SAVE the world: Y
"Isn't it beautiful, everyone?" said Asgore.
"W—wow," said Alphys. "It's even better than on TV…"
"Frisk, you live with this?" said Undyne. "The sun, the fresh air…I REALLY FEEL ALIVE!"
"HEY SANS," said Papyrus. "WHAT'S THAT GIANT BALL?"
"we call that 'the sun', my friend," said sans.
"THAT'S THE SUN?!" said Papyrus. "WOWIE! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M FINALLY MEETING THE SUN!"
"I could stare here and watch this for hours…" said Asgore.
"Yes," said Toriel "But we should also consider what comes next."
Frisk had no idea what came next. For a long time, they were not sure there would be something next. The uncertainty frightened them. But the sun on their face and their friends by their side filled them with hope. It was time to go into the unknown.
"This is the beginning of a bright new future. And era of peace between humans and monsters." said Asgore. "Frisk…I have something to ask of you. Will you act as our ambassador?"
"YEAH! FRISK WILL BE THE AMBASSADOR," said Papyrus. "AND I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE THE MASCOT! I'LL GO MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION!"
Papyrus started running down the mountain trail.
"welp." said sans. "someone's gotta keep him from getting into trouble. see you guys."
With a wink, sans turned and walked in the opposite direction.
"Man, do I gotta do everything?" said Undyne. "Papyrus, wait!"
"H-hey, Undyne," said Alphys. "Wait up!"
The two girlfriends chased Papyrus down the trail.
Asgore shuffled nervously, his gaze darting between the floor and Toriel. It seems she was still mad at him. But they would work something out, Frisk decided. They had all the time in the world now.
"I supposed I should do something about them," said Asgore.
Toriel said nothing, only letting out a loud sigh through her snoot.
"Well, gotta go!"
Asgore scuffled off, leaving just them and Toriel.
"Frisk, you came from this world, did you not?" said Toriel. "So you must have a place to return to, yes?"
Frisk shook their head. With shaking hands, they spoke.
I want to stay with you, said Frisk.
Toriel did not speak for a moment. Just when Frisk was starting to get nervous, she let out a laugh.
"Why Frisk," said Toriel. "You truly are a strange child. If you had said that from the start, none of this would have happened."
Toriel laughed. Frisk did not.
"I suppose, then, it is a good thing it took you so long to change your mind," said Toriel. "Come on now. Everyone is waiting for us!"
WIRT 13/13
"An unlucky number, thirteen," said Enoch. "You'd best be careful."
"Why?" said Wirt. "You're just here to take me back to the Unknown, right?"
Enoch hummed in though, simple noises turning into a melodious song.
"I could," said Enoch. "But what good would that do?"
"W-wasn't that the deal we made?" said Wirt.
"Oh yes," said Enoch. "You'll end up in the Unknown soon enough. And maybe you will lose all that Hope in your Soul and turn into a Beast. But Hope does not belong in the Unknown, and you have plenty of it."
"Hope, huh?" said Wirt.
"What did you think HP stood for?" said Enoch. "Hope in your friends, hope in yourself, hope for a bright future. So long as that remains in your Soul, there's no hope of you being a Beast."
"Was that all it took?" said Wirt.
There was no answer. Wirt turned around, but instead of Enoch, all he saw was a cat sitting on the rotting remains of a jack-o-lantern. Whatever.
"I'm not going to be a Beast," said Wirt, to nobody. "I believe in my friends, and my friends believe in me. I'll always be filled with hope."
There was no answer. He was not expecting one this time.
The wind blew past, nearly knocking Wirt's hat off in the process. It had been Dipper's, a brown baseball cap with a star on the front. Dipper had given it to him to help hide the trunk horns that stubbornly remained. But at least they weren't growing anymore.
It was getting cold. Soon fall would be over. It might even snow before the end of the week. The time for exploring the unknown was almost at its end. Now was a time to count his blessings.
Wirt stood, brushing the grave dirt off of his pants, and turned. He placed the wildflowers down on the tombstone beneath him.
"See you, Beatrice," he said. Hopefully not too soon, he did not add.
"Hey son," said Norman's dad.
"Hi, dad," said Norman.
Norman had always felt tense around his father. Like not matter what he did, he was doing the wrong thing. But now it seemed like his father was the one that had no idea what to do. Norman watched out of the corners of his eyes as his dad awkwardly walked over to the couch and sat down, shifting in his seat, like he was still second guessing his actions.
"What are you watching?" He asked.
"A scary movie," said Norman.
"Oh," said Dad. "Is…is Grandma here?"
That was the last thing Norman was expecting. It looked like it was the last thing Grandma was expecting too.
"Yeah," he said.
"Is she…sitting right next to me?"
Oh, now he understood. Norman gave a gentle nod, trying his best to encourage his father.
Dad shifted in his seat again. He looked right through Grandma, but it was the thought that counted.
"Uh," said Dad, swallowing hard. "Hi, Mom."
Grandma said nothing, but she was grinning ear to ear as she picked up her knitting.
They said nothing else. They did not need to. Soon, Mom and Courtney entered the living room and joined them. And for a moment, Norman did not feel alone anymore.
"So what's happening now?" Dad and Grandma said at the same time.
A few weeks after Dipper and Mabel got home, Mabel received two postcards in the mail.
The first postcard was from Gravity Falls, obviously. Dipper even recognized it from the postcard rack at the Mystery Shack. The bulk of the letter had been written by Soos, but signatures from Wendy, Candy, Grenda, Pacifica, Frisk, Undyne, Papyrus, Alphys, even Wax Larry King's Disembodied Head covered the image of the river during the fall. Soos told them all about how well the monsters had been settling in the town. Frisk had used up all the gold they had accumulated during their adventures (Dipper wasn't sure if it was just the one time, or if multiple timelines were involved) to buy a large plot of land in the forest, where the monsters were hard at work building their new town: New New Home. It was going to be different next summer when they came back.
The second postcard was from a place in Massachusetts Dipper could not find on the map. The Grunkles Stans were still in good spirits on their voyage around the word. Dipper was not quite sure how they had gotten to Massachusetts from Oregon on a boat in only a month, but that did not matter. The message was short, probably because Ford did not want to say what illegal activities Stan was either getting himself into or out of during their stop.
The postcard obviously went to Mabel, because she was sentimental like that (she was already working on a scrapbook for next year). It was clear, however, that the package it came with was to go to Dipper. Inside was a heavy leather-bound journal with blank pages, and careful instruction on how to make a custom cover with scrapbook paper and decoupage.
Dipper was not an idiot. He knew what the journal was for. But he did not understand why he needed it. The three original journals already under his bed in a safe-box he helped make with Mabel, and he checked on them nearly every night for late-night reading. Beyond that, it seemed like the supernatural had already been explored far enough. Bill was defeated. The monsters now lived in Gravity Falls. What else was there to do?
"There's always going to be something to do," said Mabel, once he brought it up. "But what good is solving a mystery if you already know the answer?"
"I guess," said Dipper, but he did not feel to reassured.
"Hey, did we have any idea what we were getting into when we went to Gravity Falls?" said Mabel. "Or the Underground? Or the Dark World?"
"No,"
"Exactly!" said Mabel. "So who's to say that there isn't a new adventure waiting for us out there? We're just going to have to go into the unknown to find it!"
"Okay," said Dipper. "So I guess what I should be asking is: where do you want to start?"
Leave it to Coraline Jones to be holding a garden party in the dead of autumn. But her parents had just finished their catalogue, and it was about time that they learned how to actually manage the plants they wrote so much about.
Her parents fluttered about, giving advice to their guests in an effort not to get their hands dirty. Toriel was doing much the same, but at least she was also telling people cool snail facts. Asgore and Alphys were actually the most helpful, with Asgore translating Alphys' technobabble into practical advice. Frisk and Papyrus were planting rows of sunflowers. sans had fallen asleep in the leaves next to them. Wirt and Greg were working on building a pumpkin patch, although Coraline doubted that their square of land would ever hold up to the rows and rows of pumpkins they saw in the Unknown. Mabel had been working before she became one of Undyne's weights in a lifting contest with Mr. Bobinski. Dipper was helping Mrs. Lovat plant the winter vegetables, telling her about what they had learned about the Other Mother as they worked along. Mettaton had all but avoided the work in the garden, instead socializing with Misses Spink and Forcible in-between showering himself with dried leaves.
There were just a couple people missing…
"Oh, Coraline! It is ever so good to see you!"
There they were! Ralsei still wore his heavy robes, but he had swapped out his regular hat for a more practical straw hat. His pinkish-white fur was still obscured in shadows, but not so much that Coraline could not make him out anymore. Susie and Lancer, on the other hand, had not changed much. Susie had lost her punk clothing in the Dark World as was back to wearing torn jeans and patchwork jacket, but Coraline thought she looked even prettier with her messy hair brushed out of her eyes. Lancer still wore nothing?
"It's good to see you too!" said Coraline. "Are you ready to get your hands dirty?"
"I'm just here for the food," said Susie, trying her best not to make eye contact.
"I'm just here because I want to hang out with my cool friends," said Lancer.
"Well, give me a minute to finish delivering these drinks," said Coraline. "Then I can introduce you to everyone!"
The three from the other world followed Coraline into the garden. From there, they would shovel their faces full of Ralsei's cake, fill their hands with dirt and seeds, and allow themselves to feel whole again.
And after that, who knows for certain?
Author's Note: I've spent maybe four years on this piece now. It's been an emotional rollercoaster of my life. One day I'll be able to look onto this fondly. But for now: thank God it's over. I still stand by the work, and I think I've grown a lot as a writer because of it. But I am so ready to move onto something new. If you've stuck around this long, you have my gratitude.
My current goal is to finish Adventures in Babysitting before Christmas. After that, my next story will start in February of next year. In addition, I'm working on a rewrite of another story that should be up sometime in May.