Okay, I was going to make this longer but I hadn't updated in a while and I wanted to give you something to read. Next chapter I have the beginning planned and depending on my mood it will either be some lighthearted fun/bonding, or holy shit fuckery.
I'm flexible like that.
Enjoy
"So get your stuff, kids!"
The twins stared up at him.
"Are you serious, Stan?" Dipper huffed, his hands on his hips. "We just got that anti-Bill barrier up around the house and you want to leave it?"
"I gotta admit, Grunkle Stan, that is kinda a….not that super smarticle idea." Mabel added with a gentle smile.
"It's a great idea!" Stan retorted, a scowl on his face. "You two need to get out of the house, to get away from all this drama and have fun being kids!"
The preteens exchanged uncertain glances, turning their backs on their uncle to enter into a little huddle.
"He really seems set on this idea…" Mabel whispered.
"Yeah but leaving the shack?" Dipper shook his head. "Great Uncle Ford said we'd only be out of Bill's reach here."
"We can't never leave the shack again, though…." she fidgeted.
"Well, no but- well-" Dipper frowned, shaking his head. "This just doesn't sound like a good idea."
"You two know I can hear everything you're saying, right?" Stan said flatly, his eyes half narrowed in annoyance.
"Fine then, I don't think it's a good idea." Dipper huffed, turning to face him.
"I mean, we really appreciate it, Grunkle Stan, it's just…" Mabel bit her lip, poking her fingers together. "Er…"
Both twins trailed off at the look on Stan's face. His brow was furrowed and he was glowering to the side at the RV, as if it had wronged him.
"Okay!" Mabel said, forcing a smile.
"What?" Stan and Dipper said in unison, staring at her.
"Well he did rent the RV already and stuff, right? I mean, if we just go for a couple days, what could happen?" she shrugged, forcing her smile to stay plastered on her face.
"There's a lot that can happen!" Dipper scoffed. "Everytime we let our guard down either I spontaneously combust or- well-"
"Yeah but if we're away from Gravity Falls for a while, maybe we'll do better! I mean, maybe Grunkle Stan is right!" Mabel bit her lip, fiddling with her fingers. "There's less crazy monsters and stuff out there, and we still have the dream stuff Grunkle Ford made, so I think we should go!"
Dipper sighed, rubbing his temple and then looked at Stan.
"Ok, but if anything goes wrong we head back, okay?" he huffed, setting his hands on his hips with the familiar air of authority he attempted to project.
"Yeah yeah, fine. Trust me, kiddo, we're not gonna deal with any mystery baloney on this trip. Just gonna be me and you guys, for the weekend!" Stan grinned with his usual showman-style flourish of his hands. "So pack'em up, kiddos! We're not gonna deal with any weird triangle craziness!"
The sneaky bastard was such a riot! He almost respected him. Almost. He put the nail in his coffin with that stunt he pulled. No no, he just had to calm down. Things were going to be different this time. From the looks of it, they were already going to be different. Last time Question Mark and two of Shooting Star's little friends came along. Ah, how dull, it was likely their ride would be awkward silence for the most part. Whatever, he'd check in on them later.
Dipper sighed, thrumming his fingers against the table as he stared out the window.
"C'mon, Dipper! It's your turn!" Mabel poked him in the face.
"Ow- ok, fine!" Dipper pouted.
He scanned the checkerboard for a second and at a nearly breakneck speed moved one piece and won the game. Dipper blinked and Mabel sighed.
"Oh, you win again…that's um….122?"
"Uh- have you been writing it down?" Dipper flushed slightly, frowning.
"Nope, just uh…remembered."
"You kids stop being quiet back there! It's freaking me out!" Stan yelled back.
"Yeah, well our random super-intelligence is freaking us out!" Dipper snapped back, a slight growl to his voice.
"Dipper, don't yell at him! Grunkle Stan is just trying to-"
The old man hit the brakes and the twins gripped the table on reflex, alarmed by the sudden stop.
"Stan, what-?" Dipper began.
"Now look, you two, I know that triangle jerk's been giving you trouble and I'm gonna deck him in the eye when I meet him," Stan said matter of factly. "But aside from that, I get your powers or whatever are freaking you out, but let me tell you something."
Stan clasped a hand on a shoulder each, pulling the twins closer to him.
"If you've got a talent? Use it."
Mabel blinked and Dipper scowled.
"Use it? Stan, we don't even want these powers, why would we use them?"
"That's what you don't get!" Stan pushed Dipper over on the seat, sitting next to him. "Look, if you have something, you use it! It doesn't matter where you got it, or if you even wanted it, you make it work for you. Look, take me and my brother for example."
He put an arm around Dipper's shoulders, making sure both he and Mabel were paying attention.
"So my nerd brother has his freakish intellect. Did he ask for it? No. Did he want it? No. Heck he got bullied so much because of it, but he was stuck with it, so he used it. I mean, sure things didn't go smoothly for him, but that was my fault, anyway. Even then, his research is probably gonna make him famous, so a win, in the end, right?"
"Well…I guess so." Dipper frowned.
"Yeah, Grunkle Ford is pretty smart, but isn't this a little…differenty?" Mabel wobbled her hand a bit to accent her statement.
"Heck no. Look at me! I ain't got brains or talent or anything. I'm a compulsive liar and a crook, that's all I got. They don't sound look good things, right? But-"
"They really aren't." Dipper interrupted.
"But," Stan continued, ignoring his nephew. "I use them, 'cause I got'em. Sure they've gotten me in some trouble, but they've always gotten me out of trouble too, you get me? I've been able to build a successful business, elude the feds, commit multiple felonies and get off without punishment, it works! So, yeah, you don't want weird demon powers and you didn't ask for them, but now that you have them? Use them for you, for what you want! Make it yours!"
"I get what you're trying to say, Stan," Dipper sighed. "I do, but Mabel's right, this is different."
"No it's not. No one asks to have whatever traits they have, kid. You get it forced on you, so it's up to you to make it yours."
"How….how do we do that?" Mabel fidgeted, eying her uncle.
"Glad you asked!" Stan got up. "Let's make it fun, eh?"
The twins exchanged glances as their uncle shuffled around in one of the RV cabinets, then reseated himself by Dipper and slapped a deck of cards on the table.
"We're gonna play a game of cards, and I want you to two to cheat your hearts out."
"What? Grunkle Stan how is this going to help us?" Dipper scoffed.
"I want you to cheat using your weirdo powers." Stan winked. "Whatever way you want. Just do whatever seems fun."
"You don't seem to grasp the concept of demonic powers, Grunkle Stan."
"They aren't 'demonic powers'," Stan quoted mockingly, then began to cut the deck. "They're YOUR powers. So you need to start acting like it."
The twins were hesitant but their showman uncle had hooked their attention, as was his talent. Stan cut the deck and dealt the hands, urging them to pick up their cards.
"Ok, now do whatever you want to win. Y'know, as long as you don't turn me into a frog or somethin'." He said, beginning to scan his cards.
Dipper eyed Mabel and was met with a shrug, the girl picking up her hand in turn.
The game was pretty normal, even boring at first. Stan played like he usually did but the twins seemed reluctant. Stan didn't push them or even bring up the point of the 'exercise', but still his grandnephew and grandniece couldn't help but feel pressured to do…something, anything.
"Here goes nothing," Dipper muttered.
"Wha-?" Stan began.
He took a deep breath and focused. Before Stan could finish questioning him, everything stopped. Literally, that is. Dipper stared at his frozen relatives and then at his wristwatch, which had frozen along with the rest of time.
"Hey- it worked!" his eyes lit up. "Hah! I meant to do that! WOO! Hahha- wait who am I gloating to?...Eh, whatever."
Dipper slid over to his uncle and looked at his cards, taking note of what he had, then slipped past the old man to take a good look at his sister's hand. Pleased with himself he returned to his seat, cockily picking up his cards.
"Well, I guess it's good for something," he smirked to himself. "Okay then, I'll just…"
"-at you going on about?" Stan finished his sentence, a brow raised in suspicion.
"Nothing," Dipper shrugged casually, the smirk still on his face. "I'm going all in."
"Oh ho, feeling lucky are we?" Stan returned the smirk.
"Nope, I don't need luck," he said smugly.
"Well I'm calling you out, Dipdop!" Mabel exclaimed. "I'm also all in!"
Dipper rose a brow. He saw her cards, there was no way she was winning this- heck she didn't even have a decent hand. So what was she doing?
"Well I guess I'm in too, kiddos." Stan grinned. "This is interesting."
Dipper huffed a bit and all of them showed their hands.
"Hah, see? I got- what the?!"
Stan let out similar exclamation and Mabel grinned.
"Oh wow, how did that happen?"
"Are these Monstermon cards?!" Dipper stared. "How- they were just- Mabel what did you do?! Did you stop time too?!"
"What? You stopped time? That's so cool!" Mabel gasped. "No I just made the cards change themselves."
"Hah! Time magic and transforming stuff! I love it!" Stan grinned, slapping the tabletop. "See? That's awesome! Think of all the cool things you could do with that kind of stuff!"
"Like what?" Dipper eyed him.
"Well…I may have an idea or two."
"Hah! This has been the best day of my life!" Stan crowed as they strolled into the RV.
"It was awesome!" Mabel agreed, setting a huge bag of candy on the table.
"Well, I guess it was pretty fun…" Dipper smiled a bit, looking over the assortment of odd things he had collected.
Stan had made quite a day of hitting up various tourist traps that he knew of and pranking them very effectively. There was a giant ball of yarn that had been pounced upon by a giant-ized cat and a cornmaze that had been talked into exploding into popcorn, courtesy of Mabel. Dipper hadn't been quite as flashy as his twin but using some clever manipulation and impossible-to-have-intel had managed to land Stan with a large amount of settlement pay in order to avoid court. Pay which Stan had also browbeat the owners of said establishments to accompany with a few choice items from their collection of oddities, which Dipper now owned.
"And I learned I can make kittens!" Mabel grinned.
A poof of sparkles and a small meow heralded the new existence of a pink, fluffy kitten which fell into Mabel's waiting arms. She squealed in delight and began petting the overly cute creature, cooing it.
"Uh, yeah…"Dipper frowned, intently eying his bag of goodies.
"Whatsa matter, kiddo?" Stan said as he counted his cash.
Dipper was silent a moment, his brow furrowed deeply.
"Grunkle Stan, I get what you're trying to do but…"
"But what?" Stan rose a brow.
"Isn't this exactly what Bill would want us to think was okay?"
"Eh?"
Stan turned his full attention to his nephew, Mabel doing the same, the kitten disappearing into glittering sparkles. They both eyed Dipper, awaiting his elaboration. He sighed.
"I mean, accepting this, and then just using it to do- whatever? Just do what we want and not think about it, not care that it's…it's from him?"
"But Dipper-" Mabel began.
"Look, I know what you mean by it, Stan, but I think you're wrong." Dipper set his jaw firmly, looking up at his uncle. "This is serious, it's not something we can just play around with. I know it's hard for you, but this is a serious situation and-"
"It's hard for me?" Stan interrupted, scowling as he slammed his hand down on the table. "Why? Because it's 'serious'? Oh yeah, of course, that stupid old man Stan can't take anything seriously! It's not his fault though, it's hard for him, he's not that smart! Not as smart as his amazing brother Ford, huh?!"
"Grunkle Stan! Dipper didn't say that-!" Mabel began.
"At least he's actually trying to figure all this out!" Dipper shouted over her at their uncle. "At least he's not saying we should just accept it and then having us use it just for his own stupid schemes!"
"Oh yeah, because he's the one trying to help you! He may have his fancy dream potion and all those machines, sure, but it's not like I haven't helped you!" Stan snapped back. "Last time I checked, I was the one that got Gideon jailed, I was the one that punched a dinosaur in the face-"
"Technically pterodactyls aren't dinosaurs-"
"AND last time I checked I was the one that defended you from him when you got all fiery! You wanna talk about who's helping you?! I'm the one who's still treating you like his family, not researching you like one of his-"
"What?! Like one of his monsters?! Huh!?" Dipper cut in, an audible growl to his voice.
"Dipper!" Mabel gasped, covering her mouth.
"So we're just more weird freaks for Great Uncle Ford to study, huh!? Just another anomaly that's too weird for you to care about?!"
"Kid-!" Stan began, alarmed.
"Well fine!"
Dipper turned on heel and stormed out of the RV, slamming the door behind him. Mabel hesitated, half going to run after her twin but her gaze dwelling on her uncle, whose expression was unreadable.
"…G..Grunkle Stan?" she asked quietly.
"I'm going to take a dip in the hot tub," he grunted, turning to his suitcase. "Go after your brother and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."
He gripped his change of clothes and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door shut in much the same manner his nephew had. Mabel sighed deeply but decided to listen to Stan, leaving the RV to go searching for her twin.
He was already out of sight but she spent a good few minutes circling the RV park, calling for him. A few campers gave her some looks but said nothing; even when she asked if they had seen Dipper pass none of them said they had seen any kids go by. After a while she plopped down on a picnic bench, chewing her lip. She wanted to think that he hadn't gone far, but then again, if he really wanted to he could be in a completely different dimension right now. Maybe. They weren't quite sure the extent of their powers but it was definitely possible he was far away. Drat, how was she supposed to find him? The day had been going so well, why did it have to turn out like this? Sure she understood Dipper's train of thought, but…
Where could he have gotten off to?
