Gravity Falls – What's In A Name (A Dipper x Smabble fanfic)
Because a certain couple of somebodies got me super excited about a certain background character, I figured it was time to try my hand at writing how I imagine her character. If you don't know who she is, I suggest searching up "Shmipper and Smabble" The names I chose aren't canon; this is how I imagined Smabble's and Dipper's real names to be. Also, this fic is Dipper x Smabble and set sometime when Dipper is in his late twenties and has a job as an investigative reporter. Told semi from Smabble's point of view. (Also I pronounce Smabble the same way you pronounce Mabel)
"Welcome! Do you have an appointment?" asked the secretary, typing away on a keyboard, a Bluetooth device attached to her ear. She looked up at the young woman, who was nervously rocking back and forth on her heels, clutching a blue purse and a manila envelope.
"Um y-yes, I'm here for the interview -"
"Take a seat please, they'll call you when they're ready to see you," said the secretary, before turning away and answering a call on her earpiece. "Hello, you've reached the office of -"
Smabble hesitantly sat down on the padded seat near the wall. The office was bustling with activity, people sitting at computers answering phones, editing articles or researching different Internet trends. The constant chatter of people made her all the more nervous, so to calm herself she pulled her application out of the envelope, poring over each section to make sure that she had filled out everything correctly.
Smabble was applying as an intern for the office of Shabazz publication, an all-around publishing company with outlets in everything from magazines to newspapers to websites. She always loved writing; she was the top of her class in her advanced writing course, and her professor even wrote her recommendation letter and secured her an interview to intern for the top investigative journalist of this decade, who went by the moniker "Douglas Pines." She had read his impressive span of articles, which included everything from uncovering the supernatural to secret psychological tricks to improve memory, to hidden cryptic messages and ciphers, to the occasional arts and crafts or music articles. She liked the meaning behind his pseudonym, as "Douglas" was a name associated with people who were excellent at analyzing, understanding and learning, and are known to be quiet and introspective. Plus, pairing it with "Pines" made this name a good match, and a pun on its own.
Pines, she thought to herself. That sounds like him . . .
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone calling out to her.
"They're ready for you, hun. Take the first door on the left and go right down the hallway; the door you're looking for has his name on it," said the secretary.
"Um, t-thank you, ma'am!" said Smabble a little too loudly out of nervousness. She stood up, and followed the secretary's instructions. She stood outside the door, fist raised, almost too anxious to knock. Her brain went into overdrive in stressful situations, and this was no exception.
What if he doesn't think I'm good enough? What if he's mean and rude and won't want to see my portfolio? Ohmygosh, what if he's like this weird gross pervert and he'll try and make a move on me?! Oh, why did I choose to wear a short skirt today? This was the only clean one that I had and I didn't want to be wearing dress pants . . . wait, what if . . . what if he DOES hire me? What happens if they hire me and then I do a terrible job and they fire me? Oh no . . .
Her thoughts were cut short by the door suddenly opening, and a man's head poked around the door frame.
"I can see your shadow in the windowpane, so if you need something then what-" The man's mouth stopped mid-sentence, dropping into a perfect O shape. Smabble's face mirrored his expression, shocked at who she was staring at.
Dipper Pines reached up and fixed his glasses, which had gone askew on his face. He stepped out into the hallway, brown hair a tousled mess. Smabble could only stare in amazed silence, as the boy she had only seen here and there around Gravity Falls was apparently also the most famous journalist in the state.
"Smabble? Wait, wait, wait, you're the person applying for the internship?"Dipper said finally, reaching up to poke her cheek to verify that she was real.
"Dipper Pines?! You're Douglas Pines, of all people? What is going on?" said Smabble, equally surprised.
Dipper gestured for her to enter, and the two of them entered Douglas – um, Dipper's office. Smabble sat down in the chair in front of the desk, which was filled about a foot high with stacks of paper, a laptop, and several paper cups which she assumed had held coffee. Dipper moved these stacks onto the floor and sat down in the rolling chair, facing the now-smiling Smabble.
"Geez, what's it been, like ten years? How have you been?" he asked.
"It's been good, I'm going for my degree in journalism, and my professor got me this interview, and I was so excited, because it's the famous Douglas Pines and I had no clue that it was you, I mean you – I mean, he, I mean, you're this famous since I've last seen you, and . . ." she trailed off, noticing that Dipper was staring at her. He was smiling.
"I . . . I'm rambling again, aren't I?" she asked tentatively.
"Mmhm," Dipper replied, nodding. Smabble put her hands to her face, trying to hide the fact that she was blushing through her freckles.
"I-Is my face red?" she asked, knowing what the answer already was.
"Definitely red," he said. Her ears were the reddest part of her face, and she hid her face completely with her hands, thoroughly embarrassed.
Dipper and Mabel had been visiting Gravity Falls, Oregon every summer, and every now and then the Pines twins would come across another set of twins, known to the town as "Shmipper and Smabble," which they thought was really cute seeing as it rhymed with their own names. From then on, they made it a point to hang out at least once every other week when the Pines came to town, whether it was doing a joint fishing trip with the Pines twins' great uncle and their grandpa, or exploring the woods, or eating out at the local restaurants. However, somewhere along the line, Smabble started noticing how Dipper was becoming more and more handsome as the years went by. Maybe it was the shock of not seeing him for an entire school year, as each time she saw him, he had grown so much more rugged, somehow a little taller each time, and it was torture on the poor girl, where there weren't many boys anywhere near her age that she liked as much.
Dipper and Mabel were extremely smart for their age, in more ways than just smarts, and they graduated from high school and eventually college much earlier than most people. Eventually, the visits turned to the occasional text message or the occasional letter, until Dipper had basically dropped from the face of the earth. Mabel owned several successful modern art museums, and was making a fortune creating and selling all sorts of things around Paris. Smabble had always wondered what happened to Dipper, and now . . .
"You look good, Smabble. You look all business-like and stuff," Dipper noted, as he had been used to seeing her with her hair down, her bangs pinned to the side with a little hair clip.
"Are you kidding me? I look like a stiff assistant. You look all messy, but you somehow look older," Smabble responded. In her head, she thought: His hair's all messy and tangled and the glasses make him look much manlier than the last time I . . . ahhh! What am I thinking?!
"It's probably the glasses, they're the same kind of frames as one of my uncles. Mabel always teases me about it, says I look even more like a nerd than usual."
"No, no! You look so handsome! Oh, wait, ignore that I said that! Please please please ignore that please!" Smabble waved her hands in front of her, in an attempt to wave away the thought that had somehow escaped her lips. Dipper chuckled. Smabble always got flustered like this. It's cute.
"Heh heh. Okay, well, anyways, let's get the interview out of the way, and then I'll treat you to some coffee or something."
"Oh, um, okay, then."
"Great, it's a date, then! Okay, let me find your file . . ." murmured Dipper, rummaging through the piles of paper that he had just moved to the floor. Meanwhile, Smabble all but shut down all mental processes at the word "date."
"Aha! Here we go! Okay, then, where were we . . . oi, Smabble! Anybody home in there?" Dipper called out, waving a hand in front of Smabble's unfocused eyes. She jumped in her seat, realizing that she had lost focus. She had gone into this interview hoping to look professional and somewhat in control of her life, but one look at Dipper's face, and she immediately forgets that reality exists.
Dipper looked over Smabble's information that was faxed over by the secretary earlier. The interview questions went by a lot smoother than he thought. He thought that it was tiresome that he was being put on interview duty this week, but seeing an old friend around the office put him in a much better mood. It's been a long time since he felt this motivated to do something like this.
"Hey," Dipper said, looking over the papers. "I know that we put your name as 'Smabble' in the initial application, but we need to put your full name on the actual form. You know, tax reasons and all that jazz."
"Oh . . . um . . ." Smabble said quietly, looking at her knees to avoid Dipper's gaze.
"You know, in all my years of knowing you, I don't think I've ever found out what your real name actually was."
"You don't want to know . . . I don't really like it, so I've been going by my nickname all my life . . ."
"Hey, trust me, I know the feeling. You think I could go around publishing papers under the name 'Dipper?' Nope, had to use my real name for that one."
"Wait . . ."
"Yes, Douglas is my first name. Supposed to be attributed to being a leader, which apparently I had this weird thing as an elementary school kid where I wanted to be in charge of everything, including my own life. Yeah, only reason I never turned out as a control-freak brat is because Mabel kept me grounded. Enough about me though, let's hear that name then!"
He leaned forward, eyes sparkling. Those same curious eyes, mirroring his twin sister's eyes, gazed intently at her, as if piercing her soul
"Just . . . just don't laugh, please?" Smabble asked, looking up at him, looking for all the world like a begging puppy.
"Can't say no to those eyes, can I?"
"Fiiine . . ."
She took a deep breath, and with an air of slight distaste, she said slowly:
"Susanna May Belle Cedar," and then immediately hid her eyes in her hands, peeking through her fingers at him. Dipper smiled, writing that down on the form, and then making a mental note to remember every letter of that name.
"I like it."
"You're lying . . ."
"I love it! I really do! It's cute. What's the name 'Susanna' mean, anyways?" Dipper asked.
"It's supposed to mean 'graceful lily,' but truth be told, right now I feel like less of a graceful anything and more like an embarrassed rambling potato."
"Hey," said Dipper, causing her to look up at him. He was giving her a comforting smile, something that immediately set her mind at ease.
"I like your name. It's pretty, and cute, and 'graceful lily' suits you. When we first met, that was my first impression of you: that you were all calm and collected. It was when I found out that you overthink things and tend to ramble about this story and that story that I came to realize that you were a person that I wanted to be around all the time."
"You're . . . not lying, are you?" said Smabble, emerging from behind her hands.
"Would I ever lie to you?"
"Actually, yes, you have in fact lied to me about having never being kissed, and -"
"H-Hey! One, that merman doesn't count. Two, Mabel can't help but tell the truth just to tease me, and three, we were all playing truth or dare, so how was I supposed to . . ."
"Well, you did pick truth, and I did ask you if you've ever kissed anyone before, plus I never specified if it was a girl, boy, or human," giggled Smabble, her embarrassment all but gone completely. "Your reaction was pretty adorable, too."
Dipper paused, looking at her giggling in her chair, and smiled once more. It's almost as if time had never even passed. They were still teenagers, all hanging out in the attic of the Mystery Shack for a twin sleepover, chatting the night away and teasing and laughing with one another. Almost makes him nostalgic for that old attic, with its drafts and splinters and creaking floorboards.
"Well, that took long enough," he said finally, chuckling as he wrote down the last bit of information. "Congrats, Susanna May Belle Cedar, I do believe that you've got the job."
"Okay, now that's just cruel, Douglas. Haha. Hey, wait . . . already?! But that was just the interview, what the heck?" she said, shocked.
"You're the only one that actually applied for the position, we've been waiting all week and you're the first one to apply. Which is great for you, because we need all the help we can take. So, like I said, congrats," Dipper held out his hand, which Smabble graciously took. That hand, still that same rough texture from so long ago. It was bigger than her own hand now, but it was still the same hand, the same Dipper that she had fallen for so many years ago.
And then the handshake was broken, and Smabble was once again jolted into reality. Dipper stood up from his desk, stretched, and pulled out his cell phone.
"Well, I'm done for the morning, anyways. Don't have too much going on, and Mabel still hasn't called me from Paris yet, so I'm assuming that she's still asleep. So," he said, looking up from the screen. "Still on for that date?"
"Date? Wait, oh, um, I thought it was just coffee?" Smabble started fumbling with her words again.
"Oh, my bad, if you're seeing somebody right now, you don't gotta . . ."
"NO! Whoops, sorry, that came out a bit loud . . . *ahem* no, I'm not dating anyone at the moment."
"Good, means that I won't have a jealous guy coming after my hide after I take you, the lovely Susanna, out for coffee, then?"
"I mean, I could sic my brother on you. After all, he's veeeery protective of his sister," she said, winking at him. The two of them burst out laughing.
"Oh, man, definitely need to watch out for him. Alrighty then, shall we?" he asked, gesturing out the door.
"Yes, we shall," she said, playfully bumping into his shoulder like they used to do back then. "We have so much to talk about and catch up on."
"Yeah, we do," Dipper responded. As they stepped out into the afternoon light, Dipper looked at Smabble, and their eyes met.
"Whatcha thinking about there, Smabble?" he asked her, noticing that she had gone silent.
"Wha? Um, nothing! Nothing worth mentioning."
"Seems like something to me."
"Ugh, you always have to be the super-analytical one in this friendship, don't you?" she said in fake disgust, before giggling.
"Says the girl that was standing outside my door for the longest time. Now I know that it was you, I'm pretty sure that you were overthinking things again."
"Your face is overthinking!" she retorted.
"That doesn't even make sense!"
"Your face doesn't make sense," she said, before going red again. She put her hands up to her cheeks.
"Is my face still red?"
Dipper smiled at her.
"Yup," he said. "Still red."