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What If: Quicksand

It had been roughly seven years since that fateful summer in Gravity Falls when the second-generation of the appropriately-named Mystery Twins visited the town for the first time. For the next couple of summers, Dipper and Mabel Pines would visit their true-home at their Grunkle Stan’s infamous Mystery Shack and have plenty of grand and minor adventures.

A few years after the events of Bill Cipher being annihilated, Dipper and Mabel would come to an arrangement with their parents, allowing them to live and continue their education in Gravity Falls (an arrangement the two had kind of wished they had thought of on their first summer). They could live with the people and weird-elements that really helped them to thrive. After graduating high-school, the extended-family would continue their fun, dangerous adventures while pursuing their futures. Mabel would become a growing social-media personality. Dipper would finally begin his full-time apprenticeship under his great-uncle Ford. But before that, he’d make another endeavor, arguably harder than his pursuit of paranormal-science: Dipper would ask out his best friend and long-time crush, Wendy.

Yes, she shot him down when he was twelve, making it clear she wanted a platonic-relationship. However, over the years, things began to change. Puberty had been good to Dipper, making him much taller and far less scrawny than he had been. At the age of sixteen, having grown closer to the girl he never completely got over, he finally found the confidence to officially ask her on a real date. That time, she agreed. They’d been an item since.

Now, Dipper and Mabel were nineteen, Wendy was twenty-two, Soos was twenty-nine, and the Stans were old (they refused to give an exact-age at this point). Mabel was an online-college student and making a few bucks online, as well, while Dipper was in the middle of his studies. Wendy was enjoying being out of college, having gotten an Associate’s Degree in General Studies, and free to offer her assistance to the Pines-family whenever adventure called (or anything fun in general).

Currently, the family was doing a little of both. After the events of Weirdmageddon, Stan and Ford took to traveling across the globe and investigating paranormal mysteries outside of the valley surrounding Gravity Falls. If at all possible, they liked to travel by sea, like they’d planned on since they were young. Besides their investigations, it also presented opportunities to look for lost treasure or check out sea-babes (though they were cautious to avoid Sirens…).

Through some contacts of theirs, Stan and Ford had found out of a small, unmarked pocket of weirdness out somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. While they typically took a couple months of planning, this seemed doable without such extra preparations, especially since they had quite a few extra hands who were more than willing to come along. Of course, some only volunteered after they found out a certain arrangement had been made.

One enemy-turned-ally of the Mystery Crew (and a member of the failed Zodiac) was Pacifica Northwest, rich heiress of the semi-disgraced Northwest-family. After graduating high-school, she was immediately called to help her family restore their currently-meager fortune. Inexperienced though she was, she was still a Northwest, so she had some innate-talent for finding lucrative business-opportunities. In this case, she found out about this little trip from her ex-boyfriend, Dipper Pines, with whom she was still on good terms. Knowing that there was a small island in that area that was going to be explored, Pacifica saw an opportunity.

Her family had been forced to liquidate a number of assets (property, business-shares, etc.) to still live in relative-comfort, invest in the future, and not have to get day-jobs like most of their neighbors. One particular asset was that island that they had originally used as both a summer-home and a potential-means of business (if there was any oil or valuable-minerals). Unfortunately, they had not been able to sell or rent it for some odd reason. Most interested parties never even really got back to them after going to check it out. However, seeing as though she had connections in the form of paranormal-scientists and investigators, she might be able to turn this around.

That’s why the Mystery Crew were currently on an island. Pacifica offered to let them use it as a base-of-operations in exchange for a quick sweep of the area, just to check if there was anything wrong with it. Of course, there was other uses for it. It did, after all, have a beach and a well-furnished house (with plenty of natural power-sources for electric-appliances) not far from it. It would be an opportunity for a mini-vacation for both sets of twins, Wendy, and even Soos, who left the Mystery Shack in the capable-hands of his Abuelita.

Back at in Gravity Falls, the Mystery Shack was currently open, and boy, was business booming! Melody and her grandmother-in-law were at the register, making sales left-and-right while trying to keep the seemingly endless crowd of customers in order.

“Wow, Abuelita!” Melody stated, handing a customer the Shack’s newest piece of merchandise. “Who would have guessed tourists were such fans of your hand-made doilies?”

“Is gift of mine,” Abuelita replied. “Tomorrow, we sell pot-holders.”

For Dipper, however, this presented another opportunity…

Now, here they all were, relaxing on a small beach far from human-civilation. Soos was building a sandcastle, or rather, a sand-replica of the Mystery Shack. Stan and Ford were making plans near their anchored boat. Mabel and Wendy were hitting a beach ball back-and-forth in the water (and staying withing reasonable distance, as there was no lifeguards). And Dipper was recording their fun on his phone.

Well, he was mostly video-recording Wendy’s fun. He had always been crazy about her. How could he resist when she was clad in a bikini? After watching her splash a bit, the nerd decided he should probably make it look like he was interested in other things going on (which wasn’t entirely untrue). He came over to Stan and Ford, sporting tropical shirts and sun hats.

“Hey, guys,” Dipper said, pointing the camera to face his great-uncles. “So how are things looking?”

“Great!” Stan replied with a grin. “According to Pointdexter, the source of weirdness might actually be sunken treasure, after all. We’re gonna be rich!”

“Perhaps, Stanley. But bear in mind that we might not yet have the resources to retrieve such an item (if it is, in fact, treasure). It could require a submarine, of all things. And there’s the possibility of it being cursed. However, we can for sure locate it. And depending on the circumstances, even if we can’t clear out the weirdness here right now, we can still establish a safe travel-route for sailors everywhere.”

Stan groaned. “I’m just gonna say that it’s treasure,” he muttered.

After a bit of back-and-forth, Dipper decided he wanted to check out more of his girlfriend, who was laying back on an innertube, floating around with a pair of sunglasses (and an extra coat of sunscreen, considering she was a pale-redhead and a bit easier to burn). Dipper stood back at a reasonable distance, watching and recording. He was so fixated that he didn’t notice a body just beneath the surface of the water approach and slowly rise out of the water.

Before he could sense another presence, the young adventurer suddenly found himself splashed hard from behind. He turned and shouted in surprise: “MABEL!”

His excitable twin gasped in faux-shock. “My goodness! Do my ears deceive me? Does my doofus-brother realize there’s other people on the island besides him and his not-subtle crush?” she asked with a smirk.

“Mabel, you made me drop my phone!” Dipper said in irritation. He looked around for a second before finally finding it in the water. He groaned, before turning back to Mabel, eyes rather cross. “And she’s my girlfriend. I don’t have to be subtle!” As he said this, he subtly patted the pocket on his trunks, making sure a certain object was still there.

“Yeah, Mabes,” Wendy said, as she approached, now out of her tube. “He doesn’t have to insert how much he loves me under his breath in our conversations. Now he can just say it in his normal voice.” Dipper blushed. “Hey, is your phone okay?”

Dipper looked at his wet phone. “I… think it still works? Oh, better turn off that recording!”

Wendy whistled. “You’re lucky, dude. I so hate waiting for my phones to dry in rice! It takes forever and there’s no guarantee it solves the problem.”

Dipper nodded. “True.”

“Hey, I’m kind of thirsty. Let’s go back to the house. I think we forgot the cooler,” Wendy told her boyfriend.

“Sounds good.” The young-adult couple, leaving Mabel behind. “Hey, I’m still here, you know!”

“Leave them be, Hambone,” Soos said, walking over to Mabel. “Let them enjoy this while they can. One day, they’ll probably be married. And after the honeymoon, it’s work-work-work.”

“… You say this from experience, don’t you?” Mabel asked.

“Yes, I do,” Soos told her. “And it’s totally worth it.”

Mabel just blew a raspberry. “Oh, Soos! That doesn’t make any sense.”

Sure enough, Dipper and Wendy found the large cooler on the porch. After lugging it to the beach, the two cracked open a couple of cold Pitt Colas.

“Mmm… I pity the rest of the world. They don’t have access to this kind of soda,” Wendy said with a burp. “Excuse me.”

“Tell me about it,” Dipper agreed. “Of course, the occasional pit inside the can might be a bit of a turn-off for some people.”

The tall redheaded adult shrugged. “Whatever. So, what do you wanna do now?” she asked after finishing her soda.

Dipper smiled. This was his chance. “Want to go on a walk along the beach; just the two of us?”

“That sounds awesome, dude. Let’s just dump our trash first.”

The young couple dropped their now-empty cans into the trash bag the family brought along, and let Stan and Ford know what they were doing.

“Okay, but be careful,” Ford told them. “We haven’t scanned for potential threats like Ms. Northwest requested. Don’t go out too far.”

Wendy nodded. “You got it, Professor Pines. We’ll keep our eyes peeled. Come on, man,” she said, leading Dipper away.

Stan chuckled. “Ah, to be young and in love, then cheated out of your winnings… Think we still got a chance in such a game, Sixer?”

Ford looked at his brother. “I’d say our chances are very slim, Stanley (at least in this dimension). Even more unlikely is the possibility of kids. On the other hand, I don’t think that’s ever stopped you before…”

“Darn right, it hasn’t!”

Dipper and Wendy walked slowly along the beach’s shoreline, just enjoying the scenery around them, as well as each other’s company.

Wendy sighed. “I tell you, between twelve and fifteen, I would never have seen myself somewhere like this, at best, maybe a dirty, local beach. And between fifteen to eighteen, I could only see myself getting somewhere this nice by running away from home and hopping cars and trains for a while. I love how life surprises us…”

“I know,” Dipper replied, putting his arm around her. “I always imagined myself as an adventurer, but before Gravity Falls, I thought that would just stay a fun daydream. Now here I am, on a mysterious island with my family and the coolest, most-beautiful girl I have ever seen.”

“Oh, dude!” Wendy made a face. “That’s so mushy!”

“Sorry…”

“I didn’t say stop, though,” she said, grinning.

Dipper returned that expression, albeit blushing as he did so. After a moment he got bashful and looked forward. “Man, that is such a beautiful sunset, isn’t it?” he said, trying to change the subject.

“Hold it. Are you going to go with the ‘not as beautiful as you’ line? Okay, as much as I love cheesy romantic-talk in an ironic way, please don’t say that, of all things.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Dipper replied. “Even though it’s true. I was going to say that it reminds me of the moment I first really realized I was crushing on you. It was on the Mystery Shack roof.”

“That sounds about right, dude,” Wendy said thoughtfully. “Points for that line.” Wendy looked at the horizon, with the sun’s reflection across the water, the clouds and light across the sky making resemble an abstract canvas of orange and purple. “It is beautiful, though.” Wendy laid her head on her dork’s shoulder, admiring the view.

“We shouldn’t waste this opportunity,” Dipper said after a few minutes.

“Oh? What did you have in mind?” Wendy responded.

Dipper smiled. “Let’s get some selfies. We want to remember this moment, don’t we?”

“Yeah, let’s do it. And if Tambry reposts it online, practically half-the-world can see us and be totally jealous.”

Dipper pulled his phone back out and turned on the camera. He and Wendy got into position and Dipper started snapping away as they made various poses ranging from classic romance to fun summer-cruise themed ones.

They had just gotten into snuggle position and were about to take another pic when they felt the sand under their feet shift.

Dipper looked down, finding his feet had sunk beneath the sand. “What the-”

The couple let out a yelp as they suddenly began to sink rapidly beneath the sand. They were now up to their knees. It was so quick that Dipper lost his balance and dropped his phone. He was about to fall over into the sinking sand, too. Fortunately, Wendy was there.

“I’ve got you!” she shouted, holding his arm. “What is this? Quicksand?”

“I don’t know! The ground was relatively steady a second ago! I don’t think we moved too much while taking pictures!” he replied, rather worried.

“Dude, can you move your legs?” Wendy asked.

“No, I’m stuck!” He said, wiggling about. “What about you?”

“No good!” she told him. They were now nearly at their waists. “Wait! What if I-?” Wendy reached out (holding onto Dipper to avoid falling and going under), trying grab a stable patch of sand. Everywhere she reached, her hand just sank. “Drat! Dipper, you try!”

The young academic tried what his girlfriend did. He got about the same result. “This isn’t working. I don’t get it! What’s going on here?!”

“I’m what’s going on here!” a deep voice said out of nowhere.

Dipper and Wendy turned and discovered a humanoid-figure rising out of the sand… and was made out of sand, apparently.

“Who the heck are you?” Wendy asked the newcomer.

“Who am I? Why, I’m the Sandman! What else would I be called?”

“The guy who comes when people try to sleep?” Dipper asked.

The two of them, now up to their stomachs in sand, suddenly stopped sinking.

“No! (Why does everyone guess that)? I’m not that Sandman!”

“Oh, so you’re the bad guy from that movie with the Spider-guy, right?” Wendy asked.

“I remember that,” Dipper interjected. “It was like one of our B-movies, but with half-decent effects.”

“I know, right?”

“Yeah. Come to think of it, I wish there’d be a movie or show with the guy with the gas mask. He was a cool hero,” Dipper thought out loud.

“Huh?” Wendy replied. “What’s that got to do with sand?”

“I’m not either of those guys!” the so-called Sandman shouted. “I hide in the sand, waiting for creatures to come to my island. Then I slowly drag them under and feed on them slowly over the course of a thousand years! Of course, I don’t know that it’s a thousand years, but that sounds pretty ominous.”

“So, it’s like that monster from that movie?” Dipper asked.

“The one with the blind worms, dude? As far as PG-13 horror-flicks go, I kind of hate that series.”

“No-no! The scif-fi one. Remember? The third one from the original trilogy?”

“Eh, kind of…?”

“Hey, I’m talking here!” that monster yelled, grabbing their attention again. “Look, bottom-line: I’m the Sandman! I’m gonna suck you into the sand, and I’m gonna eat you slowly! Now, let’s get it over with before you start rambling again.”

Before Dipper and Wendy could respond, they found themselves sinking much faster than before.

“AAAAHHHH!!!” they shouted.

“BLEHEHEHEHEAUGH!!!” the Sandman cackled.

The young man and woman were now at their necks, looking utterly terrified. Dipper turned to look at the love of his life. It was now or never. “Wendy, I was planning on asking you this after we finished taking pictures, but if we happen to survive somehow… WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

“Yes! Dude, yes! I will… if we don’t get eaten, anyway!” Tears were in the girls’ eyes. They were happy tears, mostly.

“Wendy! I love-” Dipper didn’t get to finish his sentence, as they had finally gone under…

“Well, that was fun,” the Sandman said. “Time to sample the fresh stuff.”

He didn’t get a chance to do so. A concentrated blast of energy suddenly hit the Sandman square in the chest, leaving a gaping hole in his chest.

“Augh!” the Sandman cried out. “Was that from a gun? Those aren’t supposed to hurt me-AUGH!” Another blast hit, taking most of his sandy-shoulder. “Where is that coming fro-?” This time, a heavy-volley of laser-blast hit the Sandman in rapid-succession, reducing him to a pile of sand before he could think of way to escape.

In the distance, an angry Stan and Ford were holding smoking proton-rifles and pistols, waiting for the Sandman to move again. When they saw no sign, Stan shouted back behind himself: “NOW! HURRY!”

Mabel raced past them, holding a shovel tied to a rope. Soos wasn’t far behind. He was holding the majority of said rope. When she got close enough, she threw the shovel into the loose sand where Dipper and Wendy just were. It sank in fairly quickly as Soos approached.

Not long after, he felt a strong tug on the rope and began pulling it back up. After a few hand-over-hands, the shovel came back up. Attached to it was a very dirty Dipper, who was desperately trying to suck in air. A moment later, it was revealed that in his other hand was his redheaded beloved. With one more tug, Soos pulled the gasping and coughing couple from out of the sand-pit.

The two were laid flat on their backs as Stan and Ford approached. Mabel hugged the two of them. “You guys are alive!”

“Yeah… Thanks to you all,” Dipper said between coughs.

“Got that… right,” Wendy added. “How’d you… find us?”

“Didn’t you guys know you were live-streaming?” Mabel asked them.

“Wait, what?” Dipper asked.

“Soos was looking at hilarious cat-videos when he saw you guys post.”

Soos nodded. “Good thing I wasn’t looking at one of the better ones.”

Stan chuckled. “We saw you lovebirds making all kinds of weird poses before you dropped your phone.”

“EEEE!” Mabel squealed. “I’m gonna have a sister soon!”

“And then we saw what might have been the reason nobody ever comes to this island come after you,” Ford added. “Kind of a shame we had to destroy it (or him?); I would have liked to have studied such a creature. I’m just glad my assumption about these guns against it was accurate.”

“Nah. I’m glad he’s gone-for-good. I mean, he was eating people,” Stan replied to his twin.

“Ergh…” Some of the sand started coming together, reforming parts of what vaguely resembled a human.

“AH!” Stan shouted, shooting his laser-pistol in response. The Sandman disintegrated again, and this time, he didn’t reform.

“Uh, back on topic…” Dipper started. “…Since when are we live-streaming?”

Soos brought Dipper his phone. “You still are, dawg,” he said in response.

“Seriously?” Dipper pressed a couple of buttons on his touch screen, only to get no response. “What’s going on?”

“Let me see,” Wendy took Dipper’s phone and tried to fiddle with it. “Oh… Here’s the problem: there’s water behind the screen. It must have actually been messed up after Mabel splashed you earlier.”

Dipper thought for a moment. “… So, when I tried to press the camera-app, it must not have registered right.”

Wendy shrugged. “Could be.”

Ford looked thoughtful for a moment. “Say, Stanley. Didn’t the Sandman say on the video that he devours living people over the course of a thousand years? I think the Northwests have had people on this island over the last half-decade or so. You know what that means?”

Stan groaned. “We have more work to do than a routine-sweep? That’s just great…”

Back at the beach-house, Dipper and Wendy were cleaned and patched up; now sitting together on the porch.

“Some day, huh?” Wendy asked.

“Tell me about it. It was not how I was hoping the afternoon would go,” Dipper said, shaking his head. “Still up for marrying me? I know it was kind of sudden, but…”

“Dude, I said yes twice. I think I’m sure,” Wendy replied with a smirk.

“Well, in that case…” Dipper reached into his pocket and produced a ring with a large diamond. Bordering the diamond was some kind of stone that resembled flannel.

“Wow… Dip! It’s beautiful! Where did you get this?” Wendy exclaimed.

“The, uh, diamond was from some time-travel adventure Mabel and I had with Blendin. Suffice to say, we’re secretly kind of rich… Oh, and the ring was actually crafted by some goblins that sort of owed me a favor.”

“Well, I love it. And not just because it’s unique.”

“I was hoping you would.”

“By the way, that reminds me…” Wendy punched Dipper on the shoulder.

“Ow! What was that for?” Dipper asked, rubbing his shoulder.

“For choosing a life-or-death situation to propose. I’d prefer a fancy restaurant, personally. It was also for proposing to me on your ex-girlfriend’s island, dude. Did you ever check to see who all saw that live-recording?”

“I… didn’t. Oh, boy…” Dipper rubbed his temple, realizing the worst-case-scenario.

“Ah, cheer up. You still got a fiancé, don’t you? Now, do me a favor and put that ring on my finger.”

“With pleasure.” Dipper took Wendy’s hand and slid it down her ring finger. He looked up, only to get a mouthful of his beautiful bride-to-be’s own mouth.

They stayed like that for a while.

#wendip #Wendy Corduroy #Dipper Pines #Gravity Falls #WenDipWeek #fanfic #older!Wendip #older!Dipper #older!Wendy #quicksand #submission