to the side, just enough for the curious collection of demons to disappear from the side of her vision. “When you said there’s be drama this isn’t what I imagined.”

Luz smiled and shrugged. “It’s a right of passage in this class. You two were just the only new students he had to mess with this trimester. Plus, now’s he’s at least a little impressed. That’s hard to do with Tennyson.”

Connie took a deep breath and glanced back at Dipper. While he hadn’t said anything to ward off his gaggle of muscle-feelers, his chin had dropped to his chest and his eyes were firmly glued to the floor between his hooves as the trio poked, squeezed, and complimented his new physique. The flush on his face and the look in his eyes told Connie all she needed to know about how he felt about this change. Even if he had partially managed it in order to help her, she was already wishing that he hadn’t.

Chapter Text

“Come on, Anne,” Miko insisted as she dragged Anne across campus by the wrist. “Tennyson always lets out early on the first day.”

While Anne hadn’t been lucky enough for it to happen in college, the whole situation was very nostalgic for her. Miko may have been shorter than the girl Anne was thinking about, being a little hippier with longer and more colorful hair too, but that sense of purpose mixed with excitement was so familiar to way she always had been. And while she had never dressed up with fake wings, teeth, and a tail, instead opting for more basic fantasy outfits of whatever game or movie she was hyper-fixating on for whatever con or event she was going to, it still sent a wave of nostalgia snaking up her spine.

Anne wished she’d let herself be dragged to more of those conventions.

“I don’t really need an escort.” Anne nearly bit her tongue as Miko swerved to avoid a couple of fish natives. “I do remember what building my track’s supposed to be in.”

“But I promised Sprig I’d help show you around until he could,” Miko noted, looking back over her shoulder with a big grin. “Plus, I want to check on Dipper. He seems like he might work himself too hard and he’s still got like seven classes left today.”

She was right about Dipper, though that added another reason for Anne not to want to be dragged around this morning. It was just three days ago she’d been picking up the mess she’d made in his dorm room, since her latest mistake… He wasn’t going to want to see her being brought along, to check on him of all things. As if he’d believe she cared. There was no blaming him for not wanting them to be around each other more than they had to be.

“You could get there quicker without me,” Anne said as Miko swerved around another group of demons. The new witch’s tiny wings flapped as if to steady her as she rushed them along the path, as if keeping her balanced. If Twilight hadn’t explained that those wings and tail were “the products” of illusion magic Anne would have thought that’s exactly what they were doing. That was the major difference that kept Anne from really getting swept up in nostalgia. She had dressed up to be with the people like her. Miko dressed up so the people she wasn’t like would leave her alone. “Sprig won’t mind if I just meet him at the Construction class.”

If anything, this suggestion caused Miko’s grip to tighten. “It’s no trouble. Today’s the easy mode of campus traversal. I’ll make copies of the hard mode schedule I figured out last trimester, just so you don’t get trapped between a brick wall and some nerds not looking where they’re going.”

Anne didn’t bother arguing anymore after that, especially not with the Ziarh hall coming into sight. And it looked like it wouldn’t have mattered even if she had, because Miko had been right about the Beast Keeping class getting out early. A steady stream of students with orange sleeves and leggings was already pouring out of the building’s main entrance. A few of them had another color worked into their uniform, but it was mostly orange under the greys of their uniforms. A different, darker orange from Miko’s though. Hers was much brighter, like her personality. At least when she wasn’t being bullied.

They found a pillar near the edge of the stream of students to stop by, both to catch their breaths and to wait for Dipper and Sprig to come out. That girl Luz should be there too now that Anne thought about it. She seemed pretty cool, and like she knew her way around. And wasn’t she in a lot of Dipper’s classes too? Which meant Dipper really didn’t need anyone to come check on–

“There’s Luz!” Miko shouted as the last drips of the stream of students made their way out of the hall, thrusting her hand up in the air to wave them over.

And, indeed, it was. She looked just like the others had described her, right down to the manacles clamped down on her wrists and ankles. Which were almost lost to the brightness of her sleeves and leggings compared to all the other students around her. Except for the black sleeve of her right arm, the red, blue, and greenish colors set her well apart from the sea of orange around her, splashes of other colors or not. Personally, Anne was a bit jealous of the blue Luz and Dipper got in their uniforms, even if it wasn’t her usual color. But regardless, while Anne had been asleep or nearly asleep during a chunk of things being explained to or around her, she had managed to catch enough to know that Luz had been here for a while and unlike Miko had managed to ing…ingraci…well she couldn’t remember what the word Twilight had used was but it meant mix in with the hellborn and natives. Which meant if she went along with whatever Luz did then she should manage not to get herself killed while down here. Which was the goal, she guessed, along with getting home. Besides finding the one her wish had been about, but who knew if that part of the ritual that had opened the way to Goliath was actually meant to be answered or not.

Luz, seeming relaxed and at ease as anyone among the exiting students, returned Miko’s wave before then waving the small group around her to follow. Anne almost hadn’t recognized that among that small group was Connie, who unlike Luz looked utterly exhausted. That was different to say the least. Anne was supposed to be the only one in their group with bags that dark under her eyes, but Connie looked to be making a run for that prize.

Behind her and maybe attempting to be considerate or consoling where Sprig, a shark-boy, and a tall, yellow-skinned girl. Anne thought maybe she’d seen the shark before, but she figured she would have remembered the pink-haired lemon-drop of a girl if they’d met. It wasn’t often she ran into another girl as tall as her with as good if not a better figure. There was also the horns, tail, hooves, and wings, but Anne was getting used to looking past all that. Even if she’d spent half her time in hell asleep, she’d figured by then that if she gawked at everyone with something pointy of flappy she’d never have the time to pick her jaw off the floor. Which just left…

“Mama mia…” Miko said in disbelief as the small group approached and parted enough to reveal Dipper lagging behind. Both she and Anne couldn’t help but stare. He was…was…just completely jacked. No taller, and with the same baby face, but totally jacked. And also with bull horns on his head and hooves where his feet should have been? It was a lot to take in. More so by Miko if anyone asked, but Anne did have to remind herself he wouldn’t want her jaw dropping around him.

“What happened to you?” Anne dared to ask as she and Miko were absorbed into the makeshift group of beast keeping students. She could tell he didn’t want to talk about it at all, no matter who was asking, when he didn’t even bother shooting her the glare she was so used to. Though lacking that didn’t make her feel less guilty about…

“Tennyson put him through the ringer,” Luz said cooly before patting one of Dipper’s enlarged shoulders. Then added, “But at least now you know his threats aren’t lethal. Unless you’re overly attached to your grades I guess, he will still mess with those.”

“And you did very well for your first time,” the frosted lemon-drop said shyly. Which to Anne seemed like exactly the type of thing a girl like her might have to say to more than a few over-eager boys in her time.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you,” Connie said from off to the side. Despite not seeming as down as Dipper, she was standing a bit apart from the others.

“Scuse me,” Anne noted before anyone else could step in with more platitudes, “can someone dumb what happened down for me? How’d you get so swole, Dipper?”

“Nanomachines, son…” Miko said in awe. She had been flitting around and between the group to take in Dipper from different angles, now standing practically on top of him as she poked one of his bulging chest muscles. Maybe the sweet piece of konpeito had been down here on her own for a little longer than she should have.

“The beast keeping Meister forced out some transformation magic,” Sprig explained from where he’d squatted beside her. “Under threat of death.”

Anne could hear the implied thundercrack behind Sprig’s voice and loved it. But, even with juicy drama to be had, that didn’t seem like something a teach should be doing. Even a teacher in hell. At least not from what she’d seen so far of hell. Aside from all the pointy and flappy bits she’d already written off, the people down here just seemed like people back home. Maybe there were worse parts of hell though, where the “Sinners” at large were sent and that was the bad place you’re supposed to think about when you heard the word hell.

“I figured you’d pull something out,” Luz added. Her manacles clunked against one another as she crossed her arms and nodded. “Though I wasn’t expecting a mythical being.”

Dipper let out a long sigh before glancing at Miko, who had moved from his chest to his arm, then saying, “Manotaurs aren’t mythical. They’re just…cryptids with a frat mentality. It’s why I stopped hanging out with them.”

The humans of the group all blinked in surprise. Dipper had a way of talking when he explained things like he knew about whatever he was explaining from experience. But there was a difference between knowing about bull people and knowing some bull people.

“You’ve met…” Connie started slowly, motioning to his body as a whole, “things like this? Back up on earth?”

He swished his tail out of Miko’s hands and looked down at himself. Grimacing at the sight, he shrugged and said, “There used to be a bunch of out-there stuff around where my great uncle lived. Haven’t found a place quite as weird since it…since that summer ended.” Even Anne, as the self-accepting dumb one of the group, could tell whatever had happened there wasn’t something he wanted to talk about.

“Right now all I care about is changing back though,” he continued, glancing at the more established students for help in that department.

“But you’re so muscly,” Miko complained, now behind him as she inspected the contour of his shoulders.

“Any tips?” Dipper, ignoring Miko, asked Sprig, the shark boy and the lemon drop.

“I’m sorry,” lemon drop girl said, sounding as if she’d done something wrong. “I’ve never been good at transformation myself. My beast keeping magic is in preparation for keeping and caring for animals after I graduate.”

“I’m about the same,” Sprig chimed in. “I’m only in the track because it’ll help back on the farm.”

Anne shuddered at the thought of the beasts Sprig was training to deal with. Remembering Bessie’s jaws closing around part of her head or the dragon swooping in to pick she and Sprig off were not her favorite things to even consider being near for a living. As happy as she was to be an honorary part of the Plantar family, even if their three months together hadn’t been real, the idea of Sprig working with or even being around those creatures for the rest of his life made her want to nope right the hell out.

Dipper sighed again. “Thanks anyway.”

“Don’t worry about it too much,” the purple and green shark boy said. He had crossed his arms and put on a smug look, so Anne could only guess that he was about to grant some pearl of wisdom about the current situation. “Learning to revert is a personal thing, but no matter how thorough the transformation it’ll always ware off after a while. I’d guess about two hours.”

Dipper looked at him the same way Anne felt, that it was an answer but not one that deserved such smugness.

Dipper groaned, “Two classes of this?”

“Maybe three,” the shark said with a small shrug. “But probably not any more than that.”

As Dipper groaned again, Miko popped back out from behind him. She must have finished whatever little investigation into his new, jacked body she’d been conducting because she had finally managed to pull her eyes away from his chest and up to his face. “If it really bothers you, I can help with your look.”

Everyone’s attention turned to her. Anne wondered if it was the light blue or the orange of her uniform that would be in play here. She knew the darker orange Connie and the others wore was for beast keeping, and she was pretty sure the darker blue she’d seen a few wearing was for healing, plus her own brown was for construction, but aside from obvious ones like green for plants she didn’t remember what most of the other colors equated to magic-wise. She should probably take a minute to memorize it, considering she was now at a school all about it.

“You can?” Dipper said, and with such hope that Anne almost had to take a step back. The look on his face wasn’t one that she’d ever seen on him, even before…all this, when he’d been livelier and more outgoing in the club. But here, with a light in his eyes as he looked to Miko and her offer. An offer that seemed like nothing to her, something she could do offhand, but brightened up Dipper’s face to the point his own, smaller eye bags almost disappeared in the moment.

“Yeah, sure,” she replied, holding up her left hand as she prepared to cast a spell. However, it wasn’t her held up finger that glowed as she traced a circle in the air, but the silver bracelet she wore on the same wrist. The heavy metal thing wasn’t as clunky or massive as the manacles on Luz’s wrists and ankles, more like a weightier version of the stretchy bracelets Molly wore.

The light blue circle grew out from Miko’s silver bracelet, then rose to where she’d originally drawn the circle in the air to begin with. From there she swiped the circle towards Dipper as if swiping across the screen of a tablet. His eyes widened as the circle crossed the few inches between he and Miko, but he seemed no worse for ware as the glowing light passed into his chest. There was a moment where the circle could still be seen through his clothes, but it soon passed and with it the light faded away. Which just left Dipper, still a muscular beefcake standing there amid a gaggle of demons and “witches” as if nothing had just happened.

“Was that supposed to–”

Dipper was cut off as a poof of blue smoke billowed up around him, the same color as Miko’s spell circle and tights. The same color as her eyes now that Anne thought about it. Then, as if summoned just for that moment, a soft breeze came sweeping in around them. With it the smoke was swept away almost as quickly as if it had poofed into existence. Leaving, once again, just Dipper.

He looked down at himself as Anne and the surrounding group did the same. Again his eyes widened. But this time, as the color returned to his weary face, it wasn’t in surprise or dismay. Anne didn’t think she’d ever seen him make such an expression. It was hard for her to even describe it. The best way she could think of it wasn’t how his face changed, but in how he reacted to what had happened.

“Thank you!” he bellowed as his arms, back to the string beans they’d been before just like the rest of him, wrapped around Miko and pulled her in tight against him. Her tail and wings stuck out rigid as her own face filled with color, what of it Anne could see as Dipper held her against his chest. And, if dramas had taught Anne anything, that wasn’t just the color of surprise or embarrassment, but those cheeks also had a shade of–

“…can’t…breathe,” Miko muffled into Dipper’s chest. At once he released his hold on where he’d grabbed Miko by the waist, though not on her shoulders as he held her steady. A necessity as her head bobbed around in a circle from the apparent lack of oxygen Dipper’s embraced had forced on her.

“S-sorry,” he stammered. “I was just so glad to be me again.”

“You’ve still got the muscles,” she said, holding her head in one hand and onto one of his arms with the other. And, as she said it, Anne noticed that Miko’s hand didn’t look like it was actually resting on his arm but on the air just above it. “I just made you look like you again. See.”

She reached up and swatted at the air above Dipper’s head, grasping at empty space but looking like she’d found a handhold as her fingers wrapped around seemingly nothing at all. She jerked her arm down and Dipper’s head jerked down at the same time. So he was still a beefcake with horns and everything, at least for the time being, he just looked like he wasn’t. Anne wouldn’t mind being able to do something like that for the occasional pimple or blemish. Ever since she and her…other friend had stopped talking she’d had to figure out dealing with that kind of thing herself, and unfortunately she’d never taken to that kind of stuff.”

“I always forget you’re in the illusion track,” the shark boy said as he appraised her work.

Miko’s brows, almost completely hidden beneath her bangs, raised as she looked from Dipper to the shark, then down to her own legs. Another small breeze lifted her skirt just enough to show a bit more of her light blue leggings and just a flash of the milky leg between them and what lay beyond. Anne caught herself starting to bite her lip as she thought of another, slightly tanner, bare leg she’d only been able to imagine for the past few years. Hopefully no one else caught that.

“Are the legs not telling enough?”

The shark boy’s eyes started down towards Miko’s voluminous hips before he realized what he was doing and refocused on her eyes. Anne had to catch a laugh in her throat before it could come rolling out. At least he had some good sense. Anne herself had been the focus of enough unwanted male gazes that she could just imagine hips like Miko’s drawing them in like a magnet. Anne did realize she wasn’t always better when it came to the gazing though…

“You just never do much with it,” he went on, not breaking her gaze. Was it a fear of retaliation if he looked too long, simple natural guilt, or perhaps an existing special someone he didn’t want to betray by letting his eyes wonder too long. As usual, Anne was voting for the latter. It had the most opportunity for drama. Which prompted a glance in Sprig’s direction. She still hadn’t met the arranged wife to be in the love triangle that was her not-frog brother’s life. She knew there had been some spice she’d been missing since waking up. She’d have to dig into him later for more details before she had the chance to get distracted and forget again.

“Regardless,” Dipper cut back in after shaking his invisible horn free, “thanks, Miko. I wouldn’t want to walk around the rest of the day like that.”

The smile spread across his face as he looked at her was bigger than all the ones Anne had ever seen him make put together, not that she personally had ever given him a reason to. And Miko was smiling right back while still holding his arm. Maybe not as earnestly, but the color in those cheeks made it clear she was feeling more than just pride in a job well done. Anne could see something even if the first flush of color had been more from suffocation than anything else. And who knows, maybe she’d like Dipper giving her a different reason not to be able to bre–

“This’ll probably make your construction class easier too,” Sprig added in. He had decided to imitate shark-boy to an extent, crossing his arms as he prepared to deliver his statement, though he had the good sense not to look as overly smug about it. “Going in with a little extra muscle can’t hurt.”

“I wouldn’t count on it.” Luz’s mouth crinkled as she gave a meager shrug. She seemed cool. “Meister Diaz might be more laid back than a lot of the teachers here, but he’s still one of them. I wouldn’t expect any magic but construction to work in there.”

This seemed to peak Dipper’s interest, at least enough to wrench his attention away from Miko. “So they can all negate our magic? Like with that thing those jerks had?”

Luz rolled her shoulders as she considered what to say. “Sort of. What those Hogwarts rejects had could limit magic in a small area around whoever used it, but the Meisters can shut down all magic outside what they’re teaching. Mostly their classrooms, but there’s some other parts of campus where they have say over who can use what. Not completely sure how though.”

“Well, even if he can, there’s no way Meister Diaz’s class could be anywhere as bad as Tennyson’s.” Dipper seemed to shudder at the last teacher’s name. But even if the guy had somehow forced out the transformation magic, Anne didn’t know how bad could he really be if he’d let them out early. That was her gage for as good a teacher as someone could be in her book.

---

The group dwindled as they made their way to one of the other three nearly identical main buildings that classes took part in. Sprig and the shark boy, who Anne finally gleaned was named Spike, were the first to peel off, followed by the lemondrop not too long after. That was a shame. It wasn’t often Anne could look another girl in the eye without having to crane her head down. Though, as much as she hated to see Fluttershy leave, it wasn’t the worst thing to watch her go.

The last was Miko, who remained latched on to the shrinking group and particularly Dipper, right up to the doors of their destination. She waved her hands around him and pat him down again before she went, both palms glowing light blue from another set of circles as she checked to make sure her illusion would stick until they saw each other later. Anne didn’t want to even think about all the intro classes Dipper was going to have sit through. Her one class already seemed daunting and she hadn’t even gotten there yet. Not to mention all the regular classes she’d have to go back to whenever they figured out how to get back to topside, but at least they had ‘til spring break week ended to figure that out. And she was sure Dipper and Twilight would figure that out, because if they didn’t her coach would kill her for missing matches and her mom would kill her for missing classes. Then she’d just be down here again anyway.

 Anne didn’t even attempt to try and pronounce the hall’s name or title or whatever it was. Luz assured her she could just call it the earth hall and everyone would know what she was talking about, so that was one less thing she’d have to worry about. And the less she had to worry about the better, not when she hadn’t even seen a trace of who she was looking for or figured out how to look for her in the long run. She had to hold in the sigh as one worry was just replaced by another.

The lecture hall Luz led them into after Miko finished patting down Dipper wasn’t too far removed from some of Anne’s classes back at Rev U. The auditorium-style seating with each row higher than the one before it was almost a welcome sight given where they were. Anne had half expected some kind of torture chairs to be waiting for them, though since they were having to take classes during spring break it seemed more like a tomato-tomahto kind of situation. The full tables working as desk space was a nice addition though. Rev U. just had those little pull-out desks which were practically useless.

Dipper commented about starting to see a pattern as they filled in towards the first row of seating where Steven was waiting for them, part of the row blocked off behind his towering mass of muscles. If Anne had to guess his last two classes hadn’t been very different from what they were looking at now. Maybe different colored rooms though. The outside of each building was at least a little differently colored, and Anne didn’t think the browns and greens that colored this room would fit in the other buildings they’d passed on the way here. At least not if she’d been in charge of coloring them.

There was one thing he seemed surprised about. Well, maybe not surprised, but a little confused or taken aback about. After following a pattern of curving lines between straight lines that wound their way around the room, his attention caught on the far wall. He didn’t say anything about it, but as Anne followed his gaze she thought she caught what he was looking at. While it was the same color and had the same design of straight and curving lines worked into it, the far wall opposite where they’d come in was build differently than the other three that made up the room. Unlike the others, that one wasn’t a solid wall of stone, but built of six panels one on top of the other that ran all the way from one side of the room to the other with clear seams between each.

Luz said something to him about it being construction’s version on what they’d seen in beast keeping, and that it’d make sense once Diaz showed up. Which was a whole lot of words that didn’t help Anne understand what they were going on a about. Not that she was going to admit that if this Diaz guy was going to show up and explain it later anyway. So she kept her mouth shut as she filled in a seat at the far end of the row, letting Luz and Steven take the chairs between her and Dipper. Which was probably for the best.

The other students that filed in as they waited for class to start were a mixed bag. Almost all of them wore just the brown-colored construction sleeves and leggings she did, though a few here and there had another color augmenting it. Like that girl way in the back with the autumn-colored hair. Her leggings were brown but her short sleeves were a dark green that stood out against her own light-green skin. There was also some guy with dog ears and a tail who, even with his wrist in a cast, reminded Anne of that dog she’d dreamed about throwing. Which was just a weird thing to dream in general. Even if she was a cat person, she’d never even thought about hurting a dog before. Much less throwing one.

Before she had the chance to take in anymore of the sights that were the very student body of her new school, a voice cut in. “Looks like nearly everyone’s already here, that always makes things easier.”

Anne turned back around to see a massive wolf’s head emerging from behind the singular desk at the front of the classroom. Not just a head, but a whole-ass wolf-man. Thick brown fur and robes similar to the students yet more intricate covered his impressive body. A body that, once he’d emerged from whatever opening must have behind his desk, seemed to tower above even Anne herself in height as he walked along the front row, his glowing red eyes sweeping across the student body that had assembled before him. He probably wasn’t actually that much taller than Anne, less than half a foot for sure, but she wasn’t used to having to look up at people and he had her there even with the slight hunch his canine upper body came with.

“For the couple new students and those of you who may have forgotten, I’m Meister Diaz,” he continued as he passed their stretch of the row, nodding his head towards Dipper’s side of their little group. “I’m in charge of general studies when it comes to construction magic, so expect to see a lot of me, especially for those of you leaning towards the body strengthening side of the tract. That’s my specialty after all.”

By the time he’d finished his short spiel, Meister Diaz had made his way to the far wall of the room, the one Dipper and Luz had been talking about looking different from the other halls. It was there, if only to show off that specialty of his, that he kneeled down and slid his fingers under the wall’s bottom-most seam, right where it met the floor. At the same moment Anne’s eyes widened as a glowing circle of brown light formed around his wrist. It was just like the ones she’d made when she’d thrown that dragon-thing! Finally the pieces were starting to click about why she she’d been placed in this “track,” and what she might get out of it until the eggheads in their coven found a way to get them home.

The muscles under Meister Diaz’s fur clenched before, in one massive movement, he pulled up. His arm rose up in the air and the wall slid upwards, the horizontal panels turning at each seam as they slid up and then sideways into the ceiling above. Panels that Anne could see, once the speed and force of Diaz’s movement had launched the segmented wall well above eye level, must have been two or three feet thick. And he’d launched it all upward as if it was nothing. For the first time in her life Anne was actually excited about what she might learn in a classroom. Because if she had already managed to throw that big lizard without knowing what she was doing, she could only imagine what she might be able to do once she did. Her forehand strokes would be unstoppable! And her overhead smashes might actually be able to break the court.

Anne could feel her mischievous grin spreading across her face, at least that’s what she had always called it. No one had come up with names for any of her expressions in a while now, that she’d made too many worth noting in just as long…

As that unhappy reminder of what she had joined the club for in the first place reared its ugly head, Anne almost missed what had been revealed on the other side of the wall. While she’d been imagining how the other girls in the Rev. U tennis program might look when she showed them once and for all that she wasn’t too gangly or “top heavy” to play the game, a large field had been revealed. It’s reddish-pink grass swayed in the gentle breeze that rolled across it and into the classroom as several buildings marked its edges.

At least one of those buildings was one of the dorms they’d been assigned to, but a series of smaller ones lined the field as well. Anne supposed those smaller buildings must be where other, more specialized or specific classes must take place. At least if it was anything like Rev. U back home. Maybe someone had even mentioned something like that to her in the last couple of days. Now that she’d caught up on her three months of missed sleep she’d probably have to start paying more attention to tidbits like that.

“Now we’re going to do a little get-to-know-you activity,” Meister Diaz said. He hadn’t stood back up from his kneeling position. Instead, the arm he’d thrown the wall up with had lowered back down, the fingers of that hand now spread and pressed against the floor. Anne watched as the circle around his wrist expanded, glowed brighter, then sank down until it had passed his fingers and sunk into the floor itself.

The floor began to shake, not that anyone would have guessed from the way the Meister stood and continued talking as if nothing had changed. “On top of giving you the opportunity to show off where you’re at or gotten to since the last time you were tested, this will also help me judge where you’re all at for class assignments and such. So dexterity-focused come line up on the left, earth-movers and strength-focused students on the right.

The other students stood and grumbled to themselves as the ground continued to shake, leaving only Anne and Dipper in their seats to watch what the Meister had set into motion. The ground was continuing to shake but not the earth directly beneath them, it was the field. From under that swaying grass pillars and molded shapes of rock and dirt rose into the air across the left half of the previously empty space. Each pillar or barrier or whatever the next thing might be shifted and twisted in place, forming a mass of interconnected…things that at first looked like pure chaos but soon a familiarity started to set in. Ladders built into the side of some pillars, rings suspended dozens of feet in the air, tilted barriers meant to be run up and jumped off of from one to the next. The Meister had summoned a giant obstacle course, one that put the likes of American Ninja Warrior to shame.

Seeing that feat of creation, Anne turned her attention to the right side of the field as she excitedly tried to see what else they had in store for her. But, to her confusion, she saw only a patch of freshly tilled ground spreading across the right side of the field where it met the classroom floor. But that couldn’t be all he done for the other half of the class, could it? And if so, what did softening up the dirt and getting some grass out of the way accomplish?

Luz motioned for her and Dipper to follow, leading to them filing out of the row and between the two groups forming along the edge of where the classroom met the field.

“I’m mostly dex when it comes to this track,” Luz said with a bob of her chin towards the left group, the one in front of the obstacle course. “Based on what I’ve seen from you two you should probably start with the Meister’s side though.”

“Sounds right,” Steven chimed in, already leaning into the right group. Which only made sense for him to be in, someone with that set of muscles should be going for strength over dexterity. “Plus, he’ll want to talk to you two anyway.”

As if it had been planned that way, the Meister immediately followed up Steven’s comment by calling over to them, “Dipper, Anne, why don’t you join me over here for now.”

Anne looked to Dipper for his take on the matter, but he didn’t return the look. Nor did he so much as glance at her as he started through the crowd of students, leaving her to hurry along in his wake. The only sign he gave that even acknowledged she was there were his hands clenching into fists anytime she got too close as she followed along. Though, like with just about every way he reacted to her, she couldn’t blame him.

“Hang here for a sec,” the Meister said once they’d made their way to him. He then turned towards the dexterity group and called out so all could hear, “Huntress, Luz, start things off for your side.”

As Luz and the green-skinned girl Anne had noticed earlier made their way to the front of the group the Meister continued, “As usual, the course will track your time and magic-used, so give it your all. Though, as a reminder for anyone that might need it, this isn’t a combat exercise. Anyone who puts their classmates in danger will not like what I do to them, is that clear?”

A new grumble of “Yes, Meister” murmured its way out of the left group.

“Good,” the Meister said. “Everyone watch Huntress and Luz so you know what to do, then start in groups of two or three. The course will track you individually, so don’t worry if someone starts a second or two before you, just do your best. Starting, now!”

At his signal, Luz and the Huntress girl launched themselves over the starting line, small swirls of dirt and dust trailing behind them. Luz’s arms and legs were pumping, with one of those manacles of hers glowing bright royal blue to match her effort. But no matter how much Luz was pushing, how fast she reached then climbed the spires, jumped the barriers, or swung from the rings, the other girl was always ahead. Darting forward more like a bullet with her arms held out behind her when not being used to swing or vault herself from, over, or around something, Huntress moved through the course like it was her natural habitat. A blur of green and grey that steadily pulled ahead of Luz, though never too far as the course’s winding path brought them both back around and towards the starting line. A line Huntress slid across as she came to a stop not two minutes after starting, which was more than a few seconds before Luz pushed her way across the line before sputtering to a stop mid stride. Huntress looked like she’d just gone out to get the mail and back while Luz was panting and sweating and Anne wouldn’t have been surprised if she just went and collapsed.

“Now that they’re all set,” Meister Diaz’s voice cut in, “I want the two of you to tell me what your good at when it come to this track.”

To Anne’s surprise, the right-side group had splintered into teams of two along the tilled edge of the field while she had been watching Luz and Huntress’s race. Which meant she had missed whatever else the Meister had said after telling them to go. So that wasn’t great. And went back to the whole “paying attention” thing she needed to work on.

“I’ve gone over body enhancing magic in my grimoire,” Dipper said without missing a beat. “But I haven’t had an opportunity to practice it. Earth-moving I can do though.”

“Good to know,” the Meister said, nodding before turning his attention to Anne. “And you?”

“Um…strength, I guess,” she managed to say without tripping over own tongue. “I threw a dragon the other day and that went pretty well.” She didn’t mention that had been the only time she’d used her magic, aside from the dog dream.

The edges of the Meister’s mouth tugged upward just a bit. “You don’t say. You know, I used to have a dragon. She was a good girl, like a scaley motorcycle that purred.” His eyes grew distant and smile faltered, but it was only for a moment. With a shake of his head his attention returned to her and Dipper before continuing. “Anyway, that’s perfect. Earth-mover and strength, go ahead and start what I explained to the group already.”

“Which was….”

“I’m making rocks and you’re throwing them,” Dipper said before she could sneak a peek back at what the rest of their side was doing.

Not that she would have needed to even a second later as the first of many rumbling crashes caused a plume of dust, dirt, and debris to go flying farther down the field, the fragmented remains of a boulder left in the newly formed crater. The one who had thrown it? Well the only one straightening up from a massive swing was Steven, a massive brown magic circle not around either of his arms, but glowing on his chest.

“Very good,” Meister Diaz said to Steven, then to the rest of the group, “Nobody push yourselves too far, but that’s what we’re working towards.”

Once the rest of the pairs along the tilled patch of dirt were going again, one member calling forth rocks of increasing size out of the dirt before the other chucked it as far as they could, Diaz once again turned his full attention to she and Dipper. “Your turn.”

Still without looking at her, Dipper flexed his fingers. With the flick of his wrist a blue magic circle spun itself into the palm of his hand and, while pulling his arm up as if lifting a piece of luggage, the baren dirt rumbled and parted as a stone about the size of Anne’s head rose up like a ping-pong ball surfacing from under the water.

“You certainly made that look easy,” the Meister commented as he eyed the large stone.

“You said to start low effort and work up.” Dipper pointed at the rock he’d just pulled out of the ground. “I’ve controlled a lot bigger than that even without the guiding arm movements, but I have less control over the size when I…conjure like that.”

“Hmmmm.” The Meister contemplated what he was seeing for a moment longer, tapping the end of his muzzle. “Make another, the same size.”

Anne watched as Dipper did as he was told, the process flanked by the heavy thuds of thrown rocks to their right and heavy foot falls as the classmates doing the obstacle course crossed the finish line back onto the finished classroom floor to their left. But sure enough, in short order another stone of about the same size popped out of the ground. This one was a bit blockier compared to the general curved sides of the first one he’d made, but beside that they looked like they weighed the same general amount.

“Good,” the Meister noted after giving the second stone a once over like he had the first. “Now both of you go ahead and throw.”

Dipper’s eyes widened. Not to the point they had when– Anne shook her head to stop the comparison in her mind. As little as she could remember from those moments, she knew she shouldn’t be making comparisons to that. It wasn’t fair to him and made her feel even worse about it than she already did. Nonetheless, the anxiety she saw spread over his face wasn’t something he usually let show. If he ever normally felt it.

“But I haven’t practiced–”

The Meister gut him off with a held-up finger. “Everyone has their specialty, but you still need to be able to use Construction magic in each of its applications. A little at least. And given the color of your magic circles, you’ll be more than capable once you get in the groove. So think of this as your first practice.”

Anne realized, as Dipper chewed on what he’d just been told while staring down at the closer rock to him like it was a puzzle waiting to be solved, that besides Luz he was the only one here whose magic circles were that shade of royal blue. Everyone else, including that Huntress girl who was nonchalantly watching from where she leaned against one of the tables, had light brown circles. Whether in the palm of their hands when calling up rocks or around their wrists or ankles when throwing those rocks or running the course, that blue was nowhere else to be seen. Was this another one of those things that she just hadn’t been paying enough attention to earlier? Or was she going to have find a time to ask about it later? It was starting to make her head hurt just thinking about all the things she was going to have keep straight.

“I could tell you what it feels like when I–”

“I don’t want any of your tips,” Dipper said without looking at her. Her grip tightened on the stone she’d already picked up. She knew it had been a stupid idea to try to tell him how to do it. But, even if she didn’t blame him for not wanting her input about something like strength, she had still just wanted to be helpful. There were so few moments where she actually had that kind of opportunity that she couldn’t help herself. “I’ll figure it out.”

Anne looked at the Meister, who shrugged before inclining his head towards the field. Clear enough. She at least needed to go ahead. So she thought back to how she had called on that strength before. What it had felt like and how she had been feeling. Both the time with the dragon and the dream about the dog. The fear, anger, and annoyance that had pushed her to give all the strength she had until she tapped into a spring of it that had never been there before. A spring so deep and wide that she couldn’t imagine ever being able to use it all, but that wouldn’t keep her from using however much she could. However much she needed.

Anne’s own brown circles of light flared into existence around each of her wrists. She wouldn’t need much of that strength for the rock, it was maybe ten to twelve pounds, but she still wanted it to go farther than she could normally manage. So the light shown around her wrists, getting brighter as she raised the stone above her head while taking a stance to ready herself to lob it. Then she took a step and swung her arms forward, releasing her grip on the down swing. Flecks of stone came away with her fingers, but the rock itself was sent hurtling forward as if it had been made to fly and not the exact opposite. Through the air it soared, farther and farther. Going at least fifty feet before starting to turn downwards, then maybe twenty more before it came down with a booming burst of dust, dirt, and flung up grass. Not nearly as large or bombastic a sight as the one Steven had caused, but noticeable enough to garner a few approving murmurs from the other students on both sides of the field.

Dipper’s gaze shifted towards the other strength students once they had quieted down and gone back to what they were supposed to be doing. He watched a couple throws from down the line before shifting his attention back to blockier of the rocks he’d pulled up. With a long breath out, new circles started to form around his wrists, the same blue as he’d been using but somehow less vibrant, less solid. They kept flickering, dimming and brightening over and over like lightbulbs fighting not to burn out, but he either didn’t notice or was ignoring them as he hunkered down to slip his fingers under the rock.

He raised his arms up, visually shaking practically in beat with the still flickering magic circles, gritted his teeth and threw.

There was no murmured approval after his throw. Instead snickering and a few outright laughs echoed aloud as Dipper’s rock came down five or six feet into the range. Anne didn’t think that was much, if any, farther than he might have thrown it without magic given those gangly arms of his. Something he might have been thinking himself as his now balled fists lowered to his sides. All the while Anne couldn’t help but overhear other students commenting to each other under their breath things like “so much for the rumors about him” or “wasn’t he supposed to be the talented one in that coven” and a few other things that weren’t any kinder.

“Go back to what your supposed to be doing!” Meister Diaz barked at the onlookers. Then more quietly to Dipper, “Now we’ve got our starting point. We’ll practice and work from there and you’ll be tossing rocks like they were nothing before long.”

“Right,” Dipper said without looking away from the rock he’d plopped a few feet in front of him. “Thanks.”

“And I can–”

Dipper stopped Anne’s offer to help to, one she’d readied in spite of herself, with a sweep of his arm. She’d almost thought he’d intended to hit her despite the couple feet of distance she stood outside his reach, but thought better once she noticed the new and fully shining circle glowing in his palm. With another rumble a third stone popped out of the ground, though this one was nearly twice as large as the first two he’d pulled up.

“There’s the next one,” he said with just a bit of edge. “Now that you know our baseline, you want to see how far we can go with it, right Meister Diaz?”

“That’s right,” the Meister confirmed. “Show everyone what both of you can do.”

So Anne did. With every rock Dipper pulled from the ground she pulled more strength out of that spring within her. It didn’t matter that each time the stone he summoned up got bigger and heavier. It didn’t matter that their wolf of a teacher was giving the two of them far more attention than anyone else in the class. It didn’t matter that the class, on both sides of the field, slowly stopped doing what they had been so they could watch. All that mattered were the stones Dipper put in front of her and the portion of the spring she needed to pull from to send them flying. Never mind the strain building in her arms or the glisten building on her forehead or even the drip of sweat running down the side of Dipper’s face as each hunk of stone got larger. She was supposed to throw rocks Dipper got for her, and she was going to throw rocks Dipper got for her until one of them couldn’t anymore.

At least, that’s what she had thought to herself for the first twenty-one rocks. When that last one, a boulder about as large as the one Steven had thrown, came crashing down twenty feet out the Meister stopped Dipper before another rock could take its place. The moment’s reprieve was not unwelcome. Anne couldn’t help but pant for air, her arms hanging limply to her sides, while Dipper fought to control his own breathing while all around them the class marveled at the nearly two dozen stones of increasing size that she’d flung out on to the range. She didn’t think it was just that she’d thrown so many though that grabbed so much attention. For at least some of them it was how many of such size Dipper had made that was impressing them so much. Anne was getting the impression twenty-one rocks in such short order wasn’t average, let alone that it was only in the last five or so he’d called up that he’d really started to show much effort at all while she had been having to call on more of that spring just to keep her arms steady for a while now.

“Both of you are certainly something,” the Meister noted as he looked from one to the other, several students nodding along in agreement. That put a smile on Anne’s face, or at least as much of one as she could manage in the moment. Not only for her own validation, but for the complete lack of laughter anyone had in their eyes let alone on their lips. Dipper may not be a natural with strength magic, but he had obviously put the rest of them to shame at his control over the earth itself. Maybe a few of them were thinking how bad it would be if he ever decided to turn that bit of power on them. Yeah, not so funny then. “But I think it’s time to rein things in with one final display. Dipper, give us one last chunk of earth. And really show us what you can do with it.”

Anne, still huffing, watched Dipper briefly consider the Meister’s instructions. As he did, his eyes flitted upwards to the sky, down to the ground, then for ever so brief a moment to Anne before focusing back down on the ground. “I think I have just the thing.”

 Holding out his arms, fresh circles of brilliant blue light appeared beneath each outstretched hand. He flexed his fingers until each was as far from the others as his bones would allow, and then…and then he pulled them inwards. Raking them through the air as if through mud or clay, slowly pulling in towards each palm until they were nearly touching within those hanging magic circles. Then they were stretched out again before the process began again.

The first time he did it nothing seemed to happen. The second time a simple tremor ran under their feet, just strong enough to be felt. The third time the ground rumbled. The fourth though, the fourth time made the ground shake. And he wasn’t stopping there. The ground beyond the classroom began to sag at his fifth repetition, the students closest to the edge inching away as the grass and dirt that had butted up to the floor seconds before slipped an inch lower, then another. Parts of the obstacle course began to lean against one another or over the right side of the field the sixth time. And the final, seventh time the ground itself seemed to groan like a cavernous wail of emptiness crying out because of whatever Dipper had just done.

Which was exactly when Anne remembered that she was going to have to try and move whatever Dipper had just done.

His left arm dropped to his side, limp from the effort and seemingly pale now that the light from that hand’s circle had gone out. His right arm though, it remained out as he slowly turned it so his palm was facing upwards. His final motion before that arm fell just as limp as the other was to bend it at the elbow as if cupping a ball or a cup that he needed to bring up higher and closer to look at. With that movement the ground shook one final time and the last stone of the day emerged from the soft dirt. Though, unlike all those that had come before it, whether Dipper’s or one of the other students’, this one didn’t pop out of the ground as if it has somewhere to be and wanted to get a move on. This one’s rise into the midday sunlight was slow and grating as dirt was pushed aside in waves of dark sediment. Despite this final rock being a little smaller than the last one she had thrown, Anne could only look at it and gulp down her apprehension.

Maybe it was all the ground shaking and display that had let to its appearance. Maybe it had been that look, however fleeting, he had given her before starting. Maybe it was the rock’s oblong, oval-ish appearance made from sharp edged shapes. But whatever it was, something was giving Anne the feeling that any attempt to move this particular stone was not going to go as well as the others.

Before she had the chance to be proven right, Meister Diaz stopped her with a paw on her shoulder. She looked up at him as he said to Dipper, “You only pulled from under the field, right?”

“Yes, Meister,” Dipper replied between a new set of ragged breaths. He may be managing to keep himself standing straight, but there was no hiding all the effort he’d just put in to find this final display of his newfound magic. So unless the paw on her shoulder was going to turn into a full-on command to stop, Anne was going to do her best to meet his effort with her own. Even if she didn’t like the vibes it was giving off or that this whole back and forth was mostly just an F-You from him to her.

The Meister stared down Dipper for a moment longer, then the rock for a moment more, before pulling back his paw. “Alright then, go ahead Anne.”

And she did. Squaring her feet at the edge of the classroom’s floor, which now sat a few inches above the field, she took a deep breath and did her best to grasp onto either side of the rock. Which was no easy ask. The rock was so smooth and the angles of where all those different shapes that met along its surface were so obtuse that she could barely find a place to hold on. But when she finally managed to keep her fingers from sliding off she reached inwards for that spring. She was glad this would be the last time for the day, she didn’t think she could keep taking any more of it on herself even if there was still so much there waiting for her. She just couldn’t handle much more of it.

The circles around her wrists relit, their magical glow shining off the smooth sides of the rock to the point that it almost looked like it was glowing instead. But Anne didn’t focus on how pretty it might have looked, she only gritted her teeth and lifted.

Or at least she tried to.

Despite putting in just as much strength as she had with the last rock, a bigger rock, she couldn’t get this one to so much as budge. Her fingers began to burn and she could practically hear her arms yelling at her, begging her to stop. But she wasn’t about to do that. Not yet. This was the last thing she had to do. This is the last thing Dipper had given her to do. She was going to do it even if every muscle in her body decided to quit on her afterwards.

She pulled more strength from the spring, her teeth grinding and forehead now against the rock as if that might give her some leverage. She could hear the other students whispering beneath her own groans and grunts of exertion, but she did all she could to turn them out. To just focus on the rock and the spring and the need to move it even just a little. Focus. Focus! Focus damn it!

And the rock rose. Just a little, just an inch or two off the ground. Not much, but a start. All she had to do now…all she had to do was keep…keep lifting and…and…

Anne’s arms and legs gave out in the same moment. She fell backwards, her butt hitting the ground with a massive crash that once again shook the ground beneath. She would only realize a moment later, as she sat gasping on the floor and staring at the unmoved rock, that it hadn’t been her that had shaken things as she fell, but what she had failed to move falling back into place. A realization that was intruded on by the renewed and louder talking of the students as they looked at her. At her hands. As, between lightheaded dizziness and her own deep gasps for air, she heard something about “double circles,” over and over again from seemingly every direction.

“Well done,” Meister Diaz said, beaming as he kneeled beside her. He waved someone over from behind her, but she didn’t have the energy to look and see who. “That was great.”

“But I couldn’t move it…” she fought to whisper.

“You did a little,” he smiled. “Plus, you managed something most first years can only dream of.”

His paw lightly grasped her screaming forearms and raised it so she could see. There were the double circles everyone else had been chattering about, a second circle having formed a finger’s width farther down her arm from the first one. Both of them were quickly dimming, and presumedly the two on her other arm that she didn’t have the energy to look at were too, but there they were. Anne had no idea what any of it meant, but what else was new.

“So sit tight while Steven puts a little pep back in your step, lifting a ton or two’s going to take it out of anyone.”

“Ton?” Anne tried to ask, but it came out as little more than a squeak leading into a cough. A cough that had her head tilting just enough to see Steven waving a sky blue, or what would have been sky blue back home, magic circle up and down the length her body. Wherever the light touched instantly felt better, enough that Anne didn’t even try to understand what kind of magic he was using. She was just going to be thankful for the help and be done with it.

“Isn’t that right, Dipper?” Everyone’s attention turned to him at the Meister’s question. He had, despite looking almost as tired as Anne felt, managed to keep standing. “You took what, two or three inches of dirt from across the length of the range and condensed it? That sound right?”

“I took more from the center,” Dipper said slowly. His breathing had evened out, but there was still a strain to her voice as he slowly got out his reply. “But I think it averaged out to more like six inches deep across the length of it.”

Silence. Complete and utter silence. Anne assumed it was because numbers had reared their ugly head in the conversation. And numbers meant math. And no one liked math, or at least Anne didn’t. Yet the Meister seemed to be doing some as he gazed out across the sunken field, counting off sums on his fingers and mouthing things to himself. When those crimson eyes of his widened Anne knew whatever number he had come up with wasn’t one he expected, just like her teachers back home at most of the answers Anne put on her math assignments.

“That’d be closer to…five tons,” the Meister said at last.

Eyes went wide and mouths fell open all around them. And not just at Dipper for moving five tons of earth, who shrugged and replied, “I just compacted it until I couldn’t do any it anymore.” But at her too. And she could only assume because she had moved the same amount. Even if it had only just been a little bit, she had picked up five tons of rock. That thought alone made Anne feel a little more lightheaded.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

The Meister looked at the rock and rolled up his sleeves. “Well, there’s a not so easy way to check for sure.”

In a single stride Meister Diaz was next to the rock, his left paw running over its slick surface. He exhaled through his nose, parting the thin bit of dust dropping the massive rock had kicked up before the muscles in his arm clenched and tensed in place. Three brown circles formed around his lower arm, each of them brighter than any Anne or anyone else in the class had been able to manage.

But he didn’t stop there. After a few seconds of finding a handhold over one of the rocks many edges, all the while each and every student stood watching in near to complete silence, his arm tensed again and a fourth circle flared up around his arm, this one almost all the way to his elbow. There was a little gasp from someone in the crowd, but otherwise the quiet audience stayed still. And then he did what Anne couldn’t.

Digging his fingers into the stone, the Meister lifted the behemoth rock up above his head. He never took his eyes off it or relaxed his stance, if anything his body became even more tense as showed how deep his own spring ran. And everyone could feel it when he swung his arm down and sent the stone flying.

The mass of displaced air as the stone soared outside and down the length of the field sent a second-long gale blowing through the classroom and beyond. Papers and grass and skirts were blown every which way, but no one noticed. Not a single student’s gaze, especially not Anne’s, was anywhere but on that boulder. They watched it go up, they watched it come down, and then they watched what it brought down with it.

The multi-ton boulder struck the very center of the field where, like a fish trying to dive back into the water, it sunk back into the earth for just a second before everything caught up with it. The impact sent another gale rushing into the classroom while the field itself began collapsing in on itself. The very center of the formerly grassy space sunk inwards, pulled in by the massive weight and the undersoil that had been taken to form it. The obstacle course was next, with the already leaning pillars and climbing equipment further and completely toppling over one another as if each was in a rush to follow the boulder’s lead. Each consecutive crash of stone into the earth was like a symphony of drum beats, one that didn’t end until every last thing on that field and come smashing into the ground and only a plume of dirt and dust was left hanging over the destruction.

That was when the silence finally broke, with students crowding in around Dipper without warnings. All of a sudden there were back slaps and friendly jostling, praise and apologies for what had ‘slipped out’ when he’d attempted his own throw, and even pleas to practice or study together. And standing amidst the hustle and bustle of it all, the cheering and praise and even an invite to go hunting for whatever Huntress’s “prized quarry” was, Dipper looked almost lost. His attention shifted from one of the demons or witches talking to the next as fast as he could. Anne was afraid it was going to be too much for him, all the attention that he normally didn’t get. But a few seconds past and something clicked in his eyes, on his face, and even in just the way he was standing. His shoulders and back relaxed, his eyes stopped looking like a deer’s caught in headlights, and ever so slowly a smile crept on to his face. An expression of satisfaction and acceptance that Anne hadn’t seen since that first club meeting, and certainly one that she had never been the cause of. Yet, as tired as she was, she couldn’t help but smile a little herself as she watched him finally get something out of dealing with her.

Chapter Text

Twilight turned the page, steeped in contentment. Stacks and shelves of books surrounded her for as far as the eye could see, the smell of aged paper embracing her in studious familiarity. The lights, magically glowing orbs floating near the ceiling above, were soft but more than adequate to read by unlike the harsher red sky outside. But what brought Twilight almost to the point of bliss was the weight leaning against her arm.

Sunset’s mane of red hair rested on Twilight’s shoulder, head angled so that her horns didn’t push against or into the side of Twilight’s face as she read through her own ancient tome. Twilight loved that weight against her side, the comfort it brought despite the simplicity of it. The added glow cast across the pages of her own tome from the floating flame between the native witch’s horns was also a bonus, but her scent was what really put Twilight at ease and made her never want this moment to end. Sunset’s constant fragrance of cinnamon and honey wafted off her, not strong enough to be distracting or overpower the smell of paper, but enough to relax Twilight in a way she wasn’t used to being. In a way that she hadn’t ever imagined she’d be able to obtain on her own. She couldn’t imagine a more perfect–

“Did Dipper ever hit his head as a kid?” Sunset asked out of nowhere without looking up from her own book.

Twilight blinked. Then blinked again. “What?”

“Just thinking about something I saw when I was in his head the other night,” Sunset said nonchalantly. She continued reading, and thus couldn’t see the confused look that had etched itself across Twilight’s face. “Seemed like there were bits missing, so I was just wondering if he’d ever hit his head or anything like that.”

“Not that I know of,” Twilight replied slowly. “I can ask him if you want.”

“Nah,” she said, turning her wrist over as if waving off the thought. “Don’t worry about it.”

But Twilight couldn’t help but worry, at least a little. For nearly a minute she tried to go back to the page she’d been on before the question, but after reading the same sentence four or five times without remembering what it said she gave up. A new puff of old paper smell filled the air as Twilight closed the book, followed by a dull thud as she laid it atop the pile of tomes that would hopefully contain some knowledge about the corridor despite their first few finds leading to nothing.

When she didn’t move to pick up another book, or do much of anything besides stare into the dim silence of the library beyond, Sunset looked up at her and asked, “Everything alright, babe?”

There was worry in those big, beautiful turquoise eyes of hers, which made Twilight feel even worse for what she was thinking. Despite that, the more the idea ran through her head the more logical it seemed to be. The more sense it made. The more obvious it must have been to anyone but her. “Do you…would you rather be with him than me?”

This time Sunset was the one who blinked. “What?”

“You seem to like having him around like when we ran into him this morning,” Twilight said, speaking faster and faster as she went. “Plus he’s so much better at magic than I am and he can feed you and I can’t. It would make more…be more logical for one of the top students to be with him instead of me.”

Sunset raised a brow. “Guess we need to work on your confidence too, don’t we?”

“Huh?”

“Listen Twi,” Sunset said while resting her own book on the table and stretching her arms up above her head. Despite all the thoughts going through Twilight’s head, she couldn’t help but watch the way Sunset’s back arched and chest heaved upwards with the motion. The way her minicape parted to show off even more of that immaculate cleavage of hers than usual…

“I like Dipper,” Sunset continued, snapping Twilight’s attention away from that chest while draining the heat in her face and replacing it with dread. She continued before Twilight had a chance to react though. “The last couple days I’ve had to accept that I have a thing for nerds. But he’s…well I don’t want to call him a boy toy, that’s too dismissive and what old-Sunset would say. So he’s a friend with benefits. I like and care about him. I like what he’s got, what it tastes like, and what he can do with it.”

Sunset slid her hand between Twilight’s, putting a stop to the palm rubbing she had started without realizing it. “But as much as I might enjoy him in various ways, I don’t care about him the way I care about my girlfriend.”

Twilight felt a bit of that heat return to her cheeks as she looked from Sunset’s hand in her own then to Sunset herself. “Girlfriend?”

Sunset rubbed the back of her head, her own cheeks reddening. “That’s what I thought we were going for, unless you don’t want to put a label on–”

“I like labels,” Twilight said as quickly as she could, almost yelling in her haste and earning an emphatic shush from the goetia librarian who had helped them earlier. Then quieter, “I mean, I’d like to be your girlfriend.”

“And I’d like to be yours,” Sunset said in turn.

Twilight looked into her girlfriend’s turquoise eyes and her girlfriend looked right back. They smiled at one another, and Twilight had the sudden urge to be alone with Sunset right then and there. But the librarian was looking their way after her little outburst and the dorm felt miles away. Maybe if they went into one of those aisles in the back…but then Twilight’s own mind got in her way as she remembered a point that Sunset hadn’t answered. Not enough to completely douse her urge, but definitely cool it.

“If you…need him again though, can you include me or at least let me know?”

Sunset’s smile turned mischievous. “So I’m not the only one who enjoyed his benefits.”

Twilight flustered, her face heating up at the thought of what the three of them had done together that night. “No…I was…maybe some of it. I want you to get what you need, and if I can’t give you what you need then he’s one of the only people I could imagine…sharing you with.”

Sunset squeezed Twilight’s hand. “It might be easier for boys, but we’ll get there.” Then, after a glance at a clock on the wall, “And you better get going, intro to abominations starts in fifteen.”

Twilight checked the clock herself then was up with a start, nearly knocking Sunset over in her haste. She had originally planned to be at the classroom fifteen minutes ahead of time like she had always done with her classes at Reverie University, especially on the first day, but she’d been so relaxed and comfortable with Sunset beside her that the time had completely slipped away.

“I’m going to check these out,” Twilight said as she hefted the remaining pile of books neither she nor Sunset had gotten to yet. “I’ll see you after your bard class.”

“I can bring them to you later,” Sunset said as Twilight struggled to carry her stacked load.

“I got it,” Twilight said through gritted teeth, attempting not to sound like she was straining and failing at it. “Going to pass them out to the coven as I see them. Starting with Dipper. So you just hang tight.”

“Alright,” Sunset replied. Twilight couldn’t tell if there was amusement or apprehension in the honey-skinned demon’s voice, either way she wasn’t going to offload a bunch of work onto her new girlfriend on the fourth day of the relationship. She could carry books on her own until at least a week in. That seemed like a logical time to stop pretending she had any upper body strength. “See you after class, Twi.”

Luckily things went smoothly once Twilight made it to the check-out desk. There was pretty much no one else in the library thanks to it being the first day back of the trimester, so Meister Malphas the librarian was able to check her out quickly enough. The hunched goetia even slid the pile into a bag to make carrying the pile a little easier.

“If I overheard you two correctly,” he began while handing her the heavy bag, “which in the future I shouldn’t overhear you so easily between these stacks.”

“Sorry,” Twilight gulped while trying to maintain her nervous smile. “I got…overexcited.”

“Hmmm. Regardless, if you take that hallway,” he pointed to an archway to his right, “you’ll come to the back exit. That should get you to the Zrohit hall quicker than going out the front and around the library.”

Twilight’s nervous smile turned genuine. Grasping the bag of book’s handles she gave a light bow and said, “Thank you Meister Malphas. I promise not to be loud next time I’m here.”

Then she was off, Malphas muttering something about that being a promise or a threat as she made her way through the archway and down the hallway towards the back exit.

---

“I can’t believe I missed that,” Luz said as she and Dipper came down the aisle of seats towards Twilight. Despite her being late leaving the library she had still made it with several minutes to spare thanks to Malphas’s tip, but they were only just now arriving with barely three minutes to spare.

“That’s what happens when you pass out under a table right at the beginning,” he said with a smirk. Which was…a bit surprising. Despite looking a bit more tired than she figured he should for this time of day, he seemed much more upbeat than Twilight was used to when it came to him. At least not since the beginning of their mortal school year.

“Hey,” Luz replied indignantly, nudging him with her elbow. “You try keeping up with Huntress. That second place cost my muscles and magic a lot. Though based on what was left of the range when I got up I’m surprised I didn’t have to carry you here.”

He just shrugged as he slid into a seat beside Twilight, his backpack dropping to the floor next to Twilight’s own bag of books. “My fire grimoire had an energy spell in it. I’ll be dead to the world by the end of the day, but as long as I don’t get…competitive again it should get me through the rest of my classes.”

“Competitive?” Twilight asked. There was another surprise coming from Dipper. She had barely ever seen him show off let alone try and one-up anyone. As much as she didn’t really like the idea of the next thought that came into her head, she couldn’t help but see it as a possibility. Maybe hell was good for Dipper. It had been good for her, after all.

“I was just moving dirt,” he said with another shrug.

Luz wasn’t having any of that though. “He moved enough to turn the construction track’s training field into a giant sink hole. The way I hear it Meister Diaz had to use four spell circles to move the boulder Dipper made. That’s unheard of for most graduates, let alone a first year.”

Twilight’s brow scrunched as she tried to estimate the logistics of that. She remembered seeing some open space behind buildings during their tour of campus, though she could only roughly guess at how large it had been. Then of course there was her lack of insight on the upper threshold of strength allotted by a construction spell circle. Still, even with missing variables that sounded like it must have been a lot to–

“I’ve been looking for you, batata,” a sultry voice said, breaking Twilight’s line of thought and grabbing all three of their attentions. There, leaning against the other side of the table lining their row of seating, was a native witch with shoulder-length lavender hair. She must have been part succubus if her wings, horns, tail, and curves were anything to go by, though unlike Sunset her skin was a pale shade that would have let her pass for human if all her demon parts were covered up.

“Sweet potato!” Luz practically yelled before leaning over the table and throwing her arms around the native witch. “It feels like I haven’t seen you in years.”

“It’s been four hours, Luz,” the cotton-candy-haired native said, hugging Luz back and smiling. Hers was a smile that made it clear this was something she was used to regularly dealing with, something she wouldn’t have any other way. “Now why don’t you introduce me to your new friends.”

“Oh right,” Luz said, collecting herself before motioning to Dipper. “Amity, this is Dipper. He’s the one who–”

“The one who spent the night in my girlfriend’s room,” Amity said as she loomed over Dipper, looking down at him through narrowed, red-within-yellow eyes that looked ready to catch fire. “Or am I thinking of another boy.”

Dipper shrunk under her glare, but he could only move back so far before his chair caught on the step leading to the next row of seating. Still despite his initial reaction, Dipper didn’t stumble over his words or mumble as he met her glare and said, “Luz and her family let me stay the night when I got separated from my coven. Nothing happened beside that.”

“Oh, I know,” Amity said, a smile that conveyed anything but happiness spreading across her face. “I’d smell your sad attempt on your corpse if you had, because my batata would end you before I had the chance to make you suffer for it.”

“Oh Amity,” Luz said with a wave of her hand, as if embarrassed. She didn’t deny Amity’s claim though. “Be nice.”

Amity glanced back at Luz before leaning back a bit so she wasn’t looming quite so much over Dipper. “Just be glad the only thing I smell on you is…” she paused and blinked, attention shifting to Twilight who couldn’t help but gulp under the fresh attention. Amity stared at her a moment longer, then looked back at Dipper. Only then did her posture relax and she somehow became much more innocent and welcoming than the oppressive demon she’d been mere seconds before. “Oh, so that’s how it is.”

“What?” Twilight and Dipper asked in tandem.

Amity waved off the question as she stepped closer to Twilight so there were across from one another then, much more sweetly and normal than she had spoken to Dipper, asked, “And what’s your name?”

“…Twilight.”

“Ooh, that’s an interesting mortal name for this day and age,” Amity said, seeming genuinely interested as if she hadn’t just been threatening Twilight’s friend and coven…mate a few seconds earlier.

The whiplash between moods was startling. Though, thinking about it logically as Twilight was wont to do, she supposed that if some random person spent the night at Sunset’s she’d be pretty defensive about making sure nothing untoward happened too. Twilight didn’t think about the fact that she had kind of been that random person just a few days ago as she replied, “My parents are a tad eccentric.”

The smile that had finally reached Amity’s eyes twitched a bit. “Aren’t they all.” Then, before anyone could fill the space with another comment, “Well, nice to meet a new coven in town. I look forward to classes with you Twilight, since we’re both on the Abom side of class and all.”

“Side?” Twilight asked, but Amity was already walking away, whispering something to Luz before heading back down the row and towards something in the center of the classroom.

Instead, it was Dipper who explained as he untangled his backpack strap from where it had somehow gotten caught when he’d slid away from Amity’s gaze. “Abominations and Potions share a lot of general classes,” he said, then motioned to some of the other students. “Notice the colors.”

Twilight hadn’t, until then at least. Amity’s uniform was the same light purple as Twilight’s own, as were about half the uniforms of the students around them. The other half though, their uniforms were accented with yellow instead. Of course, there were some other colors mixed in here or there, but everyone had at least purple or yellow somewhere on them. Somehow she’d missed the note about mixed classes, though based on what she’d absorbed about abominations the last few days she could see the benefit to sharing space with others who knew how to make the substance said abominations were made from. Which left one other question about what Amity had said, a question Dipper also had evidently.”

“Not sure what she meant by smell though.”

“It means she can smell Sunset on the two of you.”

Both Dipper and Twilight startled, nearly sliding out of their seats at the new voice coming from between them. Twisting in place, they found two faces, one red and one blue looking at them from over the next row’s table. The shorter, starry-eyed red one in yellow was obviously an imp and looked utterly invested in what she’d been watching go down between Dipper, Twilight, and Amity. Meanwhile, the taller, blue demon in purple looked to be at least partly one of those fish-like possessor demons Twilight had read about, but also completely bored as her head rested in hands and her large, finned tail shifted back and forth behind her.

“Not to mention each other,” the blue one finished with a plumb.

Twilight’s eyes found the floor as absolutely all the blood there was heated in her cheeks.

Dipper, face equally red, managed to get out, “You can smell people we’ve…been around?”

The blue-skinned demon’s smirk was palpable in her response. “When you’re part succubus there’s a very specific type of being around we can smell.”

“Yeah,” the imp chimed in. “Just like how Lapis always knows when Steven and I would–”

“Quiet Peri,” the blue one said, her hand having already covered the imp’s mouth. Then, shifting her attention wholly to Twilight, “So you’re the one I’ve been volunteered to tutor, huh?”

Cheeks still flushed; Twilight forced herself to look all the way back up. She could still see amusement in the possessor-succubus’s face, but otherwise the question did seem genuine. “Does that make you Lapis? The one Sunset talked to Steven about?”

“The one Sunset told Steven to have help,” Lapis corrected, then sighed. “He’s such a pushover. But yes, Lapis Lazuli at your service. Evidently.”

“And I’m Peridot,” the imp said, excitedly introducing herself after pulling her mouth free of Lapis’s hand and before pulling two jars out from under their table. “I’ll be helping too.” Before explaining further or allowing anyone to ask any questions, the exuberant little imp shoved the jars across the table into Twilight’s arms. Their contents sloshed heavily within as she picked up again. “That’s some practice goo I whipped up. It has a thinner consistency than normal abomination fluid, but it’ll be easier to manipulate as you get the hang of it.”

“Thanks…” Twilight said slowly. “I…look forward to learning from you two.”

Lapis exhaled in amusement. “We’ll see how much learning actually happens. I’ll let you know a time that works for tutoring later.”

“The time!” Twilight said, realizing it must have been longer than three minutes by now. There was still no sign of the Meisters though, just a hall of students milling about. “Shouldn’t class have started by now?”

“I can already tell you’re going to be fun,” Lapis huffed.

“Amity went to get them,” Luz said with a reassuring smile as she leaned forward to look around Dipper, who was trying to discreetly smell himself without looking like that was what he was doing. The book he was trying to sniff behind wasn’t hiding as much as he must have hoped for though. “This happens with them more than you’d expect since they’re always trying to coordinate plans and just…not doing so well at it. But that gives you time to look at these.”

Luz pushed two stacks of paper slips down the table, one in front of Dipper and the other all the way to Twilight. Each rectangular slip of paper was identical, with a near perfect circle drawn right in the center and additional shapes within. Twilight couldn’t say because she hadn’t been as involved with that side of things, but the entire design reminded her of some of the runes and symbols they had used in the ritual that had started this whole situation. A thought that was shared, or at least in the same vein as, one Dipper had.

“These look a lot like what appeared on my journals when they turned into grimoires.”

“That’s cause it’s the fourth one from the set,” Luz explained. “Earth, fire, sound, and,” she tapped the stack in front of him, “shadow. I discovered these glyphs when I first got here and they really helped me out of some sticky situations. They won’t teach you any spells on their own like a grimoire, but they’ll at least help you practice since they draw magic from Goliath instead of your own reserves. Just touch the circle and imagine what you want Peridot’s goop to do, it should make it easy to start.”

“Ooooh, I’d like to see that,” Peridot said excitedly from behind them.

“I–”

At that moment, just as Twilight was reaching for the glyph if only to feel it on the paper’s surface, the door was thrown open hard enough to send a bang reverberating through the hall. At once every single student, seated or standing or leaning somewhere in between, had their attention arrested to the front. It was there, hurrying in as if to make up lost time, that two figures took center stage. The first was a hellborn, a pink jellyfish of a woman whose translucent exterior made it appear that her light pink body had been draped in a lab coat. The second was a native witch with skin a bit lighter than Twilight’s own, though her black and white striped hair and hooves made her Baphomet half stand out just a bit more.

About the only thing the two shared was their attire, in that it was nothing like Twilight expected for this school’s version of professors to be wearing. Sunset and some of the others had told her the Meisters wore similar, if not less ornate, robes to what Dean Bump had been wearing when he’d welcomed them to the school. Which made sense, if college students were going to be given a uniform then the best way to get them to accept it was by their teachers having their own uniform or something similar thereabouts to set an example by. These two, however, barely seemed to be wearing clothes at all. The jellyfish woman had something similar in style and color to what the Dean had been wearing, but it was more of a cape draped over what little she had in the way of shoulders. The Baphomet native on the other hand did seem to have a robe, it was just that it was tied around her waist like a hoodie on a sunny day while everything above and below was covered in a kind of tribal garb and straps laden with various colored liquids. Neither instilled the immediate teacherly…vibes that Twilight had always sought in her professors, and now meisters.

“Everyone take a seat who hasn’t,” the jellyfish woman commanded as she stepped behind one of the twin desks at the front of the hall. She spoke with a slight German accent, which initially Twilight decided made sense for where they were before realizing that an unknowable number of people of every nationality and language had to have come through hell at some point and she was being too judgmental off the bat. Plus, the jellyfish woman was a hellborn, so the logic in her assumption wasn’t even there to begin with. “I’m sorry we’re late, but let’s move through these introductions so that we can get on with things, shall we?”

The students that hadn’t taken a seat by then shuffled their way to those that remained empty. Only when everyone was seated did she continue. “I am Meisterlin Bonnibel, head of the Abominations department. I’ll be in charge of making sure anything you try and form from the proper materials doesn’t turn to puddles a second later. Basically, do what I say and your abilities and grades may actually amount to something. Any questions?”

From somewhere near the back a voice, filled with obvious amusement, spoke up. “I thought your name was Bubbleg–”

Before he had a chance to finish, Meisterlin Bonnibel raised one of her tentacles out from under cape-robe and a flash of purple shot out from under the desk. It sped across the floor and up the stairs between rows of seating in a purple blur of motion that was almost silent except for the faintest “squelch” as it passed their row. In the next moment it had reached the back, cutting off the questioner with an “ack!”

The “ack” being the sound of a circular abomination grabbing Doyle, the possessor demon Connie and her lion had trounced on Saturday, by the fin on the back of his head and pulling it back farther than it looked like it was supposed to go. Sitting next to him and looking utterly horrified was the lizard native that Dipper had put in his place and probably put the possessor up to the current shenanigan. Twilight thought his name had been…Drago, that was it. Stupid and on the nose as that was.

“I shouldn’t have to specify that I meant questions pertaining to Abominations class. Though if you’d like, my butler there can make that clear for you,” Meisterlin Bonnibel said calmly, as if she wasn’t threatening a student. Granted Twilight didn’t care what happened to any of that trio after what their ignoramus of a leader had be spouting off, but teachers weren’t supposed to threaten students.

This really is hell Twilight thought to herself. That’s the only way school could become something that could make her feel so uneasy. At least now I don’t have to take gym anymore.

“Good,” the Meisterlin continued when no one else spoke up. “Now I’ll turn things over to my co-meisterlin so we can get through the necessities of today.”

“Thank you, Meisterlin Bonnibel,” the Baphomet native said, stepping forward. “I am Meisterlin Zecora and you should listen to what I have to tell. I will be overseeing everything that has to do with potions, from ingredients needed to proper mixing motions.”

“Is she rhyming?” Dipper asked under his breath.

“You get used to it,” Luz whispered back. Twilight was glad she didn’t have to answer the question with an obvious answer, mostly because she didn’t know why the Potions Meisterlin would be doing such a thing.

“Shhhh,” the circular “butler” abomination chided as it passed back down the stairs towards where it had originally come from, walking instead of squelching along this time. Twilight thought the little bowtie he’d been crafted with was a cute addition, though also an unnecessary one given the energy it must have required for such an ancillary detail

“Like my colleague already said,” Meisterlin Zecora continued. “Do as I say and neither you nor your grades will end up dead. And now to her I’ll return the stage, so she might start us on the right page.”

“Thank you,” Meisterlin Bonnibel said as she stepped forward again. “This tri-mester will focus on each of you coming up with a specialized project. It is highly suggested each of you pair with a member of the opposite track, though solo or same-track pairings will be accepted as long as you can show results. We’d now like to invite one of our top students to demonstrate an example of what we’re looking for. Ms. Blight, would you care to step up here.”

“Yes, Meisterlin,” Amity said from the other side of Luz, causing both Twilight and Dipper to gape at her reappearance. Neither had seen the succubus-native re-enter the hall with the Meisterlins or even slide back down the row of seats.

“When did she get back?” Twilight whispered across Dipper.

“Right before they got here,” Luz replied, nodding to Bonnibel and Zecora. “I joked with her about a stealthy character in a book being sexy once and she’s been slipping in and out of places without being seen ever since.”

“I worked with Maddie,” Amity said, gesturing from where she had taken her place between Meisterlins Bonnibel and Zecora towards an amphimpian farther back in the seats. The amphimpian had a single horn parting a head of hair that otherwise looked like a mushroom atop her head. “And together we developed an abomination fluid with a liquid core, so no accidents or antagonistic actions can put a stop to abominations created from it without serious effort.”

“That’s quite the claim,” Meisterlin Zecora started. “Such a creation could lead to much fame.”

“Yes,” Meisterlin Bonnibel agreed. “Why don’t you give us a display.”

“Of course,” Amity said with a nod then swept her arm up and to the side, a magic circle palmed in her hand. From a waterskin-like container at her waist came flowing the now familiar, if not a little lighter-colored, abomination fluid. It rose up and out, circling through the air around and above Amity’s head as both Meisterlins and the class at large watched it flow. She did it with such ease. Ease that Twilight couldn’t even imagine replicating after her one successful attempt following her fall into that pool of it.

Amity continued, once the waterskin was empty and the whole amount was floating in the air, by saying, “Now, if you’d like to confirm that there’s no core.”

The Meisterlins exchanged a brief glance, then each raised a hand or tentacle towards the floating fluid. A light purple magic circle sparked into being between Meisterlin Bonnibel’s tentacle and the fluid while likewise a yellow circle appeared between Meisterlin Zecora’s palm and the fluid. Movement began within the ooze, ripples passing through from either side as the magic of both Meisterlins poured through it. The ripples continued to pass through it, meeting at the center in front and behind Amity before dissipating in time for the next ripples to meet where the previous had just been.

“What you say is true,” Meisterlin Zecora confirmed. “There is no core in this goo. Yet despite what it may lack, its essence is intact.”

“It has a much thicker consistency than is normal,” Meisterlin Bonnibel noted. “That’ll make it equally harder to actively control.”

Amity’s smile, which some might have called smug, didn’t falter under the Meisterlins’ criticism. Instead, she simply twirled a finger within her magic circle, instantly causing her flow of abomination fluid to coalesce into a sphere in front of her. “Technically true, though as with all things that added difficulty can be overcome with practice and determination.”

Amity proceeded to demonstrate this by shifting her hand around the magic circle once more, causing the formerly perfect sphere of fluid to pour downwards in a sudden stream. Before it could splatter across the floor like the mess Twilight had caused when that arm had reached out of the pool, the flow began to shift and take another shape during its descent. So, instead of a scattered mess of sprayed purple hues, a small creature softly touched down at Amity’s feet. And not some odd hell-version of an animal, but a cat. Its glowing blue eyes shown out from between its “fur” of shifting abomination fluid, its tail flicking back and forth as it peered out at all those now looking at it and appearing bored by the sight.

“Because the core is baked into her ingredients, Ghost here never has to fear having the personality she’s developed being reset should something happen to her,” Amity explained. At the mention of her name, the cat leapt on top of one of the desks then to Amity’s shoulder in two quick bounds. And despite still appearing viscous from where Twilight sat, the abomination cat left no residue or droplets where her paws touched.

“Purple is not a common shade for a ghost, what caused you to believe it the name that fit most?”

“Well, for that I’ll need to check with my potion partner,” Amity replied. “I wouldn’t want to give away anything she wasn’t ready to reveal.”

“Just do it,” the amphimpian Amity had gestured to earlier said with a dismissive wave. Evidently Ghost being the fruits of her labor wasn’t enough to make her interested in the display.

With a wiggle of her fingers, a new magic circle replaced the one that had faded once Ghost had taken shape. Amity held the new one in front of Ghost’s face, then slowly pulled it downwards through the air in front of the abomination-made cat. As Amity’s hand descended the color started to drain from Ghost’s fluid fur, leaving it stark-white and much more apt for the cat’s name. Though the color didn’t completely go away. By the time Amity’s hand passed completely in front of Ghost and down past her own shoulder, spots around the tips of the cat’s ears as well as mitten-like pools of purple still colored her feet and tail. Still, the display drew more attention and murmurs from the surrounding students than the initial display had.

“Changing the color of abomination fluid is expensive and more often than not causes the stability to go sub-par,” Amity went on before anyone could interject. “But for our follow-up project Maddie and I have already made some headway in new methods to alter the fluid’s color without making it near unusable. With Ghost here being our initial step in the process.”

“Mreow,” Ghost added, getting a few ‘aww’s from the student body.

“Very good, Ms. Blight. You may return to your seat.” Meisterlin Bonnibel said, then went on once Amity started back down their row. Ghost jumped from Amity’s shoulder to the table once they returned to her seat, prompting near instantaneous petting from Luz. “Both projects of Amity and Maddie’s that were just displayed are excellent examples of what we hope to see from you over the course of this trimester. We will be coming around to speak to some of our newer students, but we want the rest of you to use this time to pair up and start discussing what types of projects you’ll be working on going forward. So get to it.”

At once the hall was filled with movement and chatting as students moved toward prospective partners and started figuring out what they would try and make a project out of. But the only movement that either Twilight or Dipper were focused on, after mirrored glances at once another, were the Meisterlins heading right towards them. Not that it was a surprise after what had just been said, but Twilight at least had no idea what to expect anymore, especially not after Amity’s display making things look so easy. Dipper, despite his poor showing with the shadow element being barely better than Twilight’s own, looked slightly less worried than Twilight felt. This was his fourth class of the day though, so he likely had an idea of what to expect. She could only hope that his relative, if not complete, calm was warranted for whatever the Meisterlins were about to ask of them.

“Mr. Pines and Ms. Sparkle,” Meisterlin Bonnibel said after pulling out and unfurling a scroll from her cape-like robe. “Dean Bump and Ms. Shimmer have already spoken to us about your situations.”

Twilight couldn’t hide her surprise. “Sunset did?”

“She was quite ardent, that when it came to you we were all accordant.”

Warmth bloomed in Twilight’s chest, shortly spreading to her cheeks along with a soft smile. She didn’t know when Sunset had found the time, but her girlfriend had gone to the trouble of making sure she wasn’t completely thrown to the wolves when it came to her new classes. It made Twilight want to run back to the library and just…just, actualize her thoughts about the back shelves from earlier. Among other things that came to mind.

“Insistent is the word I would use,” Meisterlin Bonnibel noted. “But regardless, we’ve decided to attach each of you to an existing pair for the time being while you,” she paused to consider her words, “catch up with the rest of the class. Ms. Lazuli, is it true you’ve offered to tutor Ms. Sparkle?”

“I was offered to tutor her,” Lapis said from the next row. She still sounded nothing but bored.

“And I’ll be helping too,” Peridot added with enough pep for the both of them and then some.

“Peridot by now we know, where Lapis is you too will go,” Meisterlin Zecora rhymed dryly.

“If Twilight’s with them then Dipper can work with Hunter and me,” Luz offered, then scanned the rows around the room while Amity rolled her eyes, before adding, “If he ever shows up.”

“Hunter was asked to help another Meister set up for today,” Meisterlin Bonnibel explained while sliding the scroll back into whatever fold of her cape-robe she had pulled it from. “But that will be fine, if Mr. Pines agrees that is.”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Dipper said. “Thanks Luz.”

“No problem.” Her smile was the definition of a cinnamon roll.

“That’s all well and good,” Meisterlin Zecora said, nodding. “But now we should get a sense of your witch-hood.”

“Yes,” Meisterlin Bonnibel agreed. “While we’ve been told about each of you, there’s little substitute for seeing for ourselves.” She motioned to the jars Peridot had handed to Twilight, now sitting on the table between the stacks of glyphs Luz had given she and Dipper. “And since you have the materials already, we’d like each of you to show us what you can do.”

Twilight looked to Dipper, but he was focused on the glyphs and jars of goop. With a sigh of acceptance born from three previous classes, he grabbed a glyph and one of the jars, unscrewing the latter before placing it on the former. Twilight followed suit, noticing a confirming nod from Luz as she did. So there was that at least. Twilight might not have found the logic in this magic yet, the breakdown that could replicate how she’d gotten it to work before, but she had tools to start trying.

In tandem, once she noticed what he was preparing to do, Twilight and Dipper placed their hands on either side of their respective jars, right on the edge of the glyph design there upon. The glyphs began to glow a vibrant black, if there could even been said to be such a thing. The glow became a black ring around each jar before shifting to the light purple Amity, Lapis, and half of the other students in the hall wore as part of the uniform. Was that an automatic response from being around the abomination goop? Or was it her intention to make the goop move that was affecting it? Oh, there were so many factors she had to figure out and–

“Focus, Ms. Sparkle,” Meisterlin Bonnibel said tersely as Twilight’s magic circle began to wobble and sputter.

Twilight filed the fact that her intention was at least part of it in the back of her mind before quickly doing as she had been told. The circle stabilized as she pictured the goop inside rising up and out of its container. That was it, that was all she needed it to do. Just swell upwards. Just get the goop to swell up and out of the opening. No fancy tricks or swirls or color changing displays, just rise up the way she was imagining. Just imagine the way Luz had told her and the goop should do the same. Focus and imagine it rising. Focus and it would do what she wanted, what the tools she’d been given were supposed to help her do. So do it damn it!

The ring turned black again, mirroring what rose from the jar. Not the goop Peridot had made for her, but pure inky blackness. It wasn’t vibrant or magical in the pretty sense, but a swell of shadows in liquid form doing what she’d imagined the goop doing. It swelled upwards, then collected above the jar in a near perfect sphere. It was so black and shiny that Twilight could see herself in its surface, for the few seconds it existed.

Pop!

In the instant Twilight stopped focusing from her own surprise reflected in the dark globule, the sphere popped like a bubble. The magic circle disappeared and with it all the pure black shadows that had seemingly been at her command, though in its place was a now falling mass of the goop she’d originally been trying to control. The dispersed fluid fell in an arc across the table, staining the wooden surface without warning. Despite not being sure what exactly had just happened, true to Peridot’s word the fluid strewn across the table in front of her was much more viscous than what had filled the pool at Sunset’s shoot.

“Did you mean for that to happen?” Meisterlin Bonnibel asked.

“No,” Twilight said slowly. She swirled a bit of the fluid with her finger. Was the consistency what caused it to go black like that? That didn’t seem likely since, if anything, while it had been black the sphere had seemed truly solid. So many differing variables to master. “I didn’t want it to pop like that.”

“I meant the color. Did you intend for the abomination fluid to turn shadow-stained?”

“No, I was just–” Twilight cut herself off as she realized she had become the center of attention for several of the others around her; from Dipper with a misshapen triangle of goo floating above his jar, to Luz who just looked surprised and Amity whose jaw had gone slack, to even Lapis who finally liked interested in something. That something being her. “Was I not supposed to?”

Meisterlins Bonnibel and Zecora exchanged a glance before the former replied, “It’s not unheard of given Abomination magic’s ties to the shadow element. It was just a bit more than we expected based on what we were told. So good job.”

“Thank you ma’– Meisterlin.” Twilight felt herself slipping over the words. The test the Dean had given them had barely registered her with any magic, let alone an entire element the way Dipper was. Was there really no logic to any of this, or was she just going to have to track all of the disparate parts herself? Not that she minded having research to focus on, it was just finding the time on top of her new studies and the corridor.

Another nod, then both Bonnibel and Zecora’s attention swapped to Dipper. He had refocused on his own mass of goop, which had retained its variety of purples without a single trace of black coloration. And, while the triangular shape had become more defined now that his attention wasn’t split, there was still something off about it. There were four tendrils of goop not quite dripping from the bottom, as well as an extra rectangular bit jutting out from what should have been the triangle’s top-most point.

Misplaced bits aside, as Twilight tried to ignore the other students still looking at her and the few thumbs up or mouthed “good jobs” they were giving her she didn’t think the shape was very Dipper-like. She would have guessed that if he was going to make a shape it’d be that six-fingered hand on each of his journals or maybe that pine tree he sometimes doodled in the margins of his papers. Not a malformed triangle. Maybe she was reading too much into it though. If that bead of sweat running down his brow was any indication he wasn’t having an easy go of it. So likely the shape was just a random–

Pop!

Another pop, another splattering of abomination fluid sent bursting. Only this time, instead of across the table, Dipper’s would-be triangle popped directly into his face, covering him from bangs to chin. He sat there unmoving for a moment, letting the fluid drip down his face, before letting out an exasperated sigh and reaching up to start wiping it away. At least Twilight’s burst of goo had only gotten on the table.

“That’s more in line with our expectations,” Meisterlin Bonnibel said while Luz conjured a new circle from her right-hand manacle to help Dipper clean himself off. And evidently that was the end of what they needed to see. From there the class was given a few more minutes to discuss project ideas; Peridot threw out a self-propagating abomination core idea but Lapis said it would take too much plant magic, all the while the Meisterlin’s little circular abomination passed out rubrics. From there the Meisterlins announced that they would stay a while longer for any questions, but otherwise the class was dismissed for the day. Which was Twilight’s queue to cross two things off her to do list.

After making plans to plan with Lapis and Peridot more later, Twilight grunted as she hefted her bag of books from the floor to the table between she and Dipper. She pulled out one of the larger tomes from her checked-out stash and handed it to him, “Here you go.”

“Thanks?” he said, Luz looking over his shoulder at the oversized old book.

“It’s research material for about the corridor,” Twilight explained while throwing the book bag’s straps over her shoulder. It was mercifully less heavy with that book removed. “I know you’ve got a lot more classes than the rest of us, but you’re also the best at working out the spell components. So you get that one while Molly and Anne get simpler texts, Connie and I will take some of the mid-level ones until we get better at recognizing that…old language.”

“Right,” he said without looking up from the heavy book she’d given him. It was easily the size of all three of his grimoires put together. “Sorry I couldn’t go help at the library this morning.”

“It’s fine,” she said, certain that anyone who saw her smile would know it really was. “Sunset and I had a library date. Anyway, I’ve got to go talk to the Meisterlins and I think you have another introductory class soon. So I’ll see you all later.”

With goodbyes of differing enthusiasms offered back to her return, Twilight sidestepped her way out of their row of seating and made her way towards the desks at the front of the hall. The Meisterlins stood there, discussing something or other with one another following the last set of students who had actually bothered to come ask questions. Of course, Twilight wouldn’t have been the only one with questions, though she was the only one to come alone and likely with her specific type of question.

“Meisterlin Bonnibel, Meisterlin Zecora,” Twilight started, trying to come across as respectful as possible in light of what she was going to ask. Generally she didn’t have to try to hard to respect her instructors though. “I was wondering if you could tell me about another faculty member, Meisterlin Wakeman and her class?”

Zecora raised a brow and smirked. “Dr. Wakeman is no Meisterlin, not surprising given she came here through sin.”

Twilight’s own brow furrowed. “Oh, it was just that I read in the Hexside catalogue that she taught a cla–”

A bark of laughter from Meisterlin Zecora cut Twilight off. “Ha! Bonnibel did you hear? Someone read that rag the dean holds so dear.”

“I heard Zecora,” Meisterlin Bonnibel replied with much less amusement. “Dr. Wakeman teaches a class on integrating magic with more modern technology. Not many take it unless they plan on moving deeper into Pride or are hellborn looking to take their skills to another ring. Are you interested in that sort of thing?”

Twilight had thought about how she would bring this up and explain it, so she was already prepared for that question. “I dabbled in various sciences as part of my mortal studies, I thought it may help me catch up, as you put it, if I was able to mentally connect some elements of that to elements of magic for myself.”

Meisterlin Bonnibel didn’t look very convinced. Though, now that Twilight wasn’t as nervous about having to put on a display, she noted that it was kind of hard to tell exactly what expression the jellyfish woman actually had. Her face was rather plain and simple in the way of just general traits. “You know you can’t get out of our class, right?”

“That wasn’t my intention at all,” Twilight said quickly. Which was true, especially before even meeting the other instructor. “I just want to put my best foot forward, and I think the way her class was described might help me with that.”

“Learning science from a sinner…odd for a witch but for you could be a winner,” Zecora mused. “What think you Bonnibel, they do say anything can happen in hell.”

Meisterlin Bonnibel didn’t look away from Twilight as she responded. “If she thinks it could help her then I’ll set up a meeting for her. As long as she doesn’t skip any of her tutoring or skimp on assignments for this class.”

“Of course,” Twilight said, beaming. This was going to be the key to understanding how elements of the magic system she’d been thrown into worked, she just knew it. And if she understood the magic then she could use it to help their corridor problem, or just get good grades, or impress Sunset. Amid those thoughts, those happy and excited feelings flowing through her, she barely registered that the jar of abomination fluid she’d stuffed into her book bag twitched against her side.

Chapter Text

Bard:

Dipper stepped into the bardic general studies hall feeling pretty good. While his abomination class hadn’t exactly been the highlight of his day, he also hadn’t garnered any unwanted attention or tired himself out anymore than he already had. Which hopefully meant he’d be able to wake up at a normal time tomorrow after the energy spell keeping him going in the moment wore off in a couple of hours. Plus, the muted reds of the bard hall weren’t as oppressive as he had imagined they’d be. There were even some windows lining the upper half of the far wall letting in sunlight that gave the whole place room a sense of–

“Mason!” Sunset half whispered, half-yelled as she pulled him to the side of the doorway. In less than a second he went from peacefully taking in the next classroom, as similar as it might have been to all the others, to up against the wall with Twilight’s new girlfriend pulled him into a huddle. With her arm over his shoulders she whispered, “I leave you alone for a couple hours and you try to take over the school?”

“What?” was all that Dipper managed to think or say.

She rolled her eyes and held up her scroll. It was the first time he’d seen one up close. Sunset had toyed with hers before he’d left her and Twilight’s room the other night, but now that it was right in front of him he could see what was basically a phone screen glowing on the unfurled paper. This screen featuring none other than several images of him within some kind of app feed.

“What’s penstagram?” he asked, still not processing everything that was happening. Or maybe the energy spell wasn’t working on his brain as much as it was his body. That was all he needed with half the day still left to slog through.

“It’s a scroll app for Goliath,” she explained quickly, her thumb a blur as she clicked and scrolled further into the feed that seemed to be all about him. “There’s Sinstagram for sinners and hellborn in the other rings too, but– but that doesn’t matter. Look at this.”

Sunset’s thumb pressed down, stopping the scrolling in place on a photo of Dipper. Well, a muscular picture of Dipper. Rippling with muscles and a head adorned with massive horns, the couple of hours old picture showed Dipper glaring down Meister Tennyson as if he had any idea what he was doing. The whole scene looked ridiculous to him now. Even if it hadn’t turned out to be a…ploy the Meister liked to put new students through, what would Dipper have been able to do? With all the magic he actually knew how to use negated in that classroom? Probably not much.

“Why didn’t you tell me you could get so…” Sunset licked her lips, “big.”

“Because I didn’t know?” Dipper replied, maybe a little bit more sarcastically than he had intended. He tentatively scratched his head, finding just a pair of stubs still covered by Miko’s illusion instead of the massive horns captured in the photo. “I was just trying not to get my head caved in.”

“Well we’re definitely coming back to that later,” Sunset said, a gleam sparkling in her eye as she scrolled down further. “This is what’s really bringing you attention, at least from the less thirsty guys and gals around campus.”

She stopped on a series of pictures taken during Dipper’s display in Diaz’s construction class. The first was just a shot of him concentrating as he looked over the empty field. The second she swiped to was a video, further blurring the lines between what a scroll and a cell phone could do, that showed the field rumbling as he concentrated the dirt beneath it into one massive boulder that then sprung up before the students and Mesiter gathered around him. Another swipe showed a still like the first, only this time it was of Meister Diaz and his multiple spell circles as he strained to life Dipper’s multi-ton creation. And one final swipe brought about another video, showing the boulder briefly flying through the air before crashing down in a cacophonous burst of dirt, grass, and a massive cloud of dust that billowed upwards as if trying to stain the red sky brown.

“You didn’t tell me you could do that either,” Sunset huffed, her attention back on the in-person Dipper instead of the “Penstagram” posted image of him.

“I…got competitive,” he said, briefly glancing at the surrounding students when he couldn’t bring himself to look at her or the scroll anymore. “Pushed myself more than I should have.”

Sunset pocketed her scroll as she looked up him, her surprise and…hunger from a moment before replaced by a soft smile. “You don’t have to be ashamed at being good at something, Mason.”

“I had just hoped not to attract so much attention.” Dipper sighed as he looked back at her. “At least not on the first day.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. Being the big man on campus might make things easi–”

“And you’d know all about being easy, wouldn’t you?” came a voice from behind them.

Dipper and Sunset turned in place to find a trio of hellborn staring them down. All three of the girls were also the same mix of possessor and Baphomet, with slightly more of the fish demon over the equine that gave them almost human faces despite the odd mix. If it weren’t for their technicolor skin tones, fin-adorned tails and hair, hooves, and similarly rectangular pupils to Sunset’s they might have passed for mortal. Though when Dipper listed the differences out in his head it seemed like a lot more than it did at first glance.

“Oh, is the pot calling the kettle yellow, Adagio,” Sunset replied to the girl in the center, who was a lighter shade of yellow to Sunset’s own hue.

Adagio blew one of the orange fins acting as her bangs out of her face while ignoring Sunset’s retort, instead focusing her magenta eyes on Dipper. “We’ve been hearing a lot about you. So much so that Sonata, Aria, and I wanted to invite you to sit with us.”

The trio stepped closer, Adagio placing a hand on Dipper’s chest as the other two crowded him to either side. “We’ll be happy to show you the ins and outs of the Bard track. Show you what a group of pretty mouths can really do.”

“Yeah,” the pink-skinned one agreed, her divination-themed purple vest pushing against him as she leaned in. “You’d be amazed at our harmony.”

“We’re like, really good at doing things at the same time,” the blue-skinned one with the flared collar added in.

“I…uh…”

“He’s fine,” Sunset said harshly. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled back far enough for her to step between him and the trio. “There’s enough pretty mouths already taking care of him that he doesn’t need a second-rate pentsa band wasting his time.”

“Hey, we’ve got sponsors,” the pink one with purple fins acting as pigtails scowled.

Sunset’s dismissive look turned to menacing smile. “Yes, Aria. You got so many sponsors once you started copying and trying to one up me. Nice choice of leggings by the way, little much on the tops though.”

All three of them were wearing the bard-red leggings that Sunset and a lot of the other students already in class were, though if Dipper was following and the scowls on these girls’ faces were any indication they had only chosen leggings over sleeves because Sunset had. Speaking of sleeves and tops, none of them had any. Adagio had a short, abomination-colored jacket, Aria had her vest, and the blue one had the closest thing to a minicape at all, though it was illusion-blue instead of dark grey. Which was a bit more of a modification than anything else Dipper had seen so far. Most of the minicape changes he’d seen made had been more akin to Sunset’s showing more skin, not a complete style change. Whether or not they were too much was outside his expertise though, considering his knowledge of girls’ style more or less stopped at sweaters.

“That is when the sponsorships started coming in,” the blue one added, seemingly trying to be helpful.

“Shut up, Sonata,” Adagio and Aria snapped in unison. Sonata played with her ponytail-fin as she looked confused for a moment, but quickly returned to her previous vacant smile.

“So why don’t you all run along,” Sunset continued. “I’ll come get you if Dipper and I need something to drown out howling dogs or nails on a chalkboard.”

Sunset and Adagio, along with occasional glances from Aria, glared one another down for a long moment. Then Adagio huffed. She slipped her arms around Aria and Sonata, drawing them close enough for their chests to press against one another. Then to Dipper she said, “If you ever get tired of that cow and her udders talking for you, come see what a perkier trio can do for you.”

Sunset let out a scoffing huff of a laugh before crossing her arms under her own chest, hoisting up and drawing attention to her larger breasts. As if they needed any help drawing attention. “Quality over quantity, Adagio.”

Another terse moment passed where everyone but Sonata looked at one another angrily. It only ended when Adagio shook her head and turned around, leading the other two away and up and stairs between the tiers of seating. Dipper’s gaze shifted between them and Sunset, who was watching them go while oozing annoyance. It was the most negative he’d seen her be, at least when it came to anything besides hunger.

“Those three drive me crazy,” she scowled under her breath. “Whenever they come around I feel like I start slipping back to how I used to be.”

“Then…I’m sorry they came around because of me.”

Sunset breathed deeply, letting her arms drop back to her sides and her chest back to its natural resting position. “It’s fine. And I guess I see why you didn’t want to draw attention if that’s the…quality of people being attracted. I’d just hate for them to make me snap and cause Twi or you to start hating me…”

“Whoa, no hate here,” a large-bellied imp native said as he barreled into the room. “Only good vibes in this class.”

Sunset and Dipper blinked in unison at the large man’s arrival and intrusion into their conversation before looking at one another to make sure they were both on the same page in their surprise. Despite the top of his head being bare save his horns, from the sides and back of his head flowed enough hair to dangle well below his noticeable waistline. Add to that a curly beard, white just like the rest of his hair, and you got the image of a man that could have been ancient, but Dipper didn’t think was.

“I don’t mean to be rude sir,” Sunset said after a moment. “But who are you?”

After being initially taken aback by the large, balding-but-still-hairy native’s sudden appearance, Dipper had guessed from the man’s robes that he must have been one of Hexside’s meisters. What he was wearing wasn’t anywhere near as flashy or unique as the other meister and meisterlins outfits, but it was that same dark grey on grey robe that seemed to be the basis for everyone else’s looks. But if Sunset didn’t know him…well then Dipper didn’t know what to think. He had thought random people couldn’t get onto the campus. Luz had had to act as his way past the perimeter after all, something that wooden-looking sinner they’d passed hadn’t been able to do.

“I’ll be making an announcement about that once class starts,” the man said, a big grin showing from within his beard. “Better get a good seat so you won’t miss it.”

“Right…” Sunset replied slowly as the man, still smiling, made his way past she and Dipper and towards the desk at the front of the room. She watched him for a moment, her brows furrowing a bit as he plopped down and started sorting a small pile of papers he’d brought in with him.

“I take it that’s not–”

“Definitely not the Meisterlin,” Sunset finished for him. She had taken him by the hand and was leading him towards where Luz had saved some seats, though only after evidently accepting that the strange man wasn’t going anywhere yet. “Though, I haven’t actually seen her since I got back. Usually she’s around campus putting on shows.”

The two filed into the seats next to Luz, Dipper sitting between her and Sunset. The other mortal in the room barely seemed to register they had joined her, having partially dozed off again. Maybe after waking herself up for class with her girlfriend she couldn’t help but succumb to how much she’d pushed herself in their Construction class. Dipper thought about trying to show her how to do the energizing spell from his grimoire, but he wasn’t sure how he’d even explain it. Anything he gleaned from the three books just manifested in his head. How to do them or if he could modify them at all was still beyond him. He wasn’t even sure if the spells in the book could be learned by someone they weren’t attuned to, something Luz herself had implied his first night in Goliath.

 Dipper’s internal musings were cut short as Steven’s massive frame of muscles hurried into class, quickly noticing and approaching the last seat to the other side of Luz. Dipper had felt so big earlier before his transformation had started to fade, but watching Steven arrive and do his best to slide behind people already in their seats really drove home what it meant to actually be big. Though not in the way that matters.

Dipper blinked at the sudden thought. That wasn’t something he ever thought about. And he barely even knew Steven, let alone enough to compare–

Sunset let out a little laugh, as if she knew what was going through his head. Which was, he realized along with feeling the weight of her hand on his arm, because she did know. Turning his attention to her, his gaze passed over her hand on his arm before meeting her eyes. She gave him a wink and a mischievous smile before removing her hand. “Confidence, remember.”

Dipper felt his face flush, something she was way too good at causing to happen, but Steven finally pushed his way to his seat before Dipper had a chance to reply. “Thanks for holding a seat,” he gasped. “Connie caught me on the way and we…”

Steven trailed off, at first Dipper assumed because the native witch realized he was about to bring up whatever freakiness Connie, he, and the other two liked to get up to. However, when Steven remained speechless for more than a few seconds, Dipper followed his confused gaze to find that he was staring in seeming befuddlement at the round, balding man that had taken up shop at the Meister’s desk. “Dad?!”

The “good vibes” guy looked up from papers he’d been rifling through, the light filtering in through the class’s high windows reflected off his head and horns. His own confused expression became a wide, toothy grin when he saw who was calling him. “Stew-ball! How’s your first day going?”

For a moment Steven couldn’t seem to find the words, though with a shake of his head he managed to pull himself together after a few slack-jawed seconds. “It’s been fine, dad, but what are you doing here? At Meisterlin Abadeer’s desk?”

Steven’s father chuckled. “Well it’s a bit of a surprise, one that–” He wiggled his arm so he could get a look at his watch. “One that I’m about to announce.”

With that, Steven’s father conjured a pale red magic circle and held it to his mouth like a microphone. “Good morning, Hexside,” he announced like some kind of rockstar. Whether he fit the bill for playing such a role or not being beside the point, the sudden casting of his voice across the class grabbed the attention of every student still milling about. “I’m Greg Underverse, you can call me Mr. Underverse or just Greg, I’m not picky. But if you’d all take a seat I’ve got an announcement about your class this trimester.”

Questioning glances and continued murmuring abounded as, despite not knowing who the pudgy man who in no way looked like their teacher or his bewildered son in the first row. Still, they did as he asked, even Steven whose concern only seemed to be growing by the second. Perhaps he had just remembered the surprise Meisterlin Rarity had mentioned in their Oracle introduction. She hadn’t said anymore than that, but who it would involve seemed pretty clear.

The only one not concerned about the imp native’s seeming takeover of the class was also the least conscious. At least she was until Steven let himself drop into his chair, hard enough for the table and floor around him to shake Luz’s head out of her hand. Dipper moved to grab her shoulder, but she started awake before her face could collide with the wooden surface below.

Blinking, Luz looked around with all the wherewithal of someone woken up before they were ready. She offered Dipper and Sunset a weary wave before noticing Steven’s father at the front of the class. “Hey Mr. U,” she said through a yawn.

“Oh hey–” He stopped as he realized his was still broadcasting through his spell circle. Holding his hand off to the side he continued, “How’s it going Luz?”

She stretched, not noticing the attention being drawn from around the room at their friendly conversation or the discomfort it was causing Steven to be next to it. “Oh, you know, getting through the day. You get that gig you mentioned to Eda last time?”

He smiled wide again. It was a friendly look despite how pointy his teeth were, and maybe twinged with a bit of pride. “You’ll know in just a second.” Then, holding the circle back up, as well as one of the many pieces of paper he’d been shuffling through, he began in earnest. “I’d like to welcome you all back to school. As you may have noticed, I’m not your usual Bard Meister. Hell, I’m not sure if I even count as a meister.”

A few chuckles filled the pause he allowed to fill the space. Though all sounded like they were either pity laughs or hiding nervousness about whatever was going on.

“But anyway, Dean Bump thinks I’ll manage somehow while your normal Meister is pursuing her musical dreams.”

“But isn’t she already like, a rockstar?” a girl with braided, partially dyed-grey hair called out from a higher row.

“Well, uh, she left a note mentioning that actually,” Mr. Underverse said before almost dropping the piece of paper he’d been gripping in his other hand. Unfolding it with his thumb, he continued, “Let’s, uh, see here. Dear Greg, thanks for filling in for me while I remind pop princess Mayday where she belongs on the charts. The curriculum Bonnie made for me is clipped to this note, so just follow it and you should do fine. Hell, do a good enough job and I might be able to convince Bonnie that we need to share a taste of the ol’ Underverse char–”

“Dad!” Steven shouted, cutting his father off before he could read any farther.

“Right, I probably wasn’t supposed to read all of that,” he said, his smile having turned nervous as he tried to play off what he’d just done. “But uh, I guess you could say she’s asserting dominance through a new tour. So I’ll be here until she gets back. But don’t worry. I’ve got the curriculum, I know how to keep a beat, and I’ve got good vibes to get us through anything that might come our way. So what do you say, ready to give a Bard class with me a chance.”

The replies to his question varied from dismissive “whatevers,” to someone asking whether they had a choice or not, but eventually a common sense of acceptance seemed to fall over the class.

“Great,” Mr. Underverse said with more exuberance than the replies would seem to elicit. “So let’s start by seeing what everyone can do. Who wants to start us off with a demonstration?”

“We will,” a now familiar voice called out from the back of the hall.

“Ugh,” Sunset groaned while Dipper looked up to see Adagio and co. already standing in one of the highest rows. Instead of joining in with Dipper and the rest of the class to watch as the aggressive trio start to sing, Sunset instead conjured a pair of pale red magic circles that she palmed in each hand. Then, before he had a chance to question what she was doing, Sunset reached around his shoulders and covered his ear with one of her hands while also pulling his head to lean against hers. Even with her hair done up in the complicated way she kept it in public, part of his face was partially buried in her red and yellow mane.

Slightly jarred from the sudden head smushing, Dipper started to finally ask what Sunset was doing. But before he managed to get the words out, which also happened to be before Mr. Underverse had been able to reply to Adagio, she along with Aria and Sonata began to sing. Sunset held him tighter against her as a melodic tone filled the hall, muffled as it was through Sunset’s hand, hair, and spell circle. From what he could hear it seemed nice enough, nothing Dipper would go looking for on his own, but also nothing that he’d instantly turn off like they were nails on a chalkboard. Other people around the class though, they seemed like they might disagree. As the trio worked through their tune the other students’ and even Mr. Underverse’s eyes all glazed over and mouths fell agape. It was as if they were all mesmerized by the song.

Cause they are Sunset’s voice said from within his own mind. By Satan you’re cute when you’re surprised she added when his eyes widened.

Dipper really needed to get used to some forms of magic, especially Sunset’s given how they kept…colliding like this. With their faces smushed side-by-side and a thick veil of hair further obstructing one’s view of the other, it must have been Sunset’s oracle magic letting her “see” and “talk” to him in the moment.

Colliding, I like that she said…or thought? Either way, Dipper somehow was able to feel her smile behind the words. But back to the whor…se fishes. Aria charges their song with hypnotic form of oracle magic. It makes their listeners into slack-jawed simps, luckily not for very long though. They’re not actually that good at what they do.

The trio’s tune came to an end, Mr. Underverse and the class slipping into eerily in-step applause to fill the silence left behind. Sunset’s explanation of “long” must have meant more than the length of the song because, even with Adagio, Aria, and Sonata no longer singing as they bowed for the applause, Dipper didn’t see a single member of the class lose the glaze over their eyes or open-mouthed expression. Sunset must have been thinking the same thing, because she dismissively said, “I think that’s enough ego stroking,” aloud and stood up.

With a wave of her hand, a new bardic circle appeared around her neck like a glowing choker, causing what happened next to resonate through the hall as if there was a Sunset singing from every row and corner in perfect, resonant harmony. “Like a phoenix burning bright in the sky…”

The room went silent save for the tendrils of Sunset’s own lyrics as she held on to the final note of the line. Dipper found he couldn’t look away, and couldn’t imagine how anyone else around them regardless of being in a trance or not could either. It was if the girl standing beside him wasn’t Sunset anymore, or not just Sunset at least. Instead, the glow of her magic and the sheer influence of her singing seemed to have set her ablaze as she sang. It was nothing less than mesmerizing. Mesmerizing to the point that he lost track of what she was even singing. All he knew was that he wanted to hear more, he wanted her voice and glow to wash over him just like it was in that moment for as long as possible, and then for her to go even longer than that. But, like so many things Dipper had fallen for in his life, it came to an end before it even seemed to really get going.

“Cause my past is not today,” Sunset’s final verse resonated through the room, leaving traces of itself even as the final word left her lips and, with a slight smile, she bowed.

Before even a second of silence could follow the class erupted into applause, hollers, and whistles. Not a single person, with the exception of a certain trio, hadn’t been taken in by her voice and lyrics, and now it was all they could do to let her know just how amazing it had made them feel.

“What a way to start us off,” Mr. Underverse said, continuing to clap as he approached.

“Hey!” Adagio shouted from the back, barely audible over the rest of the class. “We started things off!”

Mr. Underverse furrowed his brow as he looked in Adagio and her cronies’ direction, as if confused about who he was even talking to. Or like he couldn’t remember any such thing. “If, uh, you say so.”

“Told you they weren’t very good,” Sunset said, just loud enough for Dipper to hear as she took her seat beside him. “Not even enough to be memorable once something better comes along.”

Dipper sat in awe of Sunset’s ability. If that was what she could belt out in an impromptu show of one-ups-manship, then he could only fathom what she could do with prep time. Yet, from what he gathered, that wasn’t what people knew her for around campus. What she posted for her fans to watch on those cell-phone-like scrolls might have been something he knew from experience she was really good at, but he couldn’t help but wonder why she chose to show off that side of her it was obvious even more people would flock to her singing instead.

It took a minute, but the class eventually started to quiet down. Though Sunset received her fair share of adoration before it did. Which unfortunately meant someone had to follow her, and wouldn’t you know it–

“Alright, since I’m already over here, why don’t you go next…”

“Dipper.” He did his best not to groan his own name as he fell under Mr. Underverse’s, among others’, attention. His sound grimoire was the one he’d spent the least time with so far, finding the Earth and Fire tomes much easier to connect with. But he had already gone through this a couple times this morning without any way of getting out of it, so might as well get it out of the way. At least when he couldn’t do a fraction of what Sunset had just managed it might convince a few people not to pay him as much mind going forward.

“Well, Dipper, give me a taste of what you’ve got.”

“Is there a, uhm, sousaphone or tuba I could use?” Dipper asked hopefully. Even if it wasn’t too impressive, things would hopefully go easier if he could at least channel his bit of sound magic through his old instrument.

“No can do this time, bud,” Mr. Underverse replied. “We’ll get to instruments eventually, but today just give us a shot that’s all you.”

Dipper grimaced at the desk. There was not doing well enough to avoid drawing more attention, then there was just plain failing. It was in his nature to avoid the latter as much as the attention itself. An elbow nudged him in the arm, leading to a look from Sunset that with just a glance he could feel her saying Show ‘em what you can do. Or maybe she’d sent that into his mind with the nudge. Either way, it left him with few options. Sunset wanted him to be confident and show off, Luz was watching through half-closed eyes as she drifted between consciousness and unconsciousness, and Steven was still covering his face from embarrassment. Which left him, with no singing talent to speak of, only one route that he could even think of.

Sighing, Dipper pushed his thumb and middle finger together and concentrated. As usual, at least lately, the magic circle came into being without much effort. Though it did elicit an “Well that’s a new one,” from Mr. Underverse when his connection to the sound element colored the circle an off-yellow instead of bardic red. Dipper ignored him though, instead concentrating on the fingers the circle floated around. All he had to do was make the snap into something else. It could be louder, it could be different, it could be anything at all as long as when he snapped it didn’t sound like a snap. And so, with his mind and concentration focused on that one idea and nothing else, of it not sounding like a snap, he did just that.

Silence.

Silence not just from the onlooking friends and stranger and strange teacher alike, but seemingly from everything around him. His snap hadn’t snapped, let alone anything else despite the action causing the magic circle to quickly expand until it had dissipated around them. Had he really been concentrating that hard that he had messed up the simple action of snapping? Dipper had made his lion’s share of gaffs in his life but forgetting how to snap? That seemed a bit too far for even him.

He tried snapping his fingers again, several times in fact, and again there was nothing but the dull impact of his own finger striking his palm. Before Dipper could groan in frustration, a large hand came to rest on his shoulder, this time it was Mr. Underverse giving him a look. One that seemed to say, it’s okay or happens to everyone. But only seemed to say that because when Mr. Underverse did open his mouth to say something no words came out.

The reassuring smile he’d been wearing dropped. More lip movement led to more nothingness as true concern crossed the jolly native witch’s face. Dipper looked to Sunset, but she could only offer him a simultaneously confused and amused shrug as opening her mouth also gave way to nothing but silence. It was the same all around the hall, though more were reacting like Mr. Underverse than Sunset. Grasping their throats and trying to yell, some even trying to cast a bardic spell of their own, but nothing seemed to work. The room remained silent of voices, shuffling feet, even the few students Dipper saw banging on desks got nothing.

That was…until he heard a snap.

The panicking stopped as it echoed through the unnatural silence. Everyone looked around, but when there was no obvious source for the sound they all turned towards Dipper. More snapping followed, the same number of times he’d snapped in frustration after his first had failed. But there was something off about them. They came too quickly. Too high pitched. Before what that might mean even had a chance to set in more sounds started to pour in from everywhere and nowhere all at once. Mr. Underverse’s attempted consolation, Sunset’s “I dunno,” rumblings of other students that grew into panicked screams, banging on desks, and stomping or shuffling feet. All the sounds that hadn’t been in the last few seconds came streaming into the room from everywhere all at once. Faster than they should have. Louder than they should have. Higher pitched than they should have.

The stream of sound became a high-pitched flood of incomprehensible, garbled nonsense that just got louder and higher pitched with every passing second. It just kept going and going, until even through his hands pressed tighter than they’d ever been against his ears there was only the shrillest of piercing tones screaming right into the very depths of his mind and soul–

Shattering glass became music to Dipper’s ears as the hall’s windows exploded out into the red daylight. As if it’d been looking for a way to escape, the shrill piercing screech escaped into the open air beyond and faded while passing over the campus.

“Damnit,” Dipper groaned as he stared up at the row of shattered glass where there had once been a row of windows. A groan that grew in his throat as the sound of dozens of scrolls being pulled out filled the hall before snapping an inordinate amount of photos of what he’d done. Exactly the sound he hadn’t wanted to hear.

---

Healing:

Dipper could only hope that his next class would go better than the last, or at least in a way that would draw less attention than his last couple had. Whether by accident or getting swept up in the moment he had put too many eyes on himself, which was something he and the others didn’t need. More eyes could lead to more scrutiny, and more scrutiny could lead to someone figuring out they weren’t a real coven. Or even real witches for that matter. He didn’t know what kind of trouble that might lead to, but they were still in hell so he also didn’t want to risk finding out.

Sunset had left him to go check on Twilight, but not before showing him her updated Penstagram feed full of images of his handy work destroying school property. She had seemed more impressed than anything, to the point that she wanted him to be too. But shattering windows, even if their impromptu teacher and several students had been astounded at never seeing a spell like his before, wasn’t something he felt like taking too much pride in.

But with her gone that left him with a half-asleep Luz and still cringing Steven to show him the way to the healing track general hall. Which actually meant he was more leading them to the fire hall than the other way around, gripping Luz’s arm just above her manacle and looking back to check that Steven was still following along as well. Connie’s would-be himbo was trudging along with his arms crossed, grumbling to himself as he continued to deal with his father’s sudden appearance. Though from what Dipper could make out it didn’t see like Steven was upset that his dad was there, more so that he didn’t know how he could introduce Connie to more of his family so soon.

Dipper didn’t have any good advice about introducing girls to parents, let alone a third girl in whatever kind of polycule he and Connie had started. All he knew when it came to girls was that being awkward usually didn’t get you far and that explosions evidently make it hard for some of them to keep in touch.

Dealing with Luz was thankfully on the other end of the familiar vs outlandish spectrum. Growing up with a twin who liked to stay up far later than she should had led to a lot of mornings of him leading her around, even sometimes at school, before her boundless energy kicked back in. Granted, his sister hadn’t constantly been wearing massive manacles that brushed against his own wrist every few steps, but it was something he could deal with. Afterall, it had been a long time since he’d even been able to deal with Mabel…

Luckily there was no missing the red-accented building he’d already passed a few times that day. It was also luckily set up in basically the same way as the others, so figuring out where they were supposed to be wasn’t an impossible task. It was additionally helpful that there was currently only one class happening at a time, so once they were inside the fire hall he correctly guessed that all he had to do was follow the stream of students already heading in until they arrived where they needed to be. Which of course ended up being a classroom almost identical to all the others he’d been in that day, just with more blue than other colors.

Dipper lead his secretly fellow new witch and their grumbling native friend to an open set of seats in the first row, practically the same group of seats he’d been led to in all the other classes. He hadn’t thought about it before that moment, but now he was starting to wonder if to some degree they might have been “Luz’s seats” since she was in all the classes and seemed to always have them. Maybe he’d ask her about it when she wasn’t half asleep.

“Hello everyone,” a throaty woman’s voice from behind him, back towards the way they’d come in. Luz perked up as Dipper turned in place beside his seat, just in time for both of them to catch sight of their latest instructor of the day. While Luz seemed to brighten up, Dipper felt surprised along with a pang of confusion.

It wasn’t the fact that who Dipper’s eyes fell on was a dog woman that did it, he’d seen enough hellhounds to be used to them already. Her coloration on the other hand, that didn’t seem like it fit hell at all. She wasn’t red or black or even a dark shade of yellow, instead her fur was golden blonde with a few, freckle-like spots of black under each of her shining ocean-green eyes. Even her dark green hoodie with its massive sleeves, which otherwise tightly hugged the curves of her body down to its hem about halfway down her thighs, didn’t really seem to fit the same look he’d seen on other hellborn with its aqua accents. The capper was her horns though, a first from the hellhounds he’d seen so far. They were jagged, thin things emerging from the back of her head of hair reaching halfway down her back. The light blue highlights coloring the ends of her sandy hair and tail glinted in the light they gave off. It was like she was literally too bright to be in hell.

“Hi Ms. Jackie,” Luz, as if awoken by the dog woman’s brightness, beamed. Not in the same way she had perked up for Amity, but still noticeable from the droopy-eyed exhaustion she’d been stumbling through since her race with Huntress.

“Miss?” Dipper murmured, confused not just by her appearance but the shift away from Meister and Meisterlin all the other teacher stand-ins had used so far.

“Hi there, Luz,” the dog woman, Ms. Jackie evidently, said with a smile. “Did you and Amity have a wicked break?”

“Pretty good,” Luz, now leaning on the table, replied. “Afte the first few days with her I was with Eda and the fam for the rest.”

“Oh yeah, I heard a little bit about that.”

Luz cocked her head. “Huh?”

“You’ll see in a sec.” Then louder to the rest of the class, “Let’s take a seat everyone.”

While they didn’t exactly rush, Dipper was further surprised by how quickly the class reacted to her somewhat softspoken suggestion. While his previous classes hadn’t exactly been unruly towards their teachers, for the most part at least, most of the other Meisters and Meisterlins had put more power behind what they’d instructed the students to do.

“It’s so good to see all of you again,” Ms. Jackie continued once most of the class was seated. Then, with a nod towards Dipper, “And I’m looking forward to getting know our new students as well. For anyone who forgot over break though, I’m Jackie Lynn Thomas, student teacher extraordinaire. Ms. Thomas if you–”

“Still?”

Ms. Jackie rolled her eyes and waved off Luz’s comment with one of her massively oversized sleeves. “But I settle for Ms. Jackie most of the time. But get that in while you can, this is my last trimester as a student teacher after all.”

“Woot woot!” shouted someone in another row.

Ms. Jackie’s smile broadened. “But until then, I do have an announcement about Meisterlin Nel.”

Chairs creaked in every row around the hall. The majority of the male students had leaned forward, some nearly salivating with expectation. While Jackie the dog woman had trained her people to behave at least mostly right, whoever their official Meisterlin was managed to keep their attention in other ways.

“She’s taking some time off to get married.”

The students who had been so excited mere seconds before either leaned back or let their heads drop to the tables as a group-wide groan filled the air with the sound of utter disappointment. Ms. Jackie didn’t try to stop or hurry them along, just tapped one of her white hind paws as she waited for them to get it out of their systems. She may not have been an official teacher yet, but she seemed to already have a grasp on when to fight her battles with students.

“As I was saying,” she continued once most of the groaning and moaning had died down, “Meisterlin Nel won’t be with us for a while, but Dean Bump has gotten us a long-term substitute that really knows her stuff. So allow me to introduce our new Meisterlin.”

Ms. Jackie swung one of her massive sleaves back towards the doorway right as it opened, revealing–

“Aunty Lilith!” Luz shouted with excitement as the tall, raven-haired native witch Dipper had last seen fighting depression walked in. But there was no way anyone would even guess that had been the case for the woman who walked in now. Back straight and head held high, Lilith Clawthorn’s long strides carried her to Jackie’s side with a grace Dipper would have never imagined from the crying woman who had been contemplating throwing herself out in the trash a few days before. The bags under her eyes were gone and the feathers in her hair and arms had been preened to not be sticking up and out all over the place. It really was like looking at a whole different person.

“Hello Luz dear,” Lilith said in a lilting tone, green in black eyes sparkling as she looked first at her adopted niece then around the room. “Dipper, Steven, it’s good to see you and everyone else. It’s wonderful to be here with all of you.”

“Meisterlin Clawthorn comes to us from the Grand Meister’s palace,” Ms. Jackie announced to the class. The response of “oohs” and “aahs” that elicited seemed like it should have lifted her spirits with pride, but Dipper couldn’t help but notice Lilith’s eye twitch at the mention of her former employer. A glance at Luz told him she had seen it too, but to the rest of the class Lilith retained the refined appearance she had carried in with her.

Dipper still didn’t know all that much about Grand Meister Belos, just that it was because of him that there had been a crackdown on doorway and ozmandian crystals in Goliath and that he had fired Lilith for some reason. If the mention of just having worked for the man could start Lilith off on a good foot with the other students then he must be important even if not all his decisions were popular.

“Yes, I was a part of the Grand Meister’s coven,” Lilith said to the class at large, not a trace of her real feelings on the matter showing on her face. “But I am here to serve as your healing Meisterlin now. So, while I will be deferring to Ms. Thomas’s digression as she completes her graduate studies, I do hope any of you who wish for my expertise on the matter feel comfortable coming to speak with me on the matter. And to that end…”

“We’ve prepared some practice for you all to get back in the swing of things with,” Ms. Jackie said, picking up from the queue Lilith had left for her. Ms. Jackie clapped her hands together, resulting in a muffled thud through her sleeves that caused the door to pop open. “Would all the returning students join Meisterlin Clawthorn in the hall where some volunteer patients are waiting. You’ll be showing what you can do so put your best effort into taking care of our guests. New students can wait where they are, I’ll come get you in a moment.”

The new students who could wait while the rest filed up and out of the classroom was a long list that consisted of Dipper and his shadow. Which meant he got to sit there and wait while everyone else filtered back into the hall at Lilith’s heels. Some of them looked gung-ho about the opportunity to work with or at least in front of someone from the Grand Meister’s coven, but a few looked as excited as Dipper felt about being left behind. In particular a shorter girl, a witch he hadn’t seen earlier with massive boots and purple hair whose scowl looked like it could flatten a man. Between her height and being amongst all the other students he couldn’t get a look at her track, since it might be good to know who else was human and where to find them in a clutch, but he thought he saw a flash of red as she passed. Though she didn’t really look like the musical type. Unless grunge or emo was her thing.

Sighing, Dipper returned his attention to the front of the classroom and the not-quite-right-for-hell hellhound looking over some paperwork on the desk. There was still something about Ms. Jackie that he couldn’t put his finger on, he just didn’t know what and it was bugging him.

“Careful not to stare too much,” Luz mused, startling Dipper to attention since he hadn’t realized she was still there. She let out an amused huff of air as she leaned against the table, waiting for the crowd to die down before joining the throng on the other side of the door. “I know you got off to a good start with Meister Diaz, but he’s pretty protective of her.”

“Wha– I wasn’t…what?”

“Can’t blame you though,” she continued despite Dipper’s stuttering. “Everyone loves Ms. Jackie. She even shows students how to shred sometimes after class. Just don’t do anything that’ll get your head bitten off.”

“Look,” he started, trying to sound as matter of fact as he could, “she’s a…pretty hellhound but I’m not–”

“Oh, she’s not a hellhound,” Luz interrupted, then continued at the sight of Dipper’s confusion. “She, and Diaz for that matter, are sinners. Just…dogged ones.”

Dipper’s eyes turned to saucers. He hadn’t even considered the staff could be sinners, let alone that they’d look like one of the hellborn species he’d run about. One more so than the other, but still. The only obvious sinner he’d seen so far was that wooden looking one they’d passed on the way into Hexside, who the little retinue they’d been part of had silently encouraged him not to talk or get close to. Yet they all loved Ms. Jackie, and Meister Diaz seemed pretty popular too. Just where was the cut off exactly.

“The general studies plant and illusion track meisters are sinners too,” she added as she pushed herself off the table, the throng having loosed up a bit. “So don’t be too surprised when we get there. See ya.”

Dipper watched her and the last of the other students disappear back into the outer hallway, until at last he was the only student left. All the while Ms. Jackie continued to busy herself at the teacher’s desk, humming a tune to herself as she went about her business. She went on like that, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was still even there until, after what seemed like an eternity of quiet fidgeting later, there came a knocking at the door.

“Come in,” Ms. Jackie said loud enough for whoever was on the other side to hear. Then she motioned to Dipper and added at a more regular level, “Would you join me up here.”

Dipper did as instructed, the classroom’s door slowly creaking open at the same time. At first it was near impossible to see who was there, just a slightly avian outline amid the blue glow of all the other students practicing their spells on the hellborn volunteers. Then the silhouette stepped inside and closed the door behind him. The spindly birdman in the trench coat looked around wearily as he made his way inside, the heart-shaped pupil in his left eye shifting back and forth as he held bandaged arm across his torso.

“You’re Travis, right?” Ms. Jackie asked once both Dipper and the injured man had reached the desk she was leaning against. “The sinner Mar– Meister Diaz found?”

That caused Dipper to eye the man again. While he had been pretty sure the trench coat full of feathers wasn’t a goetia like the ones he’d read about, or at least not a full blooded one, he hadn’t expected a sinner patient on top of a sinner teacher. Multiple actually. After a few days of not so much as a whisper about them on campus suddenly he was seeing them everywhere, or at least in short succession one after another. Though he did note that this Travis character fit a lot more into the aesthetics of hell than Jackie did.

“Yeah…uh, ma’am,” Travis said, tipping his hat to her. “He said you could get my arms fixed up as long as I behaved myself.”

Ms. Jackie smiled to herself. “That’s a good way to be in general. Anyway, this is Dipper. Dipper, Travis. Travis, Dipper. He’ll be trying to fix your arm up today.”

“Trying?” The sinner’s heart-shaped eye gave Dipper the once over, clearly not impressed. “I don’t really need anything else to go wrong on this trip.”

Jackie’s smile didn’t falter as she placed a hand on Dipper’s shoulder. “You needed free health care with few questions asked, Dipper needed a patient who’s more durable to demonstrate with, I can fix anything he can’t. So, let’s do this and all get what we want please.”

Travis looked down at the bandaged arm he hadn’t allowed to move since arriving and grimaced. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Glad we’re all on the same page,” Ms. Jackie replied. “Do you need help unwrapping that?”

Travis let out an unsure groan that somehow led into him saying, “I can do it,” before beginning to do just that.

As the yellowed wrappings started to come off, Dipper motioned for Ms. Jackie to take a step back so he could quietly say to her, “I haven’t really practiced much healing magic. And the spells from my grimoire on the subject have all come with…side effects.”

“I’m sure it’ll be cool, Dipper,” she assured him. “Or blazing, I guess. The Dean told me how strong your connection with the fire element was.”

“That’s kind of what I’m afraid of.”

She gave him a ‘it’ll be fine’ kind of look and might have been about to say as much, but before she could her expression changed. Her nose crinkled and her brows scrunched together. Confusion flashed in her eyes, turning to disgust as her attention shifted from Dipper to just over his shoulder. What she had already picked up on hit Dipper before he could even look. Like a punch to the nose, a stench he hadn’t smelled in years and would have preferred never to smell again came at him; the rot of garbage and meat left out in the sun mixed with the fruity, metallic odor of blood and wafted through the air around them. All that was missing was the added vileness of burning flesh to make it the perfect callback.

“Dude!” Ms. Jackie yowled, her cool façade dropping in the face of the overwhelming odor. She had already covered her nose as she stomped back over to Travis, Dipper doing the same although more hesitantly. “What the hell happened to you?!”

The foot-long gash that ran between his dark-grey plumage and up his arm was ragged and deep, oozing speckles of blood between edges that had already started to turn green from infection or whatever the sinner version of that was. How he had even managed to walk around with that was a mystery in of itself, just not the kind Dipper liked to solve.

“I was scouting…filming locations for my producer,” Travis explained, “when I caught sight of someone who owed him money and fell trying to catch up with them.”

“Must have been a pretty bad fall,” Ms. Jackie noted as she eyed the wound. The hand not holding her nose was twitching in her sleeve as if preparing to heal the wound herself, if only to get rid of that smell. She held herself back though, motioning for Dipper to get closer instead. “Alright then Dipper, do your thing.”

Dipper did his best not to groan or gag when he uncovered his own nose, something incredibly hard to manage as the smell was so strong he could practically taste it while breathing through his mouth. All he could do to keep from upchucking what little food he’d managed to grab that morning was focus on his spell instead. Rubbing his hands together to warm them in preparation, he focused on the healing aspect of the spells his fire grimoire had placed in his mind. The healing aspect and only the healing aspect. No side-effects, no alternate reasons or desired outcomes other than just the healing, just making the arm better. That’s all he had to do. He knew, in theory, how to do that. So that’s all he was going to do.

The burning red magic circle formed between his palms as he pulled them apart from one another, the heat from rubbing his palms having kickstarted the process as he got ready. Now warm like a small flame, the circle was ready to do what he had created it for. And just what he had created it for. Because the only thing he was going to do with it was fix that disgusting, infected hunk of flesh before it could get any worse.

The magic circle floated towards the wound with the gentlest push from Dipper, gently colliding with Travis’s arm and illuminating the whole injury in a pale red glow. At first the sinner flinched as the warm light touched his skin, but then his eyes widened and his oddly beaked mouth shifted into a smile as the edges of his wound started to meld together. Dipper couldn’t help but smile himself as the spell started working, as it did what he’d wanted it to instead of going completely, horribly wro–

Travis screamed in terror as his arm caught fire, then in agony as his whole body did.

“What was that!?” Lilith shouted as she rushed in, so quickly that Dipper and Jackie hadn’t even had time to react. That must have been quite the sight to rush in on, a patient caught ablaze and running around with his arms flailing about while the ones who were supposed to be healing him just watched with their mouths agape. A sight worth capturing evidently, as a number of scrolls were pushed through the door behind Lilith, all of them snapping away while Dipper could only sigh.

---

Plants:

“Cheer up,” Luz said while she, Dipper, and Steven waited in the plant hall for their next Meister to show. He was late enough that Dipper had plenty of time to stew in what had just happened, even with Luz, Steven, and Sprig trying to make him feel better. “You did still heal his arm.”

“Yeah,” Steven chimed in. “Just try to avoid causing as much, you know, agony next time.”

Dipper, forehead pressed to the table, groaned as he thought back to the torture spell. He had felt so close to making it work without the actual torture part, until it hadn’t. Luckily, he hadn’t been exactly great at the torture aspect either, so by the time they’d put Travis out only his feathers were burnt. The flame itself may have been painful, but it had healed more than hurt. Which was a saving grace he supposed, but one that had gotten him trending on Penstagram for the third or fourth time that day. And Luz had showed him where people were bringing up how he’d ‘commanded’ his coven to beat up Drago the other day to all the comments, so that was great. Before long he was going to start looking like some kind of evil mastermind and he wasn’t even sure if that was something the rest of campus would like or not. Not that he wanted the attention either way.

“Well, um, hello everyone,” a nervous sounding voice called from the front of the classroom.

“Woo! Go Willow!” Luz called as Dipper looked up. Standing in front of the teacher’s desk and looking far from confident she should be there, was a native witch with large glasses over eyes Dipper couldn’t really see through the shadow cast by her somewhat translucent hair. It hit him after a few seconds that she was part jellyfish demon like Meisterlins Rarity and Bonnibel, the native version instead of a hellborn though. “Take the class over!”

Willow gave Luz a nervous smile before continuing to the class as a whole, “I’m Willow, the student aid to Meister Audrey the Second. I’m, uh, not sure what’s keeping him but I’m pretty sure he’d want us to get started. So if everyone would go ahead and grow something, I’ll take notes for when he does arrive.”

“Why should we listen to you?!” someone shouted from the back.

Willow blushed. “Oh, well, I guess, because, um…” She raised a finger, a green magic circle already formed above it, then dropped her finger to point towards the back. A sudden crash shook the hall and had Dipper sitting up in an instant. He and everyone else around him turned to see a massive thrush of thick vines had erupted from thar farthest back row and pinned to the wall the student that had tried to backtalk Willow. “I guess because as aid I’m allowed to do that. Now, unless there’s any other questions, let’s get growing.”

Without much more commentary, or the pinned student being released from the wall, the rest of the students turned and started to create magic circles of their own over their respective tables. Dipper had gotten the message earlier that morning not to expect normal behavior from the teachers and other students, but to see them all so nonplussed about some of the things that went on was still…unnerving.

In Dipper’s attempt to go along with the flow he was going to ask where Willow wanted them to actually grow their plants from, but things started sprouting before he had the chance. Huntress, also near the back, conjured a series of bamboo-like stalks that shot directly out of the table in front of her to nearly three feet high within a blink’s time. Another girl a few rows closer, who might have even a modern witch though it was hard to tell through her curtain of lavender hair, called forth a veritable grove of mushrooms of every size and color that spilled in front of the students to either side of her. Even Sprig, sitting on the other side of Luz, caused several bouquets worth of tulips to sprout in bunches after a slap of his palm on the table’s surface.

“Are the tables made of dirt or something?” Dipper asked, a finger idly scratching at the surface before him.

“Something like that,” Steven noted as his own magic circle sunk into the tabletop. From the ring of green light came a single creeping vine that almost immediately started sprouting a perfectly round watermelon that grew to a size bigger than any of their heads in a few seconds.

In a similar, but more showy display, Luz leaned way back in her seat so she could prop her feet up on the able. The moment her left heal touched down the manacle around that ankle emitted her own blue magic circle, though instead of floating over and away from her foot the way Dipper had seen her do before, the circle dripped down towards the table, turning green as it fell until it too became part of the table like all the others before it. Instead of a sensible plant, or at least one he could recognize, it was something akin to a venus fly trap but bigger, rounder, and more aggressive looking with a multitude of pink-in-black eyes lining its bulbous head.

“Ooh, very nice specimen,” Willow said, adjusting her thick glasses to get a better look as she approached. “Very healthy growth.”

“Thanks Willow,” Luz beamed. “I read that article you gave me about that prince with all the plants. I think it helped.”

Willow smiled sweetly. “And Sprig, those are lovely tulips. Are they a new strain?”

“Yep,” the diminutive amphimpian replied. “Me and Chuck have been working on them anytime I’m back home.”

“Well they’re certainly a lovely batch. And Steven, is this watermelon differently flavored like the last? Or just large and succulent as always?”

“It’s still watermelon flavored,” Steven said while slowly spinning the large fruit in place. “But I think I’ve made the flavor stand out even more. And I can always make it come to life if you wa–”

“No, that’s alright,” Willow said quickly, her smile twisting from some previous memory of his living plants and whatever mischief they might have gotten up to. “Hell’s best watermelon is good enough as is.”

Then Willow was standing in front of and over Dipper, her mildly translucent hair catching the light from the plant hall’s larger windows. She was still smiling, the twist in it having smoothed out with no sign of Steven going through with his evident “threat” of bringing his growth to life, but with it came a flash of expectations that Dipper didn’t really want to be the focus of. If life in general and this day in particular had shown him anything it was that he either couldn’t live up to expectations or exceeded them in ways that he didn’t want to.

“And what kind of plants do you like to grow?” Willow asked innocently, not realizing that the few times he had ever tried to take care of a plant, his or otherwise, had all ended in disaster.

“I don’t actually have much experience with plant magic,” Dipper said, his gaze flicking to the side under her enthusiasm. “Just a strong connection to the Earth element.”

“That’s a really good place to start though,” Willow assured him. “Just imagine growing something and we’ll go from there.”

Dipper looked down at his hands and the table beneath them, trying not to picture all the wilted, brittle, and on one occasion conflagrated plants that had come before. Instead he thought of a strong plant. One that he could connect to good memories…to a point. One that he’d heard the name of for as long as he’d been alive because of what family he was a part of. One that he had used to wear a symbol of…

A blue magic circle spun into being between Dipper’s hands. He concentrated on what he wanted to do with it, what he wanted it to become, then pushed it into the table. It didn’t turn green or drip into the surface the way some of the others’ circles had, but the glow passed in without trouble and continued to show through tabletop for a brief moment longer before fading completely from view. Even after it faded though and only the smooth tabletop before him could be see, Dipper still felt a connection. It wasn’t like when he took control of chunks of earth, the connection with those dropped the instant he sent them whatever way he intended. This time it was like he was still holding on despite having sent the circle off to do what he wanted. But if there was a connection, he might as well use it.

Closing his eyes, Dipper pictured a seed. Maybe he was manifesting it himself, maybe the table was taking care of that, but either way he could feel it. He could practically see it and not just in his mind. It was there, it was in front of him, and now it was time for it to sprout. So he pictured it do that next. The seed’s hard, brown exterior cracked, allowing a bright green growth to emerge. More sprouted, growing larger and harder and taller without end in sight. It was no longer a sprout, in mere seconds a massive tree had erupted towards the sky before him. It must have nearly been touching the plant hall’s vaulted ceiling, with branches that reached from one side to the other to create a canopy of leaves. It was just like the trees that had covered so much of Gra–

Dipper opened his eyes before he could finish the thought.

What greeted him wasn’t a sprawling pine that blocked out the ceiling, but empty air between him and the ceiling he had unconsciously turned towards. Craning his head back down, Dipper did find his imagined pine tree in front of him. All six inches of it. He blinked. Then blinked again to make sure he was seeing it right. Dipper’s Pine was seemingly fully grown, just incredibly small and for some reason the edges of its leaves were tinted blue. Trucker hat blue by the looks of it.

“Is that it, baby?”

Dipper startled at the sudden baritone whispered into his ear. He would have jumped completely out of his chair if not for the massive, leaf green hand that clamped down on his shoulder and kept him from rising more than inch out of his seat. The empty space between he and Steven had been filled to the brim with a grinning plant bulb much like the one Luz had grown. Only this one was bigger, eyeless, and much, much toothier.

“Who would have thought Hexside’s newest actor was just an ankle-biter,” the plant said, the lips of its bulb sneering. “Bump made you sound like a big deal, but you’re more like that square that landed me down here in the first place.”

“I…” Dipper couldn’t fathom what he should possibly say in reply to all of that. “I don’t know what that means.”

Despite its lack of them, Dipper could just tell the plant was rolling its eyes. “You’re not impressive, baby,” the plant clarified. “But it’s ok, that’s about the flavor I expect from new witches.”

Dipper’s eye flitted to Luz as the plant’s purple tongue ran over its lips. The happy-go-lucky-ness she generally exuded had disappeared for the first time since he’d met her, replaced with a flat expression of annoyance as she forced herself not to say something.

“Meister Audrey,” Willow said before Dipper had a chance to defend himself from the secretly true description, evidently having gotten enough of poking at the little pine tree Dipper had grown. “This is Di–”

“Audrey II!” the plant snapped, literally and figuratively. “Don’t forget it!”

“I’m sorry, sir.” She practically squeaked out the words, but still continued once the plant Meister’s snarl had partially subsided. “But this is Dipper, he’s part of the new coven studying with us. So technically he wouldn’t be considered a new witch. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

Dipper thought he saw a trace of smile come back to Luz’s lips with Willow’s attempt at a defense, but Meister Audrey II pulled him closer before he could tell for certain. Without warning Dipper found his face pressed against the Meister’s tough epidermis, his shoulder against whatever was filling out the robe the Meister’s stalk was emerging from, and the Meister’s facsimile of a hand gripping him even harder than before.

“New as in new to the school, Park,” Audrey II said cooly, as if he hadn’t just been ready to bite her head off. “I’m always happy to have new students, especially the living ones. I really dig the smell of their blood pumping when they’re…working hard. Do you feel me, Dipper?”

“I feel something,” Dipper managed to get out through the near squishing the Meister was putting him through. The plant sinner’s chummy act didn’t feel anything but painful in the moment, but it was better for it to be smiling and acting chummy than annoyed and prompting those teeth to dig into someone’s flesh. Especially since Dipper was the closest someone to its mouth in the moment.

“Good, good,” it said, finally releasing its grasp on Dipper shoulder, only to add to the soreness with hearty slap to his back as it rose up nearly eight feet into the air on tentacle-like roots that trailed from the bottom of its robe. “Glad we all see eye to eye. And now that that’s all taken care of, I need to see what the rest of you punks have grown. And if I don’t like what I see…” it chuckled, “Well that’s tough titty, chumps! You’re in my field now!”

---

Illusions:

“Finally free,” Luz groaned as Dipper followed her out of the earth building and into the red, afternoon sun. “Old Tooie makes that class the worst, even with Willow there.”

“He doesn’t seem…well liked,” Dipper replied, putting it mildly just in case the Meister’s roots stretched farther than Luz realized. It was, after all, a plant person who could use plant magic. Dipper had seen enough bad, old movies with Wendy to imagine the Meister seeing or hearing through the plants around campus even if there was nothing to make him think it actually believable. “And Tooie, really?”

A different voice answered from Dipper’s left. “Cause It’s obsessed with everyone else remembering to say it.”

The one adding themselves to the conversation didn’t startle Dipper the way the last Meister and some others had that day, if only because he had been somewhat expecting her to show up around now. Though when Miko basically just popped into existence beside him it did almost cause him to trip over his own feet. At least she was a more welcome and welcoming sight compared to when he had opened his eyes after trying to grow that tree and found a snarling plant mouth next to his face. Dipper would take opening his eyes to Miko everyday of the week compared to Meister Audrey II jump scaring him even one more time.

“That camouflage spell is really coming along,” Luz commented from Dipper’s other side, unphased by the blue and purple-haired girl’s sudden appearance. “I thought I saw a shimmer when we stepped outside, but I wasn’t sure.”

“Must have been when I saw you guys and sped up,” Miko said, her toothy grin beaming and blue tail wagging at her fellow new witch’s praise. Despite Dipper knowing both those traits along with her succubus-like wings were illusions she used to fit in, it was still pretty amazing how realistic they seemed. Was the way they moved something she had to actively control? Or maybe the magic was somehow tied to her emotions. Something to add to the list to puzzle out if the books Twilight had found didn’t end up helping them get home sooner rather than later.

“It’s hard to maintain if I’m moving too fast. Speaking of maintenance…” Miko stopped in her tracks while simultaneously grabbing Dipper by the shoulders, stopping him in his. “Let’s get yours out of the way.”

Before Dipper had a chance to ask what she meant she raised her left hand and snapped. That silver bracelet of hers glowed the same illusion-blue as her eyes for just a second then– Poof! Well, maybe a small ‘p’ poof as several, albeit tiny, trails of Miko’s glitchy particle effects rose off Dipper’s body like wisps of smoke, the last of that morning’s illusion spell being dispelled after a day of slowly fading off on its own.

“Looking pretty much back to normal,” she said while eyeing him up and down. It was true, the bulging muscles were completely gone, leaving him just with just the gangly arms, legs, and unimpressive pecs he’d always had. Then the eyeing stopped and Dipper found his head being pulled down by one of Miko’s hands on his neck while the other ran through his hair. “Not a trace of those horns either.”

“I’m gonna grab our seats for H’s illusions,” Luz called back from the direction she had continued walking towards the fire building for their last normal introduction class of the day. “Don’t do anything too weird in the middle of the street.”

“Thanks Luz!” Miko called back without taking her eyes off whatever part of Dipper she was analyzing as she turned Dipper’s head in place. Then, just to Dipper, “Just wanna make sure you don’t need another casting before we get going. I think your muscly transformation has worn off though. Wonder if it has a cd of if you could just body trash mobs all day with it if you wanted.”

Despite her musing and her confusion from that morning about him not wanting to look like a Manotaur for even a few hours, Dipper could see the same concern in her eyes now that had been there when she’d come to check on him after his Beast Keeping class. Legitimate worry about the way he felt, even if his transformation didn’t seem like a bad thing to her or anyone else. It had been a while since anyone had been concerned about the way he felt about…anything really. His parents were rightfully worried about Mabel with little time for him in general, what friends he had in his everyday life either had their own things going on or were, well, Anne. Wendy would care if he ever brought that kind of thing up to her, but he didn’t want to risk driving her off with neediness. So, for Miko to be so worried about how he felt after just two or three days of knowing each other, it just felt nice. And considering the way he had seen people treat her as a new witch, he could only hope someone had been there to be concerned for her when she got here.

“Have you always had this mark on your forehead?” she asked after brushing aside his bangs.

“It’s a birthmark,” he replied. “It’s why my family started calling me Dipper.”

“Because it looks like you got hit with a cup?”

Dipper almost laughed, almost. “No, ‘cause it’s shaped like the big dipper.” Miko’s eyes only narrowed as she continued looking at the oversized mark, as if it wasn’t quite clicking for her. “The constellation.”

“Ooooooh,” Miko exclaimed as realization dawned for her. “I think I used that to solve a puzzle in one of the Phog games a long time ago. I’ll have to remember that it’s there for next time, you’ve been markless since this morning.”

“I wouldn’t count that the worst thing in the…” Dipper trailed off as it was only then that her eyes met his. It was only then that he realized just how blue her eyes had been stained by her magic. That he realized how close she had pulled him to her own face. That his face started to heat between her hands.

“We should probably catch back up with Luz,” Dipper simpered, his gaze turning away from hers. Even still, out of the corner of his eye he could still see her soft smile as her hands dropped from his face.

“Excited to see me in the zone, huh?” she asked, bumping his hip with hers.

Dipper adjusted his backpack as he followed her. “It’s hard to imagine something more impressive than…well, an extra layer of me all day.”

Her grin grew. Though the look that came into her eyes wasn’t one of pride from his compliment, but the expression of someone who knew more than the one they were talking to. “Just you wait, Dipper. Just you wait.”

---

Miko and Luz refused to tell Dipper anything about their Illusions Meisterlin before she arrived, saying that they couldn’t do her justice. So instead, he bided his time by looking around the room. He had already said hi to Gus and Lincoln on the way in, with the imp-native and incubus now sitting in the row behind them after having made sure he was still planning to come by for the one-shot.

Some of the others Dipper noticed included a Baphomet native girl behind Gus and Lincoln who had modified her uniform to look like a stage magician’s outfit. She was doing card tricks with occasional illusionary flairs of smoke and fireworks that caused Sonata beside her to gasp and clap with innocent joy. Sunset seemed to have been right about the members of that trio being almost harmless when they weren’t together, which made sense considering he hadn’t noticed the other two in oracle or abominations classes earlier. Though, even when the trio had been together in bard class, Sonata had seemed the least angry or antagonistic compared to Adagio and Aria.

Then, way in the back, sat an interesting looking trio. Two purple haired witches and a third girl who looked like hers would be if she weren’t a dark-feathered goetia. One of the girls, the one whose hair was darker with bangs that almost looked like fangs, was the short one he had glimpsed back in healing. But hadn’t her sleeves been red? He guessed that might make her a multi-track student if she was in healing, illusions, and bard classes. Next to her sat a taller witch, her hair up in a ponytail and feet up on the table as she snoozed. Then there was the goetia girl, who just plain looked like she didn’t want to be there as her crown-patterned beanie was pulled almost all the way down to her red eyes as if to exacerbate her scowl.

Dipper was about to ask about them when something…different happened.

Above the teacher’s desk sparks began to flare. They burned without cause or fuel, just bits of flame that emerged from nowhere before snuffing out while falling towards the floor. Then FWOOSH! The sparks grew into a full fire, orange and yellow flames burning bright and crackling loud enough to catch the attention of the few students who hadn’t noticed the sparks before. Awed silence passed over each row while the flame grew downward, its base descending while its flickering tips never faltered from the heights they had begun burning at.

Right before the flame’s base reached the top of the teacher’s desk it flared outwards, then swirled in on itself until it became an almost perfect circle of fire. Dipper was surprised, despite the distance between his row of seats and the teacher’s desk, that he couldn’t feel the heat coming off the swirling flames. Then he remembered what class he was in, though that didn’t keep what would happen next from still being impressive to watch unfold.

Differently colored smoke poured out from the center of the flame’s funnel-like center. Grey and blue and pink wafts that flowed down and outwards, all sparkling like a nebulous galaxy poured across the floor. A series of air slicing fwishes shot out, four in total that left dissipating columns of smoke in their wake that fell off well before the source of the movement revealed themselves to be oblong hexagonal diamonds that came to a stop mere inches away from the ceiling’s high apex. Each gem shown in the fire light illuminating them from below before suddenly beginning to glow themselves, draping the four corners of the room in shafts of light before shifting in place so that the beams emitted from their centers intersected and overlapped on the desk and spiraling flames above it.

That’s when she arrived.

An alabaster leg in a thigh-high boot slid out of flaming vortex, followed by a pair of likewise alabaster hands emerging only to grab the edges of either side. A pair of yellow horns and shockingly red hair appeared as the Meisterlin pulled herself the rest of the way through, at least that was as much as Dipper managed to take in before he was shocked into a near stupor by the rest of what emerged.

“What’s up fleshwads?” she called out like a diva taking the stage that was her desk, in turn receiving whoops and hollers in response. Mostly from the boys, but there were more than a few of the girls’ voices, including Miko’s, were mixed in there was well. The Meisterlin stood there, her long braid of crimson red hair turning silver like metal at the scissor-sharp tips it ended in swayed just above the floor as she looked back and forth across the collected students before her. Her one orange eye that wasn’t covered by her bangs flitting about as it crossed every face. But something told Dipper no one was watching her hair or her eye, even he only caught it out of the corner of his eye. The rest of his focus was arrested by the state of her robes. He had thought Rarity’s business savvy take on the Meister robes had been form fitting, but this one was wearing little more than bathrobe cinched high above her waist, one shoulder of fabric hanging loose around her upper arm while the other shoulder threatened to slip off as well. The effect left her with one leg and a massive amount of cleavage that even Sunset would have noticed that was laid bare for all to see. It seemed like all it would take was enough of a breeze to swoosh away the illusion-blue sash for what little was left of her to be laid utterly bare as well. “Miss me?”

“Yes, Meisterlin Hekapoo,” the class’s combined voice echoed back in response.

“Damn straight you did,” she said with a toothy grin, the fiery swirl and crystalline spotlights fading away as she spoke. “Now, I think we all know what I’m supposed to get you to do during the intro class. Question is, do I go around and get a look at each of your illusions myself, or do it the flashy way?”

The students’ roars of approval were a discordant mess of yells, cries, screams, and pleas for her to do it the flashy way that might as well have been music to the Meisterlin’s ears from the way her smile grew. A smile that remained as she held an arm aloft towards the ceiling while holding her thumb and middle finger together. When her fingers snapped the sound cut through all the yelling like a knife, only to be followed by her own explosive melody in return. A coordinated series of explosive poofs of illusionary smoke erupted around her both on the desk she still stood on and the floor around it.

The smoke was even quicker to clear than the nebulous shades of it that had spouted from her flaming funnel, revealing what Dipper could only imagine the class had been waiting for. The flashy way. Where every poof of smoke had exploded from nothing a moment before now stood a carbon copy of the Meisterlin. Some were standing, some were leaning against the desk, while others had appeared in various flashy sitting positions. But regardless of what pose they had come into being with, each and every one of them was getting just the reaction the Meisterlin had been expecting.

“You heard ‘em, girls,” Dipper could just barely hear her say as the crowd that was supposed to be a classroom of students burst into another round of cheering. “Go see what they can do.”

The nearly two dozen versions of herself Meisterlin Hekapoo had summoned began to spread out at once. Each of them moved to a different stretch of seating and began prompting the students there to start making illusions. Much to Dipper’s amazement and dismay though, as soon as the Hekapoo clones got a look at what the students created they all started berating the spell work as shoddy, lacking details, or just plain weird looking. Yet, against all odds, everyone the clones berated seemed to be eating it up. It wasn’t long before Dipper started to wonder if he had wondered into some off-kilter club instead of a classroom.

“Marco tells me it’s called simping,” the original Meisterlin Hekapoo said as she approached Dipper, Miko, and Luz’s seats. “But as long as it gets them to do their work,” she shrugged, “whatever the little hellions want I suppose. So you’re the new kid he told me about, huh? How’d you like my opening display?”

“It was, um, showy?” Dipper said when he caught back up and realized she was talking to him. “But you said Marco, does that mean Meister Diaz told you about me?”

Meisterlin Hekapoo’s expression turned to one of amusement. “He has a bad habit of letting his pillow talk turn to whatever’s going on in those games of his, so I knew almost the moment you agreed to play in his club.”

Dipper felt warmth flush up his neck. “Pillow talk? But I thought he and Miss Jackie–”

Hekapoo’s chuckle cut him off. The bit of laughter seemingly only held back by her own left hand, around the wrist of which hung a pair of faded red and seafoam green bracelets. “As if either of us were going to let him out of our sight after all we’d been through and all it took for us to land here together. But enough about thruple life, tell me what you liked about my showy display.”

“I liked when you came in through the fire swirl,” Dipper said after a moment’s consideration. He didn’t know why it really mattered what he liked, but he was also happy not to be randomly in the middle of a conversation about her and two other teachers’ love lives. “Did you use the camouflage spell Miko showed me earlier before stepping through it?”

Hekapoo snickered as Miko leaned over to explain, “That wasn’t an illusion, it was a real portal. Something she can do because she’s a sinner.”

“A holdover from what I could do while I was alive,” Hekapoo noted. “But I’m glad the old tricks still land. Now, let’s see what you all can do so Bump won’t threaten to dock my pay again.”

Luz started to lean forward, but before she could so much as form a spell circle Hekapoo held up a hand. “Not you, Luz. I’ve seen enough versions of your girlfriend and that snake-thing you like to conjure to last an eternity. Miko, you start us off.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Miko replied, her excitement was palpable as she stood and held her hands out before her. At first she held them close together and just above the table, as if holding some sort of controller, then she swept them forward and to her sides like a conductor readying to begin a performance. She closed her eyes and took a breath. Like both earlier times that day Dipper had watched her do magic, the illusion-blue magic circle formed first around the silver bracelet on her left wrist before moving to where she wanted it to be. This time that was in front of her while slowly descending towards the table.

Then her eyes shot open. Dipper thought he saw a spark within her eyes in the instant before what happened next, but then it was happening and his attention was arrested by the display. Her circle spun around, collecting the air around it as it rotated and particles of light began to form and collect around it. The next thing Dipper knew the circle had been replaced by an egg, or maybe an egg sack. It was a deep, sickly green and looked to have been attached to the table by some kind of viscous goo. At the same time amoeba-like creatures floated down out of thin air, each pulsing with different colors as they circled the egg sack. But they wouldn’t for long.

The egg sack split in half, releasing a similarly green oval-shaped creature. It had four massive fang-like mandibles on its underside and was just transparent enough to see its bright red organs. The creature leapt upon the closest amoeba, its fangs sinking in as the first creature shrieked out in pain. Dipper couldn’t help but blanche at not only the sound but the way the newborn monster sucked the amoeba up through its fangs, not just its insides but the whole thing until there was nothing left of it. Then it was on to the next one.

With each amoeba it sucked dry the flying translucent blob became less translucent as dark bluish-green plating grew across its previously soft looking body. A few more amoebas and the plating covered all but a bit of its stomach while its fangs had grown to long insect-like limbs then full-on clawed limbs while a new mouth full of sucking teeth had sprouted from the top end of its body. Now practically a dinosaur, the alien beast reared its head after absorbing its final bit of prey and roared.

“The life of an average Metroid,” Miko stated, titling her display while the creature stomped back and forth in front of her.

“Isn’t that from a game?” Dipper asked offhand, not taking his attention from her illusionary creature.

“Miko’s really into video games,” Luz commented. “A lot of what she does goes back to them.”

“That…explains a bit,” Dipper said as several of the things Miko had said since she’d first shown up outside Bump’s office suddenly made a bit more sense.

“Cute,” Meisterlin Hekapoo said as she bent down to get a closer look at the horrific little space dragon Miko had conjured. Dipper had to look away as she did, as her mostly open robe already left little to the imagination and her bending over practically right in front of him gave him even less to imagine. “Can you do that one thing with it?”

“No,” Miko replied with uncharacteristic glumness. She had even tried to keep up her cheerfulness when Drago had first started shit-talking her and it had reasserted itself not long after Dipper and the others had dealt with him and his cronies. But now she had voluntarily turned sour about something, that one thing. Dipper couldn’t help but wonder if it was something he could help with.

“I still have to be touching them with,” Miko paused with a glance at her silvery bracelet, “it in full mode. And it still really just works with stuff that…oh, what’s that word. When it doesn’t move on its own.”

“Inanimate?” Dipper offered despite not knowing what in the world they were talking about.

Miko snapped. “That’s the one.”

“Shame,” Meisterlin Hekapoo said. She was sifting her hand through the Metroid’s head, more of the glitched out particle effects warping off and around her fingers as she did. The illusion held despite the disruption, but the words shared between the two made it clear there was more to it. “Still, keep practicing. You never know when that kind of trick could come in handy.”

“Is it something I could help with?” Dipper said without thinking, which was evidently what Miko and the Meisterlin were doing when it came to him. Both of them turned to him, as if he hadn’t been there all long, and blinked. As the Meisterlin turned though, and the crimson red bangs covering the right side of her face shifted, Dipper thought he caught sight of a crack on her face. Not a scar or a cut, but a crack leading to where her eye should have been.

Miko remembered who he was and what he was doing there first, recomposing herself from the mild surprise his offer to help had been. “Maybe. It’s a weird thing with my illusions, but I–”

“But I need to see your illusion magic first,” the Meisterlin interjected. “No special tasks before I get a look at you. You’re lucking out though, you remind me of my favorite fleshwad from before he grew a spine, so I won’t be too mean about whatever you can do.”

“Thanks?”

She just smirked before straightening back up just so she could spin 180 degrees in place then sit on the table where she’d just been leaning. She crossed one leg with the other then tossed an arm out towards the empty space in front of them. “Go on, show me what Hexside’s newest hotshot can do.”

Dipper had to keep himself from groaning at another person, one of the teachers no less, shoving his face in the attention he’d mistakenly garnered throughout the day. There was nothing he could do about that in the moment though. There might never be anything he could do about it, so he was just going to ignore it for now and do what he could. That probably wouldn’t be a lot considering the fire grimoire still hadn’t given him much beyond how to burn people. Small burns, fast burns, intense burns, even eye socket burns. No illusions spells yet though, aside from the knowledge that they could be used to mentally torment someone similarly to how his healing spell would physically torment them. Luckily, he’d picked up a bit more base knowledge about illusions from the textbooks he’d picked up on Sunday than he had on healing. Luckily for this class anyway, that sinner would likely have preferred the situation reversed.

Anyway, he thought to himself as he shook out his hands, the basis of illusions seemed to be the basis of mirages. Heat the air to affect what people see.

He hadn’t shared that with Twilight yet, but he was certain she’d love to finally have a scientific comparison to work off. That would be for later though, now was to try and put it into practice. And, if he thought about it in a certain way, heating the air was a lot like burning the air so the fire magic he had managed to get from the grimoire should love that. He wouldn’t try to coopt an existing spell this time either, that was one lesson he was going to take away from what had happened in healing class. Instead, he’d just work through the process the way he did with the earth spells. Granted those were simpler since moving the earth into a shape wasn’t hard to imagine compared to turning something that was supposed to burn into something that could warp light into a new shape at his will.

Baby steps though. Work through the process, starting with a mirage.

The red magic circle formed between his hands as Dipper closed his eyes. He didn’t need to concentrate on what he could see, but what he wanted to see. So he cleared his mind of everything else and imagined the spot on the floor between him and the Meisterlin’s desk, only now it was heating up. Not just it though, more importantly the air above it was heating. It would shimmer and shine in wavering, almost silvery strips of light caused by his magic, under his control. Then he would shape it to his will, turn those bands of light into what he wanted them to be. And that would be…what? What did he even want it to be?

Clearing his mind had worked too well! Nothing would come to mind except for the shimmering air he hoped was in front of him. With all the creatures and now demons he’d seen in his life, none of them would come. It should have been so easy. He knew he had seen so many. That he had been tormented by a bunch of them. But no matter how much he knew that all had happened, he just couldn’t recall any of it to help him. Dipper’s brows scrunched together as he couldn’t help but wonder if this was how Twilight felt when she tried to use magic without Luz’s glyphs? Or was it like writer’s block? Was he spell blocked or caster blocked or some other inane–

“Try not think about it so hard,” Luz said, her voice cutting through the heated fog over his brain like a cool breeze. “Just put something out there that you know front and back. Something that you’re really familiar with, that makes you happy.”

“And it doesn’t have to be showy,” Miko added, her support further putting him at ease. It was almost as if he had been so focused on manipulating the flame that it had started to affect him as much as the spot he was picturing. “Just try whatever larger than life combo comes to mind, you can always go for another high score later.”

Something he knew front and back. Something larger than life. Someone he–

The unfortunately familiar fwoosh of flames filled Dipper’s ears as he felt the magic surge out of him at the thought that had filled his mind, if only for an instant. Gritting his teeth, he strained to hold it back and keep himself from setting another person or perhaps even the building on fire this time. But as quickly as the surge of magic had begun he was able to cork it. It still felt like so much had been used that something had to have caught ablaze, yet he didn’t feel any heat in front or around him. That had to be a good thing, right? Right. So he would just open his eyes and…wish that he had set something on fire.

“Nice,” Miko and Hekapoo crooned in unison while Luz nudged him with her elbow. “Knew you could do it.”

Dipper didn’t know what was nice or what anybody was right about him being able to do. That one thought of the one person he thought about most, that larger-than-life person he had known for so long and knew almost everything about, had popped out of his head for all to see in a way that he wouldn’t have ever been able to fathom. For now, after that one stray thought, a version of Wendy stood before him. Made of fire that didn’t flicker or give off any heat, though she did illuminate what was around her, a ten-foot tall version of the girl Sunset said he just needed confidence for leaned over him. Her hands rested on the tabletop while her long hair swayed in non-existent wind. And her eyes, sitting above freckles dotting her glowing face like sunspots, focused solely on him the same way he couldn’t have taken his away from her if he’d tried.

He just barely realized that he’d once again stunned a classroom into silence, with both the other students and the Hekapoos that had been berating their lackluster abilities focused on the giant fiery woman he had created. But he also didn’t care. Not because he was finally accepting the attention he seemed to stir up just by trying to do the basics. Not because he knew that everyone always took notice of Wendy no matter where she went, picture of perfection that she was. But because he simply couldn’t comprehend anything outside of what was right in front of him in that moment.

What have I done?

She lifted a hand and extended it to him, her warm fingertips finding his cheek and offering a soft caress. A caress he had imagined a thousand times, if not more. The lightest of touches that he would have killed for, because it would have meant so much from her. It would have shown he meant so much to her.

What am I doing?

Dipper’s arms shook and his breath turned ragged as her caress across his cheek moved to the side of his head then came to rest on the nape of his neck. Someone to his left said something, then someone to his right, but he couldn’t make out either of them. All he could do was look into the flame-Wendy’s eyes, as she started to lean in and being her face closer to his. Over five years of longing were about to be answered, his magic was giving him something he could have only dreamed of happening before no matter what Sunset said. But…but he knew it wasn’t right. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t her. And even if it had been…

This is what she’d want. This isn’t what she’d ever do. Not with me. I’m not…not good enough. Not after everything I caused. I’ll never be able to make that right or be good enough for–

The hand brushed over his as it came down on his spell circle. Her fingers wrapped around its curve and squeezed and even without touching it himself he could feel it start to crack beneath her grip. Crack, but not break. Not shatter. Not disrupt the spell in any way except for tendrils of flame to curl off the ends of Wendy’s hair. For one of her piercings to elongate into a wandering tendril off her ear. But the tiny imperfections only made it more real. Made his mistakes and failures more real, this just being one more in a long line going all the way back to where they’d first met.

Wendy was close now, her face was mere inches from his. Close enough that her lips could part in a lilting whisper meant only for him. “Dipper~”

She sounded just like the real Wendy. Like he’d wanted her to say his name for years. Like she…like she…like she never would. Dipper gripped the spell circle before she got any closer, joining whichever of his new friends had already tried to help, and squeezed.

The circle shattered in their combined grip. The red ring of light faded to nothingness in a heartbeat, but Wendy lingered. The fire that made her began to dissipate, unfurling into trails and tendrils that soon faded as well. Her face was the last to go though. She kept smiling as the spell wore off and she unraveled, the smile he sometimes thought he had seen her give him back at Rev U. and in their old video calls, but he always realized he must have imagined. The same way he had imagined this time.

Dipper looked down as her face shimmered away, unable to watch as she disappeared. Even if she wasn’t real, he didn’t want to see anything happen to any version of her. Instead, his eyes were glued to his lap. His hands clung together there, having collapsed around the other hand that had reached in to help him stop the spell. Her hand squeezed his back. He followed her slender wrist to her orange sleeve then all the way up her arm until Dipper found himself meeting Miko’s worried gaze.

“Are you alright?” she asked softly, no doubt feeling the small tremor still running through his arms.

Dipper reached up with one hand without letting go with the other, allowing him to wipe away the wetness gathering in each eye then move his hand into hair in one fluid motion as if that had been the only goal. He didn’t care if doing so showed his birthmark in the moment, he just needed to not show what his own magic had done to him. To not look like an illusion of his own making could reduce him to a trembling mess. He could move tons of rock or set things on fire with a thought, but the image of a girl he still pined for did him in within seconds. How pathetic could he be.

“I’m fine,” he replied, sounding anything but even to himself. “Just got too into.”

That you did, kid. That you did.

---

Multitrack:

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Miko asked again, hurrying after Dipper as he power walked away from their intro to illusions class.

Things had gone fine enough after his simpering display. The other students had gone back to allowing the Meisterlin’s clones to verbally abuse their own attempts once Dipper’s Wendy had fizzled out, which had been surprisingly welcome after what his magic and subconscious had gone and done on their own. Luckily though, the actual Meisterlin hadn’t seen fit to do him the same service as the others. Instead, she’d just commented that he’d need to work on narrowing the fire element into the illusion track’s range then complimented him keeping the heat down on what he had managed to make. The second part seemed like a pity compliment, but he’d nodded and thanked her before letting her move on to the other students.

The one sigh of relief he’d had in any of what had just happened was that no one had heard that high-pitched voice or its comments about his excuses. The fact that he heard a voice at all was something he’d have to reflect on later, but in a moment where his magic and subconscious were working against him it was the least of his concerns. It might even be part of the same concern, so there wasn’t any reason to get up in arms over it. That was what he’d decided on the matter and what he was going to keep telling himself so he didn’t have to add another annoyance to the mix that was that day.

“I’m fine,” he reiterated for the fifth time. “I got too into it and surprised myself. That’s all.”

“Don’t bother him if he doesn’t want to be bothered,” Luz added, coming to Dipper’s aid in the matter. She was keeping up with Dipper much more easily, using some combination of earth magic to seemingly glide across the ground with each step. “But Dipper, if you ever need to talk about something we’re here. We may be new witches, but we’re some of the only other modern, living humans on this campus. We’ve probably been wherever you are, or at least I probably have. Miko might’ve played a VN novel about it or something.”

“Hey! I’ve had life experiences too!”

Dipper almost snorted but restrained himself to a chuckle instead. Finally, he slowed enough for the two who were supposed to be leading him to their final class of the day to catch up. Miko looked glad for the break in pace while Luz just seemed pleased that he was amused. Smiling, he let out a breath and said, “Thanks, really. If I ever need to talk about something I’ll let you know. But this is…just something that is the way it is, so don’t worry about it, ok?”

Luz and Miko exchanged a look before answering, a look that even Dipper with his deficit of girl knowhow knew they didn’t completely accept. Even still, both of them nodded and at least said it was okay. From there Luz made sure to course correct where they were going since Dipper had basically been rushing in the opposite direction. He blamed that on the instructions about where their “specialty” class was going to be being really unclear. To which he was told he’d have to get used to it, since not only the class’s location but its Meister changed at practically the drop of a hat. That wasn’t exactly something he wanted to hear. He already had a packed schedule between classes and trying to fix the corridor, he really didn’t need an added dice role of who and where added to the already stressed what of his life.

The sky’s red was beginning to darken by the time they reached the far edge of the tri, still close enough to get back to campus without too much fuss but about as far away from the school buildings as they could get without entering the field and wooded areas that served as a buffer between the school and where the surrounding city met the barrier wall. Miko said they usually met at out of the way places on campus because the specialty class was made up of students with either powerful or weird magic that they didn’t want making too much of a mess of things. There wasn’t much chance of Dipper making a mess of anything else with what little was left of the day, not with as much magic as he had burnt through and what he was still burning through with that energizing spell.

The rest of said class was already there by the time Dipper, Luz, and Miko arrived. Granted that number was another rousing three students, putting the total class at six as they came together in a loose group. Steven of course towered over everyone by a good foot or so, but he also stood out as the only one of the group with essentially the standard uniform. Sure, the majority of the track colors were present on his sleeves and pants, but they were just the track colors as opposed to Dipper and Luz’s elemental colors or Miko’s bright orange. Likewise Danny, standing to Steven’s side, was clad in his unique black uniform with a white minicape. Supposedly the color had something to do with his personal form of oracle magic, which Dipper could only take his word for given how little they’d actually spoken.

Then there was the sixth member of the class, who Dipper didn’t know but quickly realized he’d seen before. Twice in fact, just that day. The purple-haired and angry looking girl was the one he’d seen in healing and illusions, the one he’d assumed was part of the bard track too. Only it wasn’t bardic red that colored her sleeves and leggings now that he had a clear look at her, but the same fiery red shade mixed into Dipper and Luz’s own uniform.

“You’re one of the that noob’s coven-mates, aren’t you?” the girl sneered when she caught Dipper looking at her. Though how she could see anything through her fang-like bangs Dipper didn’t know.

“The noob?” was all Dipper could think to say.

The girl growled. “Fucking hell! Is idiocy required for your coven?”

“Gaz, can we not–”

“Shut it,” Gaz snapped, briefly throwing her attitude at Danny before returning it to Dipper. Her anger in the moment was rolling off her in waves of heat that caused sweat to bead on Dipper’s forehead from just a glance of her ire. “The tiny idiot who almost got herself killed and her spirit turned into a sinner practically minute one. And the only reason it wasn’t actually minute one was because she and her gaggle of idiots used that time to break the corridor!”

“Oh,” Dipper said, finally realizing where’d he heard a description of this girl before. “You’re the one who helped Molly along with Danny.”

“Oh good, he can put two and two together. Starting to see why you’re the head of the coven.”

Dipper started to say something, but paused when Miko put a hand on his arm and maneuvered herself to be slightly between him and Gaz. Which was probably a good thing since Dipper had no idea what he would even say, probably something that would have just reinforced Gaz’s opinion of his coven’s intelligence. Instead Miko said, “Dipper and his coven have been really nice to me. Can you try to cut them some slack, Gaz? They’re still new here after all.”

Gaz turned to Miko, though her anger seemed to shift to mere annoyance with the other girl. “You should be even madder than I am,” Gaz said, her words still dripping with annoyance but not being spat at Miko the way she had at Dipper and a lesser degree Danny. “I might have gotten Lady Kaisa to take you back up before, but it’s going to be a hell of a lot harder to convince her to do that after she wastes as much time and energy fixing the corridor as she’s going to.”

“We’re looking into how to fix…” Dipper started, but was stopped by a shake of the head from Miko.

“Please, Gaz,” Miko pleaded, though not like someone begging for something from someone they didn’t know or someone they were afraid of. It was almost like the way someone might beg for something from a friend.

A moment of awkward silence passed between the pair, one that might have caused a lesser person to crumble under Gaz’s sweltering gaze. Miko persevered though, long enough that Gaz either gave in or stopped caring. With a roll of her still angry eyes she shifted in place so that she didn’t have to look at any of them. “Whatever. It’s your death wish.”

“Thank y–”

“That’s enough tongue-wagging maggots!” yelled a familiar, high-pitched and growly voice from one the nearby outcroppings of trees. The shrill of it caught all of the specialty class’s attention, though in a few different ways. Gaz continued to look annoyed while Danny and Miko looked on with slight confusion as they tried to catch sight of who was yelling at them. Dipper joined Steven in raising a brow, both placing the voice at least to some degree. Luz, however, brightened up in excitement as she realized who it was.

“It’s about time you special witches got told–hey! Stop right there! Not in front of the new minions, Luz!”

Despite King’s protests, Luz had picked up and swung him into a hug before he had even fully emerged from the trees. She ran her cheek over his skull as if she were the animal instead of the other way around. “King! I’ve missed you so much. Have you gotten bigger again? Does Eda know you followed me to school?”

“It’s been three days, Luz. Geesh.” King tried to sound aggravated and put off by Luz’s affection, but it was half-hearted at best. “As for Eda-”

“This is why I don’t help with more of your schemes,” Eda cut in as she sidled out from between two bushes. “You always get picked up and squeezed by some girl halfway through.”

“But that girl is always Luz!” he shouted back, though Dipper noticed that the diminutive hellhound had already stopped his squirming attempts to escape his adopted sister’s clutches.

“Eda?” Luz gasped, despite this seemingly obvious development after not only King but Lilith’s arrival at the school. Regardless, Luz’s eyes widened further than seemed humanly possible at the sight of her foster mother before nearly shouting, “Are you going to be our new teacher?”

“Calm down, kiddo,” Eda said with a wince, a sentiment Dipper shared. “But yes, when ol’ Bump decided to use Lily to fill in for the healing track he had the wherewithal to see that a witch as versed as me was the obvious choice to show the way for this…” Eda glanced at the ragtag group of students before her, “eclectic group of students. So here I am.”

“Wait,” Luz’s brow furrowed. “Does that mean you left Hooty in charge of the house?”

A small shudder ran up Dipper’s spine at the thought of that goetia. Hooty had been nice enough, if a bit eccentric, but the tubular, worm-like way his body moved hadn’t seemed quite right. And now that Dipper had actually seen a few other goetia he knew it wasn’t. But where he and Luz were a bit dismayed, Eda just snorted. “Heaven no. He’s here too, probably scaring kids without realizing it or looking at banisters with Lily. Never really figured out what they get out of that…but either way, Pearl from down the beach offered to watch the house while were expanding students’ horizons here.”

“Sounds like her,” Steven sighed. “You know she’s going to clean it while you’re gone.”

Eda looked into the distance with a grin. “I’d like to see her try.”

“No offense, Meisterlin,” Gaz cut in, her annoyance coating each word, “but can we get to whatever this class is going to be? Some of us have to figure out how to contact our coven now that someone broke the corridor.”

Dipper made himself not react to the snipe at him, nor did he let himself look at the glare she was probably shooting him in the same breath. Partially because at this point there was no point and partially because he thought if she got any more pissed she might really set him on fire. Instead, he focused on figuring out what he might have to do, or even be able to do, in the display Eda might ask him for. Lilith and Greg had known to ask for the students’ display, so Eda must have been told the same. At this point though he wasn’t sure how much the energy spell he’d cast would allow from him anymore. His whole body had been feeling tenser and tighter throughout the day since he’d cast it, like he was being squeezed by some invisible force. Kind of like how Miko was still lightly squeezing his arm.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get to it,” Eda replied to Gaz before Dipper could continue contemplating Miko’s touch. “You guys put on a little show so I know what I’m working with, then we can all go home for the night.” She nodded towards Dipper, Luz, and Steven. “I know at least a couple of you have had a really long day, so we’ll make this fast as we can. And I already know what Luz can do…so Steven, show us what a big guy like you’ve got under the hood.”

Steven let out a breath and cracked his knuckles. What followed was a display mixing what Dipper had seen in their shared classes with what Connie had described from their first meeting. Rocks were flung, melons were grown, an uplifting little tune in need of a ukulele was sung that actually seemed to fill Dipper with energy as he listened, and to top things off Steven was able to guess an absurdly long number Eda was guessing. That last bit of oracle magic seemed to be his weakest display, and while no individual thing he’d done had been anything exceptionally noteworthy compared to other students Dipper had seen throughout the day, the fact that he did all those different types of magic so well clearly showed why his talent needed to be allowed to grow.

Eda clapped. “Not bad, big guy. Not bad at all. Let’s keep the show going with you, monochrome.”

Danny took his turn as instructed. He started with the same display he’d shown in their oracle class, turning himself insubstantial so he could sink into the ground. This time though he reappeared not from the ground but out of thin air using an element of invisibility. It looked like Danny could do everything a ghost could do, or at least most of the things Molly had described Scratch doing before coming to hell had forced him into visibility. Danny went on to show one more ghost trick, after asking permission he phased into Eda’s body, possessing her. It was short lived, only a few seconds of Eda’s eyes turning light green and saying, “Ta-da,” before he emerged back out of her. His exit was a little shakier than his entrance had been though, maybe a little kick from Eda to show him not to try anything without permission.

“Not the first time I’ve been possessed, but has a different feel about it,” Eda mused more to herself than Danny or the others. “So that’ll be interesting. But moving on. Doom and Gloom, light things up for us.”

“Can I have a target,” Gaz more stated than asked in reply.

With a spin of her finger, Eda conjured a stone circle already inlaid with rings and point markings from the ground. “How far away do you want it?”

“Make it hard for me.”

At Gaz’s word Eda twitched her finger and the stone target went sailing across the ground, a trail of dirt and dust trailing in its wake until it had traveled a good hundred feet or more. “Hard enough?”

Gaz flashed a sneering smile. “Perfect, I wouldn’t want to hit anyone I didn’t mean to with shrapnel.”

A burning red spell circle had formed before anyone could parse out what Gaz might mean by that, one that glowed as if from the heat of an already raging inferno. But not just from the circle, or at least Dipper didn’t think so. As she pointed down range at the target Eda had conjured for her, Dipper could have sworn he saw another spark of red light glowing from within her uniform. But if he did see that it was as short lived as the time it took Gaz to swing her arm out and point at the target. The moment she did the circle, the glow, and what looked like the barest wisp of a flame shot from her finger like a bullet.

That small amount of flame, that sliver of heat, caused the air to burn and smoke all the way to the target. There was no drop off, no chance of missing, just the momentary sight of a flame shooting through the air. The sight that followed that though, must have been visible from all over campus.

The flame struck the target, and even if it hadn’t hit the stone circle dead center it wouldn’t have mattered because in the next instant the target wasn’t there anymore. Instead, a pillar of flame and smoke rose into the sky at least twice as high reaching as the target had been far away from them. Dipper had felt bad earlier for singeing some feathers, but Gaz had just nuked a spot with a spark and the flick of her finger, his flames didn’t hold a candle to what she’d just done without even trying.

Gaz crossed her arms under her chest and looked to Eda. “Does that show you what I can do?”

Eda looked back from the flaming crater, not necessarily horrified the way Dipper felt but obviously reconsidering whatever initial concept she’d had of the angry girl. “And then some.”

Gaz sneered another one of her smiles. “Good then.”

“Right…” Eda said slowly while patting King’s head. The hellhound had drawn closer to her in the explosion’s aftermath. While doing so, she created another spell circle and waved her hand in the pyre’s direction. The ground shifted beneath it, spiraling inwards with jutting strands of rock that closed around the flames like teeth until they snapped shut over it. Almost at once the flames died out, though the ground still glowed red and smoked from the heat that had just been run through it. “Let’s move on then.”

Dipper started to step forward, still not knowing what he could even hope to cast in his current state. For once though, luck was on his side.

“Not you, kiddo,” Eda said with a dismissive wave. “Your antics have been lighting up my scroll all day. Plus I watched you slice up that slug the other day. So instead let’s see what hair dye next to you can do.”

Miko’s grip tightened on Dipper’s arm and her tail curled into a terse spiral before she let go and stepped forward herself. She took a deep breath then put on her own beaming grin. “Prepare to be amazed!” she shouted while pointing towards the sky. “Because you’ve never seen skills like those belonging to ME.K.O!”

“Wha–”

Miko’s orange spell circle formed around her raised hand, matching the width of her splayed fingers in the time it took to blink. She swung her arm down and, in that instant just like with Gaz, Dipper thought he saw a second glow matching her spell circle. This time from the earring that usually hid behind Miko’s long lock of hair. But also just like with Gaz, the instant ended just as quickly as it had started. Miko’s swift movement left a blur of orange light in the air, but that was nothing compared to what formed before her, what type of magic those bright orange sleeves represented.

A gust of wind swept across Hexside’s campus, that was until it reached a small group of witches at the far side of the tri. Because once it reached them the wind turned and began to spin, picking up loose dirt, grass, and anything else it came across as it began to spin in place. The resulting cyclone wasn’t going to go rampaging across campus or threaten to throw someone into the sky just by being near them, but the twenty-plus foot tall column of wind tore at all their minicapes, the girls’ skirts, Eda’s hair, and King’s tail nonetheless.

When Miko was pleased enough by Eda’s surprise, and maybe a bit of Dipper’s as well, she released her spell circle and within seconds the miniature twister that wasn’t actually all that miniature started to blow itself out. The grasping wind turned to rough air, which then shifted into a breeze, before finally calming to still air with only grass and dirt particles slowly flittering back towards the ground as any sign that something had just happened.

“Where did you learn to do that?” Eda asked in amazed disbelief. The kind of disbelief Dipper had felt himself in the past, during one of those times he hadn’t thought what he was looking for was even real but he had found it anyway. That’s what Eda looked to be feeling, the amazement of an expert who’d found something they hadn’t even heard of before.

“Picked it up when I fell down here,” Miko proudly replied, as if that had been some grand undertaking on its own. “You might even say it was a breeze.”

Dipper could almost hear the crickets coming to fill the silence following Miko’s joke.

“Whatever you say, hair dye. But how big a wind can you actually make?” Eda asked when she was done rolling her eyes.

Miko tapped her chin. “Bigger than I just did, but things start to get weird if I go too big with it.”

Despite that warning, Miko’s apprehension just seemed to entice Eda’s curiosity. With a wave of her hand, the ground off to their side shifted. This time what rose from the ground was a bit more complex and definitely didn’t look like something that should be at Hexside, or in Goliath at all for that matter.

“Is that a trailer?” Dipper blurted out once the stone replica had finished rising from the ground and now sat some twenty feet away.

“Damn straight it is,” Eda said, beaming in her own way that had either been inspired by or inspired Luz’s own beaming enthusiasm. “Saw these attracting twisters like catnip on one of my trips topside back in the good ol’ days. So, Miko, show me what you can do to it.”

Miko narrowed her eyes upon the trailer and the “Kentucky-Bred” etching on its side. Holding her hands out in front of her, one above her head and the other below her waist, she twisted her arms around until her hands had circled around to be where the other had been and a new, massive spell circle was shining orange before her. Even without shifting it further the wind began to gust about the group to the degree that clouds began to gather overhead. The sky darkened as more wind swirled all about and around them, the brunt of it picking up the loose dirt and tree limbs scattered across the ground and collecting in a nearly invisible spiral of air above the trailer.

All eyes were on that forming spiral, from Miko’s to Eda’s to even Gaz’s as she watched with an air of disinterest that was betrayed by her focus. Everyone except for Dipper that was. He had caught sight of another flash of orange, or rather two. Her earring was glowing again, but it was the shape taking form across her back that he couldn’t look away from. Illuminated in the same orange shade, the second circle that was forming just beyond her uniform was thicker with a pair of spikes jutting out from either side, around where ten and two would be if it was a clock. Or at least that’s what Dipper thought he saw. It was far blurrier, with even the general shape he thought he saw flickering in the wind that was only continuing to grow stronger by the moment as Miko concentrated on turning the threat of a real tornado into a promise.

He didn’t have long to try and take the wavering shape in either, as Miko’s definition of things getting weird came to be. From her perspective the world no doubt began to fall away as the wind whipped at her hair, skirt, and cape, but from Dipper’s it was she who was being pulled away from the ground by her own wind. A wind that she was still trying to make stronger. If the gale she’d managed so far could start to lift her an inch or two off the ground, then what would a full-fledged tornado be able to do? Where would it fling her? And how would she survive?

A fresh burst of wind rushed across the tri and Miko bobbed higher into the air, her legs kicking out in an attempt to find the ground that had gone missing out from under her even as her focus remained on the ever growing and solidifying cyclone overhead. She wasn’t going to stop, not until she proved to herself and the other, real, witches that she could do just as much as they could even if her magic was different.

Dipper wouldn’t dare try to stop her, not when he had been driven to push himself earlier that morning for much stupider reasons, but he also wasn’t going to let her get blown away because all the others were too focused on wanting to see a trailer get plowed out of existence. So, without another thought, he rushed forward and jumped.

He collided with her back, covering the glow that had been hovering there as his arms wrapped around her waist. Then they dropped. Their combined weight didn’t negate the wind’s lift completely, but it was enough for Dipper’s heels to drag across the ground just long enough for him to call up hands of stone to grab his own ankles, anchoring him in to the ground as he tightened his grasp on Miko.

“Dipper!?” she shouted over his shoulder, though the winds had picked up so much that he could barely hear her.

“Just keep going!” he shouted back. “You got this!”

Her eyes widened, then she nodded and returned her attention to the work at hand. She spread her hands a few inches further apart, enlarging the circle between them, before bringing her arms down the way she had for her first twister. The effect the immediate and grand.

The swirling wind above descended like a mighty punch from the heavens, a solid funnel of air that could neither be heard over nor seen through. Where there was once an imitation of a trailer there was now nothing but spiraling air and debris as the remnants of trees and rocks were thrown up then pulled in by the force of Miko’s magic to then spin around above in a ludicrous dismissal of gravity. Dipper was astonished, amazed beyond words. Some of his books had mentioned aspects of weather manipulation, but never to this scale. Never to this much control or from such direct control over the wind itself. Miko deserved every inch of the smile he could feel beaming off her even from behind.

But there was something else too. Another feeling rushing in through his chest and then across the rest of his body, as if that blurry light he had covered while grabbing Miko was flowing into him. And the more control Miko put on her magic in the moment the more he seemed to feel it. A weightless and freedom that seemed as natural as breathing, but as opposite to what he was used to as he could possibly imagine. Whereas the earthen magic he had picked up so naturally was a weight that kept him connected to the ground and the world around him, whatever this was wanted him to leave it all behind and fly free above the world. It was a feeling he didn’t want to let go, ever. And if this was some kind of unconscious transference from Miko, was this what she felt like all the time?

Questions would have to wait though, because with a flick of her wrists Miko released her spell circle and the control over the wind it allowed her. As swiftly as it had begun the spiraling air ceased to spiral, sending out bursts in every direction even as the cyclone dissipated. Dipper and Miko fell the rest of the way to the ground, her in his lap as the fractured remains of the trailer and anything else that had been sucked up were dropped back to the ground. And just as quickly as that feeling had spread throughout him, as the air died down around him, so too did the sensation of freedom that had flowed from her to him.

What followed was a bit hard to parse out, at least for a few minutes as Dipper tried to regulate his newfound longing for what he could have only experienced for a few seconds with the seemingly lacking normal he had returned to. All the while there was praise and astonishment being shared around him. Miko said something while hugging him, then extricated herself from his grip so she could speak to Eda and the others. She looked so happy, so proud of herself. And, despite how short a time he had known her and how confused he felt at what had just passed between them, he couldn’t help but be happy for her.

---

“That was a total level up!” Miko cheered while punching the air above her head. “I’ve been casting Aero for a while now but that was practically a jump to Aeroga!”

Dipper didn’t understand what the middle section of what she just said meant, but she seemed happy so he just let her go on. They were making their way back to the dorms, the rest of the group having scattered once Eda had called class. Luz and Steven had run off to find their significant others, Gaz had disappeared into a haze of flames with Danny phasing through the ground to follow her, and Eda had said she needed to go do Meisterlin-y things which she’d dragged King along with when it was clear he wasn’t invited to go see Amity with Luz. But being mostly alone had its benefits, such as having less people to hide the growing feeling of tiredness emanating from his very bones from. When whatever had flowed through him during Miko’s aeroga he had thought he’d gotten a boost of energy from it, but if he had it was incredibly short-lived. Now not only was that tightness from earlier back, but every step was like moving through mud. Mud that was getting thicker the longer he kept going. And that was before he even got to his balance–

“Whoa there,” Miko said, grabbing his arm and pulling back upright before he could go careening off the path and into a tree. “Are you alright.”

Dipper rubbed his eyes. But if anything, that made things even blurrier than they had been a moment before, not to mention the darkening edges of his vision. Probably not a good sign when added to his teetering back and forth.

“I think…the energy spell…it’s wearing off,” he said, holding on to Miko for balance. He hoped where he put his hand was her shoulder, but if it wasn’t she didn’t say anything about it. “I know…it should be the other way around…but can you help me to my dorm?”

Exactly what she said was lost on Dipper in the moment, but she further supported his weight while leading him onwards. More was said that he didn’t catch, the occasional gesture to something in front of them, a door maybe. At one point Dipper explained where on the first floor his room was, but he couldn’t tell if he was even making any sense. His own words sounded far away and off somehow, lost in the ever-encroaching darkness that had inched its way across his vision until only a sliver of the world was left.

Somewhere a door creaked open. Somewhere else a backpack full of books, taken from him at some point in the trek, was dropped behind them. And somewhere, somewhere very far in the distance ahead, was what might have been a bed. But despite the vast distance between him and it, when Dipper’s legs buckled during his next step, the bed came rushing up at him.

Chapter Text

“So good being home!” Janna cheered as she kicked her boots off and into her ramshackle studio apartment. Of course no one greeted her back, there wasn’t even a pause from the constant clicking and clacking of her stock market army working along the far wall. That was nothing new though, she had trained her money-making spirits to keep up the grind unless directly ordered otherwise.

“Really? A prequel meme?” Lucy scoffed from the doorway. The little goth was looking over Janna’s place from there, her mouth crinkled in disgust. That seemed harsh. Her place was messy, but not dirty or anything. At least not too much. “After three days in a basement I would expect more of you.”

Janna rolled her eyes then snapped at her shadow. “You don’t have to be here, you know.”

Lucy watched Bonbon’s arms rise up and start pulling off Janna’s clothes for a moment before replying. “Headmistress Kaisa said we should stay close until we know if your thief has accomplices.”

Janna chuckled as her skirt joined a pile with her vest and top. Then, as the clown moved on to her pantyhose, she added, “Headmistress Kaisa and Lady Gwin already found out who they are. Most of them don’t even have friends outside their club.”

“Still,” Lucy grumbled. She had finally ventured into the apartment, tentatively stepping around Janna’s piles of clothes and pilfered goods while taking in the six spirits typing and clicking away at Janna’s various portfolios on their computers. Each of which cost more than the apartment. Then her attention shifted to the structure opposite the spirits, the one her mattress was sheltered within. Janna was almost amused watching the squirt’s reaction to the apartment’s seeming randomness. “She’s the coven head, we’re supposed to do what she says.”

The wide shorts Janna had never filled out slid up and over her ripped, wavy blue leggings, the tattered yellow top and faded hoodie that went with them already in Bonbon’s grasp. As he slid those over her head, the ancient fabrics stretching or scrunching along her curves, she couldn’t help but get a whiff of nostalgia. Not true nostalgia, the mess she called her casual wear had only been cobbled together after that one…unfortunate day. But still, it was made up of them and she would revel in it as much as she could.

“Well,” Janna began while grabbing a bone from one of the treat bags she had stashed around her place, then dropped it without a second thought. Bonbon had it after a single bounce. “Unless you’ve suddenly changed your take on a certain café you’re not gonna enjoy staying close for the next hour or two.”

Lucy full-on grimaced. The goth had opinions on Frankie’s that Janna had no problem taking advantage of if it meant Lucy would get off her case for a while. Three days guarding the broken corridor entrance with little miss monotone had been more than enough. Thankfully their headmistress had been able to pull enough strings to close down the building for “fumigation,” so no more basement dwelling for them. At least not until the Wirt guy showed up.

“It’s not even a real maid café,” Lucy muttered, her lace-lined gothic Lolita outfit twisting around her as she shifted in place. “She shouldn’t call it one.”

“Unfortunately, we can’t all live up to your weeb standards.”

Janna could feel Lucy’s eyes rolling. “Of course you’d have trash taste, you live in it aftera–”

In two steps Janna was across the room, grabbing Lucy’s wrist before the latter’s hand could come down on the wooden exterior of her bed. Granted the once-upon-a-rooftop fort had been magically reinforced since its original builder had left it to her, but she still didn’t want this obnoxious bro-con messing with it.

“Don’t touch that,” Janna said tersely. “You have no idea how hard it was to get in here in one piece.”

Far below, the ground under Janna’s apartment shook as she and Lucy squared off. At the same time the keyboard clicking slowed to a stop, the spirits called by the spell circle glowing in Janna’s other hand. Neither girl said a word. Not as the ground continued to shake or the spirits gathered around them. They just stared one another down as magic continued to coalesce around them. Until, growing tired of the standoff or realizing there were several stories between her and the earth, Lucy tore her wrist out of Janna’s grasp and huffed.

“Do whatever you want,” Lucy said with a scowl. “I’ve got better things to do than follow you around anyway.”

Janna watched her go, eyes narrowed as the door slammed behind Lucy and the ground continued to shake. Only once it stopped and Janna couldn’t hear angry stomping boots going down the hall did she let out her breath and release her spell circle.

“Are you alright mistress?”

“Should we ruin her credit?”

“Bankrupt her father’s restaurant?”

“Review bomb her mother’s book?”

“Leave unkind comments on her vampire fanfiction?”

“Leak the photos she sent her br–”

“It’s fine,” Janna stated before the gaggle of dead, old men could put out any more ideas about a teenage girl. “Good brainstorming, but we’re good for now. If Ms. Loud ever needs to receive a message, I’ll take care of it myself.”

---

“Welcome to At Your Summons. What flavor of server would you like today?”

Normally such a question wouldn’t give Janna pause, not at this particular café at least. But when it was being asked by what had to be a twelve-year-old kid even she couldn’t help but take a moment. The staff Frankie employed had a habit of being…varied, but going as far as child labor was a new one for her. What’s more, he didn’t seem to be anything other than human. So he either had to be some kind of prodigy or something was going on. At least he looked cute in the little servant/butler uniform he’d been dressed up in.

“Haven’t been here in a while,” Janna picked up without another moment’s pause. “What flavors have you got on tap?”

The kid groaned and turned so he could point as he talked, starting with a nervous-looking guy whose beanie clashed with the white button shirt and black vest of his uniform. “If you like nervous, gangly guys there’s Edd’s section. Though be careful, Marie gets jealous of the girls he serves.”

The kid’s attention turned to a girl with a wicked grin and blue hair covering one of her eyes. She was waving at Edd with one of her long, white-gloved hands instead of paying attention to the customer at her table. It seemed just as likely that she wanted to eat her coworker as much as anything else with an expression like that, but maybe he was into that kind of thing.

“If that’s not the kind of ‘fun’ you’re here for though,” the kid went on, “we’ve also got Ashley, she’s a barrel of laughs.”

The pale-skinned, raven-haired girl he motioned to only looked any kind of fun thanks to a shorter skirt and a bit extra that the top half of her her maid-outfit had to keep restrained. Otherwise she looked plain annoyed and ready to snap at anyone that triggered her. Which must have been what the few customers she had were into given that her section wasn’t completely empty. Still, as interesting as that ray of sunshine might be, Ashley wasn’t who Janna had come to see.

“Isn’t there usually a redhead or two around here?” Janna asked, playing it as if that wasn’t the whole reason she’d come.

The kid’s mouth quirked. “One of them isn’t on shift right now, and the other is the manager. I don’t think she’ll have the time–”

Janna placed a card in his hand. “Show her this and I think she’ll find the time.”

The kid looked at what she’d given him, his eyes narrowing at the various magical sigils and writing on it but not seeming to grasp much if any of what he saw. Not a prodigy then. Despite his confusion, he excused himself as much as a twelve-year-old can be said to have “excused themselves” and half-hurried into the back. Janna, the employees, and the seated customers could all hear the groan that followed as it bellowed from whatever lay beyond the seating area’s walls. But whereas everyone else’s reaction ranged from concern to indifference, Janna only smiled. She then continued to smile as the kid reappeared and led her to a table in one of the more separated sections of the seating area.

As always, Janna couldn’t help but look around the place on the way to her table. They really had done a good job converting the old manor to a restaurant. The average person probably couldn’t point out where some of the walls had been taken down to expand seating or allow for the extra kitchen stuff to be installed, but even with the changes that had been made to the old place it still looked good.

“She’ll be with you in a moment,” the kid said after pulling out a chair for her and before rushing off back to his station at the front. Well, he more scurried then rushed. His head bobbing as he moved around seated customers and servers carrying trays of food or drinks on his way back to the podium at the front.

Janna crossed her legs, bobbing one foot up and down as she waited. She knew she wouldn’t have to wait long, not when the only other coven for hundreds if not thousands of miles relied on the corridor even more than hers did. And sure enough, not three minutes later a certain redhead came stomping out of the back and made her way towards Janna’s table. The groan from earlier personified and wrapped in a maid uniform, her usual perkiness offset by a grumpy scowl that didn’t waver as she arrived with a tray in hand.

“About time you showed up,” the redhead growled. “Finally going to explain yourself?”

Janna looked up and flashed a wide smile. “I’m sorry. When I asked for a redhead, I meant the one with extra toppings.”

Frankie Foster grumbled something uncouth and dropped her tray on the table while likewise dropping into the seat opposite Janna. Never the epitome of what it meant to be a lady, Frankie sat with her legs spread and arms crossed as she stared Janna down. She was only kept decent by the folds of her apron laying across her lap.

“What’d you do?” Frankie asked tersely.

Janna leaned back and took a deep breath. “I take it your door’s not working.”

Both their gazes turned toward the door in the back of the seating area. While it didn’t exactly stand out on its own, partially thanks to the various decorations draped or placed in front of it, if anyone really looked they would see that it didn’t truly belong. For one it was far older than the Victorian manor that they had converted into the café. For another, and more noticeably for Janna, were the words written in the old tongue all over it in a series of patterns not unlike what Janna’s own coven used to get to and from the fiery pits, but much more intricately designed. It was the kind of dark presence that in a horror movie some meddling kid would hear screaming coming behind. As far as Janna knew it never let out any noise when it was closed though, maybe a few screams when opened but that was a given considering where it led.

“No,” Frankie huffed. “It’s fully charged, and still charging somehow, but it won’t open. Which is just great since I’ve got a full house of possessed, semi-possessed, and just plain hellborn to contend with right now. No thanks to you guys not helping with that cult.”

“I noticed there was a new crew manning the place,” Janna commented while purposefully avoiding the former troublemakers. That had been Kaisa’s call, ordering Janna to focus on her scroll preparation instead while the others did who knew what. Besides, even if their coven hadn’t helped out with that cult it seemed to have worked out if Frankie could spread out in her chair and complain about it now. “Seems like an interesting team.”

Frankie moaned. “You haven’t even seen half of them. Edd’s normal enough, for someone who recreated a demonic summoning ritual as part of his friend’s scam at least. But the infestor he summoned–”

“The blue-haired girl?” Janna ‘guessed’ despite already having sensed it.

“Yeah, her. That infestor, Marie, is obsessed with him and doesn’t know how to deal with it, so she keeps possessing him to try and get him to love her back. And don’t even get me started on Ashley.”

“The black-haired one?” Janna asked, knowing that Frankie was well past getting started. It seemed like she hadn’t really had anyone to vent this to in a while, which would hopefully earn Janna some points for sitting through it.

“She keeps bringing meat to the kitchen that’s… not up to code.”

Janna raised a brow.

“The kind that you would expect to pay us for service instead of us paying to serve.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah. I’ve had to stop sending her on grocery runs and I don’t know if it’s because of whatever’s messed up in her head or the thing she got attached to when she did her own ritual. Which she learned from the same cult as Edd, just by the way. And that’s just the front of the house. See that girl over there?”

Frankie pointed over her shoulder to a table on the other side of the room, where a girl with short brown hair, glasses, and an orange top was seated and nervously looking around.

“The one with the cute freckles?”

“If you’re into that I guess,” Frankie said, rolling her eyes. “She’s waiting for the loll to hit, and as soon as it does my current chef is going to come out from the back and make up a half-assed excuse why he needs to talk to her about her meal or whatever. All so Mr. Rogers and her have an excuse to sneak upstairs and bang.”

“Well, as long as it’s not near the food–”

“Normally I’d agree. He’s good at his job, has good stuff when everything’s just too much, basically what you’d want in a good neighbor. But the shaggy bastard has a hellhound spirit attached to him that makes him go werewolf whenever things get too heated. So what do you think happens when he takes his favorite member of their weird little polycule somewhere dark and private.”

Janna let out a very different type of “oh.”

“Then there’s Mack.” Frankie almost spat the name. “Kid snuck in after hours trying to perv on me or Pankie, found my library, and summoned a jellyfish demon that I have to keep locked up to keep the little blue bastard from driving me insane.”

Janna had to hold her tongue and smile at the mention of Frankie’s look-a-like succubus. Surprisingly similar to Frankie while in her human disguise, just with more curves and a habit of wearing clothes that covered less of them. That did explain the kid upfront though. If she had been a pre-teen boy and saw a pair of redheads like Frankie and Pankie she would have tried to sneak a peek too. Only Janna wouldn’t have gotten caught. She might have still summoned a demon though, that still seemed like something she’d do.

“Plus the plain old hellborn working in the back,” Frankie went on, really on a roll now even without Jann’s input. “A goetia who can’t talk but is good at helping around the kitchen, one of those gangly demons I can never remember the names of but he’s tall and good at getting stuff from storage, and a Spanish-speaking Baphomet who’s somehow good at cooking the books. Which is great except for the part that I can’t send any of them back where they’re supposed to be because your lot broke the corridor!”

Janna only came back near the end of Frankie’s diatribe. She’d been watching as a shaggy looking chef sauntered out of the kitchen, checked to make sure Frankie wasn’t looking in his direction, then strolled over to the brunette Frankie had just pointed out. Just as Frankie had explained a minute before, the chef said something to the girl in orange, she blushed, and then both disappeared into the back. Janna couldn’t stop herself from wondering if the nerdy girl secretly knew the chef had that dawg in him or if she just really enjoyed doggy style.

“Janna!”

“Huh? Oh, right. If it makes you feel better, I didn’t break the corridor.”

“Was it that goth you were complaining about last time?” Frankie asked, her brow lowering as her scowl had intensified.

“Nah,” Janna replied, waving off the thought despite liking the idea of having a reason to blame Lucy for something. “Someone stole one of our scrolls and broke the corridor using it.”

“Weren’t you the last one working on those scro–”

“The point is,” Janna said quickly, before anyone could put too many things together, “is that we’re working on fixing it. Kaisa’s even bringing in some big wig sorcerer-type to help speed things along. And I just wanted to make sure that in the meantime,” Janna raised her leg under the table so that the very tip of her boot ran along the interior of Frankie’s leg as she lifted it higher and higher, “my favorite independent witch knew what was going on and was taken care of.”

Frankie looked away. Not bashfully or flirtatiously the way she did when she was lonely and wanted to make sure no one would see what she was letting happen. Not worriedly the way she did when she wasn’t lonely and she just didn’t know if the current boyfriend she was trying out would be into it or not. Just…dismissively and almost a bit sadly, so much so that Janna actually pulled her foot back without having to be told when Frankie spoke next.

“I’m not in the mood for any fun,” she said quietly. “I’m too exhausted. There’re so many demons here now, more than there have been since before Grandma left, the café’s just getting by, and just yesterday the van started to make a noise that I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be. If I was going to have any fun right now…well I’d want it to be with a guy who wanted me for me, not someone just using me until she finds who she really wanted.”

Janna bit her lip. Despite not generally coming out with the truth to Frankie, or most other people for that matter, she didn’t go out of her way to lie either. Or at least tried not to when it counted. She was much more of a lie by omission kind of girl in that regard. But omitting was basically admitting here, so there was no way to really come out on top. At least not the way she would have liked to.

Instead, Janna dug out her phone and a pen. She found the address and number she was looking for then wrote them down on a napkin. Sliding it to Frankie’s side of the table she said, “I can at least help with your van while we’re waiting on the corridor. Take it to this shop, ask for Coop and tell him I sent you. He’ll take good care of you.”

Frankie looked at what Janna had scribbled, grimacing slightly about Janna writing the address on a cloth napkin, then looked back at her and asked, “Is this place legit? No offence, but with you it’s hard to tell.”

Janna chuckled. Coop’s shop had in fact helped refit a few of her shadier automotive endeavors in the past, but they hadn’t known about anything illegal so Janna felt fine replying, “As legit as can be.”

Frankie rolled her eyes, but with a smile she slipped the napkin into one of her apron’s pockets. Then standing she asked, “Well, now that you’ve sat through my near breakdown and possibly given me something to help with part of it, is there anything else you want while you’re here? Like food or something?”

“Well, since I’m not gonna get the cake I was hoping for,” Janna started, her eyes running down Frankie’s lower half, “I’ll take whatever the dessert of the day is.”

Frankie smiled and curtsied. “At your summons,” she said before turning back towards the kitchen. Janna smiled to herself as she watched someone who might be called her friend go, content to know that not only would the perky redhead be coming back with a tasty treat but also that one of her backup plans was still on the table. If the door Frankie used to send wayward demons home was still partly working even without the corridor in one piece, then there would be a way to co-op that for herself if the need arose.

(have some Cafe staff designs)

Chapter Text

“Oh~” Wendy gasped, her arms wrapped around him and fingers dragging along his back. His own hands were sliding over her exquisite body, feeling every bit of her until he was grasping her hips and inching towards her backside.

“Right there,” she moaned as his leg rose between hers and his teeth grazed her neck. Her hair was draped over his head as he kissed and bit her neck, all the while her grip tightened around him as he rocked his leg between her thighs. “Yes! Use your special move!”

Dipper paused from the hickey he’d been creating on her neck. That didn’t sound like Wendy. The hair he’d gotten lost in while kissing her in all the ways he’d always wanted to wasn’t red. The hips and butt he was groping weren’t the toned glutes he’d had to stop himself from staring at so many times since reuniting with her at Rev U. And she wasn’t the statuesque tall girl he’d always looked up to figuratively and literally, but short enough that he’d had to bend over bury his face in her neck. It was…this was…had to be…a…

---

Dipper forced his eyes open, each lid heavy from the strain of the previous day’s exertion and none too happy about the red morning sunlight streaming through the window. But those initial aggravations were dashed from his mind as his vision focused enough to see who was lying beside him.

“…finish her…” Miko mumbled in her sleep.

Their limbs were a tangled mess around one another, tying one to the other like a jumbled knot that left his hands on her butt, their chests pressed against one another, and her legs straddling one of his. It was all too much, or very nearly so as Dipper’s eyes flew from one side to the other trying to understand what was going on or how this could have happened. But, as if in admonishment for not doing as she said or just to keep him from figuring out what was going on, the sleeping girl leaned in across what little distance was left between their faces.

Her lips, slightly parted without a sign of fangs within, glistened in the morning light as they approached Dipper’s own. Dipper’s body went stiff in a different way as his eyes widened and he lost all sense of what he should do. What was he supposed to do in a situation like this? He’d never woken up with a girl in his bed before, not like this unless she’d been one he was related to. And those girls definitely hadn’t ever tried to kiss him even in their sleep. But that was the situation now. That was what he had to deal with. That’s what he had to stop. Yes, stop. He had to…he had to do something that would…

Miko’s lips grazed his and it really did become too much. Without thinking, Dipper yelled and tried to back away, only to–

THUD

Dipper’s back hit the floor after a short fall from the bed, his legs halfway caught in the sheets so that he had landed basically in sitting position. Just ninety degrees backward. Miko had come with him, crashing down atop his chest with a more cushioned thud. Luckily this wasn’t some anime and her face hadn’t collided with his in the fall, completing the unconscious kiss by accident. Instead, her head had come to rest in the crook of his neck. Which was good, the last thing he needed was to molest a girl in her sleep…any more than he already had in his sleep he thought with a grimace.

“Mmmm,” Miko mumbled. Dipper felt her eyelashes flutter against his neck and her thighs tighten around his waist as she approached consciousness. She flexed into him, then pushed herself up so she was somewhat sitting on his lap, just with his legs between her and the bed instead of below her.

She yawned and stretched her arms above her head, causing Dipper to stiffen under her shifting body. He was quick to lock his legs together so she wouldn’t notice though. Smacking her lips, she looked around like a lost animal that had wandered into a strange new place. Which, aside from the part where he unintentionally imagined her with cat ears, Dipper guessed she kind of, sort of, was.

“Morning Dipper,” she said groggily when her half-opened eyes fell upon him.

“Morning…” he replied slowly. He remained still as she continued looking around in her half-asleep way. When it became apparent that she was in no rush to move or wake up any faster, and that it would be near impossible to ignore thoughts about how her legs were partially on top and partially around him, he added, “What, um, what are you doing in my room?”

“Hm?” She blinked as if just realizing that was where she was, perhaps actually just realizing that as the question seemed to get her brain going a little bit more into its awake setting. “Oh yeah…I was helping you get back and you collapsed on me. But I was tired too and we landed on the bed so I just went with it.”

“Sorry about that…I don’t make a habit of falling on top of girls.”

“Don’t worry about it. I can only hope you slept as good as I did,” she said, smiling down at him. Then, noticing that like Dipper she was still wearing her uniform from the day before, added, “Mind if I borrow your shower?”

“It’s all yours.”

Dipper pretended he didn’t see the flash of neon green underwear after she pushed herself up and stepped over him, and even went so far as to not move at all until he’d heard the door to the bathroom close behind her. Even still, it was only when he could hear the water from the antiquated shower start to flow that he allowed himself to grab his pillow and scream a long, self-deprecating scream into it.

“How does this keep happening?” he whisper-yelled at himself. “Third girl in as many days you’ve woken up next to, granted two of them were at the same time, but that’s not why you came down here. That’s not why you came down here at all!”

Dipper took a breath and tried to calm himself down the way that one therapist had taught him before he’d given her neurosis, and it almost worked. It usually almost worked. And todays almost slowed down his thinking just enough for him to try and sit down, not enough for him lean far enough back while doing so, leading him to missing the edge of the bed and falling back to the floor in his haste. But that was fine. Totally fine in fact. Now he had equilibrium between how much his back and butt hurt after falling on both first thing in the morning, that was something to focus on. That or his backpack which at some point the night before had been dropped in the spot beside him.

“I didn’t have sex with this one though,” Dipper continued to whisper to himself, now rummaging through the bag in hopes that the book Twilight had laden him with might help reel in his thoughts some more. “May have made out with her a little in my asleep, but she was trying to do that too, so we’ll call it even. Or call it nothing, since there’ll be no reason to ever bring it up. Problem solved. Now I just have to not think about how close we were in bed, or the absolute territory between her stockings and skirt while her legs were around me, or what she’s doing in my shower right now–”

“Jeesh, you must be fun at parties,” came a voice from everywhere and nowhere all at once. It was the same high-pitched voice he’d heard sneaking out of Sunset and Twilight’s dorm the other night and after making his flaming Wendy in Intro to Illusions. But no one else had heard it at the latter, and he’d been all kinds of drained at the former so he’d been happy to tell himself it had been his mind or magic playing tricks on him. But now…this didn’t seem like his mind or magic doing anything. “You’d think waking up next to a cute gamer girl would make a guy happy, instead you act like you just killed a kitten or something. What happened to you, pine tree?”

Dipper raised the massive library book as if to throw it, but he had no idea where he would. The voice was coming from everywhere and there was no sign of who it belonged to. No shimmer like with Miko’s illusionary camouflage sign of anything around the room that he couldn’t remember being there the day before. “Who are you? And what are you? And, uh, where are you?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” the voice said with feigned worry. “Put down the book before you crease a page. As for your questions though, well a) I’m a friend, a muse, an eventual aid in the harsh reality that is the hell you’ve landed in. 2) What I am is a bit nebulous, had a set back a couple of years ago that has me a little insubstantial if you catch my drift. Working back from it, but for now I’m not even a shadow of my former self. As for iii) it goes along with point 2.”

Dipper somehow both did and didn’t hear the voice say the roman numeral for its third point and he didn’t like the cognitive dissonance that caused. Somehow that bothered him even more than the voice’s answers barely answering any of his questions. “What do you want?”

“To get you in touch with the shadow element you’re missing out on, to make you the magical master I can see you’re just waiting to become. And I’m just the wheelin’ dealin’ kind of guy who can make that happen.” Then it chuckled. “Though after this morning’s display I want you to learn how to have a little fun first. And I know just how we can two-birds-one-example it.”

Fingers snapping filled the room and Dipper dropped the book. But he didn’t hear it hit the floor or even feel the thud of its weight reverberate under his feet, not as the images flooded his mind.

At first it was just scenes since waking up; Miko against him in bed, Miko pressing in to kiss him, Miko sitting atop him as her soft legs squeezed him from either side. But other images were quick to add to the recent memories once those had played out; Miko in his bathroom starting to undress, in the shower with water running over her body and along every curve, her hair undone and clinging to her naked wet skin…Then more images, the memories of Saturday night that had been slowly coming back, of being in bed with Sunset and Twilight. Of yellow and brown breasts pressing against him, of mouths meeting then descending upon and engulfing his manhood, of thrusting into one of them then the other for hours at a time. Then the images and memories started to blend. Suddenly Dipper was in the shower, Miko and Sunset draped around him as water lapped over the trio. Miko’s lips met his as her fingers wrapped around him, her hand pumping up and down while Sunset pressed his hands against her breasts until–

“Stop it!” Dipper roared, between ragged breaths. Red, blue, and yellow light flashed around him; raising the temperature, shaking the ground, and carrying his voice as the images dissipated around him. He could still feel them against him, their tongues and hands and other parts, even the hot water rolling over them. But just like with the illusion he’d created the day before, it wasn’t right to do that to them. To use Sunset and Miko for some sick fantasy even if it didn’t affect them in real life. That wasn’t the person he wanted to be, the type of person who’d let a demon fill his head with images of his friends doing…doing… “Just stop.”

“Really fun at parties,” the voice scowled. “You’d think a guy would enjoy a little fun with his curvier friends.”

“Not a guy who’s willing to have his friends used as…as…wank fodder,” Dipper shot back, despite not having anything particular to shoot back at.

The voice sighed in exasperation, ruffling the sheets and Dipper’s wrinkled uniform. “I forgot how much like you you are.”

“What?”

“Listen Pinetree,” the voice said in clear annoyance, “I’m running out of manifestation time for today. We’ll try this again another time, when I can at least get closer. Close enough for you to actually see me, then we can really talk about a deal that’ll get you that shadow magic you’re missing. Bye for now.”

“But you haven’t–”

“Dipper?” Miko called from the bathroom, yelling over the shower’s constant thrum of running water. “Did you say something?”

There was a moment where he didn’t reply, didn’t even move. Near silence surrounded him and filled the seconds following her question, but there was no high-pitched voice berating him for not slobbering over the girls in his life. There was just him and the sound of running water as Miko waited for him to answer.

“I just…stubbed my toe,” Dipper called back to her. Even with the recent influx of spirit and other forms of magic that had come into his life, trying to explain that he’d been yelling at disembodied voice that had been making him imagine her and other coeds naked wasn’t a conversation he felt comfortable having. And the book had grazed his foot when he dropped it, so it wasn’t a complete lie in.

“Okay. I’ll be out in a minute and it’ll be all yours.”

“Take your time,” he called, then dropped back onto the bed. It was too early to be this tired already.

---

“Just what I needed,” Miko said, a pleasant hum to her voice as she stepped out of the bathroom. Her uniform was once again wrinkle free and hair was down, reaching her waist in a gradient of blue to pink. Not for long though. In a display of the magic he’d only ever seen girls manage, with a few twists behind her head she tied her long cascade of hair into the small bun she’d worn every other time he’d seen her up until then. The bun seemed entirely too small for how long her hair was when it was down, which is why Dipper was convinced there was some girl-only magic to it. Then, to put the final details on her look, she cast a light blue spell circle over herself with a flick of her left wrist. Her smile sharpened into fangs, black wings sprouted from her back, and a succubus-like tail popped out from under her skirt.

“Do those really help?” Dipper asked. He was looking over the top of the book Twilight had given him the day before. He hadn’t managed to get very far into it, but it had served as a convenient way to keep his mind off Miko while she’d been in the shower.

She looked over her shoulder at her illusionary appendages, her tail slowly flitting back and forth under her own gaze, then gave a kind of half wave with one hand. “Sort of. For most people it keeps them indifferent to me.”

“But Drago and–”

“You can’t make everyone happy,” she said quickly before plopping down on the bed next to him. “At least not the way he and his goons would want me to make them happy. I won’t ever be anything more than a pair of legs to spread for them, but most hellborn or natives would rather just do their own thing. So if I don’t give them a reason to give me a second look they won’t. It’s like a stealth stat I’ve gotten pretty good at, just that instead of crouch-walking into a wall near a bear, I accessorize.”

Dipper didn’t focus on the idea of her legs spreading, not even as one of hers brushed up against one of his. “How long have you been ‘stealthing’ like that?”

Miko put a finger to her chin as she considered the question. “Basically since I got to Goliath, not long after I fell into the pride ring right before the last trimester started. So a little over four months I guess.”

Dipper considered her words. “If you fell down here…does that mean you didn’t mean to come to hell?” It might have been a leap considering his own fall, but that had been more a result of them breaking the corridor than not intending to get where they’d been going. It had been a least somewhat of a controlled descent up until that point.

Miko practically snorted. “Do I look like I meant to come here?”

She had him there. The bubbly, brightly colored gamer girl didn’t seem like prime witch material even if she could use magic. And her own brand of it at that. “I guess I just assumed you had learned what you can do from a book or something and figured out how to get down here afterwards to learn more.”

“Oh man, Dipper, I was a total noob when it came to this magic stuff until after I got to Hexside, you couldn’t even tell me to get good I was such a new new witch. See, I was at work about to try this totally allowed patch on company hardware when BOOM! Crash! Riiiiiip! Add in some blasting and tearing, then woosh and…”

She trailed off as, amid following her own grandiose hand gestures as if they had been anything other than her flailing digits going in a different direction with every syllable she spoke, she looked up to catch Dipper’s blank expression. “I’m not really telling this well, am I?”

“I…don’t know, sorry.”

“Ugh, this is why mom’s always griefing me about how I explain things,” she said. A moment of silence passed with Miko biting her lip as she considered how to move on with what she wanted to say while Dipper just sat there quietly. He had asked the question that get her going after all, it only seemed right to wait for her to answer as she was able. And at least she was trying to, unlike some of the things he’d tried to have a conversation with that morning.

A lightbulb went off over Miko’s head. Literally, a pixilated lightbulb popped into existence already illuminated and everything, then faded away into a trail of the glitched-out lines all her illusions turned to before disappearing. “Didn’t Meisterlin Rarity give you a mind-read-y McGuffin?”

“Yes, but–”

“Perfect,” she beamed. “Use it on me.”

“But I haven’t practiced with it, I might see something you don’t want me to.”

She shrugged. “We just spent the night together and I’m pretty sure I flashed you on the way to the shower, there’s not too much else for you to see besides how I got here and how good I am at video games. And I want you to see both of those. So come on, get proby up in my grey matter.”

There was a moment where Dipper could only look at her. Not in awe or surprise, but continued confusion. She really wasn’t like anyone else down here. Eventually he offered a half-hearted “ok,” before setting his book to the side and reaching back into his bag for the circlet he’d gotten in Oracle class. A few seconds were spent adjusting it over and around his hair so that his birthmark wouldn’t show too much, then double checked with a, “And you’re sure about this?”

“If I could 101% DK 64 you can’t put my brain through anything I haven’t already ruined it with, so let’s get to it.” Then, as if that explained anything about what she’d been through before or what was about to happen, she laid down so that her head was in his lap. Somehow she translated the stammered yap of a question for her to explain with a, “I think it’s easier if you can touch me. Seems that way from how much I see oracle students with their hands on each other’s heads all the time.”

“That’s…probably right,” Dipper replied, thinking of Sunset’s trip into his own mind. There had been a lot more skin-to-skin contact during that event, and it had also taken place after waking up in bed together, but hopefully no more similarities would need to happen for this to work. Dipper tentatively slid his hand under her bangs and across her forehead, eliciting a smile from her as his hand came to rest on her still warm-from-the-shower skin. If he didn’t think better of her he might have guessed she was amused by how uncomfortable and unsure he was about all of this.

“Try looking for ‘Doom’ and ‘fall’,” she said after closing her eyes. “That’s what I’ll be imagining as I think about it.”

“Sure,” Dipper said, “Doom and fall. Simple. I can do that. I’ve been doomed and fallen before, a lot of both actually. So, how hard could it be?”

---

Darkness. Utter darkness. There was nothing within it but them and a single resonating thought. And that thought, was Doom.

Miko’s gauntlet watch went off, the timer telling her that the moment had come. It was time for Doom, and no one would stop it from coming. No one could stop her from bringing it. No one would get in her way.

Miko burst from her hiding place under Hinobi’s cashier desk, rolling twice across the floor before coming to a stop as her heels skid across the tile flooring. The lighting was dim since the main overheads had just turned off a moment before as they were officially after hours, but nowhere near as dark as it had been in the cabinet she’d crammed herself into waiting for this moment. A less skilled infiltrator might still need to be careful, but Miko knew she had the skills to pay the bills. She had long ago memorized the path to the back and where she’d need to go from there, all it would take was timing and execution. Having someone on lookout wasn’t going to hurt either, and speaking of…

“Five, what’s the four-one-one?” Miko whispered into her gauntlet. She was already in the back and readying to flip the locker switch, but even though the night shift shouldn’t be near the front entrance she needed to make sure before she opened the gate behind the lockers. She couldn’t get caught when she was so close to fulfilling one of her dreams.

“Wasn’t stealth supposed to be my thing?” her Glitch Tech replied over the secure line they had set up just for this mission.

“Maybe if you put more points into it,” she said back. “Am I good to enter the gate?”

“No one’s around, if that’s what you’re asking,” Five grumbled in reply. They work didn’t usually require much stealth since they could make anyone forget anything they shouldn’t have seen, so when the tall, lanky-limbed Five got it into his head to sneak around he usually didn’t do a good job at it. Particularly when he tried to hide under a box and ended up moving it when people were looking instead of when they weren’t. “Can we at least say five-one-one so I feel like I’m actually part of this?”

“That’s a ten-five, good buddy,” she replied before slapping the switch. The wall of lockers pulled apart, revealing a portal made of glowing blue digital energy. She stepped through, her skin tingling and hair frizzing out for a fraction of a second, then she was on the other side. Just like Five had said, the hallway she had been transported to was empty. She could hear other glitch techs to her left, killing time in the common area as they waited on a call to action. You could never tell when a late night gaming session would spawn another Castlestein or overgrown monster the town needed protecting from, but if anything that would lead more of them away from where she was going than not.

“Where’s the boss man?” she asked as she started moving farther down the hallway, in the opposite direction of the commons.

“Phil and Kodama are asleep in his office,” Five said after a second. “Should be safe from any midnight systems checks.”

“Awesome,” Miko said, smiling to herself not just because things were going to plan but because it was always cute how the little rabbit glitch would nest on top of their manager’s stomach when they took naps.

She continued down the hall, pausing here and there whenever she heard something or when Five would tell her to. The few minutes it was taking her to get to the VR room seemed to stretch into hours, even though she knew it wasn’t. Just like when she’d still been stuck in high school and the time would drag by at a snail’s pace, but if she stayed focused on the task at hand, on the mission she was set to achieve, she knew she’d make it. It was that focus, hard to maintain as always but in this case worth straining to keep, caried her the last stretch of hallway until she was standing at her destination.

“Last chance to bail,” Five said over the comm. He should have known better.

“Like hell I’d bail,” Miko said, grinning. The VR room door slid open as she approached, then back closed behind her. She was quick to set the lock, just in case, then pulled the thumb drive from her pocket. It would have been more fitting if the only one she’d been able to get her hands on that was big enough wasn’t her sister’s jewel-encrusted “fashion” drive, but she’d made do. What Nica didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her anyway. For now though, the USB drive Miko needed was right in front of her, all she had to do now was stick it in.

“And you’re sure the patch is going to work?” he asked, always the worry wort.

“I’ve seen it work on loads of Hinobi consols,” she replied as she strolled across the room.

“Yeah, but there’s a difference between a consol and the company’s super-secret VR tech.”

Miko held the thumb drive over the USB port, as if tantalizing the system with all the rules she was about to break. “So you’re saying you don’t ever want a turn?”

“No, I just–”

“Cause if you want I’ll break the drive and then no one gets to try it.”

He was silent. Maybe he knew she wouldn’t really break it, not when she wanted to try it more than anyone, but it could have been because he wanted to try it nearly as much. Being Hinobi faithfuls hadn’t kept them from much, but it had kept them from doing one thing in particular. But now, the only thing keeping them from it was whether or not Miko was going to slide in the drive and start the program.

“Do it,” he eventually said, his words a defeated sigh.

“Was gonna anyway,” she said, then jammed the drive downwards. A flash of blue light stopped Miko’s arm mid-descent, a follow-up bloom of feathers then pushing her back from the computer altogether.

“Craw!” Ally cawed. The chicky chum had manifested on top of the computer terminal, her legs pulled up and under her body as if it wasn’t the worst place she could have chosen to nest.

“Ally!” Miko moaned. “I love you, but this isn’t the time to play.”

“Craw?” Ally cawed again, her head tilting as she looked at Miko. Usually the horse-sized bird’s tongue would have lolled out of her beak too, but she was unusually focused. With eyes narrowed, Alley stepped off the terminal and raised to her full height. Her focus never shifted from Miko though. Well, not Miko exactly. She realized as she watched her digital companion approach, that Ally was solely focused on Nico’s thumb drive. The bird’s simple mind had latched on to the first sparkly thing she’d seen and if Miko knew her pet she wasn’t going to stop until she’d gotten it.

“Ally, no!” Miko yelled as she ducked and dodged Ally’s neck shooting out as she tried to grasp the shiny trinket. Up, down, left, and right; there was nowhere the bird couldn’t launch her beak at near rocket speeds. “I need this to get–”

Ally’s beak clipped the thumb drive in a final shot. Miko somehow managed to keep a hold of it, and by some miracle the drive didn’t split under the force of the bird’s strike, but several of the jewels covering the drive’s exterior had been scattered across the floor. Most notably the large, top-most orange one that had probably caught Nica’s attention before buying it to begin with. So she was definitely going to notice Miko taking it now.

“Crumbs,” Miko groaned, then slammed her hand over her gauntlet to activate Ally’s recall.

“Is everything alright?” Five asked over the comm while Ally disappeared back into Miko’s gauntlet. “I picked up a lot of movement.”

Miko bent over to sweep up the dislodged jewels, especially the larger orange one. “Ally popped out and tried to eat the drive. I took care of it though.”

“That’s what you get for trying to trick me,” he replied.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, pocketing the jewels and hoping that her little sister would let her borrow her strong glue, and maybe glue the jewels back too. Lexi was better at that kind of stuff than she was. “I’m doing it now.”

Since the moment had already passed, Miko didn’t bother going through the dramatic motions she had before. She just slid the drive into the USB slot. Despite Ally’s disruption, her excitement remained palpable as the terminal came to life. First with the Hinobi start up screen, then the programs in the drive itself started automatically. The screen whirred, computer parts spun, and then…and then…the screen went black.

Miko’s jaw clenched in disappointment. She had spent days online making sure this work. Days more convincing Five to be her lookout, to the point she had even convinced Zahra to give him a special reward if he did it. Then planning out the route and time so she could get what Phil and every other higher up had always said was impossible. Just for the screen to go black? That wasn’t fair. That wasn’t fair at all! She had worked too hard for it all to–

The speakers boomed. Heavy metal music filled the VR room with reverberating beats that transformed Miko’s shiver of anger into one of excitement. It built up, growing louder and more intense until, when she thought the whole room might be shaken from its foundation, four angular letters appeared on the blackened screen. D. O. O. M.

“Mother of Metroid,” Miko said, wiping away the trace of a tear from her eye. “It’s beautiful.”

“What does it look like?” Five practically leapt through their comm connection he was coming through so loudly.

“Words can’t do it justice,” Miko said while maneuvering towards the start button. One of the only IP’s Hinobi had never even tried to get was now playing on one of their most powerful pieces of tech. And now that it was, she was going to have some fun. “But you’ll just have to wait your turn, because I’m going in!”

Miko clicked the start button and the whole room went black. She could feel her orientation shifting, almost imperceptibly, until she was no longer standing but laying down. The air stilled and grew tense. Somewhere, nearby but dulled as if coming from another room, the sounds of machinery whirred and clanked. The source of the sound revealed itself mere seconds later as a sudden burst of light flooded Miko’s vision. The large stone slab that had been shrouding her in darkness until that moment was moved aside by four mechanical arms.

Level start Miko thought to herself, grinning from ear to ear.

She was in a lab; white walls and silver chrome surrounding her as she lay on an ancient stone slab. As always with anything the VR room ran, it all seemed so incredibly real but there was an extra sheen to it today. The sheen of doing something that she wasn’t supposed to be doing. Of playing a game that was never supposed to run on Hinobi tech. Yet here she was, about to do just that and she couldn’t be happier.

Something growled from her right. A deep, guttural growl that seemed in no way human but far worse than any animal. Miko tried to push herself up to see what she was about to be thrown into. She could only get so far though, as for the first time she realized her wrists were chained to the slab, keeping her from rising more than halfway up. That was more than enough to catch sight of the thing growling, the thing slowly approaching with a staggering gait of rotted flesh that didn’t take away from how sharp and dangerous its gaping maw full of teeth and outstretched claws looked. Nor did the blood and other splattered gore coming off those claws and teeth escape Miko’s attention.

Without losing her grin, though allowing it turn more serious as she locked in to being the best demon slayer she could be, Miko pulled at her chains with all her strength. The manacles bit into her skin, not cold like she would have thought from the old metal, but hot like her own blood in the moment. The zombie staggered closer, the links in the chains began to bend. Not quickly enough though. As Miko struggled to free herself, the zombie reached the side of the stone she was chained to. With a gaping maw above her that was getting closer by the instant, Miko did the only thing she could in the moment. With a flick of her head, she bashed the zombie’s head with her own.

Bone fragments splintered and rained down as the undead creature reeled back and collapsed, giving Miko the time she needed to rip herself free from the stone slab, the links of her chains joining the skull splinters on the slab then the floor as she rolled off it to freedom. At least, to a degree.

More zombies were filing into the room, each with their own set of teeth and claws eagerly heading towards her juicy flesh. Luckily, among discarded body parts and puddles of blood she’d landed in was a plasma pistol. She grabbed it without a second thought, taking aim as if she’d been training for this moment all her life. She pulled the trigger four times in quick succession. Two plasma slags planted themselves in each of the approaching zombies’ heads, dropping them just as quickly.

It was only then, as the initial wave of enemies lay dead or she guessed re-dead on the floor, that she realized how quickly she’d been breathing. The game had started without a second’s hesitation, without allowing her a second to consider anything that was happening. The only option had been to kill or be killed, and she had risen to the challenge. But now, with the first moment’s reprieve after nearly game-overing within the first minute, she knew she was going to have to rise even higher. And the means to do so were just beyond the door the zombies had ambled through. Because there, bathed in a glorious, murderous glow, was the Praetor suit that was so recognizable to the series. The green armor called to her as if it had been made for her, and it might as well have been. For as far removed her body type was compared to the original Doom Slayer, it latched on to her like a glove over sliding over a hand.

Finally, truly, she was ready to rip and tear.

---

“Miko, are you still there?”

Five’s voice came in over the comm like so many of the game characters that had either been trying to stop or encourage her demonic genocide. He sounded so much like just another NPC that she almost didn’t recognize him at first. The last time he had checked in he had been going to get his reward from Zahra, leaving Miko to the blood-filled bliss of her heavy metal blasting in the hours since. And all those hours had been amazing. Heads had exploded, guts had been spilled, massive eyes had been punched, and all other sorts of ripping and tearing had been done. Though Miko was going to give Zahra a talking to if the reward she’d promised had left him with any energy to come back to work.

“You know it,” she huffed as she trudged out of the remains of her latest kill, one of the last kills before she arrived at the hell gate. She knew she was about to be dropped into a tough gauntlet, but if it meant closing the gates of hell and proving she was the best slayer around she knew she could do it. Her guns had bullets, her chainsaw was revved up, and nothing that could come out of that portal was going to stop her from maintaining her 100% completion rate.

“I’m getting some weird readings over here,” he said with his usual uncertainty. Five liked planning and being in control as much as possible, so anything out of the ordinary would be considered weird from his point of view. Even if it was something as simple as a little extra power being drawn by the conversion patch letting the game run, which is probably what it was. “I think you should give the system some downtime before something happens.”

“No can do Five-erino,” she said while pushing open the massive metal doors attempting to keep her from the gates of hell. “I’ve got a few more demons to slay.”

“I’m serious, Miko. Things aren’t right, and you know what happens when things aren’t right with Hinobi tech.”

“I’m serious too,” Miko shot back. She had stopped at the final door before the gauntlet would trigger. A red beam of light shown in the open sky beyond, the opening to hell that the UAC had been using for their experiments. So many demons were about to rush out of that light and she had to be there to kill them all. “I’m near the end. After I rip and tear what’s left I’ll leave the extra stuff for later. So your weird readings are just going to have to wait.”

“But Miko–”

“Can’t hear you,” she said loudly as she crossed into the gauntlet arena. One of the NPC’s she hadn’t been paying attention to over the course of the game was backing towards the red beam, threatening or screaming about whatever her motivation had been. Miko didn’t care though, she just needed the old woman to finish her RP so Miko could get to slaying. And, after an excruciating few seconds that seemed to stretch on for hours, the NPC did something to cause a cascade of energy that sucked her into the beam and started the finale.

The background music was blasting, Miko’s blood was pumping, and so much epicness was about to go down she couldn’t contain herself. The first of the demonic minions of hell started to emerge from the beam and Miko rushed towards them. The heated air flowed through the tendrils of her hair that hadn’t been contained by the suit’s helmet. The metallic gangway clattered beneath her heavy footfalls. And, with a massive thrust forward, she leapt towards the incoming beasts. Monsters that were more maws and machines than anything else rushed out to meet her. Chainsaw raised and weapon drawn, Miko came down in a crashing attack that should have crushed skulls and rendered flesh into demonic sludge.

But it didn’t.

She didn’t come down on the first wave of enemies in the gauntlet. Not with her chainsaw or plasma rounds, not even with her stomping boots or gauntlet-covered hands. Nor did any of them continue rushing out at her. For a moment, a few seconds at most, nothing happened. No fighting, no growling, no shooting, not even gravity. Everything had just stopped. Miko hung midair, weapons drawn, while the demons stood frozen midstride. But the moment was quick to end, or at least change. Miko remained frozen, but the scene around her changed in a series of flashes. Parts of the environment, the demons, and even Miko’s armor shifted in place. Rectangular sections of each going right while others went left, leaving displaced visuals splintered across her vision.

It was in her solitary moment hanging in the air that she realized Five’s ‘weird’ readings might have been a little more serious than she had wanted to believe. But seeing was believing, and Miko believed she was seeing was a glitch.

The scene changed again. The martian landscape and buildings blipped out of existence, leaving Miko back in the empty VR room. She was almost blinded by the stark white walls after so many hours trudging through dark tunnels and spreading clouds of gore overhead, though not so blinded that she didn’t realize she was still being held aloft by tendrils of pink, lightning-like glitch energy. Nor was she so blinded that she didn’t realize she wasn’t completely alone. One of the demons or even another version of the Doom Slayer hadn’t appeared in the room with her like how most glitches manifested, instead she was sharing the room with none other than the hell gate. The pillar of red light had been tinted pink along the edge by the same tendrils of glitching Hinobi tech that were keeping Miko frozen mid-air, but otherwise it was the same as it had been in the game mere seconds before everything else unloaded, just confined to a smaller room.

“Mi…ko–”

“Five!” Miko shouted at the garbled bit of his voice coming over the comm. “I’m stuck mid-glitch. Can you shut the VR down from where you are?”

“Map…trasnfering…can’t…ou okay?”

“Five? Can you hear me?”

But as she shouted and struggled against the glitch holding her place, Miko couldn’t even make out the garbled words coming through on her end anymore. The hell gate began to wail, droning out everything else.

BRUUUM

At the same time the air in the room started moving towards it, being sucked towards it. At first just enough to rustle Miko’s loose hair, but within seconds the VR room had practically become a mini-hurricane that was not only flipping her hair and clothes in every direction simultaneously, but starting to pull her towards the red light as well. And the closer she got, the hotter the room became. Within being dragged mere inches closer sweat had already started to bead on her forehead, and the raging wind around her only causing the growing heat to close in around her.

“Five!” she shouted again, to no avail, just like her continued attempts to struggle free of the glitch energy still holding her still. But the continued wailing of the hell gate was her only reply.

BRUUUUUUUUUM

Then, with another massive inhalation from the gate, Miko was released from her mid-air prison. She didn’t fall though, the gate’s sucking force kept her horizontal as she was flung into its red light. In the split second she had before colliding with the light she couldn’t help but imagine a blue and purple bug flying directly into a bug zapper. Then the second was over, and everything went red.

---

For what seemed like forever and no time at all, the intense redness of the light she fell into was all there was. So bright it was all she could see even with her eyes closed and hands over them. And the heat, the heat was worse than anything she had ever experienced before. No trip to a sweltering beach or oversized canyon her family had dragged her to or under-ventilated arcade could compare to the sun she had fallen into. But, just as quickly as she’d found herself plummeting into the blinding red inferno, she was out of it.

Wind rushed by and around her, whipping her hair back behind her as all the gravity that hadn’t been able to pull her down in the VR room did doubly so now that she was…well she hadn’t actually uncovered her eyes to find that out yet. All she could tell as she cradled her still stinging eyes was that she was falling, and falling much farther than the few feet she’d been off the ground during the glitch. Which meant either the VR was working again…or the glitch had messed things up really, really badly.

But when a few more seconds passed and the pain her eyes faded, Miko pulled her hands away and screamed.

Falling through a crimson red sky, Miko’s arms flailed as she plummeted towards a city skyline that was quickly rising towards her like the teeth of a massive jaw. Fear gripped her in a way she’d never felt before, not in any game or mission as a Glitch Tech. After all the monsters she’d faced and situations she’d been punted into that had nearly gotten her killed or possessed or turned to stone in the past, none of them had just dropped her from seemingly miles up in the air before. And yet, despite how fast her heart was beating or how shallow her breathing had gone as she stared at the ground that was rising up to smash her, somewhere in the back of her mind was some sense of…familiarity. Like a voice from far off, it seemed to be recognizing what she was going through but in some way that she couldn’t quite make out. And then the feeling faded and her full attention returned to her impeding death.

She tumbled forward and around, spinning head over heels in her panic. Within seconds all her flailing had shaken loose junk in her pockets, causing a rain of plastic and metal to surround her as loose change, arcade tokens, her phone, and even Nika’s gawdy flash drive with the few gems Ally had knocked off joined in her fall.

“Ally!” Miko yelled in realization, though she could barely hear herself over the air rushing past her. With her mind freed from the grasp of the ever quickly approaching buildings and pavement below, Miko wrenched her outstretched, flailing arms together and slammed her right hand over the silver bracelet on her other wrist.

The force of her hand coming down released the bracelet back into its full gauntlet mode, from there any of her saved digital tools could be called out with barely a thought. Most importantly among those, given the whole falling to her death thing she was currently dealing with, was Ally. Because while Miko had to live with fall damage as part of her everyday life, no matter how everyday this situation wasn’t, Ally the overgrown chicky chum did not. So out she came to keep Miko from going splat.

Or out she should have come, but Miko’s plan didn’t even make it past its first one. Despite smacking it the way she always did, her gauntlet didn’t leave its smaller, bracelet form to cover her forearm. All it did was give a little spurt of blue light around its edges as if it was trying to power up but couldn’t find the juice. But that was bunk because it auto-charged while at the headquarters and she had been at headquarters the entire day leading up to her Doom session. But that didn’t change the fact that smacking it again, and then again and again and again, did nothing but elicit more of those blue shimmers and a tiny snikt of its circuits failing to rev up.

“Crumbs,” Miko nearly cried as the tallest of the city’s skyscrapers reached up on either side of her, the first of the many teeth she was about to be turned into mush at the base of. She would have thought of a harder curse word in the face of her impending death, but after sharing a room with her little sister for so many years she’d gotten in the habit of avoiding words that might get repeated and land her in trouble. So she was left with crumbs as she got closer and closer to the concrete below.

She dropped between two buildings, pillars of steel and glass that cast her in shadow despite the burning red sky still beaming down from overhead. Dozens, maybe hundreds but it would be dozens before long, of stories below was the concrete coating the alley floor between the two skyscrapers. A messy, dirty stretch of alleyway that she was about to make even messier.

Miko grasped her hands one in the other, her eyes clenching shut so she couldn’t see how little time she had left. She thought about her family and how much they didn’t know about her job and how cool she was on a daily basis. She thought about her friends and how she hadn’t had the chance to pwn them in the last couple of days. She thought about her backlog of games, all the adventures she hadn’t finished or 100-percented, including the one that had glitched and landed her in this mess! Mother of Metroid, DOOM had spelled her doom. Five would have had a field day with that word play, but Miko hated it. She thought it was stupid. It was stupid! She was one of the best glitch techs Hinobi had ever seen. A glitch couldn’t beat her. A glitch couldn’t kill her! It was her job to pwn them, and she wasn’t going to start losing now!

Miko’s eyes shot open as a surge of energy rushed through her. It wasn’t exactly hot, but if she had been forced to describe it in that moment she might have called it an angry fire igniting deep in her chest, but one that flowed through her like a warm breeze. It welled up within her chest, then ran down the length of her arms where she had shifted her right hand back over her gauntlet bracelet.

“Ally!” she shouted, “If you ever want another power orb then get your feathered butt out here before I go splat in this alley!”

She pressed the buttons on the side of the bracelet, properly for the first time in years, and willed her digital partner to come out with every fiber of her being. It glowed again but, instead of the blue light it had barely given off before, it let out a blast of brilliant orange right as the rush of energy reached her hands.

The light reflected off the skyscrapers around her in cascading beams of orange. Each beam shot out from her bracelet then splintered into a dozen more, surrounding her until she was encased in a web of orange light. A cocoon of orange light. A ball of orange light. No, an egg of orange light that, once complete, hatched with a force that sent wind rushing down into then out of the alleyway that was still getting closer with every millisecond, through the streets of the jagged, red-stained city beyond, and across the ragged ring of mountains Miko had barely glimpsed in the distance at the full height of her descent. Unlike the red light she had fallen into in the VR room, this light didn’t hurt to look at nor did it overwhelm her with heat. It just felt…right.

But it was short lived as, while Miko’s hair continued to trail behind her throughout her fall, the egg of light hatched and dissipated into triangular particles before then collecting below her. And the shape that formed from the shattered then collected light? A familiar one for sure, and one the only thing stored in her gauntlet that had anything to do with an egg.

“Ally!” Miko cried with joy as her chicky chum took shape…the way she should have halfway backup the skyscraper. “It’s about time!”

“Craw!?” Ally crawed, her massive eyes confused and head swiveling as she took in the scene she had spawned into.

“Spread those wings, Ally!” Miko yelled. “Spread ‘em now!”

To Miko’s dismay, Ally’s wings did not spread as the two of them plummeted together. Instead, the overgrown ostrich’s oversized and overly vacant eyes further widened as she caught sight of something. Something she had wanted for as long as her undersized bird-brain could remember. Something that was…shiny.

“CRAW!” Ally bellowed, then launched her neck forward so fast that her head rocketed forward like a bullet towards what she wanted. And that thing, that oh so important thing that was oh so much more important than keeping herself or her beloved master from going splat across the pavement in what was definitely the lower dozens of stories below by that point? The glinting orange jewel and other junk that had fallen out of Miko’s pockets as she’d tumbled downwards. But once the blur of Ally’s head had resituated itself at the top of her neck and general sense of contentment had fallen over the bird, all of that stuff was gone.

“Really!?” Miko yelled, now really wishing she could think of a heavier swear word than crumbs.

Ally blinked. Then, as if only at that moment realizing what was actually happening around her, the chicky chum shot her head out once more. This time it was Miko’s shirt Ally’s beak latched on to, pulling on and ripping the yellow fabric right across the cat design that sat on her chest. Miko didn’t have the chance to even think of complaining though. Despite the tearing of fabric that accompanied the action, once latched on Ally was more than easily able to pull Miko in, swing her around, then land her square on the feathered back she was so used to riding into digital battle on. Ally accomplished all that in a swift series of neck movements before finally doing as she had been told, spreading her wings.

Miko was barely able to latch her arms around Ally’s neck to keep from bouncing off as they suddenly came to stop midair. Miko didn’t let go of her pet as they continued to descend at a much slower, almost leisurely pace. Mostly because she was breathing in such ragged breaths, she felt like she was going to vomit, but also because Ally had waited until practically the last possible second to flap her wings and stop their fall. Mere feet were left between where they floated and the pavement that had been coming so fast until just a moment before. Though, one of those points might have had something to do with the other.

Ally extended one of her long legs down to the ground, then the other, stopping their lazy descent and causing the world to finally stop moving around them. Without loosening her grip around Ally’s neck, Miko slowly slid off the bird’s back. In doing so, Miko went from halfway laying on Ally’s back to kneeling in front of her with a face full of feathers. Miko had to fight the urge to yell and scream into her pet’s downy chest; for not coming out when Miko had needed her, for wanting to eat something shiny over saving them, for letting Miko fall for so long…so very long…

When the urge to yell and maybe cry a little was pushed back down her throat, Miko used Ally to steady herself as she stood up. She had to, her legs felt like jelly. If this was all still part of the glitch then it was the most realistic glitch she’d ever seen. The concrete underfoot lacked even the mild bounciness that came with Hinobi’s digital creations, plus it was even dirtier than she had glimpsed from above. Stains of nearly every shade of puke green, black, and red were splattered from one end to the other as they leaked out of dumpsters, from under piles of trash, and flowed from several of the crusted over windows that lined parts of the alleyway. And the smell they gave off, even with her face still half-buried in Ally’s face she could barely stand it. It was beyond anything she’d ever been subjected to, even that time she’d brought a little pile of trash to life and had to fight it from inside a toilet mech.

“This is too real to all be a glitch, isn’t it Ally?” Miko asked, her eyes running up the side of the skyscrapers towering overhead. They looked wrong the way the alley smelled wrong, but not in a video gamey way. It was like something almost but not quite human had designed them. And the way their windows gleamed in the red light overhead gave them an ominous feeling she couldn’t place. It was almost like what she’d felt crushing her way through Doom, but at the same time exactly the opposite.

Ally cooed, then went rigid in Miko’s arms.

“Ally?”

Ally’s eyes, eternally wide and at least a bit vacant, had gone blanker than Miko would have thought possible. Her pupils had turned to vast depths, black holes that took up almost the entirety of the whites of her eyes. And what was that Miko saw in the center of that black void? Was that an orange dot far within those depths? No, not a dot. It was a circle.

The glow expanded and consumed Ally’s eyes, eradicating the vacant blackness before moving on to the rest of her. Her crimson and yellow feathers, blue beak and talons, even her tongue lolling partially to one side, all of her was engulfed in the glow. Miko was screaming her pet’s name all the while, but the bird remained rigid and unresponsive no matter what she tried. Miko grabbed and shook Ally with all her strength, nothing. Tried to pull down her head to force her attention, it was like trying to bend a piece of concrete. Nothing was working, Ally.exe had ceased to function and Miko herself wasn’t far behind. To the point that she didn’t even feel the wind swirling around them, shifting puddles of ooze and sending trash spiraling through the alleyway until the orange glow that barely showed the bird at its center overtook Miko as well. Then the stained ground below them, then finally the brick and steel walls standing opposite one another.

The glow, which was not intense to look at even as Miko was within it and couldn’t see Ally despite clinging to her, didn’t last long. But for Miko it might have well lasted forever, because when it faded her last connection to the life she’d known until that moment was gone.

Her grip on Ally slipped right as the glow started to fade. Though that wasn’t quite the right word for it. It wasn’t like her hands fell off or away from Alley’s feathery hide or something like that. It was more like Ally shrunk or simply ceased to be. Miko’s arms slammed against one another, colliding without her bird’s thick neck between them. This prompted more shouting her pet’s name, but even more than before silence was the only reply she got.

She could see herself in the orange light by that point. And the source of the glow, what had been Ally mere seconds before despite feeling like it was forever ago, was now a single point of light floating in front of her. Miko’s heart dropped as she realized that it wasn’t even a bird-shaped point of light. Ally hadn’t shrunk the way she did before going back into the gauntlet, at best she had condensed into a spec of light. But what did that even mean? Of all the glitches Miko had ever dealt with, including all the ones Ally had been a part of, nothing like this had ever happened before. But she wouldn’t have the chance to think about it anymore right then. Not only because the glow was finishing the show it had started from within Ally, but because of what would happen right after.

The glow finished fading. And, just as Miko had feared, there was no Ally to be seen when it was gone. What was left though, what source of confusion almost shook her from her near panic, was a single orange stone. It was the gem from Nika’s thumb drive. It was still glowing ever so faintly as it floated where Ally’s head had been right before, but otherwise it still looked like just any other bedazzle rock like all the others that had covered the USB stick. And then it wasn’t.

Miko almost let the gem fall to the ground when it dropped without warning, but her honed VR gamer reflexes managed to kick in at the very last second. She nearly toppled over herself to do it, but she managed to close her fingers around it mid-drop. She didn’t know why it seemed so important to do so, but it was all she could even start to think to do. Maybe because it was her sister’s, and the last thing she needed was to get out of whatever this mess only for her sister to make her life miserable in the aftermath because of a stupid USB stick. Or, and this seemed more likely, because it must still be connected to Ally in some way.

It only made sense, Miko told herself. Ally had eaten the gem. The glow that Ally had disappeared into had started within her then faded to leave the gem behind. So, if she kept this safe maybe Ally would eventually come back out? That was the kind of thing that would happen in a video game, which was what she knew best. And they had never led her wrong before…so she would–

“You guys see that?” a deep, gruff voice shouted from one end of the alleyway, shaking Miko from her thoughts of how to get her pet back.

“Was it angel light?” another voice asked, this one higher pitched and sounding nervous.

“That’s not for months,” a third voice grumbled in answer, though it came out more as a growl.

Miko turned towards the direction of the voices, the gem biting into her hands as her grip tightened in response to what she saw. Three figures were lurking through and out of the shadows, though that word only really explained one of their movements. The one in the lead, a squat orange thing of a person with an purple mohawk was certainly lurking towards Miko, hands in his pockets as he looked over his shoulder every few seconds. The thing to his left, a white dog-sized creature with five eyes and two snake-like tongues that kept poking out, didn’t so much lurk as skitter upon the four pincers it had instead of legs. And the last of the trio, the tallest and lankiest of them, was a reddish-brown creature who slithered on the serpentine lower half of his body while his long arms dragged across the ground and his large turquoise eyes seemed to look in every direction at once.

Miko had never seen anything quite like them, at least in the moment nothing was daring to come to mind. Maybe at another time she could have recalled some mob or mid-boss type enemies from a dozen different games they might have reminded her of, but after the fall and what had just happened to Ally video games were the last thing on her mind. Which had to have been a first.

All she could think about as she blinked back the tears pooling in the corners of her eyes was that they shouldn’t be. People…things like what was coming her way weren’t real. Not with horns and scales and that many eyes. Not with pincers or snake tails instead of legs. Not with eyes that looked nowhere and everywhere all at once. Not…not…

“Oy! Lookie here,” the skittering white thing said between tongue flicks, its many red-ringed eyes narrowing as they locked in on her. This creature was the source of the high-pitched voice she’d heard right before, which meant the round one and the snake-guy had to be the gruffer and growlier sounding voice. “We got a lively looking one.”

Miko started to take a step back, not being able to help it as they picked up their pace after catching sight of her. Before she had the chance to get anywhere though, the plump one zipped towards. A blur of orange shot towards her as his mohawk of purple hair trailed in his wake. Miko blinked and he went from way down the alleyway to right in front of her, like right in front of her. He had to stand on his toes and thrust his head and what little of a neck he had upwards to do it he was so short, but all of a sudden his face was less than an inch away from hers, his white within purple pupils glaring at her while slitted nostrils flared.

“More than lively,” the orange one said, his gruff voice sounding hungry and excited in a way that sent spiders climbing up Miko’s spine. “She’s actually alive.”

“Well, well, well,” the snake man growled as he slithered up beside his round friend. In a single swift motion one of the snake’s hands pushed the mohawk guy out of the way while the other grabbed Miko by the chin, pulling her closer to him so he could get a look at her. His eyes blinked, sideways, as his toothy smile became a malicious grin. Every ounce of hunger she’d heard in the orange one’s voice she could see in this one’s smile. “You one of those witches, sweet thang?”

“I-I’m in tech support,” Miko squeaked back.

The snake-man’s eyes narrowed but his smile didn’t falter. Nor did the amount of teeth glinting between his lips. Then his eyes dropped and ran the length of her body, a new and sinister light shining in them as he took all of her in. Miko’s trembling intensified under his gaze. She had been ogled plenty of times on the job, but this was different. This thing’s hunger had the teeth to back it up.

But that wasn’t the only thing she felt. That feeling in the back of her head was still there, only now it had changed. Instead of the familiarity, or at least only the familiarity, that she had felt back there during her fall, a raging heat was building back there now. But no matter how much she knew she should be feeling angry, she should be doing something, she just couldn’t. Ally was gone, her gauntlet wasn’t working, and a trio of…of monsters were giving her looks that she especially didn’t want while trapped with them in a dingy back alley.

“An Overlord would pay a fortune for a living soul,” the white one chittered from where he’d climbed up on the round one’s shoulder. Its tongues flicked out and over its lips. “With hips like those, I’m thinkin’ Valentino.”

The snake one snickered, his eyes never leaving Miko. Though those eyes weren’t necessarily meeting hers. “Oh, I’m sure. But before any of that,” he drew closer to her, the hand not on her chin coming to rest on her hip, “why do we show you some our hospitality.”

“No!” Miko clenched her eyes shut and screamed, pushing away from the snake with all the strength that had left her until that moment. In what little coherent thought she’d had in that instant she’d intended to push him, turn, and run. But before she could even start the second step in that plan there was a flash of orange light, the same light that had engulfed Ally before disappearing. The same light that didn’t hurt to look at but was still strong enough to turn the darkness beneath her eyelids Halloween colored. A gust of wind rushed through the alleyway at the same time, which was what sent Miko flying backwards before she ever got as far as trying to turn and run.

What she wouldn’t think about until later though, was that she had been sent flying against the wind.

Miko hit the ground with a light bounce that made her eyes shoot back open in surprise. The snake guy and his cronies weren’t in front of her anymore, they weren’t even close by anymore. Instead, the trio had been tossed into a pile of trashcans way back down the alleyway. They were tripping over one another and slipping in the spilled garbage and its juices as they tried to get up, grunts and scowls and curses being growled all the while.

“I don’t know what the fuck you just did,” the snake guy snarled. His coils snapping around the other two to force them off him when they couldn’t do it on their own. With a flip of his lower half, he tossed them aside and against the wall to either side of him, then he rose until his shadow had grown large enough to consume Miko whole. “But you’re about to get–”

He was cut off as the wall behind him exploded. A shower of bricks, some flaming, and fragments of glass cascaded downwards, burying him and the other two until barely any part of them were left visible. The snake guy’s hand, tufts of the round one’s mohawk, and a few white pincers were all she could see sticking out through the crumbled bricks and beneath the smoke billowing out of the newly formed hole behind them.

Miko, still sitting on the ground with her mouth agape, didn’t know whether to feel relieved or not. Was this a lucky break? Or a sign of something worse about to happen? Those three weren’t anyone she was going to miss, not with their talk of hospitality and someone willing to pay for her, but they hadn’t made anything explode. She definitely didn’t want to blow up anymore than she wanted what the trio had been after, not that either was a good option.

Humming filled the air along with the smoke as Miko watched it continue to flood into the alleyway and disperse overhead. Footsteps, first on hard flooring then atop the debris in a pitter patter of shifting bricks, joined the tune. Their tumbling falls causing a cacophony of additional beats to join the growing chorus of sounds intent to give the scene a soundtrack. The absurdity of the shift in tone was enough to jostle Miko from the near stupor the fall and welcoming trio had tamped her down into. And, with her mind starting to work back towards her brand of normalcy, Miko couldn’t help but imagine the music as the kind of thing that would start up when a new character is introduced in a game.

She ended up not being too far off.

A figure appeared within the smoke, a silhouette with a mass of hair and curves that stood out even in the haze left in the explosion’s wake. A silhouette that Miko almost thought had to be that of a normal person based on the figure’s proportions; tall and lithe instead of round and squat, long legs instead of a snake tail, and, just like, the figure was person-shaped instead of a crawling little creature. Unsurprisingly, Miko was still a little off.

“So what if I misbehave~,” the figure sang, her words going right along with the tune she’d been humming up to that point. “It’s what everybody craves~”

Miko couldn’t help but watch as the figure, a woman with alabaster skin and a mess of blonde and pink hair done up like a fuse, descended the pile of bricks with ease. The bounce in her step, among other things, and the massive bag slung over her shoulder almost kept Miko from focusing on the one thing about her that really drove home for Miko that she wasn’t going to run into anyone normal in…wherever she was now.

“Oi!” the woman called from about halfway down the brick pile. The x-shaped pupil in her one, massive eye had fallen on a hand or tail or something sticking out of the bricks before turning to Miko. “Were these friends of yours!”

“N-no,” Miko managed to call back despite her voice cracking. Not that she could help it, not while feeling so transfixed by that big, ol’ red and yellow eye. “They said they were going to sell me.”

The cyclops woman sneered at the mostly buried limbs then leapt the rest of the way down the pile. She and her bag continued to bounce as she strode forward, her long legs carrying her to Miko’s side in just a few strides. Legs that were long enough that she seemed to tower overhead. “Let the munted drongos rot then. If they’re not gonna be fun bastards, they can be buried bastards.”

Her eye narrowed and she bent forward to get a closer look. That distant feeling in the back of Miko’s mind for some reason really took notice of the cyclops-lady’s chest dropping down in front of Miko’s face before their eyes met at the same level. That wasn’t usually something she’d focus in on unless she was looking for something to fluster Five with, but the back of her brain evidently wanted to hone in on something she could recognize. And boobs were recognizable, she did have her own afterall.

“You’re not dead, are ya?”

“I…don’t think so.” Miko didn’t think she felt dead, or at least she felt basically the same way she had before the glitch started doing what glitches did. Only now instead of being excited about slaying demons with guns and a chainsaw she felt flustered and afraid in a way she never really had before. Hopefully that wasn’t what it was like to feel dead. Without a UI to keep track of things like lives it was hard to know for sure one way or the other though. Which was just another reason on a long list she had of why video games were superior to real life.

“Explains the selling bit,” she said before straightening up and repositioning her large sack over her other shoulder. “Most sinners would drop a load of cash and do just about anything to get a taste of something alive again, except for follow the rules in that mountain range of yours. Which is probably why I’ve never heard of one of you coming down outside it before. Seems like kind of a bogan move on your part, don’t it?”

“Yes?”

The woman rolled her eye. “You know where you’re going?” Miko shook her head, and the woman sighed before asking, “Is that a hoodie?”

Miko had forgotten she was back in casual clothes. After the VR glitch had cast away her armor she had been too busy falling then being threatened to even consider what she looked like in the moment. At least the glitch hadn’t stripped her like the couple time certain anime games or visual novels had gone haywire on her wardrobe. And sure enough, with her civilian clothes intact, save a fresh tear in her shirt, her blue hoodie was right back where it usually was; tied around her hips covering the tops of her purple leggings.

“Yeah.”

“Good, put it on so you don’t stand out so much and follow me. I might know somebody who knows somebody who can help get you where you’re looking to go.”

It was just as Miko slipped her hoodie over her head that the siren went off. The shrieking sound droned out of the hole in the wall, erasing the near silence of the alleyway.

“Took ‘em long enough,” the cyclops lady sneered. She sounded just as amused as she did disappointed.

“What is that?” Miko yelled over the alarm sound. She didn’t think she really wanted to know, it wasn’t going to be good.

The cyclops turned just enough for Miko to be able to make out printing on the side of the bag she’d been hefting. It read ‘Pentagram City Bank’ in big capital letters, with ‘Internal use only’ written in smaller capitals below. The cyclops smiled when she saw the look on Miko’s face.

“I made a withdrawal and my own exit, somebody’s probably in a huff about one of those or the other.” Then, dropping what looked like a small red ball before grabbing Miko by the arm and rushing towards the far street at one end of the alleyway she asked, “What’s your name anyway?”

“M-Miko,” she replied, half-stumbling as she tried to keep up with the long-legged lady pulling her away from the scene of a crime. But at least it wasn’t a crime someone was trying to commit on her.

“Welcome to hell, Miko. I’m Cherri.” Another explosion went off behind them, shaking the ground and sending a fresh burst of wind and dust down the alleyway around them with such force that Miko was practically sent flying into her new friend. Though the latter didn’t seem to have any trouble keeping her balance against the force of the blast even with the sack of stolen money draped over one shoulder. “Cherri Bomb.”

---

The next few days went by in a blur, or maybe a montage. Cherri stashed Miko, the cash she’d stolen, and just a bunch of other stuff in her apartment for the time being. She said that it was so no one got any funny ideas about Miko the way the last group had, that the money could always be spent later, and that if she stored her toys anywhere else someone was likely to set some of them off. Miko didn’t touch many of Cherri’s toys after that.

But, while the sinner was apt to disappear at any and all times of day when the mood hit her or something came up that Miko didn’t need to be a part of, the two did spend a good amount of time together between the more demonic of the pair’s attempts to get in touch with her friend. A friend who evidently had an in with some bigwig or another wasn’t showing up to their fun spots as much anymore, but she’d get hold of him eventually.

In the meantime, Cherri gave Miko something of a punk makeover. Mostly that just meant slinging some of her old clothes at the gamer girl so she’d fit in a little better when she did have to go out. The bottoms Cherri gave Miko were snug enough, their hips were about the same size after all, though the tops were all a bit loose. Cherri covered the discrepancy between their busts with a new hoodie paid for from her heist funds. It and most of the other clothes were red and black, not Miko’s usual look but if it meant the next time she was outside the first people she met wouldn’t be as quick to try and grab her off the street she could get used to it.

“They’ll still try to grab those thighs,” Cherri joked as they looked at Miko’s new fit in the mirror. Miko had completed the look with an ear stud that Cherri had done the piercing for. The orange gem Ally had disappeared into hadn’t reacted since blowing those creeps away, but she wasn’t going to let herself lose it as long as there was a chance her chicky chum might come find her way back out of. “But I’ll find you a stick or something to beat the jerks away with.”

Miko tried to explain her work with video games to Cherri as they got to know each other, especially how far they’d come since Ping and its Atari rip-off Pong. But the Ausie bombshell couldn’t find any interest in the topic. She spent her time in hell the same way she spent her life. “Full of bombs, blow, and bitchin’ good times.” Miko thought video games could be a really bitchin’ good time, but the 80’s seemed to have completely warped Cherri’s mind beyond reasoning on the matter.

The closest Miko got to any gaming during her time waiting for Cherri to get her a ride out of town were the hours she spent trying to get her gauntlet working. She had managed to plug it in to an outlet in Cherri’s apartment, and it was charging, but it still wouldn’t work. None of its self-diagnostics would even run, let alone find anything wrong that might be keeping it from leaving bracelet mode. And what little it would do, it didn’t do the way it was supposed to. Instead of flashing a light to create one of the digital constructs she’d stored in it, a light blue circle would form around the bracelet, expand while fragmenting with little squares around its edges, then change into something like what she had been trying to get out of it. She found that if she concentrated harder while the circle was forming what came out would be closer to what she intended, though never as a solid thing. It was the first sign that there might be something to the magic and witchcraft Cherri assumed she had a hand in, but it totally went against the ease of use that a piece of tech like the gauntlet was supposed to have as standard. And that was before thinking about the fact that sudden breezes or even gusts of wind would blow through the apartment whenever she got frustrated with the illusions her gauntlet was making instead of constructs. She lost track of how many times she had to clean up after a gust of wind sent something sprawling across the floor. She may not have been anything close to a clean freak, but until she had a better idea of how to get home she wasn’t going to do anything to piss off the one person down here that was trying to help her.

And so on until, after a week or so, Miko woke late one night to a very drunk woman stumbling into the apartment.

Miko groaned as the door slammed open then back closed. She kept her eyes closed as Cherri stumbled through the apartment, each knocked over pile sounding closer than the last. Given this wasn’t Cherri’s first wild return in the middle of the night, and that the sinner had lived…or at least been dead this way for years, Miko kept telling herself that Cherri wasn’t going to set off one of the toys she’d warned Miko not to jostle too much. Since the place didn’t look blown up, and Cherri didn’t look blown up, Miko had to assume that even drunk her host had a method to not get herself blown up. Maybe the one time it had happened at the end of her actual life had been enough for her.

“Guess wha?” Cherri slurred as she fell into the apartment’s one bed that they’d been sharing. Miko was sent bouncing in place as the sinner’s weight caused the cheap mattress to nearly snap in half before flipping back into position. As she came down, a pair of tattoo-covered arms wrapped around and pulled her in, forcing Miko the rest of the way awake as she was brought face first into a pair of pillowy soft, booze-soaked breasts.

That back of the mind feeling returned, but this time it was less familiar. This time it was embarrassment and was that, yeah, guilt with a twinge of arousal? Cherri was hot, but this wasn’t enough to get Miko feeling anything without–

And that’s when she realized, or rather remembered, what was going on and what all this was. She had fallen back into everything that she had just started going with the flow as if it were the first time all over again. She just wished she’d realized it sooner and saved herself some emotional turmoil in the middle there. But whatever, the end was in sight and she wasn’t going to quit anything without hitting 100% completion. So she kept on keeping on as she was sure she’d heard someone say at some point.

“What?” Miko asked groggily.

“I saw Angie a’ th’ club.”

“That’s nice…” Miko said, the words coming out slowly as she started drifting back to sleep again. Cherri’s sudden entrance couldn’t completely overcome Miko’s long day of pushing herself to try and make either her gauntlet or ‘spells’ work the way she wanted. It was also probably around two in the morning, if not three. So Miko buried her face farther between the softest things near her head and let the far-off feeling of someone else’s embarrassment fade into the back of her mind.

“He’s gonna get ‘is ‘otel lady to send ya where ya need to go.”

“That’s amazing,” Miko said, the good news waking her at least a little. “When can we–”

Cherri’s snoring cut her off, the sinner having finally passed out from the ocean of alcohol she must have had that night. Miko couldn’t help but smile though, Cherri had come through after all. So she didn’t mind when, as the sinner settled into her drunken dreams, Miko found more of Cherri’s limbs wrapped around her and the murmurings of whatever was going through her head whispered into her ear.

“Gon’…blow up…snake, Nils.”

-----

“O.M.Gosh!” the red-suited, blonde lady squealed as Miko followed the pink spider guy into the limousine. Without warning, Miko found herself wrapped in her second hug of the day. And, while both this one and the goodbye hug Cherri had given her before getting in had been far nicer than the drunken squeeze she had gotten the night before, this one cracked her back and then some. “It’s been forever since I’ve seen a real living witch!”

“Charlie, hun, let the girl breathe,” a grey-skinned woman with an eyepatch said from the other side of the limo.

“Sorry, sorry,” the blonde, Charlie, said as she released her grip around Miko before leading her to one of the cushioned seats. Compared to the broken-down mattress she’d shared with Cherri for the last week the limo’s cushions were heavenly soft to the point she had to keep herself from melting into her seat, which seemed pretty ironic given where she still was. “I’m just so excited. The last time I saw a live witch I was still in my goth phase.”

“You know,” Angel, the pink spider guy Cherri had handed Miko off to before going to find some hair of the dog for her hangover, started from where he was lounging, “you’d think having a living person down here would be exciting, but it’s actually pretty mundane.”

“That’s because you barely care about anything,” eyepatch huffed.

“Hey, I care about my fans!” Angel snapped back indignantly. “Their love and admiration keep me warm at night whenever the heat in the hotel goes out.”

Eyepatch rolled her good eye, but before either of the pair could continue their little spat Charlie took back Miko’s attention by pulling out a bag from seemingly nowhere, then started talking faster and faster to the point the Miko didn’t have any chance to even try to interrupt the demon woman. “I’ve already sent Hexside a message, but I had a few things from my time in Goliath I thought I could start you out with. There’s some of my old textbooks, maybe a little out of date but Goliath never really changes so they’re probably still good. I made a list of the places I used to like to go, some of them might still be around after all. Oh! And my old uniform, you’ll need to get new sleeves and leggings for your track, but hopefully it’ll fit you otherwise.”

With each item Charlie listed it appeared in Miko’s lap, the blur that was the demon’s arm pulling them out and giving them to her to look at. Charlie got as far as dropping the grey on darker grey uniform in Miko’s hands before taking a breath, which was good because not only did Miko not know what Charlie was talking about, but giving the stick of a woman that Charlie was Miko didn’t think the uniform would cover much of anything if it did anything but ride up on her hips.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Miko was finally able to cut in as she rested her chin on top of the pile of…school supplies that had been laid in her lap. “I thought Cherri said you were going to get me out of here, not send me back to school.”

Charlie and eyepatch exchanged glances. “Out of the city and to Goliath to study,” Charlie said after the two had a mini conversation with their shifting eyes and eyebrows. “That’s the reason witches come down here after all, right.”

The blank look that covered Miko’s face said more about how little she understood than any words she could have ever tried to explain it with. To use a word Five had taught her, Miko was flabbergasted. Never in all the time she’d spent with Cherri had anything about school come up between them, yet as soon as Miko had been handed off from one demon to another that was where things were going. Not home to the land of the living, but to a school!? This really was hell.

“So when Angel said that Cherri said you were new to all this,” Charlie stated slowly, piecing things together as she went. “She meant you were new new. A new witch.”

“I guess…” Miko hesitated to say. She didn’t want to play into magic angle anymore than she had to, but it was something they seemed to accept down here while she didn’t know who well they’d take to ‘gamer girl who fell through a glitch’ in comparison. And while her gauntlet wasn’t working the way it was supposed to be, most of her would-be magic still seemed to come from it. Even the wind that blew when she lost it might be just another random change caused by it being cut off from the Hinobi servers. But while she couldn’t be certain one way or another when it came to that, she did know she had been hoping for an elevator ride upwards, not a limo ride across the unorthodox hellscape she’d landed in.

“Well, that will make things tougher,” Charlie said. Her tone had shifted to one more reassuring or maybe one of consolation. “Hexside won’t turn you away, but without a coven the native and modern witches won’t always be as…nice as they could be.”

“So don’t send me there,” Miko said, practically pleading. “I’ll just go back home to my job and my video games and my–”

“We can’t,” Charlie said before Miko could spiral any further. “Only witches or demons with special permission can go back and forth from hell. And since I work with sinners not even I’m allowed to do that…you’re best bet is to go to Hexside until you can learn to use the Witch Corridor or maybe find a modern witch who can help you through. But for now that’s the only way I know of in Pride that you can go back to Earth.”

Miko’s mouth crinkled and her eyes lowered, not that she was able to focus on anything in particular. Her tenuous grasp on the pile in her lap tightened. She needed something to hold on to, something to steady herself with even if that something was just a pile of musty old books and a uniform that’d be too small on her.

“Hey,” Charlie said when she saw the direction Miko was going. “It won’t be so bad. And you’ll get to learn magic. Like this.” Charlie spread her fingers and a tiny flame appeared above the palm of her hand. It danced along to the swaying of the limo, though seemed to give off little if any heat. “Once you find what you’re good at magic can do a lot for you that you wouldn’t believe. And I promise we’ll keep an eye out for other ways to send you home too, I’ll even make it part of Angel’s community service projects so we’re all involved.”

“Glad I can give that my shining seal of approval,” Angel said while poking the end of an unlit cigarette into the flame Charlie had conjured.

“You’ll do it if you want to keep living rent-free,” eyepatch snapped. She was shooting daggers as she glared at the pink spider.

“Sure, sure,” Angel said after a deep drag on his freshly lit cigarette, then released a trail of red smoke into the limo cabin. “Who wouldn’t want to help and all that.”

“So what do you say?” Charlie asked, her eyes wide and wholesome as she ignored the other two in the car. Despite being the one who felt miserable and lost, Miko had the sudden urge that not agreeing with Charlie would be like kicking a puppy. Miko didn’t want to kick a puppy, it wasn’t the kind of thing that would make her feel better even if it was part of a game, which left her with only one option.

“Alright…I guess.”

“Yay!” Charlie practically squealed with delight. Her face bloomed with a massive smile that, unlike so many of the other demons she’d seen down here, didn’t make Miko want to run away. It actually, almost, made Miko want to smile too. “I’m going to give you a crash course on everything you need to know about Goliath and Hexside on the way. So buckle up, because it’s going to be a long and fun ride.”

---

“So what do you think of my tragic backstory?” were the words that greeted Dipper as he emerged from the darkness following his trip into Miko’s mind. The dorm room came back into focus just as it had been when Miko had gotten him to ‘read’ her. The book he’d been reading was still sitting off to the side, early morning light was still filtering in through the windows, and Miko’s head was still resting in his lap as she looked up at him.

Dipper blinked away the memories, the days and hours Miko had first spent in hell. As he did the world seemed to solidify around him. Despite all the time that had passed in the memories, he realized that barely any could have passed in the present. It was still early morning, the light hadn’t shifted outside much if at all, and now that he was himself again he felt generally the same as he had before going into her mind: tired and embarrassed. More embarrassed as he looked down, only for his eyes to lock with Miko’s as she continued to rest her head in his lap. Where her head was combined with the images that voice had injected into his head sent a burst of heat up and through his face.

“Well?” Miko continued, either not noticing or more likely ignoring how red Dipper’s face must have been. “Give my speedrun to hell a rating. There wasn’t too much water so I’m expecting at least an eight out of ten.”

“A videogame glitched so bad it opened a gateway to hell…” Dipper replied slowly, as if tasting or feeling out the truth of it.

His succinct summarization was more statement than question, but either way it brought a little smirk to Miko’s lips. She lifted her legs then used them as a counterbalance to shift herself up before smoothly transitioning into a twist that ended with her sitting next to him. She clenched the edge of the bed and leaned in towards him, nearly close enough for their shoulders to touch, as she let him mull over what he’d seen while inside her memories.

“Probably seems silly,” she noted without losing a beat or an ounce of her usual upbeat personality. “I barely even qualify as a new witch getting here that way.”

“Not too silly,” Dipper said, a certain childhood memory coming to the forefront of her mind. An embarrassing one that he’d tried not to remember since that one summer over half a decade before. “I got beat up by a videogame character that came to life when I was a kid. If that can happen then–”

“What game!?” Miko demanded, her eyes bursting into sparkles. Litteral stars of excitement that bloomed out of her pupils and shown like spotlights. It was unnerving how cartoony she became at the drop of a hat, especially since her sudden excitement and giddiness came from him mentioning a time he’d been bruised and battered by a man who didn’t wear shirts and ate food off the ground. “What character!?”

“Rumble McSkirmish,” Dipper replied slowly, he couldn’t help in the face of her excitement. “From Fight Fighters.”

The stars in Miko’s eyes grew until they literally popped out, each one tumbling downwards to either side in a shower of sparkles before dissolving into the glitchy effects all her illusions eventually turned to. “Was it the arcade port?!”

Dipper nodded and Miko practically squee’d with delight. “Hinobi did that port. Usually it’s Dr. Karate who comes out swinging at players, but if Rumble thought you helped kill his father or something then I could see him bringing the pain.”

“He found out I lied about my crush’s dick of a boyfriend killing MY father,” Dipper admitted with a sigh.

“He does hate lying,” Miko agreed, nodding. “But hey, he didn’t kill you. So that’s good. And I’m sure some Glitch Tech picked him off before too long.”

“Probably something like that,” Dipper mumbled.

He wasn’t going to bring up what had happened to the town not long after that. He didn’t like to think about at all, let alone bring it up to people who weren’t there. It wasn’t like correcting her on what had happened, and thus what had probably happened to Rumble, would do anything but ruin her day. And Dipper didn’t want to ruin her day. Miko, despite having basically been alone and having to deal with a bunch of jerks who saw her as little more than a piece of meat, had kept a positive attitude and sparkling smile throughout it all. A smile that Dipper wanted to protect if he could, like one of those memes except instead of some homicidal anime character it was a girl who deserved more than a little happiness given the randomness that had landed her in this mess.

Miko’s grumbling stomach interrupted Dipper’s thoughts, though not his conclusion or Miko’s smile. Instead, with little to no warning, he found himself being pushed up off the bed and spurred on by Miko towards the bathroom. “Enough reminiscing! Rev those engines, Dipper. Get washed up so we can grab breakfast before class.”

Before he had a chance to even respond, Dipper found himself shoved into the bathroom and the door quickly shut behind him. The heat and moisture from Miko’s time in there had mostly dissipated, with only a bit of fog left on the mirror above the antiquated sink and a little water in the basin of the tub as evidence it had been used at all. As little present time had passed during his trip through Miko’s memories, Dipper had expected the place to still be soaked, but he supposed they had talked a bit before she had put her head in his lap to start that whole thing off.

Miko took that moment, which was still basically the same moment she had pushed him into the bathroom, to add to the myriad of embarrassing thoughts already on his mind. “Oh yeah,” she called through the door. “I could feel you getting hot and bothered when Cherri got up close and personal. You skipped the m-rated memories of her while you were in my head so you’re out of luck there, but if you want me to message her, I can see if she’d come by for a visit~”

Dipper sighed and tried not to think about the bombshell sinner as he got ready for the shower.

Chapter Text

Twilight descended the stairs into the depths of Zrohit Hall. Despite the ancient building lending the descent a more ominous tone, it wasn’t hard for her to compare the trip down to her regular clubroom visits back at Rev U. The first time she had followed Molly into the Medrano building’s basement Twilight had kept a hand on the mace in her satchel the whole time, but it hadn’t been long before she’d realized her brother’s off-to-college “gift” was unnecessary. That might not be the case anymore, given the change of local and…everything else, but the similarity overall kept her from missing the spray can too much.

Besides, unlike her initial visit to the Supernatural Studies Club to decide if she was going to go through with her study of their delusionary beliefs, this time she was heading for something that truly excited her. She had won every robotics competition she’d entered in high school, a transcript of which she’d whipped together the night before, so even the idea of having someone down here teaching the subject gave her the rush that the less…logical magic studies just couldn’t. Yes, Professor Wakeman was still incorporating magic and that bridging of the two was the reason Meisterlins Bonnibel and Zecora had allowed this meeting, but if she was a sinner there had to at least be some underlying logic to her methods since she’d once been human. That was only logical after all.

Just like the club room in the Medrano building, the room she was on her way to was practically at the end of the basement hallway. Unlike the basement of Medrano building though, the Zrohit Hall’s age and overall location lent a bit more of a dungeon feel to the lower level that Rev U. couldn’t compete with. Not that she had ever thought of any school as a dungeon or any other type of prison, but she had aced just as many history classes as she had sciences and she could see the connections being drawn in the minds of less enthusiastic students given the walls of stone, doors of metal-enforced wood, and sporadically placed wall-mounted braziers. The latter of which sent shadows dancing across the entirety of the hall in each direction. Even her own shadow stretched and warbled across the surfaces behind her, reaching beyond the doorway and back up the stairs she’d descended from.

Clop

Twilight paused as the tiniest sound echoed through the hallway. She turned back the way she’d come and could have sworn, if only for an instant, there was a more solid shape among the shadows beyond the exit back upstairs. But as she watched, her brow furrowed, she could only make out her own shadow warping in the firelight, nothing more.

“Is anyone there?” she calmly asked the emptiness, not expecting a reply. Nor did she get one, unless she decided to count the silence surrounding her, which just seemed silly. So she shrugged, telling herself it had been a pebble chipped and falling from one of the stone blocks the basement was built from, and resumed her trek to Professor Wakeman’s classroom. It was either that or maybe a student from the bard track was messing around nearby. Sunset had shown her how well a good student from that area of magic could throw complex groups of sound, so one outside or upstairs could most likely cause a little echo like that.

Either way, it didn’t matter. It was behind her and in the moment she was only looking forward to–

Clop

Twilight spun in place, certain that the sound was closer this time. Not that it had been right behind her, but certainly not from all the way back at the stairway door. Halfway between her and it maybe, but that was a lot of distance for the few seconds she’d had her back turned. A lot of distance to be covered and there still be nothing to see but shadows in the firelight. A lot of distance for some bard that wasn’t on Sunset’s level to just be messing around and still reach down here, especially when it didn’t seem like most of the bard class could hold a candle to Sunset. And even if that was just the proud girlfriend part of Twilight’s brain making assumptions, a part of her psyche she did plan on looking into given its rather sudden yet natural-feeling appearance within herself, the repetition of the sourceless, hoof-like sound getting closer behind her gave her enough reason to consider caution.

“Hello?” she called. Though again she got no response. But was that…no, it couldn’t be. There wasn’t a solitary unmoving shadow on the cobbled floor, and it definitely wasn’t right around where she would have estimated the sound to have come from. A single shadow unaffected by the flames even as her own moved back and forth around it.

Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Twilight turned and continued down the hall, picking up the pace as she went until she had settled into a nice, quick powerwalk. Clearly her eyes were playing tricks on her since there couldn’t be one lone shadow not moving among all the others. Unless…unless there was some other kind of magic afoot. Which, of course, there could be. It was a magic school after all. That didn’t mean there was, just that it was a possibility. And in an experiment you had to consider every possibility, the comparison for today being that it was entirely possible that someone was literally hiding “in” the shadows behind her.

Which was just one more reason she kind of, sort of, actually hated this magic nonsense. No matter how much she thought she could learn from studying it.

Clop. Clop. Clop.

There was the door she had been looking for, ajar and marked with an off-kilter sign that read “Wakeman.” It got closer with every hurried step, but the clopping was approaching her just as quickly. Quicker maybe. Each tiny echo was closer than the last, and at the rate they were closing in they would reach her before she reached the door. So she picked up the pace even more. Abandoning her attempt to just look like someone walking in a hurry, Twilight broke into a full-blown sprint.

At least as much of a sprint as she could manage. Gym class had never been her forte.

The door was closing in now. Twilight’s sudden burst of speed, no matter how pathetic it may have been, had put just enough distance between her and the sourceless-sound that she thought she was going to reach the door before the nothing chasing her would reach her. Then she could throw the door closed behind her and pretend this latest horror wasn’t happening. Not the most scientific of ways to address what was going on but until she had an actual plan on how to analyze the things going on around her denial seemed just as good a substitute as anything else.

Her arm shot out for the handle, ready to throw the door open and then shut it again just as quickly. But, before she had even the glimpse of a chance to open and shut the door to safety, it swung open on its own. Beeping and tiny flashes of light trilled down the corridor, but Twilight might as well have been blind and deaf to them given how little she noticed as she skid to a stop before what rose up just beyond the door’s threshold.

Another figure bathed in shadow stood between her and the safety she had thought was so close. A figure that she could no more make out than whatever was behind her, just that the thing looming before and over her was neither wavering nor hiding between the other shadows flickering in the firelight. And Twilight could only dread what that might mean for her.

 She wouldn’t have guessed it would demand of her, “Are you the one making that annoying noise?”

“W-what?” she managed to stammer.

The tall figure stepped forward and for a moment Twilight braced herself for what was to come. Then the guy in front of her was cast in the light of the wall torches and her tension dropped. It was a sinner, a tall sinner but not a particularly intimidating one. The cyclops looked down at her from under his oil-slick of hair with his gear-shaped pupil, a bandaid where his nose would have been, and a sneer amidst a series of discolorations that could have been pimples as easily as freckles or some other sort of blemish. If it weren’t for the eye he could have passed for nearly any lab partner she had ever had.

“That clopping,” he went on, his voice breaking a tad on the ‘ing’ bit. “It sounds like there’s a horse out here.”

Suddenly Twilight remembered why she’d been running in the first place. She spun in place, her eyes as wide as they could be so she could catch any glance of the shape in the shadows. But there was nothing. No un-flickering shadow and no sound. Just her and the sinner amid the flames and the shadows they cast.

“There was something behind me,” she said, assuring herself as much as she was explaining to him. “I couldn’t really see it, but whatever was making that sound was chasing me.”

The sinner rolled his eye, the gear-shaped pupil literally rolling along the top of his sclera as he did. He pulled what looked like a flashlight from the toolbelt holding up his oil-stained pants and scowled, “Damn witches,” before flicking it on.

The light the sinner’s tool emitted past Twilight and down the hall wasn’t the stark white or yellow she would have expected. Instead, it released a stream of bone-colored light, the same hue as the tool Dipper had taken off that native their first day at Hexside. The one that now sat partially disassembled in her and Sunset’s room from the brief break she’d taken from reading to study its workings. Though she usually didn’t get very far before Sunset had distracted her with…wiles.

“Is that an anti-magic device?” Twilight asked as he shined the beam around the hall. The shadows it ran over thinned and extended down the hall, while also becoming still as if the flames beyond the light’s outer edge no longer had any effect on them. Regardless, the light fell on nothing but the stone and wood the hallway had been constructed from. There was absolutely nothing else there. “Because I thought those weren’t allowed on campus.”

“They’re not,” the cyclops said, then huffed once he’d finished his sweep with the light. “Which is why this one only reveals and lessens magic instead of negating it. So if there had been anyone or thing there it would have shown. Next time just walk more quietly.”

“That’s not–” Twilight’s fists balled as she looked up into the sinner’s eye. “There was something there.”

“Whatever you say,” the sinner said dismissively. He motioned for her to follow with one of his large, red-wrapped hands. “You’re Twilight, right?”

“Yes?” she said, tentatively following him inside. He seemed alright…ish, and had helped her out even if he didn’t believe he had. Or at least she thought he had helped her out; she didn’t feel like she had any symptoms that would indicate a neurological disorder beginning to form. Still, he wasn’t the one she’d come to see and that kept her from being completely calm as he beckoned her into an enclosed space.

“I’m Sheldon, I work with the professor. She said you’d probably show before she got back. Find a place to sit or look around or whatever while you wait, she and Rotty could be a bit.”

Looking back over her shoulder, Twilight glanced down the dark and dreary hall one more time. With Sheldon’s device stored back on his belt the flames had sent the shadows dancing across the stone once again. And, despite knowing there wasn’t anything there, or at least she was now willing to believe there wasn’t anything there, an odd sense of dread still filled and clung to her chest as she gazed into the darkness in the far reaches of the hallway. It was as if something was there that she should know, but that she didn’t want to.

Casting that illogical feeling aside, Twilight turned from the hallway and followed Sheldon inside. Though she made sure to close the door tightly behind her as she went.

The lab that Twilight found herself in on the other side of the door was not quite what she’d imagined. The room itself wasn’t much different from the hallway that had preceded it, with every side made of stacked and cobbled stone, but the lighting and what lined the walls was completely different. There wasn’t a single brazier to be seen, instead there was a low, constant thrum of electric light coming off a series of hanging fixtures and old-looking computers that lined half the room. The other half of the room was covered in racks of tools, shelves of wires and canisters full of off-color goop, and worktables that were either shrouded in dirty tarps or had a smattering of tools cast across the steel surfaces.

But it wasn’t the setup or wall structure that made Twilight do a double take as she stepped inside. It was the look of the equipment, the computers, just about everything that wasn’t out of a page from Dungeon Chic looked like it had come right out of the 60s. No, not the 60s. A sci-fi movie from the 60s. Massive, bulbous monitors were surrounded by blinking lights or strips of electronic tape being fed from one spool to another, none of which looked like it would serve any purpose at all. And yet, despite the sheer absurdity of the electronics taking up half the room, everything on the screens looked crisp and up to date. Schematics and readouts of formulas or different tensile strengths covered the monitors in displays of such crispness that they put many of the higher end labs at Rev U. to shame. The cognitive dissonance that came from looking at such a difference in form and function was akin to the aggravation she felt when she saw a device that someone had made to appear “steampunk.” The very notion sent spiders up and down her spine.

Sheldon peered over his shoulder at her as Twilight moved around the room, more so as she made her way towards the worktables. So much more that his massive eye was spending more time on her than it was on whatever work he had been pretending to do since she’d followed him into the lab. It got to a point though.

“Am I not supposed to be over here?” she asked when she approached a covered table and his eye narrowed.

He shrugged towards the lump under the sheet. Now that she was next to it she noted that whatever was covered was a vaguely body-shaped lump, though it didn’t seem like there was enough between the table and sheet to be an actual body. “I’m just not sure if you’d understand what’s under there.”

There was something Twilight had heard before, and in that same condescending tone as always too. Just because she was a girl she of course couldn’t know as much about the big, hard machinery as the boys in the room. The amount of times some boy had mansplained a piece of machinery or programming to her, even the ones she had put together herself, was almost incalculable. The fact that she hadn’t come across anyone approaching magic the way she intended to had given her some hope that she wouldn’t have to deal with inherent sexism down here in Hexside, but it was hell after all. Even if she wasn’t dead there had to be some suffering.

Twilight adjusted her glasses. “Well,” she began, “given the description of Professor Wakeman’s class and the nearby tools, I would assume some form of robotic creation being prepped for integration with magical elements.”

Sheldon smirked. “Well, if you know all that, why don’t you have a look under that sheet and tell me what all’s there.”

Twilight took in the sinner’s smirk, his general look of smugness, and then the covered table once more. If this is what she had to do to get past this then she would. Hopefully whatever was under there would be understandable enough for her to get through without too much issue. Or at least not so easily decipherable that she wouldn’t shatter his preconceived notions too terribly much. Boys in labs always looked so dejected when she did that. It was always so close to being funny if it didn’t make them look so sad and pathetic.

Gripping the sheet at the head of the table, Twilight pulled it back until she had uncovered the top half of what lay underneath. The technical definition of what lay on the cold metal surface didn’t surprise her, it was the very reason she thought working with Professor Wakeman might help her understand more about how to use her magic, but the form it took was not at all what she had expected.

“An endoskeleton,” Twilight murmured as she looked at the robotic skeleton laying before them. The polished, near-mirror-like silver shining metal looked like the beginnings of a prop or animatronic from some lame-pizzeria at first glance, but Twilight never stopped at just one glance when it came to robotics. Especially when there was some know-it-all testing her nerves right after a bunch of flickering shadows had nearly sent her into a panic. And even if that was an incredibly specific scenario, it still put her in a bad mood that would only be improved by showing her stuff.

“Well of cour–”

“An endoskeleton with revolute topology at each joint,” Twilight continued, without heed for how she cut him off. “Which would allow the model’s obvious humanoid structure to imitate human movements while allowing for the possibility of exceeding the standard limits of a living being’s range of motion. There also appear to be both additional compartments built into the skeleton and plug-in ports constructed along it so additional tools can be added without noticeably altering the base design.”

“Not ba–”

“I would assume the breast shaping,” Twilight added as she peered under the teal scrap of cloth covering what could be considered the robot’s chest, “is more for added storage than any anatomical necessity or titillation. Given the cavity below them and what appear to be seebeck generator materials lining it I would guess some sort of heat-producing material. Back in the world of the living that would be a form of radioactive material, but down here I’m imaging something tied into the fire element. Then, when everything is put together, it can be covered with the same synthetic skin that’s already been put in place on the face. How am I doing so far?”

Twilight hadn’t spent much time looking at the robot’s face, but even still she could tell that the material covering it was very life-like save for the stark white coloring, marred only by a few grey spots below and around the thankfully closed eyes that might have supposed to have been freckles. She didn’t particularly care for the idea of trying to make robots look more alive or natural, she found it was usually a designer’s barely disguised fetish more than a working necessity. Which in this case made her hope that the face skin and beginnings of a feminine form were more this…probable lab assistant’s doing than the professor’s. If she had pulled the sheet down further and found additional anatomical bits between the robot’s legs she might have to take her chances with the natives and their feelings when it came to magic.

“Impressive enough start,” Sheldon huffed once it became obvious Twilight was actually going to let him talk to this time. “But you missed these,” he said, pointing to a series of interconnected tubes and bags lining the right arm from shoulder to wrist. “Why don’t you give them a breakdown too?”

Twilight hadn’t so much missed them as she had skipped them so she could rattle off the points that had been immediately obvious to her. But now, with the challenge extended, she bent in closer to get a better look at them. The plastic material was thick enough to keep a series of oblong shapes up and down the arm, though not so thick that it wouldn’t stretch and contort depending on what was used to fill them and what pressures it was put under. So they were flexible and had some purpose being wrapped around the arm…

Twilight moved around to the head of the table so she was looking down the length of it, literally from head to toe as the robot was positioned. Her new vantage point gave her a better look at the seemingly fiber optic cables being used for hair, another point she had “missed” on purpose because she couldn’t for the life of her see a point to have a weave of colorless strings for hair other than some type of aesthetic she simply wasn’t privy to. But that wasn’t what she had moved to look at. She had wanted a better look at the length of the arm the tubes were wrapped around instead of from the side. And now that she had it she was more sure, no, almost certain, of what she was looking at. Just to close in on that certainty though, she held her own arm out and over the incomplete machine. Clenching her first, she watched the movement that ran up her arm with the simple movement and was able to drop the “almost” from her surety.

She looked at Sheldon right in the eye and said, “These tubes and pouches, they’re meant to mimic muscles. If you filled them with the right substance, say a form of abomination fluid made to be less viscous but still malleable, they could constrict and flex based on the movements of the limb they’re primarily attached to.”

Sheldon’s mouth hung partially open, which was all the confirmation Twilight needed about just how very right she was. It wasn’t the only confirmation she got though.

“Very good!” came an enthusiastic voice from the doorway.

Twilight looked up to find a short woman standing in the doorway. She almost looked normal, or at least as close as most people Twilight had been running into for the past couple days could look, if not for the missile-like shape to her head, a red glow that consumed the entirety of her eyes, and a smile of sharp teeth that were a slightly more neon shade of yellow than the coat that was simultaneously too tight and too big for her. Was this–

“When the zebra and jellyfish told me they had a new student that wanted to meet me, I thought I was about to have to waste an afternoon,” the woman Twilight could only presume was Professor Wakeman said as she approached, looking Twilight up and down as she spoke in the most peculiar accent Twilight had ever heard. There seemed to be aspects of both a native Russian and an Englishwoman in the dialect, yet she was also rolling some of her R’s. It wasn’t the voice Twilight would have imagined if she’d even thought to do so, and yet here it was. “But you’ve already taken to XJ-9 as if you were made for this kind of work. Are you sure you’re a witch and not actually an engineer?”

Closer now, Twilight could see that the missile-shaping to Professor Wakeman’s head was at least partially from some kind of mask she wore. That might have accounted for the red of her eyes as well since a pair of goggles were built into the mask as it stretched from above her nose all the back around to the nape of her neck. Intuition, something Twilight generally disregarded but occasionally allowed herself to rely on when figures of authority or demons or both-in-one were involved, told her that she wouldn’t like what was under the mask if the supposed professor removed it. If the little woman even could.

“I might be a bit of both,” Twilight nervously replied when she realized she had been thinking for too long. “But it’s, um, good to meet you. Professor Wakeman, I presume.”

“You presume correctly, my dear,” the professor responded in her odd accent, punctuating it with a little bow at the end. “And you must be Twilight. It’s a pleasure to meet someone so learned at such a young age. I’m sorry you had to prove it by showing up Mr. Lee when he was no doubt feeling cocky. Isn’t that right, Sheldon?”

Sheldon’s pale face blanched then reddened as he looked anywhere but at the professor. “I…was just making sure she wasn’t some noob who’d only be wasting our time.”

“Of course you were,” the professor said with a sigh. “Well now that we can see she’s no noob, as you so eloquently put it, why don’t you go help Rotty put away the materials from our shopping excursion. I’m quite sure no one will be able to one up you in that task.”

Sheldon grimaced, but didn’t say anything other than, “Yes, professor,” before moping his way back over to the door where a third sinner was waiting with a pile of bags and boxes. This final sinner had one very noticeable trait that stood out even from across the room. Not her pale white skin or blacker-than-black hair. Not the school uniform she wore or the fact that it wasn’t a hexside or even  mortal school attire, instead the fetishy kind she had seen a few of in Sunset’s costume collection. It wasn’t even the thick glasses sitting far too low on the girl’s nose in a way that only exacerbated the absent-minded, happy-go-lucky expression on her face. It wasn’t any of that because there was a massive chunk of her head, from just below her hairline to just above her mouth, on the right side of her face that was just gone. In its place a wafting trail of smoke or some other vapor was billowing out like dry ice in an open cooler.

“So, are they both your…lab assistants?” Twilight asked as Sheldon started helping Rotty with the supplies…or at least started pointing very vehemently about where to put them.

“Sheldon is,” the professor said as she too watched the pair go about the task she’d assigned them. “Rotty’s just a blissfully unaware girl who’s as empty-minded as you’d expect someone with a hole in their head to be. She helps with the more mundane tasks and also helps average out my expectations when talking to other people. But enough about them, let’s talk about you and being part of my class.”

“Yes,” Twilight said, perking up as her attention shifted away from the other two sinners. “I was hoping approaching my other studies through the lens of more technical understanding might…elucidate my understanding on the matter.”

“A girl after my own heart I see,” Wakeman mused, turning them both so they were once again looking at the in-progress endoskeleton on the table. “And you’re in luck considering my whole operation here is basically a grant from Belos so Goliath can keep up with the tech the sinners and hellborn use, just in a way that still lets the witches still claim some kind of magic high ground, whatever that’s worth. No offense meant, dear.”

“Oh, none taken,” Twilight beamed. She liked this lady. Finally, someone at this school who didn’t see their nonsense system of magic as some kind of catchall answer for anything that might happen. Even Sunset, who followed along easily whenever Twilight started conjecturing or hypothesizing, defaulted to explaining magic through metaphors and other comparisons that usually boiled down to just “feeling it out.” Whatever that really meant. “Will I be working on the chemistry of the muscular system with you? Or is there something else you’d like me to focus on?”

“Aw, chemistry. Everyone here always says potions,” Wakeman said with genuine joy despite practically spitting the last word. “So nice to hear proper terminology out of someone for once.”

“Hey!” Sheldon called from where he was still trying to get Rotty to put away their supplies without actually helping more than he really had to. “I say chemistry too.”

“That’s very good, Mr. Lee,” Wakeman said with a dismissive little wave in his direction. “Make sure those fuses don’t get put on the top shelf again.”

“Yes, professor,” Sheldon grumbled.

“Don’t mind him, dear,” Wakeman continued in slightly hushed tones. “He’s defensive about his position in general, and you breaking down the tube system after the weeks it took us to rig up the prototype has made him grumpy. But to answer your question, yes you will be working on the muscle fluid. That should meet the cross-class requirements for your core Abominations studies well enough.”

The professor’s eyes slid back towards Sheldon and Rotty before adding in nearly a whisper, “But there is one other thing I’d like you to help me with if you’re able.”

“What would that be, Professor?” Twilight asked, matching the whisper despite not knowing why.

“It’s something a girl of your age might be better equipped for compared to mine, and assuming you lack anything comparable to Mr. Lee’s proclivities your insight might be just the thing to finally crack the last hurdle I expect to face in XJ-9’s development.”

“What is it?” Twilight asked, now leaning in closer as if she was being let in on some kind of massive secret. Perhaps the teenage girl in her did subconsciously yearn for a little bit of the drama and gossip that was so few and far between in her field of study. As long as it was related to and didn’t get in the way of her work and understanding she couldn’t see the harm in letting that normally dormant side of herself have a little fun. In moderation at least.

“I’ll send you a write-up later,” Wakeman replied, having gone completely serious. “If it ends up being too far outside your specialty know that it won’t affect your grades concerning the fluid, just don’t discuss it with Sheldon, Rotty, or even me until you’ve come up with an idea or decided not to pursue the extra project. I don’t want any of us influencing you about it. Is that understood?”

Twilight shook her head. “Yes, professor.”

“Good girl,” Wakeman said, back at a normal volume again. “Now, let me show you around properly. I doubt Sheldon even offered since you’re not made of metal. And even if he had he wouldn’t have explained things satisfactorily.”

---

What followed was a tour of the lab that was beyond “in-depth” and well past anything Twilight would have considered “satisfactory” for a first meeting. Practically every drawer and cabinet, tool and device was gone over not only in reference to where they were and what they did but in what ways Twilight might end up using them in her part of the project. The computers followed next, and while the professor didn’t go over every file in the same way she had the tools, she still made sure that Twilight understood the basic organization structure the system used. She capped off that part of the introduction by bringing up current schematics of the XJ-9 unit so Twilight would know where they were in case she needed to reference them or make copies for herself. She even gave Twilight a brief look at the schematics for the XJ-1 through 8 models that had proceeded the current project, though that really just made Twilight wonder why the professor had decided to build each one in a mimicry of different stages of a child’s life up until the more teenaged-appearing one they had now.

Professor Wakeman did look at the transcript Twilight had brought, though more so because it was there instead of because she felt the need to. She had already invited Twilight to partake in her “class” after all, something she hadn’t approved any other witch to do since beginning her tenure at Hexside. Still, the professor said the results Twilight had achieved with such basic means were impressive, but hoped she would be ready to push herself beyond anything she’d done before.

Twilight had said she was, that this was the kind of thing she lived for.

So on the whole it was a very productive afternoon meeting. She had been accepted into a class she actually understood. She had impressed the teacher before starting any work. She had proved herself to the other person she’d be working with and managed not to show too much pleasure about it while he had been looking. And she was really, truly excited about what was going to come out of working on this project, what it could mean for her when it came to not only her other magic studies but real-world applications too. The kind of applications that didn’t require her to draw a glowing circle with her finger in order to get something done.

The downside to any meeting though, regardless of how good it may have gone, is that it had to end. Something Twilight didn’t realize she hadn’t been looking forward to until, after the professor mentioned how she would speak with the Meisterlins about coming up with a new schedule for her, Twilight looked at the door Sheldon had told Rotty to hold open. At once her stomach dropped.

One look into that hallway and all its flickering shadows in the firelight was all it took to drag back up the feeling Twilight had so expertly compartmentalized earlier. Even if logically she knew there was no reason for her to feel…whatever this was, she couldn’t help it. She had been so sure someone was chasing her earlier, to walk back into that shifting darkness didn’t sit well with her. Which was just another example of why being told to “feel it out” about her magic or anything else that wasn’t Sunset drove her so nuts.

“Sheldon,” Twilight started, knowing that her attempt to hide her timidity was likely failing, “would you mind sweeping the hallway with your light before I go?”

The sinner’s eye rolled from her to the hall then back, at which point he let out an amused huff. But instead of calling her out for the child-like fear she was exhibiting, he pulled out the miniature flashlight and tossed it to her. “Consider that a welcome gift. Can’t have you…nervous every time you come down here after all.”

Twilight caught the flashlight, barely, and held it to her chest at the surprise turn in his attitude. Maybe showing a little weakness had worked for once. Or maybe he was going to stew on how to use this against her the next time she showed him up, whether intentionally or not. Or maybe her having to be thankful to him every time she came down her was the mind game he was actually going for. She would just have to hope for the former reasoning even if the data didn’t support it.

“That’s so nice of you, Mr. Lee,” Professor Wakemen said, oblivious to what Twilight had thought she was dealing with earlier or what Sheldon had seen of it. “I’m so glad my assistants are already getting along.”

“Y-yes, thank you,” Twilight said quickly. “I’m sure it will come in handy.”

“Awww, but I don’t have anything for you,” Rotty said, one of the first things she’d spoken that wasn’t just ‘Hi’ or ‘thanks for asking’ when Twilight had tried to make a bit of small talk with the sinner girl earlier.

“That’s okay,” Twilight replied. “Just you wanting to is enough.”

That seemed to placate Rotty enough that their goodbyes for the day could be finished and Twilight could be on her way. Only this time down the hall she’d been holding her new magic-revealing flashlight. Maybe she’d even test out how helpfully luminous it actually would be on the way to the stairs. In fact, that’s exactly what she was going to do.

She clicked the button on the side and a fresh beam of bone-colored light stilled the dancing shadows before her. And while the light it gave off wasn’t ideal, as a bonus for keeping some magic shenanigans from being dropped on her without warning it was pretty good. So good in fact that her return trip towards the stairs at the opposite end of the hall went even faster than her frantic run earlier had felt. There wasn’t as much space between one end and the other as she had imagined. Which means who could say how much else of her arrival she had imagined. Some of it? All of it? Surely she hadn’t really heard or seen anything trailing behind her before. Afterall, the light hadn’t revealed anything and wasn’t revealing anything nor had she heard a single–

Clop

Twilight spun in place, sweeping the flashlight back the way she’d just come. But there was nothing there. Absolutely nothing. Just an empty hallway with an already closed door at the other end. There was no way anything could be hiding anyway between her and there. Which meant there couldn’t be anything between her and there. Which was what she kept telling herself as she backed up the stairs, taking each step one at a time while sweeping the light back and forth so not a single stone remained in darkness too long.

Chapter Text

The wind rushed against Anne’s face and through her hair as she descended through the air. But even as her stomach dropped and the ground rushed up at her, she couldn’t help but grin as she gripped the reins. Their ratworm came crashing down on the other side of the drawbridge with a thunderous crash that bounced Anne and Sprig nearly off its back as the world shook around them. Then they were off again, their wriggling steed speeding after Luz and King’s before they were even back in the saddle.

But while the foursome slithered away, the distinct sound of skidding hooves echoed across the river behind them. Anne shot a quick shot back over her shoulder and Sprig’s head, just in time to see one of the guards stuck on the other side of the raised drawbridge jump off his flaming horse in frustration and kick a rock into the water before yelling something to the rest of the riders coming to a halt around him.

Anne’s exhilarated grin became a smirk as the guards fell into the distance. Breaking the rules and running up against the law had never been her thing, even when certain people had convinced her to do it, but this time it was actually fun. This time she didn’t feel guilty about the satchel of contraband Luz had tossed her before they’d jumped on the ratworms and the chase began. Because for once she didn’t feel bad about what she was being made to do. Not that she had even been made to do it, Luz had asked and Anne had agreed to help. Not just because it would help Meisterlin Eda’s business, and that foxy old lady did seem fun, but because there wasn’t anyone to get hurt. She wasn’t being made to steal a box from an old woman’s store or skip out on her family when they were waiting for her. No, instead she was helping an old lady and the people she sold to and the only one to get upset was some wannabe monarch on the other side of the city.

Well, him and the guards that worked for him.

“You ready!?” Luz shouted from her ratworm.

“Well?” Anne said to Sprig, whose arms had only gotten tighter around her waist the longer they’d been on the worm. “We ready?”

“Oh frog,” and a gulp was all he got out before Anne shouted back to Luz, “Ready!”

Their ratworms sped towards another bridge, not another drawbridge but a stone one set to allow the road they were on to pass over another set at a lower grade. Anne had seen plenty of the crisscrossing roads throughout Bonesburg while following Luz that day, but this would be the first she experienced the height difference between them so swiftly.

And swiftly it would be. Luz rose up in her saddle, her feet planted on the wriggling thing’s back while holding King and her own satchel of goods to her side. The worm slithered over the bridge at its ever-quick speed and, without anymore warning, Luz jumped. She and King sailed over the edge before dropping like stones, their worm more than happy to keep going without them.

Anne felt her not-frog of a brother stiffen at the sight, but he didn’t say anything as she mimicked the way Luz had stood in the saddle. All the while the ratworm streamed forward. Maybe it knew it was about to be free, maybe it just wanted to catch up with the other one, but either way the bridge was coming up. Luz had explained to her when to jump, and that if she waited too long she’d be flung into a wall on the way down, but having it explained and having to do it were two very different things when it came to jumping from a moving vehicle. An animal was a vehicle if you were riding it, right?”

“Anne!” Sprig shouted as they started over the bridge.

Anne jumped. There was a moment of weightlessness as she and Sprig left the ratworm and it sped away, as they passed through the air and the buildings to either side passed by in a blur, as she seemed to be moving in slow motion. Then gravity kicked back in and they were falling. Falling fast. The buildings were still a blur rushing past them, only vertically now. Luz had assured her it would be okay, that there would be something to break her fall, but Anne instinctively created a strengthening spell circle anyway. She always felt tougher when she got stronger, and if there wasn’t something to break their fall then being sturdier wouldn’t hur–

Anne and Sprig hit something, or rather sunk into it, before being tossed back upwards into the air. That sense of weightlessness struck again, but this time there was a lurching shift as she was sent up in a high arc that just as fast had her falling again. Their second descent in as many seconds wasn’t nearly as fast or far, but did come to as sudden a stop.

Hay was sent flying as Anne and Sprig collapsed into a pile in front of the awning they had just bounced off of. The pair stared up in the red sky, the bridge they had jumped from looming overhead as another contingent of riders on their spindly horses rushed past in their pursuit of the ratworms dust trails. In their wake a silence fell over the cityscape around them, not totally quiet but the pleasant lull of city sounds not too far off or too close. Following their sudden descent from one level of the city to another, it was the perfect amount of noise to fill the moment.

“Heck of a trip, wasn’t it?” Luz asked, both she and King emerging from the other side of the hay pile.

“It was…exhilarating,” Anne replied, suddenly aware she was breathing really hard.

Luz chuckled. “I nearly bit my tongue off the first time I followed Eda down here. But hey, if something had gone wrong we wouldn’t have had to go far.”

Despite the dark joke, Luz was just as chipper and cheerful as she always was as she brushed the hay off her clothes then offered Anne a hand to help her up. Anne took it, then mirrored the action to get Sprig back on his feet. Though the little not-frog was still wobbly as she got him up.

Once she was sure he wasn’t going to collapse back to the ground, Anne took a moment to look around and the very different part of the city they had landed in. Despite the short descent, and the fact that she could still see the bridge and upper road they had jumped from, it was as if they had landed in a totally different world, or at least city. Unlike the…topside they had just leapt from, which was pretty open even in the parts Luz had led her through with more crowded buildings, this lower level was only a bit bigger than an alleyway.

She supposed what she found herself looking down was another road, but a very crowded one. On either side were stalls crammed against one another save for the occasional even smaller alleyways were stalls, some made of simple or ragged tarp and strips of wood while others were built of out fancier looking poles holding up even fancier patterned fabrics in a wide range of colors. Each one, regardless of material it was made from, carried trinkets, bobbles, and other nicknacks Anne couldn’t begin to imagine proper names for. But, despite the differences between each booth, they all shared one thing in common, they were packed. Demons, native and hellborn of every type Anne had seen so far and even a few she hadn’t, were crammed at and between pretty much every booth. Some haggled loudly while others tried to hide their deals from sight. Either way, coins and bills were trading hands every few feet in a mad exchange that made her head spin just watching.

“Alright, ground rules,” Luz said, hefting the bag Anne had been carrying since their pickup onto her own shoulder, creating an x-pattern across her chest as the new strap crossed with the one she’d already been carrying. It added to the tomboy look her casual clothes created for her, but somehow in a way that didn’t detract from her cuteness. Needless to say, Luz was pulling her fashion choices off much better than Anne did with the punk-light look she had somehow slipped back into when choosing clothes from the ones Luz and some of the other girls had let her and their “coven” rifle through. “Don’t try to draw attention to yourself. It’s obvious we’re witches, but out of the school uniform more will assume you’re a trained witch than not. King and I will take care of the drop off three alleys up on the left, so if you get bored or worried or run out of money just wait near there and we’ll find you pretty quick. And speaking of money, Sprig, do you still have the bag I gave you.”

“Y-yep,” the dizzy amphimpian stammered before opening his mouth and letting his tongue slide out, the money bag sitting upon it and now sporting a fresh layer of goo from the last time Anne had seen it.

“Dude,” Anne grumbled while tentatively picking the bag off his tongue, “what have I told you about storing things in your throat sack?”

“That it’s convenient?”

“No, that’s what you always say when I tell you not to.”

Luz and King shared a laugh. “You two look around, we’ll see you once we’re done.”

Anne watched Luz and King slip their way into and through the crowd, the new witch and hellhound moving amongst the other demons with ease before becoming just another part of the crowd itself. When she had lost sight of them, which meant they must not have been able to see her either, Anne pulled out her phone and dragged Sprig towards the least crowded stall nearby. Least crowded didn’t mean empty though, so she still had to wait for the lizard running the booth of thingamajigs to get to her, but that did give her time to pull up the picture she needed. She’d need to hit as many demons up as she could before she ran out of battery, which after four days without charging was barely hanging on in the single digits. Eight percent to be precise.

She hadn’t figured out how to ask around campus without the others finding out what she was doing, or at least without Dipper finding out. After the…mistakes she’d made and things she’d said to him all those times she was legitimately scared how he might react to why she’d been part of the club to begin with and why she had worked so hard to help in whatever way she could even when she hadn’t understood most of what they were doing. Not that she thought violence was in his nature, that was far from the case, but she had pushed him so far and if he saw her efforts as using the whole club more than just using him…well, then that might finally be a push too far for him not to react badly.

“Have you seen this girl?” she asked the lizard demon once she’d taken a spot in front of him. “She’d be older now, the picture’s from a few years ago.”

The lizard flicked out his tongue and narrowed his eyes, probably seeing her question as evidence of anything but a sale. “I’m not an informant, witch. I don’t keep track of the comings and goings of you lot.”

“Yeah, but don’t people in your line of work see a lot anyway?” Anne asked, thinking back to some of the things she’d sat through in her past while trying not to sound too desperate despite being exactly that. “Please, even if you don’t know where she is, just knowing she’d been near here would really help me out.”

The lizard salesman rubbed his chin, then smiled. “I may not be an informant, but I am running a business. Perhaps buying some of my wares would help me remember if I’ve seen your little friend.”

Anne repressed a frustrated groan. While she hadn’t believed even in her most hopeful thoughts about this day that she’d get what she was looking for right away, it was still annoying that what she’d been struggling towards for the past couple years might now come down to how greedy a lizard or some other demon might be.

“Fine,” she said, grabbing an oversized bracelet from among the stuff on display. It was the cheapest of the junk he was offering. “I’ll take this. Now can you please tell me if you’ve seen her?”

“Anne,” Sprig, evidently finally coming all the way back from wherever the fall had sent him, loudly whispered while nudging her side. “I’m pretty sure he’s just stringing you along.

She ignored him, then gave the lizard the coins he was due. The lizard in turn asked to see the photo again. He studied it for a moment, once again rubbing his chin as he drew in closer to get a better look. “Why is the picture on this scroll cut off? It looks like there’s another girl besides you and the one you’re looking for.”

“Don’t worry about her,” Anne said, surprising even herself at how angry she sounded. Even after years not thinking about her, Anne hadn’t gotten over the betrayal. It had been bad enough that one of her best friends had been blasted out of their world, when the other one had turned her back on what Anne was trying to do she just hadn’t been able to take it. “I just want to know if you’ve seen this girl.”

The lizard shrugged and rolled his eyes before reconsidering the photo once more. “I think…”

“Yes?”

“I think that I’ve…never seen this girl in my life. Next customer!”

“I told you,” Sprig sighed as a hulking Baphomet elbowed his way to the front of the booth, pushing Anne out of the way so he could buy whatever he had come for. Which left Anne with nothing but a chunky bracelet and a phone even closer to death. She was going to have to pick up the pace. Even if it cost her all the money she had, even if it killed her or the last of her battery, she was going to get something out of this trip besides an ugly old piece of jewelry that didn’t go with her skin tone.

Seven percent.

Hoisting Sprig by the waist, she pushed her way to the next booth. Even if she had to repeat this over and over again she would play this game. And now that she had seen how it was played it was easy enough to speedrun. Coins on the table, random bauble chosen, ignoring Sprig’s words of warning, picture in their face. The shark, native witch, and spider she dealt with were no more help than the lizard, her encounters with each leaving her with a hair clip that wouldn’t work for her, a pair of rings, half a pair of brass knuckles, and absolutely no info on who she was looking for. At least the brass knuckles might come in handy if she ever got in a scrape. After chuckling to herself about how clever that had been of her, she repeated the thought to Sprig. He gave her a pity, ‘heh.’ But what did he know.

Five percent.

While Anne had planned , her plAnne if you would, to hit ever vendor she could before her phone died, she did skip one shady looking spot. Less of a booth and more of a trio standing in front of one of the smaller alleyways; the shark demon, ‘mainland’ imp, and hellhound all eyed her as she and Sprig approached, then each opened their leather jackets or trench coats like would-be flashers or drug dealers from an 80s afterschool special. But, even if neither of those ideas were off-putting on their own, what they were selling certainly was.

It took a second for her to realize exactly what all was hanging from the lining of their jackets amid a few cameras and other junk, but once she recognized the pen-like thingies she knew at once that they were the same types of thing Twilight had been playing with, the one the others had told her some creep had used on Miko to mess with her magic. Anne shuddered at the thought. She might not have been strictly awake to see what had happened that day, but if one of those things could mess with Miko’s magic, someone who had been down here a while, then Anne didn’t like her chances of doing any better. What only added to her uneasiness was that there weren’t just the pen-looking devices Twilight was holding on to, but other types as well. Specifically noticeable being a pair of handcuffs linked together by one of the other tools.

Taking a gulp, Anne looked back down the street of stalls and, talking as if in reply to something, said, “What’s that Sprig? You see something you want over there? Well let’s go then.”

“Huh? But I didn’t–”

A jolt from Anne cut Sprig off before he could get another word out. She hurriedly dragged him along past the alleyway and the next booth for good measure. She wasn’t exactly a wimp, even without her magic, but she’d never had a tussle with a demon before and didn’t want to accidently start something with one or three who could all turn her one advantage off with the click of a button. That was the last thing she needed when she had something so much more important to be focused on.

Three percent.

Anne sprinted through the next couple of booths even faster than the last batch. Like the first couple she didn’t get what she actually wanted, but added a glove and a bag of what she thought was popcorn to her jangling collection of items. When the “popcorn” started wriggling though she tossed it away, only for Sprig to grab it out of the air with a hop and state how she shouldn’t waste perfectly good grubs.

With a shiver Anne continued on.

One percent.

Knowing her time was almost up and not knowing what she would do once that happened, Anne shoved her way to the front of a final stall and then shoved her phone into the face of the goat guy behind the counter. “Have you seen this girl? My phone’s about to die so can we haggle after you tell me?”

“What are you b-b-b-b-blabbering about?” the goat guy bleated, the flame on his candle-horn bobbing up and down as his rectangular eyes flitted from the phone to Anne and back.

“Photo, girl, missing. Have you seen her?”

“What photo?” he demanded angrily. “All I see is a black mirror, and I don’t want any trouble from one of those.”

“What are you–” the rest Anne’s words died in her mouth as she turned the phone to find it blank. “No, no, no,” she pleaded with the device while frantically pressing and holding the power button. But she couldn’t even get it to flash the empty battery screen, it was that dead.

It really was nothing more than useless black mirror now. She might as well toss it in her day’s bag of junk all the good it could do her now.

“If you’re not buying anything, make room,” the goat guy demanded. Anne didn’t exactly do as he said, more so allowed herself to be half pushed out of the way/half pulled back into the center of the street by Sprig. All the while staring at the phone, at the black glass with her own stricken face reflected within it.

“It’ll be alright,” Sprig said, attempting to comfort her. He had gotten good at that during their mushroom-fueled timelapse back in Wartwood, but that whole trip had made her feel like a middle schooler on an adventure, not a college co-ed with no clue how to find the one person she came to this literal hell hole to find. “We’ll figure out some other way to find your friend.”

Anne’s grip tightened around her dead phone. “I don’t have any other pictures of her. None of the demons I managed to ask around campus had heard of another witch. She could have been down here for years but hasn’t left a trace of herself for me to find. I needed this damn phone to help me look for her in the most basic way, and now I can’t even do that!”

“Would a phone charger help?”

Startled despite her frustration, Anne blinked away the tears threatening to spill out. Luz stood there, King at her side, head tilted while looking at the sight Anne had devolved into. That was just what Anne needed, for her new friend to see her breaking down in the middle of the street over a phone dying. How pathetic must that look. Probably not as pathetic as she felt, but still really pathetic.

Anne sniffled, then rubbed her eyes in the crook of her arm. With her fledgling tears staining her jacket sleeve instead of her cheeks, she took a deep breath and said, “Maybe if we weren’t stuck in medieval times.”

Luz chuckled at that. Then, placing a friendly hand on her shoulder, Luz gently said, “Anne, why don’t you tell me what you’re so worried about, then I’ll tell you about the miracle of lightning bugs.”

---

“And that’ll really charge my phone?” Anne asked as they neared campus. After spewing out a version of her story to Luz, who had listened without judging or interrupting, the other girl had explained how a certain type of bug she kept a colony of could bring her phone back to life. The fact the demonic wildlife that could do this were literal lightning bugs was far from the most surprising thing Anne had encountered since falling into Hell, she was even kind of annoyed at herself for not thinking to ask about something like that sooner.

“It won’t be quick,” Luz replied. She shifted the satchel she had traded their misbegotten goods for back in the bazaar from one shoulder to the other. “But it’s kept my phone alive for the past four years. As for your friend…”

Luz trailed off for a moment as she collected her thoughts, leaving Anne to squirm a bit and pull on her shirt hem while their little group continued towards the school. But luckily Luz didn’t leave her hanging for too long, otherwise the new shirt might have started to tear from all her kneading.

“I haven’t met any other modern witches down here that you haven’t already.”

In that moment the world seemed to close in around Anne. Luz had been an extra glimmer of hope after the earlier failure, but now even that light was going out. It hadn’t seemed possible for things to get bleaker after hell being the best place to look for her lost…her…for her. Luz had been here so much longer though, long enough to have a whole new family not spawned from a mushroom fever dream and also to know pretty much all the ins and outs of Goliath. Her never seeing the only other regular human that would have been around could only mean that–

“Why so sad, little lady?” a high-pitched, yet somehow gravely, voice asked out of the blue.

Anne blinked away the water pooling in the corners of her eyes. She started to say something about not being small, either in height or in ways she really didn’t feel like bragging about right then, but she cut herself short when she was hit by the smell of rotting wood and musty clothes, when she saw who or what had asked the question.

Eyes widening, Anne was left speechless as she took in the person, the thing that had asked the question. It took her a moment to register what she was looking at. At first she could only see a swath of blue beside her, the tail of a light blue shirt overlapping the top of a darker pair of blue shorts. But that didn’t seem right. She was six feet tall herself, if her eyeline only reached where the speaker’s shirt met his pants then… What she found when she looked up, when she craned her neck to see, was a massive person with at least twice her height. His quaff of shockingly bright orange hair casting his eyes and the top half of his wooden face in shadow while long arms of wood hung to sides, both ending in fingers that had been sharpened down into near daggers. Even with his bright but ragged blue clothing setting him apart from the red world all around him, there was no doubt that this puppet- or ventriloquist-dummy-gone-wrong belonged in hell.

“Cat got your tongue, toots?” the puppet asked. With each word the block that made up the lower half of his mouth dropped then raised, the black void between separating wood secondary in fear to the razor-sharp teeth that lined each half of his mouth.

But what put Anne off the most, what she couldn’t stop staring at even over his sheer size or wooden skin or sharp teeth and nails, were the reds of his eyes. Barely visible under the shadow cast by its hair, his eyes were like squiggles drawn by a child. But they moved. They pulsed and spun and contorted in and back out as their owner’s gaze ran over Anne and the others. Those eyes…they just…they just weren’t right.

“She’s not used to sinners, Mr. C,” Luz said with surprising familiarity, stepping partially between him and Anne into the conversation when it became clear that Anne couldn’t do it for herself and that Sprig and King were practically as fear stricken as she was. “And we’ve had a long day looking for her friend, so don’t hold it against her.”

“Ah,” the sinner, Mr. C., sighed in the same gravely, high-pitched way he spoke. “I know what it’s like to miss a friend. One of mine is in there,” he said, running one of his dagger-like fingers across the school’s barrier as he spoke. While the space above the school fence had looked like empty air just a second before, a ripple of energy welled up beneath his touch, preventing him from reaching across the fence. It didn’t keep him from running his finger down across the barrier itself though, setting off a screech that was just a bit more bearable than nails on a chalk board. “And until I can…see him, I can’t go back to my other friend.”

“So Lincoln still hasn’t come to see you?” Luz asked without missing a beat.

“Nope, nope, nope,” the puppet sinner said to his own little beat. “I guess he hasn’t had time for little me, me, me.”

“Maybe he’s avoi–”

Luz snapped her fingers and a yellowed magic circle spun up in front of Sprig’s mouth, silencing him even as his mouth continued to move.

“Hey,” King scowled at his big sister. “He was just saying how Lincoln probably doesn’t want to se–”

Luz snapped again and second circle appeared around King’s muzzle, silencing him just like Sprig. She spared the hellhound and amphimpian a quick but terse glare before turning her attention back to the sinner. “I’m sure he’s just been busy. We’ll let him know you still want to see him right after the class we’re heading to.”

“We are?” Anne started to say, but realized her mistake when Luz shot her a third glare, though this one just looked tired compared to the ones the boys had received. “Right, yeah, we are… going to be late if we don’t go soon.”

“I’d appreciate that, toots,” Mr. C. said, either ignoring or oblivious to all the things half-said just a moment ago. Anne almost thought it might be the latter as his squiggly-eyed attention had returned to staring across the barrier and towards the school beyond it. “Satan knows I need to see my old pal Lincoln.”

Luz repeated her rushed farewell while taking Anne by the arm and pulling her across the barrier, calling for the boys to follow along. Unlike how it worked for the sinner, they were able to pass right through the barrier and even appear on the other side of the fence without any resistance. It was still an odd sensation, just as it had been that morning on their way out, but once on the other side there was no sign they had crossed any kind of barrier at all. They may have suddenly been on the other side of the fence, but there was no sign of there being anything between them and the slowly waving puppet sinner on the other side. Though as he waved, Mr. C’s fingers tightened together, as if preparing to slide into something.

“That guy’s so weird,” Luz sighed as she led them on to campus proper. “He’s been trying to get through the barrier for nearly as long as I’ve been here. I don’t blame Lincoln for never coming to see him.”

“Isn’t Lincoln the white-haired succubus that Dipper’s friends with?” Anne asked.

“Lincoln’s a boy, so he’s an incubus,” Sprig noted, Luz’s magic having worn off. He said it a little too quickly though. Anne still hadn’t gotten to dive into his soap opera love triangle, and now she was hoping her adoptive brother wouldn’t mess up the prospective drama by having a gross reason to know too much about the sex demons. Sure, the Sunset girl Twilight had hooked up with seemed nice, but Sprig had enough going on with the other not-frogs in his life that he didn’t need any of the other kinds of strange Goliath had to offer. Not that any of that really mattered right now. The sinner’s interruption hadn’t changed the fact that she had lost all of her flimsy leads and even the slim hope Luz might know something.

“That’s him though,” Luz replied. “I don’t know the story, but no matter how creepy you might think that sinner is imagine him wanting to come find you.” Still being led by the arm, Anne could see and feel the shiver that ran up Luz’s spine at the thought. Anne shared the sentiment in principle, but didn’t have the energy to show it.

“Now where was I,” Luz pondered as the barrier and the puppet standing just beyond it got farther behind them. “Oh yeah. I haven’t met any other modern witches, but I did hear about one girl Belos snatched up for some internship.”

Anne stopped in place. “When?”

Luz slowed to a stop as she thought about it. “I guess it was about a year after I got here. So three years back, give or take.”

All the darkness that had crept into Anne’s mind was suddenly cast out. The smell of rot and decay the sinner had carried dissipated. Even the red light of what hell called daytime was suddenly cheery in her eyes, like the entire world had been given a big ol’ coat of joy. “That’s when she would have gotten here! Does this mean she’s been at this Belos place the whole time? Working?”

Luz shrugged. “Maybe. I’ve never seen another modern witch any of the times I’ve snuck into the Grand Meister’s palace, but it’s not like I’ve seen every corner of it. We can ask Eda when we drop the stuff off, she might know something we can look into.”

Anne couldn’t help the smile creeping across her face, not that she would have wanted to. “What are we waiting for then? Let’s go!”

Without pausing to think, Anne grabbed Luz and Sprig’s wrists and started rushing the rest of the way back to Hexside proper, King racing after them to keep up.

Chapter Text

Molly watched, knowing she shouldn’t, as the heat built up in her cheeks.

“You’ll have to push harder if you want inside again,” Sunset cooed.

“I’m trying,” Dipper practically growled, the effort straining his face.

“Push harder,” she said again. “Put all of yourself in there. You’re good at that after all.”

“Molly,” Danny said out of nowhere. “Concentrate on your circle.”

Molly’s attention was ripped from Dipper and Sunset further down the row and back to her own tutoring. Forcing herself to concentrate, she stabilized her magic circle so that the golden ring of light stopped wobbling between her and Scratch. She was supposed to be practicing what Danny called “overshadowing” on Scratch, a more direct form of control than the enhappification magic she’d figured out on her own, but everyone had seemed so taken aback by that she wasn’t sure why she shouldn’t be practicing that more. People down here could certainly use an extra dose of happiness, if only to make her feel better about everything she had been thrown into.

“Sorry,” Molly mumbled as she tried to get back in the headspace of seeing through Scratch’s eyes. It should have been easy, he was staring at a big plate of tacos they’d brought to bribe him into being their Guinee pig for this tutoring session, but certain other things were going on nearby. “I got distracted.”

“Ignore whatever they’re doing over there,” Danny said, glaring down the aisle towards where Dipper was trying to use the circlet he’d been given to get into Sunset’s head. It wasn’t going well, with him physically straining as he concentrated on her. Meanwhile she was leaning on their desk, practically sprawled across it, saying all those things that…well, that made it hard to focus on Scratch to say the least. “That girl can’t turn herself off even when she’s supposed to be doing something important.”

There was a disdain in his voice that seemed a bit too extreme to be just from the bet he and Sunset made about tutoring her, it was almost puritanical. Or some kind of butch lesson he’d unfortunately taken to heart, but man that seemed like a miserable way to be. Didn’t seem like it had anyplace coming out the mouth of someone who had come to hell to train magic either. Especially since he seemed to get along with other demons and witches without any effort. The tone reminded Molly of Ollie’s parents, how high and mighty they’d been about ghosts before they’d…she shook her head, she wasn’t going to start thinking about that again. Whether it was a kind of convoluted revenge like the Chens or some holier than thou influence from someone in his life, Molly thought maybe she could do something to help the situation. That might be a start to spread some happiness down here.

And even a little enhappification would go along way for her.

“Mol, Mol, Mol,” Scratch chimed in through a stuffed mouth, one of the tacos had made it into his mouth earlier than planned. “Just think – mmmm, these are good – just think about all the stuff you know about me. Really get into my head. Then when you are, we can stare the buxom babe down there together.”

Danny shook his head while Molly’s expression went flat. “I really don’t like how crass you’ve gotten lately.”

“I’ve always been this way, Mol,” Scratch said before dropping another taco into his gullet. “I’ve just been letting it out more now that you’re older. Now, if I wanted to be really crass, I’d say something about all those times you let your friends go to–”

Molly dropped her circle and slammed her hands over his mouth. Eye twitching and mouth twisting, she almost growled the words, “Let’s not bring that up in front of other people, Scratch.”

Scratch didn’t even blink. In fact, he rolled his eyes. The ghost had seen enough of her freakouts, as infrequent as she tried to keep them, over the years to not be shocked anymore. Maybe once she got more control over her magic he’d get freaked out like he used to– No, no, no, no, no. That wasn’t the way to think. It was a bad way to think. Not at all a happy way to think. Blast it all! She needed to make something better, but everything just seemed to get worse.

“Molly,” Danny started tentatively, “is everything okay?”

“Why was this so much easier with Miko?” Dipper’s exhausted question rolled down the aisle, grabbing Molly’s attention and providing a distraction to not have to answer that question or any follow-ups about why it looked like she was trying to strangle her ghost.

“Should I be jealous you went and put yourself in another girl?” Sunset mused. She was playfully ruffling his hair as he’d dropped his forehead to rest against the table, the circlet of mindreading Meisterlin Rarity had given him clinking against the hard wood. How much had she been toying with him over there? He seemed exhausted while she couldn’t have looked more refreshed. That was hard to swallow, even if Dipper didn’t have a grimoire to the shadow element, given what Molly had seen him do that outshined the rest of the club’s new abilities she thought he should be doing better than he was.

“You know it wasn’t like that,” he said without looking up.

“Actually, I don’t,” she corrected. “I promised I wouldn’t look at your memories without permission, remember. I can only guess based on my own experiences with what I know you’ve got more than enough of to share.”

“Why,” Dipper started, annoyance creeping into his words, “was it so easy for me to see Miko’s memories when I can’t even get a trace of yours.”

“Because Miko probably let you in,” Danny answered before Sunset could, his arms crossed as he looked down on the other pair. It was fairly obvious he just wanted to end their back and forth so he could try and finish his lesson with Molly.

Sunset shot Danny a look. “He’s right, unfortunately,” she said to Dipper. “Miko wanted you to see what you did, but I’ve put up walls around my mind. Anyone with enough willpower can protect their mind to a point, but an oracle user can turn theirs into a fortress. You have to learn to get past those defenses.”

Dipper finally looked back up. “How?”

Molly watched Sunset spare Danny another look, but a less annoyed one. Instead, a small smile parted her lips as she dropped her hand from Dipper’s head to one of his hands. She took and raised it so it hung right in front of her. If she hadn’t been holding it in place it would have looked like Dipper was telling her to stop. Or about to cop a feel. Instead, he just watched and listened as she continued explaining.

“When you need to get past a wall you don’t just ram your head against it,” she said, her voice smooth and melodic. “You have to look for a weakness or other way through. You have to feel it.”

As she spoke, Sunset pulled his hand closer to herself, placing it on her chest just below her collar bone. Scratch whistled and Danny huffed. All the while Molly felt more heat rising in her cheeks, enough to match the blush she saw coloring Dipper’s face.

“You might have to feel all over,” Sunset said, not giving Dipper or anyone else a chance to interrupt as she guided Dipper’s hand from just above her heart, to her neck, then her cheek, then beneath her bangs to rest on her forehead. “But eventually you’ll find what you’re looking for. Like that opening there, do you feel it?”

Dipper nodded.

“Then come inside.” A small surge of light passed through the runes of Dipper’s circlet of mindreading, which meant it must have worked because his face went even redder. “What do you see?”

Dipper pulled his hand away from Sunset. “You know I can’t say that out loud.”

Sunset just continued to smile. Man, she oozed confidence. Though, looking at her, it wasn’t hard to see why. She may not have been any taller than Molly herself, but between how capable her magic was and those curves…how could she be anything else. Molly was fine not having to deal with all…that, listening to Andrea complaining about bras the last couple of years had strengthened her resolve on that topic, but it wasn’t like she could make people melt in her hands the way Sunset could. It would probably be easier to make them happy if she could. Not in the way Sunset made people happy, but enhappifying them in general.

“You weren’t against being loud the other night,” Sunset cooed, sending a fresh flush through Dipper’s entire face.

“I have to go to class,” Dipper said after a moment, not looking at her as he pulled the circlet off and stuffed into his bag. “Thanks for the lesson, I guess.”

“Anytime,” Sunset said with a fluttering wave, her square eyes following him as he made his way down the aisle.

“Later Molly,” he said as he passed, hefting his overstuffed bag behind him.

“Bye,” Molly replied weakly.

“What am I, chop liver?” Scratch demanded between bites of yet another taco. He almost sounded insulted at being ignored, but Molly knew he just wanted attention now that everyone could see him.

Dipper gave him a half-hearted wave over his shoulder, then made his way out the door. It was Molly’s turn to watch him go, not because she was eyeing his backside the way Sunset had been though, but because something was off with him. Not in the way it was with her, he was acclimating pretty well given how much magic those grimoires had given him, but the way it had been with him most of the year up to their fall. He liked girls, one in particular, but sometimes he seemed so angry or even afraid on certain women. Normally Molly saw it most when he was having to deal with Anne, but ever since she’d picked up what he, Sunset, and Twilight had done together he’d had something along those lines going on with Sunset too. More along the fear lines than anger ones, like all the attention Sunset was showering him with might be some kind of trick he hadn’t figured out yet.

It probably didn’t help that she was so forward about it, turning every other comment into a lurid double entendre. But she seemed so used to people reacting to her the way Scratch did, which was its own issue on the list of things to deal with, and if that was her way of trying to enhappify Dipper than could Molly really complain? It wasn’t like she was forcing him to do anything after all, just embarrassing him about something he had to have enjoyed and, based on looks Molly had seen glared his way, many others would want for themselves.

“Alright, now that they’re done, it’s about time we–”

“Swap tutors? Good idea for once, Danny.”

Molly nearly fell out of her seat. Sunset was suddenly right beside her, seated as if she had been there all along. In the few seconds Molly had been watching Dipper go, Sunset had somehow not only silently moved seats but taken up the same overly relaxed pose right next to where Molly had been practicing. Had she done that with her other magic? The musical one? Molly hadn’t really looked into any other type but her own between freaking out and trying to find anything about the corridor from the book Twilight had given her. Back in her real life she would have researched as much as she could to help those around her, but down here…sometimes it felt as if she was losing part of what made her her.

“Impressive,” Scratch said between licking his fingers dry of taco seasoning. “And right after you were talkin’ about bein’ loud too.”

“Don’t start with that,” Molly mumbled as she resituated herself in her seat.

“Let’s not start with anything new,” Danny huffed at Sunset, “until Molly and I can finish going over my lesson first.”

Sunset rolled her eyes, the flame floating above her head seeming to roll in place with them. “I’ll just show her something that I think might help her with what you’re doing,” she said as she twisted Molly’s seat in place. Suddenly Molly found herself eye to square eye with the red-haired demon. Though while Molly’s gaze struggled to remain solid and focused after the sudden shift and closeness to the bouncy native witch, Sunset’s turquoise peepers seemed to be looking beyond or maybe into Molly. “Even if Danny doesn’t want to admit it, there’s a reason both our specialties are part of the same track. And you don’t mind a little switch up, do you?”

“I guess if–”

“Certainly don’t,” Scratch said excitedly, floating between Molly and Sunset. “What do you need me to do, toots?”

Sunset gave him a soft smile. “This part’s just for us girls, but I’ll need you relaxed and ready for what’s next. So why don’t you have another taco and watch to make sure Danny doesn’t try and sabotage me, okay spookems?”

“I wouldn’t–” Danny started, then stopped himself with a groan, throwing himself into one of the other empty chairs. “Just do whatever you’re going to so we can get back to what Molly really needs to practice.”

Sunset’s smile deepened in victory before asking, “You okay with me butting in, Molly? I’ve only heard from the boys and it’s your decision, not theirs.”

“If you think it’ll help,” Molly replied. “Meisterlin Rarity said you two should take turns anyway.” She couldn’t help but look to the side in embarrassment, not just from what she’d just said but because she didn’t think she could keep up eye contact much longer.

“Swell,” Sunset said. Why don’t you close your eyes and take a deep breath. Then we’ll get started.”

Molly was happy to oblige in that. No more looking into those impossibly pretty eyes or having to feel Danny or Scratch’s gaze on her. With the simple action of dropping her eyelids, the world slid into darkness. Not what she wanted the world to be, she’d much prefer it to be bright and colorful, the traits she always liked to bring into her enhappification projects, but with a calming breath the darkness could be good for a little while too. And one deep breath needs another, which she took without hesitat–

A burst of purple light, nearly blinding even through her closed eyelids, sent Molly flying from her chair.

---

Molly was falling or being dragged or some terrible combination of the two as she was thrown through the darkness. And her eyes weren’t closed anymore; they’d shot open when she’d been blown back. But she was still in darkness. Rolling, streaking darkness that zoomed past her at incredible speeds, speeds that showed no sign of slowing as she screamed all the way down.

Flashes of light and sound flew past her, indistinguishable at first but the farther she fell the more she started to pick up in the flashes. Not so much the lights but the sounds, the yelling, came flying at her.

“It’s…it’s you!”

Molly’s scream caught in her throat. Mr. Chen? From that night? The last night they’d–

“The ghost who started it all!” His voice growled from beyond the veil of darkness, exactly as angry as he’d been the night they’d finally stopped Jinx. The night so much had been fixed…right in time for it all to go so wrong. “Comeback all these years later to finish the job!? Well you’ve got another thing coming, monster!”

No No No No No! Molly covered her ears. She didn’t want to relive that night, that moment. There was already so much going on she couldn’t deal with, that she didn’t know how to handle, she couldn’t have this come back at her too. Please don’t–

“I’m sorry,” came at her next. Younger and softer, but still angry. As if he was the one who’d been betrayed. As if she wasn’t the one who’d spent the next four years trying to be as happy as the people she wanted to help. As if he and his family hadn’t wanted to ruin everything for everyone else over a misunderstanding.

Another flash came from below and Molly stopped falling with a plop. She didn’t hit with any kind of real impact, at least no more than a few feet instead of the hundreds or thousands she seemed to have been falling until then, and what she collided with was soft and comforting and…familiar? Like she could just fall asleep in the welcoming embrace, like something she had fallen asleep in before.

What lay above her was familiar too. Not a tunnel of darkness reaching skyward above her. No, that had disappeared in the split second she’d blinked on landing. Now there was a wooden ceiling up there, an a-frame that she had seen before. That she had woken up to hundreds of times before if not more. The wooden beams and angled walls, cast in darker shadows than she remembered but still familiar, especially those with lamps or star-shaped fairy lights hanging from them.

This was her room. Her room back home in Brighton.

Sitting up only confirmed it, only showed how much she was surrounded by all the things she’d filled it with since moving in. The family crest, flags, and paintings that covered the walls, the floor covered in rugs and one oversized beanbag chair, even Scratch’s doll house off to the side. And amidst it all, the door in the very center of the floor. It was just the way she always remembered it, the way she had been longing for since they fell into hell. It was just what she wanted.

But something about it wasn’t quite right.

The shadows darkening the peak of the ceiling peaked out behind every piece of furniture and art, staining the air as if her room was filled with a dark haze or even smoke. The longer she looked the darker it seemed to get, the thicker the shadows became, the less nostalgic and glad she was to be there…

The access door in the floor popped open out of nowhere, scaring Molly against the wall as its knob loudly bounced against the wooden floorboards. Purple light shown upwards from below in the same instant, parting the thickening shadows and haze though not getting get rid of it. So, instead of the sudden light easing her concerns of what was wrong, it only added to it. Not the light itself, that was pretty and sparkly and just light all the magic circles the others in her oracle class used, but a sound came with it.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

The sounds hefted themselves closer and closer, each followed by a metal squeal as a dark shape took form within the light.

Thunk. Thunk. A pause, just long enough for a guttural, angry growl to fill the air. Thunk. Thunk.

Molly pushed herself closer to the wall, hard enough that she might have feared pushing right through it in any other situation. But in this moment she couldn’t think about anything but the form looming just out of sight though still close enough for whatever it was, whatever was thunking and growling towards her, to have blocked most of the light that should have been a relief in the still darkening room. And then, and then…a hand weakly rose out of the access door and gripped the edge of the frame.

It barely looked like it could hang on, just like the second hand that joined it a second later. Molly’s apprehension took a backseat to her curiosity as the pair of hands struggled and trembled to pull themselves up. Surely whatever or whoever was making those sounds couldn’t be too…worrisome, not if they were having this much trouble just getting into the room. A sentiment that proved true as, with much effort, a head of thick red hair rose up and over the door frame.

“Who puts their bedroom at the top of a ladder?” Sunset huffed as she pulled herself over the edge and splayed the top half of her body across the floor. Her huff was nearly a growl, an exasperated exhalation just like what Molly had heard before the hands had appeared.

“It’s a step ladder,” Molly said slowly as she slipped off the bed and offered Sunset her hand, a hand that was quickly and rigorously taken. “Was all that noise I heard, you?”

Sunset let Molly help pull her the rest of the way into the room before kicking the door closed in annoyance, “You mean the way the ladder creaked and squeaked?”

“And the growling?”

Sunset blinked, prompting Molly to have an odd thought. Something looked off about the native witch. But whatever it was, Molly couldn’t put her finger on it in the room’s gloom. Before Molly could ask or think about it any further, a lightbulb of realization seemed to go off in Sunset’s head.

“Oh, that was probably me cursing under my breath,” she explained as her eyes flitted around the room. “Did you get pulled through a bad memory on the way here?”

“Huh?”

“This gunk,” Sunset said, twirling her finger through the black haze. A trail of light followed the path of her finger, creating a small magic circle at its tip. “It’s negative emotions, you must have passed a bad memory on the way into your mind palace and the feeling tagged along.”

As she “explained,” Sunset walked around the room, partly looking around but mostly trailing that small magic circle above her head. Some of the haze collected within the circle as she waved it about, while the rest trailed behind her until she got to the window and threw it open. There was nothing but blinding white light out the window, no view of the street or anything, but if Sunset thought that was anything outside of normal she didn’t show it as she pulled her hand back. Then, as if holding a ball instead of pointing at a circle, she pitched. The circle she’d formed went flying into the wall of white, the black haze trailing after it. It was like someone had turned on a fan or vacuum after that, the dark haze flowing out of the room and into the light until none of it remained.

The moment the hanging shadows were gone and the light was back to normal it was as if a great weight had been lifted off Molly’s shoulders. A smile touched her lips all on its own, without her having to force it or think about when things had been better or any of that. The world was brighter, so much so that Molly couldn’t help but take her own room in again and marvel at how much shinier and sparklier everything was now.

“There was a lot of it though,” Sunset continued. Molly could hear her close and latch the window. “You haven’t been feeling down in general, have you Molly? Because if there’s something else wrong then what I did just now won’t help for long.”

“Oh, I’ve–” Molly’s words stopped in her throat, as did the spin she’d been doing in place as she took in the marvelousness of a world not cast in shadows. No longer shaded in overhanging gloom, Molly finally locked in on what was different about Sunset. Her horns, tail, and flame were gone, her pupils had rounded, and her skin was…

“Why are you white?” Molly blurted out before she could help herself.

Sunset smirked and, with hand on hip, asked, “Isn’t there a whole meme about not asking that?”

Molly blinked, unsure of how to respond to a sudden Mean Girls reference of all things. Shaking her head, she skipped over that and asked, “But you’re usually yellow, and now you’re not. And all your demon-y bits are gone.”

“Yeah,” Sunset said, amusement flickering across her face as she ran a hand and her eyes along her other, very Caucasian arm. “Whenever I go into someone’s mind my look gets an update to match whatever species they are, helps with fitting into what their brain expects. I guess some part of me must have liked the way I looked in Dipper’s head the other night to still be white though. Cuter clothes here I’m glad to see.”

It was only then that Molly realized that neither she nor Sunset were in their school uniforms. Molly was back in the clothes she had been wearing the day they’d dropped down here, but Sunset was decked out in an outfit that was a blast from Molly’s past. Purple zig-zag skirt, neon pink shoes, a white tee and denim vest that were struggling not to tear around what they were covering, it was the outfit Molly had carried herself with when she’d first moved to Brighton. Her “it” look of the time. Sunset’s hair had even been partially altered so she had a small ponytail just slightly off to one side. It was like looking at a very specifically curvy funhouse mirror.

“But why?”

“Why the clothes?” Sunset began, her attention shifting to the wall of Molly’s art. The mix-match of paintings were mostly of ghosts Molly had met and helped in some way, though there were photos mixed of so many of her favorite memories since moving to Brighton. “Same as the species thing, helps the brain accept me. If you mean why are we here, privacy and it’ll be easier to show you what you need this way. Plus, it’s easier to bring someone into their mind palace than their mental landscape, cleaner too.”

“I understand a lot of those words individually…” Molly said, trying to relate what she was hearing to what she’d learned from dealing with ghosts and taking psych 101. Neither was helping her much.

“It’s…” Sunset paused to consider her words. “It’s a lot we’ll work up to. To simplify it though, this is your mind palace where your most precious memories and ideas are stored. It’s different…and the same as your mental landscape, but the main thing is that while you’re in here you’ll think faster and it’ll be easier to practice oracle magic. The mind-based part of it at least.”

“Okay,” Molly said, still not sure she was completely getting it. “What do you want me to do first?”

---

Evidently learning how to overshadow ghosts or get into someone’s head in general took a lot of imagination, or visualization as Sunset kept instructing her to do. Which was easy for her to say from the plushie and pillow throne she’d constructed on Molly’s bed, but being told to visualize something until she could feel it was harder to do than the native witch was making it seem. Still Molly persisted, visualizing a ball, a brain, even Scratch sitting in her hands. But if there was some trick to it she wasn’t getting it. She’d always been able to come up with plans and see them through back in the world of the living and not damned for those who were dead, but that skill wasn’t helping her at all now.

“Okay, okay,” Sunset said after watching Molly not visualize anything for the tenth time in a row. “Let’s try another route. Those photos over there, they represent memories here, but did you take them in real life?”

Molly followed Sunset’s gaze to the wall of photos and paintings. While Molly had a lot of photos taken and printed out from her phone and computer, the most important ones were the polaroids tacked between the paintings.

“Yes,” she said, a little embarrassed. “My dad gave me his old camera during one of our moves and I burned through so much film for it mom had to have a talk with me about budgeting. All my favorite pictures were taken on it though.”

“That’s the ticket then,” Sunset said, pushing herself out of her throne and off the bed. In two quick steps she was in front of Molly. Placing her hands on Molly’s shoulders, Sunset very calmly and clearly stated, “I want you to close your eyes and think about that camera. The weight of it in your hands, the texture against your palms. Hold your hands like you’re carrying it. Think about every time you held it in front of you from the first time your dad said you could have it until the last time you snapped a picture with it. Visualize in your hands as if it were really there.”

Molly nodded, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She thought about the camera. She remembered the first time she’d found it, practically falling out of a box in the latest string of moves. It had been a box Darryl had packed, one of many quick packs in an attempt to fleece some extra spending money out of their parents. But when she’d picked up the oddly shaped, heavy thing-a-ma-jig her father had only chuckled that easily amused dad chuckle of his and explained what a polaroid camera was. Then she had snapped a picture of him. The flash had been so bright, totally unnecessary in the middle of the day, but the whir of the camera between her fingers and the hum as it shot out a glossy white square had been entrancing. And then when dad had waved the seemingly blank square in the air for a minute and the photo of him seemed to magically appear, well at that point Molly was hooked.

She had carried it around so much that move and always kept it close when she thought something good or memorable might happen. It had become a part of her, just as important as the memories each photo represented because it was what let her keep a part of those memories in the real world. And to think, all of that had dropped into her hands because her little brother had skimped on the packing tape. Just like the weight that had just dropped into her hands…

This weight, it was the same. The texture, smooth plastic against her palms, was the same. But it couldn’t be, the camera was back home and this place was all literally in her head. Without opening her eyes she ran her thumb along what would have been the side if she was really holding something, right up to where the shutter button would be. And was that…it felt like it had to be the button. Still not believing it, still not opening her eyes, Molly pressed down on what couldn’t be the shutter button of her old polaroid camera.

The air was filled with a resonant click.

Molly opened her eyes. Her eyes, already turned down towards what had to be her empty palms, widened at what she saw there. The emptiness between her hands had been replaced by a camera, the camera. Plastic and glass and 90’s ingenuity all in one compact little design that was so much what she remembered that it was like the camera had never left her hands at all. But more than that, more than what it was, she’d done it.

“I did it,” Molly nearly whispered the words as she couldn’t help but stare at the camera that had materialized in her hands and the little white square sliding out its front slot. Then louder, “I did it.”

“You did it,” Sunset agreed. She squeezed Sunset’s shoulders, her grin matching the one growing on Molly’s own face. Then Molly was bouncing and jumping in place, her excitement and pride needing to get out. And Sunset was quick to join her, the pair spinning in place like schoolgirls. The floorboards creaked and the puffs of dust Molly could never quite clean away were shaken loose with each jump, but neither of them cared because Molly had done it!

“What did I take a picture of?” Molly asked when they had exhausted themselves and had to pause their gleeful jumping. They had done so much jumping that the little white square had already formed some kind of picture within the outer white box. Pulling it free from the slot, Molly looked at what she had snapped while her eyes had been closed. Almost immediately her face went red.

“You got my good side,” Sunset said with a chuckle.

“It’s just you’re boobs,” Molly said. She wasn’t sure what to do with the picture, throwing it away would make her look like a prude and hiding it would make her look like a creep.

“If you think that’s not what people consider my good side then you should see my Penstagram,” Sunset said with a good-natured sigh and a shake of her head. “I don’t know why I’m having so much trouble getting your c…coven to look at it. You’re all missing out. Besides, even if what I posted wasn’t meant to titillate, all the fan edits basically boil down to cropping my pics to look like that one.”

Molly had no response to that. She had known Sunset was proud of and liked to flaunt her body, that was obvious to anyone who spent more than ten seconds around her if that, but to be so brazen with just anybody was beyond what Molly was used to. So she once again just didn’t respond to that part. “What do we do next?”

Next thing turned out to be going back to everything Molly had been trying up until succeeding with the camera. But now that she had a feeling for the process she was able to visualize what Sunset asked for, each one a bit more complex yet coming into being faster each time. A ball she and Darryl had played with as kids went bouncing across the floor, its every bump and dirt stain exactly in place as it was in the real world. A model brain from science class, the one that had so grossed out and intrigued her appeared on the table. And finally Scratch in all his ghosty goodness popped into existence in the middle of the room.

Not that it was really Scratch, Molly could tell that instantly even if she’d felt him the same way she had the other things she’d visualized into being. He just hung there afloat with a sour expression plastered around his overly blue nose, not talking or moving, not even blinking.

“He’s even more lifeless than normal. Which is saying something since he’s dead,” Molly said with palpable disappointment. “Is there anyway to make him more like the real Scratch.”

“You could work to that eventually,” Sunset said. She was walking around the fake Scratch, inspecting Molly’s work. “But a visualized person will always act and talk the way you remember or think they would, so it’s not really worth putting much effort into outside of some niche uses. Still, it’ll serve our purposes for today.”

Once Sunset had gone full circle around fake Scratch, she held her hand above the tuft of ectoplasm Molly always thought of as Scratch’s “hair.” She formed a magic circle, then pointed down, sending it into Molly’s visualization. There were a few seconds where glowing purple light was visible from within the ghostly doppelganger but soon faded as if it had never been.

“Because Danny got his magic in some kind of accident,” Sunset began explaining once the light had faded, “he does pretty much everything on instinct. So he’ll have a hard time explaining certain things even if he’s good at them.”

It sounded like Sunset had to physically pull the word “good” out of her throat in order to admit it, but she didn’t linger whatever distaste it left in her mouth before continuing.

“What he calls overshadowing is basically the same between the living and dead. The living and living-adjacent have skin and meat and bones around their brains the same way ghosts have layers of ectoplasm around the essence of their being, their core. You have to get a feel for reaching through all that then affecting the person the way you mean to. Which brings me to what’s next, do you remember what I was going over with Dipper before he left?”

“Feeling out weaknesses in your mind?” Molly said after thinking through all Sunset’s innuendo that stuck out more than the lesson she’d been putting Dipper through.

Sunset nodded. “Dipper needs that circlet so I’m going about it differently for him, but the next step for you is to reach inside and see a way past any mental walls keeping you out. Can you guess how I want you to do that?”

“By visualizing them,” Molly guessed.

“Exactly, which is where this guy comes in,” Sunset said, patting the fake ghost’s flat head. “I’ve put a single thought and some walls around it in his empty little head. Go inside, describe and get past the walls, then tell me what that thought is.”

“Do I want to know what that the thought is?” Molly asked.

Sunset sighed, her exasperation less feigned this time. “Just do it.”

Molly chewed on her lip, but did as she was told. Creating a magic circle that cast the fake Scratch in golden light, she breathed deeply and focused on what both Danny and Sunset had told her. Since the latter hadn’t given her any new tips about getting into a mind other than needing to get a feel for it and visualizing ways through mental walls once there, Molly returned to what she’d been trying to do with the real Scratch with Danny. With him it had been reaching into who she wanted to overshadow and taking hold of their mind, but maybe just a gentle touch would be a good place to start. Afterall, grabbing someone by the brain didn’t sound too friendly. A light stroke seemed a-ok in comparison.

Like she had done before, Molly closed her eyes as she concentrated on the feeling of her magic reaching out towards her ghostly target. But this time she did something different. Instead of trying to clear out everything in her mind so nothing else would get in the way of her concentration, she imagined a hand, her hand but made of golden light, reaching out towards Scratch. Then through his outer ghosty goodness. Then all the way to her core, that slightly bluer haze right in the center of his being. It was the only thing besides his eyes and nose that kept him from being completely see-through, so it had to be some kind of important.

Her imagined hand of light gently caressed the blue at Scratch’s center and then–

A force struck Molly in such a way that she couldn’t help but gasp. Well, maybe it had been a little less like a strike and more like moving through water? Like she’d been tossed through a wave…no, that wasn’t quite right. And then it hit her, figuratively this time. It had felt just like going through a ghost portal, the ones that turned her into a wraith so she could hang out with Abraham Lincoln and Geoff and the other ghosts that didn’t spend their time haunting her trashcans.

On instinct she opened her eyes and looked down at herself to make sure she hadn’t just split from her body without meaning to. But no, there it was, just like always and not wraithy at all. Everything else was different though. She was no longer in a version of her room, or any place in particular for that matter. She found herself on a dark expanse of ground beneath an eerily dark sky. And it was chilly, as if the emptiness of the place itself was nipping at her. Or at least that’s the way it seemed at first glance. But as she craned her neck upwards to take a second look, she realized that something was looming ahead and above her. But like everything else in…wherever this was it was dark. Not just dark, pitch black. Whatever was looming like a mountain in front of her she couldn’t make out anything about it other than it was there.

“Sunset?” Molly called into the almost empty space when she was sure there was nothing to see or make out in the darkness. “Are you there?”

“Sure am,” Sunset’s voice replied from nowhere but also from just to Molly’s left. “Good job getting in there so quickly.”

“Thanks…” Molly replied slowly to nothing in particular. “Does that mean I’m really inside the Scratch I made?”

“Your consciousness currently is,” Sunset’s voice continued to explain despite having no source. “There’s still a version of you right where you were besides me, connected by your magic. If I were to mess with the circle you’re casting you’d be snapped back into yourself out here. Of course, we’re both actually back in the oracle hall so it really comes down to if anyone disrupts my magic, but that’s getting down to semantics.”

“Are all minds this…desolate?”

Molly could almost feel Sunset rolling her eyes. “Well you are inside an empty husk you created, there’s not much that could be in there right now. Well, not much besides what I put in there. Which, getting back on track, you need to describe for me. So chop chop.”

“Umm.” Molly scratched her head. She had a feeling she was about to be wrong given how little she had to go off of, but Sunset was the tutor. “I see a giant black mass. Was what you put in here a giant black mass?”

Sunset’s sigh in response brushed up against Molly’s neck. It was truly an unnerving feeling since not only was it warm but there was no other breeze to go with it. “Go and do what we just talked about, Molly.”

“Right. Feel it, visualize it, get through it. Gonna check, check, and check those off right now.”

Molly moved closer to the looming mass of darkness. It didn’t get any easier to see, it just became all encompassing of the world before her. By the time she was standing right before it she could see nothing else but its pitch blackness in front and above her. But she had already made one big step since getting into her own head, and now she was going to use that to take another.

So first, feel it. Tentatively reaching out, Molly held her breath as she touched the side of the darkness. And…it was solid, but not like rock or metal. She had felt something like this before, A soft kind of solid that wouldn’t crumble but was still pliable enough that just about anyone could break it if they needed to. And was it warming to her touch? Yes, yes it was. Not really heating up like Gaz’s fire or Dipper’s face when Sunset did just about anything, but it was reacting.

Molly pulled her hand back and just as she’d expected there was now a fine layer or residual darkness coating her palm. It was a familiar feeling darkness though, familiar enough that she decided to “feel” it out with another sense and took a big sniff of her palm. At once she was sure what it was, even if that seemed silly and amazing all at once. She had to be sure though, immediately reaching out with both hands again and looking for…there it was, an edge. Not the edge of the whole thing, but the edge of one of the rectangles that made up the wall Sunset had constructed. Large rectangles set side by side instead of stacked like bricks, each one with an angled divot between it and those to each side. Exactly like, well exactly like…

Molly didn’t dare say it out loud or even think it too hard in case she was wrong or that somehow jinxed what she was now hoping was in front of her. Instead she flung her magic into that wall of darkness, visualizing what she was more an more certain Sunset had left for her. Her golden light suffused the darkness as she visualized the wall’s true form, encompassing and overwhelming it until, with a burst as if the darkness had been a bubble that needed popping, what lay beneath was revealed.

Molly gasped. It was just so beautiful, especially after all the terrible things she’d seen since falling into hell. It was practically heavenly by contrast. It was, it was, “A giant wall of chocolate bars!”

“Thought you might like that,” Sunset said in response to Molly’s glee. “So now that you’ve felt and visualized the mental wall, all you’ve gotta do is get to the memory I locked on the other side. I wonder how you might do that?”

Molly’s face felt like it might split in half as her smile grew to comical proportions. She knew exactly how to get this type of challenge, she’d lived with Scratch for over four years after all. And if there was one thing that ghost knew how to do, it was make food disappear.

---

It was with a sense of bitter sweetness that Molly’s eyes opened as she pushed herself out of the fake Scratch’s head. Bitter because she had eaten enough chocolate getting through that wall that her belly had swollen and her face had been covered in more chocolate than flesh. Sweet because she hadn’t actually eaten anything and being back in her mind palace bedroom relieved the stomach ache that had been readying to make her life miserable, though not having actually eaten any chocolate was its own type of bitterness. Regardless, she’d gotten what Sunset had sent her in there for, so job well done.

“Aw, hey Ray,” Sunset beamed as she picked the little yellow lizard out of Molly’s hands. “I didn’t expect you to materialize him too.”

“It just seemed like the thing to do,” Molly said while patting her stomach. She still kind of felt like she had eaten a McGee shaped hole into a wall and the phantom sensation was strange to say the least. “I had to use visualization to get in and through him, so I thought doing it on the way out would make sense too.”

Sunset nodded along while petting the little yellow lizard Molly had pulled out with her. Despite being based on a memory the same way the fake Scratch, the lizard seemed much more lifelike. It bobbed its head and wiggled its tail in response to all Sunset’s petting and telling him he was a good boy. That was probably the way he acted in her memories, but it was still such a stark contrast between what Sunset could create and the unmoving Scratch-shaped lump Molly had. But that just meant there was room for Molly to improve. And if she could get better at it, good enough to pull up happy memories to get people to respond the way Sunset was, then maybe Molly could finally feel a bit more like herself again.

“I haven’t been able to see him in a while,” Sunset said. She’d taken a seat back on the bed, letting the lizard crawl over her shoulders and chest as she leaned back. “He’s so much bigger and pointier than this now that I couldn’t get permission to bring him on campus without joining the beast keeping track. And even if I did, could you imagine Twilight sharing a room with a lizard bigger than she is?”

Molly almost laughed out loud. “She’d either want to study him nonstop or run off in fear, I’m not sure which.”

“Yeah,” Sunset agreed, chuckling. Then her eyes widened as if some wonderous thought had just occurred to her. “Come here for a sec.”

“Wha–” Molly started but was cut off as Sunset grabbed her by the arm and dragged her down onto the bed. Suddenly the two were side by side, Molly squeezed tight against Sunset as the demon girl’s right arm held her in place and her left held the polaroid camera aloft.

“A memory of your first successful day under my tutelage,” Sunset added before quickly clicking the shutter button. The camera flashed and Molly couldn’t imagine what kind of expression she’d had across her face as the temporarily blank square slid out of the front slot. As quickly as Sunset’s arm had pulled Molly in it released her so Sunset could pull the developing photo free and start waving it to develop faster. “Too bad we can’t take it out to shove in Danny’s face. Well, I could…but it’d be a lot of hassle.”

“I’d rather not shove anything in anyone’s face,” Molly said as amicably as she could. “I’d rather you two get along if we’re going to keep doing tutoring sessions together.”

“You’re probably right,” Sunset sighed. “And I should know that after all the times guys have shoved things in my face. Oh look, the pic came out.”

Sunset held the photo between them as the last bits of it finished forming. It was certainly a selfie, one that Sunset looked stunning in of course, while Molly couldn’t help but notice how awkward she came across. She looked like she was about to fall over in the picture, which she basically had been since Sunset had pulled her down onto the bed practically at the same time she’d snapped the shot. At least she was smiling though, an odd half-smile that showed how confused she was about what was going on. She’d taken worse photos.

Surprisingly though, Sunset didn’t seem as pleased with it as Molly would have expected. Or at least, as the native witch looked down at it her expression seemed to harden and grow more serious. Though her eyes also grew less focused, as if it wasn’t the photo she was looking at but something far beyond it.

“Molly,” Sunset said suddenly, nearly causing Molly to jump in her seat. The only thing that kept her in place was the throne of pillows Sunset had built up earlier. “Before we get out of your head, there’s something I need to ask you.”

“Okay…” Molly replied slowly. She didn’t know why, but Sunset had gone very serious all of a sudden. Not just in her expression but the way she was talking too. It was totally different than the way she’d been just before.

“Do you like Dipper?”

This time not even the pillow throne could keep Molly from practically falling over and definitely couldn’t keep her from tripping over her own words. “W-why would you ask something like that? Yeah he’s my friend and he’s not bad looking but we-we’ve never even–”

“Take a breath Molly.”

She did. And it did help, but only a little.

“I wasn’t asking if you wanted to date him,” Sunset added. “It’s cool if you do, though. It’s not like what he’s got with me and Twi is a throuple situation, just a succubus thing I have to deal with.”

“Then what are you asking?”

“If there was something you could help him, would you? Maybe in a way that involved your magic.”

Molly nodded. It was obvious, after all, that was her whole thing. Especially when it came to her friends.

“What if helping him meant doing something in secret?”

Molly did have to pause for that one. She knew secrets could be important, sometimes. But she didn’t want a secret to become the basis for something important in her friendship if she could help it. That was why she’d worked so hard to get Libb– Liab and Scratch to get along with one another after all, she hadn’t wanted to keep either of her friends a secret from one another.

“If that was the best way to help him, then I guess,” Molly finally answered. “I’d hope it wouldn’t be something I’d have to keep a secret forever though.”

It was Sunset’s turn to nod. Whether in agreement or understanding she didn’t say, but accepted Molly’s answer either way. After a brief moment of consideration, but before Molly built up the nerve to ask what all this was about, Sunset continued on her own. “I’m going to show you something I saw in Dipper’s mind the other night. For now I just want you to tell me what you think of them, okay?”

“Okay.”

With a flick of her wrist and flash of a magic circle two doors appeared in the center of Molly’s room. They weren’t just any doors thought. They were big, massive even that they didn’t seem like they should have fit in the room at all. And then there was their color, or lack thereof. Molly had thought the shadowed walls Sunset had created in the fake Scratch’s head had been pitch black, but they were nothing compared to these doors. They were so black they seemed to suck in the light, the color even, from around them, as if them just existing was making things in their surroundings worse.

“These were in Dipper?” Molly asked, hand over her mouth. The more she looked at them the more she thought she was going to be sick. Overeating the chocolate earlier seemed like a tickle in comparison, while this was downright nauseating. She wanted them gone. She needed them gone. Yet, if Dipper had these in his head then what was that doing to him? Molly didn’t think she’d even be able to function with something like that in her mind, let alone too.

“Yeah…” Sunset said. She too didn’t seem too well off looking at them, yet she wouldn’t look away either. “From what I can tell they’re forms of repression, or at least the left one is. I saw memories of his that had pieces torn out. I think those pieces were locked behind that door. The right one though… well, when I went back over what I saw in there it seems like that one is some kind of coping mechanism or compartmentalization. He put something in there so he wouldn’t have to think about it.”

“Does that have to mean whatever’s behind there is bad?” Molly asked. She knew the answer though. The door blocking something couldn’t be so terrible if what was behind wasn’t even worse.

“I brushed up against it and it physically hurt him,” Sunset stated, which was more than answer enough. She almost sounded angry now, and with her hands balled into fists she was starting to look angry too. Not at Molly, and it wouldn’t make sense for her to be mad at Dipper. Was she mad at herself then? For not being able to help on her own?

“What could I do then?” Molly asked, a question that distracted Sunset from the doors enough to loosen some of the stress gripping her in the moment.

“Based on where the doors were in his mind whatever he stuffed behind the right door probably happened after he started at Rev U, the time you’ve known him in,” Sunset explained. Molly could see her thinking through her words very carefully. “Which means, whether you’re in those particular memories or not, you’ll be more familiar to him than I would be. In fact, I’m so far removed from your guys’ normal lives back on Earth that I doubt I could ever get at his secret without him feeling my touch. Especially since he’s felt so much of my touch at this point.”

“Was that innuendo on purpose?”

Sunset seemed to actually have to consider what she’d just said at the end. Maybe she kept herself “on” so much that how risky she intended to be got lost sometimes. Or maybe certain things just sounded that way when not intended to.

“Let’s call it a double entendre and move one,” Sunset finally answered. “The long and the short of it is, if we get you good at getting into people’s minds and refine what you did today so you can get through barriers that are tougher than chocolate, then we can find out what’s behind that door. Once we know we can figure out a way to help him through whatever’s there. And if he finds us out in the process then I’ll take the blame, it’s my idea after all.”

“Why do you want to help him so badly?” The words were out of Molly’s mouth before she realized what she was saying. And while she would usually be thrilled to see someone else wanting to help others, there was more than a few reasons why this seemed like too much. Not least of all being, “I mean, it’s just that you’ve barely known us a week. Even if he’s really good in–“

Sunset put her hand up before Molly could say it, which was good by her. She wasn’t as innocent as everyone else assumed but that also didn’t mean she needed to be talking about other people’s sex lives either. “The fact that he’s surprisingly good at keeping me full is not the reason I’m doing this, it’s a bonus reason. It’s partly because I made a deal with him to try and get his confidence up, which I don’t think will happen as long as he’s got baggage keeping him down. Another part is to keep Twi happy, which she won’t be if the person she doesn’t want anyone to know she’s secretly putting her hopes of fixing the corridor on has a breakdown. But even then, neither of those are the main reason…”

“Then what is?” Molly asked when Sunset didn’t seem to be coming back to where she drifted off from.

“I haven’t always been there for people in the past,” she finally replied after a moment where she really seemed to be fighting to get through what she needed to say. “Some I basically set up for failure or worse…” she inhaled deeply through her nose to focus herself. “And there were times even when I wanted to make it right that I couldn’t, times where I tried to lock away the trouble it caused me. But that kind of thing always comes back, Molly. It builds up behind the doors or box or whatever you try to lock it behind and comes at you like a flood. I may never be able to make up for some of the things that I’ve done or that happened because of me, but I can help keep others from experiencing the worst of what that kind of flood can do to a person.”

“Do you, you want to talk about it?” Molly asked, not sure what else she could say in such a heavy moment.

Sunset let out an amused huff. “I have a therapist, Molly. Even if I didn’t have things in my past to work through it’s a good investment considering my line of work. Plus I make Spike listen to me when I need an extra pair of ears.”

At her own mention of Spike she seemed to perk up and her eyes brightened as if in a flash of realization. She glanced down at where her lizard figment had curled up between her stretched shirt and cleavage and said, “That gives me an idea about Ray, I kind of feel dumb for not thinking of it sooner. But back to the point, I’m going to do this for Dipper one way or the other. I’d like your help not only because it’ll be easier for us but because I think it’ll make things easier for him too. I won’t try and force you though, but I really want you to consider doing this with me. Will you at least promise to do that for now? You can make your decision about going through with it with me later, okay?”

Molly thought she could do that, just keep an idea in mind. She didn’t love the thought of breaking into her friend’s mind, but if what Sunset was saying was true then doing that kind might be the only way to go if he wouldn’t tell them or let them in on his own. She didn’t love doing something so important in secret, but how else could something like this be done? And so on and so on, round and round in her head. Doubly so since they were already in her head. It got so bad that she needed to look somewhere, anywhere that wasn’t part of this messy situation. But the doors were blocking most of her room and Sunset was between her and the window, so she threw her head back and stared at the ceiling. But looking up didn’t bring any relief, only forced her eyes wide and hands to clamp tight at her side.

The shadowy haze was back. Less of it than before, but it was creeping out of from between the corners and wooden slats just like Sunset had said it would. Her own brief moment of enhappification was dwindling. From the instant she considered not helping Dipper find his. Which meant there was only one answer she could give, wasn’t there?

“I’ll do it.”