A Bit About Yellow Pyramid

Although it was implied he was forgiven for the Fusion incident, Dipper couldn't help but feel like something had changed in the relationship between him and the rest of his family. Grunkle Stanford SEEMED the same, but Dipper just felt…OFF. Like there was an inch more space between them, a moment's more hesitation in speaking. He really wished it was just his imagination, but it was just ALWAYS there.

Even Mabel seemed different. It was almost like she was walking on eggshells around him, even keeping something of a secret from him.

The whole thing was just so low-key and delicate, it was driving Dipper crazy. He wanted things to go back to normal, but he didn't know HOW.

A week of this mess was definitely messing with his sleep. Even his dreams were getting weird. Nothing but a black-and-white void and an empty feeling of abandonment and loneliness that was occasionally interrupted by the feeling of being WATCHED.

Suffice to say, Dipper got very little of the sleep he actually NEEDED.

To cope with his lack of sleep, he took to secretly working through the mysteries of the journal, especially a few odd pages that looked scribbled through, blacked out, or written on in invisible ink. One in particular captured most of his interest; it was mostly blacked out, but after managing to lift some of the black-out ink and looking at it under black light, he found odd inscriptions.

NOT REAL

CANT BE TRUSTED

ALWAYS WATCHING

Rather than being spooked, Dipper was intrigued. He managed to lift a good portion of blacked-out part that looked much like a spell of some sort. He managed out best he could in his extremely limited Latin:

"Triangulum, entangulum. Meteforis dominus ventium. Meteforis venetisarium."

Nothing happened.

Not surprising, really. He didn't expect much from it. For all he knew, it was just random mumbo-jumbo. He closed the journal for the night and tucked himself into bed, zonking out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Dipper's eyes opened what seemed like seconds later, groaning when he saw how dark it still was. It must be going to rain today. He sat up, yawning. "Morning, Mabel," he murmured, rubbing his eyes.

No response.

He turned to Mabel's side of the room, frowning when he saw her bed was empty. What was more, the room looked…washed out. Like it was…

…Like his dreams.

Oh great, did he suddenly learn how to lucid dream out of nowhere? If THAT was what the spell was, then good for him, why was it blanked out? He slipped out of bed, testing out his mobility. It all seemed so real…

That sudden 'being watched' feeling surged up, and he looked around wildly, his hair standing on end. "…Who's there?" he demanded, trying not to sound as scared as he was.

Unlike last time, he got an answer.

Laughter.

Dipper saw movement on the floor, the illumination of the triangular window of the attic room shimmer slightly before becoming more defined and gaining a golden color before lifting from the floor and hovering in the air. A moment later, Dipper found himself staring at an enormous triangular gem that looked like a yellow diamond.

He was about to start pondering over the weirdness of his dreams somehow being attributed to the soda he sometimes drank before bed when things got weirder. A large, single eye opened in the middle of the gem, sans an iris and the pupil almost slitted. The disturbing sight made him backtrack until he fell back over his bed, staring at the THING in horror.

"Yeesh, kid, don't have a heart attack," the gem said, sudden sprouting spindly black arms and legs and, oddly enough, a top hat and a small bowtie. "You'd think you'd never seen a Gem before in your life."

Dipper's mouth moved without speaking, somehow trying to find the words to convey the absolute madness he was seeing. "Wha…h…how….WHAT are…?" The eye rolled in dramatic exaggeration.

"GEM, kiddo. G-E-M. I'm a GEM. Well, a Gem in its purest form, anyway." The Gem hovered mid-air, somehow able to convey amusement with just an eye and tone of voice.

Dipper's eyes narrowed. "'Purest form'?" he repeated, sitting up. "What's that even mean?" He jumped when the Gem glided over next to him, slinging a spindly arm around his shoulders.

"Exactly what I said," the Gem replied. "Purest form. Gems aren't truly those gormless, ungainly forms the majority of you take." He poked at Dipper's arm as an example. Always so easily damaged and an absolute NIGHTMARE to take care of." The word 'nightmare' being accentuated by a darker, more vibrant tone that Dipper swore he could feel in his bones. "Why, all that energy you use in maintaining that thing could be used into making your TRUE form INDESTRUCTIBLE. ETERNAL."

Dipper frowned, looking at his hands, feeling the awkwardness in his body that came with the onset of teenage puberty, and suddenly felt WRONG. "…But…HOW?" he asked, clenching his hands. "I mean…" He reached up, touching the partial gem on his forehead. "…I cant exist like THIS…can I?"

"Eh, it's a work in progress," the Gem said, floating up in the air again. "Not all Gems can look as flawless as me, you know. But you fleshbags never know what your TRUE selves hold when you're stuck maintaining…THAT." He gestured over Dipper's body. "When you let go of your illusions, all the infinite power you're truly capable of can come forth! Who KNOWS what you and your other half is capable of!"

"Other half? Wait, Mabel?" Dipper scowled. "We're not HALVES. We're two WHOLE people!"

The Gem laughed. "Sure kid, keep telling yourself that," he said. "You can stay that in that mediocre, shameless form you call a body and summon nothing but a half-formed shield as your only ability for whatever time you have left on this planet, all your energy wasted maintaining a form that'll only rot and die and take your gem with it…" The Gem waved his hand, creating a dazzling miniature galaxy in his palm out of nothing.

"…Or you can harness your TRUE power by channeling the infinite energy of the universe without that mound of flesh acting as a buffer. Your choice, kiddo." He waved his hand, dispelling the galaxy, his body glowing.

"Remember! Your reality is an illusion, your body is a hologram, buy gold! I'll be watching you!"

There was a flash of light, and Dipper bolted up in bed with a gasp, shaking. There was color in the room. Mabel was snoring in her bed. There were birds chirping outside.

He was awake.

Dipper, rubbed his face, groaning. That was THE last time he drank cola without checking the expiration date. He made a move to get out of bed, almost jumping right back in when he saw the illumination of the sun sifting in through the window in the shape of a triangle.

….weird.

Too weird.