Port of Brookings, Oregon – two days later, Monday
Soos stood at the waiting area, holding up a sign saying "STAN BROS". He'd been holding up the sign since he arrived at the Port over thirty minutes ago. His arms were aching something fierce, but he didn't mind. He had to be visible so that the two Mr. Pineses could see him. The large man was practically bouncing with excitement.
The Pines family is returning to Gravity Falls. The summer of 2013 will be AWESOME.
At the moment, only ten people in Gravity Falls know that the two pairs of Pines twins will be spending the summer here. From the Mystery Shack were Soos, Melody and Abuelita. Abuelita had been cleaning the Mystery Shack with the help of Candy Chiu and Grenda Grendinator (Grenda had been a big help in lifting the furniture high enough for the floor under it to be vacuumed) and Melody and Pacifica set to work making banners and blowing up balloons. At the former Northwest Manor, Fiddleford and Tate had prepared the guest rooms for the family. Meanwhile, Wendy went trekking into the forest to prepare its citizens of the family's arrival.
The tenth person arrived two days ago. This person was another reason why Soos was so excited.
And then he starts bouncing again with more rigor, because he spotted two familiar faces making their way toward him.
"Welcome back, Mister Pineses!" Soos called out as he drops his sign to engulf the two men into a spine-cracking hug.
"Thanks for taking the crick out of my back Soos," Stan said appreciatively after being placed back on the ground. The younger man just grins at him and picks up their duffel bags. "Haven't been able to get rid of it since we last made port."
"How's things going on, dudes?" Soos asks amiably as he leads the way to the pick-up truck. "Did you find more mysteries out in the ocean?"
Soos didn't see his former employer-slash-father figure elbow his brother in the ribs.
"Oof! Oh! Yes, we came across some interesting places after we dropped you off here last time," Ford shared while he rubbed the area where Stan elbowed him. "Let's see: we went to Easter Island for some time off…"
"Turns out all those big-headed statues were kinda alive, and we decided to drop by on the ONE day of the year where they decide to pop outta the ground for a swim," Stan cut in. They had reached the pick-up truck, where Soos placed their duffel bags in the cab of the truck. Stan immediately calls shotgun while Ford rolls his eyes and takes the seat at the back. Ford waited until Soos hopped into the driver's seat and fired up the truck before continuing the story.
"First of all, they're called Moai, Stanley. Secondly…well, you're right about the swimming. I don't understand how the locals slept through all that racket. But I figured the Moai didn't mind when they saw us camping in their meeting spot."
"I'm just glad they didn't trample us on the way to the beach," Stan snorted. "But their beach party sent the Stan O'War out into the middle of the ocean…"
"Now, now: Paro apologized to us about it and pulled the boat back for us," Ford added.
"Like a dude from Egypt?" Soos asked.
"Paro, not Pharoah, Soos. He's the biggest of the Moai statues—er—giants," Ford explained. "And he unmoored the Stan O'War when he cannonballed into the ocean."
"I still can't believe no one woke up from that but us!" Stan muttered. "The best one was where we became twenty years old again for a day."
"Stan, it was a trap," Ford said in exasperation.
"No way!" Soos breathed out, taking his eyes off the road to look agog at Stan.
"Soos, keep your eyes on the road!" Ford yelped.
"Whoops! Hehehe, got distracted there for a moment," Soos said nervously as he looked back on the road. "Where'd you two go to get de-oldified?"
"Well, after the Easter Island incident, we decided to head south to check something out in Mexico," Ford began to share. "Before we passed Ecuador, we came upon this island that wasn't on any map and decided to investigate. We docked and explored the beach for a while until we found a trail that led to this cove. In the middle was this small, rocky fountain with writing carved into a slab beside it that said, 'Drink this elixir of life and regain the years passed by.' Next thing I knew, Stan dunked his head into the water and started drinking from it."
"Hey, that's what you do when you find something interesting and get science-crazy," Stan defended himself. "And the sign was right! Soos, ya should've seen Ford's face when he saw me de-oldifying before his eyes!"
"Like watching a raisin turn back into a grape," Ford snorted. "After deciding that Stan wasn't suffering from any ill effects, I took a drink myself and de-aged just like Stan."
"And then there was a party on the beach!" Stan yelled happily. "Babes and barbeque!"
"Surprisingly, a lot of young people right after we drank that water," Ford said quietly.
"Hey, don't you deny you were enjoying yourself out there that night!"
"Probably would have stayed longer if we hadn't woken up back to our normal age with a raging hangover," Ford reminded him. "And have you forgotten what we found when we went back to the fountain?"
Stan made a face. "Older people!"
"There were other people on the island?" Soos asked, perplexed.
Ford snorted. "They were the same partygoers we met the previous night. Turns out they've been living on the island for decades. The elixir only lasts for twelve hours, and they return to the fountain to rejuvenate the following day. They invited us to stay forever, but…"
"That meant we couldn't see the kids again," Stan muttered. "Yeah, it was a trap. They went nuts when we said no and formed an angry mob."
"Fortunately, only two of them had managed to drink the elixir. Stan knocked those two guys out, and we reached the boat before the rest of them could hobble out of the cove," Ford finished, trying to repress a grin.
Soos shook his head. "I gotta admit, this is very different from my fanfic of you two. I gotta do some rewrites…"
"I feel a li'l conflicted knocking out two guys who may be a hundred each," Stan chuckled. "But not too much! And let's not forget the humongous owl who thought you were her baby!"
"Stan, please don't…" Ford begged.
"Hey, rescuing you from her perch was the reason I nearly threw my back!" Stan shot back before he started his tale.
Ford just shook his head as he let Stan tell this story. He leaned back on the seat and pulled the neck of his sweater to extract a polished, dark blue stone attached to a necklace. The blue stone was etched with gold symbol that looked like an X fused with a rectangle, with a sort of key-shape protruding from the middle of the X. Ford recently discovered that this was the old Behenian symbol for Deneb Algedi, or "the tail of the goat", referring to the fish-tail of the celestial sea-goat Capricorn. And just like its fellow sigil, this symbol is shown differently from its Earth counterpart on another dimension, standing on its "tail" with the X raised to the sky.
He rubs the stone with his thumb and tucks it back under his sweater.
(Former) Northwest Manor
Inside a bathroom, Maegella looks at herself in the large oval mirror as she combs her hair. The bags under her eyes were darker since she arrived in this plane of existence. She was unable to recall when she last had a good night's sleep.
She was delighted when she was reunited with Soos and Wendy the day after she arrived. It seems that her new acquaintance knew the people she was looking for. Between the McGuckets and these young people, it was decided to keep her presence a secret, to surprise the Pines family when they arrive at the mansion.
Maegella agreed.
On the sink in front of her are a pair of scissors she managed to find somewhere. There is also a tattered picture of a blonde girl with a supremely confident look about her that she found in her bedroom. Maegella looks at the girl's hair before facing the mirror and using the comb to part the hair she is planning to cut.
Author's note: Oh my goodness, what a dry spell for writing! I got stuck after writing a few paragraphs, but thanks to an awesome fanart and a little bit of brainstorming and I manage to churn this out!
The adventures that Ford and Stan shared here was inspired from fordblogs, a great RP Tumblr account, a post from the famous moringmak, and a headcanon from thesnadger.
Here's to hoping I don't wait months before churning out Chapter 3!