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"This was stupid," Mabel's mouth muttered as her legs carried her body through the dark woods.
"How was I supposed to know they had guns?" Commented Mabel, her voice emanating not from her body, but rather from her own shadow, cast by the sparse moonlight. "Cultists never have guns."
A shot fired off to their left. "Never is a four letter word Mabel," Dipper said, as he used Mabel's arms to climb up, over, and down a massive felled redwood.
"Actually, its five letters," she said just before they dropped down to the ground.
Dipper tucked themselves close to the base of the tree, breathing heavily. Times like this made him wonder why he ever missed having a body. "You know what I mean," he said, half heartedly swatting at the patch of inky blackness that seemed to curl around him in the dark.
"What're we gonna do, Dipper?" Mabel asked from the dark, her voice sounding just as it did when she was 12. "Its like there's a magical dampener carved into every other tree,not to mention the traps."
"We keep moving," Dipper took a breath, and tipped forward the bill of his old pine tree cap. Mabel had worn it 'for nostalgia purposes!' and he was glad she did. They didn't need their old Mabel/Dipper dress code anymore, but he always felt weird in a body without a hat.
He stood up, and began to sprint into the woods again. This was a poor decision, as the noise from his running alerted the cultists nearby to his presence, and because he was so focused on remembering how feet worked (keep them straight, don't bend them like that, you'll break her ankle), he didn't notice when they fell right into a pit trap.
If their sudden movements hadn't alerted their pursuers to their location, the girlish squeal he let out as he fell the 8 feet certainly did. He heard the triumphant laugh of an unnamed cultist overhead, and sure enough when he looked up, there was the sickly yellow glow of one of their old fashion lanterns. What, so they don't believe in flash lights but guns were a-ok? Talk about mixed signals.
It looked like there was no way out without revealing himself. The cult still under the impression that they were only dealing with a young woman, and he'd rather they go on believing that until they were guaranteed a clean get away. He was about to say screw it, and add to his regrettably growing body count to get them out safe, when he felt a tug.
A very strong tug. Mabel, from her shadow felt it too. "Dipper, are you being summoned?" She asked.
"Yep," he replied, confusing the figure above him. Nosey girl finally gets caught and all she has to say is 'yep'?
"But there's so many wards out here, they'd have to be really really strong," worry and a little bit of fear coated her tone. She'd been along on summonings while Dipper was in her body before, mostly when they were younger. It felt like being pulled forward by many hands, usually because it was a group summoning. But this was one. One, very strong, confident pull. Whoever was summoning them (well, her brother, but from the strength of that pull it was clear she was coming along for the ride) was either well versed in demonology or had Dippers true name. Neither option was very pleasant.
Dipper seemed very relaxed, though. "You taste that?" He asked, just loud enough for Mabel to here. She gave him a look, or rather gave him the impression of giving him a look, as it was very hard for shadows to actually give someone a look from inside a dark hole. "Rocky road." And like that, they were gone in a crack of sulphur, leaving behind a very confused secret society.
Cassie was so relieved when Alcor finally showed up, that she didn't even notice his decidedly unusual appearance. Right away she fell into her tirade, pacing anxiously back and forth in front of the circle.
"Oh thank goodness, you're alright I was so worried when you didn't show up the first time, so I tried again but I didn't even get your little 'summoning waiting' hold thingy either, you know, the one with the singing, and if you don't answer the second time you always put me on hold, so I strengthened the sigil and reinforced the runes, but when that didn't work I just knew something must be wrong, so I double checked my runes and gave a blood offering, just a small one, just like you said to do, but when that still didn't work, I was freaking out cause usually you give some sort of sign if you can't make it, so I burned that sealed envelope you gave me, for emergencies, and I promise I didn't look inside, I just burned it just like you said, and it worked and you're here now and you're..." she trailed off, as she had finally cooled down enough to actually look at the young woman sitting in her bedroom, "not Alcor," she finished lamely, her face falling.
"Don't look so glum, kid," he said, throwing Cassie for a loop. That was Alcor's voice, but definitely not his body. For one thing his attention span wasn't long enough to stay on the ground that long.
Out of his shadow stood a girl who looked like a slightly younger version of the body Alcor was currently wearing. She was slightly transparent, indicating that she was currently a resident of the dreamscape, however thanks to the strength of Cassie’s summons, she was fully visible. "Kid?" She asked. "Was she the one that summoned you, Dippin' Sauce?"
Alcor groaned and pulled the bill of his dirty pine tree cap over his eyes at the same time that Cassie tried and failed to stifle a giggle. "Dippin' Sauce?" She asked, doing her best not to burst out laughing.
"Cassie," he began, "this is my sister, Mizar," he stressed the name mostly for his sisters benefit, as a subtle way to remind her that he technically was on the clock, so to speak. "Mizar, this is Cassie."
Mizar waved cheerily, but then stopped as though hit with a sudden realization. "Oh my gosh!" She practically squealed, lightly hitting Alcor in the arm. "You mean Cassie with the math problems!?"
At the same time Cassie had a realization of her own, "Wait, I know you!" She said.
"You do?" Mizar asked, genuinely curious. Cassie looked a bit too young to be from their rituacon days.
"Yeah! You're the one who does the hold music!" Cassie grinned, still partially riding the high of finding out her friend was safe. "Your rendition of Don't Start Unbelieving is really moving."
"That's me! Its good to know someone appreciates my work." Mizar nodded, pleased to have her karaoke genius recognized.
"Not that this isn't incredibly touching," Alcor interrupted, "but I kinda wanna lie down, and you did excellent work on these failsafes, Cassie, so can we move along?" He forgot how annoying bodies could be, but there was no way he was giving it back to Mabel for at least a few hours. Everything hurt from all that running.
He held out both his hands, the right coated in blue fire, ready to make the deal, and the left ready to accept payment.
"Rocky road for hangouts?" Cassie asked, too exhausted from worry to care about her trig homework anymore.
"Sounds good," said Alcor. He shook Cassie's hand and felt the failsafes and seals relax as soon as the ice cream payment hit his hand. He passed it right back to Cassie, and flopped face down on her mattress. "I'm using your bed," he announced.
Cassie turned to Mizar, who was occupying herself with inspecting the intricate circle Cassie had made. "Long day?" Cassie asked.
Mizar shrugged and grinned at her. "You could say that."
Cassie nodded in acknowledgement, and sat quietly until she heard the light snores of a sleeping body. "So what was that about Dipping sauce?" She asked with a conspiratory grin.
And thus, as the great demon Alcor slept off a busy day, Mabel and Cassie became co-founders of the Cult of Dipping Sauce.