Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls!
Edited and revised 7/10/15
Betaed 2/21/16
~~0~~0~~0~~
"I really can't believe that stupid plan that never works actually worked this time."
"What can I say? I'm amazing! Bwap."
Dipper shook his head, smiling lightly at his sister's antics. As soon as he'd cleared the forest, he had run into the shack as quickly and as quietly as possible, thankful for not bumping into anyone on the way in.
"Sooo...how was your...exploring?" Mabel asked, a tilt of uncertainty hanging at the end of her question. She had been worried for her brother throughout the day, heart pounding in her chest every time Stan even half-mentioned the missing twin.
But now, there was nothing to fear or worry about. Dipper was back home, hair ruffled and skin red, but unharmed all the same.
Dipper sighed and sat down at his makeshift desk, leaning back and slinking down into the hard wooden chair. He dragged a hand over his face. "Exhausting."
Mabel hummed lightly. Flopping back onto her bed, she began to pet Waddles, her pig, adamantly.
"Care to give me the deets?" She asked playfully.
Dipper took his notebook out of his vest pocket, along with the pen and pocket knife. Setting the blade down to the side, the brunet flipped his book open to a new page. Best record everything before he forgot.
"Um, I wandered around a lot. Got kidnapped by gnomes and...yeah that's it."
Mabel jumped up at the mention of gnomes, giggles escaping. "You got kidnapped by gnomes? Gnomes?! The little guys?" The girl fell back onto her bed as she broke into wild laughter, tears of amusement filling her eyes.
"They're not like the ones that dig through the trash! And there were a lot of them!"
Somehow, Dipper's denial made it all the more amusing to Mabel who started to roll around, clutching her gut.
Dipper groaned, "These guys were in, like, a synchronized group or something. And they were pretty tubby."
Mabel wiped tears out of her eyes, a few giggles still squirming their way out between chapped lips. "Okay, okay. So what did they want with you?"
At this, Dipper blushed red and turned away, burying his nose in his notebook. "I was in their territory. That's all," he lied.
Mabel cocked an eyebrow, but didn't press on. She would just have to read his journal (which was totally a diary) later.
"So, how'd you get away if there were so many?"
Dipper grumbled under his breath, clicking his pen open. "Bill saved me," he relented, annoyed.
"So he's your knight in shining armor?" Mabel teased, eyes sparkling.
"No! It's just part of our deal. And he's not a knight." Dipper kicked his legs out, letting the tips of his toes bump lightly against the wall in a calming rhythm. "He's more annoying than you on Mabel-juice," he added as an afterthought, briefly turning to Bill Cipher's page to mark out 'fire god', and place a question mark next to it instead.
Mabel jumped off her bed and walked over to Dipper. Looking over his shoulder, she scanned what he had down on the paper.
"80's hits? Sounds like my kinda guy!" Mabel cheered. "Wonder if he likes Don't Stop Unbelieving?"
Dipper snorted and pushed Mabel away by her face, "I don't know and I don't care. Right now all I want to do is fill in my-"
"Kids! Get down here! What passes as dinner is on the table!" Stan yelled from downstairs.
Mabel cheered at the prospect of food and ran out the door and down the stairs, feet thumping loudly throughout the house.
Grinning at his twin's antics, Dipper stood up and followed. He'd have time to fill in the journal after dinner. At the moment though, his stomach was snarling at the thought of food, even if it was Stan's cooking. That single granola bar hours ago was doing nothing for him now, after all. Giving his notebook one last glance, he pushed himself off his seat and followed his twin, running out the door and down the steps just as she had.
~~0~~0~~0~~
Dipper's tongue stuck out of his mouth a bit as he wrote down all he remembered about the gnomes in the forest, comparing them to the ones seen digging through the trash in the early mornings. In all honesty, Dipper didn't know much about the little creatures, only that Stan complained about them around once a month for eating out of the garbage can. However, those gnomes weren't like these gnomes. The little creatures he'd seen before were always bone-thin, teeth half-way rotted out of equally grimy gums, skin sagging and yellow, balding, and usually wearing nothing more than scraps of old newspaper, cloth, or anything they could get their meaty little hands on.
Scratching his chin idly, the young adventurer tried to sketch out the differences the best he could. Though the faces and bodies were heavily lopsided and both pictures looked very cartoonish, he had to admit it was some of the best artistry he'd ever done.
Sighing, Dipper reread his notes a few more times, wishing he could go to the library for the nth time that day. He wanted to read up a bit more on gnomes as well as look into the god Bill Cipher. If there was going to be any information about him, it would be at the Gravity Falls Public Library.
Dipper flopped his head onto his desk, irritation prickling in his gut and heart. Stupid grounding.
Just as he was picking his head back up, slipping his pen back into his mouth to gnaw on, the door to the room flung open. Mabel entered, hair wet from her shower, trailing water spots all over her favorite purple nightgown with a picture of a basic circuit sewn on the front.
"You still writing in your diary?" Mabel teased as she lifted Waddles into her bed, the pig oinking happily as she ran her fingers over his belly.
"It's not a diary!" Dipper replied fervently, "It's a field journal and you know it."
"Journal, diary, it's the same thing!"
Dipper snorted, "Whatever. To answer your question- yes. But I'm going to need outside resources before adding anything else."
Mabel tucked Waddles in next to her, giggling as the pig's snout nuzzled playfully into her chest, his beady-black eyes crinkling in delight. The girl wrapped her arms around her pet, pulling the pig's body closer to her own. "Yeah, but you can't go to the library."
Dipper groaned, clicking his pen shut as he did so and turning to tuck both it and his notebook under his mattress. "Don't remind me. I still need to-" The brunet's eyes widened as a brilliant idea formed in his mind. Oh, why didn't he think of it before?
"Bro-Bro?" Mabel questioned her brother's sudden silence, looking at him curiously.
Dipper turned around, enthusiastic smile playing on his lips. "Mabel! I've got a great idea! Since I can't go to the library, you can go instead and get me the books I need! That way, I'm not breaking Stan's punishment!"
Though Mabel's eyes twinkled at the prospect of mischief, her grin slipped a little. "But how am I supposed to know what books to get? We can't use the magic mirrors yet."
Dipper's shoulders slumped briefly before the boy perked right back up again, "What about walkie-talkies? I'm pretty sure Wendy has a pair she wouldn't mind lending us."
Mabel's smile lifted once again. "That would work!"
Somehow Dipper's grin got even bigger and turned into a full beam, one that would normally be found housed on his sister's face and not his own.
~~0~~0~~0~~
"So, is the plan-plan a go-go?"
"Mabel, you don't have to repeat everything twice into the walkie-talkie. I can hear you fine."
"Ah, don't-don't bring me down-down, bro-bro!"
Dipper groaned at Mabel's antics while Wendy just snickered at their bickering.
"Hey, Wendy, um, thanks again for lending us your walkie-talkies..." Dipper trailed off, an embarrassed blush tinting his face a light pink. His only free hand scratched the back of his neck nervously.
Wendy smiled at him, ignoring the obvious hints he gave her. "Hey, it's no problem. Besides, how could I turn down the chance of breaking another one of Stan's rules?"
Dipper gave her a small smile, red receding from his cheeks as he fell back in tandem with himself.
Mabel's voice suddenly crackled from the device, "Okay, Dip-dop. Where do I go?"
"Head to the Magical and Occult History section."
"You mean the dusty section in the corner that always smells like raccoon pee and mothballs?"
Dipper blinked slowly. "...Yes?"
"A-okay! I'm on it!"
Dipper sighed as Mabel's humming echoed back at him brokenly.
Wendy gave the male twin a knowing, amused look while at the same time keeping an eye out for Stan. After all, if this plan went sour...well, Wendy could only imagine how pissed Stan would be.
"Okay, I'm at the raccoon section. Now what?"
"Pick up any books you can grab on the forest or gods. Any will do."
"But there's a lot of those!"
"Then get the thickest ones."
Though Dipper couldn't hear her, he was sure Mabel was cursing him under his breath, most likely regretting the decision of helping him with this. Fuzzy static filled the walkie-talkie, though Dipper could swear he heard Mabel muttering under her breath along with the sound of hard-covered books thumping against one another once in awhile.
"Okay, I got five different books for you. Is that enough?"
Dipper chewed on the inside of his cheek in thought. In all honesty, he wanted to get a minimum of ten books for this. However, he knew Mabel would not be up for carrying around ten thick tomes and he himself did not want to go through the stress of hiding those ten books from Stan.
After all, five would be hard enough.
"That's fine, Mabel. Get them and come on back home."
"Okay!" Her voice chimed in from the device before static overtook the silence.
"Anything on the home-front?" He asked Wendy.
Wendy cupped her hands over her eyes in a makeshift telescope, lips turned upwards in a tiny smirk, "Nah, man. Air's clear of stinky old men," she joked playfully.
Dipper chuckled, placing the walkie-talkie back down.
"So Dipper, what exactly did you do to get grounded anyways? I mean, you like never get in trouble." Wendy's eyes sparked. "Or at least, never get caught."
Dipper rubbed his arms and stared out into the forest, "Well..." He started, unsure of what exactly to say. His gut twisted in knots at the thought of telling Wendy about Bill Cipher and his deal. It was...humiliating to say the least and downright creepy at the most. Biting his lip, Dipper went for the best mediator between honesty and lying: a half-truth.
"I stole one of the journals," he explained after a few beats.
"You're kidding!" The redhead gasped in both surprise and awe, "Doesn't Stan keep those in a safe or something?"
"Or something..." Dipper agreed, staring towards the forest.
Wendy cocked a suspicious eyebrow. "You didn't go into the forest or anything, did you? Even I don't have a license yet!"
Dipper bit the inside of his cheek briefly before turning back to her, rolling his eyes. "Of course not," He cried out, crossing his arms over his chest as he did so, "I wouldn't go put myself in danger! I just- wanted to know more."
Wendy laughed at his protests and playfully ruffled his hair. "I swear, I've never met someone as curious as you!" She teased.
"Hey!" Dipper protested, smile pulling at his lips.
Before he could really say anything more to her however, the walkie-talkie crackled back to life.
"Okay, I'm almost home!" Mabel's voice rang from the other side.
Dipper gave his twin an affirmative reply before turning back to Wendy.
"Part three is officially a go," he told the redhead.
Wendy nodded. Twisting around, the girl slipped on a dark blue hoodie and a stupid-looking Summerween mask that Dipper thought was supposed to look like the devil. Tucking her hair all the way in, she finished off the look with a pair of thick gloves. The teen turned back to Dipper for confirmation.
The young brunet nodded. "Totally unrecognizable," he commended.
"Okay guys, I'm here!" Mabel's voice crackled.
Dipper looked up and squinted in the distance. Low and behold, Mabel was at the very end of the dirt road leading to the shack, ducking haphazardly behind a tree that did nothing to hide her bright yellow sweater.
Giving Dipper one last pat on the shoulder, Wendy flung herself off the roof of the shack and onto a nearby leaning pine. Reaching out with both hands, the athletic teen easily grabbed hold of one of the thinner branches at the top. Bracing herself against the tree with her feet, Wendy slowly shimmied down the pine with a class and finesse that shouldn't be possible, twisting off pine cones as she did so and stuffing them into her pocket.
Dipper watched the spectacle with wide eyes full of both worry for his friend and astonishment for her skills. In what seemed like no time at all, the redhead had made it down the tree, back on solid ground, no worse for wear. She shot him a thumbs up.
Dipper returned it a few seconds too late.
Wendy reached into her pocket to take out the pine cones she had snatched from the tree. Gripping the large seeds lightly in her gloved hands, the teen readied herself, shoulders tensing with her own nerves. With her arm cocked back she let one fly, smashing it straight into the window with a loud bang!
Then she flung a second one.
It only took Wendy a few more hurls at the window before getting used to the action. The pine cones smashed against the window even louder than before, scratching up the weak glass and causing the pane to vibrate under the force.
About eight pine cones in, the door to the shack was flung open in rage.
"HEY!" Stan yelled, brows furrowed angrily, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"
Though the older man couldn't see Wendy's face, or recognize her at all for that matter, he could still clearly see her raise her hand to her face, thumb against where her nose would be, waggling her spread-out fingers to taunt him.
Stan snarled as she darted away behind the house, still chucking pine cones at the old wood while she went. Eyes narrowed in pure anger, Stan ran around to give chase, hands sparking with small beginnings of electricity.
As Stan ran around the house, hidden from sight, Mabel sprang into action, running as fast as she could to the door with an armful of books. Straight through the shop, almost knocking over multiple shelves, she ran right up the stairs and into her and Dipper's shared room.
Still on the roof, Dipper couldn't help but bark out a small laugh as Wendy and Stan rounded the corner of the house. As planned, Wendy steered herself down the driveway, dodging the small bolts of lightening Stan sent her way, easily outpacing the older man.
As Stan came to an undignified stop, trembling in both rage and exertion, Dipper scrambled back down the ladder and hightailed it back to his room, hoping that he wasn't seen.
Taking the stairs two at a time, almost tripping three times, Dipper flung himself into their shared bedroom, slamming the door behind him.
"Got them?" He asked, excitement filling him once again.
Mabel gave him a wide, stunning grin while she dropped the heavy tomes onto his desk. "Y-you b-bet I did!" She panted, collapsing right there and then onto the floor in exhaustion.
Dipper went over to his sister, pulling her up into a sitting position to give her a big hug. "Have I told you how much I love you and how awesome you are?" He gushed.
Mabel laughed weakly, breath still stolen from all the sprinting she had done. "No, but you could tell me a bit more."
Dipper's smile stretched wider. Letting go of his twin to give her breathing room, he turned to the books she had collected for him, giving them each an eager but critical gaze.
The bottom-most one was the thickest and heaviest, looking almost like a dictionary. It had a dark brown hard cover, edges frayed slightly from age. Though the big words on the spine were clearly in Latin, there was some smaller text directly under the title, saying English Translation in clear letters.
Dipper rolled his eyes a bit. If they translated the entire book, why not the title as well?
Deciding not to dwell on that rather useless observation, the young boy's eyes moved to the next book. Although the second was still much thicker than any normal textbook he'd seen, it was still thinner than the first. The book was a green color and this time, the title on the spine was in English, spelling out World-Wide Mysteries and Wonders: The God Edition.
The third book didn't have a title on the spine, just two strips of fading silver decor. It was a deep purple color. Odd, but not flashy. The pages inside were also edged in silver.
The fourth book was about as thick as a standard textbook found at school. It seemed to originally be black, but years of wear and tear lightened it to a faded gray. The text on the spine was in gold and read Gods: What you need to know.
The topmost book was the thinnest by far as well as the widest. A picture of some sort of hideous face was printed on the cover, slightly faded. The book was an off-white color and the title clearly read Mistakes of Men: Gods and their Consequences.
Eager to get started, Dipper threw himself into his desk, grabbing the thinnest book.
Mabel let out a small giggle at her brother's enthusiasm. When it came to mysteries or the unknown, Dipper became an entirely new person.
It made her heart warm.
Crawling onto her bed, Mabel shrugged out of her sweater, the thick and fuzzy wool much too hot for her at the moment. Humming lightly under her breath, she decided to do something she loved as well: making sweaters.
~~0~~0~~0~~
Dipper rubbed his eyes and glanced at his clock.
4:37 a.m.
Sure, it was late and on a school night as well, but Dipper couldn't stop now. No. There was still so much information to go through, so much to sort out, reword, and rewrite.
Dipper flipped through his notebook, fifteen pages filled with what he knew about gods in general already filled out. Sure, he copied the basics everyone knew into it; gods were immortal, gods were the most powerful creatures, gods were smarter than humans, gods worked in mysterious and often heartless ways, etcetera.
But those were the basics. The books Mabel got for him had a well of information to dig through and gather. They opened his eyes to so much he didn't know; how every god aligned themselves with an element from nature (there were no such things as 'fire gods' specifically), how each god had their own special powers that differentiated them, and how there was some sort of (currently unknown) hierarchy to gods.
There were even brief mentions, found in the purple book, that spoke of the possibility of actually killing gods.
Dipper's mind swam at the information.
In Gods: What you need to know, it spoke of how important deals with gods were. It had different aspects of certain gods and even theories on how they were born and or created and why they even needed to make deals.
Apparently it was a way to harness energy, as well as get humans to do things for them.
Though it was unintentional, Gods: What you need to know lead perfectly into Mistakes of Men: Gods and their Consequences, which didn't talk about gods themselves really, but sour deals that changed the course of human history. From way far back into the Victorian era to a recent deal that lead straight into the first world war, gods really had shaped human history, in more ways than one. Though it wasn't all bad, really. As Dipper leafed through the pages, a few stray incidents of gods actually helping humans did pop out at him, from helping fuse together magic and technology for the first time to the deal that apparently helped decide who was guilty and lying in the Nuremberg Trials. Gods helping the human race was rare, but not unheard of.
However, the fact that some gods helped humans did nothing to ease his tensions and doubt about the beings. After all, the good to bad ratio was one in a thousand.
Shutting the book and hiding it with the others he'd already dug through under a single loose floorboard under his bed, Dipper turned to the last book, Dues Encyclopedia: Notum est omnibus diis duce Complete.
Cracking the old tome open, Dipper smiled as normal English stared back at him.
Flipping through its yellowed pages gently, it didn't take long for the boy to figure out what the book really was, causing his brain to kick back into overdrive as his insides melted in giddy happiness and excitement.
It was basically a dictionary. A dictionary discussing every god known up to...
Dipper checked the date.
1289.
Okay, so it was a bit old. He could still work with that.
Blinking, Dipper focused himself back onto the original topic at hand, the reason he'd gotten Mabel to get him these books in the first place: Bill Cipher.
Dipper cautiously turned the old and dry pages, trying his best not to rip them even more so. Every page seemed to have some sort of profile of a demon, hand drawn with a carefully printed text. Like Grunkle Stan's journals, the entire book was painstakingly handwritten. Dipper tried his best not to get too drawn in with all the forms of demons found, but it was a hard task.
Alene Able: Minor god of deceit. Favored form being a snake with a baby's face.
Dipper made a face. Now that was just creepy.
Never Asking: Major god of trickery. Favored form being a duckling with feet for eyes, fingers for toes, with feathers made out of thousands of spider eyes.
Dipper quickly turned the page, feeling a bit sick. That was...disgusting. Just plain disgusting.
How Brown: Minor god of the color brown. Favored form being a weeping willow that was wrapped in turkey intestines, dripping blood.
The young boy cocked a questioning eyebrow. The color...brown? He sighed and flipped the page, trying not to let his mind dwell. He really didn't want to know.
J.B Bungalow: Major god of the hearth. Favored form being a plain white wall on fire.
Boring, but better than some of the other gods' forms. He flipped through it again.
Contrail Caper: Major god of water condensation. Favored form being a short, petite woman with a cloud over her head that constantly rained caviar.
Okay. Finally a somewhat normal god. Dipper sighed and turned to the next page.
Bill Cipher: Major god of dreams.
Dipper's eyes widened at the bloodstained page, the former liquid turning it a deep and ugly brown, rendering the entire page nearly unreadable. Where the picture for the favored form would be was completely covered, only the faint tips of what looked like thin black fingers could be seen. Most of the writing was covered up as well, leaving it completely useless to him.
Dipper gaped briefly before his lips pulled into bitter scowl, hands balling up into fists.
He almost felt the need to hit something.
Reaching up, Dipper pulled at his hair in rage, hissing curses under his breath as he did so. He didn't want to wake Mabel up, after all.
Of course the stupid page would be practically useless. Why wouldn't it be? Sighing, Dipper pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to bring his temper down a notch.
Sure, most of the information was lost. But not all the text was covered. Grabbing his flashlight, Dipper brought the device closer to the page. Shaking it a bit to get the crystal powering it to glow brighter, he focused on the first of three paragraphs visible and squinted hard, attempting to discern what it said.
-powerful god that holds no care for anything...
The rest faded out, and then right back in.
-articulate and deceitful. Rivals Madam Madness for his tendency to enact upon insane actions.
Once again, the text wasn't visible enough for him to see.
-makes deals more than most gods. Typically believed because he is ol...
Dipper guessed the rest of the world was 'older', but he couldn't be sure. He moved onto the second paragraph.
Friendly with most people. Easily angered-
Dipper gulped thickly at that. Easily angered? The young boy shuddered as he remembered the gnome incident.
-enjoys chaos...
Dipper frowned as the rest of the paragraph once again faded away. He could clearly see the squiggles of text, but not read or understand them. He hissed out a groan, brimming with frustration. Dipper moved his eyes down to the last paragraph crammed in the corner, closest to one of the worse blood stains.
End...ally...Stra-
Thick droplets cut what was readable in half, giving the inquisitive boy only a couple of words to see. Dipper gave another small sigh as he flipped through his notebook, stopping at Bill's page.
He cracked a few mysteries the god had...
...and opened a door to a whole lot more.
Picking up his pen again, Dipper wrote 'God of dreams' right next to his name on the top. Near to that, he also put Alignment- fire.
Well, that was one thing solved. Without a second thought, Dipper added a note in the margin.
NEVER FALL ASLEEP NEAR HIM
He underlined it twice. Looking back to the book, he added a few more notes.
Loves chaos. Try and stay away from danger.
Dipper chewed on his pen before adding: Even more so than you do now.
There, that was better. Next, Dipper wrote: Gets mad easily. Try and avoid angering him. Overly friendly. Which explains a lot, really. He also might be apathetic to life. Nihilist?
Lastly, Dipper put in one last nugget of information.
Might have a friend or ally of some sort. Have no clue who. Other god? Being? Human?
Dipper placed his pen down, frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. He wasn't completely satisfied, not by a long shot. It was a start.
He needed to know more. More about the god he'd made an insane deal with in the forest, who wore gold and black, who knew just what to say and how to say it to annoy him, who was warm and comfortable and carried him away from literal danger.
Dipper shook his wandering thoughts away and placed a mental lock on that entire subject. No. No, he was not going to think about- why did he even think about...
Dipper glanced up at the clock.
It read 5:56 a.m.
Rubbing his eyes, Dipper gave a weak shake of his head. He was tired. Very, very tired and he'd have to wake up in about an hour to get ready for school. That was all. His weird thoughts were simply born of sleep deprivation, nothing else.
Carefully shutting the god dictionary, Dipper tucked it under the loose floorboard as quietly as he could, flinching at every mildly loud creak that snapped at the air. Standing back up, the boy stuffed his notebook back under his mattress, out of sight from prying eyes. Clicking his pen shut and the flashlight off, rolling the latter under his bed, Dipper blinked hard as harsh darkness overtook his vision. Yawning, the boy climbed under his covers, snuggling in as best as he could.
The day to come was going to be horrible with only an hour of sleep, but it was best not to dwell on it now. What was important were the warm covers that hugged him from all around and kept him safe from harm, paired with comforting silence and a darkness that lulled him to sleep as easy as can be, soft and gentle.
Yes, the day was going to be horrible. Dipper didn't care.
Sleep quickly took him.
~~0~~0~~0~~
KH'OO EH IHHOLQJ WKDW LQ WKH PRULQLQJ
~~0~~0~~0~~
What is it with me and updating in the middle of the night? (on a school night...)
I'm glad you guys have been enjoying it so far! Huge thanks to JackieLanternXOXO, The Rambler13, crabbySeer, BlueStar29, and one guest for reviewing! Love to hear what you guys have to say! And, of course, thanks to those who have favorited and/or followed this story. You guys rock too!
This chapter wasn't as long as the last, and once again, no Bill, but I hope it was still enjoyable! More plot is rolling in along with some stuff about this AU I made.
Anyways, I really do hope you enjoyed and as always, once again, thanks for reading!