A/n: I was rewatching Gravity Falls when inspiration struck... And then I lost said inspiration on an unrelated tangent on how rewatching older cartoons made me feel old. But then the inspiration returned, and I made this fic. This chapter will be in 3rd person while the rest will in the perspectives of different characters. I hope you enjoy.
Obligatory Disclaimer: I am not Alex Hirsch, and thus I do not own Gravity Falls.
Dipper and Mabel had left Gravity Falls, a place of magic and mystery, for the stable Californian suburb they originally resided. Both twins were sad about losing what they had gained in that little town; Mabel missed her newfound friends and her grunkles while Dipper missed his crush, Wendy, and the daily brushes with the supernatural. Their parents claimed the twins would feel better eventually, and they were right, to some extent. Mabel still missed her friends back in Gravity Falls, but she realized that she could always call them and would visit them next summer, so Mabel felt better.
But Dipper... Dipper was a different story.
Sure, he realized that he would see Wendy again, but there was still the gnawing feeling that something was missing. Something important.
Could the missing piece be his grunkle Stan, the old conman who made a living leeching off tourists? No. While he grew close to Stan, he could never fully shake off the insults about how he wasn't manly enough, or tall enough, or tough enough. Even though he knew the man was joking, the words still stung like paper cuts, and the doubt and insecurities in his never let those small wounds ever fully heal. Every now and again, he'd look in the mirror and wonder "Is Stan was right about me?"
If not Grunkle Stan, could it be Grunkle Ford, an ultra cool genius previously trapped in another dimension? Someone who shared interest in nerdier things like DDD? No, that wasn't right either; he always felt so inadequate around Grunkle Ford. It was painful like Grunkle Stan's insults, but in a different way. And, it was also hard to complain about without sounding completely ridiculous considering the man obviously wasn't doing it intentionally. He couldn't say he was the intellectual in the family anymore because Grunkle Ford was so much smarter than him. No, it wasn't Grunkle Ford he missed so much, but he truly missed the adventures they had together.
Adventures... That was it! He missed the adventure of Gravity Falls, the thrill of learning about magical creatures and discovering hidden secrets. There was nothing like that back in California.
Well, maybe he couldn't have adventures in the stifling safety of his hometown, but he could still learn things there. He could learn Latin; all important magical things were written in Latin, weren't they? It'd be a useful skill once he got back to Gravity Falls. Latin was a common and innocent enough subject that he could get books on the matter in the local library. He could totally teach himself Latin; after all the feats he accomplished in Gravity Falls, Latin would be easy. Besides, his parents always told him he needed a hobby other than his "obsession" with things that "weren't real." Ancient and extinct languages were real, along with the supernatural but explaining that to his parents would be a losing battle, so his parents would be okay with it.
Granted, the Latin thing was related to the supernatural thing, but his parents didn't need to know that.
A little over a week after the twins' return from that quaint Oregon town, school began. Mabel began to fully embrace her middle school experience, using her newfound self-confidence to make more friends than she ever had before; her acedemics were nothing to write home about, managing Cs with the occasional B mixed in, but she tried hard in each of her classes. Dipper, on the other hand, stayed to himself; he was rather introverted and never had the best social skills, and quite frankly, all the other children his age thought he was rather odd, even before his fateful trip to Gravity Falls, sometimes bullying him because of it. However, Dipper excelled at academics, bringing home straight As. Rather than make friends or socialize in his free time during school, he would work on his Latin. Consequently, rumors spread about him, and the other students started to avoid him like the plague.
Whenever Dipper went to talk to his sister, he would see her surrounded by friends, happy and laughing, but when he approached, all Mabel's friends would slowly start to leave, making all sorts of phony excuses. Mabel was always so sullen when that happened; it made him feel so guilty and crestfallen seeing his cheerful sister like that, so he began to avoid her during school.
He was so alone, but it was worth it, seeing his sister so happy. At least he still had his books.
Their parents were very supportive, except when anything related to the supernatural popped up in conversation. When the twins just came back home, their parents had asked what happened and if they had fun, the generic parental inquiries for these sorts of circumstances. Dipper knew it wasn't a good idea to tell their parents the truth, especially not about the gnomes, Gideon, and the Weirdmageddon.
Mabel, though... She was, at heart, an honest girl and didn't want to lie to her parents of all people. She told the truth, every single story, no matter how menial or how magical. Their mother responded with an ever classic "I'm glad you had fun, sweetie, but it's wrong to tell lies." Their father have a patronizing smile in the background.
"But, Mom, I'm not lying! Dipper, back me up on this!"
"Dipper, I expected better of you than to fill your sister's head with nonsensical fairytales," their mother chastised, frowning. "Well now, you're home, so get that rubbish out of your heads, the both of you. And welcome home. We missed you two." Their parents pulled them in for a group hug. Mabel hugged back, condescending dismissal entirely forgotten.
All Dipper could do was stand there and accept the hug, thinking about how wrong his parents were, and grew resentful about how not even their parents would take them seriously when they had become respected in Gravity Falls after Weirdmageddon. They weren't naive children, not anymore, and it hurt him that his parents couldn't see it.
Dipper no longer wanted to talk to his parents who would dismiss him so quickly. As such, his parents grew much closer to Mabel than to Dipper, who shut them out. Dipper began to throw himself further into his Latin.
By October, Mabel had made decades of new friends, had the love and support of her parents, and had found her niche back home. Dipper had gotten a fairly good grasp on Latin and started to branch out to Ancient Greek; he had no friends, and his relationship with his parents was as weak as a thin, frayed string. He still felt like there was a piece of him missing, a piece he left back in Gravity Falls.
Unbeknownst to the twins, back in Gravity Falls, a poor, foolish tourist- a middle aged potbellied man with a receding hairline who thought traveling through Oregon with his slutty wife and his two bratty kids would be a good way for his family to reconnect and is deeply regretting it- got lost in the woods next to a tourist trap, the Mystery Shack. The man just wanted to take a quick piss after drinking too much water just to avoid talking to his wife. He hadn't wanted to be seen, eager to avoid an indecent exposure charge. He must have wandered too far in because he couldn't seem to find his way back out. There weren't any signs to guide him back to civilization or any people to ask for directions. He just had to try his luck, walk back the way he thought he came from, and hope for the best.
When the forest began to grow dark, the man assumed he had simply been lost for far longer than he had thought. He didn't suspect that something far worse than being lost was responsible.
When all light had been chased away by the darkness, in the deepest part of the woods, the man came across a clearing. He had hoped this clearing would be the end of the woods; he was, however, sorely disappointed. Instead of an exit, he found a particularly strange stone statue. It looked like the Illuminati symbol his son showed him the other day decided to wear a top hat and grow arms. One of said arms was extended, as if offering to shake hands.
He was surprised it wasn't exhibited at the Mystery Shack but figured that was because the owner hadn't found the statue yet. He wondered how much he could sell the statue for.
Since he didn't intend to lug the statue through the woods until he got back, however long that would take, and nobody would believe him without proof, he wanted to take a photo of the statue. Luckily, his phone still had some juice left from that morning. That, and it would make a good souvenir. Better than that junk at the Mystery Shack, at any rate. He still couldn't believe his stupid wife insisted on buying those ridiculously overpriced knickknacks with his money. God, he hated marriage.
He figured he might as well take a photo of him shaking the statue's hand because why not? It would be cool.
He took the stone hand into his flesh counterpart and for- what was it those kids called it?- a selfie.
Would you like to make a deal with me?
A voice, high pitched and sickly sweet, resonated inside his head.
"What!? Who are you? Where are you!?"
Why, I'm the guy whose hand you're shaking. The name's Bill Cipher. Nice to meet you.
"What? How on earth is a stone statue-"
Talking? Really? All you meat bags have the same boring questions. "How" doesn't matter. All you need to know is that I can give you whatever you want. For example, I can give you gold, riches, power, knowledge, even an escape from your wife and kids.
"Really? You can free from that bitch?"
Yep. All I ask in return for your freedom is a teensy-weensy favor from you. Nothing too difficult on your part. A good deal, no?
"Alright, but what do I have to do?"
Just stay still, holding my hand.
"Like this?"
That's the ticket. Now, this'll be over quickly.
The tourist screamed, but this deep in the forest, no one could hear him. No one except the triangular demon, laughing where a statue once lay.
He grinned manically.
"Now, how will I make the Pines pay?"