Dipper and Mabel Pines were sitting on the bus, on their way to the great outdoors in Oregon, where they will spend the summer at their Great Uncle's. Mabel sat in the window seat with her brother next to her, Dipper was leaning back in his seat with his eyes closed and with his headphones on. The bus jolted to a stop and Dipper sat up, slipping his headphones to rest around his neck.
"I'm guessing we've arrived?" he said.
"Yup!" Mabel said, nudging him out of the way. She slipped out of the seat and grabbed both her own and her brother's bags from the overhead shelf.
As Mabel grabbed their things Dipper reached into his bag and pulled out a stick made out of aluminum. He unfolded it to reveal a white cane with a blue handle and wrist strap and Mabel handed Dipper his bag.
"Ready to go bro-bro?" She asked.
"Yup," he said. Dipper could hear Mabel's footsteps skip in front of him and could see the sparkly pink blob that was her sweater moving away.
Dipper set the end of his cane to the floor and moved it back and forth across the textured floor and he made his way to the stairs. Carefully making sure he didn't run into anything as he made his way to the stairs.
"Let me help you!" Mabel said, grabbing his arm and helping him climb off the bus. Dipper bit his tongue and let her, even though there was a perfectly good handrail he could use.
Dipper heard the doors screech shut behind him and the bus drove away and took a look around. His vision was filled with colorful blobs, some more blurry than others. He mostly saw the color green which he guessed was trees, though he also saw a big brown blob right in front of him.
"Mabel, what's that?" He asked, pointing to it.
"It's the Mystery Shack," Mabel answered.
"How do you know?"
"There are signs all over," Mabel giggled. "There's even a big one on the roof, though the 'S' is missing."
"Oh" Dipper felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment. Distracted by the conversation he didn't hear the footsteps approaching until…
"Hey kids!"
"Ah!" Dipper yelped, falling over.
"Are you okay?" Mabel giggled, helping him up.
"Ah shoot" a gruff, male voice said.
"I'm alright," Dipper said, "who are you?"
Dipper turned his face in the direction of the voice, he mostly saw a black blur but there was also a little bit of red with shiny gold. His eyes found themselves fixating on it.
"I'm Stan Pines."
"Great-Uncle Stanford!" Mabel cheered.
Stan let out an awkward laugh "yeah but that's a mouthful, just call me Stan."
"What about Grunkle Stan?" Mabel asked.
Stan chuckled at Mabel's creativity "sure sweetie, now I'm guessing you're Mabel?"
"Yup!"
"Then you must be Dipper."
Dipper pulled his eyes away from the shiny gold and to (where he assumed) Stan's eyes. "Yeah, nice to meet you." He stuck his hand out in the direction of Stan's voice and felt a rough, callused hand take it.
"How 'bout you two come inside and I'll show ya around?" Stan said.
"Sounds great" Dipper said "I would love to see everything!"
Instead of catching on to the joke, like most people, Stan said "great! If ya two want to come this way…"
Mabel looked between the two for a couple seconds before shrugging and following Dipper as he walked after the blurry blob that was his Grunkle. As Stan pointed to each of his personally built attractions, Dipper would comment on the design. "This is the mighty Sascrotch, a terror among those just minding their own business."
"Well, he does look rather menacing. Right Mabel?"
Mabel tried her best to keep her serious look, she didn't want to bother the boys, since both looked to be having so much fun. With Stan showing them all his attractions, and getting happy reactions from both, while her brother just enjoyed his puns.
"The rock that looks like a face, rock."
"I can clearly see that it looks very much like a face."
"The grizzlycorn, the most ferocious beast."
"He clearly looks like he could cause some real damage, I am almost scared to ask how you managed."
"The Fiji Mermaid."
"It looks simply majestic, Grunkle Stan."
"We also have here, the ear of a giant, and the jackalope."
"Wow, I can see how impressive they are, can't you Mabel?"
Finally the three made it back into the Mystery Shack gift shop, by this point Dipper had put his cane away and was holding onto Mabel's arm. "And finally I want to introduce you to my two employees. Soos, Wendy. Meet my niece and nephew, Dipper and Mabel."
"Hi!" Mabel waved.
"Sup." Dipper greeted.
Wendy (a teen with red hair and in a green flannel shirt) looked up from her magazine "hey there." She paused "hey Mr. Pines, didn't you say one of them was blind?"
"Yes I-" Stan started to say then narrowed his eyes at Dipper. "Wait a minute…."
Unable to hold back Dipper burst out laughing "oh my gosh, you should have seen the look on your face!"
Mabel rolled her eyes fondly as her twin laughed. "Sorry Grunkle Stan, he does this a lot."
Stan chuckled "eh it's okay. Serves me right, should've paid more attention."
Soos (a young man in a green Mystery Shack employee shirt) awkwardly laughed "so you're really blind dude?"
Dipper straightened and turned his head in Soos's direction "yup."
"No offense or anything" Soos said "but don't blind folks have like… I don't know… White canes and sunglasses?"
"That's a stereotype," Mabel frowned.
"It's okay Mabel" Dipper said "I mean, there is some truth to it. But I only wear sunglasses if it's super bright or I have a headache or something. And I do have a cane, I just put it away for the joke. I wanted to see" he grinned at his unintentional joke "how long it would take for Stan to notice."
Dipper pulled out his cane and unfolded it, holding it up a bit for them all to see. "Cool" Soos said.
"Right," Stan said "Soos, Wendy. Back to work. I'm going to sho-'' Stan stopped and looked down at Dipper before correcting himself. "Bring the twins inside. Help them get a 'feel' of the land and all that."
Dipper gave Stan a 'finger gun,' "eeeyyyyy." He could practically feel Stan giving him a look.
The twins were led inside the main house and led upstairs to the attic bedroom where they would be sleeping for the course of the summer. "So uh…" Stan started to say, sounding a bit awkward. "Do ya need anything or…?"
"Well-" Mabel started to say but Stan cut her off.
"How 'bout we let your brother talk for himself" he said "alright sweetie?"
"Oh!" Mabel said, sounding surprised "okay."
"I'm good for now," Dipper said "thanks though."
"Okay" Stan said "let me know if you uh… Need anything, I'm gonna go back downstairs and lead a few tours."
"Sure" Dipper agreed and heard the sound of Stan shutting the door and his footsteps walking down the stairs.
Looking around the room Dipper saw sunlight shining at the other end of the room through (what he belived) was a triangle shaped window. There were two blurry blobs on other sides of the room that he suspected were beds, when Mabel ran across the room and threw herself on one of them he nodded to himself. Satisfied he got it right.
Dipper walked over to the other bed and set his bag down and turned to Mabel. "I'm going to walk around the house, figure out where everything is" he said "do you wanna come?"
"Sure!" Mabel agreed, moving to stand next to him.
—-
After Dipper finished walking around the house with his cane, getting a head start on memorizing the layout, the two did a little unpacking before Stan called them down for dinner. During which Mabel kept up a steady stream of conversation, determined to get to know their uncle. Towards the end of the meal Stan asked the question Dipper was waiting for.
"So uh Dipper…" He said, sounding awkward "would you mind explaining your uh… condition?"
"Dipper has-" Mabel started to say but Stan interrupted her.
"How about you give your brother a chance to answer, okay sweetie?" Stan suggested.
Dipper waited a moment to make sure Mabel wasn't going to try and talk anyways. "I have Retinitis Pigmentosa."
"What?"
"Retinitis Pigmentosa" Dipper repeated, purposely sounding it out. "It's a rare genetic disease that affects the retina, breaking it down slowly over time and causing vision loss. Those who go blind usually don't until adulthood but it's different with everyone."
"So what can you see?" Stan asked.
"I have some vision, but things begin to blur when nearing a foot away, getting less detailed the closer to that twelve inch distance. Things begin to blur into blobs at that point, getting worse the further they get away. I also don't have the best peripheral vision and I can't see at all in low light." Dipper explained. "I have been doing my best to enjoy what is left of my sight while I have it."
"Huh" Stan said, "good to know. Right, well you two settle in and rest up. We got a long day tomorrow."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Prologue End=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Hello everyone, this is a prologue for a story that both me and my new friend Isabel, from over on AO3, are working on together.
This idea came about from talking with friends about a different idea, but that idea lead me to think about all the different types of Dippers. A couple writers have gone about what if Gideon succeeded in muting him, and I even found one with him as a robot, but blindness is a completely new one for me.
After just mentioning the thought, a stray idea that I possibly wouldn't have written seeing as I have no real drive to do anything during the summer, I blame the heat, my friend Isabel pulled me into a conversation about it, and it blew up into a full story before I had the chance to forget about it.
And yes, that happens with me more than I would like to admit.
So if you enjoy this story, you should show her more love, because she was the one to kick me into gear and get this entire thing started.
Isabel3710 | Archive of Our Own