on long distance and the ties that held us together
As the calendar rolls over into the first weeks of March, Dipper is relieved to no longer be grounded. The catch is that he's also wary of embracing that relief too much because he feels like it's probably just a matter of time until he's grounded again.
He's been thinking about that a lot. His theory concerning the aftereffects of being at Weirdmageddon ground zero has gained some circumstantial evidence in the form of a Boss-Lobster, but two events don't constitute a pattern. Regardless, it's his own patterns that he feels will drive him to once again incur his parents' wrath. Even if he can't find any anomalies to pursue, there's still Pacifica.
One night during a video game session, Mabel had expressed her thoughts on how in Gravity Falls they had been free in a way they aren't in Piedmont. She had a hard time articulating exactly what she meant and at first he'd thought she was just talking about the lack of a real bedtime, or their ability to wander off into the woods whenever they'd pleased (both of which had more to do with Grunkle Stan than the town itself). But when he thinks about Pacifica, he understands what Mabel had been getting at. What would they have done about her situation if they were all still in Gravity Falls? Probably go to Northwest Manor at night, grappling hook up to her window, and break her out. Grunkle Stan would have given them a ride if it meant he got to participate in some light B&E.
Gravity Falls is a world unto itself. Consequence is different there; actions are abstracted. Quentin Trembley had kept himself alive in peanut brittle stasis for a hundred and fifty years—Dipper is certain that wouldn't have worked anywhere else in the world. Weirdness permeates everything, shifting expectations, making the abnormal mundane. It's part of the reason he thinks Bill was telling at least a partial truth when he'd fooled Ford into building a portal. The abnormalities of Gravity Falls go beyond the attraction of oddities.
Now Pacifica is hundreds of miles away and stuck with her parents, just like every other thirteen-year-old. Dipper has no power anymore, no Journal 3, no tricks up his sleeve. He can't buy his way into Pacifica's circles with an exorcism. He's just another helpless kid with a friend in a bad home situation. Gnomes and ghosts seem simple by comparison.
It frustrates him. He can't quite put into words precisely how things were different in Gravity Falls. But they were. And he can't help but think he'd have the means to help Pacifica if only they could all go back.
Man. He just can't concentrate on Journal A. He's finished his homework for the night and is trying to make some additions to his rendering of the Boss-Lobster (he's not the artist that Great-Uncle Ford is) but his mind is stuck on Pacifica. And he had thought life back in Piedmont would be boring, gray, and stress-free. Well, it's boring sometimes (mostly thanks to school) and gray in comparison to the local color of Gravity Falls, but it's been anything but stress-free. His new life and his old one aren't sitting together comfortably. They clash and grind where the seams meet.
His phone buzzes against his desk, breaking him from his thoughts. He sets down his journal and hops off his bed, hoping it's Pacifica, or Mabel with news from Pacifica (maybe something good for once). Instead, it's an unknown number. He frowns at it dubiously for a moment and then decides he might as well answer it, even though it's probably an automated sales call.
He picks up the phone. "Hello?" he says, expecting a pause and then a woman's voice telling him he's won something that doesn't exist.
The voice that comes through is fuzzy and distant, but its gruff timbre is instantly recognizable. "Dipper? That you, kid?" Grunkle Stan says.
"Grunkle Stan!" Dipper's heart leaps in his chest. He begins excitedly pacing without realizing it. "Where are you calling from? Are you back in the States?"
"Nah, not yet. My nerdy brother rigged up some satellite connection for us. Still can't get HBO, though. Go figure."
"That's awesome! Oh, man, I have so much to tell you, you won't believe what happened!"
"This have anything to do with some kind of freaky—" a short pause, "—Boss… Lobster? Ford's going through your emails right now. What the heck is a Boss-Lobster? That a new seafood chain? Just so long as it's not a rebranded Rouge Lobster. I'm not allowed in those anymore."
In the background, Dipper can hear snatches of Great-Uncle Ford talking excitedly. "—a sort of anomalous crustacean, perhaps a small Kraken variant! Ask Dipper about its features, how large was it exactly—"
"Hey, wait your turn, Sixer! I'm talking to the kid right now. And speaking of which, what did I tell you about being careful?"
"We took precautions!" Dipper protests.
"Yeah? And how much did you leave out of that email?"
Dipper avoids the question. "It's not like the other times, this anomaly found us. It was in Pacifica's basement and we had to get rid of it."
"Pacifica? The Northwest kid?" Grunkle Stan sounds surprised. "I could have told you she was bad news. Did you at least have the decency to wreck her place like you wrecked mine every time you found something 'anomalous?'"
"Pretty much, yeah," Dipper admits. "But she's not bad, Grunkle Stan. She's been having a really hard time. Her parents are all messed up after what happened.
"Hold on, give me a sec to dry my tears. Oh, wait—I'm not crying, I'm laughing! Ha ha ha haaaa!"
"Stanley," Ford says warningly.
"Give me a break, Ford. You only met them for what, a minute, tops? Believe me, they deserve everything they get."
"Yeah, well, Pacifica doesn't!" Dipper says loudly.
"Whoa, Dipper. Take it easy, I can hear you," Grunkle Stan says. "I know you and Mabel sorted some stuff out with the Northwest kid, but since when were you guys all buddy-buddy?"
"She lives in Malibu, and she came to see us a couple times and she needed our help, and it's kind of a whole big thing," Dipper says. "We're friends. And she's really tried to change, but her parents are the worst and they're breaking up or whatever and taking it out on her. We've been trying to help her, but we don't really know what to do."
"My advice: stay out of it."
Dipper clenches his free hand. "So we're just supposed to ignore her? Weren't you listening, she's our friend!"
"I didn't say you had to ignore her. But what are you going to do? Screw things up with her parents even more, help her run away or something? Dipper, take it from someone who knows: It's better to stick around where you get three squares a day, even if it's with a mom or pop who don't like you much, than to try to make it on your own."
"She's not on her own. She has us," Dipper argues.
"Okay, tell your mom and dad that she's staying with you from now on. See how that goes over." Grunkle Stan sighs. "You're still a kid, kid. There's only so much you can do. You know what happens if she leaves or gets kicked out now, right? The state will stick her in foster care because that's the law. How do you think Ms. Ponies and Peacocks will deal with that?"
Dipper thinks of Pacifica, smoke-streaked and terrified, surmounting the Boss-Lobster and driving her torch into one of its beady eyes and says, "She'd do better than you think."
Grunkle Stan makes a sound of exasperation. "Sometimes I don't know why I try to get through to you."
"Sounds extremely familiar," Ford says in the distance.
"Heh. Yeah, I guess it does," Grunkle Stan says with barely concealed fondness in his tone. "Anyway, where's your sister at?"
"Hold on! That means it's my turn," Great-Uncle Ford quickly interjects. There's the sound of the satellite phone changing hands, and then Ford's voice comes through much more clearly. "Dipper! I just finished reading your email. What a find!"
"I know!" Dipper says excitedly. "I couldn't believe it when I saw it! You've never seen one before?"
"No, never! Gravity Falls has freshwater anomalies, but nothing like what you described. Perhaps I should have ventured to the ocean sooner. Stanley and I have seen a few interesting creatures near anomaly zones so far, but most of them have been cephalopods. Boss-Lobster… interesting nomenclature. Brings to mind King Crab, or perhaps even Tyrannosaurus Rex."
"It was really Mabel who named it," Dipper says.
"I'll be sure to tell her I approve. Now, you said that you directly confronted the creature?"
Dipper runs through the story, doing his best not to embellish anything (in the name of scientific accuracy). Although, when he gets to the part about nearly getting his head snipped off, he does gloss it over a little bit. No need to underline that little failure.
"Your hip injury: it's not serious?" Ford interrupts to ask.
"Mabel stitched it up. We called Wendy, she told us how to take care of it."
"She's a truly self-sufficient young woman. And remarkably talented with an axe; I could have used her assistance a time or two in my earlier years. I once almost flattened myself while attempting to build a lean-to. Anyway, glad to hear you weren't badly hurt."
Dipper finishes his tale with Pacifica's dramatic attack, emphasizing her courage over the fact she'd had to do such a thing because he'd had been an idiot. He isn't sure if he's getting away with it; Ford is astute enough to read between the lines.
"A shame the creature had to be wounded to drive it off," Ford muses once Dipper finishes. "And this is the same girl you were talking to Stanley about, correct?"
"Right, Pacifica. She got in a big trouble because of the Boss-Lobster though," Dipper says.
"Sheer nonsense. She can hardly be blamed for the feeding habits of anomalous beasts," Ford scoffs.
"Her parents… aren't great."
"Yes, I gathered from what I heard before. I remember them vaguely; they were there during our ill-fated attempt to utilize the prophecy. They did strike me as rather unpleasant people, even at the time. It's good to hear you've befriended their daughter, especially if she's trying to better herself."
"She is, but her parents aren't making it easy," Dipper says.
"Then she's lucky to have friends like you and Mabel. I'm certain you've already helped her more than you realize."
Dipper doesn't really know whether to believe that or not, even though he wants to. Instead, he shifts the conversation towards an easier topic. "So, I had an idea why the Boss-Lobster might have been there to begin with."
"Oh?" Ford says with interest.
Dipper lays out the vague framework of his undeveloped theory, from the initial exposure to Weirdness to the effects they might be carrying with them. He knows his evidence is sparse and stresses that he's not drawing any conclusions.
"A fascinating concept…" Ford says when Dipper is finished. "You may be on to something. I'm sure you remember my little demonstration of the Law of Weirdness Magnetism. Do you recall what I told you about Bill?"
"He told you the weirdness came from another dimension, like a leak. But you said he was just tricking you into making the portal for him," Dipper says.
"And so I believed at the time. However, after Weirdmageddon I must admit that I'm beginning to doubt that assumption. Most of the anomalies I've encountered appeared as a direct result of the breach; however, if I'm reading the data correctly then I don't see any reason why such dimensional tears couldn't be naturally occurring on a smaller scale."
"Yeah, I've been thinking about this a lot," Dipper says excitedly. "I know Bill would have said anything to get you to build the portal, but if his lie was that believable after all the research you did, then…"
"Then why would he lie at all, if the truth served just as well?" Ford concludes. "I suspect there was an element of truth to a great deal of what he told me. Certainly, the portal worked just as he claimed it would: he simply refrained from describing the destination! His realm exists in the dividing spaces of the multiverse, a sort of unstable dimensional crawlspace. Now that we've directly connected to it once, I can't help but wonder if the dividers are that much more permeable."
"So… maybe it's both. Gravity Falls attracts the anomalies that are here, but can also bring in stuff from outside."
"The more I study these anomalies, the more I think it is indeed some combination of the two. I can think of a few tests we could do to try and get some better confirmation. As far as your Theory of Personal Weirdness goes, we'd have to alter my current equipment; at the moment I'm using it to locate large-area dimensional anomalies, primarily through measurements of minor gravitational and magnetic distortions. It's not sensitive enough to be used on a single person, but perhaps it could be. Something to consider. If a town can anchor a weak spot in the dimensional membrane, or be a lodestone of Weirdness Magnetism, then why not an individual?"
"Well, I mean, there may be a lot of reasons why not," Dipper says uncertainly.
"Of course, of course. Nothing is concrete. But science starts with an idea, Dipper. What's left to us now, is to test it! What's that?" Ford must be talking to Grunkle Stan; he goes momentarily muffled. "Ah, yes. As much as I'd love to continue in this vein, Dipper, my brother and I would like to talk to Mabel while we have the chance."
Dipper is disappointed, but he won't deny Mabel the opportunity to talk to her grunkles. "Okay, hold on."
He opens his door and steps across the hall. Mabel's door isn't fully closed so when he knocks it slowly swings open. She's on the floor with Waddles; all around her are the pictures of the Shack from Christmas. Judging from the ones laid out on the paper she's making a project based on their attic room. She looks up curiously when Dipper enters.
He holds out his phone. "It's Great-Uncle Ford."
Mabel leaps to her feet in a shower of fluttering pictures and snatches the phone from his hand. "Grunkle Ford!" she says euphorically before the phone is even in place. "Sooooo, how's the monster hunt?"
Dipper can dimly hear Ford chuckling as Mabel twirls away. "We've found a few things; though nothing as bad as a unicorn!"
"You find any sea-unicorns, you sock 'em one for Mabel!"
Dipper reaches down and picks up Waddles so the pig can't chew on any of the pictures while Mabel is distracted. He settles on the edge of the bed and watches Mabel's very animated half of the conversation.
He only wishes she could be having it in person.