Venom Snake jogged across the sunburnt metal to the medical platform, the red cross glistening in the evening sun. Kazuhira Miller is glaring into the window, not sure what to make of the new stowaways. Boss steps in beside him, raising an eyebrow. They must be the ones from the boat his staff collected earlier. The men are arguing between each other, and the children are sitting on the hospital bed next to them. None of them are particularly fresh, sporting various cuts and other injuries.
"I don't trust them, Boss," Miller mumbles, Boss staring intently.
"The men made a mistake in pulling them up, they said they were asleep. We should've left them to float, refugees be damned," he continues angrily until he's interrupted by a metallic hand.
"Calm down Miller, I came to see if the people in the boat are fine, not listen to you rant." Miller glowers into the window, and the man in the trench coat catches Miller's eye before turning to the others, pointing back at him. The man in the black suit holds Miller's eye, moves in front of the children and flips Miller the bird. He scowls and limps away, muttering about disrespectful old men. Boss watches him go before he turns back to the window, noticing the children can see him too. He turns his head to Quiet nearing him, nodding her head in greeting. It wasn't long before she disappeared again, leaving the door open to the medbay.
"Hey miss, you think you can get yer boss in here? We want to talk." Boss overhears the black suited man, going in before Quiet disturbs them further.
"You're their boss, aren't you? Stanford Pines, pleased to meet you."
Boss nods, "Welcome to Mother Base, have the medical staff treated you well?"
"Yeah! They gave me and my brother a lollipop! I'm Mabel by the way." Now that she mentioned it, Boss did note the lollipop stick sticking out of the children's mouths.
"They also gave me some burn cream for my burns, I'm Dipper."
"And I'm Stanley Pines, these are my and Ford's great-niblings, also that guy that was standing next to you, he was glaring at us a lot."
Boss sighs, "Pardon the rude interruption, I'll have to have a word with Miller. Quiet's mute by the way, don't expect any words."
"That bird I gave him made him bugger off," Stan says with a grin, Ford mirroring him.
"How did you find this base?" Boss asks.
"We went through a bubble that was screwing with time and space and now we're in the year 1982," Mable exclaims, running out of breath.
"You gave them a calendar?" Boss asks the head of medical staff, she shakes her head.
"No, 'Stanford' asked for the full date, Sir."
"Going through the barrier must've thrown us into the past," Ford theorizes.
"You two, you with these men?" Boss asks.
"Of course! They're our Great Uncles!" Mabel exclaims and Dipper nods in agreement.
Boss reaches for the doorframe, "Alright, stay here for a little while longer. Ocelot should be with you soon."
His boots echo down the corridor, leaving the children's mouths open in awe.
At least an hour passes, when another set of boots come down the hall. A rather well aged figure leans through the door. "Can I.. help you?"
"Finally, we've been waiting for ages! Who're you again?" Stan asks.
"Ocelot," he nods, "I take you've been introduced to the other two old men?"
"Yes we have," Ford conforms, "We aren't going to be let out of here any time soon, are we?"
"The kids can go free for now, there's plenty of staff to watch them. As for you two, come with me. Miller wants some words with you, nothing personal. Just protocol," Ocelot raises his hands.
Dipper and Mabel wandered around the command platform, gawking at the structure. As Ocelot stated, there is definitely a lot of staff to watch them, a dog started to closely follow them. It seemed to be keeping an eye on them, literally, since it has one eye.
"Dipper I want to pet the dog that's following us," Mabel says, looking at the grey dog.
"Ok, I'll to call him over, c'mere!" Dipper says and the dog pads up to them. Mabel starts to pet the dog and he nuzzles into her, Dipper adding to the overwhelming attention.
"That's Dee Dee, he's apart of the family now since Boss found him as a puppy," a staff member says to them before walking off. Dee Dee frees himself from the twins and wanders off to who knows where. Dipper turns to his sister.
"Mabel I don't care if it has a name, we still have no idea where we are!" Dipper frantically says shaking her.
"Dipper, you're hitting me with your hat."
"Oh, sorry," he pats his hat, "but Mabel aren't you freaking out at all?!"
"...a little?" Mabel waves her hand in the maybe motion.
"Well I'm going to find Ocelot, you can either follow me or find the dog," Dipper offers.
"I'll follow you," Mabel says. Dipper walks to one of the staff members.
"Excuse me, but where would Ocelot go?" he asks.
"Uh, I saw him go that way, towards R&D platform," he says, pointing to the Northwest nods and scrambles away, leaving the staff member scratching his head.
"Who are those kids, anyway?"
Dipper arrives at the R&D platform, turning around when he heard frantic footsteps to Mabel heavily breathing.
"Sorry, I got distracted, I thought I saw the dog again," she stops, panting.
"Mabel, I need to find any clue I can as to where we actually are!"
"Slow down bro-bro! We'll find that out eventually. Hey why don't we ask Ocelot?" Mabel asks, pointing to the man standing across the pit.
"Well who did you think I was looki- Oh, there he is." Dipper adjusts his hat and marches over. Mabel skips after him.
"Now those kids seem pretty clued in, if you spot one of them getting into a place they shouldn't, don't hesitate to holler at 'em, speak of the devil?" Ocelot looks down.
"Mister Ocelot, Mabel and I were just uh… wondering where we actually are. She might be freaking out a little" Dipper put on more of an 'adult' voice, making himself sound ridiculous.
"I am not!" Mabel snaps, "Come on Dipper, did you even pat that dog?"
"Feelin' homesick? I'm sorry, I still can't tell you. You'd put everyone here at risk." Ocelot gestures to the row of men standing before him, all staring expectantly back at the kids.
"Oh, right. Yes o-of course. What do we even do, you've taken our Gruncles somewhere, haven't you?" Dipper sweats a little.
"Don't be so scared. Listen, it's getting dark soon. Each staff member usually bunks on their assigned platform. If you want, go over to where you came and I'd be with you soon. Your 'Gruncles' are safe and sound, don't you worry." Ocelot's easy features are quite calming as he waves the two off.
"See Dipper? There's nothing to worry about. You can freak out tomorrow, okay bro-bro?" Mabel happily ambles away, expecting him to follow.
Dipper sighs and looks to the ground, somewhat disappointed. "Alright, Mabel. If you're lucky you can find that dog again." He stands there for a bit before running to catch up to Mabel as they head back to the command platform.
Day turned to night as the twins did the slow walk across the bridges. Mabel couldn't help but stop and look at the sunset on the way, but soon they were finding themselves under a streetlight of sorts.
"Dipper, it's okay. You won't find the answers to everything within hours of being here. Think of it this way, whatever danger we just left behind hasn't even happened yet apparently."
Mabel's sunny disposition seemed to cheer him up somewhat, "Thank you, Mabel. I can't just sit back and do nothing though, otherwise we'd never get out, right?"
"That may not be such a bad thing, the people here are nice. We have all the time in the world, give or take a few years. I might even have some new people to try the Mabel Juice on!" Mabel almost jumps in place, Dipper raising a finger to speak but stopping in his tracks.
"Come on, Ocelot said we should find somewhere to rest here." He goes to a flight of stairs leading into the platform's building, Mabel following close behind with her usual grin.
After a mess of labyrinthine corridors, they eventually find an open door with an empty room.
"Sorry Mabel, there's no window. The beds look comfortable enough, though," Dipper sits on one of them and pushes down, there's quite a bit of give.
Mabel comes in and flops on her bed, getting a feel for the room. Obviously, it's not very colourful. She can't help but feel somewhat safe, though.
A familiar sound comes down the corridor. "I see you've already made yourself at home, feeling well?" Ocelot looks in.
"Yeah, we're okay.. I guess." Dipper picks himself up, "Mister Ocelot, what exactly are you doing with Stan and Ford?"
"I already said that you didn't have to worry. Cheer up kiddo, we've just taken them somewhere quiet to ask them a couple of questions. People don't usually just turn up in rickety boats every day, y'know." Ocelot thinks to himself for a moment, "While I think of it, is there anything you want to tell me while I'm around?"
Dipper raises and eyebrow, "I would, but I'm sure our Gruncles are explaining this crazy story to the other two far better than I ever will. I'm just saying we won't be getting into trouble. Why are you being so nice to us, anyway?"
"Well, that's just me. I can't help but feel somewhat responsible for you two, if everyone else is so busy. I mostly ease in new recruits, but a boat family who's lost their way? It's not that much different," Ocelot comes in and grabs a chair, he's preparing to be here a while.
"Wouldn't that make him a sorta-uncle, Dipper?" Mabel starts paying attention.
"You could think of it that way. If there's anything you want to know about the Boss or Miller, I can answer it." Ocelot nods in a knowing-father sort of way, sitting backwards in his chair.
"How long are those two going to be down there? Stan and Ford need somewhere to rest too!"
"It's been a while, Miller tires easily whenever he's giving someone the talk, but Boss is more of a mystery, he tends to be gentle and to the point. See if you can't guess which one has the temper by now." Ocelot chuckles to himself, "They'll be kind to you though, don't let Miller scare you."
Dipper tries to think of another question, pacing once or twice. It seems he's gone blank.
Mabel cuts in, "Where did you get that dog? He doesn't seem like a normal dog, still enjoys attention like one though!"
"Oh, Dee Dee? It's a long story, Boss found him while out on his travels. I mainly trained him, but you can't wean the dog out of a dog. I still catch some of the men feeding him leftovers. I'm not sure where he sleeps, if he even does." Ocelot looks into the distance for a moment, has he ever seen him curl up somewhere?
There's a small silence again, they can't think of anything to say. Ocelot takes the opportunity to carefully look them over, it seems they've been through a lot.
"Well if you two have nothing else for me, I'm going to have a look downstairs. If you need anything I'll be around places. Your… 'Gruncles' was it? They should be in the room next to you by morning." Ocelot stretches and returns the chair to it's spot, getting up to leave, "Get some rest, you two."
"Hmph, good night Mister Ocelot," Dipper yawns.
"It's just Ocelot, no need to be so formal," he trails off before shutting the door.
"See Dipper? They're nice, hopefully you can get some sleep on that. 'Night, bro-bro," Mabel turns over.
"Yeah, 'night Mabel." Dipper sits his hat on a table and hits the switch, the room goes dark.