I never thought it would happen, but this story has reached 40 favorites on FFN and almost 30 kudos on AO3. Thank you so much for the support.
Think it'll reach 50 favorites or forty kudos by the time it's over?
Lazy Susan finished locking up the diner for the night and was on her way home. She stopped to admire the trees, the stars, and the tiny men trying to steal a pie from the diner window.
"Wait, what?" she asked herself, having finally processed what she was seeing.
The tiny men turned towards Susan. They had awkward looks on their faces.
Susan screamed and ran for the payphone. She quickly inserted a coin and dialed 911.
"911, what's your emergency?" asked the operator.
"Help!" Susan screamed. "There's something at the diner! It's…"
Before Susan could finish that sentence, she felt something hit her in the back of the head. She collapsed.
A figure in a red cloak picked up Susan and carried her away.
"It is unseen," was all he said before fading into the darkness.
Play Gravity Falls Intro Music
A bus stops in the small town of Gravity Falls. Dipper and Mabel get off the bus. In front of them is the town's star attraction, The Mystery Shack. Their great-uncle, Stan, invites them inside.
The twins look around the shack. They're both curious about everything.
Later, the Pines investigate a strange footprint with four toes instead of five. None of them realize they're standing in a much larger footprint.
DIPPER
Dipper looks around a cave holding a candle for light. He comes across a strange skeleton that scares him. He drops his candle, getting rid of his only source of light.
MABEL
Mabel stands in a room wearing a purple sweater with stars, her name, and a rainbow. She plugs an outlet into her sweater, causing it to glow.
STAN
Stan tells the twins, Wendy, and Soos a scary story. Soos and the twins are terrified while Wendy is completely unfazed. However, none of them notice the scary creature behind them.
WENDY
Wendy sits in front of the cash register, minding her own business. She doesn't notice the nearby jar of eyeballs turning to face her.
SOOS
Soos spins around the living room wearing multiple jewels on his clothes. Mabel shines a flashlight, and the light reflects off of the jewels creating a beautiful lightshow.
Dipper and Mabel lay in their room. Mabel reads a girl magazine while laying on the floor. Dipper reads a journal while laying on his bed. After a second, everyone and everything begins to float off the ground. Dipper is the only one who notices something off.
End Intro
One Cruel Summer
Chapter 21
The Society of the Blind Eye
Dipper had just finished setting up a corkboard for the author of the journals.
"Alright author, who are you?" he asked as he bit his pen.
The pen broke into pieces. Ink dripped into Dipper's mouth. Dipper quickly spit it out.
"I really gotta stop doing that," he said to himself before tossing the pen away.
"Hey, bro," came Mabel. "Look what I got?"
Dipper turned to see Mabel holding a bottle.
"A filthy green bottle?" he guessed.
"No," Mabel replied. "It's a message from Mermando. You know, the merman? What if he wants to get back together?"
"I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you."
"Too late! Hopes are way up!"
Mabel opened the bottle and took out the message. She paused to keep the suspense, then she unraveled the paper. It read…
"Dear Mabel,
It is with a heavy heart…"
Mabel stopped reading for a second. "So far so good."
"That I must inform you that I'm getting married..."
And there it is, Dipper thought to himself as he rolled his eyes.
"In order to prevent an undersea civil war, arranged wedding with the Queen of the Manatees."
Mabel looked at the photo that came with the letter. It showed Mermando with this manatee queen.
"And she's so beautiful," she sadly remarked. "This can't be happening."
Dipper sighed. "Mabel, I just don't get why you make such a big deal about this. You always get over it eventually."
"Dipper, you don't understand." Mabel picked up a scrapbook and turned to a certain page. "On my first day here, I made this page for summer romances. Look at my luck."
Mabel pointed at Norman, then Gideon, then Gabe. She then put the word 'FAILED' above 'SUMMER ROMANCES'.
"They all turned out to be gnomes, psychos, creeps," she listed off before adding Mermando's photo to the list. "And now I wish I could just forget about them forever."
"If it's any consolation, my summer mission isn't a huge success either," Dipper assured. "I'm still trying to find the author of this journal, but with his laptop smashed I lost any hope of finding him."
Mabel noticed something about the laptop when she looked at it through her bottle.
"Wait, Dipper, look!" she shouted.
"Through your bottle?" Dipper asked, confused.
"Just do it!"
Dipper reluctantly did what Mabel told him to. He noticed that the logo, 'McGucket Labs' was on the laptop.
"Wait, McGucket?" he wondered. "Like, Old Man McGucket?"
"Dipper, you don't think…" Mabel asked.
"It couldn't be. It doesn't make any sense." Dipper gasped. "Unless…"
Dipper started making rearrangements to his corkboard. As he put the pieces together, one thing was clear. McGucket was in the center of it all.
"Old Man McGucket wrote the journals?" Dipper asked in disbelief.
Dipper and Mabel entered the gift shop, where Soos was busy sweeping the floor.
"Soos, we gotta talk to Old Man McGucket!" Dipper said. "We'll explain on the way!"
Dipper and Mabel grabbed Soos' hands and carried him to the door.
"Wait, what about work?" asked Stan, who noticed the kids were leaving. "Kids!"
He then noticed that Wendy wasn't at the cash register, or with the twins. It concerned him, but only for a moment.
Meanwhile, Wendy was just grounded for breaking and entering with her friends. She stormed into her room, furious.
She screamed and punched the wall, leaving a dent.
She then started trashing up her room. She knocked DVD cases off the shelf. She pulled her drawers open so hard that they came off the dresser. She threw her blankets off the bed. She threw her TV remote onto the floor, causing the batteries to pop out.
She stopped in place when she heard the door slam open. She turned around to see her father was staring at her angrily.
"You better clean up your room, young lady!" he demanded. "Or you'll be grounded for the REST OF THE SUMMER!"
With that, Manly Dan slammed the door shut.
Wendy didn't clean up her room, though. She just grabbed her pillow and screamed into it until she couldn't scream anymore.
"You know what, screw this!" she said to herself.
She grabbed her backpack and started packing whatever she knew she could carry. Her phone, some of her DVDs and video games, and some spare clothes.
"Screw this room! Screw that asshole!" she continued as she opened the window and climbed out. "Screw! This! LIFE!"
She shut the window and ran as fast as she could.
Soos and the twins reached the junkyard.
"Old Man McGucket?" Dipper called. "Here hillbilly billy billy!"
After a while, the trio found the makeshift home of McGucket. Two teenage boys, who Dipper recognized as Lee and Nate, were spray painting the wall.
"It took an hour, but it was worth it," Lee said as he and Nate ran off.
McGucket came out and tried to chase after the boys. They outran him with no problem. He then noticed the graffiti.
"'Mc Suck It', They got me good," he said to himself. He then noticed Soos and the twins, and smiled. "Visitors! Come, come."
McGucket led the three inside.
"You're just in time to see my hourly turf war with the hillbilly in the mirror," he said before turning to his reflection. "Quit staring at me when I bathe!"
"You can drop the act, McGucket," Dipper said as he took out his journal. "We all know you're the author of the journals. You studied the mysteries of this town and wrote this book. You're the one I've been searching for all summer."
McGucket seemed dumbfounded. "Genius? I'm no genius. I've never done nothing worthwhile in my life. Everyone knows I'm no good to nobody. I can't even remember what I used to be, but I must've been a big failure to end up like this."
"But the laptop has your name on it," Soos said as he showed the broken laptop.
Dipper opened the journal.
"Do you remember anything written here?" he asked as he flipped through random pages.
"I tell you, I don't…" McGucket was about to say before noticing Dipper pass a particular page. "Wait, go back!"
Dipper turned to the previous page. It had a crossed out eye.
"Ah, the blind eye!" McGucket screamed. "Robes! The men! My mind! They did something!"
"Oh, you poor man," Mabel said sympathetically. "It's no wonder you're crazy. You've been through something intense."
"What if McGucket saw something he wasn't supposed to see and someone messed with his mind?" Dipper asked before turning to McGucket. "Think, what's the earliest thing you remember?"
McGucket showed a particular newspaper. The front page picture showed him being bullied by birds in front of the museum.
"The history museum!" Mabel realized. "That's where we're going!"
Wendy decided to pay one final visit to the Mystery Shack.
She looked around the gift shop. The first thing she noticed was the vending machine.
She quickly realized that she forgot to pack food for the road. She went into her pockets to see if she had any money, but she only had enough for bus fare.
She then remembered when Soos taught Mabel a specific trick to get the vending machine open.
With a tap and a shake, the door opened. Wendy silently cheered to herself. She then grabbed as many snacks as she could and stuffed them all in her backpack.
After that, she ran to the door, hoping to leave before Stan would see her.
"Wendy Corduroy, my office, now," said Stan's voice on the speaker.
Shit, Wendy thought to herself.
Before Wendy knew it, she was sitting in Stan's office. He was staring at her sternly. They both sat in silence until…
"Wendy, we need to talk," Stan said. "I saw you stealing chocolate bars from the vending machine."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Pines," Wendy said in a desperate attempt to get out of the situation. "I know I'm in trouble. Please don't fire me…"
"No, no, you have a gift. You're the best thief I've ever seen."
Wendy stared in confusion.
Stan ignored Wendy and went on. "I've been waiting my whole life to find someone who's as good at pickpocketing as I am. Don't you realize it? We can go out there and knock down a bank or something. We can do this big time."
This is perfect, Wendy thought to herself. If I do this, I won't have to worry about struggling out in the world.
She then spoke aloud. "You really think I can do this?"
"No," Stan replied. "Not yet."
The gang entered the history museum. They all looked around.
The first thing Mabel saw was a heart in a jar. She backed away, the memories of her failed attempts at love coming back to her.
She then noticed a wax statue depicting a man carrying a woman on his shoulder. The woman didn't look pleased. It said, 'Romance in Settler's Times'.
Mabel tried to look away, but then she noticed a poster of Gabe on the corkboard.
By this point, she was pissed. She grabbed the poster and tore it to shreds.
Someone behind Mabel tapped her shoulder and asked, "Mabel, what's wrong?"
Mabel quickly jerked her head behind her. It was just Evan standing there with a concerned look on his face.
"Oh, it's you," she said unenthusiastically. "I'm fine, but I'd feel a lot better if you weren't here."
"So your last memory was here?" Dipper asked McGucket. "Anything coming back."
"Guys, look!" Soos yelled.
Everyone turned down the hall to see a shadowy figure running off. Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and McGucket ran after the figure.
Having no idea what was happening, Evan decided to follow.
The five found themselves in another room. The figure they were running after was nowhere to be found.
Evan didn't know how to react in this situation. He was starting to regret following the others.
He noticed an eyeball staring directly at him. He jumped back, screaming.
He then noticed another eyeball staring at him from the other side of the room. He screamed again.
No matter where Evan looked, it seemed that there was an eye staring directly at him.
"Guys, I think this room is haunted," he said.
Everyone turned towards Evan, having just noticed he was there.
Dipper then noticed all the eyes in the room.
"Hold on a second," he said. "Evan, move over."
Evan moved to the side a little bit.
Luckily, the eyes didn't follow him. Instead, they were all staring at one eye in particular.
Dipper stared at the eye in curiosity.
"I'm gonna push it," he said before pushing it. "Bap!"
The fireplace opened to reveal a secret staircase.
"Jackpot!" Dipper cheered to himself. "A secret passageway."
"We better be stealthy," said McGucket. "I'll hambone a message if there's trouble."
McGucket made random motions with his hands.
"I have no idea what that means," Dipper said bluntly.
Dipper was the first to head down the stairway. The others followed shortly after.
Stan started to teach Wendy how to steal.
The first thing he did was pretend to be an old woman with a purse full of valuables. Wendy ran past him and took the purse.
Next, Stan taught Wendy how to pick a bike lock. She couldn't pick it, but she came up with another idea. She took out some clampers and used them to cut the chain.
Then, Stan taught Wendy how to hot-wire a vehicle. She was a fast learner.
Finally, Stan taught Wendy how to crack open a safe. She did that in two seconds.
With the training over, Stan put Wendy's abilities to the test.
He entered a bar and tried to create small talk with the bartender. He was doing it as a distraction so Wendy could lower herself with a rope into the back areas of the bar.
Wendy came out of the bar with a couple bottles of beer.
Seeing that Wendy accomplished her mission, Stan wished the bartender a good day and left.
He then realized that his fez wasn't on his head like it usually was.
"Hey, where's my hat?" he asked.
Wendy took off her hat to reveal Stan's fez was under it.
"Ha!" Stan laughed. "Well played."
At the bottom of the stairs, the pentet could see six figures in red cloaks standing around a box. They were chanting in a language no one could understand.
Cults, Dipper thought to himself. Why did it have to be cults?
When the chanting was over, a seventh figure appeared in the center of the circle. Clearly, he was the head of the cult.
"What is the purpose of our meeting?" he asked.
"This woman," two of the figures replied.
They showed they had a woman held hostage. They covered her head in a sack. One of them removed the sack to reveal it was Lazy Susan.
"Lazy Susan?" Mabel reacted.
Susan was strapped to a chair.
"What is it that you have seen?" asked the head.
"Speak!" the entire cult demanded.
"Well, I was leaving the diner," Susan explained. "Then I saw these little bearded doo-dads, and I was like, 'whaaaa'?"
"There, there," the head assured as he took a gun out of the box. "You won't be like, 'whaaa' any longer."
"What is that gizmo?" Susan asked. "It looks like a hairdryer. Are you barbers?"
The head of the cult shot Susan in the head with the gun.
"Lazy Susan?" he asked loudly. "What do you know of little bearded men?"
"My mind is clear thanks to the Society of the Blind Eye," Susan replied in a robotic voice.
"It is unseen," the cult cheered.
"Guys, are you seeing this?" Dipper asked. "They just wiped Lazy Susan's memory."
Evan chuckled. "They should've wiped off that awful mascara."
"What the hell, dude," Dipper reacted.
"I think she looks beautiful!" Mabel yelled.
Even Soos shook his head in disappointment. "Not cool, dude."
"Sorry, sorry," Evan apologized, embarrassed. "I must've touched a nerve there."
"Yeah, you think?" Mabel asked.
"Lazy Susan, how do you feel?" asked the head.
"I feel great," Susan replied. "I can't even remember what's wrong, or what I'm doing here, or if I'm a man or a woman."
The cultists that captured Susan escorted her out of the room.
"All your memories will be safe," the head assured as he took a capsule out of the gun. "Buried here, in the Hall of the Forgotten."
"Into the Hall of the Forgotten," the cultists chanted over and over.
"Good chanting, boys," the head complimented. "Have you been practicing?"
The head placed the capsule into a tube. It got sucked up and carried away.
"Meeting adjourned," the head said.
Everyone left the room, telling each other, "Unsee you later."
When they were all gone, the gang entered the room. Dipper picked up the memory gun.
"Amazing," he said to himself. "A secret society of evil mind erasers." He turned to McGucket. "I'll bet they erased your memory a long time ago. If we could find where your memories have been hidden, it could be the key to unlocking all the mysteries of Gravity Falls. Okay, Mabel, Evan, you two stay here and make sure those robe guys don't come back."
Mabel glared at Evan. He raised his hands to signify he had no ill intentions.
"Alright," she said begrudgingly.
Dipper turned to Soos. "Soos, you, me, and McGucket are gonna go find the Hall of the Forgotten."
Dipper took Soos' hat and put it under the same tube that sucked away the capsule of Susan's memories. Like the capsule, the hat got sucked away.
"Hey," Soos said.
Dipper didn't listen. "Follow that hat."
The three ran after the hat.
"If my hat's destroyed, you're buying me a new one," Soos said, glaring at Dipper.
"Deal," Dipper replied.
After running for a long time, they finally reached where the tube was leading. It was a large room where multiple tubes ended. Many capsules were piled in there.
Soos' hat fell out of one of those tubes and landed on the head of a statue.
"Honey fogeling salt-licking skullduggery!" McGucket yelled.
Dipper chuckled. "You gotta teach me some of those old man swears."
Soos glared at Dipper.
Wendy and Stan stood and admired all the stuff they stole together.
Or at least, Stan was admiring it. Wendy wasn't satisfied.
"Stan, this stuff is small," she said. "We need to steal something bigger. Bigger is always better."
Wendy picked up a poster and unfurled it to reveal a picture of a diamond.
"We're gonna steal the diamond from the Gravity Falls History Museum," she said. "Think about that. We can split the pieces, wear them around our necks, and look like bosses!"
"Okay, you're starting to scare me a little bit, Wendy," Stan admitted. "Even I never stole a diamond before. Are you crazy?"
"You know I'm crazy and you love it."
That was all Stan needed to be convinced. "Alright, let's do it!"
Mabel paced back and forth. The moment she witnessed Susan getting her memory erased, she started to consider erasing her memory of her failed romances. After debating in her head whether or not to go along with it, she decided she was gonna do it.
She sat on the chair and picked up the memory gun. This didn't go unnoticed by Evan.
"Mabel, what are you doing?" he asked. "We don't know what that thing is. You could accidentally erase something important, like learning to read or breathe or…"
"Or a mistake that haunts you for the rest of your life?"
Evan raised his eyebrows as he considered Mabel's reasoning.
Dipper, Soos, and McGucket looked at all the different capsules.
"Look at all of this," said Soos. "People must've been getting their memories erased all over town."
Dipper noticed an interesting capsule.
"Guys, look at this," he said.
The capsule had the name 'Robbie V' on it. Dipper inserted the capsule to a nearby computer screen. The screen turned on to reveal a video of Robbie strapped to the same chair Susan was strapped onto earlier.
"Yes, Robbie," said the head of the cult. "What is it that you have seen?"
"So me and my friends were attacked by this old ghost couple that could do anything," Robbie replied. "They could disable a room's gravity, suck people into video games, or turn them into food, but I kicked their butts."
"Robbie, speak honestly."
Robbie sighed. "We were saved by a twelve-year-old."
"I still don't get it," Dipper said. "Why are they erasing people's memories?"
"Hey, look!" McGucket called. "It's those words people call me!"
Dipper and Soos saw what McGucket was talking about. It was the capsule with his name on it.
Soos quickly took his hat off the statue's head and put it back on his own.
"We did it!" he cheered.
McGucket took the capsule. He had no idea it was attached to a small device. It beeped the moment the capsule was removed.
Mabel typed 'SUMMER ROMANCE' on the gun's little screen. She then aimed the gun at herself.
"Mabel, I'm still not sure this is a good idea," Evan said, still skeptical.
"All of my ideas are good ideas!" Mabel retorted.
That's when Evan heard beeping. "Hey, do you hear that?"
McGucket started to hear the beeping too.
"The alarm in my brain is ringing again!" he shouted before noticing an eye that he knew wasn't there before. "AH!"
McGucket dropped the capsule. Thankfully, Dipper caught it just in time.
Cloaked figures burst into the room. Dipper and Soos made a run for it while McGucket hid behind the statue.
"Oh, you really tarred it up this time, Fiddleford," he said to himself. "This is all your fault." That's when he noticed something wrong with his beard. "Wait, why does my beard have a bandage? Why has no one pointed that out?"
McGucket pulled the band-aid off of his beard.
Dipper and Soos tried to hide behind a wall. Thankfully, the cultists were blind and just ran by.
"Woo, that was close," Soos sighed in relief.
Then two pairs of hands popped up from behind, grabbed the two boys, and pulled them into the darkness.
Outside the museum, Stan and Wendy made it up to the roof. They opened a hatch and let down a couple of ropes.
Wendy slid down with no problem.
Stan slipped, fell on top of the dinosaur skeleton, then hit the floor. He tried to give up, but his back gave in.
"Wendy, you gotta steal it for me!" he told Wendy.
Wendy nodded.
She reached the room where the gem was kept. She kicked the door open.
Unfortunately, that activated a bunch of security lasers.
Wendy wasn't afraid, though. She dodged every single laser until she reached the gem.
Wendy cheered for herself and raised her hands in the air.
That ended up being her biggest mistake. By raising her arms in the air, she touched one of the lasers. An alarm blared.
A mall security guard entered the room. He pointed a gun at Wendy.
Uh oh, she thought to herself.
The gang found themselves tied up. The cultists surrounded them. The head took the capsule containing McGucket's memories.
"You shouldn't have come here," he said. "We do not give up our secrets lightly."
"Who are you freaks?" asked Evan.
"Why are you doing this?" asked Dipper.
"What's with those accents?" asked Mabel.
"Well, I suppose we are going to erase your minds anyway," the head said.
He then turned to the others and nodded.
Some of the cultists removed their hoods, showing their faces. The gang recognized them all well.
"Wait, Toby Determined?" Evan reacted.
"Bud Gleeful?" asked Dipper.
"The guy who ran the 'Win a Pig' game at the Mystery Fair?" said Mabel.
"The creepy dude who married a woodpecker?" Soos said. "How's that marriage going by the way?"
"It's going great," the man replied before leaning towards Soos and whispering, "It's not."
"You haven't met me before," the head said as he removed his own hood. "And if you had, you wouldn't remember."
The man's face was heavily pale. There was a red X over one eye, which was blind. There were markings all over his bald head. They had brain words like 'knowledge', 'bias', 'stress', and 'cope'.
"I am Blind Ivan," he said. "And we are the Society of the Blind Eye, formed many years ago by our founder… our founder…" He trailed off, as if he couldn't remember the name himself. "Does anyone remember who he was?"
"We've been using that ray on our own brains an awful lot," said Bud.
"Why would you do this, though?" asked Dipper. "What do you have to gain?"
"As you know," Ivan replied. "Gravity Falls is a town plagued with supernatural strangeness. No one knew how to stop the things that went bump in the night, so our founder invented the next best thing, a way for us to forget. We took it upon ourselves to help the troubled townsfolk by erasing the memories of the strange things they've seen. Now, the people of Gravity Falls go about their lives ignorant and happy thanks to us, and as a perk, we help ourselves forget things that trouble us. Everyone has something they'd rather forget. In fact, your own sister was about to use the ray on herself, isn't that right?"
"Mabel, seriously?" Dipper reacted, glaring at Mabel.
Mabel chuckled in embarrassment. "Maybe."
Dipper turned back to the cult. "Don't you see? This is ruining lives. What about Old Man McGucket? He lives in a hut and talks to animals thanks to you. Don't you feel bad about it?"
Ivan looked away with a hint of guilt on his face.
"Maybe a little," he admitted before striking himself with the memory gun. "But not anymore. You won't be telling anyone else what you've learned here. Say goodbye to your summer."
The quartet sat there in fear.
"Guys, if we're gonna forget everything, there's something I wanna get off my chest," said Evan. "Mabel, I love you! I have loved you since the day I first saw you in the gift shop! If you don't love me back, I completely respect that, especially after what I did!"
"I only love some of my stuffed animals!" Mabel admitted. "And the guilt is killing me!"
"Sometimes I use strong words and I don't actually know what they mean!" Dipper shouted. "I mean, I'm supposed to be the smart guy! If that's not what I am, then what am I?"
"I only pretend to be laid back!" Soos yelled. "I'm actually stressed 24/7! Those five nights at Freddy's were the most traumatizing nights of my life!"
"Oh, stop being a bunch of babies," Ivan demanded.
That's when a metal disc flew towards Ivan and hit his hand.
"Ow!" he shouted.
The memory gun flew out of his hand.
McGucket showed up with a pickaxe and used it to cut everyone free.
"I raided the mining display for weapons!" he explained. "Now fight like a hillbilly, fellers!"
Dipper picked up a fake raccoon.
Evan picked up a poster that read 'You're a Star'.
Soos picked up a board game called 'Dysentery: Plague of the West'.
"Oh, nobody better mess," he warned.
"They know too much!" Ivan yelled. "Don't let them escape!"
Evan whacked the woodpecker guy in the head, knocking him out.
Soos held the dysentery game in front of the carnie, causing him to back away in fear.
Dipper found McGucket's memories.
"Oh no you don't," said one cultist. He was very big and strong.
Dipper quickly got the capsule in a tube.
The cultist tried to crush Dipper with his fist. Dipper closed his eyes and brought out his hands in self-defense, even though he knew it wouldn't have worked.
That's when he heard the man scream. He opened his eyes to see that the man was on the floor, covering his eyes and crying.
That wasn't what shocked Dipper, though. It was the fact that light was emitting from his hands.
"What the…" he asked himself before noticing McGucket's memories were brought to where Mabel was. "Mabel, grab the capsule!"
Mabel was about to grab it before the carnie grabbed it first. He tried to run off before Soos got in front of him with the dysentery board.
"Give it up, boy," the carnie warned. "You're no match for…"
Before he could finish that, Mabel grabbed the tube and used it to suck up the carnie's robe. He had nothing left but his underwear.
"Ah!" he reacted in shock before brushing it off. "That's right, I don't wear nothing under my robe. Not gonna apologize for that! Maybe you should apologize for being a bunch of prudes!"
"Well, time to forget I saw that," Soos said as he took the memory gun and tried to shoot himself with it.
Unfortunately, Ivan pushed Soos out of the way and took the gun.
"Give me that capsule!" he demanded Dipper.
"Never!" Dipper replied as he tossed the memories up another tube. "That memory belongs to McGucket!"
"Those secrets belong to the society!" Ivan argued.
They both ran after the capsule. Ivan tripped Dipper and beat him to it.
Dipper got up and prepared to keep running. Unfortunately, Ivan pointed the memory gun at him and the others.
"End of the line," he warned. "By tomorrow, this will all seem like a bad dream. Say goodbye to…"
"You talk too much," Dipper interrupted before turning to the others. "You might want to close your eyes."
He reached out his hand and concentrated. He formed a blinding light. Everyone else closed their eyes so they wouldn't be blinded.
When the light faded, Ivan struggled to re-adjust his eyes. Dipper used this as an opportunity to grab the memories.
Before anyone could run, though, Ivan recovered. He didn't even give them a second. He just fired the gun. Everyone took cover.
Nothing happened. Everyone opened their eyes to see McGucket was standing there. Ivan shot McGucket with the memory gun.
"McGucket, are you okay?" Dipper asked.
"Okay as I'll ever be," McGucket replied in his usual crazy voice.
"What?" Ivan reacted as he fired the gun again. "Why isn't this working?"
"Hit me with your best shot, baldie! My mind's been gone for thirty odd years! You can't break what's already broken! Say goodnight, Sally!"
McGucket punched Ivan in the face, knocking him out.
Soos tied up Ivan, as well as whatever cult members the gang could capture.
"Unhand us!" Ivan demanded.
"It isn't so fun being tied up, is it?" Mabel teased. "Hey, wanna draw on their faces?"
Everyone grabbed a sharpie. They crossed out words on Ivan's head and replaced them with insults (Dipper's being the most inappropriate).
"Hey, stop that!" Ivan yelled. "That's not funny!"
"Yes it is," Dipper argued.
"We'll have our revenge. We'll never forget what you've done."
"Oh, I think you will," Dipper said as he typed 'The Society of the Blind Eye' on the memory gun. "Suck it, bitches."
Dipper fired the gun.
Wendy rotted in a jail cell. She started to regret every choice that she made up to this moment.
"Ms. Corduroy?" a voice called.
Wendy looked up to see that Sheriff Blubs was in front of her cell.
"We'll let you off with a warning, but we're gonna have to tell your dad about this," he explained.
Wendy panicked. "No, he can't know about this! I'm already in enough trouble as is!"
That's when Stan approached Blubs.
"Hey, cops," he said in the most professional way he could. "I wanted to tell you that this girl was working for me the whole time. This wasn't her idea. I was the mastermind. Take me away. She wishes she could be a master thief like me."
Blubs was easily convinced. He released Wendy from the cell and put Stan in her place.
"Have a good day," was all he said to Wendy before walking away.
Wendy turned to Stan in confusion. "Stan, why did you do that?"
"Look, I'm old," Stan replied. "Like, I already had a life. You can still make a choice, and not be an idiot like me. Like, you've got good arms. Use them to chop a tree or something. Stop stealing or else you're gonna get trapped!"
The gang led the now former cult out of the museum. They all put some money in McGucket's hat.
"Thanks for visiting the museum for Gold Miner Appreciation Night," Dipper said to cover up what really happened. "Be sure to tip the gold miner on your way out."
"I'm sorry, but who am I?" asked Ivan. "Where am I? When am I?"
"Oh, I might've overdone that one," Dipper realized.
"Your name is Toot-Toot McBumbersnazzle," Mabel answered. "You're a traveling banjo minstrel, with a song in your heart and funny tattoos on your head."
"Yes, that's who I am," Ivan said as he played the banjo and left.
Wendy returned to her house, nervous. She knew how angry her father could get, and she was worried how he would react if he saw she wasn't in her room.
She was about to walk inside when she noticed that Manly Dan was chopping wood nearby. She decided to approach him.
"Hey, Dad?" she called.
Dan turned towards Wendy, then groaned and got back to chopping.
"Can I… chop some wood with you?" Wendy asked.
Dan turned towards Wendy again. It was clear by the look on his face that he was still mad at her, but he nodded and moved out of the way.
Wendy picked up an ax and swung it as hard as she could. She hit the wood and chopped it in half.
Dan laughed. "That's my little ax-child."
Wendy smiled and continued chopping the wood.
"Alright, McGucket," Dipper said. "Are you ready to see your memories?"
"I'm not sure," McGucket replied. "What if I don't like what I see?"
"We didn't come this far just to stop here," Mabel argued. "Go on."
Mcgucket inserted his memories onto the computer.
The screen turned on to reveal a much younger (and handsomer) McGucket. It said, 'Day 1' on it.
"My name is Fiddleford Hadron McGucket," he said. "And I wish to unsee what I have seen."
Everyone gasped.
"For the past year, I have been working as an assistant for a visiting researcher," the past McGucket went on. "He's been cataloging his findings about Gravity Falls in a series of journals. I helped him build a machine which had the potential to benefit all mankind, but something went wrong."
Dipper turned to the page in the journal that showed the incomplete print. Dipper put the pieces together.
"I decided to quit the project," past McGucket continued. "But I lie awake at night, haunted by what I've done. I believe I've invented a machine that can permanently erase these thoughts from my mind. Test subject one, myself."
Past McGucket shot himself.
The screen changed to reveal that time has passed. The screen said 'Day 5'.
"It worked!" past McGucket cheered. "I can't recall a thing."
'Day 22'.
"I call it the Society of the Blind Eye," past McGucket explained. "We will help those that want to forget by erasing their own bad memories."
'Day 74'.
Now Past McGucket looked very messed up. He had hairs standing on end, and his clothes were rumpled up.
He stuttered as he said, "Today, I came across a colony of little men. I would like to forget seeing this."
Past McGucket shot himself again.
'Day 189'.
Now, McGucket looked even worse. His brown hair was starting to turn gray. His glasses were damaged. He had some band-aids on his face and an entire cast on his arm.
"I accidentally hit another car in town today," he said. "I feel terri-bibble. Sorry, terrible. I've been forgetting words lately. I'm starting to think there might be terrible side-effects…"
'Day 273'.
Now, McGucket wasn't in an office anymore. He was in a motel room. He was starting to look more like the crazy old man he was currently, though his beard wasn't as large, and he wasn't wearing his hat.
"I saw something in the lake!" he shouted, his voice starting to sound more kooky.
'Day 618'.
Now, McGucket was wearing his signature hat.
"My hair's been a-falling out," he said with a twisted smile. "So I got this hat from a scarecrow. Hey, are my pants on backwards?"
'Day ?'
Now, McGucket was in the junkyard. He wasn't speaking English anymore. He was just laughing like a maniac.
The video ended there. Nobody knew what to say.
Eventually, Mabel spoke up. "Oh, McGucket, I'm so sorry."
"Aw, shucks," McGucket replied. "You kids helped me get my memories back, just like you said."
"But did you want them?"
"After all these years, I've finally learned who I am. Maybe I messed up in the past, but now that I've seen what happened, I can finally put myself together again."
McGucket smacked himself in a rhythmic motion.
"Still don't know what that means," said Dipper. "So, wait, you weren't the author, but you worked with him."
Dipper turned to a random page. In it, the author mentioned someone that they only referred to as 'F'. Dipper then realized that McGucket's first name, Fiddleford, starts with an 'F'. He put two and two together and realized it all started to make sense.
"That actually explains a lot," he remarked. "Do you happen to remember who the author is?"
"It's coming back, but I need time," McGucket replied before noticing a pair of glasses. "And reading glasses." He put on the glasses, though one of the lenses broke off. "I got some remembering to do."
The five walked out of the museum.
"So, Mabel, do you still want to forget those failed summer romances?" asked Evan.
Thinking back to everything that happened, Mabel knew erasing her memories was probably a bad idea.
"You know, everyone hates bad memories," she said. "But maybe it's better to remember the bad things and learn from them than to go all denial crazy and try to forget."
"That's some mature junk right there, Mabel," Dipper remarked.
"Yep. Miss Mature. That's me."
"Okay, don't push it."
While everyone else got in the car, Mabel and Evan stayed out for a minute.
"Evan, I know what you said back there," said Mabel.
Evan blushed brightly. "Mabel, that was in the heat of the moment. I didn't mean it."
"Don't play dumb with me. I can tell you did."
Evan sighed, knowing there was no point in arguing. "So what if I do? It's not like it matters. You don't love me anyway."
"You're right, I don't, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna hold it against you."
Evan got a little hopeful. "Huh?"
"Evan, I've been thinking about it. I've seen how you've been genuinely trying to make up for your past actions, so I've decided…" Mabel paused, as she considered whether or not she should make the decision final. "I'll let you be my friend again."
Evan smiled. "Really?"
Mabel nodded. "Really, but know this. If you try to make another… move, then it's over."
Evan nodded in understanding.
"Guys, what's taking so long?" came Dipper's voice.
Mabel and Evan turned to see the others were in the car waiting for them. They quickly got in the car.
Soos started the engine and drove away.
McGucket looked through all the journal pages. He noticed one page in particular that showed a triangular-shaped portal.
"It's all so familiar," he said. "It's almost like I can remember."
A few days later, after Stan was released from prison, he quickly continued his work on the portal.
"I lost a lot of time rotting in that jail cell," he said to himself. "But in the end, it doesn't matter. I'm getting closer now. Every day, it's getting stronger."
As if to prove his point, a few small items got sucked into the portal. Stan had to grab his fez to make sure it didn't fly off of his head.
That's when he got hit in the hand by a flying metal pipe. He quickly grabbed some bandages and covered the wound.
"I don't care if it's dangerous," he went on. "I don't care how long it takes. I'm gonna pull this off, and no one will get in my way."
A.N.
After half a month, it's nice to finally get back into this.
This episode was definitely a great way to end the hiatus. This episode includes action, thrills, and drama. There's Mabel struggling with her failures and McGucket taking the first step to rebuilding himself.
We also get to see Dipper's powers get stronger. Now, he's able to create flashes of light that can blind any opponent.
One thing that might've surprised you was Wendy not being part of the adventure this time. I had Evan come along for the ride so I can finally wrap up the tension between him and Mabel. I figured this episode was a fitting choice because in it, Mabel was struggling with her failure to find love, and now that she's accepted it, she can finally start to develop a true summer romance with Evan.
If you happened to not like how Evan replaced Wendy, I hope the subplot I gave her was any consolation. When I learned of the scrapped B-Plot where Stan teaches Wendy how to be a thief, I knew I wanted to incorporate it in this story somehow. It would've provided some character development for both of them, and we could've seen their relationship grow a little bit. It sucks Alex didn't go with it.
Alex says the idea was scrapped because he "couldn't find a good main story to go with the B-story". Well, I think I did just that. Alex, if you need someone to help you with writing something new for Gravity Falls, season 3 or other, my calendar's open.
A bit arrogant, much?
I was joking!
Anyway, that's all I have to say. Thanks for reading.