Dipper and Mabel wandered through the dump, calling out for McGucket. Dipper opted for the simple approach, shouting the hillbilly's name over and over. Mabel, though…
"Here, McGucket!" she said, waving a squirrel around that she'd grabbed from…somewhere. "I've got a new friend for you! Or possibly a chance to get revenge?!" She looked at Dipper in askance. "I was never sure if the raccoons were his friends or not. Do you think they have a rivalry with the squirrels, or is it more of a friendly collaboration?"
"I'm not going to dignify that with a response." Dipper said flatly as they rounded a mound of garbage and were faced with a small metal hut. "There! That's gotta be where he lives!" Dipper said excitedly as he rushed forward. "McGucket! Are you home?" he called as he drew closer to the door.
"What's your opinion on squirrels?" Mabel called as she stepped next to her brother.
"Squirrels!" came a heavily accented Southern voice from inside the hut. "They're no good varmits is what they are! Good eatin', though." A cackle followed that statement as the hunched form of Old Man McGucket appeared in the doorway. "Why d'ya ask?"
Mabel, who now had her hands hidden behind her back, gave a too-wide grin in response. "No reason."
"Mr. McGucket, we really need to talk to you. It's important." Dipper said, trying to get back on task.
McGucket looked delighted to hear that. "Ooooo-weee! I can't remember the last time someone needed me for somethin' important," he exclaimed while hamboning on his legs. "Well, come on in, kids!" McGucket said as he stepped back inside. Mabel let her squirrel go, whispering for it to run free, while Dipper stepped into the hut. It was small, but incredibly cluttered with piles of garbage and machinery.
McGucket gestured to an old rocking chair. "Please, make yourselves at home. Only got the one chair, but there's plenty of scrap metal to go around!" He cackled again as he settled onto the aforementioned metal.
Dipper didn't move to sit down, instead he pulled out the Journal as Mabel caught up to them. "The jig is up, McGucket! I know you were studying the supernatural here! I know you wrote this journal!"
McGucket's face lit up for a moment, then fell. "Aw, phooey, that can't be true. I ain't good enough to have written a big, fancy book like that."
Dipper looked triumphant. "Well, if it wasn't you, then it must have been Stanford!"
"Wait!" Mabel interjected, looking at McGucket, "You looked excited for a second there. Why does it sound like you don't know whether you wrote it or not?"
McGucket shifted uncomfortably. "My memory ain't too good no more. Everything before 1982 is just a blur."
Mabel grinned. "Well, we can help with that." She pulled the laptop out of Dipper's vest. "We found your name inside this old laptop. And it was dated 1979."
Dipper caught onto what his sister was doing. "Yeah, we found this in a bunker built by the Author of this Journal, so we thought it might be you. But the password is Stanford, so he must have been the Author, or someone important to him-"
"Like a secret lover!" Mabel chimed in.
"Or a research assistant," Dipper added, giving Mabel a look. "Stanford, supernatural research, bunker, journals? Is this-Is this doing anything for you? Anything at all?"
McGucket started massaging his temples with a look of concentration on his face. After a few moments, he shook his head. "Sorry, kids, but I just don't recall."
"You poor old man," Mabel said, shaking her head sadly. Then, her expression brightened. "Hey, maybe if you actually use the laptop, something will come back to you. Muscle memory and all that junk."
She held the laptop out to McGucket. He took it slowly, setting it in his lap and giving Mabel a hesitant look. She smiled and gave a thumbs up, so he opened it and turned it on. Upon seeing the startup graphic, though, he screamed and threw the laptop up into the air. Dipper's eyes widened, and he lunged to catch it before it could smash on the ground. Thankfully, Dipper managed to snatch it out of the air, and he held it against his chest as he turned to glare at McGucket. His anger came up short, though, when he saw the state the old man was in.
McGucket was curled up on the ground, rocking back and forth while babbling to himself. Mabel rushed over to him. "McGucket, what's wrong?"
Instead of answering, McGucket clutched his head and wailed. "When gravity falls, and earth becomes sky, fear the beast with just one eye!"
As Mabel started trying to calm him down, Dipper began to think. "Beast with just one eye"? No, he couldn't mean…He flipped to the page in his journal showing Bill Cipher while stepping forward. "McGucket, is this who you meant by that?"
"Dipper, no!" Mabel exclaimed, but it was too late. Upon seeing the shadowy figure of Bill in the journal, McGucket screamed, "Yroo Xrksvi! Girzmtov!" and ran out of the hut on all fours.
"McGucket, wait!" Dipper said, running after him. He let out an "Oof" as he felt something grab his vest and stop him in his tracks. He turned and saw Mabel holding him back. "Mabel, c'mon, he's getting away!"
"Dipper, listen to yourself! McGucket's obviously remembering something traumatic, and all you care about is what you can get out of him!" Mabel said. He stopped fighting her to think about those words. After a few moments, he felt a wave of guilt wash over him.
"Oh, man," Dipper said as Mabel released him, "Did I really just chase McGucket out of his own house? Argh, I pushed too hard!"
"Yeah, you really did." Mabel said, crossing her arms and fixing him with a disappointed look. As he wilted under her gaze, though, she relented with a sigh. "Dipper, I get why you're being like this. I really do. This whole thing with Stan is a big deal, but you've got to relax! It's not good for you, and now it's turning you into a buttface." She put her hand on his shoulder. "Look, let's just…disconnect from the mystery for a little while. Just for a few days," she hastily added as he opened his mouth to retort, "just enough to clear our heads a bit. Then we'll come back, apologize to McGucket, and figure it out."
"Mabel, it's not that easy for me to just 'disconnect'," Dipper said, shrugging her hand off his shoulder. "Even if we take a break, I'll be thinking about it constantly. Especially since we still have to live with Stan in the meantime."
"Please, Dipper," Mabel said, giving him her puppy dog eyes, "Just give it a try. If not for yourself, then for me?"
This time, though, the puppy dog routine just irritated Dipper. Of course, she has all the empathy in the world for McGucket, but she can't understand how much this is going to bother me. Still, I do have to back off from McGucket for a little while, give him time to calm down, figure out a better approach…Dipper looked away sullenly. "Fine," he said, making his way out of the hut. He ignored Mabel thanking him, and her happy chattering on the way back to the Shack. It's just for a few days, you can handle this he thought to himself as they neared the Shack. He opened the gift shop door and spotted Stan gleefully counting his profits for the day. Instantly, suspicions and doubts began swirling in his head, just as viciously as they had last night.
Oh no.
Dipper wasn't quite himself over the next few days. It might've been hard to spot if Mabel hadn't specifically been on the lookout for it. He acted normally enough whenever he was around her, Wendy, and Soos, goofing off and complaining about work. He even made time for one of his bad movie nights with Wendy. The fact that the bags beneath his eyes were getting deeper could be easily overlooked as just his natural state of being, unless you knew Dipper had a reason to be extra stressed. The only strange behavior that their friends might pick up on was his sudden unwillingness to leave the Shack. Even that was a very subtle change, Mabel herself had only figured it out because she'd been deliberately trying to coax Dipper into some low stakes adventures to take his mind off things, and his blanket refusal started getting suspicious after a while. Only then had she noticed him constantly offering to trade whatever outdoor task Stan had demanded of him for one of the others' indoor tasks, even if they were way more difficult and/or gross.
It was an especially strange behavior for him to have picked up, considering how he'd started acting around Stan. He'd become cagey and quiet, and more often than not he'd find an excuse to leave the room if Stan walked in. If anything, Mabel would expect him to leap at the chance to get away and relieve the crazy thoughts he apparently had around Stan, but no. It didn't make much sense to her, so she just tried to keep Dipper occupied. Without being able to leave the Shack, Mabel had to get creative. She dug out their mini golf course, and she built a pillow fort to give it an extra special 19th hole. That also inspired her to build a blanket fort in the bathroom (you never know, maybe Dipper's anxiety had made him a shy pooper). She also helped Dipper when he inevitably started preparing for when their investigation would properly resume. It wasn't exactly what she'd had in mind when she suggested they take a break, but Dipper was clearly trying his best, so she decided to try and fun-ify the process instead of trying to stop it. Mabel made themed, glittery flash cards that would try and jog McGucket's memory, played word association games with Dipper, and posed outlandish theories about how McGucket lost his memories whenever Dipper got too nerdy about it.
After a few days cooped up in the Shack, though, Mabel started getting antsy. That, plus the fact that she still thought what Dipper really needed was an adventure to distract him, had her plotting ways to make it happen. The perfect opportunity came not long after that. She'd come down to hang out in the gift shop after their latest brainstorming session when she heard a scream. She turned to see a woman fleeing from the T-shirt rack, and Mabel caught a brief glimpse of Soos ducking down to hide among the fabric. She went over to see what was going on, peeking inside with a questing, "Soos?"
Soos looked at her dejectedly. "Hey, dude." he said.
"What's going on?" Mabel asked.
"I don't know!" Soos suddenly exclaimed. "I think I was flirting?! But I'm not sure!"
"Flirting?" Mabel said, as a grin split across her face. "What's going on?"
Soos rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I sort of promised my grandma that I'd get a date by the end of the week. But I've never even been on a date before." He sighed and grabbed the sign from the vending machine and stuck it on his chest. "You belong on me, out-of-order sign."
"Soos, this is perfect! I've been waiting for a chance to utilize my expert matchmaking skills!" Mabel said, "Don't worry, Soos. Me and Dipper are going to help you get the girl of your dreams!" And the best part is, Dipper can't possibly say no to this! she silently added.
"You mean it, dude?" Soos said, perking up a bit.
"Of course I do! You do so much for us! I'll go get Dipper right now!" Mabel said before charging out of the gift shop, barely catching what Stan said about Soos needing to get rich. She took the stairs two at a time and burst into the attic yelling, "Dipper! We've got an emergency!"
Dipper jumped, dropping the book on terminal commands he'd gotten from the library before looking at her. "Mabel, what, who's dying?"
"Soos's chances at romance, that's what! He needs a date by the end of the week, and I promised we'd help him!"
Dipper stood up, eyeing their pile of flash cards. "I don't know, Mabel. I mean, we're so close to being ready to confront McGucket. Do we really have time for this?"
Mabel could hardly believe what she was hearing. "Dipper, come on! This is for Soos! Our friend! He needs us right now, and I am not leaving him hanging!"
Dipper threw one last, hesitant glance at the cards, before meeting her eyes and nodding determinedly. "You're right. For Soos!"
Mabel pumped her fist in the air as she ran out of the attic. "For Soos!"
Z htiw A hctiwS
NXTFXPVG XZM'G SZMWOV GSV DLIHG NVNLIRVH YVULIV SV TVGH GSV IVHG
Previous code: ECIMAW TOTALLY BEATS RADAWGSAURUS, AND IT'S NOT CLOSE.
Notes: That's right, we're doing Society of the Blind Eye and Soos and the Real Girl simultaneously! What should we call it, Society of the Real Girl or Soos and the Blind Eye? Sorry if anyone was expecting to get to the meat of Blind Eye right now, but I think this angle leads to some fun places.
As always, ratings and reviews are much appreciated. Thank you all for reading!