Mabel can't cross the gap. She's standing on the edge of the known universe, sinking into the climbing mesh of Hoo-Ha's Fun Palace.
My grappling hook is in my star sweater.
It is less of a thought and more of an absolute truth. She reaches into her secret sweater pocket and pulls out a string of yarn. The harder she pulls, the more yarn balls around her hands.
"What's wrong, Mabel?" Mermando asks, drifting by in a claw-footed bathtub.
"I can't find Dipper!" Mabel waves her mitten hands in the air, gesturing vaguely at the void before them. "He's over there, but I can't–"
"You can, Mabel," Mermando reassures, untying the yarn around her hands. "Use this."
"The yarn? I don't know, Merm, isn't that… silly?"
"That is why it will work!" He shoots her a gap-toothed smile before flipping his hair over his shoulder, pulling an oar out of thin air, and rowing away.
"Bye?" She hugs the bundle of yarn close, watching him as he leaves.
The world is a giant play palace, with rainbow slides, planet-covered floors, and an array of game cabinets that Soos would love. Mabel turns away from the stormy void and slips into the arcade.
It would take 500 tickets to win a unicorn or… some weird screaming monster skull. It thrashes in a cage hanging from the star-strewn ceiling.
"Hey Dipper, want me to win you that weirdo skull?" Mabel says to the air beside her. She turns back to the cabinet as if this did not just happen.
"Why is this 0 tickets?" Mabel asks no one, picking up a snow globe on the counter.
"Because it's priceless," Dipper answers from behind the counter, ripping the snow globe from her hands.
A swirl of stars shimmers in the globe. The soft light ghosts over Dipper's arms.
"It's beautiful," Mabel breathes, reaching out to touch it again.
Dipper pushes her arm away with a scoff, buffing the globe with his suddenly long sleeved shirt.
"Get a good look; I need you to remember this," he says, his mouth set in a sour frown.
"Well, if it's zero tickets, you can keep it! Silly!" she goes to punch him in the shoulder but he steps away. She ignores this and smiles, a camera appearing in her hand. "Oh! Do you want to take a scrapbookie? So you can remember forever?"
Dipper is very suddenly beside her, arm slung around her shoulder.
"I remember everything forever," he shout-whispers in her ear, giggling and running away from her.
The camera melts in her hands, leaving behind splatters of glowing glitter.
"Dipper?"
She turns and sees him jogging through the game cabinets. Mabel runs, bundles of yarn filling up her arms and sticking to the glitter on her fingers.
He turns sharply, facing her. She almost bumps into him but it's like there's a border around him. Like he's an exhibit at an art museum and there's glass between them. If she reaches out to touch him, an alarm will sound.
Dipper holds the snow globe up, an unpleasant grin spread across his face. He shoves it in her face, and her eyes cross as her brain struggles to place the object before her. It disappears a moment and returns a second later. A small star rockets across the miniature night sky, leaving behind a silvery-gold trail.
Mabel reaches for the globe and he lets it drop into her hands. He rocks on the edge of the play ropes, whistling as he swings back and forth over the void.
"What do you wanna do with it?" Dipper asks.
Mabel thinks a moment, staring at but not entirely seeing the millions of stars in her hands. She remembers the calming jar she made a month ago, all color and glitter. Stars flowing up and down in her hands. She remembers Dipper saying, very casually, that he didn't care much for the color.
"I wanna smash it."
"I like your tone, missy!"
"Dipper, I-?" Mabel starts only to be interrupted.
"Anywaaay, this has been great and all but I'm a busy guy! Remember, all relationships fail, love isn't real, and unicorns are scientifically impossible! See ya!" Dipper careens into the darkness at the edge of her dream, arms spread out wide.
"Dipper!" She unsticks the yarn from her arms and holds it out to him, but it won't reach.
"You're stupid!" Dipper giggles as the yarn ties itself around his waist.
"And you're not Dipper!" Mabel shouts down the hole in her dream. She feels as if she both knew and didn't know this from the start, but she can't tell. "You're-you're that weird triangle guy!"
"Well, I think you're stupid and he does too!" the monster bit at a line of yarn holding him in the air.
"Ugh, what do you even know about Dipper, you creep?" She wraps the line of yarn around her right hand. The globe takes up her right.
"Absolutely everything! I mean, there isn't that much to know, anyway. Big head, but lotsa open space; great place to move in!" Bill rambles on, chewing on a string of yarn as he talks. "I don't mind it here, though. It's what the real estate guys call cosy!"
"Why won't you just leave us alone?!" Mabel cries out. Her fingers are turning purple. It's not a bad match for her deep pink yarn.
"Oh, do I intend to leave you alone!" Bill throws back Dipper's head, letting out a loud cackle. He drags himself back up on the rope, head snapping up to look her in the eye. "Wanna hear a riddle?"
"No."
"If a shooting star falls in the forest and no one's around to see it, does it make a sound?"
Mabel fiddles with the globe in her hands, running her thumb down the black and yellow lines feeding in from the bottom.
"It's funny because you can't hear anything in space!" He bites down on the yarn then tears it away with one hand. A tooth falls from his mouth and spirals down into the dark. The yarn snaps.
"Bu-bye!" He moves a hand up and down in a mocking wave as he jumps.
He twists in the air as he moves down, reaching a hand towards her.
"M-Mabel!" a voice rings out and it is Dipper this time. "Why do you have- ? You're not supposed to know!"
"Dipper, Dipper, I'm going to get you! Don't worry! I'm the Pines Family Hero; I've got this!"
"No-no nononono NO! Mabel, you can't know! Great Uncle Ford is gonna be so mad! He's– You need to forget about it– R-right now!"
Mabel sticks her feet in between the rope mesh of the floor and swings into the dark. She hangs by her feet, stretching her arms down as far as they'll go.
"Dipper, grab my hands!"
She realizes that the globe is still there, as if it's stuck to her hand.
"Ugh, who cares about this thing!" Mabel flicks her wrist and flings it into the void. She wiggles her fingers and pushes her whole body forward.
"No!" Dipper flops in the air like a fish, grabbing for the globe. It slips past him. He propels himself forward, swimming through the storm clouds after it.
Mabel hangs upside down, the ropes holding her firmly in place.
"Come back?" she calls out to no one.
Mabel didn't startle awake. She woke up slowly, her head pounding and her pillow wet against her cheek. She kicked out her feet, searching for Waddles. The end of her bed was decisively cold.
"Meow… meow," she whispered, curling in on herself. "Meow."
She tried to drift back asleep, to slip into some new dream (hopefully with more boy bands and candy! Please and thank you.) and let the dream fade in the way that dreams do.
"Meow meowmeow." Mabel whacked herself in the head lightly, phlegm clogging up her throat and tears running down her cheeks.
She couldn't forget what Dipper wanted her to.
Writer's woes: Cat's outta the bag I Love writing dream sequences.