"Kids! It's time!" Ford hollered through the house. Dipper and Soos came running while Mabel and Stan took their sweet time.
"Alright Sixer, how long's this gonna take?" Stan grumbled, taking a seat at the poker table.
"Come on Grunkle Stan, it's gonna be fun," Dipper replied, undoing his bag of dice and dumping them on the table.
"I have a good bit prepared," Ford said as he settled in behind the DM screen. "So we can play anywhere between an hour and four hours. We'll see how it goes. Now, you all have your characters prepared, yes?" The four of them nodded with various levels of enthusiasm. "Good, good. Dipper, why don't you start, and we'll go around in a circle and introduce your characters."
"Okay, cool! Um, mine's a half elf wizard named Tyronius and he specializes in conjuration."
Mabel sat forward and cleared her throat. "My character's name is Pearl McFearsomeFace. She's a druid/bard multiclass with a wild boar familiar that she can ride on named Biscuit."
"Nice one pumpkin. Uh, let's see here. His name's Stab and he's a thief- or, a rogue? Yeah, that. And he's filthy stinkin' rich. The end."
"Really Stan? That's what you're going with?"
"What do ya want from me Ford?"
"My turn!" Soos interrupted before the argument could go anywhere. "Um, my character's a paladin named Santiago de la Rosa Hernandez and his main weapon is a, um, flaming, raging, poisonous sword of doom."
"That sounds a little OP, Soos," Dipper commented.
"I'll allow it for now," Ford said, with a wave of his hand. "Now! Let's begin!"
No one expected it, but four hours, two pizzas, and five bowls of ice cream later, they were still playing.
"At last, you've tracked the dragon to its lair. From the mouth of the cave you can feel heat radiating from within. The smell of sulfur and copper hits you and a whispering, crackling voice from inside beckons, "Don't be shyyyy. Come innnn."" Ford leaned back, with a pleased smile on his face and gave a deep sigh. "And that's where we'll stop for tonight."
Everyone cried out, obviously displeased. Ford held his hands up, the picture of innocence. "I'm sorry, but that's all I had prepared! I had to make half of that up as we went anyway!"
"Grunkle Ford that was so good! I feel like Pearl McFearsomeFace has learned a lot about herself after battling the Fairy Queen."
Soos was crying. "And- and when Stab almost died in Santiago's arms." Stan tried to avoid getting cried on as Soos hugged him and Dipper piped up.
"Grunkle Ford, I knew you were a good DM, but this was awesome! Do you think you can teach me to DM?"
"Of course, my boy. But for now," he grimaced, looking at his watch. "It is well past everyone's bedtime. And you two have therapy tomorrow."
The twins groaned, but got a move on. After Mabel's late night discussion with Ford a couple weeks ago, the two had started therapy in the town next to Gravity Falls – the same one where Stan's boxing place was. It had been rough at first and Dipper had had to change which therapist he was seeing, but now that they both had found a good fit, the two teens admitted that this was definitely going to help them.
After bidding their grunkles and Soos good night, the twins retired to their bedroom. Thoughts buzzing, Dipper grabbed his journal and began to write down some of his thoughts.
Mabel hopped up on her bed, swinging her legs and brushing her teeth. "Whatcha writing Dipdop?"
"I had some ideas for a campaign I'd like to run. Hey! Maybe we could get Candy and Grenda to play with us and I could DM for you three."
"That would be fun! I could even pull out the puppy dog eyes and see if Wendy would join."
"Oh gosh, no, Mabel, she already thinks I'm enough of a dweeb as it is."
"Yes, but you're also the coolest dweeb she knows. And who knows! She might really enjoy it!"
"I guess you're right. It can wait for now though. We should focus on enjoying Halloween and I actually want to get a good night's sleep for once. You know we're going to need it."
"You and me both. Who knew that talking about your deepest feelings and trauma would take so much out of you?"
Dipper laughed as Mabel ran back to the bathroom, then turned off the light when she came back in. "Totally unfair."
"Agreed. G'night bro-bro. Sleep tight."
"You too."
:::
Dipper chewed on his pen, staring at the blank notebook in front of him, waiting for Mabel to get out of her therapy session. He had gotten out of his about a half hour ago and decided to use his free time to brainstorm Halloween costume ideas for the two of them. Halloween was this weekend and they still didn't know what they were going as.
Dipper wrote gremoblins? just as Mabel came out the door, giving her therapist a cheery wave before spotting her brother.
"Hey there Dippin-Dot. Whatcha doing?"
"Just brainstorming for Halloween."
"Ooh. Come up with anything good?" Dipper simply showed her the one word he had written and she grimaced. "That bad, huh?"
The two left the building, looking for their grunkle's car in the parking lot. "How'd it go?" Dipper asked. Mabel shrugged.
"Pretty good. I went in feeling crappy and came out feeling less crappy, so I guess it was a success. How about you?"
"Same. I… I'm making progress." Mabel smiled at that and gave her brother a quick side squeeze.
"Maybe I'll ask Pacifica for some costume ideas," Mabel said as they finally spotted the Diablo and clambered inside.
"Yeah, you do that, but I don't want to dress up as a peacock."
Mabel gasped at the idea and Stan cracked a grin at the two of them. "How'd it go, gremlins?"
"Good," the chorused back before diving back into their discussion of Halloween costumes. Stan half listened as he drove them back to the Shack. Dipper piped up as they pulled in,
"Oh, hey, I told you guys that my band concert is this Thursday right?"
"Candy's been telling Grenda and I about it nonstop! Don't you worry bro-bro, we'll be there."
Stan nodded as well as they got out of the car, tapping a finger to his head. "Got it marked on the calendar kiddo, wouldn't miss it for the world."
Mabel continued to ramble as she bounced inside. "And then we've got the Mystery Shack Halloween party on Friday and Halloween on Saturday! And no Summerween Trickster to worry about this time around."
"Yeah, thank goodness," Dipper agreed. He paused in the doorway as his phone buzzed and he pulled it out to find a pleasantly surprising text message. "Pacifica's wondering if she can come over."
Mabel gasped her loudest gasp yet as she cried, "SHE TEXTED YOU INSTEAD OF ME?!" Stan and Dipper both covered their ears at the resulting squeal. "Tell her yes!"
"Okay, okay, calm down. I think she just wants to work on homework."
"Yeah, but she wants to work on homework WITH YOU."
Electing to ignore his sister, Dipper responded to Pacifica who said she would be over soon. In the meantime, he and Mabel retired upstairs to peruse Mabel's craft bin and "craft-spiration" board for inspiration for their costumes. Before too long there was a knock on the door and Pacifica peeked inside. She didn't even get a chance to greet the twins before Mabel had somehow simultaneously crushed her in a hug and dragged her into the room.
"Pacifica! We desperately need your help. We've been trying to brainstorm costumes this whole month and still have no idea what we're gonna do."
Pacifica gave Dipper a helpless glance, but the teenage boy just shrugged in response. Seeing no alternative, Pacifica paid attention as Mabel listed off some of their ideas, shaking her head, asking clarifying questions, and pointing out possible problems with the ones on their list. Finally, she sighed.
"Look. I came here to do homework and to get away from my parents, but I can see I'm not going to get anything productive done until we figure this out. We need a new change of scenery. Let's hit up some of the shops in town and see what we can find."
With various levels of enthusiasm, the three of the informed the grunkles of their excursion and set off into town. Pacifica practically had to drag Mabel away from the craft store, but she insisted they go there last after they decided what they were going as.
They hit up the Summerween store first, grabbing the cape that Grunkle Ford had requested, and perused the costume aisle for ideas.
"We could do Power Rangers again," Dipper suggested.
"Definitely not," Pacifica said.
"Ooh! Look at this!" Mabel cried. It was a dress made of what looked like a dead flamingo. Dipper and Pacifica both pulled a face and Mabel sighed. "You guys are no fun."
As they meandered, they found the fake weapons section and before anyone knew what had happened, Mabel and Dipper were swordfighting like their lives depended on it.
"Wait, what's that over there?" Dipper asked, pointing. Sure enough, Mabel turned around and he flipped her hair into her face. She sputtered and shoved him, making him run into Pacifica who barely managed to catch him without falling. He pulled away as quickly as he could and, thankfully, Mabel's face was still covered so she didn't see it.
"You know this actually gives me an idea," Dipper said. "Remember Probabilitor?"
"How could I forget?" Mabel finally straightened her hair and grabbed a battle axe. "Why?"
"Well, what if we dressed up as our DD&MD characters?"
"I'm sorry, your what?" Pacifica asked.
Mabel gasped excitedly and began to explain in great detail the epic highs and lows of DD&MD while Dipper laughed to himself and began making a list of the things they would need. They should be able to find most things here or at the craft store. Tuning back into the conversation, Dipper just managed to hear-
"And you should totally play with us!"
He whirled around to see Pacifica looking… intrigued? He blinked and it was gone.
"Dipper's gonna run the game for us and Candy and Grenda and maybe Wendy are gonna be there too!"
"Yeah, that definitely sounds like something I'd be interested in," she drawled, heavy on the sarcasm. Mabel didn't seem to notice- or chose not to acknowledge it- if her smile was anything to go by.
Going out on a limb, Dipper, praying his voice didn't crack, said, "You could also just come watch a session to start with and see if you'd enjoy it."
"Plus, as a bonus, you get away from your parents and get free pizza."
Even Pacifica couldn't argue with that.
"Fine. I'll think about it. Now tell me about your characters' lack of fashion sense and let's get these costumes made."