AN: Well, finally here's another chapter! I know I've been busy with Some of Things, but this isn't abandoned. I know how it's all gonna go, I just need... To figure out how to write it all down! You guys understand, haha.
And a relevant set of song lyrics:
"Hey, Mother, Father, Sister
Hey, come back! Trying, believing...
Hey! Mother! Father! Dreamer!
Don't you know that I'm alive for you?"
Thought this song was very apt, it's Mother, Father by Journey. ;)
Dipper had given his sister some space. He'd actually gone into the living room and watched TV with Grunkle Stan, though nobody else knew it. He was actually starting to see why his Grunkle liked the Duchess Approves so much.
He didn't even notice when Mabel stormed back up into their room and didn't come out until lunchtime. Even then, as she made some nachos in the microwave, she looked downcast. Only when Dipper and Grunkle Stan heard a loud THUD from the kitchen did they both race (and float) in to see what was wrong.
Mabel had pushed her plate away and her forehead was down on the table. "The dang book didn't say anything useful!" she wailed. "How am I ever gonna fix Dipper now?" She had no idea.
"Hey now don't go giving up so soon, kiddo," Stan said gently. "What book is that, Dipper's journal?" He knew it was his brother's journal, and he knew the sort of stuff that was in it. If there wasn't a way to bring his nephew back in there...
He didn't want to think about those possibilities.
"Yeah," Mabel sniffed. "I looked with the black light too. Nothing!" She flopped her head back onto the table in despair.
"Come on Mabel, there's gotta be another way," Dipper soothed silently, knowing full well that it wouldn't do much good. "There will be some other way besides the journal."
"Hmmmmm," Grunkle Stan said, rubbing his chin. "Y'know I might have some books on magicky stuff somewhere around the Shack. You eat up and I'll go look, okay sweetie?" He ruffled her hair with a tired smile. She nodded.
"Okay Grunkle Stan. I'll try." Her smile was watery, but she nibbled a chip. Stan stood, then moved his chair so it was facing Mabel.
"Just in case, y'know... Dipper is hanging around." Then he shuffled off awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck because he didn't know what else to say. Neither of them knew, but the spectral boy did take the seat, ankles crossed and hands folded in his lap.
He didn't say anything.
Mabel sniffed and ate another chip, then carefully wiped her hands before opening the journal again. She'd stuffed Bill's note into the back and was now flipping through, trying to find it. Dipper had seen the note, though she hoped he hadn't...
She'd come back into the house mumbling and Dipper had floated over immediately to see what was wrong, and had read over her shoulder as her eyes scanned the lines again. Then she clutched it in a fist again and went upstairs to immerse herself in her research once more.
Dipper... He had cried spectral tears, now knowing that this was on purpose and that Bill had planned on killing his SISTER too. That was... Somehow it made everything worse for the boy. So, swiping at his face with a see-through forearm, he'd stayed downstairs with the distraction of his great uncle and the TV. He wished he could get Stan to recognize his presence so maybe the older man would talk to him every so often, but no matter how many poked Dipper administered to Stan's shoulder and arm and face, he was never noticed. So he sighed and settled down to watch.
He found that he quite enjoyed the Duchess Approves and would ask to watch it again if they managed to fix him. It made for a good distraction.
Now, at the table, Mabel had managed to flip to the beginning of Dipper's section in the journal. She found that... She couldn't just flip through his section. She would be able to hear her brother's voice in those words, even if it was just in her head. She hadn't read this part during her research...
So with a teary grin, she settled down to read it now. She found herself giggling at certain parts, even speaking aloud to the possibility of Dipper sitting across from her.
"You're such a dork," she whispered.
"Hehe... I know, sis," he said back, unheard. He was smiling too; the nickname lost its sting when said by his own twin, especially in that sad voice...
She read a few more pages, and then all of a sudden her face changed. The blood had left it and her eyes were wide and her mouth was agape. Dipper had time to glimpse a page with a chart and black writing before Mabel screamed.
"GRUNKLE STAN, I FOUND IT!"
Stan came dashing back into the room, first thinking she was hurt and that he couldn't lose her too before the words caught up with him. Unable to hear Dipper's protests, he sat in the empty chair while the boy phased through and ended up in a heap on the floor.
"What what did you find?!" Stan rasped, voice gone hoarse with desperation and the fact that he'd run back.
She held up the journal. "The copier machine can make really real full body clones of people! Dipper cloned himself during that party, all so he could dance with Wendy!" Mabel was beaming while Dipper groaned.
"You couldn't have left that part out?"
"There are some problems, like the fact that the clones are paper-y and dissolve in water, but with some planning we can get Dipper a body back!"
"Did I hear Mabel say we can get Dipper a body?" said a new voice, one that belonged to Soos.
All three occupants of the room, seen and unseen, jumped.
"Yes Soos!" Mabel cried, hopping up. "There's this copier machine that can copy real things! Dipper and I discovered that when we had to copy fliers for that party a while back? Not the zombie one, before that. Anyways Dip copied his own arm, which kinda came to life... But I never knew it could copy whole bodies!"
She reads little from the journal, explaining the drawbacks and such, shutting the dusty book when she was done and beaming. She saw two grinning faces back at her.
"Sweetie I am so proud of you right now," Stan said, almost tearing up. "Ya found something that just might work!"
"We can get the little dude back!" cheered Soos, offering Mabel a high five (which she accepted.) "And..." Soos continued, pausing when both gazes (plus a third invisible one) snapped to him.
"Uh, hehe... I was gonna say I think I might know a way to get Dipper's new body to not be all paper-like and dissolve-y, ya know... Once on TV, I found this weird medical show. Cutting edge research and all that... Apparently for, like, super fancy blood tests, scientists are making paper with actual living cells in it that changes color if the patient dude had some disease or something. Pretty wild, huh? But maybe if we could get to a hospital and have a sheet of creepy science fiction-y cell paper made from the dude's DNA... I dunno maybe he'd have a normal body?"
And both (all three) stares had gotten even wider and then Mabel tackled Soos' stomach in a hug. "SOOS YOU ARE AN AMAZING GENIUS THANK YOU!"
"Woah, not bad," Stan said with a stunned chuckle. "We... We actually have a plan to save Dipper. We're gonna need some help, probably Wendy... But yeah this could work..."
He was almost in shock. They could get Dipper back. They could. Incredible.
"We gotta... We gotta get his original body to copy, though," Mabel said, mood dropping a little, along with the atmosphere of the room.
"Oh great the new body will have the same injuries as the old one," Stan said, voice almost cracking in the middle.
"Maybe not the internal ones," Mabel said in an optimistic yet wavering tone. "If it's only the bruises and cuts, he'll be okay. We have ice and band aids for that. But... Why don't we test it out?"
Dipper was pacing nearby. "If the scanner uses DNA or molecular composition to construct the clone, then the new body will be fine! Damage isn't written into DNA, after all... Wait what?" At his sister's voicing that they should test it, Dipper's nonexistent heart leapt to his throat. Grunkle Stan voiced his unseen nephew's feelings.
"No way is anyone gettin' internal injuries to test that thing!"
"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel said, looking a little insulted. "That's not what I was saying! I broke my finger once when I was little. You can feel a bump." She held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger.
"I was suggesting we copy my finger and check for a bump, Grunkle Stan! No one else needs to get hurt, yeesh!"
"Oh, uh, hehe, I coulda guessed that." Stan looked sheepish. "But okay, we need a plan to get Dipper's body back, first of all, then persuade the hospital to do the cell paper thing..." He stood up, clearing the table and setting out sheets of paper and four chairs.
"Soos, go dial up Wendy and tell her to get her butt over here 'cuz it's important. Now... Plans..."
Dipper, though his spirit form had been forgotten, could not help but give a teary smile.
AN: There's chapter 3! The cell-paper stuff is 100% true; I had a talk from a man who worked with it last semester in college! Pretty crazy cool, huh? Chapter 4 may take a while, I have a lot to write for Some of Things. Got some really special chapters of that coming up soon!
But I have to work out chapter four of this too, and I promise it'll come! ;) Till next time!