The laptop took a while to warm up. At least, that's what Dipper thought at first. But as the minutes stretched on and nothing seemed to be happening, Dipper experimentally pushed a button on the keyboard, and the letter showed up on the screen. Dipper smacked his forehead. Of course this thing isn't going to be like a modern computer. He'd hoped, after seeing the fancy startup graphic, that the laptop would be advanced enough that his skills could transfer. He speculated that it probably was, but whoever made it hadn't had a problem with the way computers had always been for their time. None of that speculation was getting him closer to a solution, though. Remapping the laptop to something like Doors would probably require a system wipe, if it could even run it in the first place. Dipper rubbed his eyes. He'd just have to figure this out the old-fashioned way.
To start with, he typed in some random letters. He didn't want to accidentally do something that could erase the data. This ended up working out, since when he pressed enter the laptop put up a new line of text.
qhug is not a command. Type help for a list of commands.
Dipper grinned as he followed the instructions and a huge list of commands greeted him. He went through them slowly, not understanding most of them. "Change directories?" he said, looking at the entry for cd. He grabbed a pen from his bedside table and began idly chewing on it. "What's a directory? Well, I probably shouldn't change it before I know what it is." He tapped down a bit more. "Hey, 'Show current working directory!' Maybe that'll help me figure out what a directory is!" He typed in pwd, and the laptop responded with
/root
"Root? The heck does root mean?" Dipper said, chewing fiercely. "Hold on, it's slash root. Is that like a path? So is root a file? No, it doesn't have a dot…so is it a folder? Wait, is that what a directory is? Just a fol-Blech!" The pen in his mouth finally exploded, dribbling down his front and setting him coughing. Of course, this was the moment that Mabel decided to walk into the attic.
"Ha! That pen taste good, Dipper?" Mabel teased as she strolled over to his bed and began rummaging underneath it.
"Ugh, gross…" Dipper muttered as he wiped the ink out of his mouth. He finally noticed Mabel digging under his bed. "Hey! What gives?"
"Just…looking for…there we go!" She pulled out Journal 3 with a big smile. "This'll be perfect for the wedding scene!"
Dipper's eyes widened, and he lunged forward, grappling for the journal before Mabel could dart off with it. "What are you doing! You can't use the journal for your puppet show!"
Mabel had been expecting his assault, and while she couldn't quite get away in time, she did manage to keep a hold of the book. "What, why not?! We both know you're gonna be going through that laptop all day!"
Dipper yanked the journal closer. "What if the laptop's got codes in it? I need it!"
"Doesn't look like you need it to me," Mabel gave a vicious tug, almost getting it from him, "Otherwise it wouldn't have been under your bed!"
"I just woke up like a minute ago!" Dipper said, straining to keep his grip.
"Then this is gonna be easy!" Mabel finally pulled the book free, running for the door, but Dipper was hot on her heels. She did make it out of the room, but Dipper caught up to her on the stairs. With the extra height, he jumped right over her head, landing on the…landing and spinning around to face her.
Mabel eyed him carefully, obviously gauging if she could slip past him or not. Dipper decided that it was way too early for all this chasing nonsense (even though it was probably like noon), and figured he'd try to reason with her. "Mabel, why do you even want the journal anyway? If all you need is a prop, you know you can just use any book, right?"
"I can't just 'use any book', Dip, it's gotta look official! I thought, well, what's the most official looking book I know? Duh-doi, the journal!"
Dipper rubbed the space between his eyes in exasperation. "Official? With the giant, six-fingered hand on the front? What, are they getting married in the church of some kind of weird, six-fingered death god or something?"
"Don't give me ideas, Dipper!"
Dipper sighed deeply. "Alright, look, just go back to the room and I'll help you out." Mabel glared at him for a moment, looking for signs of a trick, but eventually she nodded and went back up the stairs, Dipper trailing along behind her. Getting back to the room, Dipper went over to his bed and pulled his Sibling Brothers book from behind it.
"Sibling Brothers? Dipper, I said it needed to look official…" She trailed off as Dipper pulled off the cover slip. The over-the-top art gave way to a simple black cover. It looked a lot more like it belonged in a church than his journal. At least, he hoped it did.
Dipper held it out to her. "Here. Not like I'm gonna be getting any reading done while I'm working on the laptop anyway."
Mabel snatched it out his hand, a huge grin on her face. "This is perfect!" She tossed the journal on his bed next to the laptop and charged at him for a quick hug before running out of the room. "Thanks, Dip-Dop!" she called over her shoulder.
Despite himself, Dipper chuckled at her reaction. It wasn't until he crawled back into bed and set the laptop up in front of him that he realized that with that whole argument, he still hadn't told Mabel about Bill. The thought sobered him immediately. He considered running after her to tell her, but the more he thought about it, the less necessary it seemed. What did I really even learn? That Stan might be the author? We already knew that! And I mean, come on. Do I really need Mabel to tell me to not take the deal? Of course not. He looked at the door ruefully. Besides, it's not like Mabel seems to care that Stan might be the author.
Mabel cared that Stan might be the author a lot. To tell the truth, she'd never been too bothered about the mystery of the journal. She did care, but only because it was important to Dipper. As far as she was concerned, the journal and the author were just an excuse to hang out with her brother and go on fun adventures. Suddenly, though, the journal and the author felt a lot more like Mabel's business than she'd ever wanted it to. This confusing whirlwind of thoughts crossed her mind once again as she peeked from behind the counter of her puppet show and found Stan in the audience.
He was the same as the last time she'd done this. Kinda zoned out, but not asleep or gone. She remembered his words before the show started. "I'd never miss...whatever this is." The words of a grunkle who didn't get it, but was still supportive. His reaction since then lined up with that attitude. That means he loves us, right? It was time for her next line, and as she pulled her head back out of view she tried to push the thoughts aside and just focus on her lines.
"Finally, we're together!" I mean, it's a common name, right?
"I'm sorry, Mabel, but I have to go fight in the war!" But what if he is the author, why would he keep that a secret?
"I'll wait for you, Gabe! I'll wait for yooouu!" Does it even matter that he lied if he still loves us?
It was finally time for intermission. Mabel walked slowly to her dressing room, trying to get her stupid brain up to a point where she could at least focus on the show. Just think about it later! Why is that so hard?
Mabel sighed as she opened the door to her room, before taking a long drink from the water fountain. Because this is super important!
More important than Gabe? She stopped drinking, breathing deep and splashing her face with water. Now you're acting like Dipper, getting caught up in a dumb mystery instead of the boy of your dreams!
Right on cue, a knock came at her door and said boy peeked in. "Hey, Mabel. Do you have a moment?"
Mabel managed a smile, but not quite her usual enthusiasm. "Hi, Gabe. Sure, come on in."
Gabe let himself in, returning her smile. Ah, he's so perfect! "It's clear to me now that you love puppets. I mean, you went whole hog. And if you stick the landing, well, maybe you could join me for a biscotti later?"
Mabel considered it for a moment, but was saved from answering by the lights flickering, signalling the end of the intermission. Gabe smiled at her easily. "Well, I'll be waiting after the show once you make up your mind."
Mabel made her way back to the stage, still pondering it. It's everything I wanted from tonight! Gabe wants to go out with me! But, I also kind of want to go home and see if Dipper's made any progress. She peeked out from the curtain, looking between Stan and Gabe. Gabe seemed to be doing a small bit with his puppets to kill the last few minutes before the show resumed. Stan caught her eye, giving her a thumbs up and a grin which she half-heartedly returned.
She ducked behind the curtains as the lights dimmed and the curtain prepared to rise. She needed to make a choice. Dipper was the one who was indecisive, the one who let all the possibilities torture him until he was a nervous wreck. Mabel, though, knew how to pick a course of action and stick to it.
We'll deal with Stan if and when we need to. For now, I'm not gonna worry about it. She smiled then, the first genuine smile she'd had all night, and threw everything she had into sticking the landing. The show was a resounding success. She even got a standing ovation! Afterward, she caught Gabe outside the theater, and walked off with him (turns out a biscotti isn't actually a type of car).
And if she still felt doubt as she laughingly called "Don't wait up!" to her Grunkle Stan, then she pushed it away. She was on a date with her dream boy, and he was gushing about how great her show was, and everything was perfect. Thoughts about journals and who wrote them could very well wait.
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Previous code: WHY TELL A LIE WHEN THE TRUTH WILL SUFFICE?
Author's notes
Hey, everyone! I would've put one of these on the last chapter, but I wasn't exactly sure how. I wanted to say that I have about a five chapter lead on where the story is now, so I'm going to try and maintain a weekly update schedule for as long as I can.
Anyway, stuff for this chapter. The computer science major in me just had to write that opening bit with Dipper. Learning terminal commands was a very strange experience for me, and I think Dipper falling headfirst into the same pitfalls I did is funny. Old computer stuff will come up again, but I won't ever get too technical with it.
Mabel, meanwhile, is doing a classic Mabel move and shoving all her doubts aside to worry about later. I wanted to dedicate a section to showing that, since we all already know how Dipper's going to react to this situation once he takes a second to breathe. We'll dig deeper into him next time. And yeah, in this timeline, the puppet show went off without a hitch, so now Gabe and Mabel are dating. Don't worry, it won't last.
Any favorites or reviews will be much appreciated. Thank you for reading!