The Truth is out there: Book 1 Of the inside job/gravity falls universe
By
Neztro
chapter 1: Introductions are in order.
Notes:
Hello everyone, this is based on a piece of fan art where Reagan and adult Dipper hook up so I decided to write a whole story/universe around it… I may bring Mabel into the mix with Brett at a later date but first some ground rules. 1). Reagan is in her early thirties like the show and Dipper is 19, 2). it is going to be a slow burn type fanfic. 3). it's not gonna be perfect but imma try so if there are Any OOC moments just know I am improving as I go along.
Dipper's ass hurt. Sitting for an indefinite amount of time while being strapped to a wooden chair didn't help.
Why do you put yourself in these situations Dipper Pines? He thought to himself, struggling against his bindings.
Both his arms and legs were tied to the chair with leather strips, a cloth gag wedged in his mouth. He'd been breathing through his nose for last hour or however long it's been since he woke up.
Attempting to comprehend the full extent of his imprisonment Dipper tried to use the one sense he could rely on… his hearing. The pitter-patter of dripping water, the scurrying of a tiny insect's legs, and the sound of footsteps.
Bingo! Dipper knew how this kind of thing went down. They'll interrogate me, ask how much I know, and then either threaten my life or the lives of my loved ones, try to send me to prison or just kill me… honestly it could be all of the above.
The door opened with a slow ear piercing creak.
"Mr. Pines, we need to have a word." a female voice said her shoes clicking on the stone floor. Her wording concise, her tone practical.
Dipper took note of all that he knew about her. Looks like I'm dealing with professionals here, Great.
Dipper dealt with people trying to keep the supernatural and often he'd be overpowered by those agents he had his mind and managed to escape by outsmarting his foe. But he was smart enough to know that this lady was just as smart as him or least appeared to be.
"Mr. Pines, I am going to remove your gag. Do not scream, nobody will hear you and I don't want to have to wear a hearing aid again. Nod if you understand."
Dipper responded with a curt bow of his head.
"Good," the lady responded placing her hand in Dipper's mouth.He felt her root around and he could smell her perfume, the same kind his mother wore.
Once the gag was off Dipper deeply inhaled taking in as much fresh air as possible.
"Mr. Pines, do you know where you are?" The lady asked, a click following her words. The scratching of pen on paper echoed throughout the noise proof room.
"I just remember going for a stroll in the woods then I saw that man in a costume. Where am I? Why am I being held hostage? Did I do something wrong?" Dipper replied, a cocky grin on his face.
"cute. Your stroll was through a government black-site. Care to explain what you were doing there?" She said and Dipper swore she was slitting her eyes just by her tone alone.
Dipper said nothing, trying to assess what he learned about this woman. She was precise in her questioning, intelligent in her speech, and Blunt in her tone. He wasn't dealing with some random government schmuck like usual.
"Mr. Pines, are you going to answer the question or have you decided to plead the fifth?" she said scratching more on paper.
Dipper cleared his throat and turned his head upwards. "I was looking for a reported sighting of a Sasquatch."
"There it is. Where did you get this information?"
"I peruse the supernatural sites and found this one. I cross checked the data on the sites with my own personal notes and found that they're was a very high chance of the rumor being true."
"your personal notes? So you have experience in the supernatural." she didn't sound surprised and Dipper knew she was lying.
"Do you by chance know an Agent Powers? Maybe you used to get him his coffee?" Dipper knew if he was going to escape he had to look for a weakness and when In doubt wounding a powerful persons pride would do.
"Agent Powers is a simpleton buffoon who works for an agency who doesn't know the first thing about the supernatural!" her voice raised, and Dipper could hear her panting after her initial verbal onslaught.
"are you mad? Did I upset you ma'am? I would watch yourself, at your age any stress can be bad for your heart." he kept working her nerve and He knew she was close to showing him something.
"I'm Thirty you little brat!" She exclaimed throwing the pen and something heavier to the wall which bounced off with a clang.
"Oooohooho, consider that nerve touched." Dipper leaned back on the chair. "Looks like you government types are all the same… easy to outsmart."
"if you're so smart then why did you not realize that the Sasquatch you were tracking happened to be one of the wealthiest oil barons in the world!" She gasped, "Oh no, I've revealed too much!"
"Oil baron? Sasquatch is an oil baron! Whaaat!?" Dipper leaned his chair back and fell backwards.
"Oh my god! Why does my boss want to hire this kid? He's so annoying!" the lady stomped her foot on the floor and the crunching of stone meeting fist filled the room.
"Wait hire?" Dipper asked. "so you're not gonna send me to a black site prison or kill me."
"No. I wanted to, but My boss wants to hire you?"
"why me exactly?" Dipper would be lying if he said he wasn't intrigued by this twist.
Dipper felt the chair lift up. The woman pulled his blindfold off and a bright flash of a light bulb over head nearly blinded Dipper. As his eyes began to dilate and adjust the woman's face came into frame.
She wore a lab coat with a buttoned up gray undershirt. Dipper thought she looked like a typical mad scientist when he saw the eye bags. She did her brown hair up in a small ponytail and she had what could only be called resting bitch face.
"wow, you aren't what I was expecting from that voice."
"what's that supposed to mean!?" She exclaimed her left eye twitching, teeth clenched. She cut an intimidating figure for someone so small.
"I expected some old, haggard woman in a business suit. You actually look kinda cute… I mean, you're okay for a thirty something." Dipper corrected himself.
Why did I call her cute! He couldn't control himself when he said it.
The look in the woman's eye was one of confusion as her cheeks brightened.
"The reason my boss wants to give you the job offer… Is because you seem to be a resourceful researcher of things we like to keep hidden." Reagan reached into a portfolio bag that sat near the wall. She pulled out a hardback book with a six fingered hand on the cover and the numbers one point five indented on the hand.
"My journal? You want me because of that?" Dipper had kept that thing filled since he started high school and he was close to making a journal 2.5 due to all the content he had in it.
"journal? Is that what you call this tome of knowledge on cryptids, magic sites, and government secrets?"
"what would you call it?"
"I don't know something a little more cryptic… the tome, book of shadows, oh, oh, how about the mythonomicon." the woman listed off the names with a strange energy. Dipper thought it was refreshing to see someone so interested. It reminded him of his time with Mabel.
"Dang that's good." He said under his breath.
"Ahem, that was weird. But yes, you are being hired as my research assistant for cognito inc." The woman explained reclaiming her notebook and pen then scratching a more words on the pad.
"Cognito inc. I knew that name was more then just a clever merchandising angle. So you are the ones behind all the weirdness in the world." Dipper felt like he had just been gifted all the secrets to the world.
"Wrong Dipstick. We cover-up the weirdness of the world. Keep it hidden from the common man. You are living proof that sometimes we fuck up. Thus, when we do we have a common saying… recruit it or shoot it." She adopted a half-smile when she said this. Making Dipper uncomfortable.
"so you plan to recruit me?" Dipper asked, looking around the room in case he needed to escape. He noticed that it was soundproofed with gray padding and an air vent above him let out warm air which was welcome due to it being the dead of winter or at least it was when they took him here.
"Not my plan, but JR wants you for some reason. So that begs the question. Do you want to join or die?" The woman placed her foot between dippers legs and leaned down to look him in the eye.
The boy noticed the tired look that was characterized by overworked people. "you should try and get some more sleep."
"what?"
"I'm just saying that If you look like you've been burning the candle at both ends. If you keep working like I think your doing then you're gonna burn yourself out. In my experience with tracking the supernatural you don't want to be too exhausted to run… just trying to help."
The woman slowly recoiled then turned her back. "I don't need your advice. Are you gonna join us or do I get to erase your memories."
Dipper took in the full weight of this offer and decided that he'd need more information. "I want to talk with your boss. Take me to this JR."
The woman loudly groaned then pulled a knife from her coat pocket. She took a couple steps toward the boy then cut his bindings.
"Right this way Dipper… what a stupid nickname." the woman mumbled, crossing her arms and leading the boy out of the room.
Dipper looked around and saw a long gray dimly-lit hallway. He followed the woman down and came upon a stairway leading upward.
"Ahem," Dipper cleared his throat.
"What do you want?" She replied through gritted teeth.
"My hat… I know you have it." Dipper didn't like being without his typical pine tree hat. It was one of the few things he had left from his time in that first summer in gravity falls. It was apart of him, a gift from a man who was like a father to him, he didn't feel like losing.
"you mean this stupid trucker hat. It has stains all over it, I'm surprised it doesn't reek to high heaven." she replied pulling the cap from inside her coat then held it out for Dipper.
"I'll have you know that this was a gift from my Grunkle Stan and I take care to wash it after each mission." Dipper replied, offended by this woman's brashness but also slightly attracted to it. He didn't understand why but he felt like she and him were more similar then he'd initially thought.
Dipper ran through the list of things he knew about her and cross referenced them with things he knew about himself.
Driven, check.
Intelligent, check.
Obsessive when it came to their job, Double check.
He continued and found that she was essentially an older female version of himself.
The realization sent a shiver up his spine because this woman did not look happy.
She was grouchy, blunt, and downright unpleasant to be around. But he couldn't find in his heart to be mad at her. Normally he was willing to let bygones be bygones when it came with government agents but this woman sent him through a roller coaster of emotions and he didn't know why.
She just seemed to be too close for comfort.
"I didn't catch your name by the way miss."
"Reagan." She replied her eyes locked upward. Her hand on a rail ascending the stairs. Leading their way up.
"Reagan, Like the president. What are you a female clone of him or something like that?" Dipper chuckled to himself. "you're not a clone, are you?"
"No. My dad just so happen to do blow with the real Ronald Reagan and named me after him." Her tone stayed irritated as they reached the top of the stairs. She placed her hand on the touch pad in front of her and when it finished scanning her hand the wall slide open to reveal a set of cubicles.
"So Miss Reagan, how did you get this job?" Dipper followed her, taking in the sights of this strange place. He passed a weird multi-tentacled creature with a brain for a body. "Wow."
"Don't stare." Reagan barked. "that's how we lose half our interns."
"How do you lose the other half?" Dipper chuckled following the woman as they came upon a glass elevator. Once again she presses her hand on the door pad and it scans her.
"Simple, we lose them on field missions. That's what you'd be helping me on." she replied, her tone showing no remorse.
Dipper gulped, this woman was intense when she talked about work.
The elevator came down and the door opened. Both Reagan and Dipper entered it.
They stood in the middle and when the door closed the elevator ascended. Dipper looked down to see a set of cubicles filled by strange creatures. "How did you get all these monsters to work for you."
"Simple, we offered them the same deal we gave you. Well that and a salary. By the way I you wanna survive this field. Learn to call non humans by their species rather then blanket terms like creature or monster. Otherwise they'll probably kill you."
"How can you say that so calm." Dipper took a few steps back to be next to the scientist.
"to answer your question from earlier. My dad help found this company with JR. I got hired out of College. Now I am The Head of the field operations team and the technological discoveries department head." Reagan replied looking up to the hole in the roof above them which is where they were going.
Dipper whistled, those were some major accomplishments. "where'd you go to school?"
"MIT." she replied bluntly.
The elevator ascended past the hole to reveal a new set of cubicles filled with humans. Dipper watched them mingle and act like they worked in an everyday normal office, like they were either blissfully unaware or just plain apathetic of the fact that there were monsters underneath their feet. Knowing how things like this worked… it was probably both.
"MIT… that's a big league school. When did you graduate?"
"1991."
"How old are you?" Dipper was taken aback, she looked like she was in her thirties but not late thirties which was around what her graduation date put her age range in.
"I'm thirty." the elevator stopped at the top floor of the building and the glass door slid open. Reagan exited.
Putting two and two together. Dipper's mind raced with the logic of the woman's words. Eventually he decided it would be simpler to ask. "How many grades did you skip?"
"5th thru 8th, I was ten years old when I graduated from high school." she stayed calm jogging forward to the center piece of the floor. A double doored office building with a plaque on the front. "here we are, where all the magic happens?"
"you skipped middle-school you must be a genius." Dipper commented, stupefied by how nonchalantly she told him that truth.
"whatever, just mind your P's and Q's when your in there. JR is not above sending people to the black site prison for less then sneezing the wrong way." Reagan turned her head to the boy and then back. Opening the door.
The office was lavish with everything you'd think an 80's stock broker would have. Throw rug, pictures of a man who looked like he'd own this office. Gray suit, black tie, soulless smile, black hair with a streak of gray.
Dipper looked at the full body mirror which was the centerpiece of the room. Dipper was not dressed to meet a CEO. He was still in his black sweatshirt with black jacket and jeans to match. The only color on his body was his white shoes with black laces. His hair was still a messy tangle which he normally kept under his cap and goatee which Mable said made him look like a Disney villain like his hair felt greasy.
I look like I belong in a conspiracy theory podcast. Dipper shook his head. I need to dress myself better.
"Reagan, is this the guy?" a voice called behind a chair. The source revealed himself with a spin. It was the man in the picture. JR. The CEO.
"Nice to meet you mr. Pines. I'm JR. Me and your grand uncle Stanford go way back." the man rose from his seat and extended his hand.
"you knew ford?"
"Stanford and Stanley, we would sneak beers from the local bar and I happened to go to the west coast tech just like he wanted to."
"Wow, he never mentioned you." Dipper chuckled, this guy just admitted to underage drinking in front of a complete stranger. No fear, no hesitation, he talked like he knew he was gonna die and that fact excited him… a truly dangerous man.
JR laughed in that fake cordial way. "I'm not surprised, he was always a truth is out there kinda guy and we're the that's classified crowd. I was deeply upset that he didn't want to join us… but hey, he trained one hell of a replacement."
Dipper blinked twice and remained frozen. "you mean me?"
"No the other kid who has managed to evade our many attempts to suppress his research, Of course I mean you! I have to say you are quite an astute young researcher. A real go-getter and therefore I offer you a job and position as Reagan's second in command and top field assistant. In exchange for your acceptance you will not only be allowed to keep your memories but also receive a handsome salary, health insurance and retirement plan plus I'll let you drive the company van if you write the request on a sign up sheet. So what do you say?"
Dipper looked back at the glaring Reagan then to mirthful JR. The thought that his Grunkle knew this guy and knew about this place piqued the boys interest. He had no choice but to accept. Dipper Took Jr's hand and sealed the deal.
"Welcome Abroad Kid, it will be a pleasure working with you."
Dipper looked out the window with a smile.
I guess I made it to the big leagues of supernatural investigation. I'll make you proud Grunkle ford.