Chapter Text

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A lone figure stood in an empty void, save for an endless sea of floating orbs above, each depicting fantastical scenes.

“Is it time?”

As the figure asked this question posed to no one else but themselves, three particular orbs floated down towards the figure and came to rest hovering just in front of them.

The figure glanced upwards to regard them.

One depicted two children, twins, having a tearful goodbye at a bus stop with friends and family at the end of their summer in a weird sleepy little town somewhere in the woods .

The second depicted a trio of girls, adorned in decorated armor near a cliff, surrounded by strange bipedal amphibious being sharing a similarly tragic farewell of their own with their respective found families. It was clear from the looks on each of their faces, the girls were going through the hardest thing .

The final orb depicted a once quaint house, though now vandalized with graffiti and shattered windows, and stripped of all furniture and amenities. Nonetheless, a crowd had gathered within. The focus of the scene though was on a lone girl standing in front of the house overlooking the boiling ocean on top of a cliff. She wore a white witch costume and held a purple staff with a peculiar serpentine figure atop it. She stood there looking determined to face the future, staring out at sea, watching and dreaming .

The lone figure smiled, sending the three orbs back up to rejoin the endless multitude that floated above.

“Yes. I believe it is finally time.”

———Somewhere Else———

In a dark room three bursts of light happen in quick succession, each bringing forth children, dropping them on the floor. The first flash deposited two children at once, while the next two dropped off one child each.

Groaning, the kids recovered from their falls and began to take notice of each other and the room they found themselves in.

“Oh no..” A boy in a brown winter hat groans. “Seems Gravity Falls still has one last surprise for us before we leave, Mabel.” He muttered as he stood protectively in front of his sister, just in case the other kids in the room were hostile. 

“Gravity Falls?” The brown haired girl that came in wearing an armored chest plate inquired. “I hope that’s on earth, because that’s where the portal was supposed to take me.” She paused, “Well, it was supposed to drop me off in Los Angeles, but as long as I’m somewhere on earth I should be able to get home.”

“Earth?!” The final girl, who came in by herself, shrieked. She pulled her white witch hat off her head and began to nervously pace as she ran her fingers through hair. “The portal shouldn’t even be operational right now, and even if it was, I wasn’t near either connection point! Where’s everyone else?! Mama! Eda! King!” She stopped as she realized her hand was empty, grasping empty air for a staff that was no longer there. “Stri-“ she tried to call out before a glowing purple null symbol appeared over her mouth and she was magically silenced. 

“Sorry about that.” A lone figure spoke. “That’s a precaution to prevent you all from spoiling each other.”

The armored girl quickly put herself between the other children and the lone figure that had suddenly appeared. Growling, she jutted a finger accusingly at them. “Sounds like you’re responsible for bringing all of us here. Well, let me just tell you that you’ve made a huge mistake kidnapping me! I will take you down!” She boldly declared.

“Everyone of you were brought here because each of you have had experiences with magic, non-human beings, and/or other weirdness.” The lone figure stated. 

Each of them started eyeing the other children in the room with them. 

The lone figure continued, ignoring that they were all still wary of the situation. “Furthermore, all of you have encountered inter-dimensional traversal of some form or another. Two of your groups have actually been to another universe, and two of your groups have been involved in fighting off an invasion from another universe.”

That got everyone’s attention.

Dipper and Mabel’s eyes widened as they took in the information. They fought against Weirdmaggedon, but neither of them had actually traveled to another universe. That could only mean the other two kids had been outside their dimension. Dipper unconsciously reached for a book that was no longer there, fighting the urge to burst out into questions for the other two groups. 

Anne looked down at the floor in thought. She knew where her own group stood, even though Sasha and Marcy weren’t currently here. They had both been to another world and helped fight off an invasion. Did that mean the twins and the lone girl wearing a Halloween costume had done one each?

Luz looked between the other two groups before turning once again to the lone figure. “Hey, uh, sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering why you’re referring to me as a ‘group’? It makes sense for those two,” she pointed at Dipper and Mabel. “…are clearly twins, but me and the other girl are clearly alone.

The lone figure turned to Luz. “Yes. Sorry about that. Let me address that now. I’ve bought you all here to witness each other’s struggles, experiences, and encounters with the abnormal. As we watch your experiences unfold, others you shared your journeys with will join you in this space. In fact, some will even join you now before we begin.”

There was a rumble behind each group. Turning to the noise, each found a doorway behind them, each one labeled with which group it belonged to.

From the door labeled “Gravity Falls” came three people familiar to the twins

“Grunkle Stan! Soos! Wendy!” Mabel cried out as she ran at them, Dipper close behind.

From the door labeled “Amphibia” came the three members of the Plantar family, Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly.

“Guys!” Anne ran over to them to hug them. She continued to look on hopefully before hanging her head in disappointment when no one else came out.

From the door labeled “The Owl House” came only two figures. The tall figure of Eda the Owl Lady and the small form of King. 

“Luz!” King called out as he tackled said girl to the ground.

The lone figure cleared their throat. “Now, just because certain friends have not come through the doorways yet, doesn’t mean they aren’t here. In fact, most of your missing friends are through your respective doorways, they simply can’t come through yet.”

Anne started moving towards her door, while Luz looked ready to do the same.

“But before you go and see them,” The lone figure interrupted. “Let me finish explaining things. I’ve already mentioned that you all will be watching each other’s respective journeys. While the focus is on your own journey, I ask that you try to avoid spoiling what will happen next for the others. While the focus is on another group’s experiences, I encourage you all to discuss what you are seeing with others and even theorize what you think will happen next.”

The lone figure waved a hand and chairs for everyone appeared in front of a screen.

“Next, I will tell you how we will all be watching your journeys. Out of the entire multiverse, there's a dimension that’s unknowingly peeking into others. To residents of this universe, their unintended viewing of other universes take the forms of tv shows, movies, books, even video games. The ‘creators’ of all this collective media unknowingly see the events of these other worlds in their dreams and transcribe it in different forms. All three of your adventures take the form of cartoons in this world. Cartoons that we will be watching.”

There were cheers from Mabel and Luz, absolutely thrilled to be watching cartoons starring themselves. 

“Also, regarding your respective friends who haven’t joined us in this main room yet. They will still be able to see what we are watching currently, so they won’t need to be brought up to speed on anything once they are able to come through the doorways to join the main group. There will be scheduled breaks every few episodes. During that time, you are free to go into your respective doorways to spend time with anyone who has yet to join the main group. I also understand if you wish to check on your absent friends before we begin, I will wait for everyone to return before we start. Be aware that while checking on them, you’ll be able to get a rough idea of when they’ll be able to pass through the doorway to join the main group. For most, this is when they first show up on screen, but for others, their entry will happen at a point much later than their first appearance.”

After a few seconds of silence the lone figure made sure everyone had taken in the plethora of information, before continuing.

“One last thing. We will be alternating focus every few episodes, aside from the first episode of each journey; those we will watch one after the other. Another thing to keep in mind is some of your journeys are shorter than others, so while I will do my best to cycle through your adventures equally, we may run into a situation where one journey has ended much earlier than the other two.”

The lone figure clapped their hands together. “That should be everything. You are free to check on your remaining friends. I will call you back when it’s time to begin. 

---Gravity Falls Room---

The Mystery Shack crew hurried into their room once they had been dismissed. As they approached the doorway, Dipper noted he couldn’t see anything past the darkness within it. Once the group crossed the threshold however, the darkness vanished allowing them to see within the room. Dipper glanced over his shoulder and noted that while they weren’t able to see within this room while in the main viewing area, the reverse was not true. He could clearly see into the room they had just come from, though he still couldn’t see within the other ‘waiting’ rooms.

Turning forward again, Dipper looked around to see who else had been brought here that was unable to join them in the main room. He quickly spotted Great Uncle Ford and McGucket, both of whom made sense to him. If that strange lone figure wanted everyone to avoid ‘spoilers’ those two by themselves were pretty big ones. To his mild surprise however, he also spotted Pacifica, Candy, Grenda, and Wendy’s friends. Lastly, before making his way to Ford to talk to him, Dipper spotted Mabel hugging her pig, Waddles, excitedly before she picked him up and ran over to Candy and Grenda

“Dipper!” Ford called out as he spotted the boy and waved him over. “Glad you and your sister are alright.”

“Same here.” Dipper agreed. “Where do you think we’ve been brought to?”

Ford looked around the room they were in. It was more a large open area that resembled the forest that surrounded Gravity Falls than an actual room, but it had its own viewing screen and seats for those here, as well as a copy of the Mystery Shack in the back of the room within which one could find bedrooms, bathrooms, and a kitchen.

“In my professional opinion, we all seem to be in some sort of pocket dimension. So far, I haven’t seen any evidence that the one who brought us here is lying to us or means us any harm, but we need to remain on guard. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that may suggest otherwise. I’ll see if I can’t figure out a way to escape just in case, in the meantime.”

Dipper nodded. “Speaking of that lone figure… do you also get a weird feeling when looking at them?”

Ford nodded. “I do, and I think I may know what is happening with that. Try to verbally describe our host.”

Dipper opened his mouth to comply with Ford’s request, but shut it again when he drew a blank on what their host looked like. “What the…”

“Like I thought, either the lone figure is literally visibly indistinct and we’re under a hypnotic suggestion to ignore that, or the lone figure themselves is under an effect that’s causing us to constantly forget what they look like. Personally, I’m leaning towards the first option since we seem to be compelled to refer to them as ‘the lone figure’ as often as possible.”

Dipper nodded. He hadn’t realized that last part himself yet until Ford pointed it out, but looking back, it checked out.

“Another thing about the lone figure, they seem to be able to be in multiple places at once. While you and Mabel were in the main room with those other kids getting the rundown on this place, another lone figure was in here doing the same thing. They also were passing out these name tags.”

Ford grabbed his coat and held it up to show Dipper. On it, in addition to Ford’s name were two phrases.

Stanford Pines

S2E11/Not What He Seems

S2E12/A Tale of Two Stans

Dipper hummed as he pondered what those words could mean. “The lone figure said we’d be watching our adventures in the form of cartoons. These look like episode titles. Maybe these are tied to when you’re able to join everyone else in the main room? Wonder why there’s two of them, though?”

Ford gave Dipper a proud grin. “Well done, Dipper! That’s what I also theorized. I’ve already compared with everyone else in the room, and it seems I’ll be the last one to be introduced to the main room, at least for our group.”

Standing back up, Ford patted Dipper on the back. “Now, enough talking to me, go check on the others that were brought with us. I’m going to go talk to Stan” the older man gestured to his own twin who was standing near the doorway looking into the main room and scratching his chin in thought. 

Dipper ran off while Ford made his way over to his brother. “What’s the matter, Stan? Trying to figure out how to make some money off this?” Ford joked.

Stan shook his head and turned toward Ford. “No no… not yet at least. It was that woman. The one who showed up for the kid in the Halloween costume. I swear I’ve seen her before. I just can’t figure out where.”

Ford jolted in surprise. “Really? Hm, the lone figure said all our groups had encounters with dimensional travel, maybe she’s been to our world before?”

Stan grunted noncommittally. “Maybe. I feel like there’s more to it than that, though.”

Ford patted his brother on the back. “I’m sure it’ll come to you. No use worrying over it for now.”

Stan nodded. “You’re right. Let’s go check on the kids.”

Elsewhere in the room, Dipper approached Mabel and her friends where they were playing with Waddles. He took note of their name tags as he approached. Even Waddles had a name tag.

Candy Chiu

S1E7/Double Dipper

Grenda Grendinator

S1E7/Double Dipper

Waddles

S1E9/The Time Traveler’s Pig

“Hey girls.” Dipper greeted. “How are you all holding up?”

“Heya Dipper!” Mabel exclaimed. “Saw you talking to Ford. What did you guys figure out? Do we need to break out of here? Punch that lone figure in the face? I still have my grappling hook if that helps!”

Dipper shook his head. “That shouldn’t be necessary. Ford doesn’t think the lone figure means us any harm currently, but he wants us to keep an eye out just in case.”

Mabel shot her brother a thumbs up and went back to talking with Candy and Grenda

As Dipper looked around the room, marveling how it somehow seemed to be a tiny part of the woods around the shack, he caught sight of Wendy hanging out with her friends and made note of their name tags. Most of them had the same episode listed for when they could join the main room.

S1E5/The Inconveniencing

One stood apart from the others however.

Robbie Valentino

S2E9/The Love God

Dipper briefly wondered why Robbie would be introduced to the main room so much later than the rest of his friends before he realized that the incident with The Love God was when Robbie rejoined the friend group and stopped being so antagonistic towards Dipper.

The lone figure mentioned most people would be brought in when they appeared on screen, but others would be brought in much later. Robbie started as a minor enemy before later becoming a friend. Was that the trigger for someone to join the group? If they started as a friend, they’d be brought in immediately. But if they started as an enemy, they wouldn’t join the main group until those watching saw the people in question had changed. 

Dipper supposed it made sense. A lot easier to smooth over any potential bad blood if those watching got to see first hand that someone had gotten better before they were brought in.

Though that did make him wonder about the last two members of the Gravity Falls group. Looking around, Dipper quickly spotted McGucket talking to Ford and Stan as he fiddled with some machinery he’d pulled out from somewhere. The boy took note of Fiddleford’s name tag.

Fiddleford McGucket

S2E7/Society of the Blind Eye

Dipper nodded to himself. It made sense. McGucket may not have really started as an enemy, unless you count the gobblewonker which Dipper didn’t, it wasn’t until the incident with Blind Eye Society that the old man could truly be considered an ally. 

It could also be the fact that McGucket showing up early could easily spoil for those not in the know that the kooky old man is more important to the events of their summer than he seems. Either way, McGucket coming in during that event makes sense. 

Dipper looked around one last time, trying to find Pacifica. It took him a minute but he finally spotted her sitting on the steps of the duplicate Mystery Shack huddled in on herself. Given how she was sitting, Dipper wasn’t able to see her name tag and it looked like she was upset about something. Dipper felt like he should go check on her, so he made his way over to her.

She looked up at his approach, but otherwise didn’t move from her hunched-in position.

“Uh, hey Pacifica.” Dipper greeted. 

“Hey Dipper.” She greeted back quietly. 

“Is… everything okay?” He cautiously asked.

Pacifica stared ahead blankly for a bit instead of answering right away. Finally she spoke again, just barely above a whisper. “I’m not close to anyone here.”

Dipper looked over his shoulder at the rest of the group. He couldn’t help but agree, no one here was part of the usual kind of people Pacifica would hang out with.

“Well… what about Mabel, Candy, and Grenda? I’m sure you’d find you have some stuff in common with them?” Dipper offered. 

Pacifica quirked an eyebrow at him. “I spent a long time bullying Candy and Grenda before you and your sister came to town, and that’s not even getting into the things I said to Mabel after you two showed up. Do you really think they’d want to hang out with me?”

Dipper shrugged. “Won’t know until you try. I can’t speak for them, but Mabel at least didn’t seem to mind you being present at our birthday party.”

Pacifica shrugged but remained quiet.

“Can I sit with you?” Dipper asked.

Pacifica scooted over, and Dipper sat next to her.

“I still think you should try reaching out to them, but if you want I can keep you company during the breaks the lone figure mentioned.”

The blonde girl finally smiled at that. “I’d like that. Thanks Dipper.” She said as she finally sat up straight, allowing Dipper to catch her name tag at last.

Pacifica Northwest

S2E10/Northwest Mansion Mystery

Dipper sighed. There was only one event that could refer to. He wasn’t surprised, though. He was kinda expecting that event to be Pacifica’s trigger to be able to enter the main room. 

The two sat in companionable silence keeping each other company until the lone figure called the main groups to return to the main room.

—-Meanwhile in the Amphibia Room—-

Anne and the Plantars walked into a room that resembled the Wartwood town square. It was obviously not the actual town square given that the Plantar Family House took the place of the town hall. Across from it, the Amphibia viewing area was set up to resemble the town’s outdoor theater, stump seats and everything. She was immediately tackled by her extremely relieved friends, Sasha and Marcy. 

“Anne! We’re so glad you’re okay!” Sasha declared. “We were in Los Angeles waiting for you by the portal when we were suddenly in this place.”

Marcy nodded. “That creepy lone figure showed up and started explaining things to everyone that had been brought here. They also handed out these name tags that also have episode titles on them. I’m guessing these have to do when we can enter the main room, although some of these names don’t make it clear what events they’re referring to.” She said as she began examining her own. “Mine’s especially confusing. Almost everyone else has one episode title, while I have four listed.”

She turned her tag around to show Anne

Marcy Wu

S2E6/Marcy at the Gates

S2E20/True Colors

S3E7b/Olivia and Yunan

S3E17/All In

“Huh, weird.” Anne commented. She thought carefully trying to figure what events those titles could possibly be referring to, but aside from the first title which clearly referred to when she had reunited with Marcy at the gates of Newtopia, she couldn’t think of what the others were referring to yet, let alone why Marcy would be introduced three separate times. She turned to Sasha. “What about you, Sash? What’s your tag say?”

“I just have one title, but it’s shared with one of Marcy’s” Sasha replied, tapping the name tag attached to her armor. 

Sasha Waybright

S2E20/True Colors

Anne studied it some more, comparing it to Marcy’s tag. “S2… Season 2? The lone figure did say we’d be watching cartoons based on all our adventures. You both have that title, which implies you’re both present during whatever event that title refers to. That means, whatever it is, is way after the incident at Toad Tower. That’s crazy late to be bringing you in, Sasha.”

Sasha shrugged. “I was also a real jerk to you and the Plantars at first. I’m fine with waiting until later before coming in. Might avoid getting some stink-eyes from those in the audience who are not in the know.”

Anne nodded. “True. So who else is here?” She asked, glancing around. 

All around the duplicate Wartwood town square, Anne spotted familiar faces. Some she expected to see, others surprised her with their inclusion. Grime, Olivia, and Yunan were having a hushed conversation near the duplicate Plantar family home. Bessie was sat near the town fountain looking around excitedly at all the new people she hadn’t seen before. Dr. Jan and Terri were running around taking notes and sketches of everything and anyone amphibious, a few times even trying to directly interview the Amphibian natives. Wally was enthusiastically answering questions from them and was clearly giving incorrect answers, with Ivy and Maddie laughing hysterically nearby. She even saw the IT gals near the waiting room's screen, apparently trying to improve the sound system.

While she was looking around, she saw her parents and Mr. X walking over to the trio of girls. Anne waved at them.

“Mom! Dad! And… uh, Mr. X!” Anne greeted. “Did you guys need something?” She asked the trio of adults as they reached the girls.

Bee and Oum hugged their daughter and Mrs. Boonchuy spoke up. “Your father and I just wanted to check in with you. From what we’ve been able to piece together from the others, something big happened after you three left for Amphibia. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

Anne would swear she felt an ice-cold stone drop into her stomach as she realized that eventually her parents were going to witness her temporary death. It ended up okay in the end, but she knows it’s going to hurt them. She did her best to push the feeling down, so as not to tip them off that something was wrong. She'd tell them later...

“Yeah mom! There was a last minute surprise, but everything ended up okay. We were actually about to head back to earth when we got pulled into here.” Anne cheerfully reassured her mom.

Mrs. Boonchuy looked a little unsure, but after a moment smiled and hugged her daughter one more time before she and her husband broke off to go look around duplicate Wartwood. 

With the departure of Anne’s parents, that left only Mr. X standing with the trio of girls. 

“Soooo…” Anne started, but was interrupted by the bald FBI agent.

“Two things.” The FBI agent stated. “First, Grime lost his arm in the final battle, yes?” They asked. When the girls nodded, they continued. “It would seem it’s back. At least visually. The lone figure has put an illusion of an arm over where Grime’s original arm used to be. He isn’t the only one. Your friend, Polly has the reverse effect on her. Her legs have been rendered invisible. I assume the lone figure did this so as to avoid clueing the other groups in on something that happened before they’ve seen it for themselves. Finally, my second reason for stopping by, I overheard that our name tags are supposed to reveal when those of us in these sectioned-off rooms can join you and the others in the main room. Since we are waiting for this whole thing to begin, I decided to take it upon myself to compile a list of everyone here and when you can expect them in the main room.” The FBI agent announced, handing over a sheet of paper. “I hope you find this helpful, Anne.”

Anne glanced down at the sheet of information, then back up at Mr. X. 

“Uh… Thank you?” Anne responded, a bit confused. 

X nodded. “You’re welcome. Now, where can I find someplace clean and dry to stand around here? I’ve nearly ruined my shoes.”

“The town hall was usually pretty clean.” The Thai girl offered. 

“Great! Where is it?” He eagerly asked

“Looks like it’s been replaced by the Plantar home.”

Groaning, Mr. X walked away, leaving the Calamity Trio to look over the list Mr. X had compiled.

Bessie

S1E5a/Anne Theft Auto

“Aw dang it!” Anne groaned. “If that’s what I think it is, then Hop Pop’s going to learn that I took Bessie for a joyride. That’s one of the few things I actually managed to get away with.”

Sasha laughed. “You pretty much stole the family car? Hardcore, Boonchuy.”

Marcy looked around the room again and hung her head in disappointment. “I wish Joe Sparrow was here.”

Anne patted her back. “Sorry, Marbles. The lone figure probably just didn’t want to bring in too many animals.”

Ivy Sundew

S1E7a/Dating Season

S1E19b/Anne of the Year

“Dating Season?” Sasha questioned. “Is this when Sprig and Ivy got together?”

Anne shook her head. “No, if this is Ivy’s introduction, then that isn’t when they first got together. They actually weren’t interested in a relationship with each other at first. It wasn’t until right before Toad Tower that they…” Anne trailed off as her eyes widened in realization. “Wait! The second title listed for her. ‘Anne of the Year’! That sounds like when I was nominated for Frog of the Year! It must be listed since that’s when they got together, but that was immediately before Toad Tower which means… 

“The very next episode is about us finding each other again… and what a massive jerk and bully I was.” Sasha finished quietly for Anne, her tone becoming subdued.

Marcy hugged Sasha. “None of that. You improved yourself. You’re a better person now.”

“One-eyed” Wally Ribbiton

S1E15b/Wally and Anne

“Wally?” Sasha questioned. “Surely he made an appearance sooner than fifteen episodes in?”

“Ooh!” Marcy interjected. “Given the title, it must be some important adventure you and Wally went on together, Anne. Anything coming to mind?”

“Oh yeah.” Anne responded. “It was when we were hunting for the Mos…” Anne’s eyes widened. “Oh heck yes! I can’t wait for this episode. The Plantars are gonna eat their words!”

Sasha and Marcy shared a look before shrugging.

Maddie Flour

S1E17a/Cursed!

“Ugh… This better not be our encounter with Barry.” Anne groaned. “I don’t want to have to relive that.”

“Who?” Marcy asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” Sasha cut in. “Let’s move on.”

Lady Olivia

S2E6/Marcy at the Gates

“Title buddies!” Marcy cheered. “Lady Olivia and I are going in together!”

“Hmm..” Anne tapped her chin. “Have you girls noticed that some of these episodes are listed with an A or B, while others are just the number? What’s up with that?”

Marcy perked up. “Oh! Our show must be the kind that does multiple ‘mini-sodes’ per episode, so we get twice the adventure for the price of one!”

“And the episodes that don’t have an A or B?” Sasha asked.

“Major episode that are super important to the main plot! So they’re longer than normal and take up the whole runtime!” The Taiwanese girl exclaimed.

As Anne and Sasha smiled at Marcy’s enthusiasm and looked back down at the list, Marcy frowned as she started to process everything she just said, comparing it to what they had already theorized. Three of the four episodes listed on her tag were theoretically big important plot ones. Furthermore, Sasha would be introduced during her second listed episode. There was something significant about that. She just wasn’t sure what yet.

General Yunan Longclaw

S2E20/True Colors

Captain Grimothy “Grime”

S2E20/True Colors

“Hey, these two are coming out into the main group together.” Anne pointed out. “Crazy to think they started as enemies, given how well they get along now, organizing the new government.”

“Not just them.” Sasha pointed out, holding up her own name tag. “That’s my trigger episode too. Not to mention, it’s Marcy’s second trigger. Whatever having more than one trigger is supposed to mean, anyways.”

Marcy’s breathing quickened, her eyes darting around the list, reading ahead while the other two were still discussing the current two entries. Former enemies coming out together… or was it former enemies coming together? All the Amphibia natives in their group would be introduced at this point. The only ones that would be left were those from Earth. Starting with Anne’s parents in the very first episode for Season 3, which meant Season 3 started with Anne returning to Earth. ‘True Colors’ was 20 episodes into Season 2. Was that far enough for a season finale? A potential season finale, important enough to her own story to be listed on her name tag despite the fact she should already be introduced. Anne going to earth in what might possibly be very next episode…

A familiar dull ache settled into her back and middle of her chest.

“Oh frog…”

The Boonchuys (Bee and Oum)

S3E1/The New Normal

“Marcy? Is…everything okay?” Anne asked, having noticed that her friend wasn’t paying attention to the list and clutching her chest.

Dr. Jan

S3E4a/Fight at the Museum

“Hey, Marcy!” Sasha said louder when their friend still didn’t respond.

The IT Gals

S3E5a/Fixing Frobo

"Marcy?" The blonde repeated in concern now.

Terri

S3E8b/If You Give a Frog a Cookie

“Oh frog! She’s having a panic attack!” Anne realized.

“What?!” Sasha stood up, dropping the list to the ground. She turned and waved to the others. “Hey! We need some help over here! Who knows how to stop a panic attack?!”

Several of the adults immediately began rushing over to help.

Mr. X

S3E17/All In

The list laid on the ground, trampled and forgotten in all the excitement.

—-Meanwhile in The Owl House room—-

Eda and King dragged Luz through the Owl House doorway, where she was bombarded with hugs from her friends, mother, and her girlfriend, Amity. Finally, after several minutes of concerned hugs, Luz was freed. Shaking feeling back into her limbs, she looked around the room. 

For a second, she thought she was back in the Boiling Isles. She could make out the details of the Titan’s head in the distance, she could see Bonesborough nearby, the Boiling Sea simmering all the way to the horizon, all from the front yard of the Owl House. However, she quickly realized the scale of things were all wrong, the air lacked its typical humidity, and the Owl house itself looked the way it did before the Emperor’s Coven ransacked it and confiscated literally everything inside. There was also various chairs of both Human Realm and Boiling Isles design set up in front of a massive crystal ball. 

“Woah…” Luz muttered as she took it all in. “This looks crazy.”

Amity nodded in agreement. “While the lone figure was explaining everything, they were also using their powers to create this space.” She took Luz’s hands and pushed something into them. “Also, someone missed you” the witch teased.

Luz opened her hands to see what her girlfriend had given her and gasped happily when she saw who she was holding. 

“Stringbean!” She exclaimed. 

She nuzzled the snake-shifter against her cheek, but pulled away when she felt something poke her cheek.

“What was that?” She looked her palisman over and noticed they were wearing some sort of tag.

Stringbean

S3E2/For the Future

“What’s this?” Luz asked as she turned Stringbean towards Amity to show her. 

“Oh! We’ve all got one! Though mine seems slightly different from everyone else’s.” Amity replied as she pointed to her own name tag.

Amity Blight

S1E15/Understanding Willow

S2E8/Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door

“Ooh. You got two. How mysterious, sweet potato.” Luz teased her girlfriend. 

Amity blushed lightly and smiled. “Maybe a little. I’m curious what it means to have multiples.”

Luz hummed her agreement and began looking around again to see who else had been brought to this place when something astonishing caught her eye. 

“Woah! How did-?” Luz kissed Amity on the cheek. “Hold on, sweet potato. I gotta check on something, I’ll be right back” the human girl said, before running off and leaving a flustered Amity in her wake. 

Luz ran towards Eda, who was standing near the doorway staring back into the main room looking lost in thought. “Eda!” She called out, getting the Owl Lady’s attention. “When did you get your arm back?” Luz asked after coming to a stop. 

Eda laughed. “Oh that. I didn’t. Here, give it a squeeze.” The older woman offered her supposedly restored hand to her apprentice. Luz took it in her own and squeezed as told. There was some resistance, but Eda’s arm quickly poofed into smoky wisps before reforming back into shape. 

“That’s weird. How’d that happen?” Luz asked. 

Eda shrugged. “That lone figure fella. They muttered something about spoilers and next thing I knew, I had this fake arm.”

“The lone figure seems weirdly obsessed with making sure we don’t give anything away to the other groups. They remind me of myself trying to avoid spoilers for the Good Witch Azura books.” The human girl observed. She looked back up to her mentor. “So who else is here?”

“Oh right” Eda muttered as she turned away from the doorway. “You started in the main room, so you haven’t seen everyone in the group. You saw your mom and friends, right?”

“Yeah. Mom, Willow, Gus, Amity, Hunter, and Vee all greeted me after you and King dragged me in.”

Eda nodded. “Right. So, Lilith is also here. Once we realized this was a copy of the Owl House we’re used to, Lily insisted we make sure it’s safe before using anything inside. So she marched inside dragging Darius and Eberwolf with her. Raine followed after them and has been periodically poking their head out to update the rest of us on what they’ve all found inside. So far we got beds, bathrooms, and the kitchen apparently has everything you need for both Human realm and Demon Realm cuisines. Your mom seemed real happy about that, kiddo.”

The Owl lady pointed at the door. “Also, Hooty has been affixed to the front door once again.”

Luz turned to look at the door once again and saw the familiar tubular body of Hooty extending from the front door and going into the house through a window, presumably following Lilith around inside. 

“And most everyone’s palismen are hanging around somewhere.”

Luz nodded, then held up Stringbean towards Eda, showing her the name tag attached to him. “By the way, Amity told me almost everyone has one of these. I think they’re supposed to indicate when everyone else can join the main group, did you happen to get anyone else’s information?”

Eda chuckled. “Yeah, your friend, Goops, was convinced it was some puzzle and went around taking note of everyone’s name tags. Hang on. I got a copy of it here” Eda said as she fished through her hair for the list. Pulling it out, she handed it to Luz, who looked it over for the entries she hadn’t seen yet.

Hooty

S1E1/A Lying Witch and a Warden

Luz giggled at the title. If these were cartoon titles like she thought they were, this was her very first day in the Boiling Isles. She couldn’t help but think at how accurate the title was for what happened on her first day. 

Willow Park

S1E3/I was a Teenage Abomination

Gus Porter

S1E3/I was a Teenage Abomination

She smiled, seeing that her two first friends would be coming into the main room together and if she was reading these titles right, it was the 3rd episode of her adventures. She couldn’t wait to introduce her friends to those other kids.

Lilith Clawthorne

S1E19/Young Blood, Old Souls

She thought the title sounded a little ominous. Not to mention how late in the first season it was. Luz guessed that meant Cool Aunt Lilith was going to be brought in well after her first appearance.

Vee Noceda

S2E10/Yesterday’s Lie

Well… that’s not good. Luz knows very well when she first met Vee and having everything that happened that day being referred to under the title, ‘Yesterday’s Lie’ kinda rubbed her the wrong way. 

Alador Blight

S2E14/Reaching Out

"Amity's dad is here?" Luz commented in surprise. "You didn't mention him a second ago."

"Oh right." Eda replied, shaking her head. "Sorry, I forgot to point him out since he tends to be quiet. He's over by the Crystal Ball, examining if there's anything special about how it's built."

Luz glanced over and sure enough, there was an open hatch at the base of giant crystal ball, with a pair of abomination goo covered boots jutting out from it, that missed before.

Raine Whispers

S2E15/Them’s the Breaks, Kid

Luz tried to think about when she first met Raine. It was right after the rebellion saved her and Eda, right? That must be what event is covered by this episode. 

Hunter

S2E16/Hollow Mind

Luz stared down at the title, getting the uncomfortable feeling it was staring back up at her. There was a cold feeling in her chest as she read the title one more time. Shuddering, she moved on down the list. 

Darius Deamonne

S2E19/O Titan, Where art thou?

Eberwolf

S2E19/O Titan, Where art thou?

She blinked as she read the two matching entries again, then back up at Raine’s entry. She met all three of them at the same time. So it made sense to introduce them together, right?. So why was Raine being brought in separately from the other two? Also, Luz realized that she was probably mistaken about which event Raine’s entry referred to. Maybe it was when Eda was first helping them with the BATTS?

Camilla Noceda

S2E21/King’s Tide

She stared at her mother’s name, confused. Why was her Mamá coming in so late? Surely she would make an appearance in the first episode, right? Unless she was one of the ones being brought in far past her first appearance, but then, wouldn’t sharing Vee’s entry make more sense? This episode looked like it was named after King, but her Mama didn't meet King until after their adventure was said and done. Titan, she didn't meet him until just before they were all pulled into this bizarre theater! When would her mother be onscreen the same time as Kin-

Her thoughts screeched to a halt as realization hit her. The two didn't have to be onscreen at the same time. They just had to be in the same episode. Luz looked down at the entry again. An episode with something important happening to or with King, with her mama making a significant enough appearance that it triggered her entry into the main room. Luz could only think of two moments she knew for sure could be important enough for that. The first was ruled out, otherwise her Mama would be entering with Vee. That left only the second option. This episode was... when...

"No. I'm not gonna think about that. We got back. That's all that matters." She told herself as she wiped away the tears that had just started to form, and turned her attention to the last entry.

Palismen: Ghost, Clover, Emmiline

S2E6/Hunting Palismen

Luz grinned when she reached the end of the list and saw the Palismen were included. She noted not every Palismen was included in this list though, like Owlbert. She guessed that meant they shared their entrances with the witches they were bonded to. 

Her smile fell a little when she realized that there was one Palismen that wasn’t listed with the others. She glanced up at her friends, and winced when she saw Hunter standing by himself, leaned against a wall and staring out at the Boiling Sea. Setting down the list, she went back to where Amity was, now talking to Willow and Gus, and pointed out Hunter. Together, the 4 of them went over to Hunter and made sure he knew he wasn’t alone. 

—-Main Room—-

The lone figure stared vacantly at the empty screen. Suddenly, their eyes refocused as they blinked a few times.

“That should be plenty of time. Let’s get started.”

With a clap, it began.

Chapter Text

—-Main Room—-

With a clap, it began.

“If everyone could please rejoin me in the main theater.” The lone figure announced, clapping to draw the attention of those still in the waiting rooms. After a minute, people began to exit their respective waiting rooms and head towards the seats.

From the Gravity Falls room, Dipper and Mabel led their group towards the nearest seats talking amongst themselves. 

“What were you two up to?” Mabel asked her brother in a teasing tone. “I saw you two, sitting together by yourselves. Is it love?!”

Dipper rolled his eyes. “You’re imagining things, Mabel. She just felt lonely and needed someone to talk to.”

Mabel waggled her eyebrows in response. “Lonely, huh?”

“Alright, kids. Knock it off.” Stan interrupted them. “I want to get this over with sooner rather than later.”

As the Mystery Shack crew took their seats, The Plantar family exited the Amphibia room, trying to reassure a worried Anne. 

“Calm down, Anne.” Hop Pop told her, patting her hand. “She’s in good hands. Her panic attack is already over and she’s got everyone else in there with her.”

“But I…” Anne tried to interject, shooting glances over her shoulder back to the Amphibia doorway.

“Let’s just get through this, and then we can all go check on her together during the first break.” Hop Pop reasoned with her. “Remember? That lone figure fella said we’d take breaks every now and then. I’m sure it won’t be long until the first one.”

Anne sighed and nodded, accepting the elder frog’s words.

While the Plantar family were taking their seats, Dipper stared in shock at the sentient frog creatures. He had been so distracted when he and Mabel had been first brought here, that he hadn’t paid that much attention to the other groups. As he recalled the lone figure’s words about how two groups had actually been to other dimensions, he realized he was seeing truly interdimensional beings that for once weren’t demons. His hand unconsciously reached once again for the journal that was no longer there.

“Here.”

Dipper startled and looked up. The lone figure was standing there, holding what looked like Journal 3 out to him. 

“What in the- How?” Dipper sputtered out as he took the journal in his hands and looked it over. 

“It’s not the real one. The pages are blank.” The lone figure explained.  “But you’ll be able to record your thoughts now and the other groups will remain unaware that you were ever separated from it.”

Dipper ran a hand over the book and looked back up at the lone figure. “Thank you.” He said, clearly touched. 

“I also took the liberty to switch your and Wendy’s hats back.” The lone figure stated. 

Dipper’s hands shot to his head and felt his familiar white and blue pine tree hat. A quick glance towards Wendy, who was shooting an offended glare towards the lone figure, confirmed her own hat was back on her head, apparently returned without her permission.

“Uh… Thanks?” Dipper said, turning back only to find the lone figure had returned to their original position in front of the screen. No indication they had ever moved from that spot to begin with. Unsure if he should say anything else, Dipper cracked open the new journal and started writing down observations about the frog people sitting next to the Mystery Shack crew.

While Dipper had been talking with the lone figure, the Owl house crew had walked in as well. King rode in on Luz’s shoulder while Eda walked in beside them.

“This is so exciting, Eda! To think other human kids have also gone on magical adventures! I can’t wait to get to know them!” The young Afro-Latina girl chattered excitedly. She gasped dramatically. “What if they’re from the same earth?! We could keep in touch after this!”

The lone figure’s head turned to look in Luz’s direction.

“Easy, Luz.” The Owl Lady cautioned. “We don’t know anything about these other guys yet. Let’s get a feel for them first and make sure they’re on the up and up.” Eda affectionately rubbed her apprentice’s head. “But I hope it works out for ya.”

King jumped off Luz and into a chair in front of the screen. “You two hurry up and sit down!” The young titan commanded. “I want to see my debut on the big screen!” Eda and Luz laughed, the Owl Lady affectionately rubbing King’s head, and the two joined sat down next to him on either side.

Once everyone was settled, the lone figure stepped forward. “Before we start. I would like everyone to introduce themselves.”

There was a quick round of introductions, Dipper making a note in his journal of everyone’s names. 

I want to address something I apparently forgot to make clear earlier as well as add something about all the shows we will be watching. First, I want to confirm that while there are multiple earths out there in the multiverse, all of the humans between all three groups come from the same earth.”

There were mutterings of surprise and glances cast between groups reevaluating each other. Luz fist pumped to celebrate her theory being correct. 

—-Gravity Falls Room—-

As the room filled sounds of discussion at this revelation, given that everyone minus the pig in the room was human, Stanford quickly pulled out a new journal he had started keeping after the events of Weirdmageddon and began preparing new entries to catalog whatever he was about to learn about two more interdimensional incidents, as well as for the non-human entities he could see sitting in the main room with his family. How he longed to be in there with them so he could interview them directly.

—-Amphibia Room—-

As the room’s own human occupants began discussing this new information, Mr. X groaned tiredly. He already had his hands full back home with figuring out how to cover up Frogvasion and now he learns that their world apparently underwent two more interdimensional incidents they didn’t know about? He was probably going to have to track down the other groups once they all went home, he thought, as he pinched the bridge of his nose. 

—-The Owl House—-

“Oh!” Camilla exclaimed. “I thought the bushy haired girl looked familiar!”

“You’ve seen her before?” Lilith asked.

“Si! When I learned what happened to Luz, I started doing research to see if something similar happened to anyone else! I had just come across a story about a girl who had apparently come back from a dimension of talking frogs the same day Luz came home! At the time, I didn’t pay it much mind, since the article I found said it was a hoax.”

“Huh…” Lilith responded. “It really is the same Earth.”

—-Main Room—-

“However, keeping in touch with each other might still be somewhat tricky, since you are all pulled from different points in time.” The lone figure added. 

After the round of gasps heard collectively throughout the main room and three waiting rooms, they continued.

“Dipper and Mabel Pines. The events that took place in Gravity Falls, Oregon occurred over the course of the summer of 2012.” The lone figure stated, pointing dramatically at the twins.

“The events of your adventure, Anne Boonchuy,” the lone figure said as they turned to face the girl. “Started in the year 2019 and ended shortly after the start of 2020.”

“Luz Noceda.” The lone figure turned at last to the Owl house residents, focusing on the girl in question. “Your own journey began at the start of the summer of 2020, and came to an end later that same year in November.”

The lone figure returned to the front of the screen. “I’m sharing this all with you so that you understand something critical about what will happen after you are returned to your respective places once you leave here. In order to prevent time paradoxes, your memories of your time here will be temporarily lost until November 2020. Once you are all caught up to that point in time, you will remember everything that took place here and be free to reach out to each other.”

Stepping to the side, the lone figure gestured to the screen. “Now, I believe I’ve talked for long enough. We will soon begin viewing the first episodes of your adventures. Starting with Gravity Falls since it is the earliest series of events for all three groups, then Amphibia, and lastly, The Owl House.” The lone figure reminded them. “Furthermore, since we have three cartoon’s worth of episodes to get through, I’m going to ask that you all not talk while an episode is playing, except during intros and theme songs.”

“We all have theme songs?!” Mabel shrieked excitedly.

The lone figure paused, a bit taken off guard. “….Yes.” They cleared their throat before continuing. “Instead, I will pause the episodes partway through each one at certain points so you all will be free to talk about what you have seen both during and after each episode. Once we are done with these first episodes, we will be taking a short break to stretch your legs, eat, and discuss with those in your respective waiting rooms.”

The lone figure then activated the screens in both the main room and the waiting room with a clap of their hands and moved toward the back of the room. 

“Ugh. Finally” came the rough voice of Stan. “I didn’t think they’d ever shut up.”

Eda snorted. “I know, right?”

****

Gravity Falls

Season 1

Episode 1

“Tourist Trapped”

****

(A family is shown enjoying a stereotypical American summer, as Dipper narrates.)

(“…unless you’re me.”)

(Dipper and Mabel smash through the billboard driving a golf cart and screaming their heads off.”)

“What the heck?!” Anne yelled. “We’re starting already in the thick of it? How do we know what’s going on? Where’s the build-up? How did we get to this point?”

Dipper scratched his head. “Yeah? This is a really weird place to start. So much happened before this point.”

(“It’s getting closer!”)

“What? What’s getting closer?!” Luz asked, concerned. “It’s not showing us what the creature is!”

(“…You might be wondering what we’re doing in a golf cart, fleeing from a creature of unimaginable horror?”)

“I thought Earth was supposed to be safer than Amphibia? But you also have giant ferocious beasts?” Sprig questioned. 

“Gravity Falls is… special, in that regard, shall we say.” Dipper answered, before pausing as he fully processed the question. “Wait, did you say you have giant, feroc—“

“Shhh!” Mabel shushed her brother. “I’m trying to listen!”

(“Rest assured. There’s a perfectly logical explanation.”)

“Oh wait! I get it now!” Anne nodded. “We’re gonna get a flashback leading up to this point. This chase probably happened towards the end of whatever encounter this was, amirite?” She asked. 

“Woah!” Mabel gasped, sounding impressed. “How’d you know?”

Anne chuckled and leaned back in her chair, trying to look cool. “I watch a lot of tv. I know all about tropes, plot devices, and storytelling techniques.”

(The theme song begins.)

“Ooh! What a catchy tune!” Mabel commented. “I love it! It’s so upbeat and exciting, but also mysterious sounding” she whispered, wiggling her fingers dramatically. “It fits the both of us so well, Dipper!”

Dipper nodded, tapping his foot to the beat. “It really does!” He watched for a bit before stopping. “What are these scenes?” He asked. “Aside from the part where we got off the bus, none of this stuff actually happened.”

Anne nodded. “That’s theme songs for you. They throw in a bunch of stuff that doesn’t actually happen in the show itself.”

Luz sighed dramatically. “It’s such a shame when that happens… some of the coolest looking shots never become actual canon.”

“What is that creature!?” Sprig screamed, pointing at the screen showing Mabel nuzzling a pig.

“That’s-“ Mabel began before a glowing purple null symbol appeared over her mouth and magically silenced her.

“No spoilers.” The lone figure gently reminded. 

Mabel huffed and crossed her arms, frowning. “Aw, nuts.”

“Hey. Is there someone whispering at the title screen? Dipper asked, craning forward to try and listen better, only to catch sight of an image that flashed by for just a frame. Falling back into his chair and turning fearfully to the rest of the Mystery Shack crew. “Guys! Did you see-?”

“We saw, dude.” Wendy confirmed, looking freaked out. In fact, every member of the Mystery Shack looked tense. Stan was ready to punch something, Soos was glancing around nervously, and Mabel had partially retreated into her sweater. 

The other two groups were glancing between the screen and the Gravity Falls group. “Uh… did anyone catch what set them off?” Hop Pop whispered to his family and the other group. 

“Only that it was something towards the end of the song. Otherwise no, I don’t think anyone else saw whatever it was.” King responded, sounding confused and concerned. 

“It’s like I can still hear his voice.” Mabel whispered worriedly to herself. 

The lone figure paused the video. “Now that the intro is over. Please keep all comments to yourselves until I pause the video again.” They announced, before continuing the video. 

****

“Let’s rewind. It all began when our parents decided we could use some fresh air…”

“It looked like it was gonna be the same boring routine all summer, until one fateful day…”

“Come on, Dipper! It’s our first summer away from home! It’s my big chance for an epic summer romance.”

“I need someone to go hammer up these signs in the spooky part of the forest.”

Screen-Dipper tries to hammer a nail into a tree only to reveal the tree was apparently made of metal. 

Screen-Dipper discovers Journal 3.

“Remember: In Gravity Falls, there is no one you can trust.”

“After a certain point, the pages just stop, like the guy who was writing it mysteriously disappeared.”

“This girl’s got a date. Whoo Whoo!”

“Are you bleeding, Norman?”

“Beware Gravity Falls’ nefarious… gasp! ZOMBIE!”

“…I’m always noticing weird stuff in this town[…] But you gotta have evidence…”

A montage of Dipper spying on Mabel and ‘Norman’ spending time together and ‘Norman’ acting suspiciously like a zombie

Dipper confronts Mabel about ‘Norman’

Cutaway gag of ‘kissing practice’

Mabel yells at Dipper, slamming the door in his face. 

Mabel leaves on her date with ‘Norman’

Dipper sees the footage of ‘Norman’s’ hand falling off and being reattached.

Dipper runs off to rescue his sister. 

****

The video suddenly paused. ”This is the mid-episode break to discuss what we have seen so far. I will inform you when the episode will continue. Gravity Falls residents, please remember to avoid spoilers as much as you can.” The lone figure announced.

“Oh my frog! I can’t believe zombies are real!” Anne quickly stated, paling a bit. “And that they’re apparently interested in dating?” She added as an afterthought, mildly confused. 

“Forget the zombie!” Luz called out. “We know Mabel gets out of this okay. She’s right here with us! I want to know more about that journal!” She pointed at Dipper. “Oh my gosh! Is that the journal right there behind you? Can I see it?” She asked excitedly.

Dipper pulled the replica journal out and held it protectively against his chest. “Uh… I don’t kn—“

“In order to avoid spoilers, Dipper is not allowed to show anyone the contents of the journal. You are, however, allowed to examine the outside of the journal. Magic is in place to prevent anyone but those from Gravity Falls from opening it.” The lone figure stated, from the back of the back of the room.

Dipper breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at Luz “Sorry about that, but you heard them. Would you settle for just being able to see it?” He asked, as he held up the journal to show her

Luz, disappointed, but still excited, happily accepted the journal and began flipping it over and examining it at different angles and running her hands over it, as if she could discern its secrets just from touching it.

Anne cleared her throat, bringing attention back to herself. “Alright, Luz was right, in that it’s obvious that Mabel gets away safely, since she’s right here,” She said as she gestured to Mabel. “,but I’d still like to discuss ‘Noman’.”

“Why are you so sure I got away, huh? Norman looked to be in pretty good condition for a zombie. What if he successfully bit me and turned me into a zombie too? And I’m just doing a better job of keeping myself fresh than he was.” Mabel challenged Anne and Luz’s insistence that she got out okay. 

Anne and Luz shared a glance, before looking back to Mabel. “I’m, like… 80% sure you’re just messing with us.” Anne responded in a tone that suggested it was closer to 70%.

Dipper leaned over to Mabel and whispered. “What are you doing, Mabel? You know ‘Norman’ wasn’t actually a zombie. You were there!”

“Since I’m not allowed to spoil things,” She whispered back. “, I’m doing the next best thing. I’m taking a page from Grunkle Stan’s book. I’m gonna mislead, misdirect, and take ‘em for a ride.” She announced quietly. 

“That’s my girl!” Stan muttered, letting the kids know he heard as he walked by. 

“Are you really a zombie?” Polly asked Mabel, sounding awed. 

Mabel gave her a coy look. “I don’t know, what do you think the answer is?”

Polly gasped. “If you’re really a zombie, can I try fighting you later? I always wanted to fight a zombie!”

“Ooh, Polly! I don’t think that’s a goo—“ Anne tried to intervene. 

“Of course, you little angel!” Mabel answered, with a laugh. 

“Sweet!” Polly yelled. She then pulled a medieval flail out from somewhere and hopped back to her seat, cackling. 

Dipper and Mabel watched her leave, their eyes widened in shock. “Really good thing you’re not actually a zombie.” Dipper whispered to his sister. “Agreed.” She whispered back.

King laughed. “Oh. I like her. She’s tough.”

Sprig cut in. “Hey. I think we’re getting off topic, guys. We know from the intro that there’s gonna be a huge monster chase sequence coming up, but how does that tie into what’s going on with the zombie?”

“He’s got a point.” Polly agreed, before turning to the Pines. “What’s up with that, you two?”

Dipper and Mabel shared a look, before Dipper answered for them both. “Sorry. We’re pretty sure we can’t answer that without triggering the ‘no spoiler’ thing. You guys are on your own for trying to figure that out.”

“We can say that we’re probably going to see how we got to that point very soon.” Mabel offered, looking apologetic.

The twins were answered with a chorus of groans. 

While the kids were all interacting with each other, the three caregivers in the room had gotten up to stretch their legs and get something to drink from a refreshments table that they were pretty hadn’t been there prior to the start of the episode, and were now standing off to the side of the room watching their kids come up with wild theories while they enjoyed their drinks.

“So… I got something to say.” Hop Pop, deciding to be the first to break the awkward silence between them. He turned to Stan and gestured at him with his mug of gourd tea. “Why do you look familiar? Something about you and your weird museum is giving me a weird sense of Deja Vu.”

Eda nodded “Actually yeah. You seem familiar to me too, pal. Have we met before?” She asked after taking a sip of Apple Blood. “Not so much from the museum for me though. Just your appearance in general.”

Stan raised an eyebrow at the other two as he studied them closely. “Well, sorry to break it to ya, Shorty.” Stan replied, referring to Hop Pop. “But only the lady here is giving me a similar feeling. I think I’d remember a sentient, talking frog-person.” He took a sip of his Pitt Cola before continuing. “So toots, what’s your story?” He asked, leaning against the table, waggling his eyebrows at her.

“Taken.” She responded, rolling her eyes, before downing the rest of her apple blood and heading back to the seats to rejoin the kids.

“Wow.” Hop pop commented. “That was brutal.” The elder frog finished his gourd tea, then waved to Stan. “Well! Better luck next time.” He said, before going to rejoin his own group.

Stan stood there, frowning as he watched the two leave him there at the refreshments table. He grumbled to himself, before polishing off his Pitt cola and grabbing four more for his group and heading back to get started on the next half. 

As everyone took their seats, the lone figure spoke up. “Since it seems everyone is wrapping up their discussions for the most part, I believe now is a good time to continue with the rest of the episode. After all, we have two more to get through after this.”

“Are we gonna be doing this for every episode?” Luz asked as she returned Journal 3 to Dipper and returned to her seat. “That might take awhile.”

“I will check with everyone halfway through each episode if there’s anything anyone wants to discuss, but I will admit that there will be some episodes it might be best to wait until the very end to discuss, and even others that would be best discussed collectively instead of one at a time.” The lone figure admitted. “There will also be episodes that might require more frequent discussion breaks, depending on the content. Rest assured, we will adjust as needed depending on the situation. But for now, let’s continue.”

Clapping once again, the lone figure started the episode back up. 

****

Dipper tries to get Stan’s attention.

“Finally. We’re alone.”

“Yesss… Alone.”

Failing to get Stan’s attention, Dipper gets help from Wendy, borrowing the golf cart. And from Soos, obtaining weapons to help fight zombies.

“Uh. Mabel. Now that we’ve gotten to know each other, there’s… something I should tell you.”

“Please be a vampire, Please be a vampire”

‘Norman’ dramatically removes his costume, revealing his terrible secr—

Gnomes. He’s a bunch of gnomes in a hoodie. 

“What? How were we supposed to guess that?!” Polly yelled, angrily. 

“Please do not speak during the episode.” The lone figure reminded them. 

“I’m sorry. I always forget your name.”

“Shmebulock.”

Jeff explains that the gnomes are looking for a new queen and proceeds to propose to Mabel to make her their new queen. Mabel lets them down gently. 

“We understand. We’ll never forget you, Mabel”

Mabel smiles at them.

“Because we’re gonna kidnap you.”

“Huh?!”

Dipper arrives and is shocked to find not what he was expecting. Mabel, after explaining the situation, kicks a gnome in the gut, sending them flying and causing them to barf rainbows.

“Gnomes? Huh. I was way off.”

“Your sister is not in danger. She’s just marrying all one thousand of us and becoming our gnome queen for all eternity.”

Dipper shovels a gnome and frees his sister. 

“Gnomes of the forest… Assemble!!”

Countless gnomes converge on Jeff and start stacking up on top of each other. 

“You see their little legs? Suckers are tiny.”

The ‘giant’ monster from the beginning appears. 

“Move! Move!”

Gnomes are launched at the cart to attack it. 

Shmebulock’s head is smashed into the steering wheel.

Dipper loses his brown hat after Mabel punches a gnome off his face. 

The shot of the beast throwing a tree at the twins from the beginning replays. Crashing near the Mystery Shack, the twins are cornered.

“Mabel! Marry us before we do something crazy!”

“I gotta do it.”

“What?!”

“Dipper, just this once… Trust me.”

“You may now kiss the bride.”

As Jeff leans in for a kiss, Mabel sucks him up into the leaf blower. “That’s for lying to me!”

She cranks up the power, sucking him in deeper.

“That’s for breaking my heart!”

“Ow! My face!”

“And this is for messing with my brother!”

Jeff is launched back deep into the forest and the other gnomes are scattered. Unable to coordinate and act without a leader, they flee back into the forest. One is carried off by Gompers the goat, probably to be eaten.

“Awkward sibling hug?”

“Awkward sibling hug.”

The two embrace, and then.

“Pat pat.”

The two go back inside the Mystery Shack, looking terrible. Grunkle Stan briefly heckles them, before taking pity on them. “…how’s about each of you, take one item from the gift shop on the house?” Dipper takes the opportunity to replace his old hat with his iconic blue and white pine tree symbol baseball cap. 

Mabel, meanwhile, finds her chosen item. “And I will have a… Grappling hook!”

Later that night, the twins are shown getting ready for bed. Dipper is shown updating the journal while Mabel jumps on her bed and plays with her new grappling hook. “This journal told me there was no one in Gravity Falls I could trust, but when you battle a hundred gnomes side-by-side with someone, you realize that they’ve probably always got your back.”

After the lights go out, the shot pans down to the first floor and shows Stan entering the gift shop. 

“Our uncle told us there was nothing strange about this town, but who knows what other secrets are waiting to be unlocked?”

Stan opens the secret door behind the vending machine, before disappearing into it, shutting the door behind him with a thud. 

An extended sequence of the vomiting gnome is shown before a series of jumbled letters appear at the end. 

ZHOFRPH WR JUDYLWB IDOOV.

****

Static overtook the screen before turning off, leaving the stunned reflections of two thirds of the groups, who slowly turned to look at Stan.

“Before any of you say anything, you realize I won’t be allowed to answer anything, right?” Stan told them grumpily, arms crossed and without looking at them.

Luz sputtered. “B-but! Secret passage! And..” she continued flailing her arms, trying to think of something to say. She slowed to a stop and dropped her head in disappointment when she realized Stan was right and there was no way he was going to be able to answer any questions. “Aw… dang it.”

Anne just stared quietly at Stan Pines. Something about him had been bothering her and it wasn’t until he had been shown having some sort of dark secret that it clicked. A tourist trap type business presenting itself as a museum of oddities, the red fez, the suit, and the carnival barker personality. She narrowed her eyes. She knew who he was. Somehow, this man was the human version of the Curator from the Curiosity Hut.

She was fairly certain that she personally had nothing to fear from the man. The Amphibia version of him only targeted her because she was a non-amphibian. Her thoughts turned to the Mystery Shack exhibits and she glanced to the Plantars beside her, then to the dog-looking creature in the last group. She needed to make sure none of them ended up alone with the man. The conversation around Anne continued on as she resolved to keep an eye on the man. 

“Well, since we can’t ask about the secret passage directly yet, let’s talk about ‘Norman’ or should I say, the gnomes.” Luz said, letting the previous subject go. “Do you know why they needed a queen?”

Dipper and Mabel shared a look. “Uh. I don’t think we ever bothered looking further into that. Them needing a new queen never really came up again, I don’t think?” Dipper admitted. “We had a handful of other encounters with them, but they never really presented the threat they did to us this first time around.”

“I have to admit. The gnomes' teamwork was impressive. A bunch of little guys coming together to form one big guy to protect themselves.” King cheered. “The leader just needs a little replacing.”

Hop Pop rubs his chin. “Reminds me a bit about how Mayor Toadstool’s usual plan for predator attacks is to call for a formation of some kind.”

Luz leaned over towards her mentor and surrogate mom. “Eda, are gnomes from the Boiling Isles? They kinda seem like they might be, but at the same time, they looked too cutesy to be from there.” The girl whispered. 

Eda muttered back. “If they are, they must’ve split off from the Isles a long, long time ago. Like, before recorded history on the isles. Because I’ve never heard of them.” The witch admitted. 

“So uh…” Anne started as she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at Stan. “Mr…. Pines, was it? Can you tell us about that museum of yours? Lots of weird creatures on display. Do they come from the woods? Catch them yourself?” She asked, a hint of aggressiveness in her tone.

Stan scoffed. “Kid, do you know how old I am?” He asked her, apparently oblivious to her hostility. “You think I’m going traipsing through the woods at my age? Plus, almost nothing in the Mystery Shack is real.” He admitted. 

Anne blinked in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting that. The Curator’s Curiosity Hut had instead been filled with real creatures frozen in wax. That was a huge difference between them. Was this really the Curator’s human version? She huddled in on herself. There was still too much in common between the two of them to be a coincidence. She still had to keep an eye on him.

“Hey so, did anyone else catch that jumble of letters at the end?” Dipper asked out loud, not looking up from his journal as he hurriedly scribbled something out in his journal. “I think it might be a secret code of some sort.”

“A secret code?” Luz asked. “That’s so cool! How do we solve it?” She bounced in place.

“I know a few ciph-“ he cleared his throat. “Cryptograms. I know a few different types of cryptograms off the top of my head that I’ve been trying to run it through while you all were talking.”

“If I may?” The lone figure stepped in. “I was hoping you would take interest in the codes. So I’m willing to provide hints and nudges in the right direction or even specific tools, if you wish.”

Dipper tapped his pen to his chin as he mulled it over. “I don’t know. It’ll probably feel better if we do it without hints, but I am curious what you can tell us about the codes in general?”

The lone figure nodded. “Codes of varying difficulty appear throughout all three series.” They began. “However, they are most prevalent in Gravity Falls, with at least one appearing per episode. The ones near the beginning of the series are the easiest and ramp up in difficulty and number-per-episode as the series goes on.”

Dipper was grinning wider and wider the more he heard. “Oh man! I’m gonna need a code cracking team for this. Anyone here like secret codes and want to help me with this during breaks?”

Anne chuckled. “Oh frog. It’s a shame that my fri—“ she stopped, catching sight of the lone figure holding up a glowing, floating null symbol and turned towards her direction. “…uh. It’s a shame that… uh…” she stumbled over her words. “That… nobody in our current group knows about secret codes. Too bad!” She laughed worriedly. 

The lone figure studied her for a few more seconds before dismissing the null symbol and returning to watching the group talk. 

Dipper, who had seen the interaction, nodded slowly to Anne to let her know he understood. “Yes! That. Is… too bad! I’m the only one in our current group that can help with codes too!”

Luz glanced between the two. She knew what they were getting, but there was something more she wanted to do than simply wait for the right person to come along. She cleared her throat. “Hey guys. No one in our current group can help either, but while I don’t know anything about solving secret codes, I’d like to give it a shot. So count me in, Dipper. I’m eager to help and ready to learn!”

“Great!” Dipper responded. “Since that was the first episode, it stands to reason this will be one of the simplest codes, so it’ll be great to use to show you the basics. Let’s take a crack at it during the first break. 

“Please do.” The lone figure said. “We have two more first episodes to go. We need to move on.”

Taking center stage once again, the lone figure continued. “It is time to watch the first Amphibia episode. Or…” They paused to dramatic effort. “Should I say, episodes? Unlike the other two cartoons, most of Amphibia’s episodes are shorter in length. So they double up on episodes when that happens. We will watch episodes 1a: “Anne or Beast” and then 1b: “Best Fronds.”

Stepping once again to the side, giving a clear view to the screen, the lone figure clapped their hands once more, starting the next show in rotation. As the screen crackled to life, the lone figure gave one final reminder.

“You are free to comment during the theme song, but once the actual show starts, please refrain from speaking until I pause it to discuss the episode. Due to the shorter episodes, the mid-point discussion will take place at the end of the first mini-episode.”

****

Amphibia Theme Song

Anne opens the Music Box, Sasha and Marcy on either side of her, looking over her shoulder. As a rainbow of colors pour out, the three disappear and Anne awakens alone in Amphibia.

“Oh huh.” Anne says. “Showing how it started in the theme song, huh? Can’t say I was expecting that.”

“A box?” Dipper asked as he started marking down his thoughts in his Journal. “I’m guessing it was magical or something?”

Anne nodded. “Something like that.”

“Weird.” Luz commented. “What about those other two girls? It kinda looked like they got pulled in, too?”

“Uh…” Anne shot a look at the lone figure, who shook their head. “Sorry, spoilers.” The Thai girl answered.

A quick shot of several frogs working on their farms, as a catchy tune plays, before it zooms in on the Plantar family home. Anne steps outside.

“Woah! Look at all the frog people! Hey! That one is walking a giant snail! That must be so cool!” Mabel declared, nodding her head to the music. “I would love to visit and look around!”

King cheered as Screen-Polly uppercut her brother out of her bucket. “You’re pretty strong for a kid, Polly! Is that normal for your kind?”

Polly giggled. “Nah! That’s all me, baby! No other pollywogs got anything on me!” She declared with a flourish of her short stubby arms.

Sprig lands on Anne’s head. After the two share a quick smile, they run off towards adventure, leading to a quick montage of them or the family narrowly avoiding peril at several points. 

“Ah. Right. The giant ferocious monsters you mentioned earlier.” Dipper said paling, recalling Sprig mentioning them earlier during the Gravity Falls intro.

Sprig nodded. “Yeah. We got a lot of them. Kinda dangerous to go walking alone at night, actually.” Sprig scratched his chin as he thought about it. “Daytime too, now that I think about it.”

Mabel frowned. That kinda put a dent in her plans to pet a snail.

A brief shot of a photograph of Anne, Sasha, and Marcy labeled BFF’s, caught on a branch in the rain. Toad Tower stands ominously in the background. 

“Oh no!” Luz gasps. “Well… That pretty much foreshadows that your friends also got pulled in too. They ended up okay, right?” She worriedly asks Anne. 

Anne sucks in a breath. “I really wish I could answer that for you”.

The theme song ends on a shot of Anne, the Plantars, and the frogs of Wartwood posing together before the screen cuts to the Title. 

“Wow. That looks really cool.” Wendy comments out of nowhere, having been mostly silent up until now. “What’s with the mural behind the title though?”

“Mural?” Anne questioned.

“Oh yeah.” Dipper cut in. “Hard to make most of it out with the title in the way, but it kinda looks like two- no, three figures standing? Fighting? A big evil looking frog.” He described it as best he could before it cut away to the episode.

“With the theme song ended, please do not speak until I pause it again.” The lone figure reminded them.

“The prophecy. It’s being hinted at, even in the first episode.” Anne thought to herself. “The three of us really had no idea what was in store for us, did we?”

****

Amphibia

Season 1

Episode 1a

Anne or Beast?

****

Wally leaves Stumpy’s diner, wishing good night to two patrons outside, before walking away into the night. He soon has an encounter with ‘The Beast’.

After it transitions to morning, the Plantar family is shown arriving in a wagon pulled by a slug. Hop Pop tells Polly to watch the cart. As Sprig complains that Polly is only a baby, Hop Pop informs him he thinks Polly is the more responsible of the two. Sprig wishes there was a way to prove he was responsible. 

Wally runs into town, screaming about a monster that tried to eat him. Mayor Toadstool says they need to catch the beast immediately for everyone’s safety, as part of his campaign for Mayor. Wally comments on how it’s the responsible thing to do.

Sprig gets an idea to catch the beast himself, and bribes his sister with candy before running off into the woods. 

Sprig finds Anne’s footprints, before falling into her snare trap. A disheveled Anne steps out of the tall grass, wielding a makeshift spear. Sprig freaks out thinking he is about to be eaten. Anne reveals she’s not planning to eat him. She also reveals that she tried to ask Wally for help last night, but he panicked before she could.

A monster begins approaching the two and Anne starts to run off, leaving Sprig trapped alone to die, before Anne goes back for him and saves him. Once the danger passes, Sprig declares her a hero and the two introduce themselves to each other. The two run off to find food for Anne.

Back in Wartwood, an angry mob is forming to hunt down the ‘beast’ and Hop Pop notices that Sprig is missing. Hop Pop leads the mob into the forest to go save Sprig

Anne and Sprig are getting to know each other as Anne enjoys some non-bug food. Anne reveals she’s from another world, but claims she isn’t sure how she arrived in Amphibia. She admits she doesn’t know how to get home or if it’s even possible for her to do so. 

The mob jumps Anne and quickly captures her, but they’re interrupted by a large green mantis and the townsfolk work together to scare it off. They quickly realize that it was actually the arrival of another larger mantis that chased it off. 

Sprig sets Anne free in the chaos, and she in turn saves him again from the mantis, her eyes briefly flashing blue. The two working together quickly make short work of the mantis. 

The townsfolk, still unsure about Anne, consider running her out of town regardless, before Sprig stands up for her, but they are still unsure.

Hop Pop steps in, saying he will keep an eye on Anne, convincing the townsfolk at last. Hop Pop admits to Sprig that standing up to an angry mob was pretty responsible.

Also dumb. Very very dumb.

Anne is informed that it is impossible to leave the valley for several more months and she comes to live with the Plantars. 

Once Anne is alone, she pulls the music box out of her backpack, its gems now lacking color. She leans away from it, eyes closed and opens it. Nothing happens. She sighs dejectedly. “Looks like I’m gonna be here awhile.” 

The episode ends.

****

The screen paused. “You are all free to discuss. I will let you know when we will start the next episode. 

Dipper nodded his head as he sketched a picture of the box. “The box looked different from the opening. Given the gray coloration of the gems and the fact it didn’t appear to be operating, I assume it was out of power?” He asked. 

“How awful…” Mabel moaned dejectedly. “Their colors were so pretty.”

Anne scratched the back of her head. “I’m not sure how much I can answer, but I’ll try.” She admitted. “You’re pretty much correct. Something drained the ‘batteries’, so to speak. I’m not gonna say more than that though. Anything else would definitely count as a spoiler.” Anne nodded as she spoke.

Luz popped up next to her. “Can we see it?” The girl asked curiously.

Anne sucked in another breath. “Uh… Anything else would definitely count as a spoiler.”

“My apologies.” The lone figure spoke. “I debated on how to address the box in regards to preventing spoilers.” They explained. “Unfortunately, due to events directly involving the box, it is impossible to avoid all spoilers regarding it. So instead, I went with the option that involves the least amount of spoilers in my opinion. Anne doesn’t currently have the box. That is all that can be said on the matter.”

Soos laughed. “Shame you don’t have it. I could’ve taken a look at it for you. I’m a pretty good handyman.” He told Anne. 

Anne glanced away from Soos and rubbed the back of her head. “I appreciate the thought, but I get the feeling the box is a bit beyond normal handyman skills.” She told him. 

Luz kicked the ground. “Dang it. Can’t read the journal, the box isn’t even here. I have so many questions about these things.” She bemoaned. “Why must all the cool plot devices be untouchable?!” She declared dramatically.

“Plot devices?” Wendy asked. “This is real life.”

Luz turned to face the red head. “For us, sure!” She agreed. “But according to the lone figure, there’s a whole universe out there that thinks we’re cartoons because that’s how we appear to them.” She gestured to the screen. “Heck, we’re in the middle of watching said cartoons right now. So, in that regard, things like the journal and the box are plot devices that kicked off two adventures respectively. Plot devices that I don’t get to mess around with.” She finished, pouting jokingly. 

Wendy smiled. “Yeah, alright. I suppose that makes sense.” With a smirk, Wendy crossed her arms. “So, does that mean you also got an adventure starting plot device the rest of us can’t touch?”

Luz stuck out her tongue. “You’ll just have to wait and see.” She teased. 

Dipper tapped his pen against his chin. “Given how short the episode was, is there anything else to discuss?”

“Oh yeah.” Anne spoke up. “Hop Pop. Where was..” she began to ask before a null symbol appeared, muting her speech. “Ah, dang it. Let’s try that again. What was up with that slug pulling the wagon at the beginning? That wasn’t… the family’s usual mode of transportation?” Anne was able to ask. 

“Oh that.” Hop Pop responded. “A certain someone was feeling under the weather that week. So Chuck lent us his slug.” The old frog explained. 

“Yeah! I got something!” Eda called out, standing up to draw attention to herself. “What the heck was up with how hostile those townsfolk…frogs…? Townsfrogs! Why were the townsfrogs so hostile?” She questioned angrily. “I can understand being wary in the face of something unfamiliar, especially if they have to deal with giant bugs that can eat them on a daily basis, but the kid helped save their lives and they were still about to run her out of town!” Why?” She directed at the frogs in the room.

Hop Pop sighed. “The frequent predator attacks are part of it, yes, but not the whole story. Wartwood is an extremely isolated community. Especially with the mountain pass situation. We’re almost completely cut-off from the rest of our world for huge stretches of the year, so travelers are rare. Not to mention that as a farming community, we’re kinda on the bottom of the social ladder in our world.” Hop Pop rubbed the back of his head as he continued. “All that combined tends to make things kinda… echo-chamber-y. Plus, Mayor Toadstool is good at riling up a crowd.” He looked up. “Fortunately, for reasons I’m probably not allowed to get into fully just yet. Things have gotten better. Much better.” He cheerfully reassured Eda. 

Eda had her arms crossed while she listened to Hop Pop’s explanation. She huffed when he finished his explanation. “Alright. I’ll have to take your word for it for now. It’s not like I can drop in to check myself. For multiple reasons.” She sat back down before asking. “Alright. I’m done with my bit. Anyone else got anything they want to say?”

“Yeah.” Stan said, as he stood with a groan and a crack of his bones as he straightened up. “That Mayor toadstool fella sounds exactly like Bud Gleeful.”

….

….

….

“Who?” Sprig and King asked at the same time. 

“Oh right. You guys wouldn’t know about him yet.” Stan realized. “I’m pretty sure he’ll come up later, but he’s someone that lives in Gravity Falls. The two sound exactly alike. It was really distracting me the whole time, actually. “

“Huh.” Dipper thought about it. “I didn’t notice at the time, but Grunkle Stan is right. I wonder if they’re dimensional counterparts or something?” He wondered aloud.

“Dimensional counterparts?” Anne questioned. “What’s that?” She asked, curiously. 

“I’m not an expert, but it’s like… a rare phenomenon where one person is born into multiple realities or universes at the same time. Major differences can exist between counterparts, but there will always be enough in common to be able to identify them as the same person.” Dipper explained. “Obviously, it’s super difficult to observe this phenomenon, since it would require either getting really lucky or being able to jump universes at will.”

Anne tapped her chin and shot a look at Stan. 

“Hey wait!” Mabel shouted. “How come Grunkle Stan didn’t get spoiler-warning’ed? He was able to say Bud’s name and bring up that he’ll probably appear later. How does that not count as a spoiler?!” She asked incredulously of the lone figure. 

“Bud Gleeful’s name alone is not a spoiler, especially since he is not one of the waiting room guests.” The lone figure pointed out.

“Wait, so.” Luz cut in. “Does that mean the pig from the Gravity Falls theme song is in their waiting room? I mean, Mabel was prevented from telling us about the pig.”

“Alright!” The lone figure changed the subject. “I believe now is a good time to draw this discussion to a close. Let's start the next mini-episode for Amphibia.” 

When no one objected, they clapped their hands and the screen crackled to life. 

****

Amphibia

Season 1

Episode 1b

Best Fronds

****

Episode opens at a thrift store back on Earth. Anne steals the music box at the encouragement of her friends. It cuts to that night, when the three open the box, and are taken. 

Anne wakes up suddenly. Briefly believing everything to be a dream, before seeing the Plantars and realizing it was all real.

Sprig befriends Anne and they plan to go to the lake, before Hop Pop insists they stay inside. After he locks the door, Sprig suggests entertaining themselves by trying Hop Pop’s pain peppers. However, Anne suggests they steal the key and convinces Sprig.

After they escape from the house, the two head to the lake and discover the “Don’t Swim sign. After a brief one-sided argument and Anne sharing her views at the time on the nature of friendship, Sprig relents and the two go swimming.

After a brief montage of the two playing in the water, Anne realizes why the lake was closed. A massive water snake! As the two attempt to escape, Sprig seemingly sacrifices himself to save Anne, but it was a ploy to trick the snake into eating Hop Pop’s pain peppers. So hot, they’ll make you wish you were dead. 

Back at the house later that evening, Hop Pop finally noticed the key was gone and panicked, but calmed down when he found them still inside, unaware they had disobeyed him. Anne apologizes to Sprig, but he waves it off and falls asleep after all the excitement earlier.

“Sasha, Marcy… I hope you guys are okay, because I am.”

A shot of Toad Tower in a thunderstorm. 

“Take a look at this please, Sasha. It was found far from here, in the South Forest. Now we know you have been lying to us. Now we know that there are more of you.”

A lightning bolt lights up the interior of the cell, revealing Sasha chained up and miserable. 

Ending credits showcasing Anne and Sprig reading outside by candlelight. 

****

Once more, static fills the screen before it turns off. 

“You all know what to do. I will let you know when it’s time to start the first episode of the Owl House.” The lone figure said from the back of the room.

The silence in the room was deafening as everyone processed the final scene of Sasha in captivity, even Anne.

“Oh… Anne…” Luz had started to say. “Are you alright? Even you looked shocked by that.”

Anne clutched the front of her shirt worriedly. “I… I guess you could say that.” She took a few deep breaths to calm down. “Sorry. I know you all want to know more about Sasha, but I can’t really say more yet.” It had been shocking to see Sasha’s situation. She knew that Grime and Sasha hadn’t started off on the best of terms, but seeing that this is where the two started, it was amazing to imagine how the two ended up where they were now. She chuckled lightly to herself. The Amphibia waiting room was probably losing its collective minds over that final scene. 

“Final scene aside, kid.” Stan spoke up, steering the conversation away from the subject of Sasha. “I gotta say. That was some nice shoplifting you pulled off at the start. A little sloppy, sure. But everyone starts somewhere.” He encouraged her. “Next time, get the goods into your bag faster. Shopkeeper may have been asleep, but ya never know who might wake them up to snitch on ya.”

Anne just nodded stiffly, looking uncomfortable with the older man’s praise.

“So hey. I know I haven’t said much yet.” Soos spoke up. “But your speech about what friendship was bugging me.” He turned to Anne, concerned. “You don’t like… believe that junk anymore do you? Because that was all totally bogus, dood.” 

“No. I don’t.” Anne confirmed. “I probably can’t go into more than that.”

The large handyman nodded. “That’s good, girl-dude. Gotta drop jokers like that who only pretend to be your friend. Used to know some jerks in highschool who tried to do the same to me.”

“Wait, hang on.” Anne spoke up. “We—“ she was suddenly cut off by a glowing, purple null symbol appearing over her mouth, silencing her. “Aw dang it! Come on!”

“Oh hey.” Stan leaned over to Hop Pop. “What are the chances of a guy getting his hands on those pain pepp-“

“So!” Anne yelled as she stepped between the two of them. “I think that’s everything! Why don’t we get started on that final show! I want to see what Luz got up to!”

“Very well.” The lone figure responded. “We can begin the first episode of The Owl House. Two things before we begin.” They said as they took up position in front of the screen. “First. The Owl House’s first episode lacks the theme song.”

“Aw, boo!” Luz and King jeered.

“To make up for this, we will watch the theme song separately after this episode.” The lone figure continued, ignoring the two’s jeering. “Secondly, This is our final episode before the break. It will begin once you’re all done with the final discussion at the end. Feel free to get to know each other, or check in on your respective waiting rooms during that time. Take your time, as I will need time determining how many episodes should be included in the next batch to watch.”

The lone figure moved out of the way of the screen. “I will start the episode. I will stop it again for our mid-episode discussion.” They stated as they clapped their hands, starting the final episode of the current session. 

****

The Owl House

Season 1

Episode 1

A Lying Witch and a Warden

Episode opens with the Good Witch Azura fighting the Gildersnake. 

“Do not underestimate me, Gildersnake, for I am the good witch Azura, warrior of peace!

“NOW, EAT THIS, SUCKA!”

The sequence is revealed to all have been Luz’s book report on her favorite book series. The Good Witch Azura.

The Principal and Camilla express concern about Luz’s ability to separate fantasy from reality and it is suggested she spend the summer at Reality Check Summer Camp. After the Principal is attacked by the snake, Luz’s fate is sealed. 

Standing outside waiting for the bus to summer camp, Camilla reassures Luz about camp. Luz places her book into the trash. After her mother leaves, Luz panics about the book and goes back for it, only to find it missing. 

She quickly spots it being carried by a small owl. A short chase leads her to a quaint abandoned house in the woods. As Luz follows the owl inside, a flash of light is seen from within. 

In a new location, a door unfolds from nothing. The owl runs out, with Luz close behind. Realizing that she is someplace new, Luz hides, watching the owner, revealing herself only to save her book and immediately tries to escape. 

Luz, confused and scared by the display of real magic, runs away only to discover that she is no longer on earth, but instead a horrifying world of demons and boiling seas. A fairy demands her skin.

Eda attempts to sell human collectibles to a human. After showing Eda the true worth of one of her items, the older witch compliments Luz for being clever for a human revealing herself to be a witch. Unfortunately, this draws the attention of the guard, revealing that Eda is a wanted criminal. 

After the guard attempts to arrest Luz, Eda knocks him over the head and proceeds to escape with Luz in tow. 

“A human like you is much more valuable to me alive than dead.”

The two get away with it. 

“This is the Boiling Isles. Every myth you humans have is caused by a little of our world leaking into yours.”

“Giraffes?”

“Oh yeah. We banished those guys. Bunch of freaks.”

Luz freaks out that Eda can apparently freely dismember herself without harm.

Luz requests help going home, but Eda wants help in return. The two head to Eda’s home. The titular Owl House.

Eda reveals she has a state of the art defense system for her home, introducing Hooty.

****

The screen froze on Hooty’s face, “HOOTY” superimposed in bold on the screen over his face.

“Wait. What’s happening?” Dipper asked, eyes darting back and forth. “Is…this part of the episode?”

“No.” The lone figure announced. “This is what happens when someone new is brought in to join the group.”

There was a low rumble behind everyone, drawing their attention to the doorways. There were now actual doors on each of the doorways, no longer standing open. The door to the Gravity Falls room resembled an oversized version of the Journal, but in place of a six-fingered hand, there was a wheel of symbols instead, empty in the middle, as if something was missing. Amphibia’s door resembled the Calamity box in design, recreations of its three gems in it’s center. Finally, the Owl House door resembled the portal door, but instead of the giant slit-pupil eye as its centerpiece, there was…

“HELLO!!!” Hooty shrilly yelled in greeting to everyone. The tube demon extended out from the door, shooting around the room at different angles as he explored the new surroundings and examined the new people. “It's so nice to talk to all of you! I have so many questions for all of you! Like you!” Hooty shoved his face into Anne’s. “What’s it like having all that pow…”

“Hooty.” The lone figure somehow spoke over the bird tube, despite not raising their voice. “I appreciate that you are excited to join the main group, but please wait until the appropriate discussion points. We have a lot to get through.”

Hooty stared silently at the lone figure for a moment, before suddenly, cheerfully yelling, “Oookay!” Before he retracted back into the door.

Dipper gawked at the bird demon. “I have so many questions about how his anatomy works.”

Anne was still staring into the space Hooty’s face had been moments before. “That… was intense.” She simply said, as Sprig patted her shoulder.

“Apologies.” The lone figure continued. “That is how new individuals will be joining us in the future. As soon as their trigger appears, the screen will pause, their name will appear, followed by them entering the room. You have my assurances that future introductions will not be nearly as disruptive.” The lone figure promised. “Please save any more questions for the mid-point discussion.”

When no one spoke up, the episode continued.

****

“This place is beautiful. Do you live here all alone?”

“Actually, I have a roommate.”

“ Who dares intrude upon I, the King of Demons!”

Luz reacts to King’s appearance and King learns firsthand what a tackle-hug is.

Eda explains what she and King need help with. Getting his crown ‘of power’ back from Warden Wrath. Eda offers to send Luz home if she helps them get the crown back. After Luz reluctantly agrees, the three begin to leave. 

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere super fun!”

The three arrive at the Conformatorium. 

Eda and King explain the plan, before everyone heads off to do their part. Luz and King meet some of the prisoners. 

“The world is a simulation! We are but playthings for a higher being!”

“Wait. These aren’t crimes. None of you actually did anything wrong. You’re all just a bunch of weirdos. Like me.”

Luz and King are forced to hide from Warden Wrath. He begins to take notice of Luz and King, before Tiny Nose draws his attention to herself. Wrath grabs the tiny demon, squeezing her painfully, and leaving with her in tow to torture her for speaking out of turn. 

“Let this be a lesson to all of you. There’s no place in society for you if you can’t fit in.”

****

The screen pauses. No reminder comes from the lone figure this time. Everyone knows the drill by now.

“Ugh…” Stan grimaced. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I prefer that Colombian prison I was incarcerated in when I was younger.”

“Yeaaah…” Wendy drew out. “That place is super depressing. Please tell meyou guys burn it down or something?”

“Not to mention, they’re arresting people for being weird?” Anne cut in. “Weirdness is subjective! I’m a teen girl from California. At my school, I’m more or less considered normal, but in Amphibia, I’m super weird! Normality is overrated. Everyone has something weird about them!”

“Thank you!” Luz yelled. “Honestly, I think my school overreacted with some of the things I got sent to the office for. The spiders and the snakes, sure! I probably went overboard with those, I’ll admit. But the other two incidents, it was absolutely unnecessary for those to result in trips to the office.” She ranted. 

“Let me guess, small town?” Dipper asked.

“Yup.” Luz confirmed, popping the P. “Not only that, Gravesfield used to be one of the towns that was caught up in witch hunts in the 1600s. The whole town is still largely conservative, even after all this time.”

Mabel sucked in a breath. “That sucks. Gravity Falls may look like it’d be conservative on the surface, but it’s surprisingly open about a lot of things. Dipper and I lucked out there. You have our sympathies.” 

Eda grunted. “Alright! Let’s talk about something happier!” She stood up and turned to the group, striking a pose with her arms presenting toward the screen. “Depressing prison aside, what do you all think of the Boiling Isles? Pretty impressive, right?”

Dipper just stared down at his journal then back up at Eda. “I have so many questions about how… everything works! Like spider breath in general! How is the griffin producing a separate living creature?! That should be biologically impossible!” The boy declared.

“Symbiotic relationship between the griffin and a colony of spiders.” Eda quickly answered.

Dipper hurriedly went back to write in his journal. “…but that raises so many more questions.” He muttered to himself. 

Mabel popped up from beside her brother. “Tell me more about the vampires!” She asked excitedly.

“Oof, kid.” Eda replied, grimacing. “I was gonna take you aside during the first break, but since you brought it up, don’t date vampires. They’re only interested in one thing.”

“What, like, my body?” Mabel asked. 

“Yes.” Eda confirmed. “But not in the way you’re thinking. No matter what one says, they don’t mean it. They’re just trying to get to your neck.”

“I don’t mind getting a hickey or two.” Mabel countered. 

“That’s not…” Eda stumbled, caught off guard, and mildly uncomfortable. “That’s not what I was getting at.”

“Hey, real quick.” Anne cut in, interrupting. “I really have to know. You were just messing with Luz when you said giraffes are from another dimension, right? That was a joke?”

Eda laughed. “Oh. It’s always fun watching one of you humans discover that giraffes are actually demons. Never gets old. Most of you get the funniest looks on your faces when it happens.”

Anne blankly stared at the ground, a quiet look of mild horror as her worldview rearranged itself.

“Yeah, like that one.” Eda snorted. 

Dipper finished updating his journal and looked back up. “I have more questions regarding… the frankly impossible anatomy of some of the things I’ve seen so far, but I can wait on that. I have a far more important question. You!” Dipper pointed at King. 

“Weh?” King questioned

“You’re the King of Demons or you used to be. I have a question relating to possibly one of your subjects. What can you tell me about triangu..”

“Woah there! Hold on.” King interrupted. “Save your question for after the episode entirely. Make sure you got all the information and all that?”

Dipper smiled and nodded. “Oh! You’re right! I might have more questions that need answering afterwards. Better to do it all at once!”

King sighed in relief as Dipper returned to his journal. 

“Hey!” Mabel approached Luz while Eda continued answering questions. “I wanted to ask about that book series. The Good Witch Azura, right? Your book report made it sound really fun.”

Luz nodded excitedly. “It’s my favorite book series. I can tell you all about it!”

Mabel grinned. “Is there romance?”

Luz nodded excitedly. 

“Action?” Mabel continued, bouncing in place.

“Sooo much action!” Luz enthusiastically confirmed.

“Sweet! How many books are there?”

“Five!” Luz announced. “Even better, it looks like the lone figure brought in all 5 of my copies for me. They’re with my stuff in my group’s waiting room. I can lend them to you during the break.”

“Awesome!” Mabel cheered.

“Everyone. I’m sure you all have more you wish to discuss but it is time to continue the episode. Further discussion can wait until the end or the break.” The lone figure interrupted all conversations. They clapped their hands, once everyone resumed their seats, continuing the episode.

****

Luz attempts to free the other weirdos, but is unable to due to her ‘weak, nerd arms.’

The weirdos tell her to escape while she still can and to enjoy freedom for them.

Eda and Luz reunite. 

“The warden is distracted tormenting some tiny creature.”

The trio find the contraband room and enter. Luz is able to bypass the shield and access the pile of contraband, where she discovers… King’s Crown!

“That crown doesn’t give him any powers, does it?”

“Uh…no.”

Eda explains herself to Luz and that all Eda and King have in the world is each other.

“And besides, us weirdos have to stick together, you know?”

Eda loses her head.

****

“Oh my frog!” Polly screamed, horrified. “She’s dead!”

“Sweet Belgian Waffles!” Stan yelped.

Everyone in the other two groups panicked, before Eda stood up and whistled shrilly with two fingers. “Would you all stop?! I’m fine!”

“But how?” Dipper asked with concern. 

“Watch and find out!” Eda finished, before sitting with a huff. 

****

Eda is revealed to be okay.  King’s crown is crushed, and the Warden reveals his true intentions. His desire to date the Owl Lady!

“I hate everything you’re saying right now.”

Warden Wrath turns hostile and captures Luz and King, holding them hostage to force Eda’s agreement to dating.

Eda gets Wrath to drop Luz, who proceeds to smash Warden Wrath over the head with Eda’s staff, knocking him out for a few seconds. 

As the trio make their escape, they free the prisoners and make their way into the main yard. Eda sets Luz on her staff and gives her the portal key, sending her away. Eda stays to battle Wrath.

Luz returns and rallies the weirdos to stand up for themselves and fight Warden Wrath. 

“Why are you helping us?”

“Because us weirdos have to stick together and nobody should be punished for who they are!”

“Do not underestimate me, Warden Wrath, for I am Luz, the human. Warrior of Peace!”

Luz pauses dramatically as the wind blows through her hair. 

“Now eat this, sucka!”

Warden Wrath experiences the act 3 closer, up close and personal. 

Eda offers to send Luz home, but the girl chooses to stay willingly. Luz asks if Eda can take her in as her apprentice. Eda accepts, but tells Luz that she’ll have to work for Eda before she learns any spells. 

Luz settles down for her first night in the Boiling Isles. She is able to text her mom, but refrains from telling her the truth, letting her mom believe she went to summer camp. 

The Title screen is finally revealed and the end credits begin of Luz exploring the Boiling Isles by herself, before finding her way back to the Owl House.

****

With the end of the episode, the screen cuts off. “It’s technically time for the final group discussion before the first break.” The lone figure began. “However. The Owl house residents haven't gotten a chance to hear their own theme song yet, so we’ll be taking just a minute to do that. Please enjoy.”

****

The portal door swings open and the shot passes through it. A flash of light reveals Luz falling through the sky, she’s caught by Eda and King.

“Ooh! I like the music!” Mabel commented. “It’s so upbeat.”

“Ooh. I’m absolutely setting this to some anime clips later when I get home.” Luz commented as she nodded her head to the beat.

Willow, Gus, and Amity pop up and briefly pose before the screen burns away to a shot of King standing amongst a horde of plushies.

“Oh! It’s those kids from the closing credits!” Anne pointed out. “Given that those three are in the theme song and the end credits, I’m guessing they’re your friends?” The Thai girl asked. “Or at least, they will be?”

Luz smiled fondly at her friends on screen. “Sorry. I’m pretty sure I’d get spoiler-warning’d if I outright confirmed that. So instead, I’ll say nothing.”

Anne smirked. “Funny you didn’t say anything about denying it either.”

“I only said I wouldn’t outright confirm it.” Luz shot back playfully.

The lone figure heaved a defeated sigh from the back of the room.

“Oh my gosh! King!” Mabel squealed. “Do you actually own that many plushies in real life? You might have a bigger collection than me!”

“I used to!” King partially confirmed. 

Luz flies through the streets of Bonesborough, picking up Eda and King along the way. The street breaks away, revealing a roaring worm monster.

“Woah! Jeez. Another giant monster.” Dipped commented. “Man. The multiverse is dangerous.”

Luz, Eda, and King stand on the roof of the Owl House, looking up at the stars. Luz opens her hands to reveal a glowing orb and raises it to the sky, allowing it to float upwards to the stars. It explodes into a flash of light, revealing the title screen.

“Ooh! That was so pretty! Was that magic?” Mabel asked. 

Luz giggled. “I’m sure you’ll see soon.”

“Alright. It’s time for the final discussion of this session. I will inform you all when the first break begins.” The lone figure said, as they turned the screen off. They took up position at the back of the room near the doors.

“Well, I don’t think our first episode ended with the same punch as the other two.” King admitted, kicking off the official discussion. “But I still loved it! It’s how I met my favorite human!”

“Hey!” Mabel stood on her chair and looked at Eda. “I wanted to ask about your owl from the beginning! Is he real?? Can we see him?”

Eda laughed goodnaturedly. “Sure kid.” She pulled her staff out of her hair. “Rise and shine, Owlbert. You have fans!”

The wooden and still form of Owlbert gained detail and life, as woodgrain gave way to feathers and flesh. The staff disappeared as Owlbert hopped from Eda’s hand down to Mabel’s head. The palismen peered over the top of Mabel’s head to look into the girl’s eyes. “Hoo…” The tiny owl hooted at her.

“He’s adorable!” The brown-haired girl squealed. “Hi Owlbert! I’m Mabel!”

“Hoo!” Owlbert greeted.

“I think I got brought in with my makeover supplies earlier! Would you like some pretty bows to wear?” The excitable girl asked.

“Hoo!” The palisman agreed, not knowing better and remained on the girl’s head as she ran back to where she had been sitting to pull out her bows.

Dipper turned towards his sister as she went by to get a better look at Owlbert. “How does that work? Are lots of creatures capable of turning into wooden staffs like this?” He asked.

Eda shrugged. “Yes and no? They may look different visually, but they’re all technically part of the same species.” She explained. “Don’t bother asking about it too much right now. I’m sure it’ll be explained later, kid.”

Dipper looked disappointed, then turned towards King. “So… not actually a King of Demons, huh?”

King rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “Yeah… sorry. That’s… I’m not sure how much I can say on the matter. It’s definitely something I used to truly believe, but…” The furry demon shrugged, trailing off without finishing.

Dipper nodded. “Spoilers?” The boy guessed. King nodded silently in response.

The Pines twin heaved a sigh. “I’ll keep that in mind until we get to that part.”

The Plantars had gathered in front of the Owl House waiting room door, looking up at Hooty.

“So. What are you?” Sprig asked after a minute of awkward staring between the frog family and Hooty.

Hooty grinned. “I thought no one would ask!” The bizarre creature cheered. “I’m a House Demon! A rare kind of demon that can attach themselves to a building. Once that happens, house demons share a symbiotic relationship with the residents of the building.” He continued explaining. “I specialize in home security! Hoot, Hoot!”

Hop Pop rubbed his chin. “You don’t say… Do you know any house demons that can help with farming?”

Hooty’s face scrunched up as he pondered the question. “Hmm….” 

Hop Pop leaned in, eager for the answer.

“Hmmmm!”

Hop Pop pressed himself against the door.

Suddenly Hooty shoved his face into Hop Pop’s and screeched. “NOPE! I SURE DON’T!”

“Gaaahhh!” The older frog screamed, clutching his chest as he fell backward into a heap.

“Most house demons specialize in home security. Haven’t heard of one that knows how to farm.” The bird tube announced to the Plantars. “I’ll keep an eye out if you want.”
“That…” Hop Pop wheezed on the ground, Sprig and Polly fanning him. “...would be… appreciated.”

Luz approached Anne, who had fallen silent since the final scenes of the episode played. The Thai girl was staring at the ground, wringing her hands, clearly deep in thought about something as Luz sat down next to her.
“Hey. You okay?” Luz asked. “You look like something’s bothering you.”

“It’s nothing…” Anne muttered quietly so no one else heard them.

“It clearly isn’t.” The witch apprentice pushed.
“I… No, it’s dumb.” Anne pushed back.

“I’m willing to listen anyways.” The latina girl offered again.

“I…” Anne frowned. “Part of me wants to be mad at you.”

“Wha… why?” Luz asked.

“You got to choose.” Anne explained. “You have the option of going back home whenever you want. I… didn’t” She hunched in on herself. “Don’t get me wrong. I love Amphibia, but that was after being forced to confront the worst parts of myself and changing for the better. The me from that first episode? She would’ve jumped at the chance to return home, without a second thought. Without her two missing friends.” The bushy haired girl heaved a sigh. “But I stayed, because at the time, I didn’t have the choice to go home.

Anne looked at Luz. “Part of me is angry not only because you did have that option, but because you still chose to stay. I know it shouldn’t bother me, since I’ve grown to love my frog family so much now, but it does…” Anne wiped away a tear as she looked back up at Luz, who had a few tears of her own. “It’s dumb of me to feel this way, It isn’t fair of me to expect our situation to be exac-oof!” She grunted as she was cut off from Luz suddenly hugging her. “I’m glad to hear that you came to love your adopted world, but I’m sorry you still had to go through that.”

“I…” Anne started, before breaking into a quiet sob. The two sat like that for several minutes. Finally, Anne pulled away. “Thanks… I needed that.”

“Anytime. Especially for a fellow isekai trope kid.” Luz said, playfully punching Anne’s shoulder.

“Hah, you sound like my friend, talking about anime tropes.” Anne laughed.

Luz grinned. “One of the friends you’re not allowed to talk about?”

Anne nodded and winked. “Can’t outright confirm that.”

The two shared a laugh. “Hey.” Anne started again. “Can we keep doing this during breaks? I think it might help to talk to someone who’s been through something similar, but not the exact same thing.”

Luz nodded. “Yeah. I think that’ll really help us both. I thi-”

“Most conversations seem to be wrapping up.” The lone figure announced across the room. “I’m declaring the official start of the first break. We will reconvene in an hour or two, after I work out the next batch of episodes for you all to watch.”

The two girls looked at each other. “Well, looks like it’s time for the first break.” Luz said, straightening back up. “Since we just had a talk, why do we take this time to decompress and meet up for the next one?”

Anne smiled. “Sounds good. I’ll see you around, Luz”

Luz nodded. “See you soon, Anne! I gotta go catch up with Dipper and Mabel.” She said, before running off.

Anne watched the girl run off. She reminded her of Marcy in a lot of ways. Excitable, nerdy interests, and in love with fantasy. Still, Anne looked forward to when they were all out of here and their memories returned in November. It would be nice to reach out to Luz again and be able to comfort each other about being apart from their found families. It would probably help Sasha and Marcy too. She should probably talk to them about it first though. She got up and brushed herself off, before heading into the Amphibia waiting room.

Luz glanced over her shoulder as she made her way over to King and Eda. She couldn’t wait until they were all back in the Human Realm. Anne was all the way in California apparently. It might take awhile to plan, but Luz looked forward to being about to visit her and being able to see Amphibia in person. She turned back to the Owl house room and continued inside to get the Good Witch Azura books for Mabel.

“Hm..” The lone figure hummed to themselves once the two girls had left the room. "That might be a problem later.”

Chapter Text

—Gravity Falls Waiting Room—

The Mystery Shack crew collectively entered the Gravity Falls waiting room once the break was called. 

“Alright guys.” Wendy started once they were inside. “I’m going to check in with my friends.” she said as she gestured to the teens. “Aside from Weirdmageddon and the ghosts, they don’t have much experience with weirdness. Gonna go make sure they aren’t freaking out too much.” The redhead explained. “I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

As Wendy left, Stan pulled Soos aside for something inside the shack. Dipper and Mabel looked at each other before shrugging and making their way over to the duplicate shack where everyone else seemed to have gathered. Before the two could reach the others, Ford saw them coming and broke off from the crowd to intercept them. 

“Kids!” Their great uncle Ford greeted them. “How was it learning about other universes?” 

“It was really cool!” Mabel cheered.

“You saw it too, right?” Dipper asked. 

Ford nodded. “Yes! I’m eager to see more. Especially of the Boiling Isles. I theorized that everything weird in our world was coming from Bill's dimension leaking into ours. While that is undoubtedly occurring, it’s clear now that’s not the full story. So many times in the past when I found some new anomaly that didn’t quite seem to fit with other anomalies. I knew I was missing something, but I never imagined the answer was multiple universes leaking into ours, not just one like I previously thought.” The man excitedly shared.

Mabel laughed. “What are your thoughts on giraffes?” She asked, grinning. 

Ford chuckled. “I’m intrigued by the possibility that every biogist ever has either somehow missed that giraffes are demons or have just collectively agreed to not tell anyone else. However, I’m withholding my belief towards the Owl Lady’s claim until I can check it myself.” The researcher explained, adjusting his glasses. 

Dipper and Mabel laughed at the man’s matter-of-factness.

“So, Great Uncle Ford. Our cartoon has a bunch of codes. I’m gonna solve the first one with Luz before the break ends, but I wanted your opinion if I should request anything from the lone figure?”

The older man smiled. “I heard. I’m eager to get my introduction so I can join you all in there! Especially once the codes get more difficult. Not to mention the chance to interview the others about their own worlds! But to answer your question, I think a device that can manipulate audio would be extremely helpful. Not to spoil it, but I may have already solved the first code.”

Dipper frowned slightly. “Aw, really?”

His great uncle smiled. “Don’t worry. I just have experience with these sorts of things. I was able to work it out while watching the other two shows.”

“Anyways.” Ford continued. “It’s probably gonna be awhile before I can be out there myself. Dipper, Mabel. Would you two mind asking the other groups about the universes they’re familiar with in my place?”

“Sure, Great Uncle Ford!” The two agreed.

“Hah!” Ford laughed. “I knew I could count on you two! Mabel, when you get the chance, talk to the little frog boy. Sprig, I think?” After she nods, he continues. “Great. I think you two will get along. Dipper!” Ford focuses on the boy in question. “Why don’t you talk to King when you get the chance. See what you can learn about him and the Boiling Isles. I’m counting on you both!”

He patted them both on the back, dismissing them for now.

As he briefly watched them head over to the others, he glanced over his shoulder to the door leading to the main room. The new door obscured his view into the main theater, but he stared hard at the door as if his gaze could pierce it. There was a reason he asked Dipper to specifically talk to King. A claim about being the former king of demons… hailing from 8 years in the future from the Mystery Shack crew’s point of view, and appearing to be very young. Ford had his suspicions about what King was. He hoped he was wrong, or if his suspicions were right, King himself was, at least, unaware.

Heaving a sigh, he looked back to everyone gathered in front of the duplicate Mystery Shack and headed that way; he figured he should find his brother and get his impression of the small demon in question, but he wouldn’t share his suspicions with Stan or anyone else just yet. He needed to be sure of his suspicions first, or he might cause unnecessary problems for everyone. 

Dipper and Mabel, meanwhile, made their way into the group first. They were quickly approached by Mabel’s friends, Candy and Grenda.

“Hey Mabel! Hey Dipper!” Grenda happily greeted in her usual baritone. “What was it like in the main room?”

The smaller Candy peered around her larger friend. “Yes! Grenda and I are curious about the other groups.”

“Oh! They’re so cool!” Mabel gushed. “King is so adorable! I just want to hug him so much.”

Dipper nodded. “The Plantars have such interesting anatomy! Obviously they have frog traits, but they also have teeth and hair like humans.” The boy excitedly explained. “What about you two? I know you weren’t in there with us, but you still saw their episodes.” He asked. 

“I’m curious about the frog world.” Grenda admitted. “Something about it speaks to me!”

“I want to see more of the Boiling Isles. I’m hoping Luz has some cute witch boys in her waiting room.” Candy bluntly admitted. Mabel laughed at the admission while Dipper fondly rolled his eyes.

“I hope our episode comes soon. I want to meet the other groups in person.” Grenda complained, crossing her arms. 

Mabel pats Grenda’s arm. “I’m sure it won’t be too long. We met pretty early in the summer after all.” The Pines girl reassures her larger friend. 

While Mabel continued speaking with her friends, Dipper noticed Pacifica once again sitting by herself away from others in the group. Excusing himself from Mabel and her friends, Dipper made his way over to her.

“Hey Pacifica!” He greeted her cheerfully. “What did you think of the episodes?”

She smiled at him “I think I need to stay out of those woods. I’m not sure the gnomes would be able to accept any other queen once they know about me.” She joked. 

Dipper chuckled and sat next to her. “You’re probably right. Now that we’re not being petty towards each other, it’s easy to see how pretty you are.”

Dipper froze as soon as those last words slipped out of his mouth. His gaze turned to Pacifica who was staring at him shocked, with a light blush on her cheeks. 

Dipper quickly cleared his throat before trying to change to a new subject. 

“So!” He started nervously. “What about those other two shows? Two whole other universes! Crazy right?” He asked a little loudly. 

“Oh! Yes!” Pacifica quickly nodded, also eager to change the subject. “I’m sure you and your great uncle are full of questions.” She replied a bit awkwardly.

“Are we ever!” Dipper dramatically declared with a grin. 

The two sat there in awkward silence, unable to continue the forced conversation. Dipper’s forced grin dropped and he coughed awkwardly.

“Sorry.” He apologized, rubbing the back of his head. “I made things weird. I… I should go.” He said, beginning to stand.

“No!” She grabbed him. “It’s… It’s fine. I didn’t mind it.” She admitted. “Besides, you’re the only one who wants to hang out with me right now.”

Dipper dropped back into his seat and glanced over at her. “Weren’t you going to try reaching out to Mabel, Grenda, and Candy? I’m sure they’ll let you hang out with them if you show you’re sorry and promise not to bully them anymore.”

Pacifica hunched over on herself and began explaining. “Mabel, maybe. But, Dipper, there was a lot of bullying from me towards Grenda and Candy. Several years worth before you and your sister came to town.” She glanced at the trio of girls chatting excitedly near the seating area. “I don’t think they’ll forgive me that easily.”

Dipper glanced between Pacifica and Mabel’s group a few times before deciding to do something that was probably dumb. “Well!” He said, standing up. “There’s only one thing to do then.”

“What?” She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Find out.” He told her, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards Mabel, Grenda, and Candy.

“Wha..what!?” Pacifica stuttered. She was too distracted by Dipper grabbing her hand to pull away before the two were before the three girls.

“Hey girls.” Dipper greeted them. “Do you mind if we hang out with you guys?” He asked, gesturing towards Pacifica.

Mabel shot a look over to Candy and Grenda, the two seeming unsure. After a few seconds, the two girls shared an unspoken consensus with a nod before turning to Pacifica. “You two can join us.” Grenda agreed.

“For now.” Candy added, narrowing her eyes slightly. 

Pacifica winced and rubbed the back of her head. “That’s…fair.” She admitted.

The five kids talked for several minutes before Dipper and Mabel excused themselves to go back into the Main theater to meet up with the other groups. When the two left, Grenda and Candy turned to Pacifica. 

“We’re giving you a chance for now because we heard about how you stood up to your parents when that ghost wanted to kill everyone.” Grenda explained, her hands on her hips. “And because Mabel wants to give you another chance.”

“However.” Candy cut in. “If, when we go back to Gravity Falls, you start bullying us again, you won’t be getting another one.”

Pacifica nodded, intimidated. “That’s better than I probably deserve.” She admitted to the two. 

Grenda smiled and suddenly hugged Pacifica. “Here’s to second chances!” The tough girl announced. 

She broke the hug and turned to Candy. “Let’s go get some food!” She yelled, before running inside the duplicate Shack.

Candy glanced over and Pacifica. “Are you okay?”

The Northwest girl took a deep breath and rubbed her side. “Just need a minute to breathe.” She panted. “She’s…very strong.” Pacifica was forced to admit. 

Candy giggled. “Come on. Let’s get some snacks before the break ends.”

The two hurried to follow Grenda into the Shack, passing Stan and Ford on their way in.

“Stan. There’s something I’ve been putting off asking you” Ford explained to his brother. “I’m sorry, if this is too soon… but I think it’s best if I confirm something sooner, rather than later.”

Stan raised an eyebrow at Ford. “What is it, Ford?” It worried him how serious his brother looked right now. 

“It’s about Bill. He was in your mind when we…defeated him.” Ford replied diplomatically, avoiding the specifics. “I wanted to ask your opinion on…”

“On if he’s actually gone or not.” Stan finished for his brother before sighing heavily. “Ford…” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry to disappoint you. I don’t actually remember the triangle jerk specifically.” He explained before clarifying. “I know what he looks like from pictures you and the kids have shown me. I know what he did to our family. I even remember Weirdmaggedon.” Stan continued. “But Bill himself? The times I actually would’ve seen him or talked to him? Gone. It’s a hole. I don’t know what happened between me and him in my mind.” 

Ford sighed tiredly. “I was afraid of that. It’s a miracle you remember as much as you do. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and hope that the show will show us the details of Bill’s defeat.”

“Hey. Cheer up, Ford! We bested that triangle jerk when he was at the peak of his power. We did it once, we can do it again if he’s somehow still around!” Stan cheered. “High six?” He asked, holding up his hand

Ford chuckled happily. “High six.” He agreed, clapping his hand against Stan’s.

As the two headed into the Mystery Shack, Ford cleared his throat. "So Stan. Something else I wanted to ask you. What's your opinion on King?"

"The little fuzzy guy?" Stan asked, confused. "Why him specifically?"

"Oh...." Ford responded casually as the two stepped inside. "No reason."

—Amphibia Waiting Room—

As soon as she and Luz had finished talking, Anne had gathered up the Plantars and headed straight back to their waiting room. As nice as talking with Luz had been, Anne was anxious to check on Marcy. Her friend had just come down from her panic attack when they had been called back to the main room to start. Anne still wasn’t sure what had caused Marcy’s panic attack. The only reason Anne had returned to the main theater, was that Marcy herself had insisted Anne go get things started, promising she’d explain what caused her panic attack when Anne and the Plantars returned.

Stepping into the room, Anne looked around and found almost everyone still gathered around the copy of the Wartwood theater sage. Most of the humans had formed a circle around Grime and appeared to be chewing him out. Grime seemed to be doing his best turtle impression in response. Marcy and Sasha were standing apart from the group talking, and waved Anne and the Plantars over when they saw her.

“Marcy!” Anne called out, throwing her arms around the Taiwanese girl. “I’m so glad that you’re okay now. What the heck even happened?” Anne asked, concerned. 

Marcy took a deep breath. “I wouldn’t say okay just yet.” She admitted. “But I am getting there. I’m not actively panicking anymore at least.”

Anne put a hand on Marcy’s shoulder. “Mar-Mar…”

Taking another deep breath, Marcy reached up to squeeze the hand on her shoulder for comfort. “As for what caused it…” She trailed off slightly before shaking her head lightly and pushing through. “I think I figured out what event the episode ‘True Colors’ is supposed to be depicting.” She explained, unconsciously touching the middle of her chest.

Anne’s eyes caught the motion and she gasped. “Oh Marcy… are you sure?”

Marcy nodded silently, clutching at the spot, swearing she could feel the scar, even with her armor in the way. 

“She explained her reasoning to me between episodes.” Sasha interjected. “And after hearing her thoughts, I have to agree. ‘True Colors’ as an episode most likely covers…” Sasha trailed off, unable to finish and looking uneasy. 

Anne grimaced and nodded. “Neither of you have to say it. I know what you’re talking about.” She pulled both of them in for a hug. “And if it is what we think it is, we’ll be ready for it.” She reassured them both.

Breaking the hug, Anne smiled at both of them. “Now. Why don’t we talk about happier things, huh? Take all our minds off that for right now?” She suggested.

“Sounds good! You three should take some time and discuss happier times.” A voice from behind Anne stated.

Turning around, Anne saw Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly standing behind the trio.

“Guys! I’m so sorry! I forgot you guys were there.” Anne quickly apologized.

“Oh pshaw, Anne.” Hop Pop waved her off. “I know I said we’d check on Marcy together, but it was pretty clear that she needed you and Sasha more than us.”

Anne rubbed the back of her head. “Still…”

Hop Pop chuckled. “It’s fine, Anne. Now, you three keep catching up. The kids and I are going to go find some food before the break ends.”

“Oh wait!” Anne stopped them. “There was something I need to tell you guys before the break ends! Sasha, Marcy. You guys, too.” She told them, looking deadly serious. She pulled all of them in for a huddle and took a deep breath as she prepared to share her concerns.

“Alright. Sasha, Marcy. Neither of you were there for this event, but it happened on the way to Newtopia. Just bear with me, and I’ll explain everything.” She started to explain, then looked at the Plantars. “Do you three remember our encounter with that Curator guy? The one running the tourist trap we encountered right before Newtopia? I think it was called the Curiosity Hut, or something?”

“Oh! Yeah!” Polly said. “I remember that creep! He tried to freeze you in wax! And that suit he wore was so tacky with his dumb red… fez...” She trailed off as her eyes widened in realization. “Oh my gosh!”

“Wait! Are you implying what I think you’re implying, Anne?!” Sprig asked worriedly.

“Wait… what are you guys freaking out about?” Marcy asked. 

“Right. Let me explain. On our way to Newtopia, we encountered a tourist trap called the Curiosity Hut. The owner maintained a wax museum of weird creatures he claimed to have encountered all over Amphibia. Turned out, all the figures were the real deal. Just frozen in wax.” Anne explained, then jabbed a thumb at herself. “Yours truly nearly joined the collection when the owner learned I was from another world.”

Sasha frowned, crossing her arms. “Oh hey… I suddenly feel like stabbing something.”

Anne patted her shoulder. “Down girl. Pretty sure the creep’s dead now, but you might still get a chance.”

Marcy raised an eyebrow. “How? If he’s dead?”

“Did you guys overhear Dipper talk about ‘Dimensional Counterparts’?” Anne asked them. When the two nodded, she continued. “Stan Pines is almost perfectly identical to the Curator. The suit, the fez, the oddities museum, even their voices are identical. I think Stan Pines and the Curator are dimensional counterparts of each other. In fact, I’m almost positive about it.” She declared with conviction. 

Marcy pulled out her journal and started writing in it. “If you’re right, that would be incredible. Proof of a phenomenon that Dipper claimed was rare.”

“Marcy.” Sasha cut in. “You’re missing Anne’s point. If an amphibian version of Stan attacked Anne for being non-amphibious, what does that suggest about a human version of the same guy?” Sasha asked her. 

Marcy’s eyes widened. “He could be targeting non-humans for his own…” She trailed off as her eyes landed on the now worried Plantars. “…Oh.”

Anne nodded. “Thankfully, if that is the case. We’re already on to him and can take steps to stop him if he tries anything.”

“Like what, Anne?” Sprig asked.

“On Amphibia, the Curator had to get me alone and trick me into a trap to get the drop on me.” Anne explained. “So don’t let yourself be alone with Stan. If he starts flattering you, be on your guard. Run interference for the Owl house group as well. They probably don’t have the same warning about the guy that we do, so they won’t know to keep away from him.”

“Wait, Anne.” Marcy cut in. “Dipper also said that there can be major differences between counterparts, even if they are still fundamentally the same person. What if there’s enough differences between Human-Stan and Amphibia-Stan that this one isn’t a danger to the Plantars or the Boiling Isles natives?” She asked. “You should fish for more information, first.”

Anne paused and rubbed her chin. “Well, he did claim that almost nothing in the Mystery Shack was real. While the Curiosity Hut was filled almost entirely with real monsters.”  She shook her head. “That’s assuming, of course, he was telling the truth.”

Marcy shrugged. “That’s why you need to gather more information. You don’t have to trust his word alone either. The three of us were pulled from the end of our journey, the same is most likely true for the other two groups.” She explained. “Talk to Dipper and Mabel, assuming they aren’t prevented from sharing due to spoilers, they can probably help clear up what we can expect from Stan.”

Sasha nodded. “Marcy’s right. We need more information and right now, you’re the only one who can get it, Anne.”

“What about us?” Polly asked. 

“For now.” Sasha responded. “You three and any Amphibia natives that get introduced should avoid being alone with Stan if possible.” She crossed her arms with a frown. “Until we know for sure, better safe than sorry.

Hop Pop sighed tiredly. “Alright, warning aside, was there anything else you wanted to tell us, Anne?”

“No… I think that’s it for now.” Anne admitted. “Sorry to have worried you guys.”

Hop Pop waved her off. “I’d rather have the warning and have nothing come of it, than not get one, and something to have happened. Now. Sprig, Polly, and I are going to go whip up some food. You girls want anything?”

Sasha shook her head. “No thanks. The Boonchuy’s are already working to prepare some food for those who aren’t used to Amphibia’s usual fare. I may not be as squeamish about eating bugs as I used to be… but I do really miss food from home.” She gave an apologetic smile. 

“I don’t mind, Sasha.” Hop Pop said. “But how are they making non-amphibian food? My kitchen lacks a lot of ingredients they would otherwise need.” He asked curiously. 

“Oh! It’s so cool!” Marcy answered. “The outside only looks like the Plantar Family Home. Inside is completely different. The kitchen looks like one part the Thai Go restaurant kitchen, and one part the Royal Palace’s kitchens!” She explained excitedly. “…before we crashed the palace that is.” She quickly added. “It has everything one needs to cater to Amphibian or Human palates.

“Hmmm…” Hop Pop hummed. “Not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, I get to try out a fancy royal palace kitchen. On the other, where did my kitchen go?!”

Marcy laughed. “Lady Olivia also went to help. She could probably show you a few fancy recipes, if you’re curious, Hop Pop.”

“Ooh!” The elder frog exclaimed. “See you girls later.” He said, running off towards the house. Sprig and Polly waved at the three girls. “We’re going to check on everyone else. We’ll catch up later to meet back up for joining the kids from the other groups. See ya in a little while, Anne!” Sprig called out as he and Polly left.

Anne waved them off then turned back to her friends. “So. Weird old con artists aside, what did you two think about the three episodes? Specifically the other two?” She asked.

“Oh my gosh~!” Marcy sang excitedly. “I can’t believe earth has paranormal stuff! I can’t wait to see what they have besides the gnomes waiting in those woods!” She chattered excitedly, shaking her hands out. “As soon as I’m able to, I’m going to visit Gravity Fall and start studying it. I wonder if there’s any other places like it?” She continued with little pause. 

Sasha sat down on one of the stumps next to the girls, her hands folded together and resting her chin on them in thought. “I’m concerned about those gnomes. An army of tiny men that are willing to kidnap girls to ‘marry’ them? There’s…. so much wrong there, I’m not entirely sure where to start. I really hope those guys never find a queen.”

Anne winced and sucked in a quick breath. “Yeah… I’m not sure it occurred to Dipper and Mabel the full implications of what ‘marrying’ the gnomes meant.” She explained. “But, that’s probably for the best. Those two seem a little on the young side, you know?”

Marcy and Sasha nodded in response, then Marcy spoke up. “While I agree, I don’t think they’re that much younger than the three of us. You should ask them when you head back out to meet up with them.” Marcy explained. “Oh! Speaking of! Dipper is doing a code-cracking meeting, right?” She asked excitedly. When Anne nodded, Marcy continued. “I really want to be out there to join in, but if you don’t mind Anne, I have a suggestion for the code team that I believe might come in handy for later codes. Would you mind passing it along for me?” She asked. 

“Sure!” Anne agreed. 

“I think a tool that allows them to replay episodes would be really helpful for hunting down codes or clues on how to solve those codes.” Marcy told Anne, who nodded. 

Sasha stretched her arms, and stood back up. “Alright. Should we talk about The Owl House now?” The blonde girl asked. “Until we see more, I don’t have much more to offer on Gravity Falls.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” Anne agreed. “As far as first impressions go, this Boiling Isles world might just surpass Amphibia in level of danger. I’d have to see more to be sure though.”

“Hmm.” Marcy hummed. “I don’t know, Anne. I don’t think one is more or less dangerous than the other, I think they just have different types of danger.” She countered. “Amphibia has a lot of wild, untamed areas. Wild animals pose a huge risk to the average citizen, but in the major cities, one is relatively safe.” She explained. “I can’t be sure yet, but the Boiling Isles seemed more urban, in my opinion. The danger comes from within so far, not from what passes for wild animals there.”

Sasha raised an eyebrow at Marcy. “The danger came from within for Amphibia too, Marbles. That’s kinda what happens with a dictatorship.”

“Monarchy.” Marcy corrected. “And I’m not denying that the danger could come from the government in Amphibia, but it seems far more likely in the Boiling Isles. Not to mention, how much more oppressive the Isles seem than even Amphibia. Which is saying something.” She admitted. 

Sasha’s eyes widened. “It does seem more oppressive than Amphibia… Oh! I bet the Boiling Isles operates under a dictatorship!

“I could see that.” Anne agreed.

“Girls!” Came the voice of Mrs. Boonchuy. “We have food ready!”

Turning to the sound of her mom’s voice, Anne saw her and her dad approaching the trio carrying trays of food, consisting of various items from the Thai go menu.

“Hey mom and dad!” Anne greeted her parents. “Passing out food to everyone?”

Her mother, Oum, nodded. “Just got done. Just be careful not to grab from your father’s tray. Lady Olivia made suggestions for how we could make food for the Amphibia natives more appealing. His tray is our first attempt at using bugs in our cooking. We’re hoping it goes over well with your frog, newt, and toad friends.” She explained. 

“Ooh! Well I can tell you how you did.” Marcy told them, before grabbing a bun and taking a bite before the Boonchuys could stop her. 

“Oh! That’s got a good crunch.” She said after swallowing. “What is that, grasshopper?”

“Uh…yeah.” Anne’s father, Bee, confirmed. “I know you girls got used to eating bugs while on Amphibia, but it’s still surprising to see you partake in it so casually.” He admitted

“I can’t speak for the other two.” Sasha cut in. “But while I got used to bugs, I still miss non-insect based food.” She admitted as she grabbed a few things from the tray Mrs. Boonchuy was holding for herself.

“Say, Mom. Dad.” Anne interrupted, grabbing a few things for herself from both trays. “We were just talking about our opinions on the other kids and their adventures. What are your thoughts on what we’ve seen of the other groups so far?” 

“Well.” Mrs. Boonchuy started. “Your father and I have been wondering about the other kids’ parents. Specifically, if the other kids have their parents waiting in their respective waiting rooms like we are for you, Anne.” She told the girls. “While I doubt their parents knew they were sending their kids on a supernatural adventure in a small town in the woods, the twins are more or less exactly where their parents expect them to be. So there’s currently no reason for Dipper and Mabel’s parents to suspect something is amiss.” She explained. “So your dad and I don’t think we’re going to be meeting the twins’ parents here.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Anne admitted. “What little we saw of them was just arms reaching from off-screen to shove outdoor and camping gear into Dipper and Mabel’s arms. We saw more of Luz’s mom than them. Frog, we saw more of her than you guys so far!” She exclaimed. 

“Yup!” Her dad agreed. “That’s part of the reason your mom suspects Mrs. Noceda is in the Owl house waiting room.”

“Really?” Marcy asked. “What’re your other reasons?”

Mrs. Boonchuy shook her head, smiling. “Just one other reason.” She clarified. “So, Mrs. Noceda believes her daughter is at summer camp right now, right?” She asked the trio of girls. She continued after they all nodded in agreement. “There’s no way that can last. The camp is going to report Luz as missing. Mrs. Noceda will realize something is wrong.” Mrs. Boonchuy explained. “Even if the camp does the unthinkable and covers up that Luz never showed up, the lie would eventually fall apart when Luz doesn’t come home at the end of Summer. The lone figure said Luz’s journey would end in early November.” She reminded the girls.

“What if Luz does go home at the end of the summer?” Sasha asked. “Unlike us, she still has access to a way home. It even links up to a spot in the woods directly behind her house by the look of it. She could easily slip back and forth between both realms for a few months before whatever marks the end of her ‘journey’ in November.”

Oum smirked. “You think a mother wouldn’t notice her daughter running off into the woods nearly every day? That scenario just makes it more likely for Mrs. Noceda to learn the truth.”

Anne smiled. “Alright mom, you’ve convinced me at least.” She told her mother, hands up in front of herself in surrender. She looked at her father. “So what about you dad. You said this was mom’s theory. You don’t think Luz’s mom is here?

Mr. Boonchuy shrugged. “Your mom makes a solid argument, but I’m on the fence, personally. I need more information before I can say for sure or not.” He confessed. “Though, I do wonder where her dad is. He hasn’t even been mentioned yet. I’m hoping he didn’t run off or something.”

“We’ll see with time.” Oum told her husband. “Anyways, girls. The two of us are going to finish passing out this food. We’ll see you later!” She said, before stopping and turning to her daughter. “Oh Anne. Take some food out to some of the others would you? I’m sure they would appreciate it. I made a lot of it mild for those not used to spice.” She finished, offering a bag of food to Anne. 

“I guess that’s my cue as well then.” Anne said after taking the bag of fresh Thai food. “I need to find Sprig and Polly so we can head out and meet the others before the break ends.”

“Well, don’t look too hard.” Sasha said, pointing behind Anne. “They’re by the door talking to Maddie and Ivy.”

Anne looked over her shoulder and sure enough the brother-sister duo were already by the door in conversation with Maddie and Ivy.

“Well, that was easy.” She waved to Marcy and Sasha. “I’ll catch up at the next break.” She told them as she started towards the door.

As she walked towards the frog kids by the door, she passed the town fountain and Mr. X who was sitting on the edge, his head in his hands. 

“Uh… you okay, Mr. X?” She asked the FBI agent.

He groaned in response. “I’m trying to figure out how my department missed an entire town. We’ve actually investigated Gravity Falls in the past. Two agents went out a few years ago after some weird readings and came back empty handed.” X explained. “And don’t even get me started on giraffes!” He suddenly yelled. “HOW DID WE MISS GIRAFFES?!”

Anne backed away. “Well… I can see you need some time to process all that. Good luck with that.” She offered before running off to the door.

Quickly approaching the door, Anne overheard the four frogs talking. “I’m telling you guys. I’m sensing something from Eda.” Maddie was telling the other three.

“She’s a magic user like you, except from another world.” Ivy replied. “Are you sure it’s not just that?”

Maddie shook her head. “No. It feels like something’s been tied to- Oh! Hi Anne!” The blue frog girl greeted when she saw Anne approaching.

“Hey you guys” Anne greeted back. “What’re you talking about?” She asked. 

“Maddie says there’s something weird about the Owl Lady.” Sprig explained, gesturing to the curse-user. “We’re trying to help her figure it out.

“More like distracting me.” Maddie grumbled. 

“Aw, you don’t mean that, Maddie.” Ivy teased. “You’re just grumpy you haven’t figured it out yet.”

“Why not take a break?” Anne suggested. “It might come to you once you give your brain a chance to rest. Either that, or maybe an Owl house episode will show us what’s up?”

Maddie sighed, as she moved away from the door. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I probably just need some food.” She admitted to herself. “See you guys.” She bid them, before hopping off with Ivy, who kissed Sprig on the cheek first, towards Anne’s parents.

After those two left, Anne turned to Sprig and Polly, who apparently had already been visited by Anne’s parents since they already had food of their own. “Let’s not keep the others waiting.” Anne said to them. The three shared a nod and stepped through the door, back into the main room.

—The Owl House Waiting Room—

“Sweet Potato!” Luz yelled before tackling her girlfriend in a hug. “I missed you”

Amity laughed as she hugged Luz back. “It was less than two hours, Luz.”

“And it was two hours too long!” Luz countered.

The two giggled and shared a kiss. “How was it out there?” Amity asked. 

“It was so cool meeting other kids who have been on magical adventures like me!” Luz replied excitedly. “Learning that earth has supernatural creatures, or that two, most likely three human girls got pulled into another world like me! I can’t wait to see more!”

Amity laughed as the rest of the Hexsquad came over to see the two. 

“Hey guys.” Luz greeted them. “What did you all think of the other groups, now that we’ve seen a first glimpse of each one?”

“I thought only giraffes were banished from the Demon Realm.” Gus wondered, scratching his chin. “But there must have been other demons that left before them. I’m not sure how else to explain Gravity Falls otherwise. The frog world seems neat though. Amphibiland, or something?”

“Amphibia.” Hunter corrected. “I like the Plantar family, especially Sprig.” The blonde teen shared. “Something about him is calming and familiar. Not sure why though.”

“I’d love to study Amphibia’s plant life. I saw a few examples of giant flora, not to mention the mushrooms that glow from the intro!” Willow added. “Plus, Wartwood seems to be a farming community. I bet they’d love me.”

“It's nice to know there’s a place on Earth I could’ve gone to, had I not met mom.” Vee admitted. “I wouldn’t mind visiting after we go home. Assuming the other creatures are friendly.”

“Which world do you think would most likely have better abomination ingredients for me?” Amity wondered aloud.

“Probably Amphibia is your best bet.” Willow replied. “I may not have been good at it, but I still remember the most common ingredients for abominations. I don’t recall seeing most of those ingredients during our stay in the human realm.”

While the Hexsquad talked excitedly about the other two groups, the adults were gathered a short distance away in front of the duplicate Owl House.

“Well, the children seem to be taking this whole situation well, all things considered.” Lilith commented, as she watched Luz and her friends chat about the other groups. “How about the rest of you?”

Darius crossed his arms and huffed. “I’m not sure I trust that lone figure. We’ve already had to deal with one cosmic being turning us into literal toys, now another has whisked us all away to watch some bizarre recordings of our lives?”

“I’ll admit, it is a little disconcerting.” Raine admitted. “But I get the feeling the lone figure is trying to help, in some weird way.” They gestured towards the Hexsquad again. “Just look how excited Luz is to meet other kids that went through something similar she did.”

“Yeah.” Eda added, continuing Raine’s point. “Plus, I get the feeling, the other kids will also get the chance to connect with others. Pretty sure King already wants to hang out with the ball-shaped frog girl.”

“That’s nice. It would be good for King to make friends closer to his own age.” Lilith commented, before pausing and looking at Camilla. “You mentioned seeing that Anne girl before? Do you remember anything that would be worth sharing with the rest of us?” She asked the human mother.

Camilla thought for a second, before answering. “It was several months ago I read the article, so I’m going from memory. The article also didn’t provide a lot of details of what exactly happened, on top of claiming the whole thing was a hoax.” She clarified before continuing. “The only things I recall clearly are that three girls went missing for five or six months and that they were supposedly trapped in a frog land.”

“Having been to the human realm many times, that does sound pretty outlandish by your realm’s standards.” Eda admitted. “I can see why they would write it off as a hoax.”

Eberwolf growled something unintelligible. 

“Yes. I think you’re right, Eber.” Darius replied. “The third girl definitely got pulled into the frog world as well. Both girls are likely in the frog room too.”

Eda gave the well-dressed man an odd look. “I mean, you’re probably right, but why do you care?”

Darius rolled his eyes. “As I’ve already said. I don’t particularly trust the lone figure. I want to have a plan to fight back, ready to go, in case I turn out to be correct.” He explained. “The other two groups are potential allies. It would be best if we tried to figure out who might be in the other waiting rooms ahead of time and pay attention to what they can do via the recordings. If we do need to fight, we’ll at least know what our allies are capable of.”

Raine lowered their head in thought. “That’s not a bad idea, but with only one episode each to go off of, it’s definitely too early to make any solid guesses, other than the other two girls that Anne was pulled in with, the best we could do is baseless speculation.”

Eda noticed Camilla fidgeting uncomfortably beside her, eyes cast downward. “Hey.” Eda muttered to get her attention. “You okay?”

Camilla nodded slightly before answering. “Si. It’s just… It wasn’t until Luz was able to contact me that I even knew she had been missing, because of Vee. Even then, I at least had an answer for where she was and that she was working hard to try and come back.”

“Sensing a ‘but’ here.” The Owl Lady commented. 

Camilla nodded and continued. “But watching that frog show and remembering what I read in that article… Those girls’ parents didn’t have that. I highly doubt three shapeshifters took their place like Vee did for Luz. So unlike me, their parents spent all those months worried sick.” She shook her head, muttering. “ Qué pesadilla .”

Eda patted the other woman on the back. “You got a big heart, Camilla.” She told the other woman. “Hey. Ya think any of the girls’ parents are in the Amphibia waiting room?”

“That would be nice, I think.” Camilla admitted. “It would be muy buena to have a chance to speak with them. Share our experiences.”

As the adults finished talking, King ran out of the house, a bag in one of his claws, and headed towards the Hexsquad.

“Luz!” He called out as he got close.

“King!” She greeted in return. “Whatcha got there?” She asked him. 

“Some food appeared in the kitchen.” He explained. “There was enough for everyone. I grabbed some scrambled griffin eggs for you!”

“Aw, King!” His older sister cooed. “Thank you so much. I was starting to miss the taste. Though, it seems like you grabbed way more than what I can eat.” She pointed out, gesturing to the large bag in his claws.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Since griffin eggs were one of the few things that you were able to eat, I figured the other human kids would like to give them a try.” 

“Oh! That’s a great idea!” Luz agreed. “I should ask mamá if she would mind making some stuff for the next break to share with them.”

“Oh man.” Gus groaned. “We were so busy talking, we forgot about food.”

“We still have time. Let’s head in and eat before the break ends.” Amity pointed out, before turning to address her girlfriend. “You and King are headed back out to meet up with the others, right?”

Luz nodded. “Yeah, sorry, sweet potato. But I’m interested in learning about cryptograms from Dipper and Mabel wants to borrow the Azura books.” She explained before gasping. “The books! I completely forgot. I haven’t grabbed them yet.” She realized. “King, would you mind running ahead without me? I’ll catch up once I have the books.”

King nodded. “I’ll meet you in the main theater.” He told her before running off. “Don’t take too long.” He called back.

She nodded and ran inside the Owl House with her friends to go get the books.

King reached the door and looked up to see Hooty, somehow having flipped himself around to face inward, rather than out towards the main room.

“Hooty! Open the door!” The young titan commanded. 

“Sure thing, pal!” Hooty cheerfully replied, and then proceeded to pivot open down the middle on his vertical axis, like a revolving door. Stopping once he was perpendicular to the doorway. 

King stared at him uncomfortably for a moment. “…Somehow, you made opening a door for someone a weird experience, Hooty. Good job.”

“You’re welcome!” The bird worm enthused. 

Luz returned with her books in hand, and she and King stepped through the doorway. Hooty shut the door behind them so that he was facing outwards again.

—The Main Room—

Luz and King stepped through into the Main Theater, Hooty shutting behind them, looking out into the room. Looking around, the two noticed they were alone.

“Guess we're the first ones out.” King commented, before the Gravity Falls door swung open and Dipper and Mabel stepped out. 

“Luz! King!” Dipper greeted them with a wave. “You two weren’t waiting long, were you?”

Luz shook her head. “Nah.” She replied, waving the question off. “We only just stepped out ourselves. Looks like we’re just waiting on Anne and the Plantars.”

The two groups of kids paused and looked towards the Amphibia door. After several moments of awkward silence, Mabel cut in. “Huh… for some reason I was sure they would pop out right as we looked at their doo—”

The Amphibia door swung open as Anne, Sprig, and Polly stepped out into the Main Theater. 

“Oh! There they are!” Mabel commented. 

“Hey guys!” Anne greeted the other four kids, before holding up a big bag of food. “You guys up for some authentic Thai cooking? Don’t worry! It’s not spicy!”

King held up his bag in response. “That’s not all! Who wants to try demon food! We have scrambled griffin eggs!” The furry demon kid announced. “Don’t worry! It’s safe for humans to eat! Luz can tell you!”

“Oh no!” Mabel gasped. “Were we supposed to bring food?”

Anne shook her head. “Nah. Someone in our waiting room just thought you guys might appreciate some food.”

King nodded. “Yeah! I just thought you guys might like to try food from another world.”

Mabel breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good. Dipper and I will bring something next time.” She promised. 

The seven kids got set up around a table the lone figure had summoned for them. Dipper passed out paper, pens, and a book on cryptograms for the code cracking meeting. Luz sat next to Mabel and showed her the Good Witch Azura books. Anne and King passed out food. While everyone was setting up, Sprig cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.

“So. I know we kinda already did introductions when we first got here, and we know each other’s names from the shows we watched, but I think we should introduce ourselves again. Share a little bit of extra information too.” The frog boy told everyone. 

“Like what?” Dipper asked, as he took his seat at the head of the table.

“Maybe like our ages, where we’re from.” Sprig explained. “You all are from the same earth. Wouldn’t you like to know where each of you are from?”

“That’s not a bad idea. We know Gravity Falls is in Oregon.” Luz gestured to the Pines Twins. “But all the rest of us know of your home is that you two are from somewhere south of there. Just to use you two as an example.”

Dipper and Mabel shared a look before they both shrugged and Mabel stood up in her chair.

“We’re Dipper and Mabel Pines! We’re 13 now, but 12 in our show. We’re from Piedmont, California!” She announced for them both. 

“No way!” Anne exclaimed. “I’m Anne Boonchuy. I’m also 13!” She stopped and thought about it. “Or maybe I’m 14 now? I dunno, I kinda lost track of time in Amphibia. Anyways I’m from Los Angeles, California! What’s up my fellow Californians?”

Luz groaned. “You’re both from California? That’s on the other side of the country!” She explained before sitting back up fully. “Luz Noceda. I’m 14. I’m from Gravesfield, Connecticut.” She moped, giving her own introduction. 

“Aw.” Mabel sympathized. “You’re so far away!”

Anne patted Luz on the shoulder. “We’ll figure something out.” She reassured the witch apprentice, knowing that Marcy was moving to Massachusetts and would be only a few hours away from Luz. Anne couldn’t wait for Luz and Marcy to meet. The two had a lot in common.

King cleared his throat, continuing the introductions. “I’m King Cl—” he began, before being cut off by the null symbol appearing in front of his snout. “Oh, come on! My full name is a spoiler?!” The tiny titan raged, his voice squeaking angrily. “Fine! I’m King. I’m at least ei—“ Another null symbol silenced him. “My age too!?” He yelled, slamming his fists on the table. 

“Let’s come back to you, King.” Luz told him. “Cool down a bit.” King just sighed tiredly in response.

Polly giggled at King’s outburst, then raised one of her stubby arms into the air. “I’m Polly Plantar! I’m 6. You all know where I’m from.”

Sprig jumped on to the table and struck a dramatic pose. “I’m Sprig Plantar! I’m 11 now, 10 in our show and like my sister said, you already know where we’re from!”

After Sprig sat down, King popped back up and walked over to stand in between Sprig and Polly. “Let’s try this again. I’m King. I’m apparently not allowed to share how old I am, but I want to draw attention to how I’m standing between these two.” The demon paused as he looked at everyone. 

Mabel smiled at him. “Yup. We understand.”

King looked relieved. “Great. I’m from Bonesborough on the Boiling Isles. Specifically, it’s outskirts.” He finished, before going to sit back down.

“Well that’s everyone, right?” Anne asked. 

“At least for now.” Luz agreed. “We might want to do this again once those in the waiting rooms join us.”

Dipper nodded, taking a bite of his food. “Agreed. Now, who’s ready to crack our first code?”

“I am!” Luz announced, raising her hand.

“Me too!” Sprig told them. “I know I didn’t volunteer earlier, but after thinking it over I think it’d be neat to learn secret codes.” The frog boy explained. 

Dipper grinned, happy to have someone else to teach cryptograms to.

“I’m not joining in.” Anne told them. “But someone wanted me to pass along the suggestion to ask the lone figure for something to playback, rewind,  and pause episodes we’ve already watched. That way you can scrub the footage for clues or details that could help solve the codes.”

“Oh!” Dipper exclaimed. “That’s a really good suggestion! I was gonna ask for something that did that for the audio, but it makes more sense to do the video too.”

Dipper turned to the lone figure who was standing by the screen silently. “Could we have—”

There was a thud in front of Dipper and he quickly looked back to see three tablets in front of him. 

“These tablets…” The lone figure began. “…contain recordings of all the episodes you’ve seen so far and will be updated for future episodes. They will perform as requested, and you’ll be able to save screenshots you take. You can also exchange messages between them.” They finished explaining. 

“Oh man!” Dipper exclaimed, turning his tablet on and passing Luz and Sprig theirs. “These are awesome. Will we get more tablets as more people join the meetings?”

“That will not be necessary.” The lone figure stated. “I found a solution that will allow those in the waiting rooms to participate without giving away their identities.”

All three tablets collectively dinged, drawing the attention of the kids. 

Wit has joined the meeting

Dr. P has joined the meeting

Cool Aunt has joined the meeting

“Woah!” Luz exclaimed. “Mysterious members!”

“They will be able to hear you speak.” The lone figure stated. “No need to type, but their responses will only appear as text on your tablets until they are introduced in their respective shows.”

The tablets dinged again as messages started coming in.

Dr. P: Hello everyone. I look forward to meeting you all.

Wit: Same here! At least we won’t miss out on the code-cracking meetings until then.

Cool Aunt: How exciting. I look forward to when we have more codes to work with. 

“I’m allowing this only for these meetings.” The lone figure explained. “Please refrain from using the chat for anything else. Restrictions are in place to prevent those in the waiting rooms from revealing personal details about themselves.”

Dipper nodded. “This is fantastic! I think we have everything we need to get started.”

When no one disagreed, Dipper pulled up Tourist Trapped and fast-forwarded to the end of the end of the theme song. “So. I was thinking about the code and I remembered hearing something toward the end of the theme song.” He played the section for everyone listening, revealing garbled whispering.

“Oh, that’s ominous.” Sprig commented. “You think it has something to do with the code?”

Dipper nodded, and tapped his tablet to replay the same section in reverse. 

Everyone gasped as the garbled whispering became clear. “ Three letters back .”

“Oh!” Luz called out. “A clue!”

Dipper nodded. “Yes! And this tells us which type of cryptogram the message is encoded under. The Caesar Ciph-uh, method.” He announced. “Take the code at the end and shift each letter back three spaces according to the English alphabet. Sprig, Luz. Would either of you like to take a crack at it?”

Sprig scratched his head. “Uh. I still need some help with the human alphabet. Maybe the next one.”

Luz was already scribbling away before she suddenly sat up triumphantly. “I solved it!

Dipper nodded. “Yeah. It’s not hard once you know the trick. At least with this first one. Future codes may prove harder to solve. What’s it say?”

Luz looked down at her sheet. “Welcome to Gravity Falls!”

Anne raised an eyebrow. “That’s it? I was kinda expecting more. No offense.”

A series of dings played in response to her question.

Wit: It’s only the first code, Anne. I’m sure future codes will have more punch. So to speak.

Dr. P: Indeed! Besides, the cryptogram itself was relatively simple. It serves as a nice introduction for beginner code-breakers.

“Well, that covers the Gravity Falls code.” Sprig commented. “But what about the other shows? The lone figure said codes could be found in all three shows.”

“Well, they also said the codes were most prevalent in our show.” Dipper pointed out. “I’m not sure if any codes have shown up yet for the other two?”

The tablets dinged again, drawing everyone’s attention.

Cool Aunt: Actually. I may have something.

A screenshot then appeared on the tablets showing a close up of a frame of when Eda was first telling Luz about King’s crown. It focused on a series of symbols. An eye, then two more symbols than seemed to be gibberish to most.

Cool Aunt: The two symbols after the eye are from the runic alphabet on the Boiling Isles. I believe the eye itself is merely meant to draw our attention to it over other examples of the alphabet’s use.

“What does it mean?” Dipper asked, since he didn’t know this Alphabet.

Cool Aunt: By itself? Not much. The Runic Alphabet can be used to form words phonetically. That is, one is meant to sound it out. This ‘word’ sounds like ‘to’.

“Just a single word?” Luz questioned aloud as she studied something on her tablet while marking something down on paper.

Dr. P: If I may, I believe The Owl House show is doing the opposite of the show, Gravity Falls for the time being. If I’m right, Gravity Falls is giving a full message per episode. The Owl House is giving us a single word per episode. In order to see the message, we’ll need to see more episodes.

“Well, I’m down.” Sprig said. “We’ll get more cool messages and it’s fun watching the shows to begin with. Though I’m still curious about our own show.” Another ding from the tablets drew his attention. 

Wit: Already on it, Sprig. I haven’t found anything yet. Though I suspect I already know what form the codes will take for our show, once they do show up. I’ll let everyone know if I find anything.

“Well. I think that covers everything.” Dipper said, addressing everyone. “We solved the first code and we have a lead on a code for The Owl House. If there’s nothing else, I think we can end the first code-breakers meeting!”

When no one objected, Dipper officially ended the meeting and tucked his notes away inside the journal. Glancing around, he thought he saw Luz staring at him, but when he looked back in her direction, her eyes were down, focused on the paper and tablets in front of her. He was about to call out to her when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Anne looking at him.

“Hey Dipper… you got a minute?” She asked. “There’s some stuff I want to talk about.”

After Dipper nodded, the two stepped away to talk. 

“What did you want to talk about, Anne?” He asked once the two stepped away.

“So…” She began nervously. “I wanted to ask you about your… Gruntle, was it?”

“Grunkle.” He corrected her. “Great Uncle. But sure. What about him?”

Anne rubs her arm. “Weelll… I asked earlier about the shack exhibits. He told me they weren’t real. Is that true?”

Dipper shrugged. “For the most part, yeah. The only times something real ended up as an exhibit were when I brought something in, or Stan was unaware something was genuinely magical. Other than that, nothing real became an exhibit.”

“Huh.” Anne hummed, scratching her chin. “He was telling the truth.”

Dipper nodded. “So, was that all?”

She shrugged. “For now. I might have more to ask later.”

Dipper nodded and waved goodbye as he turned to head back to the table. Anne watched him go, then looked around the room. Mabel was reading the books Luz had lent her. Luz seemed focused on some paper she had been working on, staring concernedly at it. Sprig was going through the book of cryptograms Dipper had brought in. King and Polly were talking excitedly off by themselves while they ate the Thai food Anne’s parents had made for everyone. Polly was even sharing her insect infused items with King, which the small demon seemed to be enjoying. Then Anne’s eyes focused on who she wanted to talk to next. 

The lone figure stood silently next to the screen at the front of the room. Their eyes staring off into nothing, unfocused. Until Anne approached them. As soon as she grew near, their eyes came to life and zeroed in on the girl.

“Can I help you, Anne Boonchuy?” The lone figure asked impassively.

“Yeah.” She admitted. “You intervene if one of us is about to ‘spoil’ something verbally, right?”

They nodded. “I do. Though it seems you and the others have occasionally found ways around that. Please stop.”

“Would you intervene if someone here physically attacked someone else?” She questioned, ignoring the lone figure’s request.

They tilted their head at Anne’s question, eyeing her with a blank stare. “…Are you planning to attack someone?”

Anne threw up her hands and quickly shook her head. “Oh! No! Not me!” She clarified. “But… I am worried someone else might be.”

The lone figure blinked slowly before answering. “Anything that would result in serious injury or worse will be prevented, but minor scuffles will not.” They told her. “Does that answer your question?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “It does. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” They told her. “I would suggest you take care of anything you wanted to do before the end of the break. It will be ending soon.”

Anne nodded and turned to leave. As she passed by the table, she felt someone grab her arm. She was startled and quickly turned to see who it was. Luz was there with a look of concern on her face. 

“I have something to show you.” Luz told her worriedly.

Luz quickly pulled her aside away from the other and showed Anne her tablet. On it, was a shot depicting what looked like a page from Journal 3. In the center, there was a wheel of symbols surrounding a triangular figure.

“Woah…” Anne commented. “What is this?”

“This image appears right at the end of the theme song for Gravity Falls.” Luz explained. “I landed on it accidentally when playing around with the rewind function.”

Anne’s eyes widened in realization. “This is what everyone in the Mystery Shack crew freaked out about when we started their show!”

Luz nodded. “I think so too. This symbol means something. It’s even on their door, except the triangle guy is missing there. However, that’s not the only thing I wanted to show you.” She explained. “I found something else. Something I’m worried to ask Dipper and Mabel about.”

“What else is there?” Anne asked. 

Luz pointed to a jumble of letters next to the wheel. “Another code.”

“Shouldn’t you be telling the other code-breakers about this?” Anne asked. 

“I was going to.” Luz claimed. “Until I solved it.”

“Really?” Anne gasped. “What’s it say that has you so worried?”

“I just wanted to practice, then tell everyone about the second code.” She admitted. “As for what it says…” Luz trailed off, before pulling out the paper she had been working on.

Anne took the paper and opened it up to read it. 

“STAN IS NOT WHAT HE SEEMS.”

Gasping, Anne looks back up to Luz’s worried face.

“Anne. What should I do?” The witch apprentice asked. “Do I ask Dipper and Mabel about this?”

Anne shook her head. “As much as I want to, we shouldn’t.” She told the Afro-Latina girl. “Even if they do know what this means, there’s no way they would be able to give us any answers.”

Luz nodded and sighed. “You’re right. Darn spoilers”

Anne opened her mouth to say something else, but was cut off by the lone figure raising their voice. 

“Everyone! The break will be ending shortly. Please wrap up what you’re doing and return to your seats.” Their voice echoed through the main theater and three waiting rooms. Soon after, the main theater filled with the sounds of everyone grabbing their things and trash as they prepared to get back to watching the shows.

“Dang.” Anne frowned. “Outta time.”

“What now?” Luz asked.

“For now, let’s keep this between us. We’ll decide what to do during the next break. Sounds good?”

Luz nodded. “Probably for the best. I gotta drop some stuff off in my waiting room. See you soon.”

The two girls bid each other goodbye and left to wrap up the break. 

Soon, everyone had cleaned up and had returned to their seats. 

The lone figure stepped in front of the screen and held up a hand to call for silence. 

“Now that you’ve all had a chance to eat and touch base with those in the waiting rooms, it is time to really start getting into the three series. We will start this next batch with three Gravity Falls episodes. For the first two, we will only have discussions after the episodes.” They explained. “However, for the last one we will be doing something special. For Episode 4, The Hand That Rocks The Mabel, I will allow you all to react to the episode live, as well as discuss it after its end. We'll move on to some Amphibia and Owl House episodes after that."

The lone figure smiled dramatically. “Now then, Shall we begin?"

Chapter Text

—The Main Theater—

The lone figure smiled dramatically. “Now then, Shall we begin?"

“Hold on!” Mabel interrupted. “What’s episode 4? Why does it have my name in it?”

“Yeah. What about the other two episodes?” Dipper asked. “What are their titles?”

The lone figure rolled their eyes before responding. “The other episodes are called ‘The Legend of the Gobblewonker’ and ‘Headhunters’.”

Dipper and Mabel eyes widened at the first title. The direct mention of the gobblewonker made it clear the episode covered their first trip to the lake. ‘Headhunters’ was less clear, but assuming the events were in chronological order…

“Is ‘Headhunters’ the Wax Museum incident?” Dipper asked the lone figure.

“Wax Museum?” Anne asked suddenly. She and the Plantars shared a quick concerned look with each other.

“That sounds pretty interesting.” She quickly said, as casually as she could. “Could you tell us more about that?”

The lone figure held up their hand. “You will see what occurred during the episode.” They explained, cutting off Anne’s line of questioning.”

“Hey wait.” Mabel interrupted once again. “If ‘Headhunters’ is the wax museum, then that would mean the episode with my name in it is…”

Her eyes widened comically and she groaned exasperatedly. “Noooooooo… Not that! Anything but that!”

“What? What is it?” Luz concernedly asked. “Is it really bad?”

“The worst…” Mabel moped. 

The lone figure sighed and held up another hand. “I’m sorry, Mabel. It is an important event during your journey. If it makes you feel better, you will not be the only one here who will relive something uncomfortable before you all go home.”

Almost everyone winced as they suddenly thought of their own events that were going to be broadcast to everyone else.

“Now…” The lone figure continued. “If there are no other questions. We should begin.”

When no one objected, the lone clapped their hands, darkening the room and activating the screen in front of the group. 

****

Gravity Falls

Season 1

Episode 2

Legend of the Gobblewonker

Dipper and Mabel learn about the photo contest after their syrup race. Shortly afterwards, Stan enters and tells them it’s Family Fun Day. 

The kids recall the previous family bonding time.

“You call that Ben Franklin? He looks like a woman!”

“Oh… The county jail was so cold.”

“Now, who wants to put on some blindfolds and get into my car!?”

“Yeah!!! Wait… what?”

After a short, but harrowing car ride, Stan reveals it’s fishing season. Stan has never had fishing buddies before and wants the kids to join him. 

Dipper and Mabel desperately do not want to be on a boat for 10 hours with only themselves, Stan and a joke book.

“I seen it! I seen it again!”

McGucket appears, disrupting everything and everyone at the docks as he rants about a monster! A bald man in goggles is seen picking something up.

“The Gravity Falls Gobblewonker! Come quick! Before it scamdoodles away!”

After finishing his warning, McGucket is laughed off by everyone. His own son is disappointed in him, and the hillbilly man slumps away sadly. 

Dipper, however, believes him and ropes Mabel into joining him on their first monster hunt for the photo contest, with Mabel vividly imagining what she would spend her half of the prize money on. 

Soos arrives and volunteers his boat for the monster hunt. The twins quickly ditch Stan to hang out with Soos and hunt the Gobblewonker. 

Stan huffed grumpily at the reminder of this day, causing the twins to wince guiltily.

“Sorry, Grunkle Stan.” Mabel muttered quietly.

Stan sighed and patted both kids on the head.

“Eh. Water under the bridge, you two.” He whispered to them. “You made it right in the end.”

Dipper gives a pep talk and reveals a multitude of cameras to be prepared for finding the Gobblewonker. However, due to Soos and Mabel’s antics, the group quickly loses several cameras.

Stan watches in jealousy not far off and starts harassing other boats to try and find new fishing buddies.

“My ex-wife still misses me…. But her aim is getting better!”

As Dipper, Mabel, and Soos approach Scuttlebutt Island, Mabel shows off her ventriloquist skills with a pelican. After a brief argument over Mabel’s duties as lookout, the trio abruptly arrive on the island. 

Dipper imagines what he would do once he successfully takes a picture of the Gobblewonker.

Stan turned to glare at Dipper, who only laughed weakly in response.

“Uh… sorry?” The boy offered.

Stan rolled his eyes and went back to watching.

The trio hear the distant roaring again and get excited about tracking down the monster. Upon seeing a silhouette of the beast, they quickly approach cameras flashing, only to discover that it’s a wrecked ship and the distant roaring was actually a beaver with a rusty chainsaw. Dipper and Mabel begin to consider that maybe McGucket was crazy after all. 

Dipper worries about what they’ll say to Stan. They ditched him for an apparently fake monster. 

Dipper’s concern is cut short as the Gobblewonker actually arrives. Dipper excitedly takes pictures of it swimming around, but Mabel and Soos worriedly back away as the beast swims towards them. 

The Gobblewonker quickly proves hostile, leading to a chase as the trio run back to their boat as the creature plows through the trees to get to them.

The three safely reach the boat, but the Gobblewonker is hot on their trail. As they panickedly pull away, it follows them into the water and continues to give chase.

The moment is interrupted as the Gobblewonker chases the monster hunting team through the scene. 

Soos is compromised as the trio run into the beavers again and Mabel takes over driving the boat.

The chase wreaks havoc throughout the lake as everyone’s boat is capsized by the creature passing underneath.

The chase becomes desperate as the trio have been forced down a river with no way out.

Dipper tells his sister to drive into the waterfall at the end, as there might be a cave behind it. 

Thankfully there was a cave, and the chase ends as the Gobblewonker becomes trapped in the cave entrance, unable to attack them. 

Dipper excitedly takes all the pictures he wants of the creature, but the trio’s celebration is cut short as a chunk of broken stone lands on the creature’s head revealing the creature to actually be mechanical.

Investigating closer, the trio find the old man that told them about the monster in the first place inside, attempting to pilot the mechanical beast.

McGucket explains his motivation of wanting his son’s attention.

“You just don’t know the lengths us old-timers go through for a little quality time with our family.”

Dipper and Mabel realized they shouldn’t have ditched Stan so rudely.

McGucket reveals that he is a robotics genius despite his hillbilly appearance. 

Dipper and Mabel track down Stan and apologize to him. Stan forgives them and the three of them, plus Soos spend the rest of the afternoon together fishing and taking pictures together. 

As they drive back to shore together, something bumps the boat. The twins briefly question it before brushing it off. The shot pans down, showing that the bump caused the last camera to be sent overboard, and it is quickly eaten by a real Gobblewonker. 

The end credits play, showing an extended sequence of Mabel’s ventriloquist skills with the pelican.

QHAW ZHHN: UHWXUQ WR EXWW LVODQG.

****

As the credits ended, the screen cut off, and the lights came on once again, Dipper grabbed his head and yelled.

“Oh my Gosh! There was actually a real Gobblewonker!? Noooo…” The boy mourned.

Mabel patted his shoulder to comfort him. “There, there, bro. We can get ‘‘em next summer.” She offered.

“I’m surprised you kids didn’t try to convince me to take you on the monster hunt by mentioning the cash prize involved.” Stan cut in, leaning back in his chair to stretch. “I still wouldn’t have gone for it, but I’m disappointed you two didn’t try offering to cut me in on the money.”

“Yeah, but we were trying not to cut anyone else in.” Mabel confessed. “We didn’t even tell Soos about the money when he was driving us around.”

“Just happy to be included.” Soos offered.

“I take it back. I’m proud of both you knuckleheads.” Stan amended his previous statement, giving both kids some affectionate noogies.

Polly chuckled to herself before muttering quietly to Anne. “Oh man. I wish I could see the looks on Ally and Jess’ faces! I wonder what they thought of the robot?.”

“I wonder if we will see that old coot again?” Anne whispered back to her.

“So it’s not just supernatural creatures in Gravity Falls.” Luz observed. “Robots too?” She asked the Mystery Shack crew. 

“More or less.” Wendy commented.

“The town’s got like… a little bit of everything.” Soos added.

“If it’s weird…” Mabel started. 

“You can probably find it in Gravity Falls.” Dipper finished.

Eda leaned over and whispered to Luz. “Hey, kid. That creature that ran off with their lantern… Was that what I thought it was?”

Luz giggled and nodded. “Yeah. That was a possum. I told you they were real. They’re just native to the human realm is all.”

“Huh. I guess myths on the Boiling Isles are caused by a little of your world leaking into ours.” Eda realized.

“It sucks that your camera went overboard.” Polly said. “All those family pictures are gone.”

“Nah.” Mabel waved off the pollywog’s concern. “Dipper knows the trick to opening those disposable cameras. He has this paranoid habit of taking the film out once it’s used up in case something happens to the camera. In this case, it worked out.” She explained to the group. 

“The only thing that went overboard was an empty shell.” 

Dipper added. “We were able to get all those photos developed!”

“Oh thank goodness.” Luz uttered, sounding relieved. “Those looked like fun pictures. But… how did you get the film out without ruining the pictures?”

“I have a lot of practice.” Was the only explanation Dipper offered. 

“So. That hillbilly dude is actually an insane robotics genius?” Polly asked. “You… uh… keep in touch with him? Because I’d like to see more of that!”

“Oh yeah…” Dipper answered as nonchalantly as he could. “We ran into him a few times during our stay in Gravity Falls…”

“Does he ever get to reconnect with his son?” Hop Pop asked. 

“You’ll have to wait and see.” Mabel told the old frog. 

“Hey King.” Hooty whispered into King’s ear to get the baby titan’s attention.

“Gah! Hooty!” King jumped, startled at how close Hooty had gotten without him realizing. “What do you want?!”

“What do you bet that old guy ends up being important?” Hooty asked excitedly. 

King scoffed. “That old coot? As if.”

“Oh yeah?” The bird tube challenged. “How about we wager something on it?”

“Interesting…” King said as he pondered if he should. “Alright, Hooty. You’re on. How about if I win, you’re my bodyguard for a month. If you win, I’ll catch bugs for you for a month.”

“Oooh! Deal!” Hooty agreed, before putting his face into King’s hand and shaking his entire body.

King shuddered as Hooty retracted back into the door, before leaning back into his chair. “Oh yeah. I got this in the bag.”

Meanwhile, the conversation continued around King. 

“You know, it was a bit mean of you kids to ditch your uncle like that.” Eda pointed out.

The twins sighed guiltily. “We know…”

“And you!” She adds, pointing at Stan. “I know you were lonely because your family ditched you, but did you really think it was a good idea to resort to bothering other people? Especially someone else’s kid.”

She snorted. “Although, I gotta admit, that joke about the ex-wife was pretty funny.”

Stan grinned before responding. “You liked that? I got a million of ‘em! Why you and I talk over the next break and—”

Eda snorted again. “Still not remotely interested.”

As Stan grumpily crossed his arms in a huff, Dipper turned to everyone else. “Hey so, I was distracted by the fact that there’s a real Gobblewonker in the lake. Did anyone else get the code?”

Sprig held up his tablet. “Been talking to Wit!” He announced. “They copied it down.”

“We can talk to them outside of code-breaking meetings?” Luz asked out loud.

“Sort of.” Sprig shrugged in response. “Only messages dealing with the codes are going through. Everything else is blocked.”

“Hey Mabel.” Luz calls out to the girl in question. “Think you can teach me a bit of ventriloquism? I’d love to be able to try it myself.”

“Let’s talk at the next break!” Mabel agreed. “I’ll see what I can teach you!”

At this point, the lone figure stepped back in front of the screen and clapped to get everyone’s attention.

“At this point, I’m going to go ahead and bring an end to the current discussion.” They announced to the group.

“If you have anything else to say regarding this episode, please save it for the next break, as it is time to begin the the third episode”

“Wait.” Anne interrupted. “This is the one with the ‘wax museum incident’ Dipper mentioned, right?

“Yes.” The lone figure confirmed.

“Cool. Just checking.” Anne replied, drawing weird looks from those not in the Amphibia group. 

When there were no further interruptions, the lone figure stepped aside and began the next episode with a clap of their hands. 

****

Gravity Falls

Season 1

Episode 3

Headhunters

Dipper and Mabel are watching an episode of Ducktective when Soos enters to excitedly share what he found with the twins. Soos leads them to the secret room he found while cleaning in the shack, revealing a secret Wax Museum. The kids briefly mistake Stan for a wax figure, allowing him to accidentally scare them. 

After the theme song, Stan shows off the Gravity Falls Wax Museum. He goes around, naming individual figures, though he clearly doesn’t know a few of them. 

“…some kind of, I don’t know, goblin man.”

Stan attempts to show off his personal favorite figure, but unfortunately, Wax Abraham Lincoln is revealed to have been melted. Stan ponders how to fix a wax figure, leading to Mabel offering to make a new one to replace the destroyed figure.

As Mabel ponders what to make, she is inspired by Dipper’s encouragement and Stan’s timing to recreate Stan as a Wax figure. 

The show cuts to the grand re-opening of the Wax Museum. Stan proudly unveils the newest wax figure.

Himself.

Mabel takes questions from the audience. Old Man McGucket introduces himself before asking his question. A bald man in goggles is briefly seen walking offscreen in the background.

When it’s revealed Stan lied about free pizza, the crowd briefly riots before leaving angrily. 

“I think that went well.”

Later that night, as everyone prepares for bed, Stan discovers that Wax Stan has been… MURDERED!

Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland declare the case unsolvable and mock Dipper for being a city boy when he offers to help. Dipper resolves to solve the case with Mabel to prove he knows what he’s doing.

Dipper concludes that the perpetrator has to be someone who was attending the grand opening. The twins quickly find two clues. Footprints with a hole in them and an axe. 

The axe leads Dipper to suspect Manly Dan of being the perpetrator and the Mystery Twins quickly leave to go question him. 

“This seems like the kind of thing a responsible parent wouldn’t want you doing.”

“Good thing I’m an uncle!”

It’s revealed that Manly Dan is not the murderer, but the lumberjack reveals that the axe is left-handed. The twins go through a montage of checking the other suspects of left-handedness, until there is only one suspect left. 

It quickly cuts to that night, as Dipper and Mabel team up with the police to arrest Toby Determined. The twins share their reasoning for suspecting Toby. Unfortunately, Toby has video evidence to back up his alibi.

“Finally, we can be alone, cardboard cut-out of female news reporter Shandra Jimenez!”

The police reveal that the ax has no fingerprints on it, and mock the twins for wasting their time.

At the funeral for Wax Stan, Stan runs off inconsolable and Soos follows to comfort him, leaving the twins alone in the room with all the wax figures. As Dipper doubts his abilities as an investigator, he notices a hole in Wax Stan’s shoe. After Mabel points out that all the wax figures have that hole for connecting to their stands, Dipper reaches a horrifying revelation.

“Mabel! The murderers are—”

“…Standing right behind you.”

“Wait, What?!” Stan yelped, genuinely shocked.

“No interruptions.” The lone figure told him. 

The wax figures reveal their cursed origins after Stan stole them from a haunted garage sale. They enjoyed having free reign of the Shack while Stan slept, but after he closed the museum and locked the wax figures away, they resolved to have their revenge. 

“But we got the wrong guy…”

“Good lord!” Stan yelped again. “They wanted to kill me for rea—”

His voice was silenced as a null symbol appeared over his mouth.

“No speaking until the end.” The lone figure sternly reminded everyone.

Since Dipper and Mabel figured them out, they reveal they plan to kill the kids to protect their secret and eventually Stan as well to rule the night once again.

The twins realize they can defend themselves by melting the wax figures and the two groups quickly fight, with Dipper and Mabel taking out several wax figures in quick succession.

Sherlock Holmes quickly separates Dipper as the two duel to the death. Outmatched, Dipper ducks out the window and retreats to the roof. Holmes gives chase and successfully disarms and corners Dipper.

“Any last words?”

“Um… You got any sunscreen?”

Holmes is shocked Dipper managed to outwit him by leading him outside right before the sun was about to rise, as his wax form melts.

The kids tell Stan they solved the crime and retrieved Wax Stan’s head and get to rub it in the cops’ faces. 

It’s shown that Wax Larry King’s head is in the vents.

The end credits show a scene of Wax Larry King suggesting what sweater Mabel should wear.

KH'V VWLOO LQ WKH YHQWV.

****

As soon as the screen turned off, the null symbol over Stan’s mouth vanished, allowing everyone to hear him scream, which he had apparently been doing the entire time since the lone figure silenced him.

“—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! SWEET BABY MOSES! I had those things in my house for years! They were alive the entire time?!”

He grabbed at his throat. “They… oh my god… they were planning to kill me…”

Dipper and Mabel patted him on the back.

“Grunkle Stan. You saw Wax Larry King with your own eyes at the end of summer. How are you surprised by the fact they were alive?” Dipper asked.

“I…” Stan took a breath and dry-heaved a bit. “I thought he came to life after the fact during… That it had something to do with what was happening at the time. I didn’t realize the wax figures had been alive the entire time.” Stan explained.

While the Mystery Shack crew calmed Stan down, the Plantars were huddled up, having a hushed conversation.

“So what do you guys think?” Anne asked the other Plantars.

“That almost played out the way the events at the Curiosity Hut did.” Hopadiah pointed out. “The wax statues turned out to be alive and desired vengeance.”

“Yeah, but Dipper and Mabel didn’t have doppelgängers in Amphibia… and they didn’t have versions of us in Gravity Falls.” Sprig added. “Things ended differently each time too. The Curator died while Stan lived.”

“That’s not all.” Polly whispered, cutting in. “The Curator knew his wax figures were real, and based on Stan’s reaction…”

The Plantars looked over at the Pines family where Stan was beginning to calm down.

“….Yeah, uh, that’s not the reaction of someone who knew about the living statues in his home.” Polly deadpanned. 

Anne groaned. “Part of me wants to say he’s faking to throw us off, but there’s no way he could know our encounter with the Curator. I wish we could stop getting mixed signals about this guy.”

While the Pines Family was busy comforting Stan, and the Plantar family apparently were engulfed in a private conversation, the Owl House residents sat in silence amongst themselves. Except one.

Luz Noceda watched the Pines family as Stan recovered and calmed down.

“Not what he seems…” She whispered to herself. “So, what does he seem like?”

The problem with that question Luz mused to herself, was that it was very open ended. Stan seemed to be a lot of things. So in which way was Stan not what he seemed? Not what he seemed in one sense? Or in every sense? Something in between?

Right now, Stan kinda reminded her of when she first met Eda. Maybe a bit rougher around the edges, but the two had a lot in common. She huffed. She didn’t have enough information to figure this out. 

Stan took one last deep breath and slowly released it before leaning back in his chair and groaning. “Okay…. I think I’m good now. Thanks.”

“Are you good to start the discussion now, or do you need more time?” The lone figure asked him. 

“There’s a certain gesture I’d like to share with you.” Stan told the lone figure. “But there are children around, so let’s just continue.”

“I’m not sure how accurate their personalities were compared to the real people most of them were based on!” Luz started. “But you outsmarted Sherlock Holmes himself!” She cheered. “Though granted… he was the only outright fictional figure out of all of them, at least that I could see, so who’s to say how smart he actually was.”

“You two are great fighters!” Polly added. “You basically took on a bunch of adults and won! You two would do well in Amphibia!

“Not to mention your investigation skills, Dipper!” Anne added. “If it wasn’t for the fact the true culprits were supernatural, you probably would’ve solved it on your first try. Though next time, don’t make a habit of assuming your current suspect is the perpetrator before you even talk to them.”

“Anne and I may have some experience in that.” Sprig added, bashfully. 

“You did good, kids.” Stan told them. “I thought you guys were just horsing around at first, but you two did me a huge favor by getting rid of those things. Even if I hadn’t accidentally ticked them off by putting them into storage, who knows when they would’ve decided to off me to have the house to themselves.”

“Aw, you guys.” Mabel said with a little wave.

“So, Stan.” Eda addressed the man. “You realize that guy who was trying to sell you the wax figures probably let you rob him, right?”

“What? Nah.” Stan denied. “I’m just that good.”

“You told him you were gonna rob him to his face.” She deadpanned. “And he was clearly desperate to get rid of the darn things. Tell me… when you went to steal them, did the salesman seem to ignore you for a weirdly long period of time while you loaded up each figure for transport?” Eda smugly asked him.

“No!” Stan insisted, before sighing dejectedly after a minute. “…darn it, yes.”

“I’ve got a question about Manly Dan.” Sprig said. “He seems really… aggressive? Is he a werewolf? He’s really hairy like the mailman Soos thought was a werewolf. He caught a fish with his bare hands in the last episode, and he attacked a clock at night for no clear reason?”

“No. My dad just really cares about being seen as manly.” Wendy told the frog boy.

“Woah!” Luz exclaimed. “That’s your dad?! Wait, so those three boys fishing with him in the previous episode must be…”

“Yup! Those are my brothers!” Wendy nodded. “I’m the eldest.”

“Who’s the skinny guy that seems to be following your dad around?” Polly asked. “The one who shows up to cheer whenever your dad starts beating something up.”

“Oh that’s just Tyler.” Stan answered on Wendy’s behalf. “He’s a self proclaimed ‘enthusiasm enthusiast’. He likes watching people fight.”

“Since we’re asking about townsfolk.” Hooty’s voice drew everyone’s attention to the back of the room where he was attached to the Owl House waiting room door. “Who’s the bald guy in goggles? He seems important! Hoot Hoot!”

“Who?” King asked. “I don’t remember seeing anyone like that.”

Hooty shot out of his door, extending towards Dipper faster than almost anyone could react. With a yelp, Dipper was snatched out of his chair and tossed into the air, flipping over, and landing on his butt on the floor.

“Ow! What the heck was that for?!” Dipper questioned, annoyed. He turned to glare at Hooty, only to see Hooty had retrieved his tablet and was repeatedly smacking his face against it. 

Hooty stopped beating himself against Dipper’s tablet after a few moments and turned to the lone figure. “Hoot! Can you put this on the big screen, Mr. Lone figure ma’am?”

The lone figure nodded silently and snapped their fingers, apparently pulling up what Hooty wanted everyone to see, which was two screenshots of a bald chubby human, wearing goggles and wearing a gray jumpsuit.

“Ohhh. Him” Dipper responded, sitting back down after he retrieved his tablet. “Sorry. There’s not much to say about him… yet.” Dipper told everyone, muttering the last part under his breath. There was no way to talk about Blendin without triggering the spoiler effect.

“So Dipper, Mabel.” Luz called out to them to get their attention. “What was it like to have Wax Larry King living in your vents?”

“We didn’t know he was there for the longest time.” Mabel responded. “We found him towards the end of summer though. Not sure where he is now. Probably out in the woods somewhere.”

“That’s too bad.” Anne commented. “It would've been interesting to set up a Larry King interviews Larry King situation with the real one.”

“You would be pressed for time to do that once you all get your memories back in November of 2020.” The lone figure casually commented. “Since the real Larry King passes away at the start of 2021.”

“Wait, what do you—” Someone started to ask before the lone figure kept going, speaking over them.

“Anyways, I believe it’s time to end this discussion and begin the last Gravity Falls episode for this batch.” They explained. “As previously mentioned, we’re doing something special for this episode. I am allowing you all to speak and discuss during the episode itself. The episode will pause if a discussion is long enough and will resume playing once you are all focused on watching again.” They explained to everyone. “There will still be a post-watch discussion afterwards, so you don’t push yourselves to explore every topic of conversation before the end of the episode. Afterwards, there will be a batch of Amphibia episodes to watch.”

Everyone was too distracted by the news of the real Larry King’s death to object to the lone figure starting the next episode right away. So, with another clap, the screen started back up and the episode began. 

****

Gravity Falls

Season 1

Episode 4

The Hand that Rocks the Mabel

The episode begins with Stan with a tour group just about to end.

“For tonight’s final illusion, we have the incredible sack of mystery. When you put your money in, it mysteriously disappears!”

“There’s no way that’s gonna work.” Eda scoffed. “That’s way too obvious!”

The crowd enthusiastically shove money into the bag without a second thought. 

“Oh come on!” The Owl Lady yelled at the screen. “I would’ve lost most of my customers if I tried being that obvious.”

Stan chuckled to himself. “Tourists are a special brand of gullible.”

Meanwhile inside the Shack, Dipper, Mabel, and Soos are watching TV, when it cuts to commercial.

“Hey look! It’s that commercial I was telling you guys about.”

“Urgh….” Mabel groaned as the commercial for Gideon started. “Here we go…”

Anne and Luz shared concerned looks. What in Frog and Titan’s name was going to happen this episode?

“Gideon?”

“What makes him so special?”

“He’s a psychic!”

“Psychic?” Eda questioned. “So this ‘Gideon’ supposedly has skills similar to someone in the oracle coven?”

“I don’t know what the ‘Oracle Coven’ is, but he claims to be able to see the future and read minds.” Dipper clarified. 

“Given the way your sister is acting, I assume he’s not a friend, at the very least.” Eda observed. “And those abilities are not a great combination for an enemy to have.”

Gideon’s commercial implies Stan is a fake. The commercial invites the viewer to Gideon’s Tent of Telepathy!

“Who’s Carla?” Hop Pop asked as the disclaimer finished. 

None of the Mystery Shack crew had an answer for him.

Mabel is curious about the Tent of Telepathy, but Stan puts his foot down, revealing that ever since Gideon came to town, he’s had nothing but trouble. A quick example of Gideon’s tour bus stealing Stan’s parking space is shown .

“Gideon…” Stan growled angrily at the same time as his on screen self.

Dipper suggests that they go and find out if Gideon’s an actual psychic, but Stan forbids it.

“No one that lives under my roof is allowed under that Gideon’s roof!”

“Do tents have roofs?”

“I think we just found our loophole…”

“We shouldn’t have found that loophole.” Mabel muttered angrily. “We should’ve just stayed away.”

“Maybe listen to your Grunkle Stan next time, when I tell you two to stay away from something.” Stan grumbled.

“So come down soon, folks. Gideon is expecting you.”

“Well, that sounded ominous.” Luz observed. “This Gideon person is starting to make me nervous.”

After the theme song, the episode picks up at the Tent of Telepathy. Bud Gleeful stands by the entrance holding out a sack.

“Step right up there, folks! Put your money in Gideon’s psychic sack!”

“You gotta be kidding me?!” Eda yelled, throwing her hands up. “How dumb are these people?!”

Stan chuckled and leaned back smugly. “Pretty dumb!” He commented. “But it does put food on the table.”

“Is that guy the ‘Bud Gleeful’ you mentioned earlier?” Hop Pop asked Stan.

“Yeah. That’s him.” Stan confirmed.

“He really does sound like Mayor Toadstool!” Hop Pop replied, astonished.

It’s shown Dipper, Mabel, and Soos are already inside and Dipper compares the place to the Mystery Shack.

“They even have their own Soos!”

“Freaky.” Sprig observed.

“Soos.” Anne leaned over to get the handyman’s attention. “Are you also a twin?”

Soos shook his head. “No. Don’t know who that dude was. Never saw him again either.”

The show begins and Mabel gets excited.

“Let’s see what this ‘monster’ looks like.”

Booming footsteps are heard as Gideon’s massive silhouette is seen drawing closer. The curtains pull aside to reveal…

“A child?” Eda questioned disbelievingly. “Your bitter rival… is a child? You can’t be serious!” She exclaimed, laughing and turning to the Pines family, but mostly Stan.

Sprig squinted at the screen as he studied Gideon. “Pretty sure I’m taller than this kid, if you ignore the hair”

“Pretty sure I could push him over easily.” Polly added with a chuckle.

“He is so small, birds on the Boiling Isles would fly away with him.” King laughed, joining in.

Hop Pop was also laughing. “The creatures in Amphibia would eat this kid alive.

“I could eat this kid alive” Hooty attempted to join in on everyone laughing, only for everyone to fall silent to stare uncomfortably at him.”

“Looks can be deceiving…” Stan muttered under his breath. They’d see in time.

Anne and Luz were some of the few not laughing. While everyone else was giggling at Gideon’s appearance, they noticed how the twins were staring at the screen, which had paused on a close up of Gideon’s face. Dipper was frowning at the screen, but Mabel looked extremely uncomfortable at Gideon’s appearance, trying to not look directly at the screen. The two shared an uncomfortable look again. Something was going to go very wrong in this episode.

“Hello, America! My name is lil’ Gideon!”

Gideon goes through a few simple tricks that manage to impress the majority of the audience with the boy’s natural charm. Gideon breaks out into an admittedly decent song and dance number about himself. When he asks everyone to stand, Dipper is shocked that he also stood despite not wanting to stand. Gideon performs several cold reads on members of the audience, giving a surface appearance that he is reading their minds. Including Mabel herself.

“Ugh…” Mabel groaned when she saw she had been wearing a sweater with her name on it. Still, it was somewhat comforting that he hadn’t been stalking her beforehand.

Eda had started to unconsciously nod her head to the beat of the music. “Alright..” she began. “I’ll give the kid a little credit. I can see how he’s your rival. He’s definitely got the charm needed to be a con-artist.”

Hop Pop was full-on clapping along with the music. “This is fun!” He exclaimed before throwing his hands up to sing, “Widdle ol’ meee!”, in time with Gideon on the screen. 

After the end of the show, the twins are discussing the show, with Dipper claiming Gideon was an even bigger fraud than Grunkle Stan, but Mabel found Gideon’s act to be adorable.

“I definitely don’t anymore.” Mabel muttered.

“Alright! I can’t take it anymore!” Anne yelled. “What’s going to happen with Gideon? He seems so harmless, but you all are so tense at every mention of the kid. What’s his deal?”

Gideon pokes his head out of the tent, revealing that he had been spying on the twins.

“Oh, He’s a stalker!” Luz grimaced. “Okay! I get it now.”

“Yup! Same here.” Anne winced at the screen. “My bad.”

Mabel just groaned again at seeing Gideon already spying on her.

Back at the Shack, the twins are goofing off when the doorbell rings and Mabel goes to answer. It’s revealed that Gideon is at the door. Gideon and Mabel begin to hit it off and Mabel covers for Gideon so that Stan doesn’t realize his rival is at his house. Gideon invites Mabel to his dressing room to talk more.

“Should’ve shut the door right then and there…” Mabel winced as her onscreen self got friendly with Gideon.

Gideon impresses Mabel with his dressing room and attempts to flirt with her, which she misses.

“Uh oh.” Polly comments. “I don’t like this.”

Mabel returns to the Mystery Shack and shows off her makeover to her brother. Dipper expresses doubt about Gideon, but Mabel just wants someone to hang out with and do girly things with, and she believes Gideon is that person.

Mabel smiled at that. She was dead wrong about Gideon, but she had met Candy and Grenda. They were her people. They were the people she got to do girly things with.

Mabel and Gideon sit on top of Gideon’s family factory.

“Mabel, when I’m up here, looking down on all them little ol’ people, I feel like I’m king of all I survey. ”

“Guess that makes you my queen!”

Eda sucked in a breath. “Yeah… that’s another red flag. So not only is he a creep, he’s a power-hungry creep.” She observed. “I’m starting to see how this kid is a problem.”

“Told you!” Stan called out from his seat.

Gideon reveals that he really likes Mabel and she attempts to just stay friends, but can’t bring herself to say no outright when he asks her on a date. He hugs her in excitement.

“Are you sniffing my hair?”

“Yeah okay.” Eda said quickly, grossed out. “I’m uncomfortable. Screw this kid!”

“Yeah!” Anne and Luz cheered. 

Wendy stood up. “Teen girl support time! Anne, Luz, get your chairs!” She commanded. The two girls quickly pulled their chairs together in the middle in front of all three groups, while Wendy grabbed Mabel and their chairs. They then sat Mabel down in the middle of their new teen girl support group.

“For the rest of this episode, the three of us are gonna be with you!” Luz told her. “Girl solidarity!”

Dipper and Mabel are playing video games while Mabel explains that she just didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Dipper tells her that it won’t work the way she wants it to, and Gideon’s gonna fall in love with her. 

Mabel wins the game and the doorbell rings. When she answers, she’s startled by a horse, being ridden by Gideon to pick her up for their date.

At the restaurant, it’s shown Gideon is used to getting his way and no one wants to tell him no. 

“Oh great.” Hop Pop crossed his arms. “On top of everything else, the boy is spoiled rotten by everyone in town.”

Back at the Shack, Stan learns of Mabel’s date with Gideon and angrily leaves to put an end to it. 

“Oh good.” Sprig replied to Stan saying he was going to put an end to the dating. “Family to the rescue.”

Stan winced, but said nothing. 

Stan angrily pounds on the door of the Gleeful family home, demanding Gideon to step outside.

“I will pardon nothing!”

Bud Gleeful, Gideon’s father, answers the door, letting Stan inside. Stan announces his opposition to Mabel and Gideon’s relationship, but Bud talks him down and tempts Stan with the promise of sharing the profits from both of their businesses.

Sprig just turned and stared Stan down. “Really?”

“In my defense, I thought Mabel actually liked the little cretin.” The man replied. 

“You know, Stan was right.” Hop Pop stated. “It’s really distracting how much this man sounds like Mayor Toadstool.”

Back at the restaurant, Gideon is busy talking about himself as Mabel is clearly not having a good time. Her lobster snaps at her as she stares at it.

“He’s just… ignoring you.” Anne observed, talking to Mabel. “He begged for this date and he isn’t even making sure you have a good time.”

Gideon declares the date a success and that the next one will be even better. Mabel reminds him that they only agreed to just one date. Gideon responds by very publicly asking for a second date and his fans unknowingly pressure Mabel into saying yes.

“Okay, wow.” Luz winced at the screen. “Couple thoughts! It’s almost impressive how disconnected from reality this kid is. He really didn’t notice how bad of a time you were having.” She spoke in a tone that was not at all impressed. “Also, he absolutely knows what he’s doing asking for a second date in front of his fans like that. Little creep.”

Mabel nodded. “Knowing what I know now? He definitely did.” 

It was nice sitting with Anne, Wendy, and Luz like this. She was feeling better, and she was finding it easier to talk now, with the other three girls supporting her. 

Returning to the shack, Mabel tells Dipper that she wasn’t able to bring herself to turn Gideon down. She only likes Gideon as a friend/little sister and doesn’t want to hurt his feelings turning him down outright. 

“Oh, I definitely am not gonna have that problem in the future.” Mabel said to herself. “Lesson learned!”

Anne and Luz cheered for her. 

At their next date, a boat ride on the lake with McGucket piloting, Mabel tries to go back to just being friends with Gideon. Gideon doesn’t take the hint and asks Mabel out again via fireworks. 

“Welp! Ya can’t say no to that!”

“Screw you, McGucket!” Anne yelled at the screen. 

Back in the Gravity Falls room, Fiddleford winced as he heard his on-screen self deliver that line and Anne yell at him from the main theater.

“I owe that girl an apology-bot.” He told himself.

“Fiddleford. I know you feel bad about this, but please just apologize to her normally.” Ford begged him. “Please don’t build my grand-niece a robot.”

“Nerp!” McGucket told him. “It’s gotta be sincere! And for me, that means a robot!”

Ford sighed in defeat. “At least make it a small one.”

“Mabel, come on. It’s not like you’re gonna have to marry Gideon.”

“Great News, Mabel! You have to marry Gideon!

Mabel runs away in a panic.

Everyone turned to glare at Stan for telling Mabel she had to marry Gideon. Stan winced and held his hands up.

“Alright, I’ll admit it, I wasn’t a good caretaker at that moment, but again, in my defense, I genuinely thought she liked the little creep at the time! I didn’t know he was pressuring her into those dates yet.”

Eda narrowed her eyes at Stan, but lowered her staff that she had been pointing at him. “Well… that’s slightly better, I suppose. But I have my eyes on you.” She threatened him. 

Sprig caught sight of Anne who looked upset with Stan, but didn’t seem as angry as everyone else.

“Anne?” He whispered to her from behind. “Why aren’t you as mad as the others? I thought you’d be all over that?”

Anne winced and glanced away. “Mostly cuz… I don’t really have room to be angry about this specific incident. Sorry again for selling your hand in marriage in exchange for dough, Sprig.” She whispered back. 

Sprig nodded at her. “You already made up for it.”

Dipper finds that Mabel has retreated into her sweater, hiding from the world. Dipper offers to break up with Gideon for her, to which Mabel agrees. 

Anne winced. “Let me guess… didn’t go well.”

“It did not.” Dipper confirmed. 

Dipper tells Gideon that Mabel is breaking up with him.

“So… What you’re saying is… You’ve come between us.”

“You’re not gonna like… freak out or anything, are you?”

“…Of course not! These things happen! Bygones, you know.”

“Oh… he is absolutely going to freak out.” Luz commented.

At Gideon’s home, the boy in question proceeds to freak out, revealing terrible telekinetic power!

“Oh my frog!” Polly screamed. “He actually is psychic! This is terrible!”

“Yeesh!” Eda muttered through clenched teeth. “With that level of control he’s showing, the little creep could probably overpower a few witches I know.”

“This is getting worse and worse!” Hop Pop panicked. “How in frog’s name did you kids stop him?”

Toby Determined calls the Shack and asks Dipper for an interview, to which Dipper quickly agrees. Unfortunately it’s revealed that it’s a trap set up by Gideon who bribed Toby into setting up the fake interview. 

“Oh. That poor woman.” Luz frowned when Gideon handed over Shandra Jimenez’s phone number. “Now she has her own creep to worry about.”

“Thankfully,” Mabel started. “I think Toby just wants the number for the sake of having the number. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t actually plan to call her.”

“Still….” Anne shuddered.

Dipper arrives at the location, only to be confronted by Gideon inside his family’s warehouse full of Gideon merchandise.

“That’s a cult of personality if I’ve ever seen one.” King commented.

“He’s playing with a doll of himself.” Polly cringed at the screen. “Conceited much?”

When Mabel is brought up, Gideon attacks Dipper with his powers, throwing the other boy around.

“But… you’re a fake.”

“Oh, tell me, Dipper. Is this fake?”

“Definitely not.” Eda grunted. “That amulet he’s wearing is nothing but trouble. Where did a human kid even find something like that?” She wondered aloud.

“Oh geez.” Sprig winced as Screen-Dipper was sent flying. “How did you guys beat him?”

“You’ll see.” Mabel responded.

Back at the Shack, Mabel has doubts about having Dipper break up with Gideon in her stead. She asks Wendy for advice, but Wendy gets caught up in remembering all her breakups. It works out however, as Mabel talks herself into seeking out Gideon to break up with him in person.

“Oof…” Wendy grunted. “Sorry about that, Mabel. I got so wrapped up in remembering my past relationships, I completely forgot what you were asking me.”

“I got wrapped up in my own biz, too!” Mabel responded, waving off Wendy’s concern. “Besides! It all worked out.”

Back at the warehouse, Dipper is dodging as Gideon telekinetically hurls random objects of merchandise at him. Dipper charges him, but Gideon simply floats Dipper into the air. 

“She’s never gonna date you, man!”

“That’s a lie!”

Gideon notices a box of scissors and uses his powers to pull out a pair. 

“…and I’m gonna make sure you never lie to me again, friend.”

“He’s planning to cut out your tongue?!” Anne screamed.

“That monster!!” Sprig growled at the screen, shaking a fist. 

The three adults in the room all gaped in horror at the events on screen. 

Stan had never known the details of what happened between Gideon and the kids that night. Just that they had some sort of encounter that went poorly and resulted in the little cretin declaring vengeance upon the family. He hated that he hadn’t been there to protect his family and the guilt of having not been there settled into his stomach.

Hop Pop and Eda felt a sense of protectiveness and righteous anger as they couldn’t help but picture their own charges in Dipper’s situation.

“Forget creep.” Eda growled. “This kid is a full-blown murderer in waiting.”

Mabel arrives and looks through the window, spotting Gideon threatening her brother. She enters just in time to prevent Dipper’s tongue from being cut out, demanding to talk to Gideon. Mabel starts to break up with Gideon in person.

“Uh… Mabel, this probably isn’t the best time to be brutally honest with him.”

Mabel offers to still be his friend.

“Girl! Are you serious?!” Anne yelled. “The little monster is actively strangling your brother!”

“Just watch.” Mabel told her, eyes on the screen. 

“Really?”

Mabel takes advantage of Gideon’s distraction and snatches the gem giving him his powers off his neck.

“No! Not really!”

“Nice! Way to use those feminine charms!” Luz cheered.

Gideon tackles Dipper out the window, causing both boys to begin falling to their apparent deaths. 

Everyone, except Dipper and Mabel, screamed in fear at the sight.

Just before the two hit the ground, they are enveloped in a familiar teal glow. Mabel is revealed to be floating above them, using the amulet to save their lives.

“Listen, Gideon. It’s over. I will never ever date you.”

Stan clutched at his chest, panting heavily. “Good lord, Mabel. Could you have cut that any closer?” He asked his niece between breaths.

Anne and Luz cheered, throwing their hands in the air. “Way to go, girl!” Anne yelled.

“You’ve got cool psychic powers now!” Luz followed with her own call.

“Oh… er…” Mabel stammered. 

Mabel destroys the amulet and Gideon retreats.

“This isn’t the last you’ll see of ‘widdle’ ol’ me.”

“Correction… you had cool psychic powers.” Luz deadpanned.

“Mabel. Why didn’t you hang on to that?” Anne moped.

Mabel shrugged. “I was able to steal it and use it against Gideon. I didn’t want someone to steal it and be able to use it against me.” She explained.

“I guess that makes sense.” Anne frowned. “Still would’ve been cool to hang on to.”

“Also, Dipper and I learned later on in the summer that extended use of the amulet damages your soul.” Mabel added casually. “So it’s a good thing I didn’t keep it.”

Anne and Luz just gulped and nodded silently in agreement. 

“So… He comes back?” Sprig asked Dipper.

Dipper sighed tiredly in response. “Unfortunately…” he confirmed.

“At least he doesn’t have his powers anymore! He’s harmless now!” King cut in.

“Uh… Not that harmless.” Dipper replied. “Very far from harmless, actually.”

Back at the Gleeful home, Bud and Stan are hanging out looking forward to name-brand foods and clown paintings. The moment is ruined when Gideon returns and throws Stan out, with Bud taking Gideon’s side. Stan leaves, but not before stealing their clown painting.

“Ha!” Eda laughed. “Serves them right!”

“Can’t say I disagree.” Hop Pop added. “But why a clown?”

“Why not?” Stan countered. 

At the Mystery Shack, the Pines family commiserate over their shared dislike of Gideon. They share a laugh by mocking Gideon’s psychic gimmick and how they believe him to be harmless. 

The final scene cuts to Gideon’s house, as he adds the finishing touches to a creepy replica of the Mystery Shack in miniature.

“Oh my frog, that’s disturbing!” Anne cringed. “This kid is messed up!”

Gideon plays with the figures of the Pines family, revealing his warped views about each one.

“Oh my titan.” Luz gasped. “He really is detached from reality! How can he believe you love him after you’re the one that broke his amulet?!”

Mabel just groaned, wincing. After watching this massive reminder of her and Dipper’s first encounter with Gideon, she was almost glad that she was going home after this far, far away from Gideon.

“What’re gonna do without your precious amulet?”

“Oh, you’ll see, boy.”

A page showing an entry about a ‘Mystic Amulet’ is shown, before Gideon closes the book, revealing that he is in possession of Journal 2.

“WHAT?!” Luz screamed at the top of her lungs. “HE’S GOT ONE TOO!?”

Everyone was shouting over each other at the revelation of Journal 2, drowning each other out in a cacophony of noise. 

“That’s bad! That’s really bad, right!?”

“What in Titan's name—?!”

“Who wrote these journals?!”

“How many are there?!”

“I fell asleep! Hoot! Why are we yelling!?”

“Where’s Journal 1?!”

“What?! What?! Where did he—?!”

“Grunkle Stan?! I thought you had—?!”

Purple null symbols appeared over everyone’s mouths, bringing sudden silence to the theater. The voice of the lone figure drifted from the back of the theater.

“I understand that was shocking for you all to see, but the discussion was going nowhere with you all speaking over each other like that.”

There was a brief pause before the lone figure continued.

“We only have the end credits left, so I’m going to allow the bonus scene to play out, then I will remove the silence spell from you all and the end of episode discussion will begin. Take this time to calm down so you can continue the discussion in an ordered fashion.” They commanded.

A moment later, the episode continued.

The end credits play, showing a scene of Mabel, Soos, and Dipper goofing off. Stan watches on, confused, before declaring that all 3 are fired.

FDUOD, ZKB ZRQ'W BRX FDOO PH?

****

As soon as the screen shut off, all the purple null symbols faded away, but no one spoke right away. Everyone sat in uncomfortable silence, shooting glances toward the Mystery Shack crew.

“So.” Eda finally broke the silence. “What’s it mean that Gideon has one of those Journals?” She asked Dipper. 

With sigh, Dipper pulled out the replica Journal 3 and stared at its worn cover before answering. 

“Mabel and I used Journal 3 a lot of different ways. Document something that wasn’t already in there, get information on a creature that was giving us trouble, learn some secret about the town itself, but we also sometimes used it to learn about weird magic stuff that we used for our own benefit in some way.” The boy explained. “Given what we know about Gideon, that’s probably the main thing he used his Journal for. His own personal benefit. Any sort of magic object, spell, or creature he could summon would be used solely to try and advance his own plans.”

“What does he even want to accomplish with the ability to do all that?” Luz asked fearfully. 

Dipper and Mabel shared a worried look, before Dipper looked back towards Luz. “I’m not sure I can answer that with the lone figure muting me to prevent ‘spoilers’.” He told her. “But I’m sure you’ll see soon what he’s planning and what he wants.”

“Figures.” Anne frowned, folding her arms. “Still, that does tell us that he is or was a major enemy for you guys.” She told them. She scratched her chin. Was Gideon their Andrias or Core? Maybe not literally, but she suspected the boy was going to play a major role in whatever events played out that summer in Gravity Falls.

Mabel felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Luz looking down at her, worry on the girl’s face. “Just want to make sure you’re okay, Mabel. That was pretty intense and I’m sure you didn’t enjoy having to relive that.”

Mabel gave her a smile and nodded. “I’m doing much better now. The beginning was hard to go through again, but sitting with you and Anne really helped.” Mabel replied.

“I have a question, Dipper.” Sprig cut in, drawing the twin’s attention. “Dipper, do you know how many journals there are? I’m wondering if there’s a Journal 4 or 5?

“Oh!” Dipper perked up. “Yeah, we eventually got solid confirmation that there were only ever three journals.” He confirmed for the young frog. “There’s no other follow-ups past 3, sorry.”

“Ah dang.” Sprig moped. “That would be an amazing twist. New journals popping up.”

“So, three journals.” King followed up. “Two are accounted for, but where’s Journal 1?”

“Who knows!” Stan declared quickly. Dipper shot his uncle a flat look, before rolling his eyes at the man.

“Alright.” Hop Pop called out, taking control of the conversation. “Gideon is actually a huge creep. There’s three journals in total, and we don’t know where the 1st one is.” The elder frog summarized. “Are we forgetting anything?”

“I don’t think so.” Eda replied. “We could talk more about Gideon…” She suggested to the group. Anne, Mabel, and Luz all shuddered in response.

“Can we hold off on that discussion until he shows up again?” Mabel requested. “I’m not ready to talk about him more than we already have.”

“Of course, pumpkin.” Stan told her. He looked up at the rest of the group. “You heard the girl.” He said to them, “I think she has a bit more say than the matter than the rest of us.”

“Yeah yeah.” Eda responded. “In that case, I think we can wrap this discussion for now.”

“Very well.” The lone figure stepped forward. “In that case, it is time to move on to the Amphibia episodes. We will be watching episodes 2 through 5.” They explained to the group. “Something you all should know about Amphibia, is that it has a full season more worth of episodes than the other two series. So I plan to have you all watch more Amphibia episodes per batch than the other two series. At least until we are past the show's first season.”

“That’s a lot of our episodes we gotta watch.” Polly observed. “Can we take a small break before we start? I want some snacks!”

The lone figure nodded. “Of course, but this will not be like the first break. Do not take long.”

With that, everyone stood to refresh themselves and prepare for a long haul of binging a plethora of episodes. 

Before she could reach the door to the Owl House, Luz was stopped by Anne. “Anne? What’s up?” She asked.

“The thing we were talking about at the end of the last break?” Anne started, “Do you mind if I share it with a few people in the Amphibia waiting room? They might be able to give us some advice on what it could mean.” Anne explained.

Luz nodded. “Sounds good. I’ll share the code with a few people on my end.”

The two girls parted ways, off to share what they had learned with their friends.

Chapter Text

—Main Theater—

After several minutes, almost everyone had returned to their seats. Anne was one of the last to return. As she left the Amphibia waiting room, she glanced over her shoulder to look back at the door. She had told Sasha and Marcy about the code Luz had found. Marcy had promised to look for any clues that might help them figure out what it meant. Hopefully, they would soon have a clear answer on Stan.  Was he friend or foe?

Anne shook her head to clear it. While Marcy had agreed to look into it, the girl in turn had made Anne promise not to focus so intently on Stan for a while. Anne was still going to make sure Stan didn’t corner any of the non-human members of the group by themselves, but that was it. Marcy would update her later if she had found anything relevant.

Once she took her seat, the lone figure stepped forward. 

“Now that everyone is ready to start, we will shortly get underway. We will start with episodes 2a and 2b, Cane Crazy and Flood, Sweat, and Tears. Followed by episodes 3a and 3b, Hop Luck, and Stakeout.” They announced to the group. “After that, we’ll watch episodes 4a and 4b. The Domino Effect and Taking Charge. Then we’ll finish with episodes 5a and 5b, Anne Theft Auto and Breakout Star.”

“Pretty sure I know what events those titles are referring to.” Anne commented. “Man. It’s been awhile. Those were over five or six months ago.”

“Anything you can tell us before we see it for ourselves?” Mabel asked the Thai girl. 

Anne shrugged. “Well… I’ve partially mentioned this to Luz so far, but I didn’t used to be the… best person…” She admitted to the group. “Given that I got the music box by shoplifting it, you could probably already guess that. This batch of episodes probably aren’t gonna show me in the best light.” She added, cringing as she finished. “I was kinda selfish and lazy back then.”

“It’s cool.” Mabel told her. “We promise not to judge you if the you on screen does something dumb.”

Anne smiled. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Maybe we should agree to that for everyone?” Luz suggested. “The lone figure did tell us before the Gravity Falls episodes that we will all most likely have things be shown to the group that might be embarrassing or uncomfortable for us.”

“That is true.” Dipper added, thinking about a certain embarrassing dance that would doubtless be shown to the others soon. “So, does everyone agree to that?” 

A round of agreements rang out throughout the room, even from the adults. Similar agreements occurred in the three separate waiting rooms. 

Once that was done, the lone figure cleared their throat. “With that out of the way, It’s time to begin the episodes. We have a discussion at the end of every full episode. I would also like to experiment with allowing small comments from you all here and there, as long as you save the full discussions for the end of each episode.”

With nothing else to say, the lone figure clapped their hands, activating the screen.

——

Amphibia

Season 1

Episode 2a

Cane Crazy

Anne is showing Sprig all the cool human knick-knacks that she had on her when she had been transported to Amphibia. He especially likes a pen, enjoying the sensation of clicking it repeatedly. 

——

“Haha” Luz chuckled. “I know someone who’d love to see all your human stuff.” She told Anne.

“Really?” Anne questioned. “All that magic in the Boiling Isles and there’s still folks interested in just a normal pen?”

“You’d be surprised.” Luz shot back. 

——

Hop Pop calls the kids for lunch. Despite being excited for food, Anne is less than enthusiastic about being presented with her bowl of bug slop. Anne and Hop Pop start sassing each other over Anne’s lack of desire to eat. Frustrated that he can’t think of good comebacks, Hop Pop leaves in a huff to go take a nap. As he leaves, he threatens to throw Anne out if she doesn’t shape up.

——

Stan physically flinched as if punched and shot a glare at the older frog, which went unnoticed by the rest of the group. 

——

After Hop Pop is gone, Anne continues to mock him behind his back, this time with a funny impression, grabbing one of Hop Pop’s canes as a prop. She accidentally snaps the cane in half while playing around with it, to Sprig and Polly’s horror. 

——

Hop Pop grumbled and crossed his arms at the scene. Anne lowered her head and mumbled some quiet apologies.

Hop Pop sighed. “It’s fine, Annne. I shouldn’t be getting mad at you for something you already got in trouble for.” He whispered to her.

——

The two explain to Anne that she just broke Hop Pop’s favorite cane. Fearing that Anne will be kicked out once Hop Pop learns what happened, the three seek out Loggle the axolotl, the local woodsmith to either fix or replace the cane. 

——

“I didn’t know you kids tried to fix it.” Hop Pop commented, mildly surprised. They never told him about visiting Loggle.

——

Loggle can’t fix the cane, but tells them that it was made from the wood of the incredibly rare, very dangerous Doom Tree. He attempts to sell them a map leading to it, but Anne just takes a picture of it, with her phone.

The three reach the Doom Tree. Anne quickly spot a branch that almost perfectly matches Hop Pop’s broken cane, breaks it off with Sprig’s help. 

——

“Wow!” Hop Pop exclaimed. “I had no idea it was made from such a rare type of wood. Though, there doesn’t seem to be that much danger.” He observed. “What’s so dangerous about it to warrant the name ‘Doom Tree’ anyway?”

“Give it a second.” Anne groaned, knowing what was about to happen.

——

Unfortunately, it turns out that the Doom Tree is actually a giant carnivorous bug! It chases the Plantar kids back into town, all the way to Loggle’s wood shop.

Cornered inside the shop alongside Loggle, the kids defend themselves with various objects around Loggle’s shop. 

——

“Oh no!” Mabel commented, dismayed. “That poor man! All that artistry! Destroyed!”

Anne winced at Mabel’s words. She really ruined a lot of Loggle’s carvings here. She really lucked out that he let them off the hook for a pen.

——

Anne eventually finds the one item that might finally drive away the giant wood bug. 

“Why would a woodsmith have termites?”

“I’m a complicated man!”

The termites successfully drive away the giant insect, but the trio’s celebration is cut short as Loggle takes the new cane from them, telling them that they need to reimburse him for his destroyed shop and the cane doesn’t even begin to cover the damages. Sprig offers up the pen in compensation. Enthralled with the sensation of clicking it repeatedly, Loggle lets them go. 

——

“So… Amphibians like pens, huh?” Stan wondered to himself, scratching his chin as he mentally filed the information away. “But how can I use that on earth?”

——

Back at the house, Hop Pop awakens from his nap and finds the kids waiting outside his room, looking sad. Anne admits to breaking his favorite cane and tells him that she’ll show herself out. After some confusion, Hop Pop explains that he was never going to throw her out. He just wanted her to show him some more respect. He admits that he was being too harsh by threatening to throw her out, even if he didn’t mean it. He’s still mad about the cane though, and puts Anne on dish duty for a month. 

End of episode

——

Episode 2b

Flood, Sweat, and Tears

——

Anne and Sprig are outside, clearing bugs out of the family’s farm fields. Sprig sets them up, and Anne knocks them down. Wally walks by and declares their friendship to be unnatural! 

——

“Jerk!” Mabel yelled out.

“Man… they really don’t like you.” Dipper added.

——

“Spranne against the world!”

The two hear Hop Pop scream from inside the house and rush inside to see what’s wrong. They discover the basement has flooded, and Hop Pop explains that something must have chewed through the water pipes and that it won’t be fixed until he finds the leak and patches it up. Sprig offers to help, but Hop Pop turns it down, as the water is pumped straight from the lake and there’s no telling what might be swimming around in it. 

——

“Ooh! A new friend!” Hooty called out when the eye stalks popped up above the water. 

“How the heck were you not attacked, HP?” Anne asked in a whisper. 

“Tell ya later.” He responded to her.

——

Hop Pop tells Anne that she can sleep in the living room until the leak is fixed. Sprig suggests that Anne bunks with him. Hop Pop doubts this is a good idea and starts to rant about a past bad experience, but realizes the two already left.

——

“Oohhh… You were speaking from experience there.” Anne realized, having just now heard the full rant.

——

Sprig shows Anne his room and shows her his handmade action figures. The two break out into pillow fighting, which almost breaks one of the action figures and Sprig moves it to safety before the two continue their fight. During the first night, Anne keeps Sprig up to play ‘Would you Rather?’ and the two squabble over the window, since Anne is too hot and wants it open, but Sprig is too cold and wants it closed. 

——

“This kinda feels familiar.” Mabel wondered quietly.

“Remember the room competition we had?” Dipper reminded her. 

“Oh right!” She realized.

——

The two briefly argue in the morning over the window, and Hop Pop interrupts to point out that the couch is still available. The two are quick to deny that there’s any trouble and go back to being friendly and leave the room.

“They’re gonna eat each other alive.”

“Oh, absolutely.”

A montage of the next several nights plays, showing the different ways Anne and Sprig annoy each other with their individual quirks. Both of them approach Hop Pop separately about how much longer the basement will be flooded, but he still hasn’t found the leak, so it won’t be fixed anytime soon. 

Back in Sprig’s room, the two are clearly on each other’s nerves. Sprig complains about Anne’s dirty clothes, and Anne complains about the wet towels Sprig leaves laying around. After looking through her phone at the pictures the two of them took together, Anne attempts to cheer Sprig up with a pillow fight. However, one of Sprig’s action figures is broken as a result.

——

“Oh no!” Mabel gasped. “Not the doll!”

“Action figure.” Both Dipper and Sprig corrected at the same time. 

——

Sprig stiffly excused himself to the bathroom, but instead rushes down to the flooded basement to find the leak and get Anne out of his room. While he is underwater, Anna also runs in to look for the leak herself. The two freak out at seeing each other. While they argue over who wanted to be rid of who, the two are attacked by a pair of river lampreys.

“Hey Sprig. You set them up…”

“…. You knock ‘em down!”

The two make quick work of the river lampreys, draining the basement in the process. Hop Pop and Polly show up to investigate the noise. Hop Pop correctly guesses that the roommate thing didn’t work out. The two are sad their friendship didn’t work out, before Hop Pop cuts in and points out that sharing a room doesn’t make them friends, it’s being honest with each other. He argues the two are probably better friends now, than before. 

——

“Spranne against the world!” Anne and Sprig cheer alongside their onscreen selves, while high-fiving each other.

——

Anne sets up on the couch and is briefly lonely, before Sprig tosses down a can on a string, allowing them to keep playing ‘Would you Rather?’ The game is quickly interrupted by the flood returning worse than before and the realization that no one ever fixed the leak.

End of episode.

——

The screen clicked off and the lone figure once more stepped in front of the group. “All of you know what to do. I will start the next episode when the group is ready to continue.”

King jumped up to start the conversation. “So what sort of bug was the Doo-“

“Hold on.” Stan interrupted, standing up and turning towards Hop Pop, glaring at the elder frog. “I got something to say to you, Plantar!” The con man told him, jutting a finger out at him. 

“Wha-?” Hop Pop started before Stan cut him off again.

“You must be out of your mind with what you pulled at the beginning!” Stan growled at the frog man. 

Anne imposed herself between the two elderly men, staring angrily at Stan. “What is your deal?!” She yelled at him. “HP didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yeah, he did.” Stan countered, staring Anne down. “And he did it to you, kid. So sit down! You need to hear this too.”

“Huh?” Anne paused, confused. “Are you talking about him claiming he was going to throw me out? Dude! He didn’t mean it! Past me was worried for nothing! I’m fine!”

“The fact you were worried at all is part of the problem!” Stan growled, peering around her to glare daggers at Hop Pop.  “The fact he threatened it at all is the rest of it! Even if he didn’t mean it.” The con man insisted. “You two may not have been that close at the time, but he was your guardian, right?” He asked Anne. 

“I-…Yes.” She confirmed. “What does that have to-?”

“Then that means he had a responsibility to see to your care, even if you got on his nerves.” Stan told her. “He may not have meant it, but he still claimed he would and you were still scared he’d make good on it!” He paused, catching his breath. “A child’s guardian should never make that sort of threat.”

“I…” Anne stumbled with her words, caught off guard by the realization that Stan was angry on her behalf. “Why do you care?” She was finally able to get out. 

Stan stared at her quietly for a moment, before glancing again at Hop Pop behind her, who was trying to make himself as small as possible in the current situation, then answered. “Because some kids don’t luck out with it being an empty threat like you did, kid.” He told her, his tone returning to normal. “Sometimes, the adult in charge does mean it. Sometimes, someone makes good on that threat, and a kid suddenly doesn’t have a home anymore and little to no idea how to take care of themselves.” Stan finished, staring at Anne. Anne stared back, speechless. There was something sad and defeated in the older man’s expression, but before she could ask about it, he looked past her again at Hop Pop.

“You got all that, Planter?” Stan gruffly asked, eliciting quick, repeated nods from Hop Pop. “Good.” Stan told the old frog. “I’ve got half a mind to punch you in the face, but I’m letting you off the hook since you at least admitted you went too far at the end.”

Stan turned and went back to his seat, leaving everyone stunned at what just happened. Eda glanced over at Luz and King nervously. While she’s pretty sure she never threatened to throw them out, she didn’t exactly start out as the best caretaker for these two. She hoped what was shown in their show didn’t set Stan off on her.

Anne just stared in shock at Stan as the old man sat back down. She glanced back at Hop Pop whose face was somewhere between terrified and guilty. She glanced at Stan, who had started to go a little red in the face having just noticed that everyone was now staring at him. 

“Alright!” Stan yelled at the room. “That’s enough! Quit looking at me like I got two heads. You!” Stan pointed at King. “Furry dog kid! What were you gonna ask?” Stan inquired, trying to get the actual discussion going to distract everyone from himself.

“Oh.” King blinked, breaking out of his own shock. “Uh… right! The Doom Tree. What kinda bug was it exactly?”

“Oh right.” Sprig replied, taking over for his grandfather, who wasn’t ready to rejoin the conversation again yet. “We looked it up later in one of Hop Pop’s books. It was called a Stick Bug.” The young frog told the group. 

“No way!” Dipper gasped. “It was so big! Are normal bugs just super big in Amphibia, or something?”

“Pretty much.” Anne confirmed, regaining her composure now that things had calmed down. “It’s even crazier than that, actually. There’s still normal-sized bugs too, and even normal earth animals have bug equivalents on Amphibians. They can be surprisingly similar despite that too. Cow-apillar milk is almost indistinguishable from the real thing.”

“Ew…” Dipper muttered to himself. “I’ll…uh… take your word for it.” He told her, speaking up louder. “Anyways, I wanted to talk about Loggle, the carpenter. He’s an axolotl, right? So Amphibia’s isn’t just frogs?” He asked.

“Oh sure.” Hop Pop nodded. “Newts, toads, and all types of salamanders, like olms and axolotls.” He told them. “You all have already seen two toads, actually. Surprised you didn’t realize.”

“We have?” King asked. “When?”

“Mayor Toadstool, for starters.” Sprig replied. “The other one was Captain Gr—”

Sprig cut out as a familiar symbol appeared over his mouth.

“The scary-looking guy at the end of the first episode.” Anne finished for the young frog. 

“The guy that had your friend, Sasha, locked up?” Mabel worriedly asked. “Oh man. I hope she’s okay.”

While the others talked, Dipper’s mind wandered back to the carpenter the Amphibia kids had met. Leopold Loggle. There was something about him that was giving Dipper the strangest sense of deja vu, but he wasn’t sure what it was yet. 

“So, Hop Pop.” Anne turned to him as the previous topic wrapped up. “I wanted to ask about the river lampreys. You were down in that basement every day for almost a week and they never touched you, but Sprig and I were in the water for less than five minutes, and we got attacked almost immediately. What gives?” She asked. 

“Oh that.” Hop Pop waved a hand at the question. “That looked like a mated pair that attacked you two. It was a matter of timing. River lampreys will fast for several days when getting together. Those two were probably still in their fasting phase while I had been searching, and must have just come out of it when you two went down.” He explained to her and the rest of the group. 

The lone figure cleared their throat. “Do you all have anything left to discuss? If not, I would like to move on to the next episode.” They told everyone. 

Dipper and Mabel shared a look with each other, before nodding at each other and Dipper raising his hand. “We technically have something, but it might be best to save it for a future episode of our own.” Dipper announced. 

“Ooh! Similar experience?” Anne asked. “We gonna see you two getting on each other’s nerves?”

“Ha!” Mabel laughed. “We’re siblings! We already get on each other’s nerves. But yeah, probably!”

“If that’s all, I will begin the next episode.” The lone figure told the gathered group. They clapped their hands when no one said anything else and the screen flicked back to life. 

——

Amphibia

Season 1

Episode 3a

Hop Luck

Anne is showing Sprig and Polly videos of her pet cat, Domino, when they smell a terrible scent. The smell of Hop Pop’s cooking. Inside the house, it’s explained to Anne that Hop Pop is cooking for the annual village potluck. The family who wins is showered with love and copper coins. On the other side, the family with the worst tasting dish spends the night in the Shame Cage! The Planters have lost every single year in recent memory.

——

“Since when are potlucks competitions?” Luz wondered aloud. “Also, a shame cage is a little extreme… Can’t they just say you lost and leave it at that?”

“It’s supposed to encourage the loser to improve their cooking for next year.” Hop Pop explained.

“So why haven’t you?” Eda asked, smugly grinning.

Hop Pop grumbled in response

——

Anne declares that she will not allow the Plantars to end up in the cage again and offers to help. She asks Hop Pop what he’s planning to make and he explains he is using a traditional recipe from the family’s cook book. Anne looks the book over.

“I think I found your problem, guys.”

“Old things are dumb.”

——

“You use that cook book every year, Plantar?” Stan gruffly asked. 

Hop Pop jumped at the sound of Stan’s voice before nervously nodding. “Uh… yes. The annual potluck’s a special occasion. It’s the only time I break out the family cookbook.”

“Did it ever occur to you that might be the problem?” Stan shot back, causing Hop Pop to sigh deeply.

——

Anne convinces the Plantars that to win, they need to make something new. Something no one in the swamp has ever tasted before.

Pizza .

Anne tells them that they need to get four important ingredients to make their own pizza! Dough, basil, cheese, and tomatoes! Sprig suggests putting pineapple on the pizza, resulting in Anne threatening him. 

——

“I know pineapple on pizza is a heated topic…” Luz commented quietly. “But did you have to threaten him?”

“Yes.” Anne replied, deadly serious. 

——

At the bakery, Mr. Flour will only give them the dough in exchange for Sprig marrying his daughter, Maddie. Maddie is shown stabbing a Sprig doll when she greets Sprig. Sprig is obviously not thrilled about this. However, Anne agrees to the deal before anyone can object.

“Sprig’s eternal happiness is a small price to pay for pizza.”

——

“I know we agreed to not judge each other…” Mabel started to say. “But what the heck, Anne?!”

“At least I had the excuse that I genuinely thought Mabel liked Gideon.” Stan commented, eyeing Anne. 

Anne winced. “I know, I know! Like I said, I wasn’t exactly the best person when I first got to Amphibia.”

——

Sprig is surprised by Maddie suddenly appearing behind him. 

“I’ve seen your death in my mind.”

“I was kinda hoping it would be a surprise…”

“It will be.”

——

“Well, that’s worrying….” Eda commented. “The heck is her deal?”

“You know, she never did explain what she meant.” Sprig whispered to Anne. “We should ask her later.”

——

At Mrs. Croaker’s dairy farm, the Plantars have their hands full trying to wrangle a Cow-apillar in exchange for cheese.

——

“I’m not sure I want to know what bug cheese pizza tastes like.” Dipper commented, going a little green in the face.

“I’d be willing to try it!” Luz excitedly offered. 

——

Later, it’s shown the group has successfully gotten the basil, but Anne reveals that they had to fight ten giant aphids to get it. There’s only one ingredient left. Tomatoes. 

Hop Pop mentions that tomatoes are considered dangerous vegetables and suggests using prunes instead. Anne scoffs at the idea that tomatoes are in any way dangerous.

——

“Given the giant bugs and all the other crazy stuff you’ve seen so far since you got there, why are you doubting that tomatoes are dangerous now?” Wendy asked, leaning back in her chair.

“I don’t know.” Anne admitted, embarrassed. “Optimism?”

——

Amphibia tomatoes are revealed to be very different from Earth tomatoes, as on Amphibia, tomatoes are apparently animate carnivorous plants!

——

“Yeah, that’s about what I was expecting.” Dipper admitted. 

“Remember to eat your vegetables, dudes!” Soos commented. “Or else they’re gonna eat you apparently.”

——

The encounter quickly goes south, and the entire group is devoured by the monstrous tomato plant. The other three ingredients are destroyed. Believing this to be the end, Anne apologizes to the Plantars for leading them to their deaths. Hop Pop tells her that he didn’t care about the pizza, but she was genuinely trying to help the family out and that’s worth something in his book. 

Remembering Hop Pop’s old recipe book, Anne asks him if there’s anything in it that could help them in their current situation. The group quickly learns that they can simply just eat their way out of the tomato plant. 

——

“Called it!” Soos celebrated as he pumped his fist. “It’s so awesome when you can eat the monster trying to eat you! Just really turn the tables on them.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re speaking from experience?” Polly asked. 

“Heh heh!” Soos chuckled. “You’ll see!”

——

Biting their way out, the Plantars break free and defeat the tomato plant. Hearing the town bell in the distance, Anne realizes that they are out of time and tells Hop Pop they need to hurry to make one of his old recipes. Hop Pop agrees, but adds they might be able to spruce it up with something a little dangerous, as he eyes the defeated tomato plant. 

At the potluck competition, the Plantars present Hop Pop’s Swamp Mold Pot Pie, with a tomato slice garnish. Mayor Toadstool declares that it is the best tasting thing the Plantars have ever brought to the potluck.

The family celebrates that they’re not going to lose this year!

——

Everyone in the main theater, aside from the Plantar family and Stan and Eda, cheered excitedly.

——

The Mayor quickly corrects them. While it is the best thing they’ve ever presented, it’s still the worst dish at the competition.

——

The cheering quickly turns into frustrated groaning.

“Oh come on!!!” Luz and Mabel yelled out at the screen.

——

Bummed out about losing once again, the family makes their way over to the shame cage once again. Sprig cheers everyone up by pointing out that this is the best they’ve ever done thanks to a combination of Anne’s new ideas and Hop Pop’s old ones. 

Taking comfort in this, the Plantars and Anne happily get into the shame cage, happy to at least be able to share this with each other. The other townspeople begin hurling sludge at the family, with one nailing Hop Pop in the face. 

End of Episode.

——

Episode 4b

Stakeout

——

Anne and Hop Pop are shown disagreeing over several topics, such as the couch, the state of the house, and how long Anne takes in the bathroom. 

Sprig can’t stand their arguing. Polly doesn’t think it’s a big deal. Sprig disagrees, citing their former next door neighbors, the Hendersons.

——

“Good lord!” Stan exclaimed. “The heck happened to them?”

“You don’t want to know.” Sprig replied absentmindedly.

——

Believing that Anne and Hop Pop’s bickering will tear the family apart! Polly thinks they just need time. You can’t force people to get along. 

Sprig gets an idea, and leaves the room in an ominous manner. 

Later in the day, Anne, Hop Pop and Polly are relaxing quietly on the porch. Sprig appears in front of Hop Pop, yelling that the family has been robbed! Sprig shows everyone the missing corn and announces that they must catch the thief! He suggests someone goes on a stakeout to try and catch the thief in the act! He claims the only ones who can go on this stakeout are Anne and Hop Pop!

——

“I smell a set up.” King commented, folding his arms and looking over at Sprig. 

Sprig laughed nervously. “I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

——

After the two leave, arguing about who would fall asleep first, Polly correctly deduces that Sprig stole the corn to force Anne and Hop Pop to spend time together.

——

“I’m sure…” King deadpanned at Sprig, who continued to chuckle nervously. 

——

Later at night, Anne yawns, prompting Hop Pop to chuckle and comment that he knew Anne wouldn’t last. Anne tells him that she’ll be fine. She just needs a little boost, pulling out a human energy drink called Blam Berry Blitz. Hop Pop mocks the idea that the drink will keep Anne up and shows off his own drink in response. Gourd tea. 

——

“Why does that mug have that horrible face on it?” Luz asked, cringing at the screen.

“Because that’s the face you make when you drink it.” Anne responded. 

“Tell me you didn’t…” Mabel asked, turning a little green.

——

The two each claim their drink is stronger than the other drink. This leads to the two of them drinking the other drink in order to prove they can handle it. 

——

“Oh you did!” Mabel winced, disgusted.

“Ha. Yeah, it tasted pretty awful.” Anne laughed, prompting a huff from Hop Pop.

——

Both are overwhelmed by the other’s drink, but it does lead to them briefly bonding. Anne shares her fear that she’ll never get home, and Hop Pop sympathizes with her, with how much he misses the good old days. 

——

“Aw…” Mabel cooed. “How sweet! You two are bonding.”

——

The moment is ruined however, by Anne saying her situation is way worse than Hop Pop’s leading to the two to start bickering again. However, the two are starting to hallucinate. 

——

“Oh noo…” Mabel muttered to herself. “It’s like smile dip all over again!”

“Smile what?” Luz questioned. 

“You’ll probably see in the next batch of our episodes.” Dipper told her, providing no further explanation. 

——

Anne realizes that the two of them are having bad reactions to each other’s extreme beverages. Both begin to blame the situation on each other. 

In the distance, Sprig sees the two arguing again and panics. He decides the best course of action is to steal more corn, which force the two to spend more nights outside over and over again, until they’re the best of friends!

——

“Sprig! Those crops are our livelihood!” Hop Pop exclaimed. “You can’t just go cut them down willy-nilly! We got to sell those!”

“Sorry, Hop Pop…” Sprig bashfully apologized.

——

Back outside, despite arguing and still hallucinating, Anne and Hop Pop spot the corn thief making their way through the field. 

Polly jumps Sprig to stop him from damaging more corn, but the two are interrupted by Anne and Hop Pop cornering them. Unfortunately, due to the hallucination, they are unable to recognize Sprig and Polly, seeing only a single monstrous entity. 

——

“Jeez. You two were out of it!” Hooty observed. “I wonder if either of those drinks would affect a demon like myself?”

“Don’t even think about it!” Eda jumped on the train of thought to cut it off. “Last thing anyone here needs is you experimenting with hallucinogens, Hooty!”

——

The two break out their cool anime powers to fight the corn monster! But it has no effect! They refuse to give up and continue firing lasers at the creature!

——

“Wait, what?” Wendy asked, an eyebrow raised. “I know you two are really out of it, but seriously, what is happening?”

“Just wait. You’ll see soon.” Sprig sighed tiredly. He really didn’t like remembering this next part.

——

Back in reality, Sprig and Polly watch the two in confusion as they simply stand there, posing and making sound effects for their attacks. 

——

The entire room, sans Sprig and Polly, starts laughing their butts off. 

“Oh my frog!” Anne wheezed, clutching her sides. “We look ridiculous, Hop Pop!”

“We do look a right couple of fools!” The old frog laughed heartily.

——

However, the situation turns dangerous when Anne and Hop Pop grab actual weapons and begin chasing the ‘monster’ to kill it!

——

The laughter in the room died instantly, as everyone became horrified at the situation on screen. 

“Good heavens!” Hop Pop yelled. “Sprig! I’m so sorry!”

——

Narrowly avoiding being stabbed, Sprig begs for his life. Anne and Hop Pop, able to hear Sprig’s voice through the hallucination and are able to break out of it and see the truth. 

——

“Oh thank Titan!” Eda swore, relieved. 

Anne and Hop Pop both collapsed into their chairs, utterly relieved.

——

The two truly connect with each, acknowledging they fought side by side, even if none of it was real. The two then, utterly exhausted, pass out. Sprig, terrified at nearly being murdered, also passes out. Leaving Polly the only one awake. She decides to have a drink before dragging everyone inside. She polishes off Anne’s Blam Berry Blitz and starts hallucinating herself. 

End of Episode. 

——

As soon as the screen cut off, before the lone figure could even announce the start of the discussion period, Anne and Hop Pop both tackled Sprig in a hug. 

“Oh Sprig!” Hop Pop wailed. “We’re so sorry! We weren’t ourselves!”

Anne squeezed Sprig close. So many times she nearly lost her froggy family, Sprig especially, and each near-miss made her sick to her stomach. Knowing that one of those near-misses came at her own hands during a mental haze horrified her. She was unable to speak, so she simply settled for trying to let him know how sorry she was by continuing to hug him, as tears streamed down her face.

“Wait.” Dipper started, taking in the sight with everyone else in the room. “Did you two not remember almost stabbing Sprig until just now?” He asked, confused. How could they not remember?

“Right, I can answer that.” Sprig volunteered himself, from where he was sandwiched between Anne and his grandfather. “So, to make a long story short, these two, plus Polly, were completely out of it the next day. It wasn’t until the day after they were 100% back together, and even then, their memories of what happened were kinda patchy. They remembered getting along, and that I was the corn thief, but not brandishing weapons at me. I was the only one who remembered the whole incident, and I knew they would react badly, so I decided not to tell them what happened at the very end.” He explained to everyone. 

“I guess that makes sense.” King awkwardly agreed. “Still, maybe you should have given them a heads up about what happened before they saw it for themselves?”

Sprig just shrugged, still caught between Anne and his grandfather. “I’ve had so many close calls, I kinda forgot about this one, until we were watching the episode.”

After a few minutes, Anne and Hop Pop were able to calm down and finally released Sprig from their wailing apologies. However, two excused themselves from the group to go clean themselves up in the bathrooms in the Amphibia waiting room. 

It was silent for a few moments while the rest of the group waited for them to return, before Luz coughed to get everyone’s attention. 

“So, since Anne is out of the room, it’s probably safe to discuss this now. What’s everyone’s opinion on pineapple on pizza?” The Latina girl asked the group. “Personally, I like it. It’s not my number 1 pick or anything, but every now and then, it's nice to have.”

Wendy and Soos both shrugged noncommittally. 

“I don’t think the average Gravity Falls native has had the opportunity to even try pineapple on pizza.” Wendy told the group. “Town’s pretty small and we’re a little far from the bigger cities, so it’s unlikely we’d get a shipment of tropical fruit in the local grocery store. Maybe if a big name pizza chain sets up in town, we’ll have the opportunity to try it, but I’m not holding my breath. 

Mabel cheered. “I love it! It’s so creative. Tropical fruit on pizza. Absolutely genius!” She told Luz, then jutted a thumb in her brother’s direction. “This dork on the other hand has no taste.”

Dipper huffed and crossed his arms. “Fruit doesn’t belong on pizza. It’s unnatural.”

“Don’t tomatoes count as fruit?” Sprig asked. “I was kinda under the impression that’s a major ingredient for pizza.”

“More than one type of fruit on pizza is unnatural.” He corrected himself.

“Ah!” Mabel exclaimed next to him. “In that case, we’ll be sure to swap the tomato out with pineapple!” She told Dipper, causing him to grumble incoherently. Mabel held up her hand to high-five Sprig, which he returned using his tongue.

Mabel was still wiping her hand on her sweater when Hop Pop and Anne came back in from washing their faces off.

“What did we miss?” Anne asked, taking her seat again.

“Nothing important.” Luz responded. “We were just idly chatting while we waited for you two. So, now that you two are back, what can you tell us about the history of the potluck competition for your town? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard about a potluck that is also a competition.” She asked, quickly changing the topic.

Hop Pop sighed happily as he retook his seat. “Oh now that’s a tale.” The elderly frog pondered. “The annual potluck itself has existed for as long as anyone in Wartwood can recall, but it wasn’t always a competition.” He told the group. “It started with two households, both alike in digni—”

While Hop Pop regaled the others with the history of the potluck competition, Mabel approached Sprig and pulled him aside 

“Hey Mabel. What’s up?” The frog boy asked, tuning out his grandfather’s history lesson. 

Mabel nervously tapped her fingers together before answering. “I wanted to check on you, what with you being sold into an arranged marriage and all.”

“Oh that.” Sprig rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, I’m fine. I can’t get into specifics just yet, but I promise everything worked out in the end.” He told her. 

“If you say so.” Mabel muttered, having no choice but to accept what Sprig was saying. “I’m just worried you have a Gideon of your own to deal with.” She told him, clearly concerned. 

Sprig quickly threw his hands up and shook his head. “Oh no no! Maddie is nothing like Gideon!”

“But… she’s so creepy and she was stabbing a little doll of you!” Mabel replied, confused. 

“Maddie is, admittedly, not the best at first impressions.” Sprig told her. “But she’s not another Gideon, I promise.”

Sprig paused and tapped his chin in thought before realizing something and snapping his fingers. “I got it! I know that there’s a future episode called Cursed! That’ll show you and everyone else that Maddie isn’t as bad as she seems!” He excitedly told her. 

Mabel seemed a little unsure, but nodded. “If you say so, Sprig.”

The two returned to their seats, as Hop Pop was wrapping his story. 

“…and to honor the deaths the two lovers and wild misunderstandings that lead to those deaths, the town potluck became a competition, ending with the locking of the losers in a cage and brutally shaming them for their terrible cooking.”

“Wow!” Luz exclaimed! “What a fascinating and compelling story!”

“Who knew history could be so interesting!” Wendy agreed, leaning forward, clearly having been invested in the story

“This is going to make such a good entry in the journal!” Dipper eagerly scribbled away in the book. “I would’ve hated to miss out on this story!”

“Can you imagine being some poor schmucks that missed out on that story to focus on something else?” King cheered. “I would hate to be them!”

“Well, I got nothing else to add.” Eda admitted. “Should we start the next episode?”

When everyone agreed, the lone figure stepped forward, in front of the group again. “For episodes 4 and 5, I would like to discuss both episodes at once. So 4 and 5 will be playing back to back. You will still be allowed to comment during these episodes, though.” They informed the group, before starting the next episode with a clap. 

——

Amphibia

Season 1

Episode 4a

The Domino Effect

Anne and Sprig are playing ball with an extremely sharp bug claw scythe as the bat and a huge melon as the ball. Anne misses the ball, and accidentally loses her grip on the ‘bat’, nearly decapitating Sprig. 

——

“SPRIG!!!” Hop Pop gasped.

“Oh man. I forgot about that one.” Sprig commented. 

“We should probably be concerned about how unbothered you’ve gotten about your own near-misses.” Anne gave her friend a worried look.

——

When the two go to retrieve the scythe, Anne hears distressed meowing in the distance. Following the cries, the two find a small animal being attacked by massive wasps. They quickly rescue the creature and retreat. To Anne’s delight, the animal they rescued is a fuzzy caterpillar that superficially resembles her cat, Domino, from back home. It even meows. 

——

Mabel and Luz both squeal excitedly. 

“She’s so adorable!” Luz gushes!

“I want to squeeze her so much!” Mabel agrees. 

“Which one?” Anne asked. “Domino or her Amphibia counterpart?”

“Yes!” Luz responded.

——

Anne wants to adopt the Cat-a-pillar, since she misses the original Domino so much. After convincing Sprig, she names the creature ‘Domino 2’ and jingles a cat toy to convince it to follow them back home.

——

“So precious!” Mabel commented. “I want one!”

“You already have Waddles.” Dipper reminded his sister quietly.

——

Back home, Anne tries to convince Hop Pop to let her keep a pet, but he refuses. He starts ranting about an old pet the family had, a spider named Charlie Big Bottom, and how he got stuck with all the work that comes with looking after a pet. 

——

Mabel shuttered. “Spiders are pets to you guys?”

“Yup!” Hop Pop confirmed. “The trick is to stick with the small breeds. They’re troublemakers, but can be very affectionate!”

——

Anne leaves and decides to sneak Domino 2 into the house. Sprig shows that Domino 2 is nibbling on his leg, but Anne brushes it off as play behavior. The two then work together to get Domino 2 into the basement without Hop Pop noticing. 

——

Hop Pop just facepalms at the scene. That’s how those two knuckleheads snuck such a dangerous animal into the house.

——

The next morning, Sprig goes to check on Anne, but discovers the entire basement covered in webbing of some sort. He wakes Anne up in a panic, but she seems to be fine and tells Sprig that Domino 2 had a rough first night indoors. Sprig winces when he notices that Anne is covered in scratches on one entire side of her face. 

——

“Woah, dude! Are you okay?” Soos asked at the sight.

Anne shrugged. “Aside from the silk everywhere, that’s actually pretty typical for a normal stray cat that’s been taken in.”

——

Domino 2 stares hungrily at Sprig.

——

“Uh… that’s… less cute.” Mabel stammers.

“Oh… this is gonna be bad, isn’t it?” Luz begins to realize.

——

A montage plays of Domino 2 doing various things. Escaping the basement, and stealing Hop Pop’s sandwich, bringing dead bugs to Anne as a present, attempting to eat Polly, and bonding with Anne in general.

——

“Excuse me!?” Polly yelled. “Anne! What the heck?!”

“Hey. I stopped her from eating you.” The Thai girl defended. 

“And then continued keeping her!” The pollywog pointed out. 

——

Towards the end of the day, Domino 2 falls asleep, partially wrapping herself into a cocoon. The two comment on how cute she is, then leave to go eat. After Anne leaves, Domino 2’s cocoon fully envelopes her as ominous music plays.

——

“Wait….” Dipper said, as he started thinking. “Domino 2 is a caterpillar… a baby…” He trailed off before his eyes widened in horrified realization. “Oh no! She’s not the equivalent of a house cat! She’s the equivalent of one of the big cat species!”

——

In the kitchen, Hop Pop catches Anne and Sprig stuffing their faces. He briefly questions them, before being interrupted by the whole house shaking.

Running down to the basement to check things out, they find that Domino 2’s cocoon has broken open with no sign of the ‘cat-a-pillar’ herself. In her worry for her new pet, Anne accidentally reveals the existence of Domino 2 to Hop Pop. Sprig admits to everything, why they did it, and describes Domino 2 to Hop Pop. 

——

“Domino 2 turns into a big monster, doesn't she?” Luz deadpanned. 

“Noooo…” Mabel despaired. “Not the precious baby!”

——

Hop Pop recognizes the description as a Coastal Kilapillar! Dangerous animals that prey on amphibians! Worse still, they only get white spots right before they transform into…

Domino 2 the Kilamoth descends from above!

——

“Aaahhh!” Luz screamed at Domino 2’s full grown appearance, before slowing to a stop. “…No, sorry. She’s still kinda cute.” She admitted. “Scary, but still cute.”

“Yes…” Mabel agreed slowly. “But I don’t think I want one for myself anymore.” After all, she had Waddles to think about.

——

After Polly arrives and unwittingly provokes Domino 2, Anne attempts to calm her by reaching out to her and petting her. Unfortunately, Domino 2 charges up the stairs to chase the Plantars instead

——

“It’s playing with its food! Just like a real cat!” Dipper yelled out.

“Not for much longer!” Luz responded as Domino 2’s mouth stretched open to bite the Plantars on the screen.

——

Thinking quickly, Anne uses the cat toy from before to lure Domino 2 back out of the house. Remembering the brief but good times they had together, Anne throws the cat toy off into the woods, sending Domino 2 back into the wilds where she belongs.

Back at the house, Anne apologizes for endangering the Plantars once again. She just missed the original Domino so much. Hop Pop reveals that he understands, because as much as he complained about the spider the family used to have, HE MISSES CHARLIE BIG BOTTOM SO MUCH! 

——

Hop Pop breaks down sobbing alongside his on screen self. “Why did he go and run away!” The elderly man wailed. “I loved him so much!”

Anne just awkwardly patted him on the back.

——

The next day, Anne is cleaning up the mess Domino 2 made, when Sprig stops by with a handmade plushie he made of Domino 2 for her, made from the hairballs Domino 2 left behind. Anne loves it. 

End of Episode.

——

Episode 4b

Taking Charge

Anne excitedly shares with the Plantars that she discovered her favorite show’s new season auto-downloaded onto her phone before she came to Amphibia. She shows them the trailer. 

——

“Oh yeah. You guys are from 8 years in the future from our point of view.” Dipper commented. “I don’t think this is out for us yet. Like at all. I’ve never heard of this show. 

“Is it any good?” Mabel asked. 

“Do you two like mystery?” Anne asked, with a knowing grin. 

Dipper smiled excitedly in response.

——

Sprig and Polly are excited, but Hop Pop is dismissive of human entertainment. He is out-voted, though, and the family all sit down to watch an episode of Suspicion Island!

——

“Haha.” Stan chuckled. “Being forced to sit through something you didn’t want to watch. I’ve been there before.”

——

Later that night, Anne declares that they’ve watched enough and shuts down her phone for the night. Sprig and Polly protest, wanting to watch more of the show, but otherwise comply. Hop Pop disparages the show as he too heads to bed. After Anne leaves the room, a shadow moves through the living room, stopping before Anne’s unattended phone, and starting the show back up. 

——

“Uh oh…” Luz worried. “Someone’s binging the show. That’s so not good for you.”

“Hey, Anne.” Soos called her. “I was wondering. How are you keeping your phone charged in this other world, girl-dude.”

“I wasn’t.” She replied. “I had been carefully rationing my battery.”

“Wait.” Dipper realized. “If you had been rationing before this episode and someone is staying up to watch more episodes…”

“I think we just found the reason this episode is called ‘Taking Charge’.” Wendy told him.

——

The next morning, Anne sits down to watch more of the show, but discovers her phone battery is really low. Also, someone watched the rest of the season. As soon as she notices that, her phone’s battery dies outright. Anne despairs about no longer being able to use her phone. All the pictures and videos she had of home are gone, completely inaccessible. 

——

Wendy sucked in a breath. “Yup. That sucks. I would hate it if that happened to my phone, and I don’t even have a fancy computer phone like yours.”

“You don’t?” Anne asked the older teen. 

“Nope!” Wendy replied, pulling out a black flip phone. “One of my friends has the newest model, but most of them still have flip phones like me.” She explained, showing off her phone. 

“Woah!” Anne and Luz gushed, sounding awed. 

“I’ve never seen an old phone like that before!” Luz exclaimed. 

“Old school!” Anne declared. 

Wendy reddened slightly and put her phone away. “Aw man. I feel old, and I’m not even 20 yet.” She muttered quietly to herself. 

——

Anne and the Plantars quickly fall to accusing each other. Anne demands they help her fix her phone, explaining that it needs electricity to operate. Hop Pop shares information about a bug called a zapapede, that’s able to discharge lightning. The group prepares to head off, but the Plantar’s are all extremely suspicious of each other, while Anne is suspicious of all three of them. 

——

“My money’s on the old guy!” Hooty yelled out. 

“I say it’s Sprig, and I’m putting a custom sweater on the line to back my bet up!” Mabel declared. 

“It’s gotta be Polly!” King countered “Loser has to do a silly dance!”

“King!” Polly yelled at him. “The heck, man?!”

——

At the mountains, the group spots one of the bugs, but must cross a worn rope bridge to reach it. Unfortunately, their distrust of each other leads to them being careless and breaking the bridge, causing the group to fall.

——

“Fight, fight, fight!!!” Stan cheered at the screen. “I love this!”

The Plantars just glared at him from their seats.

——

Thankfully the group survived the fall and find more zapapedes just below them. Anne suggests a plan to reach the bugs, but a fight breaks out due to the continued lack of trust. 

——

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” Stan continued to chant.

Eda just pinched the bridge of her nose. “This is getting to be a bit much…”

——

Unable to stand the fighting, Hop Pop dramatically confesses to staying up to watch the rest of the show without the rest of the family and by extension, running down Anne’s battery. He explains he actually loved the show and couldn’t sleep until he watched more.

——

“Yup!” Stan raised a pit cola to the screen. “Been there too. Same time as before too.”

Mabel and King groan in defeat as Hooty flails about in celebration.

——

He swears to redeem himself and takes the phone, before jumping into the pile of electric bugs. With Hop Pop being slowly electrocuted, the other three form a chain of bodies to rescue him and pull him to safety. 

——

“Wait…. Wouldn’t that…” Dipper started to say.

——

This unfortunately causes everyone to be electrocuted, but the resulting blast launches the back to the bottom of the mountain. Bruised, mildly burned, but alive, Hop Pop discovers that they’ve charged the phone to 10,000%

——

“That shouldn’t be possible” Dipper commented, as he recorded the zapapedes into his journal. He would have to see about finding a way to study a real one. Great Uncle Ford would probably love to get his hands on a few as well.

Anne chuckled and whipped out her phone she had taken back from Sprig temporarily. “Thanks to that, I haven’t needed to charge my phone since.” She explained, turning her screen around to show everyone. “It’s still about 8,000%!”

“Wouldn’t that damage the battery?” Luz asked. 

Anne only shrugged in response.

——

Hop Pop apologizes again to Anne for draining her ‘Memory Box’. He hands the phone back and is eager for the rest of them to finish the season, since he is excited to talk about it. 

End of Episode.

——

Amphibia

Season 1

Episode 5a

Anne Theft Auto

The Plantar family is out, enjoying a nice day riding on the back of the family snail, Bessie. 

——

Mabel squealed! “Giant snail! You guys have a giant snail! She’s beautiful!”

Hop Pop chuckled. “You got a good eye on you, Mabel. Bessie is one of the town’s finest snails, if I do say so myself!”

——

Sprig wants to get Swamp Slushies. HP tells him no. Polly wants to go off-roading! HP tells her no as well. Anne wants to try driving. 

“Sure.”

Anne, surprised but excited, is eager to take Bessie’s reins. However, Hop Pop stops her. He wants her to read Bessie’s History first. Cover to cover. Only then, can Anne get behind the reins. 

“Are there pictures?”

“There are diagrams!~”

——

“Is the book really that important?” Eda questioned. “I mean, even if there’s important information in it, just sit beside her as she gets behind the reins and explain the information she needs to know. That’s how I trained Luz to fly a staff.” The witch explained. 

“It is important.” Anne and Hop Pop agreed simultaneously, surprising each other.

——

Hop Pop goes inside to give Polly a bath, allowing Anne and Sprig to ignore Hop Pop’s orders and take Bessie for a joy ride. Sprig briefly doubts this is a good idea, but Anne talks him into it with the promise of swamp slushies. The two quickly take off.

——

Hop Pop gasped, mortified. “You two took Bessie for a joyride?!”

The two could only laugh weakly in response, leaned away from the old frog. “Surprise…?” Sprig muttered, waving a slow jazz hands gesture.

“We’re gonna be talking about this during the discussion.” Hop Pop told the two of them, his arms crossed angrily. “Once I’ve seen what trouble you two got up to.”

——

On the road, the two nearly run Mrs Croaker’s giant Ladybug off the road. 

——

A piercing shriek echoes out from the Owl House waiting room. 

“The heck was that?” Sprig questioned the residents of said house. 

“Oh dang…” Luz winced. “Someone in our waiting room has an irrational fear of ladybugs. Sounds like she just realized a land of giant bugs also includes giant ladybugs.”

“I must admit, that surprised me.” The lone figure admitted. “Those rooms are supposed to be soundproof, yet we were still able to hear the scream.”

Luz winced. Poor Willow. 

——

The two grab swamp slushies and start heading back. It isn’t long before they give off-roading a try. After driving off a cliff and landing in a clearing, they find that Bessie isn’t following orders any more. Unable to get her moving, they decide that they need to go get Hop Pop.

——

Hop Pop started sweating bullets when he saw Bessie’s behavior and recognized the ‘bushes’ at the edge of the clearing for what they truly were. He shot a look at Anne, who nodded, confirming his fears. He gulped. How in frog’s name did these two escape this without him knowing?

——

Sprig goes for help, while Anne stays behind with Bessie. Sprig hitches a ride with Mrs. Croaker, only to discover how slow she drives. Anne, meanwhile, starts reading the book to pass the time.

——

All the kids, and Soos laugh at Mrs. Croaker’s extremely slow driving, while Hop Pop breathes a sigh of relief. Anne’s boredom saved her and Bessie’s lives.

——

She quickly becomes engrossed in the book, learning Bessie’s personal history and becoming emotional during climactic moments. Meanwhile, Sprig continues to suffer.

——

“In your face, Jim Snapes!” Mabel yelled at the screen. “You ain’t getting that snail!”

“What did Jim Snapes do that made him ‘nefarious’?” Luz turned to the Amphibia group to ask. 

Hop Pop scoffed at the reminder of his old enemy. “Underhanded business tactics. Also he was trying to popularize using snails as food. The monster.” He finished, muttering the last part. 

Sprig and Polly gasped, horrified.

——

While reading, Anne finds a passage that seems similar to her current situation. Bessie hides in her shell when she senses predators, specifically hedgehogs. Realizing they’ve been surrounded by hedgehogs this whole time, Anne skips a few pages ahead and discovers a phrase that can get Bessie moving, even if she’s scared.

“Bessie! Things are getting messy!”

——

The screen froze on a still image of Bessie charging away from the hedgehogs, with Anne on her back. 

Bessie ’s name appeared on screen in thick bold lettering.

“Ohmygosh!!!” Mabel gasped, before jumping up in her chair and turning to look at the Amphibia door, drawing everyone else’s attention to it. 

The door in question had began to shake, rattling on its hinges. Before everyone’s eyes, the door began to warp, stretching taller and wider. Soon, it finished distorting itself into a set of barn doors, bearing the same design as before. 

The doors swung open, revealing the real Bessie as she made her way into the main room. Her eyestalks swept across the room, taking everyone in, before she chirped joyfully and beelined to nuzzle her family.

“GIANT SNAIL!” Mabel cheered and leapt off her chair to hug Bessie as she passed by, causing the snail to pause and examine the new human clinging to her side, before bending down and nibbling playfully on her hair.

“Bessie shall remain with the Amphibia group for now, but before the Owl house episodes, separate arrangements will be made for her and any other animals that may or may not show up.” The lone figure informed the group. “Furthermore, other animals may be added to this area, even if they aren’t in the waiting rooms currently. But for now, let’s continue the episode.”

——

Anne continues to read through the book for more tips on how to escape the pursuing hedgehogs. After finally giving the beasts the slip, Anne hugs Bessie and goes to pick up Sprig, who is just barely clinging to sanity after Mrs. Croakers mental torture.

——

“Oh, I like her!” Eda commented, nodding in approval of Mrs. Croaker. “She got you good, kid! I might need to take notes!”

——

The two head back home, where they learn that Hop Pop never noticed they were missing, due to Polly being a handful. Anne elects to stay outside with Bessie and finish reading the book. 

——

“Good on you, Anne.” Hop Pop approved. “Can’t say I’m pleased you two went off on a joyride, but it seems it all worked out.”

“So I’m off the hook?” Anne asked, sounding hopeful. 

“Definitely not.” He told her, before leaning in towards her and whispering. “And I’ll be discussing it with your parents!”

“Aw nuts…” Anne muttered, not looking forward to that.

——

The next morning, Anne wakes Hop Pop to tell him that she’s read the entire book, in a single night. Impressed, he informs her all she needs now is experience! Anne has a minor mental breakdown in response, scaring Hop Pop.

End of Episode.

——

Episode 5b

Breakout Star

Anne interrupts a card game to freak out about a breakout of pimples she is experiencing. After telling them it’s just a human thing, Anne mopes about how the town already treats her like a monster. Worried she’ll be treated even worse, Anne desires to hide herself away until her breakout clears up. However, Hop Pop has crops to sell and needs all hands on deck to sell them. 

——

“Given that you’re living in a swamp now, I’m surprised something like this hadn’t happened sooner.” Dipper said. 

Anne only groaned in response, covering her face in embarrassment. Now that other humans could see her, she was mortified. She knew it was only going to get worse now that she knew what this episode covered. 

——

At the market, Hop Pop tells the kids to sell like their lives depend on it! …Because they do. The family really needs this. Hinting the Plantar family may be in financial trouble. 

While selling the scream beans, two young frog children bump into Anne and knock off the shawl and glasses she was using to hide her pimples. To her surprise, the frogs of Wartwood mistake her pimples for warts and find them absolutely beautiful 

——

“Wait, what?” Mabel questioned. “They like acne? Ew…”

“Technically, it’s not the acne they like.” Anne explained. “It’s what they think the acne is. They think I have warts. And for Wartwood, they think warts are beautiful. Especially red warts.”

——

At City Hollow, Mayor Toadstool and Toadie are worried about how poorly the Mayor is doing in the polls due to embezzling money from the town and that he may lose the election next month. It would take a miracle to save the re-election campaign. He notices Anne being celebrated outside and declares their miracle has arrived. 

——

“Ah yes.” Wendy commented sarcastically. “One of life’s great constants. Government corruption.”

“Yeah….” Anne agreed. “Not a great moment for Toadstool…”

——

Back at the Plantar home, the family are excitedly going through all the gifts Anne has received from the townspeople. They are interrupted by Mayor Toadstool showing up to speak with Anne privately, with the Mayor blowing off the Plantars. 

Hop Pop warns Sprig and Polly that fame can change a person, and not for the better.

——

“Sorry guys.” Anne rubbed the back of her head. “Really let all that go to my head.”

“It’s okay, Anne.” Hop Pop whispered. “You came back to yourself and us, in the end.”

——

Mayor Toadstool and Anne make a deal. He will ensure Anne is always popular and she can help improve his reputation as Mayor. 

A montage of Anne interacting with her fans and working with Toadstool at various locations around Wartwood plays.

——

“Corrupt or not, at least the mayor is building some useful buildings.” Luz commented.

“And the statue of himself and Anne?” King asked, skeptically. 

“I said some!” Luz defended herself. 

——

The Plantars visit Anne at her new apartment, but the fame is starting to go to her head and ends their visit before the Plantars can even talk to her. 

The next morning, Anne wakes up and discovers her pimples are gone. She sends a message to the Plantars, asking for their help. Sprig reluctantly offers their help in hiding that her pimples are now gone. 

——

“Please stop rubbing butter on your face.” Luz requested, disgusted at the screen. 

“Yeah…. My bad.” Anne responded

——

Sprig suggests sticking swamp berries to her face, giving the illusion of pimples. Anne agrees, but is worried about being spotted. Hop Pop has them hide Anne in a cart full of dirty towels.

After a brief issue that required Hop Pop to distract the crowd, the rest of the group safely reach the swamp. Anne successfully uses the berries to hide the fact her pimples are gone.

——

“Wait. How did you get your shoe back?” Dipper asked, deeply confused. 

“Oh. Mayor Toadstool had a new shoe custom made for me.” Anne explained. “That’s what got sacrificed.”

——

At Mayor Toadstool’s event, Anne mentions that the Plantars helped her, but he tells her to stop associating with the Plantars. Anne says she understands and she goes onstage and gives a speech.

“Couple days ago I was a monster, and now I’m the pride and Joy of Wartwood. I’ve got a nice apartment, F-annes, fame. But you know what I’m missing?”

“The people who’ll stick with me, whether I’m a monster or not.”

——

“Wooo!” Mabel cheered. “You go girl!”

“Fame is overrated, anyways.” Anne said, leaning back in her chair.

——

She removes the berries from her face, dramatically revealing to the crowd the truth. The mayor rushes on stage, questioning what she’s doing! She’s throwing everything away! How is he supposed to get these idiots to vote for him now?!

——

“Hah! Serves him right!” Wendy cheered. “Down with authority!”

“Heck yeah!” Eda agreed enthusiastically. “Authority sucks!”

——

The crowd turns on the mayor, driving him off with a barrage of produce. Anne rejoins the Plantars and thanks them for sticking by her, even when the attention went to her head. She and the Plantars leave to go try out the hot tub in her apartment at City Hollow before Mayor Toadstool changes the locks.

End of Episode. 

——

The screen cut out and the lone figure took up position between the screen and the group.

“It’s time for the discussion of the previous two episodes. We will have a short break after this before the next batch of episodes, covering the Owl House.” They told everyone. “In the meantime, I will be setting up a separate seating arrangement for animal guests that may join us in the future.” The lone figure added, before going off to the side and started using their abilities to create a space for the incoming animals.

“Well, for starters.” Dipper began. “I find it fascinating that so many animals on earth apparently have some sort of counterpart on Amphibia. Caterpillars and spiders being pets. Snails, and or other large insects can apparently be used like we use horses on earth. Dragonflies are like birds for you guys!”

“Well technically, Coastal Kilapillars aren’t supposed to be pets.” Hop Pop corrected, eyeing his grandson and adoptive granddaughter. The two returned nervous grins. “Though there are other species of caterpillars that are sometimes kept as pets, I've never seen one that perfectly mirrored a cat.” He admitted. “Keeping in mind I don’t have a lot of experience with cats.”

“Speaking of cats,” Luz cut in, “Anne! Domino is soo cute! I can understand why you miss her so much! I would hate to be apart from such an adorable little angel!”

Anne smiled briefly, before letting out a mildly sad sigh. “Yeah. It sucks being away from her, even for a little while. It would be nice if she was here.”

“Meow!”

“What the heck?” Anne looked under her chair in confusion. “Oh my frog! How did you get here?”

She popped back up holding her cat Domino, who meowed again.

“Woah!” Mabel exclaimed, from atop Bessie’s back. “How come you get two animals showing in your batch of episodes?”

“I… don’t know.” Anne admitted, cradling Domino. “It would make more sense for Domino 2 to show up now, not the original. She wasn’t even in our waiting room.”

“Cats are just like that.” Luz commented. 

“The lone figure did say that other animals were going to show up.” Dipper offered. “Maybe that’s what’s happening?”

Everyone looked over to where the lone figure was setting up an area that resembled a stable away from the other groups. The lone figure paused what they were doing and looked back. Their gaze passed over everyone, before focusing on the cat in Anne’s arms. 

“Here a little earlier than I was expecting. I will be done soon.” They commented, before returning to work.

“Okay.” Dipper said. “Sounds like they were always planning to bring your cat in. Domino just showed up early somehow.”

“Well, however she got here, I’m so glad to have her!” Anne eagerly snuggled her cat, before putting her down. Domino started wandering around the room.

“So, Anne.” Mabel got the girl’s attention. “I wanted to ask about that Suspicion island show. It looked good, but I don’t think it’s out in mine and Dipper’s time. How long do we have to wait for it to air?”

Anne chuckled. “If I remember correctly, the first season will come out in 2017. You two got a few years.”

“Aw nuts!” Mabel moaned. 

“Hey, not to interrupt.” Luz interrupted. “But I was wondering why the Plantars didn’t react the same way the rest of Wartwood did to your acne?” She asked.

“Simple enough question to answer.” Hop Pop replied. “It’s the simple fact that Anne showed us while in the middle of a panic, screaming about it.” The old frog explained. “We knew something about the situation was wrong based on how she was acting. The rest of the town didn’t know Anne like we did yet, so they went based purely on appearance.”

“Then why not tell her that her appearance might improve her standing in town?” Luz questioned. 

Hop Pop shrugged. “I couldn’t be sure the rest of the town would react that way. Didn’t want to get her hopes up at the time.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Luz admitted. “So, I guess it’s time to address the elephant in the room, or rather…”

Everyone turned to look at Bessie who had gone to graze on some leaves next to the nearly finished stable where she and other animals would be staying.

“The snail in the room!” Mabel finished for Luz, from where she was still sitting on the snail’s back. 

“I think it’s odd that we have animals coming in.” Dipper admitted. “Nothing against them. But if we’re supposed to be reflecting on and discussing our pasts, animals can’t really contribute to the conversation.”

“Hah!” Eda laughed and started petting Owlbert who was perched on her shoulder. “Speak for yourself, kid. Palismen are able to speak with their bonded witch. This little guy has opinions!” She announced to the group, which Owlbert backed up with a happy hoot.

“Aw!” Mabel gasped. “That’s so cool! What’s he saying?” She asked, stars in her eyes. 

Eda shrugged. “Owlbert’s not very chatty, but he did say he thinks you’re fun. He did, however, ask that you not put so many ribbons on him next time he hangs out with you.”

“That’s interesting and all.” Hop Pop cut in. “But the boy has a point. Bessie may be very expressive for a snail, but she’s not exactly a great conversationalist. Most of the animals I can think of that might be added from my world most likely won’t be able to add to our discussions.

“Maybe they’re here for another reason?” Mabel suggested, finally sliding off of Bessie’s shell and returning to her seat. 

“What do you mean, Mabel?” Luz asked, curious.

“What if they’re meant to be like…” she paused in thought for a second. “…Emotional support animals?”

“Emotional support animals?” Wendy questioned skeptically.  “Setting aside the fact that I highly doubt any of the animals that might come in would have the necessary training for that, why that thing specifically?”

Mabel shrugged in response. “I don’t know. But some stuff from our time in Gravity Falls was super stressful. I’d love to have some cute animals to cuddle if we’re going to be reliving all that.” The girl admitted. 

Anne and Luz shared a look with each other at that, each recalling stressful moments either they or their friends would be reliving. Anne scooped Domino back up into her arms and gave the cat an affectionate squeeze. Luz shivered, and wished desperately for an excuse to go back into the Owl House waiting room and hug Stringbean tightly.

“Alright. The lone figure announced. “I’m nearly done with the area for animals and it sounds like you all are nearly done with your current discussion. Why don’t you all go ahead and take a small break. Go and refresh yourselves.” The lone figure suggested. “When you all return I will be done with the stable, and we can get started on the next three Owl House episodes. Episodes 2 through 4!”

“Can we get the titles before we start?” Dipper asked. 

The lone figure nodded.

“Episode 2, Witches before Wizards.”

Luz flinched in response. She was not looking forward to that.

“Episode 3, I was a Teenage Abomination.”

Within the confines of the Owl House Waiting room, two name tagged kids high-fived each other. 

“And episode 4, The Intruder.” 

Eda crossed her arms and huffed. She could guess what that one was about and she wasn’t pleased.

The lone figure waved them all off. “Now, off you all go. I will see you in a few minutes. I need to finish up here.”

Everyone exchanged looks before filtering out into their respective waiting rooms.

Once alone, the lone figure stopped working and turned to look behind them, down towards the floor, where Domino was looking up at them. 

"Qrw qrz." Wkh orqh iljxuh vdlg wr wkh fdw. "Diwhu wkh Rzo Krxvh hslvrghv. Zh'oo wdon wkhq."

Chapter Text

Little by little, everyone made their way back into the main theater. Brief words had been exchanged with their friends and family still in the waiting rooms. The Pines twins recalled Wendy’s friends celebrating the fact they were due to be introduced by the next batch of Gravity Falls episodes. Apparently they were excited to meet more kids closer to their own age and not be cooped up with a bunch of old guys in the Mystery Shack replica. Anne had received a minor lecture from her parents for taking Bessie, but thankfully they left it at that for now, since it had both been awhile and she had grown from the experience. Sprig on the other hand had not gotten off so easily, as Hop Pop decided that Sprig would be required to spend at least an hour during the longer breaks reading Bessie’s history as well as helping cook during mealtimes. Luz, on the other hand, had both celebrated with Willow and Gus that they were going to be introduced soon and comforted her girlfriend, Amity, who had withdrawn from the others as she knew they would soon be watching her own initial appearance. 

As everyone entered the main theater, they took notice of the finished stable off to the side of the empty room. There was a large communal grazing area for larger animals that contained Bessie and, to the surprise of the Mystery Shack crew, the new addition of Gompers the goat. Off to the side of that was a large cat tree where Domino was quietly dozing at the very top. On the roof of the stable were various perches of different sizes, one of which was immediately claimed by Owlbert as Eda entered the room. Towards the back of the stable, a large set of double doors opened up to what appeared to be an open field with clear blue skies above. 

“Wow.” Hop Pop marveled, as he inspected the freshly finished stable. “This has got everything! There’s even room for them to roam around freely outside. How’d you do that?” The old frog asked the lone figure.

“It’s just an extension of this space that has been altered to provide the animals and yourselves with fresh air and sunlight.” The lone figure explained. “Furthermore, all animals are under minor hypnotic effects to not view each other as food, should any diets potentially include other animals present in the stable. The stable is also maintained magically, so no need to worry about manually cleaning it.”

The lone figure stepped away from the stable and back towards the screen and main seating area. “Now then, we have three episodes of Owl House to watch, and then you are all free for the rest of the day and we’ll start back up with Gravity falls episodes in the morning. I’ve decided to allow small comments during the viewings from here on out. Try to keep it brief and save longer discussions for the appropriate times, but I will pause the current episode if necessary.” They informed the group. “I’m sure you’re all eager to go back and touch base with your friends in the waiting rooms again, so if there’s no questions, let’s jump right into it.”

Everyone quickly took their seats, and the lone figure clapped their hands, dimming the lights and activating the screen. 

——

The Owl House

Season 1

Episode 2

Witches before Wizards

——

Luz wakes up the day after she first arrived in the Boiling Isles and is thrilled that it wasn’t a dream and everything was real! She excitedly greets the day and King. Going into the bathroom to get ready, she gives herself a pep talk for starting her first day in the Boiling Isles as a witch apprentice. She raids a random closet, hoping to find classic witch clothes and is thrilled to find exactly that. She gets dressed and excitedly waits for Eda to start her training!

“Who are you again?”

——

Anne snorts. “Someone’s not a morning person.”

“No. No, she is not.” Luz sighed. “Eda’s really out of it in the morning. Takes almost an hour before she’s able to remember people.”

“Luz!” Eda playfully scolded. “Don’t tell these people all my weaknesses.”

——

Luz is trying to remind Eda of their adventure together yesterday. However, Eda is not a morning person and points out she hasn’t even had her cup of apple blood yet, gesturing to her mug that read ‘30 & Flirty’.

——

“She means apple juice, right?” Dipper asked, concerned. 

“She does not.” Luz said at the same time as Eda on the screen.

Stan’s eyebrows shot up as he read the phrase on the mug. It was one he recognized, but not one he ever expected to see again. The last time he saw that phrase, it was on a shirt and worn by a woman in Las Vegas.

Stan turned slowly towards Eda in dawning realization.

“Oh my god…” He muttered in shocked astonishment. “Eda… She…” He struggled to say the words.

——

Luz rapid fires questions at Eda, ignoring that Eda is still waking up. Eda stops her and tells her that becoming a witch won’t happen overnight. She also points out that Luz is wrapped in a bathrobe and wearing a dirty traffic cone on her head.

——

All the kids and Soos laugh lightly at the gag, causing Luz to blush.

“Why do you even have all those traffic cones?” Mabel asked Eda. 

“I try to sell them at my human treasures stall!” Eda announced proudly. “I change up the sales pitch every few weeks. They can be really popular with certain groups on the Isles.”

——

Eda explains that witches are awarded their staffs from school, but under her tutelage, Luz will be taking a different approach. She wants Luz to work for it. She explains the two main businesses she runs. She reveals that she only runs the human treasures stall on weekends. The rest of the week, she runs a potions business. She directs Luz to the nearby town of Bonesborough to sell there.

——

In the Amphibia waiting room, Maddie sat up attentively. “Oh! I have to study under this woman!” She said to herself excitedly.

——

Eda warns Luz to be careful, as she has rivals everywhere who’d love to take her business down. She claims this is the dangerous magical quest Luz wanted.

Luz tells Eda that she won’t let her down!

Luz drops the entire bag of potions.

——

“Oooh…” Mabel winced. “That’s a lot of broken bottles.”

“Eh. It’s fine.” Eda waved off the girl’s concern. “I had been expecting something like that. I had back up potions prepared and I was able to use a spell to fix the bottles.”

——

“Remember, never befriend a man in sandals and always measure twice, cut once.”

Eda sends Luz on her way and assigns King to go with her, to his annoyance, to prevent Luz from becoming lost or eaten. Probably both. 

——

“Shouldn’t you be going with her?” Hop Pop asked. “She’s new and King himself seems too young to be her guide.”

“Nah.” Eda told the old frog. “The town isn’t as dangerous as it seems. King went walking around by himself plenty of times before Luz showed up.” She explained. “I’m only worried about Luz because I could tell how naive she was at the time.”

——

The two set off to begin the deliveries. Luz is once again fascinated by the extreme and varied appearances of the wide variety of demons and witches. King snaps her out of it and Luz finds it incredible that she is the only human there. She starts to wonder if there’s a reason for that. She theorizes that she may have a predetermined magical destiny!!!

——

Anne hummed in thought at that. She and her friends were involved in a prophecy, maybe Luz had been as well? However, when she turned to look at the Latina girl, Anne caught Luz cringing at the scene. Maybe she wasn’t involved in a prophecy after all and was bummed about it?

Anne shrugged and went back to watching the episode.

——

King sasses her about her magical destiny involving the delivery of anti-boil cream. Luz is undeterred and still believes she’s destined for amazing things. King calls the Boiling Isles a cesspool of despair. 

She refutes this, believing the isles to be a ‘cesspool of delight’ and rushes over to a centaur to sell him some potions, but botches the sale by not noticing his face is on his chest. Afterwards, a doorbell attempts to eat her arm after she rings it.

——

“Oh! Faces should not be there!” Dipper exclaimed. “Why does he even have a head if that’s not where the face is?”

Hooty meanwhile started cooing at the sight of the doorbell. “What an adorable baby house demon!” The tube sang. “Can’t even tell the difference between an intruder and a delivery yet. Must’ve only just attached to the house!”

“My arm disagrees on how cute it is.” Luz grumbled, remembering how it drooled all over the side of her body. 

——

The two are shown sitting on a curb with Luz looking really bummed out and King chowing down on a not dog. 

“I thought being the only human in a magical world would make me special, but apparently it just makes everyone want to scream at me or eat me.”

——

“Been there, done that.” Anne muttered out loud, causing a chuckle from Luz. 

“Even if you’re not the only human in or around the magic stuff, the creatures still want to scream at or eat you.” Dipper added, with Mabel nodding her agreement. 

——

Luz is bummed that she doesn’t have a quest granting wizard and just wants to deliver the last package and go home. 

She is completely shocked to find the last package is being delivered to a beautiful castle.

——

“Woah….” Mabel’s mouth fell open in awe. “It’s so majestic!

Dipper grinned. The castle looked like something out of Dungeons, Dungeons, & more Dungeons!

Anne raised an eyebrow at the castle. It was beautiful, sure, but it stuck out like a sore thumb compared to everything else. 

——

King just wants to kick the package inside and leave, but Luz steps inside, curious. She announces she’s delivering a package from Eda’s potion business. The lights dramatically turn on, revealing a large, multi-story library, with a purple-robed wizard appearing at the top of the stairs, to Luz’s excitement.

——

Luz groaned at Adegast’s appearance. It was so obvious in hindsight that he had been spying on her before this first meeting. Everything he had set up was playing on her love of fantasy and desire to be special. The castle and the appearance of his wizard puppet was too close to a human understanding of classical fantasy to have ever been real.

Anne giggled when the on-screen King called the wizard’s robes jim-jams. She wondered what Marcy would think of that comment; She was such a huge fantasy nerd after all. 

——

The wizard claims to sense something ‘unique’ about Luz and invites her to join him for tea. King wants to leave, thinking the wizard to just be a weird old man with glitter in his pocket. 

Luz chooses to stay, taken in by the wizard’s appearance and convinces King to stay by pointing out that there are scones he can eat. 

The Wizard introduces himself as Adegast and confirms he sells potions on the side when Luz asks. Luz shares that she is Eda’s apprentice, but admits it’s not what she thought it was so far and is worried she came to the wrong place. 

——

Luz whimpered and leaned into Eda. 

“Sorry Eda. I did go to the right place.”

Eda put a hand on her back. “None of that, kiddo. We were still getting used to each other, and to be fair, the Boiling Isles take awhile to get used to if you’re not from there.

Stan, meanwhile, frowned at the screen. This situation seemed… off. 

——

Adegast offers Luz a quest, which Luz excitedly accepts. He tells her of a prophecy involving a young human girl who will claim the Celestial Staff and free the world from an ancient evil.

——

Anne gasped at the scene. Luz was wrapped up in a prophecy just like she and her friends were! So then why had she looked so bummed just a little bit ago? Was it a bad prophecy or something? Did something traumatic happen?

Stan grunted and crossed his arms. He thought he sensed a con, and he was right. He wasn’t sure what this wizard fellow wanted yet, but he could tell he was feeding the girl a stream of lies. 

——

Adegast tells Luz that only the Chosen One can claim the Celestial Staff . Luz starts to believe she is the Chosen One. King, having finished all the scones, no longer has a reason to stay and demands he and Luz leave now. Luz agrees…. She has to pack for this enchanted quest! She’s in!

Back at the Owl House, Luz is preparing and wondering what kind of Chosen One she should be.

“Wizards are the worst. Never trust a man in casual drapery!”

Eda and King begin to tease Luz for believing the wizard when he told her that she was a chosen one, embarrassing her. Eda looks over the map the wizard handed Luz and declares it to be fake. She reasons that if the Celestial Staff was real, she'd have stolen it a long time ago. She tells Luz not to worry, in a couple of months, Luz won’t look like such an easy mark. 

Luz requests some time alone. 

——

“Sorry, kid.” Eda sighed. “I shouldn’t have poked fun at you.” She apologized in a whisper. “I was trying to discourage you from going, but I definitely did it the wrong way.”

Anne was confused. Did Luz have a magical destiny like she and her friends did or not? What the heck is going on with this?

——

Once alone, Luz notices glowing words on the map that weren’t there before. The hidden message declares the path will only appear to the worthy. A gust of wind blows her Azura book open to a picture of the protagonist posing heroically, inspiring Luz to go on the quest anyways.

——

“Oh boy…” Stan muttered. “That ain’t good.”

“Is the prophecy real or not?!” Anne yelled, exasperated with the back and forth. 

“It definitely isn’t.” Stan answered her. “I don’t know what the wizard is after just yet, but with 40-something years of experience, I can recognize another con from a mile away.” He told her.

Anne just stared dumbfounded at him. “Jeez. 40 years? And you admit to being a con man so easily?”

Stan rolled his eyes. “I run a tourist trap, kid. I wasn’t exactly keeping the con man thing a secret to begin with.”

——

Back downstairs, Eda begins to wonder about the wizard client. She admits that she doesn’t know him that well and is worried about “this itch he’s scratching in the human.”

Eda goes up to check on Luz, only to discover that the girl has snuck out. Eda gets directions from Hooty about where Luz went, and is exasperated that Luz went on the quest.

Luz leaves the city, beginning her quest. She has the map scroll, youthful optimism, and a toy sword to defend herself with! After some walking and wondering if she made the right choice, she finds a village of cute cat creatures. From the town’s fountain, a muscled handsome witch boy her own age emerges. He acknowledges her as the Chosen One as the water drips off his muscles, scoffing in a mysterious manner. He thinks the Celestial Staff should’ve picked him. He introduces himself as Nevareth Bladestrife, Teen Prince of Angstmore.

“Yes. Yes, I did make the right choice.”

——

“Oh my gosh!” Mabel squealed. “What a hunk! Luz! Tell me that hottie is in your waiting room! And then tell me he’s single!” The excitable Pines twin asked enthusiastically. 

“Uh…” Luz stammered. “I don’t think he’s seeing anyone right now.” She told Mabel. After all, it’s hard to date people when you were never real in the first place. 

——

King takes Eda to the castle where they met the wizard, only things are much different now. Investigating the now ruined castle, Eda finds alternate copies of the chosen one map.

Luz continues on her quest, joined now by Nevareth and his animal companion. Luz finds his vengeful backstory compelling and he asks her if she believes love can bloom on the battlefield.

“This quest is questing in all the right ways.”

——

“Yes!” Mabel yelled in response to the question. “Love can bloom with me, Nevareth!”

——

After solving a stupidly easy riddle to cross a bridge, Luz is awarded a ring, and Nevareth rips off his shirt so Luz can use it as a cape, to her enjoyment.

——

Mabel fainted, falling out of her chair.

The lone figure clicked their tongue in annoyance and produced some smelling salts. They quickly woke Mabel up, causing her to gag slightly and cough from the strong stench, before depositing her back into her chair. 

“Please, try to contain yourselves.” They told the group as a whole. “We don’t want to delay the episode. 

——

Eda finds the cat creature village, but like the castle before it, things are very different now. She and King walk through the ruined village and discover a withered looking cat creature. It gives the two an ominous message and then turns to dust. Eda deduces it’s a trap for her, and Luz is the bait. She ponders what to do.

——

“Uh…. Wait.” Mabel gasped. “Oh no! Nevareth is evil, isn’t he?”

Luz winced in response. “Kinda yeah…” 

Mabel groaned. “Why do so many of them turn out evil or creepy?” She asked the heavens. 

——

Luz is given a pair of bracelets and informed her quest will soon be at an end. Her companions stay behind as Luz continues on alone to go claim the staff. She comes to the magical lake where The Celestial Staff waits for her.

In a burst of light, Luz pulls the staff free, proving that she is The Chosen One! 

——

“Wait?” Anne questioned out loud. “I thought this was a trap? That looked pretty real just now. 

——

The staff disintegrates into dust, shocking Luz. The plants around her die, the waters recede, and the light coming through the trees fades away, before those too, turn to dust.

——

“Oh.” Anne added after a few moments of shocked silence. “Now it looks like a trap.” She admitted.

——

Cutting back to Eda and King, the Owl Lady explains what’s going on. There is no wizard. The one behind this is something called a Puppeteer. A demon that specializes in scamming and manipulating people. King questions why they are flying directly into this guy’s trap, but Eda implies they don’t have a choice. She smacks Owlbert to try and fly faster.

——

Dipper and Mabel shared uncomfortable looks with each other. A demon that specialized in scamming and manipulating people? That hit a little too close to home for them. Dipper especially shivered at the term ‘puppeteer’.

Owlbert hooted gruffly at Eda when her on-screen self smacked him. She gave him an apologetic smile and mentally noted to get him his favorite snacks later. 

——

Luz is still on edge, when Adegast appears behind her, and declares that her hubris has failed her! He lifts up, revealing a pale octopus-like demon. All of the companions she made on her journey appear, all dangling like limp puppets with their strings cut on the tips of the demon’s tentacles. Luz tries to calm herself, and resolves to save everyone from this last-minute twist, like any good Chosen One would do. 

The demon mocks her, revealing that he is everybody. None of her companions were real!

“I’m no wizard and you’re no chosen one!”

——

The Mystery Shack crew collectively let out a breath of relief. This was still a bad situation, but at least it wasn’t triangle levels of bad. 

Anne shot a sympathetic look over to Luz.  She knew for sure now that Luz had not been wrapped up in a prophecy like she and her friends had been, which was probably for the best, but Luz had been so excited at the possibility and this jerk had taken advantage of that. 

——

All the accessories Luz obtained on her quest turn on her, imprisoning her! Adegast reveals that Eda has been stealing customers from his potions business for years! So clearly, he needs to murder her.

Adegast mocks Luz for wanting to think she was special. Luz claims Eda would never fall for his trap!

“Adegast!”

“Aw, heck.”

Adegast quickly traps Eda and King, and Eda demands that he release Luz. Adegast claims Luz can leave, if she wants to, but says he thinks Luz wants a ‘real fantasy’.

He sprays her with a purple gas and Luz finds herself in a fantasy, with all of Adegast’s puppet characters asking her to stay. Luz acknowledges how tempting the offer is…

Back in reality, Eda and King call to Luz, trying to snap her out of it. 

“You guys think I’m special.”

“No!”

The puppets close in on Luz. 

“But it’s not real!”

Luz breaks free of the illusion and grabs the plastic sword.

“I am a witch’s apprentice and I’m gonna earn my magic staff the hard way.”

——

“Yeah! You go, girl!” Anne and Mabel cheered. 

Eda affectionately rubbed Luz’s head, messing up her hair. 

Luz smiled at the scene. She had been so twisted up in knots over having to relive this event, that she forgot the lessons she learned here and what Eda showed her afterwards. 

——

Luz stabs the wizard puppet, which causes Adegast pain somehow, causing him to release Eda and King. Luz and Eda begin fighting, destroying puppets left and right. Luz stabs Nevareth right in his flawless pecs.

——

“Goodbye, you beautiful muscles.” Mabel quietly mourned to herself. 

“Huh? Did you say something, Mabel?” Dipper asked distractedly. 

“Nope! Nothing at all!” 

——

The fight ends when Adegast recaptures King. Luz and Eda disarm and Luz begins apologizing to King for not listening to him and not trusting the wizard. He was not mystical or magical, he was just a big, slimy jerk!

She kicks the sword into Adegast’s skull, causing his to shrink to an incredibly small size. Eda devours him on the spot.

——

“Oh my goodness! You ate him!” Mabel gasped in horror. “I mean, he was a jerk, but being eaten alive might be a bit much…”

Eda simply shrugged. “Considering he was planning to kill me for simply running a better business than him, as well as Luz and King just for being there, I wouldn’t be too broken up about it, kiddo.” The Owl Lady told her. “Besides, Puppeteer demons naturally prey on witches and other demons. It’s considered a public service to get rid of them when one makes itself known.”

——

Luz tells Eda that she is confused. The Boiling Isles is nothing like she imagined. Eda tells Luz to come with her, she wants to show her something. The three Owl House residents go flying, with Luz blindfolded. Eda tells her she can look now. 

Luz takes off her blindfold and sees the entirety of the Boiling Isles and realizes what it actually is. The skeletal remains of a titanic demon.

——

“Woah dude!”

“Oh my gosh!”

“What in frog’s name?!”

“Cool!”

“Awesome!”

Everyone in the Gravity Falls and Amphibia groups all utter shocked exclamations of surprise as the truth of the Boiling Isles makes itself known. 

King fell quiet as he stared at the screen. How many times had he done this with Eda before Luz came into their lives. How many times had he read about the Isles, some historian’s speculation on where the Titan came from. How many times did he wonder about his family and where they might be?

He let out a sad sigh. If only he had known sooner.

——

Eda and King admit that up close, the Isles aren’t pretty or perfect, but from the right angle, the beauty is still there. Luz asks how Eda knew the wizard was lying. 

“Look kid, everyone wants to believe they’re ‘chosen,’ but if we all waited around for a prophecy to make us special, we’d die waiting, and that’s why you need to choose yourself.”

——

Anne looked down at her hands as she pondered that statement. She thought back to what Mother Olm had said to her and her friends when the moon was bearing down on them. Her own prophecy wasn’t a guarantee of victory, just a request for help. Heck… it had even been nearly undone before they even knew a prophecy was in play. 

In the end, the ‘prophecy’ had only asked them to make a choice to help or leave, and she and her friends chose to stay and help.

They chose themselves.

——

Eda tells Luz that she’ll give her a magic staff of her own one day, but not yet. 

End of episode

——

The screen, for once, did not turn off, but instead began displaying the phrase, “Discussion Time” as the episode ended. The lone figure remained silent from where they were standing beside the Stable. It seemed they were content to let the group direct themselves for the time being. 

After a moment, Luz spoke up to get things started. 

“So! I’m sure you all have some questions about all that.” She announced, taking control of the discussion. “I’m sure you all want to ask about the Boiling Isles, given what was shown at the end, but let’s save that for last for the time being.” She told everyone. “So, who wants to go first?”

“Uh, I would.” Anne spoke up. “You seemed pretty excited about possibly being the subject of a prophecy… you upset that you weren’t?”

Luz smiled and nodded. “I was pretty upset at first and struggled a bit afterwards, but Eda’s words helped me get over it.” She answered. “Besides, I still got to do plenty of cool things even without a prophecy guiding the way.”

Anne smiled. “Well, that’s great! I’m glad you aren’t torn up abo—”

“Besides.” Luz interrupted, not hearing Anne. “I know now that prophecies aren’t real! So who cares that I didn’t get to be in one, when no one gets one.” She announced happily. 

Anne clamped her mouth shut and winced. That was going to make for an awkward conversation later. 

“I wanted to ask about the puppet guy.” Mabel interjected. “Eda said that puppet demons eat people or something?”

“Oh yeah.” Eda confirmed while cleaning her ear with a pinkie. She flicked some gunk away. “Puppeteers use their abilities to hide in plain sight, and to lure people away from groups to get them by themselves. What do you think he was going to do with us if he had won?”

“He was planning to eat you guys?!” Mabel gasped, alarmed.

“Yup!” Eda confirmed, popping the P. “They’re rare, but when they do slip up, they get put down fast before they have a chance to run off and change disguises. Adegast had probably been using the wizard identity for a while.”

“Hey! Eda, is it?” Stan cut in. “Tell me- uh, Us! More about your… Human Treasure business.” He requested.

Eda raised an eyebrow at the request. Luz and Anne shared concerned looks. 

“Well.” Eda began. “There’s not much more to say about it. Owlbert goes through the portal, gathers junk from the Human realm, then I sell it to Human item collectors.”

“There are witches who collect hu—?” Anne started to ask, before Stan interrupted her.

“So, you keep some of that human stuff for yourself, I saw.” Stan observed, nonchalantly. “That mug from the opening you were drinking out of, for example. Any… interesting stories behind that?” He asked casually.

Eda stared at the man, confused why he was so interested in a mug. She just shrugged after a moment. “I don’t remember when I got the mug, just that I’ve had it for…. A few years now?” She guessed. “There’s also a matching T-shirt I picked up at the same time. Why?”

“Oh, no reason.” Stan answered evasively. “Just a random example I noticed! Anyway, that’s all I had to ask for now.”

As Stan ended the conversation and turned his head away from the group so they couldn’t see his face, his thoughts raced a mile a minute. The mug. The mention of a matching shirt. It all fit! He couldn’t believe it!

“Eda robbed my ex-wife!” Stan thought to himself. “That’s hilarious!” He chuckled quietly. 

The rest of the group, including Dipper and Mabel, stared at Stan for that bizzare line of questioning for a moment more, before Dipper shrugged and jumped in with his own question.

“So, are we allowed to ask about the giant demon corpse… you all live on top of?!” He asked, yelling the last bit.

The residents of the Owl House quickly shared an uncomfortable look with each at the question. After a brief nod from King, Luz stepped forward. “I’ll try to answer what I can, but there’s probably a lot I won’t be able to answer.” She told them. “Rest assured though, it will probably come up later.”

Dipper nodded. “Right. I understand. All three of our groups have stuff like that, I imagine. So, the giant demon skeleton? What is it?”

“It’s called the Titan.” Luz answered. “It’s believed the Titan lived an unbelievably long time ago. Like at least a million years, if not longer. Much of what is known about them was only learned recently and we’ll probably see it in future episodes.” She explained to Dipper, with everyone curiously listening in. 

“Oh hey wait.” Anne interrupted, realizing something. “I think I heard you guys,” she gestured to the Owl House residents as a whole, “saying things like ‘Oh my titan’ and junk. Is the Titan worshiped or something?”

Luz opened her mouth to respond when a familiar null symbol appeared in front of open mouth, cutting off any sound she was about to make. She frowned, letting it vanish. 

“Sorry. Looks like that’s restricted.” She told the group.

“That’s fine.” Dipper answered. “I have more questions. Although, I expect the answer to at least one of them to also end up censored.” He admitted. “Are there landmasses outside of the Titan?”

“Yeah, but the Isles are kinda isolated.” Eda answered this time. “Most folks don’t even know there are other landmasses because the Isles are pretty far from any other significant landmass.”

Dipper nodded as he made a note in his journal, before looking back up. “Alright. So, are there other Titans out there?”

Luz did not look at King. It took most of her willpower, but she managed to avoid instinctively looking at him. She instead took a deep breath, settling herself, and answered the question. “I’m pretty sure I can’t answer that. You’ll just have to wait and see if our show answers it for you.” She told him. 

“Aw nuts.” Dipper pouted. “I kinda figured that would be the case. Still, the fact you don’t think you’d be allowed to answer me is telling.”

“Alright everyone.” The lone figure interrupted. “I’m cutting this short for now. If there are still other topics you wish to cover, save them for the large break that is coming up.” They told everyone. “It’s time to watch the next episode.”

There were a few grumbles, but no one objected. Luz bounced excitedly in her chair. She knew already what was coming this episode and she couldn’t wait for her friends to start joining them out here. 

With a clap from the lone figure, the show started again.

——

The Owl House

Season 1

Episode 3

I was a Teenage Abomination

——

“Well Luz, did you ever in your life think you’d see something as breathtaking as this?”

Eda has brought Luz to the corpse of a trash slug. Luz is not thrilled about the trash slug, as Eda begins explaining the creature’s life of eating all the things people have thrown away, before dying due to sea water. Eda wants to pop the creature open to sell the stuff it ate.

——

“Oh… that’s disgusting!” Wendy cringed. “Lady, why?!”

Eda looked over at the other two groups. The Mystery Shack crew had various looks of disgust on their faces. The girl twin was dry-heaving even. The Amphibia group… well, they looked fine actually. The frogs at least. The bushy-haired girl on the other hand was currently giving the girl twin a run for her money.

“What?” Eda questioned. “It’s called recycling! I thought you humans were big on that?” She shot back. 

——

Luz wants to try some actual magic lessons for her apprenticeship. Eda waves the ideas off as ‘magic school stuff’. Luz asks if there is a magic school on the Boiling Isles. Eda confirms there is, but dislikes it since it forces witches to learn magic ‘the proper way’.

“But magic isn’t proper! It’s wild and unpredictable! And that’s why it’s so beautiful.”

Eda reveals she never finished school and questions who wouldn’t envy her position in life, as she stands in the middle of a dump, picking apart a decaying animal carcass. 

——

“I mean…” Sprig started to say.

“Don’t answer that.” Eda cut him off, huffing in annoyance. Looking at this moment again from an outside perspective, even she had to admit that was a poorly timed statement.

——

Eda notices her pep talk isn’t helping Luz and tries to give her a quick lesson on resourcefulness. She proceeds to force Luz’s hand into a puddle of slime to dig around in it. Luz pulls up a greasy slimeball, which she is not thrilled about, but pockets anyway. 

Luz excuses herself from digging through the trash slug saying goodbye to Eda and King. She leaves to head back to ‘look at pictures of animals that are still alive. 

——

“Yes, please.” Mabel added quickly. “Soft, fluffy, living animals, please.”

——

After the title sequence, Luz is walking back to the Owl House, once again doubting if she’s on the right path for learning to be a witch, when she hears a girl’s voice in the distance giving generic encouragement. 

Following the voice to its source, she finds it’s a ‘little witch girl!’ Said girl is trying to give herself a pep talk about trying hard in school and there’s better opportunities on the school track she’s in. At the end of her speech, she accidentally crushes a flower. She quickly apologizes to the flower and uses magic to bring the flower back to life. 

——

“Hey! It’s one of the dudes from the theme song!” Soos pointed out. “Neat!”

Hop Pop gasped dramatically. “Magic from your can make plants grow that quickly?”

He grabbed Polly and held her up toward Eda. “Can you train my granddaughter in Plant Magic.!”

“Hop Pop!” Polly yelled indignantly. “Put me down! I already have a thing I learned!”

——

However, another girl arrives interrupting her and greets her as Willow, calling her unnoticeable. Willow tiredly greets the new arrival as Amity. 

——

“Another kid from the theme song, though this girl seems kinda mean.” Mabel observed.

——

Willow’s homework, a lot of slime, falls over shortly afterwards and is ruined. Amity pities Willow in a condescending manner. Amity continues to speak to Willow, but while her words alone sound somewhat encouraging, her tone is anything but. 

——

“Oh, that’s not cool, man.” Wendy commented. “Bullies suck so much.”

Luz winced. There was no defending Amity on this, she knew, but she still wished she could provide some explanation. She just had to hope these people wouldn’t write Amity off out right and actually give her a chance once her better moments started happening.

——

Amity leaves, with Luz sticking a tongue out at her from her hiding spot in the bushes. Willow starts getting angry at the situation. She hates when Amity does that! She hates making abominations! She hates getting bad grades! She can’t stand this anymore!!!

——

“Oh mood.” Anne commented. “She. Is. Angry!”

——

Her magic starts going crazy and from the flower she was trying to fix suddenly erupts into vines! The vines whip out all over and one grabs Luz, dragging her over to Willow. 

——

“Oh, those looked thorny!” Mabel winced. “And you got dropped. Ow!”

“No worries!” Luz responded. “The thorns only went through a few layers of skin.”

——

Back at the trash slug, Eda has finished harvesting the corpse of goods, including unhatched eggs. King warns Eda that if she doesn’t teach Luz right, she’s going to lose her apprentice and when she does, he’ll swoop in and make Luz his apprentice. Eda laughs at this, doubting he could teach anything except how to get stuck in the arm of a sweater. King takes offense to that. He’d teach her everything about demons!

——

“Uh. I’d be interested in those demon lessons. The lessons about identifying them at least.” Dipper called out, causing King to perk up. 

“See me during the break!” The small demon excitedly told him.

——

The two end up making a bet, with Eda reminding King he has never once won any of their bets. Eda gives King a trash slug egg. If he can train the trash slug baby to be a loyal soldier in a single day, and thus prove he is the better teacher, he will win. But if he loses, she’ll change his name to Mr. Wiggles. Eda has to wear a shame hat and be kicked out of the Owl House. 

Back with Luz, Willow has noticed Luz and is apologizing profusely to her. Willow frees Luz from the vines and notices that Luz is human. Willow is fascinated and bombards Luz with questions. Unfortunately, the school bells interrupt her and she starts to sadly leave. Luz stops her and offers to pretend to be Willow’s homework, covering herself in slime after the two talk about their struggles and worries in general.  

——

“Oh that’s gross.” Wendy commented, looking disgusted. “Do we want to know what that stuff is made of?”

“No… no, you do not.” Luz admitted before shuddering. She took four showers in a row after Willow told her what she used to make her abomination slime.

——

Later, at the magic school, named Hexside, Willow smuggles Luz in as her abomination homework. There, a small boy named Gus bumps into them, talking about humans. Luz accidentally gives herself away, much to Gus’s excitement. The three part ways, promising to meet back up for lunch. 

——

“It’s the third kid from the theme song!” Sprig cheered. “We have a complete set!”

“Humanity has fans!” Mabel cheered! “Ooh! Do we get to meet him?”

“Spoilers!” Luz playfully shot back.

——

At the Owl House, King ‘trains’ his trash slug with an endless supply of doggy treats. Eda mocks him over his training methods and King shoots back that they haven’t seen her apprentice for hours. Eda realizes he is right and begins to wonder. 

At Abomination class, The kids are showing off their slime constructs. The teacher is berating the students for their terrible work. Amity volunteers to go next, but the teacher insists that Willow goes next. 

——

“Ugh!” Wendy huffed. “Teachers like this suck! That dude only cares about going on a power trip.”

“He was absolutely trying to set Willow up to be targeted by her classmates for more bullying.” Luz agreed. 

——

Nervously, Willow stands up to present her ‘homework’. Surprisingly, the expert Abomination teacher is fooled by Willow’s ‘abomination’ and awards her a passing grade, as well as Amity’s place as Top Student, angering Amity Blight. Amity confronts Willow, and tells the girl that she’s going to keep an eye on her. 

Eda questions Hooty if he knows where Luz is and he points her towards Hexside, much to Eda’s despair.

——

“Awl!” Mabel cooed. “What adorable babies!”

Dipper looked at the baby demon with three eyes and somewhat resembled a newly hatched baby bird.  

“Yes. Adorable.” He agreed robotically.

——

At lunch time, Gus has rejoined the two girls for lunch, where he feeds Luz a PB& J, which Amity notices. Since she knows abominations don’t eat, she concludes that Luz is a fake and angrily demands who she is. However, she is sent to the principal's office for bothering Willow. 

——

“Well, at least she won’t bother you guys anymore.” Sprig commented.

“Uh…” Luz started to say something, but stopped herself.

——

King continues to feed his trash slug constant treats. Eda returns and King guesses that Luz found somewhere else to learn. Which means he wins!!! He gives Eda her shame hat and sends her to sleep in a shed. He laughs maniacally. 

——

Dipper frowned. Why did that laugh… sound so… familiar?

——

The trash slug comes up behind him, wanting more treats. When King is unable to find any, the creature angrily attacks. 

Luz teaches Willow and Gus about high-fives, much to his enjoyment. However, Amity enters with Principal Bump in tow, who excitedly wants to see Willow’s abomination. He closely inspects Luz and gives her a couple of commands. One of which, she gets wrong, much to Bump’s surprise. He clarifies that he wants Luz to lie down. 

——

“Oh.” Soos muttered. “That dude totally knows, dudes.” He commented absentmindedly. 

“Yeah…” Luz admitted slowly, rubbing her arm.

——

He tells Willow that he was hoping to see what ‘she’s(Luz) made of’.  When Willow goes for a list of ingredients, he clarifies again that he meant that he wants a live dissection. 

——

“Kid!” Stan suddenly shouted, drawing everyone’s attention. “Get out of there!”

“Uh… Grunkle Stan.” Mabel gently touched his arm. “This already happened. The Luz that’s on screen can’t hear you.”

“Uh… Right.” Stan stammered. He readjusted his seat so he was no longer sitting on the edge. “I knew that.” He quickly added.

——

Gus creates a distraction with a high-five, allowing Willow and Luz to begin making their escape. Bump insists the intruder won’t get far and activates the school's security. The girl’s find themselves sealed within the school. 

——

“Woah… The principal put the whole school on lockdown for this.” Wendy gasped in awe. 

——

At the Owl House, King runs into the Shed, begging for Eda’s help. His trash slug had turned on him, trying to eat him. King concedes the bet, giving Eda the win instead. She saves him from the trash slug and begins formulating a plan to get rid of it. 

——

“Wait.” Mabel said as she realized something. “Does that mean your real name is Mr. Wiggles now?”

“No.” Both Eda and King answered simultaneously. 

“Only I can call him that.” Eda added.

——

At Hexside, Willow and Luz run for their lives away from Bump and a group of Abominations. Willow begins to doubt herself, and Luz gives her a pep talk, reflecting on Eda’s advice about being resourceful and pulling out the greasy slime ball

Willow realizes that it’s actually a seed and takes it, she begins casting a spell on it, causing it to grow wildly out of control as vines. The vines destroy several abominations and pin Principal Bump to the ceiling. He is astonished with what Willow has grown. 

——

“I want that girl on the farm.” Hop Pop commented excitedly! “We’d have the best farm in all of Wartwood!”

——

With Bump tied up, the seal on the school ends, allowing Willow and Luz to attempt to escape. Before they can however, Amity accosts them, demanding the return of the ‘Top Student’ badge. 

——

“Obsessed much?” Wendy questioned. 

“To be fair.” Luz started. “We did cheat.” She reminded everyone.

——

Willow restrains Amity’s Abominations and tells Luz to run. Luz starts to refuse. 

“I may get detention, but you’ll get dissected. 

Willow grabs Luz with a vine and deposits her outside the school, shutting Luz out. Luz runs out to go get Eda. 

——

“I mean, I know Eda is powerful.” Dipper commented. “But I don’t think she could help get Willow out of detention.”

“Eh… Setting something on fire usually distracts from someone else’s rule-breaking.” Eda shrugged. 

“Eda, no!” Luz quickly cut in.

——

Meanwhile, Eda is fighting the trash slug. She lures it into position, where King can dump a barrel of salt on it. The salt causes it to shrink back into a baby and it runs away

Luz runs up, begging Eda’s help. She tells Eda that keeping random junk in her pocket saved her life. She asks Eda to save her new friends, but is interrupted by said friends running up to tell her that they’re okay. Bump was so impressed with Willow’s vines, that he switched her to the plant track. She snaps her fingers, changing the lavender portions of her uniform to green for the plant track. 

——

The screen froze on a shot of Willow, Luz, and Gus just after Willow’s uniform changed to reflect her placement into the Plant Magic Track. Instead of one name, two names appeared on screen. 

Willow Park

Augustus “Gus” Porter

Everyone was already looking towards the Owl House in time for Willow to enter the room wearing her school uniform.

“Hello everyone!” She greeted, waving as she made her way over to one of two new chairs the lone figure summoned in. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you all!” She told everyone as she sat down. 

“It’s good to meet you too, Willow!” Mabel greeted excitedly. “But where’s Gus? Wasn’t he supposed to come out with you? His name was on the screen.”

“I know! That’s so odd.” Came a voice from beside her. 

“Waugh!” Mabel jumped and turned towards where the voice came from and found herself staring Gus in the face, except instead of a school uniform, he was wearing a blue hand-knit sweater with a looking glass symbol on the chest.

“Why sibling of mine!” Came another voice from beside Dipper. “You seemed to have startled Mabel.”

“Aah!” Dipper yelled, jumping toward Mabel. There was a second Gus! This one was wearing clothes similar to Dipper’s, with a matching hat, but another looking glass symbol in place of a pine tree symbol. 

“Woah! Multiple Gus’s!” Came yet a third voice from the Plantar family. 

“What the?!” Hop Pop yelled, as he and the kids all stared at the blue-skinned frog with Gus’s hairdo that had somehow appeared in the middle of their group. 

“Gus…” Willow admonished. “Cut it out with the illusions.”

“Aw…. I’m just having fun.” Came a disembodied voice from the chair beside her. All three Gus clones vanished in a puff of blue smoke and were replaced by the real Gus appearing beside Willow in a puff of more blue smoke.

“What just happened?” Dipper started to ask.

“Discuss later.” The lone figure cut him off. “We’re getting off topic. Let’s finish the episode first.” They announced with a clap.

——

The two unfortunately inform Luz that she has been banned from Hexside. Which Eda celebrates. Willow offers to teach Luz what they learn in school, but Luz turns them down, citing that she has a pretty great teacher already. Eda congratulates Luz on her first wanted poster. 

End of Episode. 

——

With the end of the episode, the discussion officially started, which Dipper immediately jumped on. 

“So, like I was asking just a second ago… What just happened with those clones?!” He asked, yelling a bit.

“Right.” Willow started. “So a lot of this will probably be covered later in our show, but to simplify things, most witches specialize in a field of magic.” She explained, drawing a small spell circle and growing a small flower in her hair to demonstrate. “Mine, obviously, is plant magic. Gus, on the other hand, specializes in illusions.” Gus bowed theatrically in response. 

“So those Gus clones weren’t real?” Sprig asked. “They were just… images?”

“Yup!” Gus confirmed and resummoned the illusion of his frog clone, making it dance in front of the screen.  

Sprig got up and went over to the dancing illusion to examine it. He poked it in the chest and jumped back when it poofed away in a puff of blue smoke. 

“Yeah. Most illusions can’t stand up to physical touch.” Gus explained. “That sort of thing requires extra concentration on the caster’s part and for something or someone to be inside the illusion. 

“That’s really cool!” Dipper commented, making a note of it in his journal.

“Hey, this is cool and all.” Wendy interrupted, leaning back in her chair. “But can we address how the principal was about to dissect Luz?”

“Yeah… about that.” Willow responded. “Principal Bump already knew she wasn’t a real abomination. He was to scare Luz with a fake knife.”

“It was fake?” Polly asked. “It looked pretty real.”

Willow nodded. “It was just the hilt. The blade itself was just an illusion.” She explained. 

“Oh, that’s a relief.” Anne declared. “But what about the huge lockdown?”

“Think of what a human school would do if the teachers learned there was an unknown intruder inside the school?” Luz asked, rephrasing the situation. 

All the humans had a look of sudden realization. 

“He was trying to protect the students.” Dipper said, voicing what everyone was thinking. 

“Turns out.” Luz explained. “He thought I was a Puppeteer demon that was trying to target kids. I was never in any true danger. Worst case scenario, once he realized I was just another kid, Bump was just going to throw me out of the school anyways.”

“Well, now that that’s settled, dudes.” Soos cut in. “That green-haired girl-dude was crazy bonkers.”

Luz, Willow, and Gus all shared uncomfortable looks with each other. They knew those in the waiting rooms could hear the discussions in the main room easily. So there was a good chance Amity could hear the other two groups talk about her. They would have to run interference for her for now. 

“Like Luz was saying earlier.” Willow spoke up. “We did cheat. She may have been mean to me at the beginning, but she does genuinely work hard in school and earned her position as top student legitimately. Of course she was going to be angry if she lost that due to someone cheating their way to the top.” The bespectacled girl explained. 

“Still.” Wendy interjected. “She shouldn’t have been bullying you.”

Willow sighed. “No. She shouldn’t have.” She admitted. “I can’t get into it yet, but there’s more going on with that than just Amity being mean. Try not to judge her too harshly.” She requested. 

“Well… if you’re sure.” Anne said quietly.

“Say Willow.” Hop Pop spoke up, sensing an opportunity to ask what he wanted to ask. “Out of curiosity, do you have any experience using your magic in a farm setting?”

“Uh, no?” She answered mildly confused. 

“Would ya like to?” The old frog asked eagerly. 

Willow chuckled. “I am interested in learning more about Amphibia’s plant life, but while my knowledge of human geography is lacking, I’m pretty sure there’s a huge distance between the connection points for our worlds.” She told him, before she paused in thought for a moment. “Although, I suppose the music box is portable.” 

Hop Pop flinched at the reminder of the music box. More specifically, how the music box was most likely no longer operational. 

“Oh! Uh, that’s right.” He stammered. “I suppose distance would make that quite difficult.”

“Hey wait.” Dipper spoke up. “Isn’t the portal door also portable?”

Eda made a so-so gesture with her hand as she answered. “It’s portable on our side.” She explained. “But in the human realm, the portal always appears attached to that run-down little house in the woods.” She paused as she noticed the look on Dipper’s face. “And before you ask, no, I don’t know why.” She admitted. 

Dipper pouted in mild disappointment as the lone figure stepped forward. 

“It’s almost time to watch the final episode for today’s session and you will all be free for the rest of the day. However, I have some announcements that will affect your time here. I was going to do this at the end of the the next episode’s discussion, but Willow and Hop Pop’s brief discussion provided me with a better opportunity to make these announcements now.” They explained.

The lone figure cleared their throat before continuing.

“Each of your waiting rooms are connected to this theater and by extension, the stable.” They gestured to the area with Bessie, Gompers, and Owlbert. 

“During this overnight break, however, there will be another area you will be able to access. An extra-dimensional space where duplicates of Gravity Falls, Wartwood, and Bonesborough all exist together. They will be populated with duplicates of the townspeople and creatures of these locations, but they are not the actual people themselves, just very convincing puppets. As such, they will not react any differently than if you were natives of these towns, nor will they attack you. You will all be free to explore these snippets of each other’s worlds freely and safely.” The lone figure explained. 

“What about those who haven’t been introduced yet?” King asked curiously. 

“They will also be able to explore this new location.” They explained. “However, in order to avoid spoilers, those that haven’t been introduced yet will only appear as vague shadowy blobs and will be unable to be heard directly by those who haven’t met them yet. Furthermore, any identifying details, such as names, will be muted.” 

“What do you mean by ‘unable to be heard directly’?” Dipper asked. 

The lone figure nodded. “They can still be heard, but only if one is in a direct conversation with them. Even then, any identifying details about their voice will be lost. It will become clear what I mean once this area opens up.”

“Lastly.” The lone figure continued. “The theater will be open to anyone who wishes to rewatch any previous episodes. You all will also have the option of rewatching previous episodes, plus many tv shows or movies many of you may be familiar with.”

The lone figure glanced around the room. Everyone looked very interested in exploring this space. Good. It’s important to keep one’s guests entertained. 

“You all seem eager to explore the new area, so let’s start this last episode. The sooner we finish, the sooner you all will be free to enjoy the rest of your day.” They commented, before clapping their hands. 

——

The Owl House

Season 1

Episode 4

The Intruder

——

The episode begins with Luz recording King fighting his ‘natural enemy’. A ducky sock. After his victory, King tries to teach Luz about demons, displaying a large board covered in pictures of demons. He attempts to tell her about the fearsome Snaggleback. Unfortunately, Luz is not paying attention. 

——

“Oh, I am definitely going to be examining a shot of that board later.” Dipper commented. “Gonna inspect every detail!”

“Don’t forget that lesson you wanted either!” King reminded him.

——

The lesson is interrupted by thunder outside and King expresses disappointment that it’s about to rain. Luz says she loves the rain and runs outside to experience ‘the first few drops in (her) hair’.

——

“Oh man! Nothing beats a light rain on a hot summer day.” Wendy agreed. “It’s a great way to cool off.”

“Not on the Boiling Isles unfortunately.” Luz replied. 

“Huh? Why?” The red-teen asked. Luz only pointed at the screen in response.

——

However, she quickly learns that this is not the kind of rain she is familiar with from home, as the rain quickly destroys a flower next to her. Eda runs back to the house, screaming about Boiling Rain. She grabs Luz and runs back into the house with her. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Sorta.

——

Wendy winced. “That… looks uncomfortable.” She commented. “Were you okay?”

Luz nodded. “I got a few bumps from that, but nothing compared to what a few drops of boiling rain managed to do to me before Eda got me inside.”

“Oh man.” Wendy gasped. “It got you after all?”

Luz nodded to confirm. “Nothing too bad, thankfully.”

——

After the theme song, and a brief shot of how the rest of the Isles are faring with the boiling rain, King is applying a band-aid to Luz as the two watch Eda cast a force-field over the house to protect it. Luz makes a comment about how ‘fun’ weather is on the Boiling Isles.

——

“I’m gonna disagree on the fun part, Luz.” Willow told her. “I only barely saved my plants and one of my dads had to go get treated for burns after the storm let up.”

“I suppose if you’ve lived with it your entire life, boiling rain isn’t as novel a concept.” Luz admitted. 

——

“Yeah, we don’t have weather. We have plagues, gorenados, shale hail, painbows.”

“It’s like a rainbow but looking at it turns you inside out.”

——

“How is anything on the Boiling Isles even alive if you can be turned inside out by random painbows?” Dipper questioned incredulously. 

“We’re the descendants of those smart or lucky enough to remember to look down after a rainstorm.” Eda answered. “Also, it’s not like it happens immediately. You have time to look away and survive with only a minor case of bleeding from your eyes.”

“I always knew color was evil.” Stan huffed ominously, drawing confused stares from the Plantars and Owl House residents. “It’s nice to have proof after all this time.”

——

Eda tells them that no one is allowed outside that night, until the storm ends. King attempts to continue his demons lesson, sharing that the Snaggleback feeds during the rains, eating boiled tourists. Eda finished casting the force field and Luz questions why Eda is called the Owl Lady to begin with. 

“Cause I’m so wise.”

“Cause she coughs up rat bones.

“I think it’s cause she gets distracted by shiny objects.”

Eda takes offense to that last one and denies it, prompting King to pull out a light-up pen to immediately prove her wrong. After recovering, Eda realizes the force field took a lot out of her. 

——

Giggling and snorts of laughter were heard throughout the theater, which was quickly stifled by Eda standing up to glare at everyone. 

“If I hear any more laughter at my expense this episode and I’m gonna sneak bat toes into your food.” She told the group, prompting sounds of disgust.

——

Luz is excited about being stuck inside tonight, because now Eda has no excuse not to teach her magic. King is disappointed that Luz doesn’t want to finish their demon lesson. 

——

Luz hugged King tightly. “Sorry, King. I could have saved us a lot of trouble if I had just paid attention to you to begin with.” She whispered to him

King hugged her back. “Don’t beat yourself up, Luz. You wouldn’t have gotten your spell and the Owl Beast would have taken us by surprise on another day. He whispered back. 

——

As Eda lays back on the couch to relax for the night, she is startled by Luz hovering over her. After a brief back and forth, Luz bribes Eda with the light-up pen to teach her a spell. Eda begins her lesson, and shows Luz a light spell, drawing a circle in the air and spawning a glowing orb of light. 

“Now, humans think magic is made out of thin air, but that’s stupid. Everything comes from something. Let me ask you, kid. Where do you think magic comes from?”

——

“WAIT! PAUSE IT!” Eda yelled at the lone figure, who clapped, causing the episode to pause. 

“Alright humans!” Eda dramatically called out as she stood in her chair. “….and frogs. I’m curious what you all think the answer is before it is given in the show. So, out with it! Where do you all think magic comes from?

“It leaks in from another dimension!” Dipper yelled.

“The wonder of nature!” Hop Pop declared. 

“From children’s dreams!” Mabel responded. 

“A powerful god-like being.” Anne casually guessed. 

“Dark sacrifices!” Polly called out. 

“Dark sacrif—! Aw! Polly! I was gonna say that.” Sprig complained.

Stan grunted noncommittally. 

Wendy shrugged. 

“From the heart?” Soos guessed.

“Wow!” Eda gasped, impressed. “One of you actually got it right.” She told the group, before nodding to the lone figure. 

“Well, let’s see the answer.”

——

“From the heart?”

“Actually, you’re right!”

——

“Yes!” Soos cheered with a fist pump, while everyone else groaned and complained.

——

Eda clarifies that magic comes from a bile sac attached to a witch’s heart. Eda goes on to explain that the bigger a spell circle is, the more powerful the resulting spell will be. Luz questions how she can do magic if she, as a human, doesn’t have a bile sac. Eda admits that she isn’t sure. She knows witches did magic differently in the past, but she never bothered to learn how. She reassures Luz that she’ll figure it out. 

——

“It can’t be too hard to go look up how witches used to do magic, right?” Anne asked. 

“You’d be surprised, kid.” Eda told her. That was one of many topics Belos heavily restricted after all.

——

Eda, exhausted, wants to go lie down now. Luz, however, wants her to cast the light spell one more time so she can record it. Eda reluctantly agrees and begins to cast the spell, but instead passes out before the spell can fully cast. 

——

“Wow! You really were tired.” Hop Pop exclaimed. “That must be some force field if it wore you out that much.”

“Yeah. Some force field.” Eda responded nervously. It was about to kick off. Passing out after a big spell was a sign the Owl Beast was about to take over. If only she had recognized her fatigue for what it really was sooner.

——

Luz panics briefly while King checks how unconscious Eda is, by repeatedly smacking her in the face. Luz attempts to leave the house to go get help, but King reminds her about the boiling rain. Instead, the two drag Eda to her bedroom and push her into her nest. King smacks her one last time, before following Luz downstairs. 

——

Once again, a few members of the audience giggled as King repeatedly smacked Eda in the face. Instead of threatening bat toes again, Eda rounded on King and stared him down as he shrank in his seat. 

“Uh… In my defense, it was… funny?” King stammered. 

“You’re on Hooty bathing duty.” She told him. 

“Yeah, that’s fair.” He admitted. 

——

Luz continues to try and figure out the light, rewatching the video she recorded. King questions why she’s so obsessed with learning magic, and Luz responds that she was a nobody back home, but becoming a witch will let her be someone. 

——

“Oh… Luz!” Anne sympathized. “I know we just met, but you already are someone, you always were.”

“Yeah!” Mabel agreed! “Don’t let those jerks back home get you down!

“Thanks you two.” Luz teared up slightly. “I know that now, but it’s still really nice to hear it.”

——

King offers to help her learn the spell, if she lets him teach her about demons in exchange. She agrees and King tells her that he’s seen Eda sneaking drinks of a special elixir, and that afterwards she seems to get a boost of energy. He thinks if Luz drinks the potion, it will allow her to cast spells.

——

“Wait. Doesn’t that contradict what Eda said about the bile sac?” Dipper wondered aloud. 

“Maybe the elixir fills it back up when it’s empty of all its magic junk, dude.” Soos theorized. 

“She’d still need a bile sac to store ‘magic junk’.” Dipper pointed out.

——

King sneaks back into Eda’s room, looking to the potion. After nearly stepping on a living bear trap, King gets the potion, taking the time to read the tag, with the bottom half having been torn off, before leaving with it. 

“An elixir a day…. Cryptic!”

——

“….. It’s medicine, isn’t it?” Anne asked Luz.

“Yup!” Luz responded, facepalming at her past foolishness for not questioning this situation further.

——

Back downstairs, King hands the potion over to Luz. She uncorks and slowly brings it to her lip, but a round of thunder and lightning startles her into dropping the potion, causing it to shatter on the floor. Shortly afterward, all the lights in the house go out. King reveals that Hooty controls the house lights and probably just fell asleep. 

This idea is quickly disproven, by the sounds of Hooty being attacked. Rushing to investigate, Luz and King find Hooty unconscious on the floor, the door having been ripped from its hinges, and the silhouette of a beast on all fours and a jagged backside standing over him. The shadowed form of the monster retreats and Luz and King rush to check on Hooty, but are unable to awaken him. 

——

Eda turned away from the screen. She didn’t want to see this. She didn’t want to see her kids in danger because of her. She knew they were okay, but who knows how many close calls they had to deal with before they were able to get another potion in her.

“Oh! That’s why I dreamed about being a doorbell!” Hooty yelled from the room. 

Everyone jumped, startled at the sound of his voice.

“I keep forgetting he’s there.” Polly whispered to her group.

——

King believes the monster to be the Snaggleback. It must have seen them inside and attacked to try and break in to eat them. At that moment, the two see the beast return and jump into the house by smashing through Eda’s window. 

——

“Oh no!” Anne cried out. “The Snaggleback broke in!”

——

Luz is terrified, but King is excited to show Luz a demon up close. Luz refuses, but King reminds that Eda is still upstairs, unconscious and defenseless. The two armor up and head upstairs to confront the beast and save Eda. They head into Eda’s room, only to discover that the Owl Lady is missing. Believing that Eda was taken by the Snaggleback, King rushes back downstairs to go get his demon book, but when he returns, he discovers that Luz is also missing now. Sensing something behind him, King chases an unseen figure to a closet. He finds Luz’s shoe abandoned outside the closet and resolves to either save or avenge his friends, and enters the closet to confront the Snaggleback!

However, he finds that the Snaggleback is a lot smaller and more capable of speech than he thought. He also learns that the Snaggleback only just now entered the house. It’s not the one that took his friends. 

——

“Wait, if not him, then what broke in?” Dipper wondered. 

——

Just then, the real beast punches a hole in the ceiling, grabbing the tiny Snaggleback and taking him. 

King hears the beast moving above, then outside the closet door, revealing that he’s been cornered. The door opens slowly, revealing the creature’s silhouette. King watches, terrified, as the monster coughs up the Snaggleback’s empty shell. 

——

“Snaggleback! Nooo! He was so young!” Mabel mourned. “So young and cute!”

——

The monster attacks King, but he dodges and escapes, the monster giving chase. After running through the house, someone pulls King into a side room, and the monster passes by, unaware. 

——

“That was way too close…” Hop Pop worried. “What even is this creature if it ain’t the Snaggleback?”

“Oh, you’ll see real soon.” King sighed and facepalmed too, joining Luz.

——

That someone is shown to be Luz. She reveals that she tripped and lost her shoe, and is glad King found it. As she goes to put it back on, King notices a scrap of paper stuck to her foot. Grabbing it, he realizes it’s the bottom half of the tag that was attached to the potion. He puts the full message back together. 

“An elixir a day keeps the curse at bay!”

——

“Wait….” Dipper gasped. 

“Does that mean the monster is…” Anne started to question as she turned towards Eda.

Eda continued to look away from the screen. She hated watching the Owl Beast threaten her kids.

——

King realizes his mistake. The potion never gave Eda her powers and the monster never took her. The monster is—!

The creature finds them, no longer cloaked in shadow. 

“Eda!?”

The Owl Beast attacks.

——

The room lost their collective minds. 

“You’re the monster?!” Dipper asked hysterically. 

“You’re not feeling… beastly right now, are ya?” Hop Pop questioned nervously, shoving his three kids behind him. Everyone else drowned themselves out by talking over each other.

Eda huddled in on herself and Luz stood to place herself between Eda and the other two groups, with King and Hooty joining her on either side. 

“Hey! Back off!” The Latina teen told them off. “Eda’s been through enough in her own world! She doesn’t need more of the same from other worlds!”

Everyone had the good sense to look embarrassed at their collective outbursts, especially Dipper and Hop Pop. After a brief round of awkward apologies, the episode continued.

——

Luz drops her phone, and the flash from its built in light blinds the Owl beast. Luz takes the opportunity to grab King and run to the balcony to hide. Luz distracts the Owl beast, buying the two time to plan. 

King apologizes for pushing so hard to teach Luz about demons. He just wanted someone to care about creatures like himself. Luz suggests they finish the lesson. After all, Eda has apparently turned into a demon of some sort and only the best demon expert can figure out how to subdue her. King points out that Eda’s demon form has black eyes. That makes her susceptible to sudden bright light. He suggests that they use Luz’s phone again, but Luz reveals that the flash light broke when she dropped it. King asks about the light spell, but Luz reminds him that she can’t draw spell circles like Eda can. She pulls up the video she took earlier to compare herself to it. 

Instead, she notices a pattern in the spell circle that she hadn’t seen before. Using a leaf and the pen, Luz traces the pattern to show King. Upon finishing, the glyph glows and the leaf folds up upon itself, forming a glowing orb of light. 

——

“Woah!” Mabel marveled. “Magic!”

“So if we draw that symbol, we can make light?” Anne asked Luz. 

Luz rubbed the back of her head. How was she supposed to answer that without revealing that the glyphs don’t work anymore?

“Well, the glyphs only work on the Boiling Is—.” She started to say, before Dipper did something that caught her off guard.

“Aw dang it!” The boy pouted, staring up at a glowing orb. “That ate the entire page. I’m gonna have to rewrite that whole entry.”

“Wha—?” Luz stared in wonder at the orb of light. How was that possible? The glyphs stopped working. A flash of blue caught her eye, and she spotted the lone figure holding a vial of a familiar shade of blue liquid. Of course. They had pulled everyone from different points in time, it would be easy to pull a vial of Titan’s blood from a point of time when the Titan was still around. 

——

Luz celebrates that she just did magic. With the ability to create light, Luz has a plan to get Eda back to normal. 

King lures the Owl Beast upstairs into a trap using the light-up pen. Allowing Luz to activate a massive light glyph that she’s drawn on the wall right into the Owl Beast’s face, blinding it even more than the phone did. 

Everything goes white. 

Eda awakens in her nest, covered in feathers and hooked up to another potion via a straw. She quickly downs the rest of the potion to rid herself of the remaining signs of the curse. She vomits up the Snaggleback, who is still alive, but traumatized. 

——

“He survived! Yay!” Mabel cheered. 

“Poor little dude just wanted out of the rain and got way more than he bargained for.” Soos sympathized.

——

King explains they found an extra potion in her closet. Eda begins to chew him out for stealing her potion, but King shows her that Luz is practicing magic, to Eda’s astonishment. 

King apologizes for stealing her potion, and Eda sticks him with the gross chores as punishment. However, she admits that it’s not entirely his fault. She hasn’t been completely honest with the two. She tells them that when she was young, she had been cursed. She doesn’t know how it happened or who cursed her, all she does know is that if she doesn’t take her elixir…

“Well, that’s why people call me the Owl Lady.”

——

“You were treated as an outcast.” Stan observed quietly. “For something beyond your control….”

Eda sighed tiredly. “Yeah, but I also played a part in my own isolation. I pushed away a lot of loved ones that wanted to help, because I was afraid of the Owl Beast hurting them.” She admitted. 

——

She tells them that if one takes the right steps, having a curse is manageable. She tells them she’s fine and it’s all under control, so long as no one steals her elixir again, then she’ll be fine. 

She commends Luz for being able to use magic and Luz thanks King for encouraging her in turn. At which point, Hooty awakens downstairs and calls for help. Luz and King leave to let Eda rest, with Luz taking the Snaggleback with them as the little guy complains that his tail was digested. 

Eda quickly falls back asleep and dreams about the moment she had been cursed. She yells at a vague shadowy silhouette with giant round eyes. She knows this is the one who cursed her, but she can’t make out their identity. As she screams demanding to know who they are, she wakes back gasping. 

——

“Wh-who is that?” Dipper asked nervously. “Have we seen anyone who looks like that yet?”

“No. You haven’t.” Eda admitted dryly. And even then, Lilith’s appearance had changed a lot since then. She doubted these people would put together that her sister cursed her before it was revealed. 

——

Back downstairs, Luz is fixing up Hooty and the Snaggleback is telling King details about the Owl beast. The Snaggleback is impressed that King’s book lists him as one of the strongest demons on the Boiling Isles. King flatly tells the Snaggleback that he’s gonna have to edit that entry, to the Snaggleback’s disappointment.

End of Episode. 

——

With the end of the episode, the final discussion of the day began. Anne cleared her throat, starting things off. 

“So, I’m sure we all want to know more about the curse.” She admitted, prompting Eda to cross her arms. “But that’s clearly a sensitive topic!” Anne quickly added. “Instead, can you tell us more about a witch’s bile sac?”

“Sure.” Eda nodded, fishing the diagram out of her hair and whipping it open. 

“A bile sac is roughly half the size of the heart.” Eda started. “Food on the Boiling Isles has nutrients that aren’t present in human food.  These nutrients end up in our bloodstream, and then collect in our bile sacs, which in turn processes said nutrients into a fluid that fuels our magic.” She explained. “That’s how it works for a healthy witch anyways.”

“So if a witch wasn’t eating right, it would affect their magic?” Sprig asked. 

“Yup.” Eda confirmed. “When I was younger, I would explore the human realm, eating nothing but human food, and had a couple of close calls when I traveled a little too far or stayed too long in the Human realm.”

“What counts as too long?” Dipper asked. 

Eda shrugged. “Depends on how much a witch is using their magic on a daily basis, but I’d say on average, 3-6 months at a time. Thankfully, using up one’s magic isn’t life threatening for most. Just inconvenient.”

Willow and Gus shared a look with each other. So that’s what was going on with their magic at the Archives. 

“What’s the farthest you’ve traveled in our world?” Mabel asked. 

Eda stroked her chin in thought. “Well, I stayed in what you called the ‘Yousa’.

“You mean the USA?” Wendy questioned.

“Yeah, that.” Eda agreed quickly. “But to be more specific, I think the farthest I’ve ever traveled was this bright shining city called ‘Lost Vagueness’ or something. That place was great. I stole a human car and participated in some weird human ceremony! I don’t know what it was, but I apparently ‘got hitched’. Whatever that means.” She admitted with a snort. 

“I think you mean Las Vegas.” Stan commented absentmindedly. “I’ve been there a couple times. It’s a good city. I even got married there once. Although my ex-wife stole my car after our wedding. That was less fun.”

Neither Stan nor Eda reacted to the other’s statement, but all the kids across all three groups had sudden looks of horrified realization. 

“Hey!” Luz stood up suddenly. “So! Is there anything else you guys want to know about the episode we just watched?” She asked forcefully, trying to steer the conversation away from its current topic. 

“Ooh!” Sprig perked up. “Are there any more of those magic circle patterns you can show us, Luz? The light one is super cool.”

Sorig held up a paper he had apparently doodled made-up glyphs on to. “I’ve been trying to find more, but no luck yet.”

Luz giggled. “Careful there.” She warned him. “Glyphs typically need to be exactly right to work properly, but if you get close to the correct design of one, you may cause something dangerous to happen.” She told him. “As for others, I think it’s best to let you see for yourself as more of our episodes play.”

Sprig nodded and disposed of his doodle sheet.

Soos stood and stretched. “I don’t know about you dudes, but my butt hurts from all this sitting. I’m ready to call it here for now and go stretch my legs.”

“Yeah, me too.” Anne admitted. “I don’t think anyone has any more questions, right?”

There was a general consensus from the group, prompting the lone figure to step forward. 

“Very well.” They announced. “The final discussion is over. As a reminder, there are now new doors in your waiting rooms leading to a space where all three main towns are conjoined. This is available to everyone and there’s no need for money if visiting a store or restaurant. The duplicate townspeople will act as if you have already paid. The animals in the stables will be transported where appropriate in this area. Also, I will be unavailable for the rest of the day. I need to prepare the next batch of episodes and other behind the scenes tasks, but I will see you all in the morning after breakfast.” The lone figure finished explaining. 

With that, they were dismissed. The adults filtered out. The code team made plans to meet at Greasy’s diner for their meeting with the understanding that Sprig would be late due to his punishment from Hop Pop. 

With that, the lone figure was left alone in the theater with the animals in the Stable. After a few quick teleports, they too were gone. 

Save one.

The lone figure looked down into feline eyes .

“Biwt, Tyephafr.” Epr Amrrwxw llqviqwwi xsmvv Qywljv. “T qzekgrw dsf enrx yr wctwiaexgsf ksc iyp xfmk.”

“Nromrh Agxfjwd.” Bui Ksejimlv eiwnsfiio. “Busyel A fq tvgvmeywi fj euex wsm’wi owvrk yrv N’q hqypmlk lt ppb glmq ggsxtvhi jmv fta. Tv segr, M lmmys ji wfsmqh llq e jmyjyl hivxmlk jtsx.” Bui Ksejimlv nhqgxljh. “T bumri qgwi sqtlip fwnrra flsspv xip buiwc injrea.”

“Nrh G ofta ucfx afs kmsftq fi grnnxpl.” Gli ael kmyqflib, fwkscm osxf xzj pzvr jmeyjj eyl pex tefnwsmq mr y jdfws ws pmell.

Chapter Text

——Gravity Falls Waiting Room——

“Come on, Dipper! We’re done with episodes for today!” Mabel called over her shoulder as she ran into the waiting room. “We got to meet up with everyone and go see the other towns!”

She ran further into the room, before tripping on something metallic and face planting into the ground. 

“Sorry!” chirped a robotic voice.

“What the..?” Mabel mumbled as she picked herself up and looked at what she tripped over. At her feet was a small robot on wheels that threw its little metal arms skyward.

“Sorry!” It called again.

“Where did you come from?” Mabel asked as she examined the mechanical being. 

“Mabel!” An elderly high-pitched voice called out to the girl. 

Looking up, Mabel spotted McGucket approaching her. 

“Hey! Did you make this little guy, McGucket?” Mabel asked the elderly man. 

“Yup!” The engineer confirmed. “I felt terrible about unintentionally helping Gideon pressure you into another date. So I built ya an apology-bot!” He excitedly told her. 

“I apologize!” The robot chirped helpfully.

“Thank you, McGucket!” Mabel told him. “Does it do anything else?” She asked. 

“No!” He admitted to her. “It just apologizes whenever I feel guilty for anything regarding you.”

He paused as he realized something. 

“Which isn’t very helpful… is it?” He asked bashfully. 

Mabel shook her head apologetically. 

“My bad!” The robot interjected into the awkward silence that followed. 

“Aw, Hog Spit!” McGucket swore. “I can make a better one!”

“Please don’t.” Mabel stopped him. “I don’t need a robot. It’s enough to know that you want to apologize.”

“Well.” The old man rubbed the back of his neck. “Alright, if you say so.”

The two ended their conversation and joined the others gathered loosely in front of the duplicate Mystery Shack who were discussing their plans for the rest of the day.

“Mabel!” Dipper called to her. “Looks like I beat you here!” He told her with a smug grin. Mabel rolled her eyes fondly at her brother in response.

“What did I miss, bro?” She asked, looking around at the group. Everyone had formed a loose half circle gathered around a new doorway that had appeared between the Mystery Shack. Mabel assumed it was the door that would take them to the three towns that the lone figure has mentioned before. 

“Not much.” Dipper told her. “Everyone is still making plans for what they’re doing for the rest of the day.”

“Ooh!” Mabel exclaimed. “I should talk to the girls! I have something I want to try doing in Wartwood!” She explained before quickly running off to find the other girls. 

Dipper rolled his eyes fondly at his sister’s antics, before a voice called his name.

“Dipper!”

Looking over, Dipper saw Wendy waving him over to join her and the teens. He made his way in their direction, joining their group. 

“What’s going on, guys?” He greeted them. They looked excited about something. “You guys have something fun planned?”

“Nothing big.” Lee answered. “We’re just gonna go walk around the frog town. It just seemed so interesting.”

Dipper raised an eyebrow suspiciously, then glanced around at the others. Everyone was acting extremely nonchalant. Robbie was even whistling innocently. The only one who was acting normally was Thompson, who had broken off to apparently pack snacks for the group’s outing. 

Dipper eyed all the teens again before sighing. “You guys are planning to go to Wartwood to try and get Gourd Tea and then dare Thompson to drink it, aren’t you?”

“Whaaat?” Nate gasped dramatically. “Noooo… Of course n—” He cut off when he saw Dipper wasn’t buying it. “Okay. Yeah. We are.” He admitted.

“You’re not gonna, like, tell the adults are you?” Lee asked nervously. 

Dipper shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that to you guys. Just don’t give him too much. You guys are gonna be introduced in the morning with the next episode. It wouldn’t be great if you guys outed yourselves because Thompson was too out of it tomorrow.” He told him. 

“I know!” Wendy commented excitedly. “It’s gonna be so awesome to have you guys out there with us!” She told her friends. 

“Sucks that we have to relive the convenience store incident again.” Tambry commented, not looking up as she continued to rapidly text on her phone. 

“What convenience store?” Robbie asked, confused.

The other teens all stopped to stare at Robbie like he grew a second head. 

“Uh, The condemned Dusk 2 Dawn?” Nate reminded him. “The ghosts that attacked us? Dipper saved us? It’s the day we met him and Mabel?”

Robbie just looked even more confused. “The heck are you guys talking about? The first time I even saw Dipper was a party at the Mystery Shack. The one where my bike got stolen.” He told the group. 

Dipper sucked in a breath. “Oh. I think I know what’s going on.” 

“Same here.” Wendy added. “Robbie, it’s gonna be covered in McGucket’s intro episode, but there was a… ‘thing’ in the town that was erasing people’s memories of the supernatural.” She explained to him. 

Dipper nodded. “I know for a fact that you ran afoul of it at least once, and probably twice from the sound of it.” He added. 

“Oh man…” Robbie freaked out slightly, running a hand through his hair. “Parts of my memory are missing?”

“Wait… what about the rest of us?” Thompson asked fearfully, having rejoined the group in time to overhear the current discussion. “Have our memories been tampered with too?”

Dipper shrugged. “Given how long it had been going on? Probably at some point. But I never saw any direct evidence for any of you guys, other than Robbie.”

“But hey!” Wendy cut in, hoping to prevent a freak-out. “I know where to go to check to see if you guys were affected once we get back to the real Gravity Falls. Even better, if you did have something erased, we can see what it was!”

“Well, if we are able to see what was erased, then that’s a little better.” Robbie admitted. “Watching the next episode is gonna be weird. You all remember it, but I don’t.”

“Getting back on topic.” Wendy interrupted. “You wanna come with us to check out Wartwood, dude?” She asked Dipper. 

“I’d love to, but I already have the code-breaker meeting and I agreed to meet up with King to talk about demons.” Dipper replied. “Maybe next time.”

“Oh. The fuzzy dog kid.” Thompson commented. “It’s weird that he sounds like the triangle guy.”

All the teens froze and slowly turned towards Thompson to stare at him. 

“What?” Someone asked. 

“Uh…” The chubby teen stammered. “He sounds like the triangle guy. D-did you guys not realize?”

“Uh. No!” Wendy exclaimed. “Thompson! Are you sure about this?!”

Thompson nodded nervously.

“It-it’s probably just a coincidence.” Nate said, stumbling over his words a little. 

Lee quickly nodded. “Yeah! That’s it! A coincidence.”

The other teens were quick to jump on the belief that it was a coincidence. Dipper, however, had recalled a moment in the previous episodes where King had cackled on screen and something about the laugh felt unnervingly familiar. When they had first heard their own theme song, King had said something, and Mabel had immediately commented that she could still hear his voice. During the last break, great uncle Ford specifically asked him to talk to King and get information about the fuzzy demon. 

Dipper paused. Great uncle Ford did that for a reason. The man probably already knew or at least suspected the same thing Dipper was suspecting now. He glanced around the room and spotted Ford talking to Mabel, who was busy knitting a new sweater.

“Hey guys. I hope you have fun in Wartwood.” Dipper hurriedly bid the teens goodbye before running off towards Mabel and Ford. 

“Great Uncle Ford!” Dipper called to the man as he joined them. 

“Hey Bro-bro!” Mabel greeted him. “I’m knitting a sweater for Hooty!” 

“Dipper!” Ford greeted as well. “Perfect timing! I was hoping to get you and your sister together! I need to apologize to you both. It’s my fault Gideon found the second journal and was able to use it against the family.” Ford explained.

“It’s fine, Great Uncle Ford! It’s not like you hid it in a highly populated area like an elementary school playground where a child like Gideon could easily find it.” Mabel responded, as she continued working. 

Ford nervously avoided eye contact with the kids, before clearing his throat and changing the subject as quickly as he could. “So! Dipper! I assume you had something you wanted to ask me!”

“Oh right!” Dipper exclaimed. “Can we talk privately?” He asked. “There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

Ford looked intrigued and nodded. The two bid Mabel farewell and stepped aside to speak privately. 

“Great Uncle Ford. Why did you ask me to talk to King specifically?” Dipper asked Ford nervously, rubbing his arm.

Ford stayed quiet as he studied Dipper’s face and sighed. “So… You noticed the similarities in King’s voice with Bill’s.” The older man guessed. 

Dipper nodded. “That’s why you wanted me specifically to talk to King isn’t it? Because he might be connected to Bill in some way?”

Ford sighed tiredly. “It is.” The older man confirmed. “Specifically… I suspect King might somehow be Bill’s reincarnation.” He explained to the boy. 

“The Owl House residents are from roughly 8 years in the future compared to us. Furthermore, King himself admitted to being somewhere between the ages of 6 and 10.” Ford continued. “It all fits together so far.”

Dipper shuddered. “Can we trust King if he’s Bill’s reincarnation?”

Ford affectionately rubbed Dipper’s head. “First of all, that’s just a theory I have. I’m hoping it’s just a coincidence that the two sound alike. If it’s not a coincidence, then we make sure that King never makes the connection himself.” He told Dipper. “For now though, we need more information on King himself!”

“I… have demon lessons with him later.” Dipper offered. 

“Perfect!” Ford declared. “Get in close with him. Learn what he knows! But more importantly, see if he has any concrete connections to Bill that we need to be concerned about.” 

Dipper nodded. “You can count on me, Great Uncle Ford!”

“Here’s hoping nothing comes of your investigation, my boy.” Ford told him, patting his shoulder. 

The two went to rejoin everyone else, but found that people had begun to head through the new door to begin exploring the three towns. The only people left aside from themselves were Stan, Soos, and Pacifica. 

“Stan!” Ford greeted his brother. “Did you see where Fiddleford went? I was hoping to be able to catch up with him.”

Stan shrugged. “Sorry, Ford. He ran off without telling anyone where he was going.”

Ford frowned. “Unfortunate. Knowing him though, he’d probably keep to Gravity Falls. I doubt the other worlds would be of much interest to him. Oh well.” The six-fingered man shrugged. “What about you, Stanley? Are you going to the other towns?”

Stan grinned in response. “You betcha, Sixer! Me and Soos are gonna go around the other towns and get ideas for new attractions at the Mystery Shack!”

“I thought you avoided using anything weird or supernatural when it came to the Shack?” Ford questioned. “That it’s too ‘dangerous’?”

“That’s right, but I can still base the fake stuff off something real! A lot of the Shack’s early attractions were based off stuff you put in Journal 1” Stan revealed. “I don’t need to catch Bigfoot if I can build a convincing enough dummy.”

Ford chuckled. “I suppose you’re right. Well, while you’re doing that, would you mind picking up some knick knacks from the other towns for me? I’d like to study anything I can get my hands on later tonight.”

“Sure, I can do that.” Stan agreed. “It’ll be easier to make a convincing copy if we have the real deal on hand anyways. Where are you gonna go though? I thought you’d be all over checking out these other towns yourself.”

“Oh, I still am.” Ford clarified. “I’m just gonna be collecting things like soil samples and things like that. It’ll take me a while, so I’ll probably only be able to do one town today. I think I’ll hit up Wartwood first.  I can make some sketches of natives for you in return.” He offered. 

The brothers agreed and headed through the door. However, while the older Pines twins had been talking, Dipper and Pacifica had also been having a conversation of their own.

“Hey Pacifica!” Dipper greeted the blonde. “Not going with the other girls to Wartwood?” He questioned.

Pacifica shook her head, looking a little uncomfortable. “No. I’m still getting used to the idea that this is even happening.” She admitted, referring to their situation. “Plus… the other world’s don’t really appeal to me. Maybe if future episodes show something interesting, I’ll go check them out.”

Dipper nodded. “That makes sense. What are you going to do instead?”

“We all have assigned rooms in the Mystery Shack.” Pacifica started to explain. “My room’s pretty similar to my real room, but some of my things are missing. So I’m going to go grab those things from the copy of my family’s mansion.”

“Do you need help carrying anything?” Dipper asked.

Pacifica shook her head. “I shouldn’t. It’s just a few things.” She explained.

“Alright, then.” Dipper responded. “I’m headed to Bonesborough. Want me to let you know if I see anything that looks high class?” He offered jokingly.

“Sure, Dipper.” She agreed, giggling a bit. “I’ll see you later.” She told him, before heading through the door.

Looking around, Dipper realized he was the last person to leave the waiting room. Not wanting to waste another second, he hurried through the door.

——Amphibia Waiting Room——

As Anne and the Plantars entered their waiting room, they immediately heard Maddie loudly ranting . 

“I was sensing her curse, Ivy! I could sense the Owl Lady’s curse!” The blue skinned frog girl marveled. 

“Okay… but what does that mean, Maddie?” Ivy asked the witch frog. “Haven’t you been able to sense curses before?”

Maddie shook her head. “No…maybe… I’m not sure.” She admitted. “The only curses I’ve dealt with were those that had been cast on folks I knew before they had been cursed. So their curses were obvious to me, but I never met Eda before she’d been cursed, so I had nothing to compare. Maybe I’ve always been able to sense curses, I just never noticed until now?”

“Hey you two!” Anne greeted as she and Sprig walked up, Hop Pop and Polly continued on to the rest of their group gathered around a new door. “Have you guys seen Sasha and Marcy?”

“Oh yeah! They headed into the Plantar house to get ready to check out the towns.” Ivy told her. 

“Thanks Ivy! Catch up with you later, Sprig!” Anne bid her friend/brother goodbye and took off for the house. 

“See you later, Anne!” Sprig called after her, before turning to the two frog girls. “Hey Ivy! Hey Maddie! What are you two doing?” He asked them. 

“Hey Sprig!” Ivy greeted her boyfriend. “Maddie was just talking about Eda’s curse.”

“Can you blame me?” Maddie cut in. “It’s a curse from a completely different system of magic. Curses are my thing!” She declared. “I have to know more! I want to study under her like Luz!”

“Well, she’d probably be interested in your knowledge of curses.” Sprig offered. 

Maddie sighed. “You’re probably right. Either way, I’m going to see if I can learn anything more about her curse during the break.”

“How are you going to do that?” Ivy asked. 

“I’m gonna try to find her in town.” Maddie admitted. “I’m hoping she’ll be able to answer some questions on it.”

“I don’t know, Maddie.” Sprig replied, sounding unsure. “I kinda got the impression that her curse is a touchy subject. Not to mention, that the spoiler effect would prevent you from fully interacting with her.”

“I know.” Maddie admitted. “But I have to try. I’m not sure I can wait until my introduction.”

“Fair enough.” Sprig conceded. “Oh hey, I had a question before you leave, Maddie. What was up with you stabbing that doll of me when your dad was trying to hook us up?”

Maddie suddenly looked really uncomfortable. “Oh that…” She trailed off. “That, that was, uh, nothing… big.”

Ivy put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at Maddie. “Don’t try playing it off. What did you do, Maddie?”

“Alright, alright!” Maddie surrendered. “Sprig, remember how I said I saw your death in my mind?” She asked. Sprig nodded in response. 

“I used a curse to help prevent that death.” Maddie revealed, making the other two gasp and Ivy clutched fearfully at her boyfriend. 

“I put a fate-stealing curse on you.” Maddie explained. “It stole your fate to die a violent death and transferred it to the doll.”

“…Wow.” Sprig commented after an awkward moment of silence. “I…. Thank you.” He said, unable to add anything else. 

Maddie nodded. “Honestly, I think I may have cast that curse a little too well. You have a lot of near-misses.”

Sprig thought about all the close calls he had over the last few months compared to the rest of his life. Statistically, it made little sense that he miraculously survived every single incident. He suddenly just sat down on the ground, his legs partially giving out.

“I… I think I need a minute.” He announced. Ivy sat with him on one side, while Maddie sat on the other. After several minutes, Sprig took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

“You okay, Sprig?” Ivy asked him worriedly. 

“Okay?” He questioned. He then jumped up and posed heroically. “I’m better than okay!” He declared. “I just realized that I'm the perfect adventurer now! No trap or beast can kill me! I’m invincible!”

Maddie facepalmed. “Sprig! No! There’s no guarantee my curse will last forev—!”

“Invincible!” The pink frog once again yelled to the sky, running off to celebrate. 

Ivy sighed. “Don’t worry. I’ll talk him out of it later.” She whispered to Maddie. “Still, thank you for saving him.”

Maddie nodded. “Anytime. It’s why I started learning magic to begin with.” The witch frog admitted. “So, what are you going to do later in the towns?” She asked.

“Oh, I wanted to check out the Boiling Isles with Sprig.” Ivy replied. “They have some weird looking bugs, so I thought Sprig and I could go hunting and see how they taste.”

“Ooh! Try to bring back some live ones for me.” Maddie requested. “I bet I could use them to make some really interesting curses and potions with them.”

“Sure!” Ivy agreed. “It’s the least I could do for you keeping my boyfriend alive!”

“Y-yeah.” Maddie agreed awkwardly. 

Ivy paused, studying the curse-wielder. 

“You still like him, don’t you?” Ivy asked her, a sad look on her face. 

Maddie stared down at the ground. “…Yeah. I do.” She admitted. “Sorry, Ivy. I know you don’t want to hear—.”

Whatever else Maddie was gonna say was cut off as Ivy pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you, Maddie.” Ivy told her. 

Maddie was too stunned to speak at first, but slowly returned the hug. After several moments, she was finally able to speak. “Thanks, Ivy. I hope you two are happy together.”

Ivy ended the hug and silently nodded to the other girl. 

“I’ll see you later, Ivy.” Maddie told her. 

“You too, Maddie.” Ivy replied, before hopping away to catch Sprig. 

Maddie watched her leave, sighing wistfully as soon as Ivy was out of earshot. 

“Dang.” Maddie muttered to herself. “Now there’s two frogs I have feelings for…”

She turned and began getting ready to go look for Eda. 

Elsewhere in the Amphibia waiting room, Anne had entered the duplicate Plantar home. She looked around for her friends and heard their voices coming from the basement. Poking her head through the door, she saw Sasha and Marcy in a replica of her room standing in front of an empty board and a ball of red string. 

“What are you two doing?” Anne asked, startling both girls. 

“Aaah!” Marcy yelled, dropping the ball of string. “Oh Anne! Sasha and I were discussing that hidden message you told us about, the one regarding Stan!”

“Marcy’s set up a conspiracy board to keep track of anything that seems suspicious about the guy.” Sasha clarified. “More suspicious than usual, I mean. 

“It seemed appropriate for the tone of their show.” The nerdy girl conceded. “Unfortunately, all I have right now is a blank board. I was gonna go over the Gravity Falls episodes we have access to so far later tonight, to see if I can find anything early.” She explained. 

“Neat!” Anne commented, checking out the blank board. “But why is it set up in my room?”

“Actually, we all have assigned rooms upstairs.” Marcy told her. “All three of our rooms are next door to each other.”

“Haven’t seen anyone else’s room.” Sasha cut in. “But my room looks like a cross between my room in Toad Tower after I got on Grime’s good side and my room at my mom’s house. I imagine your rooms are the same.”

Anne hummed in thought at that. “Okay. So you two didn’t set it up in my room. So why the basement?”

“We figured it could be a hang out area for us.” Marcy explained. “It’s also out of the way from any of the common areas.”

“Cool!” Anne commented. “So, what are you guys going to do in the towns?”

“I’m not really sure to be honest.” Sasha admitted. “I was thinking about hanging out with Grime, but he wants to stay in since everyone from earth has been giving him a hard time for locking me up in the first episode.”

“I really want to check out Bonesborough.” Marcy admitted. “However, I was thinking. What if we could do some digging on Stan?”

“Huh?” Anne responded.

“Think about it!” Marcy insisted. “We have free range to explore any of the three towns. What’s stopping us from going to the Mystery Shack? From walking right up to that vending machine!” She declared. 

“Oh my frog…” Anne gasped. “We could input the code! Their first episode showed what the code is!” 

“We could see what’s back there!” Sasha excitedly added. “Let’s do it!”

“Then it’s settled!” Marcy cheered. “Girls, we’re going to Gravity Falls!”

Back outside, everyone else was gathering together to discuss their plans for the afternoon before heading out to visit the towns. 

“So, Dr. Jan. Terri.” Hop Pop addressed the two humans. “Where will you two be headed?”

“Oh.” Terri started to answer for both herself and Dr. Jan. “We’re gonna stick to exploring Amphibia.” She admitted. “We do plan to eventually explore the Boiling Isles too, but we want to finish cataloging what we can about Amphibia first. What about you, Mr. Plantar?” She returned the question.

“Oh! I’m gonna meet up with that Willow girl.” Hop Pop excitedly shared. “We’re gonna see how her magic works with crops!”

 “That sounds exciting! I hope we can establish permanent contact between our worlds. We could solve world hunger if we could just magically grow our food” Dr. Jan commented, before looking at the ball-shaped girl next to Hop Pop. “What about you, Polly? Got any fun plans?”

“I’m gonna meet up with King to hang out!” She excitedly shared. “We don’t know what we’re gonna do yet, but I don’t care!” She declared. “By the way? Where are Ally and Jess? I wanted to ask them what they thought about that cool robot from Gravity Falls!”

”They’ve already run off to explore the towns, actually!” Jan told her, making Polly pout. “However, I think they were really impressed with it! They got really quiet when the Gobblewonker was revealed to be a robot, then started whispering to each other excitedly when it was shown that old man was piloting it!”

Dr. Jan paused for a moment. “Hm, come to think of it, they had a similar reaction when that kooky old man first showed up too! Anyway, I think they headed off to the Gravity Falls lake to see if they can check out that robot.”

”That’s nice.” Polly replied. “Too bad I missed them. I’ll have to catch up with them later.”

Nearby, Anne’s parents were talking with Olivia and Yunan.

“So you two are also going to Gravity Falls?” Bee questioned the two newt women. 

Olivia nodded diplomatically. “Indeed. Our stay in your world was brief and chaotic.” She admitted. “I, personally, would like to see more of it while the opportunity is available. I thought General Yunan and I would try that red-curtained restaurant we only briefly saw in that last Gravity Falls episode. It appeared very high class and I would like to sample more of earth’s cuisine.”

“Well, just remember what Anne told everyone about that Stan fellow.” Oum replied. “Avoid him if he shows up.

Olivia chuckled. “Oh you needn’t worry about me.” She replied, grabbing Yunan’s hand. “I’ll have the general with me.” She reminded them, eliciting a blush from General Yunan. “She’ll make short work of anyone that tries to accost us.”

Oum chuckled. “I hope you two enjoy yourselves!” She told them. “If you do run into any trouble though, my husband and I will also be in Gravity Falls. We’re going to eat at the seafood restaurant. Hopefully we don’t have to share our meal with any spoiled child psychics!” She joked, causing the four adults to laugh. 

Meanwhile near the door, two individuals had just bumped into each other. 

“Oh hey!” Wally greeted the tall human he had run into. “You’re that X fellow, right? Anne mentioned you!”

Mr. X quietly regarded the frog man with a quirked eyebrow. “Ah yes.” He finally replied. “You’re the vagabond. Wally, correct?”

“You got that right!” The bardic frog cheered. “Heading out into the towns?”

“Yes. I have something important that I need to do.” Mr. X explained. 

“Oh good for you!” Wally replied. “I don’t have any big plans myself! So I thought I would go sightseeing while playing my accordion! What is it you’re doing?”

“That’s private.” X quipped.

“Fair enough!” Wally replied. “See ya later!” He bade X farewell, hopping through the door. 

Mr. X watched the vagabond leave and then glanced over his shoulder at the others still in the room. There was no real reason to keep his plans secret from the others. It was just a force of habit from his job. It was likely he’d run into others tied to Amphibia while he was in town and it would be plain to see what he was up to. Still, better safe than sorry. He didn’t want anyone to know he was planning to follow Stan around. The spoiler effect that would prevent those who hadn’t been introduced yet from being fully perceived by other groups should make it easier to keep a low profile too.

He stepped through the door and into towns. Stan would never see him coming. 

——The Owl House Waiting Room——

The Owl House crew, plus Willow and Gus, reentered their waiting room, finding their friends and family waiting for them. Luz saw Amity approaching and opened her arms wide in preparation to hug her, but stopped when Amity paused in front of Willow instead. 

“Willow, I am so so—.” She had started to say before Willow cut her off by holding up a hand. 

“You’ve already apologized before, Amity. You don’t have to do so again.” Willow told her. “I’ll admit, it’s not great seeing the old you again in these episodes, but you need to remember that you are not that person anymore.” The plant witch explained. 

Amity sighed. “You’re right.” She conceded. “Thank you for sticking up for me where you could, by the way. I appreciate it.”

“Of course!” Willow replied. “We had cheated after all, plus that teacher was a jerk. There’s no way a single passing homework assignment should’ve earned me the top student spot.”

“Huh, you’re right.” Amity realized. “What was the teacher trying to do?”

“Who knows.” Willow said, rolling her eyes. “Hermonculus is a terrible teacher. I hope Bump finally fires him once school starts back up.”

“What are you two talking about?” Luz interjected.

“Luz!” Amity greeted her. “I came over to apologize to Willow, but now we’re complaining about Professor Hermonculus.”

Luz crossed her arms and scoffed. “Ugh, him. He’s a jerk.”

Before they could continue, the rest of the Hexsquad, plus Vee, came over and joined them. 

“Hey guys.” Willow greeted them. “What’s up?”

“If you three got a minute, we were hoping to talk more about the code Luz told us about after the Gravity Falls episodes.” Vee responded, currently in her natural basilisk form. 

“Oh, uh, sure.” Luz agreed. “What did you guys want to talk about?” She asked. 

“Well, you kinda told us about it really quickly.” Gus admitted. “So can you tell us more about it? All we know is that Stan is ‘not what he seems’?” You didn’t give us more than that.”

Luz facepalmed. “Ugh, sorry guys.” She apologized. “I forgot to explain what that meant.”

“Right, at the end of the code-breaking meeting, I found a code the others missed that was hidden in the Gravity Falls theme song.” She went on to explain. “Once I solved it, it translated to read ‘Stan is not what he seems’.”

Hunter scoffed. “The uncle isn’t what he seems? Where have I heard that before?” He commented sarcastically. 

Willow put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a comforting squeeze. “That message could mean any number of things.” She pointed out. “Stan is here with the rest of us. I don’t think he would’ve been brought in if the message meant anything nefarious.”

Hunter just crossed his arms. “Maybe he’s not Belos-level bad, but that doesn’t mean I have to trust him.”

“Not asking you to. Just pointing out there are multiple possibilities.” Willow told him, rubbing his back. 

“Mom and I are going to get dinner in Gravity Falls.” Vee spoke up. “Do you want me to poke around at the Mystery Shack afterwards?” The shape-shifter offered. 

Luz shrugged. “You don’t have to do that, Vee. Besides, the Mystery Shack crew probably won’t even be there.”

“That’s why I’m offering.” Vee countered. “They probably won’t be there. If the towns are accurate recreations of the real places, then I might be able to find something on the guy while the place is empty.” She pointed out. 

“Oh! I hadn’t considered that.” Luz admitted. 

“Hey! I’m also going to check out Gravity Falls.” Gus pointed out. “Why don’t I join you when you head to the Mystery Shack. I can make us invisible!”

“That would be great!” Vee agreed excitedly. “If someone does show up, you can cover us!”

“So Vee and Gus are gonna investigate Stan.” Amity summarized. “What’s everyone else doing for the rest of the day?”

“I was planning to meet up with Hop Pop in Wartwood.” Willow shared.

“What about the giant ladybugs?” Luz asked her friend, causing Willow to shudder. 

“I can come with you.” Hunter offered quickly. “I can keep the ladybugs away from you.” He told her, blushing after a second. 

Willow blushed in return and smiled. “Yeah! Thanks Hunter! That would be great!”

Amity and Luz shared smug knowing looks, before Luz cleared her throat to grab everyone’s attention. “Amity and I are long overdue for a nice simple date, so the two of us are staying in Bonesborough to eat at a nice place, since this version of the town isn’t destroyed like the real one is.” She shared with the group. 

“Luz! Vee! Kids!” A voice behind the group called out. Everyone turned to see Camilla approaching them, a friendly smile on her face. 

“How are you all doing?” She asked when she reached the kids. “Are you all making plans for the evening?”

“We just finished actually, mamá!” Luz told her. “Vee said you two were going into Gravity Falls for dinner?”

“Sí! We’re going to the seafood restaurant we saw while we were watching!” She told them. “Apparently, Lilith and that Darius fellow are also going to Gravity Falls. By the way, is he always so serious?”

Hunter chuckled. “Yeah. Darius can be pretty serious a lot of the time, but he means well. Did he say why he’s headed to Gravity Falls, though? That doesn’t seem like the kind of place he would go. I assume Eberwolf is going with him?”

Camilla shrugged. “He didn’t say anything specifically. Just something about ‘learning about potential allies’?” She shared with the kids. “Now ‘Ever Wolf’? The small animal man, right?” When Hunter nodded, she continued. “Darius mentioned they were going to hunt giant bug. I think that means they’re going to the frog town?”

“What about Lilith?” Luz asked. 

“Oh! She and Eda are convinced gnomes originated from the Demon realm.” Camilla explained. “She said she was heading into the woods to study them.”

“Eda’s not going with her?” Luz questioned. 

Camilla shook her head and chuckled. “No. She and Raine said they were going to walk around Bonesborough.” She told them with a knowing smirk. “Something about catching up on lost time.”

The kids all chuckled and the couples amongst them all shared loving looks with each other.

“What about my dad?” Amity asked.

Camila shrugged. “He muttered something about a lake, then shuffled off before everyone else.”

Amity grimaced. “Sorry, he’s not the best as socializing. I’ll have a word with him later.”

“Sounds like everyone has their own plans for the rest of the day.” Gus commented. “We should get going ourselves.”

With that, those remaining inside in the waiting room began to disperse through the door and into the three towns.

——The Three Towns——

The inhabitants of three worlds one-by-one entered a pocket dimension of three towns conjoined into one. Inhabited by convincing lifelike doppelgängers of familiar faces, even copies of those pulled from their respective worlds could be found, ensuring the most accurate representations of these three towns. The only visible flaw was the skies themselves, which incorporated elements of all three worlds. A bright yellow sun and white fluffy clouds from Earth were set against the skies of the Boiling Isles as a blood red moon was just beginning to rise from behind a Titan skull on the horizon. 

Slowly, the theater guests left the towns they started in and spread out to others they were less familiar with, intermingling with each other even with the lone figure’s enchantment to hide the identities of those not yet introduced. 

—— Bonesborough——

In the slice of the Boiling Isles that made up the town of Bonesborough, Dipper wandered the streets in awe. Realistic puppet copies of various demons and witches roamed the streets around him, giving the illusion of an active town. Dipper had brought a spare notebook and had nearly filled it with countless sketches he had made of the residents of the Boiling Isles. He’d seen tons of demons, even a pale-skinned demon girl with a moon shaped head. He was kinda spooked by her single eye though. 

“Dipper?”

Dipper had been sketching a demonic-looking children’s playground when someone called his name. Looking up from his current sketch, Dipper saw Luz in front of him with… someone standing next to her. He couldn’t fully make them out, just a shadowy blob that was vaguely in the shape of a person. This must’ve been the anti-spoiler effect the lone figure mentioned.

“Hey Luz!” Dipper greeted her. “What are you up to?”

“Oh! I’m just having a long overdue wzgv with Znrgb !” Luz excitedly responded.

Dipper winced as parts of Luz’s response unexpectedly became garbled. “Sorry, Luz. I didn’t catch that. The spoiler effect triggered and I couldn’t hear your friend’s name. I can’t even fully see them.” He told her, squinting at the shadowy person. 

“Oh right.” Luz realized, glancing over to… the someone. “The lone figure did mention those who hadn’t been introduced would appear as shadowy blobs or something.”

Dipper nodded. “That’s a pretty accurate description for what I’m seeing. Oh! No offense!” He quickly told the shadowy blob. 

“None taken.” The shadowy figure replied in an altered voice. 

“So Dipper.” Luz cut in. “What are you up to here in Bonesborough?”

“Oh! I’m just exploring.” Dipper replied and showed her the notebook of sketches he had made. “There’s so many different kinds of demons!” He marveled. 

Luz laughed. “Glad you’re enjoying yourself.” She told him. “By the way, is Mabel in town too?”

Dipper shook his head. “No. She headed off to Wartwood with… well, you’ll meet them later.” He told her. 

Luz nodded. “She’s hanging out with spoiler people. Got it!”

The shadowy person with Luz apparently said something to her, but Dipper couldn’t hear it since he wasn’t being directly addressed.

“Oh yeah. Dipper.” Luz addressed him. “Have you—”

“Luz! Dipper!” Someone called from above a second before Sprig and another shadowy blob, clearly another frog, landed next to them.

“Hey Sprig!” Luz greeted, with Dipper nodding in response. “What are you and your… friend doing here? Also wow, Dipper, you weren’t kidding. I can’t make out anything.” She commented, squinting at Sprig’s friend. 

“ Reb and I wanted to check out what kind of bugs you had here in the Boiling Isles.” Sprig told them, with his friend holding up a jar of fairies and demonic butterflies. 

“Those are really cool looking bugs.” Dipper told him. “Why are you gathering them though?”

“Well, we were originally catching them to… well, eat.” Sprig admitted. “But aside from the fairies, most of them taste pretty bad.” He told them, scrunching up his face in disgust. 

“Yeah…” Luz cut in. “A lot of food on the Boiling Isles isn’t safe to eat if you aren’t native. Also, a lot of bug-type Demons don’t really make for good food, except for fairies. Still, why are you keeping the ones that taste bad?” She asked. 

“Another friend of ours is interested in studying them for svi xfihvh .” Sprig’s friend answered, their voice altered, and then garbled as they unintentionally shared identifying details. 

“Oof.” Luz winced and rubbed her ears. “The spoiler thing kept me from hearing that last part.”

“Right?” Dipper added. 

The three revealed guests continued to chat about their plans and where they were planning to visit on future overnight breaks, as well as the code-breaker meeting later at Greasy’s Diner. Meanwhile, Sprig and Luz’s unrevealed friends broke off to chat as much as they could with the spoiler preventions in place. 

“Hey.” Ivy greeted the other person. 

“Um, hi.” Amity waved to the shorter figure. “I’m guessing you can’t see me fully, right? I can’t really make you out either.” She admitted. “I can tell that you’re shorter than me, though. I’m guessing you’re a frog like Sprig?”

Ivy nodded. “Yeah, you’re just a tall blur to me. I can’t even tell if you’re a boy, girl, or what. I’m assuming you’re one of those witch folks though?”

Amity nodded. “I am, but we should avoid talking about ourselves for now. The spoiler spell will ruin our conversation if we focus too much on ourselves.”

“Makes sense.” Ivy replied, hopping up onto a bench and Amity sitting next to her. “Well, Dipper didn’t have a friend from his town with him to join us, so let’s talk about Gravity Falls!” The frog girl suggested. 

Amity nodded in response. “Well, just to start things off, I’m really curious about how the Wax Figures were first brought to life, but since most were destroyed, I’m kinda bummed we probably won’t ever get an answer about how they were brought to life.”

“Well, there’s that one that was in the vents.” Ivy suggested. “Dipper and Mabel said he was there for most of the summer. So there’s probably a copy of him in the vents right now. You could probably go question the head directly.”

Amity nodded. “I might do that next break then.”

The witch glanced over where Luz, Sprig, and Dipper were beginning to wrap up their conversation. 

“Looks like they’re almost done.” The teen witch pointed out. “Luz and I will be heading out soon, but before I go, what do you make of the reveal of the second journal?”

Ivy let out a heavy breath. “It’s a lot to take in. Everyone in our waiting room got really quiet.” She shared with the person next to her. “We already know that kid found his magic amulet thanks to his Journal. Who knows what other magic thingies or creatures he’s going to be using in future episodes.”

“Our group reacted mostly the same way.” Amity shared. “Though, a lot of us are also suspicious of the Journals themselves. Not just Gideon.”

“Really?” Ivy questioned. “Why?”

“….Personal experience.” Amity admitted after a brief pause. She glanced over to her girlfriend. Luz didn’t seem to connect the Journals in Gravity Falls to her previous experience with Phillip’s journal yet. Was she just optimistic that it wouldn’t turn out similarly, or did Luz genuinely not make the potential connection? Should she tell Luz her own suspicions to help prepare her if it did turn out badly, or would that make Luz paranoid? Amity sighed heavily. Maybe she herself was being paranoid about the Journals, and there was nothing to worry about regarding the original author. Still, regardless of the author’s intentions, the Journals clearly had a lot of dangerous information contained within them and at least one person had been abusing that knowledge. 

Dipper, Sprig, and Luz finally finished their own conversation and began to go their separate ways, with Amity and Ivy bidding each other goodbye and joining their respective partners. Each girl reflecting on the novel experience of having such an in-depth conversation with someone, and still knowing nothing about them. 

Meanwhile, in Bonesborough’s street market nearby, Mr. X carefully kept himself hidden behind crowds of demons and witches while still keeping sight of his intended target. 

Stan Pines. 

The man was a blatant con artist and criminal, but X’s interest in the man went further than the minor crimes that had been shown so far. A gut feeling told X that Stan was probably tied more closely to the Gravity Falls’s mysteries than he appeared. In fact, X would bet his career that Stan had something to do with either the strange signals that drew two of his co-workers to investigate the town in the first place, or why they returned having found nothing of note. 

Mr. X peered around the group of shopper gathered in front of a stall selling ‘cursed paintings’ as he spied on Stan and the man’s loyal employee, Soos, as the two examined a stall selling various potions. Stan was apparently taking advantage of the free shopping the lone figure mentioned as he was pocketing several different potions. Meanwhile, the handyman was taking pictures of the ‘Mr. Elixir’ stall itself. 

The two finished up with the potions, and moved on to another stall. X was about to move to another group of shoppers to keep close, when suddenly he swore he saw Stan looking over his shoulder directly at him. X blinked and looked again, but Stan talking to a merchant that was apparently selling the skulls of various beasts. 

X shook his head. He must’ve imagined Stan looking in his direction. Still, the FBI agent would have to be more careful for the rest of this stakeout. 

—

Nearby, Stan nudged Soos to get his attention. “Soos, why don’t you take everything we’ve bought so far and head back to our waiting room to drop it off.” He suggested, handing Soos the bag of things they had ‘purchased’ so far from the street market. 

“Sure thing, Mr. Pines!” The handyman eagerly agreed, grabbing their purchases. “Are we gonna meet up in Wartwood next?”

“Uh, no.” Stan replied, glancing over his shoulder. “I’m, uh, getting kind of tired. So why don’t we check out the frog town another day. You got the rest of the day off.” 

“Alright then, Mr. Pines. We’ll hit up the other town tomorrow. See you back at the waiting room.” Soos bid his boss goodbye and left.

Stan let out a breath he had been holding. Good. No reason for Soos to get caught up in whatever this was. Stan glanced back one more time. He wasn’t sure who this yahoo was or what they wanted, but they’d been following him for awhile now. It was time to lose them. 

He quickly rounded a corner to break line of sight and head for hopefully a more crowded section of the market, when he quite literally bumped into Eda who apparently had also been rounding the same corner from the opposite direction. 

“Ow! Watch it, Pines.” Eda snapped at him, picking herself back up. “I’m trying to lose a tail and I don’t need you slowing me down.”

“That makes two of us.” Stan retorted as he stood and dusted himself off. “Why don’t we help each other?” He suggested to the witch. 

Eda regarded him suspiciously before nodding. “What do you have in mind?”

“When I first came into the towns, I bumped into a copy of myself.” Stan told her. “Pretty sure we all have copies like that, so I gotta a question for you, Eda. Where would you normally be this time of day?”

Eda’s eyes widened and then she grinned as she grabbed Stan’s arm to drag him along. 

—

Maddie hopped from roof to roof, trying to keep up with Eda. She had been following Eda around Boneborough as she walked with someone that hadn’t been introduced to the main group yet, when Eda spotted her and had taken off running. She hadn’t meant to stalk the woman, she was just trying to work up the courage to go talk to such an accomplished witch and ask to apprentice under her, even if she wasn’t able to fully introduce herself yet. 

She had nearly caught up to Eda when she had bumped into Stan Pines, but then the two took off together just before she could reach them. She hopped as quickly as she could after them, catching sight of Mr. X below who was apparently also running after them.

Ahead of them, Eda and Stan quickly turned a corner, breaking line of sight. It took Maddie and X only a moment to reach the same corner the other two had disappeared around, but as the two rounded that corner themselves, they saw only Eda standing at her human collectibles stall. Maddie immediately hopped up to her while Mr. X swore and looked around to try and spot Stan. 

“Miss. Eda!” Maddie addressed the woman behind the counter stall. “I would like to apprentice under you! You won’t have to teach me from scratch either!” The frog witch eagerly asked. 

“Hey kid!” Eda greeted her. “You want to buy a human foot full of holes?” She asked Maddie, offering the girl a green croc shoe. 

“What…?” Maddie started, confused. 

“Don’t bother with her, kid.” Mr. X told Maddie as he walked up to the stall. “She’s not the real Eda. Just a copy to run the stall.”

“Aw nuts.” Maddie pouted. 

X heaved a heavy sigh. “Come on, kid. Looks like we both lost track of our targets, let’s head back for the evening. We can both try again another time.” He told her. 

The two left the street market disappointed. As soon as they were gone, Eda broke character and poked her head into the tent behind her. 

“Hey Pines, both our tails have given up. We’re good to go.” She told the man hiding in her stall. 

Stan poked his head out and looked around, confirming the other two were gone. 

“Good. I have no idea who was following me.” Stan commented. “But I’m glad they’re gone.”

“Mine wasn’t up to anything nefarious, it seems.” Eda admitted. “Apparently they were just some kid that wanted to be my apprentice like Luz. I’m flattered, but I think I’ll wait until their introduction before I make a decision.”

Stan crossed his arms. “Good for you. Did you happen to hear why mine was following me?”

Eda shrugged. “Sorry. I wasn’t being addressed directly, so I couldn’t hear what was being said.”

Stan grunted. “So, how’d you know this stall would be empty anyways?”

Eda grinned. “I only run the stall on the weekends.” She explained to him. “However, the stall itself is still up during the week.” She pulled down the sign and threw it into the tent, then grabbed the merchandise she set out and shoved them back into her hair for storage. “Some quick redecoration, and the stall looks like it’s open for business.”

“Heh.” Stan chuckled. “That’s some impressive quick thinking. You could give me a run for my money.” He complimented. 

Eda scoffed and laughed. “Ha! Please, I could scam circles around you, Pines.” She told him before turning and pulling out her staff. “Alright, I have someone to get back to.” She started to mount her staff. 

“Hey, wait!” He started to call out to her.

“Byyeee!” She called out as she shot into the air, leaving him behind.

Stan watched, defeated, as she disappeared out of sight, before heaving a sigh. “Struck out again.” He muttered to himself, before wandering off in the opposite direction. 

—— Wartwood——

The swampy farming community of Wartwood was bustling with activity as the realistic copies of the frog residents carried out the same daily chores and errands their originals did. 

Beyond the town center however, out in the middle of the road that connected the town to the outlying farms, two young teen witches were walking along looking at the farms and houses as they slowly passed by.

“Are we sure we’re going the right way? We’ve been walking a while.” Hunter commented. 

“The shopkeeper said the Plantar farm was down this road.” Willow responded. “I think it’s just taking a while because we’re walking instead of riding on a snail or bug like the locals do.”

There was an insistent buzzing sound coming from above her in response. Looking up, Willow shot Clover a smile. 

“Clover says she spotted the farm just past the next hill.” Willow shared the message of her palisman with Hunter. The former child soldier nodded in response. After a moment, he glanced at the bee palisman, before quickly looking away with a pained look, and focused on following behind Willow. The two soon crested the hill in question and were greeted by the sight of the Plantar Family Farm.

A few more minutes of walking brought the two to the farm. Hop Pop was already out front in the field checking on the crops and waved to them as he saw them coming. 

“Heya Willow!” The old frog greeted her. “Been waiting’ on ya!”

Hop Pop turned his attention to the figure next to her. “Say! Who’s your friend?” He asked, squinting at the shadowy figure next to her. 

“Oh this is Sfmgvi ! They came with me to protect me from any ladybugs.” Willow responded. 

“Oh!” HP exclaimed. “So you’re the one we heard when Mrs. Croaker’s giant ladybug was on screen.”

Willow shuddered. “She doesn't come by here at all does she?” The girl asked, concerned. 

“Not normally.” Hop Pop reassured her. “Now! Why don’t you show me what you can do with these babies,” he gestured to his crops, “and I’ll show you a thing or two about crop gardens! It can be surprisingly different from growing other types of plants.” He told her. 

The two set to work, while Hunter began exploring the property. Willow using her magic to boost the growth of the various crops and Hop Pop teaching her the best methods of ensuring a high-yield harvest at the end of the current growing season. After an hour, the two had wrapped up. There were several giant vegetables in the fields, some bigger than others and a few so big that they had burst open.

“I never knew fruit could grow too fast and break like that.” Willow admitted, examining a melon that had spilt open. 

“Yup!” Hop Pop responded. “It can happen sometimes, even without magic. Usually happens when the inside grows faster than the outside. You can prevent it by making sure you don’t overwater them.” He reminded her. “But you did great! If this were my real farm, I’d make a fortune taking this harvest to market!” He marveled, gesturing to the large specimens that were successful. 

“Thank you, sir!” Willow enthused. 

“Please call me, Hop Pop, or if that’s too informal for ya, Hopediah!” Hop Pop insisted. “I’m looking forward to cooking breakfast with these babies for my group in the morning.” He told her, gesturing to their giant vegetables. 

“Ooh! I’m not a cook myself, but would you mind if I took a few for my group? We have someone that might enjoy trying to cook with giant produce.” She requested. 

“Of course!” The frog agreed. “These giant vegetables wouldn’t exist without your plant magic! You have an equal claim to them as far as I’m concerned.”

Willow nodded and drew a spell circle, causing a few veggies to be sucked underground, to be whisked off back towards their group’s entrance in Bonesborough.

As Willow and Hop Pop finished up with securing all the giant veggies, a familiar face walked up the path, along with a gaggle of shadowy figures. 

“Oh! Hi! Wendy, right?” Willow greeted the redheaded girl.

“That’s right.” Wendy nodded casually. “And you’re Willow?” Once Willow nodded, she continued. “Cool. I see you guys are doing some farming.” The teen gestured to the giant vegetables. 

“Oh yes!” HP agreed happily. “What about you, Wendy? What brings you and what I assume are friends of yours all the way out to my farm?” The frog asked. 

“Nature walk.” The girl responded. “Plus I wanted to see what kind of trees you had out here. Also, yeah. These are my friends. They should be introduced in the next episode.” She told them. 

“Trees?” Willow questioned. 

Wendy reached behind her and grabbed her ax to show them. “I’m a lumberjack’s daughter. So I know my way around an ax and trees. I was curious how the trees in this world compare to the trees back home.” She told them. “I was just gonna find a tree that was just out of the way to cut down, but since I ran into you, do you have any trees you want to get rid of?”

“Do I?!” Hop Pop excitedly replied. “This ain’t my real farm, but, oh my frog, it sure would be nice to live the dream, if only for a few days! Follow me! The tree is out back.” He told her, hopping away, Willow waving Hunter over to follow after.

As everyone but Wendy’s friends went behind the house to chop down a tree, Robbie elbowed Thompson in his side. 

“Thompson. Go inside and look for some of that weird tea.” The emo teen told him. 

“Aw, c’mon guys.” Thompson complained. 

“Thompson! Thompson! Thompson!” All the other teens started chanting.

“Aw man.” Thompson bemoaned, heading for the door that had been left open. 

By the time Wendy and everyone else returned, Thompson had rejoined the other teens, looking very guilty. Not that anyone other than Wendy could see his face. 

“Thank you, Wendy!” Hop Pop exclaimed. “That spot in the back looks so much better now. I can’t wait to chop that tree down for real when we all go home.”

“Oh it’s not a problem, Mr. Plantar.” Wendy responded, hefting a log under her arm. “I got some unique wood out of it. Gonna be fun to carve this later.”

Everyone at the farm said their goodbyes and began to leave. Meanwhile, back in town Dr. Jan and Terri were trying to interview the duplicates of the Wartwood natives with limited success. Apparently due to the fact that the fake townspeople apparently view any outsiders as natives of whatever town they are in, the frogs of Wartwood viewed outsiders as if they were newly hatched tadpoles. 

“Please, ma’am. If you could just give us a brief history of the town…” Jan tried asking again. 

“What delightful children you are.” A duplicate Mrs. Croaker cooed. “And so studious too! Here, dearies. Have some candy!” She told them as she pulled out simple candies and drop them as the two’s feet before wandering off. 

“Ugh!” Terri groaned. “That’s the third frog that’s blown us off because they see us as babies.” She complained. 

“Hey Terri.” Jan interrupted her. “Check that out over there.” She pointed to a figure across the street from them where someone cast in shadow was knelt down and taking soil samples. 

“What do you think?” Dr. Jan asked Terri. “Looks like another researcher like ourselves, right?”

“Yeah.” Terri agreed. “Where do you think they’re from? They’re clearly not one of ours.”

“I want to say Boiling Isles, but they’re collecting those soil samples by hand.” Dr. Jan reasoned. “Maybe Gravity Falls?”

“Should we go say hi?” Terri asked. 

“I want to, but the spoiler thing would make it difficult for us to talk to them.” Jan countered. “Maybe in a few more episodes they’ll be introduc— Holy—! Hey! Move!” She suddenly called out. The shadow figure looked up in their direction, then jumped towards them in a rolling dodge as a stampede of giant bugs with a second, shorter, furry shadowy figure and Mabel, who was flanked by two more shadowed individuals, riding on top stormed through where they had just been. Dr. Jan, Terri, and the first figure watched the horde stampede back into the wilderness. 

“That was close. Thank you for the heads up .” The first shadowy figure thanked them. “ I’m Hgzmuliw Krmvh .” The figure told them in an altered voice, then noticed them rub their ears in discomfort. “ Ah. My bad. I forgot about the spoiler effect. That’s embarrassing since I actively can’t see either of you.”

“No worries!” Jan reassured them. “We’d introduce ourselves, but well, we just covered why that won’t work. Anyways, my friend and I noticed you taking soil samples and we were wondering if you were someone scientifically minded like us?”

The shadowy individual laughed heartily. “Indeed I am .” They responded. “ I came here to gather samples to compare to samples from home. I’d share my area of study, but that might be a spoiler.”

Terri sighed. “The same could be said of me. There’s probably not a lot we can talk about until at least one of us is introduced.”

“Then why don’t we rendezvous somewhere once at least two of us have been introduced.” The shadowed individual suggested. 

“That sounds like a good idea.” Jan quickly agreed. “I’ll be nice to speak with a fellow researcher.”

The three researchers talked for a little while longer, but soon parted ways, agreeing to meet in the future to discuss their respective fields of study.

—Gravity Falls—

Within the borders of the mirrored Oregon town of Gravity Falls, many new individuals had descended upon it, making the town far busier than normal. Perhaps the most notable of events was the duo of Gus and Vee heading into the Mystery Shack’s gift shop. 

“Alright, we’re here.” Gus declared. “Where should we look first?” He asked Vee, who was currently in her natural Basilisk form. 

Vee slithered up to the door. “We could probably check to see if there’s an office or something, but first let’s make sure no one is here, first.” She suggested. 

The two opened the door, and were immediately greeted by the sight of Wendy sitting behind the counter, her face buried in a magazine, prompting the demon girl and witch boy to freeze in place. Wendy glanced up at them and nodded in their direction. 

“Welcome to the Mystery Shack or whatever.” She greeted them, before going back to her magazine. 

The two stared in silence before glancing at each other

“Wha-?”

“Customers! Welcome to the Mystery Shack, folks!” Stan Pines himself greeted the two as he entered the room. “You can call me, Mr. Mystery!”

“What is happening right now?” Vee asked Gus nervously. “Why don’t they recognize you?”

“I think these are duplicates.” He told her. “They’re running on autopilot to operate the shack. The real Stan and Wendy are probably elsewhere in the towns.”

“Great! We should still be able to investigate.” Vee responded. “Though I doubt these copies will let us have free reign of the place.”

“Hey. You two gonna purchase the tour or what?” The fake Stan asked them. 

“Let me try something.” Vee told Gus, before shifting to take Mabel’s appearance. 

“Hey, Gunkle Stan!” ‘Mabel’ greeted the Stan copy. “We’re not tourists! Just me and this boy I met! In fact, I think all the tourists are over at The Tent of Telepathy!” She told the man. 

“That little rat, Gideon! I need to get my customers back!” The duplicate swore, running out of the shack.

“Vee! That was brilliant!” Gus cheered. “Now for the Wendy copy.” He said, drawing a spell circle in the air.

An illusion of Stan poked its head back inside the shack. “Wendy. You have the rest of the day off.” It said, before ducking back out and disappearing. 

“Sweet.” The copy commented, before removing her name tag and and walking out the door. 

Vee shifted back to her natural form and cheered. “I can’t believe that worked. We have free reign of the Shack!”

Gus started for the vending machine, before stopping and turning back to look at the gift shop entrance. “Wait… someone else is coming!”

From outside, the two could hear voices coming closer to the shack. Gus ran to the door and peeked outside, before looking back to Vee. “It’s Anne and two others that I can’t make out.” He told her. 

“What?!” Vee yelled. “I can’t let them see me!!” The demon girl yelled as she began panic shift into a disguise at random. 

“Vee. It’s fine.” Gus attempted to reassure her. “The spoiler effect will prevent them from seeing you.”

He had just finished telling her this just as she settled on a form and Anne and two others entered the Shack. 

“Oh! Hey Gus!” Anne greeted the boy, then noticed who was with him. “Hey Luz! What are you two doing here?”

Gus and ‘Luz’ glanced nervously at each other before looking back at Anne.

“We’re, uh, here to investigate the Shack.” Gus responded since ‘Luz’ was too nervous to respond. 

“Oh!” Anne smiled. “So are we!” She responded, gesturing to the two shadowy figures with her. “We’re going to check the vending machine.”

‘Luz’ smacked herself in the face. “Ugh, how did we not think to check the vending machine? We were going to look for an office.” She moped about missing the obvious choice. 

Anne chuckled. “Don’t sweat it.” She told ‘Luz’ as she approached the vending machine to input the code from the first episode. 

As Anne began to input the code, Gus leaned towards Vee and whispered to her. “Why’d you shift into Luz’s form?!” He asked incredulously. “The spoiler effect would’ve kept them from seeing you.”

“I forgot!” She shot back in a whisper. “And I panicked! Also, how was I supposed to know that shape-shifting would beat the spoiler effect?!”

“Code’s in!” Anne announced, stepping back away from the vending machine as it began to swing open. 

Everyone watched eagerly as the vending machine… slowly… swung… open. There was a gasp as everyone saw what was waiting behind the now open vending machine. 

A wall. With writing on it. 

~No spoilers~

-the lone figure-

For several seconds, no one said anything as they all stared in disbelief at the writing on the otherwise bare wall with no hidden passage. Finally, one of the shadowed figures that entered with Anne, whose only clear feature was a ponytail, broke the silence. 

“I’m gonna punch them in the face once I get introduced.” They said, letting everyone know their intentions.

—

Later, at a familiar fancy seafood restaurant, Vee was telling her adopted mother, Camilla, what had occurred at the Mystery Shack. 

“Dios mio!” Camilla gasped as Vee finished the story. “They said that? How aggressive.” She commented as the two were seated at their table. “I can understand being frustrated that their investigation was cut short so quickly, but saying they’re going to punch someone over is a bit much, right?”

Vee, now in her original human form, shrugged and sat down across from her mother. “I don’t think they were serious. They were probably just upset. Anyways, after that, Anne said the three of them were going to check out the gnomes next.”

Camilla shivered. “That sounds like a bad idea.”

Vee thought back to when Anne had told her and Gus where she and her two companions were going. Vee couldn’t make out much from the other two, but she got the feeling the gnomes were the ones in danger, not the other way around. 

“I think they’ll be fine.” She told her mom as she picked up her menu. 

The two Nocedas placed their orders and were about to continue their conversation when two more individuals were seated at the table next to them. 

“Oh! They must be from one of the other groups!” Camilla reasoned. “They just look like shadowy blobs to me.” She said to her daughter before turning to the two newcomers. “Hola!” She greeted them. “I know we can’t fully introduce ourselves yet, but it is nice to see people from the other groups! Are you two from Gravity Falls?”

Meanwhile, The Boonchuys had just been seated at the seafood restaurant when someone from the table next to them struck up a conversation. 

Oum chuckled and shook her head. “Sorry, no. We probably can’t say where we’re from exactly, but my husband and I are tied to the Amphibia group.” She told the taller of the two figures at the table next to them. 

Camilla nodded. “The same can probably be said of us.” She responded, gesturing towards Vee. “But the two of us are tied to the Luz’s group.”

“Ah! You know Luz, then?” Bee asked. “We’re only just started seeing her journey, but she’s already been through so much. All the kids have.” He commented, looking at the menu in his hands. 

“Oh… yes.” Camilla agreed sadly. “I would think Luz’s experience of traveling to another world would be unique, but no, at least two more girls, maybe three, got pulled into a frog world full of dangerous predators and one of them got thrown in jail upon arrival. Not to mention those girls were pulled into that world unexpectedly. I can’t imagine how worried their parents must be, at least those twins’ parents know their kids are in Oregon with their uncle.” She added, unaware as Oum and Bee shared uncomfortable looks as they recalled those long, terrible months when they weren’t sure if Anne and her friends were alive or dead. 

The conversation was briefly interrupted as the Noceda’s orders were dropped off and the Boonchuy’s orders were taken. 

“Don’t forget about Luz.” Bee added once the waiter had left. “Her mother thinks she’s at summer camp.”

“Yes, but that won’t last.” Oum retorted. “The camp will eventually report her as missing, unless they try covering up that she never showed up.”

Vee briefly choked on her food and shared an awkward glance with her mother. There was, of course, another possibility for how and why Camilla failed to realize her first daughter never made it to camp. Not that the mother and daughter duo could share that reason with the other two yet. 

Camilla cleared her throat. “Going back to an earlier point, the two of us,” she gestured to Vee, “know the broad strokes of everything that happened to Luz before we were all brought here, and it makes me worried what else the other kids will have to go through before the end of their shows?”

Oum and her husband both winced in response. Anne had told them a lot about what really happened in Amphibia and how Marcy had been seriously hurt by King Andrias before she came home with the Plantars in tow. The two were pretty sure Anne was still downplaying some of it though. Still, the taller figure at the table next to theirs had a point. If the events Anne, Sasha, and Marcy had gone through were any indication, who knew what was in store for the other two groups. 

“As worrying as that thought is, I can only assume things turned out okay for all of our groups since we’re all here.” Oum added. 

Everyone agreed to that sentiment and both groups continued talking about less heavy subjects as they ate an early dinner.

—

Dipper had stepped into Greasy’s diner an hour and a half before the code-breakers meeting, because he had still needed to meet with King for demon lessons. Looking around, Dipper spotted King in a booth talking excitedly with Polly as he organized various books Dipper recognized from ‘The Intruder’ episode. 

“King!” Dipper greeted him. “I’m ready for those demon lessons!”

“Great!” King replied. “I’m almost set up!” He excitedly told Dipper. “Why don’t you help me finish up?”

Polly hopped out of the booth. “Bye King! I have to head back! I’ll see you tomorrow!”

King bid her goodbye and with Dipper’s help, finished setting up for his demon presentation. Once the lesson started, Dipper listened dutifully, but also every now and then performed mental comparisons of King and Bill. 

The King in the episodes declared himself the ‘King of Demons’ and acted like a gleeful tyrant as he bragged about atrocities such as feasting on his enemies’ hearts or other such things. Dipper could easily see him being a reincarnation of Bill Cipher. The King of the present, on the other hand, was far more humble and mature. He seemed to be embarrassed regarding the way he used to act and while he occasionally made a comment about being a former King or raising an army to take over, it was clearly in a joking manner, while his past self seemed to genuinely believe those sorts of things. 

Dipper honestly couldn’t draw a conclusion whether King had a concrete connection to Bill or not. Dipper tried asking about different types of demons to see if there was anything similar to Bill in the Boiling Isles, but that just spawned an explanation about the ‘Three B’s’ of Demon types. None of which would Bill fit into. Dipper asked about triangular-shaped demons to see if that got a reaction or if King knew anything about Bill in general, but King just gave him a confused look. In the end, Dipper was forced to accept that he wasn’t going to get a solid answer today and he and Ford would just have to wait until they were further along their own episodes to see how King acted during them. Hopefully, he and Ford were wrong about King. The young demon seemed really nice, after all. 

Eventually, the lesson had to end as other members of the code-breakers meeting, as well as their friends, had begun showing up as the agreed-upon time grew near. The two wrapped up and then it was Dipper’s turn to get ready as he pulled out books on codes, cryptograms, and ciphers. 

As Dipper, Sprig, and Luz got prepared for the meeting, they had an unexpected surprise as the unintroduced members of the code-breakers showed up to attend the meeting in person. Though they were still shadowed, it was still nice to be able to see and speak with them in person and would allow this meeting in particular to run more smoothly. 

First order of business was to solve the codes from the three Gravity Falls episodes they had watched earlier. It was decided that everyone would attempt to crack the codes individually, so everyone could practice with the Caesar Cipher. After which, they would all reconvene so they could check each other’s work. Dipper had broken off with Ford to a booth away from the others to work on the codes. Well, that wasn’t true. The two had solved the codes very quickly. The rest of their time was spent talking. 

“See anything interesting in Wartwood, Great Uncle Ford?” Dipper asked him while they waited for the others to finish. 

“Indeed!” The older man replied happily. “Seems one of the other groups count a pair of researchers among their numbers. We weren’t able to share our areas of study with each other, but it was wonderful to be able to talk with fellow scholars!” Ford grinned as he spoke of the encounter. “I can’t wait to be able to meet them for real later.”

As the two spoke of how they spent their afternoons and discoveries, two more individuals were working on their own copies of the three codes. 

“Sprig, It’s three letters back , not forwards.” Marcy corrected her partner. “You’re decoding in the wrong direction.”

“Dang it.” Sprig pouted. “I should‘ve realized when it wasn’t forming real words.” He commented as he erased his mistake and started over. “You do anything interesting in the towns, Marcy?”

Marcy chuckled. “The girls and I tried to spy on the Mystery Shack, but that didn’t really work out. Afterwards, Sasha wanted to go check out the gnomes.” She told him, humming as she reminisced over spending time with her favorite people. 

Sprig stopped working as he looked up at her skeptically. 

Marcy sighed in defeat. “Okay, that’s not completely true.” She admitted. “Sasha wanted to beat the gnomes up for being creeps.”

Sprig snorted in amusement and went back to working. “Sounds like her.” He commented.

“We also ran into Luz and Gus while we were checking out the Mystery Shack.” Marcy added, almost as an afterthought. 

Sprig stopped what he was doing and gave Marcy another odd look. “You guys ran into Luz? But that doesn’t make sense.” He told her. “Ivy and I ran into Luz all the way in Bonesborough!”

Marcy and Sprig shared a look, before glancing over at Luz curiously. 

“Maybe she’s just fast?” Sprig suggested. 

Marcy shook her head. “No. I don’t think that’s it. Something else is going on I think. We’ll have to wait and see if it happens again.”

The two went back to working on the codes, while nearby, the girl they had just been talking about was discussing how she and Lilith had spent their respective afternoons. 

“Someone attacked the gnomes while you were studying them?” Luz asked Lilith as the older struggled with the human alphabet. 

“Yes.” Lilith confirmed as she once again referenced the Alphabet that Luz had written out for her. “That Anne girl showed up with two others. One of whom started chasing the gnomes with swords! I opted to keep hidden from them.”

“Woah…” Luz exclaimed in wonder. “I wonder who they are?”

Lilith shrugged. “No idea. But do you want to know something interesting about the other shadowed individual? As I was making my way here for the meeting, so were they.”

Luz gasped. “Wait. What are you saying?”

Lilith nodded her head towards Sprig and the Shadowed form of Wit sitting next to him. “Whoever Wit is, they’re close to Anne and someone else armed with swords.”

Luz glanced over at Wit, even more curious about their identity. 

Finally, everyone had finished their attempts at cracking the codes. They reconvened to compare their attempts and check each other’s work. 

NEXT WEEK: RETURN TO BUTT ISLAND

HE'S STILL IN THE VENTS.

CARLA, WHY WON'T YOU CALL ME?

“Aw man.” Sprig moped. “I was hoping at least one of the codes would be something that had a bit more weight to it.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Sprig.” Luz told him. “It’s still season 1. We’re still using the Caesar cipher. We haven’t gotten any others yet.”

“True.” Sprig admitted. “I wonder what other types of codes we’ll see in future episodes?”

“Remind me to tell you about other codes later.” Dipper told him. “ Atbash is a particular favorite of mine.”

“Right, that’s the codes for Gravity Falls done. ” Dr. P stated. “ Wit, any codes from Amphibia yet?” They asked. 

The silhouette of Wit shook their head. “Nothing yet . I’ll let you all know when I notice one.”

“In that case, it’s time to cover the code from the Owl House .” Cool Aunt informed them. “ I’ve gone ahead and prepared scrolls for everyone that will help you all translate the runic alphabet on your own in the future, but for today I will go ahead and provide the translations.”

They pulled out their tablet and pulled up screenshots of the next parts of the runic code. “Adding to the single word we already had from the first episode, the code now reads…” Cool Aunt trailed off as they updated the code. 

“I… oh. I see. ” They continued, sounding shocked, then sad about something. “ I’m sorry… I- I need someone else to read this.” She told them, passing their tablet to Dipper, before stepping away to sit down. 

Everyone gave them concerned looks, before turning to Dipper for the updated code. 

Dipper cleared his throat, then read the partial code aloud. “Two Witches Torn Apart…”