Dipper got on board with Mabel's plan to throw Soos a surprise birthday party much faster and with more enthusiasm than she'd been expecting. Maybe she should've seen it coming, a big part of why she wanted to do this in the first place was because she had a twin, and therefore knew how special birthdays are, but she'd been expecting Dipper to say it was "too frivolous" or whatever. Of course, he still insisted on their daily check in with McGucket and Tiffany, but he volunteered to hit the party store afterward while Mabel started baking both a cake flavored pizza and a pizza flavored cake (because how could she ever decide on just one?)

When Dipper returned, he had Tiffany in tow. "I told her about the party while we were catching up," Dipper explained, "and she had all these questions about what a party was and how it worked. I eventually got sick of it and just told her to tag along and see for herself."

"I wish to know everything about parties." Tiffany said.

"Parties are the best!" Mabel said, grinning. She gestured around, "It's a celebration of a person or a special occasion. Today, it's our friend Soos' birthday, and we're throwing him a grand party to celebrate it and show how much he means to us!"

"I see…" Tiffany said, "So you use parties to show care for a friend?"

"Of course!" Mabel said, going back to putting glitter on the cake.

"But," Dipper added hastily, "it's one of the bigger things you can do to show care. You don't want to do it too often, or else they might get tired of it."

"Oh, yeah," Mabel said. Right, she's a robot. She'll take everything we say literally. "It's also important to have small things to show you care. Bringing them their favorite food, or talking about their interests."

"Processing…" Tiffany said, freezing for a few seconds. There was a ding, and Tiffany said, "Friendship is hard."

Dipper and Mabel both laughed, then continued working on the party. Tiffany wandered back and forth between the kitchen and the corner of the outside where Dipper was setting up the decorations, mostly watching at first, then helping hang up banners or putting icing around the edges of the pizza.

Working together, they managed to get a world class party set up by noon, right when Soos was going on break. They convinced him to put on a blindfold (a slightly-worryingly easy task), and pulled him around to where the party was set up.

"Surprise!" Dipper and Mabel yelled in unison, ripping off the blindfold.

Soos took in the scene around him without saying anything, so Dipper clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Happy Birthday, man!"

"We got cake flavored pizza, and pizza flavored cake," Mabel said, "We also invited Tiffany!"

Tiffany waved. "Hello, new friend." She tilted her head, "You seem upset, what is wrong?"

Dipper and Mabel both took in Soos' face, finally noticing he did look upset right before he tugged his hat down and said, "It's uh, it's nothing. I gotta go fix a pipe or something." and running away.

As he did so, Stan and Wendy both walked around the corner. "What's going on with Soos?" Wendy asked, before seeing the party. "Oh no, oh no no no."

"What is it?" Tiffany said. "Has Soos already had a party today, and is therefore tired?"

To her credit, Wendy only blinked once at being addressed by a robotic squirrel in a cheerleader outfit before saying. "Nah, dude. You guys didn't know, so it's not your fault, but Soos hates his birthday. He has since he was a kid, some weird personal biz or something."

"There must be something we can do!" Mabel said.

"We've tried everything," Stan said, "I once petitioned the government to have this day removed from calendars. Now I'm not allowed on airplanes."

Everyone peeked around the corner, where Soos was sitting on the steps of the Shack, looking forlornly at something in his hand. "I don't know, guys," Wendy said. "Maybe we should just leave him alone, y'know?"

Dipper, as she'd noticed him doing a lot over the last few days, looked at Mabel first. Mabel knew what it was about, Dipper relying on her more when was feeling doubtful about the future, but this one felt different. "Nobody should be alone when they're feeling bad," Dipper said, still looking at Mabel. "Especially not on their birthday. We just need a plan." He looked around for a moment, eyes eventually landing on Tiffany and widening. "Stan, Wendy, Tiffany, tear down anything birthday related! Mabel, c'mon!"

Dipper ran toward Soos, Mabel close behind. She wasn't sure what the plan was, but she was ready to back him up. "Soos!" Dipper called as he drew closer.

Soos jumped, hastily shoving whatever he was looking at back in his pocket. "I wasn't slacking off, I swear!"

"You're on break, Soos." Dipper said flatly, before becoming earnest, "Listen, you need to come back to the party."

Soos sighed, "I know you dudes mean well, but I don't really wanna do anything for my birthday."

"I'm sorry, did we say it was a birthday party?" Dipper asked in feigned surprise. "What I meant to say is that it's a 'thanks for saving us from an evil robot and insane cult' party!"

"Wait, what?" Soos said.

"Yeah!" Mabel said, catching on. "I don't know if you remember 'cause your memory got zapped, but you totally did a heroic sacrifice!"

"I did?"

"You totally did! It was awesome, man!" Dipper said.

"You were all like, 'Tell Abuelita I went out like a hero,' and we were like, 'No, Soos don't!' and you were like, 'It's the only way!'" Mabel added enthusiastically.

"We just wanted to show you how much it meant to us," Dipper said. "How much you mean to us."

"And that's true no matter what day of the year it is!" Mabel said.

Soos looked back and forth between them for a few moments, not saying anything. Then, he tentatively smiled, saying, "I guess I could give it a shot."

"Yay!" Mabel said, grabbing Soos' hand and pulling him along. "Party time!"

Dipper was smiling as he began taking down the decorations. The party had been great, with Stan closing early so he could be there. Wendy was happy she didn't have to work, and she invited her crew to join in. They brought some life to the party, with everyone taking a turn to dare Thompson to do something funny. They didn't bring as much life as Mabel, though, who had taught Tiffany how to dance, and by the end of the party they had choreographed a whole routine together. The teenagers (and Stan) whooped and cheered as Mabel breakdanced, and while Soos wasn't as enthusiastic, he hadn't looked sad anymore either.

Speaking of Soos, he was walking over to Dipper now. Dipper raised a hand, saying, "Hey, Soos."

"Hey, Dipper. Um…" Soos paused a moment, before saying. "Thanks for the party, dude."

"No problem," Dipper said, "It was for you, man."

Soos chuckled. "Yeah, I guess so. It's just, I can't remember the last time I had fun at a party on my birthday. Even if it wasn't a birthday party, haha."

Dipper smiled at him. "Glad you had fun, dude. It's like me and Mabel said earlier, you're a great guy who's worth celebrating any day of the year."

Dipper returned to taking down decorations, hearing Soos mutter, "Any day of the year, huh?" Glancing back, Dipper saw him take something out of his pocket and look at it. After a moment he threw it on the ground and walked away, saying, "I wonder if Melody's off work yet…"

Curious, Dipper picked up the thing Soos had dropped. It was a postcard from New Orleans, and on the back it said "Sorry champ, couldn't make it this year. Real busy again. See you next year for sure! -Dad." The pieces connected and sadness spiked through Dipper. He looked over at Soos, wondering if he should try and comfort him, but he was on the phone, talking animatedly. He paused as the person on the other end said something, and he laughed, blushing a bit. Dipper smiled at him, before crumpling up the postcard and throwing it in the trash where it belonged.

The rest of the undecorating was uneventful, with Mabel eventually joining in after sending Tiffany on her way. Together, they had the whole thing done in a couple of hours. "Welp, I'm beat." Mabel said, rolling up the last party banner and tucking it under her arm.

"Yeah," Dipper said, opening the door and stepping through with Mabel, "Honestly, I kinda want to just check the laptop and-" The words died as he noticed that, instead of the Mystery Shack interior, they had stepped into a pure white room. He spun around, seeing the outside world for a moment before a door slid shut. He and Mabel ran towards it, banging on the walls.

"Nice try," a voice said from behind them. Spinning around, Dipper saw that it was coming from one of two men in futuristic armor. He continued, "That's solid Timetanium. There's only one way out of here."

"Through me!" a much more high pitched and screechy voice said. Dipper and Mabel looked around, but couldn't find the source. "Oh, c'mon…" The voice said, before a space next to the two Time Police flickered through a few images before revealing the time travel guy they'd run into earlier this summer. "Through me!" he said again, before stammering, "And-and that's how it would've been if I'd gotten it right the first time."

"Ugh," Mabel said, "What do you want…Blendo? Blarbo?"

She looked at Dipper for confirmation, who confidently said, "Blar-Blar."

"That's it!" Mabel said, snapping her fingers.

"It's Blendin!" Blendin said angrily, "Blendin Blenjamin Blandin! How could you forget me after you ruined my life!" Dipper tuned out as Blendin began telling the story of what happened to him after their last encounter, looking around for any means of escape. There wasn't anything, though, until a door on the opposite side slid open and revealed a stadium. "Winner gets to decide the loser's fate!" Blendin said, Dipper watching in horror as a loser was disintegrated right in front of him. He missed a few words Blendin said, but heard, "You two are officially challenged!"

Blendin walked off to prepare for battle, and Mabel whispered, "Dipper, we gotta get out of here!"

Dipper looked around, finally noticing the guards' Time Tapes. "I have an-" he cut himself off, eyes widening. "I have an even better idea! Mabel, we've been waiting for McGucket to get his memories back, but this is our chance to get answers! We can go back to 1982 and see for ourselves what happened!"

Mabel's eyes also widened, and she grinned. "Great idea, bro! But how are we getting that Time Tape?" A few minutes later, Mabel approached one of the Time Police, saying, "Oh my stars! It's my little, uh, Lolphy. I'm your great great great great great grandmother! From the past times!"

Lolph looked surprised, then happy as he said "Gam-gam?" Dipper carefully pulled the time tape from his belt, but unfortunately Blendin saw what was happening.

"No, you can't let them escape!" Dipper ran towards Mabel, while Mabel threw the party banner she was still holding over the Time Police.

"Gam-gam, why?!" Lolph cried out from under the banner.

"I ain't no one's Gam-gam, sucker! You just got time tricked!" Mabel called out as Dipper carefully measured out the tape.

"Got it! Hold on!" Dipper said, extending his arm. Mabel looped her arm through his, and they both disappeared just as the agents untangled themselves. When they reappeared, they were back in the Mystery Shack. Looking around, though, it was very different to what they were used to. They were standing in what should be the gift shop, but instead it looked to be a large storage room. "Whoah," Dipper said, "I guess this was before Grunkle Stan opened the Mystery Shack."

Mabel patted one of the boxes, causing a puff of dust to come up. "Looks like Grunkle Stan still hates cleaning, haha."

They heard footsteps from further inside the house, and Dipper had just enough time to worry about whether it would cause a paradox for Grunkle Stan to see them in the past before the door flew open. Grunkle Stan was there, looking worse than Dipper had ever seen him before. His eyes were bloodshot, and shirt was stained and ruffled. He also had a crossbow that was trained directly on Dipper. "Who are you!?" He yelled. He sounded very different than he would thirty years later, his voice now was much less gravelly. He also sounded incredibly manic as he continued with. "How did you get in here!? Have you come to steal my eyes!?"

Dipper and Mabel both raised their hands to show they were unarmed, Dipper staring intently at the crossbow pointed at him. With that strange focus born of sheer terror, he couldn't help but notice Stan's hands where they gripped the trigger. His eyes widened, words stolen from him as he realized that Stan has six fingers!

Mabel didn't seem to realize the same, or maybe just realized Dipper couldn't speak at the moment, so she said, "We must've taken a wrong turn somewhere, if you could just point us back towards town, that'd be great."

Stan twitched, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "My doors are all locked, you couldn't have gotten in here without breaking in. You must be thieves."

"We're not-" Mabel said hastily.

"Quiet!" Stan barked. Mabel shut up as he began to creep into the room. "But are you common thieves, or are you working for Him?" Dipper and Mabel glanced at each other in confusion before Stan pulled out a flashlight. "Step forward slowly, one at a time, and let me see your eyes." He said, never lowering his crossbow.

Dipper complied first, flinching when Stan grabbed him and shined the light directly in his eyes. "Ow! What the heck!" he said as Stan let him go.

"Now the other one." Stan said like he hadn't heard Dipper. He repeated the process for Mabel, before nodding and relaxing marginally. "Common thieves, then. I'll let you go if you give back whatever you stole."

"We didn't steal anything!" Dipper insisted.

"I'll be the judge of that," Stan said, "Turn out your pockets." They followed his instructions carefully. Dipper had few thinking pens in his pockets, while Mabel had her trusty pocket glitter and an emergency cookie. Stan grabbed the cookie and immediately ate it.

"Hey, that was mine!" Mabel protested.

Stan's mouth twitched. "Consider it payment for not calling the cops. Now get out." He gestured toward the door with his crossbow. Gratefully, Dipper and Mabel turned around. Dipper needed some time to process learning that Stan was, undoubtedly, the Author. Unfortunately he wouldn't get that time, because as they turned away Stan suddenly stiffened. "Wait! What's that lump in your vest, boy?"

Dipper panicked, because Stan would definitely recognize the journal, and he stammered. "It's, uh, summer reading!"

"It's fall," Stan said flatly.

Dipper laughed awkwardly. "I'm a little behind?" he tried.

Stan raised the crossbow again. "Show it to me."

Dipper took a deep breath, before pulling out the Journal. Stan yelped, lunging for the book and yanking it out of Dipper's hands before he could react. "Where did you find this?!" Stan yelled, sounding panicky. "Who told you about this!?"

"It-it was in a hole in the woods!" Dipper said quickly, eyes on the crossbow. "I just found it by accident. Nobody told me about it, I swear!"

Stan was breathing heavily, grip tight on the book, before he shook his head and began waving the crossbow around and yelling. "Get out! Get Out! GET OUT!" Dipper and Mabel ran for it, out the door and into the cold fall air. They made it to the woods when the door slammed shut behind them, locking Dipper's journal away from them.

Hctiws A htiw Z

GRNV GIZEVO RH XIZAB, VS?

Previous code: I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE STAN AND GOLDIE IN VEGAS IS POST CANON

Notes: Blendin's game is going a little differently this time around! Once again, I'm hijacking a Soos episode for the purposes of my story, which is why I wanted to have Soos' arc crammed in there. It might be a bit more rushed, but he deserves it. He is the world's most perfect man, after all.

But yeah, Blendin's game was a big headache to figure out. This story is built on uncertainty, and both time travel and a time wish have the potential to remove that uncertainty. I toyed with different ideas, Mabel wanting to give Soos the wish and Dipper wanting to use it for himself, Dipper being sleep deprived and wording his wish too vaguely, and I just didn't like any of them. I almost skipped it, there's actually pretty good theory that Blendin's game happens in Season 1, but that just felt like a lame cop out. Then, I saw a piece of writing advice that said, "When you have two problems, sometimes you can use one to beat the other into submission." And that's how this idea came about, I hope you like how it plays out!

Before the usual spiel, I want to announce that I uploaded a Youtube series! It's a review/analysis type deal looking at every mainline Legend of Zelda game in order, focusing on how the games change over the series. If that sounds interesting to you, please check it out! It would mean a lot to me, plus you'd get to hear what my voice sounds like (although, fair warning, I sound terrible in the first video. Maybe start with the second one, after I figured out how to narrate haha playlist?list=PLldYtK91Q7J1TXqWJZMtGo3HlBaW1pt5k).

That's about all from me, so thank you for reading! Ratings and reviews are always much appreciated, even if I don't always respond to them. Yeah, I went on vacation after the last chapter, so if you left a comment on it, I'm sorry I didn't respond. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and have a good day!