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It had been two years since Dipper and Mabel had been in Gravity Falls, it was almost like they’d returned home when they came back for another summer. Candy and Grenda had practically lunged at Mabel when they saw her back in town meanwhile Wendy and Dipper brought their luggage to the Mystery Shack where Soos greeted the twins with misty eyes. Even Stan and Ford had come back to town to see their great niece and nephew, to catch up with stories of their recent adventures and in turn hear about the adventures of middle school.
They all gathered in the living room of the shack, soon getting on the topic of the events of a couple years ago. Soos and the respective Pines twins joking and recalling things that two twelve year olds should never have had to do. All was fine until Mabel slipped up with a simple joke.
“Yeah! Bill went down harder than the world trade center!” She cackled above the laughter, everyone besides Ford erupting in more laughter. The old man shook his head slightly before raising a brow and looking at the girl inquisitively.
“What do you mean the world trade center went down?” He asked, draining the room of any laughing. All eyes were fixed on Stanford and his visible confusion. After a moment Dipper pursed his lips and furrowed his eyebrows.
“Oh dear…” He muttered, voice cracking as he began to sweat nervously. Mabel realized her duty in the situation as she watched her brother enter a state that would only end in a panic attack.
“Don’t worry, Dipper, I’ve got this.” She said solemnly, looking back to her grunkle who was still in the dark. She turned to Soos. “Soos! I need markers, crayons, and glitter glue!” She yelled, pointing a determined finger at the new Mr. Mystery.
“Yes ma’am!” He saluted before running off to retrieve the requested materials.
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“Alright, what am I looking at here?” Ford asked, squinting his eyes at the crude drawing Mabel had made. The brunette cleared her throat to explain.
“Well you see, Grunkle Ford, that” she pointed to the drawn towers on the paper “is the world trade center.” She stated, to which the old man nodded his head. “And this” she moved her finger to point out the airplane she had drawn “is an airplane.” She concluded her sentence by flipping up the page to reveal a drawing of the collision. “And this is what happened September eleventh 2001.” She added, nearly yelling. Ford furrowed his brows.
“Well how did they get so close to the world trade center? Surely the pilots saw that they were too low.” He asked, looking from the drawings to Mabel. She pursed her lips in response. Stan huffed quietly.
“Terrorists, Ford.” He grumbled, cursing quietly as Dipper elbowed him.
“Well, Grunkle Ford, Al Qaeda hijacked the planes.” He explained, watching as a horrified look took over Ford’s features.
“You don’t mean…” He looked to Soos who’s head was down. “But how did they take down both towers with just one plane?” He asked frantically.
“Oh, that was artistic interpretation, they hijacked four planes.” Mabel hummed, only adding to Stanford’s horror.
“ They crashed two planes into each tower???” He questioned, looking between everyone in the room. Dipper sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth.
“Oh, he doesn’t know about the Pentagon yet…” He mumbled.
“ THEY HIT THE PENTAGON???” Ford cried, his horror only growing when nobody said he was wrong.