Dozens of unknown creatures surrounded the shack in the night, but the only thing that could be seen in the forest on that night without stars was the shadows of their dark reflections and the dim light emitted from their tiger-like eyes. The candles grew weaker and the fireplace on the chimney grew smaller, slowly dying out. for some reason those slight changes made the room look a hell of a lot more scary than before. The hooded person used his free hand to move the logs and try to keep the fire from dying out as he spoke.
"Freedom. What a troublesome concept it is for mankind. Just like a fire in our souls we try to keep it big and bright, but at the same time we try to contain it from fear of it going berserk. From fear of going mad. One may say that mankind is like a free spirit unbound by the laws of Mother Nature, but at the same time chained by the laws and bonds they themselves create with other people and even other animals. The most loyal of us sacrifice our freedom entirely for the sake of our loved ones and in extreme cases- our own lives. So in the end it won't be wrong to assume that humans are the most free, yet most caged of all species. Contradiction was never a lacking matter when it came to us. But I guess the source of it is that we never had a choice in one matter that led many people before and after our time to commit suicide or murder, a choice that was never ours but our parents/creators' choice.
"For the ones born from the womb of a loving and caring mother, life was a lot easier, for they had many more choices in life. Even though they never chose to live and exist in this specific reality, they would go on to shape their destiny and strive for a better life. But what about those CREATED by other people for the sake of fulfilling a very specific role? They never had any choice in anything, never could complain and never had a single word in the matter, for their present and future were already predetermined by none other than their creator. You might be thinking that I'm talking about robots and machines, but it wasn't once or twice that such thing happened to other humans before as well, as for the very special case of Robbie, life as a heartless machine wouldn't hurt so much".
Chapter two- The reality of a fake man
Ten years ago,
Robbie Stacey Valentino was a smart kid, a way too smart kid. He was practically one of the biggest young geniuses in history, which would surprise the entire world, if he didn't chose to conceal it from the rest of the world. Robbie knew life only came once and disappeared, he consider it all to be pointless and thought to himself that if he was going to live a couple of centuries anyway, he might as well live them free, doing nothing and everything. There was only a slight problem about it: Robbie S. Valentino wasn't free. As long as he was the Robbie that had a family that loved about him, friends and other people that cared about him, there was nowhere he could run off to and be free without being found by the police and getting sent back to his home, or worse- an asylum.
Robbie was quite depressed by his life and his agonizing, normal daily routine 'Someone get me out of here!' was a thought that lingered in his heart for a couple of months. He even considered suiciding, but he couldn't do such a horrible thing to his parents (Then again, they are sociopathic funeral directors, so they might not get hurt that much if he died). It all changed one day when he traveled to the mystery shack to buy a present for his mom's birthday.
The tourist trap in disguise of a house of mystery was huge, and Robbie wandered for a long time what to buy. Robbie watched unamused as the owner, Stanford Pines tricked all the light headed people that came over to his so called "mystery shack". The stuffed "monsters" in the house were actually quite hilarious to his taste. The more he looked at them the more he wandered just how small the imagination of the owner was. Before he knew it, he wondered into the house itself. He began to turn back, but then he heard a weird machinery sound, like none he ever heard before. When he opened the door from which the sound emerged, he saw a copying machine. "This place is making me dumber by the second, I better get the hell out of here" he said to himself, turning back. As if responding to him, the machine turned on and eerie green light emerged from it. The one thing Robbie was known for was his intuition; he always knew when to back up and when to go full throttle at it. But this time, he didn't feel any danger or any chance at winning something. The only thing he felt was a weird attraction to the machine.
He placed his hand on the machine and to his surprise it spontaneously scanned it and printed it, throwing out a paper with the print of his hand on it. Robbie lifted the paper, clear disappointment was shown on his face "ugh. I, of all people, should've known better than to-Ah!" yelled Robbie with surprise and threw the paper to the ground as it began to twitch. Suddenly, the hand became a 3D perfect copy of his own and began marching in the frightened Robbie's direction. Scared, Robbie kicked it towards a table with a bottle on it, falling with the hand and spilling water on it, melting it like acid. After a couple of minutes of digesting what the fuck he just witnessed, he realized something: This copying machine can be the answer to all of his problems, but his happiness was short lived as he looked at the wet mess where the living copy of his hand stood- There's no way that something that can be disintegrated with water would be of any use to him. But he wasn't ready to give up, for now he knew that whoever the owner of the house was- He's DEFINETELY not what he seems.
It was 12:00 PM, Robbie came out of the house around 6:00 PM, lying to his parents that he'll be staying at a friend's house for a couple of days. Luckily it was summer and his parents trusted him way too much. Robbie stood guard on a plastic chair under the totem pole near the mystery shack, spying on the house with goggles for what seemed to him like an eternity now, which he preferred to waste on Fallin' 4. He was just about to give up and go with a different tactic when he suddenly spotted Mr. Mystery carrying a lamp and inputting what seemed like a code in the vending machine, revealing a secret door leading into a hidden staircase. This shocked Robbie and left him completely speechless- Just who in the world is this guy?
After what seemed like hours, Stanford Pines finally re-emerged from the vending machine, stretched, yawned and headed to what the tired Robbie figured out was his bed. Seeing the bell on the doorstep from the other side, Robbie wondered around the house in search for an additional entrance. He then found what seemed like a ground window for a basement, which once again to his disappointment, was just the basement containing the old was museum Stanford closed about a week and a half weeks ago. Robbie wandered through all the historical wax figures, recognizing some of them. Turns out that living in a house stocked with corpses is helpful in something, for Robbie wasn't disturbed whatsoever from the wax figures. He then opened the door and entered the hallway, accidentally dropping the knob, resulting in a loud metallic sound. Robbie froze in fear, but after a long moment of silence, sighed in relief "(Stupid low cost house maintenance!)" whispered Robbie before proceeding towards the entrance to the mystery shack.
At the entrance, Robbie took out his purple flashlight and laminated the vending machine. Grabbing a pile of dust from the shelves, "Seriously now! Just how cheap is this dude!?" Robbie approached the vending machine and blew some dust towards hit. With the help of the fingertip marks and what little he remembered from watching Stan from afar, Robbie typed the code and the vending machine opened once again.
Going down the stairs, Robbie found an elevator with a secret code to it "Ugh! Why does this guy have so many passwords?". It took him three long minutes, but he deciphered the code and went down to the most amazing place Robbie has ever seen: It was a huge underground lab with many weird devices Robbie has never seen or heard about before. Looking from a window, he spotted what looked like a portal or a ray of some sort, but whatever it was he didn't care. He only cared for himself as of now. What drew his attention even more was a weird book left open on a table under the window. Flipping all the way to the first page, Robbie began to read out loud: "My name is Stanford Pines, I'm writing this journal to record all the mysterious events that happened on this town and my experiences as someone devoted to explore them. Huh, so this is his journal… He sounds a lot more like a badass then the he looks now". The more Robbie flipped through the pages, the more weird things he found out: Depictions of floating eye-bats, the urban legend of the hide behind, aliens, every weird thing that Robbie couldn't possibly imagine existed since he never saw them in person, but considering all the conspiracy theories about the government and how weird this town always felt to him, they might as well be real.
Robbie kept on flipping through the pages, without knowing what exactly he was searching, until he found it. "A demon heart, huh? What is this, Skyrift?" said Robbie, laughing about his own joke "One of the most disturbing and ominous objects I've ever seen. According to the ancient scrolls on the cave where I found it, this demonic artifact was made by a powerful wizard who fell in love with his golem (pathetic, huh?). He wished for it to love him back, but the golem went mad with despair and suicided. Heartbroken, the wizard hid it away in a secret cave (which this guy found) to keep it from evil doers and desperate artists who wanted to marry their statues. This demonic heart is capable of turning whatever object it fuses with into a living creature with bones, tendons, veins, nerves, organs and even skin. I tried it on a bunch of golf balls back on the mini-golf track and, well… It didn't end well'. Being too dangerous to possess and too strong to destroy, I hid it away under a strange rock that looks like a face in the depths of the forest'…."
"This is exactly what I need!" exclaimed Robbie closing the book and going back into the entrance to the mystery shack, closing the vending machine door behind him and starting to walk towards the entrance before noticing Stan's shadow holding a gun and yelling: "Who's there!?". Robbie jumped into hiding as Stan reached the entrance, looking around with his lamplight and scanning the area all around him; the cash register, the T-shirts, the souvenirs and the skeleton of 'the last visiting group', which became an old joke and didn't entertain anybody anymore. Putting a mental note to throw that old thing, Stan shrugged and went back to sleep. 'I'm getting to old for this…' he thought on his way back. Behind the skeleton, Robbie came out and ran as fast as he could back to his house.
A couple of days later, after finding the heart and running away from a bunch of banshees, Robbie returned to the mystery shack. Luckily for him, Stan went on a vacation to Colombia "Right…", that weird, large dude Soos was helping his sick grandmother, the new helper Stan hired was asleep on the counter and considering there were no guard dogs or any sort of security besides a couple of fool proof fake monsters, it was almost as if fate wanted him to sneak inside. After all he's seen and been through, Robbie wouldn't be surprised if such thing as fate did exist.
Entering the room with the copy machine once again, the eerie feeling in the air was left unchanged. Robbie went on and laid down on the machine. He felt slightly ticklish as the weird device laser-scanned his body down to the atomic level. From the machine emerged a picture, it began to tremble as another Robbie, looking exactly the same except for black hair and pale skin, emerged from it. Robbie slowly reached his almost unreal copy
"Woah this is-"
"-Awesome, right?" the clone answered in unison with him, but for some reason he laughed instead of freaking out "Oh, man, this IS awesome! So I'll take a shot in the dark, but considering you have the same speaking manner and act like me, you probably have all of my memories as well, right?" he asked directly "Well, almost all of your memories" replied Robbie II "I guess the machine lacked some ink, so I'm not a perfect copy"
"Well, you should be enough. You know why I made you, right?" asked him Robbie "Yeah, I know, you want me to replace you as Robbie so you can go, explore the world and be free or something, right?" asked Robbie II, to which Robbie didn't answer, for that was only half the truth. Since Robbie II didn't had all of his memories, he probably missed out on a lot of stuff during the last couple of years- Which may explain his happiness-, but considering he thought just like him, it wouldn't matter, because he'll have the same experiences as he did. "Well, anyway, are you ready?" asked Robbie as he took out of his lunch box the demon heart, which looked the same like a human heart, but it glowed "Oh yeah!" said Robbie II as Robbie pushed the heart into his chest. For a couple of seconds, nothing seemed to happen "Is it broken?" asked Robbie. Robbie II suddenly pinched himself and looked back at him with a smile "It worked! I'm human!" he said while taking a cup of water and spilling it on his arm, starting run around and jump of happiness as he didn't melt down.
"Huh, I expected it to be a little more… Flashy" said Robbie "Dude, we should totally go and do a water gun battle!" said an excited Robbie II "Uh… yeah sure" said Robbie, though he regretted it later as he found his clone/friend crying in the corner. After consoling him, Robbie packed his stuff and said goodbye to the soon-to-be new Robbie "So… What are you gonna do now that you're free?" asked him Robbie II as he shaked his hand "Well, I think I might go around the world and explore. With my genius, I shouldn't have a problem earning money. After reading that guy Stan's journal, I think that maybe this world has some adventures and fun left to offer"
"And your name?"
"What about my name?"
"Well, considering I'm you now, you probably shouldn't go around with the name Robbie, right?"
Robbie didn't think about that. Luckily for him, he already had a name in mind "well then, from now on you can refer to me as Rex Richard Adams" ("Hey, at least it's better than Robbie Stacey Valentino…). After departing, Robbie went inside the house to greet his new parents; he had a good feeling about existence as Robbie.
But feelings aren't always head on.
Two weeks ago,
Robbie was tired, not only of his life as Robbie, but of life itself. He already had an idea from the memory fragments of the original Robbie, A.K.A Rex, about how tough reality can be, but he never imagined how much a person can suffer in this world. He hated his parents: despite being funeral directors, they were always so happy and joyful. Their smiles were like the bright, annoying light of the sun. He despised it. But at the same time he loved them; his mom always had her shoulder for him to cry on and it was always nice to go on short trips with his father. He realized why Rex never suicided, a realization that only increased his pain. He considered removing his demon heart from his chest and implanting it on another clone, but something told him that removing his heart won't be such a good idea, not to mention that despite not caring in the least bit about other people dying, he himself was scared of death, for despite seeing the ghosts of people who died and went on to the afterlife, he was unsure what lies beyond for someone who was not brought into existence as a living being, and sure as hell didn't want to find out.
But the thing that hurt most of all was Wendy breaking up with him. He didn't knew any other type of affection besides friendship until he met her- She was cool, brave, though and beautiful. Being besides her made him feel like partying, being in a relationship with her made him feel like going wild, but breaking up with her made him feel like throwing himself off a cliff. Wendy was the biggest comfort Robbie had, so when he felt like she was growing apart from him, he took desperate measures, like trying to hypnotize her. As it turns out, it was his own paranoia and a nosy twelve year old in love with her that brought forth his downfall. He couldn't stand it anymore.
The night was illuminated by a million stars, the cold wind blowing the grass in waves on the hill on which Robbie and Rex, who came visit from a phone call by Robbie, stood as they looked at each other, each one wondering why the other had such a serious face on.
"So… Why did you call me here?" asked Rex. He was wearing a flannel shirt with folded sleeves over a V-neck T-shirt on his body, a beanie hat and big framed sunglasses on his head while wearing brown jeans and fancy shoes on his legs. He looked like a real hipster and the complete opposite of Robbie, who wore his casual stitched heart hoodie with his skinny jeans and black driving shoes. "You and I are basically the same in every physical way possible. I think you know what I want from you" he said with dead eyes. "Oh yeah? And what makes you think I'll just go back to my old life, when I'm having such a great time?" answered Rex while crossing his arms and looking at him with a smug look "Because it IS your life! You're Robbie, the real one. Please, I can't take this anymore… Are we not friends?"
"Friends!? Do you seriously think I'll consider a copy of myself my friend?" said Rex, further crushing Robbie under the weight of sadness "I CREATED you, just so you remember. As my creation, you're supposed to do what you were meant to do, not what you want to. So shut up and fulfill your role while I go fulfill my dream and-"
"-WHAT ABOUT MY DREAM!?" yelled Robbie from the top of his lungs, scaring a couple of birds away and startling Rex a bit before he regained his composure "Don't you think I wanna be free as well? Didn't you ever consider that as a living being made to be nearly the exact replica of a human being, I will also have my own free will and wishes of freedom you have!?" At this point, Robbies fists were clenched so hard his hands were paler than usual "Shut up, you fucking toy! You have no opinion, no word in the matter. I made you to accomplish the task of replacing me and I won't give a damn if I have to kill you and replace you with a new cheap, paper copy exactly like you!" Robbie couldn't contain himself anymore and charged at Rex. Rex avoided him and threw a hard knee at his stomach while hitting the main nerve of his spine with his elbow. Robbie fell to the ground, drooling and twitching "You're pathetic. I'm out of this place" said Rex while walking away and leaving Robbie to cry in the darkness while a weird sense of uncomfort creeped into his heart.
A week ago,
Life can be such a weird thing. Just like it can smash a person's soul into the ground, it can also launch it into the heavens. Robbie was once again a guinea pig in this crazy experiment called fate when the cheeky twelve year-old twin sister of the nosy twelve year-old kid threw a love bomb at him and a girl he never thought he would like, called Tambry. It was the highest point of his life, he never felt like this. Being with Wendy, Robbie felt great, like someone high on drugs, but being with Tambry made Robbie realize once again realized what is the true meaning of the word 'happiness'. After spending some time with her he realized they were actually the perfect match. He never bothered looking into Tambry's preferences and personal life, mainly because he knew Nate had feelings for her, but dating her he came to know that she liked many things that almost no one besides Robbie liked, like classical music and extremely spicy nachos. Of course, they had many different opinions of their own about stuff like movies and hot-dogs, but aren't all couples like this? Robbie felt the irony, as if his soul mate was actually the girl that used to be one of the most hostile people against him. And he laughed about it.
As for Rex, things didn't go too well. Outside of Gravity Falls, he always had a lingering feeling that something was missing from his life, like a gap in his heart he tried to fill with women, alcohol and crazy parties until dawn, but none seemed to fit in. He never knew why he didn't want to return to Gravity Falls, nor he knew why he didn't left after speaking with his clone, but looking at the now happy life of the one he made to replace what used to be his miserable life, he realized the answer to both these questions. Looking from the window of his old house at how Robbie, who invited Tambry over, was laughing with her and his parents heartedly, he realized the cost of the freedom he tried so hard to get, not to mention his surprising affection towards Tambry, which he barely knew. Whether it was love at first sight or clone telepathy, Rex couldn't help but getting jealous of Robbie's love and family life as one. For the first time in his life, Rex felt sadness as he realized that the grief and the happiness, the pain and the pleasure, the cold and the warmth of family, friends and enemies- he missed it all.
Four days ago,
Robbie and the gang were hanging out in the woods. Nate and Lee snuck in beers that they got from a miner, in exchange for letting him hang out with them. Those three were hammered so heavily that they were dancing like idiots and singing old mining songs. Robbie himself was quite drunk as well. Wendy was target practicing with an axe and Tambry was roasting marshmallows with him. He wished that moment would never end.
"Unfortunately for him, everything has to end, sooner or later"
"(Psst… Robbie…!)" He heard a rather familiar and unpleasant voice as he looked behind the trees and saw Rex, which to Robbie's confusion was wearing his clothes. "I gotta go for a sec, wait here" said Robbie to Tambry, to which she simply said: "Ok" and took out her phone to take pictures of the drunken trio. Robbie went to Rex with an angry look on his face "Ok, first of all: Why are you wearing my clothes? Second of all: Why are you still here? And third of all: What. Do you. Want from me?" he asked with little patience "I… Changed my mind! I decided that real or fake, you are a person after all and you have your needs, so I'm here to take my life back from you and set you free. Hooray..!" said Rex in an awkward, crouched shake of fists "What… Are you for… Are you freaking kidding me? So THAT'S how you roll?" said Robbie laughing and then looking mad again.
"What do you mean, 'how I roll?" asked Rex, sweating "Oh, don't play dumb with me. You think I don't know what's going on here? I'm a copy of you, genius! So when my life is worse than yours you decide it's fine for me to take the toll as your 'TOY', but when you see my life is happier than yours you suddenly change your mind and decide I'm a 'PERSON'!? You sick jerk, what makes you think I'll switch my life back with you again?" said Robbie under his breath "So now you want 'your' life, huh?" said Rex on the defensive "Didn't I tell you already? You were made for one purpose: To take my horrible life from me. Now that my life is great, I'm willing to take it back. Your job is done so you better get out-" he was paused by a deadly left from Robbie, which sent him flying into a tree. Rex grabbed a branch as Robbie ran towards him and snapped it on his head. Luckily for Robbie, he had a tough noggin, so it only hurt a lot and didn't cause him any brain damage. Rex stood up while Robbie stopped holding his head in pain and they both charged at each other with fists and testosterone levels high.
Robbie punched Rex in the stomach with his left hand while Rex Roundhouse kicked his neck and dropped him to the ground. Robbie locked his feet between Rex's and tripped him down. They both stood at the same time and continued exchanging blows until they were both covered in sweat, bruises and blood while breathing heavily. Robbie suddenly remembered him a technique his father once taught him for self-defense. He charged right at him. He aimed for his stomach and swung his left fist towards it with full thrust power and as Rex caught it with both his hands, Robbie used the force of the charge to spin his entire body to the left and hit his chin with his right elbow, knocking him down with a concussion. As Rex laid down on the ground, too dizzy to stand up, Robbie prepared to finish him off. Rex closed his eyes tight and waited for his end to come as Robbie's fist came at his face at full speed. He opened his eyes as nothing happened and he saw Robbie's fist stopping right in front of his eye. Robbie stood back up and said: "You're not worth it" as he began to walk back to Tambry and his friends.
"Aren't you going to finish me off…?" said a weak Rex, making Robbie stop and turning back to look at him "… We're both the same… You knew I was going to kill you… So why?" he said with teary eyes "But that's exactly it; we're NOT the same. I might be fake, I might be someone that started off as a copy of you, but this life changed me, taught me so many things. I'm now an individual person, with thoughts of his own. So unlike you, I'm giving you a choice, because if there is one thing left that we are both similar at, is that we both dream of freedom. Am I right, creator?" asked him Robbie with a sad smile, to which Rex began to weep.
Suddenly, a loud bang was heard. The sky changed as colorful waves flushed everything in their come. Suddenly, Robbie and Rex heard Tambry's scream. "Tambry!" Yelled Robbie as he ran back to the camping site, leaving a surprised Rex behind him, trying to stand back up and follow him.
The scenario was like nothing Robbie saw before; monsters that looked like eyeballs with wings shot rays that froze Lee, Nate and the miner, turning them into rock statues. Tambry was hiding behind Wendy who was trying to pull them back. "Robbie!" yelled Wendy while slicing an eye-bat monster in half with her axe. "Guys!" said Robbie as he took the pick the miner dropped and poke an eye-bat to death. The monsters were swarming them and they had to run. Unfortunately, Tambry tripped and turned into stone, but Wendy kept running and he followed her for a little while "Wait! I… I gotta take a selfie!" said Robbie to Wendy "What!?" asked Wendy with an 'are-you-fucking-kidding-me?' look on her face "Uh… Yeah, I mean, it's a chance of once in a lifetime, am I right?" he said heading back as Wendy waited for him behind a tree. Heading towards a cliff where the eye-bats were taking the statues of Robbie's friend towards some weird floating pyramid in the sky "Hey! Freak shows!" yelled Robbie at the eye-bats that looked in his direction and charged towards him.
Robbie fought against the monsters with everything he had, but they were too many. They froze the hand with which he held the pickaxe and part of his lower arm as well. They froze his legs and Robbie couldn't run away. Just as they were about to completely freeze him, he saw Rex jumping in front of him and pushing his arms against his chest.
"You know that thing called twin ESP? Well, I guess you can say that between two nearly identical people there is something similar, yet way more powerful than that".
Time stood still as Robbie and Rex's consciousness's met in a dark place "Why did you do that?" asked Robbie with a shocked face "Meh, I don't know… My entire life I searched for freedom; freedom from friends, freedom from relationships, freedom from my own family… But I seemed to fail in accomplishing that object, since I no longer want to be free, so I guess I'll give someone like me who shares my dream one final task: Complete our goal, make OUR dream come true and live free… Robbie" Rex walked away as the scenario once again changed to the cliff in the middle of the fight against the eye monsters. With all the strength he had left, Rex pushed Robbie of the cliff while he became frozen from the beam originally shot at Robbie "Nooo!" yelled Robbie so loudly, that Wendy heard that and cursed, thinking that he got caught and running away while thinking 'Stupid Robbie…' with a sad look on her face.
When Robbie regained his consciousness, he was at the bottom of the cliff, partially buried under sand and leaves. As he stood up, he realized his arm and legs were no longer frozen. He looked at the fearamyd and let out a single laugh "I guess we're the same after all… I'm sorry to be such a lame substitute, but I don't want freedom anymore, I want to be with my girlfriend, friends and family… And that includes you" he spotted the pickaxe that was stuck in a burned pine log and lifted it "Tambry, Rex… I'm coming for you guys"
"I guess that in the end, there is no such thing as freedom, because every conscious creature is always bound by things like emotions, physical need and their existence itself. But who wants to be free anyway, right?
"Next up is the story of the girl who had it all and lost it all. The story of Pacifica Northwest and how destiny shaped her slowly into the person she is now. Stay tuned" said the hooded person as the orb containing the image of Pacifica's face and enlarged, taking over the entire screen.