Normally I don’t like leaving things unfinished but this has been in the drafts for almost a year now and I haven’t touched it so I’m releasing it out of the inbox and into the wild. Have a beginning and hell, feel free to finish it!
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6:21: You wake up! And considering the lack of
noise in the house, you have won the daily Waking Up First Because Who Wants to
Waste Their Day contest. Yay!!! You turn over in bed and look at your husband,
who is still fast asleep. Your heart swells with love.You still can’t believe you’re married.
You still can’t believe he’s real.
Better poke him and make sure he’s real.
Tag: grenda
Girls karaoke night – plus dipper
(That’s Pacifica’s funky room, decorated mostly by Mabel)
Meeting A Star
Close friends and family see Dipper’s object form for the first time.
Mabel
Mabel stared at her brother, blinking slowly. He blinked back with a single eye, tiny little pipe cleaner arms shifting restlessly.
This was new.
Part of Mabel was screaming, huddling down inside her sweater, memories of a a triangle and her brother’s screams echoing inside her head.
The rest was seeing through her brother’s bravado, his attempt at pretending everything was okay, as if he wasn’t upset about this development.
“…you think this is permanent?” she asked after a few minutes had passed, needing to say something but this time worried about saying something that would send both of them spiraling out of control and knowing she had to be the adult in this situation despite their parents being just downstairs because they wouldn’t be any help right now and that wasn’t fair to her but it was the truth.
The joking could come later, to make them both feel better.
“No, I’m just too tired to stay human shaped,” her brother answered, thankfully, both of them relieved by his answer. “I think how I usually look is my default form now, and this is sort of…a power saving mode? I’m still working on the details.”
Mabel nodded as Dipper spoke, doing her best to hide how freaked she’d been. He could see her moods now, faintly, so he had to know, but it didn’t mean she had to be obvious about it. Now that she was calming down, though…well…her brother was pretty cute as a star.
But he was also still pretty obviously upset about this. Well, that couldn’t stand! It was time to unleash the Power of Mabel!
“Wait here, broseph,” she said, gesturing with both hands outspread. “Just hang out in here and wait.”
Impatiently, and more than a little nervously, Dipper waited. He knew Mabel loved and accepted him, but…what ifs kept playing through his mind, and he began to float back and forth across the room, the closest he could come to pacing while like this.
This was going to be a long wait.
Investigating the Falls
Paranormal Investigator James Gallucio, PhD, had come to
Gravity Falls to investigate the history of ‘a little town just west of
weird’.He’s not quite sure what he expected.
Based on this prompt: http://transcendence-au.tumblr.com/post/116972507433/imagine-some-kind-of-paranormal-investigator
James Gallucio, PhD, had been researching the supernatural for years. It wasn’t the easiest career path, especially before the Transcendence hit and anyone who studied the paranormal was considered odd, at best.
Tall and lanky and clumsy, with thick glasses, James had always been on the receiving end of taunting and the stereotype of ‘nerd’, and his hobbies didn’t help matters any.
But James was stubborn, and determined to find out the truth. They could laugh at him all they liked, but he knew of at least one man in his field who’d gotten a government grant to study the paranormal, and he was determined to keep working despite his detractors. Who knew, maybe it would happen for him.
Then the Transcendence happened. All over the world, in the blink of an eye, the paranormal was out in plain sight, unable to hide, and demanding their basic human rights, and people like James were suddenly needed.
But even though he was suddenly respected, needed, and looked to, at least somewhat, James just wasn’t satisfied. Half of the excitement of his job had been in the danger, in people’s disbelieving reactions, in the chase after something no one else understood.
There were dozens, if not hundreds, of people studying the paranormal now. James needed a challenge, something new.
Of course, there were dozens of new species to study now, and many of them incredibly dangerous.
So when the offer came, James jumped on it. So now, in the fourteen years since the Transcendence, James had done a documentary on as many as he could find the least verifiable information on.
Now James was looking for something new to document, something dangerous, something little was known about, something that would really get his name out there.
Then, he had a flash of inspiration.
Cray
Be careful what you say-say, or people will think you’re cray-cray. Too bad Dipper doesn’t have a choice.
I like to call myself a TAU author, but I realized a while ago that I have never written an origin fic yet. (Unless you count the first chapter of Terrible names last forever, which I don’t)
So, uh, yeah. Here. Have some pain.
*Hank interns with Toby Determined over summer vacation when he’s 14. It goes…. Well? Surprisingly well actually. The quality of the Gossiper increases by tenfold and Toby even finally starts publishing online. When Dipper asked Hank why he interned there considering he has no real interest in being a reporter, Hank just shrugs and says that Toby seemed kind of sad and lonely, and Hank wanted to help.
*Aunt Grenda teaches her niblings how to wrestle. Their bouts usually end with Grenda getting dog piled by three giggling redheads. Later, when Acacia is working at the pet store part time to make some extra money, the wrestling lessons come in handy for wrangling some of the larger creatures Grenda sells.
*Its Pacifica who teaches Willow about makeup, how to contour and shade, draw the perfect line on lip or eye. When Willow is thirteen they go to the mall in Bend to Sephora, and Pacifica tells her to go nuts. Willow is still Mabel’s daughter, so blue lips and lime green eyeshadow and eyeliner wings that are literal wings rule the day. But while maybe they aren’t the aesthetic choices Pacifica would make, it’s thanks to her that Willow carries it off to a T.
Day 8
Here’s some of the characters I’m sad I couldn’t give a day to themselves. This is also the very first time I draw most of them, and that was fun.
If you are still taking prompts maybe something with Henry or the triplets?
How about something with Henry AND the triplets – and Mabel!
…
It wasn’t all magic and adventure and weirdness and life-or-death stakes; sometimes it was just lying around in the living room (which, though small, was always somehow just big enough for everyone to feel comfortable, even when it was holding seven Pines, Soos the honorary Pines, Candy, Grenda, Grenda’s slightly shellshocked-looking but smiling boyfriend, Candy’s arsenal, a loudly complaining Pacifica, Wendy hogging half a couch to herself, and Waddles Junior the Second) watching old episodes of The Price Is Trite and new episodes of Viewer Discretion Advised, depending on whether or not Stan would relinquish the remote and how guilty Mabel was feeling about not being a responsible enough mother that week.
But life in Gravity Falls – life with his family – would never lose its charm for Henry, its mystery (‘Hank, what are you looking a- oh. Oh, wow, your new friend sure is…slimy’), its adventure (‘Acacia no Acacia sweetheart don’t brING THE FIRECRACKERS INSIDE -’), its danger (‘Will, it’s nice of you to offer and I know you’ll be able to cut around my antlers but, uh, I don’t think I really need a haircut yet’), or, of course, its weirdness (‘Henry Henry Henry Henry Henry! Look, I shaved all of our initials into the side of my head! It’s a symbol of our family! Don’t worry, it’ll totally grow out before that speaking thing…ie at that college next week!’).
And Henry wouldn’t have it any other way.
Prompt: Henry meets/spends some time with Candy and Grenda early in his relationship with Mabel.
Henry had been going out with Mabel for two weeks when he met her best friends for the first time.
He read the sign over Candy’s small downtown storefront, as he pulled the truck into the parking lot.
“‘Blades, Bombs, and Bazookas’? Mabel um, I’m pretty sure two-thirds of that is illegal.”
Mabel pshawed. “Henry, it’s like Grunkle Stan always told me; ‘everything is legal when there’s no cops around!’”
Henry pointed silently to the cop cruiser parked outside.
“Durland likes all the B’s in the sign and Blubs collects knives; he’s the seventeen time jack-o-melon carver in town after all,” Mabel explained nonchalantly, waving to an enrapt Durland sitting in the cruiser.
Henry gave up.
They got out of the truck and stepped inside. Instantly Henry was surrounded by weapons of mass and individual destruction. Every square inch was crammed with guns (ranging from flintlock to laser), blades of every conceivable length and width, bombs, bats, brass knuckles, balaclavas and gun holsters knitted by Mabel…. Before he could get completely overwhelmed, Mabel had grabbed him by the hand and begun to drag him through the store.
“They’re out back in the Proving Grounds!”
“Proving Grounds?” Henry asked weakly.
“Well, it sounds a lot cooler than just saying the empty lot out back. Duh silly!”
—
“CANDY! GRENDA!” Mabel ran over to her best friends, arms windmilling, and Henry tried not to grin from how… well, how adorable his girlfriend was.
Grenda, a pumpkin under one arm, waved as she stepped out of her shop, PETS! (which was the name of her pet store, capital letters and all) and into the shared yard. Candy waved, or did her best to wave under an armful of guns and oh god what if she dropped one. Henry tried to remember that a woman as smart and capable (and running a weapons shop) would have them all unloaded and the safety on.
He looked across the yard as the other two women placed their stuff on a battered old kitchen table that had obviously spent time in the yard and hugged Mabel. All along the fence line and in the grass were hundreds of tiny char marks, from laser fire…or, knowing what he had been told about Candy, regular fire as well. Henry smiled to see that the large pine tree in the yard had a tire swing hanging from it, for when Soos brought his kids over. Set up against the fence was another battered Formica table, with five or six pumpkins on it, each pumpkin bearing a target tacked or painted on.
“What are we trying out today ladies?” Mabel asked, quivering with excitement as she looked at the pile of guns.
“My latest prototype,” Candy replied, no small amount of pride in her voice. “It shoots five lasers out at once, and it should be able to hit all the pumpkins on the table in one go.” She frowned at the pumpkins.
“Mabel, I forgot to grab our aprons and safety glasses. Can you go inside and get them please?”
“Of course!” Mabel gave Henry a squeeze then skipped merrily inside. As soon as the door shut behind her it felt to Henry like the temperature in the yard dropped fifteen degrees. Candy and Grenda were standing shoulder to shoulder, a unified front. Suddenly, Henry had an idea what this was about.
“You know, we’ve met all of Mabel’s girlfriends and boyfriends,” Candy said conversationally, picking up the prototype and sighting down the barrel.
“I, um, that makes sense.”
“We didn’t like any of them!” Grenda joined in, tossing her pumpkin up and down in the air.
Henry kept silent.
“You know why we use pumpkins for testing Henry?” Candy sweetly asked.
He saw where they were going but played along. “Because they’re cheap at the store?”
“Because they’re like human heads!” Grenda answered. She squeezed and the pumpkin in her hands exploded under the force of her arms.
“Yes, what Grenda said.” With no warning, Candy turned and shot the prototype at the remaining pumpkins on the table. Five lasers emerged from the point of the gun, hitting each pumpkin square in the middle of the target. Pumpkin seed and flesh flew everywhere, coating the table, the fence, the grass, and their shoes in pumpkin goop.
Candy looked at Henry, who despite himself felt his mouth drop at the pumpkincide. “Since I’ve started the shop I have learned many things. Like the every weakness of the human body. And I know how to use every weapon in my shop.”
“My toy chimaeras like to eat human corpses!” Grenda chimed in. “It’d only take them seventeen seconds!”
Candy poked a finger into Henry’s side.
“You understand what we are saying and…and…” Candy frowned. “Why are you smiling?”
“You should be quaking with fear and unadulterated terror!” Grenda bellowed.
Henry tried to force the smile off of his face but found he couldn’t.
“I’m sorry Candy, I’m sorry Grenda but I’m just… I’m just happy that Mabel has friends that care about her and love her like you two do. I can’t promise that we won’t break up or that we won’t hurt each other but I promise that if I ever do leave Mabel’s life-” He paused at the pang in his heart and stomach that came at that thought. “If we do break up, I won’t break her down or make her think less of herself.”
Candy and Grenda looked at him for a second, and then at each other.
Finally, Candy turned back to Henry and offered him her hand. “Let’s start again. I’m Candy Chiu.”
“And I’m Grenda!” Grenda said, claiming Henry’s other hand.
“It’s nice to meet you both,” Henry said, shaking both their hands at once. “We should probably clean this up before Mabel comes back out though.”
“No, it’s okay! We’ll just call it a weapon malfunction. Besides, I have a bow and arrow we can try out on the tinier pieces.”
(Several years later, when it came time to toast Henry and Mabel at their wedding, Candy gave the full story to Mabel for the first time, and was pleased to see Henry blush bright red.)
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