Authors note: Told you I'd post a chapter soon, and this chapter along with the next few other chapters I will make are going to start off slow so I can build up the world. And before you say the characters are not acting like themselves, One, people change when they get older, and two, people especially change when they go through situations like the one I will show you, so if Dipper and Mabel come off as weird, It'll be delved into later on, especially with Grunkle Stan. Please feel free to review and I hope you guys enjoy the new chapter.
Chapter 1: Morning
O-O-O
Early morning rises on the town of Gravity Falls, signaling another day for the daily lives of its citizens, instead of a blue sky and bright sunny day, it was gray and cloudy, the sun's rays blocked by the clouded sky, barely shining any light on the town as the disease of gloom took over the day, feelings of dullness and depression were common place for its citizens, but the weather made it more so than usual, especially since today was June 27, almost one week after the beginning of summer, yet summer's arrival seemed to be a myth today as the clouds continued to darken the sky, over the once great town of Gravity Falls, or Town OA-243 as the aliens labeled it.
The dark morning would make people want to stay in bed and sleep in for a few extra hours of rest, but not for the citizens of Gravity Falls.
The town's government assigned its human citizens a strict schedule that was constantly reminded to its inhabitants to follow through. Every morning at 7 AM sharp, they must be awake to prepare for their day, after half an hour, citizens must report to their assigned posts for whatever job they are given, 8 AM being the latest they arrive, 2 PM was the best part of the day since citizens were given a break from their duties for rest and lunch, break ended at 3 PM and work continues until their shift ends at 9 PM, all citizens must then be home no later than 10 PM, otherwise they face harsh consequences due to the strict curfew and martial law that's always enforced. From there on, all citizens are expected to repeat the same schedule every day, no delays were tolerated lightly and failure to comply with the given schedule would result in severe punishments.
This was the daily life Dipper Pines lived, the kind of life that he world hear about in the news when reporters talked about dictatorships in other parts of the world, he never paid much attention to those stories and tended to ignore them because of all the dread they could bring just by mentioning it, the thought of living through something like that never crossed his mind, but here he was, under the cruel dictatorship he thought of only in his dreams, with the purpose of controlling everything that it ruled for whatever purpose it had and enforced those rules in every way possible.
Today was no different from every other day, an alarm clock rang next to Dipper, still in bed as he woke up, and slowly extend his hand to turn off the 7 o'clock alarm, not in the mood to get up so soon. Dipper then curled back into the bed sheets and felt movement from where he heard groaning and opened his eyes halfway to see Mabel getting up from the bed he shared with her.
After a morning stretch, Mabel turned to her brother to see him trying to go back to sleep and gently shook him. "Dipper?" She whispered softly. "Wake up."
Dipper just mumbled sleepily and closed his eyes. "Five more minutes."
Dipper had no desire to wake up today, all he wanted to do was sleep in with his t-shirt and boxers, but Mabel wouldn't take that as an answer and got up to walk next to Dipper's side of the bed and yanked the sheets away from her brother, who groaned in frustration.
"Come on, sleepy head. You can't stay there forever." Said Mabel as Dipper laid up from the bed and rubbed his eyes.
Dipper let out a huge yawn. "Believe me, I wish I could." Said Dipper as he looked at Mabel smiling at him
"Come on." Said Mabel walking towards the bedroom door. "You go take a shower first, I'll wake up Grunkle Stan."
Mabel walked out the bedroom, leaving the door open for her brother while she went left across the stairwell to their Grunkle's room.
Dipper was first confused at the door leading to the hallway, but he quickly snapped out of it when realizing that he wasn't living at the Mystery Shack anymore. Instead, he was living in one of the houses in the same neighborhood that he and Mabel went trick or treating during Summerween, one of the many memories that he still treasures during that summer, it just unfortunate that houses don't stay as intact as memories overtime.
The house showed clear signs of decay, with no proper maintenance due to its occupants having no time in their schedule to do any form of major repair. The wallpaper was peeling off from its place, wooden floors tended to creak when walked over, most of the windows were stained so opening them was the only way to see outside properly, though the twin's bedroom window had been shattered with a gaping hole, a closer look and you could see dry but faint bloodstains on the glass edges, as if someone was smashed into it which always disturbed Dipper, even the shack wasn't this run down. But as much as he didn't like change, Dipper learned quick enough to accept his new home or not accept it and take it up to the complaints department, which would most likely result in him being arrested for "disobedience".
It still made Dipper think back to his summer memories, all the good times he used to have before all this happened, before alien invaders decided that it was time to attack his home and drive humanity near to extinction. Dipper quickly snapped out of his trance, realizing that he still had a schedule to follow and reminded himself to take a shower so he wouldn't have to face his sister's wrath.
O-O-O
"Grunkle Stan?" Said Mabel knocking on his bedroom door. "We got to-
"I know its seven, I'm not deaf." Replied Stan behind the door, referring to the alarm clock. "I'll be downstairs soon."
"Okay then, just call me if you need anything." Said Mabel as she walked to the bathroom door and patiently waited for her turn.
Mabel wasn't always checking up on her Grunkle like this, she knew that even if he was about ninety years, he could still take care of himself, if he could fight off a horde of zombies with his bare hands then getting up from bed wouldn't be a problem despite his laziness, but ever since the aliens threw her and her family out of the Mystery Shack, her Grunkle hadn't been the same mentally, which was why she kept a closer eye on him.
Stan was grumpier than before, he wouldn't eat as much and had to spoon-feed him a few times, he has trouble sleeping, he would suffer from occasional short term memory loss, and even grew a tendency to pick fights with others, even against the authorities which was the worst part.
Mabel couldn't blame him for that, even though she was usually kind and joyful, which were hard traits to keep nowadays, she secretly wished that the invaders just died horrible deaths for what they did, for all of the horrible things that they did to people who wouldn't listen to them, the excessive cruelty and force for the most minor of offences, the constant feeling of being watched 24/7, the things they did to her Grunkle, and then the fate of her pet pig Waddles, her soul mate, what happened to Waddles was something that scarred her mind.
Mabel snapped out of her dark thoughts when she heard the bathroom door open next to her, seeing Dipper wearing a wrapped towel around him slightly shivering.
"Still no hot water?" Asked Mabel disappointingly as Dipper shook his head in response. "I miss hot showers."
"I'm just glad that it even works." Dipper responded as he stepped out of the door and gestured a wave at the bathroom. "After you."
Mabel just smirked and went inside to share the disappointment of having a cold shower, while Dipper went back to his room to get dressed, closing the door behind him so no one peeks.
He walked towards a wardrobe next to the shattered window to view his clothing options, needless to say, they were very limited. Dipper never thought much of fashion, but he hoped he would have more variety than this, two t-shirts, one dark blue and the other brown, a red hoodie, a single of jeans and pair of socks, and a sweater that his sister knitted for him as a gift a few years ago in the same style as his old pine tree hat, which was also here but was too small for him to wear. He also saw his sister's clothes next to his which consisted of the same except instead of shirts and a hoodie, there were two shirts, one pink and the other yellow, and another sweater she knitted for herself. Dipper just went with the blue shirt and hoodie with the other usual clothing and dressed himself.
After closing the wardrobe, he took a quick glance outside the window, trying to avoid looking at the bloodstains on the glass, to see how the weather was, cloudy and gloomy, which fitted quite well for any day in this town. He could hear the floor squeak outside his bedroom, meaning that his Grunkle was going downstairs to the kitchen, so Dipper followed after the squeaking stopped.
After descending down the stairs, Dipper walked right past the front door towards the kitchen, which looked just as run down and decayed as the rest of the house, it had a kitchen table in the center with three wooden chairs, one by the end next to the fridge and the other two at the left side of the table, which faced the kitchen sink and the only windows in the house that were not stained as badly, though the sight of empty streets with the occasional police patrol, which didn't make the view any better.
Dipper could see Stan at the fridge, wearing a blue jumpsuit which was his work outfit as janitor, searching for anything in the fridge to eat.
"Good morning Stan." Said Dipper, making Stan jolt up in fright and turned to see it was only his great nephew.
"Jeez kid, don't scare me like that." Said Stan still taken back a bit by Dipper's greeting.
Dipper sighed. "Stan, there's no food in the fridge. It doesn't work, remember?"
Stan pondered a few seconds until he replied. "Yeah I knew that, just wanted to make sure."
Dipper knew Stan was lying to him, this kind of thing happens all the time and his Grunkle still denies it. He and his sister knew why he acted like this and just like Mabel, he wanted to forget that happened, but Dipper was always a thinker at heart, and trying to forget what happened to Stan was something he found difficulty with.
"If you want food, it's right here at the table." Said Dipper motioning his head at the three cans of beans at the table.
"Oh… I didn't notice." Said Stan as he sat down at the far end while he grabbed the can. "How did this get here?"
"Soos dropped by yesterday night before curfew. He does this all the time Stan." Said Dipper, a little irritated due to having to go over this with Stan several times.
Stan just ignored his nephew and tried opening the can with his bare hands, knowing Stan wouldn't be able to that, Dipper went over to the counter to get the can opener by the counter and handed it to Stan, who just pushed it away.
"I got it, I got it. I just... need to…" Stan just grunted in frustration while opening the can before he noticed Dipper had the can opener in his hand. "Oh… thanks kid." Said Stan as he grabbed the tool from Dipper, who just went to the kitchen cabinets to set up plates and forks for breakfast.
O-O-O
After a few minutes in the shower, Mabel came from downstairs, all dressed up with her sweater, which was hot pink and had a shooting star, her personal favorite style, and saw Dipper and Stan eating the beans that Soos brought last night, who the twins were lucky and thankful to have their friend be their neighbor and scavenger, even though they never asked him to do so, Soos was never one to give up on the twins and refuse to help.
"Beans again?" Asked Mabel as she sat down next to Dipper and ate a spoonful of beans with him.
"Yup." Replied Dipper with his mouth full. "Soos said that most of the food was taken from the market again."
Mabel scoffed. "What'd they say this time? The food poison excuse last year?" She asked.
Dipper swallowed and replied. "No. He told me it was because, and I quote, "New food rationing laws are now in effect due to a lack of supply shipments in the region. All citizens are now required to only take one can per week until the situation is resolved."
Mabel just shook her head in disbelief. "Wow. I mean… wow." It was all Mabel could say.
"They even said thank you to everyone there, as if saying thank you would make us feel better." Dipper then quipped sarcastically. "It's like they're trying to relate to us."
" *Humph* It's not too hard to figure out that the next day, you see those so called "lack of shipments" arrive to town, and think that everyone got fooled so they can horde all the food to themselves. " Said Mabel as she ate the last spoonful on her plate.
"The fucked up part about it all is that they don't even need all that food, but they know that we see the shipments ALWAYS arrive, and they wave all that food to everyone in town, taunting us while they know we starve." Said Dipper as he finished his plate as well. "They never change."
"It's too bad we can't any good changes here, I mean come 'on, who wouldn't want to listen to this." Said Mabel as she pointed her thumbs at herself. "I'm adorable."
"You really are adorable." Agreed Dipper. "But they like to shoot adorable in the face and piss on it for fun, so you're out of luck."
"Well, you never know Dip. There's always someone that likes cute and just bottles it up on the inside. Right Grunkle Stan?" Mabel looked over to see Grunkle Stan, who stopped halfway from eating his food and stared at his plate as if he was in deep thought. "Grunkle Stan?" Asked Mabel more softly.
Stan looked up from his plate to see the twins stare at him, waiting for his response. "Why am I eating beans?" Stan asked as he stared back down at his plate.
"It's your breakfast, Grunkle Stan. Remember from earlier when I was talking about Soos?" Replied Dipper softly as his Grunkle started eating again.
"I knew that."
The twins frowned sadly, realizing that they almost forgot about their Grunkle's short term memory loss, which made them think about the aliens from their conversation, the same ones they just joked about for their cruelty, making anger boil inside the twins, not just against the aliens but at themselves for making jokes like that in front of their Grunkle after what happened to them.
The time for negative thoughts wasn't now though, because a knock at the front door could be heard, making Dipper get up to see who it is. He looked through the peephole of the door, silently hoping it wasn't an early "household inspection", to Dipper's relief, it was only his chubby friend Soos, wearing the same janitor outfit as Stan, meaning that it was almost 7:30 AM and called for Mabel and Stan to get ready to leave. When everyone was ready to leave, even though Mabel insisted Stan should take a quick shower before they left though Dipper stated that there was not much time left, and opened the door to the outside world.
The reality that they feared every day.
O-O-O
Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls at all. BUT, I do own the aliens in this story.
See you all then.