Hello, Fanfiction Reader! Whether you're an old reader of one of my previous stories or a new one altogether, I'm very glad you're here! I do have an apology to make for anyone who enjoyed any stories I wrote in the past... I am very sorry, but I will be discontinuing them. I had a very long period of time where I was having to juggle a lot of things at the same time, between school, music lessons, and my own original novel. I'm extremely sorry to anyone who enjoyed the stories that are being discontinued, but I felt that it wasn't fair to any of you to give you false hope that I would be continuing them. I got a lot of PM's asking if I was still writing them, and I felt so bad to keep you guys hanging like that. I am discontinuing Crystal High and When You Wish Upon a Star (somebody asked me if they could possibly use the idea from this one in the instance that I chose to stop writing it; it is completely fine with me as long as you use only the idea and not any of the writing I started on). This new story is a revival of my old crossover story, which I will be restarting as best as I can. I apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment about the discontinued stories, but please enjoy this redo of Gravity Universe! So far, this is just a preview, and if enough people enjoy it, I'm planning on continuing this!
It was a cool, crisp summer day in the lazy Oregon town of Gravity Falls. The first days of summer were surprisingly warm, considering that the weather in the region was typically sweltering around this time of year. Many families had taken the opportunity to picnic in the grassy clearings by the forest, and the cheerful laughs of children could be heard ringing through the trees, accompanied by the chattering of the adults that sat at wooden tables and snacked on grilled burgers and hotdogs. The weather was beautiful; the skies were clear of clouds and the sun shone cheerfully on the people below it. Most of the town was outdoors picnicking, playing games, or simply enjoying nature, with the exception, however, of the two Pines twins.
Mabel Pines had busied herself by hanging up her many posters on the walls of her new attic bedroom. Most of them were brightly coloured and featured a variety of male celebrities, cats, and rainbows. Her brother, Dipper, backed into the room carefully as he glanced around the unfamiliar room.
"This attic is amazing!" Mabel declared excitedly as she finished securing her last poster onto the wall. "Check out all my splinters!" Dipper was far more apprehensive of the musty, log cabin-esque attic than his sister. He jumped, startled, when he noticed the large brown goat sitting on the bare mattress that was meant to be his.
"Aaand... there's a goat on my bed."
Mabel was quick to smile at the out-of-place animal as she walked over to it. "Hey, friend! Oh! Yes, you can keep chewing on my sweater!" She giggled while the goat munched enthusiastically on the sleeve of her sweater. Dipper was less amused, watching the spectacle through narrowed, suspicious eyes.
"I don't know about this, Mabel. Doesn't this place seem kind of-"
"Kind of magical?! Yes, yes it does!"
"I was gonna say boring, but..."
Dipper was interrupted by the deep, raspy voice of their great-uncle (or 'Grunkle', as Mabel put it) Stan from downstairs.
"Kids! I need your help stocking merchandise in the gift shop! You don't get free rent unless you're gonna help me rip off some customers!"
Dipper sighed and put his backpack down on his bed dejectedly. The goat abandoned Mabel's sweater sleeve, hopping down from the mattress and trotting past Dipper with satisfaction. Mabel giggled and followed it downstairs. Dipper was left alone in the attic. He put the remainder of his luggage on the bed and reluctantly descended the stairs from the attic.
When he entered the gift shop area, he was immediately greeted by the sight of his sister peering at a boy through a row of bobble-head Stan look-alikes. The boy was holding an unfolded sheet of paper with several words written on it.
"Do you like me?" he read aloud. "Yes... definitely... absolutely...?" He looked at the paper for a moment with confusion scrawled across his face, then glanced around him as if to find the strange person who had left the note.
"I rigged it!" whispered Mabel from behind the bobble-heads. Dipper rolled his eyes, picked up a rag and a spray bottle of water, and began polishing a nearby glass case containing a myriad of detached eyeballs.
"How did you already do that in, like, thirty seconds?" he asked his sister. "I mean, I know you're going through your whole 'boy crazy' phase, but maybe you're overdoing it on the 'crazy' part."
Mabel turned towards him, her eyes wide.
"What? Pffffft!" She blew a raspberry at Dipper. "This is our first summer away from home. It's my big chance to have an epic summer romance!"
"Yeah, but do you really have to flirt with every guy you meet?"
Mabel shook her finger at Dipper, playfully offended. "Mock all you want, brother, but I got a good feeling about this summer. I wouldn't be surprised if the man of my dreams walks through that door right now!"
To Mabel's surprise and Dipper's amusement, Grunkle Stan revealed himself through said doorway, carrying a large stack of flyers and a soda can. Mabel gasped, then groaned in disgust. Grunkle Stan, none the wiser to the conversation, took a large sip of his Pitt Cola and belched loudly.
"Alright, look alive, people!" Stan announced as he shifted the flyers to his other hand. "I need someone to go take some of these flyers to the Big Donut, and then take the rest and hammer them up in the spooky part of the forest. You know, to attract customers or something."
"Not it!" shouted both of the twins immediately after Grunkle Stan finished his sentence.
"Uh, also not it!" declared Soos, who had been repairing a nearby shelf.
"Nobody asked you, Soos," Stan grunted. The handyman grinned and pulled out a chocolate bar.
"I know. And I'm comfortable with that."
Stan turned to the tall, redheaded teen who sat at the cash register of the gift shop. She was reading a magazine with her feet up on the counter, looking very apathetic about the rest of her surroundings.
"Wendy! I need you to put up these flyers!"
"I would," replied Wendy sarcastically. "But I can't... quite... reach..." She pretended to reach for the flyers, her eyes still glued to her magazine, then put her hand back at her side. Stan grumbled in frustration.
"I'd fire all of you if I could. You're even worse than that Dewey yahoo I used to have. But that's besides the point. Someone needs to hang these up, and it'll be eenie... meenie...mynie... you!" He pointed alternatively at each of the twins, his finger finally resting on Dipper.
"Aw, what?" Dipper said. "Grunkle Stan, whenever I'm in those woods, I feel like I'm being watched."
"Ugh, this again," groaned Stan, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"I'm telling you, something weird is going on in this town. Just today, my mosquito bites spelled out 'beware'!" He showed Stan his forearm to prove his point.
"Kid, that says 'bewarb'."
Dipper glanced back at his arm, then put it back at his side and itched it in embarrassment.
"Look, kid," continued Stan. "The whole 'monsters in the forest' thing is just a local legend, drummed up by guys like me to sell merch to guys like that." He pointed at a customer on the other side of the room, who was completely transfixed by one of the Stan-shaped bobble-heads. "So quit being so paranoid. All you gotta do is put these signs up in the Big Donut and the outer edge of the forest, and you won't run into any spooky monsters or anything as long as you stay away from that big old piece-of-junk statue near the lake. Got it?"
"Yes, Grunkle Stan," said Dipper, his mood considerably lowered as he took the stack of flyers from Stan. He walked out of the Mystery Shack alone, and the sky was cloudy and dark when he stepped outside. When he had made it to the Big Donut, he could hear someone yelling loudly from inside.
"Nooo!" the person was shouting. "This can't be happening! This has to be a dream!" Dipper approached the door to the donut shop and peeked inside. A young boy with curly black hair and a bright red shirt was staring at an empty ice cream freezer, looking as if he had just taken a hard punch to the gut. Dipper raised an eyebrow and opened the door.
"Lars! Lars! Please tell me I'm dreaming!" The curly-haired boy latched himself onto the legs of one of the Big Donut employees, who looked severely irritated as he tried to break away.
"Get off me, man! I'm stocking!" He walked in the other direction with his box of merchandise, letting the boy fall face-first onto the floor with a pathetic thump.
"I'm sorry, Steven," said the other employee from behind the counter. Her brow was furrowed in concern. "I guess they stopped making them."
"Stopped making them?!" The boy still failed to notice Dipper standing in the doorway, instead pulling himself off the ground sulkily. "Why in the world would they stop making Cookie Cats? They're only the most scrumptious and delicious ice cream treats ever made! Don't they have laws for this?" He spread his arms above his head dramatically. Lars rolled his eyes and began to refill the shelves with packaged food items from his cardboard box.
"Tough bits, man. Nobody buys them anymore. I guess they couldn't compete with Lion Lickers!" His tone was mocking. Dipper watched as Steven approached the Lion Lickers freezer with sadness and annoyance in his eyes.
"Ugh, not Lion Lickers! No one likes them! They don't even look like lions! Kids these days, I'll tell you what..." He shook his head in disappointment.
"Well, if you miss your wimpy ice cream so much, why don't you make some with your magic belly button!" Lars chuckled cruelly, taking bags of packaged food and sticking them on the shelves. Dipper got a better look at Steven, who looked greatly upset by this comment.
"That's not how it works, Lars!" he retorted angrily. He looked uncertain for a moment, then reached down and pulled up his shirt a bit to reveal something large, shiny, and pink-colored where his belly button should be.
"Right?" he asked himself quietly. He walked back to the Cookie Cat freezer miserably. "Oh, sweet Cookie Cats. With your crunchy cookie outside, and your icy creamy insides... you were too good for this world." He fogged up the glass with his breath, drew a Cookie Cat shape in the resulting mist, and kissed it softly.
"Uhh... Steven?" asked Sadie, slightly confused by this odd display. "Do you wanna take the freezer with you?"
Steven nodded, close to tears. Dipper watched as he unplugged the Cookie Cat freezer and laced the cord around himself, so that he could carry it like a backpack. Steven was walking towards the door quickly, and Dipper had no time to move out of the way before the two collided in the doorway of the donut shop.
"Oops! I'm sorry!" said Steven as the stack of flyers went flying from Dipper's hands.
"Oh, uh... it's okay." Dipper leaned down to begin picking up the flyers, still trying to put together what object he had seen on the young boy's stomach. It was pink, obviously, and very gem-like... but what person in the world had a gem on their stomach? Steven bent down to help with the flyers, and soon Dipper had the full pile back in his hands again.
"I'm really sorry!" Steven said again, adjusting the Cookie Cat freezer on his shoulder. "I was distracted by my freezer! Anyway, I'm Steven! Steven Universe. Who are you? I don't think I've ever seen you in town before."
"My name is Dipper Pines. My sister Mabel and I are just here on a summer trip."
"Wait... did you say Pines?"
"Um... yes, I did."
"As in, Stan Pines? The Mr. Mystery guy?" Steven looked intensely excited, his eyes lit up like miniature stars.
"Exactly," replied Dipper. "He's our great-uncle."
"Oh my gosh! I can't believe you're related to Mr. Mystery! That guy is amazing!" Steven said in awe. "He has really cool exhibits! Like the Sascrotch! That one was really funny."
"Eh, they're not really all they're cracked up to be," said Dipper. "But hey, maybe I could get you a free tour of the shack, since I know Stan. I don't know if he'll want that freezer in there, though... why do you have that, anyway?"
"They stopped making my very favorite ice cream sandwiches, Cookie Cats! So I'm taking the freezer with me so I can remember all the good times I had eating them!"
"Oh. Well, you probably shouldn't take it to the Mystery Shack with you. Stan might steal it and turn it into an attraction!" This made both boys laugh.
"Okay. I'll leave it outside."
When they arrived at the Mystery Shack, Stan was quick to greet them, clad in his suit and fez.
"Hey, Dipper! Hello, kid I've never met before except that time you came in here and bought all the snow globes!"
"They were so sparkly," Steven mused, remembering this fondly.
"Anyway," said Stan as he flipped his fake eyepatch over his eye. "That'll be 20... er... 50 dollars each for the grand tour!"
"50 dollars each?" Dipper asked in outrage. "But I'm your family! Shouldn't I get in for free? I think you should at least give us a discount."
"Ugh, fine. I'll go on the cheap side. Make that 49 dollars apiece."
Dipper sighed.
"I guess we'll find something else, then."
Steven picked up his Cookie Cat freezer outside the door, and the two of them walked away from the Mystery Shack together.
"Sorry. Stan is very... particular about his business," said Dipper.
"That's okay." Steven paused, thinking. "Oh! I know! I can go introduce you to the gems!"
"Yeah, the gems! There's Pearl, and Amethyst, and Garnet, and I like them, and-"
"Sure," said Dipper. "Where are they?"
"They're in the temple by the lake!" Steven replied. "The one that looks like a giant woman made out of rocks. It's really cool!"
Dipper thought about this description. Hadn't Stan said something about a giant stone lady?
You won't run into any spooky monsters or anything as long as you stay away from that big old piece-of-junk statue near the lake. Got it?
Dipper was wary, but he agreed to go with Steven to the temple. They walked along the beach-like area along the lake, and presently the face of a large stone woman peeked into view from above the cliff. As they meandered around the natural rock formations, the entire temple was visible. It looked, like Steven had described, to be the massive shape of a woman carved completely out of crumbling rock. Even stranger was that she seemed to have several different pairs of arms, as well as two faces. The first face was a typical one, but the second rested slightly higher up on her head, as if it was a mask that she had just taken off. Dipper observed the enormous statue carefully as him and Steven drew closer. There was a small wooden house nestled in front of the statue, and, based on its condition, it had been built far more recently than the stone woman.
"They might not be here," said Steven. He approached the door of the house. "They could be out doing cool gem stuff."
As soon as he opened the door, pandemonium broke out.
And as I said earlier in my author's note, this was only a preview. If you enjoyed, and want to see more of this story, leave a comment or PM me about it! If I find that enough people are excited about it, I will continue. This particular kind of story is a lot more work for me than a typical one, so I want to make sure that it's being enjoyed by an audience! I hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to leave a comment if you enjoyed. I will be responding to them in the bottom portion of the next chapter. See you next time!