This chapter kind of meanders, but I had a lot of ground to cover so sometimes meandering is necessary.
Ro's Q&A Corner:
Even though Ryn is there too now, Wendy is only dating Cary
I'm not sure how the timing of Amphibia and The Owl House line up- by the time I get to Arc 5 I will probably have more answers, I'm hoping to have watched Amphibia by then.
Also no one asked but Ryn uses they/them exclusively, Cary still uses all pronouns
Enjoy!
Cary had been a little worried about telling Ford and Stan about Ryn. However, they'd been on the phone for ten minutes and the most Ford had said was, "Fascinating!"
He'd said it so frequently, in fact, that Stan could hardly get a word in.
Finally, when Cary concluded their rambling explanation, which for some reason included a tangent about the color they were currently painting their nails, Stan managed to add his two cents.
"As long as you're being careful and you think you can control it, I'm happy you're making progress."
"I can't control them, that's the point, but I think we can work together. Much better than Eda and her Owl Beast can, at least."
Ford took a break from his new favorite word to ask, "Did you ever see Eda turn into the Owl Beast?"
Cary paused on their pointer finger, mint green polish beginning to drip.
"Yeah, once. It was…"
Cary thought about lying and feigning bravery, instead he admitted the truth. "I was terrified. Not of her, though. I was scared of what I'd become."
"Aww, Carebear," Stan said, wanting to reach through the phone and hug her.
"It's okay," Cary said quickly, "since all Ryn cares about is emotional vulnerability or whatever. They're like my emotional support beast."
"If you'd just get therapy maybe I wouldn't have to push you," Ryn snapped. "Also you would look better with the red nail polish. It matches your flannel."
"I like the mint." The pair weren't in perfect harmony, but Ryn wasn't contrary for the sake of contrarianism. They'd just taken a special interest in Cary's physical and mental well-being.
And his relationship.
"The red would look nice for your date on Friday."
"The mint will match the ice cream."
"Uh, Carebear? Are you still there?"
"What? Yeah, still here. Sorry, got distracted." Cary wasn't sure she wanted to mention that Ryn could talk to her whether or not she'd gone beast mode. That might freak them out a little.
"I just asked if anyone missed me over there. Besides you and Soos."
"Oh yeah, the whole town feels different."
Cary wasn't just saying that, either. Lots of people seemed to feel the absence of Stan Pines.
The Mystery Shack, of course, had a completely different vibe. People liked the new Mr. Mystery but it was clear that people had noticed that Stan had retired. The sale of Stan-shaped bobbleheads had gone through the roof. Cary had taken one before they could all be snagged to keep in their bedroom and now Bobble Stan kept Miguel company while Cary was at school.
But the Shack wasn't the only place that felt a little emptier without Stan. When Cary got breakfast at Greasy's Diner with Wendy, Lee, and Nate, she noticed that Lazy Susan seemed to ask a lot of questions about her dad.
"Did something happen between them that nobody told me about?"
"Oh yeah, Mabel set them up on a couple of dates," Wendy mentioned.
"So he told me about the spider lady but not Susan? He really is bad at dating."
"What spider lady?" Nate asked.
"Oh apparently he nearly got devoured by a giant spider who took the form of a hot woman."
"Between the spider lady and the owl lady I think your dad might just be a furry," Lee teased.
Cary didn't have a response to that, and before he could think one up, he noticed something else.
Manly Dan was sitting across the diner, staring directly at him. No, not staring, glaring.
"Wendy," Cary whispered, "your dad is staring at me."
Wendy sighed and squeezed Cary's hand under the table. "I'll take care of it."
It was a little awkward to hang out with Lee and Nate when Wendy wasn't there. At least Lee hadn't hit on Cary since Fright Night.
"Can you read palms yet?" Lee asked, wiggling his fingers at them.
"Handsel's taught me a little, but it's not reliable," Cary said, picking up his hand and studying it. For a second, she thought she saw a flash of a future. Not just Lee's future, either. Whatever she'd seen had definitely involved Nate, as if their futures were intertwined.
She dropped his hand back onto the table and glanced subtly between Lee and Nate. They'd been inseparable as long as she'd known them. Just like her and Wendy.
"I'll give you a reading soon," Cary promised quickly. "I just have to get things under control."
He didn't tell them about Ryn, some things could stay a secret.
"They'll find out eventually," Ryn mentioned, but whether they were talking about themself or about the hazy future Cary had glimpsed, Cary wasn't sure.
Lee, not wanting to get maimed again, didn't argue. So instead he changed the subject.
"We're going to the arcade after school today, wanna come?"
"I totally would but I have rehearsal and then I have to pick up groceries."
"When's the play anyway?" Nate asked.
"The weekend before Thanksgiving, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Are you guys gonna come?"
"Eh, probably." Lee shrugged.
Nate nodded. "If we're not busy."
"Well, we've worked really hard on it. Thompson is a whole other person when he's performing."
"I should hope so," Nate joked, "that's kind of the point."
"I'm serious, he's really talented. You should come see what he can do."
Lee and Nate exchanged a look, both surprised at hearing Thompson described as talented.
"Sure, we'll slot it into our calendar."
"Tickets are five dollars at the door. Robbie and Tambry said they'd come too, so you guys can coordinate with them."
"What about Wendy?" Lee asked.
"What about me?" Wendy said, shaking off any remaining tension as she slid back into the booth, purposefully brushing her leg against Cary's.
"What night are you going to the play?" Nate asked.
"Oh, I'm going to all of them. I wouldn't miss a second of Cary's theatrical debut."
"And Thompson," Cary reminded so that he didn't melt into a puddle on the dirty diner floor.
"And Thompson, of course."
"All three showings? That's like fifteen dollars. What, are you made of money now?" Lee guffawed.
Wendy rolled her eyes.
"I have a job, you know."
"Your job can be done by a cash register."
"Actually I'm the new handyman. Soos is showing me the ropes."
"Abuelita runs the cash register now," Cary explained. "She's, like, weirdly good at upselling. Plus some of the tourists were interested in her knitting so now she has a side business."
Cary had fully adopted Abuelita by now and was very proud of her knitting biz.
"Oh, now that your brother runs the Mystery Shack can you get him to throw another party?" Lee asked.
"Yeah your dad said he wasn't going to throw any more parties because the last one was infested with zombies."
"Seriously?" Cary asked.
"Yeah, but it wasn't that bad. Robbie got bit and he's no weirder than he normally is."
"I'll ask," Cary said, making no promises. Her friends tended to like parties more than she did. "How did the zombie thing even happen?"
"I don't know, ask your cousins."
"Yeah, that was all Dipper," Wendy said.
"I'm looking forward to meeting them," Cary said thoughtfully, wondering once more if he'd missed out on too much during his summer in the Boiling Isles.
"We should do a video call," Wendy suggested. "I'm sure they'd love to meet you too."
"That would be nice."
"Do you want to hang out tonight?" Wendy asked.
"Can't, I have to go grocery shopping."
"You can come to the arcade with us, Wendy," Nate offered.
"Actually, I think we're out of milk at home. Do you mind if I come with you, Feathers?"
Lee and Nate exchanged another look. Wendy wasn't the type to choose chores over goofing off with her friends.
"Of course not, but you'll have to wait for me to get out of rehearsal."
"I don't mind waiting. I'll catch up on homework."
"Dude," Nate whispered, "I think Wendy's been replaced by a shapeshifter."
Wendy graciously pretended she hadn't heard that.
"We should probably get going, we have a test in English class," Cary said, also pretending she hadn't heard Nate's comment.
Lee groaned, "Man, I forgot about that. Did you guys study?"
Wendy shrugged.
"Yeah, I made flash cards," Cary said.
"What would it take for you to let me borrow those?"
Cary smirked, "You can pay for breakfast."
"Fine, deal, whatever."
Lee put a twenty on the table and Cary passed over her note cards, which covered the themes and vocabulary words from Huckleberry Finn.
"You're a lifesaver," Lee said, looking like he wanted to kiss Cary but knowing enough to keep his hands to himself.
"Yeah, yeah. Next time read the book yourself."
With that they were off, trying to get through another long school day.
Even though they were dating Cary could hardly believe Wendy was waiting for them after rehearsal.
"You didn't have to stay," Cary said, glancing around for witnesses before briefly taking and squeezing Wendy's hand.
"I know I didn't, but I wanted to spend more time with you. Especially after what happened Monday."
"That's what tomorrow's for, though."
Wendy smiled sadly. "I owe you more than an ice cream date, Feathers. You trusted me and I let you down."
"You could never let me down," Cary said earnestly. "I was just overwhelmed. Especially since your dad still doesn't trust me."
Cary shuddered, remembering Manly Dan's menacing glare from this morning.
"He'll get over himself. I told him that trust was a two-way street and that if he wanted me to trust him with my problems he would have to trust me first."
"And that worked?"
"Yeah, he just wants to make sure I'm okay, so he was willing to concede, a little."
Cary let out a sigh of relief.
"Hey, are you guys really out of milk or were you just trying to spend time with me?"
"Eh, probably both. My brothers drink it straight out of the gallon."
Cary snorted.
"Well, we're out of pretty much everything. Soos is great at running The Shack but he's still getting used to running the house."
"With you as second-in-command, he'll get the hang of it."
"Yeah, until then I don't mind running errands. Especially if I'm with you."
Wendy grinned. "We're going to have so many normal dates, Feathers. We'll be so ordinary that you'll get bored of me."
"I could never get bored of you," Cary promised, relieved that with everything going on Wendy was content to be ordinary with them. Ordinary sounded like bliss.
Their ordinary date was about as uneventful as they expected, although Cary once more ran into someone who missed Stan.
This time it was Jimmy, the grocery stocker who played "Toss me a dozen eggs," with Stan.
"Your dad still out of town?" Jimmy asked, clearly bummed to miss out on one of the mundane joys of his life.
"Yeah, but he'll be back in May."
"Well, that's good. Tell him hi from me next time you talk to him."
"I will."
Stan had asked if anyone missed him, it seemed now like everyone did. Cary wondered if her dad would even believe it if she told him how much he mattered to the people of Gravity Falls.
I fully intended to write Wendy and Cary's ice cream date but let's just go ahead and say it went well. I have things to do! I'm hoping to write a couple of chapters this month, for Spooky season. I'm hoping to write more this month, in general. Truly dedicating most of my time to writing and watching Halloween-themed things- because it's the most wonderful time of the year :D
