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“Great Uncle Ford, how did you start learning magic?” Dipper asked him one day.
They had just been sitting in the living room together, not really watching the TV as it droned on, just enjoying each other’s company, when the boy asked his question out of nowhere.
“Uh… why do you ask?” Ford replied awkwardly.
“Well I just dug a half-eaten bag of Skittles out from between the cushions, and made me remember Stan complaining about still finding zombie bits in the cushions, and that got me thinking about all the different spells I found in your Journals, and well, they all worked! But I don’t remember reading anything about where you learned them. Did you make them up yourself?”
Ford shook his head. “No, no, I’m afraid I’m not that talented. I learned all of them from old writings I found while doing research. Forgotten books, mysterious scrolls, even ancient cave paintings!”
“Hey, just like the incantation to summon Bill!” Dipper regretted his interjection immediately as Ford’s face fell. “I-I’m sorry! Forget I said anything!”
“It’s fine.” Ford assured the boy, regaining his composure. But the comfortable atmosphere they’d shared just a few moments ago was gone. The old researcher wracked his brain to find a way to cheer the boy back up.
“Would you like to learn some magic, my boy?”
He took Dipper’s high-pitched squee as a yes.
Even though the Journals were long-gone, disappeared into the bottomless pit, Ford still had a lot of the preliminary notes and scrolls that had gone into them. Including an old wizard’s scroll that Ford had found years ago while digging around in the gnome village’s dump. The paper was old and stained, and still smelled faintly of squirrel droppings, but the words of the spells were still legible.
“Wow.” Dipper whispered in hushed awe as he looked over the scroll. “What are all these spells for?”
“If I recall correctly, most of the spells I found on this scroll are for changing the weather.” Ford answered as he read it over carefully, occasionally muttering to himself as he translated it. “Huh, that’s funny.”
“What?” Dipper asked, and excited squeak in his voice.
“I don’t think I ever finished translating this one….” Ford closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking hard. “Ah, yes, I remember now! Not long after I found this scoll, I discovered the saucer crash-site! I was so distracted by discovering aliens that I must have completely forgotten there was still half-a-scroll full of spells left!”
“You mean we get to try out brand-new, untested spells!?”
“I know, isn’t this exciting!?” Ford grinned. “Here, you can help me translate it!” The old researcher showed his nephew a few runes and explained their meaning and pronunciation. Dipper mostly served as a second opinion whenever Ford was unsure if a character was this rune or that one, but he assured the boy he was still incredibly helpful.
“Ok, I think this is a spell to make it snow indoors.” Ford concluded once they’d translated the whole thing. “Now, where do you want to try it out?”
Dipper considered their options for a moment. “What about the gift-shop? I bet more people would buy more snow globes if it looked like one in there!”
Ford chuckled. “Now you’re thinking like Stanley. Let’s go try it!”
Soos was wrapping up the latest tour, and launched into his well-rehearsed conclusion. “Thanks for coming everybody, I hope you had an unforgettable time here at the Mystery Shack! Be sure to pick up some souvenirs to remember the trip!”
He opened up the door to the giftshop, only to be met with a blast of cold air. Did he leave the AC all the way up again? He led the tour group inside, only to find drifts of snow piled up between the shelves of merchandise. Dipper and Ford were sitting in the middle of the biggest pile of snow, putting together a snowman.
“H-hey everyone!” Dipper said shyly. “We’re… uh… having a sale on snow globes?”
The tour group stood there, gawking at the snow for a moment, before they all pulled out their wallets and started clamoring for the snowglobes.
“Wow dudes, this place looks awesome!” Soos complimented them. “Where’d you get all this fake snow?”
“Oh it’s not fake.” Ford corrected. “We summoned a small snow flurry indoors.”
“Oh, heheh, that explains the puddles everywhere.” Soos picked up his feet. His shoes were soaking up the snow melt. “You dudes got a spell to clean all this up, right?”
The two magicians shared a glance. “... I’ll go get a mop.” Ford sighed.