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Wilbur stood in the middle of the woods, pointing his phone flashlight into the darkness. His twin stands behind him, arms crossed, and a scowl etched into his face. Techno wasn’t a fan of investigating paranormal happenings, especially when they cut into his sleep schedule. Wilbur on the other hand had spent his entire summer focused on the mysteries of this town.
He was trying to use the camping trip Grunkle Schlatt forced the two of them to go on to investigate the strange woods outside the Mystery Shack, while Techno shot down his attempts at every turn.
“Techno I swear I saw something out here.” Wilbur shines his light through the woods around them, looking for a trace of the form he saw just moments ago.
“Like that time you saw a werewolf and it turned out to be a squirrel?” Techno huffs, glancing back towards their distant campsite.
“No,” Wilbur says, “This is a very different time and for the record, there was a werewolf, it just ran away before you got there.”
“Uh-huh, so it's not like that time you claimed you saw the Loch Ness Monster in the lake?“
“Nessie was there! She is just camera shy.” Wilbur knows what saw, deep beneath the lake. He didn’t need photo evidence to prove it, though Techno begged to differ.
“We are in Oregon. How would a monster from Scotl-”
The wind howls, drowning out Techno's voice, beneath it, Wilbur hears a distinct clicking noise. He's been in the woods enough to know the noises animals make at night and he's never anything quite like it. It had a strange rhythm to it, definitely coming from something alive, but too loud to be coming from a simple critter.
“I heard something,” Wilbur squeals.
“Yeah, the wind,” Techno says, pushing some hair blown by the wind out of his face.
Wilbur ignores his brother and heads in the direction of the odd noise. Techno sighs but follows anyway. He always does. No matter how much Techno whines about Wilbur’s investigations, he's always right there beside his twin.
With Wilbur in the lead and Techno breaking a branch off a nearby tree as some sort of a weapon, the twins venture further into the woods, guided only by the glow of Wilbur’s phone.
As Wilbur shines his light towards the direction of the noise, the clicking noise sounds again, just a bit louder with a slightly different rhythm to it.
“There’s that noise again! You heard it this time, right Techno?”
“That was definitely a squirrel.” Techno rolls his eyes.
“So you admit you heard something!”
“Yes, because I heard a noise that totally means there’s some cryptid just waiting to be discovered right next to us," Techno says, sarcasm dripping from every word.
“I mean it’s a possibility,” Wilbur mutters.
Wilbur continues his trek through the woods, shining his light at every tree hollow and burrow. Techno follows along, but never helps his twin search.
They keep walking further and further into the woods, but the noise doesn’t sound again. Wilbur’s ache and his eyelids begin to droop.
Eventually, he has to stop for a break. He leans against an old pine tree with his brother beside him. He listens for any sign of the noise, but the forest is silent.
“Let’s just get back to the tent.” Techno has a softer tone than usual. It's the same tone he had when their search for a werewolf turned up a squirrel. It's a tone that says if you give up now, I'll only tease you for half of your remaining lifetime.
Wilbur looks down at his phone. It was well past 2 am and they'd made no progress in their search. His phone was on four percent and Techno definitely wouldn't use his phone to continue the search.
It was just some noise anyways.
“Okay, fine,.” Wilbur concedes.
Wilbur turns his light away from the noise's source. Maybe Techno was right, it could just be some squirrel. He'd never heard a squirrel sound like that, but this was Gravity Falls after all.
As they head back towards the campsite, the noise starts up again, far louder than before. Wilbur wants to turn back, but Techno keeps pulling him along. The noise seems to get closer and louder with each step. Techno’s grip on his arm starts to hurt and Wilbur realizes he doesn’t want to turn back anymore.
The twins start to walk faster and the noise reaches ear-piercing levels.
“Um Techno,” Wilbur says, “Ready to admit I’m right?” He has a shit-eating grin despite the situation.
“Never,” Techno says, “Now start running.”
They run through the woods, the noise never far behind. Techno lets go of Wilbur’s arm, allowing them both to run slightly faster. Wilbur finds himself lagging a few steps behind his twin. He keeps his eyes straight ahead, not daring to look behind him.
Whatever was chasing them was definitely not a wild animal. Almost all wild animals feared humans. Surely this had to be some kind of cryptid. Wilbur had tried his entire life, well more like a few years, to meet a cryptid, but he didn’t want to die to one. He had to live long enough to study and prove the existence of cryptids after all.
Caught up in thoughts of grandeur, Wilbur trips on a root.
His face hits the ground and his phone flies out of his hands, landing in a nearby patch of grass.
The clicking noise abruptly stops. A form jumps on top of Wilbur’s phone. Even in the intense darkness, Wilbur can tell that whatever being had chased them wasn’t some wild animal. No animal was shaped like that. It was a cryptid.
“Holy shit,” Wilbur whispers, “I fucking knew it.” He’s half terrified and half delirious.
Techno pulls Wilbur up, attempting to drag Wilbur away from that thing.
Wilbur just stands there, refusing to move, his eyes transfixed on the strange form he can barely make out in the darkness.
The creature picks up the phone and lifts it in front of its face. The light shines on it, finally revealing the creature to the twins.
It’s a kid.
Just a few years younger than them. He has mangled blonde and torn-up clothes with giant antennas and moth wings that mark him as anything but human. Not to mention his eyes, they were nothing but dark pits. Seemingly empty and soulless. Those dead bug eyes were utterly fixated on the light from Wilbur’s phone.
“He’s… cute?” Wilbur finds himself saying.
Wilbur looks over to find Techno staring open-mouthed at the creature in front of him. He pulls his glasses off, cleaning them and giving the creature another look before finally responding, “He’s a freak of nature, Wilbur. He’s not cute.” To most people, Techno's voice would have sounded as monotone as usual, but Wilbur knows his twin. Techno is struggling to accept that Wilbur was right.
“No, he’s definitely cute.” Wilbur smiles at the cryptid before him.
“He has bug eyes,” Techno points out. To Wilbur though, those bug eyes were actually pretty cute. He can't help but wonder how much more powerful they are than human eyes or even just normal bug eyes, given their immense size. Wilbur will have plenty of time to study them later after he gets this cryptid back to the Mystery Shack.
“I’m gonna pet him,” Wilbur says, a goofy grin enveloping his face.
“No, you are not.” Techno gets a firm hold on the hood of Wilbur’s jacket.
Wilbur easily slips out of his jacket and walks toward the cryptid.
“Hey, little guy,” Wilbur uses his best babysitting voice. As Wilbur gets closer, he notices this cryptid really was just a kid, sure he has some moth traits, but who doesn't have a few quirks. He was just a boy really, a moth boy.
The cryptid pays Wilbur no mind as he approaches. Even as branches snap under his feet, the creature's bug eyes remain firmly on Wilbur's phone.
“Wilbur, get away from him," Techno whispers, but makes no move to go after his twin. Instead keeping distance and a stick between him and the cryptid.
“You sure do seem to like that light, huh?”
"Wilbur." Techno warns.
“Back at my tent, I have way more lights for you.”
The moth boy doesn’t look up.
“Mind if I touch you?”
“Wilbur, do not touch it.”
Wilbur slowly moves his hand towards the moth's arm. As soon as his hand makes contact, the spell over the cryptid is broken. His eyes leave the light and he hisses. It’s strange clicking hiss. The moth boy backs away, trying to slip back into the shadows of the forest, Wilbur's phone still firmly in his grip.
“Hey. It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you.” Wilbur backs up to give the boy some space.
The boy looks conflicted, his head moves back and forth between Wilbur and the light. It reminds Wilbur of a shy cat given the choice between a treat and hiding in a box.
“You know he can’t understand you, right?” Techno says from the sidelines.
“Techno give me your phone.”
“What? No.” His response was immediate.
“I’ll do your chores for a week,” Wilbur offers.
“A month.”
“Two weeks.”
“A month.”
“Okay fine a month,” Wilbur relents.
Techno hands his phone over and Wilbur turns the phone’s flashlight on.
The moth boy’s bug eyes widen, and his hand reaches toward the new light.
“You like the light, little guy?” Wilbur waves Techno's phone around.
The cryptid slowly walks towards Wilbur’s light, making a similar clicking noise from early. It’s much more subdued this time, almost pleasant on the ears. It’s still clearly a noise no human should be able to make, but it's not ear-splitting anymore.
“Follow the light.” Wilbur starts walking away slowly. “C’mon, little guy.”
“We’re bringing him back to the tent?” Techno whisper-shouts.
“Duh.”
“But he's..." Techno gestures at the cryptid.
"Adorable, I know."
Techno sighs and follows his brother.
They head back to the tent, with Techno navigating and Wilbur leading the boy. With Techno's flashlight being used as a lure and Wilbur's in the moth boy's clutches, finding the way back wasn’t easy.
Wilbur coos at the moth boy while Techno brandishes his stick anytime he gets close.
Techno can’t help but glance back at the cryptid in disbelief. His supernatural-obsessed brother had been right and now they have this moth thing with them. Why couldn't his brother just be into video games like him.
He watched as his brother’s face would light up anytime the moth boy made a noise.
He can’t tell if this moth thing will be good or bad for Wilbur.
As soon as they reached the shabby tent, Techno climbed inside his sleeping bag and closed his eyes. He wanted no part in Wilbur's insanity.
Techno briefly considered trying to talk Wilbur out of keeping the cryptid, but he knows his brother well enough to see that wasn't going to happen. Instead, he decides to try and get some sleep with the faint hope this entire night might just be some weird dream.
He curls up in his sleeping bag, occasionally watching his twin's strange attempts to communicate with the creature.
“Look, here’s an even bigger light!” Wilbur pulls out a real flashlight, shining the even brighter light at the cryptid.
The moth boy grabs it out of Wilbur’s hands and stares deeply into it.
Techno rolls over in his sleeping bag, he’s seen enough for tonight. Just as he gets comfortable though, Wilbur shakes his sleep bag.
"Techno, aww Techno look!" Wilbur says excitedly.
Techno opens his eyes to the sight of a moth boy with half a flashlight in his mouth.
“He’s gonna swallow that," Techno says, completely unimpressed.
“No, he’s not.” As Wilbur speaks, the moth boy somehow manages to fit slightly more of the flashlight in his mouth.
“Okay, he might.” Wilbur pales.
Wilbur pulls the flashlight out, causing the moth boy to make a strange, almost sad noise. His forehead scrunches up and his bug eyes get shinier. His hands reach for the flashlight as his noises grow louder with each passing second.
"Great job." Techno covers his ears.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay." Wilbur quickly pulls out another flashlight and a few lanterns.
Wilbur flips them all on and the noise immediately stops.
The moth boy reaches out, pulling the lanterns and Wilbur into somewhat of a hug.
"Techno, look." Wilbur pats the boy's head gently.
"I'm looking.”
With the light from two flashlights, three lanterns, along with Techno’s and Wilbur's phones on the boy, he starts to make a new clicking noise. It's high-pitched and inhuman, but despite that, it's somehow comforting.
To Wilbur, the noise sounds happy.
“I’m gonna call you Tommy.” Wilbur smiles.
Tommy makes his weird happy noise again.
“Great it has a name, now we’re never getting rid of it.” Techno huffs.
"Techno! Why would you want to get rid of our new brother." Wilbur squeezes Tommy’s cheeks. The moth boy continues his happy noises.
"How am I related to you again?"
When Schlatt sent his nephews into the woods for a mandatory brotherly bonding camping trip, he was really looking for a good night's sleep and maybe to curve Wilbur's cryptid obsession. His nephew's numerous screams during the night made his first goal impossible. As for his second, he'll just have to wait and see.
He relaxes into his armchair as he hears his nephews return.
“Grunkle Schlatt, look at what we found!" Wilbur yells.
"What do you mean 'we'?" Techno grumbles under his breath.
"Oh yeah? What’d ya find?" Schlatt keeps his eyes on the tv, starting on his third cup of coffee, probably mixed with scotch.
"We found Tommy!" Wilbur pushes a boy with moth wings and antennas in front of the tv. He has a flashlight halfway in his mouth.
Schlatt spits out his coffee. Staring at the bug-eyed boy in front of him in shock.
"Tommy, stop putting that in your mouth." Wilbur pulls the flashlight out of the boy's mouth like it's the most normal thing in the world. "Now say what I taught you. Go on."
"Beech." Tommy says in a warbled, inhuman voice.
"What the fuck?" Schlatt says.
"See I told you he'd react like this." Techno crosses his arms.
"So? Can we keep him?" Wilbur says.
"Uh..." Schlatt looks between Wilbur's pleading eyes, Techno's bored eyes, and Tommy's blank bug eyes.
Schlatt wonders for the umpteenth time why he can't just have normal nephews.