A/N: AAAAAAAAAA, I got the muse for this back and finally finished Chapter Two! I hope you like it! I would like to thank JellyB3ll for favoriting this! I'm so so glad you like the story so far! here's Chapter Two right now!
The Property of Falls
Chapter Two: Precautionary Tour
"So this is where you live?"
Hero had asked that question as they all had forsaken the race, except for RGB who had no idea it was happening. He placed his hands on his knees, regaining his breath. Dipper noted this with fascination. A television that needed to breathe? or emulated the art of breathing? interesting.
They stood before the shack, Hero and RGB taking in its details. Wood, a missing S, all the works. Mabel nodded, grinning, hands on her hips like she was proud, and she was indeed proud.
"It's.." the monster kept staring, and then down at the twins, trying to find what to say without hurting their feelings. Dipper looked up at him, frowning before he worked up a smile, trying not to show his distrust right away.
Hero finished for him, "..nice. It's nice. Isn't it, RGB?"
The television's antennae crinkled again, as he too worked up a smile. "Er, well, yes. It is rather nice." Not amazing, just.. nice.
"Great! cuz this is where we stay all summer!" Mabel threw up her hands with celebration, before she took Hero's hands this time, eager to show her around.
The girl blinked before she was then dragged away, and looked back at her telly-headed friend, eventually shooting him a thumbs up as they entered the shack. Dipper held back a sigh. "Guess you're with me then, RGB."
The TV Head tilted his head slightly, magenta dripping a bit, and he hummed, antennae drooping. "You don't seem that happy about it."
The teenaged boy coughed into a fist, not expecting that RGB would be able to read him, and looked up at him with pursed lips. "Uh, sorry, I'm kinda new to people.. coming out of trees…"
RGB could only nod, but before he could get a word out, a cheerful voice cut through the pause, "DIPPER! COME ON!"
And so the two exchanged glances and entered the house, the television treading up the stairs. He looked around carefully, eyeing the strange, obviously fake, attractions, a vending machine, and a cash register on a counter. This must have been a tourist trap of some kind. Mabel was showing Hero around this area, almost done but not quite, but Hero had taken it into her own hands, smiling as she spun the globe with a finger.
RGB couldn't help smiling as well. It did his heart good to see her happy after everything that happened in The World of Make Believe. That is, until the boy next to him cleared his throat. "So.. this is our cash-grab area. Soos and Melody run it."
"Melody..?" the man was taken aback, putting a hand on his "chin". Julienne's wife was here? he doubted it, but the name…
Dipper promptly burst that bubble, "Soos's wife," and smiled with an eyebrow raised at the confused expression. "Who did you think Melody was?"
"No one you know," was the monster's quick-witted reply, and Dipper furrowed his brow with what seemed to be disappointment. He looked back up to see Mabel approaching the two, Hero moving on to the snow globes, and stuffing her hands into her sweater pockets giddily.
"Our grunkles don't seem to be here right now, so we have free reign until they come back!" the brunette announced, grinning.
Hero had picked up a San Francisco snow globe and shook it to see the colors swirl and fake snow fall. "Grunkles..?" she asked slowly.
"Great Uncles!" Dipper chimed in. "And that's perfect! we both know how they get with newcomers."
"And we've had a bunch of them come by over the years, all strange," Mabel continued, keeping an eye on the other girl to make sure she didn't break anything. "There was even a cartoonish plumber or two, dressed in red.. or green.." She rubbed at her chin, furrowing her brow. "I don't remember which one…"
"Point is, we can't let them see you!" the teenaged boy finished, falling by his sister's side and doing a "no way" gesture. "Especially you, RGB."
Hero in turn slunk back by RGB's, tilting her head so far the twins thought it might fall off, and asked, "Why not?"
"I would also like to know the reason we can't be seen by your great uncles," the television frowned, red and magenta test bars activated only slightly, crossing his arms.
"Well, for one, Grunkle Stan miiight make an attraction out of you," Mabel smiled sheepishly, twirling her fingers. RGB seemed to pale, leaning back with a disgusted scowl. Hero grabbed the sleeve of his pants in hopes to comfort.
"And Great Uncle Ford," Dipper inhaled, glancing away from Hero's white hands, "would want to study you and do all kinds of weird science to understand."
And then it was Hero's turn to grow pale. She wasn't stupid. She knew Dipper had been looking at her hands from the very start. RGB harrumphed eventually, setting a hand on his guardian's head. "Then perhaps we should leave now."
He proceeded to turn around, thus turning her around too, and make his way out the door. Mabel was in front of them before they could run. "I swear, we can make this work, okay? just stay out of sight until we talk to them!"
"Why are you so eager to keep us?" the television's antennae crinkled, the red dripping more as irritation seeped into his tone. He felt a tug on his pants leg just then.
"Because…" Mabel began, only to discover she didn't have much of an answer. She sighed, bowing her head and stepping aside.
Hero didn't like this atmosphere, and tugged even harder. Dipper could only watch. He knew that he was falling in line with his great uncle Ford. He wanted to study them both, see what made them tick, satisfy his curiosity once more. But it wasn't enough to overwhelm his distrust for RGB.
RGB eventually looked down at Hero, and she gave him the biggest puppy dog eyes ever as she gestured around the wooded home. His antennae shot straight up as his test bars gaped. "Uh, Hero.. you really want to test this, don't you?"
She nodded.
The television knelt and sighed, as both twins watched at this point, placing both his hands on her shoulders. "You knew I couldn't say no to that face…"
Hero smiled brightly, and nodded to that as well. "Mhm!"
There was silence, before he stood up again, facing Dipper and Mabel, who had joined her brother some time during the conversation. He then nodded. "Fine."
Both the twins and Hero celebrated, and Mabel took the latter's hand and rushed for the door marked "Employee's Only". Dipper and RGB only exchanged a glance before they followed.
"And this is our living space!" Mabel announced, and Hero and RGB stared with almost amazement. It kinda looked like the House of Paint. Dipper stayed quiet, staring up at the man a few times. That display of affection back there was normal, so why did he still feel something was off?
"Hm.. interesting.."
Hero started wandering the living room, with a smile. She stopped by the chair that looked almost like Gladys, and patted it. Nice and comfy. She turned towards the twins. "Is this chair living?"
"What," the boy blinked, immediately thinking about the living wax statues he and Mabel faced two years ago. Except the cheer on her face told him that, well, whatever she was used to wasn't malicious.
Mabel shook her head. "Nope, just a normal chair that belongs to our Grunkle Stan!" she chuckled, and twice nudged her brother slightly, implicitly telling him that she was thinking of the same.
"Oh," Hero seemed disappointed. RGB walked up to the stairs, looking up them to see what was beyond.
"And what's up there?" he pointed, test bars a steady line.
"Getting to that!" Mabel called, running past RGB and up the stairs. "There's more rooms, but for now these should suffice!"
The television huffed quietly as he followed, the wooden rungs creaking under his soles. More creaks followed as Dipper and Hero fell in step behind them. Soon, they reached the attic, and Mabel was there, sitting on her bed on the right side of the room, which was chock full of art supplies and fabric. "Took ya long enough."
She slid off the bed, dancing in place. "And this is our room!" Dipper joined her, doing jazz hands with her at the end of said dance.
Hero was impressed, clapping, while RGB merely looked around again, eyeing the triangular window in particular. The left side of the room was full of books and was a bit more messy, and so he figured it must have been Dipper's. Since, of course, Mabel was sitting on the right side.
"It's rather quaint…" he rubbed the back of his head.
"Thank you!" the twins both chirruped.
Hero climbed on top of the jutting window sill, pressing her hands against and looking out of the triangular window as RGB continued, hands on his hips, "But what about me and Hero? where will we..?"
"Oh.. uh.." Dipper spoke up, pursing his lips as he tried to figure this out. Mabel luckily chimed in, pointing upwards.
"We added an extension for guests a year ago but it doesn't get used much anymore since Candy and Grenda moved away," she moved to a door off to the side, a bit solemn. She opened it and it creaked much like the stairs, which showed its disuse. "We'll oil it down later."
Hero popped down from the sill and approached the open door. She noticed a set of stairs, but mostly Mabel's suddenly sulking behavior. Dipper sat on his bed, taking a deep breath. They'd gone over this grief. Mabel was okay. She just missed her friends. RGB soon followed Hero, and groaned at the sight of more stairs.
"Sorry about the stairs," the teenaged girl chuckled slightly at his childish behavior, feeling a bit better already.
"Mm.. it's fine," he replied, leading the way up the dark stairs and turning on his light as Hero jogged up them too. Dipper noted this in his journal. Being taller than everyone here, he had to tear down quite a few cobwebs, grunting with disgust. Mabel wasn't lying when she said it wasn't used for a year. But he tried to think positively. He and Hero would be able to hide for one.
Mabel followed soon after ushering her brother up. A light turned on, and they were able to finally see. It was a rather medium-sized room, like the size of the room downstairs that Mabel and Dipper shared, and it had two beds. Dusty as all hell though it was. Of note was that there was a square window letting the sun in instead of the triangular ones the Shack seemed built with.
"I like it!" the child chirped, before she coughed from inhaling the dust. RGB occasionally fanned the dust away from his vents. He was not going through a fritz again.
"It's very dusty though…" he added, frowning as he adjusted his cuffs.
"Yeah.." Dipper spoke quietly so as not to make the same mistake Hero did, but his and his sister's eyes began watering. "We'll clean this up too."
The twins gestured for them to go back downstairs, and they followed too, eager to get out of the room. Once back to safety, they brushed themselves off.
"So, whaddya think of the Mystery Shack?" Mabel knocked specks of dust off her shoulders.
Hero simply nodded enthusiastically, while RGB spoke, "It's a nice place. How much?"
This got the twins exchanging glances, and then chortling at him. "Ahaha, he thinks he has to pay.." Dipper muttered into his arm, and the television crossed his arms.
"Ahem.."
"Nothing!" Mabel piped up to answer, still laughing. "While it's a tourist trap, you guys aren't tourists, but guests! you stay for free!"
"Well, that's quite splendid!" RGB smiled for once, glad that he wasn't going to be subjected to having his blood drawn for payment. Though it wasn't likely how things worked in this world.
Mabel and Dipper nodded, and spoke together this time. "We hope you like it here!"
"We will!" Hero had recovered from her coughing fit and nodded, a huge smile on her face. RGB, however, wasn't quite sure, and though his test bars betrayed him, his smile was always true to form.
And nobody noticed.
A/N: FINALLY, AM I RIGHT? Chapter Three will come whenever. I hope I have the muse to at least start it now like I did this one a long while back. Hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you on maybe some of my other stories? ta ta!
