AUgust Day 15: Zero Gravity AU
The spirits of Gravity Falls take note of a new human resident.
Can be found on ao3.
When Dipper and Mabel returned home, the first thing Stanley said to them was, "Ford's found himself a new pet human."
"Hi, Stan," Dipper said, dropping the petrified head of the hydra they had to go fight off of the Icelandic coast to the ground. "It's good to see you, Stan. No, we didn't get injured, don't be such a worrywart, Stan."
Stan snorted and waved a careless hand, his midnight-blue cape swishing with the movement. He was lounging at the Eastern Gate of the space between reality and magic as he always tended to do, sat in the plush bench in the viewing tower. He had a very good view of the small town of Gravity Falls nearby, which he liked to observe and mock the residents of when possible. "If you two were in trouble Ford 'n I would've already been there to help."
"Whose the new guy?" Mabel said before Dipper could start waving his sword around. "Is he cute? My type? Is he, uh... like Mr. Fiddleford?"
By 'Like Mr. Fiddleford' Mabel of course meant 'Absolutely off of his rocker crazy'. That was the only type of human Ford liked to throw rewards at. Something about 'innovation' and 'unique minds' and the 'spark of a shining intellect.' Going off of what all of them had seen, in Ford's world, shining intellect could only show up paired with a gleam of madness in the eye.
Or maybe, being the Sun Guardian, it was just natural that Ford's boons tended to shine light on the totality of a person. And that included them being a bit cuckoo.
"He's a kid Fiddleford who replaced all of the Southern charm with screechy annoyingness," Stan said dryly. "He's running Ford's maze and he's already stolen anything gold that ain't nailed down--I can respect that--and all of the teeth of the monsters he knocks out. Ford thinks he's great."
As the Guardian of Balance Ford had favored slightly more when Dipper and Mabel had been yanked from the aether to start their duties, Dipper was compelled to mutter, "Well, he's probably not that bad."
"You wanna see," Stan said, with the same tone one might've used to suggest watching a dog dig holes in the backyard.
"Obviously," Mabel said. She was always buzzy at the thought of a new human to prod and shower with glitter.
With a belegured sigh as though he wasn't the one offering to bring them to the maze in the first place, Stan stood up from his bench, re-adjusting his cloak and picking up his staff. The silver moon on the top shone in the fading light of the evening; it was almost night, Stan's domain.
Stan snapped his fingers and pointed at a long shadow cast from a pillar of the tower's patio. "You. The maze."
The shadow trembled a touch before deepening into a pitch black. Stan waved Mabel and Dipper along, and they stepped quickly into the shadow, quickly drawn into a cold, black space. Stan stepped in after them, seizing their shoulders and dragging them along with him to their destination. Being dragged like cats held by the scruff was embarrassing, but the only way to do things. Stan, as the Guardian of the Moon, Keeper of the Night, his Enduring Darkness, etc, etc, could step into the shadows and emerge anywhere he pleased within seconds. He used it for petty theft more than anything else.
He was in fact the only one who could use the shadows like that. Anyone who attempted to step into darkness without him as a guide would find that the land in between stretched infinitely, the landscape vast and ever-changing, and all of the thin silvers of light in this distance marking where shadows fell in the real world always too far or too faint to allow them to pass back out of the shadows. Many had died in the darkness, either because they presumed to use the darkness for their own end or because they had been tossed in by Stan. Though that was an extreme measure--the last to be sent into the shadows was one of the men Stan had once given a boon to; that hadn't lasted long after his gift was used for some of the few acts Stan regarded as indefensible.
Mabel and Dipper blinked as they emerged into the light, Stan letting go of their clothing. They had arrived at the maze--the labyrinth, Ford would insist. It was a construction the Sun Guardian amused himself when he wasn't busy scouting all of the mysteries found in the light of day, a puzzle for him to rearrange and add new elements to whenever it pleased him. It was a large golden structure in the midst of the pine forest that made up the land where reality was thin, gleaming triumphantly in the sun. Dipper had a vague knowledge that this maze had become something of a legend among even humans who hadn't slipped between the cracks of reality, something that Ford led geniuses to if he wished to test them.
Most of the time, the supposed geniuses were spat right back out of the maze after a mere day, Ford left disappointed by their lack of adventurous spirit. Some were outright eaten. Only one human had managed to get through the maze: Fiddleford McGucket, who had arrived at the start completely by accident, then proceeded to build a mechanical monster out of random scraps and bust through the walls to the treasure trove in the middle of the maze. Ford had been enamored at once.
Unfortunately for Fiddleford McGucket, that ensnarement had led to Ford gifting the human with the gift of future-sight. A gift that had driven the man mad enough for him to invent a weapon that could tear apart his own mind. It was only the intervention of other spirits--namely Mabel and Dipper, who had fought to balance the man's mind before either the visions or the memory wiper ate it whole--that kept him from utter ruin.
Ford had sheepishly showered the man with other, much less trying gifts in the wake of that, and the man enjoyed vast amounts of riches and a lovely house in Gravity Falls. His powers of prophecy were far more minute and far more manageable. Fiddleford's madness returned to a level that resulted mostly in random explosions that were swiftly put out by long-suffering villagers.
Dipper and Mabel made their way to the tops of the walls that made up the maze, curious to see this new human that Ford already liked so much. It took some prowling, but they found him quite near to the middle of the maze, clinging to the back of a bucking chimera and cackling widely.
It was a youngish boy--neither of them were great at human ages outside of roughly identifying children, teens, and variously aged adults--with dark hair turned blond. One of his eyes was squeezed shut, the other wide and black. A grin split his face so severely it seemed like it must hurt. The kid was, for some odd reason, wearing a button-down and a bow-tie, both dirty with blood.
Mabel and Dipper regarded this human as he continued to try and strangle the chimera into submission.
"He needs to dye his hair better," Dipper said.
"Do you think Ford likes him because he's so decked out in yellow?" Mabel said.
Both of them were not entirely impressed. This kid certainly had the smarts for the kinds of gifts Ford gave out if his progress in the maze was to be trusted, but the gleam of madness in his eyes was already apparent. Gravity Falls probably didn't need a kid like him given powers to run through it.
But Ford was a stubborn spirit. If he decided he liked a human, there was little to be done about it. That was what made him such a good Guardian of the Sun--like a beam of light, he would march on ceaselessly to his goal, and would not stop.
Stan came up behind them and observed the kid too. "Bill Cipher. Some kid who fell through a tear and ended up in the forests; Wendy dragged him out and sent him to Gravity Falls, but he didn't want to stay with any of the families. Took up that old shack at the edge of town."
Stan sounded grumpy about that last part; the shack at the edge of town was dark and quiet and a good place for a spirit of night to reside if he refused to be bothered by anyone. Now it was occupied by some brat.
"Way I see it," Stan said. "It'll be fine as long as he focuses on the gold in the middle. I don't want him getting the Journal Ford stashed in there."
The Journal in question was a grimoire had constructed during one of his human sabbaticals. They weren't uncommon for spirits to partake in, seeking to remind themselves of what it was like for the beings they sought to monitor and protect with their spiritual duties, but most of the spirits did not bring back things they had made during their human lives. Ford was an exception in general, endlessly attached to objects both as a human and a spirit, but the Journals were particularly important to keep. During that lifetime, Ford had become a practiced wizard, and many of his spells were dangerous in the wrong hands.
The twins considered the boy, who had reigned victorious over the chimera as they spoke to each other. He yanked out a tooth from the monster, tucking it in an overstuffed pocket, then hurried forwards in the maze.
"...It's probably fine." Mabel said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a maze filled with every treasure under the sun, Bill Cipher grinned to himself as he stuffed an old, worn book down the front of his shirt. It was practically nothing compared to the beautiful artifacts the room showed off, shoved into a darker corner, which was exactly why he was taking it. If somebody didn't want people looking at it, that meant it was the best thing here.
And he knew already that his guess was correct; he'd peeked inside the book for just a second, and every page just screamed extremely volatile magical rituals. It was stupid, really, just keeping this thing around at all.
If he had his way, he was going to be running this stupid town in no time. All these spirits thought they were so much better than him with their magic? Ha!
Bill Cipher was gonna break reality itself and throw a party. It was what he deserved, after everything.
