Just posting this chapter this week - if you're reading Sixer's side of the story, since he's asleep over the course of this entire chapter, he doesn't have a corresponding chapter. But he'll have one next week!
Chapter 14 – August 26, 2014
Maria woke up the next morning sprawled across the floor of the living room in a nest of blankets. Vash – who had taken Stanley's armchair – was still sleeping quietly, and Knives wasn't in the room.
Maria grunted in response to nighttime aches as she sat up, then stretched out her back. True, she technically didn't need to do that, but it was an old habit she wasn't about to break.
It took her a moment to go through her memory and remember why she was sleeping on the floor of a room that she'd only seen in cartoons. As soon as she remembered why there was a gentle tugging on her core for a very specific reason, she practically leapt to her feet and strode out of the house through the gift shop.
The clearing was just as Maria remembered it – four Mystery Shacks, all facing cardinal directions. Stanley's and Stanford's faced into the clearing from the north, so she didn't quite have the sun in her eyes as she stood on the porch.
And Stan's and Ford's shack – where Sixer and his family were sleeping – was on the eastern side of the clearing.
Maria started to make her away across the grass as someone stepped out of her intended destination. "Have they woken up yet?"
Maple shook her head as she stepped out of the shack and Maria came to a stop not far from the porch. "Nope. None of them have." She looked up at Maria, who looked concerned. "We just gotta wait, right?"
"Maybe…" Maria folded her arms across her chest, tilting her head to one side slightly.
It was likely that they were going to end up sleeping in, considering how Sixer had collapsed the night before. She hoped that she didn't have to go in there and tell him to wake up.
"I'll leave him be for a few more hours; he probably needs it." She looked down at Maple again. "So, what's the agenda for today, do you think?"
"Grocery shopping, according to Dad. And we've got to get school supplies too." Maple noticed the look that crossed Maria's face and added quickly, "You don't have to come if you don't want to – I mean, you don't have to worry about that stuff, right?"
"Under normal circumstances, no," Maria agreed. "I'm just – does this mean that Mabel and Dipper have to go back to Piedmont or—"
"Nope!" came another cheery voice.
Maria turned and saw Mabel making her way across the clearing, carrying what looked like a large bundle of art supplies. Dipper followed behind her, his journal in hand.
"Grunkle Stanley talked Mom and Dad into letting us stay up here this year!" Mabel added. "Grunkle Stanford helped. A lot."
"He convinced them to transfer us up here to the school system in the area," Dipper added, not looking up from his journal. He was holding a pen that looked like it had been gnawed on quite thoroughly. "And…well, after school last year and how much we talked about Gravity Falls, I guess we convinced them it would be a good idea to let us stay up here for a year and see what happens." He stopped in front of the porch steps and looked up at Maria.
"Huh." Maria's eyebrows raised, impressed. She decided against asking about what had happened at their school down in California; judging by the tone in Dipper's voice, it was probably better not to ask. "So, what are you guys doing out here? Aren't you guys gonna be eating breakfast or—"
"Grunkle Stanley's Stancakes won't be ready for another ten minutes," Dipper replied. "And Mabel wanted to get to work on figuring out what we could do to help Grunkle Sixer and the others. She's planning on sketching them first."
That explained the art supplies.
"Fair enough." Maria nodded.
"What are you gonna do today?" Mabel asked.
"Well, considering that Sixer collapsed yesterday, I think that letting him sleep for a little longer would be a good idea." Maria looked around the clearing, considering.
It was mid-morning in late August. Considering the calendar she got to glance at the night before, they had about a week before school started up and took most of the kids' free time.
"I'm thinking about having a look around town myself," Maria admitted. "I mean, I'm going to be here for a full year, so the people in town are gonna learn about me eventually. So I'd better take care of that sooner rather than later."
"An excellent idea!" Mabel declared.
"We can get you in on Wendy's friend group!" Maple added. "I'm sure they'd be really interested in meeting someone from another dimension!"
Maria chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. "I don't doubt it. Other than your Grunkle Fords and Stan, there really isn't anyone else around who's done much traveling like that. And I do it on purpose." She grinned. "So, breakfast, and then you'll show me around town?"
"Sure!" Maple replied.
"I'm gonna come too," Mabel added.
"Didn't you say you wanted my help coming up with a plan to…." Dipper motioned to the house behind Maple. "I mean, if Grunkle Sixer's acting like that, that's pretty bad."
Mabel deflated a little. "Oh, yeah…."
Maria tapped her chin in thought, frowning. "Well, how about this – you two show me around town this morning, and this afternoon we can brainstorm together? I'm pretty involved in this too, and I'd like to know what it is you might want to get up to."
Mabel and Dipper exchanged looks.
"As much as I want to get this problem solved, she's got a point," Dipper commented. "We can't rush into this when we're not in Maria's position."
Mabel sighed. "Yeah, that's true. But I wanna make them feel better now."
"And I do too," Maria replied. "The problem with that, though, is that we can't just rush in. Stanley made it a point to tell me that yesterday." She sighed. "Hopefully we'll be able to find a solution, but we're gonna have to take this slow for them. So we'll let them sleep for a bit, and you guys can show me around town while we think about ways to help."
Mabel's expression brightened. "Sounds like a plan! Let's drop this stuff off first, though – and then we can have Stancakes!"
With that, Mabel rushed into the shack, then came out moments later without the art supplies. "Come on! You have to try Grunkle Stanley's Stancakes!"
"All right, all right!" Maria laughed as Mabel grabbed her hand and dragged her back to the shack. She waved at Maple, who waved back before disappearing back inside her shack. "Hey, uh – do you have different names for each of the Shacks or—"
"Sure we do! Dipper?"
"Um…let me think…" Dipper gnawed on his pen again. "Mizar called ours the 'Classic Hut,' hers is the 'Memorial Library,' and then there's the 'Monster Menagerie' and the 'Museum-to-be,' I think."
He pointed at each of the shacks in turn, pointing towards Stanley's and Stanford's hut to the north, then the shacks to the south and west before ending on the one facing in from the east.
"OK. Thanks!" Maria nodded. "It was getting a little confusing thinking of all of them as Mystery Shacks."
"No problem!" Mabel replied cheerily. "It got confusing for us too."
"So, if Mizar's home is the library, have you guys seen it?"
"Once," Dipper replied. "But…her grunkles make me nervous. They are demons, but they have a more physical form than Cipher did. I think it's because they're different kinds, and because this is their home dimension – kinda – but I haven't figured out anything else."
Maria hummed in thought as they stepped onto the porch and walked back into the Hut. "I'd like to meet them at some point, but I don't think I'm gonna do that just yet."
"Journal'd probably try and get you to make a deal with him so he could get some of what you know," Dipper said. "Like how you rescued Grunkle Sixer, or what you saw in other dimensions. He can actually get into your head to do that."
"Yes, and according to what I've heard, it can be a very unpleasant experience," said Stanford as they stepped into the kitchen. Stanley was at the stove, sliding a pancake onto a decent stack. Every pancake looked fluffy enough that Maria found herself thinking of her own mother's pancakes for a moment.
"Well, he doesn't need to get into my head to get information on other dimensions." Maria reached under her jacket and pulled out a journal – the same one that she had let Stan and Ford look through when they had been back in her dimension. "I have everything that I've experienced on my travels in here."
"You record them in a journal?" Stanford raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought that your mechanical mind would have more than enough space for something of that sort."
"Well, I like being able to keep track of things the old-fashioned way sometimes." Maria shrugged. "Besides, people have gotten to be pretty curious about where I've been, and having a book is a lot easier than…other methods."
"…fair enough."
"So, what are you little gremlins up to today?" Stanley put the plate of pancakes on the table. "And get that broomstick outta my chair, will ya? Shack's gonna be closed until Labor Day, an' me an' my butt got plans."
Maria snorted, and she was about to sit down at the table when she noticed a familiar figure start to emerge from the living room, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Morning, Vash. How'd you sleep?"
Vash yawned and made a noncommittal grunt before sitting down at the breakfast table. He muttered something about coffee.
Stanford pushed a mug across the table to Vash, and he quickly downed half of the mug before grabbing a pancake and starting to nibble on it.
"Not a morning person?" Stanford asked.
"'ts cold," Vash replied sluggishly. He blinked a couple times as the coffee settled in, suddenly looking more awake. "I'm used to arid regions where the temperature is up in the triple digits during the day. This feels like its early morning right before the sun rises."
"Well, the sun's up, an' it's gonna get colder in a few months," Stanley commented. He looked Vash over as he continued to eat his pancake. "We're gonna have ta get ya winter gear."
"Triple digits?" Dipper repeated. "I don't think I'd be able to survive that."
"Gunsmoke's a harsh place to live, but it's home," Vash commented. He looked over at Maria as she sat down and grabbed a pancake before upending a bottle of syrup over it. "What's the plan today?"
"I'm gonna get a feel for the town today," Maria replied. "Sixer and the others are still asleep, and they probably will be for a while." She paused, then added, "And since I'm thinking of finding a way to sustain myself without leeching off the Pines funds, I'm gonna need documentation so that I can get a job, and since all the stuff I have is from another dimension, that won't exactly fly."
Stanley chuckled. "Let me handle that. Just gimme what ya got an' I'll take care of the rest."
Maria nodded. "As much as I'd rather do things through official channels, they're not gonna accept someone popping up out of nowhere with impossible answers." She reached under her jacket with one hand as she stabbed a piece of pancake with the other, and dropped a large yellow envelope on the table as she bit down on the pancake. "Have at it, old man. Just give me everything back when you're done; I consider those tokens of my timeline."
"With pleasure!" Stanley promptly snatched up the envelope and walked out of the room, opening the envelope and chuckling to himself.
"…I'm gonna need to do that too, aren't I?" Vash asked.
"Probably, yeah. Speaking of which – where's Knives?"
"He was up when the sun rose," Stanford replied. "He said he was going to explore the woods for the next few hours; he seems quite fascinated by the local botany."
Maria nodded. "Yeah; Gunsmoke doesn't have any surface-level vegetation, so getting a chance to study Earth plants up close like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – usually."
"Usually?"
"We've come along on some of Maria's World Jumping jobs before," Vash explained. "Which, as cool as it is to meet people, a lot of them are more willing to punch people than I thought they would be." He sent Maria a look.
"Words are still an option, except when the mind is too far gone to really be able to convince them by words or telepathic contact," Maria replied. "Which Cipher's too crazed to be convinced."
"…yeah. If he did that to—" Vash cut himself off and shook his head. "When he gets here, I'm just gonna…sit that fight out."
"I don't blame you." Maria went back to her pancakes and quickly finished hers off, then rose to her feet. "I'll be waiting for you guys outside for when we head into town, okay?"
It didn't take long for Mabel and Dipper to finish breakfast, and in five minutes they were out in the clearing with Maria and Maple before they walked down the driveway – and past the mailbox – now labeled "618 A/B/C/D" – and into the main town of Gravity Falls.
"So, where do you wanna go first?" Mabel asked. "There's all sorts of cool places!"
"Not the Dusk 2 Dawn," Maria replied, getting nods from the kids. "Maybe you could just show me around town to your favorite places?"
"That's a lot of places…."
"How about we show her all the arcade first?" Dipper suggested. "And the library."
"Oooh, yeah!"
The two took Maria's hands and led her forward down the street, Maria grinning at their eagerness to show her places around town. As they made their way towards the arcade, they passed by folks who gave Maria curious glances as they passed before quickly going about their business when Maria glanced in their direction.
Maria took note of the stares and decided to introduce herself later. She was going to have to, if she was going to be looking for a job in town.
The arcade was packed with teenagers trying to get their last moments of freedom squeezed into their summer. Mabel and Dipper didn't wait in the entrance to give Maria a moment to look around at the set-up of the games – they dragged her straight to the back, to a game console that looked like it hadn't been touched in a while.
In fact, if the "Out-of-Order" sign on the side was any indication, no one was probably going to be playing the game for a while.
"Hey, Wendy!" Dipper raised a hand to the group of teenagers who were talking in the back corner.
The familiar red-head looked up in response to the greeting and grinned. "Hey, Dipper! What are you doing up so early?"
"Mabel wanted to plan some things and Maria wanted a tour around town." Dipper shrugged. "So, here I am."
"Maria?" The teenage boy wearing a stitched heart, zip-up sweater looked at Maria curiously. The girl next to him with purple highlights in her hair looked up from her phone with a raised eyebrow. "What, is she a cousin of yours or something?"
"Or something." Maria gave a loose salute in greeting, smirking. "I'm from out of town – far out of town – and I'm gonna be sticking around for a while."
"Welcome to Gravity Falls, then," the boy replied. "I'm Robbie, this is Tambry, and those guys over there are Thompson, Lee, and Nate."
Robbie motioned to the three other teens, the skinnier two cheering the third on as he tried to play on a dancing game.
"So, Maria, what brings you to Gravity Falls?" Tambry asked. She didn't sound interested, but there was a spark in her eyes that suggested otherwise.
Maria shrugged. "My own business, mostly. I know about the creatures that live in the woods and certain events, but I'm not here as a result of what happened in 2012."
She felt a number of stares on her at that; Robbie's and Tambry's expressions were especially wide-eyed.
Wendy chuckled. "She's the one who brought Tyrone's grunkles home yesterday." She nudged Robbie with an elbow to his arm. "She's seen some pretty cool stuff, I bet. And hey – Stanford apparently knows her too, so that's a plus."
"Really?" Lee came over, a curious expression on his face as Thompson finally pulled himself off the game. "So, what, you get dropped through a portal too or—"
"What are you kids talkin' about?"
Lee cut himself off when a voice spoke up from behind them. Maria turned to look at the source of the voice.
"And who is this young lady?" added the police officer. He looked over his sunglasses at Maria with a grim gaze.
Maria held out her hand. "Maria Carlsdale, sir. I'm an out-of-towner who's a friend of Stanford Pines." She paused, then added, "And I mean the Stanford called Stanford, not any of his dimensional counterparts."
"Is this true?" the officer looked at Dipper and Mabel.
The twins nodded.
"She helped our grunkle get home, Officer Blubbs," Mabel promised. "And she brought Tyrone's and Maple's grunkles home yesterday!"
"No resulting chaos from that, either," Maria replied, causing Blubbs to look at her again. "My portals are stable. I should know – I've been using them to travel to other worlds for…well, for longer than you've been alive."
Blubbs frowned. "I find that hard to believe, young lady, considerin' your age. Are you going to be attending high school or—"
"I got bored enough that I took enough time in universities in my home dimension to have several degrees in literature, languages, and engineering," Maria replied flatly. "Let's just say that I'm from an alternate future and live on a colony planet far from Earth, all right? And whatever future time war is coming in this dimension hasn't affected mine."
She added the last part mostly for Dipper's and Mabel's benefit, causing them to exchange wide-eyed looks.
Blubbs made a surprised spluttering noise, then paused and tapped his chin in thought. "Well, in that case, we'd better have some proof of your degrees fer proof of that, otherwise I'm gonna have ta do my duty as truancy officer an' make sure you attend the local high school."
"Fair enough. Do you want copies of my papers here and now or—"
"You have copies with you?"
Maria reached under her jacket and pulled out a stack of papers about the size of a textbook. She raised an eyebrow at Blubbs when his jaw dropped. "It's not gonna be anywhere in school databases, I don't think, considering that I went to college in another dimension, but these should be proof of my knowledge and skill in my degrees." She held the stack out to Blubbs with one hand. "If you want copies of my diplomas—"
"No, no, I…I think this'll do for now." Blubbs took the stack of papers – he had to do it with both hands – and gave Maria a nod. "An' where are you staying?"
"At the Mystery Shacks, for now," Maria replied. "I have some business to take care of while I'm here, so I'll be in town for a year at least. After that…." She shrugged. "We'll have to see."
Blubbs nodded. "Mayor Tyler's gonna wanna know about this."
"I'm not surprised."
And with that, Blubbs walked out of the arcade, leaving the others in the building to stare at Maria with wide eyes.
"How many degrees do you have, exactly?" Dipper asked.
"Not as many as Stanford," Maria replied. "Let's see…I started doing the education thing after…2050? I think that was about when I got bored. I ended up receiving a bachelor degree in German, and masters in Literature History, Media History, Mechanical Engineering, Biology, and Botany. So that's six degrees altogether, plus some other hobbies I've picked up."
"Boy, you sound like a total nerd," Robbie commented. Maria looked back at him with a raised eyebrow, and he added quickly, "Wh-which is fine!"
"When you live for several centuries and have a lot of time on your hands between traveling across dimensions, you find something to do," Maria replied with a smirk. "Trust me, watching TV and playing video games can only get you so far."
"Centuries?" Lee repeated.
"...let's just say that my occupation has left me long-lived." Maria gave them a dry look. "And that's putting it mildly."
Lee and Nate looked at each other with wide eyes. "Whoa."
Time Break
Maria spent the rest of the day around Wendy, Dipper, Mabel, and the rest of their teenage friend group. They gave her a tour of their side of town – swinging by the cemetery, going to Greasy's Diner for lunch, and then wandering around the streets pointing out buildings and who worked where. In return for these stories, Maria ended up answering some questions that the group had about her – mostly her personal likes and dislikes, proof that she could actually get a degree in a language (which resulted in her speaking for a full five minutes in German), and how she'd been carrying around a textbook's worth of papers without looking the least bit encumbered.
"Oh, that?" Maria reached under her jacket again. "It's a subspace pocket. I've got so much stuff that I want to bring along with me that I can't exactly pack a suitcase and drag it along behind me. My cousin, Joshua, taught me how to find a pocket dimension that I could use. It's a bottomless personal pocket that I only I can get into, basically."
"So, no purses?" Tambry seemed interested at the idea.
"No purses, no handbags, no backpacks, no luggage," Maria confirmed with a grin. "I could probably teach you how to get access to one of your own, but it's gonna take a bit – especially since you don't need to carry as much stuff around as I do, since I technically don't have a home of my own anymore."
"Anymore?" That got Wendy's attention. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you live as long as I do, and sometimes you disappear from your dimension for a long time and come back, only to find your bank account's run dry and the house you had previously got foreclosed." Maria made a face. "I just make it a point to live with friends I know who are still around now. It lets them know when I'm in town and when I'm not. It's easier on everyone's sanity that way."
"Huh." Wendy looked surprised, but the look on her face also suggested that she was a little concerned about what Maria had just brought up. "Well, you're with the Pines now, right?"
"Yup."
"Well, I can't think of any other place more interesting than that around here. You're probably gonna get a lot of interested visitors after today, though, so I don't know if you wanted privacy or –"
"Honestly, I was expecting to get attention sooner rather than later. Might as well get it sooner." Maria smirked and shrugged one shoulder. "That way I can get the shock value out of the way early and not look so much like a weird invader."
"Well, good luck with that. I think that people around town already think you're weirder than they're used to around here, and that's saying something." Wendy nodded towards a pedestrian watching them across the street; Maria glanced over in their direction, but they were already walking away into the mall and out of sight.
"I'll deal with it as it comes," Maria replied. "Don't worry; I'll be fine."
It was Sixer that Maria was more worried about.