Chapter 3 – 『Many Questions and very few Answers』

After introducing himself, the two siblings return the gesture after they invited him to rest up for a bit inside the wooden building where they crashed the golf cart nearby. Joseph ended up sitting behind the counter inside of what appeared to be a gift shop.

The two kids introduced themselves as Mabel and Dipper Pines. Joseph learned that the kids were twins, explaining why they look so alike, and that they came from Piedmont, California sent here to Gravity Falls for the summer break by their parents. The twins were currently staying with their Great Uncle Stanford Pines, or as they called him, Grunkle Stan at his house/business called the Mystery Shack; a tourist trap where they overcharged gullible visitors for nonsensical attractions and "Mystery" Merchandize.

Joseph could see it was just one big scam, but if people were dumb enough to waste their money in a place like this, that was their own fault. That being said, among all the merchandize that surrounded him inside of the Gift Shop, the Purple Panther shirt on sale at the corner had caught his interest. Joseph also spoke a little about himself. He told the twin he was originally from England but had been living in New York for a few years now, and he had come to Gravity Falls accompanying his uncle for a business trip.

After that, the English boy asked the twins some questions that had been burning on the back of his mind ever since their ordeal with the gnomes came to an end. "I've been meaning to ask you something Mabel." He began slowly not sure how to pose this question.

"What is it Jojo?" She asked still a bundle of energy despite the events of today and acting very receptive of him, adopting his nickname wholeheartedly. Joseph found that a little odd, but then again he did help save her from those gnomes.

"It's about something you say back in the woods." He lifted his index finger to emphasize his next point. "You said: «what I thought was my boyfriend turned out to be a bunch of gnomes!»" Those were her exact words. "Does that mean the gnomes impersonated your boyfriend to try and capture you or what?" It wouldn't be bothering him as much if it not were for the peculiar wording. Not to mention, how a bunch of little creatures managed to impersonate a human being?

"Well you see…" She shied away slightly embarrassed. "When I first met Norman, I thought he was just a normal person."

"Mabel, he was very pale, had difficulty walking around and he never blinked."Dipper interrupted bringing up all the reasons why 'Norman' was anything but normal.

"I guess that during the excitement of love I never noticed those things." Mabel excused making Dipper face palm as she continued her story. "Anyway, today Norman and I were having a date walking alone in the woods and it was then when he revealed to me he was six Gnomes stacked over each other all this time, can you believe that?"

No.

Or at least under normal circumstances, he would've call bull in face of such ridiculous tale, but after fighting said gnomes it was near impossible not to take it at face value. So instead of focusing on the ludicrous for fear of his sanity, Joseph focused on the part of her tale that would've bother him if it were not for the whole "gnomes-are-real"-thing.

"Wait, you went on a date with your boyfriend alone in the middle of the woods?" That sort of behavior was the kind that should've raised some alarms for anyone responsible for the safety of their kids. "How old are you again?" He didn't mean to be evil-minded but that scenario was really not appropriate for a little kid like her.

"12, but we'll be 13 by the end of the summer!" She answered unabashed. She was not a little kid, but still not technically a teenager either.

"And you let her do that?" Joseph asked accusingly towards Dipper. "Aren't you her brother?" He was teasing of course, but he was indeed curious as well.

"I-I told Mabel her boyfriend was weird." They boy answered startled by Jojo's accusing gaze.

"He told me he was a Zombie and that he was going to eat my brains." Mabel pointed out and boy did Dipper overshot by a mile with his accusation.

"Really? Why would you think your sister's boyfriend was a Zombie?" He asked leaning over the counter.

"O-Oh, n-no reason…" The boy responded with a small stutter. It was obvious he was hiding something.

"He read it in a nerd book of his." Mabel answer for him causing the boy to snap at her.

"Mabel! I told you not to tell anyone about the journal!" The book said it was hidden for a reason and that there was no one in Gravity Falls you could trust.

"You mean that red book you've been carrying all this time inside your vest?" Joseph pointed out. It hadn't escaped his notice that the boy pulled the red tome looking for answers a few times while they were chased and attacked.

Dipper remained stubbornly silent, not wanting to speak further about the book, but Mabel I appealed to a more rational argument. "Come on Dipper. The book says not to trust anyone on Gravity Falls, but neither he nor I are from here; besides he also saved me from the Gnomes so I trust him." She raised good points but even though she was sticking up to him, Jojo wouldn't put his entire trust on her ability to judge a character seeing as she admitted of being easily fooled by a Gnomes.

Despite of that, Dipper did put his faith on his sister. "I guess you're right." Then he turned and looked up to Jojo directly in the eye. "I'll trust you too." For now. "Yesterday I found this book…" Dipper took out the red book from his vest and proceeded to tell Joseph how he had found the journal in the woods inside of a secret compartment in the forest surrounding the Mystery Shack. Then he showed the English boy the contents of the book, which had dozen upon dozen of detailed pages talking about the many weird things and creatures that could be found in Gravity Falls.

In all honesty it all sounded like rubbish out of a fairytale, but meeting and being attacked by a thousand of said fairytale creatures in the flesh did wonders to Joseph's suspension of disbelief.

"And this here is where the journal talks about the undead." Dipper showed a splash page with a detailed sketch of the supposed Zombie surrounded by dozen upon dozen of little notes. Joseph scanned the page out of mere curiosity but then a certain word written almost on the bottom corner of the page caught his utmost attention.

"Wait a second! What does it say there!?" He pointed at the page almost wanting to snatch the book away from Dipper's hands just so he could take a better look.

"Uh? Oh, here?" Dipper took a closer look at the page slightly taken aback by Joseph's intense reaction. "It talks about the weaknesses of a Zombie." He had read that note before, when he suspected Norman was an undead creature so he could protect Mabel from him. "It says that there are different types of Zombies; destroying the brain is the most effective way of disposing of one but it also says that some of them can be destroyed by direct exposure to sunlight or UV light and something called The Ripple…" The first time he had read that note, Dipper had no idea what the book meant by that.

"Does it say anything else about it? About the Ripple?!" Joseph insisted forcefully, making Dipper to read some more.

"Uhm…It says to refer to the notes about Ripple for more info."

"What are you waiting for? Look for them!" Joseph almost yelled desperately for answers.

Dipper taken back, but did what he was told. "No, no, no, no…" The boy turned page after page until he reach the part where he author of the journal stopped writing, meaning the rest were but blank pages. "There's nothing more about it…"

"Are you sure?!" No, that couldn't be all right? It just couldn't.

"Jojo? What's wrong?" Mabel asked sounding almost scared. "What is this Ripple-thingy?" what could possibly be about that thing that made Jojo act like that?

"It's just…" Joseph took a big breath to try and calm himself, "Sorry for getting like that. Sorry Mabel, sorry Dipper."

"Apologies accepted!" Mabel smiled happy to see Jojo calm down.

"Joseph, what does 'The Ripple' mean?" Dipper was far more curious as to what caused the tall teenager to react like that.

Joseph brought his hand over his mouth and pondered if he should tell them or not. After a few seconds of silent contemplation, he finally answered. "It's complicated…" Sure, it was a lame answer but right he was too preoccupied to go into details. "Look, just… let me check the book to make sure."He neared his hand towards the book, but Dipper was quick to pull it away.

"No, I told you about the Journal so now tell us what the Ripple is." To him that was only fair.

"Ok, I promise to tell you everything I know, but I first I need to know what else it says." Joseph bargained. Of course he could also take the book by force except that was a thing a jerk thing to do, especially to a kid that was so small and lanky compared to him. "Please."

"Come one Dipper, didn't our parents teach us to share?" Mabel said hoping to avoid a fight from breaking out. Still Dipper wasn't entirely convinced.

Seeing as he was stubbornly reluctant to let the journal out of his hands, Joseph came up with a proposal. "How about you hold the book and turned the pages while I just read?" It was an awkward solution but that way they both got what they wanted.

"Fine, we'll do that."Dipper finally relented. "But after that you answer our questions!"

"Yeah, yeah. Just turn the pages." Joseph said and soon after he began scanning through the journal for more mentions of the Ripple. His eyes would moved quickly throughout the whole page and then he would say "Next!" every time he was done and wanted Dipper to turn the page. It took a while but finally Joseph's eyes found what he was looking for. "Wait hold it right there."

Similarly like the part about the Undead, this one too was a splash page detailing information about the creatures known as Vampires. Among the bundles of information from general descriptions and the differences between real vampires and how they were portrayed by the media, there was a part that discussed the different types of Vampires that existed and their weaknesses. Under that section he found that a weakness shared by all types of vampires was the use of Wave Energy; another way to refer to Hamon a.k.a. Ripple.

And once again, the Author didn't described or mention anything besides just mentioning it. That was really frustrating.

"Should I turn the page again?" Dipper asked sounding tired after holding out the journal for so long over the counter.

"Yeah sure." Joseph sighed, after nothing substantial once more he was about to call quits. But then, when the page turned Joseph's eyes widen in surprise once more. "That's…!" He recognized the sketched image in the journal. The image itself was very memorable but what surprised him the most was when he recalled "where" he had seen it before.

"What're you looking at?" Mabel peered inside, curious about what Joseph was seeing. And what she saw was strange but somewhat underwhelming. "What is it?" She asked Jojo, but the tall teen was still trying to process what he was seeing.

After a few seconds of silent shock, Jojo stood up from the seat he had taken behind the counter looking dazed. "I need to go." He didn't say anything more to excuse himself and walked towards the door.

"Hey wait a second! You promised you would answer our questions!" Dipper exclaimed angry, feeling like he had been just had. But Mabel besides him could tell that something had really startled Jojo.

"Please, you can tell us what's wrong." Whatever it was, maybe they could help, right? Unfortunately her words didn't changed his mind and made him stop.

"Tell me! Do you know who the author is?" The angry boy asked desperately for answers and surprisingly enough Joseph came into a halt and turned his head back to address them.

"I don't know who the author is. But I assure you I'll get to the bottom of this." His voice and eyes were filled with determination. "I know I made a promise but I need to go." He tried to explain, "I know you think it isn't worth much but I give you my word that I'll come back tomorrow with your answers…and maybe a few more."

And with that he exited the Mystery Shack Gift Shop and walked down the dirty road towards town as the sun above was slowly setting moving away for the night and the stars to take over the sky.

Dipper and Mabel watch him go away, both with confused thoughts and theories as to what was going on inside of the tall English teen's mind.

"Dipper what was it that got him like that?" Mabel turned towards her brother.

"I don't know Mabel, the journal doesn't say." Indeed, the page with the sketched image that freak out Joseph didn't offer any detail or explanation beside a caption in big letters that read: "BEWARE".

『x-x-x』

The sun was long gone before Joseph finally arrived at his hotel room where he was staying with his Uncle Speedwagon. Inside, said man was waiting for him worried sick about the boy in his charge.

"Jojo! Where have you been?!" Speedwagon asked intensely yet relived that Jojo was safe. "You had me worried sick! I've been looking for you everywhere!Why did you leave the Northwest Mansion? I know you don't like it but you have to learn to be …"

"SPEEDWAGON!" Jojo interrupted what was sure to be a long lecture, and stared at the man he affectionately called uncle with a heated stare. "I want answers Old Man!"

Speedwagon was shocked to hear Joseph called him like that, not to mention the powerful stare he was sending his way. "Jojo?"

"I knew it was strange to come all the way here to this small town for business." At first he didn't thought much about it, but after what he had seen today… "Is it true?"

"W-what is true?" Speedwagon was visibly sweating. The man who could handle being a street punk in his youth and corporative maneuvering at as adult was intimidated by the boy he help raise.

"Is it true that the Speedwagon Foundation has a secret branch dedicated to the supernatural?!" The same way other big corporations generated rumors and urban legends like the frozen head of Walt Disney or the secret ingredient of Coco Cola being an illegal drug, the Speedwagon Foundation had rumors going on that they investigated the paranormal like UFO sightings and that they had secret laboratories with advanced technologies developed in conjunction with the Nazi.

Knowing his Uncle, Joseph believed it was all just rubbish conjured up by crazy conspiracy nuts with tinfoil hats. Now, he wasn't sure any more.

"Jojo! You can't possibly believe…"

"Don't lie to me old man!" Joseph shouted, he needed answers and he needed them now. "I saw many things today… I know this place isn't normal. There are things out there! Creatures that people chalk up as fairy tells or scams; I saw them and they are very real but I'm sure you already know that."

"Jojo please…"

"At first I wanted to believe… believe that it was all a coincidence…" Joseph stepped forward, not backing down from getting to the truth. "But then I saw it… I saw a drawing. A drawing showing the same thing as a picture I found while I was searching through some of your documents many years ago. Do you remember? Remember that day?"

The older man remained silent. He did remember that incident. Joseph had been visiting him with Erina and while both friends chatted catching up with each other, Joseph had scurried away into his office. And when he went looking for him, he found the boy going through a cabinet of his files. At the time, Joseph was but a boy, who was just bored looking for something to entertain himself with. He remembered the boy pulling out a picture and when he noticed what it was, Speedwagon lost it.

It was the only time he had been truly angry with Joseph. Maybe that is why today, Jojo could recall that memory so vividly.

And if what he was telling him was true, then he couldn't hold on to the secret no more.

"Speedwagon, tell me about The Stone Mask."

『x-x-x』

Author Notes:

I now this is mostly talking and exposition. But oh boy! Who was expecting that ending?

Now this is a deviation from the norm.

Just who is the Author of the Journal? And how does he know about Hamon and more importantly the Stone Mask?