"Alright kids, thanks to all that gold Dipper and Pacifica brought me I'm all stocked on elixir for the time being so I'm in a good mood. I'm going to go play cards with some old friends so Luz you can bring some friends over, but no teenage funny business in the house. Got it?"
With that, Eda and King left the owl house and Luz, Dipper, and Pacifica went to Hexside.
"So this in witch school?" Pacifica asked.
"Yep, part of me wants to go there to learn more magic but Eda hates the education system. Considering the conformitorium and coven system I can't exactly blame her."
"Isn't it summer? Do they not have summer breaks here?" Dipper asked.
"I'm not sure if the Boiling Isles even have seasons. According to King they don't even have weather but plagues instead. Oh that reminds me, never look at anything that may be a rainbow or else you'll turn inside-out." Luz responded.
Dipper and Pacifica looked more than a little worried about hearing that.
A bell went off, sounding more like a scream, and in no time the doors to Hexside opened and students came out.
"Hi Amity." Luz greeted to a green-haired witch that she recognized.
Dipper and Pacifica got defensive seeing her since her hair color reminded them of the woman that tried to claim Dipper's organs. They both hoped it was just a coincidence.
"What do you want?" Amity asked in a frosty tone, one that Pacifica was quite familiar with, then she noticed Luz's companions. "There are more humans like you here?"
"These are my friends Dipper and Pacifica, and they're learning magic too. Would you like to come over tonight and help us improve?" Luz offered.
Amity scoffed. "I've got plans tonight to work with some real magic, nothing that you could hope to try. So go ahead and play with your doodles."
Amity walked off not bothering to look at either of them.
"She reminds me of what I used to be." Pacifica thought out loud.
"Is that a good thing?" Luz asked.
"It's not a part of my life I'm proud of. Let's just say when I was younger, I could be a real bitch if I wanted to be."
"Which means if she is like you, then there's more to it than just her being a snob." Dipper reminded the blonde girl, then turned to Luz. "She doesn't happen to be the daughter of rich influential parents does she?"
"Well she does take pride in her family, and get this, apparently she's got connections to Eda's sister and the Emperor's Coven."
"Emperor's Coven?" Dipper and Pacifica repeated.
"Hi Luz." Willow greeted as she and Gus came up to the human trio.
"Willow and Gus, just who I was looking for. Want to hang out at my place tonight?"
"Sure, tonight's perfect. We want to try the moonlight conjuring ritual." Willow exclaimed.
"Ooh, what's that?" Luz asked, getting excited.
"Well once a year the heavens align in just the right way to magnify the moon's magic which in turn can enhance all magic on the isles for just one night. Three witches get together and perform the ritual, and then together they can cast a spell much stronger than they would be able to do otherwise. A favorite is making your possessions move for you, basically advanced animation magic." Gus explained.
"How is that advanced? That sounds very basic to me." Dipper asked.
"Oh, there's a reason that the Animation Magic Track in Hexside is pretty much dedicated to abominations and little else. Animation magic is actually hard to apply to most objects unless you yourself build them from scratch, so abominations are the easiest tools for that kind of witchcraft. Amity's family makes a lot of money producing and selling abominations of all sorts so people don't have to struggle with it so much." Willow informed them.
"Wow, you sound like you know your stuff." Dipper praised.
"I should, I was in the abomination classes for a while till I switched over to herbcraft."
"Can you use this ritual for anything else?" Pacifica asked.
"Sure, what do you have in mind?" Willow asked.
"Nothing, just curious."
"Alright, go get what you need and we'll meet up with you in the market. We can make a party out of it." Luz said.
The teens agreed then headed to Bonesburrough before splitting up.
Later when the sun was down and the moon was rising, five teens were at the owl house. Luz had shown Willow and Gus the premises, the two intrigued by the home of a notorious criminal. After a while they got settled in the living room.
"Hey, what's this?" Gus asked, picking up Dipper's Journal 2.
"Oh that's mine." Dipper said, letting the younger boy look through it. "It's my record of all the supernatural stuff I've seen back in my world, and now all the strange stuff I'm seeing here."
"You've got notes of the human world?"
"Just the parts that aren't normal."
"Hey, what's this?" Gus asked, pointing to a picture of a triangle with an eye.
"Oh, that's… a bad memory. A very dangerous creature that tried to destroy our world years ago." Dipper explained. "We got rid of him, but a part of me wonders if he's not completely gone."
"That explains the 'Never forget' you wrote here." Gus commented.
Meanwhile, Willow was checking out notifications on a scroll, seeing a posting by Amity bragging about her own moonlight ritual being set up at the Blight Manor. She looked a little forlorn while gazing at the photo.
"So you have scrolls here that let you talk to other people and put up pictures and messages for everyone to see?" Pacifica asked.
"Yeah, it's a recent invention but a popular one. I bet this blows your mind." Willow said.
"Not really, we have the same thing back home." Pacifica countered.
Luz nodded and held up her phone. "This does the exact same thing."
"Wow, and this isn't magical?" Willow asked.
"Nope, just technology."
"Though how are you going to charge that? Or use it with no satellites?" Pacifica asked.
"Oh, a light glyph applied to it surprisingly refills the battery. As for satellites, I can't do anything about that but I can still play games and use the camera. I'm thinking of documenting everything for my mom to show her." Luz explained.
"Really? What are you going to say? 'Hey Mom, here I am in another dimension having a slumber party with some actual witches and we're about to perform a seance'?" Pacifica asked.
"Technically it's animation magic, not a seance." Willow corrected.
"Either way, I'm having fun. Here I am with friends having a sleepover, what more could I want?" Luz claimed.
"Hey, what's this?" Gus asked, having given back Journal 2 and now holding up what looked like a briefcase with an eye emblem on that.
Luz panicked and quickly got to the younger boy. "Be careful with that. That's Eda's…"
"Eda's what?" Gus asked.
"Isn't that the door to the human world?" Dipper asked, only barely recognizing it since he and Pacifica only saw it for a minute or two.
"It is?" Gus gasped. "Cool, how does it work?"
Luz sighed. "I don't know, only she does. And I don't think it's something she wants people to know about. I can't imagine how much trouble the guards or covens would give her for owning that."
"And if it gets confiscated, there goes your chance of going home." Pacifica added, realizing the other girl's train of thought.
Luz nodded. Gus got the impression that he should pretend this never happened and set the briefcase down by the books in the room.
"Okay, so before the moon gets in position, what should we animate?" Willow asked.
"I brought a toy." Gus said, taking out an action figure. One that looked like a professional wrestler, or a toy from the 80s.
"Kinda childish isn't it?" Pacifica asked.
"Do you have any better ideas?" Willow asked.
"Besides, what around here would be more grown up?" Dipper asked.
Luz looked squeamish. "I don't think I want to go looking for anything Eda has that counts as 'grown up'."
Everyone couldn't help but laugh at that, and even Luz joined in.
"Where did you get that anyway? It looks a lot like something you'd find in our world." Dipper asked.
"It should. I bought it from the owl lady in the market. I'm very interested in the stuff she collects from the human world. Was this man some kind of hero in your world?" Gus asked, pointing to the action figure.
"I don't think so, if this guy was real he was probably just some wrestler."
"Okay everyone, we've got our object and the directions for the ritual." Willow said, holding up a book. "Now we just wait. So should we play a game?"
"I have an idea." Dipper claimed. "Do you know of Two Truths One Lie?"
Willow and Gus shook their heads.
"Okay, one person says three things, two of which are true but one is just made up. The challenge is to figure out which one is the lie."
Luz perked up. "Ooh, the three of us can say things about the human world, and Willow and gus can say things about the Boiling Isles. That way neither side has a clear advantage and we can both learn more about the other side."
Dipper learned.
Pacifica elbowed the cap-wearing boy. "Leave it to you to turn a sleepover game into a learning experience Mason."
"You want to decide the penalty?" He asked.
Pacifica got a gleam in her eye. "Oh yes, yes I do. If the player guesses wrong, they have to do an embarrassing dare."
"Sounds good. Who wants to go first?" Dipper asked.
"I'll go. Try me." Gus eagerly offered.
"Alright, Pacifica, you try him."
The blonde girl cleared her throat. "Okay… Ghosts are real. Green is a natural hair color. And humans have walked on the moon."
"The last one. There's no way humans have walked on the moon." Gus said confidently.
Pacifica, Dipper, and Luz shook their heads. "You lose."
"What?" Gus asked.
"That one's real Gus. Humans have walked on the moon in our world." Luz told him.
"Without magic? How?" Gus asked.
"Not the point. You have to do a dare now." Pacifica insisted.
Gus sighed. "Fine, what do I have to do?"
"Ooh, make an illusion of yourself doing a silly dance while wearing a silly outfit." Luz offered.
Gus groaned and cast a spell, creating a double of himself. The double was dressed in a pink girly gown like a prom dress doing what looked like a slow dance with an invisible partner. There were a few chuckles but nothing too uproarious. After a bit Gus dispelled it.
"You look good in pink Gus." Luz said, still a little mirth in her tone.
"Could be worse. It could have been the lamby dance." Dipper added.
"Lamby dance?" Willow, Gus, and Luz repeated, confused. Pacifica grinned wickedly, already aware of this thanks to hearing of his other ghost story years ago.
Dipper blushed and adjusted his hat. "Never mind, it's nothing."
"Oh no, it's not nothing."
"You've seen it?" Luz asked.
"No, but I heard about it."
"Okay, I know what we're going to dare you when you lose." Willow said deviously, grinning along with Gus.
Dipper gave Pacifica a dirty look, which only made her wiggle her eyebrows. "Just you wait until it's your turn to be dared Paz."
"You've got nothing on me Mason."
"Oh really? Two words, potato sack."
Pacifica paled.
"Ooh, sounds like a story." Luz exclaimed.
"I'm going to get you for this, Mason." Pacifica warned.
Midnight approached and everyone made a circle in the room around Gus's toy.
"Okay, we hold hands and say the chant to begin the ritual." Willow instructed.
"Won't us being human affect it?" Dipper asked.
"Maybe. But if each of you can provide something magical with you, maybe that combined will make up for it and we'll have a complete circle."
"It's worth a shot." Luz said, taking out some paper and drawing a glyph before putting it down in front of her.
Pacifica removed her bracelet and put it down in front of her too. Dipper looked around, not having anything of his own to contribute, but then went over and grabbed the compacted door.
"You sure?" Luz asked.
"You have a better idea?" Dipper asked, and Luz had no response. So he placed it down in front of him too.
"Okay, everyone hold hands. Once the light's ready, we'll begin the chant. Just repeat after me." Willow repeated.
"I feel like we're doing a seance." Pacifica commented.
"Oh no, wrong time of year for that." Gus corrected, making the blonde girl look nervous.
The five teens held hands and soon the room was filled with moonlight. Luz, Dipper, and Pacifica immediately noticed a difference, like it was sunlight but less intent.
"Moonlight we call, we sing." Willow began.
"Moonlight we call, we sing." The others repeated.
"Moonlight take this chance."
"Moonlight take this chance."
"Moonlight come tie the string."
"Moonlight come tie the string."
"Moonlight start the dance."
"Moonlight start the dance."
A ring of light formed between them all. Luz thought it looked a lot like a big glyph, but the pattern was rather complex. Like a glyph made of multiple smaller glyphs linked together. She couldn't get a good look however, not when the light glyph she had drawn began to glow at her knees.
"What's going on?" Pacifica asked, seeing her bracelet glow rainbow colors and begin to hover.
"Oh crap!" Dipper gasped, seeing Eda's door float and glow too. The big glyph they had formed vanished, almost sinking into the door, causing it to vibrate.
"Can you stop this?" Luz asked Willow, who just stared in shock alongside Gus.
The door came to a stop and unfolded then opened, creating a portal right in the middle of the room. But instead of the empty house in Gravesfield, there was a swirling mix of blue, purple, pink, and green shimmering within.
"Whoa, what part of the human world is this?" Gus asked, peering within.
"Please tell me we didn't break it." Luz said, worried.
"What happened? Did the ritual go wrong?" Pacifica asked.
"I think maybe the spell went into the door instead of the toy." Willow thought out loud. "But I don't know how it affected the magic already within the door."
"Let me test it." Dipper said, grabbing one of the eyes that apparently counted as a snack here, brought by Willow. She said it was a fruit, but he was unwilling to taste-test it. So he took it and tossed it through, seeing it disappear into the swirling colors.
Everyone paused for a moment.
"Nothing's happening." Gus noted.
"Could be worse." Dipper said, stepping towards it.
Pacifica grabbed his arm. "Don't even think about it Mason! For all you know this place could lead right to a volcano!"
The colors began to change and next thing they knew they saw a mountainside. In the daytime no less.
"What just happened?" Willow and Gus asked.
"Hold on." Dipper said, looking through but not saying anything. "Egyptian desert."
The mountainside disappeared and was replaced by a sandy expanse with three iconic pyramids in view.
"No way. This is incredible."
"What do you mean?" Luz asked.
"I think right now we can make the door go wherever we want it to in the human world." Dipper claimed.
"Really? You can show us your world?" Gus asked.
Dipper was about to reply, but he saw people on the other side look at them and freak out. "Uh… African savannah, away from people."
The pyramids disappeared and were replaced with open grassland, with a couple giraffes eating from treetops.
"Are those giraffes?" Willow asked, adjusting her glasses.
Gus gulped. "Change it to something else!"
"Oh come on guys, giraffes aren't bad." Luz defended.
"Not that bad?!" Willow and Gus repeated, shocked.
"They're just animals. Come on, let me show you."
Luz came up to the door, despite the protests of the two witches. "Closer to the giraffe." The portal complied and came up to one of the giraffes, who seemed oblivious to the whole thing. Luz then commanded the portal to go around the giraffe's head, forcing it to poke through the door into Eda's living room.
Willow and Gus backed away, looking like someone was about to set them on fire.
"See? It's just an animal. It's nothing to be afraid-"
The giraffe then roared with its face splitting open like some kind of alien.
Willow and Gus screamed. Luz, Dipper, and Pacifica screamed too but also jumped back from it.
"What the fuck was that?!" Pacifica shrieked.
The giraffe got angry, acting like it was trying to bite them. Dipper took Gus's toy and hurled it at the giraffe, which chomped down on it like a monstrous crocodile. Then more of the neck came through the portal, soon followed by a leg.
"It's coming through?!" Willow yelled, close to wetting herself.
"Arctic tundra! Indian Ocean! Anywhere there are no giraffes!" Dipper commanded the door, but it was not obeying. He had no idea how the giraffe was even able to fit through in the first place, but this was clearly not a normal giraffe and the door was magical. Right now he just wanted the threat gone.
Pacifica took back her bracelet and put it on while Luz drew some more light glyphs. Pacifica threw a punch, hoping it would have some result. A fireball formed before her fist and rocketed to the long-necked animal, hitting it in the mouth. The giraffe's head was knocked back, with Luz's light balls bothering its eyes.
"Good hit Paz." Dipper praised.
The giraffe made a sound that would have been more fitting in a Jurassic Park movie. It got both front legs through, thrashing about and looking pissed.
"Help us guys!" Luz pleaded to Willow and Gus, who still were frozen in fear against the wall.
"What's going-?" Hooty asked, dipping his head into the house. The giraffe came close to biting his face off, making Hooty scream and retract. The giraffe then came through the door completely, cramped in the room and looking no less angry.
Willow seemed to snap out of it and summoned a large amount of vines that broke through the floor and ensnared the giraffe. The long-necked animal did not like this, but now it couldn't do much more than shriek.
"Thanks Willow." Luz said.
"Since when could giraffes do that?" Pacifica asked.
"We have to make this thing go back." Dipper stated. "Willow, turn this thing around so we can push it through the door."
Willow just nodded and began to command the plants to rotate the giraffe. However, steam began to come off its body and there was a sizzling sound.
"Something's burning." Luz warned everyone, sniffing the air. It reminded her of the times her mother had grilled corn on the cob.
No one could believe their eyes when the mane on the giraffe burst into flames. Everyone jumped back a little, Willow's magic slipping along with the vines burning anyway, and so the giraffe climbed back up. Once on its hooves, it was covered in flames like some kind of pokemon, only less child-friendly.
Dipper grabbed his spellbook, frantically looking for a spell to use. The giraffe didn't give him the chance, shoving past him and knocking him towards the door.
"Mason!" Pacifica shouted, reaching for him.
"Home!" Dipper said just in case, unable to stop himself from falling. He felt himself land on the floor, so for a moment he thought he didn't go through. But when he sat up and looked around, he saw he wasn't in the owl house. He was in his bedroom in the Mystery Shack, with the portal right now where his closet was.
"Mason? You okay?" Pacifica asked through the doorway.
"I'm alright. Keep this open, I'll see if I can find something we can use."
There was a loud crashing sound, accompanied by cries of 'no' from the others and what sounded like Hooty in pain.
"You better hurry!" Pacifica told him, disappearing from view.
Dipper immediately went through his room, grabbing his Journal 1 and putting it through the portal. He didn't have any weapons in his rooms, Soos and Melody were too non-confrontational to allow it, but Stan knew how to improvise if nothing else so he taught his grand-nephew what he could fight with if he had to. He found a baseball bat and a spear that had been gifted to him by the manotaurs after Weirdmageddon.
"It'll have to do." He said to himself, getting back to the portal.
Just then, the door to the room opened, and there stood a girl.
"Dipper?"
"Mabel?"