Notes: based on the Wendip Week 2024 Promote Trauma and Worthy.
Weirdmageddon….
"-Bill's henchbats will be here any minute to retrieve y'all. MABEL'S MINE NOW! Hahahaha!"
Gideon that obnoxious brat laughing at his triumphant was ringing in Wendy's head despite having a massive headache, she felt her blood boiled and didn't cared if Gideon is 10 or something when she gets out of her dizziness she was gonna do worse than just drop kicking that white-haired tyke!
Suddenly, she heard Dipper's question pointedly cut through Gideon's victory laugh "Is she?" Gideon stopped looking infuriatingly smug, Wendy was gonna say something nasty and gave a piece of her mind until a sharp pain in her head made her wince and dizzy again making her pass over most of whatever conversation there was only undecipherable mumblings.
Finally, the pain became dull, she was helped by Soos to get up and that was when she heard Dipper's voice and got a better look. "-You can't force someone to love you." the Pines boy said, then she saw him look at him earnestly and somberly. He looked at her with eyes of resignation and that what came next made her realize what he was reflecting by what he was saying. "The best you can do is strive to be someone worthy of loving." that briefly decreased Wendy's fierce rage at Gideon, oh, he was talking about her.
"Oh, I'm worthy o' lovin'! These prisoners love me!" Gideon retorted and the prisoners cheered, that was when Wendy's somber mood ruined and before deciding to grab the nearest stone and throw at him with a force and precision worthy of a Corduroy, Dipper undeterred spoke.
"But Mabel doesn't. Because you're selfish- "
She flinched as it turned out her headache was not over and hit her head a bit too harder than she anticipated, Damn migrain was killing her head as she internally cursed her affliction for passing the speech over with the pain in her head being louder than the people around her talking.
"-If all this is for Mabel, then ask yourself what Mabel would want you to do."
Gideon looked at the newspaper article, looks at the picture of him and Mabel together, with him smiling and Mabel looking unconformable, making Wendy nearly scoffed as his too-late regret if the damnable headache despite being dulled back was giving her the mother of all migraine "Dipper. Will you tell her what I did?
"Of course."
"I hope you're right about this." The white haired boy then turned to the prisoners "Guys, new plan! Bill's minions are gonna be on us in seconds. But I'm not gonna let that dumb triangle be the warden o' me! Y'all ready for a good old fashioned prison brawl?"
That lakey named Ghost-Eyes roared "We're behind you for life, brother!
One of the random prisoners "Fighting children is boring, but fighting a chaos god sounds fun!" Had she not still felt the migraine in her head even so less than before she would have drop-kicked that punk for calling her a child and chasing her and her friends to give away to the said chaos god as 'Boring'.
The Gleeful boy declared to his gang. "Let's do this! rollout!'' The prisoners did as he ordered and drove away with cheers.
Soos sighed in relief "Whew! And I thought I was gonna have to throw down!"
Wendy, now standing up no longer beared by the pain in her head, wanted to say something, but this was not the time and the place so the group moved to the Bubble Prison to free Mabel to whatever diabolical prison Bill has created for her.
Dipper told the next phase as he and the group now were in front of the sinister glowing bubble prison. "Okay, remember, guys. This is a prison bubble designed by Bill. We've got to prepare ourselves for what we find here." he put his hand on the center.
Ramirez "Whatever it is, we'll do it together. For Mabel!" Ramirez puts his hand in the center as well.
Wendy, determined, put her hand on top of his and roared "For Mabel!"
They hold hands and enter the bubble ready to free Mabel and stop Weirdmageddon.
Pyramid…
Wendy wanted to roar, to shout, to move, to scream. She could not, she was only an inanimate object, a carpet of all things with her consciousness . She had No Mouth and yet she Screamed. No arms, no legs, not even a mouth, just a trapped motionless inanimate piece of furniture for Bill's sick idea of a joke.
The Corduroy would not pass beyond Bill the Dream Demon to find her and other transformed Zodiac members' scream in the Mindscape as an amusing symphony, the only solace she got is that she was sure Gideon is sharing his agony in being an inanimate object.
She helplessly witnessed as Bill imprisoned Stans and with deranged intent declared what he was gonna do to Dipper and Mabel "I'VE GOT SOME CHILDREN I NEED TO MAKE INTO CORPSES!" as he taunted he turned into an eldritch multi-limbed demonic pyramid and began chasing down Dipper and Mabel. That was when Wendy roared even louder.
She never felt so helpless in her life, she felt like her consciousness in her changed body was thrashing like a wild animal inside a cage futilely trying to get out of the prison. It was desperation like which she never felt for how more desperate and helpless you can get when you don't even have limbs for a mouth?
Her nonexisting heart dropped when Bill came back holding the struggling Mystery Twins in his gasp.
"ALRIGHT, FORD. TIME'S UP. I'VE GOT THE KIDS. I THINK I'M GONNA KILL ONE OF 'EM NOW JUST FOR THE HECK OF IT!"
She did something she has never done, she prayed, she prayed for whatever supreme deity to not let Dipper and Mabel die as Bill counted his execution with red menacing lights switching between the twin's zodiac symbols counting down to their doom.
"EENIE!"
"MEENIE!"
"MINEE!"
"YOU!!"
He holds up his other hand and prepares to end Mabel by snapping his fingers.
Gasp!
She wakes up with terrified gasp with a cold sweat. Her hand briefly shook slightly, she wasn't in the pyramid, she was in her house, her room on her bed. It was just a nightmare, well more like reliving a memory than a nightmare as you at least have the comfort to know nightmares are made of fiction but memories are no such luxury. Unlike what cartoons make it, being an inanimate object is not fun at all, especially seeing Dipper the boy who loved her with his little heart and Mabel who was like a sister she never had at the mercy of an eldritch horror beyond this dimension.
She slumped and put her head on both of her knees contemplating.
She wasn't a stranger to being admired, oh she got plenty of admiration all right either as a vandalist rebel or by the look she sometimes got from boys and sometimes girls, but in the end as she has realized after Weirdmageddon all of it is hollow and affectionless. It's funny, really that it took a literal apocalypse realizing that it is her friends and family that she should care what they think of her not a bunch of ogling masses(Even though sometimes her siblings would drive her to the walls as much as she loves them or her father's exasperating obsession with manliness).
Dipper…he didn't see her as just another pretty face, to him she was courageous, chill, bold and a daredevil and perfect, except she was not perfect. She was not perfect, she wasn't stupid she knows for a fact that she is not perfect but after Weirdmageddon that knowledge has truly dawned on her as she introspected, she recall how he took advantage of Mabel's generosity to her regret, throwing a tantrum over Tambry when she dated her ex an ex who has been a selfish asshole to her and yet instead of worrying about her childhood friend she was worried about how it would affected her 'Image' as she cringed recalling how overdramatic she was to the point of even threatening her childhood friend with violence when she should have did that to that pale skinned weasel instead.
Oh how she so easily fooled by the Mabeland's temptation and left her friends all just to trash the principal who as she found out after the Oddapocalyse lost his son! If the fact that she was so easily tempted in leaving her friends for such immature desire wasn't enough to make her feel bad that knowledge did, she wanted to apologize to the principle but how can you say sorry to a man who lost his son from a delinquent who been nothing but a constant irritation that openly mocked him? To her shame she chickened out, that's right Wendy flipping Corduroy chicken out from apologizing! And until she got the courage the principal moved outside of the town another tally to her regrets. All the fond images she had of the times where she gave the principal a lot of grief with her pranks with her gang turned bitter, the only solace she ever got from this was that her gang too shared her shame even Robbie felt ashamed.
And that whole thing with Robbie? gosh was she brain-damaged dating that of all people!?! He wasn't even handsome with his fake black hair, the questionably tight pants, wearing sandals of all things, her talentless hack in music as much as he wants to boast about and if he hunched a bit more with a bit Halloween makeup Robbie would win the Halloween Contest playing as Igor from Frankenstein.
That's not including his personality, always whinning , moody and a liar. And the worst part? He isn't even the first asshole that she dated as she dated plenty, why had such a crappy taste? And even when she dates someone nice she always finds a way to screw it over like that time she ghosted one of her exes.
No wonder why she has an unsavory reputation in High School as the 'Factory of Broken Hearts'.
She sighed and rubbed an eye,recalling Dipper's words to Gideon talking about striving to be someone worthy of loving feeling like a fraud not deserving of Dipper's admiration for it was not the admiration of a fan to a celebrity or a child to a babysitter or a puberty teen to a pretty girl(Though it is partially that, she had such a laugh when he squawked like a scared kitten when he accidentally sit on her bra), but true genuine admiration, an admiration so true that when she gently put down his advances not only he respected her wishes but stayed as her best friend most boys she knew would either slapped away her hand of friendship or simply begrudgingly accept until they disappear from her life. He deserved to have a crush on someone better than her, not a lazy delinquent faker who hides her constant stresses in a facade of coolness whose grades are barely acceptable all because she rather vandalize than study and do her homework.
Though to be honest, if it weren't for the fact that she was a teenager 15 and he was 12 just reaching to become technically a teen in the coming birthday and both were minors Dipper would have been the ideal candidate to date with, 2.5 year age gap no one would bat an eye after 18 but before that? Yeah.
Wendy acted like she deserved love but in reality she felt like hadn't truly earned that, feeling as much a fraud as Gideon and the Northwests fooling others in admiring them through charisma and masks upon masks with pride as fragile as glass, never earning.
Well no more, She is done pretending, done fauxing, done entitling, she is gonna strive to be someone worthy of loving. It is not enough to be deserving, you have to be worthy. Is not something you inherit, is something you worked toward, she was a Corduroy not a sloth.
Tomorrow was the day, the day Dipper and Mabel were gonna return back to Piedmont at the Twilight of the Summer, as they were saying goodbyes to their friends and the Stans Dipper stepped toward Wendy.
She kneels next to Dipper and looks at the boy wise beyond his years with a smile "Hey, you mean a lot to me, man."
"You, too." he said, both fist-bump. Next Wendy wanted to give some long speech about Dipper not giving himself enough credit that he already is worthy of loving, she decided to screw it, actions speak louder than words.
She switches hats with Dipper to his surprise as a token of trust and appreciation, even more surprising for Dipper because her hat as she told him once came from her mother before she passed out, to give such a thing left from her mother to him was a show of trust and bond as he looked in awe.
The Corduroy then brought a note "Something to remember me by." She told him as she was handing Dipper a letter "Oh, and this. Read it the next time you miss Gravity Falls." though she knew Dipper was gonna miss it very much, it wouldn't be too long for him to open it, she would be surprised if that was not the case.
As Dipper and Mabel inside the bus moved away, Wendy with others ran toward it and gave a final goodbye to Mabel and Dipper from the window.
When the bus finally drove out of their reach, she gave a final look at it. She thanked them, thanked them for the awesome summer, thanked Mabel for showing her it is not foolish to be a kid again and thanked Dipper for being her partner in crime and to inspire her to strive to be a better person.
Maybe she would truly earn Dipper's admiration.