This is for my AU, Swap Falls, where Mabel found the Journal, Stan was pulled into the portal, Gideon is rich and Pacifica is a psychic. My Deviantart is hannahthepadawan, and you can find everything about the au there, but for now, I've decided to write some stuff on it to help me figure it out myself, and it's fun, so here's chapter one. Enjoy~
Summer's always been my favorite time of year.
It's all sunny and warm, and there's ice cream and no school...
You can do whatever you want during summer.
Even... um... get attacked by a big scary monster?
The golf cart carrying the two twins in it crashed through a billboard, sending shards of wood and paint everywhere. Mabel held on tightly to her seat while her brother steered the cart. Behind them loomed a big shadowy creature, chasing them relentlessly.
Why was I so dumb? Mabel thought to herself.
I'm Mabel, and the person next to me is my twin brother Dipper. We're kinda in trouble right now. You might be wondering why...
Well, then be prepared for the crazy train.
We were both just kids in California doing normal kid stuff when mom and dad said we had to take a break from all the indoors stuff and get some fresh air, so they decided to send us to this little town in Oregon called Gravity Falls.
This town is totally fun! There are so many animals in the woods, and it's sunny, and the stars out here look much brighter than they do back home. I was really excited for this summer, but Dipper was being a sock about the whole thing.
We had to stay with our Great Uncle Stanford, but he insists we call him Ford. He's an inventor and a scientist, and he has six fingers on each hand! He makes all these cool gadgets and things, and his house is all spooky. It's a shack built in the middle of the woods. Some people say it's haunted for some reason. As for our Great Uncle Ford, he's awesome! He likes sweaters like me and sciency stuff like Dipper. He's like the perfect combination of both of us, but he's not very social. He's always busy working and rarely has time to spend with us. That's probably why he got us a babysitter. Her name is Wendy. He also has a handyman named Soos, who speaks like the eighties.
But I'm forgetting the big picture. This town may seem a little boring sometimes, but this one day changed all of that...
We got our own attic bedroom. I was so excited! It's pretty warm and cozy, and it has all these moldy spots on the ceiling. Today I named one Daryl. He's my favorite. Oh, maybe I should stop narrating now. This is kinda where the action starts.
Mabel finished taping up her final poster and turned around to look at Dipper. "This attic is amazing!" She exclaimed. "Look at all the splinters I got!"
Dipper, who was currently tugging his bag away from the goat, walked over to inspect Mabel's fingers. "Those look like they hurt."
Mabel laughed. "Only a little... ow."
Dipper sighed and spent the rest of the morning pulling the splinters from her fingers before even unloading all his own stuff. Mabel's stomach growled, and not even a second later, so did Dipper's. The twins exchanged a look and nodded. Time for Overly Sensitive Owls.
Dipper and Mabel had accepted the fact that Great Uncle Ford would not be around often. Being a scientist and all, but more than that... Mabel noticed he didn't really understand the concept of family too much. Mabel, despite her persistent optimism, didn't expect him to be too social. So she was surprised to see him downstairs at the dining room table.
"Good morning, children." He greeted them, looking up from a novel entitled The Very Angry Grapes.
Mabel skipped over to the table. "G'morning, Great Uncle Ford!" She smiled, sitting down as Dipper pulled out a big box of Overly Sensitive Owls. "I made you more finger puppets!" She opened her hands, releasing two handfuls of finger puppets, beaming as Ford looked them over.
"Oh, Mabel..." He chuckled nervously, picking up a couple puppets. "You shouldn't have." Seriously.
Mabel grinned wide, showing off the metal in her mouth. "I have more if you want!"
"No, really you don't-" But Mabel was already up and out of the room. Ford sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as Dipper sat down with the owls. "Is she always like this?"
Dipper shrugged, pouring himself a bowl. "Sometimes."
Ford chuckled, looking back down at his book, only for, a second later, handfuls of finger puppets to rain down over him, followed by a sprinkling of glitter that made him cough.
"Mabel's back!" His niece announced cheerfully as the puppets settled over Ford's shoulders and in his book.
Ford sighed. This was gonna be a long day.
After a few days, the twins were settled in. All of their stuff had been fully unpacked, and they'd familiarized themselves with the house. It was spooky silent sometimes. For some reason, Ford would just disappear for a couple hours or so and they wouldn't see him until later. Luckily, Great Uncle Ford had also hired some extra help.
Wendy was the daughter of a local lumberjack, and Ford had hired her to be their babysitter. Mabel knew from the start that she was gonna like Wendy. She was all relaxed and laid-back, like nothing in the world could scare her or make her doubt herself.
And she loved the twins, which was good since she was around all the time. Mabel found herself disappointed that Great Uncle Ford didn't spend more time with them. He was always hidden away somewhere out of sight, unable to be bothered or found until he wanted to be. At one point, Mabel was so bored she considered reading one of the old books from the bookcase in the parlor, but she knew how protective Great Uncle Ford was about his books, and how mad he'd be if she touched one or put it back in a place it didn't belong.
Great Uncle Ford was an organization freak in the strangest way. While he was completely satisfied leaving a table scattered with blueprints, pens, and dice, he had to have his books and papers organized. He had to have his bed made in the morning. He had to alphabetize his spices and herbs in the cupboard, and if anyone disturbed these things, they would be shoved out of the room for the rest of the day and scolded later. Mabel didn't like being scolded, so she left everything as it was.
To be honest, Mabel was a little scared of Great Uncle Ford. He gave her a bad feeling every time he was near. He was weird, anti-social, he always wore a ripped, tan coat and the same red sweater every day. Dipper was near the opposite. He wanted to know everything about Great Uncle Ford's work. He wanted to help fix stuff and build things, to come with him on outings for parts, but Ford, as always, would deny him, saying he was too busy to have a child hanging around his serious work. So Mabel and Dipper ended up spending a lot of time together.
But today, finally, finally, Great Uncle Ford was downstairs, tightening a few screws on what looked suspiciously like a walkie-talkie. His crossbow teetered on the edge of the table. Mabel frowned. He was busy. She couldn't interrupt.
Mabel was bored out of her mind, but she'd seen a spooky woods near their house, or rather, all around their house. It made her curious. Mabel's curiousness could never be denied. She smiled at the crossbow. Dipper, who was reading a few feet away, eyed her suspiciously.
Mabel skipped up to the table. "Hey, Great Uncle Ford, can I go play with your crossbow?" She asked.
Ford didn't even look up, he just waved a hand. "Yes, yes, sure. Have fun." He said, completely ignoring her.
Mabel grinned, grabbing the crossbow and the arrows before running off. "Thanks, Great Uncle Ford!"
Dipper raised an eyebrow, closing his summer reading. "I think I'm gonna go make sure she doesn't hurt herself." He said before following quietly.
Mabel grinned, shooting the crossbow into the trees, and pulling the arrows back out as she passed. The woodland creatures scattered as she did so, thankfully. She couldn't bare the thought of shooting some cute little squirrel or bunny by accident. The farther she went into the woods, the darker it got. The sun leaked through the leafy branches in cracks, leaving ominous shadows stretching across the ground.
Mabel simply skipped along, jumping right over creepers and tree roots, smiling all the while. Up ahead she spotted a bush of thick branches blocking her path. Holding the crossbow closer she pushed the branches apart, making her way through the bush. Then she stopped, something pulling at her from behind. She looked to see a branch had snagged on her skirt. She scowled, pulling at her skirt, but the branch was stuck.
With a loud rip, Mabel fell flat on her face, the crossbow by her side. She pulled herself to her knees, frowning at the sizable tear in her skirt. Nevertheless, she continued forth, but she paused again, hearing a bleat from behind her.
Looking back, she saw the goat from back at the shack, the one that annoyed Great Uncle Ford to no end. It looked like it had gotten a little scratched up in the bush. She frowned, kneeling down before it. "Oh, hey Gompers." She said. That was the name Soos had given it. No one knew where it came from, just that Ford wanted it gone and it refused to go.
She smiled, scratching it behind the horns, it's horizontally-pupiled eyes blinked at her as it bleated. Gompers suddenly turned his head and took her sleeve in its teeth, beginning to chew the fabric.
Mabel giggled at his enthusiasm. "Oh! Yes, you can keep chewing on my sweater." She said, standing up and taking the goat with her. "Do you wanna be my friend?" She asked. The goat bleated. She squealed. "Of course you do!" She said, skipping off with new enthusiasm, the goat still chewing on the cuff of her sweater.
Five minutes of walking later, Gompers had lost interest in her sweater. The wrist was a little frayed, but it was a quick fix. Worth it for her favorite pink shooting star sweater. This paired with her torn skirt and the twigs in her hair, Mabel looked very odd indeed. And it was only going to get worse.
She was at the top of a hill when something tripped her foot. Mabel tumbled down the hill, dizzyingly fast, until she finally stopped at the base. The crossbow slid down next to her, and Gompers trotted down unharmed as well.
Mabel picked up the crossbow once more but paused. Something was rustling in the trees. Mabel suddenly felt uneasy, which was odd for her. She was normally optimistic in every situation, but this far into the forest, she felt a little spooked. The wind whooshed up above, and the pines swayed in the breeze. Fog had begun settling over the area. Mabel felt suddenly unsafe. Slowly, she raised the crossbow.
She was about to tell Gompers to go back when a sudden snap of a twig triggered a reflex. Mabel pulled the trigger. The arrow flew forth and shot into a tree with a clang before falling to the ground. Wait a minute... clang? Trees don't make clangs. And usually, the arrows stick in the tree when she shoots them. Mabel approached the tree carefully.
From behind the tree, Gompers walked out. Mabel raised an eyebrow. "Was that you making all those creepy noises?" She asked. Gompers bleated, walking past her. Mabel rolled her eyes playfully, looking back to the strange clanging tree.
She reached out, touching it. The bark wasn't soft like she'd expected. It was actually a metal blended into the trunk. The area was outlined by a faint square. Her interest piqued, Mabel carefully worked her fingers into the crack and pulled it open.
A cobweb on the inside stretched and snapped before her eyes. Mabel gasped. Inside the hollow sat a weird old radio with switches and dials and weird markings. It was like those weird old shows Dipper watched all the time!
Mabel, curious, took one of the switches and wiggled it. From behind, she heard a metallic whir and a shocked bleat. She turned in time to see Gompers run behind her, hiding. In front of her, a patch of earth had been moved away to reveal a secret compartment in the ground. This was absolutely like one of Dipper's weirdo nerd shows.
She approached the compartment, Gompers still cowering behind her. Inside laid an old leather book bound in gold bindings. She picked up the book, the cover was dusty and unreadable. She was about to blow it off when suddenly, Gompers snatched the book from her hand and began chewing on the cover.
"No, Gompers, bad goat!" She shouted, grabbing the book, trying to get it away from the goat. Suddenly, with a loud rip, the cover tore, throwing her off her feet. Mabel stared at the book. Gompers had torn off a good two inches of the cover, but it wasn't that big a deal. Wiping away the dust, she could see a hand with four fingers on the cover. The part Gompers ripped off must have had the thumb. There was a big black number three written on the hand.
"Hm," Mabel muttered, placing the book on the ground in front of her. Maybe she shouldn't...
"Mabel?"
Mabel whirled around to see Dipper standing behind her. He approached, looking concerned.
"Dipper!" She shouted, motioning him to come forth. "Come look at this."
Dipper knelt down next to her, looking over the Journal cover. "Whoa... what is this?"
Mabel shrugged. "I don't know. Some weird book I found in a secret ground hole thing." She opened the cover, lifting out the monocle attached on the inside. There was a note taped to the back of the cover, but the bottom was torn off. It read, in big loopy letters: "Property of-" and the rest of the note was missing.
"The author's name is ripped out," Dipper muttered as Mabel turned the pages. The very first page read "June 18" at the top. The rest of the page was written in loopy hand like the torn note. Mabel was never much good at reading handwriting, so Dipper read it for her.
"'It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon.'" He read, and Mabel began flipping more pages, revealing images of floating eyeballs, huge bats, weird codes and more. "What is all this?"
Finally, Mabel landed on one of the last pages, one that stood out for the large scribbling on the bottom. "Trust no one" it read, underlined several times. Furrowing her eyebrows, Mabel gestured to the rest of the text and Dipper began to read.
"'Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched.'" Dipper read. "'I must hide this book before He finds it. Remember: in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust.'"
Mabel began flipping through the rest of the pages. They were completely blank. "Anyone else get the feeling this thing is cursed?" She then gasped, grabbing hold of Dipper's arm. "Like something from 'Ghost Harassers'!"
Dipper scrutinized the book. "It's definitely strange, alright." He picked it up, standing. "I should keep it somewhere safe."
"What?!" Mabel stood up, scowling. "No way! I found it, so it's mine." She said, grabbing the book from her brother.
"Mabel, you don't know the first thing about the paranormal!" Dipper exclaimed. "Why would you want that?"
Mabel hugged the book close. "I found it, so I'm keeping it, and that's that."
Dipper scowled. "No one ever listens to anything I say." He muttered.
Mabel frowned down at the book. "Hm... maybe we should show it to Great Uncle Ford. He may know something about it."
"No way!" Dipper shouted before looking over his shoulder and lowering his voice. "If Great Uncle Ford finds out about this, he'll take it away." He said. Great Uncle Ford was a strong believer that there was nothing paranormal in Gravity Falls, and he wanted the kids to stay away from anyone who believed otherwise.
Mabel nodded. "You're probably right." She said. "But I'm still keeping it."
Dipper sighed. "Fine."
Mabel smiled, looking around. Her smile suddenly melted away. "Um, Dipper. Do you know the way out?"
This is how Mabel finds the Journal. I thought it's way unrealistic to say they just trust Ford blindly. I saw in a fanfic, Gompers tore off half the cover, but I didn't wanna do that. If I did, they'd never know it was a hand, or that it was Journal 3, so Gompers just tears off two fingers.
I wanted to add the Mabel-Gompers bonding just because.
And I know how, when Mabel raises the crossbow, that's a little OOC, but I don't care.
Also, I have managed to make Ford sound like a jerk in one chapter! Yay me!
I thought it would be better if Dipper and Mabel read it together.