"Oh, god, Mabel. I can't take this. I don't want a soulmate, I'm not ready!" he sobs to his twin, his left wrist still covered by an ace bandage. It itched, terribly, but he's too afraid of whose name he'd see when he took it off. His other arm was covered, from wrist to elbow, in a series of symbols set in a cipher that he couldn't quite crack.
Mabel's own left wrist was displayed proudly, with the name Pacifica Northwest written in flowing blue ink, like a peacock's feathers. On her other arm was the sentence, 'So you're Mabel?' in the same script, but jet black. "Dipper, I know you hate this, but it'll maybe just be platonic? If it's a girl, you'll be fine, you know. We need to see before midnight, or you'll go insane, Dipper. We talked about this."
"Mabel, it's not just that! What if they hate me, or- or ten years older than me! I can't date a twenty-three year old, Mabes, I just can't!" He began to pull at his hair, scratching frantically at the back of his head.
Mabel caught his hands in hers, and Dipper finally looked into his twin's eyes, set like mahogany. "The universe has never set someone up in a relationship where one hates the other but not the other way around. There are predestined enemies, sure, but they're so rare. Please, Dippin' Dots, you have to at least look. You can avoid them forever if you really want to, but you have to look."
Dipper sighed, sniffling as he wiped away his tears. "Fine. But I don't want you going out and trying to find them, okay?" At Mabel's agreement, he took in a deep breath.
He grasped the clasp holding the bandages on, and exhaled as he undid it, shitting his eyes as he pulled off the only covering hiding his soulmate's name.
Once he felt the last of the bandages was off of his arm, he opened his eyes slowly.
William Cipheres Ango. Dipper scoffed. "His middle and last names both mean Cipher, how ridiculous. What, is he called, like, Bill Cipher Cipher, or something equally ridiculous?!"
Mabel shrugged. "You shouldn't judge, Mason Alexander 'Dipper' Pines. I'm gonna look him up."
She pulled out her phone, quickly putting in her code and then bringing up the search engine, Boogle. She typed in 'William Cipherus Ango', but only got one hit: A missing ad from a local newspaper, dated from seven years ago. She tried 'William Ango', but got the same result. Next she tried 'Bill Cipher', and got something else. A news report on the son of a wealthy businessman; Keagan Cipher of Cipher Tech; who had been kicked out of his seventh school in a row. There were a few similar articles below it, and the one with the most recent date said his next school was going to be... oh, no.
"So, uh, I found William. He's the same age as us, and, uh... well, it looks like avoiding him's going to be a big problem, because he's, uh, transferring to our school this year?" Mabel summarized, closing out of the article homepage. "If this kid goes by Bill Cipher, anyway."
"WhAt?!" Dipper practically shrieked, back to pulling on his hair.
"Hey, hey, it's not that bad! Dipper, calm down! The quote's written in his first language, right? So it's not gonna be that bad! You can finally learn what it says! And besides, you might not even meet this kid, anyway. He might not be in any of your classes, you know." Mabel tried to comfort, but it was fruitless, Dipper was too far into his thoughts and worries to listen anymore. She sighed, and quickly pulled his hands from his head and pressed a wad of stress clay into his hand, so he wouldn't hurt anything. She pulled him into her side, quietly humming as she pet his hair back into place to hide his birthmark.
After a while, Dipper began to calm, humming with his sister as he formed the clay into a basic pine tree, then reforming it into a cube and various other geometric shapes.
"Thanks, Mabel." he finally said after a while, giving his sister a quick hug. "I'm gonna go wash my face, okay? Be back in a bit."
"Alright, see you." she conceded, letting go of him so he could stand up. "I'm gonna make us hot cocoa from downstairs, okay?"
"Yeah, sure." Dipper agreed distractedly, pulling on his blue hoodie as he left the room.
Mabel rolled her eyes, and went downstairs to make some Mabel Cocoa.
Dipper sighed, rubbing his eye absentmindedly as he stared at his reflection.
"Oh, shit!" he exclaimed, pulling his hand away from his eye. Where there was seemingly normal skin before, a black eye quickly made itself visible, a sickly yellow in some places. He dropped quickly to the floor of the bathroom, opening up the cabinet and rummaging through it for his sister's makeup kit.
He let out a shaky breath when he found it, wedged in the back and forgotten about by anyone except for Dipper. He stood back up, setting the small pink kit down and opening it up. He popped open the container holding concealer, and began gently applying it onto the bruise until it was like it had never existed. He quickly put away the makeup kit, and rechecked his phone for the time. "It's only been a minute, chill." he told his reflection, attempting a shaky smile. "Oof, nope. That's just sad."
He took a deep breath, and tried again. The reflection showed a genuine, if a bit shy, smile, and he dropped it once it was up to his standards.
Rolling his eyes, he practiced the smile once more. "Time to get totally wasted on Mabel's hot cocoa, and pretend everything's okay. You got this."
With that pathetic pep-talk, Dipper opened the bathroom door and raced down the hall. He didn't want Mabel to worry.
He sighed, staring down at the recently appeared words on the inside of his forearm.
'Mason Alexander Pines', it read, in messy green cursive reminiscent of a scientist trying to organize their thoughts before it was too late.
On his other arm, written in Finnish, were the words, "Do you know what this says?" in the same handwriting, but pitch black.
He rolled his eyes. "Alright, Pines, let's see if we can find you on the internet..."
He opened up a new incognito tab, then quickly hacked into the government database for registered families. Quickly typing in Mason Alexander Pines, he pressed enter, and waited for the engine to pull up results.
He didn't have to wait long, as one result popped up within the first thirty seconds or so.
Mason Alexander Pines
Known Relations: Mabel Pines [Sister], Janice Pines [Mother, deceased], Richard Pines [Father, deceased], Grant Pines[Grandfather, Deceased], Juliet Pines [Grandmother, deceased], Stanley Pines [Great Uncle], Stanford Pines [Great Uncle]
Age: 13
Gender: Male
Current School/Occupation: 8th Grade, Gravity Falls Middle-High, part-time worker at Greasy's Diner
Soulmate: Currently Unknown
"Well, well, well. Guess I'll see you soon... Mason."