Disclaimer: Clearly, I do not own Gravity Falls.
Vic blinked.
Last thing he'd known, he'd just clicked on some show he'd never watched, Gravity Falls, because his friend had recommended it to him. Then, blackness. And then his eyes were open and blinking, and he was very confused.
It felt like his brain had just had a blip. He'd been sitting on the couch, a cat sleeping on his lap, and now he was standing out in the middle of nowhere in the woods. There was a path in front of him, looking . . . beaten. And weird, in a way that he didn't really know how to describe.
And, if that wasn't weird enough, suddenly, there was music. A happy melody, almost like it was on a harp? Reminded him of a relaxing summer party or something, and then it ended with a gentle note. Then, all of a sudden, a loud, chaotic, more adventurous one burst out.
He whirled around. "Hey, who's playing that?!" he demanded. There was . . . nobody around. He frowned, very, very confused.
Then it changed again, to a catchy song that reminded him of a theme song.
Theme song . . . A horrible thought occurred to him. Random, themed music playing in the background after he randomly showed up in the woods after clicking on a TV show? How could he explain that?
The music changed again, to a playful, mysterious, repetitive one that continued for a while, and he took the opportunity to start wandering around the path. It still looked really strange, and he had an idea why . . . but he wasn't thinking about that. He chose a direction and started walking, a little embarrassed that he had no clue where he was. Was he still in Missouri, or . . . what?
After a little bit of walking, he went around a bend and there was a strange house in the distance, with a whole bunch of triangles in the structure and big words on the side proclaiming 'MYSTERY SHACK'. There were a whole bunch of other signs on it, and another one reading 'GIFT'. The playful music ended as soon as he got a good look at it.
Huh. Was this, like, some . . . okay, he had no clue what he was looking at. The only words that were coming to mind were tourist trap . . . but why would it be in the middle of nowhere?
(Though, if his growing theory was correct, things didn't always have to be completely logical . . . nope. Wasn't thinking about that right now.)
Curious, he walked into the gift shop, or at least, what he guessed was the gift shop. There were a couple of tourists milling around (whoa, weird looking people), and two kids who looked like siblings were talking. One of them had a spray bottle, so he guessed that he worked there, though they seemed a little young for employees.
"Come on, Dipper!" the girl said. "This is our first summer away from home. It's my big chance to have an epic summer romance."
Vic just awkwardly stood there, listening to their conversation as they continued to not notice him. He at least tried to not look quite so awkward.
"Yeah, but do you need to flirt with every guy you meet?" the boy asked.
There was a little bit of music, kind of like an intro to an 80s synth pop song. He looked around, confused, but no one else seemed to hear it. "Mock all you want, brother, but I got a good feeling about this summer." Ah, so they were siblings. They did look similar, maybe they were even twins. "I wouldn't be surprised if the man of my dreams walked through that door right now."
She pointed behind her, and there was holy music, literally sounding like angels singing, as an old, fat man with a soda bottle and a bunch of signs under his arm walked through. He burped and groaned, as did the girl (well, she groaned. He was the only one who burped.) "Oh, why?!" Her brother laughed.
"All right, look alive, people. I need someone to go hammer up these signs in the spooky part of the forest."
Both of the siblings said, "Not it!" at basically the same time, as did a handyman behind them.
The old guy deadpanned, "Nobody asked you, Soos."
"I know, and I'm comfortable with that." The guy (Soos?) pulled out a chocolate bar and started chewing on it. Uncomfortably loudly.
"Wendy! I need you to put up this sign!"
A red-headed teen sitting by the cash register, reading a magazine, lazily reached out an arm. "I would, but I . . . uh . . . can't . . . uh . . . reach it."
"I'd fire all of you if I could," the old guy said, annoyed. "All right, let's make it eeny-meeny-miney . . . you." He pointed at the boy, who jumped.
"Aw, what? Grunkle Stan, whenever I'm in those woods, I feel like I'm being watched."
"Ah, this again."
"I'm telling you, something weird is going on in this town." Well, Vic agreed with that sentiment. Where was that music coming from? He noticed there was also an eerie tone playing in the background, making his hair raise slightly. "Just today my mosquito bites spelled out 'beware'." He showed them the arm in question.
The old guy peered at it, then just said, "That says 'bewarb'." The kid looked at his arm and rubbed it self-consciously. Vic felt that. "Look, kid, the whole 'monsters in the forest' thing is just local legend drummed up by guys like me to sell merch to guys like that." He gestured to your average guffawing, sweaty tourist. "So quit being so paranoid!"
He threw the signs at him, and the kid caught them with a sigh. He went to leave, and Vic followed him. He noticed, though. "Uh, hey? What's up?" the kid with the signs asked.
Vic blinked. "I, um . . . I overhead your conversation. With that old guy, whoever he is."
"He's my Grunkle Stan," the other kid supplied.
"Oh. Stan. Okay." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I . . . I think you're right. Something . . . weird is going on. Suspiciously so."
The kid perked up, then looked around suspiciously. "You know what, how about you come out with me? The woods are creepy, but nobody can overhear us there, right?"
"Yeah, okay."
He wandered out with the other kid, and they made their way to the edge of the woods. After a moment, the other guy sighed. "All right, I think we're alone now. What have you seen?" He pulled out a pen and pad of paper, and Vic idly wondered if he always had those in his pocket.
"Not really . . . seen?" he said awkwardly. "I've been hearing music. Like, little snippets that are oddly on-theme. It's weird." He was about to go on, about how he'd randomly showed up here, but then thought better of it and shut up.
"Hmm . . ." The other kid chewed on the back of his pen. "Music? Like what?"
"Well, these woods sound creepy, too." He looked into the forest. "Like, deep and ominous." He listened for a moment, and he shuddered.
"That sounds like—" the other guy started, but they were interrupted by the old guy, Stan, shouting from the building.
"I CAN SEE YOU, DIPPER! QUIT TALKING AND GO HAMMER UP THOSE SIGNS!"
The kid, Dipper, winced and put his pen and paper away, picking up his signs. "Right. Ugh."
"Eh, we can talk while you hammer them up. And I can help, if you want."
Dipper brightened up at that.
They walked further into the forest, and the music just got more and more ominous. The two of them talked as they took turns nailing up signs, and he introduced himself, but they couldn't really come up with an explanation for the music.
"You know, nobody really believes anything I say," Dipper said. "It's cool that you do." He moved to hammer a nail into a tree, and instead of just going in, like it had happened before, there was a metallic clanging. Both of them froze, and Dipper tried it again.
Well, that's suspicious, Vic thought with a frown as the other kid opened up a literal metal panel in the tree, covered in dust. That definitely sounded like something from a . . . NOPE. He wasn't ready to accept that yet.
Mysterious music rose to a crescendo as they peered at the old, science-y looking contraption. Dipper looked around them and started fiddling with stuff, but Vic just felt unease growing in him. The music was making him paranoid.
Suddenly, Dipper moved a switch and a literal panel of grass opened up. Vic yelped and jumped back, nearly bowling over Dipper, and he went red. They both peered inside the newly-opened hole.
"What the . . . ?"
Inside was a dusty, spiderwebby book, covered in bugs. It looked like it had a hand on it. As he looked at it, a sound that reminded him of a low cultist chanting in a movie showed up. Though it wasn't exactly like a voice. Dipper picked up the book and blew it off, and the symbol on the front was revealed to be a six-fingered hand, with a three on it.
Vic shivered. This was creepy enough on its own, but with the music? Even worse.
Silently, they knelt down and started flipping through the pages. There was a property page in the front, with the name torn off. Dipper started to read. "'It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon.'" Was that where they were?
Maybe it was a coincidence that was also the name of the show he'd clicked on?
Dipper flipped another page, and another, and another, and every one of them had something strange on it. Floating eyeballs. Gnomes. Cursed doors. "What is all this?" the kid asked.
"Heck if I know," Vic responded. But this book was giving him eerie vibes.
"'Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before he finds it. Remember, in Gravity Falls, there is no one you can trust.' No one you can trust?" They looked at each other, and Vic thought he could see a bead of distrust in the other kids eyes.
He rolled his own. "Please, you're gonna trust the old book you found in the woods with the creepy music over me?"
Dipper looked a little embarrassed, and he shut the book. He'd barely done that when a very loud voice screamed, "HELLO!" He yelped and nearly dropped the book, and Vic literally fell over. "Whatcha readin'? Some nerd thing? Oh, hi, new guy." It was the girl from the store, Dipper's sister. "I'm Mabel."
"Nice to meet you," he said, jumping back up to his feet and dusting himself off as if nothing happened. "I'm Vic."
She grinned, and then turned back to her brother. "What, are you actually not gonna show me?"
There was a goat eating the book now. Vic did his best to shoo it away, though most animals besides cats made him nervous. "Uh . . . let's go somewhere private."
"This isn't private enough for you? It was private enough when we were . . ." He suddenly realized Mabel was there, and that he wasn't sure he wanted another person to know. ". . . busy finding this book."
Dipper got the message. "Oh, yeah, right. C'mon, Mabel, I'll tell you on the way back."
He'd intended to stick with Dipper and Mabel, since he'd met both of them and they knew what they were doing, mostly, but that plan was thrown out the window the second Stan saw him.
The old man narrowed his eyes, and the kids awkwardly edged away, past him. "Who're you?" he asked.
"A friend," Vic said, trying to keep the waver out of his voice. "Of theirs."
"Hmm." They were in that position for a good thirty seconds, Stan staring him down and Vic barely hiding his fear. Maybe it was weird that he was so freaked out, but he'd had some bad experiences with meeting his friends' parents/guardians, and Stan seemed . . . hmm. He wasn't sure how to phrase that without thinking himself horribly rude. Defensive, maybe?
"Well, you're not going in my house," he said determinedly, and Vic's face fell. ". . . until you take the Mystery Shack tour, that is!"
He blinked.
In a matter of moments, he found himself with a loss of fifteen bucks (wait, since when did he have money in his pocket?) and he was being led amongst the oddities. He expected the music to match Stan, since that was who he was with at the moment, but instead, it seemed weirdly disjointed.
Huh, he thought, interested. The music followed Dipper and Mabel, not what's around me.
That added more evidence to the theory he wasn't going to think about.
"Behold, the beavercorn!" Stan declared, then, when Vic was too lost in his own thoughts to react, he snapped in his face. He yelped and jumped back. "Kid, come on. You wanna talk to the twins, right? Well, you gotta do this first."
"Right. Sorry." He tried to pay attention to the tour instead of the boppy, playful, mystery music playing in his head.
They'd just finished the tour when the doorbell rang. "That your parents or somethin', kid?" Stan asked him.
"Not likely." Since they probably hadn't gotten za . . . nope. Still not thinking about that.
The 80s pop-sounding song he'd initially heard when Mabel was talking about her 'epic summer romances' played again, which started turning the wheels in his brain. Maybe the ringing doorbell had something to do with her and her romances?
Sure enough, she shouted, "Coming!", and Stan and Vic watched her run past. Stan took a long drink of his soda and looked at Dipper, who'd started reading the book—journal?—again. (Vic could only see this because he was peeking out from behind Stan's potbelly.)
"Whatcha readin' there, slick?" the man asked, and Dipper looked up, alarmed.
"Oh!" He shoved the journal between the couch cushions and grabbed the nearest thing. "I was just catchin' up on, uh . . . 'Gold Chains for Old Men Magazine'?"
"That's a good issue," Stan said, leaning over the chair, and Vic felt the need to ask questions. However, before he could do so—
"Heeeeeeey, family!" Mabel called. "And Vic. Say hello to my new boyfriend!" The guy in question had a beat up black hoodie that looked like it had been in the woods, and he turned around, revealing pale skin, one eye covered with hair and the other cast in shadow, and some red substance on his cheek.
An eerie series of notes played, which made Vic immediately distrustful. "'Sup?" her boyfriend asked.
"Hey."
"How's it hanging?"
"Erm."
All the boys looked some level of disturbed, confused, or suspicious.
"We met at the cemetery," Mabel explained. "He's really deep." Wait, she went to the cemetery in that short time span?! She rubbed his arm. "Ooh! Little muscle there." She squeezed it. "That's . . . huh. What a surprise."
"So, what's your name?" Dipper asked, apparently slipping into interrogation mode. Vic was still in shock mode, as was Stan.
The teen looked stricken. "Uh . . . Normal . . . Man!" he grunted out, looking terrified. (Vic noted that his teeth were pointed, which did not seem a good omen.)
"He means Norman," Mabel clarified.
"Are you bleeding, Norman?"
The red stuff dripped down his face. "It's jam." Vic noticed that a faint creepy tone played whenever it came time for Norman to answer.
She gasped. "Oh! I love jam!" She punched him in the chest for effect, but he didn't react. "Look at this!" She smiled to the boys, but they were all just staring at Norman. Vic at least tried to give her a thumbs-up, emphasis on tried.
"So, you wanna go hold hands, or . . . whatever?" Norman asked slowly.
"Oh! Oh, my goodness." She giggled. "Don't wait up!" She ran off, and Norman shot them a finger gun before slamming into the doorframe a couple times and following her.
Vic bit his lip, and turned to Dipper. They exchanged a look.
Journal time.
"'Known for their pale skin and bad attitudes,'" Dipper read, "'these creatures are often mistaken for . . . teenagers?! Beware Gravity Falls's nefarious . . . ZOMBIE!'" he screamed. And, between the screaming and the thunder outside and the dramatic crescendo in the music, Vic winced and covered his ears.
"You could be a little quieter, you know," he muttered.
Dipper peered out the window, so Vic did too. Norman was grunting and walking zombie-style to Mabel, and ominous music played in the background. Dipper, obviously, freaked out about that and panicked. Vic could literally see the sweat. However, it turned out to be fine, and it was just a necklace of daisies. The ominous music was replaced with a cutesy one, and they both sighed in relief.
"Is Mabel really dating a zombie, or am I just going nuts?" Dipper asked.
Vic was about to mention how he was hearing random music, so they could be nuts together, except another voice caused both of them to jump. "It's a dilemma, to be sure." They both yelped (though he could credit a little bit of that to the alarming music spike) and looked up to find that handyman fixing a lightbulb. "I couldn't help but overhear you two talking to yourselves in this empty room."
"Soos, you've seen Mabel's boyfriend," Dipper said. Ah, so his name was Soos. That did sound a little familiar. "He's gotta be a zombie right? Back me up here, Vic."
He just shrugged, and Dipper looked vaguely annoyed.
"Hmm," Soos said, screwing in the new lightbulb. "How many brains did you see the guy eat?"
"Zero," they both admitted, almost at the same time.
"Look, dudes, I believe you. I'm always noticing weird stuff in this town. Like the mailman? Pretty sure that dude's a werewolf." There was a little bit of playful music as Soos stared into space, probably thinking about the mailman. "But you gotta have evidence. Otherwise people are gonna think you're a major league cuckoo clock."
They'd probably think that in his case, anyway, what with the aforementioned thing about him hearing random music.
"As always, Soos, you're right."
"My wisdom is both a blessing and a curse," he said sagely.
Then Stan screamed from in the distance. "Soos! The portable toilets are clogged again!"
The handyman fixed his cap and dramatically said, "I am needed elsewhere." Sneaky music played, and the guy backed up into the shadows.
Vic definitely had questions.
He moaned. Montages were the worst.
Little snippets of music randomly playing in his brain at random moments because something relatively noteworthy was happening was so annoying. He'd think things were back to normal, then bam. A little bit of 80s pop for him.
He rubbed his temples and sighed heavily. This was just a massive headache, honestly.
Right now, he was just sitting in Stan's living room, alone, since he had nowhere else to go, really. It sounded like the montage was finally over, since there was a transition-style bit, then a pause, then an alarmed moment. He really hated hearing those sound cues when he had no clue what they were for.
Welp. Time to find Dipper and Mabel.
He got up to his feet, ignoring the near-constant music, and tried to figure out the Shack. It had a very confusing layout, and it wasn't like they'd shown him around. Also, he didn't really feel like asking Stan where they were, or worse, just wandering around until Stan found him and started asking questions.
There was a surprise sound that kind of sounded like what he imagined a smack to the face would sound like in music, and it made him jump, then glower about this stupid music. Then it happened again, a little quieter.
He sighed, rubbing his temples again. Then there was a suspicious little bit, then an afraid little bit, then a couple little angry pokes to his brain. Then a sad bit.
Oh, no. Those effects, plus the weird timing, made him pretty sure that they'd just had a fight. He followed the sound of the slammed door, which led him upstairs, and at some point he found Dipper. "What's up?" he asked. "You guys have a fight, or something?"
"Yeah," Dipper said, sounding confused. "How'd you know that?"
He gestured to his brain. "Stupid musical cues follow your life, not mine. So I get the little sound effects for you, even if I'm not there."
Dipper gaped, and Vic just shrugged. "Wow, man, that sounds like that sucks."
"Yep. It really, really does."
The clock hooted, because it was an owl, apparently, and he heard Mabel running downstairs. There was a sparkle sound effect, then some sad little weird thingamabob. He was pretty sure that at the end of this, he'd know all the names for the musical cues.
Dipper was staring at them, walking away. Vic leaned over the top of the armchair he was sitting in.
"Soos is right. I don't have any real evidence," he mumbled. He was watching clips from his stalking, and from his vantage point, Vic could watch them. Norman falling over on the hopscotch area. A hand falling off, and Norman stealthily replacing it. "I guess I can be kind of paranoid sometimes, and . . ."
There was a little bit of mysterious music, and they both yelped when they realized that clip was, in fact, suspicious. They both stared as the hand went right back on.
Dipper screamed, Vic screamed, the music was dramatic, and Dipper jumped enough that the chair fell backwards, right onto Vic. He groaned and tried to wiggle out to the panic-inducing music as Dipper ran right out the door.
He got out with only minor pain and came out just in time to see Dipper groaning in frustration with the angry spike.
An ominous bit came out of nowhere, and he whirled around, expecting something to be there, but it cut off immediately. He frowned. So it didn't just follow Dipper? He bit his lip. That definitely sounded like it came from Mabel, and her being in danger.
That teen from the cash register parked a golf cart, and Dipper shouted, "Wendy! Wendy!" as he ran over. "We need to borrow the golf cart so we can save my sister from a zombie!"
She just dropped the keys in his hand. "Try not to hit any pedestrians."
They climbed in, and Dipper slammed into reverse. Adventurous music played . . . and immediately got interrupted by Soos. "Dudes, it's me, Soos. This is for the zombies." He handed them a shovel, and Vic put it in the back. "And this is in case you see a pinata." That was a baseball bat.
Vic awkwardly grabbed that one, too, unsure of what that was supposed to mean, and put it in the back.
They drove off, and he could hear Soos shouting, "Better safe than sorry!"
As they drove, the ominous music started playing again, and at this point, he was almost definitely sure it was coming from Mabel's end. Dipper tried to talk to him, but he just shushed the boy and tried to listen. Hopefully, he'd be able to hear if she was in any active danger.
It rose nervously, then abruptly ended with a couple spikes. It went quiet for a while, and he wasn't sure if that was good, or bad, or what, and there was a heartfelt little bit, which quickly went sour, then turned dramatic.
Then quiet.
He turned to Dipper, panicking. "We need to hurry. Something just happened."
The other boy nodded quickly.
They raced through the forest to an adventurous, somewhat mysterious tone, as the world around them changed from a normal forest to more magical looking area, blue with glowing motes floating in the air and lots of fun mushrooms. Vic couldn't help but stare. They looked so pretty. And . . . car . . . too . . .
Nope. He was almost to that point, but not yet.
They came to a tunnel, and they found Mabel . . . being attacked by a whole bunch of short little gnomes. "Just . . ." One of the gnomes laughed. "Okay, just get her arm there, Steve."
Mabel tried to shake them off her sparkly sweater, and she punched and kicked a whole bunch. Both boys climbed out of the golf cart and just stared, Dipper holding the shovel and Vic with the baseball bat. "What the heck is goin' on here?!" Dipper demanded.
A gnome ran past them and hissed, and Dipper flinched back where Vic made a disturbed face.
Well. That explained the sharp teeth Norman had.
"Dipper! Vic! Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes! And they're total jerks!" She punched one on the hat, and it pulled on her hair. "Hair! Hair!" she winced.
"Gnomes? Huh. We were way off."
The entire time there was a light, eerie sound underneath of it, somehow balancing the line between creepy and cutesy, though he could barely hear it over the sounds of the gnomes.
Dipper pulled out the Journal and started flipping through it. "'Gnomes. Little men of the Gravity Falls forest. Weaknesses: Unknown.'" They exchanged an alarmed look, and when they both looked up again, Mabel had been tied down.
"Hey! Hey! Let go of my sister!"
"Uh . . . yeah! Hands off her!"
The one gnome without a beard turned around. "Oh!" He laughed, somewhat nervously. "Hey there! Um, ya know, this is all really just a big misunderstanding, ya see? She's not in danger . . . she's just marrying all one thousand of us and becoming our gnome queen for all eternity. Isn't that right, honey?"
"You guys are butt-faces!" she shouted, and one of the gnomes covered up her mouth.
"Give her back right now, or else!" Dipper threatened, holding the shovel defensively. Vic prepared his baseball bat.
"You think you can stop us, boys?"
Vic shrugged.
"You have no idea what we're capable of." The music was getting louder, with that same kind of sound. He mentally dubbed it the gnome nest theme. "The gnomes are a powerful race! Do not trifle with the . . ."
Dipper picked him up with the shovel, and Vic smacked him off of it with the baseball bat. The leader gnome screamed. Dipper sliced the cords with the shovel and then dropped it, pulling Mabel to the golf cart. An action song started, Vic jumped in the back, and they started to get ready to leave.
"THEY'RE GETTING AWAY WITH OUR QUEEN!"
"Seat belt," Dipper said, and they both pulled them on. Then they reversed and spun around, driving out of the cave with the gnomes screaming after them.
Vic couldn't hear what the leader guy said next, other than the shouted word, "ASSEMBLE!" There was also a dramatic rise in the music, which didn't seem like a good omen.
He looked at his friends in concern. "Should we be worried about that?"
There were several seconds of an upbeat, but still action-y, tune that reminded him of an army preparations montage, or something.
It abruptly cut back to the adventurous tune that had started when they'd gotten in the cart. "I think they're gathering themselves together," he warned Dipper. "I heard some sort of army montage thing."
"Ah, I wouldn't worry about it. You see their little legs? Suckers are tiny," Dipper chuckled.
There was a loud stomping in the distance.
Dipper slammed on the brakes, and they all turned around just in time to see the gnomes coming over the hill.
There were gnomes, and then there was the Gnome. Made up of smaller gnomes.
Looking at that, he just had to admit it.
He was in a cartoon.
The music went to an eerie, tense sound, and its shadow fell over them. The twins turned around, and Mabel murmured, "Dang."
"All right, teamwork, guys! Like we practiced," the leader gnome said from the top of the hat. The Gnome roared, and both Mabel and Vic started shouting at Dipper. He pulled the cart into motion, just in time to escape the massive gnome first.
They dashed through the forest, ignoring the shouts of "Come back with our queen!" from behind them. The Gnome was getting closer and closer to them, and then it launched some gnomes from itself towards their cart, sharp teeth at the ready.
One of them munched on the roof of the cart, another one came down next to Mabel and she punched it. One came down next to Dipper and he banged it into the wheel a couple times. One came up front for Dipper's face, but Vic had to admit that he was a little more focused with gnome that was clutching onto his arm for dear life and biting him with those little knives.
He screamed (maybe it was a little high-pitched . . .), his body filling up with another reserve of energy. Probably adrenaline. Either way, he slammed his arm into the seat, and the gnome fell off his arm and the seat, and it landed on the floor. He kicked it with all his might, and it fell off to the side.
When he looked back up at Dipper and Mabel, Dipper was all beat up and scratched, and he'd lost his hat.
The Gnome pulled up a tree and hurled it towards them. It went straight over them, and it landed in the road. All three of them screamed as Dipper spun the wheel, and they careened into in front of the Mystery Shack, where the cart tipped over.
They all groaned as they crawled out, and the shadow of the Gnome loomed over them again. "Stay back, man!" Dipper shouted, and he threw the shovel at it. It just smashed it in midair. They all screamed and clutched onto each other, then Vic went red and let go of them. "Where's Grunkle Stan?" Dipper asked worriedly.
The dramatic music immediately changed into a lighthearted, silly thing, and Vic felt extremely frustrated. "Doing something dumb," he answered. He looked at the twins. "Can you stay alive long enough for me to go get him?"
They looked between themselves, then nodded, and he took off to the Shack.
It turned back into dramatic music, but he ignored that. "Stan Stan Stan Stan Stan!" he yelped, skidding around a corner and running into the gift shop. "Stan!"
The old man turned to him, annoyed. "What is it, kid?"
"Gnomes . . . monster . . . twins . . . danger!" he shouted, out of breath. He panted.
Stan laughed. "Oh, you kids and your imaginations!"
Vic glared at him, then looked right out the window. Just in time with his sound cues, Mabel and Dipper launched a gnome at the Gnome with a leaf blower. "Look!" he said exasperatedly.
Stan turned, but the Gnome had collapsed back into a lot of smaller gnomes, and he couldn't see them anymore. He groaned in frustration and walked back out to the the victorious music.
He couldn't help but think about the irony that his full name was Victor and he, in fact, was not victorious.
He met the twins at the door. They had leaves in their hair, and they were making up. "Hey, Dipper. I, um, I'm sorry for ignoring your advice. You really were just looking out for me."
"Oh, don't be like that. You saved our butts back there."
"I guess I'm just sad that my first boyfriend turned out to be a bunch of gnomes."
"Well, you only dated the guy for a couple hours," Vic pointed out with a shrug, and they both looked at him, startled.
"How do you do that?" Dipper asked.
He shrugged.
The twins turned to each other. "Awkward sibling hug?" Dipper offered hesitantly.
"Awkward sibling hug."
He watched as they did it, and it caused him to burst out laughing. They both gave him a weird look, and he just waved them away, shaking from laughter.
The three of them walked into the gift shop, and Stan said, "Yeesh! You two get hit by a bus or somethin'?" He laughed at his own joke. They all just walked past him. "Uh, hey!" he called. "W-wouldn't you know it? Um, I accidently overstocked some inventory, so how's about each of you take one item from the gift shop on the house, y'know?"
"Really?" Mabel said excitedly.
"What's the catch?" Dipper asked suspiciously.
Vic was already looking around to see what he wanted. He'd learned that it was just best to follow instructions an adult gave you, and not to get confused at the unexpectedness.
"The catch is do it before I change my mind. Now take something."
Dipper grabbed a hat with a pine tree on it, since he'd lost his other one. Mabel grabbed a grappling hook, because, well, grappling hook. But Vic just couldn't figure out what he wanted.
Something caught his eye. He wasn't sure what it was about it, exactly, but he just noticed it, like it was super obvious. It was a small silver ring with a small topaz in it. He picked it up and slid it on, and he nodded with a grin.
"All right, now you two go up to your room. I wanna talk to your friend here."
Vic paled slightly.
The twins left the room, and Vic was left on his own with Stan. They looked at each other, and Stan sighed. "Alright, I'm just gonna say it. Why'd you come to me first, kid?"
"Uh . . . well . . . th-the twins were in danger, and you're their guardian, so . . . yeah." He winced at his own lack of lying skills.
Stan looked unimpressed. "But wouldn't you go to your parents?"
". . . you were closer?"
"But you spent the entire day with us," he pressed. "You had your own money. You never mentioned your parents. What's goin' on?"
He looked away, and Stan seemed to get the memo.
"I see," he mumbled. He stuck the last of his money in the cash register. "Where are they?"
He was quiet for a moment. "It's . . . kind of hard to explain."
"Well, come on." He walked to the door, gesturing for Vic to follow. "Kid. I'm not gonna hurt you."
He chuckled sheepishly and followed.
They went into Stan's office, and the man sat in his chair. Vic awkwardly sat down in the little one opposite him. "I know what it's like to be on your own," he said. "My parents kicked me out of the house when I was seventeen." He blinked in surprise. "I can't tell you why, but I'm not gonna let you stay out there."
Vic took a deep breath, and forced himself to look the man in the eyes. "I want to tell you, I really do, but I don't know how to explain it."
There was a moment of silence.
"When you're ready to," Stan said slowly, "I'll be here. Still, for the moment, you should probably find somewhere to stay. I'm sure Soos would be fine with you staying with him and his grandma."
". . . okay. Thank you."
Soos's grandma was nice. Before long, Vic found himself in their guest bedroom, sitting on the bed.
He was in a cartoon. He could hear the soundtrack of it. He was living in the house of a side character. He didn't know when, if ever, he'd get back home.
He might as well make the most of it.
"Good night, Victor," Abuelita said, and he smiled back at her as she closed the door.
He turned out the lights and lay down in the bed, mulling things over. He could probably use his powers to predict the future, almost, he realized. Musical cues were surprisingly important in TV shows.
Speaking of which, there was apparently a little bit left in the episode, he guessed. A slower version of that theme song he'd heard when he'd first showed up was playing. It made him happy.
But the ending went ever so slightly suspicious, and he found it hard to fall asleep.
Soo . . . another Gravity Falls concept. I know, I know, I've got a lot of WIPs right now, but . . . I really like this concept. I probably won't work on it much for a while, until either The Code or The Soul Thingy ends.
Not so sure if it makes sense, though. It's hard to describe the sound effects, so I would appreciate a little feedback if I should add more detail, less detail, if it works . . . all that nonsense. But yeah. I do have a lot of big ideas for this one, though.