Hello! I have to apologize again for the century long wait! But I have finally returned, and with this beast of a chapter!
A big thank you to all those who reviewed last chapter: FariyFlare, Nico, Strawberry, bruno14, The Samurai Prince, lupsss1412, EmPro8, HateIsRealAndItIsMe, AlecGateway, Gold1992!
WITHOUT FURTHER ADO HERE IT IS
Chapter 7
Soon after the group had passed into the boundaries of the forest, Wendy had caught a glimpse of Danny's seemingly off-put expression. He seemed to be in some kind of skeptic induced paranoia from the looks of it, and it was getting worrisome for the redhead as they continued their hike through the Gravity Falls forest.
"Dude, you look worried." she observed, turning to sneak another glance at him. "What's up?"
Danny eyed each tree as the group walked forward, searching for some indication that there were some kind of supernatural creatures in the forest. "I'm not worried exactly, but I still have no clue what we're looking for," he responded honestly, turning his head to face her.
"That's what makes it fun, man!" Wendy tried, but upon seeing Danny's paranoid expression, her shoulders sagged in defeat. "Okay, you got me. I have no idea what we're looking for either," she admitted. "Guys?"
Soos looked towards the teens in interest. "Dipper, tell them about our mighty quest dawg," he suggested, gesturing to open up the conversation to the rest of the group.
"Yeah!" Mabel cheered, raising an unnecessary fist into the air.
"Tell them, tell them, tell them!" Soos and Mabel chanted simultaneously, now both raising their fists in the air.
Dipper looked up at Soos and Mabel with a grimace. He really didn't want to share their 'mighty quest' with the likes of Danny– he was, after all, only invited last minute, and his presence was beginning to get more unnerving as time went by. Within the short time that they had began their trip, Dipper had began to overthink things in his mind obsessively as usual, all the while unknowingly staring at the black-haired teen.
There has to be something wrong with this guy, there has to, Dipper's mind screamed. Or maybe he is just an innocent tourist who happens to be walking right next to the love of my life and oh god they're laughing with each other and talking and why are they walking so close stop staring at him YOU'RE STARING YOU MANIAC STOP STARING HE'S GONNA SEE YOU–
Dipper blinked, shaking himself out of his stupor. He frowned, trying to mask his discomfort, and then turned towards Soos and his sister. Say something, his brained nagged.
"It's supposed to be a surprise though," he ended up saying lamely, and mentally smacked himself in the face for his poor excuse.
Soos made a face of disappointment in response, while Mabel stuck her tongue out at Dipper. Her twin did the same, and soon they were silently bickering amongst themselves.
"Alright, well, if you won't tell me what we're looking for, then at least tell me what we're avoiding," Danny replied levelly, cautiously stepping over a thick branch and subsequently snapping a twig right in front of it. It was the seventh twig he had broken in the last few minutes, and other than the sounds of the group's conversation, he swore that he was hearing strange sounds and hushed whispers from the trees. Huh, Danny thought, maybe Jazz was right. You're losing it.
"Strange dudes in trench coats?" Wendy joked, making everyone laugh. "But seriously though, there is some creepy junk in these woods," she warned, "But that's why I carry around this."
Danny watched with mixed horror and awe as Wendy pulled out an axe from her belt, brandishing it in front of her and twirling it around effortlessly. "You know, I was wondering why you had an axe attached to your belt," he commented, to which Wendy grinned at.
"Dudes, we got shovels and baseball bats in our bags too," Soos added, pointing to his very much stuffed bag with said weapons sticking out from the side pockets. "Just in case."
The raven haired teen raised his eyebrows. These people were really prepared. "Anything else I should be aware about?" he asked incredulously.
Mabel gave Danny a thoughtful look, then her eyes brightened. "You should watch out for gnomes!" she offered.
Dipper snorted from beside her. "Yeah, no kidding. They're the pests of the forest," he added, looking at their surroundings to make sure. "And they bite pretty hard too."
Danny stopped in his tracks, wide-eyed. "That... makes sense." He muttered before jogging to catch up with the group. Gnomes seemed easy to deal with, at least. He looked around the bases of the trees in hopes to find traces of said creatures, but to no avail. He looked towards the others. "So, other than gnomes, is there anything worse I should be looking out for?"
"Dipper once caught a Gremloblin in this forest," Mabel supplied, glancing at her brother. He rubbed his arm in the remembrance of when he suffered from many bites and scratches from the nightmare of a beast and grimaced. That was a wild day.
"Gremloblin? What?" Danny questioned with a laugh. "Heh, what even is that supposed to be? Like a gremlin-goblin hybrid or something?" he joked.
Mabel grinned brightly, pointing a finger gun at Danny in reply. "Exactly that!" she clarified, leaving the teen gobsmacked.
Danny blinked. "Wait, you're serious?"
"Yup!" Mabel said again, then frowned. "He used up all my stickers too…"
"Is she serious?" Danny asked, looking to the others for confirmation. He was met with simultaneous mumbles of agreements. Now he really wanted proof of all these monsters. He could accept it if this monster was a ghost, but alive? As much as he knew that something was definitely up with this town, it was beginning to seem a little far-fetched. And that was coming from a half-ghost.
"Jeez, I bet we oughta avoid the sascrotch too, right?" he asked, half joking. He wanted to see it to believe it, and about now, he wasn't sure if he could believe it.
"Actually, the Sascrotch is fake," Dipper corrected with a frown. "But the Gremloblin is definitely real."
"Oh, the Gremloblin," Wendy said aloud, remembering back to the time when Mabel had taken Stan's job as boss for three days, and caused the Mystery Shack to get destroyed and fixed within a few hour's time span. "That day was… eventful. I had to work so much, Mabel," she complained. Mabel smiled innocently in response.
"Heh, you can say that again," Soos replied with a monosyllable chuckle. Wendy groaned in annoyance of the memory, and soon the two began to aimlessly bicker in their own conversation about their workloads at the Mystery Shack.
Danny paused to glance at Dipper. "I guess I'll take your word for it," he shrugged. Considering he wasn't exactly human, he should at least be at least giving these guys the benefit of the doubt.
Dipper's eyes bore holes through the back of Danny's head as soon as the teen turned around away from him. He was searching for any evidence that Danny was fitting any kind of suspicious he had about him, and him seeming comfortable with the idea of monster hunting wasn't exactly considered 'normal'– especially coming from a so called tourist.
He chewed on the inside of his cheek before he spoke. "You know, you seem pretty okay with the idea of going into a forest to look for strange creatures," he began, trying to come across as casual as possible as he chose his words carefully. "Other people tend to avoid monsters."
"Comes with the experience, I guess." Danny shrugged casually in reply. He knew for a fact that Dipper was trying to get a rise out of him by provoking him, and it wasn't working one bit. But he had to hand it to the kid though– he was persistent. Then again, of course Danny wasn't going to give anything away that would reveal his secret identity. Dipper was too suspicious for who knows why, seeing as he had nothing remotely to even provide a reason for suspicion, and it was time to throw the kid off track.
"What experience?" Dipper pressed, making a face that was unreadable to Danny.
"I told Wendy earlier before we came," Danny began, glancing at the redhead for confirmation, "My parents are paranormal scientists, er, ghost hunters. Weird is the standard in my house."
Dipper exhaled in disappointment. Of course there was a perfectly logical explanation.
"Though I guess that would extend to my entire city– ghost attacks are an almost daily thing," he paused, then let out a goofy grin. "You could say that Amity Park is a real ghost-town," he joked, getting a snort of laughter from Wendy.
Dipper visibly twitched.
"So you hunt ghosts?" Mabel questioned curiously, obliviously disregarding her twin's mental state.
"Well, kinda. I mean, my parents do…" he began, "Well, they try to," he muttered under his breath, "But there are others who take care of it."
"Others?" she asked again.
"Yeah," Danny responded wryly, regretting having mentioned that last part. Others who take care of it, meaning Danny Phantom. They didn't need to know that part. "So, uh, where are we looking, again? I feel lost in this forest," he said quickly, trying his best at changing the subject.
The more they talked about ghosts, the deeper he felt he was going to dig himself into his own grave. Then again, he was already halfway there.
Dipper noticed Danny's uneasiness around the subject and decided to leave it alone for now. It was better he pile whatever dirt he had on the teen rather than hound him every chance he got. "Just up ahead. I remember seeing the creature we're looking for in…" he trailed off, glancing around them before speaking again, "This part of the woods. Near the river."
Soos made a noise, the noise familiar to the other Mystery Shack employees. "Good, dude, cause I'm getting hungry," he reminded, the sound of his stomach growling accompanying his complaint. "It's been, like, twenty minutes, and dude, I've ran out of snacks already. Even my extra stash is gone."
"Oh, what I would do for a Pitt Cola right now," Wendy sighed, looking up to sky as if she actually had hope that the soda would fall from it and magically appear in her hands. It didn't.
"I have Mabel Juice," Mabel offered brightly, pulling out a bottle filled with pink liquid from seemingly nowhere.
Dipper shot his twin a glare. "Mabel, no one wants Mabel Juice." he deadpanned, wanting to hurl at the thought of it. That drink was the last thing going through his mind, of all things.
"Pshh. Everyone wants Mabel Juice!" she insisted.
Murmurs of disagreement from the others in the group proved otherwise, only furthering Dipper's point. Mabel pouted.
Sooner or later, not much time had passed since they entered the part of the woods where Dipper's claims of Plaidypus was supposed to be, and in that time frame, not much had occurred either other than the occasional conversation. The only thing that had changed was the temperature, which was slowly dropping as they ventured further and further away from their starting point.
The growing wind through the air wasn't that noticeable at first, but gradually it heightened with every passing moment. The scent of pine soon became more prominent, and it wasn't long before the group had to acknowledge the coming chill that was passing through them. The leaves rustled aimlessly, accompanied only by the odd sound of occasional bird calls, and sometimes, sounds from creatures that no one in the group was sure about. To say the least, it was getting chilly.
Minutes passed.
Okay, so it wasn't a good idea to head into the woods without a sweater, Dipper thought, and was seriously regretting bringing no more than just his t-shirt and vest. But to be fair, it was pretty sunny out in the late afternoon when they had began their trip, and if anything, it was hot outside just not too long ago.
How in the world had the temperature dropped so fast? He mentally complained to himself as he receded to the center of the group to try and guard himself from the blowing winds.
Mabel had her sweater, Soos was… Soos, and Wendy had her long sleeve plaid shirt. But as he observed the others, Danny caught Dipper's attention yet once again, walking only a few steps in front of him. He was just wearing a t-shirt. The least warmth out of everyone, and not even a shiver or complaint came from the teen. How was he not–
Suddenly, Dipper lost track of his footing and quickly felt himself about to be violently introduced to the ground… if not for accidentally tripping and landing on something. Or rather, someone.
"–COLD!" Dipper finished his thought out loud at the shock of how cold Danny's skin was. He let out another startled cry of pain as the impact of landing onto Danny made him move erratically even more, this time making him actually hit the ground. Hard. For some reason, Dipper preferred the ground.
"I give it a ten out of ten!" Mabel clapped. "Extra points for tripping twice, bro-bro!" she chirped happily, but did nothing to physically help her twin off the ground. Dipper groaned in both annoyance and pain.
"You okay?" Danny cocked an eyebrow in both hidden amusement and slight concern. Dipper stared back, horrified, before ungracefully picking himself and dusting himself off.
"Pfft. Wh-why wouldn't I be?" Dipper spluttered, then cringed at the words coming out of his own mouth. "I-I'm perfectly fine… ow. I'm… ow...kay…" he tried as he looked over at his scraped arm. Wincing, he looked back at the others who had stopped walking to see if he was okay. Don't be a dork, he mind screamed. "I'm good. Eeeeyeah."
Danny squinted his eyes in confusion for a moment before chuckling quietly to himself. "Whatever you say, Dipper."
Dipper huffed. For some reason, just having Danny saying his name bothered him. It was almost like everything that Danny did bothered him. Actually, it did. He was beginning to feel like Danny was Robbie 2.0, and was unconsciously starting to find everything and anything wrong with Danny. Dipper wasn't an angry or resentful person, but he did get jealous easily, no matter how hard he tried to deny it. And currently, while Danny was getting closer to Wendy in the span of the two days he's been here, Dipper was still struggling to have a normal conversation with Wendy after knowing her for much longer. She was just too perfect, she–
"Hey, man, so, this thing's supposed to be around here, right?" The sound of Wendy's angelic voice broke his train of thought. To make things worse, or, better, she had put a hand on his shoulder as she said this.
Dipper tried not to internally scream as she made contact, but of course, instead he began to choke, covering it up with an awkward and very fake cough. "...Y-yeah! It should be around here." He stumbled, before declaring: "We should split up and search the area."
"Sweet," Wendy responded, and hopped down a series of large rocks leading towards the river. Everything she did was amazing. The others followed suit and presumably wandered off to different directions, himself included.
Dipper took this time to get some air alone to himself, and began to walk further away from the others. Once he felt that the others weren't close by anymore, he let out a deep sigh. "Man, what's wrong with me? I'm acting like such a dork, and worse, I feel like I'm being a jerk for no reason," he said aloud, beginning to berate himself. At least no one was here to hear him.
He looked up to the direction of the sky, covered in trees. "Maybe I should just s–"
"SHMEBULOCK!"
"AHH!" Dipper screamed loudly, eyes widening in shock before instinctively kicking the gnome far away into the opposite direction of where he stood. The insufferable creature let out a high pitched whine as he sailed away to who knows where in the forest. Dipper breathed a deep breath of air, still getting over the fact that he had been scared by something as harmless as a gnome.
"Just a gnome," he mumbled to himself. Where was the boy who could defeat dream demons, shape-shifters, ghosts, zombies, and other horrible monsters?
Certainly not the one jumping out of his skin from something as pesky as a gnome.
Mabel aimlessly looked around her surroundings with an unusual frown etched onto her usual happy expression. Kicking at a branch at her feet, she watched as it rolled into the slightly damp mud ahead of her. Being near the river, her shoes being muddy from the wet ground was already a given. But that wasn't the thing that was bothering her.
Soos trailed along beside her, making a messy trail of snapped twigs behind them. Each twig he snapped, he made a small grunting noise to accompany it. "Dude, what's with Dip-dawg? He's being so weird around Danny." he asked, breaking the silence (if you didn't count the twig snapping), and subsequently, speaking Mabel's thoughts aloud for her.
So she wasn't the only one who noticed!
Mabel frowned, then her face brightened. "I'll talk to him about it when I get the chance. Maybe some stickers will help! He always laughs when I stick them on his face," she suggested with a lopsided grin.
Soos laughed in reply, and then snapped another twig before laying it on the ground. Mabel skipped the rest of the way back to the meeting spot.
A few moments later, Danny called out to the rest of the group. "Hey guys, is uh, this it!?" he yelled, sounding slightly grossed out. "It's this... deformed duck," he paused, "Looks like something from the Mystery Shack. It's anatomy is um, really something!"
Mabel and Soos followed his voice and reached him in a matter of less than a minute. Wendy followed shortly after, presuming that she had still been near the rocks close by to the river where he found it. Dipper reached the group last, with an unreadable expression on his face, prompting Mabel to debate whether he had had another one of his self loathing epiphanies again or if he had come across a gnome or something. Nah, her brain decided.
Danny had been near the river, of course, being where he had found the alleged deformed duck. He was crouched down on his knees staring at the duck, willing himself to make eye contact with it. This was pretty difficult, considering that the duck actually had no face where a face should be. Instead, it's face was placed on its stomach. The group looked on in both horror and amusement, as the five of them stared at the creature before them.
Mabel was the first to speak. "What is this thing?"
"Dude, this is like, gross, on so many levels. And I've seen some pretty gross stuff," Soos added.
"I swear I've seen this duck before in the journal…" Dipper trailed off as he quickly pulled out the Journal from his vest. He flipped sparingly through the pages before landing on the right page, and his eyes flickered in recognition. "Oh, here it is! It's the Stomach-faced Duck, and apparently if you look into its mouth, you can see… all of its… vital organs… oh gosh that's gross," he cringed.
The creature in question suddenly led out a loud, peculiar quack in response, making Dipper jump in surprise with a yelp.
Danny's eyes widened as he leaned in to examine the inside of the duck's mouth. "Oh, check it out! You can see all the innards and body parts of the lil' guy in here!" Danny exclaimed.
"Seriously? That's so cool man, I gotta see that!" Wendy said excitedly as she bent down to look at the duck next to Danny.
"Dudes, I dare you to look inside it. It'll totally scar you for life." Soos suggested to the twins as he grabbed a stick from near the stream and resulted to poking the duck's faceless head. It quacked again and in the process, opened its mouth wide and clear for everyone to see its disturbing duck innards from its stomach.
Mabel and Dipper walked slowly to the front of the duck, and inched their head a little lower to look inside. Yep, those were indeed the organs of the duck. A fine display of peristalsis in vivo.
"It's… kinda cute!" Mabel tried, but her expression betrayed her words as she looked at the duck from a closer angle, above where Wendy and Danny were crouched down.
"Mabel, anything that has a mouth where their stomach should be isn't cute," Dipper deadpanned, much to his sister's chagrin.
"Pshh, come on! It's… unique!" she defended as she got closer to the duck. Immediately, she regretted her choice of words when she had decided to take a closer look upon the deformed creature. Intestines. Liver. Kidneys. Lungs. Bones. Veins. Blood. A pumping, live heart. How was this even biologically possible?!
"Okay, I take it back, I take it back!" Mabel retracted hastily with a horrified expression, taking large steps backwards to the amusement of the others.
"Heh, I'm so showing this to Sam and Tucker," Danny commented to himself as he flipped open his phone to take a photo of the duck. "Weirdest biology I've seen alive."
"Alive?" Dipper muttered, but was met with no reply.
Wendy was in awe of the creature. "So. Cool," she uttered, before looking up at her co-worker expectantly. "Soos, Soos, you gotta take a photo of me and the Tummy-Duck." Wendy begged, already taking out her cell phone and placing it in Soos's hands. He gave the stick he had been holding before to Mabel, who in turn gave the stick to Dipper. Dipper sighed.
Soon tapped a button on the keypad. "Oh sure, dude. Ready?"
With a nod, Wendy squatted low next to the duck, and threw up a gang sign for extra effect. The duck quacked as the camera shutter went off.
She got up from the ground and upon taking her phone back, examined the photo with an ear-splitting grin. "New profile picture for like, everything. You rock, man."
Soos shrugged, taking his stick back from Dipper. "No problemo, dawg."
"Even though it's mouth is terrifying, I kind of want to pet it," Mabel said bluntly, inching closer to the creature after Wendy had walked further to check out to photo on her phone.
Dipper's eyes widened as he lunged in front of her. "Mabel, don't, what if it bites you?"
Mabel snorted. "Psh, it's not going to bite me, Dipper, I'm great with animals!"
At her words, her fingers outstretched to land on the top of the deformed creature before her hand was smacked away by Dipper. The duck's stomach for a face looked up at the hasty motion and bared its tiny teeth before chomping on the closest hand.
Dipper yelped in pain, before letting his arm reflexively fly up in the air, flailing it around it all directions. Unfortunately for him, the Stomach-faced Duck was still latched onto his hand, teeth sunk into his flesh, resulting in Dipper lifting the duck from the ground as he ungracefully ran around in circles trying to get it off.
Danny stared at the scene before him before springing into action to help Dipper. He grabbed a hold of the deformed duck from its wings, and yanked it away from the preteen's hand. The duck let out a squawk and ruffled its feathers, making spazzed out movements. He could have swore he saw some intestines fall from its mouth, but he had to remind himself that he's seen worse. Worse than a duck with a face on its stomach.
Dipper wheezed, letting his hands rest on his thighs as he tried to catch his breath. "...Thanks." he muttered reluctantly towards Danny. The teen gave a half smile in response.
Wendy blinked after the whole ordeal and turned to Dipper. "You okay man?"
He cringed. "I'm good." he croaked out, wringing his hand at the seething pain.
"Your bleeding hand doesn't look like it's agreeing with that, dude," Soos commented, and Dipper looked down to his indeed bleeding hand.
Great. So far I've tripped twice, been scared by a gnome, and bitten by a duck, Dipper thought remorsefully.
"Luckily, I came prepared!" Mabel butted in, lifting out a small first aid kit from her backpack and taking out a roll of bandages.
Dipper groaned. "This is your fault in the first place," he mumbled. Mabel simply blew a raspberry at that and began to wrap his arm up in a bandage, albeit not necessarily doing a great job at it.
Dipper raised a brow at her questionable first aid skills. "Are you sure you're doing this right?"
"Bro-bro, trust the expert here," Mabel hushed, then after a beat, added: "Do you want it to be bedazzled too? I brought my–"
"No," Dipper deadpanned.
Danny looked away from the tree he had seemed to be staring at, and stood up from the rock he was sitting on. "So, are we heading home?" He asked hesitantly.
Dipper shook his head. "Actually, this wasn't the creature we were looking for. I thought it would be near the river, but... I don't see it," he mumbled as Mabel finished bandaging his arm. It had looked like a preschooler had done it, but it had to do for now. He could fix it later when she wasn't looking.
"So we didn't just come out here for the duck? There's more?" Soos asked, ushering the duck away with the stick. It attempted to bite the stick, and he ended up surrendering his stick to the deformed duck as it hobbled away.
"Yeah, it wasn't supposed to be this gross duck, it was supposed to be something else," Dipper responded, watching the creature in question with narrowed eyes.
"What? Wait really? Dude quit holding out on us tell us what to look for!" Wendy exclaimed while flailing her arms around.
Dipper swallowed nervously, and then whatever came next, he felt almost like he wasn't controlling his own mouth. "W-well, there was another creature that wasn't totally gross like the duck with the stomach for a face, but this creature wears plaid, like you!" he babbled, but his eyes only slowly began to widen at the realization of his own words.
She blinked twice. "...Thanks?"
Dipper quickly realized his mistake in his words. "I-I mean… y-you're not a creature! Haha! I didn't say that!" he backtracked while wanting the world to swallow him whole. Now Wendy was going to hate him for him accidentally calling her a creature and she would never want to speak to him again and he would live miserable for the rest of eternity and–
"I got that, man," Wendy laughed, suddenly interrupting his thoughts. Dipper let out a breath of relief. If she hadn't said that, he thought his insides might explode.
"So like, a flannel fish?" Danny asked curiously.
"Well, it's actually–"
"A plaid platypus." Mabel and Soos interrupted simultaneously. Of course they had known what they were looking for prior to the trip, and Dipper had silently been thanking them for not ruining the surprise. Until now.
Dipper sighed in defeat. "A plaidypus."
"Seriously? That's wicked cool, man!" Wendy replied, slapping a hand onto Dipper's shoulder. He stared up at her in shock, before gulping and nodding with a plastered grin. He had felt almost temporarily in heaven until she had taken her hand off his shoulder.
It apparently took a few seconds for this to register in Danny's mind, or maybe something else was on his mind, or at least that's what Dipper thought, before the teen suddenly blinked twice, then burst out laughing as if someone had just told him the world's greatest joke. "Plaidypus!" Through his loud laughter and wheezing, he managed to splutter out, "That's hilarious! I don't wanna miss seeing that!" he exclaimed.
"Well what are we waiting for then?" Mabel pressed. "Let's go find ourselves a strangely red patterned mammal!" she declared, accompanied by a holler from Soos.
"I'm all for it, man!" Wendy agreed, making Dipper blush.
Mabel beamed. "Let's use the buddy system then!"
"I'm cool with that. Wen-dawg?" Soos asked.
"Yeah, alright man, let's go this way," she motioned, heading back towards the rocks by the scenic river, hopping atop the large rocks, one by one. Soos followed shortly after, and soon they were out of sight. Danny looked captivated by something once more, but when Dipper looked at Danny's line of view, all he saw was a tree. What?
Dipper shrugged. "Well–"
"Uhm… I'm good solo, so, just, shout if you need me!" Danny interrupted hastily, and before Dipper or Mabel could cast second a glance, he was hopping through the chaotic tree roots, his black hair soon blending in with the trees.
Dipper cocked an eyebrow as he disappeared into the dense forest. Strange.
Now that an opportunity had presented itself, Dipper walked to Mabel's side as they examined the river for any traces of the plaidypus. She knew she was in for another earful of her brother's jealousy. Best not to fight it. It's gonna come out one way or another, she thought to herself.
"So…" she began slowly, trying to carefully choose her next words. "Danny's turned out to be a really cool guy."
Dipper squeezed the palm of his bandaged hand. "Yeah, but… he's too cool. Deep down I wanted him to be freaked out by all this weird stuff. That way he'd either make a run for it, or he'd stay and embarrass himself by getting scared."
"I thought you were set labelling him as inhuman," Mabel reminded, poking the side of her brother's cheek.
Dipper raised his eyes to look at her, looking somewhat offended by her lack of compassion. "I… was… I am! I just need more evidence. He's shady, right? It isn't just me that thinks this, right? Right?"
Mabel put her hands on her hips in retaliation. "So basically, you wanted Danny to either be a soggy paper towel, or a real-life Dracula? Come on, Dipper!"
"I'm not asking for your judgement, Mabel. I'm just telling you how I feel!" He turned his head away from her, feeling betrayed by his one confidant.
She rolled her eyes at his statement. "You're so over-dramatic sometimes! You're only making yourself look like a total butthead right now," she reprimanded, then turned straight around to leave.
"Mabel!" Dipper called, but to no avail. He watched as she stormed over to where Wendy and Soos were searching near the rocks, leaving him standing alone at the edge of the river.
"So much for the buddy system," he grumbled.
Part of him wanted to keep arguing about how it was unsafe to trust someone new, especially when his whole summer has been a lesson in trusting no one; but another part of him knew she was right. He hadn't given Danny a chance, despite him proving time and time again that he wasn't a danger to anyone. Sure he had a strange home-life, but those were things that no one could change.
But strangely enough, just when he was thinking about his predicament with a certain teen, a sudden shout coming from the dense forest rang out. Danny's voice.
OK SO THE "HOPEFULLY I WILL POST SOON" THING WAS SERIOUS BUT I PROCRASTINATED... A LOT. BUT, I literally just kept writing this chapter for so long and I took my sweet time with writing this all throughout my vacation over the holidays.
Also, I finally got a chance to read Journal 3 (shoutout to my sister who let me borrow her copy of the book) which I read obsessively in a time span of 8 hours. If you've had the pleasure of reading the official Journal 3 book, then you would know that the Stomach-faced Duck and the Plaidypus are legitimate creatures in the wonderful world of Gravity Falls, and if you haven't, I HIGHLY suggest reading it. Also, I now own a Dipper hat and Mabel sweater. Best gifts ever.
Also, I have a question for you guys. Recently I've been OBSESSED with Star vs. the Forces of Evil as I just binge watched the series last month and the next part of season 2 is coming out next month, and I've really been wanting to write some fanfiction for it. Would you guys like to see a crossover SVTOE with GF or a standalone SVTFOE story if anything? Just wondering. Y'know.
ANYWAYS. Thank you all for sticking through with me and my mess of an updating schedule, and just know that I love you all so much, and I honestly appreciate it so much every time one of you clicks favourite or follow. Y'all are awesome. Please, please, please drop a review if you're enjoying this story so far as well, I love getting all your reviews and I read all of them. I've already started writing the next chapter, so hopefully it will be out some time in February. The plot is finally picking up and I am so excited.
There's now tension between Dipper and Mabel, Dipper's having some internal struggles, (as well as a badly bandaged arm) while something is obviously happening with Danny... ALL TO BE REVEALED IN DUE TIME. AKA NEXT CHAPTER.
See you then!
- dannyghost :)
