"Alright, careful now," Stanford Pines said to his great-niece and great-nephew as they heaved over the doorframe a colorful machine that outstripped them in height by several inches. "This is the last new display, and then we're finished here."

"We?" Dipper grunted. "You haven't done a thing, Grunkle Stan!"

"Not true," Stan replied. "I stayed here and made sure you kids didn't break anything while you were bringing everything in."

"See, Dipper?" Mabel said cheerfully. She and her brother rested the machine against a wall in the corner of the room. "I told you we had the easy job."

"Ugh," Dipper grumbled. He stretched out his arms. "I feel like my hands are going to fall off."

Stan laughed. "It's called exercise, kid. You should try it more often."

Mabel giggled and peered up at the machine she and her brother had just brought in, a tall, brightly colored box topped by a clear sphere. "So, what's this machine do?" she asked.

"It's a fortune telling machine," Stan said. He walked over and plugged a cord that had been dangling from the machine into an electric outlet. "See that button on the side? Put a quarter into the slot, press the button, and boom, fortune."

"Ooh! Neat!" Mabel squealed. "Can I have a quarter?"

"Mabel, how'm I gonna make money off this thing if I just give quarters away?"

Mabel nodded and turned expectantly to her brother. With a sigh, Dipper reached into his pocket, pulled out a quarter and handed it to her. Mabel hurried over to the machine and put the coin in the slot. At the press of the button, a lightbulb lit at the bottom of the sphere and a puff of smoke fill it to its walls. A slip of paper popped out from a slot beneath the orb with a small "ding" sound.

"You will tell all your friends to visit the Mystery Shack," Mabel read off the paper.

"That's not a fortune, Grunkle Stan," Dipper said. "That's an advertisement."

"It's written in the future tense, isn't it?" Stan replied. "It counts. And speaking of advertisements, I got another chore for you two."

Dipper groaned. "You're not making us lug in any more new displays, are you? My arms are killing me."

Stan rolled his eyes. "No, Dipper, I see you've met your manual labor limit for the day. Nah, I just need you guys to go around town and hand these out. One for every house." He went behind the counter and pulled out a large cardboard box. Opening the lid, he revealed hundreds of doorhanger brochures, each bearing the words "Gravity Falls Mystery Shack" stamped across in bold letters, right above the Shack's slogan: "We put the 'fun' in 'No Refunds'."

He set the box down beside the twins. "Why do we have to spread these all over town?" Dipper asked. "Don't the people of Gravity Falls already know about the Mystery Shack?"

"Well, sure, they know. It's a major business. But we've got a bunch of new displays now, right? We need to remind the fair citizens of Gravity Falls that they need to come back for more."

"Oh, fun!" Mabel said, delightedly snatching up a handful of the advertisements. "I love all that door-to-door stuff? Remember last year, Dipper, when I went door-to-door for the Girl Scout cookies?"

Stan raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you were a Girl Scout."

"She's not," Dipper said. "She wasn't selling cookies; she was just asking people to donate their cookies to her."

"I like Girl Scout cookies," Mabel added with a nod.

"Whatever," Stan grunted. "Just don't go demanding food out of any potential customers while the two of you are out. Now get. Oh, look both ways before crossing the street, don't get separated, and stick to the sidewalks. And if Old Man McGucket offers you candy, for God's sake, just say no."

On that note, Dipper grabbed the box and he and Mabel walked out the front door and along the path toward town. Once they came to the first row of houses, they stopped. "Okay," Dipper said. "Now, this will be much more efficient if one of us holds the box and the other goes to the door with the ads." He started to stretch the box toward his sister. "So, I'll just let you take the-"

"Advertisements?" Mabel interrupted quickly, grabbing several doorhangers from the top of the stack. "So you can keep working on your upper arm strength? Thanks, Dipper!"

She hurried up to nearest house to hang the little sign on the doorknob. Dipper said. "I swear," he muttered. "It'll be a miracle if I can even use these arms tomorrow."

The twins made their way through the neighborhoods of Gravity Falls. Mabel seemed to be having the time of her life rushing back and forth between the houses and the box of doorhangers. Dipper was just grateful that the town was small. If they had to go to every house somewhere like their hometown of Piedmont, it'd be days before the job was done.

The sun was beginning to set and the box of advertisements was nearly empty by the time Dipper and Mabel had gone full circle around the town. "Phew!" Mabel said in relief as they walked down the town's main road toward the path that led to the Shack. "That was a fun afternoon, wasn't it?"

"My arms are dead, Mabel," came Dipper's curt reply.

Mabel laughed. "Oh, come on, Dipping Sauce, it builds character. Wait, hang on a sec!" She threw out an arm to stop her brother in his tracks.

"What?" Dipper asked.

Mabel pointed through some thin trees. "Look! There's a house back there!"

Dipper squinted in the direction Mabel was pointing. Sure enough, he could see what appeared to be a tall, gray, Victorian-style house, with ivy climbing up the sides all the way to the roof. He shrugged. "So there's a house. What about it?"

"Well, we're supposed to give these doorhangers to all the houses, right?"

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Mabel, I bet no one even lives there. There's no car, no lights on. Besides, I'm exhausted. What's one less customer?"

"Dipper," Mabel said, "Grunkle Stan said 'one for every house,' and by golly, that's a house."

"Fine, whatever. You can take a brochure, but I'm heading back to the Shack."

Mabel grabbed his arm. "Nuh-uh. Stan told us not to get separated. Come on, just one last stop, then we'll go home."

Dipper sighed, but at his sister's persistent tug on his arm, he allowed Mabel to drag him along through the trees towards their final house for the night.

A/N: And with that, another story begins! Don't worry, the plot will kick off soon, and even sooner if I get reviews. Hint, hint, wink, wink.

Also, if you haven't done so yet, be sure to check out my other Gravity Falls fic, "Into the Woods."