Summer 2012
When Dipper's parents informed the twins they would be spending the summer in Oregon, it certainly came as a shock.
"It would be good for you two to get some fresh air," Dipper's father said casually as he packed their suitcases. "You've been stuck with your nose in that DS, I'm getting worried there, kiddo."
Dipper could feel an impending eyeroll, and suppressed it. "Dad, this isn't fair. What would we be doing stuck in the middle of nowhere with some random relative we don't know."
"Well,"Dipper's father continued, clicking the suitcases shut. "You remember your Great Aunt Clare, don't you? She came over for your grandparents' anniversary party."
Dipper looked skeptical. "Yeah, I remember with the red cat eye glasses and the leopard print. She kept pinching my cheeks and saying I looked cute."
"Well, she might not look it, but she's a big shot scientist. She's got twelve PhDs, and studies all sorts of strange phenomena. Thought that would be up your alley." He continued, grinning.
Dipper couldn't believe it. "That's…too good to be true." Dipper said, fiddling with a loose strand of hair. "What about Mom? She doesn't like me going on about my hobbies…"
"I've already talked to your mother," Dipper's father replied gently.
"And Marvin?" Dipper asked.
Dipper's father laughed. "Your brother will be fine, he always adapts."
And just like that, Dipper and Marvin were sent packed and ready to the bus stop to stay with a distant relative for the whole summer,
"Just imagine, Marv, we might be able to investigate the paranormal, with a scientist." Dipper said, trying to suppress the feelings of excitement.
"A lady scientist!" Marvin exclaimed.
Dipper frowned. "Marvin, you can't say that!"
Marvin realized his mistake and winced. "My bad. But, it's kind of cool. You two can nerd out, and maybe I can try to get some inspiration from nature and junk."
"Marv, how are you going to use nature to get inspired for your techno music?" Dipper asked in amusement.
"You can get inspiration anywhere." Marvin said, as if it was obvious. "I packed my keyboard, and my crochet hook if we have any downtime. And some beads. We're making friendship bracelets!"
"You know, this might be the best summer ever," Dipper said hopefully.
Marvin lifted up his pinky (unusually long, and notably the sixth finger on his hand) and Dipper joined in, linking hers.
"Best summer ever!"
When they arrived at the bus stop, notably missing a letter, they were greeted by their Great Aunt wrapping them tightly in a hug.
"Oh, look at you two, you've gotten so big!" She exclaimed. Her Jersey accent was broad and deep, as if she'd spent years smoking, and Dipper assumed she had.
"Good to see you again, Grauntie Clare!" Marvin said enthusiastically.
"Heh, Grauntie. You know what, I like that!" She replied. "Come on, up you get in the car, then I'll show you around the Mystery Shack!"
"The Mystery Shack?" Dipper asked as they climbed into what was dubbed the MACMOBL on its license plate.
Grantie Clare have a wink. "You'll see, kid."
Dipper of course, did not expect a run down tourist trap with badly maintained exhibits or the stylings of Madame Mystery (no refunds), or that she and Marvin would be spending the summer working there.
Marvin seemed to be having fun, he was determined to get in a summer romance, as he dubbed it, and was trying to flirt, disastrously, with basically everyone. He struck out with Wendy, the cute sixteen year old cashier, then moved on to the guests around their age.
"Man, I do not miss being twelve." Wendy said, rolling her eyes as Marvin was unsuccessfully trying to get the number of a girl in pigtails.
"Tell me about it." Dipper agreed. "It seems like it's just so much going on. And, I don't really have a lot of friends who understand. All they want to talk about are boys, and makeup."
Wendy gave her a sympathetic look. "You know, I think I get it. Say, do you want to hang out with me and my friends? I can't guarantee we won't talk about boys, but we aren't too bad."
Hanging out with cool older kids like Wendy?
"Yeah! Sure!" Dipper said anxiously. Was she sounding too desperate? Did she look too sweaty?
Wendy smiled. "Great! We'll be meeting up this weekend. Oh, and if Marvin wants to make some friends, I can get him in touch with my brothers."
Dipper looked over at her brother in his bright pink crocheted cardigan with a shooting star, his shoulder length hair, his homemade necklaces and his neon painted fingernails. It seems he and the girl were discussing which one of the members of Several Timez was the cutest.
"Marvin's not really like other guys. Would they mind?" Dipper asked nervously.
Wendy shrugged. "I don't know, but if they try anything I'll kick their butts."
Dipper went to the park to hang out with Wendy, and met her friends: Tambry, Lee, Nate, Thompson…and Robbie.
Dipper didn't know what it was about him. Was it the cool, aloof nature? The way he wore all black and was so tortured? Something about him made her feel funny inside, like her insides were doing backflips.
Dipper didn't know what to say around him. She was a sweaty, stammering mess. Luckily, he didn't notice.
She leaned over to Wendy. "So, what's the deal with Robbie?"
Wendy gave a conspiratorial grin. "He's cute, right? There's no deal, he's been my friend for a while, but I'm thinking I might just man up and finally ask him out. I've been meaning to since junior high, I've just been scared."
Dipper froze, feeling a free fall in her gut. She gulped. "Go for it." She squeaked.
"You think so?" Wendy asked nervously. "What if it ruins our friendship?"
"You won't know until you ask." Dipper replied, sounding more calm than she felt.
Wendy took a deep breath. "Ok, I'm going for it. Thanks Dip, you're a good friend."
Dipper watched at Wendy asked him out, and felt a twinge of jealousy as he said he liked her back.
"It's late, I gotta go." Dipper exclaimed.
She walked back to the Mystery Shack, just in time to meet a cute boy in a hoodie. He had bangs, and was mysterious. His name was Norman, and he seemed like the perfect rebound.
He was not.
After a few hours in which Dipper was tied up by a bunch of gnomes, outsmarted said gnomes by tricking them into untying her, rescued by her brother in a stolen golf cart, then blasting them away with a leaf blower, Dipper was ready to swear off romance for good.
It hadn't been completely useless. Today was the day that was going to change her life, because as Marvin slept next to her, clutching his stuffed animals and snoring, Dipper couldn't help but stay up pouring over the Journal.
—-
It wasn't until "Family Fun Day," that things started to get to a point where Dipper was going to ask questions. Maybe not pull out the red string and thumbtacks just yet, but close.
"I didn't realize you liked fishing, Grauntie Clare." Dipper said as she placed the hats with lopsiding stitching on their heads.
She chuckled. "Well, it's a gorgeous day, isn't it? Plus, the ladies in my bridge club aren't talking to me since as they say, cheat at cards. But what would they know? That's half the fun. Besides, everyone's out here."
Sure enough, everyone in town was out there, even Wendy and her family. Dipper waved, and watched as Wendy's father started wrestling the fish.
"Well, if it isn't Claremont Pines. Thought you never leave your house much these days." They heard a light chuckle and a thick Southern drawl.
Clare frowned. "Oh, it's you. Kids, say hello to the mayor."
He was tall, with brown hair greying at the temples and a gaudy plaid suit. He knelt down to shake their hands. "Howdy, my name's Fiddleford McGucket, abd allow me to personally welcome you to Gravity Falls."
"Nice to meet you!" Marvin said, extending his hand. "I'm Marvin, and this is my sister, Dipper."
The mayor shook his hand, his face falling momentarily as he went in for the shake.
Marvin withdrew. "Oh, sorry! I should have warned you about the extra finger."
Mayor McGucket shook his head. "It's perfectly alright, son. Just reminds me of someone…" he said wistfully.
Clare glared at him, dragging the kids away. "We better go, we have to get our reservation for our boat."
"Tate can help you with that." The Mayor said cheerfully, but Dipper noticed a strange glint in his eyes. "He's my son," he added helpfully.
"Yes, yes, we got that." Clare grumbled.
"Just watch out for the Gobblewonker, ya hear?" He added. "It's a local legend. A huge monster in the in lake right below us. If you go too far out…it eats like boys and girls. And little old ladies too."
"The Gobblewonker?" Dipper asked.
"It's all baloney." Clare muttered. "Our charming mayor has been trying to get me to go out of business for years. This is just another attempt with this fake made up monster of his. Still doesn't hold a candle to the Mystery Shack"
"So…what are you going to do about it?" Marvin asked.
"Nothing." Clare replied. "People are all over this lake trying to find proof for something that doesn't exist, eventually they'll get bored."
"But what if it's real?" Dipper asked.
"Do you want to bet on that?" Clare grinned.
In the end, both of them were wrong. The Gobblewonker was technically real, but also a robot created to spur tourism and impress an estranged son. No one seemed bothered by the behavior of the mayor, in fact, it seemed normal from their reactions.
Curiouser and curiouser.
When Dipper and Marvin switched bodies from that horrible carpet, Marvin had the traumatizing experience of getting "the talk," from his Grauntie. At least he had made some friends the day before meeting Candy and Grenda, and he could actually have them over for a sleepover as "Dipper". Surprisingly, their parents hadn't been as accommodating of a sleepover with Marvin, even though he had more in common with them in terms of fashion, cute animals, and makeup. Dipper didn't even like those things!
Dipper used her time as a boy to try to get closer to Robbie, but he didn't seem to care either way. When he returned to the secret room, Dipper found the motherload.
Tapes. Piles of cassette tapes. Each meticulously dated and cataloged, with the observations of an unknown scientist. Dipper's ears perked at the calm and powerful feminine voice projected on the cassette player. A Doctor Pines. Each recording ended with an unusual array of beeps and clicks. Morse code.
After the return back to their bodies, and subsequent adventures, Dipper spent the summer trying to decode the messages. And trying to avoid Pacifica Northwest, who had a penchant for wanting to bully her for not wanting to be like other girls. Dipper got enough of that from her mom.
The summer continued. Marvin eventually befriended a psychic and Grantie Clare's rival, L'il Gideon.
"It's a little weird that he keeps asking you on these one on one hangouts, right?" Dipper asked when Marvin returned from a boat ride with his new friend.
"Yeah…I'm not really sure what his deal is." Marvin admitted. "I asked if he like liked me, and he just started freaking out and kept saying he likes girls and wasn't a sissy. But then he kept saying I have pretty eyes, so I don't get it." Marvin shrugged as he grabbed a preteen magazine. He hadn't finished the crossword.
"You really don't have pretty eyes," Dipper noted.
"I know right? They're mud brown." Marvin agreed. "What's four letters across, meaning a falsehood."
"Sham?" Dipper suggested. She took off her hat, undoing her ponytail. She scowled at the blonde highlights her mom had forced her to get. "Don't try to make this kid your project, Marv."
"I don't know," Marvin said reflectively. "Maybe I can fix him."
That, of course, changed quickly when they found that Gideon was working with Mayor McGucket to steal the deed to the house and evict Grauntie Clare, and they succeeded.
After a run in with a triangle demon in Clare's mind, Dipper and Marvin found their adventures were becoming less lighthearted romps as the stakes kept getting higher.
Through the Mayor's help, Gideon was discovered to have spied on everyone in town. After a chase from a giant robot, falling off a cliff, and fighting for their lives, Gideon was still able to get away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist and a time out. It seems the people of Gravity Falls were numb. Nothing seemed to bother them.
Grauntie Clare was acting shadier by the day, casually taking Dipper's journal from her hands after she admitted its existence.
Soon, it snowballed.
They found the bunker, and the shapeshifter. Dipper tried and failed to crack the password for the laptop.
Dipper felt justified initially in taking that deal with Bill, but watching herself from the outside looking on was a horror she would never forget. Thank goodness Marvin saw through that, and helped bring her back. Even if it was through tickles.
It was a shame though, Marvin was certain that puppeteer was probably gay.
The pieces started to come together when Dipper and Marvin started investigating the rampant memory loss in town, particularly when Soos mentioned he had completely forgotten Giffany.
What they hadn't expected was the Society of the Blind Eye, and their terrifying grip on the town.
As the members each threw off their robes, they were surprised to find the Mayor once again at the center of it all, affably explaining that it was all for their own good, and just like everyone else they would soon forget all of this unpleasantness.
"I suppose by now you've seen things you've wanted to forget." McGucket said calmly as he adjusted the memory gun.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean I want them gone!" Dipper shouted as she tried to undo the rope tying them to their chairs
"Yeah, all the bad things, the failed romance, the disappointment, it's all jumbled in there with the good stuff too." Marvin agreed. "How would we learn anything if we forget what got us here?"
McGucket paused. "I suppose you have a point. But you should be so fortunate. The sweet release of oblivion is a luxury few are granted. There are some things I can never forget, no matter how hard I try."
"That doesn't mean you can control what others should or shouldn't remember." Dipper chastised.
"You know, you sound like your Aunt when you get all riled up." McGucket chuckled, resuming his methodical control of the gun.
"What do you mean? I don't sound anything like Grauntie Clare." Dipper snapped.
McGucket looked at Dipper reflectively. "How much do you two really know about her?" He asked quietly.
"Not much." Marvin admitted. "She likes scamming tourists, old historical dramas, and she's as much a fan of loud prints and costume jewelry as I am."
"I reckon you never met that friend of his…that ornery triangle son-of-a…"
"Bill?" Dipper gasped. "You know him!"
McGucket lowered the memory gun. "Everyone, out. I will take care of these three personally."
The rest of the members muttered, leaving the antechamber. McGucket handed the gun to Ivan. "You know what to do, spare no one, including yourself." Ivan nodded, leaving them to their own devices.
McGucket untied their bindings.
"What are you doing?" Marvin asked. "I thought you were going to zap us."
"Aw, hush." McGucket chided. "I'll need you three to be my eyes and ears. I know your Aunt is in cahoots with Cipher, and no good can come if it."
"How can you be sure?" Dipper asked.
"Because she's an imposter. I don't know who she is, or what she is, but I knew your Aunt Clare, the real one. Not this phony. I was her research assistant, you know. I help categorize most of those tapes. Don't deny them, I know you know about them too. That's why I do what I do, why I've stayed in this godforsaken town. I…know she's up to something, but I have very little proof."
"We'd never help you!" Marvin shouted.
"Yeah, what he said!" Soos agreed.
Dipper felt uneasy. "What do you think she could be up to?"
"There's a…I don't know what the right word for it is, but Cipher has a tool to get between his world and ours. Your Aunt, the real Clare, was working on it. But it changed her. Made her go stir crazy. I begged her to shut it down, but she refused. I left, but I vowed to stop her and Cipher. I don't know what happened to her, but I noticed she had been replaced. Perhaps Cipher was able to control her for good, or created a facsimile…but things were quiet until now. I promise you kids, I'll take care of this. You have my word you'll be safe. Now, I have some evidence, but I need you two to help me bring her in."
"Do you think Grauntie Clare would really be working for Bill?" Dipper asked, unsure of herself.
"I think," McGucket answered, "you should find out for yourself." He gave them the directions out of the museum, and they walked past the dazed people slumped outside the entrance. Marvin grabbed the memory gun out of Ivan's hand on the way out.
Dipper refused to believe it at first, until she started to do some snooping. It wasn't long before she found the fake ids, the maps, the photos of their Grauntie in different hair styles, disguises, aliases.
Then, the federal agents knocked on their door with a warrant for her arrest.
"Dipper, we've got to prove Grauntie Clare's innocent!" Marvin shouted as they looked at the security footage.
"Is she though? It looks like she stole that waste, and we don't even know anything about her!" Dipper screamed. She took out the pile of ids and the newspaper clippings. "Who's McKenna Pines? And why would Grauntie Clare have her obituary? Did she kill her?"
Marvin shook his head, holding in a sob. "We've gotta save her."
"No, we've got to find what's behind that vending machine Soos is guarding." Dipper replied.
It was a whirlwind as Grauntie Clare returned, and everything started floating.
Dipper thought she could convince Marvin to shut it down and felt complete despair when he chose blind trust in the face of all logic and reason.
There was a flash, and a thud as they fell to the ground.
Out of the portal stepped a figure shrouded in a scarf. With a flourish, they saw the figure remove the scarf to reveal a woman who looked exactly like their Great Aunt, with dark shoulder length hair in grey streaks, broken glasses, and a long coat.
"Grauntie Clare," Dipper asked. "Who is that?"
"The author of the journals. My sister."