Quentin clambered back into the brownstone, miniature tenement and huffed.
"Sup," Stan said, clicking his fingers while drinking from a can of what was still definitely-not-a-soft-drink.
"I need to speak to you all immediately!"
"Oy. It's 3 AM. Sleep time for the kids and my brother. Guy only sleeps well on cold, hard floors."
"I've seen Nathaniel Northwest." Quentin said, still slightly out of breath. "He's being - he's being assembled in there!"
"Huh?"
Quentin grabbed the book from his waistcoat and threw it onto an enchanted side table. He wasn't sure if it was the table or the book that groaned in protest as they impacted, and the tome flipped open its heavy, tree-bark pages to that of the ritual Preston had begun.
"Every single bit of that body is - is manifesting from nowhere!"
"I mean, hell, isn't that what we expected?"
"The sight of it! You don't understand, my elderly, smelly friend! The sight of it!" Quentin said erratically, grabbing Stan's can of expired apple juice and chugging it. "They're raising him with lake water, don't you understand?!"
"To be honest, pal, I don't understand you most'a the time."
"That water is the cause of our problems. If he was erratic when the Northwest coverup took place, imagine a man forcibly raised from the dead, knitted together piece by piece, every organ and scrap of nerve forged from the floorboards, fuelled by the elixir of oddity that is Gravity Falls!"
"So what, he's gonna have an extra appendix or green hair or those creepy long toes that look like fingers?"
"He'll be ruthless! Furious! A vengeful spirit brought back to life to finish his terrible quest and-"
"And hell hath no fury like a Northwest scorned," Ford said as he entered, apparently having just been woken, his brow furrowed and hair dishevelled by sleep. "Quentin, please, you need to calm down and explain what you saw. And don't exaggerate. Please."
"Very well! It was a dark and stormy night, much like this one-"
"It is this one. And we can't tell if it's dark, or stormy. We're underground."
"And I was fighting off a horde of zombie goblins! Zoblins, I tell you-"
"No."
"And with my intrepid sidekick, Mr. Whiskers-"
"For fu-"
—
Dipper was eavesdropping. Much was his natural inclination. The young man was still reeling from the past few days and was growing increasingly concerned. He had seen many levels of occultism in Gravity Falls, but this - this weird Northwest alchemist bull - that was worrying him.
Of course, it was nothing compared to Pacifica.
She sat alongside him, holding his hand, occasionally resting her tired head on his equally weary shoulders. She used to occasionally rib him about them barely being broad enough for her hand, let alone her head, but now she was silent.
"This is scary." She said, quietly. "You really think that-"
"That your dad's using necromancy? I mean, it was your idea."
"I didn't think it'd be so… so… gory."
"I didn't think we'd spend our last week on the lam."
"We did kinda spend our first week on the lam."
"And the second."
Pacifica giggled. "We must be the best-looking convicts in town."
Dipper smirked and tapped her nose. "No contest."
She tried to fight off the red in her cheeks - completely in vain - and curled up a little closer. "I'm cold."
"Yeah, it's not the warmest buil-"
"Bwomp!" They were both promptly hit in the face by a pair of freshly knitted jumpers. Both with a pine tree and a llama embroidered into them, and a little tag saying 'From Mabel, the actual best looking convict in town.'
"Mabel, how the hell do you do these things so quickly?"
"I am speed! Kachow!"
Dipper wrinkled his nose. "Well…thanks."
"Anything for my Oh-tee-pee! …Haha. Pee."
Pacifica smiled. "You're the best, Mabel. But what's with the llamas?"
"I dunno. I see you, I think Llama. They're nature's greatest warriors, according to…uh… a weird voice in… in the shack." Mabel said, growing increasingly concerned that she was the only one that heard said voice.
"Man. It feels like these things have stalked me since day one." Pacifica said quietly, as she slipped it on. "It's comfy, though."
"Duh. I use only the finest yarn. Mostly by borrowing Grunkle Stan's credit card."
"He has a credit card?"
"Well, he doesn't know he has one."
The kids giggled gingerly. But it was an awkward, knowing giggle. Things felt tense - not least because they'd heard Quentin genuinely panicked. Quentin never panicked. Not in all of the times they'd known him. Frantic, yes. Erratic, certainly. But panicked? No. No, that was new.
Pacifica was trembling. This time, not due to the cold. She was scared. She had gone through an awful lot of confronting her family's crimes, but had never expected necromancy and meeting the family's wicked, malevolent star…
It was weird enough confronting the fact Trembley was over 200 years old, but that was benign. It was done with peanut brittle. Who could be scared of that?
Nathaniel Northwest was being brought back to life forcefully through just about the goriest, disgusting thing Pacifica had ever heard. It was a very non-benign way to bring back one of the evilest, unscrupulous people she had ever learnt about.
She was worried about meeting him, too. There was no secret, now, that she had entirely destroyed her father's reputation. Perhaps the entire family's. She was at the centre of all of this, and when it all went to hell, she really didn't want to be the one to confront him.
It kept rattling through her head that perhaps it would have been better if she hadn't rocked the applecart at that ill-fated Northwest Fest at all…
She took a deep breath and tried to swallow her emotions - unsuccessfully.
"Are you doing okay?" Dipper finally asked.
She looked up at him. He cracked a brave smile, took her hands - then let go and instead wrapped his arms firmly around her. She tensed up… and almost immediately melted against him, holding her boyfriend tightly.
"N-no. No I don't think I am."
Dipper didn't say a word. He successfully swallowed his emotions and gently, calmly stroked down her hair and held her. While Mabel wore her biggest, cheesiest, most teasing grin next to them.
He just smiled back and shooed her away.