Mabel and Abel had not stopped talking since they got in the car. Their spouses exchanged some small talk: "how are the kids," "seen any good movies," "twins, am I right?" and so on. The constant stream of uninterrupted Pines-talk was only broken when they stepped out of the car outside The Mystery Shack and a voice cut in:

"Doods!"

"Soos!" the twins responded, before getting scooped up in a bear hug.

"Oh, man, I missed you guys!" Soos gushed. "Hi, Matt! Hi Christy!" he called over top of the tops of the twins heads as an afterthought. He finally released them and gave them the down-low as they headed into The Shack, "A lot of people are here already: the Corduroys, Valentinos, the- Where are the kids?" he suddenly realized.

"We left 'em back at the rental," Abel explained, "they've had a long day, you know? It's an eight-hour drive, give or take."

"Hoh, yeah, I feel ya'," Soos accepted. "Look who's here!" he called into the packed Shack.

A cheer erupted, Mabel responded with an incoherent holler, and Dipper flushed red. Because he was Dipper, here. No one here called him Abel, or 'Mr. Pines', he was Dipper. Plain and simple.

Within moments a flannel-clad arm was thrown over his shoulder.

"How ya' doing, Dipper?" Wendy asked, "Job treating you well?"

"Yeah, well enough," Dipper shrugged.

"Hey, giiirl!" two distinct voices called from across the room, gaining Mabel's attention.

"Candy! Grenda!" Mabel beamed, falling with ease into a group hug, "You guys! I haven't seen you in so long!"

"We miss you too, girl," Candy assured her, straightening her glasses as they separated.

"How are your kids?" Grenda asked, "Marius and I brought all the girls with us!"

"Oh, I haven't seen your girls in so long! Ours are back at the rental. You know, kids' night."

"Kids' night?!" Grenda exclaimed, "Well! Why not make it a party! Brenda!"

A teen girl appeared in a moment at Grenda's elbow,

"Yes'm?"

"Take your sisters over to the Pines' cabin! It's party time!"

"-and when I go back I'll be in fourth grade," Faith explained to Cassandra, who was trying really hard to look interested.

"Cool," she uttered for the umpteenth time. It had gotten dark since this conversation started.

"OK, so I think I found a TV channel that isn't local," Ashwin mentioned from beside them on the sofa, "but I'm not sure. It might just be a pubic system airing a syndicated show-"

There was a rap on the door.

All three kids exchanged looks infused with varying levels of terror.

Ashwin glanced towards the door and Cassandra spoke,

"Don't open it."

"We don't know-"

"Exactly!" she hissed.

There were some muffled voices from the other side.

"They sound kind of young," Ashwin noted, "maybe-"

"Don't do it."

There was a clicking of a key in the lock and all three of them stared, not daring to breathe, unable to anticipate who or what would open the door.

"Ashwin? Cassandra? Faith?" a guy called, poking his head into the rental cabin.

Ashwin and Cassandra were both very aware of how tall and mature this guy was, as well as how his dark red hair fell and how chiseled his jawline was.

"Oh, hey! That's you guys, right?" he prompted, stepping into the cabin.

"Mm-hm," Cassandra managed to squeak.

Ashwin only managed a nod.

"I'm Faith!" their younger companion responded, hopping off the couch to meet the guy in the doorway. "How'd you get a key?"

"Yeah, that," he acknowledged, "I'm, uh, supervising tonight-?"

"Wu-why would we need to be supervised?" Cassandra asked, jerking out of her mild hormone stupor, "We've been left alone loads of times!"

"Yeah, I believe you," they guy responded, "but you have company," he explained, opening the door to reveal a veritable hoard of kids and teens outside.

Cassandra's stomach sank. So much for any time alone.

"Woah!" Ashwin beamed, "Who ARE all you people?!"

"Basically our parents sent us to hang out with you," a teen girl explained, "I'm Brenda von Fundshauser, by the way," she added, offering Ashwin a hand, "nice to meet you."

"Hi!" Ashwin responded.

"And these are my sisters:" she continued, a gaggle of various-aged girls gathering around her, "Lynda, Glenda, Jenda & Kenda (the twins), and Wenda, the youngest," she concluded, gesturing to the child in Gleda's arms.

"Oh! Is your mom Grenda?" Ashwin realized.

"How did you guess?" the chorused with varying levels of sarcasm.

"My mom talks about her a lot," Ashwin explained.

"Felicity Northwest," another girl about his age butted in, taking Ashwin's hand and shaking it, "and this is my little brother, Hayes."

"I'm Hayes!" a young boy confirmed, popping up behind her shoulder.

"I'm Faith!" Ashwin's little sister told the boy, "I really like bugs and cake. What do you like?"

"I like robots!"

"Cool! Let's go play up in me and my brother's room! Jenda and Kenda!" she called, "You wanna' come too?"

The four younger kids scampered upstairs, and Ashwin got a little more confident around the cool, older guy that had first opened the door,

"And who might you be?" he asked, trying to sound smooth and only slightly succeeding.

"Paul Corduroy," he introduced himself, shaking Ashwin's hand.

"I'm Ashwin," he managed to spit out.

"Y'know, I'd guessed," Paul grinned down at him.

"You seem… strong," Ashwin noted after a pause.

"Heh, I guess," Paul shrugged, "I'm working on being a lumberjack. It's the family trade," he explained. "Are you Mabel or Dipper's kid?"

"M-Mabel," Ashwin stammered, startled by the semi-personal question.

"Oh, cool. I bet you're a good guy to invite to a party."

"Y-yeah, thanks, I guess so. My cousin Cassandra-" Ashwin cut himself off as he noticed a complete lack of Cassandra on the sofa. "Crud."

Cassandra sat out behind the cabin, hand clutching a tangle of her hair, a furious scribble scrawled in her notebook under the heading 'Day 1.' She didn't want to be here. She couldn't understand why some backwoods hick town was so important to her dad, and why it was so important that this strange reunion happen now. This had been such a long day, and she got the sense that she wouldn't get much time to herself this week.

"Hey."

Cassandra almost jumped out of her skin, fumbling with her notebook, staring wide-eyed at the freckle-faced girl that had spoken to her. She finally managed a blink, and responded:

"Hey."

"I volunteered to track you down," the girl explained, sitting down beside her, "your cousin was wondering, and my brother is sort of in charge, so he just wanted to make sure you would be OK."

"Your brother?" Cassandra echoed, remembering square-jaw-mcRed-head from earlier.

"Yeah. He's good like that. I'm Elowen, by the way," the girl explained, "Elowen Corduroy."

"Cassandra Pines," she responded with a nod of acknowledgment.

The two sat in silence for a moment, looking up at the stars through the trees.

"OK, so the lack of light pollution is cool," Cassandra admitted.

"Yeah, it's nice," Elowen agreed, "I have trouble not being fascinated by stars."

"It runs in the family for me," Cassandra mentioned, "you know how everybody calls my dad Dipper?"

Elowen nodded.

"It's 'cause he has this birthmark on his forehead that looks like the big dipper."

"Oh, yeah, I'd heard that."

"Yeah, but, like, that seems to run in the family," Cassandra continued, "well- here, let me get my phone light," she tapped other phone's flashlight and held it over her right arm, illuminating orion's belt, legs, and torso in freckle-marks on her arm, made clear by the strange lines connecting them. "I've even been called Orion," she admitted, "but it just doesn't have the same ring. After all-"

Something scrabbled out of the forrest and grabbed for the phone.

Cassandra yelped, but managed to cling to it.

"What was that?" she exclaimed, somewhere between fear and confusion. She suddenly became aware that Elowen was brandishing a pocketknife into the darkness.

"I have no idea," Elowen breathed.

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