Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The heavy wind and rain kept picking up inside the giftshop.

The few tourists that were hanging around before it became a full storm managed to get to safety outside. They were really lucky getting out in time, thought King, they have a zero percent chance of getting pelted by a stray bobblehead now.

“What should we do?!” King yelled to his new friend. He tried to look back at him, half blinded by the torrential rain. Dipper was doing his best to protect his book as well as hold on to his sister. Mabel held her grappling hook, but there was no way she can use it now. The small amount of cover they had was the only thing keeping them from practically flying off.

“There's nothing in my journal about this!” Dipper said, referring to his blue-green journal with a pine tree at the center. How to stop this definitely wasn't in the other book either. “Grunkle Ford should be on his way!”

“I don't think your uncle can get in here kid,” his older sister Lupe said bluntly, somehow sounding calm in all the chaos. King didn't know how she could after seeing what she must have been referring to. The doors would be hard to open with the gale forcing it shut, let alone the furniture blocking it.

A stray bolt of lightning struck, but King had no idea where. He had instinctually closed his eyes as soon as he heard the thunder. His heart was practically in his throat and quietly stammered, “I'm so sorry I messed up…” If Mabel and Dipper heard him, he wasn't sure.

He wasn't quite sure Lupe heard him either, but the way she looked at him, she looked like she understood regardless. She then looked straight ahead, towards where the eye of the storm should be - the girl in the center.

King felt apprehensive - she was gearing up to do something reckless and he couldn't stop her.

How did finding that book lead to this?

Everything didn't start off with an interior decorating tropical storm, guilt, and wondering how to explain everything to the local business owner. It all seemed pretty normal at first, even the town itself.

Summer vacation had just started, and his mom had been talking for a while now about going to Gravity Falls.

A family trip for the entire summer break. He honestly didn't take the plans that seriously but there he was. In a cramped van with his two little sisters next to him entertaining themselves, his oldest sister driving, his mom in the passenger seat, and her old service dog laying down calmly in the back just happy to be there.

He had taken a nap at some point and woken up, with a vague dream of a big glowing eye and shrill laughter he was quickly forgetting, to see that they were still driving.

His mom was still occasionally giving out directions to Lupe by the time he woke up. How she knew where to go he had no clue; he hasn't seen it on any map as of yet. That's just how small the town was.

Guess mom just really wanted to go, he thought dejectedly. Why, he wasn't really sure and was mentally preparing having the most boring summer ever.

“How much until we get there?” King asked, still tired from his terrible nap. He loved to read his books, but after traveling in a small van for so long he just knocked out. They've taken a few detours to some tourist traps on the way since leaving their home in New Mexico. Now they're steadfastly heading to the small town and haven't stopped in a while.

“We'll get there when we get there, kid,” Lupe grinned at him through the mirror. She's always teasing him lightheartedly - never out of malice but he still found it annoying.

Joaquin 'King' Flores seemed like the only one in the family that didn't care for the trip, his sisters all seemed agreeable with it which made some sort of sense.

His little twin sisters Naomi and Phoebe loved nature in their own ways. Phoebe loved plants and would have her own greenhouse if she had her way, and Naomi was an active kid that loved running around everywhere. Both would probably be having the time of their lives chasing lizards or whatever else in the forest.

Lupe just made it her job to look after mom, even though she was all grown and could leave whenever she wanted to. She even took a job working from home just to do that. Being in a small town or not probably made no difference to her. Her relaxed attitude about it somehow felt overbearing to King.

“It is not much further,” his mom said, turning back to them. She always has a calm voice but there was a gleam in her eye now. He's found himself occasionally wondering if his mom had a surprise waiting there. “We are even receiving Gravity Falls radio stations now." She turned the dial and the ghastly voice of a man came out, announcing the weather.

She promptly changed it back to the original station Lupe put on, to the quiet giggles of his little sisters.

“I'll try not to have that voice be my impression of the town,” he said sarcastically but then regretted even if that voice was anything but bodacious. He'd rather do anything else for his summer break but he didn't want to ruin the trip for his mom. Just suck it up, it can't be that bad.

At least his mom was correct. The trees surrounding them seemed endless but at last they were driving through the town and arriving at the bed and breakfast, The Elm House. It looked like a giant, rustic log cabin where he hoped had wifi available.

They checked in fast and his mom talked more with the two little, old ladies running the place, who were recommending the nearby diner they met at. 

 “What nice, charming women,” his mom said in the guestroom bringing in some of their bags. “We will have to go to the diner soon.” Her service dog Torito was diligently by her side, and she was about to head out when she said, “Lupita, can you come here for a moment?”

Mom with her loyal guard dog (and Torito) stepped outside, King presumed to get more bags, and they were left to unpack in the family guest room - two bedrooms that were connected with a door in the middle.

“Do you think those two ladies were witches?” Naomi asked mischievously.

“Nah, they didn't give me a witchy vibe,” replied Phoebe sincerely. “But there's gotta be a witch in the woods!” 

Wanting to play in the woods wasn't the surprise but the witch thing was new, King thought. “A witch? How do you know that?” he asked, playing along. 

His 12 year old twin sisters were always up to some game together. They still had moments where they would try to switch clothes and pretend they were the other, just to see if they could trick their mom. They never manage to do it. 

Their closeness was cute, even when they had different hobbies they still found a way to share it.

“Yeah! Check this out, we've only been here for a bit and tada! It says ‘a witch is watching’” Phoebe excitedly showed some gnarly mosquito bites on her arm.

Fixing his glasses he reads, “It says ‘a watch is washing’”.

“Mosquitos can't spell, that's just what they meant to say,” she replied, as sage as a little kid could sound.

“Mosquitos shouldn't be able to spell, I'll give you that.”

“Are you going to help us find her?” Naomi asked, glancing out the window again. “There's definitely something out there, it feels all creepy.” She didn't sound creeped out at all, more antsy to go see for herself what's out there.

 “What's the plan when you two find her, wouldn't she turn you both into actual little gremlins?”

If they get lost in those woods, and I don't stop them when I have the chance, mom might just lose it and kill me, he thought. He hoped that that question would be enough to deter them.

The twins were not stopped, instead they grabbed a notepad and started brainstorming ways to defeat a witch.

So far a lot of what they were bringing up was a lot of the old stories their mother told them growing up. It's sweet, but he didn't want to start his summer break by having to lead a search team through a dark forest. “Do you guys really think old fairytales are going to help with your witch hunt?”

“Mom's always right about everything. She, like, knows everything,” Naomi said straight faced, with Phoebe nodding to back up her statement, some of the beads in her hair making a noise when she did.

“Sure," King said, sounding unsure on how to respond. He wasn't quite sure what age kids should both stop believing in fairy tales and thinking their parents are right about everything, but he didn't want to say that out loud.

Their mom is the only one who's able to control their pranks and he doesn't want to tell them something that'll make them rebel and go into a prank war. “I guess I'm just too old for all that, like they're just stories.”

He immediately worried he said the wrong thing.

“Old?” They both said in unison, incredulously. They don't often share the same facial expressions at the same time, but they looked at him as if he was crazy.

Looks like he narrowly avoided the prank war.

The age gap between his twin sisters and him was a lot smaller compared to the age gap between him and their eldest sister. He can see why that combined with his physical appearance led to that thought.

King was physically really tall, a result of a very late growth spurt that left him looking kind of lanky. The height helps him look a little older, sort of anyway, but he still felt like he still had a baby face. His facial hair was just starting to grow but not fully, making it look awkward too.

“I'm almost 18, that means I'm practically an adult now. Adults don't really do fantasy stuff,” he said, a little self conscious, and then silly for feeling that way with his little sisters.

“You're an adult now? What, are you that excited about paying taxes?” Lupe teased, entering their guest room with mom, Torito, and the last of their stuff. King had completely missed their entrance, his face feeling warm getting snuck up on.     

“N-not really, we were just talking about magic or witches or whatever.”

“Magic huh? Sounds fun, you guys found a witch in here?” Lupe smiled at the twins, who lit up and started telling her about their witch hunt.

His mom meanwhile looked a little confused over their discussion but ultimately happy that they were getting along. “Mi cielo,” his mom said amiably to him, quiet to not interrupt his sisters, “why don't you and Lupe go explore the town a little.”

“Wait, just us two? I thought we were all going to do the tourist thing together,” he said surprised.

“We will later, but this is a trip for everyone, you two as well." His mom looked him straight in his eyes and continued.

“I know this vacation was not your choice, and I know Lupe worries for me. Go out together and have some fun. I want you two to have a nice time.”

His mom always spoke in a sincerely earnest way; from anyone else it might have been an advanced guilt tripping technique but she was too honest for that. It still had the same result though, he'd never want her to feel bad.

“Okay mami, we'll try to have fun,” he said with a slight smile to appease his mom.

She beamed at him, happy that he's trying and hopeful that they actually would have a good time together. He wasn't sure what he would do to actually achieve it but he'll try.

They turned back to his sisters; Phoebe showing off her mosquito bites, Naomi talking about their plans, and Lupe looking a little concerned at how many bites Phoebe had. “Okay”, his mom said, drawing their attention.

“Let us take care of that before we go out girls,” his mom said in a reassuring tone, pulling out a bag to help his little sister. “We will join later”, she said glancing back at him and Lupe. “There are some things we have to get, but when we are done I will get everyone treats.”

Glancing back at the twins she smiled and said, “I know my girls are strong enough to help me carry everything.” The twins eyes lit up with the promise of treats, even though it also comes with the promise of errands.

“Well, let's get going,” King said, not wanting to get roped into errands. Stepping outside with Lupe right behind him, both saying quick byes, they stopped walking once they were outside the B&B.

“So… you two were conspiring about me or something before?” King asked, wondering how his mom got Lupe to stop her ‘bodyguard’ duties to bond with him instead.

“Something like that,” Lupe smirked, “looks like we're having a little adventure, King.”

He had no idea what was around here to do and shrugged, “Where to?”

She usually had her hands in her jacket pockets, just adding to her cool-headed appearance, and from there she took out a pamphlet. “Both Mrs Lovetts’ gave a map of the town,” she said, opening it up and showing it to him. “Definitely need to figure out their names before it gets confusing. But right now, we're going wherever you want.”

“Really? Is that what mom said too?”

“Well, mom just wants us to hang out. Going wherever you want is my idea.”

Shrugging again he said, “As long as there's no catch involved.”

“Seriously ‘a catch’, you have so little faith in me. I swear we'll do whatever you want, pinky promise. I'll even-,” she paused thinking and then said, “I'll even swear it on my lucky bracelet.” Lupe put her left hand out and showed her red bracelet that had a single blue bead, like an eye, in the middle.

“I guess that's a semi-serious swear coming from you,” he recognized. She was always wearing it, he couldn't think of a time when she wasn't. And the smile she had now was no longer a teasing smile, it just reminded him of all the past pinky promises they had when they were younger.

He took the map from her and scanned through it. The town was small, but there did seem like a fair amount of places to go to. Looking through it fast he saw one place he wanted to check out first.

It wouldn't surprise anyone in his family that King wanted to go to the library first; he loved going inside libraries and bookstores. Even if he wasn't going to get anything, it was still a nice place to go.

King was glad it was a decently sized one. He wouldn't be able to check books out at the moment, but at least he can read inside and work on his comic books if he had nothing else to do in the summer.

King walked in carrying his backpack, mostly emptied out at the guest room except for his important stuff, like his notebooks and pencil case. He wasn't sure how long he'd be there today but at least he felt prepared.

Lupe wasn't far behind him when he went off searching, but after a moment of looking through the bookshelves she went to look around elsewhere. King felt fine with that, kinda hoping he won't have a babysitter for his entire summer break.

He managed to find a The Sibling Brothers book that he hadn't read yet, carrying it around when he saw a section of the library that piqued his interest. King wasn't sure what drew him in exactly, but it was at the very back, darker than the rest of the library. Looking at the little sign designating what section he was at, King thought, did they make the occult section darker on purpose?

Curiosity won over and he took out the first book he saw with an interesting spine and did a double take, “ Dr. Crackpot’s Book of the Damned, what?” He flipped through the pages, at least the illustrations looked interesting. Originally he just wanted to make fun of the name and put it back, but he was quickly changing his mind.

Okay, maybe I will take out my notebook to draw after all. By this point he had a small stack in his hands. He's never been in the occult section of a library, never even heard of it. The interest wasn't hypocritical compared to his earlier thoughts with his sisters. It was just a type of literary tourism at this point.

He was heading to one of the nearby tables when he bumped into two other teens coming out of the other side of the shelf in the Occult section, a boy and a girl shorter than him. “My bad, I didn't see you two there,” King said, a little embarrassed. Some of his book stack was a little harder to carry now, and he dropped two of his books.

The boy with the lumberjack hat was apologizing at the same time as him, “Sorry, we were rushing too fast. We can help with that,” he helped pick up his books while the girl helped him with his stack.

“Thanks, I've never seen these types of books before so I ended up grabbing a bunch,” King said embarrassed, walking with them to a table close by. “I definitely went a little overboard,” he said with the books all laid out on the table now.

“Wow, you're like the only other person we've seen in that part of the library,” the girl in the knitted sweater said. “Normally it's just Dipper and me, mostly him,” she said in a teasing tone.

“Research is important for investigations Mabel, you can never be too prepared,” presumably Dipper said, in the tone of someone who said something a million times out of habit.

“You guys are investigating something? That's cool, it's like out of a Sibling Brothers story,” he commented and took a seat at the table. “You can call me King by the way."

Dipper grinned, “You read the Sibling Brothers too?” he asked, thrilled but also trying to keep his voice down.

King showed the first book he grabbed for his stack before he went by the occult section, The Sibling Brothers: The Missing Missus Midst the Mimics. “Just found the newest one before heading here.”

At that point, both boys were going fully into who had stolen the capers in the last book, if they had deduced the culprit correctly. They even landed into a tangent on Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons; just going full, as Lupe would put it, nerd mode.

Speaking of, she was off to the side, where the siblings probably didn't see her, standing and flipping through what looked like a fantasy romance novel. Lupe was discreetly giving him several thumbs ups for a successful friendly conversation. Similarly, Mabel, who was still at the table was not as discreetly sending similar gestures to her brother.

“I can't believe I haven't seen you around until now!” Dipper exclaimed, “I haven't met anyone around my age that likes this stuff.”

“I actually just got here today, my family is visiting for the summer. I don't really know what's around so my sister and I ended up coming here.” He didn't add that he hadn't either until now.

They glanced over at Lupe who has since stopped sending him a series of thumbs ups. She was still obviously being nosy but still flipping through her book.

“We're actually visiting for the summer too! We stay at the Mystery Shack with our grunkles. Maybe you can come by and hang out,” Mabel said excitedly, rejoining the conversation.

“Yeah, that sounds great! I can definitely come over,” King said. He was glad that he managed to make a new friend and plans for the summer at the same time.

“Oh, I almost forgot to ask. You guys mentioned researching something, what were you looking for in the occult section?”

Mabel and Dipper looked at each other for a moment, for a brief silent conversation before they seemed to come to a decision.

“Our friend Wendy actually found this amulet a few days ago,” Mabel said, showing a picture on her phone of an amulet with a rhombus shaped, orange gemstone, that looked like it was placed on a countertop. “We've been trying to figure out if it's safe. It's our first mystery of the summer!” Mabel grinned, showing off her colorful braces.

“If it's safe? Like, if the gemstone is ok to be touched?” King asked, a little confused. He's heard of some gemstones that weren't safe to handle, that were radioactive or toxic in some situations. He wasn't sure why they were in the occult section for that though.

“Well, in a way,” Dipper responds. “You haven't been here long so maybe you haven't noticed.” He pulled out a journal with a pinetree at the center, “This town has a lot of weird stuff going on. Last summer we started investigating it and haven't stopped.”

He stopped at the last page he filled in, it seemed like he just recently started his journal. It had yesterday's date and a really good rendering of the amulet.

King skimmed that someone named Wendy had gotten it after chasing off a gnome that happened to drop it, and took it to show off to the twins. He didn't manage to read what happened that made them want to research it before it was closed again.

“This journal is pretty new, I used to write in a different one but it's gone now,” Dipper nostalgically said. “It probably sounds a little nuts, but trust me, the longer you're in this town, the stranger it gets. All the residents are used to it by now.”

King and his family have only been here for like, a couple of hours, so there wasn't much to add. “I haven't seen anything super crazy yet, but I guess the mosquito bites my little sister got today were bizarre. It actually spelled out a whole sentence! Not well but,” ending his sentence with a shrug.

“The same thing happened to me last summer too, I-!” Dipper exclaimed, before a notification from his phone went off. “Oh, we should get back to the shack,” Dipper said apologetically.

Both of the twins glanced down at the books, probably with the realization that they procrastinated too much and didn't get to do their research. King felt a little bad for distracting but still glad to have met them.

 “You know, I don't really know about this kind of stuff, but I am a pretty fast reader. If I see your amulet mentioned in one, I'll let you guys know.”

 Both twins lit up, Dipper thanked him for offering to help and Mabel told him it was nice to meet him before they both headed out, with promises of seeing him soon.

 He actually might have to apologize to his little sisters at this rate if he ends up on a completely separate witch hunt (or gnome hunt?) from theirs or something. Oh well, he'll do it if he actually sees something crazy.

 Lupe came up from behind him, “You did good.”

 “I just made some new friends, it's not that big of a deal,” King said, feeling a little awkward that she was not even secretly there for the whole thing.

“Well you did a good job of it. Be proud of that.” She then looked at all his books, “So you said something about looking for something?”

King did feel a little proud of himself, and in answer to his sister's question replied, “Some amulet, it's not going to be in most of these books though.” He looked at one of the books he grabbed, titled A Guide to Fighting Undead Things For Dimwits. “At least I don't think so. I'm just gonna quickly look through them for now and read anything promising.” 

“Alright,” Lupe shrugged, then grabbed another book he had grabbed from apparently the same author, So You're Living a Cursed Half-Life: A Self-Help Book. “I'll help you look, it'll be faster that way.”

King smiled in response to her offering to help like that. It can be hard sometimes being around her, but most of the time she can be a cool sister. 

He grabbed the strap of his backpack to move it to the seat next to him and paused. It's heavier than before. Actually looking at it now, it looked fuller too.

King zipped open his bag and in surprised confusion, saw a book with an obsidian cover, the red eye on the cover looked like it was peeking at him.

When did this get here?

Chapter Text

 Dipper still felt excited by the time they almost reached the Mystery Shack. He made a new friend! One that seemed to like the same stuff he did! He was even willing to help out with the research for his investigation.

“Do you think it's cool to let him do the research? I feel a little bad that he's doing it all by himself,” he said second guessing himself. Not everyone thinks researching is fun, even if it's on mysterious magical artifacts. It was starting to make him feel worried that he misstepped already.

 “I think it's fine Dip, he offered to do it to be nice to you. If you want to make it up to him, I'll let you have the first sleepover of the summer,” Mabel cheerfully offered.

“I'll have to ask him if he's up for that.” Did guys have sleepovers? He honestly had no clue, he’s never been to one before. “Maybe we can have an all night long Dungeons, Dungeons, & More Dungeons campaign,” Dipper enthusiastically thought aloud. He's been thinking about possible campaign ideas since King showed him some of his drawings of his druid character in his notebook.

Dipper stopped himself internally from going further with those plans (for now). He couldn't forget why they were investigating in the first place. 

When Wendy found the amulet, she said the gnome was acting weird before she chased it off. (But she also shrugged and said that it could just be that gnomes were already weird to begin with.) When she picked it up off the ground it seemed like just a pretty gemstone. Something cool to show off to the twins that had just arrived back to the town.

The glowing it started doing in their presence was intriguing, but when the sparks started flying once Dipper had touched it? Immediately got wrapped in rubber dishwashing gloves and shoved it into a glass jar. It still seemed a little active whenever they came close to it.

The three of them are definitely eager to figure out why it started acting like that and what it can do!

“Hmm…if nothing is found today, we'll need to move on to the next plan,” he said, trying to get back to business. The library's occult section was a possible longshot to begin with...

Dipper recalled the list of ideas he had when he was brainstorming last night. He knew this specific amulet wasn't in the third journal, but he had no clue about the other two.    

There was no way to check them out now though. After Weirdmageddon they reappeared like nothing had ever happened, in better condition than before even. But Grunkle Ford had gotten rid of them soon after finding them again. 

Even with the journals gone, Grunkle Ford could have been an option to seek help. A great option even, the first one! But it wasn't possible to get his help right now.

His Grunkles had arrived back in Gravity Falls about a week before they did, and somehow, in that short amount of time Grunkle Ford managed to get cursed. Dipper and Mabel still had no clue how, or what the curse exactly is. He said it was nothing major, and had been going to his lab regularly to get rid of it. Both his grunkles told them not to worry about it, but it did seem like his curse was… persistent. 

He hadn't been able to ask him the few times he's managed to see him. Ford had just been single-mindedly working on his curse thing and didn't want to involve them. So until he has his breakthrough, or Grunkle Stan forces him to take a break again, involving him for any mystery is out of the picture.

“What curse did Grunkle Ford get stuck with…” Dipper muttered to himself. Mabel most likely did hear him, but she's used to it and aware how much this mystery was bothering him. It was like the gears in his head were spinning too much. He's focusing on the amulet for now, but as soon as they're done figuring it out, his grunkle's mystery is next.

That left two other more feasible options before trying some experiments and seeing what happens. Luck out in the occult section of the library or directly go to the gnomes. Dipper didn't want any gnomes creeping on his sister so they went to the library and hoped they'd get results.

“We'll figure it out, we can handle anything in our way,” Mabel self-assuredly stated. 

Dipper confidently smirked. Yeah, after last summer they definitely can. 

When they came in through the gift shop entrance, there were a fair amount of tourists in the shop. No one other than Wendy was around the cash register. She was working (reading), avoiding eye contact from everyone until she noticed that the twins arrived and visibly brightened seeing them. 

She grinned at them as they came up. “How'd the research go? Think that amulet will give us superpowers?" Wendy playfully asked.

“We're not sure yet, but we have a new friend helping us find out!” Mabel replied.

 “A new friend huh. Would it be someone I know?”

Dipper excitedly told her the teenage tourist he met at the library. Mabel occasionally gave details as well but let him take the lead. She was just happy that her brother met a friend that’s just as dorky as he is.

“He sounds like a nice guy if he’s going out of his way to do magic homework.”

Calling it homework made Dipper remember what he was previously worried about. He took out his phone and in a rush said, “I'll send him a message and see how the research is going.” If he’s having no luck finding anything, he could bring up the idea of going to see the gnomes Dipper pondered. Maybe having more people around would stop any gnomes from messing with Mabel!

“You knuckleheads have magic homework now?” Grunkle Stan said, surprising the twins. He always managed to pop up quietly whenever they weren't working. But unlike last summer, he didn't go straight into enforcing that they get back to work because he wasn't Mr Mystery anymore.

“Nah, just some books we were looking for at the library. Although it would be fun to learn magic,” Mabel said dreamily, most likely daydreaming about it.

“We’re going to meet a friend later to talk about it," Dipper said, deciding not to bring up why. At this point they’re just used to dealing with whatever supernatural stuff on their own if it’s nothing dangerous. “Have you been working, Grunkle Stan?” He no longer wore the Mr Mystery getup, but a regular outfit that he’d wear for sailing/adventuring, which still felt a little weird to see inside the Shack. 

Grunkle Stan grinned mischievously, looking out at the good amount of people looking around the giftshop, “It's just nice to see how well the Mystery Shack is doing. I mean, putting ghost stickers on flashlights calling it ghost hunting gear, calling glitter magic powder. I taught him well.” There was an undeniable pride in what he was saying (though he'll probably try to anyway).

Since Grunkle Stan had come back to Gravity Falls, Soos had been showing him the new exhibits he made and additions to the gift shop with extreme enthusiasm. He's even asked him to come be a part of the tour occasionally. Not as Mr Mystery, but just joining the tourists as part of the audience.

He wouldn't admit it out loud but he had been acting a lot like a proud dad, which made Soos a lot more confident as the new boss.

“Anyway, I had nothing better to do and Soos wanted me to see one of his tours today. You kids want to join?” He asked in the way he usually did when he was secretly hoping they'd hang out with him.

“We're gonna hang out with friends but it shouldn't take too long. We'll be back before dinner,” Dipper said. Whatever happens, they're going to be there on time. 

After what happened at the end of Weirdmageddon… even though Grunkle Stan was better now, he still had moments where he would forget. Things he still hadn't remembered. 

He always managed to remember the younger set of twins, but they both wanted to make sure they had as much bonding time as they could - the opposite of how things were at the beginning of last summer.

“You kids do that, and I'll make sure Sixer doesn't trap himself in the basement,” he said grinning, knowing that they've been missing having both of their grunkles around. Curse or no curse, he was probably already plotting to get him out anyway. He left but not without telling them to not get into trouble, ruffling the twins’ hair as he went.

Dipper was about to check his phone to see if there was a response, when he happened to glance outside the window of the gift shop. “Oh, there's the new friend we told you about!” 

King was outside, for some reason moving his things from his backpack to an empty, plastic, grocery bag. His sister had a confused expression on her face but helped him hold the bag anyway before heading over. 

King walked to the shop, quick and determined. He must have definitely found something!

“Wow, that was fast!” Mabel exclaimed. “He really is a quick reader.”

When he came up to them Dipper saw that King had a grim, yet awkward, expression on his face, like he was trying hard not to show it but failed. He was holding his book bag by the short handle strap in his hand, like he didn't want it close to him but didn't want to be obvious about it.

Contrary to him, his older sister was calmly looking at the giftshop hats, standing apart as if to give them space to talk. She was holding in her arm the plastic bag that seemed to have all of his things inside, including the notebook he showed earlier when they talked about DD&MD. 

Did something happen before getting here? Dipper couldn't think of anything that would make one person look so nervous and the other just unresponsive, like nothing had happened. He was starting to worry that that something was the research he did.

“Hey, how's it going guys,” King gave a sort of awkward smile. “Sorry that I came by without sending a message.” 

“The gift shop is open to the public, don't worry about it,” Wendy shrugged.

“Oh, that's right. My bad,” he said, giving a short nervous chuckle, now looking embarrassed along with the awkward, feigned normalness. 

“So, did you find anything out, or are we going to see the gnomes?” Mabel asked playfully. After seeing his expression she wasn't smiling as brightly.

Dipper had expected some confusion on the gnome plan but instead he looked more outwardly unnerved. “Gnomes? Are you guys leaving? S-sorry, I didn't know you had plans, I-” 

“It's cool, we aren't leaving anywhere now. But is everything okay man?” Dipper asked. He didn't want to cut him off but Dipper felt that whatever had happened wasn't good.

“Yeah totally. Why wouldn't it be?" King said unconvincingly. He looked back behind him to see his sister, who was currently talking on the phone quietly. “Well, I guess, there is something I need to tell you about,” he murmured.

“Is this about the research you were doing?” Mabel asked, concerned over how he was acting.

“Kind of, in a way. I found what you guys were looking for actually,” King quickly said. “But it's like, a whole thing I have to explain. Just like, hear me out. I swear I'm not crazy.”

“Crazy ?” Dipper repeated back and looked at his sister. Even Wendy was starting to look worried. Well in her own cool teen way. 

King's sister came up behind him, poking him with his plastic bag of miscellaneous art supplies, before in quiet rapid-fire talking to him in Spanish. Dipper didn't understand most of what was said, but he did catch something about their mom. Maybe? 

Whatever response he gave (or maybe just the look on his face) made her look worried before she covered it up - looks like it's not just us getting concerned for him either. 

Once she left the gift shop, King looked around, and after seeing no one else close by spoke up. 

“Okay something weird happened. Or well, is still happening and I'm trying to wrap my head around it. It's like my brain shuts down because I can't think of a reasonable explanation. My sister didn't even see anything, so I just came here hoping you guys knew,” King rushed through his sentence. 

Dipper stood up straight, remembering McGucket and the discussions he had overheard between him and Grunkle Ford about the past. Not everyone had a good reaction to seeing the weirdness of Gravity Falls for the first time. “Whatever it is, it's going to be okay. We've got a ton of experience in handling anything weird.” Mabel and Wendy similarly looked ready to hear him out.

King looked a little bit more reassured after seeing that they were being sincere and took a deep breath. “Okay, this is going to take me a second to explain.” Instead of going straight into an explanation, he lifted his bag up. “You guys see that it looks heavy right?”

Confused, they all nodded, wondering where this was going. He started opening up his backpack slightly, “Don't look inside, just reach in.” When he unzipped the bag, Dipper noticed he had three band-aids on his right hand, which definitely weren't there at the library when they saw each other.

Did whatever's in the pain hole somehow get inside his bag? Dipper slowly reached in, hoping he wouldn't end up shrieking in pain in the middle of the gift shop when in confusion he said, “A book?” 

Dipper could feel that the book was a thick, hardcover one. He normally wouldn't be able to tell any other details without looking at it but… he could feel something was off. The texture of it was strange, it felt rough yet… fleshy, off-putting to touch. Dipper had felt goosebumps on his arm rise. Both Wendy and Mabel stuck their hands in after he said that it was a book, but no one touched it for long. 

“Okay, now look,” King roughly unzipped the bag completely, revealing it's now empty. 

“What the-,” Dipper cut himself off. King let him grab his backpack but there was literally nothing inside - he was turning it upside down and even inside out. It didn't even weigh anything anymore. It was just gone.

Looking back at King's face, he could tell it wasn't an elaborate prank or a really good magician's trick. He looked deadly serious.

“That book popped up in my backpack at the library, like I noticed it soon after you guys left. At first I thought maybe one of you accidentally put it in or something, but neither of you were even close to it. So I asked my sister and she said nobody snuck up to prank me either. And when I actually tried to show her-,” he cut himself off, worried he was getting too loud. 

“She didn't see it?” Dipper asked. This new mystery steadily grew in his mind.

“Worse,” he faltered, possibly thinking of the implications of what he was about to say. “When I first showed it to Lupe, she saw something completely different than I was. Like she was saying the cover was something about psychic powers in genealogy or whatever.

“It's either that or just… nothing. I actually tried leaving it at the library a couple of times, but it kept popping back in my bag. The first time it popped up right back up, I tried showing it to my sister but it just disappeared again,” he sighed wearily. “At least you guys being able to touch it proves I’m not going insane.”

All the nervous energy King had up until now seemed to have left him at that last sentence he uttered. He looked anxious and defeated.

“Has it done anything dangerous or has it just been weird?” Wendy asked straightforwardly.

“N-no. It's done a few other weird things, but so far the most dangerous thing it's done is papercuts,” King said, showing the band-aids on his right hand.

“Then we shouldn't panic. I don't think having a freaky stalker book is fun but we can figure this out,” Wendy reassured him. 

Maybe it was her attitude that convinced him or the logic in what she said, but he was at least visibly trying to calm himself down. “Y-you're right. Sorry, it's just all that, and then the photos and the video I took from it, it just freaked me out even worse.”

“You don't have to apologize, it's normal to feel that way,” Mabel said, trying to cheer him up. “Everyone feels that way sometimes.”

Dipper was glad that Mabel and Wendy were there to help, he's usually the one feeling anxious and getting paranoid. He has experience in helping Mabel get out of sweater town, not really anxiety attacks. “Yeah, everyone does. And we have experience in busting ghosts, mysteries, and everything in between. You're not alone.”

“Thanks,” King said softly, after taking a moment to calm down further. “Honestly I would have felt worse if I was dealing with it on my own. I wouldn't have known where to go.”

At some point in the conversation, when they weren't looking at it, it seemed it was back inside the closed bag. King looked resigned and just held it by the bag's handle again, not bothering to look inside. 

“So… what should we do?” he quietly asked. 

Dipper wanted to have more tact - his new friend almost had a panic attack from witnessing something supernatural. But the only way to move forward was asking questions. 

“You ended up reading it because you were looking for the amulet,” he started, trying to speak carefully. “And you mentioned you found it in the book. What did it say?” 

“Yeah, it was there,” he said, luckily not seeming upset by the question. “It had an illustration and everything. But I'm not sure if it's that much for you guys. It was honestly a little confusing. Very… all over the place.”

King took out his phone camera and just clicked on one. Dipper could tell that it was a book, opened on the table. But he couldn't begin to tell what the contents on the page showed. Just the part of the photo containing the page had a giant glitch over it. Nothing else in the background of the picture had a glitch over it.

“I had taken pictures to send to you, see if you understood it better. But it just kept coming out looking like a stereotypical analog horror movie. That was the moment when I was getting scared honestly." That last part he admitted more quietly, looking a little embarrassed at that.

“Do you remember what it said, at least?” Wendy asked. She seemed calm and collected as always, but Dipper wasn't sure if she actually was. He honestly sees how easily it would be to get unnerved from this book.

King paused thinking, then his eyes widened. “I remember most of it but not all the phrasing. I should have written it down, why didn't I think of it before,” he exclaimed.

Before he could get nervous about reading the book again or beat himself up for not writing the passage down, Mabel cut in. “You won't read it by yourself this time. We'll be there with you.” Then she lit up, excited for the idea she thought of. “Oh Dipper, it can be a part of your video thing!” 

“That's actually a pretty good idea Mabel,” Dipper said. “We might be able to catch something else on camera!” 

At the questioning look King had, he then added, “Last summer I would write in my journal about any encounters we had, and I'd sometimes document a web series catching anomalies.” He proudly stated that fact.

“Our parents were the only ones that watched it,” Mabel teasingly said. “But we did catch a lot of neat stuff.” 

King nodded with a determined expression on his face, “Sounds good to me. I wouldn't know how to begin dealing with this stuff.”

Dipper and Mabel started heading towards the employees only door, which really just connected to where they lived, with King and Wendy following behind when a gruff voice called out.

“You know you have to work so you could get paid right?” Grunkle Stan said, interrupting Wendy before she could leave her post at the cash register. He didn't seem angry about it, just his usual grumpy old man self.

Looks like the current tour just finished and entered the gift shop. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Wendy replied. When Stan wasn't staring directly at her she winked at the group and mouthed, when I get my chance.

“Oy, none of that,” Stan said, catching her in the act. 

“It's one thing to mess around when there's nothing to do, it's a whole nother story when-" He suddenly cut himself off.

The look on his face had the twins and Wendy immediately know what was going on.

“Grunkle Stan!” Both of the twins ran to him, worried about his current memory lapse. They're hoping it's not a bad memory spell; he's at least standing up, practically frozen and hasn't fallen down. He didn't seem to be reliving anything but they weren't sure. 

Mabel started to hug him and both twins looked up at his face. They couldn't tell if it was a bad one or not.

They have an easier time dealing with these when Grunkle Ford is around. 

There wasn't anything they could do now except wait with him and hope it wasn't bad. From the corner of his eye he sees the concern from the two older teens, with Wendy specifically on her phone, presumably trying to reach Ford for help.

What happened to cause this? There's nothing around here that would have brought up any new memories unless-

Dipper looked towards the entrance of the giftshop that led outside. The same direction Grunkle Stan had turned to before he stopped in his tracks. 

There was a small group of people that were there, but there was only one that could have possibly brought back a memory of his. The lady around Grunkle Stan's age staring right back at him.

The woman had looked caught off guard momentarily but then her face turned into recognition. "Lee? Is that you?”

It seemed his memory came back at the same time she said that. He unfroze and his face looked fully present again when he responded, “Marisela?”

Chapter Text

Mabel had never heard the name Marisela come from Grunkle Stan before. To be fair to her memory, he only ever talks about his past as concerning anecdotes in the form of jokes. 

The way he said her name, combined with the genuine smile he had towards her piqued Mabel's interest. Then when she returned his smile and walked up closer to Grunkle Stan, that just set off Mabel's project radar. Mabel swore it even looked like she was going to hug him before not going through with it!

I have a feeling Matchmaking Mabel is making a comeback, she thought with glee. 

Once she saw that Grunkle Stan was feeling better, Mabel had given him space; she then pulled Dipper away as he looked at the lady with suspicion. She practically dragged him behind the cash register, where she peeked her head out to watch quietly.  

Now this was the type of investigation she excelled at!

“Mabel what are you-," Dipper started to say before Mabel shushed him. 

“Marisela, you haven't aged a day! How have you been, angel?”

She gave him a shy smile, just more proof for Mabel's matchmaking brain. “You look good too Stanley,” she said with a strong accent. It actually kind of reminded Mabel of Mermando, but she didn't think she was a secret mermaid. “It is so nice to see you, it has been so long. You work in this store?”

Grunkle Stan looked pleased with what she said, more confident in himself. “I'm actually the founder of the Mystery Shack. Started it all by myself and everything. You're looking at the original Mr. Mystery!” 

He was showing off for her! And she looked so charmed by him! Smiling sincerely at him she said to him, “I am so happy for you Stanley. This place is very nice, you did good.”

Aww they look so happy together! And she was such a cute old lady! Mabel didn't know the history between the two old friends/partners/couple/some other thing, but she hoped it went in the direction she thought it was moving to!  

Mabel kept trying to see what else they were talking about; focusing on this possible pairing and ignoring the cute dog she just noticed next to the lady when she got interrupted. 

“Mabel, why are you watching?!” Dipper quietly admonished her. At least he wasn't ruining her spying (if it's even that, they were literally right in front of the vending machine). “We've got to check the book out!”

“We will! I just wanna see if they are a good match.” She watched the two who only had eyes on each other and were focused entirely on their conversation. They didn't even notice the random tourist trying to get a snack from the machine, who left dejectedly without it. “The odds are looking pretty good,” she said optimistically. 

“Mabel we have more important things to worry about,” he said, trying to get her back on task. “Besides, it's not going to work out, and I'm not talking about his usual Stanness. They already know each other, but how they do is a total mystery. It could be literally anything!” Especially depending on how much he remembered, is what he left unsaid.

They've both had discussions on Grunkle Stan's past that took a lot of different turns. From their very first night at Gravity Falls where Dipper felt suspicious of their great uncle, to the time he randomly got obsessed with Grunkle Stan's tattoo. Then the most infamous time was right before Grunkle Ford came back, the darkest turn in the topic yet.

And now since the end of last summer, those discussions were instead tied to his memories and lack thereof. They occasionally wondered what their grunkle had just recalled, that he didn't want to tell them about. 

They knew enough to know it wasn't all good.

“Don't worry about him, Dipper. It can't be bad, especially with how happy he looks talking to her! And I'm trying to look into it to make sure,” she said confidently. 

“Who said anything about being worried for him? I'm not worried,” he said self-consciously, trying to brush it off. She will never get why Dipper and Stan felt the need to act like they don't care when they clearly do. “Do I look worried?” he asked the older teens seriously.

Wendy looked up from her phone, “Honestly haven't noticed man, been trying to tell Stan 2 that everything's cool now. And that the coast isn't clear yet.”

Mabel wondered if Wendy also told Grunkle Ford that the vending machine is still being blocked by Stan and the lady he's talking to. He might be stuck in there for a while.

King just shrugged, looking awkward and confused - at least it's objectively better than before! “Is that bad? Like, I was kind of worried about him a minute ago. What happened to him anyway?”

That explains why he looks confused. I forgot he literally has no clue what's going on.  

“Our grunkle is feeling better now, thank you for your concern!” Neither Mabel or Dipper have ever had to explain the memory gun incident or create a cover story, so she's just not going to now. “We are going to get to work on your book right away, I just want to make sure Grunkle Stan is happy.” He deserves it after all.

Mabel felt a little bad having to make him wait for their help, but she wants the best for Grunkle Stan too. She knows she can work on both, nothing is impossible with the power of Mabel! “Oh, what if she becomes our new grauntie!” she exclaimed, the sudden thought entering her mind.

At that last statement King gave an awkward grimace, glancing to the pair and back again. “I'm not sure how I feel about that…," he mumbled.

She would have asked why when she suddenly heard: “You wouldn't happen to know who mom is talking to right?” 

Okay maybe King is still a little jumpy from the book. Mabel and Dipper were also caught off guard, and saw that King's older sister was the one who spoke up. She must be really sneaky to pop up like that!

“I'm not really sure either,” King replied to her. Dipper looked a little embarrassed as he had just been openly suspicious about his mom a second ago. Mabel was more excited about the opportunities this opens up.

“Well, I don't know if we're going on the tour, so you know, say bye when mom's done,” Lupe said, shrugging. 

King looked devastated, even when one of the little sisters he mentioned earlier in the day (internal gasp - another pair of twins!) handed him a giant chocolate chip muffin. “Wait, I can't leave yet. We have to do something important!”

His older sister just raised her pierced eyebrow towards him, seeing as they were all just hanging around the cash register. “Whatever it is you gotta do, do it. Or you can wait for next time. You have plenty of time to hang out with your friends some other day.”

Okay, now Mabel felt worse about the delay. She didn't know he had a parental figure that actually kept track of him! “I'm not sure if it'll be quick, but it's super important!” she exclaimed, backing him up. 

“Yeah we have to start our investigation today!” Dipper added. 

He probably didn't mean to mention the investigation part, Lupe didn't look impressed. “You're not trying to go on some witch hunt in the woods, right? We got enough with the girls, especially now that mom got them a ‘spellbook’ at the bake sale auction,” she said, gesturing King's younger sisters looking around the giftshop.

“You're just jealous we got a spellbook and you didn't,” one of the girls teased, the one in the dark jacket. The other dressed in the white jacket giggled along.

(Hopefully Mabel will soon learn their names and make friends with them too!)

The eldest just looked at King with the expression of ‘see what I mean?’

“I-It’s hard to explain, but it's serious,” King stammered. Mabel hoped that his anxiety wasn't coming back from the idea of not resolving the book investigation today. It's hard to see anyone feel that way.

Lupe looked at her brother, thinking, and then questioned him, “Is this about whatever happened earlier?” She sighed when he nodded back, then looked at their mom as if calculating something.

Their mom and Grunkle Stan were still off in their own world standing by the vending machine. Mabel (sadly) had long since not been able to follow along with what they were talking about, especially in the moments where they transitioned from English to Spanish to back again. But it seemed as if Grunkle Stan had told her a joke she was laughing at. 

She was missing so many cute moments that if she were prepared for, could be in her new scrapbook for the summer! It seemed in that moment watching them, Lupe decided to call out.

“Has she mentioned that she's divorced and single yet?” she practically announced to the pair, who got startled by her loud voice. They froze blushing heavily and didn't continue their conversation, looking at the group that formed around the register. 

Mabel wasn't sure what she was trying to do but she was certainly intrigued. At King's questioning and possibly even mortified look, Lupe whispered to him with a wink, “Buying you guys time for your investigation.” 

When he heard that Dipper, looking resolved, headed towards the employees only door. King muttered to himself, “A creepy book, or watching mom get flirted with." Then without pause rushed after him, giant muffin in one hand and book bag holding said book in the other.

“Just saying, you two could have a fun date together,” Lupe continued, smirking playfully. Mabel looked in awe - this girl got things done.

Her mom looked so embarrassed and looked back to Stan, probably to do damage control. “Lee, it is okay, you don’ have to-”

“Actually, I want to doll,” Stan replied. He was still blushing, but smiled at her reassuringly. “Been thinking about asking ya. The tours are almost done; I could give you a solo tour today, continue catching up. Maybe we could talk about a date after,” he quickly added at the end, nervously.

She looked surprised and Mabel couldn't tell why - they both seem so interested in each other! For a moment Mabel worried that maybe she misread her but then that surprised look changed to a fond smile, “I would like that.”

“Great!” Grunkle Stan grinned. “Stick around, I'll go tell the new Mr Mystery not to close the exhibits.” He shot her a wink and went off with a confident stride. 

The resident love expert is right once again! Mabel was trying so hard to contain her excitement. She has so many ideas she could give her Grunkle Stan!

“That went a lot better than I expected!” Lupe remarked, once more drawing attention to herself. Her mom just looked at her dryly.

“Tenemos que hablar Penelope.”

“Well! Enjoy your investigation in whatever,” Lupe quipped before they both headed outside the gift shop.

“Wow, you didn't have to do anything for your matchmaking thing,” Wendy remarked. “So are you heading to see the stalker book yet? Like I said, I'll try to get out of here as soon as I can.”

“Hmm… There's actually something I'm going to try first. I'll be right back!”

Dipper was worried about one thing and I'll try to clear it up. They both got distracted, but Grunkle Stan's missing memories were a touchy subject for everyone and will likely always be. Except for Grunkle Stan who always laughs it off.

And there was one possible way to clear up any issues. She went outside focused on her mission, not about to be distracted by a cute doggie with a sweet face.

“-por qué tuviste que gritar al frente de todo el mundo, Lupita?”

“Mami, lo siento de verdad. I didn't want to embarrass you! I just, uh, I don't want you to be sad and lonely,” she half lied.

“No me digas mentiras Lupe. Y estas vacaciones no son para que yo salgo a tener citas, vine aquí para ustedes.” Mabel wasn't sure what she was saying but she could gather that she was chastising her. 

She hoped they could pause for just one moment, and it luckily looked like it did once she was seen.

“Oh hey, weren't you going to do a thing with King?” Lupe remarked in surprise, with her mom pausing to say hello to her as well.

“Yes, I will, I just wanted to ask something. My name is Mabel, you were talking to my great uncle until now. I was wondering if you had any pictures from before, of you two together.” She gave her cutest face, hoping that she did have something.

“Oh how sweet,” she smiled, her face softening. “I don’ have many from that time,” she said reminiscing.

Mabel beamed. Not many means she does have something. “If you find anything I would love to see it.” And show Grunkle Stan.

She gave her a fond smile and nodded, “I will show you both.” And then noticing the covert glances Mabel was sending towards her dog said amused, “You can pet my dog if you want.”

Mission accomplished and I get to pet a cute dog! He was very soft and looked like he was smiling, his blue and brown eyes crinkling and tail wagging.

While she was petting him, she heard Lupe quietly admitted, “Sorry again ma. I was trying to get King some more time to hang out with his friends. But I was being honest about not wanting you to be sad and lonely.”

“King made new friends?” Her main priority was her kids and she was happy for her son. But after a second said, “I don' know if he will be okay running around this town by himself…” 

Mabel looked up at that and Lupe cut in immediately, “He won't be alone. And I promised I'd hang out with him today so I'll keep an eye on him.” She paused then slyly said, “I'll even watch over the kids whenever you go on a date with that guy.” 

Her mom playfully swatted her with a pamphlet but was cracking a smile, "Payasita," she said fondly.

“Voy a chequear a las niñas.” Before she went back in she added, “Y para tu información, yo puedo conseguir citas yo sola, sin duda.”

She went back inside with her big cute dog shadowing her, as Lupe gave out a long ooh sound, like an audience member for one of those reality tv shows. At Mabel's questioning and excited look she just responded, “I'll tell you later. I'm hanging out full time with you guys today anyway.”

Mabel lit up, Lupe hasn't seen anything supernatural about the book yet but she's been helpful anyway. She'll try to convince her, the more friends helping the merrier! 

And she can definitely gather more matchmaking information from her.

Chapter Text

Dipper had finally found their old video camera and a good space to film in their bedroom by the time Mabel came back. 

She hadn't missed much, other than setting things up and King offering to share his muffin. (Dipper let him eat it by himself to ease his nerves.) 

Apparently she came back with King's older sister in tow, but she stayed in the kitchen where Mabel is going to be hosting her.

“Just trust me,” Mabel said to them both. “I'm building a good rapport with her, I'll talk to her about the book.”

King looked doubtful, “I don't know. I've had my whole life to ‘build a good rapport’ with my sister; she still didn't see anything. I probably look like a crazy person to her now with this dumb book,” he muttered near the end.

“Not crazy. Scared. And she still helped you get extra time to work on this with us. She's a supportive big sister and I can work with that.”

Dipper can see where they were both coming from, but since he was naturally skeptical he chose to just shut his mouth. Well until Mabel gave him an enthusiastic what do you think look. “If anything, whatever we catch on camera we can show her.”

Both were at least agreeable to that, and Mabel rushed downstairs, saying she can't leave Waddles to host alone for too long.

King sat in front of Dipper's wooden board (affectionately dubbed the conspiracy board by Mabel and reluctantly by Dipper). There currently wasn't much on it, just a picture of the amulet and a gnome - nothing about the book yet.

Dipper was pretty sure they had everything to start filming. With everything set in place, he asked King if he was ready then started it, with the standard introduction cardboard, “Welcome to Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained, anomaly #303: Creepy Book. Today we are starting with an interview with the person who found it.”

He had a smaller piece of cardboard and raised it to appear underneath King, which read, "Joaquin ‘King’ Flores: teenage tourist/ book stalking victim."

“So, for now it's just going over what happened right?” 

At Dipper's thumbs up he nodded and continued. “I'm not sure why or how, but at the Gravity Falls public library a book randomly appeared in my school bag. 

“It sounds like nothing, but it disappears and reappears, like it has some sort of attachment to me! And I have some reason to believe that it shows people different things. I'm not sure how dangerous it is, it did say it needed some of my blood for ink so-”

“Wait, what?!” Dipper exclaimed as King had shown the camera his right hand with bandaids on. He wasn't aware of what King had just said beforehand.

“Sorry, did I not mention that? I thought I did- Actually wait I probably just mentioned the papercuts and nothing else.” He looked a little embarrassed after saying that. 

“It's fine, you were giving a lot of different details about it at the time, it just slipped." This definitely makes it a more serious investigation. Anything that needed blood to work just sounded like bad news.

He'll have to keep it cool, they can handle this.

King thought back to where he left off, “Um, so, I opened the book and found the amulet you were looking for. When I started taking pictures is when I started getting worried.” At this he turned the laptop he borrowed around to face the video camera. 

Dipper zoomed to show it. Maybe when he's looking over the footage, he'll do some fancy editing trick to show the photos better. But he can see it just fine from here.

There were multiple photos at different angles. Earlier he was just shown one, but here it's clearly illustrating King's point - the book isn't getting captured by the camera. The angle doesn't matter, there's a sort of glitching effect over just the book and nothing else. It left it incapable of deciphering what the contents were.

After showing seven different photos, the laptop showed a play button. Dipper hasn't seen this video yet either; he was trying not to show any apprehension. 

“Go ahead, I'm still filming,” he said, and King pressed play.

The camera was pointed at the book so all that's seen is the book on top of a library table. The contents were the same as before - glitched. Nobody would be able to tell what it said. The audio was quiet at first until King's sister spoke up.

“Joaquin, why do you keep taking pictures of the same book? At this point tell your friends to come check it out.” 

“I-I’m just trying to figure something out. I don't think my phone is broken but-” King suddenly stopped talking, the camera was still showing the glitched out book.

“Why those pages specifically? They're blank.”

“Blank?! Wha-” The phone camera picked up shushing and he quieted down again. The phone was put down in a bad angle, but it was now possible to see Lupe sitting down, looking in surprise. 

“What do you seriously see when I show you this?” King interrogated quietly, to not bring down the wrath of any nearby librarians. 

He turned the open book to her. The phone camera just shows the book cover now in view, filling the screen, but it's just distorted reds, grays, and blacks.

“It's just empty.”

The recording ended shortly after her response, as if King at the time of recording rushed to shut it off. 

King was right that it felt like something out of an analog horror movie, Dipper thought.

They were both quiet for a moment. Dipper wished he had a chance to copy down more of the pages from the third journal, to see if what they needed to do was an exorcism or something. He kind of missed having it around.

They couldn't avoid it any longer though. King sighed, “I'll get the book out now.” To try to avoid it disappearing again, they hypothesized while setting everything up that maybe he can't take it out in front of other people. It was worth a shot. 

So Dipper looked away brainstorming while King went into the corner of the room. So far, other than asking Grunkle Ford and hoping he already knows, they could go back to the library. Maybe the book belonged to a disgruntled ghostly librarian with a grudge? 

“It worked!” King held a huge book with a dark cover in his hands. “Not sure why I sounded so excited there, I'd rather never see it again.”

Sitting back down he showed the cover of the book, on camera it was the same issue as always but Dipper was able to see it, in bold red, all capital letters, “Guide to the Mysteries of the Multiverse?”

“Yeah it seems like maybe everyone sees something different. My sister said the cover had a different title.”

“What was the title she saw? You said it was something about genealogy right, why would it say that?”

“...I might have a guess why,” he looked like he was contemplating on it. “She just told me what it was about, didn't give me the specific title. Maybe if Mabel actually gets her to believe us, we can try to see if she sees the same thing again.”

That sounds like an interesting thing to look into. Could the titles and the inside change for different people? Do they stay consistent for the same person? Maybe they could ask other people what they see too? It could provide some sort of clue into what the book's deal is…  

Dipper changed his current train of thought. He might try to do all that later but for now they should move on.

“For now let's go to what you tried to take pictures of,” Dipper said while looking through the viewfinder.

“Okay, let's get through this,” he sighed. He was apprehensive but still opened it. “I haven't looked through it all, most of it seems written like a journal, but with chapter headings. There are some blank pages at the end too…”

“A journal?” Having mentioned a real magical object started conjuring up an image of an evil author in his mind. What would happen if you wrote inside of it… if it's made from some sort of dark magic, I'm not sure it'll be good.

“Yeah, some parts of it look sort of like a scrapbook, a lot of mixed media,” he said absentmindedly, while looking for where he left off. 

A scrapbook was not what Dipper imagined it would be. Like what, is it like an evil version of one of Mabel's projects? He was sort of expecting the inside to be some sort of dark tome.

“Alright! I found it, it's still here. It's under a section heading ‘Getting Into Occult High Fashion’, there's a drawing of your amulet down here,” he said, pointing to a part of the book. “It's right after a story about witchcraft…,” he trailed off before he started reading aloud.

“‘...Some of the rebellious newly made witches had an appetite for their newfound power after getting rid of their dull, pathetic husbands. They soon came to me for more - now that's more my style!

“‘...This new coven of witches were the perfect henchmen, completely willing to summon me out of sheer disdain of the world surrounding them. Without the technology to bring me here, they instead turned to more arcane methods. It might have even worked if it weren't for those stupid hunters getting in the way!

“‘...My more ambitious cultists ended up sealed away into high end jewelry! It was a shame they couldn't finish the summoning. Oh well, no choice but to move on. You can still use them this way anyway,’” King paused reading with a grossed out expression. 

“Sorry, that opening section looked important but now I wish I hadn't read it.” 

Yeah it's a lot to take in, he thought with a similar expression. A cult, trying to summon whoever this author is, and then their fate. Plus the apathetic way it referred to what happened afterwards. He was trying not to think of a similar amulet he encountered last year with this new information in mind. “We'll finish up reading and then go downstairs, take a break. We should be almost done with this part.”

“Sounds good to me, this next section is a lot shorter anyway. ‘ The Amulet of Temperament - I gave it a title because I figured you'd appreciate it. It is drawn to strong emotions and reflects it outward. This witch's soul was very handy at wild magic, now she's basically a fancy mood ring.’”

“I thought it would be a lot longer and more complicated,” Dipper said, disgruntled. “That doesn't explain much of anything! And that amulet definitely isn't a mood ring, it almost zapped me and my sister when we saw it.”

“Yeah, that's true,” King said in thought. “I think- all this talk of witches and stuff reminded me of some old stories. Maybe it's stupid, but the phrasing must be important,” he trailed off for a moment. “I'm gonna copy this for you. Either way I don't want to touch this thing again." It was the most confident he sounded since finding the book. Well until he muttered annoyed, "And it just gave me another papercut,” taking out a bandaid from his pocket.

Once he put it on, he started copying from the journal into a plain notebook. Dipper figured he should grab the camera and see if it still glitches out or not. It probably will and it'll be pointless, but it's best to try everything, like a scientist would! It could be B-roll anyway.

He walked behind King, who was writing now after he quickly drew a stylised version of the amulet. King had summarized just the opening section and was quickly writing down the exact wording for that amulet. At least this shows up on camera.

Yep same old same old. He was looking over King's shoulder towards the book, through the viewfinder of the camera. It's just a glitchy mess that he felt both of them were quickly getting used to. 

It was when he looked away from the viewfinder that his blood froze.

DON'T BE NOSY, I'M TALKING TO MY NEW BUDDY, was written across both pages. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to see when he looked at it himself. Lupe had said in the video that it was blank, she saw nothing .

Was something trapped in this book? Is it alive? Or is it something else? Whatever it is, it was aware. 

Keep it cool Dipper. Let's finish and try to get Grunkle Ford's help! Dipper stopped recording and let King know.

King had finished writing and saw Dipper's face - he figured it was a similar expression to how he looked earlier in the giftshop. “Was it blank for you or did you see something?” 

“It wasn't blank,” Dipper replied, but didn't specify further, leaving the video camera on his bed. Please look cool in front of your new friend, Dipper thought to himself. “Eventually we can go over it, maybe there's something else we can find in the recording.”

King nodded and before they went downstairs said, “I wasn't sure if I already thanked you, so just wanted to make sure. Thanks man. You didn't have to help me at all so - I owe you one.”

Dipper felt a little less tense. He still wanted to seem cool and calm about everything in front of him, but he felt maybe he should do the opposite of what Grunkle Stan would tell him to do. Be honest and express himself. 

“It's okay, you don't owe me anything, we're friends! And you know, last summer I wasn't alone dealing with all the weird stuff at Gravity Falls. So you don't have to either.”

King smiled at that, looking more relaxed like back when they met at the library, “Thanks. Maybe you could show me some of the stuff you found here. I'll try to not be paranoid over it.”

With that, the energy shifted to something more normal. They still had to deal with a mysterious supernatural book they were only just starting to figure out, but it couldn't be too bad if they weren't alone.

When the boys went back downstairs, they hoped Mabel had managed to convince King's sister on what was going on. Dipper knew she had a point; even being unaware of anything she bought them time to work on the guide. It wouldn't be bad to have extra help.

Those hopes were dashed as soon as they were in view.

“Hey, how's your dungeons game going?” 

“Dungeons game?” King repeated back, and Dipper looked back at his sister, “Mabel, seriously ?”

“It's been a work in progress,” Mabel defended herself. “BUT, as a fellow supportive sister I know it's possible.” 

Lupe looked a little amused at that statement, if a bit confused. Dipper could concede that he saw her point of view. She wouldn't believe anything until she saw it for herself. It still felt a little demoralizing and reminded him of all the times he tried to tell Stan what was going on last summer.

“Okay, it's okay, we planned for this. We have evidence,” Dipper said confidently. King perked up and immediately took out his phone to show her the video he took before, handing it to her. 

The video played while both Lupe and Mabel watched. Mabel looked a little uneasy by the end and Lupe was unphased.

“I didn't know you had an interest in short films, King,” she said lightheartedly. “I don't mind starring in a scary movie, but you should ask next time.”

Both boys were stunned. They really hoped that was enough.

Mabel gave an uneasy chuckle, “Yeah, she's actually really good at finding plausible explanations for things.”

Maybe they could show her what they currently recorded on the video camera. Dipper hoped she wouldn't brush it off with the same excuse again…

“Ugh you always do this Penelope,” King face-palmed. “You take everything as a joke and find the weirdest stuff to actually be serious about.”

At that, she definitely didn't look amused anymore, but she just kept quiet and raised her eyebrow at him. He was sure his friend would hear more about this when she wasn't feeling so civil.

Dipper worried this would turn into an argument that would leave him uncomfortable. Instead she just sighed trying to compromise, “King, I don't know what got into you today. I'm trying to hear you out. Preferably before mom sees and starts worrying about you. I'm already worried about you.”

King deflated at that, possibly caught between telling her not to worry and telling her yes please worry this is weird and kind of scary. “I know, I just-,” he started pleading. “I swear we're not lying or playing around or crazy. Just, please keep an open mind-.”

He suddenly turned around, blocking his backpack from view, to take out the book. “Maybe if you try looking at it again you'll be able to see it this time!”

“Alright, alright I'll read it. I left my reading glasses in the car but I'll look at it,” she acquiesced, feeling forced to go along with it.

Dipper started to worry that the worst thing would be for the book to look empty to her once again. Just to mess with everyone, especially King. He already figured out that the book seemed aware of things, but he wasn't sure how smart it was. 

He didn't consider how malicious it could be either. 

It happened so fast- the moment Lupe had grabbed the cover of the book, she dropped it with a choked yelp. The sound of her pain surprised them but the sight of her blood froze them.

She kept her hand to her chest as if to hide the sight of it. But she couldn't completely hide the blood on her hand, or the small puddle that formed on the floor next to the fallen book.

She was the only one that seemed to be able to move afterwards. With a strained composure she hissed through a tight jaw, “I have to go clean this.”

At that Mabel was no longer paralyzed, “I'll get you the first aid kit.”

It was just the two boys again and they felt utterly petrified. It could do that the whole time and they were just handling it upstairs. They were trying to investigate it but now they didn't want to find out what else it could do.

It seemed as if King was the only one able to touch that book and it wanted to keep it that way.

King was still shaken and started grabbing paper towels to clean up the mess. Dipper had no idea what to say - if Mabel was the one that got hurt instead he'd be the one panicking.

He was about to help him when he caught something on the floor close to… the mess. This doesn't look like Mabel's, he thought, picking up what looked like a red string bracelet that snapped, a blue bead fell off of it too.

King was kneeling down with a wad of paper towels in hand, focused on cleaning the blood. It took so long for him to calm down and now it's gotten worse; Dipper had no clue if there was a way for him to not look so distressed.

“Is this your sister's?” Dipper offered quietly, showing the bracelet. 

It at least stopped him from obsessively cleaning the now clear spot. “Yeah, it's-,” he responded quietly, then stopped, in thought as he got it from Dipper's hand. King was looking intently at the bracelet, or more specifically the blue bead in his hand.

Dipper thought he might not say anything else until he gasped as if he recalled something, “El mal de ojo.”

He still looked anxious but at least there wasn't complete silence anymore. Perplexed Dipper said, “Sorry, I'm not sure what that means.” He understood some stuff in Spanish class, but outside of a class setting he was lost.

“I-I forgot to mention something. You said what you saw on the book cover, and Lupe sort of mentioned it to me, but I haven't yet,” he said as if realizing something, surprising Dipper with the tone of voice he had.

“It didn't say anything, it was just an image. A big red eye. El mal de ojo. I think I was cursed by the evil eye,” King said, dead serious.

The evil eye? What is that- Wait no. Is it something else? Or could it be-

Suddenly they both heard a crashing sound in the house, and both hurried to see what was happening now.

Chapter Text

Wendy was bored, biding her time, waiting to leave and join her friends.

At least there's not that many people left here. She even let Stan 2 know a while ago that the coast was clear, and he hurried out of there to find his brother.

Nobody noticed him get out from behind the vending machine and leave. Maybe she could leave now too. Soos should be on his way here soon, so he would be able to deal with anything here…

She was momentarily distracted from her thoughts by Mabel rushing in, grabbing the first aid kit behind the cash register. She didn't even have time to ask what happened.

“Sorry! No time to talk! That book is really bad, got to go!” She rushed through her words and just as fast ran back inside the house.

Her earlier plans of slacking with the twins were gone now, she needed to make sure everything was alright.

Especially after she saw Dipper and the new tourist boy running outside from the window. They were chasing something.

Wendy took a quick detour; whatever they were chasing, it would be faster in a golf cart. 

She didn't get to them as fast as she wanted to, but she felt like she made good time regardless. Once she started driving, she spotted Mabel and King's older sister outside the shack and gave them a ride. 

They soon caught up to the boys, and both hopped on to the back, doing their best to hang on. 

“What are we chasing after?” Wendy asked. Whatever it was, it wasn't in view. 

“Some gnomes broke into the house. They stole the amulet!” Dipper responded.

“You know, I found it off a gnome that dropped it. Should we let them have it back?” She still continued driving to where Dipper said the gnomes lived. She's only ever had to deal with them as pests back in town, they'd probably be a huge headache at their home.

“We found a little about it back at the Shack. It wasn't that detailed but it could be dangerous,” King added.

Dangerous for them or for us, Wendy wondered. It didn't matter either way, they couldn't make a habit of breaking in and robbing us.

Even if they are major headaches. 

“Looks like we're going to see the gnomes after all,” Mabel said. Wendy could see through the rear view mirror that she looked like she was mentally preparing herself. She should probably mentally prepare herself too, gnomes have never not been creepy to be around.

“Crazy how we're the ones going into the forest and not our sisters, right Lupe,” King softly remarked nervously. He looked and sounded like something had happened earlier. 

Was she the one that needed the first aid kit? She'll have to ask what happened later to the twins, the woman next to her just nodded as a response, looking around their surroundings.

She couldn't blame her for looking around, especially once they made it to a clearing after parking the cart. Wendy's never been to this part of the forest before, but she's used to Gravity Falls obviously. Both of the new tourists were looking at the glowing plants and giant mushrooms in awed fascination.

Everyone looked more on edge once they saw the sheer number of gnomes practically surrounding them. They didn't look like they would cause trouble yet but they absolutely could. 

The gnomes were at least more focused on what their leader had to say, holding the amulet in his tiny hand.

“-they've forgotten just how powerful we truly are! With this we'll be able to teach the other forest creatures a lesson. And the humans won't look down on us anymore!”

They were being whipped into a frenzy, that's definitely not good even without whatever the amulet can do. She was reminded of how she saw that gnome yesterday before it dropped it; agitated, almost feral. 

The leader gnome's next part of the speech being about taking a queen repulsed her; she felt glad she had her axe on her.

The head gnome seemed to either finally noticed them or just decided to address them. Before saying anything the amulet he held glowed a bright orange, and the path they just came from was obstructed by giant vines. “Oh, hello Mabel. Fancy seeing you here so soon.”

The tall woman scowled, she was similarly repulsed and angered by the way the gnomes were looking at Mabel, and similarly at Wendy too, “Girls get behind me.” 

Lupe moved in front to block Mabel from the gnomes’ view, and quickly glanced at her. She was also being leered at by them, but cared more about protecting the younger girls, even though she seemingly had nothing on her to do that with. 

Wendy didn't get why she's acting protective over her. She can understand being protective over Mabel; she's still a lot smaller and one of the youngest in the group. But Wendy thought herself as a fighter, she's not going to hide from anything.  

She had her axe ready with her in case things got ugly, which looked like they would.

The five humans all stood in a group, practically back to back with each other. 

“Are they normally this unhinged?” King blurted out.

“Jeff and the rest have always been weird but this is a new level of crazy,” Mabel said worried.

“So what's the plan?” King said deferring to them. “Maybe we could still run but what about the amulet?”

“We can't leave it with them, they'll become a menace with it,” Dipper responded but sounded uncertain. Unlike them, the gnomes seemed like they knew how to use it.

“Get ready to book it when I give the signal,” Lupe whispered, looking less murdery than before. Wendy had no clue what the signal would be, she hoped it'd be really obvious.

“We know why you're really here, this is rightfully ours! We need it to fight those lousy manotaurs, fairies, and whatever else in our way. You can either join the gnome uprising or we'll do something crazy!”

“I don't know about fighting minotaurs or whatever, but you won't be able to find a queen with that attitude,” Lupe said, in a tone that sounded like she was advising them. “You won't get anywhere forcing anything.”

“Oh, please. What would you know about getting a queen?”

“Trust me,” she feigned, “I've been around the block, kicked a lot of guys to the curb and can tell you what they all did wrong. I've even dated some queens in the past, I'm an expert.”

At that the gnomes were muttering to each other, muttering about getting a queen, and she was allowed to walk closer to Jeff. She didn't move until the boys took her position blocking Mabel.

“Fine, let's see what a so-called expert can tell us,” he said dismissively but he looked too curious to be truly apathetic.

“This is honestly some pretty basic stuff that even some human guys get wrong,” she drawled. “Hygiene is super important. If you can't do it right, all the girls are gonna start running for the hills.”

“Too easy, all one thousand of us take squirrel baths all the time,” Jeff said confidently.

“The squirrel part is a problem,” she said, trying to hide her disgust, getting closer. “Some human guys think acting like complete jerks is how you get girls. Sooner or later, even a total doormat would be plotting her escape, maybe even going for revenge.”

Wendy and Mabel both verbally confirmed out loud, making it a show for the gnomes. Nodding along, saying things like, “yep, girls definitely don't like all of that.” It wasn't too hard for them honestly.

Even the boys were backing her up, adding things like, “We sure can't get girlfriends ‘cause we keep being terrible!”

Seeing how close Lupe was standing to him, he cockily started to say, “You say that but I bet-”

“None of this is an invitation by the way,” she dryly and bluntly cut him off, countering what she knew he was about to say.

“Oh, so we have to do all that and you still get to say no!” Jeff exclaimed, ignoring the fact she just listed two things so far.

“Yeah, well, there's one last thing you gotta learn before you start your stupid plans,” she moved quickly then started dashing away. She was so fast Wendy missed the moment she managed to take the amulet, but she didn't miss the punch she managed to land on him.

“Finders, keepers!”

Wendy and her friends started running away. Yeah, the signal was super obvious. 

As she was the farthest from the group, the gnomes tried to form a blockade around Lupe. She kept running and locked eyes with them, “Catch!” 

She threw the now glowing amulet a far distance and Mabel managed to be the one that caught it. The moment she did the magic went off. But plants weren't growing like they did with Jeff.

Fireworks started going off instead, blinding the closest gnomes and creating minor fires some of them worked to put out. Lupe football tackled through the remaining gnome blockade and was quickly catching up to them.

The gnomes weren't letting up, they were desperate for the magical item. Some had reached towards Mabel who then tossed it to her brother, when a shield of light formed then blocked the both of them from an attack.

That was how their escape attempt kept going. Each time they were being closed in, the amulet was tossed and something magically random happened. Wendy couldn't tell the rhyme or reason. The most disastrous was when King caught it, who had a whole tornado form around him, both launching the gnomes and him.

“AAAAH," he screamed and in a panic, he tossed it, and luckily it went flying towards Wendy. He fell back the short distance he flew up from the ground but he didn't stop. His adrenaline was rushing and he got back up and kept running. 

When Wendy caught it, nothing happened.

In the very back of her mind she wondered why, if there was something specific she had to do to make it work. But right now she couldn't focus on that. They had to keep going.

They were almost out. The plants Jeff grew to block their path earlier were the only thing blocking their way now. She started hacking their way through with her axe, and at least the plants weren't magical. (Well, other than how they grew.) The others helped pull the plants apart but she was working quicker with the axe.

She felt the ground shake from behind her, after she heard the gnomes call to assemble, and tried going faster. 

She tossed the amulet back to Lupe to handle her axe better. Right on time, they got their path and ran towards the golf cart.  

Lupe ended up being in the driver seat this time but she wasn't going to fight her on it. Since she's a lot older, she'll probably be a better get-away driver anyway. Wendy managed to get the shotgun position as the remaining three tossed themselves haphazardly to the back.

Wendy didn't know what she would see behind her making all that noise. She didn't expect to see a gnome megazord behind them. A mega-gnome.

Lupe started driving, wasting no time, and Wendy heard King in the back, “Ow! Wha-”

She assumed it was because he bonked his head just now on part of the cart, but he was holding his creepy, stalker book without his backpack. “But I left this in the kitchen!” he cried.

“Guess it didn't want to stay there,” Wendy quipped. She'll worry about the implications later.

“But how-” Dipper was cut off.

“Kids not now!”

Fair. She was doing a good job of evading the mega-gnome, but they were still attacking. Some of the gnomes from the latest punch were climbing onto the golf cart.

Lupe kept her focus while the rest punched away the gnomes, who were trying their best to stop her from driving. There was one gnome that was close to attacking Lupe's face before her brother stopped him.

“Leave her alone!” King shouted, using the book to smack the gnome. With a pained “Shmebulock," he fell off.

“That book is a good weapon!” Wendy commented, sounding more calm than she actually felt. A lot of the gnomes that were still left on the cart got stunned seeing it. As if they were momentarily scared. It worked in the groups favor to more easily knock them off the cart.

That's not good but it was at least useful now.

Overall though, the mega-gnome kept coming, and Wendy doubted the book would scare all of them at once. 

“I feel like the cart was faster last time,” Mabel blurted out.

“The golf cart's too heavy this time,” her brother responded. “They're gaining on us!” 

The amulet clenched in Lupe's hand was glowing brighter, the earth was shaking more, “Kids hold on, I'm not sure what it'll-”

The earth was shaking and then breaking. Wendy was worried that they'd end up driving into a giant crack in the earth, but they were luckier than that. From the giant cracks, trees were sprouting and growing fast. One of them, a pine tree that was the biggest one by far, grew and smacked the mega-gnome's head/assortment of gnomes off.

That had to have taken out the leader.

It definitely seemed like it did. They didn't see or hear the gnomes continue their attack, pursuing them. They beat it.

There was a collective sigh of relief from everyone, and Lupe continued the drive back to the Shack, but less maniacally than before. They were all more calm now, even having some laughs of relief. 

They managed to take back their magical item, have an entire battle, and get away scot-free!

Well almost, until Wendy happened to look at Lupe. “You're bleeding,” she said, shocked. 

That got the others' attention and they were immediately focused on her, questioning where she was hurt.

“I'm fine,” she emphasized, “it's the same injury as before.” Her hands were still tightly gripping the wheel, her entire posture was tense, as if she was ready to drive like hell again. She was bleeding through her bandages. “I honestly forgot about it with all that,” she said dismissively.

That didn't lessen anyone's worry, and that statement actually seemed to make her brother look worse. Even Wendy was worried, she just didn't want to voice it. Lupe was probably overwhelmed now. Mabel was offering her services to bandage up her hand this time which made her seem more nervous.

She kinda regretted blurting it out and putting her on the spot, and she saw why she didn't mention it. Other than like the whole gnome battle thing. If she could, she'd probably hide her hands but she's too busy driving.

Throughout all this, Wendy noticed the amulet faintly glowing again. Then remembered they still had an erratic magical time bomb with them.

The earth started shaking once again. 

Oh no, we are screwed if a literal tree popped out of the ground under us now. Even if it had a different, random effect it would still be disastrous.

“Okay that's it!” Instead of the magic going off, or her, Lupe handed the amulet back to Wendy, which abruptly stopped the earth from shaking. King's sister seemed a little more relaxed too, muttering that she can finally focus without it.

Once again, nothing happened and Wendy relaxed without the threat of being blown up. They finally arrived at the Shack, and it still didn't go off again.

Wendy was internally questioning why as they got out the golf cart. It was good that it didn't do anything but at the same time, she couldn't help but wonder.

She wasn't the only one to wonder as Dipper had started to verbalize it. “Why doesn't it work for you? Did you figure out how to control it?” 

Both boys looked heavily in thought, probably thinking of whatever they read from that book.

“I don't know,” Lupe shrugged, and hid her hands from view. “Maybe she's the chosen one or something.” She didn't sound like she was sarcastically joking. She looked and sounded tired but sincere. 

“That makes a lot of sense!” Mabel exclaimed, “You're always kicking butt and saving the day!”

“Maybe you should hold on to it for now, you could definitely keep it safe,” Dipper added. He looked like he also agreed with the 'chosen one' comment.

“Yeah, you did pretty good today kid. You got a good head on your shoulders.” Wendy felt a little proud of the nonchalant praise sent her way. She wouldn't admit it outloud but it did.

“Oh and before I forget, toss your evil book away Joaquin,” Lupe said. “I don't want mom to see it.” She was staring at the Mystery Shack's door. That's right, their mom and Stan are doing a solo-tour date thing now. Weird.

“W-wait, so you really do believe us then?”

“King, we just fought a bunch of gnomes and a lot of magic stuff happened. I didn't see any knives taped to your book when it stabbed me so I'll buy that it's evil,” she dryly responded. 

She got him there. “Alright, but it'll probably show up again anyway,” he said, literally tossing it into a bush. He then noticed his sister's questioning look, “What?”

“Nothing, it just looked different is all. What's important now is that she doesn't find out.”

Dipper looked interested in the first half of her comment. And Mabel, the biggest proponent for the truth that Wendy has ever met, questioned her on the second half, “Why shouldn't she know?”

“Mija, you noticed she has a service dog right? I don't want to worry her, she doesn't need that right now.”

She simply left it at that and didn't elaborate further. Wendy can sort of understand being protective over your mom.

Lupe sighed, “I don't know about you kids but I'm tired. And have to rethink everything about life,” she said, seeing the door open and her mom and little sisters come out. “We can talk about magic or whatever tomorrow. It can wait.” 

Lupe walked off to join the rest of her family, the rest of the group walking way slower than her to still talk. For a second it looked like King would follow her, he kept looking like he wanted to say something. He just kept quiet and walked with the rest of the teens.

“Oh yeah! I saw Grunkle Ford earlier and we can tell him about everything at dinner Dipper,” Mabel remembered, which cheered up Dipper and King (until he glanced back at his sister).

“Yeah, we can tell him about the book and the amulet, maybe he already knows how to handle them!”

“Sounds good,” King said and Wendy nodded. She should be able to take care of it until then. 

“I'll text you later, Dipper. I have to figure out what lie my sister is telling my mom. See ya tomorrow guys!” 

They walked past him and his family, waving goodbye at him. Wendy was able to overhear a part of their conversation.

“What happen to both of you?” Their mom didn't sound mad, just worried. She was holding Lupe's hand gently, looking between her and her brother. Both siblings looked like they were chased through the woods, which was accurate.

“It was just an accident, ma,” Lupe lied, “something happened with the golf cart, it was my fault.” Her brother just stood there looking guilty, quietly.

Their mom didn't look convinced, but focused more on her daughter's injuries, as the family headed back to their van. As they left, she was mentioning looking it over and using the first aid kit she brought.

For some silly reason Wendy was reminded of her . Wendy pushed that thought away, making sure the amulet was safe in her pocket. She didn't notice that it glowed at that moment and then stopped. She just waited inside until her ride came to get her shortly after, as if everything was alright.

Chapter Text

Stan was on his way back from talking to Soos. He was confidently holding his old Mr. Mystery cane, intent on rejoining Marisela, when his brother appeared and pushed him into the office.

“Stanley, are you alright?” Ford asked, looking him over. There was nothing to see obviously. 

He sighed, I fall over one time and never hear the end of it. While it was nice that his twin cared (he would never admit how nice it was) he didn't want to feel like an invalid.

Sure, memory lapses and flashbacks weren't good - they definitely weren't fun - but he's fine. Which he says as much.

“Everything's fine Poindexter. I remembered some stuff but it ain't nothing bad.” If he was being honest, it was pretty good actually.

Ford looked like he was going to lecture him for his grammar but pressed on, “You saw someone from your past and then had a flashback. Who were they and what did you remember?”

He was definitely getting tired about Stan being dismissive about his memory. But Stan couldn't help not wanting to be vulnerable about a time in his life he'd never want to think about again.

Ford's reactions and guilt have just gotten worse with the little tidbits he did share, or the things he's gleaned from his memory lapses… 

There wasn't much to say anyway. He just saw her face and remembered bits and pieces of their shared past. 

He was considering what to leave out when Mabel excitedly barreled over and hug-tackled him. “Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Stan! I got big news for you.”

Stan gave her a soft smile, returning the hug until she let go. She always managed to cheer him up. “What's your big news sweetie?”

“Ms Flores’ daughter told me to let you know that she and her brother are hanging out with us at the house. But that's not the important thing!”

A sweetheart like Marisela would raise a well mannered kid, Stan thought briefly, fondly. Then stopped. Yeah, he's gonna have to try to push those feelings down.

“What's the important thing, pumpkin?”

“I asked Ms Flores if she had any pictures of you and she does! Do you realize what this means?”

“That she's a nostalgic person,” Ford guessed.

“Well yes. But also, if she kept pictures of you two all this time that means she cares about you!”

It was hard to believe anyone from that time would miss him, let alone care about him. He can't let himself get that in his head right now. (Deep down, he's already considering it.)

“I have to go host a guest but I wanna hear more about your date after!” 

Before she ran off again, she gave him one last hug, trying to comfort him, “Believe in yourself Grunkle Stan. I can tell that she really likes you.”

At least after Mabel's exit, Ford was reassured, putting together that she was an old girlfriend of his. He still had a look on his face that screamed, ‘I still want my questions answered Stanley'. 

He tried to find something to say to his brother that wouldn't worry him or sound sappy.

“Marisela and me, we- I remembered how we met, we helped each other a lot. Ended up dating, taught her some swears, some card tricks. I don't remember everything but she was a sweet gal." Some of the old sentimentality accidentally slipped out near the end. 

Soon as his old memories came to the forefront, so did his past feelings. It might be an issue, but maybe if she felt the same-

“Are you positive that she's a ‘sweet gal’ Stanley? Can you be certain that she didn't end up hurting you?” Ford asked, still wary of her. 

That's a fair question, Stan thought. Somehow he managed to meet a lot of people willing to backstab him both literally and figuratively.

When he happened to turn his head, he caught a glimpse of the camera feed capturing the gift shop. Marisela was still there looking around, waiting patiently like he asked her so they could continue catching up. 

She aged so gracefully; when he saw her earlier he immediately recognized the kind young woman he knew so long ago.

Stan caught himself smiling involuntarily and knew he had to get it together. He hoped Ford didn't catch that.

“If I had to bet on it Sixer I would. From what I remember she was really good to me. We probably split ‘cause I messed up,” he said as nonchalantly as he could.

“You'd bet on a lot of things Lee,” his twin quipped before looking like his usual serious self. “I know you're going to go after a potential second chance with her, just be careful. Don't fully trust her until you remember more.”

Stan wasn't up to going into every detail of how much she helped him, he didn't want to go into why he needed the help. Not now.

“If you can't trust her, trust me. I can handle it." Stan almost walked out of the office before he told Ford, “Whatever you do, don't scare her off.”

This past year, he's seen Ford going all in on his overprotectiveness. He could either try to stop that or go do what he wants - and he can't lose that second chance.

Maybe he's getting too optimistic at his old age or it's just him always trying his luck, but he felt like the possibility was there. Whatever he did that caused them to split up he'll have to figure out, see if he can make it up somehow.

Stan wasn't a young man anymore but things were different now. He was different now. He had to try.

The gift shop still had a few people looking around. It looked like Marisela and Soos were having a conversation while he was at the cash register, happily doing the work Wendy should be doing. 

(He might have to step in at some point, make sure Wendy's not taking advantage of Soos being Soos. At least Melody takes it seriously when she's working.)

“Oh hey Mr Pines, we were just hanging around, talking about nothing in particular.” Soos ‘winked’ at him which Marisela noticed, hiding her amusement.

He was a little nervous over what was said, even though he knew Soos was extremely loyal.

“Wendy didn't sneak off again did she?” He might as well ask before he heads off to his ‘not quite a date’ solo tour. 

“Don't worry Mr Pines, Wendy left a note,” he said, holding out a post it note that said ‘ With twins, brb’.

Well it doesn't sound ominous or distressing… 

“Tu muchacho es tan bueno, él era muy amable conmigo,” she complimented when she came up to him. Marisela didn't say it loud but Soos obviously heard her. Anyone could tell with the stars practically in his eyes hearing that.

“He's a good kid,” Stan replied, mildly embarrassed. It was an unspoken thing between them he couldn't acknowledge out loud. He'd be a terrible father anyway.

“You ready?” Stan held out his arm, he wasn't much of a gentleman but he knew how to escort a lady. She happily accepted and they walked together. “You're in for a real treat. I don't give out solo tours to just anyone, doll.”

“Really? I feel so special,” she said teasingly yet cheerful at the idea. It gave Stan a boost of confidence - he kept seeing signs that she's interested, it can't just be in his head.

The confidence might have wavered a bit as they walked together; bad experiences with dogs, especially pit bulls, can do that to a guy. At least he seemed docile enough as her service dog. (Maybe later on she'll mention why she needs one.)

Stan started twirling his old Mr Mystery cane as they came up to the first oddity showcased. “Feast your eyes and behold, the Gravity Falls-”

There were two kids up close to the showcase.

“Niñas,” Marisela said in a stern voice, her sharp eyes could cut through steel. Her twins froze then turned sheepishly towards her.

It's like they didn't think they would get caught - they both wore the hoods up on their jackets showing animal faces, a black cat and a white rabbit. He could see Mabel wearing something like that.

“Mami, we're sorry,” the twin in the rabbit jacket said, “We were just looking to see if it was in our new book.” 

Looks like she's the little defense lawyer out of the two, trying to act cute and sweet to their mom. Good luck kid, that was never a good defense for him.

The other twin was instead squinting at both their mom and him, as if questioning why they're so close.

“Phoebe, Naomi, bájate de ahí ahora mismo,” Marisela commanded, trying not to get into it now. She then turned to him. “I am so sorry Lee,” she said, embarrassed. “My girls are good but very curious.”

Stan thought about waving it off, honestly it's probably a twin thing at this point to look into trouble. Plus if he was considering pursuing a relationship with her, her kids were just part of the equation.

He couldn't make it obvious for everyone that he's got a soft spot for her though.

“You know I'm sure if they break something, Mr Mystery would be more than happy to take them for the summer and have ‘em work for free.”

That had them moving faster. They were instantly standing behind their mother, who was amused by his response. Nothing looked broken from their manhandling at least.

“So, what is that thing anyway? It wasn't in our spellbook,” the cat hoodie twin said as if they weren't in trouble. He knows that they got to have some differences between each other, but both seem equally outspoken.

“It makes sense that it wasn't in your book. My protege, the new Mr Mystery, discovered this beast recently. The Gravity Falls Coco-Nut!” 

The girls looked at the large figure dressed in rags with a large coconut for a head in disbelief, but Stan knew he could make believers out of them. He was surprised to get assistance. 

“You two don’ know this creature, but you know of his cousin,” she said mischievously, piquing the interest of her kids. “It have many names, el coco, el cucoy, the boogeyman. It take away naughty kids from their families and eats them. Is it like his cousin Lee?”

“I'm not surprised, you've always known your stuff Mari,” he grinned at her. It was nice to have someone unflinchingly back him up with his stories. 

“This guy's a real freak of nature, just like his cousin. It stalks around following people, breaks into people's bedrooms to stare at them. My protege wrestled one after it broke in. It never would have guessed that he learned from one of the best monster hunters." He spoke confidently, selling it completely as the truth. 

The two girls stared more at its face, as if imagining it at night. They didn't seem as skeptical once their mom added to the story. Marisela was trying to hide her smile, squeezing his bicep. 

Her girls might have more questions but then saw how close their mom and Stan were to each other still.

They looked at each other, then the rabbit hoodie twin spoke up. “We're gonna sit over here and read.” They gave their promises not to mess with anything else. True to their word, they sat their butts on the floor, about to go over their book.

That left them free to continue their solo tour without a hitch. There was one point early on where Marisela had a distant look in her eye in front of the Werewool. He had no clue why but tried to bring her back with some jokes - she ended up laughing hard into his shoulder. It became his goal for the rest of the evening to have her do it again. 

This one tour was taking longer than a regular one just from their banter throughout.

It was like they've never separated. Stan still hadn't regained the missing pieces of their past together, but he's decided. At the right moment at the end, he's going to ask her for a real date.

They had a fun time and it didn't seem like either one wanted it to end. They ended up sitting on the couch outside. Their shared banter and jokes distracted from actually catching up but he hoped to rectify that.

Her twins were outside as well, still in view checking out some plants and comparing it to their book. He couldn't tell what they were looking at but it shouldn't be anything too dangerous if it was so close to the house. 

Marisela quietly watched briefly before she unleashed then commanded her dog, “Cuida mis niñas,” who diligently went over to them.

Wow now that's well trained. Maybe that's normal for dogs but it's still impressive. It's not like he ever managed to train Gompers that well.

Stan and Marisela were alone now, with no audience or kids sneaking around watching them. They could talk more freely now.

“Thank you for the tour, it was fun." She smiled at him, that same endearing look he wouldn't forget anymore. “De verdad estoy muy orgullosa de ti, Stanley.”

Damn he really is soft with her. She saw him through one of his lowest moments and is proud of him for getting to this point. He's really trying to wait until he can ask her out at the end. He wants to hear more about her before getting there.

“I'm glad you enjoyed it, angel,” he told her softly. He might have tried to comment on her pride in him, but he was trying not to get too sentimental. 

Looking at her, she's probably aware of how much that means to him anyway.

“So,” Stan started, “you know I've been running this thing and well, I want to know about you.” He hoped life treated her well, it should have without him around.

Marisela had that pensive face he still recognized, one she wore when she was figuring out how to phrase her words in English. Some things still haven't changed, he thought fondly.

“You know you can tell me anything you want right? I'll still understand you in Spanish,” he reassured. 

She warmly smiled at him, “A lot of things happen in 30 years. It is hard to start.” 

Stan briefly saw a melancholic expression on her face; he knew he didn't mistake that but he hoped he did. Please tell me I'm wrong, you deserve a happy life.

“Ah, tu sobrinita, ella me pidió algo,” she said, remembering what Mabel asked.

He honestly didn't think he'd see any pictures so soon. How could he have, unless she kept it on her? Marisela started opening up her bag, taking out an old, beat up notebook that looked filled with more stray papers inside.

His old notebook. He didn't even realize it was missing until he saw it in her hands. It wasn't the end of what she was also taking out of her apparently larger on the inside purse. She took out what looked like a small photo album as well. He sort of remembered that she liked taking pictures, something about an old friend that passed her camera down to her… he didn't think they took enough for a small photo album.

Stan was starting to get that vague feeling he had whenever the other shoe was about to drop.

“I was looking for you.”

In her hands now she had one thing that made his blood run cold: an old cutout of a newspaper article ‘Stan Pines Dead’ written in bold, front and center.

He had a similar one before he burned it at last summer's bonfire. Marisela must have seen his reaction as she spoke in a rush.

“Please do not be scared. It is not bad, I- please listen. If you don' want to see me after, I go.”

“No, don't! It just surprised me to see that.” There might have been a brief moment where he wondered if his brother had a point after all. (Not like he'd tell him.) But he still followed his gut instinct.

If she was up to no good, out to hurt him, she would have done something by now. He's had no signs that she could be dangerous either. “You can tell me anything you want, it's okay.”

Marisela looked glad he was hearing her out; maybe she was worried he would've run off or something. 

She was definitely still nervous though. “Okay,” she took a deep breath. “I was worried when you left, long ago. I had hope we could continue to be together. That I could help you…

“I worried but I respect your decision to leave. I know why you did. But then… I found out I was pregnant. I try to find you, I wanted you to know.”

She took a moment to pause, possibly recalling her difficult search, and he was glad she did. Stan was truly speechless, for the first time in his life. He was overwhelmed, he knew she wasn't lying from the look in her face, in her eyes, and all that was running in his head now was, I ruined this poor woman's life. 

Not just her, but the poor kid too.

He could never make this up to her. To them. Why was she even being nice to him still?! Stan was frozen, not knowing what to even say first.

Marisela held his hand, “Sorry, I know it is a lot.” She was still being kind and gentle, he couldn't understand why.

“You're not the one that has to say sorry. I am.” She accepted the hug he gave her, the hug he kept giving her. They both needed the comfort. “I'm sorry. I didn't know, if I did I would've stayed.”

Looks like now he had a new thing to fixate on at night; how would things have changed if they stayed together... It's been a while since he felt the need to rethink his past decisions. Not since making up with Ford.

Neither one of them broke the hug yet. He hoped she wasn't secretly crying, he couldn't take that.

“Our daughter does not know we came here to find you,” she said quietly into his chest. At that he squeezed her harder. He had a daughter. “Not yet. I do not want anything, I just want you to meet. If you don’ want to, I won’ tell-”

“I want to meet her,” he cut her off. He didn't want to interrupt but he couldn't let her finish the thought, keep having that idea in her head. 

Marisela looked up at him, she did look emotional but she wasn't crying. Teary-eyed but happy to have this chance. “Her name is Penelope. She is a lot like you.”

“Sorry about that,” he sheepishly said. 

“Don’ be, it is a good thing,” she smiled at him. He had no clue how she could see any good in him. “I have photos if you want to see.” 

“Of course." At that they broke their hug. She handed him his old notebook that he then put to the side so she could open up the photo album instead. 

Stan could get more answers to his past some other time, right now he just wanted to know more about her.

They had the photo album between the two of them, letting him take his time looking through it. Maybe any other guy would have questioned if they were the father but he couldn't. The resemblance was plain as day.

She may have inherited her mother's black hair, and had a darker complexion compared to him, but everything else was pure Pines. There was a picture he had looked at for the longest time, where a thirteen year old girl was excitedly holding her baby brother. The expression reminded him a lot of Mabel.

The metaphorical knife in him twisted a lot at that. It was twisting the whole time actually. A whole life he wasn't able to be there for her, protect her…

The last picture in the album must have been her most recent birthday, her 30th birthday, wearing a silly shirt that said ‘30 & Flirty.’ By then he realized something. 

“My kid's first words to me were basically telling us to get a room.” It would probably be more funny if he wasn't still processing everything.

He has no clue what to do. A long lost daughter, his daughter. Who is an adult now. Would she even want to see him? 

Marisela saw his expression, he must be easy to read now, “Lee, I will help okay. I will talk to her, and she will want to meet you.”

“What does she know about me?” He blurted out that sudden thought. 

Does Penelope know everything about him? Does Marisela? He'll have to eventually look into his old notebook, see what he can remember. There are things he wouldn't want his kid to know about him, or anyone else for that matter.

“I told some stories, like how we meet for the first time.” 

Marisela seemed like she didn't fully understand his concern. Maybe he shouldn't worry about that part yet. She was a considerate, tactful woman, she probably kept it kid friendly.

“Many times in the past, I said to her that you would love her. I say the same to you. Believe in me, you are not alone,” she said comforting him.

What is it about being around Marisela that makes him so emotional? He just nodded back to her, trying not to cry - he doesn't cry, he won't - at the idea of having a daughter that didn't think he'd love her.

It was starting to get dark out at that point, and they both had kids to look after. 

He tried handing her the photo album back, but she shook her head. “I have copy of everything, this is yours. And Stanley,” she said, looking into his eyes, “I know it is a lot. I am sorry it is. When you are ready, please tell me.” 

“Don't apologize,” he repeated. She shouldn't ever for this. “I'll let you know, don't worry.”

Her little twins were coming up to them. Unaware of anything they were talking about, followed by their dog and hands full of glowing flowers. One of them handed her little bouquet to her mother while the other tried to weave them together. 

“Oh Phoebe, how beautiful!” She smiled and hugged her daughter, “We still have to talk later.”

They both groaned about it but moments later were talking about what they learned about their glowing flowers from their book as they were walking inside. 

He was trying hard not to think about a different life now.

Ford had been definitely watching them through the window and pretending to make coffee now when they came back in. He had no clue what he heard but they definitely had to talk. 

He didn't make any moves to stop their little entourage but he does make a questioning glance towards him. Maybe whatever he's seen or heard made him less wary but still feeling unsure.

But Stan didn't stop to talk to his brother, not yet. He kept walking with them to the front, holding everything close to his chest. Later, we'll talk later when we're alone .

“We will see you, okay,” Marisela said. They were standing close to each other physically but figuratively, Stan had no clue where he stood with her. That he didn't think his brother would be able to help him with.

Maybe they would have talked more, so he could have gleaned more. But it seemed that her little girls spotted their siblings outside by the golf cart, with the twins and Wendy.

He'll have to see what happened there along with everything else that's on his mind.

“Bye Mr Lee!” Naomi and Phoebe said in unison. He smiled at them and told them bye as well. Like he hadn't been told life changing information. 

He might feel like crap on the inside, but he's not going to let anyone know. Better get ready for the kids coming back.

“Bye Lee. Remember what I told you,” Marisela said softly, giving him one last hug. How can she even stand being near him?

Stan saw his daughter from a distance start walking towards her mother, towards the Mystery Shack. It was killing him but he went back inside, waiting by the door. 

Marisela still had to tell her and he had no idea what he would do or say now. 

He was able to hear parts of their conversation. He definitely heard her obviously lie to her mother - wow that apple didn't fall far from the tree, not sure how he felt about that - before the small family (not including him…) left.

The kids were on their way back in and he couldn't reveal this to them. Not yet. They'd be happy finding out they had a long lost cousin, probably just as happy as when they found out they had a long lost great uncle. But he couldn't just blurt everything out now… 

He really had to talk to Ford.

Chapter Text

Ford wouldn't be doing this if she was just a random woman Stanley met with no connection to his past. 

(He'd probably do it anyway even if she wasn't.)

He watched them from the office through the cameras placed in the Mystery Shack. Whenever they were in a position that the camera could barely catch, he had to restrain himself from heading there.

Eventually he did when they went into the household. They're now happily sitting outside on the couch, while he's in the kitchen watching through the window.

It wasn't creepy or weird that he was watching them so closely. He'd debate anyone saying that! He just couldn't help but worry for Stanley.

He's recognized that he'd been… harsh towards his brother. For a very long time… He didn't realize it until he almost lost him. 

Ford wanted to be a better brother, and if Stan won't worry about himself, he'll do it.

Watching over his brother today though, Stan seemed really happy. Different from the usual. The two of them were sweet towards each other, verging on affectionate even - it felt a little awkward seeing that actually.

He'll admit to himself (and no one else) that he might have been wrong to be suspicious. They were even hugging each other, he should be happy for Stan!

Seeing that he stepped away from the window momentarily; just because he's looking out for his brother doesn't mean he wants to see any of their romance.

I suppose I'll have to introduce myself to her at some point. Stan didn't seem to know what happened at the end of their relationship, but the likelihood of them getting back together seemed plausible. Now, how should I greet her without scaring her off?

His brainstorming stopped when it looked like they were about to head back inside. Ford rushed to look like he's ‘been making coffee’ and nothing else. Definitely not spying on anyone here.

At least his act seemed to have worked. Stanley was the only one that noticed him while his old flame was preoccupied, listening to two twin girls talking about the glowing flowers they found.

That's one way to introduce myself: talking about the magical plants in the forest! It'd be friendly, interesting, approachable-

One look at Stan's face stopped that train of thought. He had a harder time reading him now compared to their youth, but at least their voyage helped them bond, improving that skill.

Did something happen? He wasn't able to hear their conversation, but throughout they seemed enamored with each other. He's definitely trying to hide his feelings… Did she reject him?

He discreetly followed before heading back to the kitchen - he saw her give Stan a hug before he sneaked back to the kitchen. Did human courting rituals just change while I've been gone? He couldn't tell exactly what Stan was feeling but he still looked fond of her, they both did.

He'll have to ask Stanley what happened. Hopefully he won't be too upset that he'd been spied on.

Hearing the kids come back home, Ford was excited to see them both again after his self imposed quarantine. The only reason he didn't go running towards them now was because he'd gotten yelled at the last time he rushed out of the kitchen, almost causing a fire.

He'll be able to actually start spending time with them this summer now that it's gone. Their vacation just started but he missed them so much. 

He planned on making a dramatic entrance to announce being officially uncursed - but immediately ran to them when he saw all the bloodied paper towels in the trash.

“Who got hurt?!”

Well in a way it was still a dramatic entrance. Whatever conversation they had stopped - the kids went from smiling, excited to see him to being startled at his question. 

They definitely knew what he was referring to, but neither of them looked injured whatsoever. Both just looked like they've been running through the forest.

Stan knelt down as soon as he yelled that question, looking over both twins but seeing nothing.

“Neither one of us got hurt - or Wendy!” Dipper stated, responding to what he knew would be Stan's question.

“Someone did, there's blood in the kitchen.”

The kids didn't seem to want to say what happened, looking between him and Stanley, mostly his brother. Mabel ended up caving, “Ms Flores’ daughter got hurt. But she doesn't want to worry her mom!”

Stan, already concerned, had paled at that. It drew his attention seeing how indecisive Stan looked: between continuing to question the now secretive twins, or going to the kitchen to see for himself how bad it was. Maybe even calling and asking directly.

“How did she get hurt,” Stan pressed. His face didn't betray whatever emotions he must have felt; the kids must have thought that he was concerned for their safety by proximity. Maybe he did as well but-

Something wasn't adding up.

“It was just her hand, she didn't show us how bad it was. She didn't let me help her with it either.”

“A supernatural thing sort of happened. That's why she doesn't want her mom to know actually,” Dipper interjected. “She was treating it like no big deal, honest.”

That was strange. Ford had the impression that this woman and her children were newly arrived tourists. Usually anomalies tend to ignore tourists, only showing themselves to more long term residents, and even that's rare… 

I suppose I still have some apprehension on my brother's behalf. He stopped his musings by the time Stan seemed to accept their responses, no longer kneeling. 

With some more words and then mentioning having to start dinner - probably going to check the blood out himself - Stan left him with the kids.

“So Grunkle Ford, is that curse gone or are you leaving again?” Dipper asked, reserved yet hopeful, as well as trying to change the mood. 

The dramatic moment he wanted may have left but that wasn't the important part. 

Ford smiled at the kids. “The curse is officially gone,” he reassured, holding his arms out for a hug, “and I'm not going anywhere.”

Both twins excitedly accepted his offered hug, after not physically seeing him and at best being held at arm's length. 

Bill's latest scheme didn't succeed - he and his book were long gone and after tossing it into a rift it shouldn't come back.

Ford's family was safe and he intended to keep it that way.

Dipper and Mabel were excitedly talking his ear off at the same time. Stanley did tell him that the kids would get attached to him as soon as his 'quarantine' was over, and he was clearly correct. 

They talked about making a new friend, investigating an anomaly, and even fought off the gnomes today with said anomaly. They gave different details, trying to paint a collaborative picture of what happened.

“Grunkle Ford, is it okay if you can help us tomorrow with our friend?” Mabel asked before Dipper added.

“And Wendy is holding on to this amulet, could you check it out? It was acting crazy until she had it.” 

“Of course!” Stanford exclaimed, wanting to help not just with this strange anomaly but with their new friend. Dipper was very similar to him but at least this was one thing they didn't have in common. 

(He's had trouble speaking to teenage boys since he was a teenage boy, so he'll possibly have to plan ahead.)

Mentioning their new friend was a reminder of the details they didn't add. They haven't mentioned what their new friend needs help with exactly, or how that girl got hurt. He could guess who they didn't want to mention those details to.

Stan may have been finishing up dinner while the three of them were at the table, but he was still very present in the conversation. 

He didn't speak much compared to how he usually did, especially after he saw the before mentioned blood. Just enough to seem alright to Dipper and Mabel.

Ford will either have to parse it out or talk to the kids directly. And Stanley. 

Hopefully they won't be emotional conversations. That definitely wasn't his specialty - but he'll try for them! He's going to make up for lost time with them all.

As the small family enjoyed their dinner, the kids still talking about their day, Stanley stepped back into the conversation.

“So, was this Penelope girl on your gnome hunt, how'd she do?”

He said it in a nonchalant way but Ford recognized that he actually wasn't. It was a subtle reminder that Stan had more experience being a caretaker compared to him. 

He probably should've asked how the poor girl was beforehand.

“She actually kicked a lot of butt today,” Dipper replied, for once he didn't seem to tiptoe on the details surrounding her. “It wouldn't have been as easy getting the amulet back without her.”

“Yeah, she protected us!” Mabel cheered. “She didn't let the gnomes near me, tricked them, and stole the amulet back! We got back home easy peasy.”

The kids started disagreeing on just how 'easy peasy' everything went. 

Ford turned to Stanley, about to comment speculating on how she managed to trick the gnomes, but was surprised at the look of pride Stan had.

Lee was always content to be with his family, but Ford felt what he saw was definitely pride. Was it just because we're all together, or was he actually proud of Penelope? 

She did protect them even though she was injured, Ford reasoned. We should thank her when we get the chance.

After all she didn't have to do anything for them, they had just met after all. 

The rest of the dinner went well, with both Stan and Ford prodding them on their magical battle. Ford honestly couldn't wait to investigate this mysterious new amulet, but he will until tomorrow. And Stan was avoiding conversation on his 'solo tour' (he won't avoid it for much longer). 

With new questions popping up in his mind regarding it, he and Stan made sure the kids went through their bedtime routine. They may have been largely independent teens but Stanley insisted on practically herding them, saying they needed the reminders.

If his brother was in a more playful mood, he might have mentioned Ford needing some reminders himself.

Both of the younger twins may have been tired from today's events, but neither wanted to sleep yet. Dipper had his journal, ready to write down a new entry for the day, and Mabel had started working on a beaded bracelet. 

They both wished them good night. As long as they were in their room and didn't go out for some last minute expedition, neither would force them to go to sleep. 

“Could I show you something in my journal Grunkle Ford?” 

“Of course my boy!” That simple request had both of them stop in their tracks, but only Ford went back to the kids.

Stan smirked, he did tell him that the kids would miss him after all; Ford wasn't sure that they would. That's one thing he's glad to be wrong about.

“I'll give you guys some space to bond, don't stay up too late,” Stan said lightheartedly before leaving. He had made a lot of direct eye contact with Ford in that last sentence. Does he just want the kids to have a reasonable bedtime or was that a sign for him?

Either way, he needs to check on Stan. That troubled expression he had earlier on his face - he had to know what happened. The longer it would take to ask, the longer he'd probably bottle it up, likelier to go into denial.

He wouldn't interrogate him but he had to show that he cared.

“How's your entry coming along, have you added anything for today?”

Dipper didn't show him any journal entries, however; instead he finally said what's been on his mind.

“My new friend got cursed and he's super worried about it. That's actually what hurt Penelope today,” Dipper admitted.

“We weren't sure if we should say anything in front of Grunkle Stan. She really doesn't want to worry her mom,” Mabel spoke up, her puppy dog eyes begging him to not repeat this to his brother.

“I won't say anything tonight,” he promised. Maybe if the curse was something superficial, or harmless, he wouldn't say anything until it's no longer an issue but…

It wasn't - it sounded like a serious curse, a rather dark one at that to physically harm someone else. What did this boy do to get stuck with that?  

And Stanley seemed to care a lot for that girl's mother too. Knowing him he'd want to make sure they were safe by extension…

Ford formulated his rapid-fire questions. He'd seen Dipper occasionally on his new cell phone throughout the night, sending messages back and forth. “You were communicating with your friends before, correct? Did his curse hurt anyone else? And have you heard from Penelope, has her injury gotten worse, any side effects?”

Most people would get overwhelmed but Dipper shook his head. “No, they're fine, everything's fine so far.”

Nothing’s happened but he still had an anxious look on his face. 

“Then we'll talk more about this tomorrow, don't worry.”

Ford's response radiated confidence so the younger twins would trust what he said. The curse could wait until tomorrow and he'll solve everything then.

Ford wished them both goodnight again, and as soon as he was out the room he hurried to talk to Stan. He wasn't going to let him hide away and avoid-

Stanley wasn't hiding in his bedroom; it seemed he came back from downstairs, not at all surprised to see him standing outside ready to barge in. In his hands was an old notebook and a photo album. 

The one he had after talking to that woman. Ford was suspicious that it was gone, but he was more preoccupied at the time with figuring out who had gotten injured to question it.

“Let's talk privately,” Stan said, code for: inside so the kids won't sneak up on them.

They sat on the foot of Stan's bed, neither of them talking until Stanley made a comment on their shared silence.

“I can see how Marisela struggled to talk about this,” Stan joked self-deprecatingly. 

Ford tried to give him the space to talk; he was at least coming forward on his own. He doubted that it was him making progress on sharing his problems. Stan always struggled to talk about his feelings (they both did).

It must not be an option to keep it to himself this time.

“So, your old girlfriend gave you that?” Ford indirectly asking why he had an old notebook, trying to help him talk it out. He was also curious on what those papers shoved in could have been.

“This old thing used to be mine, back when I was on the road.” Stan held it for a moment before putting it back on the bed. “I can't remember if I left it on purpose or accidentally. Just that I had it for a long time.

“She's been trying to find me for a long time now. The whole time …” Other than that short, rueful explanation, he didn't look at the notebook again, focusing more on the album still in his grasp.

She gave Lee a goldmine to his past, Ford realized. This was wonderful news! He didn't see why his twin didn't acknowledge that. This gift could potentially fill in so many gaps in his memory!

“Have you looked through it yet,” Ford asked. He would prefer to be there alongside him in case he ended up reliving something. He was also aware that Stanley wouldn't.

“Not really. I ended up seeing one page that almost fell out - it solved one mystery at least,” he sighed. Stanley wouldn't have normally shown him the page so easily but allowed it. 

He was given an old letter that was definitely written by Stanley. Some parts were crossed out, as if he had struggled to choose what to say as he rushed to write it. The beginning looked like he tried to write in Spanish before giving up. Given enough time he could figure it out but instead focused on what was written in English. 

‘Mari, I can't stay here. There are dangerous people I owe a large debt to looking for me. They've seen me with you, but they are only after me. I have to keep them away from you. Please, I can't let you get hurt because of me. 

‘I have to leave. Just move on and forget about me, I'm nothing but trouble.’

“Oh Lee, I'm sorry.” 

Stanley must've been trying to hide his heart break, he wasn't looking directly at him. Even he felt heartbroken for his brother after reading it. If circumstances were different, he wouldn't have been alone for so long if at all.

One day, I'll get my hands on those men that cost you so much, Ford thought vindictively. 

“It's alright Sixer, I'm fine.”

“It's okay if you're not,” he said, not letting him act dismissive over his own feelings. 

Ford didn't know whether or not his brother loved this woman, but he definitely cared a lot about her. He even said please, a word barely in his vocabulary when they were younger. A word he seemed to have some disdain for now. She meant enough for him to want to keep safe.

“I won't pretend to know the history between the two of you. But if she was looking for you this whole time, it's likely she-”

“No Sixer. Look, I didn't show you the letter to talk about that. I thought it would help me bring up what I do need to say. But there's no easy way to say it so I'll just rip the band-aid off.

“Marisela didn't come here to rekindle anything with me. I can't see why she ever would. By the time I left, she was pregnant. I don't remember everything, but I swear I didn't know. If I had, I would have stayed. I would have figured something out,” Stan said regretfully, going back to his deep thoughts. 

Possibly wondering if it was possible to stay and keep her safe.

Ford was stunned speechless. He was still processing Stan's admission when he said a stilted, “Are you sure that's your child?”

He didn't mean for it to come out like that, it wasn't that he didn't believe Marisela. It was just- 

Thinking back to a time when their relationship hadn't become strained, he imagined both of their futures. He envisioned Stanley grown up, having a family with the hot wife he always said he'd have. 

Ford thought he'd be there to see it, be a part of it, even after everything…

If this was true, it would mean both of them lost that chance.

His brother knew he didn't mean what he said in a negative sense, but Stan's facial expression was clear to him: he's 100% positive and he's not arguing it. 

“Penelope's my kid,” he said, his tone almost chastising him for insinuating she wasn't. He handed him the small album so he could see for himself, now opened to pictures of a child the same age as the twins upstairs. 

“I'll admit, she bares a strong resemblance,” he said looking at what could potentially be the Pines curls. “But is that really enough to-”

He cut himself off when he noticed her hands. Six fingers. She had six fingers on each hand. Like him.

Maybe he should've tried to check the probability, the possibility that she wasn't Stan's daughter and she just happened to share this trait but-

That's Stanley's daughter. That's his niece.

Ford looked back at his brother, who must've seen the realization on his face. 

“Glad it didn't take long for you to see it.”

“Stanley, this is- Are you going to talk to her tomorrow?” There was no doubt in his mind his twin wouldn't want to see her. 

(Now knowing that Stan's daughter, his niece, was the one who got injured by the curse - he's trying hard not to blurt it out now.)

“Not yet. Marisela hasn't told her - she didn't want to get her hopes up. She's gonna talk to her when I'm ready.” He struggled to then say out loud, “I'm not sure I'll ever feel ready but I still want to see her.”

They say no one is ever ready to become a parent. Even though this case is long after the fact. “That's understandable Stanley. I'm sure Penelope is going to feel nervous too, but she'll still want to meet you.”

Stan didn't voice what he was thinking, he just looked uncertain. It was difficult realizing just how low his self-esteem was when more of his memories came back.

“Marisela is trying to help the two of you meet,” he continued. “And I'll be supporting you every step of the way.”

That got Stan to smile a little, feeling a little more secure. “Yeah I know. Tomorrow I'll talk to her again, see when she'll tell her.”

He'll be there for that. Dipper had mentioned during dinner that his friend would come by during the late afternoon. He should have time to be there for Stan's talk and then help the kids with their anomaly problems. 

At some point, they'll have to let the kids know about their new cousin too. Another thing he couldn't blurt out just yet.

Chapter Text

Penelope had come to terms with fairy tales, magic, and whatever else being real. Mostly. It wasn't clear to her what does or doesn't exist yet.

But since this is her life now she'll just have to shrug and go along with it.

She's handling it better than her brother at least. He's been walking on eggshells around her since yesterday. 

They didn't really… talk about what happened.

Lupe had been tired after driving for so long, and then that happened along with the whole gnome thing. She had just enough energy to lie to her mom, get ready for bed, then crash. 

She was focused on ignoring the cursed book shaped elephant in the room and the strained energy in the family now. There was no way she was involving her mom and little sisters in any of it. 

It was better to keep quiet about it.

She drove her family to the Mystery Shack in the late afternoon, after finishing her online work. It seemed everyone had some sort of business there. In her case, King shyly asked if she could join him and his friends, with his guilty, puppy dog eyes.

She'll have to build up the mental energy to deal with whatever supernatural thing happens. That book kept popping up again and again, but at least it hasn't done anything as crazy as yesterday. Yet. She didn't want to keep lying to her mom over all this.

Her poor mom who's been worried about the two of them since yesterday…

“¿Ustedes saben que pueden contar conmigo, de verdad? Pueden contarme cualquier cosa,” her mom said sincerely. She's been trying not to hover, but she just couldn't help asking. 

Lupe's family was outside in the parking lot, her mom looking at both her and King, hoping one of them would say something. 

She couldn't upset her mom with anything.

“Mami, no te preocupes. Nothing is going on, if something did you'd be the first to know,” she lied.

She threw her arm around her brother, like she was trying to say, 'look how happy we are' through the gesture. At least King tried to play along.

“Yeah, we're just going to hang out together. Nothing serious.”

Their mom clearly didn't buy it but wasn't going to push it. Not now anyway. Lupe would bet she'll talk to them one on one at some point. She'll have to make sure they have a united front before that happens. She can clearly imagine King being the one to cave.

Naomi and Phoebe had started to go towards the shack, tired of waiting and how weird everything's been. Their mother didn't move to walk with them yet. 

Lupe thought for a moment her mom might not let it go after all, before saying, “When you work together, everything will be okay.”

She'll have to ignore the guilt once again - she couldn't let her mom be around anything like what happened yesterday. “Claro mami, I'll take care of him.” At least that part isn't a lie.

“Shouldn't you be talking to your mystery man by the way? Don't keep him waiting too long,” Lupe teased lightheartedly right after. She couldn't help it.

That got her mom to break eye contact. It was fun to catch her off guard with such an easy 'embarrass mom' button. She was always on top of everything, unshakeable. 

Usually that was great, but now she needed a distraction away from them and their dumb, malicious book.

“Recuerda lo que te dije.” She walked off towards the twins who were probably plotting who knows what at the entrance.

Lupe was ecstatic that just mentioning him had worked, just getting them a reminder to basically stick together. 

Her brother definitely wasn't.

“Did you really have to bring that up? It's weird that mom's dating,” he said uncomfortably. 

“King, don't worry, they're not dating.” Lupe took a long pause before adding, “Yet.”

They continued like that while walking around the shack, Lupe teasing him and King awkwardly countering. Like they weren't meeting up with King's new friends to get rid of a creepy, paranormal book they were now stuck with.

She had to keep them looking forward, towards normal things, or else someone will spiral. 

It was practical to help him get over it anyway - their mother wasn't dead, she can date whoever she wants. She just hasn't ‘cause she cares more about them. Her last relationship ending in a spectacularly shitty way probably didn't help either.

She stopped teasing her brother by the time Dipper and Mabel were in view. They weren't sitting on the couch outside, just deep in whatever conversation they were having.

Heading straight towards them, Lupe kept her hands in her jacket pockets. It was a little uncomfortable for her injured hand but she'll get over it.

“Hey guys,” King called out, glad to see them. His greeting pulled them out of their discussion, but they similarly looked happy to see him too.

Since Dipper had texted King saying that his paranormal researching great uncle offered to help, his mood definitely shifted. He obviously still felt bad that she got hurt, but wasn't as panicked. More hopeful that everything will turn out okay.

Lupe said hi to the pair of twins as well, but planned to quietly stay in the background. They were King's friends, she wasn't going to interrupt their hangout time. 

A weight was definitely lifted off her shoulders overhearing them say that they just had to wait for their great uncle. She was about to sit patiently when the conversation took a turn.

“You want an interview with me?” Lupe honestly thought she was there in case they needed a bodyguard for whatever spooky nonsense shows up.

“Yeah, we can't record the book normally, but you said something interesting about it yesterday. It'd be good to have it for the guide while we wait for Grunkle Ford.”

I did? She had no clue what he was talking about.

Looking at her brother, he didn't seem surprised at that plan at all, just apologetic. Guess he forgot to mention it while he's been acting all weird.

“I guess? Sure I'll do the interview thing.” It'll at least kill time before they can get their help and this all blows over. She sat down so she wouldn't have to look down to talk to him.

Dipper seemed thrilled at her response, even though she didn't sound all that enthusiastic. He was handing King an old video camera while they talked about their 'guide'.

Whatever questions thrown my way, it can't be as bad as my past job interviews, she thought.

“Don't worry,” Mabel reassured, “he's taking it seriously but it's nothing bad. And here! For helping yesterday.”

She presented a beaded friendship bracelet, made up of red circular beads and yellow floral beads with a flourish. 

“Aww thank you Mabel, that's so sweet of you.” Lupe carefully put on the friendship bracelet, trying hard not to show the six digits of her hand. She put it over her bandages, replacing her old bracelet. 

“While Dipper's going to host and King records everything, I'm going to be your emotional support! So don't get nervous around the camera,” Mabel declared.

“Thanks, I'm sure I won't,” she replied. She wasn't going to mention that she doesn't get camera shy. Or that she was starting to get reminded of the times she's had to play pretend with her little sisters. 

Mentally comparing them to her younger siblings helped her see that they were nice kids. Maybe it wouldn't be a big deal if they noticed. The girl from yesterday didn't make any remarks about her hands either - and she definitely saw them. 

But hiding and deflecting was a force of habit at this point.

If her family is going to spend most of the summer around the Mystery Shack, she'll work up to showing them. Eventually. 

It looked like they were finally ready. Unlike her, Dipper wasn't sitting down as he made his introduction. They probably didn't have time to make a little cardboard desk for him. 

The little cardboard they used to introduce her had her full name, Penelope Victoria Flores. At some point King must've given away my whole government name. Underneath she happened to see the little subtitle that said "Supportive Big Sister". 

Do they consider me the collective big sister now? Or did they just need a label for their show? It was actually a little cute to read that but she didn't point it out. 

“Are we gonna wait for your other friend?”

Maybe the interviewee shouldn't ask the first question, or any questions really, but she'd rather treat it like a regular conversation where she's not the sole focus.

“Wendy's not working today but she said she'll be on her way here.”

She nodded as Dipper started his warm up question. 

“So yesterday you got injured," he started slowly, carefully. “We've actually been worried if you were okay afterwards. You haven't had any weird side effects or anything, have you?”

Yeah, she should have assumed that's the first question. She'll try to take it seriously as she carefully takes her hand out of her pocket. Not fully, just showing the bandages and not her six fingers. 

“That's nice of you guys but don't worry. I'm plenty tough. It won't even take that long to heal.”

They don't need to know that her mother had to give her some stitches. It's not their problem, they're just kids. 

At least King didn't contradict her as he quietly filmed them. She really has to actually talk to him today, she's feeling a little guilty looking at his sad face.

“And I'm not sure what you mean by side effects, but it's just been like a regular hand injury,” she shrugged. Lupe hoped he didn't mean something crazy like possession, that would suck. 

Both of the twins seemed happy at her response. One less thing for them to worry about, although she felt that they really shouldn't worry for her.

“So yesterday you said something important. When King threw the book away, you said it quote, ‘looked different’ afterwards. I wanted to follow up on that,” he said, giving her the space to respond.

I'm being quoted now? It's not like she's in court but she probably can't stretch the truth now. (If she can help it.) It would be difficult with 'emotional support Mabel' looking right at her; she reminded her too much of her little sisters.

“Yeah, the front cover was definitely different.” Lupe didn't forget what it first looked like but didn't elaborate further. 

At the time she briefly thought that her brother was pulling some kind of cruel joke when he showed it. Then it coincidentally 'disappeared' after that. It just didn't make sense for him to do that, so she brushed it off. Maybe she would've called him out on it if he did it again.

Turns out his book was the jerk, not the other way around. Who would have thought.

“How did it change exactly?” Dipper interrogated, wanting to know that missing detail.

“Kid, I don't think the title changing is important.” She didn't want to curse in front of kids, especially since she's apparently being quoted on stuff. They'd probably take offense to being treated like kids but they were. 

“It might be! Any little bit of information can help,” her brother, the cameraman added. He probably shouldn't be talking for this interview but whatever.

Mabel patted her arm, trying to do her emotional support job. It made having to say it harder actually. Sighing, she looked away.

“‘Tracing Psychic Abilities Through Genealogy for Bastards.' That's what it said the first time.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw their taken aback reaction. Like no one, or at least no adult, has ever cursed around them before. 

Their family must have tried really hard to shelter them. Maybe she should have lied after all.

“But yeah,” she said, trying to move on. “It doesn't say that anymore.”

“I'm sorry it did,” Mabel responded somberly. 

Looks like they know what it means even if they are sheltered. 

“It's fine, mija. It didn't hurt my feelings. I was more confused seeing it than anything else.” Lupe didn't want her to be upset. She happened to shoot a glance towards her brother.

Her half-brother technically - but they've never treated each other like half of anything. So him shoving that book in her face, wanting her to read it, him acting weird when it pulled a disappearing act... 

She ignored how it felt then, she can do it again now.

But King must've put it together, he's always been quick like that. “Yo no sabía que dijo eso, ¡de verdad! Lo siento Lupe.”

“Está bien Joaquín, no hiciste nada,” she said in a nonchalant tone, so the other two kids wouldn't think they were talking about anything.

(But it was nice to hear him apologize, basically saying he doesn't think that way. She's just not talking about that now.)

Lupe tried to go back to the interview thing, she'd rather do that. “So yeah, that's what it said at first. It didn't say anything afterwards but-”

Dipper was too quick with his followup question. Interviewers should probably wait instead of going in rapid-fire, but nobody else has stuck to the format anyway. “Did it show you anything at all?” 

His serious tone was on a max setting now, but it no longer felt like he was trying to act like a TV show host. Even his sister seemed a bit more serious, waiting for her response

“It had a big, red eye, right in the middle,” she said, searching Dipper's eyes. 

Lupe can admit she's super out of the loop on everything. If it wasn't affecting her family, she probably wouldn't look further into it. But they knew something that they weren't sharing.

And she was curious what exactly it could be.

Maybe it was her staring at him, his uncle still not being here, being a 'think aloud' type of guy, or a combination of all three that some of his inner thoughts spilled. 

“We haven't established a pattern for what the book titles mean for each person. But why would it say that? Wouldn't it make more sense to always be enticing so people could read it? And what caused it to change in the first place?”

The genealogy bit of the title she first saw flashed in her mind. She wasn't going to chime in to remind anyone of that. Her thoughts on that were between her, her mom, and maybe a therapist if she gets around to it.

“Maybe we can get an answer to that last question,” King hesitantly said. “I'm not sure if it'll work, but I want to try something.”

Mabel readily offered to switch places, becoming the new camera person. King quickly turned his back and dug into his backpack, tossing the cursed book on the ground in front of all of them. 

Its giant red eye stared up at them, and Lupe glared right back at it.

“It hasn't changed again,” she said simply. Lupe didn't move her gaze from it, as if it would do something else. Hell, maybe it can, who knows.

“I still see the same title as yesterday,” Dipper said in thought. He's probably wondering why it hasn't changed at all for him then.

“To me it says, ‘Fun Tricks To Make A Party Last Forever’,” Mabel added. That does kinda fit the possible pattern Dipper suggested.

King didn't explain what his experiment was, he just took something out of his pocket and tossed it onto the book.

It sounded like a firecracker, the way it snapped apart. No part of it remained on top of the book - the pieces bounced off like it couldn't stand to be there.

The broken pieces of King's red bracelet lay around the book. The blue bead resembling an eye landed in front of her.

Everyone was startled after the sudden noise it made. It wasn't the most alarming thing she's seen from it - it's hard to beat getting stabbed by a book. But it was still wild to see a normal bracelet just break apart like that. 

“I haven't been able to stop thinking about what happened yesterday. You two and Wendy were able to touch it, but it hurt Lupe. And she was the only one wearing a bracelet like that…

“Maybe the bracelet wasn't letting you see it right the first time,” King hypothesized. “Maybe if I was actually wearing mine, I wouldn't have ever found the book.”

He trailed off at the end. Lupe had thought the whole time he was acting all guilty just ‘cause she got hurt yesterday. Apparently it went further than that. 

King thought he was at fault for getting cursed in the first place.

I should have talked with him before coming here. Or tried to power through how tired I was yesterday and do it then. Now he's getting stupid ideas in his head.

“Why would a bracelet not let you see it,” Dipper asked. He definitely seemed intrigued. Mabel also seemed interested, but more out of the idea of a magical bracelet.

 “I'm not the superstitious type, so I can't give you the exact reasoning. Basically the bracelet is supposed to protect you from the evil eye, which is like a curse, bad luck,” Lupe explained. “It breaks when it takes the bad luck on for you.”

Lupe definitely wasn't the superstitious type, but her mother was. As a teenager, she remembered being embarrassed by it, but by the time she became an adult she just went along with it. It wasn't hurting her and it made her mom happy after all.

She'll have to figure out how to ask her about this without tipping her off. It was clearly real now.

“It's an interesting idea to look into,” Dipper murmured. It seems he wasn't on his previous train of thought, more willing to follow this one. “I wonder how we could test out this theory…”

“We can look into it, but finding out ‘why’ might be impossible to figure out. So don't worry about that part, Joaquin.” 

Lupe wasn't going to have a most likely emotionally charged conversation with him in front of other people. The first chance she gets she has to talk that stupid idea out of his head.

“We should try to find other bracelets like that,” Mabel said from behind the camera. “Maybe there's other stuff we can try too.”

Lupe wasn't going to mention that her mom and little sisters also wore bracelets like that one. There was no way she'd let them be guinea pigs to test it out on. Especially without knowing what experiments would be done anyway.

She had no clue what a paranormal researcher would think of.

They were at a standstill now, without either their mysterious expert or Wendy showing up yet. She wasn't much of a detective but maybe it was best to switch gears.

“What did you guys read anyway? It's a book, so you must've read something.”

The sudden tangent shook Dipper out of his thought process, whatever it could've been.

“We didn't read much, just a part of it - we wanted to figure out what yesterday's amulet could do. It didn't really say much of anything.”

Well yeah, she thought. The book's an asshole, it's not going to tell you anything straightforward.

Maybe she's taking her beef with the evil book personally, but it felt right. Why would it tell them everything upfront?

Dipper handed her a spiral notebook, one of the things he had ready for the interview that's long since lost its format. 

“The wild magic part seems straightforward now after yesterday,” King said. “It actually sounds like something from DD&MD.”

“Could it be luck based like in the game?” Dipper asked, but it sounded more like he was just thinking aloud.

Both Lupe and Mabel made a face at that. I don't know about Mabel but I don't want to chase leads based off a game.

“I don't think it's just luck,” she said. Lupe was quietly mulling it over as the kids were wondering aloud, as if the answer would just come to her. 

‘Drawn to strong emotions and reflects it outward.’ Everyone has emotions, it's not like they're all robots. So why did it react differently for everyone?

Maybe she's taking her mother's old fairy tales too seriously now. But after having to hear them repeatedly her whole life - for herself, then King and their little sisters, she's not going to forget. 

A lot of times the lies and tricks were straightforward. It was just the stretched out truth.

“Jeff might be an outlier since he's a magical creature. Nobody else was able to control it,” Dipper said pensively, while messing with a clicking pen. “It would go off immediately for everyone else, except Wendy.”

“It didn't work immediately for everyone,” Mabel said. She was now pointing the camera at Dipper. 

Yeah it didn't go off immediately for- Lupe looked up from the notebook, looking at the three kids in front of her.

The three teens in front of her.

“It really was straightforward,” Lupe said in disbelief. She inadvertently drew their attention, saying it at the same time that Mabel finished answering her brother.

The amulet wasn't going off immediately for Lupe yesterday.

“You figured something out?” Dipper asked. He must have been excited that something's being pieced together so fast.

“Yeah, pretty sure I did. It was going off erratically for you guys because you're teenagers.” She was definitely glad she was out of that stage, the teen angst sucked.

Looking at their baffled expressions she tried to explain. 

“I'm not giving any puberty talks, but it's an emotional time. You get better at dealing with things when you're older. And that book said that it's drawn to strong emotions. I'm pretty sure it could draw them out too.” 

She's positive it can, with the way it felt holding it that last time…

“But Wendy's a teenager too,” King exclaimed. “If you're right, why didn't it work for her? It can't be the ‘chosen one’ thing again!”

“Because she was the most focused, she wasn't freaking out like everyone else was.” 

Lupe loathed to admit that she wasn't some stone cold badass that didn't get scared. She was just doing her best to protect them. And paranormal experience or the lack of it didn't seem to matter for the remaining three teens. They all panicked on some level.

Except Wendy. She was so focused the amulet didn't react to her. She wasn't kidding yesterday when she said she had a good head on her shoulders.

But is she like that normally?

That sudden thought made her get up from the couch. “How long would it take for her to get here?”

Whether or not they were on the same page on her amulet theory, they definitely knew what she was getting at. The way she said it made them all take it seriously. 

Mabel stopped recording, leaving the camera on the couch. Dropping whatever they had on hand, they rushed into the house to go straight to the gift shop. They hoped to just see her hanging out there like everything was normal. Outside, the sky was looking darker and darker, the clouds moving fast, too fast. Maybe she was simply held up by a storm on the other side of the small town.

Her gut feeling was telling her that wasn't the case.

The gift shop wasn't as packed as yesterday. The cashier had started to greet the twins and ask how they were doing but Lupe wasn't paying attention to that.

Looking outside the gift shop's window, she found Wendy.

It was like all of nature was trying to attack her. Outside in the storm, Wendy was struggling against the plants that were rising up and grabbing at her. The magically forming vines were trying their best to subdue the teenage girl but she was valiantly fighting back.

King rushed towards the door, holding it open for her. “Wendy! Over here!” 

Lupe was about to look for something to go out and help Wendy before she managed to save herself. She left her axe buried in the ground as she sprinted inside towards salvation. Any remaining plants weren't fast enough to stop her.

But once she made it they quickly found that no one was safe inside.

“I'm so sorry I messed up…”

Lupe had no time for reassurances. The four of them were huddled together behind the cash register. Everyone else except them managed to get out in time.

At this point the storm inside wouldn't let them go out even if they tried. That poor girl was stuck in the eye of the storm, and they couldn't leave her behind either. She was trying to think a way out of this when her mom's voice popped in her head.

“When you work together, everything will be okay.” …Damn, when she's right she's right. They couldn't hesitate now.

It was time to put her theory to the test. 

Lupe looked back at the kids - they had to get moving. She held her hand out. It didn't matter if they noticed her six fingers now. 

“We have to go to her, now. I'm strong enough to get us all there. You guys have to talk, get her to snap out of whatever the amulet is telling her.”

The three looked at her in trepidation and she got why. This counter was the only cover they had. (She hoped the unease from the twins was from the magical storm and not her. They had to work together.)

“Please just trust me! I just met her yesterday, whatever I say won't matter as much. We all just gotta try while we still can.”

She was trying to visibly convey her conviction - this was their best bet. 

Her brother looked like he wanted to say something but grabbed her hand instead. At least she wasn't going to be alone. But Dipper and Mabel were their best shot at getting through to her.

She was used to other people being taken aback, but the twins didn't recoil from her hand when they grabbed it. Lupe was a little shocked but still accepted it. (She got the oddest feeling that it actually made them trust her more somehow.)

Lupe was trying her best to be their anchor and their cover as they held onto her waist. They practically formed a slow moving conga line towards Wendy. She was heavy enough not to be blown away, unlike the small twins. Hell, her lanky brother might've been blown away too if it wasn't for her.

The additional weight slowed her down, but at least it kept them all together and on the ground. No matter how hard the wind blew against them they kept moving forward. Occasionally merchandise was flying towards them and she did her best to dodge or block it. She ended up carrying one of the bobbleheads that almost smacked her in the face like some sort of protective totem.

They needed to make their good luck somehow.

Lupe held onto a shelf mounted on the wall that she hoped remained secure. They were finally close enough to call out to her.

“Wendy! Can you hear us?!” Dipper shouted. She may have been in front of them but it was difficult to hear each other. They could barely make out her silhouette in the miniaturized storm.

After a moment they didn't hear a response. Lupe thought maybe they'd have to get even closer, but wondered if that was even possible. Luckily, they all heard a faint: “Dipper?”

“We're here Wendy!” Mabel exclaimed loudly. “We're going to help!”

“I don't know what happened,” Wendy said, her voice still sounding quiet against the heavy winds. “It just kept getting worse!”

“You have to calm down Wendy!”

Lupe's head snapped to look down at Dipper. Oh god, this kid has to be trained on how to talk to girls. Or people in general - that doesn't help!

Luckily Mabel jumped in before he fully put his foot in his mouth. “What he means is we're here Wendy, and it's okay if this is scary because we'll get through it together.”

“We've been through scarier, more difficult things last summer,” Dipper added, following his sister's lead. “And you helped us then! We'll definitely get through this now.”

“We just met yesterday,” King spoke up, surprising her. “I thought I was gonna have a panic attack, but you were nice about it. It was really cool of you - of all of you to help out. I'll help you guys out with anything.”

The three teens kept talking, giving Wendy sincere supportive comments. And it was definitely working. 

The tempest was dying down, not as powerful as before. They weren't at such a strong risk of being blown to the other side of the shop anymore. Lupe still held onto the shelf just in case, and the kids still held onto her too.

Whether their comments were helping her emotional state or it was just giving her something new to focus on - it was still working but not fully. 

The storm was still raging, just not as strong as before. And Lupe thought she saw why. 

With the storm weaker, she was better able to see her, as well as the amulet. It was in her hand but there was an energy surrounding it, different from the glowing yesterday. 

Like a dark hand wrapped around her wrist.

“When I held the amulet yesterday, after the magic happened, I started feeling emotions that weren't mine,” Lupe opened up. Wendy didn't know what the amulet was doing to her, she had to know to fight back.

“It was like it took my feelings and amplified it. It felt like I was being judged, even though I knew that wasn't true! That's what it's doing now - latching onto your emotions and making you feel worse. You were strong enough yesterday to not fall under its spell - that's why I gave it to you then. You're still strong enough now!”

It wasn't a friendship speech like the three other teens were giving, but it was the confidence boost she knew she needed to get through it.

It took a moment to show progress, but things were calming down further. Until it was just a regular (magical) rainstorm inside the Mystery Shack.

By that point she dropped the amulet to the floor, smashing it repeatedly with her boot. When it shattered, wisps of something came out before dissipating. 

Yep, definitely gotta rethink everything about life if that's what I thought it was.

The storm was finally over though. The three teens let go of her just as she let go of her support. Wendy was quietly standing, not looking at them.

There truly was a deep sense of irony at play. Seeing the dejected kid in front of her, keeping whatever affected her so deeply to herself, just reminded her of what's been going on in her family.

This must be what her mom's been feeling since yesterday. Worried but trying not to force things. Offering support without the guarantee that there's an answer. It just added to the guilt she felt earlier.

Lupe was trying to think of how to phrase things. How to be similarly supportive, say the right things. But it seemed Wendy was able to speak up without it.

“My mom, she… she passed away a few years ago. Her birthday's coming up and today just-,” she cut herself off before opening up further. “So many things just kept reminding me, and my family was just too much again.”

She must have never brought it up to the twins before, they looked surprised. The four of them were saying sorry to her, but it didn't feel like it was enough.

There really is nothing good to say when someone else passes away. Lupe was raised to remember the dead fondly, cherish the memories. But a loss was still a loss - it still hurt.

 Lupe was gripping onto the bobblehead that nearly attacked her earlier. She wasn't going to mention her situation, not even if it was called upon. It wasn't quite the same. But she knew that if she lost her mom at that age, she would've been devastated. She'd be devastated now.

Wendy had looked a little awkward talking about it, so she'll try to give her a break. “You don't have to talk about it more if you don't want to, kid. But if you ever do, I'm sure everyone here would want to listen.”

Wendy had nodded to that with a slight smile, settling back into her cool kid persona.

It seemed like everything was alright again until they actually looked around.

The gift shop was obviously not in one piece. The merchandise was all over the place and some of the furniture was knocked down. Miraculously, none of the windows were broken when everything went flying, but there definitely was broken things around. She didn't even want to think about the water damage - there was even a scorch mark from that one bolt of lightning on the floor!

Oh god, she hoped she wouldn't be financially liable for this ‘cause she was the only adult around. Would this place even have insurance?! 

“At least we made it out okay,” King said, anxious and unsure.

If by okay he meant like they've been thrown into a lake then they sure did. They were all soaked and shivering - hopefully none of them would catch a cold.

“I'm so fired,” Wendy said resignedly. 

“Soos and Grunkle Stan would never fire you!” Mabel exclaimed. 

“This wasn't your fault Wendy,” Dipper said. “So many supernatural things mess with this place, they couldn't blame you!”

The twins continued to reassure her, how she wouldn't be sent to logging camp and that stuff like this happened once a week. Lupe would have loved hearing about the ways this place had almost been destroyed, but she had one thing she had to do before trying to fix things.

She pulled her brother away, for some semblance of privacy. Emotional conversations were not her forte and she's about to hit the max limit for the day. 

“We need to talk, Joaquin.”

“I-I know. I'm sorry about-”

“No, not that. There's nothing to be sorry for,” she said. “You need to stop beating yourself up. You've been doing it last night and this whole day too. Even during the storm.” 

She looked at him hard and he didn't quite make eye contact - he wasn't much for confrontation and she wasn't often serious with him.

“If I never got cursed, maybe none of this would have happened,” he said looking down. “If I was just wearing that bracelet, we wouldn't be having such bad luck.”

“You're saying ‘maybe’ and ‘if’ ‘cause you don't know, dummy. Right now there's no way to be sure - that's why we dropped that conversation earlier.”

He still looked like he would contest that so she went further. “Do you blame Wendy for getting that amulet attached to her? Or me for getting injured by that book?”

“What- No of course not!”

“Then don't blame yourself. We had bad magical stuff happen to us too, it happens,” she shrugged. 

“You're really brushing this off too easily,” he muttered. 

“Whatever, you know I'm right. Just accept the big sister advice. Right now, we got alota work to do,” she said, placing the Mr Mystery Sr bobblehead on the cash register.

They have more to discuss later but right now they have to work fast.

“Alright people we're doing damage control!” Lupe declared, loudly interrupting the discussion the other pair of siblings and Wendy had about some goblin, drawing their attention.

“None of this is anyone's fault but we gotta do our best to clean. We have to get moving now!”

Chapter Text

Reading the message that Stan received from Marisela earlier, his daughter still didn't know about him yet. 

And they're coming over to the Mystery Shack today.

He wasn't surprised at that, the kids were going on about seeing their friend later on in the afternoon. Their friend who's apparently Penelope's half-brother.

That's a good sign the kids would get along with her as well. Right?

Stan still has to plan ahead on what he's going to tell them and Soos. They were good kids, he was sure they'd ultimately welcome her with open arms. 

He just wasn't sure how things would go with Penelope. Would she decide to meet him or cut her losses? And Marisela was a complete mystery to him too.

Again.

It was one of the few things he managed to recall from the beginning of their past relationship. She was a straightforward, calculating woman who'd routinely get him to cut the crap, while also having her own secrets close to her chest. They had a lot of fun but she wouldn't let him get away with bullshit at the end of the day.

No wonder why he was so enamored with her back then.

So he knows that Marisela didn't say everything she wanted to yesterday. It took him some time to recognize that, but hey, he just found out he was a father, there were bigger things on his mind. Now he was about to talk to the mother of his child again and whatever else she had to say to him couldn't be good.

Now she was outside talking to her two younger daughters. He could keep it strictly to business, maybe she'd hold on to whatever she's thinking. Or let it come out even though he's awful with feelings…

Well if they were going to coparent (if it'll even be called that considering his kid is thirty) they'll have to be on the same page. ‘Sides, he owes her the chance to yell at him if she needed to.

Thirty years worth of yelling. More than that actually. He really can't get over it, so there's no way she could either. It was best to get to all the yelling he's due for. He wasn't putting on the full showman persona for her but he mentally prepared, heading outside towards her. 

She smiled as he approached and he pushed away any remaining self-loathing he had. “Hello Lee,” she said warmly. Her kids spun around looking nervous for whatever reason.

“Hey Mari,” he said, giving a smile back. She may confuse the hell out of him but he wasn't thinking about it now.

What he did think about is how they were gonna talk with her kids around, but it seemed Marisela had something up her sleeve.

“Phoebe, Naomi,” she said, putting her hand on top of their heads as she said each of their names. “What do you say?”

“We're sorry we were on the exhibit yesterday, it was wrong,” Phoebe said, the rabbit ears of the hood flopped, causing it to fall off her head. She tried aiming her puppy eyes at him as if they would work.

“We promise we won't do it again,” her sister Naomi added. She wasn't trying the puppy eye gambit on him but they both seemed equally sincere.

“Hmm…” He was making a big show of looking them over, ‘checking’ to see if they were lying to him. 

It was like falling back to step with Marisela again, at least in that department. He never directly involved her in his big scams, she wasn't a great liar and he didn't want her in the crossfire. But she always managed to help him, even in putting on an act.

“Do you think they should see the tour?” 

She had a mischievous look in her eyes as she clearly said it to tease her kids. Now both of the girls looked pleadingly at him. 

“Sure they can! If they break anything they'll pay for it - they can always work it off.”

Maybe some other time he would have openly laughed at the expression on their faces. Somehow Mr Mystery quickly became a boogeyman for these kids. They're definitely scared straight into not messing with his stuff - Soos's stuff now technically. 

“You hear? My good girls can still go,” she happily told them. They stood up straight at the implied ‘be good or else’. 

She reminded them to stick together and not lose sight of the other as Soos came out starting the show, herding everyone inside.

The twin girls held hands - Marisela must run her kids like the military for them to take her so seriously - walking into the Mystery Shack for their tour. Their mother watched them like a hawk as other tourists also went in. It might've been a good way to entertain them while they talked but she didn't like it. She definitely wasn't the type that left her kids outta sight.

“Don't worry, Soos won't lose them. He's used to taking care of rambunctious twin kids at this point.”

Hearing that, she loosened up a little, trusting his word. She really has a lot of faith in me. Always kinda had from what he recalls - even then it astonished him.

Mentioning Soos reminded him that yesterday she made a comment believing he was his son, and he never corrected her. She didn't seem to have any hard feelings about it. At least it seemed that him ‘moving on’ wouldn't be something she'd yell at him over.

He was really analyzing everything at this point. The apprehension was affecting him more than he wanted it too.

There were still some tourists and townspeople lurking around, and what they had between them was too private to even accidentally share. “Let's go for a more quiet spot.”

They moved a little further away, towards the other side of the shack, away from anyone lingering.

Marisela gasped, her eyes brightening up. “You still have her!”

She looked at the parked Stanmobile like an old friend. Time really flew for them huh. Seeing her next to the El Diablo, he feels like he must've gotten a picture of her next to it, way back. It would've been a shame not to.

It was just them, his trusty car, and her diligent service dog. They can finally get to business. Gotta figure out when she's going to talk to Penelope, get through all the yelling he's due for. If it's possible, see how she managed to find him in case any of his old associates ever try to.

And he's not gonna get all pessimistic again.

“I haven't told everyone yet, just my brother.” He's gonna go for transparency, put most of his cards on the table one by one. Carefully.

He deserved it but his self preservation couldn't help putting off the screaming match a little longer.

“What did he say?” 

“Oh he was definitely surprised,” he said, not bringing up that Ford questioned it at first. “But he's excited to meet her.” Same as Stan, he couldn't wait to meet her but he'd bet on the more specific reason why.

Ford and Dipper had their nerd things together but they surely bonded over what set them apart. Meeting Penelope and Marisela would be great for him on that front.

“I am so glad, she would love to meet him too.” Marisela was smiling, happy they were both so accepting of Penelope. 

Seeing her face, it was pretty clear to Stan that she wasn't going to say anything negative, with the wholehearted focus on her (their) daughter's happiness that she had. He may have been a little tempted to just keep it light but…

“Yeah, we're gonna talk to the kids soon. Tonight. I still gotta figure out how to say it, I just don't want to keep it from them.” Definitely don't want to keep anymore family secrets after the last big one. (Or series of big ones put together.)

“It is hard to pick what words to say. I planned a very long time but got nervous yesterday,” she admitted bashfully. 

“Don't look so embarrassed, Mari. It's not an easy thing to bring up. I'm glad you managed to tell me.” He still felt like scum but it was better that he knew.

“I really do want to meet her soon,” Stan said as softly as he could.

“You will, I promise,” she reassured. “I want to say everything right. She is a strong girl but can be sensitive.”

“Sensitive, huh?” So there was a chance for things to go badly. Or not at all - Penelope was an adult, she might not have any interest in seeing him despite what her mother thinks.

“Ay no te pongas así. Everything will be okay. I have trouble explaining sometimes but I will figure it out.” Marisela smiled at him, trying to encourage him again, “I know it, Lee. Please trust me.”

“I trust you doll, don't worry.” Stan couldn't help but smile back at her - he really had to stop himself from being so sweet on her. It'd be easier if she stopped being so nice and supportive to him. If anything it should be the other way around! It should've been his job to look out for her, them.

“I can help you figure out what you're gonna say. Maybe practice it out if you have the time for it,” he offered. 

 She beamed at his suggestion, gratefully accepting it. Both of them were leaning against his old car, all carefree, like old times. It would've been great to keep things like this; he wanted to keep it like this. 

But they couldn't ignore the elephant in the room, this was a family matter after all. And there were some things he needed to know. Let's see if she's willing to put some cards down too.

“Have you ever talked about all this with anyone? Like a friend or something.”

“De verdad, no,” she brushed off. She would have left it there if Stan wasn't looking at her, his fixed gaze goading her into continuing. “No me mires así Lee. ¿A quién le voy a hablar de todo eso?”

Stan was afraid that'd be the answer and he didn't like how nonchalant she was about it. He just wanted to know if she had someone in her corner, that could've helped her, supported her. Something!

“You really had no friends to help you?” He asked, hoping there was someone - he can barely remember but he swears she's spoken about some old friends when they were younger. People he didn't manage to meet at the time but she spoke fondly of.

Marisela just looked at her service animal, that just looked back at the both of them without a care in the world. The dog doesn't count Mari, he thought in dismay.

“What about your family?” 

She looked at him for a moment with an eyebrow raised, before she turned her gaze away. Like he should have already known the answer.

“Es que mi familia es muy,” she paused thinking, crossing her arms. “Complicada. Un poquito cómo la tuya antes.” 

He froze. The shame and guilt were definitely back out and not just momentarily hidden. “¿En serio, Mari?” 

Like his family before? To compare the two, they've definitely shared a lot together then. He opened up about his past; how much, he still had no clue, but enough. Does she mean that she was kicked out of the family? Disowned? Were they left with nothing?

“No puedo leer mentes, Lee,” she spoke in a serious tone. “Are you okay? Don' tell me any pretty stories now.”

He felt a bit of a familiar headache, part of a past memory shifting back in place but powered through. “I can't read minds either. That's why I gotta ask. Why do you keep acting like that, you should hate me! If it's ‘cause of Penelope, you can yell and scream at me all you want and I'll still want to see her.”

Stan wouldn't be able to stand that from anyone else, but she wasn't some nobody. It's been years but he still gave a damn about what she thought. 

Even with basically his permission to go nuts on him, she just didn't . For a woman who barely remembered the rules of poker back when they were younger, she always had an impressive poker face. He kept looking at her, to see some sign - he knows he saw her tell yesterday.

“Stanley, I do not hate you.” 

Nothing now. She looked at him, steadfast and everything. (There wasn't even a hint of a lie, and he couldn't consider the thought of her still caring for him either.)

“Why not? You were alone for so long, I left you alone-”

“No sabías,” Marisela said assertively. “I was not able to say to you, I found out after.”

“It still doesn't make it right,” he protested. What's the difference between him and a deadbeat when the end result was the same - a kid growing up without a dad in the picture. 

He keeps thinking about what Soos would say about this-

“Lee, yo no creo que puedo enojarme contigo de verdad.” She quickly tried to look for the right words to say. “You were always good to me and we took care of each other. Lets focus on Penelope, the past has passed.”

So a ‘you weren't as shitty as you could have been’ award, great. She wasn't lying, and with his memory still being Swiss cheese it was good to hear but… He saw the look in her eyes when she mentioned the past, even though she tried to hide it.

“I know something is bothering you, just tell me.” Stan wasn't going to use the p-word, and he didn't want to sound like he was begging.

So much time passed for the two of them but he's picked up on her tells again. (Or just remembered them, whatever.) Her eyes were so expressive, they'd always give her away - there was definitely some hurt in them when she talked about the past.

“This is why I am here now. I do not want her to feel bad,” Marisela muttered. She was definitely sidetracking.

“'Make her feel bad?’” He repeated incredulously. Stan wasn't going to fall for any tangents and forget what he was talking about, but he couldn't ignore what she's saying. He doesn't want to somehow hurt his kid, he wants the opposite! 

“It is the way you talk, I do not want her to hear. She is mine Stanley. My decision. Nobody make me do anything. 

“I know she is a surprise and it is a lot to learn - I really try to see you faster! But I will not let you be that way with her.”

Marisela looked stern towards him; she may have shifted the conversation but it was still important for her to say. This is non-negotiable. So don't put your foot in your mouth with Penelope, or else Mari's going to put her foot in your ass. 

“I understand what you're saying, I get it. My head'll be straight before talking to her. I'm actually glad to see you so protective over her, I just-” He looked at her, trying to make himself say it straight, like he told himself he would.

“I spent my whole life trying to fix things with my family. It took so long to get there, and now, I see I screwed up with the two of you. I never meant to but I did.” He never means to but he does.

“I just wish I could've been there for you two.”

There was a moment of quiet between them. Not even her dog made a sound, looking back and forth between them like they were watching a tennis match.

“I,” Marisela started, expression softening up, reigning in what little temper she let loose. She reached for his hand, like it was an extension of an olive branch. “I wanted a family. Mine was always… difficult. Nothing to do with you, or her, they are-” She stopped herself, her eyes shutting momentarily.

“I do not lie when I say you were good to me. We would not have been together if not. If you wanted to, you could have been with us.” She looked straight into his eyes, needing him to understan, as if urging him please listen. “A long time has passed but there is still time to know and be with her. It is different but that chance is there.” 

He can still be there for the two of them.

It was a hell of a thing for him to hear - that she had wanted him to be a part of the little family she made for herself years ago. That it wasn't some courtesy thing even back then to try to look for him. He couldn't remember what happened between her and her family, if he ever even knew, but she would have allowed him to be a part of her new one.

Stan was trying really hard not to look like an idiot in front of her. He didn't want to lose any respect she still had for him by crying. Marisela definitely knew how much it meant to him, but just squeezed his hand without a word.

“I want to do right by you too, not just our daughter. That's why I keep asking.” There's no way she'd have any interest in him anymore, but they were definitely amicable. He can try to be supportive of her. “I'm not trying to annoy you, just, I keep feeling like there's more you want to say to me.”

Glancing down towards her service dog, practically a stand in for everything he doesn't know about her life now. She was clearly pensive but he had no clue what she'd say. If she doesn't want to answer, he can't really do anything else now. Stan can't keep badgering her today (well, he could but it'll drive both of them crazy). He's been as straightforward as he could.

“¿Por qué no me llamaste?”

That simple, quietly asked question left Stan looking at her confused after recognizing that look again. She wasn't trying to hide it anymore. ‘Why didn't he call her’ - that's the part that hurt her? Out of everything else?

Looking at her determined expression, he was glad he remembered something to actually respond with. It would've been a mess if he didn't.

“I got into a lot of dangerous trouble, and I couldn't stick around, take the chance you'd get involved.” It's one thing to risk himself, but her? No. She had to get that, they met in the aftermath of ‘clearing part of his debt’.

“Ya sé por qué me dejaste,” she stated, her brows furrowed. “Pregunto por qué nunca recibí ni un mensaje tuyo.”

Well. They weren't in angry territory but this was definitely closer.

“I really thought you were better off without me, Mari.” When he saw the face she made at that he spoke faster. “I'm not just saying that. It was bad enough I was flat broke and had nothing going for me, but the kinda trouble I was in- Those men wouldn't have given a second thought about hurting you if I stayed. I really wanted to but I couldn't look back.”

When he first saw her yesterday, he had so many flashes of short memories. The one that comes to mind now is him alone with a fresh brand, trying not to lose his mind over his brother's disappearance. He would've had a dangerous problem quick, if Marisela didn't put some of her medicine in his bag. She saved his ass without knowing it, all while teasing him at the time that he's always getting into trouble.

He really missed her then. If he called and kept quiet just to hear her voice, she'd probably know it was him. Marisela always had that uncanny knack of knowing things. The second she'd call him by his name, he'd have to fight not to run back to her. 

What would the outcome be if he did? He never really had good luck on his side.

“A mí no me gusta cuando dices cosas como eso,” she muttered. Her hand left his when she turned away from him, putting more space between them.

She got what he was saying, always did, but it wasn't what she was looking for. And Mari really hated how self-deprecating he could be.

This honesty thing really isn't helping. It's why he usually doesn't go for it. He was really racking his brain now, trying to think of a thing to say so she wouldn't look so hurt. A lie wouldn't work on her at all but there had to be something-

“I was scared you died,” she said softly, like she couldn't fully voice it aloud. “I always have hope but I was not sure. I could not see-”

Oh crap.

That wiped his mind of anything he was thinking. Stan moved towards her trying not to spook her. She sounded so devastated, lost in her memory. He saw where she was going, knew what she'd say. She had the old newspaper in her hands yesterday-

“Pero yo fui al cementerio, Lee. No estaba segura de lo que pasó, yo…”

She saw the gravestone.

Stan felt his stomach drop; he went too far pushing the topic, he didn't want to see her like this. 

Marisela had too much pride to cry in front of him, probably in front of anyone. But her eyes were teary eyed, defiantly trying not to show it by turning her face away. It was so much worse than yesterday; he would rather she hit him instead .

“Angel I'm so sorry please don't cry.”

He must've not kept his hands off her much in the past, he found himself hugging her and she silently allowed it. Stan was trying to hold back anymore of his old pet names while comforting her. Showing her he wasn't a ghost, some cruel illusion.

He'd probably take it to his actual grave but it hurt going to his fake funeral. Seeing only two people there for him - and one was an IRS agent. That was all the people in the world that apparently gave a shit about him then. It wasn't fair of him to brush it off like she was like the rest of the world. That old shame just got worse.

At some point she visited his fake grave. Had to keep moving forward, not knowing whether he was alive or dead. He was uniquely qualified in knowing how that felt. Mourning someone who might still be alive, going through life acting like nothing was wrong. Hoping for a chance things would turn out right.

Marisela shouldn't have ever gone through that.

She tensed up in his hug and he worried he went too far again. That she didn't want him near her anymore even if she still cared about him. She looked up at him, still in his embrace that he was about to end.

“There is a man looking at us,” she said quietly.

Stan would've tensed up too before he realized there was only one man that would be watching them… unless there's some new cryptid or whatever in town.

“Ford come out, you're scaring her!”

There wasn't anything else around, just his brother sheepishly coming out from behind a tree. Stan must've looked similarly embarrassed; his twin was caught spying on them and he was caught having feelings.

Out of the three adults, Marisela recovered the fastest, trying to look and act as if she's always been fine. Ford wouldn't have bought it since he obviously saw everything, but her effort and lack of smearing of any makeup could've fooled anyone else.

“Your twin,” she said to him in awe. It seemed in spite of everything that should have caused some tension - bad blood even - between them, she was happy for them reconnecting. 

The sweet way she said it made him smile back a little. It took a long time but looks like they're meeting after all.

“Greetings, I'm Stanford Pines. Perhaps it's been too long, I assume my brother has mentioned me before?”

“Yes, of course he has! It is nice to meet you,” she said pleasantly. She obviously didn't react to the handshake he offered. 

His twin had a pleased look on his face, as if he had somehow believed she would have. Ford must've gotten all wrapped up in his own head at some point. He shouldn't be worried about that, she'd never even think ill about it.

He should worry more on their thoughts about his spying on them.

“It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well,” Ford said formally, trying hard not to scare her off like Stan had asked of him.

“Is there something you need?” It was nice Marisela speak for ‘why the hell were you hiding behind a tree?’

Ford probably didn't think he'd get caught, he didn't have an excuse at the ready. Normally he'd help bail him out but Stan decided to poke some fun instead.

“He does stuff like that. Been all overprotective of me since last year.”

“Don't give her the wrong impression, Stanley. I was simply reminded yesterday of my past experiments regarding the nearby flora,” Ford excused, then his eyes lit up. “Would you happen to have an interest in plants? Some of the ones in the area are quite interesting.”

Stan hadn't yet told his brother any major details about her, but he guessed right. The second she mentioned growing them for traditional medicine, he went straight into a quick, impromptu lecture. At least she was an attentive listener. The look in her eyes whenever his brother mentioned some big science word made her actually getting everything a completely different story.

Regardless she didn't try stopping him or looked disinterested, which Stan appreciated. Even he couldn't quite mess with the introduction he knew Ford planned, or his fun in finding a new potential friend. He didn't have the heart to interrupt his brother, so he just waited for his chance.

“So where are these 'specimens' you're collecting poindexter?”

That set off an unsurprising back and forth. They only stopped their bickering after hearing Mari's stifled laughter. Stan didn't feel at all embarrassed but his brother definitely did.

“Yes, well, I did think of something, just now, that I hope you'd consider is a good idea,” he said, trying to save face, move past all that.

“What is it?” Marisela asked with a raised brow. Her arms crossed, waiting for what he'd say. She most likely knew, just like Stan did, that he was trying to sell her on something. His tone of voice while lying was so obvious.

Stan wanted to suddenly develop twin telepathy in that moment just to tell him not to bring it up. He knew exactly what Ford wanted to say. He didn't think either of them could ask anything of her. Even if Marisela was in a better state of mind, their relationship (possibly?) in a better state overall, he didn't want her to worry about him. Or do anything for him.

“Sixer, weren't you going to do something with the kids?” Stan asked as a distraction. It worked for his twin but from the corner of his eye he saw Marisela go from mildly curious to having a piqued interest.

“They said their new friends would arrive in the late afternoon. It seemed like plenty of time to, well-” 

To sneak around and watch us. Still, so far nobody's pointing it out, Stan was just biding his time on talking to him alone. 

They'd also have to talk about whatever the kids are keeping secret too, try to be responsible uncles. Ford might've been told some details, but it didn't look like they said everything. At least, not the detail that their new friend was Marisela's kid too, so they're all definitely waiting for him now.

Before Stan could convince his brother to go look for them, Marisela asked, “What do the kids need help with?” Her tone was casual but her sharp eyes showed she really wasn't.

What's going on that her kids are hiding things from her too?

“The children had asked for my expertise on a couple of matters. It should be relatively simple,” he said, keeping it vague. Ford looked at the Shack before continuing, “I should check in with Dipper and see if his new friend arrived yet.

“Before I go, I just wanted a chance to ask. Would you be open to the idea of you, my brother, and Penelope looking over your old photos, talking about the past? It would be a great way for them to bond.”

Damn he really hoped he wouldn't continue. Stan knows that his brother isn't gonna quit when it comes to his memories, but not even a break?

After last night, Ford was adamant that he had to look over his old notebook and the pictures within. Spun a whole case that it'd help him in the long run. They didn't get much outta it except a headache without the side of memories.

Ford ‘hypothesized’ that Marisela talking to him about his old pictures would help. He's likely right on the money as usual, some memories just slipped back into place without trying with her. But things just felt too fragile to ask anything from her, he couldn't screw up again.

“I do not mind the idea, but why the secrets?” 

Ford's excuse worked? He could've dwelled further on that but stopped himself. Mari probably wasn't giving his brother's idea much of a second thought; instead she picked up all the half truths and vagueness.

Things his brother did a good job - for him - in trying to hide but didn't quite land.

“Secrets? I'm sorry but you're mistaken. What in the world would I be hiding?” He tried but it just wasn't there. It was a clear difference from when he was talking about those glowing flowers as an excuse. He was at least passionately confident then. 

“It seems as if you both are hiding different things,” she stated matter-of-factly, defiantly believing she wasn't wrong. 

Stan froze at her statement; he did not want to be grouped in this when he was actually trying to not mess it up with her. As different as they were, his brother had a similar expression on his face.

“There is something about that idea that you are not saying, whatever reason for it does not sound for Penelope's sake. And there is something else involving the kids. I will not make a list of everything said and done, I just want to know.” She could've keep going, elaborate further if she wasn't trying to be polite. Mari probably couldn't as she was strictly speaking English for Ford's sake. 

"Well how about that?" Stan spoke his thought aloud without any real disbelief. He didn't remember everything about their past dynamic yet. Was she always a mix between a lie detector and the human version of Ducktective? Or did that just come with time?

She shrugged, arms still crossed, "He asked. Now I am not a fan of mysteries - what is happening, do you know why Penelope got hurt?”

Her eyes went from one twin to the other, as if picking which one to really interrogate. They both knew, and she figured out quick, that Ford was the worse liar of the two. He was gearing up to get in the middle, take some of the attention off of his brother. What she was asking for was valid, he wanted to know too, but he still felt the need to step in. He's teased his brother enough times to know that he hasn't gotten any better talking to women, he needed all the help he can get.

Stan was surprised when she apparently picked him once their eyes met, moving closer to him.

"I can speak for me and my brother, the kids were real secretive about their day yesterday. Take my word Mari, I'm not hiding anything important from you." Usually the best way to lie was bending the truth a different way, but she just looked at him almost fondly.

“Penelope came out just like you. Las mismas muecas y todo. I know when she tells lies. Same way I know you are hiding things.” Her tone got softer, “I just want to know about the kids. Everything else you can keep.”

Stan might've been a professional conman but she wasn't a fool, being able to easily exploit a new weak spot. Technically exploiting an old one too with the way she spoke to him. Maybe something was wrong with him, the sudden feeling of wanting to play card games with her like old times came up.

He wasn't planning on folding on all his lost memory stuff, it wasn't her main concern and he'd rather keep it to himself. Stan was about to admit not knowing all the details on what happened with the kids - she'd probably sense that he wasn't bullshitting her - when his brother spoke up.

“I haven't really been told much,” Ford admitted. “The kids were very secretive last night.”

It seemed neither of the men could find the Pines’ stubbornness now, Ford just looked awkward. They weren't even outwardly being all that affectionate or anything-

But it was enough to get the response that Marisela wanted. This close he can see the mirth in her eyes, as if she planned for Ford's response. He couldn't help his matching smirk.

She'd definitely be fun to play poker against again.

“So?” Mari asked for the details simply.

“I've only spoken with my great niece and nephew last night, so I haven't gotten all the details yet,” he answered, trying to look more dignified than before. “They didn't want to speak about the topic around you Stanley. According to Mabel, Penelope doesn't want to concern her mother at all.”

Those little knuckleheads, Stan thought fondly. What, did they think he'd rat them out or something? (Sparing a glance at the dejected look in Marisela's eyes, he wasn't sure how to answer that.)

“Concern her with what Sixer, does this have anything to do with those pesky gnomes or that amulet the kids were talking about?”

“It doesn't seem like that's the case. To be honest I didn't question the kids too much after agreeing to help them with their matter. I was more focused on checking up on you Lee.” Ford then elaborated to Marisela, “To give some context I'm a paranormal investigator. I've researched a lot of the anomalies, or well, the supernatural in this town. The kids had a couple of encounters yesterday that they wanted me to look into.”

Stan would've expected her to be confused once the words ‘paranormal investigator’ came up. Anyone not from this town would've definitely questioned that. Scratch that, some of the yahoos of this town would still question it. One of the things Ford was (mostly) fine talking about regarding the past now was how other scientists usually scoffed at what he studied. Mari was taking it serious, dead serious. Didn't seem to question it at all. Even Ford seemed to wait for remarks that never came.

“Do you know if this amulet is what hurt Penelope?”

“Well-”

Whatever Ford was about to say apprehensively was cut off.

Marisela's normally silent dog got up from their relaxed position, giving a single bark while staring past them. She looked in the same direction then ran with the dog in tow, without saying a word. That surprised them but once the brothers heard what they ran towards, they rushed forward as well.

“Mom! Mr Lee!” 

The cries of one of Marisela's twin daughters. 

The cat themed hood of Naomi's jacket bounced behind her as she ran. Her mother reached her, holding her tight. Stan couldn't hear exactly what was said as they were just about to catch up, but he would bet she would immediately be asking where Phoebe was.

If Stan was troubled after seeing her without her twin sister, he couldn't imagine how distraught Marisela was.

“Something weird happened in the giftshop!” Naomi grabbed her mom's hand to lead her. 

The way she took her would've been a long way around to the gift shop, but Stan assumed she was instead taking her to her sister. He followed the two, in case there was some monster that he had to protect them from. His brother split, using a side entrance as a faster route to reach the shop. 

Being led the long way around, Stan was able to see part of a trail of overgrown plants, vines really, facing the same direction they were going. 

It would be just their luck that while they were distracted, killer plants were roaming around. Whatever that unicorn thing his brother set up didn't completely work on this thing - some of the giant vines were over the windows but at least they didn't break in. 

Arriving at the entrance, some of the weight was definitely lifted seeing the kid alright but he still had to see his kids. Phoebe was trying with all her might to open the door - so it was basically still stuck shut. The vines lying limp on the ground were facing towards the door, as if they had tried to reach inside the shack before lying flat. 

“Things got quiet but the door still won't open,” Phoebe said, noticing their arrival. Yeah, they're gonna need more strength than a tiny 12 year old can muster.

“Should we use this?” Naomi was holding Wendy's axe, which was promptly taken away by her mother.

“Step back kid.” They're not using any axe but they definitely gotta break the door down. There's no way Wendy would leave it behind if there wasn't trouble. 

Stan can knock down the door no problem and was about to when a muffled voice called out from the other side. “Hang on, I got it!” 

There were sounds of things moving on the other side while he froze in front of the door. He's only heard that voice a couple of times yesterday but it's definitely-

His daughter opened the door and Stan tried to play it cool. He had to remind himself, she doesn't know yet, Mari still has to tell her herself. Seeing her, knowing who she is to him and not just looking through a photo, it was just-

Damn, that's his kid.

Penelope looked at him sheepishly, for whatever reason, once their eyes met. “Are you one of the owners?”

He couldn't imagine exactly how their first conversation would be but the topic caught him off guard, he answered with an unsure, “Uh, yeah.” To be fair at his unusual loss of words, he was taking in his daughter's appearance. 

As she quietly sighed, moving to let everyone outside into the shop, Stan was seeing in real life the similarities they had to each other. She was a tall woman, almost reaching his height, and inherited his broad shoulders, as well as his nose and strong jaw. Maybe it was having Marisela for a mom that made all his traits look pretty on her.

Stan was trying not to stare at her but then finally noticed that her hair was …damp? In fact all of her was, and she had a spare towel around said broad shoulders.

He didn't have to wonder why for long.

Saying the gift shop was a mess was putting it lightly. At least it looked like it was in the process of being cleaned up when they arrived. How much progress was made? He assumed it must've been worse before they got here but it looked like a storm came through.

Penelope wasn't the only one affected by the storm(?), her brother and Wendy also looked similarly, as they now worked to arrange things back into place. Dipper and Mabel were talking with his newly arrived brother and Soos; they must’ve also been caught up in whatever happened but just dried and changed clothes. (At least Mabel visibly changed, Dipper did wear similar outfits a lot if not the same one.)

Maybe he was used to seeing the shack get damaged in some unnatural way as he took in the damage, his long lost daughter was nervously glancing away as if worried she'd get chewed out for it. 

“How'd that storm show up, did it come from a magic wind bag, where'd it go?!” Her little sister Phoebe said with awe, as if she couldn't hold back her curiosity. Her enthusiastic questioning at least showed he assumed correctly.

Penelope sighed, looking at him instead of straightforwardly answering her little sister. “...How likely would it be to believe something weird happened, uh, sir?”

Stan flinched at the word, he didn't think he would with her calling him that, didn't like the reminder of his own father. “You don't have to call me that kid, it's fine, don't look so nervous. Weird stuff happens here all the time.”

She looked a little relieved at his reassurance. “Dipper was saying something like that while we were cleaning. I believed him but just, uh, want to make sure nobody's on the hook for this.”

He couldn't help smirking, he knew she meant that she was worried she'd be on the hook for it. “So what weird thing happened?”

Penelope glanced at the teens for a second, mostly at Wendy who for once looked like she was actually working but was definitely listening to them.

“It wasn't anyone's fault. Some magic thing happened that surprised all of us,” she cut herself off, directing the next part to her mom, holding her hand out. “Magic is real by the way, but everyone's fine so don't worry!”

Marisela didn't look surprised at that once again, more so that that part of the conversation was directed at her.

Stan felt there was a bit more to it all, with the way she glanced at Wendy, like she was covering for her a bit. Seeing that the teens and her looked alright he asked, “You protected the kids huh?”

“Yeah of course! We worked together to stop this freaky amulet. It's no magic wind bag but it caused all those plants and an indoor tropical storm,” she said as she showed a wet, closed up plastic giftshop bag with shards of said amulet she grabbed from the counter. “We had to break it for it to stop. Sorry about that. We're trying to help out by cleaning up the mess.”

“Don't worry ‘bout the amulet. I'm not the one that studies those things." With all the questions and his usual attitude, he's hoping he's not coming across as a hard-ass to her, he didn't want her to see him that way.

His daughter's a good kid, held down the fort it seems, made sure everyone's alright even if it was a team effort sort of thing like she's making it out to be. Even if this whole event didn't happen, he still wants her to like him and he had only one idea in mind.

“Take something from the giftshop, on the house.”

It was suddenly quiet when he said that. Dipper and Mabel, even Soos and Wendy, were looking at him in disbelief, comically shocked. As if he's suddenly gone crazy for giving away something for free for seemingly no reason. Unlike them, his brother was smiling proudly, knowing exactly what's on his mind.

“Really, are you sure?” Penelope asked surprised, but for a completely different reason. “The gift shop's pretty damaged, there's no reason to-"

He shrugged, “I'm fine with the offer I made.” With all the traits she's gotten from him, it looks like she's gotten at least some modesty from her mom's side. She still looked unsure, as if taking one little thing would've been some huge burden on him and the store.

“Go for it Lupe,” her brother said, pausing his cleaning, mop in hand. “You've been helping a lot and well, we'd probably still be stuck hiding behind the counter without you.”

She had a cocky smile at that, as if she was thinking the phrase, 'I was pretty awesome, wasn't I?' “Well, when it's put that way.”

Penelope must've already had something in mind as she walked purposely, grabbing a soaked green crocheted beanie. She wrung it out, thoughtfully, into one of the buckets the group was using to clean instead of on the floor. (Even though the additional water wouldn't have made any difference.) It would still need to be officially dried along with the rest of her and the teens she helped protect, but she put it on regardless. A slouched beanie with skulls and flowers as a pattern, a stylish choice.

Even though it was purely unintentional on her part, it added further to their resemblance. Their beanies were very different styles but it was like they matched. Somehow the only people able to see it were the three adults already aware of the truth.

“Thanks, it was really nice of you to offer,” she said with a sincere smile. 

“It's no problem kid.” A little beanie was literally the least he could do for her.

“Well, I'll keep cleaning up around here to help. The kids will probably take forever if I don't.”

She turned to look at Dipper who had started watching them with a puzzled expression. He startled as he got caught staring.

“Wha- We're not taking forever!”

“Sure you're not, everyone sight-sees when they clean.”

She rejoined the cleaning crew; the little back and forths they had, it was like she's inadvertently found her space in the family. At one point, she called her little sisters forward, trying to convince them to help out just to be done cleaning faster. It was sappy of him to be watching like a proud parent, but hey it's what he feels.

Marisela bumped her shoulder against him, it was just them two together for the moment as everyone else was preoccupied. “You did really good,” she said quietly.

During the conversation, just like his brother, she was also proudly watching. She was making sure her youngest daughters wouldn't interrupt once he brought up getting something for free, but still, proudly watching his exchange with their daughter. 

“Yeah, I did better than I thought I would.” Being able to see and talk to her, even if she didn't know yet, was a nice surprise. It was sooner than he expected and he was actually nervous, but still nice.

“I will tell her tonight,” she said. “Is that okay?”

“Yeah, of course.” The words just left his mouth without him even thinking about it. There wasn't any other answer.

With all the different things he's thinking and feeling, he can't help but feel ultimately excited that it'll work out. The chance is still there that she wouldn't want to know him after the fact, but he just wanted to trust in Marisela, even if his head kept telling him it was a longshot.

A long time ago he wasn't sure if he should trust Mari but he ultimately did. (He still does now.)

“We're good right? We didn't finish talking before but…” 

“We are,” she said, nodding. Whatever was still left unsaid didn't have all the hurt from before. It didn't feel like the conversation was quite over but maybe a painful part of it was.

"If you still need help planning what you'll say I'll help. And… if you ever need to talk about the past or anything else, you can come to me.”

“Okay,” she smiled. “If I get mad, you will be the first to know.” 

Stan cracked a smile at that. Things were still complicated, between them, and him with his long lost daughter. He couldn't be sure of anything until it's all said and done but-

Seeing both sets of families, acting like a giant one as easily as they did, it felt right to see.

Chapter Text

Ford arrived too late to help but just in time to see everything was fine. Perhaps he shouldn't be so used to showing up guns blazing since his return. He may have looked a little ‘silly' doing so in a moment of relative peace where the children were safe.

His niblings were giving Soos an explanation of what happened when he arrived. Any other business owner would have some sort of explosive reaction to seeing the disaster. Soos took it in stride with an, “Oh dude, can't believe I missed it” and a chuckle. Then he switched his Mr Mystery hat with his old one, determined to fix the hole in the floor caused by the indoor lightning bolt that occurred.

Ford similarly took it in stride when he was finally noticed and told how the magical amulet that caused this was purposely broken. A younger version of himself might've been upset at the loss of an intact anomaly to study. What absurd pride. With all the damage the anomaly did to the shop, the children could've gotten hurt. His family was safe.

That of course included his newly found niece.

As ecstatic as he felt seeing her (not quite) face to face, he couldn't interrupt Stanley's first ever conversation with his daughter. Witnessing it though, she truly had a striking resemblance to him. 

Technically it was a physical resemblance to both of them, but it was more than that. It was almost uncanny yet bittersweet, seeing her have similar mannerisms to Stanley, or rather, a younger version of him.

With them being so alike they'd surely get along once the truth is told to her, Ford reasoned. He was thrilled with further thoughts of being able to get to know his niece, what else they could have in common, what they didn't- 

Thoughts he had to put on hold, he couldn't ‘spill the beans' too early as Mabel would say. He felt awkward enough getting caught earlier, miraculously that didn't land him on the wrong foot with her mother. Stanley was surely planning on telling him off for it at some point.

Regardless of what his brother will argue on later, he had to respect the situation and let Penelope's mother handle the conversation. (He definitely wasn't afraid of Lee's old flame if he managed to let it slip before she could explain.) At least it seemed as if his niece managed to build a rapport already with the kids.

“Wha- We're not taking forever!” Dipper exclaimed at Penelope, denying the probing gaze he had towards her.

“Sure you're not, everyone sight-sees when they clean.”

Perhaps she didn't notice the general shock half of the gift shop's inhabitants had towards the gift she received from Stanley. Or simply ignored it. She spoke in a somewhat lackadaisical way, shrugging as she grabbed a broom.

“I wasn't staring at anything! Just, you know, occupied cleaning up around here,” Dipper said, before using his cloth to continue wiping down the drenched shelves.

“Speaking as a chismosa, you should probably be a little less obvious,” Penelope ribbed mildly. “Or at least find a better excuse.” Other than teasing him, she didn't seem bothered at all, going back to sweeping up all the broken glass.

“I'm not sure what that word means, but it sounds fancy,” Mabel chimed in, pausing her task. She did a much better job of looking busy after getting over her shock earlier.

Penelope gave a short snort laugh that she tried to hide, turning to looking at the surroundings at the still currently wrecked store. Any amusement was wiped away at the sight with a sigh.

“At this rate this is gonna take forever,” she grumbled with a broom in hand. Penelope then straightened up with an idea in mind, calling out, “Phoebe, Naomi!” 

Two twin girls came forward with her call, and she tried to convince who Ford presumed were her younger half-sisters to help out. It appeared to be a difficult ask, due to their apparent fear of ‘being forced to work for Mr Mystery all summer long for free’, wherever that came from.

With her back turned, Dipper started his own quiet conversation, not being able to hold back on his intrigue.

“Is something up with Grunkle Stan? It's just a gift but, this is Stan we're talking about. Doesn't seem like much but I have a feeling something is going on.” He took out his pen in thought completely forgoing his clean up duties.

“Yeah it's not like he's ever given us free anything or whatever,” Wendy shrugged. She was half paying attention, or at least appeared that way - it was the busiest she's probably ever looked at her workplace.

Stanford hadn't chimed in until now, not wanting to get in the way of any of his new niece's familial bonding moments. He couldn't ever dismiss anyone's curiosity, especially his nephew's - this conversation might not even lead to the truth right away. 

But his nephew was a bright boy, if anyone could it would be him. “I'm sure if you asked him later, he'd tell you why.” Stanley truly needed to go through with the family meeting tonight.

“If he would tell us. My keen powers of observation are just telling me something is going on.” That response from him made Ford smile back in response, even if that attitude could potentially lead to a dramatic reveal instead of a graceful conversation.

A young man, who must've been Dipper's new friend, spoke up after setting a clothes rack up straight. “Is it really that big of a mystery? Maybe he's just being nice.”

“He is nice, in his own Grunkley Stan way,” Mabel said. “Remember Dipper? Last summer he did the same for us. That's how I got my handy-dandy grappling hook!” She took it out, showing it off in a dramatic pose.

“Wow, wish I knew that earlier, I would've gotten one too.”

Penelope's sudden comment took Dipper by surprise, causing him to bite into his pen too hard and ink to spill out. “Uhh, everything alright?”

“Everything's fine,” Mabel answered cheerfully. “We were just wondering why our Grunkle gave you a present.” Her brother shot her a annoyed look that screamed, ‘Why are you telling her if she's part of the mystery?!’

“Hmm, I thought you guys were talking about the other mystery. Couldn't help overhearing some bits when I was with my sisters.”

As quietly as they were speaking, it was still a conversation in the same space. Ford was likewise able to hear her ‘successfully’ convince the younger girls to help pick up any merchandise on the floor. I.e, bribing them into doing it. 

She truly takes after her father, he thought proudly.

“They couldn't help wondering, my brother can be a bit frugal,” he sugarcoated. The twins loved Stanley but he couldn't be sure what kind of adjectives they'd choose for his avaricious brother. 

He had to leave a good impression on her. Ford was sure she'd want to get to truly meet her father's side of the family,  but he couldn't entirely dismiss his brother's concerns.

“Frugal huh,” she said, giving him an assessing look. It felt like there was a question on her mind but instead she changed gears, addressing Dipper. “Maybe it's just my pay. You know, for looking after you guys and cleaning up. It's not like I'd work anywhere for free.”

Her lighthearted excuse, brushing off their ‘mystery’, had Dipper give a miffed expression. The ‘looking after’ part didn't help matters either. None the wiser to his mood, Dipper's new friend spoke up.

“Really, what about when you were helping before?” He responded cheekily in good humor.

“I considered running away but looking at your sad little faces made me stick around longer. Thought maybe I'd get something out of it,” she lied playfully with as much cheek back.

“This is starting to remind me of early last summer,” Dipper muttered. He'd recounted to him last year what it was like early on, with Stanley being dismissive, calling everything a hoax. That attitude must've bothered him, even if things between his nephew and Stanley were better now. 

Ford suddenly felt ill at ease, the thought that this conversation would result in his niece getting on the wrong foot with this interaction. Perhaps he could step in but he was well aware that he wasn't one to smooth over social situations.

He hadn't yet intervened after his great nephew spoke so quietly he almost didn't hear it. Similarly he was able to hear Penelope say tough crowd to herself before she quickly continued.

“Oh! I'll throw out another one for ya; I got something ‘cause he's gotta win me over for my approval,” she proudly said. Penelope gestured in the direction of her parents, most likely having some semblance of the conversation he interrupted earlier. “I'm her adult kid - the one he's definitely gotta impress.”

“I like that theory!” Mabel perked up, that explanation aligning itself perfectly with her interest in Stanley's love life.

It's torture to have everyone around him circling around the answer, not quite reaching it. Ford was trying to stay strong and not explode. The conversation itself was dying down at least with everyone returning to cleanup duties. Well almost-

“Maybe,” Dipper said. “It's just, I don't know, just feel in my gut something is going on.” The tone he made had Ford want to immediately reassure him that he was brilliant and on to something - in a way that would hopefully not incur the wrath of Penelope's mother for not letting her tell her daughter gently.

“You know, sometimes the easiest explanation is the answer, but maybe I'm wrong. We won't know until you do your detective thing,” Penelope conceded. 

Her expression looked remarkably similar to the rare times Stanley looked guilty, right before he covered it up with an attitude. Perhaps Dipper didn't notice it with his half hearted cleaning attempt. She didn't do much to cover it up other than get busy sweeping.

“You don't have to say all that if you don't believe it,” Dipper muttered.

“Okay I don't get this mystery ‘cause I just met you guys, but I do know gut feelings,” Penelope responded. “That's something you can't ignore. If you really feel like that's something to look into you should. It sounds like you have plenty of experience in it.” 

The ‘gruff’ attitude and feigned indifference probably wouldn't have reassured many people, but Dipper was used to it from Stanley. He didn't seem to pick up on their similarities yet, but the approach still worked to get a half-smile from him.

“I can see why you don't get it,” Dipper said, in his own way trying to concede. “Honestly it just seemed like the easiest one to focus on.” 

“Maybe you'll focus better on all your mysteries after getting some fuel for all that brain power.” Penelope then gave a smirk, “Dinner might take a while at this rate though.”

His nephew rolled his eyes but things felt good-natured between the two, their short talk a show of mutual respect even if they don't fully see eye to eye. It had even managed to get Dipper to work more wholeheartedly on his assigned task. Ford would bet his nephew was still passionately thinking of the next steps he'd take. Perhaps he'd even consider the possibilities his cousin had offered to him, now knowing she wasn't being dismissive towards him. 

It was pleasant seeing all the kids working together, having little moments of camaraderie shine through. He felt- Well, he felt like he was most likely expected to join in. They were cleaning up his old house, and yes, although he isn't the most tidy person and his old abode had been converted into a giftshop it was his responsibility to-

“You're the paranormal researcher right?”

Penelope didn't catch him by surprise, his travels throughout different dimensions have rendered him incapable of ever being caught unaware. What did was her current composure, the first non-Stanley expression he's seen from her. Her serious yet calm demeanor reminded him instead of her mother moments prior (which did not intimidate him).

“Ah yes I'm- Greetings I'm Dr Stanford Pines.” He offered her a handshake not thinking there'd be a reaction, but even he would notice the slight panicked look in her eyes with her direct eye contact.

Her general demeanor had given him the impression that in comparison, she was a lot more confident than him when he was around her age. She hadn't even made any obvious moves to hide her hands around the kids! But it seemed there was still some insecurity lurking beneath the surface. Her internal panic lasted just mere seconds before her gaze looked more determined, like steeling herself for a possible fight. (And wasn't that a terrible thing to recognize, her having to grow up defending herself because he and Stanley couldn't be there…)

She hadn't looked at his hands at all, ready for anything possibly thrown her way, until her hand was already in his grasp. Immediately her expression went from ‘so what, you got a problem’ to a ‘wait what?’ Penelope looked, as if she needed to count to double check. 

“Whoa, I never met anyone else with polydactyly before,” she exclaimed, her smile directed at him. “Other than my childhood cat Peludo.”

“I've never met anyone else with it either,” Ford smiled back. Other than that one time in the finger dimension, but likewise, no other human!

“This is so cool. I was already thinking having so many twins under the same roof was a fun coincidence.”

Don't blurt it out Stanford. 

“Yes. A fun coincidence,” he repeated back, trying not to mess up. “Were you looking for me?” The way she looked prior to seeing his hands made it seem like she was going for some interrogation. It occured to him that might be the other reason why she made sure the kids were too busy cleaning to butt in.

“Ah, well kinda. Honestly I don't have the best questions to ask a paranormal researcher,” Penelope admitted then shrugged. “I was just the only adult with the kids when all that happened. Wanna make sure trying to break the curse thing won't hurt anyone.”

Her attitude was more friendly and open, but the way she quietly spoke that last sentence made it clear she still felt serious about her concerns.

“I've yet to see this curse but I assure you, I'll do everything I can to safely break it.”

His niece grinned back at him, showing she had no doubt in his words. “Good to hear. Don't know much about the supernatural so I can't do much there.” 

“Do you have an interest in it?” Stanford asked, hoping she did, for something else to bond over with her.

“A bit but I'm definitely no expert, that's more my mom's thing- Speaking of,” she said, looking more serious. “I don't know if she's asked about what's going on. The curse thing hasn't been mentioned to her has it? I think I should be the one to tell her, gently.”

Once again her loud voice quieted down, in hopes she wasn't overheard. Ford started to feel glad he was interrupted in his conversation earlier, he can see how overprotective they both were towards each other. Seems there's going to be two completely different, major conversations in store for them soon.

“We've spoken but not on that,” (due to an interruption). “I still have to learn the details, see what sort of curse we are working with.” 

Penelope nodded, “Makes sense. Guess that means you have to get down to business soon. Right Dipper?”

Once again she caught her cousin listening in to their conversation, even with him ‘working’ on his assigned chores. 

“You gotta learn to be sneakier,” she teased. 

“I don't really have to if the conversation’s all out in the open.”

He didn't look confident with his response, unsure of her reaction, until she gave a short laugh.

“Good one, I like your moxie kid,” she said amused. Penelope could've continued their back and forth, but instead opted out to grab the attention of Dipper's new friend, who seemed like one of the few that was actually working hard.

“Really, it's cool to do it now?” The poor teenager was waiting patiently by working at the shop but it must've been an internal struggle. Ford perhaps felt a little guilty at how long he must've had the young man wait while he was ‘supporting Stanley from a distance’.

“Of course King, as long as it's snappy. We got plenty of work to do around here.” Her wink and tone made it clear it was a joke, she wasn't actually expecting it to be quick.

Was that his name or is that a nickname for young men nowadays, Ford wondered. He was still a little out of the loop in this dimension but that would have to be research for another time.

Regardless, ‘King’ came up to him, nervous yet enthusiastic, a friendly smile on his face. “Hello, thank you for offering your help Dr Pines.” 

This might be the hardest part of curse breaking, the social part; Stanford hoped he comes off well, Dipper's friend seemed like a polite teenager. He was definitely one of the few people that remembered his doctorate.

“It's no problem at all! Now, we can see what we are working with at my lab, figure out what method we should try.” The entrance to his lab wasn't completely blocked, wouldn't take too much effort to move some of the objects surrounding the vending machine currently.

“Do you have it on you or did it leave again,” Dipper asked.

“It hasn't followed me since before the storm. At least I've been too busy to see if it popped up again.”

The three of them left the shop, Dipper leading them to the porch but they still continued the conversation on the way.

“So it's a cursed item you have in your possession. How did you find it?”

“It's more like it found me. I don't think I did anything, it just showed up in my bag when I went to the library,” he replied. “Unless going to the occult section counts? I didn't even get to read anything before it appeared.”

“I was at the library loads of times last summer, I'm not sure how I missed it if it was there.”

Prior to getting banned from the library, I haven't found any cursed objects there, Stanford thought and didn't add aloud. Maybe during his investigation he can check if he was no longer banned.

“Everything else is still here except it,” Dipper said, now that they've reached the porch. He picked up his video camera that was left behind on the couch.

“I wish I could say good riddance but I don't think I'm that lucky,” King muttered. “That thing's got a mind of its own, it was popping up everywhere last night. It even showed up under my pillow when I was trying to sleep.” The bags under his eyes were especially prominent when he said that.

Stanford took a step forward, trying to think of some reassurance to offer (and try to not think of how familiar that was to him) when he stopped.

“I don't recall seeing Mabel wear this.” It was late in the afternoon but it would soon be night, and in the near darkness he accidentally stepped on a broken red bracelet and small blue bead that fell off. 

“Oh, that one was mine,” King replied. “It's not much of an experiment, but well, I was trying to figure out if maybe Penelope got hurt ‘cause of the bracelet she was wearing.”

At the look on Stanford's face, the young man then quickly added, “When she got hurt her bracelet broke too. These bracelets are like supposed to help protect against the evil eye.” King crossed his arms, “I tossed mine onto the book to see what would happen, and it just snapped apart. We caught it on camera, but well, I don't really know what it all means or what we can do.” The unspoken words, ‘I'm hoping you do’ lingered between them.

His hand had closed on the broken bracelet in his palm on hearing the words ‘evil eye’ in such close succession. He was trying to hold back on his immediate thoughts.

Stanford looked at him with a raised eyebrow, needing him to clarify. “The evil eye is more a dark gaze from someone, a malicious intent harboring a curse.” The rest remained unsaid, seeing if he understood where he was getting at. Why did he assume it's the evil eye specifically?

If it was just the act of the bracelets breaking, then maybe-

“You're right, maybe that's not exactly what it is. I just thought of it ‘cause that book has a big eye on it.”

His fist tightened. It's still here.

“Just in case we did inadvertently prepare for this,” Dipper said proudly, unaware of the thoughts his great uncle was having. Unaware that what his grunkle worked tirelessly in getting rid of is still plaguing their family. “We've picked up on the fact it doesn't like being recorded but we do have some footage. And while we were cleaning up, we were talking and catching Wendy up to speed. She had a really great idea.” 

His nephew took out his journal, showing what his new friend and cousin drew. Illustrations of their perception of the cursed book, one on each page, side by side. Art styles aside, there was one major difference between the two.

Both shared the same black cover, with a red design of an ornate, giant red eye right in the middle. The key and possibly only difference however was the irises of each design. On King's page, the iris took on the shape of a spiral, going inward. On his niece's, the iris had designs of 6 ‘petals’, all connected to the pupil, making it appear like a flower or a pinwheel.

It just couldn't be a coincidence. There didn't seem to be any triangles but it couldn't just be a coincidence. It wasn't exactly like the cover of his book. Those eyes didn't look anything like his and yet-

“Yeah we kind of assumed we were seeing the same exact cover, it was a good catch from her.”

“It's been pretty tricky so far to capture,” his nephew added. “It was a good idea from Mabel to try recording for the guide. It came out all glitchy but that and the drawings are better than nothing.”

“Yes. I should see the footage,” he said faintly, deep in thought. Every bit of new information was important, as this wasn't quite over. Dipper enthusiastically rushed to go upstairs to the attic, to bring down his laptop and show his grunkle what evidence they've recorded. 

It was important, he shouldn't be drawing conclusions without seeing all the evidence but he couldn't help the conclusion he's already reaching.

Occam's Razor. His long lost niece herself didn't refer to it by name earlier, but she brought up a simplified version to Dipper. The simplest explanation is often the correct one. Ironically she hadn't stumbled onto the simplest explanation when she was offering some up to Dipper, but she had the right idea with her train of thought. Penelope did also concede that life can be complex and yet-

Could he really say that in this case?

He was trying to believe that this was a completely different anomaly. But what was the likelihood of a completely different cursed book, also featuring the same color scheme and similar eye iconography? That also messes with recordings? That was disturbing a young man's sleep? Not to say that there's only one cursed book in existence and it belonged to him but-

So shortly after he had done everything to get rid of it? Taking King's theory in mind, it had some merit, and piqued his interest with how they described the reaction it had. It was definitely something to look into just in case, but he felt the wrong conclusion was reached. 

In a group of five, only one was injured when it appears they've all touched it at least briefly. However, that young man had saw a correlation, a coincidence, but not the cause. He had attributed it to wearing a specific bracelet but that young man doesn't know all the facts. Penelope may have worn that bracelet but she also happens to be the niece of his favored pawn, a man with the exact same birth defect. Penelope is the daughter of the man who defeated Bill Cipher.

That demon would've gone out of his way to injure her hand, there's no doubt in his mind he'd do something so petty and vindictive.

Those book covers they're perceive could just be a new trick he's playing, that's the simplest explanation there is.

“Is everything okay Dr Pines?” 

Perhaps it was obvious he had some potential bad news. It was best to err on the side of caution, let him know the facts in the highly likely event that he's now involved. 

“My boy, I truly hope I'm wrong. I've told no one of this in the hopes I've gotten rid of it on my own. But it appears likely you have the same cursed book I had.”

He looked at him in shock. Ford wasn't sure he'd respond but then he quietly asked, “Why doesn't Dipper know? Isn't he your apprentice?”

Stanford sighed, why did this have to happen to one of Dipper's friends? Whose first instinct was asking something on his behalf?

“My family has been affected by this enough. It seems I might have to explain soon, but I have to let you know some important details to keep you safe.”

The young man looked like he wanted to press on but his mouth was shut. He's smart to listen to reason. That'll hopefully keep him safe until Ford figures it out.

“Last summer, I encountered a book, very similar in appearance to this one. At the time I thought it was an offensive prank and got rid of it immediately. That was shortly before I left to set sail with my brother. I nearly forgot about it until I arrived over a week ago in this town again. Once again it appeared, and kept appearing, no matter how many times I've destroyed it. Since I've arrived back I have spent all my time trying every method I could think of and I was finally rid of it recently. That you appeared with a cursed book of your own feels like no coincidence.”

“Maybe I could try-”

“Son I tossed, torn, burned, and molecularly destabilized it, and it was as if nothing happened when it reappeared. At a loss on what to do, I tossed it through a dimensional rift in space. The fact that it has attached itself to you yet disappeared while I'm around, perhaps it's some new trick he's playing.”

King looked stunned at all the different methods he listed but instead of asking further on that, he repeated, “‘He?’”

Ford didn't mean for that to slip out, the less he knew about that demon the better.

“It is best you heed my advice: Don't write your name, don't believe a single word, and under no circumstances do not make any deals. The entity that created it is beyond dangerous.” 

“I wasn't planning to- I agree that it's probably not a coincidence, but maybe there's a chance,” he said, speaking uncertainly, cutting himself off. Even he must've felt that the possibility it was something else was slim. “How could we know for sure it's the same, I have to know more about this at least!”

He was sounding distraught and Ford couldn't blame him. What reason could he have to rope in some random teenager in all this? He was an innocent person that had zero means of knowing what to do in this situation, especially compared to Ford. 

But Stanford's knowledge didn't help when it was happening to him now could it?

“If there's any triangles with eyes in the book, it's the same one. I can't be sure he'll tell you his name, from what I've gathered that book shows everyone something different. I'm sure you gathered that too by now.

“I will try to think of what else could be done, I'll do what I can. But until then- My family has been through enough because of that creature. I would appreciate it if you could take some distance from them in the meantime.”

Seeing the hurt on his face- Stanford turned away to head back inside, not wanting to stop and take it back. He didn't want to get in the way of his nephew's friendship, or hurt any feelings but he had his family to consider.

He's already caused too much harm to them, and he's trying to do it again. Stanford has to be better than he was before, and look after them all. His brother, his grand niblings, and yes he will do everything he can for his new niece and her relatives as well. 

Bill Cipher won't ever win.