Life in Gravity Falls became somewhat regular.

Wait, no, that was the absolute wrong way to phrase it. Nothing about Gravity Falls was regular, and nothing about his musical predicament was regular. Nothing about Stan or the Shack was regular, or their frequent encounters with monsters.

However, it fell into its own schedule. He'd wake up pretty early and have breakfast as he talked with Abuelita, who was always awake by the time he came out. He'd have conversations with her that ranged from how to say things in Spanish to deep nuggets of wisdom.

"And, nino, if anyone tries to hurt you, you golpealos hasta que te dejen en paz."

He decided he'd ask for that translation later.

Then Soos would come out and they'd head to the Shack, where Vic mostly just hung out with the twins, which, depending on the day, could be melting people made of wax, watching TV, hunting/running from monsters, dodging one of Mabel's crushes, working at the Shack, or groaning about the music in his head.

Usually, they learned some sort of lesson by the end, and he'd head back with Soos until the next day.

Vic had done a couple things on his own, of course. He'd investigated the town and found a whole bunch of stuff he'd want to investigate further at some point. He'd talked with McGucket fairly frequently, and he helped the crazy old man fix up the heap of slag he called a house a little. He also met, uh . . . the "raccoon wife".

"Uh . . . nice to meet you . . . Mrs. McGucket?" he asked awkwardly.

The raccoon only responded by launching itself at his face.

However, there was the thing with the photo contest. The one they'd chased the gobblewonker for, and whatnot. He knew it was a little sketchier, since they knew the gobblewonker was a robot, but no one else knew that, so . . .

Yeah, he totally submitted his best pictures for the contest. He was still awaiting an answer, though, so no money yet.

One day, at the end of work, Wendy's friends showed up, and Vic decided to stick with them and the twins for a little bit before heading back to Soos's house.

They broke into a convenience store, they had a ghost issue, a Smile Dip issue, yadda yadda yadda. They all made it out fine, so it wasn't a huge deal.

No, the reason he brought it up is because he met Robbie, one of Wendy's friends. Who played guitar. Something that Vic had just started getting into before he got zapped into a cartoon.

It reignited the idea in his brain, and so that started to cook on a back burner in his head. However, he had no guitar, and no book to learn it with, so he had to let it wait. He also didn't really mention it to anyone, because if he told Soos he'd tell Stan, and if he told Mabel, she'd tell everyone, including Stan.

Why was he so nervous about Stan finding out? Well . . . he was pretty sure that Stan had some beef with people who played instruments because of something in his past, and he was well aware that Stan thought he'd run away, so he was wary of how the man might react to him wanting to make a decently large purchase.

So it stayed a secret ambition for now.

Dipper tended to read the Journal like it was the nerd bible, but since he'd read it cover to cover (multiple times), he was fine with letting Vic and Mabel peek through it every so often.

It was on one such occasion that they found themselves looking at a page on cursed doors. Some of the writing was smudged, so they couldn't make out all of the words, but they could make out "your long dead", "any door with the number thirteen", "dark energy", and, the most important one, "AVOID THIS DOOR ON MAIN STREET!"

Vic looked at Mabel.

Mabel looked at Vic.

They both knew what they were about to do.

He scooped the Journal into his tube pocket (resisting the urge to stick his arm through it again) and stood up at the same time as Mabel. Dipper, of course, noticed, and he frowned at them.

"Where are you two going?" he asked, his brows furrowed.

"Oh, it doesn't matter. Keep reading your nerd book, we'll be back soon, bye!" Mabel said quickly, running out of the room and tugging Vic along by his wrist.

"Ow, Mabel, you don't need to drag me!" he complained. "It's my idea too!"

She reluctantly let go.

They went around to the back of the Shack, to the garage, where the twins' bikes were stored. He grabbed Dipper's, putting on the helmet (couldn't be too sure) and riding after Mabel, who had already started making her way to town.

"Mabel! Slow down!"

"NOPE!"

He eventually caught up to her, and they rode to Main Street, coasting down the street as they searched for the right door, and Mabel pulled off to the side of the street, showing him that she saw it, and he went over.

She hadn't. She'd just seen a raccoon looking cute in the trash, and Vic got out of there fast. He knew better than anyone that those little bandits could do damage.

Then they actually found the door, and they dropped their bikes just outside and stared up at the number 13 in front of their eyes. Vic pulled out the Journal and flipped back to the page.

"Uh, okay, it says something about sounds before something and the moon, I think," he told her, squinting down at the page. "Also, 'any door with the number thirteen is a portal to a different world.'"

Different world. Like the one he was from? Was there a chance that this could be his way home? He couldn't imagine how much his mom was freaking out after over a week of him being in Gravity Falls.

Unless no time had passed at all over there, which hurt in ways he didn't want to think about.

"Vic?" Mabel asked, waving a hand in front of his face. He snapped back to reality, jumping away from her. She grinned, showing off her braces. "We haven't opened the door yet, it's not like there's much to think about."

"Oh. Oh, yeah, right. Sorry. Anyway, it talks about moons, which means it might not work in the middle of the day. Maybe we should—MABEL!"

She'd already opened the door, and he fumbled with the book, shoving it back in his pocket. However, by the time he got over there, she'd deflated.

"It's a wall," she said.

And it was. It was just concrete, like the wall around it. They both were pretty bummed out.

"Well, like I was saying, maybe we should come back tonight. It might only activate under a certain moon or whatever."

She laughed. "Ha! You sound like Dipper."

"I do not!"

"Oh, yes you do. Like a less-confident Dipper."

He pouted, which only made her laugh louder.

Since they'd already biked all the way there, and they had a little bit of money between the two of them, they used a payphone (yeah, they still had those here, for some reason) to call the landline that Stan had in the Shack to say that they were gonna stay longer than usual and there was no reason to worry, and they wandered around town.

It was going fine. They ding dong ditched a couple people and Mabel TPed the house of Gideon, the creepy kid who was infatuated with her, and they got some French fries, which they ate as they sat on some random bench near the door.

"Ooh, look how long this one is!" she said, pulling out a ridiculously long fry and moving it around. "It wiggles!"

It abruptly broke in half and the part that she wasn't holding fell on the ground. "Aw, come on!"

"You should pick that thing up," he said around a mouthful of potato.

"Eh, I'll take care of it later."

And that's how they found themselves swarmed by birds!

He wasn't even sure what kind of bird they were, but it got bad enough that they were pecking at them for fries, leaving Vic to abandon his fries for their lives. They both stood and watched the carnage, as the birds ripped the fries into tiny pieces and swallowed the bits.

"Huh. Apparently birds like potatoes," Vic said, and Mabel nodded, for once at a loss for words.

He glanced up at the sky, and suspended in the darkness was the tiniest sliver of moon, like a slice in the canvas of the night.

Then he wrinkled his nose, because that was really poetic and cheesy. And then that thought led him to thinking about whether there were brain mice that caused him hearing music, and they were feasting on the goopy thoughts he had.

He shook off the thought, turning to look at Mabel. "You wanna try it now, instead?" he asked.

She grinned, the the two of them rushed over to the door. Her hand shot out to open it again, and then it shot back away. Her expression was electrified with excitement. "Whoa. It's ice cold. Feel it."

With a little bit of apprehension, he did, and he shivered. Despite the warm, dry air surrounding them, the handle was as cold as ice.

Is there something cold on the other side? he wondered, staring up at the 13, which glowed eerily, the white reflecting the lamplight behind them where the rest of the door was cast in darkness.

Mabel exchanged a look with him, and she cracked open the door. Immediately, a gust of wind blew the door open completely, blowing his hair into his face. He spluttered, shoving his hair out of his eyes, and squinted.

Blinding white, or, no, tan? It was off-white, like sand, and it glowed so bright he couldn't make out any details—except for the brightly colored blob making her way through.

"Whoa!" He pulled on her arm. "Are you sure we wanna go in there? What if the door closes?"

"Are you seriously telling me we let our fries get mauled, only to not go into the awesome door?" she countered.

He hesitated. He hadn't heard any musical cues yet, which, if he was guessing correctly, meant this wasn't in the original plot. Meaning they might not have the same plot armor that they had on their last couple of adventures.

And the thought of dying, or at least being stranded on some windy, interdimensional moon desert for the rest of eternity, away from his dad and his friends, in a cartoon, just because he wanted to have some fun?

He couldn't, just couldn't, let that happen.

"Not yet," he whispered, and Mabel must've noticed something, because she paused, and then she backed up. "We can come back when we know what we're doing, and when we have a backup plan. I'm just . . . not ready yet."

She stayed quiet, and they closed the door, struggling a little bit due to the wind that was still blowing. The number lost some of its eerie glow, and the doorknob felt a little less chilly.

The birds continued to obliterate the fries behind them as they biked back to the Shack.


By the next morning, he'd slipped back into his normal mood, by which he meant he'd mentally been complaining about the music cues randomly coming back and startling him out of his book.

The theme song was amazing though, so he was glad that neither Soos nor Abuelita came in to see him vibing on his bed.

He'd taken to staying in his room when doing things like that, because he was not omnipotent, and they often caught him off-guard, and even though Soos was technically in the know, Abuelita certainly wasn't, and it was still weird to see someone randomly jump in a calm atmosphere.

Country-esque theme. A heavy metal growl. A couple sad strokes. A couple seconds of Disco Girl, for some reason. Holy music for a couple seconds. Military marching music. A scared rise in music. Climbing drama. Then it getting quieter, ending in a little baby music.

It was honestly really, really funny to listen to these when lacking the context.

He tuned them out and shut his book, leaving his room to go into the main one. Abuelita was there, watching one of her soap operas, but Soos was nowhere to be found, and he was his ride to the Shack, so . . .

"Vic? Que ocurre?" she asked.

He was pretty sure that meant what's wrong?, so he responded with, "I wanna go to the Shack. Do you know where Soos is?"

"Ah, he's in his room, playing his video games. Have fun, nino."

He waved bye and went into said room. It was dark save for the screen, which had Soos's little avatar running around and punching stuff. The big guy himself was transfixed, sitting on his bed and shoving crackers into his mouth.

"Hey, Soos," Vic said, and he narrowed his eyes at the crackers. "Uh, doesn't Abuelita not like it when you eat on your bed?"

Soos froze, paused his game, and moved his food to the floor. "Uh . . . what's up, dude?" he asked.

Vic sighed, but he didn't press the matter. "I wanna head over to the Shack. Can you drive me?"

"No can do, man. I'm so close to beating this level."

"Well, how long is that gonna take?"

He didn't get a response. Soos had already been sucked into the game again, so he sighed again, gave up, and turned around.

I don't wanna spend an episode out of the loop! That's gonna be so annoying!

He huffed and crossed his arms. Well, if Soos wasn't going to drive him, then he guessed he'd just have to walk.

Which was also going to be annoying, but whatever.


Nope.

No way.

He was not walking.

He'd barely left and he was already bored to death. It would take forever to get there, and there was no way, absolutely no way, that he was going to do this for the whole summer. Zero. So, he supposed he had to find another way to get around.

First up was the mall, except he stood out the front of it, gaping at its size, and decided not to go in, since he barely had any money and malls acted as time vortexes. That would take even more time than walking would've, and he'd still not find anything but a quarter on the ground.

His next thought was a garage sale, but since he couldn't be sure when the next one would be, that was off the list too.

Then, there was the dump.

There were multiple upsides to this choice, surprisingly. A whole bunch of stuff for free, McGucket lived there and was usually pretty good conversation when he wasn't yodeling. There was also the downside of, you know, being smelly and broken and gross for the most part, but it wasn't like he had a ton of options.

So off to the dump he went.

McGucket was nowhere to be found (Probably traumatizing pigeons or something, he thought), but there was still a ton of stuff. He scanned the piles from a distance, until he spotted what he was looking for: a scooter.

Sure, it was rusted and dirty, but it looked like it'd still work fine. He pulled it out of the landfill—eww, that was a rotting banana on it, ew, ew, ew—and it would work! And it was utterly disgusting and there was no way he'd put his hands on those handlebars.

He huffed. Another long-term project, he supposed. So he was still gonna be walking.

He dumped it back onto a relatively-clean chunk of trash and left, making a mental note to ask McGucket for help later.


By the time he'd walked to the Shack, Soos was already there, meaning if he'd just sucked it up and read until he'd finished up he wouldn't've wasted as much time. That did cause a good deal of annoyance on his part, but whatever. He was here now.

Dipper had apparently run off somewhere out of embarrassment, and no one had gone after him (HMMM, that sounded like plot) and Mabel found out that Stan had a crush on a lady at the diner and was going to fix him up (HMMM, that sounded like subplot). However, no one knew where the heck Dipper went.

Now Vic had a moral dilemma. Go find Dipper, meaning a long day of worry and likely some level of physical exertion, or stay here, mock Stan, and let things sort themselves out, since this was canon plot.

He went with the latter.

He knew from the change in musical tone that the subplot was beginning, so he quickly found Stan so the Stantics could ensue.

Mabel snapped a picture of a surprised Stan, and peeking over her shoulder, Vic laughed out loud at the ridiculous expression on his face. That led Soos to peering over his shoulder, and he laughed as well. And Wendy over his. Basically, just a whole lot of peering, peeking, and laughing.

Stan was not quite as amused.

Mabel shoved it in her scrapbook, and then came . . . uh . . . 'roleplaying'. AKA, Soos was dressed up like Lazy Susan, the lady Stan had a crush on, and both Wendy and Vic watched in amusement as Stan attempted to flirt.

The music built dramatically as Stan walked up. Soos looked through his eyelashes seductively, which in and of itself was making Vic snicker.

It crescendo-ed to its peak . . . only for Stan to spit off to the side, and say, "Can I borrow some money?"

Vic collapsed in a fit of giggles (it was much funnier with the music, apparently) as Mabel blew her whistle from where she was judging him in his safe, non-judgemental environment. Wendy looked at Mabel knowingly, who just said, "This is gonna be harder than I thought."

The music immediately went back to Dipper, and he settled himself in the armchair and stared at everyone as he focused on the music.

Before long, Soos had left the room and Wendy had straight-up left, leaving Vic, Mabel, and Stan in the room. However, Mabel was trying to teach Stan how to smile and it was utterly horrifying.

At some point, he got bored, and he debated wandering around the Shack, though he figured that would probably just end with him getting lost and found by some poor tourist, so he decided against it.

Instead, he just headed out to the porch and stared out at the animated forest. His mind was drawn back to the incident with the cursed door, and he sighed, collapsing a little bit as he thought.

Dad.

He knew he'd probably be fine, since it was a cartoon world and he was a kid, meaning he had some level of plot armor. But . . . what if he didn't? Or what if he never got to go home? What if he'd never see his dad again?

Was time passing at home, and if so, how much was he freaking out? It had been well over a week now, and if his dad had thought he'd ran away or been kidnapped or something . . . there wasn't anything he could do to stop that. He'd be in pain, and Vic couldn't stop any of it.

And on the other side of the coin, how much would it hurt him if he spent an entire summer of learning lessons and making friends, only to pop back into his old life, where no one knew how much he'd grown?

There were no good options, were there? There was no way that he could live in both worlds at once. He'd be lucky if he even got a choice at the end of the summer.

He realized tears had pricked up in his eyes, so he wiped them away. It was just the beginning of his time in Gravity Falls, since he was pretty sure he'd seen it had two seasons, so he should hold back the existential questions until a little closer to the finale.

He turned around and headed back inside.


Happy New Year!

Okay, yes, I realize it's been well over a month, but quality over quantity, am I right? I'm also finally learning how to skip over unimportant episodes to prevent burnout, which should help.

Thank you guys for reading my stuff. It puts a smile on my face every time you guys follow it or write a review, so thanks.

I'll stop blabbering now so you can get on with your day. :)