Δ Δ Δ
She felt the pain course threw her body as she collided with the ground. the heavy layer of moss covering the dirt provided at least a bit of cushioning but it still hurt like hell. most importantly though, she wasn't dead. After a moment or two of just laying there, she finally managed to lift herself up slowly off the ground. she sat upright for a couple seconds before flopping onto her back. the sun was just creeping over the trees, painting the sky around it a warm orange. it was beautiful, and for a moment she forgot the severity of the situation. it didn't take long however, for it to dawn on her.
Dipper was dead.
She almost died.
What was she going to tell Stan?
If she told him that Dipper jumped off the water tower he'd just think Dipper had lost it! but that's not what happened! Bill must be involved somehow! he'd only asked to sell Dipper, but Mabel decided he must have something to do with Dipper's death. Dipper wouldn't just do that, would he? If she tried explaining that an evil space triangle had killed Dipper, he definitely wouldn't believe her. he'd probably still think Dipper went crazy and that she'd lost it as well.
Now that she thought about it, she didn't even know the way back to the shack. She'd just followed Dipper out here and hadn't expected to have to find the way back herself.
She wasn't sure if she should stay and wait for someone to find her, or if she should just try to make her way back to the shack on her own. while she thought about it, she took a seat on a large rock positioned near the base of the water tower, tapping her chin as she thought in the most over-exaggerated way.
She looked around the clearing, searching for anything that might be helpful in finding her way back to the shack. her eyes landed on her brother's body, still laying there by the water tower. she looked away, not wanting to stare at it any longer, for fear that she might throw up.
She continued to look around. at the dirt, at the sky, at the other rocks arranged in a circular formation, at the trees, and finally at the various signs nailed onto them.
there were lots of signs. most of them shaped like arrows, pointing to... the mystery shack! of course! she remembered having to put out signs in the forest as a chore one time, they were meant to attract tourists, but they should point her straight to the shack!
Just as she was about to get up and follow the signs, she felt a whoosh of air from beside her, and saw a small portal slowly open up beneath Dipper's body. she froze in place for a second, not sure what to do, before running towards it, rushing to stop it from taking Dipper's corpse. she was about to grab it out from on top of the portal, when something pushed her back. almost like she just bumped into something. she watched in horror as the corpse buckled and fell into the giant portal in the ground.
Maybe she couldn't grab the body in time, but she could still go get it from wherever it had fallen to.
Mabel ran towards the portal, and just as it was closing, jumped through.
Δ Δ Δ
Rather than an alien marketplace, the room on the other side of the portal more closely resembled a sci-fi spaceship.
The walls were off-white and there were small round windows looking out into an endless black void. It seemed like the portal just took you wherever you were trying to go, rather than any one specific location.
The officers continued ahead, SMD_4 walked towards a control panel and spoke into a small microphone. A robotic voice declared that the autopilot had been turned off and the officer sat down in front of the controls, preparing to pilot the ship.
The rest of the officers all walked down a long hallway towards a large metal door. as they approached, the door slid open with a satisfying hiss and they stepped inside, the large door shutting behind them. Dipper followed them into the room, phasing through the door easily. Inside the small room there were four rectangular tables with various tools and machinery on them. Dipper recognized a microscope, a scalpel, some kind of vacuum cleaner and a large variety of differently shaped vials and test tubes.
The officer with the clipboard sat down at one of the tables, laying the clipboard down on the table and grabbing a strange looking device. They pressed a button on the machine and a bright red light began flashing on the side of the machine. they plugged the machine into the wall, leaving it there to charge.
"Did you find the file yet?" The officer asked,
getting up from the table and walking toward the other officer who had been looking through a large filing cabinet for the last few minutes.
The officer looked up and shook his head.
"Nope, not yet." he replied
"Turns out there's a lot more Masons on earth than I expected"
"Do you need any help finding it SRV_9? I'm just waiting for the detector to charge now." Said the officer with the clipboard
"Yeah, thanks SLM_3." replied the officer called SRV_9
SLM_3 grabbed a file labeled "Mason White #315" and flipped through it quickly, before tossing it to the side.
"Hey, do you know his last name?" asked SLM_3,
"If we knew his last name, that would make finding him a lot easier."
The officers continued talking, but Dipper wasn't listening.
They were trying to find him?
To return his body?
Or just to force him into some afterlife?
He was technically dead right?
And where even was he?
Space?
It sure seemed like that based on the black void outside,
but why in the world would a group of officers in charge of dealing with spirit related crimes live in outer space?
His thoughts were interrupted by the loud beeping of a fully charged spirit detector.
SLM_3 got up and laid the file he was holding labeled "Mason Cook #43" down on the table, before reaching over and unplugging the spirit detector. the light on the machine was now a bright green, and as the officer unplugged it the light turned off and the LED screen flickered on.
"This thing's a bit old, but HQ can't afford a better one so this is what we get." Said the officer to SRV_9.
SRV_9 looked up from the file he was holding labeled "Mason Smith #548" and nodded,
"Yeah, I heard that they're changing the cable shape soon though, so if the cable breaks HQ will be forced to get us a new one." he said
"Honestly I doubt they'd do anything. Wandering Spirit Prevention is one of the more obscure departments anyway. Heck they haven't given us a new officer in years! And we only have 6 people!" SLM_3 replied.
Just then, SMD_4 stepped into the doorway,
"You found his file yet?" he asked
"No, there's just so many Masons" Replied SRV_9
"I thought humans had a lot of names?" asked SMD_4
"yeah, but I guess mason's a popular one." said SLM_3
"Anyway, I got the detector charged. Honestly it's a miracle it'll even turn on." he added
"Great! so are we gonna go back to Glarlack and check for spirits?" asked SMD_4 "It's possible the spirit followed his body there."
"If the spirit followed the body, wouldn't he have followed us here?" asked SLM_3, "We should check the ship first. If we don't find anything we can check Glarlack's throne room."
SLM_3 pressed a button on the screen of the detector and the machine started beeping quickly.
"There's a spirit close by." Said SLM_3,
"I guess you were right about it following us here." Said SRV_9
"So what now? we just capture it and bring it back to HQ?" Asked SMD_4
"Yes." Replied SLM_3 "I think the relocation device should be around here somewhere..."
As SLM_3 grabbed the vacuum cleaner and switched it on, activating a variety of small lights and a screen on the device, Dipper realized it might not actually be a vacuum cleaner.
"Still works!" Yelled SLM_3 over the sound of the machine activated.
It sounded just like a vacuum cleaner. Was it a vacuum cleaner?
"Isn't that just a fancy vacuum cleaner?" Asked SMD_4
"I wouldn't go as far as to say fancy, but yes. although it does have a few features to insure the spirits can't get out." Replied SLM_3 as they turned the machine back off.
"Once we find the exact location of the spirit, we can use this device to transport it back to HQ."
Dipper suddenly realized they were talking about him, and decided he should probably get out of here.
Just as SLM_3 re-activated the detector, Dipper ran back towards where the portal was. Just barely managing to hear SLM_3's frustrated "It left." before realizing that the portal was gone.
A/N
hey! It's been a while (not too long though, I've taken longer to upload a chapter before!)
this chapter is technically longer than the last one, but only by around 400 words if you don't include the A/N
(still a decent amount now that I think about it actually)
I think this chapter has a healthy amount of dialogue and still enough... not dialogue? (lol) to feel like it's a complete chapter rather than just a transcript of some people talking. I've been wanting to write Ford for a while now, but since Sock Opera takes place a long time before Ford is introduced, I haven't really had a chance to write from his perspective. I'll be including him at some point in the future.
(but I wont tell you how :) that would spoil the surprise!)