-3: Dipper-
Dipper Pines limped along the sparkling shore of the crystal beach. He could feel the sunburn. The dry mouth. The sweating problem. The strain in his left leg that just kept getting worse. He still felt lucky, to have escaped that monster with nothing but some scraps and a sprained leg. But that thing was still… out there, wherever "here" was. Flown away into the light orange sky, screaming.
Dipper shuddered. All of this… all for that stupid book! Deep down, logically, he knew he could find a way home. It made statistical sense; ever other supernatural scrape he'd gotten into he'd found a way out of. But in his heart, he was devastated with anxiety. What if he never got home? Never saw his family or friends again? Mabel, Stan, Wendy, Soos, Mom, Dad… could it be a possibility he would never see them ever, ever again?
He sank into the sand, feeling tears creep into the corners of his eyes. Angrily he blocked them with his arm, his vision blurring, but, wait…
"Awah!" Dipper gave a wordless cry as the water in his eyes evaporated so he could get a better look at the precious civilization that lay before him. Aching, he got to his feet and hobbled towards the faint outlines of restaurants, stores, people…
He paused. What if it wasn't… people? What if this was alien world, an alternate universe, some kind of non-earth where the inhabitants ATE people instead of being people?!
He spotted a few obvious people at a little hut, ordering what looked like fries. Ok. It was people. Fear shrugged out of Dippers way and he continued his slow march towards what he hoped would be some kind of help.
He approached the "Beach Citywalk Fries" hut. A kid with goofy yellow hair was manning the business, and Dipper found the immediate lack of adults a bit disorienting.
"H-Hello," his voice broke as he approached the fry stand. "Can you get me, like, a glass of water or something?" Dipper leaned hard on the little stand where you made orders, realizing how bad he must look to this kid, who, incidentally, was keeping his distance. "Also," he called, "Where uh, am I?"
"Beach Citywalk Fries" the kid replied, narrowing his eyes. "Do you have… any… money? It's a dollar charge for the cup. Dad's rules…"
Dipper couldn't even think. "Where am I then?" He asked again, annoyed. He had just fallen out of a different place and possibly time and space, no, he didn't have any money.
"Beach Citywalk… you're in Beach City, how do you not know that? Anyway," the kid said, shifting his eyes, "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but if you go over to the Big Donut they'll give you free water, im sure."
"Un, Thanks?" Dipper replied, not hiding his aggravation. Desperation, actually. He was amazingly thirsty, and now all he wanted was some fresh water.
The Big Donut was, at least, easy to find. Empty, too, he discovered, as he opened the doors and limped inside. It was blissfully air-conditioned.
"Hello, Welcome to the Big… Whoa." A young women with poofy blonde hair looked unusually shocked to see a costumer enter her restaurant. "Hey, kid, are you ok?"
"Ya, dang, what happened to you?" A lanky young man with some weird looking ears raised his eyebrows at Dipper with a sneer.
Dipper was reminded of Robbie, his heart sinking. He collapsed into the nearest chair, and asked pathetically "Do you have any water? For free?"
The blonde grabbed a large water bottle from a refrigerated machine and, amazingly, came over to Dippers table with it, sat down, and pushed it towards him. He drank with abandon, only after a few gulps did he realize that the two store clerks were regarding him with the same caution as one should regard a wild animal.
"Heeey, uh, sorry, I don't have any money for the this." He said, feeling rather embarrassed.
With a snort the tall guy replied "We don't charge for water," as if Dipper had just uttered the dumbest sentence in the universe. The guy crept away from behind the counter to settle by his companion, and there they sat, doing little to hide their obvious curiosity.
Dipper felt another layer of sweat begin to coat his body. "Hey uh, can I have some more water? Then I'll go. As a matter of fact, if you have a water fountain or…"
"So, like I said, are you ok?" The lady asked, and she seemed honestly concerned. Avoiding her question, Dipper took another generous swig of water, but as soon as he was ready to tell his story as honestly as he could, the bell on the door chimed as someone entered the restaurant.
A curly haired chubby kid opened the door with gusto, his face beaming. Clearly he had a huge secret that he didn't intend to keep a secret for long. In his hand was a red journal with a gold hand and the number "3" on it.
-4: Steven-
(The night before Dipper's arrival in Beach City…)
Enveloped by the musty darkness of a blanket wrapped over his head, Steven tried to get the beam of his flashlight to focus properly on the book. Nervously shifting, he peeled open a random page of the book and poured over it.
It wasn't like any other kind of book! It had awesome drawings like a comic, and plenty of hand written details, but it was also filled with some kind of weird code and strings of nonsense numbers. The pages detailed creatures who could have rivaled the Gem monsters that plagued Beach City; the "Gremloblin," Zombies, ghosts of all levels… a lot of it seemed like it might have been just for fun, but something about the hand written sincerity of the old book let Steven convince himself that it might be real.
"Squash… with a human face… and emotions?!" Steven laughed out loud, but caught himself. Pearl would be mad at him if she found him up this late… even if he was just reading the most interesting book ever.
Satisfied with his cursory journey through the pages, Steven turned back to the very first page:
June 18,
It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began researching the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon.
In all my travels, never have I observed so many curious things! Gravity Falls is indeed –
"STEVEN!"
"WAGH!" Pearl!" Steven yelled as the tall, slender and very stern Gem yanked the blankets off Steven's head and gave the boy a disapproving stare.
"Shouldn't you be asleep? You'll get tired, you have to sleep, remember the last time you stayed up all night? …What?"
Steven was returning her glare. "You PROMISED" he said.
"P-promised what?" Pearl replied, eyes shifting. "Promised that you wouldn't watch me sleep anymore." Steven said with crossed arms, satisfied that he had turned the tables on his mentor.
"For your information, I was NOT. I just happen to come in and see you up…"
Steven held up the mysterious book. "Do you know about this? Connie and me found it on the beach." Steven waited for Pearl to start into a lengthy and well-informed response. A history lesson, maybe. But she simply leaned in closer, hand on her chin, and stared as Steven, getting desperate, went to the length of opening the book and flipping through the pages.
Pearl recoiled as he did, with a "Yuck!" That thing is filthy. Well, something like that has nothing to do with Gems, that I can say for certain." She gave a dismissive flick of her hands.
"Awww, really?!" Steven said, feeling both disappointed and even more excited than before. "If YOU don't know where this book came from… who would?" his voice becoming hushed with the gravity of the mystery he found himself in.
Pearl clicked her tongue, impatient. "Oh I don't know, it looks like something that might belong to that weird guy… you know, the one who hangs out in the lighthouse."
"Oh! Ronaldo!" She was right. Ronaldo loved this kind of spooky mystery stuff. Yet… could Ronaldo have written this entire complicated book? Did he just make up "Gravity Falls" and all the weirdness that apparently lived there?
"That's a good theory Pearl." He tapped his head. "I should go ask everyone in the entire town about this book, and that way I might find out some clues about it, or even the person who wrote it!"
"Y-yes, that's, actually really obvious Steven, now put it away for now and go to sleep, please." Pearl stated, clearly desiring to be somewhere else.
Steven nodded "Yes, Pearl, I will." It at least made sense to get some sleep before he looked all over the whole town, even if he was far from done with the book.
"Gravity Falls…" he whispered, tucking the journal under his pillow and settling into his bed. Could it a real place? Steven had barely been more than few miles outside of his home in Beach City. He drifted to sleep, dreaming of a strange new city full of fantastic beasts and endless discovery.
