Episode Summary: The twins discover a hidden room inside the mystery shack, prompting them to fight over who gets the new room. Grauntie Mabel decides to give it to the one she thinks has earned it by the end of the day. However, things get complicated when the twins suddenly find themselves in each other's bodies!
Disclaimers: I do not own Gravity Falls or the Relativity Falls AU
Author's Note: Sorry, this took so long, I took a break from writing for the holidays. That time of year is so chaotic with the extended family around that there is no time to write. But now that the festivities are over, I am getting back in the grove. My plan is to have this season done before I post the Penguins of Madagascar Sequel in April.
PS. Parts of this episode was requested by Fanfiction user: DireWolfEmily
Thanks for reading and please review!
Switched (Part 1)
It was a slow day in Gravity Falls and with the AC finally fixed, staying inside the attic was once again bearable.
"Hey bro you goanna help me with this thing or not?"
For looked up from his notebook, he was sitting on his bed deep in thought, after what happened to Merlina, Ford had been very busy and for good reason. Merlina had been captured from the ocean and had somehow managed end up in a swimming pool at Gravity Falls. Sure, the coast wasn't far away, but the fact that she ended up here of all places. It made Ford realize something, a lot of supernatural creatures lived here in Gravity Falls, and What happened to Merlina made him realize that it's possible they didn't all originate here.
And yet here they were, all of them, gathering in this one place. Ford even went as far as testing this theory in the town library. He looked up all the monster sightings he could find, from the Web and the books around him. He circled each sighting on a World Map he had printed out, and just as he figured most of the sightings were here in Gravity Falls. It was like they were all drawn here by an invisible force.
"Hey Earth to Sixer!?" Stan shouted. He had been working on the famous Stan Fort, a club house he and his brother had created in their room back Jersey. Unfortunately, the attic was much smaller than said room. This forced the twins to crawl through the fort in order to get around the room.
Ford shook his head. "Sorry Stan I'm working on something." He said.
"I know." Stan said. "You've been working on it since the AC got fixed yesterday." He pouted slightly. Usually they would working right now, it being a Tuesday and all, but the Gift Shop was closed due to a mysterious odor. With no AC the place had been like an over in the summer heat, and Mabel feared something must have died in the walls.
So, until the source of the smell was snuffed out no one was supposed to step foot inside.
"What is it anyway?" He asked.
"I'm trying to figure out why so many supernatural creatures are here." Ford said.
"Oh, so that's what the map s about," Stan said looking at the map. It was now hanging on the wall by Ford's bed.
"It's like they're drawn here by something." Ford explained. "I have a theory of course." He held up his notebook to show his brother. "I call it 'weirdness magnetism' it's an invisible force, that in theory draws these creatures here."
"Sounds like you have it figured out to me." Stan said.
"It's just a theory Stanley." Ford exclaimed. "I need to figure out how this invisible force works. What causes it? There is all sorts of mystical things in this town. Does something here call these creatures to this town? If it's an object giving out some sort of silent signal, then it very well could be in the dead center of town."
Stan looked at a second map on the wall next to the first. This one was one of Gravity Falls, it showed a spot just beyond the Cayan bridge circled in red. This bridge connected two weirdly cut cliffs that loomed over the river. It was also were the largest of the town's waterfalls was located. "So, you think something here is doing that?" He asked pointing at the town map.
Ford nodded. "If it's something physical then the center of town is the best bet. The population of supernatural creatures gets denseness the deeper you get into town."
It made since, at least when Ford explained it, but Stan also knew there was only one way to prove his theory. "You're gonna go out there and see, aren't you?"
"Not yet." Ford assured him. "I'm not done ironing out my theory, more research is needed. Besides, Heather is working today, and I promise we wouldn't leave her out of any more adventures if it could be avoided."
Stan nodded. "Still, maybe you should take a break." He advised. "You know how you get when you obsess over stuff like this. I mean even scientists take breaks, right?"
Ford smiled, despite himself, besides Stan was right this wasn't something he was going to solve in one day. He gets off the bed and crawls into the fort. Gompers is also there making the place a tight squeeze. "Wouldn't it be better if we made this outside?" He grunted.
"But we always make it inside." Stan reasoned. "Besides it's still too hot out there."
Ford supposed his brother had a point. Still a lot of his stuff had been moved to make the needed room. Speaking of, where did Stan put it? He looked back to his bed and saw the answer. "Stanley, you can't just shove all my stuff under the bed!" He exclaimed. He crawls over and starts digging thought it.
"Bro you can't, there's no room!" Stan began.
Too late, Ford angerly pulled out his hard cover limited addition of Warriors: The Last Hunt! "Stanley this book is a collectible." He yelled. "There are only 15 copies of this version!" He was fuming, this book had the secret lost chapter that the original copy didn't. He had to camp out in front of the Mall the night before it released. Said mall only had one copy of the 15 special editions, and it was impossible to replace.
"Sorry, I didn't know bro." Stan said. "It look fine though."
Stan was right, the book looked ok, but it just made Ford worried about what else could be stuffed under the bed. He goes to pull out more when the doorbell rings.
Stan jumps to his feet, ducking so he wouldn't knock over the tent.
"Whups! Gotta go, bro!"
"What? Why?"
Ford followed Stan as he crawled out of the tent, the stuff under his bed forgotten for the moment. "Because! Bud's done with his shift at the pool." He explained. "We're gonna hang out!"
"Oh, that's alright." Ford decided. "I can continue to work on my theory." He decided. "Where are you guys going anyway."
"Don't be silly, I'm not leaving!" Stan said, grabbing Gompers and placing him on a pile of laundry. "Bud's hanging out with us." He exclaimed.
"Wha..." Ford looked around the room in dawning horror. "Are you kidding? This place is already crowded as it is–"
Too late their bedroom door burst opened as Bud charged in, throwing pillows all around them. Ford yelped and dove for cover. "I am so excited!" He exclaimed. "I've never built a fort before." He admitted. "So where do we begin?"
Stan smiled proudly. "Our left flank is weak." He said taking charge and started instructing Bud on what to do.
Meanwhile Ford went back to his bed, taking everything out and placing it on his bed. It gave him very little room, but at least he now knew nothing was broken or damaged. He looked around the room, seeing no free space for his things. He sighed and started stacking everything neatly, back under the bed.
Stan and Bud continued to work on the Fort late into the night, and Ford left them to it. He'd like to join them, but there wasn't room for all three of them to work. So, he went back to his notebook. Still, with all the noise work was slow.
Buddy and Stan were laughing loudly as they continued their work.
"Can you guys knock it off?" Ford did his best not to grow. "You guys are so loud you're gonna break the sound barrier! I'm trying to work here!"
"Still?" Buddy asked. Stan had explained everything about Ford's theory to him earlier.
"Maybe you should have that break now." Stan advised.
Ford knew he meant well, but there was no room to join them, and with all the noise there was no way he was sleeping.
"I think I'll just go downstairs." Ford decided as he took his things and crawled through the fort.
"Stanford." Stan began.
"No, it's fine." Ford assured him. "You guys have fun, I'm gonna have that break."
Stan watched a bit defeated as his brother left.
Ford walked downstairs with a sigh
Ria walked past him. "Oh hello, Stanford."
Ford didn't even question what she was still doing there at 9 pm at night. No doubt she was still looking for the source of the smell.
Fids would be helping her, but Susan still needed him to help with inventory. Once the new shipments of supplies came in and they sorted it. Fids would be free to return to his usual duties at the Shack, if the source of the smell was found by then.
"Ria, can I use your break room tonight?" Ford asked hopefully.
"Oh, sure!" She led him down the hall and opened a door. It led right into a closet-sized space filled with red-hot pipes that hissed steam at the joints. "You just have to make your body fold up like a video game character," she explained, and demonstrated. "The trick is to hold perfectly still!"
Ford stared at her dubiously. "What happens if you move?"
"This!" She lowered her left hand a fraction of an inch and it touched a hot pipe. The metal hissed and she flinched. "Ow."
Ford sighs. "Thanks Ria, but I think I'll just go outside."
Ria nodded. "That is what I do." She revealed.
Ford grabbed a spare blanket and a cushion from Grauntie Mabel's chair and headed outside. The grass was already cooled, and the stars were shining brightly. The fresh air was nice, and now that it was quiet, he thought he might actually get to sleep. Looks like he's et that break after all. He settled down, drawing the blanket over himself, and lying on his back so he could stare at the sky.
He sighed. "Sleeping under the stars," he murmured to himself. "Not bad, not bad..." He sort of snuggled his head into the pillow and closed his eyes.
A moment later a growling noise reached his ears. He frowned and sat up.
A wolf was glaring down at him from the tree line.
With a yelp ford climbed up the totem pole just before the wolf could pounce. "Shew! GO away!" He yelped and waved at it madly, trying to scare it off. The beast growled and dug into the wood.
Suddenly a loud bang reached his ears and he looked up. Stan and bud were apparently setting off fireworks indoors.
He looked back at the wolf. "This is still better," he grumbled, and lay back down.
The wolf howled as if in agreement.
The morning dawn was painfully bright. In the way that it always was after eating too much sugar. Stan woke up from his sugar comma dazed. He and Bud had finished the fort a decided to have a party to celebrate. Stan groan, shoving Gompers' butt off his face.
Something caught his eye and he looked up at the ceiling.
"Dude!"
"Yes?" Bud said, He looks up from Ford's bed, which he had passed out in at some point.
"Did we set off fireworks?" Stan asked.
"I..." Bud thought hard. "I think so." He said.
"Well, that explains the confetti celling." Stan laughed.
Bud joined in and together they got up, stan looked down to see he had prison tattoos made from permanent-marker tattoos. Words like 'Coolest Dude' And 'The Fun One' littered his skin along with pictures of Burgers and cross bones.
"Man, last night was great. We should do it again." Stan suggested.
"Yes." Bud agreed. "But maybe next time we can make it in the Livingroom." He suggested. "You know when the smell has gone. I feel kind of bad Stanford could not join us."
Ford walked up the stairs as he spoke, looking all baggy-eyed and grumpy like he'd stayed up all night reading. Plus, some scratches and a nice shiner. He flopped onto his bed with a grown.
"'Sup, Sixer?" Stan asked.
"A wolf tried to eat me." Ford groaned.
"My stars Stanford." Bud looked worried. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, it didn't get me, this is all from trying to escape an Owl who didn't want to share his perch on the totem pole." Ford explained. He looked around. "This place is a mess."
Blankets and pillows were stacked up everywhere making the structure of the fort. They had moved it around slightly, making a clear path from the door to Ford's bed. But that was the only clear place. Food, used fireworks, candy, junk food and wrappers littered the place.
"Pretty neat, huh?" Stan asked. "We even made you a path."
"No this is the opposite of neat!" Ford barked. "This – this is just impossible to live with!"
"Whaaat? This is like, the best version of our bedroom ever!" Stan shouted. "You love 'The Fort of Stan!"
"I loved it in our room where we had room." Ford argued.
"It's okay friends." Bud tried to calm them down. "We can have this clean in no time." He assured them.
"But we just finished it." Stan whined.
"Stanford is right Stan." Bud reasoned. "Besides I thought we agreed we were going to rebuild it downstairs anyway."
Stan huffed, but reluctantly agreed. "Fine."
But everything was not fine! Suddenly Ford gasped and jumped off the bed. Stan and Bud followed his gaze.
Ford's copy of the Warriors: Last Hunt was torn most likely chewed on by Gompers.
Ford picked it up by the corner frowning. "My Book Stan!"
"Oh Yeah Bud wanted to see it." Stan said.
"I'm so sorry Stanford." Bud looked ashamed. "When I heard you had a copy, I just had to see it. I must have forgotten to put it away."
"It's no big deal, right bro?" Stan said. "Accidents happen."
"No big deal?" Ford yelled. "I saved up for this book for over a year, I camped out in the rain just to get a copy!"
"I can have it restored." Bud assured him. "I know a guy."
Ford seemed to calm down at this, but he was still angry. "Stanley, we need to set some ground rules for this room." He decided.
"Like?" Stan asked.
"No more Forts in the room, and If you're going to have friends over, we need to be ready to be quiet and go to bed at a reasonable hour."
Stanley growled. He hated rules! "FINE!" he shouted. "then, you don't get to keep me up all night with your 'summer reading'!"
"How does reading keep you up?!" Ford argued.
"Uh, how about clicking a pen a million times a minute?!" Stanley shot back, pointing at the box of broken pens next to Ford's bed. "Plus, all the times you keep talking out loud about how you know the book is going to end!"
"Well at least my teeth don't whistle when I breathe!" Ford snapped, pointing at Stanley's new braces.
"Well at least I don't do weird experiments!" He pointed to the dresser covered in beakers. One had a blue fungus growing on it.
"Scientist perform experiments Stan." Ford argued.
"Beep boop!" Stanley said, moving his arms like a robot. "I AM A NERD ROBOT! That's you, that's what you sound like!"
Ford's lip pulled back in a snarl. "If you do that again, one more time –"
"BEEP BOOP BOP!" Stan taunted.
"FINE!" Ford shouted. "That's it, that's the final straw! Maybe we just shouldn't share a room anymore!"
Stan's blood ran cold, they always shared a room, even back at home.
"Well – well maybe we shouldn't!" he said angrily, clenching his fists. Gompers bleated and started chewing on Stan's knuckles.
"Guys, guys, please." Bud was trying to calm them down. "Maybe we should take a break from each other, yes?"
"Fine by me!" Stan shouted.
"Double fine by me!" Ford agreed. "And we can start by talking to Grauntie Mabel about getting different rooms. Let's go." He stomped out of the room.
Stanley stomped right behind him.
Bud shook his head; this was not what he meant. He followed his friends downstairs where they marched into the living room.
Grauntie Mabel was watching one of her sappy romance soaps again, egging on the characters and chanting, "Cry! Cry! Cry!" As if they could hear her, two characters immediately began sobbing their hearts out.
"Grauntie Mabel, we want different rooms!" Ford announced.
She snorted. "And I want a pair of magic sparkly boots," she said. "It ain't gonna happen."
"C'mon, Ms. Pines, can't we work something out?" Bud asked hopefully. He just wanted his friends to stop fighting. All his family did was fight lately. He didn't want his friends to do the same.
Mabel leaned back in the chair. "Look, kids, there's my room and the attic, that's it." She said apologetically. "What, you think there's some kinda secret, hidden room in the Shack?"
CRASH!
"Dude!" Ria's voice called. "I found some kind of secret, hidden room in the Shack!"
Ford and Stanley glanced at each other, smiling.
Bud face palmed as they raced after her, good grief.
A minute later, Ford, Stan, Bud, and Mabel were all assembled in a downstairs level of the Shack A short set of stairs led down to a sort of storage room. A bookcase had been pulled aside to reveal an ornately carved door of redwood.
Ria gestured to it. "Alright, so I was cleaning up behind this bookcase, when boom! Mystery Door!"
"Is this gonna be like the time we found the wax guys?" Stanley asked, eyeing the door.
"I don't know," Ria said. "This old Shack is full of weird secrets." She reached out, turned the knob, and pushed open the door.
It led into some kind of study. There was a large, painfully ugly blue rug on the floor, a deflated orange couch, a large table with beakers and oil containers on top, a desk with a small glass prism on its corner, and several small end tables laden with lamps, clocks, and, of course, dust. An actual rat ran across the carpet, skittering and squeaking as it disappeared under the couch.
"Whoa-ho," Ford said, as he and Stan walked in.
"Classy," Bud admitted.
Ford walked past a calendar hanging on the wall and paused, frowning at it. There was a picture of an owl, but what was interesting was the date: 1982. For some reason that seemed significant, like he'd seen that year somewhere in the Shack before.
Stan had gone over to the only window in the room. It was thin, rectangular, with several circles of red stained glass set into the middle.
Ford ignored him and knelt – something had caught his eye on the carpet. Aside from the gaudy color, the rug had a circular design made of two spiraling arrows in the center, but tha wasn't what had caught his eye. He lifted the label on the rug's edge.
"'Experiment 78'?" he read. That didn't look like a typical 'Wash with like colors' label to him. "Grauntie Mabel, what is this place?"
He turned and could've sworn he saw her swipe something off an end table. It was some sort of hat, white with a blue bill. He couldn't see the front.
"I dunno," she grumbled. "Just another room I gotta clean up now."
"Hey look! I'm making Dust Angels!" said Stan, waving his arms and legs in the center of the rug. "Awesome, right?"
"Yeah, if yer into things that're terrible," she grumbled, heading out of the room.
Ford looked around and caught sight of a key hanging on the wall by the door. He grabbed it with a smile. "Problem solved! I'll move in here!"
Stan sat up, frowning. "Why should you get this room? I saw it first!"
Mabel stopped at the doorway, "Wait a second...so you both want the room, huh?" She walked in and snatched the key from Ford's hand, looking it over like it was an interesting new bauble she could display in the Museum. "Hmmm...I guess I'll give it to one of you, but you'll have to earn it."
"What?" Ford yelped.
"Having your own space is a great responsibility." Mabel explained. "And a right a passage, If you two want your own room you have to show me you are ready." She looks down and notices her shoe is untied. "Oh, my shoe." She says.
Ford and Stanley looked at each other. Then they both dove for her shoe, fighting to tie her shoelace. Ford had the upper hand with his extra fingers, but Stanley kept shoving him away.
"Boys, this is not what I had in mind! Boys!" Seeing that she wasn't being heard she races for cover, slipping out of the shoe to do it.
Ford and Stanley leaped to their feet and raced after her, but Ria jumped in front of them as they reached the doorway.
"Just a minute, chiquitos," she said. "This room is already causing problems between you. You never fought over sharing a room before, and the attic is a very nice place. Maybe you two should be satisfied with what you have."
The boys looked at each other, the battle lines were drawn and with determined looks they shot past her.
Bud shakes his head; he had to get work and get their friends together. It was obvious he was going to need help getting the to work this out.
"Give it up, Stanley!" Ford shouted.
"Forget it!" Stan yelled back. "That room is mine!"
Stan stood with his brother in the kitchen, each of them digging their elbows into each other's ribs.
Mabel held up the key and they snapped to attention.
"Alright, kids, here's how it's gonna go down," she said, trying to get things back under control. "I have a list of chores that need to be done. Usually Ria would do this, but she'll be cleaning the new rom and making it safe and vermin free. So, you tow have to help her out."
"Sounds reasonable." Ford agreed.
Mable nodded her approval; she wanted the boys to stop fighting and learn a lesson in all this. She wrote down two equally long list of chores and set the boys to work.
"But I'll get done before you!" Stan shouted.
"Not a chance." Ford said as they went there separate ways.
Mabel noticed Bud sneaking out. "You, okay?" She asked him.
"Just getting reinforcements." Bud assured her. "Looks like we're gonna need them."
Mabel nodded her agreement. If there was one thing, she knew it was that when two Pines were fighting it meant war.
They were gonna need all the help they could get.
-To Be Continued