Pinesquest 2D, a Romance of the Second Dimension
Ch.3
The twins walked through the arch of trees into another clearing. To their immediate right was a rusted-out car on cinderblocks with a mystery sack in front of it.
"Hay, isn't that McGucket's car? I thought he fixed it up after getting billions."
Mable walked over to the car and picked up the bag in front of it.
"There's a bottle of something in here." She then pulled out a bottle of a purple liquid and read its label.
"Antidote: Removes Poison from the party. A magical potion of purification."
"Hay, antidotes are a real and scientific thing."
Mable shook her head. "No, it literally says that on the bottle."
She turned it around and showed that it was written on it.
"Okay, then. It's best tohold onto that if we need it. There is no telling what will happen around here."
They put the bottle in their pouch and explored the area, not finding much beyond a few more normal and barfing gnomes that were quickly dealt with. The only exciting thing they saw was an outhouse with a mystery bag in front of it.
Mable and Dipper looked at the outhouse, then each other, and matching smiles grew on their faces before they did what they always do when next to an outhouse.
"Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me
I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed
She was looking kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb
In the shape of a 'L' on her forehead."
They then descended into giggles before pulling themselves together enough to examine the mystery bag and found-
"Smile Dip!"
Mable recoiled in horror from it.
"Never again."
Dipper picked it up and looked at the packaging, his eyebrows rising as he read the back.
"Hay Mable? Remember how the antidote had a weird description? Well, this has one also. 'Revives a knocked-out ally. I thought this stuff was banned in America!'"
Mable raised an eyebrow in confusion and walked over to read it herself.
"Ok, why is Grunkle Stan putting things with weird labels in his mystery bags and leaving them around the forest? I could see the pit as he was dumping stuff and leaving the bag and battery behind, and I could see him using the outhouse and forgetting the bag here. But McGucket's car? And why would he have things like this in them?"
Dipper shook his head. "I don't know Mable. I don't know anything that's going on right now. Let's hold onto this and hope we never have to test if it works."
Mable grimaced. "I don't know what I am more repulsed by, using Smile Dip again and getting high or eating candy that was next to an outhouse."
Dipper shrugged before putting the smile dip in his pouch, and the two moved on.
They continued down the road past another tree arch before coming across a giant footprint in the ground with a smaller footprint in it.
"Hay, didn't we see that on our first day here?"
Dipper nodded his head. "Yeah. We brought over Grunkle Stan, showed him it, and he said it was just Manley Dan walking around barefooted." He then wracked his brain for more about that day. "Now that I think about it, I think that giant footprint was also there. We were too busy looking at the smaller one to notice."
The two twins reminisced on their journey so far before moving on. They soon came upon a hill with a dead tree near its top and a mystery bag at its base. When Mable went up and reached inside, she pulled out…
"Pitt Cola: Recovers 500 HP. Peach-flavored soda."
Dipper's face scrunched up at hearing that.
"Ok, I have no idea why, but that is ringing a bell. I do not know why, but I think I should know what that means."
Mable shrugged before putting it in her bag. "You'll figure it out, Dipper. No mystery can stand up to the Mystery Twins!"
Dipper smiled at that before catching sight of a deer trail that, for some reason, called to him.
"Hay Mable? Do you feel like something is calling you to follow that deer trail?"
Mable looked at it for a second before shaking her head. She then drew her grappling hook and pointed it at the path.
"Weapons ready in case it's a siren of some kind?"
Dipper nodded as he pointed his spear forward. The two then marched through the trees until they found themselves crossing a land bridge over a dark abyss.
"Ok, that is definitely not something you see around here."
After crossing it, they found themselves in the middle of a grove of dead trees. Inside that circle was a smaller circle of small rocks and clay patches. Inside of that was a circle of grass and a chest placed in the bullseye of the grove.
The chest was onyx black with gold trim and lock.
"Dipper, do you remember if any of the treasure we got from the Time Pirates was already in a chest like that?"
Dipper shook his head as he stepped forward. "None of it was in containers, just loose gold, gems, artwork, and the like. I have no idea what this is or where it came from."
As Dipper got closer, he saw that the lid had writing carved onto it.
"A child wise beyond his years, being seen as one is what he fears. Stars that shine upon your head, let them lead you through the journey ahead. Solve my riddle…
"Hhmu llmq ego Duqnpr mmulye xyyt fp zp cmmjpd?"
"Okay, this is obviously about me. Give me a minute, and I'll see if I can decode this."
Dipper then pulled out his journal again and began going through his codes.
-10 minutes later-
"Ok, I give up. It's not any version of Caeser, it's not Atbash, it's not a combination of the two, and it's definitely not A1Z26. My best guess is that it's Vigenère cipher, but without the key, there is no hope of figuring this out."
He sighed in defeat and stood up, and Mable walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder in support.
"Don't worry, Dipper, we'll figure this out. How about you keep the riddle in your journal and try different possible words as we travel? We might get lucky and find it later."
Dipper smiled and stood up. The two headed back down the way they came until they reached the main path again.
"SCHMEBULOCK!"
"Schmebulock?"
Both twins looked on in surprise as Schmebulock once again appeared in front of them.
"I thought we defeated you already?"
"Yeah, you proofed and left us some gold behind. How are you back?"
Schmebulock did not answer; instead, he threw his bottle at their feet and filled the air with his gas.
"Again?"
As a result, Dipper began to feel nauseous, but this time, Mable found she wasn't affected.
Not questioning it, she took several steps back, pointed her grappling hook at the gnome, and shot him between the eyes, staggering and knocking him on his behind. Dipper was able to focus enough to point his spear and fired a wind gust that turned him to smoke as soon as it hit.
As soon as the gnome was gone, Dipper felt the nausea leave him.
"Mable, I think I was poisoned when the smoke hit."
Mable panicked and reached into her pouch.
"Don't bother, I'm not poisoned anymore. Don't ask me how I know or how it happened; I just know it did."
Mable sighed before lowering the bottle back into the pouch. As she was doing that, she realized something herself.
"Hay, I think we got stronger again. I also somehow know how to un-poison us."
Dipper realized he was also feeling more vigorous as he looked at Mable with confusion. "What do you mean you only just learned that? Couldn't your healing do that?"
She shook her head. "No, that just healed injury, but it wouldn't cure you of being poisoned. Don't ask me how; I just know that's how the magic works."
Dipper just sighed, added it to his 'figure this out later' list, and continued down the path with Mable, walking beside the water this time.
"This is seriously getting freaky. Schmebulock coming back after we smoked him, a poison that only lasts a few seconds, me ignoring the gas cloud despite standing right next to you when it happened, and then I get a healing spell that doesn't remove the effects of poison and another one that only works on poison. What is going on with Gravity Falls?"
"I know, and why does my brain keep telling me that I should know what is going on?"
As the twins moved on, they passed under another arch of trees until they came upon a picnic table with a trash can next to it.
"One second, I want to ensure nothing in here."
Dipper lifted the lid, revealing that it contained only garbage. He then returned the lid with a dejected sigh.
"I have no idea why I thought it would be different, but I am still disappointed."
The two continued on following the water. A few groups of gnomes showed up but were swiftly put down. Eventually, they came upon an upturned boat with two adorable beavers playing on it.
"Hay, what are those doing here instead of at Skuttlebut island?"
"More importantly, the woods around the lake don't look like this, and the river feeding Gravity Falls Lake doesn't go through woods like this either. The geography of the valley looks like someone just jammed a bunch of places together without looking into how they link together."
Mable looked forward and pointed. "Like placing a bench and lamp post in the middle of the woods?"
Dipper looked over where Mable was pointing and saw that a bench with a lamppost was in the middle of the woods, and a mystery bag was in front of it.
"Honestly, I'm not surprised anymore at this point."
The two headed over to the bag and opened it. Inside, they found one of the plushies Dipper had tried to win for Wendy at the fair.
"I still have no idea what this is supposed to be, but it is still cute." Dipper then looked down at the tag sticking out of it and read it to see if the species was listed there.
"Plushie: Removes Fear from the Party. Is it a duck or a panda? Whatever it is, it's adorable and comforting!"
Mable shrugged and opened her pouch as wide as it could go. "I'm not questioning anything at this point. Just put it in the bag so it's safe from further gnome attacks."
Dipper took Mable's advice before the two continued down the trail, dealing with the few gnomes that popped up. They then came upon a collection of camping supplies piled around a bust of a familiar-looking man.
"He looks like one of those Oregon Trail settlers. Do you think he was on the wagon we popped onto when messing with the time tape?"
Dipper bent down to read the inscription on its base.
"Grady Mecc: Supposed inventor of the high-five. His wife Fetillia set a record of giving birth to 42 children."
"WHAT! I taught Fetillia how to high-five, not him! That no good credit-stealing hack! The next time I get a time tape, I am going back there to-"
"Mable! Time Baby and the Time Police already have enough reasons not to like us; let's not add to the list by going back in time and killing a semi-known figure. Especially one that was related to 42 kids being born, I do not want to know what removing all those people from history would do."
Mable glared at the statue but nodded.
"Fine, but I will be hunting down every document about him and rewriting them with the truth."
Dipper shrugged. "Fair enough."
The two then moved on through the woods until they reached another picnic table at the base of a hill. Next to it was another trash can, which Dipper checked the contents of again.
"Ugh, you gotta stop looking through the garbage, Dipper! It's gross!"
Dipper sighed as he returned the lid to the top of the can. "I know, I know, but it's like I'm compelled to do it for some reason…"
The two then headed up the nearby hill until they reached a coin-operated rocket ride.
"Hay, I know this. This is the ride Stan removed the out-of-order sign from and collects the quarters from once a week. I thought it was closer to the Shack parking lot."
Dipper looked at the pile of gold coins next to it in shock.
"I'm more surprised that someone left that much gold lying in a pile on the ground than the misplaced ride."
Mable looked at the pile and slapped it, smiling at both the flash and the realization that 700 gold pieces had been added to her bag.
"At this rate, we can probably just buy our own bus line to keep coming here."
After getting to the base of the hill again, they found a sign saying the Gravity Falls Lake was straight ahead, and the Mystery Shack was to the east of the lake.
"The Shack, let's hope Stan, Ford, Soos, or someone else we know and trust is there."
"And Waddles."
As the pair continued going forward, they were about to turn right to go to the Shack when…
"Oink!"
"Waddles?!"
Mable took off like a shot straight ahead in the direction the sign said the lake was. Dipper rushed after her with his spear at the ready.
After crossing the latest tree arch, they came across Waddles standing before the Gravity Falls Lake.
"Waddles! There you are!"
As she wrapped him up in a hug, Dipper saw the lake's water begin to ripple.
"Mable, get Waddles to safety! Something's coming from the water!"
Mable barely had enough time to move Waddles to the tree line and turn around before a long neck shot through the water's surface and loomed over the twins.
"WHAT THE HECK?!"
"AAAHHH!"
It was the Gobblewonker, and this one was lunging right at Dipper with murderous intent.
"Dipper, watch out!"
Hello Gravity Falls and PinesQuest2D fans! Last year my new year's resolution was to upload a 2k word count or greater chapter of any fanfic a week. This year my goal is to upload a 2k word count or greater chapter of the SAME fanfic a week.
I really like Nova Starlyght's fan game PinesQuest 2D, and was disappointed when real life convinced them to abandoned the project. After finding all the notes they posted about where the game would have gone, I have decided to try and novelize it. I have no idea how good or bad this will be, but as of January 3rd, I have 35 chapters prewritten for the story.
If you want to suport Nova Starlyght, please check out their works on the Disclaimer page.
If you want to support me, please check out my work on the Disclaimer page.
Thank you for reading this and see you next week. I will be posting either very early Fridays or very late Saturdays, depending on my schedule for Friday.