Chapter 11
Disclaimer: Alex Hirsch owns Gravity Falls and some of the dialogue in this chapter, not me.
It was dark. It was dark, a vortex of a stars glittered the night surrounding him, yet he could visualize all of the voices. He could visualize every sound. Yes, there were no images to be seen with those words, but he witnessed what was meant to be heard. Words, coming in with waves of mumbles, whispers, and hissings. He couldn't understand them. Clear statements were beginning to increase in sound though. So many voices. He simply needed to focus in order to decipher them. He listened. He listened and he heard the past, the present, and the future.
"Mom...he's...Dipper is acting sorta...I think there's something wrong, Mom." A ripple wavered within him. Mabel. Connection.
"OH MY GOD, DIPPER?! ALEX! ALEX, COME HERE! DIPPER, OH MY GOD, DIPPER I-"
"JESUS CHRIST! ARIEL, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!"
"I love you, bro-bro. I just wanted to tell you that..."
"Dipper, he doesn't look creepy! He looks like a kind, old man. He's probably Great-Uncle Stanford!"
"Are you two kiddos Mabel and...uh, whatever your name is?"
"Hey, what up? You can call me Wendy."
"I put the handy in handyman! Haha, get it, cause I'm a handyman and my hands are...A-Anyways, I'm Soos."
"This attic is amazing! And look at all the splinters!"
"I missed this guy! You done good, kids."
"Hello America! My name is Lil' Gideon!" A ripple wavered within him. Gideon Charles Gleeful. Connection.
"Your family has a weak spot, and I'm going to find it!" Gideon wasn't himself at that moment, he was being influenced by Jill Rephic.
"Dudes! I found some kind of secret hidden room in the Shack!"
"Yeesh, this carpet is ugly." Stan didn't own that carpet, someone else did.
"You do care about me."
Sentences, became conversations.
"I was doing my hourly hootnanny!" Old Man McGucket?
"Ugh, this guy." Grunkle Stan? On the surface, it seemed as though he was disgusted with McGucket, yet there was a hint of deceit, as if he lying about how he truly felt.
"I can live without the kid talking to me all the time...telling me her jokes...making me laugh..." No. He couldn't. Not again. Stan had already been rejected by a significant other of his once, he couldn't do it again.
"Oh, oh, Gravity Falls! It is good to be back! Name's Bill Cipher and I take it you're some kind of living ventriloquist dummy? Haha, I'm kidding; I know who you are, Gideon." There was no teasing in reality. Gideon was a ventriloquist dummy, actions and mind controlled by Jill Rephic. Bill Cipher had known the whole since he first was summoned to this mysterious town.
"He's really coming along. When push comes to shove, I'm actually proud of him."
"A darkness approaches. A day will come in the future when everything you care about will change." Jill Rephic was approaching.
"What? Bill...? Who? What are you guys talking about?" Stan seemed nearly frightened, when he echoed the name of the dream demon.
The voices seemed to become less ominous. "Don't worry, your son and daughter are fine."
"Oh, well where are you three staying?" The concerned voice of his mother, Ariel Pines.
"Where we staying? Uh, I put them up in this amazing four-star hotel."
"Oh, thank goodness. Do you have enough money? Plenty of food?"
"What, uh, sure we got plenty to eat."
"But, what a-"
"Relax, if I thought I couldn't take care of these kids, I'll send them back right away."
"I know, Stan, but having your own home infested with rats sounds horrifying. I'm sorry you have to go through such a thing...Oh, Alex is on the other line, so I need to go. He's probably calling to tell me if he got that promotion or not. I hope you and the children have a great night."
"Uh, huh, you too." And he hung up, concerned as much as Ariel Pines was.
"Look, I lost, okay?" It wasn't the first time he had to accept defeat. And, it hurt Stan as much as the previous time he did.
"Waiter, give me a glass of the strongest most expired apple cider you got." He hadn't had a glass in years, ever since he decided to stop moping about, knowing his brother would be pissed at him. It seemed though, he had begun to return to his darkness.
"Where are you journal? Where are you?!" Gideon wasn't actually angry, no Jill Rephic was. She needed it. She needed it to locate that Stanley Pines.
"Well Stan, this is it. Rock bottom. No friends, no family..." He had been there before. It wasn't as bad as the first, nothing could compare to that, but it still hurt, that darkness creeping into his mind.
"Please, I...It's not what it looks like...what are you going to do with me?" His true self was leaking out of the cracks of Jill's control. It actually wasn't what it looked like. She had suggested this psychic act from the start.
"After all these years. I finally have them all...Thirty, long years and it's all led up to this." What did he have? Thirty years?
"If I finally pull this off, it'll all be worth it." Worth it. He had been waiting for the mystery. Thirty years and now he's back, the mystery in the Mystery Shack. Back? But, he wasn't back yet? Yet? He? Who was he?
"The six fingered nerd hasn't been himself been himself in thirty years!" Yes, he's not been himself. He's too cheerful. Being stuck all those years, alone, has made him different. His mask is a smile, hoping not to concern his granddaughter, the only person able to see him.
"It was just a job, kid. No hard feelings! I've been keeping an EYE ON YOU since then, and I must say I'm impressed."
"I only ask for a small FAVOR is return." Favor. Demon always have an alternative motive. What's Bill Cipher's this time?
"I can help you, kid. You just need to hear out my demands." Only time would tell.
"Tick-tock, kid." Time? He was running out of time. Someone needed help. Who needed help? MABE-
"Eenie, meenie, mynie, YOU. YOU. YOU. YOU."
"Man, it has been so long since I inhabited a body!" Who else? Who else has Bill Cipher broken?
"Look kid, you've been getting way to close to finding out some major answers. I've got big plans coming and I don't need you getting in the way." It wasn't even supposed to be his density. He didn't even belong on the wheel in the first place and it was ravaging Bill's-no, density's plans.
"Big things are coming! You can't stop me!" Jill Rephic was approaching, yet Bill Cipher was fighting through it.
"Race you to the bottom of the stairs!" A twitch of fear echoed in him. Staircases. That voice, of a woman, following him. Get away, get away. GET AWAY.
"It is unseen." That sounded sort of like...Old Man McGucket?
"Everything before 1982 is just a blur...just a hazy...THE BLIND EYE! Robes, the men, my mind!"
"Novus ordo seclorum, novus ordo seclorum, novus ordo seclorum..."
"Into the hall of the forgotten..."
"You can't break what's already broken!" Broken. Broken the reflection of yourself. All of ourselves. Broken our mirrors.
"My name is Fiddleford Hadron McGucket and I wish to unsee what I have seen. For the past year, I have been working as an assistant for a visiting researcher. He has been cataloging his findings about Gravity Falls in a series of journals. I helped him build a machine which he believed had the potential to benefit all mankind, but something went wrong. I decided to quit the project. But I lie awake at night, haunted by the thoughts of what I've done. I believe I have invented a machine that can permanently erase these memories from my mind." He appeared exhausted, tormented by what has occurred.
"I call it, the Society of the Blind Eye. We will help those who want to forget by erasing their bad memories!"
"It's all so familiar. It's almost like I can remember..."
"I'm gonna pull this off and no one's gonna get in my way!" Pull what off? What's Stan doing?
"I know who my family is now, and it's you dudes."
"But, you were right; I just needed to move on." Robbie Valentio?
"You wanna know why this room was locked up? This is what I found in here. A painted record of every horrible thing that my family's ever done. Lying, cheating, and then there's me. I lied to you just because I'm too scared to talk back to my stupid parents! You were right about me. I am just another link in the world's worst chain."
"Our family name is broken and I'm gonna to fix it!"
"Your...your wheezing is kinda worrying me, kiddo."
"You can see me...none have been able to see me."
"...I was right when I thought you saw me that night though."
"Dipper...Dipper has always been a worry-wart about...about everything. He was b-born like that. It got...it got pretty bad though..."
"And, Kid, I...c-care about you two and I'm going to make up saying that to the both of you."
"Yes, well that is the best way to explain my situation right now. In a way, I'm stuck in the 'rabbit hole' leading to Wonderland. Half way to that fantasy land and have way in reality."
"Yes. I guess in other words, I'm, well, your grandfather."
"No, this is: Blacks, gays, and handicaps, are all normal people, just like me and you. And anyone that says otherwise is stupid."
"Mabel, it's really important that you tell him something from me."
"Oh, they haven't been together for a great many of years."
"Could you tell Stan to stop?" Stop? What was Stan doing?
"Gideon? Gideon, it's me, Mabel. Gideon? Are you ok?"
"Giddy...the Pines...can't...protect..."
"Pine Tree, you and Shooting Star shouldn't be involved with this."
"I'll protect you, ok? You don't need her."
"Oh, you must be Dipper! So, you can hear me. I thought you did that one day in the hall. I apologize for that by the way. Simply talking aloud to myself."
"Yes, I'm Stanford Pines. A lot of folks in this town think my full name is Stanley though."
"Kid, sometimes folks want to see the best in others."
"REMEMBER...DEAL."
"Do you think...maybe you forced yourself not to...feel other things?" He had broken his connection, blocking himself from sound, in his fear he had disconnected.
"Yep. A deal. He's bond to it and no other demons can interfere with that...Never show her fear or worse, acceptance; she feeds off of that."
"Shooting Star, I have never lied. I have truthfully told my clients my terms, and how they interpret my intentions are their decisions, not mine. And, there are much, much worse things I could do than lie. Much worse things I am capable of, yet I don't do them, unlike she would."
"You needed my presence to let yourself 'hear' again." He was connected now.
"Trust your great-uncle if it involves family matters."
"In exchange though, you just need to get your Gramps out of the 'rabbit hole'."
"He's warning us. Dipper, I feel it. I feel he's in danger, too."
These echoes, they were of the past. Some he knew, others he didn't. The future. The future seemed to echo inside his mind. "IT WAS YOU I SAW! YOU'RE THE MONSTER I SAW! THE MONSTER HURTING GIDEON!"
"Oh, pretty, pretty Shooting Star! I would of never thought you would be the one to show up!"
"I...I'll make the deal if...i-if you d-don't kill him..." Mabel? Deal?
"D-Damn it, S-Stanford!"
"My mami...she's in the hospital...I...I need some time off, Mr. Pines..."
"W-When I was f-five, my m-mom...she...she...s-she fell off t-the ladder in front o-of me and b-broke her neck...s-she died right a-away..."
"I remember when I was nine, my dad looked me in the eye and said 'your mother and I smile and make jokes all the time to ignore the fact that we have to be around dead people and their grieving families'. And, after that, I realized I didn't deserve to be happy, so I just stopped. I stopped being happy and when I tried to be happy again, I couldn't."
"My parents are sending me away to a boarding school. In France. They don't like my 'attitude'. So, I guess this is the last time I'll see you for awhile."
"I...I still see h-her when I...I close my e-eyes...and my...my D-Daddy, too...I w-wish my M-Ma...never h-had me..."
"Kid, you need to understand, I do everything for the sake of this family, so you need to...you need to trust me."
"...S-Stanley? Lee, is that...is that really y-you?"
"I NEVER GOT MINE. SO, I MADE MY OWN. WHY AREN'T YOU PROUD OF ME, FATHER?! WHY?!"
"Dipper, Dipper it's ok. Let go. Just, let go."
"I remember the last time I talked to her, she told me 'I never told him about my situation, because I knew he would drop everything, just to come and help. I couldn't do that to him'. She still cared about him, even after all those years."
"I'm...I'm Stanford Pines's son."
"Dipper, I miss him." Mabel.
His voice, echoed in reply. "Me too."
"Tick-tock, kid." A sense of urgency surged through him. Hurry, hurry, before it's too late. Only so much time before...Mabel. He remembered. He heard Gideon was in danger. He warned her. He had warned Grunkle Stan. They had left, but now they were in danger as well. Bill couldn't help, Jill had used barriers against him. The barriers. He couldn't enter the barriers from the outside. But...what if...what if he entered from the inside? He woke, with a gasp, plan forming in his mind.
Chapter 11 End
Oh my, nobody attempted to decipher my codes! Do you all need more of a hint? I can give you all another if you need one? Uhhhh, how about this: 26 NUMBERS. I'll give you readers more time to figure it out in the meanwhile. Anyways, this chapter was mostly a filler, though the ending of this chapter gave you all a sneak peek of what will come in future chapters, so I hope you all enjoy that. Reviews as always are appreciated! :)
