Edit to Add: Obviously do not own Gravity Falls
Gravity Falls, Oregon
Summer 2016
The run down Speedy Beaver bus approached the edge of the sleepy town nestled between MT. Hood and the rest of Oregon, before slowing don to a screeching stop and letting off the newest group of tourists into the town. The buses sign flipped from Gravity Falls to Los Angles, as it departed from the city bus depot. The town had gone through some changes these past four years, and so had its inhabitants. After Weirdmageddon, and the events surrounding Bill Cipher, the city found itself moving forward into the future under Tyler Cutebiker's mayoral run. With help from the towns citizens, the local journeymen and current Man of Mystery, Soos Ramirez and his assistant Melody, tourism and economic trade has boomed. Now with the yearly return of the 'Mystery Twins', the Summer could really begin for Gravity Falls.
Mason 'Dipper' Pines, and his sparkly twin Mabel, stood in Gravity Fall's main square after walking from the bus stop into town. Heading towards the Mystery Shack, the twins passed the familiar faces of the town's resident's, even passing by Greasy's and waving inside to their favorite waitress. Rounding the corner, Mabel squeals upon seeing a familiar animal eating out of the garbage can. 'Bah!' Gompers beats out, as Mabel suddenly squeezes the goats neck, causing the goat to try and wriggle out of the death grip, "MEHHHHH!" The sweater clad teen released the shaken goat, and Dipper shook his head at his sister's antics, hugging Soos' goat. The animal had become a bit of a town pet around the city, with everyone watching over the goat's whereabouts when it wandered into town. It was the unofficial mascot of the Mystery Shack, next to Waddles, after all.
"Gompers, lead us to the Mystery Shack, oh wise and strong protector of the forest!" Mabel points and commands the goat, "I will not feel safe from those wickedly, desperate gnomes without your ever watchful protection!" The Goat bleats, before moving off of his snack and into the forest.
"Mabel, don't you think commanding a goat to find the Mystery Shack, when it spends more time away from it then at it, is a bit much?" Dipper asks, "He always finds his way back, and now that we're taller, you could just as easily kick Jeff's butt for trying to propose to you again..." His twin stuck out her tongue at him, before adjusting her shoulder bag and marching on behind the Goat, into the depths of the forest. Dipper merely groans, as he adjusts his own backpack and his familiar trucker hat, before going for his flashlight and a chime. He had learned to keep a noisy object on him, when he wasn't searching for the unnatural or the odd, to keep the Wolves, Mountain Lions, and regular Bears from coming near him. He did manage to take his shrinking crystal and its harness out of its pocket, attaching it to the flashlight as he followed Mabel into the woods. A goat was a very tempting and easy target for the local predators.
Catching sight of Mabel and Gompers not to far away, Dipper quickly walks through the trees and sees Mable's brown locks disappear into a grove of tightly wound trees. He knew if Gompers had lead her that way, the goat was really lost, as that path led to the darker parts of the forest. Quickly running to catch up to her, he squeezes through the branches, and into the deeper parts of the forest. Sliding the crystal away from face of the flashlight, he turns the shines the regular light into the darkness. As he looks around the clearing, he finds himself in unfamiliar territory, as he chose to stay out of the darker and deeper parts of the forest, due to the monsters and horrors that lurked in the darker parts of the...
"Boo!" Mabel calls out, popping out in front of him as she does so. Dipper jumps out of his skin as she does so, and he falls backwards and onto his butt, a not at all girlish scream coming from his mouth as he falls for her trick. "Gotcha'!" Mabel calls out, smiling in the darkness, offering her hand to her twin as she moves toward him, "Gompers wandered off in here somewhere, and I knew you'd follow with a flashlight; we're going to have to find him before he becomes Gremoblin food!" Dipper wipes off the soil and the moss that he had fallen into, before going for his discarded flashlight on the forest floor. As he brings it up, his eyes follow the trail of light, and he spies an object that causes him to freeze in place.
"Bill..." he utters shocked beyond words, and Mabel likewise looks to the sight before her, "He's still here, even after all this time." The memory was hazy, but he knew he had stumbled upon this statue once before, though whatever vague memories of what happened afterwards and waking up with a headache he attributed at the time to Mabel-juice, Dipper recognized standing before this statue once before. He even had his hand out, prepared to make one of his twisted deals even after his death, or imprisonment, or whatever it was that they had caused the two dimensional being. It was strange to think that the omniscient, dream-demon had been reduced to a two dimensional, statuesque version of himself.
"Dipper..." Mabel states, as she watches her brother move closer to the statue, looking behind and around it, before walking towards her again, "Is it really him?" Dipper looks into his sister's frightened eyes, before nodding and taking her hand.
"Let's go Mabel, we need to find Gompers and get home..." he states, "Soos was expecting us an hour ago by now, if he didn't already call a search party out for us with Melody and Wendy and the rest of the gang..." Mabel nods, looking over her shoulder as they walk out of the darkened forest and back into the light. A stiff breeze blows through the skeletal trees, and eerie lights begin to appear in the darkness, dancing on the breezing before settling around the Cipher statue, and blowing away like dandelion fluff in the wind. A child's giggling is heard on the breeze, as the multicolored orbs of light begin to float out of the deeper parts and into the forest at large.
The Mystery Shack
By the time the Mystery Twins had found their missing Goat, which had somehow made it to the shack before them, Dipper and Mabel learned that Soos hadn't in fact, sent search parties out for them, though he had informed Melody to keep an eye out for their approach. Their summer rooms, even with Soos and Melody both living there, had remained untouched since their last return to Gravity falls over three years ago, and now the two would be sharing rooms again with their Grunkle's returning to Gravity Falls. After docking the Stan-O-War II in Newport Bay or Astoria, one of the two beach cities, they would then join up with them in the ship or some other accommodation, a hotel no doubt. Until then the two would be sleeping above the Mystery Shack, like old times, though the beds were a bit more cramped then either twin cared to admit.
"Dipper, do you think Bill's going to return?" Mabel asks, returning to her bed after changing into her night clothes, "We looked for that statue before... but I can't remember if we ever found it." Dipper turns onto his side from his place on his bed, looking over at Mabel, his legs sprawled over the bed frame.
"I don't think so Mabel, he would have tried something already, no doubt," Dipper replies, "I know that's not much comfort, but if Bill had the power, he would have enacted his revenge on us already." He sees Mabel nod, digging a bit deeper into her pillow, before he too tries to get comfortable in his old bed.
He closes his eyes for a few minutes, trying to get some sleep, but thoughts of triangles, monsters, and madmen plague his dreams and turn them into nightmares. When he awakes in a cold sweat, he nearly screams out in terror, but finds his voice lost. Looking over to Mabel, he notices she dreams peacefully, though it may be because Waddles was currently sleeping next to her, her arm draped over the aging pig. Dipper nearly smiles, having missed the animal like one of his old friends. Then a wisp of light floats into his field of view, outside their window. Dipper turns, to see an orb of light dancing on the wind, crossing their window every few minutes. Dipper goes for Journal Three, only to remember that the journal had been tossed into the bottomless pit years ago, never to return.
Still, undeterred, Dipper made the decision to grab his nearest flashlight and a pad of paper. He had gone over every thing in the journals when they were all in his possession, and he remembered that Ford hadn't come across anything quite like this in his stay in Gravity Falls. Dipper wanted to write what was happening down, because creature attacks and sightings were slowly starting to become less and less, as humans started to tour the town more and more. Journal's One, Two, and Three may have been no more, but Dipper's Journal was going to be the tool necessary to survive encounters with Gravity Fall's remaining weirdness. Stumbling as he put on his classic getup, in sizes a bit larger than what he wore years ago, Dipper put on his shoes and crept as fast as he could out of the Mystery Shack.
He saw the lights dancing on the breeze, tens, if not hundreds of them blowing about in the wind. Dipper truly wished he had a camera that could capture this sight, but he doubted that these ethereal lights could be caught by such a mundane tool. Considering half the things his Grunkle Ford had to do to get the pictures he took, simplicity was often the last thing Dipper would expect facing this newest mystery. He noticed the bitter cold night air was starting to hit him, even though it was summer, the hills of the northwest were prone to extreme drops in temperature without the warmth of the sun. Dancing on his feet underneath the rainbow of lights, Dipper watched them for what could have been hours as a slight fog rolled in around him, causing the 'Faerie Lights' to shine brighter while illuminating the new backdrop with hues of various colors.
By the time Dipper realizes the 'Faerie Lights' were forming a pattern, a pathway into the forest beyond the Mystery Shack, he had already been entranced by the phenomena and had begun to follow them. He watches them float around in the sky, tethered by some unseen force into the pathway in the sky, Dipper follows them through bushes and streams, as he stumbles over branches and exposed roots. Finally he passes through one last bush, where the lights seem to thin and taper off, and he comes upon a magnificent sight. He pauses at the edge of the bush, not yet pushing into the clearing, as the last bits of rationality seem to come to the forefront of his mind, his self preservation kicking in at last.
He spies an empty clearing, at first, before he takes notice of the Faerie Lights, all fifty of them in pulsating hues and dancing around a new figure. Dipper doesn't quite know what he is seeing, if this is some kind of Pixie, Faerie, or Changeling, he doesn't quite recognize the woman in front of him from any of the journals. Dipper begins to take notes in his journal, to describe the woman in front of her.
Woman of pale skin, youthful and full of life at first glance.
Pale blonde with red streaks, possibly strawberry blonde hair that's just being thrown off by the lighting.
Wearing some form of dress, or toga, the material seems to be a mix of various flowers and plants found around Oregon, both native and not, such as western bleeding heart, foxglove, and various ferns and barks blended/layered/sown together into a seamless looking dress that flows to her ankles and drapes backwards.
Seems to be able to touch/move the 'Lights', though does not seem to be creating them.
Her voice is childlike, from the giggling I am hearing, though this could be deceptive to her true nature.
She appears to be floating amongst fifty of the lights, all in various shades and hues of the rainbow, which seem to be dancing like ripples in a pond.
Dipper puts his pencil back into his pocket, and shifts on the balls of his feet to move from the crouching position he had instinctively taken. Looking up from his journal, Dipper receives the shock of his life, as he finds himself letting go of what is in his hands and falling hard onto his butt. The curious-eyed spirit had snuck up on him, staring at him with large eyes and a healthy coating of freckles that dusted across her nose and face. She giggled again, seeing Dipper fall the way he had, her hair defying gravity and floating in the breeze as she slightly parts the bushes and moves towards dipper.
He doesn't know quite what to do, grabbing for a stick or rock to defend himself with, in case she proved to be hostile. "Stay back!" he shouts out loud, as she ignores him and moves closer, "I'm warning you, I- I know seven forms of karate, and I took to elective class featuring self-defense- and I only got a C minus both times!" Grasping a hefty stick in his hands, he goes to put it in front of him, to keep the woman from coming closer to him. She looks at it, her joyous expression turning to one of puzzlement, before ghosting through the offending object, which causes Dipper to drop his stick in shock. He then hears the woman giggle again, grabbing his wrists from the bottom, and suddenly dragging him backwards through the bush. He doesn't even have time to scream, closing his eyes and starting to get nauseous from fear, he then cracks a peek.
He almost regrets it, as the nauseous feeling increases at the revelation that the girl was effortlessly carrying him through the air, like the effects of gravity were nullified. He feels the lights brush around him, as the woman makes babbling sounds of contentment and unintelligible gibberish that sounds a lot like Latin. He sees her eyes are closed, and her smile wide, as she dances with Dipper in the night sky. He doesn't know exactly where he ended up, but he looks down and sees nothing but yawning darkness underneath the Faerie's lights, not even the ground was able to be seen in this fog. Suddenly he feels the woman decelerate in her pace, though he sees her smile continue to beam in the darkness and the lights. Suddenly he notices all the lights seem to be pulsing, slowing down as they do so, and beginning to form a swirling pattern down towards the ground.
"Wait, no, please!" he states, as he recognizes the form of a sink, and he finds that the woman's smile isn't stopping, nor does she seem to be listening to him, "Please set me down gently, I can't tell how far we're up, and I really don't want to suffer any broken boooooness-" He feels the woman let go of his hands, as he begins to fall, impossibly slowly as he does so. He doesn't even stop when he knows he should be hitting the ground, but it seemed like the Faerie Lights were impossibly stretching down with him, as he was falling into the darkness, until one by one they began to fall away like shooting stars burning out.
It was there Dipper began to realize he had been lured to the bottomless pit by that ethereal beauty. He wondered why he even felt safe in the woman's presence, he questions why he was lulled into a false sense of security, only to be dropped into a bottomless pit. Perhaps the woman knew he wasn't going to be harmed when she let go, or perhaps she wanted him out of the way. maybe she had just played away her anger at being discovered in her private and isolated dace, in the middle of the night, and chose to play a mean trick on him in return. Maybe there was something else going on.
All he really knew was that he was falling, and as he fell, he realized he was catching up to something else lost in the darkness. He squinted hard, regretting having lost both his journal and his flashlight when he had been scared, he tried to make the approaching object out. His eyes widened, as he reached out and tried to move to intercept the out of place object, and found his hand grasping a golden doorknob. Dipper wondered why there was a Red Door in the Bottomless Pit. He went to turn the knob and found it unlocked. He pushed open the door and it separated from it's frame. He stepped inside.