"See, what did I tell ya, dudes?" Soos said, hands on his hips. "This place is the perfect hidey-hole!"

Soos held the key proudly between his fingers as he led the makeshift team into the glistening floors and cavernous space of the town's one-time black market. The Crawlspace, as huge a presence as it had been in the town's day-to-day, was a mystery to the majority of the town.

Now, it felt like one of the place's great secrets had been revealed, and they all took it…

Well, surprisingly okay.

"I thought I'd seen all of the weirdness in town after meeting your friends," Melody said, awe-struck by the sight of brick tenements and a golden floor. "What the heck is all this?"

"They call it- uh- Crawlspace. Crawlspace, yeah. Kids kinda destroyed it twice. It's where all the critters come to... I dunno, do somethin'."

The group of makeshift freedom fighters - Manly Dan, his kids, Lazy Susan, Soos, Melody and Bud Gleeful all stood with eyebrows raised. It was only Soos and Wendy who seemed to understand the place's existence.

Dan frowned. He'd heard plenty of rumours about this sort of place, lurking underground, but had never particularly taken it seriously. Who takes a gnome seriously? Not Manly Dan Corduroy.

Weirdness was just part of the job working in Gravity Falls. Over the years, Dan had - for better or worse - seen everything in Gravity Falls' forests and caves. Gnomes, stray hands, glowing mushrooms, giant caterpillars - his family had known about it for over a century, and all had taken the same approach.

They didn't talk about it, didn't expect anybody to listen about it, and didn't bother to report it to the authorities. Why would they? Last time Dan saw someone report a gnome, some freaks with hoods dragged them away. Nobody pulled the woollen bag over the eyes of a Corduroy!

"I can't believe this has been here all this tiiiiime!" Susan gasped, holding her cheeks.

"Dude, you should see what else is down here." Wendy grinned, leaning against one of the tenements. "We've been in scrapes so close it almost turned my hair white."

"Me too!" Kevin grinned. "Mabel and I went skating!"

"Almost flattened Gideon into a Texan pancake, the little cr-" Wendy quickly trailed off and grimaced. "Uh… s-sorry, Bud."

"Now ah'm in full agreement that this here is quite some spectacle." Bud said, trying to ignore the talk of his troubled son. "But what exactly is gonna be the plan after all this?"

Soos opened his mouth to speak and quickly realised he didn't have anything to say. "I uh. I guess playin' boardgames or something. Just hide outta sight."

"Y'all know as well as I do that this ain't sustainable." Bud answered, hands on his sides.

"It's just a staaaart!" Susan said, setting up a picnic blanket.

It seemed like everybody was just banking on the Pines knowing what to do. It was an increasingly stark situation that was evolving. By hook or by crook, the Pines were categorically some of the smartest folks in town.

McGucket was out of state, doing some kind of Washington hoo-ha, the Corduroys were much more punch and ask questions later, and Soos… well, he was the sweetest man in town, but he was still Soos. As well-intentioned as his plans often were, he was the sort who could forget them in twenty seconds because he saw a truck that looked a little bit like a transmorpher.

And Susan?

Susan was - well, Susan was Susan.

Susan was making a picnic.

The Gleefuls, in the end, had come to Gravity Falls because the people here were so… easy to manipulate. It was a harsh phrase that Bud was never a huge fan of using. But the facts were absolutely in its favour. The people here weren't the brightest bulbs. Charming, friendly, welcoming, compassionate… but indisputably dim.

He was forced to admit that the situation was fairly similar between him and his son. Gideon was always the dealer. The expert manipulator. The horrific overachiever. He was just a good salesman.

He tapped his chubby fingers together as he considered the subject.

A soft, echoing drip could be heard from the depths of the Crawlspace, that natural moisture still smothering the environment much as it had in its previous incarnation. Save for, y'know, the solid gold floor. Clurichauns peered from the windows. Little gnomes zipped around. At least six geese were hanging from the concreted ceiling like bats, hissing and honking at the intruders aggressively.

"Are y'all sure this place is really safe?" He finally asked.

"Oh yeah dude, these guys are totally benign. Besides, they're like, totally spooked by Mr. Pines. It's gonna be perfect!" Soos said, waving off the concern. "Like, weird doesn't mean unsafe, bro!"

Bud rubbed his chin. "So-"

"SO LET'S GET TO WORK!" Dan bellowed. "LET'S DO THIS ONE!"

He was motioning towards one of the empty tenements, boarded up in a far-off corner of the underground metropolis. It lurked there with its arched windows covered in chipboard, sprayed with graffiti decrying the nature of 'humes' and 'the big man'. It was very clearly empty, a teetering tower of criminal intent.

It would be an impressively practical hideout. Even if it was basically in miniature and Dan was physically unable to fit inside the property.

Armed with cast-offs from the junkyard, Dan's construction materials and whatever Susan managed to forage from the generator hut behind the diner, the team got together and started building out fortifications, bars on the windows, and tidying up the miniature tower block.

The idea was simple - hide the Pines, the town's biggest criminal fugitives, in a forgotten corner of The Crawlspace. Bar up the windows, get up some distractions, maybe some makeshift traps and contraptions…

Then uh…

Wait for it to all blow over, they supposed.

It was a plan as half-baked as Susan's famous brownies. One with the sweetest possible intentions and softest possible centre. But in the absence of better ideas…

Bud cracked his knuckles, grabbed one of the toolboxes and got to work with a bucktoothed, uncertain smile, as the Clurichauns, gnomes and resident nightmare fuel seller watched with curiousity, the developing scene soundtracked by the bustle of the town's heart. What really defined Gravity Falls.

Not so much its weirdness - but its community.