It was a rather quiet morning out on the open sea, save for the crashing of waves. Dipper woke up in his rather snug and modest room, just below the deck. Quickly, he got changed into his regular attire. It wasn't all that different than what he wore a couple years ago, though of course these were bigger, to fit him after his recent growth spurt. Placing the brown trapper hat on his head, he took a quick look at himself in a small mirror before heading out of his room.
On his way to the boat's deck, he passed by the door to his sister's room. Propped up on the wall next to her door was her overstuffed, almost comically large backpack. It was filled with both essentials, such as food, maps, and a compass, and non essentials, such as a plush crab (Mabel had insisted on bringing at least one stuffed animal aboard) and a jar or two of art supplies. Resting next to the backpack was her long wooden walking stick, which she usually used when she needed to keep herself balanced while wearing her huge backpack. Lastly, between the stick and the pack was a scrapbook. Somewhat more professional-looking than the ones she had made when she was a bit younger, but with a bit of glitter and colour to show that it still had that Mabel touch Dipper had grown to love.
Since becoming an explorer, Mabel had taking to using her scrap-booking skills to catalog all sorts of stuff all over the world, namely supernatural creatures, landscapes, cute animals, and general oddities among others, each with its own book. Dipper looked at the items with a smile before heading upstairs to the deck.
He had woken up a bit earlier than usual, as it was still somewhat dark out. Still, it wouldn't be long before the sun rose, and he didn't really feel tired enough to go back to bed. So, he decided to wait around for the sunrise, a sight he didn't see that often.
As he watched the crashing waves, it wasn't long before he heard a quiet call of "Morning, bro-bro." behind him.
Turning around, he saw his twin sister step out of the door to the boat's interior, a tray with two steaming mugs on it in one hand, and two of her scrapbooks in the other. She was wearing her usual outfit for the past three or so years, sort of an old-fashioned explorer's outfit. She wore a pith safari hat with a bow tied around it, a khaki shirt lined with pockets, and a matching skirt. The whole outfit was light tan, but with a hint of sparkly pink. Hanging from her neck was a set of binoculars. Her brown hair was somewhat messy and had grown to match her growth spurt, still long enough to reach just past her waist.
Mabel gave a warm smile as she said "Heard you waking up, so I made us some hot cocoa."
"Thanks." Said Dipper, reaching to take a cup.
"Oh, before you do, let me make sure you get the right one." said Mabel, setting her scrapbooks down and picking up the mug overflowing with marshmallows.
Dipper took the other mug, and the twins took their seats in some deck chairs.
Mabel took a small sip from her cup and said "I kinda mixed a whole bunch of coffee and sugar into mine. Not sure if you'd like that. So I just made yours regular cocoa."
After she said that, Dipper could notice that her eyes looked tired, and there were bags under them that weren't there the day before.
"Mabel, did you get any sleep last night?" asked Dipper.
"Nope." said Mabel with a grin, showing off her teeth. She still had her braces, but her teeth were now straight enough that it probably wouldn't be long before they could be removed. "I mean sure, I tried to get some sleep at first, but then I heard a noise that I had to check out, and then I thought of some ideas that I just had to write down, and then I saw this really neat rock I had to take a picture of, and then I had to work on my scrapbook, and stuff went on like that until I noticed that it was six in the morning." she giggled sheepishly.
"You know, it's really not healthy to be staying up all night so often." said Dipper, taking a sip.
"Eh, going one night without sleep probably won't be too bad." said Mabel.
With a smirk, Dipper asked "Since when did you become the one who stays up all night?"
"Probably around the same time I became as big a nerd as you." giggled Mabel.
Dipper grinned before sniffing the air a bit. "Uh, sis, you still kinda smell like sea monster guts, you know."
"Yeah, I know." said Mabel casually. "It kinda takes a while to wash off."
She cheerfully took her trusty camera from her pocket and held it up, saying "On the bright side, all those great pictures I took in its belly were more than worth it!"
She showed Dipper the two scrapbooks, asking "Now, do you think they'd fit better in 'Mythical Monsters', or 'Natural Beauties'?"
Dipper said "Err, the first one, I guess."
"Yeah, maybe." said Mabel. "You know, I've taken enough photos in enough monster stomachs that I can probably make a whole scrapbook of them. Wonder what I'd call it."
"Maybe it would be useful for anatomy study" said Dipper.
"Good idea!" exclaimed Mabel, though more quietly than she usually would so as not to wake up their Grunkles.
They sat there for a while, drinking cocoa while watching the waves crash against the bow of their boat. Soon after, the sun rose from over the horizon in a shower of light, illuminating the ocean. Mabel beamed excitedly as she took out her camera and snapped a few photos of the colorful sunrise.
"You sure like this kinda stuff these days, huh?" said Dipper, watching the sunrise. "When did that start, again?"
"A year or two, I think." said Mabel, looking at her camera. "For a lot of reasons, really. One is that the places we travel can be really neat, and there's a lot of natural wonder, or whatever you call it, pretty much anywhere you go. Plus, there are times when I think a little too hard about... well, about a lot of different stuff, and then I get super emotional about sunsets and falling leaves and stuff. So, cataloging memories of the world and all its prettiness just seemed like common sense."
She gave a nervous, sad laugh and said "Besides, I kinda owe the world a lot of a favors after I, you know, almost ended it and everything."
Dipper sighed as he took another chip of cocoa. He thought back to the summer they first visited Gravity Falls, what was it, three years ago now? Man, it seemed both a lot longer ago than that, and a lot shorter ago. That summer had a lot of great moments, but there were also some moments which were less than pleasant. One such memory that currently stood out was one near the end, a memory of flashing symbols, one where he very nearly lost his sister forever. He made a point to thank his Grunkle Stan every now and then. After all, it was thanks to him that Mabel was seeing the sunrise, drinking cocoa with him and smiling.
That summer had changed Mabel, too. She was still bubbly and energetic, like always, but she was now wiser in a lot of ways. For instance, she seemed to be a lot more selfless these days, and sometimes it almost seemed like she was deliberately trying to be even more so than her brother. Also, she never took anybody's stuff without asking anymore, and she was perfectly willing to give people alone time whenever they needed it. While the matter of what prompted these changes concerned Dipper, he did appreciate the things she'd do for him and the others.
"You know, Mabel." he said, taking another sip. "I want you to know that I'm really glad you're safe."
"What, from the thing with the monster stomach?" said Mabel. "It's no big deal, I was only in there for like, a day or two, and-"
"No, not that." said Dipper. "I mean, yeah, that, but it's really a lot of stuff. We've been on a whole lot of adventures the past couple years, and we've dealt with a lot of... let's just say strange stuff. There's a lot of stuff that could've happened to you, or almost happened to you, so I'm happy you're alright."
Mabel gave him a warm smile and said "Thanks, but honestly, you've dealt with a lot more of this kinda stuff than I have." She giggled and added "Though I've been trying to catch up. So, I'm pretty glad that you're safe, too."
The two looked back at the sunrise, which had almost ended. "Here's to being alive." declared Mabel, holding up her cup. With a smile, Dipper clinked mugs with her before taking another drink of cocoa.
Soon after, the sun had finished rising over the horizon and the sky became a clear blue. Mabel set down her mug and walked to the bow of the ship, taking her binoculars and looking through them.
"Ooh! Land Ho!" she called. "Well, almost. We'll be at the island in about a half hour."
"That's where Ford said there were land-kraken sightings, right? I'll get the nets."
Dipper got up from his chair and headed back below deck, listening with the smile as the sound of crashing waves echoed from outside.