The Pines Twins' Show
By: Carol Molliniere
(A/N: This is just me complying with a request from a fellow author named Barbacar. I did tweak a few things here and there, but overall I think I stuck to the main idea of things.
Spoilers for my Reverse Falls fic, considering I haven't written the end of Season 1 yet. This is a dark AU, in which Dipper and Mabel won in the "Gideon Rises" episode, and three years have passed. Therefore, Dipper and Mabel are now fifteen and on top of Gravity Falls. You might be able to guess what happened if you read the dialogue carefully.
Disclaimer: Gravity Falls does not belong to me, and neither does the general idea of Reverse Pines. I just happen to have a whole new spin on it.)
Dipper walked into the dressing room, adjusting his blue suit jacket. His hands went up to the bow tie, and he tightened its knot. "Mabel, we're almost ready to go," Dipper said. "Soos and Wendy are already out there and are now prepping our equipment."
He looked up from his suit, and saw Mabel still brushing her hair in front of her mirror. In her poofy sky blue dress and sparkling turquoise jewelry, she looked rather gaudy. All part of the act, though. Dipper would be the assistant tonight in the magic show, so Mabel had the chance to wear this one dress.
What was most noticeable about his sister tonight, though, was that a fat blue cigar was hanging from her mouth, unlit. Mabel had picked up on the habit ever since she found a few cigarettes lying around the Magic House and decided to experiment. The rest was history, as the cigar would tell. She had probably forgotten to light this one, though.
Dipper came over to Mabel, and he placed a hand down on the second Journal, lying open on his own table. He looked down at the spells inside it, and his eyes stopped on an Ignition Spell. Then he softly recited it, concentrating on Mabel's cigar. As expected, the cigar in her mouth lit up, the fire turning a strange blue color instead of the usual orange one.
Mabel's eyebrows twitched, and she looked at Dipper through her mirror. He smiled at her, straightening back up, and Mabel smiled back, looking back at her own reflection.
Dipper then turned to his own reflection, smoothing over his suit and looking it over for any formerly unseen creases. He sighed. It was a lucky break that Dipper's favorite color was blue, otherwise he would never have made it through their first shows back as children. It was a good thing too that Mabel was also partial to the color. He blinked, and then turned to Mabel, who was looking right at him.
"Well?" Dipper asked. "How do I look?"
Mabel put the brush down, and held the cigar in between her fingers, exhaling some smoke. A corner of her mouth turned upwards. "Dipper, come on. You're always so concerned about your appearance."
"Says the girl who takes her time brushing her hair when the show's about to start," Dipper said.
"Hey, it relaxes me," Mabel said, putting the cigar back into her mouth. She picked up her brush again, and resumed brushing. "Plus, you don't see me constantly adjusting my dresses while I'm wearing them."
"It relaxes you," Dipper repeated. "What do we have to be stressed out from? You know the biggest threat to us was eliminated three years ago."
"That was fun," Mabel said simply. "Is my king still here?"
"Gideon's secure." Dipper said. "That hypnotizing spell won't work forever, you know."
"He'll learn to love me by then." Mabel blinked. She put down the brush again, and took the cigar out of her mouth again. She blew out a puff of smoke, and Dipper watched as the smoke formed itself into a dull blue heart.
"Where'd you get that cigar, Mabel?" Dipper asked, and Mabel shrugged. Whatever. He probably didn't need to know.
Mabel put the cigar back into her mouth. "So, Dipper, I have an idea for the show."
"Uh-oh," Dipper joked. Mabel's ideas weren't bad or anything, but they tended to be a bit on the...wacky side.
Mabel rolled her eyes, but continued, "Dipper, after the bit with the goldfish, I want to have a big finale. Like-like having you, the lovely assistant, fired out of the cannon! That would wow the crowd!"
Dipper's eyes darted to his left. "Uh, I'm not so sure about that, Mabel," he said. "We've only practiced that trick twice, and both times ended up with me stuck in a bale of hay."
"Come on, Dipper, quit being such a wimp," she said. "It'll be fun! And we'll do it right this time. I swear on my lucky cigar." And she put the cigar back into her mouth.
"Mabel, that thing'll burn out eventually."
"Sure it will."
Mabel tossed her hair over her shoulder, and then she stood up. She grabbed a sparkling blue top hat from the hat rack, and daintily put it on top of her head. Then she twirled around, showing off the sparkles on her dress as well. "Gideon made it for me," she said. "You know how much he loves sparkly stuff."
Dipper nodded, adjusting his cuff links. Mabel stepped over to him, and stepped in. "For someone who's so concerned over how he looks, your bow tie's a little crooked," she said, pulling the offending side of the bow tie back up. She stepped back, and the two twins looked each other over.
"Remember, there is no one in that crowd that can pose a threat to us again," Mabel said.
"Not since Pacifica Northwest fell to her death and we got Gideon Gleeful," Dipper said.
"And now Bill Northwest's nowhere to be found," Mabel continued.
"And we got the three Journals," Dipper added.
"And the whole town is now on our side."
"We're unstoppable."
"Totally."
Dipper smiled. "When did we come up with this pep talk again?"
"When there was nothing stopping us," Mabel smiled back. She tipped her top hat, and walked past Dipper towards the Tent of Telepathy. Dipper sighed out of his nose, and followed her.
The people cheered for Dipper and Mabel as they went onstage. Dipper looked around him, and smiled. The Tent of Telepathy had never been this crowded before. Well, the shows kept getting better and better every year. It would make sense that their magic show would be packed.
Mabel performed first the trick of producing butterflies out of flowers, a real crowd pleaser. Then Dipper and Mabel moved on to volunteer tricks and mind games, causing the audience to go even wilder.
From the crowd, Dipper spotted Gideon Gleeful, with his wild white hair and dull blue eyes. No longer was he the quiet, thoughtful nine year-old that had walked into the Tent years ago with Pacifica Northwest. No, their hypnotism had changed him. He looked as if he had had to grow up pretty fast. And Dipper couldn't say whether it was for the better or for the worse.
Before the two of them knew it, they had played their last magic trick – turning a giant aquarium upside down while keeping the water and the goldfish inside the tank. The crowd had clapped when not even one drop of water touched the wooden stage, and Dipper had even caught Wendy winking at him from the backstage. That was the closest anyone got to praise from Wendy Corduroy.
With the blue cigar still in her mouth, Mabel flashed a grin at the audience. "Thank you, everyone!" she said. "And now, for our final trick! I will be launching my faithful assistant and my bro-bro, Dipper Pines, into the air with a special cannon!"
The crowd oohed and ahhed, and looked around for the cannon. Dipper looked around for it himself, but it was nowhere to be seen. Out of the corner of his eye, though, he spotted Mabel walking over to an array of buttons behind the curtain.
Uh-oh.
She pushed a button, and a trapdoor opened from underneath Dipper. He gulped, as he processed that he was falling through.
The crowd gasped as he fell, and then Mabel smirked before pressing another button. The whirr of something being lifted from beneath the stage sounded, and Mabel watched as a large blue cannon slowly emerged from the trapdoor – with Dipper inside the cannon.
Dipper gave Mabel a look; one that clearly screamed disbelief at the events that were transpiring. Mabel just laughed, and walked over to the cannon while Dipper squirmed a little. His sister looked up at him, and put a finger over her lips, shushing him and exhaling a little cloud of blue smoke.
Dipper gulped again. Clearly that was not good.
Mabel leaned over the fuse of the cannon, touching the tip of her cigar to the fuse. The hiss of the fuse burning out resounded through the tent, and Mabel plugged her ears, still smiling. "Ten!" she said.
"Nine!" the crowd said with her.
"Eight!"
Dipper felt a bit of dread.
"Seven!"
Well, there was no going back, was there?
"Six!"
All Dipper could do now was prepare himself mentally for the last bit of the show.
"Five!"
Mabel's smile grew wider.
"Four!"
The fuse grew shorter.
"Three!"
Just a couple more seconds...
"Two!"
...And it would amaze the crowd.
"One!"
The cannon fired, and the smoke coming from Mabel's cigar formed an exclamation mark as her brother was sent flying out a hole at the top of the Tent that served for this purpose. He yelled as he was sent flying, and he yelled something that sounded a lot like his sister's name. The crowd had their eyes turned on the exiting Dipper for a few moments, before turning back to Mabel, who stood calmly on the stage.
She put a hand up to the cigar, still emitting blue smoke. Then she threw her head back, for dramatic effect, and took a long drag on the cigar. She closed her mouth, puffing up her cheeks, and turned to the side, leaning over again before releasing the largest cloud of blue smoke anyone had ever seen her blow out.
The smoke clouded one side of the stage for a while, before it cleared–
–and Dipper Pines was standing there, opposite Mabel.
As the twins expected, the crowd went wild.
"That was a real nice show, bro-bro," Mabel said, putting a hand on her brother's shoulder.
Dipper found it in himself to smile a little. "Well, I was planning on mastering that trick someday. You know how it is."
Mabel laughed. She took the cigar out of her mouth, and blew out another puff of blue smoke. The smoke formed the shape of a star, and Dipper looked down at the cigar. It didn't seem to have burnt out at all.
Just what was in that thing...?
"Gotta hand it to you, Mabel," Dipper said, over the sound of Soos and Wendy putting away the equipment for the show, "that cannon was a nice touch, after all."
"When are you gonna learn, Dipper," Mabel said, "I'm always right about everything."
Dipper nodded, and looked at the tent flap. People were passing by to and fro outside the tent. But as Soos passed by the flap, Dipper narrowed his eyes. Outside, there was someone watching them, someone that looked almost...familiar...
It couldn't be.
"William...?" he asked, but before he could get off his seat on the stage, William Northwest took off.
"William?" Mabel asked, looking in the direction her brother was looking. "That's a name we haven't heard in ages."
"I saw him, Mabel," Dipper said. "He was outside...he might be headed for the Magic House."
Mabel swung her legs one last time over the stage – it was a habit she could never really outgrow – before standing up onto the stage. "Well, we've gotta go catch him, right?" she asked, helping her brother up onto the stage as well.
"Of course, Mabel," Dipper said. "Who knows what he could do in there."
Mabel turned to Soos, who was packing away the goldfish tank. "Soos!" she said. "We're going to use the cannon again, but we'll be back!"
"Cannon?" Wendy asked from the rabbit cages. "You're seriously gonna do that again?"
"Of course!" Mabel beamed.
Dipper's eye twitched. "Mabel, seriously?" he asked.
"Oh, come on, Dipdop, it's a lot quicker," Mabel said. "Just get in and I'll get in too."
"We won't fit."
"Oh yes, we will!" Mabel exclaimed, already stuffing her brother into the cannon hole. "By the power of Mabel!"
She got in as well, and Dipper found the words "tight squeeze" to be an understatement. Mabel took the cigar and held it over to the fuse, and the fuse glowed a light blue before erupting in a blue fire. That surprised Dipper a little, but then again, he didn't think he was going to get tired of seeing the color blue.
Mabel put the cigar back into her mouth, and plugged her ears as the fuse shortened. Dipper took the cue and covered his own ears as well, while keeping his eyes on the sky.
Wendy paused from her work to watch, and Soos held his cap over his chest.
"Those two sure are crazy," Wendy said to her fellow employee.
"But you gotta admit, they know how to put on a good show, dude," Soos replied, and the two of them watched as the fuse burned out again.
The cannon fired with a loud boom, and Mabel couldn't help laughing as she and Dipper were launched into the air. Dipper screamed again, but this time it seemed like it was out of exhilaration.
After all, who could blame him?
Wendy and Soos watched as the twins disappeared out of the hole of the Tent and vanished into the night sky with a twinkle.
Those two were unstoppable, totally.