Hey there.
For anybody who asks, this is set after the events of Northwest Mansion, but in an AU where the events of Not What He Seems have yet to take place. This is my first GF fic, so hopefully this goes well. And if anybody is curious if there'll be any of the now most popular ship in the entire fandom in this story, well just read on and you'll see
It was a typical sunny summer's day in Gravity Falls. The Mystery Shack was open and business was as productive as usual. In other words, not that much at all. Wendy was working the cashier, stifling a yawn as she sat there, bored by the lack of customers.
Not even Grunkle Stan had come in to check on the business, which was strange as he was usually in by now, trying to invent new ways to exploit money from people. His appearances had been growing scarcer over the last few days, although hardly anyone seemed to have paid much notice
Within the interior of the shack, away from the shop, Dipper Pines was sitting at the table in the kitchen, surrounded by a books, papers and his all so important Journal that he didn't go anywhere without.
Dipper's attention was fully focused on what he was reading, marking down notes every so often as he skimmed through the pages. He was so immersed in what he was doing, that he didn't even notice his twin sister Mabel, enter the kitchen.
She walked over to the blender and started to throw in various objects and food stuffs, preparing what could only a shot of her famous 'Mabel Juice'. Once it was ready, Mabel poured herself a cupful of the juice and glugged it down readily. She then made her over to Dipper at the table
"Hey Dipper!" she said. "What're you reading?"
"A Moron's Guide to Ancient Glyphs" he replied, not looking up from his notes.
"Ohhh! What's a glyph?" Mabel asked, poking her head into the book.
"It's like a symbol that represents something" Dipper said, manoeuvring around her. "I'm doing research on some weird symbols I found in the Journal"
"Hey that one looks like bird" Mabel said pointing to one of the drawings. "And that one looks like a waffle! And that one looks like Waddles! And this one looks like Waddles with a hat! If you turned one upside down it looks like that-
"Mabel, please" Dipper said, pulling the book away from her, as some of her juice was spilling onto the paper. "I'm trying to concentrate here. There's this symbol here I found in the Journal and I'm trying to figure what it means."
Dipper pointed down to the open page of the Journal, indicating the symbol he was referring to. It looked like a very long w, with an extra v added to the end. It also had three straight lines intersecting down the middle of each gap, with a horizontal line going across the top and bottom of the lines.
"I bet I can figure it out" Mabel said confidently. "Here, let me try!"
Dipper handed the Journal over to Mabel, who set it down on the table. Mabel leaned her head closer to the book with a determined expression and put her hand to her chin, narrowing her eyes tightly as she scrutinized the symbol.
"Hmmmmmm?" she said after a few seconds of staring. "Hmmmmm? Hmmmmmmmm!? Hmmmmmmmmm!?"
Dipper rolled his eyes are Mable continued to make the same exact sound, growing increasingly louder each time and moving her face closer to the page.
"Okay!" he said, pulling the book away from her, which caused her to slam her face down on the table due to her proximity. "I think you can take a break from deciphering for a while"
"Why don't you take a break?" Mabel said, rubbing her forehead. "You've been at that stuff all day! Let's go do something else"
"I can't right now" Dipper replied, flipping through some more pages. "This symbol is important, I know it. And there's a piece of code beside it that says something about 'bloodlines' and 'great danger'. This could be a crucial piece of information on finding out about the Author"
"But, Dipper its summer" Mabel said. "It's the time when you stop reading. You have your head inside that Journal all the time. It won't kill you to put it down once in a while. We still have plenty of time to go find the Author. Come on, let's go do something more interesting"
"Mabel, everything that I'm interested is right here" Dipper said firmly, tapping his notes smartly with his pen. "There's literally nothing else that could distract me from this"
Just then, the doorbell rang. Dipper glanced over to the hallway as the doorbell rang again. He tried to get back to his work, but then the doorbell rang once more.
Dipper, then looked up at Mabel, who was just staring at him contently, resting her chin on her hand.
"Are you going to get that?" Dipper asked.
"Nope!" Mabel said happily. Another ring.
Dipper sighed reluctantly and got up out of his seat. He trudged over to the door, his legs a little stiff from sitting for so long. He couldn't help but wonder who was at the door. He had a few guesses about who it might be and who it might not be.
However, when Dipper opened the front door, he was very much surprised to come face to face with the last person he had been expecting.
"Pacifica?" Dipper said.
"Hey" Pacifica Northwest replied, giving Dipper a casual wave. She was standing there, right on the front porch as clear as day. This time she wasn't wearing a trench coat or scarf to hide her appearance. Instead was the same turquoise outfit she had worn on Pioneer day, minus the hat
"Uh, hey" Dipper replied back, a little more awkwardly.
Dipper could think of what else to say, as he just stared at Pacifica in a long silence. In the background, they could hear a small variety of noises, such as crickets, birds and then what sounded like somebody falling into the Bottomless Pit again.
"So… aren't you going to invite me in?" Pacifica finally asked.
"Invite you… in?" Dipper repeated, sounding confused. "As in to here? To… this building? That I'm standing in?"
"Uh, yeah" she said.
"Why?"
"Um, it case you forgot, I invited you over to my house. So now I'm coming to yours" Pacifica said simply.
"I thought you said you didn't want to be seen in this hovel?" Dipper said suspiciously
"If anything you should feel honoured to have a Northwest grace this place with their presence" she said a little smugly.
"Oh… right because you have such high standards" Dipper said sarcastically, smiling and folding his arms.
"And by the looks of things, you seem to have the lowest standards possible. Besides, I'm a little curious to see how the other half lives"
"Seriously? Having everybody in town crash your fancy party wasn't enough for you? Now you actually want to live among the peasant folk?"
"Look, I just came by to see if you wanted to hang out or something" Pacifica said, her tone biting. "If you don't want to, that's fine. I literally could find a million better thing to do with my time"
Dipper just looked at Pacifica, and rubbed his head, feeling somewhat abashed. He let out a deep sigh and decided to ignore his better sense of logic
"Oh, you know what, sure. Come on in"
Dipper stood to the side and beckoned for her to come in. Pacifica entered the shack, although it still looked as though she had some trepidation left as she looked over the interior of the house. Just then Mabel entered the hallway, carrying with her a crayon and one of Dipper glyph drawings.
"Hey Dipper, look. I told this one looked just like Waddles if you just-Pacifica?" Mabel stopped in her tracks and now had her eyes set on Pacifica with a bemused expression.
"She said that she wanted to come over to…hang out?" Dipper said, sounding as if he was still trying to come to terms with the notion. Mabel said nothing in response. She just stared blankly back at Dipper and then she turned her head over to Pacifica, then back to Dipper. Another few seconds passed before Mabel threw her arms wide as she could.
"That's great!" she exclaimed ecstatically. She sprinted over to Pacifica and hugged her tightly. "Welcome to our humble abode! Mi casa es su casa!"
"Okay, I need there to be a distance of at least three feet between you and me at all times" Pacifica said, firmly pushing Mable away from her with one hand. "And no hugging"
"Agreed" Mabel said happily. "Welcome. This the hallway. I know, it's probably not as fancy as the hallways in your house, but it's still got plenty of life to it"
As Mabel spoke, the carpet beneath them rustled as some cockroaches scuttled across the floor.
"Uh how do you not catch fleas around here?" Pacifica said with disgust
"Oh, don't worry. It's the rats you got to watch out for" Dipper said, walking past her with a small grin.
"What!?" Pacifica exclaimed, raising one foot into the air and eyeing the ground cautiously.
"Don't worry, he's just messing around" Mabel laughed, nudging Pacifica with her elbow. A second later Mabel dropped her smile and looked a little more serious. "You should probably tuck your pants into your socks." she added in a low whisper.
The two of them followed Dipper back to the kitchen, as Pacifica had her eyes scanning the floor for any movement
"And this is the kitchen" Mabel announced after they entered.
"Why is there a table over there?" Pacifica said, pointing toward it.
"That's where we eat" Dipper answered as if the answer was obvious
"You mean you actually eat in the same room you make food?" Pacifica said, sounding befuddled by the idea
"Sometimes we have to eat in the bathroom if Grunkle Stan uses any of that discount low grade meat" Dipper said. Before Pacifica could give any kind of response to that, Soos suddenly entered the room carrying with him a mop.
"What up dudes. Oh hey, it's Pacifica" he said as he noticed her. "What a surprise to see you here. Usual someone like you wouldn't be caught dead in this place. Kinda uncharacteristic of you"
"Are you thirsty?" Mabel asked her, with eagerness. "Wanna try a glass of my Mabel juice?" Mabel held up the blender cup and shoved it into Pacifica's face, whose expression quickly turned to horror as she eyed the contents of the glass
"Is that a… turnip?" she asked when she noticed it floating in the liquid.
"Don't worry, its fresh" Mabel said. This didn't seem to placate Pacifica revulsion as she watched the strange contents swirl around in the cup. She shared a quick glance at Dipper, who just shook his head gravely at her. Pacifica slowly pushed the container away with one hand. She then looked back in Soos direction and snapped her fingers.
"Pitt Cola" Pacifica said, as if she had given this order a hundred times.
"Your wish is my command" Soos said cheerfully, obliging immediately as he walked over to the fridge, presumably to get Pacifica her drink.
"You ever think about getting a new servant?" Pacifica asked Dipper and Mabel, gesturing Soos direction as he was bending over inside the fridge. "That one look kinda out of shape"
"Soos isn't a servant" Dipper said, offended.
"Yeah. He's just a guy Grunkle Stan keeps around here to do everything for him all the time" Mabel added.
"And unlike a real servant, I get paid less than as required by law" Soos said, now holding Pacifica's soda and handing it to her. "But Mr Pine's love and gratitude in return is payment enough. And the potato chips!"
After that, Soos left the room again, wiping a small tear from his eye.
"Wanna go see the rest of the house now?" Mabel asked, Pacifica. "I can show me and Dipper's room. And I can show you my collection of stickers, along with my macaroni and skittle art?"
"Uh, sure, why don't you go do that" Pacifica said, a little sardonically. "I think I'll wait here for a bit
After Mabel had left, Pacifica breathed a small sigh of relief. Dipper went back to his work at the table, while Pacifica started to take in some of her surroundings within the kitchen. She seemed to display a mixture of mild curiosity and some contempt as she examined the various items laid out. Finally, she went back to the table and looked overthe Dipper's workk
"So is this what you do all the time? I mean I knew you were a nerd, but I didn't think you spent your entire summer inside a bunch of books"
"Well, I like to spend my time being productive" Dipper replied dryly. "And in my spare time, I usually fight ghosts, zombies and killer gnomes. I'm sure that's not as exciting as extreme shopping or fancy yacht parties, but at least I get things done"
"Hey, I do other things besides shopping" Pacifica shot back. "I'm a junior pro in tennis, ice skating, gymnastics and I came first in last year's spelling b"
"Really?" Dipper said with a grin. "Did you have to spell words like fraudulence, extortion or Pavlovian?"
Pacifica looked at Dipper with a sour expression. "Ok, I don't know what that is, but I'm pretty sure I don't like it"
"Well, maybe if you spent some time in a book you'd what it means" Dipper replied. "So why did you really want to come over here?"
"I kinda wanted to say thanks" Pacifica said, taking a seat at the other end of the table. "You know, for everything that you-I mean everything that happened at the party last week"
"Well, just glad I could help" Dipper admitted, feeling a little flattered. "And I admit, the party was pretty fun"
"Well, you know, despite the evil lumberjack ghosts and everybody turning to wood, it actually was kinda fun" Pacifica agreed. "In fact, it was the most I've ever had at one of my parent's parties"
"So how have your parents been since-?" Dipper said, awkwardly
"They were pretty upset, but I've decided that I'm not going to worry about what they think of me for a while" Pacifica said with a vague expression. She then looked down at the books Dipper was carefully going over.
"So what are you doing exactly?" she asked.
"Research" Dipper replied, marking some more notes with his pen.
"Research on what? What does any of this stuff mean anyway?" Pacifica picked up the Journal that was laying on the table and looked it over, but a second later Dipper snatched it out of her hand.
"Hey! Don't touch that" he said. "This is all very important stuff and I have exactly the way I want it. Moving any of this out of place could ruin everything I've worked on"
"You mean like this?" Pacifica innocently jerked her hand across the table, shuffling some papers around. Dipper hastily tried to rearrange them
"Or like this?" Pacifica shuffled some more paper. "Or how about-?"
"Cut that out!" Dipper snapped, covering his notes with his arms. "This is important, okay? I'm trying to find about the guy who wrote this Journal. It's not something you would understand. Now look, I need to concentrate on what I'm doing, which means I can't afford anything kind of-"
"GUYS!" Mabel shouted as she burst into the room, running to the table and slamming her hands down. "Guys! Pictures! And words! On TV! Can't form straight sentences!"
Mabel quickly ran back into the living room, while Dipper and Pacifica gave each other a questioning look at what just happened.
Dipper and Pacifica then entered the living room, where they found Mabel along with Soos watching the TV intently. On the screen there appeared to be new reported standing in front of some construction site. From behind the man, they could also could make out what seemed to be a large and old looking archway that was leading into some kind of tunnel
"I'm standing outside the entrance to what may be the entrance to legendary crypt that could be over two hundred years old. Reports are unclear at this point, but speculation suggests that this crypt might in fact be the final resting place of Count Vladimir Von Voltaruss, a rich aristocrat who was also rumored to be a notorious vampire"
The screen changed to show an old looking painting of what must have been the Count Vladimir that was mentioned. He appeared as an old, yet very distinguished man. Also, whether or not it was as an effect of the painting, he looked quite handsome. But not the kind of handsome you'd see in a prince charming or the cute singer of a boy band or even of a rugged tough guy. There was clearly some very dark and unsettling surrounding this man's appearance.
"Oh that guy is so a vampire" Soos chuckled.
"Mabel, what is this sup-" Dipper began.
"Shh!" Mabel said as the newscaster continued his report.
"It was uncovered during the construction of the new Gravity Falls parking lot. Rumor has it, that Count Voltaruss built his final resting place somewhere hereatn Gravity Falls, although no one has ever proven it. Experts have yet to fully examine the interior, but are saying that if this site could hold potential historic value, meaning that the new Gravity Falls parking lot will not be built here. Instead, it will be built exactly thirty yards to the left, as with accordance by town law"
"And why exactly did you want us to watch this?" Dipper asked Mabel, still as lost as before.
"That's why" Mabel said, pointing at the screen. At first Dipper didn't understand what she meant, but once he looked closer at the picture on the screen everything became clear.
As the camera moved back over the entrance to the crypt, Dipper could see on the top of the archway, was a symbol carved into the stone that was identical to one he was trying to decipher earlier.
"That's it!" Dipper exclaimed as he moved up to the TV. "That's the same symbol in the Journal. Wait…of course, Vladimir Von Voltaruss III. That's what this symbol means. It's the three V's joined together and the lines intersecting of each them are the three I's. It must be some kind of family crest or something"
"Why is he clicking that pen?" Pacifica asked Mabel, as she noticed how Dipper had repeatedly begun to click his pen while he spoke.
"You don't want to know" Mabel replied
"There must be a clue in that crypt left by the Author" Dipper continued. "Like maybe another bunker or some buried treasure? Or maybe that's where the Author himself is buried!"
"Or maybe it's got like a secret stash of a hundred year old potato chips he hadn't finished" Soos suggested. "Bet they'd be real stale by now, but I'd still eat them. The stale taste adds fiber"
"Okay new plan. We're going out to explore that crypt" Dipper said, with new found resolve.
"Woohoo, grave robbing!" Mabel cheered. Pacifica raised an eyebrow at Mabel and then turned back to Dipper who had already begun to organise his backpack
"So hang on" she said. "You just heard about some creepy, dangerous, maybe haunted underground tomb that might have belonged to some evil vampire and you want to go exploring it in?"
"Oh yeah. Put it that way, you'd have to be insane or a complete idiot to go down there, dudes" Soos said in his usual blunt manner.
"Well, it's been a while since we did something dangerous, so I guess we're about due" Dipper replied dryly. He finished loading up his pack back and tucked the Journal into his jacket. Then he turned to Pacifica.
"You coming?" he asked.
"Huh?" she said, confused.
"I said are you coming us?"
"You're…asking if want to go with you?"
"You said you wanted to hang out with us. Well this is kinda what we do" Dipper said with a small smile.
"And afterwards we can have some Pmsapabs!" Mabel said.
"Pama-wha?" Pacifica spluttered, having no idea what Mabel just said
"Our Post-Mystery-Solving-Adventure-Pancake-Afternoon-Breakfast. We have it after each death defying adventure. I'm still working on the acronym" Mabel mumbled, a little embarrassed.
"Seriously?" Pacifica asked, as if she really thought they were joking. "So you think I want to go down to some dank, dark and dirty hole in the ground and root around some dead guy's bones?"
"Oh man!" Soos said, growing more astounded. "You put it like that, I can't see how anybody would even want to go along with you two at all. Kinda like what I do all the time"
"Well, if you're too scared, it's understandable" Dipper said to Pacifica, now sounding somewhat smug. "Not everybody is cut out for this paranormal stuff. It's best left to the experts"
"Expert?" Pacifica scoffed.
"I seem you recall you knocking on my door and asking for my help just last week" Dipper said confidently.
"Oh really?" Pacifica said, challengingly. "Well, Mr Expert, I seem to recall you freaking out when you got turned to wood by that lumberjack guy. You were like, AHHHHHH!"
Pacifica threw her arms up the air, one higher than the other, while putting on a terrified expression that resembled the one Dipper had made when he was frozen.
"Blah!" Mabel echoed, jumping beside Pacifica, mimicking her pose and face perfectly. The two them held that position together like a pair of statutes, until they both broke into fits of giggle. Dipper stared at them with an annoyed expression.
"Ohoh, that was so you dude" Soos added.
"Okay, great. So are you coming or what?" Dipper asked.
"…Yeah, I think I will" Pacifica said, smiling. "I mean, if you freak again this, time I might get it on camera"
"Fine. You coming too Soos?" Dipper asked.
"Oh no way dudes" Soos replied, shaking his head. "I just realised how dangerous and crazy it is for us to go do stuff, like exploring underground tombs and looking for monsters. It only now sounds a lot more sensible and safer to me to just avoid stuff like that. My whole perspective on the world has changed". Soos stared off into space and waved his hands, looking mystified.
Dipper and Mabel shared a small glance with each other before shrugging and walking out the door, along with Pacifica. Once the kids were gone, Soos walked back down the hallway until something on the ground caught his eye. He gasped as he bent down to pick it up.
"I found a button!" he said quietly. "My horoscope came true!"
So what do you think? This chapter was originally much longer, but I decided to split that into the next chapter, which should be up by tomorrow.