Chapter Text
Bill Cipher was dying.
He'd laugh if his being wasn't painfully disintegrating itself in multiple different dimensions, but y'know. Owie.
What an absurd thing! Him, dead! Again, would be hilarious if it weren't currently happening.
Stan Pines' mind was burning with him, what's even more insulting is that Fez could bounce back. The mind was powerful, but this wasn't Bill's mind. No, his very metaphysical being was being erased in another's mind, something he never thought he'd let happen. Literally, his one weakness! (Besides the zodiac, obviously. And if he'd had the choice now, he would take that one way gate to the Theraprism if it meant surviving. Unfortunately, that path had passed him.)
But, well, there was one other option.
And oooh he didn't want to do it. But he didn't really have a choice did he?
And so, Bill invoked The Axolotl.
But by the time he had finished, his body and infinite consciousness were nearly totally broken down, and nothing was happening. Desperation rising, he reached out to one that damned him.
"STANLEY—"
And Bill was sucker punched, but thankfully, out of Stan's mindscape.
Took you long enough, you flamboyantly coloured amphibian.
You see, Bill was too far gone. He was still dying, it was the only reason the fucked-up-salamander even let him out.
Because, he still had a very nice, very convenient open deal.
Ah, there he was.
Unaware of Bill screeching in incomprehensible decibals because, y'know, still in the mindscape, Bill's increasingly unstable glob of a form shoved its way into Pinetree.
Now, for obvious reasons, Bill didn't like trying to possess a body without yanking its original inhabitant out. Two minds, finite amount of limbs, it got messy, usually destroying the vessel's brain beyond repair. And he always ended up unable to take any control, because the original soul would always be stronger in its own body. All he got out of it was a dream demon version of a headache.
But Bill wasn't trying to take control, oh no. His deal with Pinetree was still open, his vessel letting him inside easily. He could feel when Pinetree started panicking, falling to his knees before crumbling and writhing on the glossy black stone of the Fearamid. Stan was still out of commission, Mabel was at her brother's side shaking him, and Stanford dropped the gun in his haste to try and prevent another loss.
"Dipper!"
"Hold on! I know an incantation!"
By the time Fordsie was done, Bill would be long dead.
Bill dug deeper, below the mind, the emotions, and memories, and he came upon the soul. Pine Tree didn't make it easy, the little nuisance put up as much of a fight as he could. Unfortunately for him, Bill knew what he was looking for, and Pine Tree didn't know what he was defending. The pure little soul shined alluringly bright, and Bill would have devoured it if he could. But alas, Pinetree had another use.
So Bill, now a formless essence, his senses dulling by the second, plunged himself into Pinetree's soul.
And died.
Then everything went white.
☆☆☆
Dipper's first thought when the doors of the bus opened was that the air smelled different. Gravity falls smelled wild, cold and fresh with a permanent hint of Pine. Piedmont was sour, muggy with some sunshine and trees. It was familiar, but not home. Not anymore.
He smiled when his sister skipped off the bus, the gaggle of people at the bus station steering clear of the whirlwind of glitter and rainbows with a cute pig as a sidekick. Dipper guessed that before they left, at least three people would find their hair braided with little bobbles and sprinkles in it.
"Mom! Dad! I got a pig!"
John and Lizzie Pines were generally very unphasable people, they had to be in order to actually try and parent Mabel. However, the galloping waddles behind his sister seemed to shake something in their expressions.
Probably to do with custody issues, who gets what kid, the pig, etcetera. Of course, Dipper had no intention of being separated from Mabel. They could try, but it wouldn't be happening.
At the very least, something seemed settled in their parents expressions compared to when they had left, so Dipper had hopes that rationality had reclaimed it's spot in the conversation going forward.
"Mabel, why do you have a pig?" His dad asked it with the eyes of a defeated man, still clinging on to desperate hope that maybe it just seemed to be randomly following his daughter.
"This little cutie is Waddles! I won him at a fair in Gravity Falls!"
"Also Grunkle Stan said, and I quote, 'I've had to put up with this pig all summer, and now it's your parents turn.' If that gives you any indication as to how much Mabel loves him." Dipper watched the hope flee from his father's eyes with an impudent little smile, knowing he was trapped. How funny.
"Mabel, sweetie, we can't afford to feed—"
"Don't worry, I've learned to budget my allowance to feed him. And compared to Grunkle Stan's wage, I'll still be rich!"
"They’re filthy—"
"Waddles is potty trained, and I give him a bath every night."
"B-but he's going to get too big eventually—" Dipper jumped in here.
"Actually, they said he was a rare teacup breed. This is as big as he's gonna get." Dipper thought of the size change crystal tucked away in his bag, Waddles would be as big as he needed to be.
Dipper watched his dad and mom sink into the reality of a pet pig like a pit of despair before he nodded.
"Alright, fine— but as soon as we can't take care of him, he goes to a farm." His mother cut in with a reluctant smile, always more able to role with chaos compared to his father.
"Never gonna happen~!" Mabel skipped towards the parking lot, victorious grin on her face.
"Don't worry," Dipper threw them a bone as he picked up Mabel's discarded carryon. "He really is a good pig, very smart and keeps himself out of trouble. Trust me, if he was a nightmare, I'd be the first to tell you."
He parents relaxed a bit, both smiling at him. "Well, look at you Dipper. Looks like Stan really toughened you up, huh?" His dad nodded to his sizable luggage load, which Dipper was barely struggling with. He laughed.
"Yeah, if you call a summer of doing chores for a lazy old man 'toughening' then sure." Dipper recalled all of the nights in the woods running for his life from monsters, his training with the manotaurs, and various scuffles from the last few months. He guesses he did get tougher.
The car wasn't too far, and when they got on the road a heavy and awkward silence filled the space.
"So, what did you kids get up to in Gravity Falls?"
Dipper and Mabel shared a weighty look.
"Oh y'know, made friends, helped out at the shack, went to the lake— totally normal, unconcerning stuff, heheh..." Dipper decided to help her out.
"We saved the town from a chaos god that threatened to destroy the world."
There were two beats of shocked silence before his mother snorted derisively.
"Don't tell me you found a way to stay inside and play video games all summer, Dipper."
"Does 'Ping' on a haunted Atori count?" Dipper chortled, and Mabel shot to attention like a taught string.
"It totally was haunted! I swear the ball would randomly start tracing out sorta threatening messages— but me and Dipper never bothered trying to write them out. If we were in actual trouble, I doubt that's all it would do." Definitely the most pathetic ghost Dipper had encountered that summer.
"Well, machines that old do begin to glitch out." As Dipper expected, his parents were quick to dismiss any silly notions. They pacified Mabel's goofy personality, if only because they knew they could never destroy it, but anything that didn't fit into reality was not something Dipper's parents entertained. It was one of the reasons why Gravity Falls was such a breath of fresh air, Dipper didn't have to justify himself there.
But back home now, Dipper was remembering just where his excessive anxiety first stemmed from.
'Honestly, I have no idea how they even managed to stay together this long, they couldn't even pretend to be happy for Mabel and I, muchless eachother.' As soon as the thought came, Dipper blinked. Where had that come from? Not that he was wrong or anything, but he'd never felt comfortable enough about his parents separation to joke about it. Guess after everything, it just didn't feel as world ending.
And what an everything it had been.
"But you two were good for your Great Uncle Stanford? Didn't cause him any trouble?" And there it was; once it was obvious they wouldn't volunteer information, his father started the casual interrogation.
Dipper barely held back a smirk as he thought of something funny.
"Oh my dear father, how could you think we were anything except angels for our beloved Grunkle Stan? I'm appalled at your lack of faith, we only played with illegal fireworks once." The smirk made its appearance, and Dipper heard Mabel snicker into her sweater as she leaned on his shoulder. A better question was: When didn't they cause trouble at the shack?
The rest of the drive home was filled with Dipper running verbal circles around his parents when they asked questions about the summer, and Mabel adding in her delightfully chaotic two cents.
As they pulled into their neighborhood, silence had filled the car. Slightly exasperated at getting no straight answers, but comfortable. Clearly his parents had realized Dipper had found his backbone this summer, and that it was a sturdy one.
Unfortunately, the silence let his mind wander; and like it had been doing since Weirdmageddon, Dipper found his thoughts drawn back to the defeat of Bill.
He didn't remember much after Bill tried to possess him again, just a feeling of un-reality and searing, consuming pain. He did recall that before he woke up in the hospital— all of his family and friends waiting for him as well as Grunkle Stan who was thankfully regaining his memories— he'd felt trapped in a strange dream. He imagined these impossible shapes and patterns around him, morphing and mixing into something incomprehensible, yet grander than anything before. Floating in this void of chaos, he had waited for the fever dream to settle before he could open his eyes.
Obviously, the first and biggest concern was that Bill had managed to latch onto him and survive, but Ford's equipment had found nothing. Even when they took a trip into his mindscape, a sprawling forest in eternal night that hosted a library of books and shelves between pine trees, there was nothing abnormal to be found. He felt fine, looked fine, seemed fine, and the theory was that Bill couldn't stop his destabilization and simply disintegrated away as he tried to possess Dipper.
And as the last days passed before they went back home, nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Well, unless you counted the Weirdness Magnetism around Gravity Falls destabilizing and engulfing the entire world.
Of course, this happened while Dipper was still writhing in agony on the Fearamid ground from Bill's failed takeover. Even though the portal was sealed, and all of Bill's direct influence disappeared, the tear in reality had left its affects. The sealing had caused a wave of pure weird/magic energy to super nova because of the rift condensing so quickly, tearing through the Gravity Falls barrier and seeping into the rest of the world.
This meant that Earth was now forever connected to the strange energy of the Nightmare Realm, though thankfully in a much more stable way compared to Weirdmageddon. Ford hadn't been sure what to think about it, since it didn't seem to be so dangerous anymore, but this meant that the world was steadily going to become as weird as Gravity Falls, if not more so.
It wasn't anything too obvious now, but if Ford's predictions were true, he might have to look out for Gnomes scurrying around. But at the moment, to the rest of the world, things were still normal (besides the big flash that engulfed the world for a second and couldn't be explained. Dipper was just glad no one panicked and dropped any nukes.)
Unfortunately, they would just have to wait and see. At least their grunkles had given Mabel and he their number and email address, so they'd be able to keep in contact while the old men sailed to check out a more prominent anomaly.
Dipper almost wished something would happen soon, if only to combat the total snooze-fest highschool was going to be.
"—per? Dipper!" He jolted back into the waking world at the sound of Mabel's voice and her hand on his shoulder, realizing they'd been parked in the driveway and were making their way inside.
"Sorry! Just daydreaming. Let me help with your bags." Dipper unbuckled his seat belt and opened the car door, hopping out and weaving around Waddles to get to the trunk.
He grunted as he helped Mabel with her duffle bag, realizing he'd been had as it was way heavier than her suitcase.
"Crap, Mabel— did you shove the Shack's foundations in here?! Why is it so heavy?" He almost toppled over as he made it to the door, dropping the bag in the entrance way with a suspiciously concrete sounding clunk.
He looked over at his whistling sister with shrewd eyes.
"You didn't."
"I just took some souvenirs! Also you can't prove anything!" She tried to lug it up the stairs hastily, but all Dipper had to do was give it a good kick before it burst open. A couple pieces of grey cement toppled out.
He raised a very unimpressed eyebrow as Mabel gave a sheepish grin, quietly tugging it the rest of the way up the stairs. He couldn't help the fond grin as he picked up the stray pieces, tossing them out with the rest of the rocks to keep that little part of the Mystery Shack with them.
He should still call Soos and let him know to double check the building's structural integrity.
"Mason?" Dipper almost forgot to respond to the name, not used to hearing it after months. Even at home, his parents didn't often use it unless they had something serious going on. Their parents' marriage ending was unfortunately the perfect reason.
Dipper faced his father, any residual happiness from thinking about the summer slowly drained out of him as he met familiar brown eyes.
"Yeah?" John wasn't quite a stern man, but he was emotionally (and physically) distant. Seeing his usually stoic father fidget and gulp, even if only a little, let Dipper know his predictions were right. He hated being smart, sometimes.
His father took a deep breath before speaking. "You're mother and I need to talk to you and Mabel tomorrow, so please make sure you and your sister are available. It's really important we iron things out before school starts in a day." Right. Today was a Saturday, and school started Monday. And the sun was already setting. Right. Great.
"Yeah, of course. I'll let Mabel know before she starts calling her friends." As he turned to the stairs, brainstorming the best way to break to Mabel that their worst fears were coming true, John spoke up again.
"And... we missed you kids. We hope you had some fun, but we're glad your home." Dipper turned around, feeling both awkward and a little happy at the words.
"Yeah, we did. And we, we missed you guys too." Dipper tried to stretch his honesty from the first part of the answer to the last, but he was sure it fell a bit flat.
After all, he and Mabel had done nothing but dread coming home all summer.
His father's arms twitched at his side, like he wanted to reach out for a hug, but Dipper didn't feel like being the one to bridge the gap like usual, he was tired of it.
"Love you, goodnight." When his father didn't make the first move, Dipper closed the conversation with words that had lost all meaning when it came to his parents. It was hard to express something he was having trouble feeling after everything. He yawned, at least that looked natural.
"Yep. Goodnight, Dipper. I'll see you in the morning." As Dipper went up the stairs, he noticed his father walking in the direction of the guest room.
Mabel had been kind enough to put his luggage in front of his door, having done so while Dipper lugged her bag of rocks around. As he opened the door and pulled his luggage in, he was immediately hit with the familiar, but changed scent of his room.
It was stale, a bit musty, but fortunately rather clean. He'd taken most of his belongings after all, and that required cleaning up his room as he went through what to take. His electronics were a welcome sight, as were the fresh sheets on his bed.
It was easy to fit everything back into place like a puzzle, most of his clothes going into his hamper while he neatly placed every last book back. Once his empty luggage and bags were in the closet, Dipper let himself relax back on his bed. He was just burrowing himself into the perfectly cold covers with a gleeful giggle when he heard the door open.
"Home, sweet home! And look who's happy to see us~!" Dipper turned to see Mabel enter his room in her pink night gown, clutching a familiar furry friend.
"'Parkles! My favorite little guy!" The chubby cat mewed pathetically as Mabel set him on Dipper's bed, dealing with Mabel's energy though not thrilled about it. But he could hear from the deep purrs and kneading paws that 'Parkles wasn't actually as grumpy as his face looked.
"Ugh, how can you disrespect him by calling him that? His name is Baron Von Sparkles I! And such a distinguished gentleman deserves his distinguished title!" As Mabel crossed her arms and turned her nose up, Dipper watched with a petulant smile as the unfazed cat began licking itself in an unnamable place.
"Yeah, nothing says distinguished like bending over and slathering spit on your—"
"Gross! Dipper, shut it! And Sir Baron, how could you?! Betrayed, by the ones I love most..!" Dipper watched with an amused gaze as Mabel fell backwards onto his bed in a dramatic faint, 'Parkles getting fed up and leisurely slinking out of the room. Dipper would be annoyed too if his name ended in 'the first' despite being the only one of his name sake. The redundancy would drive him nuts.
"Alright Othello, sit up. I've, uh... got to talk to you about something." Dipper's smug attitude quickly left him, as he looked into the earnest eyes of his sister and realized he had to break her heart. While they both knew their parents separating was a very real possibility, he hated that he had to be the final blow.
Because of course his parents couldn't even take responsibility for this, they always pawned the emotional labour off onto him. Dipper swallowed down his anger, reminding himself that this was about his sister and not his complicated feelings toward his parents.
"What is it?" Dipper looked into her eyes, and he could see that she knew deep down what this was about.
"It's— well, um—" Dipper was saved by his door being opened with a false cheer.
"Hey, you two! Getting ready for bed now?" Their mother looked over them expectantly, putting on a gauche performance of benevolence that she probably thought was very convincing. His mother liked to believe she was a person of high emotional intelligence that always knew what someone was thinking about. This was about as true as Mabel saying she was a successful relationship guru.
Dipper sat back and let Mabel get his mother up to speed.
"I guess, Dipper was just about to tell me something." And just like that, she was trapped.
His mom froze, realizing she had barged in too early in Dipper opening the conversation about the talk that would be held tomorrow, and now as the most mature (debatable, but she was an adult) person in the room, the responsibility to tell Mabel rightly fell to her. Dipper decided she needed a prompt after a few seconds of stunned silence.
"Yeah, I know you and dad told me to let her know, but you could probably explain things better." Dipper tried his very best to look contrite, but the small curve of his lips likely betrayed him.
His mother didn't notice on account of the sudden panic in her eyes.
"Oh! Yes, yes— ahem. Ah, Mabel. You know you're father and I have been having some trouble, and well, we believe we've found a... solution, to our problems." They were always so delicate with poor Mabel, since she was so outwardly sensitive. But their stoic looking, anxious son?
Screw him, he guessed. He was always expected to be mature, responsible, the grounded one that kept Mabel in check but never parented her because that wasn't his job. His parents took the credit for the things he did for Mabel, saying they raised them well, when most of the time at home they ignored the twins to play mind games with eachother.
Mabel was praised for her vibrant personality, and Dipper was used for his intelligence. Sure, everyone always let him know how smart he was for his age, but it was always followed up with asking for some sort of favour. No one really wanted to know him, just have him around to do things for them. Mabel just got to be Mabel, but Dipper was always held to higher standards.
But maybe that was because he just wasn't as appealing as Mabel, who practically radiated sunshine and rainbows. She was able to help people unconsciously, but for Dipper who found social situations to be minefields, he had to put in the work. And even then, once he wasn't useful, he'd go back to being ignored. Worse, bullied if someone discovered how weird and freaky he could be. He was never anyone's choice.
The only person in the world that truely knew him was Mabel, and as his twin that was a given. She was the only person that he could say with certainty that he loved, and loved him back. His grunkles, of course, he loved— but it often times felt they didn't see all of him. And sometimes, it just didn't feel like they loved him as much as Mabel. His parents were even worse.
Dipper just wouldn't fit in with the rest of the world, Gravity Falls had been the one place he thought could be different. And while he was by no means popular, at least he'd been respected and treated like a person. But now, Dipper wasn't sure of the next time they'd be back. And until then, he'd just have to get used to being the ostracized freak with the weird face again.
All to say, Dipper wasn't exactly looking to make his mother feel more comfortable.
"So, you guys are for-real getting a divorce, huh?" Dipper really shouldn't laugh at his sister saying that. It was a very sad, very awful situation and Mabel was obviously very upset about it. His parents hadn't even said the 'D' word in front of them yet and just wanted to let them know tomorrow, but even Mabel wasn't absentminded enough to not pick up on their family falling apart. But by god, the look on his mother's face was almost enough to crack him.
Yeesh. Maybe he needed to lay off his mom, but it was easy to be mad at her when every time he talked to her he was criticized. His father was never around enough for Dipper to even try and confide in him, but honestly, it would probably be the same as with his mom. 'You're a boy, you're tough, you need to get over it. The teasing will make you stronger, don't take it to heart. I know their mom's, and they seem like such nice kids. Are you sure you aren't just overreacting? You'd feel a lot better if you actually went outside! Instead of sitting in front of a screen or book all day, maybe you could actually make some friends!'
Ugh. On second thought, he didn't really care about her feelings anymore.
"Y-you two knew?" Dipper had to resist the 'doy-ee!' At the tip of his tongue.
"I mean, you two aren't exactly quiet arguers..." He pursed his lips as he picked out some dirt under his nails, ignoring Mabel's quick glare.
"What Dipper is trying to say, is that we could tell something was off. Sending us away all summer was... kind of a give away..." Mabel looked down as tears gathered in her eyes. "I was just hoping we were wrong."
"Oh, kids... we just didn't want you two stressing about it while we figured things out. I'm so sorry you had to deal with it all summer, though it sounds like you kept busy at least." His mother tried for a smile, but it fell awkwardly. "But it won't be so bad, neither of us are leaving and we aren't separating you two. The living arrangements might be a little odd at first, but you'll get used to it. We'll give you all the details tomorrow, but please don't stress about it tonight. In fact, it will probably be a good thing. Your father and I won't be arguing anymore, right? Things will be a lot more peaceful, really. Everything will work out, I promise." As soon as she opened her arms, Mabel was launching herself into them with a shuttering sob.
Dipper though, just stared blankly. He wasn't a very touchy person to begin with, and combined with these bubbling, disgust-filled feelings toward his parents that only seemed to be getting worse as he got older, he didn't want to test fate by trying to be affectionate.
When his mother left, realizing Dipper was not in an open mood and parting with an affectionate pet on his head as everyone said goodnight, Mabel stood in front of him with as much of a scowl as she could make.
Dipper tried to scowl back, but Mabel's failed scowl was too cute and he couldn't help but crack a smile.
"Don't smile at me, mister! What was that back there? You were acting like a total butt."
Dipper sighed, fatigue from the traveling day starting to weigh on him under Mabel's piercing stare.
"I don't know... I guess I'm just tired of adults treating me like some loser, naive kid. Especially after the summer we had, it's just going to be hard... acting like nothing happened. Especially with the divorce now, as if it's not going to be super difficult on us. Like, we don't even know if we're still going to live in this house! And the moment this gets out at school... you know how mean they were in elementary school, highschool is going to be even worse. Like, we just saved the world; and suddenly we're back dealing with these stupid ordinary problems. It sucks." He didn't mention that he found loving his parents increasingly hard, that was a can of worms he didn't want to open with Mabel.
"I get it Dipper, but they're doing their best, you know? I'm sure they don't mean to treat you like that, but they're just worried about protecting our feelings. And yeah, it'll definitely be an adjustment, but like you said— we'll face it together, right?"
Dipper smiled and nodded, but internally he just confirmed that she wouldn't understand. They get treated so differently by their parents sometimes, but Mabel would never want to acknowledge that. That's just how his sister always was, existing in her own little bubble to block out harsh reality. And while she was getting better about that, on top of everything else, Dipper couldn't trust that she would be in a good enough place to have a constructive conversation about it without freaking or shutting him down.
Maybe he could talk about it, once things calmed down, but he'd just have to bottle it up right now. Which should be fine, he was used to it.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's get some sleep, I am exhausted." He yawned at the end of his sentence, and as he blinked his blurry eyes he saw Mabel finishing one of her own.
"Now you're making sense. You should've seen Waddles, he plopped down on my bed as soon as he saw it— what a cutie. And I'm ready to join him. Good night, Dip!" She glomped him in a quick hug, and Dipper smiled as he hugged her back. He loved her so much.
"Good night, Mabes." He closed his door after her, sighing in relief once he turned his light off and fell back in his single bed.
As he nodded off, he looked around as his eyes adjusted. He saw his desk, his bookshelves, all of his memorabilia, and the little glow-in-the-dark stars he and Mabel had stuck to his walls and ceiling years ago. Turning over on his pillow, it was weird to feel no journal under it. Ford had kept his trilogy with him, though he had promised to send Dipper some digitized copies over email. Introducing Ford to the wonders of modern technology had been fun, and he'd been in the process of ordering a laptop, wifi, and pc as the twins left. Hopefully by the time his grunkles set out sailing, Ford would find a way to use the satellites to stay in touch. Dipper should make sure he knows about satellite phones.
With that thought, his mind drifted into sleep.
☆☆☆
The patterns were back. These colossal, shifting forces of all colour and light bending and twisting in ways that couldn't be possible in three dimensions— they spanned out as far as Dipper could sense. They seemed erratic, lashing and whipping outwards but always getting drawn back into the central mass where they coalesced. It seemed to be forming something, building something big.
A-X-O-L-O-T-L!
Something powerful.
MY TIME HAS COME TO BURN!
Something terrible.
I INVOKE THE ANCIENT POWER THAT I MAY RETURN!
His mindscape suddenly flashed before him, and a yellow brick pattern gleamed across it in a sickly wave.
Sixty degrees that come in threes.
Whatever approximated as his head in this dream started to throb, and he could feel that in his sleeping body, a shiver ran down every nerve.
Watches from within birch trees.
Something started happening in his mindscape, like a long flowing leak finally started to bubble over.
Saw his own dimension burn,
These... lights, began forming in the hidden corners of his mindscape, floating in a slow, methodical way. They didn't touch or change anything, but they twinkled as if to say 'we exist.'
Misses home and cannot return.
Then, they started to change. Rather than plain white light, they turned different colours. They fluctuated, and Dipper watched as they began turning into books like the ones that held his memories on the shelves. But they didn't fit the whimsical filigree that decorated his hard covers, rather they where bold and oddly shaped, the term avant-garde echoed in his head.
Says he's happy, he's a liar,
Slowly, almost sneakily, they began gently slotting themselves into the endless shelves in his forest. They didn't cluster themselves, rather one book would fly off and insert itself far away from the others.
Blame the arson for the fire.
But as slow and steady as the process was, Dipper could feel that this process was no where near finished.
If he wants to shirk the blame,
And for every shelf one of these strange books touched, small patches of yellow brick lines engraved themselves on small parts of the shelves.
He'll have to invoke my name.
Then, something rumbled from the foundations of his mind. It shook him into something resembling lucidness, and Dipper used the manifestation of his body to wander closer.
One way to absolve his crime,
Pine Trees escaped his field of vision as he came upon a clearing, the grass divided by the familiar yellow brick pattern. Some of the bricks were filled in black, like a gradient that got darker closer to the center.
Dipper was hit with a sudden sense of deja vu as he looked upon the large inverted triangle that stood tall along the trees, and the memory of first seeing the Portal under the Mystery Shack flashed across his consciousness. But rather than a circle of light glowing with the potential of infinity in the middle, the entire triangle was naught but a massive reflective surface.
A mirror.
A different form,
Dipper approached suspensefully, his feet feeling weightless as he was drawn closer to the mirror. Yet no matter how close he got, his reflection never showed.
When he stopped just a step away, staring into the misty, murky surface, yellow flashed into his vision.
A familiar eye grinned back at him.
a different time.
You ready to party, Pinetree?