July 22nd
"I swear this town can't go a week without some kind of disaster." Mabel grumbled quietly to Dipper as the pair began to sneak carefully along the edges of the room, her eyes sweeping up to the cavernous vault of the ceiling, searching for a glimpse of that pale spidery form that they had been chasing down the moonlit alleys of Gravity Falls for the past hour.
"Well, you're the one who always said that she wanted to see some vampires." Dipper joked testily as the twins found themselves with their backs to the wall of the old warehouse, his eyes darting frantically around the dim corners of the room for any hint of movement among the piles of long abandoned crates.
"Yeah, but I had wanted to see hot ones though – this thing looked like Batboy's deformed cousin!" Mabel snapped back as she held the weird makeshift contraption that they had cobbled together in the attic of the shack earlier that day at the ready.
"Should I be jealous?" Dipper teased as he tightened the grip on the thick wooden spike in his hands.
"Nah, even if he was cute we'd still have to kill him- I'd probably just feel a little bad about it." Mabel said, sweeping the room cautiously with the barrel of the thick hollow tube, her finger lingering over the devices switch and her eyes sharp. Dipper could see by the way that her tongue darted out every now and then to briefly moisten her lips that she was nervous, but she gave him a small smile when her eyes met his and he felt his own nervousness begin to dampen.
Try as he might, it was hard to imagine the sharpened rake handle clutched in Dipper's sweaty palms would be an adequate weapon against the thing that they had chased through the town and cornered in the abandoned ruins of the old Gleeful factory, but he did his best to trust the weird hodgepodge of vampire lore he'd cobbled together out of actual occult texts and cheesy monster movies to give him confidence.
Okay, I've got the wooden stake, Mabel's packing enough ultraviolet lightbulbs in that thing we made to (hopefully) fry it to a crisp & we've both got like 40 pounds of garlic hanging around our necks… well mostly garlic, I'm pretty sure some of it is onions… and I think there's a carrot here too. We probably should have looked more closely before we just grabbed all that stuff from the grocery store but we WERE in a pretty big hurry. I hope they don't mind that we had to pay them in Stan Bucks.
A rustling noise among the boxes caused both of them to freeze up briefly before Mabel screamed out an extremely enthusiastic "Get some!" and flipped the switch on the enormous UV flashlight that they (mostly Dipper) had slapped together out of old flashlights, broken mirrors and stolen wiring. A bright purple beam flashed out and Mabel swept it over the crates near the source of the disturbance as she made laser-ish noises with her mouth through gritted teeth.
Leave it to Mabel to provide her own sound effects.
A lone raccoon scampered out from behind the boxes and retreated into a further corner of the old warehouse. Mabel breathed out a sigh of relief but she felt Dipper's hand shoot out and grab her shoulder tightly when she was about to flip the off-switch on the machine.
"Okay, you better keep that thing on. If I know my horror movie clichés the monster is going to pop out now when we're all 'whew, it was just a raccoon', and then as soon as I turn around it eats my face." Dipper said.
"Why just your face?" Mabel asked, easing her finger off the switch and keeping the beam trained on the shadows around them. "Isn't my face tasty enough for it try and eat too?"
"You're the cute girl, you get to live to the end to kill it. I'm pretty much guaranteed to die before the final confrontation though, it's a horror movie boyfriend thing." Dipper joked nervously.
"I think you've been spending too much time with Soos, but don't worry – I'll make sure to avenge you if he does get you." Mabel said in an overly solemn voice before she shouted an enthusiastic "AHA!" and grunted as she hefted the beam directly over their heads and bathed the pale rubbery flesh of the creature hunched on the ceiling above them in the weird purple light streaming from the tube in her hands.
The creature gave a shrieking hiss and clambered awkwardly (but with surprising speed) across the ceiling like an insect, its brittle claws clattering against the rusted sheet metal of the factory roof as it sought to flee the pursuing beam of light. Dipper could see its bizarre proportions now that it was illuminated clearly in the violet rays– the too-long arms, the stretched and twisted fingers, the oddly short and bent legs with their stubby hooked toes tipped in blackened nails. In every line of its form it seemed to scream of wrongness in Dipper's brain, of something unhealthy and cancerous when compared to any true living creature.
Even the giant vampire bat wasn't this creepy, and that thing tried to eat me. I mean, this thing tried to eat me earlier too but its still way creepier.
Acting quickly Dipper grabbed one of the garlands of garlic (and assorted other vegetables) dangling from around his neck and whirled it over his head before letting it fly, and the spinning coil wrapped like a snake around the retreating creatures arm. At the touch of the strange missile on its skin the monster gave a high keening wail and fell awkwardly to the floor with a crashing thud, its long crooked limbs flailing wildly in the air as it lay twitching on its back like a dying spider.
"Wowzers… I almost feel bad for the guy." Mabel said as the watched the creatures spasms with a sympathetic wince on her face.
"Yeah… me too." Dipper said quietly, his grip on the makeshift stake in his hands growing slack.
"Maybe we should let it go? I mean, we don't know that its hurt anyone for sure yet. Maybe he's just misunderstood?" Mabel said as she turned to Dipper with a questioning look on her face.
Before Dipper could form an opinion one way or the other about the matter the creature gave a full throated roar and tore the garland of soup ingredients off from its arm and flung them across the warehouse, its pale flesh mottled and blistered blue-black where the garlic bulbs had rested against its skin. The twins watched with widening eyes as the thing turned its oddly human-shaped head toward them to draw pale flabby lips back from a mouthful of jagged yellowed fangs before it shrieked out at them. It stood hunched and ready, with its thin yet muscular arms flung wide and madness burned in its too-small red eyes; madness and hunger and a palpable aura of hate that seemed to envelop the creature like a shroud.
"Nope." Dipper said with a decisive shake of his head as he tightened the grip on the rake handle and brought its point up defensively.
"Yeah, I guess not." Mabel said quickly before she raised her beam once more and took the creature full in the face with the stream of pulsing purple light, causing it to drop to its stubby knees and fling its too-large hands over its eyes as it wailed in frustration and pain.
Taking this as his cue Dipper lunged forward and stabbed at the vampires chest with the rough point of his crude stake, aiming where he hoped the heart was. His arms jolted painfully as the wooden spike speared into the dense flesh of the incapacitated creature and with a fierce grunt he forced the sharpened tip of the rake handle into the monsters torso and out through the other side. The creatures wails took on a bubbling note and it flailed about madly, catching Dipper full in the chest with one of its out flung arms to send him crashing into a pile of crates, stunned and with the room spinning into darkness. He heard his sister scream angrily, but the sounds were growing faint as his eyelids grew heavy- his last thought before he lost consciousness was hoping that Mabel would be okay.
When Dipper came to once again it was to the sight of Mabel bending over him and cradling his head in her lap, running her hands over his forehead and through the brown curls of his hair. He could smell something foul in the air, a stench like onions mingled with burning hair and cooking meat, and the ceiling overhead danced with shadows and pale rays of hot orange light.
"Did we win?" he asked weakly as he tried to shake the pain from his head and immediately regretted doing so when he felt the room swim around him nauseatingly.
"Totally. I avenged the hell out of you." Mabel joked as her soft cool hands stroked her brothers face comfortingly. As his vision cleared he could see that her eyes were red and her cheeks damp, but she had a smile on her face as well.
She has such a nice smile.
"Great job. I think you should be the one to drive us back to the Shack… I may have a concussion." Dipper said, mostly joking but with a wince when he felt a sharp throbbing in the back of his scalp where he'd struck the crates hardest. As he moved he realized his ribs and back also felt like they were on fire with pain and hoped that nothing was broken.
Stupid boxes of old Lil Gideon merchandise. Even locked up in an asylum he still manages to find a way to injure me.
"You sure you don't want to stop by the clinic or something first?" Mabel asked with concern in her voice.
"I don't think they would accept Stan Bucks there." Dipper said.
"They don't really accept them anywhere, but if you're all banged up like this then I guess you can't make a decent escape when you try and pay with them." Mabel replied.
"That is their one flaw as a currency." Dipper joked, wincing a little as the small chuckle he felt building in his chest jostled his injured torso.
"If you feel good enough to be a smart-butt then you're probably good enough to go home." Mabel said with a note of barely disguised relief in her voice, and after a few more minutes of rest she helped Dipper to his feet and propped herself up under his shoulder like a crutch to make sure he could keep his balance.
"So how did you end up finishing the thing off?" Dipper asked as they began their unsteady walk together out the warehouse as he glanced and saw a twisted pile of charred remains on the warehouse floor behind them, flames still licking here and there over its surface.
"Oh, well it was pretty much helpless when you staked it – I just threw the rest of the garlic on it and kept shining the light till it stopped moving." Mabel replied.
"So I guess it burst into flames or something when it died, like in the movies?" Dipper asked, his nose wrinkling in disgust at the rancid smell wafting through the air.
"Nope - it just lay there, but I did use some matches and expired cans of Lil Gideon brand hairspray to set it on fire though." Mabel said.
"Why on earth would you do that?" Dipper asked in confusion.
"To make sure it didn't get back up again… and also to just let it know what happens when something tries to lay a hand on my Dipper." Mabel said in a grim voice.
"Huh… I didn't think a can of hairspray would be enough to make that much fire." Dipper said.
"One can no- but four cans does the job pretty good." Mabel said with a curt nod of her head.
"Have I mentioned how sexy you are when you get scary?" Dipper said jokingly.
"I could stand to hear it more often." Mabel replied, planting a kiss on Dippers cheek and though he winced inwardly at the jolt of her head bumping his own he wouldn't have traded the feel of her soft lips brushing tenderly against his skin for anything.
July 25th
The dusty windows of the Mystery Shacks attic tinted the beams of the midday sun a warm amber color which made the already yellowed pages of Dippers journal seem somehow ancient and magical despite the fact that he knew book which his sister had created wasn't really much more than a few months old. Mabel had even revealed a few of the tricks she had used to artificially age the book during a slow business day at the Shack, such as lightly staining the pages with coffee to darken them and roughing up the edges with a nail file to give them a worn and battered appearance.
I don't think I've ever given her enough credit for her art skills – this thing really is a masterpiece, Dipper thought to himself affectionately as he ran his hand gently over the page, tracing the tip of his index finger along a line of his sisters beautifully curled handwriting that described the proper way to fend off amorous gnomes (leaf-blowers and/or repeated punches to the face). Her sketch of one of the odd little creatures wasn't just a simple copy of the original page from the '3' Journal from their childhood, but was done in her own unique style and seemed so lively that Dipper wouldn't have been too surprised if the weird little man on the page would have sprung out at him. He flipped further along toward the end of the book where Mabel's original pages ended and his own more precise but somewhat less aesthetically pleasing entries began.
It had been a few days since the twins encounter with the feral vampire and though Mabel had fussed over Dipper at first he knew that she didn't have anything to worry about. Once he had recovered from the dizziness of being knocked out he really hadn't taken any lasting injury more serious than some scrapes and a few heavy bruises to the ribs, though those still hurt like a son of a bitch every time he tried to turn his torso too far one way or another. Even if it wasn't life threatening Mabel had insisted that Dipper stay laid up in bed for a while to fully recover, with the twins having told Stan that Dipper had gotten his injuries after taking a bad fall on a hike. Stan hadn't looked like he fully believed their story and griped a bit about Dipper just trying to find an excuse to wriggle out of Shack duty, but he didn't pry further into the real cause of the injury and he'd even been up to visit Dipper in the attic bedroom once or twice for a friendly (if slightly uncomfortable) visit. It wasn't that Dipper hadn't been touched to see that Stan was concerned about him, he was just worried that the old man would notice the fact that Mabel's bed didn't look like it had been slept in for weeks (which it hadn't been), or the fact that the zebra-print bra of hers that Dipper likes seeing on her so much was dangling off one of his bedposts from where she had flung it or any of the seemingly millions of other telltale signs that the teen was sure were blaring out "we're sleeping together" in 40 foot tall neon letters for all the world to see. Fortunately Stan wasn't as much of a fan of detective stories as his great nephew, and was nearsighted to boot, so picking up on clues wasn't really his strong suit and nothing bad ever came from those visits.
Dipper picked up a pen from the battered old desktop and started reading through the original entry he'd made on the creature when they had returned fresh from their hunt, correcting the spelling and adding a few notes and thoughts which he hadn't considered at the time (though in fairness to himself he had still been groggy from a pretty serious blow to the head when he had written them that night). The illustration he'd made of the vampire in the latest entry was admittedly pretty terrible since drawing had never been something he was particularly good at, and he considered asking Mabel to do her own rendition of the monster for him.
Maybe later, he thought as he finished writing a note about the effect of fire on vampire flesh ("it burns like napalm soaked in gasoline") and then put the pen down with a sigh. He had weightier things on his mind at the moment than the flammable qualities of the undead – namely the matter of his future.
He'd been putting what he considered "the heavy stuff" off for a while now but there really weren't that many excuses he could make anymore, either to himself or anyone else. The fact was that he DID finally have a real plan starting to seriously form in his mind, but it wasn't one that was likely to go over well with his parents. Actually, short of deciding to take up the life of a career criminal he couldn't really think of a future less likely to please his parents. He'd already called the college he had been enrolled in and canceled his upcoming round of classes... he'd actually done it the day after his most recent picnic with Mabel, though he hadn't told her about it yet. Dipper hadn't really had any firm idea what he was doing at that point, but he felt that if he just took that first hard step onto unknown ground that he'd be able to think his way through the situation. It wasn't like he was trying to hide anything from her, in fact he'd actually been on the verge of telling Mabel about his impulsive decision when the sudden appearance of a bloodsucking monster in the sleepy little town had put his personal life on hold for a day or two. It was already dead now though, it was hard to imagine anything deader than the smoldering pile of ash that Mabel had left on the dusty old warehouse floor, and that meant that it was time for Dipper to confront the situation head on.
First things first... talk to Mabel tonight after she gets back from hanging out with her friends.
Dipper rubbed his temples and took a calming breath before pushing the chair back out from under the desk to stagger back to his bed. It hadn't really been an exhausting day, but he still flopped back onto the creaky old mattress and stared up at the cobwebs and the familiar shapes of the mold patches on the ceiling (including Mabel's most recent favorite, Daryl Jr.).
Okay, this shouldn't go too badly. The fact is that I've already dropped my classes and its now too late to re-register for them at this point, so there's no going back on this decision no matter what. What's the worst that could happen?
Well... Mabel could get extremely pissed off at me for doing this without telling her, call me a giant idiot and then laugh in my face about my plan before dumping me on the spot. That would be pretty much the worst.
Calm down you spaz - she's not going to dump you. She loves you, and you love her - that's the only reason you're even trying something this stupid instead of just resigning yourself to that regular boring humdrum life that you've been dreading since high school.
What if she says no?
Well, yeah that would obviously suck - but what if she says yes? You can't get anything in life without risk... and the bigger the risk, the greater the reward. Plus you've already fought an actual real life freaking vampire this week so what are a few potentially uncomfortable conversations compared to that?
Dipper shook his head with a small smile on his face at the thought.
Somehow its still surprisingly a bit scarier than the vampire... though not by a lot.
He frowned briefly at the ceiling.
I really need to stop talking to myself so much.
The sun had fallen over the horizon and the first few stars had already begun to peek out from the clouds when Mabel staggered her way cheerfully through the door of the Mystery Shack, waving an overly enthusiastic goodbye to Candy's retreating car. She glanced carefully around the room in case she had woken anyone, even though it was far from late, but she was satisfied to see that the place appeared to be empty. Stan was probably off at one of those mysterious Lodge gatherings of his again, which didn't seem to meet on any kind of schedule that Mabel could figure out... some nights he just would declare that he was going off to a meeting and disappear abruptly and other nights he'd spend hours practically glued to the TV whenever a boxing match was on... or an old black and white romance movie.
Mabel giggled to herself at the memory of the day she'd discovered Stan's inexplicable hidden love for those films - he had been so serious about swearing her to secrecy that she wouldn't have been surprised if he tried to make her take some sort of blood oath or something. As furious as he seemed to be about being found out, the end result was just that when no one else was around the Shack the two of them would often end up watching one together while sharing a tub of ice cream. Dipper was terrible company for any kind of sappy film, so it was nice to have someone to hang out with for that stuff even if it had turned out to be her incredibly crusty great uncle.
You never can judge a book by its cover I guess, Mabel thought with a smile as she headed back to the stairs leading to the attic bedroom.
It had been a pretty full day so far, but she'd decided to cut her evening shorter than usual when the girls wanted to go out to the dance club - not that she would have minded some dancing or anything, its just that she was pretty sure that Grenda and Candy were going to try to set her up to meet some guys and she wasn't up for an evening of increasingly awkward excuses for why various potential dates were unacceptable.
I guess I could tell them that I'm already seeing someone, but its not like it would get any less awkward if they found out that the guy I'm seeing is Dipper. I mean, they're my best friends and all but I'm pretty sure that something like this might be just a bit too heavy to drop on them anytime soon. Maybe they'll finally be ready to hear it when we're all hanging out in a nursing home together in 60 years or something?
Thinking of Dipper got her wondering how his injuries were coming along. When she had walked him back up the stairs of the Shack the night of the attack and helped him peel off his torn shirt she'd almost felt like crying at the sight of his bruised up chest and back. She knew how much Dipper hated to see her cry though and she'd put on a brave face and teased him for acting like a baby and whining when she had applied some stinging medicine to his scrapes and bruises. The fact was that she couldn't help but worry about him whenever it came to these crazy situations that they were inevitably drawn into... they'd had some really close calls this summer and Mabel hated the idea of Dipper getting himself seriously hurt. Thankfully his experience and luck had kept him from suffering anything worse than a bad scrape so far. Mabel had spent the last two days fussing over Dipper until he'd finally gotten fed up with her bringing him chicken soup and snapping at him if he tried to leave the bed and he had insisted that she go hang out with her friends or something for a day. They'd fought a little about it, but eventually Mabel had relented once she had seen that Dipper really wasn't that badly hurt after all and would probably manage to survive the day on his own... provided he didn't try to go out and pick a fight with a mummy or something when she wasn't around.
"Hey Dip - you decent in there?" Mabel called out as she reached the outside of the door to their attic bedroom.
"Nope, come right in." he called back in that dry sarcastic tone that always brought a little smile to her face.
Okay, Grunkle Stan definitely has to be out of the house right now if he's going around saying junk like that, even jokingly.
She pushed the door open and found her brother almost exactly as she'd left him earlier that day, lying back on his bed with his hands tucked behind his head and staring at the ceiling as if he had a grudge against it. He hadn't bothered to put on a shirt since he woke up and Mabel winced a little inside her mind at the sight of the still vivid colors of the bruises plastered over his torso.
Well, at least he looks better than yesterday.
"Hey," he called out to her, his voice gentle and with a small smile on his lips when his eyes turned to meet hers.
Mabel had noticed that Dipper got a certain tone to his voice when they are alone that she never hears him use anywhere else - its friendly, a little quiet and she would swear that he tries to make his voice just a tiny bit deeper than sounds natural for him. She wonders if she does anything silly like that when she's around him, pondering the question even as she unconsciously brushes a nonexistent stray lock of hair behind her ear and flashes him a dazzling braces-free smile in return.
"Hey back at you broski - how are you feeling?" she asks, tamping down the little flutter of happiness she feels at seeing him. She takes her self-imposed medical duties seriously when it comes to monster-related injuries.
"Bored - I've already lost count of the number of times that I've counted the planks in the ceiling. There are 67 by the way." Dipper replied dryly.
"I meant physically, you butt." Mabel said with a falsely fierce scowl in his direction.
"A little hungry, but otherwise fine. It doesn't seem to hurt as much today." Dipper replied semi-honestly.
"That's good. Would you want something to eat? I'm feeling kinda hungry myself and I didn't have any cash to get food when I was out with the girls." Mabel said.
"Ran out of counterfeit twenties?" Dipper asked half-jokingly.
"Well my kit to make new ones was too heavy to bring up on the trip." Mabel replied, also only half-jokingly.
"I still can't tell if you're serious about the whole forgery thing- c'mon, level with me here." Dipper said.
"A girls got to have some secrets," Mabel said cheekily, "Now how does grilled cheese sound? I'm pretty sure that the ingredients for that weren't expired when I checked the fridge earlier so it should be safe."
"Gosh, do you think I'm finally ready for solid food?" Dipper asked in sarcastic wonderment.
"How does eating a big fat bowl of nothing sound then?" Mabel snapped back.
"Grilled cheese actually sounds awesome and you're really sweet for putting up with me when I'm like this." Dipper said quickly, his voice softening again. "Would you want me to go help you make it?"
"Nah, I can handle grilling a little cheese," Mabel said as she stretched her arms wide with a small yawn and started to slip out of her nice going-out sweater to exchange it for something a little less dressy.
She glanced back and saw the way Dipper's eyes seemed to trail hungrily over her freshly exposed skin and felt her cheeks flush just a little pinker than normal at the realization. Ever since their little love marathon during their picnic date the two hadn't had a lot of chances to enjoy some alone time, especially after Dipper had to go and turn himself into a vampires punching bag.
Mabel shook the stray thought from her mind and turned toward the colorful pile of clothes on her bed to pick out something comfy to wear for the evening when she heard the creak of bedsprings behind her. She could feel the floorboards under her feet shift slightly as Dipper padded up behind her, wrapping his long lean arms around her and bringing his lips down on that nice little patch of skin on her neck that always made her shiver with delight when he kissed it.
"You know, Stan's going to be out for a while yet - he said it was going to be an especially late meeting tonight and not to wait up for him. We've got the whole place to ourselves... it seems a shame to waste the opportunity," Dipper whispered warmly into her ear as he continued to run his hands over her soft exposed skin.
Mmm... that really would be a shame wouldn't it?
"Why Dipper, you scallywag," Mabel purred as she wriggled herself back up against him happily.
The moment she brushed against him she could hear his sudden sharp indrawn breath and feel his stomach muscles twitch when she bumped into one of his more raw bruises.
Bad Mabel! No sexing up the patient! That's pretty much nursing 101!, she scolded herself.
Regretfully she shook the little clouds of pleasure from her head and skillfully shimmied her way out from the warm cage of his arms.
"Whoa there partner - Doc Mabel says you aren't allowed to be getting into any frisky business till you get better." Mabel says in her most authoritative voice, crossing her arms over her chest sternly. She still hadn't found a shirt to wear and was worried that her strawberry print bra might be lacking in proper seriousness when it comes to the task of scolding frisky injured boyfriends.
"C'mon, I'm definitely healed up enough for this." Dipper says with a warm smile, moving over toward her and putting his arms over her neck to pull her in for a soft kiss, which she melts into warmly. Mabel growls in frustration at herself for giving in to the kiss so easily and breaks it after what feels like far too short a time to give Dipper a frank appraisal.
"Dip, your torso still looks like you took a bunch of green and purple crayons and tried to do an abstract painting on it." she declares.
"Whatever... it doesn't even hurt anymore." Dipper says dismissively.
Mabel scoots in to kiss him once more and when Dipper eagerly leans toward her she jabs a finger with gentle pressure against an especially purple patch of skin. The little yelping sound he made in response was kind of cute but definitely not sexy.
"Sorry bro-bro, the bruised up and in pain look isn't really revving my engines," Mabel says, "Just concentrate on healing already so that we can get things back to normal in the bedroom department, because I've really been missing your kissing." she finishes, giving him a warm but definitely non-sexual kiss on the cheek.
"Well if I didn't already have enough motivation to get better before, I guess I do now." Dipper said with a sigh as he slumped back toward his bed.
"So what did you get up to today while I was out with the girls?" Mabel asked as she tried to get his mind somewhere less frustrating for the both of them.
"Absolutely nothing - I spell-checked all my entries in that journal you gave me. Twice. That's how bored I've been." Dipper replied distractedly.
"Sorry you've been cooped up in here like that - maybe next time you'll try not to let yourself get smacked around by the undead so bad." Mabel joked.
"Its not like I was trying to get myself hurt." Dipper snapped.
"Sure, like you aren't totally into me nursing you back to health... anyway its not the first time this has happened, those zombies did a number on you too."
"That was mostly just scratches - most of the blood that time wasn't even mine."
"Well if we ever meet a Frankenstein just make sure you don't dive face first into his fist - I like you with your nose and eyes and teeth and junk where they are supposed to be." Mabel said with a smile.
"Actually Frankenstein was the scientist who made the monster, not the name of the monster itself. I think I could probably take the scientist in a fight."
"Dork." she said with a roll of her eyes.
Dipper shrugged in response, but was happy to see Mabel looking a little less stressed than she had been in the last few days.
"Guilty as charged," he replied.
"Well, how about I go grill us some cheese then? You stay here and alphabetize your socks or whatever it is you do when I'm not around to make you have fun." Mabel said as she headed back toward the door, rushing out before Dipper could reply so that she could have the last word.
God I love her, Dipper thought to himself with a grin as he heard her footsteps clattering down the stairs.
The twins were half-way though their slightly over-burned sandwiches when Dipper had announced, as casually as possible, that he had dropped out of school.
Mabel hadn't registered the comment for a few seconds, having been in the middle of an anecdote about some ridiculous thing that Grenda and her new beau had gotten up to, before she suddenly realized what he had just said and had responded with a startled "Bwuh?" before she began choking on her dinner.
By the time Dipper had helped her Heimlich out the chunk of food clogging her throat Mabel was madder than Dipper had ever seen her before.
"When the heck were you going to tell me this particular piece of news?" she demanded, her eyes flashing dangerously.
"Okay, I was actually going to let you know right before the whole vampire thing came up but I figured that blood-hungry monsters were slightly more important." Dipper said carefully.
"Why would you ever think that?" Mabel asked incredulously.
"Um... because one is a potentially deadly undead horror and the other is just kind of a thing about my personal life." Dipper said, confused.
"Boys have no sense of priorities." Mabel griped.
"Okay, so how in trouble am I here?" Dipper asked.
"From me? Like, 4 or 5 percent I guess... I kind of expected you to pull something like this after that last chat we had during the picnic. From mom and dad though? I don't think there are enough adjectives for how pissed they are going to be." Mabel said seriously.
"Thanks, thats going to make telling them a lot easier." Dipper groused quietly.
"Well, I'm glad that I got to hear it before someone else at least." Mabel said grumpily.
"I'm really sorry for doing it without telling you - it was just kind of a crazy impulse and I felt so good after doing it that I was sure I had made the right decision." Dipper apologized.
"You probably did... I mean, if you were as uninterested in school as you sounded then it was probably the best thing for you to do. I still wish you'd told me first though, you butt." Mabel said.
"I'll find some way to make it up to you - possibly involving ice cream?" Dipper asked hopefully.
"Prepare your wallet, because if its ice cream we're talking then you are going to see a serious dent in your savings." Mabel replied grimly.
"I didn't have a lot of those to start with, but your warning is duly noted." Dipper said.
"Okay, so you're pretty much a bum now - whats the big plan?" Mabel asked, leaning in toward him confidentially.
"Well... its not so much a plan as it is... um... not a plan?" Dipper said weakly.
"Wait, you're telling me that you went and did something like this without having a giant 100 step escape plan set up first?" Mabel said, confused.
"Yeah... I guess some of your impulsiveness kind of rubbed off on me." Dipper said sheepishly.
"Well you've been rubbing on me plenty this summer so I guess it makes sense." Mabel said with a wide grin.
"Shut up... anyway I don't have a plan-plan, but I have kind of... I guess an idea?" Dipper said.
"What is it?" Mabel asked.
"Well... would you want to maybe run away with me?" Dipper asked, his voice quiet.
"Run away to where?" Mabel asked.
"Everywhere." Dipper said.
"What the frick-frack are you talking about?" Mabel said, confused.
"Look, I've been thinking a lot and I know what I want out of life, what I really want and I think I've finally figured it out. I want adventure. The stuff we've seen, the things we've done.. I can't go back to normal after all this. I don't think I really could even if I wanted to... but I don't want to go alone. I need you with me. Go with me – lets go see the whole world and all the crazy stuff in it together. Be my partner." Dipper said, his voice earnest and heavy with tension. This was it... the moment he'd been fearing and hoping for.
Mabel didn't say anything for a few moments, but her worried expression softened and she sniffled slightly as she met her brothers honest gaze with her own.
"That's got to be the cheesiest thing I've ever heard you dork. Of course I'll go with you." she said, giving him a gentle punch to the arm as punctuation.
"Really?" he asked, his voice heavy with relief and hopefulness.
"Duh, idiot... I mean, I love you... heck, if I didn't already have a soulmate then you'd be it." Mabel said.
"I'm always going to be second banana to that pig aren't I?" Dipper asked in a false grumpy tone.
"Well if you looked more adorable eating corn cobs you might stand a chance but so far he's still at the top of the soulmate pyramid. You're cuter though... at least when it comes to the sexy sort of way." Mabel said reassuringly.
"Well that's something at least... also are you totally sure about going along with me on this? I don't want to drag you into anything that you might regret." Dipper asked, suddenly freaking out slightly as all the little conversations and scenarios that he'd been playing out in his head for days no longer mattered in the face of reality.
"I think I'd regret not going along more... I mean, I'm pretty sure you'd get yourself devoured by a chupacabra or something the second you got out of my sight - and what good is a half-eaten boyfriend?" Mabel joked.
"Well, its not the reason I would have picked for coming with me but I'm not too proud to take it." Dipper sighed.
"Also there's still the whole 'I'm in love with you' thing, which is a pretty heavy weight on that side of the scale." Mabel added.
Dippers hand snaked out and found Mabel's and their fingers twined together warmly. He leaned against her, resting his head gently on hers and just enjoying the scent of her curls tickling his nose.
"Well, the hard parts over at least." Dipper murmured into his sisters hair.
"Really? Because I think the hard part would be telling our folks that all that money they put aside for educating your rebellious butt is going to go to waste." Mabel said.
"No, the hard part was freaking out over what you were going to think... honestly at this point I'm up for anything they have to say about it." Dipper replied.
"That's kind of sweet in a weird way," Mabel teased.
"Anyway what's the worst they can do- ground me? I'm old enough to vote." Dipper joked.
"That doesn't mean they won't still try." Mabel said.
"Sticking around to get grounded kind of goes against the whole principle behind running away though." Dipper said.
"Yeah... oh man, its just hitting me how serious this is. What are we going to do about food and shelter and gas and junk like that? Where are we going to go?" Mabel asked in a somewhat worried voice.
"Well we have a pair of matching utility belts full of magical doodads that could come in handy, so I'm pretty sure we aren't going to be completely helpless out there... and as far what we can do... well, I want to see about filling that journal you gave me up. I bet there's a million mysteries out there that need solving... a million things to see that no one has ever seen before. There's a whole world full of adventure out there that I want to share with you." Dipper said.
Mabel leaned in to press her lips gently against Dippers, loving the warm feel of his breath mingling with hers and the sound of his happy sigh in her ears.
That really does sound nice...
"Alright, I'm in... I mean, I was in before but now I'm in-in... I want to see where we end up going and what we end up doing... I have always wanted to see the world after all." Mabel said.
"We can try and see all of it... London, France..." Dipper began,
"-Translovakia," Mabel interrupted.
"It vould be nice to see ze Old Country again," Dipper joked, falling back into his goofy fake accent.
They laughed and leaned back together against the creaking headboard of Dipper's bed, arms wrapped companionably around each others shoulders.
"When do we start?" Mabel asked.
"I dunno... I was thinking of telling our folks tomorrow to see how they reacted and then just playing it from there." Dipper said.
"That's pretty soon... but I guess there's no time like the present. You've really gotten the hang of this impulsiveness thing haven't you? I should rub off on you more often." Mabel joked.
"I wouldn't object to that." Dipper said, leering at her as he leaned in for a kiss. She shoved him away gently and responded by childishly sticking her tongue out at him.
"Nope, you're still on injury suspension from all pantsless activities for tonight buddy - try to use this time to figure out the next step in this master plan of yours, okay?" Mabel said.
"Alright... is cuddling still on the table though?" Dipper asked hopefully.
"Dip, what kind of monster do you take me for? Cuddling is always on the table." Mabel said as she gingerly wrapped her arms around him and snuggled carefully into his warmth. She could feel Dipper twitch slightly as she pressed up against the occasional bruise or scrape, but his arms tightened gently around her despite the pain and he planted a tender kiss on the top of her head.
"Love you Mabel." he whispered.
"Love you too Dip." she replied happily.
July 26th
The conversation with his father went just slightly worse than Dipper might have expected, and considering how low his expectations had fallen that was saying quite a lot.
Things had started off fairly well - a casual greeting, a little small talk about the weather (it had rained lobsters just a week ago in Gravity Falls), a short story about a funny incident that happened at his fathers office & then just when things were getting friendly the news about Dipper's future plans dropped into the middle of the conversation like a bowling ball slamming into a wedding cake.
After the initial burst of deafening yelling had died down there was a heavy silence that lurked over the conversation, broken only by the sound of his fathers breathing and the static distortion that always seemed to come over Dipper's phone in this town.
Tension like this you can't cut with a knife, Dipper thought somewhat lightheaded, you'd need a chainsaw at least.
"Alright, just let me try to understand this here son - you decided, for some reason, to pass up on all those grants you earned for your grades that would have practically paid your way through school, to do what exactly? Do you think that you're just going to sit around the house all day watching TV or something - because you've got another thing coming if-" his father began, his voice rising once again in anger.
"No, that's not what I'm thinking at all! C'mon dad, you know I'm not lazy... I just don't think school is right for me, at least not right now anyway. I want to go out and see more of the world, not just the inside of a different bunch of classrooms in a new city." Dipper protested.
"Where the hell did this even come from all of a sudden? Four years of high school and not a peep out of you about this crap and now that you've finally graduated you suddenly decide to become a dropout? If you wanted to disappoint me you could have at least been more punctual about it." his father said incredulously.
"This wasn't a spur of the moment thing... its been a long time coming, I just wasn't totally sure about it till now. Anyway its already done and there's no going back on it." Dipper said.
"What the hell do you think you're going to do with yourself if you don't get a degree then? Its not like money just grows on trees!"
"Stan didn't go to college and he gets along just fine." Dipper objected.
"Stan is an ex-con running a tourist trap in the middle of nowhere!"
"Well he was good enough to take care of us wasn't he? Hell, the fact that he lives out in the middle of nowhere and still manages to pull in busloads of tourists is pretty impressive."
"That old man's been a bad influence on you - I never should have let you guys head up to that creepy old town in the first place."
"Coming to Gravity Falls is pretty much the best thing that ever happened to me! I never knew how weird the world was until I came here... its the whole reason that I want to go out and see the world instead of just letting it pass me by. I mean, I fought a bunch of zombies just a few weeks ago - where else would I get to do something like that?" Dipper asked.
"Zombies? Jesus, Dipper I thought you were done with all this bigfoot and aliens crap years ago. Hadn't you already learned your lesson about it after all the trouble you had gotten into at school?"
"Yeah, thanks for not taking my side about that by the way - 13 year old me really appreciated getting thrown to the wolves." Dipper said dryly.
"Well what was I supposed to do? What do you think is going to happen if you go around talking about a bunch of crazy shit like that? It was all I could do to keep you out of counseling."
"I don't know, I just had this crazy idea that maybe I might have gotten some open minded support?" Dipper said sarcastically.
"Either you pack your bags for school, or you pack them for whatever this idiotic road trip idea you have is - either way when fall comes around you aren't staying in this house." his father declared coldly.
"Fine." Dipper said shortly, clicking the phone off as angrily as he could.
"Yeah, thats the problem with cell-phones - you can't slam 'em good and hard like the old cord ones." Stan said conversationally from the doorway as he cracked the tab of a can of generic brand cola.
Dipper spun around in surprise, having thought the room had been empty the whole time.
"How much of that had you heard?" Dipper asked worriedly.
"Enough to know that you're probably in the dog-house pretty bad with your parents... or at least with your dad anyway." Stan said as he walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the table, motioning Dipper over to one of the empty seats as he swigged his soda.
"That's putting it mildly... I envy the dog house right now, it looks like a 5 star hotel compared to where I'm at." Dipper said, slumping into his seat.
"Heh, I've been in a few places like that before. So, whats this whole deal about you not going to school? With brains like yours, I figured you'd probably want to use them for something." Stan inquired mildly.
"Should I just start recording all my phone conversations for you?" Dipper asked sarcastically.
"It might save me some guesswork." Stan grunted back.
"I don't know... college just feels so ordinary compared to life here. I'm tired of ordinary - I did years of ordinary between my visits up here and the thought that I have to do ordinary for the rest of my life was just too depressing. I don't want an ordinary life, I want to live my own way... see everything there is to see, especially the stuff that no one else even knows exists." Dipper said honestly.
"Gonna be kind of hard to do that if your old man cuts you off isn't it?" Stan asked.
"Well... yeah, I guess it would be... but you never had anyone helping you out when you were out in the world and you did alright." Dipper said.
"Yeah, I guess so... I mean, if you count sleeping in ditches some nights and the occasional prison stretch between successes as alright." Stan said.
"Guess I'll just have to tough it out then." Dipper said.
Stan gave Dipper a small nod and finished off the last of his soda, tossing the can idly toward the trash and grunting in annoyance when it failed to go in.
"I was right about you kid- you really have grown into your own man." Stan said with a smile.
"So you think I made the right choice?" Dipper asked.
"Are you kidding? Giving up a bunch of free money from your folks to go sit in class and drink yourself stupid at parties for a hard life on the road... I'd say it wasn't the brightest decision of your life." Stan said with a chuckle.
"Oh." Dipper said, feeling crestfallen.
"But the fact is that it was your choice kid. No one else gets to live your life for you - not me and not your dad. No one. You've only got one shot at life, so you might as well live it the way you want to." Stan said.
"Yeah, I guess you're right about that." Dipper said, brightening slightly.
"Of course I'm right." Stan said confidently, reaching out a large hand and slapping Dipper companionably on the back. Dipper winced in pain as his great uncles palm slammed hard against one of his more severe bruises but aside from the tears forming at the corner of his eyes he tried to give no indication of his discomfort.
"Thanks for taking my side Stan." Dipper said.
"No problem kid... So are you going to be alone on this little journey of yours?" Stan asked casually.
"Um... no... Mabel wants to come too." Dipper said slowly, worried about his great uncles reaction to that particular piece of news.
"Probably a good idea - you're a bright guy but when it comes to street smarts that girl can think circles around you." Stan said.
"You aren't mad that I'm dragging her down with me or whatever?" Dipper asked.
"She's got as much right to live her own life however she wants, same as you. If she wants to follow you around the country fighting ghosts or whatever then that's her choice." Stan said neutrally.
"Yeah, I guess it is." Dipper said.
"Still, she is my favorite niece though so if she's going along too then I can't let you guys go out into the wide world totally unprepared," Stan said as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a worn leather billfold, counting out a small stack of large bills and sliding them across the table towards Dipper.
"Stan that's a lot of money - there must be at least-" Dipper began, his eyes wide.
"Don't tell me how much it is or I might change my mind," Stan grunted out in an almost pained voice, averting his eyes from the cash, "Just take it already... think of it as a loan- you can pay me back when you guys get famous."
Dipper slipped the bills into his own pocket quickly and Stan returned his gaze to the table with a look of relief on his face once the temptation had been removed.
"Thanks again Stan." Dipper said.
"Don't mention it kid... seriously, if you ever tell your parents I did that I will deny it up and down. Just take good care of yourselves out there, alright?" the old man said, his voice taking on a surprisingly caring tone.
"We will." Dipper said, rising up from the table to find Mabel and let her know the news.
"And kid- if things don't work out just remember you guys will always have a place here at the Shack... though I'll expect you to work for it if it comes to that." Stan said sternly.
"Looking forward to it - I've gotta protect my future investment after all." Dipper said.
August 15th
It was Mabel who'd had the idea to document their adventures in something besides the pages of the replica Journal - on the night before they had set out on their trip she had dug through the old boxes piled high in the Shack's attic until she had finally found the old camera that she and Dipper had played around with as kids and discovered to her surprise that it still worked.
She'd rushed to him excitedly and brandished the camera, squeaking out the world "Journalism!" with mad glee as her brother looked on in confusion.
"Its perfect Dip! Think about it - you want to go out and see all kinds of crazy junk & people really love watching videos about crazy junk from the comfort of their own home. I mean, if a kitten playing with a laser pointer can get a bajillion views on Youtube just think what the first recorded footage of a real live gnome or whatever can get." Mabel said confidently.
"Sort of like those old 'Guide to the Unexplained' videos we did when we were kids then?" Dipper asked, a huge surge of excitement dawning in his chest at the idea. Truthfully as the day had drawn closer for their journey he'd started to worry more and more about the financial situation, but Mabel might have just solved that problem.
"Yes, except this time I won't tape over them with a Dreamboyz High marathon." Mabel said.
"Mabel thats absolutely genius! If we just throw a few ads on or something, maybe sell some t-shirts then we could actually do pretty good for ourselves..." Dipper mused, his mind turning toward the marketing situation.
"You're getting more like Stan every day... its kind of disturbing." Mabel joked, leaning in to kiss him warmly on the cheek.
"Where do you think we should go first? I've been hunting around through some old texts I found in the library stacks the other day and there might be some pretty promising things out in Washington state... or there's this one town in Mexico where there are apparently almost weekly UFO sightings..." Dipper said, his brain racing as he tried to think of episode ideas or how to best format the show.
"How about we do a test run close to home... like that town we stopped at when we were first coming up here with the giant bird?" Mabel suggested.
"Yeah.. that sounds pretty good." Dipper said happily.
"So, what should we call the show?" Mabel asked.
"I still think 'Dippers Guide to the Unexplained' has a nice ring to it."
"Nope - we're partners here, and we're splitting this 100% down the middle. We can take turns co-hosting it and stuff." Mabel said.
"That's fair... um... how about just 'The Guide to the Unexplained' then?" Dipper suggested.
"Too dull... 'The Pines Guide to the Unexplained'?" Mabel said.
"Why not 'The Mystery Twins Guide to the Unexplained'?" Dipper said jokingly.
"I actually really like the sound of that." Mabel said happily.
"Really? The Mystery Twins thing is so corny though." Dipper said.
"Yeah, but so are you." Mabel teased.
"I choose to take that as a compliment." Dipper said.
Mabel leaned in and planted a warm kiss on Dippers lips that left no doubt in his mind that, corny or not, she was happy to be there with him... and that maybe she always would be.