The Law of Weirdness Magnetism
It was a surprisingly quiet day within the walls of the Owl House. Eda stood experimenting with crushed skulls for a new recipe, King lolled around on the couch watching videos on Luz's phone, and Luz herself was practicing ice spells on the floor, smiling contentedly every time a new miniature glacier sprouted up from the wooden floor.
Suddenly, from down the hall there was a horrified yelp and Lilith, the newest addition to their little group, came out of the bathroom brooding, feet bare, hair in a towel, glaring.
"Yes, Sissy, what is it?" Eda lazily called. "You find the rat family that moved in to the bathroom?"
"No, no, I only-I just-" She sighed. "I remembered that my hair spell only lasts a week, and, as I've recently been demoted to traitorous outlaw, I don't exactly want go out in public to buy more ingredients quite yet."
"Meaning?" Asked Luz, looking up from her conjuring.
Lilith ripped the towel off her head, revealing a bright, scarlet, frizzy mess in place of her usual hairdo. "I have to deal with my natural hair today."
There was a long pause as her three roommates looked up, gasped, tried to stifle their giggles, and then suddenly all burst out laughing. Lilith glowered at them all. "It's not funny! Do you think this is the look a respected coven leader goes for? Well, a former coven leader, anyway."
Eda was the first to recover. "Lily, you look great! It looks like mine: it's even starting to gray a little!"
Lilith grabbed her hair and rubbed it self-consciously. "Precisely. I was in half a mind to just chop it off, like her." She gestured to Luz, who squealed and said, "Yes! Do it, Lilith! We could be pixie pals!"
Lilith rolled her eyes, and Eda snorted.
"Aw, come on, Lilith, it looks cute! Takes me back to our school days. And, it's not like we'll be going out anytime soon."
She growled impatiently. "That doesn't change the fact that I haven't fallen behind on my hair treatments since-"
Suddenly, the doorbell rang, interrupting Lilith. "Ooh! I'll get it!" Luz said, hurriedly climbing over the couch and rushing to the front door. The door didn't open. "Hooty!" Called Luz.
"Yep, I'll be right over, hoot hoot!" Hooty said, somewhat disgruntled. "Hooty, get back in your frame so we can open our door. Hooty, this, Hooty that! Ugh! You people can be so demanding!"
"Just open the ding dang door, Hooty." Eda said.
"Okay, okay, gosh!" He said, opening his mouth wide to admit the guests. Willow and Gus entered the living room. "Friends!" Greeted Luz, "Come on in!" She noticed a minuscule potted plant cupped in Willow's hand. "Whatcha got there, Willow?"
"Oh, my dad got it for me at a market." Willow replied. "But, I can't find anywhere in my room that will fit it." She shrugged embarrassingly. "So, I wanted to know if you liked it."
"Ooh, yes, come to Mama!" Luz said, accepting the plant. She looked at the other witchling standing behind Willow, confused. "And Gus just kind of followed you?"
"I was bored." Gus replied. "Hey, I see Lilith is here now. Nice do, by the way."
Lilith growled, then stared in surprise as a violent purple glow suddenly cast a spooky light over the room.
They all looked over at the teeny plant in Luz's hand, which was glowing a furious shade of violet and making a loud humming sound. "What kind of plant did you say this was?" Asked Luz.
"Oh! It's a-"
The rest of Willow's words were drowned out by a glare of light and earth-shaking noise from the little green sprout.
……
The spinning and shaking suddenly stopped, and Luz sat up and looked around. They were in some kind of forest, but the trees and scenery here didn't look orange or unusually swirled in any way. In fact, they looked almost as if they were from..her world. But, that was impossible. Wasn't it?
"What happened?" Exclaimed King. "What did that plant do to us?"
"It's a Transplant!" Willow explained. "It's attracted to strong feelings and strong sources of magic. Not exactly practical, but, what was I supposed to do? Throw it out? My parents got it for me, and It's incredibly rare!"
"Woah, woah, woah, there's a plant that can just do that?" Said Luz.
"In our world, yes." Said Willow. "It usually doesn't do it unless it feels a strong pull from somewhere, or someone is feeling emotionally conflicted."
"Take it from me, never decorate with them for farewell parties." Said Gus. "We still can't find my cousin anywhere."
Willow nodded. "It can be hard to find your way back home, unless you find the source of all of it."
"Great, so which one of us had the thought that sent us to this trash hole?" Said Eda.
"It might not have even been that, but a magnetic pull from another world." Said Willow. "The plant does as the plant does."
"Okay, never mind all that, where is this trash hole?" Lilith asked.
Eda stuck a finger in the air, knelt down, tasted and handful of dirt, and crunched on a spider she found in it. "Luz's home world. The human realm."
Luz gasped and promptly fainted.
"Nice going, Edalyn; you killed your apprentice." Lilith said. "Also, how could you possibly tell that from eating a bug?"
Then, they all heard a couple of voices from up ahead. "Take cover!" Hissed Eda, hurriedly rolling Luz into some bushes. Everyone else hurried to hide as well.
A boy with a vest and a thick blue journal came into view walking next to a tall redheaded girl in ripped jeans and a green flannel top. "So, Stan told me I can't come over tomorrow. Apparently the 'rock that looks like a face' needs polishing."
"Polishing? It's a fricking rock." The girl replied. "And it's not his exhibit anymore."
"No, he actually keeps it bolted to his door now. I guess he feels pretty protective of it." The boy replied, shaking his head in disbelief. "Law of weirdness magnetism, I suppose. The weird is attracted to the weird-what the heck?"
The boy seemed to notice something. Next thing they knew, he had peered over to their clumsy hiding place in the bushes.
"Woah! What the-who are-I'm so confused right now."
"Stay back, human child!" Eda commanded, sitting up and waving her staff menacingly at him. "Or I'll be forced to-oh, right." She had tried to draw a spell circle with Owlbert, and then remembered that she didn't have access to magic. "I keep forgetting. Well, in that case, I'll throw my unconscious apprentice at you!"
She made to scoop Luz up, but Gus and Willow stopped her. It was lucky they did, too, because, just a few seconds later, the girl came to, rubbing her head. "Uh, what? What happened? Am I even awake? Is anything real?"
The two newcomers looked very confused.
"Um, who did you say you were?" The redheaded girl asked.
"You're worst nightmare." Eda said.
Luz reached out her hand to shake the boy's. "I'm Luz Noceda. What's your na-" She noticed the shape of his ears. "You're ears-they're so round-no puedo creerlo!" She leapt forward and hugged both of them.
"Uh, yeah, they're round, I know." The kid said awkwardly. "Great…I'm Dipper Pines."
"Wendy." The girl said, while being squeezed half to death by the witch's apprentice.
Luz detached herself from them and wiped her eyes. "Hi. Nice to meet you two. Sorry 'bout that. It's just, I haven't been in my own dimension for months."
"Y-your own dimension?" Dipper asked.
"For months?" Wendy asked. "That's insane!"
"Where have you been?" Dipper concluded.
"Well,"
"Oh my gosh! You two are humans?" Gasped Gus. He hurried forward, pulled out a notepad, and began interrogating. "You have to tell me everything about your realm that Luz hasn't! What are braces used for? Why don't you guys use cauldrons? How do you paint with spray paint cans? And what the heck is a tater tot?"
Dipper and Wendy glanced at each other awkwardly. "Um, let's just get you guys to our shack." Dipper decided. "Grunkle Ford will know what to do."
"Shack?" Lilith repeated. "Grunkle Ford?"
"Tater tots!" Gus reminded everyone.
"Yeah, just follow us." Wendy said.
……
As they neared the old wood cabin, Luz looked around in wonder. Familiar trees, familiar ear shapes, familiar animals! Well, except that one. She did a double take. "Was that a gnome?"
"Oh, yeah, but that's definitely not the weirdest thing you'll see in Gravity Falls." Dipper said.
"But, this is the human realm. Earth. Right?"
"Uh huh." Said Dipper. "As it turns out, our realm is a lot more interesting than we give it credit for."
"Strong magical sources!" Willow realized. "That's why the plant brought us here!"
"Cool! If this is Earth, where are we?" Luz asked. She couldn't believe magic existed in her home realm!
"A small town called Gravity Falls, Oregon."
Eda, from next to her, stiffened and gasped. "Gravity Falls…" she muttered under her breath.
"You okay, Eda?" Luz asked. "You look like you've seen a vengeful ghost."
"Don't be ridiculous." Said Lilith. "If she had, she would have already been possessed or cursed by now."
Dipper and Wendy glanced at each other with odd smiles on their faces.
"Well, anyway, welcome to the Mystery Shack, strangers." Said Wendy, waltzing in the door and leaving it open for the newcomers.
Inside, Soos and Stan were having a very animated conversation. "So I said to him, "I can walk wherever the heck I want, can't I? It's a free country!" And that's the fifth time I got arrested."
Soos laughed, while his girlfriend, Melody, hid her face in a gaming magazine, cringing.
"Oh, Mr. Pines, that's crazy! You have the best stories, dude. Can you tell me another one of those ex-wife jokes?"
Melody cringed even harder, burying her face in the magazine.
"Okay, Soos, here's a great one." Stan said, grinning wickedly.
At that moment, Wendy, Dipper, Gus, Willow and Luz filed quietly into the Mystery Shack, the last four looking around in wonder. Stan and Soos looked over to them.
"Oh, hey dudes!" Soos called. "Welcome to the Mystery Shack! Look around and tell me if you want a tour or something."
"Actually, we're here on business." Said Willow.
"Buyers, huh?" Stan said. "Okay, Soos, remember what I taught you. It's all about the art of the bargain."
"No, not like that." Said Luz. "We're not exactly supposed to be here. Well, I am, I guess. I dunno."
"Grunkle Stan, they say they're not from around here." Said Dipper. "They came from another dimension."
"Well, I admit, the ears are weirding me out." Said Stan. "And what's with the outfits, some kind of fantasy cosplay?"
"I love them!" Said Mabel, appearing out of nowhere. "I'm Mabel Pines, by the way." She aggressively shook hands with the two witches and Luz, who all introduced themselves in turn.
"Hi, new friends!" Mabel greeted. "You guys are really from another dimension? Tell me more!"
"Maybe later." Said Gus. "For now, can we just look around? This is a fascinating building, full of fascinating people, with fascinating artifacts and fascinating lives-humans!" He hopped up and down in excitement.
"Yeah, you guys can sit tight until the other Mr. Pines comes up from the basement." Said Soos. "Ford will help you dudes for sure."
They all shrugged, looked to Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy, who started showing them around.
"Wait, where are the Clawthorne gals?" Luz wondered.
"They were right behind us, and King was with them." Said Willow. "They must be following close behind, right?"
……
"Edalyn, what did I tell you about screen doors?" They heard from outside.
"They can't be kicked through." Eda's voice dully responded. "Are you done lecturing yet?"
"You will have to pay these humans back for damaging their property."
"Yeah, yeah. Just help me get my heel out of the dang door, Lily."
"I got ya!" Called Mabel, hurrying across the gift shop. Soon after, she reentered the Shack, followed by the Clawthorne sisters. "I get stuck in these things all the time. Nothing to be ashamed of. Come on in!" Mabel assured them. "Sweet outfits! And your ears are seriously adorable! I'm Mabel, by the way."
"Okay, Mr. Pines, the joke?" Soos prompted.
"Oh, yes. My ex-wife still misses me," Stan began.
Eda walked purposefully into the Shack. Her eyes fell on Stan, who had his back turned to her. She couldn't believe it. It was him. She smiled. This would be fun.
Stan concluded the joke. "But 'er aim is gettin' better!"
"It is, isn't it?" Eda idly agreed, leaning against an exhibit. Stan froze and slowly turned around to face her.
"Hello, Stan." she greeted. "Long time no see."
Stan paled, staring at her in shock. "M-m-Marilyn?"
"Close." She said, hopping up to sit on the counter. "But not quite. We never got around to real names that night in Vegas, did we? It's actually Edalyn."
"Mr. Pines ?" Who is this lady?" Soos asked.
"Edalyn? Who is this?" Lilith asked.
"It-its really her. Y-you." Stan stammered.
"It really is." She said. "And it's really you, too. Miss me?"
Stan snorted. "Nah. Hardly. Far from it. In your dreams, Marilyn."
"Edalyn." She reminded him.
"Yeah. Her too."
Eda rolled her eyes. "Charming as ever. And I see you've acquired a slave to run this old shack for you."
Stan avoided meeting her eyes. "Yes."
Soos shrugged agreeably.
At that moment, Ford walked into the room. He stopped and looked interested at the roomful of interdimensional newcomers. "Alright then."
"Hey, Uh, Grunkle Stan, what's the story here?" Dipper asked his uncle, who was still spellbound by the sight of the old witch.
"She's from a different dimension." Dipper continued. "How would you have met her? Do you really know her?"
"Well, yeah I know her. Who wouldn't recognize someone they married?" Stan replied.
……