It had started one day when they were watching television together.
A commercial flickered across the screen. It should have just ended there. The images on that had been sent into their brains should have just disappeared and been pushed out of their memories by the next thing, but things don't always work out so neatly.
"Those are literally backwards bathrobes! I haven't seen such a good scam in forever," Stan laughed loudly, "Whew, I'm getting some Pitt, you guys want some? I haven't seen something so good in forever…"
The twins, however, were not laughing. Dipper was staring at Mabel with an expression of sheer horror on his face. She was completely still, her hands pressed against her cheeks, adoration sparkling in her eyes.
She loved it. And when Mabel loved something, she had to take action. This was just the sort of thing that sent her into a creative frenzy.
Dipper knew that they would all have custom-made Mabel snuggies by the end of the week.
Mabel had the moment all mapped out in her head. She was sitting behind Dipper's favorite reading chair and he was going to come and get into reading one of his nerd books and then she was going to rise up from behind the couch and it was going to be hilarious. She added a couple lines to her knitting project before she heard the squeaking of the springs in the chair. She added a few more lines and then laid her project aside. The perfect time had come.
"So what do you want on yours, Dipper? What do you think represents your innermost soul?"
Dipper flinched noticeably but said nothing.
"If you don't answer, it's gonna be a pine tree."
He turned to the next page in his book. No response.
"You must really like pine trees."
Well, she was going to have to step up her game now.
"I mean it could be like that hand on your nerd book or a pen or a UFO or like… uhhhh, some Sibling Brothers thing or…" An idea struck Mabel from the heavenly land of yarn and unicorns where all the best ideas are born. A mischievous grin spread across her face. It was brilliant and a little evil, but it was perfect. She pushed Dipper's book down so that he would pay attention to her and said, "What if I put Wendy's face on it?"
The results were precisely as predicted and immensely satisfying. Dipper blushed lightly and raised his book up over his face, as if it's monsters and mysteries could shield him. He peeked out over the top of the book hesitantly and replied, "The pine tree will be just fine."
Writer's woes: okay so this was really fun to write oh my goodness! It's very silly, indulgent writing and there will be more. I was planning on throwing it into North of Normal, West of Weird, but I'd like it to be multichapter so it will be a standalone piece of silliness. I'd love to write cool, dark, mysterious stuff for this fandom but... it doesn't end up happening? I've been trying to improve my dialogue skills so the focus is less on description nowadays. So uh yeah I hope you enjoy it?
Stay strange,
Hillary