Dipper stood in a corner of the Mystery Shack Gift Shop next to him Mabel was using her Braille label maker to carefully mark all of the shelves so Dipper would be able to find where everything was. On his other side stood a postcard stand and Dipper could hear someone looking through it.
"Do you like me?" He read aloud "Yes? Definitely? Absolutely!" Dipper groaned, it seems like the poor guy had found one of Mabel's anonymous love notes.
Next to him Mabel giggled. "I rigged it!"
"Mabel, I know you're going through your whole 'Boy Crazy' phase," Dipper said "but I think you're kind of overdoing it with the 'crazy' part."
"What?" Mabel scoffed "Dipper, this is our first summer away from home! It's my big chance to have an epic summer romance!"
"Yeah," he said "but do you have to flirt with every guy you meet?"
"Mock all you want, brother," Dipper could feel Mabel rolling her eyes "but I got a good feeling about this summer. I wouldn't be surprised if the man of my dreams walked through that door right now."
At that moment Dipper could hear the sound of the door opening, he turned to see the blurry form of Stan walk through. The man let out a burp and Mabel groaned in disgust as Dipper laughed at her.
"All right, all right, look alive, people." Stan said "I need someone to go hammer up these signs in the spooky part of the forest."
"Not it!" Dipper and Mabel yelled in unison.
"Uh, also not it" Soos said.
"Nobody asked you Soos," Stan said.
"I know, and I'm comfortable with that."
Stan turned to Wendy, "Wendy, I need you to go hang these signs."
Wendy barely looked up from her magazine, lazily reaching out. "I would, but I, ugh, can't, ugh, reach it, ugh..."
Stan rolled his eyes, "I'd fire all of you if I could." Stan turned to his two niblings and rubbed his chin as he thought. "I guess I will have to send you both out."
The twins both raised an eyebrow at that, as Stan explained himself. "I would send Dipper, but with his sight as it is. And sending a girl out on her own with the kind of wahoos out there, it's just not safe to go alone. So take the signs and go hang them up."
As Dipper went to grab the hammer, Stan moved that specifically to in front of Mabel, while he moved the signs towards Dipper. Dipper rolled his eyes at the man, before piling the signs into his arms, with Stan setting the box of nails on top.
Mabel was still frowning though. "Well, there goes my chances to meet my summer romance. Unless… there happens to be a magical part of the forest, maybe…"
"Or..." Dipper suggested "we can get this done and you can keep harassing people here."
Stan rolled his eyes at them. "Just get the job done before you do anything else, I can't have Dipper placing the signs upside down and someone lost, getting lost somewhere else other than here."
"What?" Dipper said "just because I'm blind means I can't put up a sign?" Dipper put the stack down and grabbed a random one and held it up "see!" Everybody stared at him, it was backwards. "...It's upside down isn't it?"
Mabel giggled as she picked the signs up and pulled Dipper along outside and into the woods. "I will find my guy eventually, but maybe a short adventure with my bro wouldn't be so bad. Besides, maybe there will be a hot elf out there, like from your silly homework game."
"Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons is not a homework game" Dipper sighed. "It's a paper and pencil role playing game."
"It uses math and graph paper," Mabel argued.
Dipper sighed as he knew where this was going, so he just started walking, Mabel skipping along to follow. Something the twins missed however, were a bunch of little beady eyes watching them, and a drawn out ominous mutter of the word, "Queen"
—-
Dipper stood next to Mabel holding the stack of wood signs as his sister nailed them to trees, following when Mabel pulled him to the next spot. Only she kept getting distracted and talking about her dream guy, which just caused Dipper to slouch in boredom.
As Mabel hammered her current sign in, she didn't take notice of what she was doing, seeing as she thought she noticed someone in the distance. It took Dipper a moment to realize that Mabel was staring off into the woods, muttering specifics of her dream romance's appearance, as he just leaned into the tree, groaning exaggeratedly, to get her attention. "Mabel, maybe focus on one task at a time? We can go explore and look for elven glades after we are done here."
Dipper noticed something off as he leaned his head against the sign, and upon feeling it with his hand, "you nailed this one up backwards."
Mabel turned to check, and yes, instead of an arrow sign saying mystery shack that way, it was a blank arrow sign pointing the other way. "Oops."
"And you all thought I would be the one to mess up," he teased.
Both of them giggled over the small mistake as Mabel fixed it, before they head on to the next one, Mabel purposefully speaking her actions aloud to goof around with Dipper about her mistake on the last one. Only this time, when she hammered the nail, what happened was a clang of metal.
"Ow" Dipper complained at the noise "what did you hit?"
"A tree."
"Ya sure?" He asked "that didn't sound like a tree." To prove his point Dipper laid his hand on the tree next to him only to feel cold, slightly dusty, metal. "Huh, you were right."
"Of course I am," Mabel said, "it looks like there's a door."
"In the metal tree?" He checked.
"Yeah." Mabel pried her fingers into the edge of the door and managed to get it open. "There are a couple of switches inside."
Dipper was never more disappointed in his lack of visual prowess, being there and being there, are two different things that Dipper is constantly reminded of. The most he could see was the sparkly, rainbow blob that was his sister, and the brown blur of the tree, a small blur showing the opened door, showing off the dimmer brown and gray blur within.
Mabel started to flip the switches, when something opened behind them, causing the two to turn to see what happened. Dipper tried his best to squint to see what was happening, as Mabel pulled him along to get a better look in the hole, where they found a burgundy journal with a gold, six finger hand print on the front with the number three written on it.
Mabel pulled it out and blew the dust off, causing both to give a little cough, as she opened it. "It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon." Mabel read, Dipper squinting at the page and trying to follow along.
Mabel excitedly went through the pages, explaining several things to her brother as he smiled and did his best to make out what was shown. They spent several minutes just going through the information within.
She then frowned and read some more "unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before he finds it. Remember: in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust."
"No one you can trust?" Dipper repeated, taking the Journal and holding it close to his face to get a better look.
—-
Later the twins were in the Mystery Shack living room, Dipper was sitting on the arm chair wearing a pair of thick reading glasses and was bending over the Journal with a magnifying glass. "It's amazing!" He exclaimed "according to this book, Gravity Falls has this secret dark side."
"I know," Mabel laughed, "I read it too."
Dipper seemed not to hear her "and get this! After a certain point, the pages just.. stop, like the guy who was writing it... mysteriously disappeared."
The two paused when they heard the sound of footsteps creaking towards them, Dipper shoved the Journal and magnifying glass into his vest pocket and tucked his glasses away in their case. Just in time for Stan to walk in.
"There ya two are." He said "what have you been doing?"
"Nothing" they said in unison.
"...Yeah alright" Stan said, not caring enough to dig deeper. "Anyways, Mabel, some guy is in the gift shop asking for ya."
Mabel perked up "really?" Stan nodded and she turned to Dipper. "I'll be right back." And ran off.
Mabel stepped into the gift shop and was met with a bit taller boy, wearing a dark hoodie, hiding a good deal of his physical features, with what appeared to be red goop on his cheek. If Mabel knows her goops, which in itself is a strange thought, it was a jam of some sort, possibly strawberry or cherry pie filling if she were to guess from what she could make out.
Mabel would have been able to tell if she got closer and caught a whiff of it, but the warning from the Journal rang loud and clear, both her own and her brother's voices overlapping in her memory. A tall teenage boy was wanting to speak with her, he looked suspicious, seeing as he looked more shifty nervous then emotional nervous, something she picked up after defending her brother from some bullies that enjoyed teasing him over his sight.
Mabel would admit that he wasn't bad looking, though the worst of the bullies usually aren't. But this guy could be different, she would have to talk to him to see. So she smiled and walked up to him "Hi, I'm Mabel."
"Uh… Hi." The boy sounded fake, and Mabel would probably admit that she might not have noticed if she hadn't been listening. Bullies often tried to change their voices to mess with Dipper when they thought she wasn't nearby so she had gotten good at picking up on fake voices.
After the two remained silent for a couple moments, Mabel went from being cautious to being slightly annoyed. "Normally when someone introduces themselves you do the same…."
Mabel raised a brow as the boy before her, widened his eyes and shifted his eyes. "My name is Normal …man?
Mabel sighed, exasperated. This guy was the worst at this, he didn't even choose a single word, though she would admit that he could have nervously messed up his name. If he hadn't paused, adding 'man' almost like an afterthought, and even with a questioning tone. Mabel might have fallen for this, maybe been tricked in another life, but with as much bs as she has already had to deal with concerning people picking on Dipper. That and what she had just gone through in the woods, and what she managed to read so far. Norman, if that was even his real name, would have to honestly try pretty hard before she would trust him.
Norman smiled as he reached his hand out, "would you like to go for a walk, hold hands, or whatever?"
Mabel gave the boy a deadpanned look. "Um no thanks. I don't feel comfortable doing something like that yet."
Norman frowned as he pulled his arm back, though wobbled strangely as he tried to catch himself, which Mabel did help with. She may not trust him but she wasn't about to let him fall and hurt himself. This action also had the effect of her getting a feel of his abs, which felt strange in and of itself. The boy's body felt like it might be missing a few chunks, or sections were indented too much to be healthy.
"Besides," Mabel added, "I promised I would help my brother. He's blind." Normally Mabel wouldn't use Dipper as an excuse but she knew he didn't mind the few times she did. As long as she had a good reason.
Norman shifted his eyes back and forth, Mabel barely noticing the twitch in his eye, or the shift where her hand had left his hoodie folded inward, as if caught on something. "Okay, I guess some other time?"
Mabel felt her eye twitch as she did her best to ignore her thoughts on what might be wrong with the boy. "Yeah, maybe some other time we can all hang out!"
Mabel watched as 'Norman' did his best to stay standing as he turned around and strangely wobbled out the door, grumbling something to himself. Mabel swore she heard someone grumble back, but this was getting far too creepy. Still, she tried to shrug it off and went to go find Dipper.
—-
While Mabel was off chatting it up with some guy Dipper decided to go sit on a fallen tree trunk not far from the woods with the Journal. Wanting to read it without risking Stan walking in, he would probably just try and sell it or something.
Thanks to his lack of peripheral vision Dipper failed to notice a larger male walking by, though he did hear when a strangely pitched voice shouted "get him!"
The fallacy of shouting however, is the added effect of other's catching what you say, including a girl from the porch that wound up watching her brother get quickly yanked into the woods, his glasses and the Journal falling to the ground as she was forced to watch him be taken. Her eyes went wide.
"Dipper!" She yelled but it was too late. Running over Mabel picked up the glasses and Journal, noticing the page it had landed on. "Known for their pale skin and bad attitudes these creatures are often mistaken for teenagers. Beware Gravity Falls's nefarious Zombies!"
Mabel quickly closed the book and placed the glasses in her hidden sweater pocket; she needed to find something to help her catch up with her brother before Norman could do anything to him. Running towards the attraction side of the Shack, she only gave Stan a second to respond before she gave up.
As she looked around, she noticed Wendy driving up in the golf cart. "Wendy! I need to borrow the golf cart to chase after some zombie that dragged my brother off into the woods to eat him!"
Wendy would usually take something like that with a grain of salt, she's lived here for her entire life after all, hearing all the stories but never seeing anything herself, but hearing that a young blind boy was dragged into the woods wasn't something she felt she should just shrug off. "Give me a second Mabs."
Wendy took one second to step inside, and walked back out with her lucky ax she always kept nearby in case of emergencies. "Hop in, whatever dragged your brother off into the woods, zombie or not, isn't gonna be dragging anyone else off, ever." She tossed Mabel a shovel "here, in case we need to bury a body."
If Mabel had given her any other excuse to take the cart, she would have just tossed her the keys and told her not to run anyone over. But this was someone getting dragged off into the woods, animal or human, super or regular natural, they were going to regret it.
As Wendy pulled the cart out of its parking place, the girls noticed Soos standing there with the baseball bat. "In case you dudes run into a random pinata, it's best to be prepared for anything than not."
Wendy wanted to chuckle at her friend's comment, "thanks Soos, you always think of everything." So, with that, the girls were off to find their missing friend.
While the girls were preparing for war Dipper was panicking and just trying to figure out what was going on, normally he was pretty good at using his hearing and what little sight he had to analyze and paint a mental picture of what was going on. But in high stress situations he tended to struggle.
Dipper could feel little hands all over his body and was struggling to throw them off and get free, while he was unable to get loose he was able to grab his cane from his pocket and unfold it with one hand. His parents were always telling him that his cane was not a weapon but he thinks this situation justifies him. He swung it towards one of the little blurry red forms and managed wacked one.
"Ow!" A high pitched voice yelled. "Okay, who let him have a weapon?"
"Shmebulock" then somebody grabbed the cane and yanked it out of his grip and there was a light tug as someone threw it to the side. He tried to get his second arm free but there was a heavy weight holding it down and someone began to hold down his other arm. Whoever had kidnapped him was also holding down his legs, immobilizing him.
"Hey!" He yelled "let me go!"
"Sorry kid" the voice from before said "but we kinda need you." Dipper started screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs but someone shoved a cloth in his mouth, muffling him. "Gosh you are loud, alright, take him away boys."
—-
Wendy and Mabel heard Dipper's scream, until it was abruptly cut off, so they knew the direction to go. Wendy was proving to be rather skilled with maneuvering the cart, leading Mabel to believe she has taken this thing for joyrides before.
Wendy and Mabel followed the direction that the scream came from, continuing their pursuit on foot when they reached a treeline too tightly grown to pass through on the cart. Thankfully, the boy and his kidnappers weren't far from the point they had started on foot.
Though the sight of Dipper tied down and gagged by a group of gnomes caused some pause and confusion. Mabel pulled the Journal out and looked over it again, "gomes? I was a bit off I guess, the Journal here says they have no weakness."
As Mabel sounded slightly panicked, Wendy scoffed. "Well, I am sure the nerd that wrote it hadn't tried to actively chop them up with an ax. As paranoid as it is, silver does hold anti-paranormal properties, and most people around here try their best to add some to each tool and weapon. My Dad in particular."
As the two girls stepped over, Mabel held the shovel up like a weapon and yelled. "Let my brother go, you creeps!"
Jeff chuckled, "don't worry, we have it all figured out. If we get rid of your brother, you won't have to worry about helping him anymore, and in exchange, you can use all the free time you'll have, to be our queen."
The rest of the gnomes said queen in a drawn out and creepy way, causing Mabel to step back from them, looking really disturbed. "Are you all stupid? I told you I was helping my brother because you creeped me out and set off a bunch of red flags. This is ten times worse than anything any other bully has ever done. What makes you all think I would ever agree to anything concerning you if you murdered my best friend?"
Jeff became shifty as he pointed to one of the other gnomes. "It was Carl's idea." Carl looked scandalized.
Wendy recognized the responsibility push, having younger brothers that did the same thing. "Get off him, or your kindling."
Jeff glared at the two girls. "You think you can stop us? You have no idea what we're capable of. The gnomes are a powerful race! Do not trifle with the-"
Before Jeff could continue, Wendy punted the little creep off into the distance, straight between two trees that had a couple gnomes observing from a distance, both of which raised their arms and shouted "goal!"
Mabel stepped forward as she smacked the gnomes with the shovel, Wendy being quick to cut the ropes and remove the gag, before she joined Mabel and swung her ax at the creatures. The gnomes were smart enough to recognize a deadly weapon, so running from Wendy was a priority for them.
Dipper stepped over to grab his cane, being able to spot it from the bedazzled gem on the handle that Mabel insisted on, his hands shaking a little. "Thanks guys, what are we dealing with?"
Dipper regrouped with the girls as Mabel grabbed his hand and pulled him along back to the cart, Wendy not far behind, the gnomes realizing that while Mabel had no intent to kill them, Wendy held no such notions. Mabel decided to explain as she hopped into the cart, pulling her brother into the seat next to her as she floored it when she felt Wendy hop into the back seat and shout she was in.
Jeff stepped back into the clearing, looking to the gnome next to him. "How was my distance Jerry?"
Jerry pulled out a small booklet, looked to be doing some calculations, before he answered. "You were off by three feet, the record still holds from when Shmebulok was kicked by that other redhead lady seven years ago."
Jeff frowned as he snapped his fingers, "drat. Oh well, back to business. Gnomes of the forest, assemble!"
As Mabel was driving the cart away, Wendy was keeping her eye out from the seat behind them. Dipper was kind of trying to settle his nerves a bit from being dragged around the forest, and asking his sister questions. "Did I hear that correctly? Was I kidnapped by gnomes?"
"Yup, and apparently, they were getting rid of you so they could give me enough free time to be their queen. I am sorry bro," Mabel said "I used helping you as a reason I couldn't spend time with them, because they were a bit of a red flag. I never expected they would kidnap you."
Dipper smiled. "It's okay, we can't control what others do. And I know you hate using that excuse so they must really have screwed up if you did. Were they really that creepy?"
"I thought they were a zombie that planned to eat you when they failed to get me after I noticed they dragged you off." Mabel blushed as Dipper chuckled.
"Thanks for coming for me." Dipper gave the girls a smile.
Wendy chuckled as she shrugged. "Anytime dude, though now I kind of owe my folks an apology. I laughed when my Mom mentioned she kicked a gnome, or when my dad would talk about something called the Hide Behind. I kind of feel bad now that I have my own weird story to tell."
Their calm moment was interrupted as they felt the rumble of the ground, turning to find a giant gnome shaped pile of gnomes. Dipper just saw a red and white blur, but he got the gist. With a scream and further pressure on the gas pedal, they were driving faster than before.
Wendy swapped her ax for the bat as the gnomes started to throw gnomes at them, she couldn't risk gnomes getting stuck on her ax or possibly breaking it. Dipper heard Wendy standing up as she went about batting the gnomes out of the air. Dipper took a second to think about where they were, and noticing incoming brown spots along the path, Dipper flicked his cane back out, before grabbing the other end and using the wrist loop to grab Wendy's wrist, doing is best to squint enough to aim properly, just managing to get the loop around her wrist, as Mabel hit the roots, which acted as speed bumps, causing the cart to jump as he had to pull with all his strength to keep the teen from flopping out of the cart.
Wendy had enough time to nod at Dipper for the catch, barely realizing he probably didn't see it, "thanks."
"Don't mention it" Dipper said, ducking as a red blob came flying directly towards him. It flew past him, taking his hat along with it.
Mabel drove wildly, trying to avoid the trees and gnomes being thrown at them. The cart broke the tree line and capsized in front of the Mystery Shack, the three stood, bruised but unharmed. Dipper felt the length of his cane and let out a breath of relief to find that it wasn't bent or anything. The giant gnome monster walked right up to them, Mabel tried to throw her shovel at them but they batted it away like it was nothing.
Wendy moved so she was just in front of Dipper, brandishing her ax.
Jeff, though he hadn't introduced himself to the kids yet, spoke up from the top of the pile. "We will have our Queen, no matter what the cost."
Mabel looked around, having lost the shovel in their crash, before turning to her brother and new friend. With a look of determination, Mabel stood up and shouted, "alright! I will become your Queen, but only if you leave my brother and friend alone."
As Dipper and Wendy looked at the girl in shock, or 'towards' in Dipper's case, Wendy noticed the gleam in the girl's eye as she placed a hand on Dipper's shoulder. "She's got this dude."
Mabel smiled at them as Jeff was practically dancing down the gnome–tron, skipping over to Mabel as he pulled a ring out of, somewhere, and got down on one knee as Mabel allowed him to place it on her finger.
Jeff jumped up with a little tap of his heels, as he turned around, waving Mabel to follow him. "Now let's get you back into the forest, honey!"
Mabel interrupted him as she spoke up, "you may now kiss the bride."
Jeff turned back as he blushed a little, "well, don't mind if I do."
As Jeff leaned forward to reciprocate Mabel's presentation of her lips, the gnome was caught off guard as he found himself face to snozzle with a leafblower. Mabel started with the lowest setting, going to the next strength of suction as she made a statement. "This is for kidnapping my brother, for attacking us, for being an all around jerkface."
Turning to her two friends, she asked, "wanna do the honors?"
Dipper and Wendy smiled, as they got closer and counted down, before flipping the switch together. Jeff was sent flying across the woods, far off into the distance.
Mabel scared them all away with the leaf blower. "Impressive" Wendy said "though I thought you were luring him down so I could execute him, not to send the little creep flying."
The twins laughed at the teen, who quickly joined as they all found the humor in her statement.
Mabel turned to Dipper and gave him a hug. "I am glad you're alright bro."
"Thanks for rescuing me you guys."
Wendy looked between the two, before shrugging as she gave the both of them a hug, lifting them slightly from the ground, all three of them sharing in more laughter as Wendy squeezed tighter. "This has been one heck of an adventure. Maybe next time I really will get the chance to properly use my ax on something."
Wendy grabbed her ax and placed it in the holster on her belt, following the two as they walked into the gift shop, to find Stan, standing at the cash register, counting out the day's earnings, before he took notice of the three and gave them each an appraising look.
"There you are" he said "where've you been Wendy?"
"Sorry Mr Pines" Wendy said "I was helping these two," she nodded at the twins "with something."
"Alright fine" Stan rolled his eyes "just get back to work."
"Isn't it my time to get off?" Wendy asked as she looked at the time.
Stan looked at his own watch and groaned as he looked back at Wendy. "Fine, go home."
Stan looked over his niece and nephew, Wendy had managed to look fairly clean and not like she had just been in a fight. Dipper and Mabel on the other hand… they were a different story. "Yeesh what happened to you two? Did ya get hit by a bus or something?"
Dipper just shrugged, tired now that the adrenaline had left his system, Mabel grabbed his hand and started to head inside the main house.
"Uh, hey!" Stan started to say "w-wouldn't you know it? Um, I accidentally overstocked some inventory, so, uh... how's about each of you take one item from the gift shop? On the house, y'know?" Wendy looked at Stan, shocked but then grinned and didn't say anything.
"Really?" Mabel asked.
"What's the catch?" Dipper asked.
"The catch is do it before I change my mind," Stan grumbled "now take something."
As the twins looked through the shop, Wendy turned to Stan, "what about me?"
Stan gave the girl a deadpan look, "you're not fired for ditching work to slack off with the kids." Wendy did her best not to chuckle at the old man, knowing there was a limit to his kindness, and the twins were apparently it.
Dipper walked over to one of the shelves and began to run his fingers over the Braille labels Mabel had stuck there only a few hours ago. One of them caught his attention 'blue, pine tree caps' picking the item up off the shelf Dipper squinted and helped it close to his face to see it was exactly what the label described it to be. He put it on.
"Mabel?"
Mabel looked over at him "looks good bro, and I will have a... " she then finished digging through a box. And held up her item "GRAPPLING HOOK! Yes!"
Stan and Wendy shared a look "wouldn't you rather have, like, a doll, or something?" Stan asked.
"GRAPPLING HOOK!" Dipper could hear the sounds of stuff getting knocked over and his sister's glittery, colorful blurry blob rose into the air.
"Fair enough" Stan said, seemingly not caring enough to stop her.
—-
The night the twins were up in their attic bedroom, Dipper was laying on his stomach on his bed. He was wearing his glasses and held his magnifying glass in one hand and a pen in the other. Carefully writing about the encounter with the gnomes.
"This Journal told me there was no one in Gravity Falls I could trust." He turned his head over to Mabel's side of the room and heard the sound of her bed creaking as she jumped on it. "But when you battle a thousand gnomes side-by-side with someone, you realize that they've probably always got your back."
Dipper's thoughts also drifted to their new friend, who dropped everything and ditched her job when she found out he was in trouble. Maybe there were just less bullies here after all, maybe they could make some real friends like their parents said.
Dipper closed the book and sat up, putting it away along with his glasses and magnifying glass. "Hey Mabel, can you get the light?"
"On it!" There was a crashing sound and glass breaking and the room went dark. "It works!"
Dipper and Mabel laughed.
Meanwhile, back in the Gift Shop Stan entered a secret code into the vending machine. He opened it up like a door and walked through the opening, closing the machine behind him.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Chapter End=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Isabel and I both hope you all have enjoyed this chapter and it lived up to the expectations the prologue led you to have.
We look forward to hearing more of your thoughts on what we are building, we love hearing from you all, no matter how brief your words may be.
See you next time, and we hope you all have a good weekend.
