Sweater Town
Chapter 17 – The Inside
By Starwin
Mabel knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to go back home, to her world. It wasn't Dipper waiting for her, it was Mason. The only way to get home was to be inside of sweater town. When it collapsed, she would return to her world, alone. She moved toward the rip that would take her inside. Yet, as she drifted towards it she felt a strange tug, pulling her in the other direction. It wasn't strong enough to stop her but it made her feel weird, like she had left something of herself behind.
She glanced over her shoulder and was surprised to see, herself. Not older or younger. Not a shadow from another world. But her. Another her.
"No, you've got it wrong, Bel," said Mabel, her eyes watching the other her float away.
There were two of her. (Three of her? Did Bel count as another her?) The second her heading out of sweater town. She didn't understand what she was seeing. It wasn't Bel because Bel was still floating (?) next to her.
The other her vanished into the tear that would take her… somewhere else. Now it was just Mabel and Bel once again.
"You aren't missing your sweater," said Mabel. Bel gave her a confused look and opened her mouth to protest, her thoughts flashing what she was about to ask. "You are missing a body. You talked about traveling a path - "
"That was an analogy - " interrupted Bel.
" - but you forgot the part that without a person to walk on it, there isn't a path," continued Mabel. Bel frowned. "You have the path, you have a sweater that will let you jump to other sweater towns but without a body, you can't use it."
"Okay, but, I mean even if that is true, and, I can see that you are guessing at all of this, by the way," said Bel, "so what? Oh, no, that's a horrible plan!" Mabel knew that Bel was seeing what she was working out in her head. Plan B was back on. "A horrible, terrible, crazy, insane plan!"
"Between the two of us, we have what we need," said Mabel, holding out her hand to Bel. "Come with me." Bel's eyes flicked to Mason standing just outside the edge of the rip and Mabel could see the flood of thoughts and emotions lighting up the air around her. Still, Bel didn't take her hand.
"What if this doesn't work," whispered Bel, looking away. "What if the moment I take your hand we blink out of existence. I know you feel it too, I can see it in your thoughts. We both know something is going to happen if we touch. We are both afraid of it. Like a gut feeling, like fire."
"We won't know unless we try," said Mabel.
"That's not a good enough reason," said Bel, and Mabel agreed with her.
"I want my brother back," whispered Mabel, her hand still outstretched. "The man out there isn't my Dipper, he's your Mason. I won't ever love him the way you do. And I could never take him from you. I'm sorry I ever did.
"I know you would risk everything just to hold him," continued Mabel, Bel's thoughts confirming her words as she said them. "That you would give up a life time of this place to just be near him again. And you know I would do anything to do the same, you can see it, Bel." Bel's eyes turned towards Mabel and she could almost feel her glancing through the thoughts that flickered above her head.
"That," whispered Bel. "is a much better reason." She reached out for Mabel's hand. "Let's do this crazy thing."
As their hands moved together Mabel felt - and she could see Bel felt the same - that unknowable fear well up within her. It took all her strength not to pull her hand away.
For Dipper, she thought.
For Mason, Bel thought.
Their hands touched and Mabel felt herself twist and tear. It was indescribable agony! She felt like her body was being pulled apart, atom by atom. However, in an instant the pain was gone as though it had never been. They felt strange.
Thoughts collided in their head as they realized that the other was gone. Bel was gone. Mabel was gone. Confusion tumbled over them. It was just the one of them now. The one of her? Why did it feel like two of her?
"May?" they asked. "Bel?" They lifted their hands, familiar yet strange. They looked down at the shooting star sweater they were wearing. "This… this is freaking me out." "Freaking us out," they corrected.
"What the heck is going on?" Bel asked. "We fused into one super Mabel!" cired May. The thought finally registering as it happened. "Sweater and body together at last!" "I'm not going to be the sweater!" protested Bel. "Pfft, of course you're not, you're the body silly! You've always been." They shook their head. Trying to come to grips with whatever they were now.
"This is really weird, right?" asked Bel. They nodded. "Yeah, and it's about to get a lot weirder," affirmed May. "Are we ready?" asked May. "No," said Bel, "Let's do this."
Together, sharing the same body and mind, they put their hands against the rip in reality and pushed themself back into sweater town.
Mabel tumbled out of the world of white, crashing into Mason as they did. He had knelt down to catch them in his arms. He was saying something but they had only heard part of it before they started kissing him. Abruptly they broke away, spitting and wiping their mouth.
"Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, gross!" cried May.
"Mabel," asked Mason in concern. "Are… of course, right, sorry." He let them go.
"No, Mason, it's okay. It's me. Strawberry Pancakes," said Bel. Mason broke down into sobs as he hugged and kissed their cheeks once again. May fended him off once more.
"Dipper! Stop it!" cried May. He froze.
"Wait, May?" he asked in confusion. "But I thought - "
"It's both of us," said Bel. "This feels super weird. And you have to be kidding me!" exclaimed Bel in horror, touching their mouth. "Braces! Again! This sucks! This is your body!"
"It's our body," corrected May. "And we have our sweater!" Looking down and touching their shooting star sweater.
"Mabel… what… what is going on?" asked Mason. He looked completely lost. "And where did you get that sweater?"
"I'll explain later, okay?" said Bel. "I mean, if there is a later. This might not even work."
"What might not - " began Mason but Mabel shot him a look that shut him up.
"It'll work," said May excitedly, then muttered, "It has to work." They untangled themself from their brother and started to sit down in the dirt.
As they sat, something strange caught their eyes. There were two other shapes standing there with Mason. They looked like dark outlines, shadows almost, against the sweater sky. For a strange moment, Mabel thought she could see herself and maybe another Mason… then the shadows were gone as if they had never been. They shook their head.
"I… I am really, really confused right now," said Mason.
"Yeah, us too," they whispered to herselves.
"Don't worry bro-di-do, we'll explain it to you when we get back," said May. "Most of it anyhow…"
"When, you… what?" asked Mason.
Mabel tucked their legs into their sweater. They smiled at the shooting star splashed across the front. Well, that made them feel a little better about this insane idea.
"We, uh, might need a bit of help coming back," said Mabel. "We probably don't want to hang around until midnight or whatever. Just be ready to pull us out, okay?"
"Again… I am really, really confused right now," repeated Mason but nodded all the same.
Mabel tucked in their arms, lowered their head and closed their eyes. They took a long deep breath together.
"Ready, Bel?" asked May. "Ready, May," Bel answered. They let the moment of Dipper's death flow through their shared thoughts. They felt the pain and anguish that May carried with her. They both lived through the horrible moment that had stolen away their sibling. They let themself slide into sweater town.
Looking up was really strange, to say the least. There was the neck hole of their shooting star sweater, high above. Through it, they could see the face of their concerned brother looking down. Above him, was the distant pink fabric of their shooting star sweater again, making up the sky of a another world. And through that sweater's neck hole was another sky, of still another world… or if everything went as they hoped, the same world they were in now.
They were going to sweater town… inside sweater town. May's sweater town.
Mabel felt their feet land softly on the sidewalk. Dipper was walking beside them, head down, steps slow and dejected. Mabel stopped skipping. Hot-belgian-waffles, they had done it! She was actually here!
"We're here," Mabel reminded herselves. Right, right, they were here. The both of them. They could feel the two minds tumbling around in their head but working as one. She was Mabel. They were Mabel.
"What?" asked Dipper, turning to look at his sister and only now noticing that she had stopped several feet behind him. "Mabel?"
"Dipper," said Mabel with a breathless nod. This was him. This was really him. Just how he was, how he was supposed to be.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Dipper," Mabel said again, stepping towards him, taking his hand. He looked extremely uncomfortable and a part of their brain remembered how much he disliked public displays of affection. More accurately, two different parts of their brain recalled him disliking it in two very different ways for two very different reasons. One was embarrassment and the other was keeping their secret.
"Mabel, you're acting weird, even for you. You alright?" asked Dipper. There was that concern they loved about him so much.
"We will be soon," said Mabel. They leapt forward and hugged him. They felt him tense uncomfortably at the sudden contact.
"Mabel! Whatever you're doing you better hurry up!" shouted Mason. Mabel looked up to see their other, older, brother looking down through the hole in the sweater sky. Yeah, okay, that… that made their brain hurt.
"Dipper, do you trust me?" asked Mabel, whispering in his ear as they held him. He still hadn't returned the hug and was currently trying to wiggle free. Dipper stopped struggling.
"Of course," said Dipper.
"Hug me," said Mabel. He paused for only a moment, then he returned the embrace. Mabel felt his warm, slightly awkward body against their own. Both parts of their brain agreed that this moment was perfect.
The screeching of tires cut through the air and Dipper almost pulled out of their grasp. A cream colored SUV skidded through the intersection before racing off. Mabel and Dipper and Mabel watched it go.
"What an… an idi…" Dipper began but halted and touched his face. There was blood dripping from his nose. His legs gave out and he collapsed onto the sidewalk pulling Mabel down with him as they continued to hold him tightly. "Mabel - I… I died. I can remember dying." He said. His eyes slid closed and his body felt limp in their arms.
"MASON!" Mabel shouted at the sky. "GET US OUT!"
"Don't… call me… that..." whispered Dipper, half conscious.
"MASON!" Mabel shouted again. The face of their brother in the sky frowned and he moved towards them.
The whole world shifted and tumbled and pulled apart around them. Mabel grabbed Dipper even tighter, crushing him into their chest. Street and trees, sidewalk and sky all faded away into emptiness and Mabel felt the familiar sensation of falling without direction as they tumble down into an endless infinity below.
Mabel fell through the nothingness, clinging to Dipper as tightly as they could. However, it didn't seem to matter how tightly they held him. They could feel him slipping from their arms. In an instant he was yanked away and was gone without so much as a sound. Their brother vanished as if he had never been. They tried to scream his name, to grab him back but their hands clasped around nothing and their words were silent.
They felt her own body unraveling and knew that the end had come for them too. The connection must have failed as the world of sweater town collapsed. So now it was their turn to stop existing, to fade away and become… nothing? Maybe that was better than being alone forever.
Mabel let out a scream as she was ripped in half. It was both the most painful thing she had ever felt and yet… yet it made her happy? It was the oddest feeling. It felt like there was less of her. Like she had lost something from inside her too but she had no idea what. She waited for the moment when her thoughts would vanish completely, what would that feel like… would that hurt too?
That moment did not come. Instead, the blinding nothingness left her vision. She felt herself fall for real, the way people did when there was down to fall into. It wasn't a long fall, only a few feet at the most. She crashed into the ground with a heavy thud and landed on her back, feeling dazed.
The first thing she saw was Mason, standing over her. He was holding her shooting star sweater in his hands. The expression on his face was one of shock and complete and utter disbelief at what he was seeing.
Mabel followed his gaze to her right. There was another person laying beside her, legs tangled up with her own. It took her a moment to realize who she was seeing. Bel. Bel was laying next to her. What's more she looked like she should. The proper age and everything. She was slowly sitting up but she hadn't even gotten half way before Mason rushed to her and hugged and kissed and -
Mabel looked away, turning her gaze down. She noticed she was no longer wearing a sweater, just her plain green undershirt… the shirt she had been wearing when… when Dipper...
She noticed something draped across her lap. Not clothing, but a skinny, noodlie arm.
Her gaze drifted along the arm to find another person laying beside her. Dipper. His eyes were closed his face impassive and for one terrible moment Mabel thought he... that he was… His eyes snapped open and he sucked in a shuddering breath before quickly sitting up.
"MABEL!" he shouted, his eyes darted around, looking for her. His hand across her lap clenched closed, grabbing her skirt and finally his gaze fell upon her.
"Right here bro-bro," said Mabel, covering his hand with her own. His eyes turned to her, then he looked past, frowned and looked pointedly back to Mabel.
"Mabel, why are there two people making out next to us," asked Dipper. "And where are we?" Mabel elbowed Bel. The make out sounds beside her halted. "Mabel, what the heck is going on? And why does the sky look like a giant sweater, and who the heck are they!"
"Wait, you can see sweater town!" cried Mabel. Dipper's eyes widened ever so slightly.
"Sweater town? Wait, we're in sweater town?" cried Dipper. "Oh no, no no no! I'm not real! You just imagined me didn't you? I'm not Dippy Fresh, am I?"
"Calm down," said Mason. "You aren't Dippy Fresh." Dipper looked only slightly relieved at this.
"But, I'm real, right?' asked Dipper. Mason shrugged. "That… that's not very helpful. Who are you? And why do you look so familiar?"
"Dipper," said Mabel, feeling a little embarrassed. "Meet Mason and Mabel, I call her Bel, it helps make things a little less confusing. They're us, in like, twenty years."
"A little less confusing," muttered Dipper clearly not confused any less. Then his expression turned into one of horror. "Wait? Us? But, you two, you were…" he covered his mouth with his hands and Mabel could see his barely held back from vomiting expression she too had experienced.
"Yes," said Bel, still holding onto Mason. "We are. We're a couple." Dipper continued to look queasy but thankfully did not vomit everywhere.
"I would still like an explanation," said Mason.
"Me too," said Dipper. "Mabel, what the heck is going on?"
"So… I might have sort of entangle myself in the lives of alternate versions of us, using my sweater as a portal into a parallel universe," began Mabel casually, like this was an everyday occurrence. "I kept returning here once every day for me, but every year for them and living the day in the body of my alternate self, so that I could be with my brother."
"I'm sorry, you did what now?" asked Dipper.
"Yeah, we know that part already," said Mason.
"I don't!" cried Dipper.
"What I want to know is how did one of you go into a woolhole, yet three of you came out?" asked Mason, ignoring Dipper's protest.
"Two of us went in," corrected Bel. "May and I went in together." She looked down at her adult body. "Although, I guess we just had the one body at the time."
"Right… my body," said Mabel with a nod. She poked herself with a 'boop.' "So, remember that time I came here and we ate ice cream together?" Mason nodded. "And I sort of found that video - "
"Yes," said Mason, clearly not wanting her to elaborate about the contents of said video.
"Well… Bel had already passed away then, right?" said Mabel. There was silence for a moment and Mabel noticed that Mason clutched Bel tighter as she spoke. "Which begs the question, whose body was I in when I came here? Before, it had always been Bel's body. But it couldn't have been her because, well, she was gone.
"Stranger still, I was able to bring her phone and other stuff, back with me when I went home," continued Mabel. "I had never brought anything back with me before. And when I came here this time, Bill was - "
"WAIT!" shouted Dipper. "Did you say Bill? As in the crazy triangle demon, Bill?" Everyone turned to look at Dipper, who shrank slightly under their gaze. "That is really unnerving to have you all look at me like that."
"Yes, that Bill," affirmed Mabel with a nod. "Don't worry, he's gone." Dipper opened his mouth, possibly to argue further but Mabel covered it with her hand. "We can talk about it later bro-bro… if there's a later for us," reflexively her eyes glanced skyward. Great holes had opened in the sweater above them. They might have only minutes left… or maybe just seconds. Whatever it was, it wouldn't be long until the end of the world.
"Anyhow," continued Mabel. "When I came back this time, Bill was able to change how I looked, change me 'back to my proper shape,' as he said." Mabel motioned to herself to indicate how she currently looked.
"So, I think the last two times I've come here, I've actually come here, with my own body. Somehow this world made it look different, and, I can't really explain that part, but it was this body each time. So, I figured if it worked with the phone last time, I could bring something… someone else back with me this time…" She looked pointedly at Mason. Mason looked away.
"But I couldn't…" continued Mabel. "I couldn't do that too him once… once I found out about Abby… and about Bel…"
"May," whispered Bel quietly. For a very brief moment, the two girls, the same person twenty years apart, looked at each other. Mabel felt the incredibly strong urge to hug her and she was fairly sure that Bel felt the same. Instead, they both clung to their brothers.
"Part of me really, really wanted to just stay here, in sweater town forever," explained Mabel. "I almost did. I'm sure that if I'd gone through the other tear, gone outside, I would have stayed here. But this isn't my world," she looked pointedly at Mason, "and no matter how much I want you to be, you're not really Dipper. I don't know what kind of life that would have been. For either of us.
"Then it hit me as I was about to come back here. The crazyiest most insane thing I've ever thought of! And that's saying a lot!" exclaimed Mabel.
"It really is," said Mason and Dipper together. Mabel and Bel giggled, and both boys let out a nervous, uncertain, laugh.
"If I could bring things from this world into my own, why not the other way around? What if I bought things from my world here?" said Mabel. "I mean, I sort of have… kind of? With the journal, but I think that might be something different…" she looked between Mason and Dipper. "I brought it here. But it also still exists in my world...
"So, what if," said Mabel holding out her arms as if about to reveal the greatest plan of all time. "I was able to open a woolhole from this world into my own? Another sweater town. A loop. But a loop into a past moment, a loop leading to my brother when he was still…" she looked at Dipper, "before… it happened."
"Wait, Mabel, did you time travel and change the past?" asked Dipper. "Was I supposed to - was I supposed to die?"
"It's not time travel!" Mabel shouted. Everyone turned to look at her. "Okay, that's a little creepy."
"What do you mean it's not time travel?" asked Mason. "You went into the past and changed events, right?"
"No," said Mabel with a shake of her head. "We didn't so much as go into the past as visit a specific moment that already happened."
"In the past," said Dipper flatly.
"Yes," said Bel.
"That's time travel," said Mason.
"No!" shouted Mabel in frustration. Her brother's didn't get it. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. "Because we didn't change anything. Dipper still died!" Everyone went silent, then Mason and Bel both looked at Dipper, who was clearly not dead. "I still remember you dieing," whispered Mabel. "You said… right before we left… you…"
"It felt like I died," whispered Dipper. "I could remember it… how… how is that possible?"
"If we really changed the past then why would we remember that?" said Mabel softly. "Plus, wouldn't that create some kind of paradoxie-thingie, where going back to save you prevents me from going back to save you?"
"Yes," said Dipper.
"Maybe," said Mason. Everyone turned to look at him. "Wow, that really is..." he shook his head. "We don't know how any of this really works. This power came from Bill, so who knows what it can really do… or what dangers there might be in using it." Mabel avoided looking in Bel's direction. She knew some of the dangers already.
"You still didn't answer my question," said Mason. "How are there three of you? Where did the extra Mabel come from?" He looked between Bel and Mabel. "And… and what happens to both of you when - when the woolhole closes."
"I think I know the answer to both," said Bel softly. "I think this body is the one you first arrived in, the one that Bill changed and the one that stepped through the rift… the one with - " she tapped the side of her head. "You know." Mabel gasped and covered her mouth. Oh no, she had done it again, she had done it to her twice! But Bel was smiling. "It's alright, it's fine. There wasn't one before but we have a cure now. I'll be alright."
"I'm still sorry, Bel," whispered Mabel. Bel nodded with a sad smile.
"As to what happens," said Bel. She hugged Mason. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Okay," said Dipper, thankfully not following at least some of what Bel was talking about. "Than, who is my sister," he gestured to Mabel. "Classic Mabel?" Bel and Mabel stuck out their tongues at the horrible name. Their brother, no matter his age, was terrible at naming things.
"Absolutely not," said Mabel. "If you really want names for us, you can call me May, and her Bel," she held out a hand towards her older counterpart.
"Okay, who are you, May?" asked Dipper, "and who am I?"
"You two," said Bel with a wave of her hand. "Have your bodies from just before the accident. I know May has her body because I was the one that pulled it back with us. She was a little too occupied with you to think about it." Bel smiled at Dipper.
That was how she had gotten her body, why it had felt like being born again. Her mind had slipped into her past self as they had returned through the woolhole. She had held onto Dipper. And Bel had held onto her. And Mason had pulled Bel out. In her thoughts she could see the long linking chain tieing them together.
"But she doesn't look like you," protested Dipper, pulling Mabel out of her musings. "Unless you've been coming here for years! Mable, how long have I been gone?! How much older are you now?"
"Two weeks?" guessed Mabel with a shrug. "But it's been twenty years for them. I donno, time is sort of all funny here. I have no idea why. I looked older when I came here the last few times. I think that's how I'm supposed to look while I'm here." She looked down at her still thirteen-year-old body. So that meant she wasn't supposed to stay here like this… right?
"So," said Mason, "Let me see if I have this right. You used another woolhole to jump from this world back into your own, at a previous point in your own life, from another parallel reality. Then, you proceeded to not only pull your brother but also yourself back into this world. Superseding your past life and giving Bel your future body."
"Sure?" said Mabel with a shrug.
"My brain is hurting," groaned Dipper, rubbing his temple. "I mean, can we go back to the part where we're in sweater town because I sort of lost what was going on after that."
"So what's the next part of that plan?" asked Mason, ignoring his younger self's plea.
"Uh," said Mabel. "There isn't a next part. I didn't think it would actually get this far." She looked up at sweater town. "You pulled us out of the woolhole but there's no one to pull me and Dipper out of here. All we can do is wait and see what happens…"
"Happens when what?" asked Dipper, also looking up.
"The connection is closing," said Mason, and Bel nodded.
"Which means...?" asked Dipper. No one answered him. "You are kind of freaking me out here… I mean, I'm already sort of freaking out but, this is really freaking me out."
"We don't know what it means," said Mabel. "Or what's going to happen. Maybe I just go home, and this fantasy is over." She took Dipper's hand. "Maybe we both go home, and everything's fine…" She looked away. "Or maybe…" she trailed off into silence.
"Or maybe this world only exists as long as sweater town does," said Mason. "And when it's gone, so is everything and everyone inside it." Dipper looked pale.
"Oh," was all he could manage to say.
The group fell back into silence for a long while.
"I don't believe that," said Bel. Everyone turned to her. "Seriously, stop doing that."
"Sorry," said everyone in unison.
"That's even worse!" cried Bel in mock horror. Light titters of laughter broke the tension. "I don't think we're gonna vanish," continued Bel. "Mason, after… after I died, I went someplace, a world between worlds, a place I could look in on other sweater towns. Woolhole or not, I want to believe we will continue to exist." Mason and Mabel nodded, both with small smiles.
"And me?" asked Dipper, he squeezed Mabel's hand tightly. "What happens to me?"
"You come home with me broseph," said Mabel, squeezing his hand just as tightly. Then, not having planned to do so, she flung her arms around him and grabbed him up in a crushing bear hug, knocking him over. "Cuze I'm never letting go of you, ever again!"
"Mabel! Air! Air!" cried Dipper as she smothered him. Mabel nuzzled her head into him and gave Dipper one last tight squeeze before releasing him. He panted slightly but smiled before it changed into a small frown. "I don't want to lose you either." He took up her hand again.
"So… we just sort of wait around or…" said Bel, rocking slightly in a gesture Mabel recognized as boredom. Mabel glanced up again, looking at the unraveling sky. The world sure was taking its sweet time falling apart. "You guys wanna head back to our place, maybe watch some bad movies or something?" Dipper and Mabel shrugged.
"Sure?" said Dipper.
The four of them got to their feet. As Bel stood there was a moment where she and Mason looked at each other in surprise. Then Bel started to cry and so did Mason. The two hugged each other, just standing there holding the other.
"Come on Dipster, let's give them a moment," said Mabel, dragging him along behind her towards the car.
"Mabel," said Dipper, pulling his hand free from her's and half glancing behind him at their older selves, who were now kissing. "This… this is sort of freaking me out?"
"Which part?" said Mabel. "The part where our older other selves are in love with each other? Or that you're inside of sweater town, a completely makebelieve world inside my sweater? Or how I pretty much brought you back to life?"
"All of that!" cried Dipper. "Mabel, do you realize how insane this is? I mean, this can't be real, this has to be a dream or a nightmare or something!" Mabel came to an abrupt stop. She turned back to her brother and looked seriously into his face.
"Dipper," she said simply. Then, quick as lightning she whipped off the brown hat that Wendy had given him and licked the top of his forehead.
"Ewww! Mabel, gross!" complained Dipper, snatching back his hat and wiping at his forehead with his sleeve. "Why'd you do that?" She just blew a raspberry at him. "Right, just you being Mabel."
"It's good to have you back, Dip-itie-do," said Mabel, punching him affectionately in the shoulder.
"Ouch," complained Dipper, now being assaulted on all fronts. "And don't call me that, it's almost as bad as being called 'Mason.' I can't believe I would ever want to go back to that!"
"They're not us bro," said Mabel. "They're a version of us, a possible us. But not us, okay?" Dipper nodded, but muttered something she couldn't hear.
Mabel and Dipper were the first to reach the Geep. They didn't have the keys, so they had to wait for Mason and Bel to catch up. The two of them were just standing there, not really talking when it happened again. This time much more clearly.
At first, Mabel thought it was Mason approaching, and she was half right, because it was Mason. Except it wasn't Bel he was carrying in his arms, it was her. It was another Mabel, dressed in the borrowed clothing she had been wearing before going into the rift. Just how many of her were there? She was transparent and ghost like and so was Mason. They reminded her of the other worlds in sweater limbo.
The ghostly Mabel leapt out of the transparent arms of Mason and dashed at them. She wrapped her arms around Dipper but as she did she vanished like smoke and it was just Mabel and Dipper standing alone once more.
"What - what the heck was that!" cried Dipper in alarm. Mabel looked at him. He had seen it too?
"You saw them?" asked Mabel. Dipper nodded.
"I saw you," he said. His hands moved over his body. "Mabel, I told you changing the past was a bad idea!" Mabel shook her head.
"I told you! I didn't change the past!" cried Mabel in frustration. She had forgotten how annoying her brother could be sometimes. "Besides, that doesn't make any sense! I didn't go into the past in this world! I went in our universe!" Dipper opened his mouth to argue but seemed to either think better of it or wasn't able to find an argument.
Thankfully, Mason and Bel finally showed up and unlocked the car. The twins, the older ones, sat up front, while Dipper and Mabel took the back. As Mabel was buckling herself in Bel caught her attention by holding up Abby's journal. Bel frowned, glaring at Mason.
"So," said Bel. "We spent years, trying to keep our daughter a secret, and you just send her right into Abby's room, like she isn't going to notice." Mason turned very red.
"I thought it was the end of the world," muttered Mason. "Also, I wasn't thinking." Bel smiled.
"That much is obvious brobear," she said. Mason started the car and began his multi-point turn.
"This is all still weirding me out," whispered Dipper. Mabel 'pfft' at him.
"Bro, you don't know the half of it," said Mabel.
As they made the drive back to the shack, Mabel launched into the tail of everything that had happened. Mason and Bel jumped in at parts as well. However, there wasn't anywhere near enough time to tell Dipper everything and so her story continued as they went inside. They sat at the kitchen table and Mabel launched into the retelling of the waterfall cave.
"Of course, neither of us thought to bring a bathing suit with us," Mabel was saying, Mason was starting to go red in the face. "So here I was, in a body that was totally weird and stuff and I had to strip down - "
"You never told me this part," complained Bel. Mason, if possible went even redder. Mabel was just about to continue when she felt a shiver run across her skin. She turned to look back over her shoulder and saw, herself, standing at the kitchen door, looking in at them.
She was ghostly and just like before, Mason was also standing by her side, looking just as transparent. They lingered there for a long moment before fading away.
"Mabel?" asked Bel, bringing her back. She turned to look at the group who were all staring at her. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know, I keep… I keep seeing these weird images of myself, or something," said Mabel.
"The other you," said Bel with a nod. Mabel felt confused.
"Wait, you know what they are?" asked Mabel. "Can you see them too?" Bel nodded.
"Of course," said Bel. "It's the you that chose to stay in sweater town." There was a long moment of silence.
"What?" asked Mabel and Dipper together.
"In the crossroads you made a choice," explained Bel. "To stay or to go. You chose that you wanted to go home, to try and rescue Dipper from his fate. But you also chose to stay in sweater town to accept the way things are. So you did, you made both choices."
"The other me," whispered Mabel remembering the second self she had seen just before she had left sweater limbo.
"What you're seeing is like after images of that other choice," said Bel. Mabel looked back at the door but there was no one there.
"For how long?" asked Mabel. Bel shrugged. Mabel hadn't seen another Dipper in those reflected moments. Did that mean the other her didn't have him back? She had Mason though… what would it be like to be here with Mason forever…
Her eyes focused on Mason across the table as she tried to imagine what it would be like.
"Why are you staring at me?" asked Mason uneasily. It wouldn't be like having Dipper back… but it wouldn't be horrible either. She frowned. How would he ever accept her after what she had done. Mason still didn't know that it was her that had given Bel - Mabel shook her head.
"Sorry, I was just picturing that moment where you flashed your little dipper at me," said Mabel. Mason went red again.
"Mason! You didn't!" cried Bel in horror.
"No! No I was still wearing my underwear! And we were about to go back into the water and - " Mason protested loudly, however Bel had started to laugh. He looked a little relieved.
There had been the promise of movies but all of them were so wrapped up in recounting their adventures of the past years that the movies were completely forgotten. Mabel was glad to have turned the conversation away from her other, other, self. Telling stories of the past didn't give her time to dwell on what that other world might be like.
Dipper seemed to remain impassive through much of the telling. He listened with interest and laughed at the parts that were meant to be funny, although it was a nervous, reserved laugh. However, Mabel got the feeling that he was still trying to process all of this. She couldn't blame him, it was a lot to take in. Mabel left out nearly everything she had learned in the videos from Bel, afterall, those were for her.
Thankfully, it was Bel who jumped in to explain her relationship with her brother. It was obvious from his expression that Dipper did not understand it, nor did he seem to approve. And the uncertain look he gave to Mabel had her thinking probably the same thing she was. Were they headed in the same direction too?
The day grew late as Mabel finally recounted the earlier events of that day and their run in with Bill.
"So now, I've got this crazy triangle thing on my head," said Mabel, booping herself in the forehead. "I guess it's the reason any of this was possible in the first place. Bel has it too." Bel nodded.
"Okay, so, there's one thing I still don't understand," said Dipper.
"One thing?" asked Mason.
"Well, most of it I don't understand," replied Dipper. "If this is a parallel universe, shouldn't it be parallel? Why are we so far into our future?" No one answered. He looked towards Mabel who just shrugged and stuck out her tongue.
"I've had a lot of time to think about it," said Mason at last. "I don't think it's time dilation. Mabel, you said you come here every day, right?" Mabel nodded. "So, if it was compressed time, that would mean that roughly every ten minutes in your universe, a day would pass here but when you go home, it's hours later, isn't it?"
"Yeah," said Mabel. "It's always felt like a dream, like I slept through the night."
"If I had to guess, and, I do," said Mason, Bel giggled into her hand. "I think it was just your doing, May. You didn't just want your brother back, you wanted a life where he still existed. Weather you were conscious of it or not, I think you caused the time skips somehow. Or it could just be a side effect of the woolholes? Every time we've encountered them, like with Bel or Great Uncle Ford, they always took them to different times and places."
"Wait, are you saying this is our future?" asked Dipper. Mason shook his head but it was Bel who answered.
"No," she said. "I mean, I'm sure parts of it might be similar but May doesn't have another her jumping in and taking over her life every year."
"At least not yet," said Mabel. "And… sor - "
"May, it's alright," said Bel with a genuine smile. "Things worked out. Despite some… uh, rough moments." Mason's watch beeped.
"Ten minutes," he muttered to himself. "Before midnight."
"What happens at midnight?" asked Dipper.
"We go home," said Mabel and a strange thought occurred to her. "I think we should head to bed."
The four of them made their way up to the attic. Mason and Bel headed to Mason's bed. Mabel started towards her bed on the other side of the room but Dipper pulled her to a stop.
"Mabel," he whispered. "What're we doing?" His eyes swept over to where Mason and Bel had cuddled down together in the same bed. Mabel rolled her eyes.
"Not what you're probably thinking Dipper, gross!" she said. Dipper frowned, that was clearly not what he had been thinking.
"We can hear you," said Mason.
"It's still gross!" answered Mabel, only giggles replied and she sighed. "Dipper, just trust me okay." It took a moment but he finally nodded. Mabel pulled him over to the bed and got in. She held up the covers and patted the spot next to her. With a sigh Dipper sat beside her.
"Seriously, all this other crazy stuff is going on and you are weirded out by this?" asked Mabel as they lay side-by-side looking at the crazy twisting sweater ceiling above them.
"That, and whatever the giggling from the other bed means," mumbled Dipper. Mabel turned to her side so she could look at her brother lying next to her.
"It's not the first time we've slept in the same bed," said Mabel. "I just… I just want to be close to you right now, alright? I don't know what's about to happen. I've never stayed here beyond midnight, I've always returned home." She grabbed his arm. "And I want you to come with me this time." Dipper finally turned to look at her. "When this dream ends, I want to wake up with you there beside me, okay?"
"Okay…" whispered Dipper.
Mabel felt it. She felt the end, the creeping darkness washing away the world. She lunged forward and wrapped her arms around her brother. She felt him do the same. If he was saying words, she couldn't hear it, because she couldn't even hear her own voice as she called out to him.
It was the strangest sensation. She couldn't properly explain it. Mabel felt like she was made of wool. That was the only thing her brain could come up with. It was like every fiber of her being was actual fiber. She could feel her body tangle and untangle. And she could feel Dipper… but not his skin. It was like… like he was made of wool too.
Her sense expanded and she could feel more than just Dipper. She could feel the bed, the floor, the walls… the ceiling. The woolhole. She had a true sense of it, although it was nothing like she had any reference for. It wasn't just a tunnel through space and time and universes, it was an extension of herself. She had made it.
She could feel it coming apart. The threads had held as long as they could but they could hold no longer. She felt the woolhole tear in half, its threads unravel and come apart.
She knew that if they stayed in the bed they would stay in this world. She forced herself up, soaring into the sweater sky. Her hands reached for her brother, but she didn't have hands anymore. She didn't have a body, she was just a tangled mess of threads.
Frantically, she tried to find Dipper, to hold on and pull him. But nothing made sense to her brain anymore, she was an unraveled ball of yarn and the world was endless tangles.
And yet, she could sense her brother, tangled up with her. He was telling her it was okay, although not in any words she could understand. Was this what twin mind powers felt like? It was awesome!
All around her huge gaps tore through the walls of the sweater. Light poured in from every direction and the whole world was washed away in a blinding flash. Mabel couldn't feel any part of her threadbare body. It was like she had stopped existing, like she wasn't anything. She was sweater town and it had unraveled, so she must have unraveled along with it. And strangely, she was okay with that. Because the one thing she could feel was her brother there with her.
With a jarring thump, Mabel felt herself plop down onto the hard ground. The feeling of being bits of thread unraveling into nothing ended abruptly and it was hard to recall how it had felt. For a moment she felt blind, looking up into the bright light all around her. Gradually, shadows began to swim into her vision as tall whisp like trees grew out of the sunlight.
She was disoriented and confused. She blinked trying to bring the world into focus, bit-by-bit, parts of her felt like they were waking up. She was outside, someplace in a forest. She looked down at her pink shooting star sweater, torn and tattered.
Except, maybe she was too big for it because the sweater around her was exceptionally tight. She gasped for air as if she had stayed under water too long. She struggled to pull the sweater off. It was wrapped so tightly around her body that it felt like it was nearly crushing her. She continued to frantically tug at the sweater. However, with one final yank she felt the garment rip. As it came away in her hands she watched the threads unravel before her eyes and her favorite sweater, her first sweater, the sweater that reminded her of her brother, tumbled apart around her, becoming nothing more than loose threads.
Mabel looked at her hands, tears bubbling up in her eyes as the bits of thread flitted out of her grasp in the wind. It was gone. Not just her sweater but the other world, it was gone. Dipper... Dipper was... Another hand came up and took hold of hers. Mabel felt her heart stop in her chest. She realized the tightness from around her middle was still there, even though there was no more sweater. Ever so slowly her eyes followed the hand that was holding her's back to its owner. Laying there on the pine needles beside her, head resting against her thigh and big brown eyes crying with joy as they looked up at her, was Dipper. Thirteen year old Dipper. Her brother. He was here. Not just in sweater town. Dipper.
"DIPPER!" shouted Mabel. She pounced into a hug and they rolled across the ground. "DIPPER! DIPPER! DIPPER!" she shouted with joy than suddenly stopped. She had said that for far too long now.
"That… that was the strangest thing I've ever felt," mumbled Dipper. "Could you maybe get off me?" She had ended up on top of him, arms wrapped around him in a crushing hug. She hurried off him to sit by his side. He sat up. "It felt like I was coming apart. Like I was untangling. But I could also feel you there and… and I just kept my thoughts focused on you. Mabel… are we back?"
"Yeah bro," said Mabel with a smile. "We're back!"
"Uh, back where exactly?" asked Dipper looking around the clearing. "Mabel, where the heck are we?" Mabel looked away. "Do our parents even know you're here?"
"Not... really?" said Mabel, with a weak apologetic smile. "I may have kinda of taken this trip on my own with a creative use of dad's credit card?" Dipper raised an eyebrow but started to laugh. Mabel suddenly covered her mouth. "Mom and dad! What're we going to tell them!" She poked her brother in the chest, confirming he was really real.
"Ouch, hey," said Dipper.
"I mean, they are going to flip," said Mabel.
"And you think I'm not flipping out right now?" asked Mason. "Mabel, I died! You crossed realities and timelines to bring me back. I saw an alternate version of us that were… uh, you know..."
"Kissing," teased Mabel. Dipper went red and simply nodded. Mabel laughed and kissed him on the cheek.
"Eww, Mabel!" complained Dipper, wiping at his face with an arm.
"Relax bro-bro, I'm just teasing you," said Mabel and in a moment she went from the happiest moment of her life into sobs. She pushed her head into his chest. "I've - missed you - so much - Dipper!" she gasped out between sobs.
Dipper just held her and let her cry. She really had her brother back.
