Been a while since Iāve drawn Wil, so hereās a doodle dump of him.Ā
Also everyoneās always likeĀ āWill is precious cinnamon rollā but tbh heās proably a sinamon roll. Idk I still think Willās gotta be insane, not the Bill kinda insane, but more like a sad kinda insane.Ā
Thereās some joke going around that Rev!Dipper has flashlight eyes, honestly I think it would be pretty cool so I googled some lens flares and messed around with a basic sketch of mah boi.Ā
Dipper and Mabel quickly settled into their new routine. Every morning they grabbed breakfast - on the days that Grunkle Stan cooked, they didn't know whether to consider themselves lucky. On weekdays, the Mystery Shack opened sharply at eight, which also signified the end of breakfast. On top of normal chores, the twins ended up working in the tourist trap alongside their uncle, Soos, and a fifteen-year-old named Wendy.
On the one hand, Mabel detested the quietness of the first few days. Sure they took a trip around town, but they had made no more than polite introductions with most of the citizens. Most of their time they spent in the Mystery Shack. However, it did give her a chance to get a feel of the citizenry through the people she did have available - namely, Wendy.
"Thompson did what?"
"Ate a waffle off the road, for fifty cents!" Wendy laughed as she stocked the register counter. "I swear the guy will do anything you ask him to."
Mabel chuckled as she spritzed cleaner on a jar of eyeballs. "Anything?"
"Trust me, Robbie's known him for over ten years." She fit a stack of bumper stickers into a stand, and admired her handiwork. "What do you think? Will it get Stan off my back?"
"I think it looks fine. I'm almost done too."
Wendy inspected the jar. "Yeah, looks good enough to me!"
I know, that's why I said that. Mabel kept her thoughts to herself, though, as she finished up. "All done!"
"Great! Now we have at least an hour before Stan yells at us to do more work." With a sigh she leaned against the wall. "It's a pretty slow job at times, you know?"
"Yeah." Mabel scanned the gift shop. There was a man that she had noticed in town...and she was pretty sure he had been in here before. "Hey, who's that?"
"Oh, him? Tyler Cutebiker, he's, uhā¦" Wendy thought for a moment. "I don't really know what he does. But he's harmless, always pleasant to talk to. He's always so...enthusiastic."
"Hmmmā¦" Mabel sized him up. He didn't seem particularly bright. He could possibly be useful laterā¦
"Oh boy, here he comes." Wendy straightened up and put on a brighter voice. "Hey Mr. Pines!"
He stared at her. "What are you hiding?"
"What, can't I greet my boss when I see him?"
"Of course you can. The issue is you usually don't. You either did something, or you want something."
There was a silence. "Well...my friends and I are going to be hanging out today. It would be nice if I could go a half hour earlyā¦"
"You're gonna leave early even if I say 'no', right?"
"You got it."
"Fifteen minutes, and it's coming out of your paycheck."
Wendy shrugged. "I can live with that."
"Good!" He came behind the counter, opened the register, and began counting the money inside. "Hey, has Dipper come back yet?"
"I didn't know he was gone?" Wendy furrowed her brow.
"Yeah, I asked him to hang some signs in the forest. Gotta get the tourists in here! Oh, by the way," he reached into his vest pocket. "Put these new price tags up on that far shelf. Everything's being marked up!"
"Um," Mabel looked through the stickers she was handed. "Which goes where?"
"It doesn't really matter. If you see a number, put a BIGGER number over it, and I'll be happy!" With that he returned to register duty.
The two girls went to the opposite side of the shop. Mabel began peeling off the label backings and sticking them over the old prices. "You know, your group wouldn't happen to have room for one or two more friends, would it? I'd love to tag along, and Dipper might too."
"Oh, I dunno. My friends and I get into some pretty crazy stuff. I mean, you guys are twelve, right?"
"We're going to be thirteen by the end of the summer."
"Yeah, I don't know...but I mean, with your personality, I'm sure you can find lots of friends here!"
"I hope so." Mabel let her head droop, her motions slow. "Dipper and I...we're always pushed around by the other kids, in school and around the foster home. They always make fun of what I wear, and they pick on Dipper because he's so quiet. I don't know, it's hard to find friendsā¦"
"Ooh, ouch." Wendy flinched. "I'm sorry to hear that. But you know, there's some nice kids around here, I'm sure you'll find someone. Don't let those other guys get to you, they're just jerks. And hey," she gestured for Mabel to look up at her. "If you need someone to talk to, I'm here, okay?"
Mabel nodded, giving a weak smile. Inside, she grinned more fully. Garner the sympathy, get her on their side. Classic ploy...although it hurt to use the bullying line. Too much truth lay at its center, times that were unpleasant to remember. But no, no, don't think about that. Those were dead days, and they would stay dead. The two of them would make sure of that.
Even as her mind measured all of this out, she only gave a soft "Okay" to Wendy.
From there they chatted more about Gravity Falls. Wendy was just recommending that Mabel ask Lazy Susan for her famous "Lumberjack Pie" when the door of the Shack opened.
"Hey! How'd the sign hanging go?"
Stan's voice made Mabel turn around. She heard Dipper behind the shelves: "It went alright. I'm kinda tired out, though, from all that physical effort? I might take a break..."
"Sure, fine, but it's coming out of your paycheck."
"You...don't give me a paycheckā¦"
"I know, and it's great! Ha!" A silence. "Come on, that was funny, I - ah, just go on."
"Okay." Dipper came around the shelves until he found the two of them. Right away, Mabel noticed he was hiding something under his blue puffy vest. "Mabel! Uh, can I talk to you about something private, please?"
"Go ahead Mabel," Wendy winked, "I got this."
Mabel followed him into the other room. Dipper was carefully watching to make sure no one followed them. "Hey, bro, what's going on?"
"I found something in the woods."
From under his vest he pulled a dusty red book.
They ran up to their room, and he described how he had come across the strange tome.
"I can't believe this, it's amazing! I mean, look at this: zombies, unicorns, ghosts?" Dipper pulled the book closer to his face, rifling through the pages.
Mabel scanned its cover again; the front showed a golden hand with six fingers, and a black numeral "3" blazed across it. "Dipper, I know how excited you are, but are you sure this is even real?"
"You didn't see, it was in this secret compartment in the ground. You don't hide something like this unless it's important!"
"Sure, it's important, but...gnomes? I stopped believing this fairy tale stuff years ago. Maybe an author just got really paranoid about someone stealing their ideas."
"That's the other thing, the author isn't named, see? And the way the pages just stop, like they disappeared, or kidnapped-"
"Dipper, focus! One thing at a time."
He took a deep breath in, let it out. Another breath, let it out. Mabel could practically see his mind slowing down. "Okay, okay you're right. We have to approach this carefully. Logically."
"That's my brother. Now, how we can figure out whether this is real?"
Dipper flipped through a couple of pages, and his eyes lit up. "How about we go on a treasure hunt?" He turned the book around to show her.
"'Mystic Amulets Revisitedā¦'" Mabel read aloud. "'Upon further research of these artifacts, I've found that they're not only useful for telekinesis and social persuasion, but also provide a more finely attuned consciousness and an overall mood boost. Careful! Found myself having a little too much fun with them.'" She looked at her brother. "Sound interesting to meā¦"
After the Mystery Shack closed that afternoon, Dipper and Mabel headed off into the forest. Stan hardly bothered with their activities. "As long as you don't die," he told them, "I'm good."
Dipper kept his eyes glued to the map offered in the journal. "Alright, they seem to be located in a sanctuary within the heart of the woods north of town." They set their path northeast, walking with the sun behind their backs.
"Here, can I see?" Mabel took the book from him, and keeping the amulets page marked with her thumb she began flipping through it. "You know, there is a lot of cool stuff here. Gremloblins," she pointed. "Now that'd be something to see!"
"Yeah, or - ooh! Go forward a couple of pages, height altering crystals!"
"Ha, we could finally be the tallest kids in school! And then some..." Her mind began to conjure up fantasies.
Dipper caught the look in her eye. "Yeah, a lot of this stuff could be useful, I think."
"Yeahā¦" Mabel suddenly shook her head. "But here, let's just go one step at a time."
"Uh-oh, is my sister getting ahead of herself too?"
"Shush," she elbowed him. "C'mon."
They kept venturing deeper into the trees. Conifers surrounded them rank-and-file, tall branches catching the sunlight before it filtered through to the floor. They heard the song of insects and birds in discordant harmony, and the sweet smell of clean air. But there was something else, an anticipation, a wariness. Mabel felt it within her heart, an uneasy feeling, like they were being watched.
"Okay, if we see a tree marked with a triple spiral, we're supposed to go in the direction of the arrow."
"You mean like that?"
Dipper looked up at where Mabel was pointing. The exact design shown in the book was carved into the living wood. "Yeahā¦"
They glanced at each other. Could it be? Was the journal really authentic? With renewed vigor they followed its direction.
"So, Mabel, I saw you talking with some guys in the gift shop?"
"That's right."
"Let me guess, you're gonna hoodwink a new sucker into holding doors for you?"
"What else are boys for?!" She laughed. "I dunno if he's the right one though. I want my boyfriend to have a special something."
"Like money or power?"
"I was thinking a few extra inches on me, so he can get stuff that I can't reach. But I like your idea too. But enough about meā¦" Mabel had to stifle herself. "Let's talk about you."
"About me? What's to talk about me, there's nothing to talk about-"
"When are you going to learn you can't slip stuff past me? I've seen you looking at Wendy during work! Does Dip-Dip have a crush?"
"Don't call me Dip-Dip," as if he really expected that to dissuade her. "And no, I do NOT have a crush on Wendy!" His flushed cheeks called out his bluff though.
"Awww, my little bro's in love!"
"No, no I'm not." His entire face was turning red as he struggled to remain calm. Mabel loved seeing him squirm uncomfortably. "I mean, alright, I guess I kinda like her? But I don't have time to be chasing after girls and crushes. I've got other things to worry about." With a huff he buried himself back in the journal. "After we pass a seven-split tree, we should come up to a stone shrine, again with the triple spiral. That's where we should find the amulets."
Sure enough, they passed an old gnarled tree that had its trunk split into seven separate parts. Only minutes later they came up to a diminutive stone structure with the appropriate spiral etched above its entrance. Below the symbol was lettering cut into the rock: ZKRHYHU VWHDOHWK RXU SUHFLRXV WUHDVXUH VKDOO EH ODEHOHG DV "MHUNIDFH" IRU DOO HWHUQLWB!
"Um," Mabel narrowed her eyes. "Isn't it more effective if we can actually read what it's trying to tell us?"
"If it was important," Dipper agreed, "they'd put it in words we could understand. Here, come on."
The entryway had a low overhang, and they had to duck their heads to clear it. Once inside, they found themselves in a round space. A hole cut into the roof allowed sunlight to shine down upon a raised dais in the center, where discoloration marked where an amulet had rested.
Now it was gone.
"Aw, no!" Mabel kicked at the dirt in anger. "Someone else got it!"
"Wait wait," Dipper looked around. "The journal made it sound like there was more than one. Let's seeā¦"
He circled the walls, gazing at them. Looking closer now, Mabel noticed that some of the bricks had patterns on them. Dipper now crouched and inspected one that had the same triple spiral on it. With eager fingers he gripped the stone, pulled it out...and revealed another amulet.
"Ohhhhā¦" Mabel gasped as she glimpsed its turquoise gem.
"Ha! Found one! Here, let's seeā¦" A minute later, he had uncovered a second matching amulet and handed it off to his sister. "We got 'em!"
"Actually," a gruff voice answered him, "what you've gotten is a whole heap of trouble."
The twins whipped around to find a group of three small men standing in the doorway of the shrine. Three very small men, with pointed hats.
"By the authority of the Gnome Forest, you're under arrest!"
