Chapter Twenty-Two: Meeting with the Father
It had been a few months now since Stan's funeral and things had gone back to as normal as possible in a supernatural town like Gravity Falls. He worked more with Ford on getting a full hang of his bionics and discovered that not only was he enhanced mentally, his ability to think and draw conclusions was drastically increased. Ford called it Hypercognition. His ability to draw correct conclusions required much less data than it would for a normal person. His ability to think through things went much faster than it would have before.
In addition, the nanotech in his spine had increased his physical abilities. The rest of the group were also seeing the improvements in their bodies, both from the bionics and from their new regenerative abilities and their immortality. For tonight, Dipper was looking forward to going to meet Dan. He was having dinner at Wendy's family's house tonight. But for now, he was interviewing Dierdre. She was still in Gravity Falls and Dipper wished he had been able to interview her about her abilities sooner. But he was doing it now.
"So tell me, Deirdre… You have regeneration and immortality. Have you noticed any other abilities that the water of the hot spring has given you?" Dipper asked.
"Yes. I can move my organs around inside my body." Deirdre chuckled.
"Wait, really?" Dipper asked.
"No. But I did notice that I had stronger control of my own body. It took a while to get full control of my abilities. But really, regeneration and immortality are the least of my abilities.
"I affected a low level of superhuman physical abilities by making my bones denser. That took over a decade to do properly." Deirdre said.
"I learned that any hunger pangs that I felt were just psychosomatic. Now I don't need to eat. My body sustains itself completely. Though I can eat if I want to." Deirdre said.
"How did you manage to get superhuman physical abilities? Did you work out?" Dipper asked.
"Partly. I'm able to control my muscle growth.
"I'm incredibly strong, though I let myself look slender and modest in terms of muscles. It keeps me from standing out too much. I already stand out because I'm attractive. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I haven't been a bit vain throughout my life and modified my appearance with my abilities. I have multiple names I go under. Deirdre is the main person that I am right now. But I've also been…" Her appearance changed drastically. Her hair turned a deep wine red and her eyes turned a sort of burgundy color. I also have a third form. I only have so many I can program into myself at a time.
She changed into a young woman with white hair and grey-blue eyes. Dipper was amazed. The abilities that Deirdre had were incredible.
"What other abilities do you have?" Dipper asked. Deirdre chuckled.
"Well, a fair few. But most of them aren't very… Nice." She said. Her abilities weren't all the result of her Body Manipulation. She had learned certain other abilities over the years that helped her stay on top of the rest of the population as it were.
They talked for about half an hour more with Deirdre's willingness to share information becoming less and less. Dipper got the impression that she was either starting to lie or at least deliberately withhold information and spin information in a deliberately deceptive manner. The truth was that Deirdre's body wasn't as self-sustaining as she suggested. She needed to 'eat', but much less often than a 'human' and she had come to find a far less human way to feed that was much faster than sitting down and eating dinner. But it showed also that she was hardly human. Few people would choose such a method.
-0-
"Mr. Corduroy…" Dipper breathed, his voice squeaking slightly as he stood in front of a man who was more than a foot taller than him and more than a hundred pounds heavier than him, all muscle no doubt. Manly Dan was a massive man. Dipper felt like a twig in front of him.
"So, you're the guy that's dating my Wendy… At least you seem a bit stronger than that Robbie kid." Dan said, looking down at Dipper. Dipper gulped. Was this how Robbie felt, standing in front of Dan?
"Call me Dan, kid." Dan said.
"O-okay… Dan." Dipper said. Dan roared and slammed his elbow down on the table.
"Arm wrestle me!" Dan ordered. There was a lot, in Dan's mind that you could learn from a person by arm wrestling them. Dipper gulped even deeper, but sat down across from Dan. He was sure he was going to break his arm, but it would heal fast enough. He felt Dan grab his hand, practically engulfing it.
"Okay… Three… Two… One… Go!" Dan growled. One of Wendy's brothers judged the contest.
Dipper pushed, growling as he felt Dan's immense strength. He'd seen Dan once use a chainsaw one handed. But he was doing better than he thought he would. His strength was holding up for now, though he could feel all his muscles straining. Dan gritted his teeth, pushing harder.
"Not bad, kid! Let's see how long you hold! MARCUS! How long!"
"Ten seconds, dad!" Marcus said. He was impressed that Dipper was still holding on. He wasn't making any progress. But he was holding on.
Dipper growled. He wondered if he could actually beat Dan using the same methods that Deirdre had used. He hated the thought of cheating, but his Body Manipulation might be able to allow him an edge. He pictured himself stronger and began pushing Dan's arm down. Marcus leaned forward, watching with intense interest as the game continued. Dan's arm turned to steel again and pushed Dipper back to the center. They continued like this for almost a minute before Dan roared and pushed hard, sending Dipper's hand down, putting a dent in the table.
"Not-not bad kid. How long did he last?" Dan asked.
"One minute and five seconds." Marcus said.
"Good. Wendy's last boyfriend barely lasted fifteen seconds." Dan said. Dipper squeezed and unclenched his hand, trying to work some feeling back into it. After about ten seconds, his hand felt normal again.
"Sit." Dan said. Dipper sat down, nervous now. Dan always had an incredibly intense look on his face.
"Wendy is very special to me. She's the spitting image of her mother. Here. Look at this picture. This is Wendy with her mother, Deirdre. Dipper looked at Deirdre. She really did just look like an older version of Wendy. She had the same red hair, green eyes and freckles. Deirdre wore a very Gaelic looking outfit though, almost like she was a druid. She had jewelry that looked like it was homemade.
"She was an amazing woman. Very New Age. She was really into nature walks and swimming in lakes rather than pools. She made her own mead. We kept bee hives in the back when she was alive." Dan said.
"Wow. How did she die?" Dipper asked, hoping that he wasn't being too intrusive.
"We're not sure. She just… Disappeared. She went out one night for a late night walk and never came back. The whole town searched the woods and never found her body or any sign of her. I still wonder what she was thinking. She was uncertain about settling down at first, so maybe she got some wanderlust and just never came back. But she abandoned her children. Or maybe she died and we just couldn't find her." Dan said. Dipper could tell that talking about it hurt for him.
"Hey, I'm not going to abandon Wendy. I've loved Wendy ever since I first met her. That hasn't changed." Dipper said.
"You love her, but you still want that blonde girl too." Dan said.
"It's… Complicated. I originally was dating Pacifica because her parents were trying to marry her off to someone that they liked, but she didn't. We were just fake dating because I'm a friend and she trusted me. But Wendy said she was okay with her being a real part of the relationship.
"And Pacifica… Well, she was uncertain about it at first, but she's happy with the relationship now. I'm not trying to have my cake and eat it too. I really do care about both Wendy and Pacifica and I'm not going to betray either of them." Dipper said. Dan narrowed his eyes at Dipper. Having two steady girlfriends wasn't something he would have done. It wasn't something he would have been comfortable. But Wendy had always been far more openminded than he was in a sense. She really did take after her mother in that sense.
He stared at Dipper for a long moment, waiting to see how long Dipper would stare back. After a long, long moment, Dipper looked away.
"Okay. You can have Wendy. But you better treat her with respect. You better treat her like the amazing woman that she is." Dan said. This was the first time Dipper had talked to Dan without feeling like Dan was just this comically intense lumberjack. He was intense, he was easily riled up. But it was obvious to Dipper that Dan was standing up for Wendy as much as he could.
"Yes, Sir." Dipper said, reaching out to shake Dan's hand. Dan gripped Dipper's much smaller hand, practically engulfing it. Dipper squeezed as best he could.
"Not a bad handshake. Nice and firm." Dan said, slapping Dipper on the back, driving the air out of Dipper's lungs.
"Th-thanks…" Dipper gasped.
"Have a good date with Wendy." Dan said.
"Yes, Sir."
"And remember what you promised." Dan said, his hand gripping tighter on Dipper's.
"Y-yes, Sir." Dipper said as Wendy came down. She was wearing her usual type of clothing. She kissed Dipper.
"Dad hasn't been threatening you, has he?" She asked.
She remembered when she brought Robbie over to talk to her father. Robbie had a bit of a panic when he had to face the very intense Dan. Wendy had heard him talking to Dipper. She could tell that he liked Dipper better than he'd liked Robbie.
"So, you lasted pretty long against my dad, huh?" Wendy asked as they walked into the woods. Dipper shrugged.
"I guess so. One minute and five seconds." Dipper said.
"Not bad. Not many last that long. Dad has won the arm wrestling contest in Gravity Falls for the last decade. I can't say for sure before that. But I assume he won before that." Wendy laughed.
"Hmmm…" Dipper thought for a moment.
"So, what are we doing tonight?" Wendy asked. Dipper hadn't really thought that far ahead. He knew Wendy liked to be spontaneous, so he assumed they would just come up with things on the fly.
"Well… We could hang out and watch movies at the Shack. We could head into the woods and look for new mysteries." Dipper said. Wendy smiled.
"Actually, walking around the woods could be fun. There's a spot on the edge of the woods that's great for stargazing once it gets dark." Wendy said. Wendy still seemed to enjoy doing simple things. Cloud and stargazing could still be fun as adults.
Dipper got his tablet and some other stuff and went into the woods with Wendy.