Wendip Week 2024: 8/30 Trama
“Come on, dork! Last one, there is a rotten egg!”
“Been there, done that, Wendy!”
The two friends ran up the driveway towards the front doors of McGucket Mansion. The 13-year-old Dipper took full advantage of his doubling in height over the school year to keep up with Wendy, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Cordery.
She grabbed the front door knob a full 5 seconds before Dipper even reached the front step.
“Great job, Dipper. Last summer, you wouldn’t have made it halfway up the driveway before I grabbed this.”
Dipper was hunched over and panting next to her.
“Thanks, Wendy. Puberty and track-and-field have both helped a lot. Not to mention the motivation of running away from things trying to eat me.”
Wendy patted him on the shoulder before ringing the doorbell. As the two waited for McGucket to come down and greet them, Wendy realized something.
“Just to double check, when you said you ‘been there, done that’ with being a rotten egg…”
“No, I wasn’t turned into a literal rotten egg. I meant I have been last place in races before.”
She nodded in relief. “Thought so, but you can’t be too careful in our world.”
The door opened to reveal Fiddleford McGucket standing before them. He looked much better with his cast removed, his teeth brushed, his beard coated, his clothes not matted, and his posture straight.
“Well, butter my biscuit, what are you two doing here? Did you need a robot to destroy the school? Because if you do, I will have to decline. My building things for revenge, causing fear, and indescribably destroying everything for little to no legitimate reason are long behind me. Now, I make stuff for the US government.”
Wendy and Dipper both looked like they wanted to say something but decided that this was something they should leave alone.
“We’re here because Pacifica is forced to go to a fancy gala tonight. Her dad insists she brings a specific combination of dress and jewelry, and she thinks she left the requested necklace in her bedroom. Can we go up and get it?”
McGucket spat in a nearby spittoon before answering. “Absolutely! Feel free to take anything and everything from her room. Given that the only people living here are me and Tat, you would be doing us a favor. Though I have to ask, why isn’t she doing the asking?”
Wendy rolled her eyes. “Her dad booked her for dress fittings, hair dressings, make-up, refresher courses on behavior, and an entire rehearsal before the event.”
McGucket just sighed. “Somedays, I wished I had one of my robotic rampages aimed at him instead of the rest of the town.” He then walked in and waved for the two teens to follow. “I think her room’s somewhere on the second floor in the North Wing. The one with the door carved from wood from now extinct trees with her name embedded into the door and lined with diamonds.”
Wendy and Dipper rolled their eyes at the description.
“Of course. Trust the Northwests to spend more money decorating their houses than the country puts into literally anything.”
The two then gave McGucket a little wave as they climbed the stairs and headed north. As they moved down the hall, they caught sight of all the expensive pictures of the Northwests along the sides.
“How has your first week of summer been so far?”
Dipper smiled at her. “It’s great! I get to do some exploring with Ford and Stan, I’ve been learning how Soos and Stan run the Shack, I’ve gotten to hang out with you and your friends, and I’ve only had three things try to kill me, so far! The only thing that would make this summer better would be if there were another overarching mystery to solve.”
Wendy smiled at her friend. “Only three? I’ve had things try to kill me every day! You need to up your game, Dipper. Do you want to challenge the Manotaurs after we drop this stuff off? They still think they can beat me at anything.”
Dipper then got a devilish glint in his eyes. “A chance to see a bunch of hyper-aggressive, extra-macho, Manley men get humiliated by a teenage girl? Count me in! How about we invite Grenda also? That would be-“
The two stopped when they realized what room they walked into.
It was a large room with a free-standing wall in the middle. The edges were covered in the Northwets' collection of tapestries laid out with the sole purpose of showing off how rich the owners were. There were classic medieval ones, modern ones, ones they made themselves to show off their history, and even one depicting an axolotl in a top hat.
Their rarest and most expensive one was in the middle of the room, on the free-standing wall, facing right at them. It depicted a grey triangle with a glowing red eye floating in a pitch-black sky. Below it, two people were bowing to it while an inferno raged in the background. The ground was either covered in bones or made from the bones of countless victims.
Scholars had debated for decades what it meant, but it was apparent to those who were in Gravity Falls in 2013.
Dipper looked on in fear at the image, the horrors he had experienced coming back to him.
Wendy wasn't doing much better. If anything, she was doing worse.
Her breathing began to become erratic, and her eyes dilated. She backed away from the offending image like a snake about to bite. Her limbs shook so much that she fell to the ground while trying to back up, resorting to crawling backward.
The thump of her hitting the ground broke Dipper out of his shock. Turning to face her, he realized what was going on.
“Wendy? Can you hear me?”
Wendy gave no response and continued to back up. As soon as she was past the doorway to the room, Dipper closed the doors to block her sight of the accursed object.
“It’s gone now, Wendy. You're safe now.”
She looked at the doors like they were invisible, hugging her legs to her chest as she rocked back and forth.
“Wendy? Breathe and focus on my voice. Can you do that for me?” She slightly nodded as her eyes remained locked on what was no longer there.
“Can you name something you can see?”
She kept staring forward but was able to mutter out a response.
Dipper smiled from his position a few feet away on his knees.
“Good, now, what something you can touch?”
She was still looking at the door, but not as intently as before.
Wendy wasn’t hugging herself as tightly now and seemed more present now.
“Good job Wendy. How about something you can hear?”
Her breathing began to slow down to normal.
“You're doing great, Wendy. Name something you can smell.”
She was answering a lot more confidently than before. More like her usual self. “The redwood floors.”
“Last one for good measure. Name one thing you can taste.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled a skittle before plopping it into her mouth.
“Artificial flavorings labeled as orange.”
She and Dipper shared a smile.
“I’m back and would like to not be near that room anymore. Can you help me up?”
Dipper nodded and held out a hand for her to grab. The two walked down the hall until they reached one of the multiple sitting rooms around the house. Wendy sat in one of the fluffier chairs and let herself sink into the cushions. She closed her eyes and imagined that she was sitting on a cloud.
Wendy took a few more breaths before responding.
“Better. Sorry about shutting down like that. Where did you learn that trick?”
Dipper’s face grew conflicted before he answered, “Let’s just say that you aren’t the only one who has reacted like that to reminders of ‘Never-Mind-All-That.’ I’ve had my fair share of breakdowns when I first got back home. I locked myself in my room for hours after I saw Mom eating nachos.”
“Yeah, the school stopped selling them for the same reason. We also had to change the traditional thrones the homecoming king and queen sat on with stools, banned balloons, and it’s now a town law that you can’t call anything or anyone Bill or Billy.”
“At least you can talk to people about what happened. Mable and I only have each other. If we talked to a psychiatrist, they would either place us in a institution or ban us from ever returning here. Same with our parents.”
Wendy frowned at Dipper. “I am so sorry you and Mable had to go through that. We might have the ‘Never-Mind-All-That’ act, but that is more about not talking to outsiders about it. We can still talk to each other.”
The two continued to sit in silence for a minute before continuing.
“So, are you okay if I talk about it, Dipper?”
He looked at her worriedly but nodded. “If you want to. I don’t want to make you do anything.”
She gave him a reassuring smile.
“Thanks, but I think I would like to.”
She took a deep breath before beginning.
“Seeing Bill depicted there was bad, but it was the tapestries that really got me. Being turned into a 2D object, feeling what it was like to be 2D, seeing what was happening, and being unable to blink or turn away.”
She stopped to look into the distance before continuing.
“It was terrible. I know it wasn't that long, but it felt like days. I don’t know if that was Bill’s doing or just the stress of being there.”
He responded after she was quiet enough for Dipper to think she was done talking.
“I’m so sorry you had to go through that, Wendy.” He then gave a dark chuckle. “It’s funny. I am thrilled sneaking into a dragon's cave and don’t bat an eye at the dozens of skeletons lying on the ground, but the second I look at a chip, I freeze. While you are willing to fight every manotaur at once and come out top, you can be stopped with a rug on a wall. What a pair we make.”
Wendy returned his dark smile with her own.
“We need all the therapy, don’t we?”
Dipper just nodded. “All the therapy and another bonfire for that tapestry.”
Wendy let out a dark chuckle when McGucket walked into the room.
“Well, howdy kids, what are you doing here?”
Wendy and Dipper turned to McGucket, whose cheer evaporated when he saw the looks on their face.
McGucket cringed before collapsing into an open seat by the door.
“Dang, nab it! I am so sorry you two had to see that. I would have gotten rid of it as soon as I moved in, but I can’t bear to enter that room. The few people I’ve tried to talk to about getting rid of it reacted like the two of you did, I reckon.”
The three traumatized people just sat in that room in silence before Dipper’s eyes widened in realization.
“I know someone that could tear that thing down.”
Stanley Pines shoved the offending tapestry into a sack.
“Ok, are there any other things you want me to burn in this house? We can repeat the Bill-Fire we did last summer if there is enough.”
McGucket nodded with a toothy grin. “Yes sir-re! I’ll show you around and point it out. Maybe we can invite Preston and take pictures of his expression of burning so much expensive stuff.”
Stan got an evil expression on his face. “How about video also? Then we can sell the recording and images around town. I can think of dozens who would pay big bucks for that.”
As the two men walked out of the tapestry room and closed the door behind them, Wendy stared silently at the closed door.
“Hay, are you okay, Wendy?”
Wendy looked to the side and her best friend. She sighed and put on a small, sad smile.
“No, but I’m getting there.”
Pvxse mas zpdl psgl rxmiguigz hwl jxpsayy mh Dpjiybqp, Zttg rxk a ynza zwxxd dm tax ftzt hy hwl hhngt mok hhwlr Ubza hrmbtpjtl. Mvtye ptg puomasg iogywgl tath cpgam, kwpca FqVbcdxh ibrgxr xuth t dgvpxk vxslubzaf hhhhtuaggm.
Check out Super Grover Away for the idea of Wendy having PTSD from tapestries. I haven’t seen that anywhere else.
I have a Patreon if you want to support me and my New Year’s resolution of posting one fanfic of 2k words or more weekly. This is also being posted on Fanfic.com, AO3, and Tumbler.
Remove all the spaces from the URLs to get them to work.
P a t r e o n : h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / user?u=10132890
F a n f I c . c o m : h t t p s : / / w w w . f a n f i c t i o n . n e t /s/14051718/1/luz–appreciation–week–2022–from–1228248
AO3: h t t p s : / / a r c h i v e o f o u r o w n . o r g /works/52823413/chapters/133608991
Tumbler: h t t p s : / / w w w . t u m b l r . c o m / blog/brianedner
I am also doing fanfic info dumps, like wiki articles that go one episode at a time, with some compilations at the end on specific topics sorted by episode.
Fanfic info dumps here: h t t p s : / / w w w . d e v i a n t a r t . c o m / 1228248/gallery
