So, funny story. I actually had most of this written out like a week after the last chapter. Then I ended up in the hospital. Thankfully, we're finally back in business now. Enjoy!

The Mystery Shack was temporarily closed for repairs, but there wasn't much repairing being done at the moment, as six of the now seven Mystery Shack residents relaxed in the gift shop. Stan sat at a chair, head buried in the newspaper. Mina and Ochako were sitting on the floor playing cards, Waddles curled up next to Mina in bear form. Izuku and Shouto were looking over Journals 1 and 2 respectively.

"You know," Ochako mused, laying down a card that made Mina frown and skim through her own. "After the craziness of the past few days, it's nice to just get a regular tuesday where nothing interesting happens."

"It's been a while since we've had one of these," Stan agreed, tapping the newspaper. Ochako could see the headline on the front - the whole "gravity reversing itself" had apparently left enough of an impact for their local journalists to actually notice. "Just a day where nothing interesting happens whatsoever-"

At this moment, there was a loud explosion, and the vending machine burst open, revealing Ford in the red turtleneck sweater they'd bought him, wearing glowing black gloves, a strange green octopus-like monster on one of his arms.

"Everyone get down!" He called out to them, as Ochako and Mina scrambled back. "Don't let it taste human flesh!" He slammed one of the gloves down on the creature, shocking it. It fell off him, scuttling around the shop as they all leapt away. Ochako grabbed her necklace, ready to use it if necessary, and she could see Izuku drawing his dagger.

Stan smacked it on the one massive eye it had with his rolled up newspaper. "Kill it, kill it!" The thing swung and slid away, Ford chasing after it, until it hid itself in the corner of the shop as he steadily approached, hands up.

As soon as he got too close, the eye flipped over, revealing a gaping hole of a mouth filled with sharp teeth. Ford instantly dove in, electrifying the creature, and held up the limp thing for them to see, grinning.

Mina clapped, and Ochako joined in.

Stan narrowed his eyes and pinched his nose. "Just get that thing out of here - it smells like dried barf." Ford shrugged and moved back towards the vending machine, not even looking at his brother.

Ochako winced at the sight. Clearly, whatever talk the two had had didn't fix much between them. She wondered faintly if the rest of their time here would be the same.

No, Ford did agree to help us. We'll get to talk to him at some point, right? Even if not today.

Hopefully soon, at least.

Mina looked similarly glum, but then perked up. "Hey, isn't the season finale of Ducktective airing friday? That should be fun to watch."

Even Stan seemed excited by the reminder. "Oh yeah. We're finally gonna know who shot our poor Ducktective." He paused. "Or maybe we'll find out next season. Dunno if they'll leave us on a cliffhanger or not."

"Soos is convinced that it's Ducktective's evil twin brother," Shouto mused. "Which is frankly ridiculous and totally out of left field."

Izuku chuckled. "I dunno, I think there've been some signs that it could happen. You just need to look closely for them."

"If you say so."

Mina was relaxing on the couch the next day when Izuku bounded into the living room, face aglow with excitement. "Hey, guess what? You know how some brands seem to be slightly different here, like that whole Pez versus Smez dispenser thing?" He held a box. "Well, they also have a Dungeons and Dragons equivalent here! I mean, it seems like there's a bit more math involved, but it's mostly the same."

Mina perked up at the idea, immediately interested. "Really? That's so cool! I used to play that all the time in Middle School - we finished up our last campaign a few months before graduation."

Kirishima had been so emotional over the fact that his paladin had died in the final confrontation, so they'd gone out for ice cream together and commiserated over the fact that their journey with their characters was over.

…She hoped he was doing okay.

"I've heard of it, but never played it before," Ochako admitted, as Izuku opened the box, pulling out a book titled "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons". "It always seemed like fun."

"It's a roleplaying game, right?" Shouto clarified. "I don't know much about it other than that."

Mina nudged him playfully. "Well, now you'll get the chance to learn! Or at least learn about this world's equivalent. Anyone up for being DM?"

"DM?"

"Dungeon Master. The storyteller, basically."

"I can do it," Izuku offered, looking over the other materials that came with the book, including graph paper for map-making and dice, which seemed to have more sides than the twenty-sided die Mina was used to. "The book comes with a One-Shot, we can use that to get us started."

Mina beamed. "Let's get to character-making! And it's so nice out, so maybe we could play it outside."

Shouto picked up one of the dice and studied it. "As long as no gnomes or goats steal the pieces, I don't see why not."

"What kind of character does a lot of fighting?" Ochako asked. "I kinda want to play one of those."

"Oh! You're probably looking for either a fighter or a barbarian…"

"Okay, so talking to the townsfolk was a bust," Mina mused. "None of them seem willing to open up."

"Think they're all in on it?" Shouto wondered, absentmindedly looking over his character sheet. He'd gone with a draconic sorcerer for his character, which was pretty cliche, but Mina couldn't exactly throw stones - for her first character, she'd tried to grab every acid spell in the book.

"Hard to say for sure," Ochako mused. "Maybe we should check the surrounding area? If this Probabilitor wizard-guy really is kidnapping people, then maybe there are signs of struggle. Or at least, signs of magic or whatever."

Mina nodded. "We should look around. Even if we don't find anything, I can still cast Detect Magic, just in case."

"Perception is under… Wisdom, right?" Izuku nodded in confirmation, and Shouto turned to Mina. "You should make the check then. You have the highest Wisdom score."

"Comes with being a cleric," Mina preened, before rolling her 36-sided die. Right before it landed, however, Gompers clopped over, the goat snatching it up in his mouth. "Hey! Gompers, no!" She grabbed at the die to try and take it away from him. "Come on, I don't want to use super strength on your mouth, let go-!"

She must've pulled a bit too hard, because Gompers released the die just as she was leaning back, and it slipped out of her hands, rolling down between a small hole in the bottom of the shack. "...Oops."

Izuku leapt forward. "Hang on, I'll get it!" He crawled over to the hole, narrowing his eyes before sticking his hand in and leaning forwards. "Hey, guys? I think there's a room down here-"

Something beneath him collapsed, and he fell into the room with a yelp. The other three exchanged panicked looks, then jumped down after him.

Izuku was groaning next to a broken table and a shattered glass case with the creature from earlier this morning sliding out of it. Ochako levitated the creature into the air before it could get away, and Shouto helped Izuku to his feet, the latter holding the fallen die in his hand. "Are you alright?"

Izuku groaned. "I'm fine. Just some bruises, but they're already healing." He shook his head and looked around. "We're… back in the basement?"

Sure enough, they were surrounded by familiar machines, in a room they'd spent hours learning about some mysterious backstories in.

The realization sunk in. "You mean we could've discovered it just like that, all this time," Shouto said flatly. Mina snorted, taking in the absolute ridiculousness of that fact.

Ochako let out a disbelieving huff and rolled her eyes, grinning. "Uh, Ford?" She called out. "We just fell down here, and the container for that cycloptopus broke. I'm holding it right now, but you might want to come quick."

There were rushing footsteps, and then Ford was in front of them, blinking at the sight. "Oh, hello. I didn't hear the elevator open - how did you get down here?"

Shouto pointed up towards where they came in. "Fell through a hole in the side of the shack." Next to him, Izuku chuckled awkwardly.

Ford frowned and squinted at the hole. "I'll need to get that fixed up immediately, then. At least now we know the weak spot is there, before anyone less savory tries to find my research using it…" He trailed off, eyes finding the die in Izuku's hand. "...Is that a 38-sided die from Dungeons Dungeons and more Dungeons?"

Izuku brightened. "Yeah, it is! We were just playing it on the lawn earlier, which is how we ended up down here, since the die rolled away when Gompers tried to eat it. It's really interesting, because we have Dungeons and Dragons in our world which is similar but not completely the same and the biggest dice are 20-sided dice so we were wondering what this game would be like… and I'm rambling again." He winced. "Sorry."

"No, it's alright," Ford insisted, looking intrigued. "That sounds fascinating. It's so interesting to hear the smaller differences between worlds. And you're all fans as well, of your world's version of the game?"

"Well, Izuku and I are, 'cause we've played it before," Mina admitted. "This is Ochako and Shouto's first time. We'll need to introduce them to D&D when we get back home."

"It's a lot of fun so far!" Ochako said.

Izuku seemed to get an idea. "Hey, do you want to play with us? I'm DMing a oneshot right now, but we just started, so we can fit you in pretty easily."

Ford looked at them, then back at his work, and came to a decision. "I'd love to! I don't suppose you already have a warlock, or can I play that role?"

After storing away the monster again, they gathered up everything they'd set out on the lawn, and moved it down to the basement, and continued right where they left off, working Ford's character in as someone who'd escaped Probabilitor and could help the party find him.

Ford, Izuku quickly discovered, was an excellent player. Very good at improv and the roleplaying aspects, and always quick to hype up the other characters, especially Ochako and Shouto. Plus, the way he could roll the dice between his fingers with such ease really was awesome.

"Have you been able to play this in the last thirty years?" Izuku asked curiously, as the players celebrated their clearing of one of the puzzle rooms. "I - I mean you don't have to answer! But you obviously haven't lost your touch."

Ford looked pleased. "Thank you! I'll admit, I didn't get to play nearly as much as I would've liked. But there are some other roleplay games I found in different universes that kept my skills sharp. And there's this." He reached behind him and pulled out a small dark box, opening it up. Inside was a glowing orb in the vague shape of a die, the sides constantly changing, smaller and bigger, with different symbols showing up each time. "An infinity-sided die."

"Woah." Izuku couldn't help but lean forwards, interested. "How does that even work?"

Shouto eyed the die warily. "When you say infinity…"

Ford nodded, grinning slyly. "It really is infinite. Infinite sides means infinite outcomes. If I rolled it, who knows what could happen? Our faces could melt into jelly. The world could turn into an egg!" He shrugged. "Or you could just roll an eight. Who knows? That's why these things are outlawed in over nine-thousand dimensions."

"A very good reason," Ochako agreed.

Ford smiled. "Now, should we get back to the game? It seems like we've almost reached Probabilitor."

"Maybe we can hear more crazy game stories from other dimensions later," Mina suggested.

"I don't see why not," Ford agreed.

Izuku held back a grin, going for an innocent smile. "Well, I won't say how close you are to Probabilitor, but we can certainly dive back in…"

The next day, they moved up to the living room, as the part of the basement they were in was a bit too small for all five of them, and no one wanted to risk playing games in the portal room. They'd entered the chamber to finally confront Probabilitor when Stan entered followed by Candy and Grenda.

Stan scanned the room, perplexed. "What is all this? Why is there graph paper all over my living room?"

Ochako blinked, then smacked her head. "Oh, right, it's Ducktective now! Sorry guys, we totally lost track of time."

Grenda shrugged. "It's fine, it happens. What are you doing with all of that paper anyways?"

Next to her, Candy's eyes widened in recognition. "Is that DD&D? You didn't tell me you were playing! Also…" She jerked her head towards Ford, obviously confused. "Why is there another Mr. Pines here?"

"We just started yesterday!" Izuku told her. "And that's Stan's twin brother, Ford. They're, ah…"

"Don't mess that up!" They all turned to see the two brothers glaring at each other. "We have a good set-up here!"

"And we have a show to watch!" Stan shot back. "Seriously, you could win a record for world's nerdiest old man."

"Hey, at least I'm not all keyed up to watch a kids show!"

"I'll have you know that Ducktective has a big mystery element, and a lot of humor that goes over kids heads!"

The rest of them continued to watch awkwardly as the two kept arguing with each other. Ochako turned to their friends with a wince. "Sorry about this. It's… complicated."

Grenda shrugged. "Family issues always are. No big deal."

"We've all got them," Candy agreed solemnly.

"Did it ever occur to you, Stanley, that if you joined us, you might actually have fun?" Ford said, sounding ever-so-slightly mocking.

Stan seemed to notice it too. "Now listen here! I will never, ever, play your nerd-game!" With that, he grabbed the dice bag Ford was holding and threw it aside… including the infinity-sided dice.

Ochako sucked in a sharp breath. Next to her, Izuku let out a gasp.

Candy blinked at them. "What's wrong? What did that do?"

The dice rolled until it came to a stop, with what looked like the image of a wizard facing upwards for everyone to see. A small beam of light shot out and encircled the box cover of their DD&D game, and a second later, Probabilitor himself burst forth into their living room, flanked by an elf ranger, an ogre fighter, and a griffon with its wings spread wide behind him.

"Mortals of dimension 46'\! Kneel before me and snivel!"

"Ah," Candy said faintly. "So that's what it does."

Probabilitor raised his staff. "I am Probabilitor! The greatest wizard in all Mathology! …Give or take an error of 0.4"

Ochako gripped her necklace and stepped slightly in front of Candy and Grenda, even as they all backed away. "Mathology? So… are you from DD&D or…?"

"How would that work?" Izuku wondered. "What campaign would he be from? Whose campaign would he be from?"

Probabilitor shook his head, still grinning with that unsettling mouth of his, too wide to fit any normal person. "No, no, your campaign's Probabilitor is based off of me! Consider it… getting inspiration from my dimension. We do play DD&D though, it's quite flattering. And speaking of!" He gestured at them with his staff. "Four of you here happen to be excellent players! You, you, you, and you!" He gestured to Ford, Izuku, Mina, and Candy, respectively.

"So… you want to play a game with us, since we're so good at it?" Mina tried.

Probabilitor laughed. "Oh, no! I'm going to eat your brains to gain your creativity."

Izuku reached for his knife. Shouto's hand's lit on fire. Ford pulled an actual gun out from under his coat. "Your math is no match for my gun, you idiot!"

"I'm not here to play games," Probabilitor snarked. "Math Ray!" There was a blast of blue light, and then the shack had a hole in the side of it, and Izuku, Mina, Ford, and Candy were being carried off. "Now, to the forest, for the ultimate game!"

There was a long pause, as the remaining four of them stared at the space where the others had just been.

Stan let out a long sigh. "We're going to have to go on an epic wizard quest to get them back, aren't we?"

"Our season finale," Grenda mourned.

"They're playing a second run later today," Shouto assured her. "We'll watch it then."

"I'd better not get any more fairy bites. Last time, I had to hear their high-pitched voices telling me to "hey, look, listen" for a week," Stan muttered. "Alright. Everyone, grab a weapon."

He pulled out two brass knuckles and put them on. Grenda went into the other room and came back with a metal baseball bat. Shouto picked up Ford's fallen gun, and Ochako grabbed Izuku's dagger. "Let's go."

For the fourth time in as many minutes, Izuku tested the strength of the ropes holding them up against the tree. Once again, he was disappointed.

"What even are these things?" Mina muttered, having no better luck, despite her strength. "How are they so impossible to break?"

"I maxed out their capturing stats!" Probabilitor gloated, as he took out a measuring tape and started measuring the sizes of their skulls. "Even the strongest barbarian couldn't break through them now!"

"DD&D doesn't work that way!" Candy said, offended. Probabilitor leaned closer to measure her, and she tried to bite him, causing him to jerk away his hands.

"If I had my hands free, I'd break every bone in your face," Ford practically snarled at their captor, who seemed unphased.

"The time has come!" He crowed. "Hot elf, ready the brain-cooking pot!"

The elf rolled his eyes. "Yes, Probabilitor." With a flick of his hair, he drew a flaming arrow, and lit the bottom of the caldron on fire. It immediately boiled, pink bubbles floating out of it.

Probability turned back to them, a horrible grin on his face. "Now, a math problem. When I subtract your brains from your skulls, add salt, and divide your family, what's the remainder?"

"Your butt!" Grenda's voice, emerging from the bushes, was loud and clear, and Izuku watched as she smashed a metal baseball bat down on one of the ogre's heads. Shouto, Ochako, and Stan emerged right after her, Ochako stabbing down on the other ogre with Izuku's dagger, causing him to pop out of existence.

Probabilitor scowled, throwing up a shield around himself, his captives, and the cauldron. "Drat! How did you make it past my three guards!?"

"Let them go!" Shouto threatened, one hand on Ford's gun, the other wreathed in flames. "I hear most mathematicians don't do well when chaos is thrown into their equations."

"And we've got chaos in spades," Ochako agreed.

Izuku beamed. "They're so cool, aren't they?"

Mina laughed. "Uh-huh."

Despite this, Probabilitor didn't look phased. "Fine. You want to save your friends and family? You must first beat me! A dungeons, dungeons, and dungeons battle royale… real life addition!"

He slammed his staff on the ground, and suddenly Izuku was shrinking, down and down, slipping through the ropes and into some sort of hard-light arena, which solidified into a castle courtyard. His clothes were different - he was wearing a tunic rather than his original t-shirt. In one of his hands was a smile sword. He reached up, and felt pointed ears.

Ford was feeling his ears as well. "They're so pointy!"

"How come I'm even smaller now?" Candy complained. Even compared to them, she was shorter than usual - as though she'd become a gnome.

Mina touched her horns, which had changed to resemble something slightly more devilish, and spun around to look at her forked tail. "Oh, I'm a tiefling now! Awesome!"

"The rules are simple," Probabilitor announced. "You have your four characters - your tiefling barbarian, your young elf paladin, your old elf wizard, and your gnome bard. Your roll to cast spells and let them use their abilities. I will set a series of challenges for them, and then we roll. The highest roll emerges victorious. If all my challenges are defeated, you win, and I go back to my own dimension. If I knock out all four, I win, and will promptly eat their brains."

Izuku exchanged glances with the other three on the board. "You know, paladin does kind of make sense," he admitted, thinking of One For All.

Mina grinned. "Being a barbarian is gonna be fun!"

Candy looked nervous, but smiled along. "Being a bard is fine. Still wish I wasn't a gnome though."

Now floating slightly in the air thanks to Probabilitor's magic, and sitting criss-crossed next to the board, Stan actually looked contemplative. "So, this is just a game of luck then?" He pulled out a piece of gum and popped it into his mouth.

"And imagination for the fighting parts." Shouto agreed. "A lot easier than what we were doing earlier."

Ochako nodded. "Alright, we accept. Hand on, you guys!"

Izuku gave her a thumbs up.

"Let's begin!" Probabilitor clapped his hands, and four ogres appeared on the board. He rolled, and landed on a thirteen. "Attack!"

The ogres leapt forwards, one of them coming right for Izuku who dodged out of the way. The sword was a lot different than his dagger, much heavier in his hands, but when the ogre turned and tried to slam its club down on his face, he managed to deflect it in time to run away.

"Alright." Ochako looked at the board nervously. "Our paladin and barbarian suddenly find that they have special magic weapons!" She rolled, and the dice showed a nineteen.

Suddenly, the sword in Izuku's hand was shining with a bright glow, white flame wrapped around the blade. As one of the ogres charged him, he dodged and swung his blade, cutting it clean in half and causing it to disappear. He spotted another about to attack Candy, and stabbed in the back, clean through the heart, making it vanish as well. On the other side of the courtyard, he could see Mina bringing a giant battleaxe down on another ogre, before slicing off the last ogre's hands and embedding the axe in its head.

Probabilitor frowned at their luck. "You may have been lucky the first time, but you can't outrun my ogrenado! He rolled, landing on a twenty-one. From the dice burst forth a raging tornado filled with ogre heads, the wind ripping the sword right out of Izuku's hands.

Shouto rolled. "Our wizard and bard can calm the storm with a spell." The dice landed on a twenty-three. Magic glowed around Candy and Ford's hands, and they grinned at each other, before together casting a spell that swirled around the tornado, dispersing it and causing the ogre heads to ignobly drop to the ground and pop.

"That was awesome!" Mina cheered. Izuku opened his mouth to agree, but before he could say anything, a massive hand shot out and grabbed him. Suddenly, he found himself looking at a four armed monstrosity with a mouth inside its mouth, two tongues that both stuck out the wrong way, one terrible eye looking down on them as its wings flapped and tentacles whirled around.

"I was saving the worst for last," Probabilitor gloated.

"The impossibeast," Candy breathed.

Ford frowned. "Hey, I thought they banned this character!"

Probabilitor smirked. "Think again! I'm playing the controversial 1991-1992 addition! The only way to defeat this beast is to roll a natural 38 on your first try!"

"Well, if long odds are what you need…" Stan grabbed the die and held it up to his face, bouncing it around in his hands. "Come on. Papa needs a new pair of… twins!"

He rolled.

A critical 38.

"Nooo!" Probabilitor shrieked.

Stan smirked. "Sorry, nerd-wizard. All your smarts are no match for dumb luck. And now, all four of them have bombs they can explode the beast with!"

A massive bomb appeard in Izuku's hands, and without hesitation, he through it into the inner mouth of the beast. Three other bombs followed. The beast dropped them, writhing in pain, before exploding with a force that sent Izuku flying backwards…

And onto his feet, normal sized, and in his normal clothes, and normal ears. Looking around, Candy, Ford, and Mina were all back to normal as well.

"The game is like, over," the elf said, from where Grenda was hugging him. Exelci-whatever."

The board disappeared, alongside the elf, to Grenda's dismay.

"No!" Probabilitor cried, as he started dividing into pink light. "I'm returning to my own realm! I'm becoming pure math! What are the odds!?"

He disappeared with a pop.

There was a moment as they watched the space where he was, and then Izuku found himself and Mina pulled into a hug by Ochako. "Wew, we're all okay!"

"You guys were badass!" Grenda agreed, crushing Candy in a hug of her own.

"I think you were the real badasses here," Mina said, laughing. "Honestly, that was a lot of fun! I wish I could've kept that battleaxe."

"And Stan got a crit on his first ever roll," Izuku agreed. "Talk about lucky."

Stan smiled. "Hey, a gambler never reveals his secrets. Now, are we gonna watch that second showing of Ducktective, or what?"

"I suppose I might as well see what it's about," Ford agreed, to Stan's surprise. The eight of them started the trek back to the shack, and Ford leaned closer to them. "And afterwards, I have something to show the four of you."

"You, know, there's been something on my mind lately, and I was wondering if you knew the answer to it," Mina began, as the five of them headed down to the basement. They'd finished watching the Ducktective finale, and while Shouto still thought the whole "evil-twin-brother" thing was a weak twist, it was still an overall solid finale. "There's a lot of weird things in Gravity Falls, but I think this one might be the weirdest."

Ford quirked an eyebrow, interested. "Oh?"

"So, a bunch of times since we've gotten here, all four of us have felt this… presence, in our heads. It seems sentient, and it even helped us out once, but we've got no idea what exactly it is."

"Izuku and I have only felt it once," Ochako admitted. "Mina and Shouto have felt it a lot more."

Ford looked surprised, and, for some reason, excited. "A presence in the back of your mind, that only showed up once you got to Gravity Falls? You actually felt it?"

Shouto blinked. "Then you do know what it is?"

Ford nodded. "It's the genius loci of Gravity Falls. This town, and the surrounding areas - they're somewhat sentient. This place has a bit of a mind of its own, and seems to subtly protect the town's populace as a whole from all the monstrosities surrounding it in subtle ways. I've only heard it a few times, back before I fell into the portal - it's amazing that you've heard it so often!"

"Often isn't the word I would use," Shouto said. Even as he spoke, he could feel a poke of amusement from the presence - the genius loci.

This thing, the thing that helped them against Cipher, was it really Gravity Falls itself? Then again, after all the things they'd seen… it somehow made sense, that the place itself was sentient.

They reached the bottom and entered the basement, walking into the portal room, where the previously put-together machine lay in pieces. "I've dismantled the portal," Ford told them, suddenly all business. "It was too much of a risk to keep in one piece - we don't want anything getting in from the other side."

"That… makes sense," Izuku said. Shouto agreed. As much as he wanted to get home, he didn't want to put anyone at risk to do it.

Ford offered them a smile. "I know, it's probability a bit of a disappointment. But with what you've told me about your world, I've been doing some digging to see if we can find any less dangerous way to get you back home. As soon as I find something, you'll all be the first to know."

"Thank you," Ochako told him. "We really do appreciate it."

In a few days, they'd gone with barely any clues towards making it home to gaining a new ally with much more knowledge about the subject than they had. Home had never seemed closer.

So… why did Shouto feel so uneasy about that?

You'll notice that Ford didn't tell any of them about the rift. He likes these kids a lot! But, unlike Dipper, they're not family. They're not even from this world. He's going to keep his cards close to his chest for now, just in case, and so everyone's going to be in the dark for a bit longer.

As for that whole "Genius Loci" bit, as Shouto mentions, it wouldn't be surprising for the town itself to be somewhat sentient. More than that, however, there's a plot related reason for its inclusion. I wonder if you can guess what that is?

I hope you all enjoyed! Please leave a review if you can, they encourage me to keep writing this story, even after all those hospital visits.