And, we're back! I'm glad you guys liked what I did with the shorts, and I'm glad they made sense and came out okay. I did have to adjust some things, as you could see, but it looks like it worked. I had to adjust some things this time too, and some of them might not make sense. Remember, there is still Society of the Blind Eye and the second half of season two, so I'm trying to set some things in motion for those to work out how I want them to. But before we get into this chapter, shout-outs!
gamelover41592- Not a problem; I loved the shorts and it was a lot of fun writing them. And here's to 2017!
Fantasy Female Freak- Sock Opera has always been one of my favorites, mostly because of Bill; he's such an interesting character, and anything with him in it was INSANE, so writing this was a lot of fun. Some parts might not make sense because I have to worry about the rest of the season, but I think you'll like how everything plays out in the end. I loved all the shorts, but Hide-Behind had a different feel to it, and the Mailbox concept was interesting, but I loved them all. And Happy New Year to you too; I hope all your dreams come true. 2016 was an interesting year to say the least, so hopefully 2017 will be better. Although… with who we have taking over on the 20th, things will get real interesting real quick. But here's to the new year!
Disclaimer: I only own Willow and anything you don't recognize from the show. Everything else belongs to Alex Hirsch.
Mabel's POV (July 23rd)
"Today's the day," Willow said, walking up to us, laptop in her hands. Every free second she had over the past few days had been spent working on that thing, and as of this morning, she had gotten it finished. It still looked old and beaten up, lots of duck-tape visible on the outside, but it did look cleaner and more like something that would work despite being 30-some years old.
"Wills, you are amazing," Dipper told her as she set it down on the table. We were in the library because we didn't know what we would find when we turned it on, so they figured it would be good to be close to an information source.
"Merci," she responded, yawning once. "We ready?" She asked, opening the lid. Dipper and I nodded and she hit the power button. The words SYSTEM STARTUP came on in green letters, then a green loading bar appeared. After loading, weird green circles and graphs appeared before the screen said WELCOME, five circles with a triangle around the center one under the word.
The three of us did our handshake, Willow yawning after we were done. She really needed some sleep. The laptop buzzed, the welcome screen being replaced by UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS FORBIDDEN in red letters. The words ENTER PASSWORD appeared in green letters, eight little lines under it.
"Dammit," Willow cursed. Dipper patted her shoulder.
"Hey, you got that thing fixed up all on your own. I think getting a password will be a cinch," he told her.
"He's right," I added. "With your skills, Dip's brains, and my laser focus, there's literally nothing that can distract us from… Did you hear that?" I turned around and saw a cute boy with blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and blue eyes singing a puppet show for some little kids.
"Not again," I heard Dipper say from behind me, realizing that this was my newest crush, but whatever; at least I knew when a cause was lost.
"Just when I was getting over Mermando, of course you show up at my doorstep," I said, half to the boy, half to myself. I heard Dipper saying something about not liking Mermando, but then I was gone, waiting for the boys' show to end. As soon as the kids started to leave, I hopped onto a book cart and pushed myself over to him. He was talking to his puppets, which was a little weird, but who am I to talk?
"Hey!" I called to him, getting his attention. "Guess who's Mabel? I am! Care to learn more? I bet you do. You like to learn- WAA!" Smooth, Mabel. You fell off the cart. At least he isn't looking at you weird. Keep it going! Make it work! "And I'm up!" I said, standing up and dusting off.
"Hey, I'm Gabe Benson, master of puppets," he said, shaking my hand. "Nice to meet you."
"You're amazing with those puppets," I told him, a surprised look on his face.
"You really think so? Cause a lot of people think puppets are dumb, or just for kids or something."
"People are idiots," I told him. Terry Fator WON for crying out loud. "I'm puppet crazy! People call me Puppet-Crazy-Mabel!"
"Really? People used to call me Puppet-Crazy-Gabe!" This was going better than I thought. "So when's your next puppet show?"
"My huh?" This conversation just took an ugly turn.
"You can't truly love puppets if you're not throwing puppet shows, right?" You THROW puppet shows? People do that? I couldn't let him know I was lying before.
"Um, yeah, I'm actually in the middle of a puppet show right now." Okay, yeah, not the BEST thing to tell him.
"What are the details?" He asked. I really had to start preparing better.
"There are soooo many details…" I started out, trying to think of something I could tell him without getting busted. After I was done telling him about my 'puppet show' he gave me an impressed look.
"That sounds amazing. When is it?" Okay, the other questions I was able to handle. But him wanting to see it when everything I had just told him was a lie? I panicked.
"It's in in three days!" I told him, WAY to enthusiastically. He nodded.
"What time?"
"Six."
"In that case, I'll see you at six Thursday night." With that, he left me alone to kick myself for letting things go so far. I knew what had to be done, but I felt bad about it; they had their own things to be doing. But I knew they would help me, even if they didn't really want to.
I walked back over to the corner where they had the biggest dictionary in the library open, Dipper calling out words, Willow typing them. Of course, there was a chance that it wasn't a word, just a bunch of random numbers and/or letters, but they had to start somewhere.
"So how'd it go? Aardvark," Dipper said as I walked up, Willow typing in the word. The laptop buzzed and the letters disappeared, but the rest of the screen stayed the same. I sighed, and while Willow typed in the next word, I told them what happened.
"How hard do you think it'd be to write and compose a sock puppet rock opera with lights, original music and live pyrotechnics by Thursday?" The laptop buzzed again and both of them turned to stare at me.
"Are you serious?" "What is wrong with you?"
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!" I yelled, starting to pace. "I got lost in his eyes and his ponytail and I'm gonna be so embarrassed if I don't have anything!"
"What about the laptop and cracking the password?"
"If you guys help me with this JUST until Thursday, I promise I'll help with the password! Please! It's for love!" That was it; we all understood the power of love, so they both nodded, although I could tell it was reluctantly. I owed them BIG TIME after this. "THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! YOU TWO ARE THE BEST!" I yelled, causing everyone else in the library to shush us. But I didn't care; they were on board. The next few days would be crazy, but it would be SO worth it in the end.
Willow's POV (July 25th)
So that was how we spent our next few days. Most of it was helping Mabel with her show, doing whatever she needed us to. But every extra second Dipper and I had was spent with the laptop, trying thousands of different passwords. Most of it was a blur of socks and buzzing sounds and Mabel Juice.
The show was tomorrow night, so it was midnight before Mabel was ready for bed. Of course, that meant it was time for Dipper and I to get to work. Sleep could wait until after we had that thing figured out.
"What are we on?" I asked, yawning and sitting down on Dipper's bed. We had borrowed the dictionary from the library and were using that to keep track of the words.
"Half through the D's," he responded, flipping the dictionary open and biting on the collar of his shirt. I groaned; we weren't anywhere close to getting done.
"Don't stay up all night guys," Mabel told us. "Last night Dipper started eating his shirt, and Willow was climbing the rafters."
"That explains the splinters in my hands," I said, looking down at them and yawning. Dipper spit out his shirt and grabbed the dictionary.
"Let's go," Dipper said, grabbing all the stuff off his bed. The two of us went down to the gift shop then used Wendy's ladder to get up to the roof. We were half through the E's, I think it was ELEPHANT, when things started going to hell.
The laptop buzzed for like the millionth time. Dipper got mad and punched the keyboard. I was mad at myself; I had done all that work to fix it and get it up and running, then to not be able to access it because of a stupid password!
"There has to be a better way to do this," I said to myself, but Dipper heard me.
"Could you alter the code?" He asked. I thought about it for a few seconds, then shook my head.
"I probably could access the code, but it's so old that it's just as likely I'll mess something up as I'll be able to bypass the password. Not saying I couldn't do it, but let's save that as a last resort."
"Okay, but you're right. There has to be some kind of shortcut or clue," he said, pulling the journal and black-light out of his vest, even though there was nothing in there. There was a page of the laptop, but there wasn't anything about the password in there. "Who would know about secret codes?"
All of a sudden, it felt like the temperature dropped ten degrees. Dipper and I wrapped our jackets around us tighter as the wind picked up, strong enough to blow the lid of the laptop closed. We stood up and went back-to-back, slowly spinning around. The moon got ten times brighter, shining down on us like a spotlight. A black line appeared in the middle of the moon, resembling a cat eye. Glowing blue bricks formed around the moon, placing it at the center of a triangle. It sparked and blue lightning went everywhere, the color disappearing from the world. Skinny arms and legs, a top hat, and a bow tie all appeared, revealing a familiar and hated creature from nightmares.
"I THINK I KNOW A GUY!" Bill Cipher told us, his voice echoing all around. All we could do was stare at him as he made a yellow cane appear in his hand, twirling it around his wrist. "You're awfully persistent, Oak Leaf. Hats off to you!" Bill took his hat off and offered it to us, the world going sideways and us losing our balance. He put his hat back on, the world righting itself. That unfroze us, although all we could do was say his name.
"Did you miss me?" He asked, making I guess what he assumed to be an 'innocent' look. But there was LITERALLY NOTHING about him that was innocent. "Admit it, you missed me!"
"You worked with Gideon! You tried to destroy our uncle's mind!" I yelled at him, hugging the laptop against my chest. Bill getting his hands on that was the LAST thing we needed! "And you almost killed us like twenty times!"
"It was just a job kid," he said, floating closer to us. "No hard feelings! I've been keeping an-" he grew to be three times his normal size and turned red. "-EYE ON YOU-" he returned to normal. "-Since then, and I must say I'm impressed."
"Yeah right," I told him, not trusting a word he was saying.
"Seriously, you deserve a prize! Here, have a head that's always screaming!" He clapped and a head that looked like Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones appeared near us, screaming its… body off. Bill laughed and snapped, the head disappearing layer by layer. "My point is I like you. How's about you let me give you a hint, huh? I only ask for a small… FAVOR!" On the last word, his eye went blue and blue fire appeared in his hand.
How DUMB did he think I was? I'd rather die than make a deal with that creature. I'd seen the damage he could cause, and there was no way I wanted to be a part of that. No amount of knowledge was worth being a catalyst for the kinds of destruction he could bring. But all I said was; "We'd never do a favor for you! Don't forget we defeated you last time!"
"Right," he said, coming up behind me. "You 'defeated' me. Well just know that I'll be here for you, ready to make a deeeaall." Three slots that looked like they belonged on a slot machine appeared on him, spinning around and landing on three pine trees like the one on Dipper's hat. That made me realize Dipper had barely moved since Bill had appeared. I didn't have time to focus on that because the slots disappeared. "Hey, wanna hear my impression of you in about three seconds?" He screamed and waved his arms around before he disappeared in a burst of white.
I sat up and screamed, waving my arms around, accidently hitting Dipper on the nose. Then I realized that the sky was just starting to get brighter. "What the…?"
"First off, OW!" Dipper told me, rubbing his nose. It was still sensitive from being broken, but it didn't look like I really hurt him. "And secondly, we both fell asleep. You went out first. That was around two in the morning. It's about five thirty now. I woke up like a half hour ago and you were still out. And no, I didn't figure it out yet," he said as I tried to interrupt him. "Anyway, maybe ten minutes ago, you started twitching and talking in your sleep. What were you dreaming about?"
I told him about my nightmare, his expression darkening the entire time. When I was done telling Dipper what had happened, the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, but his face was as dark as ever. "Whoa," he said when I was done explaining, which pretty much summed it up.
"How do you think I feel?" I asked sarcastically. Bill appearing the first time had been bad enough, but this… He had appeared IN MY DREAM, and offered to make a deal. Deal meant the both sides got something, and if there was something that Bill wanted from us, that was BAD. I'd rather die than help that creature in any way, but something about the slots stopping on Pine Tree symbols, instead of Oak Leaves, which Bill insisted on calling us for some reason…
"We have to be careful from now on," Dipper said, reading my thoughts. "We don't want Bill to get his hands on that, or give him anything that could help him with whatever it is he's planning."
"You're right. We ALL have to be on guard. Let's go tell Mabel to keep her eyes open." We grabbed our stuff and climbed off the roof. Mabel wasn't awake yet, and we knew she needed her sleep for tonight (yeah, yeah, I know; we need to sleep too, but we were fine) so we just kept trying passwords. We had just started the F's at about eight when Mabel woke up.
"What time is it?" She asked, waking up easily. Then she actually saw us. "What did I tell you guys? Please tell me you got some sleep last night."
"Not exactly," I told her. "Last night I had a dream with Bill in it." Mabel smile disappeared instantly.
"The triangle guy?" She confirmed, holding her thumb and index finger around her eye in the shape of a triangle. "What did he say?"
I told her about my dream, keeping it simple. With Dipper, I had gone into major detail, but I gave Mabel the abbreviated version. "Long story short, he said he would give me a hint if we did a favor for him. Like we'd ever trust him with anything."
"Don't worry guys. Today's the day that the three of us are back in action. As soon as I drop everything off to my production crew, I'll help you guys crack the code."
"Production crew?"
Dipper's POV (July 26th)
Okay, we REALLY needed to get some sleep. We missed a lot over the past few days. Candy and Grenda were Mabel's production crew, and I'll give them credit; they did a really good job helping Mabel get ready. Apparently, Candy's parents owned the Theatre Time Theater (which the schools use for their yearly plays) so getting them to let us use it had been a piece of cake.
"We read the script, very emotional," Candy said, she and Grenda taking some of Mabel's supplies.
"I cried like eight times!" Grenda added before a voice called to us from the driveway.
"Hey ladies!" Gabe said, skating over and skidding to a stop beside Mabel. "I was just bladin' by. Helps me dry out my ponytail after a shower," he said, taking his helmet off and shaking his hair. I heard Candy say something under her breath, and even though I don't speak Korean, it didn't sound good. Mabel didn't hear, instead getting really close to Gabe's face.
"It's so great to see you! I'm almost done with the world greatest puppet show! IT HAS PUPPETS!" I sighed; Mabel was going to ruin this before the show even started, but Gabe didn't seem to care.
"Your passion is so refreshing Mabel. Unlike the girl from last night's puppet show. Single-stich on one puppet, cross-stich on another?" Okay, yeah, sure. Whatever that means. It didn't even look like Mabel knew what he was talking about. "Naturally I deleted her off my cell phone contacts list."
"Naturally!" Mabel agreed way too enthusiastically. I wasn't sure about this guy; sure he wasn't BAD looking, but if he had some other girls number in his phone, then deleted it because of a bombed show, he probably wouldn't take any relationship real seriously. But I had better things to worry about than Mabel's random crush of the week.
"I know you won't let me down," Gabe continued, taking Mabel's hands, which obviously didn't help her focus. "Based on what you said the other day, you must be a puppet expert."
"I… you… puppets… kiss me," she stuttered. Gabe smiled and kissed her knuckles.
"Until tonight," he said, putting his helmet back on and skating off back down the driveway. As soon as he was out of sight, Mabel started freaking out.
"GGGAAAHHH! We gotta up our game! Did you hear what he said about the stitches?!" It didn't help that Grenda ripped the arms off a puppet of herself, Candy had put like twenty googly eyes on one of them, and the sets Soos and Wendy had been trying to put on top of Stan's car fell off and broke in half. "AAAHHH! Okay, I'm back of fabrication. Get me my lint roller!" She grabbed the boxes back from Grenda and Candy and was about to run back into the house when Willow grabbed her.
"What happened to helping us with the password?" She asked, Mabel coming up short.
"Guys, this sock crisis just bumped up to a code argyle!" Okay… "The laptop can wait!" That was it. The laptop had been 'waiting' for the past three days, and all Mabel has done was waste our time.
"Mabel, do you seriously think that your random crush of the week is more important than uncovering the mysteries of the town? You're obsessed!"
"I'm obsessed? Look at you! You guys look like vampires! And not the hot kind!" She yelled at us. We glanced at each other, noticing the dark bags under our eyes. We both tried to rub them away, but I don't think it helped anything. We REALLY needed some sleep, but we could catch up after we figured that thing out.
"You said you were gonna help us today!" I told her.
"What would I really be doing anyway? Do you really need three people to type words?" She… did have a point with that, but it wasn't as much about her helping than her… "You want me to help, fine! Try STARWARS! Girls, let's go!" She and her friends went over to Soos and Wendy as Willow and I walked back upstairs to the attic.
STARWARS didn't work (I didn't think it would), so we went back to following the dictionary. We got through the G's and had just started the H's (ironically, the word was HACKABLE) at about five in the afternoon when Willow got desperate. "That's it!" She yelled, snatching the laptop from me and typing at what could have been 100 words a minute. I swear, whatever energy reserves she had left had just been activated.
I couldn't tell what she was doing, partly because I didn't understand code, but mostly because she wouldn't let me see the screen (something about distracting her, I don't know) but when her face froze for a good thirty seconds, then she stood up, started pacing and cursing, I didn't have to look at the screen to know something BAD had just happened.
"Emergency security measures activated," the laptop said in a monotone robotic voice. I looked at the screen, the words appearing in green letters. "Initiate data erase in five minutes." The words ONE ENTRY REMAINING appeared above a clock that was counting down from five.
"Wills, what, did, you, DO?!" I yelled, pausing after each word for emphasis, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her.
"I, don't, KNOW!" She yelled back, repeating my tone. "Does it really matter? The point it, we have…" she glanced at the screen, "4 minutes to figure out how to stop that thing from deleting EVERYTHING!"
The attic went black and white and Bill appeared in the window, his legs crossed, blue fire in his hands. I looked at Willow and saw that she had frozen mid-step. Whatever that meant was happening right now meant Bill was just talking to me and I was on my own. I could have sworn I heard Willow's voice calling my name, but it sounded like she was talking to me from underwater. "Someone's looking desperate," Bill said lazily, floating away from the window and leaning on Willow like she was a wall.
"Willow told you to leave us alone, and she speaks for both of us when it comes to you," I told him, glancing at the laptop. 3:30 left. Hopefully Willow was working on a fix.
"I can help you Pine Tree. You just need to hear out my demands," he said, making a cane appear out of thin air. The timer was now down to three minutes. I sighed; it wouldn't HURT to hear what Bill wanted. But if Grunkle Stan had taught me anything, it was that when making deals, you could NEVER look too interested, because that gives the other person power.
"What crazy thing do you want anyway?" I asked, trying to look uncaring, and for good measure, adding: "To eat my soul? To rip out my teeth? Are you gonna replace my eyes with baby heads or something?"
"Yeesh kid, relax," Bill said, actually laughing at that. "All I want is a puppet!" Like I would ever… did he say puppet?
"A… A puppet? What are you playing at?" The fact that he would ask for something so simple, so harmless… this had to be some kind of trick.
"Everyone loves puppets. And it looks to me like you've got a surplus," he said, making some of Mabel's show supplies glow blue. I looked at the laptop again, which was now under two minutes. I really wished I knew what Willow was doing, but considering it hadn't stopped counting down, I had to assume she hadn't found a fix yet.
"Mabel worked really hard on those," I told him, although, as much as I hated to admit it, his offer was becoming more and more tempting as the seconds counted down.
"Seems one little puppet is a small price to pay to learn all the secrets of the universe," he said, his voice echoing on the last word. "Besides, what's Shooting Star done for you lately? How many times have you sacrificed for her? And when has she ever returned the favor?" He did have a point there. I had given up chances with Wendy twice, and even though things had worked out in the end, Mabel had never really paid me back. I looked at the laptop, which was now at one minute and counting.
"Tick tock kid," Bill said, his eye becoming a clock and him making blue fire appear in his hand. I sighed, not believing what I was about to do, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
"Just one puppet?" I clarified, Bill nodding. From far away, I know I heard Willow say my name, but I had to do this. "I'm sorry Wills," I said, not sure if she could hear me or not, but it never hurt. I stood up straight and reached out, shaking Bill's hand. The fire spread to my hand as well, but I didn't feel it. Then I realized something. "So, what puppet are you gonna pick anyway?" I asked, not that I was really THAT worried about it. Mabel had made a lot of extras that she didn't really NEED, and she had made back-ups of the important ones, so any that he picked wouldn't hurt anybody.
"Let's see," he said, pointing at some different puppets around the room. "Eeeny, meeny, miney…" His eye went red and he pointed at me, his voice going demonic as he said, "YOU!"
Since we've been up here, I've felt some weird things, but this took the prize. I don't really know how to describe it, but I'll do my best. You know how when you're in a car and the driver slams the brakes really fast? You feel like you're going to fly forward out of your body, but then your seatbelt pulls you back. Imagine how it would feel without your seatbelt on, and that's as close as I can get to describing how it felt.
One second I was shaking hands with Bill, the world black and white, Willow frozen from what I could tell. The next second, I was seeing the attic from the perspective you would have on a security camera, the color back in the world. I glanced down and saw that I looked like a ghost, transparent and intangible. Willow was bending down next to my body, which had collapsed against the wall, the laptop in the window seat behind it, the timer showing thirty seconds.
"The laptop!" I yelled at Willow, but whatever Bill had done to me made it so she couldn't hear. With fifteen seconds left, my body stood up, and let me tell you; it was just WRONG, and not just because I now had Bill's cat eyes. A mirror or a photograph doesn't capture how other people see you. The only thing that does that is seeing yourself from another person's perspective. I could see how tired I was and how much I needed to sleep, but I couldn't focus on that; I was focused on what Bill was doing.
"Sorry kid, but you're my puppet now!" Bill yelled, his voice still his from what I could tell. He pushed Willow away from him, causing her to fall across the bed. Before she could get back up and do anything, Bill grabbed the laptop and threw it on the ground, stomping on it. It looked worse than it did when we had found it in the Bunker; wires were sticking out and I could tell that some important pieces had been smashed.
"YOU!" Willow yelled, kicking herself up off the bed and charging at Bill. If she had any concerns about fighting something that looked like me, she didn't show them. She attacked full-force, bending low to try and sweep my feet out from under me. Bill jumped over her leg and before she could react, he grabbed her ankle and pushed her back, sending her sprawling.
Bill ran over to her and tried to grab her, but she kicked him in the gut, sending him back a few paces, not hurting him, but giving herself time to stand up and catch her breath. Bill ran at her and tried to kick her, but she grabbed his ankle and threw him back. Unfortunately, Bill had grabbed her wrists, so when he went down, she came with him. They both fell, Willow on top, trying to pin Bill down. He threw her to the side and wrapped his legs around her neck in a scissor hold. After a few seconds of struggling, Willow went limp.
"That'll show you not to mess with me," Bill said, taking one leg off her and pushing her, none too gently, off his other leg and standing up. "Maybe next time you'll-" I smiled; Bill had fallen for that hook, line and sinker. Not only had Bill believed Willow was unconscious and released her to move freely, it had also given her time to catch her breath and get her second wind. As Bill walked past her legs, she stuck one out in front of him and put the other one behind, squeezing and pulling him down backwards, sending him crashing to the floor.
She stood up and went over to him, Bill kicking her in the gut. But the difference between when she did it and this time was Bill had grabbed her wrists again and kept her close to him, not giving her time to catch her breath, which would have been helpful after that kick. Bill sat up a bit, not fully, and put his foot back in her abdomen. He leaned back fast and pulled, taking her up and over, making her roll into the closet, causing her to go limp again. She was still breathing, but she wasn't moving. Bill walked over and slammed the door shut, locking it with her inside and dusting his hands off.
"Man, was that FUN!" Bill yelled gleefully, walking over to the mirror and looking at my body in it. "I forgot how much fun it was inhabiting a body!" He slapped both of my cheeks excitedly. "Pain is hilarious! And two eyes? This thing's deluxe!" I don't know what it was, but something finally snapped me out of the trance I had been in during the fight and everything that had just happened in the past five or so minutes came back to me.
"Why are you doing this? I thought we had a deal!" I yelled at Bill as he opened the door to the attic and walked out. I followed behind him, floating through the wall, which was actually something I could get used to. It was definitely a real time saver. He closed the door and locked it, then turned and looked directly at me.
"Oh kid, we do have a deal. I said I wanted a puppet in exchange for a hint, and sooner or later you'll see I followed through. Technically, I never said I wanted a sock puppet. You just assumed that was what I meant; That one's on you, not me. As for why… Let's just say you kids were getting way too close to figuring out some major answers. I've got big plans coming and I don't need you getting in the way. Destroying the laptop was easier than I thought. Now I just need to destroy your journal. Race ya to the bottom of the stairs!" With that, he literally threw himself down the steps. I winced: I was gonna have some major bruises after this. Then I floated through the floor and into the kitchen.
"Human soda!" Bill said excitedly from the fridge. He pulled out a can of Pitt Cola and popped the top. "I'm gonna drink it like a person!" He tilted his head back and started waterfalling the drink into his mouth and all over his face, draining it in ten seconds. He threw the can into the corner and opened one of the drawers. "Where do you keep that journal anyway? It's gotta be around here somewhere. And for someone with noodle arms, these things are pretty durable." He said that last bit because he had started slamming the drawer shut on my arm repeatedly.
"I've hidden it!" I told him, for once glad to be paranoid. "It's somewhere you'll never find it in a million years!" Because of how old the Shack is, some of the loose floorboards make pretty good hiding spaces/cubby holes. I just had to hope Bill wouldn't-
"Hey Dipper!" Mabel yelled at us from the doorway, her next words running together. "IborrowedyourjournaltouseasapropintheshowIhopeyoudon'tmindI'mgonnagobeforeyouprocessthesentenceokayBBBYYYEEE!" I barley understood half of that, but the important parts I got: Bill now knew where the journal was. I looked back at him and saw that he was grinning like a shark. I really needed to start brushing better.
"Sounds great sis! See you at the show!" I had to stop Mabel, tell her that I wasn't me, but by the time I got outside, Mabel was already in Grunkle Stan's El Diablo, getting ready to pull out. I started yelling at them, floating in front of the car, trying to get them to stop and see me, realize something was off, but Stan just drove right through me, not even noticing I was there. I thought my voice echoed a bit, but I wasn't sure; All this was new to me.
"Welcome to the mindscape kid," Bill told me, walking up to where I was staring at the car drive away in shock. "Without a vessel to possess you're basically a ghost." That explained the intangibility. Someone called to us from behind. We both turned around and saw Wendy and Soos walking up to me. Again, I tried to get their attention, let them know what had happened, but I just floated through Soos like I wasn't even there. This time I know my voice echoed, whatever that meant.
"We're heading to the theater. You and Wills need a ride?" YES! Willow was still unconscious (Wow. Never thought I would consider someone being unconscious a good thing)! Now they would realize something was off!
"I do. Willow said she would meet up with us there. She's still trying to figure out that laptop," he said, the three of them walking towards Soos' pickup, me floating behind them.
"We're gonna stop you Bill!" I told him as he climbed into the backseat of the truck. "We're gonna get that journal before you do and we're gonna stop you!"
"But how can you stop me…" He said, slowly turning to look at me as his window started going up. "…If you don't exist?" The truck pulled away, Bill maniacal laughter ringing in my ears as they drove off.
I floated back upstairs to see if Willow was okay. She was just starting to wake up and I had no doubts she would have trouble getting out. After that, I started literally floating through town towards the theatre. Despite the urgency of the situation, I took it slow, thinking over everything that had happened. Most of it consisted of I'm an idiot or Willow's gonna kill me and variations on that, but between those statements was me thinking about what Bill said to me.
"…A hint, and… you'll see I followed through." If I had learned anything from the first time, it was that Bill took his deals VERY seriously. That raised the question: What was the hint he gave us? Whatever it was, it was there somewhere. We just had to find it.
"…Close to figuring out some major answers." That was good. Bill had come to us; that meant we were close enough that he was nervous and felt the need to destroy the laptop… and the journal. Losing the laptop was bad enough, but if we lost the journal too, we were dead, me especially. That thing had saved our lives more times than I could count, and I couldn't imagine losing it. It was the only thing I could think of that would help me out of this situation.
"I've got big plans coming…" Whatever those 'plans' were, Bill thought we were a threat to them. I don't know if that was good or bad, but either way, there was no way those plans were good news for us. Whatever happened after this, we HAD to make sure Bill wasn't able to fulfill his plans.
And just like that, I floated through a building and wound up at the theatre. The marquee above the building read GLOVE STORY: A SOCK OPERA BY MABEL PINES. I floated through the walls and into the main room. Surprisingly, most of the seats were filled up. I glanced around, looking for a familiar red head. They were in the front row, Bill with his arms around Wendy and Soos. I floated towards them, actually glad no one could see me, and hid behind their row of seats.
"Guys! You all made it!" I heard Mabel say to them. Great! She was falling for Bill's ruse, and didn't even realize Willow wasn't here.
"By the by Mabel, where'd you put my journal again?" I heard Bill ask. I wasn't sure who's voice it was anymore. I heard his voice, but nobody thought he sounded weird, so I couldn't tell 100%.
"I'm using it as a prop in the wedding scene," Mabel told him. "But it's the only part not played by a puppet. I still need a reverend."
"What if I play the reverend?" Bill offered. I attempted to face-palm, but my hand just went right through my head. That was a little weird, but I had more important things to deal with. Mabel had accepted and was dragging Bill backstage. I floated through the chairs and curtains, following them to where Mabel had put her costumes. She gave Bill the reverend outfit and showed him to the bathroom, then went onstage to get ready for the show that was starting any minute.
I floated up to give myself a view of the audience. The lights flickered and Grenda's voice announced that the show was starting. The house lights turned off and the stage lights came on, making it practically impossible for me to see anybody. I thought I saw those government agents, but like I said, it was impossible to tell for sure. A minute into the show, the doors on the left flew open, the person in silhouette, but from the way they marched down the aisle, I knew it was Willow. She went up to where Grunkle Stan, Soos and Wendy were sitting, talked to them for like two seconds, then turned back around and ran up the aisle and out the doors. She would be coming up here sooner or later. I had to figure out a way I could get her to hear me. Then something else Bill had said to me earlier came back to me.
"Without a vessel to possess…" Where would I find- I noticed the extra puppets Mabel had made. Those would work. It was a bit weird trying to get one on my hand because of the intangibility, but I got it figured out. I floated around backstage until I saw a star with Mabel's name on it on a door. I floated inside and saw Willow already there, pacing around furiously, muttering under her breath.
"Don't kill me," I said, making her jump and getting her attention. When she saw the floating puppet of me I had found, twenty different expressions came on her face in the space of two seconds, anger the most prominent among them.
"You don't want to know what I'm thinking right now," she growled at me. I sighed, knowing how hard it was for her to be holding her feelings in right now.
"Okay," I sighed. "Let me have it." The next words that came out of her mouth would have made a drill sergeant blush, and I deserved every second of it. After a good ten minutes during which I was glad I was intangible, she finally calmed down. "You done?"
"Yeah. I'm still pissed at you though," she told me, which the last ten minutes made obvious. "Now, tell me EXACTLY what happened, word for word."
That took a while, mostly because she stopped me after every sentence so she could write it down for future reference. Then I had to tell her the entire story again from the beginning to make sure we hadn't missed anything, so by the time we were done, the show was about to go to intermission.
"Okay then. We'll worry about what Bill said later. Right now, we have to get Bill out of your body." Just then, the lights flickered and the door flew open, Mabel walking in and talking to herself. When she noticed Willow talking to a floating puppet of me, she flipped out and threw a fork at the puppet.
"It's come to life! The puppet books didn't warn me about this!" She yelled, hiding behind Willow, who moved away from her and smacked her on the back of the head.
"Long story short, Dipper's an idiot, Bill's a piece of crap, and now you have to get us the Journal back before Bill destroys it," Willow told her. Again, I deserved everything she was saying about me.
"My cue's coming up any minute!" Mabel told us before someone knocked on the door. It opened a bit and Gabe's head poked through.
"Mabel, you have a minute?" He questioned, opening the door fully. Mabel grabbed the puppet I was using out of the air and hid it behind her back, pulling me down into an uncomfortable position behind her. "Mabel, it's clear to me that you really love puppets. I mean, you went whole hog. And if you stick the ending, maybe later you could join me for a biscotti?" In that moment, I realized two things. One, I REALLY didn't like this guy. And two, Mabel is an idiot.
"You drive a biscotti?" She questioned, actually letting go of my arm. I let it fall to the ground; we didn't need anybody else knowing about what was going on right now. The lights started flickering.
"I'll be waiting," Gabe told her, leaving us alone again. As soon as he was gone, Mabel turned to us.
"You hear that! He's loving this! The rest of the play has to be flawless! Can't it wait until after the show?" I stand by my previous statement: she is an idiot.
"If Bill gets his hands on that thing, I'll be a sock puppet forever!" I yelled at her, making her laugh.
"Sorry, but the puppet looks funny when you're mad!" She said through the laughter. I growled at her and she stopped laughing, handing me some puppets. "Okay, okay. Just cover for me till I get back with the book," she said, walking out. I attempted to hand the puppet stuff to Willow, but she refused them.
"I'm gonna go look for Bill and keep him out of the way. This is your punishment for making a deal with him. Now get out there!" She grabbed my arm and flung me through the walls. I sighed and got the puppets on my arms, flipping the script open to the proper page. The curtains opened and I continued the show. Earlier when I said Mabel was an idiot, I couldn't really talk. I had trusted Bill. If anyone was an idiot, it was me, and I deserved this. I just hoped Mabel would be able to get the Journal, because it would be weird explaining to Mom and Dad why their son was now a sock puppet for all of eternity.
Mabel's POV
As I climbed up the ladder to the catwalk, I realized something: It would have been easier on everyone if I had just told Wills where the journal was. She could grab it, Dipper could stay in the dressing room, and I could have continued with the show. But hindsight is 20/20, so I had to make the best of this. And it was partly my fault too; I had taken the book without really asking, so I did feel kind of obligated to get it back for them
I walked across the catwalk slowly, trying not to make noise since the mics were hanging from the walkway. I glanced inside the cake and saw the journal sitting there. I climbed over the railing of the catwalk and started reaching for the journal, but it was too far away. I stretched out a bit more, now trying to grab the cake itself, when the hand I had on the railing slipped and I fell into the cake.
I grabbed the journal and wrapped my body around it, bracing for impact. Although, truth be told, I was more worried about the show being ruined that me getting hurt. Good news was someone, probably Willow, grabbed the other end of the rope and started pulling the cake back up to the catwalk. "Come on, come on! There must be a way to get Dipper's body back!" I said to myself, starting to flip through the journal.
"But why would you want to do that?" I looked up and finally saw it. I see Dipper every day, and now that I actually looked, there were noticeable differences between the two of them. For starters, the eyes. Normally cat eyes are cute, but on Dipper, they just looked wrong. Secondly was the smile. Dipper doesn't smile much, and when he does, it's only a small smile for maybe a second. Bill was smiling like a shark; it was creepy. Although he was working that suit I gave him. I've said it before; Dipper looks pretty good in suits, and even though Bill was possessing him, it still looked nice. And he did have better posture than Dipper. But that didn't change the fact that I hated him.
"Bill Dipper!" I whisper-yelled at him. I couldn't really call him Dipper, cause Dipper was now a sock, and I couldn't really call him Bill since he was in Dipper's body, so I decided to call him, "Bipper!"
"Shh! You wouldn't want to ruin the show…" Bipper told me, gesturing behind him to where Gabe was sitting in the audience, thankfully still enjoying the show. Bill 'accidentally' let go of the rope, making me fall a foot of two before he grabbed it again, pulling me back up. "How's about you hand that book over?"
"No way! I'd never give it away!" I told him. I'm not stupid. It different taking something for a few hours and giving something away to someone else who is evil and will destroy it along with your entire family.
"You didn't have a problem taking it for your own play." But that was different! I was gonna give it back! "Or ditching them when they needed you." Like they needed three people to type words! "So, come to your senses. Give me the book or your play is ruined." I sighed. They were gonna kill me for doing this, but it had to be done. I started handing the journal to Bill. "There it is. I mean, who would sacrifice everything they've worked for just for their dumb sibling?"
I am an IDIOT! (And yes, all that is required.) I finally understood what's been going on the past few days. Although you don't need three people to type words, they've probably only gotten like ten hours of sleep, which is not a lot. If I had helped them, even for just a day, it would have given them time to get some sleep, which I had been telling them to do. But it wasn't really about me helping them. It was about me putting my siblings first, which is what they had been doing for me, even though I haven't paid them back. Until now.
"They would," I said, pulling the Journal back to me, taking Bipper with it. He let go of the rope and landed next to me in the cake, the two of us crashing to the floor, destroying the sets. We rolled out of the cake and along the stage, wrestling for the Journal. I yanked it away from Bipper and slammed it on his face, wincing slightly. I climbed off Bipper and moved away from him, glad to see that I hadn't re-broken his nose, and also glad to see that Bill was starting to feel Dipper's exhaustion. Already his movements were getting sluggish, although Bill didn't seem to notice yet.
"You can't stop me!" Bill yelled, standing up and moving closer. "I'm a being of pure energy with no weakness!" He jumped, tackling me down. I smiled; he was in a perfect position.
"True, but you're in Dipper's body, and I know all his weaknesses!" Bipper looked confused, giving me the moment I needed to bring my hand up and start tickling his armpit. He started laughing and fell off me, curling in on his stomach, giving me time to stand up.
"Body spasms! What are these?" He questioned, standing up and starting to chase me. I smiled; Dip's exhaustion was now clearly evident in Bipper's face. I just had to get him to notice.
"Little fact about the human body- You haven't slept in almost 24 hours!" I told him, running around the stage, glad to see that he now noticed the tiredness. "Also, I got a full night's sleep and I'm on four mega-shots of Mabel Juice!" I swear, now that he knew how tired Dipper was, it was shown clearly on his face where it hadn't been a few minutes ago. I didn't even have to run anymore. A turtle could move faster than he was right now. I stopped running and turned around, watching him.
"What is this feeling?" He questioned, sluggishly moving around like a drunk person. "My body is burning! I can't move these stupid noodle legs! Curse you useless flesh sticks!" He yelled that part, punching his leg, trying to get them working again. It didn't work and he started tripping over his own feet and staggering. "Body… shutting down… must, scratch, mosquito bites…" With that, he tripped and fell, Dipper's body going limp on the floor.
The world went black and white, Bill flying out of Dipper's body, me being able to see ghost-Dipper floating in the air. Ghost-Dipper floated into his body, color returning to the world. It was a few seconds, but just as Willow walked up to me, Dipper started to stir. We reached down and helped him stand up, audible pops and cracking sound coming from his body.
"Everything hurts," Dipper groaned, holding his back painfully. Cackling laughter came from upstage. We looked over and saw a Dipper puppet inching its way across the stage.
"This isn't the last you'll hear of me!" Bill's voice told us, the puppet climbing onto a box. "Big things are coming! You can't stop me!"
I looked out at the audience and saw Gabe staring at me incredulously. I sighed and pulled the remote out of my pocket. The show was already dead anyway, so it couldn't make it worse. "I'm sorry Gabe," I said, pressing the button. The box the puppet was on was a box of explosives I had been planning on using for the big finish. They went off, exploding everywhere, into the audience, some even going backstage and blowing up some puppets. The Dipper puppet landed at our feet. Dipper stomped on it, putting out the flames and making half of it disintegrate. Then we turned to the audience, all of whom were staring at us, not moving an inch.
"Don't worry. I've seen enough movies to know this is the part where the audience thinks it was all part of the show and loves it. Cue applause!" From behind us, a piece of scaffolding landed on the floor. Yeah, no way that could be passed off as intentional. The audience all started booing, leaving the theatre. In ten seconds, the only people who were left were us, Candy, Grenda, Grunkle Stan, and Gabe. "GABE!" I said nervously, knowing this wasn't gonna work out, but I had to try. "Stick around for the wrap party? We've got mini-quiches!"
"Don't speak to me Mabel," Gabe told me, standing up stiffly. "You've made a mockery of my art form. Let's go my loves." He walked away, kissing the book and bee puppets he had on his hands.
"Did he just make out with his puppets?" Willow questioned once he was out of earshot.
"I might've dodged a bullet there," I decided. Candy ran out from backstage, chasing Gabe and yelling in Korean. She wanted him, he was hers.
"Mabel, I'm sorry," Dipper told me, gesturing at the mess the explosives had made. "It's my fault your show got ruined."
"No, it's mine," I told him, much to his shock. "I spent all week obsessing over a dumb guy. But the dumb guy I should have cared about was you. If I had helped you guys today, none of this would have happened. And I promise, I'll make it up to you guys. Pines Inc.?" I offered, holding my fist out. Willow sighed and put her fist in.
"I'm still mad, but yeah. Pines Inc."
"Pines Inc," Dipper said, putting his fist in, the three of us attempting to do our handshake. The second Dipper's hand hit ours, loud cracking sounds came from it. He attempted to shake it out, but that only made it crack more. "What'd Bill do to my hand?"
"Nothing a little sleep can't fix!" I said happily, glad this whole thing was finally over. As soon as we got back, we we're all gonna crash. I could feel the Mabel Juice and adrenaline wearing off, but I was still in better shape than my sibs. "Come on guys. Let's go home."
"I think I need to go to the hospital," Dipper told us, the three of us walking off stage. On the way back, I found a note Bill had written.
Note to self: Possessing people is hilarious! To think of all the sensations I've been missing out on—burning, stabbing, drowning. It's like a buffet tray of fun! Once I destroy that journal, I'll enjoy giving this body its grand finale—by throwing it off the water tower! Best of all, people will just think Pine Tree lost his mind, and his mental form will wander in the mindscape forever. Hey Oak Leaf, Shooting Star! You girls want to join him?
Talk about creepy! Anyway, that night, the two of them, practically asleep on their feet from exhaustion, asked me to write in the Journal for them. As soon as they were asleep, I took the Journal out onto the roof and wrote the entry for them, starting from when Bill had appeared to Willow last night and ending with the note I had found. Since I still felt bad about everything that happened, I added this in there at the end.
Guys, whenever you read this, I want you to know I'm sorry. And for the next week, IOU both ice cream sandwiches, on me. Love Mabel.
I know it's a pathetic excuse as an apology/I'll-make-it-up-to-you, but I would make it up to them fully sooner or later. Somehow…