I went back and edited all of the chapters because I remembered some stuff that I needed to change, but anyway welcome to arc 2, it's time for Ro's Question and Answer Corner!

I haven't completely figured out how the curse works for Cary, though their magic is in fact in their brain, I probably really do need to go back and rewatch the show now that the second season is over

In arc 4 Cary will meet Dipper and Mabel in person (who do not know about her but might find out from Wendy or Soos before the next summer)

As for when Wendy and Cary will become a couple, you'll just have to wait and see ;)

Cary will meet the Hand Witch but the Hand Witch will not meet Eda

Ford is not going to make a portal to the Boiling Isles in arc 2-4, but we'll see what happens in arc 5

Maybe Ford will teach Cary some spells, but, alternatively, maybe Cary will teach Ford some spells!

I think it would be really funny if everyone assumed Luz was another daughter that Eda forgot

Thank you so much for the reviews and questions! I've been looking forward to writing this particular chapter for months now. I still need to outline arc 2 a bit more, and since I might rewatch The Owl House I might be on hiatus for a while, maybe not. I definitely want to do more research to plan for the future of the story and figure out Cary's personal magic.

But until then, enjoy this chapter, because I definitely did!

"So like. You're a bat monster now?" Soos and Cary were eating a slightly late lunch together while Cary filled him in on things.

"It's more like an owl? But yeah. Sort of. We're going to do our best to keep the beast at bay, but it's a part of me, now."

Soos nodded, seeming more serious than Cary had ever seen him.

"And tell me again where you were all summer?"

"The Boiling Isles. A dimension separate from this one. My mom, Eda, is a witch who lives there. We share the curse. She didn't fully believe that I had powers but… Well, she was wrong about me. It's for the best that I'm here and not there."

"I'm sorry, dude. I bet you wish you'd gone to theatre camp now."

"I'm sure that would've been fun, but I did need to meet her. To learn who I am, and who I could be… She couldn't properly teach me magic but she did teach me that I didn't have to be an awkward, out-of-place girl anymore."

"Yeah?" Soos prompted Cary to continue, sensing that she was about to say more.

"I figure out that I'm not really a girl at all. I mean, I kind of am. I'm kind of like a guy and a girl and a whatever all blended together. Like Gonzo, from the Muppets. The term she used is nonbinary, and I want to start using he/him and they/them pronouns as well as the she/her pronouns that people already use for me."

Soos was quiet for a long minute, wrapping his head around all of that. The witch beast thing had been a bit easier to understand, but he was trying.

"So can I still call you dude?"

"Yeah. And you can still call me your sister if you'd like. Or brother or sibling or whatever."

"How about, my second-in-command? Someone has to be when Stan leaves."

Cary grinned, "I'd like that."

"I'll try to practice using your new pronouns," he added.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me."

That day had gone pretty well since the talk with Uncle Ford. It was great gossiping with Soos again and getting filled in on all the details about his new girlfriend. Plus, Cary was feeling really good about the sleepover that night, as long as he didn't think about possibly turning into the owl beast again. In order to distract himself, Cary leveraged some of Stan's newly manifested dad guilt to gain the promise of a new phone and some new clothes before school started.

New clothes wasn't enough, apparently, at least for Tambry.

"Girl, you need a makeover." Cary didn't bring up that they didn't want to be called a girl, opting to just grin and bear it while they thought up a way to change the subject.

"Nah, Cary's perfect as is," Wendy said, smiling at Cary. She meant it, of course, but she also didn't want Cary to get upset and transform. That would be the wrong kind of makeover.

"I don't know, I could use a bit of a makeover. I'm going to get some new clothes soon. Maybe I could change up the rest of my look, too. You mentioned doing each other's makeup, Wendy. I'm down."

"If you're getting new clothes does that mean you're going to stop wearing that lame old leather jacket all the time?" Tambry asked. Currently, Cary was wearing a black tank top, green striped pajama shorts, and Wendy's red flannel, but the leather jacket was draped over Cary's desk chair.

"Uh, no? My dad gave that to me. I'm keeping it until it falls apart."

Tambry shrugged, "Well if that's your style, I suppose it's fine. It's certainly better than just wearing t-shirts from your gift shop."

Cary snorted, amused by how casually Tambry had insulted what had previously been her entire sense of style. Gift shop t-shirts were affordable (for Cary and no one else), served as a great advertisement for the Shack, and were convenient to grab from the shop whenever Cary didn't know what to wear. But it might be nice to explore her style a bit more.

"What about contacts?" Tambry asked, studying Cary's face, "Contacts and a little eyeliner would make your eyes really pop."

"Cary's eyes are already like, unfairly pretty. She doesn't need any help in that department," Wendy said.

"Yeah, I like my old man glasses, but I'd try eye makeup." Cary tied their hair back with a sparkly silver scrunchie and presented their face as a canvas.

"I'll do her eyeliner and then you do her lip gloss," Tambry ordered.

"Hey, I didn't agree to lip gloss," Cary protested.

"It'll be fun," Wendy promised, "I'll be gentle and if you don't like it we can wipe it off."

"I won't be gentle," Tambry said, "If you move while I'm working you're losing an eye."

Cary couldn't help thinking that Tambry with eyeliner might be more dangerous than half the demons she'd encountered on the Boiling Isles.

Cary managed to stay still, though, and avoided any injuries.

Then Wendy took Cary's face in her hand and Cary was suddenly completely on board with this lip gloss thing. Wendy was so close, biting her tongue in concentration while she applied a sparkly lip gloss to Cary's face. Cary forgot how to breathe until Wendy pulled away.

Tambry snapped a photo and Wendy let Cary look at themself in the mirror.

"What do you think?" Wendy asked.

"I don't know if it's my style, but it's fun every now and then. Wanna do nail polish now?"

Tambry checked her nails and nodded, "Sure. Do you have nail polish remover?"

"Uh, maybe. I don't know if my nail polish collection was affected when everything happened."

"You're so lucky you weren't there for that," Tambry said.

"It was awful," Wendy agreed, "I'm glad you were safe from Bill."

Wendy knew that Cary hadn't had the safest summer themself, but at least they'd been traumatized in different ways.

"Were there any cute guys at theatre camp?" Tambry asked as Cary managed to dig up some nail polish remover and a couple of mismatched colors.

"Uh… I guess so? I wasn't really focused on romance this summer. But I heard you started dating Robbie, how's that going?"

Tambry seemed to channel a completely different, less apathetic person when she answered, "Robbie and I are perfectly in sync. He is, perhaps, my soulmate."

"Wouldn't you both need souls for him to be your soulmate?" Wendy teased.

"Don't be sour just 'cause I can make it work with Robbie and you couldn't."

Wendy shrugged, "I don't have any regrets. I'm definitely not interested in Robbie anymore. I'm just happy that you're happy."

Tambry smiled slightly, "Thanks."

Cary focused on painting his nails while his friends talked about guys. Cary had never been into guys and found the topic a little bit isolating, which was just another thing he couldn't mention.

"Do you think you could paint my nails when you're done with yours?" Wendy asked, "You're better at it."

"Oh, sure! It's probably 'cause I have two extra fingers to practice on," Cary said.

"But no proper middle finger to flip people off," Tambry pointed out.

"Fuck off, Tambry," Cary said.

Wendy burst out laughing and Tambry stared at both of them.

"I don't need middle fingers when I have my words."

"Whatever, Feathers."

Cary frowned, "Only Wendy is allowed to call me that."

Tambry shrugged, fairly unaffected by that.

"After this, we should watch that zombie rom-com," was all she said.

"Zom com," Wendy said.

"Rom zom," Cary said at the exact same time.

The movie was terrible, but their nails were cute and Cary's goal of feeling kind of normal again had been achieved.

That feeling, that they were finally fitting back into Gravity Falls, emboldened them to do something they would never have done before this summer, ask Robbie Valentino for help.

She had the feeling that Wendy would understand her wanting to change her hair, but she was worried, slightly, that Tambry would think a shorter haircut was boyish or gay. Gay was still a hot insult around here. That was one thing Cary definitely missed about the Boiling Isles, there was no judgment, no backlash, you could just love who you loved unless you were a wanted criminal.

But Robbie knew about hair, and he knew about rebelling against societal expectations. And Wendy had said that Robbie had mellowed out, so maybe Cary would get to see a different side of him.

So, a day or two after the sleepover, they mustered up all their courage and knocked on Robbie's door. Cary was already uneasy because, unlike the rest of their friend group, they did not enjoy spending time in the cemetery. It had always felt ominous. Now they wondered if that had something to do with being a witch. Necromancy hadn't been discussed during magic classes but anything was possible.

"Oh, Cary, hello!"

"Hi, Mrs. Valentino, is Robbie here?" Honestly, Robbie's unwaveringly positive parents were kind of more unnerving than the cemetery or their son.

"Oh, yes, he's upstairs, please, come in. I heard you went to theatre camp? How was that?"

"Oh, uh, it was a lot of fun."

"Robbie's dad and I offered to let him go to band camp since he's so into music, but Robbie called it lame. I think he just didn't want to be away from his friends for the whole summer," Mrs. Valentino said thoughtfully.

"I missed my friends this past summer too, so I definitely get that."

"I'll let Robbie know you're here and then you can go on up to his room. You can't miss it."

"Robbie! Your friend is here!"

Cary wouldn't have called himself Robbie's friend, but he didn't correct Mrs. Valentino. He simply walked up the stairs, past all of the portraits of Robbie as he grew up from a well-adjusted little boy to a fucked up teen.

Did that fucked up teen deserve their forgiveness? Cary remembered every time Robbie had made fun of them for their bird costume. Then again, they hated the bird costume too, so they couldn't really stay mad about that particular slight. Putting that grudge behind them, they knocked on the door.

"What are you doing here, birdbrain?" Now that they knew about the curse inside of them, that insult was actually pretty funny.

"I know we're not the best of friends, but I need some advice."

Robbie sighed, "Look, I can't help you with your little crush-"

"What?" Now Cary floundered.

"As someone who has had a crush on Wendy, I happen to be a bit of an expert at recognizing when people have a crush on her. Things didn't end well for us, I don't have any advice for you."

"You knew I had a crush on Wendy and you didn't say anything to anyone? Not even Wendy?"

"I'm not that shallow, man. My cousin is a lesbian I know outing people is a dick move." A thousand thoughts went through Cary's mind, relief at her secret being safe, gender euphoria at being called man by someone who didn't know her gender identity, and surprise that Robbie was being reasonable for once.

"Oh. Thanks, Robbie."

"Don't mention it." The last thing either of them wanted was people to find out they'd been hanging out.

"I'm not actually here about Wendy, though."

"Then what do you want?"

"I want to cut and dye my hair and I was hoping you'd have some tips."

"Can't you just go to the salon?"

"Gravity Falls just has a barber shop and if you tell them you want it cut short they'll be like, 'Are you sure, young lady?' and then they just cut off like two inches. I want to shave the sides of my head and just leave the top. They're not gonna do that at the barber shop."

"True, all the good haircuts are DIY… And what were you thinking for hair dye?"

"Do you have a natural brown?"

"Ah, wedding color."

"What."

"The color my parents make me dye my hair when we go to weddings and stuff. My "normal" hair color. Yeah, I can spare a bottle. But I'm only helping you because I know I'm better at this than you and I don't want you to mess it up," Robbie said.

"That's why I came to you."

"Do you have a reference photo on your phone?" Robbie asked.

"I don't have a smartphone."

"Of course not. Here's mine, find a look and we'll get to work."

Cary found a photo where it was shaved on the sides and back but the curls were piled up on the top. He also noticed that Tambry was Robbie's lock screen wallpaper, which was adorable. He reminded himself to make a photo of him and Wendy his lock screen when he got a new phone.

"What do you think?"

"I can do that. Come with me. We'll have to do the cut and dye in the bathroom. Then you can use my shower to wash the excess dye out." Robbie knew exactly what he was doing.

"You should maybe tell your mom what we're doing so that she doesn't think we're up to something."

"Ugh, yeah. I wish my parents could just be chill for one minute, but whatever."

"I know how that is. That's why I want to change my hair, actually."

"To rebel against your dad?"

"No… Not my dad."

Robbie blinked in surprise, "You have a mom?"

"Yeah. You can't tell anyone, but I actually went to see my mom over the summer. I'd never met her before, and, well… It wasn't exactly the best experience. It wasn't completely her fault and I'm trying not to be mad at her, but I also don't want to be like her. And right now I look like her. I think if I change my hair I might feel more like myself."

And, as a bonus, she'd look more like she belonged in the Pines family. She'd seen pictures of her dad and uncle when they were younger. She'd seen pictures of Dipper and Mabel. Maybe if she was a brunette, she'd fit in a little bit more. It couldn't hurt.

"Cool. Do you trust me?"

"Yeah, I do." Normally she wouldn't have trusted Robbie, but not trusting people who genuinely wanted to help was how Eda had cut herself off from everyone who cared about her, and how Ford had gotten tricked into doing a demon's bidding. So it seemed like it was better to try to trust someone than stay suspicious and closed off.

Cary liked the feeling of the electric razor as Robbie shaved off his hair. It felt right, it felt better than the eyeliner and the lip gloss from the other night. It felt like he was really figuring himself out. Robbie left a mess of curls on the top, which spilled down one side of Cary's face, and made sure his "client" was satisfied with the length before he began to dye his hair.

It took a few hours, overall, and to pass the time they exchanged tales of the way their parents had disappointed them. Cary told him about being booted out of Connecticut and how Stan was going to travel the world without her. Robbie told her about how his parents had been overprotective and overbearing since he'd been a kid, when he'd gotten really sick.

"I'm sure they were terrified, but sometimes they act like I died or something."

"Maybe you did. Maybe you're a zombie."

"Yeah, sure. And maybe you're a witch."

Cary laughed a little before falling silent, keeping the truth inside.

Before Cary left the Valentino residence, Robbie had two more things to say to them.

"Don't tell anyone that we hung out today or that I was the one to help you with your hair. Even though I did an amazing job, I don't need credit."

"I won't say a word."

"And… One other thing. If you like Wendy, like really like her, you should just go for it. Wendy is really cool and she might surprise you."

"I don't want to lose her as a friend, though."

"Man up. You're her best friend, I don't think you could lose her if you tried."

"Maybe you're right…"

"Of course I'm right. Now get out of my house."

Cary felt lighter as she left, and not just from the weight of hair that Robbie had shorn off.

"I am finally who I'm supposed to be." After all those years of asking the barber to cut their hair short and pretending to be satisfied by the meager trim, this felt right.

"I've known something was wrong for a long time," Cary realized. Wanting their hair short, stealing clothes from their dad, and getting upset whenever activities were separated by gender… It all made sense now. Gender was a scam.

Cary was too busy thinking about that to think about how people would react to his hair. Stan was the first one to see him.

"Wow, kiddo, you look awesome," Stan said, stunned at how drastic a change the haircut made. Cary looked a bit more androgynous and a lot happier.

"Thanks, dad." Cary wasn't mad at him anymore. She didn't want to spend the last two months before Stan left on his expedition being mad. They'd begun making plans for things they could do together before he left, adding more things to the list every day.

The next person to see Cary's new hair was Wendy, who gushed about how good they looked and then let Cary take over running the gift shop while they went outside to check on Soos. Cary found that a little bit weird, since Soos was almost always able to handle himself at work, but they didn't think too much about it.

Wendy was overthinking everything.

"Soos!"

Soos was fixing the golf cart, still fond of his old job even though he would soon begin training to take over the Mystery Shack.

"Sup, dude?"

"Did you see Cary's new hair?"

"I think so? It's brown now, right?"

"Uh-huh. It looks really, really good…" Wendy said, for some reason seeming a little bit nervous.

"Yeah, Cary's got style."

"Soos, can I tell you something?"

"Always."

"I need you to promise not to tell anyone, though…"

"Sure thing, dude."

"I think I have feelings for Cary…"

Ah, once again, I think I'll end this one on a cliffhanger! Just a teeny tiny one though. Soos and Wendy will get a chance to talk through these feelings in the next chapter! Because they're both part of Team Pines officially now, as well as Ford, all three of them will sometimes get the chance to have part or all of a chapter focus on them. I think it's only fair.