Fallen Pine Trees
Chapter 20: What else does the Future Hold?
In the previous chapter, Mason, Mabel, Soos, and Wendy finally found out how Grunkle Stan died, and how Mabel was, (in a way), responsible for it. The revelation really struck a blow to the gangs' hearts. Afterwards, the gang went to different parts of the Mystery Shack separately to talk more with their future selves.
Attic
"Fiddleford's apprentice, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"
After being escorted to the attic, which had remained relatively the same over years except for how the room that Pines twins use to sleep in had been expanded to accommodate for Soos' kids, future Mason informed his past self about what had transpired after Wierdmageddon. Among the things he mentioned included why most of his family now hated him, "as mentioned in Chapter 16: Welcome to the Future Part 3", and how McGucket, (aka his hero), had taken him on as an apprentice.
"Yeah by the end of that whole catastrophe, McGucket had finally regained all his memories, as well as his sanity. So he then went back to unlocking the mysteries of Gravity Falls, with a research grant of fifty million dollars courtesy of both the Northwest's and the United Nations."
"How'd he manage to get that much?"
"McGucket met with the United Nations after Wierdmageddon to discuss what had transpired before and during the apocalyptic event; as well to finally reveal what he'd uncovered during his first ten years in Gravity Falls. Impressed by his discoveries, the United Nations agreed to allow further research to be put into the supernatural; but proceeding with extreme caution to prevent another interdimensional invasion.
Anyway, McGucket allowed me to stay with him at his new laboratory while I attended Gold Eagle Academy. It was awesome."
"Nice. So what's McGucket doing these days? Did he retire, or are you and him now partners?"
The question caused a massive frown to appear on future Mason's face as he lowered his head sadly. Catching the hint from the way the future version of himself reacted, realized his own answer.
"I'm, I'm so sorry I didn't know.
"It's okay. I had a feeling that I'd end up telling you about this?"
"How, how did it happen?"
"Old age. He did manage to live to be one hundred four. So you know there's that."
"Oh. Okay. That nice I guess."
After a minute of sad silence, something occurred to Mason.
"Wait, not that I'm complaining about staying with McGucket, but why didn't I stay with Soos at the Shack? I assumed that when Soos inherited it, (which he obviously did so), he would let me stay there throughout the year while I attended school; and I know for a fact that Soos never turns down a friend in need right?"
"Um, well," future Mason awkwardly, "about that. You see the death of Grunkle Stan really broke Soos' heart. Resulting in him doing something he's never done before in his life. Now while Mabel and I continually blamed each other, Soos thought that…"
Kitchen
"If we'd spent less time fighting with each other than perhaps we could've avoided having to use the memory gun on Grunkle Stan. So when he took over the Mystery Shack, he refused to let us stay during the school year, saying we were temporally banned for our part in the death of its founder," future Mabel explained to her past self while they sat beside each other at the kitchen table, snacking on some cookies.
"Are you serious?!"
"Yep."
"I can't believe this," Mabel stated, tears starting to pour out of her eyes. Soos was one of the nicest guys she'd ever known. To think that he'd turn his back on his friends was just a cray-cray. Though she knew how much her Grunkle Stan meant to him; he meant a lot to her too. Enough that felt like her heart had been stabbed when future Dipper told them about Grunkle Stan's death. At the time she couldn't believe it.
Then suddenly her mind filled with important questions?
"But if I, or we, or whatever, didn't stay at the Mystery Shack than where did I stay? Did I end up going back home to Piedmont? Did mine and Mermando's relationship hold? Did everyone hate me and Dipper afterwards like Soos?"
"She clearly forgot about when she was told how she married Mermando in the future?"
In response to her past self's questions, future Mabel answered by saying, "First I ended up going back home, (while Dipper became some dumb apprentice). Second," shows her wedding ring, "Mermando and I are happily married. Thirdly, (and finally), Soos didn't hate us, he just was mad at us; though this only lasted for a year, then we were unbanned from the Shack. But thanks to Pacifica, most of the town completely turned against me; with all the blame being put onto me for not setting up the Zodiac properly while Dipper was named a hero for his courage in taking down Bill. The only ones who weren't turned against me were Candy, Grenda, and Waddles."
This took Mabel a minute to take in before she responded, and when she did she was not happy, "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"
"I know. It wasn't easy for me either. At least Candy, Grenda, and Waddles had my back."
"Yeah, you're right. So how do Mermando and I keep our love alive?" Mabel asked, deciding to focus on her love life.
"The same way that Soos and Melody made it work, Skype. Turns out Merpeople have big, mystical Clams that they use as laptops which are able to connect with human laptops. Kept our love alive and strong till Mermando and I were able to get married at age eighteen."
"Awesome!"
"Totally. And honestly, I'm glad we got married then, by that time mom, dad and I were really losing touch."
This caused Mabel to feel confused, "Say what now?"
"Yeah um," future Mabel began to explain, knowing that this was not going to be easy. "Well when they came for Grunkle Stan's funeral, mom and dad sort of took Mason's side in our fight?"
"WHAT?!"
"Dipper explained what happened and had most of the town to back him up. After Dipper's explanation, Mom and dad were furious with me, saying it was time for me to grow up. I ended up getting grounded for like a year; even after that things felt tense. Fortunately we managed to make amends a year after my wedding, but still, they prefer Dipper over me."
"Oh my gosh! That's so sad."
"Tell about it. At least the rest of the family, "referring to all of Mabel's grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles from both her parent's sides of the family", had my back. When I told them what happened, they all agreed that Dipper could've been a little nicer to me and more open to my creative ideas. Also, he was the one who fired the gun that killed Grunkle Stan, so technically he was the one who murdered him not me."
"That makes sense," Mabel said in response.
"Wait," Mabel suddenly realized something, "what about Wendy?"
"Um, what to do you mean?" Future Mabel asked.
"You said most of the town turns against me accept of Candy Grenda and Waddles. But you never mentioned Wendy. Did Wendy turn against me too?" Mabel asked. Tears coming out of her eyes. "Please tell me it's not true. She's like a big sister to me."
In response, Mabel said to her past self, "Well you see…"
Roof
"So I signed up for the exchange student program along with Tambry and Robbie to get away from it all. Things were really tense at that point, and like Soos, I felt I needed a break from the twins' fighting. We ended up spending the entire school year in London, England."
When everyone split, the older Wendy took the younger version up to the place where they could always chill out and relax. It seemed that the roof remained the same as it did in Wendy's time. No changes except for how there was now a sign that said "Break Roof". Apparently, the break room that Mason gave to Soos got turned into Abuelita's bedroom when she moved in with her grandson.
"That's how I ended up meeting James, a tall, skinny, silver-haired sophomore who's pretty gorgeous," older Wendy continued. "His parents volunteered to be our host family during our time in London. He served as our guide, showing us around the school, and city. London was an amazing experience for me. Not to mention James is one of the most incredible guys I've ever met."
"I'm gonna guess that you hooked up with him Am I wrong?" Wendy asked.
"Nope, your spot on," older Wendy said in response. "We started dating two months after we met. When the school year ended we considered breaking up since we lived in separate countries. However, we'd both really enjoyed the time we spent together as a couple, so we decided…"
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmm
Suddenly the sound of a vacuum cleaner turning on immediately interrupted Wendy's conversation. When they turned towards the sound that the vacuum had originated from, they discovered that Abuelita was the one using it.
"HEY ABUELITA!" Older Wendy shouted, trying to make her voice loud enough to be heard through the, (extremely loud), vacuum, but was otherwise unsuccessful. Only when Abuelita moved to clean where both Wendy's were sitting at did she notice them trying to get her attention.
Unable to hear them, Abuelita turned off the vacuum, filling her ears with the sound of both Wendy's screaming.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"
"I vacuum the roof now," Abuelita answered in soft voice.
"Well, could you please hold off for a bit?" Older Wendy asked. "We're trying to talk here."
"I vacuum roof now," Abuelita repeated.
"Could you by any chance wait till after we're done?" Wendy asked.
"I vacuum room now," Abuelita stated before turning the vacuum on again, continuing on where she left off.
Deciding to just go somewhere else, older Wendy guided her younger self towards the ladder, leading down to the gift shop.
Once there, (and the entrance from the roof to the gift shop was closed), older Wendy continued but decided to not go into detail.
"Okay, long story short we ended up doing a long distance relationship throughout the rest of high school, attended the same university together in London, got married after graduating, and had a couple of kids, one of each gender who we named William and Jessica. William's fourteen years old, and Jessica's twelve. We just decided to move back to Gravity Falls because James is a fantasy writer, and the town has plenty of inspiration that he can use for his work. Also, Dr. Nofield, "the unnamed doctor who verified that Toby's birthmark was disgusting", just forced dad to retire after a terribly bad fight with Multi-Bear. So now I'm needed to run the family business since Marcus, Kevin and Gus still need someone to supervise them."
"I can totally see that happening," Wendy responded, referring to what had been said about her father and brothers. "So how'd Soos manage with running the Shack after I left for London?"
"Fun fact: in this alternate version, Wendy's job at the Mystery Shack is not just a summer job, she works throughout the entire year. Also, she's been working since she was twelve."
"Oh it wasn't easy, (especially with all the repairs that the Shack needed after Wierdmageddon), but he'd already replaced me with Thompson a week after becoming Mr. Mystery."
"SAY WHAT NOW?!" Wendy shouted, shocked by what she thought she'd just heard. "Are…are you saying that Soos actually fired me? And replaced me?! WITH THOMPSON?!"
"Yep," older Wendy responded calmly as she'd expected this sort of response.
"Bu…but why? I mean I thought we were friends. Why would he fire me, then replace me with Thompson? Besides, why would Thompson go work for Soos? I thought he worked as the manager of the Royal Ragtime Theatre."
"Sigh, around a week before Weirdmageddon, Thompson got fired after getting caught drinking popcorn butter. As for Soos, well the thing is…"
Soos', (Stan's former) Office
"After Mr. Pines died, I kind of became a different person," older Soos explained to his past self. The two dudes were sitting across from each other at older Soos' desk, inside what was once Stanford Pines' office. Like most of the Shack, the office remained relatively the same, (even the photocopier from twenty years ago was still there). The only differences being how there was a picture of older Soos' his family on his desk, and a portrait of Stan looking all luxurious, "this is the same portrait that Stan had in his room in Scary-oke", hanging up on the wall behind the desk.
"Define different," Soos asked curiously.
"Well when you lose the man who was your hero, your idol, and father figure, your heart tends to fill itself with negative emotions such as pain, despair, anger, etc. This causes a person to lash out at everyone close to you, friends and family alike. Which is what I did. I banned Dipper and Mabel from the Mystery Shack, (blaming them for Mr. Pines death with their constant fighting), fired Wendy for having been a slack-off at work; I didn't even send Reggie a present for his one year wedding anniversary." Upon finishing that last sentence older Soos burst into tears.
"There, their older dude," Soos said, patting his older self's hand as a way of comforting him. "It's okay."
Grabbing a tissue, older Soos blew his nose before he started talking again.
"You know I was so lucky to have Melody as my girlfriend back then. Eve…even when I pushed her away, she kept coming back, knowing that wallowing in my pain wasn't going to make it go away. She had personal experience way back when her hero, Mara Jade Skywalker, died. You know the character from the Star Wars books?"
"Yeah, I get ya."
"So anyways, Melody went through a depression similar to that of mine and understood why I was acting the way I was. Also, having gone through a similar experience, she knew the best way to heal the pain."
"How?" Soos asked.
"Simply put, lots and lots of emotional comforts. It took a while, but eventually, I returned to my normal self. I even managed to make amends with Dipper, Mabel, Wendy, and everyone else I'd turned away."
"Nice older dude. We sure are lucky to have such an awesome girl like Melody in our lives," stated Soos.
"Yeah I know what you mean younger dude," agreed older Soos.
The two just sat there in silence, neither knowing what else to say. At this point, Soos was fresh out of questions about his future. The main reason he wanted to go time travelling was to see a future where Dipper and Mabel, (two of his closest friends), realized they were meant to be best friends/best siblings, not worst enemies. Yet that didn't end up happening as the feud between the two of them seemed to have gotten worse, with neither of them desiring to fix things. The other reason being that he wanted to know his future: would he' become Mr. Mystery, take control of the Mystery Shack, marry Melody, have seven kids yadda, yadda; and now he knew.
So now what? What else did he wish to know? What should he ask his older self? How should he break this now awkward silence?
Eventually, Soos figured out what to do. "You know," he said, ending the silence. "I don't have any more questions to ask older dude."
Upon saying this, a small glowing clock symbol, (like the ones in the Time Cavern), appeared on Soos' chest, which shocked him and older Soos.
The same symbol also appeared simultaneously on the chests of Mason, Mabel, and Wendy; all of whom. (along with their future selves), were equally shocked.
The glow originating from the clock symbols began glowing brighter and brighter till it became a blinding, bright light. This caused the gangs future selves to cover their eyes as best as they could. When it appeared that the blinding light had finally faded, everyone opened their eyes to find that their past selves had completely, and utterly vanished.
DUN, DUN, DUN!
Stay tuned for chapter number 21.
Now if any of you are wondering why I named the unnamed doctor, Nofield, well the name just popped into my head when thinking up a name for him.
