Slices of Life and Family

by bluefrostyy

PART 3 of The life of Sebastian Pines! (Read that first, I doubt you'll understand what's going on) The story follows Seb's life after Gravity Falls. Bill was defeated, but the Pines family still have thousands of adventures together. Old characters will come back, new characters will make an appearance, all to accompany Seb through his journey as a human (Cowritten with Mizuuma)

33. Chapter 33 As it happens

Heloo! Sorry for taking so long, midterms , hope you enjoy!

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The family slowly woke up to find themselves in their real bodies and they sighed in relief. It had been a fun but crazy week! Miz yawned as she stretched. She cuddled her Pikachu doll in one arm as she hugged Ford with the other.

"Morning Fordsie." She rubbed her eye. It was nice to be small and cute again. Miz's form always felt the most comfortable when she wasn't a triangle. Being Bill was still the most comfortable but Miz was a close second.

Ford blinked awake and scratched his chest sleepily, but he quickly realized it was flat! He smiled like a really happy owl. Miz laughed. "You all survived! You should have a prize! Do you want a head that's always screaming?" She offered and Ford shook his head.

"No, thank you, I'm fine!" He laughed. Meanwhile, with Seb and Wanda, the two were curled up together in a funny way. Wanda was hugging Seb from behind, but as she was shorter now, she didn't get to envelop him completely. When Wanda touched a flat chest in front of her, she knew they were back to normal. "Hey...Sebas…" She whispered.

Seb mumbled. "Yeah?" Wanda groped at his pecs "I kinda miss your boobs." She giggled. The sleepy man looked down at his chest and blinked. He patted his chest and then went back to touch between his legs. Ok. He was male now… "Really?" He asked, still tired. He turned around so he could hug Wanda and he put his hands on her breasts this time. "Soft…" He slurred.

Wanda tried to look up at him. "Seb, would you have prefered staying as a woman…?" She asked again softly.

Seb mumbled, "I told you I don't mind either way...and as long as I am with you, I couldn't care less…" He said like a disgusting cheesy romantic before he passed out again, snoring softly. The blonde woman rolled her eyes and went back to sleep as well. They could just sleep in today.

Everyone else got up for the day, Dipper cheered as he pulled his shirt off and saw that it was flat again. "YEES!" and the rest started checking themselves to make sure everything was back in its proper place. Stan pulled Carla into his (still hairless) arms. "So... Mini-Stan is back~" He grinned. She laughed and trailed a finger around his chin. "And?" She teased. Stan leaned closer until their chests pressed together. "We should check if it works properly~" The two grinned at each other.

Seb and Wanda groaned when their rest was interrupted by more thumping sounds. "Goddamn how do they have this much energy?!" Seb complained. "It's, like 10 am! I want to sleep!" He whined and covered his head with the pillows. Their rest was even MORE interrupted when the twins burst in, carrying the plantimals, and gasped. "Mommy is mommy again!" They squealed and jumped into their bed, throwing the poor plantimals into the air. Sir Bedazzle hit Seb in the face while Queen Flutter flew down elegantly to land on Wanda's palms.

"Joy…" Seb groaned as Sir Bedazzle wiggled over him and licked his face with his little wet tongue. Stan was lucky Diego was a quiet kid. He wouldn't survive a day taking care of his twins...

The twins curled up between them and declared they wanted to watch TV before having breakfast. The tired parents sighed and just stayed there, looking miserable, as cartoons played on. At least the cartoons muffled the sounds from the other rooms. Seriously, the walls were made of paper or something?!

Abi and Shermie were pretty much dead in their bed, unbothered and enjoying the joy of having teenage kids who were mostly self sufficient, while Miz took Ford with her to have breakfast. She was snuggling her doll with her, having been unable to take it around with her as Xin (she wanted to but Dipper and Markus said that it might get stolen by mean people who wanted to make fun of a grown man carrying a Pikachu around) and was glad she could carry it around now.

Ford looked around as they grabbed breakfast. "Hey...even if we had a perception filter last week, wouldn't it be suspicious how we entered the hotel one day, then for a week completely different people used the room, and now we're back?" Miz, who was getting pancakes, shrugged. "Who cares? No one got hurt did they? And no one noticed. They would have said something. My perception filter makes it so any human would feel like they didn't see anything odd and just ignore the inconsistencies."

Ford nodded in understanding before he got coffee and a toast. Miz got more pancakes and scrambled eggs. When they sat down, she pushed the food towards him. "Seriously? Do I still need to feed you?" she grumbled. Ford laughed. "It's fine. I'm just not a ravenous black hole like you are." Miz still held up a forkful of eggs. "Open up." She demanded. Ford sighed. "I can eat a third of that." He bargained.

"Half." Miz replied. Ford narrowed his eyes. The two stared at each other for a few seconds. "A third, but you can order me ONE meal when we go out for lunch later." Ford decided. Miz tilted her head. "Deal." She cut up the portions on his plate and ate the parts he wasn't going to.

Ford ate his food. He couldn't believe Miz was ordering him around, telling him to eat. He felt like there had to be some reason why she always did that. No one worried so much about other people getting nourishment for nothing. Though...it felt nice to know she cared so much for him. He smiled at the demon devouring her own food. "Why do you insist on making me eat?" Ford asked. Miz shrugged. "Because food is important and toast doesn't have the nutrients you need to survive the day. I was starved as a kid, don't want anyone else to go hungry." She pushed a bowl of fruits toward him. It was one of those fruit cups with grapes, pineapples, blueberries and melon slices. There were only melons left. "Eggs for your protein, pancakes for your carbs and here's some fruit for the other stuff."

Ford looked at the melons. "Are you just giving me the parts you're not eating?" He poked at the fruit.

"I'm allergic to melons." Miz shrugged. Ford couldn't understand how that was possible. "You...can eat pretty much anything...but you're allergic...to melons ?!"

Miz sighed. "They make my throat all itchy. I don't like it." Ford pulled out his journal to jot that down. "Why melons?" He mused. Miz groaned. "I have no idea! I just...AM."

"Is it just honeydew melons and cantaloupes?" Ford questioned as he poked at the green and orange slices. Miz shook her head "Watermelons don't make me itch but they're gross and make me feel a little nauseous. I'm fine with melon FLAVORED stuff though." She said. "Like, juices that are watermelon flavored or winter melon flavored are fine."

"So...something about the actual fruit...interesting." Ford muttered as he wrote it down. "And what if you eat it in your triangle form?" The man asked curiously. The girl grabbed a forkful of food for Ford. "Open up~" The man opened his mouth with a roll of his eyes and Miz fed him. (If Mabel were here, she'd be having a stroke on how they were finally doing what she wanted, but not in the way she wanted.)

"Well, I haven't really tried eating it in my Bill form. Melons are an Earth fruit and while the ones out in space are similar , they don't seem to cause the same problem, I just don't like their taste."

Ford nodded, chewing his food. Miz poked his mouth with the forkful of sliced pancake and syrup. Ford opened his mouth for it too (he liked sweet things). Miz continued feeding him as he jotted down his notes. This man, dammit. Why was he so fucking cute? Miz pouted as she cut up another piece of pancake.

The older twins eventually found them and sat down with them. "Look who's the cutest girl again?!" Mabel squealed.

"Still me." Miz smirked. Mabel gasped. "Dipper! She's barging in on MY shtick!"

"Well, you ARE technically an adult." Dipper shrugged as he raised an eyebrow at how Miz was feeding Ford. The scientist didn't even seem aware of them, eyes locked onto his journal as he chewed and swallowed. Mabel squealed at that, very very loudly. "FINALLY!" The people around winced.

Miz paid her no mind and wondered if she could sneak more food into him while he was distracted. She cut up a piece of corned beef and held it up to his mouth. Ford ate it absently.

Dipper smirked. Well, Mabel was right, it WAS funny. It really must be a couple thing, he had seen his parents feeding each other before. He hadn't done that kind of thing with Pacifica, though. Would she like that?

Miz was enjoying feeding Stanford. He hadn't even noticed he was almost done with his plate! She began sneaking more food onto his plate. Mwahaha! She also swiped some food from Dipper's plate as well. She was still hungry after all. Dipper gasped. "Why is it always me?!" Mabel took one of his pancakes too. "Uuuugh!" Dipper groaned. He pushed his plate towards her and angrily stood up to get more food.

Miz and Mabel high fived. As sisters, they knew what it meant to pester their siblings! And Dipper made it too much fun NOT to.

Ford looked up at the slapping sound. "Huh? What?" Miz patted his cheek. "It's nothing Fordsie. Go back to your diary." Ford frowned. "It's a journal…" He muttered. The girls giggled. Miz grinned at Mabel. "So~are we gonna go boy hunting today~?" She fed another forkful to her distracted owl.

"Yes! I'm totally ready for boy hunting today! It'll be amazing!" After speaking with Mermando these past few days (kinda hard to explain she wasn't Dipper last week), she felt more confident of her abilities. She needed to find the right boy! "You know, Miz...maybe I'm not destined to find human boys…" she popped a strawberry to her mouth. "Maybe I am a magnet for cute supernatural boys!" She gasped in revelation.

Miz raised an eyebrow. "So...no offense, but I doubt there would be any Vampires on the beach." Mabel pouted. "What if they go to the beach at night?!" At that question, Miz gave her a deadpan look and Mabel sighed. "Ok, well...there's got to be more cute supernaturals besides Vampires right? Uhh! How about a werewolf?" She was already drooling. Miz rolled her eyes. "Yeah, if you like the smell of wet dog and having fur EVERYWHERE." Mabel groaned. "Ok...then...how about a…" Mabel frowned. "I don't know many hot supernatural guys aside from mermen."

Miz hummed. "Well...half elves?" she suggested. Mabel gasped. "Hot elves?!" Miz shook her head. "Half elves. Full blooded elves are kinda horrifying to look at." Mabel groaned and slumped over the table. "Elves aren't hot. Unicorns are assholes...what other fantasies are you going to ruin for me?"

"Druids fucked horses." Miz deadpanned. "That's where Centaurs came from."

Mabel made a horrified face as Dipper came back. "What are you talking about?" Miz eyed his food and pouted. The asshole got melon on purpose. Dipper saw her glance and smirked "I rubbed everything with it, it's polluted, you can't eat it now." Dipper said smugly.

"We're thinking about what supernatural creature I could date." The girl informed her twin and he blinked. "What? Can't you date...a normal person?" Mabel and Miz scoffed. "I doubt a human could handle pure, undiluted Mabel-ness. They wouldn't survive." Miz rolled her eyes as she swiped one of Dipper's chicken nuggets. "Hey! You can't even eat that!" Dipper complained. "But Fordsie can~" Miz sang as she poked the meat against Ford's mouth. He did eat it, chewing absently. Mabel gasped. "A glorious loophole indeed!" She and Miz high fived again.

"Uncle Ford~!" Dipper whined, but the man wasn't paying attention to them. Mabel looked at Dipper. "Concentrate, Dipper! Who could I date?!" At that moment they were invaded by the younger twins, followed by a tired Wanda and Seb. "A former demon." The boy suggested with a grin. "Or just a demon." He looked at Ford eating his food. Mabel groaned. "Where am I going to find a cute demon boy?"

"There's the Jersey Devil?" Seb shrugged. "He isn't cut-Wait, what is this conversation about?"

Mabel blinked. "Isn't the Jersey Devil just a made up story?"

Seb grabbed Zoe and sat her on a chair. "Tell that to my scars. Stan, Ford and I found him when we were kids! But the stupid Sibling Brothers had to ruin everything." He sighed. "What do you want for breakfast, baby?" Zoe cheered. "Chocolate!" He frowned. He'll get her fruit.

"The Sibling brothers?" Dipper gasped and Seb ignored him. "After breakfast we can chase the Jersey Devil once again? Sounds cool?" Dipper nodded eagerly. Mabel shook her head. "No! We're supposed to be finding me a MAN!" Miz patted her back. "Don't worry, the boys can have their dumb monster hunt, we've got our more important boy hunt!" Mabel gave the little girl a hug. "Right!"

Meanwhile, Seb was backing up from Dipper as the teen eagerly bounced up to him. "Oh my gosh! The Jersey Devil! The real Jersey Devil!" He gasped. "I should get a photo!"

"Will you bring thousands of cameras like you did with the Gobblewonker?" Seb asked. Dipper scoffed. "Duh? You can never be too prepared, plus my phone." Seb rolled his eye but smiled. Alright. This adventure could be fun. He already knew where to find it after all. "Hey Fordsie~ Do you wanna capture the Jersey Devil for real this time?!" He snatched his glasses to call his attention.

"Gah! I don't really know who you are but from the exaggerated amount of yellow, I will say you are Sebastian. Give me back my glasses!" He growled. Seb laughed. "Well at least you're paying attention now. So, wanna come with Dipper and I to catch the Jersey Devil?"

Ford blinked. "Oh, that would be an interesting way to spend the afternoon." Seb laughed and handed Ford his glasses. "Alright then! Monster hunt! Monster hunt!" He and Dipper chanted.

Mabel and Miz were planning what to do. "Monster boys are great and all, but we could also just look for any cute boys in general?" Miz suggested. Mabel nodded excitedly.

"Monster Hunt!" The little twins cheered as well. "No, no, this is a grown up expedition." Seb told the kids. They whimpered. "But we wanna go too!" Zach looked at his mom for help. "No, sorry, that would be too dangerous for you. Hey, why don't you help Mabel find a date? You might find a monster as well?"

"Can we go too?" Zoe sniffed and made huge puppy eyes at the girls. "Of course you can!" Miz pinched her sister's cheeks. Wanda sighed. "Are you guys going to be ok?" Mabel nodded. "Don't worry. I'll look after them." Wanda looked over at Miz, Zoe and Zach giggling and eating pancakes, her youngest children smearing syrup all over themselves. "...I'll have to trust you on that…"

She looked at the boys. Dipper was giggling excitedly as Seb drank the syrup, getting his face all dirty… "Ford, take care of them…" She and Ford sighed. Right, since he was the adult here.

They finished breakfast and went to get ready. Ford had the sensation he ate more than normal. Stan wasn't going to come, but Dillon volunteered. Diego went with the cousins his age. Mabel wondered if having so many children around would be demiterial for getting with a boy. Still, it would be nice to hang out with her cousins.

So, the two groups parted ways, the boys to one side, the girls and excited kids to another. Wanda was going back to her room to get some work done. The boy-hunt group went to the beach and settled down so Miz could locate any supernatural activity in the area. Even if this place wasn't Gravity Falls, it had its dose of weirdness. Cool. It suited the place. She hummed and hugged her doll as she flickered around all the triangles in the area. She also tried to sense for magic. She blinked in surprise when she felt a twinge of magic.

"Huh?" She looked around but lost track of the signal. It was incredibly faint. As she looked around in confusion, a voice called out "Oh! Hey Dipper!"

The group turned to see Amelie coming over. Mabel's eyes widened. Zach and Zoe cheered. "Amelie!" they squealed. Amelie laughed as she ruffled their hair. Mabel whispered to Miz "What do we do? I'm a girl now!" Miz shrugged. "Hey, Dipper, where is Xin?" Amelie asked kindly to Mabel . Mabel smiled awkwardly and shook her head.

"Um...hi Amelie." Miz waved. Amelie blinked. "Um...hello? I don't think I've met you…" Mabel rubbed her arm. "Uh…" Mabel leaned up close to Miz "Wasn't your perception thingie supposed to...I don't know, make it so this kinda thing doesn't happen?"

"Well, it ensures that humans wouldn't question it…" Miz squinted at Amelie. "Which means…"

Amelie continued to look confused. Miz stretched out her senses. Yup. That faint magical trace was coming from her. "You're not human, are you?" Miz asked, hugging her doll as she gazed up at her new friend. It was such a faint trace that she didn't notice until she was actively searching for it.

Amelie went pale. "W-what are you talking about?" She laughed awkwardly. Miz pouted and took Amelie's hand. "I'm Xin." She said simply. Amelie's eyes went wide. "W-what?!"

"Yeah...and I'm an alien demon-dragon. What're you?" Miz asked. Amelie still looked confused. "But...you were...and now you're...what?" Mabel sighed and stood up to place a hand on Amelie's shoulder. "Hi, I'm Mabel, but you knew me as Markus. It's a long story…"

They explained the Curse that Miz had cast a week ago because she didn't like listening to her aunt and uncle argue, and how they had all been sex swapped. Amelie nodded slowly as they explained. Finally she glanced down at Miz, kneeling in the sand and cuddling her doll. "So...that hot boy was really a small girl?" She flushed. "Now I feel kinda weird…"

"Don't worry, I'm several billion years old." Miz said cheerfully. Amelie laughed. "I'd find that hard to believe but...hey, magic space dragon, right?"

"So...you're magic too, right? Since Miz's perception thing only worked on humans…" Mabel asked. Amelie looked around nervously. "I'm not supposed to talk about it. I could get in so much trouble with my parents…"

"We won't tell!" Zach said as he patted Amelie's leg. "We're really good at keeping secrets! Like, daddy is magic because he was an alien and we got magic from daddy and mommy says we can't let anyone who's not magic know about it!" Zoe nodded "And you're magic and you're nice and you saved Sir Bedazzle so you can know about it!"

"Your dad is magic? I-I guess you are talking about...Sabrina?" Amelie asked. This was so confusing, now she'll have to learn more names! "Sebastian." Miz grinned, feeling her confusion. "Yeah, sorry for dumping this all on you."

"I'm not magic but I love magic and all our family knows about magic so it is safe to tell us what you are!" Mabel grinned. Amelie giggled. That was the same energy Markus had. Definitely him. "Well, first off, can you explain what exactly you are? Alien demon-dragon sounds like a made up creature." Miz giggled. "Well I'm actually a triangle."

"...and you've immediately lost me."

"I'm an alien that looks like a triangle. I have shape shifting powers that go down into a genetic level. I'm considered a demon because of how my powers work and I'm currently shape shifted into a human-form dragon." Miz explained.

"...still lost."

"Certain dragons have a natural ability to change into a human form." Miz shrugged. "I COULD turn myself into a human for real, but then I would need to deal with things like…" she shuddered "...waste production...ugh…"

"Pooping is perfectly natural!" Mabel protested. The twins and Diego let out a loud "EEWW!" they didn't want to hear about poop! Amelie nodded slowly. "Right...So alien. You two are kids from an alien…" She nodded. Ok she understood. And would make sense why they adopted Xin- er… Miz. She was an alien as well!

The twins felt the need to defend their daddy, but Miz put her hands on their shoulders. "So, what are you? Now that you know what I am." Amelie rubbed her arm. "Promise you won't laugh?" The Pines all nodded. Amelie blushed. "I'm a Selkie."

Mabel and the others looked lost. Miz sat up with a grin "So THAT'S why I couldn't tell you were magic!" Diego pulled at Miz's shirt "What's a Selkie?" Miz cleared her throat and prepared to go into 'teacher' mode. "A Selkie is a magical creature, generally a Seal, who can shed their animal skin to become completely human." Miz nodded at Amelie. "And that's why I couldn't tell. Amelie as a human is pretty much a normal human, aside from the faint connection she has to her Skin."

Amelie blinked. "Oh, wow, I've never heard someone explain it in such a way. But, yeah. I'm a Seal. Though I HAVE met other Selkie who were dolphins." Mabel sparkled "That sounds so cool!" Zoe tilted her head. "Why did you think we would laugh? This is really cool." Amelie blushed. "Well...it's embarrassing right? Someone who can shed and put back on their skin...doesn't that sound...gross?"

"Pfth~I start growing scales all over my body when I lose control over my human form." Miz shrugged. "And my triangle form can mutate to sprout multiple arms, legs and mouths. If anything, I'm gross."

Amelie rubbed her arm and smiled at how Miz tried to make her feel better. "Thanks…" She said and the twins, always so affectionate, hugged her. "We burst into flames when it is too hot." Zach giggled. "Our daddy too. That's embarrassing." Amelie laughed some more, "Okay, I get it. We're all weird and that's fine?" Once they got that settled, Amelie asked what they were doing today.

Miz looked at Amelie. "We're looking for a cute boy Mabel can date. Do you happen to know any cute selkie boys who would be interested in this adorable human?" Amelie laughed. "What is it with your family and supernaturals?"

Mabel scoffed. "Well I've been TRYING to date a human boy for YEARS but for some reason, they all run away from me!" Miz patted her back. "And the only guys who HAVE been interested in me were a bunch of Gnomes in a jacket, a merman and this creepy kid who tried to kill my brother with garden shears he was levitating with his stupid magic powers!"

"It's ok, that was years ago." Miz hugged her cousin. "Gideon was the worst. I haven't really heard from him in a while, which is good, but he was a creepy kid." Mabel pouted. "I saw him once a while back, but after he tried to creep on me again and I told him 'no', I haven't heard from him at all. So… that's good?" Amelie was wide eyed. "That's...some horrible luck." Mabel groaned. "Tell me about it. So by this point, I think I can only attract magical guys, so I figured, I may as well make the best of it and just find a cute magical boy."

"Well...I have a few friends, but I don't know if their human form would be handsome to you...and they are in Iceland." She smiled apologetically. Mabel sighed. "I will start buying cats…" She hugged Diego to herself. Miz patted her head. "Don't give up, Mabel. We have all summer to find you a nice boy. Human or not."

"Yeah, and if they aren't nice, we'll bite them!" Zoe declared while she and her twin snapped their jaws, clicking their little sharp teeth. Mabel giggled. "You're right! Come on guys! You too, Amelie! We're gonna find cute boys!" They all raised a hand into the air and cheered.

-.-

Meanwhile, the boys were walking along the beach. The sun hit their faces, trying to roast them alive, and they weren't close yet.

"You know...I think we should give up. It's ok to give up sometimes." Seb said. Ford was walking in front of them. "I'm pretty sure it was around here. Remember? The lighthouse pointed to some caves, and we have to get to those caves."

Dipper wiped the sweat from his face. "We should have brought an umbrella." He said blearily. "Or water bottles…" His throat was so dry he felt like he was going to cough dust. Seb wasn't doing much better. He was starting to catch fire. "I'm so hooooot…" He moaned.

Ford blinked as he watched his triplet scream. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Before he ran towards the cold water where he fell face first. "Sebastian we don't have time for you to play." The water sizzled as Seb sighed in relief and laid there on the wet sand, allowing the salty water to cool him. It got in his mouth sometimes, but desperate situations required desperate solutions.

Then he walked back to his group. "Done?" Ford rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm sorry for not wanting to spontaneously combust and burn everyone." Seb pouted. "Regardless, let's go, the lighthouse is right this way…" They finally got some blessed shade. Dipper took his hat off to let his head air out. "Ugh...I'm sweating everywhere…"

"Monster hunts don't generally contain comforts and luxuries." Ford stated. Dipper, Dillon and Seb stared at him "How the fuck are you still wearing long sleeves and not DYING?!"

Ford looked at his clothes and shrugged. "I don't know. I don't sweat as much as you do." He said. Seb groaned and looked at his nephews. "Sixer has worn jackets and long-sleeved shirts since we were kids." He sighed. "He's just weird like that."

"Are you really human?" Dillon wiped his forehead. Ford looked mildly offended. "A calm mind is a calm body. If I don't think I'm hot, I won't be." Seb groaned, feeling the heat more than normal people "What kinda bullshit meditation thing is that?!"

"Regardless, we have found the cave. Perhaps this time we will have better luck." Ford strode forward with purpose...and immediately slipped on the cave floor. He managed to catch himself before he fell but gasped when his glasses tumbled away.

"Haha, calm body and calm mind, am I right? Heyo!" Seb laughed and his nephews high-fived him, laughing loudly.

"You were less annoying as a woman." Ford mumbled as he patted the ground for his glasses. Seb huffed. "As a woman, you didn't do stupid shit that deserved to be mocked. It's pretty simple." He grinned and grabbed the glasses. He put them on his brother's face. "There!" Seb declared and Ford rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

"Uh, did anyone bring a flashlight?" Dipper asked. Seb scoffed. He held up a hand and fire formed along his hand. "Ugh...still really hot…" At least the blue fire helped them see. Seb went in front with Ford and they walked forward, followed by the two teens. They looked to their feet, careful not to slip like their Uncle. "Why did you even try to find the Jersey devil anyway?" Dillon asked curiously.

"We were bored." Seb laughed. "Also, kids do stupid things." He bumped into Ford's back. "Oi? What's up, Sixer?" Ford was gazing down and frowning. "Was this hole always here?"

Everyone looked down. "We don't have any rope. How're we gonna get down?" Dillon asked. He wasn't really sure he wanted to be part of this anymore.

"We could go get ropes!" Dipper suggested. "Or deal to get ropes?" He looked at Seb, who glared. "Do you think I'm a dispenser or something? Though, that actually would work…"

"Well…" Ford dropped a rock down and waited. After a few minutes Dillon deadpanned "I don't hear a thunk." he backed off. "Ok, monster hunt sounded cool but I think going into a super deep cave without any proper tools and supplies is reckless and dangerous."

Dipper, Ford and Seb blinked at him. "But...adventure!" Dillon facepalmed. "No wonder you guys are all insane."

The brothers and Dipper grinned widely, proud of themselves. Seb looked at Dillon and picked him up with his mind. "Well, why don't you check if it's dangerous, nephew?!" Seb laughed madly as Dillon struggled to get down. "NO, NO, NO! UNCLE SEB! UNCLE SEB!" Then he was floating down the hole.

"Did you seriously throw our nephew down there?" Ford raised an eyebrow. "Yup! Better than staying here like idiots! Besides, we survived a fall to the cave with dinosaurs years ago!" Seb shrugged. Dillon continued screaming as he was lowered into the hole. "It's dark!"

Dipper shrugged. "Can you lower us down as well?" Seb frowned as he lifted Dipper and Ford as well. "Wait, Sebastian, you can't lift yourself right? How're you getting down?"

Seb put them down as he thought. His left hand was still glowing, holding his screaming nephew. "Hey...I can't lift MYSELF, but I can lift you! And you could lift me!" Seb laughed and quickly climbed onto his brother's back. Ford grunted at the extra weight which was surprisingly less than he expected. Then Seb lifted them into the air again. "Damn, it worked! In your face, limited powers! Ford and Dipper yelped as they were roughly floated down the hole. "ADVENTURE!" (They'd been too boring recently. Too domestically human . They needed ADVENTURE!)

Dillon glared at them when they landed near him. "I'm telling dad you threw me in a hole." He grumbled. Seb grinned sheepishly at Dillon's expression. "But we came down with you~" Dillon scoffed. "We have no supplies."

"We have magic~" Seb sing-songed. Dillon rolled his eyes. "Well, where are we going now?" He asked. Ford was looking around. "We really should have brought a flashlight…"

"Hey! Aren't I good enough for you?" Seb whined. Dipper snorted and patted Seb's shoulder. "You're the best flashlight, Uncle Seb."

The youngest triplet grinned. "Damn right! And nothing shines brighter than me!" His hands caught on fire. Ford rolled his eyes so hard only the white part was left. Why, why was he like this? "Ok! Now let's go! I have a good feeling about this!" He said happily just as Dillon grumbled "I have a bad feeling about this...

The male Pines walked deeper into the cave, not knowing what was awaiting for them. Seb had made his flames cover his whole arm, so they had more light to see. Ford was gasping at some carvings on the walls and pulled Seb closer to see.

"Is this...a language?" Ford traced the markings that spread across the cave wall. This was more than he thought he would find to be honest. What was this language?

"Er...Sixer?"

Did the Jersey Devil have more intelligence than he thought? Did he write these words? Or were they written by some other people? What did they say? Could he translate them?

"Sixer!"

"What is it Sebastian?" Ford turned to his brother with a frown. He paused when he realized they were surrounded by large figures pointing spears at them. "Oh."

Dillon groaned. "If we die, I am haunting all of you."

"So...there's a signal from one of these buildings?" Mabel asked as their group walked through the markets, licking their snowcones and sipping slushies to keep cool. Miz nodded as she drank the bright blue liquid. So nice and cold~

"There seems to be some underground tunnels...plus a faint magical source, but I can't see much down there." Miz shrugged. "I'm guessing whoever/whatever this is, they have a shop as a front, or to earn money. Either they own the shop, or have some hidden entrance near them."

"So they live underground? I don't want to date a mole person!" Mabel sighed.

"Oh, don't be racist, Mabel." Miz scolded. "Yeah! Don't be racist!" The kids snarled. "Wait. What is racist?"

"When a person doesn't like others because they don't look like them or they're from a different culture. For example, some people are racist towards people with dark skin. Or if they speak a different language from them. There are some people who will be mean to people just because of something stupid like that." (Miz frowned, speaking of… she needed to check up on that island she created before they came to Jersey. It was something she'd made as a starter experiment, to see if a set up like this could work…)

The kids, pure and innocent, gasped in horror at the idea. "But why does it matter what color their skin is?" They asked. "Because people are stupid." Miz huffed, quite angry at it all. Mabel sighed. "Ok, I guess it's possible there are cute mole people…"

Amelie giggled. "You guys are so weird." ("That's a compliment!" Miz cheered.) She rubbed her arm self consciously. "Though to be fair, I think everyone's a little racist, even if they don't mean to be." She blushed a little. "Like...I was told that humans are scary if they found out about supernatural creatures. That's why we're not supposed to let anyone find out what we are. I was told that humans would want to experiment on us or hunt us down if they knew what we were…and that's me being racist against humans." She looked a little disappointed in herself.

"Well...you're not wrong." Miz sighed. "Lots of humans are kinda stupid. They're already mean to their OWN kind, so they have even more trouble with other species. But not ALL humans are like that."

The twins nodded. "Mommy is nice! And our aunts and uncles." They looked a little sad. "But there's a mean lady we met. She...is she a racist? Because she doesn't like Zach being a boy?" Zoe asked.

Miz growled. "That's not racist but what she is , is also bad. Carol's just mean and entitled and thinks she gets to decide what other people are allowed to do with their lives, and a bad person…" She paused. "Actually… I think she's a bit racist too...something about locking her doors when she's in certain neighborhoods…" her eyes flickered briefly. "Yeesh, how Amanda is so sweet, I don't know."

The kids didn't understand, but right now wasn't the moment to teach them about the real world, they could do that when they weren't on vacation helping their crazy cousin date a supernatural boy.

Mabel looked around, trying to spot a cute boy working. If this mole boy's family had a shop, he definitely had to work there too. "Um...do you see any cute boys?" They went through multiple shops, Miz was unable to pin down the source of the magic, but frankly, at this point she didn't care. Mabel flirted with a bunch of different boys, scaring them all off as she went. Mabel was about to give up. The girl suddenly gasped when her brown eyes landed on a young man. He was behind the counter of a butcher store, and he was cutting something, probably meat, duh.

His apron had blood on it but that didn't make him less hot. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt, showing off cool arm tattoos that looked like reptile scales, he was dark skinned, with darker hair that was really disheveled on the top of his head, but ended up in an adorable braid along the side, it seemed almost dark green, and he had very green eyes. He cleaned off his knife and looked up, noticing the girl staring at him. He smiled. "Hello?"

Mabel felt faint. "That's it guys! My future husband!"

Zach giggled as Zoe and Diego made faces. Yucky. Getting married. "Is that a mole boy?" Zoe pulled at her sister's hand. Miz frowned. "Not a mole...some kinda reptilian, he can't fully hide his scales." Mabel didn't hear any of this, since she was already bouncing over to attempt to flirt, like she'd done with all the other cute boys she'd seen today.

"Hello~I'm Mabel! But you can call me the girl of your dreams~" she batted her eyes at him. The young man blinked before laughing.

"Ah… okay? H-hello. I am not sleeping. I work." He wiped off his hand. Mabel swooned at the very strong unknown accent he had. A foreigner~ "Hello. I-am Maxini. You call me Max, yes?" He shook her hand. Mabel squealed. His grip was firm and she saw how his muscles flexed in his arm. "If you… buy stuff, my manager-" He gestured behind him.

"You're really hot." Mabel stared at him dreamily. Maxini laughed. "Yes? I am te-told I'm too cold? I do not understand?" And his first language was definitely not english. That was fine. Mabel would just have to try harder.

Mabel looked down at his hand. "Well, your hand is kinda cold but that feels really nice on a hot day like this." The boy seemed a little flustered. "You think so?"

"I know so. And I didn't mean you're hot like your temperature. I'm saying that you're incredibly attractive." Mabel grinned. The boy looked even more flustered "O-oh! Um... No one's ever said that to I…" he seemed flattered. "Many girls think I'm…" He said softly before trailing off. "Do you...think I am good?" He rubbed his arm self consciously.

"Most girls are blind, is what they are." The girl giggled. "OF COURSE YOU'RE ATTRACTIVE! Boy, you sure are a good looking guy!" Mabel smiled. "If you think I'm nice too...maybe we could go out somewhere sometimes?! Like, right now would be awesome."

Max smiled a little bit. Ooh~ cute sharp tooth smile! "Um, I think that...let-let me ask...ask...if..my-my sh-shift is-is-kauh!-t-that!" He smiled, wiggling from side to side and turned around, bumping into a wall. He laughed sheepishly before going inside. Mabel fist punched the air. "Yeeeees!"

Everyone approached Mabel. "Damn! You totally enchanted that reptile boy!" Miz laughed. "You know how hard it is for a reptilian species to even look flustered?!" Mabel hugged her arm. "I got a date!" She squealed, the kids and Amelie laughed as they clapped. "Congrats. I guess you are a supernatural magnet."

"Oh~I hope I don't mess this up!" Mabel pulled her hair. Miz patted her back. "You'll do fine. I think he appreciates your straightforward nature." She and the others giggled and stepped back as Maxini came back out with clean clothes. "Ah...so...what... to do?" He looked rather shy, likely never getting asked out so directly before. "I… ah… I don't know… how this… work?" He was somewhat nervous. He was fascinated by humans, and hadn't gotten to talk to many beside his boss (the human male told him to send the clients over to him, as Max's human language wasn't good). He was excited for this, but he was nervous too.

"Just walk around I guess. Oh, these are my cousins and my friend Amelie." Mabel introduced. Miz nodded at the boy. "Xocce. Ak'j loh daso ke mook oei." She said. Maxini's eyes went wide. "Oei sud foub mo cudwiuwo?"

"Yup. Hello. I'm Miz. I'm a dragon . And Amelie here is a Selkie. Don't worry about us. We know about the fact that you're not human." The young man looked startled and looked over at Mabel. "But...you human?" Mabel nodded. "Yup." Max found himself relaxing. A… a dragon? He'd heard the stories, but he never thought he'd actually meet one! And if there was a dragon here, he… sort of felt better. Not being alone with humans who he didn't know.

"And...you want...want to talk with me? I'm not human?" Maxini asked. Mabel giggled and took his hand. "Of course I want to talk to you. Why should your species matter? I think you're attractive and even more interesting because you aren't human. I love learning meeting new people and learning about new cultures! I want to spend some more time with you."

If Maxini was capable of blushing he would. Instead, he had a goofy smile on his face and wiggled back and forth, much like Miz would do when she wanted to wag her tail. "We-well you are… good too…" He stuttered, hoping he said it right. Mabel was...a pretty human.

Mabel squealed. Miz and Amelie gave her thumbs up. "You don't mind if my friend and cousins come with us, right? I'm actually supposed to babysit my little cousins today." Mabel admitted. Maxini laughed. "There's no problem." Mabel realized she might have a thing for accents. She also thought Mermando's accent was cute. But Max's? God, so hot. (Max was trying to figure out how this human was cousins with a dragon? That… was what Mabel said, right?)

The group went out with Mabel and Maxini holding hands as they chatted about their lives, their likes, dislikes, normal stuff. "This is rather nice. Are there any other magical beings here?" Amelie asked. Miz looked around. "A few minor blips here and there. I'm just hoping this works out for them. Of course, that'll depend on them." Miz also placed a minor translation spell around (not on) Max so that he and Mabel could communicate better.

They walked around and the teens chatted happily. Mabel told him about where she lived, about her family, her twin brother, her parents, her uncles and the adventures they had. "Oh! And I have a pet pig named Waddles! He's the most adorable baby! Max listened intently. He was amazed to find himself able to understand her.

"Pork is delicious." He said and Mabel pouted. "You're just like my uncle Seb! He wants to eat my pet!" She punched his muscled arm jokingly and the boy grinned. He never really talked about himself to someone before, and while he was a little hesitant at first, with how much Mabel was telling him all about herself and her family, he kinda felt like reciprocating.

"Well, my family is really big. We all live together. But...not here, we don't live in the human world among humans…It's scary." Max shifted from side to side, wondering if it was safe for him to tell them about his tribe. He was told not to interact more than necessary after all…

Mabel grinned and he took a deep breath, working up his courage. "You see, our world is not here. You can only go in and out using magic points dispersed throughout the world…"

"That explains the magic blips I felt…" Miz mused. "Like mini-portals, like all the ones around Gravity Falls leading to the hidden market. Or the rifts that used to pop up."

"Ooh~~" Mabel nodded. "So all your species know magic and that kind of stuff? You do spells?!"

Max chuckled, a low rumbling sound deep in his chest, and Mabel swooned. "Actually no. There are a few tribes who have access to magic. From what the priestesses have told me, our tribe and our closest allies located close to this land are one of them, because the point of magic is located in a cave in this part of the territory. Some rifts are in the ocean too, so food travels to both realms without problem. And sea creatures that sometimes get lost or just visit. I met an old friend of mine that way. Down in the land of the south, there's no magic points, so the Eix Leel there have no way to access the human world. This is also why we ended up developing magic as part of our culture, if we didn't we wouldn't be able to create human illusions...Though, I don't understand why our human templates are this color, most humans I've seen around here are your color." Must be because they were based on the first humans they saw inhabiting the land, many hundreds of years ago.

"So~ You come to the human world from time to time?" Mabel asked.

"Not everybody. I'm a priest's apprentice… I'm low class, but an aunt of mine was rewarded in the military by the Queen and because I...I wasn't going to help my family in any other way…" He rubbed his arm, looking a little uncomfortable at this. "I was allowed to become a priest apprentice. There, I started to learn everything I'll need for that, including magic. I come to get foreign meat. I work here and my boss lets me take some home. The royal family likes it."

"So...You can't date?" Mabel grumbled disappointed.

"Courtship? Oh, I can. But, I'm not sure if I'd have to stop my studies or not.. I'm not sure how that works with male priests…" He hummed in thought. Miz raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

Max grimaced a bit. "Eh~ It's kinda new for males to be priests or...work for the queen, the idea was brought from other, more progressive, cities down in the south...So, I was lucky to be accepted."

"Well, girls are better at everything!" Zoe crossed her arms proudly before Zach kicked her shin.

"It's true." Max nodded at the little human cub with complete sincerity. "But we males can do stuff too."

The adults in the group shared a few glances, feeling something off from what Max was telling them. They found an ice-cream shop and sat down together. Mabel offered to pay for Max, since she was the one who invited him out. Max didn't know what they were going to eat but he was willing to try as long as it wasn't plant based.

Mabel coughed. "So~ You like working as a butcher?"

Max grinned widely, wiggling his butt a little bit. "Yes Yes! Like, it's super new for us to be allowed out in the human world for so long! The military is allowed to go out, like the priestesses! I heard my ancestors used to steal this animal called...cow, or was it called beef, which is very yummy! We don't have that animal! Or chicken! But now, we can work as butchers to get as many meats as we want without getting in trouble with the humans." It was so cute how he messed up some words. The spell had its limits. It was going for a base translation after all. Miz would need something for in depth to get all the nuances.

"So you really like meat?" Mabel asked. "I like some meat but I don't eat it very often. Especially not pork." she would never eat pigs.

Maxini rubbed his head. "I'm a carnivore so yeah, I like it ...Especially pork…" he looked a little guilty. Mabel hugged his arm. "As long as you don't eat my pet I don't see a problem." He looked relieved at that. "Well, I like chicken second best. My people normally eat fish. Our villages and cities are built around large lakes and oceans." Max took this time to look at Miz and the others, who'd been giving them some space, but following them nonetheless.

"So...your cousin is a dragon? How that happened?" He asked Mabel. The group finished their ice cream (Max had tried a bit earlier but couldn't stand how cold it was) and sat down for lunch with real (sorta) food at an outdoor cafe. Amelie, Zach and Miz were watching the date cheerfully. Zoe and Diego just wanted more ice cream. "Well she's actually an alien demon-dragon. It's a long story." Mabel shrugged.

"Well, I think the lovebirds are doing well~let's give them some privacy." Miz giggled as she and the others moved to a different table. Close enough to watch, far enough to let them chat without too blatantly eavesdropping. But they were eavesdropping. Miz bounced in her seat.

Amelie looked over at the two teenagers holding hands under the table. "I wonder if I could find a partner someday." Miz tilted her head. "Oh? Are you having boy troubles too?" Amelie blushed. "Well, there are a few other seals who have asked me out, but they're all interested in mating and having pups."

"And what do you want?"

"I don't rightfully know. I never really thought about it." Amelie shrugged. "But being here, up on land has been more fun than I originally thought. I guess I'd like to spend more time exploring the world before settling down." she blushed. "One of my relatives is marrying a human, you know? So I know such a thing isn't forbidden."

Amelie glanced at Miz and sighed. "I'm kinda disappointed you're actually a little girl...even if you're thousands of years old." ("Several billion actually.") Amelie blushed. Miz looked confused. "So...did you like me?" She asked bluntly. Amelie blushed harder. "You were very handsome, yeah, but I know you weren't interested, and you DID tell me straight out that you wanted to be just friends." She almost added, 'And you were with that other woman… man?'

"Oh…" Miz wiggled in her seat. "And you're still my friend right?"

"Of course!" Amelie grinned, Miz gave her a hug. The children hugged her too. "We're not gonna stop being friends." Miz assured her. Amelie was thrilled by that. Human and dragon friends!

Mabel ordered a belgium waffle loaded with fruits and whipped cream, and she recommended for Max to try hot chocolate if he wanted something sweet and delicious but not cold. It got them weird looks from the waiters. It was hot as heck!

Max shook his head when Mabel asked if he'd be willing to try other cold stuff that wasn't frozen like ice cream. "I have cold blood, it can make me colder if I eat something cold, even when the weather's hot, I still feel kinda cold." Mabel put a hand over his. "Poor thing...I will protect you from weird looks!" Max chuckled. She was such a strange human…but she was such a lady, powerful, assertive...His father would approve...if she was an Eix Leel.

"So...is this your real form? I am so sorry if I sound too blunt or this is too personal." Mabel grimaced. Max smiled. "No. Not at all! Well, I don't even know how to begin to explain...This is an illusion actually."

Max pulled a collar out over the neck of his shirt. It was one of his teeth (yes, it was that serious) with runes he carved himself) and he showed it to Mabel. "It is used to make me look human to anyone, but my real body is untouched."

"Oohhhh~~~And how did you get a human...illusion body?" Mabel asked, intrigued.

"It takes a lot of work, carving the runes and crafting the illusion to myself, so it goes around me and can fool humans. It even makes me blurry to those… cam-raws that humans try to use to capture our image." Max explained. "We look all… blur-shiny and don't show up very well."

("Built in perception filter? Nice." Miz commented. She made a note to check out Max's spell necklace a little closer.)

"So, what do you really look like? I bet you look super awesome!" Mabel grinned. Max wiggled in his seat, it was flattering for her to say, but Max knew he wasn't 'awesome' or anything. Still, with how eagerly Mabel was looking at him, he raised his hands to his chest and started trying to describe it.

"My real body is covered in scales for one, except my front part eh~ chest? My face doesn't look like this, we have a...how you say? Muzzle? I have a tail!" Max wiggled his butt a little more, his tail was lucked up close to his back, almost tied in place to keep it from knocking into people. "This is um, more long, and more thin, like a fin." He pointed at his ears. "Also, this-" He grabbed a strand of hair. "Is very weird. I have feathers. Sorry, english is hard." The translation spell only worked when he slipped in his native words for words he didn't know in English, his attempts at English came through just the way he said them.

"No problem, I think I get it. That's so pretty~" Mabel cooed. "How old are you? I'm 18! Gonna be 19 at the end of the summer." (They were in 2018 now.)

"I turned 19 a few months ago along with my brothers and sisters!" Maxini said. "We're a pretty small clutch, only 4 eggs. I have a brother and two sisters."

"So you're quadruplets? I'm part of a set of twins. My brother isn't here right now though. He and my uncles went on a monster hunt."

Max paled. "Monster hunt ?" he gasped. Mabel shook her head quickly and waved her hands. "Don't worry! They're nice people. Uncle Ford and Dipper are just nerds who like to find magical creatures, it's not a REAL hunt. They said they were looking for the Jersey Devil."

Maxini sighed in relief. "Well I hope they don't run into some of my relatives. They hate those paranormal investigator types. You know back when more of them came around searching for anything not human they almost found the magic entrance. My grandma told me about it."

"That sounds awful." Mabel gasped. Maxini nodded. "We were almost forced to move. They were all quite upset. It would have been awful if we had to leave our lives behind and move just because of humans."

"Hey…" Diego piped up. "Does that mean uncle Ford is going to get in trouble if he finds your family?"

They all looked at each other before Miz face palmed. "Those idiots."

"Ok, everyone, stay calm." Ford said quietly. Seb growled. "What do you mean calm?! We've been captured!" He hissed "By LIZARD PEOPLE!"

"Quiet you!" One of their captors poked his back. "Keep walking." They realized it was a she, all of them, but couldn't understand her very well. They were very, very tall and muscular 'shes'. Their bodies were covered in green scales, and had spines on their shoulders, tails and back part of their legs. Their dark head feathers were styled to the side and wore some sort of red bandana with various decorations as well as a red and brown tunic. Their teeth were incredibly sharp as well as their claws. And they looked very pissed with them.

They had tied the Pines up and led them through the underground tunnels. Dillon was crying "We're all gonna die! I'll never get married to Phillip and we'll never adopt dogs and babies!" He wailed.

"Dillon, shut up! You are NOT helping!" Dipper glared and they continued walking. "Um, miss Lizard women? We are so sorry for trespassing, can we leave? We promise to never come back!"

The lizard woman with disheveled black feathers, kept back with her bandana, growled at them, and the four winced at her sharp teeth. "I said quiet, human! Bringer of destruction and death!" She huffed at the teen who whimpered when she growled her unknown words at his face.

One of them looked at the growling one. "We can't put our city in danger, you already know our secrets…" The one holding Ford scoffed. "Now we cannot let them leave." Dillon cried harder.

"I don't know what you're sayiiiiing!" The poor teen sobbed.

"What do you plan to do with us, crocodile?!" Seb growled, showing off his sharp teeth as well, but he was ignored. He was about to shout again when they suddenly stopped and stared in horror and awe at a glowing purple fissure in the middle of the rock.

The four Pines backpedaled as they were forced through. "No! Nonononono!" Dipper and Dillon screamed.

The other side was...suspiciously similar to their world, but to get out, they didn't go through many tunnels. The light of the sun blinded them for a second when they emerged out of the cave.

The four Pines gasped in horrified awe when they were pushed into the beach and were met not by humans on vacations playing on the sand, but by reptilians walking around on the beach. Compared to the green females holding them down, these seemed to be male, and they came in many different colors. Their head feathers were styled in long braids and decorated with beads. They were vibrant colors, incredibly pretty to look at.

Some were entering the water, some were getting out, shaking themselves to get rid of the water while carrying a net of fish. And all while their little kids ran around them, pulling at their tails or rolling in the sand.

It was a very beautiful sight...If it weren't for the fact that they were tied up and led somewhere potentially dangerous. The guards holding them down told the males something they didn't understand, but it made the males gasp, hide their tails and mutter nervously among them.

Were they talking about eating them? It sure looked like it. The reptilian holding Dipper laughed and showed him her fangs. That was when Dipper lost it as well and started crying.

"I am nobody's snack, scale face!" Seb's hands caught on fire and started burning the ropes, but the female guard holding him was very big, big and muscular and strong enough to hold him still. "Let me go!" He growled as his hands flickered with flames.

The female cried in pain and let him go momentarily. "The fire beast burned me!"

If Seb understood the reptilian calling him that, he'd be pissed.

"Wait! He isn't human!" One of the guards whispered, looking at Seb, but of course, the humans didn't understand it. The one holding Seb was now threatening him to make his fire disappear.

"This one is clearly magical. Wouldn't this one be spared?"

"No! I don't care! He looks human and they invaded our territory!" The guard motioned them to continue walking and the humans were once again pushed forward. They were led through their city, the guards exposing the disgusting scale-less creatures to the rest of the community. The males carrying their kids on their backs and tending their homes, gagged, the females carrying wood, rocks or working on their metals or ceramics growled at them. Both males and females had spines on their backs that extended menacingly.

"Have you noticed the females are bigger than the males?" Ford whispered to a very stressed Seb and crying nephews. "And the jobs they're doing...it seems to be inversed to our own, rather, their society appears to be several centuries behind ours. It seems they're still in between the period of stone and metal."

"Do you think IT'S THE RIGHT TIME TO THINK ABOUT THAT?!" Seb screamed, fed up with Ford's bullshit. He struggled but the guard snapped at him and held firmly.

"Let US GO!" Seb shrieked. A big building came into view. Ford whispered it might be their leader's palace.

The lizardwomen continued hissing among them in a language none of them recognized. "Nxuk jxeict no te?" "Kubo kxom ke kxo sxoav!"

"Uncle Seb~ I think this is a great moment to go monster form, don't you think?! Dipper cried.

Seb remembered he did have powers and, despite still feeling weird about it, made his second pair of arms appear. He struggled out of the guard's arms and charged at the guard holding his brother. "Take your claws off me and my family!"

The guard fell back to the ground, shouting and the crowd around gasped and started shouting. Seb pinned her down and Ford took that distraction to kick the reptilian holding him on her legs and free himself. It didn't last long though. More guards were called by the males watching and to Dipper and Dillon's terror, they threw their uncles to the floor. One of the females charged at Seb. One bit one of his arms, planning to tear it off, and almost succeeded, but when another one wanted to pierce him with her spear, a sudden force field around him threw both of them back.

Miz's spell. No deathly harm could be posed on them. It didn't do much for normal injuries though.

The guards finally held down the rebellious humans. A young male offered a cloth to the strong and brave soldier so she could wipe off her blood. The female nodded at him, spat the fang the fire beast knocked from her mouth into the cloth and continued pushing him towards the Queen, so she could decide his fate.

"SEB! SEBASTIAN! Are you ok?!" Ford grimaced at the large amount of blood pouring out of his brother's shoulder. Dillon was still crying. Seb winced and retreated his arms. "I-I'm fine" He gritted his teeth. "Goddammit. At least she could have bitten me in the magical ones!"

-.-

"Will Daddy be ok?" Zach asked nervously. "Of course he will! Your Daddy is the best!" Mabel reassured, but scared as well. They got to a cave, where Miz floated everyone a little so they wouldn't slip on the slick rocks.

Max's heart hammered against his chest as he took the group towards the portal-point. Gods, he was getting in so much trouble for this...Males weren't supposed to cause so much trouble! It'd only make his mother disapprove of him even more.

Still, he smelled traces of humans here, so it was very likely Mabel's family was in danger. He took off his shoes, shirt and pants, making Amelie and Miz cover the kids' eyes, before he recited a soft rune and changed back to his normal form.

Mabel didn't know if she was disappointed or not for not seeing anything in this form. (It was hidden away…) His reptilian form was so tall though! He was covered in green scales and he was very muscular too~ Nice~ He reached for some sort of skirt hidden away and told them to get inside.

"We must hurry. Today the soldiers were patrolling here. If they caught them, they are taking them to the Queen right now!" The humans, dragon, and Selkie crossed the fissure and followed Max.

"Not to scare, we don't eat humans, but all I know is trespassers are put to sacrifice to the protector god..."

"...Joy…" Miz winced as the kids' lips wobbled.

Miz Perception Filter'ed the shit outta their group as they passed some guards standing near the portal.

"Oh! Maxi! What-what are you doing here? I thought you were working." A guard smiled and nudged his neck. One of his sisters. "Just came home earlier, ok, bye!" Max said quickly as he led his entourage past them.

Max led the entire group with him and ran on four legs towards the center of the city. "Come on!" He motioned for Mabel to get on his back. It made him a little embarrassed, but it was her family, and he didn't want them to get hurt. Mabel grinned and accepted the ride, almost shrieking at the speed he had, even with her on his back.

Miz hummed in thought, too slow! Humans are too slow! She sprouted her tail and antlers. Soon enough, she was in her full triangular dragon form and picked up everyone except Maxini.

"Oh Gods…" Max almost tripped on himself at the majestic sight.

Amelie gasped. ""So THIS is what you mean by ALIEN dragon demon!""

Max shook his head before he continued running, trying not to get distracted by how warm Mabel was.

Miz grinned like the demon she was, and dropped the perception filter just because.

Immediate screams.

Both males and females shrieked and cried at the giant creature that appeared OUT OF NOWHERE! Chasing (or more like following) a young male.

Miz sighed. Aah~ Fear and admiration~ So refreshing. (And yes, she was filtering correctly! She just found it funny, is all.) Her smile was wiped off her face though when she heard the familiar english shouts of her humans.

"Oh no! They're in the temple already!" There was a patio there for ceremonies. And for stuff like this.

They moved past the terrified reptilians who wanted to watch the show and Miz knocked down a wall of the temple. Max winced. Oh fuck…

The Pines were tied up on large wooden piles, for Seb, they had used metal, after seeing how strong he was. The Queen was with the priestesses, and a group of people cheered to kill the humans.

Sebastian and Stanford were screaming, pleading them to spare the children. It seemed they were going to be burned alive? Or stoned to death? Or maybe both who fucking knew in this place?!

Luckily for them, it didn't happen, because the fucking wall was knocked down and a large dragon appeared, growling.

The group who captured the humans stepped in front of the Queen and the priestesses, growling and pointing at them with their spears, while the Queen and her priestesses stared in fearful awe.

"A dragon! I thought they were extinct!"

Mabel jumped off Max's back and smiled at her family. "Guys! Don't worry, I came to save you a second time!" She sent them a smile, too bad they were too traumatized to answer.

"Now YOU let my family go!" Mabel faced the very angry reptilians. Max winced a bit, but he knew she would be fine, she was female, they'd listen to her.

Miz flipped a paw so they could all understand the reptilian's language. She didn't like everyone not understanding things when trying to communicate.

"What the hell is going on here?!" The Queen screamed.

"There are more humans, your Majesty!" "How is that possible! There were guards at the entrance!" "I knew we shouldn't have left amateurs there!"

"Let go of the humans, and then we'll all leave." Miz grumbled. Zach and Zoe jumped off her and growled at the reptiles with their little pointy teeth. "LET DADDY GO NOW!" Their arms set on fire.

"MIZ, STOP THEM!" Seb and Ford cried.

"The children! They are the fire beast's pups!" Another pointed at them.

"Fire beast?" Mabel repeated out loud before looking at her friend. "Max! Please talk to them!"

What ?

Max looked at the kids, at the dragon, at the terrified-looking tied up humans, at the Queen, priestesses and finally, at the head of that group of soldiers. His thin ears dropped and his tail was tucked between his legs before he bowed.

"Please, your Majesty. This was just a misunderstanding, they're travellers with no vile intentions…"

Without really questioning why they could understand them now, the Pines nodded. "YES! WE'RE SO SORRY!"

"How dare you speak up to your Queen? Know your place!" The Queen snarled at the male.

Max flinched, but looked at the soldiers, especially at his aunt Laxki, who was unfortunately sighing and covering her face in embarrassment. "Aunt Laxki, please." "Oh, Max...why are you always getting in trouble? Is it so difficult to be a proper male and just do as you're told?"

Miz growled at the way they spoke at the reptile boy. "That young boy is right!" She defended Max. "I am Miz, a great and powerful dragon, and I demand you free the humans. They're mine."

The soldiers looked at each other while the Queen looked lost for words. She looked at her main priestess. "But...great dragon...They trespassed! They represent a very dangerous threat to our world! They are humans ! Vile and destructive creatures! What if they tell people about us?" She whimpered.

Miz snarled. "Well they're with ME and it's not like they haven't seen non humans before. So let my family go before I start ridding you of yours…" Miz snarled in a low, demonic rumble as the skies began to darken above them. Mabel, Diego and the twins stared. They'd never seen her dragon form before. In terms of dragons, she wasn't all that big, but she was large enough to tower over them, her jaws large enough to swallow them whole if she wanted. Her scales were like bricks and her arms and legs were smoothly pitch black, looking more like clawed tentacles. A giant, singular eye glared down at the trembling lizardwomen.

It was so cool.

"Ple-Please, excuse us, great dragon. We are so sorry! We-we will let you take your property back!" The Queen's tail was tensed up. Everyone was pointing at the storm clouds blocking out the sun. They'd heard that some dragons could control nature, in fact, dragons WERE forces of nature, but they'd never seen it in real life. She ordered the soldiers to free them, and to the crowd's shock, the humans hugged each other! But humans were monsters! They only killed and tortured!

Zach and Zoe squealed "DADDY!" before hugging Seb. Seb contained a wail of pain from his still bleeding arm and hugged them back. "W-what are you all doing here?"

Dillon, Dipper and Ford all ran towards Miz to hide between her paws. Ford couldn't help but notice Miz's dragon form looked more like Bill than Xin's dragon form. Once Miz was sure her humans were all here and safe, the skies cleared and it was sunny once more.

"We came to save you!" The twins sniffled and hugged their Dad's legs. Seb sniffled and hugged them back. "Aww, thank you."

Max remained on the ground, looking down as he stood in front of the highest authorities "You're one of the male apprentices, aren't you? The abnormal one!" Max flinched and Miz's interest perked up at that. "You were allowed the opportunity to become a Priest, to restore the disgrace brought upon your family with your unnatural being, you were allowed to brave the outside world, and you bring back disgusting humans into our sacred world? You ungrateful, unworthy-"

"Wait, your honor." Mabel stepped behind him, and everyone moved forward, determined to pull her away. "It's my fault! I was worried about my family, Max was just trying to help. A-and stop anything bad from happening!"

"Exactly." Miz practically purred, staring down at the Queen. "If any of my humans had been killed, I would have razed your entire city to the ground and eaten all of you…" ...except the children, she would have simply dropped them off in the nearest tribe.

Everyone tensed at that. Ford frowned. It didn't sound like she was lying. That… was problematic. No matter the reason, Miz shouldn't be allowed to do such a thing. He tapped her tail, "No, no eating people." (Some of the villagers stared at him aghast, that was the thing he had an issue with?)

One of the guards protested, "But we were simply doing our jobs! The humans had come too close! We had to-"

"You could have easily knocked them out and let them go somewhere else! Humans tend to assume they were dreaming !" Miz practically snarled at them. "And it's more suspicious for people to go missing! The other humans would search for them! Especially if they have families outside."

"Miz, even if we did get killed, you shouldn't raze an entire city to the ground." Ford scolded her next (making some of the villagers heave a sigh of relief, ok, so it wasn't just the eating). Miz deadpanned, "They were going to kill you." Ford nodded, "Yes, and that would have sucked. But your Deal would have protected us. We were never in danger of actually being killed."

"Loopholes exist. Self defense against you all is something I allowed. If they truly believed that you were a danger to them, then it might count enough for them to bypass my Deal and kill you." Miz pointed out. Everyone shivered. Shit, really?! But Ford didn't back down. "You still shouldn't kill all the innocent people here for the actions of a few."

"I wouldn't have killed everyone ," Miz started, which reassured the people listening. That was quickly dashed when she continued, "-have to leave a few survivors to pass on the message of 'Don't fuck with me or those who belong to me' after all."

"No. Bad Miz." Ford poked her snout. "You shouldn't kill people at all." She whined and rubbed her snout. "But Fordsie…"

She wanted to complain more, but her head turned around when he heard the twins' scared shouts. Seb had fallen to the floor, dizzy from the blood loss. "Daddy!"

Miz gasped and nudged him with her snout. Fuck, his arm was all fucked up! "Dude, you're bleeding." Miz narrowed her eye. Her tail flicked around as she turned slowly to glare at the guard who bit him.

"Yeah, no shit…" Seb gasped in pain. "One of those ladies had a bite of me…"

"Oh yes. I know… should I take a bite outta her for you?" The dragon growled at the scared guards. They trained hard to be fearless against enemies, but a dragon?! That wasn't part of the deal.

"Please, honorable dragon, let us heal your human, we do not wish to suffer your wrath." The priestesses spoke up. "We offer you the best of our physicians" They weren't even considering negotiating with the humans an option, everyone knew they were irrational beings.

"Hm…" Miz peered down at them, they couldn't sweat, but their feathers bristled to show their nerves. "Fine~ but you better pamper him properly!" Seb rolled his eye. "I don't need pampering, I just want to stop bleeding…"

Zach and Zoe refused to let any reptilian hold Seb, so it was up to Ford and Dillon to help him walk. They were invited-well, Miz was invited into the palace, which was just next to the temple, and the humans were allowed inside as well.

They'd have to purify the place later though.

Miz shrank back into her human form, but let her tail and antlers out, just to show her power and don't let them forget who was boss here!

Max had no idea how he ended up going into the PALACE. OF THE ROYAL FAMILY, with the humans, walking next to Mabel. He must be dreaming, absolutely dreaming. Miz was demanding food ("I heard you guys have fish, I WANT fish!") while the Healers treated Seb's arm.

Seb screamed in pain as they treated it, and thought it would have been a better idea to just go home and see a normal doctor! These reptile ladies were going to break it even more!

Miz was offered a large amount of delicious fish and she started to devour it, easily ignoring her soul brother's whimpers, he was fine . And he needed to learn to defend himself! Really Sebastian, you're much stronger than this! Ford was standing in the middle, torn between watching Miz, Amelie (who he was told was actually a Selkie and he should ask more about that), Seb or Mabel, who was talking to a green reptile boy for some reason (?). Dipper felt as uncomfortable as he could be and was standing next to his oldest uncle, while Dillon clung to his arm, shivering. "I wanna go back, I don't wanna adventure…" The oldest cousin whispered.

Dipper sighed, then twitched when Miz grew back into her dragon form so she could demand the reptilians to scrub her scales. Was she abusing her authority on them? Probably. Did they deserve it? He wasn't really sure. They did try to eat them/murder them, but they didn't know any better.

"No offense, thanks for saving us, but you're kinda terrifying." Dipper told Miz at last.

Miz's tail dropped sadly and she whined. Ford scoffed and finally spoke up. "That's not true! She's wonderful!" He went up and brushed a hand along her scales. "Even more fascinating than Xin's more traditional dragon form." He brushed a hand down Miz's smooth arm. "No scales here, it feels almost like rubber or silicon...but it's so smooth...soft…" Miz turned bright orange. "O-Oh…"

"Dammit Sixer! Quit feeling up my daughter!" Seb spat before yowling in pain as he was rubbed with something that burned like hell itself! The Queen and the priestess shared a shocked look. One of the reptile women guards fainted. The dragon was the child of the fire beast?!

Mabel was sitting on a corner on a seat crafted from stone. Max was standing, still nervous to be in the castle and going over in his head about the things he was going to tell his family once Aunt Laxki told them about this. She'd already gone off. Just to tell them...

"Max?" Mabel called him, bringing him out of his thoughts. "Hey, sorry for all this mess...I didn't know my family would end up here in your city." She bit her lip, sure that this was going to be the dealbreaker, another failed romance. After all, if his people almost killed her family, and then her cousin threatened to eat his people, that was definitely reason enough for Max to want nothing to do with her.

Max rubbed his neck as his tail twitched madly. "It's ok...I'm sorry my people almost killed your family…" Now she wouldn't want to continue seeing him, the first girl who's ever seemed to like him... But this whole thing went even further than simply a failed friendship. His family was going to be so angry at him! He had a hell of a storm coming to him, Mabel felt terrible when she saw his nervous expression, she knew it was their fault. "You're getting in trouble for this, aren't you?" She asked in a whisper, holding his clawed paw.

The reptilian boy winced. "Well, yeah...I shouldn't even be standing here…" He rubbed his feathers nervously. "I-I'm low class, we aren't allowed here...I think I just got in because I was with you...One of those soldiers was my aunt, she's going to tell my parents."

Mabel winced and rubbed her arm. "I'm sorry, Max…" The two looked away from each other, not knowing what to say.

"Oh, don't be sad! You're a dragon's spokesman!" Miz lifted her head to tell the reptilian after feeling his sadness, and immediately went back to eating her food. "Think of yourself as an ambassador between your tribe and the hungry dragon who might eat them all." Ford flicked Miz's snout, getting a yelp out of her. "Bad Miz! No eating people! Even if they're not human."

"Well, I would only do it if they tried anything against you all."

Max frowned in thought, considering the dragon's words. He...He couldn't be that important though, he only spoke up when he wasn't given permission. But that was the same thing the dragon told the Queen though and it did save his butt from the priestesses' wrath. He shook himself from head to tail before turning to look at his new friend. "Hey...I feel very uncomfortable here, how about I show you around my part of the town? It's on me this time." He said instead.

Mabel gasped, vaguely realizing that because of the spell, Max was speaking more clearly, so she'd be able to fully converse with him. "You...You still want to hang out with me? Even when my family caused all of this?" They could still become friends? And maybe even more than friends?!

Max grinned, showing off his sharp fangs. "I think you're a nice human...and...my tribe tried to sacrifice your family, but I think your cousin threatened to eat us all, so I think we're fair."

The brunette girl squealed and, taking advantage of the fact that everyone was super busy with Uncle Seb and Miz, she followed Max outside to finally see his village properly. She didn't get a good look around back when they were rushing here. The beach was beautiful, especially since this beach had much less trash well, no trash at all. Even with Miz cleaning the beach of all the glass shards and trash, it was summer and there were (nasty) tourists in New Jersey, there was litter everywhere. But the sand here was soft and white and pretty. Mabel laughed as she dropped into the sand and rolled around.

Max wagged his tail at how happy she seemed and laughed. "You're like a hatchling!" He cooed at her. "Rolling in the sand like that."

"Oh yeah? You don't do this? But it's so softttt and niceeee!" Mabel pouted. Max looked around, noticing the people were staying away from them, (that was good, he already didn't have the best reputation due to his appearance and he'd be kinda embarrassed to be seen playing like a kid) and dropped next to her, shaking and throwing sand everywhere. Mabel shrieked and shielded herself. She laughed as she saw him playing in the sand with her now.

"Do you make sandcastles here? Do you know what a sandcastle is? Do you play in the water? Can you BREATHE underwater?!" Mabel poured some sand she cupped in her hands over Max's pretty feathers.

"No. I don't know what a sandcastle is? We have sand sculptures though. Yes, we play in the water, I love playing in the water, and no we can't breathe underwater, we aren't fish, but we can hold our breath for a lot of time!" Max shook his head and Mabel covered her face when the sand was thrown everywhere.

"Well~ I can teach you to make one, but we'd need a bucket" Mabel pouted. "We could go find one and then come back? And you can show me around your home while we're at it!" Mabel suggested. Max nodded, albeit his never-ending fear of seeing his family on the way. He didn't doubt Father would have a heart attack after seeing him with a human.

They walked in the direction of the houses and workshops, where the common folk lived. Mabel really liked this place. It was like visiting an old city from the past, but in the present! And with reptilian people living on it! "My mother works with wood, she usually makes things for the higher class families, building new houses and furniture. The best things she carves are totems though."

"Woooah~So a carpenter...Nevermind, that's a human word I think...Well, my mom is a nurse! She heals people, like the guys "healing" my Uncle." Max seemed very impressed. He knew humans were classified by the papers they used as money, but being a physician's daughter here would make Mabel pretty high class.

"And well, my dad works with computers, which I don't know if you know about that, so when we're on my side, I'll show you." She promised. "It's pretty hard, he had to read lots of tiny words and numbers and fix programs that his clients send him."

"...Uh...That sounds pretty hard...and your dad really does that?"

"Yup! All on his own!" Max nodded at that. Oh wow. Mabel had very cool parents. And her father could read! That meant he must have been from a high class family as well. Max was lucky to be able to read, his aunt really helped him a lot there, getting him that priest-in-training position so he could learn. "Hey Max! I was meaning to ask you! All males come in different colors, right?" Mabel asked, completely changing the topic because she was like that. "I saw a guy with red scales just screaming after seeing me. That was pretty rude. But you're the only green one I've seen so far! Do colors come from families? Is it genetic?"

Among his people, Mabel noticed that all the males had colorful vibrant scales ranging from bright blues to oranges to purples… while all the women were the same dulled green. Maxini was green too. They were beautiful scales, but compared to the other men, he wasn't as 'pretty'. Mabel thought he was very pretty regardless, but she was curious.

Max's spines dropped and his tail tucked a little. He was hoping she wouldn't ask about that. "Um...No, colors are just good luck...Only females are green though, when males are green they're considered a mistake and no one would ever want to marry them." Max rubbed his arm softly. "They're called unnatural, abnormal...You...must have heard the priestess…"

His explanation sunk into Mabel harder than it should. She took her hands to her mouth. Shit. She fucked up. "Max…" DAMMIT! "I-I didn't mean to make you think that! I don't think you're a mistake! Your scales are really pretty!" She glared. "And screw anyone who says otherwise! You're really pretty! In both your forms!"

Max managed a small smile, but he wasn't buying it. She was just saying that so he wouldn't feel sad. He already accepted it, most people wouldn't like him, but as a priest he could get more respect, apologize to his parents for getting saddled with him. "Max…" Mabel insisted, but a loud booming voice interrupted her.

"MAXINI!"

"Oh dear gods…"

-.-

The Queen was a nervous wreck right now. She wanted to please the dragon, only an idiot would want to be on the bad side of a dragon (especially a noble female one), but she wanted the humans as far away from her palace and her city as possible! Her hatchlings had to be kept with guards in their rooms because they were trying to come in here to see the humans. She thought it was over when the human(?) fire beast was healed (the dragon did praise them for their magical abilities in healing), but they realized ONE OF THEIR KIND WAS GONE! One of the guards said the human girl left with the priest's apprentice.

The unnatural boy sure was taking this opportunity to be a pain in her tail today.

"Your dragoness, is it possible for you to leave with the humans you have at your power right now?" The Queen asked softly.

Miz licked her paw and yawned. "Nah, I can't leave without Mabel." She changed back to her human form and patted her full belly. "How about we go look for her, I'll keep my humans close so they don't mess with anything, we find Mabel, and leave? I'm curious about this place and most of my humans want to see around." She glanced up at everyone. Dillon, Dipper and Seb, (holding his patched up arm with tears in his eye) shook their heads erratically. Ford, the twins, Diego and Amelie nodded eagerly.

Miz didn't like how the Queen thought of Max, so getting on her nerves just for today sounded fun too.

The Queen's eye twitched.

"Look, you can even send an escort, to make sure our tour doesn't extend longer than necessary. We look around, get Mabel and get out. How about that? I'm feeling very generous today so I won't walk around in my dragon form, to keep your architecture and people away from any danger." Miz purred, sweet as can be. The Queen could see some guards making frustrated hisses and her priestesses were nodding at her, albeit reluctantly. But none of them wanted to face a dragon. "Fine, but please find your human and leave, we wish to be left alone." She massaged her temples.

Dillon's eyes filled with tears. No. No more of this. His heart couldn't take all the adventuring!

...He hugged his godfather tightly, and Seb winced a bit. To be fair, he didn't want to be here either, but Mabel gotta be found, he guessed. Shermie would finish tearing his arm off if he didn't.

The twins took Amelie's hands as they jumped up and down, eager to learn new things. Dipper was sticking close to Ford, also curious but scared of the creatures whose hostility towards them hadn't changed. Meanwhile, Ford's excitement wasn't hidden, he was prepared to talk about everything and anything so he could write it down later. "Miz~ Is part of the tour being able to ask questions?"

The dragon sweetly turned to look at the Queen, as well as the guards who were escorting them, and the queen tiredly waved a paw and shooed them away. "Yes, yes, leave now." Ford and Miz thanked her profusely while the guards groaned. The Queen turned to look at her servants when the humans stepped out. "I want this place cleaned, and you-" She looked at the priestesses. "Pray to the gods so they won't take offense on this unholy presence in our city."

-.-

The tourists of the city of the reptilians, or Heeyatl Pak, as it was the real name of their tribe, had to admit that seeing a society of supernatural creatures was amazing. Even Dillon's eyes were dragged towards a few things.

"Hey! Don't touch that!" "Stop! Don't go too far!" The poor reptilian women babysitting the humans and the dragon were wishing they had continued their mother's businesses instead of joining the military. But noooo! They wanted to be different and catch the attention of the maleees! They wouldn't be dealing with these hideous looking humans if they had listened. (Too their relief, the dragon did herd the humans up so they couldn't bother the citizens.)

Just like they were staring around, the family was an attraction itself. Many reptilians were staring at them with morbid curiosity, pointing at them and whispering. "Look, those are the humans!" "They're...shorter than I thought." "Where are their body equipment that shoots metal and kills you instantly? Will they use it against us?" "Are the smaller ones human cubs? They're so weird and round." "Eww~ They're all bald and have no scales!"

Ok, their comments weren't really nice, but they were just seeing a completely different species walking around their city, they had the right to be surprised.

A few stupidly brave hatchlings caught up to their group and stared at the twins and Diego. They wagged their tails at the sight, SO WEIRD! Zoe growled at them, making fire appear on her arms, and it immediately made the hatchlings shriek in terror, trip over their tails and ran away.

Seb rolled his eye at that. "Don't terrify the reptiles, they already don't like us."

"Call them Heeyatl Pak. Don't be rude." Miz told them all. Dillon grinned at his uncle cheekily, and Seb answered by hitting his head with his uninjured arm. Ford was bouncing in place. He went up to a Heeyatl Pak male who was weaving a net out of thick seaweed. "Excuse me, sir. Can I ask you a few hundred questions about you, your people, your culture and your biology?

Everyone groaned at that, including the KIDS. How did Ford manage to write three books of increible supernatural creatures...being like this…

The man squeaked in terror of the human and his spines expanded as he growled and showed off his teeth. Miz went over to save Ford before he got killed or something as one of the females escorting them all reassured the male that they had everything under control. "Wow, they're spines are extendable when they feel threatened." Was the only thing Ford said. Miz shook her head fondly while Amelie frowned. She couldn't see why Miz liked him… scientists like him were the stuff of horror stories in her family. She understood the Heeyatl Pak being so terrified of that man.

Ford looked at Seb. His arm wasn't bleeding anymore, but it still hurt. "So...Is it time for me to give you my observations about their culture?" Seb raised an eyebrow at him, unimpressed.

"...Yes, brother. It is time…" Seb whispered, just as unimpressed.

"Females are bigger than males." Ford repeated again. "And it seems it has an influence on their social organization."

"You just love being a know-it-all and pointing out the obvious, don't you?" Seb hissed. Ford grumbled something because he wasn't going to fight with Seb, and turned to look at the pissed guard.

"Is work divided by gender? Are there male soldiers?"

The guard scoffed. "Males are too small and pretty for that stuff. And who would take care of the eggs and hatchlings if they went to war?"

"This is sexism...inversed…" Dillon frowned, confused. Miz elbowed him. "Pretty sure all sexism is sexism, no matter who's the one on top." "Ok. fine…"

"Why are all females green? Or better yet, why are males so different?" Ford asked the guard again. She groaned. "Do I look like a physician to ya? I don't know! Males are different colors just because they have to look pretty!"

"Maybe it's similar to male peacocks…" Ford muttered. "Do the colors of your feathers have any special intent as well?"

"No? Feathers come in a dark shade of your scales. You're green, feathers are dark green. You blue, feathers are dark blue. It's not that difficult, human." Another guard spat.

Ford wasn't going to get intimidated, and Dipper was actually glad he was asking all these questions, Dipper was just as curious, but too polite to actually ask such questions. "Do your...featherstyles hold any significance?"

They thought about it. "Eh...Kinda? Males wear small braids when single, females wear their feathers to one side when single. Braids are long when married, females let their feathers grow when married. The Queen styles it in a bun. We use bandanas to keep it off our eyes"

"Are you descended from dinosaurs? Since you have feathers." Ford asked next.

"What's a dinosaur?" They asked in a 'duh' tone.

Miz had already Seen into this place, but she would allow her Fordsie to have his fun and play anthropologist today.

"Do you have many wars?"

"A lot. Other cities tryin' to take over here. Allies exist though. Sometimes we're at peace, sometimes not."

"And do you use weapons or your claws to fight?" "Both."

"Currency?" "Quahog shells or channelled shells, there are three standarized sizes for the region, value depends on size. There is also bartering."

"This is incredible…" Ford was speechless. A complete society just...hiding here! With rules, social organization, hierarchy, economy! All of it hidden away from humanity! The reminder felt just as good as the first time he discovered it. Miz cooed at his enchanted expression. Seriously though, Ford should know there were hidden alcoves of supernatural creatures and beings all around the planet.

Dipper shooed a little heeyatl pak away from his leg because he was prodding and poking him with his little sharp claws, (it was also to protect him from Zoe's anger if she saw someone else other than her wausing him bruises and cuts), before he spotted a small group raising their voices. "MABEL!" He recognized the quick familiar blur of pink he saw. She was with the reptilian from before, and was surrounded by an older couple, a male and female around the age of Mabel's friend, and the soldier that had led them to their almost doom.

"HOW COULD YOU BE SO IRRESPONSIBLE?! What was the first thing we told you?!"

"...Not talk to them more than necessary?"

"AND WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"...Talk to them more than necessary...But, mother, not all humans are horrible! Mabel's nice!"

His brother was speechless and his sister, who had been working with their mother in the workshop when their aunt informed them what happened, scoffed. "That's what IT wants you to think!"

"Hey! I'm a she! Not an it! And I'm nice! And I think Max's nice too! Unlike some girls here~!" Mabel pouted at the tall growling female.

She gasped. "How DARE you?!"

"Maxini, we put our trust in you...We didn't allow you to go out to disobey the Queen's laws...You spoke up to her, in favor of some humans… " His father seemed more hurt than angry.

"...It...I was an ambassador...Between-between a dragon and us…" Max whispered. And even if it wasn't technically the truth at the time...it was HIS decision, something he decided for HIMSELF...which didn't happen often. And it SAVED someone! Several someones! He didn't think the Gods would be angry at him or frown upon their family because of this.

"Oh-Oh my heart can't take this." His brother massaged his temples.

"What kind of bullshit is that?!" His mom cried. His aunt Laxki was about to speak because in FACT-

"Eh hem~" The family (and Mabel) turned around to see Mabel's family! Seb scowled at her. "Bad Shooting Star! BAD!" He scolded her. "How could you have run away like that?! Your dad would have murdered us!"

"Oh no. More of them!" Max's mom grimaced. The two families scowled at each other.

"Seriously, Max?! You talked to THIS many?!" His sister scolded him again.

"I haven't even talked to the other ones, I only really met some of them, like Mabel." Max defended himself. "Yeah! And it was me who talked to him and wanted to be friends, so technically it's not his fault!" Mabel added.

Amelie meekly raised her hand "Also...If it helps, I'm not human? I'm a Selkie." She let go of Diego when the child ran to be with his brother. Dillon sighed. "So Amelie isn't human. I'm not even surprised anymore." He groaned.

"I don't care! The Queen shouldn't have allowed you all to stay for so long! Humans are dangerous!" Laxki pointed at the twins who blinked innocently. Zoe was even sucking her finger.

Maxini sighed. "We just met, but Mabel's nice and I like hanging out with her."

"Silence, freak boy!" One of the guards who escorted them here finally snapped. She didn't care if he was the nephew of their coworker or whatever. It was completely natural to insult and belittle a male for his appearance, especially someone with a color as horribly dull as his. Max and his family flinched as Mabel growled. "HEY!"

"This is over. The humans leave now! Move it!" She pointed with her spear at Ford, prompting a "OW!~" from him. She did step back when Miz glared at her.

"Ok. Fine ~" Miz tugged on Ford's hands. "Come on, everyone. A promise is a promise." Miz walked over to Max, patted his paw and smiled. "It was nice meeting you, kid. Very good ambassador." Dipper meanwhile, grabbed Mabel's hand and put another hand on her shoulder. "Come on, Mabel. They're already on the brink of their patience, let's not anger them more." He pleaded in a whisper.

"But-But-" How was she going to see him again?! She didn't want to lose Max! She didn't want to… Not when she finally felt the same fuzzy feeling in her chest after so many years. Not…when she finally realized she hadn't felt this way since she first met Mermando all those years ago. Her eyes welled up with tears ("Huh, humans cry, who knew?" Commented Max's brother). "Max…"

Max looked at her wide-eyed before lowering his head, spines dropping and tail tucked. He couldn't do anything, the guards took them all in the direction of the cave. Miz waved a hand and fixed the hole she made in their temple. Would be rude not to after all the delicious fish she was given. Might as well send a blessing around the region so they'd get a minor boost to delicious fresh fish or good crops for clothes and snacks. Yes, they were carnivores, but higher classes got vegetables as dietary complements and snacks. "As thanks for the food, I will Bless your lands with a year of good harvest."

She held onto Ford's hand, but looked up at Mabel with a pout. All this sadness and...guiltiness, anger...She didn't want this, not from Mabel…

"Are we leaving now?" Zach and Diego complained innocently as they were taken yet somewhere else. The reptile women huffed and led them out of the cave. This time the male Pines didn't have to go up through the hole on the floor, apparently this place was much more complex than they originally thought. The guards growled before looking at the group of invaders. "We will let you live this time, as you were accompanied by your dragon master. But we will not be so forgiving if you come down once again!" The guards glared and the Pines nodded quickly. Ford did complain, "Miz isn't our master." to which Dillon shushed him. "Don't make the scary lizard ladies mad!"

They came out of the cave and Dillon fell to his knees on the sand. "Holy Moses...We're back, AAAHH! YAHWE I'M SORRY, PLEASE DON'T ABANDON ME!" He bowed, and the kids, who had no idea how in danger their dad and family had been, threw themselves over the sobbing teen, laughing innocently.

Miz turned to look at Mabel, who was rubbing her eyes with her forearm. "So~ Shooting Star, I'd like to know why the HELL did you leave with that boy without telling us?!" "How did you even-Why?!" Seb wailed. Mabel's fists tightened just as Seb gasped.

"Wait. Don't tell me you're dating him now? OH Ax, how am I supposed to explain that to Sherman now?!" Seb shouted at Ford, who shrugged helplessly.

Mabel had enough. "No! No you don't have to tell dad anything because we aren't dating and we never will now!" She shouted at both her uncles, who froze scared. "Because you guys had to go MONSTER HUNTING and invading their land-and-and now I will never see him again!" She sobbed.

Dillon looked at her with a grimace. "Dude...THEY ALMOST KILLED US!" He screamed and Mabel screamed back "Well that's on YOU! You didn't have to go around messing with them! And-And now I-I lost my chance with him, like I always do…" The girl sobbed silently and quickly wiped her eyes. Dipper, Seb and Ford felt terrible. "We didn't know."

"I liked him, ok?! I really liked him, for real, and-and I think he liked me too, but now I can't be sure because he'll never be allowed to come out again!" Mabel sniffled and started walking back to their hotel. "Shooting Star...I'm sorry." Seb called, but he was ignored. Ford was completely at a loss, but worried for his niece, while Diego was confused and the twins whined in distress, feeling Mabel's sadness all the way in their chest.

They all returned to the hotel in a terrible mood, exhausted and sad. And they still had to explain to Mabel's family what had happened. Ugh.

-.-

Max kept his hand clenched until his family finished scolding him and left him alone. Only then, did he open his hand, to see what the dragon had slipped into it earlier. A small triangle pendant. The shape appeared to be gold, the pendant had an eye in the middle. It was hollow, he wasn't sure what the significance of this was.

He didn't think it mattered though...His mother had prohibited him from going back to his human job if he wanted to continue his studies...

-.-

They found their family lazing around the hotel and Mabel quickly avoided them all to go to her room. She wanted to go to sweater town and never come back ever again.

Kari gasped when she saw their clothes covered in dirt, mud and scratches. Wanda screamed after seeing Seb's t-shirt and the twins' chest covered in dried blood. "What the heck happened?!" The two women screamed.

Everyone looked at each other. "Well, we went monster hunting? Seb got hurt." Ford explained sheepishly.

Amelie grimaced sheepishly as the Pines were lectured by the old woman, who was the queen of lies herself, did they really think they could pull one over on her?! Wanda scolded Seb for being so irresponsible and letting them get so messed up.

"What happened?" She demanded.

"...Mabel found a supernatural boy who is some kind of reptilian. They hit it off, but we accidentally got into the hidden magical world and they all had to save us. The boy's family is very angry at him now for bringing humans and now Mabel hates us for ruining her chances with the boy she likes." Seb said with a pout.

"Excuse me...what?" Shermie and Abigail frowned confused.

Wanda blinked and decided to… just take the children upstairs for a bath, they were filthy and if she guessed right, had Seb's blood on them...

"Where's Mabel then…?" Abi looked around for her daughter. Did she go through a Romeo and Juliet kind of thing right now? She must be so devastated…She ordered Shermie to give Dipper a bath as well before going upstairs to find her baby.

"I don't need you to bathe me! I'm almost an adult!" Dipper complained. Shermie shook his head. "You've been wearing that same shirt for 2 days. Take a bath right now!" Dipper grumbled as Shermie held him up by the back of his shirt and carried him to his hotel room.

"This goes against my integrity! I'm 18! Release me!" Dipper shrieked as his Dad carried him out of sight. Shermie huffed. The ungrateful brat. He changed his diapers to keep him clean every day for 2 years. He was getting worried for his hygiene and this little shit didn't want to!

"Where did I go wrong with youuu!"

Seb managed to smile, despite the horrible crushing feeling of guilt. "He's a very dirty child. You know that summer he stayed with me, he refused to bathe for a week? I almost sent him to sleep with the wolves." Everyone gasped in horror.

Miz giggled. "Maybe you need to give him a bubble bath or little duckies to play with. Pinetree is just a tall child." Her smile was wiped off though, feeling Seb and Ford's guilt. "Hey… It'll be ok." She totally shipped them, she wouldn't let Shooting Star get separated from Max, she was her cousin and Mabel liked her. So Miz was gonna try and help her out.

Stan and Carla finally made an appearance. "Well, so, how did you get all dirty?" Carla asked her kids. Their youngest baby ran towards them. "Mom! Dad! We met some reptile people! They're called...heeyak! And-And it was so cool!"

"No it wasn't! Uncle Seb threw me into a hole and we got captured and-and they were going to kill us!" Dillon broke down as he hugged his dad.

"Seb did WHAT?!" Stan roared. "Where is he?! I'm gonna throw HIM in a hole!" He growled as he hugged his poor, smol sons. He carried Diego easily and it took him more strength but he managed to lift the teen as well, just like he did when he was 13. "Pops, I saved him from the heeyak!" Diego informed him proudly. Stan was going to kill his triplet.

Seb quickly got out of there and went to his room to help Wanda bathe their kids. Before Stan could confront Ford about it, Miz pulled at his hand so they could bath as well. He smelled like mud, sweat and scared human. "You need to take a bath too." She told him. He sighed. "But I need to fill in my journal about what I learned today with the liz-" Miz grabbed his hand and dragged him behind her to the elevators. "Looks like you're getting the Dipper treatment." She huffed. Ford gasped. "You can't bathe me! I'm a grown man!" As the elevator doors closed everyone heard Miz respond with "It's not like you've got anything I haven't seen before-"

Inside the elevator, Ford went quiet, holding Miz's hand, finally thinking about how he and everyone could have died today, and he wouldn't have been able to protect them. "Thank you for saving me…" He told her.

"You're welcome."

Once they were in the safety of the room, Stanford looked at Miz, troubled. "Is Mabel really angry at us? I seriously didn't mean to ruin her...attempt at romance." He rubbed his neck.

"Yeah, she is kinda angry, but she won't be angry forever… and it wasn't your fault you got kidnapped...You should have been more careful though." She reminded him with a pat on his arm.

"Is it bad that I want to write everything I learnt about them despite what happened?" Miz smiled a little and poked his nose. "Nah, you just love learning, I think that's very cute." She stretched and let her tail and antlers grow back. "If you feel bad for Mabel too you can always go talk to her, but AFTER YOUR BATH!" She pulled his sweater up and Ford groaned when she left it half way up. She wasn't tall enough to get it up over his head.

"Miz!" She stood on the bed to pull up the rest of the sweater. "Ok, you big baby."

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Miz and Ford turned towards the source of the voice and saw Seb in the window. Behind the window.

"What the FUCK are YOU doing?!" Ford grimaced, confused and a little offended for Seb...being here.

"Wanda wanted me to go bring the kids' clothes, but Stan was in the hallway so I climbed out the window into the balcony and was going to hide here." Seb said matter-of-factly, as if it was pretty normal to jump from balcony to balcony in a hotel to a room you weren't using. While being so high up. He pushed the window and slided inside.

"Well. Get out. I'm taking a shower." "It's not like I'm getting in the shower with you!" Was Seb's reply.

"GET OUT!" Ford shouted at his younger brother. "GEEZ! Calm yourself, Sixer. I'm leaving when I hear Stan's gone...I'll turn around if you worry I can somehow look through the door of the bathroom?" Seb grimaced and turned around, facing the opposite wall.

Miz couldn't help the smile that appeared on her lips when Ford took a very deep breath. PATIENCE. He went into the bathroom and closed the door after himself. "By the way-" He called out through the door. "Miz, do you mind if I ask you about your triangle dragon form? I've never seen anything like it before."

"Sure." Miz pulled a chair over to sit beside the bathroom door. The sound of the shower turned on. "Are you sure you can hear me?" Miz called out. There were some shuffling sounds and Ford responded, "You're right, can you open some sort of communications between us?" Miz raised a finger in the air and drew a circle, the glowing light hung in the air and suddenly Ford's face appeared in it. He startled back. "Miz! I'm showering!" He cried. "It's only pointed at your face." Miz responded. "But if you're uncomfortable, I can make the call 'audio' only."

"Please do so."

Miz flicked her fingers again and the image faded away to a cartoon image of a set of speakers. "Can you hear me now?" Miz grinned. "Good."

Seb grimaced. What was even going on? Ford started asking some boring science questions about what Miz's arms were made of. "Well I don't have bones, for one thing." She shifted into her dragon form as she spoke, so she could inspect herself. "Oh, so… like an octopus?" Ford asked.

"I DO have tentacles." Miz noted.

"But why is it so rubbery? Is it actually rubber?" Ford mused. Miz huffed, "Don't ask a girl about her chemical composition!"

"Yeah, Sixer, that's rude!" Seb glared.

"Sorry? And SHUT UP, SEBASTIAN!"

"Wash behind your ears and stop shouting at me!" Seb chastised him. "Yeah Fordsie~ don't want your ears smelling like cheese now do you?" Miz cackled. Ford grumbled about how the demons were teaming up on him. Seb and Miz high fived. Or rather, high six and high four. Well, they had an average of five between them so that counted?

"And shave with a normal razor please." Seb added.

"I don't have gasoline, of course I'd need to waste my time with a normal razor." Was the scientist's response. Seb turned to look at Miz. "Seriously. What do you like so much about this guy?"

"He makes me laugh." Miz answered honestly. Seb shrugged. "Okay, fair."

Miz thought about what her brother had said, about how this Stanford wouldn't like her anymore eventually, but… she didn't want to believe that. He was nice .

Before Ford came out of the bathroom, Seb left, he was going to check on Shooting Star and see if she didn't hate him forever. He wouldn't be able to live with that thought.

Dragon Miz continued answering Ford's questions while he took his time to wash everything off his fluffy hair, but eventually, the human stopped hearing Miz over the call. When he came out, he saw the dragon deeply asleep on his bed.

He grinned and took this chance to study her anatomy some more.

The arms and legs were much like Bill's noodle limbs in his triangle form, but much larger and with claws. Frankly, this form looked like someone took Bill's triangle form and stretched it out until it was dragon shaped. Ford wondered how Miz created these different forms she wore. He combed his fingers through her hair. Was it hair? It didn't feel like hair…

The long black strands coiled around his fingers and Ford's eyes widened. Were these...thousands of thin tentacles? He felt them curl around his hand and wrists. Ford tugged but they didn't seem to want to let go. "Um...Miz?" He tried to free his hand but the tentacles that made up her 'mane' continued slithering up his arm and pulled him down. Miz rumbled sleepily. Ford tugged. "Um...Miz?"

He braced his other arm against the side of Miz's flank and pushed to try and free himself. The tentacles gripped tight and Ford had to wiggle a lot to finally free himself. He sighed. Miz was breathing softly, snuggling against the pillow.

"Alright, here we go…" Ford muttered as he decided to cover her with the blankets. This was luckily a smaller version than the one she grew into at the Heeyatl Pak's tribe. So she could alter her size, that was interesting. Miz hadn't moved an inch. He watched her chest rise and fall. Was she visiting her space family? Ford knew she did that while she slept, sometimes.

He put on pants and sat on the bed with the dragon. The tentacles that made up her mane seemed to be limp until he reached his hand near them, at which point they would grab at his fingers and try to pull him in. Ford figured this was some sort of unconscious effect but wasn't sure what it was for. Perhaps her tentacles were attempting to capture prey?

He was getting quite obsessed with MizBill's different anatomies...it was simply fascinating. He wished he could know more, but the demon was really shy about it and he wouldn't do anything to upset her...what would it take for him to know all about her forms? For her to fully trust him and realize he cared and wouldn't hurt her?

Ford sighed and absently stroked her bricks. Part of him wondered if she could feel it. Probably not. He wanted to know more, but didn't want to do a full inspection without permission. That sort of thing was frowned upon in the scientific community. But he figured she enjoyed the petting. He leaned against her flank and reached to grab his journal. He wrote about the reptilian people they met today with an entry 'Reptilians are among us!' and then when he finished writing everything and sketching a male and female, he started sketching Dragon Miz. She was so amazing...

Ford glanced over at Miz, having finished the sketch of her snout and head. He pulled back the blankets so he could sketch the rest of her, but her front legs were gripping the sheets. "...if it's just her legs, that should be fine? She was okay with me petting them before." He lifted one of her front legs to pull the blanket from her grip, and took this chance to inspect the limb again. How WAS it moving without bones? With Miz asleep, the limb was limp and floppy, he easily twisted it this way and that. It felt rubbery, but it was nearly frictionless (in fact he had to grip very carefully to not have the limb slip out from between his hands) when he rubbed a hand along it. It felt smooth but it wasn't slimy like an octopus arm would be despite reminding him of one. Slick feeling, but not oily. A deep black color all the way around. Soft, but with a bit of firmness that allowed it to stay in shape. Elastic and very bendy, able to be bent 360 degrees all around without any sign of discomfort.

Ford wrote down his observations. He inspected her claws, she had 4 fingers, each one topped with a hard claw that Ford knew was sharp enough to tear through ropes. He poked them, rubbed them, pulled at them and held onto her hand so he could sketch them. What were they made of? Keratin? No, it had to be something much stronger.

Heck, what was Bill made of? Ford had never been able to run real tests on Bill due to him not having a physical body. And even when he GOT a physical body they didn't really have much of a time for inspections. Ford wondered if he could get Miz to agree to giving up a tissue sample...for science.

Ford wasn't sure what prompted it, but his inspection of her arm had included his observations on what it looked like, what it felt like, what it sounded like (he held it up to his ear as he bent it around), what it smelled like (didn't smell like much of anything) and finally, what it tasted like. What? It's simply scientific observation using his five senses!

Ford licked the black arm, not really expecting much, and coughed at the bitter taste. It was like...licking charcoal. Wait, didn't Miz mention something about separating her food into the elements when she ate? So was this her body expelling the carbon? Or were her limbs actually made of giant carbon chains? That didn't seem exactly right...

(Curse you /works/12230157 for putting the idea in my head of Ford scientifically licking things!)

As Ford stuck his tongue out, prepared to taste the limb again, he heard a rather incredulous voice ask "Um...what are you doing?" Ford froze with his tongue outstretched mere centimeters from the black arm. He darted his eyes to the side and found Miz staring at him.

"Um…"

"I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you were attempting something stupidly sciency…" Miz glared.

Ford nodded stupidly and tucked his tongue back to his mouth. "Y-Yes!" Urgh! How stupid! "I was...I was just...trying to learn about this form...you-you look really fascinating and...and I...five senses?" He said intelligently.

Miz took a deep breath before commenting. "You're so lucky you're cute and I like you because I would have pulled your tongue out of your mouth if it wasn't you." She said and Ford paled. "R-right...sorry…"

Miz curled up again to go back to sleep. "Ok, but seriously, don't lick me, I don't want your mouth germs on any part of my body. You humans are gross. At least brush your teeth and stuff first." she huffed "Wake me up when it's dinnertime." and went back to sleep. Ford felt quite relieved that she had forgiven him. He was still blushing though. He must have looked so dumb !

He went back to drawing the reptile men and women to distract himself.

-.-

Back with the Heeyatl Pak, the Queen was informed, by some very surprised fisherwomen and farmers, that their harvests had mysteriously doubled. The fisherwomen reported large fish leaping into their nets while the farmers reported their crops were filled to bursting, ripe and full.

The priestesses then told the Queen that the dragon had apparently blessed them with a year of good harvests as thanks for their offerings of food and pampering. The Queen shook at this revelation. Was this all the work of the dragon? If so, what would happen once that year was up? She turned to a guard. "How many people know of the dragon's claim of blessing?"

"Ah…" The guard looked nervous. "At first it was only us and the ambassador male's family. But after the farmers and fishers came back and started a commotion in the city square, the news has spread." The woman winced. "There are already sculptors carving a statue to erect a place of worship for the dragon."

The Queen twitched. "T-they can't worship the dragon! What would the gods think if our people turned their backs on them!?"

"Do you want us to stop them?" "Immediately!" "But what if we anger the dragon, majesty?!"

"I want to see the dragon!" The princess whined at her mother. The King listened to his wife and the priestesses panic about what to do. "It would be a good idea to keep a good relationship with the dragon. Maybe not worship her as a god, but as a protector. You could send the unnatural boy to continue his job as ambassador." The King suggested softly.

"I have an idea! "What if we send the freak boy as ambassador to keep good relationships with the dragon." The Queen exclaimed. The king sighed, not even bothering to call his wife out on stealing his idea.

"That's an excellent idea, ma'am!" "Such great leadership." the other women praised.

The King scowled harder when his wife turned to him and demanded, "Go bring us drinks to celebrate! You have nothing more important to do anyway." The king sighed. "Yes, your majesty." as he walked off, he heard the women celebrating, "This will be a historic moment for our city! The power we'd get to lift us to greater heights!"

The King was so glad the ambassador was male…Might as well help that poor cursed boy out.

-.-

"Hi...There was a cute boy yesterday, dark skin, tattoos, green eyes."

"Sorry he hasn't come to work today. Not even a call!" The butcher sighed. He was worried, actually. That Maxini boy was very polite and kind. Obedient and earnest about doing his tasks properly. Which was better than some other workers he had who didn't really give a shit half the time.

"...Oh…" Mabel hung her head and left the shop.

"Hey, it's me again…" The butcher stared at Mabel for the 3rd time. "No, he hasn't come back, kid." He gave her a sympathetic look. "I don't know what's going on, but his aunt came by and said there was a family emergency." He hoped the boy and his family were alright. The butcher gave Mabel some turkey jerky, for free, since she looked so down. Wow, Max had really charmed this girl, hadn't he. The man secretly hoped the two could meet again, she seemed nice. Max deserved a nice girl.

Mabel hugged her legs. It was oficial. She was never seeing Maxini again. Amelie sat next to her under the sun umbrella and let her sniffle on her shoulder. "Oh, come on, Mabel. I'm sure he's fine."

"Or maybe not! They'll never let him out again! And I'll never teach him about phones or laptops because his poopy city with his poopy sister won't let him!"

"Hey, Mabs, don't you wanna play? Diego is offering to play with you." Dipper approached her carrying Diego.

"Not in the mood, heeyatl pak's scarer. "

Miz walked towards her as well, soaking wet from the way the sea threw her around, but she had a wide grin. "Hey, Shooting Star! Quit the long face! Max is doing fine, more than fine I'd say!"

"Why? Is his city not sexist anymore? Is he treated like the awesome guy he is?" She grumbled.

"MABEL!"

The girl's eyes widened and her head spun around madly. There, a couple meters away, a dark-skinned boy with dark hair with a small braid came running towards them.

Everyone watched as Mabel stood up and practically flew towards the boy. When she was close to him, Max tripped over his own feet (because his gravity always shifted when he turned human) and fell face first into the sand.

Dipper blinked. "They're definitely made for each other…"

Mabel lifted him up and gave him the tightest hug in existence. Max gasped, thinking she was trying to kill him, but remembered humans wrapped their arms on your body to show...affection. He tried repeating the gesture.

"Oh, Max, I thought I'd never see you again!" Mabel wailed.

"Me too! My family didn't let me come back here for two days! But then, the Queen herself showed up at our house with her guards and the 3 main priestesses! I was so scared because I thought I was going to be killed! But-But in front of everyone she-she said that I am NEEDED in the city!" He pulled out a cloak with beautiful patterns and showed it to Mabel before pulling out a little necklace he was wearing. "I was ACTUALLY named ambassador! They-They want me to make sure the dragon receives our prayers and offerings so she blesses us and I'm the ambassador so she sees we're good to all her humans and that we hold no mean sentiment towards them!"

"And that means?!"

"That I get to be here all the time! I get to work here!" Max's accent was strong in his excitement, but because of the Translation Curse Miz had placed on them all, she was hearing him fluently.

"Max, THAT'S AMAZING!" Mabel squealed and hugged him again.

The two laughed as they spun around in the sand, collapsing back into it. Miz had the widest grin. "Shiiiiiip~"

Back on the sand, Mabel sat up, pushing her hair out of her face. "I...I missed you a lot, Maxi" She leaned in (feeling bold) and kissed his cheek.

Max gasped softly. "What-What was that?"

Mabel giggled. "That's a kiss. We humans do many kinds of kisses, this one is a happy kiss." She explained to the shocked reptile boy.

Max touched his cheek. Wow...Humans were so amazing...Now he understood why the great dragon liked them so much and protected them…

"I need to talk to the great dragon! Thank her for everything she's done for me!" Max wiggled his butt, missing his tail.

"Thank Miz?" Mabel asked confused. Sure, Miz spoke up about Max being an ambassador to her interests, but did she make the Queen name him a real ambassador?

Max pulled out the triangular piece he got from Miz days ago. "The dragon gave me a pendant, I-I thought it was some sort of...choosing from her." Max admitted, holding up the triangle. Mabel laughed. "So Miz was keeping an eye on you! I guess she also wanted to be sure you were okay."

"Hello, kid!" Miz finally decided that was her cue and skipped towards her new ship. Max quickly bowed down. "Great dragon Miz! I don't have words to tell you how blessed I feel for being chosen by you to convey your desires! I-I promise I'll do my best to ensure my people are honoring you rightly, so your blessing remains on our lands."

"Eh… sure." Miz made a note to extend her Blessing upon his home, gonna have to set up a proper weather cycle system and boost the fertility of the fish in the area… make sure the fish's food sources were boosted too… introduce more nutrients into the soil, there was a lot that went into being a harvest god. Would be cool to get worshippers here on a version of Earth.

The Pines finally approached the boy, finally able to talk without fearing to be killed. Shermie and Abi stared in confusion, because that boy didn't look like a reptile? And Ford was just very surprised and curious to know what kind of magic they used to create human forms.

"So...We're ok?" Dipper smiled sheepishly at Max. He grinned back. "Xhu! Everything is amazing!" Mabel just squeezed him a little more.

Shermie had a feeling he should be threatening or something? But Mabel had actually cried days ago for 'losing' this guy, it didn't feel right. Besides, he had gone through Mabel bringing home different boys a lot, so he just didn't have the energy to protest her taste in men anymore. He was old.

Seb laughed at the HUGE smile Max was giving all of them, despite being like, former enemies of his species just maybe hours ago. He was so excited for this. "You had something to do with this?" He leaned closer to Miz.

"Nah. Just gave him a pendant to keep an eye on him and be sure he was safe in there. If they had hurt him or locked him up I'd have saved him though. My ship was in danger!"

Seb rolled his eye. "Of course you do..." Well, Max didn't look like a bad kid. In fact, he felt he was too good for his own good, too innocent. Not good to be in the human world which would chew him up and spit out someone this earnest. Would they need to teach them how to act? Mabel did tell him Max had only been here for a few months… His thoughts were interrupted when he had to pull Ford away from Max, who was being protected by Mabel. "Get your own hot cryptid, Uncle Ford! Max is under MY protection now!"

Ford stepped back, because Mabel's glare was almost as scary as the reptilian females glaring down at them, but still looked at Max. "May I ask you a few million questions later on?"

Max wiggled in Mabel's hug. "I'd love to help you, sir!"

-.-

The Pines really had a fun time in New Jersey. The rest of the summer was spent relaxing and simply enjoying each other's company. They went to amusement parks (they were careful NOT to be chased out this time), and they took lots of photos. Everywhere, at every second. When July came, they had 2 birthdays to celebrate. First it was Shermie's, the baby of the Pines brothers, who was turning 33, yet his mother and brothers all mock-babied him.

The day for the adults was pretty fun. At night they went to party HARD, leaving the teens in charge of the kids.

Miz had to pick THEM up after the bar hopping because they were fucked up, especially Seb and Ford, as the light weights they were. Ford was babbling the periodic table somewhere and Seb was practically pole dancing for the women who were all cheering loudly…

Oh Ax, she wished she had brought a camera…she simply made one and snapped a few photos before taking them back to the hotel. It was fun seeing their hungover faces the next morning, along with their horrified ones at the blackmail Miz got...

A week later, it was Dillon's turn. He turned 19 and everyone went nuts as if it was his first birthday ever. To no one's surprise, Phillip was the first person to congratulate the love of his life by calling him at midnight. Dillon couldn't even be angry, he really missed his boyfriend.

They took him to a nice restaurant to eat and everyone gasped when Stan gave him money as a present! They didn't see that coming. Stan dragged Dillon out to a bar. He tried to sneak some alcohol for Dillon but Ford refused to let him. "You can give him drinks when you're at home. But we're in public right now! And 19 isn't 21!" Dipper was there as well, sipping his fruit juice and groaning. Meanwhile, everyone who stayed at the hotel received Phillip who had come just to see his babe. "Rainbow is here, over! Rainbow is here!" Mabel talked to her twin over the triangle pendants Miz gave everyone, and Dipper told his uncles and Dad to return to the hotel. Shermie hugged him. "The smell of alcohol is too much for him!"

Dillon was kind of disappointed but the surprise at the hotel was MORE than worth it. "PHILLIP!" He cried and ran towards the ginger young man. Everyone cooed at the love birds who hugged each other after a passionate kiss. "You are closer to being fully adult now~" Phillip purred in his ear and Dillon grinned mischievously.

Suddenly, Stan lifted Phillip by the hem of his shirt and separated them. "You aren't doing anything, you're so lucky I have a kind heart and rented you your OWN room! Separated from Dillon's. Which I'll be guarding…" Phillip paled and nodded. Dillon groaned loudly. Damn it.

Well, whatever, he had his boyfriend with him for the rest of the summer!

---

Mabel and Maxini's drawing is in Deviantart and Tumblr! So you can check it up there!