Chapter Text
The sun set as a bus rolls down the road. A young boy wearing a striped shirt and covered in bandages writes something down in what looks like a sketchbook; Summer has begun and Pa our parents decided to send us to our great-unkle uncle’s house. Sixer’s being real annoying about it wanting to make friends or somethi— “Whatcha’ doing?” Sixer blurts, leaning over Stan’s shoulder to get a better look. “Æh” Stan keels over trying to hide what he wrote from, his twin brother, Sixer. “Nothing, I was just, uhh, drawing a comic but you can’t see cuz, umm, it’s a surprise?” “Pfft, I thought I was supposed to be the dork” Sixer punches Stan’s shoulder trying not to laugh. “But it’s great to you finally warming up to the idea of going to Levity Rises this summer.” “Hey, I just think we could be doing other things and besides Jersey’s way better than Oregon.” Stan grumbles, trying to hold himself upright after Sixer’s punch. After Sixer got really into boxing, he wouldn’t take the damn gloves off! It’s fine for the reason he does but now every time the twins get in a scrap, Sixers punches hurt way more than they should. “Ugh, you’re really getting rough with these.” Stan grins. “Ya know, punching’s supposed to be my thing?” “Hah, I still got my charm,” Sixer announces proudly, “Besides now that we’re gonna meet new people I’ll finally have someone to play D&D&More D with!” “And you thought you were the dork.” The twins start to tussle with each other, when a lady opposite of the clears her throat and looks disapprovingly at the them. They stop and continue to argue, glancing every now and then to see if she would get off at the next stop. When she eventually did, most of the passengers followed, the boys were free to wrestle and be as obnoxious as they wanted – they are only twelve. After a while they fell asleep with stan drooling and Sixer snoring, the perfect pair.
A few hours later as the moon rose the twins woke up, they decided the best way to pass the time was to discuss their weird recluse uncle living in the woods. “He’s probably a crazy scientist that uses people for experiments and exhibits” Stan said in a stage whisper over the flashlight. Sixers snickered, “No way that happens, he’s probably just some guy who lives in the woods.” The twins didn’t hear a lot about their great-uncle, only that after his scientific research and ghost hunting show didn’t yield any results, did he move to Levity Rises, Oregon. Their parents always got quiet after that part but there was more to the story than that, anyway he seemed kinda weird from what the twins could deduce. Now he runs a tourist attraction, modelling it after space and super natural things, that last part always got Stan excited. Stan loved going on adventures in New Jersey, wanting to find all the cryptids and legends their small town had to offer. The twins stopped talking when they saw the figure standing at the bus stop. His grey hair was pushed away from his face, showing a birthmark on his forehead that looked like a star constellation. He wore a white lab coat with a pocket having a splotched other colour, some gloves and a blue shirt. The light of the moon made it hard to discern all the colours but it was clear that he wore glasses with green tinted lenses, one of them having a crack. This could only be their great-uncle Mason.
As the twins got their bags and said goodbye to the bus driver, did their great-uncle say something. “So, you’re my grand-nephews. The shack is a bit farther off in the woods if you’ll follow me.” Their great-uncle introduced himself awkwardly before turning around and walking into the trees. The twins shared a look of uncertainty before trailing after him. As they walked deeper into the woods, the twins were having non-verbal debate about who would break the silence when their great-uncle spoke. “I hope you two don’t mind sharing a room with each other. I kinda figured because you’re twins and i don’t have an extra room…But we could always figure something out.” Stan mentally sighed before replying. “I don’t mind, me and Sixer-“ ,“Sixer and I” Sixer interjected “Grammar Stanley”, “Sixer and I usually share one back at home but now I’m reconsidering.” Stan grumbled. Their great-uncle smiled. “I remember that feeling.” “Great-uncle Mason? Did you really turn your house into a tourist attraction.” Sixer asked. “Oh, you boys can just call me grunkle Mason it’s easier…and more time efficient. To answer your question, sure I did. Why’d you ask?” They came upon a big building, covered in LEDs that gave the thing an eerie green glow. On the roof was a sign reading: THE ASTRO SHACK, in big silver letters. The surrounding trees were covered in signs ranging from; Come again Soon, They’re amongst us, and NO REFUNDS. Grunkle Mason led them through a door marked as GIFT SHOP and turned on the light to show a room filled with merchandise. Their grunkle leaned on the counter as the twins looked at all the stuff, there was a lot of it. Some t-shirts saying, I survived the Astro Shack, others saying, Soon…, or just having a ‘!’ on them and just general things like, bumper stickers, bobble-heads of aliens, a jar of eyeballs - marked as not for sale-, UFO keychains, lava lamps, stickers and in one corner horribly crafted green sweaters. Stan was about to go deeper into the shack. “Uh maybe tomorrow kid!” Grunkle Mason called, “It’s been a long day and I think you two should head upstairs to get some rest.” Grunkle Mason practically herded Sixer away from the vending machine towards the Employee’s Only door. When they passed through, it was a kinda boring living room.
Stan could see some old stickers covering the chair and it had a fluffy pink carpet. “Grunkle Mason, I’m kinda hungry. Could we get some dinner?” Sixer piped up. “Y-yeah, I have some left over pizza in the fridge. I’ll go warm it up.” The twins followed, the kitchen countertop had a layer of dust on top of it from disuse. Sixer opened the fridge and saw a jar filled to the brim with some pink liquid with toy dinosaurs floating in it, it had a sticker marking it as something Juice. Sixer closed the door a little disturbed. They sat down and ate two pepperoni slices each before following their grunkle upstairs. “Here it is.” Mason said as he opened the door to the attic. They were kinda shocked to see most of the stuff moved aside and two beds opposite the walls, a lamp and a jug of water sat on the bedside-table.
Grunkle Mason bid them goodnight saying there was one thing he had to take care of. After he left the twins quickly got to work on making the space their own. Sixer started setting up a hammock above Stan’s bed. At home Sixer always slept on the top bunk, so now he preferred sleeping elevated and he said he felt closer to the stars. He added some glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling above, the doubled as a nightlight and decoration. Stan on the other hand just added his drawings and posters, even drawing a bit on the wall.
As the twins started to fall asleep along with the world around them, a sickly sweet smell came from the vending machine filling the entire bottom of the shack. For now though, they slept peacefully and unbothered.