Paz had heard rumors about the old 'Mystery Shack' that got more out of hand every time the legends came up. The first time, it was due to some kind of challenge going around at school. "I dare you to spend a night in the Mystery Shack. Legend says, a six-fingered man would lure in weary travelers and cut off their hands to experiment on them! His door is always open to anyone willing to give him a hand with his research!" However, any idiots that tried to break in would get caught by the police long before some insane fictional psychopath got his polydactyly fingers on their hands. It only took a little bit of digging around to find that the old house belonged to Stanford Pines. Of course, this only started a new series of rumors of how he would make people disappear in the middle of the woods, but nothing could be proven. Just a handful of trips the old recluse would make to the shack at late hours. But they were all passed off as just an old man being sentimental. And for any kids stupid enough to catch him while he was there… well, the man was a known NRA supporter with many guns. And he did not like people on his property.

But now the Mystery Shack had a new owner. Bud Gleeful. And he hardly seemed as shifty and secretive as his predecessor did.

"Well hello there, little lady! It's nice to see a friendly face around here. But there isn't anything to worry about! I wouldn't call all of this as much of a 'Pines Problem', as a little setback. I'm sure we could all work things out!" Bud insisted cheerfully.

Gideon, while normally staying on the positive side knew that things wouldn't be that easy. He knew that people could easily take advantage of his father's good hearted nature, and he wasn't going to let Stanford have a crack at him either.

"Pa, he's not trying to be a friendly business rival. He's trying to run us out of town before we even set up shop." Gideon said bluntly. Frankly, they could use all the help they could get. And a local that probably knew their way around the town a heck of a lot better than they did could be a huge help.

"Gideon Gleeful." Gideon said holding out his hand to introduce himself to Paz. "Nice to meet you- and you already seem nicer than the last welcome wagon! Although I admit Stanford didn't really set the bar high there."

"Ooh- Alliteration!" Paz said noting the double G name as she shook Gideon's hand. Great for comic book heroes! "But yeah, I overheard some of that… what's his problem with you two anyways? You don't seem too bad." Paz admitted.

Bud smiled at Paz, reaching out to shake her hand after Gideon's. "Why thank you! I'm Bud- You're mighty kind yourself. I'm sure Stanford is just being a tad too sentimental... I don't think he was fully informed about the whole nature of the deal. I do feel terrible about the whole mess… I wouldn't want it to look like I swindled or cheated him out of his old home." He admitted sadly. Bud scratched the back of his head, not sure if this was the right way to go about settling in. He certainly didn't want to start a business with this kind of bad karma behind it. "Maybe I should just sell him the place back…"

"NO!" Both Gideon and Paz shouted at the same time. They gave each other a quick glance, confused as to what the other's stake was in all of this.

Paz gave a chuckle, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "Uh, you explain first." She insisted.

Gideon gave a light shrug at the in sync moment between the two. "Well, just that this has been my Pa's dream! Opening up his own little museum about the Pines Bros. Circus and all the neat things they showed the world! To help people experience that magic in their hearts all over again! Even if one of those Pines brothers is against it, doesn't mean we gotta give up! Pa, you got this place fair and square! Don't let Stanford guilt you into giving up your dreams!"

Paz's eyes lit up at Gideon's heartwarming story. "That… is so beautiful!" She exclaimed. She put her hand on Bud's shoulder. "Don't give up your dreams Mr. Gleeful! Not for Stanford, and not for the world!" She encouraged him. This was like a real life version of one of those feel-good 'based on a true story' kind of movies!

Bud smiled at the two kids rooting for him. It seemed awful silly for them to be the ones cheering him on, but it was hard to feel bad about holding onto the Shack with them in his corner. "Awe, shucks kids. I mean… I still need to think over it, but thank you for your support!"

So far, it seemed like this Paz girl was friendly enough. But what was her reason for being so eager for her dad holding onto the place? "So what about you? Why do you think we should hold onto the place?" Gideon asked Paz.

Paz's hand dug into the jacket pocket where the notebook filled with her observations and findings on the Pines laid. Most people assumed she was some kind of conspiracy theorist or crazy like her father when she tried to explain it. Did she really want to start off meeting these new people with them thinking she had some insane obsession with the Pines?

"Er… well… I just don't think you should let Stanford Pines bully you into anything either." She tried to reason.

Gideon raised an eyebrow, not sure what the sudden shift in the bubbly girl's mood was about. "Really?" He had to ask. Not that he doubted she was lying or anything. Just that it didn't seem like she was telling them everything. She had said she'd come to help about their 'Pines Problem'. What was that about?

Paz scratched her head. It wasn't that she was a bad liar- she prided herself on being the 'Drama Queen' of her acting club at school. But it was being shifty around good people- especially ones she had just met- that made her feel uncomfortable.

"Ok, it is a bit more complicated than that… just promise you'll hear me out." Paz asked.

Bud wasn't sure what had gotten the girl all nervous all of a sudden, but he was sure that she only had the best of intentions. "Why don't you come inside and we'll pull up a seat for your story. Sorry that I can't really offer you any more than that- haven't unpacked yet to provide you with any refreshments. But I'm always happy to lend an ear!" Bud said as he opened the door to lead Paz and Gideon in.

Paz hadn't realized at first glance that this old cabin was the Mystery Shack of town gossip until she stepped on the porch. She'd never investigated the Shack in person like the rest of the students in her class did. Not that she was scared of the old place, but she really didn't need to get arrested. Just a bit of research could put those ghost stories to rest. And yet… being this close to the spooky old house, she couldn't help think that some of the rumors had to be true. Various stories from the townsfolk began to swirl through her head. A place where alien invasions had once been staged. A murder hut. A secret entrance to where government conspiracies were stored. Elvis' vacation home. It could be anything!

Mostly, it was a pile of dust. But beneath all the clutter and between the support beams that were just ready to crack, Paz could see the signs of a mystery ready to unfold! Brushing her hand against the wallpaper that was peeling off, she could make out some sort of strange equation using symbols that didn't even look like Greek to her. What was it?

Gideon made his way into the living room area, plopping himself onto the lumpy couch. The seat quickly gave into his weight, sucking in the small boy like quicksand. Gideon tried to jump out of the seat, sliding over to the seat beside it to sit on. It was much harder and firmer than the couch… and misshapen… maybe it was more of a cluttered side table he jumped on? It was hard to tell with this poor lighting. He looked down at his 'seat' to discover that it was less of a piece of furniture, and more of a dinosaur skull that someone threw a tea cozy on. Gideon was half scared out of his wits, and the other half curious as to what the story behind it was. After the initial shock wore off, he decided that this old house was definitely the extremely cool mysterious Pines Bros. lair that he'd dreamed of.

Bud came in to sit down on the couch, snuggly fitting himself in the old cochins. It was then with all the attention on her that Paz realized she hadn't really planned for this. Did she expect she could give a vague warning about the Pines and then walk away and they'd accept it? Man, those creepy guys at the beginning of horror movies made it look so easy. Then again, they didn't generally get believed either.

"There's a lot of strange things that have been going around the Pines… I know it might sound crazy, but there's a lot of suspicious business going on with them. Things going missing, people behaving strange after one of their shows… and today more than ever I know it's not just some bad feelings!" She exclaimed. She was already getting some strange looks from Bud. But after what she heard from the Pines twins today, she knew it couldn't just be a string of coincidences or misunderstandings.

"Today the Pines twins tried to-" But she stopped herself mid-sentence when she started to run through her head exactly what they tried to do. Trade her off to be some kind of gnome queen in exchange for the creatures doing their dirty work. Oh yeah, that certainly didn't sound crazy at all. Let alone to someone who just moved into Gravity Falls and didn't see any of the weird stuff going on. Even the people that did live here were still in denial.

Paz took a deep sigh as she tried again. "Well, the twins want to get in this place real bad… and Stanford doesn't want you in it, so there has to be something in this old place. Some kind of treasure hidden away? Some hidden power to unlock?" Paz offered. But she knew she was grasping at straws. She had no idea what the Pines wanted with the place. The whole point of her trying to earn their trust was to figure out for herself

Bud scratched his head, not sure how much of this he even wanted to believe. Even after Stanford had been rude to him, it was hard to imagine one of his heroes up to any suspicious behavior.

"Well, he's had this old place for years, hasn't he? If he wanted to do something shady with the place, wouldn't he have done it already?" Bud pointed out.

That was true… but Paz knew for sure the twins wanted something with it! "Well, maybe it's some kind of dirty secret of his that he's trying to hide… or he has something important left in this place…"

Bud smiled, got out of the seat and patted Paz on the head. "Exactly- it's probably just the place that's important to him. Sentimental value and all."

While that was a possibility, Gideon wasn't too sure of it either. Stan seemed awfully determined to get them out of there. He didn't even ask to visit or come in if it was a matter of 'sentimental value'. Not to mention, wouldn't he keep this place in better shape? Still, the answer was much simpler and easier to believe than Stanford being up to something nefarious. Paz looked like she was having trouble finding the right words. If she really did have proof of the Pines misdeeds, she would have said it by now. Gideon was inclined to believe there was something more to this, but his dad wasn't going to accept any of it without some harder evidence. Meaning it was up to them to find it.

"Whatever is going through Stanford's head, he seems downright determined to keep us out of here. But you bought this place fair and square, Pop! Let's just focus on getting ourselves settled first." Gideon suggested. For now, it would be better to just redirect his attention.

Now that was something Bud was willing to get behind. All this conspiracy talk was troubling. An honest hard day's work was much simpler to deal with. "I do believe you're right, son. And there's a whole lot to do- Need to see what the roof situation is like, the whole house will probably have to be repainted and if the electricity is working, fingers crossed the plumbing is up to snuff too…"

Bud continued listing off various things he needed to check out. But Paz already looked somewhat defeated. She could see that Bud wasn't buying into this whole "Pines family plot" business. But while Gideon didn't know for sure if there was anything, she wouldn't have to look into it alone.

"Hey Pops, why don't you start checking to see what kind of contractors need to get called in? Maybe I can start with taking pictures of the place- you know, to make sure we don't mess with anything important and take the 'before pics' and such." Gideon suggested. He then turned to Paz with a light smile. "If you wanted to help me out and look around, I'd be welcome for the extra set of hands."

Paz's eyes lit up again at the opportunity. Maybe this wasn't over just yet. "Yes! Definitely! Absolutely!" She immediately exclaimed.

"Oh, you don't have to do that." Bud insisted trying to be polite.

"It's no trouble at all, Mr. Gleeful!" Paz exclaimed as she dug into one of her jacket pockets pulling out a pastel pink digital camera. "I can share all the pictures with you once we're done! I'd love to take a look around for myself too!"

Bud smiled and nodded. "Well, if you're so sure, I'll leave you two to it then! Just be careful- this old place could be too fragile. Wouldn't want you falling through any floor boards!" Bud warned.

"Now if you'll excuse me, as my first matter of business I need to figure out if the water is still running…" He said as he nervously shifted off in his quest to find a bathroom. That extra-large soft drink was not the best purchase before a long car trip.

With the elder Gleeful gone, Paz's attention was now on Gideon. He certainly knew how to work his way around his father. The kid was clever, she had to give him that. But did he believe her much more than he did?

"So… what are your theories on this place then?" Paz asked him, trying to figure out his thoughts.

Gideon smiled at the thought of a new mystery. Oh, he certainly had plenty of ideas before they came to the door. "Well… it's the old place of the Pines brothers, right? They've got to have all kinds of cool stuff hidden around here. If there are any secrets in here, I'm betting it's the supernatural kind! Imagine the kinds of things the two of them got up to in here!" He exclaimed eager. While he doubted any magical critters were still alive, there had to be some kind of remnant of their circus days. Some kind of spell book, or explanation to the strange stuff they revealed in their shows.

Paz hadn't even thought of that side to the story. This wasn't just Stanford's house after all. Stanley was supposed to have been the big famous one. The both of them started the circus, but Stanley was the face of it. Or well, they both kind of had the same face being twins and all, but while Stanford was the recluse that stayed mostly to himself, Stanley was the one that went on tour and stayed in the center ring. Paz had heard that he died in some kind of car crash, but a lot of people had suspected foul play. Not that anyone could prove it. The cops hadn't looked too closely into the investigation. Some believed that the cops were paid off while others thought the old ringmaster was still out there, choosing to remain hidden from the public eye. Maybe that's what got Stanford so worried about this place. Some kind of evidence linking him to his brother's disappearance? Or maybe he had the man chained up in the basement somewhere! Although if Dipper and Mabel were so eager to get in, maybe it was just a matter of something rare and powerful hidden in here. If the Gleefuls had moved in suddenly there was a chance that the Pines didn't have a chance to move out whatever mystic junk they might have.

Paz smiled back at him and nodded. "I guess… I'm sure we're bound to find something." Paz said as she looked around what was probably some kind of living room. Although it was hard to call it that with all the strange objects and dust laying around. More like someone attempted to make the place livable long ago with the addition of normal things like a couch and TV, but the invasion of oddities seemed to have taken over. Paz snapped a picture of what looked like some kind of shriveled up monkey-mermaid skeleton. It was hard to tell if they were dead to begin with or if they were just like that from lack of care and attention. Was it even real, or just some fake freak show bit?

"Woah! Look at this!" Gideon said as he kneeled to the bottom of a shelf where a dusty old jar filled with what looked like eyeballs was stashed.

Paz stared back at all of the eyeballs. Woah… were those all human? "You think they're real?" Paz wondered, half grossed out and half curious as to why you'd even keep a bunch of eyeballs like that.

Gideon had a wide grin on his face. "Don't know! But this is just the tip of the ice berg!" He exclaimed as he turned to the specimen on the shelf above this. "Look! I think it's some kind of stuffed dodo bird!"

Whether or not there was actually something nefarious between the walls of the Mystery Shack, Gideon and Paz couldn't help but finding all of this cool. Steampunk-looking technology, stone tablets, skeletons of impossible creatures- this place seemed like a treasure trove alright! Nothing evil villain mastermind kind of trouble, but man there was something in every inch of the place. Hours easily passed, and the two hadn't even gotten to the second floor of the house.

"It's better than anything I could have imagined!" Gideon squealed as he looked through a supposed book on Atlantian culture- he couldn't understand a word of it, but man did it seem more than just some made up fantasy jargon!

Paz hadn't expected this level of mysteries, but it was certainly a welcome surprise. "I know! Much better than all the horror stories everyone else has come up with! You and your dad will make a fortune if you try and show some of this stuff off!" Paz remarked as she took a picture of a tapestry hung up on the wall. Only the second she did, her camera started beeping.

"Awe, come on, really? Filled up already?" She complained as she tried to look through the gallery of photos for something she could erase. They'd already gone through the backup batteries. How had they hit hundreds of photos already?

Gideon wasn't surprised at all. "Don't worry 'bout it! Shouldn't be too difficult to pull out my camera from all the moving gear! But we've already got plenty to look at as is- why don't we take a little break?" Gideon suggested.

Paz hadn't stopped smiling for a second in all this excitement. It was like all the weird stuff in Gravity Falls was pulled together under one roof. She'd never been interested in all that Pines Bros. circus nonsense. She'd assumed it all had to be fake. But while some of this looked hokey, the sheer amount of it all couldn't help peek her curiosity. The thoughts of whatever the Pines were plotting was far from Paz's head as she tried to figure out what all this stuff could possibly be.

"Oh! This is perfect!" Gideon said as he pulled out a dusty box from beneath a stack of papers. "Look!"

Paz turned around expecting some kind of freaky futuristic doodad. Instead, he held up a box with some hand drawn dragons, elves and wizards painted on it. Paz raised an eyebrow confused. "Out of all the real weird stuff around this place, you go for the stuff that's actually made up?"

"This isn't just 'made up'- it's custom!" Gideon cried out in joy as he tried to clear a spot on the floor to open up the box. "Clearly it's some sort of edition of Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons… but I've never seen anything like it! I don't know if this is some special edition that didn't make it on the market or if the Pines brothers themselves decided to go ahead and make their own version! Maybe this is some kind of weird magical version that comes to life!"

Despite the supposed threat, he was already tearing apart the material. He shook happily fists full of dice of numerous sides, examining the different strange symbols on them.

"Piell Birch?" Paz questioned as she looked at the illustrations on a character sheet. Looked like some kind of wizard character.

Gideon only continued to geek out with each new page in the box. "They made their own classes too! And hand drawn terrain! We have got to get a game in! Please tell me you know how to play!" Gideon exclaimed. Surely a fellow person into all of these kind of strange commodities would share his love of D3!

Paz scratched her head nervously. "Well… I've never tried it before…" She admitted. Frankly, she had the image of a bunch of nerdy college students huddled up in their mom's basement with loads of junk food and pit cola burned into her head whenever she thought of the game. Probably wasn't true, but it didn't make her too excited to go out and play a game.

"I'm sure you'll have loads of fun!" Gideon insisted. Frankly, this day had already been more than he could have ever hoped for, even with Stanford's rude interruption. He was smiling so wide, he was sure his freckles were about to pop right off his cheeks.

Although Paz wasn't sure about the game, she had to admit that some of these illustrations were impressive. They were hand drawn alright… but did some circus performers really spend their time drawing up tabletop games? Maybe someone just tried to pitch it to them. Paz lifted up what she was sure was meant to be some playing field map, only it seemed to be extremely detailed. The thin lines of the graph paper were hardly visible anymore beneath the extensive illustrations of each little tree.

"Are they normally this detailed?" Paz wondered. Even if she didn't know how to play the game, she could at least appreciate the art behind it.

Gideon took a look at what Paz's attention was on. "Well… no, actually. It's too cluttered to fit your characters in… well besides in this clearing here. Most of the maps are supposed to be blank so you can make your own. Sometimes they'll give you a sample dungeon to try out or see how they're made, but this one is practically unplayable." He admitted. For a custom edition that seemed very well put together, this playing field seemed to be way out of place. Maybe it was just meant to be concept art for the region?

Paz probably would have just shrugged it off if it weren't for the strange symbol in the corner. A 6-fingered hand drawn with a golden pen. "Is this part of the game too?" She asked. She had sworn she had seen it somewhere around the house today.

Gideon shook his head again. "Don't think so. I mean, a lot of this game is about your own character creation and making up a story… It may have just been a part of this epic quest." He suggested. But he had to admit it all seemed off. "But it doesn't seem like it's an in game map… are you thinking-"

"-That it's a real map?" Paz finished. It seemed like they were on the same wavelength. "Look at how the clearing winds through the thin road… surrounded by all these trees- I think it's where we are now!" She exclaimed. There weren't any definable landmarks, and the only symbol on it was the hand in the corner. It took someone who played this game to know that this wasn't just another normal part of it. They just needed the last key to solve the puzzle.

"I think I saw this symbol on one of the walls!" Paz said picking up the map and rushing it over toward the backroom. Gideon followed her, eager to find whatever treasure this map might lead to.

It was small, but Paz first noticed the symbol next to some rolled up carpet. "Yes! It has to be a map!" Paz said eagerly pointing to what looked like some kind of distance scale a few inches from the hand. Among all the scribblings, it probably just looked like another elaborate math problem with a weird symbol.

Gideon nodded, taking the map from Paz's hands and placing it on the wall. The two golden hand symbols lined up perfectly. The light graph paper was designed to be easily seen through- that way you could layer your terrains on top of a field or unveil the traps in a room. But in this case, it allowed for them to see a marking lining up with one of the trees on the map.

"X marks the spot!" Gideon declared, ecstatic at having discovered the key. "Wait… no, it's a 3? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't know." Paz admitted as she took a pencil out of her jacket pocket, marking on the map where the 3 was. "Wanna find out?"

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