"Hehehe. Not only the alpha twin, but the better twin," Mabel chuckled deviously to herself, holding the book to her face.
A good guilt trip ought to do the trick.
"I'm sorry, Mabel, but I'm busy. Maybe another time," Dipper had said to her annoyance.
The man stubbornly refused to go on a ride with her on her motorcycle (or her "metal death trap" as their father liked to call it) even though he promised he would during their stay. It wasn't the first time he had put it off. He cited reasons such as "work" or "getting ready for the party" for not going even though she promised it'd just be an hour or two and they had plenty of time before everyone would arrive at the Mystery Shack. It was the perfect day for it too, but instead he'd told her to go get some last minute groceries.
And though she'd listened to him, she had done it with a very disapproving pout before she left.
In no hurry to get back, after she'd gotten what she needed and a little something else, Mabel had decided to check out a secondhand book store. Hoping to find some cheap copies of a paranormal romance series that she liked to give to Grenda and Candy, she had stumbled upon a familiar looking book and her plan for revenge had formed.
The Sibling Brothers series had caused Dipper to keep her awake many a night during their time in Gravity Falls. It was almost poetic justice that she used it to get back at her brother for being a procrastinating scaredy-cat (though he insisted he wasn't afraid of riding Mabel's motorcycle). The copy was apparently signed and in fairly good condition. However, Mabel could have easily missed it as she was used to seeing it practically falling apart in her brother's hands from having such a loving owner.
And while her first instinct was to taunt him and smugly wag the book in front of his longing eyes, Mabel had amended her plan to killing him with kindness (and maybe chucking it at his face if the mood struck her).
While finding the mystery novel had been by pure luck, Mabel wasn't getting a very good lead on the books she'd actually been looking for. The place was so disorganized that it could give Ford's lab a run for its money.
"Ugh, I can practically feel the boring oozing from this place," she murmured to herself with a yawn as she rubbed at her eyes. Best that she find what she was looking for asap, lest she fall asleep in the wake of the nerdy atmosphere surrounding her. It'd be like her physics coarse all over again.
In her search, she noticed that there were a lot of thick, old looking texts and blinked when she actually recognized one of the archaic symbols on the spine of one. It was one that she'd seen while searching for symbols for her jewelry, but she couldn't find any information on it.
"Hm. Maybe," Mabel muttered to herself as she scanned the shelf.
So long as she was there, maybe it'd be a good idea to grab a book or two about symbols. If she could find some old magic or language books they were sure to be chock full of them and it was hard to get solid info on the internet.
After a bit of debate, Mabel decided on a thinner text on the top shelf. However, when her glance around the area for a stool turned up empty, she took matters into her own hands. Sweeping her gaze around one last time to find the area void of any other customers, she placed the mystery novel down and rested her foot on the bottom shelf. Deeming it suitable to carry her weight, Mabel began to slowly climb up, wincing at the creaking sound the shelves made from supporting her. She hastily searched the self from her new vantage point for the book.
"Bingo." She spotted the text and shot her hand out to grab it.
"Hey!"
"Ahh!" Jumping in surprise, Mabel's eyes widened as her foot slipped from the lower shelf and her hand failed to grasp the top shelf in time. Her vision blurred as she fell back and prepared herself to hit the ground, but instead something surprisingly soft broke her landing.
"Ugh. I guess I deserved that." Mabel heard the strained voice underneath her grunt in pain. After a moment of disorientation, she shot up with a gasp and rolled off of her savior to kneel beside him.
"Oh my gosh, are you okay!?" Mabel asked the man sprawled out on the ground.
"Huh? Yeah, I think so," he laughed, sitting up and rubbing his head. The smile on his face cracked when he cringed at a sudden pang in his head. "It's kind of my fault anyway. I didn't mean to startle you," he explained sheepishly as he adjusted his glasses. "I just thought I'd offer you some help."
"Oh. Do you work here?" Mabel asked, wide eyed as she shifted her gaze awkwardly. "I uh… couldn't find a stool so I just thought I'd grab it myself since I just wanted the one book and I didn't really expect anyone would see me…" She trailed when she noted how intently the man was staring at her. "I'm sorry, I'll leave now," she apologized speedily and moved to stand.
"No, no, no, I don't work here," he quickly told her with a short chuckle, holding his hands up as if urging her to stay. "It's just that I thought you looked familiar," he explained, his green eyes twinkling in amusement.
"Sorry, what?" Mabel tilted her head at him in confusion and helped pull him to his feet. She'd never seen him before in her life.
"Do you fall for guys a lot or am I just special?" He asked, sporting a knowing grin as he waited expectantly.
"Fall?" Mabel pursed her lips thoughtfully before it hit her. "Ski mask guy!?" she blurted, pointing at him in surprise.
"Ski mask guy?" He blinked at her, rubbing the back of his neck. "I guess we never did get formally introduced," he thought aloud, pursing his lower lip. "I think we should change that. I'm Wane Doctor," he said, offering his hand to her with a smile.
"Mabel Pines," she said brightly and shook his hand, noting his fingerless gloves. Her smile morphed into a pensive frown and she asked curiously. "Do you mean Dr. Wane?"
"Ah, not really. Here's the funny thing," he began as if rehearsed, though his delivery was no less sincere. "Yes, that's my real name, but I actually am a doctor too. Still, my nickname was always Dr. Wane, so I guess I was just meant to live up to it," he explained nonchalantly with a shrug.
Mabel giggled. "Don't feel too bad, Dr. Wane. There are far funnier nicknames out there," she spoke, thinking of Dipper. It was normal to her, but it had been and still was the butt of many jokes on her poor twin.
"So tell me, what was the book you risked your life for by taking on the daring task of shelf climbing?" Wane asked coyly.
Mabel looked down at her hand still clutching the book and turned it to show him. "Oh, just this. It's for-"
"Hey! I know this one," Wane's face lit up suddenly. "Do you mind?" He held his hand out politely for the book before Mabel deposited it into his grasp. "Man, talk about a walk down memory lane," he beamed, leafing through the pages.
"You've read it?" Mabel prompted him curiously.
"Read it? I practically inhaled stuff like this when I was in high school." Watching Wane, Mabel nearly cooed at the man's childish delight. It was so cute and honestly reminded her a lot of Dipper when he was deep into his little geek world.
"So you're a fan of… history?" Mabel asked, a bit unsure of the contents of the book.
As if catching himself, Wane shut the book and handed it back to her with a light blush. "Sort of. Just the idea of science and magic and everything," he confessed. "I know it's not real and all, but people have spent centuries trying to turn lead into gold or cure diseases with magic and some claims of success just kind of… make you think." The dark haired man shifted awkwardly. "Sorry, didn't really mean to unload all of that on you."
Mabel laughed. "Trust me. You're tame compared to some of the people I know when it comes to the unusual and stuff like that," she assured him, dusting off her pants. "So hey, thanks for… everything then. Back at the coffee shop," she told him, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.
"Huh. Oh, no problem. Always happy to help a damsel," Wane said with a gentlemanly nod. "So do you like this kind of stuff?" he asked, sounding almost hopeful, pointing to the book.
"Uh, well." Mabel glanced to the side thoughtfully as she pondered how to proceed. "I probably don't know nearly as much about it as you do," even though she knew magic and the supernatural was, in fact, real, " but I think it's really cool," the brunette told him.
"Really?" If Wane was a dog, Mabel was almost certain that his ears would have perked at that. "Maybe we can get together some time then. Like, maybe go get a cup of coffee or dinner?" he suggested.
"Sounds great…" Mabel said, doing her best not to melt.
She had to admit, that ski mask hadn't been doing Wane any favors aside from keeping his face warm. It was taking all of Mabel's self-control not to fan herself in the face of his boyish smile. That, along with his messy black locks, cool green eyes and lean but solid build would leave any girl ready to swoon. While both times she'd fallen into his arms were complete accidents, she could definitely see herself doing it on purpose now.
"Heeeey, crazy sudden idea," she spoke when she finally got a hold of herself. "But would you want to come to a party I'm having tonight? It'll be at the Mystery Shack."
"The Mystery Shack?" It took Wane a moment to register that. "Wow, that place is famous around here. I'm kind of new to Gravity Falls, so I've never been," he told her before adding as an afterthought, "Didn't know they rented the place for events."
"Oh, we don't," Mabel interjected. "But my great uncles own the place. It's kind of a get together for our friends, but you're welcome to come."
"Sounds like a date," Wane grinned before reaching into his pocket. "Say, I'm not very good with directions, so could I get your number? In case I get lost, of course." He offered her his phone.
"Couldn't get more lost than I'm getting in your eyes," Mabel murmured with a sigh.
"What?" Wane blinked.
"Nothing! Nothing!" Mabel laughed and swiped his phone from his hand to put in her number, barely convincing herself not to put "The girl of your dreams" as the name. She needed to play it cool.
"Thanks, Mabel," Wane said when he took his phone back. "I gotta go, but I guess I'll see you at the party later-"
"At seven," she quickly supplied.
Wane gaped at her for a moment before laughing as he walked backwards towards the exit. "At seven," he confirmed with a mock salute. "On the dot-uh!"
Mabel slapped her hands over her face to smother a snort as she watched him nearly trip over a stack of books on the ground.
"Hah! Should probably look the same way I'm walking." He smiled sheepishly as he regained his balance. "Later," he waved.
"Later," Mabel suppressed her giggles under a lighthearted grin, watching him leave. "A friend, indeed."
Or maybe something more.
…
"Based on what you told me, I tried to read up on everything I could, but I'm just drawing a blank," Dipper explained to Ford, chewing on the end of his pen.
When his sister had finally left the house, Dipper had rushed down to the basement to see Ford. He knew that she and grunkle Stan were coming from a good place by trying to keep him from being drawn into Ford's obsessive behavior as of late, but he was a grown man. He had been just fine without them directing his life for years and a little temptation wouldn't send him on some downward spiral like they thought.
"It was a long shot, but at least now I can narrow down the possibilities," Ford mused aloud. He'd lent his nephew a few tomes that he hoped might allow Dipper to come to the conclusion that was eluding him, but even the young man's insight wasn't bringing forth any new leads.
"How long have these fluctuations been going on?" Dipper inquired as he looked over the energy readings that Ford had recorded and wrote down some observations. The new ones that were recorded the night before just seemed to make the whole situation more complicated.
"A few weeks, but I can't pinpoint why. Nothing matches up with anything that I've accounted for." Ford had been following the energy readings, trying to make some sense of them, but he just couldn't find a correlation to anything that might be causing them. Even then, correlation didn't equal causation, but it was still a fair starting point.
"These readings are a nightmare to run through," Dipper sighed as he looked over the long stretch of markings that probably looked like nonsense to the average joe. Hell, they were bordering that for him just because of all that was going on.
"I know. Even with the computers I've only gotten through about half of the potential scans." Ford had to admit that he'd been skeptical of the idea of computers and the internet being useful for more than a giant computer and cataloger. However, after arriving back in his home dimension and finding all the applications it had, the scientist couldn't help diving head into the intricacies and workings of the technological ocean of possibilities.
Although he'd had to come up with the programs himself as no one else had created the ones he'd needed, Ford found that they made his work much easier. He was still getting used to his phone talking to him though, as it reminded him far too much of a parasite that led people to dangerous hallucinations and talking to inanimate objects.
"It's not weather, it's not a shock wave, it's not even a gravitational shift," Dipper murmured, tapping his gnawed at pen on his chin. "And it's not a known anomaly either?" He looked towards his great uncle.
"Nothing that could cause this scale of a reaction as far as I know," Ford confirmed, puzzling over a board of algorithms.
"Heh. Even after surviving the apocalypse, this stuff doesn't get any easier, does it?" Dipper commented.
"That may be," Ford said with a wistful grin. "But sometimes the answer is closer than you think, even when it may seem like, at times, you're just chasing after shadows."
…
This was a day of triumph for Mabel Pines. Of course, she always knew love originated in the stomach.
"You like me now, don't you?" Mabel beamed as the cat began rub up against her leg. The descent of her hand was slow, but when it hovered above the head of the tabby, Chibi-chan instantly leaned into her touch, purring.
Mabel practically squealed. The PTSD from her humanicaticatures incident hardly even bothered her.
"I knew you'd love me someday," Mabel declared as she cuddled the cat in her arms. Well, at least as long as Mabel came packing. It might take another fillet of fresh tuna to sway the kitty enough to let Mabel get this close again, but it was good enough for the brunette for now.
"Do I even wanna know?" Stan spoke awkwardly, looking very uncomfortable as he entered the kitchen to see his niece cradling the feline with a look of a pure bliss.
"Grunkle Stan, look-!" Mabel turned and approached him with Chi only to have the cat squirm out of her grasp and hightail it out of the kitchen. "Oh, come on! You liked my tuna, didn't you!?" she shouted after the cat, pouting. That tuna should have at least afforded her a tummy rub and some play time. Back to square one.
"Sweetie, I love you, but you really need to lay off the Mabel juice," Stan sighed as he went into the fridge to grab a beer.
"I have been," Mabel whined, pursing her lips. "I'm just excited to see everyone. Aren't you?"
Stan grumbled under his breath about this being the last time he'd ever do a non-profit event as he sat at the table.
"Aren't you?" Mabel sidled up to Stan, taking a seat across from him. "It's Wendy, Stan. We haven't seen her in forever."
"Yeah, yeah. The worst employee I ever had. Well, right after that pasty looking hippy guy of a handyman. So bad that I hired the first kid I saw to do his job and work with heavy, dangerous tools. Still not the worst decision I've ever made," Stan noted gruffly.
"Like throwing water on that fire?" Mabel asked, reaching out to look at Stan's burned hand. The skin was a healthy pink and the bandages needed to be changed soon.
"Ha! That's not even close to the worst," he said without pause, taking a drag from his beer. "Speaking of bad decisions, how did things with Ford go last night?"
Mabel froze. "Um, I uh-"
"Um, I uh," Stan parodied her stutter. "Just give it to me straight, kid. I'm not made of glass. More like a tough, old, dried up leather," he said thoughtfully.
Mabel bit her lip as she saw the coming glimmer of disappointment in her grunkle's eyes. "Well, he was-"
"Mr. Pines!" Soos shouted from down the hall, skidding past the kitchen before backtracking. "Mr. Pines," Soos panted. "Some kids were messing around and the rock that looks like a rock face fell on one of them!"
"What!?" Stan jumped up from his spot in alarm. "Did you get the money from them for touching it?"
"Yeah."
"And did you fake call 911?"
Soos nodded attentively.
"Good job, Soos! Keep em' occupied while I put on the doctor costume!"
"Yes, sir!"
The two conmen stormed out of the room and Mabel let out a sigh of relief. She blinked when she heard a meow and looked down to see Chibi-chan pawing at her leg playfully.
"I know," Mabel reached down and scratched the tabby under her chin. "I gotta get Ford out of the basement… somehow."
Chi purred and nuzzled against her hand causing Mabel to smile. "You're right. First things first."
She had a party to get ready for. Not to mention a hot, nerdy date.
Author's Note: Ugh. Writing this chapter was nerve wracking. Why is making decisions so hard?
Anyway, the ski mask guy has been unmasked! The last few chapters have been super boring. I know. But I hope this makes up for it a little and that you let me know what you think. Specific comments really help me figure out where to go with the story. Thank you so much for all your support and I hope you'll stick with me as I fumble my way through this story! Because big things are coming. ;) However eventual they are…