When Pacifica found Dipper after waiting what she had hoped was an appropriate amount of time down in the laboratory for him to talk to his sister, he was sinking into a living room chair while deep in thought, eyes listlessly wandering over the general TV region even though nothing was on. "So... I'm guessing it didn't go great?" Pacifica asked with uncertainty, really not trying to make Dipper feel worse.
The young scientist let out a sigh, roused from his deep thought, as he turned his head to reply. "It's... I don't know how it went. I mean on one hand I do feel like I got some stuff off my chest and I feel like, I guess misconceptions I had about my sister are cleared up, but otherwise? It hurts. It hurts a lot to know my own twin would hide things like that from me just to make herself happy, because she couldn't be happy for me! I mean, like Grunkle Ford always says, knowing is better then not knowing, but it's still painful." Then, after spilling hit guts, Dipper's expression changed to shocked and he facepalmed. "Why am I sitting her complaining about my problems with my sister to you!? Pacifica, your parents are dead, you shouldn't have to listen to me..."
In a moment, Pacifica closed the distance between her and Dipper and got him to stop talking by putting two of her fingers on his lips. She looked up at him, a grateful expression on her face, then looked away with a heavy brow. "Hey, don't beat yourself up over that. I know it's probably because I'm still a bad person, but, well, you seem more broken up about my parents then I am." She confessed, self-doubt coursing through her. "I mean, I know that's a terrible thing for someone who lost their parents to say, but sometimes when I see how you interact with Doctor Pines and Stanley, I feel like I never had parents in comparison."
Dipper looked severely uncomfortable at this response, at a loss for a way to respond, but eventually settled on something he knew was true. "You're not a bad person Pacifica." He said with sincerity, and the two were quiet for a moment, not sure what to say next.
Eager to break the silence, the girl spoke up after a few second of silence. "Look, you wanna like, go do something fun?" She suggested, a small tone of insecurity leaking through. "Doctor Pines told us to relax while we can before we're back through the portal, so let's go relax. My treat."
Dipper was conflicted for a moment, then let out a small smile. "You know what, you have a point. Let's go do something fun."
Across town, Mabel was attempting that very thing, and having minimal success. Shortly after her argument with Dipper, the returning girl had gone out to meet her two old friends Grenda and Candy, having planned to reunite soon after returning to town, but that meeting was delayed by the zombie attack and ensuing emotional pain. Now though, the girl from California could think of no one else she wanted to turn to more.
The three were sitting at a booth in some restaurant in town, the two Gravity Falls natives on one side, Mabel on the other, and a whole bunch of empty milkshakes dividing them. Rather then go on as massive sugar rush as her friends remembered her to do, Mabel was simply sucking down her drinks with a morose expression and downcast demeanor.
"...and on top of everything else, Pacifica's really obviously putting the moves on Dipper and doesn't like me." She finished explaining to her two friends, who sported concerned looks, as they turned to each other for a moment.
"You... didn't know about Dipper and Pacifica?" Candy asked with concern. "We actually thought they were dating for the last two years, with how often they're hanging out and being all touchy with each other. I figured you'd set them up remotely." Mabel just slammed her face into the table at this.
"You have been messaging Dipper, right?" Grenda asked abruptly with her consistently husky voice. "I mean if you message him as much as you message us, Dipper's got no excuse for getting all weird and emotionally distant on you! Just look at me and my Austrian future husband, long distance relationships can work!" which drew approving nods from Candy.
Mabel looked up in response, a slight frown on her face. "Looks, girls, it's really not Dipper's fault here. Sure we kept in touch but there was always gonna be some emotional distance there, especially since I don't really understand any of what he and Grunkle Ford are actually doing out here." Mabel defended, having not disclosed the origin of Weirdmageddon to her friends. "I'm sorry girls, but I can't lose anyone else at this point." she thought to herself.
"Then you have to connect to his interests girlfriend! Understand what he's doing out here!" Grenda replied while slamming both her fists on the table.
"Pacifica is always helping him operate his machines, here and out in the woods. If they bonded over that, surely you can get back in Dipper's good graces in no time with a mystery solved or two!" Candy added, and in response a small smile grew on the Pine twin's face.
"Okay girls, let's go solve a mystery." Mabel declared with determination, then frowned slightly. "Does anyone have any mysteries they currently need solving?"
"Can you solve the mystery of why my parents are always yelling at each other?" Candy asked abruptly with a hopeful tone, instantly making the air between the three awkward. Luckily, Grenda spoke up in short order.
"Things have actually been a lot less weird ever since reality was strangled with its own intestines then quickly put back together." She remarked. "Gravity Falls has been a borderline normal town these last few years."
Mabel's newfound guilt clawed at her once again. "Yeah... Dipper explained that Bill, well, wiped out a lot of the monsters that lived in the woods when he took over." However, she pushed this feeling down and acquired a cheery tone for his next declaration. "But hey, that just means everyone who is still alive probably has some kind of problem we can help solve! In fact, I know just where we need to go!"
Meanwhile, Dipper and Pacifica had ventured through the woods to the Meridian Fields, circular clearings in the forest resulting from Bill raining blue fire down across the landscape during his reign of terror. Though hearty grass had managed to grow back in the intervening years, the tall trees that once made this place a forest were long gone, and would likely not grow back for generations.
It was quiet here, an eerie and wonderful sort of quiet that Dipper enjoyed greatly. When challenged to "do something fun" he'd decided he'd let Pacifica in on this quiet little place he'd retreat to sometimes, having brought a small amount of food for a little picnic before they'd hike back to town. Now that they were out there though, he was little embarrassed at his choice of destination.
"Well, uh, here we are..." He tried to introduce awkwardly, sweeping his arm limply in gesture to the surroundings. "This is where I come sometimes to, you know, relax, hang out, do a little reading." He perked up for a moment while adding "Oh, and check on the bugs! Me and Grunkle Ford have been slowly introducing ant colonies and ladybug populations to the place, in hopes it will help the... environment recover... uh, quicker." He trailed off, finally pulling his hat over his face. "This was a terrible idea, wasn't it? What would someone as sociable as you possibly find fun about this place?"
Pacifica, in response, put her hand on Dipper's chin to make him look at her, while she gave him a reassuring but teasing smile. "Maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do, Pines." She replied, before walking away a little bit to take in her surroundings. "I can certainly navigate a crowd better then you can, but truth be told I don't think I enjoy it anymore then you do. Parties, crowds, even one on one conversations... I was always taught, always trained, to go into them being whoever the other people wanted me to be, to give me the upper hand in mingling, or negotiating, or whatever it was about. Never to be myself. So, there was always something a little refreshing about quiet places, where no one else was around, where I could feel like myself..." She went silent for almost a minute, then turned back to Dipper. "It's very quiet here. Thank you for showing it to me."
"Hey, don't mention it." Dipper replied, a little flustered at Pacifica's warm response. After taking a little longer to sit in the stillness of the meadow, the two sat down the blanket Dipper had brought and quietly began to eat sandwiches.
With a mouth full of food, Pacifica was looking towards Dipper's face, trying to work out her feelings. "This... this feels big." She thought to herself with concern. "Someone as introverted as Dipper showing me somewhere so quiet and secret... Or that could be wishful thinking. He probably just wanted to talk about that insect project he and Doctor Pines are doing. He's not into you like that."
The blond girl swallowed her current bite of food while twiddling with her hair, trying not to let Dipper look at her face. "Love is just a psychological tool people use to get something for nothing. Only gullible idiots like Mabel actually believe in things like that and Dipper deserves better then to be manipulated like that. It's better we just stay friends... right?"
Dipper meanwhile had been eating his sandwich in quiet contemplation, content to let his mind across the silent meadow. The boy enjoyed rare times where he could simply get away from it all. At times like this, he could feel the knot that interacting with people built in his stomach unwind.
"Well, interacting with most people." Dipper thought to himself, owing credit to the small circle of people he felt completely comfortable around: Great Uncle Ford, whose guidance he treasured every second of, Wendy Courdy, who had become a firm and steady friend with the complete passing of Dipper's affection for her, Grunkle Stan, whose hardened facade of lies had slowly come down over the first summer to reveal someone Dipper could trust implicitly, and...
"Pacifica!?" Dipper thought to himself in sudden confusion. He'd expected to wandering mind to have saved his beloved twin sister Mabel as the last but not least entry on his list of people he felt comfortable around, but to his own surprise his thoughts drifted to the blond girl besides him.
"I feel comfortable around Mabel... don't I?" Dipper thought to himself, a crease growing on his eyebrows as he pondered the question. However, the look through his memories was filtered through the recent pain and betrayal he'd felt from his sister, and he was troubled by how few actual reasons he was finding to put trust in his twin.
"I mean, would I have brought her here?" He thought to himself involuntarily even though he knew the answer was no. "She wouldn't appreciate somewhere like this... Just like she doesn't appreciate the opportunity I had to take or the things I did for her."
Surprised at how cold a turn his own thoughts had taken, Dipper turned to look at Pacifica in an attempt to focus on anything around him. He brought his eyes to her just as she was fiddling with her hair, and abruptly caused Dipper's heart to skip a beat.
"She's really cute." Dipper thought to himself, before abruptly trying to crush that thought and remain composed. "Don't go there Dipper. If you start feeling this way about her, things will get weird, you'll get all sweaty, make a huge mistake, and ruin things with a really good friend who shares a lot of your interests. Don't get aggressive, just stay friends..."
The two were now both trying to look at anything but each other, carefully sliding their hands away from the other's on the blanket for fear of accidentally intertwining their fingers. They simply sat next to each other, trying to stay focused on their sandwiches.
While all that was going on, Mabel had led her friends to the forest lair of the Manotaurs, confident that her monster friends would be aware of something worth looking into. "They're actually really nice once they open up about their feelings." Mabel explained while standing at the entrance to their home, waiting for someone to greet them. When no one came after several minutes however, the three girls frowned with concern and tentatively stepped inside.
"Uhhh, guys? It's me, Mabel! Remember, we met during the end of the world, knitted sweaters, drove a big robot? Anyone home?" She called out while walking about the man cave. It was mess inside, but more importantly, it was empty and silent. "Well, I suppose we found our mystery."
"And I found a clue!" Grenda yelled out, having been the first to spot a large hole in the wall of the cavern, a massive gap blasted to the floor with tracks indicating a great deal of foot traffic went through it.
Mabel went up to the gap and ran her fingers over the smelted edge of the rock. "Feels like... magic. Hot magic." She concluded with a serious look on her face. The three girls proceeded to follow the trail of devastation into the woods, a wide dragging path of uprooted soil and trampled, ripped up undergrowth.
The trail wove a winding path deeper into the forest, though Mabel remained confident she could follow the obvious path backwards to avoid getting lost. The path gradually led to the heart of the forest, where the group of girls made a strange discovery: A wrought iron building assembled in the middle of the forest, the kind of old timey mine looking building Mabel had imagined Old Man McGucket lived in prior to discovering the heartbreaking truth about him.
The rough trail led directly to a large, vertical shudder door closing one side of the building, that proved to be locked when Grenda attempted to throw it open. With that avenue closed, the three instead walked through the a more normal though short regular door on the other side of the building wall.
Through the door was a surprisingly grungy looking small waiting room, with bolted down chairs against the wall and a limply panning fan plugged in nearby. The reception desk against the far wall was staffed by what looked like a very tall human in a trench coat and wide brimmed hat.
"Hello, and welcome to the Freemana Crystal Exchange. Please draw a number and take a..." The employee began speaking in a bored tone, not looking up from his magazine, but as soon as his eyes flitted over the newcomers his tone of voice abruptly became more active and panicked. "Actually, uh, look at the time, turns out we're closed! Please come back at between the hours of..."
The act ended when Mabel, having grown tall enough to reach over the counter during her few years away from town, simply walked up and pushed the tall figure over, resulting in half a dozen gnomes toppling down from their improvised costume. "So, still using the zombie teenager disguise to prey on little girls?" Mabel asked with a sharp tone.
"No no look, Mabel, we've gone legit!" Jeff the Gnome began to speak rapidly after climbing to the top of the pile. "I'm got all of us jobs here at this mine so we could earn an honest living, then use it to pay a queen to mate with all of us!" When this only intensified Mabel's glare, he held his hands in front of his face in a gesture begging for mercy. "Please, you wouldn't kick an endangered species, would you?"
Mabel snorted in response to his plea. "What do you mean, endangered? There's like, a million of you little creeps!"
"Not since Bill happened." Jeff replied, and Mabel felt her righteous anger deflate inside her, fear of more guilt building in her throat. "That maniac and his goons took to playing darts during that crazy party of theirs. We were the darts, and the flaming maw of an all devouring horror from beyond time was the dartboard." He explained, while giving his red cap a little, regretful rub. "We haven't taken a queen since, what with our numbers being so low. We were on the verge of saving enough money, then all the mine worker gnomes got replaced by those brutes and I'm the only one getting a check."
"You mean the manotaurs? They work here now?" Mabel asked, before throwing her eyes all over the office. "What is this place, anyway?"
"They're a bunch of small, winged freaks calling themselves the Freemana Independent Mining Concern, showed up about a year ago and set this place up under your brother's nose." Jeff explained. "Thing is though, nobody and I mean nobody had ever heard of them up until now. Either they were hiding real low until Bill Cipher flushed them out, or they rode in with that guy. They're nasty enough to be his friends."
"Are these more of those horrible flying eyeballs that turn people to stone!?" Grenda asked up suddenly. "My neighbor still walks funny after he got was free from that."
"Nah, they're normal looking human fellas, just with wings and pointy hair." Jeff explained. "The training video they had me watch was something about unused magic coalescence being a harvestable resource for magical communication, but between you and me, they seem like they want to run this place under the radar. I know they're digging stuff up here, but I have no idea where it goes when the day's work is over."
"What about the manotaurs?" Mabel insisted to know.
"Right, those smelly jerks." Jeff spat. "They put us all out of work is what they did. They're not even taking money for their work, just weird vials of potion." Then, he got a sly look on his face. "Hey, what are you up to around here anyway? You trying to shut this place down?"
"All I want is the truth, where can I talk to the fairies or whatever who run this place?" Mabel replied, causing Jeff to grin widely before digging around under his desk.
"You'll want to go through the cargo door into the mines, they're all down their overseeing the work during the day. This office behind me is empty right now, all the paperwork happens when the work is done." He explained while rummaging about, throwing crumpled paper, small jewels and a rubber duck out behind him. "I just schedule meetings and take orders during the day."
Finally, he climbed up to the desk on the back of another gnome, key in hand. "Hey, break a leg down there, preferably one with a hoof on the end." Jeff wished well as he handed off the key. Then, he leaned an elbow on the desk and tried to shot the three a confident smile. "So, when this all over, anyone want to hit the deep woods? Mushrooms are on me."
A moment later, Jeff went flying through the glass window that provided the waiting room with a small amount of light. A moment later, Mabel, Grenda and Candy walked out the nearby door, passing by the downed gnome picking glass from his spinal region. "That loses a lot of impact when you walk by right after." Candy remarked as the three shuffled over to unlock the larger door.
Behind it lay a dark, stuffy room, where the walls were stuffed to the brim with shelves and racks of mining equipment while a mining cart sat on a set of rails leading into a dark depth.
More concerning was the fact a guard was present, a very small elf like figure bearing gossamer wings. They were perched upon a wall mounted oil lantern, but fortunately seemed to be asleep on the job, lazing about on the metal pole connecting the light source to the wall.
Mabel put her finger over her grinning lips, indicating for her friends to move silently. The three tip toed through the room, trying to get a closer look at the supplies, but disaster occurred when Grenda bumped into a storage unit of pickaxes, resulting in it tumbling from its spots on the wall.
The mining tools scattered across the ground with a raining clang of metal while the container itself tilted over into the one next to it, setting off a clattering chain reaction of collapsing containers and falling mining gear. The three girls stood shock still as the deafening cacophony rang out around them, only daring to breathe again when a few seconds of silence reigned.
Miraculously, the guard was still asleep after the raucous noise, and so with extreme trepidation Mabel took one step forward, only to bring her foot down a flaky, brittle ball of earth and dirt, which crackled apart with a soft noise underneath her foot.
The girls glanced up at the guard, who hadn't been roused from his slumber. "Okay girls," Mabel whispered as softly as possible. "Grab some of the safety gear."
They had large amount to choose from, so within moments the three were all wearing mining helmets and stuffed to the pockets with bits and tools. Now fully equipped, Mabel turned towards the darkness fed by the rail track, and clicked on the flashlight built into her helmet.
"Huh, what was that!? Did someone just turn on the light on one of those mining helmets, in the process of stealing it!?" The pixie guard was abruptly roused from his lazing, wings beginning to beat into action while eyes widened at the intruders.
"OH COME ON, THAT WAKES YOU UP!?" Mabel screams in frustration as her sneaky entrance finally comes to an end.
"Come on Mabes!" Grenda called out, having positioned herself behind the mining cart that Candy had already gotten inside. Mabel hoped in as well while the strong one of the group got the cart rolling, slowly building up speed while the angry guard buzzed overhead like a wasp. Grenda jumped in herself as the front two wheels slipped over the downward incline, and soon the three were being carried under the earth through the power of gravity.
"Multi-track drifting!" Candy yelled while rocking the sides of the cart, causing the wheels to spark against the rusty metal as the three raced into the unknown depths.
Back in the town of Gravity Falls Dipper was being led through the streets by Pacifica, who had elected to show him somewhere nice in return after their picnic had ended. As they walked through the town, Dipper was consistently greeted warmly by the passing townsfolk, with even the local officers Blubs and Durland giving him a top of the morning, at which point Dipper actually came to a stop to converse with them.
"Good morning sheriff, deputy." Dipper addressed. "Everything, you know, safe around here?"
"Safe as can be, Dipper, safe as can be, especially with you around to keep the weirdness in check." Blubs responded. "Kid, are you sure we can't interest you in those detective academy booklets? You'd make an upstanding member of law enforcement!"
"Sorry guys, not really my calling." Dipper responded, closing his eyes and rubbing the back of his head with his hand. "Anyways, I'm a little busy right now, talk to you guys later."
"Alright, you kids stay out of trouble!" Durland called in a friendly tone as they continued their patrol. Once they were well out of sight, Dipper pulled a small notepad out of his pocket and scribbled a little on it.
"Dipper, I thought you said no work today." Pacifica replied lightly.
"Just a quick note taking." He replied, pocketing the tools soon after. "Pacifica, have you noticed people around town getting smarter?" he asked abruptly.
The girl arched at eyebrow at this question and looked back at Dipper with an incredulous face. It took her a moment, but she eventually responded with "Why yes Dipper, the town of Gravity Falls has transformed into a shinning beacon of wisdom and enlightenment since you have blessed it with your arrival."
Her tone was bitingly sarcastic, and the statement was accompanied by a gesturing sweep of the block, upon which was Manly Dan attempting to get a kitten out of a tree by hacking it down with an ax while the worried little girl stood on the other side of the trunk, some resident they didn't know was running out of a shop with a cart full of 50% off doorknobs yelling "IT'S FREE MONEY" and Tad Strange attempted to order egg cream from a man with an ice cream cart.
Dipper couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at this. "I mean, you're not wrong, but the reason everyone in this town is so out of it is because of all the years they'd been having their minds erased by the Society of the Blind Eye. Me and Grunkle Ford are always looking to observe how they recover from the deep rooted mental decay now that they're no longer suffering regular memory wipes."
With a more serious expression, Dipper looked down the street at the departing police car. "The cops are some of the more important people to keep an eye on. Grunkle Ford extrapolated that they've been memory wiped the most since the a lot of people would respond to a supernatural disturbance by calling the police, so they get caught up in a lot of Blind Eye secret keeping. As the most severe cases, they're very important to understanding the nature of the mental decay early versions of the memory gun caused."
Pacifica was listening intently during Dipper's explanation, but at the end couldn't help but add in with "That explains a lot about law enforcement in this town."
"Yeah, that's one way to put it." Dipper responded idly to her sarcasm. Then, he looked back at her with an apologetic look on his face. "Sorry, I know this was supposed to be a fun day away from work..."
"Hey, don't worry about that Dipper. I appreciate you for who you are, and part of who you are is a smart guy who is really enthusiastic about the things he works on. You don't have to change who you are around me." Pacifica cut in. "Anyways, enough standing around and talking, lets get moving."
"Yeah, let's keep going." Dipper responded, but stood behind for a moment when Pacifica began to step away. "Hey Paz?" He spoke up, causing her to stop. "I appreciate you for you are to. I know you're kinda insecure about being a good person or not, but I think you are. You just weren't given the opportunity to be yourself very often."
The blond was still for a moment, causing Dipper to worry he'd said something wrong, but soon enough she glanced back at him, a sardonic expression on her face. "Paz?" she questioned in a deadpan tone.
Dipper immediately became flustered and defensive. "It was just, you know, a friendly nickname idea. I mean if you want to get technical you never call me by my real name..."
Pacifica burst into laughter at this, as despite her best efforts Dipper's awkward bouts were always a little comical. "Hey, don't feel bad, I kinda like it. But we can talk about this later, if we linger around for too long we won't have enough time where we're going."
The human carrying minecart rocketed into the depths, running down a winding tunnel off which small, unstable tunnels branched short distances. The deeper the three got, the more often they could see small specks of light stuck into the dirt and floating like dust. Also flying by were the angry faces of more winged guards.
Finally the ride came to an end, with the cart slamming into the the stopping pad at the end of the rail, causing all three girls to be hurled from the cart at high speeds. A second after the impact, a softly glowing winged human just like the surface guard flew out of the bit in a haste.
Mabel was yelling with excitement before she landed on something soft but scratchy, almost sinking into the unknown substance before a deep, booming voice revealed the nature of her landing pad.
"Hey! Who threw this piece of paper at my backhair!" A manotaur yelled out while turning around. This elicited giggles from Mabel.
"It's me you big silly, not a piece of paper!" When the creature's large hands plucked her free, she threw open her hands in gesture of introduction while adding "Mabel, remember? We met during the apocalypse, talked about our feelings, knitted sweaters..."
"Oh, Mabel, of course!" He answered in a softer tone while placing her on the ground. "These sweaters have actually come in very handy, as we labor down here in the cold, dank depths." He said, while pointing a massive finger to a different manotaur, wearing a large homemade sweater as he split stones with a pick-ax, taking a brief stop to smile and wave to Mabel
"I'm sure you remember my friends from the giant robot, right? Candy, Grenda, both of you alright?" She called out, quickly getting affirmative responses from the two.
"All good! Grenda don't crack!"
"I am fine as well, having missed this large crystal by 2.6 centimeters with my spine."
Having turned around to spot her friends, Mabel was finally able to take a wide look around the bottom of the mine shaft. It was much like you'd expect, a wide, smooth cave carved out of the ground, but from all surfaces poked crystal masses, strange shapes like glass with glowing blue light coming from within. The faint blue light was added by wall mounted torches to provide rather good lighting for a mine.
"What is going on here, anyway?" Mabel finally asked, turning back to the manotaur. "We came by the man cave in the forest and were worried you guys had all been kidnapped, given the hole in the wall."
"No, that was simply practice, practice for our new job as MANLY MINERS!" The large monster explained, before throwing a fist at the earthen walls. "Even the ground itself must yield before our muscles!"
"Right, great. Well, that solves our mystery at least." Mabel responded, putting her fist under her chin in contemplation of the anticlimactic ending to the plot she'd uncovered. "Say, can you tell us anything about the people running this place?"
"They're brave pixie miners who have come from far away to fight for the manly cause of INDEPENDENCE!" The manotaur explained, flexing his muscles at the emphasized word. "These crystals are what happens when magic energy hangs around and doesn't get used, combining together in a collectible form that can be shaped into whatever is needed! The kingdom of Pixtopia unfairly regulates the harvest and sale of these crystals, but the Freemana Independent Mining Concern is running wild on their rules and regulations!"
"And apparently they pay you in potions?" Mabel asked skeptically.
"Yes! Despite our training devoted lifestyle, we were still too weak to defeat Bill Cipher and his forces of evil during his invasion, in honorable hand to hand wrestling!" He yelled with despair in his voice, while retrieving a syringe filled with glowing green juice from a nearby lunchbox. "This magic potion triggers muscle growth even in the most swole of manotaurs, pushing us to even greater heights!" He screamed while jamming the sharp end into a bulging arm artery.
"Ooooh, magic drugs! Can I get a hit?" Mabel asked, put right after saying this the hum of flying insects and the shouting of high pitched, scratchy voices began to fill the room, coming from the mine shaft.
"Intruders in the mines! Take them down now!" They were shouting as the slightly less than a dozen pixie guards surged into cavern. On impulse, Mabel picked up a nearby shovel and slammed it into a pixie coming at her with a whip, splattering him against the broad metal head of the weapon.
"Get back to work!" A different one yelled, snapping at an un-involved manotaur with his glowing whip, and on contact, the worker abruptly seized up as an electrical current caused his massive muscles to cramp up agonizingly. As he fell to the floor in withering pile, the flying guard looked down at his own weapon with contemplation. "Maybe this isn't the best way of maximizing efficiency..."
His musing was interrupted when Candy knocked him out of the sky with a well thrown rock, resulting in a nearby Manotaur screaming "YEAH! WORKPLACE VIOLENCE!" and jumping into the fray.
Soon enough, the mine pit was a messy melee of manotaurs throwing tools and rocks at the faster but weaker pixie guards, who counterattacked with whips and batons. The three humans were lost in the fighting, crawling along the ground to stay hidden among the massive workers.
"Okay girls, mystery over, time to leave!" Mabel declared as they tried to get back to the mine cart. Upon reaching it though, they quickly realized a problem.
"Mabel, if you ask me to push this cart up for you I can try, but I can't guarantee we'll get very far." Grenda remarked. "I'm not a huge, steroid abusing monster after all. Sometimes I wish I was, but I'm not."
"No, you're right, we can't escape uphill in this thing!" Mabel groaned in exasperation, the three now hiding behind the cart to avoid notice. "Come on Mabel, what would Dipper do in this situation!?"
"He'd have thought things out better before just blindly charging in." She thought to herself sourly, but forced herself into a more positive train of thought. "He'd put together stuff established earlier in the adventure that he knows all about to conclude things on a logical and thematically appropriate note." With that in mind, her eyes traveled to a spike of crystal coming from the earth wall nearby. "Here goes nothing..." she said, while traveling over the ground towards the spike and attempting to snap the end off.
"Hands off the company property!" Came a high pitched yell, as a pixie guard charged right at Mabel. The crystal bent surprisingly easily in her hands and came free, giving her enough time to through a punch at the flying menace. The winged humanoid dodged it, swooping low to try and wretch the crystal free with surprising strength. "If I lose that, it comes out of my paycheck!"
"Well I need it for... stuff!" Mabel yelled back, the two struggling back and forth for a few moments before the human girl resorted to a wild punch in the face with her left hand, knocking the light weight body of the flying creature away from her with a dusty crunch.
Mabel ran back, gesturing for her friends to jump in the cart before joining them. She looked down at the crystal of raw magic in her hands, fingers feeling tingly, unsure of how to proceed.
The pixie guard meanwhile, had slammed into one of the wall mounted torches keeping this place illuminated, knocking it free with another bone crunching impact for the hollow boned humanoid. The still lit torch hit the ground of mine floor, rolling with the slight incline of the shaft towards a dangerously placed box of blasting equipment.
"Alakazam, presto-chango, alli-alli-oxenfree, please... COME ON CART, FLY LIKE THE WINDS!" Mabel was going through magic words to try and use the magic crystal, but it was with the final angered yelling that something began to happen. Almost as if responding to Mabel's imagination, whispy, dusty light began to flow out of the crystal in two streams, both of which coalesced on the sides of the cart into white feathered wings, which abruptly sprung into action, propelling the industrial tool uphill at breakneck speeds!
"WOO-HOO! NOW THIS IS MAGIC!" Mabel cheered, revealing her ability to draw mana from a stone. She didn't even notice right away the high speeds had slammed her and her friends into the back of the cart, but in a moment of thoughtfulness willed rainbow colored seat belts out of the stone for her and her friends.
"HOW DID YOU DO THAT MABEL!?" Grenda yelled out of amazement and adrenaline.
"It just... responded to my imagination!" Mabel guessed. "I can't wait to show this to Dipper!"
"I am not sure if much will be left!" Candy remarked, as the crystal had indeed shrank since the first use, as the dusty light continued to flow from the stone into the wings, depleting like a gas tank.
"Don't worry, you saw the motherlode they had down, there will be plenty to go around!" Mabel replied confidently, putting her hands behind her head and leaning back to enjoy the ride. "We'll accomplish so much together using this, and it'll all be thanks to me!"
A moment later, at the bottom of the shaft the rolling torch had hit the blasting equipment, and in a hot second the wooden box caught fire, which ignited the fuses inside, resulting in one of the red sticks detonating and setting of a chain reaction, quickly consuming the bottom of the mine shaft in a thundering blast.
All three humans were startled by the massive noise echoing through the mine shaft, and peaked out of the back to look back into darkness. Even with their limited visibility up here, it was obvious the earth trail was collapsing behind them, the walls of fallen earth steadily gaining on them.
"FASTER FASTER FASTER!" Mabel turned around and yelled at the crystal, gripping it tight in her hands. In response, more streams of light flowed out, both feeding the wings to make them beat faster and abruptly adding a rocket engine to the back which roared to life to add speed, and a wave of light which abruptly painted the mind cart red and added decals of flaming bunnies.
With the huge burst in speed, the mine cart slammed back into the equipment room in record time ahead of the collapse, and its three riders scrambled to get out of the building. They reached the outside just in time to watch the mining building collapse into the earth below it, splintering and shattering as the foundation gave way, scaring off birds for miles in every direction.
Eventually, the rumbling stopped, and the only sound left for miles was the sound of the three heavily panting teenagers, looking extremely disturbed and guilt stricken at what had happened. Mabel tried to crack a smile and remark that "Well, at least we still have..." only to notice the mana crystal had turned to dust upon holding up the hand it was in.
They were quiet for a few more minutes, with Grenda being the one to break the silence. "A wise man once told me 'There's no cops in the forest. We take this to our graves.' I propose we follow the advice of that wise, smelly man." While Candy nodded enthusiastically in agreement, Mabel simply gave the collapsed ruin worn out, regretful stare.
"Just another painful secret..."
Dipper, meanwhile, was trying to gently put a blue colored golf ball into an adorable miniature replica of an old timey mine, down at the Gravity Falls miniature golf course.
"You're gonna overshoot it with that posture, you're leaning to hard on the club and will put more energy then you mean to into the swing. You need a softer touch." Dipper gave Pacifica a friendly glare then swung anyway, and true to her word, the golf ball overshot the mining shaft entrance and was instead fell down a pipe leading to the civil war fort course, where it was launched out of a cannon into a pond with a humiliating plop sound. "Should've listened to the expert, Pines."
"I'm just surprised you still play this game, considering, well, you know..." Dipper responded with a bit of fluster, stepping back to give her the next swing.
"Lifetime membership means lifetime membership, no point in letting it go to waste." Pacifica explained while setting up her purple colored golf ball. "Besides, if I stayed away from every place I'd ever been threatened with death, I'd have had to skip down after... the incident."
Then, she lined her golf club up to make the hit Dipper had failed at, but abruptly picked it up and looked back at her opponent. "And I can already tell you're gearing up to apologize for the whole golf people thing, so I'm going to preemptively tell you not to worry about. You've apologized for it before and overwhelmingly made up for it."
Dipper was winded at having been cut off in such a manner, resorting to pulling his hat over his eyes and looking down. "You almost died Pacifica." he said softly.
"I was a cruel person who'd shown you no reason to feel any sympathy for me." Pacifica remarked offhandedly while going back to setting up her swing. "It's honestly kind of touching that you'd go so far to protect people you care about, and help them win at any cost." she explained, and a moment later, one perfect swing sent the ball right to its destination.
Dipper had been observing her technique as she lined up the put, working out how to replicate it exactly. When he stepped up, her mirrored her pose, readied his club, and was lined up for a perfect swing, and...
"Plus, a lot of girls like bad boys."
Dipper completely lost his footing as his knees gave out, turning his gentle tap into a wild swing that sent the ball flying into a little toy pirate ship floating in the middle of a water trap, smashing a hole in the side and sinking the vessel on the spot. He looked over at Pacifica, who couldn't help but giggle at his reaction.
"I'm... I'm really sorry Dipper. But you, your reaction to that..." She apologized in between laughs, though after a few moments, Dipper began giggling as well.
"Well, if that line was meant to imply I'm some kind of bad boy, that's the most bold face lie you've told yet!" Dipper shot back, walking to grab another blue golf ball from the small bag they'd come in as the laughing died down.
"Oh, I don't know about that. After all, Pacifica Northwest is no liar!" The blond girl responded. "You're kinda like... an intellectual bad boy, like a cross between a bad boy and a nerd." She continued while picking up the score sheet to update it. "Like, you're really smart and good at studying and researching, but you reject society's norms to pursue your ambition of learning about gnomes and ghosts instead of getting a normal job working in a hospital. You did things your way even when it was difficult and became really happy because of it."
After penciling down the last number she got up and walked closer to Dipper. "Plus you're a lot more ruthless and certain about your decisions and research, instead of constantly falling to your knees and screaming WHAT HAS SCIENCE DONEEEEEE!?" Then, after reaching their small collection of golfing equipment, she added "And you know what else you are?"
Dipper was actually getting a little sweaty under the polo shirt Pacifica had asked him to change into for their game of golf, while she had changed into an older version of her old golfing uniform. He really wasn't sure what direction this was going or what direction he WANTED it to go. "What else am I, Pacifica?"
"You're a whole 5 points higher then me on the golf score!" She declared teasingly, gathering up her half of the stuff and taking off towards the next hole down. "Catch up when you can, Pines!"
Dipper smiled as relief flowed over his body, bit did scowl at little at how badly he was doing at mini-golf. When she wasn't be sabotaged by nationalistic living golf balls, she lived up to her reputation at the game.
And just as quickly, Dipper was dour as his memories of the Liliputtians washed over him. As petty and bloodthirsty as they had been, he couldn't help but feel a fleeting sense of sympathy for them.
After all, Bill Cipher's interpretation of their beloved game was a cruel, brutal and ultimately genocidal affair he wouldn't wish on anyone. His and Ford's attempt to help the few survivors who had reached the Mystery Shack rebuild their race was one of the two's few complete failures, as despite their best efforts and the Liliputtians' fast breeding rate the bottleneck effect had depleted their genetic diversity, and the remainder off the species was wiped out when winter eventually came around.
Dipper let out a sigh, realizing his focus had been completely disrupted by Pacifica's teasing and his own propensity for brooding. Glancing from side to side to make sure no one was watching, Dipper opted to run up and drop his golf ball directly down the most difficult shot on the little model, spitting his ball out right into a hole in one so he could catch up with Pacifica and continue the game.
By the time night had fallen over the town, both Pines Twins' days had come to an end. Mabel had returned to the Shack first and was sulking over the day's events in the kitchen with a 2-liter bottle of soda and a little paper cup to pour drinks into, and a little while later Dipper returned home with Pacifica, the two laughing about something the blond girl had said as they came through the door. As soon as the two groups came into contact, the air turned awkward.
"H... Hey Mabel." Dipper asked, not sure what to say.
"Hey bro-bro." Mabel responded despondently before downing a cup of soda. "How'd your day go?"
"It was actually really good." Dipper replied, a bit of a pleased smile crossing his face. "Pacifica and I just... spent the day relaxing after all the craziness recently. How have you been doing?"
Mabel did perk up at Dipper's obvious happiness, but was airy and vague when she responded. "Oh, you know. It was okay. Caught up with Grenda and Candy."
"Oh, that's good." Dipper responded, the conversation sort of petering out. The boy let out an exaggerated yawn to try and get away from the tense air, saying "Well, I'm exhausted, I'll just, uh, head underground and get ready for bed. Goodnight Mabel, goodnight Pacifica." before ducking out to the vending machine elevator.
The two girls were left alone together now, and the air got even more awkward. Pacifica ended up being the first one to speak, making a nervous gulp before addressing Mabel in a tone that was partially bossy and partially nervous. "Mabel, look, we need to talk about things. I know we have problems between us but I want to put those aside and ask you about..."
"The answer is no." Mabel replied bluntly, downing another whole cup of soda. "Whatever your argument is going to be, I do not give you my blessing to date my brother and will not give you any advice on doing so."
Pacifica was taken aback at Mabel's words, flustered and angry at the same time. That hadn't necessarily been what Pacifica wanted to talk about, but she was prepared for the idea to come up. "Besides the fact that was not at all what I was going to ask about, what gives you the right to dictate who your brother can and can't date?" she asked indignantly.
"I say so because you're no good for him!" Mabel accused back. "You'll push him further and further into this crazy, dangerous world he's picked out for himself in an attempt to rebuild your stupid fortune, and one day that's going to get Dipper hurt!"
"The only person hurting Dipper around here is you, with your obnoxious, possessive and selfish personality!" Pacifica shot back. "If you had gotten your way like you always did Dipper would be living his entire life in pain, far away from his dreams and his passions, suffocating in drudgery and stuck with you!"
"You two compliment each others worst personality traits!" Mabel argued back, becoming defensive. "And I think I know a little bit more about human relationships then some stuck up rich girl raised to manipulate people all her life!"
"That's a lot of talk coming from someone with no healthy relationships." Pacifica cut back, causing Mabel to visibly wince at the comment. "Forget this, talking to you is pointless." she added coldly before striding out of the room, leaving Mabel sitting alone under the lone kitchen light.