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Summerween is an odd concept, but Dipper didn’t really mind. Most of his life was filled with weird and odd occurrences, carving a face into a watermelon was a relatively mundane occurrence all things considered. He wasn’t as good as Mabel when it came to making them, but it was the least he could do festivitie wise. He had no plans of trick-or-treating this time he legitimately was too old. He thought he’d at least get invited to a party or something. Being sixteen, he thought that’s how he should’ve celebrated the occasion, even if he wasn’t a big fan of crowds. Something to mark his next stage of life, but no invites ever came his way. It made sense, most of Wendy’s crew, including herself were at college.
So, he sat alone, restlessly carving into the melon, hoping desperately this time he wouldn’t mess up. A loud shriek came from upstairs, causing him to run off course, making it look like the melon’s face had a stroke. He groaned and faced the commotion. Mabel was running down the stairs as excited as ever, “Dipper! Did you finish that jack-o-melon yet? Come on, we’re burning daylight!”
He sighed, “I would’ve, if it wasn’t for the fact that you just screamed like a banshee. And what are you going on about, I don’t have plans?”
Mabel crossed her arms and slowly started nodding, “hmm hmm, solid points for using banshee” she pointed a finger at the melon “however that poor melon is going to leave you in the red, for you holiday-spirit-o-meter, heh spirit, you got me doing ghost puns now.”
Dipper rolled his eyes, “I didn’t know I was being graded.”
“Heh, you most certainly are and I’m going to have to deduct more for being mopey Dipper, not cool man, it's a holiday.”
Dipper dropped his forehead to the table, groaning again. Mabel’s smile vanished instantly and was replaced with eyes filled with concern, “yeesh, super mopey Dipper. What’s wrong man you alright? I was just messing with you, you know…” she placed a hand on his back.
Dipper’s hands found themselves on top of his head, “I know Mabes, it’s just…getting old sucks, I feel like I can’t even celebrate the holiday the correct way.”
Mabel sounded bewildered, “the right way? Dip there is no right way, there’s only y-“ Mabel stopped suddenly “oh! Wouldn’t you know it, I just remembered something! You’d be perfect for this Dipper, you love mysteries!”
Dipper rolled his face to look at Mabel, who clearly just got his attention, “mysteries?”
Mabel beamed a smile at Dipper, “yep! Ever hear of The Phantom Whisper?”
Dipper scratched at his head, “no, it never came up in the journals.”
Mabel took a stance and used dramatic hand motions to spin her tale, “of course you wouldn’t have seen it in the journals! The spirit only comes out on Summerween and Halloween, and is quite the trickster, living for the thrill of the chase, it’s said he leaves clues for those daring enough to seek it! And the best part, you’ll be rewarded with the knowledge of your soulmate if you find him!” Out of breath, Mabel finished panting for air, thinking to herself hopefully this’ll get him out of his funk, sure it’s a lie, but it’s definitely a white one. He needs to realize celebrating his way is way more important than the so-called ‘right way’ stopping herself short of making finger quotes. She looked back at Dipper, hoping he’d believed her even though the last part was, in her own admission, very ‘Mabley’.
To her surprise, Dipper looked very intrigued, with him adding, “alright let's find this guy! We need a plan though, do you know what types of clues he leaves?!” The bait had worked, the idea of a mystery shut down any skeptical responses Dipper may have had.
Mabel’s smile turned mischievous, “Well, I know for one, he doesn’t leave clues for those not in costume.”
Dipper, having just propped himself off the table, fell back into it, “ugh,dammit! I didn’t get one…you think a bed sheet would work?”
Mabel took off running towards the stairs, shouting, “I thought you might’ve said that!” Returning with two bags from Spirit Halloween. “Boom!”
Dipper opened his revealing a Luigi costume, “how long ago did you get this?”
“I was going to have you wear it next Halloween after you told me about the ghosts you were hunting on the side, as a joke, but this seems like a better idea.”
Dipper squinted his eyes, but nodded instead of prying further, “regardless, this does fix the issue of not having a costume, so thanks. Did you get one for yourself?”
Mabel looked away, “uhh, yeah of course I did, we always dressed up as twins, I uh, I got a Daisy costume.”
Dipper’s eyebrow raised, “wait aren't they dat-“
“-that’s not even canon, we’re twins and I wanted to be a princess.” Mabel blurted out.
“Oookay…let’s get changed then, I want to get hunting as soon as possible.” He held out a fist, “mystery twins?”
Mabel took a slight pause before bumping his fist with her own and lightly responded, “mystery twins”.
———
After Mabel finally finished touching up the outfit (adding pins and healthy amounts of glitter) she look herself over in the mirror. Gosh, maybe I should have been a little more subtle. To be fair, I don’t think it’s even remotely possible he’d find out. Still… she shook her head and tapped her cheeks.
She met up with Dipper outside. He pulled the look off exactly like she thought he would, a little goofy, but oh so handsome where it counted. She slapped his back grabbing his attention, “you ready to solve this mystery or what?”
Dipper jumped a little, “yeah, but I still don’t even know where to start, I couldn’t find any leads online and-“
“-got cha covered Dipperino. The ghost haunts the forest, the first clue we have to find is a trail of candy, although it might be the hardest.”
Dipper flashed a look of intrigue, “why’s that, I’d imagine a trail of candy would be pretty noticeable, right?”
“Yep! The hard part comes from being chosen, only those worthy to find him will be given the first clue.”
A rare look of absolute confidence shined upon Dipper’s visage, one of determination that Mabel often had dreams of. He marched down the porch, “we got this sis!”
“You remember to grab a flashlight?”
Dipper pivoted instantly 180 on his heels, “right after we grab a flashlight…”
Flashlights in hand they set out into the forests of Gravity Falls just before sun down. Dipper’s excitement carried along the conversations throughout most of their first hour exploring. The second hour however quickly turned to anxiety, marked by him saying, “why haven’t we found it yet? I’m gonna be honest, I’m starting to think we weren’t chosen…”
“Bah, that guy doesn’t know what he’s missing, I think you’re pretty great.”
“Thank Mabes I-“ he stopped suddenly while turning back towards Mabel, “hey look!” He shone his flashlight into a clearing, revealing a trail of candles laden the ground just like Mabel said.
Okay, that’s weird coulda sworn I made this story up to cheer up Dipper. Wait what am I saying, it’s Halloween kids do dumb things in the forest all the time, who knows it could’ve even been the gnomes. It’s just a coincidence, a good one at that.
Dipper started following the trail asking, “what’s the next clue?”
“Well…” she thought for a second “after we follow the trail past the end, somewhere along the way we should get a sign to change directions, then we hit the last clue that has to do with solving a puzzle, the last parts are pretty vague.” She shrugged
Dipper scratched at his chin as he walked, “ahh, the classic overly cryptic direction. I’m sure the source has changed quite a bit over the years.”
“Heh, yeah…something like that.”
“ Ma…bel”
“Yeah? What’s up?” Mabel asked, thinking it was pretty weird Dipper was whispering.
He turned towards her with confusion in his eyes, “uhh, are you on the phone or something?”
“Noo…?”
“Oh, well I didn’t say anything.”
Mabel could feel her heart increasing slightly as goosebumps prickled along her arms. Great and now I’m hearing things. Just calm down girl. She took a deep breath.
“ Fi..nd…me…if…you…can” the air spoke.
Dipper shot his head around, “did you hear that Mabel?”
Crap Baskets! He heard it too. Plus side, I'm not going crazy. Minus side , “yeah…”
“He’s close! Look around, there might be another clue on which way to turn nearby.” Dipper frantically started shining his flashlight, absolutely enthralled with the mystery unfolding.
Little did he know it was even more than they bargained for. Okay sitrep Mabel 1! Well we accidentally willed a spirit into existence and have no idea what its intentions are. I have to tell Dipper but… she slowly started looking along the ground for clues, feeling her anxiety peak in a two pronged attack.
“Mabes! Check it out!”
Oh thank God ! She ran over to Dipper like her life depended on it, and as far as she knew, it very well could’ve. She saw him brushing his hands over a tree with a message carved into it
Dipper read it out loud, “to find me, one must follow the shadows of memories you can’t leave behind…” Dipper started shaking, he clearly had to know something she didn’t. Mabel could wrack her brain around what the message meant at all. What was clear was it was affecting Dipper quite noticeably. He kept his face away from Mabel, “we should go home.” Dipper said bluntly
“What?!?! Why? I was having second thoughts about the fact that my story I made up became real, and one tiny little clue makes you want to back out?”
“Wait, you made up the story?!” His face was red.
“Wait no, I mean yeah kinda…but you just looked so sad, okay. I wanted you to realize you can celebrate holidays however you want! I wanted to celebrate it with you! I…”
Dipper sighed, “jeez, did I really look that down? Mabel I’m sorry, I was bummed out about not getting invited to a party, but I knew how much you loved holidays.”
“Duh, dummy! I love them so much because we get to spend them all together. That’s the point of them, not sulking over a melon all night.” She couldn’t help but to laugh at the absurdity of her comment, her ears were gifted with Dipper’s soft chuckle joining in, “so you know where the last clue is or what man?”
Dipper took a deep breath, “yeah…follow me.”
———
It took a solid hour trekking back towards the shack and slightly past it. Up the hills to a warehouse on 412 Gopher Road. Mabel followed him down the path, asking him once they got to the bottom, “here? Isn’t this where I dumped Gedeon?”
Dipper stared intently into a very specific stretch of land, “there was that…it was also the first time you saved my life.”
A silence washed over them, occasionally getting broken up by the howling of wind.”I said there'd be a puzzle, are you sure you got the right place?”
It took a couple of seconds to respond, “based on the clue…I’m certain.”
Mabel’s watch hit midnight while they were searching, but the last clue never came up. They end up sitting on the ground where Dipper was saved, waiting, for what? They didn’t know. As the moon reached its peak, the light focused through the trees, illuminating them both. Mabel spoke first before Dipper got the chance, “why can’t you leave this memory behind?”
“Maybe that’s the real puzzle.” Dipper said sarcastically. At his words the ground started to shake violently and mist came from the trees. The twins shot to their feet getting ready for any possible threats.
A voice called out to them from the tree line, “sorry I’m late, becoming corporeal is a little more time consuming than I thought”
Mabel shouted, “are you the spirit? Did we win?”
“Yes you’ve won, congratulations! Pfft” the voice sounded out mockingly
Dipper in a slightly aggressive tone, “what gives man, we made this game up why are you messing with us.”
“Because, you made it up. I don’t have to follow your rules, they were never real to begin with, so change of plans I’m combining the reward with the puzzle. The kicker? If you lose, you die!”
Dipper frantically looked over to Mabel, “what was the reward again.” Without even realizing, Dipper had interposed himself between the voice
Mabel was strangely calm, “…soulmates” she stared into his eyes, “I know why you can’t get this place outta your head.” She stood up, “and why I can't get the bridge outta mine.” She took a step closer, “Dipper, I figured it out.”
Dipper took a step closer to her, “I thought you said it wasn’t cannon.”
Whispering like a phantom she responded, “I thought you knew I was a bad liar” before pushing her lips onto his.
The fog faded, the Summerween Trickster had played his part, only seeking one last dramatic showdown. After all, it was the twins who orchestrated this, not him.
They pulled away, Dipper nervously laughed, “now what?”
“Blankets, cuddles and scary movies! At least, since you were so worried about it earlier, that is the correct way to celebrate with a new girlfriend.”