A few details have been omitted in the last page that I would love to include now that I am better than I was when I wrote that. Now Tobias is fine, thanks to surprisingly our now antihero, Note-Guy as we will reference him from now on (my vocabulary is enrichened by the fact that I can now ask two literary experts so to speak to aid me in my writings). I may have wrongly say that the sole invention still in the storage room was that heal gun which allowed our new friend to live, there was something else. A little watch, with strange marking etched onto it, and a stranger dial. It didn't seem like you used that device to measure time, but rather to do something else. It was nothing to worry about, though. Another detail I might have overlooked was the conclusion of our uneasy adventure. You know, it's annoying to speak in such manner, with so many words that I don't know. Maybe I will mix it up a little, a bit of high-end talk, then a bit of casual banter. It should feel like you're speaking to one mildly silly, yet highly intelligent person at once. Now, back to the story. After we found our Holy Grail of modern medicine, and activated it on the spot to deny the actions of a certain sentinel, Soos carried the unconscious boy back to the Shack. It was surprising that no one noticed us, but who am I to judge. We laid him in my bed, surrounded him with fluffy objects (among them all my stuffed animals) and then waited. Since it was late evening already, we thought that he would sleep through the night and wake up with us in the morning, so all of us went to sleep (Soos even went home) only to find the bed empty when we got up. Obviously, we were scared that he might have been left to wander off into the night, light-headed, dizzy and get hit by a car, or a moose, or a moose driving a car, or an old man with a pet moose, but our worries were dissolved soon as we found a note, thankfully not from our "friend".
"Thank you for all your help. I must've underestimated that golem's power. What I am going to guess happened is you defeated the sentinel, found the hidden stash and nursed me back to health with that amazing invention. Now, I want to repay you all by showing you something amazing. There should've been a watch down there too. If you did, then I can show you what it actually stands for. It should be documented in your journal, but I am not sure. Either way, if you found it, I would be glad to amaze you, else… I will think of something." And a little smiley face at the end. How cute.
This was what I omitted, so now I will start from the beginning. We were asking each other, how would we find him in order to get our so-called "reward", but we didn't have to find out. We found Tobias, entering the store at about 10 AM in the morning. The meaning of this is nothing. I just love details.
"Tobias!" we both yelled.
"Ok, this has gone a bit too far, call me Toby," he laughed a bit embarrassed.
"Now, do we go straight to business, or…" Dipper was very anxious to find out what the watch does, but I was hoping I would find the alternative first, because I could swear that that timepiece will curse us, or transform us into skunks or make us change bodies…So, without further ado, I grabbed Dipper to the side and told him my thoughts.
"Mabel, you're boring. And it's me telling you this, the kid who passed going to the museum on a field trip to do classes. Alone. Without the teacher."
"You've made your point, but I'm just…saying that maybe we should explore the possibilities, before…jumping to conclusions…" His unconfident glare made me flinch, though. "Okay, you got me! I've got a crush on him, happy?"
"Oh…bummer." He nervously scratched the back of his head. "Now I feel like a huge jerk." A long pause followed, during which Dipper tried to speak multiple times, without actually getting a word through. Until…
"So is he Wendy-ing you?"
"He's what?" Although, right after I said that, I realized what he meant.
"You know, keeping you at arm's reach? Close, but not that close?"
"No, nothing like that…Actually, we haven't spent much time together apart from one moment…"
"You've never told me of anything like this…"
"I did…umm…in another form. I referred to it as the best moment of my life…I guilt tripped you into going back in time for it."
"Ah…" he sighed with slight disappointment and anger, but then a sincere smile followed, as if he was trying to tell me:" I would've done the same thing."
"Yes, you get it now?"
"Mhm, now look how's it going to be. I will say we don't have the timepiece and we will see what the alternative is. If it's something good for you, I will go for it, else we go for the watch theory ok?"
"Perfect…" I said, hugging him understandingly. We went back to the store, where Toby was now inspecting a small crystal globe with a yeti in it. Lying we didn't have a watch, we found out what small little thing he wanted to show us… In an instant we both yelled: "We found the watch." Who in his righteous mind goes stargazing anymore? Bo-ring.
"Okay, then, you found the watch. Meet me in the woods in an hour. It's best we are as far away from civilization as possible."
That was odd. Why would we go far inside the woods just to test-drive a watch… We had no hint of what we were going to do, but we didn't need to. If a revered inventor such as our former manor owner created a device that is able to heal wounds in mere seconds, what do you think it can do with a watch? Exactly. Mind blowing stuff. As the minutes passed by, I tried figuring out a strategy to approach my newly found boy, but obviously, since I am a very good Mabel, I couldn't think of anything, and just as I was sure I designed the perfect plan (I should probably stop hanging out so much with Dipper…) the time was up. We met in an unusual place inside the forest (strange we could've even found each other, I mean "meet me in the woods" is pretty vague), right in what seemed like an enormous footprint of a Sasquatch. By enormous, I don't mean 3 feet, but 30 feet long. Now back to our pressing business.
"So…what does this amazing device do?" Dipper broke the ice, by asking the first event related thing, in our conversation.
"You want the long, quantum physics story or the shorter, easier to understand story?"
"Quantum physics!"
"Shorter!" This is me trying to recreate the fact that we both yelled our answers instantly.
"Ok, both ways. So, it's an error from my part to assume it's about quantum physics, although it is true to some extent. Now, let me tell you that you have made a multitude of choices in your life that have led to us staying here, right now. But, since you have never ventured off the path you have taken now, those other roads remain unscathed. Trying to count them is impossible so, we assume their limit is infinite. This is only for us. Now count this for the around 15 billion people who have lived throughout the ages, and account for every single organism that has done that and we reach a number resembling infinity times infinity, which is obviously…a lot. The theory states that there are alternate universes for every single possibility, not already existing in our universe."
"This is the scientific way of putting it? With numbers and stuff?"
"Yes, now the shorter easier to understand. It relies on examples. You ate pancakes this morning?"
"Yup, with maple syrup and an ounce of butter."
"Good. Now imagine an universe in which you didn't eat pancakes today, you ate…scrambled eggs. This is what we can call the breaking point, because since that point our universes were identical correct?"
"Correct!" I screamed, excited that I could finally understand science.
"Now, since you hadn't eaten pancakes, you didn't feel a surge of joy, you wouldn't have been in the shop today, you wouldn't have gotten the wish to come now and be shown this watch's purpose and the list goes on. Is it all clear now?"
"Crystal. Now, this watch has this foreshadowed power?" Dipper asked, trying to find out faster about the watch's true purpose.
"Precisely. Now should we explore our infinite possibilities, or we're going to keep bickering?"
"Wait! Before we go, does this thing have some sort of a tracking device, or do we just randomly blink through multiverses?"
"Well. The thing is we can't choose one universe and teleport there, but the watch has a function to remember the matrix from which we set off. Therefore we can continue going forward, without ever knowing where, or we can come back where we started."
"How do you make something like that?" Dipper asked, while I was trying my best to hide my confusion.
"It's like in programming. Only now we only have room for one variable. Rather than putting our last universe there, and forever losing the address of home, he chose to put the starting point there."
I was growing more anxious as time flew by. As they were science-babbling their way to a very nerdy friendship I thought that maybe, taking matters in our own hands was the answer and the cure for my boredom. Therefore…
"Enough talk, let's go!" I said grabbing the watch.
As both of them yelled "No!" a flash of light engulfed me, while I felt lighter and lighter. My eyes closed shut, and my skin felt tingly, as I seemed to be flying through the air. However, in an instant this amazing sensation stopped, and I opened my eyes to see myself in the same place, but no Toby and no Dipper to be sighted. I still had the small device in my hand, but at the time, I didn't realize what happened. I should've said that I woke up on the ground, dizzy. I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I chose to go back to the Shack and complain to my two important boys, that they left me alone in the woods...
I saw Dipper reading from his usual journal, bearing the poignant 1 marking on its cover. He was so concentrated, that he didn't even hear me enter the room, so my "Hey, Dipper!" made him jump out of his armchair and fall on the floor.
"Woah, you scared the goo out of me!"
"What?" I was all like…goo?
"I was in the middle of reading an entry about some sort of gelatin-based lifeform which decomposed and assimilated a large part of the well-known forest. That's why."
"Ooooh," I gasped realizing that I didn't need to know.
"Anyway, are you ready?"
"Ready for what?"
"Ugh," Dipper smacked his forehead. "I've told you a million times that today we're going to the picnic area. You know, that place where we can admire the big statue from that diner?"
"Umm… what for?"
"For…the dates?"
"Oh, sweet! Can't wait then!" I said, while rushing upstairs to get ready. I returned swiftly, wearing my lucky kitten sweater and my shiny sneakers. Then we swiftly proceeded up the hill the Northwest Manor was situated upon. Thinking about the whole situation, I just realized that…woah so many things were wrong. First off, who is Dipper dating? Second off, how come we are allowed on the estates of the Northwest mansion? Last off, where were we going now?
"Hey Dipper, not like I forgot or anything, but who are you dating again?"
"Oomph… Let me remind you every single detail of this evening. We will go to the picnic and then watch a movie on the big screen that a lot of Pacifica's butlers will project on. I am dating Wendy, the girl who works with us, Pacifica is dating Toby and you are dating Gideon. Was it hard?"
In my mind I threw myself off the cliff the second I heard Pacifica is dating Toby, but now Gideon and I? No way. This isn't the real life. I must've fallen asleep for 3-5 years so that I had forgotten everything that happened and now it all came back to me in a nightmare. So, yes. I ran home screaming, digging myself in a pillow and trying to figure out how the heck did this happen. Only then, I saw the note on my nightstand…
"Remember the watch's function, Mabel? Do you recall what it does? Do you recall how to use it? I can't tell you, right now, but you can think of it this way. If you find out what is wrong with this place, you can start having flashbacks…"
Great. Thank you for nothing and everything as always. I can't seem to point out the obvious flaw in this place…It seems like a completely different timeline, in which… Timeline…Did I just go back in time, screwed up big time, then went back in my own time and forgot the original? It's possible. Now I only need to find this time machine I used, go back in time and then everything should return to normal, right? As I was deep in my thoughts, Dipper came in with a look of anger mixed with sadness and anguish…
"What the heck were you thinking leaving like that all of a sudden? Do you have any idea how you made poor Gideon feel? Tell me do you?"
"Look, Dipper…I don't know what I did in the past few… whatever, but I don't recall anything about hooking up with Gideon. I don't remember Toby and Pacifica hitting it off, but that's something else, and I definitely don't know how you got with Wendy. Either way, something is screwed up badly and I want you to tell me what."
"There's nothing wrong what are you speaking of?"
"Okay, then please tell me what happened the last couple of weeks?"
"Well, nothing much actually. You remember the time machine rigmarole?"
"No…" I answered, lying obviously.
"Well, we found a tape measurer which doubled as a time machine and I managed to fix my mistake of continuously missing a shot at the fair, and this was the start of my relationship with Wendy. At the same fair, Pacifica met Tobias and hooked up with him and you and Gideon hit it off before at the party, where you were almost to make a lifelong enemy, but eventually avoided the situation, and you and Pacifica became best friends… However, you attracted the hate of two weird looking girls, whose name I think were Candy and Grenda…but I am not sure."
OK, this was not another timeline, it was a completely different world… left was right, up was down, and apparently everything was as it shouldn't be… Wait…Another world…Oh, fudge I just realized what is wrong. This is a parallel universe and the watch brought me here! This is just residual memory waste, from back when Toby presented us its function and I was busy chasing butterflies. Now, unfortunately I had two problems… I didn't have it anymore, and even if I had it I had no idea how the heck can I operate such machinery… So I was stuck in this place until I could figure out a way to escape… Now let's see what this world has different. The breaking point is obviously our entire time machine paradox thingy, although it may also be the party… But something didn't make sense. Every universe shouldn't have the same characters in it? So, then where was this universe's Mabel…
"Dipper… odd question again, but do you have any idea where did I go in the past 24 hours?"
"Come to think of it, you should've been to investigate some sort of anomaly in the woods. Didn't you come back from there anyway?"
Oh, Dipper, do you realize how stupid you just sounded right now. Apparently in this alternate world I am some sort of Dipper, myself, a force of good, seeking knowledge. So, I research this kind of things, now, but what does my brother do? He was reading the journal when I came in, so what is his business now? He seems pretty unchanged after all, but we have switched roles… Wait, what am I saying, am I silly? We mustn't be all reversed, we can be selectively inverse. But now, another issue came to me. Where am I? The other me… And… just as I was asking myself this, the other me just burst through the door, her hair covered in flames. She quickly dropped to the floor and rolled around until, the fire was extinguished and she got back to her feet as if nothing had happened. I don't know if this is insanity, cold bloodedness or just what I would normally do. Be that as it may, I quickly noticed myself and we both found ourselves screaming:
"Who are you?!"
Surprise, put aside, I found myself shocked by a little gizmo then I guess I was knocked out, because I woke up tied to a chair in an improvised interrogation room, with a small table lamp shining bright in my face and a mirror image of myself, wearing an eye-patch to seem more threatening and a suit wearing shoulder pads to appear official. But deep down we both knew it wasn't working and that we can't look tough, with our sweet, gullible faces, that can't help but be loved.
"Let's cut to the chase," the other me said. "Who are you and what in the heck are you doing here?"
"Ok, I am you, but from another universe, I came using a small device, that transports me through parallel worlds, I can't find it now and even if I did, I wouldn't know how to operate it," I said without breathing once. Mabel-2 (as I am going to be referring to her from now on) wasn't impressed.
"Oh, come on, it's not like I am some sort of shapeshifting troll…"
"Shapeshifting troll!" she said at the same time as me.
"Exactly, see we even think the same, what proof do you need?"
"That's exactly what a shapeshifting troll would say."
"Ok, so now let me prove you wrong, maybe… I don't know what the breaking point in our universes is, but hopefully we had the same childhood… You and Dipper dress up each Halloween together in various outfits and this time, you were planning on going as PB&J. You teased him for ages for that lamb suit he wore when he was about 4 years old. You like to knit, obviously, but what no one else knows is that you secretly create a story on the inside of every sweater you write a small motivational quote, for when you retreat in your little town, you can try frantically to feel better. Please tell me at least some of this makes sense."
"Ok," Mabel-2 said with a straight face. "You're me alright, but this doesn't confirm your story."
"You're just trying to sound tough now?"
A smile appeared on her face.
"Yes," she started laughing. The alternate twins proceeded to untie me and then to stare at me as if I was some sort of alien, which I technically was. I didn't know what to do, especially that I think I kinda ruined the things around here. Now, I could only think of getting back home, which wasn't an option…unless. Universes share things right? They have the same objects within them…therefore they should have a watch too right?
"Hey, quick question guys…Do you by any chance have a certain device which can allow interdimensional travel?"
"We should've found one in the manor we raided last week, but there was none. We found a heal gun and a small pistol which acts as a portal creator. Nothing to help you get back home, though," Dipper-2 said.
Bummer, now what am I supposed to do? At least I can hang out with these guys until someone rescues me. Someone will rescue me, right? As I was thinking that, a note fell from the ceiling, sticking to my hand.
"Yes, they will, but unfortunately it may take a while. Unless you find your device, you won't be able to go back without your part. Don't ask why, but it's just the way things are. Find your little watch and you will return back to the world you came from, instantly."
"What's that?" Mabel-2 asked, seeing me reading the little message.
"You don't have a Note-Guy?"
"A what?"
"An unknown being that sends you, in particular notes about the future and tells you what to do, in order for things to turn out for the better?"
"Not quite… We had some sort of person who always left a small clue for us to find in order to solve any problem, but it suddenly stopped when we all got significant others. Maybe it's for the best, I mean it made us feel we lost our free will and that we were only pawns in a large scale chess game."
"Oh…Anyway, he said that I need to find my device so I could go back to my home world. It's a small watch, glowing with a dim blue light, hard to miss in the dark and light alike."
"Ok, it's night time already, so we'll organize a search party tomorrow. In the meantime you can stay with us," my 2nd self said to me.
"But, you must leave as soon as possible, because we already have too much Mabel in our universe…"
"Oh, Dipper, you…" I laughed.
"I am serious. Excessive matter can lead to immense destabilization. Chronal dissonance, dimensional ruptures, gaps in the timeline… Do we really take these risks?" our brother chimed in, scared.
Mabel-2 and I looked at each other with a smirk and we both nodded in agreement.
"You're worrying for nothing, Dipper" we scolded him, smiling.
In the meantime what could I actually do? Nothing else but go to sleep. Since they didn't have any extra room in their beds, they laid down a nice and cozy sleeping bag on the floor in the attic. It was pretty spooky to sleep there… Cobwebs, strange noises, especially creaks, the sound of tiny mouse paws thumping on the wooden tiles. It was all in all uneasy and pretty hard to catch any sleep up there. I decided to just go up on the roof, in my night gown and just stare at the town below me. Although it was chilly, I somehow felt warm, as if someone looked after me, but in the end it was just my mind playing tricks on me…
Gravity Falls looked the same as before. Flickering lampposts, deserted streets with only tumbleweeds missing, abandoned, haunted shops. On one side the impetuous Northwest mansion, on the North-Western hill, obviously and on the other side the revered inventor's manor, the South-Eastern hill. The living area was enclosed by two immense, uncrushable borders, sheltered from any attacks, guarded by the fury of both man and nature. It's an amazing view to see small houses in the place where lightning shattered the earth and our small town just blossomed in the little crevasse. It was… stunning, to imagine its raw beauty. But, alas it was only a…
"Boo!" Mabel-2 tried to scare me by jumping from the mansard's window to the roof. I recoiled violently, almost falling off, but I regained my balance… Needless to say that I hadn't the friendliest reaction to this.
"You almost killed me!"
"Ok, ok, I am sorry. Whatcha' doing?"
"Just taking in the view? You never do that?"
"Sometimes… when matters of the mind or heart fall heavy upon me. I find it relaxing to just bask in the simple beauty of nature and man-made buildings alike."
"Wow," I uttered, mind blown by the profoundness of what she just said. "You're a deep thinker, aren't you?"
"It's educated. I don't know how it is in your world, but here I am a straight A student with an aspiring career in philosophy lying ahead of me…"
"You know, who you seem to be?"
"A version of you and Dipper combined?"
"With a hint of…what's the word…?"
"Profoundness?"
"Exactly. You know, the more I think of it, the more it seems you're the better Mabel…"
"I may be in reference to you. You view yourself as inferior to an otherworldly being, but I assure you, our differences consist solid proof for your superiority. For example, you can have a better boyfriend back home, right?"
"Negative there… I have a crush on my dimension's Toby and I didn't even spend an hour together. Without the time travel shenanigans, that is."
"Ok… You must be a better knitter than I am. How many sweaters?"
"202, so far, you?"
"Umm… 425… No, no, don't pout," she said hastily trying to prevent me from being sad. "You must have something at which you're better than me…"
"How about failing? I seem to be doing pretty good in that subject…"
"Aww, come on don't be down…" she said hugging me tight. "I am sure there is something you are best at, regardless of whether or not I can find it. Now… to a more serious topic."
"What's that…No," I answered to her obvious smirk.
"Come on…" her voice drifted. "Tell me why, although, now that I realize, I am speaking to myself about the pros I found in another guy, while I am in a relationship."
"See that's proxy cheating or something like that, it's not wise to talk about it."
"Jamming computer related words in front of a regular one, doesn't make it smarter or a better argument. Now you have exactly 5 minutes before the sun rises to tell me all about him, or I will go back to your world and do it myself."
"You're bluffing…"
"Perhaps, but can you afford to take that chance?"
"Yeah, I kinda do… I mean, it's not like it's a life or death situation. It's more of a thing that if happens than ok, if not then it's again ok. So, you can't really force me…"
Mabel-2 looked pretty sad as a response to my lack of response. I was very strict when speaking of my feelings, but very open to those of others. After a brief moment of silence she had spoken again.
"You know, I was this shy too, but I found that being expressive with your sentiments can actually help, believe it or not. It eases up the emotional stress and can lead to a solution, rather than discomfort."
She made a solid point, but now do I stay stubborn, or do I listen to her and do the rational thing…Fine, mind, I succumb to your ways of reasoning. This is also going to be the last line of this entry.
"You wanna know why I like him?"
"Yes."
"It's because he gave me Waddles. It's because when I was sad he came to me to be comforting. He is nice, smart, good looking and reminds me of the perfect guy I had dreamed of. We saved him and he returned the favor by asking us if we had this blasted watch that got me here. I should've picked stargazing over this, because now it seems the better idea…I just wanted to feel loved and looked after and now I feel isolated in a world that is warm, but alien to me. I can't find a thing right with my life and I just found out that in an universe where I found myself to be rather superior, I am actually inferior to my true self. You have lowered your standards so much, to have your relationship, and yet you are happy, elated should I say. You are better than me in every way and just thinking that I have failed where you succeeded is making me nuts. You are so kind, so marvelous in every way, and I just…can't stand it. I always thought I made things perfect, but… I found that there are better versions of myself…"