Gravity Falls has always been a strange place–and Gravity Falls during the fall is no exception. When Dipper and Mabel make a weekend trip to visit their grunkles, they discover some interesting–and very adorable–anomalies.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 | AO3 link
Dipper and Mabel swapped school stories with Wendy all the way to Grenda’s house. They told her about Mystery-Meat-Wednesdays (which, surprisingly, were less terrifying than some of the mystery meals Stan had made for them), how they had left all the interesting stuff out of their “what I did over summer” papers, and the tussle Dipper had gotten into with one of the bigger boys. In turn, Wendy told them about how the gnomes had invaded the elementary school and held it as a fortress for an entire week, the straight A’s she was getting in both woodshed and calculus, and that the only reason she was getting B’s in social studies was because their new teacher would get so caught up in personal anecdotes that he would forget about the actual lesson.
“And then he grades everything super hard--like, just because you were there and remember everything doesn’t mean modern teenagers are going to get every detail of the Gettysburg Address absolutely perfect.”
“Whoa, what is he, some kind of ghost?” Dipper asked with a laugh.
“Nah, he’s a centaur,” Wendy replied.
“Wait, an actual centaur?” Dipper leaned towards her, automatically pulling the pen and notebook out of the inside pocket of his jacket.
“Nerd,” Mabel coughed from the backseat.
Dipper ignored her, but Wendy grinned.
“Yeah, man! His stories are cool, but, like, I kinda wanna actually learn the stuff that’s gonna be on the test, you know? I mean, I don’t wanna learn the stuff that’s gonna be on the test, but I want to pass the test--you get what I’m saying?”
“Totally, totally--so, does he walk to the school every day, or does somebody pick him up? And, like, what does he wear? I mean, do centaurs really wear clothes?”
“Well, the bottom half is all horse, so the only thing he wears down there is shoes.”
Dipper glanced up from his writing and, slowly, turned to look at Wendy. She was biting her bottom lip, trying--and failing--to hold back a grin.
“That was terrible,” he said.
Wendy burst out into a laugh, and Mabel giggled from the backseat.
“I know, dude! But you should have seen your face! Oh, man...” her voice trailed off into quiet laughter as she shook her head. “No, but seriously, he actually wears dress shirts and ties and stuff. Sometimes he wears a sweater, but sometimes it’s a suit. Really classy guy, and surprisingly fashionable.”
“And is he, like, attractive or anything?” Dipper mumbled. He immediately regretted the question and felt his face growing hot again.
“Nah, he’s kinda got a long face,” Wendy replied. She glanced over at him and winked.
Dipper quickly looked out the window.
They arrived at Grenda’s house a short while later, and Mabel practically launched herself out of the truck and up the porch steps. Dipper and Wendy hung back by the truck as Mabel rang the doorbell approximately a thousand times. The door opened and Dipper put his hands over his ears--but it didn’t completely block the deafening roar Grenda let out.
“CANDY! PACIFICA! GET YOUR BUTTS OUT HERE!” Grenda called over her shoulder before she scooped Mabel up in a hug. “I missed you so MUCH!” she said.
There was a squeal and, suddenly, Candy shot out the door, jumping up and latching on to Mabel from the other side.
“You’re back! We missed you!” she said. She cast a quick smile at Dipper, and he smiled back.
“What was that about?” Wendy asked, glancing down at him with a smirk.
“What was what? It was nothing! It was nothing,” he said, looking at anything but Wendy. His eyes travelled over the trees around the yard, but they stopped on a crow.
A crow.
But this time it wasn’t looking at him.
It was watching Mabel.
“What...?” he mumbled, squinting at it.
“What what?” Wendy asked.
“That crow--when Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford came to get us from the bus stop, they couldn’t drive the car up because there were all kinds of crows in the road.”
“Oh, yeah! Dad tells me about stuff like that happening sometimes. And it always happens in, like, the same couple spots. One of them is around here, I think...”
“Well, Mabel asked one of the crows to move--”
“Heh, typical Mabel!”
“Yeah, well, it did.”
“What?”
“The crow just...hopped out of the way. All of them did. They cleared a perfect path for her. And then there was a crow at the Shack--I saw it just before we left. And now there’s a crow over there--”
“You know, crows aren’t too unusual. You might just be reading too much into it.”
“Maybe, but the crows wouldn’t move for anybody else--only Mabel. And at the Shack, I thought the crow was staring at me, but I think it might have been staring behind me--at her. And--I mean--just look at it, Wendy!”
Dipper threw his arm out in the crow’s direction and Wendy’s eyes followed the motion all the way to the bird. She frowned at it, then followed its gaze towards Mabel, who was now giving Pacifica a hug.
“Okay, so it’s kind of creepy...” Wendy said.
“It’s more than creepy, it’s--”
Just then, the crow cawed. Dipper looked from the bird to his sister. She had let Pacifica go and was now talking with the three other girls, but the look on her face had changed. She looked distracted--preoccupied.
The crow cawed again.
Mabel stopped mid-sentence. Her head turned. She locked eyes with the crow.
“Ca-CAW!”
It turned and flew to another tree, this one at the end of the driveway.
Mabel, without a word, followed.
“Mabel?” Pacifica called, then turned to look at Dipper with an expression of total confusion.
“Mabel!” Dipper called to his sister and quickly ran to catch her. He took her arm and pulled her to a stop. “Mabel, what are you doing?”
She turned to look at him, but her eyes were vacant.
“It’s getting late. It’s time to go home,” she said, but her voice was as lifeless as her eyes.
Dipper set his jaw and shot a quick glare at the crow--which was watching, Dipper thought, impatiently.
“Fine,” he said, turning back to his sister. “But I’m coming with you.”
Mabel nodded then continued walking, Dipper holding her hand tightly. He wasn’t about to let some giant crow swoop in and take her away. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Wendy and the other girls following after them. Wendy gestured to Mabel, a look on her face that clearly asked what the heck was going on. Dipper shrugged in response.
Mabel led him to the end of the driveway, and the crow flew to another tree down the road. Mabel turned and followed it diligently. Dipper was grateful there wasn’t any traffic to deal with on a backroad in a small town. The crow led them down the road, around a corner, and down a second road all the way to a large field.
The crow perched on the rickety wooden fence, and Mabel stopped beside it. Dipper glanced out over the field and realized it was a pumpkin patch. The crow flew out towards the center of the field and landed on one of the larger pumpkins, near a couple of harvesters. The crow cawed and the people paused. Dipper gripped Mabel’s hand tighter, his other hand closing into a fist. The people turned to look at them, and Dipper swallowed hard.
Gravity Falls has always been a strange place--and Gravity Falls during the fall is no exception. When Dipper and Mabel make a weekend trip to visit their grunkles, they discover some interesting--and very adorable--anomalies.
Part 1, Part 2 | AO3 link
“SOOS!” Mabel shrieked the moment she flew through the door of the Mystery Shack.
Soos’ head snapped towards the door and the broom in his hands fell to the floor. His jaw dropped and Dipper wondered for a moment if he was going to faint. But there wasn’t enough time to tell, because in the next moment Mabel had tackled him to the ground. Dipper flinched, not sure if the crack he had heard came from the floor or Soos’ back...
“Dudes!” Soos cried, holding Mabel above him. “It’s you!” He turned towards Dipper, looking suddenly confused. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have school and stuff?”
“We’ve got a long weekend!” Mabel said. Her arms were flapping all over the place, trying to hug him, but Soos didn’t seem to realize this as he kept her dangling above him.
“Mom and Dad said we could come visit!” Dipper added. He walked over to Soos and crouched down beside his head.
“That’s great, dudes! Aw, I missed you both so much!”
“Then let me hug you already!” Mabel cried.
“Oh! Right! Sorry, girl dude,” Soos said with a little smile. He wrapped Mabel up in a bear hug, one she gladly returned.
“Get in here, Dippingsauce,” she said, reaching out an arm and grabbing Dipper’s vest.
“Ack!”
Mabel pulled him into the hug before he knew what was happening, and Soos wrapped an arm around him. Dipper had to admit, it was pretty cozy in this little group hug. A yawn crawled out of his mouth and he closed his eyes. The bus ride had made him pretty tired...maybe a nap would be nice...
“Hey! Outta the way! Customers coming in!” Grunkle Stan barked, kicking the bottom of Dipper’s shoe.
Dipper, Mabel, and Soos groaned in unison before shifting out of their hug.
“Really, Grunkle Stan?” Mabel said, frowning up at him. “You don’t even run the Shack anymore.”
“Says who?” Grunkle Stan asked--and when Dipper finally looked up at him, he almost gasped aloud. Somehow, in less than two minutes, the old man had changed out of his jeans and sweater and into his old black suit and fez. He was standing in front of a small mirror, adjusting his bowtie.
Dipper turned to Soos, mouth open and full of questions, but Soos shrugged and laughed before any of the words came out.
“I let him run the place whenever he comes back into town,” he said.
“It’s really more for our sanity than his,” Grunkle Ford said, crossing his arms over his chest. “If Stan’s not running the place, then he’s constantly complaining about the way Soos is doing it.”
“That’s because he’s trying to run the place into the ground,” Grunkle Stan muttered, but Dipper knew he didn’t mean it.
Soos glanced at Dipper and grinned. He didn’t buy it, either.
“Now, stop loafing on the floor and get back to work,” Grunkle Stan continued as he stepped behind the counter.
Dipper, Mabel, and Soos stood up just before the door opened--but it wasn’t customers who entered.
It was Wendy.
“Wendy!” Dipper and Mabel cried together.
“Whoa!” Wendy said, stopping mid-step. “What the heck?” She spun to look at Grunkle Stan, who was smiling wide.
Dipper and Mabel ran forward and, together, wrapped Wendy in a hug.
“When did you two get here?” she asked, finally hugging them back.
“Just today!” Mabel said.
“Like, less than an hour ago,” Dipper added.
“No way,” Wendy said. She squeezed them a bit tighter, then let them go and glared at Grunkle Stan. “Thanks for letting me know they were coming,” she said, and Dipper could almost see the daggers she was shooting at him.
Grunkle Stan just laughed.
“Did you tell anybody we were coming?” Mabel asked, putting her hands on her hips.
“Nope,” Grunkle Ford said. “Stanley thought it would be more fun to surprise everyone.”
“Hey, I wasn’t wrong,” Grunkle Stan said with a shrug.
Mabel gasped and clapped her hands against her face.
“That means Candy and Grenda don’t know! And neither does Pacifica!”
“Whoa, don’t freak,” Wendy said, holding up her hands. She jingled a set of keys. “Guess who got her license?”
“Aw, sweet!” Dipper said.
“You mind, Mr. Pines?”
“Nah, they’ll be here a few days. I got time to share ‘em,” Grunkle Stan said, waving them out the door.
“YES!” Mabel cried, racing outside.
Dipper and Wendy laughed then chased after her.
“Whoa!” Dipper said as he laid eyes on the old green truck parked outside. “Is that yours?”
“Yep--hand-me-down from one of dad’s work buddies. I had to fix it up a little, and it’s not much to look at, but it runs so smooth, man...”
Mabel hopped into the backseat, flashing Dipper a grin. He felt his face grow hot and he looked back at the Shack for a moment, waiting for his blush to pass.
And then something caught his attention.
Perched on the roof of the Shack, just beside the wind vane, was a crow.
And it was staring at him.
Dipper felt his mouth drop open. “Mabel--” he began, but the truck suddenly came to life behind him and he jumped, spinning to face it.
“You okay, bro?” Mabel asked, leaning out the window.
“Yeah, it’s just--” he paused, turning back to the Shack.
The crow was gone.
“Never mind...” he said.
Mabel glared softly at him.
“You know I don’t like it when you do that,” she muttered.
“Do what?” he asked, crawling into the passenger seat.
“The whole ‘Mabel there’s something weird going on but never mind I’m not gonna tell you about it ‘cuz I’m a dummy and that always works out well’ thing.”
“I do not sound like that,” Dipper said, buckling his seatbelt and turning to glare at her.
“Actually, that was pretty spot-on,” Wendy said with a smile.
Dipper felt his face get hot again, but thankfully Wendy wasn’t looking. She was concentrating very hard on backing out.
