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CodyLabs — Forest of Daggers: Chapter 8
#alien #fanart #fanfiction #ghost #robot #scifi #shapeshifter #gravityfalls #dipperpines #wendyxdipper #wendycorduroy #wendip #seeyounextsummer #forestofdaggers
Published: 2018-07-08 13:53:20 +0000 UTC; Views: 9472; Favourites: 46; Downloads: 0
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Chapter 8: Pancakes and Aliens
Miles from Gravity Falls, and late at night, a 13-and-a-half-year-old girl was sitting in a hospital bed, examining a mass of bandages mummifying her right hand. The wound beneath was as deep as the bone in places, and traveled up the length of one finger and across her thumb. The bandages would be there for two days, the stitches for two weeks, and the scar for a lifetime at least.
She was feeling sad, as she wondered how the wound might change her life. Perhaps she would never have a boyfriend again, because everyone who would ever want to hold hands with her in the moonlight, or sit across from her at a candlelit dinner, or bend over to kiss her ring… Everyone would see it, and think she was ugly. Or maybe they would ask her how she got that scar, and she’d have to tell them it was because an innocent baby animal hated her. Because she tried to love something that couldn’t be loved. Because she wasn’t a good enough Mabel… Because she failed…
A doctor was bent over her, asking how she felt, and giving her medications for infection. In the next room, her great uncle was talking with the doctor, trying to explain why a child had been left unsupervised with dangerous power tools. In the lobby, her grunkle was on the phone, having a much more difficult time explaining the same thing to her parents.
Her brother was sitting next to her, thinking over a solemn vow he’d just made: the vow to set right all that had been made wrong, and solve this mystery once and for all. It was a vow he intended to keep, but he didn’t intend on doing it alone.
In a room across the hall, a gigantic, bear-shaped man had been treated for broken ribs, a trio of long gashes across his shoulder, and saw wound in his leg. He was having a rather easy time explaining to the doctor why he’d been playing with a chainsaw while fighting a mountain lion. “JUST THE WAY THINGS ROLL IN MY LINE A’ WORK.” He was explaining. “JUST THE WAY THINGS ROLL…”
His daughter was sitting next to him, thinking over a solemn vow she’d just made: the vow to make sure those creatures would never endanger another innocent life. It was a vow she intended to keep, but she didn’t intend on doing it alone.
The night was quiet and long, and the two families spent it together, giving silent support, even when there was nothing at all to be said.
Eventually Mabel drifted off to sleep, freeing Dipper to make his way downstairs and collapse into one of the chairs in the lobby. With his mind still too restless to sleep, he pulled out Ford’s tablet, and began to read through the alien translations.
-POWER REPORT:
-date: 13/20/2094-46’\
-warning: catastrophic damage
-warning: reactor 1 meltdown
-warning: reactor 2 meltdown
-warning: reactor 3 meltdown
-warning: reactor 4 meltdown
-warning: reactor 5 intact, safety locked
-warning: reactor 6 heavily damaged, safety locked
-warning: reactor 7 meltdown
-warning: reactor 8 meltdown
-perpetual motion emergency generators online
-rerouting power to repair systems
-repair commenced
-date: 15/29/2094-46’\
-warning: unauthorized access
-reactor 5 safety unlocked
-warning: high risk of meltdown, do you wish to continue?
-reactor 5 online
-reactor 5 to 61% power
-reactor 5 offline
-safety lock activated
-reactor 5 safety locked
-reactor 5 intact
A few minutes after, Wendy emerged from the elevator and sat down next to him. Since she wasn’t quite tired either, she pulled out an axe and a few knives, and began to sharpen them. There was no greeting between her and Dipper, for none was necessary; each knew exactly how the other felt, because they were both feeling the same things. Dipper kept reading.
-LIFE SUPPORT REPORT:
-date: 13/20/2094-46’\
-warning: catastrophic damage
-warning: primary life support failure
-warning: secondary life support failure
-warning: tertiary life support damaged
-automated repairs commenced
-tertiary life support repaired
-boosting tertiary life support
-reroute power from perpetual motion generators
-power sufficient
-life support systems functioning normally
-warning: massive loss of life
-analysis:
-cause 1: blunt force from impact
-cause 2: life support temporary failure
-cause 3: stasis system permanent failure
-current census:
-specimen survival:
-sector 01: 0
-sector 02: 5
-sector 03: 13
-sector 04: 0
-sector 05: 3
-sector 06: 0
-sector 07: 0
-sector 08: 1
-sector 09: 0
-sector 10: 0
-sector 11: 0
-sector 12: 0
-passenger survival:
-sector 13: 2
-sector 14: 11
-sector 15: 5
-sector 16: 8
-sector 17: 2
-sector 18: 7
-sector 19: 1
-sector 20: 3
-sector 21: 9
-sector 22: 2
-sector 23: 1
-sector 24: 2
-organic cargo survival:
-sector 25: 0
-sector 26: 0
-sector 27: 0
-sector 28: 0
-sector 29: 0
-sector 30: 0
-sector 31: 0
-sector 32: 0
-sector 33: 0
-sector 34: 0
-sector 35: 0
-sector 36: 0
-sector 37: 0
-sector 38: 0
-sector 39: 0
-sector 40: 0
-sector 41: 0
-sector 42: 0
-sector 43: 294
-sector 44: 0
-sector 45: 0
-sector 46: 0
-sector 47: 0
-sector 48: 0
As the clock passed midnight and continued on into the small hours, the night nurse happened to pass through the room on some errand. When he saw the two teens sitting there, he paused in a worried sort of way. After considering their armor, equipment, and general demeanor, he decided to leave well enough alone, and continue on his way. Dipper kept reading.
-SECURITY REPORT:
-date: 13/20/2094-46’\
-warning: catastrophic damage
-security drone survival: 74 / 128
-warning: security breach detected in sector 2
-warning: security breach detected in sector 3
-warning: security breach detected in sector 5
-warning: security breach detected in sector 8
-warning: security breach detected in sector 43
-warning: moderate hull damage incurred in sector 43
-requesting input from security officer
-failed: security officer deceased
-automated programs activated
-dispensing drones to neutralize breaches
-sector 2 breach: contained
-sector 3 breach: contained
-sector 5 breach: contained
-sector 8 breach: data not found
-sector 43 breach: contained
-data not found
-security drone survival: 69 / 128
-data not found
-security drone survival: 57 / 128
-data not found
-security drone survival: 52 / 128
-data not found
-date: 15/29/2094-46’\
-warning: security breach detected in sector 43
-warning: security breach detected in sector 00
-warning: extreme hull damage incurred in sector 43
-requesting input from security officer
-input received
-command: neutralize
-neutralizing
-following program +8*%__!3/e^){nB--______
-warning: error
-data not found
-date: 15/30/2094-46’\
-security system offline
Somewhere around this time, Dipper’s eyes drooped shut.
Ford came through even later and found the teens asleep, collapsed upon each other with their tools still in their hands. He considered the responsibility that they’d decided to bear. And although he thought they were awfully young for it, it made him very proud. And he thought they looked adorable together, so he spread his trench coat over them for warmth, and continued on as quietly as he could.
“And what did you say caused this?” The contractor asked. “I gotta put something in my report…”
Mr. Mystery looked back at the hole in the wall and the destroyed door. The workers were in the middle of cutting new planks to fit into the siding, and were regarding the damage in a befuddled sort of way. A few of them had even noticed the massive square footprints the robot had left in the front lawn.
Mr. Mystery pondered the situation for a long, introspective moment. “Uh… Beaver with a chainsaw.” He finally decided. “It was pretty crazy, dawg, ha ha! That was one angry beaver, I ain’t ever seen a beaver that angry… Uh… Yeah, it was also a kung-fu beaver.”
His wife stepped up. “Oh, just a random sort of accident.” She smiled, and gave a non-committal sort of laugh. “And you know; never mind all that.”
“Oh, right!” Mr. Mystery laughed, and remembered to slip the contractor a wad of cash. “Never mind all that. Totally… I’m… Uh… By the way, I’m winking under my eyepatch!”
The contractor looked down at the cash and blinked. “Oh yeah.” He finally grunted. “I remember you. You’re that house.”
“You know what they say dawg! If you ever want some mystery, be sure to… I mean if you need a Soos… Uh…” The contractor walked off. “Ugh.” He frowned. “Gotta work on that.”
“You’re fine, Soos.” Melody elbowed him. “He’s not our customer, we’re his. You can ease up on the Mr. Mystery-ness today.”
“Ugh… Yeah. Man, being Mr. Mystery is hard work!”
“On the bright side.” Melody smiled. “I know a guy who had nothing but ‘hard working dude’ on his resume for almost 10 years.”
“Woah… That’s hardcore… Who was that?”
“That’s you, Soos.”
“Uh… Oh that’s right, yeah! Oh wow! I forgot about that… Ha ha. Thanks, Melody dude. You… You always make me feel better…”
But he didn’t look like he felt better. He still looked sort of disappointed.
“Hey.” Melody could read him like a book, and knew exactly what he was thinking. “It’s okay.” She told him. “Nothing last night was your fault. Sometimes things happen that are nobody’s fault. And sometimes nothing can fix them. Not even Soos. And giant robots and teleporting kittens and terrible dates are some of those things. So it’s okay. We all did our best, and now we’re all working to fix it. You’re getting the shack fixed, Mabel and Dan are getting themselves fixed, and Dipper, Wendy, and the Stans are probably fixing everything else. Right?”
“Yeah… Yeah… I guess so.”
“And as for me, I just fixed you some breakfast. You hungry?”
“Uh… Yeah.”
“Things are gonna be alright, Soos.” She took his hand as they turned for the door. “Things are gonna be okay.”
Dipper awoke to find his neck propped up at uncomfortable angle. He opened his yes, and found that he’d fallen asleep sometime in the night with his head resting on Wendy’s shoulder. And somehow, she’d fallen asleep with her head resting on top of his.
This didn’t seem entirely normal to him, and he doubted she would like the arrangement, so he tried to untangle himself as gently and as quietly as he could, but even that was enough to wake her. Their shoulderpads clattered and scraped as they pulled apart. She blinked slowly, and rubbed her neck with a slight groan.
“G’morning.” Dipper mumbled.
She yawned for about 4 seconds straight. “Hey.” She mumbled when finished. “Mornin’.”
Dipper checked the time, and found it was already past 9:00. “Ugh.” He stood slowly to his feet, and stretched. “’Nother… Big day…”
“So it is.” She grunted, and stood as well. “How, uh… How’s your sister?”
“Last time I checked she was… Okay. Still Mabel… Hurting more on the inside than on the outside, I think… How’s your dad?”
“Hurting on the outside, but just fine inside. They’re gonna keep him a day or so I guess.”
“Same with her.”
Wendy looked down at herself. She was still wearing her full armor, sans helmet. Then she looked at Dipper, who was wearing the same thing. Her finger ran slowly over her axe blade as she remembered. “Crazy night, huh?”
Dipper nodded. “Crazy night.”
She rubbed her eyes and started for the door. “Well.” She grunted. “Your sister will be fine here with los Stanos, and my brothers are with my uncle now… So… Do you wanna head back to Gravity Falls? Grab breakfast or something? Another big day, like ya said.”
“Uh.” Dipper scratched his head. “Yeah…”
It wasn’t until they were sitting in the cab of Manly Dan’s massive 4X4, and Wendy was fumbling with the keys, when Dipper thought to ask. “Wait, do you have your driver’s license?”
She paused, and flashed him her learner’s permit with a mischievous smirk. “Well, of course I do!” She winked. “If anybody asks you, that is.”
“Naturally.” He played along. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re my responsible, 21-year-old aunt…”
“Better believe it. I’m the most responsible aunt you got, sonny… Hey, slap me if I fall asleep, will ya?”
“Well, what if I fall asleep?”
“Oh, don’t worry.” She solemnly assured him. “You won’t fall asleep.”
Dipper pondered the significance of this claim as she started the engine. “Uh…” He looked up at her with a hesitant expression. “Have you ever seen the movie ‘Angry Alex: Road Maniac’?”
She looked at him with a blank stare, and put on her helmet. “Well of course. We watch that every Christmas, dude.”
He nodded, fastened his seatbelt, and put his helmet on. “YEP. That’s what I was afraid of.”
As they exited the parking lot, the truck hit the speed bump hard enough to get airborne.
“Geez!” Wendy grunted. “What kind of insane maniac put that there?!?”
Dipper clenched his fingers into the seat as they pulled out into the middle of traffic. Somebody beeped at them, and Wendy beeped back. Then she changed lanes two at a time to get them into the turn-lane for the freeway, and cut off a fully-loaded semi somewhere in the process. Its massive horn rang through the cab of their own truck, and Dipper covered his ears.
The light turned green, and Wendy stepped on the gas, launching them toward the on-ramp. The truck’s rear wheels slid sideways a little bit as they rounded the curve, and somebody honked at them again, and Dipper’s fingers dug even deeper into the seat.
“You know what?” He said. “You’re right. I don’t think I will fall asleep.”
Half a nerve-wracking hour later, they’d left the freeway and the highway and the busy streets behind them, and found themselves back in Gravity Falls. Wendy slid the truck into a parking space in front of Greasy’s Diner, and found a way to put it in park. Soon as she did, Dipper stumbled thankfully out the door, and placed his feet on solid ground.
She strolled on past him, twirling the keys. “How’s my driving?” She asked.
He straightened himself up, shook his head, and followed her for the diner’s entrance. “Uh… Actually…” He admitted. “You’ve gotten a lot better.”
“Yay! My dad says so too.”
A small bell rung as they opened the door, and a wave of greasy, fat, food smells assaulted them. It wasn’t a bad smell all told, but the sheer volume and greasiness of it still made Dipper recoil slightly.
When she heard the bell, the squit-eyed waitress glanced up from her pot of coffee with an enormous smile. “Strangers! HI-I!” She bellowed gleefully. “Welcome! To Greasy’s Diner! We have food! Hi!!”
“Hey lazy Susan!” Wendy removed her helmet and let her hair down. “It’s just us.”
Dipper removed his helmet too. “Football pads. I know, right?”
Susan peeled her second eyelid open, and looked them up and down. “Oh hey friends!” She beamed, letting her eye slap back shut. “Hi!! Take a seat! Right here! On the seat! Would you like food?!?”
They slid into the booth, and leaned back against the stained cushions. “Yeah.” Wendy smiled. “How ‘bout some pancakes, and 2 coffees.”
“What pancakes?!?” Lazy Susan poured them each a cup of coffee, and pulled out a notepad. “A small plate, a medium plate, a medium heapin’ plate, a big ol’ plate, or a big ol’ heapin’ plate!?!”
Wendy pondered this. “Uh… Let’s do a medium heapin’. And could we split that between two plates?”
“Maybe! …WINK!” She scuttled off toward the kitchen.
Once she was gone, Wendy turned and met Dipper’s eye. “So.” She nodded. “Today’s another day. What exactly does it hold? We heading out to the forest again? The… ‘Forest of Daggers’? Is that what we’re calling it now?”
Dipper reached under his armor, and removed Ford’s tablet. He stared at it for a minute. Should I show her? Today? Yes, I think I should. She needs to know, and we need to check it out. Today’s the day. “Actually…” He pondered. “I think I might have found another lead last night. A little closer to home.”
She frowned. “Where?”
“Nope. Can’t tell you here.” He glanced around at the diner’s other patrons, who were regarding their armored outfits with curiosity. He dropped his voice to a lower tone. “Trust no one.” He emphasized. “And in fact, I can’t tell you at all… This is something you have to see. I’ll explain when we get there.”
She held his eye, and took a long, slow sip of coffee. Then she took another long, slow sip. Then she shrugged. “Well then, you’ve just forced me to change the subject: How was your date last night?”
“Oh good grief.” Dipper had almost forgotten about it. “Uh… I thought it was nice. I enjoyed it. But then Mabel hid a camera and recorded the whole thing… And the Stans all thought it was a riot… Which made everything about it kind of bizarre in retrospect.”
“Oh my gosh. That’s such a Mabel thing to do.” Scoffed Wendy. “And then she didn’t show me? She oughta be ashamed of herself.”
“Ugh.” Dipper shrugged. “Well, she told me the date went totally bad. But it didn’t seem bad at the time, so it’s… I don’t know…”
“Hmm.” Wendy nodded. “So. Final verdict: what the heck is caviar? Is it enchiladas after all? Or is it something… Untoward?”
“Oh, it’s totally untoward. Most definitely.” Dipper shook his head. “I think it’s fish eggs, actually.”
“FISH eggs?” Wendy squinted at him with a disgusted sort of face. “Like… They make seafood omelets? Or are they scrambled? Like a seafood breakfast menu? How big of eggs do fish even lay??”
“That’s what I said! Turns out they’re tiny! Like, pea sized. I think you’re supposed to eat them with a spoon.”
“Grooooos…”
“And it doesn’t taste a blasted thing like omelets!”
“Man, that’s rough.”
“Ugh. Yeah. I know. I don’t know. I know I don’t know. You know?”
She nodded wisely. “I know.” She assured him. Then she glanced out the window for a moment, and drummed her fingers on the table. “So… You gonna ask her out again?”
“I didn’t even ask her the first time. She asked me.” Dipper sighed. “I doubt she’ll do it again now, and… I don’t know… I feel like I should… I don’t know, maybe I should take her to the movies, or… Like… If you were a girl, where would you like a guy to take you?”
A trucker at the next table glanced over at them in a confused way.
“If I were a girl…” Wendy pondered this with a slight smile. “Hmm… Oh wow, that’s a toughie. If I were a girl…???”
Dipper realized what he said. “Gah! I mean! Sorry! Uh… I forgot who I was talking to… Uh…”
“I think.” Wendy said. “That if I were a girl… Shopping maybe? Or to get my nails done? Or to some concert with a fabulous boy band? Or to a stupid gooey romance movie… Man, this is hard… Naw, I can’t do it. Too big of a stretch. You’ll have to ask Mabel.”
“Why do I open my mouth?” Dipper put his head in his hands.
“We’re none of us sure.”
“I feel like I have to do something with her now…” Dipper continued. “I feel like I’m OBLIGATED to do something, and… I don’t know what that something is…”
“I know.”
“…You know what I should do?”
“Heeeeck no. I mean I know how you feel. Obligated to do some weird romantic thing. I know exactly how you feel.”
“Oh.”
“I know.”
“I don’t even want to think about it honestly.” He shook his head. “The whole ‘romance’ thing is like a different planet or something. Like, I always wanted to visit the planet, but now that I get there, I realize I’m a total alien.”
“I know.”
“Wait, you know how that feels?”
“No, I know you’re an alien there. Like bro, you wouldn’t know romance if it backed over your head with a cement truck! You couldn’t tell romance from the ripe end of a baboon! You couldn’t pick the right girl out of a lineup of cows! You’re the cliché awkward 13-year-old that other cliché awkward 13-year-olds tell legends about! You’re BAD with girls, dude! Like, honestly, you SUCK!”
And Wendy began laughing at him; an energetic, passionate, clear laugh.
Somehow, this reached right down to the bottom of his heart, and it tickled him a little. And he started to laugh. And then he laughed harder, because he’d just been insulted, and it was the most honest, most brutal thing that had ever been said to him. And it was funny. It was darn funny.
“Ha ha. Uuuugh…” Wendy wiped a tear from her eye. “Anyway…”
She was interrupted as two plates (each containing half of a medium heapin’ serving of pancakes) came crashing down to the table in front of them. “FOOD!” The waitress announced proudly, and turned to leave.
“How much is that again?” Wendy asked, as she reached for her wallet.
“Nah, I got it.” Dipper reached for his own wallet.
Susan turned back, and patted Wendy’s shoulder pad. “Oh, it’s on the house for you two dears.”
“It… What?” Wendy frowned. “Why?”
“Never mind all that!” Susan smiled. “WINK!” And she turned and sauntered off.
“You da girl, Susan!” Wendy saluted as she picked up her knife. “Okay.” She whispered to Dipper. “Soon as we’re done with these, we’re heading out for wherever this super-secret place of yours is. But there better be a darn good reason for being so cryptic. You know how I feel about needlessly cryptic things.”
“Don’t worry.” Dipper shrugged aside her protests as he cut into his own pancakes. “This is totally deserving of all the cryptic I can give it. Believe me, you have to see it to believe it…”
Now they were trudging through the trees, up into the hills away from town. “And he just GAVE you his spare magnet gun?” Dipper was saying.
“Yeah!” Wendy pulled out Ford’s tool, and gave it a clever little flip. “’Ask and you shall receive’, right? He said I could probably find more use for it than he did, and since Mabel took the only grappling hook, this was the next best thing.”
“Huh. That was pretty cool of him. You gotten much use out of it?”
“Well… No, not really… I’m a little scared of it, to be honest. Ever since that first day…”
“What happened on the first day?”
“I got this scar. Right here…” Wendy pushed her hair back to show him her ear.
“Yikes!”
“Yeah. That was the same day I promised myself I would never wear earrings, as long as I was living in the same house as one of these things. Never once ever.”
“Wow. Geez, now I get why Ford told me to keep these away from Mabel.”
“Oh yeah, with her braces?? Dude, I didn’t think of that! You’re so right… Wait, how careful does he have to be with himself? He’s got a metal plate in his head, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah…” Dipper laughed. “Kind of extreme Bill-proofing was the original plan.”
“Oh, I totally get that. There were a couple nights I got so paranoid of that myself that I went to bed wearing tinfoil, or a pot when we were out of tinfoil.”
Dipper laughed. “Really? When was this?”
“Oh, after all your stories of Stan’s innards, and Bipper and everything, and before we killed him… I didn’t like the idea of that perp running around me head’s private places. So… Yeah. Now you know my secret: I’ve worn pots to bed! And more importantly, I propose a toast to his death!” She held up her water bottle. “Huzzah!”
“Huzzah!” Dipper heartily agreed, and knocked his own water bottle against hers. They each took a drink.
They’d made it to the top of the hill now, and Dipper stopped walking, indicating that this was their destination.
Wendy looked around.
There was certainly a great view from up here. The rolling evergreen hills broken up by ridges and cliffs. The lake, the island within it, the falls that filled it, and the river that drained it. The town in the distance, huddled beneath the massive hanging cliffs. The railway bridge cresting the cliffs like a great, vague monument.
It seemed like she could see forever from up here. It was a picturesque view.
But why did Dipper bring her up here? This was a boring, unnoteworthy place. Just another plain, featureless, circular, grassy hill. There weren’t even any nearby trees. Nothing at all out of the ordinary, nowhere to hide, nothing to do.
Dipper sat down in the grass and leaned back against a rock. Wendy eased herself down beside him, and they stared out at the landscape together.
Is that it? They were just here to enjoy the view? The heck kind of crappy surprise is this?
“Uh.” Dipper said, and scratched his head, as if unsure of how to begin.
“Sup?”
“Well…” He stuttered. “So… At the end of the day, you’re an ‘adventurer’ now, huh? Like Ford and Stan?”
“Yeah. ‘Adventurer’. I got myself into this, and heck if I’m leaving. Just the way things fall. Kind of your same story too, right?”
“Well… Yeah. But… But why do you do this?”
“Huh?”
“Ford asked me that same question the other day.” Dipper said. “And it got me thinking, because he thought I was doing all this for the wrong reasons: because I wanted recognition, or glory, or to impress my friends… Impress him… Impress you… He said that I was doing all this for myself. So… I guess I started thinking, and now… It took the last night’s crap to make me really understand what we’re doing here. I see now that it’s not for me. It’s for everyone else… I guess.”
Wendy nodded. “But it’s for you as well, even when there’s nothing at stake. Because this is what makes you happy. It’s what you’re talented at. This is you putting your all into something worthwhile. It’s like destiny for you, man.”
“Yeah… But… Just, why are YOU doing it, Wendy? I mean, you always used to like the weirdness, and the danger, and the trouble, and all that… But now all of a sudden, you’re… You’re putting your all into this. You’re… Awesome… I mean, you were super awesome before, but now… Now you’re super awesome… I…” The more flustered he got, the more red his cheeks got. (She thought it was hilarious.) “I don’t know, you know what I mean, don’t you?”
“I know exactly what you mean.” She thought for a minute, considering how to put this answer. “I guess.” She finally decided. “I had a conversation.”
“With who?”
“Uh… That’s kind of personal. And it doesn’t really matter. But she got me to thinking… About how I should be using my life for more than… Stupid silly crap. You know? Like, we had a ton of fun getting into mischief last Summer, and… And I’ve always had fun like that… And I still like that… But then I looked at how my life looked when I totally lived that way… And it was a crappy life. I was throwing away my future. I was getting terrible grades. Everybody was mad at me…” She shrugged. “I’ve got a particular talent set, as you’ve noticed. But I was using it for… Nothing at best, and evil at worst. Think about it: How did Bill get his start? Hmm? Long ago in a distant land, before he unleashed his unspeakable evil, who was he as a kid? We may never know, but imagine: was he that rebellious kid who hated authority, hated the system, hated life in general, and just wanted to write himself a happy ending? An ending with freedom? Before he inherited his power, before he burned his world, was he a Wendy??
“After last summer, that’s a thought that’s kept me up at night: what could I become? The talents I had, I was letting them go to waste causing trouble. Just as they’d go to waste chopping logs, or sitting behind a desk… Right? So at the end of the day, this business of ours here; this is my shot to make something of myself. This is my chance to snag a future I actually want. To do good in this world… You know what I mean… Right?”
Dipper nodded, and stared off into the distance. “I get it.” He pondered. “You know, nothing says you have to keep doing this. You could… Be whatever you want…”
“I know.”
“So do you… Enjoy it?”
“It’s hard. It’s rough. It’s not easy, it’s not clear. It’s confusing, and scary, and painful. I kind of semi-half fell out with the guys because I don’t have time to do the things I used to… And I’ve gotten hurt a lot. Juan sawed me once, and I tore out an earring, and a velociraptor attacked me last winter, a manotaur almost broke my arm, and I even got burned by a Molotov cocktail… This life… It’s… Lonely sometimes, I guess. I see weird stuff, and have to keep secrets from my family. From my friends. Even from my diary, sometimes. Bottom line, it’s rough.”
Dipper’s eyes fell. “You hate it.”
“I love it.” She corrected him. “I’m finally doing good, man. I’m using myself how I was meant to be used. I’m not being a Bill. I’m being a hero… And hey. I’m not really alone. Right?” She elbowed him in the shoulder. “I’ve got people. The people behind me, like my dad and Ford, and now you beside me. And that’s a pretty good gig, huh?”
Dipper nodded, and took a deep breath. “Wendy… Here’s my thing… Today…” He spread his arms to indicate their surroundings. “The reason we’re up here…” She could tell he was getting very nervous now. Nervous enough to start to stutter. “If we’re really in this together… Do-do you want to be in this to-together?”
“I do.”
“Well… Then…” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Um… Okay. So there’s a lot of secrets I’ve been keeping from you.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Stuff that happened last summer that Mabel and I kept to ourselves… Stuff that happened before that which Ford kept from everyone else… Important stuff. Stories. Info. And… And I know you’ve seen things too that you haven’t told me. So… I think that if we’re in this together, we need to share everything. We need to be open. If I’m gonna have your back, and you’re gonna have mine, we need to… You know.”
She nodded slowly. “And that’s the whole point of this conversation, isn’t it?” She surmised. “You want to know if you can trust me.”
Dipper closed his eyes, and sighed. “Well… Yeah.” He admitted.
“That’s a tricky sort of thing.” She shrugged. “I can say you can trust me. I can say I’ll always be watching out for you. I can say I’ll never lie to you, always have your back, and keep your secrets to the grave. I can say that, but they’re just words. If you’re going to trust me, it’s doesn’t depend on words. It depends on you. So decide: Dipper, do you trust me?”
He considered this. “Yes. Yes I do…”
“Would you still trust me if I told you I have one secret I need to keep from you for your own good?”
Dipper considered this as well. “…Do you?” He asked.
“I do. I’ll tell you every secret I know, except for one. But as I said, it’s for your own good. For everyone’s good. Do you trust me?”
He thought about this. “I do.” He finally answered. “I trust you… But… Do you trust me?”
“I do.” She promised.
Dipper considered this for several seconds.
“Mason.” He finally answered. “Mason Pines… Uh, I mean… That’s my real name. Everybody calls me Dipper, but… It’s actually Mason.”
“Mason.” Wendy nodded. “Huh. Mason. Like bricks. Masonry. Mason Mason Mason… I think I like Dipper better… And… Uh… Well, my middle name is Blerble. Wendy Blerble Corduroy. Not many people know that, but now you have to live with it.”
Dipper smiled. “Blerble. Why not.”
“And as long as we’re sharing secrets…” Wendy turned around, pulled out her backpack, and unzipped it. Then she dumped it out on the grass, and 3 worn, red, brass-bound books slid out.
Dipper froze, aghast. “The… Journals… Ford’s journals…! Oh…! What??”
“Bet you forgot about these little McGuffins, eh?” She smiled.
“Huh… How?? The journals were…!”
“Remember that copy machine in Stan’s office? The magic one that makes ACTUAL 3-D copies? Well, Stanley made copies of the journals back when he had all 3. And he kept them just in case the real ones were taken or destroyed. But he never told anybody he made them, so when he got his mind wiped during the end, nobody was able to remind him. The copies were forgotten about completely. By the time I got my hands on them, nobody in the universe missed them.”
“The… Journals…”
“We’ve got ‘em for real. We just can’t get ‘em wet. I’ve been reading these things for about 7 months now, learning everything I can. Got ‘em pretty well memorized by this point, but I haven’t been able to crack any of the codes though… You want them? I know you didn’t have a lot of time to study 1 and 2…”
“Uh… S-sure…” Dipper’s hands shook just slightly as he picked them up. There were several moments of silence as he flipped through the first book. “Wait, you know about the magic copier?”
“Come on, dude. There was at least half a dozen of you running around that night. Do you seriously think I didn’t notice? And that whole next week, where did you think all that super bland popcorn came from?”
“Uuuuuugh…” Dipper shook his head. “Uh… Ugh… Okay… Uh… Wow. Don’t know what to say.”
“Deal with it.” She scoffed. “But since we’re open now, I just have to ask: what the heck were you doing with all those clones back then?”
“Uh…” Dipper scratched his head. “I was… Oh boy… I was trying to get everything perfect, so that I’d have the guts to ask you to dance…”
“Oh.” She nodded slowly. “Huh… I know I’ve called you a dork before, but this time I really mean it: you dork!”
“Ugh… Yeah.”
“Did that take the first time?” She leaned in close to him. “Let me try again: YOU DORK!”
“Yeah, I heard you the first time.” Dipper brought his hands up to shield himself.
“So.” She sat back. “Do you still have a crush on me?”
“Uh…!”
“Hold on, you know what?” She put up a hand to silence him. “Never mind. Doesn’t matter. Don’t care, don’t mind.”
“…You don’t?”
“Let’s change the subject.” Wendy announced. “How about… Hmm… Let’s see, what should we talk about? How about why we’re sitting up on a random hill in the middle of nowhere? Let’s talk about that.” The suspense had been clawing at her brain for almost an hour now, and she was eager to finally get to the point. “You said it had something to do with a new lead on the robot thing? For the life of me, I can’t put it together. What is this?”
“Oh yeah. Okay… This…” Dipper stood up, and spread his arms in no particular direction. “Is something Ford showed me a long time ago. This is one of those secrets we carry to the grave.”
“Bring it.”
Dipper turned away from her, and looked toward the town and the cliffs beyond them. “Well.” He put his hands on his hips. “Those are some pretty weird looking cliffs, huh?”
She made a face at his backside, thinking this was a rather atrocious change of subject. But then she decided to humor him, and followed his gaze off toward the cliffs. It was strange, but she’d never really looked at them very hard. Never really taken them in as a whole, and considered how strange they were. “Yeah. Pretty weird.” She admitted. “Makes you wonder if there used to be like… An arch or something that collapsed, right?”
“Yeah.” Dipper nodded. “But either way, they’re pretty symmetrical for random nature, don’t you think?”
Wendy blinked. “Uh…” She looked at the overall shape again, and realized it WAS pretty symmetrical. But how did that make sense? And what shape was it anyway…?
A very odd smile spread across Dipper’s face. He pulled out a keychain and held it in front of her. One of the Mystery Shack’s UFO tokens dangled off the end. She looked at the shape of the token, and back to the cliffs, and suddenly it all clicked.
“Wait.” She stood up now, ran her fingers through her hair, and stepped past him. “Are you telling me… That those cliffs were formed by an honest-to-goodness gigantic alien spaceship that came cannonballing through here eons ago??”
Dipper smiled. “That’s what I’m telling you.”
“That’s…” Her brain and heart both sped up. “That’s… Wait a minute… Hold on, that doesn’t make any sense…!” She turned on him again. “I mean, why would they do that? You’re saying they just came down from outer space, flew their spaceship straight through a mountain, and then flew away again? Why? Do they think it’s fun? Did they lose a bet? Were they testing the airbags? Were they all on drugs? On what planet is it okay to fly a spaceship that big when you’re that stoned?”
“Oh… I don’t think they were stoned.” Dipper assured her. “I think something was wrong with their ship. The engines malfunctioned or something.”
“Oh yeah?” Wendy put her hands on her hips. “If the ship were broken, then how did it fly away again?”
Dipper smiled in a fake-confused sort of way, and cocked his head to one side. “Fly away again…??” He asked innocently.
And then Wendy noticed the hill they were standing on. And she realized how perfectly round it was. And then she looked beyond the jagged tree line, and noticed that there did, indeed, seem to be some sort of geometry to a large surrounding section of valley. A geometry that was covered in trees and eons of mudslide and deposit, but still… Nearly… Perfect…
And then it REALLY all clicked.
And she remembered the giant circle Dipper had made on all his maps. And how Ford always seemed to solve problems with weird, advanced technology that nobody else had heard of. And the stories the townspeople told of alleged UFOs from throughout the years. And why the well-drilling company had said the town’s groundwater was tainted with uranium…
It ALL clicked.
“Holy. Bunyan.” She whispered.
Dipper smiled very broadly now, remembering when his mind had been in the same place. He pulled out his magnet gun, and gestured to the rock they’d been leaning against. “Want to help me move this?” He asked.
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Comments: 1
They're rested, they've eaten, they've got their priorities right. Let's get dangerous!
I really enjoyed the whole Dipper/Wendy section, from crazy drive to the heart-to-heart on top the UFO hill. It felt genuine and in-character for them (and I know how easy it is to mess the latter one up). It got me smiling and reminded why I like these two so much.
The pic is really cute too.
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