Hey guys! So, uhm, this is my first Gravity Falls story. It didn't exactly turn out how I wanted it to, plus the writing style kind changes a bit. I hope you like it anyways. Enjoy this kind-of-sucky oneshot!
~Emily Believes xoxo
"Do the tablecloths really need anymore decorations?"
"Nothing can have too many decorations!"
"You've already glued down so many stars and rainbows that no one will have anywhere to put their plates."
"A worthy sacrifice! Give me the hot glue gun!"
"Glue stick, Mabel. We have a glue stick."
"Whatever will make this unicorn stick to the cloth!"
Dipper smiled and handed his twin sister the glue stick they had been using. It was a sunny day in Oakland, California. The Pines family drove a quarter of an hour away from their hometown of Piedmont to a park to hold a family reunion. Mabel, being very artistic, was assigned the task of "enhancing" the surrounding area to make it more appealing to the eye. Thus, the entire morning of March 5th the Pines Twins were decorating the picnic tables at Roberts Regional Recreation Area for the occasion.
The twins' mother Abigail walked over to the table Dipper and Mabel were currently by, placing a platter of fruits in the center. She shared their dark brown eyes and hair. The twins' looked up at her upon noticing her presence. "People are going to be arriving soon," she informed with a grin.
"It's going to be a rather small reunion," Phil Pines, the twins' dad, said somewhat nervously. He was holding more plates with various types of food and set them down on the table. His famous family cowlick was passed down to both Dipper and Mabel, making it obvious that they were akin to him. "We sent a lot of invitations, but we only got a few RSVPs…"
"Though some people may show up unannounced," Abigail pointed out.
"Knowing my family, that wouldn't be much of a surprise," Phil said with a sigh.
Abigail and Phil continued to get plates of prepared food out of their car and put them on the picnic tables. Mabel resumed decorating the tablecloths (and other various items of nature that probably didn't need to be decorated), leaving Dipper alone with his thoughts. After a moment of weirdly standing in the middle of six picnic tables, staring blankly ahead, he walked over to his parents.
"So, uh... Mom, Dad, did you guys hear anything from Grunkle Stan?" he asked his parents awkwardly as they were digging for something in the trunk of the car.
The two adults glanced at each other for a second with confused looks. "Oh! You mean your Great Uncle Stan, hm?" Abigail said, looking over her shoulder to face him. He nodded.
There was a pause, making the background noise of rustling leaves and Mabel's humming easily heard for a moment. "Sorry kiddo, don't think we heard from him," Phil responded apologetically.
"Well, with him and Grunkle Ford out a sea and all. . . ," Dipper mumbled to himself, trailing off. His parents simply brushed it off (he apparently picked up the habit over the summer) and watched as he disappointedly started to walk off.
"Hey, but who knows? My Uncle Stan's pretty mysterious, you know-" ("You can say that again," Dipper muttered under his breath) "-maybe he'll show up! Your Grandpa Shermie's even coming, and he hasn't come to visit since you and Mabel were about six or seven," Phil said in an attempt to cheer up his son.
Paranoia started to work its way into Dipper's mind as he smiled, nodded, and walked back over to Mabel. What if Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford couldn't come because they had been stranded on some island? What if they managed to get themselves in jail? What if some monster injured them? What if some monster killed them? What if Bill came back and they were too worried the demon would hurt him or Mabel? What if-
His thoughts were interrupted by Mabel placing some sort of sticker near his right temple. "It'll fit right in with the constellation!" she said proudly. He peeled the sticker from his face to see it was a star, conveniently placed near the birthmark on his forehead that looked like the Big Dipper.
"Ha, ha, ha," Dipper said sarcastically, making sure his hair was covering his birthmark, "Not funny." He placed the sticker on the nearest tablecloth, his face dropping into an anxious frown.
Whether it be twin telepathy or simply reading the atmosphere, Mabel noticed and grew concerned. "Bro, Dip-Dop, what's wrong?" she asked, walking over to him.
"I'm just really worried about Stan and Ford," he admitted, sighing afterwards.
"Hey, they might be old, but they know how to beat up supernatural monsters! Plus they have awesome weapons that Grunkle Ford made! They're fine, Dipper. Probably just busy. You worry too much," she said, punching him in the shoulder. The sound of a truck pulling into the parking lot stole the twins' attention quickly, however. "Hey, look, it's Aunt Gabby and Uncle Brian! Hi, Aunt Gabby! Hi, Uncle Brian!" she shouted from a distance, starting to run over to her relatives.
"Haha… ow…," Dipper muttered to himself belatedly, rubbing his arm where Mabel punched him and following her to greet family, though nothing could really stop the thought of Bill possessing one of his relatives from creeping into his mind.
The sun was high in the sky, though the vague remnants of winter made the air chilly. Mabel and Dipper were sitting at one of the "enhanced" picnic tables across from their grandfather Sherman Pines. Apparently, Sherman had heard that the twins spent the summer with their Great Uncle Stanford Pines and was oddly curious about it. So, of course, Mabel took the liberty of explaining whatever normalcy she could squeeze out of their crazy vacation. Even then, Dipper observed that the old man's face looked slightly skeptical throughout the entire energetically-told story.
"Never thought Ford was that type 'a person," was what Sherman said immediately after Mabel stopped talking.
Dipper raised an eyebrow before remembering an important detail. Everyone at this reunion - everyone except for him and Mabel - thought that last summer they were sent to the house of a highly intelligent scientist who was doing research in the sleepy town of Gravity Falls. They didn't know the truth. They knew nothing of Bill and how he tricked Ford. They knew nothing of how Ford was sucked into a portal that the dream demon convinced him to build. They knew nothing of how Stan spent three decades trying to fix the portal just to bring his brother back. They knew nothing of how Stan's made the Mystery Shack a success, or how he stole his twin's identity, or how his own death was fake. They knew nothing of even the smallest supernatural nuisance they encountered last summer, much less things like The Society of the Blind Eye and Weirdmageddon. They were completely oblivious.
There was an awkward silence. Dipper and Mabel didn't want to press the subject; he wouldn't believe them if they tried to explain it, anyways. The twins just looked around at the park, trying to avoid eye contact with their grandfather. Many adults were scattered around the picnic area, talking about subjects that would bore the thirteen-year-olds to death if they were forced to listen. There was a playground a few feet away from the picnic area that some of their smaller cousins were playing on. Mabel nearly broke her arm there on the monkey bars a little after the first few relatives arrived. Of course, other people were there too, playing on the playground and eating at another nearby area with picnic tables. There were many more cars in the parking lot than there were just a few hours ago. In fact, there seemed to be another one pulling in…
Dipper widened his eyes. "Mabel," he whispered, nudging her in the side with his arm, catching her attention. "Look!" He tried to subtly point at an old burgundy-colored car with a white hood that had been poorly parked, but Sherman too turned his head to see what he was gesturing towards.
"They made it!" Mabel whispered (well, more like whisper-yelled), practically jumping off the bench. Dipper did the same with a grin on his face.
Out of the driver's side came a man in his sixties. He fixed the navy blue knit cap that he wore over his grey hair. "Grunkle Stan!" the twins exclaimed happily as they ran over to their great uncle. They quickly tackled him in a hug.
"Oof! Hey! ..Easy there, you knuckleheads!" Stan said as the two wrapped their arms around him. After a moment, the twins stepped back, which allowed time for Dipper to notice something: a crack in Stan's glasses. Of course, that could've easily been put there but some Arctic beast, but he just found it odd.
"We thought you wouldn't be able to make it!" Dipper said, though his mind was racing with other thoughts. There was something wrong, something beyond the glasses, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. Maybe it was just his paranoia...
"And miss this? You gotta be kidding," Stan replied. "I'm taking any chance to embarrass you two I can get." Though his face didn't turn into his usual grin after the statement. While it was still a grin, it looked almost… Well, he didn't know what it looked like exactly. It just looked familiar. The grin... The cracked glasses... It was something beyond that. Something was off.
"Hey, wait a second, where's Grunkle Ford?" Mabel asked, looking around before glancing up at Stan.
"Think he saw a gnome or something and went to go investigate it. Don't worry. He should be back soon," was the reply Stan gave. Maybe he was overreacting, but to Dipper, it sounded somewhat rehearsed, pre-meditated.
He tried to shake it off, he really did, but as he walked around with Mabel and Stan, he couldn't get rid of the feeling. Something had to be wrong, because even with how mysterious Stan could be, Dipper was never this suspicious of his grunkle. He tried to recollect his memories of the summer, tried to think of something that Ford wrote or said that could explain this. Perhaps it was Bill..? With that whole ordeal that happened near the end of summer - Stan and Ford switching clothes, tricking Bill; Stan's memory being erased - maybe jogging Stan's memories brought back Bill?
No. No, he didn't want to believe that was happening… but it made perfect sense. Why else would he be acting so strange? It's hard to act like you genuinely care about someone if you want to see them die in the most brutal way possible, after all. ...There was only one way to find out.
"Look into my eyes! Look at my pupils. It's me, Dipper. It's me."
Thus, the first chance he got, he looked behind Stan's cracked glasses and into his eyes... He couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it. How did he not notice earlier? His suspicions were correct! Yellow tainted sclera, long vertical pupils… Bill was possessing Stan!
"Whatcha staring at, kid?" Stan? - no, Bill - asked Dipper.
But Dipper cautiously walked backwards, a terrified look on his face. What was he planning to do? Was he going to hurt his family? Mabel? Ford? Oh, God, what if he already hurt Ford and that's why he wasn't there? "Why are you possessing Stan, Bill?!" Dipper exclaimed, turning a few heads in the direction of the two. They stared at the scene with confused faces that neither Dipper nor Bill paid any attention to.
The old man's face dropped for a second. He then started to laugh… not maniacally, however. It was just a normal laugh that Dipper remembered hearing countless times over the summer. "You're just as paranoid as Ford!" he said in between laughs.
"W-What?" Dipper let out weakly, letting his arms fall to his side.
"Bill's dead! You really think that stupid triangle can do anything to me?" said (apparently) Stan. Dipper eased slightly, both mentally and physically. It was just his Grunkle Stan being… well, his old Grunkle-self. Maybe it was just a stupid prank, which honestly wouldn't be that surprising… All of this was just his stupid paranoia getting the better of him… Just stupid para-
"WELL, THEN YOU'D BE RIGHT, PINE TREE."
Dipper yelped as Bill (definitely, definitely Bill) tried to grab him. He knew it; he knew it! Something was wrong; he just hoped it wasn't this. "How are you back?!" the boy yelled. His heart was racing. He still didn't want to believe it. "Stan and Ford got rid of you! You're dead!" He jumped on the bench of a picnic table, nearly knocking over someone's drink.
"ANCIENT MAGIC GOES A LONG WAY, KID," Bill explained, his own voice now dubbing over Stan's. "CRESCENT'S MIND JUST HAPPENED TO BE MY FIRST DESTINATION. DID YOU REALLY THINK WEIRDMAGEDDON WAS GOING TO BE THE LAST YOU SAW OF ME?" He followed after Dipper, trying to yank him down from his elevated position.
Dipper, however, just kept moving backwards, jumping off the picnic table and into a crowd of Pineses. Everyone was watching them, even strangers, especially kin. Abigail watched with her hand to her mouth in shock. Both Sherman and Phil had their eyes narrowed at Stanley, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Other relatives looked at them horrified gapes, confused gazes, concerned stares. The scene was weird… Too weird for the likings of a small park in California.
"But the portal's destroyed, and so's the rift! You have no purpose here anymore!" Dipper said, looking around desperately for Mabel. He was too scared to call her name. What if Bill tried to hurt her? Dipper couldn't take that chance ...But he needed her right now. They always worked better together.
"HA! YOU THINK I'M HERE TO BRING BACK WEIRDMAGEDDON? HOW CUTE," Bill said, twisting Stan's face into a crazed grin. "WE'RE PAST THAT POINT. I'M HERE FOR REVE-" His head jerked forward suddenly, which caused him to cut himself off. A small plastic cup now lay right behind his puppet's feet.
Everyone turned their heads to see a (technically) teenage girl in a light turquoise knitted sweater and an elderly man wearing a red coat and cracked glasses. Mabel and Ford. Shermie did a double take, looking back and forth between the two twins, between his brothers; one of them was supposed to be dead! Dipper grinned once he saw them. Bill did too, but for a different reason.
"WELL, WELL, WELL, IF IT ISN'T OL' SIXER AND THE SHOOTING STAR," the demon said, but before he could continue his thought, he was met with a pan to the face. There were horrified screams. Bill began to notice that Stan's nose was bleeding due to the impact. "HEY, WHAT GIVES?"
Dipper caught onto what they were doing. "'Meat bags' like me and Stan don't handle pain very well, remember?" he said condescendingly as Ford and Mabel started to move closer. Well, Ford seemed to be doing so more strategically. Mabel was running with an abundance of her Aunt Autumn's hard rolls in her hands screaming, "AIYIYIYIYIYA!" She proceeded to throw the rolls at Bill, hitting him majority of the time.
"OH NO, YOU'VE DEFEATED ME BY THROWING POORLY BAKED WHEAT PRODUCTS!" Bill said sarcastically.
"Hey!" shouted Aunt Autumn.
Bill pushed past Mabel and walked over to Ford, who looked more than prepared to punch the dream demon right out of his brother's body. He smirked. "I'M PRETTY POWERLESS IN THIS OLD MEAT SACK, YOU KNOW. IT'LL BE MUCH MORE FUN TO GET REVENGE ON EVERYONE FROM THE ZODIAC, ANYWAYS. YOU'LL GET TO SEE EACH OTHER SUFFER! OH, HEY - MIGHT WANT TO KEEP WATCH ON YOUR BROTHER, STANFORD. HIS MEMORY'S NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE! SEE YOU IN THE SUMMER~!" he taunted. That seemed to be his parting message, as right after he said that, Stanley's body fell limp onto the ground. A small echo of his laugh could be heard before it eventually died out, leaving an eerie silence in the park. Well, for a fraction of a second, anyways. Murmuring arose quickly.
"Haha! We did it!" Mabel exclaimed, running over to Ford. "Up top!" She extended her hand in his direction. He smiled and gave her a high-six.
Dipper stared at the two, confused. "Mabel, how did you find Grunkle Ford? How did you know Bill was possessing Stan?" he asked, walking over to the them and peering down at his unconscious great uncle.
"Well, after he seemed to be getting along well with everyone, I went over to the playground. Zara left her doll over there, so I was going to give it back to her when it started talking. It was Grunkle Stan! He was talking through the doll. You know, like you did with your sock puppet when Bill used you as a human sock puppet. So we devised a plan, he told me where Grunkle Ford was, then boom! The plan worked!" Mabel explained, throwing her hands in the air once she was finished.
"Well you better you ready to tell us what exactly this 'plan' was, young lady." The three turned to see Abigail Pines staring straight at them with her arms crossed. Behind her was Sherman and Phil, both of whom had similar expressions of their faces. "Because you all have a lot of explaining to do."
Ford sighed, looking down at his brother who seemed to finally be stirring awake. He glanced at Dipper and Mabel, who both shared a look that practically said "yikes." Where they ready to know? Would they even understand or believe them? "It's a long story."