Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

June 1st, 2016.

The Pines twins were back in Gravity Falls. And as soon as they had stepped out of the bus, their Grunkle's were right in front of the station, including Soos, Melody, Wendy, Robbie and— surprisingly, but also not really— Pacifica.

That happened a day ago, it wasn't much of a big deal. Surprisingly, at least.

They had an awesome reunion. Of course, during the three years they hadn't been to Gravity Falls they skyped everybody weekly. But it just wasn't the same as talking to them in person, they had missed so many other things and events that possibly happened! 

There was a lot of 'hello's, 'how are you's and 'it's been three years, crazy's. A bit awkward, but of course Mabel was there to lighten up the mood. Really, she hadn't changed in the slightest. It was very admirable. 

Grenda and Candy were going to come at least a week after them. They had moved out of Gravity Falls one or two years ago, sadly. So Mabel was a bit disappointed that she couldn't reunite with ALL her friends, but was still pretty happy that she could even be with her friends after three years. THREE–almost FOUR–whole years! Crazy.

They had been back in Gravity Falls after three–four?–full years—I can't stress this enough, again, ALMOST FOUR YEARS—high school and puberty had taken a toll on them. They weren't the same twelve-to-thirteen year old's they were three years ago, why would they be? That would've been weird, why would they stay thirteen for three years, would that be possible? It probably was, like a weird potion or crystal, maybe a weird ancient hat or something. It's Gravity Falls, what would you expect.

Now, both Dipper and Mabel were in the Mystery Shack, Soos had an excuse to finally bring out the DJ set and started up a neat, small rave that only held most of the people they knew. Mabel chatting with almost everyone and Dipper just spectating in amazement. He was so excited to be back, I mean come on. why shouldn't he be excited? He was waiting to come back since he left.

Mabel hadn't changed much in style and personality. Still as eccentric, goofy and bubbly as ever, she was dressed in a light green oversized sweater with little white ghosts that were stitched on the fabric with black stitches which were a hundred percent intentional, Mabel would never not do an invisible stitch—unless there was a reason or she was too lazy—on any sweater. She had a simple black skirt, white knee-high socks and black Mary Jane's. Her braces were off her teeth and her brown hair was in a ponytail. The most noticeable difference about her was her height and the amount of bracelets, necklaces and earrings she had.

Dipper had changed much more than Mabel. But, even then he still was the same personality-wise. He had on an oversized flannel with a normal black t-shirt, he also had worn out well-fitting-but-not-skinny blue jeans and black, pretty beat up converse. He totally looked like a hipster, he won't admit it though. 'Hipster's are hypocritical assholes, Mabel.'

He looked pretty tired, his hair messy as ever, probably because of watching YouTube essays instead of sleeping. Somethings really never change, they just morph into something even more pathetic, which wasn't a flex.
He had gotten taller, almost the same height as Mabel, but if he took off his shoes you noticed that he lacked some inches. He also had an owl necklace which Mabel had gifted to him a year back. 'Pretty rad', as Mabel probably described before buying it for him. She had developed a pretty heavy Tumblr phase over the years.

They never thought to be this cool as they grew up. But, that was Dipper's opinion. Maybe they were still dorks, cool but dorks. Coorks? No, that's ass. It sounds like a slur. Never think of that again.

Dipper looked over the shack, everybody was partying and having a good time. The disco ball and the portable DJ stand finally being put to use. Mabel was chatting up everybody, holding waddles in her arms like an infant. Waddles hadn't changed much. Dipper had been surprised that their parents had even let them bring Waddles back home.

He noticed Wendy walking up to him, he fixed his slouched posture and looked up nervously. He still got nervous around her, but not because of a crush anymore, of course. He got over her pretty soon after he left. It was more of an.. Admiration. It was straight up an awkward feeling, to be fair. But he lived. 

"Yo! Dipper, enjoying the party?" Wendy called out happily as she leaned on the wall right beside Dipper. She hadn't changed a lot, she still had the lumberjack look and everything else. Only she had gotten a bit taller. She had her ginger hair in a low ponytail, a black flannel with a white tank, washed out jeans and some black combat boots. She also had a brown messenger bag which Dipper noticed must have been new.

Dipper looked at her and shrugged with having an almost-nonchalant expression.
"It's uh, going pretty alright," he began, glancing at the floor awkwardly. "W-what about you?" He asked with a stutter.
Dippers thoughts began racing—"whydidyoustutterwhydidyoustuttergodamnit-"—just before his little moment of self-deprecation was cut short with Wendy talking.

She shrugged and smiled, "Not much, happy you and Mabel are back though." She answered as she playfully hit Dipper's shoulder.

The boy laughed awkwardly as he rubbed the area where she hit him. 'Jeez.. she's really strong...'

She then grinned as her eyes slightly widened, with an 'oh,' she casually and exclaimed "I almost forgot!" as she reached into her messenger bag and took out an old looking white and navy cap with a pine tree on it.

She held it out to him with a smirk, "Welcome back Dip."

He looked at the cap for a moment as he took it in surprise, the cap looked beaten up. And yet that was the charm to it. He hadn't seen this cap for almost three years, it was a bit dystopian and gave him major nostalgia, he wondered if she ever wore it. Probably not, it would've ripped by now given how Wendy is. His eyes gleamed with an overtly-sentimental expression and looked back up at Wendy with a grateful smile.

"Thanks so much Wendy!" he thanked her in a appreciative tone. His eyes then widened in embarrassment as he realized the ushanka was still in his suit-case. Ugh, he knew he forgot something when he came down the attic! dang Mabel and her rushing.

"Oh, um. Your hat is still in my backpack–" he was about to ask her if he could go to the upstairs and quickly get it, but then she cut him off as she shook her hands in the air with a relaxed and small chuckle escaping her lips.

"Don't worry Dipper, you can give it to me tomorrow," She said with a calm grin as she took her hand away. "I'm going to be training the new guy tomorrow anyway, so you can give it to me in the morning. Don't worry about it."

The mention of a 'new guy' made Dipper perk up. He looked at her in puzzlement as he asked, "what new guy?"

"Oh, Soos didn't tell you?" She asked then she shook her head with a grimace, "Of course he didn't." She mumbled with a slight annoyance.

Dipper furrowed his eyebrows and squinted his eyes in pure confusion. "Can you, uh, tell me?" He questioned.

"Yeah of course, uh ,well, I'm.. kind of quitting." She answered with an awkward wince.

What.

"What."

Wendy didn't notice the tone in the boy's voice, so she continued explaining. Her head looking towards the dancing crowd.

"Yeah, I'm only staying the summers in Gravity Falls because.. well, I'm going to community college and all. And I don't really need the money anymore. But, before I fully quit, I'm gonna' train the new cashier that's going to work as my replacement. I think he's around your age? Haven't really met him officially.." She went on with a curious look, but Dipper had kind of stopped listening by 'new cashier that's going to work as my replacement.'

The brown haired boy was taken aback. Sure, he knew Wendy probably wasn't going to stay working at the shack, of course not, who would? Plus, she was eight-teen—almost nine-teen!—and going to college. But it still took him by surprise at how fast she quit the moment it was summer, he barely has set up his bedroom. He was also surprised on how fast they already had a replacement for her. He was surprised anyone would just willingly work at the shack this early in the summer, who is this dude? He's pretty sure there was just no way somebody would work here with their own free will. Most locals only come here to buy a t-shirt or something, could they be new to the town?

Now he's intrigued on who this stranger is, now completely lost in thought. He quickly excuses himself, Wendy was a bit surprised at the sudden departure but she waved goodbye as she walks towards Robbie and a small group of their friends. Dipper speed-walks over to Soos, planning to ask about the new employee that was supposedly coming tomorrow. Why Soos OR his Grunkle's say anything about it to Dipper or Mabel? The brown haired boy had no clue.

As he walks over the small dance floor that reminded him of the time he raised the zombies from the ground, not a particularly "fun" experience to be reminded of, especially when they had to turn Soos back to human. He kept trying to eat their brains while they had him tied to the dining table in the kitchen. Pretty rude Soos, pretty rude.

As soon as Soos saw Dipper approaching, he gave his beaver smile and waved. Dipper made his way over and before he could even think, he blurted out, "who exactly is the new cashier that you're hiring, Soos?"

Dipper realized what he blurted out and flushed pink in embarrassment, Soos finally realized and exclaimed "Oh, yeah! I forgot to tell you and Ma-" but before he could finish, a booming feminine voice right by Dipper's side asked "what ya talking about?"

The brown haired boy was caught off guard for a second, Mabel stood right beside him with her huge grin.

'how does she do that?!' he wondered in confusion. Cause genuinely, how can one have that much stealth? He didn't even sense someone behind him!

Soos looked at her sheepishly for a second and continued with an enthusiastic grin, "Well I hired a new cashier for Wendy's replacement! Sorry I didn't tell you guys earlier, I kind of forgot in the heat of the moment, if you dudes catch my drift." Soos explained, his hands moving in a familiar kind of circle-y motion. Really, he didn't change one bit.

'more power to him.' Dipper mused.

As Dipper was having his small train of thoughts, Mabel gasped with delight. Her eyes widened and she grinned as she excitedly started asking questions at a speed that Dipper was surprised anybody could talk in. It was as if she was the Flash.. But well, for talking. Is there a super-hero with that power? You know what, that's a thought for later.

"Who are they? Are they from Gravity Falls? How old are they? Are they a boy or a girl? What's their name? Are they.." And her ramble went on for sometime until Soos cut her off. Thankfully.

"Whoa bro, chill." Mabel stopped babbling, nodded in apology and motioned for Soos to answer.
"Thank you dude, anyway. The guy is called Norman," The twins grimaced and glanced at each other," and I think he's around your age, low-key kind of weird. Kind of his charm. reminded me a bit of Robbie, but less angsty." Soos clarified. "He had kind of a zombie-feel to him, if you catch my drift."

Dipper raised his eyebrow at that. Zombie-feel? Is this 'Norman' guy just the gnomes in disguise again or.. Could he be an actual zombie?!

"Uh, Soos, was this.. 'Norman guy' the Norman from some years ago or..?" Dipper asked suspiciously, cause seriously, it was just way too coincidental for a guy called Norman–if that's even his name–that just so happened to take a job in the mystery shack and had a quote-on-quote "zombie-feel" to him just happens to have the same name and same demeanor as the Norman-gnome-incident from last year to not be the gnomes AGAIN. Or at least an actual zombie. At this point, it could be a manotaur for all we know.

"Definitely not dude, they didn't look alike at all! I don't think gnomes would get gauges anyway. Heh, imagine." Soos shook his head. Mabel had a both relieved and awestruck.

Thank god.

"He had gauges?! Was he like those punk guys on Tumblr?" Mabel exclaimed in delight, Soos thought about it for a moment bug just shrugged and said, "I think so, but I don't really go on Tumblr much to know what you mean, I'm more of a insta-guy, ya know?"

Mabel nodded in understanding, she had a big smile on her face. Dipper just hoped it wasn't a crush that was going to start. It probably wasn't thought, Mabel had kind of toned down the 'boy-crazy' aspect. Props for growing up.

"Anyway, it's getting late bro, should probably stop this party! You guys should probably go to sleep, dudes, good night!" Soos said as he walked away with a beaver grin.

There was some silence for a moment, at least before Dipper whispered, "This is super suspicious."

Mabel looked at Dipper and grinned,"Dipper, how could you not be totally excited right now? This is going to be so awesome-"

"na-uh-uh!" Dipper interrupted, putting a finger on his sister's lips. "Don't even dare Mabel. You saw how being friendly with a guy named Norman went three summers ago. What if it's just the gnomes again? Or even an actual zombie?"

Dipper crossed his arms, had Mabel learned nothing? Come on Mabel, this is basic level stuff!
'Don't be friends with a guy named Norman who sounds and looks weird.'

Mabel rolled her eyes, "Are you cereal right now, bro! You haven't even met him. Plus, I don't think the gnomes would try something like that again. You have to have faith buddy-bro, don't ruin the mood!" Mabel playfully punched him on the shoulders.

"Ay! It's totally normal for me to feel suspicious of the guy, not to mention you haven't met him either!" Dipper defended himself.

"Whatever you say bro-bro, I'm going to sleep. I feel like my eyelids are going to close like curtains!" Mabel held her head high and went up to the attic.

Dipper stood on the dance floor for a moment and rolled his eyes. Really, it was as if Mabel hadn't spent a whole summer in Gravity Falls. If this Norman guy was a gnome or a zombie–maybe even a gnome-zombie, are those even a thing? More things to wonder about, yet less time to find an answer–she was going to owe the brown haired boy so much.

Dipper followed his sister to the attic, and thought about how he would deliver an "I told you so" tomorrow when this 'Norman' guy finally came to the shack. He was going to prove his suspicion was totally justified.

"Just you see Mabel, just you see.." He mumbled under his breath.

Chapter Text

June 2nd, 2016

Mason 'Dipper' Pines didn't expect to wake up at 7 am in the morning on a Sunday, but he did.

And he definitely did NOT wake up just because he wanted to see this new cashier as early as possible 'cause of a weird suspicion he had for the guy. That would be so stupid and childish, it wasn't even funny.

Or, at least that's what he told himself in the mirror.

Beside the cash register, Dipper was sitting on a stool. Waiting for Wendy and this guy to arrive. Even if he won't admit it. He had his journal-disguised-as-To-Kill-A-Mockingbird, who knows when you might need it when an enemy wanted to know what you had in there. 'This is survival tactics, Mabel! Get with the game!', the shape-shifting freakazoid and Bill cipher had really made him paranoid when it came to journals and notebooks that had anything to do with supernatural and paranormal phenomenons.

This specific journal he owned had some notes he collected of the three–now destroyed–journals from when he was first in Gravity Falls. Hence why he had it in his hands right now, reading the page on both zombies and gnomes for the thousand time in a row. For no apparent reason, of course.

He had Wendy's ushanka in the small black Jansport backpack he had, and his-totally-not-on-the-brink-of-death blue pen in his pockets.

The morning sun was already fully out, the birds were chirping outside and the forest of Gravity Falls was quiet as a magical forest could be. From the view where the teen was sat at, he could clearly see two gnomes having an argument about.. Something. He couldn't hear them from 12 feet away. He may be amazing at everything else, but he didn't have superpowers.

The inside of the shack was nothing new, all the same rip-off quote-one-quote "creatures" and very cheap knick-knacks that were likely bought from the dollar store and made to look "urban" and "supernatural."

Mabel might have said that what he was doing was very creepy. Dipper thought otherwise. It totally was not creepy for a teenager with acne and ingrown chin hair to be waiting beside the counter of the shack he is temporarily living in. Sure, it might be just a tad bit creepy with more context, but if Dipper was being honest, he did not give a f–

He glanced at the clock,'8:30, one of them should be here by now. Unless the guy is those very late first timers who's going to make both me and Wendy wait. Or would he be eager and come before Wendy make we both wait for her instead? At least that way I could get to.. Talk! Yeah, because that's less weird than saying you want to question the guy and see if he's a gnome-zombie. Why do I even care. I'm thinking all of this in my mind anyway–'

Dipper's thoughts were soon cut short by the opening jingle sound of the Mystery Shack door. Dipper jumped in surprise, 'jeez, Dip. Get in the zone, what's wrong with you!'

He looked over to the entrance, the first thing he noticed was Wendy. She had her brown messenger bag, black jeans, a green flannel and a white tank top. Her ginger hair was in two low pigtails, her bangs were out of her face and a relaxed smile stretched across her freckled face.

There was a person who she was talking to right beside her, the brown haired boy didn't kn– wait, a person beside her?

Dipper's instantly eyes locked on to the stranger. And whoa.

This guy looked like something straight out of a emo cover magazine. Well, if any emo person had hair that defied literal gravity.

'Holy fuck.'

His hair was straight up, as if it was made with a huge paintbrush. The guy had a well-fitting dark crimson zip-up hoodie that had zombie and ghost patches on the pockets. His dark gray bootcut jeans fit perfectly on his slender and tall figure. He had red converses on that looked like they had definitely seen better days. His black backpack was slung on one of his skinny shoulders. One of the sleeves on his hoodie was pulled up to the elbows, so you could see the studded bracelet he had on. He looked like a type of person who Dipper would call pretentious.

Dipper really wondered if Robbie and this guy would get along.

The now-behatted boy tried looking back at his disguised journal and look indifferent by the people that came in the weird shop, he put on a nonchalant look. Internally praying that he doesn't look like a sleep deprived homeless man.

"–such a coincidence we saw each other on the road, at least this will be an easier way of showing you the place." Just then Wendy looked inside the shop, she noticed Dipper standing beside the cash register and called out for him. "Yo, Dipper?"

She sounded confused. Which wasn't unwarranted, the behatted boy didn't normally wake up around eight. The earliest she had ever seen him awake was at ten. And don't even think about it, Dipper will never fix his sleep schedule. 'Having a normal sleep schedule is for people who have no urgency, Mabel, I am NOT sleep deprived nor am I an insomniac!'

He looked over at Wendy and the guy, who he now assumed to be the new cashier, Norman, by how Wendy was talking to him. He gave a smile that he hope didn't look like a sneer and walked over to the both of them. Putting his notebook under his arm.

"Hi Wendy! Oh, uh. Who is this?" Dipper acted confused.

"Oh, yeah! Dipper, this is Norman. Our new cashier. Norman, this is Dipper, he's staying at the shack for the summer. The owners are his great uncles and all. " Wendy introduced both of them as Norman nodded along. Now that Dipper was closer, he took a look at the boy's face.

First thing Dipper noticed were Norman's unusual iris and pupil. They were too faceted, it was as if they were two pairs of hexagons. That's not even mentioning the color of them. They were a pale blue, almost gray. As if someone had taken two ice cube from their refrigerator and injected it into his eyes.

His nose was crooked. 'Had he gotten into a fight?', he also had very thick, dark eyebrows to match with his eyelashes and gravity-defying hair. The contrast of how dark his hair was perfectly matched how pale his skin was. And he thought Gideon was pale, this guy was a ghost compared to him. He had some acne, the red of it clashing with his almost-white complexion.

Soos wasn't kidding about the gauges. They weren't huge, but it was noticeable given how the ears were already pretty abnormally large. He didn't have any other piercings on his face, but Dipper wouldn't think past it that Norman didn't have more.

His expression was even more confusing. Dipper couldn't decipher it. It was as if he was laid-back and paranoid at the same time. You couldn't even tell. His eyes told a different story from his entire face.

Dipper ignored the weird feeling in his stomach he got and extended his hand to Norman. "Nice to, uh, meet you." Dipper smiled, trying his hardest not to sound like he's choking.

Norman shyly smiled back at him as he shook the behatted boys hand, "It's nice to meet uh, you too." He nodded.

The boy's grip was firm, his hands were slender and pink at the ends of his fingers. There was a tiny little voice in Dipper's head–that strangely sounded like Mabel–telling him it was weird he noticed that. Dipper ignored that little voice.

Dipper didn't want to smell him. The scent just penetrated his nose as soon as he took another breath . And it wasn't like Norman smelled terrible, they were just a bit close. And it wasn't weird, totally not.

Norman smelled like.. Gluten-free cheese puffs and 7-11's cherry slushies? What was this guy eating everyday?! 'Should I be concerned for this guy? Jesus dude.'

Dipper backed up a bit and flushed in embarrassment. 'Oh my god. I just smelled the guy—NO! Come on Dipper! Don't be embarrassed, you do this with normal people. It's not weird anyway, right? RIGHT? Oh who am I kidding?! This is SO weird! What is wrong with me oh my god.'

Gosh this was awkward. Get him out of here.

They stopped shaking hands, and Wendy finally said something. "Alright, uh, Dipper, is Soos asleep?"

Dipper's attention went to Wendy. "Oh, uh, no. I can clock you in though." He grinned sheepishly. Scratching the behind of his neck, he hoped he wasn't sweating. God, he hasn't felt this uncomfortable in so long, not even when he was at the bus station with the others. Which was awkward as hell, he wouldn't want to relive it again, to be honest. Which says something. Dipper wondered if he was bright red right now.

Wendy grinned and smacked him on the shoulders playfully, "thanks Dip, you're the man!" she looked back at Norman again and motioned to follow her. Before doing so, he took a glance at Dipper. Then he went away.

Dipper's eyes narrowed in suspicion once again. Totally not because he thought Norman might be a supernatural creature or anything. Just because, uh, he glanced at him funny.

'Yeah, totally.'

He quickly checked both Wendy and Norman in, making sure to keep an eye on both of them while doing so. Then grabbed his backpack and left the shop into the kitchen as quickly as he could before bringing in any suspicion from either the ginger or the gravity-defying hair boy.

There was nobody there, to Dipper's surprise. Mabel never slept that much, she was always awake before him.

'Well, I have the kitchen to myself now.'

He put his backpack on the chair and began making a sandwich for himself. A PB&J to be exact. He needed to be powered up for today. Nothing to do with a certain red hoodie wearing person, of course. Just wanted to have a productive day while hanging in the shack. Nothing to do with spying a certain someone of course.

He opened the fridge to be met with snacks, fruits, soda and just normal things one would see in a fridge. He grabbed the strawberry jam, his hands got a little sticky. "Eugh.." Dipper groaned in disgust. He put the jam on the table quickly and went for the bread and peanut-butter.

He opened the cupboard and grabbed both the bread and peanut-butt–

Dipper looked at the jar of peanut-butter. It had mold.

Dipper sighed in frustration and put the peanut-butter in the trash. 'Guess it's only jelly.'

He began making his jelly-no-peanut-butter sandwich. He grabbed two slices of bread and put them on the reusable plates. Dipper didn't use the normal and non-plastic plates that were already there because he didn't want to commit to doing the dishes. The dishes sucked and he couldn't put them in a dish-washer because there was none. Grunkle Stan was way too much of a cheapskate to install one.

He went to open the jam jar, this time with napkins. He tried turning the lid.
nothing.

He tried it again, nothing.

He tried it again, it opened. "Fina–"

The jar fell on the ground. It didn't break to anything, by some miracle. However, jam was all over the floor. The brunette looked at the ground in despair.

He quickly picked the jar up, some of the jam didn't touch the ground, so he just used those part for the sandwich. When he was finished spreading the jelly with a plastic knife, he closed the lid and put it back in the fridge. Making sure not to step in the jam.

It wasn't exactly a masterpiece of a sandwich, quite the opposite. Given the mess of jelly on the wood floor, but it really looked good. Or maybe it was the fact Dipper hadn't slept normally.

The behatted boy put the plate on the dining table and grabbed a towel from the oven's handle. He knelt down and scrubbed the jam-spilled floor messily. He got the job done in six or seven minutes tops, but where the jam had fell still felt sticky. Ewugh.

Finally, he sat down and ate the jelly-no-peanut-butter sandwich. It didn't taste amazing, it tasted like carbs and fat, it was too sweet and too chewy. "Is the jam expired? Goddammit Soos.." Dipper grunted.

"Dipper?"

Dipper turned around instantly, Mabel was in the doorway. She had on a black jumper with a print that said "EAT BRAINZ!" with a creepy pink-greenish font and some eyeballs around it. She had on a pink skirt and then her normal white socks and black Mary Jane shoes. She had her brunette hair tied up in a bun with a bow on her bangs. She also had some necklaces that ranged from black to pink to green.

She was looking at him in surprise. He didn't blame her, he never woke up this early for anything. The last time he ever woke up this early was to ask out Fiona Pearls when he was fourteen. In the end he was rejected and some other unspeakable things happened that were way too embarrassing for Dipper to even remember. Mabel calls it: The great rejection of 2014.

'Never again.'

The brunette was slapped back into reality, "good morning Mabel." He greeted nonchalantly. From the corner of his eyes he saw Mabel squint in suspicion.

"Good morning to you too! Uh, why are you awake so early? Also, there is jelly on your shirt, bro-bro." Mabel got straight to the point. Dipper looked down on his shirt and saw the red stain. He groaned and stood up to wash the stain with a wet napkin.

"Well I just wanted to wake up a bit early, what's wrong with that?" He replied in annoyance as he got the white napkin wet under the sink.

Mabel's eyebrow went up in suspicion.

"Hm… Really now, Dipping-dots, are thou sure it doesn't have to do with a new employee?" She asked doubtfully with a big shit-eating grin across her face. Dipper scrubbed his shirt with the napkin and got most of the jam off.

"Yes, REALLY! Now if thou will excuse I, I will be continuing to eat my very delicious sandwich–" The brunette boy turned around only to be met by Waddles eating the sandwich.

"Oink."

Mabel grinned at Waddles, but then saw Dipper's expression. Woops. "Aww! Waddles, that was so not awesome-possum of you!" She grabbed Waddles off of the chair, sandwich still in his mouth.

Dipper's eye twitched. "You know what? That was probably expired anyway! I don't care, nope, nadah!"

He grabbed his backpack and got out of the kitchen, he went up to the attic. He had better things to do anyway! Like continue to read the "The Martian", he still hasn't finished that god-forsaken book since buying it 2 months ago. In his defense, he had better things to do! Like studying for exams, or re-watching and reading the whole Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Yeah, he actually does other things other than searching: "abandoned places near Piedemont" on Reddit or google maps. Take that!

Mabel looked to the stairs in pure confusion, Soos walked up to her out of nowhere. "Whoa dude, what's his deal?" He cackled. Mabel shrugged, "I have no clue.. But I'll know.." she whispered creepily.

After sometime of hiding out in his room for most of the morning while finally continuing his read of "The Martian", Dipper finally got out of hiding. He went straight to the shop. No reason, of course. Just to crouch in the clothing aisle to spy on the one and only: 'Norman Babcock.'

Dipper learned Norman's full name by listening on Wendy and the paintbrush haired boy's conversation. actually, he learned a lot of things.

He learned Norman actually wasn't from Gravity Falls, he moved from a town in Massachusetts 'Blithe Hollow?' Apparently, he and his family had moved to a family cabin a few weeks ago. He was taking the job for 'convenient cash over the summer.'

Dipper had also learned the boy with the paintbrush looking hair had turned fifteen sometime in February. So he was–surprisingly–younger than him while also being almost six foot. 'What are his parents feeding him? Jeez.'

Most of his spying wasn't that unusual. Pretty boring, actually. Nothing unexplainable like a hand falling off accidentally or any weird indication that he could be any kind of creature. Not that Dipper cared or was writing extensively in his journal about it. Even though, he was. He definitely was. And this 'thing' of his was proving to be more and more of a failure.

The brunette boy looked up with a dejected expression. However,finally after two hours and thirty-four minutes, something weird finally happened.

Dipper was sure he wasn't a crazy individual, sure, he was a very paranoid, anxious and dubious person. But never one to show any schizo or psychotic tendencies. So, he was sure that he was not imagining what was happening in front of him.

Norman was alone, no customer in sight at all. The ginger haired girl went to the bathroom. Nobody in the vicinity. Just him, alone.

But, he was talking to someone. Not like somebody would talk to a phone on FaceTime, or even talking to themselves, even. No, Norman looked like he was having a full on conversation with a person–no! Multiple people. He was nodding and quietly laughing. It was as if he was talking to people. But there was no one there!

"Of course, Mr.Chapman, that must've been pretty hard on you, y'know. Dying by a weird gnome conspiracy." Norman said to an invisible figure who Dipper thought to be 'Mr. Chapman.'

The behatted boy wrote the name down in a hurry. not even thinking. He furrowed his brows.

'But, what if Norman was just.. Crazy? There is no way he was seeing a ghost.. I mean, I've had my fair share of encounters with poltergeists..' Dipper shuddered. 'And, I was able to see them so–'

Wait.

How could the boy with the red hoodie know about the gnomes?

Dipper's eyes widen with a realization.

And as if on cue, Norman looked at him, straight at him.

The behatted boy go out of the clothing rack so quickly he was dizzy. He said nothing and looked away, acting like he wasn't spying on the other guy for two hours.

"Oh, Dipper. I found you!" A voice called out, startling the brunette boy. Grunkle Ford was beside him, in a black turtleneck, some rundown jeans and black muddy boots. He had his normal glasses on and was wearing a smile.

Dipper raised his eyebrow, "Oh, what's up grunkle Ford?" He asked calmly.

"No need to get so excited, anyway, I need help with something in the lab. It contains a lot of hydrogen peroxide and sulfuric acid. So I was wondering if you could help."

Dipper looked back at Norman, the boy with the red hoodie looked as if he forgot catching Dipper spying. He was now talking with an actual customer.

He narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but quickly stopped.

"Uh, sure grunkle Ford. I'll come right down." He smiled.

Grunkle Ford nodded, "thanks Dipper. I'll be seeing you in my lab in about, pshh.. Ten minutes." And grunkle Ford walked away, Dipper looked back at Norman again.

Norman was smiling, his phone was in his hand. He looked as if he was texting someone. The sun was glazing him. Quite nicely, in fact. His eyes were shining bright blue. Some people would say Norman looked like he was staring into your soul. Dipper wasn't disagreeing, but he felt like it suited the boy with the red hoodie.

'Cute.'

Dipper's eyes widen as he flushed.

'What was that?! Ew, no! That's just weird! Ugh, I really need to have a real long sleep after that thought! It's a sign from the universe. Plus, I'm not gay! I'm the straightest guy ever. Nope, you know what, I never thought that of my own free will. It was just a weird intrusive thought. Yeah, totally. Cause, it's not like there is anything wrong with gay people. I'm just not gay. I couldn't even imagine myself with a dude. I need to have a deep sleep after helping grunkle. No staying up this time.'

And with that thought, he left the shop into the laboratory.

Chapter Text

June 2nd–3rd, 2016

Dipper couldn't sleep.

His mind was racing, he couldn't focus on anything.

His laptop screen was glowing, a news letter was opened. The funky coffee and energy drink smell of his room was seeping into his head.

Man Found In Gravity Falls Forest In Pieces

Today, a man was found dead in Gravity Falls forest, he was identified to be Frerad Chapman, a 46 year old man from Iowa, he was on tour before he disappeared. A statement from his Fiancée's, Kellic Pricefield from the United Kingdom :

"He was acting mental, talking about weird small creatures with drugs! God I wish I had seen signs.."

Gravity Falls officer's are still on the case, the man was found with his limbs torn apart and strange teeth marks of his face and torso, some parts of him looked to be eaten aswell. It seems like a case of cannibalism, but the police are still unsure…..

Dipper was looking dead at the screen.

When he was helping grunkle Ford he pushed the thoughts away, grunkle Ford was making some sort of chemical, as it seemed.

Apparently, some sort of german pixies were infesting parts of the forest, specifically the parts where the stomach-faced ducks were living in.

The making of the chemical wasn't easy, at all. Too much technical stuff and too much eyeball torture. Literally. Dipper wanted to erase that out of his head. Sadly the memory gun's were all destroyed by McGucket—or should it be Fiddleford now?—and grunkle Ford.

It didn't work anyway, and Dipper is very disturbed on being reminded that they have to work on it tomorrow, again.

And as soon as he stopped helping grunkle Ford, his memories came to him and as it turned out, he forgot to give Wendy's hat.

Of course, as soon as he remembered he went upstairs to give it to her, which he did. It was very embarrassing and awkward, not much to say about that interaction. You can probably imagine it. What was much more interesting was seeing the boy with the red hoodie again.

To be honest, he had completely forgotten about what he saw by then. Being too worked up on helping with grunkle Ford's, "mystery chemical to get rid of german the pixie infestation."

The behatted boy guessed Norman didn't know anybody was watching him, since he was–again–talking to himself. Or rather, invisible figures. Dipper is leaning towards the latter,

'I think I can safely say that something is weird about Norman. No, Mabel. I am not crazy, thank you very much. These are hard evidence. Not a creepy weird manifestation so that I could have another mystery.'

Dipper hung around the shack for a while, and because he had his camera, he very secretly took a picture. It's not weird, alright! It's totally not creepy. Totally.

Dinner came quickly, way quickly than he liked. Mabel was giving him suspicious glances with Waddles on her lap, grunkle Stan and Ford were telling them about an expedition they had in Alaska and Soos and Melody were listening to the old men.

He could not really think about what happened, it was as if his mind was blanking out. He tends to get these weird episodes for some odd reason. So now his brain thought it would be a great moment to do so, for whatever reason.

Hence the reason his laptop was beaming the article and why his notebook was open with writings of every possibility of what the fuck this could mean. Psychic abilities were circled in red.

Other people, the normal and sane ones, wouldn't care. They would just brush it off with, 'maybe he's crazy, ' or 'he could be doing it for attention.' Or maybe even 'the guy probably read the article already,' which would definitely not be possible since this article was written only two hours ago.

Normal and sane people would have thought of any other possibility than, 'he can talk to ghosts.'

But of course, Dipper Pines was not a normal and sane person.

The brown haired boy couldn't understand how Norman would know about a gnome conspiracy, or how he could know about Chapman. Cause first of all, the guy had just moved like, what. A week ago? How could he know anything about gnomes, especially a gnome conspiracy. Which the no-longer behatted boy figures was the whole kerfuffle with a pixie dust ring and Mr. Chapman just happened to get in between it all.

Second of all, Chapman was a tourist that came to Gravity Falls two days ago–as said in the article. And Dipper was positive that he hadn't seen Norman anywhere when the twins arrived at the shack, but do you know who he saw? he saw Chapman. A day or two before his death.

The brown haired boy-almost-man—yes,the ingrown chin hair counts,Mabel!— still had no clue in the multiverse in which we live on how it could be possible that Norman could solely talk to ghosts, Dipper had literally had multiple with ghosts and poltergeist alike, there was no way Norman could talk to ghosts when multiple people could also talk to ghosts.

It was a plain stupid assumption.

However..

"Dipper, can you turn the brightness of your computer off… The light is bothering me with my beauty sleep… what are you doing?" A tired voice spoke from the other side of the dark room, he looked over to Mabel's side.

The right side of the room was almost alike to what Mabel had last time she was here, but of course it was also far more different. It was filled to the brim with posters of boy bands, anime and anything deemed cute by Tumblr standards that she could get her hands on. Her bed sheets were pastel blue with cute little characters that Dipper had no clue of their existence. She had fairy lights around the ceiling and colorful dream catchers. If somebody could describe her room one word, it would be "maximalism."

It was unlike Dipper's side, he had a few posters of Sherlock Holmes and Death Note, being the only anime he enjoyed as of late. He had a whole ton of DC figurines, comics and normal books on a bookshelf grunkle Stan had bought sometime ago. He had discarded some clothes of the ground. Unlike Mabel's relatively clean and neat side. There were a few energy drink here and there. He had put some disposable camera's on his bookshelf since he always lost them in his growing pile of clothes. That wasn't mentioning his own actual camera.

The room was lit by the small laptop on his bed, he could see Mabel get up with a confused expression. 'Dang it Mabel, wasn't there a better time for you to wake up?' He grimaced.

Dipper furrowed his brown and rubbed his temple, his eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his brain from looking at the screen for too long. He felt like he was having a migraine, and everything he wanted to think about just came blank.

He sighed. "Mabel, go to sleep. Sorry I woke you up–" The boy tried to not sound as annoyed as he felt. But Mabel cut him off before he could talk anymore.

"Dipper, is this still about Norman?" She crossed her arms and pouted, her bed-ridden hair falling in her face, she annoyingly puffed it out of her face.

"Mabel, I don't even know how you got to that conclusion, really! It's just some research. So, stop it. Go to sleep!" He lied, it seemed to not work on Mabel. She got up and walked over to Dipper's bed and sat down.

"Bro-bro, you need to seriously calm down! Norman isn't a weird supernatural creature. I talked to him a bit, he seemed so cool! I feel like you two would definitely get along, ya ditz!" Mabel brightly grinned, she looked very sincere, however Dipper just still couldn't believe that there wasn't something off about Norman. glancing back at his computer and seeing the article, she narrowed his eyes.

He looked back to the joyful-but-suspicious girl as he closed his laptop and sighed in exasperation. The fairy lights were now the only thing that was keeping their room from being pitch black. It was cloudy outside, way too cloudy for early summer. But it's Gravity Falls. You wouldn't expect anything natural from it. It was something the boy-almost-man found out long ago.

"Whatever, when did you guys even have the time to talk?" 'I never saw you two talking while I was stalking him.' The last sentence were words he would never say and didn't say out loud.

Mabel grinned even wider than she had before, looking like the Cheshire cat. Dipper would never admit it, but he was terrified of the 1950's movie version of the weird cat. Nobody knew of this. Nada, never. Not even Mabel. Definitely never Mabel! Do you know how much teasing that would get him?

Dipper shuddered. Thankfully Mabel didn't notice and went on rambling.

"Oh! I found him somewhere before lunch, he is SO cool, isn't he!? He even put those cute patches on by himself too! He also looks so god dang awesome, did you notice his–"

"Anything that actually correlates to what I'm doing?" Dipper cut in.

"Nah, as I said, he isn't a supernatural creature, he's a little quirky!"

"I don't think quirky means talking to invisible figures.." Dipper mumbled.

Sometime past as the twins—mostly Mable—were talking. The no-longer behatted boy looked at the digital clock.

"Uh.. Mabel, it's one in the morning. We should go to sleep." Dipper concluded, the cheery girl looked at the clock and gasped, Mabel barely slept this late his her entire existence. She hopped on her own pastel blue bedsheets as quickly as a rabbit.

"Goodnight Dipper!" His sister exclaimed as she got comfortable, the next ten seconds Dipper heard light snoring.

Dipper smiled softly. He looked back to their shared nightstand, the coffee Dipper hadn't finished yet was still there. Including both twin's phones, still charging. The now-sleeping girl had also decorated it with some stickers.

There was a picture Mabel brought, it was the two of them and their parents, the picture was taken some years ago.

The younger twins looked so happy.

Unlike their parents. The smiles were forced, as if they didn't want to be in each other's vicinity. They were standing awkwardly, his mom on Dipper's side while his father was on Mabel's.

The memory wasn't exactly very joyful. Before the picture was taken their parents were arguing in the car ride. Screaming like it was a match but they were both loosing.

Dipper couldn't remember what it was about, but he remembered his sister having headphones that had decorative stickers on while he was to listen to them arguing until he fell asleep in the car. And they didn't even stop there, after the picture they were still arguing, albeit, much quieter.

During the time, Mabel was oblivious to it. But Dipper knew, even then.

It shouldn't have surprised Mabel much.

Dipper deeply frowned. He reached out the to the picture and turned it away to the mirror.

He looked back at his closed computer and open note-book. If Norman could really see ghosts, if there were ghosts that the normal eye couldn't see, if grunkle Ford somehow did not know about the existence of whole different subgenre of ghosts...

At least he knew how and where to get some answers now. There were only a few ghosts that could tolerate him at the moment, sadly..

He knew that his next stop tomorrow was Dusk 2 Dawn.

'How do I talk to the Duskerton's now? I'm a teenager.. Do I even still have that lamb costume? Will it even fit? I guess I could ask Mabel.. Goddammit. The things I do for answers.'

Dipper didn't sleep until some hours later. When he did, he dreamed of basically nothing. Only a dark room and nothing else, but he could faintly see two blue lights from the corner.