It was nice to have the town's respect back, but it was one thing to be respected, and another to be trusted.
Honestly, he didn't blame them one bit. After all, he'd done some truly awful things – he'd been a fraud, a deceiver, and had done everything from summon a demon to possess his own father! He wanted to redeem himself, he did! But it was kinda hard to, when one had no arms or legs. How was he supposed to make it up to the town when he couldn't do anything? How was he supposed to make it up to Mabel?
Gideon let out a little discouraged huff, his eye flaring green-blue at the sound. If anybody else had been there with him, in his ol' Tent of Telepathy, that would've been all they could see – a glowing eyeball, reflecting light off crystalline arcs around it.
The prophetic powers had been an unforeseen little gift. He'd just woken up one day, and known, somehow, how the last three hours of the day would play out – everything from a Manotaur's accident with an axe to what the Dinner Special would be at Greasy's. And that had been hella nice, while it lasted. Finally, he was a real psychic! No amulets or deception necessary.
Then the transformation had begun, and everything had spiraled downhill. And here he was, a living crystal ball floatin' in the dark.
The townsfolk had stopped coming for their genuine fortunes once the transformation had begun, only Ghost-Eyes and his other henchmen coming to visit regularly. They were perfectly willing to ignore his new appearance in favor of speaking to their boss – especially Ghost-Eyes, who had never seen his little boss's face anyway. And it was a nice sentiment – they were loyal folks, who'd stuck with him even when he'd broken free of prison to help herald an Apocalypse, or when he'd led them against an all-powerful space demon. But they were just a small lil' group, and his somewhat horrific appearance (though not nearly so much so as that naive handyman's or Dipper's) tended to scare other folks off – even his own father couldn't quite look him in the eye!
It was discouraging, to say the very least. Oh, if only he'd never made those deals with Bill! Then, perhaps, none of this would've happened!
But there was nothin' to be done about it now. The past was past. All he could do was struggle to find some way to repay the town for his transgressions, and it was slow going.
"Gangway!"
With a screeching of sirens, Gravity Falls' single firetruck went rushing past, followed quickly by a beat-up, stuttery cop car.
Which promptly broke down outside the tent.
"Well, dangnabbit!"
Gideon peeked around the tent flap as the officers struggled to kick the car back into gear – literally, in Officer Blub's case. They seemed mighty desperate to get moving.
"What's goin' on, officers?"
The men jumped and looked at him with wide-eyed expressions for a moment, before visibly relaxing.
"Oh, 'ello there 'lil Gideon!" Deputy Durland greeted him cheerfully. "Gosh, haven't seen you since the whole Weirdmageddon thing!"
"Yes, yes, I know that. What's goin' on?"
"Big 'ole fire in the town square." Blubs said. "Sorry, can't stay, we gotta make sure the firetruck gets there!"
With some more spluttering engine noises and a push from behind (Gideon helped with that as best he could) the car was soon running, and it was just as it was starting to pull away that another vision hit him like a loaded semi-truck.
Fire, crackling, a creaking of burning beams, yelling, a pudgy officer with dark skin holding out his arms to catch a victim jumping down from above to escape the flames, a beam falling right onto him as he caught the little girl, wood and fire colliding with delicate human tissue –
Gideon yanked back into awareness with a gasp.
"Officer Blubs!" he called after the car. "When the 'lil girl jumps out a shop window, there's a beam that'll fall on 'ya!"
That was all he could get out before the car was out of view, and he could only hope the officer heard him.
That night, Deputy Durland would come to the Tent in a cop car even more beat up than it had been that mornin', and thank Gideon profusely for the vision that had saved his partner. And before he left, he gave Gideon a little walkie-talkie, connected to an enormous remote with a great big red button, and told him that Blubs wanted to know whenever something else was going to happen as soon as he saw it.
And Gideon felt just a little bit better about himself. Just a bit.