I do not own Gravity Falls or SvtFoe, otherwise there would have been a crossover...
The Speedy Beaver Bus had left the two temporary travelers alone at the Gravity Falls bus depot, after they had managed to retrieve three suitcases and a map of the local town from a nearby literature stand. One Hispanic-American teen had sat next to a magical, Mewman Princess from another dimension, on her first, approximately nineteen hour, cross state bus ride. When Marco Unbaldo Diaz found out he was joining Star Butterfly on a summer trip into the heart of Oregon, he almost died remembering the last time they tried camping out. Thankfully his Parents had enough leeway in their summer plans, that they decided to change it up and join Marco and Star in visiting scenic 'Gravity Falls', after making plans to reserve a hotel in nearby Boring, a mere hour ride from Gravity Falls. He still didn't know why he, or Star, had to go, but Glossaryck's connotations revealed that this would be important for the answer to Star's question.
What was that question? I'm glad you asked:
Yesterday Afternoon
"Glossaryck, why is it Earth doesn't have Magic?" Star Butterfly asks, laying out on the couch in the Diaz's living room, her long hair draped over and down the arm of the furniture, "I know Mewni has an easier access to raw magic, because of the Wand and our family lineage, but why is Earth so... drained?" She looks up to the floating imp, who was lounging across the spine of the couch, looking as disinterested as Star looked bored. He purses his lips, before sitting up and floating back and off the couch, going into the kitchen. Star doesn't hear him for a few seconds so she sits up, adjusting her headband and stray hairs, when she hears the fridge door open, along with the clanking of silverware and drawers being opened and closed. When Glossaryck reappears, he's carrying a pudding cup and a spoon.
Marco looks up from his book, eyebrow arching, as Glossaryck rips off the top of the pudding cup and licks the foil clean. With mild look of disgust, he returns to his reading, trying to ignore whatever was going on. Glossaryck swings the spoon into the pudding, stiring it like a witch stirring a massive cauldron, before taking a spoonful and tasting the contents of the plastic cup. He looks up at Star, after smacking his lips and replacing the spoon into the pudding cup.
"Star there are many forces at work regarding magic, though they vary from dimension to dimension, and universe to universe, but they go as follows: macro-cosmic, universal, galactic, solar, planetary, and micro-cosmic," Glossaryck states, "Earth is one of the few planets in its dimension, in its universe, to be devoid of what we call 'Magic'." He states this with air quotations, three of his six fingers completing the action. "Due to macro-cosmic forces acting on Earth the planet has been artificially drained of all its magical forces, any natural reservoirs of Earth 'Magic' have been depleted for millions, if not billions, of years," Glossaryck continues, "The event is actually quite magnanimous in the history of Magic across various Dimensions, the very reason that Earth has been classified as its own separate dimension due to its 'unnatural' imbalance." He brings the spoon out of the pudding cup, and slurps the contents into his belly, as he burps in satisfaction, replacing the spoon once more.
"You see, Star, the fact remains that their is enough ambient energy dispersed throughout the Earth, that magic can be utilized by items like your Wand, or the Dimensional Scissors, but not enough for Humans to have developed a magically tuned bond with the universe," Glossaryck states, crossing his legs and beginning to float, "If it wasn't for the magical dam, Earth magic would have died off millions of years ago along with the host of unique, magical lifeforms that have accrued over the course of human history..."
"Hey!" Marco states, as Glossaryck takes a sloppy bite of his pudding cup, splattering chocolate fudge onto Marco's jeans, as he slurps the pudding, "Don't be rude, everyone knows slurping is impolite!" Glossaryck waves Marco off, as he turns back to Star, leaving Marco scoffing at the blatant brush off. "Star, why are you so interested in this, anyway?" Marco asks, setting down his book, and getting into the discussion, "Don't you have enough magic at your disposal with the Wand?" Star nods, pouting as she turns to face Marco's scowl, his annoyance tempered by the pitiful look.
"I was just wondering, since there aren't a ton of dimensions out there who haven't formed some kind of relationship with magic," Star states, "We Mewmans have the wand, Pixies created Mirror Phones with their magic, and even the Underworld has a fondness for fire magic; Humans just seem to be plain humans, you don't exhibit anything unusual about yourselves..." Marco huffs at that.
"We make awesome nachos, we do goo with physical melee and fighting using weapons, and are said to be the most awesome at kissing..." Marco states, to Star's blushing response, "There were tales that told of ancient Human's having powers, or magical artifacts of our own, but they died out with the Dragons, as far as myths go..." Glossaryck backstrokes in front of Marco's face, spitting water out at him as he does so, causing Marco's hair to fall into his face.
"All true, Marco Diaz, but there are deeper legends, older legends, about Earth's standing in the magical dimensions," Glossaryck states, "Before the magical dam was erected by the first iteration of the Magic High Commission, Earth was home to one of the most potent, most powerful bloodlines in the Magic dimensions: the Caliburn lineage." Marco perks up at that, recognizing the familiar name.
"You mean Excalibur, like, King Arthur and the knights of the round table?" Marco questions, "The man, who as the tales go, either received his sword from the mythical Lady of the Lake, or pulled a sword from a stone?" Glosryck squints his eyes and rubs his beard, opening his mouth and putting up one of his six fingers, before stopping, shaking his head, and disregarding everything that Marco just said and turning back to face Star.
"Despite that rude interruption, Marco Diaz is half right, the Caliburn legacy actually extended to a bloke named Arthur's older brother, Ulter Penndragon," Glossaryck says, Marco's eyebrows twitching as he speaks, "And before Ulter, there was Donn Caliburn, the last direct descendant of the Caliburn magic line." Glossaryck puts out his hand, and Star's Book of Spells appears, and opens to an unfamiliar page. Star and Marco both get comfy, as they stare at the blank page and a pair of strange sentences:
Anenju cqn cadcq, Rwt cqn yjpn, unc cqn bnlancb xo Ljurkdaw kn anenjunm jc ujbc. Cqn Cnw oxdpqc Xwn, cqnra cjun dwbdwp, bx unc cqn rwt mah ojbc.
"Is this some kind of dead language, or some kind of code?" Marco asks, "It's not ancient Mewman, is it?" Star shakes her head, puzzling over the sentences in the book as well. Suddenly her eyes spike with an idea, and she begins to leaf through the various pages of the spell book.
"The codex spell!" Star shouts giddily, "It's meant to decode, break, and unscramble almost every type of cipher in the known dimensions!" Marco smiles, as Star excitedly scrambles through the pages, until her eyes rest on the right page. Drawing out her wand, she double checks the spell, and smiles in triumph, before turning back to the encoded page. "Ok, here we go..." she states, "Cipher scramble, wheel unwound!" Marco and Star watch as the ink within the book wavers, revealing the secret message:
Reveal the truth, Ink the page, let the secrets of Caliburn be revealed at last. The Ten fought One, their tale unsung, so let the ink dry fast.
Star and Marco both look up at Glossaryck confused, the blue imp merely smirks. "Perhaps you should treat it like one of your spells?" he states, which causes Star to turn back to the book. She chants the words, and as she finishes, the page once more begins to morph and change, as the ink spreads and encompasses the whole open pages of the book. Star and Marco both step back, as the black, inked pages begin to recede, revealing an inked map.
"What is this?" Star asks amazed, looking at Marco, who shrugs, "Glossaryck, did you know this was in here?" She looks up at the blue imp, who shrugs in response, before floating down and landing on the page.
"This is a map of an area now commonly called by the name of 'Gravity Falls', though it once held a different, more important name, long ago," Glossaryck states, "If you go here, and follow this map into the Dark Hall..." Glossaryck looks down as he stands above the effigy of a grand hall and a monstrous looking ink-beast, a slight grimace passing over his face, before returning his attention to Star with a neutral expression. "If you survive to enter the Dark Hall, the ancient secrets of Earth Magic will be revealed to you, as well as why it was drained away," Glossaryck states, holding up a hand in warning, "But beware, don't let the Axolotl fool you, El Nacho Grande still has the power to influence the living world; do not make any deals, no matter how dire a circumstance, or how insignificant a price He asks!"
Now
Marco and Star had successfully navigated their way through the strange, quiet town, and headed to the place most tourists first went to when visiting Gravity Falls: The Mystery Shack, formerly known as the Murder Hut. Marco had looked it up on the bus ride down, apparently up until four years ago, the place was a ramshackle, run by a scammer and con-artist who was banned from about forty nine different states and three international countries, but ever since it was handed down to the current Man of Mystery, the place had boomed in business.
Marco looked up from his map, to see the Totem Pole and sign leading to the Mystery Shack, jsut beyond some bushes. He looks back to Star, who was wearing some jean shorts and a Love Sentence T-Shirt, with his red hoodie wrapped around her stomach. He had forked up the article of clothing during the night, as the chill in the cold, metal bus caused Star discomfort. As a result he was left with khakis and a gray tank top, which he was fine with since the weather was pretty mild in town that day.
He watched as Star walked towards the bush, and sees she is about to walk through it, before he grabs her and stops her from making a big mistake. "What's up Marco?" she asks, turning back to look at the Diaz boy, "Something up?" He nods, and points over the hedge, and Star's eyes follow where he points. She gulps, seeing the sign that points out the 'Bottomless Pit', which Star sees is just beyond the bush she was about to walk through. She then watches as Marco stoops down and picks something up that appeared left in the bushes. "Someone lose something?" Star asks, "Did they..." She looks down over the edge of the pit, and doesn't see or hear anything.
Marco pockets the flashlight he finds on the forest floor, grabbing the leather bound journal with a Pine Tree on it. He leafs it open, and finds a signature and a home address in the book tat signifies where to return it in case of it being lost. Surprisingly he realizes it's the Mystery Shack, the place they were heading to. Whoever 'Dipper Pines' was, he hoped he had just lost the journal by the so-called 'Bottomless' pit. "Let's go to the Mystery Shack, we can let them known if something happened," Marco confirms with Star, "The last notation in the journal indicates he was following some 'Faerie Lights' and he came across some mystery woman..."
Star opens her eyes at that, and looks at the journal in Marco's hands. "It must have been a Faerie Queen, or some kind of forest spirit!" Star says, "I guess this place really does have some magic, if you have Faeries that aren't from Pixtopia, or the Fae Wilds..." She and Marco both walk around the pit, giving it a wide berth, before finally reaching the entrance to the Mystery Shack. Both teens stare at the shack, Marco in confusion, and Star in amazement at the homely looking log cabin. Suddenly a smoke bomb is released, causing Marco and Star to both jump and react. After a few seconds, and some harsh coughing,the gases disperse to reveal an overweight man in black suit, a fez and eye patch, along with a maroon colored colonel tie, and brown shoes, holding a cane topped with an eight-ball.
"Welcome friends, to the Mystery Shack!" Soos states, smiling at Star and Marco, "I'm-" Suddenly he flies backwards, as Star whips out her Wand and fires off a stream of hallucinogenic jellybean mist.
"Star!" Marco cries out, as Soos begins coughing and stumbling around, "He's the tour guide, that was just a regular smokescreen!" Star freezes, looking at Marco, then back at the collapsed Soos on the floor.
"Oh, goosh, no!" Star says, going over to help Soos up, "You just scared me, so I didn't expect you-" She activates another spell in her arsenal, and Soos is quickly returned to normal. Coughing, he looks at both Marco and Star, smiling as he tries to wipe the tears from his eyes.
"It's alright dudes, I should've said something quicker," he replies, "I didn't expect a magical girl to be one of my customers,so I'll keep that in mind..." He quickly ushers them into the gift shop, where they find both a woman in a question mark shirt, and a young teenager in 80's style clothing, heading the store. The older woman smiles, eyeing Soos in concern, before rushing over to him and checking him out. "I'm fine, I'm fine Melody, I finally learned why Stan stopped using the smoke bombs on new customers..." Soos states, "Maybe... maybe we should close down the shack for a little bit... I think, I think I need to lie down..." Melody helps him up the stairs and leaves both Star and Marco behind with the teenager.
Marco eyes her over, looking over her... unique clothing style. She was wearing black tights and a white T-Shirt emblazoned with a rainbow colored shooting star, with neon-green hand warmers and matching leg warmers, and a magenta shrug over the shirt. She also had a pretty nice smile, obviously the work of braces by the quick glance, and she had her hair pulled into a poofy side ponytail, a pink scrunchie in her hair. "I love your outfit!" Star practically screams, looking over the amazing outfit, "Did you knit that shrug yourself?" The girl smiles even harder, and instantly begins to squeal in response to Star's friendly and energetic attitude.
"Oh, my, gosh, Yes!" the girl shouts out, "My name's Mabel, I love sweaters, all things cute, and am a super arts and crafts kind of person; who are you, and is that hunk-alicous Latino your boyfriend?" Marco has the sensibility to be embarrassed by such a question, but it only causes Star to smile even bigger.
"Yes, he is, his name is Marco Diaz, and he makes the best Nachos I've ever tasted here on my time one Earth," Star replies, grabbing Mabel's hands, "My name is Star Butterfly, I'm a magical, rocking princess from another dimension called Mewni; I'm Mewman, and I came here to learn more about Earth's magic history!" Marco doesn't know how Mabel is going to respond, but he swears she was going to call them both crazy, or at least call the cops on Star.
"Wow, I'm so jealous, I'd love to visit another dimension, but my Grunkle Ford came from being trapped in one after getting lost for thirty plus years," Mabel responds, causing Marco to nearly slip up at her taking Star at face value, "I don't know much about Earth's magic, but my semi-friend Gideon, and my Brother Dipper probably knows more about it..." Marco's ears burn, as he recognizes the name from the journal.
"Dipper, Dipper Pines?" Marco asks, pulling out the flashlight and the journal, "We found this around the 'Bottomless Pit', before we almost stepped into it..." He hands them off to Mabel, who takes them off his hands with a somber expression.
"Gee, I wondered where he disappeared to last night..." she looks at the journal, before putting both items ina drawer behind the cash register, before returning her smiling gaze to Marco and Star, "Oh well, it can't be helped I guess!" Her smile is so perfect and unconcerned, Marco, and even Star, both sputter at her casualness. "Oh, don't worry, the Pit isn't actually bottomless," she states, waving away their concern, "It's some kind of quasi-wormhole; we accidentally fell into it about four years ago, it spit us back out after about eleven minutes to a half an hour, depending on the episode..." She claps her hands together, smiling at the two in front of her. "How about I give you a tour in the mean time," Mabel states, "Whenever my Bro-bro shows up, you can get into the nitty-gritty; let me show you the wonders of Gravity Falls, in the meantime!" Star and Marco follow their odd, bubbly guide, into the weirdness that was Gravity Falls.