A/N: So before the story starts, I just wanted to go over a few things! This is a Reverse Falls fic, but it's a very loose interpretation. Biggest change is Gideon keeps his last name and likewise Dipper and Mabel are still Pines. I can't explain why without giving away spoilers, but there is a reason for it!
This is also an episodic story, with each "episode" being split into two parts. So this first chapter would like the pilot episode. There's an arc, but it develops pretty gradually. And that's all! I hope you enjoy the story!
Summer vacation. A time to relax. A time to travel. A time to forget about the crushing weight of school. Most kids returned from their summer vacations with exciting stories of the interesting places they'd been to. The most exciting thing that would happen to Gideon Gleeful would probably be a mosquito bite.
Two days ago, Gideon packed his bags and got in his dad's truck for a ride up to Gravity Falls, Oregon. And for the next three months, Gravity Falls was where Gideon would be spending his summer. Doing what, he didn't know yet. Probably helping his dad out. Hopefully not dying of boredom.
As the Gleeful truck zoomed down the Oregon back roads, Gideon stared out the window wondering how much Gravity Falls had changed since he'd been there. He was seven years old the last time he'd set foot in the small town, and he barely remembered what it was like. A lot could have changed in three years.
The road definitely hadn't changed. Gideon hadn't even seen another car since his dad had pulled off the highway. Surrounded on both sides by trees, Gideon couldn't help but think if he and his dad got stranded, no one would be there to rescue them.
"Dad?"
A man of Southern manners and poor fashion taste, Bud Gleeful was more focused on the road than his son. Gideon's voice shook Bud out of his driver's daze. "Yes?"
"What happens if we get lost?" Gideon asked.
Always indulgent, Bud said, "Then we can always follow the stars! You may not remember this, Gideon, but out here the nights are so clear you can see the entire sky!"
"Is that why Mom liked coming up here?" Gideon said.
The mention of his mother immediately brought the mood in the car down. Bud quietly replied, "Yes. She did."
With any chances of conversation dashed, the two settled back into silence. Gideon sunk a little further into the car seat and went back to watching the trees fly by. They were close enough now that they had to be driving straight through the Gravity Falls forest. Even though Gideon had grown substantially taller since the last visit, the trees still loomed imposingly overhead. Their shadows seemed to be reaching out to him, waiting to snatch him up...
To Gideon's relief, the Gravity Falls welcome sign appeared on the horizon. That meant they were only a few miles away from the Craft Shack. Not so much crafty as it was touristy, the Craft Shack was part gift shop, part summer home, and full-on tourist trap. Gideon couldn't recall the details of his summers spent in the Craft Shack, but he remembered customers coming in and out while he played with the merchandise.
He also remembered playing with someone. A girl a few years older than him. What was her name? Gideon remembered he giggled when she introduced herself because her name sounded funny. But for the life of him, he couldn't remember it. Did she still live in Gravity Falls?
The truck slowed and turned onto a familiar back road. Gideon supposed he would find out.
The Shack stood just as they'd left it, curtains drawn and a hand-stitched, "See You Next Summer!" sign hanging on the front door. It was as if three years had only been a few days.
With Gideon behind him, Bud unlocked the front door. It gently creaked open like an old friend welcoming them back. The light from the sunset poured into the gift shop, basking everything in a warm glow. A fine layer of dust coated the entire gift shop. Otherwise, not an item was out of place. Without any customers though, the Craft Shack was quiet, like a creature still in hibernation. Gideon and Bud may have returned to the Craft Shack, but they may as well have been strangers.
Gideon made his way through packed boxes. Gideon still remembered the way to his bedroom, but he may as well have been walking through someone else's house. His mind registered that yes, this was where he'd lived, but so much time had passed.
Once Gideon reached the stairs, he flipped the light switch. However, the lights in the Shack remained off. Gideon turned back toward the gift shop and yelled, "Dad, I don't think the lights are working!"
"Oh! I forgot I left the fuse box off!" Bud yelled back. "Wait here while I go outside and switch it on!"
"You're leaving!?"
"I'll only be outside for a few minutes! Holler if you need me!"
"But what if-" His dad was probably well out the door by now. Gideon backed away from the stairs. He couldn't possibly go up now, not when the steps lead to darkness.
Even worse, the panic set in. The sun was going down and the rest of the Shack was getting darker. Minute by minute, the shadows were getting bigger. Gideon was frozen, trying to stay calm but counting every second his dad was gone. Soon Gideon wouldn't be able to see anything. What if he got lost and never found a way out of the Shack? What if he hit his head on something and fell through a crack in the floor?
In his peripheral vision, Gideon saw movement. He staggered away from the stairs toward the gift shop. He had to get back to the light; the light would keep him safe. But he wasn't fast enough. A shadow charged from the dark and leapt on top of him.
Gideon screamed. Then the lights came on.
It wasn't a monster or a ghost on top of him. It was a goat.
The goat bleated and trotted away. Gideon lay on the floor, breathless. He'd been frightened by a goat. A goat. Gideon had never been an adventurous person, but even then, he shouldn't have gotten his wits scared from him by a goat. Since when did they have a goat anyways?
Gideon trudged into the gift shop. The goat passed Bud on his way out, but Bud didn't seem to be too worried about why a goat was in there. He hummed a perky tune to himself, thankfully oblivious to Gideon's incident. Gideon intended to keep it that way.
"I thought you'd be upstairs by now. Don't you want to get settled in?" Bud said, stacking boxes wherever space was available. Gideon saw the goat situated in the driveway, a now permanent reminder of his embarrassment.
"I got... distracted," Gideon said. "Can I stay down here?"
Bud gazed knowingly at his son. "You know there's nothing to be ashamed of getting scared."
"I am not scared!" Gideon said emphatically. He changed the subject. "So when are we gonna open the Craft Shack up?"
"A couple days I reckon," Bud said. "Although it'll probably be a few more days before we get any tourists-"
"Can I come in?"
Gideon squealed and scrambled behind a pile of boxes. A smiling tourist poked his head through the door.
"I stand corrected. The Craft Shack is not open yet! Please come back in a few days!" Bud said with an apologetic smile.
As the dejected tourist slunk away, Gideon crawled out from behind the boxes. He felt completely and utterly mortified. He wasn't seven years old anymore! He shouldn't be this jittery. Even his worse, his dad saw the entire thing. Gideon knew Bud wouldn't bring it up, but whenever Bud tried to pretend something hadn't happened, there was always that underlying tension between the two of them.
Gideon straightened his vest. "I'm going to bed now. I'll help out tomorrow."
Bud wished him goodnight, and he dashed upstairs to his room. Technically, his room was in the attic, but with so many add-ons to the Shack, Bud hadn't really needed it for storage. So Gideon got his own room all to himself. Best of all, the room was on the top floor, so if Gideon heard anyone break into the Shack, he'd have plenty of time to figure out an escape plan.
There he went again. Gideon hugged his stuffed animal, a fluffy sheep named Mr. Lamby. Why did he have to be so paranoid? His previous summers in Gravity Falls had been relatively uneventful, thanks in part due to his cautious nature. The only time he remembered going out of his comfort zone was when he throw a pine cone at a squirrel. And that was an accident.
Surely, he'd changed since three years ago. Gideon looked out the window at the forest. This summer Gideon would be braver. Even if that meant going into the forest.
Nonetheless, Gideon slept with the lights on.
Once Bud and Gideon had started unpacking the next day, the gift shop exploded into a mess of tools, paint, and hot glue. Bud wanted to get the Craft Shack up and running as soon as possible. With no employees yet and child labor laws still intact, the task was more of a hopeful fantasy than reality.
Bud particularly needed to put up signs advertising the Craft Shack in the woods, but he was currently preoccupied with untangling the decorative lights. Gideon saw this as the perfect opportunity to prove his bravery. Spooky woods were nothing to him! In his head, Gideon envisioned himself confidently hanging up the signs then Bud congratulating him with a glittering trophy.
In real life, Bud was less convinced. "Are you sure? You'll have to go into the woods, and I know how much they scare you."
"When I was seven!"
Truth be told, Gideon spent the drive reading about Oregon. One of the messages he'd taken away was that the wildlife was actively out to kill him. Oregon didn't care that he was young and adorable. Oregon didn't discriminate in its targets. At least Texas held a familiar set of terrors.
"I really do need to get those signs up if we want customers..." Bud said. "But if you get scared, you can always come back-"
"Scared?" Gideon summoned up the manliest laugh he could muster. He sounded more like a lamb. "I'm just hanging up signs! Nothing scary about that!"
The signs were piled up in the corner, along with a hammer and nails. Gideon gathered everything up in one sweeping gesture. Bud looked at him like he was about to jump out the window. Gideon smiled nervously.
"See? I can handle it!"
"All right, but be sure to get back before the sun goes down," Bud said.
"I will!" Gideon strode out the door. Moments later, he popped his head back in. "We brought the pocket first aid kit, right?"
"It's in your vest."
"Just checking!"
As Gideon walked through the woods, he made sure the road was always in sight. Dark clouds blanketed the sky, making the woods feel more sinister. A gust of wind shook the trees. To Gideon, it sounded like thousands of whispers.
Gideon breathed deeply. "There's nothing to be afraid of. There's nothing to be afraid- why does that never work!?"
Gideon picked up his pace. His stubby little legs could never outrun a predator, but at least the illusion of speed calmed him a bit. Soon enough, hanging up the signs turned into routine. Pick up a nail, hammer it into the trunk, hang the sign, and move on. The woods weren't such a scary place after all!
Then Gideon got to the next tree and got the shock of his life.
The nail hit the tree with a metallic clang! Gideon jumped back. "What the heck!?"
He almost ran back to the Shack. Almost. But curiosity got the better of him. Gideon cautiously rapped his knuckles against the trunk. Sure enough, the same clanging noise. It also sounded hollow. Had someone built this fake tree to hide something? If the mystery novels he read were true, this tree contained buried treasure! Or a murder weapon.
Gideon ran his hand over the tree and felt a hinge. He tugged at it, and after a few pulls, the hinge popped open. Sadly, the compartment held no buried treasure. Instead there some old-timey device. Judging by the dial and antenna, perhaps a radio? If it was, there was no way it still worked; the controls looked rusted.
If Gideon was a scaredy cat, he'd close the hinge and walk away. But he was brave Gideon. He flipped one of the switches. When nothing happened, he flipped the other one.
A panel hidden right in the grass slid open. How many secret compartments were in this forest? Gideon peered inside this new compartment. Covered in grime but untouched for what looked like decades was a book. There was some kind of seal on the front, but Gideon couldn't tell what.
Gideon picked the book up and brushed dust and cobwebs off, wishing he'd brought hand sanitizer with him. At least he could finally get a good look at the cover. Adorning the cover was a golden hand with the number 3 was painted on it. Strangely, the hand had an extra finger. The six-fingered hand only brought more questions than answers to Gideon. Like just what was in this book? He opened to the first page:
It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon,
So not just a book. A journal. A journal detailing the secrets of Gravity Falls? Was this why the journal had been hidden? And what kind of secrets did Gravity Falls hold?
Gideon flipped through the pages. Scrawled in disturbing detail throughout the journal were creatures that shouldn't be real: vampires, gnomes, cursed pumpkins, pegasus bears, stuff kids told around the campfire to scare each other. And then the writing just stopped, like the author hadn't even finished his work. Gideon turned to the last page with writing on it.
Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before he finds it. Remember: in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust.
Scratched onto the page were the words TRUST NO ONE. Compared to the elegant cursive throughout the rest of the book, that final sentence read like a warning from someone who'd learned it the hard way. And what a better place for monsters to hide than a thick, unoccupied forest? Suddenly, Gideon was aware of how alone he was. Anyone -anything- could sneak up on him. Like one of the monsters in this journal.
The woods just got a lot bigger.
Gideon nailed the rest of the signs to whatever trees were closest. He walked back with his nose buried in the journal.
The journal was equal parts fascinating and terrifying. Because reading about supernatural creatures he thought didn't exist was opening his eyes to a realm of possibilities. Unfortunately, one of those possibilities was that these supernatural creatures could get him. In fact, how had they never gotten him in the summers before? Maybe because Gideon never ventured into the forest.
Which only made him walk faster.
After a few minutes, Gideon felt like he wasn't alone. Was he being followed? Or was it the journal planting ideas into his head? One time he'd accidentally watched Daydream on Oak Lane, and he was convinced for weeks daydreaming in class would lead to him being chased into a boiler room.
Gideon heard the branches rustle. He hastily stuffed the journal into his vest. He walked slower, now aware of every little sound from the forest. He heard faint footsteps behind him. A twig snapped. Someone was definitely following him.
He turned back and shouted, "If there's someone following me, you can just stop it! I have a weapon and I am not afraid to use it!"
Somehow he'd make bandaids work as weapons. There was no response from the woods. Just that endless array of trees. But he still felt eyes on him. Gideon began to back away, trying not to look as terrified as he felt.
"I'm gonna assume no one's here and just go-"
"Gideon Gleeful?"
Gideon shrieked. "Who said that!?"
"I did!"
In a flash of neon, a figure hopped out from the trees and landed in the middle of the road. Gideon would have fainted right on the road if it was a monster. But the figure in front of him was a girl. Who somehow wore every color of the rainbow and then a few more. The girl flipped her blonde ponytail back and smiled, revealing a mouthful of braces.
"Sorry about the sneak attack! I just wasn't sure who you were so I kind of started creeping on you," the girl said.
"It's okay," Gideon said. "...and I am Gideon by the way."
The girl gasped. "Wait, it's really you!? Oh my gosh, I haven't seen in you in years! Are you back for the summer?"
"Uh... yeah." Gideon wished he'd listened to Bud lecture him more about manners. How did he politely tell someone he had no idea who she was? "Listen... I have no idea who you are."
So much for politeness. The girl didn't seem to mind. "I'll give you a hint: it starts with a, 'Paz' and ends in an 'ifica."
"Paz..ifica...?" That was a funny name for- wait. "Pacifica Northwest!?"
"Bingo! My friends call me Paz! My enemies are too scared to speak my name. Which are you?" Pacifica said expectantly.
"A friend? I think?"
That was all Pacifica seemed to need to deem Gideon a friend. "Awesome! Hey, I'll walk back to the Craft Shack with you! It's still the Craft Shack, right? Oh my gosh, I hope so! I loved those little toadstool key chains you sold..."
Pacifica prattled on, oblivious to Gideon's discomfort and confusion. She had a motor mouth, which left Gideon to listening and thinking about the journal tucked in his vest. What was Pacifica doing in the forest? Did she not know about the dangers of Gravity Falls? Then again, it's not like she had a journal to conveniently tell her what to watch out for.
The memories of his time with Pacifica were also starting to come back. She was taller and her mouth had more metal in it, but she still had the same relentless energy. Gideon remembered playing games like tag and switching around items in the Craft Shack with her. They'd play dress up together and stay up all night eating too much candy. She was pretty much the only person he spent his summers with.
So why did her sudden re-entrance feel strange?
"I have so much to show you!" Pacifica continued. "I mean, Gravity Falls hasn't really changed since you left, but there's so much stuff we can do now that we're older!"
"It is nice meeting someone I actually know," Gideon said.
Pacifica's face lit up. "That reminds me, I've got to introduce you to a friend of mine!"
"Who?"
"His name's Bill! And let me tell you, he is such a guy!"
DVOXLNV GL IVEVIHV UZOOH.